The Newtown bee., 1906-02-09

|
 from the time when Dr Anderson
 ''the AUerican Bewick," as he is
 styled. vas in bis prime, to the present fasy.~His best work, however, may be
 sad to belong to the middle period of
 the art, the time when skilled artistic
 draftsmen like F. O. c. Darley, Elias
 J. Whitney, Harry Fem and others drew direcll ly upon the block the pic
 lures which the eDgraver reproduced
 with painstakipg care. When pen. ciled designs upon the block were su- perseded by photography, and the simple expreSsiveness of the line was not so much sought as tones, value and color which are the distinctive the natural repugnance of cOnServa- ttsm made MT Hayes 10th to follow the new lead, but ultimately he did creditable work under the changed conditions of the art and became a great admireF of such artistic crafts men as Kingsley, John F. Davis and others of the younger men.
 Sixty years ago there was little en- cOuragement for country boy who grOped for an outlet to his feeling for art. MT Hayes used to relate that the impulse in him. had the manifesto tions customary in such cases. It's OsSAAAVo OA PA Vo0AOA 1OOuu O RldCC III the child's cOpy-bOOk at the district school. The crude wood cuts in the toy books of the period had for him an irresistible charm, and many a time the money for stick of candy or a handful of peanuts was devoted to the purchase of penny copy of "Blue Beard" or "RObinSOn CruSoe," not so much for the stories as the fascinating pictures. At the age of IT years he was apprenticed to an older brother to learn the trade of carpentry. Short ly after, he remembered overhearing his father inquire how he was getting on in his business, and the brother re- piled: "Eli is good for nothing. As soon as he gets board planed he has to stop to draw an Injun or some other critter on it," A year later the visit of cousin, a wood engraver, from the city of New Haven, changed the whole current of his life. Of a genial and communicative turn, the cousin kind- ly set himself to initiating Eli into the mysteries of wood engraving. Two rude gravers were fashioned from a narrow saw blade; in lieu of the cus- tomary box-wood, a neighboring apple tree was clim bed, seasoned branch sawed off and planed and polished. The picture to be engraved was trans ferred to its surface and little in struction-- --as to how to use the tools was given with the encouraging re- mark that if he made satisfactory progress an opening in the near future might be made for him. The opening soon came, and at the expiration of four years, having acquired all that the New Haven office was capable of i'm parting to him, MT Hayes went to New York, finding home and em- ployment with Benjamin F. Childs of the American Tract society. MT Childs was among the most maSterly of the old school of engravers, and it was under his tutelage that he readily acquired his skill in the art. There he also came in intimate contact with B. J. Whitney, talented engraver, afterward we'll known as an illustrator and artist in black and white. MT of the Tract society, and under his stimulus there was a new departure in wood engraving, combining the sharp ness and clearneSS of Adams and the freedom of Anderson.
 The work of the Tract society in those days, it may be said. outrivaled in artistic excellence that of every other publishing house in the country Among it's publications was "The Child's Paper," which many elderly people will remember for it's full-page cuts. Many,i if not the greater part. of these were from the graver of MT may be best summarized, perhaps, by these appreciative words of that prince of the later school of engravers, John P. Davis: "I consider him one of the very best of the engravers of the earli- CT school. His work was sound, faith full and sympathetic. When I look over the numbers of the Child's Paper, which l have preserved, and see the work Of Hayes and others, sometimes say to myself, This was the golden age of engraving
 After few years MT Hayes, weary ing of city life and being somewhat delicate in health, retired to a pleas ant country nook near New Haven, Ct., where for over 20 years he busily piled his graver, reproducing much of the best work of the designers of the day for both books and magazines. While living near New Haven MT Hayes found art stimulus and occasional con- genial association with the late E. J. Linton, the famous English engraver, poet and art writer, who sought re- tlrement in cottage back-Side of East Rock park.
 It has been several years now since MT Hayes laid down the graver and the art instinct has found outlet in depletion of Connecticut valley land scapes in both oils and water colors His inclination was always toward landscape and it was that he best loved to engrave. Forest park afford ed numerous subjects for his brush and a number of his pictures, limning bits of park scenery, are in the posses sion of MT Barney, while others are owned hereabouts as we'll as in Con- necticut, where, in the picturesque town of Brookfeld, Fairfield county, was his boyhoOd home
 Edward F. Hayes of the Springfield Republican writes the editor: My father was the son of Uriah Hayes of oktield, Ct., the inventor of fan ming mill of much local repute in the old days. He married Cordelia Lewis daughter of Peter Lewis of Botsford Hill in Newtown, and sister of Mrs Philo Northrop of Taunton. For a period of three or four years, during the days of the Civil War, he was a resident of Newtown at the home of MT Lewis, where he busily piled his