davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-07-24

repeated to me bitterly. must hurry
or it would be TOO late ! resolved 10 sen
my town lot and be of
He could not sell his lot. No one had
any money Things were desperate. One
evening he met an old pal OF the saloon
days. who had been knocking ABOUT the
world while Edstrom was Wor6'ns.
Hello. Dave. I'm going 10 Africa TO-
morrow" he said. Dave asked him how
"Oh. tramp it to New York and work
my way across on any cd boat. was the
reckless answer. I; struck chord in
E.strom.
Fake me with YOU" he asked.
Sure Dave" The rest Of that day
Eistrom went about collecting all the
money due him in Ottumwa. Iowa. lie
got 81. divided ii with his mother. and
started to be a European arr student on
$50.
Mother and father were standing at
tho gate I went off. he told me.
Mother came of good Swedish family.
II is she who had the s.Pel in the soul. IL
l inherited any. Dave she said, weep
ing. you know what you have resolved to
become. Don't return till YOU have done
1t. but. Dave. write me. write me.
lie went off with the tramp.
Il wanted to turn back and wave good
bye to mother. but | would not. 1t
would be a gesture of turning back. and
she mad told me not TO- | had started. |
must go on, but that mile and a half was
the hardest walk ! ever did
They reached New York via coal trains
box car. fights with trainmen. hunger.
thirst and rode fOr:y hours locked in a
compressed hay box on top cattle car.
IN New York Edstrom quilted the tramp.
He secured place coal stoker on the
steamship Norge bound for Copenhagen
land so off for art centers, He did not
even know what they were.
He was strong fellow and had enjoy
ed experience with mechanics. and so the
work came easy. 1t was bad boat. with
rotten boilers. and she disappeared the
next year with all souls aboard. OFF
Rockal in the North sea. Edstrom al
ways enjoyed doing physical work, and
seeing other fellows do it, In his present
high fortune. he finds it hard to resist.
Recently. in Paris, he threw off his i'm
man unload from Il broken axle, and the
story got into the Paris papers.
1t is the plastic tension that delights
me-, he explains. Seeing those Stokecs
take Their vast iron rods. thrust them into
the blazing furnace and fairly wrisgle on
Cleaning rhe fires with heavy rakes in
binding light was simply terrific. The
ship is rolling, the red-hot stuff is all
over the place, and YOU must jump for
Your life n the scaiding steam. You
know they kill the ciaders with water be-
fore they can cart them away?'
If YOU have seen nothing marvellous.
unparalleled and unique in the story so
far, you will see it now. American art
students come to Europe currently: but
they have some education, some slight
experience, they know what art is: and
they have some dubious backing, some
small stock of money, some acQuaint-
ances, some hopes.
Edstrom had nothing.
His mother had told him of the art
schools of Stockholm. He must enter the
Royal Academy. Working on a tramp
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-07-24

wanted to become painter. To save
money again. he went TO work in
slaughter house
y was happy in the slaughter house, :
says Edstrom. 1T was the first chance |
had to use ms strength. 1t was loud.
fierce lie, amid escaping steam shrieking
hogs and bowling naked men rejoicing in
their strength There was terrible fe-
low six and a half feet high. who would
cleave half hog with one stroke. Tha
expression ofsdia bolical joy OF his face.
delishting in his powers so took hold of
that I tried to reproduce it on pa per.
But l could not. l did not know how
All the same. the latent artists interest
in the life that shines out of facial eX-
pressions and bodily forms and attitudes
struggling within him. The shining
muscles of those big nude men. gliding
under their sweating skins. made him
think of Michael Angeles gigantic sculp-
lures.
His resolution to put aside money was
furious. He worked of nights in rail-
way roundhouse. and soon had put all his
savings in town lot for a hope ul specu-
lation. But the crisis of 1894 overlook
all these plans. He lost his job. The
factories shut down. And he realized
that lie was twenty-one years of age.
yet there l was still an ignorant
roustabout. without even trade" he
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-07-24


an attack of acute infiammatory rheu-
marism affecting the entire left side. I
couldn't be any more gladstone over IT.
than l am not If I'd just been carried
into Hospital for Incurables with great
care to keep me from jostling apart be-
fore L reached the operating room. Glad?
Why. Larry, I'm that glad that when l
dream about it at night l sob aloud in
my sleep.
And why not be glad? Why not. 7
ask you? I'm always glad when this re-
lcntlcss bloodhound Of u government OF
ours-some say blood orange but l prefer
the stronger term-when this relentless
bloodhound OF u government of ours goes
out after of big trusts. II doesn't
do the trust any damage and look what
good exercise IT is for the Department of
Justice or the Bureau OF Mound-builders'
Relics and Flint Arrowhead Collections.
or the Curator of Postage Stamps at the
Smithsonian Institution. or whatever
branch of the federal administration it is
that has charge of these determined and
searching prosecutions. IT'S like puppy
dog chasing his own tail, only perhaps
less exciting. II works up fine healthy
circulation for tile pup, and when the
ardors of the chasa are relaxed and the
excitement dies down there's the tail still
wagsing away like a-well. like horse
and wagon. let say. Trust busting
like archery, tattinS aud making Batten-
berg edgings by hand. Tea pouring is q
far more arduous calling.
About once in So long-not so often
perhaps as in the days when B. w. Turn
- ESQ. was on the iob-but about once
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-07-24
"THE CLOUDS.

I was SO poor so set on doing il, so al
ways in d hurry. white and shakF-iookins
that | suppose I seemed a freak. But l
hated it, 1t broke my heart to lind even
the poor people watching for me to come
down the street a. sight. Once heard
woman calling out: Here ne comes.
I looked unbalanced. yet I was a hard
headed man, seeing no way out of it but
to go piking along"
Under these conditions he passed all
the examinations In perspective. free
hand drawing, drawing from casts, con-
structive and architectural drawing.
He entered the Royal Academy and
won a twenty-dollar cash prize fer inn
aeinative composition in the first two
weeks.
with what wild Joy bought a ten
dollar suit. shoes backing, shirts. coli
lars and a tier lie saws 1T was the
up among the others trim. srooIied, cor
rect. On the strength Of it / got a job
as super at the opera. In Carmen L
changed five times; came on as priest.
A toreador, a smuggler, 4 'popu!ace' and
soldier. AS l was a: uerh AGAR. :; .
am and always hungry ] broke dow. at
the end of another EAR"
He tainted in class at the academy.
Suddenly. it seemed. they were all in
terested in him. Count ron Rosen, who
had been watching. his work for six
months. sent for a great specialist and
said: Save this man if you can---he has
future!' Students nocked to his bed
side. great ladies. reading of him in the
papers. ran to see the genius who had
starved" And all arrangements were
made to send him to a smart sana torium
The world was kind too late. Edstrom
was soured against it.
Il told Won Rosen I was sick of peo-
pie he says. "If NJ; would permit ]
would take some Of the money and go up
among the Laps, BEYOND the Circle
He went as far north as i.5 could set,
living among the aborigines. neeing even
traders.
4 spent delicious year and a half
with the good Laps says Edstrom, land
go back among those Sc uthern wolves
without gold in your hands the aged
chief of the Ska clan said to me sagely.
So they forced me to take all the fn1
skins I had personally trapped. a..sng
them one silver-fox pelt t at soid for
So"
Trapping in winter, fishing in summer,
sleeping in the bag, health hao come back
to him.
1.-The purity and silence of the long
white winter night and the glory OF the
aurora had brought me peace and healed
the pains of discord and the horror OF
the struggle for existence when one
fights for an ideal. Courage to struggle
again came to me; I must recrnate my
character. I must produce works I felt
in met
He went back to the Royal Academy.
and in six months sold his first statue
to a millionaire amateur. 1t was
Spring. young and delicate girl, as
oppressed by bad dream in her effort
to awaken. 1t was the spring of youth
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-07-24

steamer from Copenhagen to Stockholm,
he went t. the Count Won Rosen, direc-
tor of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts.
II suppose he was never before APP
preached by such a looking object as
was" says Edstrom. My hands were
hard enough to drive nail into a board.
] was washed up as clean as l could
manage; but you know how coal stoker
comes out of a ship. Without my Ameri-
can auGacity. / would never have got To
sec him at air
Count Won Rosen asked him CURLY what
he wanted. Edstrnm said he wanted to
enter the Royal Academy to become a
sculptor His Swedish, taught him by his
mother was formal and old-fash oned,
contrasting strangely with his rough APP
pearance. The aristocratic Fine Arts di-
rector was puzzled.
.'Have you any one to- aid you?" he
asked. NO? That is bad. Show me your
drawings. You have never made any?
Cannot draw
Really, Count Won Rosen could not en-
courage such a freak. He tried to eX-
plain to the ignorant American young
man, already twenty-one years old. the
impossibility of his entering the Royal
ACADEMY.
II did not ask you if could overcome
to kindly indicate your requirements.
The count turned more frigid; he an
swered that Royal Academy pupils first
go through the technical school Edstrom
asked its address. He got it without a
further word.
Mr.. Adler, its director. received the ten
derfoot kindly. He informed him that
the evening classes for workingmen
would not open until autumn"
1T was. up to me to live meanwhile
and after says the undaunted American.
''rhey offered me a job on the boat that
brought me to Stockholm but l had no
papers. United States minister named
Graves was a good man. He gave me
sufficient papers to muster me on that
boat for London. Speak well of him. He
saved me, / made two trips to London,
waiting for the school to open: saved a
little money. and entered the infant class
in due time.
He was a freak from the start. They
put him drawing straight lines. like a
child. He knew infinitely less than a
mechanics apprentice; he knew nothing
round zero.
Because 1 said I was going to be a
sculptor I became a laughing stock OF
teachers and laboring men, he says.
He suffered wretched privations; lived
with an organ grinder; earned his living
giving English lessons to workingmen at
10 certs per hour.
I'm two years | got through the Tech
meal School," he tells. and I was
hungry every day of it. I lived one
month on So My diet was herring.
skinned mill>sraw onions, salt and black
bread. but ! went for weeks on only
the onions. salt and bread-doing solid
work all day at the. school and giving
lessons half the night
He never had money for clothes. In
stead of socks he wrapped rags round
his feet.
Il came to be looked on as an original.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-07-24

so small | had to rise on my toes at
Peggy Smiths dice table.
Rising in life nearly ruined him. One
winter they had been so poor that father,
mother and boy had picked up frozen
chickens i'll the alleys by night to sell
their feathers. Now he worked up a good
business with dime novels and story pa
pers among Ottulnwa factory girls and
chicago papers and contraband novelties
III the bars.
Il was on the road to be a vulgar
snort, he tells. Il saw farmers swirl
died. had the confidence of crooked gam
blers. the goodwill of grating poit :
clans. One thing only saved me. though
] did not know it-watch.ng human ma
ture as expressed i'll faces. 1t made me
Il spectator i lost interest in the game,
watching the plays
A saloonkeeper wanted to start him in
business. He could have a bar adorned
with nudes and productive poker-room
upstairs. Fortune smtled-then ruin d all.
\ quarrel with his railway newsstand EN-
ployer lost him his easy money. He was
ashamed to show up in the cid haunts
and fell under the influence of Johannes
Schie. philosopher and landscape painter.
Il had seen charcoal drawing of Mary
Anderson in IL shoD-window, says Ed
strom. Suddenly it struck me that if /
could do n face like that it would be the
greatest thing IN the world. / was lone
ly and undecided about the saloon propo-
sition. SO l tried to draw a fancy head
not a copy. / was only interested in the
way it was done. / showed it to Jo-
names Schie.
This Johannes must have been a re-
markable man. TRANQUILITY, without big
words. lie interested the ignorant sport
ing youth in photographs of old master
paintings and the statues of the Greeks ::
told him outlines of world history lives
of him o. M "a
verse, of stars that are suns like our
own. of writhing nebulae that become
worlds. of comets that disappear forever;
told him tales of romance. honor.
He just poisoned my mind against the
life around me-" Edstrom puts it. Vague
ambitions aWoke. He would learn a
trade. earn money to study art abroad.
He dropped all his old friends and went
into a sewing machine attachment fac
tory at the age OF sixteen years. They
promised to make him trained mechanic.
But this man Schie had started me
reading he goes on And in few
years l had gone through the English
classics and smattering of philosophy
and psychology. Appreciation of Schie
made me seek the society of cultivated
people. ! became acquainted with a
preacher who had fine library. He
persuaded me to go to the University Of
Pella. Iowa. and as l had saved some
money, there was nothing to prevent"
Z
Nothing but his own unfitness. 1t was
a false start. The university bored him
Inc college boys knew nothing of the out
side world, and he knew nothing OF
theirs.
II was not big enough to see that I
ought to force myself to bend to the sur
roundings for my own good. So ] quit
So he puts it, but he also knew that he
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-07-24

hat was iii his mind. when We feel t7a
glory of achievement ahead. but have not
yet our eyes open to see the way ny
which we shall win it.
THUS spring always seems to me.
says the philosopher pnet-scuiptor. sad.
signing and fall Of longing for the full
day OF complete manhood and woman
hocd!'
He was soon making good money.
Il became known all in bunch" he
confesses. Il got $1,000 for my Spring
! was able to travel. | went TO Switzer-
land, drifted to Italy. Everywhere col
made them. My first large exhibition was
at the st. Louis fair. where l took away
a silver medal
He took away nothing else and the
whole collection was sold. At his next
public exhibition. at Munich, the same
thing happened-au the marbles and
hrcnLes, ten in number. were bought in
a lump for the famous Thiel Gallery OF
Stockholm. one of the most exclusive In
Europe with its Robins, Manniers and
Vigelands. He sold his 'Caliban 10 the
t;ctiienburg Museum and worked himself
10 another breakdown: doing commissions
for ordinary m'llonaires.
He spent seven months in the West
Indies, sleeping out. sailing. adventuring
and writing poetry, and returned to Italy.
where his exhibition at the Vieusseux
committee rooms electrified the critics
and launched him at once in high Roman
society.
His Devils of Fear. Pride. Incidence
and Envy belong to the Ricardi cnllec-
ton of Florence. His saucy SIREN" and
statues OF Terror and Misery are
the rronarty of the Marquise Montag-
iiarI. Tire .-iIff'-a Titan overpowered
:. rocks. "a consciousness: that strives
struggles still in spite OF hearing ION
shalt go no higher lis owned by the
Marquis Ricardi-Manelli.
Of whom do these Roman patricians
speak so respectfully? OF the crap
shooting American newsboy who refused
to. own barroom adorned with nudes
and productive poker room upstairs?
No: it is Edstrom of the great world
/ will not try to criticise his works.
Vhlch Hs~-- .a~son of London holds
@,.Ha. - nudin's own. I will quit him
with a word from a great Roman criti,
and contains that precise element which
all have striven for. but which. perhaps.
only Rodin has accomplished in sculp-
ture." says "A. C."-the initials masking
insufficiently very great parsonage.
'Edstrom produces the invisible soul of
things reflected in visible forms. Ills
work contains most of Michelangeio's
good qualities, ard there Is nothing about
Rodin that Edstrc-II iacks-all is but a
Question of degree.
Has not the roustabout of Ottumwa
Iowa, slaughter house travelled some,
He has travelled infinitely He has re-
created himself
EustrOm is now on the point of selling
his town lot in Ottumwa for $4,000.
STERLING HELLO.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-07-24

IRON Slaughter House
1 to Marble Halls-How
an Ignorant American Roust-
about Became a Luxurious
Poet-Artist - Incredible Ca
reer of Edstrom, the Sculptor
To-day the Friend of Mil
lionaire Collectors-Impossi-
BILE Ambitions of a Crap
shooting Newsboy-Realized
Alone Against a Hostile
World-How He Became a
Starving European Student
and Gained New Courage in
the Huts of Barbarous Laps.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-07-24

ONE who meets the
handsome, frock-
coated American in
the present London
season will dream
that he worked in
a slauglteE house.
!.dsyrom, III Lon
don, Rome and vi
emma, is the guest
Of millionaire col
lectors. His exhi-
bition al the Royal
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-07-24
BY Irwin S. Cobb.

L L L. said the
House D tective of
st. Reckless, II
see the government
is after them sugar
TT ust magnets
again. I'm glad OF
it.
Som T." said
the Hotel Clerk.
cheerfully; glad
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-07-24

directors meetings, a couple of city coun-
ellis. state legislature ar so and
bunch Of congressman and senator's fas-
tened up in the dog house. each with his
own number and license tag on his COL
lar, and a secret passageway leading from
the basement into the. stationery store
next door. Eou can, beat it as combi-
nation.
but In the fuilness of time he has 10
die, and after he's been suitably planted
under his black marble packing house
over in Greenwood the property some
how or other nearly always seems to pass
into the hands Of those regular million
aires sons. Son-boy has one of those
brains that never jelled properly. Any
real idea that ever got aiioat in his head
would come under the head of foreign
suspended matter. And this frail PERCH
val the pallid eyes and the discriminate
trusted with fathers iifework. And pref
ty soon flock of the discerning ospreys
have moved in on him and taken his
pretty marbles away from him and put a
crimp in his patrimony deep as the
Grand Canyon of the Colorado. OF
course 1t doesn't always turn out that
way. but it turns out that way often
enough to establish an average and fill
my young bosom with hope. even though
I'm living in day when SO many fed
eral Judges are standing gu..u 10 see
that no guilty trust fails to escape. Son
boy is the pikers percentage In the game.
He's our Kitty. Claim him in advance
he's the white chip that the chambermaid
finds when she sweeps out in the morn
ings."
Whats the name OF this here statoot
of a blind-folded lady that them big law
yers Is always appeelin' to when they're
maxim a speech fur trust?' unused the
House Detective. Lets see now-I was
hesrin' 1t called here just the other day
over to the Federal buiidin'-the statoot
of-of-"
''The Statute Of Limitations" said the
Hotel Clerk.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-07-24

do now move to quash the indictment
Moved and seconded that the guilty par
~ being dead the indictment be quashed
All i'm favor will please signify by say
ing aye. The ayes seem to have and the
ayes have it, and the indictment is
quashed. Call the next deceased. Mr.
Clerk of the Court.
HE always is dead-the guilty party s.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-07-24
The Hotel Clerk on the Gentle Art Of Trust Busting

The
him a
family
and he
he than
pain
all
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-07-24

show through in spots plainly. Back to
the family vault for his. Gone, but not
forgotten. At rest yet guilty. Asleep
in peace with the goods on him. Requi-
escat in pace-especially the scat part.
John Does body lies a-mouldering in the
grave, but his trust goes lying on. That's
the answer. Larry.
THE way you talk a fellow'd think
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-07-24

bless 'em, we hope they choke,'
that there is indeed no wild rush about
it. which helps to explain my own uncon-
trollable' gladsomeness when I hear that
the governments gone out again to try to
catch enough trusts to make mess.
You see. l know from past experience
along this interesting line how it's going
TO turn out. The Law OF Limitation in
tervenes-every trust official seems 20
have a private stable of Little Limita
tions on his country place. they being
just the same to him as the life net is to
trapeZe performer. Or they find flaw
in the indictment. or bunch of flaws. all
true. Federal indictments being appar-
emily composed of one strong flaw super
imposed on another, and that one on an
other. and so on through. Or a new
welterweght champion arises on the
horizon or Eva Tanguay brings out a
new dance, or something, and the tickle
public loses interest in the proposition;
or the lawyers for the trust come into
court and make a frank. free, open con-
fession. The law has indeed been VIC
lated. The guilty person is man high
in the ranks of the defendant company.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-07-24


"The average trust in this fair land of
ours has been put on its feet and started
going good by one of those wise old
squinch owls who knows the trick of SELL
ing the public all there Is to a doughnut
except the fried part. He's satisfied merely
to keep the ring around the cruller and ie.
us have the center. His temperature
never goes above 90 which is two below
freezing, and his shirt stud is an ice
water push button, two rings for a full
pitcher. He can scent the lone seques-
tered dollar bill in its lair further than a
colored circuit rider down south can
smell spring chicken turning over in a
hot skillet. and that's the fartherest
away that the human nose ever detected
anything. He builds up little monopoly
in some necessity OF life, that no wise
burglar could break into from the out
side. or would want to break out Of It
II he ever got inside. It's a law-proof,
double-seamed. steel-chilled, bull-high.
pig-tight institution with a careful look
out on the front door. troop of trained
performing corporation lawyers in the
back parlor, a confidential Office boy to
make the dummy loans and attend the
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-07-24

there amt never going to be no chance
to bust up a trust" said the House De-
tective. II s'pose you figure that some
of these days the trust'H have all the
money in the country corded up and
stacked away in a coal cellar
Not by any MEANS said the Hotel
Clerk; mot a chance. Nature'll take care
Of that. Kindly note the gratifying fact
that our great captains of industry all
have to die. And mostly they leave their
possessions to their sons. That's what
saves us. It's what I'd call a provision
of nature, not a wise provision of nature
knowing some Of the sons as I do, but
just a plain provision like oats and
smoked hams. An all-seeing Providence
has deereed that a certain kind of a Ia
nearly always has a certain kind of kid.
and that's where the Amalgamated Asso-
citation of Under and Watch Dogs. mean
ing us, Larry. or if not US, our descend
ants. will yet get the chance to break
even on this proposition.