Los Angeles herald., 1909-01-17
MILDRED HITCHCOCK.
A BOY ARTIST IN NEW YORK
Learning the Artists Profession in the
Days Before the War

There begin in the January Century
"The "reminiscences of Augustus Saint
Gaudens," written by the sculptor in
the days of his last illness and edited
sympathetically by his son, Homer
Saint-Gaudens. OF his early appren-
tioeship in the days just before the
war, Saint-Gaudens writes:
AS I was just thirteen, my father
SAD TO me one day: My boy, you must
go to work. What would you like to
do?'
81 don't care I replied; but I
should like it if 1 could do something
which would help me to be an artist.
L was consequently apprenticed to a
man named Avet, and here comes the
fork of the road in my life which led to
the one | am still travelling. Avet was
a Savoyard, dark, with a mustache
which extended down along the side of
MS cheek and jaw. When he was not
scolding me, he sang continuously. I
believe that I am not wrong in stating
that he was the first stone cameo-cut-
ter IN America, though stone steel
engraverS there were already in New
York, as well as shell cameo-engravers
of which Palmer and Launt THOMPSON
were adopts in the early periods of
their careers. For it was the fashion
at that time for men to wear stone
scarf pins-heads of dogs, horses and
lions, in amethyst, malachite and
other stones. I was Avet's first ap-
prentice, and these stones which 1 pre-
pared for him he would finish, occa-
siona1ly allowing me to complete one
myself. He was employed principally
by Messrs. Ball, Black Co., on the cor
ner of Spring street and Broadway
and occasionally by Tiffany, to both Of
which places 1 brought the canoes
H0nn1QfPH al
found impression of the extraordinary
splendor of those palaces.
Immediately on being apprenticed to
Avet, I applied for admission to the
drawing school of the Cooper institute,
and every evening, after my return
from work at 6 o'clock and a hasty
tea, went down there, where my ar
tistfc education began
There. by the way, he sat opposite
Alexander w. Drake, his lifelong
friend.
ct can recall there the kindly impress
sion produced on me by Abram S.
Hewitt as he glanced at me during
some function. Father at that time
was making shoes for the Cooper fam
ily and 1 suppose that that is why he
looked at me. The feeling of profound
gratitude for the help which L have
had from that institution abides with
me to this day.
II was 0uTlI1S the next TWO or three
years that my first aspirations and am
billions made themselves felt. I be-
came a terrific worker, toiling every
night until II o'clock after the Cooper
institute was over, in the conviction
that in me another heaven-born genius
had been given to the world I can re-
call thinking in public conveyances,
that if the men standing on the plat
form around me could realize how
great genius was rubbing elbows
with them in the quiet-looking boy by
their side, they would be profoundly
impressed. AS result, I was so ex-
hausted by the combining work Of
cameo-cutting by day and drawing at
night that in the morning I was liter
ally dragged out of bed by mother,
pushed over to the washstand, where
gave myself a cats lick somehow or
other, driven to the seat at the table,
administered my breakfast, which con-
sisted of tea and large quantities of
the long French loaves Of bread and
butter, and tumbled downstairs out
into the street, where awoIze'