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Show LOrHEWOODENINDIAN The Highly Intricate Art of Making Figures Fig-ures Tor Cigar Store Signs How Taste Has Changed. THE INDIAN BEING DISPLACED. Labor and Cost of the Statues of Wood-Where Wood-Where the Aboriginal Modes Leave Off and Civilization Steps in. The tobacconists' figures have undergone many changes since they first came into use. They have attained a very respectable degree of excellence In certain directions, and considerable inventiveness and great variety of design have been shown in their production. Most of these figures are made of wood. Some, however, aro of metal, cast in molds. These, of course, are much more expensive, and tho designs aro limit ed In number. The wooden figures being more within tho reach of most dealers naturally offer a greater variety in design. Tho wood usod Is generally white pine, which is bought in logs of various lengths at the spar yards. The artist begins by makii; the roughest kind of an outline a mere suggestion of what tho proportions of the figure are to 1e. In this he is guided by paper patterns. The log is blocked out with the ax into impropriate spaces for the head, tho body down to the waist, tho portion from there to the knee, tho rest of tho legs (which are ' at once divided) and the feet. In Its present pres-ent embryo state the figure to be is not very apparent to the eye. Tho feeling for form in tho chopped block is so very elo- jnentary as to havo complete suggestive-Hess suggestive-Hess only for tho practiced artist. BOW THE INDIAN 18 MADK. ! A hole is now bored into each end of the prepared log about five inches deep. Into each of those holes an iron bolt is placed, the projecting parts of which rests on supports, sup-ports, so that the body hangs free. The carver now goes from the general to the particular. The surface of tho wood soon becomes chipped up by the chisel, and the log generally takes on more definite form. Then, when tho figure is completely evolved, the finishing touches are put on with liner carving tools. Detached bands and arms are made separately sep-arately and joined on to tho body by screws. Then the various portions of tho figure are appropriately painted, the wholo is set upon a stand running on wheels, and it is ready for delivery. Old figures that liavo become scratched and broken, that have split and cracked with tho grain, or aro dingy and dirty and need to be freshened fresh-ened up with new coats of paint, are also brought to the shop and doctored and patched up into a respectablo semblance cf newness. Time changes, and so does the popular taste. At first the red man ruled the market mar-ket almost completely. Then came a heavy sprinkling of other figures fiory Scotchmen, Scotch-men, English officers with small fatigue caps or high bearskins, and heavy swells of ante-bellum times and the war period, with marvelously wide pantaloons and waving mutton chop whiskers, ogled simpering sim-pering Dolly Vardons, with short cut skirts, hustles and hats tilted forward over the eyes. Then came grave Turks, gor-geou gor-geou s sultanas and columbines with alarmingly alarm-ingly short skirts. Punch, with rubicund nose and protuberant chin, was a favorite flgnro. There was also the conventional plantation "nigger," with striped pantaloons panta-loons and a great expanso of shirt collar. Tew of these old flguresare seen nowadays. ORIGINAL DESIGNS. Meanwhile tho spirit of realistic art entered en-tered more and more into the work of the Bign sculptors. The wooden Indians grew bettor, quite artistic in some instances. Even tho half nude was attempted with success. In tho latter respect the best work lias undoubtedly been exemplified in the ' metal figures of Indians and Pucks. The "artists," advuueing in technique, grew ambitious; more variety became the watch-' watch-' word, Tho dude, who hud occupied the pen of tho writer and the pencil of the artist, was now perpetuated in wood. ElU-gies ElU-gies of baseball players gave sign of a public pub-lic spirited nature, and there has been quifo an eruption of Pucks, good, bad and execrable. exe-crable. "Vaultin1 ambition" strove even to portraiture. The price of these flgnros varies greatly. You can get a small Indian for $10, or you - can indulge your artistic taste up to the tune of $125. Metal figures run as high as (175. Most figures thut are ordered are simply copied from existing ones, the sanio design being often repeated. Such work is exemplified in certain forms and types that Lave grown conventional aud are familiar to all. Hut some dealers, with discriminating discrimi-nating and fastidious tastes or peculiar hobbies and with the money to indulge ' them, have special figures mado to order. One old gentleman iu Third avenue, near Ninth street, had himself cut out in wood in the uniform of somo military company to which ho belonged. Auother gentleman In Broadway put up a figureof Edwin Forrest For-rest in Roman garb, redundant of muscle, in front of his store. This liguro has since pone to Philadelphia. Still another, up town in Tenth avenue, ordered the counterfeit coun-terfeit presentment of Unston's shining light, John L. Sullivan, in his baseball suit. Another Tenth avenue man had an elephant aud the golden calf roario for his two saloons. Ono western man ordered iigurcs of the Goddess of Liberty and of Burtholdi's statue somewhat altered from the original. Tho carver naturally is j;lad to get out of the rut of wearisome conventionality conven-tionality sometimes, and puts his best foot foremost when tilling such orders. SOME OFT SliEN J IliUKUS. 15ut the tobacconist is not by auy means the only customor that the sculptor in wood has to supply. Chiropodists want lare white or (filfc feet to display before thoir doors, glove sellers hang up wooden gloved hauds as signs of their calling, aud livery stable owners call for heads of horses. Slore than that, our artist in wood Is at times called upon to exercise his cunning cun-ning in manufacturing wooden hands for such persons as have had tho misfortune to lose one of those that nature provided them with. A dow n town firm puts springs into these, so that they can be used to some extent by the wearer. P. T. Earuum has been supplied with a number of wooden figures which appear in his parades. They are all life size or larger, and include Bluebeard, Cinderella, Mother (Joose, Hinbad the Bailor, Hed Kid-iiii; Kid-iiii; Hood and the Old Woman That Lived in a Shoe. Forepaugh has an equestrian figure of St. George and the Dragon. The ! tigures on Barnum's vans aro also carved i in wood. One firm that deals in woolen rags had figure of a ragman nine feet high placed on top of its building in Franklin street, near Center. When it moved to its present j huarters, in West street, near Canal, asim- ' ar ligure was put up for it, so that there I re two of them now. Another r?ell known j figure is the coir that is milked daily on i Coney Island. At Narragansett Pierthcra is a huge draijon twenty-three fuet long, which curls around a column on tho water tower in Karl's court. Again, William J)e-muth J)e-muth has had carvings executed on his yacht at Lake Joorge, and similar work j has bees produced for ethers. New York Times. I |