Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 March 1891 — He Knew How. [ARTICLE]

He Knew How.

A typical American workingman,, quite browned by the sun, muscular, intelligent and smiling, stood upon a platform of boards supported by barrels in front of the porch of an apartmen thouse just off Fifth Avenue carving a gargoyle from a block of brown stone. He was American,' because he could work while he talked, was master of his plans, his tools and himself, wore clothes that fitted him, and replied courteously to the many questions of an interested group of bystanders. The block of stone from which he was evolving a face was supported by a pillar of polished Scotch granite, and was part of a somewhat impressive entrance of an expensive pile of stone and mortar, but neither the fact that he could not afford to spoil his job, nor that his studio was in the open air and his performance free to all critics, seemed to trouble him. He hammered, smiled and talked, and the chips flew all around the human circle. “Yes,” he said, “I carry the patternin my head. (Chip, chip.) What is this to be? A Venus. (Chip.) Yes, a Haytian Venus would not be a bad one. (Chip, chip.) This is Portland stone, the best there is for cutting and the best in the world for builders, any way. (Chip.) How do I keep from making a wrong cut and spoiling the stone? That’s my trade, sir; that’s knowing how to do it.” Thus he went on chipping at the stone, cutting a deep gash here and hammering off a great chunk of the sandstone there, seemingly reckless of the havoc he was making, but smilingaway until, between his mallet and graving stone, he seemed to have transferred his smile to the face that began to gleam from the rough brown surface of the rock.