Jasper County Democrat, Volume 3, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 November 1900 — A Story of Whistler. [ARTICLE]

A Story of Whistler.

The Boston Transcript says: “A diverting anecdote is told of the boyhood of Mr. Whistler, the greatest modern impressionist. He was apprenticed to some engineers who were etching elaborate maps~on~ copper. One day his employer asked him If he also could etch maps on copper. ‘Oh, yes. I can etch.' promptly answered young Whistler. “As a matter of fact he had never used an etching needle tn his life. However, they gave him the copper, and he set to work, making a very fine and beautiful map. But round the edges of the plate, which when bitten in with acid are always stopped out, he etched some characteristic little sketches of the different members of the firm, including a very humorous one of the chief himself. “Shortly after he happened to go away for a week or two for his holiday. Meantime the plate had been bitten in and printed with all of the dreadful little caricatures that lie had forgotten to stop out appearing in startling prominence, the sketch of the chief being especially remarkable because of Its great resemblance to that gentleman, who was so enraged at the indignity of the thing that immediately on Whistler’s return he dismissed him.”