The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, June 28, 1896, Page 17

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, JUNE 28, 1896. The initial appearance of the Youthful | Prodigy on a public platform made an im- portant event with patronizing society folk and people who worship at the shrine ofart. The occasion was a notable one, partaking in a measure of the nature of a cial function. The affair, being invita- tional, was rather select. We may as well follow the rule and remark that the audi- ence was ‘‘large, intelligent and apprecia- tive.” The band played, the curtain rose, and the manager indulged i1n a few pre- liminary remarks “My cultured friends,” said he in his blandest way, “it affords me unqualitied pleasure 0 welcome you here this evening. The Golden West has given many a genius to the country—in painting, sculpture, musie, literature and the dramatic art— but never before has it been our privilege to witness the appearance on a public stage of a child so precocious, so brilliant, so old for his years, with a memory so | pertect and retent of details, and a facuity of illustration so highly developed as the Youthful Prodigy whom I now take sincere de- | light in presenting to you. I have | journeyed with him from one end of the s country to the other, and he has met | thousands of people more or less dis- | tinguished, yet if you will but mention the name of one of the parties we chanced | to become acquainted with this chitd will imm ediately recall some of that person’s characteristics, and will without any delay sketch the features of that party in profile with a fidelity to the original that will fill you with wonder and admiration. *“The Youthful Prodigy will illustrate in public to-night a num of people with whose faces the majority of you are famil- | iar. To increase your interest and aug- ment your enjoyment the various profile sketches to be made here to-night will be exhibited for what they are worth, artist- | ically considered, and the intellectual audience, it is supposed, will silently sup- | ply the name as the features on each can- vass are recognized. The Prodigy will mention no names; but he will, neverthe- less, refer to the different !ikenesses ina remarkable scove of observation.” The Prodigy bowed; polite applause | followed, and the youngster, seemingly about 10 years of age, turned on his heel and quickly proceeded to the tall canvas on an easel in the rear center of the stage. Selecting a black crayon, he outlned a | | head in amazingly short time, and then, dipping a brush in an ebony fluid, painted the space bounded by the outlines, and with beaminz countenance | frontof the platform the canvas marked— | No. 1. Enthusiastic cheers gave ample evidence of the fact that the assemblage knew full well those classic features, and was as eager to testify its devotion to the ideal hero represented there as to the mar- | velous skill of the Youthful Prodigy. When quiet reigned once more the artist in knickerbockers spoke: ‘“Ladies and | zentlemen,” he began, ‘‘our first profile sketch, I am happy to say, has not been | made in vain. Itisafar higher encomium | for whatever skill I may possess that your | cheers were not for me, but for the cham- pion of a cause that lies nearest your pa- triotic hearts, and I am proud fo be able | to so faithfully picture his features to your | eve that vour mind is instantaneously dwelling on the virtoes of hischaracter | and the grandeur of his principles. Per- | haps it would be appropriate to label this | canvas ‘Protection.’ But let us continue.” No. 2 wascompleted ie a few minutes and held up to the general gaze. A few shouts were drowned in a chorus of groans. “‘As | much as to say,”’ the Prodigy exclaimed, | “that four years of financial wreck and ruin, low wages and frec-trade competi- tion, industrial depression and costly gov- | ernmental blundering bave left their ini- | press so deep on the popular mind that the figurehead of the whole bad business can hardly be forgiven.” No. 3 received quite an ovation, and the | child-artist said: he Northwest Ioves | in whose halls | this man, and the Nation of the common people may some day re- ward his splendid services, as it is about to from Ohio.” No. 4—Everybody knew this face and a smile overspread the face of the andience i as the Prodigy said: “This curly head | belongs to one whose fame-birth dates back to a minstrel show in what is to-day the railway center of the San Joaquin. It be- { longs to a fireman brave and bold and | without a peer, and not afraid tosay so. | We must, however, do unto him as he has | done by Andrew Jackson camp—pass him by.” No. 5—“Ha! The audience cannot mis- take these erratic features. Who, in faith, can boast of such mustachios or of such a | goatee? They belong to an apostle of an | elder school of Pacific Coast journalism; to | a free lance of newspaper chivalry; to a | character so purely literary that commer- | cial instincts have been crowded out of it. bim. There is only one of his kind.” No. 6—“The fair sex has long shown | something akin to partiality for the sil- very-haired and side-whiskered No. 6. As hard as he battles against his uncompro- | mising foe, tiie Octopus, he still has a soft side to his nature, and is, by common re- | port, decidedly averse to the idea of ‘un- kissed kisses and songs never surg.’ '’ No. 7—The Prodigy rushed out another silhouette. ‘*Here is a man who was born with a gold spoon in his month. good fellow he is, and who will blame him | for taking a jolly good time? He has a | number of little worries, though, in the matter of strange wills and stranger deeds way that will convey to you an idea of his | bore to the | he has so long been fighting the good fight | do in the case of the Napoleonic statesman | o many of the old-liners of the | | Of course you know him—everybody knows | WHO ARE THEY? | of transfer; but then, nobody hasa per- | petual picnic. Many a man would laugh all petty trials to scorn if he could, like this one, be assured of at least a bottleand a bird every day.” No. 8—*"The railroad corporations know this man well,” saia the child-wonder. “They know from sad experience, for he has fought them in an hundred courts of law. Hisoratory has thrilled peopie in | every part of the State, and he has won | his way to the top of his profession. His Napoleon curl cannot be distinguished in | this inky sketch, but you can imagine it is here. *‘No. 9 recalls some of the heaviest con- personal aggrandizement and public com- mendation rather than orivate gain. “No. 11 is an orator who, on great occa- sions, never fails to rise equal to the re- quirements; an ex-militiaman whom a courtier of a Scandinavian king once de- clared quite equal as a commander to the immortal Grant; a rival in eloquence to | the prince of after-dinner speakers. *No.12—Nobody who hassipped pleasure at the feast of flowers in perfume-breath- ing Santa Barbara can have forgotten him. He is not only a society leader there, but a Jeader among citizens, and he keeps in his pocket the keys that opened the way to the freedom of the lovely old ble to the devotion of the Lamas of Thibet for the Dalai. No. 15 bas been a representative in the capital at Washing- ton, and his friends hold 1t to his credit that he didn’t loot it.”” The next three were hurried through with. *‘Therel!” ejaculated the Prodigy. “No. 16—The clubmen and lovers of genuine and gentlemanly sport admire this man in the silk hat. He is one of those who understand how to enjoy large wealth. 17 is the profile of a scholar—a scientist who earries more geological knowledge of the Pacific Slope under his hat than anybody else—a man of brilliant | | | | | | flicts in the history of the S8an Francisco | bar. The frost of age is on his brow, but | beisstill in harness. The old pioneers swear by him.” [he Youthful Prodigy now placed three sheets of canvas on | easels side by side and earned applause by & surprising variation in his method of work. First he penciled a nose on each sheet, then'brows above them respectively and lips below, and when he had the trio of profiles finished the assemblage was A jolly | loud in its praise. “No. 10, said the prodigy, “is the ack- nowledged leader of his party in the Golden State; chosen as such because his object is the general welfare rather than town.” off. “No. 13—The features are known to you all,” went on tke Prodigy. *His learned brow is always visible in the strong court scenes of a case of too many wills and too much handwriting. “No. 14 belongs to the land of orange blossoms. It would be almost incredible | for a denizen of Los Angeles to confess his unacquaintance with the capitalistic editor and proprietor of that lordly mus- tache. “No. 15—The San Joaquin County news- paper space-fillers bave a regard for the owner of these features almost compara- ; [ Three more profiles were dashed | parts, courted in circles where intellect is king. “No. 18—Here we have an impression of an impressionist. That magnificent head of hair tells the story of a poetic soul. Over to the east of us a range of mountains bears the name of the owner of this head. He has painted those mountains so well that tourists now visit his studio, drink in the scenery with their delighted eyes, and feel refre<hed with an imaginary breath of mountain air.” At this point the youthful Prodizy announcea that the entertainment would be divided into two parts and that the orchestra would discourse a few operatic airs while the canvases were turned and the stage placed in readiness for the other half of the pro- i gramme. Applause followed the child as be retreated behind the scenes. The music yielded pleasure and then the lec- | ture was resumed. Three fresh profiles | were soon being discussed. “No. 19—Humboldt County is the strong- hold of the original of these features,’” | said the Prodigy. *Allalong the Klamath, t00, he is known as a terror to evil-doers, and 1t is related that every brainy rogue | who flees northward gets a description of him in order to risk no chances when a man with this stout profile calls ‘Halt!’ **No. 20—This judicial head you can no more forget than you can forget the cele- | brated criminal cases in which his strong intellect has figured. “No. 21—The processes of the court of No. 20 have been aided materially by the irdividual whose facial shadow you see here. You may not be able to detect any of his analytical shrewdness in the shadow, but he has more than a little of it, and his hair has grown hoary in many decades of service.”” Regarding the next three the Prodigy said: “No. 22 is the man who recently opined that ‘the Athens of the Pacific seemed tired of the administration of an honest Mayor'—you have a glimpse of him here. When he was an everyday citizen, strug- | gling for a slice of the bay shore, people flocked to his standard: but his elevation put an end to these relations. “No. 23 is a placid countenance that graces the United States District Court and has been seen in the halls of Con- gress. The smile of No. 23 is charming. The smile there when the decision means fortune for you. It is there when you are undone by the decree. “No. 23 can’t help it. He was made that way. *No. 24—Who doesn’t know him? His virile eloquence, his legal fighting quali- ties, his purse that cheerfully yields to | courts the tax of ungovernable impetu- osity, his pungent wit at the festive board, his potent voice in a political cause that he vainly strives to bolster, his fearless- ness everywhere—what you haven’t heard | of these things you have probably read about, and yet he has a brother who is just as serene as a summer day, who speaks in" beautiful metaphors and who writes poetry while you wait. “No. 25"—The Prodigy chuckled as he daubed the black mixture. ‘‘The breezes of the bay,” said he, ‘“‘love no better frolic than to play among the wealth of tangled, grizzly strings that depend from the chin appertaining to the face in front of which the unfortunate victims of overindulgence in one of the unnecessaries of life daily shiver and shake. But those whiskers are not registered in Berkeley.”” The trio plan was taken up again. “No. 26—This lezal cut puts you in mina of the legal adyiser of our common- | wealth. | “No. 27—Down in Los Angeles every- | body knows the Solon of the police courts whose profile is seen here. “No. 28—Here you must certainly find a resemblance to the man who built himself a name by his brilliant and successful con- tention for justice in the case of ‘The Crime of a Century.’ “No. 29 can mean none other than a San Francisco dreamer who finds beautiful images imprisoned in clay. **No. 30 wears the aighest honors in the gift of his State, and al:hough he sterted in active life as a sailor lad and has always been interested in ships and shipping, he | boasts that even in his retirement from seafaring he has never been called captain: But his name will forever be associated | with the naval station that will be planted | on Goat Island. | “No. 31 owns a military title trat puts | bim up in the front rank, and, fusther- more, he owns a name and personality | popular and influential in the U—— C—, and in the politics of California. Now for the last trio: “No. 32 has only recently bean wedded tofame. I may as well add that he is the discoverer of the physical basis of life. “No. 33 represents a favored appointee of the Stocktonian chief executive. He is one of the few men in public life who doesn’t have to remove his hat to get a bair-cut. The bristles on the top thereare not the sproutings of a new crop; they are | mervely the dry remains of old stubble. | “No. 34 is a financier who dwells in | M-rc-d and who had the nerve to say | | | | 1 | that Californians are an expensive people and waste too much money on their liv- ing. Well, our way of living suits us and | what’s the odds?”’ The hour was late and | the auaience was assured that only one | more canvas remained. The profile was soon painted and no sooner was it done than a hearty-voiced man near the door burst into a healthy laugh and cried, “Gol- darned, if there ain’t Ole Billl” And so it was. “No. 35,” concluded the Prodigy, ‘41s one of the old war-horses. He has carried the Jacksonian banner through thick and thin and no cffice was ever too high or too fat- salaried to dumfound him in the hour when proffer waited on acceptance. What would the cohorts of Democracy in the West be without Ote Bill? It is quite fitting that we shouid close with Ole Bill. The curtain will soon ring down on Oie Bill’s party and then Ole Bill willbea | has-been—just like our show, which, I| trust, you have all enjoyed.” The manager advanced to the footlights ana gracefully thanked the audience, ac- cording to the time-honored system, for “its kind attention and worthy interest” durieg the evening; for its ‘‘generous ap- probation” and for its “strong encourage- ment of budding genius.”