The phonoscope (Nov 1896-Dec 1899)

12 THE JHONOSCOPE September, 1898 flIMss IRoso flftarston Few people, perhaps, know that the designs for the new $2.00 bills issued in 1896 and now in general circulation, were first paintings in oil made from the best obtainable models who posed for them. Among the many models who posed for this design, Miss Roso Marstou, whose home is in New York City, figured prominently. In five sittings she posed for the three figures — Steam, Electricity and Manufacture. Miss Marston was at that time a child of thirteen years, but with wonderful facial expression, which she still retains, being able at will to make herself appear older or younger than she is. This ability makes her unusually useful as an artist's model, as may be seen by the use Mr. Blashfield made of her. The fact that Steam and Electricity are represented by boys shows how an artist ma} at times use a young girl's figure to advantage in portraying the opposite sex. Miss Marston also posed for the arms and legs of little Electricity and the general outline of the body, as well as the full face of Steam, an older youth. Her profile was also used for certain features in the painting of Manufacture, represented by a mature woman. J Miss Marston is about seventeen years old. She is a purely American girl, having been born in New York, her parents both being Americans. She is famous among New York artists for her beauty and perfect figure. She is one of the very few models in the city who have perfect feet and hands. Miss Marston has written the following about herself in response to request: "As to anything concerning my work, you know the old proverb, 'Self-praise is no recommendation,' but as I haven't anyone but my mother and dog to tell this little story, I suppose I must tell it myself." "In 1S91 I was playing the boy part in Kate Claxton's 'World Against Her' Company. I went for photographs to the late Napoleon Sarony; and right here let me say he was one of the dearest old gentlemen I ever met. He told my mother ab ut my hands and feet. Through him I made my debut as a model, and have posed for all our leading artists, sculptors and photographers. "Augustus St. Gaudens and Daniel Chester Trench have made angels of me for memorial windows and cemeteries; F. S. Church, J. Wells Champney, ideal heads, etc. ; E. H. Blashfield and the late Oliu Warner, our two-dollar certificate, the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel and Washington Library decorations." "I am found in wax, bronze and on medals; still, with all this I have found time to go back to my first love and have played a season as page for Miss Rohan in Augustin Daly's Company, and later was the Cupid in 'Nature.' Just now I am thinking of going into vaudeville, as I have arrived at the age limit when I can dance and sing in New York. A model's work is agreeable and profitable and the artists are gentlemen, but the work is not progressive, and I will not always be young and in demand, so I must make hay while the sun shines, as I wish to own an Island home for my mother, dog and bird." Miss Marston has posed for a series of scenes which can be seen on exhibition at the parlors of the American Mutoscope Company on Broadway where she is at present engaged as cashier. Mr. Adolph Gall, a former resident of this city, and one of the perfecters of the Mergenthaler linotype machine, is in town visiting friends, Mr. Gall is an expert machinist and a few months ago accepted a position under Thomas A. Edison at his laboratory in Orange, N. J. Mr. Gall has lately invented a reproducing machine for the phonograph, which has greatly simplified the making of new cylinders for the various machines on the market. Previous to Mr. Gall's machine invention all the duplicate cylinders used on phonographs were made by having one phonograph play into another. This, however, proved very unsatisfactory, as the records were in most cases faulty and did not reproduce" well. Mr. Gall's arrangement works on the principle of a lever. A tongue of a long arm fits into the grooves as it turns, cuts a corresponding record of a perfect record on a wax cylinder and on another blank cylinder. This has been the means of multiplying the output of the National Phonograph Company at Orange, and has been one of the most valuable suggestions yet made in the case of phonographs. Mr. Gall talks en iertainingly about Edison. In speaking of the great inventor he said : "We never know what Mr. Edison is thinking about. He will come up with a new idea every few minutes and then again we will not see him for a week. "He is the most careless, easy-going man you, would want to see, and yet with all that he has a brain that fairly flashes at you. When . in conversation with you, you can tell you are talking to a master. He knows what he is talking about at all times. I have seen him when I know he has had no sleep for 36 hours and he is just as bright as ever. "With all due respect to Mr. Edison, he is the slouchiest man in his dress that I ever saw, to be able to dress better. He doesn't care what he wears. He will buy a suit of clothes and come into the laboratory with it on just as it came from the store. Then he will invariably sit down where it is dustiest or where some chemicals have been spilled. "He is an inveterate tobacco chewer. Sometimes he runs short on tobacco, and then he will come around among the workmen and borrow a chew. It strikes us as funny to see a man of his wealth and calibre asking us if we have a chew to spare. He always gets his chew, but you may depend upon it that shortly afterward he comes around with a whole basket full of chewing tobacco and distributes it. There's nothing "mean about Edison. "He is now working on his magnetic ore-separator, and has spent several fortunes in his mines. He is confident that some day he will get back all the millions he has sunk in his new venture." TLhe Buolet of San ?uan When Edward Marshall, the newspaper correspondent was wounded at Las Guasimas, he was aided in the field by a soldier who, Marshall says, saved his life by stopping the flow of blood. It was not until after this service was rendered him that Marshall noticed that the soldier's hand was badly wounded — three of the fingers hanging by mere shreds. This man, who, despite his own injury, stopped to render a service to a comrade, was bugler Cassi, of the Rough Riders. It was he that sounded the charge through the thicket of Las Guasimas, and it was his bugle calls that thrilled the men and cheered them on over the heights of San Juan. Cassi is in New York now, and the same bugle calls that were sounded at San Juan are being distributed in a curious way all over the country. Cassi sounds his bugle calls, beginning with the first order to charge, before a talkingmachine and makes a record which can be reproduced by anyone owning a talking-machine. He is doing this in the record-making department of the Columbia Phonograph Company. The bugle calls, as he makes them interpolated with verbal orders, make a complete description of a day of battle. The reproductions are clear and retain the spirit of the original. Cassi is an old regular army bugler and is regarded such a master of his instrument that he was chosen to blow "taps" over the grave of General Grant. Until the organization of this well-known quartette, the making of quartette records was an uncertain and unsatisfactory business. Four ill-assorted singers would be hastily thrown together and changes constantly made making good work impossible. The Excelsior Quartette has completely revolutionized quartette record-making, and is the only permanent organization which is known to do this class of work to the highest degree of perfection. As a proof of the excellence of the work of these gentlemen it is only necessary to say that they are now doing the work of all the leading companies I with one exception ). The Excelsior and Musical Company have more than seventy numbers by this quartette.