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sidered of chief importance. Yet he was not without able associates. A. R. Waud, an artist in the field; Winslow Homer, Theodore R. Davis, Sol Eytinge, Frank Bellew, W. L. Sheppard, one or more of the Beard family, W. S. L. Jewett and C. G. Bush-the veteran cartoonist of to-daywere all associated with the great" Journal of Civilization," and their work was masterly, considering the methods of those days and the time allowed for its preparation. Yet in the drawings of Nast-often less notable for their techniquethere was a feeling which appealed more directly to the emotions than could be found in the work of his fellows. It must have been the throb of his own fierce loyalty his determination to destroy whatever stood in the path of his conviction. It was the same quality that a few years later was to

demolish corrupt politicians and city officials. It was the handling of metal at white heat-a trade at which he was the master craftsman of them all. There was to come a day when the metal would cool and the workman's hands would fail to shape it to the public taste. But that time lay far away and concealed behind the curtain of the years. Now, he was just in the beginning of his triumphs, with the greatest yet to come.

Many publishers began to seek his work. To some of these he sold paintings which were reproduced in color and sold widely. "A Domestic Blockade "-two children fortified in the parlor against the domestic of the household, became familiar to almost every family of

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photographed in cartes de visite and sold by the thousand. They are only interesting now as show

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SPECIMEN ILLUSTRATION FROM "ROBINSON CRUSOE," ILLUS

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juvenile publications were illustrated with his designs. A volume of Christmas poems presented his first published conception of Santa Claus as the Pelze-Nicol of his childhood--the fat, fur-clad type which the world has accepted as the popular portrayal of its favorite saint. In the Weekly he still continued

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his illustrative and half-allegorical cartoon work. Brave," Thanksgiving Day at the Union Altar," "The Story of Our Drummer Boy," and "A Christmas Furlough," which closed sixty-three, added much to the artist's rapidly growing fame. Letters came to him from all directions, fondly praising or bitterly condemning the pictures, according to the sympathies and geographical location of the writers.

CHAPTER XIV

THE WAR'S LAST DAYS

With the beginning of sixty-four, Thomas Nast showed the pity and human sympathy with distress which was always so large a part of his nature. The cartoon was "New Year's Day, North and South," and in contrasting the comparative luxury of the North with the destitution of the overwhelmed but still struggling South, his inner tenderness for those in sorrow is clearly manifest. Later in January, Nast contributed a doublepage, "Winter in Central Park." In the centre of this picture is a skating group, wherein a number of portraits of prominent persons appear. To introduce public characters into imaginative drawings seems to have been a custom in those old days. From a title page by Nast of a small and short-lived weekly entitled "Mrs. Grundy," one familiar with the faces of that time may pick out nearly one hundred notables.

"Columbia Decorating Grant," to whom Congress had just accorded a vote of thanks and a gold medal in acknowledgment of continued victories, was a Harper page of February 6th, sixtyfour, and this was Nast's first published drawing of the man who with Lincoln and Garibaldi should claim to the last his admiration and his honor. Throughout the year the single and double-page cartoons continued, growing more domestic and less savage as the South gradually gave up the struggle and the days

of peace seemed nearer. "On to Richmond," published June 18th, was perhaps the most spirited of the summer's work, but as the weeks passed and the presidential campaign grew fiercer, there appeared two cartoons that stirred the Nation more than any pictures hitherto published.

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The first of these, Compromise with the South," appeared a few days after the Chicago Convention, which had been controlled by Fernando Wood and Clement L. Vallandigham. The latter was an avowed "Copperhead," already once imprisoned for treason, and only through Lincoln's generosity allowed to be at large. The declared principles of this convention were to obtain peace at any price, yielding to the South any point that might bring the seceding States back into the fold. It asserted that the war was a failure, notwithstanding the fact that the situation even then was in the hands of the Union forces, and failure could result only through adopting the Chicago platform. The cartoon of Nast represented the defiant Southerner clasping hands with the crippled Northern soldier over the grave of Union heroes fallen in a useless war. Columbia is bowed in sorrow, and in the background is a negro family, again in chains. In the original design there had been a number of smaller accompanying pictures, but Fletcher Harper considered the central idea sufficient and made of it a full page.

The success of this picture was startling. An increased edition of the Weekly was printed to supply the demand, and the plate was used for a campaign document of which millions of copies were circulated.

As stated, the Chicago Peace Party Convention had been controlled by Wood and Vallandigham and others of their political faith, including Samuel J. Tilden and Horatio Seymour-both patriots of the Vallandigham school and future candidates for the Presidency. The nominees were George B. McClellan, who

* Mr. Seymour was chosen to preside over the Chicago Convention.

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