The Project Gutenberg eBook, Little Visits with Great Americans, Vol. II (of 2), Edited by Orison Swett Marden

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Title: Little Visits with Great Americans, Vol. II (of 2)

Or Success, Ideals and How to Attain Them

Editor: Orison Swett Marden

Release Date: February 10, 2015 [eBook #48175]

Language: English

Character set encoding: UTF-8

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LITTLE VISITS WITH GREAT AMERICANS, VOL. II (OF 2)***

E-text prepared by Emmy, Sharon Joiner,
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LITTLE VISITS WITH GREAT AMERICANS

JOYS OF HOME

Copyright, 1903
By
THE SUCCESS COMPANY
New York
———
Copyright, 1904
By
THE SUCCESS COMPANY
New York
———
All Rights Reserved

XXXIV
A “Printer’s Devil” Whose Perseverance Wins Him Well-Earned Reputation as a Fun-Maker.

THE felicity of F. Opper’s caricatures is marvelous. His drawings for the Dinkelspiel stories, by George V. Hobart, in the New York “Morning Journal” have drawn to him the pleased attention of those whom he has caused to laugh at the happy expressions of his characters,—at the ridiculous expressions of the characters,—during Mr. Dinkelspiel’s “gonversationings,” particularly at Mr. Dinkelspiel’s earnest look.

He is a caricaturist of the “first water,” and in this connection I may say that a caricature too carefully drawn often loses its humor. Still Mr. Opper has proved his ability to finish a drawing smoothly. Those familiar with the back numbers of “Puck” will concede this and much more.

His life is an example of determination. I called, by appointment, at his house in Bensonhurst (near Bath Beach), a pretty suburb within the precincts of Greater New York. We stepped into his library.

He drew my attention to the pictures on the four walls of the room. “Those are all ‘originals,’ by contemporaries,” he said, “and there is one by poor Mike Woolf. We were intimate friends, and I attended his funeral.”

STUDIES OUT HIS IDEAS.

The conversation turned toward Mr. Opper himself, and I asked:—

“How is it you can conceive so many ridiculous ideas and predicaments?”

“It is a matter of study,” he replied. “I work methodically certain hours of the day, but very seldom at night. We will say it is a political cartoon on a certain occurrence that I am to draw. I deliberately sit down and study out my idea. When it is formed, I begin to draw. I never commence to draw without a conception of what I am going to do.”

“And when did you first put pencil to paper?” I asked.

“Almost as soon as I could creep. I was born in Madison, Ohio, in 1857, and as far back as I can remember, I had a determination to become an artist. My path often swerved from my ambition, on account of necessity, but my determination was back of me, and whenever an obstacle was removed I advanced thus much farther toward my goal.

“I went to the village school till I was fourteen years of age, and then I went to work in the village store. Both at school and in the store, every spare moment found me with pencil and paper, sketching something comical; so much so, indeed, that I became known for it.”

A PRINTER’S DEVIL.

“I remained in the store for a few months, and then went to work on the weekly paper, and acted the part of a ‘printer’s devil.’ Afterward, I set type. In about a year, the idea firmly possessed me that I could draw, and I decided that it was best to go to New York. But my self-esteem was not so great as to rate myself a full-fledged artist. My idea was to obtain a position as a compositor in New York, to draw between times, and gradually to land myself where my hopes all centered. So my disappointment was great when, on arriving in the city, I discovered that, to become a compositor, I must serve an apprenticeship of three years. I was in New York, in an artistic environment, and had burned my bridges; accordingly I looked for a place, and obtained one in a store. One of my duties there was to make window cards, to advertise the whole line, or a particular lot of goods. I decorated them in my best fashion.”

GOOD USE OF LEISURE TIME.

“All the leisure I had to myself, evenings and holidays, I spent in making comic sketches, and I took them to the comic papers,—to the ‘Phunny Phellow,’ and ‘Wild Oats.’ I just submitted rough sketches. Soon the editors permitted me to draw the sketches also, which was great encouragement. I met Frank Beard, and called on him, by request, and he proposed that I come into his office. So I left the store, after having been there eight or nine months, and ceased drawing show-cards for the windows. I drew for ‘Wild Oats,’ ‘Harper’s Weekly,’ ‘Frank Leslie’s,’ and the ‘Century,’ which at that time was Scribner’s publication; and later for ‘St. Nicholas.’”

It was then that Mr. Opper had an offer from “Leslie’s” to work on the staff at a salary, which he accepted.

“I was only a little over twenty years of age,” he continued. “I was a humorous draughtsman, and a special artist, also; going where I was directed to make sketches of incidents, people and scenes.”

Six years before, Mr. Opper had left the village school with a burning determination to become