Our Frontpiece This Month

Image of Newsboy Fountain, Barrington Mass.

Is from a photograph of the fountain presented by Col. W. L. Brown publisher of the New York Daily News, to Great Barrington. Mass., his summer home, and unveiled October 10. The design of the fountain and the crowning figure is by David Richards, of New York, and the construction and execution of the stone and granite work is by M. Lux, of Great Barrington, the leading marble and granite dealer in that section. The structure is nearly fifteen feet high. The base is a noble block of the native dolomite, as also the block containing the largest basin. The pedestal is a shaft of highly polished Quincy granite. On one side of this is a bronze lion's head. From the open mouth of a stream of water gushes into the large basin for horses. On the opposite side, the higher up, is a very striking head, in bronze, of a satyr. Between his lips, parted in mocking laughter, the water flows into a handsomely carved pocket for thirsty men, women and children to drink from. Small basins in the base of the pedestal are supplied from the dog's head and cat's head, both of bronze.

But the crowning glory of the fountain is, of course, the statue surmounting the whole, which is a triumph of modern art. It is a life-size figure of the typical New York newsboy as he may be seen every week day of the year racing through the crowded thoroughfares. The figure is modeled from life, and reproduces with marvelous fidelity the familiar newsboy of Park row. The pose is light and graceful. Every line in the figure is expressive youthful life and nervous activity. The face, while eminently characteristic, is a charming one. Upturned, with eager eyes and parted lips, it expresses something more than the intense competitive energy of the moment; it is eloquent of that youthful hope and ambition which nowhere on earth have such boundless scope as in this country of ours, to our Nation's pride and glory. One feels on looking at this bronze boy, which a master mind has conceived and a master hand portrayed, that despite his humble dress and calling, the possibilities for such a boy are limitless, whether his ultimate ambition be the presidency or the proprietorship of a great newspaper.

Col. Brown had in view in choosing the figure of a newsboy not only a handsome design for his gift, but the payment of a deserved tribute to one of the sources of his fortune.

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