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PAGE FOUR

BUILDING MATERIAL PRICES

We Wish All Our Friends and Patrons a Happy and
Prosperous New Year.

SNYDER MANAGEMENT CO.

RENTALS — INSURANCE

2013 DIME BANK BUILDING

Phone Cadillac 8440

The average price of building ma-
terial is under that of last year, ac-
cording to data recently compiled.
Lumber is an exception to the gen-
eral trend. According to the depart-
ment of labor, lumber prices now
stand at a level 93 per cent above the
level of 1913, while last year at this
time it was 92% per cent above the
level of 1915. The present level of
common brick is 108 per cent above
the 1913 level; last year it was 114
per cent above. Structural steel is
far below a year ago. The 1924 level
was 65 per cent above 1913 while the
latest labor department report shows
the level 39 per cent above 1913.

Famous Sculptures Comes to America

Noted Works by Mark Antokolsky, Jewish Master, Now Part
of Philadelphia Collection.

By BERENICE C. SKIDELSKY

ROSH HASHONAH
GREETINGS

For the first time reported some of helped him achieve his great ambition
—to get to St. Petersburg to study.
the work of Mark Matvcich Antokol-
Picture the young man, just 21,
During the New Year to corn. we want you to know
sky, one of the foremost sculptors in
erging from the third-class carriage
emerging
that we are here to serve you in any Trust Capacity.
Europe during the latter part of the in which he had just made the long
nineteenth century, has been brought and tedious journey, with a mind so
to America. Ten nobly representative full of dreams that he had been ob-
works of this great Jewish master, all livious of his physical discomforti.
too little known on this side of the At- To him, according to his latter remi-
lantic, are now in possession of a niscences, the art student of the Im-
5'/2%
Decency is indecency's conspiracy group of persons in Philadelphia. They perial Academy of Fine Arts had al-
ways loomed, distant and large, as
of silence.
are part of a large collection of Rus-
"the
chosen
of
God."
And
now
here
Financial Correspondent for the Prudential Life
sian paintings and sculpture, bought
from the widow of a once famous he was, actually on the way to be one
Insurance Company.
and enormously wealthy lawyer, L. S. of them! As soon as he arrived in
Lifschitz, who was a liberal patron of the strange city, he hastened to the
the arts, and a close friend of Antokol- Academy, and gazed in awe upon the
sky, helping him more than once in outside of the building that was to
time of stress. When the sculptor open the doors of fame and achieve-
died, Lifschitz purchased the contents ment to him.
But it was not such plain sailing as
of his studio from his heirs, donating
plaster models to the Academy of Fine he had hoped for; want of means, and
race-prejudice
were two serious ob-
Arts in Petograd and keeping the orig-
inals, now in Philadelphia, for him- stacles to his admittance. Ile was fi-
nally
permitted
to enroll. He worked
147 W • CONGRESS ST •
self.
Mark Antokolsky was born in Vilna in grinding poverty, getting jobs in a
in 1843, of poor, hardworking, Ortho- turner's shop to eke out a subsistence.
dox Jewish parents, who characterized Of course, there came the disillusion
his artistic aspirations by such un- inevitable upon the realization of any
sympathetic names as raving folly" hopes that have been too high and too
and "moonshine." They begged him to full of dreams; the instruction was
give up his dreams of becoming an ar- poor in quality, and the professors,
tist, and to settle down to some prac- given over to classical trend of the
tical aim in life. At this critical day, unsympathetic with this more
juncture, however, he met a land sur- sternly realistic spirit that they were
SEASON'S GREETINGS
veyor who happened to be a lover of not able to understand. Still, it was
— from
art—and of his cups. Over the latter, better than no training at all, and
,
the man poured into the eagerly re- young Antokolsky worked indefatiga-
ceptive ears of the boy endless stories bly to get as much out of it as he
from the lives of great sculptors and could.
MEMBERS:
painters of the past, calling them "the
He went home during his first vaca-
NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE
true priests of the race," and encour- tion, and his disappointment was keen
NEW YORK COTTON EXCHANGE
aging his listener to follow his natur- when he could find no record of the
1.1111.ADEL1'HIA STOCK EXCHANGE
CHICAGO STOCK EXCHANGE
al predilection and become one of whereabouts of his old friend, the land
CIIICAGO BOARD OF 'TRADE
them.
surveyor. His parents no doubt had
DETROIT STOCK EXCHANGE
Meanwhile young Mark spent every become reconciled (or, at any rate, re-
ASSOCIATE NEW YORK CURB MARKET
spare moment in making carvings in signed) to the artist in their midst;
328.32 BUHL BUILDING
wood, the only medium his slender and he spent the summer months
Talephoa. Cadillac 4332
means would permit. These attracted sculpturing in wood an old Jewish
considerable local attention, coming tailor, his body thrust out of a window ,
finally to the notice of Mme. Nszimov, intent upon threading a needle. 'This
wife of the governor general of the was to be his first success, for he car-
province. She was so impressed by ried it back with him to St. Peters-
the promise they showed that she burg, where it was exhibited, awarded
a silver medal and sold for one hun-
dred roubles, a goodly fortune that
The Present Prosperous Status went far toward defraying the ex-
penses of that year.
of Public Utility Se -
But the general atmosphere was un-
curities.
congenial, and for five years Antokol-
sky was an expatriate in Berlin. Dur-
By George Sloane of Lewis & Co., ing that period, he conceived the idea
of immortalizing Ivan the Terrible,
Incorporated.
who had always challenged his imagi-
nation as a most picturesque figure.
WE DESIRE TO EXPRESS AT THIS TIME
No medium of investment has a So he made a plaster model, and then
OUR FELICITATIONS TO OUR MANY
better record than the securities of faced the problem of getting money
JEWISH FRIENDS AND HOPE THAT THE
American public utility companies. for permanent material. He hit upon
NEW YEAR WILL BRING YOU AN ABUN-
By that is meant the securities of gas, the ingenious scheme of holding an ex-
electric light and power companies. hibit and charging 200 kapecks as en-
DANCE OF HEALTH AND HAPPINESS
Nevertheless, at the present time trance fee. It is an interesting bit of
there is need for the investor to ex- irony that many of the persons who
ercise unusual care in his selection paid the price though themselves woe-
of such securities. It is almost axio- fully defrauded when they saw "only
matic to state that the issues of the one figure"—yet this one figure was
Commonwealth Edison Company of later to attract the attention of all in-
Chicago, the Consolidated Gas Com- tellectual and artistic Russia, and to
pany of New York and the Detroit be bought by the "Little Father," Czar
Edison Company are among the Alexander II, himself. Meanwhile, he
soundest securities in the public util- I earned enough money to make the
icy field, but during the past year of statue in bronze, during his second
very cheap money many new com- stay in St. Petersburg.
After a period of struggles and
panies have been formed, many of
which are holding companies, and the hardship, he had the good fortune to
new issue put out by these companies come to the notice of the Grand Duch-
should be carefully scrutinized before ess Marie, who interested the famous
purchasing. The business of public novelist, Turgeniev, in his work, and
utilities has grown by leaps and later carried her efforts in his behalf
CHERRY 2340
606 WOODWARD AVE
bounds and it is both natural and eco- to the royal palace, persuading Alex-
nomical that they should be operated ander to visit the studio of the Jewish
in larger units. They are largely in sculptor. Alexander was so impressed
the same position that the railroads by the statue of Ivan the Terrible (of
occupied 40 years ago when the coun- which Stassov, pre-eminent among
try was covered by a net-work of Russian critics, has written that all
small roads, most of them beginning the Russian literature about Ivan
nowhere and ending nowhere. The could not possibly express him as the
BEST WISHES TO THE JEWISH PEOPLE OF
Southern railway system is a good Antakolsky statue has done) that he
example of this; the present unified purchased it and forced the Academy
DETROIT FOR A HAPPY AND PROSPEROUS
and prosperous company being an ag- to elect the sculptor to membership.
NEW YEAR.
gregation of short lines which cos- Previously, they had offered him the
ered the South from Richmond to substitute title of "honorary citizen,"
New Orleans. It has taken a goner- because of his race, and he had re-
ation to really bring the system to its fused; but when the royal mandate
present prosperous state, as it was ordered full election, they had no
grossly over-capitalized when formed. choice but to comply.
And so today in the public utility field
Stassov, the noted critic mentioned
many new mergers are being formed above, has written:
which are taking in old properties at
"Antokolsky's pre-eminence in Eu-
enormous prices and only time will rope was universally acknowledged at
tell whether the properties taken in the Paris Exposition in 1878, where
can carry the load of new capitaliza- an international jury composed of ar-
tion put upon them. The natural tist-delegates from all nations, award-
growth of our great country and the ed him the first and highest prize for
growing uses to which gas and elec- sculpture; and in hundreds of articles
tricity are being put will probably in the journals the foreign critics
bring them through successfully. The never weary of speaking of the great
attitude of the public utility commis- importance of Antokolsky. But for us
sions in the various states has been it is a matter of secondary importance
very fair in most instances and the what Europe thinks of him.
purchase of public utility securities
"Much more significant is the ques-
by many thousands of investors has tion of what he is to Russians. Ile rep-
made friends for the companies which resents in his personality something
the railroads never had, as their se- altogether different from what all the
HICKORY 6919_ j
394 COPLIN AVENUE
curities were not as widely held by rest of the sculptors stand for—both
the general public when the time ancient and modern. It must not be „.
came for them to merge and develop forgotten that he is a Jew, and what
s,AssIsl
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.
; '' ' ' '''''
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in the same way, so it is probably cer- this means in Russia, in the way of
tain that the utilities will not become hardships and obstacles. The bold
Expressing Our Sincere Wishes to You All for •
the political football that the rail- fearlessness of Antokolsky Was the
roads has been.
greater because, instead of hiding his
Jewish origin, instead of causing it to
be forgotten, he loudly proclaimed it."
Antokoleky's soul was overshadowed
by an ever-present consciousness of
the tragedy of life. He was in agree-
ment with the Chateaubriand dictum,
that "sculpture gives a soul to mar-
ble," as opposed to the belief that the
importance of sculpture lies in the
portrayal of sheer beauty of form.
Intellectual interpretation is intend-
ed in almost all his artistic portrayal.
of DETROIT
His Mephisto, for example, he called
Analysis and Negation. Not the pop-
ularly known evil demon is here, but
EDGEWOOD 1597
2120 BELLEVUE
a brooding mind, weighing the ac-
cepted values of right and wrong, and
repudiating them; eyes that haunt the
beholder for days, give expression to
the struggle within. Chaliapin is said
to have been profoundly influenced by
C
the Antokolsky statue, in his own in-
(INCORPORATED)
terpretation of the Mephisto role.
PICKLES
MUSTARD
The Mephisto, a massive figure in
solid bronze seated upon a great
RELISHES
VINEGARS
bronze base, is one of the ten works,
now in Philadelphia. There is a head
study of the figure, also in bronze ,and
a head study of the famous Ivan the
Terrible statue as well. Other bronzes
are, a head of St. John the Baptisti
Jaroslav the Sage—e Russian rules of I
the eleventh century, famed for his
wisdom and laws—and • bas-relief,
representing the Spanish Inquisitors
descending upon a Jewish home dur-
ing a holiday feast. There's a silvered
bronze, called Peace. Three marbles
complete the collection—The Death of
Socrates, which is one of the most fa-
mpus of the Antokolsky sculptures;
The Last Sigh, which represents the
expiring Jesus; and Sleeping Beauty,
which is a masterpiece of tenderness
and sheer beauty.

4% on Savings

A CAREFULLY CHOSEN LIST of BONDS
MORTGAGE LOANS AT

THE

FIDELITY
TRUST COMPANY

Wishing all our Jewish Friends a Most
Sincere and Prosperous New Year

FA
/km

Itlenjamin Pansa0 & 61mpanu

WARE & c COMPANY

faunicipai (Eurporation 7,13o11bs

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Detroit, Mich.

Randolph 1844

110,31! e lastionaIl . 6reetinus

,

A HAPPY NEW YEAR

ALLDIS & CO.

To our Host of Jewish Friends and
Clients we extend our sincere wishes
for a happy and prosperous New Year

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ROSH HASHONAH GREETINGS

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JOE HERSHEY =_--
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to

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