t artistic temperament, as it is generally
called, which so often manifests itself in exactly the opposite
direction--in a tendency to dream rather than to do, and to allow the
pleasures of the ideal to incapacitate those who indulge in them for
real work--was so little his that I have never known a more industrious
and conscientious worker with his hands. And there was nothing to which
he could not turn them, and that with a degree of skill that would often
put to shame the attempts of members of the craft which he might be
essaying for the first time.

At that time Hiram Powers was, as the saying is, living upon his wits;
and they, being such as I have described them, were not likely to fail
in producing the wherewithal to do so. There was at that period a little
Frenchman named Dorfeuille at Cincinnati--not a bad sort of little man,
I believe, and with some amount of literary and other talent. But he
also being engaged in the operation of living on his wits, or mainly so,
and not finding them so abundantly sufficient for the purpose as those
of my young friend, thought that he too might in part live on the wits
of the latter; and during the time of my stay at Cincinnati he did so to
the satisfaction of both parties. This Dorfeuille was the proprietor of
a museum, the main and most attractive portion of which was a number of
wax figures. But the Cincinnati public was not large enough in those
days to supply a constant stream of fresh spectators, and, though there
was little in the way of public amusement to compete with M.
Dorfeuille's museum, the Cincinnati people soon got tired of looking at
the same show; and but for the happy chance which brought him into
contact with Hiram Powers, M. Dorfeuille must have packed up his museum
and sought "fresh woods and pastures new." But with the advent of young
Powers, and the contents of the museum given over to his creating brain
and clever fingers, a period of halcyon days and new prosperity
commenced for the little Frenchman and his show. With the materials at
his disposition all things were possible to the young artist, to whom
such a chance gave the first clear consciousness of his own powers. New
combinations, new names, new costuming, alterations of figures, etc.
etc. were adopted to produce fine effects and amuse the public with
constant novelties. For the invention of these Powers often used to
consult my mother, whose suggestions he never failed to carry into
effect,