A Spokane Craftsman's Twelve-Year Masterpiece in Human Hair

When a man once sets himself to accomplish a certain object, there is no telling what his ingenuity can devise. There are persons who spend the best years of their lives in the construction of some complicated piece of mechanism, which, when completed, is only a curiosity which attracts the passing attention of the 'common herd' and may awaken a momentary wonder in thinking, calculating, investigating spirits for years afterwards. From the small reward that those geniuses receive for the product of their hands and brains, it often strikes us that it is labor thrown away, although there must be a deep satisfaction and a consciousness of some superior trait in those who have by dexterity given to the world specimens of workmanship that defy imitation.

One of the most complicated, minute and delicate specimens of this class of handiwork that has ever come under our observation is two large pictures, made entirely from human hair, representing Gen. Washington and Gen. Sherman. The artistic work is the result of twelve years of experiment and labor by Mr. Chas. Streib, one of our resident brothers having a shop at West Main and Hill streets. The pictures are the result of an idea that struck Mr. Streib, who, with a permanence and delicacy of light and touch almost marvelous, accomplished the Herculean and almost impossible task. The picture of Sherman represents him on horseback, with hat in hand, and required 66 shades of hair. While the face is not a perfect representation of the General, the resemblance is striking, and would be recognized at once. The picture of Washington is more complicated. The General stands in the foreground, while his charger is held by a servant in uniform. A well-executed tree trunk is to the right, and on the ground is a broken wheel, cannon and caisson. The rocks are very well done, while the entire picture is carefully finished. It required many shades of hair for this picture.

Some idea may be formed of the nicety of the labor when it is understood that the hair is cut by hand as fine as sand, the place to which the necessary shade was to be applied was coated with glue or mucilage, and the hair put on. The greatest care had to be exercised, as the misplacement of a shade would spoil the effect, and an error could not be rectified as it can in an oil painting. The different colors are blended together in perfect harmony, and the longer one examines the picture the more he wonders how in the world the work was ever accomplished. The shades of hair are so nearly alike in many instances that to a common eye the difference cannot be magnified. The most minute objects have been faithfully carried out. The trappings of the horse, the buttons on the coats, the hilts of the swords, and every trifling minutia has been portrayed. Looking at the picture and then examining the material, of which he keeps a large quantity in separate vials, a person isn't surprised at the length of time devoted on the work, the only wonder being that Mr. Streib could have finished it in that time. We doubt if there exists in America today anything to compare with these pictures in delicacy of workmanship, and we believe that at some time they will become as great a curiosity as the wonderful clock at Strasbourg.