New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-01-31
IN RE REAM.

We are never gOod-natured without being
forced to repent of it within q day OF two.
When Miss Ream's statue of Lincoln was set
up in the Capitol, we spoke of it with the
greatest reserve and charity. We considered
the damage done to be irremediable, and could
see no good end to be subserved by criticisms
of the artist which could not correct her, and,
unfortunately, could not induce the gallant
Congressman to remove the body OF Offense
out of the Rotunda. So in one paragraph we
dismissed the subject from our columns and
hoped to drive it in time from our thoughts.
Non ct.ivis cOntingit adire Corinthum, we
thought, and there was no need to harrow up
the souls Of those whom a merciful fate per-
mitted to stay away from Washington, by
picturing the artistic horrors of that dismal
town.
But there is certain class of people whom
nothing short of faying alive will ever sat
isfy. The uselessness of braying them In NOR
tars has been demonstrated by high authority.
The champions Of ignorance in art are not
Mt oil pleased with THE TRIBUNE's notice of
this unhappy statue. If they could only know
the temptation there was to do justice to that
most preposterous Inauguration, they might then
appreciate our reticence. The shackle-dance
performed by the orators who saw 1t was
inane and did not dare say SO; the paralyhc
admiration of those who, it is to DO feared,
really thought it was fine and the appalling
speech of the brilliant Senator from Wisc0n-
sin, who, carried off his feet by the desperate
ness of the situation, which really left him
nothing else to say, announced the astound-
ing thesis that the less sculptor knows of
sculpture the better; all these details, rich
beyond expression, absurd beyond the fight
of fancy, tickling the intelligent midrif into
hilarious spasms, we passed mercifully over
and allowed to wander into cherishinS OBJ
livion. But since these injudiciOus advocates
of the contract system in art refuse to be
grateful for silence, let them listen to word
or two spoken in sober sadness.
The voting of ten thousand dollars to Miss
Ream for statue of Lincoln was a gross and
inexcusable outrage. She had never made o
statue in her life. The order should have
been given to the best talent the country
could present, or, if that point could not be
decided, it should have been left to compe-
titi0n. There was never o reason assigned
for voting the order to Miss Ream, except that
she was a woman, and wanted it. Persistent
and shameless lobbying carried the vote in
both Chambers. Most of those who voted for
it were good fathers of family, who thought it
made no difference any way, and who gave
"a the little thingn their vote as they would have
given their own baby O sugar-p plum. Art was
ins,llted and taste was slapped In the face by
this ignorant and needless order, and all this
in the Congress of nation that numbers
among its citizens at least six of the greatest
sculptors of the age.
When the fair enslaver of the Senate had
gotten her order, she lobbied for q studio and
got that. She then devised jaunty and
coquettish working costume, and held s6dnces,
in which she played at modelling with gushing
and infaBtile grace. Her serious employment
was getting pulled in the papers, and in this
she renewed the triumphs of her legislative
campaign. At last she completed formless
thing she called her model, and diversion
became necessary to throw marble dust in the
public eyes. II she had followed ont the Wis
cOnsin theory OF art she would have stayed
in Washington and made her statue like our
own Palmer, who has needed no voyage to
Italy to create shapes of deathless majesty
and grace. But she knew she could no more
make statue without some mans help than
she could make the living model of Bambino.
! So she sailed for Italy with her clay image
and few photographs Of the President. She
| gave these TO some of those skillful statuaries
who do such excellent work at cheap wages,
and while they were cutting tho marble Miss
Winnie went about in very picturesque and
polite company and talked with Abbes and
EXcellencies. Counts and Cardinals. binding