New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1872-12-28
ANOTHER ACCIDENTAL STATUE.

| ring the deposits 10 Quiet DiinkS.
| ANOTHER ACCIDENTAL STATUE.
We are informed from Washington that a
| Committee consisting OF Gov. Cooke, Mr..
Spofford, Librarian of Congress, Mr.. Clarke,
architect of tho Capitol and Gen. BabcOck,
| Commissioner Of Public Buildings and Grounds
met yesterday in the Executive Mansion TO
examine large number of models for The
| proposed statue TO Gen. Rawlins, for which
| $4,000 has been appropriated by Congress,
and awarded the contract to one j. A. Bailey
of Philadelphia. No less than nine persons
| Joined in the competition for this work. only
one of whom is at all known as an artist, and
he does not rank among our leading scuiptoIs.
We arc not of the Committee but we can see
from this distance what sort of show was set
before them. DR.. Stones model may have
been not altogether bad destitute Of grace or
originality, but still nodded with a certain
regard for nature and for taste; the rest
simply desolation. Wo do not wish to say
anything against the estimable gentle
men who form the Committee. Mr.. Cooke
| ia an infallibe Judge OF a greenback, Mr..
| Clarke recognizes house when he sees IT.
Gen. BabcOck can measure an ofice-seoker
with unerring accuracy, and Mr.. Spotford knows
o book as well as he that made it. But do
either of these gentlemen believe that they
four are the best men attainablo to decide
upon the merits of a statueP They certainly
do not Now there are people In the United
States who do know what statue is, and
how it is made. We have not merely good
many clever sculptors. We have few OF the
first rank Mr.. Browne is an artist OF enough
vigor and initiative to make successes and fail
ures His Washington is as good as the best
his Lincoln is as bad as the worst. There are
Ward and Thompson, younger and more cultured,
who gain still greater triumphs, and make fewer
mistakes. The nation has right to be proud
of those patient brains and cunning hands
which made the Indian Hunter and the Shakes
peare, the Sedgwick and the Color-Sergeant
These, with Millmore and Ball in New-En-
Gland, are the leaders in art who have done
their work at home. We do not forget Story
and Greenough, who have represented US
abroad with such exquisite and scholarly
achievements. The best of women sculptors
are Americans also. Miss Hosmer and Miss
Stebbns ask no favors from any criticism.
But by some strange fatality, every time there
| is anything TO be done for the nation some
mediocrity or positive incapacity gets the
contract
Does not the composition Of the art juries,
the fashion of the lobby, the pulling and
hauling in committee, 60 far to explain the
disinclinaton Of our first-rate artists to COM
| pete for any national work. Their profession
| is not with them a struggle for existence.
| They have more orders than they can exc
cute, at remunerative rates. They do not
| care to spend weeks of labor and thought to
prepare models which will be submitted to
| an incompetent or interested tribunal where
they may possibly find o hungry competitor
appealing to the charity of the judges, or a
pair of bright eyes confusing their reason as
| enectually as Phryne did that of the Athe-
| mans. And then-it is not pleasant to say
this, but it must be said-there il less inspira-
ton to any true artist in a statue to Gen.
Rawlins than in many another, yet unor-
dered. His death was much more
conspicuous than his life had been, and
| touched q sympathetic chord throughout the
country. He was also an intimate friend of
tho President, who doubtless looked with favor
| on the project to show him honor. But it will
not be said by any one that Gen. Rawlins,
brave, honest, and industrious as he was, oc-
cuped any such prominent place in the history
of the country as to justify Congress yet in set
ting his statue up in the Capitol. There are 80
many heroes ranking him in our Pantheon
that he wouldsbe reached much later, If ne de-
pended simply Upon his record. Among the liv-
| ing there are dozens for whom we must save
our bronze-Grant, Sherman, Sheridan, and
| their great associates who commanded armies
and won victories. There are immortal names
enough among the dead also to keep our best
talent busy for many years. Should not the
victor of Gettysburg be remembered Should
the glorious character and spotless name OF
| Thomas be left to history alone, and shall art
not have its share in giving posterity the
| noble figure Of the man Of Chickamauga
| Sedgwick has been saved from forgetfulness
by the chisel Of Launt Thompson, but who
has a better right to niche in the Capitol
that McPhersonf
There are to be more Of these statues in fu-
ture. We are even now threatened with q
caricature OF Farragut, who deserves mas
terpiece. 1t is, therefore. of the utmost i'm
portance that the few Members of Congress
who know anything about Art, or who have
sense enough to know they know nothing
should make one mere effort to check the dis