Catoctin clarion. [volume] (Mechanicstown, Md.) 1871-1940, 1884-10-09
Aechancsown Frederick County, Maryland Thursday, Oct 9, 1884,
Hans Anderson.

IWO liaiAco ioIi OoohliiiS1 oho AAooo ooA'
| trasted personalities-Hamlet, the pro-
tagonist of human speculation, and
Hans Christian Andersen, the first
child-author. He was not the first to
| write for children, nor the first to in
| troduce the child into literature; an
| other distinction belongs to him: he
| WAS the first child who had contribu-
ted to literature. The work by which
be is best known is nothing more nor
less than an artistic creation of precise
ly the order which is common among
children.
1t is part Of the common experience
of men to endow inanimate things with
more or less life through'the operation
of the imagination. Even mere SYM
bols are made to have Il superhuity Of
life. But the power Of personifying
that which seems to have no personal
ity is strongert in childhood; it is very
apt to die out or become indistinct in
later years. Andersen never lost this
power; he cultivated it; and that which
with children is vivid but formless be-
came with him even more vivid, but
ordered and disposed as by the laws of
art.
This, think, may be taken as the
peculiar contribution Of Andersen to
literature he was the Interpreter to
the world of that creative power which
is insignificant of childhood; the child
spoke through him. he was himself
as his autobiography and the unyary-
ing testimony of his friends show, a
child all his life. The naspcte which is
SO large an element in bis stories was
an expression Of his own artlcss nature;
his was condition almost of arrested
development. he WAS an excessively
vain man, but bis vanity was the lnno-
cent egotsm of a child who wants cv-
erybody to look at him when he Is DO
ing anything which pleases himself. He
bemoans with amusing simplicity the
indifference which people showed to
his philosophical writings; he AYERS
with an air of injured innocence that
he studied very hard, and was often
reading difficult books at midnight
when people supposed he was amusing
himself. He would have discontinued
such trivial matters as writing his lit
tie tales, but they forced themselves
from him.
It was hard for Anlersen's contem-
porarles to withheld their ridiculc of
this strange figure, and it is still di'li-
cult for Danes to accept cordially the
conspicuous position in their literature
which he holds in the eyes Of foreign
ers. he wrote novels, poems, books OF
travel, and dramas. he ranked as an
artist and a man of creative power IN
these fcrms below others Of his time
and nation, yet it will be found that
when Danish literature is named, An
dersen is quite the only figure in it of
familiar repute beyond the boundaries
of HE own country and this not by vir-
tue of these larger works, but through
few wonder stories.
Andersen was by no means q man
who preferred to associate with chill
dren. When it was proposed in his
lifetime to erect in the Rosenberg Gar
den in Copenhagen statue In his hon
or, various sculptors submitted designs
One of them was pleasing one which
would probably reflect the sentiment
of most people regarding him; it rep
resented the gre attest story'teller with
two children by his knee while he told
them stories. Andersen objected posi-
lively to the conception, for he said he
was not in the habit of taking children
thus into his arms. The design which
was chosen, and was presumably &C
cepted by him, presents him in curule
chair, a cloak falling off his shoulders,
while he bends forward, holding, with
his finger between the leaves, thin
book, which might contain one of his
stories, and stretching forth the other
hand with an eager gesture. This ca
rerness, too, is in his face and his bar
ted lips he is reciting one of his stor-
les. The statue, which is of bronze,
stands upon pedestal bearing in front
his name, with dates Of his birth and
death, and on the sides pretty reliefs,
the one of the "Ugly Duciling' group,
the other of a child borne upon stork.
A simple inscription states that the
statue was erected in 1880 by the Dan
ish people in memory of the wonder
story poet. GRACE E. Scudder, in
RaapcS's Mogazine for October.
Many forget that the hair and scalp
h. Iu