The Portland daily press., 1885-02-28

tions, and SO OF all poetry. 1t has no record OF
the joys and SORROWS OF human lives. Our
whole country not loag ago had the same raw
aspect of novelty. 1t had no history behind it.;
it was mere lair of savage beasts and scarce
less savage men in whose fates aud fortunes we
had little sympathy. Our forests of gigantic
trees,our wide stretch OF prairies, our lakes and
rivers that dwarf the proportions of those Of
the old world, beautiful and grand as they
were in themselves had no human interests
They were divorced from the fates and for
tunes OF our fellow men, or If they had any
connection with them, there was no poet or
historian 10 tell the story.
AS our new world grows older, it becomes
more interesting, the colonial settlements, the
terrors OF savage msssacres, the marches across
1t of armies of sturdy patriots, fighting for in
dependence, even the quiet domestic lives full
OF pathos, as all human lives are, have con-
secrsted and ilumin ated the dull soil and
made il beautiful. And it is poetry which
has perceived and expressed the new meaning
which the memorable places Of our land have
gained from human experiences and heroic
actions. That which coDsecrates Westminster
Abbey, and makes every English-speaking
man tread its aises with awe and reverence
is not the grandeur of its lofty arches nor the
artistic perfection of its architecture but il is
the heroic English history that has progressed
through 1t, and left enduring records upon its
walls in the monuments and statues Of its
Kipgly rulers, its statesmen, its orators aud
poets. All England would wear to-day the
dual aspect of Dutch landscape or the thrifty
smsrfness OF rapidly growing western city
had not the charm of Shakespesre's verse
blazoned it with the glamour of romance.
With what fascination for every school boy
has the descriptive poetry of Walter Scott
Clothed the bare hill sides and the leaden skies
that brood over the misty locks of Scotland.
Mr.. Longfellow in the Song of Hiawatha has
given language to the whispering of
the pines, the twinkle of mountain
streams, the orchestra of forest birds, the loves
and hates and supeTstitious fears of races of
wild men, who lived in closer relations with
nature than we ever understood. In the story
of Evangeline he has embodied the most pa
thetc legend that the long colonial struggle
between two people of different language and
different faith had created. While his poems
OF slavery and of the great war in which it was
overthrown have carried over the world the
history which makes this century memorable,
Everything that makes country and father
land more dear and venerable to the loyalty OF
the citizen should be strengthened and diffussd
Men live by the nobility of their ideals. 1t is
the office of the poet SO to inspire the merits of
men with noble sentiments, that when great
crisis or great peril comes upon generation.
as 1t did upon ours and as it did upon our fore
fathers, they shall gladly sacrifice mutual ad-
yantageS Tor spiritual, may throw life itself in
to the venture at the summons of patriotic du-
ty.
Excelsior was then repeated by request, and
Mr.. Charles F. Libby, President of the Long
fellow Statue Association was then intro.
duced.
ADDRESS OF HON. G. f. LIBBY.
1t is proof of the permanent basis of moral
distinctions and of the clear apprehension by
our race OF its best line of development that
the highest tribute of our admiration is paid
to moral worth rather,than to material success
There is danger in a country like ours, where
the struggle for wealth is go fierce and persist
ent, that the value of lives devoted only to lit
ersry pursuits and taking no part in the great
political and commercial movements of the
day shall be moderated, and that the debt
which the community owes to these men, as
the exemplars and advocates of a higher life,
shall be ignored
The recognition which the world accords to
the great actors in its drama is far different.
For Its eminent statesmen, its great military
leaders, Its brave and daring explorers, it has
always ready the chaplet of laurel and vet
the dept which the world owes to them, con-
sldered with reference to the permanent value
OF their lives and work. is far less, perhaps,
than that it owes to its great poets and philoso-
piers, who are identified only with its intel
iectual and moral growth. He, who brings
home to people realizing sense of the true
elements Of human worth and character and
by his inspiring song or eloquenoe lifts them
up to higher ideal of excellence is certainly
doing as much for his race, IS he who fights
their battles or makes their laws and treaties
The desire to perpetaate In some enduring
material the form and lineaments of those
whom the world wonld not willingly let die,
has found expression in the best work of the
Eculptor'S hand since the earliest days of. anti
qulty. AS we gaze upen the marble forms of
the heroes and sageS of Greece and Rome they
seem to live again for us and to speak with all
the charms of personal presence. They are no
longer dim ghosts fitting through the per-
spectfve or historic page, but grand and noble
hgures instinct with life and thought.
1t is but natural that the place of a mans
birth should be the spot about which his warm
est affections cluster, and that whatever of
lame and honor he sttains should be the Pc
culiar heritage of its people, Our city claims
the honor OF being the birthplace of one who,
as an American poet and man OF letters, has
won worldwide fame and vet great as is
his fame, tho man himself was greater; his
poems were but the expression of his life, and
his life was incom parably the greatest of his
poems. In him the poet was but "the flower
and fruit OF the man" 1t has bsen said of
him, those who knew only the poems that he
wrote could form but faint notion of the
harmony, the sweetness, the manliness and the
tenderness of that which he lived" In Henry
Wadsworth Longfellow our CITY recognizes her
most lllustrious son, and would fam do honor
to his memory. She desire to perpetuate by
the sculptors art his noble form and presence,
that be may stand in our midst as the repre-
sentative OF the highest and purest manhood
She would have her children learn from him
the Lessons OF hope and faith and love and
courage. which his life teaches, and catch
some of the inspiration which flows from his
broad and deep-hesrted humanity. Thus may
the influence of his gracious nature be perpet-
uated as benediction to the generations J OF
unborn.
Other nations may do him honor as worthy
to stand among the wise and great in their
Valhalla. But we will cherish his memory as
one OF our own sons, dear to us by the associa-
tions OF his birth, and By the Erich memories of
his long and fruitful life.
AS we unveil this bust and gazs uDon his
face. face that Charlas Kingsley said was
the most beautiful human face he had ever
seen',-we cannot hut rejoice that Henry
Wordsworth Longfellow lived his life, and that
our city Gao claim him as her son.
Immediately after his death steps were
taken to organize the Longiellow Statue AS
soclation for the purpose of erecting bronze
statue OF the poet in some public place in this
city. 1t seemed wise to place the matter on
such footing that the smallest subscriptions
might be made available, and that particjpa-
ton in the project should be general. AS
LongfelJow is essentially the poet of the whole
People-the one whose genial spirit peryades
every home-all have been invited to SUBJ
scribe. The school children of our city and
State have subscribed their mites-others
have contributed Of their means more album
dainty. AT meeting of the association held
this day it was announced that the larger mart
of the amount required had already been
raised The remainder, we believe,
Will soon be obtained. and Portland will
then have among its earliest public monu-
ments statue of the most honored and loved
OF American poets, our own Longfellow
The "Hallelujah Chorus' was fitting ter
mination to the evenings entertainment