Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1886-12-16
BUSTs OF THE VICE PRESIDENTS.
They Are to Adorn the Gallery of the Senate
A Good Portrait of Mr. Arthur.

They Are to Adorn the Gallery of the Senate
Good Portrait of Mr. Arthur.
| Last April, writes a Washington cor
respondent of the New York Herald, the
senate library committee reported reso-
| luton authorizing the payment from the
contingent fund of sum sufficient for
the purchase of the bus5s of the vice
| presidents from John Adams down to
the present time. The resolution, which
was adopted without debate, provided
that no more than five busts should be
received within one fiscal year, and that
each should be modelled by an artist re-
siding in the same state with the subject.
The matter was then placed in the charge
of Mr.. Edward Clark, the architect of the
capitol was finally decided that the
| first five should be the busts of the three
vice presidents then living,-viz., Hanni
bal Hamlin, William A. Wheeler, and
Chester a. Arthur and then revert to
Adams and Jefferson, coming down the
line to Mr.. Hendricks. The list includes
only the legally-elected vice presidents,
and not those who may have filled the
Office ad interim.
1t Is the intention to place the five
busts of those aforementioned in the
inches of the north wall of the senate
chamber, where the vice presidents gen
orally sit, but when all shall have been
finished they will be arranged chronology
cally in their respective inches in the
galleries of the senate. The busts will
be placed on pedestals of a height suffi-
cient to prevent being handled by that
class of curiously- disposed persons who
can not be satisfied with anything less
than personal contact with whatever hap
| pens to be placed on exhibition. The
! pedestal will be chiseled from marble of
a color approximating the general tone
of the wall-that of Sienna marble. The
| busts will stand three feet in height.
| They will be so arranged that the center
of the face will be the point from which
the semiclucular head of the niche might
be deserted. They will be executed from
the best portraites Obtainable.
The effort will be to secure portraits
contemporaneous with the services of
| the subject as vice president. Some
difficulty may be experienced, it is feared
in procuring good representations of
some of the dead statesmen-such, for
example, as those of Aaron Burr and
Daniel Tompkins, of New York. The
| only good portrait of burr is believed to
be that in the possession of Princeton
college of which Jonathan Edwards, Mr..
Burr's grandfather, was at one time presi-
dent
Ex-President Arthur, npon being con-
suited in regard to the matter, requested
that Mr.. st. Gaudens, of New York City,
be Given the work of fashioning his
features into clay.
Mr.. Wheeler expressed no preference as
to the sculptor, but regretted that on
| n h Hoo n17II ,o&
personal sitting. He referred Mr.. Clark,
however, to portrait, of himself at the
bureau of engraving and printing in this
city, which he regards as probably the
best presentmsnt of himself in existence,
Mr.. Clark has asked j. Q. A. Ward, of
New York, to perform this work, but it is
not known at present whether he will ac-
cept.
To Mr.. Franklin Simmons, of Maine,
will be assigned the preparation of Mr..
Hamlin's bust, while Mr.. Daniel French
of Massachusetts, and Mr.. Ezekiel, of
Virginia will perform a similar service
for ex-Presidents Adams and Jefferson.
| The sum which the artists will receive
for this service will be $500, only one
contract being awarded to each sculptor.
! life-size portrait of President Arthur
was made by Leciere, of New York, from
many sittings, representing him as gen
tleman who had just stepped out of the
main door of mansion on to the porch
to salute the face of nature on an autum-
nal morn. In one hand he was holding a
book, with one finger between the leaves.
A rose, as though fallen from his button
hole, lay upon the step. The artist died
before the picture could be criticised by
Mr.. Arthur, and through the aid of an
eminent New York and Washington artist
the changes desired by him were under
taken. They did not relate in any degree
to the face, but merely to the size and
repose of the body. AS changed under
Mr.. Arthur's direction this admirable
work of art now adorns the white house,
and is esteemed as striking portrait.