Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1888-04-19


industrial works that grew up under his
his administration. These reasons alone
ought to be sufficient; but there are 9TH
ers which might well be cited, the chief of
which are reflected in the fact that Mr..
Stevens had deep attachment for this
city, and abiding faith in it; that among
this people he found his warmest friends
and chosen associates, that here the great
est number of those who labored under
him will be able to view the memorial.
and that the erection of he statue here
would accord with the expressed wishes
of his family.
a committee has been appointed to con-
slider the matter and it has issued an adj
dress that indicates, we think, grave mis-
conception upon its part. 1t presents the
division of opinion among the friends of
Mr.. Stevens whether a statue should be
erected here in the public plaza, to be daily
seen of men, or a monument set up over
his grave in the secluded cemetery near
Oakland, and provision made for the we'll
keeping of the plat forever 1t estimates
that statue would cost from $4,000 to
$4,000, while handsome monument can
be erected for $4,000. We have no
idea from what source the committee drew
the facts upon which it bases its estimates.
Certainly it is in grave error A monu-
ment costing $4,000 in the remote ceme-
terry of Oakland would scarcely be wise
expenditure to perpetuate the memory of
the inventor and benefactor of his
fellows. when for less than that
sum win place in the public
grounds of the city of his home and
the capital of the State, within sound of
the neyer-ending gbeat of the ponderous
machinery his genius created, statue
worthy to be observed of men, and to
bear his name
While it would be eminently proper to
mark his last resting place by fitting me-
mortal stone, and while this ought to be
carried out as a part of the scheme, the
heart of the city of his home should wear
his statue. Both purposes, we repeat, may
be accomplished, and we believe within
the lower figure named by the committee.
Hundreds Of instances can be cited of no
bic statues that did not cost anywhere
near the sum indicated by the committee,
and yet In every respect are works of high
art. The bronze statue of Juneau at Mil
waukee, erected last year, and that
to General Lee at New Orleans
are signal instances of the err
roneous estimates of the committee.
The committee urges, also, that no
accurate figure can be carved or nodded,
since only photograph of the deceased is
obtainable. This is also mistake on the
part of the committee. Not one statue in
hundred of thousands in this country was
chiseled or nodded from casts, or from the
human figure. No better complications
of this fact can be found than in Golden
Gate Park, San Francisco at Richmond,
Va; in the parks of New York;
in the public grounds at Washington, and
other places in the country where statues
stand, evolved only from fiat studies. The
fact that a monument could be erected in q
brief period, while statue would require
more extended time to be devoted to it.
cuts no figure in the case, where appro
priateness and good taste are factors.
With entire respect for the sincerity of
the committee, we do not hesitate to saw
that its estimates of cost are out of proper
ton to the end desired to be attained, and
that its opinion is a serious mistake that
a cemetery monument of cold marble. in the
midst of hundreds of mournful monuments
erected by private affection, will appro-
priately perpetuate the memory and do
honor to the life-labors of such man as
A. J. Stevens. The devotion of consider
able means to Il monument in the city Of
the dead, to the total exclusion of a statue
or memorial structure in the city of the
living, where the being it would honor
spent the best days of his life and worked
out his chiefsuccesses, would be singularly
grave error of judgment, and we trust it
will not be committed.