The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-05-22
SPEECH BY COLONEL HAY
OUR AMBASSADOR EULOGIZEs SCOTT
AND WINS APPLAUSE.
Unwilling of u Statue of the Famous
NOvelist-Tribute from Dean
Bradley.


cleuch unveiled at Westminster Abbey this
afternoon memorial bust of Sir Walter
Scott in the presence of a distinguished as
semblage. The bust is by Mr.. Hutchinson,
r. S. A. and is copy of Sir Francis
Chantroy's well-known portrait. Col John
Hay, ambassador of the United States de-
livered a eufogy of Sir Walter Scott
which was received with the greatest en-
thusiasm, and was described by Dean
Bradley, who presided, as being wise, elo-
quent and truthful" After the speeches
all present went to the poets corner of
Westminster Abbey, where the bust was
unveiled. The monument cost $3.50 ($2, $500,
of which sum Americans subscribed one
fifth.
Colonel Hays speech was in part as fol-
lows: In this most significant and in
teresting ceremony l should have no ex-
cuSe for appearing except as representing
for the time being a large section of Walter
SCOTS immense constituency. / doubt If
anywhere his writings have had more
loving welcome than in America. The books
a boy reads are the most ardently admired
and the longest remembered and America
reveled in Scott when the country was
young. 1 have heard from my father, a
pioneer of Kentucky, that in the early days
of this century men would saddle their
horses, ride from all the neghboring coun-
ties to the principal post town of the region
when a new novel by the author of Waiver
ly was expected. All over our struggling
States and Territories, in the East. where
a civilization of slender resources but
boundless hopes was building; in the West
where the stern conflict was going on, of
the pioneer subduing the continent, the
books most read were those poems of magic
and sentiment, those tales of by-gone lchiv-
airy and romance which Walter Scott was
pouring forth upon the world with rich
facility a sort of joyous fecundity like
that of nature in her most genial moods
In a nFoy1 1IfNif nnc rpd in 10
uouS struggle for empire whose dreams of
the past were turned in the clear, broad
light of nations mourning to a future of
unlimited grandeur and power. there was
none too sophisticated to appreciate, none
too lowly to enjoy those marvellous pic
lures of a time gone forever by pleasing
and stimulating starved fancy in the
tender light of memory and art, though
the times themselves were unlamented by
a people and an age whose faces were set
towards far different future. Through all
these important formative days of the Re-
public, Scott was the favorite author of
Americans, and while his writings may not
he said to have had any special weight in
our national and political development, yet
their influence was enormous upon the
taste and sentiment of a people peculiarly
sensitive to such influences from the very
circumstances of their environment. The
romances of courts and castles were spe-
cially appreciated in the woods and plains
of the frontier where a pure democracy
reigned. The poems and novels of Scott
saturated with the glamour of legend and
pie without perspective conscious that they
themselves were ancestors of redOubtable
lines whose battle was with the passing
hour. whose glories were all in the days
Since the time of Scott we have seen
many fashions in fiction come and CO.;
each generation naturally seeks a different
expression of its experience and its ideals
but the author of Naverly, amidst all
his pre-eminence in two hemispheres as the
master of imaginative narrative. Even
those of us who make no pretenSion to the
critical faculty may see the two-fold rea-
son of this enduring masterhood. Both
mentally and morally Scott one of the
greatest writer's who ever lived. His mere
memory, his power of acquiring and relat-
ing servicable facts was almost inconceiVa-
bic to ordinary men, and his instructive
digious. But it is probably the morality of
Scott that appeals more strongly to the
many than even his enormous mental pow
ers. His ideals are lofty and pure his he
roes are brave and strong, not exempt from
human infirmities. but always devoted to
ends more or less noble. His heroines. whom
he frankly asks you to admire. are beauti-
full and true. They walk in WOmanly dig
nifty through his pages, whether CARRIED as
peasants or Processes with honest brows
uplifted, with eyes gentle but fearless. pure
in heart but delicate in sphere, ValOr purity
and loyalty. these are the essential and un-
dying elements of the character with which
this great magician has soothed and lulled
the WEAKNESS of the world through three
tormented generations For this he has re-
ceved the uncritical. ungrudging love of
grateful millions. The robust, the athletic
spirit OF his tales of old. the royal quarrels
the instructive loves the stanch devotion
of the uncomplcated creatures of his in
exhaustible fancy. all these have their spe-
cial message for the minds of our day.
fatigued with problems. with doubts and
futile questionings. His work is a cleer,
high voice from a. simpler age than ours.
breathing a song of lofty and unclouded
purpose of sincere and powerful passion, to
which the world, however weary and pre-
occupied, must need still listen and attend"