The record-union., 1898-02-13

war for independence has been placed
by the Mary Washington Colonial
Chapter of the Daughters of the Ameri-
can Revolution in the interior of the
General Postoffice, New York. 1t was
unveiled with appropriate ceremonies
ON January 18th, the 12Sth anniversary
of the conflict between the Tories and
Sons of Liberty. ~
1t was in City Hall Park, then known
as "the Common" that the British SOL
diers attacked 5000 citizens, who had
gathered to denounce the soldiery for
denlolishing the pole which the Sons of
Liberty had raised near the site of the
present Postal Telegraph building, at
Murray street and Broadway. tM
The tablet bears in the lower right
hand corner the seal of the Daughters Of
the American Revolution. 1t has been
commented that it is one of the very few
tablets of the sort erected in this coun-
try in which the names of the officers
OF the organization responsible for its
erection do not figure very prominently
in the inscription. The tablet in the
Postoffice bears no individual names
whatever. In view of the many maxims
regarding woman's vanity and self-es-
TEEN, the omission Of all names on the
noteworthy.
The birthplace of Burns, that cottage
of clay which his father built with his
own hands, still may be seen at the
roadside as one travels from Ayr toward
the bridge that crosses the; Doon-a cot
tage almost as familiar in the world as
the famous Stratford cottage, bridge
&C., celebrated
for all time Not far from the cottage
rise the small roof1ess walls of 1.-The auld-
haunted kirk that is forever connected
with the story of Tam @ Shanter. With
in the same Enclosure of green sleep the
forefatners of the hamlet, and among
them the father of Burns. William
Burns cultivated nursery garden at
Alloway and was devout man of stern
probity and firm temper-a peasant
saint of the old Scottish stamp" Princi-
pal Sharp calls him. The poet held his
fathers memory in reverent honor as is
shown not only in the epitaph he wrote
for his grave, but in THE Cotter's Sat
urday Night" where he tells us how,
''Then, kneeling down, to heavens eter-
nal King
The saint, the father, and the husband
prays,
ant life for which Burns own home at
Alloway served as the model, and after
sketching which he declared with hon.
est pride,
From scenes like these Old Scotia's
grandeur springs.
Scholars, as far as Catullus is con-
cerned. have always been warned about
of ba fpy
the present readings have been derived
Last year Professor w. G. Hale, Director
of the American School of Classical Stu
dies in Rome, discovered in the Vatican
manuscript of Catullus of the first i'm
portance This manuscript it seems, was
known to students of the fifteenth CEN
tury but having been enormously num-
bered or entered, it has been lost for the
last 500 years. The new manuscript is
beautifully executed and finer than any
other The Vatican authorities, recog-
nizing the value of this Catullus, and at
the request of Professor w. CT. Hale, will
publish a complete fac simile of the new
manuscript The work has been taken
in hand by Professor Danesi, under Pro-
fessor Hale's supervision, the latter gu
aranteeing Signor Danesi that the Uni
ted States would take a certain limited
number of copies. The manuscript is to
be suitably bound with modern sides,
leather backs and clasps. in the four
teenth century style.
There is some hope now that the
statue Of Balzac, by Rodin, IS shortly
to be completed. Rodin, who is facile
princeps among French sculptors-in-
deed, there are enthusiastic admirers of
his who rank him higher than any
sculptor of the age-has been at work
on this monument for close upon ten
years. He has been accused of lazi-
ness, and ne has retorted that the
greatness of his subject fully justifias
the labor and time spent upon it. That
this red-bearded giant and mighty
genius Of the chisel is slothful it would
be unjust to declare. But he only
works when he is inspired, and nothing
leaves his studio that is not as perfect
as the master can make 1t. When COM
pleted, the statue will be erected in
front of the Theater Francais, a most
inappropriate place. for Balzac's per-
sistent failure as a dramatist was one
of the curious phases of his literary
career
There has lately been much talk in
Paris about the statue OF Victor Hugo,
which the sculptor Barrias is preparing
for the exposition. The figure has al
ready been modelled In clay, and most
of the critics who have had glance
at it are besides themselves with rage.
1t does not represent the Victor Hugo
that they knew, the familiar figure with
rounded shoulders, close white hair and
a grizzled beard and mustaches, with
squirting, cold gray eyes and cheeks
and forehead scanned with wrinkles-in
a word, picture of Hugo as ne looked
in the last twenty years of his life that
has found itself personified and ideal
lied in the bronze bust of the Theaer
Francaise Barrias' conception is OF
the younger Hugo. a Hugo with clear,
marble-like cheeks and forehead. with
piercing. large gray eyes. with clean
shaven chin, and with long dark locks
flowing to the shoulders-the Hugo in
all the fullness of his fame as the au-
thor OF Les Miserables" and Her
mani" Barrias sketch represents the
poet. pensive and severe. leaning
against q buttress, one hand support
ing the chin-the poet. not the politi-
clan in his dotage. And that is why
Parisians grown old in contemplating
the bearded face are enraged with M.
Barrias. But they do not stop to pom
der.
CORRESPONDENT New York Post: If St.
Gaudens monumental bronze erected
on Bacon Hill in Boston to the MEM
ory of Colonel Shaw is not the finest