Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1901-07-25
SCANDIA
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Matters of Moment From the
Far-off NorthIand
OLE BULL HoNORED.

Bergen, like Minneapolis, has
erected a statue to Ole Bull. Ninety
one years ago he was born in that
City of Seven Mountains" He has
been dead twenty-one years, but his
spirit still lives. Norway pays a
generous tribute in memory of the
great national musician and Bergen is
devoted to her illustrious son.
Norway was his inspiration. He
loved its flords and mighty mountains;
its murmuring waterfalls, where sings
the "Nokken;" its mysterious pine
forests; its seagirt shores, where the
waves dash on the rifted rocks,
entered into his heart and became part
of himself. They sang, and murmured
and walled and rejoiced in his violin,
as his magic bow swept the strings.
The beauty of the heavens, the twitter
of the birds, the signing of the birch
trees, the pain and rapture of humble
homes vibrated from his bow. The
spirit of the Morse race became
articulant in him. He was the modern
sagaman. The secret of Ole Bulls
success and of the hold he still has on
the heart of the Morse people was that
he loved much. He loved his country
with passionate devotion that
neither time nor change can destroy.
He loved Norway unselfishly. He was
not afraid to slow his love nor to tell
it, and his intense love of his native
land led others to love it, too. In
Italy, along and poor, his magic violin
held the passers-by, and from his
humble abode he was brought into the
presence of kings. Italy, the most
critical of music-loving nations, hailed
him at once as genius.
In keeping with the idea that Ole
Bulls are was distinctively national,
Stephen Sinding, the sculptor, has rep
resented him about to begin playing,
but dependent for inspiration on
Nokken, the mythical water sprite Of
Norway, which haunts the streams and
whose harpstrings are played upon by
the waters of the cascade. The idea
suggested is worthy of a genius and
its realization possesses several points
of considerable merit 1t is a statue
of the violinist in his prime, showing
him as he returned from his first great
triumphs abroad. He stands on a
pedestal of natural rocks, from whose
crevices the water rushes out, sprink-
ling Nokken, who, harp in hand,
kneels at it's base The statue has
been erected in parklike square
facing the city park.
John Lund, chairman of the monu-
ment committee and former president
of the storthing, in his unwilling
Grafton took a retrospective view OF
the life of Ole Bull, emphasizing his
great patriotism. He said in con
clusion: ITO him the United States
was the ideal constitutional state.
1t became to him another home, while
America herself understood her new
son. Presented with the freedom OF
the city of New York, an address from
the senate at Washington, a gold
crown in San Francisco, the highest
honors of the Free Masons, this
warmth of greeting never failed him
through the half century to follow.
With loving gratitude, therefore,
with deepest pride in our great son,
we unveil his statue. May this noble
form inspire us ever to work, to
struggle for the ideal, to strengthen
orr faith and our love in our country.
May he to our latest descendants
stand as a witness, whose motto to his
last was, All for the fatherland.' Long
live the memory of Ole Bull"