Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-03-23

| tuaI or titular commanders of troops in
/ the field Indeed, in art, the Man on
Horseback seems to be regarded always
and everywhere as symboliZing either the
| royal ruler or the actual commander. Hap
| PLY with the exception of the one just
noted and no longer in existence, all the
! equestrian groups set up in this country In
| honor of its faVoriteS belong to the
| latter class; and. as will readily be In
! ferred, the subjects thus portrayed, as well
| in Washington as in other cities Of the
| country. have been furnished by the first
| four wars in which, a nation, We have
| been engaged-namely, the revolutionary
| war; that of 1872. as 1t Is Familiarity styled;
| the Mexican war, and the late civil war.
| Taking these epochs In their order, it will
! be seen that we have now in place in the
| national capital two heroes of the first
war-Washington and Greene; one OF the
| second-Jackson: one of the third-Scott,
and three of the fourth, in Thomas, Nc
| Pherson and Hancock.
X X
Naturally it would be expected that the
heroes of our earliest war should be the
first to be thus honored. But, as a matter
of fact, it was not so. The first equestrian
statue to be executed and set up in this
country (after the George III already men
toned was the bronze group Of General
Jackson, the hero of the war of 1912, which
stands in Lafayette Square, in this city.
1t was modelled and cast from cannon cap
tured in Jackson's campaigns by the late
Clark Mills and was inaugurated with i'm
posing ceremonies on the Sth day of jan
uary, 1&3-that date being the thirty
eighth anniversary of the old hero's vic
tory at New Orleans. The orator on the
occasion was the late Hon. Stephen A.
Douglas then a member of the United
States Senate, and the prayer was offered
by Rev. DR.. Butler of this city.
In this connection it may be mentioned
that the claim has more than once been
made that the equestrian statue of Wash
ington. by Henry X. Brown, which. stands
in Union Square, New York, was really
executed at an earlier period than the
Jackson, though formally inaugurated at
a later date. This claim is, however, not
well founded The facts in the case are
that the Jackson was completed and set
up, as already stated in January, 1853,
whereas work on the Washington was only
was. not finished and unveiled until the
4th of July, 1886. or more than three years
after the Inauguration of the Jackson.
1t is worth noting here, in passing, that
Mr.. Mills had shown so much promise as
Il sculptor in the city of Charleston, where
he then resided, that number of persons
in that place had contributed a purse to
enable him to go to Europe, to prosecute
his studies as an artist; and he was in
Washington. on his way abroad for this
purpose, when some friends here persuaded
him to forego his visit and undertake this
work. This he finally concluded to do.
him, in due course by the Jackson Demo-
cratic Association of this city, under whose
auspices the statue was erected, and the
agreement was fulfilled by Mr. Mills ac
cordingly. Subsequently, however, it was
shown that $4,000, the stipulated amount
to be paid him. did not cover the artists
OUTLAWS in money, much less compensate
him for the time and skill he had devoted
to the work, and Congress later on appro-
priated the sum of $50 600 additional. One
half of this latter amount was paid d.
rectly to Mr.. Mills, and the other moiety
was to be invested for the benefit of his
family; but whether that intention was
carried out or not appears to be a matter
of some doubt.
Few things are easier or more common
than fault-fnding; and it has been con-
sidered quite the thing to harshly .criticise
this work Indeed, it has been the habit
of some would-be wits to allude to it as
being pretty much everything that a work
OF art should not be. But Notwithstanding
all adverse opinions, the group IS yet not
without considerable merit. Unfortunately
1t lacks the size necessary to give 1t due
1mpreSSiveneSs; but not few admirers
and excellent judges of the horse have
maintained that the noble animal is ad-
mirably represented in this group. To use
the scuiptor's own language as once eX-
pressed in the hearing of the writer he
claimed to know as much about the anat
omy and muscular action of horse as any
man living. and he added that the steed
in this group was modelled, prancing atti-
tude and all, directly from nature, as he
had taught the horse to rear and remain
IN that position for some time. AS to the
rider, l believe 1t was conceded by those
who remembered the old hero that the like
ness of Jackson is both faithful and spirit
ed. But If it be admitted that the group
Is not all that might be desired, there are
yet some pregnant facts connected with it
that should not be lost sight of. 1t ought
to be remembered, to his great credit, that
Mr.. Mills was a wholly self-taught artist
having originally been a MA q NV
that UP to the time he executed this group
he had never seen an equestrian statue;
that both it's conception and the task of
modelling 1t were solely his own work; and
that, finally. the difficult task of casting it
in bronze was entirely performed by him
all the ingenious appliances necessary
therefor being of his own invention and
construction. 1t is doubtful if the history
of art In any country presents in all these
respects a parallel to this case. OF this
group. as most of those present are doubt
less aware. two replicas in bronze have
been made, one of them standing in New
Orleans, the scene OF Jackson's great mill
tary achievement, the other in Nashville
near where his ashes repose.
The further observation may be allowed
in this connection that Mr.. Mills claimed
as one of the merits of this statue that it's
natural equipoise was absolute-that is
that the center of gravity had been so at
tanned In the position of the horse and his
rider that the group would rest securely
on the hind feet of the rearing charger
without any support of fastening what
ever. This is the fact. 1t is, however, a
fact. also, that when the group was placed
| in position in Lafayette Square the hind
feet of the horse were bolted or otherwise
fastened to the base pedestal in order
to secure it against the possible effects of
high winds other disturbing or mis-
chievous causes. But that the group was
actually self-poised Mr.. Mills used to dem
onstrate very conclusively by the exhibit
ton OF an exact miniature reproduction
which was so evenly balanced that it
would stand firmly on a marble slab or
other smooth surface. and equally, so with
or without the rider in his place
Mr.. Mills claim as to the self-sustaining
equilibrium of the group must therefore be
regarded as we'll founded. Not So how
ever. his other claim. that this was the
rrst equestrian statue ever erected pos
sessing that peculiar property. mounted
eifigy of Philip " of Spain, marked by the
same characteristics, was erected in Mad
III; about the middle OF the seventeenth
century, and still stands In one of the fine
squares OF that city. History, by the way,
records the Interesting facts that the horse
OF that group was modelled by the Italian
sculptor, Tacca, from drawings made by
the great Spanish painter Velasquez and
that Calico utilized his scientific knowl-