The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-07-11
THE BEST KNOWN ALABAMIAN.

THE BEST KNOWN ALBANIAN.
Some years since, more than ten
years ago. in fact. The Advertiser made
an effort to excite an interest through
out the State In selecting the names
Of two of its most distinguished citi-
gems, statues Of whom should be placed
In Statuary Hall at Washington. No
very wide response was anticipated, but
we were hardly prepared to have the
proposition fall as flatly as 1t did. Our
State contemporaries Of the press paid
no attention to IT and we received but
one communication on the subject.
This came from the late Hon. H. H.
Bsown Of Birmingham. He named
Yancey and Houston for the honor of a
place in the national capital. p
This Is written not with any idea of
renewing the discussion at this time,
but simply to ask who is the best
known living Albanian? Is It not
Helen Kellar?
1t will not be very long as we count
years, before the State will be called
on to celebrate the centennial Of her
admission to the Union. During the
eighty-five years that have elapsed
since 1919 we have had varied history
and many distinguished men have
lived and wrought here. In the
breadth and judicial poise Of outlook 1t
may be strongly doubted whether Dixon
H. Lewis has ever had his superior In
our State. Yet he is remembered bet
ter for his enormous size of body than
for his statesmanlike achievements.
His noble work in Congress is all but
forgotten while every school boy likes
to hear how beds crashed under him
when in the dead hours OF the night
he essayed to turn over and how house
wives heard with dismay he was to be
a guest.
Yancey Is fast becoming a vision of
the past, for he left no constructive
work and the spell of his oratory is a
mystery to those who never sat under
1t. Not one of the great speeches
with which he charmed and swayed
thousands have gone into the oratorical
manuals: no, not. an extract even. Alex
Whites effusive bit of rhetoric deliver
ed in the State capitol and so quickly
recanted will doubtless live with
Father Ryan's Conquered Banner" as
the most telling statement of Southern
feeling about the result of the Civil
War. Among the living. it would be
indecorous to linger, but 1t may be
L., hi ad-
ly the best known Senator of the
United States North or South. 1t is
doubtful IL there has ever been a sena-
tor more widely known. We are not
ranking him with Webster. Clay or
Calhoun in saying thin. We are
merely taking account of the more
commanding position now occupied
by the United States in the worlds af-
fairs and the far speedier and greatly
multiplied means of sending news
round about the globe.
F These same agencies, however, have
been at work to diffuse the fame of
the young Tuscumbia woman. I'm
Vulnerable articles have been written
about her in all modern languages and
her book changing its tongue with the
soil has circled the earth. There Is
hardly a doubt that her presence in
London, or Paris, Rome or Tokyo would
stir greater popular interest than the
presence there of any other Alabamian.
Taking the whole United States, there
are quite possibly only two men who
have excited more comment abroad,
Grover Cleveland and Theodore Roose
welt She. is a most extraordinary
young woman and an Alabama is
naturally proud of her.