The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-08-14


kind yet raised in honor Of one OF the
greatest American names In American
literature. The movement Is direct
outcome OF the deep and widespread
interest manifested in the recent cele-
bration at Salem and Concord OF the
Hawthorne Centennial 1t was first
suggested, but only as more or less
distant possibility. at an annual dinner
held early last winter by Bowdoin
graduates In the, vicinity Of Boston.
Bovdoin II naturally proud of Haw-
thorne. And less than month later
the Bowdoin Club Of Boston. a smaller
organisation, determined to make the
erection Of the statue a matter OF the
immediate future. Contributions are
now being solicited and the first steps
in raising the necessary sum Of money
have been so successfully taken that
there seems every reason to believe 1t
is merely q question Of a few months
before a commission for the first Haw-
thereon statue will be In the hands OF
some prominent American sculptor.
Aside from any question OF college
patriotism. the choice Of Hawthorne's
college a. the site Of this proposed
statue Is considered peculiarly appro-
pirate. His four years at college were
undoubtedly in many respects the
happiest Of his life. certainly less troub-
led by care and perplexity than his
years In Salem or even In Concord.
Hawthorne himself has described the
period OF his school days in the preface
Of Our Old Home" dedicated In lS6a
to ex-President Franklin Pierce. who
had been one Of his friends at college.
''If anybody is responsible for my being
an author" he writes, 1T is yourself. ]
know not whence your faith came. but
while we were lads together at a coun-
try college, gathering blueberries In
study hours under those tall, academic
pines. or watching the great logs as
they tumbled along the current of the
Androscroggin. or shooting pigeons or
gray squirrels In the woods, or bat
fowling in the summer twilight, or
catching trout in that shadowy little
stream. which I suppose, is still wan
dering riverward~ through the forest.
though you and will never cast a line
In II again: two idle lads, in short Gas
we need not fear to acknowledge now).
doing q hundred things that the fac
ulty never beard of, or else 1t would
have been the worse for us-still, 1t
was your prognostio Of your friends
destiny that he was to be a writer OF
fiction"
Hawthorne graduated from Bowdoin
in 1925 at the age Of 81. In the same
class were several other young men
who later attained national, and in one
case, International prominence. the
most important of course being Henry
wadsworth Longfellow. Among the
others were the Rev. DR.. George B.
Cheever, one OF the earliest and abiest
advocates Of abolition and temperance;
United States Congressman Cilley.
whose life ended In one OF the duels
ho -
In the first half Of the nineteenth GEN.
fury: and Horatio Bridge. Paymaster-
General Of the United States Navy dur
ing the war for the Union. In the
class above him was Franklin Pierce.
later President Of the United States.
Like many another young man who
has afterward distinguished himself
as a writer, the future author OF The
Scarlet Letter" was remarkable in col
lege rather for the position that he
obviously might have held in scholar.
ship than that which he actually at
tained A friend and classmate has re-
corded that his personal characteristics
were independence of thought and ac-
ton: absolute truthfulness: loyalty to
his friends; adherence of debt; great
physical as well as moral courage, and
q high and delicate sense OF honor.
Defamation was the one thing of
which he declared himself utterly in
capable; mathematics he disliked and
refused to have anything more to do
with than possible: the study of Ian
guages, especially Latin. he was ex-
tremely fond of. As material for his
statue the sculptor will have a host of
anecdotes that still survive in the let
ters and "reminiscences of the future
authors friends and comrades: the let
tiers that Hawthorne himself wrote dur
ing his undergraduate career: and all
most no pictorial representation OF him
whatever during his residence at Bow
doin-material. in fact, that very exact
ly defines the character of the statue
which 1t Is proposed to erect to his
memory.
The proposed statue Is to represent
the author not as an old man resting
on his laurels, but as a young man Just
before him. Naturally this means an
ideal figure rather than a portrait
statue. an idea that has Immediately
aroused enthusiasm among the several
prominent American sculptors who
have been interviewed by the commit
tee having charge of the work. Very
few sculptors enjoy the prospect Of
making a statue Of any man in the gar
ments of the nineteenth century. But
the symbolic representation OF an un-
born literature, the youthful figure of
man destined to move and delight
hundreds OF thousands of his fellow men
by the magic Of his pen and destined
also. within a hundred years. to have
been recognized the world over as a
genius. presents another problem. OF
the past generation of American writ
ers only three-Hawthorne, Emerson
and Poe-have obtained complete crit
zeal recognition on the other side of the
water and the fact probably enters into
the enthusiasm with which such men
as French. Kitson. Pratt and Gudebrod.
who, has lately come forward with his
statue Of La Sale at st. Louis, have re-
ceived the suggestion of an ideal figure
of the great American writer The
award of the statue will probably be
based upon a competition and in one
case at least. the artists conception ia
already taking shape in a preliminary
study.
The actual cost of the statue. exclu-
sive of the pedestal. has been estimated
at 5000, of which sum several thou
sand have been Immediately subscribed
partly from graduates of Hawthorne's
college and partly from lovers of his
work to whom Bowdoin is simply a
name among other American institu-
tons. The site chosen for the statue ia
Just In front of the college library,
which will thus give the figure an ar
setting. That the statue
will be very shortly under way is al
most a certainty, although II will not
be attempted until the entire amount
Is subscribed and the production of a
thoroughly worthy memorial definite