The Washington times., 1904-09-14
PLAN TO RAISE
HAWTHORNE STATUE
BOWdOin Graduates In BOs-
ton Take Matter Up.
FIRST MEMORIAL OF ITS KIND
Place of This Writer in Literature and
the Esteem of His Coun-
trymen.

BOSTON, Mass, Sept. IA movement |
has been recently set on foot in this |
city for the erection. at Bowdoin Col |
lege, of a statue in memory of Ma |
thaniel Hawthorne. a statue. curiously |
enough. that will be the first memorial |
OF its kind yet raised in honor of one |
of the greatest names in American lit |
erature.
The movement is a direct outcome of
the deep and widespread interest mani !
tested in the recent celebrations at
Salem and Concord of the Hawthorne
centennial. 1t was first suggested, but
only as a more or less distant POSSIBLE |
ity, at an annual dinner held early last
winter by Bowdoin graduates in the vi
cinity of Boston.
Bowdoin is naturally proud of Haw-
thorne. And less than a month later
the Bowdoin Club. Of Boston, a smaller
Organization. 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 il
is merely a question of a few months
before a commission for the first Haw-
thorne statue will be in the hands of
some prominent American sculptor.
Movement Appropriate.
Aside from any question of college
patriotism, the choice Of Hawthorne's
college as the site Of this proposed
statute is considered peculiarly appro-
pirate. His four years at college were
undoubtedly in many respects the hap
piest Of his life. certainly less troubled
by care and Derplexity than his years
in Salem or even in Concord. Haw-
thorne himself has described the period
OF his school days in the preface Of Our
Old Home" dedicated in 1853 TO ex-
President Franklin Pierce, who had been
one Of his friends at college
If anybody is responsible for my be-
ing an author" he writes, lit is your
self 1 know not whence your faith
came. but while we were lads together
at a county college, gathering blueber-
ries in study hours under those tail,
academic pines. or watching the great
logs as they tunnbled along the current
of the Androscoggtn, or shooting pigeons
or graz squirrels in the woods, or bat
fOWlinE in the summer twilight, or
catching trout in that shadowy little
stream which, suppose, is still wan
dering riverward through the forest.
though you and 1 will never cast a line
IN Il again: two idle lads. in short (as
need not fear TO acknowledge now,
6c.nS a hundred things that the faculty
never heard OF. or else II would have
been the worse for us-sJill. IL was your
prognostic 81 your friends destiny that
he was 70 be writer Of fiction
His College Days.
Hawthorne graduated from Bowdoin
in 1898 at the age OF twenty-one. In
the same class We're 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 ablest advocates Of abolition and
temperance; United States Congressman
Cilley, whose life ended in one Of the
duels that darkened the history Of Con-
gress in the first half OF the nineteenth
century; and Horatio Bridge, paymas-
ter general Of the United States navy
during 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
writer the future author OF The Scar
let Letter was remarkable in college
rather for the position that be ODVi-
ously might have held in scholarship
than that which ne actually attained
Independent and Active
A friend and cIassmate has recorded
that his personal characteristics were
independence Of thought and action; alb
solute truthfulness; loyalty to his
friends: adherence Of debt; great physi-
cal as well as moral courage; and a
high and delicate sense Of honor. De-
clamation was the one thing Of which
he declared himself utterly incapable
mathematics he disIiked and refused e
have anything more 10 DO with thar
possible: the study Of languages, espe-
ciaIIy Latin. ne was extremely fond Of
As material for his statue the sculptor
Will have a host Of anecdotes that still
survive In the letters and "Reminiscences
of the future authors friends and com
rades: the letters that Hawthorne him
self wrote during his undergra duate ca
reer: and almost no pictorial representa-
tion OF him whatever during his resi-
dence at Bowdoin-nn terial, In fact
that very exactly defines the character
of the statue which II is proposed C
erect 20 his memory.
A Youthful Likeness.
The proposed statue is 70 represcn
the author not as an old man resting OF
his Iaurels. but as a young man jus
leaving college and with all the worl,
before him. Naturally this means az
ideal figure rather than q portrait statue
an idea that has Immediately arouse,
enthusiasm amongthe several prominen
American sculptors who have been in
+ervlewed by the committee havir
charge Of the work Very few sculptor
enjoy the prospect Of making statu
OF any man in the garments OF the nine
teenth century. But tho symbolic rep
resentatiOn Of an unborn literature. IN
youthful figure OF a man destined Z
move and delight hundreds Of thousand
OF his fellow men by the magic Of hl
pen and destined also, within a hundre
years 70 have been recognized the wOrl
over as genius, presents another prOl
lem.
Only Three Equals
OF the past generation Of America
writer's only three-HawthOrne EmeT
son. and Poe-have obtained complet
critical recognition on the other side {
the water and the fact probably enter
into the enthusiasm with which sue
men as French, Kitson, Pratt, an
Gudebrod. who has lately come forwar
with his statue Of La Sale at st. Louis
have received the suggestion of an ides
figure OF the great American writer Tn
20 h. ~ rfrff lha i