The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1909-09-23

Continued from Page One)
mote resultant has just been unveiled

]
see is purely an ideal effort represent
/ ing the artists conception of the man
as described to him by me after gath
ering up the reCollections of those who
knew him You see a stalWart man,
| deep-chested. broad shouldered, with
massive head set firm upon his Shout
ders standing resolute and gazing into
the future. His fur coat indicates the
pioneer garb and the life of hardship to
which he was exposed. His left hand
rests upon a Wheel commemorative
the first wagon which Dr. Whitman
/ brought across the continent as far as
Boise and which prepared the way for
future wagons and that great wagon
! plains and through the mountains I'M
der DR. Whitman's guidance determined
the political destiny of Oregon. The
| buoyant hopefulness and Open-mind
edness towards the future which char
acterized him are expressed by the eX-
| tended and open right hand as well as
by the manly confidence and strength
| of his bearing. With the sober dignity
of full grown manhood he bears on his
sturdy shoulders the burden of great
responsibility, and looks with prophetic
daring the quiet confidence into the
unknown whittier Gods hand is beck
oning him. | think that the sculptor
| has shown fine insight into those quail
] tiles of character and mind which have
caused Dr. Whitman to be numbered
! with the immortals. A great man;
great in his essential manliness; great
| in the noble purpose of his consecrat-
! ed life: great in his ability to dare and
| finally. in that Americanism which
| caused him to conceive of Oregon as
as we'll as the cross of Jesus Christ.
There are those who dispute the claims
which have been made by DR. Whit
mans friends concerning his services
to the United States, but there are
none Except a scanty few Of pur-
blind vision who never knew him nor
were touched by the spirit of his life.)
to dispute the greatness Of his char
acter [ quote from an unpublished
letter by Jesse Applegate. captain of
the wagon train of 1S43, and written
to a friend, May 29th 1876: God
sends upon the earth not ten such men
as DR.. Whitman in a century-herOes
to lead in some great reform or mar
tyrs to suffer in a righteous cause.
Circumstances brought us but a short
time together, but in that time l learn
ed to love him with a love that passes
the limits of the grave. This corrupt
age will in Gods good time pass away,
to principle and duty will again take
the high places in the esteem of men
us send down to them the name of
marcus Whitman who placed duty be-
fore not only all the pleasures and
honors of earth. but life itself. which
he laid down at the post where duty
placed him.
l said that this quotation was from
an unpublished letter, but it IS being
published this week in Seattle in q
volume. the publication of which has
been made possible by the generosity
of citizens of Seattle and Tacoma. |
refer to the Life of Marcus Whit
man. by the late Myron Eels (which
has been printed in a Seattle office and
is being issued under the imprint of
a Seattle publishing house. 1t is with
the greater pleasure that | venture to
give this address in Seattle because l
know in advance that there are here
men and women who have shown their
interest in the story by contributing
let me say in passing that of all the
men or women who have written on
the Whitman history no one in my
judgment was so fitted as Myron Eells
to to write with first hand knowledge
and carefully balanced judgment. Pa
tient, scholarly. honest to the core, he
devoted himself for 80 years to in
veStigating the sources of the history
of the northwest. and l believe that in
this book he has laid permanently the
foundations of the Whitman story
which in the future neither the jeal-
ousy of partizanship nor the acid of
historical criticism will be able to de-
stroy. I praise the large mindedness
of those men and women of Seattle
who have enabled the book to reach |
the light