The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-07-10

ben fIdHhlll, one or the MOST
prominent Dead Ones of history, when
/ asked him for his personal views on the
bill recently before Congress to erect
statue in Washington to Samuel j. Til
| den
Sir I explained, its like this. Meth
Or you nor Tilden ever held the office of
either president or vice president, and
neither of you ever served on the SUI
preme court bench or commanded the
army or the navy. And, as you have
statues scattered all over and he has
none-that is to say, none erected by the
nation-I thought perhaps
-. 'Oh, I see,' said the Author of Poor
Richards Almanac and How to Put Up
Lightning in Bottles For Family Use. II
gee. Well, trust you'll not ascribe it to
professional jealousy, but. frankly, can't
say I'm very enthusiastically in favor of
the project
Why, I supposed you would naturally
have very high admiration for Samuel
j. Tiden,' said 1 in some surprise.
II have" said DR.. Franklin. He's the
only democrat that I can recall who got
beaten for office after the election, most
Of the others being beaten before it.
regard the late Samuel j. Tilden as very
great man indeed. That's the reason why
rather dislike the idea of seeing
statue erected in his memory
I'm afraid I don't grasp that line of
OF reasoning" said puzzled.
Don't your" said DIR. Franklin. Then
you were never a close student, I take
it, of the kind of statues that are erect
- to our illustrious dead in this coun-
try.
If I had lived a century or so later
than | did. and were now a famous man
stretched upon my death bed, and the
doctors had done all they could and col
y iected all they could, and moved on to
look for new fields to conquer. so to
speak, and if the minister had paid his
farewell visit and bored me for the last
time, and If the undertaker's assistant
was sitting on the front stoop of the
house across the street whistling cheer
tn tune and twiddling his thumbs, I
think I could summon up the last of my
fleeing strength and call my family
about me- And when they were all as
sembled, I'd say something like this to
them
Break the will, if you'd rather give
the money to the lawyers than keep it
because first and last I've had quite some
past. Publish all my private corre-
spondence if you want the world to know
how foolish an otherwise rational being
can be when he thinks nobody is looking.
sand takes his pen in his hand. But If all
or any of you ever dares to consent
| that grateful people shall erect a statue
in my memory, I'll come hurting out of
the silent tomb and haunt the whole
ba home
That went on DR.. Franklin, sis what
I would say, only I'll put it even stronger.
Not foreseeing that the national artistic
instinct would develop along certain lines.
failed to take such precautions with my
family before I passed away. There was
another reason--I didn't have any family.
] gave such a lot of advice to young men
in my time in regard to the proper
lection of a wife that I didn't find time
to take one myself. And maybe 1t was
Just as we'll But I certainly have suf-
fered great deal in the matter of the
statuary that has been put up from time
fgto time and dedicated to me in the de-
1uded belief either that / looked some
thing like it or 1t looked something like
me. or both. Except Horace Greeley and
abraham Lincoln. I don't know of any
Americans born whove had to put up
with as much libeling along this line as
have. If they do me in bronze 7 nearly
always look as if I'd been turned out by
the genius who designs castings for legs
of kitchen stoves, and when I am wrought
into enduring stone l find on examining
the completed product that 1 appear to
have been blasted out of the quarry in
one chunk and then trimmed off by one of
those experts who point up sidewalk curb
ings. But I guess l shouldn't complain
so far as I've taken notice. nearly all of
the public of my day seem to be in the
9same fix.
when a favorite son becomes deceased
and the nation or the state decides that
1t should perpetuate for posterity those
characteristics of his which he wouldn't
have had at all If the beauty doctor and
the derma tologist had done their full
duty by him. / have an idea of my own
that the job is turned over to COM
mission headed by boss plumber and
composed of a journeyman steam-fitter,
a painless dentist and paving contrac-
tor. Then, as 1 imagine 1t, the commits
sion starts out to find the right sculptor,
always favoring local talent over the for
eign pauper labor sculptors of Europe.
b So they find the genius busy with mallet
and maui and chisel in the studio where
he pursues his calling a blacksmith
or a paper-hanger by day. And they put
him through regular cross-examination
to make sure he's had all the qualif1ca-
TONS
." Did you ever have any truck with
them parties known as the old Masters.
'such as Mike Angelo and others?' asks
the chairman of the commission Never
says the artist. Believing as I do In
patronizing home Industries wherever pos
sible, I can truthfully say that 1 never
A had any dealings with the persons you
Z name quite right says the chairman,
They was mostly Ginneys anyway, from
what I've been able to hear about them.
Y And now tell me this, me man. he says,
VI very severely, How do you, stand on the
open shop question and the eight-hour
law? And If the genius belongs to the
6culptors' union and has a paid up card
in his pocket to prove 1t, they say to
him, All right, then, go ahead and make
I'D a statue of this here party of some
durable material to cost about $1,000 and
tweigh about 5000 pounds. Here's a picture
of him that was printed In the Iowa Jour
nal "a years ago, when he was still wear
ing whiskers, and you can get his other
plans and specifications from the under
takers over on South Main street We'd
like to have him dressed in neat sack
business suit with f1at-top derby hat,
holding roled-up speech In one hand
and an umbrella in the other. Put a
bone handle the umbrella. And now
rush this along and give a good job.
And let us know when you get done and
we'll send truck and a crew of Hanhi-
n gans safe movers up to get him.
n "At least" went on Dr. Franklin, that
c,,f. tha tf11