Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-02-23
THE WOODEN WASHINGTON

THE old wooden statue of Washington
that formerly stood in Bowling Green
Park, New York City, is attracting much
attention in South Jersey. The present
owner, Joseph Lehman, has it at his home
in Vineland. The Vineland Historical and
Antiquarian Society, which recently erected
a fifteen thousand dollar building, wants
this famous relic; but has not yet come to
terms with the owner.
Up to recently the statue was in a Harlem
cigar-store window, knee-deep in pyramids
of gaudy cigar boxes, serving as sign and
attraction for the business. 1t was the first
statue ever made of George Washington,
and only few years ago crowned tri-
umphal arch in the metropolis.
The statue is nine feet five inches from
base to top, cut out of one block of oak,
with the exception of the arms, which, of
oak also, are fastened on with pegs. 1t rep
coat, with brass buttons; the right arm
hanging by the side, and the left resting on
the hip and holding the three-cornered
cooked hat SO familiar in pictures of the
greatest of revolutionists. The familiar tie
wig adorns the well poised head, and the cast
of the features remind one strongly OF
Stuart's famous painting.
There can be no doubt of the great age OF
the figure; though the blue of the coat, the
buff of the breeches, and the black of the
riding boots hold their color pretty well, in
spite of long exposure to wind and weather.
When the statue was in the cigar store a
placard was tackled across the breast, briefly
informing the loafing window gazer of the
once high estate from which the heroic fig
ure had fallen. On removing the sign, a
quadrangular seam was found IN the wood,
showing where a piece had been cut out and
put back. The present owner of the figure
has heard that someone who possessed it be-
fore him, seized with the notion that it
might be hollow and the depository of inn
portant documents cut into it, but found it
solid. That it is solid is very evident; for
it weighs eight hundred pounds; it sounds
no more hollow than an oak plank, and a
huge split running from the left thigh into
the trunk reveals truly solid anatomy.
Except for the right arm, which is unnat-
uralv stiff and straight and wooden, the
figure might have passed muster as a work
of art; but that defect sets it in the curio
class, but at the head of it because of asso-
citation and history.
On the Inauguration of Washington as
first President of the United States, enthrl-
siastic patriots proposed that his statue
should be carved IN "lmper1shable" oak, and
erected on the very pedestal on Bowling
Green whence the leaden effigy of King
George was hauled down, to be melted into
bullets, at the outbreak of the Revolution.
In 1892 the memorial of the inauguration
was finished and was erected. Such pains
taking historian as Frank Moss, Ii. d.,
author of "The American Metropolis, y
bears testimony to this, and also says that
it was not taken down until 1913. "The
New York Daily News" of February 6,
1904, printed an article on its fallen great
ness. And that the men who formed the
committee to erect the Washington Arch
had assured themselves of its authenticity
there can be no doubt, Judging from Chair
man William Rhinelander Stewards men
ton of it in "The New York Tribune of
May l, 1895, which that newspaper incor-
porated next day in the following article:
William Rhinelander Stewards account of
Il, t-CI.