The Palatka news and advertiser. [volume] (Palatka, Fla.) 1908-19??, 1916-08-25
shoulder with his brother aristocrat

"i'ii "iihy leFolVel pointed anead, has
his eyebrows drawn sharply together.
as II measuring carefully the distance
to some human target. Once an az
list, he is now all soldier, all sweaty.
reeklng, powder stained warrior.
Next to him the brawny. we'll built
mechanic tightly grips his musket.
Under the hoofs of horse which
seems to be keenly seeming the battle
smoke is shattered cannon, broken
wheel, a discarded knapsack, an ex-
ploded shell, and the swab no longer
of use. All these things succeed in
wildly denoting a desperate struggle
for every foot of vantage.
The equestrian statue of Lee COM
pletes the monument, and is Won
derful piece of portraiture.
The horse, too is so like "Traveller,"
General Lees famous war horse, for
whom it was modelled, that when
Governor Stuart, of Virginia, far
famed lover of horses, viewed the fin
ished model at the Forest Hill Park
studio, he turned to friend with him
and said, "By Jove, Williams, Pm pos
tive | saw Travellers ear twitch!"
Traveller stands quietly, just in the
attitude of an intelligent, finely bred,
understanding horse of battle, used to
the noise of guns and the Shrek of
shell. There is nothing of the circus
horse charger effect about him. HI
might be answering his riders COM
mand, "Attention" The completed
statute is to be placed as nearly as
possible on the exact spot where
Marse Robert halted and watched the
desperate fighting across the smoke
wreathed fields. The ears of the ami
NAL are pointed toward the direction
whence come the booming and belch-
ing of the noisy guns of death.
! Mr.. Sievers' path to fame has not
been cluttered with the familiar rose
leaves. 1t is much more of fact
that the thorns were right in the way,
| all along. Conditions in the South
after the war are all too well known
and they had not materially nor per-
ceptibly betered when the boy Sievcrs
was growing up. He earned his first
dollar picking berries. A few months
later, landed in Atlanta, he supported
himself selling newspapers. Then he
worked for a time in wood car
ver's shop-at no salary. At the end
of the first year he was salaried
man at four dollars a week. Back
to Richmond he went, and there found
employment as a decorator at jour-
neyman's wages. Finally, he enter
ed the Mechanics Industrial School
of Richmond, where he began clay
modelling in the classroom. Two
wears later he had become an instruc-
tor at the institute.
After two years of grinding work
and rigid economy, Mr.. Sleeves had
saved enough for visit to Italy.
Once there, he succeeded in passing
the examinations, which secured him
entrance to the Royal Academy of
Fine Arts, at Rome, and where he
won first prize in his class. His in
structor was Ettore Ferrari, one OF
Italy's foremost sculptors. Follow,
ing his graduation from the Royal
Academy, the newly fcdged sculptor
found things going his way-or r1s.
err he had forced them by sheer aoli!-
tv and persistence to go in that d.
rection-and he has gradually worked
himself up to the conspicuous place
he now occupies. g..
The ateliers of Valentine and Sir
Moses Ezekiel lie at widely divergent
noints. For years, Sir Moses has
lived and worked in Rome, though
making frequent and protracted VISITS Isl
to his native land and state. The
studio of Edward Virginius Valentine
stands quantity secluded by masses
of rioting vines on Leigh Street IN
Richmond. From the workshops
walls cascades of English ivy and Vir-
oinia creeping screen and temper the
light within. Through grapevine,
hanging from tall oak trees, the sun
riffs through and shimmers on Weath-
erbeaten Italian statues that dot tne
Green enclosure in front of the studio;
II was here that Valentine created
his recumbent statue of Lee, the mar
bic which marks the grave OF that
hero. at Lexington. 1t is by the re
cnmbent Lee" that Valentine is best
known, although within the last rev Y
vears he has also made the statue OF
Cen. Lee that now stands by the SIDE
Of the only copy of Houdon's wash
motion" in the Hall of Fame, at the
canitol at Washington, where each
state is permitted to place two hg-
mos , Of her most honored sons. ,,
The model for this likeness OF the
hero, as of others he has done, was
In 1870. when thirty-two years DID,
Young Valentine, a practically UNI UNI
known and struggling sculptor h lS
The privilege of visiting Lee at the
GENERALS Lexington home. and OF
liking 4 bust from the living model
Nv Valentine confesses that he en-
tered upon the work with reverence
for his subject that amounted aImoS5
To awe. In discussing the Vlslt ana
work he says: .4 foroib1v
ob,,,t the great soldier was the COM
nI I absence of the melodramatlc IN
III he said and did. l suppose my
idoas of n great soldier embodied the
h boav, of Of Napoleon. Although l had
bocn told of General Lees noble SIM
U uTIit his gentle. kindly bearing
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