Evening star., 1927-05-07

The Hall Of Fame, built by MISS
Helen Gould, in 1900, as part OF the
New York University, comes into tine
spotlight of public attention now by
the unwilling therein of six busts OF
illustrious Americans previously eject
ed to the high honor of a niche In
it's holy atmosphere. The ones thus
distinguished are: John James Audu-
bon. naturalist; William Ellery Chan
ming, preacher and theologian; Ad-
miral David Glasgow Farragut, Civh
War naval commander; Benjamin
Franklin, scientist and statesman;
Washington Irving, man of letters ana
historian; Mary Lyon, founder or
Mount Holyoke College.
All these were elected in the first
group-in 1900-except Mary Lyon
0aO5), but "art is long and time is
fleeting," so it took time quarter
of a century to produce the statuary.
Besides the above sculptored ones,
the following were also elected In
1900: Emerson, Longfellow, Haw-
thorne. Edwards, Mann, Morse, Whit
ney, Fulton. Beecher, Asa Gray,
Grant, Lee, Kent, Story, Washington,
Lincoln, Clay, John Adams. Jefferson,
Peabody. Peter Cooper. Stuart, Mar
shall and Webster-29 total.
In 19O5-John Quincy Adams, Low
ell, William T. Sherman, James Madi'
son, Whittier, Mary Lyon, Emma
Willard, Maria Mitchell.
In 1910--Holmes, Poe, ]. Fennimore
Cooper, Brooks. Bryant. Jackson. Ban
croft, Motley. Harriet Beecher Stowe,
Frances E. Willard.
In 1915-Francis Parkman, Mark
Hopkins, Elias Howe, Joseph Henry.
Charlotte Cushman. Rufus Choate and
Daniel Boone. Up to this date foreign
born Americans were not eligible, but
then the rules were changed, and
Alexander Hamilton and Louis Agas'
siz were elected.
In 1920-''Mark Twain" James Z.
Eads, Patrick Henry, William G. Nor
ton, Augustus Sainte. .Gaudens, Roger
Williams and Alice Freeman Palmer.
In 1925-Edwin Booth and John
Paul Jones.
1t was provided originally that the
total capacity would be $50. of which
so inches might be filled in 1900. and
then added every five years, but
in 1900 only 80 were chosen as worthy,
and since" then the elected have
brought the total up to 62. So the
quotas are not completely filled, and
which could then be occupied.
Since the press is encouraging edu-
cation games, such as word-puZzles and
''Now.I' 'll-tell-one" quizzes, here is
new one: How many of the names
in the 62 enrolled in the Hall of Fame
can be connected up with the work
which brought them the honor? Who
was Kent? What did w. G.. Bryant
accomplish? Was Choate poet or
an inventor? What did Whitney do?
What distinguished Eads and why are
people just now talking about him?
Who among them was both painter and
also an inventor? What specially ia
nous Americans are not on the list?
For example, the author of 1.-THE Star
Spangled Banner" cLet me write q
nations songs: / care not who makes
it's laws.")
AT first the rules made ineligible all
who had not been dead 10 years, now
the minimum is 25 years. 1t was an
advanced step when an extension was
added for distinguished foreign-born
Americans, such as the first Secretary |
of the Treasury (who was that?). and |
another class was opened for women,
like Harriet Beecher Stowe Now all
such distinctions are obliterated. and
whether born abroad or born a WON. |
AIi, eiI6 III lll6 SdIII6 class. III now |
requires a vote of three-fifths of the
total electors to win the prize of cleo
tion--60 out of 100 votes.
** X
Why should the Republic of the
United States of America have a Hall !
of Fame? Is it a mark of hero. !
worship or even of aristocratic snob- |
berry? 1t is not so considered, even in |
a nation where all men are created |
equal" for even Fame's defiance of |
democracy and socialistic equality" |
does not assume that all men remain |
as they were made. In England the !
men who ever become distinguished in |
literature or the arts or in military
rank come from the nobility or the /
so-called leisure class" Not so in the |
land of the rail-splitter President, the /
canal towpath President, the tanners
son who resigned from the Army in
disgust when he was a captain, at the
age of 81, after serving as a lieutenant
the Mexican War. Grant was
only clerk in a store at $50 a week
when the Civil War gave him his op-
portunity. Within five years he was
world famous as q victorious general
and was unanimously nominated for
President and elected to two terms.
a country lawyer, had served
one term in Congress and was then
defeated. If he had died in 1850, he
would have died failure; three or
'our years later. as President, he de.
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