Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-04-27

ACCORDING to Dudley Crafts Watson
III OF the Art Institute of Chicago. the
II Maury Monument, recently unveiled
in Richmond, amply repaid him for
making the trip to that city. He
calls it q marvellous example Of modern sculp-
ture, listing it with the famous statue OF Co
lumbus here in Washington, and he suggests
that the old capital city Of Virginia needs
press agent, for no other city in the South and
few in the North has such glorious examples OF
academic art"
So the visitors to Virginia this year will find
a new and beautiful addition to the number
Of monuments that, beginning with HoudonS
Washington probably the greatest example Of
carly American sculpture, now end far up
.onument avenue with the monument to
Maury Pathfinder of the Seas.
A SHORT account of his life, brimful it
is with interest for all ages, win reveal the
,culptor's reasons for representing him as he
mas done, and add greatly to the pleasure OF all
who will eventually see the monument, or who
are particularly interested in the fine arts.
Matthew Fontaine Maury was born on Janu-
airy IA, 1906, in Spotsylvania County, near Fred
ricksburg, Va. but when he was years old
his father took his family to Tennessee, where
at Nashville, he spent his youthful days on
iarm far inland from the seven seas he was to
chart. His interest in mathematics was first
aroused. curiouSly enough, by watching the viii
lage cobbler mark Ks and Us on the soles OF
The shoes brought to him to be mended. The
boy must have been an apt pupil at school, for
by the time he had reached his nineteenth year
he had been school teacher himself at Harpeth
Academy, in Tennessee, and with the proceeds
of his efforts, $50, in his pocket, was starting
On his naval career. Samuel Houston, men,
Der of Congress from Tennessee, had secured
the young man midshipman'S warrant, and
ne was on his way not to Annapolis, for there
yunC No vol in H0N hIIf n
start training on student man-of-war. Later,
Maury was the first man to advocate the estab-
:ishment of the present academy, but his studies
were pursued on shipboard, and, to quote from
out-of-print pamphlet which gives an &C
count of his life, The round shot in the am
muniton racks served as his blackboard as ne
studied spherical trigonometry while he paced
the quarterback of his watch" Sent on
voyage to the Pacific, via Rio de Janeiro. the
young lieutenant desired information on the
subject Of the winds and currents, and, when
he could find none available, he conceived the
:dea of his now celebrated Winds and Currents
Chart. In 1884 he issued, in Philadelphia, the
f. t yW-ittcal work of science prepared by
a naval officer.
Five years later, while travelling through West
Virginia, Maury was in stagecoach accident,
which left MIN with a crippled leg, unfit for
active duty any more. Driving today over the
beautiful Midland Trail, high in the mountains,
about IS miles east of Charleston, the old stone
inn which sheltered the victim of this accident
still stands, picturesque landmark in the curve
OF the winding road.
Poor and despairing Maury, to use the popu-
lar Salvation Army phrase, may have been
down, out he not out by a long shot In
deed, If anything, his misfortune proved
blessing IN disguise. For, up to this time, he
had read but little, but now he turned MS
whole attention to study. AS Spain was at that
time the authority on nautical subjects, he
learned by himself enough Spanish to read
works on navigation in that language. And
when his fellow officers read his Scraps From
the Lucky Bag" which soon resulted from his
studies. they were enthusiastic that they
secured him an appointment in the Depot of
Charts and Instruments at Washington.
Maury's delving into the discarded log books
of the vessels Of the United States, that had
been thrown aside as rubbish. enabled him TO