Evening star., 1937-01-17
BY JESSIE FAINT EVANS.

TIFTY-FOUR years ago this
~ month. Clark Mills. sculptor Of
the bronze equestrian statue of
a Andrew jackson in Lafayette
Square. died in Washington, which.
like many another newcomer. ne had
adopted as his permanent home
This January. in accordance to his
personal suggestion, President Rooee-
velt will view his second inaugural
parade from q grandstand fronting
toward Lafayette Park, whose facade
is modelled after the Hermitage.
home Of Jackson. But Mills statue
Of jackson, virile New Dealer Of his
day, will be shielded from the gaze
Of Democracy's twentieth century
champion and that of his family.
personal and official. by the opposite
stand, which faces it.
There are those who believe that
an opening in this opposite grand
stand, which would have permitted
view OF the dauntleSs jackson wav-
ing his cooked hat from his forever
prancing charger, might be q pic
turesque note. Still others are even
more vehemently of the belief that
it might be we'll to obscure perma-
nently this, 'the worst of all the
bronze equestrian monstrosities in the
parks of our Nations Capital"
Despite the controversies which
have swirled about its worthwhileness
as work of art in recent generations,
and even the opprobium heaped on
it for its shortcomings, its pioneer
importance cannot be overlooked.
Not only is this statue of Andrew
Jackson believed to be one Of the
oldest equestrian statues in the United
States, but it is the first by a native
born sculptor erected to horor an
American hero.
Monument to Sculptor.
In a sense this statue of Andrew
Jackson Is almost as much Of mon
ument to its sculptor, Clark Mills. as
it is to the hero Of the Battle OF
New Orleans, whom it honors. Not
only was its creator entirely self
taught, but the industry of bronze
casting was then almost entirely un-
known in the United States.
Lacking though it may be in sculp-
tural dignity, the magnitude Of the
task which faced its sculptor in plac-
ing the hero astride a prancing horse
in perfect balance, was almost incon-
ceivable. had he not also had to cope
with the difficulties incident to evolv-
ing a method for firing the bronze and
fusing 1t over his plaster model. At
every stage of his undertaking. Mills
had to surmount his problems largely
through his own hardihood, initiative
and inventiveness.
These. Miss Cordelia Jackson Of
Georgetown, recounts authoritatively
as the result Of the friendship of her
family with that of the sculptor.
Born in Onondaga County, NJ Y,
In 1910, and bereft of his father at
the age of 5, Mills lived with an uncle
during his early years. Because Of
real or imagined i'll treatment he ran
away and to support himself was
forced to work incredibly hard during
his later childhood and young man.
hood. There was his service on a
farm at scanty wages, often unpaid
his literal snatching at such school
ing as was available during the Win
ter months. his apprenticeship haul
ing lumber to Syracuse.
Then there were efforts at cabinet
making, and eventually his employ
ment as an assistant to a wheelwright,
who used both plaster and cement in
setting up his mills. It was in this
occupation that Mills stumbled on
modelling. Thereby. in the course of
wage-earning peregrinations to New
Orleans and to Charleston, S. c.. he
embarked upon work in stucco, from
which he evolved the making Of heads
in clay by q new process of taking
casts from the living face.
Considerable work in portraiture
resulted from this venture and a
study of stone-cutting led to his max
ing a marble bust of John c. CAL