Year: 1873

Peter Funk at Pittsburg-Thc Thomas


Statue Fiasco.


If half the accounts which come to us from
Pittsburg are correct, piece of artistic hum
bug was recently perpetrated there which will
find few parallels in the history Of art in the
United States. Last January committee ap-
pointed by the Society of the Army of the
Cumberland issued circulars, addressed to all
the principal sculptors in the country, and
inviting them to forward to Pittsburg, by Sep
tember 18, models of the late General Thomas
representing him on horseback. These models
were to undergo q competitive examination,
the idea being to have cast a bronze equestrian
statue Of the General for erection in one of
the public squares Of Washington city. To
this invitation o number of sculptors and of
persons who are not sculptors responded.
Among the aspirants were Macdonald Turini,
Bailey, Hess, Warner, Miss Ream and
General Price. There are varying ru-
mors with respect to the expedients,
outside of art considerations, employed by
more than one Of the competitors 10 insure
success. With these, at present. we have
little to do. All who know anything about
sculpture and who have a reasonable de-
fciency Of prejudice are pretty fairly informed
OF the standing of each of the aspirants, and
do not need to be RECALLED with the history of mu-
tual envies and comparative qualifications.
We have reason to believe in the integrity and
ability of most of the sculptors. All that we
are concerned with is whether the competitors
were fairly treated by the committee, and, if
not whether the committee was capable Of
treating fairly any competition of this kind.
All the accounts that we have seen coincide
in the statement that the competitors above
mentioned had their work ready and on hand
in Pittsburg on the 18th. AS to whom pipe
have neither the inclination nor the right,
Just at present to make affidavit It is certain
that nearly all the competitors had expended
much time, good deal of money and some
talent What did the examining committee
do? It did one thing, and it did it
to such perfection that we can never hope to
see it excelled. 1t split and came to no decision
whatever. It failed even to give the candi-
dates official notice of its action until after the
matter had become notorious through the Pitts
burg newspapers it failed to observe even the
poor formality of thanking them for going
thither it failed to act either as gentlemen,
as business men or as connoisseurs in art !;
and in its total want of common sense, kindly
feeling, delicacy, tact and knowledge of the
principles of art it gave to the world as dis
gusting specimen of Peter Funkism as, per-
haps, that world has ever seen.


We understand that ''moder' was offered
by General Price, of Lexington, KY, and that
the ssmoder' consisted of charcoal sketch of
General Thomas on horseback at the summit
of rock at Chattanooga Perhaps some
grains of salt are to be allowed for the heat of
excited controversialists; but if Gen.
eral Price seriously offered model
he appears in the interesting light of being at
once candidate and judge. AS chairman
of the committee which was to decide, he
could scarcely have been expected to neglect
the interests of his own artistic offspring, and
we know not at which to stand most amazed,
his enterprise in entering the lists of competi-
ton or the moral grandeur of his coadjutors
who could so unceremoniously ignore such pre-
tensions. At any rate, if report speaks truth,
| General Prices 'model" must have been in
strange contrast to the models of the other
competitors. whose principal inferiority to
him seems to have been that they had at least
endeavored to comply with the conditions i'm
posed by the committee of which he was chair
man. It is almost incredible that he should
have exerted himself strenuously to gain the
award so long as chance remained, and have
then exerted himself with equal pertinacity
to withdraw directly the committee began to
evince its incapability of arriving at an inteli-
gent decision. But, whatever perplexing sha-
dows prejudice and rivalry may shed over its
interpretations Of the affair, there can be little
doubt that the committee appointed by the
Society of the Army of the Cumberland, if it
has failed to erect monument to General
Thomas, has erected one to its own faulty and
ignorance, and that even where compassion will
be felt for it that compassion will be literally
diluted with greatly deserved contempt.


The CONTINUED RAvAGEs OF THE YELLOW
FEVER at Shreveport are appalling to conten-
plate. In proportion to its population its suf-