Show e to MAN 00 olt OK THE PILE OF STONES sa by robert barr there are more things in heaven and earth H horatio ratio than are am dreamt of in your philosophy said hamlet to lis bis friend the statue of my lord jard horatio nelson stands between heaven and earth and has stood there tor for thirty six sax years more or less unmolested what horatio dreamt of in his bla philosophy as he looked down on all those generations of people on the bus tops tar far below him will never be known but doubtless he was somewhat surprised the other day to see mr harrison climb ov erthe brass crown of the tall pile of stones with the end of a wreath of flowers in his hand we may imagine nelson in surprise saying hallo harrison uell up and harrison replying quite truthfully 1 I am my lord mr harrison is a celebrated steeple jack and I 1 stood watching him the other day work his way up the tall nelson pillar in trafalgar square with astonishing expertness and agility 0 limb and tho the way in which he attended to his hazardous business filled me with admiration I 1 dont know how far below heaven lord nelson is but he is feet above the earth and they gave mr harrison the contract for reaching him with the proviso that he was to drive no spikes in the monument itself the nelson monument in trafalgar square is built of solid stone and is therefore unlike most other shafts of the same size and height the tall column further down the street which commemorates the london fire is hollow and has a staircase stair case cue running up the center so has the column vendome in paris built as it is of cannon captured from various nations and bent into sheets like boiler plates but the nelson statue stands on an solid stone with the tour four huge lions by landseer guarding ing the pedestal and what was mr harrison doing up beside lord nelson asks the reader thereby hangs a tale and also a green wreath weighing bing nine mine tons mr harrison is usually engaged in the commercial business of putting caps on chimneys and things of that sort he corpes comes from the smoky town of sheffield and from a land studded with tall factory chimneys which besides furnishing bread and butter for numerous employed emp loyes also furnishes bread and butter for mr harrison how came he then to leave his commercial occupation and tackle a memorial that stands for war I 1 suppose that america had something to do with the elevation of mr harrison of sheffield just as it had with the elevation of mr harrison of indiana seven or eight years ago must countries have had something to do with mr harrlson harrison of sheffield and his giddy climb england has been getting it in the neck from all over the place for the past year the englishman Is a slow alow and stolid person not given to panics or sudden excitement he is difficult to arouse to anything like enthusiasm but he be is at last gradually waking up within recent years portugal france spain germany russia and the united states have all been saying unkind things about him even the decrepit dea 6 sensuous turk thinks it he a can take of this unanimity of 0 MR HARRISON IS A STEEPLE STEEPLE JACK dislike to have his little shy at john bull while john is afraid to make a move that might help the armenians Armen ians for tear fear he will set get the whole shop ablaze public opinion in england has bi been getting red hot for sod some time past but statesmen with responsibility on their shoulders who know more than n the ordinary mar map in the street of 0 the dangers they have to encounter have been moving slowly and with caution so the englishman unable to make his Is slow slaw going government move has betaken betoken himself to the amusement of decorating the monument of the late mr nelson there is no particular reason why this should be done this particular year more than any oth other er year it is not the centen centenary ry of the event even t the period when nations generally have a blowout blow out over times that ire are past it is in fact if I 1 remember tightly rightly the ninety first anniversary of the battle of trafalgar why then should this not have been done on the ninetieth mIn jUeth or the eighty eighth or the vl eightieth libeth year and why should the placid lacad statue of lord nelson be surprised this year with the mounting of mt mr harrison of sheffield england as a rule Is not given to celebrating victories unless its it is by a quiet dinner with something good to drink on the board mt bat she seems seema to have come to the conclusion that it not ie a bad thing this year Q rebutted remind veople people in general that this little attle one us eyed one armed man td j latec j a ago go the combined comben fleit of brahce ce and spain and an that he in sd a X r in aa several teri i USo leora he be was TO y 5 r ant t oa til tab do deck of tha we rde victory 7 it is 13 a gentle intimation by means ot of a nine ton toll wreath of green stuff that upon occasion england has been checked once too often and when that happened somebody invariably got hurl hart but as I 1 have said my admiration the other day was not tor for horatio nelson but tor the intrepid mr harrison and his nimble assistants he did the th trick with eighteen toot ladders he planted a ladder at the base of the monument and tied the top of it with ropes then another ladder was waa run mn up to the top of the first the lower part of the second ladder being roped to the top rounds of the first while its top was waa fastened firmly to the monument ahna mr harrison went up and up in an incredibly short space of time it was supposed there would be some di difficulty in getting over the coPi coping ngat at the top of the monument but this presented no difficulty to the active mr harrison who speedily found himself in a position to shake hands with lord nelson a hundred and seventy six aix feet from the ground trafalgar square where the monument stands was laid out somewhat less than sixty six years ago and so Is a comparatively modern feature of london sir robert peel called it the finest site in europe but in that I 1 think he was wrong I 1 should give that title to the place de concord in paris or the top of the hill in brussels where the huge block of modern modem public buildings stands in a position where it can be seen from almost any part of the city standing high above the town and commanding the wilderness of roofs that clusters at Us its feet england was somewhat slow in recognizing izing lord nelson he bequeathed to the nation his illegitimate daughter and the nation paid not the slightest attention to his bequest it was not till 1840 that this monument was erected at the cost of nearly a hundred and fifty thousand dol dollars lais even when the shaft was erected a long time elapsed before lan Land seers lions were placed at the foot the great animal painter took his time over the lions and in one respect they were similar to the base of the statue of liberty in ne new W york that Is they became a standard newspaper joke because of the delay in placing then them in position it was not until 1868 that they were set to guard lord horatio nelson and then the papers unkindly said that they were not like lions at all and that the old lion at the top tol of northumberland house refused to recognize them as being of the same species as himself it was even said that the lions at the zoo framed a protest to parliament against the hons which sir edward landseer had placed in the most prominent position in london succeeding generations however have reversed this newspaper verdict and artists of today to day claim the lions of landseer are the most noble effigies effi gies of that distinguished beast that mankind has yet executed the tall monument took three years in building and so far as I 1 know has never been decorated before the old ship victory on which nelson died still lies in portsmouth harbor barbor and the other day a wreath was placed on the spot where the admiral expired a few hours after victory was assured the victory Vic tozy on the day the monument was decorated was also covered with bunting and lying near was a french yacht which made a sympathetic display of color just juet as the old battleship and the new yacht liy lay in peace together let us hope the recriminations between nations will cease and that lambs lambi and lions all over this green earth will not disturb our meditations with their heretofore eternal row |