| Show Literary Statues and Memorials Me mon als j 3 x t jil Y frt I I C By ELMO SCOTT WATSON T A AlL IL started when Lewis Gannett literary critic of f the New York Herald Tribune In reviewing a ii recent re rt cent book The he Private Life of ot Sherlock Holmes said uld When London gets around to honoring Sherlock Hannibal Mo the home hometown hometown hometown town of ot Yuck Huck Finn and his statue will lose Its proud claim to being the home bome of ot the only statue ever er erected to a character of ot fiction In th the e world Whereupon Carolyn Marx 1 literary critic of ot the New York World World Telegram Telegram reprinted Mr Gan Gan- nett's statement and added How flow about Frampton's Framp Framp- tons ton's Peter Tan ran statue In Kensington Gardens And the statue of Lewis Carrolls Carroll's White Rabbit unveiled only last month In Wales Vales I But that was only a starter for ks ka Mr Gannett Gan nett confessed In his column a day or two later Let Hannibal Mo 1110 boast a flood of correspondents corre corre- deny Its claim to the only statue of a fictional character Most l of them recall only Peter Pan ran In London's Kensington Gardens Gardena B. B 1 L K of the department of romance languages lages t at t Columbia says BaYS there Is a statue of DArtagnan In tn Auch Anch France Carolyn Marx In the World World- Telegram mentions the Wonderland White Rabbit Rab flab RabbIt bit recently unveiled In Wales and Christopher thinks thInk he recalls a It Little I. Nell In PhiladelphIa Philadelphia Phila Phila- delphia and Sir Walter Scotts Scott's Rob Roy some some- where There else But Dut Chris they dont don't count If they thel an are re In private homes homps they must be public monuments ments mente to match Hannibal's Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer lawyer Are there more There were more Indeed I Several days das later the Herald Tribune reviewer printed this tide Late lite additions to the lists of literary statues Hans Huns Christian Andersons Anderson's Little I. Mermaid sear rest the Royal Yacht club In Copenhagen Paul and Virginia In the Jardin des Plant Plantes s Paris Longfellow's Evangeline In la Grand Pre Nova Scotia otta Mistrals Mistral's In Les Lea Salutes Saintes Maries Manes In Provence fun PUIS In Boots In the Tuileries Paris The RoarIng Camp group on the Bret Harte statue In San Francisco Velleda elleda voluptuous Breton from Chateaubriand's Cha Chao Lea lAs Martyrs near Boulevard MIchel hint Gate Oate of the Luxembourg Gardens Paris Which with Peter reter Pan and mma In London The White Rabbit In Wales Little Nell Neil and Tam Tom o o. o In Philadelphia In Cooperstown The Circuit Rider In Salem Ore The Barefoot Boy in Ashburnham mete make more than a dozen rivals to laI la A flack nuck and Tom the only monument in the w world to a fictional character And even that list might be extended Over In Madrid Spain four years ago there was unveiled b the Plaza de Espana near the royal palace a ause use huge memorial consisting of two monuments One Oue of cf these monuments standing CO GO feet high a u a size life bronze group of Don Quixote on I horse borse and his man Sancho Panza on a donkey Crowning CrowDIng the main column was the figure of ot Cere ites the man who gave to literature the famous lamoni fighter of windmills and at the base of the monument was an allegorical representation the Fount of ot the Tongue Although the or of w memorial was primarily to honor the genius to Cervantes at the same Mme time It Jt preserves bly those two famous fictitious character charac- charac ter Don Bon Quixote and Sancho Panza But to return to America a America a little Investigation will wg reveal the e fact that the list of statues and to memorials to fictitious characters Is not limited the tie Be compilation of the New York columnist cL Chester e It remembered that the genius ef of Daniel a Lot t French the dean of American sculptors only HIM produced l. l among others othera of his great ke ICes ot of Work a s bust of Washington Irving but also ao made a fall foU figure statue of the famous which Irving created created Rip Rip Van 1 it tad Jd Phillippe statue of Evangeline Grind Grand W Pre re is I. not the only one which recalls recall RI JV Immortal heroine lIebert statue erected JJ more than a decade ago but 00 It u was wasT 7 T relied u lL i I three years ago K th that t there was wa unu un un- e It et St SL U Martinville e. e La another statue of D Maid aid of f Orand Grand Pre Pre- This was done in the e ot of several everal thousand lad of f Louisiana 11 toot two hundred from Moncton real to teth the e P and atul Grand Orand pre Ire who made de a pilgrimage with Bayou ayou state for tor the ceremonies connected t the t tear er th the e dedication of ot the statue which stands the cr OHM grave of Enn Emmeline ne who was of ot Evangeline pa Derk Go Co out ot Th to Denver PenTer Coto Colo and aud nd visit Washington there her There bere In the center ot of a P pool Is lea a fountain Fieldg 7 you n U CliO can sp see In stone Eugene I w In park lark BI nJ l n and Nod Or go to th lilt y ere r. r re ln in Chicago and look upon them as asA A As l tor r tile the portrayed Strayed on the Field memorial there T Tom monument nt to Huckleberry Finn and Nom rbt to aWer tr which gives elvea Hannibal Mo lito the ede c make ake P C C. C It proud claim It U was waa made b b bl Hibbard a Chicago sculptor and IT s a a t A t g gw w 1 t f 4 t 5 1 t. Th The Lewis Carroll memorial at Llandudno Wales Wale which features the White Whit Rabbit of Alice Allee In Wonderland Beside It stand stands David Lloyd George former British premier who unveiled unveiled un veiled the statue 2 Statue of Evangeline which stands stand In St St. Martinville La over th the grave of Emmeline Labiche the original of Longfellow's Longfellow heroine S. S The Captains Captain's Well In Amesbury Mass Ma made famous by the ballad by John Greenleaf Whittier 4 Memorial to Eve erected In Fountain Inn 8 S. C. C by Robert Quillen noted newspaper para para- grapher and editor who stands beside It 5 Statue of Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer Saw Saw- yer which stands stand In Hannibal Mo Mark Twains Twain boyhood home town a- a t I presented to the city of Hannibal by bl Mr and Mrs George A A. A Mahan It stands at the foot of Cardiff hill where foregathered Tom and Muck and Toms Tom's Immortal gang Closely akin to the practice of Immortalizing In stone characters In to fiction has been mans man's practice of ot doing the same for mythical and legendary figures Some of the greatest sculptors sculptors sculptors tors of ancient Greece and Rome found their Inspiration In the gods and goddesses whom the Greeks and Romans Itoman honored Similarly In mod ern days names In the Bible have b been n translated trans Into stone Two of the finest pieces of work by the great French sculptor Rodin are his figures of ot Adam and Eve and In America we have such statues as William Henry Rineharts Rinehart's RIneharts RInehart's RIne- RIne harts hart's Rebecca with her pitcher at the well Down In Fountain Inn InD S. S C. C Is an unusual memorial not memorial not a statue but a simple white shaft erected to the memory of Eve because Robert Quillen editor of oC the Fountain Inn Tribune and anda a famous thought that Insufficient honor has haa paid paid to the mother of the human race Do you remember that ballad by John Greenleaf Greenleaf Greenleaf Green- Green leaf Whittier which tells tell of the shipwrecked New England sailor who was cast away awal on the East Arabian coast and as he tolled across the hot desert sands ands hungry and thirsty cursed the day dOl of his hI birth and then suddenly overcome as 88 be he never before by a finer diner emotion prayed had prayed pity me we God Godi I For I die of thirst Take me out of this land And If It ever eYer I f reach my home again Where earth has springs and aDd the sky has rain I 1 will dig a well for the passers passers-by And none shall suffer from thirst as L Then do you remember bow the shipwrecked mariner came ramI back safely at last to his hi homeland homeland homeland home home- land and When morning came he called for tor his spade be he said I I must pay my debt to the Lord So he tolled day after atter day out In the yard lard behind hi his house until at last the blessed WI water tel the wine of ot God gushed forth Perhaps you thought that story tory wa was Just JOlt a creation of the New England poets But Dut It was something more than that poem made the legend of The Captains Captain's Well Wen familiar to all aU Americans American It Is a legend that ha haa had hada a very substantial basis basi of ot fact Go to Amesbury Mass and see for yourself The Captains Captain's Well Nell there as It has hae been bean restored restored restored re re- re- re stored by bl former State Senator and Mrs Tame James H. H Walker of Amesbury and presented to the Town Improvement society You can drink from Its pure waters and as 88 you do so you will be reminded not only of the hero ot of Whittier ballad ballad ballad bal bal- lad but of all the adventurous New England seamen seamen sea sea- men who once onto carried the American flag to al all corners of the globe For the restored Captains Cap tams tain's Well Nell s kg s a memorial to them The hero of the ballad was Valentine Bagley a native of Amesbury who at the age of eighteen eight een went down to the sea In ships late In the Eighteenth century and and the story of his hla adventures adventures adventures tures can be found In an old book published in Salem In 1794 The 1794 The Journal of the Travels and Sufferings of Daniel Saunders a Mariner on 00 onBoard onBoard Board the Ship Commerce of nos Boston ton Saml Sam Johnson John John- son son Commander Which was Cost Cast Away Near Nea Cape on the Coast of Arabia July Tuly 10 1702 1792 Bagley was a carpenters carpenter's mate on the Commerce Commerce Corne Com Com- merce when that ship sailed from the Isle o ot of France on January 27 21 1702 1792 bound for Madras There she exchanged her Boston master John Leach for a Rhode Islander SamuAl Johnson and on April 28 set sail for nom Bombay bay However the new new nelv captain being unacquainted with th the coast coast st steered too far to the west and the ship foundered off orr Cape July Tuly 10 The crew thirty four souls louis In number twenty whites thirteen Lascar sailors and one African black took to the boats and for three days made mad their way WIly along the shore Then they were driven ashore by a storm which drowned three of them Starting up the coast th the 17 11 white men tortured tortured tortured tor tor- with thirst hunted everywhere for water Becoming separated they wandered about in small parties and one by bl one they thel laid their thel weakened companions under bushes and left them there to dieOn die On 00 and on they plodded across the burning sands and Bagley thinking no doubt of the damp swept fog town of his hi nativity forced his hi parched throat to utter the promise to hi his hi God that 1 it If ever he got back to that town he would dig a awell well where all aU who passed might drink At last the castaways castaway fell In with a party o ot of Arab traders traveling on camel camels toward Muscat who took them along On August 12 six o othe of the seventeen arrived at Muscat where mo mot most of them took ship for home But nut Valentine Bagley Bag Bag- ley leI evidently was In n no such hurry Still seeking adventure be he shipped on an Aral Arat t t vessel an and followed the sea for three more rears jear ear bet before re going back to Massachusetts Two years later Dagley Bagley kept his vow by dIg dg the well and for tor years eau from It its It cool depth depths bubbled the precious water which he had craved I so o much on the hot sands of Arabia But after his death the well fell feU into disrepair and It It waters water were drained away by bl excavations for tor a adeep adeep adeep deep pipe line In 1012 1912 But Dut the restoration tour four years ago of ot the well and the erection of th the memorial designed by Leonard l-eonard Craske an aD English Eng lish sculptor living In Boston ha hu has guaranteed perpetuation of the story of Valentine Bagley naley a real character In a ballad of a famous Amer Anier scan lean poet C O by W it ru N wp pr r Vale Union |
