CALVIN PORTRAIT 
237 
Here is no place for history or biographic details, did one dare divulge 
it; but may I so far abuse my privilege, and your patience as to tell 
how fifty years ago, and for many continuous years thereafter I saw a 
man go forth; in an open wagon, sometimes borrowed, more often hired, 
sometimes his own, traversing the road-less, bridge-less prairies of north¬ 
ern Iowa; enduring the heat of August suns, chilled by the damps of 
night, shelterless, tortured by mosquitoes, drenched by wild thunder¬ 
storms that made terrible the midnight hours; breakfasting at dawn and 
toiling until his campfire burned beneath the evening* star. From Lansing 
to Clarinda, from Dubuque to Mason City, to Winterset, to Ottumwa; 
athwart the State, through the State, around the State he moved; climbing 
all rocky heights of nature’s carving, pondering the talus of every open 
quarry, every wall of crumbling rock or sliding shale, wading the creek- 
beds and tracing the banks of larger streams, away from home for weeks 
together;—• I knew such a man; in such fashion, and not otherwise, did he 
win the rich experience and world-wisdom presently brought in such 
overflowing measure to the State of Iowa! 
Not for what it has cost, but for what it means, we commit now to 
the keeping of the public, this simple memorial of our colleague. His 
work is finished, but shall abide long as m)en live who love their heritage 
of time; may the work of our artist long endure I 
In other words and centuries a people, reputed still the wisest, wittiest 
of earth, not only; discovered that ‘strt is long’ but likewise also seemed 
to know that only the skill of the artist does in some mysterious way 
avail to transmit the soul of things, the thing called inspiration to future 
days and centuries. So they took care of art. They saw to it that men 
in after times should see what form had Pericles and Plato. Blind Homer 
nor less Socrates found memorial in marble, if reports are true. Not 
all were equal to their greatest, but under their greatest every Greek 
could claim, did claim, and flush with pride that thrills even to this day. 
Sometime, perhaps where the social work and institutions of this Com¬ 
monwealth of ours shall have become from river to river more homogene¬ 
ous, shall crystallize as such things do, when the migration of people 
shall cease,— sometime this, our people, shall perhaps appreciate their 
own, sometime mayhap a ‘temple of fame’ shall rise. Shall it be in some 
vast physical structure with marble columns shining, shall it be in some 
noble masterpiece of letters, than brass or marble more enduring, lit by 
the light of intellect, by passing centuries unworn, undimmed? What¬ 
ever, whenever, or wherever the memorial rise, of this let us be sure,— 
upon it the name of our colleague shall appear, among the first have 
place, and all other commonwealths may rival us if they can! 
Nay, my colleagues, there shall still remain, for all those whose names 
in honor shine, memorial nobler, more enduring far. The State, the State 
itself a living thing, into its fibre have passed the lives of all who thus 
at the beginning toiled to make it great! The State, sane, noble, intelli¬ 
gent, immortal as we hope, shall inevitably bear in its very character 
