The Proper Functions of Open-Air Statuary 
Physical strength being also a national 
necessity they early inaugurated the Olympian 
games. In order to make these more and 
more popular they introduced the custom of 
giving the victor at their great national 
games, held once every four years, first, a 
mere crown ot' olives, and later, a marble 
statue ot himself. This acted as a powerful 
stimulus, and was, perhaps, the first use ever 
made of open-air statuary tor the 
purpose ot stimulating the activity of 
the citizens in a given direction. 
No intelligent man doubts for a 
moment that a tine public monument 
is a powerful stimulus to mankind. 
Let any father take his son out 
walking on a spring Sunday, and as 
he approaches a monument, his boy 
will likely ask him : “ Papa, what is 
that?” Papa will have to explain, 
of course. He will be compelled 
to tell his boy the story ot the life 
and achievements ot the man monu- 
mented. In the very process ot 
doing this he will arouse the enthusi¬ 
asm of his boy, and it is most likely 
that the father himself will be newly 
fired to dedicate himself once again 
to the task of emulating the hero 
whose noble life he has been allured 
to describe to his son; and in that 
new self-dedication, resolve to push 
his boy as far as he can on to a finer 
manhood, and to make him his votive 
offering to his country, thus enriching 
mankind with the most royal gift a 
father can offer. 
Or, suppose while you are strolling 
about in a park you suddenly find 
yourself in front of a fine ideal statue 
like Dubois’ magnificent “Charity.” 
Do you suppose you could get away 
from the spell of that statue without 
having been inoculated with at least a vague 
amount of new love for your fellow-man ? 
* Impossible! T alk about the use of statues 
—why there is nothing on earth just so 
precious to a city from a moral point of 
view. 
The three greatest men this country has 
produced are, to my mind, Washington, Lin¬ 
coln and Emerson ; and your city would find 
it a real, heavy interest-bearing investment— 
investment understand!—to build a million 
dollar monument to each of these heroes. 
You have very fine monuments to Wash¬ 
ington and Lincoln by the sculptor Thomas 
Ball. W 7 hy have you not raised a monu¬ 
ment to Emerson ? Do you not know that 
he is the greatest writer this country has 
developed, that he was your neighbor, and 
that he is worthy to stand with Plato, 
Goethe and Shakespeare ? Do you not know 
that Emerson is, perhaps, the finest soul that 
the nineteenth century has produced, and 
that he is to-day one of the most powerful 
moral forces in the world? If you should 
spend a million dollars on a monument to 
Emerson, you would make a master stroke 
of mere business. You would again pub¬ 
lish everywhere that you are really the one 
city of America with sense enough to value 
moral force on a level with mere military 
488 
