LINCOLN STATUE

Otago Witness, Issue 3334, 6 February 1918, Page 58

LINCOLN STATUE

A MUCH-DISCUSSED WORK. A statue of Abraham Lincoln is to be erected in London, r and tho work chosen for tho memorial to the great statesman is a remarkable figure by the well-known American sculptor, G. G. Barnard. Round this work a storm of criticism has raged. La acceptance is fiercely opposed by a great number of people who regard it as a travesty, being neither a portrait of Lincoln nor an artistic representation of the character which the American nation reveres—that it is, in short, grotesque and repulsive. On th> other hand, many eminent people regard it as a great work of art, full of power, and a fine example of Barnard's skill in expressing the nigged and honest character of Lincoln. Ono of the quaintest criticisms of the statue is that of the American novelist, Gouveneur Morris, who wrote to the Ton don Daily Telegraph recently as follows :— * When I first saw tho Barnard Lincoln I di:l not, of course, even know it was mennt to be Lincoln. I wrote inrny notebook : Interesting medical exhibit—village drunkard, caught in a deliberate lie, and beginning to suffer from ulcer of the stomach " And it was not until long afterward that I realised what a bull I had made. It isn't that I do not admire Barnard's work. It is unique. It is doubtful if Michael Angelo or Phidias would even have thought of making a statue like this one. But it must not be shown in London—not, publicly, any way —any way not now, just when all of us are trying to be friends. It may be that we Americans deserve to be punished for not coming into this war two years ago: it may be that we deserve to bo punished for not beins? prepared to come into it now; but we do not deserve to have our sense of the ridiculous doubted. We do not deserve to have our Lincoln caricatured to make great London laugh. Our Lincoln? Your Lincoln.

it was at Gettysburg that he said, in effect, "Let us here highly resolve that these heroic dead shall not have died in vain." And it was not only the dead of

Uettyaburg that ho had in "mind. Surely, in his prophetic soul there was also soma premonition of that road to Calais which, with their baro breasts, men of the very blood from which he was sprung wero to block at Yprcs. Your Lincoln and pur Lincoln needs no graven travesty of himself to be impcdestaled in Loudon town. Let us rather, if there is any real decency in us, voto upon that high resolution of his, and throughout the whole world make •it the law.