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THE MADISON COMMEMORATION

T Madison, Wisconsin, the first important commemoration of the day consisted of the exercises held in the special session of the Senate and House of Representatives. Here, a large audience filled all available places on the floor of the Assembly hall, and overflowed the three visitors' galleries. The hall and galleries were richly decorated with the national colors. Governor James O. Davidson presided, and the speakers were Senator E. P. Fairchild, of Milwaukee, and Professor John Charles Freeman, of the University of Wisconsin.

School exercises were held in all the districts of the city, one notable one being that at the Lincoln School, where the pupils presented to the school a brass memorial tablet of the Gettysburg speech-the unveiling of the tablet being one of the features of the day's programme. Another presentation to this school-made by W. W. Warner-was an autograph letter from Lincoln to Mrs. Bixby, who had seven sons in the War. The exercises at the school were followed by a general reception to the public, under the management of the teachers of the school and the educational department of the Woman's Club. Later in the day, five thousand students and members of the Faculty of the University of Wisconsin gathered in the gymnasium of the University, there to hear the announcement by President Van Hise, that to the University of Wisconsin had been granted the privilege of securing the only replica of the heroic bronze statue of Lincoln, by Adolph Alexander Weinman, being erected by the United States and the State of Kentucky, jointly, at Lincoln's birthplace, Hodgenville, Kentucky. This replica was secured for, and presented to, the University by Mr. Thomas E. Brittingham, of Madison, Wisconsin.

The address of the day was delivered by the Rev. Jenkin Lloyd Jones, the well-known Lincoln enthusiast and authority, head of Lincoln Center, Chicago.

THE GREAT STONE FACE

PRESIDENT C. R. VAN HISE

HROUGH the coöperation of the United States and the

Lincoln is to be unveiled at his birthplace, Hodgenville, Kentucky, on Decoration Day of this year. This statue is by Mr. Adolph A. Weinman, a pupil of. Saint-Gaudens. Photographs of the statue show that this sculptor is a man of the first rank; that he has truly caught the spirit of his great master. Requests for replicas have come to the Commission that has the Lincoln statue in charge, from Providence, Philadelphia, Champaign, St. Louis, Lincoln, Seattle, and, on behalf of Oshkosh, from Mr. Hicks, United States Ambassador to Chile.

After much discussion, the commissioners voted to permit one full-sized replica of the statue to be cast, provided it was placed at the University of Wisconsin. This decision came in consequence of the great interest in the University of Richard Lloyd Jones, one of the commissioners, associate editor of "Collier's Weekly," alumnus of the University, and son of the speaker of to-day, the Reverend Jenkin Lloyd Jones. When the chance to secure the Lincoln replica for the University came, the question at once arose as to the source of the necessary funds. The situation was placed before Mr. Thomas E. Brittingham, of this city. With largeness of view he appreciated the fortunate opportunity which had come to him to serve the University and the State, and gladly agreed to furnish the required funds. Upon behalf of the Regents, the Faculty, the students, and the people, I wish from my heart to thank Mr. Brittingham for his generosity.

The statue of Lincoln will be unveiled during the coming

Commencement. It will be placed in the centre of the future Court of Honor of the University, a short distance in front of University Hall, facing the east.

It will be remembered that a lad named Ernest, created by Hawthorne's imagination, growing up in a village set in a broad and deep valley, had his attention called by his mother to the noble lineaments of a Great Stone Face on a mighty buttress of one of the surrounding mountains. Among the people there was a tradition that some time a native of the valley would appear with a face like the gigantic one in stone. The growing boy continued his life among the villagers, and each morning he looked out upon the strong and benignant Great Stone Face and hoped that he might some day see the man who was its image. The boy reached manhood and middle age, doing the work of a villager, and lending a hand to his neighbors. Gradually he became a source of strength to the people with whom he was in contact, and very slowly as age grew upon him, his fame extended far beyond his native valley. Several times a celebrated man, born in the valley, returned from the outer world. Each time Ernest looked eagerly forward to his coming, hoping that he would resemble the Great Stone Face. Each time when the noted man appeared, Ernest was profoundly disappointed, but still hoped that before he died he would see in a man the likeness of the face of stone. One evening, while addressing the villagers, as had become his habit, a poet visitor saw the truth, and cried, "Behold, behold, Ernest is himself the likeness of the Great Stone Face!" During his many years of deep reflection upon the inner meanings of things, and of faithful service to his fellows, his features had become the counterpart of his ideal.

It cannot be doubted that the bronze face of Abraham Lincoln will modify the spiritual faces of the students of the University who are to view daily the sad, calm, sagacious, determined, and rugged face of our great President of the Civil War. What this Lincoln statue will do in the way of developing nobility of character and sustained courage to carry forward the fight for the advancement of the people of this country, no one may foretell; but that it will be perpetu

ally one of the great and high educational forces of the University, no man may doubt. From it, during the centuries to come, many hundreds of thousands of students will gain at least a reflection of the spirit of service to their country that animated Abraham Lincoln. They will persist to the end in the great fight for right and equal justice to all, even as did this man of sorrow. This spirit will pass in some measure to the millions with whom they come in contact, and gradually the widening influence for good of the Lincoln statue will extend throughout the world.