Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 14.djvu/104

 98

Southern Historical Society Papers.

peals could be made to the liberality of the people of New Orleans. They were always answered, and, surely though slowly, stone was piled upon stone, until, when the cap stone was set upon the lofty pillar, the whole was paid for.

Then came the task of providing the means for the colossal bronze statue which now crowns the work.

The means of the Association did not allow the privilege of call- ing to its aid the reigning kings of the artist world.

Fortune threw in our way a young sculptor, Alexander C. Doyle, of New York, who had already given some evidence of the mettle that was in him, and who had such confidence in his own capacity, that he was willing to execute a plaster model of the exact size of the proposed statue, and from which the latter was to be directly moulded, subject absolutely to the acceptance of the association and without cost unless satisfactory.

That work was done by him in the St. Louis Hotel building of this city — how well, let the statue, now standing in Lee Place, tell to admiring thousands. In purity of conception, spirit and grace of pose and expressive resemblance, it is not unworthy of the subject.

After various changes, the officers and directors of the association consisted of the following:

Charles E. Fenner, G. T. Beauregard, - M. MussoN, S. H. Kennedy, W. L Hodgson, - W. M. Owen, -

Preside7it.

First Vice-President.

Second Vice-President.

Treasurer.

Recording Secretary.

Corresponding Secretary.

W. B. Schmidt, Alfred Moulton, James Jackson, Samuel Boyd, J. C. Morris, J. J. Mellon, Ad. Meyer,

DIRECTORS.

W. T. Vaudry, A. H. May, W. J. Behan, J. L. Harris, E. A. Burke, L L. Lyons, C. H. Allen,

R. M. Walmsley, Lloyd R. Coleman, Cartwright Eustis, Ed. A. Palfrey, Arch. Mitchell, James McConnell, E. Borland.

The statue having been completed, the board selected the anniver- sary of the birth of Washington, the 22d of February, 1884, as an appropriate occasion for the ceremonies of unveiling.