People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 August 1893 — DID NOT RECOGNIZE GEORGE. [ARTICLE]

DID NOT RECOGNIZE GEORGE.

American Naval Officer* Who Were Nonplussed by a Statue In Europe. An American man-of-war put into a Mediterranean port for several days in the course of a cruise not long ago, and several of the officers taking advantage of a bright, cool Sunday mado up a party to explore the town. They enjoyed themselves immensely in ferreting out all the notable sights, but according to the Kansas City Times there was one thing that puzzled them. Occupying a conspicuous place in the heart Of the city was an excellent statue, in heroic size. A Washington violinist, who, if it were necessary, could read music in half a dozen different languages, translated the inscription. No name was given; that doubtless would have been purely a work of supererogation, but the individual was described as the pride of his countrymen and the ornament of his century. Hyperbole struggled with euphemism in an effort to do justice to his greatness. The Americans, all men of wide reading and considerable information, were completely mystified. They recalled scores of portraits of famous men to compare them with tho features and general makeup of the hero in bronze in vain. Rather disconcerted at their failure to place so exalted a personage, they trudged hack to the hotel and ordered all the guide books available to be sent up at once. The page at which the first hook that was taken up fell open contained a cut and voluminous description of the statue in question. The inquiring traveler was therein informed that tho monument had been erected by tho citizens of the town as a witness of their admiration of the nobility and unselfish patriotism of George Washington.