Lee And Jackson

Generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson have had an even more difficult time getting out of the North than they ever had invading that area. Lee, who was stopped at Gettysburg more than 80 years ago, was stopped again yesterday at Philadelphia on his way South. Maybe it was because he had his able lieutenant, Jackson, with him that he got through yesterday, whereas in ’63 at Gettysburg he lacked the assistance of the man whose line stood like a stone wall.

The Lee and Jackson, who have been moving upon the South ever since 5 A.M. Tuesday, when they left Providence, R.., are, of course, the bronze statues of the two men who threatened the North almost a century ago and who will henceforth grace the city of Baltimore. They have come from a Providence foundry and their four-day journey was full of difficulties. Philadelphia, it seems, was the greatest obstacle in their path. Philadelphia’s streets are too narrow and its bridges too low for/men of the stature of Lee and Jackson. It wasn’t until they reached the more congenial Maryland countryside that they really began to move along at a good pace.

All in all, it has taken eleven years for the statues of the two heroes to come to their destination on Wyman Park drive near the Art Museum. Shortages and wars delayed them. Even the Italian-Ethiopian war held up their progress, when Italian modeling clay was unobtainable. But now they are here at last, to add to the glory of the city of monuments, and patience is re-warded. After all, eleven years is not too long to wait for two immortals cast in immortal bronze.