REALIZED AT THE OPERA

Sculptor Ruckstuhl Had Statue In Mind For Years.

TELLS OF BALTIMORE WORK

“Glory Stands. Beside Our Grief” Was The Result Of A Vow Made In Paris In His Youth.

Mr. Frederick Wellington Ruckstuhl, director of sculpture for the St. Louis World’s Pair, is at the Stafford and was last night the guest at dinner of Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Baxter Gresham at their residence, 815 Park avenue.

Mr. Ruckstuhl is the artist who conceiver and modeled the statue group, “Glory Stands Beside Her Grief,” which is to surmount the monument shortly to be erected at Mount Royal and North avenues by members of the Maryland Division, United Daughters of the Confederacy, as a memorial to the valor of the men of the Confederate Army and Navy who died for the lost cause.

It was to confer with members of the board of managers of the Maryland division that Mr. Ruckstuhl came to Baltimore to make final preparations for the foundational part of the monument. The conference was held at the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Gresham.

The Artist’s Story.

Later the artist spoke to a reporter of THE SUN concerning the peculiar course of events which awoke the conception of such a symbolic group in his mind and which nurtured the thought to the final designing and modeling of the group in heroic without any order for the finished work.

Mr. Ruckstuhl said:

I was born in Breitenbach, in the Vorages Mountain – the Blue Alsatian Mountains and taken as a child to Paris. From that city my parents came directly to St. Louis and my youth was surrounded with friends who were Southern sympathizers.

“Like Lowell, I always leaned toward the men and causes ‘almost great,’ and all my life I have been haunted by the lines:

Glory ’tis to wear the crown
Of a deserted and pure success;
But he who knoweth how to fail
Has won a crown whose luster is no less.

Vow In Paris.

“About 15 years ago, while studying in Paris, where I spent about nine years, I quarreled one night with a Yankee sculptor for denouncing the men who fought on the Southern side during the Civil War. I told him some day the North would recognize the heroic valor of that fight and be proud of the men who fought it, and history would throw its crown of consolation toward the South, ‘and some day,’ I concluded, ‘1 will make a monument that will express the verdict of history.’

“From that time there floated vaguely through my mind the thought of the statue and I seemed dimly groping for a tangible shape for the ideal in my thoughts.

Inspiration Came At Opera.

“The inspiration came suddenly while listening to the music of Tannhauser at the Metropolitan Opera House about two years ago. The music and surroundings faded away and the Southern group stood out boldly to my mental vision. I saw the Southern soldier, having fought to his last gasp, having thrown aside all military accoutrements, even his sleeves rolled up in the desperation of a hand-to-hand encounter; I saw him falling, death-smitten in the struggle and I saw also”-[here the artist. lost again in memory of the mental vision, sprang to his feet and flung out a protecting arm]-“I saw the downward flight of Glory catching with outstretched arm the falling hero, snatching his form and spirit from the mire of oblivion and glorifying his cause in ages to come.

“I made the first sketch of the group then and there,” said the artist, sinking back again into his chair, ” and showed it to the lady who was attending the opera with me. She was amazed that I took the matter so seriously, but I felt that the aspiration of years had taken shape.

Rejected At St. Louis

“Shortly after this a committee in St. Louis was selecting a design for the Springfield monument, and I offered mine, only to have it rejected-they wanted a fighting soldier, not a dead nor dying one, they said. ‘But is not the cause lost and dead?’ I asked, but they only reiterated that they wanted a fighting soldier depicted, and, much discouraged, I withdrew.

“Capt. Frank Gaienne, of St. Louis, and Dr. P. G. Robert, who was chaplain to General Lee at Appomattox, encouraged me, however, not to destroy the sketch. A tear fell from Dr. Robert’s eyes as he looked at it. ‘It is worthy to be the national Southern monument,’ he said. ‘Submit the sketch to the Higginsville Monument Committee, which is contemplating the erection of a soldiers’ monument. They would be content with a replica of the original, but li you have opportunity, get the original, accepted for Atlanta, Richmond, Baltimore-some city of importance.’ “

Mr. Gresham’s Discovery.

Cheered by this enthusiasm, Mr. Ruckstuhl went on to say how, with no prospect of a purchaser for the design, he proceeded to model the group, heroic size, 13½ feet, a pure work of faith. While he was yet working on the clay the New York Times sent a reporter to his studio, who wrote up the work then nearing completion.

Two days before the group was to be cast in plaster Mrs. Thomas B. Gresham, of Baltimore, saw the newspaper article, wrote him from Atlantic City, where she then was, and asked permission to see the model. The casting was deferred one day to give Mrs. Gresham this opportunity, and within 10 days the design had been accepted.

Realized Baltimore Idea.

“It is difficult not to believe I was in telepathic communication with the members of the Baltimore committee for months,” resumed the sculptor, “since I had unconsciously realized in the figures their profound desire. Without knowing that their motto is, ‘Glory stands beside our grief,’ I have produced exactly what the motto em-bodied. One change only was made. The original soldier held a broken gun. A flag was substituted at the suggestion of the committee as embracing more completely all divisions of the army and navy.

“The design was never accepted by the Higginsville committee, and probably they will never desire a replica of the Baltimore monument, since they will scarcely have the money for it for many years, and should they desire a replica It will be the soldier with the gun. The design of the soldier with the flag has never been submitted to any save the Baltimore committee, and Baltimore gets the original monument.

“The location for the monument could not have been better chosen,” said the sculptor. “When erected it will seem as though that whole broad, beautiful avenue had been built to lead up to the monument. It will face south first, that the Southern soldier may turn to his people, and also that the sun, which marks a southern course, may shine In the faces of the figures.”

Mr. Ruckstuhl returns today to New York, but will come again to Baltimore for the unveiling of the monument.

Admired In Georgia.

One of the leading ladies of the Maryland society writes as follows:

“I sent a copy of THE SUN containing the picture of the monument to Atlanta, Ga., to one of the most Influential and prominent women in the United Daughters. Her husband, a Confederate officer, was killed at Sharpsburg. I send, on a separate sheet, a brief extract from her letter of thanks.

“I should be so glad to tell you some of the beautiful things that have been said this summer about our monument by persons both North and South. The extract is :

” That monument ! that monument! What a glorious conception! All other Confederate monuments sink into insignificance when compared with this one. I grow nervous and feel like crying when I look long at the illustration. The figure of the soldier is typical of the young manhood of the old South-so fine in form, so beautiful in features. It is best in bronze, but I should love to see it in pure white marble-pure as an angel and pure as the cause for which our heroes died.'”