Randolph Rogers, The Sculptor

.liuiics E. Scripps, writing from Home, iimltT date ut March 28, to the Detroit Evening News, has this to say of the disliiiiiuUlifil gentleman who looks back to Ann Arbor as bis olü home: To day I visited the studio of Randolph Rouers, the American sculptor. Mr. Hogers, s is well known, regards himself ss a Michigander. He was bom in western New York, 63 years ago, and wiic-ti cinht yeurg oíd removed wit h hls pnrents to the then new terrltory of MichijfHii. The fainilv eettled in Ann Arbor. and ther e young Rogers spent the next 10 yeavs of his life. Tlien he went to New York and become a clerk In a mercantile house, where he remained for threeyears. Al] this time he had an intense vearning to become an artist, and at length - in 1848 - succecded in securing sutticient means to take him to Florence. He ente red hiinself as a student at the ncadeiny of line arts in tli.it city, and in due titne conipleled hls conrso of study, passing hisexatnination with the liiyhcst donors. Then he settled in Rome, where he bus resided for the pust 37 years. Ilis first ureat achievement was a beautiful statue of Ruth. Later he produced Nydia, the blind girl of Pompeli, of whlch connoisseurs have never yet grown tired, and a great nuniber of replicas have been solJ. His last important work, completed about tive years ago, was one very similar in character to Nydia, and Is entitled the Lost Pleiad. Of this there are tluee copies In America - one In California, one at Cornell university, and one In Philadelphia. There is a very beautiful . replica now in the studio awaiting purchase by soine generous Detroiter for presentation to the museum of art. The prlee is $4,000, and t would be a worthy beginning for the collection of statuary whlch some day, it is hoped. the museum will be the possescor of. It will be remembered that Randolph Rogers was the designer of our soldiere' monument in Detroit, aud also of several important work- in Washington, including the great bronze doors of the capítol. That he stands very high as an artist, even in this city of artists, is evidenced by his being appointed one of the professors of the academy of St. Luke, a rare honor for a forelgner. Five years ago Mr. Rogers suft'ered a stroke of paralysis, which destroyed the use of the right arm and so affected his utterance tbat it Is exceediogly diffleult to converse with him. This, of course, termluated his active career as an artist, and he has since been gradually windiug up his business atf'airs As the reader Is a ware, his complete colI' ilion ofcasts, the modelsin piaster from which the works In marble are executed. have been given to th University of Michigan. About half of them have already been forwarded and the rest will be when the studio is fiually cloeed. Alean whlle the unsold statuary is being offered at greatly reduced prices, and among othcr things the beautiful Lost I'lelad mentioned above. Mr. Rogers is understood to retire from his profession with a very comtortable fortune. He has five children, one son an architect in Richmond, Va., and one a student at Ann Arbor, and two daughters married to Italians in Rome. While incapacitated Irom active work of any kind. Mr. Rogers looks robust and well and enjoys his general good health. Mr. Cleveland thlnks that the people of Buffalo didn't show him futliciunt reverence once on a time when he tirst was elected president, and now he propones to get even with them by vetolng a $250, 000 appropriation for a public building. Which indicHtes the politician rather than the stiitesmau. Statesmanship is broader tliau that. Tlipqiiestion of the admission of Southern Dakota to the uu ion was before the United Stnte9 Senate last week. but the democrats are bound that it shall not be admltted until after the presidetitial elect ion. What a shiime it is thus to dislnfrancliUe 400,000 loyal citlzens and to keep thein from tlieir rights! Such auüacious tampering with elections is on a par with the democratie Southern policy wliioh Mlllcs free voting and expressions of opinión. It will gome day come lióme to the democratie party. The frlendH of the late General Orant wlll Kive a blrtliday dinner In memory of the General at Delmonlco's on the 27th of April, at whlch General Hherman wlll preside. It In suggeated tliat an eflTort be made to taake the i'irtlulay of the hero ofAppomattoz a National hul May. There would neem to be as mucb proprlety in maklng hls blrthday a day of general observahee In the republlc as there wan In setting anide General Wanhlngton'8 blrthday for a similar purpose.- "Hol Globe. White no one holds the deed?, the life and the niemory of General Grant in liiglier cstcciu tlian does tliis paper, yet the propriety ot maklng his birthday a national holiday is questionable, eepecially wlien we know and feel what a deip reverence the people of tliis nation have for Abr.iham Lincoln, and no such honor has been accorded li is memory. We regret hIso to see the reverence for George Washington dying out, as the above remarks would indicate. When the people of tli ia nation forget the deeds and sacr!fices of Washington and the revolutionury fathers, who threw everythlng they posges sed and everythin that mnkes life dear into the balance iigamst the then strongest nation on eartli, that we niiIit enjoy the blesslns ot freedom; wlien Ameri:an8 have progressed ( ?) so far tliat they look back upon those deeds and the people who enacted them with contempt or even with indifference, they have reached a dangerous gtaf;e. When the memory of Washington shall be forgotten, patriotsm wlll have died out and the nation 'allen into decay. The safety of Ainerca is in the reverence of her people for the llves and deeds of the founders of the republlc.