A STATUE TO ADAM.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1154, 20 March 1884, Page 3

A STATUE TO ADAM.

The following letter, deprecating the erection of a statue to Liberty, and suggesting it would be more appropriate to reap a monument to the memory of Adam, appears in the American papers from the pen of Mark Twain : You know ray weakness for Adam, and you know how I have struggled to get him a monument, and failed. Now, it seems to me here is a chance. What do we care for a statue of Liberty when we get the thing itself io its widest sublimity 1 What you pi a monument is to keep yop hr mind of something you haven’t got —something you’ve lost. Very well, we haven’t lost Liberty • we’ve lost Adam, Another thing : What has Liberty done for us? Nothing in particular that I know of. What wpdone for her? Everything. We’ve given her a home, and a good home too ; and if she knows anything she knows that it’s the first time she ever struck that novelty. She knows that when we took her in she had been a mere tramp for GOOD years, Biblical measure. Yes; and we not only mended her

troubles, and made things soft {oilier permanently, but we made her respectable, and that she hadn’t ever been before. And now, after we have poured out this Atlantic of benefits upon this aged outcast, lo and behold ! we are sked to come forward and set up a monument to her. Go to ! let her set up a monument to us if she wants to do the square thing. But suppose your statue represented her old, bent, downcast, shamefaced, with the insults of 6000 years, imploring a crust and an hour’s rest, for God’s sake, at our back door ! 1 Come now,’ you’re shouting ! That’s the aspect of her which we need to be reminded of lest we forget it; not this proposed one where she is hearty and well fed, and holds up her and hand flourishes her hospitable schooner of flame, and appears to be inviting all the rest of the tramps to come over. Oh, go to ! This is the very insolence of prosperity. But, on the other hand, look at Adam. What have we done for Adam ? Nothing. What has Adam done for us ? Everything. He gave us life, ho gave us death, he gave us Heaven, he gave us llelh These are inestimable privileges, and, remember, not one of these should we have had without Adam, Well, then, he ought to have a monument, for evolution is steadily and surely abolishing him. And be quick about it, or our children’s children will grow up in ignorance that there was an Adam. vVith trifling alterations, the statue will answer very well for Adam. You can turn that blanket into an ulster without any trouble, part tbe hair on one side or conceal the sex of his head with a fire helmet, and at once he’s a man. Put a harp and a halo and an olive branch in the left hand, to symbolise a part of what Adam did for us, and leave the fire-basket just where it is to symbolise the result. My friends, the father of life and death and taxes has been neglected long enough. Shall this infamy be allowed to go on, or shall it stop right herel Is it a question of finance 1 Behold the enclosed (paid bank) cheques. Use them as freely as they are freely contributed. Heaven knows, I would there were a ton of them ; I would send them all to you, for my heart is in this sublime work.