al, he
[Lafayette] was not twenty. And Washington himself, before whom others
stood abashed, had only attained the venerable age of forty-four. The
country needed her young men. She called for them and she had them. It
is one of those young men who, dying at twenty-one, leaves as his only
word of regret that he has but one life to give to her."

Although it is now known that Hale was not executed near City Hall Park,
in some respects there could be no more fitting location for a monument
to him than this, perhaps the busiest conflux of human beings that
anywhere crowd this great city. Thousands pass this statue, learning
from it their first lessons in American history. Hundreds have stopped,
seeing this bareheaded, dauntless man, evidently doomed to die, to try
to learn whence he came and why he stands there, appealing to the
noblest patriotism--patriotism that must touch the heart of any man who
knows the love of country.

Since this statue was placed, memorials of various kinds to Nathan Hale
have been erected in several parts of the country. The schoolhouses in
which he taught, although not occupying their original sites, have been
restored, and are in possession of patriotic societies.

To-day Yale, endowed with buildings costing millions, is learning that
stone and mortar, in edifices however beautiful, do not enshrine their
noblest memories.

Through a few friends of Yale, a statue of Nathan Hale by Bela Lyon
Pratt has recently been placed near the oldest college building,
Connecticut Hall. This building has been restored to the appearance it
bore when Nathan Hale dwelt therein. Who shall say that the statue of
the bound boy, facing death so manfully, will not prove one of Yale's
noblest endowments?

Still another beautiful statue of Nathan Hale by William Ordway
Partridge may be seen in the city of St. Paul, Minn.

Happily, Nathan Hale's ability to die for his country is but one side of
a Yale shield from which gleam the names of hundreds of her sons, who,
doubtless as ready to die for their country as he, had they been in his
place, have proved their power to live for God and for their native
land. Everywhere, in all quarters of the world, the Nathan Hale spirit
of unselfish devotion has inspired the sons of Yale to the noblest
service they could render; and every man, young or old, who passes the
statue of Nathan Hale will realize that hosts have lived lives inspired
by the same splendid spirit.

Natha