Mr. Borglum’s work shows a marked originality, tending even to impressionism. His determination not to sink his individuality has brought upon him the criticism of a passing generation of contemporaries working in Gothic, whose sympathies are with the archaeological exactitude of the Revival, and who strive to get as near as possible to the effects of a past age. On this account Mr. Borglum will probably have to wait awhile for full appreciation, as M. Rodin himself has had to wait. He seems, however, indifferent to praise or blame, and appears determined to retain his individuality, although it has involved the refusal of commissions for collaborating with architects whose buildings in American cities require as the _summum bonum_ exact compliance with conventional precedent. This critique seems a little out of step in view of Gutzon’s declaration that the figures on the cathedral should be “made as archaic as possible.” But he never took notice of it. He went on for months with his work, vigorous and pleased with all that went on about him. When he raised his voice, however, all of New York heard him. He had discovered that John Barr, the contractor, was sending his models to a Hoboken stoneyard to be finished by machinery under contract. This, of course, had not been written in the bond. The machine treatment may have made the pieces look more archaic, but it also made them look cheaper. Some of them looked less like saints than gargoyles, and Gutzon was angrily indignant. For once the art committee gave him a quick hearing, and presently he was allowed to exercise general supervision over the contractor’s work and accept it or reject it as he saw fit. But that wasn’t the end of the controversy. The contractor, it seems, wasn’t so much interested in the shape of an angel as he was in the price of rock. He began to change the position of arms and legs and wings to suit the contours of his blocks of stone. Borglum declared that these revised figures were caricatures, and he condemned them. The contractor wouldn’t listen to him. The committee gave him no satisfaction; so this time he carried his complaint to the press. Borglum seems to have been his own best public-relations agent. He demanded that the carving of the stone should be done on the cathedral grounds under his own eye. Inasmuch as this was strictly in keeping with the medieval tradition in church building, he had one faction of the cathedral’s congregation backing him to start off with. The art critics generally thought his point well taken, and thousands of people who knew nothing at all about sculpture wondered what was the use of models if they weren’t to be followed.