There was much favorable comment on the work after it was set in place. The sculptor himself thought that he had never made a finer thing. The appeal of the statue is evident in the actions of the children who cluster about it. All day in summer they come here to play. They sit in Lincoln’s lap, clasp their arms about his neck, roll about his feet, completely pleased. They could not say why. They don’t know much of who this man is supposed to be. They don’t know much about Lincoln. But they know his sadness and they feel his gentleness and friendliness. Former President Theodore Roosevelt was principal speaker when the monument was dedicated on Memorial Day, 1913. Wildly cheering throngs of men, women and children lined his way of march and gave him an inspiring tribute all the way from New York City, an experience which Gutzon declared was what gave Roosevelt the idea of running for President for a third term. Nobody seems to have remembered what he said as he pledged the country’s support to what Lincoln had stood for--Lincoln who sat with bowed head, worried and disconsolate, on a bench before him. CHAPTER ELEVEN _STAMFORD AND POLITICS_ In 1909 John Gutzon Borglum married Mary Williams Montgomery, to nobody’s great surprise. Mary Montgomery was born in Turkey of missionary parents and had lived there twelve years. She was educated at Wellesley and received a Ph.D. degree from the University of Berlin. She could argue with Gutzon, sometimes successfully. Their meeting, in a way, was accidental. On her way back to the United States after her Berlin studies, she had boarded a ship at Rotterdam. It turned out to be the same one that the sculptor barely caught at Cherbourg. He joined her party for shipboard games and poker, and they were quickly friends. He met her family and she became well acquainted with his sisters; and a family association went on for years. Miss Montgomery taught French for a year in New Haven, then joined two other girls in a literary agency that did translations, research work and special articles until they married and broke up the partnership. She worked with Dr. Henry Smith Williams on _The Historians’ History of the World_ and there met Rupert Hughes, another friend of Gutzon’s. She also worked with Dr. Isidore Singer as manager in the preparation of _The Jewish Encyclopedia_. Much of her life was spent in the vicinity of Thirty-eighth Street. After leaving Dr. Williams she did secretarial work, some of it for Gutzon, and became acquainted with many more of the Borglum friends. She learned a great deal about the operations of the Thirty-eighth Street studio.