For a man so possessed by a great, world-wide idea, so fearless, so constant, it is quite fitting that monuments should be erected and that his birthday should be celebrated. Probably there is no man in all history who has had so many cities, counties, townships, boulevards, arcades, mountains, villages, and hamlets named for him, in a country to which he was not native-born, as has the Frenchman Lafayette in the United States of America. Also, many notable statues of Lafayette stand in city squares and halls of art, both in our country and in his own. Among them there is one special statue in which the young people of America have a peculiar interest. On the 19th of October, 1898, five millions of American school children contributed to a Lafayette Monument Fund. With this sum a bronze statue was made and presented to the French Republic. Mr. Paul Wayland Bartlett was the sculptor intrusted with this work. The statue was completed in 1908 and placed in a court of the Louvre in Paris. It was originally intended that the statue of Bonaparte should occupy the center of that beautiful court, but it is the statue of Lafayette that stands there--the "Boy" Cornwallis could not catch, the man Napoleon could not intimidate. No one can tell us just how Lafayette's statue happened to be assigned the place intended for Napoleon's; but however it was, the fact is a luminous example of how a man who loved people only to master and subjugate them did not reach the heart of the world so directly as the man who loved human beings for their own sakes and to do them good. Printed in the United States of America. * * * * * The following pages contain advertisements of Macmillan books by the same author. * * * * * TRUE STORIES OF GREAT AMERICANS "_Should be read by every boy and girl._" This important new series of brief and vivid biographies will give to the young mind an intimate picture of the greatest Americans who have helped to make American history. In each instance the author has been chosen either because he is particularly interested in the subject of the biography, or is connected with him by blood ties and possessed, therefore, of valuable facts. Only those, however, who have shown that they have an appreciation of what makes really good juvenile literature have been entrusted with a volume. In each case they have written with a child's point of view in mind, those events being emphasized which are calculated to appeal to the younger reader, making a full and well-balanced narrative, yet always authentic. "Most admirable in their construction and purpose. The volumes are interesting and attractive in appearance, graphic in style, and wonderfully inspiring in subject matter, reaching an enviable mark in juvenile literature."--_Philadelphia Public Ledger_. "Far away from the 'dry as dust' type of biography."--_San Francisco Bulletin._