The New York correspondent of the Daily Chronicle records an
interesting piece of news in Tuesday's issue. Five years ago an anonymous benefactor gave the Council of New York University £20,000 to erect a Hall of Fame, in which one hundred and fifty panels are provided to receive the names of illustrious Americans, each of whom must have been dead ten or more years before they can be chosen. Nominations can be made by the public, and on being seconded by a member of the University Senate, are submitted to an electorate of one hundred eminent citizens selected by the University. Council. At Monday's voting the two chosen were James Russell Lowell and j. G. Whittier, the fifteen rejected authors nominated including Fenimore Cooper, Edgar Allan Poe, and William Cullen Bryant. The preference of Whittier to Poe is remarkable, if literary genius is to be taken as the test of merit, and seems to indicate that character is regarded as an indispensable passport to the Hall of Fame, which in that case would be more truly styled the Hall of Worthies.
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