Imperial Valley Press

PATIENCE
REWARDED
- Dumb Luck' McLemore Picked Max -
TO
GET
MONUMENT

NEW YORK, June 22. (U.P.)

immortalized in stone.

Plans for the erection of a monument to Henry McLemore for his pick of Max Schmeling over Joe Louis are well under way, it was announced today by H. McLemore chairman of the society for the reward of patience and blind luck.

As outlined by the chairman—in the form of a bottle of beer on his desk in a midtown club—the monument will be patterned after the stone mountain memorial in Atlanta and the George Washington carving in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

"The major problems of the project practically have been ironed out," enthusiastically declared H. McLemore. "All we need now is a mountain and lots of money. The moment we get the mountain I will journey to it and establish a summer residence. Then, for three months, I will prepare it for the assault of the sculptor by shooting all the game off the place. As you know, nothing so annoys a worker in stone as to have a pheasant fly across his face when he's chipping out a set of eyebrows, say. If there doesn't happen to be any game on the mountain I'll look elsewhere for a site.

"We had a little difficulty with the site for we're not interested in erecting our tribute on a hill even birds won't live on. Besides, I

him at first," H. McLemore admitted "His extreme modesty, you know. Said he thought a monument on a mountain was a bit vulgar and garish. He agreed that his pick of Schmeling was an achievement worthy of recording for posterity.

But suggested a trim, seaworthy, 75-foot cruiser with a crew of 20 or so, as a much more sensible tribute than use his own words, 'a mess of sculpture.' He capitulated, however, when promised that if there was any graft to be made on the job (and there always is on a project this size) he would get first shot at it."

Chairman McLemore said there was no way of telling just what figures and scenes would be portrayed on the mountainside.

"We plan to give the sculptor a ton of chisels, a box-car of hammers, all the dynamite he wants, and an absolutely free hand," he said. "I don't believe in restricting an artist to a pocketful of blueprints. If, however, the sculptor (and I believe it finally will be Congressman Zioncheck) should come to me for suggestions I would advise something like this:

A heroic figure of Schmeling holding McLemore aloft by one leg, after the manner of Mussolini Liberty and the torch. Scattered about Schmeling's feet would be all the wrong picks McLemore made before he finally named a winner. Of course this herd of losers would constitute a real problem. In the first place, it would require fully fifty years to carve them all. In the second, to get them all on one mountain they would have to be made so small they wouldn't be discernible for 20 feet. If the losers were made even half-size we'd need not one mountain but an entire range.

And I don't believe the government would allow us to utilize the entire Appalachian or Blue Ridge chain."

My suggestion, chairman, is that you choose some slim, e carving. Why not McLemore and Schmeling riding side saddle on Grand Slam? That would tell the whole story.