The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1880-02-28
THE MONUMENT CRAZE.


The American heart appears to be
about equally divided in its love for a
brass band and the building of "a monu-
ment to something or somebody. 1t Is
not far from forty years ago that the Ia
dies of the country had their minds all
torn up by their patriotic desire to COM
memorate the heroic achievements of our
Revolutionary sires at Bunker Hill by
the erection there of monument that
should be the admiration of all future
generations. They held bazars and tea
parties and oyster suppers and went
about begging from door to door and
from counting-house to counting-house
all over the United States. Money was
gathered, and men were set to quarry
Quincy granite, and structure was be-
gun that for unmitigated ugliness has
not its counterpart, now that the thing
is really finished, probably in the world.
Who designed the absurd piece of folly
it is needless to here inquire.
There it stands, an object to wonder at
and to be ashamed Of, without grace,
without sentiment, without proportion,
without anything except certain dimen-
sions of solid length, breadth and thick
ness ofsenduring granite tapering from
base to apex, and spiral staircase in
side with which to mount to its ugly
summit. A bowlder would have better
marked the spot where the opening act
of the bloody tragedy that led to the
triumph of the American Revolution
began in earnest, and the Nation, which
was born of the stirring events which
won then inaugurated would seem a
fitting monumento of the struggle on that
spot.
The Washington monument begun at
Georgetown and after thirty years unfn-
isned still, is another instance of misdi-
rected enthusiasm that undertook to rear
mass of marble into structure that
should compel the generations that are
unborn to hold the name of the Father
of his Country in affectionate regard to
the end of time. If people will build
these things for posterity to look at, why
should not some aesthetic considerations
be had in the selection Of designs? Why
should not an artist, or at least an archi-
tect, be consulted as to the pans and
specifications?
In the Bunker Hill business no one
appears to have been consulted, other
than possibly the owner of granite
quarry, and in the Washington affair
the foundations were so insecurely laid
that had the shaft been completed as
originally designed the thing would have
toppled over of its own weight.
These two are conspicuous instances of
monumental folly that are copied in a
more modest way every, day. Nearly
every city has plan in tow for pre-
tentious monument to some favorite son,
or some dead and gone hero is trotted
out and an effort made to raise means
to build an imposing something of
bronze or granite or marble. We
did little in this line in planting a
we'll meant but rather unsatisfying brass
soldier at Spring Grove at cost of fif-
teen or twenty thousand dollars. Mon
uments to be good must be very good,
and SO constructed as to stay good. A
battered and bruised memento of even a
hero is tame affair to stir up enthusi-
asm with The monument of Nelson in
Trafalgar Square, London, is shabby
relic of noble design, and will have to
be taken down, owing to the action of
frost and dampness, and repaired or re-
placed at no distant day, and of the ordi-
nary cemetery monumental display we
think that a more solid and enduring
simplicity should be cultivated to be en-
duringly satisfactory to those who are
hereafter to look upon them. But, after
all, great deeds are more enduring mon
uments than bronze or granite or