Morning journal and courier., 1883-06-14

House.
 To the Editor of the JOURNAL AND CoURIER:
 It is to be presumed that every citizen of New Haven will accept your most courteous invitation to discuss the Soldiers monument question through your columns, and wishing to be heard hasten to put in my word.
 New Haven has deferred doing thing in the way of erecting monument until near ly every city and village throughout our broad land has taken action. This is not due to feeling of apathy, as some suppose, but from desire to improve on them all, so if lest she may be best. We do not need anything ourselves to make us remember our brothers who went to the field and died that we might live; but it is the generations to come after us, and the world at large, whom we wish should know of them and their deeds. How can this purpose be best ao- complished? As an instance of what others have done let us visit Cambridge, Mass. There you enter the Memorial Hall of liar yard University, where, under It's arched roof, which is the perfection of architecture, you halt in admiration and delight as you look upon it as @ whole. Later you examine at your leisure the bronze tablets which line the walls on either side with the names Of her fallen heroes and the record of their deeds. You leave the hall with impressions not to be forgotten. In a well-ordered park in the same town is fine and costly monu- ment. Shading your eyes and changing po- sition frequently to avoid the glare-you would not go at all if it was stormy-you do your best to decipher the lettering and read the brief record of the dead, but presently turn away with aching neck and eyes, not caring to repeat the visit or renew the effort.
 What is true of this monument is true Of all. The record is too brief to do justice to our dead and their gallant deeds, the letter ing hard to read in the sunlight, while the monument and record are both worthless ln indictment weather. A monument IS at its best nothing but show piece. and after the committee who select it pay the debt of na- ture the chances are against it's having any admirers. Then again it IS doubtful II we can improve on what our sister cities have done in monuments-certainly not with our present appropriation. Bronze and stone have been put into all possible shapes for this purpose Now let us have something worth the money and something which will give us a return for the investment. Was there ever column erected which perpetua
 ted name and became such a blessing to mankind as the Astor library or the Cooper Institute? In these delightful and hospita- bic resoi ts we may in all weathers read and nwardly digest to our hearts content the choicest thoughts which have occurred to man, as well as the record of their bravest deeds. Let us then have a memorial hall. Within such hall, as we can imagine, there would be ample room on the walls to place within easy reading distance such a record of the names and the principal events in the lives of our soldiers as would awaken de sire to know more of them. To gratlfy thls desire there should be beneath the same roof easily accessible reference library, full and complete, free to- alto the citizen and to GI-. k1,oHf fC AhnUn the tablets would be an appropriate place for
 paintings Illustrating the deeds of valor, as
 well as portraits which would hand down to posterity the features Of the participants Much would be learned in this way for which the books would not be consulted. We should bear in mind that we are not building for ourselves alone, but for others who will come after us few years hence and those who took an nctive part in the war of the Rebellion will be gone, and those who take our places will know of us only from the printed page. They will read of us ln what to them will be the record of the past For this reason our memorial should provide not only for those who fell in the war of the Re- bellion, but also in the war that gave the na- ton life, and the others which made us re- spected on the seas and defined our southern border as well as the last one, which saved what the others won.
 How shall we secure the memorial we have outlined we nave. |OU,UUU LO eApcAo AOA this purpose. A stranger might say your idea is a good one, but proper site would cost more than the entire appropriation. But we already have a site without cost, one which could not be improved if we had un l limited money-central, quiet, possessing every possible advantage. 1 refer of course 1 to the old State House. Its walls are to day as true and solid as when first erected, and II all essential particulars the building is what | is uented With our appropriation skillful architect could transform the interior into l beautiful hall specially adapted to our pur- pose, and arrange for the library so much needed beneath the same roof. Preserving l the present perfect model, the exterior o1 the building can with comparatively small outlay become an ornament instead of dis grace, while either front can be made to tel | the simple story which will lead the passel 1 by to s.inquire within" There is no other 1 city in our whole country possessing such site with a building already erected, anc which only needs internal alterations and ex 1 ternal repairs-no radical changes-to make 1 it a perfect one for our purpose. In the
 very heart of our city, building which car l be seen from all quarters and covering tht wants and wishes of all, being hall ano monument combined, saving site worth al
 the least estimate $2O0,OOO, and giving te 1 the memory of our soldiers lasting memor1 l al one which, instead of being allowed to | crumble with time and neglect, will become
 an object of greater interest and more anc
 more valuable as the years roll on.