San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-08-23
SINGLE SATURDAYS.

play IN the WORLDS FAIR is most
poetical and appropriate one.
At the source of most great achieve
ments, we find the influence of some
woman, and the feminine element
was not lacking in the machinery
which discovered q New World"
1t was to the courage and common
sense of Isabella of CASTLE" that
Columbus owed the funds for his first
voyage. and it was to her untimely
death that he owed his subsequent
neglect and despair.
Miss Harriet Hosmer, the great
sculptor, has promised to execute a
magnificent statue of the gracious
Spanish queen to be officially unveiled
at Chicago in 1892. The cost will be
So, 900, and it is to pay this sum, that
the "Queen Isabella Association"
has been formed.
Eliza Allen Storr has written life
of the Castilian sovereign, which is
published by G. V. Waite & Co., Chi
cagO.
1t lies before me at present, sent to
a friend by a sister from st. Mary's
Academy, Austin.
What more beautiful and suitable
than that the church, which Queen
we'll, should advocate her right to
hold place N our coming pageanP
The net proceeds OF the book are to
go to the association. and the same
will probably be large one.
1t treats of Isabella as woman,
wife, a mother, a sovereign, a benifi-
cent and powerful factor everywhere.
1t does not pretend to sketch the tur-
bulent period of her reign, but con-
centrates the light on that part of her
history which bears on ours.
The dainty portrait which forms the
frontispiece, shows her to us in her
royal robes holding a prayer book in
her hand and dreaming, we suppose,
of that new land across the waves,
which she designed to make para
disc.
The association will build pavil-
ion for the use of its members in 1892,
where they will meet each other and
be entitled to the comforts of rest and
pleasant conversation.
At the conclusion of the Fair, the
mem bers of the Association will vote
III lno pcIhauOhV awning PioNO Va
the statue.
A certificate of membership, is sent
to anybody who sends one dollar TO
the Headquarters Queen Isabella
20 State street Chicago.
1t occurs to me, that San Antonio Is
the most suitable city to secure the
statue permanently.
We have the Spanish name, the
Spanish traditions, the old missions
which her own monks built. With
some careful forethought, and a
little organizing among ourselves,
might we not manage to secure 1t.
l merely throw out the suggestion,
lured by the vision of the statue on
the plaza, where it could keep our
projected Alamo monument company.
1t would soothe with its gentle
womanliness, the memory of that
tragedy which happened on the same
spot, perpetrated by nation, one
which her descendants ruled.
The work has interested many of
the prominent women all over the
country.
Besides Miss Storr's exquisite book,
Miss Hosmer has made q princely gift
W luo III iCCo tLoh hSA
celebrated "Clasped. Hands"
The history of this is very touching
for the hands are those of Robert
Browning and his wife, Elizabeth
Barrett Browning, the poet souls,
that clasped their earthly hands in
a perfect marriage.
The piece is one for which Mrs.
Hosmer has refused large sums, and
is supposed to have inspired the fol-
lowing beautiful lines of Mrs. Brown
ing:
O! wilt thou have my hand, dear, to
lie along in thine!
AS little stone in q running stream
it seems to lie and pine,
Now drop the poor pale hand, dear,
unfit to plight with thine!
O! wilt thou have my soul, dear, COM
mingled with thy soul?
Red grows the cheek and warm the
hand, the past is in the whole,
Nor hands nor hearts keep separate
when soul is joined to soul.
REBA GREGORY PRELAT,
San Antonio, Texas.