The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-11-17
The Diana Of the Tower.

Now that the gilders have clothed the
Diana on the tower of Madison Square gar
den with q suit of gold, and the unseemly
swathings of canvas have been removed, it
il possible to judge of the artistic value of
the statue. Certainly the architects and
the sculptor are bold men to make so
much of a weather vane, for the art in it
is likely to be ignored because it is merely
. weathercock and because it flies 30 high
above our heads. There is something IN
dignified about a weathsYoook, moreover,
turning restlessly as it does, and damned
forever by the various proverbial express
sions to which it gives point. This has not
restrained these courageous persons from
presenting New York with a vane before
which all other weathercocks pale and
dwindle.
The brazsn lady who skips about on the
roof of the dogana at Venice is not 80
shapely as the New York Diana, nor does
She is not easily understood at first; indeed,
she appears to be a somnambulist who has
awaked in broad daylight without so much
as a shift to hide Ter, and is snatching fran
tically at a sheet which the wind has filed
like a sail and is about to carry off. The
nude lady of the dogana is not in a hurry,
and therefore she suits perfectly the atmos-
phere of Venice. Our Diana, on the other
hand, is a true American; for she ia in snch
haste that even while taking aim she can
not stop, but must risk a miss for the pleas
ure of being on the move. Forever seeming
to fly past the tower, with one toe just graz.
i~- xLn -,l1aI hn11 ,Ia nl,D s,-a nro
stantly this way and that in a way that Di-
ana herself might not approve.
If we suppose that the Venetian workman
intended a sarcasm at the expense of wo-
man with his ev~er-changing damsel: if the
yane on the dogma means donna . mobile.
may we also suppose that our Diana SYM
bolizes women of a different sort, vet
equally changeable of mood? The dogana
of Venice displays a copper Venus; the
pleasure palace of New York q virgin hunt
ress. The one is a type of passive women
who are content to be loved; the other
those whose active nature seeks occasions
to pierce men with the shafts of ridicule.
The Venetian a represents the
of the old times; the New York vane is
based on the women of the New World,
Only in one point has Mr.. st. Gaudens be-
lied his country women. The drapery of
his Diana, such as it is, could not assume
a stiff, cast-iron outline like the handle of
a teapot or the loop Of a pretzel. The
sooner this defect is mended the better.
The nudity Of the Diana by MIR. st. Gau-
dens might not suggest itself as nakedness
to ordinary minds were not Philadelphia
always with us to reprove, exhort, and, by
example, teach. Morality. personal and
political, is at a great height in PhiladeN
phia, 80 that none mead feel surprise to
learn that our Diana is considered a sign
of 1.-THE depraved artistic taste of New
York." because she is clad Every much ps
Mr.. Keats depicted her in his poem" that
is to say, as she showed herself to Endyn,-
ion. But that is q mistake on the part of
P~hiladelphians. who gladly spring to the
attack of New York. Neither in look nor
in drapery is there a suggestion of Diana's
one frailty; she is all severity and lively
grace; from the expression of her ccunten-
ance it is plain that She is bent On striking
some game more dstestable than stag or
shaggy bear. Her every gesture t~esti1ies
that she is on the track of Actnon, u pru-
RENT creature who pseped at the goddess
and her nymphs. Actaon to-day would
live in Philadelphia.-New York Times,