The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1891-01-04

| over The ROgerS bronze door, describes
each panel, gives the weight, and invari-
ably adds, 'cost, $4,000 The Craw-
ford bronze door in the senate wing gives
the guide another opportunity to quote
prices with all the rhetoric and impressive
ness of which he is capable 57 900, sir;
1000, ma'am And now look up" adds
the guide, ''and see the great group of fig
ures in the tympanum of the senate por-
tico. executed by Thomas Crawford, Amer
lean Civilization and Decadence of the
Indian races cost, $50, O0O-S50, 900, mum"
In the rotunda our guide finds a verita-
| BILE market place of works of art. The
huge canopy overhead, which appears so
small but is in reality, according to the
guide, an immense sheet of metal sixty
five feet in diameter cost 500, 800. The big
oil paintings in the panels OF the rotunda
cost small fortune. For the Landing
of Columbus at San Salvador" John Van
derlyn was paid $4,000; de Soto's Dis
covery of the Mississippi cost S12, 900;
''The Baptism of Pocahontas" and 'The
Embarkation of the Pilgrims" cost &c.
600 each. For the four scenes from the
Revolution, painted by Col. Trumbull, who
was Gen. Washingtons aid-de-camp, and
to whom Washington gave number Of
sittings attired in full uniform as COM
mander-in-chief of the Continental army,
congress paid $4,000.
| This was money well spent, but the ara
besque designs and medallion heads of Co.
lumbus. r aleigh, Cabot and La Sale above
the paintings, which cost So, $780, are failures
as works of art, though not so absurd as
the alto relieves cut in stone, representing
"Penn's Treaty with the Indians" 'sThe
Landing of the Pilgrims" Conflict Be-
tween Daniel Boone and the Indians" and
'The Preservation of John Smith by Po-
cahontas," which were placed over the
| four entrance doors at a cost of $4,000.
Congress should lose no time in sending
these clumsy, ridiculous things to the junk
shop, substituting for them some works of
| art.
How much the frieze of the rotunda will
cost no one knows, as the work is still I'M
finished. Brunidi started it, but died
when he was half way around the walls,
and Corrigini succeeded him. Years ago
the appropriation ran out and the work
stopped There hangs the scaffolding,
and there is huge blank space ready to
be filled in by the artists brush. Perhaps
one day in the next century Corrigini or
some other Italian will mount the scaffold
and resume the task. Up to date this
frieze has cost about s35, 900, and $4,000
more will be required to finish it.
Ten thousand dollars was expended for
busts and portraits of chief justices in the
supreme court chamber and robing room
The semi-heroic statue of Franklin at the
foot of one of the senatorial staircases cost
$4,000. The large painting, ''Battle OF
Lake Erie" cost $25, 900. Two bronze stair
cases, formed of entwining vines and
foliage, relieved with eagles, deer and
cupids, cost 500, 900. The frescoing IN the
senate reception room, the most gorgeously
decorated apartment in the Capitol cost
$4,000, or about as much as if it were COW
cred with $50 bills. In the vice presidents
room is the original of Peales painting of
Washington from life, for which the SEN
ate paid 1000
At the senate end of the Capitol we find
several other works of art. Horatio Stones
statue of John Hancock cost So, 500. The
large painting, "Storming of Chapulte-
pec," cost Sc, 600. Two beautiful paintings
by Thomas Moran, 1.-THE Canyon of the
Colorado" and '"The Yellowstone Gorge -
cost $4,000 each. The former is said by
many competent artists to be the finest
landscape painting in America. Another
of the newer works of srt in the senate
corridors is the BATTLE Between the Merri-
mac and Monitor" which cost 81, 500
One of the most remarkable paintings in
the Capitol is the Electoral Commission, !"
by Mrs. Fassett, which was the subject of
spirited debate in the senate chamber a
few days ago. 1t is vivid picture of one
OF the remarkable scenes of that crisis, and
it is said the faces of all the persons in the
picture, not alone the members of the COM
mission and attorneys, but spectators and
newspaper pen, are portraits from life.
In completing this extraordinary picture
Mrs. Fassett worked SO hard as to nearly
sacrifice her eyesight, for which the sum
given her by congress for her creation was
but poor compensation. Mrs Fassett want
ed SIS, 900 for the picture, but finally sold it
for just half that sum.
While Statuary hall was set apart for
contributions from the states, Uncle Sam
has spent considerable sums here. A semi
heroic statue of Alexander Hamilton cost
$4,000 Winnie Ream's cartoon of Abraham
Lincoln took S15,O 600 out of the treasury,
and other statues, busts and paintings now
displayed in this hall are estimated to have
cost the government $4,000.
Powers statue of Jefferson, in the house
wing, cost S10,000 Frank P. Carpenters
painting of Lincoln Signing the Procla-
nation of Emancipation" was 5,0O0 In
the hall of the house are two huge paint
ings by Albert Bierstadt, Settlement of
California" and Discovery of the Hudson
River" which cost $4,000 apiece. "West-
ward the Star of Empire" on the first
landing of the western staircase, cost
$4,000.
In many parts of the building, in cor
ridors and committee rooms, are lesser
works of art, whose aggregate cost must
have been 100000.
And how much has the Capitol cost as it
stands? No one knows. But here is an
estimate made in the Office of the architect
of the building, which is probably as near
right as anything that can be found:
Enlargement of site. Observation-Disclosures. $685., OOG
Old Capitol NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.. 2,?50,OOC
Renewal after British invasion. ........ 200, 00C
New dome. NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.. 125O, OOC
Extensions, senate and house Wings. 5000, O9L
Works of art now in building on grounds 10000
Furnishings, lighting, heating, ETC.. 2,75O OoC
Thenew terrace and marble approaches. 1900, O0C
Permanent value of improvement Of
grounds. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS. 100000
Total .S19, 235, OOC
This sum represents the cost of the
grounds and building as they are today.
Up to date the appropriations of congress
on account of the Capitol, refurnishing,
care, police, ETC., are said to amount to