The San Francisco call., 1896-02-16
THE WINGLEsS ANGEL.

Above the dome of our City Hall there
is to stand the tlgure of an angel without
wings. This is not the first time that men
have chosen such symbol to represent
what they fondly hoped to have as the
tutelary deity or animating spirit of their
civic life. Ages ago the old Athenians
raised above the gateway of the Acropolis
wingless victory. They made her wing
less that she might never fly from Athens,
that where they had perched her there
would she stay and victory be with the
Violet City forever.
The age of sym bolism is over. We have
passed beyond that stage of intellectual
development when symbols, by exciting
the imagination, could powerfully affect
the conduct or even the faith of men.
Few people in our country, or, indeed, in
our time, see anything in art beyond the
art itself. That class of men of whom it
was written, "a primrose on the rivers
brim yellow primrose was to him, and it
was nothing more" is the class to which
most of US belong. We may not expect.
therefore, that there will be any wide ac-
ceptance in this City of the symbolism of
the wingless angel. In fact, if such SYM
bolism should occur to any it would most
likely give rise to a Jest. q sarcasm or a
sneer rather than to any thought of beauty
or of grace.
There is a symbolism in our wingless
angel, however, and although q scoffing
world may ignore it or mock at it, to all
those who delight in fair things it will
come again and again with a quiet insist
ence. Truly we must regard the symbol
ism OF it If We expect at all 20 regard it
with pride. 1t is no immortal work, like
the wingless victory of Athens. Such shat
tered fragments of it as remain after a
thousand years will not be gathered up
and treasured as thing of beauty and a
Joy forever. What it symbolizes is what
we must see in it If it is to be of any value
to US, or of any significance beyond that
of Gaping the climax of long Job.
We need not seek far for the symbolic
meaning of our angel of the City Hall.
The coincidence of the erection of this
figure at a time when there is arising
in the City new spirit of harmony,a new
impulse impelling the people to work to-
gether for good things, new sense of civic
patriotism, a new consciousness of the
great destiny that awaits San Francisco
and new feeling of the responsibility
which that destiny imposes on the indi-
vidual citizen. makes the statue to some
extent the natural emblem of the spirit
that now animates the people. Our wing
less angel, that having no power of flight
is to stay with us forever, is therefore
neither more nor less than a symbo of
civic patriotism, and it rightly has its
place above the stately edifice where the
life OF the city has its center and its power.
1t is an assured truth that if we can main
tain in the City that spirit which for nearly
year now has been growing more and
more dominant among the people, we will
be able to achieve many things which at
present seem hardly more than far-off
possibilities. 1t was once written of Jerusa-
lem that her young men dreamed dreams
of splendor and her old men saw visions Of
glory. The same might well be written of
our own golden City by the Golden Gate
to the worlds great orient ocean. The
splendors OF which the youth of this gene
ration dream, before they are old may be
realized glories. All that is needed to
achieve it is that the spirit of true patri-
otism be kept steadfast in the homes that
are the altars of the City and in the halls
where its laws are ordained. That it
should remain thus steadfast must be the
desire of all good men and it is this de-
sire that endows with lofty symbolism
the wingless angel that guards the City
Hall