Omaha daily bee., 1896-11-14
GRANTS TOMB AT RIVERSIDE
Minute Description of the Great Captains
Last Camping Ground.
THE SCENIC SURROUNDINGS SUPERB
Divided Opinions ms To Its Artistic
Mcrits-Nnpo1con's ut Paris and
FrcdcriclS's Mt Potsdnm
Compared with IL.

SttutlltS Sultlbs NAlg VI NiN N''i'N'N' W
New York. writes George Alfred Townsend
in the Boston Globe, have become reconciled
to the form. Others are well affected by the
ease of the proportions, as, for instance, one
man OF travel who alleged that the base
was not over fifty or sixty feet square, till
| paced it and proved 1t in his sight to be
ninety.
He also thought It was about 100 feet
high, when | demonstrated that 1t was 15I
feet. and | think the dome of the capitol is
only twcnty-three feet higher. After these
demonstrations OF it's extent, my Travelled
friend reserved judgment, while his wife
said she sincerely admired the structure.
nut one of the men in its direction ad-
mitted to me that the design of the monu-
mcnt was below the mark; he said that the
efficient and present direction inherited the
design and was not half pleased with the
expenditure of $500 600 upon 1t.
The square of the edifcc, which is seventy
FIVE to ninety feet, seems to me Respectable,
except that the portico, which Is Doric'
with also n row OF columns reversed, seems
too low and small for the facade, and a
nearly blank wall rises behind the portico
to a heavy height. which they say, is not
TO he relieved at present by the four
equestrian statues in the plan, which were
to have been stood upon the portico. the
cornice Of this square or basement is rlch'
but next rises a drum upon the basement.
also with plain, rather dreary, base, ana
the abrupt change from cube to drum seems
| to break the feeling. especially as the drum
! Is surrounded with Ionic columns also
| breaking the order. These columns are so
! clearly relieved and emphatically
| cornicod that they carry the eye to the less
| rather than the superior part of the build
| ing. The drum has a stone cone above 1t,
| and Is rather nakedly eavCd. but carrying
around its low crown barely defined line
| OF fasces surmounted with eagles, all in the
| nature of stunted pilasters.
Funcbras or urns were intended to adOrn
the corners below the dome and trophies are
to be placed upon the coping which rises
below that, and which, thought, detractcd
| from the severe square and rich cornice
| under IL.
ALLEGED IIPERFECTIONS.
While clearly n tomb there are two
| thoughts in 1t lacking the single soul. While
height is attained. it is hardly harmonious
| height. cenotaph stands rather irrele-
vanity upon a temple, or a lanthorn upon a
| mausoleum; the profile lines are stiff and
| the feeling Is not flowing, but With abrupt
| checks as whore the accented dram flares
out into a scalloped crest line and then the
dome itself peeps quakerly and primly out
! OF this hollyhock-lke border. propulsion,
| a single fight, an ascending idea lost in the
| skies. is not allowed.
After | wrote the above I went again to
| III ant lOlllbs lulS lllllt dSttUAlUS from the
| deep street directly below and getting the
! od.ilce at tie top of a horizon and askew, so
| that I saw the front and side at the came
| time. which broke and heightened the base
| and placed the lanthorn over the middle of
| the broken perspective. The effect was much
| improved and ! thought the recessed order
| OF columns in the other three sides to be
more within the mausOleum idea than the
| one extended portico. The monotone OF ma
! tcrial, all of one granite skin from a quarry
0f In ra In tod oh,
| Improving the unity.
| When the immediate border is graded at .
! cost of $4,000, and the farther borders re-
| coive three times as much filling and elop-
| ing, the ediicc will hatch like young eagle
out of its egg.
THE STRUCTURE AS IT Is.
Presenting General Porter's pass to Mr..
shine, the porter, he took me alone all over
the work, from the crypt to the base of the
roof.
We first climbed the two outer flights OF
steps, ten and seven respectively, with a
wide platform and plain abutmcnts be-
| tween. Some of the platform slabs are
| twenty-five feet long.
Then we entered the cube and after look
ing at the timbered interior still in the plas-
| ter mOulder's hands, we climbed siXty-nine
| steps In one OF the two corner circular
| stairs Of iron and came out above the in
| terror looking down upon II. Here there
| arc three sets of triple windows on the four
| Sides OF the Cr0ss-shaped interior each of
| the twelve windows nearly ten feet square
We stepped outside on the brick roof, be-
hind the high, pedimental coping, and
| aScended ladder some sixteen feet high
| to the base of the Ionic drum. We then
| entered an. iron door and climbed a two
| foot iron star,in partial darkness between
| the granite drum and plaster DOME the
| latter covered well up above by wooden
| pitched roof, TO carry off any leakage or
condensation from the solid slabs of granite
| roof above that
From the top of this second stair we
| stepped into the open air again, about lIO
| feet above the base line, with the noble
| landscape ringing the Athenian city all be-
| low us.
Horace Porter, who built the tomb. is
| son of a democratic governor OF Penn
| sylvannia, and a native of Harrisburg.
Duncan. the architect Is a lame man.
who came from New York to Louisiana.
| Grace, eX-mayor, who procured Grant S
| remains from his family and the site from
| the city is a Roman Catholic. native OF
| Ireland, with an American Puritan-reared
| wife from Maine.
The granite of the exterior is from Maine,
| the marble from Lee, Mass, and from Italy.
! and they say the sarcophagus is to come
from the west of red granite or some por-
| phyryish stone.
DIMENSIONS AND MATERIAL.
The dimensions of the tomb of Grant are
one sees it from the floor of the crypt, 1876
| feet; the cord of the dome across its spring
| A feet; the four great arches In the cross
| recesses, 3j feet wide and /! feet thick; the
opening above the crypt, 20 feet; the area
around the railing above, 35 feet clear. In
the arches are places in each for fifty-two
| plaster bosses Five recesses either side OF
the crypt for groups or tablets are near seven
feet square, segment-arChed.
| The Italian marble for wainsCots and
inches, the Lee marble for the walls, will
give the whole interior of the tomb the
polished whitenoss of the sepucher, and at
the far SUBMITS cement plaster Is the
| material, set on iron frames, even the parts
| OF iluted columns in the apertures below
the dome being of cement. Italian and Lee
marble cutters are now on a strike, the
latter wanting 20 lay the steps, etc, they
have dressed.
The ornaments within the dome are a
series OF eagles displayed in the freze with
wreaths between, and plain medalions or
| bosses on the conCaye side Brick Is the
covering for the two exposed levels, and the
brickmaker, with disregard OF the one
human name to be honored there, has
nodded his big initials in every brick, setting
bad example to future writer's OF the
inconsequential names upon the tomb. One
stone OF the coping weighs seventeen tons.
The whole exterior Of the tomb is done ex-
cept some carving OF shields, etc. an>
some metal eAorescences. Statuary was
literally put in the plan, but the equestrian
Grant on the steps, the four mounted figures