The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-03-01


ready allowed him." He went On to say
that ito himself, it seemed something
like Jewing the Government to send
them an incomplete thing, and then
claim to do the residue for new com
pensation." He ridiculed the statue
roundly and said, in commenting upon
its want Of drapery, that he must con-
feSs it had on him much the same effect
| II had on a gentleman OF Maryland, one
! OF the old school, who, having heard so
! much said of the statue, mounted his
horse and rode a long distance purposely
10 look at it. Having hitched his horse
before the capitol he mounted the steps
and entered the rotunda, where after
looking at the statue for a few seconds
he turned from it as he said the fater
of his country would do, who was the
most modest OF men,
After exhausting himself in ridiculing
the naked statue of George Washing
ton" MT. Wise turned his attention to
the inscription on the back, which he
characterized as bad Latin. written In
Italy At Mr.. Filmore's interposition, the
chair here called Mr.. Wise to order for
| irrelevancy, but he was not done with the
Latin. He criticised the use of the i'm
perfect tense 'faciebat' for 'fecit' and
went on to say that "a countryman en-
terlng the rotunda by the library door,
naturally ask, Who is this?' And look
ing at the inscription, would say to HIM
self. Stimuli Acrum! Who is Stimuli Ac-
rum? But the next word Gstud) would
tell him" The speaker further said that
The preferred seeing Washington as Hou-
don had represented him in the statue in
the Capitol at Richmond, about which
Persico, the sculptor, had told him this
anecdote. When ne had visited Richmond
he had gone to see the statue. Now, Per-
sico, although an Italian, gesticulated
with all the extravaganza of a French
man, and as he stood looking at it in ad-
miration OF the beautiful head, expressed
by gestures his Sbhorrence Of the dress
and figure, and his wish that the head
could be cut off and preserved, while the
rest was destroyed. A Virginia sentinel.
who was always On guard in the space
before the statue, seeing the foreigner
making signs to show his wish to cut of
| Washington's head, very unceremoniously
| stepped up to him. saying: There's the
| door! Begoner So in regard to this
statue OF >Greenough II the head could
be preserved he would vote to throw the
| body into the Potomac TO hide it from
| the eye of all the world, lest the world
| should think that that was the peoples
| conception of their nations father
Not long after the appropriation for
| the removal had been made, GTeenough,
! convinced as ne says, that "the descent
| Of the light upon the work is SO nearly
vertical as to throw all the lower portions
| of the face into shade, and to give
false and constrained effect to the whole
| monument memorialized Congress to re-
move the statue to the grounds in front
| of the western facade of the Capitol The
| position recommended a few days later
| by the committee was in the open green
space in the eastern grounds. lying Gil
| rectly In front of the main entrance TO
| the rotunda, and between the two grav-
| eled shaded walks leading eastward from
| the Capitol through those grounds"
| In his memorial. Greenough takes oc-
| casion to answer his detractors for their
| criticisms of his statue ON the score of
! nakedness, When contemporary designs
had portrayed Frederick the Second with
| his huge walking stick, and his prepos-
| ferrous queue, when the sculptors of the
| age OF Louis XIV had deliberately copied
! the redundant periwig the cumbrous robes,
| and stiited shoes Of that monarch. with
out doubt the assembled courts of France
| and of Prussia saw in these representa-
| tons, images as imposing as they were
! exact What is the effect which they now
produce? Irresistible laughter.
! In the celebrated group OF Laocoon.
! that parsonage, though overtaken by the
ministers of vengeance while officiating at
tifical robes. He Is naked. Though the
Romans had not only distinct national
costume but different dresses for the
several orders in the state, yet the Sen
ate to record its veneration for Pompey
erected within its halls a naked statue
OF that champion Though Napoleon gave
what has to many, seemed an undue at
tention to his imperial attire and though
the associations connected with his gray
coat and his three-cornered hat always
commanded the enthusiasm of the army,
vet when Canova was called on to cross
the Alps that he might give to posterity
the image of the Emperor, il was without
either the ciap-trap of the palace, or the
conventional sublime of the uniform, that
he chose to appear before his successors.
He was represented naked. y
Your memorialist." continues Green |
ough, having already outllved the sneer
with which It was intended to crush /
his hrst effort to make a bust of a dis !
tingushed fellow citizen without a shirt
trusts that the prejudice which has yield |
ed in these few years the neck ana shout |
ders as objects. not unfit TO be looked =
upon will continue to decline before the !
efforts OF high art, until his successors !
IN sculpture shall be enabled to show |
that the inspired writer meant not merely |
the face. when he declared that God had ,
made man after HIS own image
The Limitation OF the contract regarding |
cost was as freely exceeded as its re- /
quirements in design. From 1882 to 1896 |
inclusive. four appropriations Of 5000 each
were voted by Congress 10 pay for
the statue. and the act OF 1871. already /,
referred to. provided $1,000 more. or as
much thereof as might be necessary
Thus far. this horseless pedestrian"
statue has cost the government. includ-
ing the amounts paid TO the artist, for
work and materials the cost OF trans
portatiou from Itsis 10 tho navy yard,
from that place to the rotunds and
thence 20 lts present site. N2isoTi
The Inflated statue is artistic but