The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1906-06-01
GREAT WAR MEMORIALS
Noble Structures Reared to %conquerirs
Heroes-The Temples and Arches
of Martial France.

OF MARTIAL francs.
Triumphal and memorial arches IN
honor OF great or to cont
memorate glorious victories date from
n heroic 6 of Rome. The ancient
Roman instituted a solemn festival OF
procession to celebrate Victories aud
made 1t a stimulus to martial exploits
A general honored with a triumph thus
received the highest award which the
state granted to its conquering heroes
Preceded by his spells and captivea
the victor entered the city in a chario,
Drawn by four horses. He was fol.
lowed by his whole army and, after .
stately march along the Via Sacra, as.
cended to the capitol and sacrificed .
bull to the god Jupiter.
A Roman triumph was granted by
the senate, and the occasion for IL
could not be e%quivocal. For instance
a general must have gained important
successes in battle after having hello
one of the great offices Of state, or the
victory must have been won by his
own troops under his immediate per-
sonal direction. One cause for the
high honor was the Staying of 5000
enemies In a single battle with positive
advantage to the Roman state. But in
all cases the successes must have been
gained over a foreign enemy and not
in a civil war. the national domain eX-
tended and not merely recovered and
the victory so decisive that the army
might safely be withdrawn from the
conquered country.
The last Roman triumph, and the
350th in its history, was celebrated A.
stantinople after overthrowing the
Vandals. No general had beer hon
ored by a triumph for over five CEN
turtles. hence Belisarius was the first
and only Roman so distinguished in the
Christian era. q
Triumphal and memorial arches also
originated with the Romans. and their
capital city was at various times
adorned with them to the number OF
twenty-one. The greatest of these is
that OF Titus, concentrating his con-
quests.
AS France has been ambitious to
DOS as the modern Rome. we MAJ
look to the banks of the Seine for du-
plications of the famous memorial
structures which have at some time
adorned the city on the Tiber. Louis
XIV. created h triumphal arches
known as Portes ST. Denis n st.
Martin. on the sites Of the former city
gates opening out of those venue
After a series Of glorious triumphs, in
which ancient kingdoms We're hum
bled by the power OF his rms Napo-
leon, in 1906, erected the Arc de Tri-
omphe du Carrousel at the entrance to
the court Of the Tuileries. Above this
SIlldOldIuISs WHICH aPoIl lSl
C%orinthian columns of red Languedoc
marble, is the famous Bellona in her
car, drawn by four horses, a reproduce
ton Of that on the piazza Of st. Marks
at Venice. Colossal statues Of Victory.
Peace, History and France surmount
the stone bastions of two gateways on
either side of the arch. In 1906 also
Napoleon began the erection OF the no.
BILE Arc de Triomphe de l'Etoile, espe-
cially to commemorate the victory over
the Prussians and Austrians, which
won for him his Austrian consort.
Princess Marie Louise. This magnifl-
structure was placed on the crown
of the hill at the extremity OF the
Avenue des Champs Ulysses. just out
side the old city barriers. The four
fronts are adorned with groups forty
feet high, in VIII h the figures stand
twenty feet nigh. The top of the arch,
which a be easily assembled, affords
toric sections of P~ris, so that the me-
mortal serves in a double sense to inn
press upon posterity the glorious g
Of the Corsican.
In the famous Hotel des Invaiides Paris
has at once an asylum for mans chief
victims-the manned and decrepit veteran
of many battles-a monument recalling
the most glorious pages of the martial his
tory of France and a memorial arch and
hall and a mausoleum holding the remains
of the greatest of her warriors, Louis XIV.
the Grand MonarQue, conceived the noble
institution, and under Napoleon and his
successors the original design OF a home
for veterans has been enlarged upon until
the edifice. with its many amplitications,
forms a magnificent temple dedicated at
once to glory and to humanity.
The hotel is reached by crossing tho
Seine over the noble Pont des Invalides,
which opens out OF the Champs Elysees.
The bridge leads toSthe Esplanade des In
valides, a fine open space facing the river
and also the Champs Elysees on the other
side. The hotel Enclosure begins with a
rallied court, where are displayed trophies
Of battle in the shape of n captured
in the wars of Louis and of Napoleon. Be-
You'd the court are the little gardens which
the veterans accupy and amuse them
selves in attending. The principal entrance
to the hotel is under a grand arch sur
mounted by a statue of Louis XIV. But
this is only a single feature of a front ex-
tending over GOO feet. The building accom-
modatcs many thousand soldiers, and with
Its dependencies covers 16 acres of ground.
The principal court in the i4terior, called
the Ceur d'Honneur, is 315 feet long by 1872
broad. In vaults beneath two churches,
which nave been included in the structure.
are the remains of the most celebrated
warriors of France, those of Napoleon
being in a separate mausoleum erected
under the magnificent dome Of a church
especially to receive them when removed
from st. Helena 10 $40.
This republic has been lavish In erect
ing memorials to Individual var heroes
and to mark the scene Of innumertble
battle from colonial times down to the
struggle Of 1861. Those concentrating
the revolution and the civil wal arc. the
most numerous and the most elaborate.
Scarcely one OF the noted leaders of those
conflicts but has his deeds embiazoned
enduring bronze or marble. Owing
to the liberal cooperation of the feoeral
government and the states the sites of old
battlefelds are being laid out as parks and
embellished with shafts and monuments to
mark the lines Of battle and identity the
troops engaged.
State. county and town memorials to
lie soldiers and sailors Of the civil war
may be counted by the hundred They
stand as tributes to valor, not to individ-
ual fame. Two of the most imposing of
these are the Memorial arch. at the en-
trance to Connecticut river bridge, in
park. Hartford, and the elab-
crate structure in Monument circle. In
%dianapolis. This last bears the inscrtp-
ton. ITO Indiana's Silent Victors. by a
Grateful Sta.e" Tho soyoro1 ro,,pt{as 40