The Mitchell capital. (Mitchell, Dakota [S.D.]) 1879-1918, 1907-12-20

.airs. The real cause rests with tho
conservative people. More than one
treasury official has felt the force Of a
censalious press for AN honest and a
property directed attempt at improve
1ment. iTor instance, Secretary Chase
was severely criticised by some for
placing Tire motto I'm God We TTust"
on The coins. and President Roosevelt
is taken to task for emitting it. Ot
might be we'll to keep it on the coin
lest VIC ~forget.'D And it is a notable
fact that the rejected patterns for
United States coins are In many iii
stances far superior to the models &C
tually chosen.
y careful study of these rejected pat
terms reveals the fact that in choosing,
the We'll known prejudices of the people
and press nave been carefully kept iii
mind. The interested officials knew
well what would be the Consequences
of anything novel and fresh.
limitations in Favor.
The result of this tyranny OF preju-
dice and weakness of tilnorOuS officials
has been the p~erpetnation, by constant
imitation, of the atrocious uglinoss and
coarseness of our coin types. The
artist who in 1888 produced the design
for the eagle evidently initiated the
head Oh the copper cent of the time.
He knew what he must do to succeed.
That same process of imitation
has characterized practically every at
tempt to improve u coins: imitation
either of earlier works to which the
people had become accustomed and had
come to regard us 'all right" or still
worse. In some respects, imitation OF
foreign coins
If the new piece was an imitation.
more or less close, of some established
coin, past experience would warrant the
assurance that there would be no UNI
favorable criticism of it. e
1t is Very strange indeed that the
eagle on the reverse should come in for
SO much criticism at this late date;
representation should be familiar to
Philadelphians at least. The same bird
exactly is to be found at the top of
republics shield on the Garfield monu-
ment down on the River drive. 1t
again occurs on the ST. Gaudens reverse
of the Columbian exposition medal of
1893; it occurs Oh several others of that
gifted artists works and until now has
been admired. 1t is certainly a splen-
did representation of the golden eagle.
and as frequently admired. The model
ing and poise of the bird on the coin
canno be surpassed. And yet many
profess an aversion to it.
The Eagles Leg Feathers.
You hear, for instance, that the bald
the eagle on the coins of the United
States. A strange statement. indeed.
The coins of the country had borne AN
eagle OF some sort for more than a
score of years before the bald eagle had
been noted and described. Not until
1914 did the great Audubon succeed i'm
making the first reliable description of
that bird. The bald eagle is a rather
rare bird and known to but few Ameri-
cans.
The leg feathers of this bird seem to
get onto the nerves of some people and
vet the artist has done them CORRECTLY.
That will be readily seen BY consulting
an illustrated work on natural history,
as Moods Natural History page 1852,
or Nuttall. Birds of the United States
ana Canada" page Is. The description
given by the former is: Color. dark
brown; head and neck, tawny brown:
legs feathered to the toes" The naked
run seems to disturb some people
fine clio AS to the Indian head there
is little need to discuss that at length
here. Persons who have spent much
time in The Indian country will not
hesitate to pronounce the features
typically Indian.
The talk about its being an Irish girl
is absurd; an Irish girl may have been
the artists model. An Italian has in
recent years been the model for the
finest Indian figures ever produced. An
artist does not slavishly copy his model.
The modelling is certainly superb and
q careful observer soon discovers that
there is meaning in the face. Nothing
more could be required of the artist.
The ~ddr ma seem novel, but it
is not untrue, and it is certainly beauti-
fully lone.
The treatment of the inscriptions de-
serves special notice. In the chapter
devoted to Mr.. St. Gaudens in his ex-
cellent volume on american Sculp-
ture," MI. dorado Taft, himself a seulp-
tor, celebrates at length the con-
summate skill With which his sub
ject handled the inscriptions that must
be placed upon his works.
The individual letters, to speak of de-
tails, have a rounded instead Of a fiat
surface, Il form that renders them
much less obtrusive than they would
be if, as is usual, they had a flat sur