Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-12-16

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we have produced some really marvellous
artistic effects.
Take, for instance, the sight offered
the man who travels on the railroad from
Pittsburg through the line Of iron and
steel towns which stretch along the Mo-
nongahela. I shall never forget a jour-
ney l thus made year or SO ago. The
morning was misty. with showers Of rain.
The flames from the pipes and doors OF
the blast furnaces fiickered red through
the haze. The huge chimneys and ma
chinery were of strange and monstrous
shapes. From the tunnels the smoke
came saffron, orange, green and blue. like
a landscape of Turner'S. What a chance
for an artist of real genius! Again. some
day people will realize that one effect of
the sky scrapers. in New York, Of the
masslng of buildings of enormous size
and height on an island surrounded by
waterways, has been to produce city
of singularly imposing type and Of I'M
exampled picturesqueness. A great artist
will yet arise to bring before our eyes
the powerful irregular skyline Of the
great city at sunset. or in the MONDAY
brightness. and. above all. at night, when
the lights flash from the dark. noun
famous mass of buildings, from the state
iy bridges that span the East river and
from the myriad craft that blaze as they
ply to and fro across the waters.
Field of Pure Art.
But this is incidental. Our success in
the field of pure art, as in the fields of
pure literature and pure science. has been
behind the success we have achieved in
providing. by the practical application of
art and science. for bodily comfort bod
lily welfare and for the extraordinary in
dustrial mechanism which forms the
framework and skeleton Of our modern
civilization. The twilight Of letters con-
tinues. but much is now being done in
the field of art, and Saint Gaudens was
an artist who can hardly be placed too
high.
Before touching on his larger feats. a
word as to something of less but yet of
real Importance. Saint Gaudens gave us
for the first time a beautiful coinage. a
coinage worthy of this country, coinage
not yet properly appreciated. but up to
which both the official and the popular
mind will in the end grow.
Regards Coins as Beautiful.
THE first few thousands of the Saint
Gaudens gold coins are, l believe. more
beautiful than any coins since the days
of the Greeks. and they achieved their
striking beauty because Saint Gaudens not
only possessed a perfect mastery in the
physical address of his craft, but also a
daring and original imagination His
full-length figure Of Liberty holding the
torch is his own conception. His flying
IL
own way equally good. His head OF
Liberty is not only a strikingly beautiful
head. but enthusiastically and typically
American In that for the headdress he
has used one of the few really typical.
and at the same time really beautiful,
pieces of wearing gear ever produced in
dependently on this continent-the bon
net of eagle plumes.
THE comments so frequently made upon
this eagle-feather headdress illustrate
,ri0 Y1c1r- fha ~ ,eal
character of much of our criticism and
the frequent inability to understand origl-
nality until it has won its place. Most of
the criticism was based upon the assump-
ton that only an Indian could wear a
feather headdress. and that the head of
Liberty ought to have Phrygian cap. or
Greek helmet. or some classic equivalent.
Classed as Nonsense.
Now. of course. this was nonsense.
There is no more reason why a feather
headdress should always be held to denote
an Indian than why Phrygian cap
should always be held to denote Phry-
gan. The Indian in his own way finely
symbolizes freedom and a life of liberty.
1t is idle to insist that the head or inquire
Of Liberty shall only appear in the hack
neyed and conventional trappings which
conventional and unoriginal minds have
gradually grown to ascribe to her A
great artist with the boldness OF genius
could see that the American Liberty
should, if possible, have something dis
tinctively American about her; and 1t was
an addition to the sum of the art OF all ma
tons that this particular figure OF Liberty
should not be a mere slavlSh copy OF all
other figures of Liberty.
$50 Saint Gaudens puts the American
Liberty in an American headdress. Up
to the time of this coin the most beautl.
full American coin was the small Solo
TIL ,n1 10
with the feather headdress, and we now
again have the smaller gold coinage WIN
the Indians head; but Saint Gaudens'
was the head of Liberty, the head OF the
American Liberty. and 1t was eminehliy
fitting that such a head should carry
very beautiful and a purely and charac-
teristically American headdress.
Mention of Larger Work.
so much for the Saint Gaudens coins.
In dealing with his larger work l can'
of course, speak only as a layman. But
the work of a very great artist must De
judged by the impression it makes not
only upon other artists, but also upon lay
men. l know well the danger of passing
Judgment about the great men of the
present, for any such judgment must be
made with full knowledge that 1t may De
falsified when things are seen through
the perspective of the ages. Yet can
not but hazard guess that SAINT SIau
dens' works will stand in the forefront
among the masterpieces of the scuiptors
of the greatest periods and the greatest
peoples He worked among his own
people, and his work was of his own time
but yet 1t was of all time, for In his SUD-
iect he ever seized and portrayed that
which was undying.
His genius had that lofty quality OF
insight which enables a man to see to the
root of things to discard all trappings
that are not essential, and to grasp close
at hand in the present the beauty ana
majesty which in most mems eyes are
dimmed until distance has softened the
harsh angles and blotted out the trivial
that peculiar kind of genius in which a
soaring imagination is held in check by
a self-mastery which eliminates all risk
of the fantastic and the overstrained. He
knew when to give the most complete
rein to his imagination. He also knew
when to turn to the men and women
about him, and to produce his great ef-
fects by Dortraying them as they actually
were-anc yet as a little more than they
seemed to all but the most clear-sighted.
because under his hand the soul within
appeared, no less than the mans phys
ical being.
Statue of Gen. Sherman.
Take his extraordinary statue of
Gen. Sherman. There never was a more
typically democratic general than gaunt,
grizzled old Tecumseh Sherman. home
Iy and simple in all his ways. and yet
with the courage of tempered steel.
When ! heard that Saint Gaudens in
tended to have this typically modern