Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1910-02-06
TRUTHS IN TABLETS
Inscriptions on Ends of Union
Station Facade.
DR.. CHAS. W. ELIOT AUTHOR
Thoughts in Connection With
Travel and Transportation in
Large, Bold Letters.

Few, perhaps, of the vast throngs that
daily pass through the Union station,
either coming to or departing from the
city. have ever paused to read. If. indeed
they have ever noticed at all. the inscrip-
lions in the tablets that form a part OF
it's facade. Just why they were placed
there, or the intention which conceived
the necessity for them, perhaps fewer still
may surInise. Yet in large, bold. raised
letters. SO plain that any one may read
them at some distance. they proclaim
their truths and are doubtless intended &c
suggest some thought in connection with
the subjects of travel and transportation
D. III. Burnham & Co. of Chicago were
the architects who designed the building
and PIERCE Anderson is the member OF
that firm who conceived its architectural
beauty and its practical adaptation to the
purposes for which it was designed. Mr.
Burnham invited DR.. Charles w. Eliot
president emeritus of Harvard. to pre-
pare suitable inscriptions for the tablets
on the front and east ends of the facade
Over Main Entrance.
In the center, over the main entrance
! appears the following:
"Sweet'ner of hut and hall,
Bringer of life out of naught.
Freedom, fairest of all
| The daughters of time and thought.
Numbers anu letters, all tools. vessels
And shelters, every art and trade, all
Philosophy and poetry, and all politics.
THE truth shall make you free
The last line of this inscription is taken
from the eighth chapter OF John, SD
verse.
In the west panel, over the main en-
trance, is inscribed:
Fire, greatest of discoveries,
Enabling man to live in various climates,
Use many foods and compel the forces
OF nature to do his work"
Electricity, carrier of light and power,
Devourer of time and space bearer
OF human speech over land and sea,
Greatest servant of man,
Itself unknown
| Thou hast put all things under his feet
trance, is inscribed:
1.-The farm, best home OF the family, main
Source of national wealth, foundation OF
Civilized society, the natural providence.
The old mechanic arts, controlling new
Build new highways for goods and men,
Override the ocean and make the very
Ether carry human thought
1.-The desert shall rejoice and blossom as
the rose
The last sentence is from Isaiah, 3o:1
Spanish Proverb.
| An old Spanish proverb, referred to in
BoswelIs Life of Johnson" is inscribed
| on the west panel of the front entrance
| 1t reads:
HE that would bring home the wealth
of the Indies must carry the wealth OF
| the Indies with him. So it is in travel
| ing, man must carry knowledge with
him if he would bring home knowledge.
| Both Shakespeare and James Russell
| Lowell have been invoked for the two in
scriptions that appear in the panel on the
| east of the front entrance:
Let all the ends thou aimst at be thy
country's, thy Gods and truths" is from
the second scene of the third act of Ham
let, and BE noble, and the nobleness that
lies in other men, sleeping, but never dead.
will rise in majesty To meet thine own
is from one of James Russell Lowell S
Sonnets.
In the panel on the east side of the
building over what is known as the state
entrance, Is inscribed:
welcoming the coming, speed the
departing guest from Homers Odyssey,
book XIV, line 80, and Virtue alone is
sweet society, it keeps the key to all hero
| ic hearts and opens you welcome IN
them all