The Washington times., 1911-10-02
SOCIETY EAGER TO
HEAR MORE ABOUT
BARNEY: INCIDENT
Interested in Transforming
of Grecian Temple
/. Into Garage.
MRS. HEMMICK MAY
RELATE THE STORY
Talk About the Undraped Statue Is
Revived-Police Unable to
Interfere Now.

Natalie Clifford Barney. eldest daugh-
ter Of Mrs. Alice Clifford Barney
Eemmi3k Of Studio House. Sheridan
Circle. is again in the llnelight.
When her mother reaches Washing
ton next Thursday from Paris. great
many felix's Of wealth and culture will
be waiting to hear the family version
Of how Miss Barney has turned a
charrningly esthetic Greek temple dedi-
Gated to Love, into a garage for her
automobile.
Mrs. Barney Hemmick and her husband
who is thirty years her Junior. landed
in Kew York yesterday. They had been
abroad since their wedding in Paris
this spring.
Colnciicnt with their arrival came
cableCrams from Paris, detailing the
scandalizing of the little band OF
esthetes who had grown up around
Miss Natalie's garden in the Rue
Jacob. Paris. ty what they call the
''degecration of the temple" which
stands therein.
Did She Pose For it?
Since Mrs. Barney Eemmick left
Washington many months ago. AMI
Chief Of Police Sylvester discovered
uron her lawn the undraped figure of a
woman. Miss Natalie Rarncv has been
a ncrs0n Of considerable interest, for
folks at first declared that she had
posed for the statue. When this was
found To be wrong, however, ard the
statue, il was declared is TO be de-
struyed, the story of the 'deseCration
Of the temDls' was flashed across the
wires.
Today. it IS said, that the police. who
in the spring ordered the statue draped
or removed. now find that If Mrs
Barney should not destroy 1t and In
sists on having the figure on her lawn
they are powerlsss under their reSu'
lations to force her to drape II.
Major Sylvester, when he ordered the
statue taken from the lawn of Studio
House last spring, did so under the
regulations which gives him power &c
censor posters, books, and photographs
But a careful search this m"rnlnS has
resulted In finding no wcrd in the regu-
lations concerning statues in the nude.
Disposition Of The Statue.
So, With only the protection afforded
by a concrete wall which has recently
been builded about the Barney Studio
House, il ic thought quite likely thai
Mrs. Alice Clifford Barney Hemmicl
will leave the statue where it now is.
And just while circles of wealth and
culture in Washington. 10 which Mrs
Barney-Hemmick belongs, were getting
all ready to forget about the statue
over from Paris. where Mrs. Barney
Hemmick has risen 10 prominence dur
ing the past year through her wealth
patronage of the arts. and Office oil
high priestess of The Bahaist faith
comes the story concerning the use tC
which Miss Natalie put Grecian tenn
pie of love.
Miss Natalie Barney purchased ar
cid estate at 2c Rue Jacob. say dis
patches. In the old garden where Ra-
cine wrote his famous PLAYS, under the
shade of century y-old trees, stood the
little GrcCian temple. 1t was Il replica,
built at the wish of AGTienne LeCCGv-
reur, to commemorate her love for Mar.
fhal SAKE, the hero of the battle oi
Fontency.
According to dispatches, Miss Bar.
ney's acquisition Of the temple in the
Rue Jacob was haileG with delight by
the esthetes. poets. and literati, who
hailed her as their queen of estheticisnr
and regarded the little temple Of love
as little less than an esthetic holy ot
holles
And so it was there that relvoir and
Moreno. of the Coincide Francaise
Eacha Guitri, the actor; Isadora Dun
can, the dancer; Marcel Provost, tho
novelist, and others of the elect gath
eECd 10 commune among themselves.
Esthetic Natures Shocked
And when, coming to their place ol
communion on a most estheric evening
they heard tire hoarse explosion of 3
big Limousine instead of the tinklc ot
g temple bell, and were smittcn by
fumes of nausaatinS naphtha instead Of
the fragrance of trankincense. the one
time luite-ers in the elysium fields o
the Rue Jacob were properly Mortified.
To the shrieks Of proclamation" ant
''vnndalism," which issued from the
esthetic throats of the elect, Miss Natalie
calmly turned. * is said, and threw
their artistic prate back at them thus:
II placed my car in the temple be
cause there was no place else to put it
/ do il in th.s same spirit which lee
Napoleon TO stable his mounts in thu
monastery at Milan, where, above them
hung the frcsco of Da Vincis Las