The Sentinel=record., 1911-05-24
HONOR man WHO
PLANNED CAPITAL
MONUMENT UNVEILED TO FRENCH
ENGINEER WHO LAID OUT
WASHINGTON.
President Taft and Other DionltIes Join
~ Paying Tribute TO Mayor Pierre
Charles L. Enfont.

Washington, May 22.--On q green knoll
in front Of the Lee Mansion in Arlington
Cemetery, overlooking the broad Potomac
and the capital, memorial was unveiled
today to Major Pierre Charles l.. Enfant
the French engineer 10 whose prophetic
vision Washington owes Its broad avenues
and its symmetry Of design.
President raft. Ambassador Jusserand.
q France, and Senator Root Of New York
spo@e IN euglogy of Major LEnfant
There are not many" said President
Taft who have 10 wait one hundred
years 10 receive the reward to which they
are entitled: until the world shall make
the progress which ehables II to pay the
just reward. The man whose rnemory
we celebrate today had a highly artistic
temperament and he had the defects
which not infreauently accompany that
temperament and it Is that fact which
has obscured at times and in some degree
the merIl OF what he did. and lessened
the gratitude VIZ owe hlme for what he
did
Senator Root declared that Washington
Is being extended more In accord with
the ideas Of real eslate men than In
accord with those OF art.
II woud be much better now said
the senator II we were TO follow the
ia as Of I'Enfant IN extending Washing
ton,
Ambassador Jusseand referred to the
death OF Minister of War Berteaux.
"Berteaux said he was a man like
/ tt..s
invention. the aeropane. in which he
was much interested. We in France can
not forget the way in which your presi-
dent expressed his grief at that sad
accident. 1t shows more than ever that
your joys are our Joys and your SORROWS
are our sorrows."
'By the mh,ion every year. on ships
more and more numerous. immigrants,
travellers. tourists. men of business and
men Of leisure visit the United States,
said M Jusserand "The majority Of
them see this land for the first time.
without exception they are struck by its
immensityi It's resources, the number Of
its inhabitants now nearing hundred
million. All Of those who visit the
capital city are unanimous in their praise
Of It's beauty and its exact adoption to
the needs Of great nation.
with the mind OF a poet, with the soul
Of prophet perceivlng further ages as
cle arly as If they were the present. a
man foresaw over a century ago what we
now see. and that man lies under the
monument which a generous vote Of
congress allows us to dedicate today
/ ~, Inf INT
The speaker told dramatically the story
Of how IEnfaEt, the Partisan born son
Of royal painter holding the rank Of
Lieutenant Of Engineers in the French
army. came to America in one of the
ships Of a beau marchais mythical firm
OF sIfortalez and Company" and cast his
fortunes with the struggling revolution
lists. serving first as volunteer at his
own expense and later rising to the rank
Of major, He spoke of the building OF
wnat Is now called Fort Washington as
being among the works OF the French
engineer but said that his great work,
~the ofe for w.-.ch he now enjoys the
supreme honor of the presence az TINS
ceremony of the respected successor OF
George Washington. President Taft, was
the planning of the federal CITY.
Referring TO the wonder with when
Washington as town 81 streets WIN
out houses and houses without streets
was viewed by many in thd early iittses'
one writer observed:
TT seems as it the author Of the plan
haa areamt Of city Of two hundred
thousand inhabitants,
The ambassador continued;
Il. Enfant had not dreamt Of that' ne
had foreseeu that and more. The city he
planned was meant not for men Of ms
aay. hut for mose Of ours. and when me
time shall come thar people viii we''sis'
A our own wonder az the rapid expansion
81 this country when the ss'ii'e.i.'''
million inhabitants Of today VIII looh NV
4 netty number. still lsEninnt P"u' W
\ hold good and for successors - ~
he might be able 70 say
/ 1 Mnrkeu.