Evening star., 1917-09-09

There are about forty-nve marble
and bronze immortals standing around
In the chamber Of horrors, or statuary
hall. as it is termed by the euphemists
at the Capitol. These forty-five occupy
all the available wall space. and mas
much as Congress in moment of
monumental madness authorized the
reception of ninety of these things. the
question arises, Where will the new
comers be placed? II they are set down
hero and there all over the floor the
place will take on the aspect of a
densely populated graveyard Of the ma
tion's great. and tho images will clut-
ter up the place to an extent that will
necessitate the hiring of pilots to get
through from one end to the other.
Now it occurs to one humble dilet-
tante in current events that inasmuch
as the District of Columbia has no vote
and Congress has a habit OF doing sud
den things with reference to art. the
District of Columbia and other helpless
objects, there may be grave danger that
some day the Senate and House of Rep
sentatives will grow desperate, and un-
der the guise Of q burst Of generosity.
pass a bill giving all these marble and
bronze Nightmares to the District of
Columbia. Congress might authorize
to stick these things up in various
parks and rectangles. or they might go
SO far as to terrorize the very small
children by placing some of them in
the halls Of school buildings.
Perhaps, though, this could not be so.
Perhaps Congress could not be work ed
up into a climax of cruelty like this.
Lobbying to prevent the measure would
not be necessary. All that would be
required would be to choose a dark and
of Congress one by one into the cham
Der OF horrors and ask them to gaze at
the cherries images around him. I'M
mersed in this dank atmosphere they
wear. and would refrain perhaps from
turning the hungry orphan from the
door. and also refrain from any such
atrocity as turning statuary hall loose
upon the community.
or course. some of the works OF art
there have been passed upon by those
who know and have received the o. X
of the censor. but it is safe bet that
after member Of Congress has looked
steadily at some of the stun he would
return to the legislature and vote to
dig tomb for the monsters or do any
thing that would relieve the unfran-
chised people of the District of Column
bia from becoming stepfathers TO the
group.
Some of the statues would look all
right by themselves. but they have an
outlandish look when grouped with
other marble statesmen. For instance,
take Ethan Allen, the hero of the
Green mountains. He is. in marble.
about ten feet high. has q hat like
waste basket and a hand like Smith
field ham. He is stepping out for
fight and looks as II he wanted TO hop
over and tie up Daniel Webster in
knot.
To his right is a f1ve-foot image Of
one Muhlenberg. a Pennsylvania. No
doubt this Muhlenberg was an estim-
able person in his way. but in the dim
light Of the chamber of horrors he
appears to be in a constant attitude of
beginning that athletic and marvellous
stunt known as the Boston split
Near Ethan Allen also is a terrific
image of John c. Calhoun. who has the
expression which indicates he would
feel a whole lot better IL he could
come down from his perch and bite
some one in the ear: and it may be he
is sore on Frances Willard. This white
robed marble lady seems to be shrink
ing from the scenery.
Considerable realism marks the
marble statue of Senator Shoup, for the
artists gave him tight vest. Diagon-