The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1916-1920, 1918-09-30
FIFTH AVE. AGLOW
FOR LIBERTY LOAN
Forty Blocks of Flags, Sculp-
lures and Paintings Stir
Throng of Patriots.
DISPLAY NEVER EQUALLED
Colors of the Teuton, the Turk
and the BOlsheviki Only
Ones Missing.

If some supercook mixed together the
ingredients which compose an Easter
boardwalk parade at Atlantic Guy
stirred in an art gallery two miles long.
added a sculptural hall Of the same
size and then called in n supermiliiner
to decorate the dish with hutterins
FUZZY ruffies the result would almost
approach the wonder and magnificence
which yesterday was Fifth avenue
Never in the history OF -
But that hackneyed superlative phrase
is too much bromidiom, too silly ana
tame and altogether commonplace 10
give even a faint notion of the nag
clouded, painted and sculptured thor
oughfare which was once Fifth avenue
but now has been changed by the LID
erty Loan laborers from Madison
Square TO Central Park into the daz-
zling Avenue of the Allies. Inc
Liberty Loaners had 1.-The finest street
in the world as raw material 10 pegih
with, and with this flying start they
successfully set themselves to the TASK
Of making tho avenue almost as trans
cendently gorgeous as Wilhelm the IN
necessary and Crown Prince Stoopid
the Chinless think themselves to DE be-
tween drinks.
some Flags That Were Missing.
Always excepting the banners and
standards Of the Hun and the tottering
Turk-and also. incidentally, of the boil
sheviki and Jerry OIeary's jolly old irish
Republic neither Of which Is doing any
useful fighting these days-with these
exceptions the avenue was ablaze WIN
brave banners that float over home cap
itals from the equator to the poles. the
avenue was hazy with the flags. the
81 dart al
with the art of the country's foremost
painters, and all day and evening
through the cloudy magniflcence coursed.
north and south. from building lines to
curbs. a throng of the kind one sees
there on any sunny Easter noontide.
For almost forty blocks the flag array
was of the kind that almost Shut OIL the
blue sky. Twenty-Five Of these blocks
were given over to the national ana
maritime flags of twenty-five allies. cach
of these national blocks being devoted
solely to the colors of particular ma
ton. Scattered at intervals between these
stretches of allied colors we're blocks
Liberty Loan Blocks"-which were
great splashes of crimson bunting deco
rated with the Red, White and Blue.
Luckily the day was gasless. at least
almost yasless; for down beneath the
flying flag storm the crowds OF slow
moving pedestrians at times We're 80
dense that perforce the happy sightseers
as often as not found themselves over
flowing to the asphalt at points Of
especial interest.
At the Altar of Liberty.
Tho Madison Square section of the
avenue for a block north and south
Of the beautiful Altar OF Liberty, was
chiefly Of the Liberty Loan Block
scheme of decoration. The avenue from
Twenty seventh to Twenty-eighth streets
was given over wholly to Uncle Sam
and his Stars and Stripes. The next
block to the north was hazy with the
banners of far off Siam.
Serbia had all of the stretch from
Twenty-ninth to Thirtieth street to her
self Even Russia--the Russia Of the
Allies-had her own block, from Thir-
tieth to Thirty-flrst street. And then
as one looked UP the slope, where the
avenue climbed TO the Roaring Forties
and Fluttering Flfties, trembling rain
bow stretched away, blazing with the
colors of Portugal. Panama. Nicaragua.
Italy. Montenegro. Japan. Honduras.
Hayti. Guatemala. Greece, France. the
Czecho- Sidewalks. Cuba, England. Brazil
and the wonder nation, Belgium.
At the Altar of Liberty. in the neigh
borhood of the Library and at ST. Pat
-ick's Cathedral were particularly beau
tiful flag displays-long lanes of tower
ing white staffs. from each of which
floated an Allied banner. And bound
and woven, twisted and twined among
all these were the special Liberty Loan
banners and the ever present Stars and
Stripes of the greatest land of all
Fifth avenue had seen itself all aflutter
W n ~ ha
lavish extent of the present Liberty
Loan display Of bunting but never had
the avenue, or perhaps any street seen
so great and continuous a display Of the
handiwork OF foremost painters and
sculptors Paintings OF mammoth size.
sometimes in the dazzling colors of the
pleinairists and again in the sombre
| tones which scenes in sorrowing Belgium
demanded, held their crowds of admirers
in every block. Plaster figures of heroic
size, tinted to resemble bronze, held their
| rifles or the high flung heads of their
chargers out toward the crowds in
, menacing fashion.
F. w. Benson, George Bellows, Edwin
II. Blashheld. Carl Melchers, Albert
Herter, Joseph Pennell, Frank yalenti,
Jonas Lie, Franklin Booth, Charles
Livingston Bull, Francis c. Jones, Carl
ton Chapman. Willy Pogany. Augustus
Vincent Tack, Clifford Beals, David
Robinson. S. j. Woolf, w. Granville
Smith. Gardner Symons. Harry Ritten-
berg--these were but few of the
leading painters and craftsmen whose
originals" graced the windows and led
the crowds from canvas to stirring can
vas.
SculptOrs Who Lent n Hand,
Sculptors that included II. Prellwitz,
! ii. A. MacNeil and many others had con
tributed monumental groups to add 10
the lavishness Of an esthetic display
which We'd In glory with the martial
gorgeousness fiutterlng on high. Be-
hind the plate glass windows of many
| other shops decorators and scenic paint
ers had erected stage settings, where
panoramic backgrounds. real military
costume and equipment. hay and straw
and lay figures brought 10 the eye and
heart thrilling scenes in far off Flanders
! o. Plcardy.
| Great submarine torpedoes. each one
| costing $1,000. were arranged IN the
windows, the torpedo war head, the main
| body and the propeller sections placed
| at different spots so that landlubbers
| could grasp a better idea Of the work.
! ings and mechanism OF the Huns chief
/ weapon. There were trench mortars
that once had roared on battIefields In
| France, gas masks, machine gun ex.
hibits, big gun shells. cumbrous looking
| German helmets almost rs dense and