Arizona republican., 1918-11-03

the ancient walls with q mysterious 1 meaning that sends the blood hot to the brain, and we shiver while we look, and even listen, for who has not felt 'Hark, the lark at Heavens gate sings" while standing in reverence and forgetfulness in the poets corner!
 That there be those resting here who have never earned their burial place is indeed true For such there might not be unfitness in the words of the Duke of Argyle in his address to death: borrow immortality from thee" Here there is no obscurity, and the flow or Lethe is checked by marble and bronze. The very stones are worn and ground by the feet of the worshippers of gen. jus or greatness.
 Regard for truth compels me to say that the monument to Shakespeare Englands grandest poet the greatest and most inspired of all the world has produced-is inconsequent and mean. It looks cheap and sorry y'and weak and must be perpetual eyesore to Shake speare if, in his present condition, he has any regard for his personal ap- pearance. It is to be regretted that Barnum, after purchasing the house in sStratford on Avon, where Shake speare was born, did not transport it to New York and set it up in Central park, as he originally intended, instead of exchanging it with the British gov ernment for the elephant Jumbo. The idea of swapping the immortal Will liam for a great big peanut and candy eating pachyderm. who appeared to- the small boy to transport his proven der to his mouth with his tail, which is affixed to his wrong end, is dis gusting.
 At the entrance door to little chapel I read the name of Oliver Gold smith, and I was filled with holy awe, not unmixed with a disposition | to challenge the very words of the author of the Deserted Village" who, upon visiting Westminster, was heard to say, Even humble as l am, pos sess more consequence in the present scene than the greatest of them all"
 That was rather egotistical of Colo nel Goldsmith. Perhaps, however, he | felt S. aust at that moment-at least his life was more to him than their death.
 do not think they have sorted the remains in Westminster very closely, for the dust of poets and kings is min- gled without regard to their previous condition. But oh, the ornamental sculpture, the architectural beauty the artistic splendor everywhere manifest. No one detail arrested me; the general effect of proportion. of light, and sha- dow, and infinitude, symbolical and l actual, if left with me, and that is all or 1 was overwhelmed with recollec- ton and speculation.
 In passing over the stones in the corner dedicated to the singers, my eye was caught by some shining let ters upon the floor and pausing, l read, Charles Dickens" and passed on with mute lips. Words were desc cration. and I avoided the guide for fear of his unmeaning and soulless gabble. These men who pilot strang- CTS are showmen, and one might bet ter guess wrong than be haunted by their presence in sacred places.
 The practice of delineating charac- ter upon monuments seems to be- the atrical and half barbaric. For exam pie, over the warriors tomb-he may be buried, ineed, in the Red Sea, all the same for a tomb in Westminster does not mean actual sepulture there We see a figure blaZoned and pano- piled and gauntletted, rushing fiercely with terrible frown and upraised sword upon a piece of chill marble, in- tent, seemingly, upon annihilating space or otherwise embodying sonie idea not to be guessed at by the ordi- nary intellect while the actual deeds of the departed go down to oblivion without record or register. Again the orator with most ineloquent lump of stone to represent his flashing eye stands with ulifted hands haranguing prostrate queens in bronze and kings whose silver heads were carried off tr- Al. Henrys dissolute courtiers.
 One symbolic specimen of sculpture however, did indeed seem impressive It represented David Garrick in the act of retiring behind the curtain at the close of the play. The likeness is said to be faithful the drapery is su- perb and the whole effect natural and unexaggerated. Yet in the same nave a. hideous skeleton is seen emerging from vault, and with grinning teeth and clattering bones he reaches out and grasps the helpless figure of a lovely female, whom he evidently pro- poses to escort to his own dominions whether upstairs or downstairs is not indicated.
 All this, however, expresses the taste of the period, no less than the statues of artistic conception and de- sign, and is so far historic. One of the most remarkable pieces of statuary in all the abbey is one representing Will berforce. The figure is in a sitting posture, and there is an idea both in outline and interline not wrought up but possessing the entire individualism of the subject. The eye, small and searching, is the only successful full fillment of an effort to reproduce that organ in statuary that I have ever seen.
 Captain Cook and Columbus Haunt their respective achievements by sit ting astride one or two oceans, un- avoidably so, of course, in the present state of the art, since no considerable degree of perspective may be repre- sented in statuary.
 The tombs of the early Saxon kings Edward the Confessor and the rest, are all together in a sort of raised alcove said to have been used by Cromwelrs s troopers for stable. Whether the troopers aforesaid were naturally of a desecrating disposition or whether their horses had taste for stone toes and fingers and noses is not recorded in the archives of history, but the kingly statues look as if they had been in an Arkansas free fight, in which the enemy had been given to prospect ing them anatomically.
 I think that the British government ought to put heads on the acephalous representatives of ancient majesty and I suggest that the chair in which the kings and queens of England have been crowned for more than 500 years