Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1919-12-02

worthless in charge of the job found that they
were running out of money and they refused
to proceed until congress gave them some
more. Then, when they got more money,
they decided to add few frills, Of which the
enclosing wall around the terrace was the
most important. For all of these reasons it
will be just about six years after the ground
broken before the building is formally
dedicated.
The dedication is expected to take place
next April. The statue will be in place, and
the memorial practically completed before
Christmas, but after that the Fine Arts COM
mission must hold solemn meeting, march
down to the place in body, and formally
pronounce it o. k. Then this same body must
agree upon plans for the dedication. Nothing
has been done along this line so far except to
ask congress for fve-thousand dollars where
with to defray the expenses But it is a
fOregOne conclusion that the occasion will be
an suspicious one for orators, an expensive
one for visitors, profitable one for Wash
ington inn-keepers, and inspiring and i'm
pressive one for everybody.
Returning once more to the man with the
megaphone, he; if conscientious though
hoarse, will go to say that the heroic statue
of Abe is the work of Daniel Chester French,
the famous sculptor who made the original
of it only about five feet high. From this
model the huge marble statue made by
the Piccirilli Brothers, of New York. This
is the most famous firm of marble workers in
America and it consists of six brothers, who
are all themselves sculptors as we'll as stone
cutters. This is one of the largest jobs they
ever tackled, and like everybody else who had
a chance at the Lincoln memorial, they did
themselves proud.
He will also mention, of course, that the
building itself is the work of Henry Bacon,
the famous architect. Mr.. Bacon states that
the building is symbolical of the growth of
the American republic since Lincoln's time, in
that there are thirty-siX columns which stand
for the thirty-siX states which made up the
union in Lincoln's time, and forty-eght fes-
tOons above the columns, which stand for the
present aggregation of states. Originally Mr..
Bacon planned to have thirteen of something
in order to symbolic the original thirteen
states, but this idea was Abandoned
Aside from this beautiful numerical SYM
bolism and the visage Of Lincoln, there is
nothing dstinctiyely American about the
building. 1t is primarily Greek in design. 1t
looks like q cross between the Parthenon t
Athens (judging by the picture pOstals there
of and the temple of Solomon as described
in the Bible. It is unlike any other memorial
which modern men have raised to their lead
ers Instead, it is an imitation of temples
which the great pagans built to their gods. 1t
is intended to express worship and reverence.
1t is to serve no utilitarian purpose whatever.
There is nothing useful in the building ex-
cept couple of lavatories.
L,
give us better understanding or clearer
perception of Lincoln the man, but to defy
him, or at least to convert him into legen-
Diary hero, like King Arthur, or Santa Claus.
The thing inspires, not sympathy for a
strong man beset by many troubles, but the
awe which we associate with the supernal 1t
does not bring us closer to Lincoln, but re-
moves him to celestial heights.
This is in accordance with the best Ameri-
can traditions. We make fun of our great
men while they live, and gods of them after
they are dead. We never understand them.
The Washington of the high school histories
is too perfect for human sympathy. You
have to dig into little known documents to
discover that he was judge of good liquor
and bet on cock fights, In like manner the
Benjamin Franklin that We all know about
was simply too thrifty, too wise and too vir-
tuous to live, and only few students are aware
that he was bold bad fellow among the girls,
and the greatest of all American hypocrites
So now good old Abe, the most human Of
them all, who could Guido any drummer at
telling funny stories, who liked homely sur
roundings and old clothes, is set up like a
Greek god in a great cold marble hall, en-
dowed with an expression of supernal SOL
emnity, and deprived even of the spittoon
which in life he found so Indispensable.