The Washington herald., 1921-02-20
AS a Chilean Sees
America Capital
South American Author
ess Calls Washington
A Sunday City,
BY ENRIQUE MOLINA, Chilean
Educator

Some cities have had the fate to be
founded on privileged spots, and they are
- like the mouths of the rivers of fortune,
whittier the materials for vast development
gather with ease: Constantinople and
alexandra constitute classic examples of
this TACT IN the Eastern Mediterranean, and
London, Paris and Hamburg are examples
OF 1t in Western Europe. The New World
presents similar cases IN the gigantic met
ropolitan cities of New York and Buenos
Ayres. Washington, the Federal Capital,
may not be included in this group. 1t has
been built, tits true in the central part of
the eastern region, and on beautiful ground
covered with soft hills, on the banks of the
Potomac; but neither because of its indus
tries, which are few, nor because of its
commerce, which lis relatively poor, can it
compete in movement with great centers
OF the Union. Washington is an artificial
city, created by the will of the American
nation, to serve as the seat of government
of the republic, the Federal parliament
and the representatives Of foreign ma
tions. 1t lacks those forms OF life that re-
suit from the stupendous growth OF .peo-
pies; but 1t does possess, indeed what the
wealth Of a fabulously rich treasury has
been able to create; and the Capital is
city of beautiful vistas, parks, magnificent
official palaces, and one that possesses, in
quantity and quality, monuments such as
oiN W DS lOuHu III HO OlHCI part OF inc
country. friendly and intelligent Chilean
woman OF letters ssid to me with much
spicineSs that Washington had seemed to
her to be a Sunday city.
= + +
At one end of PENNSYLVANIA avenue.
which is the principal one in Washington,
rises the vast and magnificent palace of
the Capitol, where are housed the halls Of
Congress and the Supreme Court of JUS
tlce. This grandiose structure is in the
renaissance style, and its very lofty and
widely known cupola stands out in the
background of that end OF the Avenue as
an incompatible decoration.
From the palace, one descends by monu-
mental steps to the extensive and beautiful
park that surrounds it, The days in which
we were going about the city visiting it
which were in the month of MAY and un-
bearably hot-thc Capitol park, like the
other parks Of the city, constituted refuge
for the sufocated inhabitants They were
to be seen in shrt-sleeves and lying on
their backs on the turf or seated under the
shade OF the leafy trees, tossing crumbs of
bread to the friendly squirrels, which, with
perfect confidence, frisked about them.
AS IN European countries, and especially
those OF the North, the ogivaI style has
become consecrated as proper to consis-
tor1al palaces and others OF public char
acter, so in the United States a similar
consecration has been achieved for gov
ernment houses by edifces of the renais-
sance style, crowned by gigantic cppoIas.
For this reason we find limitations more or
less beautiful of the Capitol in Oakland,
Sacramento, Madison and elsewhere.
The Congressional Library, located not
far from the Capitol, separated from it by
tar extent of park already mentioned,
IS also an ample and beautiful edifce 1t
does not possess the proportions or exter-
ual grandeur that distinguish the Capitol
but the beauty of its interior far surpasses
that Of the latter. The richest of marbles
OF the most varied ,colors, have been Law
lshed and artistically combined on the
floors, Stairways and columns. The domes
galleries and halls are decorated with ad-
mirable mural paintings that symbolic the
most important stages of human culture
The reading-room is an imposing rotunda
OF yellow. jasper with an octagonal base
ample, lofty and majestic as temple Any
person may enter here who desires to
consult or read Of the 100000 volumes of
which the library consists. At the height
of the second floor, the base Of the ro-
tunda forms gallery circular platform.
to which visitors that do not come to read
have access, and around which stand as
embellishments some twenty statues of
poets, philosophers and writers, in bronze
and of life-Size.
| do not hesitate to say that the vestibue
is of beauty that bewilders, or that the
whole edihce, because OF its richness and
artistic merit, is to be regarded as the first
architectural monument of the United
States. Its magnihcence can only be COM
pared with that of the basita of SAINT
Peters in Rome, or that of the Theatre
National de rOpera in Paris.
The library possesses also very rich COL
lections of maps and engravings.
Another important building of the Capt.
tai, and of especial importance for Latin
Americans, is the palace of the Pan Amer
lean Union. 1t may be seen that it has
been sought to give to it a representative
character. The architecture is of a style
that we might call tropical colonial The
center of the building consists of large
Spanish patio in which are grown plants
OF the torrid zone as decorations In the
midst of them, the scene is heightened by
some snowy macaws. Why has the tropi-
cal been chosen as representative of all
Latin America? Are the macaws there
symbolic ciphers, as it were, of the sup
posed verbosity of the peoples of the
Southern continent or of their dispos-,
ton to repeat what others say? Perhaps
this malicious irony was not in mind, and
the preference in favor of the plants and
birds. of the equatorial regions may have
been the result of the fact that they are
better, suited than others for decorative
purposes in the limited space
In the cornice that surrounds the patio
ole ~AI H.,