Evening star., 1922-09-24

Her own father emigrated in 1862 to
California. where she was born, but,
as girl. she knew and visited her
lily of the present Marquis lie Nor
| mand de Bretteville. chevalier of the
| Legion of Honor.
In these French relationships of
Mrs. Spreckles reposed the latent
j force of the great idea For another
| thing. however, the French commits
| sioner to the San Francisco exposi1
tion of 1915. NJ. Albert Tirman, state
| councillor, was a remarkable man.
| France. maintaining her participa ton
| in full war time. he desired to make
| the French building at the Panama
| Pacific exposition particularly nota-
Bile. And as great ideas have their
own life, Independent of human con-
seiouspess, who knows if this one was
, not already trying to break through
by way of Albert Tirman's mind-al-
though the plan which he conceived
and executed dealt only with a tenn
porary replica of the palace of the
Legion of Honor Of Paris as French
building at San Francisco.
The thing was done. Henri Gull
laume. famous French architect.
erected there an exact duplicate, in
appearance, of that most elegant of
all the old palaces of Paris-the last
| work Of the old architects before the
| revolution changed life and manners
the town house of the rich Prince
Frederick de Salm- -Kyrbourg, by the
architect Rousseau, universally known
since as the palace of the Legion of
Honor.
+ X X
VOU see. the prince who built it
i never enjoyed it. Begun In 1882,
1t was ready to be occupied in 1883;
but before Prince de Salm-Salm could
get his furniture into it the French
revolution upset everything. In vain
he joined the revolutionary forces. He
perished, nevertheless, by the guilo-
tine. The palace was put up as prize
in a lottery. A journeyman~ barber
won it and sold 1t for a song. In 1893
! Nine. de Stael was living in it. Then,
Napoleon creating the Legion of
Honor in 1902, the beautiful building.
really virgin, was taken for the head
quarters of the order.
eThe principal entrance is composed
Of an arch of triumph, closed by. a
grille. To right and left, double
Ionic colonnade, forming peristyle.
frames the court of honor and rejoins
a portico supported by six Corinthian
! Honor and Country" s..
As French building at the San
Francisco exhibition it seemed too
beautiful to be destroyed. The re-
mark was often made. Yet, with the
exposition's close. its purpose as
French building ended. Being built.
like all such temporary edifices in
expositions, of perishable STAFF and
stucco, time and weather alone would
have melted the beautiful dream to
! ruin!
Dream? Beautiful dream? The mo-
mentous idea was alive, l say, and
seeking to penetrate to human con-
SCl0uSne8S. IL AuOChcu 81 IuC ulAuu VI
Mr.. and Mrs. Adolph Spreckels. They
communicated 1t to Commissioner
Tirman, who took 1t back with him to
Paris. And the French architect
Guillaume began revising his old
plans to At new calculations for a
permanent replica Of the palace Of
, the Legion Of Honor on American
soil!
At their own expense the Spreckels
undertook to erect it At Lincoln Park.
overlooking the Pacific, as monu-
ment to the $500 California boys
killed in the great war and inferred
in France. The chosen spot. was
grandiose. The avenue In Lincoln
Park makes tho Pacific terminus OF
the great new motor car driveway
straight across the American conti-
nent, from New York on the Atlantic!
The thing was already. prophetic. All
AmArica sweeps by that driveway
westward. to the palace Of honor from
| France!
The city Of san Francisco gave the
Ixround ct Lanccln Park. It comprises
twelve acres. with ths tsrraoes and
| fardssls. The krchitsct 0uillaunel
fs.sa E ,,s,ts n n = ~ tia maNs (eof5k.