The Washington times., 1923-01-27
GARDENOF ALLAH
IS Skinner
PLAN
jackson Square Planned As
Oriental Center During
Big Meet Here.

From the portico Of thu White
House the first week of June the
President win look across the ave.
nue., not into Jackson square, with
its familiar vista of trees and
statues, but into the Garden Of
Allah.
Minarets. sphinxes and pyra-
mids-the latter covering and CON.
ceaiing the statues-colorful by day
and flooded lights at night-will
transform the historic .front yard
OF the Presidents" into q picture of
the stored Van or Bagdad. accord
ING to the plans of the Almas Tenn
PIE entertainment COMMITTEES. Ross
+. Andrews. chairman.
The completion of definite plans
awaits only the passage by Con
gress Of a bill authorizing the use
or public parks by the Shriners
for the entertainment OF the multi
tudes who will attend the Imperial
Council session next June. Passare &c
OF this bill within the next few
days is considered certain.
Sphinx to StraddIe Avenue.
The Great Sphinx. lifting her
head near the Treasury, win serve
as the gateway to the Garden of
Allah. According to the plans
finally decided upon by Andrews.
the Sphinx. replica OF the giant
Sphinx of Gizeh, will stand over
pennsylvania avenue, with her huge
paws. each fifty feet long. extended
on either side of the historic
thoroughfare. Passing between the
paws, the visitor viii pass through
tunnel under the immense body
| and will emerge in the Garden of
Allah. sacred ground for all Amer
| leans.
For the limits of the Garden of
Allah, said Andrews, twill not be
towering walls and parapets, vine
covered and ancient as the hills,
but chain of memories, a process
sion of the great who have fingered
in the past at its borders and who
have entered the shadows.
| One corner win be sacred to
the memory of Dolly Madison, the
fair one of long ago who wrote
the Journal of the Continental Con-
| gress and who saved the records
when the British sacked Washing
ton. In another corner the dignified
| figure of Daniel Webster might be
| imagined, or diagonally opposite,
he picturesque Decatur. debonnaire
| hero of the navy. So in the trans
| formation Of this place might be
! cOnJured the long list of the illus
trious who have come and gone,
marching through its shady paths
since the days of the great Wash.
i ington himself
A Place Of Beauty.
'"ro the Mohammedan mind
which is assumed by the Shriner in
a spirit playful, possibly bit flip.
pant, the Garden of Allah was an
exquisitely arranged bit of Paradise
set apart for the exclusive use of
the prophet himself. Into its sacred
precincts no profane foot might
!, venture. Allah himself was the
only one who might revel in it's
exotic loneliness or breathe its in
toxicating perfumes. Separated from
the remainder of Paradise, holy
of-holies Of the Mohammedan
Elysium, it's guards were those
who had successfully withstood the
excruciating Moslem tests inflicted
upon those who aspired to be SER
wants of the Most High"
Thus the Garden of Allah will
! SSISG DIS the C6IltSF OIL the S6CJlOn
of the old Oriental world which
| will be set down in Washington
next June and here the most ex-
quisite beauties of the elaborate
art of the decorators will be found.
Beds of gay colored flowers will
delight the eye and in beautiful
silken pavilions the visitors may
find rest, surrounded by the com
peling beauties of the ancienS
Oriental setting,