The Omaha morning bee., 1924-04-30

VIII ne nfhleu. taAA mfts bTyhns ~
not. II will simply accept u a. evil
dence that do not believe strongly
enough in Gods power to cure"
The ordinary mind fails TO un-
derstand why Divine omnipotence,
able by mere effort of will to re-
lave misery and cure disease,
SHOULD refrain, regardless Of inter
yesling revivalists, and OF every
t6nng except the natural impulse to
relieve pain and misery.
Bat what can human insect on
this earth understand of divinity?
Nothing.
There Is "money in art" when IL
really is art, and also other things
more important than money.
Long ago, 1900 years before
Columbus sailed for America, Prax-
iteles, a Greek sculptor, was study
ing the still greater Phidias, dead
before Praxiteles was born. Among
s<her things Praxiteles made
statue of Hermes, Greek god, cor
responding to the Egyptian Thoth,
inventor Of arts and science.
What Praxiteles got for that
statue, from which the right arm
is now missing, nobody knows
probably just enough money to con-
tinue making other statues.
You couldn't buy it now for 20
millions, or any price.
The Greek nation, in a friendly
mood, thinks OF sending that mar
vclous statue to the United States
to inspire artists. II would inspire
other things, and might lead to
study OF Greek history, not by chill
dren that hate history, but by men
that long to know it. That statue.
as .it travels through the United
States, with the beautiful face that
PraxiteIes along could make, would
take Americans back to the days a
century before Praxitelcs, when
Pericles was building Athens, en-
cpuraging Phidias, the admirable
vNpiI Of his great master, the
Philosopher Anaxagoras.
Mayor Hylan Of New York, anx-
ious TO build magnificent art CEN
ter for that rich city and opposed
by the foolish, might deliver lee
ture in New York, using the Greek
statue, TO remind the public that
PcricIes. who was to Athens what
Mayor Hylan IL TO New York, was
also attacked on the ground that
he was spending too much on fine
buildings.
Pericles. a plutocrat, although
leader Of the democratic party, did
what Mayor Hylan couldn't do. He
offered TO pay for all the work him
self, II they would allow no name
but his own TO appear on the build
ings.
Don't fail to see Hermcs II he
comes, and don't be prejudiced by
the fact that his relations with
Venus we're not in all respects reg
uIar. They didn't know as much
about morals in those days as we
know.
In laying old cornerstones IL Is
customary to put in certain coins,
great praise Of the ruling monarch,
some expression Of religious faith.
That was all.
The future will be enlightened
when IL digs up the cornerstone Of
a botel-hospital just laid. That cor
nerstonc contains films Of moving
pictures showing surgeons perform
ing modern operations, also "gIass-
strained" specimens Of germs that
produce disease, and collection Of
drugs now called specifics" for
certain diseases, with list Of dis
eases that we consider incurable.
Those preserved microbes will be
valuable ns curiosities, If
they survive, n few thousand years
from now. For in time disease
germs will become extinst on this
planet, as the dodo, the great aux
and the mammoth have already be-
come extinct. And those microbes,
preserved, will be as precious 10 fu-
ture scientists as are, TO ours, those
dinosaur eggs dug up in Asia.