Evening star., 1927-05-28

Next Monday will be Memorial day,
in honor of soldiers who staked their
lives for patriotic ideals.
It is such ideals of civilization
which made them heroes, and heroes
are poets in spirit. Idealists who dem.
onstrate their concepts of duty with
life's blood are not made of ordinary
clay, nor can their dreams Of better
ment of the world at the cost of their
great sacrifices be told in common
language. Only art can tell 1t, purified
of the verbal dross which habitually
speaks Of sordid commerce and pleas.
ure-seeking selfishness.
It makes no difference what may be
the medium Of art expression. for 1t
Is not the clay nor the marble nor the
pigment which constitutes the beauty
of art, any more than 1t Is the brass
of the thinking cymbal" which makes
music Of the heart.
A writer of Excursions in Art and
Letters" Mr.. w. w. Story, comments
on the different standards Of art, and
he writes:
cart is art because it Is not nature,
Is the motto Of the idealisti; art Is but
the imitation Of nature, say the natu-
ralisti. The truth lies between the two.
- Between the ideal and the natu.
raj school there is a perpetual Strug.
gle."
Such a discussion Of art technique
makes no distinction, however, be-
tween architecture or plastic art. or
painting or music, for with whatever
medium the one principle prevails
beauty Of expression. not mocking ma.
ture in servile imitation, nor yet for
getting the source of all that is beau.
tiful. II.
whatsoever things are true. what.
soever things are honest, whatsoever
things are just, whatsoever things are
pure-loyely--of good report; If there
be any virtue, and If there be any
praise, think on these things" That is
arts message!
And so the promoters of the Doric
| Temple. Of pure white marble, from
beneath whose dome and out from
whose circle of simple Grecian col
| umns will pour strains Of patriotic
music from Army, Navy and Marine
bands, in extolling those who "died
to make men free" have chosen the
highest expression of praise that men
can ever use. The purity of alabaster,
| the nobility of classic column and
dome, the most thrilling harmony
| that music can give, all will combine
1
that the noble dead have not died in
vain, and that the subversive poison of
treason will yet find antidote in pa
! triotisn.
Most monuments are silent, but this
| Doric Temple will make the stone
! to speak praise. Music without its
| suited environment loses much of Its
thrill and influence upon the emotions,
| but the solemn white pillars, devoid of
| distracting ornament, with the simple
arch of the roofing dome, like the
! vault Of the sky---an arch bearing in
| starry letters the names of the 535
| World War veterans OF our own city.
whose memory is there held sacred
will be forever eloquent. The very
stones will cry out their praise!
| Set amid the green trees, almost
| shadowed by that other classic. the
| marble memorial to the immortal
Lincoln, beside the solemn tide of
the Potomac, within sight of the
ma ajestic shaft to the honor Of the
| Father of the Country. at the very
entrance to the Memorial Bridge.
leading to flames eternal camping
ground" Arlington Cemetery, the
Doric Temple will be in fitting com
| pany. And it's music will attune to
all virtues that are pure and lovely
and of good report. while hearers will
be compelled. perforce of the spell OF
vision and harmony, to think on those
things whose memory is so sacred.
| X
It speaks we'll Of the love of Wash
ingtonians for the patriot, since, in the
| midst Of urgent calls for financial aid
to flood sufferers ard other worthy
needs. the contributions for the me.
mortal to the veterans Of the World
War belonging to the District of
Columbia have not suffered neglect.
"a fund haS xrror,x. "a a c,,s,o