Evening star., 1934-07-15
Tales of Well Known Folk
In Art, Literature, Politics
u S. Ambassador to Berlin Very Popular
Ambassador to Rome Lends Canvas to Cor
coran-Quotes From Mrs Whistler Letter.

BtAh 70 1T tyA1Asa katA :
the American Ambassador 20 Ger
many, Mr. william Edward Dodc, has
made for himself rather unique
place In Berlin In spite Of the fact
that he Is neither rich nor socially
ambitious
When he vas nominated for the
important post which he hlls the
remark was made on every side An
other brain truRtcr. a historian. stu
dious man" He was called a product
of the new deal and allocsted TO the
brain trust wing Of the administra-
ton. But now word comes that sell
dom has the United States been so
fortunate in its choice Of man 20
hil the Berlin post.
It vas overlooked or forgotten that
the American historian, Mr.. Bancroft
Andrew d White college president
and man Of letters Dr. DAVID Jayne
Hill and many others we're most ac-
ceptible foreign Ministers and Ambas-
sadors and shed much glory on the
posts which they occupied. Thomas
Nelson Page. in Rome. was most pop
ular--indeed he was described by one
OF the royal court at the time as "a
grand seigneur" then Walter Hines
Page, In London. and the earlier
American Ministers there OF the ut
erary cast all we're welcome guests
wherever they went and on the busi-
ness side Of the missions were satis-
factory TO their home office.
Mr.. Dodd was not a stranger in
Germany, as he was at the University
of Leipzig in 1900. where he took his
doctor Of philosophy degree He speaks
German and evinces q fair under
standing Of the mental attitude OF
the people He also seems to have
made ii a custom when something OF
n serious nature was at stake to go
directly 10 the fountain head 10 state
his case and talk matters over.
The charming villa where he lives
in the diplomatic quarter is frequent
ed by the foreign and official society
of the city. and the pretty garden sur
rounding 1t is one of his delights. He
keeps only a few servants-no pomp
Of liveries and gold lace, and follow
ing out his intention stated when he
accepted the post of Ambassador, he
lives on his salary, absolutely.
Mr.. Breckenridge Long American
Ambassador to Italy, has loaned his
beautiful Monet picture 10 the Cor
coran Galleries. It's the lovely cam
vas "Giverny," named for the artists
house in France, and which Stephen
Gywnn writes so charmingly about in
his new book. 1t is the only Claude
Monet in the gallery
After enjoying to the full Claude
Monets beautiful garden pictures it
is interesting to know that he him
self created the gardens which he put
on canvas.
During the last decade every man
has become his own gardener and the
hobby has been so universally fol-
lowed that a rich reward has been
reaped for future generations in the
restoration of historic gardens in this
country and abroad In New Eng
land, Virginia and elsewhere old gar
den plots have been restored to their
former glory, and the plain garden
variety of flowers scorned during the
Victorian period are again coming
into their own.
Stephen Gwynn, in Claude Monet
and His Garden" gives an enchanting
picture Of the artists best beloved
garden created by himself at Giverny,
some 40 miles from Paris. The gar
den which Monet painted again and
again was created out Of some smiling
farmland and marsh" Not a conven-
tional garden with carefully designed
parterres of choice blossoms, but more
frequently Just a riot of blooms OF
field flowers, shrubbery and rejecting
pools.
Mr. Gwynn describes his first i'm
preston of the garden at Giverny as
"a space so filled with flowers that
you could hardly put your hand be-
tween them, and all of them common,
free-flowering things; an artists gar
den. not a horticulturist' what is
more. the garden of an artist who
sought chiefly for the flicker and bril-
lance Of innumerably tiny points, a
general iridescence Of color; in short
o Monet picture
Just a little more and then the
true garden lover must read Mr..
Gwynn's book and his description of
the water garden, the other garden,
unique and apart where he-Monet--
spent long days in absorbed contem-
plation before the central and final
inspiration of his later life" 1t was
during these days when Monet was an
old man with failing sight that the
inspiration for the extraordinary Sc
ries of panels called Les Nympheas"
was born. A water garden was this
inspiration, and the author says, He
played with the water at first. kept
a boat on it. and could slip down
to it by his channel Of the Ept." And
then acquiring more marsh land and
turning branch of the Ept-an arm
of the Seine-aside. he created the
garden which Gwynn describes as "a
mirror Of the sky, decorated on its
surface with the most beautiful lilies.
but holding also the reflection OF
those water loving trees which were
10 fence off this paradise from the
outer world" 1t must be this mir
ror OF the sky" which is shown IN
Mr., Longs picture.
A recent reading of Sir Thomas
More's utopia" disclosed the fact
that in Utopia there was TO be a
nursery for mothers and children just
about like that they have in Soviet
Russia. Sir Thomas writes The
nurses sit several alone with their
young sucklings in a certain parlor
appointed and deputed to the same
purpose, never without fire and clean
water, nor yet without cradles; every
mother is nurse to her own child
unless death or sickness be the let
In the United States there are day
nurseries. children's homes where
they can be left while the mother is
at work. and in few industries
nurseries are maintained by the man
sgement. but in Utopia they were TO
be more places of beauty where
mothers and babies could enjoy lie
together.
There was an impression that the
Library of Congress owned a first eol-
ton of More'S Utopia. but inquiry re-
vealed that the Government did not,
rT~,,are sre two interesting copies OF