158 
PARK AND C EM ET E R V. 
fere with it. As to the destruction of 
trees, to make room for it, it is de- 
clared that of the four thus sacrificed, 
two were already dead and one de- 
crepit. 
The National Columbus memorial, 
in Washington, the greatest rnonu- 
memorial procession of nearly 100,000 
men filed past the $100,000 monument. 
The plan for eercting the memorial 
was started under the auspices of the 
Knights of Columbus several years 
ago, when contributions were solicited 
from the various councils of that or- 
finest of those big, impressively mon- 
umental figures that have made his 
art distinctive and individual. 
The principal part of the memorial 
is a pylon of Georgia marble about 
forty-five feet high, surmounted by a 
globe of the world. It forms the 
UNVEILING AUGUSTUS SAINT GAUDENS’ FAMOUS PARNELL MONUMENT IN DUBLIN. 
ment ever erected to the memory of 
Christopher Columbus, and one of the 
most imposing ever designed in honor 
of any of the world’s great men, was 
recently dedicated with a Presidential 
address. The memorial consists of a 
semi-circular fountain, seventy feet 
wide and sixty-five feet deep, adorned 
with a great statue of Columbus and 
other appropriate sculptures. It 
stands on the plaza in front of the 
Union station at Washington and has 
been designed to harmonize in its ar- 
chitectural and artistic treatment with 
the station and its environments. 
No more appropriate site for the 
memorial could possibly have been se- 
lected. Situated at the gateway of the 
nation’s capital, it will be the first and 
the last thing to greet the eyes of the 
millions of visitors who annually 
journey there. 
A crowd that taxed the capacity of 
the Union station plaza applauded the 
unveiling exercises and the Columbus 
der throughout the United States. The 
responses were so immediate and 
hearty that the success of the under- 
taking was practically assured from 
the first and later made secure by an 
appropriation of $100,000 from Con- 
gress. 
The work was entrusted to a com- 
mission consisting of the chairman of 
the Senate and House committees on 
the library, the Secretary of State, the 
Secretary of War and the supreme 
knight of the order of the Knights of 
Columbus. That commission selected 
the Union station plaza as the site for 
the memorial and adopted the design 
submitted by the late Daniel H. Burn- 
ham, architect of the Union station 
and member of the national commis- 
sion of fine arts, and Lorado Taft, 
sculptor. 
Mr. Taft has been working for two 
years on the models for the sculp- 
tured groups, and the central figure of 
Columbus is regarded as one of the 
background for a statue of Columbus, 
who is represented as standing on the 
prow of a vessel, with arms folded in 
an attitude of meditation. It was Mr. 
Taft’s purpose here to make us feel 
the apotheosized Columbus, and while 
the statue is simple, the sculptor has 
imparted to the figure a grandiose 
dignity by throwing about it a great 
cloak, after the fashion of the dis- 
coverer’s day. 
Just below the statue of Columbus 
is the figurehead of a ship, a beauti- 
ful female figure of ample form and 
dignity, typifying “The Spirit of Dis- 
covery.” The great basin of the 
fountain will be immediately beneath 
this figure and will in itself be most 
interesting with its abundant flow of 
water. 
On either side of the shaft are mas- 
sive figures portraying the sculptor’s 
ideas of the new and old worlds. The 
“New World” is represented by the 
figure of an American Indian reach- 
