Evening Star Newspaper, February 22, 1925, Page 59

ILLUSTRATED FEATURES Part 5—8 Pages MAGAZINE SECTION The Suntay Stae WASHINGTOX D. SUNDAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 99 22, 1925. Washington’s Human Qualities Enhance Spirit of Memorial LUCRETIA E. HEMINGTON. HE eminence known as Shoot- ers Hill, a part of Arlington Ridge, where the Freemasons of the United States are build- ing a magnificent memorial to George Washington, the one President among all our Chlef Executives who was at one and the same time the head of our Government and the master of his lodge, 1s eminently suit- ed for such a temple. It lies on the falr highroad that runs between the City of Washington and the Mount Vernon estate. Historic fmportance 1s, moreover, attached to the ground, for when Jefferson and Adams were delegated to select a lo- cation for the Capitol Building of the Federal Government, they chose Shooters HIIl Washington owned its immediate vicinity promptly vetoed the dec knew full well that his land would have a atly increased value if it Jay in the shadow of the dome of the Capitol, and he did not wish to place himself in a position, as President of the United States, to merit the criti- cism that would have followed had he favored the proposed plan. It was a constant concern with him to keep the high office which he held unsullied, and he succeeded in this high endeavor better ‘than he knew. Washington had assumed his duties as President with his wonted sense of responsibility and he wrote: I walk on untrodden ground; there 15 no action the motlve of which may Tot be subjected to a double inter- pretation; there is scarcely any part of my conduct that may not here- after be drawn into precedent.” His vision of his country was Im- perialistic; he saw beyond the present in which he moved far into the fu- ture, and he builded on a scale com- mensurate with his vision, irrespective of whether the stones he handled were small or large. Not only Is the immediate site well & xelected In itself, but it is doubly ap- propriate in that it lies in Alexandria, Va., the home of many of Washing- ton's activities. There It was that he voted, and from there how often his diary records that he set out on some momentous undertaking, as, for in- stance, when he started to journey to New Yprk for his inaugural, and was feted by his friends and neighbors in Alexandria. There must have been madness in that last entertainment, for Washington's high office would forever, after he had assumed it, bar him from the wonted ease with which he had been met by his nelghbors. Moreover, in Alexandria his will was recorded, that generous will that re- membered with portions of his estate 41 of his relatives Having no children of his own, he had loved and cared for the many nieces and nephews that were happy in claiming him for their uncle. Too, it was in Alexandria that he served &s master of his lodge, and his life bore testimony of the high principles of Freemasonry for which that lodge stood. No other location in the coun- try could so unerringly claim for.it- self the master structure that is to house the spirit of Washingion. * ¥ % % HE history of the world is so- norous with the sonz of the building of temples whose chambers ‘were to hold in eternal remembrance the lives of the world's great men and the world's lofty Inspirations. Time in its relentless fashion might shat- ter the walls and columns, but the temple still stands in the memory of men, an eternal treasure from out ¥ the eternal ages, Solomon’s temple has lain in ruins for many centuries, but it still rises with its cedar beams and golden orna- ments toward the blue heavens of a remembering people; and the perfect- ed flower in white marble that grew upon the violet-crowned Acropolis of Athens still blooms In the matchless garden of,Attic glory. As they built for eternity, so-are they building in Alexandria, and the design they haye chosen for Washington they have borrowed from the anclent builders who bullt so enduringly. The plan of the memorial was evolved by the anclents in thelr struc- tures for guiding ships Into safe har- bors. They were known as towers and held in their summits fires that burn- ed steadily night and dav. Perhaps the best known exambles of such flares were the towers at Rhodes at Egyptian Alexandria. Their ing missjon w guiding mariners into safe ports, end how often has Washington been such a light in the darkness of confused political think- ing, his words and his acts serving as precedents to guide our ship of etate. 2 When the beholder of this new temple shall understand the signifi- cance of the structure he will acclalm its plan as a perfected interpretation of the influence of Washington upon the country whose foundation he was permitted to build. It would seem as though no other design could quite so consummately catch in marble any- thing so ethereal as the visioning epirit of the farseelng Washington, and that is the last great test of true art, that it shall s utterly and ul- timately appropriate to the idea it is meant to Convey. The design is to be carried out in the most endurfng material known to builders, In order that for all time the ideal that Is Washington may be portrayed in strength and in beauty, and that stone is Conway pink gran ite, cut from the enduring hills of Red Stone, N. H. More than that, it has been decided that all support for the great welght of the structure =shall be furnished by stone and ce- ment; hence steel and iron will not be employed, for rust and decay will attack such materials in time, and no known disintegration will be incor- porated nto the bullding. During this Winter season all work upon the bullding was discontinued in order that the. freezing weather anight not in_any slightest degree af- fect the quality of endurance that is an essential in the plan of the temple. * ok % ¥ NE of the marvels of the structure is the gigantic monolith that lies Jike immovable bedrock beneath the memorial. It was fabricated from ce- ment and gravel, its 3,000 cubic yards of concrete belng cross-braced and bound together by 1,320 tons of rein- forcing steel. Upon this solid founda~ tion will rest the bullding, the specifi- cations of which eall for an over-all depth, east and” west, of 240 feet, a width of 168 feet, and a height of 333 feet. Its vast size can be conveyed by the statement that the Lincoln Memo- rial could be easily placed .within the main chamber of Washington's tem- ple, with generous space left on all sides. A magnificent flight of marble steps, Jike a cascade of foaming.water, ris- ing from walled terrace to walled ter- race, whose spaccs will be carpeted with grass and planted with trees, will bear the pilgrim to the portico, Smpressive with its eight. Doric. col- umns. One wonders whether the flight many acres in and v a certain 4 he | sion, for he | Conway pink dranile e membering that" th was' nothing more renowned than that glorious work of the ancients. Just why they should be termed.the anclents -is a pleasing mystery, for they were, the - earth's - delectable youth, but.of whose {nimitable dream- ing came the perfection of art.and architecture to serve - as models for the mighty world, and from thejr ex- quisite patterns .our master builders. still work itoday. There ; was .about George Washing- ton a simple greatness that is reveal- ed in the Doric capitals of the por- tico, a strength whose.compound knew no insincerjty.and no pretense. Facts were the poise of his mind, gleaned through the eyes of truth and-hon- esty, and that.solid qualtiy of. his character is set like a. crown;in the Doric iine- above the portal to-the chamber in which his spirit is-housed for all time. As the pilgrim.walks beneath this crown of a great. man's sheer character is it not possible he shall-wear it for a little while as he contemplates a master among men? Passing through the portico, one enters the. atrium, or memorial hall, in which will be erected a statue of Washiggton, done in heroic size. This chamber measures 100 feet by 70 feet and will hold.eight columns of green -polishied granite as-a sup- port for ‘the great weight. of the towers rising above it. Each.of these columns -has : & measurement of .39 feet in height, with a-djameter of 4% feet. Cool polished marble every- where, lofty height and ‘wide space, and over. all the presiding spirit of ‘Washington, caught and held, like a jewel in its setting, for the eyes of men to see In the herolc sized statue standing In its niche in the wall. It is @ noble chamber, no whit less fair than that the holmeted Athene presided over, and no less sacred than that spacious hall where dwells the lonely. Lincoln. Its conception, is nobly wrought in strength and in beauty. of steps, the terraces-and the Propy- lea of the Acropolis of Athens could have surpassed this new achlevement Surrounding” the main chamber will be rooms deyoted tp Masonic purposes.~ Among thém will' be an P ight green granite columns 39 feet hid ohg-‘m/é feet 1%1, diameter, will cerve S,i s the towerof the Memorial. blocks are uged b which Washington served as master, while others will serve for offices of the Memorial® Assoclation. The outer wall of 'this first story is made from granite blocks,” giving = the whole structure a solid strength which the colonnaded stories above relieve and lighten ‘in a most-aftractive manner. In -the second chamber,” which, will be known as the State memorial room, will be displayed : the relics pregnant’ with the. history;of Wash- ington's life.. There will be a flag that recalls some fleld _activity, a book, . telling how and . where Wash- ington spent his time, ‘Which we are pleased to call his diary; another book on rules of efiguette written in a rather boyish hand, and yet a third book that was his, carefully kept ledger, for he kept his aecounts in an . exacting fashion and he valued the pence as well as the shillings and the pounds. But If he demanded every penny due to him, he was most care- ful to_ pay the pence he owed to others. “ With him it was not close bargalning; it was rather gocd busi- ness and honesty combined. These booKs contaln the only true biog- raphy that has 'ever been written upon_ Washington. % ‘And there will be his life mask made by Houdon, showing the un-, imagined “likeness of "the master of Mount’ Vernon. Perhaps” the writer may be pardoned if a little digression is made here upon his appearance, for it is a_well known' fact that he made a ‘striking impression upon all, Who saw him for the first,time. The ex- planation lay in ' his 'magnificent height and great frame, for he stood 6 feet 3 and carried himself as straight as an Indian. He possessed a strength that was equal to that of two ordinary men (he. could lift his own army tent with its great pole and throw it into a wagon with one hand). His hair was brown, combed straight back, powdered, and tied in a net to hang down his back. The eves were steel blue, at times turn- ing almost gray, and set in the largest sockets his portralt paintes Stuart, declared, he Had-ever seew, Menmorial Wails. Trames suwrround the columas to protect them pporis for of modern. architects, even when re-|exact replica of the lodgeroom .in|The nose was large and unusually broad in the bridge. Again Stuart’s’ comment runs that the combination of the large eye sockets with the wide bridge of the nose indicated that their owner was a man of passions as strong.as would suit a savage roaming the forest, but that his powerful self-control, re- vealed in the firmly closed lips, sel- dom loosed the rein on those strong emotions. Lady Washington resented this statement, but Washington ad- mitted that Stuart was right. The officer sent out by Washington to cross the river and bring back in- formation about the enemy would have agreed with Stuart also. The officer was gone quite some time and returned to find his general impa- tiently pacing his tent. Upon belng asked what he had learned, he replied that the night was dark and stormy, the river full of ice.and that he had been unable to cross. Washington glared at him a ‘moment, seized a large leaden inkstdnd from the table, hurled it at the offender's head, and sald with a fierce oath, “Be off, and get me a man!” The officer went, crossed the river, and brought back' the information. John Marshall is the authority for that . story. A bit more is due:his appearance. The clieekbones were high, the small- pox-pitted skin was almost colorless, the teeth markedly bad, and the chin s0 prominent that all might read there his firm decision and power. Lafayette said that Washington had the largest hands and the most promi- nent knuckles that he had ever seen. His army boots numbered 13 and his civillan boots 11. In spite of his great slze he appeared not out of propor- tion, seeming august, symmetrical, poised, with no little grace in his movements, due perhaps to his fre- quent dancing, the best loved of his recreations. * x ok x FTER that digression, a return to the room of relics is in order —a room whose contents are designed to furnish many causes for div slon, Uniforms and swopds and aword- for the completed Geor Masonic Memorial One of the eighi huge col- umns of the, Memorial. These are to gtand in the hall proper, where, also, will be erected the heroic gtatue of George washinglor. —==— knots (he ordered from his London agent upon one occasion “3 gold and scarlet sword-knots and 3 silver and blue sword-knots”) will be there for the eye of the mind to-turn into history. There will be the mammoth Xey of the Bastille among' the treas- ures, for Lafayette, the friend he loved best of all, had sent him that testimony of the destruction of despotism In France, and it will re- call the debt we owed to France and fully paid in the crusaders that we sent across the submarine-infested seas in 1918. And there will be a host of other relics replete with In- cidents assoclated with Washington's varied and eminent life to challenge the interest of the visitor. Directly above the hall of relics will be. a similar colonnaded story where a library will be found, whose books will deal largely with ‘the life of Washington and yith the Govern- ment which he helped to establish. There will be many volumes, too, r lating to the order to which he be- longed. The story at the summit will serve for observation purposes, commanding a clear view in one direction of, the dome of the Capitol, the Washington Monument and the Lincoln Memorial, that trlune beauty of our Federal City and in the other, a full view of Mount Vernon, linking it all in a chain of essential unity. More than that, there. Is to be kept burning con- tinuously from that crowning height a great light whose beams will shine out across the surrounding country like the beacons in the ancient towers. This provision will carry out the symbolism of the whole plan, will perfect and glorify it. The whole structure, when trans: Jated ipto its true significance, howing the s comes adequate to the memory of the man it honors. It is wholly Greek in plan, a majestic simpliclty emanating from it as from all things that are purely Attle. In wind and in storm it will stand in its serene strength as Washington stood unmoved from his purpose un- der the assaults of an unsympathetic Government, as he battled against the British forces and under the whirlwinds of intrigue that attempt- ed in secret shame to remove him from command and put Gen. Gates at the: head of the Army. Gloom and gray vapory mists cannot dismay its white splendor any more than the cowardly disloyalty of generals could dim the radiance of the allegiance of ‘Washington to his country. In the genial sunshine, under cloudless blue skies, this memorial will stand In a flawless serenity, keeping. :Re even tenor of its way, even as dld Washington when high honors ‘smiled upon him and when ‘words of acclamation were his por- tion. - Much of the history of the world” was_written In the deeds of men who, bécoming leaders of their fellow men, became drunk with the power that ‘they drank from their high positions. Not even Washing- ton's Dbitterest enemies (was there ever any President of this country that went out of office so maligned and reviled as was Washington?) could accuse him of departing from his fixed course in statesmanship. * kX % ‘HE enemies of this first President, ‘whose manifold duties were noth- ing if not colessal, for it fell to him to create the departments of Govern- ment, to appoint officers, to develo) mational credit .and to establ ize of the Meworial columus I precedents jm all the functions of our {morial will impress upon all who.pass | str | e Washindton National 3 : Chief Executive, might attack the support he gave the national bank, that supreme achievement of Hamil- ton’s masterly well built financial system, on the ground that the Con- stitution did not sanction the estab- lishment of a corporation that was to be favored with a monopoly of the Government’'s business, as they might assail his decision to follow a path of neutrality in dealing with France and England while those two nations were at war with each other, but the solid force of his character thatnever varied in success or in failure they could not make an assault upon. That stood like his Memorial, impervious to the mutations of the changing sea- sons in the unfolding years. Char- acfer is destiny from whose estab- lished laws a man may not depart. As one reads widely in the life of Washington, this force of character seems to grow until it presides over the events of his career, until it dom- inates every scene in which he moves. Not _expediency but principle was his guiding _star. His service to his country held in it the essence of pure loyalty and sheer honor, than which what ‘nobler motive could animate any servant of the people? A double instance of his unselfish devotion to the cause he served is found in his refusal to accept any pay for the office of commander-in- chief of the forces of the colonists. When he accepted that high office he stipulated that he would accept at the termination of the conflict noth- ing eave his expenses. Again, when he was asked to be the candidate for the presidency of the new Govern- ment, he made the same stipulation. There was a nobility and a singleness of purpose about him that the Me- | ine the o | throw through its portals to learn the this firet great Ame The common imp country today Is that Lincoln grows yearly that of Washington grows more dim, not due to any comparison of the two men he vital and compelling power of the man who saved what the other had established. The Memorial As sociation will revive our deep interest in_the master of Mount Vernon. It is 2 mistake to emasculate ro it true fcan sion as the more they will but - history of in this fame of bright but the unfavor- bu | bust, courageous characters by a p: trayal that renders them nothing less than flawless, cold, plaster saint whose rigid uprightness leaves the beholder awed, perhaps, but resent- ful, too, at such frigld perfection. It is a result of hero worship, no doubt, but it defeats its own purpose. And |this has been the manner of our treat- ment of Washington. Let us exam- of the man who Is yearly & a greater fascination over the hearts of his countrymen, to see | whether a reason can be found that is fundamental Out of the life story of Abraham Lincoln has been fashioned an eplc ts thrill the hearts of the world. His name will go singing down the agesg set to the matchless music of his hu- man qualities in its minor strains, and in its major to the deeds that give him his immortal greatness. Indeed posterity can say of him what Octa- vius said of the dead Brutus, that Na- ture might stand up and say to all the world that this was a man. His temple has become a shrine in Wwhose silent chambers love of country Ilves In poignant beauty trenchant enough to pierce the Pilgrim's caredulled patriotism, so that its smolderirg fires burst forth with renewed life But into this epic went the lttle warm humanities of the man; his meager youth, his shattered romance, his struggles with poverty, his efforts to secure an education, his genial de. light in anecdotes, his love of truth and honesty, his courage and daring and the tenderness of a great heart burdened as few hearts have sver been. No word, no contact, no deed, is omitted. and the flame of his life shines beaconwise across a weary world fed by the manifold currents of his human ways as well as of his |Wisdom and his greatness. There s 1o repellent touch in all this master. plece inscribed Lincoln; he grips the Imagination and the dreams of men With a power that is olymple, even as T:nedl:\'erl]smnmnng us, moving in his ¥ fashion thr lonely fashlon through the routine of * * ¥ % OW vast the difference in the % treatment we have accorded the TSt great American, a man as human and as red-blooded as Abraham Lin- coln, and what a loss thereby have we ;e[c:;rded ;; our national ledger of story! We need to lear Portray Washington In terms or h warm humanities, his stern justices. his little vanities, his unvaried cour- tesies, his power to evaluate men, his stanch courage and lovalty under brutal attack, his dependen minds_ 11k B e those of Hamiiton, Knox and Jefferson, his love affairs, his avoldance of ostentation, his true as sociation with his mother, which was almost a negligible thing, in order to destroy the bleak-eyed plaster saint Into which mere legends have turned him, and show an American as worthy o‘;: a‘r!m admiration as {s Lincoln. s useless to compare the two men, for their personal equations make them antipodal; each presided Over an age and each has won a fame that is genuine and sure. In the case of Washington we need to rescue him from the rubbish heap of legend that we have thrown about im, obscuring his true self ana cheating him of his own strength. The schoolroom has been the sculp- tor that has fashioned Washington Into a plaster saint out of the stuff that legends are made of. The last decade, however, has seen improve- ment-in the writing of histories, ana teachers are accustomed to do more research work than was done in for- mer tim There is still room for Improvement, however, that this mis- deed that has been done to a great many may be righted. In order to do that his letters must be read as well as his dlary and his ledger to form a correct estimate of the man. One marvels not a little that the obvious is 80 often not observed. Le a class of boys study the life of poleon (historians deal squarely with him, for they keep a critical eyve upon all his acts, with the result that the students see him a human being, little as well as great) and they seek outside information, debate him, admire him, dislike him and deduc most vivid opinions concerning him, while the same class on the subject of George Washington is respectful, dutiful, but tame as a broken colt. It {s not the military glamour that makes the difference; it is the vivid portrayal of the man, his faults, his folbles, his genius, his daring, his personality, and that is exactly what we have cheated Washington of—his vivid, colorful self, his peculiarities, his individuality. Let the facts, all the facts, be presented in his case, and students will delight in his por- trayal, will debate him, will thrill to his splendid qualities and will honor his_steady allegiance to the Natlon he builded through storm and strain. And while we are about it, lét's re- train from holding Washington up to the youth of the land as a model in everything he did; any live boy or girl is not overfond of a model, and Washington was as human as it _is given a high-minded man to be. He was ever careful in advising . the nieces and nephews anrd his step- children who came, under his super- vision, to tell them the truth, to ad- mit that he had made mistakes and to state that he could expect from them, not perfection, but only the deportment inherent in their youth and inexperience. * k * X (QE needs only to read his journal to erase frém the mind the ab- surd story concerning his flawless veracity, as one needs only to listen to a mother warn her children against story-telling when she herself prac- tices daily liftle deceptions with them which their relentiess stralght- seeing detects at onc Weems, in his ardor, has done Washington no little injustice, Truth- telling is a part of one's honor, and it cannot be inculcated by deception. Washington was honest, a lover of truth, therefore, but he himself gives sufficient proof that Weems could ex- aggerate for the sake of emphasis. Indeed, his diary would appear to surpass any biography that has ever been written upon his life. The memorial at Alexandria is ‘a noble contribution to our history, to our record of past events, and as such we need to try to understand its meaning and its interpretations. It will be an inspiration, and its dedica- tion will awaken renewed interest in the man whose spirit is enshrimed within its walls. L