text: A 'w Ui v NA k ^-’W W v a Sr Ok®*< n . WN^WW On the 27th day of April the monu ment erected to the memory of General U. S. Grant in Riverside park. New York city, will be dedicated with ap propriate ceremony. New York city will observe the day as a legal holiday, the state legislature having passed a bill to that effect. The near approach of the date set for the dedication of the monument has reawakened public interest in this proj ect to commemorate the life and char acter of America’s greatest soldier. It is now nearly 12 years since the body of General Grant was placed in the temporary vault in Riverside park. This temporary tomb is located at a point some 75 feet north of the inclos ure of the monument. It was at first some 200 feet south of this, but had to be moved when the contractor found it necessary to build a high fence around the monument. Although the tempo rary tomb was of brick in semicircular form, the removal was accomplished without any injury to the temporary resting place. The tomb has been whol ly under the protection of the New York city park department, and two policemen are stationed there at a time, each pair being eight hours on duty. For more than eight years after the body of General Grant was placed in the temporary tomb a half answered appeal was made to the people of the O' ' g ft ■ IH. 4 JIH r? Gm, 'ii gpl -y y ■a— * 1 -- THE TEMPORARY TOMB. country for money with which to pay the expenses of erecting a suitable monument. In all that time not more than $150,000 was raised. Scarcely a subscription was received from any other part of the country than New York city. There seemed to be a feel ing that if General Grant was perma nently to sleep in a place set apart by New York city the citizens of the me tropolis ought to erect such a monu ment as they thought appropriate. It was forgotten in other parts of the country that New York had contribut ed most generously for honorable me morial or for more important funds that the families of those who had done great things might be supported in cbmfort. There were tears, for instance, in Cyrus W. Field’s eyes as he complained that he had not been invited to take part in the ceremonial in Cleveland when the Garfield monument was dedi cated, and he said with something of indignation that when he set out to raise a fund which would be large enough to yield an income that would GENERAL HORACE PORTER. support the family ot General Gar field most handsomely almost every penny that he received was from citi zens of New York, and that outside of a single subscription of $5,000 from a man who, though legally a citizen of Ohio, was actually a resident of New York, not one penny had been added to that fund by any other person living in Garfield's native state. It became evident some six years ago that if a suitable monument were to be placed over the casket containing the dust ot Grant the money to pay for It must be raised In New York city, and General Horace Porter undertook to find the sum that was thought to be needful. His personal relations with Grant both upon the battlefield and afterward as fellow citizen of the same city made the labor he undertook one of private affection and friendship quite as much as that of a citizen who believed that Grant's memory should be kept visibly In evidence by a sub lime work of mural architecture. More than $400,090 was needed, and in a space of time which now seems In- The Grant Portraits. A suggestion has been made that then l be placed either within the ante chamber of the Grant monument or in gome suitable building near by as many THE GRANT MONUMENT credibly short for such a purpose this great sum was raised, paid in and so invested as to yield an income of some $15,000 a year. LOCATION OF THE TOMB. Notwithstanding General Grant’s de sire that his body be interred in New York city, there was in different sec tions of the country a potverful senti ment against observing his wishes in this particular. Illinois made claims because that state was popularly re garded as his home. Ohio wanted the honor because he was a native of that state. The city of Washington claimed him because Grant was pre-eminently a national character. New York city’s claims outweighed all others, however. General Grant had chosen New York for his home at the end of his public career, and it was his wish to be buried on Manhattan Island. While General Grant and Mrs. Grant were in Europe they paid a visit to the tomb of Ferdinand and Isabella. The thought of the royal couple sleep ing side by side for centuries appealed to the devoted husband, and turning to his wife he said: '‘Julia, this is the way we should lie in death." His wish was not forgotten, and when the great cities of the east sought the honor of affording his body a sepulture New York was the first to offer a tomb for both the general and his wife with out conditions. New York was also helped by the fact that a memorandum left by the general gave his preference as a place of burial as follows: "West Point. —I prefer this above others but for the fact that my wife could not be placed beside me there. “Galena or some other place in Illi nois.—Because from that state I re ceived my first general’s commission. “New York. —Because the people of that state befriended me in my need.” When offers were made by various cities, Mrs. Grant cast her vote on the side of New Y’ork. Two attempts to hold mass meetings on the subject of the place of burial were made in. Washington. It was known at the time that President Cleveland. Adjutant General Drum and many other prominent officials dis countenanced these efforts in view of General Grant’s wishes, but this did not deter the general populace at the capital from trying to influence Mrs. Grant in favor of that city. Chicago soon joined forces with Washington and the clamor was continued for many days. W. R. Grace was mayor of New York at that time, and he did effective work in combating the opposition to New- York and affording Mrs. Grant and her sons such information and assistance as they required in making their choice of a burial site. He was ably seconded by the park commissioners, and the board of aidermen was equally inter ested, and, in fact, there was general activity in the community to counter act the influence of rival places. As soon as the family had determined that the general’s wishes regarding in terment should be observed a contro versy arose over the question of the lo cation of the tomb. This raged as long and fiercely as the preceding one and was scarcely allayed by Mrs. Grant’s selection of Riverside park. Then came the suggestion that the name Riverside park be changed to Grant park, but in time this, too, became a threadbare topic. For nearly a week before the funeral a good idea could be obtained of the popularity which was destined to at tach to the upper end of Riverside park for all time. Hundreds of people visited the site of the tomb daily. The great natural beauty of the locality daw-ned upon the public eye. The im provements in the neighborhood w-ere not impressive, but the attractiveness of the site of the monument was uni versally conceded. As soon as Mrs. Grant had expressed her preference for this locality some 20 or 30 workmen with teams w-ere set at work preparing the ground for the temporary vault, and the country awakened to a keen inter est in Riverside park. The up town afternoon trains deposited scores of people at One Hundred and Twenty fifth street, who, taking the cross town cars, were landed at the foot of the hill on which the tomb of Grant was to be placed. After a hasty glance at the work on the temporary vault the visit ors invariably walked to the bluff over looking the Hudson and gathered leaves from the giant oak which was riven by lightning at about the time of Grant’s death. DELAYS IN THE WORK. The work of constructing the Grant monument has progressed slowly, and there have been many vexatious de- GENERAL G. M. DODGE. lays. At times there were heard quer ulous suggestions and complaining hints that the work lagged, and there were even contemptible insinuations that it was more to the liking of the trustees that the money should remain In Investments than that it should be expended for the monument. Genera! Porter answered with dignity those who made these complaints. The trustees have not been idle. They have spent many months in a search— which for some time seemed to be a of the portraits of General Grant as can be collected as well as other me morials made sacred by identification with him either during bls army or THE SPY WORCESTER MARCH 1897 DEDICA TION ’ hopeless one—for a peculiar quality of granite, both necessary to produce the artistic effect desired as well as to se cure the permanence which many kinds of stone are unable to maintain in the New- York climate. The quarries of New York, Pennsyl vania, Michigan and Virginia, and es pecially those in Rhode Island, w-ere most carefully examined and the gran ite found to be unsatisfactory. The dark granite of the Dix island quarry, off the coast of Maine, would have been satisfactory had the stone been of the tint desired. At last the committee found, far up in the interior of the state of Maine, a granite for which they had long made careful search. It is very light in color, almost of the tint of marble, utterly w-ithout burnish, and was of such formation as successfully to resist for ages the most trying vari ations of climate.' But when they had found the quarry there still remained much expensive and slow, dragging work to be done. Some of the blocks were to be of un usual size, greater than any ever set into an American structure, and to cut those out and prepare them for trans portation made necessary the building of unusual machines as well as the quarrying at great depth. The dress ing of such granite as this requires as laborious and patient work almost as does the most artistic structure. Other most painstaking preliminary work was necessary in order to prepare the foundation for this colossal struc ture, and then, too, the discontent of granite cutters brought about delays, for the labor unions did not hesitate to command the w-orkmen who were en gaged upon these quarries to throw down their tools, although they were doing their part toward the building of the Grant monument. THE MONUMENT. The Grant monument, now complet ed, is 165 feet in height. It is of no con spicuous height w-hen set in compari son with the Washington monolith or even w-ith some of the tall buildings of New- York city. But it will impress the eye not as the Washington monument does because of sublime simplicity, but because of the exquisite architectural effect, the massiveness and appropri ateness of the work. When it is remem bered that nearly 40 years passed aw-ay from the day that President. Taylor laid the cornerstone of the Washing ton monument to the time that it was pronounced finished and that for near ly half a century the tomb of Washing ton at Mount Vernon w-as neglected and only preserved by the contribu tions of the citizens and the efforts of Everett, it must be said that the com pletion of the Grant monument at a cost of nearly $700,000 has been one of the swiftest undertakings of like na ture that w-e have record of. The first meeting of the Grant monument com mittee was held on April 9, 1892, and over 80,000 American citizens contrib uted the money necessary for the erec tion of the great tomb. The monument stands on a promon tory of the Hudson, an eminence that rises 140 feet above the city. The de sign, which is the work of John H. Dun can, is original in its conception and execution. The tomb is intended to be emblematical of the hero in w-hose hon or the monument has been erected. The square Doric base is said to be typical of his military career, the circular cu pola is emblematic of his civil life, and the stepped dome that completes the structure announces that it is the tomb of a warrior. The exterior of the mon ument is of granite and its interior is of marble. In the main floor is the crypt, 30 feet wide, where are spaces designed for the sarcophagi of General Grant and eventually of Mrs. Grant The building of the monument has been in charge of John T. Brady, the contractor. First a contract was award ed to Mr. Brady for the construction of the foundation, and he began w-ork up on this in June, 1891. This foundation, which is of concrete, is 110 feet by 116 feet at the base, and 107 feet square at the top. Its depth is 22 feet. The top of the foundation is 134 feet above high water in the Hudson. The main part of the superstructure, that between the foundation and the base of the dome, is 100 feet square to the building line and is 85 feet high. It is constructed of granite, as is the whole exterior of the monument, sup plied from North Jay, Me., a place some 60 miles southeast of Bar Harbor. This is a particularly hard and fine grained granite and is generally regarded as being the best possible for the purpose. The granite exterior has a backing of concrete and then of hollow- brick for the purpose of absorbing moisture and preventing it from percolating through the wall. The monument offers the same ap pearance upon its northern, eastern and western sides. These sides are of plain granite, the walls being broken in the center by a line of four granite col umns set in recesses and 30 feet high. Window openings are cut in the wall, three on each side, near the tops of the columns, and these are 6 feet square. '-7- HON. C. N. BLISS. civil life. There are in New York city a number of portraits of Grant, all of them pronounced good and yet each of them so different as to suggest thevast change which his overwhelming re sponsibilities effected in the expression of his face and otherwise in his phys ical appearance. One of these portraits, and it was one which General Grant himself liked, At 80 feet from the foundation is the lower edge of the cornice. Huge lion head blocks of granite form a project ing layer above this, and one more lay er of granite blocks completes the main body. The monument faces the south, and on this side are the only approach and entrance to the tomb. There are no win dows on this side. The entrance is through a brazen door. This front of the tomb has also the four granite col umns at the entrance. But just out side of these is another line of fluted columns, and these are six in number. 30 feet high, 7 feet in diameter at the base and 6 at the top. They are part of the portico. The lintels are of the same material. The portico is in the lonic style, and is in itself a feature of great beauty. The approach to the portico is formed of granite platforms 100 feet wide, which afford a gradual ascent of 40 feet. While the monument was in process of erection there was no lack of thor ough inspection. Colonel Gillespie, the well known engineer of the United States army, who has charge of the Harlem ship canal, w-as selected by the Grant monument committee to keep an eye upon the work, and his representa tive, Mr. Dorflinger, has watched the structure constantly. One of the com mittee's own inspectors has always been on duty. Furthermore, John H. Duncan, the architect whose plan was chosen for the monument, has been a frequent visitor. THE INTERIOR OF THE TOMB. The main apartment within the mon ument, under the great dome, is called Memorial hall. Around the dome. 99 feet above the main floor of the tomb, stained glass windows let in a soft 4hl!l||H I ■O IH Hl I[n it l i hlllM i I 11110 111 tlllllJMlilt i salite ASA < I® -Blsfe jjßlli — —— . , — — — - Aar - - ft, : Mv-fpO • a 1-3-7 i ■ 1 a a 1 aa 'Jr a'l ..-a.,.'.' • ~^I —irrar —"IB** 111 , Fa Wm light. Directly under this dome, in the middle ot Memorial hall, a circular opening 18 feet in diameter and sur rounded by an iron railing permits the visitor to look down at the coffin as it rests on the sarcophagus in Jhe middle of the crypt below. At each of the four corners of the mausoleum is a great square pier, and these piers are hollow. In the southern ones spiral stairways admit visitors to the crypt, where they may walk entirely around the sarcophagus, which is raised enough to allow them to read the inscriptions on it and the coffin. In the two north ern piers will be an exhibition of Grant relics. In these niches will be shown battle flags, swords carried by the general and other souvenirs of Grant. Spiral stairways in the corner piers will al low visitors to climb up to the top of the base, or square part of the struc ture. Here they can walk out on a balcony around the circular part of the monument, from which a fine view of the Hudson and upper part of the city may be had. THE DEDICATION. Great preparations are being made for the dedication of the monument on April 27. The ceremonies will be elabo rate. The plans contemplate a great civic and military parade, together with the naval parade, of which New York has recently grown so fond. Speeches will be made by distinguished orators, who will pay tribute to the painted from Ute, hangs in a hotel re ception room on Madison square. It represents Grant just after he came cast to command the entire armies. It is the likeness of him as the country knew him after he gained his pre-emi nence as a warrior in the west. It has not the careworn lines, the suggestion of great mental strain, which appear In another portrait that hangs in the re- greatness of the hero. The city of New- York has appropriated $50,000 for making the occasion of April 27 mem orable in the annals of the city and the nation. The president of the United States and his cabinet, the vice presi dent, embassadors and foreigners of distinction, governors of states and people from all parts of the country are to be present, and it is the inten tion to make the pageant in honor of America's great soldier the most im posing since the ceremony in Paris when the body of Napoleon was re ceived from St. Helena and deposited in the Hotel des Invalides. Federal troops, representing the army, the navy and the marine corps, and the national guard of many states will take part in the display as well as civic bodies representing the principal in dustries of the United States. On Feb. 13 last Mayor William L. Strong of New York appointed a gen eral citizens’ committee of 200 members to take charge of the ceremonies inci dent to the transfer of the Grant me morial in Riverside park to the city of New- York April 27. Mayor Strong subsequently sent to each member of the committee the fol lowing letter: “You are hereby appointed a member of the committee which is to have charge of the exercises incident to the formal transfer to the city of the Grant monument. The transfer by the Grant | ' NAN . ... THE COMPLETED MONUMENT. Monument association to the city of the tomb of the illustrious general im poses upon the city a trust in which every citizen should have a proper pride. I am extremely desirous that the committee, of which y >u have been appointed a member, should begin its labors at once and perfect with great care the necessary arrangements for so important an event as the one which calls it together. Accompanying this is a list of the committee. Very respect fully, W. L. STRONG. Mayor." At a recent meeting of the executive committee of the Grant monument mu nicipal inaugural committee held at the Fifth Avenue hotel Mayor Strong an nounced that he had appointed Cor nelius N. Bliss chairman and James C. Reed secretary of the executive com mittee, and General Horace Porter chairman and Walter C. Gilson secre tary of the committee on plan and scope. General Granville M. Dodge was unanimously elected grand marshal of the parade to take place April 27. The subcommittees having in charge the detail of the dedication were later appointed, as follows: Committee on Invltatiohs.—Wllllam L. Strong chairman. Committee on Expenditures.—Corne lius N. Bliss chairman. Committee on Plan and Scope.—Gen eral Horace Porter chairman, Walter C. Gilson secretary. Committee on Military Affairs.—Gen , ■■ — - —* ceptlon room of one of the up town banks, having been placed there for safe keeping by Mrs. Grant. This is a portrait of Grant with which Mrs. Grant is best pleased because, as she once said. It Is faithful. It was paint ed in the early fall of 18(14 just after Grant had passed through that awful season when by continual Hanking of Reade he forced the Confederate lead- eval Granville M. Dodge chairman, A. Noel Blakeman secretary. Committee on Naval Affairs.—Com mander Jacob W. Miller chairman. General Edward C. O’Brien secretary. Committee on Decorations and Plat forms.—Cornelius O’Reilly chairman, John Winfield Scott secretary. Committee on Transportation.—Sam uel Spencer chairman, Adelbert H. Steele secretary. Committee on the Press.—William J. Arkell chairman, John A. Sleicher sec retary. Committee on Public Safety and Or der. — Theodore Roosevelt chairman, Edward Haight secretary. Committee on Badges. — Alexander Caldwell chairman, Bertram H. Borden secretary. Reception Committee. — Henry W. Cannon chairman, John R. Van Wor mer secretary. On April 27 New York city will ob serve the day as a general holiday, and excursion trains will run to the metrop olis from all parts of the country. Mil- lions of people will witness the parade of the military and civic bodies, and the dedication will be an event of na tional importance in every way. VISITORS TO GRANT’S TOMB. The temporary tomb of General Grant has been visited, as is the grave of Washington Irving, by almost every one who comes from foreign lands to this country for any other than busi ness reasons. The postmaster of Liv erpool, recently here, and Sir Henniker Heaton set apart a day that they might first go to Sleepy Hollow cemetery and see the liumbly marked grave of Ir ving. returning to New York In the afternoon in time to look at the homely sarcophagus in which General Grant’s remains now rest. And it has been noticed that the pro portion of those who are plainly citi zens of another land who visit these historic spots is much larger than that ot the Americans who thus pay silent homage to the memory of two of our greatest citizens, excepting, of course, upon days ot public festivity, when great crowds make the picturesque trip to the beautiful spot upon the banks ot the Hudson where by and by the finest of monuments, excepting the simple monolith In Washington, is to be erected as a visible and enduring memorial of Grant. LI Hung Chang Is reported to have said that the monument to General Grant was the most Impressive tomb he had seen in the western world. er back until he was at last within the defenses of Richmond. Recently some one asked Colonel Fred Grant if the picture was faithful In representing his father as a man of decidedly sandy hair and beard, and he replied that It was. The grim, aw ful determination that we came to know as characteristic of Grant is sug gested by this picture more than by Since Grant’s body was first placefl in the brick structure at the upper end of the drive many thousands of people have visited the spot. It is safe to say that not 1 in 100 of them saw the great man’s resting place without an invol untary exclamation of disgust. "And is that Grant’s grave?” is the first question a stranger always asks when shown the place, and then follows a shudder at the lack of respect in the preservation of the great leader’s mem ory. New- York has none too many "show places.” Now that the Grant monu ment is completed cne more and a par ticularly fine one is added to the small list. It is one of the sights of the great metropolis, and visitors will be as anx ious to see the Grant monument as to see the Brooklyn bridge. There will be a wide promenade at the base of the monument at a height of 70 feet from the ground and about 220 /eet above the level of the river, which will afford a wonderful view. There will be four spiral iron stairways reaching this and lots of room there for a large numbet of visitors. > AN ARCHITECTURAL VIEW. * There are many interesting things' discovered in making an examination of the Grant monument from an archi tectural standpoint. The building occupies a square ot about 100 feet, and is made of the most nearly white granite obtainable. The choice is very fortunate, and not only secures the conspicuousness of the monument from every point from which it is visible at all, but also in sures an effective background for the bronze ot which the statuary consists. Three of the fronts are uniformly treated with an ample flank of plain wall on each side of an engaged tetra style colonnade, the recessed wall of which is opened into windows in the upper part, after the classic precedent of the temple at Agrigentium. The or der is the simple Doric, apparently that of the Parthenon, though it may be somewhat more robust. Above the colonnade the wall is quite plain, ex cept for a recessed panel at the center, probably intended to hold a relief in bronze. The terminal parapet is solid and level. The treatment of these three fronts is simple, dignified and very satisfac tory. The proportions both laterally and vertically are felicitous, the rela tion of base, order and attic very suc cessful, and the scale of the colonnade which forms the feature of the front errs neither by excess nor by defect. The fourth is the principal front, inas much as it not merely contains the only visible entrance to the mausoleum, but is calculated for the principal view, th« approach up the Riverside drive, in the axis of which the monument is placed and the vista of which it closes. The chief difference in treatment is the ad dition of a portico to signalize the en trance. The tetrastyle colonnade in the plane of the wall appears here, as on each of the other three sides, but in front of it, masking it and extending beyond it on each flank, is a hexastyle portico of the game order and scale. Not only does this portico signalize the entrance, but it offers a support for a series of statues of which the bases are already indicated. One of the innova tions or peculiarities of the design is the omission of the pediment, which in most cases, beginning perhaps with the Pantheon, Is treated as an indispensa ble part of the portico. The one ele ment in Grecian architecture which has not its prototype in Egyptian is the pediment, and undoubtedly the omission of the pediment from this por tico suggests Egypt rather than Greece. Nevertheless the omission is amply justified. The recessed panel at the center of each of the subordinate fronts is here necessarily omitted from the main wall, since any sculpture would be hid den by the statues of the portico, but a smaller panel is worked at the center of the parapet above, where sculpture would be effective. A judicious refine ment is the fact that, whereas the line of the parapet and the subordinate points are level, in this one it slopes downward from the center. Something of the effect of the omitted pediment is thus supplied at the same time that new stations for statuary are gained at the angles and at the center, which are treated as pedestals, and the slight pyramidlzation prepares for the crown ing cupola. The detail of all this is very good and antique in spirit where it Is not so in letter, with the exception of the frieze of the portico. Each met ope is filled—in fact, overfilled —with a wreathed disk, of which the mere carv ing is very good, but of which the de sign is excessive in scale and produces so crowded an effect as to interfere with the repose the entablature would derive from its form if it had been treated more simply. The crowning cupola, as it is called for lack of a better word, is the main novelty of the design. The extreme plainness of the base of the drum be low the order will to most spectators seem its chief fault. Its simplicity is in fact mere bareness, which will be very much mitigated, in the south view at least, when th% statues are in place that are to be relieved against it, but which might and should itself have ; been the object of more design. But] above this point criticism ceases. The | lonic peristyle of the drum is admira-l bly proportioned, very effectively de-| tached from the core of wall It sur rounds, which in turn is effectively; pierced with grillwork precisely right* in scale. The detail of the peristyle itself Is equally successful in scale. The decorated attic gives the same effect ot perfect propriety and correct ness in its proportion to what is. below and what is above, In its own division, w hich corresponds to that ot the peri style, and In the detail of fasces, by which this division is marked. Above this is what has been miscalled the cu pola, which is in fact a cone of just the right height and slope most effect ively to crown the monument which rises and converges to it. A conical culmination of a circular structure is not a novelty, since it can be found in the temple of Vesta at Tivoli. But the emergence of the circular nucleus of a surrounding colonnade and its ter mination In a cone, Instead of a dome, is a novelty, so far as known, and it has been managed by the architect of the Grant monument with signal skill and success. Competent observers agree that It Is more appropriate to what is below it, more Greek, In a word, than would h« any form of dome, whether the spread ing dome of the Romans and Byzan tines or the soaring dome ot the renals sance. Taken upon the whole, the architect of the Grunt tomb has made a very creditable addition to the mortuary monuments of the world. any other that was ever painted. More over, the face is tliln, the cheek bones show, the lines are deep and heavy un der the eyes and upon the forehead, and there Is such suggestion of mental strain as makes the portrait not pleas ing and at the same time causes the eyes to rest upon it with unwilling fas cination. It shows him as he ap. peared in the Richmond campaign.. 