Part 37 (1/2)

Erected by The Chicago _Herald_, June 15, 1891.

COLUMBUS.

FOR THE FESTIVAL AT HUELVA.

_a Castillo, y a Leon Nuevo Mundo dio Colon._

THEODORE WATTS, in the _Athenaeum_ (England).

To Christ he cried to quell Death's deafening measure, Sung by the storm to Death's own chartless sea; To Christ he cried for glimpse of gra.s.s or tree When, hovering o'er the calm, Death watch'd at leisure; And when he showed the men, now dazed with pleasure, Faith's new world glittering star-like on the lee, ”I trust that by the help of Christ,” said he, ”I presently shall light on golden treasure.”

What treasure found he? Chains and pains and sorrow.

Yea, all the wealth those n.o.ble seekers find Whose footfalls mark the music of mankind.

'Twas his to lend a life; 'twas man's to borrow; 'Twas his to make, but not to share, the morrow, Who in love's memory lives this morn enshrined.

WEST INDIAN STATUES.

CARDENAS, CUBA.--At Cardenas, Cuba, a statue by Piguer of Madrid has been erected by a Cuban lady, an auth.o.r.ess, and wife of a former governor.

[Ill.u.s.tration: STATUE OF COLUMBUS In the Courtyard of the Captain-General's Palace, Havana, Cuba (See page 313.)]

CATHEDRAL OF HAVANA, CUBA.--In the Cathedral of Havana there is a plain marble bas-relief, about four feet high, representing in a medallion a very apocryphal portrait of Columbus, with an inscription as follows:

_O restos e Ymajen del grande Colon!

Mil siglos durad guardados en la urna Y en la remembranza de nuestra Nacion._

(O remains and image of the great Columbus!

For a thousand ages endure guarded within this urn And in the remembrance of our nation.)

PROPOSED TOMB--HAVANA CATHEDRAL.--In February, 1891, by royal decree, all Spanish artists were invited to compete for a design for a sepulcher in which to preserve the Havana remains of Columbus; several were submitted to a jury, who awarded the first prize to Arthur Melida, with a premium of $5,000.

The sepulcher is now being erected in the cathedral. The design represents a bier covered with a heavily embroidered pall, borne upon the shoulders of four heralds, in garments richly carved to resemble lace and embroidered work. The two front figures bear scepters surmounted by images of the Madonna and St. James, the patron saint of Spain. On the front of their garments are the arms of Castille and Leon.

The two bearers represent Aragon and Navarre, the former being indicated by four red staffs on a gold field, and the fourth has gold-linked chains on a red field. The group is supported on a pedestal ornamented about its edge with a Greek fret.

HAVANA, CUBA.--In the court-yard of the Captain-General's palace, in Havana, is a full-length figure of Columbus, the face modeled after accepted portraits at Madrid.

HAVANA, CUBA.--In the inclosure of the ”Templete,” the little chapel on the site of which the first ma.s.s was celebrated in Cuba, there is a bust of Columbus which has the solitary merit of being totally unlike all others.

Na.s.sAU.--At Na.s.sau, in the Bahamas, a statue of Christopher Columbus stands in front of Government House. The statue, which is nine feet high, is placed upon a pedestal six feet in alt.i.tude, on the north or seaward face of which is inscribed:

COLUMBUS, 1492.

It was presented to the colony by Sir James Carmichael Smyth, Governor of the Bahamas, 1829-1833, was modeled in London in 1831, is made of metal and painted white, and was erected May, 1832.

SANTO DOMINGO CATHEDRAL.--Above the _boveda_, or vault, in the Cathedral of Santo Domingo, from which the remains of Columbus were taken in 1877, is a marble slab with the following: