DOI Heft:
No. 104 (October, 1905)
DOI Artikel:Mural and sculptural decoration of the St. Paul Capitol
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.26960#0464
.S7.
-A ^ URAL AND SCULPTURAL DECO-
!\ /! RATION OF THE ST. PAUL
! \ / ] CAPITOL
WHEN Father Hennepin gave the
name of St. Anthony of Padua to the falls of the
Mississippi, of which in 1680 he was the discoverer,
it was, of course, the patron saint, not Padua, he
chose to honour. Yet the Italy of the builders
and sculptors and mural painters was not ill-
served in this link with the far wilderness. When
another pioneer, Father Galtier, a century and a
half later, named the mission he founded in the
new French fur trading settlement after the mis-
sionary apostle, he could hardly have realized that
he was giving a name to a city of no slight rank.
Even now visitors are inclined to say that St. Paul
has grown too fast; and can find little in it out-
wardly to suggest such an achievement as the new
State Capitol. But there are cities that have been
growing since the memory of man that have not
grown altogether beautiful. Outwardly there is
little in the rose-bush to suggest the rose. And
certainly no visitor since the erection of the new
building—it is still too soon to say completion—
but will And the Arst suggestion the name now
brings him is the vision of a Roman dome of singu-
lar beauty, rising gracefully from a spreading
facade of marble.
Let us not be twitted with the story of the young
Congressman eloquent, who began a fervid corner-
stone oration with the exclamation, "Fifty years
ago this spot was a howling wilderness!" began,
faltered and, to cover confusion with impressive-
ness, repeated; repeated, faltered and then, in sud-
den anger at his own discomAture, cried, "Fifty
years ago this spot was a howling wilderness, and
I wish to God it was now !"—let us not be reminded
of this over-hasty soul, if we recall that it is barely
forty-three years since the Sioux swept the south-
western corner of the State, howling the spite of
the wilderness resentment, levying a tax of eight
QUADRIGA, ST. PAUL CAPITOL
1905, A?. C7. French
BY DANIEL CHESTER FRENCH AND EDWARD C. POTTER
LXXXI
-A ^ URAL AND SCULPTURAL DECO-
!\ /! RATION OF THE ST. PAUL
! \ / ] CAPITOL
WHEN Father Hennepin gave the
name of St. Anthony of Padua to the falls of the
Mississippi, of which in 1680 he was the discoverer,
it was, of course, the patron saint, not Padua, he
chose to honour. Yet the Italy of the builders
and sculptors and mural painters was not ill-
served in this link with the far wilderness. When
another pioneer, Father Galtier, a century and a
half later, named the mission he founded in the
new French fur trading settlement after the mis-
sionary apostle, he could hardly have realized that
he was giving a name to a city of no slight rank.
Even now visitors are inclined to say that St. Paul
has grown too fast; and can find little in it out-
wardly to suggest such an achievement as the new
State Capitol. But there are cities that have been
growing since the memory of man that have not
grown altogether beautiful. Outwardly there is
little in the rose-bush to suggest the rose. And
certainly no visitor since the erection of the new
building—it is still too soon to say completion—
but will And the Arst suggestion the name now
brings him is the vision of a Roman dome of singu-
lar beauty, rising gracefully from a spreading
facade of marble.
Let us not be twitted with the story of the young
Congressman eloquent, who began a fervid corner-
stone oration with the exclamation, "Fifty years
ago this spot was a howling wilderness!" began,
faltered and, to cover confusion with impressive-
ness, repeated; repeated, faltered and then, in sud-
den anger at his own discomAture, cried, "Fifty
years ago this spot was a howling wilderness, and
I wish to God it was now !"—let us not be reminded
of this over-hasty soul, if we recall that it is barely
forty-three years since the Sioux swept the south-
western corner of the State, howling the spite of
the wilderness resentment, levying a tax of eight
QUADRIGA, ST. PAUL CAPITOL
1905, A?. C7. French
BY DANIEL CHESTER FRENCH AND EDWARD C. POTTER
LXXXI