Music, whether played automatically or by hand, is always under control and can be played soft or loud as the bell-master may decide. Some wonderful snatch of melody would play automatically morning and evening or during the noon hour, changed from time to time for the sake of variety or to suit the particular season, while on one evening each week the bell-master would present a formal concert.
LOCATION: A memorial of this kind should be well in the midst of the city, that many might enjoy its music by the mere opening of a window or a door, and that other thousands might have ready access to concerts without long journeys for that purpose. (As many as 30,000 people are said to have gathered for a concert of this kind at Malines, Belgium.) Preferably, tho not necessarily, such a building should be on elevated ground, and near sufficient open space such as a park would afford, to accommodate large numbers of people who would gather for the concerts. Many have suggested Sixteenth Street Park as an ideal setting for it.
AS A BUSINESS ASSET: While most people will prefer to dwell upon its esthetic and cultural values, finding in it a never ending source of inspiration, it will not be amiss to consider it as a business asset as well. It is doubtful whether a single additional visitor or resident would be drawn to Washington by reason of the erection here of ever so fine a triumphal arch or other similar memorial. On the other hand a memorial such as is here proposed would, by reason of its unique character in America, and by virtue of its excellence, soon become an appealing object of interest in every village and town thruout the United States, and be the means of drawing many thousands of additional visitors to the capital and holding them longer once they were here. It could undoubtedly be made the greatest single attraction in this city of attractions.
THE FIRST CONCERT
A FORECAST
By
J. Marion Shull
It is evening. Within the park are gathered many thousands from the Capital. Not only these but many hundreds from outside as well, for on this night in May the world's most famous master of the bells is to present the initial concert on Washington's great Carillon.
For long the unsightly mingled mass of stone and steel and wood that crowned the hill had given little indication of its ultimate intent. From time to time processions came that seemed to the onlooker like pilgrimages to some sacred shrine; Tri-color and the Stars and Stripes in front, to music of the Marseillaise, is brought a stone from shattered Rheims, the gift of France, whose gift of freedom to the world we thus record. From the Argonne, from Chateau Thierry and St. Mihiel, come other stones escorted by our own brave boys. These each, with fitting ceremony, are builded in the wall of our memorial. Then there are other stones from Arras, Amiens, and villages along the Marne where broke the surging wave that all but overwhelmed the world; one from Verdun inscribed "They shall not pass"; and Belgium's king pays tribute from the ruined treasures of Louvain. And so in after years the pilgrims at this shrine shall read, passing from stone to stone, an epic of heroic sacrifice that justice and the love of fellow man might not be swept forever from the earth.
The cumbering tools of industry, the cranes with creaking ropes, the scaffolding, at last have disappeared, and stands revealed a wondrous work of art: A sturdy sculptured basal edifice where bronze and marble tell of noble aspirations worthily achieved; where frieze and pediment in low relief bespeak the glory of the greatest cause man ever struggled to maintain. Within, resplendent walls with iridescent colors where the artist's brush takes up the tale that architect and sculptor have begun; and rivalling these the silken folds of flags, emblems of all the nations that stood shoulder to shoulder in the great emprise. And from this basal structure, the soaring shaft, compact of grace and beauty, lithe yet strong, firm footed on the earth yet reaching heavenward, well typifies the spirit of the men who risked their all to save the world from slavery.