Hill Faun

STORIES OF OLD IRELAND AND MYSELF--Sir William Orpen, R. A.--Holt ($3.50). ". . . In Paris I rushed to the Louvre. When I entered the Salle Carree, there before me was the Mona Lisa. That was a shock. I not only did not like it, I hated it. It made me feel sick. . . . I rushed out. . . . I went back. . . . I was still horrified at thinking her so horrible. The slimy paint, like that of the Yiddish School of the present day! I listened to what people were saying. . . . 'That expression!' . . . 'Leonardo has here expressed womanhood in all her moods!' . . . 'The eternal circle!' . . . 'The masterpiece of the world!' And there was I, unable to see anything except a slimily painted, bloated woman, with a slightly dirty-looking face and a rather nasty sensual expression. . . . I suppose I must be all wrong."

Beside Sir William Orpen, R.A., Paddy's pig is a Spaniard. Though he has had no old ones, this is a book about his young days, before they shot to kill in Dublin and before England knighted Orpen for mocking some of her greatest lords in sharp colors with an impish brush. It was a time of talent in Dublin, with George Moore mooning about, John M. Synge writing his plays, James Stephens his poetry, quiet young James Joyce his sketches and energetic Sir Hugh Lane slaving to make Dublin a European Art centre.

Besides anecdotes, the book has sketches of such folk--quirky pen-and-inks that bring home to you what a man Orpen is for line as well as for clean modeling and Velasquez-like depths of air. Also among the 34 plates are some very fair reproductions of oils unfamiliar to most U. S. enthusiasts--the leer-eyed Gypsies on the Hill of Howth; two allegories that only a slant-headed little faun from the hills could have painted--Sewing New Seed and A Western Wedding,

Beaux Arts Prize

The U. S. was to have a new Capitol --a summer-resort Capitol high up in the mountains, on the edge of a lake with good fishing, canoeing, hot and cold water, bellboy service. To design it, 85 youths were commissioned. They made preliminary sketches. Of these, five were chosen. They made complete plans. Last week the five waited on a fire-escape in Manhattan while inside a group of judges, headed by patrician Whitney Warren, famed architect, sat to find out which was the best. One Percival Goodman, 21, was presently informed that he had designed the pleasantest home for tire filibusterers, won thereby a scholarship of $3,000, two and one-half years at the Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris,

Another Cliff to Carve

They would not let Gutzon Borglum finish his Confederate Memorial in bas relief on Stone Mountain, Georgia. The committee in charge quarreled with him or he quarreled with them--it all came to the same thing--but he broke up his clay models and fled and they hired a new sculptor--a not un-Benvenuto Cellinesque affair (TIME, Mar. 9, 16, Apr. 27, May 11). But Mr. Borglum is to have another charge.

In Rutherford County, N. C, not many miles from Asheville, a brawling mountain stream cascades down through a narrow little valley in the mountains. On one side the mountains rise, on the other runs a stone cliff 400 ft. high and 2,000 ft. long. This cliff terminates abruptly as the stream debouches abruptly upon a plain, and at the cliff, a giant shivver of it, detached from the main mass, rises the full height of the precipice, like a giant terminal column. It is called Chimney Rock and is one of the scenic spots of North Carolina. Beautiful views of the cliff and rock can be obtained from the modern road across the little valley.

Last week Governor McLean of North Carolina and a group of "influential citizens" offered Mr. Borglum the cliff adjoining Chimney Rock for another memorial to the Confederacy. Mr. Borglum inspected, professed extreme pleasure. The spot chosen for the North Carolina memorial has long been a resort which has lately been "improved" and modernized with the addition of golf links, etc. With the appearance of Mr. Borglum's giant sculptures this spot will become indeed civilized, although situated in the ruggedest country. Special means for "drying" the great cliff wall will probably have to be taken since (at least at certain seasons of the year) it is wet with moisture draining from above and not far above the spot where the proposed memorial is to be built a stream cascades down into the valley below.

"We are losing no time in doing preliminary work and before I return to Raleigh I expect to have completed preliminary outlines of this memorial," said Air. Borglum.

The sculptor has taken up his residence at Raleigh, and North Carolinians, booming their state almost as vociferously as if they were Floridans, urged him with his plans.