About Some Famous Statues.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8057, 5 March 1906, Page 4

About Some Famous Statues.

One of the largest and most curious statues in the world stands in Tokio, Japan. It represents Hachiman, the God of War, and is made entirely of wood. The head of the figure is large enough to accommodate twenty persons in its interior, and is litted with an automatic arrangement corresponding with the human brain. Hachiman holds in his right hand a wooden sword thirty-feet long, and in his left a golden ball twelve feet in diameter. A huge hideous face of a woman is fixed on a house in Berlin, and is known as the " Head of Spite." The Emperor William I. had it erected as a warning against rancorous ill-will. The Emperor stopped one day at a blacksmith's to havo his horse's shoe relixed. Next door was a rival blacksmith, and the daughter of this man of muscle put her tongue out and distorted her fact', which was never very pretty, with a horrible grin, in order to show her contempt for the King His Majesty tuok no notice of the insult at the time, but the next day "lie ordered a well-known German sculptor to produce in wood a monstrous face of a woman, with a long l.ongue lolling out of the mouth. The Euiperor himself superintended the fixing of this strange ornament above the doorway of the blackumitb's shop, where the ill-bred woman resided and there it has remained ever since. A statue to liob Hoy, nine feet high, and made of wood, was erectad some years ago on the projection of a clil'f lifty feet above the river Cutler, near Aberdeen. The figure, which is one of the sights of Scotland, is painted with the colors of the Clan Macgregor. lirugsels' most famous statue represents ft nude boy standing over a fountain. It was erected by a nobleman whose lost Bon was found wandering near the spot.

Louis XV. decorated the statue with the Order of the Holy Ghost, rind to day it possess > nine costumes belonging to nine different periods. On fete days tho. boy is atlirui in a uniform of tho Civil Guard. A statue to William Wheelwright, the famous engineer and shidbuilder, stands in a square in Valparaiso. This is one of the few monuments erected to Englishmen in foreign parts. Wheelwright began Jife in a poor way, but lie ended by organising the . Pacilic Steam Navigation Company, which has ever since being the greatest power on the whole Pacific Coast of ►South America. The most exponsive memorial that has ever been erected is undoubtedly the Taj Mahal, at Agra, in India. It was built ji s a mausoleum for the re mains of Arjamed IJanos iJegmn, a wife of the Emperor Shah Jehan, belter known as " The Exalted of the Palace.' 1 The ttegum died in 1021), and the building, which was started in the same year, and not completed until 104$, is said to have cost £3,1)00,000.

The materials arc* white marble and red sandstone, and the main feature of the memorial is a great dome, which swells upwards to nearly two-thirds of a sphere, and tapers at its extremity into a spire crowned by an enormous crescent. The Begum's memorial is numbered amongst the wonders of the world, and Dayaid Taylor writes of it : "The Taj Mahal, at Agra, tis a poem. Did you ever build a castle in the air ? Here is one brought down to earth and fixed fur the wonder of ages; yet so light it seemed, so airy, and. when socn from a distwc, so like a fabric of mist and sunbeams, with iu great dome soaring up, a siiveiy bauble about to burst in the sun, that even alter you have touched it, and climbed to its summit, you 'jlmost doubt its reality " An old anvil coated with enamel, topped with a largo horseshoe, and set in a base of sulid granite, stand:.; in He'lviHe, Illinois, in memory of Meehlc, a blacksmith. Al the same anvil Mochle toiled for the better part ol his liie. and during his existence he looked up.m this mass of metal which had been presented to him by the old blacksmith to whom lit; was apprenticed at Pilo!. Knob, as his greatest treasure. Al'iu'his death his fellow citizens had it turned into a monument. On Dedlou's Island, outside the harbor of New York, stand.? the famous Statue of Liberty. The statue, which is loOft. high, is placed on a pedestal 177 ft. high, and is, therefore, JJiiTit. above sea lew). It is not like most- muumenU, inasmuch as it is composed of innumerable pieces of iron and copper, separately hammered into shap< and Hien riveh d together. The head of the statue is J tit. high, anil wiil hold forty people, with room to spare, while tho torch, which is several feet-above, will accommodate .sixteen persons. Thi- colossus was presented to America in 1-^I by the I'reueh Hepublie, the funds for its building being entirely subscribed by the people of France. Tiie Statue, of Liberty was made in the ironworks of MM. Gaget Gauthier et Cie, of Paris, and over •}<jlj,Ooolb. of copper and iron were used by them m its manufacture. When a favourite dog, cat, or other domestic pet, belonging to a person of ltoy.il rank, dies in China, its sorrowing owner has its body inclosed iu a coMin of polished oak, elaborately carved, and burial in the animal renietery behind the Summer Palace, at Pekin. This burial ground is the largest and best kept in the Far Kast, and* the monuments that have been raised to commemorate the nlTcetion and fidelity of humble frierids ol Emperors and Empresses, are of gold, silver, and ivory. Some of the statues, as statues they are are worth many thousands of pounds each. Hundreds of dog- have been buried in the cemetery, and they occupy the place of honour both in the number of valuable monuments. and in the tributes engraved on them. The old Egyptians erected a number of huge sarcophagi and mausoleums especially to hold the mummified bodies of sacred cats. In many cases these buildings arc more decoialive in workmanship than those which were erected to hold the mortal remains of kings and queens.