tenario._"

The statue consists of a bronze figure of Columbus eight feet two inches
high, including the plinth, mounted on a pyramid of coral and limestone
twelve feet high, and which, in its turn, is crowned by a capstone of
dressed granite, on which the statue will rest.[42] The figure
represents Columbus in an attitude of thanksgiving to God, and pointing,
on the globe near his right hand, to the site of the first settlement in
the New World. The statue and pedestal were made from designs drawn at
the Massachusetts State Normal Art School by Mr. R. Andrew, under the
direction of Prof. George Jepson, and the statue was modeled by Alois
Buyens of Ghent.

The plaster cast of the monument, which has now been on exhibition at
the Museum of Fine Arts at Boston for some time, has been removed to the
foundry at Chicopee for casting. In a few months it will be transformed
into enduring bronze, and the Columbus monument will no longer be a
growing thought but a living reality. To say it has stood the critical
test of art connoisseurs in the Boston public is to say but little; for,
from every quarter, comments on the work of the sculptor have been
highly commendatory--the bold and vigorous treatment of the Flemish
school, of which Mr. Buyens is a disciple, being something of a novelty
in these parts, and well calculated to strike the popular fancy, which
always admires strength, especially when combined with gracefulness and
high art. Not a few of the best critics have pronounced it superior to
the average of similar statues to be found in and around Boston, and all
unite in declaring it to be unquestionably a work of art, and one
meriting great praise.

A recent communication from United States Consul Simpson, at Puerto
Plata, announces that he has lately visited Isabella, in the interest of
the monument. He made a careful survey of the site of the ancient town,
and cleared the grounds of the trees and masses of trailing vines that
encumbered the ruins, and after a thorough examination, assisted by the
people of the neighborhood, he found the remains of the first church.

Other communications have been received from the Dominican government
approving of the change of plan, substituting the statue for the simple
stone monument, and offering the memorial committee the hospitalities of
the island. And so the work goes on.

The monument, when erected, will commemorate two things--the
establishment of Christianity and the r