ise of civilization in the New
World. On the spot where it will stand Columbus built the first church
400 years ago.

One bronze relief shows the great discoverer in the fore-ground on
bended knees with a trowel in his hand, laying the corner-stone. On the
right, sits an ideal female figure, representing Mother Church,
fostering a little Indian child, and pointing with uplifted hand to the
cross, the emblem of man's salvation. Crouching Indians are at her feet,
listening with astonishment to the strange story, while on the left of
the cross are monks with bowed heads and lighted tapers, and in the
distance are Spanish cavaliers and hidalgos.

The conception is thoroughly Catholic, Christian, simple, and artistic;
it tells its own story with a pathos and directness not often found in
works of this kind.

The second tablet is more ideal and more severely classical than the
first. The genius of civilization, bearing gifts, is carried in a
chariot drawn by prancing horses. The Admiral, at the horses' heads,
with one hand points the way for her to follow, while with the other he
hands the reins to Columbia, the impersonation of the New World. An
Indian at the chariot wheels stoops to gather the gifts of civilization
as they fall from the cornucopia borne by the goddess. And thus is told
in enduring bronze, by the genius of the artist, the symbolic story of
the introduction of civilization to the New World.

Upon the face of the pedestal, a third tablet bears the inscription
which was written at the instance of Very Rev. Dr. Charles B. Rex,
president of the Brighton Theological Seminary. Mgr. Schroeder, the
author, interprets the meaning of the whole, in terse rhythmical Latin
sentences, after the Roman lapidary style:

_Anno. claudente. saeculum XV._
_Ex. quo. coloni. Christiani. Columbo. Duce_
_Hic. post. oppidum. constitutum_
_Primum. in. mundo. novo. templum_
_Christo. Deo. dicarunt_
_Ephemeris. Bostoniensis_
_Cui. a. sacro. corde. est. nomen_
_Sub. auspice. civium. Bostoniae_
_Ne. rei. tantae. memoria. unquam. delabatur_
_Haec. marmori. commendavit._
_A. D. MDCCCLXXXXII._

(_Translation of the Inscription._)

Toward the close of the fifteenth century,
Christian colonists, under the leadership of Columbus,
Here on this spot built the first settlement,
And the first church dedicated
To Christ our Lord
In the new world.
A Boston paper, called the _Sacred Heart Review_,