Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 March 1910 — PRESIDENT TAFT AS HE WOULD APPEAR WEARING THE PROPOSED STATE JEWELS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

PRESIDENT TAFT AS HE WOULD APPEAR WEARING THE PROPOSED STATE JEWELS.

Amember of the National House of Representatives has evolved a plan to distinguish Mr. Taft and all future presidents by a splendid syrribol of gold and jewels. According to the plan the decoration is to consist of a' chain of gold with a huge pendant, which is to be a replica of the great seal of State, emblazoned with diamonds and enriched by the highest art of the engraver. The remainder of this gorgeous chain is to be wrought of smaller reproductions of the seals of the forty-nine States and territories of the United States, linked together with jeweled golden doves, to symbolize the peace and unity in which they all dwell together in one republic. Such a superb embellishment, the originator of the idea believes, would fitly designate the president of this great republic and mark him out among his fellow men on any occasion of formality. Besides, it could be retained by ex-presidents as a sort of token of political pastmastership and passed on to their as a pleasant reminder that an ancestor had been in the president’s chair. The supporters of the plan would have-a replica of the Taft chain presented to Theodore Roosevelt, and favor the wearing of a similar but less ornate chain by the governors of the States for purposes of distinction. The opponents of the decoration say it savors of Zelaya or Castro rather than of a country which is proud of its Lincoln, its Franklin, its Jackson and other Americans who needed no gilding to make 'them great. And no one enjoys the joke, it is said, more than President Taft himself.