Rensselaer Union and Jasper Republican, Volume 8, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 27 April 1876 — A Gilded Statue of Prince Albert. [ARTICLE]

A Gilded Statue of Prince Albert.

It is a curious coincidence, says a London letter, that at the same time that the question of calling the Queen Empress is under discussion there should have been unfolded in Kensington Gardens a huge golden idol, sitting like a Hindoo god in a golden temple. This is another fancy of the Queen —a statue of Prince Albert, gilt all over, as the center-piece of the glittering—at any rate it once glittered—memorial to the “ Great and Good.” It ,is impossible for almost any language to convey an adequate idea of the unpleasant and grotesque effect of this preposterous figure. When the sun shines on it, as it did to-day. no one can look at it without blinking. You see only a confused flash pfjglowjng yellow light, and can distinguish neither the features nor even the 'Attitude of the figure distinctly. The statue is in a sitting posture, one leg stuck out before the other. and, as it is perched very high, this produces rather an awkward effect from below. When the figure was seen in its original bronze this was not so perceptible, as there was a certain amount of rich shadow to disguise and modify it; but, now that it stands forth in a shimmer of gold, it certainly presents the appearance of some unnatural monster akin to the divinities whicn are worshiped in Eastern pagodas. Indeed, it might easily be. mistaken for the golden calf, and bids fair to be the laughing stock of the town. Another serious disadvantage of the gilding is that, for the present, it makes the other decorations, which have now got rather shabby and arnished through exposure to the weather,' look still more shabby. In striking contrast to the gi'mcrack temple and the gilded statue are the white marble sculptures which stand around and which are really noble works of art. It is a mercy that they have escaped being painted or gill, though perhaps that may yet be their fate.iti order to keep up the harmony of colon,