Rensselaer Republican, Volume 16, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 September 1884 — A Boston Idea. [ARTICLE]

A Boston Idea.

Visitors to the Public Garden, Boston, may have noticed a number of novel and tasteful devices in the arrangement of the shrubbery about the Washington Monument. A gentleman from Malaga, who was a Spanish Commissioner at the recent foreign exhibition, furnished these designs. One of these devices is the crux ansata, a looped cross emblematic of eternal life. This was a familiar Egyptian symbol. Another striking device is the coat-of-arms of Alhamar, a word meaning “Only God is all-powerful.” This is from the walls of the Alhambra. The coat-of-arms of St. Peter is also displayed here. The sword of the famous Moorish hero Boabdil is represented in the shrubbery, and the little hatchet with which the youthful Washington executed his famous assault upon the cherry tree. A map of North and South America is also depicted in this plot about the equestrian statue, and the representation of Cuba suggests the warning counsels of Washington in the farewell address against “the insidious wiles of foreign influence.” Altogether these designs are in excellent taste, and furnish an agreeable variety to the stereotyped forms of garden decoration. They suggest that a useful stimulus may be given to biographical and historical study by thus bringing its emblems before the eyes.