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Show Memorial to French Engineer Who PJanned Washington Unveiled at Arlington. I PRESIDENT SPEAKS H L PATRIOTIC PRAISE . Embassador Jnsserand Deliv-ers Deliv-ers the Principal Address in Honor of Countryman. WASHINGTON. May 22. On l.he creen knoll in front of the old Lcc mansion in Arlington cemetery a memorial was unveiled to njor Pierre Charles L'Enfant, the French cneineer, to whoso prophetic vision Washington owes its broad avenues and its sym-metry sym-metry of design. President Taft. Embassador Jusse-rand Jusse-rand of France and Senator Root of -Xew York spoke in eulogy of .Major L 'Enfant. "L'Enfant will now lie here up-propria up-propria tcly in state and in rest, with the gratitude of the nation that he served so well." said President Taft. "By the million every year- immi- Hl grants, travelers, tourists, men of H business and men of leisure visit the United btates," said ilussernnd. "The majority of them see this land for the first time. Without, exeep-tion exeep-tion they are struck by its immensity, its resources, the number of its in-habitants, in-habitants, now Hearing a hundred mil-lion. mil-lion. All of those who visit the fed-oral fed-oral cit3' are unanimous in their praise of its beauty and its exact adaptation to rlie needs of a great nation. Had Soul of a Prophet. "With the mind of a poet, with the soul of a prophet, a man foresaw, over a century ago. what we now see: and that man Jies under .the monu mcnt which a generous congress al- Hj lows us to dedicate today Major Picrro Charles L'Enfant." The speaker told dramatically tho Hj story ol how L 'Enfant, tho Parisian-born Parisian-born son of a royal painter, holding the rank of lieutenant of engineers in H! the French army, came to America in one of the ships of Bcaumarchais's mythical linn of "Hortalez & Com-pany,' Com-pany,' and east his fortunes with the' struggling revolutionists, serving first' as a volunteer at his own ex-pense. ex-pense. and later rising to the rank of Ilo spoke of the building of what is now called Fort Washington as being among the works of the French cn-gnieer, cn-gnieer, but said that his great work, -'the one tor which he now enjoys the supremo honor of the presence at this i-ereniony of the respected successor of George ' Washington, President Taft, was the planning of tho federal city." Foresaw tho Future. Heferring to the derisive wonder with which Washington as "a town of streets without houses and houses with-, out streets," was viewed by many in the caTly fifties, one writer having ob-served. ob-served. "It seems as if the author of Hj the plan had dreamed of a city of 200,-000 200,-000 inhabitants," tho embassador cou-tinned: cou-tinned: "L'Enfant had not dreamed of that; he had foreseen that and much more, fl The city he planned was meant, not for men ot'his day, but for those of ours, and when the time shall come that people will wonder at the rapid ex-pausiou ex-pausiou of this country, when the hun-ured hun-ured million inhabitants of today will look like a petty number, still, L'En-f L'En-f ant's plan will hold good, and for our successors as for us. he might be able to sav: 'For you it wns that i worked.'" |