The Colossal Statue

Bartholdi s "Liberty Enlighteningthol World," the gift of Fnince to Anierical 13 SO noavly rcadj for sllipmcnt as tol merit anothor notice. As early as thel ycnr 1881 the enterprisc had been in-l dorsed by 181 towns in Franco, actingl throngii their municipal council, by 401 general councils of as many provinces, I by all the chambers of comraerce of thel great eitjes of the republie, and by 100,-1 Ü00 individual subscribers. At a recent I meeting in New York to secure moneyl for the pedestal, whieh will cost overl 200,000, Wm. M. Evarts spoke as fol-l lows: The simple sfatue will be, from thel plinth to the top of thetorch, 145 feet inj height. From the water level up to thel highest pomt in the span of the Brooklynl Bridge is but 135 feet - 10 feet less thanl this truly colossal statue The dimen-l sions of the plinth, the spacc occugiedl by the feet and drapery of the figure, isl 40 feet square- as large as a house. Itj is fitting that so noble a monument ofl skill and industry, so generous i a con-l tribution, shonkf be framed as a muniti-l cent gift from the Frenen people., as onel .of the great evideiices that the great in-l t'Tiiational relations of value and im-l portance1 bet ween great countries are nol longer maintained by courts andcabi-l nets, but spring out of the interminglingl pulsos of the people. The great Colossus of Rhodes, knownl in its time as the seventh wonder of thel world, was erected to show the gratitudul of the Rhodians to tbs Egyptian kingl who was their ally in war when theirl liberties were threatened by the King ofl Macedón. They were a small people, I inhabiting an island of but 450 sqüarel miles, but that great work of theirs was! erected at a cost of 300 talents, of thel value then of between $400,000, andl 8500,000. It was but 105 feet Jiigh, This statue of Liberty Enlighteningl the Woi'ld will be 145 feet high, uprear=" ed upon a pedestal of equal lieight, and will be, not the seventh wonder of the world, for the wonders of the world are never ceasing in number, but will be the wonder of the world as much greater than the Colossus of Rhodes as the world now, of which it will bo the wonder, is greater than the world of the Meditcrranean Soa in classic times. The largest modern statue is the. one near Lake Maggiore, in Italy, erected to the groat Uhristian saint, Chai'les Borromeo, which, upon a pedestal 40. feet in lieight, is in itself 66 feet high. Nothing in the history of the world has approached the greatness of this statue. of Liberty. Our genius did not conceive so great a statue; our art and our munificence havo not contributed to its production. This groat freo gift we are simply called upon to receive, to place upon a perpetual site under the perpetual care provided by the Government of the United States, on a pedestal that comports in dignity and in solidity with the statue it is to bear tip, and whieh shall comport with the wealth and the numbers of these great cities . and this great country, and show our appreciation of the debt we can never repay to Franco, and whieh sho simply adds to by this magnilicent gift. Tlie numbers óf those who will come hither to sce th. light of this commemorativo statue no man can count, and they shall not.cease coming until liberty itself shall have ceased to enlighten tho world, nor until this home of the free shall cease to attract the iootstcps of the. íDultitados that seek this shrine and this safety for their lovc and exercise of liberty. All the conditions of our acceptance of this great conception and great execution are alroady fixed. Tho French have spent 8250,000 upon the statue, and tho best computation, without unnecessary expense, fixes the cost of the pedestal at 8200,000 to 6250,000.