LIBERTY ENLIGHTENING THE WORLD

The burial of ex-President Grant had been immediately preceded by a pleasant event of international interest. June 19, 1885, the New York Aldermanic Chamber, late witness of the presidential count, might have been seen tricked out with. our red, white and blue, and with the French tricolor, to welcome the bringers of Bartholdi's statue of Liberty Enlightening the World, presented by Frenchmen to the people of America. M. Bartholdi had conceived this enterprise before the Second Empire fell. Obeying a hint of M. Laboulaye touching American love for Lafayette, he wished that French and American effort might erect a monument typical at once of American independence and of liberty itself. Soon after the re-establishment of the Republic, a French-American Union was formed in France to realize this idea. Bartholdi's plan being approved, a popular subscription from 100,000 Frenchmen brought in more than $200,000, the cost of the statue, to which Americans added $300,000 for base and pedestal. The United States set apart as the site of the statue Bedloe's Island, now Liberty Island, in New York Harbor, occupied since early in the century by the star fort which forms so suitable a part of the base beneath the statue. Upon the soil of the island was laid a solid block of concrete, the largest in the world, 90 feet square at the bottom, 65 at the top, and 52 feet high, and this was surrounded by a concrete arch covered with turf. Above rose the masonry of the pedestal proper, with huge, rough-hewn quoins.

The work of art was formally made over to our Minister in Paris on July 4th. When the Isère, bearing it, approached our shores, Senator Evarts, chairman of the Pedestal Committee, Mayor Grace, the French Consuls of New York and Chicago, with many invited guests, steamed down to meet her. The naval progress up the harbor was led by the Despatch, with Secretary Whitney on board. Other American men-ofwar followed, behind them the French frigate Flore, and then the Isère, with an American vessel on each side. Over a hundred excursion boats, big and little, sail and steam, brought up

the rear.

Clouds of smoke and incessant thunder from the forts reminded one of the Yorktown celebration. This noise gave place to a bedlam of shrill steam whistles when the fleet reached Bedloe's Island. Here the American Committee and their French guests landed, while French choral societies of three hundred voices sang the Marseillaise and Hail Columbia. All then crossed to the Battery, whence a grand procession moved to City Hall. Three regiments of the New York State Guard, sixteen hundred strong, mounted policemen, delegations from the Chamber of Commerce and other New York bodies, prominent residents, the aldermen, with Admiral Lacombe, Captain De Saune, and other guests of honor, were formally of the procession, while thousands upon thousands of on-lookers moved as it moved. the line were densely filled. In the Hall a lunch was served to the guests. desk once used by Washington was vis-à-vis with that of Lafayette. The table bore a model of the Isère, also one of the statue on its pedestal, and an emblematic figure of France wearing a tricolor cap and bearing a French flag. At the formal reception, in the chambers, a number of addresses were made.

FREDERIC AUGUSTE

BARTHOLDI

Roofs and windows along
Governor's Room at City
Over the old-fashioned
his full-length portrait,

The goddess was not unveiled till October, 1886. When in place she stood 151 feet high, the tip of her torch extending 305 feet above low water. Her weight was 440,000 pounds. Beside her the Colossus of Rhodes would seem a goodsized boy. The statue's only rivals in size were certain figures in India cut from the living rock, but they were hardly works of art or of engineering. The frame consisted of four heavy corner-posts, joined by

THE UNVEILING

horizontal and diagonal braces. The contour was approximated by similarly braced struts, with a flying truss to support the arm. The cuticle was of copper plates 3-32 inches thick, strengthened by iron strips on the inside.

In contrast with the bright June day of her arrival, the day for the unveiling was chilly and drizzling, mud smearing the streets and mist lying over the harbor. From a shelterless platform at Madison Square President Cleveland and his Cabinet reviewed a procession twenty thousand strong as it marched to the Battery. The sidewalks were packed with humanity in two solid columns. Simultaneously with this pageant a grand naval parade of nearly three hundred vessels, led by French and American men-of-war, wended toward Bedloe's Island, where at last, though with face still hidden, stood the goddess, beautiful indeed. Afternoon saw the island crowded. with distinguished guests. The head of the French Cabinet, the Minister of Public Instruction, members of the Senate and Chamber of Deputies and the Vice-President of the Paris Municipal Council were of the number. Comte de Lesseps spoke for France, when Senator Evarts, in a more extended address, delivered the statue to the President as representing the people. When M. Bartholdi re

moved the veil cannon roared on every side. President Cleveland in a few words accepted the gift. Addresses by M. Lefèvre and Hon. Chauncey M. Depew followed. Unfortunately the weather prevented the intended pyrotechnic display in the evening, though the harbor craft were all illuminated.

The year 1886 brought several labor movements which had grave political and social significance. The Texas Pacific Railroad was a bankrupt corporation in the custody of the United