The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-03-15


every newly constructed stone pier. The
Financial Department of the city also demands
q share of this honor, and statue of Richard
b. Connolly might be constructed of coin
without alloy and placed in the Comptroller's
Office and in those corners where money
lenders most do congregate. The ''Palaces of
Justice" should not be passed over. Judge
Bedford and Recorder Hacl1ett deserve some
lasting testimonial for the vigorous manner in
which the laws are vindicated. A statue OF
Judge Bowling might grace the rotunda of
the Tombs, and similar ones be put up all
over the city, or where the dangerous ee-
ments' mostly throng. Justices Shandley
and Cox could supply convenient inches
Sheriff Brennan also might be represented as
q faithful and conscientious official. The
Commissioners of Public Charities and Cor
rection are entitled to remembrance for their
arduous labors in behalf of charity The
head of the Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Animals (Mr. Bergh) is certainly
a worthy subject for the sculptor's chisel or
the ironmoulder's handiwork life-size
likeness of him might be placed in every
city horse car depot and upon every horse
fountain in the city. The poor animals
themselves would never say nay to this. Then
again we might branch off and take
glance at our religious magnates. How much
will Plymouth Church subscribe for statue
of Henry Ward Beecher? How much will
the theatrical friends of the pastor of the
Little Church Around the Corner" give for
q statue of the Rev. Mr.. Houghton The
friends of Theodore Tilton might get him on
a ''bust' as a living representative of the
Golden Age. The editorial profession might
be implanted in the memory of the rising
generation by hanging up Greeley's old white
coat on beanpole in Printing House Square
And now, to go back little from the
men of tie present day, we suggest-the
subject of statues being in order-the
erection of a colossal but life-like mono
rial, thirty-six feet high, to one of the
most remarkable men of his age-a true
Knickerbocker from the first-one before
whose local renown that of any centenarian
of the present day pales into nothingness;
one whose solid Americanism would make
the Joint High Commission come to terms
pretty quick. We mean that old sage and
silvery haired veteran of the Catskill Noun
tains-Rip Van Wrinkle. This colossal statue
might occupy the space on the west
side of the City Hall Park, hard by
the fountain wherein that forlorn female
is represented as vainly endeavoring
to supply with water some furnishing
reptiles below. The old Knickerbocker might
be represented as Joe Jefferson so admirably
portrays him, with this exception: the sensa-
ton of amazement at what he beholds might
be illustrated by having him with wondering
eyes and uplifted hands point to a conspicu-
GUS legend displayed on the other side of
Broadway, to wit, Department of Public
Works, as if he would remind the present
generation of the scriptural declaration. "By
their works ye shall know them"
Now, some of the enthusiastic admirers of
Boss Tweed may think that we are poking
fun at the whole matter of statue of him.
and that it would be impossible to carry on
the statue business on the scale of magnitude
we have suggested. They are wrong. Do
they not remember that when the Romans
entered Rhodes, the capital of a not very ex-
tensive island, they found more than three
thousand statues in bronze and marble?
(Vassari says thirty thousand, but Pliny says
three. Let them fight it out.) That was
called the Age of Bronze, while the present
might be called the ''brassy" age. What are
three or thirty thousand statues in this our
age? From one model any number of cast
lngs might be turned out, just as they turn
out ornamental iron work for all manner of
things, or as Comptroller Connolly can turn
out New York city bonds for all sorts of pur-
poses No, gentlemen, we do not desire to
be the Moses who is to smash up any golden
image in these modern times. AS the Queen
of Babylon added to her gorgeous edifces
statues of herself and Of her husband Minus.
with figures in bronze representing her
father-in-law, her mother-in-law, and the
mother of the latter, calling them, as Diodo-
rus relates, by the names of Jupiter, Juno,
and Ops (they knew thing or two about
ops in those days., SO may our city poten-
tates and politicians glorify one another and
perpetuate their own memories-but for
ourselves we desire first to see whether they
will few years hence have any memories
worth preserving. But Mr.. Tweed declines
the honor in his letter published elsewhere,
and rather snubs his friend Shandley for pro-
posing such foolish thing as "a monument
more enduring than brass !"