Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1880-07-23
That Obelfsk.

FRIDAY EVENING" JULY 23s looOs
That Obelfsk.
New York is not happy though it has
its cbelisk; for it is troubled to know
where to put it; not that it has not places |
but that it has too many. The
stone is not very big thing and will not |
take up much room /; but as it is the only |
obelisk that the city has, or ever expects
to have, the importance of finding the
very best situation for it weighs heavily |
upon all the public spirited citizens OF |
New York, who are in a great state OF |
agitation first to find out where they want
the stone put. and next, to persuade their
fellow-citizens that they are right about
it. When they have a vacant square in
the neighborllOod of their residences
they do not find much trouble in
determining what their own wishes
are so that the eligible places seem to be
nearly as numerous as the possible places.
1t had been fixed once that the obelisk
should lie erected on a certain knoll in
the park, which was not, however, near
where anybody lived; SO that when the
wonder actually arrived and was ready
to Ike erected, the original site proved to
have no friends to speak of, and the park
commissioners, We believe, have been
moved to refuse to have it put there.
The New York World insists that it was
just lovely place for it, seeing that the
mound is rock upon which the tall shaft
would stand for ages. The World points
out low it is the habit of Obelisks to fall
down, seeing that they are SO tall and
SO thin that when they once get a
a little out of the perpendicular their
tendency to tumble increases in geo
metrical ratio. This suggestion is prob
ably meant to scare the people who want
the thing put up in front of their houses;
but it won't have any such effect. 1t
would only make the column the more
interesting to the average New Yorker
if would lean little bit, and threaten
to topple over altogether in the next
generation. None of them live long
enough in the same place to care very
much what is going to happen to it in
the next decade; and meanwhile
they would enjoy the situa-
tion and feed their imaginations
pleasantly on the dreadful events
of the future. So many things blow up
and down in New York that its people
are naturally callOus. They are proud
of town that can have twenty-eight
men destroyed in an instant in tunnel :;
for it is the only place that has tunnel
and can enjoy such a strong sensation.
They rejoice, too, in their unique steam
boat disasters which can happen nowhere
else in such frequency and with such
loss of life. What are men born for
They are born to die; and in the judg-
ment of the New York newspaper,
shared by the New York newspaper
reader, they but do their duty and
nOlly fulfil their delightful destiny when
they die in such a way as make life more
interesting to those they leave behind
them.
So that no stone foundation is wanted
for that obelisk. Itmay take its chances
on the mud of the Battery, or in Madison
Square, or at the Fifth avenue entrance
to the park, if Mr.. Vanderbilt pays down
his money and secures the trophy so near
to the site of his new house. This obe-
lisk seems to he Us uncertain of it's owner
ship as of its resting place. Commander
GOrringe says that he has paid out 500, 600
SO far for the privilege of bringing it
across the water, and has nothing
but Mr.. William II. Vanderbilt s promise
TO pay him $lOO,OOO for it when landed
Naturally he feels as if he had 4 stronger
grasp on the stone than on the money,
and he intends to keepit until it is other
wise. Commander Gorringe is right :;
but he would do we'll not to keep it too
long for we are confident that nobody
outside of New York would give him
anything like the money for his obelisk
that it has cost him and if he gives
the New Workers little time to con-
slider the matter they too will conclude
that 100000 is too much money for a bat
tered old stone that has carved upon it
some very ridiculous inscriptions that
nobody can find any sense in, and which
is old, it is true, but no older than any
other stone for they were all created
long B. G.
GEN. GARFIELD is entitled to full
o,,I <.opo,,Iofo oorroof;n ;n,, ~ tho .t,to