The Indianapolis sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis, Ind.) 1880-1904, 1885-05-24
LIBERTY eNLIeHTeNINe THE WORLD
Bill Nye Talks About tho Bronze God
dess.
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loriginail
When Patrick Henry put his old cast-ircn
spectacles back on the top of his head and
whooped for liberty, he did not know that
some day we would have more of it than we
knew what to do with. He little dreamed
that the time would come when we would
have more liberty than we could pay for.
When Mr.. Henry sawed the air and shouted
for liberty or death, do not believe that
he knew the time would one day come when
Liberty would stand knee deep in the mud of
Bedloe's Island and yearn for a solid place
to stand upon.
1t seems to me that we have too much lib
erty in this country in some ways. We have
more liberty than we have money. We
guarantee that every man in America shall
fill himself up full of liberty at our expense,
and the less Of an American he is the more
liberty he can have. II he desires to enjoy
himself, all he needs is a slight foreign ac-
cent and willingness to mix up with pol
itics as soon as he can get his baggage off
the steamer The more 1 study American
institutions the moro l regret that was not
born a foreigner, so that could have some
thing to say about the management of our
great land If could not be foreigner, /
believe would prefer to be Mormon or an
Indian not taxed
am often led to ask, in the language of
the poet, SIS the Caucasian played outf'
Most everybody can have good deal of fun
in this country except the American. He
seems to be so busy paying his taxes all the
time that he has very little time to mingle
in the giddy whirl with the alien. That is
the reason that the alien who rides across
the United States ON the Limited Mailn
and writes a book about us before break
fast wonders why we are always in hurry.
That is the reason we have to throw our
meals into ourselves with dull thud, and
hardly have time to maintain a warm per-
sonal friendship with our families.
We do not care much for wealth, but we
must have freedom, and freedom costs
money. We have advertised to furnish a
bunch of freedom to every man, woman
OF child who comes TO our shores, and we
are going to deliver the goods, whether we
have any left for ourselves or not. What
would the great world beyond the seas say
to us if some day the blue-eyed Mormon,
with his heart full of love for our female
seminaries and our old women's homes,
should land upon our coasts and find that
we were using all the liberty ourselvesi
What do we want of liberty anyhow!
What could we do with it if we had it? 1t
takes a man of leisure to enjoy liberty, and
we have no leisure whatever. 1t is good
thing to keep in the house 'for the use of
guests only" but we don't need it for our
selves.
Therefore, am in favor of statue of
Liberty Enlightening the World because it
will show that we keep it on tap winter and
summer. We want the whole broad world
to remember that when it gets tired of OPP
preston it can come here to America and
Cypress us. We are used to it, and we rather
like it. Ii we don't like it, we can get on the
steamer and go abroad, where we may visit
The effete monarchies and have high old
time
The sight of the Goddess of Liberty stand
ing there in New York harbor night and
day, bathing her feet in the ripping sea
will be a good thing 1t will be first
rate. 1t may also be productive Of
good in a direction that many have
not thought Of As she stands there
day after day, bathing her feet in the broad
Atlantic, perhaps some moss-grown Mormon
moving toward the far west, confirmed
victim of the matrimonial habit, may fix the
bright picture in his so-called mind, and re
rnembering how, ON his arrival in New York
he saw Liberty bathing her feet with impun
ity, he may be led in after years to try it OF
himself. BILL NYE.
HUDSON, Wis, May 20.