Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1886-11-03
Mlisfellaueuns &eadiua
THE STATUE OF LIBERTY.
THE STORY OF ITS INCEPTION AND COM
PLETION


Island, New York, was unveiled last Thurs
day with all the pomp and circumstance of
a great national ceremony. The history of
the statue dates back almost twenty years.
1t was, strangely enough, just at the close
of the disastrous war with Germany, and
while the horrors of the commune were still
raging in Paris, that M. Laboulaye, the
founder of the French-American Union,
first definitely broached his patriotic pro-
ject of building in this country joint
memorial of the struggles of French and
Americans in the revolution, and sent the
young sculptor, Bartholdi, to the United
States to find, if possible, some suitable and
happy idea. The first suggestion of the
statue, perhaps, dates still further back
to dinner given under the empire by M.
Laboulaye at his country house, Glavigney,
near Versailles. 1t was at that dinner at
Gavigney in 1865, as Bartholdi himself
says, that his mind was first turned in the
direction it was afterward so devotedly and
enthusiastically to follow. The after-din-
ner talk of NJ. Laboulaye's guests had ial-
len upon gratitute between nations. Some
one said that such thing as national graf
itude could not exist. Italy no longer
felt grateful for the good offices of France
in 1857; even with the United States France
could no more count on the remembrance OF
the past. This NJ. Laboulaye stoutly pro-
tested against. Whatever might be the
case with Italy, he said, with America
France had still greater sympathy than
with any European nation. Americas feel
ing toward France, too, was not one OF SIM
Die gratitude. In was based on the remem-
brarce of community of thought and
struggles and aspirations.
Five years after in the midst OF the war
with Germany, Bartholdi found himself
recurring again to this conversation. The
war was soon over and his native province,
Alsace, shut against him. He resolved to
travel for year and visit the country in
which his interest was so sharply aroused.
In a month or two he found himself
again at M. Laboulaye's house, near YER
sailles and the later insisted on Bartholdi
visiting this country, with view of study
ing it and bringing back his impressions
The sculptor thought over some plan for the
proposed monument on the way out, but
only hazily. Suddenly, one beautiful spring
morning, steaming up through the mar
rows into New York bay, the moment OF
Inspiration came, and the sculptor saw IN
fancy the majestic figure of Liberty tow
ering with her torch over the bastions of
old Fort Wood, lighting the crowded har-
Dor with its tributary rivers and the vast,
black hued cities on their borders, the very
image of teeming populous miniature
world. With all his travels in America
that impression grew only sharper and
more defined. Before returning to France
he made water color drawing of the Stat
ue of Liberty on Bedloe's Island.
Going back to France, Bartholdi ran over
his impressions to M. Laboulaye and his
friends, and laid before them the plan for
statue in New York harbor. They adopt
ed it with enthusiasm. A committee was
organized under the name of the French
American Union, and Bartholdi set to work
to make his own models. The full plan OF
the union was made public at the end OF
1874, and subscription lists were soon circu-
lated throughout France. A good deal of
money came in at once, and more was
promised. The actual moulding of the
huge cast began in 1875. The right hand
of the goddess was struck off in its coilos-
sal proportions and sent to the Centennial
exhibition at Philadelphia in 1876. Bar
tholdi came over that year, and an Ameri-
can committee was organized in New York.
The question of procuring legislation from
Congress was the most important. After
some drawbacks and delays a joint resolu-
ton was introduced accepting the statue
and setting apart site on Governors or
Bedloe's Island for the statue, and on Feb
ruary %, 1877, it passed both houses. Gen.
eral Sherman chose the latter site and Fort
Wood was given up as military post and
turned over to the use of the American
committee.
d, Bartholdi went back to France in the
fall of 1876, but it was not until 1879 that
money enough was raised in France to
pay the bare expenses of the work on the
statue. In 1878, however, Bartholdi, san
guine and undaunted as ever, executed the
head for the Paris Exposition. On October
"a, 1881, the anniversary of the surrender of
CORVALLIS at Yorktown, all the pieces of the
framework and OF the base were put in place.
The statue was nearly finished in 1883, but
the work on the pedestal was so backward
that it was decided to leave the completed
goddess on exhibition for a while in Paris.
On July 4, 1884, the completed statue was
turned over to the United States, through
Minister Morton, but it did not arrive in
New York on the French steamer Isere un-
til June, 1885.
In the meantime the American commit
tee addressed itself to the task of raising
money for the pedestal OF the statue. The
pedestal on which work was commenced in
1883, was finally completed at a cost of $780,
600, of which the New York World raised
in subscriptions $lO2,O06. The height of
the pedestal is 154 feet.
The statue measures 151 feet and one
inch from the bottom of the plinth to the
tip of the torch of flame, and stands in all
3O5 feet and II inches above low water mark.
The fore finger of the Goddess right hand
is oyer seven feet long and over four feet in
circumference at the second joint. The eye
is two feet wide and the nose more than
three feet long. The cost of the statue was
over million of francs.
The Goddess of Liberty is the largest
work of its kind that has ever been COM
pleted. The legendary Colossus of Rhodes
could not possibly have had the shape of
bigness attributed to it. The colossal statue
of Arminus, in Bavaria, is about ninety
four feet in height; that of st. Charles Bor-
romeo, on the shores Of Lake Maggiore,