The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1886-11-06
THE SITE AND THE FOUNDATION.

been happier one for the purpose. IRON
the shores of the Bay the level islet look
like the mere natural base of the vast statu
and its-solid-faced pedestal.
| Cut away from any rival objects large o.
small, dwarfed or dwarfng, the colossal fig
ure stands clearly against the free back
ground of water, land and sky, blending
with them easily and simply, like an image
drawn, as the goddess is, on their own
scale. And if the great bronze figure fits
like one of its own rivets in the copper
sheath, into the surroundings of sea and
sky, the granite pedestal finds ready-madt
support to the double star-shaped inner
walls of old Fort Wood.
The base of the pedestal is almost hidden
from the outside behind them, and when
the old parade ground is filed in, and the
sodded terrace slopes gently downward
from the crown of the foundation over them
to the sea-wall below, their tops will make
an easy break halfway where the stair
cases will broaden out into spacious plat
forms, and benches will be ranged for
loiterers in the pleasant weather. The out
works of the fort have disappeared; so have
the powder-houses and the sally ports. The
bastions themselves will soon be buried in
the dirt. Only the small sea battery with
its guns freshly polished for display, not
use, will be left to remind one in year OF
two that Bedlow's Island was once Gov
ernment post.
The bulk of the pedestal's foundation
will, of course, be out of sight when the
landscape gardener has finished his work
on the approaches to the statue. 1t starts,
in fact, beneath the old parade ground,
at thirteen feet above the mean low water
mark. In shape it is something like a
truneated pyramid, with gentle slope.
1t does not rise, however, with contin-
uous wall, but with series of great layers
of concrete, each one a trifle smaller than
the one it rests upon. The top reaches up
above the fort walls ifty-two feet ten inches
from the base There is no break to the
very top. The whole thing is vast mass
of concrete and rock, which measures on
its upper face about sixty-fve feet square.
A WELL-BUILT PEDESTAL.
The pedestal proper at Its base Is sixty
two feet square, and begins at an elevation
above tide-water of sixty-fve feet. In the
middle of each face, just on level with
the proposed terrace, is doorway, five feet
wide and thirteen feet high. On each side
of every door is projecting disk of stone,
on which the arms of the United States and
of France will be cut in relief. Above the
doors is a broad band of stone running
around the pedestal and broken into forty
smooth-faced medallions, ten on each side,
on which the coats-of.arms of the various
states will probably be placed. Still higher
than the medallions are four large panels,
twenty-three feet and six inches long and
five feet and three inches from top to bot
tom. These will also be covered with ap-
propriate inscriptions and designs.
With the panels decided break in the
pedestal proper occurs. The sides shrink
in foot or two, and the smooth stone-work
of the first section is succeeded by a free
rough-edged arrangement, which relieves
the eye and gives a chance for further
smooth work higher up. From the base
of the pedestal to the top of the big panels
is seventy-two feet and eight inches. Here
the four walls recede, except for a half
dozen feet at each corner, and leave four
balconies, each five feet and eight inches in
width, set off with low stone rail and four
tall granite pillars. Doors open from the
balconies on the shaft inside, around which
the spiral stair winds dizzily, and up which
an elevator will probably run some day.
These shaded balconies are a delightful re-
treat after the long, hot climb, and from
them spread out on every side is that ever
changing picture of the bustling harbor,
the far-off hills tipped with blue and green,
and the dense black patches of housetops,
towers and spires.
Where the walls join again there is jut-
ting frieze of plain granite, crowned with
a low open balcony on which four doors
open again from the shaft within. Here
the third section begins. The walls con-
tract several feet, though the balcony rail
breaks the sharpness of the effect from
below. 1t is but few tiers now to the
top of the pedestal, hid from view by the
rich drapery of the goddess tunic. The
topmost platform is thirty-nine feet and
four and three-eighth inches square, and
154 feet above low water mark.
The pedestal is in its way most grace
full and modest structure. 1t is neither
monotonous or heavy, and has been made
to look smaller than it really is. The god
dess, in fact, gains in point of elevation by
this suppression, and towers easily over
everything else, but the effect is in no way
forced or stilt-like The soft gray shade
of the pedestal blends well with the reddish
brown of the copper, and the whiteness of
the rough quoins shows far across the water
in the slanting rays of the early morning
or late afternoon sun. The granite used is
from a quarry on Leete's Island, in Con-
necticut, and the size of the blocks made
the building of the pedestal one of the
heaviest pieces of masonry ever undertaken
about New York, Gen. Charles p. Stone
was the chief engineer of the work, Richard
NJ. Hunt the architect, and David FL. King,
Jr., the builder. The pedestal cost in all
about S250,000.
COLOSSAL SIZE OF THE FIGURE.
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 or
bigpess attributed to it. The colossal
statue of Arminius, in Bavaria, is about
ninety-four feet in height; that of St.
Charles Borromeo, on the shores of Lake
Maggiore, sixty-six feet. The Virgin
of Puy comes next, fifty-two feet, and the
statue of Bavaria last, scarcely y more than a
foot shorter. All of them shrink out of
countenance beside the gigantic copper
figure on Bedlow's Island.
The colossal in art, it is generally under
stood, can be used to express only limited
number of ideas 1t must represent, if
possible, some vast abstraction, and carry
with it always the suggestion of power,
majesty and infnity. Its peculiar effect is
that Of the physically sublime, touched and
heightened by the idea of moral sublimity.
And SO it is not the mere legendary god
dess, with more than manly strength and
more than womanly stateliness, clear-eyed
and wise and patient, like Minerva, that
the sculptor means really to represent.
The figure of graceful, deep-browed
woman is there, whose richly -pleated robes
hang in soft rounded folds about her shapely