Omaha daily bee., 1897-05-09
IN MEMORY OF WASHINGTON
An Imposing Statue of the First President
to Be Unveiled in Philadelphia.
ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE CEREMONIES
A Fitting Tribute to the Father OF
His Country Projected and Car
ried out by the Society
of the Cincinnati.

| events in the history OF Philadelphia VIII
occur on May 49, when the magnificent
equestrian statue of George Washing
ton, which has been presented to
the city by the Pennsylvania Society OF
the Cincinnati, will be unveiled. The
statue stands at the Green street entrance
to Fairmount park, and the ceremonies at
tending the unveiling will be on very
elaborate scale. President Mckinley and
cabinet and all the foreign representatives
in Washington will come on and take part
in the celebration; the governors of several
states have also been invited to attend; there
will be grand military display, in which
several companies of United States regulars
and the National Guards OF Pennsylvania,
New Jersey, New York. Delaware and Mary
land will take part. There will also be a
| magnificent naval display on the Delaware,
| in which the foreign ships of war which
participated in the dedication Of General
Grants mausoleum will take part.
| The program for the occasion, says
the Philadelphia Times, is simple
| and dignified. 1t has been arranged that
President Mckinley and his party be driven
out Broad street to Spring Garden thence
to Twenty fifth street and to the Green
| street entrance of the park, where the
monument is situated. William Wayne,
| PRECEDENT of the Society Of the Cincinnati,
| will after the invocation of divine blessing,
| make few remarks and then the president
| will pull the cord unveiling the monument.
w. w. Porter, a member of the Cincinnati
| of PennsylvaL "a, will deliver the Grafton,
| after which President Wayne will formally
present the monument to Mayor warwick,
| as the representative of the city, and he in
| turn will tranofer it to the custody of the
| Fairmount Park commission, whose repre-
| sentative will respond briefly. The order
will then be given for the troops to move,
| and they will pass in review through the
| park.
The famous City Troop of Philadelphia will
act as the presidents escort.
The arrangements for the military display
are almost complete, and it will be one of the
grandest sights ever seen in Philadelphia.
| The regular troops to- take part include four
companies of the famous Sixth cavalry and
their mounted band from Fort Meyer; four
batteries of artillery parading as infantry,
and one full light battery.
The entire division of the Pennsylvania
National guard is to be on hand. New Jer-
sey is to send big contingent of her crack
regiments. Delaware's governor Will head
the little band of citizen soldiers from that
state New York did not overeXert herself
| at her own parade, but will join military
forces with the keystone state, and marines
| from visiting war ships will try to forget the
motion of the vessels and march without
their sea legs.
The Navy department has ordered the
cruiser Columbia to represent the new navy.
France has ordered the cruiser Fulton to put
| on her best attire in honor of the Father OF
| His Country The British cruiser Talbot and
| the crack Spanish cruiser lnfanta Isabel,
| fresh from encounters with the Cuban lnsur-
gents. will steam around from New YORK 10
ioin in the festivities. Grand Army men and
civilians will be out in force and in the even
| ing 20. 900 wheelmen will have parade all to
themselves
ORIGIN OF THE MONUMENT.
The movement for the monument was
started in 1910 by the Society of the Gin
cinnati.
about sl5O 900, but the war of 1872 with it's
two years of excitement and hard times
which followed, caused a temporary sus-
pension of the movement. More than seventy
years ago some Philadelphians who were dis
posed to be faster and less conservative than
the Society of the Cincinnati began to raise
complaints When Lafayette came to the city
the absence of any monument OF Washing
ton regarded as matter OF reproach.
In the outburst Of patriotism at that time
committee of citizens proceeded to raise
new fund which was soon forgotten, but
which was revived in 1882, when the Tooth
anniversary of Washington's birth produced
another revival of patriotic memories.
great procession was organized in honor of
this centennial, and in the division given up
to trades a car drawn by seven horses
and carrying the cornerstone which the stone
cutters nad prepared ioi tho washington
monument.
LAYING THE CORNERSTONE.
Again the next year there was a great
parade and the cornerstone was laid in the
center of Washington square, within sight OF
the venerated Independence hall.
Year after year and decade after decade
went by and the soil which was laid over the
cornerstone was not disturbed. Now and then
there was some talk of design"
The original fund of 1910 in the custody OF
the Cincinnati had remained undisturbed in
all tn ase years; the citizens fund of 1924 and
1882 was also substantially intact in the care
of Charles Chauncey. Thief had at the be-
ginning asked the Cincinnati to unite their
fund with the Chauncey fund, but the re-
quest was denied. 1t was in 1853 that John
Sartain together with Joseph r. Ingersoll,
Joseph Harrison and others. entered into a
movement for the consolidation of the two
funds but they met so much opposition that
the projectors abandoned it in disgust. The
Society Of the Cincinnati would meet once
year and solemnly pass resolutions At last
about fifteen years ago, they went into court
and asked for the Chauncey fund. Alex
ander Purvis of the Philadelphia Savings So
ciety had invested 1t so carefully that 1t
amounted to 50000. On the other hand
there had been not less prudent husbandry
of the Cincinnati fund 1t had swollen to
about $4,000. The union of these funds
forms the treasury in which has been accu-
mulated the money for the payment OF the
monument now awaiting dedlcatlon at cost
of $3.50, 900.
Now, while the old cornerstone is in It's
place, the beautiful structure OF today, en-
tirely different from the ideas OF these who
originated the scheme eighty-sx years ago,
adorns the park ready for the grand unveil-
ing,
The monument which will be unveiled
with such imposing ceremony is the most
magnificent and costly. with the single ex-
ception of the tall shaft at Washington, ever
erected to the memory of the Father of His
Country,
The monument is forty-four feet high. Tho
equestrian figure of Washington stands |
twenty feet above the pedestal, which is |
II by 80 feet, and rises from platform 61 |
by IA feet reached by thirteen steps, sym |
bolical OF the thirteen original states The |
cost of the monument was s2500O The |
platform and pedestal are of green and |
pink Swedish granite, the pedestal being |
beautifully polished, and the statue, figures, |
bas-reliefs and ornaments are OF bronze.
Washington is represented in colonial uni
form, military cloak being thrown over his
figure. He holds the bride reins of the |
horse in his right hand, At the four corners
of the platform are fountains served by al
legorlca. figures of American Indians, repre-