Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1904-11-09
OVERTOPS ALL FIGURES.
Interesting Particulars Concerning
Hartholdi's Great Statue
Of "Liberty."

II IN Ine course OF things the United
States spme day should be conquered by
some liberty hater, like the sultan of
Turkey. and the statue of liberty at New
York suffer the fate of an earlier wonder
of its kind, the Colossus OF Rhodes, it is
probable, says the Chicago Tribune,
that the junk dealer who then would
purchase the liberty statue as so much
old copper and iron would accord to
BarthoLli, who died the other day in
Paris, the place which careless pub
lie, accustomed to the sight of the
statue, and having ceased long ago to
wonder at it's magnitude, has neglected
to give the creator of the eighth wonder
of the world.
Tradition says 900 camels were used
in transporting the brass of the Colossus
of Rhodes to Alexandria after it's pur-
chase by a merchant. Twelve hundred
or more such animals would be required
to transport the liberty statue from New
York to South Canal street in Chicago.
There were 100000 pounds, of brass in
the Colossus of Rhodes, and there are
100000 pounds of copper and iron in the
statue at New York. This to indicate in
a general way how much greater isthe
Bartholdi statue than the ancient piece
of sculpture over which the reader of
history l.arvels.
Because of the vast picture which
forms the background of the statue In
New York bay, the immense size of the
sculpture is not brought home. It's only
when recourse is had to comparative
figures that the figure on which Bar
tholdi spent ten of the best years of his
life is seen to be not only work of art,
but the greatest of colossi.
The nose of the figure of liberty is
four feet long. The eye is two feet WIDE
The hand measures II feet. The FORE
finger is seven feet long, and the finger
nail is foot in length. The head Is
IA feet high and around it's crown 40
persons may stand. In the torch held
up by the right hand there is room for
II persons.
A man standing in the torch sees New
York's shipping from a height of 3O5
feet, that being the distance between the
top of the torch and low water mark.
The statue is ISL feet from the bottom
of the plinth to the top of the torch, and
1873 feet from the figures foot to the top
of the torch.
The famous Colossus of Rhodes was
but los feet, as compared with the ISL
of the liberty figure. The statue of Ar
minus in Westphalia, which comes next
to the Colossus of Rhodes in point Of
size, is "a feet high; the figure of st.
Charles Borromeo, on the banks of Lake
Maggiore, measures sc feet; the Virgin
OF Puy is 48 feet high and the Bavaria
at Munich, the oldest extant example
of colossi, is as feet.
Frenchmen of 20 years ago had a bet
ter opportunity than Americans of to-
day to compare the liberty statue with
ordinary objects. While it stood for
several years in the yard in Paris in
which it was made, it lowered above the
house tops in way that brought out it's
magnitude.
If placed with its pedestal and base
alongside the Masonic Temple in Chi
cago the top of the torch would be 40
feet nearer the sky than the temple is.
The statue is made out of hammered
copper, held in it's form from the inside
by an iron trusswork. Bartholdi began
his work on the statue by making a
three foot model. From this he made
a statue measuring seven feet, and from
the latter a model measuring 80 feet.
Measures then we're taken of the So
foot model and heightened in the correct
proportions to get the size of the 138-foot
figure. In executing the final figure
from the smaller models 5000 measure
ments were necessary.
The figure of liberty cost $250,0Oo,
contributed by the people of France in
money, material and labor, and Bar
tholdi is said to have received nothing
for his ten years Of work.