Republican farmer., 1919-10-17
'Ifll'()1lg At Dedication
 Of Arch
Mrs. Perry's Splendid Gift
 Transferred to City. JUSTICE WHEELER MAKES PRESENTATION
Saturday, October II, 1919.

Bridgeport this afternoon accepted the Perry Memorial Arch at the en- trance Seaside Park on Park avenue with appropriate ceremonies which were attended by a great throng of people, including city officials and state officers who had gathered to pay homage on the occasion to one of Bridgeport's most distinguished fani- lies.
 The ceremonies were preluded by a half hour concert by the Wheeler 6 Wilson band following which there was an invocation by Rev. Stephen F. Sherman and community singing un- der the direction of Alvin Bruel
 Morris B. Beardsley one of the trustees of the Hunt fund made a Rev. William Horace Day, who spoke as follows:
 Dr. Day said in part:
 Today we honor the memory of a sturdy son of New England. who came here in 1856 with the Wheeler & Wilson Go. For many years he held responsible positions as superin- tendent, secretary and treasurer of that company. For the most part he lived quietly and without taking any place of community leadership, but he rendered valuable service to the city on the Board of Park Commis- sioners, serving with P. T. Barnum and William H. Noble. It is pecu- liarly fitting that this beautiful mem orial should have been planned as an additional element of beauty in the system of parks, which suggested that Bridgeport be called the Park City, And 1t is also appropriate that his memorial should adorn the same park as that in which the statue of Elias Howe stands. Each of these men through Brtdgeport's sewing ma chine, made a real contribution to- ward the Tightening of the burden of the American woman. Perhaps no other Yankee invention'' has done as much to set our women free.
 As President Wilson stood on Me morial Day in the beautiful Ameri- can Military Cemetery at Suresnes looking over that forest of white crosses, he told US that these men had died in the line of duty and were buried in "a foreign but not in an alien soiI''
 As stood just behind the President looking at that throng and thinking of our home people across the sea. it seemed to me that these men had in their dying gIorified in it's highest as pect the morality for which America has such high respect. They gave themselves to a cause they did not pretend was their own. They went out in the defence of liberty for all mankind
 The epftaph "died in the line of duty belongs not alone to those white crosses surrounded by the blood-red poppies of France and Flanders but it belongs to a citizen at home who loy- ally did his duty with none of the encoura cement of public applause. without whose 7aithfulness the men who led the charge over the top could not have won victory. We are all dreaming of a new Bridgeport We dare to think of her not only with material equipment adequate for the exercise of her vigorous business life, but a city fill ed with those things which sum mon the soul of men to love the beau- tiful and revere the noble It is for the ideals for which seventy thousand of our men and women gave their lives shall not be betrayed. Today ws honor the memory of this citizen and his gracious wife who lived and died ''in the line of duty
 Community singing after Dr. Days address was followed by Justice Wheeler's presentation of the arch to the city and it's acceptance by Mayor Wilson and transfer to the Park Commissioners, president by George c. Eannes. The program concluded with the singing of the National An them.
 In presenting the memorial, Justice Wheeler said:
 MT. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,
 and Mayor Wilson:
 Mrs Harriet Adelaide Perry, widow of William Hunt Perry, in her will provided a alegacy of S75,OO0 for an arch with bas relief at the main en- trance to Seaside Park.
 The executors paid over to the trus- tees the legacy of $75,00O.
 The trustees unhesitatingly accept ed Mrs. Perry's judgment that the arch should be built at this entrance to our Seaside Park. and the Board of Park Commissioners acquiesced in our decision. It is fitting that we express to you, sir, to the Park Board and to all city officials with whom this bus mess has brought us, our sense of ob- 1igation for the cordial assistance given us and the quick sympathy shown to our every suggestion.
 The place decided upon, the trus- tees took counsel and made wide in- vestigation and then gave to Henry Bacon of New York city the com mission for the arch, and to Paul Morris of Bridgeport the commission for the bas relief. MT. Bacon is re- garded as the foremost architect in America in memorial work MT Morris was Bridgeport man who had attained repute as a sculptor, was a friend of Mrs. Perry and had been honored by her by what the trustees regarded as a practical se- lection for the designing of the bas relief. MT. Morris unhappily died before his first sketch was complete | Thereupon the trustees gave to Adolph A. Weinman, the commission