Year: 1879

New York is to have an Egyptian
obelisls. The scheme which the New
York World started about year and n
half ago to bring TO New York Cleo
patra's Needle, has been successfully
carried through its earlier stages. The
proposed obelisk is the familiar land
mark still standing in Alexandria, its
PROSTATE mate having been set up on
the Thames embankment in London
last year. The Khedive Of Egypt has
formally presented the obelisk, 30 the
World announces, the State Department
Mt Washington has accepted it on be-
half Of New York, and the expense Of
transportation has bsen pledged by a
wealthy native New Yorker the last
designation excludes w. II. Vanderbilt,
whose name has usually been mentioned
in this connection. Getting obelisks is
less Immediately in the line Of newspa-
per enterprise than getting news, but
the success Of the World in the first di-
rection may perhaps coinpeIasate It's
readers for some failures in the other.
In any case the success Of its efforts TO
procure notable and noteworthy mon
nment for the city in which it is pub
lished il only another illustration Of the
tact that in these days the profession Of
journalism lies nearest the springs Of
action which move communities. 1t
would have been difficult matter for
the most eminent members Of any other
profession in New York to set in mo-
ton the machinery which has so nearly
put the obelisk on its way TO that city.
For the head of great journal the
undertaking has been an incident in the
management Of bis newspaper.


From the statement which the World
makes, it appears that no steps remain
10 be taken but the transportation Of
tho great mass Of granite from the
sandy edge Of the haIbor Of Alexandria
where il now stands. Those who have
seen the obelisk there will not easily
forget it's desolate look, the worn edge,
the apparently insecure foundation, and
the low huss about It. II is as much
out Of place in its present site as it will
be in Manhattan island. When erected
in Alexandria it was as little legiti-
mate part Of the Greek city Of the Ptol.
emies as it will be Of New York. II
stood originally with its mate in front
Of the temple Of the Setting Sun at
IIeliopolis, up the Nile. The coinci-
denee Of It's removal TO a western har-
Dor now will not be lost on the curious.


Its ocean carriage viii be difficult
but not an impossible task. Its fellow
weighed 200 tons, as a single monolith
Of rose-colored syenite 6s feet long
might be expected to. IL was cased in
boiler iron, hull built around it with
air chambers, and the tubular mass
towed to England, although storm in
the Bay of Biscay had almost wrecked
the whole enterprise. On general
principles anything which can live in
the Bay of Biseay can live in the At
lantie Ocean, and, while the voyage te
this country will be full of risk, the
probabilities favor success. The site
which the World suggests for its cree
ton Ia Reservoir Square, near the
Grand Union Depot, and there is much
to be said for the location, although
Madison Square offers a wider field Of
approach. But one insignificant city,
Aries, has an obelisk set up within Its
limits. Every metropolis whose pub,
lie monuments are enriched by such an
addition-Rome, Constantinople, Paris
and London-has had fair claim 10 bC
considered at some date in q true sense
the world city. 1t is New York's turr
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