600 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 



SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY 



LIBERTY ENLIGHTENING THE WORLD. 



The people at large are to have the opportunity, it is stated, to subscribe to- 

 ward the fund for the pedestal upon which Bartholdi's statue of " Liberty En- 

 lightening the World" is to be erected in New York Harbor. It is especially 

 desirable that the " people at large" in the United States should do this for ihe 

 reason that the present is from the " people at large" in France; and it is thoui'ht 

 meet that it should be received in the spirit in which it is given — namely, as a 

 testimonial of affection from one liberty-loving people to another. It is the first 

 time that such a substantial evidence of international amity has been furnished in 

 the history of the world. If it were not for the carrying out of the idea that the 

 whole people should have something to do with the reception of the gift the 

 money for the pedestal could be readily raised in New York in a day. Sufficient 

 indications of the truth of this proposition appeared at the great mass-meeting at 

 the Academy of Music, in that city, held on Tuesday evening last, to set the ball 

 in motion to prepare the base for the statue which is nearly completed. Just 

 what arrangements have been made to collect the funds is not stated, but they 

 doubtless will be effectual. 



The figure itself will be the most remarkable structure of the kind ever creat- 

 ed. The Colossus of Rhodes was only 105 feet high. This statue will be 155 

 feet, and will be mounted on a pedestal of equal height, the whole arrangement 

 being placed on Bedloe's Island, which is just about large enough to receive it 

 comfortably and is situated just where it is wanted for the purpose. It will thus 

 tower some 300 feet above the water level — a most imposing feature by day and 

 a light-house by night whose beacon will be seen far and wide. The cost of ihis 

 gift to the French people will amount to about 1,250,000 francs, and it will cost 

 us about the same ($250,000) to furnish the pedestal. Besides its value as a testi- 

 monial and as a light-house it will be a triumph of art. A finely built goddess of 

 liberty holding a lighted torch 300 feet in the air and welcoming ships and peo- 

 ple of all nations to the chief seaport of a free country and of the new world, is a 

 fine idea from an artistic point of view, especially when it is remembered that it 

 was constructed jointly by the peoples of the two principal republics in the world. 

 It becomes a figure full of significance and promise and will throw a little relief 

 of poetry upon the otherwise prosy and business-like appearance of the harbor. 



The above is from the Globe- Democrat, and we quote below a very interest- 

 ing description of the statue from Harper' s Weekly of January 6, 1883 : 



M. Bartlioldi, the ingenious and daring designer of this statue, is already famous 



