nd she holds a pole
bearing a liberty cap, in the other a globe, an eagle with outstretched
wings resting upon it; that symbolizes protection, which she has ever been
ready to extend to the oppressed of all the earth."
"She is a large woman," remarked Walter; "as she should be to adequately
represent our great country. Grandpa, do you know her size?"
"I saw it stated the other day," replied Mr. Dinsmore. "Her face is
fifteen feet long, her arms thirty feet, forefingers forty-five inches,
and ten inches in diameter. Her cost was twenty-five thousand dollars; the
gilding alone amounting to fourteen hundred dollars; quite an expensive
dress for my lady."
"But we don't grudge it to her, papa," remarked Grandma Elsie pleasantly.
"No," he said; "nor anything else the liberty she represents has cost--in
money or in life and limb."
"But what is her height, grandpa?" asked Rosie; "it should be very
considerable to go with a face fifteen feet long."
"Sixty-five feet, and the pedestal on which she stands is thirty feet
above water. There is a stairway inside which you can climb one of these
days if you wish."
All were gazing with great admiration and interest upon the beautiful
statue, though seeing it somewhat dimly through the gathering shades of
evening, when suddenly the electric lights blazed out from all sides,
causing an exclamation of surprise and delight from almost everyone in our
party and from others who witnessed the wonderful and inspiring sight;
words failed them to express their sense of the loveliness of the scene;
that mighty statue of the Republic dominating the eastern end of the
lagoon, that grandly beautiful Macmonie's Fountain at the other, its
Goddess of Liberty seated aloft in her chair on the deck of her bark,
erect and beautiful, with her eight maiden gondoliers plying the oars at
the sides, while old Father Time steered the vessel, his scythe fastened
to the tiller, Fame as a trumpet-herald stood on the prow with her trumpet
in her hand, while in the gushing waters below sported the tritons with
their plunging horses, the terraced fountain still lower with its clouds
of spray showing all the colors of the rainbow, as did that of the smaller
ones to the right and left.
And what a ravishing sight was that of the Administration Building with
its corona of light, its dome, arches, and angles outlined with those
brilliant lights, as were those of the Peristyle also, and of the grand
structur
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