The other day I came down the East River on the steamer. I saw
the Bartholdi statue, and my only comment on it, in voice or in
thought, was upon its dingy appearance. I wondered that it had
not been cleaned. When I sat in my house reading afterward, I
came to an account of the ecstasy of an immigrant when first he
saw the statue. It was to him the incarnation of all that he
had hoped for. Its torch seemed to light his feet to the ways
of peace and prosperity. It seemed to be calling a welcome from
this land that is free. It seemed even to his devoted heart to
be like the figure of the Christ beckoning him and promising him
the liberty of a child of God. I wish it might be that we could
never see it without similar emotion.--C. B. MCAFEE.
(1784)
=Liberty, Workers for=--See EMANCIPATION.