Our Egyptian Obelisk

Author : Henry H. Gorringe
Publisher : Forgotten Books
ISBN 13 : 9781330336892
Total Pages : 303 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (368 download)

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Download or read book Egyptian Obelisks written by Henry H. Gorringe and published by Forgotten Books. This book was released on 2015-06-16 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Excerpt from Egyptian Obelisks At the request of Lieut-Commander Gorringe I long ago promised to prepare for him an account of the transactions which led to his undertaking the important operation so clearly and so fully described by him in this book. From that promise I may hold myself released. He has embodied all the essential features of these transactions in the admirable narrative which has grown under his hands, as I hoped that it would, into a full and interesting history of the Egyptian obelisks. The pains and skill with which this history has been constructed out of the few and fragmentary records which remain to us of these august monuments, illustrate the spirit in which Lieut-Commander Gorringe accepted and executed the trust confided to him by Mr. Vanderbilt in the interest and for the benefit of the people of New York. It is easy, and of course it is becoming, to applaud the success of such an enterprise. But no man knows so well as I do the discouragements and difficulties through which success was won, and it appears to me to be my duty, therefore, to bear witness here once for all to the absolute simplicity of purpose and single-minded public spirit to which New York is indebted for the, possession of the great obelisk of Alexandria. No arguments were needed to commend the project either to Mr. Vanderbilt, whose liberality made it practicable, or to Mr. Evarts, who put and kept all the machinery of the State Department at work to accomplish it. But from the day in August, 1879, on which Lieut.-Commander Gorringe sailed for Europe on his mission, to the day in January, 1881, on which, in the presence of assembled thousands, the majestic monolith swung at a motion of his lifted finger into its final resting-place in the Central Park, his indomitable energy was confronted at every step, not only with that wholesome and bracing public indifference to such undertakings which success always startles into enthusiasm, but with all the obstacles which private greed and the eternal quarantine of official imbecility could put in his way. He has repeatedly acknowledged his obligations to his able and well-selected assistants, Lieutenant Seaton Schroeder of the United States Navy, and Mr. Frank Price, of New York. But his best coadjutors were his own purpose and his own patience, of which he cannot speak, and which I put on record here. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.