Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 177, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 July 1916 — HAPPENINGS in THE BIG CITIES [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

HAPPENINGS in THE BIG CITIES

Greeley, in Bronze, Is Moved West a Little Way NEW YORK—Even the most casual observer In the crowds which hurried up and down Park Row in the rain knew there was something wrong with historic old Printing House square, the destinies of which have been presided over from time knows when by Ben

Franklin’s rusty statue. “Old Ben,” as he is familiarly known, looked unmistakably depressed in spirits and sadder than usual. Everyone agreed upon that. And there was a reason for it. Mr. Franklin’s back was turned more in grief than in anger, perhaps, | on the Tribune building, where the last rites over the statue of Horace Greeley were being held. A crowd of several hundred rainsoaked men and women peeped out from under (heir

umbrellas and watched Uncle Horace, chair and all, carefully lifted into a truck waiting at'the curb. The five-ton bronze statue which has decorated newspaper row for 40 years was being rudely taken to a new resting place by a company of safe movers. But the Horace, “dead and turned to clay,” seemed to animate the statue and resisted dumbly. First he topped over on one side and then on the other and just to spite his movers he fell backward through a big plate-glass window, leaving a jagged hole and a diagonal crack across the window pane. Finally the bronze was loaded upon the truck, but the two raw-boned horses were powerless to move it. An automobile re-enforced the animals and inch by inch, first slipping forward, then back, while the truck veered from side to side on the slippery pavement, the statue was slowly moved away. Just as the truck began to move into the center of the street a sudden lurch twisted the editor about in his chair until he Meed the newspaper office he had founded. That was his good-by. The truck moved through Mail street, up Broadway and back through Chambers street until the statue was deposited in the northeast corner of City Hall park near the city court building. There it will rest.