Jon wrote this story. He published it on the 4th of August 2017. I felt that it should be reprised these five years later.
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On August 5, 1884, the cornerstone was laid for the pedestal of New York City's Statue of Liberty. But, at one time, it had appeared that the statue would not have a base to stand on. The American Committee for the Statue of Liberty had run out of funds, and the U.S. Congress had refused to provide funding. Frustrated and angry, newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer launched a massive campaign to raise funds. He wrote in his newspaper:
"The $250,000 that the making of the Statue cost was paid in by the masses of the French people - by the working men, the tradesmen, the shop girls, the artisans - by all, irrespective of class or condition. Let us respond in like manner. Let us not wait for the millionaires to give us this money. It is not a gift from the millionaires of France to the millionaires of America, but a gift of the whole people of France to the whole people of America."
Soon, donations began to pour in, but the donations were coming in from the people, such as 60 cents from a donor simply identified as "a young girl alone in the world." Another donor gave "five cents as a poor office boy's mite toward the Pedestal Fund." A group of children, who were saving their money to go to the circus, decided instead to send the money they had saved. Another dollar was given by a "lonely and very aged woman."
Millions of people around the country had donated whatever they could, raising $102,000. Schoolchildren across America had donated pennies. For instance, a kindergarten class in Iowa sent $1.35 to Pulitzer’s fund drive. More than 80 percent of the total had been received in sums of less than one dollar.
Another group of writers and artists also began their own fundraising campaign, donating manuscripts and artwork to be auctioned. Two of the writers were Mark Twain and Walt Whitman. Another famous writer at that time dedicated a poem. Joseph Pulitzer published the sonnet in his newspaper.
The poem was written by Emma Lazarus, an American poet, born in New York City. Her ancestors had come here as immigrants, so she could not understand the hatred against immigrants who came afterwards, many of them fleeing unimaginable harsh conditions, some fleeing for their lives.
She was known as a woman of immense intelligence, having published articles in the leading journals and newspapers of that era. When she was asked to write a sonnet to a well-known statue, standing in the New York Harbor, at first, she refused, then reconsidered, recognizing how this statue would be seen, as a symbol throughout the world, inspiring ideals such as liberty, peace, human rights, abolition of slavery, democracy and opportunity.
The words she wrote was:
"Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbour that twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door."
