table near it are several large pieces of heavy metal with the
old gilding almost worn off. One piece looks like the tail of a
horse and another like a part of his saddle. These fragments of
metal and the stone slab are nearly all that is left of a statue
of King George the Third on horseback that stood on Bowling
Green, at the lower end of Broadway in New York City, before the
Revolutionary War.

One evening early in the war a mob gathered on Bowling Green. Led
by the Sons of Liberty and helped by some of the soldiers, the
crowd tore down the king's statue and broke it into bits.
Bonfires were blazing in the streets and by the light of these
ropes were thrown over the king and his charger and both were
pulled down and dragged through the streets. An entry in
Washington's Orderly Book at this time, forbidding his soldiers
to take part in anything like a riot, shows that he did not fully
approve of this proceeding. But the people were very much
excited. It was the night of the 9th of July, 1776, and news of
the Declaration of Independence by the Continental Congress in
Philadelphia had just reached New York that afternoon. At evening
rollcall the Declaration was read at the head of each brigade of
the army and "was received with loud huzzas."

Independence was declared in Philadelphia on the 4th of July, and
that day has been kept ever since as the birthday of the United
States, but news traveled so slowly before the telegraph was
invented that it was not known in New York until Monday, the 9th.
Then bells rang, and as night drew on people lighted bonfires to
show their joy, and not content with this, they hurried away to
Bowling Green and pulled down the statue of the king and cut off