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Show raiMM VANDALS Helio Hunters o'nd Malicious Persons Destroying De-stroying National Monuments and . Publio Works of Art. DAMAGI! AMOUNTING TO $1,000,000 The Penciling Piend Gets in His Work-Outrages Work-Outrages Often Inspired by Malicious Malic-ious Mischief. f VANDALISM by relic hunters aud malicious persons who visit Washington has been carried to such a destructive point that measures of exceptional excep-tional severity aro to bo adopted by tho department of public buildings ami grounds to restrain tho evil, says t ho Washington correspondent of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. Tho damage that has been wantonly clone in this way within thu last ten years would, it reduced to dollars aud cents, mount up to a frightful aggregate. Many who are in a good position to judge say that it would cost $1,000,000 to repair only such injuries as are actually act-ually visible to the' casual observer. To begin with, as you enter the rotunda of the Capitol from the east front, you observe that tho beautiful bronze doors, faosimiles of the Ghiberti doors at the , baptistry in Florence, have been badly I ehewed up by, iconoclastic visitors. ! These doors cost the United States government gov-ernment $28,500. At present they would not be worth anything like that amount. The figures on the panels, representing historical scenes, stand out in high re-. re-. Kef, and somebody has found no difficulty diffi-culty in wrenching away the sword that i Henry VII of England formerly held in his hando Columbus has lost the reins of the animal he is riding, and his brother Bartholomew has also been deprived of his sword. Balboa's sword has been all i bent out of shape by some one who was, presumably, interrupted in on attempt to twist it off. Twp luckless monarchs, King John II ot Portugal and Song Charles VTH, have both been robbed of their scepters, of which they now retain only the stumps. Jost examples these are of the mischief done to these beautiful gates of bronze. To commit them must have required exceptional ex-ceptional nerve, situated, asho doors ! ai-e, 'immediately outside the rotunda, where there is always a man on guard. It is this latter fact that is accountable for the fortunate circumstance that no damage whatever has been done within the rotunda itself. Save for the watch kept, the great historical his-torical pictures there would have been all cut to pieces long ago. The heads of the Father of his Country and other respectable re-spectable characters of American antiquity an-tiquity would have been sliced out of the canvases, merely to begin with. For nothing is sacred to the relic hunter; he will .not hesitate to cabbage a red hot Stove, if opportunity offers. On the right hand side of the Ghiberti doors, as you go in, is a superb colossal statue of Mars, the god of war. A vandal van-dal visitor unknown broke the end of his marble sword off, probably by reaching reach-ing over the railing and giving it a sharp bang with a heavy stick. The "busted'' portion has been stuck on again with glue or something, but tho effect is unsightly. un-sightly. On tbo other side of tho doors is a corresponding statuo of Ceres, tho goddess of the crops. Her left hand was smashed off. a while ago, and so a bunch of marble olives has been placed in her grasp to hide the break. Outrages like these, of course, are often inspired by 'malicious mischief, pare and simple. But the case is rare of an individual who will destroy property in cold blood, just for the sake of destroying. The bulk of the; vandalism is committed by relic hunters people without souls, savages f civilization, who will not hesitate to .wipe out in five minutes as much value ! -as the labor of their lifetime will produce pro-duce for the sake of procuring half a dozen worthless memorabilia. Such- are the persons, doubtless, who have attacked the magnificent bronze doors of the east senate front original cost, $56,000 on. which are depicted in relief scenes in American history. Tho guns of 'the soldiers at Yorktown have Tbeen'wrenched off those of them that ,were sufficiently in alto relievo to make ;it possible and the reins of Washing-. Washing-. -ton's horse, on his journey through Trenton, Tren-ton, have disappeared; also the gun in , the hands of the woman who looks on upon the combat between the Jersey farmer far-mer and the Hessian has lost its barrel. - ' The president's room has suffered many times, not only from relic hunters, but also from malicious destroyers. The relic-hunters have confined themselves here chiefly to cutting the silken tassels : 'from the chairs, though now and then they have sliced a piece out of the hand-some hand-some red leather coverings of the sofas, and occasionally a strip has been cut off one corner of the costly carpet, made especially es-pecially to fit the room, just to remember remem-ber the place by afterward. Tassels, however, are the favorite spoil. The guard ventured out of the room for less than two minutes one day, and when he came back three tassels were gone glimmering. On an average, tho .. 4 equivalent of a full set of new tassels has to be put on the chairs each year to replace re-place those carried away. Beyoud a doubt this room is the handsomest on the American continent. Curiously enough; it is occupied for only one hour ' itf every twelve months. The president ' i always spends the last sixty minutes in it before Congress adjourns the session, so that he may sign bills up to the very stroke of 12 o'clock and save them from , becoming void. .Nothing that money could do to make . the apartment gorgeous has been leftun- done, and its more than palatial splen- dors appear to tempt the destroyers for mischiefs sake. At all events the sofas i ' , have been repeatedly ripped from end to . end with knives, and other such wanton I x acta of malice have been committed. The chief damage done in the statuary I ? room at the Capitol is in the shape of lead pencd writings. Potomac marble, ! f of which the great pillars are formed, is of grayish effect, with light colored spots all over it These spots afford tempting t opportunities for scribblers, who delight in writing their names on them, with , various remarks on every conceivable i subject. The pillars, as far up as tho hand can reach, are fairly covered with these jjrafitti. - - -- 1 . .i - ' |