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Show Kdalism in the united states pj By FREDERIC J. HASKIN BE, it seems tliat our national Bteveronco is really a very R.pression. There is an Amer-Bg.gcems Amer-Bg.gcems to valuo hiatonc 9Pots Honly in proportion to the K souvenirs they may afford If bis friends. For him some BL old church means not bo Bfflonument to the past that served, but is merely a bit Kjitr that has accommodatingly Itcd in order that he may bo Star awaj' a brick or stono to Kjtcd to the folks back home. Ring white expanse of somo new Bfjnononicnt was not Icffc so' in K'sstion,, because such a finish Ljsary to art, but becauso it gmish such a nice place for the Ev,i of tourists' names in lead Krith many flourishes and -with Jiaipaniment of inane rhymes. ILu&des of the Hudson, rich in EL and opal tints that brought Kiso from Henry Hudson and Kecame to the. fourth or fifth Kn a einantic sign-board where-Bit where-Bit be inscribed the virtues of powders. The women of the Kcteenth and early twentieth K T rescued them trom turther K. The Cliff Dwellings in Casa Bijvon, Arizona, havo been in-t in-t ome instances beyond restora-'onrists restora-'onrists who, rather than tako winplete picture of the ruins in MTi took bits of stone from tho nt.il the original Iiitccture, so valuable to s, lias been lost. In 1 el-k el-k the government finally a hand in matters and iw that the incrustations ea of the geysers be not I that no writing be left . The walls of the "Dev--' havo been inscribed with iignificaut beings from all ted States. Every natiou-r natiou-r park enclosing a historic many other enclosures ie countrv bear signboards naltv for breaking twigs, rs, or removing stones or uvcnirs. pulchrcs of great men arc It is said that one reason the removal of Washing-rom Washing-rom the old to the newer nt Vernon was that some to tho vault and removed one of the coffins, believ-bat believ-bat of the great statesman, ned, it was the skull of r of the Blackburn fum-ghoulish fum-ghoulish act proved tho further safe-guarding the Washington. Even after en placed in the present r invader climbed over the w the inner gate, and re-i re-i portion of the stone from rcophagi. This caused the the outer gate with its lat effectuallv excludes ad-hc ad-hc tomb of Eobert Carter , the famous "King" Cur-lappahannock Cur-lappahannock plantations, y mutilated by relic hunt-venrs hunt-venrs ago a curio house in iwed. in all good faith, the of Powhatan, of IIclcu Hunt Jackson, r request on the side of nyon in Colorado, had removed to Denver to pro-i pro-i the desecration of cnt.hu-drairing cnt.hu-drairing pilgrims. Each i away a pebble from tho ing it' to be one of thoso id upon the silent heart tcrment. As a matter of iterprising keeper of the to dump man" a wagon-El wagon-El on the grave to replMce imovod, and to supply cu-nR cu-nR pilgrinis. At the heart a there long bloomed an t a distance it had the ap-jeinjj ap-jeinjj ricli in white flowers, r view showed it 1o be a spikes were thickly set He cards of visitors from ir. This, like the ovcr-fiefaccd ovcr-fiefaccd walls of the Mani-'foves Mani-'foves the old adago of our "Pools' names, like their ihrays found in public Sfcwily history of tho Luray K-'?ini;i, learned men pointed iiKfnfo of the student to the Vtomc prehistoric man that tlV ld and. petrified in the SI Bp Jii some tar distant age, fMBjjsvory dawn of the world, -flur 3Ud, his corpse had been ttacs of the cavern, and "SWjof the lime-water through-jJKff through-jJKff centuries had covered it uimslucent substance, until II In In n unique page that lE Butl lnc fiouvenir col-'MS col-'MS m ts deadly work, The ' this treasure as a na (Kl2tle was as nothing to his tfiW J' a bit of it, so inch by "7 piece, the great curiosi , dgtc aivay, until bv 1S78 it F0Dei and a few years later tvW ,tteu wn8 ever tuore- Jm8 ,20l,BR oc the rooms of ?Ml 1 11,2:21 whcn iB 8niP was Jamestown shows to what bM'V souvenir hunters will 0fWE5' Tho word crazy is not applied to people who MfiVi? llbcrtes when stricken inR fover- When thc tttKIL0 ,fnRlan d came to this 7im n1ce of Wnlos, nearly stopped at the old Jlr.llL near Washington 'S Sattau " bevy of girls i rooms he was Mt Wi corn(lor before they JmklfX "?eiv8 an(l bottled the mS H hatl washed the ;-tiwi ace- Thy also c,lt Wmi t? cvenient bits and 'Jfi ?1)- When Paderewski 1 fml&om(i collcKo girls en- Jra'ri?m nnd oottlcd tho p?i. (h,pP(1 h5s nds in I-""'tbe iear h,s conort. Who jWiolfci ""t that such be--W'tlrL -oun people who l4fc 5 in s,ucn a manner 1fWt-Mo,M upon their Il2ai1 nre a raco of JBSf n7whi ?tood ai,1 fim'lE .rtre88 Monroo took lWSelr P00M knivcH and lion's ?.mr5. from Ule Per SrofI?,USt,baJs,i the Son?. tho land Pn the Miift ll't .'.nanuscriptB and Wm 05 carUs8 i" the ir0if P"50"'"1? such papers as Z av m pr-S5?n' landmarks and old buildings When Washington died tho relative to whom he willed all his manuscripts gave bits here and there Jnl3noCnids 0f the..Iate General, and even a lam?e Portion to an English col-T,h col-T,h at,t.er wa3 repurchased, however, by indignant Boston citizens and preserved for the uso of the nation. na-tion. In the Library of Congress in Washington, are several mutilated letters let-ters of Benjamin Franklin's, one being cut into a taUor's pattern. For a long whilp the State records of Tennessee lay in a damp basoment in the cnpitol at Nashville, offering excellent material mate-rial tor building fires or for nests for mice. In late years enterprising citizens citi-zens have caused tho Legislature to make better provision for their keen-ing. keen-ing. 1 t it is often ignorance or indifference rather than wantonness that provokes m rl Yandalism- The bricks from the old church at Jamestown were removed re-moved to make a sea-wall to preserve the land from the encroachment of the waves of the river, with no thought that the nation's most important historic his-toric monumciiL was being dismantled. The baptismal font from the old church at Curie's Neck was used for a hominy mortar for years, simply because nobody no-body knew what it was. Some church member finally Tcscued it, had it re-cut and took it to Richmond. Tho old territorial ter-ritorial capitol of Wisconsin at Belmont Bel-mont is now a cow stable, and tho old home of Francis Scott Key in Georgetown, George-town, now a part of Washington, is scarred and defaced with miscellaneous miscellane-ous signs, while a fruit stand blocks the entrance to thc lower floor. -The famous colonial Block House at 1'ort Pitt, Pittsburg, was in a fair wav to be torn down to make right-of-way for a railroad, until some public-spirited women influenced the Legislature to E reserve it as a historic monument. The laughters of the American Revolution have also preserved the stones from old Fort Steuben from further desecration by builders, by having them restored to their original site and held by a deed of their own. Graveyards nave not been spared by vandals. When death took its heavy daily toll of Americans on board the terrible British prison ships of the Revolution, swinging at anchor for seven 3ears in New York harbor, the bodies were buried on the shores of Long Island. Tho waves soon disturbed tho bones and thev were kicked aside or taken up by collectors, until a patriotic citizen employed the children of the neighborhood to gather them up and had them decently in terred. One of the most flagrant instances of vandalism on rccprd iB the alteration of tho inscriptions on tho gravestones, and the shifting of tho markers from grave to grave in Christ churchyard, Alexanr drin. Someone who was clever with the use of n stone-cutter's tools has perpetrated perpe-trated a ghastly joko by placing the figure "1 ' before many "of the figures telling tho age of those interred there, making "18," for example, react "118, Anyone having such a perverted per-verted scnso'of humor deserves to be put in jail. Unintentional vandalism has caused confusion in more than one cemetery. With tho best possiblo intentions a Boston Bos-ton official many years ago rearranged the tombs in old 'King's Chapel burying bury-ing ground to suit his own fancy lie thought they looked best in rows, and placed them that way. Now no one can exactly locate the graves of such noted folk as Govornor Winthrop. Governor Gov-ernor Shirley, John Cotton or Hester Prynne. It is this same unintentional Bpirit that hus worn away a part of tho good work of a cart in the Smithsonian Smith-sonian Institution, each visitor placing a hand on the cart to get a bettor view, and so wearing away the grain. Possibly wo inherit this spirit Ancient An-cient inscriptions on Egyptian monuments monu-ments arc often deciphered as tho pleasantries pleas-antries or criticisms of Greek and Roman Ro-man visitors. Justin tells us that even until the days of Augustus tho tools used for making tho famous Wooden Horso for tho scige of Troy worn gravely grave-ly exhibited bv a coll odor. Washington Washing-ton Irving in his "Sketch Book" refers re-fers to that phase of national snirit which provoked vandalism in Westminster West-minster Abbe3', depriving Kdward the Confessor of his scepter, and thc effigy of Henry V. of its head. |