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Show IINCERSOLL STONE CENTER OF MYSTERY CHICAGO. Ffb. 4 ConPiderable speculation has bevn aroused by the JtUicvry that mmf mytrtou airnc has made -away wilh th threr-ton eornemtone of the Illlnoln tate house, which bore, despite protHt!, the name of Robert . InRersoll, the nthcist. When the rapitol was built, in 1 S 6 S. th- comemtone curTifd the names all the .Mate officials. Including In-Bersoll. In-Bersoll. then attorney Kenral. Another An-other cornerstone is there today. How it came there, what happened to 1 predecessor, how no difficult a rhanpe could be made, no one seema to know. From the time the atone w;.s In Id. aay the people of .Springfield, liirht-nintr liirht-nintr made the building its tariret. Once, even before the walls were complete, com-plete, the stone was moved fnm its plnrt by a terrific stroke at lifrhtninx. Year after yeur.. It Is declare!, almost al-most every summer cloud floating over Springfield hurled down a bolt at the state house. Old residents declare th;it each bolt seemed to aim itself at th cornerstone, and that in time the name of litKersoM was almost aef faced. Finally, in 1U05. the sine covrine f the dome was melted so seriously by I the Incessant llxhtninne; attacks that it j was replaced with copper sheathing. Keren l ly some one discovered that the plain, unlettered block now at the corner was not the original stone. Cum-mon Cum-mon rumor charged a fraternal order with chiseling away the name f the atheist. There was prompt denial f the charge. It wan discovered that State Architect Kdgar Martin's records do not show a change in cornerstones. |