Tama County Republican. (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1867-1872, 1871-03-02

40 intended, they are the most dam.
aging of anything that has ever yet
been said against the Oxford stone.
Let us see. however, how much of
truth and how much of error, or in
ference, there is in the Parker charg-
e.. From a letter received from the
Professor himself, we learn as fol.
lows:
1st, That he built a house at Grin.
nell.
%, That he sent to Oxford for
foundation stone, by letter in the
hands OF teamster; he did not
'go."
Sd, That he sent to some quarry at
Oxford, whether the same quarry"
which received the award Of tic
Commissioners or not he does not
know. He knows nothing about the
"sameness of the quarries," neither
does he know to whom he sent.
4th, He noticed last spring that
thin flakes or laminas fell from
This wall, and in some places the flakes
were so thick az to take. off the
dressing, and thinks froet the disin-
tegratlng agent. He trusts his ex-
perience is exceptional, DC, &c.
It will be seen that al Of the so.
called "factsn embraced in the Parker
charges are disposed Of by the Pro-
lessor himself, excepting the fourth,
and that is very materially modified.
Thus modified and emaculated, how
ever, these charges were again sent
out from the University ON advance
slips in season for the Journal man
to have qualified his statements had
he felt so disposed in his next weeks
paper, but he did nothing Of the
kind. On the contrary, having found
the Professors modified charges cor.
roborated by two widely known
gentlemen" belonging to the Sopho-
more class Of said University ke
again in his communication Of the
10th, puts him on the witness stand.
This time the testimony consists in q
reiterstaon of the charge, IS modified,
in the forth article, as to scaling of,
ETC., ETC., with the additional one,
that the .sfew blocks Of stone that
were left lying around on the ground
until the next spring" tailed in gath
ering them up at that time to "come
up by the rootsn-they "left in the
ground a thin fake or lamina-"
In answer to this, we quote from
the Poweshiek Herald, published at
Grinnell, the editor OF which is the
Rev. }. NJ. Chamberlin, Treasurer Of
the Iowa College, a gentleman every
way as pure and widely known rs
any Of the witnesses called in by the
party Of the first part, as follows
ave have examined the wall referred
to, in company with a competent
| master builder, ;,ani will wager the
price Of it, that more perfect stone
cannot be found in Iowa, or any
where else. We could not find the
least OF any such action (atmospher.
ic) upon them. The marks OF the
tools are as distinct as tho day they
were made, and can be seen across q
block As to the blocks of stone
that were laying around loose and
failed to "come up by the roots" up
on gathering" it is sufficient answer
to say that there were three dWsyext
kimds OF stone used IN those founda-
tions; and there is not a scrap of
evidence to show that the blocks
that left behind them I'm the
the ground thin flakes of lamina''
were oolltic limestone. Since (ac-
cording 20 Prot. White) the well
known tendency of all oolitlcs is to
become fragmentary, and not to OK
foliate, or laminate, the presumption
is fair and reasonable that these
blocks were not Of the oolitic forma-
ton. A single remark further and
we are done with the little cottage
At Grinnell. The impression is con-
veyed SO far in al that has been
written by Prot. Parker or others
on that side, that all the stone used
in the foundations Of his house were
from Oxford, and of the oolitic va
riety. This is not the fact. as ad-
mitted by the Professor when inter-
viewed on that subject last week. A
portion Of the stone came from his
own farm, about midway between
Grinnell and Oxford, the balance
from Oxford, where also are found
three rar,eties OF stone. The oolitic
was used only ON the east side Of tire
house, and is not by any means such
stone as the Board proposed TO con.
tract for. They are the ou.-crop
pings the surface stone Of the quar-
ry, and no more fairly represent the
perfectly formed stone OF Helm +
Richardson's quarries than do those
which were taken by the Professor
from his farm.
We are also continually reminded
of the important testimony which
the State Gcologist, Professor White,
brought sgainst this stone. Speak
ing Of the Tama county stone, and
tho proposal to manufacture it into
table-tops, ETC., he says: at is feared
that the well known tendency of al
oolitic Inn estonc to become iragmen-
tary will be found to render it worth.
less for such purposes. However,
that wear Oxford or Isdiaatosea proMises
to prore ralxsbk for such uses" = This
fragmentary tendency, he then goes
on to say, has been very ofton shown
at BwlMgtoa where stone from the
oolitic bed there, had, upon exposure
to the atmosphere and frost, sooner
or later crnmbled to pieces. That
sit has been used for paving, AMI
curb stones, as we'll AZ tor Gaping
embankment walls, and in ereYy
instance it has been broken up and
destroyed by the action Of frost
alone citAiM year or tsco." Admit
ted. But does that prove that the
Onlitic limestone near OrfOr(l and