The Eaton Democrat. (Eaton, Ohio) 1875-1903, 1883-12-06
About the Washington Monument.


The Washington monument is to-day
400 feet high, and it will reach the
height of st. Peters at Rome
before the work stops this year.
Colonel Casey, the chief en-
gineer, says it is to be finished by this
time next year, and that the work is
being doneias rapidly as possible. One
can not appreciate the size of the monu-
ment at a distance, although it cap al
ready be seen miles away in all of the
country surrounding Washington. 1t
is, however, only when you get
close to it that you appreciate its
grandeur. At 500 yards it is great
tall white shaft, which rises in one solid
column from the ground, and seems to
rest against the blue sky at its back.
The Potomac below it almost washes It's
feet, and it stands guard over the White
House, the Capitol, and the National
city. As you take a step nearer you
see a great net stretched around the
top, and creatures waltzing on its edge
no larger than the little midgets who
tied Gulliver to the earth with strings.
These Lilliputians are, however, full
grown men, and the net is there to
catch them If they lose their balance and
fall over. 1t has already saved many a
/ life, and very often the men working on
the monument fall into it. The stones
of the outside are measured with the
eye to see whether they he even with
those below, and in STOPPING over to do
this one is very apt to become dizzy.
One day a cat was taken to the top of
the monument. She ran all around.
and finally jumped off. She lighted, and
for a moment was stunned. Then re-
viving, she ran away and has not been
seen since. No other animal could have
survived such fall.
Go another hundred feet closer to the
monument now, and you notice that it
is not all of one block, but that it is
made of hundreds of squares laid as
evenly as Mosaic floor, and you can
readily see by the ference of color
where the old work ends and the new
work begins; that near the bottom for
1876 feet IS of dizzy, dreary gray, while
joined to3this above the rest it rises Of an
almost dazzling whiteness. The lower
third of the monument seems to have
been made of many veins, and these
have come out with age, SO that this
part seems as mottled and streaked as
though some second-class painter had
tired his granting brushes upon it. Go
still closer and you see this much more
plainly, and you also see that the whole
| of this part of the monument is break
| ing at the edges where the stones join,
and that little pieces of stone are broken
off as though they had been cut with a
chisel. The trouble is that the edges of
the stone were not ehamfered when the
monument was built and the weight is
so heavy on the corners of these stones
that it causes them to break off This
will not, it is thought, impair. the
strength of the monument, but it gives
its lower part an unsightly look. Sew
eral of these blocks are cracked through,
but the most of them merely at the
edges, and this cracking will be avoid
ed in the new part by cutting of
the stones join. Of course
the future of the monument is
question that only time can tell. ]
man who is to build the new National
Library, If Congress ever passes the bill
for its appropriation. He says you can
tell nothing about it. The experiment
has never been tried before, and the
| SlOu0S Cdu rllOG Uc tcSlcu. lOu may ttSt
them as to whether they will stand the
weight now to be put upon them, but
how can you tell what will be theiI
ability to stand the same weight when
they have been exposed to the severi.
ties of the weather for fifty yearsP In
that time their very constitution may be
changed, and they will not be able to
bear what they will now with ease.
Nothing but time can tell, and time
alone will tell whether the Washington
monument is to outlast the pyramids.
The monument now weighs nearly
one hundred thousand tons. 1t is sc
massive that it can hardly be described.
These blocks / have been speaking Of
are nearly as large as an ordinary
library table. and its walls are as thick
as a good sized parlor is wide. Eacl
side is at the base fifty-five feet long, hav.
ing a frontage quite as big as two large
houses, and at the top they will be
thirty-five feet wide or fifteen feet wider
than the house in the average dwelling
house block. Think of a stone double
house big enough to have a fiat of foul
rooms, each fifteen feet, and five-foo
hall running through the center, ant
you can imagine the attic of the Wash
ington monument five hundred fee
above the ground. Washington Cor
CerelGnd Leader.