Great Falls tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1885-1890, 1885-06-25
WASHINGTON T
From our Regular Correspondent.
WASHINGTON, June Ii, 1885.

public. 1t Is again surrounded by a
scaffold and undergoing repairs. Not
time but lightning did the damage,
and though the actual injury to the
shaft is small, its significance is alarm
ing. The monument, reared at such
an immense expenditure Of time,
money and mechanical energy, is a
tempting target for thunderbolts, It
was a piece Of presumption, perhaps,
to penetrate the lightning's lair in
such a square and pointed manner,
but the offense has been committed.
The top Of monument is in the upper
realms, and since an aluminium tip is
not sufficient defense against its
neighbors, the elements, it is to be
supplied with anything it needs in
negotiations for peace. To have this
lofty structure rent and shiyered, or
sent SPRAYING over the Potomac flats
for want Of proper protection, would
be a humiliating catastrophe. A body
of scientists examined the monuments
injuries, and agreed upon measures
to protect it from lightning in the flu
ture. Surely it is within the scien-
tifc range of an age which burns
electric lights and runs electric motors
and talks with electric tongues, to
save the monument from electric des-
ecration.
One Of the clerks in the Monument
Office, glancing up at the shaft on
Saturday morning as he went to his
desk, thought he noticed something
wrong about the summit. Investiga-
ton with a field glass showed that a
stoue just belowthe capstonehad been
split, and that a little corner of tie
capstone had been Clipped off. The
rent in the stone is four feet four
inches long, and the work Of repairs
will take but short time. The crack
will be pressed together, holes drilled
through the stone, and the parts fast
ened by bolts. The chip which was
broken from the capstone was dashed
to the ground, and has now, together
with about a ton Of refuse marble
chips lying on the ground, which were
supposed to be parts of the identical
chip from the capstone, been gathered
by relic hunters.
The National Conference Of CHAR
ties and Corrections, which has been
in session here for a week, has just
adjourned. This was the twelfth an
nual meeting Of the association, and
said to be the most important one ever
held. The President and Miss Cleve-
land attended one Of the meetings Of
the body and expressed words of n
enlargement and sympathy in its
work. One Of the subjects discussed
by the delegates, and dwelt upon with
particular emphasis, was the care and
treatment Of the insane. One special
ist thought the word insanity should
be substituted by soul-siekness, brain
sickness, or some more appropriate
name. DR.. Golding, of the Govern
ment asylum for the insane, divided
the inmates into eight classes, requir-
ing as many varieties Of treatment,
and homes of as many different kinds
of construction, each of which he
described. Build for the GONZALES
cent" said he, cottage homes at a
distance from all sickening sights and
crazy sounds. Fill the grounds with
traps for sunbeams, green banks, with
their birds and flowers" He thought
that in this country of almost limit
less extent, an asylum should have an
acre of land for every prospective
patient.
Among various addresses made by
the philanthropists, all in advocacy Of
some method Of ameliorating the con
dition of the helpless or delinouent.
was one by the new assistant Secre-
tary Of the Treasury, MI. Fairchild.
He strongly advocated the establish
ment of postal savings banks. He
drew from his experience of four
years in the district attorneys Office
of New York, a terrible tale of suffer
ing which followed the wholesale
claslng OF private savings hanks, and
declared it to be his belief that it was
impossible for State or National Gov
eminent to SO supervise private saw
ings banks SC as to insure safety TO
depositors. But he said there was no
reason why the National Government
should not receive small deposits
through its postoffces, thus affording
the poor man absolute security for
his earnings, as is done by almost all
the enlightened governments of the
world.
EXCURsIONIsTS AND COWBOYS.