Mountain Home bulletin. (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1888-1889, 1889-02-09
WASHINGTON MONUMENT.
A Trip in the Elevator to the Top Of
: the Great Shaft.
sensatioNs Experienced In Making the A.
cent-Magnificent and Impressive View
Of the City and Surrounding Coun-
try-A Memorable Visit.

FROM the monument visitors can OBJ
tain charming view Of the city and
vicinity, which they can carry away in
their memories as one of their most
precious souvenirs. A trip up, with
the car loaded. occupies about ten
minutes. Ten minutes are spent at the
top to give the visitors a chance to look
out of the windows, and then those
who wish to go down are taken back
to the lower regions. about nine min
utes being occupied by the descent
Those who wish to remain above, how
ever, are permitted to do so. but they
must wait for the next downward trip
OF the car, since no visitors are al
lowed to ascend or descend by means
of the stairway.
At last the word was given. the door
was shut with a bang, and the con-
ductor, with a glance around the car,
pulled the hand-cable downward sew
eral times in succession. There was
slight tremble or shake as the car was
lifted from the floor, and then the
heads of the watchman, and the floor
man. and the square doorway full of
light seemed to slip down, down, until
they were lost. The car moved noise-
lessly and smoothly as it slid up the
longest elevator shaft in the world.
The eye, turned instinctively upward,
winked at the immense vista, through
which the strong, stiff red cables
twins they looked like-spin them
selves up and over two great wheels in
the roof, five hundred feet overhead.
The light from the incandescent lamps
filtered through the grated roof and
sides of the car, giving spotted ap-
pearance to the passengers. On either
side were the rough, uneven courses
Of the old masonry, the stones ragged
and the same zigzaging without regard
to uniformity.
The eye had about tired Of the
monotony OF the surroundings wht n
some one exclaimed at the appearance
of the first OF the celebrated memorial
stones set in the walls. This first
series occurs on the thirty-foot level.
By the way, every thing in the nonu-
ment is located by ''levels." The bot
tom is called the ground level, and
every landing is known by the number
OF feet of its elevation. On the thirty
foot level are the stones of Maine.
Delaware, Arkansas and the National
Grays, OF Washington. From this
point to the halfway level the trip is
full OF interest, the attention being
drawn to alternate sides of the car to
note the various tablets and inscrip-
tions. A good plan to follow is to take
one side going up and the other going
in its turn. The level at forty fee
contains the stones from Nashville
Tenn, Louisiana, Colorado, Alabama
and the Columbia Typographical
Society. Thence the States ant
all sorts of societies and military
companies are intermingled. On thu
sixtyfoot level is an old square tablet
legible from the car. On the mex
level is q magnificent stone from Mas
sachusetts and one from Connecticut
The latter is worn SO on the left-hant
side that some of the raised lettering
is very indistinct, while that on tn
other side is sharp and clear Th
City of Washington's tribute to he
godfather is a neighbor of the stone
from Maryland and Virginia on thu
eighty foot level. On the two hundred
foot level is one OF handsomest collec
tions of stone in the monument. Th'
tablet from Bremen is a rich piece o
dark stone. highly polished, standing
out two inches from the wall, witt
rounded edges. The lettering is ele
gantly gilded on the surface. In tn
center of the landing is stone, in re
lief, from Turkish temple. The ricl
Or! entail Ornamentation is in sharl
contrast to the simplicity exhibited i
the majority Of the stones, and al
tracts instant attention.
To the right, under the Breme
stone, is a large tablet from the Swis
Federation. This shows to create
extent than any other stone in th
shaft the vandalism OF visitors ths
finally forced the now extinct Mont
ment Commission to close the shaft
the public. Five or six of the larg
raised letters OF the stone have bee
bodily removed and the tablet othel
wise injured. In many instances th
stones have been blackened perm,
neutly by the close application OF car
die flames. This occurred whe
every visitor was obliged to carr
with him a candle or lantern to ligf
the way up the steps through tn
Egyptian darkness OF the shaft. Mich
gan is represented ON the two hundre