Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1889-02-09
vANDALs AT WORK.
The Continued DETACHMENT of the Wash.
ingtOn Monument.

Repeated references have been made in The
STAR during the past two or three years to the
| injury that has been done to both the interior
and the exterior of the Washington monument
by vandals under the guise of visitors.
Names Of persons not entitled to fame
have been scrawled in bad Chi
! Biography on prominent places; bits Of ex-
circulating rhyme are to be found here and
there, sentiments sometimes of q doubtful
character defle the walls, until the monument
has come to be a veritable book in stone, and
not very high order Of literature at that. Ithas
been the constant effort Of those in charge
OF the monument to prevent this vandalism,
but without much success, and considerable
damage of an irreparable nature has been done.
The difficulty lies in the fact that the
great size Of the shaft makes it prac..
tically impossible to watch the visitors, and
those with the intent Of defacing have ample
opportunity to do so. Not only are marks
made upon the surfaces Of the stone, but
| some even 60 30 far as to clip of pieces
OF the materials to be carried away al
souvenirs. The memorial stones that line the
interior OF the shaft seem to be the special
objects of the vandal's operations, and traces
OF his work are to be noted on almost every
landing.
THE SUPERINTENDENT REPORT.
The evil has at last grown to such an extent
as to call forth an earnest protest from Gus
todian G. NJ. Thomas to Col. Wilson, the en-
gineer in charge, on the subject. He says:
Il am compelled to call your attention to the
repeated acts Of vandalism by persons visiting
the monument, which l am almost powerless
to prevent. Since the 9th day of October, 1888,
there has been large number OF names writ
ten on the memorial stones and marble head
ers, in some cases with indelible pencils. The
more recent acts, which would seem to call for
some stringent measure to prevant recurrence
OF same, was the breaking of limb from one of
the carved figures on the block from the Ameri-
can medical association, and a portion of the
carving from the block presented by the Clio
sophie society of Nassau Hall, N j., and the
removal of brass inscription letters from the
granite block from the free Swiss confedera-
ton. In spite of the numerous arrests made
for defacing and otherwise marking or marring
the shaft and the publicity given same through
the press. these acts Of vandalism continue.
With the limited force at my disposal find it
almost impossible to properly guard the in
terror of the monument between the top and
lower floors, as the day Waterman has about all
he can do to care for the exterior of the shaft
and prevent visitors from breaking off chips,
&C."
There is one way to prevent most Of these
acts, namely, by prohibiting all persons from
asce nding the shaft by means of the stairways.
There might be a little scribbling of names at
the top even then, but the chances are that
the offender would be detected and punished,
as the law allows by fine. Col. Wilson, how
ever, is not disposed to prevent the public
from using this means of climbing
the monument because few Of
them are not possessed with the
proper moral sense of right and wrong. The
elevator can only carry about thirty people on
trip, when closely packed, and the round
trip, not allowing for letting passengers off and
on, takes twenty minutes. In consequence
it frequently happens that there is a large num-
Der Of persons waiting to go up who, IL the
stairways were blocked, would be unable to
ascend the shaft without the exercise of an
hour or SO of patience. Many would be even
unable to make the trip.
WHAT MAY BE NECESSARY
Unless some provision is soon made for the
employment Of force sufficiently large to
guard the interior Of the monument properly,
it may become necessary for the engineer
in charge to cause the revocation of the privi-
lege-for it is privilege-of using the stair
ways, in order to save the shaft
from utter DETACHMENT. With few
more watchmen, who should have regular
beats up and down the stairways. Some of the
vandals would be sure to be caught at their
work and punished, and few cases would soon
serve as a ''frightful example to such others
as might have the same intent