The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1892-07-28
THE P0PE's GIFT.
Elshed from the Bottom Of the
Potomac Aftar Forty YearA


One Of the Oldese ana Dyepest Mysteries
of wnshinston City st Last Cleared
Up--A Valuable Discovery
Made by . Diver.
Chief among the curiosities recovered
from the Washington channel Il pc.
culiar slab or stone, which, If some o1
the old residents who have been CON
suited on the subject are not badly mis-
taken, is q find Of real value and in.
terest in connection with the early his
tory Of the city, says the Washington
Post
It was several days ego that the find
occurred Diver Harry Edwards was
down on his third trip in the morning,
end Yves guiding the nozzle of the large
suction hose that Is used In tearing up
the soft bottom tp give the worlkmen
access to the foundation Of the pierA
Near the southwest corner Of the ebut-
Rent On the aistrict side he enco,,ptered
the corner Of piece Of large DRESSED
stone. which he at first thought was
piece Of the masonry Of the pier which
had become detached and fallen out
AS the dredging gradually brought
the whole 6 the rock to view be
easily saw that the material was
mot snch as plebeian bridges are
made Of II was sharply cut
and beautifully polished piece Of
variegated marble, striated in veins Of
pink and WHITE which, seen through
the green scintillating light Of the
water, took ON iridescent tints as fresh
as If just turned out from the
scufptors hand II was not q large
block, more like q slab about six inches
thick and perhaps one and one-half by
three feet in surface Dimensions But
it was In the way 6 the engineering
work. and therefore, whatever it was,
it had to get ont Of the way, and, stoop-
ing down. aided by the buoyancy of the
water, Edwards turned the stone over,
end as he did SO noticed half-effaced
inscription on one side. Feeling that
perhaps there might be something to
the curious And, he signaled the bucket.
and, as his time beloY was nearly up,
ascended with the olAe and had it
landed on the barQh Instead of being
thrown ON the co1naA1n scrap pile with
the rest Of the refuse
The matter was investigated and the
facts brought to light make it almost
certain that ono Of the oldest and deep
est mysteries of Washington has been
at last cleared up
The story Is one not very w-i:!cly
known, and It may be briefly stated as
this. During the first years of work
upon the Washington monument there
were contributed from all quarters Of
the globe memorial stones to be inlaid
on the inner wall Of the shaft The
crowned heads Of nearly every land
were proud to contribute toward Amer
ica's memorial to the greatest hero of
modern times, and tablets Of granite
and marble appropriately inscribed
were received by the monument
society, and placed pending their
insertion. in long wooden
storehousc on lnpidnrfum near the
foot Of the shaft Among 9TH
ers that were received In the winter of
1883 was o block of beautifully striated
marble from the pope of Rome, with
the simple Inscription: "Rome to Amer
ica," meaning. by that not the religious
but the politic:l Irrver represented by
"Rome." But 1T was in the days OF the
old know-nothings, the american
party" whose intempersAe zeal did not
stop for fine distinction of definition,
Rnd, thinking that they saw In the gift
On insidious invasion of papacy into the
land Of the free and the home of the
brave, there were ominous grumblings
of wrath ON the reception of the gift by
the authorities at Washington. But,
though the cloud lowered, it did not
burst.
The hard winter OF 1853 passed and It
was late in The spring Of 1854 when the
work ON the monument was once more
begun The morning Of March of
that year the city was electrified to
learn that the night before an unknown
band Of vigilantes had broken into the
stone shed at the foot of the monument
and that the pope's gift to the struc-
lture was missing. But what had be.
come of Il no one knew. There was
always q watchman stationed in the
ground around the monument, and with
him was good watch dog. but tho
marauding party had laid their plans
well, and the dog had been poisoned,
his boz by rope passed around tho
Outside OF the doors and windows, thus
fme4enting him from seen cstching .
glimpse OF the party wt0 secused him
In the morning the shed WA open snA
the stone was gone That was AL that
wss known, and up to fcw days a1Y
an that w.is ever known. '75p no''
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strange Enects q Extremp-ODih-
Du. Moss Of tie English polar eSpedf.
tnnof lS75T7 among many other things
tells OF the strange effects OF the ex.