Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1894-03-22
IN SLEEPY HoLlos.
fiIssimsges Made 10 The Graves Of Ho'es
American Auihe-s.

I,nsrI.,,1 ,,..,l,, hy !, ,,,,soter number of per-
CON. whose ,lest;not;op ;s the Worlds fair
I ,ha,, tIa tctaI ru,,h ar of all those who
I oo,,a For that ,mrnose during the preced-
Inc three months Some of the messenger
orents and ho.., nronrietors saw that
the number ;s in fact more than double
,hat wb;cr ranrasanted earlier arrivals.
And Il hos hean not;ced that for the most
! ,,ort these visitors make inouiries not as
~ tho hest w,v =, COO the notable sights of
Ne,y yort c;tv and vicinity hut as to the
I ,,,,te ~ tho home and grave of Washing
Ton Irving
SOFT has hannened that during these days
7 of carly fall tbcra have be,,n noticed many
n;lgr;ma0es to this his Nc spot. and it
seems IS tbpuob scarcely n person has come
! from england to America who has not had
in mind n visit to Sleeny Hollow. to Wool
| forte Roost and tn rho nlace made immor-
tol bv washington Irving through his mar
r,t;on If the adventures of Ichabod Crane.
with the bead,ess borseman nursuino him.
This disposition is. however. not a new
ono Althonob many Americans every year
{ yisit This nlace. vet II has been noticed ever
eince the death of Irving that IL is the Gus
tom of distinguished Englishmen who visit
America to snend a day amid those scenes
which Irving made the delight of the Eng
li,h speaking world. while there have been
thousands Of Enpiishmen not known to
fame tn whom il has seemed to be q high
privilege to have been permitted to look
,,non SIeenv Hollow or to cast n tribute of
affection upon Iryipg's grave. During this
summer MANY flowers have been thrown
upon the turf which is over his remains,
bnt so far the yandals have left the new
tombstone untouched. For a long time
after his death il was impossible to prevent
the dissertation of relic hunters. They
chinned away the first tombstone erected
over his grave within few months
some time after a new marble slab was
erected in the n,ace of the one thus de-
stroved Pit Inv hit that was broken into
until Mt last it had been practically lev
eled with the grave. and tho nieces that
were broken from it were so small that it
seemed as though there must have been
several hundred bits taken away before de-
struction was complete.
Another tombstone was mt IN some time
after. and that. too. was DESTROYED in the
same way. Now there stands at the head
of Tho grave n small marble slab RECENTLY
mt there containing simply the announce
mont of I,vinp's birth and death and the
tt\VNShinCtnn Irvintp
Tbo ,,,.ccs .ra little cbarya, of which r..
wing wrote in his ..Sketchbook. nand Wool
fert,s Roost uppears almost exactly as it
did mon the dnv Of his death. That is a
ur.;nt n,ans;o, bn;lt Inv tha D,,tcb more
than geo years ago standing almost exact
lvns IL did when II was comnleted with
tho exccption of the prettv italian tower
which Mr. Jrv;ng added to II Trvinr,s
Louse after bis return tn the Iru;tad Stntes
from his service as minister to Snain still
live there hut thew have been comnelIe,l
a, to deny themselves and the house to
change visitors although persons who come
i. with letters of Introduction are cordially
received. They have done so because 9th.
eryisa tbav would no nsnac;.lIv l., tha
summer. overrun with visitors Tbs
grounds. however. are free to anv one WIN
Chooses to wander through them
IL is no unusual sight to see . croun Of
visitors standing upon the hanks of Sleenv
Hollow looking with something of awe
and vet with delioht nj, the remnants a.
tho nier which summarized one end of the
bridge over which Ichabod Cranes immor.
tai fight was taken. and these nartioa hav-
ing thus cascd at the visible evidence that.
such bridge did exist then turn their eves
to the quaint Dutch church with It's 70
nous and cpenlv exposed hell and with
the two yancs. one pointinp one wav md
one another. which Irving So del;0htfnilv
described.
Sometimes these English parties arc nor.
.uadcd to go a little farther along the b;cb.
wav. where they NAV see n monnment
standing upou the spot where history was
made and where mirhtier and even more
immortal events were done than those ID.
scribed bv Irving in his story. for r. "a
scarcely n stones throw from Sleenv TJo,S
low that the monument stands mon tha
spot where the three vounq miIitiaman
captured Major Andre and tins frustrated
the contemplated treason Of Benelict a -
nssd.
James Russell Lowell used to say that