The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1896-10-13
ANDRES MONUMENT.
vandals Have Clipped His Memorial In
Westminster Abbey.

Vandals Have Ch1pped His Memorial In
Westminster Abbey.
Near the center of the south wall Of
the nave is monument to Major Andre
of Revolutionary note. The very long
inscription upon it begins, Sacred to
the memory of Major John Andre, who,
raised by his merit, at an early period
of life, to the rank of adjutant general
of the British forces in America, and
employed in an important but hazardous
enterprise, fell sacrifice to his zeal for
his king and country, on the I'd of o.
tober, 1880, aged 80, universally beloved
and esteemed by the army in which he
served and lamented even by his foes. .
About the base of the monument,
which is panel set against the wall,
are several small figures. These project
from the panel, and represent the presen-
tation of Major Andres letter to Cen
eral Washington 1nthe light before his
execution. The eas6 with which the
heads of these figures could be broken
off has been too great temptation to
relic hunters. and most of the heads
have been knocked off and stolen. That
such vandalism is not wholly modern is
shown from the fact that Charles Lamb
writes of the defacing of this very mon
ument in this way in his Essays of
Ella" Southey, the poet, when boy,
was a pupil at the Westminster school
Later in life he was exceedingly sensi-
tive in regard to his political princi-
pies, and for time serious quarrel
existed between himself and Lamb, be-
cause the latter, speaking in regard to
this injury to Andres monument, de-
scribed it as the "wanton mischief of
some schoolboy, fred perhaps with
raw notions of transatlantic freedom. -
Then, addressing Southey, he added,
THE mischief was done about the time
that you were scholar there. Do you
know anything about the unfortunate
relic?'
There is now fastened upon the wall
of the nave, above the monument,
wreath of oak leaves which Dean Stan
ley, when he visited America, gathered
near the spot on the bank of the Hudson
river where Andre was executed. AL
though Andre died in 1880, it was not
until 1921 that, at the request of the
Duke of York, his bones were exhumed
and taken to England to be buried in
the abbey: The box in which they were
placed for the voyage is still preserved
in the oratory over St. Islip's chapel,
where the wax figures are kept.-Max
Bennett Thrasher III st. Nicholas.
Charm of Uncut Books.
1t is clear, then, that those are but
rude spirits who have no reverence for
all that pertains to book. What could
be coarser and more barbarous than the
demand that the quivering edges Of a
volume, with all the struggling fibers
that flutter ON the verge of life, " should
be cut and hacked to dead evenness and
stilted smoothness? Such butchers would
trim the oak leaf, torture the lily and
prune the luxuriance of the horse chest
nut
Tho plea of utility is the most barren
of all. Is there any good thing in ma
ture that does not demand labor III the
search? Are we to grumble at the sting
of the bee or I'D -os>ssrlves to its
glossy beauty in our haste to steal it's
honey? 1t is but half of reading to mere
~ read. There is, so to speak, a court
ship as well as marriage with our
authors text, time for dalliance, for |
indulgence, for emotion, for coy ap-
proach and wistful glance. And this to |
the true reader is more than all the bare |
commercial zest in grasping its heart |
and putting its soul to usury, as if au-
thors but worked for us as slaves in the |
mines to make us rich.
No moments are so delicious as those |
in which the reader first approaches his
author, when the volume lies but half |
revealed. The text is coy and saucy as
a nymph, now peering boldly at us from
the open leaf, now lurking half conceal
ed between the pages, now buried be-
You'd our sight. There needs a swift |
pursuit. With knife in hand we gently |
lay her place of hiding bare, track her
to dusky grotto, follow her through dis
NAL caves, and in the end she stands |
caught, revealed, her ambush clean cut |
off, and we steal to her embrace vic
torious That, after all, is very real
pleasure. 1t is sweet to discover, mo-
ment by moment, the authors purpose,
not hasty TO seize il, but dipping here
and there as one cuts the pages, lighting
on piquant saying that whets our APP
petite, CHANGING on pretty phrase or a
noble sentence. London Star.