, 1901-06-20
Yandals Mt Washington.

Nearly every tourist who visits
Washington wants to take away a
souvenir. Souvenir stores in the ma
tional capital are as plenty as saloons,
but your true souvenir hunter wants
something that he has culled himself.
BY preference he will hammer, hew
or slice it off from some monument or
landmark. That is why 1t costs Uncle
Sam n fortune to guard his treasures
Of history. wonder and beauty. What
ever public building o enter. your
cane, umbrella, or whatever you may
have that would make n good ham,
mer, is taken from you and checked,
and at the Congressional Library and
Corcoran Art Gallery you are watched
very closely, lest you might get an OPP
portunity to use your heels. These
two places are particularly enticing to
the vandal, with all their statuary and
carved marble.
Unfortunately the Washington Mon
ument has not been so well guarded,
consequently 1t is badly Scared by
the depredations of the souvenir
fiends. Inside it is very dim in spots,
the light being supplied by an occa-
sional incandescent lamp, along the
stairway. 1t is in this atmosphere hat
vandalism fourishes. Like white
squares and the blacks of a huge
checker board stand the memorial
slabs presented by the states in the
Union at the time of the monuments
erection, II by the societies and or
ganizations of the nation wishing their
names to be immortalized at the ma
tional capital. There are more than
$50 of these. and many of them are in
a distressful condition of mutilation.
Missing heads, arms, legs and drapery
from statuary bear eloquent witness
to the appreciation of visitors who
were so favorably impressed with the
monument that they couldn't teal
themselves away without taking some
thing with them to remember 1t by.
Just exactly what value. real or senti-
mental, the left ear lobe OF the God
dess of Prosperity. for instance, can
have for any person is hard for n sane
man TO understand. Somebody got it,
however.
At Mount Vernon there is a small
army of spoilers on the lookout for
the worker of souvenir iniquity. A
quarter admission is charged and the
money goes to defray the expense of
guarding the place. In Washington's
old home there is one thing that strikes
the notice by its contrast to the pre-
vaillng simplicity. 1t is the carved
mantelpiece of Carara marble in the
dining room. One who is not a van
dal cannot gaze upon it without an
athematizlng the whole race of relic
seekers. Even with watchers in every
room some Individual managed to get
in his work." and knock off the head
OF n galloping e in the center of
h group. The animal remained head-
less for months. Then one day back
came the head in n little box post
marked Paris. The culprit had real
lied the evil of his ways. the villainy
OF his vandalism. Said the accom-
panying note, 1T did not occur to me
in my own country. where everything
Is so perfectly preserved. the outrage
that 1t Is to mutilate historic places
for relice. Here nothing Is preserved:
everything is Clipped and married and
broken by travellers like myself. l re-
turn herewith, etc" S~igned-not at all.
The head was stuck on, he glue
stained the marble, int the milk white
deer has a yellow streak around his
neck.