The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-03-10
WANT0NLY
DESTROYED
Six Stained Glass Windows
Broken With Stones.
OVER EIGHTY HOLES
Were Found in Windows of
Lewis Academy Chapel.

One of the most dastardly cases of
vandalism ever discovered in this city
was found yesterday morning when Mr..
McElhany, janitor of the Lewis Academy.
at the corner of Third and Market
streets, opened the doors of the chapel.
He found that every pane Of the big
stained glass windows on the south side
of the chapel had been broken by some
one throwing rocks through them. There
was not a few holes in one or two win
dows, but between eighty and ninety
holes in each of the six big windows were
found, and the floor was covered with
rocks from an inch to three inches in
diameter
Every pane of every window was
punctured by the rocks, and there is not
one piece of glass in the entire six win
dows as large as a mans hand that has
not been broken.
A trick like this has never been known
in Wichita before. Those windows cost
several hundred dollars, and it will re-
quire 500 each to repair them, and this
cannot be done for months, as the win
nearest plant for this work is in st.
Louis. The windows are some Of the best
in this city, they are beautiful in design
and the workmanship is excellent. They
have been in place in the academy chapel
for many years and were never broken.
a stained glass window is a great deal
stronger than common glass, and it re-
quires no little effort to throw a stone
through one of them.
The deed was done by boys or young
men, sometime between Sunday noon and
yesterday morning. The janitor was in
the building Sunday and nothing was
amiss The members of the faculty and
the trustees are at a loss to know the
reason of the deed. The Lewis academy
is held in the highest regard by everyone
in Wichita and the surrounding country.
1t is an educational institution of note,
and it spite work. the officers would like
to know the reason, and from what Incl
dent the spite originated The faculty
are inclined to believe that the breaking
of those windows was done by boys bent
on mischief. who had no idea or thought
of the damage they were doing by throw
ing rocks through the windows.
1t will not go well with the person or
persons who did the deed if captured.
Detectives are working now and have a
good clue, and it is believed and hoped
that they will succeed in running down
the ones who are so thoughtless or reck-
less as to do such n thing.
The miscreants have accomplished their
work. Such a wholesale attack as this
was, is unwarranted, and nothing more
nor less than pure meanness. 1t was the
deed of person of vicious disposition.
who has desire to damage people and
property. 1t is hard to conceive of any
persons who would deliberately throw
stones through windows such as these
and belinging to such an institution 1t
was vandalism of the lowest and mean
est type, and no stone will be left I'M
turned to bring the perpetrators to justice.
for ii is an attack unwarranted and
something that cannot be tolerated in a
city like Wichita Her educational in
stitutions must remain inviolate from the
hands of those who will not take advant-
age of things offered them.