Herald and news. [volume] (West Randolph, Vt.) 1878-1943, 1904-12-29
That PetrIfled lneIan Aaaln.

Q
Sometime in the summer a number OF
scientifically curious people in Randolph
paid ten cents head to gain admittance
to the White Front and vent in and gaZed
with awe and reverence at a recumbent
figure Of what they believed, on the
strength Of certificate from Prof. Charles
II. Richardson OF the department Of
m neralogy and geology OF Dartmouth
college, 10 be a petrined Indian woman
of a long forgotten age.
They tiptoed around the corpse with
veneration writ large all over them,
pointed out to each other two little gritty
spots in the eyesockets as unmistakably
the ends OF the optic nerves, even found
the iugular vein in the severed throat,
made wise remarks about the lack of
frontal development and settled con-
clusively from the shape OF the head the
low state Of intelligence that must have
characterized the prehistoric race OF which
this was undoubtedly genuine relic
And now that same Professor Richard
son dares to come out with belated state
ment to the effect that the figure, upon
which we gazed with such owlish wisdom
and made the occasion of such anthropo-
logical var o 'ings, was nothing more nor
less than so much Portland cement,
cleverly shaped by someone and buried
in a swamp in Washington near the house
of Willard Clough. who unearthed the
thing the first of July, instead of the first
of April, though the latter would have
been a more appropriate date. Verify
Professor Richardson should have spoken
earlier or else forever after held his peace.
He excuses himself, however, by saying
that the body was certainly fashioned by
an anatomist, though by whom or for
" hat purpose is not known, and upon
the whole is too clever work for fake.
In August, when he was called upon to
see the body, not a fragment could be
secured for a microscopic examination
and be gave the finder few statements
based upon the historical and anatomical
evidence alone. The statements. grossly
misrepresented, went everywhere, and he
then insisted upon having some part OF
the body for examination, and the head
aud right arm were consigned TO him
November q. Chemical analysis revealed
the material 10 be neat Portland cement,
the freshly broken surfaces showing
pieces of pine shavings filled with resin
and fresh as though just cut from the
lumber.
The surface OF the body presented
many warty protu berances, perfectly
natural to long interment. These also
were Portland cement. The body was
manufactured in sections, evidently by
casting, modelling and sculpturing.
The head was never attached to the body,
therefore never severed from it. The left
arm was carved attached to the body and
like the body coated over with wash OF
cement. The broken foot, designed TO
show long continued solution or decom-
position, resulted easily rom moulding
the plastic cement. The most clever part
OF il ali is the perfect form Of the left leg.
After such a complete establishment, a
reasonable length Of time should elapse
before any more scientific wonders are
presented to this public for its learned
consideration, but after all perhaps II
should have been suspicioned that even
petrified woman wasn't likely to be exact
liz " hat she seemed