Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1905-08-11

UdCk u us sources Mr.. Darwin had
left Adam out altogether. We had
monkeys, and missing links" and
plenty of other kinds of ancestors
but no Adam. Testing with Mr.. Beech.
err and other friends at Elmira, said
there seemed to be likelihood that
the world would discard Adam and
accept the monkey, and that in the
course of time Adams very name
would be forgotten on the earth ;
therefore this calamity ought to be
averted; monument would accom-
plish this, and Elmira ought not to
waste this honorable opportunity to
do Adam a favor and herself a credit.
Then the unexpected happened.
TWO bankers came forward and took
hold of the matter-not for fun, not
for sentiment, but because they saw
in the monument certain commercial
advantages for the town. The pro-
Ject had seemed gently humorous be-
fOre-it was more than that now,
with this stern business gravity in
jected into it. The bankers discussed
the monument with me. We met sew.
eral times. They proposed an indie
structible memorial, to cost $4,000.
d
up in a village to preserve the name
that would outlast the hills and rocks
without any such help, would adver-
tise Elmira to the ends of the earth
and draw custom. It would be the
only monument on the planet to Ad-
am, and in the matter of interest and
impressiveness could never have a
rival until somebody should set up a
monument to the Milky Way.
People would come from every cor
ner of the globe and stop off to look
at it, no tour of the world would be
complete that left out Adams monu-
ment. Elmira would be a Mecca;
there would be pilgrim ships at pilgrim
rates, pilgrim specials on the CONT
ent's railways; libraries would be
written about the monument; tour
lists would kodak it, models of it
would be for sale everywhere in the
earth. its form would become as IA
miliar as the figure of Napoleon.
Zone of the bankers subscribed S..
900, and I think the other one sub
scribed half as much, but l do not
remember with certainty now wheth.
err that was the figure or not. We got
designs made, some of them came
from Paris.
'In the beginning, as detail of
the project when it was as yet a joke
Il had framed humble and beseech-
ing and perfervid petition to congress
begging the government to build the
monument, as testimony of the
great republics gratitude to the faith
err of the human race and as a token
hnr lfvy k0 hi to- I~f~ Il. 1r
day of his humiliation when his older
children were doubling and deserving
him. It seemed to me that this petit
ton ought to be presented. Nay-it
would be widely and feelingly abused
and ridiculed and cursed, and would
advertise our scheme and make our
ground floor stock go off briskly. So
sent it to General Joseph r. Hawley,
who was then in the house, and he
explained that when he came to read
it he was afraid of it. It was too
serious, too gushy. too sentimental
the house might take it for earnest
I'VE ought to have carried out our
monument scheme; we could have
managed it without any great diff
Guilty, and Elmira would now be the
most celebrated town in the universe
Every recently began to build a
book in which one of the minor char
acters touches incidentally upon
project for monument to Adam,
and now the Tribune has come upon
a trace of the forgotten jest of 80
years ago. Apparently mental teleg-
raphy is still in business. It is odd;
but the freaks of mental telegraphy
are usually odd