Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1905-08-11
A MONUMENT 10 ADAM.
Started "a Joke, Twain's Scheme
barely Missed Realization.

Started "a Joke, Twain's scheme
Barely Missed Realization.
Some one has revealed to the Tribune
that once suggested TO the Rev.
Thomas X. Beecher OF Elmira, n. Y,
that we get up a monument to Adam
and that Mr.. Beeeher favored the prof.
ect. There is more to II than that.
The matter started as joke, but It
came somewhat near to materializing
1t is long ago-thirty years. Mr.. Oar
wins Descent OF Man" had been In
print five or six years, and the Storm
OF Indignation raised by IL was still
raging in pulpits and periodicals. In
tracing the genesis of the human race
back to its 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.. Beecher
and other friends in Elmira. said
there seemed to be a likelihood that
the world would discard Adam and
accept the monkey and that in the
course OF time Adams very name
would be forgotten in the earth; there
fore this calamity ought to be averted.
a AhOAOLA<h( WOulO dCCOlnpliSu Anlh,
and Elmira ought not to waste this
honorable opportunity to do Adam a
favor and herself 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 advan-
tages for the town. The project had
seemed gently humorous before. 1t
was more than that now, with this
stern business gravity injected into It,
The bankers discussed the monument
with me. We met several times. They
proposed an indestructible memorial,
to cost $4,000. The insane oddly of
monument set up In a village to pre-
serve n name that would outlast the
hills and the rocks without any such
help would advertise ElmIra to the
ends of the earth-and draw custom.
1t would be the only monument on the
planet to Adam and In the matter of
interest and impressiveness could
never have a rival until somebody
should set up monument to the Milky
Way.
People would come from every cor
ner of the globe and stop or to look at
II; no tour Of the world would be COM
plete that left out Adams monument
Elmira would be a Mecca. There
would be pilgrim ships, at pilgrim
rates; pilgrim specials on the CONT
nents railways, libraries would be
written about the monument, every
tourist would kodak IL, models OF IL
would be for sale everywhere on the
earth. and Its form would become as
familiar as the figure of Napoleon.
One OF the bankers subscribed So, 600.
and think the other one subscribed
half as much, but l do not remember
with certainty now whether that was
the figure or not. We got designs
made. Some OF them came from
Paris.
In the beginning-as q detail of the
project when II was as yet n joke-I
had framed humble and beseechIng
and perfervid petition to congress
begging the government to build the
monument as testimony OF the great
republics gratitude to the father Of
the human race and as a token OF her
loyalty to him in this dark day OF his
humiliation when his older children
were doubling him and deserving him.
1t seemed TO me that this petition
ought to be presented now. 1t would
be widely and feelingly abused and
ridiculed and cursed and would adj
vertise our scheme and make our
ground door stock so or briskIy. So I
sent II to General Joseph II. Hawley.
who was then in the house, and he
said he would present 1t. But he did
not do 1t. I think he explained that
when he came TO read it he was afraid
OF IT, 1t was too serious. too gushy.
too sentimental-the house might take
1t for earnest.
We ought to have carried out our
monument scheme. We could have
managed II without any great diff
Guilty. and Elmira would now be the
most celebrated town in the universe.
Mark Twain I'm Harper's weafiv