The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-07-08
VANDALISM IN THE
 UNITED STATES IncaIcuIabIe Damage Wrought
 By Relic Hunters
VISITORS ROOMS LO0TED
Girls Bottled Water in Which Pade- rewsk Washed His Hands. Historic Old Churches
 Badly Defaced.
BY FREDERIC J. HAsKlN.


 venirs they may afford him and his friends. For him some crumbling old church means not so much a monument to the past that must be preserved, but Is merely a bit of antiquity that has ac- commodatingly disintegrated in order that he may be able to bear away a brick or stone to be exhibited to the folks back home. The shining white expanse of some new wall or monument was not left 50, in his estimation, because such a finish was necessary to art, but because it would furnish such nice place for the inserip- ton of tourists names in lead pencil, with many fourishes and with the accompani- ment of inane rhymes
 The Palisades of the Hudson, rich In amethyst and opal tints that brought forth praise from Henry Hudson and his men, became to the fourth or fifth gen eration gigantic sign board whereon might be inscribed the virtues of pills and powders. The women of the later nine teenth and early twentieth century res cued them from further vandalism. The Cliff Dwellers in Casa Grande Canyon, Ariz., have been injured in some in- stances beyond restoration by tourists,
 
 picture of the ruins in their mind, took bits of stone from the lintels of the doors until the original idea of architecture so valuable to archaeologists, has been lost. In Yellowstone park the government fin- ally had to take a hand in matters. and make 1t a law that the incrustatons from the sides of the geysers be not removed, and that no writing be left on the stones. The walls of the Devils Kitchen have been inscribed with names of insignificant beings from all over the United States. Every national park, every park enclos- ing historic spot, and many other en- closures throughout the country bear sign boards naming a penalty for break ing twigs, pulling flowers or removing stones or pebbles as souvenirs.
 Even the sepulchers of great men are not spared. It is said that one reason that hastened the removal of Washing tons body from the old to the newer tomb at Mount Vernon, was that some one broke into the vault and removed a skull from one of the coffins, believing it to be that of the great statesman As 1t happened, 1t was the skull of some mem Der of the Blackburn family, but the ghoulish act proved the necessity for further safe guarding the remains of Washington. Even after they had been placed in the present vault another in- vader climbed over the iron gate, now the inner gate, and removed a large portion of the stone from one of the sarcophagi. This caused the building of the outer gate with It's arched top that effectually ex- cludes adventurers. The tomb of Robert Carter of Corotoman, the famous King Carter of the Rappahannock plantations has been sadly mutilated by relic hunt CTS, and ten years ago curio house in Richmond showed, in all good faith, the alleged skull of Powhatan
 The body of Helen Hunt Jackson, buried at her request on the side of Cheyenne Canyon, in Colorado, had finally to be removed to Denver to preserve 1t from the desecration of enthusiastic and ad- miring pilgrims. Each visitor carried away a pebble from the grave believing it to be one of those that had laid upon the silent heart since the interment. AS matter of fact the enterprising keeper of the grounds had to dump many wagon load of gravel on the grave to replace the stones removed and to supply curlos for coming pilgrims. At the head of the canyon there long bloomed an odd tree. At a distance 1t had the appearance If being rich in white flowers, but nearer view showed 1t to be a cedar whose spikes were thickly set with the white cards of visitors from far and near. This, li9e the over-written and defaced walls of the
 
 our school days: Fools name like their faces are always found in public places'
 In the early history of the Luray Cave, in Virginia, men pointed with the pride of the student to the skeleton f some prehistoric man that was firmly held and mortified In the stalactites. In some far distant age, mayhap in the very dawn of the world, this man had died. his corpse had been laid in the recesses Of the cavern, and the dripping of the lime water throughout countless centuries had covered 1t In a half translucent substance until history was rich in unique page that few could read. But the souvenir collector got in his deadly work. The preservation of this treasure as na- tionai spectacle was as nothing to hts acouisition of a bit of it, so inch by inch. piece by piece, the great curiosity was borne away, until by 1878 1t was al- most gone and few years later people had forgotten 1t was ever there.
 The recent footing of the rooms of the Duke of AbruzZi when his ship was an chored off Jamestown shows to what ex- tremes crazy souvenir hunters Will some- times go. The word crazy is not too strong to be applied to people who will take such liberties when stricken by the relic hunting fever. When the present King of England came to this country as the Prince of Wales nearly fifty years ago. and stopped at the old New York Hotel. near Washington Square, in Man haitian. a bevy of girls hung outside hls rooms and he was hardly down the cor ridor before they invaded the apartments and bottled the water in which he had washed the princey hands and face. They also cut up his towels into conven- lent bits and carried them away. When Paderewsk first played here some col lege girls entered his dressing room and bottled the hot water he had dipped his hands in to rest them after his concert. Who will dispute the statement that such behavior is idiotc? Young people who conduct themselves in such manner not only reflect discredit upon their bringing up, but cause foreigners to believe that Americans are race of fools. The guards who stood day and night on watch around the cell of Jefferson Davis at Fortress Monroe took his pipe, towels, spoons. knives and forks to send back home to wives and sweethearts as souvenirs from the person of the nations captive. Historiographers must base the authen- tic histories of the land upon the orig inal documents, manuscripts and personal writings of its great men, yet as na- ton we are as careless in the matter of preserving such papers as we are about preserving landmarks and old buildings. When Washington died. the relative to whom he willed all his manuscripts gave bits here and there to friends of the late general, and even sold a large portion to an English collector. The latter was repurchased. however, by indignanT Bos- k.xx rfft nd fop hQ n