The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1912-06-07
BUILDER Of
Monument
Erected to Washington
Dies SO Years Old.
"reminiscences Which Cling to
Marble Shaft Are Re-
called.

Washington, June 3.-Whcn T,hoqn-
as $. Purctll, the builder of the Wash
inston Monument, SIS foot obeiis<
which eliminates THE buildings Mt the
capital. died few days ago, the nenni-
nences which cling about the marble
shaft were recalled to mind. Purcell
was eighty EIGHT years old and had spent
the greater part of his life in superinten.I-
ing the building of stone ediflces
Every year or two the monument docs
something to draw attention to It, For
instance freak story was circuIated
about the shaft, year ago to the effect
that it's material was rotting This H.
bel gained the most extensive rradence.
Stories were printed by practically every
newspaper In the country and photo
graphs Of decaying blocks were shown. 1t
was claimed by some geologist that the
walls of the monuafent are faIled was
going to bring about the destruction of
the building. He claimed that this FILL
er was rotting and caused the decay of
the outer walls. He went SO far as to
point out the decaying places. There was
a vast deal of newspaper talk about tho
matter but after a while the story was
forgotten, laid on the shelf with all
the other freak tales. The monument
still stands
Then when Charlie Street. baseball
player, wanted to prove how clever he
was at catching the emblem Of
his profession he picked out the Wash
ington Monument as the proper struc-
ture to immortalze his achievement
Street sent confederate to the top
Of the monument, had him toss q base
ball out one of the windows five hun
dred feet in the air. He caught tho
ball and the old monument enjoyed a
short season of publicity.
At a still remoter period somebody
choose the Washington monument s
the only proper medium to test the
truth of the saying that a cat has nine
lives. A feline in the prime CT life was
selected for the test, taken to the top
Of the shaft and dropped from one of the
The cat followed the lines Of
the structure all the way to the ground
On ahshting it got to its ceet, walked
a few steps and laid down and expired
Its back was brokena
These are instances of what sort of
anecdotes the Washington monument js
piling up as adjuncts to the story Of it's
life, and there are older stories which
are nearly ancient enough to be labelled
legands. a.
The obeisk. itssaf. was built in two
sections. A historical society built tho
first part and then ran out of funds.
Work stopped for long time and then
the government appropriated money for
the completion of the shaft Prom the
inside may be seen books of all shapes
and sizes bearing inscriptions dn all Ian
suases, the gifts of foreign nations. or
and individuals.
One of these. about which eEings an in
teresting tale, was donated by the Pope
OF Rome and later lost. This was a trs-
block weighing "a ton or n.ore
which was 10 dave heen dnscrted in
worry prominent place. The stone was
delivered to the monument base and re-
posed there for some time. What became
VI IL Is a mystery. The pope sent no 9th
or block.
So the wealth of legand. tale and anec-
Increases. and probably will increase %
long as the shaft stands.