Evening star., 1934-07-29
BY FRANK C. CARPENTER


! be seen for miles away In all of the
country surrounding Washington. 1t
is, however, only when you get close
| to 1t that you appreciate its grandeur
At 500 yards 1t Is a great white shaft
which rises in one solid column from
the ground and seems to rest against
the blue sky at its back. The Potomac
below it almost washes its feet and
it stands guard over the White House,
the Capitol and the National City.
AS you take a step nearer you see
| a great net stretched around the top
and creatures walking on its edge nc
larger than the little midgets that tied
| Gulliver to the earth with strings
| These Lilliputians are. however, full
grown men, and that net is there to
catch them II they lose their balance
1t has already saved many a life,
for the men working on the Monu-
ment often fall into 1t. The stones
of the outside are measured with the
| eve to see whether they be set even
with those below, and in STOPPING over
! to do this one is apt to become dizzy.
| One day a cat was taken to the top
! Of the Monument. She ran all
around and finally jumped off. She
lighted and, for moment, was
| stunned Then, reviving. she ran
away and has not been seen since.
No other animal could have survived
such a fall.
The Monument now weighs nearly
| 100000 tons. 1t is so massive that
1t can hardly be described. The
| stone blocks of which it is built are
as large as an ordinary library table
and its walls are as thick as a good
sized parlor is wide.
Tall Stories.
John McCarty, the correspondent
| of the Baltimore Sun, and Col. Win
tersmith. the red-goateed candidate
for doorkeeper Of the next House,
we're telling stories of their dreams
yesterday afternoon in the Western
Union Telegraph Office in the Capitol,
McCarty had Just finished telling of
a air-breadth escape from the pis-
tol of a burglar when Wintersmith
said:
THE most horrible dream I ever
had was few years ago, when I was
much wilder than I am now. had
been on a spree and it was at the tail
end of it that 1 feel asleep and
dreamed. I thought 1 was a fat, yell
low grain Of corn, and that / was
lying on the ground in my fathers
barnyard, just on the edge of an old
plank, when a big Shanghai rooster
came strutting up and stood few
| feet away. I feared he would see me
and wished I was not so fat.
prayed that the plank would move
nearer me or that the wind would
come and blow me under it. I seemed
to have full idea of my situation
| but to know that 1 was grain of
corn and that could not move. Just
then, to add to my horror, Negro
boy appeared behind the rooster and
began to shoe him toward me. ]
prayed more earnestly. Just as the
great bird was STOPPING over to eat
me the wind came and blew me out
| of his reach. At this woke up and
| found that had rolled half out of bed
and that I was in a profuse perspira-
ton. That dream has had such an
effect upon me that 1 abhor corn to
! this day. I cannot eat roasting ears
and I have never since that time
taken a drink"
Sunset" Cox usually stops at the
| Riggs House, but this time he is at
Wizards. Carlisle is at the Riggs and
Cox does not want to be too close to
| him. Cox is running his campaign
for the speakership very cautiously
| and, though he talks a great deal, he
! is careful not to commit himself to
anything that will injure his chances
He is no longer looked upon as a mere
| fictitious candidate and there is q
prospect t4at he may be elected.
The Declaration of Independence.
Few people know that the original
Declaration Of Independence is kept
in the library of the State Depart
ment. 1t is in a cherry case and
under glass. But the doors are thrown
open all day long and strong rays OF
light are eating up is ink day by day
/ The Constitution is, you know, written
on parchment. The text of 1t is in a
/ hand as fine as copper plate and the
| ink on this part can still be plainly
read. The signatures, however. are
written in a different ink and they
are very fast disappearing under the
| action of the light. The bold sigma
| ture of John A. Hancock is faded al
most entirely out. Only a ] h and
an H remains. Two lines of names
are entirely removed from the paper;
not a veStige of ink remains to show
that the names were ever there. Ben
| Franklin's name is entirely gone.
Roger Sherman's name is fast fad
ing. I could not find the name of
Thomas Jefferson. and Elbridge Gerry
has lost its last syllable. Robert Nor
ris. Benjamin Rush. Charles Carroll
and John Adams have been secured
of by the light. and only IL names Of
the 50-odd can be read without a
microscope.
Just below the Constitution lies the
original of it in Jefferson's handwrit-
! ing. 1t is on foolscap paper yellow
with age and worn through where the
manuscript has been folded. The
writing is fine and close and the
whole Constitution occupies but two
pages. The ink is good and it re-
mains as fresh as when it left the
quill of Jefferson over 100 years ago.
1t is full of erasures and interlinea-
tions, some of which are in Frankllnss
handwriting and others in the strong
script Of John Adams. These show
but little change, however. from the
| Declaration as adopted by the people.