Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 December 1896 — THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT. [ARTICLE]

THE WASHINGTON MONUMENT.

Interesting Facts About the Tali Shaft of White Marble. The distance at which the monument is visible lias always been a matter of debatable interest with Washington is-ople. Not a train approaches the city, or a boat speeds up or down the Potomac, hut carries a group of people anxious to see at just what <oint they can last see the white marble against tile sky as they depart or first find it as they return. Probably the greatest distance at which the monument is seen is from the summit of the Blue Ridge at Snicker’s Gap, a distance of about forty-three miles in an air line. The elevation there is 2,000 feet above the Potomac. The mountaineers years ago, with their keen eyes trained to long and sharp sight in the mountains, detected the white spot gleaming on the horizon, and they can always quickly determine its place on the horizon line. But to city folks, however, the location of thq white shaft, is nt ail easy matter. Thousands of Washington people every sun nier invade that region as summer boarders, to subsist on .fresh milk and fried chicken, and incidentally in their excursions up on the mountain to get a sight of thr nibnuiuent. On clear days it is distinctly visible, especially to those who are familiar with Its precise location. But it is more easily Iseen a t sunset than at any other hour, as the sharp reflection of the sun’s rays brings out the white surface of the marble. One of the most singular stories that may he told about tin* Washington monument is hardly credible, yet it can Ik? vouched for as perfectly true. There are hundreds of Indies in Washington who wear upon their lints the plumage or tiie entire skin of a bird which lias lost its -life flying against the tall mass of marble in the dimness ot twilight or daylwesik. Every morning one of five watchmen who spends the night iu tiie monument finds about Us 1 inse quite n number of birds who

hare lost their lives in rliis way. This mortality is not Hmiteil to tiny one species, but includes nearly all the bints known in this region. Strange to say. few English sparrows have lost thetr lift's by flying against the uionumcui, but the iMMUtifnl golden tlnches, cedar birds, starlings, tnlingers. grosbeak# anti many others of bright plumage and great rarity have Iren found. The watch mail takts those birds up town to a taxidermist, who stuffs and mounts the rarer specimens, which atv sold for a good round price to collectors, and the skins of those less rare arc prepared for the milliner. Hardly a morning comes that there arc less than n score of (lead birds alkiut the base of tbc shaft. Another queer thing to know about tlte monument is that its height and width vary. It is taller in summer than in winter, and in the latter season its width on the south side is about an inch greater than on the north, east or west side. This is due to expansion under the heat of the sun’s rays. This phenomenon was determined by t'aptfliu Greene during the erection of the shaft. PI limb lines wore hung at each (Miner of tiie marble wall, and the plumb “bobs." or plummets, were suspt tided in pots of glycerine and molasses. Across the top of each (lot was laid a finely graduated steel liar, and three times a day an army engineer “took off” the registration thus made of the expansion of the walls. It was held that the plummets moved precisely with the iHiints nt which the plumb lines were attached to the top of the shaft, and the glycerine held them firmly without vibration or oscillation, so that the officer could note any change of position. All these registrations, twice a day every day of the year, were recorded in a lawk during the seven years flint were occupied lu finishing file liiomimciirt,—Washington Star.