People's Pilot, Volume 5, Number 19, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 October 1895 — MONUMENT IS A SHAM. [ARTICLE]

MONUMENT IS A SHAM.

Pile Erected to the Memory of Lincoln Miiwt !<«• Torn l>« wn. Springfield, 111., Oct. 31.—The Lincoln monument, at Oak Ridge cemetery, which has fcr the past twenty years been admired by thousands of people from all over the world, will have to be torn down. It is too far gone to be repaired, and, besides, its construction is such that it will not admit of repair. Instead of being a substantial pile of solid granite, as external appearances would indicate, it is a rickety structure of brick, veneered over with slabs of granie. This is the verdict of the state trustees, who have charge of the monument. During the last session of the general assembly the historic pile was turned over to the state; $30,000 was appropriated for repairs, and a law passed making the governor, state treasurer, and state superintendent of instruction trustees of the monument, to care for it and make the muchneeded repairs. When the trustees set about to arrange for the repairs they discovered that the magnificent monument erected to the memory of “Honest Old Abe” was a sham and a fraud. What appeared to be huge blocks of granite were nothing but thin slabs laid over brick.