◆ SpookStack

tof os BU 4M Ba in nb ee Risa A erat Wet Pe ctw Gi ttle * tend ‘ * . Every other man and woman had to achieve supremely in the realm of the mind or the spirit. To be immortal, onc must found a republic, win a war, paint a Sistine Madonna, compose a Parsifal, write a Hamlet, fly over the Poles, dis- cover the law of evolution, or preserve the human voice in wax. We have these particular immortals. 1. is also a curious fact that we have had only two re- fusals when asking for stones. One was from Miss Mabel Choate, who wrate she did not care to contribute a stone from her father’s birthplace in Salem, Massachusetts. ‘Thus Joseph H, Choate, Leader of the American Bar, Ambassador to Great Britain, American Delegate to the First Hague Conference, Prince of After-Dinner Speakers, etc., ete., will not be found by pilgrims visiting our shrine. ‘The other was from the Sceretary of the “Dionne Quintuplet Guardian- ship’, who wrote expressing his regrets that he could not accede to our request, thus explaining his refusal of sending a stone carved with the names of Marie, Emilie, Yvonne, Cecile and Annette. So many women, he said, have come to believe that stones from the hospital grounds are “an aid to fertility”, that there has been a veritable “flood of requests” for these stones, and it has been necessary to make a “rigid rule” that no stones can be sent away. Several of our stones are the only ones I could find on the premises. The Longfellow, Emerson, John Adams and Louisa Alcott stones cannot, I belicve, be duplicated with- ilating the foundations of their homes. gst every stone in our “Walk of Fame” has its ’ Dickens’ stone was a piece of jagged flint I 3 at Gad’s Hill near the wooden cross that the wet great hifmanitarian-novelist erected over the grave of his pet canary bird. The Thomas Gray stone is a piece that fell from the tower of the village church “Where the moping owl to the moon complained”, The Mohammed stone was taken from Mecca at the risk of fine and imprisonment by a sister of one of our foreign exchange students at Rollins. It came from the cave where the Prophet saw his visions. The stone inscribed, “Confucius”, came from the school- house in China where the sage taught his pupils. The Co- lumbus stone was taken from the floor of the very cript in the Havana Cathedral on which the bones of the discoverer 6 | : | ae ar ate + ee ee ee Ee Oe ar RFE a Meh eT. ee ee ee of America rested before they were taken to Spain. The Dedworth stone came from the well in which the “Old Oaken Bucket” hung. The Jupiter stone cane from the top of Mount Olympus where the “blessed” guds dwelt when not off to Ethiopia for a banquet. ‘he Apollo stone came from the cave at Delphi from which the oracle apuke. ‘Ihe Shake- speare stone was from the roof of the shed adjoining his birthplace, and the Milton stone from the kitchen hearth in the pretty “Box” in which the poct composed “Paradise Regained”, We have two Wagner stoncs—one from his home in Munich and one from the mountain chalet across the Swiss Border in Mornex, France, where he wrote the /Walkyrie” and where at another time John Ruskin lived, the Wood- row Wilson stone is actually a front step of his home in Princeton, New Jersey, and one of the George Washington stones is a rectangular piece of flagging from the East Portico of Mt. Vernon, brought over from the sandstone quarries at St. Bees Head on Lord Lonsdale’s estate in Cum- berland, England. The Byrd stone was presented by the Admiral himself and was brought by dog-sled from the moun- tains at the South Pole. The Stephan Foster stone comes from a corner of the Old Kentucky Home, The Jane Addams stone was a part of Hull House. The Buffalo Bill stone was taken from the doorsill of the stable of the Pony Express in St. Joe, Missouri. One Lincoln stone came from the well near the Kentucky log-cabin whed! he was born, The other came from the Illinois village re he courted Ann Rutledge. : Perhaps my most unusual find was the'stone I obtained from the residence of Millard Fillmore. Once on a trip to Buffalo, N. ¥., I called on my Yale classmate, William Olm- stead, and said, “Billy, want to get a stone from the home of Buffalo's greatest citizen except Grover Cleveland. Will you get in your car and take me to President Fillmore’s home so I can obtain a stone for our “Walk of Fame”? ; “It can’t be done”, he replicd, “the house no longer exists. “Do you know where the site of it is?” [ asked. 7 pa aiee g aS ty Pa Nadia CA we de ee the hate: ae Sy at "oe eden hangar