The Mysterious Stone

[L Verge]

I ran across this on a website today and thought I'd pass it on. Anyone know about the truth of this?

About a year after Mr. Johnson became President a stone arrived at the White House in a foreign package (box) and with a label that no person could read. It was receipted for to the express messenger by the mail carrier of the house, who happened to be at the door. The box was opened and the label was taken off for translation and never returned; after awhile the stone, about 300 [pounds] weight, was moved to the front of the cellar stairs in the eastern basement, and then gradually out of the building into a coal shed; no one seemed to know anything about it. It was in fact a stone from the tomb of Servius Tullius at Rome, contributed by the citizens of Rome for the tomb of Abraham Lincoln. The European papers were full of this, and it finally went the rounds of the American papers. No one in the White House, however, knew that the stone so much talked about was the one in the coal shed. A frescoe painter engaged on the East room, having read of this stone in the papers, asked one day where it was; no one knew. He had occasion one day to go to the coal shed, and found the before-mentioned stone and at once surmised that this was the Roman stone. He called the attention of the newspaper men to it, and a dreadful row ensued. President Johnson at once began to investigate. [A. T.] Donn and others were summoned before him, and a searching examination was had; finally the inscription taken off upon its arrival was found, and the stone identified and sent over to the Washington Monument.

My source was this website: http://www.rbhayes.org/hayes/content/fil...811893.htm Very interesting site, but a long one. Lots of good gossip (which the writer says that George Alfred Townsend was famous for). I was amazed to see that Mrs. Hayes was a favorite with both men and women - and that the White House was in desperate need of decorative arts when she inherited it - broken chairs with holes in the upholstery, holes in the carpets that were concealed by furniture placement, etc. Story of Lincoln peeling and eating 3-4 apples in one sitting while on the River Queen - and then eating the peelings.