RAN A GERUMP SAYS 



317 



wondering why so much money had 

 been put into it and "nothing doing." 

 Mr. Sinclair is so busy looking after 

 the details of the hotel that he is not 

 an especially approachable man and 

 nobody was taken into his confidence 

 until at the end of about two years 

 when while talking with one of his 

 prominent Catholic guests he said, 

 "What is the trouble with the Catholic 

 Church anyway? Isn't there anybody 

 in it that wants good board and good 

 money? Here I built the best Catholic 

 Church there is in Indiana and have 

 liberally advertised everywhere for a 

 man to run it and not a man has ap- 

 plied. Now that was not so when I 

 built my race track or my bowling al- 

 ley or my garage. I can get anything 

 •else but I cannot get anybody to run 

 that church thing." 



Said the guest, "Do you not under- 

 stand that all Catholic priests are on 

 .assignment and that the Bishop will 

 not assign a priest to a church that is 

 not owned by the diocese?" 



This quiet remark brought the em- 

 phatic Sinclair bounding to his feet. 

 *'Why didn't somebody tell me the 

 Catholic Church wanted me to give it 

 another church? Make out the papers 

 at once and I will turn the whole thing 

 over to them, land and all." 



In the words of the novelist, they 

 lived happily ever after. A faithful 

 and devoted priest offers the Holy 

 Sacrifice regularly in this beautiful 

 church, the Mecca of thousands of 

 pilgrims that seek rest for soul and 

 body at this wonderful hotel. 



At each inquiry I said, "How was it r 

 Tell me." 



"When Jefferson had charge of the 

 building of the University he came 

 home one night after having imbibed 

 pretty freely, as everybody did in those 

 days, and as lie made uncertain prog- 

 ress across the fields, he decided to se- 

 lect a place for a new wall, and here 

 it is. It shows where he walked that 

 niefht, and how he did it." 



Jefferson's Crooked Brick Wall. 



I recently obtained at the University 

 of Virginia photographs of the side 

 and of an unusual top view (which I 

 •obtained with some difficulty) of the 

 crooked brick wall constructed under 

 the direct supervision of Thomas Jef- 

 ferson. This wall has stood for dec- 

 ades, yet it is apparently frag'ile, as it 

 is only one brick in thickness, but on 

 account of the peculiar construction it 

 stands firm, the curves having, of 

 course, been made to increase the sta- 

 bility. More than a dozen times while 

 I was at the University I heard the 

 story of that wall somewhat as fol- 

 lows : 



"Yon know how that wall came to 

 be built, don't you?" 



JEFFERSON'S CROOKED BRICK WALL. 



It is safe to say that this story must 

 have been repeated thousands of times. 

 The university is big, many students 

 are there every year, a summer school, 

 of twelve hundred teachers and many 

 visitors, meets there. Every one hears 

 the story, carries it away, repeats it 

 to his friends and they to theirs. I 

 gratified many an interlocutor by 

 feigning ignorance of the fiction, and 

 had my reward in observing the 

 changes in each succeeding version. 

 Like a translation made by two per- 

 sons, the stories agreed in matter, but 

 differed widely in style and diction. 

 Yet all were sure that Thomas Jeffer- 

 son that night had had a little too 

 much of "the critter," and walked ac- 

 cording!}. The weak points in the 

 yarn are obvious. They need not be 

 pointed out. 



