Page:Morley--Travels in Philadelphia.djvu/199

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VALLEY FORGE
183

cathedrals. When the cornerstone was laid in 1903 Doctor Burk had only enough money on hand to pay for two loads of stone; he had only a piece of hemlock board to shelter the copper box that contained the relics to be inclosed in the foundations, and after the ceremony had to smuggle the box back to his home for safe-keeping. Standing in the beautiful little cloister, where the open-air pulpit looks out into the woodland cathedral (with Mount Vernon elms planted in the form of a cross), he says: "If the park were left alone it would be merely a picnic ground. It's the most spiritual spot in America: we must maintain its spiritual heritage."

It is one of the rector's regrets that only one President has ever visited Valley Forge. As one stands in the open-air pulpit looking out through the grove of elms and over the blue and green valley, one wishes that Mr. Wilson might visit the spot. There is no place in America of such peculiar significance just now, there would be no man so quick as Mr. Wilson to catch its spiritual echoes. Even the humblest of us hears secret whispers in the rustle of those trees.