The New York Times, July 5, 1905. PAGE NUMBER 5
NO TOM PAINE CEREMONY.
Admirers of the Athiest Were Disappointed at New Rochelle.
Special to The New York Times.
NEW ROCHELLE, N. Y., July 4.
Although Independence Day had been decided upon for the rededication of the Thomas Paine Monument, the Mayor and other public officials were out of town and the ceremony was postponed. The exercises were to have been in charge of Capt. George W. Lloyd, who has served as guardian of the monument for forty years.
The city of New Rochelle recently moved the monument of Paine to a new site and built an iron fence around it. Preparations were made for a ceremony to mark the transfer of the monument to the city. Capt. Lloyd, owing to his extreme age, was to resign as custodian and turn the monument over to the city, but at the last moment opposition developed among the taxpayers, particularly those who are church members. Capt. Lloyd says all of the arrangements had been completed for the celebration when Mayor Clarke told him Thursday that he was obliged to be absent from New Rochelle on the Fourth and had designated Alderman Steele to represent the city. When Capt. Lloyd went to see Steele he was told the city did not consider the plot finished and that the ceremony would be postponed. Hundreds of people who came to New Rochelle today expecting to see the monument formally accepted were disappointed.