In the noisy grogshops on the streets leading to the Boston waterfront, in the sail lofts on what is now Commercial Street, and at the tall desks of the counting rooms of State Street, those who got their living from the sea eagerly discussed the progress of the monument in Charlestown. It was to be their beacon, and when the many frigates, packets, sloops, and schooners had safely passed the danger spots of the lower harbor, the monument would welcome them to the busy inner port of Boston, then much livelier than it is today. But progress proved to be slow. Naturally the stones broken from the Quincy ledges and boulders were not always of the dimensions planned by Willard for the lower courses; many were of sizes needed for the upper courses. Economical Willard dressed the stones as they came out; setting aside those which could not be erected for some time; and the piles of such stones grew larger at Quincy and on the ground about the monument, while the monument itself rose at a snail’s pace. A more spectacular progress was needed for a project that was started on a shoestring, and depended on more and still more public contributions. The building fund dwindled to such a low sum that in February, 1829, work had to be suspended for lack of funds to pay the wages of quarrymen, stonecutters, derrickmen, blacksmiths, and teamsters, and the cost of the good hay for the hard-working horses and oxen of the project. But 14 courses had been laid--to a height of 37 feet, 4 inches. The sailors were disappointed, and a poetess said: But where’s the pile they said would rise, Throwing its shadows o’er the wave,-- Lifting its forehead to the skies-- A Beacon far o’er land and sea, Signal and Seal of Liberty. A lottery to secure more building funds was next proposed. It was not unusual to allow lotteries in this period--churches, turnpikes, bridges, and even Harvard College--had received such grants. Public sentiment in Massachusetts, however, was beginning to consider lotteries a vicious practice and the director of the Bunker Hill Monument Association voted against one.