Evening Star Newspaper, July 23, 1922, Page 49

FICTION l ' : ~ MAGAZINE SECTION Sundly Star, FEATURES ! Part 4—8 Pages AY JAMES A. BUCHANAN. CCORDING to mythology. Ar- gus, Juno's watchman, had one hundred eyes. It would, however, take a goodly num- ber of watchmen, similarly equipped with one hundred eyes each, to gaze wpon the throngs that pass through the gates of the Union statlon, for 4n the course of a vear 5,000 per- sons pass in from and out to trains. It can be safely estimated that each mrriving or departing passenger is met by or takes leave of a friend, so 1t will be seen that more than 15. 090,000 people pass through the por- tals of the beautiful edifice. owned @nd operated by the Washington Ter- minal Company The Union station younced by travelers to be the most heautiful edifice of its character in the world. It is praised as a fitting building the capital of a great pation. The Washington Termi proper- 1ies cover an area of twenty-five to thirty acres. and in order that one| yuay fully comprehend just what this he will find, by following the has been pro- for tracks, platforms, etc., that he has veled a goodly distance in the 1ime it takes to traverse the holdings of the owners of the Union station Broper. building was formally opened November 17. 1907, and. while exact the cost fizures are not obtainable, was in the neighbothood of $22.000.- won, and there is little doubt that one may, with safety, add at least $3.000.- Wi to this estimate | - * K ! 5~ l.\ front of the station is that beauti- ful art group, the central figure of | which represents Christopher Colum- hus. At the bottom of the group is fountain, where, on extra warm | days. children swim and otherwise | disport themselves in the cooling waters. In front of the station also are large grass plots and the very brilliant greens form a beautiful con- trast to the whiteness of the strus ture. Loops. on which the street cars of different lines run. are so placed | that the arriving visitor may be taken | o the point of the city he desires to visit. while the man or woman about to depart from Washington may #light at his local journe end andJ Fioceed directly to the station gate \t the western end of the building three runways devoted to motor | On the one nearest the building cars. i1self are the taxicabs having their hooking offices in one part of the station. The two others are used by ther taxicabs and private convey- es. All of these runways are cov- od. o that the passenger is not ex- ©d to the elements from the time /4 caves the auto door until he has cred the Wtation, purchased his % cket and is ready to board his train. At that end of the building 'the | entrance lcads to the ticket offices. where one may purchase transporta- | tion either to a town located, per- | haps, in the most southern part of the country, or to San Francisco, or to the very last town in the woods of Maine. He may also secure al ticket that will carry him to a point in Canada on the north or Mexico on the south. To the left of this \..nzrance is the baggage-checking room, and through this and the rooms on the lower floor 2,120,000 pleces of baggage are handled each year. Just heyond the upper baggage room are the offices of the Pullman Company, \where racks and racks of diagrams stored for the day's use, and it | must be said as a matter of mere | justice that officials at the Pullman Company's offices, as well as those at the ticket windows, are more courte- | ous than they are in many other cities throughout the country. * ok k¥ ING on toward the great vault- ) 1 ed main room, you are confront- e by the bureau of information. and at this booth the approximate number «of people handled is fotaled at 1.600,- @00 a year. To the left are numerous 1+lephone booths, so that the business man may give final instructions to jiis office force before leaving the city. or an arriving passenger may phone to friends that he or she has in the city and will meet at the station or go to their | There are telegraph booths where one may have a message sent. “here is also a newsstand and a place Where souvenirs are sold A few steps beyond is that part of the lunchroom where one may obtain either a hurried bite or a full meal. This place is equipped with stools. Through the archway you enter the main dining room, where one may dine in great comfort if time permits. That the appetite of the American traveling pubiic has not failed can hest be understood by the fact that more than 7.300,000 checks for meals e turned in to the cashiers each r merging from this room. to the right you find a large stand where -mpting fruits are displayed. Near- hy is the ladies' restroom, where the tired mother may recline on an easy couch while courteous attendants look after her offspring. Then comes the drug store. Next are great vaulted hes which mark the entrances of this colossal structure. There is also a4 newsstand, a place where one may huy trinkets of various sorts; beyond ix another drug store, with a tobacco shop, and farther on the smoking and wash room for men, where the mas- culine traveler may. enjoy a pipe or cigar while waiting for his train, or 1he incoming tourist may remove the soot and grime of a long day’s jour- ney. He may also secure the services expert tonsorialists, “may be ved, have his hair cut, his face massaged, his nails manicured, or, in fact, secure any of those restful attentions that rejuvenate one. In the same passageway that con- tains the information bureau is the #looth where assistance is given by ihe Travelers Aild Society. In the _ purse of a year this organization has {'cxtended a helping hand to numbers| iy f men, women and children. It has 1ecn the direct means of saving many ‘@oung women from falling into the arrived them home. i that | twenty-four howrs of the day and night, Unending Stream o hands of evildoers and has been the means of uniting families that be- came separated upon their arrival in the city., It has obtained shelter for many young women upon their arri- val for the first time in Washington, and in many other ways has been of incalculable benefit to the traveling public. Between 2,000 and 2,500 persons receive assistance each month. Those who, in the past, have given to the fund that made this work possible were contributing to civie betterment. * % kX% HOSE in charge of the bureau of information are helprul to the trav- eling public. The clerks at that bureau have varied and interesting experiences. some of which are of a humorous nature. Some time ago | man came up and asked if it would be possible to have the railroad re- fuse to sell a person a ticket. Upon being informed that any one in a nor- mal condition could secure passage on a train by tendering the proper | amount of money he appeared cha- | grined, explaining, after some hesi- tation, that his wife had received a letter from her mother saying that she was going to visit them, and he was anxious that the house be free of mother-in-law tbis summer. Another individual breezed up the other day and wanted to know if the rule that formerly obtained, namely. to give ministers a reduced rate, was still in force. When he was informed as to the status of the matter—that a certificate and other forms had to be complied with—he broke forth WASHINGTON, D. C., SUNDAY MORNING, JULY 23, 1922. ! pL AT AN AT, AT, € TADATI A AT AT DDA DD DA A O with an exclamation that was hardly in keeping with his supposed calling, adding that it was a blankety-blank | condition of affairs when a minister had to prove that he was a parson. Another person wanted to know if his two children could travel on a | half-ticket, explaining that the chil- dren were twins and he thought he should be given this concession. That the country has not gone and is not going to the demnition bow- wows is best illustrated by the fact that the Pullmafi Company is still doing business at the same old stand and that the American traveling public still desires either to ride in parlor cars or sleep in berths. During the last year the approximate number of seats and bertks sold at the station was 380.000. * ¥ % ¥ N order to accommodate the millions of travelers that come and go from Washington an army of baggage hand- lers is absolutely essential, as the 2.120.- 000 pieces of baggage handled every year are exclusive of hand baggage, which is carried from the train fur pas- sengcrs by “red caps.” Owing to ihe improved system employed at the Union station, very few pieces of baggage arr ever lost, and when one takes into con- sideration the great volume of business is transacted every one of the it is truly remarkable in how short a space of time after your train has ar- rved you can prewmnt your check at the lower floor and secure your trunks, | suit cases. or other articles that you checked. The employes of the Washington Ter- minal not only handle these millions of pleces of baggage each year, but the amount of mail matter that passes through the Union station every twelve months amounts to 333,000 tons, or 660.- 000,000 pounds, taking the short ton as the basis of measurement. The Ameri- can citizen is a great readcr of news- papers, and the amount handled every year at the Union station runs nearly to 4,500,000 pounds. Let us take for a moment that article of food, milk, So essential to mankind, and we will find that 9,000,000 gallons of milk pass through the Union station every year. N The great American public, ever on the go and always in a hurry, sends toris and tons of matter by express, and one may get some sort of idea of the magnitude of this business when he learns that 200 cars of express matter constitute the average daily portion. While in a statistical mood it might be well to glance for a moment at the number of trips of taxicabs from the Union station—that is,—the number of trips of which a record is kept. the to- tal of which is 270,000, These figures do not include, of course, fares secured by independent taxicabs. hackers or the trips made by private conveyances. * ok ok K ~HE reader will, no doubt, be sur- prised when he learns that the number of trains handled in and out each twenty-four hours is 254 and the total number of engines and cars handled in and out of the Washing- ton terminal each vear in round fig- ures is. 700.000. The average length of a passenger car being seventy feet, it is merely a question of mental arithmetic to find that there are 49,- 000,000 feet of cars and engines go- ing in and out of Washington each vear. All of the figures that have been given are based not on during-the 1SS HOWARD WEEDEN, the now celebrated Huntsville, Ala., writer, had the peculiar advantage of possessing two highly developed talents, which is something unusdal. Such dual ac- complishments in literary history are rare. Dante Gabriel Rossetti was famous as & painter and also left his claim to literary fame in his im- mortal poem, “The Blessed Damo selle.” Douptless Miss Weeden's fame will rest chiefly upon her work as an artist—for her portrayal of the old- time negro face has no serious com- petitor in thé fleld of art. Much of her success in the painting of negro faces was aided by the fact that she had known and studied the antebel- lum negro so closely that she knew every mood, peculiarity and emotion 50 well that she put into the picture of each face the very spirit of the negro soul. Others have attempted this facial delineation, but these ef- forts have been dismal. failures be- side the superb work of Miss Weeden. * X K % . MISS ‘WEEDEN, the poet, is the sub- Ject of this sketch. The poet and the artist work from different angles. The latter reproduces a face, & landscape. a marine, something which already exists, and the artist’s ability is shown in the faithfulness of the Teproduction. With the poet it is different. There is no priginal \ war period. but on normal times, and were supplied by officials of the rail- roads controlling the Washington ter- minal, from official records. If the reader is still in a statistical mood. he may reduce the 111,592 square feet area of the station con- course and find just how many aver- age building lots it contains or how many suits of clothes could be made from cloth necessary to cover this space. In order properly to handle the vast throngs that come in every few min- utes to the station. it is necessary that all the latest improved safety devices be employed in the yards out- side the station proper. We find that this safety system is operated through the medium of three interlocking towers and that the total number of levers and machines at these three towers is 320. In order that each part of the many divisions of work performed at the fon station may be accomplished from which to copy. The poet's work must be the outgrowth of his own mind. It is creative and, therfeore, the highest of all art. Because of necesgity, it must be original. For instance, take these lines from “Eventide,”” and what a picture of child- hood glory it opens to the vision of those who are old enough to under- stand: A child all wearied with its day Of laughter, tears and play, 15 gathered, "guinst its will to rest At eve on mammy’s breast. She bends above him, dark and calm, And tender as a psalm She lays a long kiss on his lips, Till in that soft eclipse He melts away to sweet release And sleeps in smiling peace. * ok kK “,-hozvzn has lived ona Southern plantation has listened to the ex- quisite melody of negro singing in the late afternoon. None except those who have listened can undérstand how the old-time negro soul went out in his song. “A Plantation Hymn,” therefore, stands out as an idyl of the past and will live so long as southern literature survives: Far down the west still glows the light Though elsewhere it Is night; The flelds are quiet as the stars, Save some one at the bars - Whose full soul quivering to the brim Flows over in a hymn, ~ Which sends its strangely. solemn tide Of hallenjabs wide, Wide across the felds and up As to the farthest\star; far | l with smoothness and dispatch. it is necessary that a large number of persons be employed. There are ap- proximately 2.500 persons on the pay rol! of the Washington Terminal Company. They are under the direct supervision of J. H. Tonge, who has his offices in the upper part of the station, that portion devoted to the different executive branches. Supt. Tonge looks and acts like a man who is capable eof directing the work of a large machine. He is smooth-faced, his eyes are keen, he has short grayish hair and a figure is that radiates force, and if it humanly possible to keep up the ex cellent reputation that the Union station enjoys In railroad circles, Tonge is going to see that that high position is maintained. * ok kX O.V the third and fourth floors of the station building the Terminal Railroad Y. M. C. A. has it quar- ‘Famous American Sonvgs and Their Origin. THI1 all the southern night is bloom With song and star-sown gloom— And fancy hears the advent roll Through that old negro’s soul. In the old days—in the days of tie Howard Weeden characters—the banjo was a vital part of negro life. Looking backward tarough the years one can-re- call the moonlight nights at the quar- ters—and hear the banjo music coming up through the stiliness like some mys- tic Aeolian melody. There was a charm about that stringed instrument which gripped the negro soul—and, somehow, he made wonderful' melody without) 1t is this which teacher or training. “Banjo Song” so maies Miss Weeden' very true to life: 1 plays de banjo better now Dan him dat taught me, do. Because he plays for all de worl® And T just plays for you. He learns his chunes—I jest lets down A banjo string or two . Into the deepest of my heart An’ draws up chunes for you! Slowly day comes a-swinging up ‘A-quivering through and through; THll wid a rush of tingling motes hes light—and you! Dey reaches light—ang AmNG with this inherent 'love of music, which gave to the negro character a ' special charm, Misa Weeden thoroughly understood that other characteristic, the love of idle- ness, a carefree disposition ‘which possessed the souls of these particu- lar people. Im her last book, “Songs of the Ol4 South,” she has drawn a picture illustral gn; this phase. - of N 3 Through Portals of Union Station in Course of Year—Most Beautiful Edifice ofg g Its Kind in World, Cost About $25.000,000—Artistic Surroundings Combined With ¢ ¢ Every Possible Convenience—Washngton Terminal Properties Cover Twenty-five g 2to Thirty Acres—Valuable Assistance Given to Strangers—Army of Baggageg ogflandlers Employed and Hundreds of Workers Contribute to Neatness and Cleanness. DSOS 13\ T Za N f/ ters. Sleeping accommodations every twenty-four hours are furnished to about 250 persons. Besides these dormitories, there are réading rooms and recreation rooms, and in the lat- ter are pool and billiard tables and other forms of amusement. For those who feel the need of systematic exer- cise there is a gymnasium connected with the Railroad Y. M. C. A. on the fourth floor. It contains 10,241 square feet and is located in the west half of th€ floor. The average passenger does not appreciate just how many things are necéssary to make a successful union station. He does not appreciate the magnitude of the undertaking, be- .cause he never has stopped to think of the different elements contained therein. For instance, steam must be provided. not only to heat the vast main waiting room and offices, gym- nasium, dining and lunch rooms, bag- gage room and a dozen or so odd negro life, which is so true in every detail that it will live as a classic. It i called “Dancing in the Sun.” A small brown, ragged, shadowy bor, A-silbouette of fun, And a shadow as ragged and slim as himself A-Cemcing in the sus: 1t'is hard te tell the shadows apart o into each wher. they tun, As dark and:elusive Ny meit and they whirl And miz—as they dance ® the sun. matter what falls to the rest of the world, N6:matter what's done or undone; 8o the day be idle and loag enough For dancing in the sun. Naturally she lived much in the past, as both her pictures and her poems bear testimony. One of the last things she wrote, lines not appearing in any of her books, was this retro- spect of the “long 2g0.” Here's hope for nobler things, » . If such the future brings; But, O, here's love for everything That long ago took wing. That was the spirit of Howard Weeden and her work—a glorious heritage growing out of her love .of the past and its wonderful traditions. Sbe has gone—like a rose of yester- day—but. the influence of her work, with brush and pen, will live in the hearts of her people far down the coming years. She has gone—like = spirit that came with, a .sweet benediction—yet neither time nor oblivion can ever destroy the impress she left upon the 4{literary and artistic histery of the ]Douth and the nation as well. _ N places, but also that may be heated during the winter months, before the trains pull out for their destination, so that a pas- senger who takes a train leaving at midnight or later may enter the sleeping car at 10 p.m. and enjoy the comforts of a thoroughly warm car. Dozens of steam pipes run out in the sheds and may be coupled up at different points to the waiting trains. Power plants must also be kept. in order that the system of lighting may not suffer by reason of a break- down. There must be power for re- frigeration, because not only does the sleepers f Travelers Uses City’s Beautiful Gateway AT DT DT DT ST S ST DSOS T TS ST ST OSSOSO Fifteen Million Persons, Including Passengers on Trains and Their Friends, Passg Union station is much more than just a railroad terminal. In the Union station there is some- thing to be found which you seldom see in any other part of the world. and that is the private entrance with suite set apart for the use of the head 6f the nation. This is also used as & reception hall for visiting dignitaries from foreign lands. Many Washingtonians have pointed with pride to the beautiful structure that we call the Union station. Many more will .do 30 If they take the trouble some day to study its beauties and advantages. If the reader has'not as vet had his vearning for figures satisfied. let us figure out the size of a pirade that the 7,796,000 passengers would make it placed in single file, allowing three feet from back to back of each indi- vidual. The procession would be more than 4,238 miles 1ong, @ human ribbon that would stretch from Washington to San Francisco and far out into the cific ocean. Curious and Ingenious Clock Construction I.\' the case of clocks of precsion used by astronomers and physi- cists, some interesting and Ingenious applications have been made of nicke! steel and of electro-magnetic induc- tion for the maintenance and regis- tration of oscillations. The employment of “inv which 8436 per cent nickel-steel, the ex- pansion of which may easily be made lower than one-fifteenth that of steel has rendered easier and more exac the compensation for variations in the length of the pendulum, due to temperature. This compensatien is obtained simply by the upward ex- pansion of the steel bob, which ix attached to the stem by its lower edge. Such a clock s placed in a case al constant pressure and in a place wheré the temperature varies little— varies oniy by an insignificant frac- tion of a second each day. Unfortu- nately, the devices for maintainink and registering the motion introduce perturbations. owing to the necessary friction, which, feeble though the: the restaurant need ice. but the cars must be thoroughly iced in summer | before a coach or sleeper leaves the station. There is an i¢e manufactur- ing plant that has a capacity of forty tons every twenty-four hours. Air must be provided for the oper- ation of the electro-pneumatic l switches and all of these power plants must function not merely a few hours each day, but they must be, constantly working ever$ minute of each twenty-four hours. Now and then a householder Washington may judge that His water bill is slightly excessive. He i may consider himself most fortunate in not having to pay annually the water rent of the Washington termi- nal, whieh, in round figures, is $75. When it comes to a matter ‘of the Union station writes” a check, in round figures, . for, in * ok % ¥ 000. taxes vearly $100,000. THE average housckeeper some- times bemoans the fact that it is necessary for her to keep neat and clean an apartment or a home. Let her contrast for a moment the mag- nitude of the undertaking of keeping spotlessly clean the vast structure known as the Union station, to say nothing of seeing that each car is as neat as a new pin before the train pulls out. Let her consider the fill- ing and trimming of countless lamps and lanterns; let her stop and figure Gut the number of brooms and mops, that are used every day, and then perhaps she will appreciate that, even with a large force of charwomen and car clean- ers, keeping the Union station and the cars clean’' is no small under- taking. Washington possesses another ad- vantage, and that is the manner in which the departure of trains is an- nounced. Information giving the num- ber of the traln, points at which it stops, the time of departure and the |number of the track is thrown on a cakes of soap. etc., slide so that all may read. This is a vast improvement over the old sys. tem, still in vogue in many cities, where an’announcer attempts to give the public the information it desires. The average train announcer in other towns has a language that sounds like a Hottentot, with a mouth full of hot mush, trying to sing the old Russian anthem. Another fact that impresses one is the lack of hurry or confusion at any {tion altogether ana thus |80 mark off the hours on the equato- irial band by means of a locomotiv !which, by the w may be, are irregular and cause the¢ length of the oscillation to vary. An attempt has been made. thougii |for some time with little success, 19 | s use electricity to actuate or connel hese various mechanisms. In gen- eral, the device used was an electro- magnet, which, being excited at efch oscillation, returned to the ciock, either directly or mot, its lost energy. For this it was necessary t§ make contact with the clock itself, ang this gave rige to Triction. . This has been shown -in 3 xery curious way by plac- ing in the circuit a telephone 1n which the noise of the contact could be clearly recognized. Now. how- ever, by very delicate special devices it has been possible to abolish fric- to obtain clocks that keep time to about one- tenth second a d Th best tem, it is thought, is thay devised by Fery, which is said to do nway aito- gether with any material gonnection with the pendulum, except, of course, the suspension, for which a thin, flat piece ‘of flexible metal is used. The stem is of “invar’ and supports & horizontal horseshoe magnet, as weil as an additional mass serving for regulation. At each oscillation one of the branches of the magnet enters a bobbin connected with a battery. while the other enters a copper ring | suspended by a wire and constituting a pendulum of the same period of oscillation. The ring is carried along by the magnet by the action of the currents induced in it by the latter, but is always a quarter of an oscil- lation behind it. This second pendu- lum makes the contact closing the cir- cuit between the battery and the bob- bin that attracts the magnet. This clock starts as s00n as the bat- tery circuit is closed and assumes. without regulation, a steadiness ol oscillation that seems never to have been reached before. “The school clock” made by M. Poitel of Grenoble constitutes a par- ticularly attractive one for the shon window. It is made to represent the old type of schoolmaster, who, with ing and chastisement. is instrueting an urchin in what appears to be & sum in arithmetic, but the figures really represent the hours, to which the teacher automatically points ax the movement impels his arm to in- dicate the passage of time, “La mappenmonde” (the map of the world) is the name of another in- genlous mechanical device, the inven- tion of & clockmaker of Bethune. The movement is in the interior of the globe and causes it to revolve and . has a separate mechanism of its own whereby, It the globe is made stationary, it may make a circuit on its own rails of the equator i twelve hours. 1t the clock is used for show pur- poses, the stationary locomotive with revolving globes is possibly the best method to employ, as the locomotive may then be kept always in view of the public, but as an ingenious and useful clock for private use the cir- cuit made by the locomtive is more time. The officials directly concerned with the trains have their offices just back of the billoard on which is shown the time of trains, and one never witnesses any confusion at any ion efficientl; * * x % a, train at the Union station wander out on the plaza, gaze at the beautiful white dome of the nation’s Capftol, then turn and read the in- scriptions outside the building, gaze upon the beautiful archways, enter the great waiting room, note the heroic figures that stand majesti- cally on the upper rail, go out-into the concourse, view the beautiful osiling and you will realix that the HE next time you are waiting for | metallic syrface at right angles to t! |direction iof the wind. interesting. How to See the Wind. CHOOBE for the trial a windy day, when the air is free from rain or ot thejipsiats (Rashimen sl EIven | snow. Take a bright, clean handsaw. a_task to perform, and performs his} .. gpy other polished metal object about two feet in length and having a straight edge. Hold the saw or he Incline it about thirty-five or forty degrees to the horizon and with the back up, so that the moving afr, in striking the surface, will glance upward and flow ‘over the edge of the metal, as water fows over a dam. Sight carefully along the edge of the metal, at a sharply defined object, and you will see the wind or air waves pouring over the edge in graceful curves. stick in hand, used equally for teach- . i i