Evening Star Newspaper, November 18, 1923, Page 75

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, ~ Attack on Kansas City Work of Art - Involves Heavy Expenses for Foes| Asks Wilhelmina in Changing World Cantroversy Over the Rival “Belles Ferronniere’ Draws Many Exfier\ts to Paris, But Sufireme Court of New York Must Pass Final Judgment Because of Suit for Damages That Has Been Pending for Several Years—Interesting Comments of Those Who Were Directely Concerned in Payis Event. By STERLING HEILIG. 5, November 8.— NRAD HUG of Kansas City. now ebrated custodian of the “Belle Ferronniere” old master on her trip de luxe to rning on the Rotter- York, and thence to Paris, dam to Kansas With him famous oil w City. of course, the insured for $300.000—the French government Lavin upulously kept its gentle- wer’s agrecment not to lay hands on ner a former crown Droperts In the her friends, the “Belle Ferronniere” of Kansas City Mras had the unique honor (never en- Joyed by any other American-owned old master) to he “sent for” to hang In the Louvre gallery, side by side with the “Belle Ferronnicre” of Paris, No. 1600 of the logue In their view, she has successfully supported comparison with her rival (and almost duplicate) under the at- tacks of hostile experts, and vindi- cated her legitimacy before her only judge—the supreme court of the state of W York Her fate is still undec Is she a trup Leonardo da Vinci, the only painting by that great master of the early renaissance now in America, or ever likely to get there—becaus other known Leonardos or Leonardos are the property of Topean governments? “The supre court of New York has nbt vet spoken. Later it will declde on the total evidence, for and against, uitimately submitted to it. Its judges as ot know nothing of this trip to s—a curious de- tall, quite misunderstood by the cable men, as will appear. But, certainly, by reason of the trip which capped its climax the Kansas City picture has become the best known old master in America! All at her enemies’ expense. * * her friends—because returns, painting, epresumably or otherw view of near- 0 exult another 2 fact all th undertaken Duveen of tl firm. Paris, London All these expen transatiantic it is that were Ly Sir Joseph national art New York of insurance ansport of the p ture; of th pis; both ways, of the lawyers of both sides, and of their hotel bills while in Paris; plus the railway fares # erowd of experts, their hotel bills, their honorariums. if any: plus rangemants with the Louvre (if any), the American general's fee and the apher's big bill and all the rest, w proposed and d frayed by the s of the Kan- sas City “Belle,” with the avowed object of giving her a black eye! Everybody knows how it began. immediately on its arrival s City in the dowry of the French war bride of Capt. Harry Hahn (of the A. E. F. bombing avia- tlon), Sir Joseph impulsively de- clared in print that this ‘Belle Ferronniere” was no Leonardo. “The picture sent to Kansas City is a copy,” d Sir Joseph in a New Kk paper, “hundreds of which have Lieen made of this and other Leonardo subjects and offered in the market g genuine. Leonardo never made a rveplica of his work. His original ‘Belle Ferronniere' is in the Louvre.” Mrs. Hahn brought suit against Sir Joseph for $500,000 damages, but of- fered, always, to withdraw the suit should he take back his cruel words. Sir Joseph stood pat. The suit has run three years, and Is far from ended. “It a genuine Leonardo da Vinel has actually got into America,” said Bernard Berenson, his foremost ex- pert, “it is of the utmost importance to verify it!" 1ses paid in and and oss Europe of r- steno, * oK ok ok 0, here you have the Kansas City S “Belle” in Paris by divers calcu- lations of astute men, for and against her. (I refer to the lawyers, the fa- mous Louls Levy of New York, for the Duveens, and Hon. Hyacinthe Ringrose, London barrister and New York lawyer, for the picture.) Did Sir Joseph get his money's worth? In one detail, it would seem that the fine diplomat who is Hyacinthe Ttingrose let it, perhaps, be smeared somewhat over him by cutting it too fine, It was when he let the cable men send off the capital error that “a Jjury of nine prominent American and Juropean art connoisseurs decided w@galnst the American ‘Belle’” (on Eeptember 15). This notably mistaken news item addefi that “two such, Sir <'harles Holmes and Prof. Adolfo Venturi, rendered their final verdict Louvre Cata- | all| {of nis young men gave hurried de- | ‘BELLE FERRONNIERE’ FOR PARIS JOURNAL before the American consul general. “There was no jury and nothing was decided.” corrected Mr. Ringrose. quite willing to laugh at “the good | joke they played on me” when I saw him yesterday. “I was in a limousine with Louis and Sir Joseph, when, as I learned afterward, tails to the cable correspondents. T supposed that they had certainly the essential story straight by that time: “Of course, Sir Charles and Prof. Adolfo rendered no verdiet, having no quality to do such a thing” he added. “But Sir Joseph is welcome to his little joke. The ‘Belle’s' one and only judge—the supreme court of New York—does not take cog- nizance of cable items. “Get this simple fact in your head,” he continued. “The supreme court of New York did not order this hear- ing of certain of Sir Joseph’s ex- perts in Paris and knows nothing about it. It was simply by agree- ment between Louis Igvy and my self. Only by word of mouth be tween us! Sir Joseph staged a pretty scene—and I was willing. A great deal of mongy was spent—but not by us—and I think that the Kansas City ‘Belle’ got, incidentally, a beau- tiful publicit “Louis Levy paid $3,000 to the ste- nographer,” laughed Mr. Ringrose. “The American consul general's fee was $4,000. Modesty forbids me to made known the total of my own ex- penses. Professional etiquette for- bids me even to mention those of Mr. Levy. But there is the European trip of Conrad Hug, esq.’ of Kansas City, the ‘Belle's’ greatest admirer and feroclous guardian—we did’ not pay them! And the hotel bills and certain banquets, and the bringing of the Duveen experts from Scotland, Holland, Italy, etc.—it was not for prunes, as the French say, think you? Ringrose chuckled, as one who has the best of a bargain. Diq Sir Joseph get his money's worth—in opinions of chosen experts? “It 1s agreed.” sald Mr. Ringrose, “that both sides are to cite, before the supreme court judges, from the total mass of stenographic deposi- tions, as we choose.” * kX X ing his bride's dowry) smiled dreamily. “8ir Charles Holmes of the Na- tional Gallery, London, on cross-ex- amination affirmed the ‘Virgin of the Rocks,’ hanging in his gallery, to be a genuine Leonardo and one of his finest examples. But when! Prof. Venturi of Rome was cross-examined ! B LUREACASVEL. /LA sUARD IS SUPPOSED TO BE SPEAKIN one | T this, young Capt. Hahn (defend- | “AMERICA FOR THE AMERICANS, ALL THEY WANT. BUT THE THE OLD MUSEUM A CARTOON FROM A FRANCE.” he declared the ‘Virgin of the Rocks’ |in London not even a Leonardo replica, but a painting by de Predis! And Roger Fry (formerly of the Metropolftan Museum of New York) testified: ‘If Sir Charles says that he is a rash and presumptuous man! " Capt. Hahn said thus, quite hap- pily, that he would only mention a i few juicy examples from the cross- examination. but there was no end to his gay stories. “Bernard Berenson glad to be called as aggexpert by Sir Joseph as he would “consider it an epoch in the art world to discover a Leonardo picture. Here the cross- examination had a good joke on him, | Capt. Hahn continued. *“About fifteen years ago Mr. Berenson had given |several expert opinions that the ‘Belle Ferronniere' in the Louvre was |not a Leonardo, and even gave sev- | eral chapters in one of his books to | proving it. When asked when he had | changed his mind he sald some little |time before the war. Then Mr. Rin- grose asked him: ‘It was an epoch in {the art world—you discovered a Leonardo in the “Belle Ferronniere” |of the Louvre! Did vou record the great event in any book, newspaper, art journal or even tell it by word jof mouth to any one” And Mr. Berenson admitted that he had not done so!" | uIT is remarkable,” added Capt. Hahn tolerantly, “that all the | experts called by Sir Joseph had been previously of opinfon that the ‘Belle | Ferronniere’ in the Louvre was false |—not a true Leonardo—but that none lof them, after September 16, 1923, continued to be of their first opinion. All, now, have discovered her to be a Leonardo! Among them are Beren- son, Ventum Sir Charles Roger Fry and the French Nicolle himself!" Then Mr. Ringrose smiled again. “They were uniform on this one point about the ‘Belles’ But they could not agree on any other subject, picture, or characteristic of Leonardo, nor of his methods of painting, nor of their estimates of themselves or each other!” | “They were only loaded with one | shof explained the captain. “Sometimes, they almost got out of hand,” said Mr. Ringrose. “Prof. Laurfe of Edinburgh (professor of chemistry in the university thers, and a relative of Annie Laurie—he sald to me, very reverently: ‘Annte Laurie 18 {n our family!) is a splen- did old fellow. He testified that he had examined both paintings, the ‘Belle Ferronnlere' of Kansas City and said he was * ¥ % % “EXPERTS AND AUTHENTICITY.” A CARTOON FROM ECHO DE PARIS. THE EXPERTS ARE SUP. POS’E‘ID TO BE STUDYING THE KANSAS CITY “BELLE FERRONNIERE” FROM EVERY ANGLE. L3 the ‘Belle Ferronniere' of the Louvre, for a dating pigment. You know, that in the later renalssance they began making all kinds of improvements in colors. ‘Well,’ sald the honest old Scotch professor of chemistry—called as an expert by Sir Joseph—1 could not find any pigment in either ‘Belle’ that had not been used since the time of the Egyptians On which, on closing, speaking merely of my own impression, I think, Sterling Heillg, that the Scotch pro- fessor prophesied, llke Caphlas, un- consclously. Both “Belles™ are genuine. Both are true Leonardos. Put a pin here. Briquets From Waste T !s stated that the French rail- roads alone lose 200,000 tons of combustible product per annum, which can, however, be readily made up into briquets or balls, and the fuel thus obtained is quite as good as the usual briquets. . This product is no other than the waste material that collects in the smoke boxes of locomotives and its heating power s no less than 7.000 calorfes. Conditions during the war, with their resulting economy, led to the use of this substance, and it is sald that French manufacturers are engaged in the purchase of the com- bustible from the railroad companies and are making briquets by its use. A French patent was taken out for the use of this material, one point be- ing that it is neither coal (which has been now burned) nor coke, for it results in fact from the distillation of coal. Invisible Light. TTHE use of invisible light for sig- naling purposes was recently demonstrated before the Physical So- ciety of London. The first machine shown, it appears, was a signaling lamp that gave a béam of light so narrow that in many circumstances it would insure secrecy. When it be- comes desirable, as in warfare, to avold showing any light whatever filters are employed to cut out the visible spectrum. By day a deep red fliter, transmitting only the ex- treme red rays of light, is placed in front of the lamp. The light is in- vigible to the observer unless he has a simllar red screen to cut out the daylight. enough to read signals at a distance of six miles. By night a screen is used that transmits only the uitra- | violet rays of light. Secret of Sevres Blue. FOR ® long time it was believed that the famous blue color given to the porcelain manufactured at Sevres, in France, was the result of a secret process and there were many legends In regard thereto. It has been proved, however, that it is an error to suppose that Sevres blue can- not be produced elsewhere. As a matter of fact, it is produced in many French potteries where sufficlent care Is taken and where pure oxide of co- balt is employed. Formerly it was dificult to procure this article free from certain fmpurities that injured the color; but chemical sclence has overcome all the difficulties. The same Is true of the Chinese green known as celedon. It was invented In China, but it can be perfectly re- produced elsewhere. Ocean-Going Log Rafts. ‘O compete successfully with the high-priced timber of the south- west, a resourceful log importer of San Diego has, it is reported, adopted an ingenious method of shipping lum- ber from Oregon to southern Cali- fornla. Gigantic rafts are made of the logs and they are towed down the Paclfic coast behind small steamers. The rafts are cigar-shaped and average 700 feet in length, 30 feet in depth and 70 feet across. Two-thirds of the raft is under water. ‘The chains on a single raft weigh 115 tons and cost $10,000. The first sea-going log boom made its .1,000-mile trip twelve years ago, and since then more than sixty of the huge rafts have followed that course. Region of Caverns. 'HE Karst is a curious region of calcareous rocks in the neigh- borhood of Trieste. It has long been famous for its countless caverns, which are more numerous there, per- haps, than any other district of a similar area elsewhere in the world. The results of a careful exploration of these caves and abysses have been published by Boegan. The number included in the chart prepared by him is no less than 347. All of these have been explored and their exact position rigorously detemined. Some are dry caverns, some are the underground channels of streams. Hundreds of other similar caves exist in the re- &lons bordering on the Karst, in Car- niola, Istria, Crotis, Dalmatia, Bosnis and Hersegovina. Power i}: Jelly Form, Tm is obtainable in various quarters Jjellies of eolidified pe- troleum, a perfectly transparent prod- uct possessing the same colors as the petrols used for its manufacture. It is made in the form of a jelly of suf- ficient consistency to be carried and handled llke any other solid body. It can easily be cut into pleces and may be conveyed in cardboard boxes without danger. The physical prop- erties are the same as in liquid petrol, evaporation is not easy, and with the same heating power its inflammabil- ity and heating power is very intense, as also is its carburetting power. ‘When fgnited 1t does not melt, but burns' like wood or coal. & With the screen he can see ; NOVEMBER 18, 1923—PART 5. “Am I to Be Country’s Last Queen?” BY BARONESS LEJA DE TORINOFF (Translated by May Wilkinson Mount.) N September 5, with the warmth of August sunshine still bur: nishing Holland's landscape with glowing flowers,-Queen Wilhelmina rode into her commercial capital—Amsterdam —in the white coronation coach that had borne her to greet her people just twenty-five years ago, when on September 6, 1898, she was crowned queen of the Neth- erlands. Then bursts of joyous homage pro- claimed the passage of the royal coach, in which sat a smiling mon- arch with her husband, Prince Henry, and her daughter, Jullana, heiress to a throne which her mother has not = d E . way to see her. Df":l:‘l":““’ Rer-save by imhesttemce| S (e fupon! Withelming sitting | What & contrast (o the scene I wit. | 1 the gazden beside a white-painted | nessed in those same streets last No- | 2P1® beneath an immense umbrells vember, when wintry mists hid the| FROYalty does not rise to receive any | waters of the Zuyder Zee and chill [ on OF @ younger woman. Wilhel-| despair hid the beams of hope (romlmlfll indicated the approach of her s o forty-third birthday. on August 31, | T seamed o hear their plaints break | *2d Implied the compliment that she | harshly through the pastoral pesce | COPfldered us vounger than herself | by remaining seated. H of & recent summer morning when | Lo R BEUCR L Countess Limbourg and I sped in her the Int e VaYS 3 sumptuous car from the Limbourg | e, wiriest She alWavs exhibis in | estate at Busum, a suburb of Amster- s * ok % % | WE three discussed prohibition | and intemperance, every theme except that of beauty seeming| unreal in the sumer sweetness. “Queen Wilhemina's long white crepe de chine dress lay in folds on the greensward. Loose flowing, open sleeves fell away from her arms as she leaned forward in the earnestness of her discussion. A ruffle of the crepe, cut in points and fastened with | a brooch, finished the round neck, and a white kid braided belt with long ends in front held the dress to her plump figure. Her low white kid shoes were laced and she wore only 2 couple of diamond rings besides the diamond guard to her wedding ring | on her right hand. A medium-sized | { white leghorn hat, wound about with a piece of crepe tied in a bow at the | front, shaded her falr hair and a face | all kindness and sweetness, motherly in its sympathy and yvet etched with lines about the mouth and eyes which betokened that the twenty-five vears of Wilhelmina's reign had not been all | glamour. Our talk of prohibition had set me | dreaming about my lost country, home and family. T had been told that |if my czar bad not been Intoxicated | |at the moment he never would have | |signed the order of mobilization | which brought about such disastrous results. | One may not introduce a subject of conversation in the presence of roy alty, but one may inquire for a queen mother and a child. Henrietta of Lombourg did so | “I ran up here alone to see mother,” | | Wilhelmina answercd, seeming glad | o the interruption, “because she fen't | well. Yesterday she felt so badly that | I made her stay in bed today. It has been very hard to keep her in bed, I {assure you, and,” smiling toward me, | “it she had known vou wero coming | nothing would have kept her upstairs. |1 have told her all about you, and how ‘you escaped from your castle in Russia and sailed in. disguise to' { America and made a place for your- Interested in American dam, to where the oak-shaded high- way turned well inland and skirted | Appledoorn, the official residence of | Holland’s queen mother, between | Doorn and Ammerongen. Here Queen Wilhelmina was visit- ing her mother, and we were on our PRINCESS JULIANA. WILL SHE BE A QUEEN SOME DAY?” % B <ol ‘Ruler of Holland, One of Few Sovereigns Left in Europe, Speaks of Daughter's Future as She Approaches Period of Rejoicing Over Completion of Quarter Century on Throne. Government. self there with your voice. So mother is very curlous to see you. And you mst let her see you,” she urged. “I wish you would come to The Hague to my jubllee. I am sure you would find it very entertalning, and I could show interesting things.” H a royal invitation * ok ok Sl,‘(' mand. One must have the best of excuses to decline it. 1 told Queen Wilhelmina about my journey to my confiscated estates in Russia, about urgent duties that compelled my return to America. And Henrietta helped me by speaking of Princess Juliana. “Oh, Juliana is growing fast and getting to be a big girl.” The queen's mother-lover made her tone tender. “She is just the age to thoroughl enjoy the jubilee,” she responded. you some is a com- f course I cannot foretell what | the future will hold. Things scem 'WILHELMINA, QUEEN OF THE BY ALBERT PAYSON TERHUNE UST as measles sweeps a whole | Just big enough to walk. And he's, echool, so the dog-craze smote | been my chum ever since. A'nd now | the commuter-settlement at these other girls with the newfangled Paignton. Within six months | thoroughbred dogs are turning up| their noses at him. But I didn't J twelve familles, on Vine street alone, had acquired dogs. And almost no two of the dogs were of the same breed. Then it was that O1d Man Negley came to the fore. 0ld Man Negley had not the good | {luck to live on Vine street with its | deep yards and broad lawne. He| [lived in a shack, down on River | street; he and his smiling fat wife and their three dogs. But he was a | dally visitor to Vine street, where he | cut lawns and made gardens in sum- | mer and shoveled snow and made furnace fires in winter. : Hitherto the old chap had had no | special claims to distinction, besides | being a good workman. But now it was .discovered in some way that he had spent many years as a kennelman | and as a hanger-on at dog shows. | Wherefore the new dog-craze on Vine | street made his advice and opinion as much fn demand as those of the only | doctor in a busy town. For the dog-owners were finding that it 1s one thing to buy a pup and quite another thing to understand him or how to care for him. Commuters fell to waylaying Old Man Negley for information and asking him innumer- able questions about their particular breed of dox. One noon as Old Man Negley parked his lawnmower in the lee of the Crothers’ porch and sat down beside it in the shade for lunch two little figures came around the corner of the antique converted farmhouse and bore down upon him. One was a twelve-year-old girl, Sibyl Crothers. The other was a non- descript little old yellowish-gray dog. “Mr. Negley,” said the child with trouble quivering in her sweet volce, 28 she pointed- to her beloved dog: “Maisie Burke says that Paddy here 1s a mutt, He {sn't, is he? You know all about dogs.. He isn't & mutt, is he?” “No,* returned the old man, gTave- ly, as he proffered the disreputable little dog a sliver of corned beet from his first sandwich. “No, indeed; Pad- dy fen’t a mutt. The blood of the finest champlons in the dog world is owing in Paddy's veins.” . fl"Ratfly?" exclaimed the delighted child. “Champions of what breed, Mr. Negley >” “All breeds,” Negley. | responded Old Man * % % % IBYL'S face flushed. She passed = protecting arm about Paddy; and glared defiance at the - old man. 1 don’t care!”. she. flashed. He's the dearest; wisest, best dog that ever was. Daddy gave him to me when| he w puppy and when I was only think you'd make fun of—" “Hold on! begged the old man. Hold on there, Missy. I meant what I sald. The blood of some of the grandest breeds on earth Is in every mongrel. That is why a mongrel is the healthiest and strongest and smartest and often the prettiest dog alive 1 wasn't making small of Paddy. Sibyl eyed him, went on: “Did you ever go to a trained ani- mal act? I hope you didn't; because nine times out of ten they are the| result of more cruelty than I like to think about. But if you did, you'll have noticed every time that the best trick dogs are mongrels. “Do you know why that because a mongrel learns twice as quickly as the thoroughbred and be- chuse he is healthy enough to stand work and hardships that'd kill any pedigreed pup. “Back in France and Flanders they | used all sorts of dogs for courlers | doubtfully. He | for him |80 bright now compared to the con- ditions of last year. But I cannot foretell what the, future will hold. I cannot very well say that I want to abdicate at once and make Holland a democracy, but I expect my country to adopt that form of government in future years, and there is a sort of understanding among us that some time it is to be.” “I think Holland ought adopt something like the tlon of the United States.” the queen said to me. government for its ability to change every few years. I have purpos studied the constitution s¢ al great governments of the world and 1 admire the American form of gov- ernment very much. But I consider | that of England best." | “Juliana being brought | with any roval ideas” the countess { tola me ot long since, when | reported to her mother how her play- mates had teased her about what sh. would do when &he became gues her mother told her: | Next time they tease you. say this that to Constitu- “I admire the Amerfcan - e is not up “I do not know I do not think I ever will be My mother says |to tell you and that I1° study as hard you do and learn 11 that I can learn and be preparcd | to make my own living if I must.’ que thi n. must ETHERLANDS, AT FORTY-THREE. + THE HEART OF A MONGREL - and for such like. Do you know :ih kind of dog that lasted longest and did the most heroic things and showed the most sense? Some say the collle. Some say the airedale. “But the British war office kept tabs. And I happened to read a copy once best of t service at the fromt. report at the town He was Iibrary the dog that had all the best traits| of all the other breeds. And that combination made him stanch and loyal and wise and brave. “People get a pedigreed dog for a bLig price; and they pay a fortune and they spend loads of time and money in training him and in humanizing him; to bring out all the very best in him. “People get a mongrel for fifty cents or for nothing. In this world we're apt to value a thing by the amount it costs us. So they don't bother to train a mongrel as they'd train a thoroughbred. “In spite of that, he often surprises them by his cleverness. If they'd take half the time and trouble to train him as they train a purebred he'd reward that time and trouble fifty times over. w SIS S “YOU KNOW ALL ABOUT DOGS, MR. NEGLEY. HE ISN'T A MUTT, IS HE?” It was the mongrel that did| n you [T ARDIS L about d ser epidemics | ing hundreds of costly dogs. About & per cent of the thoroughbreds that have distemper die of “Ever hear of a mongrel dying « distemper? No. _And you never wi They get it, and they crawl unde: | the barn or mope around the house for a few days. Then they are well again. “If you've got the right kind a mongrel and treat him right you've | got one of the grandest dogs the Almighty ever made. Don% b« ashamed of him. Be ashamed of yourself if you haven't brought out {all the best in him. | “He's more anxious to learn than you are to teach him. He'll not only learn, but hell use his brain in an independent way, besides. “For instance. when I was a kid we had a mongrel—a reg’lar ‘yaller dog' And we had a purebred ter- rier. “One day I went for a tramp in the woods with both of them. I got stuck in a quicksand-slough They weren't big enough to pull me out. I hung onto a branch over- head, and wondered how long I could hang on before my strength went and the slough would get me. “The terrier barked and danced around me and tried to pull me out with his teeth. But he was too little “The mongrel didn't waste time 11ke that. He grabbed my cap, that had fallen off, and home he galloped with it, lickety-split, to dad; and he laid the cap at dad’'s feet and he vanked at dad’s trouser legs until he made him follow him to the slough, just in time to pull me free. “That was brain against just plain devotion. That was the true mongrel of it. “Now, the next time some kid sneers at you for loving Paddy and for being proud of him, you say to her: “‘Your dog has only one breed. Mine has a dozen. And every ome of that dozen is every bit as good as your dog's one” * * * Have some more meat, Paddy?” (Copyright, 1923.) An Optimist. From the Boston Congregationalist. A German shoemaker left the gas turned on in his shop one night and, upon arriving In the morning, struak a match to light it. ‘There was a terrifio explosion and the shoemaker ‘was blown out through the door and almost to the middle of the street. A passerby rushed to his assistance and, after helping him to arise, in- quired if he was idfured. The little German gazed at his place of busi- ness, which was now burning quite briskly, and said: “No, I aindt hurt. But I got out shust in sme, en?” . ] he | 1