Evening Star Newspaper, July 27, 1924, Page 59

First Collection of Casts Made From Living Subjects Contains One From Miss Owen—Con- ‘ sidered by Experts as Type of American Girl's Hand. i BY STERLING HEILIG. PARIS, July 17. OME of the most beautiful and aristocratic hands of Kurope have just been cast in plaster from the living flesh and bone, for the first great collection of hu- 1240 hands ever made in the world. Here arc great hands of peace and war, now being reproduced exactly in marble, for a new and notable American public institution. ° Beside the lion's puw of Pershing, the war fist of Joffre, the hands of artists and thinkers, and the hands of Kings, Queens and pedigreed aristo- crats of Europe, the hand of a United States Senator’s daughter was cast in plaster from the life. Now, according to all judges, the American girl's hand shows elegance and “race” quite equak to the hands of these grand duchesses and royal princesse Such is the first outstanding fea- ture of the first great collection of living hands ¢ le-that is to say, of hands m life. which may be compared and studied in every exact and living detail. The American girl's handl As will appear. The collection was begun shortly before Samuel Hill, son-in-law of J. J. Hill, the railroad magnate, con- ducted Marshal Joffre and his party from Japan, to unveil the Peace Portal between Canada and the United States and visit our country with him. Samuel Hill, himself a railroad man, lawyer, banker and good roads promoter, is prominently known in New York, Chicago, Minneapolis, St. Paul, San Francisco, Seattle, Port- land and the whole Northwest. Being a great friend of the King of the Belgians and his royal family, he actually built the fortress- palace of Maryhill, on a bluft of the Columbia River, about three hours down from Portland and not near any big town, to receive the Bel- gian sovereigns on a visit which will yet be made. The royal also visit was interfered with by the war. The lone palace on the bluff (walls 12 feet thick) was never in- habited. But Ambassador Jusserand, on paying it a visit, suggested the name of Maryhill in honor of Mr. Hills wife, Mrs. Mary Hill, daughter of J. J. Hill, who made the country 'And why he asked. “should not Maryhill become the new museum of a new land?” What if Maryhill be grandiose and alone upon its bluff? Mr. Hill was sociated with J. J. Hill in all his great enterprises for the development of the Northwest. When the Great Northern railroad was built every foot'of the way had to be walked over, not once, but | many times. Mr. Hill was young and strong. and did more of that walking than any one other person. > * = THE HAND OF MISS OWEN, DAUGHTER OF SENATOR ROBERT L. OWEN OF OKLAHOMA. THE PLASTER CAST IS BEING RE ) IN MARBLE YO!{ AE['ROI’E N COLLECTION compose a beau- 1s reaching up, or lifting out, to help! Done in marble now, they -rise from a great marble block, in Rodin style, vast pedestal. Yet another working r hand i that of the Duch Vendome, King Albert’s sister. She has one of th st beautiful gardens in Neuillv-sur-Scine (which is west end put togethe! tiful subject—h INOW: when the road was built,| “there was not a living soul along | the line of it to use it,” o I have heard | said. But what of that? They brought | people from Sweden and other countries | to settle the land, “and:because there was transportation ready at their doors to carry their crops” the region of tht | great Swedish and other farming cum-} munities sprang up magnificently, “and | they are now a real center of the farm bloc g So it will be for Maryhill—alone, per. | haps, today, but already, even now, not lonely ! The astonishing network of the Wash- ington Good Roads Association, the Pa- 5 cific Highway Associaton and the Co- | umbja River Highway Association | makes the land alive—as the sleeping | crop land was awakened by the railroad ! Touring parties in motor cars and na- tive eons on holiday make Maryhill multitudinous gathering place, like the | veace portal. | And, among the first things that triumphant democracy will see at Mary- hill will be the first and only collection of hands in all the world ! Hands! Hands which do things!| Hands which show character! Hands | which show destiny—how wonderful to study hands which are cotemporars, or verify the lines of destiny achieved, in bands which are no mo Hands that are beautiful and idle! Hands that are beautiful and useful! Hands that are battered, ugly, worn with good works! Hands! Hands that are all things! *“The most beautiful hand in Europe ! I have heard this phrase applied no- tably, by people viewing the collection, the the hand of 17-year-old Princess Marie of Russia, daughter of the Grand Duke Cyril, who is nearest heir to the throne of the Czars. By general consent of the aristocratic world this hand is as perfect as any- thing in the Old World. The cast, in fact, is remarkable. As the molder got it, the Mand seems (o be reclining, as a fair woman reclines on a sofa, her re- laxed body curving languidiy! = * * ¥ % RULY, it looks like a hand that never did a stroke of work! Bat this fair languid hand has an aunt, who is a reigning queen, and she has a hard-working hand ! | Like this: Princess Marie's mother | was Victoria, granddaughter of Queen | Victoria and siter of the present Queen | of Rumania. Aunt to the beautiful | hand, she has a hand that wields ham- | mer and saw, paint brush and glue pot! The Queen of Rdmania has papered walls of palace rooms. She has molded great cement flower pots. She has cut and glued mosaics, planned and dug gardens and done carpenter's and join. er's work fit for the trade! The Queen of the Belgians i3 another. royalty with working hands. Already, her father, befqre her—prince and issue of & Bavarian ducal house—gave him- self up to humanity, as man of sclence and physician. She, the queen, gives her two hands to the collection, because, for one reason, Mr. Hill is honorary\consul general of Belgium for Idaho, Oregon and Washington, the three northwest- ern States centered by Maryhill. A man who had been with Rodin, the great sculpter, for 26, yeafs, preserving the masters works ‘$in plaster made from clay models, THE HAND OF MARSHAL JOFFRE IN PEACE AND WAR. While the contemporaneous hands were being cast, of Mr. Hill in France what hands from the. past might be They must be cast from living subjects—the hand of flesh |and bone held in soft plaster till it {handened in a mold. No mere sculp- tor's work would do! certain friends procured. HAND OF A WOMAN. were sceking | THE CAST AT THE LEFT RESEMBLES THE THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, Hand of U. S. Senator’s Daughtér ‘Ranked With Those of Royalty a poisoner, of a stateswoman, a lov- | ing mother, an illustrious theologian, a promoter of feuds, duels and as- sassinations, an entertainer of vicious pleasures, and first-class practicer of black magic! Of all the hands of the | collection, that of Catherine is the | one to dream over! They have the hand of Voltaire. ! There was a famous statue by§ Houdin, made during Voltaire's lfe- | time, and Houdin as a souvenir. | ‘They have the hand of Victor Hugo. i It came from Mme. de Thebes, to | whom the mighty Frenchman him- | self gave it. | They have the hand of Alexander | Dumas. What boys at home have not read the historical romances written | by that hand—for the great Dumas had no typewriting machine, and never dictated a word! They have the two hands of Sarah Bernhardt, clasped together. They were cast by her great friend, the painter, Louise Abbema. 'Bernhardt, gave the hands to with direc- tions that they be used in some work for the memory of French mothers. By this use that work is doubly don They have the hand of Miss Lo Fuller, which is the most dramatic of all. The fingers are slender. Held straight together, the hand is artis- tic, the two middle fingers being very long. But the moment the fingers come apart, in movement, they be- come square across and even—which is called the practical hand! They have, also, the most beautiful | masculine hand in the world. This| is the hand of Valentino, the Italian film {dol of America. It is said to be “like the hand of a prophet, reaching | out and pointing away!” In any| case, it is acknowledged to be| one of the most beautiful casts ever made. Among these and a hundred more— hands of kings, princ generals, statesmen, men of affairs, and fem- inine celebrities—Rodin’s plaster- | molder stopped one day in presence | of the American girl already men- tioned. It was Miss Owen, daughter of United States Senator Robert L. Owen of Oklahoma. The Owcne were sim- ply visito! but the casting special- desired to cast that hand!” * % % x : 1SS Owen's hand was cast. It holds its own with Europe’s pedi- gree aristocrats. This is not, as some have said, because the Senator de- this cast was made by | | though | | Paris), celebrated for beautiful gar- dens; and in great hot-houses at- tached to it, the duchesse grafts and makes experiments on fruits and flower: She could earn a handsome living at it! 1 have sakd that Mr. Hill began the collection shortly before he con- ducted Marshal Joffre and party from Japan across America. “THE LION'S PAW OF GEN. PERSHING.” and one of the greatest plaster mold- fn the world, took casts of the . ARE BEING MADE FOR KING ALBERT OF BELG] GEORGE OF ENGLAND AND KING VICTOR EM EPpn Rl e AR EY thaty i LTALY. MONG the seckers wers the Duchesse de Vendome, Mme. Joftre, the wife of an official of the Beaux-Arts, and the best known American woman in Europe, who has devoted friends all over France—Miss | Loie Fuller. Through these and Mr. Hill's own influence, they have actu- ally the hand of Catherine de Medic cast from the life, in- the days of that terrible great woman! The hand of Catherine! Hand of COPIES OF THIS CAST UM, KING UEL OF scends, on one side of his family, | from the daughter of a historic Okla- | homa chief (whose ancestors had, | doubtless, “race for 1,000 years), although this story would explain| Owen’s interest in the Indians, for| whom he has legally secured 60 per cent of the profits of their oil wells. | Friends of Mr. Hill, in Paris, thlnk,} rather, that the fine lines of this| American girl's hand are a compli- ment extending to most American | | girls. i “A wide and healthy mixtufe of ascendants,” they say, “makes for | types of ‘race’ in such Americans, with more progressive certainty, | even, than does the narrowing of | such mixture which characterizes the | mass of Europeans. | “Indeed, the royal families, credited | with ‘race’ in the highest degree, are | exactly those with most mixed blood in Europe—quite like the families of | our American girls! | When Gen. Pershing’s hand was .cast, he exclaimed: “Is it as big as that? They answered: “General, it is a lion's pawY Joftre’s hand, which is small below the average, make a fist that 15 to be gigantic. This was decided (practically with- | out the marshal's permission) after | he had unveiled the Peace Portal. | | Americans and Canadians were fra- | | ternizing over the victory of the al- | |lies and their own 100 years of | | triendship. So, they said: “We ought | | to have a monument to each, here, as we have the portal of our peace, al- | ready?” Sp, Joffre’s war fist (he could not very well refuse) is to be erected in gigantic proportions, at the sum- mit of a column beside the Peace Por- tal. The Peace Portal rises at Blaine. One of the great roads of the high- way associations leads ‘through it Five hundred miles south is aston-' ishing Maryhill Palace (in Europe, they would call it a palace), which is a museum in itself. Every window of Maryhill is en- cased, framed, built-in, complicated, reinforced and impregnably strength- ened by steel girders, vast far-reach- ing frames, and bars—which cost more than the twelve-foot-thick walls themselves cost, to quarry, D. ¢, JULY 27, 1924—PART 5. Road of Many Names Furnishes ‘Material for Rambler’s Story Quotations From a Former Rambler Bring Reader Into Contact With Those Who Lived Genera- tion Ago in Vicinity of Good Hope and Nonesuch. HIS road is not a scenic way. No mountains rise, no chasms gape, no waterfalls flll the air with sound and spray. It passes through country where hills, steep and sloping, stand above vales that wind from north to west of east to south. Trees—oak, gum, ash and fifty other kinds—grow singly and in groups. Hero a pine tree stands aloae, and there maples make a grove. From high places you see that hill succeeds to hill till sky and country meet. Brooks, which we call branche are marked by lines of sycamore and birches. and rows of cedars tell where old lanes were. CGreen fields are patched with white by daisies, yar- row and Queen Anne’s lace. In fields where crops are growing, men in dirt and sweat stained clothes and with naked sun-browned breasts and shoul- ders are at work. -And health and happiness are theirs. & There are many houses in the shade of aims and poplars and some houses are close to the road, as though with their windows they would see the world go by. Other houses stand a little distance from the road, as though shy, yet curious to see what's going on. Some are in gardens gay with flowers, and one thinks they may have decked them- selves with colors to win smiles from passers-by. From some places on the way one looks across the valley of the Eastern Branch and sees far-off ridges that seem to bound the earth. So, although this road is not a scenic way, it has grace and beauty. Nor in historic sense dges it com- pare with many other roads. No troops of Constantinople marched | along. No British columns passed that way. Perhaps some com- panies of Redcoats went that way in August, 1815, but the Rambler doubts | it. This road took littlé part in the ! Revolutionary War, though men pass- ing between their homes in southern Maryland and the Republican armies, north and east, must have traveled on it. In the Civil War no armies passed | to battle, but a line of forts defend- | ing Washington stood along this road and Army teams and men in blue stirred its dust. It could have done | as big things in war as any other road, but Fate ruled that it should | have no place in bloody fame. ] * kX K have passed along this road od Hope to .\'on:‘!\‘\(‘h.‘ first name I have found on maps is “The Road to Marlborough.” Later maps give it as “The Marlboro road.” Later still it becomes the Ridge road, there is also a Ridge road | which connects it Wwith River road, near Benning. After years of service | as Ridge road map-makers set it dowr. as Bowen road, remaming it| for Sayles J. Bowen, a man of note | in local annals d who was mayor of Washington two terms, 1868 and 1569. ! Mr. Bowen built a country home on the road, and the house, a hand- some, comfort-lookirg frame, is standing. _ A son of Rill Landvoigt of The Star owns the place. BEill has been a popu- lar fellow \in Washington ever since the District of Columbia was discov- ered and has been so prominent in Ma- sonry that 1 feel that a number of members of the order have heard of him. Arnold Landvoigt bought the | Sayles J. Bowen property from Harry Conger of laundry fame, and Harry bought it from George B. Stark- weather, president of the Biogenetic Survey. I have known George forty years and he is no older than when we met. He has the secret of youth. | Across the road from the Bowen place is the old home of Henry A. Linger, Jong known in Wash- ington as a mattress manufacturer. This was his home before he moved to Anacostia, and the Linger house there is one of the old homes of the metropolis of the Eastern Branch. I meet Henry Linger's boy“ Fred now and then and also George | Havener in a full-dress restaurant| where I eat pie at noon. The old Linger house and lands on Bowen road have been owned a good many years by Blair Domer. Blair | is a brother of Charlle, Will, Harry, Eulalie and Delia Domer. All the old boys know Charlie—National Fencibles, 1st District of Columbia Volunteers, and all that. Will teller with the Columbia National| Bank. Harry is with the Swartzell, | Rheem & Hensey Company. Eulalie | married Clarence Rheem, and that| brings up memories of gentle Clar- | ence, of Tom Hensey and George Swartzell. Delia married John Alle- man, a Harrisburg lawyer. She is a widow and lives in the Brunswick. LINGER-DOMER HOUSE. These Domer boys and girls are chi dren of good old Dr. Samuel Domer, | pastor for 35 years of St. Paul's Eng- lish Lutheran and H streets. He was born at bath Rest, Pa, near Altoona; married to Lydia L. Davis of Se at Eleventh b- was ngs Church, in Glenwood Cemetery. Further along the road is the place of William P. Pierce. Will is a son of William Thomas Pierce and their gardens have been growing flowers for Washington for 75 vears. Will's wife was Miss Ida May Taylor, daugh. ter of James W. and Margaret Tay- lor, who moved from the Redds Cor- ner-Surratts neighborhood to Ana- costia about 50 years ago. =4 TN 1851 the pedestrian-author George Simmons wyalked through this part of the District. For years Mr. Simmons was a clerk in the office of ters of a century ago by FEleazer Boone, after whom the hill and ridge are named. The hill upon which the house stands was called Stony Hill. Mr. Boone owned about 300 acres of land in that vicinity and was a large slaveholder, Brooke Berry being a | Grove, Pa.; died in 1901, and rests|chattel of his at one time. About 1850 he sold the estate to | George Brown, who, with his son, | John M. Brown, and nephew, Wilfred ! Marshall, owned it, respectively, un- | til 1850, since wHich time it has been |owned by divers other persons. It s at present (1891) owned by a syn- dicate, who are cutting the into villas, and the conform to those One street passes through the old mansion, which now occupied by 'a colored man named Jackson. Mrs. Steever, streets are to of Washington. a member of th Brown family, who lives in the old [ Marshall house, about a mile south, occupied the Boone house during the THE PIERCE HOUSE. the Secretary of the Treasury, and has been, and perhaps is, an active member of the Citizens' Association. series of *“Roadside Sketches” pub- lished in the Saturday “double-sheet” Star, and from his sketch, November 14, 1891, telling of a walk from Benning to Boones Hill, the Rambler | is happy to hand you what follows: “The old log cabin north of the line of works of Fort Meigs is a landmark. It was built more than 35 years ago by its present occu- pant,” Brooke Berry. Uncle Brooke and his polite old spouse are aged, respectively, 72 and 65 years and are both remarkably well preserved. They were allowed to occupy cabin during the war, although the soldiers were all around them. They tell you that the soldiers of Gen. Sickles' cammand were the first ‘to occupy ‘ the fort, and they retain a ivid recollection of the general him- self. “The old frame building that stands a few hunderd.yards to the north- | ward, with a brick chimney at each end, was built more than three-quar- Columbia Heights | He wrote a| the | war period and she had as boarders the officers on duty at the fort. In fact, the house was used as head- quarters by the officers New York, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania troops manned the fort at different times, and Mrs Steever, who is now a very | old lady, likes to talk about the jolly time they used to have during the var.” Remember that the neighborhood of which Mr. Simmons wrote in 1891 was at and near Fort Meigs, in the angle of the road from Benning and Alabama avenue, then called Ridge road. Purt of that section is now the village of Bradbury Heights. Walking from Fort Meigs toward Good Hope, Mr. Simmons wrote: | “Mr. Thomas Brown's pleasant frame cottage and greenhquse oc- cupy the site of old Fort Dupont. | Fort Dupont was bought by the Dis- trict and turned over to the War De- partment as part of the | preserving forts and fort sites, and | five years ago was loaned by the War | Department to the District as a tree nursery. Cliford Lanham, superin- tendent of parks and parking, has land up| plan for | his home there and lives in Thomas Brown's pleasant frame cottage.” There is a neighborhood story that Mr. Brown had a 20-foot Loa cor | strictor, which followed him around | the place and may still be seen the woods nearby. Knowing the way | that stories, fish and snakes grow. | the Rambler believes that Mr. Brown |bad a pet blacksnake about 2 feet {long and an inch thick. Continuing. | George Simmons wrote: “Not far from Fort Dupont, in the | direction of Good Hope and on the | right of the road in the midst of a | large peach orchard, js the pleasant | country place which was once the | home of Sayles J. Bowen. A few hun- | ared yards west of Fort Davis is the | entrance gate to Mr. Havener's coun- ‘U')' place. His residence was de- { stroyed by fire a couple of years ago With the assistance of George Sim mons, the Rambler has written his | portion for today. in Back in Great Neck. BY RING LARDNER. 'O the editor: I suppose every- body is dying to know what has took place lately around the old | homstead. Wen the 1st. place | we had a democratic convention in ew York and when I finally got- home from same the kiddies was cal- ling me mister not knowing who was it. The convention was what might |be termed a howling success and everybody. was in on the howling Four years from now they will prob- | ably be some more national politica! conventions but you won't hear about no great efforts on the part of the cities of Cleveland and New York to have them hold there respectively. Well when it was all over I moved back home and who should be train- ing for a fight right up on the hill Hut Georges Carpentier known as the greek god. Georges was training at the home of Jack Curley and one day we got a invitation to come over and spend the afternoon as Georges was going to learn the ladies of Great Neck how to reduce. Well practically all the ladles of Great Neck was present at the lesson and long before the end of the after noon they was all reduced. Per sonally I did not half to pay much attention to the instructions as the two conventions had took 16 pounds off of me. The next event on our social pro- gramme was when two stagd stars come out to spend the Sabbath, one of them being Beatrice Lillie, the star of Charlot's revue, and the’ other one was Winifred Lenihan, who played Joan of Arc in Mr. Shaw's play, and Miss Lenihan thought tha: they should be a picture taken of Miss Lillie standing alongside of our cow to show the contrast, so Miss Lenihan tried to move our cow, which is no small chore. and before she was % through with the job we bad to call for help from our retinue of { servants. | Well the next event was that I had | two nieces visiting here from Mich- |igan aged cleven and seven and one |day they decided to put on the play lof Oliver Twist assisted by my kid- dies. John played Fagin and his make-up was composed of a beard which was nothing more or less than that portion of his mamma's hair which had been bobbed. My reco!- lection of Fagin is that his beard | was red. but that did not seem to make no difference to Jonn. The climax of the play came when | Jimmy, who wasyplaying tne part |of Ollver, was “adopted by Rose { Maley's mother or whoever adopted {him and her line was “1 am going to imake you my own son,” and he re- plied: “Hot dog.” During Miss Lillie's visit we play- | ed charades and a sister of mine that jcome along to take care of her two !nieces gave one which was as foi- lows: ““This three syllable word which proper name of the | heavyweight pugilistic champion of | the world. The first syllable 1s Jack. The second syllable is a swear word And the third syllable is the plural | of the verb saw.” | After we had all failed, Miss | Lillle guessed that the name could be none other than Jack Dempsey. in is is a a The Personai Touch An Interesting advertisement which | appeared in the college paper: “if! | the gentleman who took my psychol- |o;-y notes from the cloak rack will return them before exams no ques-