Evening Star Newspaper, March 24, 1925, Page 6

1925, THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, TUESDAY, MARCH 24 THIS AND THAT THE EVENING STAR With Sunday Morning Edition. WASHINGTON, D. C. TUESDAY...... March 24, 1925 'FEODORE W. NOYES. .. .Editor The Evening Star Newspaper Company Business Office, 11th St. and Pennayivania Ave. New York Office: 110 East 42nd St. Chicugo Office: Tower Building. European Otfice : 16 Regent St.,London, kngland. The Evening Star. with the Sunday moraing edition, s delivered by «© o ity at @ ceats per mon Ly oniv. 48 5 mail or tele- made by car riers at the end of each month. Rate by Mail—Payable in Advance. Maryland and Virginia. Daily and Suoday....1 rr., $8.40; 1 Daily only 1 yr., $6.00; Sunday only....\\ 1101 yrl 82 . mo., mo., All Other State: Daily sand Sundas. Member of the Associated Press. is exclusively entitl r_republication of all news ed to it or not otherwise credited D and aiso the local uews pub. Lshed herein. Al rights of publication of special dispatches herein are also reserved. The Beginning and the End. Concrete strides toward what has too, long seemed a wholly idealistic dream are about to be taken in the watter of linking Rock Creek and Potomac Parks. It is true that for some years past the Government has heen acquiring the needed land. Yet ine lower vailey of the famous little stream along which we were told the linking rcadway was to run has till now remained an unsightly tangle of vegetation and general debris, and the Washingtonian, contemplating the scene from one or another of the city’s traversing bridges, had begun to feel about the park plan as little boys feel about the vague future when dreams of driving the back truck of a hook- and-ladder or being permitted to name thelr own bedtime shall come true. The new appropriation, to become avgilable on July 1, is small, it is trie—only $10,000 of the $300,000 needed to complete the work of *clean- ing up” the valley and bullding a motor road and bridle and foot paths— vet it gives the project a fresh start. Beginning at the Zoo end and work- ing south from the terminus of the present valley road it will be pushed by Col. Sherrill as far and as fast as the money will And the hope and expectation is that Congress will not suffer the work to stop until the remaining 12% acres of land to be purchased have been acquired, and the 3 miles of road affording a com- plete park drive from the District line to the tip of Potomac Park haye been completed. The achievement of desire long de- terred is heady wine. Sipping it, one's fancies run riot. One sees the drive- way extended across the great Memo- rial Bridge and into Arlington. One visions it passing in dignity through a Mall which extends from its present narrow confines to stately govern- mental buildings on the ‘south side of the Avenue. One dreams of it linked with a great boulevard which shall clrcle the city to the forts which de- fended it to the north, bisected by those broad avenues which shall be the approaches to the Nation's Capitol from North and South and East and West. A subtle wine, and a’ potent one, in- deed! Yet the best part of the dreams one dreams under its influence is that some day they shall come true. The lower Rock Creek road seems but the beginning today, vet it was all begun long and long ago. And though the progress is much too slow, it is prog- ress to an end in which the city and the Nation shall some day take im- measurable pride. is S — The United States Senate has from time to time exercised the privilege of making its advice seem more im- rortant by being reticent about its consent. D — Muyssoiini has recovered his health. [n spite of the assumptions of political power, the final word of euthority fre- «quently rests with the physician. e Nations may yet have enough to do earthquakes and inviting wars. decide that they in supervising tornadoes without ———— Pershing and Tacna-Arica. The acceptance by Gen. Pershing of the presidency of the commission which i$ to conduct the plebiscite to determine, under President Coolidge’s award, the future ownership of the provinces of Tacna and Arica, is a sratifying preliminary step in the ad- justment of an extremely delicate problem. The appointment and prompt acceptance indicate the thorough ap- preciation of both President Coolidge and the general of the impartance to pan-American relationships of the husiness to be undertaken. The tenor of recent dispatches from Peru, reporting an unfavorable popu- ar reaction to the Coolidge arbitra- tion award are mnot, it is true, to be taken as indicative of any serious re- entment on the part of Peru as & na- tion toward the nation which the President represented in his difficult task. The Peruvian government was swift to express its acceptance of the award as a whole upon its rendi- tion, and it spoke in good faith, being in full knowledge of the intricacies of the task which the President had un- dertaken at its behes: Arica controversy—as vital in the hearts of Peru and Chile as ever was the more widely understood bitterness over Alsace and Lorraine—is undoubt- edly loaded with diplomatic dynamite and demands the most able and dignified haodling. The extreme Peruvian viewpoint has for the past 30 vears insisted that there should be no plebizcite, deter- minative of ownership; that the terri tory in question was undoubtedly Peruvian until seized by Chile in the War of the Pacific; that the plebiscite provision of the treaty of Ancon be- came null and void when it was not carried out at the conclusion of the famous 10-year period, and that the provinces should be restored, unen- cumbered, to their original owner. To Yet the Tacna- | that the provinces were won in falr | fight; that Peru had accepted the plan of arriving at a plebiscitary decision as to their ultimate ownership; that the treaty of Ancon did not stipulate | that a piebiscite was to be held 10 years from the signing of that instru- ment but “aiter” 10 years had elarsed that she had been no more gallty than Peru in the matter of delaying the final decision, and that 1927 was | as truly “‘after a period of 10 years” as 1893, % The President made it quite clear in handing down his award that he | was neither denying nor airming the justice of ‘the claims of either dis- putant. He pointed out that, under the terms of the arbitration agreed to, he was only fundamentally concerned with determining whether or not the treaty of Ancon carrying the plebiscite provisicns was still operative. He de-| cided that it was. Had he declded otherwise it is diffi- cult to see how the matter could ever have been adjusted without resort to larmed force on the part of Peru. Whether or not Peru suffered injus- tice at the hands of Chile more than 40 years ago—the practical task be- fore all concerned today is to discover the safest way once and for ail to dis- | pose of this problem which has over- | long embittered the relationships of two great South American states. The President answered that ques- tion practically and fairly, as the Peruvian government has recognized and as the Peruvian people will recog- nize if they do not already do so Every possible provision to make the plebiscite fair from the Peruvian view- | point has been made—it being pos- sible for a man born in the provinces 80 or more years ago, yet never hav- ing lived there from that time till now, to cast his vote in the settle- ment. Gen. Pershing goes to Tacna-Arica to see, with his fellow members upon the commission, that absolute justice is done In the plebiscite. His presence should serve to demonstrate to the world the importance which the United States attaches to the necessity for disposing of the Tacna-Arica problem | for all time. Whatever the outcome of the plebiscite, that nation which does | not in good falth and good sportsman- ship abide thereby. grateful in the set- removal of a barrier to complete in- ternational amity in the Americ as, will be guilty of a grave offense for { which she will be held fully re sponsible. i | — Employment Agencies. A thorough official investigation should be made of charges that local | | employment agencies are exacting-ex- cessive fees from persons seeking | work, and if the law is being violated the licenses of offending agencies should be reyoked and the offenders punished. There is no place in the National Capital for a business that takes unfair advantages of the neces- sities “of the*unfortunate. The head of one agency writes to| The Star that the law limiting to $2 the fee which may be charged applies only to domestic help and lahorers. That is contrary to the view of the ‘COI‘POFIUOH counsel, and is a matter for the courts to decide. The same | agency head contends that “no pri- vate employment agency could exist In this city on a commission charge of less than 20 or 25 per cent of the month’s salary,” and argues that these charges are the same as those in effect in Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York for positions secured in business and professional capaci- ties. It it s {rue employment agencies cannot exist without charges of 20 to 125 per cent of an applicant’s -first | month's salary, then the business is uneconomically conducted and should be put on a better basis. It is too heavy a toll to take from the meager earnings of the type of workers who are employed through agencies. It the business cannot be condueted i economically on the present. competi- | tive basis, it should be rendered non- competitive, or, if necessary,.placed upon an official or institutional basis, | ‘Wherever the fault lles, it should be searched out and corrected. There is not and cannot be any sound excuse { for & situation which requires a per- son who secks employment to give up onte-fourth of a month's salary to pay the simple service of forming contact between employer and employe, ——— Justice has been delayed in the case of Grover Bergdoll to a point where few people would derive much satis- faction from seeing due penalty exact- ed from a gray-haired and rheumatic fugitive, i ———— In one respect Vice President Dawes is a disappcintment. Recent provoca- tion has ‘not sufficed to move him to dig up old materfal and remark “Helen Maria!" ———— Governmental Activity. ! The absence of Congress from Wash- | ington in the long recess may lessen the conspicuousness of Washington on the map, as denoted by the “spot news' dispatches, but let no one har- bor the impression that Washington is “dead” or that official life lies along a primrose path of dalliance the mean- while. It is true that the departure of Senators and Representatives eases up a bit the pressure of" personally presented business brought to the at- tention of the departments, but it is also true that the offices of the states- men and their clerks are still doing Dbusiness at the old stand on Capitol Hill, and there is always some task at hand from back home requiring dc- tion in the departments. o Then it happens, too, that Congress | is but & part of the vast governmental { machine. The Government of the Tnited States is a going concern and a monstrous big one. In its various ramifications it is flie largest “indus- try” in the world. It is, indeed, an fmmense assemblihg of human ma- chinery, every individual unit - per- forming a definite part of the huge and complex job: the directing coatrol in the hands of the cabinet officials at the heads of the several depait- ments; the driving -power the desires and heeds of 110,000,000 American. There are no dull days in Washing- ton. With monotonous, but ceaseless functions and produces. It works in the main noiselessly so far as the pub- lic is concerned. but “turns out the goods,” the raw material of which is furnished by legisiation and by the necessities of the country. Tha coming Summer and Fall prom- ise to furnish no exception to the rule, except that each year the volume of the output increases. This year the machinery equipment has been clhr- tailed by the policy of economy adopted by the administration, and there will be more work by the in- dividual units. There is ground for the appreliension that the public at large, in the absence of acquaintance with details, does not give due appre- ciation of or full credit to the ‘faith. ful and tireless workers in their great governmental mill at Washington. —————— Gratifying Income Tax Returns. Treasury officials tabulating the in- come tax returns under the March payments find evidence of payments in sufficient volume to confirm the | department’s previous estimates and to warrant expectation of providing for material reduction of taxes by the next Congress. The Treasury had cal- culated the March installment of in- come taxes as likely to produce $430.- 000,000, and it was expected that 80% of the March payment would be in the hands of collectors by March 21 for cértification to the Treasury. The figures on last Saturday showed that the total on that day approximated 80% of the estimated sum. These figures have given the Treas- ury a feeling of security as to the income for the Government in the current fiscal year. About $1,660,000,- 000 had been estimated in the Treasury program as the receipts of the Gov- ernment for the fiscal year. Assur- ance upon this point cannot be had, however, Secretary Mellon says, until the June payment is reported and |the full effects seen of the reduced rates carried by the present tax law. There is every indication that Uncle Sam is “on easy street,” financially and can go ahead confidently with plans for further tax revision. More- over, the returns of the March pay- ment disclose a conditlon of prosper- ity throughout the country that is de- cidedly gratifying. Looking forward to the commencing of work in Sep- tember upon the preliminaries of framing a new tax bill, it is disclosed that the Treasury will operate in this connection along different lines from those which obtained in the making of the last tax bill. It is not to be a strictly Treasury Department measure, nor known as ““the Mellon bill,” as was the last one. | Secretary Mellon is to co-operate with Congress leaders in the preparation of what he hopes will be a perfect tax revenue bill to be presented to the next Congress upon its assembling. Forecast of some features of the forth- coming measure was made by Chair- man Smoot of the Senate finance com- mittee before leaving for his home in Utah. He looks for the reduction of the maximum surtax to 25 per cent and the repeal of such “nuisance” taxes remain on the statutes. Chairman Smoot will also urge repeal of the inheritance tax on the ground that this source of revenue should be left exclusively to the States. He thinks, however, that the National Governmenet should have the entire use of revenue available through in- come taxation. as ———— There are citizens of Japan who in- sist on nursing a sense of grievance against the U. S. A. Most of these, if carefully observed, would probably prove to be of little help to their coun- try in the way of industrial activity. e Further political activities are ex- pected from W. J. Bryan. It would be remarkable, indeed, if his brother Charles were the only member of the family capable of asserting prestige under his expert tutelage. ————— SHOOTING STARS. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON Comparison. Eeneath an oak I stood, one night, Which through the centuries had Brown. My span of being seemed so slight Compared to that which it had known! And through its branches gleamed a star In majesty above us all, With its reminder that we are Sq evanescent and so small! Less Confiding. “Republics are ungrateful,” re- marked the ready-made philosopher. “F don’t think so,” answered Sena- tor Sorghum. “A republic is just like the average plain, simple citizen. Aftér he has been gold-bricked a few times he begins to get suspicious.” Alchemy. . The alchemist used to pretend to transmute Base metal to gold that we prize. His place now is held by stock tip- sters acute ‘Who tell you to buy for a rise. Jud Tunkins says the closing of a bathing beach is no encouragement to economy in wearing apparel. Sport. For the sturdy athlete we may can- ®dly say Our hearts with approval are full. He simply makes good in a personal ‘way And asks no political pull. Assurance. “I understapd Crimson Gulch has & new set of traffic regulations.” “Don't worry,” answered Cactus Joe. “Us townspeople has come to know and appreciate you as ene of the most_genial of salesmen and most Ifberal of poker players, Like most local restrictions, them of Crimson Gulch is made for strangers only.” - Filibustering. When our dear infant’s giving out An unrestrained, enduring shout, We stand in courtesy and say. “He'll be a Senator some day “At least,” said Uncle Eben, “Eve had de sense to feed Adam de apple raw, s0’s he wouldn’ have a chance to this Chile coumgared with the assertion | grind, this great bulk of machinery |complatn "bout her cookin®. ) What wouldn’t a man give never to have to do anything he didn’t want to do! Or say anything he didn't want to say! Perhaps there are a few persons in that enviable position, but most of us are daily confronted with situa- tions where we do other than we naturally desire. One would not seek release, of course, from the dutles of life which often are more necessary than pleas- ant. That is not what I mean. There are scores of situations, how- ever, wherein man finds himself faced with the necessity of a certain course of action, when his Inmost desires run just to the contrary. Or he needs must utter a certain thing, when honestly he would pre- fer to say just the opposite. Every reader can recall scores'of such time: when he would have given pexi week's salary to have been able to speak his mind openly. Take that occasion when old Hen Jones hreezed up in his new Spring {sult Hen was a sight. The outfit did not fit; the trousers were too long, the coat too short, the vest wrinkled four ways to Sunday, the color was a scream and the style hopelessly a la mode for Hen. “How do you like my new sui he asked. in that happy tone that plainly says, “You cannot do any- thing but like it, of course!”, You, spineless creature, say you are supposed to sa: “Great! { you chortle. “I like it, Hen. - Where'd u get 1t?" “Down at Fittem’'s,” he replies. well nieased at your approbation. “You can get yourself one there, cheap, if you don’t”wait too long. How do you like these pants?” “Great,” you murmur, which is not so far off, either. They are great— in length. * k% ¥ 1f one followed his inner thougths now he would be involved in a con- stant round of recrimination, argu- ment, perhaps fist fights. But under a perfect system of liv- ing, utterance of one's true thoughts would be gravely and seriously met and only happiness might be the net result. Then—and only then—it would be possible for a man to stay at home In the evening when his wife wanted to go out. At present ghe conversation runs something like this: “Aw, let's stay home tonight.” ‘But we have been owing the Man- devilles a call for a long time.” an't we put it off?’ What for?” wanted to read ou can read any time. t 1 might have when T got all {tective story, 3 {up the Mandevilles “far ipto the night, paper characters have it. We are constantly giving in weakly to the suggestions of others, simply because we do not have the courage to resist. A friend comes around and pro- poses a hike of 5 miles or so. You loathe hikes. Steadfastly, for years, you have refrained from joining the wanderlusters, or engaging in any such cheerful walking en masse. You long to gpeak your mind. and declare flatly: “No, I will not go on ‘Get your known ft! Just set for a good de- ou would have to think the comic 3-mile hike, a 2-mile hike or even a t-mile hike. 1 am off hikes. I have something else-to do.” But what you say Is: “Oh, I Oh, well, maybe it will be fun. Yes, Ratification by the United States Senate of the treaty by which sover- eignty over the Isle of Pines is re- linquished to Cuba has been gen ally commended by the newspaweérs of the country, Credit is given to President Coolidge and ex-Secrotary Hughes for their part In urging s&c- tion, emphasis is placed upon the ob- ligation to Cuba, and better pan- American feeling is forecast. The rights of American residents on the Island are declared properly -pro- tected. The New York Times suggests that this action is a significant sequel, if not a consequence, of Vice President Dawes' address to the Senate. The Times also says: “The 700 American residents have lost a weak case, but there is no good reason why they should not prosper under Cuban rule as thelr countrymen do in Pinar del Rio or-in Oriente.” “Ratification rounds out in striking fashion,” according to the Detroit Free Pre: the achievements of ex- Sécretary Hughes as a statesman, genuinely devoted to the cause of pan-American = friendship. ~ Taken apart from his record In other fleld his work in Central and South Amer- ica would alone have been enough to insure him a secure place in his- tory.” The Buffalo Evening News re- cords the fact that Mr. Hughes sent word that he would like “this Isle jof Pines affair cleared up and off the books of the State, Dep#tment.. The Senate has finally obliged in the mat- ter. In so doing it has ended.an ab- normal and irregular situation, one that did not reflect credit on the United States.” 5 The _Providence Journal states: “The ratification was expected. The President had set himself resolutely in. favor of it, and many Senators felt that it was time to put an end to a tedious and irri- tating dispute.” “It is a mistake,” suggests the Philadelphia_ Bulletin, “to speak or think of the American flag having been hauled down in the Isle of Pines. Although at the very start it was for a time maintained that the island’ was United States territory, it was turned over to Cuban administration when the island was evacuated in the 1902 settlement with Cuba. The treaty simply gives formdl seal to a Cuban claim acknowledged by Hay, Root, Roosevelt and Taft, none of them men capable of sacrificing any ‘real right of this country anywhere on earth. o e o K “It has taken 20 years and more to demonstrate this Nation's good faith, of which there ought not to have been—and really never was—any question in this connection,” ‘in the opinion of the Indianapolis New: “It would be idle for Americans to preach justice and-moderation to the 0ld World while yielding to the lure of agarandizement and territorial greed in the New World" is the comment of the &t. Joseph 'News Press. A decision of Chief Justice Fuller that by a well settled prin- ciple of international law the Iele of Pines was Cuban territory and that it was not ceded by Spain to the United States is citéd by the Minneapolis Tribune. The *Munche“ter Union holds the view that “there is sound cause for congratulation. The treaty finally was ratified on the -merit of the facts, but there is reasonable satis- tacticn in finding the doing of the right thing productive of an increase in general amity among the nations of the two Americas.” The Seattle Times temarks that “it is the fui- fillment of a long-deferred promise to the government-of Cuba’ and -settles for all time a wearisome controversy.” The 8t. Paul Dispatch gives its ap- proval in these words: “The United what | a 5-mile hike or a 4-mile hike, or a| Press Sees Duty In Return of Isle of Pines BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL. it is a very pretty d Oh, right."” * K % ¥ Mrs. Plover brings her darling child Jenny around to call. Now Jenny ought never to be brought to call on anybody. At the least, It is a misdemeanor, and at the worst a crime. Jenny, who is bright and cute and up to tricks, is going on § vears old. Within her charming person she confines the vitality of six colts, the stubborness of six mules and the meanness of a couple of whelps. (I do not know exactly what a whelp is, but it fits Jenny all right.) “Now sit down over there” says Jenny's mamma, for effect. Knowing her offspring pretty well by this time, Mrs. Plover realizes that Jenny will not even hear the request, much less heed it. “So" glad you came “over, Mrs. Plover,” sa; the wife, while you, in acute misery, keep a watchful eve on Jemny. You do not have long to walt, The bright sprite sprints over to the radio table. “Ah—ah,” clucks Mrs. Plover to her Ploverette. You love that warning cluck, It sounds so—ferocious—and is so—meaningless. It is but sound and fury, signifying—nothing. Jenny knows it. t0o, as well as you do. The young imp makes @ grab for the top of the radio, and raises the cover, peering down into the inner recesses, where repose the 5 expen- | sive tubes. | “What are these™ screams Jenny, seizing one of the tubes in her chub. by little hands. “Let that alone!” you warn, spring- | Ing forward. Mrs. Plover calmly rocks |away. “Let the radio things alone, honey,” she breathes. Honey, by this time. despite your frantic haste, has managed to do what | you feared—break one of the tubes, your favorite detector tube, at that! “Oh, I'm so sorr rocks Mrs. Plover, “Oh, out. Wouldn't it be great if you could ually make the following speech: Mrs. Plover, this brat of yours ought to be left home when you call. If you do not mind allowing her to destroy your own things, you should have some pity on your friends. What she needs Is the broad side of a paddle. Allow me to make one for you!" ok ok % Yet, after all, perhaps it is just as well for us that we cannot do what we want to, say what we would like, or not do what we do not want to! Methinks that would be something like the modern trend in household appliances. The object and aim of manufacturers seems to be to take all motion, all effort, out of running a home. In the old days a woman brought up six chidren, cooked, did the washing, cared for the house, and did a few other odd jobs, and never thought so much of fit, Today a-woman has an electric washing machine, and hires a colored £irl to run it. - Not that any one would wish th old days returned. God knows every- thing for the emancipation of women is welcome. But pretty soon modern life will become static, if this thing keeps on. You had to hop up every three to it doesn’t matter,” you grit | your phonograph. Now you have a radio that runs itself all evening. Life may get too easy for enjoy- ment. Similarly, if we never did any- | thing but what we wented to do, and |always sald what we thought, per- haps society could not stand the strain. Fulfilled States has been in the position of a parcy to a contract who has accepted zonsideration without performing his share of the bargain.” Herald belleves “the ridiculous delay would never have occurred if Cuba had not been a pigmy nation.” There has been a decided strain in pan-American relationships,” de- clares the Atlanta Constitution, “be- cause of policies of this Government toward some of the little republics to the south that have been miscon strued through Latin impulsiveness This action will undoubtedly accom- plish a better feeling.” The Utica Observer-Dispatch states: “There should be no wavering in our treat- ment of the South American coun- trics. So far as known, there has never been any division over ‘the ideals expressed by Elihu Root when Secretary of State, or later by Pres dent Wilson In his address to pan- American delegatel The Detroit News regrets that the Senate's pro- crastination encouraged land specu- lators “to grab island tracts for a song and sell them at fabulous profits to Americans. It 18 these settlers, naturally, who havesbeen most active in combating the treaty. The Lynch- burg News finds that there is evi- dence of a general belief that the Nation has acted with wisdom and justice. This should demonstrate, it says, by concrete object lesson, “that the United States not only insists that the powers of the Eastern Hemi- sphere shall not dominate in . South and Central America, but also seeks no such domination herself.” Practice of Selling “Day-Old”’ Chickens Hit To the Editor of The Star; Every vear, as Easter time ap- proches the Humane Society receives numerous protests from citizens against the practice indulged in by certain stores in the city of selling ‘day-old” chickens. These chicks are usually bought by thoughtless wom- en as pets for their small children. The child, not knowing any better. uses the chick as it would a doll, squeezing, choking and throwing it around, not properly feeding or other- wise caring for it until the poor thing finally dies a lingering and cruel death. A, moment's thought will convince any ore that a chicken of this age should mot be handled, especially by a small child, but should be with the mother hen to be brooded and cared for as nature intended. When the Humane Society appeals to the storekeeper to dis- continue the practice of selling these chicks It is met with the statement that there is no cruely or violation of the law in selling them, but that the cruelty, if any, is inflicted or suffered by the pruchaser. Thie is technically true, but cruelty follows the selling, almost as surely as night follows day, and the seller is morally responsible for it. This soclety desires to enter its most vigorous protest agalust the practice referred to, and earnestly appeals to the merchants to discon- tinue the sale of thess chicks and to paremts not to buy them. The amount of profit derived from the sale of a single chicken is certainly very small and does not in any de- gree compensate for the cruelty in- volved, and respectadle mercliants should be ashamed to accept what is little less than blood money when it brings so small a return in profits and no honor or-glory to the ‘estab- lishment. JOHN P. HEAP, Secretary Washington Humane Soclety. NEW BOOKS AT RANDOM Le M MARK TWAIN'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. Harper and. Brothers. Mark Twain steps out here in front of his own autobiography to tell us that it can't be done—that no man can write his own life nor that of another. For life is not words, not deeds even. It (s, instead, that deep- seated, exclusive, personal possession of dally existence—thoughts and feelings, desires and dreams, a thing of herole panoramic projection and of woefully meager fulfillment. Above all, it is a jealously guarded secret which, not for the world, would one deliver over even to the cool scrutiny of his own physical senses, much less to the forum of a general accounting and judgment. Acts and words are but “the thin crust of his world with its scattered snow summits and its vacant wastes of water’—so. trifiing @ part of him. Blographies are but the haberdashery of the human—the coats and buttoms, the straps and strings of the man himself. Having decided—and in good rea- son, too, it seems—that ‘the thing can't be done, Mark Twain casts wbout for'some means of achieving the impossible. R It was over in Florence—something e 20 years ago— that he hit upon & scheme by way of which, if at all, an autobiography might be produced. “Start at no particular time of your life; wander at your free will all five minutes to put a new record on | The Syracuse | over it; talk only about tie thing which interests you for the momen : drop it the moment its intere.( threatens to palg, and turn vour taik upon the new and interesting thing that has come into your mind mean- while.”” Combine the diary and the autobiography. The former insures vivid effects and serves, besides, as groundwork for contrasts of similar | things lying further back in the past. | “And, 80, I have found the right plan“—one that turns labor into amusement and play. Here you have the method of Mark Twain's autobi- ography—an inspired one you will say upon testing it. * ¥ ¥ ¥ In pursuance of this plan Mark Twain sets out with no more than a nod of recognition to the self-evident fact of his having been born, with 1no more than a passing gesture of | greeting to the time sequence with | which the common run of biograph- jers are so exclusively concerned. Jn- deed, save for a curt bow by way of | Introducing himself, one might in the beginning surmige this to be the story of Gen. Grant, to whom Mark Twain gives many pages of recollec- tion, many words of unqualified ap- | preciation and homage. And by way |of these Gen. Grant stands alive in many an intimate disclosure that we are the richer for sharing here. Then others come trooping through the mind of this handsome white-flan- neled man with the shaggy mane, who paces the veranda back forth talking himself out to Albert Bigelow Paine, the court of final ap- peal in rounding up for print these| ranging and vivid pictures of the| past. A fine company marches by, ‘nnllble people about whom cur:usll)’i {is always keen and not easily satis- {fied. Now and then these personal | contacts glye way to litue soiiloquies | upon--say, the character of man, the effects of age, the beauties of the| German language, grammar, whatnot. | The matter of little account, the | munner of prime importance. Friend. | |1y sketches. all, yet never of that| !spurious friendliness that sacrifices| the tryth for undiscriminating and worthless praise. N interesting and out- standing people honored here with| the uniquely distinctive considera- tion of Mark Twaln, none is more interesting than this one, or that, who stands as the creation of his| own brain. Col. Selders, Tom Sawvyer, | Huckelberry Finn—nobody could be more in our hearts than these. Not any prince or flotentate whatever. And we read here in amazement that | 25 years ago Tom Sawyer and Huck- leberry Finn were flung out of the Concord Public Ltbrary as books likely to have a bad effect on chil- dren. “At the January meeting it/ was decided not to place Huck and | Tom in the children’s rooms, where ‘Little ~Nellie's Silver Mine’ Dnd“ | ‘Dotty Dimple at Home' were .xl'(hr\]:’ the pace for those rooms.” Then the children took the matter up with such floods of protesting letters that the wise elders were quite powerless to stem the tide. _Children know. They always have. They always will, if the old folks will let them alone. E I A And Col. Sellers—God bless him! Hear Mark Twain himself talk absut the colonel. “Many persons regarded Col. Sellers as a fiction, an in- vention, an extravagant impossibil- ity, and did me the honor to call him a.‘creation’; but they were mis- taken. I merely put him on paper as he was; he was not a person who could be exaggerated. The incidents which Iooked most extravagamt, both in the book and on the stage, were not Inventions of mine, but were fact of his life” Col. Sellers “was my mother's favorite cousin, James Lampton and James Lamp- ton floated, all his days in a tinted mist of magnificent dreams, and dled at last without seeing one of them realized. 1 _saw him last in 1884, when it had been 26 years since I ate the basin of raw turnips and washed them down with a bucket of water in his house. He was become old and white-headed, but he was all there yet—not a detall wanting; the happy light in his eye, the abounding hope in his heart, the persuasive tongue, the miracle-breeding imagi- nation—all there. And before I could turn around he was polishing up his Aladdin's lamp and flashing the se- Ccret riches of the world before m And he began to tell Twain about a ‘small venture” that he had in New Mexico through his son—“only a lit- tle thing—a mere trifle—partly to amuse my leisure, partly to keep my capital from lying idle, but mainly to develop the boy. Fortune's wheel is ever revolving; he may have to work for his living some day. A mere triffie”” And so it was, Twain says, “as he began it. But under his | deft hands it grew and blossomed and _spread—oh, beyond imagina- tion.” And again, “Yes, it's but a triffle as things. go nowadays—but amusing. It passes the time. The boy thinks great things of it, but he is young, you know, and imagina- tive; lacks the ~experience which comes of handling large affairs, and which tempers the fancy and per- fects the judgment. I suppose there’s a couple of milllons in it, possibly three, but not more, I think; still for a boy, you know, just starting in 1ife, it is not bad. I should not want him to make a fortune—let that come later. It could turn his head, at this time of .life, and In many ways be a damage to him." “Then he_ said something about having left his pocketbook lying on the table in the main drawing room at_bhome, and about jts being after banking hours, now, and—-" Then, gratefully Twain acknowl- edges his debt to James Lampton for Col. Sellors. And we here, too, ac- knowledge our debt to this surpass- ing and fmmortal twain. 3 #x % k. A rovel autobiographic plan, one that ‘certainly huas something to do with the striking quality of this ad- venture in_a new biographic form. ! Yet it is, after all, Mark Twain him- self, who, pouring his own abundant epirit into the story, animates it and shapes it to the paitern of his own seasoned art, an_art that quickens Of all the and | { word, carpentier, BY FREDERIC Q. Was there ever a canal along| B Street northwest? What was the stone house af the southwest corner of Seventeentl: and E and the smaller one on the northeast corner?>—T. C. P. A. The Chesapeake and Potomao | Canal was on B street, and the stone | house was a canal house. The small #tone structure is the top of a gate. Years ago, when this ground was | lower it had about it a high fence. | One entrance was through this gate. Q. How often get paid’—G. W. A. The President of the United States is pald once a month. His eheck is for $6,250 | | Q. Has Easter Sunday sver occur- red in May?—A. B. A. Easter Sunday has mnever oc- curred as late as May 1. Easter Sun- day is the first Sunday after the pascal full moon, that is, the first| Sunday after the ecciesiastical full | moon, on or mext after March 21.| Easter day, therefore. can not be | earlier than March 22, nor later than April 25. | does the President Q. What is the real name of the smoke tree or bush?—M. G. A. The technical name cotinus, is Rhus Q. When did the choir of old Trin- | ity Church, New York, first appear in | vestments?—P. G. A. The choir so appeared for the flist time on Sunday, October 14, 1860, | The occasion was the service attend- | ed by Albert Edward, Prince of | Wales, accompanied by his suite. The vestments had been given to Trinit gome time before, but certain influ- ential members of the church had | Q. Why are revenue cutters called by that name’—k H. . A. Revenue cutters are so-called because originally the vessels used In the service were of the cutter- yacht type. Q. Do metals expand in the day- time and contract at night?>—W. W. A. Metals expand on exposure to sunlight. This is owing to the rise In temperature caused by absorption of the sun's rays. Q. Was there ever a eivil wi in the State of Arkansas?>—W. T. C. A. On April 30, 1874, at Pine Bluff, there “was a skirmish or battle be- tween the followers of two rival can- didates for Governor of Arkansas, Baxter and Brooks. The Baxter forces attacked the Brooks forces. Eleven men were killed and 27 wounded. Baxter was afterward recognized as Governor by President Grant. Q Was Daniel Boone a native| American?—W. D. B. | A. Daniel Boone was born in Bucks | | County, Pa., February 11, 17 - are people who build called | rs"?—F. B. C-. S carpenter” is origi- | nally from the Latin ‘carpentarius,” | meaning 2 bullder in wood. The French means an artificer in wood as distinguished from a join- | BY PAUL ¥ The tremendous tornado which swept through Kansas, Ilinois and Indiana last. week so dazed the pub- lic with its horrors that not yet has ts terror subsided. Nothing to com- pare with it has ever been recorded| in Ameriea, yet thi continent has al-| most a monopply of wind storms.| Between $00 and 900 deat curred | within a few minutes, together with 3,000- victims of wnjuries, apd the property loss exceeds $30,000.000. But what will be the death’ toll to fol- low, from the wounds, the pestiience likely to come, unless science wins an almost impossible preventive victor: > ow ok % There are some phases of the ca- tastrophe which are & from the details of the “spot news,” but which may be misunderstoods in popular conception First, that storm was not merely a “cyclone,” but was a tornado. Perhaps it may be said that all tornadoes are cyclones, but all eyclones are not tornadoes. The unscientific idea is that a storm that is a “twister” with a funnel-shaped cloud reaching to the ground and sweeping aloft whatever it touche is a cyclone, while a storm which rushes like a cannon ball across the country is mot & cyclone. ‘According to the United States Weather Bureau, the word “cyelone” was introduced by Henry Pidington of Calcutta in 1848 and was applied by its author to all circular or high- 1y curved winds, without relation to the strength of the wind; that in- clude “tornadoes.” In time the term came to be used in meterological parlance In a narrower sense, and is now applied to an extensive system of winds blowing around an area of low barometric pressure, often cov- ering -an area of 500 or 600 miles diameter, A cyclona is not neces- sarily @& storm, although the wind might become o strong as to con- stitute -one. % A cyclone is accompartfied with rain or snow and extends over a wide area, with winds circling in the di- rection reverse of the way hands move around a clock dial. Then there are anti-cyclones, in Wh wind moves in the opposite direction from cyclonic winds; they go in the direction of hands around a dial. an anti-cyclone the weather is fair. There is never a tornado without a cyclone, hence in all tornadoes the wind circles contrariwisa from the directign of a clock hand. This means only ncerning storms north of the equator; south of the equator the re- verse is true, for it s the motion of the earth around its axis which gives direction to the wind currents. * % ¥ ¥ Tornadoes cannot be Conditions may be observed which may or may not bring on tornadoes, but the actual event is not yet pos- sible to foresee. Warm winds begin to blow from the south—from the West Indies—and as they sweep northwestwardly, they may come in contact with cool winds from the north. Then starts a whirling mo- tion at the height of the clouds—half or three-quarters of a mile above earth. That whirl rapidly increases, and, as It does so, the vortex extends down until it touches the ground. The vortex usually is only a fow rods wide, but as it travels over the sur- face the speed of the wind is im- measurable. No measuring instrument of the meteoroligists has ever survived such a storm, hence sclence has no meas- ure of the velocity of a tornado wind, except such as might be calculated from the dynamics necessary to per- form jts feats in lifting and trans- porting weights of a known expanse. Planks have been driven through oak trees, feathers have penetrated heavy Planks. The force overcome in such concréte incidents may be calculatéd. Science says, therefore, that. tor- nadoes must blow at a_rate of mere than 500 miles an hour. That Mmeans the speed Of am atom of air around. its whirling . column, = though = the column itself may. be . progressing along the land at only a speed Of & man watking. The cu]um!} sometimes train. % * words to-mem and women in-a story more enthralling, even, than the fic- tion that has given him a lasting tame. Dr. Humphrey, chief of the United States Weather Bureau, has esti- mated that the total area actually touched by last week's funnel was | were prevented their use i | the disease, | ch the | In | predicted. | travels With the speed of an express| ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS > J. HASKIN er or cabinetmaker—one who doe the beavier and onger work in wood constructior. Q. i whites Faliz Indians and the Turners How were engaged fight?—S. J A o intelligent estimate can bhe made of the number of Indians en- gaged in this Massachusetts fight. Capti Indian women said that 400 killed, The Pocumtucks suf fered severely and their power wa forever broken. Onme hundred and forty-five white men participated i the fight. Forty-one were killed and three were wounded. attack oc- curred on May 19, 1676, Q. What is the trict in Mississippi?—3L L W A. A shoestring district is a long narrow election district. In Missis- sippi it was applied to the sixth congressional district, about 300 miles long with an average breadth of 20 miles. “Q. Is the tone of a cello exactls produced by the talking machine? S, A. Tt is not yet possible produce the tone exactly Q. Can vou give me the seating capacity of the Church of St. Domen- ico in Palermo?—R. B. A. This celebrated Sicilian Church as a seating capactiy of 12,000. many in ng” dis to re h Q. Where did Raphael paint Bearing the Cross?'—N. §. G. A. Raphael painted this pict Palermo, for the Church c Maria della Spasima. L ing was taken t Q. Where 16 cents a in Germany before the A. Under the Germ | Claimg Commission | bank balances in C owing in marks will the rate of 16 and 17.4 mark. The claim for rate must have been to April 1823, the tern of the six-month period claims were to be filled. 1f dividual failed to file a clain the commission, but corresponded with the State Department in regard to his case previous to said date and the State Department falled to for- ward his correspondence until after that date, his case will be give th same considerati as if his ¢ had been filed. However, if the individua has not acted as specified above, he will only receive the value the German marks according to the pres- ent rate of exchange, which 1,000, 000.000,000 to one reichsmark, wh is quoted at 23.80 cents. war and debts be tled this exchange made previous 9 an in- with (The Star invites its readers this information service freely tensive organization is serve you in any capacity that information. Failure to use the deprives you of benefits 1o whi are entitled. Your obligation is ent stamp. inclosed with your for direct reply. Address The Star formation Burcaw, Frederic J. Hask Director, Tuwenty-first and C northwest.) An e lates t h inquiry 1 ". COLLINS. only about eight square r the point the fu about one-fifth of a mile area actually devastated nel was less than on of area of the District of Columbia, for the storm leapd:up and skips mwuch area. then drops to ear: is_due to the configu hills. which Interrupt def current. - Destruction occurred { from cubsidiary winds outside of the | main funnel.. a * A | and moves in a path vary few rods to 80 rods, trav southwest to northe At nado nearly always occurs I { afternoon, usually between and 4 { o'clock—very rarely beginning after | 6 o'clock, though when it begins be- fore 5 o'clock it may ¢ tinue int | the evening. The tornado season between March and O ber, | greatest frequency between and May. | t is not correct to say that east ¢ the Alleghenies there.are no to | does, although such storms arc not | so frequent as in the Mississippi Val- |ley and in the Southern States. Hur | ricanes differ from tornadoes, in that | the hurricanes have no funnei-sh d clouds, may not be acco anied by rain, and the wind seldom exceeds 1200 miles an hour, while, as stated {above, in the funnel-whirl bf the t nado the velocity is two or thre | times as swift. Hurricanes occur the East as well as upon the sea fact, in all regions—but they a as destructive as tornadoes when they roll great tidal over islands or upon the coast, At the United States Weather Bu reau records show that tornad have been most frequent in the Mid pwest and South. Arkansas leads in the number recorded—76 in an eight year period. Next come Kansas Texas, Towa, Missouri and Oklah No other State has had as many 50 in eight years. Arkansas had 2 in one year—1816. Kight States had none in the eight-year period—Con- necticut, Delaware, Maine, Nevad Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont and | West Virginia. | ‘In prior periods Finley récords least one tornado in each of the States, except Washington, and Henr found one tornado in Oregon. The following States never missed one vear out of elght without at least lone fatal tornado: Arkansas, Tow Kansas, Michigan, Missouri, Nebras ka, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Texas. In the entire country, from 1916 to 1923 inclusive, there were tornadoes—in 1917, 121. The aggrerate loss of life from tor inadoes in the last eight-year period | (not including 1925), was 1,929, wit la property loss of $62.000,000. The catastrophe of last week a equ: to half of the combined tornadoes for eight years, and was eight time as fatal as the worst one of any pr vious period as recorded by H Hunter of the Weather Bureau charge of the climatological service Only one tornado is recorded having started in the District of lumbia in the last eight-year period That was on April 5, 191, when about 3 o'clock a destructive tafnado began |in ‘Rock Creek Valley and swept into Maryland. fhna ling fr ternado always occurs on N waves k% | Tornadoes similar to ours in Amer |ica are almost unknown:in Europe |Last year there was one in Saxony {and one In Belfast, Ireland. This Eu- !ropean immunity is attributed to configuration of the earth, where wountains break up the flow of hot or cold currents. In the United States |there is a belt of frequency across inorthern Mississippi, Alabama, Geor- |gia and South Carolina, where the hot {currents from the West Indies meet the cold of our North, Then there is |a beltigovering Tennessee, Kentuck) ! West Wrgluia and Virginia, wher there are very few such storms, whilc north of this Belt to the Great Lakes and New Englnad the region is dan gerous for tornado frequency, thoug! rot 80 dangerous as Misgourl, Kansas and Arkansas. These conditions will always exist, since there is nothing that -man can do to counteract them. The only sufe- guards are =o-called cyclone celur for retreat when storm conditions ap- Dea: (Copyright, 1923, by Paul V. Colt