Evening Star Newspaper, March 29, 1925, Page 75

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, MARCH 29, 1925--PART 5. ‘Smithsonian Visitors Attracted Rambler Makes New Visit to Bel Air, By Increasing Scope of Exhibits) Once Homeof Gen.Ewell’s Ancestors Washington’s Pioneer Attraction Established by Will of English Chemist and Sup- Military Associate of Jackson Was Commander of Confederate Troops at Manassas, Near y ported by Endowment to Which Later Gifts Were Made. ¥ Family Estate, and in Other Engagements of War. BY W. P. TRUE. ] NS unday, the 15th ultimo, the | SeEbiss ez skl or o Ton e o s ONG dreds - Rambler gave yOu the front of the mansion There Iis year who make their pilgrim- of his photographs of Bel A Y ; o g derneath it while it in full bloom S8t tc ks Nadionrs “fi’;“al Alr, the home of the Ewells, B i Gt 3 i s . Jvon will dream of what happened EHiel ate prGEAlIY v i burial place of Parson Weems, 3 & L% 2 by who leave without visiting the etcetera, In Prince William County, 3 & Mr. Pearson pointed to a freestons sonian Institution and its branches between Occoquan and Brentsville. oy # pr eavatore b bt a the National Museum and the Nationa When he went to Bel Alr, tled the : sald: “I have heard that the Zoological Park. In fact, the Smitl parts of his camera together, and # S |t v o ot e ola sou sonian was undoubtedly Washington's got it to stand up, the thought came ” v | at Dumfries.” Probably sc pioneer attraction, since as early as to him (you may not believe it) that s H repairs to Bel Air house 1850 its name was a household word he had seen the place before. Many ; - | mude fn 1825, ang it in' Amerlca. owing to the many years historic places look alike, and the| B v that fire destroved n of debate in Congress as to the dis- Rambler does not remember all he 3 4 ha ¢ e Sonn position of the Smithson bequest writes of. He sometimes forgets his- % & William was moved from The annual 'numhr'r of visitors at toric places unless there is some ¥ cc % . 3 Srontaville It = present is very large. In 1924, the dramatic ncident in his visit. He ’ - ! some freestone fron Natural History Building of the N may forget that he went to Castleton b L courthouse was used tional Museum was visited by 540, Hall, noble pile of a colonial family, 5 k Air, persons; the Arts and Industries Build- because there was no other incident ¢ ] | Aol ing of the Museum by 200,012; than writing the history of the place | (HARLES EWELL & Smithsonian Building by 104.601, and 4 3 g 1 . Py ’ and the glories of the family to fix ‘C e the National Zoological Park by 2,.- LR e A ;P . it in his mind. Heo will remember bine s, 442,880, the largest attendance in the - Gravel Bank Manor, because a dog LT o i history of the park bit him as he climbed the fenc of a Huguenot minister Of this multitude of visitors to the will remember Spunkwood Grove,’ o a,»-w“,‘,,.‘,j; N hnes Smithsonian group of buildings on the | cause the farmer wanted to shoot i 1732, leaving & Mall, filled with the wonders of na- him for trespassing: and he will ever ture and art and the trophies ¢ remember Cedar Blossom Farm, be- scientific discovery, but few know the cause the maid gave him an alluring oAt Dumfrie romantic history of the origin of the - et 5 7 glance and buttermilk 4 sounts; Lo institution or the real significance of % eSS S < e veren o He had forgot (some authorities 4 4 2 } B4 | iamed Bel Air s the work carried on there. NG " i & > 2 LR P P on our paper disapprove “forgotten”) i ; 3 p 5 s Col. Jenke On August 2§, 1838, the clipper ship St 3 43 4 3 that he wrote Bel Air 10 years ago. # 1 the Mediator arrived in New YorK Har- Biaas S : i % k& As he told you the story of Parson bor after a stormy voyage from Lon- | i Weems, George Washington's first don DElnsing an ber Boln 208 a00Tso1n) : SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, FOR THE INCREASE AND DIFFUSION OF KNOWLEDGE AMONG biographer, the Rambler pensively at Willlam and Mars F P I I R I I | MEN. FOUNDED BY JAMES SMITHSON, AN ENGLISHMAN, WHO DIED IN 1829, AND BEQUEATHED | chewed his fountain pen and mut-| | i ; Jefferson visited his United States, “to found at Washing- HIS FORTUNE FOR THAT PURPOSE. e . Reama (Rpuliasg g . b ? severa) times. One o ton, under the name of the Smith- | s = caln himself he went to the Public ; H 5 Jesse was Thomas T L sonfan Institution, an establishment |demonstrate, in 1895 the practica- |sonfan, Dr. Charles D. Walcott, has|rendered great service to aeronautics [ Worary and asked Alss Bleanor | |7 big 1 ¢ me a physician, martied Tl for the increase and diffusion of [bility of mechanical flight with ma-|received international recognition for | through his connection with the na- | 2y R® 50 B8 Bad Writcen & plece o i * i ; ter ¢ miiestond knowledge among men.” chines heavier than the air. sustain-|his researches and publications on|tional advisory committes for aero-|counye = E, i ,': i “;" $ E 12 8 i Pemetary, of !" b This sum was immediately recolned | ed and propelled by their own power, | Cambrian geology and paleontology. | nauties. toa v e Eleanor lookeq up. the % #1 p Georgetown. Elisabesh Btoddert into American money at the United |and he later designed and built the |He has discovered and described not | The activities arising from the early | i1dex and eaid: “You wrote a page s 2 2 1 related to the en, 14 an States Treasury, yielding $508,318.46, |first n arryving airplane capable |only many of the earlier forms of | work of the institution grew so far n, out:it. February 23, 1914 Thank “ - Tuoker families of S et which was then placed to the credit of | of sustained free flight | animal life found in the fossil state | beyond fts limited means that it be- | 7oU Ahe Rambler Wil nof be s o 4 dhe sons of Dr Sl the Smithson fund for eight' years.| Langley also won eminence as anlin the Cambrian rocks, but he has also | came necessary for Congress to take [ [ON8-Winded and merciless today ! ) : izabeth Stoddert e 3 Bertrand and Selomo Bertrand left the itry and settled place and it w Eave been told that (¢ was a classmate of T them over and appropriate funds for their support. The branches supported by governmental appropriations now Other authors need space in the - ; 2 i or to Stonewall Jackson, Sunday papers. The Rambler is only one of the .many best writers on the paper, and | wounded wes command of the 2d Corps, Army Northern Vir Jacks under the administration of the insti- tation are the National Museum, the | {heY must eit, too. There are al- it St s a house in the e e Natlonal Gallery of Art, the Bureau|aY8 some of the best writers on e 3 gaR i 4 ville, May of American Ethnology, the Interna- |2 Newspaper. The other day, a man a lttle tional Exchanges, the National Zoo- | S10PP¢d at the strangers’ receptio | Guinea logical Park, the Astrophysical Ob.|T00m of The Star and' said, in em- Frederickst sorvatory and the United States Ie. | Phatic voice, “I want to see the best In a glonal Bureau of the International| Writer on this paper.” The recep- {‘ters are askew, but the house say night be a city man Catalog of Scientific Literature. tion committee called out nkin “My walls are thick, my stone foun- a rm on which t Other Government activities which | 80 in the newsroom and tell 'em all [ dation and my brick and mortar|$10,000 a year raising chickens, were inaugurated by the Smithsonian, | 10 come out.” sound. 1 stand here defiant of vears |a man who, having r a book but which have been transferred to Understand, my reader, that not|and scornful of mod¥rn imps. 1 was| ho to make ¥, Was cor the control of other agencies, are the (©VEFY MAan on & newspaper is the best | set here as @ Virginia home and |ing to the coj to uplift the Weather Bureau, the Fish Commission | Writer. Some fall below this stand-| [ stand my ground. With love, I|tives Or, having a box on his | Manassas and the Geological Survey. and become editors. Others, | keep the memory of men and women | shoulder and a tripod under his a Willian sSa ther from perfection in the grap! who dwelt in me, Rambler, when |he might be a surveyor making ready 3 B |ic art or ars scribendl, become special | even you were voung and your a h the farm ONTRARY to popular belief the |writers and magazine writers. Here | camera new. With love I stand here looking into. | vation that many b mithsonian Institution is not a {and there a reporter takes his hat off | guardian of fhose graves, mid vine rson pointed to a pear tree Governm#nt establishment, and is not |the peg and becomes a prosperous|and cedar and old locust trees, said It is called T La- supported by Government appropri- |statesman, but these lapses are few.|graves that hold the relics of those| e's pear tree.' Lafayette, on a 8] ation. While the bureaus listed above | There are two kinds of reporters— | who called me “home | visit to Mount Vernon, set out a p - - 1 1817, 2 under its direction are supported by |those who get a hundred dollars a| It is the house of Bel Air | tr he brought from France That ' 1g be able Congress, the institution itself cannot [ week and are not worth it, and those | hundred and twenty-five acres are the story. Years ago, when th read the T 4 ice of t use the Governmental funds, but must | who are worth a hundred dollars a| around it and these the remaining| Ewells lived at Bel Air and exchan, soldier in rely entirely on the income from its|week and don't get it. There are also ! fraction of the first Bel Air planta- visits with the Washingtons endowment, which consists of the original Smithson bequest and several later bequests and gifts from indi- viduals totaling slightly over one mil- the great exhibition halls National Museum and the art galleries which the visitor to Wash- ington remembers, and besides the research work and explor: §t conducts, ‘the institu ARMORED DINOSAUR, IN T}{E FOSSIL VERTEBRATE HALL OF THE NATIONAL MU .‘EE M. while the best disposition of the|astronomer, and he established the |succeeded in recognizing and naming money was debated in Congress astrophysical observatory of the | fossil algae and even fossil bacteria Among the innumerabie proposals|Smithsonian, where studies of the|probably the earliest manifestation for its use were a national university, | variation of the sun's rediation. un-|of life on this planet, an agricultural school, a school for |der the direction of Assistant Secre-| Under S Walcott's adminis- the blind, a library, @ botanical gar- | tary C. G. Abbot, are now attracting | tration the Natural History den, an observatory, a lecture lyce- | wide attention on account of the|Building of the National Museum was < um, and an art museum. But in the | promise which they hold for weather | brought to completion. the beautiful ~nd a scientific Institution of broad |forecasting Freer Gallery of Art was constructed purpose was provided for in the bill| The present secretary of the Smith- |and opened to the public, and he has establishing the Smithsonian | The program of organization, drawn up by Joseph Henry, first secretary of the institution, was + adopted and the erection of a suit- able building was started, paid for the interest accumulated on the mithson fund. ! With the completion of the build- ing, a library was begun through purchase and exchange, and speci- | mens were collected for the estab- lishment of & museum. The plan was adopted of futhering scientific prog- ress by aiding original investigato and research work was also under- taken at the institution. Explor-| [ ; =y ations were conducted, and the : ; r JAMES S sults of all these various activities . » . THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITU- .u:‘r:. pu\:r:fln‘c::xa"gg Sfl‘:l‘rll:‘t‘\”;l‘l‘r”:K‘}‘r . o 3 TION. IN THE GARDEN. CHARLIE DEWEY, WINFIELD DEWEY AND F. raries 2 arned societies through . B From a_paintin in & G out the world. This is still, in es- B 2 s it s Erom s paintn g in 1516, M. PEARSON. BEI_:‘ AIR_NEIGHBORS. zlliog ;335103,:2,"“2{‘ ‘:rsu’:‘]‘,\“r‘:p:n::]f1‘ o Lt 4 |:'ri‘:“‘lll!ddgtl‘l11:”!8'4"‘:'\;: 3',"3{,;;:;:,,_,{; two general styles of writing—one | tion. Large farms have been sold|Mount Vernon, a slip of the Lafavette | write it. He resigned f ed and diversified | A 3 ’ g 1 i n sclentific subjact A hien |good and the other literary. A votary | from Bel Air and on one of them,|pear tree was planted at Bel Alr.|States Army May 7, 1861 comm | : : 4 |on scientific subjects, most of which | ¢ tne latter, if called on to write|Greenwood. lives F. ML Pearson, born | Patient old tree. It blooms and bears, | Confede at Manassas * Kk ok | are technical papers for the use of |.yoy never miss the water till the Bel Air, and son of James R students, aithough some are of in-|yeoif runs dry.” will write, “You never rson, 49th Virginia. a regiment terest and value to the general reader, | . iva at a complete and forcible | of Stonewall Jackson's Corps, That is | hears a far-off church bell ring. and | in the Peninsula campaign in defense notably the Smithsonian annual re-| . .jization of the utility and impor- | honor. A Virginian who does not|sces a hearse and string of buggies |of Richmond, and at the second Bu ports, which consist of a series of 4r- | (ance of water until the entire sup- | bow his head when Jackson's name |pass along the road Run, in August, 1862. He command- ticles reviewing in readable form the | ;o0¢ aqua pura in the well has been [ is uttered—well, he is a poor sort| Mr. Pearson pointed to a tree, huge,|ed a brigade the first invastor recent advances and interesting de-|g 0" oxhausted.” That is the flow-|of Virginian, one of those chaps we |deformed and leafless. It bore, he [north of the South Moun velopments in all branches of science. | ;2" givle and is gulped down by |used to call when we were boys an|said, clgars which children smoke. |tain and Antietam. [ rea his Copies of these publications are| 3¢ ¢ oders “ornery cuss—an old rustic Ameri-|The late George C. Round of Manas- | biography that “he was wounded dur- distributed to more than 1,100 1ibra- | “\ypen Miss Eleanor Wright showea [ can adjective. { sas, who owned Bel Air for half a |ing the first Confederate invasion of ries throughout the world. The mem- | . the Bel Air story in The Star of | Mr. Pearson having seen from |century, once said to the Rambler: | the North,” and I know tha bers of the scientific staff provide|qq14 [ was shocked into coma that it| Greenwood a stranger mushing| “Do you see that old catalpa tree, | birthday centennial at Ma public lectures, both officially and un-| o5 “Belle Air." The Rambler must | through snow and mud to Bel Air,[gnarled and twisted as by a whirl- | was told that b ISt leg officially; the auditorium of the Mu-|pave gotten that spelling from coun- | came over to see about it. The|wind? It is 17 feet in circumference | second battle of Bull seum is used freely by a large num-| 4y records, but as “air” is masculine |~ The Rambler comes up rated the system of daily meteoro- ber of local and national sclentific|and as a French adjective should — historic muddles that he get s iogical observations, from which and other societies for conferences|agree in gender, etc., he penitently % o the dizzies. It said th whe grew up the United States Weather * and lectures; the halls of the Museum | changes the name of the place to-Bel ; | Jackson fell, at @ point now marked Burean. and Smithsonfan buildings are fre- | Ajr. . P ; by a red stone plilar by the road, I The next secret Spencer Fuller- | quently made available for special ex-|" It is strange that the mistake went requested thet Gen. Ewell succe ton Baird, was the leading authority | hibitions of interest to the public; the [ ynrebuked. Readers lurk to pounce him in command of the 2d Corps of his day on the mammals, birds. | institution and its branches, through|on mistakes, If it sald that Will : A and the great troops of Jackson were fishes and reptiles of America. and | correspondence, answer innumerable | Jones died in June instead of July, g commanded by Ewell in the Gettys was the founder of the United States| requests for specific information on|1743, and'if “Clark” is lled with S e St i burg and Wilderness campaigns and Fish Commission. Under his leader- scientific and natural history subjects, [an *“e” or without an the next - e = B £ opposed Grant's bloody push to Ricl ship the institution developed and the latest addition to the institu- | mail is heavy with corrections that : A X mond until overwhelmed. Ewell and strongly along biological lines, the ; tion's program of diffusion of know-|are usually wrong. Some persons g i ¥ 2 z the remnant of his corps yielded at National Museum especially being ’ 5 . edge is a series of popular science|have only one fact treasured in the > 2 « - i | Sailors Creek April 6, 1865, (hree days augmented ’ radio talks, broadcast through one|head, and nobody else can get it 2 S B | before Appomattox. ‘Gen. Ewell died Samuel Pierpont Langley was the of the Washington stations every|right. When an outsider steps on 7 P S in Tennessee, in January, 1872 and third secretary, whose pioneer work . > . . week. that fact there is an outbreak of in- S ) ; a few months before his death got n aeronautics is too well known to CHARLES D. W“I‘COET~ PRESENT SECRETARY OF THE The Smithsonian Institution is liter- | dignance. It is Bel Air. ] S % 4 |off a train at Bristow Station and need mention. He was the first to SONIAN INSTITUTION. ally a mecca for out-of-town visitors. o ks - - Tode In & busey to'the homs of his ; ancestors, Bel Afr EVEN miles west of the village of e i Occoquan several houses in a HERE is another of the Ewells of string stand by the road. It is Min- ~~ P < | Bel Air, Georgetown and Wash nieville. Long ago a post office was { ington which the Rambler will recall started there, with D. C. Alexander g to you, if you have fnrj;nv This as postmaster, and for his little ) 8 e was Benjamin Stoddert Ewell, who daughter Minnie the office was called s | was born in Washington June 10, Minnieville. On the north side of the| k- 4 1810. He was sent to West Point, was road is a set of bars through which Lo SR £7 bt graduated in 1832, and detailed from you fumble and the trace of a road E % " the Al‘l”&'fl,\ as an instructor in calls you on. This road-trace crosses TS & s ¥ 3 mathematics, chemistry and natural a fleld, passes through cut-over ik & . 3 3 philosophy at the academy. Hs le woods, In which much holly lives, it o i 3 the Army in 1836 to be an assistant idles by the side of a brook, crosses i . i 4 engineer in the construction of a it on & bridge so broken that no| [ % firied 159 steam railroad out of Baltimore. team could pass, and continues o % » 3 Leaving tha! job In 1839, he became through alternating flelds and woods. = w & 3 1 a professor at Hampton-Sianey Col- A mile from the set of bars is ; : : % St B lege; in 1847 was a proressor at a brick house, venerable, dignified - L 5 3 Washington College—later Washing- and strong. Its walls show scars, ton and Lee—being the first occupant but not @ sign of weakness. Some 3 s of a chair of mathematics and mili- windows are broken and wood shut- 2 : = iy tary sclence endowed by the Soclety 2 X . 3 of the Cincinnatl. In 1848 he was elected president of William and )?il’)’. He went out in 1861 as colonel of the 32d Virginia Infantry, and be- A DISTANT \I[}W OF BEL AIR. sees children pick its fruit, sees old | July, 1861, a f les west of his "THE four secretaries of the insti- men it knew as children eat its fruit, | ancestral y commanded mer tution exemplify the purpose of the Smithsonian. All have been lead- ors in their own lines of scientific endeavor, besides being able admin- istratdrs of the work of the institu- tion as a whole To the first secretar Joseph Henry, the world of science and in- dustry owes a lasting debt, for the great electrical achievements of the present day were made possible in arge measure through his pioneer work in physics. He also inaugu- | | | | b . oo Vot s 3 Rooster Can Count. ?..1!‘ gl\ :z.a." i i ¥ CLASS in experimental psychol- came chief of staff to Gen. Joseph g e ogy at the University of Chicago ; E : % Ky > E. Johnston. When the war was : : 45 has found that a rooster can count. 4 : : : 1 done he returned to William and 5 Kernels of corn were arranged in ES 4 = % 2 Mary, worked for the rebuilding of i R - ; rows on the floor, every third kernel| E B i ; ¢ ruined structures, and In the period e » ¢ : was tacked down. The rooster dis- of suspension of the ccllege—1881-87, ShemE i < covered this and passed up the sta- - A 2 3 I think was the period—he worked o : tionary kernels. Then the third ker- e i ; nobly with scores of others for the nels were loosened and the rooster £ : 5 resumption of the college. was set at his task. He skipped them The Rambler would give You mors until his foot struck one, when, with on’Bel Alr, but the 4 o'clock whistle . a chuckle, he returned and ate all the is about to blow, and the rules of the THE Kernels. union, you know. 4