Evening Star Newspaper, June 28, 1925, Page 63

THE SUNDAY AR, WASHINGTON, Y D. ¢, JUN —PART 5. Few Mail Thieves Escape Punishment| “Northern Liberties” in Two Cities { Postal Inspection Service With Headquarters at Washington Has World Reputation for 2 Relentless Pursuit of Criminals. & BY C. MORAN. SHORT, sallow man, with the furtive eyes of a criminal re- cently walked into post office headquarters at Twelfth and the Avenue and delivered a package of bills to Chief ‘Inspector Rush D. Simmons. The money had been stolen from a registered mail vouch some time previous realizing the futility of ultimate es- cape, the bearer was seeking im- munity. The records of hundreds of mail ‘thieves who have gambled and lost in thelr game with Uncle Sam's post office inspectors are contained in the files of the postal inspection .service, which has its headquarters in the old Post Office Building. There are the records also of criminals under in- dictment but who have not yet been Ampprehended. These are closed only when the criminal has either died or is locked behind prison bar: Take the case of “Portland Ned,” who was brought to term after a chase that lasted 16 years. “Portland Ned,” which was an allas for James Johnson, was arrested Au 14, 1914, at Danbury, N. C., on an indictment covering the burglary of the post office at Plymouth, N. C., on June 13, 1898. Johnson, when confronted with the charge, asked the inspector whether the graveyard was being Yaked up against him. The bandit was sentenced to seven vears' imprison- ment, and the records of the depart- ment show that he is now doing an additlonal 14-year stretch in the State Denitentiary at Raleigh, N. C. Nearly 400,000 investigations, rang- ing from simple malil thefts to the spectacular $2,000,000 mail robbery at Rondout, 111, have been made by the service during the past four years un. er the direction of Chief Inspector | Simmons. During the past fiscal vear | lone over 2,200 persons were con. victed for violating postal laws, ap. proximately 1,500 of this number be-| dng convicted for using the mails to | defraud. Perhaps the biggest mail train rob- | Y that ever took place anywhere that at Rondout, I, when an e mail train was held up, and 00,000 in negotiable papers and currency was obtained from 60 regis tered pouches. All of the bandits are | now serving time, including William | ¥. Fahy, so-called “ace” of postal in-| spectors, who thought he was ingeni. ©ous enough to outwit his fellow in.| spectors. “When this robbery was first re- ported to me,” Postmaster General New declared, in discussing the case, T called into conference Chief In- spector Simmons and other attaches ©of his office. It was my belief, as well as that of the inspectors, thut this robbery was pulled off as a result of information furnished by some one who had intimate knowledge of post office matters, and who was thorough- Iy acquainted with the movements of i their arrival and departure. We were all greatly shocked when the facts were laid before us connect- ing the name of Fahy with the rob- Lery. Fahy was regarded as one of the best inspectors in the Post Office Department, and his record up to that time had been one of the best on the force. The whole thing goes to illustrate the efficiency of post office nspectors in rounding up those who e guilty of violation of the Federal laws, whether inside or outside the (iovernment service. The ingenuity of these postal in- spectors is shown in the recent case of continued rifling of registered mail matter in the Southwest. The thefts were finally narrowed down to one of six post offices, but the question a 0 which one of the six was not eas; to determine. A feature of all of the thefts was that the letters and packages were resealed after they had been opened. This gave one of the inspectors on the case an idea which, for fear of ridicule, he put into practice without disclosing his secret to any one. He prepared six lots of mucilage, each having a different perfume—lilac, violet, lily of the valley, mignonette, rose and heliotrope—which were di: tributed among the six offices under sosplefon. A few weeks later, when he was handed another letter that had been opened, rified and resealed, he moistened the mucilage on the flap, the envelope to his nose, and aj nced that the thief would be ap- prehended within a_week. ® o oK ow HE Postal Inspection Service dates back to 1830, when one clerk was employed to ‘‘detect depredators s part of his general activities. The post office inspectors in those days were known as special agents. There was increasing need for the service of such agents to run down mail rob- hers and a so-called system of spe- cial agents wa i1 in 1840 un- der Postmaster Amos Ken- dall. Thirty thou General and dollars was appro- priated in 1845, providing specifically “for mail depredations and special | agents,” with the limitation that ‘no greater sum shall be paid to any mail agent of any description than per annum,” and not to exceed $2 | arrangement POSTAL WORKERS ON MAIL TRAINS, HEAVILY ARMED FOR HOLD-UP MEN. send through the mails fraudulent and obscene matter, poison, bombs, load- d nrearms and other prohibited arti- cles have the United States Inspection Service to deal with: also, money order forgers and other ¢-im | nals Who make use of postal facili- ties in furtherance of their wrong- doing. * ok ok ok THE service handles also the re- organization of post offices, re- of carrier service in cities and laying out of ru as well as the regular inspectinn o post offices, including the audting of accounts, from whick he title post office inspector” was derived. The many duties which fall te the lot of the inspection service are sum- marized in the statement that when- ever and wherever there is troulle in the postal service, or affecting it is the inspectors job to find the and correct it. Mail frauds have been the s of special campaigns during the past few years. Hundreds of concerns Postal | 1 routes, | | 1923 there were 6 hold-ups, with 23 arrests and but 1 case in which neither arrest nor recovery was made. “Losses from the hold-up of mail trains and other postal agencies are infinitesimal compared to the millions and millions of dollars’ wi h of se- curities intrusted to the car Government in registered packages which are delivered safely mons declared. tically $50,000,000,000 worth of Liberty bonds was handled in the mails with- | out the loss of a single dollar in value. The Government itself transmits over 00,000,000 postage stamps through the mail every year without incurring the loss of as much as a 2-cent stamp. “The criminal world has a whol some fear of post office inspector: he added, “due to the reputation of these inspectors for ‘keeping at it' long after most officers of the law are willing to quit and forget. The ideal here is that the United States mail is such a sacred institution that no tampering with it or fradulent use of it shall go unpunished, even TYPE OF COUNTRY MAIL BOX RECENTLY DESIGNED BY POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT EMPLOYES TO AFFORD BETTER PROTECTION FOR millions of dollar put out of busine result. The arly have been for traveling and incidental . By 1855 the organization | was composed of 18 special agents, | each assigned to a district Old records of the department dis- | close the names of two Washington nien who did conspicuous work | <hi inspectors of ti service, which new. numbers 520 t ned vestigators distributed among 15 spection st ts, which cover entire count These men were David B. P who was the first chief inspector, as such being appoint- ed in 18 and servir for five vears, | and William A. Wes who ved from 1887 to 1889 rain hold-ups, post offices, fires penings involving the Ilc or struction of mail, postal funds nri property come within the province of | the inspection service. Persons who | in- | in the the burgiary in fact, any of hap- de- | discovery of oil in Texas, Oklahoma and California gave these s an excellent opportunity to sell thelr worthless stock certificates to people windlers | | T | which were mulcting the public of | though it may take, as it often does, 5, 10 or more years to discover or run down the offender. PR HILE the case of Roy G. Gardner, the famous main train robber, is of the | Mr. Sim- | “During the war prac- | up and robbed the malil clerk in charge of the Southern Pacific rallway post office train No. 20 at Roseville, Calif. rdner received a second sentence vears in the McNeil Island Peni- route the: June 11, 1821, he once more esc from his guards. This time, however, he was recaptured within five days delivered to the peniten- ties. Before he had served months, Gardner and a few others broke from the penitentiary guards, and, though wounded, fected his escape. He was rel Phoenix, Ariz. November 1 while attempting the hold-up and rob- bery of another mail train, for which he received an additional sentence of vears. He is now incarcerated at the Leavenworth, Kans., Federal Peni- tentiary. It is a fa autho: t that the bestaid plans of crooked: fail through simple oversights. This is shown in connec- tion with a Montuna post office rob- berv_where the thief had inadvertent- 1y Jeft behind him a camera in which there was a roll of films. The inspec- tor_had the roll developed and printed, and one of the pictures was identified as being taken at the entrance to Yel- lowstone Park. The inspector found a man in one of the photographs at the park, obtained the name of the photographer and the burglar was ap- prehended. Groups of the inspectors ar to Washington to ex- change infor: tion nd ideas, and to arn, in a kind of school ®f detection that is provided for that purpose, the latest scientific methods of discovering clues and following them. The result is the constant development of new safeguards around postal receipts and valuables. A simple but effective device along this line is to place & pint bottle of concentrated ammonia inside the safe where the force of the explosion is cal- culated to break the glass. thus re- leasing the fumes and forcing the veggs to waii until the atmosphere clears before they can lift the loot. The interval of waiting. in a num- ber of cases, has given time for local authorities, aroused by the explosion, to reach the scene before the depart- ure of the bandits. and either .to effect their capture or frighten them away without having robbed the safe. The burglars, impatient to secure the loot, have been overcome in a few instances the powerful ammonia fumes and were found unconscious by citizens aroused by the explosion. Other safeguards are the use of armored mail cars and trucks equip- ped with rifles and gas bombs to repel invaders. The training of post- al clerks in the use of firearms has become a regular part of the routine of these emploves. Some 40,000 rifles have been ditsributed among mail car employes. ought PR ‘HE spirit of personal bravery throughout the is ex- emplified by the record of Eugene L. Stack, the 2 ar-old clerk in the post office at East Orange, J.. who shot and killed mail bandit while the latter and a companion were at- | tempting to rifle eight bags of mail 1\\hi(')| had just been deposited by an | early morning train. Postmaster General New, in the | presence of the four assistant post- master generals; Rush D. Simmons, | chief inspector; Thomas L. Degnan, service a who failed to remember or did NOt|not one in which the pursuit of the | purchasing agent; Francis P. Sullivan, realize that a man with a genuinely | aocused covered any considerably ex- 'good thi does not have to ped-|tended period of time, it is remark- dle it to strangers, but this type of [gple jn the number of sensational es- criminal, who poor and unprotected, is said to have been practically eliminated in the big centers of his operation: igures prepared by Chiefl Inspect. mmons show that there were 16 bi held-ups in 1 . there were 18 in 19 and 6 in In the 16 cases in 19 there were rrests and about § 500,000 of the $6,000,000 stolen was recovered. In only of the hold-ups was there neither arrest nor recov- ery. In 1922 thereswere 18 major hold-ups, in 2 of which there was neither arrest nor recovery, and in veys chiefly on the | cupes which he made within a period covering little more than a year and the equally successful efforts which n his being recaptured after While en route to McNeil Island, Vash., penitentiary to serve a 2, sentence for having held up and rob- bed a mail messenger at San Diego, Calif., Gardner escaped from a moving train on June 7, 1920, and thereafter traveled extensively in Canada. He was not captured until May 2, 1921, having in the meantime stolen a mail pouch at Centerville, Iowa, and held 5-year | controller; and Horace J. Donnelly, acting solicitor, presented Stack a check for $2,000 as a reward from the Post Office Department and the Gov- vernment for his act of bravery. | In making the presentation the Postmaster General told Stack that he had called him to Washington in order that the department and the Government might confer suitable | recognition on him for his act of loyalty to the service. “You protected the United States mail at the peril of your own life,” de- clared the Postmaster General. “‘Such acts merit recognition. It is the in- tention of the Postmaster General, in order that the record shall be made permanént, to have the following cita- tion placed to your credit. ‘I desire to make special acknowl- edgement of the conspicuous gallan- try and loyaity to the postal service shown by Eugene L. Stack, a clerk at thé post office at East Orange, N. J.' " The duty of receiving the mail due on the early morning trains at the East Orange station of the Lacka- wanna road and conveying it to the post office building had been assign- ed to Mr. Stack. While Stack was at the depot on the morning of July 31, 1924, he was attacked by two highwaymen, whose purpose it was to secure possession of the mails which had just been recelved from the westbound train, due shortly be- fore 4 a.m. The bandits opened fire on Stack, which he returned, with the result that one of the assailants was killed and the other put to rout, escaping in a taxi held at the foot of the stairs leading to the statfon platform. Stack was twice wounded during the at- tack, one bullet striking him in the hand, another making a flesh wound in his thigh, and a third penetrating his clothing without touching his body. N In presenting the check to Stack, Postmaster General New declared ‘while the money would no doubt prove useful, the citation would be worth more in the end, as it would turn out to be of greater value in the years to_come. “In the military service,” said the Postmaster General, “men are deco- rated for acts of conspicuous bravery, This is your decoration, and you have earned it.” Rambler Discovers Washington’s Debt to Philadelphia in History of District of Columbia Section Connected With Exciting Events. ETURNING to work on the story of old Washington musi- clins and music teachers, let The Rambler tell you that sornetimes (but not often) he recelves compliments. One of his fellow-writers on The Star—there are also sister writers—came to his room today; You well know the name of this “fellow. He has the courage—I mean’ the nerve—to sign his stuff. You %ee his name in big type every Sunddy and oftener. I wouid tell you his nime, but I do not want to adver- tise bim. He has literary aspirations, I canhot say more of his literary work than that he has literary aspirations. Well, speaking of compliments The Ram*ler gets, this fellow-writer came to my room today and said: “Hhrry, 1 want to compliment you on your old musicians’ story last Sun- day. : It was not of the same lofty literary excellence throughout, but T enjoyed it. That part of the story wher# you quoted two pages from the Washinton directory of 1870 was good. It whs the most graceful and most nearly accurate writing you have done When you write a story and introduce quotations from anything the quotations are a relfef.” I tall you this to show you that a brother artist appreciates my efforts— no, anpreciates my rhievements—and knows how to make a delicate compli- ment. I went to the Public Library to look up Francis Espiuta in early Washing- ton directories because I told you last Sundty that I felt sure Francis Espi- uta, father of Prof. John Espiuta, came to Washington in 1837 or 1838. I did not find a Washington directory of the years between 1834 and 1843, and the name I sought was not in the 1843 ilirectory. I feel that some other Washington ~ historian 1s tampering with -the old directories. Many histo- rians are not so industrious. Some of them' come to The Star office and say: “I have been appointed by my so- clety. the Daughters of the Descen- dants of the Crew of Columbus, to prepare a paper on ‘Did Pocahontas Wear Bobbed Hair?” I know that The Rambler wrote about that, and if you will get me The Star containing this article 1 can prepare my paper without further effort.” The fact, that the name “Francis Espiuta” was not in the Washington directory of 1843 is not significant. Many Washingtonians were overlooked by the old directories, and many who did get their names in the directory got them in wrong. Washington di- rectories of three-quarters or a whole century ago were not as large and thorough as they have become. I hope that when The Rambler says “Washington directories of three- quarters or a whole century ago were not us large as they have become’ vou will catch _the intelligence of that observation. You might never have thought of it without being told. * ok ok *x J¥ the “directory of 1843 are the following names of - musicians: Francis Prosprei (Prosperi), north side of G between Seventh and Eighth, near Eighth southeast; Pulitzie (Christian name not given), north side of I street south, between Sixth and Seventh east, near Sixth; William G. Applegate, west side of Eighth east, THE LATE JOSEPHINE ESPUTA- DALY. between G and I east,'near I; William Burgman, west side Tenth, between New York avenue and K northwest; Downey (Christian name not given), | printed by John T. Tower: NORMAN ESPUTA-DALY. Eighth southeast; Gawrowski (Chr tlan name not given), west side Four- and-a-half, between N and O; George Hilbus, repafrer of musical instru- ments, north side F, between Twelfth and Thirteenth northwest; Charles Hooper, south side of I, between Sev- enth and Eighth southeast; R. Reis, professor of music, south side Penn. sylvania avenue, between Twelfth and Thirteenth northwest; Rafael Trei, west side of Eighth, between G and 1 southeast. In this 1843 directory, completed and published by Anthony Reintzel and are essay: or comments not found in modern di- rectorfes. In the “N's" is this: “Northern Liberties — Somewhere, perhaps anywhere, north of F, G or H streets north; its eastern and western expanse not comprehended even with- in_the probabilities of a surmise.” Then there is an asterisk directing the reader to the following essay on “Northern Liberties,” which takes up a page: “This appellation militates so much against appropriateness, and conse. quently good taste, and, indeed, every- thing else that can be based on an idea of definite meaning, that it seems only Worthy of a record upon the tab- lets of slang, but, like all other things that are not controlled by laws'of pre- cision, identity or location, it is seem- ingly understood by every one be- cause it is easier to rest satisfied under | doubts that have no immediate effect than undergo the labor of investiga- tion to arrive at facts. (Eighty-four words in that sentence.) “The only perceptible adaptation of this name to its locality is that it is north of somewhere, hence ‘‘north,” and unbounded in its extent, hence ‘liberties,’ the two compounded mak- ing Northern Libertles, or it may be the mimic representation of & portion of the city or county of Philadelphia bearing the same name. If this be so, it is difficult to tell what could be the medium of association by which it es- tablished its synonym in Washing- ton. The only parallel to this queer way of making a name that we ever knew or expect to hear of came under our observation while traveling in an adjacent State.” Then follows half a page of the di rectory in small type, relating a sto with some point so fine that The Rambler could not get it. I would give you more of this directory essay, signed “Compiler,” but life's too short. The style of English is Victorian, or worse, Part of Washington north of G and eabt of Twelfth was known as “the Northern Liberties” as early as 1837, The Northern Liberties Volunteer Fire Company had its engine house on Mount Vernon Square, and when that engine house was moved (about 1855) to the reservation, New York avenue, south side of L, between Seventh and|L, Fifth and Sixth streets, the city built a market house, called Northern Liberties Market, on Mount Vernon Square, now the site of the Wash- ington Public Library. In 1856 there was an election riot at the polls in| Mount Vernon Square. The police | were helpless, and the President called | for Marines from the Barracks. Near | Seventh and K the Marines were stoned and shot at and they fired, | killing 7 men. and wounding 21, | most of them lookers-on. The tearing | down of Northern Liberties Market by the Board of Public Works under orders of Alexander R. Shepherd in | 1872 was one of the exciting things in the time of the Territory of Columbia. | ok ow | YOU were teld last Sunday that| Francis E s wite, | founders of the Espluta family Washington, were born in Francis was Majorca, largest of Spain's Isles, and [ assume his wife was born | there. I did not have the name of | | Mrs. Espiuta, but I recalled a family | legend that she had taught a Queen | of Spain to play the guitar and do| embroldery, and that, though she was {born with only a thumb and little innger on her right hand, she embroid- ered exquisitely and worked a won- derful quilt, which her granddaughter, Mme. Josephine Espiuta-Daly pre sented to the National Museum. 1} | consulted the museum officials, and |found that the quilt embroidered by {Mrs. Anna Adelle Espiuta was pre- | sented to the museum by Josephine | Espiuta-Daly in 1801 Prof. John Lspiuta married Mary Welch of Occoquan, Va., an | she was related to the Selectman fam- {ily of that neighborhood—a family which the Rambler should have writ- | ten of when he “worked" the Occoquan | neighborhood, and which he means to | write of. The first child of Prof. John | Espiuta and Mary Welch was Frank | Espiuta, who died in infancy. The | second child was Josephine. who mar- | ried Dr. John Daly. Their child, Nor- Balearic | George J. Bently of Wichita Falls, and their son, George Espiuta Bently, 9 years old, has been singing in public for six or seven years. The fifth child of the professor was Susie Adelle Espiuta, living in New York city. She was married to John Wheeler, who lived on Wheeler road, and was a nephew of Woodbury Wheeler, for whom Wheeler road was named. John died and his widow mar- ried Charlton Strathy of New York, a piano manufacturer. They have one child, Colleen. The sixth child of the professor was William Esput was celebrated in Washington as trap drummer and as a comedian. He was long in the Soldiers’ Home Band, and died in 1898. He married Miss Rhoda Poss of Rockville, and they had three children—John, living; Ethel, de- ceased, and Josephine, )iving. The seventh child of Prof. Espiuta wes Manfe L. Espiuta, deceased. Gae married Abraham Lincoln Welty of Wayneshurg, Pa., 4 child John F. Weity of the & lives in Washington S JosepHI A, later Mme Espiuta-Daly. was a beloved singer and vocal teacher. She had a great contralto voice, and was given excel lent instruction in Washington, Balti more and Burope. She was a member of the choir of St. Matthew's Catholic Church. A newspaper clipping under my eye tells that she conducted the cholr of St. Augustine's Church. Fol lowing a surgical operation. she died at Providence Hospital. Her funeral from the Church of the Sacred Heart was conducted by Father McGee, and 30 voices from various churches sangk the requiem. Mrs. Annie Grant-Fugitt, M Gumprecht, Miss Margaret Sweeny, Mrs. Adams, Mrs. Margarer Nolan-Martin, Mr. Burnett and John and James Nolan, who had been asso ciates of Josephine Espiuta in St Matthew’s choir, sang. John Porter Lawrence played the organ and Prof. L. E. Gannon conducted the musical service. Prot. John Espiuta had brothersand sisters. The Rambler has notes that his sister Frances married James Prosperi, and his sister Josephine arried Charles Prosperi. His brother Edward, was a musiclan. All those named are dead. Prof. Espiuta found ed a conservatory of music at Palatka Fla., and for years spent his Winters in Florida, where he had a pretty home and a grove of orange trees. Old river men on the Potomac remember the professor's fast sailboat, the Josephine. The little ebony baton which the professor used for 50 years descended to his daughter, Josephine then to her aunt. Josephine, who was the wife of Charles Prosperi, and then to their son, Dr. Milton H. Prosperi. a successful composer, whose music you sometimes hear the Marine Band play I forgot to tell you that the first copyrighted in the as compos: of. -John was a little to daughter. Josephin I am told that it hangs, framed and glazed, in the Libra One of th family heirlooms is a gold medal pre sented to Prof. E: his music pupils in public school mas, . I am sorry I cannot stay with you longer if you are interested in my | story, but T must be on my way. I have other musicians to tell you of I thought that this Sunday I would write of Henry Donch and Emmanuel | Massari, but my time is up man Espluta Daiy, whom Washing- | ton remembers as a planist, married | Rose Conlogue, and Norman and his | wife are living in New Mexico. Jose phine died April 11, 1909. Dr. Daly, | remarried, is living at New Rochelle, | T | The third child of Prof. Espiuta was John Edward, who is playing in an Atlantic City orchestra in Summer and plays in Florida in Winter. He mar- ried first Miss Mamie Jamieson, | daughter of Dr. Jamieson of Lothair, Md. She died in 1900. John married again, his second wife having been Blanche Caywood of Washington. The fourth child of the professor was George Francls Espiuta, who married Miss Jennie Caywood of Washington, a daughter of James Edgar and Jose. phine " Caywood of Prince Georges County. 'They live in Washington. Their daughter, Lorraine, married SUSIE ESPUTA, KNOWN IN WASH- INGTON AS A DANCER. Facts About Signers of Declaration of Independence BY MARGARET B. DOWNING. N the 149th birthday of the Natlon, which will be com- memorated next Saturday, hundreds of orators through- out the land will place before their. audiences pictures of those 56 men who on July 4. 1776, affixed their names to the Declaration of In- dependence and thus laid the founda- tion stone of .a state which commands the admiration and respect of the world. . That glant of eloquence, Daniel Webster, perhaps has pre- sented their characters and achieve- ments more luminously than any be- fore. or since his day.. “They are dead,” he said in his eulogy of the last signer, Charles Carroll of Carroliton, “but little there is of the great and good that can die! To their country, they yet live and will live forever. They will live in all that perpetuates the memory of men on earth; in the recorded proofs of their own great actions, in the offspring of their in- tellect, in deep engraved lines of pub- lic gratitude and in the homage and respect of all mankind. They live in their example and in the influence which their lives and efforts, their principles and opinions now exercise and will continue to exercise on the affairs of men not only in their own country, but throughout the world.” In the individual sense, the members of that immortal Congress were the most remarkable political body which the annals of the world can show. In each of the fiery zeal of the patriot was tempered by the inherent virtues of the man. -Not one of those fifty-six heroes betrayed his trust, a phenome- nal record in the pages of history. All the signers stood firm. Some were imprisoned and dled as the result of their sufferings, many were impover- ished and many stood within the shadow of death. All were tempted, just as all felt the menacing wrath Which seemed powerful enough to grasp and crush them. Not one died with a stain on his name. * ok Kk F* the 56 members of the Conti- nental Congress who signed the charter of liberty, 48, or six-sevenths of the total, were born on the soil for the well being of which they pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor. Eighteen of the signers ‘were born in the Southern colonies, 16 in the Eastern, or New England, sec- tion, and 14 in the Middle. Twenty- one signed from the South, the same number from the Middle colonies and 14 from New England. Separately ex- amined, Massachusetts and Virginia can claim equally to be the mothers of these heroes, since nine each were born on their soil. The land of Wil- liam Penn and the palatinate of Lord Baltimore can claim five each of the total; Connecticut, New Jersey and South Carolina, four each; New York, three; Rhode Island and Delaware, two each, and Maine, one. The delegates from five provinces—Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maryland, Virginia and South Carolina—were men born with- in their boundaries. New Hampshire had three signers, North Carolina and Georgia the same number, yet none of these nine men had seen the light of day in the sectlons of the country which they represented on that mo- mentous July 4. Of.the remaining delegations representing the other colonies, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Delaware, the members were as those composing the national legislatures since that day, political sons of one State, native sons of another. Of the eight who had been born in the British Isles, Ireland could claim three—Dr. Matthew Thornton, who signed with the New Hampshire dele- gation, and James Smith and George Taylor with the Pennsylvania. Two were born in England—Robert Morris of Pennsylvania, the great financier of the Revolution, and Button Gyn- nett of Georgia, perhaps the most pathetic figure in the Congress, in that he arrived in the colonies only in 1770, threw himself whole-heartedly into the cause of the patriots, and died May 4, 1777, less than a year after the mo- mentous events of July 4, 1776. His death resulted from a wound received in a duel fought because he deemed his ‘honor assailed in the patriotic sense. Two stalwart figures were from the lowlands of Scotland—Rev. John Witherspoon of New Jersey, a lineal descendant of John Knox -and president of Princeton College when he affixed his name to the Magna Charta, and James Wilson of Penn- sylvania, an upstanding figure of his day. Francis Lewis, 4 signer from New York, was born at Glamorgan, in ‘Wales, and was deemed the most ac- complished linguist in the congres- sional body. *x ok % THE 56 signers were not only a re- markable body of men as citizens and patriots, but they were unusually | George ITI and his ministers, though [2nd those under him. day, when scholastic progress, espe- cially in the South, was almost neg- ligible, not one who answered the roll call on July 4 was what would be considered ignorant even in this era of higher standards. But it is evi- dent in analyzing the conditions of life of these founders of the Nation that a meager number could, even with the widest latitude, be described as self- made men. Benjamin Frank- lin, in whom this class reaches its apotheosis, was given an opportunity to study in the best schools of Boston at a time when his family was poorly endowed with means, but, being a genius and by many discriminating critics considered the most remark- able man the Western Republic has produced, he educated himself better in the larger way than any college could have done, Twenty-seven of the signers had received collegiate degrees. Harvard had the honor of being the alma mater of -seven. The Scotch delegates— ‘Witherspoon and Wilson—were grad- uates of the University of Edinburgh, and the only Welshman, Francis Lewis, had come from the great pub- lic school of England, Hackney, and had studied also in Parls and London. Twenty, though not of complete col- legiate training, had been thoroughly educated in the classical way, prin- cipally at home, and these studies had been augmented by foreign travel and extensive courses of reading Only elght can be classified as having only a plain rudimentary education, ob- tained in the common schools, and but one, George Walton, a native of Fred- erick County, Va., and a delegate from Georgia, can be described as having enjoyed ' neither the advantages of classical academy nor had he received the elements of knowledge taught in the common schools. Apprenticed to a carpenter in his youth, Walton was not.permitted even an inch of candle to pursue his studles after his 16 working hours were over. But se- cretly he gathered faggots and by their flickering light quenched his it for knowledge. When he had ered all the books within reach he removed to Georgia, and at the end of his carpentry service was able to enter a law office and to climb least four-fifths may be described as farmers or planter: Thus the lofty patriot of Mount Vernon, though pre. pared for the profession of surveying, writes as a planter in the blograph prepared when he was elected firs President. Thomas Jefferson is entered as a lawyer, though agriculturs was his passion, and the vast estate at Mont! cello absorbed him quite as much as law or politics throughout his long and eventful career. In the profes- slonal sense that memorable Congress of 1776, like every other succeedinz one, was composed largely of lawyers. Twenty-four, or almost half the num ber, followed the calling which from time immemorial has been the faith ful champion of constitutional liberty and in every country of the world. Thirteen signers gave themselves no other avocation than that of bein planters, and these were principal from the South, like the Lees and their fellow-signers from Virginia, Arthur Middleton of South Carolina and several others in scattered sec- tions of the Southern and Middle col- onies, who had finherited manoria tracts and found their maintenance a man’s job. ARTHL‘K MIDDLETON, who has passed down to fame as the hand- somest and best appareled member of the Congress, suffered greatly during the invasion of his country by the British army under Cornwallis, He was a graduate of Hackney, the Brit- ish public school, and the University of Cambridge, and was perhaps alone among his colleagues in a knowledge of art and cotemporary literature gathered from several vears’ study in Rome, Paris and London. He ig- herited a great estate in land besides a large fortune in sluves and good security. After the fall of Charleston he was sent with other prisoners to St. Augustine, Fla., then in British hands, and his sufferings and the in- dignities to which he was submitted led him, in 1782, to present to the Con- gress of which he was a member a memorial against Lord Cornwallis, de- siring to except that commander froin the exchange of prisoners then pro- gressing between the United States steadily to the head of the legal pro- fession. Of the avocations followed by these men previous to flinging defiance to and Great Britain. Mr. Middleton called the noble lord who commanded his majesty’s forces a barbarian and advised uncivilized treatment for him In_ fact, his well educated, for even in that remote each is assigned a separate calling, at (Continued on Fourth Page.) =