Evening Star Newspaper, February 9, 1926, Page 8

8 THE EVENING STAR ‘With Sunday Morning Edition. e o S WASHINGTON, D. C. TUESDAY......February 9, 1926 THEODORE W. NOYES. TheEvening Star Newspaper Company 11 H“fl'v/‘»( Office th St. 1 Pennsy Sew York Offi'a 170" East Chicazo Office: Towe= Bui pean Office: 14 Rexent and i allection 13 made by warrier at the end of each month Rate by Mail— ble in Advance. Maryland and Virginia. Paste and Sundas. . <0001 mo. The aily only ..o S600° 1 m 13 1 Sunday only . 1R300 1 mo.! L1y All Other Sta Bally and Sunday- 1 ally onle colyr Eunday o VAT s and Canada. <1200 1 mo. $1.00 800 1 mo. $1.00: 1 mo, Member of the Ascocinted Press. The Associated Pross {x exclusively sntitled to the e for ranut n Dublished of special ¢ — Tax Publicity Repeal. By a decisive vote—49 to 32—the Senate yesterday refused to amend the so-called “publicity” clause of the tax bill now pending in & manner to make the returns upon which the tax 1s determined public records, open to examination and Inspection. 1ad this amendment prev rd thie Senate would have placed itself in opposition to the House, which has already voted to re- peal the publicity clause in the pres- ont law, going further than the law by permitting publication not only of the amounts pald, but all the details ]lng that they send you stam Remember how you got. information from the postal substation that a let- ter with a foreign stamp had come for somebody in your part of the Dis- trict? Remember the serious busi- | ness conferences you held with boys |and girls for the exchange of “dupli- cates”? Many young persons must have got a good deal of benefit from stamp col- lecting. A writer on philately in the Encyclopedla Americana says: “Pri- marily philately s an intellec- tual pursuit. It connotes geography, . | history, art and science and stimulates research in many directions.” (There is a thought! A canceled postage | stamp from Egypt, with a picture of the pyramids and a cluster of palms beside the Nile, has sent many a boy to his geography and history to find out all he could about Egypt. An English stamp bearing the portrait of & monarch required that the collector learn the name of the sovereign, and this muy have stimulated him to learn the list of kings and queens of Eng- land. A stamp from the troples sug- gested pirates, and a boy, to improve standing in the nelghborhood col- s’ society, went to the library and got books on buccaneers of the Spanish Main and piracy in the South Sea. Some of the Washington philatelists are now gray or bald. Their hobby is fascinating. Ten thousand—thirty thousand—men and women in the District who were stamp collectors forty ars ago think of these philat- elists with: love and honor. They have stuck to the job of collecting. Their ardor never cooled. Here they are to- society, holding a public exhibition of stamps at the Public Library. of income reported by the taxpayer. The fallure thus to amend the Fouse amendment is tantamount to agreement to repeal the present pub- licity clause. Should the bill pass in its present form there will be no fur- ther opening of the tax records to public inspection and to publication of the amounts pald. This will end the spectacle that has been presented for two years past of an unseemly, un- profitable, needless proclamation of the tax payments of individuals. The amendment that was rejected yesterday In the Senate would, If en- acted into law, have carried the pub- Helty idea to the logical extent. For it would have provided for a complete opening of the tax returns and ex- posed to promiscuous broadcasting all of the intimate details of individual finances. It would have defeated tax collection, promoting concealment and falsification. Fortunately the Senate 4id not approve. It has never been quite clear that it was the purpose of the law as it stands today to open the records of tax payments freely and fully to pub- Mo inspection and publication. Only by deduction from the language of the act has publication been warranted. The newspapers of the country have rendered a valuable service in taking the ground that this deduction was a logical one and that it was the intent of the act to permit, virtually to pro- vide for publicity. By printing the mames and the tax amounts they have revealed the futility as well as the in- Justice of this provision, and the pres- ent repeal now In process is unques- tlonably the result of that demonstra- tion. ———— 0la Doc Pfuffer of Vienna predicts that human ears will become enormous because of the general nofse. The gen- eral noise is so empty and unintelli- gent that other sclentists may arise to attribute the elongation of ears, ac- companied by a deference to the in- coherent bray, merely to a reversion to type. —————————— Persons who suggested that it would be proper “to hang the Kaiser” are now contemplating him with awe as one of the world’s leading financiers. —_————e—————- Most of the war films are convey- ing & vague Impression that the war was a tragical grand opera to the tune of “Over There.” The Philatelic Society. News of the second annual exhibi- tion by the Washington Philatelic So- clety at the Washington Public Li- dbrary, which is attracting a good many persons, recalls many happy yesterdays to a large part of our popu- lation. There Is still zeal in collect- tng postage stamps, and the industry has been elevated to an art and a sclence. There have been efforts to gather statistics which would show the number of collectors in various countries, but there Is no way by which statisticlans can tag all col- lectors. They can get names of col Jeotors who spend large sums with dealers, and they can get the member- ship lists of philatelic secieties, but there are hundreds of thousands of boy and girl stamp hounds who are mever rounded up by statisticians. Historians of stamp collecting say that it dates from about 1830, that the pastime was ridiculed by unsympa- thetic people, and that the first period- ical devoted to collectors was pub- MNshed In Belgium in 1863. Catalogues appeared soon after. The first sale of canceled postage stamps at public auc- tlon was at London in March, 1872. Perhaps not so large a proportion of Washington's young people are at present collecting stamps as in the 80s. There are so many other excit- ing diversions now. But there Is evi- dence that the young stamp collector is not extinct. Let a foreign letter come to your office. Lay it on your deek. Close your eyes for a moment. Open them. You will see that the for- eign stamp has been cut from the en- velope. It was remarkable that the stamp stuck to the envelope as far as your desk. If you were once a boy stamp collector—and it is a safe bet vou were—you know that a young stamp hound scented that foreign let- ter when the postman brought it to the office, trailed it to your desk and caused its mysterious disappearance. You ought to smile at this. Remem- ber when you haunted the Govern- ment offices, legations and private business offices and asked permission (o pillage the waste basket for stamps? Remember when you used to write to American ministers and consuls all around the world, and to all foreign coaavle 1 tha Unitod Seten ealr [ ) ————————— Alexander Dunn’s Sacrifice. TYesterday was illustrated in a most tragic manner the terrible risk that s being run by continuing to maintain unprotected grade crossings in the District of Columbia, At the Chest- nut street crossing in Takoma Park, D. C., two lives were destroyed by a train. A little boy, after waiting for one train to pass and bewildered by the warning cries of the watchman, stepped in the path of another train. The watchman heroically tried to save him. Both were killed. This watchman did his duty, and more. No praise is adequate for him. He was In charge of an open crossing, without gates. He could only display a warning signal. When he saw the child standing in the path of the on- coming traln he instinctively went to his rescue, but too late. It is proposed to bestow a ‘“hero medal” upon this man posthumously. But he deserves a more lasting me- morial. It should take the form of an immediately undertaken public work, an underpass to carry the highway beneath the tracks in permanent cure of this evil condition. It should be dedicated the “Alexander Dunn Cross- ing,” in honor of a man whose life wus given {n a sacrifice that should be the last required to effect a final rellet from this public menace. ‘Within a short distance there are three crossings on this same line at which, within five years, no less than twelve lives have been lost, and this within the area of the Capital City! Yet grade crossings have been “abol- ished” In Washington. At an enor- mous expense nearly twenty years ago the death traps of Washington were almost eliminated. But those that were permitted to remain in the outskirts have continued to take their toll regularly and heavily. From time to time particular ones have been treated with overhead or underpass constructions and definitely put out of the list of fatal nuisances. But this work has been done spasmodically, irregularly and inadequately. In Takoma Park one of these grade crossings has been cured after a long record of deaths. Others remain. In Brookland one crossing has been elim- inated by the construction of a bridge and a few yards to the north another remains with increasing traffic and daily deadly danger. The same situa- tion prevails throughout the District. Crossing elimination has been done, but the deaths continue to mount. ‘What is needed is a wholesale at- tack upon this condition, a definite program of grade crossing elimination that will within a short period correct every one of these dangerous condl- tions. The heroic deed of Alexander Dunn ought to be the last argument necessary to effect this cure of a men- ace that may any day take heavy toll. Meanwhile provision should be made to the end that no crossing at grade be permitted without at least the pro- tection of gates. ——————— With so many cooking schools pre- pared to teach the art of breadmaking it is difficult to see how a baking monopoly could secure the tremendous power with which it is credited. ————————— The Little Falls Bridge. A subcommittee of the House Dis- trict committee has been told by engi- neers that Chain Bridge Is old and too weak for the traffic strain it bears and that a greater flow of traffic would cross the Potomac at Little Falls if a new bridge were built there. The tes- timony of the Engineer Commissioner of the District and of the District en- gineer of bridges was in support of the bill introduced by Representative Moore of Virginia, which would pro- vide for a new superstructure, strengthening of piers and the con- struction of a new abutment at the Virginia end of the bridge. To reduce the danger of breaking the bridge the District authorities ruled that no single load heavier than six tons should go on it. That is much less than the load limit on roads and modern bridges in the District and there is a diversion of traffic from Chain Bridge to the Key Bridge, often with a much longer haul. While the pending bill contemplated the remod- eling and strengthening of the bridge at an estimated cost of $350,000, the District engineer of bridges told the committee that $5,000 would be re- quired to investigate the condition of the bridge and that his opinion is that the bridge cannot be remodeled to bear the traffic that would pass that way. He said a new bridge is needed. The chairman of the committes on bridges of the Board of Trade told the day, members of a dignified scientific | 'Clllln Bridge s the,weakest and most out-of-date bridge in the District. ‘The opinion of the Engineer Com- missioner of the District is that this bridge should be considered of na- tional rather than local character in that it serves parts of Virginia and Maryland as well as the District and is an approach to the Lee Highway. He told the committee that it wovld not be fair that Corgress should lay the whole cost of a new bridge at Lit- tle Falls on the District of Columblia, and said that under the lump-sum ap- propriation and the Borland proposl- tion the Federal Government has not contributed more than ten to twelve per cent toward construction of roads and bridges in the District. In an account of successive bridges at Little Falls, Engineer Commissioner Bell tells that the present bridge was built by the United States in 1874 and turned over to the District in 1886, since which time the District has maintained the structure by laying a new floor now and then, painting such of the iron work as can be reached, making minor repairs to stone and Iron work and keeping a watchman at the District end. The engineer of bridges made the amazing statement that there are important metal parts of the bridge which, because of their inaccessibility, have not been painted In fifty years. The roadway of this bridge is barely wide enough for two cars to pass and there is no footwalk on either side of the roadway. The resulf is that pedestrians are often crowded against the rail. It scems clear that the condition of the old bridge and tramic needs of the District and its nelghbor States call for & mod- ern bridge at Little Falls. ——— < While we are paying devout tribute to heroes of the war the heroes of peace time assert their undeniable claims to consideration. Alexander Dunn, an old man, gave his life in an unsuccessful effort to save a nine- year-old boy from death on a railway track. Dunn’s act was a demonstra- tlon of courage and self-sacrifice suf- ficlent to show that our modern ctvill- zation has rendered war unnecessary 48 a means of expressing fearleas de- votion to ideals. ——— England has explained that the cost of rubber to the U. S. A. 1s purely the result of conditions pertaining to sup- ply and demand. America might offer the same argument should she decide to corner the flivver market and put up forelgn prices, ————t———— The fmportant, if true, news is pro- mulgated that President Coolidge is an indefatigable cigar smoker. At least the rumor leaves him on the safe side with the Anti-Cigarette League. A New York assemblyman has intro- duced a bill to make hypocrisy a crime. This contemplates a complete reconstruction of the political system of his own State and many others. ———— The love affairs of a flapper are made the subject of voluminous litera- ture, to which the flapper herself, being busy with the Charleston, pays little or no attention. —_————— The United States Senate has shown that it can limit debate, but that fact is not permitted by Mr. Dawes to imply that it can limit the Senate's presiding officer. R The economic situation would be different if chemists had managed to make synthetic rubber as efficaclous as synthetic gin. ————————— It appears that the Volstead act is to be the means of putting the ques- tion of temperance Into religion as well as politics. The coal interests and the union are making the term *“hard coal” synony- mous with “hard heart.” SHOOTING STARS. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. Hobby Horse. The hobby horse makes a display Of agile agitation, But never offers a display Of much determination. He never journeys in the storm ‘Where traffic is confusing. He stays where it s safe and warm. The kids find him amusing. His is a life of surest luck Free from severe endeavor. And yet, I'd rather pull & truck ‘Than hobby-horse forever. A Moment of Recklessness. “Are you in favor of changing the rules of the United States Senate' “I don't think it's positively neces- sary,” answered Senator Sorghum. “Why not treat rules as so many peo- ple treat laws of the land, simply go ahead and pay no attention to them' Art, I listen to the radio each night Before I hit my bunk. Like other “art,” some of it brings de- light And some of it is punk. Jud Tunkins says the ability to speak only kind words i3 worth more than a reputation for truth and ve- racity. E Classic Style. “Are you in favor of studying the classics?” “Yes,” replled Miss Cayenne, “if you mean the literary classics. In the matter of costume it is quite possible to go too far in imitating statuary. The Two-Cent Stamp. George Washington, whose life rough, With reverence still we view. He still has influence enough To get a letter through. was “When you makes trouble,” said Uncle Eben, “you mustn’t be surprised if it turns out to be as dangerous an’ unsatisfactory as most home-brew stuff.” Poor Finishers. From the Pittsburgh Gasette-Times Those who ubr:f‘m the anthracite strike seem entirely uneéqual to finish- pg whes by alastiede ) _—_—— BY CHARLES E. TRACEW§LL. A great deal of fun was poked at the late President Harding's use of the word “normalcy.” but time has ad- judged him more or less correct in his views. The normal, in all phases of life, is more to be desired than fine gold. It 18 the bloom on the peach of life. Let a child, for inatance, be normal, and the parents have done the best for him they ever can do. In all the ordinary relations of life normalcy is the be-all and end-all, the alpha and the omega, the last for which the first was made. It means more, in the long run, than any amount of spectal conditions. The s0-called “‘underprivileged boy" i3 more fortunate, grunted he be perfectly nor- mal, than the child born with a silver spoon in his mouth (as the somewhat absurd phrase has it), who is weak In any link Education, travel, honor, rank— these may be added in later years, but normaley, in mind, heart and brain, in body and soul, are with us at the scarcely ever. s, hospitals, unhappy homes hold the abnormal, ranging ull the way from vartous forms of the il tated to misplaced persons who spend thelr hours wrungling and nagging at each other. Every one of us is a bit abnormal, It the bitter truth were known, in some way or other, which is all the more reason why we should so stead- fastly hold up before our hazy eyes the standards of normalcy. To be normal, in everyday actions, may seem an easy proposition, but, as @ matter of fact, i3 as hard a Job as most of us will ever tackle o2 Perhaps normaley 1s found better in the averags smail tovn of the Uuited States than in any large city S4ir” Harding was o typieal small town man; that was why he put his finger with such unerring empha sis on the weak spot developing in American life. The small towns of this country set the pace in normalcy. What exists in them is what ought to exist in larger vh“';’(:’ln Street” and other novels “played up" some features of small towns, but left unnoticed the many virtues of all such places. Even gossip is a virtue, in some re- spects. P To take an Interest in onc's nelgh- bors is normal. To talk about what they do, and the way they do It, is merely to be interested in others. The selfieh city attitude, living next door to a family and not even know- ing their names, is utterly unnatural. When the family down the block stages a “grand row” there is no use for any one to pretend indifference Mrs. Whiffington Jones may put on all sorts of airs, emphaticully declar- ing she 15 not at all interested in such “goings on.” Being polite souls, we make out we belleve her. (This, too, is somewhat abnormal.) As soon as we leave, however, we have a very deep suspicion that Mrs. Whiffington Jones runs to the window and peers out to see if she may catch the latest move on the part of the uarrell family. & Dol‘nn{n her stylish heart Mrs. Jones is just the same sort of a mortal as the rest of us. ‘When she saw the flylng members of the fighting family pour out the front door a bright gleam came into her eyes, just the same as a similar glint hopped Into the vision chasers { influences of those others fortunate enough to have been home at the time. Being a perfectly abnormal speci- men of peson, however, Mrs. Whif- fington Joges *‘made out” that she did not ey it all, and would never have beén!interested in such crass proceedings if she had been so un- fortunate. * K % % Anotber Wvorite form of city stu- pidity, to QI correctly such forms of abneimaly, is to be supershy over forming acfiaintances. It is trueithat one has to be more careful in «eity than in a small town In selecting one's friends. A man may wear the finest clothes, ride in a snappy ar and have quite a bank account, ye& be the very worst sort of bounder, and even scoundrel. In the small town, where secrets are indeed hard to keep (because every gne Ix normal), families and their comporent members naturally full into thefs proper places One way speak pleasantly to old Sam Whityy the town loafer, every tme one meets the old fellow with- out losiez any soclal standing, or without feding obliged to invits the bum horee to dinn Under more artificial conditions, it may be granted, the careful person must be more than wary before he takes into s good graces the new neighbors Who moved into the block. But to continually live under the suspiclon that practically every one that you Know is a person to bewsre of is putting ona's self in the abnormal class with, & vengeance! To live @7 by day under such £ fear, feeling that one wiil “lower his or her preclous self by acting wgturzl, s to build up a small portim on earth of which bears over fis gatewa ing to the poet, the big sign: ve up all hope, ve who enter here.” L Normalty might better exist in all phases of Xe. The Hon. Buffington White has never read Innte's “Divine Comedy,” but puts on & very learned expression when a codnittee from the Dante Soclety calls upon him with an hon- orary membwship upon a silver plat- ter. Secretly tis Hon. Buffington thinks that poetry s all bunk,” but openly he finds it fitting to xay things abnt poetry in general and Dante's teur de force In part The Hon. Buffington hone the old sows. ‘“Darling. We Growing Oldr.” is about the limit of his litersry appreciation. He has made a lot of money, however, in soap, ané = the members of the Dante Soclet” would like him for a member. Hels such a distinguished looking fellogé . There areall sorts of hard-working chaps tolling over games and pur- suits that them to tears, afrald to give thes up because of what others may Bink. All these e exponents of the ab- normal. Nomalcy would require the Hon. Bufingon White to tell the members of the soclety “Ladies, I thank you for the com- pliment, but honestly, I don't even know M. Dante's first name. Is he n o a Kiwanian?” zermal does not require that ng, but stmply that he act naturalht all times. This 8o easy prescription. It is, however, the secret of normalcy. BACKGROUND OF EVENTS BY PAUL V. COLLIK. Itaty’s dictator, the “Duce,” Musso- Itni, has stirred Europe as it has not been stirred since the ultimatum of Austria which started the World War. In a speech in Parliament, he issued his ultimatum to the German republic that he will tolerate no more of Ger- many's attacks upon the Itallan pou: cles in the South Tyrol—the territory acquired by Italy from Austria by the St. Germaline treaty. The dictator’'s speech wrought his hearers to a frenzy of enthusiasm, though it appeared so bellicose as to amount almost to a declaration of war upon Germany and Austria. No event of the last decade has more completely demonstrated the reversal of condi- tions, compared with the days of Kaiser Wilhelm, than this defiance of Germany and open threat of military action by Italy, whose power prior to the World War was almost negligible. * x % x ‘What is it all about? The “presi- dent"” of Bn('arh ‘ll:.‘sd spoken words of sympathy for the poor doomed to live on in the Tyrol after it had passed under the power of Fas- cist Italy. That was the outward provocation of the Itallan threat of war. But that does not tell the whole story. A German business man who fis close to officlal confidence explains that in the South Tyrol there are 180,000 German-speaking people, of ‘whom some 80,000 are of Italian birth, though speaking no Italian. Italy is alleged to be suddenly and cruelly forcing all use of the German lan- guage out of the schools and even out of the churches in prayers, substitut- ing Italian. It was not that Ger- many and Austria had used allens in their territories. They had taught German, but had done it considerately —gradually. True, Austria had been rather harsh in its treatment of Tyro- lese Italians, but what had that to do with Germany? Bavaria {s only one province or state of the German re- public; what its president said could not be taken as official pronounce- ment of the German foreign office. The foreign minister will speak in the Reichstag Tuesday or Wednesday in reply to the speech of Mussolini. Then the world will knov‘t.h: truth. * * The German informant turned to & history and cited the story of the Tyrol. It belonged to a German tribe in the days of Augustus, A.D. 1: Augustus took it, and the Romans kept it 500 years. Then the Ostigoths and the Langobarden took it, and for centuries its counts and dukes were 80 powerful that the Tyrol remained independent, until, in "1367, it was conquered by Austria and remained Austrian until Napoleon took it in 1805 and presented it to Bavaria in reward for her support in the Aus- trian war. In 1814, when Napoleon fell, Austria regained possession. In 1919 she lost South Tyrol to Italy oy the St. Germaine treaty settling the World War. Yes, Italy has a right to require all people in her domain to learn Itallan, but she should give|are yitra be!ll them time—not force even school children in the first grades to study only in Itallan. P All Europe appears ala: rmed by Mussolini’s outspoken _belligerency. The English press says it is a re- pudiation_of the League of Nations Locarno Treaty, if not also ‘World Court. and the the League' * % e To the memory of the came that famous short story by Derniere Alphonse Daudet, “La Classe,” depicting the school of an old French teacher in Alsace: *‘My children,” interviewer | word spoke the aged|ing, toward a & schoolmaster, who had taught there |not by aggressh: This is fe last class in French—I beg of Y& to be very attentive.’ “His $nple words overwhelmed me. Thig then, was the notice they had postd at the mayor’'s office. O, the Ecouflrels! My last lesson in French! * kX *x From n sources equally re- liable andintimately informed comes a_different version of the situation, “The Pan{erman Nationalist League are at theottom of all the trouble,’ said an Ihlan. “There is the An- dreas Hofer League, the Schulverein and the Ssdmorks—the three leagues supported br all Germany though located in Sduth Germany and in Tyrol. The Bavarians are especially active. It is& part of the agitation for the umol of Austria and Ger- . At fest, the agitation was in the souta pnly, but gradually it spread to the Prussian press. Italy remonstrated Rgainst the constant agitation to st up unrest among the few Germans of Italian South Tyrol, but the Geman government aid nothing about =t. “‘As long asthe talk was unofficial, Italy remained quiet, but when Dr. Helder, the mresident of Bavaria, made his mpetch in the Bavarian parliament, (¢ became official—even though only Bavarian, on its face. t foolishhees to say the Italian government fotces the Tyrolese to say their prayes in Italian, instead of German, when everybody knows that all Cathdlic services are in Latin and always lavi been! “As for Italy's abusing the German Tyrolese, why, #ok at our treatment of the familes of Austrians living in South Tyrol! “Ever since tW war, we have been paying pensionsito those families of our former enemfes, just as we do to our own vete ‘And Itallan Ty- rol has not suftred financial hard- ship as has Amtrla and Germany since the war, for even when the Austrian kronen was worth only one or two cents in Italian money, our Fascist government redeemed all that was held by our Tyrolese at 60 cents. “Of course, We want all Italian citi- zens to learn Italian, but there is no compulsion about it, execpt that the public schools, which are supported by taxing all Italy, and whose support comes only & tenth from the Tyrolese themselves, must teach only Italian. ‘Why should Italy tax all the people to teach a forelgn Mnguage in her public schools? Does spy other country do 80 : “Why should §ermany fear the ef- fect of teaching ftalian to the 180,000 German-speaking citizens who have opted to be Itflian, when at least 80,000 of thein!were born Italians? | small number, com: there are 8,000,000 Germans in {1 population of only 7,000,000 yet hoslovakia forces all to speak Italy has 42,000,000 in Italy and 10,000,000 Italians in other countr “You say it some of our papers aeitia mnt;l Yonx::muld not e ‘e and El 'Impero too seriously. THe each have a circula- tion of only abut 15,000 and are ex- tremists. “Those rad tear down evel uments of t| over again wil call them Cub! art, you know. ent, but she looking since has a what it did 50 14 in politics want to thing—all great mon- past—and build all lew machinery. We ke the Cubists in 1y is not belliger- rong and forward the same as rejuvenation. development, but That talk about for 40 years, ‘this is the last day I|forcing France fo§ive up some of her shall keep school. ‘The order has|African colonies Italy is nonsense. come from Berlin that nothing but [ No official has ansuch an idea; it is German shall be taught in the schools | the foolish talk o and Lorrain 'he new of Alsace . of the ultra-rad- icel papers mentiped.” (Conyutand 1 Vo Oslisnad NEW BOOKS AT RANDOM LG M. OVER THE HILLS OF RUTHENIA. Henry Baerlein. Bonl & Liveright. There is no Ruthenia, not any more. To the most of us this fact would log- ically set up & positive barrier against going there. Henry Baerlein s, how- ever, of another sort. ‘The Paris peace arrangements, you recall, wiped out the Hungarian prov- ince of Ruthenta, dividing its people, the Ruthenes, between the Czecho- slovak Republic and the Rumanian Kingdom. But the everlasting hills of Ruthenia were left and down from them came drifting rumors of what under the new order these, the least and most llliterate of the Slav people, were doing in the way of coming out from under the anclent bondage of Magyar and Jew. The story ran that nearly every house was a newspaper office and every other house a school, 80 great was the zeal to revive the na- tive speech and to get it out Into act- ive circulation. To be sure, both ed- itors and teachers, so the gossips sald, knew almost nothing of the long-for- bidden Ruthene tongue. But the spirit was working robustly out through the many obliterating years. All this to Mr. Baerlein important and Inter- esting. He oned. no doubt, that since it Is the most exciting of things to see a man rebuild himself to a finer pattern, how much more inspiring would it be to see a whole people, how- ever small, co-operate to the same laudable end. * k& * And so this traveler went to where Ruthenia used to be, to where the hills of Ruthenia still are. And as he walked the old ways he sympathized with the land and wondered if “when she hears wind that murmurs in her milllon oaks or feels those grea orned oxen ploughing up her ruddy suil”" she may not remember “with un- easiness that on the ordinary map of Eurcpe there is no Ruthenia.” At once, you see here a traveler whose understandings and kinships are not confined to the human alone. These spread out instead to take in the soll, the trees, the animals, the full spirit of the land in thelr natural feelings of strangeness under a new order. It is such ready response coupled with fancy and playfulness and & deep joy in every shnple and natural thing that makes of this book a full and com- municable adventure to the reader. You should at once be told positively that which, from this glimpse of the traveler himself, you have without doubt already divined. After going along with him you will have nothing statistical to pack away for futur use. In your budget there will be ver: little of such fact as can be measured, described, analyzed and then classi: tied Into neat pens of ready access and reassuring accuracy. Mr. Baerlein is not that kind of truth-getter. Indeed, he gues along planless, apparently much as you and I would. He stops when the rude means of transporta- tion do, either because they have ar- rived or have broken down. It is all the same to him. A definite arrival seems to be no more desirable than an accidentai pause. For in either case there {8 companionship—the driver of the conveyance, or a stroliing peddler with a tray of wares hung around his neck, or a group of peasants deeply engaged in controversy over what. the weather will be tomorrow or some equally unsolvable trifl And these are just what this traveler came out to see. For these are the Ruthenes, and this 18 what used to be Ruthenia. * ¥ And there was Katarina. “Have you prepared a nice bed, Katarina?" said the host. “All is ready,” answered Katarina. And opening the door she showed me a room where, from the noises, at least five were sleeping. “Very full,” said I. “Let us go on." “But you must look at them," said Katarina, who was in the best of humor. There on sofa and bed and floor were the night's lodgers. Re- minding this queer traveler that he'd be very lonely by himself, Kataris reluctantly led him away Fes, but it is as cold as possible and how nice and warm it was in there. The win- dow is well bolted, though it is not nailed down, as they do it in Galicla.” “And then we came to where I was to sleep. It was a theater—that 1S to say, a large and oblong room, which ended in a stage. It was bitingly cold. . . . Good Katarina even went 80 far as to propose that, if my feet were cold in bed, she would be willing to come In and chafe them. Thereupon she left me, but not long after came back to inquire if, happily, my feet were warm. She was astonished that I had not gone to bed; and she ad- vised me strongly to undress. As I undressed myself the faithful Kata- rina did not this time leave the room, nor did she gaze through half-closed lashes, like a furtive sun; no, she was like the sun throned in a cloudless sky, which gazed with the downright- ness of a Buddha or of & small child. When I had climbed gingerly into bed this admirable woman took my feet and started rubbing them. There was no chair for her to sit upon and so she settled down upon the bed itself. If she had been reduced to, say, a tenth of her own size she would have much resembled one of those kind Baroque angels who support the feet of the stone kings and steadfast bishops lying on their sepulchers. And she endeavored zealously to rub away the stoniness of mine.” * x k% And everybody is talking about the new day that has come to the Ru- thenes. Nicholal, the peddler; and the schoolmaster and all the customers in a spick-and-span new restaurant and the peasantry, all are talking to- gether on topics that can never draw to a conclusion. ' And the traveler listens, sometimes prompting to for- gotten lines or reviving a theme that is dying out for lack of sustenance. “Yes, there is a good deal that re- malns to be done"—the schoolmaster talking. ““The Ruthenes live in such dirt, a good many of them, and that is the first thing we ought to see to.” And then the story drifts off to Amer- ican help to this region—all of it en- thusiastic and generous, some of it clearly absurd. * ok ok % When the traveler and Nicholai de- cided to go up into the forest reglon, there was consternation in the little village below. And low-voiced stories grew of unfriendly animals that would bar their way. “‘But we also learned, for several people most mysteriously drew us aside and told us about it, that the dark recesses of the forest region were the haunts of an extreme- ly active and maliclous sprite—a sort of goblin. However, the good people had not uselessly made us aware of this great peril; we would go un- scathed, most probably, if on our per- sons we concealed a charm or two.” So, with a candle-stump out of the church from one, a plece of coral from another, something else from somebody else—all calculated to frus- trate the sinister intent of the goblins, Nicholai and the traveler set out for the wooded Carpathians, bulwark of old Ruthenia. Thelr adventures are frequent and remarkable—just as they would be with this pair to whom the scampering of a squirrel is adven- ture, or the flight of a bird; to whom all the strange tales are gospel truth, or seem to be, so carefully do they follow their portents and propitiations. A sheer delight from the first day to the last, this gay wayfaring into a reglon as unreal to the average as is the most distant corner of the re- motest part of the earth. One sus- pects, however, that this traveler would find enticement for himself and entertainment for others in places as near and open as Fleet street or Broadway. For, clearly, the spell that he casts is the spinning thread of his own companjonable personality woven into the gauzy fabric of play ‘aud £8A 404 £uR a0d good lanshiek ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN. Q. How does a cat manage always to land on its feet?—M. W. A. The method whereby a cat in- variably lands on its feet even when dropped from a comparatively small height has been demonstrated by the use of the slow-motion picture camera. The motion picture revealed that at fizst the cat simultaneously extends the hindlegs and tall perpendicular to the axis of its body and draws the forelegs close in. A twisting strain is then applied through the body and results in the closely held forequar- ters rotating nearly 90 degrees in ad- vance of the hindquarters. Then, by drawing in the hindlegs and tall, ex- | tending the forelegs and exerting an- other torsional stress in a direction opposite to the previous one the hind- quarters are brought around and the cat is ready to land on its feet. Q. When was the Mohammedan re- ligion introduced into the Phillppines? —M. P. A. Mohammedanism was brought into the Philippines in the fourteenth century by Malays from Borneo. Q. What are the absolute mon- archies of the world and who rules them?—C. E. A. The absolute monarchies of the world are: Abyssinia, Empress Wal- zeru Zauditu; Afghanistan, Amanul- lah Khan; Morocco, Sultan Mulal Yusef; Sfam, King Rama VI Q. How does peat look?—J. W. C. A.—Peat varies In consistency from a turf to a slime. As it decomposes its color deepens, old peat being dark brown or black, and keeplng little of the plant texture. formation it is known as bog peat (mosses), heath peat, meadow peat (grasses and sedges), forest peat wood peat (trees) and sea peat (sea- weeds). For use as a fuel, peat is dried and often compressed. It widely found and inecreasingly im. portant, but, owing to its bulk and its large content of water and ash, does not compete formidably with Q. Was there a theory as early as the thirteenth century that the earth was round?—A. §. A. A volume unearthed from a library in Oxford University entitled “The Metrical Lives of the Salnts,” written by a monk at the end of the thir- teenth century, contains the stanza “As an appel the urthe {s round, so that evermo half the urthe the sonne by-schyneth, hou so hit evere go.” Q. Is meerschaum made or found as it nppears in commerce’—A. J. S A. almost cheeselike consistency, easily cut with a knife. It rapidly hardens on exposure to the afr. source of meerschaum fn_ Asia Minor. 1In the town of Sepetdje in Asia Minor there -are over 20,000 pits in a space of 6 miles, and meer. schaum has been dug in this locality for over 1,000 vears. Q. Why is longitude reckoned from | Greenwich, England?—J. D. A. The Inconvenlence of having a | fixed meridien in different countri led to an international conference. which was held at Washington from the 1st to the 22d of October, 1884. Although the representatives of France and Brazil dissented, the con ference agreed to recommend the me- ridian of Greenwich, England, to be used as the reference meridian of the world by astronomers and geog- raphers. The arrangement began on the 1st of January, 1885. FPrior to this time many foreign map makers had already accepted the Greenwich meridian as the meridian of reference. Q. Where did the name “The Lost Cause,” as applied to the Confederacy, originate”—W. R. A. This phrass first became cur- rent as the title of & history of the Civil War by E. A. Pollard, published in 1886. It was used as an expressive designation for the purposes and aims which the Southern people vainly sought to realize In the permanent establishment of the Confederate States of America. Q. What {s the origin of the word boycott?—R. M A. Capt. Boycott was the English agent of Lord Erne in Ireland in 1881 He Incurred the ill will of the tenants. As a result the population for miles around refused to deal with him in any way. Q. Can you tell me briefly the proc- ess used in bleaching brown sugar?— P.R. N. A. The ordinary brown sugar for commerce is a product of the cane sugar refinery. The raw sugar ob. When dug,, it is soft and of an | tained mostly from the tropics is melt~ ed or disswived In water to give & thin sirup. The refining operation consists essentlally in filtering this thin sirup through bore char or some other decolorizing carbon to remove @ large part of the color originally present. The best grades of grande lated sugar are made from the water- white liquor that comes from the filter, whereas the brown sugar s made from the flitered sirup which is not es thoroughly decolorized. Q. How many students earn money while attending college?—H. T. A. At the University of Chicago there are about 50 per cent of the men working their way through college elther in whole or in part and sbout 25 per cent of the women. Statistios for all colleges are not available. Q. Did Abraham Lincoln ever teke out & patent?—A. T. N. A. Abroham Lincoln received a pat- ent, No. 8489, on camel and floating dock, on May 22, 1848, Q. What are the distinctions be tween raisins and currants?—P. D, T. A. The name * primarily a Fre rape.” It is given to the dried fruits of certaln varleties of the grupevine (genus Vi. tis). The name “currants” originally (and still 1s) applied to the dried seed- less frult of a variety of the grape- vine. The most obvious distinction e one of size, so-called ralsins usually being large and currants small. Both really are kinds of raisins, the lattee | being grouped as ordinary or large rai- | sins, sultana seedless raisins and curs According to its | or pare in the M. R. H. In the two extremes amorg the | different races of man the difference jof length In man and woman is ecarce- |1y notl In some lank-haired | races men’s tresses are as long &8 women's; for instance, the Chinese pigtail, and the hair of Redskins, which grows to the length sometimes of upward of 9 feet. In the (rizzy. hafred peoples, men and women have short growths. It is chiefly in vpes of people that the aif- | ference in the sexes i= marked. Among European men the length rarely ex- [ceeds 12 to 18 inches, while with women the mean length is betwean 25 and 30 inches and in some cases has been known to reach 6 fest or more. Q. Who was the first to write the phrase “The United States of Amer- A. L. C. Robert Ingersoll, as Pal » first to in his eration , sald of him, “He write these words. es of America.’ " e people provided o F of Asia Minor ves and plgeons and it is rea- shelters were vided for the birde. The shelves | for swallows in Japanese temples and | teeding towers ‘with nesting places intained by the Brahmans of India 1 s that birds were Amerfcan Indlans | were known to hang gourds on trees | for purpie martins and other insec- | tivorous birds. Q. Since it atmed that the United States leads in the number of homicides annually, it would be inter- esting to know which of the civilizad vest per cent?”- . According to a survey recently published, the hom of the United States, ated 7.2 per hundred n England and Wa r cent; Italy, 8.6 r Africa, 1.8 per cent; of 1 per cent, the I known of any nation. h smallest rec Q. Are more white or megro mar. 1 women gainfully éccupied in tho ited States?—N. G. )f the 2.000.000 married women vk, one-half are native white, while one-third are negro. Frederic J. Haskin is employed by The Evening Star to handle the in- quirics of our readers and you are invited to call upon him as freely and as often as yoi plrase. Ask anything that is a matter of fact ard the gu- thority will be quoted you. There is no charge for this service. Ask what wou want, sign your mame and ad- dress and i ose 2 cents in stamps for return postage. Address The Eve- ning Star Information Bureau, Fred- eric J. Haskin, director, Washingtom, D.C. World Rings With Praises Of Gallant Another historic landing at Plym- outh has occurred, this time on the shores of Britaln, There the American | iner President Roosevelt put into port after her titanic battle with the sea, in which the entire crew of the British freighter Antince was saved and two of the American rescuers lost thelr lives. Now the world sings the praises of Capt. George Fried and his crew. The Saginaw News Courier draws a graphic picture of the arrival of the liner at Plymouth, where “representa- tives of the British admiralty and of the civillan organizations having to do with maritime affairs assembled to greet Capt. George Fried of the Roose- velt, and conveyed to him, his officers and crew warmest congratulations” on their heroic conduct. “The Eng- lish of Drake and Raleigh, of Jellicos and Beatty, welcomed with open arms the officers and crew of the Yankee steamer and paid tribute to the gal- lant rescue of all on board the Brit- ish freighter Antinoe,” says the Lou- Isville Courier-Journal, which calls this tribute an example of “the brother- hood of the sea” and a “recognition of the finest maritime traditions that tightened the ties of Anglo-American kinship.” The appreciative reception given Capt. Fried and his brave men on British soll is noted also by the Seattle Daily Times, which says the “British newspapers have praised | Capt. and his crew without stint.” * ko % Briefly rehearsing the story which today is known around the world, the Rochester Times Union recalls how on “January 24, at 5:40 o'clock in the afternoon, the SOS call of the An- tinoe reached the President Roosevelt. From that time until 4 o'clock on the 28th, every man, from Capt. Fried to the tolling engine room force, gave his utmost to the task of savin the lives of mperiled fellow seamen. The conditions under which they worked could seldom be matched for ‘hardship inflicted, as the Flint Daily Journal points out, saying: “Capt. Fried and the Roosevelt's crew out- faced and outgamed fury and violence of storm—storm which cannot be ap- preciated by landsmen under whose feet the earth is solid; wind which snatches the breath, takes shouts from one's lips and whirls them away into nothingness; sleet that beats on unprotected flesh like needles, leaving it raw; billows mountain high, tha made the handling of boats a peril | imminent and constant, only to he averted by the highest courage and skill. * ok %k ‘The New Orleans Item declares ‘the 860U WiAd an9 of the Basdest fought i American Crew | since the beginning of steam. It test- | ed and proved the mettle of the men engaged, from the captain down to the seamen at the oars. They are worthy descendants of the American seamen who wrote maritime history.” The San Francisco Bulletin adds that “‘American seamanship lived up to its traditions, i the New London Eve- Ing Day, declaring that “the steamship Roosevelt has become symbelic of the | heroism of the seu,” also notes that “the American sailors who manned lifeboats four times in an effort to reach the distressed Antinoe must have been perfection It handling of the lifchoats. Dispatch Herald belioves * will not soon forget the open-boat rescue,” while the Jersey City Jersey Journal calls attention to the fact that no rescue could have been effected had there not been “men In the crew of the President Roosevelt who were willlng to work continuously hour after hour, risking their lives to save the men who seemed destined to dle.” “Somewhere in the bottom of the At- lantic,” adds the Kalamazoo Gazetts, “lie the mortal remains of two new heroes who willingly took a chance with death—and lost,” and this paper says of them and their fellow mem- bers of the crew, “zood sallormen all land true.” * x ok “Dat ole devil sea has not changed man’s courage in spite of all his furi ous challenges,” the Providence Bulle- tin remarks with pride. ‘“Men are still to be found who. when almost certain death faces them, are ready to give their lives in order that others may enjoy life.” Says the Knoxville Sentinel, referring to the code of ethics of the sea, a tradition of stout- hearted self-sacrifice, “these traditions have become more than custom or habit—they have become the unwrit- ten law of the seven seas,” while the Yonkers Herald declares that ‘“the code of the sea is in itself an emo- tional appeal to all of man’s finest qualitie: Applauding Capt. Fried for his de- cision to stand by the sinking freight- er, the Danville Bee calls attentlon to the fact that this determination was reached even though ‘“there was a cumulative burden on the man's mind. He had -his own passengers’ safety to consider. He had a valuable ship to answer for, and he was in the teeth of a gale lasting for days—yet he did not *" The story re minds t} Orezon Journul ning the brain o : been pitted against the e ments; through all time man has beeu struggling for his survival, but be bas lived,”