Evening Star Newspaper, June 13, 1926, Page 79

. « ‘Growing Gardens at Walter Reed Among the Capital’s Beauty Spots THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, Chance Remark to Stranger Set in Motion a Campaign Which Has Produced an Impressive Addition to Hospital Surroundings. BY LUCRETIA E. HEMINGTON. ! A garden is n loyesome thing. God wot! Rose plot. fringed pool. Ferned krot—the veriest schicol of peace. O the intriguing cl have you seen the r along the Speedway NoOW one consummate reply, “Yes. But have secn the sunken gardens at \ Reed?” Walter Reed! the Army medic: ton, with a general hospital and Army schools of nurses, dentists, veterans and physicians of more than 100 zenerally known in the Capital, that on that same acreage is of gardens whose plan and ar ment make them rare and lovely few are aware. It is not an exags the whole personne fosters and helps maintain the pel fected state of the gardens and merits some of the credit that accrues from their beauty, but the executive officer, Maj. R. W. Kerr, himself an ardent devotee of the flower spaces, that the gardens ave the result of the efforts of Gen. J. D. Glennan, who, as commanding general of the Army medical center at Walter Reed, was instrumental in securing the equip- ment and the services of skilled men that a formal garden connotes. While at Fort Myer Gen. ( had studied landscape gardening, mas tering the art as he progressed with Lis subject. The lawns at Walter Tteed loping, dipping inw »'a strong appeal to Gen. ation of gardening, and 1 gardens, wondering all the while whether, since there was almost no money available for such purposes, he should ever be able to secure equipment sufficient to make his dreams come true. Strange as it may seem, at a con- ~wention one day Gen. Glennan, stand- ing near a stranger—a man whose appearance did not indicate either wealth or position—entered into conversation with him, telling him of his hope that somehow, in some W he would be able to lay out formai gardens commensurate with the dig- nity and Importance of Walter Reed. The stranger seemed well versed in the art of formal gardens, spoke svm- pathetically of the proposed pre and, like all good strangers, passed on and was lost in the crowd, the general little guessing an un- usual source of supply he ha One day the mail brought to Walt Reed the information that a donation of rosebushes from Lyon, Fr was in quarantine in the Departmert of Agriculturs ing to be deli.- ered to the h this laconic fashion Gen. stranger was ping _to o the garden plans. In time it w overed that the generous donor of rare roses is the wealthy Arthur Deeker of Ruther ford, N. J., who each vear make Jarge importation of roses from I for his own estate. Each y there i ecstati you ation to say that t Walter Reed ion an order for Walter Reed, whose sreenhou: at the present hour show an extensive number of these roses. A few months after the casual con- versation with the stranger Gen. Glennan persuaded the gardener at the Soldiers’ Home grounds to resign there and take over the management of the grounds at Walter Reed. Again | the general builded better than he knew, for James N. Holland, with 30 years’ experience in the fingers of his flower-loving hands, has préved to be @& veritable magician in this new realm of plants, shrubs and trees. * % X ¥ 1 was to be expected; Gen. Glen- nan let his scheme for gardens be known, and needed supplies began coming in from various sources. Do- nations of green growing things were made by the Dep-riment of Foreign Plant Industry, from the greenhouses of the Department of Agriculture and from those of the White House. They were surplus supplies that made a fair beginnfhg in what Is now amazing loveliness. A part of Rock Creek Park was turned intoa golf course. The ever- green trees uprooted in that process were donated to Walter Reed, where today they sta nch and loya! in their cool, refresh Often, too, ul patients, upon being dis m the hospital, travel at home and abroad. In their wanderings they pick up rare growths, which they send back to Walter Reed for a place on her lawns. In ‘this fashion, some of the unusual plants and trees have been obtained. In that delightful gift from the Japanese government to the Capital there was a gencrous surplus of cherry trees after the Tidal Basin area and the Speedway had absorbed their full share. These were placed along the gentle slopes of the en- trance to Walter Reed, where they are growing in sheer luxuriance. This Spring they ssed with some new and ineffable grace, for they poured out their bloom in endless pro- fusion to gladden the very souls of those who sojourncd at the hospital. All told, each year there are dona- tions of $600 worth of growing things to Walter Reed, the gifts ranging from a few' roots of spearmint from an old estate up to the valuable ship- ment or roses from Lyon, France. In addition to all the gifts here enumerated, there have been built and paid for by friends the necessary greenhouses for the never-ending up keep of extensive gardens. Today there are four such structures on the lenge, “Oh, ates | A VIEW OF WALTER REED HOSPITAL'S ROCK GARDEN. at $50,000. All things seemed to work together for the perfecting of the gardens. During the war Dr. David Lumsden resigned his position at Cornell Uni- sity, where he w of agriculture, to take a place among those at Walter Reed who served in the department apy. Since hi ] intere in botany andscape art, Glennan set him to work_upon 1 { for the formal gardens.” The den seal of approval upon his skill in art. (Dr. Lumsden is to horti- culturist_to the Government of the United_States, holding that position in_the Department of Agriculture,) The spot selected for the formal ardens lies in the basin of green lawns that dip down and away from | the main building on its southern side. A musicians’ grandstand, cov- ered and built without any indication en. ans gar s need but to be seen to set the | pure amber yellow is surnamed y Kirk; the rare white rose of v fine raiment is known as the au Karl Druschi, and on and on, » an introduction to a fair com- pany of noble folk smiling in the sun. | The variety is endless, and the qual- |ty is excellent and rare. EEE I SPARATING the | plotted rose Beds is a pergola. lofty canopied in a matted ent | so thick that the 2 ate their we clean glamour Moon sweeps high and { wide only to mingle its shimmering | satiny wealth in the crimsons and blush pinks of the Hiawatha and the Dorothy Perkins. Of all the birds, mocking birds know best the shel- | safety entangled vines; | chose this - their home s in_that pergol The foot would linger in the smail f occupational ther- | two groups of sun | the sitv te of heavy lines, is made the cynosure | scrunching pebbles bencath the per-lare of | &0 | grounds. One nursery alone is \-aluvd! Wellington; the primrose shade that It'm:ls his eyes arrested by the fact that the giant powerhouse, in accord with the intentions of the gardenc all but hidden behind a dense mass of trees that h like a curtain of green between the outer rim of the garden and the necessary but un sightly powerhouse. That in itself is an achievement in the cause of ar | Indeed, from the heart of the {@en one may look in any di lonly to see sw: masses | willows, maples. | trees like the tree tree imperial, s : one lil to An ene the rim nting clusion rown by those living wa The tree impe; s o brief s a sturdy growth with mong which . are clusters of laver blossoms with a fragrance swecter th honey in the honeycomb. The flowers in formation much like the A WARD GARDEN AT WALTER REED HOSPITAL. of all the garden's sweep. All lines run to the hub of the stand. All paths are pebbled and outlined in” the slender green grace of the arbor vitae, giving to the garden a formal note that is part of its in- herent charm. There are two really magnificent rose gardens, the bushes being ar- | ranged according to varlety, one species only to a bed. The blooms aro unusually large, the colors are marvelously rich, and a_ heavy fra ro! The evident fertility of the ground is accounted for by the fact that for vears preceding its present use it was the run of a big chicken house. Name plates are in cach rose plot that the glorious blooms of saffron vellow are teiling the visitor that they bear the regal name of Duchess of nce breathes from the heart of the | gola, but the pebbled path leads on and on straight ahead, straight to- ward the west and away grandstand. Beauty lures one for- ward into the formal perennial gar- dens. There they are, the painted lad snap-dragons, fox-gloves, canterbury bells, clove-pinks, dropwort, phlox, {larkspur, peonies, iris, bergamont, and a thousand others, all in bloom or preparing to bloom. There is some- thing that smacks, always, iin a gar- den of perennials, of an English gar- den, so varied, so colorful, so sturdy is it. Of course, there is a sun-dial in the path saying so sunnily: Let others tell of storms and showers, T'll mark for you the sunny hours. As one looks up to find where the sun may be riding so majestically, he from the | clustered beauty of lilacs, save that the individual bell-shaped flowers are | much larger, making the stalk group impressive and pyramidal. Seen against a blue sky or a flaming sun- set, the tree in bloom is long to be remembered. As one prepares to leave the peren- nials, one notes with pleasure that several large rocks have b the garden. Their g are almost hidden under hardy vines that have been trained to cover them. | These bowlders are nature’'s claim upon the work that is from the hands of man. There is a pool and fountain, 00, where goldfish play among the palms, a cool splashy bit whose sound delights the ear. And here and there beneath the trees are benches on one of which is a soldler asleep in the grateful shade. Stone benches and stone steps on whose halting places are flower boxes gay with color add a piquant touch to the formal gardens; one wants to linger awhile on the bench, knowing full well that soon he will go climbing the steps to see where the paths may lead. Of all the restful places on the grounds of Walter Reed, none is so undisturbed as the tree-shadowed benches within sight and sound of the cool splashing fountain. One halts there a minute to look back over the formal beds and to ask Mr. Holland, the well informed gar- dener, which flower he loves the most, in view of the fact that he seems to treasure all of them fondly. His face lights up as he turns to the rose plots and says: “Well, I guess it is the roses.” In the presence of their lux- uriance and fragrance, one is not sur- prised at his reply. It was necessary, of course, to dig a tunnel for the huge drain pipe that carries off the waste water of the grounds. The excavating was done by dynamite, that explosive throw- ing up broken rock and bowlders as it tore its way through the earth. These rocks were left on both sides of the tunnel-bed as they fell and now they form a rock garden that makes an alluring conclusion to the whole matter of the formal gardens. * koK ok HERE s not a bit of ground be- tween the rocks or an earth filled crevice that does not show some sturdy growth of ferns, of clove pinks, of pansies, of vines and of spearmint. That spearmint is a veritable treasury, for the gardener one day spled a rock whose upper surface is hollowed out on the lines of a bird-bath, and being an artist, he ran a concealed water pipe up behind an overhanging rock to let a trickle of silvery happiness fall into the natural basin below. It is there that the birds on warm, dusty | Sar days splash and flutter and shake D. C, JUNE 13, 1926—PART 5. Local Stage Was a War Barometer When D. C. Was Center of Conflict OON at after Leonard Grover died Brooklyn in March, three months ago, the Rambler wrote J of Grover's Theater, Washing- ton. It was also called Grover's National Theater. Leos over was a leader, at least he was an im portant man, in the theater business during the Civil War ana for two or three decades in pre and post war times. He managed theaters and dra- matic and operitic troupes and he put on new play: He also wrote 's, and_one of them was “Our ding House,” which drew crowds ughs. If you are of respectable e and were not against the theater on what some men call ‘“moral grounds vou probably saw “‘Our Boarding House.” It was played first at the Park Theater, N. Y., January 8100 and in “Our Boarding House,” Willlam H. Crane and Stuart Robson acted in partnership for the first time. Mr of with several men who were known by a great many persons and remem. bered by many. Some in that group were known by more pe knew Grov but some were not so wide known as The names that come to mind In this connection were Maurice Grau, Henry Fugene Abbey, ol. James Henry Mapleson, Augustin Daly, Albert Marsham Palmer, Steele MacKaye, John A. Elisler, Benjamin Me and James M e Perhaps some old reader v his wife to the opera once—on his honeymoon— when he stopped at Mor- ton, Gilsey, Stur nt, Brevoort, or even at the Fifth Avenue, Windsor o) Buckingham, in New York, or Girard or Continental in 1 or the Barnum Hotel in will wipe his gl wd say: 1 wa a devoted follower Grau, Abbey pleson, and even of Strakosch rh R 1 never mi opera when those men put it on. Yes, sir, 1 a great opera-goer and tirst-n e I got this habit of sitting in a_rocking chair_on the k porch. Yes, sir; that Rambler fellow got the names right Some of the men names known to you. ducted the Madison Square Theater, of the early small and “intimate" he wrote and put on ," with Charles W. in the lead; “A Fool's Er Von At Last.”” “Through the ind “Paul but I “Hazel ho took Baltimore. Lsses were not There w successful Steele ater and ame to Washington. It was “Widow Bedotte.” All that I remember about it is that it was very funny. Although I get a princely ry——some princes are out of work or remembering things, the Ram- bler finds that he cannot remember everything that has happened, and he fears that sometimes he remem- bers things that did not happen. But you can probably eall to your mind something about “Widow Bedotte."” MacKaye, dramatist, poet, ac: s, 43 a s8n of Steele noth Mack: John' A. pany in War and one in Columbus during that . and it was in the Cleveland com- {pany that a poor, timid little girl got L job in the chorus at $3 a week. hat poor little girl, whose devoted mother was i scamstress in Mrs. Miller boarding house in Cleveland. | was Clara Morrison, whom Americans of intelligence honored for two, three, zenerations as Clara Morris. She did {not change her name. Mr. Ellsler, in writing her name on his pay_roll set it down Morris instead of Mor- | rison, and poor, timid little ! thought it too small a thinz to cor. vect. Clara Morris (Mrs. Frederick C Harrlot), died at New Canaan, Conn., November 20, ged 79 the memoirs | * [ Y of published in 1901, you can read 0od deal about John Ellsler. ¢ {had a small part in the Elisler com- {pany In Columbus and there ‘made a | friendship which lasted through life with Don Piatt, then a member of |the Ohio legislature, and with John | A. Cockerill, then a messenger in the | Assembly and a reporter on the Cin- cinnati Inquirer. John and Clara |were engaged to be married. John [became distinguished as a newspaper jman in New York. Of course, you | heard of him. Is it possible that there |is & Ramble reader who has not heard |of Don Piatt? He came to Washing. {ton as a Cincinnati_correspondent in 1868, lived at zhteenth street, founded the C: 1871, retired to his Ohio home in 1880, sold his in- terest in the Capital in 1890 and died at_Cleveland in 1891, 1 read Clara Morris’ memoirs about a-year before her death, having bor- rowed the book from my old friend, Ed Scanlon, son of Mike. Ed and I meet often at lunch at The Plate of Stew. That is not as presumptuous, or sumptuous as the place you take your out-of-town friends when you want to make them think the car is paid for and money is no object. It is one of those restaurants where a fellow does not have to be so formal as to put on a dress suit or a collar. When you say, “Waiter, serve me an order of wheaten cakes” the bar- tender calls to the cook, “Stack em.” 1t reminds me of Bogle's restaurant, on Eighth avenue, where O Henry used to eat, only there is no Afleen, no Tilda! You have forgot the story? Well, Aileen, a_ waltress in Bogle's, was so good looking that she got in- vites down to Coney on a Sunday. Tilda was so plain that she ne'er got a.word endearing. Not a glance! One day Mr. Seedy, who worked in a laundry, came to lunch drunk, and he hugged Tilda. It was the thrill of her life. Next day Mr. Seedy came in sober and humbly said, “Tilda, you must excuse me, for I never would of done such a thing if I hadn’t of been| drunk.” Tilda was crushed, but the charming Alleen, to soothe her said: “Never mind, Tilda, he ain’t no gen- tleman, else he never would of apolo- zed.” Bl me get back to the group of men named early in this story. Bar- ney McCauley was famous as a stock ————————— ve. sler had a famous stock - A Clara Morr! o themselves beneath the cool, fresh Water 1l that moist bit of rockland seemed the very place for the- pun- gency of spearmint, so there the Beots were planted and there they flourish. In his humbly proud fashion, the gardener- tells the visitor that that spearmint came from a plant that was placed on an old Southern estate back in 1700, and one is vouch- ated another glimpse into the ro- Saance that has gone into the creation of the gardens at Walter Reed. One would like to spend more time in the rock-garden, for even the tiny at stones cemented into the walk are attractive, and the myriads of plants Ad Vines hold the allure of person- ality, for each has a name, and many have a bit of history. The gardener says so invitingly: “I want you to see o oldfashioned garden of perennials. Tt is just a little way to our right, Jyst back of the Rosalind Wood green: hhuse, where we “keep our tropical plants and our jmported roses. ’After his words one relinquishes the rock-garden not so reluctantly, for one knows that after thejold-fashioned garden has revealed its delights he (Continued on Fifth Page.) Grover deserves to be thought sons than | ed the | Steele MacKaye con- | leveland before the Civil | Clara | the | Iphia, | | the Theater in Which He Served the Public. JOHN McCULLOUGH. Handy Photo. company manager in Cincinnati, and I think it was he who buflt McCau- s Theater in Chicago. If I am rong about it, you can come to the office and ask the Sunday editor to fire me. James Magul was ‘‘the” managerial authority an Fran- cisco and on the Pa ifle Coast in the | 1 the silant boards. for once, its bright face grave and its laughing eyes heavy with tears. The old National's day had come; its hour had struck and the incendfary’s torch was lighted.” I construe from this pathos that the ational burned in the night, January 3, 1556. By reading a little fur- EDWIN BOOTH. 70s. T almost forgot to put down the names of Ben De Bar of St. Louis and Tompkins and Hill of the big old Boston Theater in the Capital of Fabacaea. 1 am sure you will not pick a_fight with me for putting Leonard Grover in this good com- pany. I told you much about him fn the story in The Sunday Star March 21, and if you don't belleve me you can come to The Star's li- brary and look at The Star file for March. It is sometimes possible to find in a library things worth read- ing. If you don't care about coming down to the office, you may go to the Washington Public Library and ask Miss Patton to show you the Rambler collection. * kK k FTER turning out the story I have referred to my dear friend Miss Elizabeth P. Jordan loaned me a pamphlet, the title of which is: “New National Theater—A Record of Fifty Years, by Alexander Hunter and J. H. Polkinhorn. Illustrated by J. Ells- worth Clark, Washington, D.C., R. O. Polkinhorn & Son, Frinters, 188 Let us look back a few years, before Grover came to Washington. In 1855 Fanny Morant became lessee and di- rectress of the theater, and the Intel- ligencer of December 29 that year made the announcement. She was an actress of note. She changed the name of the playhouse to “Fanny Mor- ant’s National Theater” and opened with the play “Masks and Faces, playing the character of Peg Woffing- ton. Miss Morant did not stay long in Washington, but how short her stay was I do not know. On January 12, 1856, John E. Owens and Mrs. Melinda Jones and their company were play- ing a comedy called “Self,” followed by a farce, “A Kiss in the Dark.” What follows is from the Hunter- Polkinhorn history: “As the curtain fell upon the unthinking multitude indulging in uproarious merriment, none could have guessed that it would never rise again. The players, fagged out, hastily donned their daily cos- tume, washed the paint and powder from their faces and hurried to their hotel, never stopping to cast a glance behind at the building which they would never see again. The silence of the night fell, the lights were out and on the stage no living footsteps (and perhaps no other) would ever fall It may be the shades of traged; stalked solemnly along, bidding adieu to the scenes of {ts many triumphs, and comedy might have passed across Handy Photo. ther in the history any doubt will be cleared. “At 3 o'clock it was set on fire and in a few hours nothing but its bare walls remained. No lives were lost, no one was hurt. Indeed, through all the reverses of fortune the Rambler Revives Subject of Leonard Grover’s Career Here and Quotes Stories About , Natfonal has been an especlal pet of the Goddess of Fortune. Fate could destroy it, but its good luck ever re- uned. (Here is an optimist who | seems to think a bad fire good luck.) | During all its existence for over h @ century, no person was ever killed or injured within its walls. Once inside its doors, every life was s ‘med one; neither flood nor fire could harm [ %ad I think that at the time of the fire a company had come from New York a spectacle called “Olympic and that the scenery of that piece was burned and the company broke. The following card was in the Natio Intelligencer February | 1836: “The actors and actresses, s | ferers by the fire on Friday evening, | appeal in their emergency to the gen erosity of the public, asking a fav ponse to thelr invitation o vening, at Odd Fellows' Hall tive entertainment wi! good opportunity fo renderin 1 aid and comfort ny who were in a moment rendercAWwm ute of their all.” ik ET me take th 4 little book o mantled walls of the National were all that remafned to mark its site. For ars after its destruction page from the old six years the dis swept the | teels ‘hard tim dramatie econd re forced sommence r amuse ted against e idential el 1 the sectio ness that smoldering be North and South threatened soon to break into open flame. TIn that c: capitalists red that Washington would be the bone of contention Letween the two ants, and it would suffer the - of a conquered cf In oth words, the National Capital was too close to the border of the slave States , and the prop © owners were Very near a pani and never were real estate and houses so cheap as during the three years eding the Clvil War. In 1859, 60 g 61 bullding operations were almost at a standswll, every one was uncertain of the Capital's future, and €0 among the thousands of eligible building situations in the city t remained unimproved the Natfonal was one of them. ““At the threshold of the Civil War, people were too much excited to at tend a mimic representation, when the tain w rolling up on tage that was nent, whose actors were a nation and the scenes aux were sieges and battles r of conquest, bhooming the Southern cannon a Munsons Hill, but a few miles awa: sounded a warning menace that pre vented any building enterprise in the all was succeeded each othe war period that im G changed; so rapidly acts. A 1 v whom the people looked upo invincible; money o plentiful that it floated everywhere, and now at Washington was safe and the dquarters of a mighty N zaged in war, and filled with the civil and military agents of the Govern ment, all flush of funds, the city jumped upward in population and wealth like the towns of a rich min- ing camp. Real estate made the for- tunes of those who early invested in it, and trebled in value in a few nionths. In these war times the crav ing for excltement became chronic; the people and the soldiers wanted to be amused, the horrors around them demanded an antidote, and conse quently the houses of amusement were packed. “In the meantime the property had passed through several hands, and a portion of the greund now occupfed by the theater buildings had been gold to Allison Nailor. The board of man agers had changed i ‘ral respects nd among those participating on ona de or another in the various depds of trust were Thomas J. Semmes, W D. Davidge, J. B. H. Smith, Willlam H. Winder, Anthony Hyde, Thomas R. Sutor, James A. and John T. Lenman. A decree of sale was made by the Equity Court. June 13. 1856, and W. 1. Davidge and Charles Wallach were made trustees, No sale was made however, at that time, and on the aking out of the war Mr. Wallach went South. Mr. John F. Ennis was substituted in his place trustee and, in 1863, Messrs. Davidge and Ennis sold the entire property to W. E Spaulding and W. W. Rapley for $35,100.” The theater was opened as Grover's Theater, Tuesday evening, April 1862. I find that date on the program and in my previous ramble on Grov You saw that the history of the thes ter gave the date of sale to Spaulding and Rapley as 1863. Just a little dis- agreement which may be composed. Handy Photo.