Evening Star Newspaper, June 20, 1926, Page 80

ae ™ b3 -~ THE American Visitor Makes n_four preceding § . Halliburton has recounted his ntures in many while g the world “on his own raduation from Prin i declined a parental luxe trip. in order to ambition to visit thout the nece © spots v ot adh ship schedu More th he had when he 1 ship passengers by murdero when he slipped Matterhorn. and witched by the eves of un enraged love of the romanti the exotic, the dangerous had led him to break official rules, when he climbed 1o the summit of Gibraltsr and vent u night n the gardens of t¥ 1y Mahal But b rs and vicis situdes him oyous adventt tng his After Tace was one malignant cobra. H Mr seaman from Ja crossed the u tour’s beginning e went by slow stages to roof in Memphis Tenn ¥ consent for his novel journey Was given ou con dition that he veturn * he had not shipped as a to Seattle Atlan Thence he p s he the | is the great dominates | re is one made but nd hers, of rock racetully. <—the poem srow vests utiful and 14 is mentioned the : to the minds ople who huve never v v 18 one of this fa- | pped voleano. To most incompaurable moun- | nhol of Japun itself hiuve heard of th 4 Nura of 1. bywords | neve {to take me a {in Yokohama, hurr Perilous Moment of Journey Comes When He Appears to Be Plunging To- ward Certain Death—Defying an Age- OUld Tradition—Guides Refuse to Ac- company Him —A Long. Desperate Struggle—In the Realm of Hurricanes. thought. others had climbed 1 could try Col. Lees was not so confident I was. His successful fight with Fu had not been made without a gres deal of preparation, organizition, he work and preliminary reconnaissar of the mountain it nd even then only on the third attempt. The sound nts against my attempt great overbalanced tho favor. First of all, 1 wbuld have to go done, for every one I approached on the subject tion of t in the same 1r t - expedition and thoug class with ' going Niagara F s in a barrel. In second place, the date of my expedi tion would be in the dark of the moon, while Col. Lees’ trips had been made in full illuminating moonlight, “with out which,” he sald, “I am sure the 5 not be made, as the short Winter e In the third pls carried onl not snowshoes nkets, helmet And so, after long discus: < argued me out of the id seemed too barren of all hope, too fraught with madness. As a substl tute, I reluctantly turned my steps with a herd of tourists to stereotyped temples at Nikko. But us the train left, in the early morning, 1 happened to glence south, and there, like the ghost of Banquo, rose the haunting siren, pale, proud, majestic. I turned my head away; raised the shade to shut her from view. All in vain. She taunted me even through the curtain. I huted Nikko. I paced the platform with impatience waiting for the train once more back to Col. Lees’ residence to annou it, Winter or 1o Winter, I meant to climb Fufiyama Secing that I was not to be dissuaded be began to face realities with me. Opposed to my many liabiliti seemed few ness. a tough cous ra were all I [he tirst obs:! lack of w compa ion, was not r oved It was simpl ignored. Having no on if T started siid lem by The sec 100, Wi did e pants v for stars L I'd pri Col to sl dash collected coat tinal mored of the | and diadem | of enow to be embodied goddess ages from the ends of the empire to uscend and worship her. No house | 1s complete without a colored print| of Fuji hung on tt 1: in con templation hefc greatest | postry of Jap spired. | Many 4 fo ho Las had the good fortune to upon this fairs Y grees w Pt 1 that it} beautiful nat- | nd empire. but | his beguiling Queen chief pur and though anuary, ar buried unde 1sfasm was so the least| ent of of Mountains has been m pose in visi Nippon it was now well into though everything snow and ice, my Adeep-seated 1 s not discouraged. Neither was I impressed when every one | questioned in| Kioto assured 1 between peals of derisive luughter. that neither I nor other man being could reach 12,400 foot suminit of Fiji at the present was . solid, uncompr: lashed with entl 1 A ha around d 1 scarc I should remain duwn and mpse of 1y fear £O to asle throu, peak. At las ng fron miss | saw it! Glit mit with ice me as the most Lad ever seen,| oration had not worthy object from the train to the had we 10 nfles vise 1 ‘e to su and 1wk inepiring rare | and 1 felt ti up 1 response would have about arrival In Yokohama, 1 » look around for sources about Winter moun Japan. Very little n made, when, by learned with a mixture begar inform: taineering in progre had good fortune | of o1 1 af astonishment and delight that Fuji bad been conquered the previous Pebruary—for the first time in Win- tar, by & Col. Lees and @ companion, hoth Englishmen. 1 lost no time in locating Col. Lees, nd learned to my increasing satis- tion the details of the mountain combat which the Britishers had pushed to a spectacular victory the Winter before, gaining for themselves the honor of being the first to ascend | to freeze. Fuit after her annual burial in ice. 1 now became unreasonably opti- maistic. Here was a supremely ro- mantic, supremely original idea that epired exwtation in the very ¥ | my friends, g 5 3 fron ice.crepers, the I superinterded myself Thes hons bex was prepared to chal cing of wh cra ter ¢ 'y boots are magic wings (o und down her ice-orn ¥ hole throw rocks into the big skull. Wil them, any attem! would be 1t suicide, though I doubt if one could get fur enough even for tha ND so tleld. not Jaup: e or alone, 1 left for e battle knowing word whither T wus going ex ept to a plas called Gotemba, where began the trail that led, sooner or luter—if one did not freeze or slip—to the pinnacle of scenic Japan For 24 hours I led, without suc to get a guide to climb with me. While there were scores of guides 1g enough in Sumy of them had ever made a Winter as cent—nor ever intended to, though he were offered all the money in Japan It was with great diff that T obtained @ coolie to carry my bag guge to the base of the mountain, where 1 was to spend the night before the final dash, and even then I had to pay part of his wages in advance. He felt sure I'd meet my finish on the icy slopes and defanlt. Realizing L he wus no doubt right, I agreed his matter having been settled, u and 1, amid pitying stares from at noon on this bitterly set out upon the the villagers nuary day steep. lce-cov base statio arobo, from i~h point the actual climb begins Tramping through deeper and deeper snow, we reached the 4,000- foot shelter about dark, and having bullt a fire, tried to counteract the frigidity of the draughty hut. But| with night the maerciless cold de scended, and a dozen fires could not have kept us warm. Sleep was fitful. The hours drag- ged shiveringly past. At 4 in the morning 1 decided it would be as pleasant to glissade to my death as Disentangling myself from Col Lees’ bearskin coat, I routed the last vestige of irresolution and anxiety with a_herolo drink from the brandy bottle, lashed on the magic spikes be { to catch me that, | With them lashed | to trample up | & w of not one | i | had the usual misconcep- | “HE FELT SURE I'D MET MY neath Japanese straw snowshoes (for the snow from this point up, while deep, was frozen hard, making the Ca nadian shoes s and bade fare- well to Katsu. Our parting was touch ing fndeed: the expac to see me again yen. If Fuji had lured me on, then she layed false to the conventional code v sister sirens, since o more aus- pus reception 1 could not have de- stred. My prayer for stars had been answered—there were twice as many as usual, and while it was zero weather ut this 4,000-foot elevation, it was the still, windless type that maes cold enduruble. In the dim light the ghostly peak before me, barren of all vegetation, glimm like a colossal cone of white Cold thrills ran through s the climax of adven- fous finale of months of 1 had detled every- risked Ling, on this one it be the acid test, trial of endura * % twenty-third birth wus a chance to <hing to pleces the coolle never n was my n Winter anded. ¥ enemy Foul!™” it seemed to say, ime to do alone that which fatal whole parties of @ for the noon: mmit.” climbed ved at me. sing It | has been to climi it ore 1 b out of the Pacific that beat nge sun burst fort ihove soon browd day. a nd sap rejoice to it that wil crystal made one mb was not quite so b s concerning it, it was only 1 could be as bad as icipated a long, desper. and found it. 1 1 of steep iced oW, screan In abunda I for all bad resigned If 1o freezin, Here 1 was d ometer would 0 degrees > vigorous exe luyers of woolen sufficiently thawed cilmb this, guides 1 superfluous, for the 1 under 10 feet of KNOW : only essential articles thin, needlelike spikes and both of which bit into the I the trustworthiness I would trail was b and ice were the the iceax. | surface witt had hoped for. It would h move a sing| would have ganslide of to 7,000 feet, ve been impossible to yard without them. One Anched forth on a tobog: miles and a drop which, while it would have broken ail records of the sport and been highly exhilarating. might have hecome too hot from friction to be comfortuble. With them the climb was physically possible Stamp, stamp, st with the spikes: higher and higher up the in creasingly precipitous slope; chop, chop, chop, with the ice-ax! This weapon was attached to my wrist by a §-foot Tope, to prevent its escape in I dropped it. Had that happened my findispensable ally, unleashed, would have skated home to Tarobo in less time than it takes to tell it. and | the common rock cr: { being made up of 1 | from the finest line to a quarter of an | 3 “INSTANTLY I BEGAN TU GLI>- SADE.” I would have been left in a position that would have been extremely em- barrassing. When I slipped or stumbled, as 1 did time and again, a quick drive with the ‘iron pick would steady me and give me a chance to re-establish my | crampons in the ice Though it was a breathless morn- ing when I left Tarobo, by the time I | had reached 11,000 feet I had mounted into the realm of hurricanes, and began to suffer in consequence. The wind beating into my face would have frozen nose and chin had I not kept the blood circulating with friction. The last few hundred yards was a desperate battle against the final frantic resistance of Fuji's_blizzard guardians. More than once I was on the point of retreating from the blast before I was completely annihilated, but some. devil inside urged me higher and higher into more perilous terri- tory. “To the peak! To the peak!” So I wound my muffler tighter and crawled on, Each step brought me nearer, till at last the rim was reached. In a rage the icy blasts gathered their forces for a counter-attack, and, sweeping unobstructed from. Ihe Wide, cold 4 UNDAY and T owed him six | t Fufi could never | o lared back | STAR, WA SHINGTON, D. C 20, 1926—PART 5. irst Lone Winter Ascent of Fujiyama PE FINISH ON THE ICY SLOI heavens, struck with such terrible force that I had to lie flat upon the | ice and fight to keep from being blown off the top of the mountain sh the was the ne dor for from the clear and with un January, the views | summit were merely of flying snow-clouds lashed into from the rocks and driven hither by the screaming blast The cold was tormenting and could not long be endured once climbing had ceased. The necessary pictures must be taken at once or net at all. I could now tell by the feeling that my ears were frozen. My nose was white as snow: fingers refused to bend With considerable pain I restored cir- culation in the afflicted extremities, | and cruwled over to the edge of the 700-foot-deep crater with my camera open. Althoug the sk sun hud the swirl that met e | almost dashed it out of my hands, I managed to make three half sighted exposures of the great hole, and fled One of them recorded. Tt was the first photograph ever taken of Fujl's crown during the ice season In descending. the wind was behind me and Taboro before. It was early, arcely 3 o'clock, so 1 decided to | slacken the relentiesy pace | Lad set | Jon the ascent. I had n how | much time the climb would tuke, to be on the safe side had dri self ruthlessly all mornir Now that the climax was past. 1 de cided that a well earnd rest would be appropriate. 8o, cresping down below the blizzard belt, I drove my ax deep i my cum- | ainst this sup v back e 40-degree slope. | How comfortal was to relax, and ; | what a_view! | 5.000 feet atraight below me, dazzling skirts swept down 1d outward, gently de | creasing their gradient from 40 de grees to 4 with such uniformity | curve and grace of line T decided the Japanese were right in belleving that the peak was a goddess who rose by magic from the fields in 4 single night 286 years before Christ 1 could think of no other mountain |0 superbly situated. Even the mighty Matterhorn, glowering over | half of Switzerland, is overlooked by | the yet loftiar Rosa Fuji stands =oli- tary, isolated, unobstructed by even \ my- | The Gem for June. 1o comes with Summer to this earth And owes to June her day of birth, 1K of wcate on her b 1th."with weaith, and peace command THE agate, the natal stone for June, is the gem of peace and pr: and is believed to render i agreeable, Yempernte and It is em! and promotes eloquenc The agate induces happy dreams and is a charm against lightning, thunder, tempest. id all wars of the elements. In ancient times its virtues were be leved to promote the good will of the gods, and if worn about the neck to banish fear and serve as a remedy for insomnia, indigestion and lung trou ble. This strangely decorated stone was also thought to be a protection from the bites of serpents and inse and it was often bound te the horns 4 good hurvest. anded form of chalce quartz, has been known wnd prized for its beauty of color and out line since the time of tha ancient | Greeks. This gem stone differs from stal quartz in ayers which are variegated in color. To the naked eye these bands appear ‘to range in width J { inch or more. In reality all the bands visible to the natural eye are made up iof many finer ones, to be seen only with the aid of the microscope. In the | thickness of a single inch of agate as ‘v‘mu.ny as 17,000 layers have been |counted. Due to the difference in porosity of these layers it was found, early in the nineteenth century, that | the value of the agate could be great- {1y enhanced by artifictal coloring. The | natural colors of this stone are, as a irule, limited to variations of white tand gray, or dull yellows and reds, but {by artificial coloring processes last ing and pleasing effects may be had in the varlous shades of green, vel- low, red, purple, brown and orange. | "The name agate is a corruption of | Achates, a river in Sicily, where the ifirst of these stones were obtained. {This and_neighboring localities con- | tinued to be the source of supply until the early part of the fifteenth century, }when the stone was found in large | quantities in Germany. It is now | known that agate may be found over practically the entire world, Brazil, India, Germany, Italy, Japan and the | | northern part of the United States | being the favorite regions of its oc- | currence. | Of all the varieties, moss agate has the greatest vogue in modern jewelry and it also exhibits an interesting example of gem mineralogy. In- closed in this stone are what seem to be long hairs or fibers, psually ir- regularly interwoven, hflving = the aspect of varlous species of moss. These branching forms, so imitative of one of the most beautiful of plants, are in reality manganese or iron stain rather than imprisoned vegetation. The finst moss agates come from India, but beautiful specimens may be seen in the gem collections of the National Museum from Montana and Wyoming. The “mocha stone,” the most beautiful of all moss agates, originally came from the vicinity of Mocha, an Arabfan seaport at the entrance of the Red Sea. This stone 1s a white or gray chalcedony, show- ing brown, red or black mineral col- orations resembling trees and plants. These peculiar patterns have been ; formed by the percolation of solutions containing iron or manganese through the fine fissues of the stone SouT e New Use for Helium. HELXUM gas has other uses besides that of lifiing airships. It has been employed with marked success as an apesthetin, of | t 00 “tantiy doff their Are aping _mountain to hers throughou 1t rises Pacific's isle. of Japan caps, this sk the smallest foothills. feet straight from the studded sea. clings tenaciousiy Few beacons in the world are so far- | the year, an reaching as the hoary head L perched | cne hundred on. While in Summer the lesser peaks | message, “Here am 1 Washington, “Thfieu What a magnific | lay beneath me, not so much as a | pebble to obstruct a coaster until the | forest was encountered 4 miles be low. T could not resist a childish urge to send something dashing and skat ing down the slope, just to see how fast it would go. I launched an empty brandy [ Like a streak of lighining, it | and slithered down, down, down, until in a few seconds it became a melting speck and disappeared into the vast| hem of Fuji's skirt | ¥ | PV HILE Liay on my icy bed the sun he: I down over the expansive anor and I looked the low- lying blanket of clouds which for the morme i from view and made KFuji an isiand of ice in an infinite ocean waé driven by lthe wind away from the lakes and | woods and sps flask. sea that snug . How heartily I » first half of the Japa- proverh: e a fool if vou got clmb Fuji,"—vet mot less | heartily did I agree with the lust half "lnn you worse fool if you | o climb it twice!” Every | ple remov of fools, 1 son lasts onl mer, the fa from far and pe there are 20,000 peo om the former category v though the climbing sea- kix weeks in midsum. ul gather in droves r and swarm up the sacred lava-strewn slopes like ants in never-ending str Fujl s the most frequently climbed mountain in the world. Six routes to the tablished, carh serve, which, during the season can find food and lodgi night. The pligrims white garments 1 | they trudge upward the muia: on sojo O y meaning “May ot six and the weather on { mountain fair.” | The volcano 1s by no means extinct. From 286 B.C. to 1707 it periodically disgorged all the elements of hell and then, after a final outburst, it sub- sided, but wisps of steam still curl up | ward from the crevices in_the lava rock, indicating that while Fuji “may ave a clear, cold head, she also has son op have been es- huts, at sing the honorable a warm heart.” ture i3 so cruel and unt nt shoot-the-chutes | half-fsozen) eyes out aped | Tarobo-wi 1po It T quite fo was stuck on th pe. was yeminded of it with terrible and sudden violence; for in absent-minded- Iy shifting my position ny clygnsy s slipped off the ax support, and ntly, with my crampon brakes skyward, 1 began to glisgpde d with the speed mud self-control of the brandy flask % o had r another d: ended what nehing upor wrist with the 1 ing Pacific securely I rved my fin Before a suicida tape e dead ke x ame tuut and Dear old fce-ax! I it my arm so that in case it should slip from my grasp it would not siide back to Tarobo, but it was I that had slipped and the ax that had held Only then did I realize how prodf gal of time I had beer. The sun had disappeared behind a spur and the early, shortlived dusk January day was near t hand. ing from the fright of a moment befor 1 drove my crampons the surface and b An g downward stamnp, stamp By six o'clock a faint g the stars was the only I another serious dange: the darkness I would not find Tarobo or the through the impenetrable fores lay in a wide belt about Fuji’s ba But again fortune favored me. J as the last trace of day departed speck of lght suddenly appe the abyss fur below, and I oy. for 1 knew it Futigued alm I painfully tu glimpse of my d expected her to curse me humilisted her in sing having trod disdainfull bidden summit, I hurl down avalanc in ven star-illu | worthy {n Japan it would not be & | prising if the steam-wisps | develop into an oblit onee more st over Nippon's , to ships | looked throug thi murmur Tree City of the World” Tall Green Monuments That Stand on Wide Avenues and in Spacious Lawns as Memorials of Events Far in the Past. WILCOX monument h attracting fro BY UTHAIL VINC MERICA'S gre Altho entio tourists it felt the touch of American’s hand and began its life’s unfolding under his guidance President George \Washington planted trees with his own hands in Washing- | ton. Today one of these, a great elm, faces the Capitol \ front, and from its more than 100 feet of helght it stands strong and true, w 1all about in the mafestic beauty of the ivy ve the Instead of en ordering the trees that Washingtor Capital its love of tr choo: g the 0 his men to cut dowi were there, he plante hore trees. | And the city has taken his example, | for today the (: 1 stands as the | tree city of the world. Not alone is it unique in the friendly tr that beckon and wave a welcome, but it has the greatest variety of trees of any large city in the world. There are trees fra distant lands Fast, the Near East the falands of the sea native trees of a very and @ large number of hi memorial trees, each having its story to tell of times of old and days of long ago It was awuy back in that the plan of tree planting was first insugu- rated. Today Washington's oldest in habitants are trees. Yet some of them wers big and green and breezy when the city's rable citizen was wearing whi d trying to say words of o Washingtor of the features of be a typical sma Pennsylvanic ave beeutiful. wide-bran a long time there grew from the great Wilku s stree hi possess many is supposed to atmosphere. lined with hing trees. For just a few feet | i Hotel a great | MATIONAL PRATO THE CONFUCIUS OAK. IN THE GROUNDS OF THE BOTANIC GARDE CONFUCIUS. tree under whose shade the venerable - Senators of the days of Clay and Web ster and Calhoun used to sit and gos- sip about polities. From the days of Washington down to the present tree planting has been | a part of the unoficial duties of the |Stand two Inte President of the United They |the days when politics were no less have all indulged, with the exception |strenuous than they are today. They of Cleveland, who sald he “could see |are barbecue trees that hark back ting a tree for the [to the Harrison administration. But his young |jovial old Irishman, James bride saved the day for him_and |planted the trees for the purpose, he planted the beautiful bloodleaf Japa- claimed, of establishing two places nese maple that stands today on the White House grov Not far from the tates, NATIONAL P 4BTY THIS EARLY HARVEST-RED, JUNE-RED ASTRAKEN, A MUCH- GRAFTED TREE, IS THE ONLY FRUIT TREE IN THE WHITE HOUSE GROUNDS. Washington elm | sting monuments to | Maher, | es of that time. the Whigs and the Democrats. could have their barbecue celebrations close [ by the goal of their ambitic There is the Hitchee 1t | Russo-American ouk. It i§ growing { gracefully on the lawn near the west | terrace of the White House. 1904 it was planted, a lr nt of & native overshadows Washington's { Mount Vernon, al from that went a-traveling to R: story is an interesting one. days when Charles Sumner Senator from Massachusetts, he | ceived the idea of sending some of the acorns from the old ouk, beneath the branches of which Washington lies buried and under whose shade the |great American sat, to the Czar of | Russta. So he wrapped them up and cent them over, with little of the | formality that would be indulged in {in these days. | When Frank Harris Hitchcock was | Ambassador to the Court of St. Peters | burg he bethought him of the acorns |that scholastic Charles Sumner had |sent over and made inquiries con- | cerning them. He says in a letter: “I found that these acorns had been planted on what is known as Czarina Island. which is included in the sub. urb surrounding one of the palaces of his Imperial Majesty near P., and I |found a beautiful tablet at its foot | bearing a Russfan inscription which | re ‘The acorn planted heres was taken from an oak which shades the tomb of the celebrated and never-to- be-forgotten Washington; is presented | to His Imperfal Majesty, tha Emperor of all the Russias, as a sign of the greatest respect, by an American.’ | “I was fortunate,” continued Mr. | Hitcheock, “at the time of my visit | which was in the Fall of 1898, in find- ing & number of ‘acorns on the ground. Gathering a handful, 1 sent them home and secured from the seed thus planted a few oak saplings, one of which T planted with the permission of President Roosevelt in the ground of the White House, while another I planted near its grandparent at Mount Vernon.” ‘ From the Far East comes another oak that is growing in beauty and is today a perpetual delight in the | Botanic Garden. It is known as the Confucius-Dana._tree, but generally mentioned merely as the Chinese oak. Many yveais ago Charles A. Dana the thunderi editor, had who was traveling about China. This friend, while looking with interest on the venerable gyave of Confucius, | picked up some acorns of an oak | growing close by. These acorns, with | their story, he sent over to Mr. Dana in America, who in turn intrusted where the oak tomb an n | In w friend | iN, CAME FROM THE GRAVE OF them Glen acorns a | sented to | There |a tree |1sa | the Holy Land | “iujube tree, thorn erown made, is now Garden and | grounds of the Washington « This Christ thorn | from the Holy La the United S 90 vears ago. when the tree n there are Iittle flowers the drops of blood thu Christ's brow Among the more I the old bulletin tree of the fact that the- bulle ing President field’s & were hourly posted upon about this tree that stood to learn « of Amerfca’s martyred execut Then, there is the Pe 1 by, that commemorates th | the Civil War. For some re sturdy oak seems to lead in of trees chosen. Perhaps i of its qualities o | ing fortitude, | son there are more memorial { than any other one tree in the ( | tal City. To mention just o few of the famous trees: There is the Amer | elm, planted by President Rut B. Hayes in March, 1878 the sweet-gum tree planted 1 dent Hartison in April, 18 { dent McKinley in March, 1898, planted the now most beauttful scariet oak All of these are on the grounds of the White Touse. No one has as yet complied any directory of these famous trees, but soms one might well do so. Such a one as the fermn leaf beach tree | plantea by Mrs. Roosevelt in honor of | Washington, would be included in such a list, as well as the Cwmeron | elm on the Capitol grounds. On the grounds of the Departmer of Agriculture there are some iiost interesting tree inhabitants with his tories. There is to be found other twin of th 18 navel orange planted by William Saunders, who was head of what is now the Depar ment of Agriculture. The only othe one of the original navel orange tree “is now growing in California. somet fro o bre i presen rr rding th e fast rere Prosi Presi