Evening Star Newspaper, August 7, 1926, Page 6

6 THE EVENING STAR ‘Vifll Sunday Morning l?fl“nn. WASHINGTON, D. C. SATURDAY......August 7, 1826 THEODORE W. NOYES....Editor The Evening Star Newspaper Company Business Office: 11th St. and Pennsylvania Ave. Mew York Office: 110 Fast 42nd St. Chicago Office: Tower Building. 111 Regent St.. London, England. ‘The Fvening Star, with the Sunday morn- edition, is dolivered by carriers within city at 60 cents per month: dafly onl 45 cents per month; Sunday onl: 0 cent’ per month, Orders may be sent by mail or telephone Main 5000. llection is made by carrier at the end of each month. Rate by Mall—Payable in Advance. Maryland and Virginia. Dally ang 9.00. 1 Daily only "."d“ R 3:00: 1 mo. Sunday - ouly 1 yr., $3.00: 1 mo. All Other States and Canada. Dail, d $12.00: .. $1.00 Pally &, Sunday 4 31 $12:00: § e *hihe Sunday”onty . $4.00: 1 mo. 35e Member of the Associated Press. The Associated Pross fs exclusivaly entitled to the e for repuhlication vs dis- Paiches credited to it or not otherwise cred- ted in this paper and also the local news published herein. AIl rights of publication ©f special dispatches herein are also reserved. A Woman Swims the Channel. A woman has conquered the Eng- Mish Channel. Gertrude Ederle, nine- teen-year-old daughter of a New York butcher, is not only the first of her SeX to breast this forbidding stretch of water, but in doing so she bettered the best time of the five men who had preceded her in the long swim. It took this intrepid girl fourteen hours and thirty-two minutes to negotiate the twenty miles between France and England. Sixteen hours and twenty- three minutes was the best time ever made by & man. To make her feat all the more remarkable Channel condi- tlons during the last five hours were anything but favorable. High winds, huge nd a driving rain beset Miss Ederle as she plowed through the water with the speed that few men can match. America is proud that an American girl was the first to accomplish this most ~ difficult swim. The English Channel is conceded to be the hardest stretch of water for swimmers to con- quer. It is mever warm, it is never smooth and raging tides defy the strongest efforts of mere humans. Hundreds of both sexes have tried it. Miss Ederle is the sixth to make it. By her remarkable accomplishment Miss Ederle has established herself as probably the greatest swimmer of all time; certainly the greatest woman natator. She has set a mark that will be hard to break, because her un- parallelled speed enabled her to turn the three tide changes to her ad- vantage and to reach the English shore in a comparatively fresh condi- tion. Observers on the tugs accom- panying her believe that if the high seas, wind and rain had not slowed up her progress she would have made the crossing in less than twelve hours. So America does indeed extend its congratulations to the courage, the gameness and the ability of this New York girl, who has established a new world’s mark for both sexes. ——————— The New York theater producers are preparing a list of entertain- ments which promise renewed at- tacks on Puritanism in the drama. This will reassure many doubtful minds inclined to question whether there is enough Puritanism remain- ing to be worthy of attack. — e The Hall homicide mystery proves that truth is not only stranger than fiction, but fully equipped in “con- tinued in our next” facllities. ———r——— The Senate Defied Again. Samuel Insull, public utility mag- nate, and Robert E. Crowe, State’s attorney for Cook County, I, have joined the ranks of those who have defied the right of Senate investigat- ing committees, backed up by the Senate itself, to question them. The powers of a congressional com- mittee to compel witnesses to answer and produce papers have never been fully determined. Before the Su- preme Court of the United States is pending today a case involving this very question, that of Mal Daugherty, brother of the former Attorney Gen- eral, who declined to give the Senate committee investigating the adminis- tration of the Department of Justice under Attorney General Daugherty full access to the records of his bank at Washington Court House, Ohio, or to answer questions. This case has been pending since it was argued, De- cember 5, 1924. A decision has been awaited with great interest. Upon the decision of the Supreme Court hangs in a measure the case of Harry F. Sinclair, oil operator and lessor of the Tea Pot Dome naval oil reserve. The Sinclair case is now before the Court of Appeals of the District of Columbia, where announcement has been made that, as it involved the same question as the Mal Daugherty case, the Appellate Court would await the decision of the highest court in that case. Mal Daugherty, when the assistant sergeant-at-arms of the Senate sought to arrest him and hale him before the bar of the Senate, obtained a writ of habeas corpus from the court in Ohio. Judge Cochran later decided his case against the Senate, and the appeal was taken from the Federal Court in Cincinnati to the Supreme Court. While the proceedings against Sin- clair involve a refusal to testify be- fore a Senate committee, the action differs from the Daugherty case. An indictment was obtained in the Dis- trict of Columbla against Sinclair on the ground he had violated a Fed- eral statute empowering Senate com- mittees to summon witnesses and call for papers, etc, Neither he nor Daugherty has ever been before tho bar of the Senate in person. By resolution of the Senate, the {nvestigating committee headed by , Benator Reed of Missouri has delved deeply into the expenditures in the sebatorial primaries in.Pennsylvania end Dlinols. Thomas W. Cunning- hemm, summoned as a witness in. the Peunsylvania primary investigation, deolined to answer some of the ques- tions which the committes put to Insull and Crowe specifically de: clined to answer questions in Chicago Wednesday on the ground that the committee had no power to inquire into expenditures made for county campaigns. Chalrman Reed, on the other hand, held that the primary campaigns of the senatorial and other nominees were so closely woven that the information demanded was essen- tial to the committee’s determination in the matter. The picture of a public official, sworn to enforce the laws, declining to tes- tify before a Senate committee re- garding a $15,000 contribution to a campaign fund may be edifylng, but it is not pleasant. In addition to hold- ing the office of State's attorney, Mr. Crowe is a political boss of sthe Re- publican organization In Chicago. Mr. Insull, who donated more than $125,000 to ald his friend, Col. Smith, head of the Public Utilities Commis- sion of Iiinols, in winning the Re- publican senatorial nomination, and at the same time “came through” with thousands of dollars for George E. Brennan, Democratic nominee for the Senate, and even contributed money to an organization supporting Senator McKinley, Smith's opponent, presents no prettier picture. Concealment of facts about cam- paign contributions and expenditures, the refusal to speak frankly about them, is damning In itself before the public. ] A Cost-Price Housing Plan. Housing for 60,000 Government workers at cost is a project calculated to arouse the keenest interest on the part of the prospectlve beneficlarigs of this plan, and likewise those who engage in furnishing housing ac- commodations for the people as a business. Were it not that the Secre- tary of Commerce formally announces the project as one made in good faith by an unnamed member of this com- munity and starts an inquiry among the Government employes to deter- mine their willingness to co-operate in the enterprise, it might be received with some skepticism. The magnitude of this proposal is to be grasped only when one considers that it involves the building of 60 structures, each housing 1,000 per- sons, or 30 housing 2,000 each. At the largest scale of occupation, 2,000, this would constitute one of the great- est building works ever undertaken in ‘Washington at once under single di- rection. It would require several squares of ground. The announce- ment is made that these apartments will be situated within ten minutes of the center of the city. That means expensive sites. There is no vacant land available within the area indi- cated. Locations for a large group of apartment buildings would have to be upon already improved property. Where is it to be found in acreage sufficient for the purpose at rates per- mitting constructions in which apart- ments may be leased or sold at the rate of $12.50 a room? E, The capital necessary for such a work would run well into the millions. Even though guaranteed as to use in advance on a co-operative-payment basis, a very large sum of money would be necessary for initial expend- iture. It is to be hoped that the in- dividua. who stands ready to finance this enterprise will not remain anony- mous. Apart from the feasibility of the plan, however, is the question of need. There is at present no shortage of housing accommodations in Washing- ton. The congestion which was felt here during and for some time after the war has been relieved by active building works that have provided dwellings and apartments in large number, more than meeting the ur- gent demand. Realtors have already expressed doubt of the feasibility of the plan from the point of view of construction and operating costs on the basis of $12.50 monthly rental for each room. They also express doubt as to the possibllity of finding 60,000 Government workers who are “in the market” for even such cheap rentals. Since the war-time congestion a great many of the Government employes have begun the buying of their own homes and are now satisfactorily situ- ated. Should this big work eventuate and prove feasible as an economic propo- sition the effect upon the realty mar- ket of Washington would be decidedly unfortunate. The question arises whether the Government should by its co-operation promote a mnon-com- mercial competitive construction en- terprise which must, if successful, have.the effect of either establishing two standards of rentals in Washing- ton, or of forcing all rentals down to a cost basis and cause enormous losses to those who have expended capital in great sums in constructions in the line of legitimate business. — et The New York stock market has displayed many phenomenal rises, but the man who picked the wrong stock is still in melancholy evidence. s e The American tourist is the goose that lays the golden egg. Parisians should be careful about sacrificing her. The Towa Flop. Jowa Republicans, having nomi- nated Col. Smith W. Brookhart for the Senate in the June primary by an overwhelming vote over the late Sen- ator Cummins, yesterday in conven- tion selected David W. Stewart, a Cummins man, over Brookhart to fill the unexpired term of Senator Cum- mins, which ends March 4 next. Several reasons present themselves for this seeming flop.: In the first place, the nomination was made in convention and not in the primary, and the anti-Brookhart faction in the State has generally had control of the organization. At the polls two months ago the organization was beaten to a frazzle by Brookhart. —Further- more, the Republicans at the time of the regular State conventlon follow- ing the Brookhart nomination had made more than a gesture toward harmony. In a measure, Stewart, com- paratively unknown in Iowa politics, has been dragged forward as a kind of compromise candidate between the PBrookhart faction and the die-hards f the old guard. He is regarded as a THI progressive, although he campalgned for Cummins before the primary in June. At a primary doubtless Brookhart would have defeated any other candl- date who might have been advanced against him. Certalaly no man as little known to voters as Stewart would have had a ghost of a show. But in a convention a vastly different situation is presented. The people of Towa were greatly in- censed when the Senate threw Col. Brookhart out last Spring and seated Senator Daniel F. Steck, Democrat, in his place. They believed that Brook- hart ‘had been properly elected and that the Senate had made an error. Even former opponents of Brookhart voted for his nomination in the recent primaries for that reason. The same sense of a square deal among the peo- vle of Towa may have had something to do with the selection of a Cummins man yesterday to fill out a term of office to which Senator Cummins had been elected and throughout which he would have served had not death in- tervened, Stewart is a former first sergeant of Marines, serving during the World War. He is an attorney and only thirty-nine years old. The Democrats have announced they will put no one in the fleld for the short term. Per- haps by not opposing Stewart, the regular, they hope to gain Republican votes for Claude R. Porter, the Demo- cratic nominee for the long term against Brookhart. Mr. Porter's only chance, like that of Senator Steck in 1924, is to receive enough old guard Republican votes in November to pass Col. Brookhart. Garrett Renominated. The renomination of Representative Finis J. Garrett, minority leader of the House, will be welcomed warmly by his colleagues. Mr. Garrett is recognized as one of the ablest, if not the ablest, men dn the Democratic side of the House chamber. In de- bate and in political strategy he has been a tower of strength. Mr. Garrett had strenuous opp tion in his district, the ninth Tenne: see, and only defeated his opponent, W. W. Craig, for the Democratic nom- ination by about 1,200 votes. His nom- ination is considered to be tantamount to election. To those who follow the proceedings of the House of Repre- sentatives in Washington it may be difficult to understand why a man of such prominence and such ability should meet with strong_opposition. One argument advanced against Mr. Garrett was that he gave his atten- tion too much to national affairs and not enough to those of his own di trict. Many other men who have given unstintingly of their service in the general interest of the Nation have pald the penalty of lessening popularity and strength in their own communities. The fact that he op- posed the McNary-Haugen farm-relief bill was another cause of disfavor among some of his constituents. With the victory of Mr. Garrett it becomes practically certain that the present leaders on both sides of the House will be found occupying their old places when the Seventieth Con- gress convenes -in December, 1927, Speaker Longworth is regarded as sure of renomination in Ohio, and Representative Tilson, majority floor leader, of Connecticut is also slated to win. Mr. Garrett will have served In the House twenty-two years at the close of the present Congress. His experi- ence plus his ability makes him a man of great value in Congress. ——————— So many fish are being caught by President Coolldge that the wift donated by Al Smith to a museum is liable to lose its distinction as a great American curiosity. e The antl-evolutionists insist on delving into the primeval past in- stead of concentrating on the prob- lems of the immediate future. T TR Jersey justice, in the opinion of some students of crime and alcohol, no longer operates with the sure swiftness of “Jersey lightning.” ————— SHOOTING STARS. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. Perverted Publicity. Publicity! Publicity! You are a goddess great, Directing with felicity Affairs of home and state. A homicide is now so bold, In calling all to see, We'll next find tickets being sold For some weird jamboree. ‘Where once conspirators would use A method of great stealth, They now break out into the news ‘With ostentatious wealth. And, like the cuttlefish, at last To safe oblivion sink, Because about them they have cast A cloud of printer’s ink. Prudent Policy. “Have you decided whether you will go before your constituents as a wet or a dry?” “No,” answered Senator Sorghum. “But I'm inclined to think it safer to be a dry. A dry campaign appeals to.conscientious people, and the wets have their business so organized that they don’t take any special offense.” Jud Tunkins says a boy-in a Navajo sweater is the final humilia- tion to which the noble red man has been subjected. Hard Life. The man with a bandage over one eye limped up the hospital steps on crutches. “How 4n the world did you come to get in. this plight?” inquired the physician. “I had to get a living some way. I've been serving' as a model for the comic strip artists.” The Bad News. A pessimist I truly hate, - As his remarks I view; I find, too often, if I walt, ‘The most of them come true. “Wood alcohol,” said Uncle Eben, “4s all right in de radiator, but ter. rible bad in de driver's seat. EVENING SiAR, WASHINGTON, D. C., SATURDAY, THIS AND THAT BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL. ‘Why dldn’t some one think of it before? We refer, of course, to the trick eyeshade caps which one sees on every head this Summer. ‘The tennis court, we understand, is responsible for this epidemic of skele- tonized caps, which, like the famous Cheshire cat (which dissolved until only its grin was left), have evaporated the cloth, leaving only the ribs and brim behind. The green sunshade is as old as the hills, if not a bit older. There never was a time when men in print- ing shops and clerical establishments aid not go around with eyeshades strapped around their ears. “The ribs of a cap, too, are elemental. There you have the components of the latest “fad,” but before this Sum- mer no bright soul ever thought of putting the two together. Like all great inventions, however, the thing had to wait until Time was ripe. In this, as in all inventions, neces- sity is not only the mother; there must be a father in the form of psychological trends. It was inevitable, with the great modern Interest in sports, that somc person should sally onto the tennis court wearing one of the old-fashioned eyeshades. Was it lielen Wills? We are not sure about this. Anyway, some great tennis player did. The thing was hard to keep on, however. It insisted on flopping down over the eyes just at critical moments. It bored into the back of the head, becoming positively un- comfortabie. * % % % Now for the psychology of the thing. It has been only during the past 2 years that male persons have dared to appear on the streets of great cities bareheaded. Formerly one who insisted on going without his hat during hot weather was regarded as a ‘“nut.”” Whereas boys and men in towns and smaller cities enjoyed this right with im. punity, men in the larger cities could get no farther than straw hats. Wearing a straw,in Summer was the height of datng for the bold masculine adventurer. There is nc more custom-bound slave In existence than the city male, unless it be the city female. “Men of the cities.” as some writer has boastfully called them, are not such wonders, after all. They walk, talk and dress as it poured out of the same mold, and woe to him who dares do otherwise! During the past 2 or 3 years, how- ever, a new freedom has grown up. It took 6 or 6 years after the war for men to feel free to do as they pleased in regard to head covering; but the necessity for bare heads on the part of many former service men guffering with various diseases made it common for the rank and file to see grown men without hats in the open. The voguegof both golf and tennis also helped along the good work, until by last Summer one might wear a hat or not wear it, as he chose. Even then it was not deemed exactly proper for a dignified executive to appear in public with exposed hair or skull. This Summer the lid was off. Success of American adventurers in sports abroad started varlous styles, and made those at home eager to do | faction of being in the vogue. as the popular heroes did. The time was now ripe for a cap BACKGROUND OF EVENTS BY PAUL V. Save breath; we are wasting 99 per cent of it, according to Harry Houdini, the magician. He takes one long inhalation and goes to sleep in a coffin which is sunk in deep water and then he gradually lets out the air in little breaths, so that it is 1 hour, 31 minutes and 30 seconds before he reaches his minimum chest meas- ure. Then, like a whale, he comes up and “blows.” He explains that it we would only cease being scared we would not need to breathe oftener than that. It is all in the control of our fears. But then Houdini thinks nothing of laying ghosts and squirming out of handcuffs and chains, or even of sawing a girl's body in two with a Jumberjack’s two-man saw. It is wonderful what me might do if we were not afraid—just like Houdini. He saves breath—which is a fine example to the garrulous—but what is freer than air? Why save it, even in the present economical adminis- tration? Many Europeans, sleep in hermetically develop a ‘‘tolerance dioxide so that they seem to thrive on what smothers an open-air American. It is like the “tolerance’ which any one may develop for nearly all poisons, by beginning with small doses and gradually increas- ing. accustomed to * x ¥ X It would be a venturesome layman who would dare undertake to ex- plain how Houdini does any of his tricks of magic. It may be that the performer is only hoodwinking a gullible public when he explains that any one can_ stay under water an hour and a halt if he regulate his outbreathing so that it takes tl:Aa'. long to empty his lungs. ,But who can do that? Did Houdini? ‘Neval experts, who are familiar with submersibles, are authority for the statement that when a subma- rine goes down the ventillating ma- chinery is not set going until the boat has been submerged about 17 hours; the men simply breathe the natural air over and over again, grad- ually mixing with it the discharged carbon dioxide from their lungs. * kK X Normal air contains 21 per cent oxygen and .04 per cent of carbon dioxide at a pressure of 16 pounds to the inch, at the surface of the sea. When a submarine submerges ft car- rles down casks of oxygen compressed to a pressure of 1,800 pounds per square inch, and when the vent is opened this supplies .9 cubic feet of oxygen per hour. A submarine with a cubic capacity of 8,000 feet easily sustains 22 men on active duty for more than 15 hours without replen- ishment. 1f they were absolutely quiet they would use much less oxygen. When the gauge shows that the proportion of oxygen has ap- proached 9 per cent, the container of dxylith, which gives off oxygen, must be opened. 1f the proportion falls below 7.2 per cent, death ensues. * kK K A man in action gives off six-tenths of a cublc foot of carbon dioxide per hour—a__ polsonous , gas from the lungs. Hence the rebreathed atmos- phere constantly increases its toxic character. Submarines depend on two chemicals—oxylith, to create oxygen, and soda lime, to absorb car- bon dioxide. kS Houdini might have had a false bot- tom in his submarine coffin, and with- in the space so created he might have conceaied, say, two or three cubic feet of oxylith; also, he might have there hidden two or three cubic feet of soda lime—making a ‘“balanced ration” of air without any connection with the breezes above water. Maybe that gave him the courage of his conviction that he could “take a long breath and let it out gradually’ over a period of 90 that was not a cap, a head covering that did not cover, something that shaded the eyes but stayed on. P So we have the trick eyeshade. 1t cropped up almost overnight. Usually the first thing one knew of it, if he were somewhat older, was on the head of his messenger boy. Johnnie marched in one morning wearing a peculiar eyeshade—at least it struck one as different, somehow. Since Johnnie was always up to tricks, one did not notice the shade for several days, Then he saw that it was simply the old shade with straps over the head. “Wonder why nobod of that before?” said the bos: self, and went back to worl From the messenger and office boys the fancy eyeshades worked both up and down the scale, in point of years, cropping out on the heads of boys b, 6 and 7 years old almost as fast as they did upon the brows of lads 16 17 and 18 years of age. Then began a curious evolution. Svidently it is the path of most in- ventions. They started to them. We have always noticed that among such simple things the first is usually the best. Added “trim- mings” do nothing but trim. The first of the new eyeshades to be generally seen was simply the visor, with a narrow round strap with ‘several cross-bars. Later in the Summer ones ap- peared with wide strips—so wide, in fact, that the wearer almost had a whole cap again' Instead of the plain, transparent green visor, or brim, this ensent‘lnl part of the affalr turned white. The straps over the head, which original- 1y were dark-colored, became Wwhite, ever thought to him- “improve” upon too. The decline of the trick eyeshade | is thus foreseen by astute observers. It may reign to some extent next year, they say, but never again in its present vogue. 1t is a “fad” this vear. Tt always| helps anything to be a “fad.” You see your neighbor wearing some- thing, and vou resist the temptation You see another neighbor with still you resist. The third time ¥ zee a friend wearing one you go buy one, too. Then you enjoy the rltfl.‘i‘f- ° are such gregarious animals that we pride ourselves on doing what every one else is doing. If vour friends all smoke pipes your stock with them will rise 100 per cent if you take up pipe smoking. The tobacc industry would be hard put to it to survive if it were not for this trait in human nature, but, with this on its side, grows larger and larger every year. Do you remember when ‘“diabolo” was such a vogue? You spun a large spool on a string hitched to two sticks held in the hands. Not 80 many years ago one could scarcely walk around Washington without seeing children hurling the wooden objects high into the air, catching | them again on the strings. Some older boys and girls became amaz- ingly dexterous. Now we doubt if you one in Washington. The trick eyeshade, having more basis in general usefulness, will not suffer such an eclipse, although it may never see ch a vogue again as it enjoys this year. We wonder, though, why some one didn't think of it before. could buy COLLINS. minutes or more. Far be it from any layman to charge Houdini with so simple a trick, but, still, “it might have been,” which is the saddest thing of tongue or pen. Will he con- fess? £ b There appears in the Monist, a scientific magazine published in London (1900), an article describing the feasts of Indian fakirs in permit- ting themselves to be buried for as long as 40 days under conditions safeguarding against deceit. The author, Richard Garbe, said: “The ability of certain fakirs to suspend their vital activities for a considerable length of time and even to be buried for a while in this con- dition, without thereby seriously harming life or health, is conflrmed by performances of which perfectly reliable, high English civil and mili- tary officlals werd witnesses.” The writer, however, indicates that instead of such performances beinyg accomplished by many fakirs in| India, they were the achievement of just one fakir, Yogin Haridas, “a man who by special adaptability and by long training had succeeded in prolonging the catalepsy observed in other fakirs, to a quite abnormal| extent. This man succeeded in sus- pending his vital functions for 40 days and remaining under earth that length of time. I repeat,” says Garbe, “that no case of actual in- humation has been reported before the case of Heridas and that no similar case has been authenticated later since 1837. But in the case of Harldas himself the repeated in- humation is so well authenticated that there is no room for doubt.” R The author describes the preparar tions of Haridas for his feat. “As for the immediate prepara- tions for the burial, Haridas took an aperient several days beforehand and thereafter took no food but milk. On the day of burial he slowly swal- lowed a strip of cloth three fingers wide and over 30 yards long and then pulled it out of his throat. This per- formance was for the purpose of cleansing the stomach of all foreign materials. i * After this was done, Harldas stopped all the open- ings of the body with an aromatic wax, put his tongue folded in the back of his mouth, folded his arms over his breast and went to sleep. “All this was done in the presence of a great multitude. Haridas now presented the appearance of a. corpse. He was wrapped in the linen cloth on which he had been sitting, which was then tied together and sealed with AUGUST 7, 1926. THE LIBRARY TABLE By the Booklover. The credit of Medici, as the great patrons of art, learning and clivic enterprise in Italy of the Middle Ages, is in no degree lessened by Col. G. F. Young's two-volume history, “The Medicl,” but the opprobrium attach- ed to their names by some chroniclers because of their supposed usurpation and tyranny is combated very suc- cessfully. Young chatges Gio- vanni. Cavalcanti, who lived during the middle of the fifteenth .century and wrote a history of his time, with being the “chief mine’” whence state- ments against the Medici of that perfod have been drawn. Later his- torians have repeated his statements, not taking the trouble to look for proof, and have enlarged upon them. Cavaleanti 18 the only historian of his time who accuses Cosimo, Pater Patriae, of instigating the murder of Baldaccio d’Anghlari, commander of the Florentine Infantry, and Col. Young say ‘There is not a particle of evidence that Cosimo had anything to do with it.” Col. Young says that when he began his study of the Medici he was “entirely imbued with the time- honored theory” that they were the craftlest and most unscrupulous of despots and were pre-eminent in crime, but he was brought by degrees to a very different opinion when he found that “admitted facts refused over and over again to square with the view of this family usually presented to us.” So in this work he attempts to “detail the admitted facts of their lives and to leave these to a large extent to speak for themselves.” He does no whitewashing, but prefers to judge the Medici, as men of all ages have a right to be judged, “by their acknowledged deeds, rather than by comments thereon which, emanat- ing from writers violently biased against them, are found' uniformly at tributing good actions to ignoble motives, or distorting those actions until they become full of impossibil- ities.”" The result is a picture of the Mediel not only as the richest and most powerful family of their times, but also as far above the average in patriotism, civic pride, magnanimity, generosity and self-restraint Ex- amples of these qualities are to be found in abundance. When Cosimo | returned to power in 1434, after his exile from Florence, none of those who had attempted to take his life and ruin his family were put to death, though such vengeance would have been quite usual. Plero put down an armed rebellion without the loss of a single life and turned his enemies into friends. Lorenzo saved the life of Cardinal Riario, who had just attempt- ed to murder him. Col. Young calls attention to the fact that the his- tory of the Medici family “embraces 13 generations, and out of this num- ber there are no less than 10 genera- tlons to whom no such crimes (mur- ders) have been even attributed. It not until we reach the seventh generation that we have the first mur- der committed by a Medici, and even that was committed by one who had no legitimate right to the name: while it is not until we reach the eighth and ninth generations that we meet with that series of these ac- cusations which has been the main cause of the reputation which has been given to the family.” He asks if it is customary to stigmatize the whole line of soverelgns of England because 3 out of 13 generations may have committed murders. * ¥ ¥ ¥e ny history of the Medici must of necessity include much of the history of Europe during the fifteenth, six- teenth and seventeenth centurles, and pecially the history of Renaissance. During that important period the transition occurred from the Middle Ages to the Modern Age. Feudalism gave place to nationalism; power shifted from Italy to France, Germany and England; the Turks replaced the Christians at Con- stantinople; the Moors were expelled from Spain; a new world was discovered in America; the Reforma- tion, or Protestant revolution, start- ed in Germany and spread to other countries. One of the most remark- able phenomena of a remarkable period was the rise of the Medici from comparative bourgeois obscurity to so high an eminence. simple bankers and merchants they rose, in spite of much opposition and many v itudes, unti] they became the most powerful family in Europe, and, indeed, until ther s a Medicl on the throne of nearly every prin- cipal country.” Col. Young gives several points of view from which the Medici were. pre-eminent: 1. Their important place in history makes their story at times almost that of Europe. They were the chief patrons of learning and art irf all history. 3. The two popes most prominent in the reformation, Leo X and Clement VII, were Medici. 4. Owing to exceptional many-sided- ness, they touched life at almost all points—statesmanship, civil adminis- tration, finance, commerce, agricul- ture, sympathy with the common people, religion, art, letters. Col. Young begins with Giovanni di Bicei (1360-1428), father of the famous branch of the Medici, patron of Brunelleschi, and founder of the Foundling Hospital of Florence, and traces the history of this great family through Cosimo Pater Pat- rine, Lorenzo the Magnificen?, Pietro the Unfortunate, Giuliano, and all the succeeding and collateral Medici. There is especially full discussion of the Medici popes and of Catherine de Medici, who made the history of France for a number of years. A genealogical tree of the Medici is ap- pended to the second volume. * ok k¥ A soil novel by a young writer who is following the traditions of Hardy, and perhaps more nearly of Sheila Kaye-Smith, is “Winter Wheat,” by Almey St. John Adcock. The back- ground is Buckinghamshire. The al- most inevitable tragedy of human life, earlier or later, sudden or prolonged, is the underlying theme. Human beings are the sport of chance or fate and in the grue- some game are used as instru- ments for each other’s misery. So Nancy Fallow, weak and oolorless, but still capable of soul-devouring love, is the victim of her own emo- tions and of the selfishness of those she loves. First she lavishes her love on a bullying man, then on her own unworthy son. Of the various per- the seal of Runjeet Singh, the Ma- haraja. Then the body was laid into a chest, upon which the Mararaja himself fastened a heavy lock. The burial of this chest, the guarding of the vault about the grave by military. pickets, - the exhumation on the fortieth day, and the resuscitation of the cold and stark body is told by Honingberger in the same way as by Sir Claude Wade. The two reports are entirely independent of each other. “From the preparation for his burial which Haridas made in the way of stopping up air passages, it is evident that he himself was convinced of the complete cessation of respiration dur- ing his cataleptic torpor. Here he was in error, for the absolute cessation of respiration for so long a time would have meant the end of life. A medical colleague kindly informs me that such a stoppage of the air passages as is reported in the case of Harldas is not tight enough to stop all admis- sion of air, aside from the fact that the-organs of respiration are not the only means of breathing, but that the skin also serves this end, and further, at even through three or four feet «‘# earth and a closed box enough air may pass for the preservation of life when reduced to its st limit.” (Copyright, 1926, by Paul V. Collins.) sons in the novel, none seem to be able to attain happiness for them- selves nor to bestow it upon others. All are involved in the maze of fate- ful life. The story begins with the hanging of Enoch Unthank back of his father's cherry orchard, and the gloomy beginning is prophetic of the tone of -the whole. y * ok ok % A story of whaling, told by the whaling captain himself, not by some artist who has never seen a whale more nearly than from the deck of an ocean liner, is Capt. John A. Cook’s “Pursuing the Whale; a Quarter-Cen- tury of Whaling in the Arctic.” Capt. Cook made his first whaling trip in 1879 and his last in 1916. During the long interval between the two dates he encountered hurricanes, can- nibals, shipwreck, hunger and expes- ure to bitter weather, fiye on his ship, ice floes whicn mnearly crushed the ship, mutiny, and, of course, numer- ous angry whales. The gain from his voyages were always uncertain and the " discomforts and dangers were many. Capt. Cook’s book belongs to the same class of literature, in one sense, as Johan Bojer's novel, “The Last of the Vikings'; it is a record of a form of adventure and industry which has beéonie a thing of the past. ja great lenzth of time. rom ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN. Q. Is the purchasing power of the dollar greater now than it has been any time since the World War?— N. 8. M. A. Taking the dollar of the pre- war year 1913 as the standard of measurement, the peak of purchasing | power of the dollar since the war| was in January, 1922, when it was | 72.3, In December, 1925, it was 64.0. | Q. What proportion of the electric | power of this country is developed | by water power?—A. K. | A. In 1925, about 34 per cent. | . S { Q. What was the first occasion | upon which an American flag flew on a fort in the Old World?—G. M. A. It was in 1303, when the ma rines hoisted the flag at Derne, in Tripolf. e | Q. D1a ature?—N. A. There is no fnformation their literature, if they had since writing was forbidden to Druids, who were the repositori the lore and learning of the an Celts on the contiment of Europe. as to any, s of Q. When were “the‘hundred days’ of Napoleon's refgn’—A. L. B. A. “Les cent jours” lasted from March 20, 1815, tered Paris upon his return from Elba, to June 28, when the second restoration was established. Q. Where is Mosquito Gulf? R A. It s just north of the western part of Panama. n_ was mall armor first ? T. P. Its early times, but owing to its propensity for rusting unless steadi cared for, few relics of early armor are found. Some fragments have been found in the graves of Vikings, and Rome knew it. The use of chain armor died out’ with the fall of the Roman Empire, but had been revived in the eleventh century. Q. Are lette: S. M. E. of marque still given? the Gauls leave any liter. ’ G. !Ih'l'uhl, p | noon, a.m the i ent | trip ! when Napoleon en- | haga | N. | | | use probably was known in|and Chester | altitude of about 2 A. No government has given such | licenses since the declaration of Paris, | t the close of the Crimean War, in 1856. Such authority made it possi- ble for any ship having it to pr upon the enemy of its home countr; whether at sea or in harbor. Q. Where can I find descriptions glish and French coats-of-arm: . J. R. . Coats-of-arms of English fam- described in Burke's General Q. Are the waves on the G Lakes ever as high as on the ocean K. W. 0. A. Waves have been measured in various parts of the ocean reaching heights of from 30 to 40 feet. In the South Atlantic and South Pacific it is thought that storm waves in fullest development have reachéd Lo feet. Lake Superior has the large: waves, and it is thought probable t| during severe storms waves may be | encountered in deep water of a height | of from 20 to feet. Q. Name the kinds of airplane en- ;:in;‘s _I?‘sed by the Army and Navy.—~ C. F. A. The following are the kinds in the order of their use: Liberty, Pack- ard, Curtiss, Wright, Lawrence, Pratt, Whitney. Q. Is John Drew still playing on the stage?—D. F. ; A. Mr. Drew announced hia perma- nent retirement. Q. What is the cause of running fits that dogs have?—J. D. M. A. The cause of “running disease” in dogs, according to the Bureau of Animal Industry, is not definitely known, but is believed to be due to the way the dog is fed. Some veteri. narians are of the opinion that it is a nervous form of distemper. Others do not verify this fact because similar | is employed to help you symptoms can be introduced by giv-|inquiry to The F their | schooling. in Woolworth stores?—J. from ing the diet and giving several ounce= of castor oil once or twice a week or a paraffin oil. Q. How many people are emploved W. L A. According to Mood: Industrials on December /. Woolworth owned or stores in the United Stat 1,423 Great Britain and Canada, employing 28,000 people. Q. Are white or b ferred in Great Britain? . 8. 7. A. Exportation of eggs to Europe is onfined almost exclusively to ¢ t prefers brown ite. wn_eggs pre- 8P, ather than Q. Please describe the al Washington to Phil slane trip leiphia.-— es leave Washington at 30 in the after- t 9:30 he dis The time The round o stop over > can earry . The 12 noon and again tanc is for eight and people i his are pou Pl identieal rith thosé used by mdr. Byr his flight over the North Pole. The Fokker, with ri whirlwind motors. non-stalllng and _ unspinning Any one of the three engines take the plane the entire trin hout a forced landing. The routs irect. There is no stop between ashington and Philadelphia. One asses over Baltimore, Wilmington The planes travel at a 40 miles per hour, and 100 feet. An hout Q. Tlow does Canada’s trade with the United States compare with her trade with Great Britain?—K. J. A. In the last fiscal vear, 86 per a's fmport trade was th the United States. an cent with countries of the British 17 per cent being with the United Kingdom. However, while the United States took 36 per cent of Canadlan exports, 45 per cent went to Empire countries, 38 per cent being to the United Kingdom. Q. How many of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were college men?—A. M. E. A. The Bureau of Education says that 23 of the 56 slgners were college- bred, nearly all of them graduates. Harvard was represented by §; Wil- liam and Mary by 3: Yale, 3; Cam- bridge (England) Princeton, 2 “Philadelphia,” Edinburgh, 1: Jesuit College at Rheims, 1. Sixteen others received “excellent” or “classi- education, one of them at West- minster School, London. Two ob- ained all thelr formal instruction from tutors, and 16, including Frank- lin, Wythe, Roger Sherman and Robert = Morris, had but" little Q. If the figure of Neptune, before the Library of Congress, were a standing one, how tall would it be? -B. B. P. A. About 12 feet. Q. What pitch was the Liberty Bell tuned to?—J. T. B. A. The superintendent of Inde- pendence Hall says that he has no definite information on file as to just what pitch the bell was tuned to, though there seems to be a thought that it was a bell, but cannot state positively. He says that in its present cracked condition it would be rather a difficult thing now to determine this with any degree of certainty. « What do you meed to know? there Is some point about your busines or sonal life that puzzles you? Is there something you want to know without delay? Submit your question | to Frederic J. Haskin, director of our Washington Information Bureau. He Address your rening Star Informa- ing dogs cornbread or dog biscult for |tion Bureau, Frederic J. Haskin, Di- The disease | rector, Washington, D. and inclose ordinarily can be prevented by vary- 2 cents in stmps for return postage. Bobby Jones Inspires Country With His Ideal of Bobby Jones of Atlanta, the world greatest golfer, in his brief career has exhibited certain traits which by the press of the country are commended as requisites of success in all the af fairs of life. Mastery of self, ac- quired after experiences in his earlier games, and the iron will to succeéd despite great obstacles are empha- sized in glowing tributes to his skill that have followed his recent achieve- ments. “Bobby set out some years ago to scale the heights,” explains the Har- risburg Telegraph, “handicapped by a lack of poise. Then one day he woke up to the fact that ‘control’ is the greatest word in the language. It dawned upon Bobby Jones that he would never be able to make his golf clubs sing the little song he wanted to listen to, as they cut the alr, un- less he himself first taught them the tune. Some men swing a perfect stroke by the grace of God. The rest of us achleve perfection, or draw nigh thereto, by dint of patience, perse- verance and perspiration. Bobby Jones would never have come back home bearing the sheaves if he hadn't learned that lesson. When he fliv- vered he taught himself to grin. When he holed out he got into the habit of gazing at the smiling sky and recalling how trivial the occurrence must appear to the Emperor of Japan. Some of the rest of us who haven't yet mastered the art of standing pat when the ‘breaks’ are going against us will take fresh heart in the ex- ample of the young Nabob of the Nib- lick from Atlanta, Ga. And who knows? Some day we may yet make the course under par!” Referring to Bobby's interview for the press, the St. Paul Pioneer Press declares: “There was a great deal in this interview about methods of play, but Bobby's sconcluding remark was by all odds his best. He had been asked about penalty strokes he has at various times called on himself, one of which cost him a champion- ship. ‘That's absolutely nothing to talk about,’ said Bobby hurriedly. ‘There’s only one way to play this game.' Here is a line to be inscribed over every foot ball stadium, over every tennis court, over every golf course, over every base ball diamond, in letters a ‘mile high. It is the code of the sportsman in a nutshell. There is only one way to play this game, or any game—like a gentleman.” Of this same incident the Racine Journal- News remarks: “When he penalized himself in the tournament on the Sci- oto links by telling the referee that he moved the ball a fraction of an inch just before taking his stroke, it fllus- trated once more the high caliber of the sportsmanship of the game. And who can say that thé lessons in golf honesty all over this broad land are not a powerful inducement toward a cleaner life throughout?” * kX % “An Atlanta boy with an uncanny ability to control the flight of a small rubber ballV* as viewed by the Lincoln State Journal, “‘becomes the object of more interest and adulation than any crowned head in the world. No #clen- tist, statesmmap, scholar, thinker, capi- § Clean Playing talist, industrialist or philanthropt can command one-half the homage that descends unasked upon the head of a youth who has done nothing more than to prove his ability con- sistently to play par golf. with a fre- quent ‘birdie’ and an occasional ‘eagle’ thrown in to swell the public ama ment.” This enthusiasm impels the Itaca Journal-News to suggest that ‘this voung man seems to have a strangie hold on the affections not only of his own countrymen, but of sport lovers the world over.” “And what but the spirit that comes from plaving the game for the sake of the game,” asks the Milwaukee Jour- nal, “could give a man strength enough to come through as he did at Columbus? Worn by the great strug- gle that had given him the British open crown, he had been playing an uphill game in the contest for the American open champlonship. At the last hole he needed a birdie to win. Into the last four strokes he put all the training of years, and it carried him through. Life is like that if you make it so. To every man comes tha time when he must do the iliny 1z one stroke and not in two. Can he do it? "He can, if he has put into the game what Bobby Jones puts into it." The Los Angeles Times concedes that “Bobby is American royalty,” and that while “there are none here born to_the purple, Bobby is the king of golf performers, and golf has become the most kingly of sports.” The Wil- liamsport Sun believes that “the con- queror’s’ crown well becomes such a, fighter, no matter where the battle he fought or what its goal.” * ok X % “The greatest golfer in the world at the present moment,” is the tribute of the New York Sun, which concludes with the comment that “a strong heart, a cool head, a mastery of tech- nic and a sound constitution—these are required of every true champlon, and Bobby Jones has them all.” The Akron Beacon-Journal also declares that, while “other triumphs will be won in golf, it will be many years be- fore another matches or surpasses those which have today made Bobby Jones the acclaimed hero of two con- tinents.” The Charleston Evening Post re- marks that “he has approached very near to perfect performance on the links” and that “he bears himself with modesty and good spirit, with the consequence that his victories are applanded by the whole golfing world.” “We greet you, ‘Bobby,’ " says the Atlanta Journal, “as victor of St. Anne’s, victor of Scloto, emperor of the links and best-beloved of Atlanta.” Of his achlevements the Journal de- clares: “Neither the keenest, the sturdiest, the noblest nor the hap- plest of conquerors ever set the blood of his home folk running faster with pride and affection than does ‘Bobby’ Jones coming back to Atlanta, wreath- ed with the world’s laurels of golf. Europe admiringly surrendered to him; America thunders with applause of him; but Georgia, with & mother’s memorieés and hopes, can only open! her arms and hold him as her own.” '