Evening Star Newspaper, August 24, 1926, Page 8

) FHE EVENING STAR i ‘-)Vlth Sunday M Edition WASHINGTON, D. C. TUESDAY. ..August 24, 1926 YHEODORE W. NOYES. . ..Editor .- o8 The Evening Star Newspaper Company Buslness 0Mee o Mth St aud Pennsylvania [ New York Office: 110 East i ©Chieago Oy’ Tower Building. Buropean Office; 14 Regent St., London, ! Easland. Ave 2nd St, The Evening Star. with the Ing edition, s delivered by < 1ha city at’ 60 cents per 45 cents per month: Sund: Fer month. Orders may. be elephone Main 5000, Collectio r at the end of each month. Rate by Mail—Payable in Advance. Maryland and Virginia. . Inily and Sunday. Iaily only . . Bunday only 3 All Other States and Canada. Jraily and s vr. $12.00: 1 mo.. §1 00 Diatly onl, . SK.00: 1 m The Funday only $300: 1mo., 33¢ Member of the Associated Press. Tha Associated Pross 1= exclusively 0 the usa for resublication of al Jathes credited to it or not otherwiss ted in thit paper and also the local news published herein. Al rights of publication ©f «pecial dispatches herein are also reserved. The Twenty-Five Per Cent. Limit. In response to an appeal by the tional Capital Park and Planning «ommission for a more liberal inter- yretation of the law which imposes @ limitation upon the prices that may be pald for land purchases for public purposes in the District, -the Con- troller General has ruled that the law must be followed to the letter. Con- e&Mss has enacted this law in terms | that impose a limit of twenty-five per cont above the assessed valuation of | uny be taken for school property that my or park purpo sroller General has now decided that 11 applies to the expenditure of funds yemaining over from earlier appro- yiations. He has, as stated, just fnformed the planning commission that no laxity can be permitted as Jong as the letter of the law remains. It s, he says, for Congress alone to zrant relief. This situation, undoubtedly will call for reconsideration at the next ses- slon. The mposition of the twenty- five per cent limit narrows the fleld of possible sites for public purposes. Jt adds to the ultimate cost of lands #cquired for such purposes. Already 1t s indicated that it will entail a rerious delay in the execution of the JSiveyear school building program. Tn the selection of sites for parks &nd schoolhouses the first considera- tion is suitability of location. It s ot & case of “any plece of land” big erbugh for the purpose, but of the right piece of land, situated with ref- erence to the public convenience. A site-selecting commission should not he limited fn any manner. It should have a free hand to find and take 1he best available. There is no econ- pmy in poor selection of sites for fuch purposes. Assessed valuations in Washington ore high in comparison with other cities. The law requires one hundred per cent valuation for taxation pur- yoses and the local assessments ap- proximate more closely to that re- quirement than those elsewhere. The stipulation of twenty-five per cent snargin should not be regarded as an imputation that the assessments are only at seventy-five per cent of real value. Nor will it result in an in- crease of the as: ssment. The power of condemnation runs in 1l site-acquisition work. Tt is possi-| hle to submit every piece of property chosen for building or park needs to the test of expert valuation. Should # condemnation verdict be limited to twenty-five per cent above the as- sessed valuation? Would the con- troller reject an award in condemna- tion in excess of such a figure? Those questions remain to be tested. i When' President Coolidge comes back in late September he will leave numerous fish to be caught. None of them, however, will be famous. S The Mall-Mills case failed to secure the early attention that would’ have mada it a firstclass motion picture scenarfo. e Rudolph Valentino. Fame comes.to men, and women, in strange w 1t comes through acts of through great achieve- anents in the ats, in political endeav- or, in business. It comes because of some chance of fate which throws the Jight of public attention upon modest and unassuming To who has just died, a man not vet at the meridia 11 through public reaction to emotional- tsm. Rudolph Valentino, motion pic- ture actor, achieved a world-wide re- Jute because of his appeal to the sym. yathetic nature of the great “movie public.” He was a sincere artist in his chosen line of expression. He was gifted with unusual qualifications for the screen. good looks and a subtlety uf expression that passed far bevond 1he average gifts of the performers in the “silent drama.” He had reserve and vet vividness of manifestation. Iie vitalized all the parts he plaved hefore the camern. He was the ideal Jover, the embodiment of intense ac- tivity, the personification of romance. "hese qualities won his public eariy in his career. There was for him no Jong period of waiting after he had once reached the film studios. He had had his trials in finding an op portunity to sct for the screen, but once it came he made good quickly. rom an unknown he passed almost onee into a stellar position. Nat- u this extraordinary success aroused some jealousy on the part of those whom he had overtaken and pneced. The stage is not immune to this feeling. Now that Valentino is «ead his associates of the studios are loud and warm in his praise. While it is deeply to be regretted that this talented young man has died #o early in his career, there is some consolation in the thought that there yemains a record to be forever pre- ~erved of a =eries of impersonations heroism. people. a man your = which will stand as masterpieces ot! 1he soreen and will show him at his Joest-withput wny deterioration due to 5 a The Con- | the passing of time and the lessening of his remarkable power of appeal. Tt 1s like the case of Caruso dying with his voice at its best and leaving records of that glorfous organ of ex- pression for the everlasting pleasure of posterity. Literally to millions of people who never saw him in person Rudolph | Valentino has become_ an intimate. | This is the wonder of the motion plo- tures. It carrles personalities every- where, regandless of space, and makes them part of thé life of the universal community. For these wholesoms, vivid plotures, which have so strongly oy | appealed to & muititude, there is grat- itude, and the sorrow that is felt sin- cerely by countless people is lessened by the memory of great pleasure that has been given during these few years of a remarkable career, and the as- surance that'a souvenir of that ex- ceptional artistry remains perma- nently. ' B Youth and Crime. A young bandit yesterday morni: held up a huckster in this city and wounded him dangerously. Pursted by the police, the youthful gunman fired several shots and for a time escaped, but was finally arrested. He frankly admitted the shooting, say- Ing “If the poor simp had thrown up his hands as others have done, I wouldn’'t have shot him.” He has been identified as having been in- volved in a shooting affair here in 1924, for which he served a term at Occoquan. This case will bear watching. There is no question, apparently; of the fact that a murderous attack was made {upon a peaceful citizen in an attempt at robbery. There is no doubt either | that.the assailant'has been punished already for a breach of the law. Now {Will leniency be shown to him on the |score of his comparative youth? | Drastic punishments are needed to bring the lawbreakers to a realization that crime is a dangerous practice or pursuit. The other day in New York four young bandits who attempted to hold up a bank were upon conviction glven sentences ranging from seven- teen and one-half to thirty-five years, with other 'penalties hanging over them in case of conviction on addl- tional charges. These sentences were given by the court in the hope that they would serve as warnings to the “underworld” that the law, as far as he is concerned, is to be enforced to the limit. Much dangerous sentimentality is manifested toward young malefactors who are glven short sentences and early paroles and pardons on the score of their youth. In this particu- lar case the boy had had at least one experfence with the law, which does not gppear to have cured him of his criminal propensity. He showed no contrition over the wounding of his victim, but put the blame upon the unfortunate man for refusing to hold up his hands upon command. It is not in order, of course, to con- vict an accused person before trial or to prescribe the punishment, but the circumstances in this case are surely such as to suggest that if this young gunman is found guilty the court should treat the case with the same severity as that manifested in the re- cent New York trials of the bank bandits, giving the maximum penalty as a warning in the hope that-it may deter precoclous pistol wielders from crime as a means of livelihood. —voms Arthur E. Seymour. In the death of Arthur E. Seymour, secretary of the Chamber of Com-| merce, that organization lost a most valuable official and Washington loses an active citizen who has contributed greatly to its development and ad- vancement. Mr. Seymour, a native of New York, came to this city thirty years ago and during all that time he | has been Interested in local affairs. | Nine vears ago he was elected secre- | tary of the Chamber of Commerce. | He was chosen for his special apti- |tude for the administrative capacity and his wide knowledge of District | conditions. He was an indefatigable | worker, diligent in attention to detail (and yet broad in view regarding the | funddmentals of the Capital’s welfare. He studied thoroughly every question under consideration by the Chamber and he co-operated in all works for the attainment of the goal of a great- er Washingtor that inspires the peo- ple of this community. It was charac- | teristic that he should literally die on duty. Though not in the best of health for some time past, he did not spare himself, but remained at his! post and was in attendance at a meet- ing when he was stricken fatally ves- terday. Mr. Seymour’s kindly nature, his tact, his highly intelligent under- standing of all matters with which he dealt and his faith in the development of the community rendered him of particular value in civic works. His passing is an occasion of deep regret | and sorrow oo Gertrude Ederle swam the Channel. As a result, numerous swimmers are attaining prominence by explaining why they did not quite make the dis- tance. . —ves Lost in the Woods. “Lost in the Woods” is a news story. A dispatch from East Douglas, Mass., says: “Kneeling in prayer, two women and three children who had heen lost in dense woods were found huddled under a tree today. They ad been lost for twelve hours and | were four miles from where they had ! entered the woods.” It might have been more exciting it Indians and buffalo had been added to the story, but the little chronicle has a thrill without pioneer trappings. /It will surprise some persons that | there is & wood in Massachusetts so |large that anybody can be lost in it. | The belief here is that Massachusetts | forests are small wood lots plentitully | grown with sugar maples and that |there is a luxuriant and nutritious | undergrowth of blueberries, of which, | notwithstanding one’s love for the | Potomac country, it must be admit- ted that our huckleberry is a poor imitation. It is believed that it is easier to get lost in Boston than in a Massachusetts wood. TDown here 'where woods are woods a Massachy H i i /i ~ THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C. TUESDAY, AUGUST 24, 19%. setts forest seems like a little park. There might have been a near-trag- edy had those women and children been lost in the woods of Paint Branch, Northwest Branch or among the woods and rocks of Difficult Run. Suppose they had been lost in the wide, deep and in many places wet woods that stretch back from the Potomac and Patuxent. If those mothers and little ones had been lost In the Chappawamsic woods théy might not have been found in twelve hours. On the other hand, some pergons will get lost in a wood of any size. Deprived of the heip of lamp.posts and policemen, there are persons who become confused in the presence of trees. The shadows of trees and the dimness of the woods may be appall- ing. The shriek of a jay and the hoot of an owl may also be shocking. Not knowing north from south, some people will wander around till they drop from fear. In the story there is a mention of paths in this deep Massachusetts wood. Generally, a path leads somewhere, and if fol- lowed in one dlrection it will carry a person out of the woods or to a road or river. y s ————— The American theater celebrates all kinds of personalities. It gives the public what the public wgnts, What the public wants is decided by popular fancy, which is fickle. What the pub- lic wanted one year s precisely what the public does not want the next. —————— France has made a bold stand for the French franc. The American tour- ist is compelled to undergo new brocesses of mental arithmetic in figuring out how many francs there are to the dollar. ——e—s A dictator is usually only a tem- porary political expedient. A present inclination seems to contemplate ‘the establishment of “Dictator” as a per- manent and authoritative title. . The drama dinplays new ideas. Some of the ideas are so new that they make the old stuff appear like a re- vival ‘of the much discussed doctrine of total depravity. ————ee Any first page just at present will convince the newspaper reader that the police are exercising more influ- ence on popular taste than the poli- ticians. roema’ A drought, followed by a fredhet, is calculated to make the farmer won- der whether politics can provide him with the relief he really needs. ———ee. A town with & losing base ball team is naturally expected to become strong in boosting its commercial advantages and points of historic interest. ————————— A great many American girls a-re studying music abroad. In the mean- time, the American saxophonist con- tinues to collect the salary. s Police responsibilities take on new burdens when the old Potomac River itself asserts interference as an ob- structor of traffic. —— et The Prince of Wales falls off a horse occasionally; not often enough to draw an international crowd for admiration of the event. —————————— A crime wave is a motion picture scenario which has to run the chance of being suppressed by the grand Jury. e SHOOTING STARS. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON, Katydid. We've had our Summer sorrow,.an’ we've waited To hear the cheery Autumn’s light refrain. We thought we were especially ill- fated— But the katvdid is singin’ once again. E O katydid, you surely are a wonder! You use your legs for music, so we hear, Instead of dancing to the rhythmic thunder Of jazz-time artists who are drawing near. . So, katydid, keep sawing on your ditty, | So simple, yet so honest and so true, Which holds a certain sentiment of pity And, in discomfort, bids us hope anew. . Yes—But. “You have said many things that people pught to remember.” “Yes,” replled Senator Sorghum, “but I have said a great many more things T hope they will tonsent to for- get.” .{Ambltlolu Flights. We journey to the distant Pole— But certain plans we lack. The query which confronts the soul Is, “How'll we get back?"” And so, whene'er our fancies turn TUnto a lofty track, The problem that we have to learn Is, “How'll we get back?” Jud Tunkins says a flivver used to be funny and now it's a national prob- iem; which shows the power of the majority. Feministic Domination. “Some day we will have a woman as President of the United States.” “I hope so,” answered Miss Cayenne. “But the male will still have to be considered. A woman is always judged by the type of husband she selects.” Polysyllabic Philosophication. O Science, when you raise a storm This much you always dp: You make six syllables perform The work of one or two! “A crap game,” sald Uncle Eben, “is a poor excuse oft Monday morning foh what you done wif yoh money on Saturday night.” Left-Handed Virtue, From the Canton Dally News. Don't hold that a mistake is neces- marily serious. Many a man has done & good deed ———a More good back yards are going to waste in the District of Columbia than one could count on his fingers if he had as many hands as an octopus. It gives an amateur gardener grow- ing pains to stroll through many com- munities and note the wasted oppor- tunities for beauty which He unre- garded in the form of back vards. There are so many factors tending toward destructian, toward uncouth- ness, in the direction of ugliness that it hardly hehooves any one who pos- sesses a plot of ground to allow it to grow uncultivated. They are tearing down trees all over the District, to the present, if not the ultimate, loss of the National Capital. Noise, too, is blurring our ears. - Shall we allow our_eyes to be simi- larly f{ll-treated? b Every one who owns a yard and cultivates ft not is denying himself and others just so much more beauty that might be as easily had as not. The sight of such back vards, wi poor grass, or none at all, utterly ing in flowers or vines of any descrip- tion, makes the veriest amateur gar- dener have a mighty desire to go to work. s ‘We know many an honest gardener who would like nothing better than to be given permission by the owners to 2nter such yards and put them into the shape which Nature is so willing to give them, * ok ok K ‘We have often thought that there is a splendid business opportunity, as well as much soul satisfaction, await- ing some ambitious zardener who would set himself up as a back yvard expert. g The rich have their landscape gar- deners, the cities have their planners and art commissions, but nowhere, so far as we know, is there any one de- voting himself solely to the b beautifying plain, simple c vards, Select 10 ordinary householde; fake no care of their yards, perhaps there would pot be a single one of them who would not rather have his vard beautiful than ugly. Men do not desire ugliness, they simply endure it. The trouble is that they do not know how to begin. They are the victims of the city, and until some one or something pulls them out of their lethargy they will continue to have drear, shapeless yards back of their homes. (We say “back yards”; the tenm includes side ones, if the plot DPossesses them. Also front yards.) It is not every one who is born a gardener, although thefe are some such. It is not every man or woman who is skillful with plangs, as indi- Viduals, or with groups of plants, as in the aggregation we call the “lawn.” It is not surprising, therefore, that many householders endure unattrac- tive ‘surroundings * ok k% This is_exactly where, of course, the Back Yards Expert would come n. Perhaps a woman would he able to haudle the situation better than a man. She would have more tact, and fould be more interested in the dress- ng of the house in propef lawns shrubbery and flowers. 3 This interesting occupation presum- ably might be carried on after the regular working day was over. Per- haps a Government worker might un. dertake it. A requisite would be B full professional status. | . THIS AND THAT BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL. There would have to be a regular fee for the service, plus the under- standing that the expense of the op- erations would be paid by the house- holder. This much would be funda- mental. The total. cost might be in- cluded in the final fee, if that would | be more acceptable. | This standing of the Back TYards | Expert would be necessary for the following reason: What she (or he) would do in bring- ing the grounds from :mothing to something would be so simple that the householder might “kick” against the charge, after he had witnessed the seeming ease with which the ex- pert had secured results. The same thing happens in other professions. A patient has pleurisy and the regular family physiclan pre- seribes the application of a hot-water Ibag. The sick man gets no better, so a consultant comes in. The con- sulting physician asks the mode of treatment to date, nods his head, gives a few preliminary ‘“A-hems!” and says, “Try an ice bag.” ° When the recovered patient later gets a bill for $10 from the consult- ant, he is apt to feel that he has been overcharged. He is inclined to forget that he is paying for knowl- edge and experience, costly things for |any man to acquire. * ok ok We know of a radio expert who was implored by a radio receiving set owner to come to his home and “tell me what is the matter with- the thing.” The radio man said he would come and that his charge would be $3, regardless of consequences. The owner agreed cheerfully, think- ing he was getting off cheap. The | expert entered and made the tactical | mistake of discovering the trouble too quickly. If he had.put up a bluff {of having difficuity over the matter and had spent a half hour or more < | over it, the owner would have thought | he had got his money’s worth. As it | was, the first thing the expert did | was to test the B batteries, which he | tound completely used up. “Your B batterie: announced. “Well’ “Get yourself some new Bs and your set will be all right.” ‘When he then asked for his $3 the owner put up a “terrible holler,” as the expert expressed it. Much the same thing might occur in the case of our Back Yards Expert. After the customer, or the client, whatever you choose to call him, had seen the grass growing so nicely and the flowers blooming as only Nature can make them~bloom, he might for- get the bit of knowledge and experi- ence the expert possessed. Brains, time, money and work are the four sides of the garden square, and the greatest of these is fore- thought. To look at a place and see what could be done with it, and then to go ahead and do it—this would be the agreeable work of the Back Yards Expert. Some time would be required, but not as much as might be thought by the uninitiated. Money would be an absolute essential, as good seed, and plenty of it, shrubs, bulbs, fertilizers, etc., cost money. As for the work, it would be a labor of love as well as of profit. ’ A small corps of such experts, ac- tively at work, could do more in a year to beautify Washington than all are no good,” he the talk—including this—in a century. Results of Ohio's Democratic and Republican primaries for the office of United States Senator have heen in- vested with an interest which sur- passes that in most other similar con- tests in the country. Press comment indicates an inclinatfon to believe that Senator Willis as a dry and former Senator Pomerene as a wet will fur- nish a clear-cut division on the pro- hibition question. Their possible availability for the presidential nomi- nation gives added importance to the result that may be registered in No- vember. g oth candidates are desctibed by the Nashville Banner (independent) as strong men. “They are able de- baters,” says the Banner, “and each wears the stamp of proved ability after having been thoroughly tried out.” The Nashville paper's view of the situation is that “Pomerene has the obstacle of wetness to overcome. Willls, his opponent, has to face the obstacle of dryness, as he is presum- n_bly dry; so _there is the enigma of a situation which may or may not amount to a thing after November.” Judge Florence Allen, who was de- feated in the primary by_Mr. Pomer- ene, according to the Youngstown Vindicator (Democratic), “made a great appeal to the independent votets of her party, to the women, to the friends of world peace and fo many who, knowing her record ,in public life, were convinced that she would represent tife State with credit at Washington.” The Vindicator adds that “Pomerene’s victory leaves the campaign between two men whose records are well known and whose names have long been associated with the office for which they will contest.” * k¥ ok . ‘Poiitical students in Hamilton County are of the opinion that the Willis-Pomerene race will result as did the Fess-Pomerené contest,” the Cincinnati Times-Star (Republican) re- cords. ‘‘Pomerene's strength with the business element in southern Ohio will not be so noticeable this time, but there is indication of solid ‘wet’ sup- port, and he may carry Cincinnati and the county by practically the | same plurality he received over Fess.” “The Ohlo senatorfal contest will help to stress the rapidly developing issue of prohibition.” in the opinion of the Providence Journal (independ- | | ent), while the Newari Eveninz News (independent Democratic) finds special interest in the fact that “the contest | will indicate how Ohio, the birthplace of temperance and prohibition organi- | zations, stands today ory dry legisla tion. But even this will be seconda to the way the State will show in No- | vember how it regards, comparatively | men who may be considered seriou: | as presidential timber.” A battle royal is predicted by the Rock Island Argus tional interest. Amounting virtually | to a referendum on the liquor ques- tion.” continues the Argus, ‘“other | issues will be subordinated. Aside | from that principal issue. Mr. Pom- | erene is regarded as a man of greater ability than Senator Willis, and his record as a Senator is much better { than that of his opponent.” | _“Ohio is a State that usually votes | Republican,” suggests the Utica | Observer-Dispatch (independent), “al- though at present it has-a Democratic governdr, who has been nominated for a third term. Gov. Donahey is a. vote getter, and he will swing a rither heavy vote for the whole ticket. Mr. Pomerene is held in high esteem. If he should carry the election in that Republican State this year, he will stand a good chance of being nomi- nated for President in 1928.” The Sa- vannah Press (Democratic) also recalls | that “if Senator Pomerene had not been defeated for re-election to the Senate in 1922, he would have been a strong contender for the presidential nomination in Madison Square Garden in 1924.” The Boston Transcript (in glependent Republicary believes that iy (independent), which states that “per- | haps no contest will attract more na- | try, National Importance Seen _ In Ohio Senatorial Battle the present election “‘Pomerene must win decisively if he is not to he elim- inated immediately for consideration as a presidential possibility.” The In- dianapolis News (independent) views Ohio as “now one of the States known as ‘crucial’ or ‘pivotal,’ even more so than Indiana, which used to be a star in that role. So-called off-year elec- tions are always important, for they indicate a trend,” the News concludes. * ok k,k “‘Pomerene’s strength,” according to the Springfield Union (Republican), viewing the result of the primary, “‘undoubtedly lay to a large extent in his notable reccrd and high reputa- tion in public life, but it is a fair pre- sumption that changing public sent- ment on_the prohibition issue had much to do with it.” The Union holds that “many Republicans who oppose prohibition wiil support Willis because he .is a Republican candidate, and many Democrats who believe in pro- hibition ill nevertheless vote for Pomerene. The Albany Evening News (independent Republican) con- tends that, “so far as the wet-and- dry question is concerned, the pri- maries are not very good straws in the wind,” and, in its . judgment, “Pomerene will have to show more strength in the election than he did in the primary.” “The campalgn and election will be invested with unusual interest to stu- dents of American politics in the na- tional field,” says the Syracuse Her- ald (independent), while the Columbus Ohio State Journal (Republican) feels that “it will be watched with the keenest interest throughout the coun- ' because of “its wet-and-dry issue and its important bearing upon the future of the Coolidge administra- tion.” The latter is in view of the fact that ‘Senator Willis, if elected, may be relied upon to support Presi dent Coolidge."” THINK IT OVER The Value of a Word By William Mather Lewis, President George Washington University No matter how habitually thrifty we may be, we are prodigal with words. Only when we write a tele- gram or a “want ad” do ive con- sider word saving. And we then dis- cover that we can express clearly in 10 words an idea which we usually conceal in 30. We are utilizing the greatest time- saving device in existence when we school ourselves in the art of terse expression. We are at the station with only five minutes before the train leaves. It is necessary to get word to our office about a matter im- portance., Buzz, buzz, buzz, goes the signal and buzz, buzz, buzz goes some one in the office occupying those five minutes in transmitting what should be a one-minute message. It is said that President Coolidge has many words in his vocabularly that he never uses. If his example were followed, business would be peeded up tremendously and every one would be happier. How often in a busy day would we like to exclaim with the distracted Hamlet, “Words! Words! Words!” How many hours and how many dol- lars of stenographers’ pay do we waste each week by writing wordly letters. There is a famous slogan to the effect that it pays to advertise. Per- haps part of the tfuth of this state- ment lies in the fact that when we buy advertising space we are forced to. conserve words. This causes us to think carefully just what we wish to say and how best to say it. Too often” our vocal apparatus begins functioning shortly before our mental apparatus gets into actiom . Willard and we are there. NEW BOOKS AT RANDOM I.G. M. 'Y OF THE SACRED Wf‘ELL. T]‘%.(A:&l?\\'fl rd. The Century Co. ummer playtime by motor, ship nn?l train is about over. Iven vaca- tlon travel by way of the pleasant book route is bound to give way soon 1o the sober business of meeting every Tom, Dick and Harry of an author ,whose mnovel, or poem, or play or ‘whatnot is aiready perched upon the long bookshelves eager for the Fall campalgn of reading to set in, glad of a good luck wave of the hand from almost any sort of well wisher. How- | ever, the Summer is not quite gone by. There is time yet for at least another journey, this one to the strangest p]uedof all. A \nfee%( by 0od company of T. A. sea in_ the g p LIRS the Atlantic out from New York, touching the rim of the Caribbean, sailing the Mexican Gulf, we come upon Progreso, the oniy port of Yu tan, our journey’s end. Old geog- raphy lessons wake up enough to re- mind us that Yucatgn is a tropical jungle growing rare and enduring woods that commetce claims, growing henequen, too, source of sisal hemp and_cordage. As for the people, the old lessons name them Indians, clearly the relic of an older race, much more advanced in the arts of life than the simple Mayas of the present. Not a greatly alluring prospect for adven- ture, this region of jungle, forest and decadent natives. Let us see. Down in Yucatan there has lived and worked for more than 30 years a man who, as boy, commenced the pursuit of his dream of Yucatan. In his New England home the lad, FEdward Thompson, read many stories and ac- counts of lost cities and ancient peo- ple that once lived upon this out- flung arm of Mexico. All that he could find upon the subject he de- voured. The more he read the more he dreamed of himself going in quest of those buried cities of so long ago. He made his dream come true. This is a part of the marvel of the whole thing. By hook and by crook he finally made his way into Yucatan, where: in_ his visions he had already lived so long. There he bought up a whole city. To be sure, it looked like anything tut a city. By courtesy it might have beea calied an overgrown and abandoned plantation. In fact, it was a mere span of desolation. There were no bidders against this man, for nobody else wanted the place. nd there Don Eduardo, as the na- tives came to call him, took off his coat and went to work with shovel and spade. Later more efficient help was added to such primitive method of excavation. Finally, after 30 years of passionate endeavor on the part of | this working dreamer, there stood uncovered Chi-chen Itza (Chee chen Eetza), the city of the sacred well. A city of clear definition has emerged here from the concealing overgrowths of many centuries of de- cay and ruin. Temples, dwellings, marts and highways embody the re- ligious and social life of these ancient Mayas in something the same fash- ion as these features objectify the collectve life of the present. Vicis- situdes, yet undiscovered in nature and scope, hold back much of this old story, even though much of absorb- ing Interest has been revealed and is still being brought out. Lifted high upon enduring pyramids, great tem- ples stand. In their construction and carved upon their walls the religion of this people and its ritual wait for a fuller reading. Dwellings, in their structure and equipment, .are un- folding the domestic life of the old Mayas. The contents of burial places add other chapters to the Mayan philosophy of life and death. Their warfares are depicted and symbolized in stone carvings and in the old weapons now being found and woven into the slowly growing story of this lost civilization. The long story is taking on light, and at many points corroboration also, through the leg- ends that out of a far past the rela- tively degraded Mayas of the present tell and retell among them- selves. Many times these leg- ends and the carved stories of the buried city ‘stand together .as es- sential fact, not as myth and fable. Don Eduardo’s exploration of tl Sacred Well itself has already opened an amazing story of old Mayan life. Here is an enormous artificial pool whose drainage has brought to light skeletons of young girls, a hundred or more, and innumerable articles beautifully fashioned and carved. Clearly a place of sacrifice, the Sacred ‘Well—a place to which in both plea and propitiation this people did hom- age. Let us look at a picture constructed out of this old past by the author of the book in hand: “On my eminence I turned slowly and gazed out over the dead city. Here and there, some nearby and some at a distance, were a dozen other pyramids surmounted by buildings. A few seemed well pre- served, others were in picturesque ruing, all ghostly white in the moon- light. . . . Then my eyes were caught and held by a broad raised roadway leading straight away from the temple toward a vast black pool overgrown with trees. In a blinding flash I realized that 1 was gazing at the Sacred Way and at its énd the Sacred Well, in whose murky depths even then might lie the pitiful bones of many once lovely maidens, sacrificed to appease a grim god. . . . I walked along the Sacred Way. T thought of the thousands, millions perhaps, of times this worn thoroughfare had been trodden in bygone ages where all was now so desolate. At the brink of the well I peered into the black- ness, picturing thp awesome cere- monies it had witnessed. . . . The chant of death begins, swelling softly over the slow pulsing of the drums. The solemn procession leaves the holy temple of Kukul Can and the funeral cortege advances toward the Sacred Well, dwelling place of Yum Chac, the terrible Rain God, who must be placated by human sacrifice. The orn_in the flelds is withering, cry- ng for rain. If the anger of Yum Chac be not appeased, famine will fol- low and the dread Lord of Death will walk abroad in the land.'. .. For weeks and weeks a thousand priests have sought the fairest flower of Maya. maidenhood, she who is soon to become the bride of the Rain God. . . . Two powerful nacons, or lesser priests, lift the maiden, their muscu- lar brown arms forming a sling in which she lies as light as a leaf on the bosom of a stream. They advance with her to the edge of the well. . . . Slowly the nacons swing the feather- light body backward and forward to the beat of drums and the rhythm of the dirge; forward and backward in an ever-widening sweep while the drums and chant swell to a roar. At a sign from the high priest the drums are suddenly stilled; the chant ends in a high-pitched wail. A last for- ward swing and the bride of Yum Chac hurtles far out over the well. Turning slowly in the air, the lithe- some body falls faster and faster till it strikes the water 70 feet below.” So, listening to Don Eduardo through weeks and months, the writer of this book has reproduced in part the work achieved by a dreamer and an actor of clear inspiration. He has also reconstructed for us the buried city of Chi-chen Itza and many of the features of that ancient life as they have, thus far, been gathered out of the records of this historic architecture. A wonderful adventure in real life has here been projected in an almost equally wonderful story by the en- thusiastio friend of Don FEduardo in his persistent passion to uncover the PPl the Sacesd Felh et e ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS Q. How many caddies are there in the United States?’—G. R. A. There are about 480,000 caddies in this country. Q. When will the Harding Memorial be completed?—M. R. A. It has not been started. so it is impossible to state when it will be fin ished. Q. Do many people cook on electric stoves A. B, A. Electric ranges have been in- stalled in about 300,000 kitchens in the United States. Q. Are New York automobile license plates made in a prison”—R. E. L. A. The Bureau of Motor Vehicles of the State of New York says that all New York plates are made at Auburn Prison. Q. When was the game of cribbage first played’—J. B. C. A. Little is known concerning the history of cribbage. It appears to be of English origin_and was formerly | known as “noddy.” It was mentioned under that name in an epilogue by Sir John Harrington in 1616. The earliest description of the game is found in the “Compleat Gamster.” 1674. The place and time of the first game of cribbage are not recorded Q. Are horses losing their place in | this country?>—J. H. B, A. The American horse was for 200 | vears the sole means of inland travel and the great essential to all business in and between the various colonfes of the country. Improved roads have made him a driving horse and none of the inventiond of modern times, from the introduction of railroads to bicy- cles and horseless vehicles generally has affected his popularity or his val- | ue. To the superficial observer it | would appear as if improved means of | vehicular transport would diminish the breeding of horses as well as crease their value, but thus has not been the case. Good horses | have a higher value than ever, and as the demand for cheap or poorly bred horses diminishes, the better bred ones survive. Q. What Is the rank of a graduate from tre Naval Academy”—A. M. S. A. Upon graduating from the Nava) Academy the graduate holds the rank of ensign. Q. Who was the first broadcaster? —D. A. L. A. Amateur experimentation by Frank Conrad, now assistant chief en- gineer of the Westinghouse Co., led to the establishment of Station KDKA which was the f broadeasting sta- tion. Q. Were the first negroes brought to Virginia considered as slaves? . W. A. Research has proved that the first negroes landed at Jamestown in 1619 were not reduced to slavery but | | gust | are free BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN. limited te rvitude. Statutory recog- nition of slavery occurred in Massa- chusetts n 1641, Connecticut in 1650 and Virginia in 1661. Q. How many deaths from pellagra were there in the United States last year?—L. D. A. Two thousand deaths from this disease occurred last year in this country. Q. What s the wage standard sought by orgarilzed women? W. 1.1 A The principle of wage determina tion approved by the director of the Women's Burean of the Department of Labor, Miss Mary Anderson, i< that wages should be established on the hasls of occupation and not -on the basis of sex or race. Q. Does any State have a tax of than 3 cents a gallon on gaso Arkansas and North Carolina both hav 4-cent tax on gasoline while South Carolina levies a 5cent tax. Q. Do we have any American Chamber of Commerce or similar organization in Europe?—0. C. W. A. There are American Chambers of Commerce in ‘kEngland, 'Belmu) France. Germany, Holland, T . Spain, Turkey and Greeos vou describe the ‘‘robbe: cra —D. M. A. This crab _is found on certain islands of the Paclfic. He grows to enormous size and is a creature of immense strength. This crab lives in a den in the ground. He climbs palm trees so that he may obtain cocenuts on which he lives. Q. What year did Crittendon em {bark on his filibustering expedition ?—A. R to Cu R A i of Kentucky suiled ans on Augus cisco Lopez. They Hondo, west of H; 11, 1851, where Crittendon was left with 130 men. while Lopez moved on Las Pozas with 323. Col. Critten, don was captured while trying to e~ cape to New Orleans after Lopez was tried and executed for high treason Crittendon was shot at Havana with 50 othe: Gen. Robert E. Lee said: “The tho ough education of people is the moxt eficacious means of promoting the prosperity of the Nation." These words of the distinguished Southern general arc none the less true noir than when he spoke them. Our Wash ington information burcan is one of the greatest agencies for the distribu- tion of free information and educa tional data in the world. Its serviccs to readers of this paper. Al you need to do is to send in your query. together with 2 cents in stamps for return postage. ~ Address The Washington Star Information Bureau Frederic_J. Haskin, dircctor, Wash ington, D. C. BACKGROUND OF EVENT BY PAUL V. By a coup d'etat, the government| »f Dictator Pangalos over the Repub- lic of Greece Ras been overturned in a night. Gen. Pangalos, who had sus- pended the constitution, exiled, his po- litical enemies and ruled as absolute dictator, with none to cross his arbi- trary will, is suddenly made a pris- »ner and threatened with prosccution for tyrannical usurpation and mis- rule. He had declared that the Greel were not able to govern with an elect- ed Parliament, so he centered all pow- er in himself, and, with it, all respon sibility for whatever occurred. He ruled from June 25, 1925, until last Sunday morning. From the exile of King George. on December 19, 1923, up to the coup of Pangalos, there were 7 governments within 18 months, as follows: December 19, 1923, revolutionar ministration, headed by Venezelo: January 2, 1924, Venezelos, as dic- tator, for a few days. Then Kaphandar March 10. ; Papanastassiou, dictator to July 2 Kaphandaris then attempted to for a new cabinet, but failed. Sophoulis, as premier for 10 day up to July 31. Michalakopoulos a gust 1, 1924, to June 2 Gen. Pangalos, milltary dictator, June 25, 1925, to August 22, 1926, when he was overthrown by another military power, Gen. Condylis, former minister of supported by the Army and Navy. Condylis promises restoration to the presidency of Ad- miral Coundourtotis, who had been de- | posed by Pangalos. The constitution is declared reinstated and pariiamen- | tary government re-established | * ok ok ¥ What sort of people are the Greeks that they submit to so many over- throws of their government, following the dethronement of the King? In the quarterly review, Foreign Affairs, for last April, Mr. Charles P. Howland, discussed this people: ! “The Greeks are energetic and| lively, have a high degree of intelli- gence, intense feelings, a very sens tive, nervous organizhtion, a constitu- tional restlessness and habit of dis- putation, are volatile in their political allegiances and do not possess the stolidity or the stupidity, a certain amount of which, according to Bagehot's dictum, is necessary to the | besi working of a parliamentary gov-| ernment. Docile under outside control dictator " to premier, Au- and sympathetic to instruction, they| do mnot like submissiveness to eachg other, and often criticize their su- periors in organizations, and their restlessness makes them the despair of disciplinarians.” The Greeks never had the spirit of | continuity or of common action which characterized the Roman,” says another writer. “The Hellene, being in general free from the spirit of domi- nation, never felt the imperious desire for unity. What he did have was the desire to be himself, and to be master of himself. and the defect of this qual- ity was the want of constancy. The Greeks never felt the need of subor- dinating themselves to the great whole.” * % Kk % In that last statement may be found the key not only to the Greek problem but to that of the entire Orient and Near East—the absence of national- ized patriotism, which makes the indi- vidual fight to uphold his country, rather than merely adhere to a class, or party, or religious division. The spirit of nationalism has not been nat- ural to the East; it is a graft from the ‘Western World, not vet incorporated into the soul of any of the peoples of the Near East nor the Far Orient. This characteristic controls the spirit of the Greeks today far more than normally, because, since the debacle of King George in 1923 in attempting to con- quer Turkey, which catastrophic de- feat of Greece led to the League of Na- tions engineering the great exchange of nationals between - Turkey and Greece, the latter people have ab- sorbed the unprecedented total in- crease of 26 pergcent in Greek popula- tion—people of®Greek genealogy, of Greek allegiance, but whose fore. fathers for 3,000 years had lived out- side of Greece. How could such a peopls feel funda- mental allegiance to any particular form of government to whose land they were essentially alien, in spite of blood ties? ’ There had come within 15 montha no less than 1.150,000 such refugees ont of Turkey into Greece, to be fed o | as a nation. lcoLLINS. native Greeks, plus the American rve lief of the Red Cross and Near Eas Relief. (The American relief in Greec and Armenia amounted to $86.000,00 within two years, of which $3.000.00 came through the Red Cross, the res through the Near E: Relief.) The Greeks had had eight years of constant fighting, and _under Venc zelos, and later under Pangalos, they had been ruled with rods of fron, with little or mo voice in making or en- forcing their W They came to look upon government only as a changing, but never amelforating tyrant of oppression. The refugees and the million exchanged or repa triated Greeks had had no experience with any government that was really benevolent toward their welfare. The situation—the burden of Mou ern Greece—can be comprehended by Americans only by imagining an it coming within the boundary of con tinental United States of a peopls numbering 26 per cent of our present 115,000,000—i.e. some 30,000,000 stary ing refugees to be housed, clothed and fed and their sick to be nursed. With all our resources intact at the close of the war—contrasting with the fmn- poverished condition of Greece— even then such a burden would have staggered us and demoralized our in- stitutions, however firmly established we assume our Government to be. 14 would be equivalent to a sudden in vasion by the entire population of Mexico and most of South and Cen tral America. | be recalled that Greege ha< one century of independence From 146 B.C. up to 1821 A.D., she had been a conquered race, subservient to her conguerors We think of glorious Ancient Greece. with her Alexander, her Pericles and her heights of classic culture, but too often forget that Rome overturned her government and enslaved her pe ple nearly a century and a half before Christ was born, and that never un til one century ago has she ruled her own country. Through century after century, she was ruled by the Ro- e Franks, the British and the It mi had qn! Turks. When she awoke and struggled for liberty, Lord Byron reproached her in bitter words: ‘No legend of thine olden time. [ No theme ofi which the muse m L'll" soar, High \Vhe’; man was worthy of th The hearts, within thy valle The flery souls that might have led Thy sons to deeds sublime, Now crawl from cradle to the grave Slaves—nay, the hendmen of a siave And callous save to crim That was a century ago, and up from such a condition of degenerac has developed the Greek of todax whom the world is wont to hold to the jdeals of the anclent Socrates and Pericles, rather than credit the awakening ambitions of men who. in our grandfather's day, were cowering slaves. True, thelr innate subtlety was mani fest in its influence when Rome moved her capital to Byzantium and Greelan culture tamed her Roman conquero: < again, when the Crusades made Greace their highway to glory and their ve treat from defeat. But even thel Greece could absorb little of the ide of western civilization while domi by the military power of Rome, i later of France and Great Britain— and in recent centuries again over whelmed by the orientalisn and Mohammedanism of Turkey. She rebelled in 1821 and since the has been nominally independent t in the early part of(the World War her destinies were guided by her queen, the sister of the Kaiser, unti with the aid of the allies, she turned the throne of Constantine drove out the Prussian influence. She galned vast territory and pon ulation through the victory of the allies, and, in {ll-advised elation, a!- tempted to reconquer Turkey—wiih the resulting defeat. Finally came the assistance of the League of Nations in the unprecedented exchangs of pop ulations—the milllon Greeks in Turkey in exodus far greater than that led by Moses out of Egypt—and the hun Areds of thousands of exchanged Turk sent out of Greece. Today New Greece has four times the population of Old Greece, and more than double the territory. It is indeed a New Greece—with all the untested solutions of most Intricate problems. 4Goouriahi, 1996, by Paui ¥ Gollins.) ” thine own, in days of vore clime 1