Evening Star Newspaper, December 12, 1926, Page 93

Artist Sees Typical American F ! BY DARIO RAPPOPORT. As told to Prosper Buranelll HE American has a special kind of face. That doesn't mean that the faces of all Americans are alike or even nearly altke. The people of the United States are the descendants of many different nationalities. You would expect them to have many dif- ferent casts of countenance—traits in | one derived from England, in another from Scotland, or from Ireland. Ger-| many, Italy or Russia. But the face of the average American has certain well-marked characteristitcs setting it | apart from that of any of the Eu- ropeans. In Europe, whenever you see an American you can pick him | out at once. what kind of eves along the seacoast |a little distance or a great distance away. Having had occasion to make a number of pertraits of Americans, I have had much opportunity to observe the difference between the American I am an Austrian by nationality, but something of an internationalist in the way of painting. My particular work | has been portraits of people of the| various nations. Naturally 1 have | made an interested study of the typ- | ical faces of the nations—what kind of | you find in this kingdom, what | and the European types of physiog nomy The American face tends to square- ness. In Theodore Roosevelt you found an example of this. His face was almost oblong. The American jaws are wide. They are wide at the base and squared off at the chin. There is a firmness and toughness and MAN TYPE-WIDEJAWED, OPEN.EYED, DARK-COM- PLEXIONED, WITH A GENERAL Drawings from origi IMPRESSION OF SQUARENESS. na's by Rappoport. { kind of mouths in the republic nearby, |a compactness of the fibers and mus- THE SUNDAY BSTAR,. WASHINGTON, cular covering of cheeks and chin and beneath the chin. The lips are firm and rather thin, and the mouth, even when well and gracefully formed, tends to be a straight line. The lines in the face are straight. All of these characteristics bulld up the impression of squareness. The eyes are wide open and direct in their gaze. Complexion 18 dark—that is, in the men. With the women the art of make-.up makes thelr natural complexion an unfathom able mystery. The Furopean face, as contrasted with the American, shows a much greater tendency toward curved con- tours, narrow jaws, a rounded soft- ness or a flabbiness of flesh, a curv, ing, loosely formed mouth, a curving of the lines of the face. The Latins, for instance, run toward the rounded lines of laughter. 'he eyvelids are inclined to droop with meditation, languor or dullness. There is more of pallor or a washed-out complexion You find the typlcal American facial characteristics in Americans of every European racial strain, in the the decendants of Latins or Slavs as well as in those of Germanic or Celtic peoples. There must be some- thing in the nature of the countr: or of its history to account for this. The matter of complexion, for in stance, can be explained by the amount of sunlight in America. This is much greater than the average for Europe. In Europe you must go to southern parts like Italy or Spain to find anything to equal the American sun. In the north the temperate climates dull the complexion * k¥ X UT I have a theory for the Ameri- can face. It is an idea which has come out of the working ex- perfence of a portrait painter, out of practical occupation with paints and brushes in the transferring of like- nesses of features to canvas. I want to explain the common characteristics of American faces by reference to soclological history. The Americans are the decendants of the same kind of people. It is true that the folk who came to the country were from different lands and of different national strains; still they were the same kind of people. They were the kind of people that felt the urge to move on, to break away from settled ways, to venture into a far land. The journey to America, even up to a few years ago, was a far larger undertaking than it is now. The people that emigrated were of a different type from the stay-at-homes. The United States re ceived an especial class, selected by circumstance, from the European populations. These immigrant peoples, with their common temperamental characteristic, had a common facial characteristic. You will often find among humans that similar faces go with similar temperaments. The immigrant peoples came be- cause of varying reasons—the desire to escape restrictions at home, the desire for land, the desire for well- paying work to do, or a spirit of rest- less wandering and adventure. With all of these different motives you will D. C. DECEMBER 12, 1926 PART 5. DARIO RAPPOPORT, CELEBRATED VIENNE % PORTRAIT PAINTER IN HIS NEW YORK STUDIO, MAKING A PORTRAIT OF AN AMERICAN BEAUTY IN THE COURSE OF HIS SEARCH FOR THE “PERFECT TYPE.” find a common characteristic—energy. The people who leave their homes for a new land will not be necessarily the more intelligent or the more com- petent, but all in all they will show a high average of energy. The conditions of life, when the im- migrants got here, favored the ener getic. The present-day Americans, therefore, are the descendants of a group especially selected for energy. It is natural, then, that the striking peculiarity of the people of the United States today is that of energy Take a motion picture of an Ameri can street crowd and of a street crowd in a European city and you will find a great difference in tempo. The Americans move more rapidly. But the point I want to make is this: The Americans are descendants of people not merely energetic of tem- perament, but nevitably energetic of face as well—people who had faclal characteristics of energetic people. The shapes and lines of the Ameri- can face, then, are those that proceed | from energy, squarene: compactness of flesh, st firm ws, aight mouths, the | wrinkles that tend to be straight, and open eyes that have a wide, direct Baze. * ok ok ok 'HE faces of American women make a pecullarly interesting study. It is well known that European women age more quickly than American women. At the same time women mature more quickly their faces dp. I am now very beautiful daughter of one of New prominent families. 1If vou look at the picture you will say that she is a young woman of 18. She does look 18" in person. In Europe a girl of that age would look like a child. American women seem generally to be of a more even age than the Euro- pean. In middle age they look like young women. In childhood also they look like young women. This a, Its from the Ameri- can ancestr it of energy. The girls show early the marks of ener- getic and enterprising living in their faces. That inward ener is the engaged in painting a York's most a child of 15, the| dominating factor in molding the American woman. From it derives that spirit of competition which is so characteristic of life in the United States. American business is at bot- tom motivated by the spirit of com- petition The same holds for sports and ath- letics, in which American women share so largely. It holds, though not so obviously, for the dress of American women. Here is one thing that astonishes the European in the United States. In Europe the women dress to please men. Here the women dress for the eyes of other women. It is a_matter of competition. This energetic life, which begins early, makes young faces look older. With her preoccupation in the mat- ter of athleti d her intense com- petitive activity, the American woman is less romantic than the European. People who are very active physically and very busy are notorlously cold. In this we find the reason why Ameri. can women hold their ages well. The FEuropean woman is likely to grow faded and old when she passes 30. She is likely to burn herself out | | | It Is Distinctively Firm and Energetic, Due to Adventurous Ancestry and Competitive Spirit—Women Keep Their Youth Better Than European Sisters Because They Are Colder, Viennese Painter-Critic Finds—Greater Amount of Sunlight Here Than in Northern Europe Has an Effect-——Composite Features. with her devotion to passionate ro mance. Emotional exce of too intense feeling will marks of age upon the quickly than anything else. More quickly, for instance, than an ener getic absorption in some activity or other, an tivity of dress, of s progress, of athletics or of amus ment. The American woman keeps her youth better than her European sister because she is colder. The American woman's face, in ad dition to the cast of features that goes with an energetic nature, has a cer tain cool, elusive indeterminateness of maturity. * ook ok WAS most fascinated as I sauntered for the first time along Fifth av nue among splendidly clad young American women. graceful movements, passed me by LIFE IN THE UNITED STATES. | has But these beautiful | ladies, with their shapely limbs and | | very soon in Americz TYPICAL AMERICAN GIRL FACE, SHOWI LETICS AND THE COMPETITIVE SPIRIT CHARACTERISTIC OF -8~ ace Emerge From Melting Pot nknowing of my admiration, and nted me not the slightest notice. They were a puzzle, not to be solved by me at the time Now that [ have been in this coun try a little longer and have had the opportunity to study their mentality 1 understand them better. In any event, American or Eurs pean, cold or warm blooded, woman fs woman and allures us and interprets the world for us Tired of the Old World, the neces- for striving after something new and better. e for greate: treedom the impellf force that brought them here, coupled with ing atmospheric cond tions. created W type—ths an face ugh the Anglo-Saxon cast ma inate, still there is something n face that is unmis an, that sets it apart all the rest of the world Although my sojourn in America been of short duration, I have learned to love this country. America is, for me, not another country than my own, but a new world—a world in which all the na tions of the Old World are repre. sented, in the midst of which I also find a part of my own And that may well be the reasor why many people, no matter of what nationality, learn to feel at home & stir a > EFFECT OF ATH- Walker the Filibuster a Unique Figur on t forfei ytown Commodore N ‘the story of William P. Wood, Superintendent of old _Capitol Prison, this was written: “He was | veteran of the Mexican and Civil Wars and one of the few re maining survivors of Walker's filibus- tering expedition.” The story from whigh that quotation came was print- ed in The Star on the day after Mr ‘Wood's death at Soldiers’ Home, March 20, 1903, and likely it was taken from the memoirs Mr. Wood was writing a few days before he died. The clause “‘few remaining survivors” jars a_pur- 4st and it sounds too much. There ywas no logic in calling out descend- ants of the words ‘“remanere,” ‘“‘su pra’ and “vivere.' A “few survivors” J would have been enough. Many read ers are not interested in such a ques- | tion, and their sleep at nigl would not be broken by the phrase, “few liv- | ing survivors. | You are not old enough to remem ber the excitement due to Walker Walker, the filibuster—Gen. William | Walker—President Walker of Nica- Particularly is it not thought v woman who reads the ram s old enoug! 1 to remember Wal- | But some women | recall that her grandfather hout Walker, and that he ar t Walker was a great Ameri- | ing_gratitude of his coun- | or that Walker was a pest and | should be hanged. Some called him | he gray-eved man of destiny.” | In old Washington one often met a | man “who was with Walker.” The man “who was with Walker" sat under the eims in front of Willard's, where chairs from the hotel office were brought to the sidewalk The man was with Walker” was prominent at har of the Metro politan Hotel, and he was numerous in the lobbies of the National! and St. | James. He was looked on as one who | had faced death and had license to speak iirbreadth ‘scapes i’ the fmminent deadly breach,” and “of the cannibals th h other eat, the an thropophagi, s mer hos s do grow beneath their shoulders.” The man who was with Walker was well treatéd, and so often treated that he showed effect 1 h wondered | whether men who were with | Walk him in a construc tive or d sense; that is, whether t d a gun with him | ause in the discus- slons that were frequent in the vears 1853 to 18 In these debates many men were with Walker who were not with him in any other way A few vears ago ships crossing the Gult of F on which Honduras, Nicaragua and Costa Rica front, would sight a white shaft on shore. Word would pass among the passengers that it was the monument to Walker. Walker was killed by a firing at Trujilla, September 60. and 1 think the white sha ed where the Amerl- can adventurer was killed and buried. g ¢ belief is that William Walker £ A man of eminent courage and following the call of his ambi- uon, thought he was doing credit to his country Much has heen written of Walker’s exploits and fallures. It the subject interests you, books await you in the busy, useful Washington Public Library. and there ars Walker books in the great National Library, or at least, the great National Hor- reum Librorum. Before me is a col- lection of lettars preserved and pub- lished by Mrs. Elleanore Callaghan Ratterman under the title “With Walker in Nicaragua.” To refresh your memory of Walker I take the following from that work: “Willlam Walker was born in Nash- ville May 8, 1824. His father was James Walker, a Scotchman who settled there in 1820 and married Mary Norvell of Kentucky. There were three other children, Norvell, James and Alice. Willlam Walker was graduated from the University of ho all these ere with tru hey seca Neshville in 1838 and in 1843 received | [ from parts of | Honduras, | the degree of doctor of medicine from the University of Pennsylvania. He returned to Nashville to practice medicine, but finding it uncongenial, he studied law and opened a law office in New Orleans. From law he turned to journalism and in 1848 was one of the editors of the Néw Orleans Crescent. In 1849 he went to San Francisco and worked on a newspaper. In 1851 he went to Marysville (Cali- fornia) and practiced law. There he conceived the plan of colonizing the Mexican states of Sonora and Lower California. He tried the experiment | in 1853 and was driven back. He sailed from San Francisco for | Nicaragua with 58 followers, May 4, 18! Reinforcements were sent in large numbers by his assoclates in San Francisco, and in October the filibusters and their native allies had brought the revolution to an end and &t up a provisional government. Walker was made commander-in-chief under the new regime and became the real head of the state. The news of his success caused adventurers the United States to join his army in such large numbers that many of the native leaders became alarmed and fled té the neighboring republics, where they succeeded in effecting a coalition of the Central American states against the filibus ters. In the meantime Walker, pe ceiving the growing disaffection, took the bold step of having himself | chosen President of Nicaragua by the | votes of his soldlers, who were mainly Americans.” In looking at this pamphlet T find there was a recruiting service for Walker in Texas and the Middle West and that the work was in the charge of Col. 8. A. Lockridge of Kentucky, “who late in 1836 took 200 recruits to 3 1 sée the note that 120 men who sailed from Mobile In the schooner Susan to join Walker were twrecked off Belize and rescued from was Invited by a political party that planned war against the party in power. When Walker was forced to retreat from Mexico he surrendered at the California line to United States troops and was tried at San Francisco in 1854 for violation of the neutrality laws. He was acquitted. This added to his notoriety as a filibuster and probably brought offers to him from the Nicaraguan party planning revolu tion, In the Encyclopedia Britannica's ar- ticle on Nicaragua 1 find this: ‘“‘One outstanding incident the filibus- tering expedition of William Walkel who was at first invited by the Lib- erals of Leon to assist them against the Conservatives of Grenada, and who, after seizing the supreme power in 1856, was expelled by the combined forces of the neighboring states, and on venturing (o return was shot at Trujillo, in Honduras, on the 12th of September, 1860." ¥ o ALKER'S actlvity became a po- litical question in the United States. His assunmiption of govern- ment In Nicaragua was approved by the more zealous branch of the pro- slavery party, which held that the United States could expand south- ward and add Mexico, Central Amer ica and Cuba as slave-holding terri tory. There was much talk of “our| manifest destiny” in that direction, and many men called Walker “the man of destin; President Plerce proclaimed the neutrality laws, but recruits and sup- plies for Walker continued to be sent from San Francisco and Ney Or- leans. President Walker sent # dip- lomatic representative to Washing- ton, one Vijil, a priest, and my notes read that Vijil was received at the White House by President Pierce, but there was no recognition of Walker's government by the United States. In September President Walker repealed the law of Nicaragua against slavery. Slavery had been abolished in Nicara- gua in 1824, Walke act was con | ington by representatives of Southern strued as a bid for support at Wash States, In 1857, with fortune against him, Walker surrendered to Commo- dore H. Davis, commanding the United States sloop of war St. Marys. The prisoner was taken to New Or- * il for violating d_his bail and with an armed Paulding of the released lity laws, for Gr leans, neu sailed force. GEN. WILLIAM WALKER. Photograph by Handy. the Rambler’s Chronicles United States ship \Wabash caused the capture of Walker and 158 of his “army” in_ Nicaragua, and the fill- buster chief was brought prisoner to Washington. Walker was in Washington De- cember 29, 1857, but I find the first news of the arrival in this country of the filibusters.in The Evening Star Monday, January 1, 1858, It follows val of the Filibusters.—From orfolk Herald, extra, we learn the United States ship Sara- Capt. Chatard, reported in Hampton Roads on Friday from Greytown, came up Saturday morn- | ing ‘and anchored at the naval anchor- age. She has on board the returned filibusters of Walker's army, officers and men, all told, 155—one having | dled at sea, another since his arrival and one arrested on civil process | makes, the number embarked at Grey town 158. Capt. Chatard having no orders for their disposal, they will re- main on board until he hears from Washington. “Thiy seemed in good spirits, con- sidering their situation. Most of | them are Amevican citizens and gen- erally good looking men-—some of them very intelligent. They are, | however, but poorly clad. = Capt. | Chatard and his officers paid every | necessary attention to their wants and made them as comfortable as pos- | sible. The officers are permitted to | remain on shore, but the men will from Washington. Buttricks (one of the are received wife of (a officers of W who remained in Nicarngua) and three children have come home in the Sara- toga, Capt. B. remaining behind. | Lieut. W. R. Byles has been arrested the mayor of in prison await- om the executive on a warrant from Philadelphia_and i ing a requ of Pennsylvania. * kK K HE act of Commodore Paulding in capturing Walker and his band in country and bringing them to the United States was debated in Congress and stirred the filibuster a desert isle by a British ship. One had married into a Nicaraguan not go to Nicaragua unasked, but HE broken fragment of a T Indian pottery in one of the | rington, just returned from the Ari- that region from immemorial times. | est fingerprints known ' to history some streaks left by fingers black- “Like those other pieces belonging <outh of Walpi, where I was digging of Arizona north of the Painted Des- chasm of the Colorado. the Hopi In- Harrington, inherited from their an- it from Its beauty of form, uniqueness best of the craft in anclent Egypt, Art Is nored and underestimated by Ameri- cans. The art of the Hopi, as Prof. Har- rington pointed out, has the advan- tage over any Old World product of having at hand the makers, who are still able to explain in their native language the designs and their sig- nification. Some little ridges in the clay of the ancient bowl led the Smithsonian visitor to inquire as to the manner in which the craft has been carried on in the Western Hemisphere. “Nowhere in North or South Amer- ica,” the ethnologist replied, “have we been able to discover the use =f the potter’s wheeel, though this was in full force in Egypt and Babylonia at the dawn of their history, or cotem- poraneously with the first written rec- | ord: He explained how, on this conti- nent, the potter had, and still has, the more laborfous method of build- ing up the pottery by coiling a mud rope round and round upon itself. This rope is drawn out by being squeezed through the hand and new handfuls of clay are added as it is wound, coll upon cofl, in a sunwise or right_direction. Then, with a lit- the depressions between the colls are smoothed out to remove all traces of how the vessel is constructdd. This method, as is evident, allows |of the things set down is that an | American physician, J. L. Cole, “who | family,” served Walker as a guide, I read in these letters that Walker did A 1 t bowl, standing among some curiously fashioned bits of | upper rooms of the Smith- sonian Institution led John P. Har- | zona desert, to discourse upon a na- tive art that has been carried on in “Here, probably, though it has never vet been reported, are the old: the ethnologlst remarked, lifting the cherished fragment and pointing to ened at a fire extinguished centuries ago. io the scason's pottery vintage, this old bowl came from an Indian ruin for eight weeks last Summer."” Tucked away in that remote corner ert and between that desert, with its wonderful soap-bubble colors, and the dians live. These Hopi, according to Prof, | cestors and still cultivate an art of | pottery which, whether you consider | of design or hardness of material, is | possessed of us high a value as the | Mycenae or Crete. This gnclent pot- tery, nevertheless, is l&uuely ig- greater freedom than the potter's tle wooden paddle or smooth stone, | canteens and vases can be made without variation in the process. In fact, pottery vessels without exterior openings, or chambers, can be built up, the vessel being held on a pottery vase or on the lap of the woman pot- ter. allowed to stand for awhile in order to have it dry for haking. After that it is ready for painting or decorating. Contrary to the usual belie that the use of coal was an old-world idea, the Hopl have long mined the infe- rior varfety they had at hand for firing their pottery. In this respect | they surpassed the Indians of Penn- sylvania and elsewhere, who walked in ignorance of the rich treasure be- neath their feet. In ancient times, in order to con struct a vessel of the hardest kind it is said the Hopi boiled down the leaves of a certain varlety of cactus until it made a thick soup. This was used instead of water for welding the clay. The gob of dough was buvied a whole year in moist ground, where the earth never got dry. After that it was dug up and found to have a ! sticky and slimy constituency ail through, the vegetable ingredients of the cactus having rotted in the clay to form a kind of mucllage. The mass was then kneaded and rekneaded for several days before being molded. The integrity of these Western wheel to vary the product, so that dolls, animal figures, small-mouthed craftsmen, who gathered their ma- terials from hidden ‘urcu and thus When the article is finished, it is| built them up through slow time, suggests the tradition of the old Fu- ropean masters, whose painstaking methods produced a splendor of art that has remained undimmed through the centuries. The Indian painters have likewise guarded ther se wlousy as the old masters guarded theirs, and passed them on to their cuccessive generations of apprentices. The Hopi, however, has a longer t lineage than had any of the great Renaissance painters, and today' pra tices his craft just as his ancestors practiced it thousands of years ago. Prof. Harrington selected a vase from the collcction and remarked upon the beautiful light and ruddy tinge of its red, so different from the traditional dark Indian red. This beautiful tint is sometimes coated sver entire vessels, producing the In- dians’ so-called ‘red war” he said, and was probably made from a com- pound of iron. “So fast are these colors that when they have been burned, as in this case, they endure after the painter has been dead for generations. Even the marks of the brush or the fingers, as we have seen, ramain unchanged. The designs are usually made in black, with backgrounds or accom- paniments in red or white, he ex- plained, and one or the other these colors is frequently spread over s0 much of the surface that it has been termed ‘“sizing,” though to the rets as | s reserved In Desert Area The white is kaolin or white clay, the substance used in body painting. This is ground fine and applied with [lhi’ fingers or brush. The black pigment. Is is whispered, obtained by bolling the leaves, lks and flowers of the beeweed into a thick paste, which, if not used too fresh, makes a permanent design. The | solid "parts of the beeweed are not thrown away, but are eaten as greens. Sometimes these are. drled in the sun, when they can be kept any length of time and bolled up upon occasion to serve as a meal. Thus we have the peculiar by-product of paint manufacture as a dellcious article of food. The ink or “soup” from the bee- weed is applied with a shred of the leaf of the palmetto order, which is whittled to the thickness required for what the Indian calls “marking” the lines of his design. The method of blackening the in- side of a bowl, which, it is said, is now known to few Indians, consists In smoking a kind of wafer or paper bread. The bread is prepared from corn meal, and on festive occasions is used somewhat as a delicacy, as {cake s used by ourselves. ! This thin bread is folded before be- |ing laid on hot coals and the bowl is held over it to catch the smoke. So | smudge t | vessel, inside le the pores of and anti-filibuster press. The Eve- ning Star was emphatic_against fili- bustering. The editor, W. D. Wal- lach, or his alds, wrote whole-heart- edly for Paulding and against Walk- er. The Star denounced the whole job of fllibustering and the whole bunch of filibusters. Here is part of one Star editorial, from the issue of Tuesday, January 1858: “Paulding and Walker.—The ‘high- er law' of destiny has had a novel manifestation in the last month. The doctrine of inevitable progress per fas et nefas, manifest destiny. has made a singular countermarch in Central America in this affair of Paulding and ‘Walker. After having collected troops and stores on our Southern Coasts, steamed forth from our ports and landed them on the coveted do- mains of Nicaragua, imperious Des tiny seems to have suddenly changed her mind, picked up her expedition again, and brought it back to the Jurisdiction whence it set forth, re- lieving the gray-eyed man of de: tiny by another commander. * * It would be monstrous to con- demn Paulding for taking the law into his own hands in a single in- stance while exonerating Walker ' \ for habitual, repeated and ruth- less violations of the law. Paulding may, indeed, be censurable under the law, but surely Walker and his apologists, if nobody else, are estopped not he allowed the liberty until orders | from invoking the vengeance of the The | law upon him.” The Star called Walker an ‘“‘un- Iker's former expedition, | lucky champion and incompetent gen- eral and referred to his wild goose chase into Sonora and its ignominious termination and the auspicious be- ginning and beggarly ending of the first expedition to Nicaragua, where imbecile _generalship, consummate folly and mournful incompetency wrought out so pitiable but so natural a conclusion of failure, beggar: misery." The Star continued: If the Interests of the Southern States of this Union could be advanced by filibuster aggression conducted under authority of the ‘higher law’ or mani- fest destiny, it might be well for them of West which characterizes much of the pot- tery found in the Hopi graves. The designs of Indian pottery, as Prof. Harrington pointed out, have never been thoroughly explored or written up. To do so would require considerable knowledge of the Indlan language, in which their names are given, and of the religious ceremonies with which many of them deal. Knowledge of these ceremonies should also be secured in the native tongue, since they never could be understood by one who attempted to report them in English or Spanish. ‘The Smithsonian collection shows an interesting variety of designs rep- resenting corn flelds, Irrigation ditches, mountains, pine trees, pueb- los. dancing figures, clouds, lumi- narfes, even the world itself, all of which are depicted according to the peculiar art and genius of the tribe or maker, The Indian, much more than the white man, is all his life in clos> touch with nature. He is a hunter and fisher, a gatherer and picker-up, and constantly browses around to sce what animal or vegetable products he can bag and carry home. When the story of Indidn pottery, |as it is still made in the Southwest, shall be fully told we shall have a much- more detailed description, and one with a better perspective, than of | dextrous 8 the worker that not a any which can be made of the pottery ches to the outside of the lof dead peoples in the Mediterranean the | region. T filled with smoke. This west is unbroken a: Indians it is merely coating or palnt. formm Pormancal Rack dusiace & sl a4 hadd. The tradition in the South- o4 the interpreter to consider whether the unlucky gen. eral who has led the cause to 8o many disastrous conclusions might not profitably be exchanged for another leader—one not so renowned over the world as a hero of defeats.” * ok X X HE Paulding-Walkter case was the subject of a message from Presi- dent Buchanan to the Senate Jan- uary 7, 1858. The President's posi- tion was that Paulding had no right | to take Walker and his men on for- elgn soll. but the President said he ‘would enforce the neutrality laws and that statement was accepted as the President’s expression of opposition to flibustering. I take this short extract from President Buchanan's message “In capturing Gen. Walker and his command after they had landed on the soil of Nicaragua, Commodore Pauld- |ing has, in my opinion, committed a grave error. It is quite evident that this was done from pure and patriotic motives and in the sincere conviction that he was promoting the interests and vindicating the honor of his coun try. * * * This power certainly did not belong to him. * * * Under these circumstances, when Marshal Rynders presented himself at the State Department on the 29th ult | with Gen. Walker in custody, the Sec retary informed him that the Execu- tive Department of the Government ! did not recognize Gen. Walker as a prisoner; that it had no directions to give concerning him: and that it is only through the action of the fu- ry that he could lawfully be held in custody. In thus far disapproving the conduct of Commodore Paulding, no inference must be drawn that I am less determined than I have been to execute the neutrality laws of the United States. This is my imperative duty, and I shall continue to perform it by all the means which the Con- stitution and the laws have placed in my power."” Walker was in Washington for some time and I take this from The Star of January 5, 1838: “In the meanwhile Mr. Willlam Walker may be expected to remain hanging around this city, attracting as little attention as any other of the thousand and one folks invariably ‘on hand’ during a session of Congress with axes to grind before some branch of the Government or other. “Notwithstanding the efforts of the wonder mangers of the press sta- tioned here to invest his shoulders with the lion's skin of distinction and notorfety, we have to assure The Star’s distant readera that already he and his case attract so little attention in the Federal metropolis as that not one in 50 people here are aware that he has not already taken his de- parture.” In this old copy of The Star is an advertisement which—well, here fs the advertisement: en. Walker Taken Prisoner—Important to the Public.—I have determined to run off my entire stock of boots and shaes at greatly reduced prices. F. M. Ma. gruder. corner Seventh and 1.” I find that in 1858 there was com- plaint against new-fangled entertain- ment and thirst for amusements of the good old days. Read it: “An Old-Fashioned Night, With the Minstrels.—Landis’ company of sere- naders at the Melodeon devote this evening exclusively to the old songs, laughable sayings and doings of minstrels as they were years ago, be- fore opera troupes became fashion able. Vehicle Tax Pays for Roads. Levies on the motor vehicle rathe: than property taxation are being used to pay for highways, according to tha :!nl ‘:llfl.'!;a I‘J:pl.rlmen! of ‘-o\‘grltul- ure. e percent he way expenditure’ derived from pry GG IABAMON T4 bl BEE 5105