Evening Star Newspaper, February 26, 1928, Page 83

‘Day That Hero Worshipers F org(”)t‘_»li“eturns RY GENE TIOMAS. ONG years :go a ruler of the flowery islands called Japan de- cided to find out what interest- ing treasures were in the lands yond the waters which sur- runded his realm. He gathered about THE SUNDAY_ STAR. WASIING re Ol W mkGNMRY 2% ¢ (7 25,1025 - PART Leap Year's Extra Day, February 29, Saw Japanese-American Diplomatic Friendship Start, Theodore Roosevelt Choose to Run, War Between England and United States Averted, Civil Service Merit Plan Firmly Replace “Spoils System.” him 48 of his faithful subjects. some | men and some women; selected To- momi Iwakura, the junior prime¢ minis- ter, to b th c and sent them out too see what was in the rest of the tward lay America, the land of ron Horse.” Southwestward was a. realm of the sacred ox. North- home of the They knecked ington, capital of the land of the “Iron . in the year 1872, on the rarest | in the whole Occidental calendar— leap vear's cventful day, which has come only 11 times in the last 50| years, and which is duc again next Wednesday, February 29. | Leap year's extra day proved a favol able one for the flowery islands’ en- ! YOy Generals of the United St ! Army greeted them and escorted thom. | ‘mid cheering throngs, to the tempo- rary Japanesé embassy. across the park | from the White House. Entering the | embassy they beheld a fragrant basket | of flowers sent to Ambassador Iwakura by the wife of th> Nation’ Ulysses S. Grant. The flower was & large Japanese lily, Am- bassedor Iwskura noted. and marveled, in his diary, that this floral greeting | must have cost $300. ident Grant, when Ambassador | Iwakura told him and his cabinet, as- | sombled in the east room of the White | House. that he hed come to gain for | Japan impetus in the paths of progress and good from every form of replied: | o pleasure to us to enter | tation upon international | mpro ent of commer- | botween our respective will heartily co-operate in | ation can and enjoy nat this country tion will be distin- s the first which | v from the na- +d States were iplomatic and | has received a tion with which tt the first to establi €ommercial intercourse.” Then Iwakura and his fellow pilgrims cbserved the wonders of the United States for reporting to therr ruler h special approval the | good highways, cross-country railroads and urban street cars, and the patent tem for protecting and encouraging inventions: and laying the foundation. of the 56 years of uninterrupied diplo- nited States e. ARRI\'AL of Japan's first embassy to the United Siates is only one of many memorable wiich have an anniversary day just once in every four years. “The second ccming of Christ.” for festance, alsn took p.ace on February 29, according to the tenets of the United vers, someltmes call 29, 1736, all faithful there was born to a | ST. GOTHARD TUNNEL UNDER CONGRESS TRIED TO MAKE FI FOR THIS PRESIDENT- and. a daughter who was named Ann Lee, and in whom Christ was revcaled a second time.” Afier she had been persecuted in England because of her religious activ- ity, sie reported that a vision dirccted her to come to America and to found hers an organization of “Shakers.” A miraculous incident of her voyage | across the Atlantic is recorded in early Shaker testimonies. When Ann Lee. ' now called Mother Ann, and her follow- ers pers in praising God by denc- ing. sing'ng and shaking on the boat's decks, the vessel's commander threai- ened to throw them overpoard. Just as h* was attempting this violence ihe chip sprung & leak, one of its planks ing loose. Water rushed in so rapidly that even the captain turned pele and gave up hope. In this dilemma, Mother Ann spoke up: “Captain, be of good cheer. There THE ALPS, COMPLETED ON THE | bright angels standing by the mast.” { property for more than 150 years. | “MOVING DAY™ ST. WHO RE BRUARY 29 A STA EST DAY. ANDREW JOHNSON. shall not a hair of our heads perish. I}ond time in England. to the Gentiles, just received this promise through two | in the person of a female.” To the White House at Washington, She and her followers then, the story | the rarest day in the calendar brought goes, helped the seamen at the pumps, | the rarest event in all its history. for it and suddenly a great wave struck the | was on February 29, 1868, that Presi- ship, forcing the truant plank back into | dent Andrew Johnson, then occupying place, saving the ship, and causing the | the Executive Mansion, was formally capain to allow Mother Ann's followers | charged by the House of Representa- to worship as they wished. tives’ select committee on impeach- Landing in Al ica, she and her fol- | ment with 10 “high crimes and mis- lowers founded at Mount Lebanon, N. Y., | demeanors,” and summoned to show near Albany, one of the most enduring | caus: trial before the United States communistic societies in America, whose | Senate why he should not be removed members. most of them sitll residing in | from the highest office in the Nation. New York and New England, have' PR eacefully ually sh their peacefully and equally ‘shared helr o\ 5igs during leap year have gained < many special privileges, but the sexes, races and nations seems estab | FiZht to attend a Gridiron Club dinner lished by his being reveaied, first, n | —one of those world-famous banquets Judea. to the Jews, in the person of a 8t Which the great and almost great . of the United States, not only are pres- male; and by his being revealed a sec- | 0 T 0% Their ‘deeds satirized in | £kit and song by their hosts, the corps | of Washington newspaper men—the | privilege of joining one of those gather- | ings always has been denied members | of the fair sex, except once! | That memorable exception was made exactly 32 years ago next Wednesday night—February 29, 1896. “We wives and daughters were so ex- cited and pleased to see each other at | the Gridiron dinner that our conversa- | tion almost drowned out the remarks of | President Willlam C. Annin and the distinguished speakers of the evening,” | recalled Mrs. J. R. Young of 3445 Ord- way street northwest, Washington, D. | C., widow of one of the Gridiron Club’s best loved charter members. ‘“Perhaps that's why we never were invited again. “When 1 tell you that previous to that | year we wives of Gridiron Club mem- Jbers used to thrill over driving down and just seeing the tables before the | dinner started, you will appreciate how imuch the opportunity to attend one of those famous affairs, from start to fin- ish, meant to us. The dinn°r and en- tertainment came fully up to our high expectations, and lasted until the wee lsmlll hours. |, "I really don’t remember who were lthr speakers of the evening, but we en- Joyed seeing them there, even if we weren't a$ attentive as we might have been to their speeches. 1f the Gridiron | Club ever invites ladies again I belfeve it will find them better listeners. In 11896 women did not pay as much at- {tention to current events as they do i now. We preferred to talk to each other !and to depend on our husbands to tell |use later what the speakers had sald.” ¢ g Speaking of leap year rights for 3% ladies, when the girls woo, instead of . — - being wooed, every fourth year, they EXTRA DAY OF FEBRUARY. have legal nrecedfr’\l back of them. In To them Christ's belief in cquality of CHED WASHINGTON ON THE CALENDAR'S RAR. MRS. ULYSSES S. Next Wg_ciflesda 7 GRANT, WHOSE CHARMED JAPAN'S ENVOY. As the time aporoached for the first 01 mission under the Pendleton law—the end of its trial period, as it were—ques- h were manifold as to whether | President. Chester A. Arthur, once con sidered a foe of civil service reform. would commend the new system 5 or let 1t die, as nis predecess done in 1872. His answer came on Frbruary, 22, 1384, H~ strongly complimented the com- aission’s replacement of the “spofls stem” by an examination system and rzed Congress to appropriate more »oney for the commission’s work. The next time leap year's extra day came around, February 2, 1388, Presi- cont, Grover Cleveland placed all Civii Commission workers in the lassified service as were em- ves of the State, Treasury, Post Of- fice and other executive departmen This was only the first step toward placing employes of the Interstate Com- merce Commission, Indian School Serv- |ice and all other independent offices in | the classified service, and consequently permanency of a Government worker’s | position, regardless of change of Presi- u’;nw, has become more certain ever since. ‘Will bands parade and citizens cele- brate in_honor of the notable happen- ings of February 29 when that rare an- niversary comes next Wednesday? Not |very much! The Japanese embassy finds its calendar already too full to permit a celebration of the start of | Japanese-American diplomatic friend- ship. The Shakers are so accustomed i ing a 29th day of February that they will again follow their usual practice of formally observing Mother Ann Lee’s birth on the Sunday preced- ing her birthday—that is, today. And so it goes, all down the line, until one begins to commence to get ready to st pect that the hero worsh upon doing their worshiping at le once each year or not at all. Anyway, it gives us another day to figure out how much income tax w2 don’t owe Uncle Sam! I‘ al report of the work of the co | | i Parasol Sails. | pXPERIMENTS have been made | abroad with a new kind of sail for boats. The sail when spread re- !sembles a large umbrella. The mast, | oecupying a position similar to that of the stick in an umbrella. turns upon |a pivot at the bottom. It is usually |inclined about 45 degrees to the hori- FEBRUARY 29TH GIFT v zon, but the inclination can be ad- 1288 a law was passed in Scotland thas ) can citizens from traveling the seas in | ice to apply to clerks and other em- T “It is statut and ordaint that dur-|these merchantmen. President Wilson | !ing the rein of hir maist blissit Megeste, | promptly—that same February 29, in {for ilk yeare known as lepe yeare, ilk | fact—asked Congress to reinforce his mayden layde of bothe highe and lowe | decision to preserve this right for Ameri- man she likes, albeit he refuses to taik | that vote of support. hir to be his lawful wyfe, he shall be’ A third war between Great Britain mulcted in ye sum ane pundis or less, | and the United States was warded off as his estait may be, except and awis|on February 29. 1892. gif he can make it appeare that he is| The United States, having pald Rus- ml.}olhl! ane ither woman he then shall | sia s’;gfl;&ggo {?‘1; Ah]uh lflnd the Aleu- \ ree.” | tian inds, which extend far out into | A few years later a similar law was Bering Sea, felt that it should contro! enacted in France, and in the fifteenth all fishing for the Bering Sea’s valuable century the custom was legalized in!fur seals. Entes Canadians and Genoa and Hon-_nce. i ,other Britishers, however. repcatedly a "lrzl i:’n‘f bgg'lltu?r ::1“‘;{‘ ‘\::; d?yhmw 29 mv-dcfl nl:;t nrelshnn:lshmok nllflthe ;enls ng_has a red-! y. ey coul rom Affectionate sweethearts who onjoy’m.ih‘g shnr:;_c T, rides through railroad tunnels must' United States naval vessels seized have embraced each other with glee on | some of the bold Britishers' fishing ves- Frbnédr:’ 0 18!(:‘i u,l‘wg Ug(‘)n‘::fidmm' sels. Secretary of State James G. pleted the long, dark St. Gothard tun- Quéen Victoria' E nel under the Swiss Alps That pas- e ek sageway stretches nine and a third miles Under the Alps and cost. $9,700,000 in | o theis Ry Cats st wer e fared cash and seven years of labor. It was|up in newspapers, on streets and over the world's longest railroad tunnel until | tabjes of both nations. A ége:‘vv“fi\‘dmlgg;\y is second in length 'o;mpnce,‘m-nlzvln. cmzmtun on both s:r\lics of nly | the ic were active also, so that on Since leap year always is the year February 29 the two irritated powers in which United States citizens elect ' signed a treaty agreeing to divide the their Presicdent, February 20 has been !seals over an arbitration table instead a milestone in more than one political of on a battlefield. The arbitration, career. held at Paris, resulted in restricting the | pointment to this classified serv estait shall hac liberte to bespeke ye|cans, and Congress quickly gave him i competitive examination only. | ister fired several biting notes at each | It was on February 29, 1912, for in- | United States' control to the three-mile stance. that Col. Theodore Roosevelt, at | limit and In restricting the seal fishi his office in New York City, selected |so as to guarantee that plenty of 1:,".5 United States Senator Joseph M. Dixon | would be left for both American and jof Montana to manage his last cam- | British girls of 1928. paign for the United States presidency.| oOn ry 29, in the year 1920, ex- Also, Manager Dixon opened fire that | ectly at the stroke of midnight, by act |evening with a blasting criticism of | of Congress, signed by President Wilson, President William Howard Taft's he returned the railroads to their pri- flraum;l;!h%l;!pmmz xl\'llfl g‘f fih; 7911; | vate owners. Thus ended 26 months of n the Republican party which helpe vernm mnkrd Woodrow Wilson® America’s war | 00 crmment m:":l :' 'lhe S e | President. Also, on that same day the baby| A BOUT 425000 employes in the Chinese Republic, born by bitter revolt United States civil service can against centuries of monarchical rule, | look back gratefully to a pair of Feb- received its first encouragement from |Tuary 29s as the days when their jobs the world’s oldest republic, when the | changed from temporary gifts of politi- House of Representatives of the United | clans to permanent rewards for gov- States Congress unanimously congratu- | ernmental work well done. lated the Chinese pmrleu n assuming | Even after the first Civil Service the responsibilities of self-government. | Commission was appointed by President and expressed the wish that the United | Grant in 1871, for the purpose of se- | States soon would formally recognise |lecting Government workers by an ex- | the Chinese Republic. amination system, supporters of the o) | A {“to the victors belong the spoils™ sys- | {tem fought civil sérvice reform so hard | ‘\V'AR between Germany and the |that the commission's rules were mll i United States was hastened on |enforced and Congress quit appropriat- | February 29, 1916. It was midnight ot | ing money for its work. | | that day when Germany deflantly put Assassination of President Garfleld | |into effect the policy of having its sub- | by a disappointed office seeker spurred | marines “sink without warning” all|Congress to greater respect for civil | |armed merchantmen. The Kaiser ad- | service reform, so it in 1883 the | Ivised President Wilson to keep Ameri- | Pendleton act creating a classified serv- ' {justed to suit the force of the he inventors claim that with this . sail, “heeling” of the boat can be ployes in all Federal Government d"‘avmded. while at the same time the partments and providing for thelr ap-|sail tends to lift the boat and thus e by cnables it more easily to mount the | waves. . CLINEOt Ny THEODORE ROOSEVELT STARTED HIS LAST PRESIDENTIAL RACE ON LEAP YEAR'S EXTRA DAY, Thoto copyriedt b Climat Rheims Cathedral Restoration Is One of Most Difficult | partially reconstructed. but the cha | cholr is full of scaffolding. and you ] still look up to open sky through crume 'Ned roof vaults. Simon, Like Father, Grandfather and Great-Grandfather. Has Charge of A , Tebuilt—and it is dead! BY STERLING HEILIG. RHEIMS, February 16, 1928 T 18 costing a quarter million francs 0 reswore the great rose window in the ocenter of Rheims Cathe- dral—just the great rose window. Tha' is s single item in the situstion. Thirty-nine windows were totally | destroyed in the war, of them sull having the famous thirteenth century statned glass. Only eight are sure W be reconstituted. It is fortunate that so many cen be @Pcusately repaired—in great part with JACOUES SIMON THE RHEIMS BHE DESTROYED CATHEDRAL WINDOWS IN AN EFFORT TO RESTORE THE THIRTEENT: TUHRY GLASS, THE DESJONS ARK CLAIMED 10 BEL ACCURATE IN COLOR AND DESIGN, nal old glass fragments. Thenks| sr> dus o the remarkable Simon fam- | ily, which has had charge of the win- | Gows for & hundred ye: | ‘Today Jacques Bimon spends all hi: | time working as very spscial expert' to restore the windows, copying de- | signs, exact in color and form, made ' by his own father in 1830—at lhichi time the minister of fine arts cailed | on him to replace certain glass de- | stroyed in a storm. It gave the elder Bimon the ides of preparing all these patterns 8o completely—no matter what old window might be broken. Now Jacks has the perfect patterns. land at least one red cannot be exactly WINDOW EXPERT. WORKING ON ‘THE COLORED DESIGNS OF COSt Of New ROSC Window in place Of 13th Century Bo Jacques Blmon works all day|reproduced today, because their old sorting thousands of stained-glass frag- | coloring matter remains unknown. ments smashed and fallen in the His father, grandfather and great- war--precious thirteenth century glass, | grandfather were equally devoted spe- of which certain blues, a golden yellow | cialists of this cathedral stained glass !8ll their lives. All replaced broken bits | when needed. Al strengthened weak- | ening sections of windows. These wonderful windows are like | mosaics~—colored glass bita held togeth- |er with lead and forming pictures and | decorative designs, Great quantities of small bits were picked up as they fell in the war, It ia the larger pleces which are scarce—having, of course, been badly broken. This i why all the 39 unique old windows may not be replaced. They must be replaced-—they must not be merely copled! "her real thirteenth century windows once ugain—such historic glass exists almost nowhiere else except for & few | parts of windows In Notre Dame Ca- | thedral, Paris! Yet it fs more than .nine years ago that the last cannon sent a shell to the cuthedral. 1 was there in 1017, when the dally hombardment was going on, and could see for myselt until the gen- eral ordered us all to the cell The entire factory reglon around the cathedral was already In ruins, lke Pompeil. ‘The cathedral had enormous breaches cut by 305 and 380 shells, the kind used against Verdun, And today there is still the temporary wall inside, which had o be run up at the entrance of the cholr, hecause the roof arch be- yond it Is still open, Outside §t I8 worse, The marvellous open gallery of the high altar end of the church outside with its graceful [} Rhelms wants | Old Is Quarter-Million Francs—Jacques Stained Glass. f | 80 | British architect, city's cathedral: “It was perhaps the most beautiful | structure produced In the | " As to the cathdral, the long nave isi little columns, is mostly destroyed. are those of the second story. The famous statuary adorning also the front numbered 6,000 subjects of all kinds. They ave been chipped, | smashed, pulverized and burned. ‘The nobly serene “Beau Dleu” (God !the Beautiful) s headless. The | “Smile of Rheims on the face of the | angel of St. Nicaise, known to all | Americans at home as well as abroad, 15 still happily half a smile, and it is coming back entirely; the angel's face is chipped only in spots, ' But all around the outside a crowd of such angels with open wings made the architecture poetic. Three remain on the north front, In 1917 Capt. Charles Delvert, promi- nent in battle and slege around Verdun, pointed out to me in Rhelms straight | swaths of shell destruction eut through ‘ houses In the blocks round the eathe- ! dra) and meeting at the cathedral, Over 1,500 shells had entered the | marvelous edifice up to January, 1917, and nearly 13,000 had fallen round it. Kven the floor was torn up. The bom. bardment might stop now and then, but it began in, not destroying the cathedral completely, but plecemeal-- here & corner nipped off, there a wall weakened, here a fiying buttreas sent fiylng, and there & new amash in the stained-glass windows! After nine full years of peace, how far has restoration gone? A just ques- ton, as the United States haa given an abundance of material ald, And what of the working elly, of which the cathedral chureh was center and soul? Think! Fergusson, the gveat SIDE VIEW OF RESTORED. OF CONSTITU { With destruction. says of the working mijes of champagne cellars, where the | famous wine produced In the country round was stored. The wine remalr Middle | and is shipped to Ge: TIMANY, not to the | United States. But the woalens? through the centurics, with a popula- Tasks It. better than the o owadays, is easier than street cars, water cond v and &l modern con ywhere the sign W As to te working city, it is entirely It was & factory city—woolens, Ot come dack! rhoen, employes and o tad aw Rave » tlon of 100,000 when the war came Underground were teemare Americans than eve: visit the cathedral and won ne of them take 8 ok at th n champagne cellars. By wise counsel of the American city- 1 the ity sits solitary in 1928, RUEIMS CATHEDRAL, SHOWING THE UFPER WINDOWS, WHICH ARE REING OF THE 30 WINDUWS OF THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY, ONLY BIGHT CAN RE R TRD. THE IPHOTOGRAPH SHOWS THE PROGRESS OF THE RESTORATION WORK,