Evening Star Newspaper, March 4, 1928, Page 87

THE SUNDAY STAR. WASHINGEON fiécatur House Is Reminder of Tra—éié | BY JOHN CLAGETT PROCTOR. 1 NE of the most conspicuous and | most central of all the historic | buildings in Washington is the | old Decatur House, at thc, southwest corner of H stree: | end Jackson place. and within a block | of the White House grounds. Few buildings are there in the city that have more people pass in front of it in thc course of a day than pas$ in front of | this reminder of bygone days. in & neighborhood replete with American history dating back for morc than a century. After the close of the War of 1812-15 many naval officers found themsclves possessed of considerable prize money turned over to them by the Government through the sale of captured enemy vessels and their cargoes. Two of these In particular, Commodores David Porter | and Stephen Decatur, invested their| money in local real estate, Porter pur- | chasing. with a part of his, the Meridian Hill property, consisting of some 110 acres, and erecting there a pretentious home, and Decatur purchasing, with a! part of his share, the Jackson place | property. After the close of the sccond war! with G! Britain Commodore Decatur was ordered to duty in Washington as & Navy col issfoner and soon therc- after. it is said. moved into Kalorama mansion. in the tomb connccted with' which he was later interred. He coula | not have lived there long, for soon after arriving in th> city he purchased for | his residence one of the seven build- | ings. This row is still standing on the | north side of Penn: tween Ninsteenth and Twentieth streets | northwest. th2 houses being numbered 1901 to 1913. Some of these houses have been remodeled. but otherwise the, ven build- n On March 8. 1806, Decatur was married. having been smitten with the fascinating Southern charms of Miss Susan Wheeler. & Noriolk belle of re- finement and cducation. She was the | daughter of a weelthy merchant of that place. In addition to a command- ing beauty, it is sald. “this young lady possessed great superiority of intellect. which a careful education and the con- tact of socicty had remarkably de- velop: nor had the lighter graces that embellish beauty and intellect been neglected in her training. pocsessed many rare accomplishments. | being in particular an admirable mu- sician, and accompanying herself on the harp in singing with equal taste and execution.” erected by Dr. Thomas Ewell, and which She | is also of much historic interest. D= If we can believe all ' destined he should be carried from here | we read, then this statement is un- a corpse but one short vear hence, fol- | te Goubtedly true, for it has also been |lowing the fatal duel at Bladensburg | re Cne of Pionecer Mansions in Vicinity of White House Was H Dueling Field—Question of Another Ofhc:r 1> K \ s JROUND NEAR BLADENSBURG. When the War of 1812 was over Bar- | and your conduct. T feel a thorough ron, who, during the interval, had re- | conviction that I never have been | sided abread, applied for restoration |gullty of so much egotism as to say | e tnee {10 his rank, and here entered another | that ‘I could insult you (or any other CATUR had only a short while to | clement which fanned the smoldering | live in his new home, for it was | firc of resentment into a real flame of | ! hatred. Decatur’s argument and con- | n_was that he “ought not to be | ved again into the naval service; THE DUELING I ome From Which Diétinguished Officer ’s Conduct in Official Position Involved. DECATUR HOUSE, JACKSON PLACE / \ron, who, a few days later, wrote De- | catur, stating: “Several gentlemen in | Norfolk. not your enemles, nor actuated ) with impunity.’ 1 am, sir, ur obedient servant, STEPHEN DECATUR.” This answer did not quite suit Bar- by malicious motive, told me that such |a report was in circulation but could | |not now be traced to its origin. I, therefore, concluded to appeal to you, ;upposing, under such circumstances, that 1 could not outrage any rule of orum or candor. This, I trust, will Went to Decath on ND H STREET NORTHWEST. | Bainbridge, who is fully authorized by me to make any arrangement he pleases, as regards weapons, moge. or distance.” As Decatur had designated Commo- dore William Bainbridge to represent | him. so had Barron selected Capt. Jesse |D. Elliot, and the following are the terms agreed upon by them: | “It is agreed by the undersigned, as said that the hand of this fair maiden with Comimod had becn ineffectually sought by Je-! 2 | fome Bonaparte before the great Na- Sometimes we cannot help but feel | poleon’s brother had wooed and won that this world of ours—or the people the love of that famous Baltimore in it. if you would express it that way— | beauty. Miss Elizabeth Patterson, is getting worse rather than better. but | whom he succeeded in tying up to an if will take dueling as a comparison unsatisfactory marriage. with the present method of settling dif- | It is, therefore. but natural that such ferences, it is quite s»fe to say we are 8 hero as Decatur was—and being at least considerably improving in this wedded to a wife with such delightful | respect. ! accomplishments as were those of Mrs.' The seccond war with the mother Decatur—would want 3 home with ' country was brewing for some time. and | better accommodations for entertain- | even here in Washington, a number ot ing his friends than were afforded by Jyears before it took place, militia com- their modest home in the “Seven Panies were being formed and drilled. | Buildings.” The affair that did much to stimulate For this reason he soon thereafter the filling of the District's qu . under rchased a building lot and erected the provisions of the militia law, strange | he old Jackson piace building in to say, 2lso resulted in causing the De- 1819, just as you see it today. Though catur-Barron ducl 12 years hencs, and. an ordinary structure in appearance, al the death of Step! vet it is from designs drawn by that Decatur. distinguished architect Benjamin H.| Commodore Barron—then a post cap- | Latrobe, who early came here as one |tain, as was also Commodore Decatu | of the architects of the Capitgl Build- had hardly left the Washington H ing. and who used his spare time in Yard with the United States frigate| @ecigning structures, among which were Chesapeake, where his vessel had becn St. John's Church. at Sixteenth and fitted out. and had only a short while | H streets: the Van Ness mansion, before arrived at Norfolk, which he left | which formerly stood on Seventeenth /in June, 1807. when the entire country street between B and C streets north- | was thrown into a state of excitement ~ --west, and the home of the first mayor over the news of the forcible detention | re s Barron, March that there was not employment enough | el | for all the officers who had mtnruflyq discharged their duty to their country | in the hour of trial; and that it would be doing an act of injustice to employ | him to the exclusion of any of them." | His further statement that he be lieved he “was performing a duty he owed to the service, and that he was contributing to the preservation of its respectability,” no doubt contributed toward bringing on the Bladensburg affair. * % kX HERE was never any question in the | mind of any one, except perhaps Commodore Barron, as to the worthy | motives of Dacatur. He expressed no enmity toward the former and only | A epoke in the interest of the service upon which h» had reflected so much glory. Barron, however, did not consider it in this light, and on the 12th of June, 1819, opened the argument by address- ing to Decatur the following note: “Hampton, Va. June 12, 1819. | “8ir: T have been Informed in Nor- folk that you have said that you could insult me with impunity, or words to that effect. If you have sald so. you will, no doubt, avow it, and I shall ex- to hear from you. “I am, sir, your obedient servant, “JAMES BARRON days later Decatur replied to| “Washington, June 17, 1819. 'Sir: I have received your communi- cation of the 12th instant. Before you could have been entitled to the in- | formation you have asked of me, you thould have given up the name of your informer. That frankness which ought | to characterize our profession required ft. I shall not, however, refuse to answer you on that account, but shall be as candid in my communication to u as your letter or the cass will rrant. “Whatever I may have thought, or sald, in the very frequent and free con- versations I have had respecting you Five Barror BLINDS ARE EASILY CONSTRIU( | AVAILABL {includes fish and water animals and s { ot exclusively for hird life Hawes bill, which appropriated 81.600,- 000 for purchase, spproximately 80,000 i mcres of land have been acquired, vith wood. Latrobe also is given credit by | British ship Leopard. { some as having suggested the erection ' _Several American seamen, claimed by | of the north and south porticos of the British as deserters, were taken | the to its attractiveness. of a single gun. Naturally the affair 1t was the first residence to be erected | created throughout the country great| on what was originally called the Presi- | indignation, resulting. of course, in the | its more familiar name of Lafayette investigate the conduct of the Chesa-| Square. 8¢ John's Church, in the form peake's commander, Commodore Barron. | of a Greek cross. with its stucco walls,| Th* inquiry was followed by a court- the first structure of any description sion from the service for five years from erectzd on this sqaare, only preceded | Pebruary 8, 1808. After the trial, Bar- | the Decatur house by four yeers, the ron's feelings were not kindly toward | 1815. However. the Decatur house was | have served on the court-martial after | only erected a few months in advance | having formed an expressed opinion as | of the dwelling 2t 14 Jackson place,'a member of the court of inquiry. LOW, marshy tract of Kanses! botiomland, for which the Paw- fought s a choice hununli years ago, has come into national prominence through Lhe‘ The Pawnees lost, and the area has | been known since as the Cheyenne | Bottoms, in Barton County, Kans., just| graphical center of the United States. | But the place retained its fame 85 o hunting ground, so that when the flood | Fall n from several Btates came to hunt the miliions of ducks and | wild fow] which gathered immediately | ‘The natural sdvantages of the bot- | toms have been so apparent from that | migration that Representetive Hope of | troduced a bill for creagon of & Da- tional water fo'/] retreat there under the United Btates Biological Burvey the second national preserve main- 1ained by the survey and would become 2 part of the game preservation pro-| carrying on for years. When tne rains had ceased and farm- ers began checking their land they created almost overnight in the nat- | ural basin which lies but a few miles | out of the valley of the Arkansas The Biological Burvey went Talbott Trenmewd, chief deputy United States | game werden, Lo observe the flight of area as & refuge. e reported that the botoms are virtusily the only rest- ing place which the birds have on their #rew from Norhern Canads and Alas ¥ ing places in Bouthern Uniteq States and Mezien #igte hesdquarters for hundreds of thousands of ducks (mostly mallard snd teal) folloving the rains snd of birds. large numbers of golden Plover fap equal amount stll 1o be hought to 818 wvooels. Tare spectes for the region, | compieie the preserve. ‘That 18 the only #lso were observed. The birde quickly | d { Berertion.” The Gheyenne Botioms ar there s 8 feeding ground and nesting T place, Ms. Denmed Wid the House ag- |M$Y be the second, unless ihe Bel Ticulture commitiee n recent hesr- ( RUYer project, near Greal ke, 48 @ucks 1) the region emphasized the naed | "1 want to say In general,” Mr. Red for some such revreat if wild fowl are | inglon told tiie eommittee, “that the V) be kepl from Aying out, he said from stervation end isck of water 8s | the establishment of refuges for water from eporismen fowl, and, in my opinion, action along The interest which the Federal Goyv- | this Jine on refuges throughout the Bowoms project “:u:'w‘;'fld ,‘:;’"h'i with this bill is vital indeed committee by P G higlon, chief of | oy think we ought 1o have two or the Biological Burvey, wio detatled 8180 Ly, 05y norvant refuges in each Hne of n A refy tablishments in other ’.'.':l,“f,r‘:;',:“::,?nfv‘» : | Mr, Redington deseribed the so-called here 1 now only one wach refuge | Weslern migration going past the Bear @ the! i the Upper Mississippt { out to Californis, and the Upper Mis- R atuge st the corner of the | eicaipp) Jine of fight, which takes fhe oy Etates of Iova. Dlipois, Minnesola birds o the Kast const, & ":; ather o7 Washington, Robert Brent, at Brent- and search of the Chesapeake by the | White House, which 2dd so much ' from his decks, and without the firing | dent's Square, but subssquently received appointment of a court of inquiry to| finfshed with a lantern and a cupola, martial resulting In Barron’s suspen- corner stone being laid September 14,/ Decatur, who, he claimed. should not| nee end Cheyenne Incians | trick of last year's flood. | north of Great Bend, and near the geo- waters and heavy rains filled it last| in the bottoms. the seventh Kansas district has in- Under that bill the area would become gram which that department has been | found that & 16,000-acre lake had been | River fowl and check the possibilities of migration through the Great Plains | The pot had een made the imme- enormous flocks of gulle snd thore Jearned of the new lake and rested | DSOS the sort under Federal su- Ing reeding of iarge mumbers of | 8uthorized by the present Congress since they in fully &% much denger | with the ideas of the department as Lo ernment 1 taking W the Cheyenne | Ujited Btates specifically in connection pome of e other work of the survey (L0 ERTETC Ny | whder offcial Pederal supervision, he | River marehes of Utah and scattering ®nd Wacomaln, That Dwyect, awey Ly~ e ef, Wapornt fight lineg purpose of this bill s exactly in line | 1ld Fowl Cre‘ate TED IN THE BOTTOMS. 11 enne Bottoms route. "The average daily 300 or 400, he said, depending on the | | distance they have to go to reach food | and water, and he added that they had 10 fiy farther now for food than former- {1y My, Redington estimated that es- | tablshment of 10 to 15 outstanding con- | centration pointa throughout the United | Btates would he needed If a comprehen- | tve program for preservation were | drawn up by the Pederal Government | He outitned the following ws & begin- | g The Kinmath Falls area iy the great marshes of California; the Bear River marshes; Cheyenne Botloms; the | Upper Miscissippl; Atlantic Coast and { the Tllinos River area L [[HE sgriculure committee 1 now studying a 2,000-word report sub- mitted hy Gov. Ben 8, Paulen of Kan- | a5, wsking ald for the Btate of Kansas [ the proposal, and a 3.000-word ve- port of Hate Engineer Murray A. Wil- son o the Ktate Foreatry, Wish and Game Commission, hased on a survey | of the hottoms Iimmediately after the | £ood of st yeas, I A FARMER'S STRAW STACK 1T 18 ONLY A FEW MINUTES' WORK %0 DIG DOWN AT THE WATER'S EDGE., pe Jand 4 of & hard forma Vieed From IS NOT ‘The report contains some interesting | Under the | fiight of ducks veries from 150 miles to | history of the basin, which has filled and evaporated perodically, furnishing amazing hunting since the lnte H0s, They contain also what Is perhaps the most. important_ argument for creation of the refuge and what has called the I<ansas area to national attention more than any one thing. ‘That 15 the map of North America, prepared for the HBlologleal Survey, showing the wide Night taken by birds which have passed through Cheyenne Bottoms. Working With the survey, Frank W. Robl of El- Ingwood, Kans, caught and banded thoussnds of birds In the vh'lnu{ n tha migratory seasons. Reports from hunters over North America later showed that the birds had been shot a8 far West as California, almost to the coast; on the northern border of Alaska, south of Point Barrow; on the eastern tip of Cuba and In Yucatan, and in the upper Misstsalppl and the Lake Buperior mllnr, hese reports show on the map ah a series of dota which mark a direct path followed in the Aights and all converging In the Chey- enne Bottoms. y of the Cheyenne ares " The unpesvious ma ~ answer to which I have only to reply | an Ol d b considered as a just motive for the |friends of Commodore Decatur and course T have pursued. Your declara- on, if I understand it correctly, re- ves my mind from the apprehension that you had so degraded.my character 2s I have been induced to allege.” ‘0 this Decatur sharply replied: * * I meant no more than to dis- claim the specific and particular ex- presston to which your inquiry was di- rected, to-wit, that I had said that I could insult you with impunity. As to ths motives of the ‘several gentlemen in Norfolk.' your informants, or the rumors ‘which cannot be traced to their origin.’ on which thelir information was founded. or who they are, it is a mat- ter of perfect indifference to me. as are also your motives in making such an inquiry upon such information.™ 2 After considerable correspondence in which Decatur insisted that the chal- lenge must come from Barron. the lat- ter, on January 16, 1820, addressed the former as follows: | _“Sir: Your letter of the 29th ultimo I have received. In it you sav that you have now to inform me that you shall pay no further attention to any com- munication that I may other than a direct call to the fieid in { that whenever vou will consent to meet wn fair end equal grounds—that is, } as two honorable men may con- sider just and proper—you are at lib- crty to view this as that call. The whole tener of vour conduct to me jus- tifles this course of proceeding on my vart. - As for your charges and remarks I regard them not, particularly your ;ympathy. You know not such a feel- ng. 1 cannot be suspected of making ihs attempt to excite it.” As the lawyer would say, Decatur “joined issue” in the following note: “Sir: T have received your communi- cation of the 16th and am at a loss to know what your intention is. If you in- tend it as a challenge I accept is and ‘refer you to my friend Commodore y make to you. | Commodore Barron, that the meeting | which is to take place between the said Commodore Decatur and Commo- dore Barron shall take place at nine A. M. on the 22nd instant, at Bladens- burg. near the District of Columbia, and that the weapons shall be pistols; the distance, eight paces or yards; that, previously to firing, the parties shall be directed to present, and shall not fire bofore the word ‘one’ is given, or after | the word ‘three’; that the words one, two, three shall be given by Commo- dore Bainbridge.” * * * * REALIZ!NG the extreme danger, and anticipating the possible results, Decatur wrote to Mrs. Decatur’s father, asking him to come to Washington to be with his daughter should a “pain- ful transaction” he had on hand ter- minate fatally. A similar request was | made of Gen. Robert G. Harper to be present with his wife to aid and com- | fort Mrs. Decatur should it be neces- sary. He also asked Dr. Bailey Wash- |ington of the Navy to accompany bhim to the grounds./ but this gen! substituted Dr. Trevitt. since she was not apparently aware of | after what was going on, crossed Lafayette Square and entered Pennsylvania ave-|hoyse at the southeast corner of | nue, walking to Beale's Hotel. on Capi- | tol Hill,_where he dined with Com- modore Bainbridge and Samuel Ham- bledon of the Navy. From here the trio drove to the dueling grounds, sit- uated in a valley to the right of the Bladensburg road, going north, and about a half mile south of the village. | Here they met Capt. Elliot, Commodore Barron and a Mr. Lattimer. | Upon taking their positions, Commo- dore Bainbridge informed them that he | would give the word quickly “Present! Decatur arose on the morning of | March 22, 1820, the day set for the duel, and, after feigning to be cheer-| ful, to throw Mrs. Decatur off her guard. of the square, Rl'n:%ud ncident in Naval HiStvpfy one, two, three”; and they wer> not ! | fire before the word “one” nor after th word “three.” Before the fatal count was made, Commodore Barron observed | to Commodore Decatur “that he hoped on meeting in another world they would be better friends than they had been in this,” and Decatur replied, “T have never been your enemy, sir.” At ‘the word “two™ both fired, so near together that it sounded as one report. Barron fell wounded in the right hip, Decatur stood for a moment erect, and ihen, pressing his hand to his right side. fell, the ball having passed through his #bdomen. He remarked, “I am mortal- Iy wounded, at least, I believe so, and wish that I had fallen in defense of my country.” When he later sank down near where Barron iay, the latter “de- clared that everything had been con- ducted in the most honorable manner, and told Commodore Decatur that h forgave him from the bottom of heart.” % T was soon evident that Decatur’s wound was mortal. He was driven back to his home, in Jackson place, but | before he would permit himseif to be | taken inside directed that Mrs. Decatur | and his two nieces be removed to the upper part of the house. He gave posi- | tive orders that Mrs. Decatur should not see him. He had “too often,” he sald, | “faced death to be awed by its terrors, but he could not bear to give her so much pain as his condition must awak- en or to see her endure it.” He had his will witnessed by Com- modore Rodgers, Dr. Trevitt and Dr. Sim, and shortly after 10:30 p.m.. that same day breathed his last. And so passed into the great beyond. one of America’s greatest naval heroes. If time shall wipe away his deeds, his toast will live forever: “Our country! In her intercourse with foreign na- tions, may she always be in the right: but our country, right or wrong.” Soon after this tragedy Mrs. Decatur went to live at Kalorama, in the tomb connected with which the body of her | huzband had been laid fo rest. In 1846 his remains were moved to Phil. | delphia and now repose beneath a |granite monument in St. P | Churchyard. On leaving her house in Lafayetie Square, Mrs. Decatur leased it to Baron de Tuyl, the newly arrived Russian Minister, who left Washington early in 1825. He was followed by Henry Clay, then Secretary of State to John Quincy Adams; by Martin Van Buren, after- | ward President of the United States, {and Edward Livingston of Louisiana, whose brother, Chancellor Livingston, had the honor of swearing George { Washington in as the first President. It then again became the home of for- eign ministers. when Sir Charles Vaughan and Baron Hyde de Neuville occupied it. In 1836 it was soid to John Gadsby for $12.000 and was sub- sequently occupied by Joseph Gales, Howell Cobb, George M. Dallis and {Judah P. Benjamin. At the close of | the Civil War it was purchased by Gen. | Edward F. Beale. who did much enter- | here, and frequently had as his | Buests Gen. and Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant. ,}‘ is still the property of the Baale It would be very hard. indeed. to iplczure at this late date just how this | neighborhood looked when Decatur erected this old residence here. There had been no change since the removal | of the bodies from the Pearce buryi | ground, then near the southwest cor- |ner of Lafayette Square. in 1800. In- | deed, no improvements whatever had ‘been made up to 1819, in which year —due to Decatur's building here—an ation of $150 was made by council to open and gravel a . 40 feet wide, from Penn- * TS ! a | the_city cal | propria e | owners of property facing the square ' advancing the money. the same to b> | returned to them out of any mon: to the credit of the first ward a ‘t.h: year 1821. This is the prese: | Jackson place. Madison place, on the opposite side was not opened until Cutts, Dolly Madison's brother-in-law, erected. about 1820. | Madi- ison place and H street, now occupied by the Cosmos Club. Lafayette Squar | was not at this time improved at al | By 1827 it had been leveled and in- closed, but there were still obstructions. such as unsightly frame sheds and stables, which made the view from the White House offensive. Indeed. 1t was many years before this square was im- proved sufficiently to do credit to the man in whose honor it was named- and there is still room for tmprove- ment | to water. Blinds can be dug at the | water's edge and will remain dry. Th country is a naturally shaped basin, so that not a shovelful of earth would ! have to be turned in order to hold the lake in. But the water cscapes through | evaporation, and it i3 necessary to some source of constant supply. Thi: it 15 proposed to do by diverting Wal nut Creek and later part of the Arkansas River. It could be done by means of a diteh less than 15 miles long from the Arkansas to the bottoms. Walnut Creeck Itself Is less than 7 miles from the lake. ‘The Hope bill asks a total of $350.000 for acquisition of land and completion of the ditch. The Kansas Game Com- misston s planning to aid in the work, but will be unable to start operations before the present lake has gone the way of former natural refuge bird Iife has again died out. It Is to prevent loss of this natural harbor that tion is being urged on the present ngress. The floor of the Cheyenne Bottoms covers 64 square miles. IL has been compared In size to the Sea of Galilee. In previous wet seasons, when shooth for the market was still legal, the re | ords of catches weré amazing. Profe stonal hunters came for many miles and vefrigerator cars were backed into Gre: N and the | d in Kansas by last shoot of this kind was In 1904, cording to Mr. Hope, when it was esti- mated that over half a millfon bird: reached the markets at Kansas City, St | Louis and the East from this section. } Following this there were no more | large seasons before game laws came to | protect the fowl. Last season. however, sportsmen from many States were guests of Great Bend in a hunters’ paradise which s seldom realized. The Great Bend Chamber of Commerce is- sued an invitation to all duck hunters | to come to the vicinity. Game wardens | were assigned by the State for patrols, | to assist the hunters in finding blinds and to give other informatién. Boats and decoys were furnished at a nominal fee and thousands avalled themselves | of the offer. The bottoms are also the scene of an | earlter project, of a different nature —a | power scheme which fatled in 1900. In {the late 90s & company was formed | by one Koen, called the Lake Koen Navigation Reservolr & Irrigation Co Koen completed a ditch 13 miles long | from the Arkansas River, tapping Wal- nut Creek and emptying into the lake The power was to be developed at the | mouth of this ditch. # Tt was operated only a short time in 1900 before floods | washed out the dams at the intake in ! Sections of the canal are still as they were originally dug. and it is planned to utilize them in the present scheme. *xox [P the Cheyenne Bottoms project re- ceives the indorsement of Brig. Gen. Herbert M. Lord, director of the bud- get, 1t is likely that ft would be - cluded officially in the program of the | Biological Survey, as are the upper Mis- sissipp! and Bear Lake projects. W. C. Henderson, associate chief of the survey, in summing up the bureau’s future program, described the Kansas area as one of the important regions in the national scheme, pointing out !that it is a great concentration point in the Great Plains migration | “If suitable refuges are not tained throughout the countr 2 said, “where the birds can find water areas, feeding grounds and nesting places, there is & danger that the mi- gratory fow! will greatly diminish in numbers. Just now they seem to be holding their own in many sections, in- n'rmnfl.n\' in some places and declining in_others “Prior to 1913, when the first Federal protective legislation was enact the birds were on the decline and ther¢ was a serfous danger of extermination. The protection which has been extended in Bend to carry away the ducks. The ' the Arkansas and the company fatled the last 15 years, under Federal and BOTTOMS, IN WESTERN RANS THESE HUNTERS COULD NOT WAIT TO DIG RLINDS WHE 11\ AS, GAME BIRDS FROM ALL JINENT GATHMERED IN THE NEWLY GREATED LANE VER THE NORTH AMERIGAN CON | towl 'v\l\l\‘h can be taken™ | age, Trick of Flood State legislation. such as the act en- forcing the 1916 treaty with Great Britain protecting the birds which passed between the United States and Canada through shorter seasons, pro- hibition of market hunting and Spring shooting. has had a very beneficial ef- fect. Before 1913 protection was fur- nished only by State regulations, whic! varied. Now three and one-half months is the longest season and there is no shooting anywhere after January 31 “There are more ducks nesting now 'in the United States. On the few pre. serves now maintained. some by th States, it is found that the birds quick- Iy learn where they are safe and sees that spot. In some cases, such as the Big Lake, in northeastern Arkansas there may be hunting along the edges. but the majority of the birds will be found safe inside the preserve, two or three miles from the border, where they can remain unmolested.” The banding operations. which are carried on with unofficial aid of con- servationists over the oountry, have been invaluable In gathering data on migrations. Mr. Henderson said. The birds are caught and labeled with an aluminum band around their leg bears ing a number and directions to return the band of the Biological Survey. About 400.000 birds have been so treat- ed. and about one-tenth of them were ducks and geese. The bureau has an swered hundreds of letters from hunt- ers all over the Narth American C tnent who have taken the ducks, Mr Henderson said. Kxtenston of this work and of the program of establishing waterfow! refuges would be greatly aided, he said by the Anthony-Norbeck bill now be- fore Congress authartaing the Agris culture Department to tssue loenses, jwithin season and under supervision, [ At $1 each, for creation of & migratory | bird conservation fund Establishment of refuges {Kind Will do more to preserve the water than any restrictive measures v, Henderson {0} “Marsh - areas are becoming ICer every vear, much through drain. and much of this land s now idle, of this iha\lnl been proved a fatiure fram an | Ay agricultural standpoint. Tt could be reclaimed’ i a novel way through re- and making it of use agaty v [ the water fowl™ !Rn_\-ul Prince Leading Ace. { From ihe Patntuger All Spanish fiytng sohools ate under the cammand of Infante Atfonso, first |c\~uun of the King. He has been an VY ORAINS FILED CHENENNE ) lquently but permits no st enthusiastio flyer for 1T years-—almost siice the plane was developed. H» had active fylng service in the war With Maroceo. His love of “stunt™ iy~ g 1 & constant souree of weriy te s wife, sister of Queen of Rumania, 8&he flies with Matis hm t Vs The prince prefers sweh o te o one idlencss and qase,