Evening Star Newspaper, December 9, 1928, Page 105

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. ¢, DECEMBER 9. 1928—PART T. 5 Several District Churches Have Been Honored by Executives services the parish wa Episcopal house of wor: n on New J was the there s prob- Washington might both of thase ty upon ume and Po- to BY JOHN CLAGETT PROCTOR. OWADAYS a_President should find no difficulty in locating the church of his choice at the Nation's Capital, for there Is indeed a good assort ¥ to select from. In the e: when Washington was ghe Magnificent Distances”-—such the case, for there were then very churches_here, and the Pr happened to find the c ast, to arn ortunately and Alex and the Chief v a few hours' of these places Of course, Gen. Washington cos be President in 1 but his int in the city was keen from the laying of the corner stone on Ap until his death, Decembe during these years if the desired to attend the ar choice within the present 10 square—not including Georgetown—he would have found Old St. Paul’ posite Soldiers” Home, ready and to receive him, for re 1 were being conducted at church here even before was bo Anothe was the old tobacco b: sey Avenu where reli; early as Thomas J tended div Naticn's Chief is no record to t¥ able that cven Gen have attended service at places, since he a number of occasion: of his death. Christ Church, Alexandria, hick Church, a little closer Vernon, = were places of worship true of the forme hare for a number of ye arly attended service. Indeed, ngton was_not only especially int Christ Church and Pohi % | Falls Church, and it is | press: all erected from the same plans be- vears 1767 and 1772. Since having been first built, Christ Church has undergone a number of interior and exterior changes, so that toda bears littie resemblance to the other churches Though Washi while living in the cities of Philadelr and New York, usuaily visited churches | of the Episcopal denomination, he was not an infrequent visitor to Protestant churches cf other denominations. FL OHN ADAMS by some is classed as | o "a Unitarian and by others as a | Congregationalist. As a matter of fact | he might well be cla a free thinker. His parents s to col- | lege to study for the ministry, but this | idea was soon abandoned, and he sub- stituted law for the pulpit. The best part_of his administration was spsnt in Philadelphia, where he attended churches of different denominations. | He did not come to Washington to fill | out his term until the Autumn of 1800, and therefore had little time to attend church here, but he availed himself of such churches as were then existing, including the Presbyterian Church of History of Denominational Preferences of Successive Presidents Has Many Interesting Chapters—Washington's Selections Doctor Balch, in Georgetown, h had been established about the > of th> Revolutionary War. hough recorded as an Episcopalian, rson, too, was considared thinker. He was probably the informed man on the Bible who r sat in the White House, and a copy he Seriptures arranged by him, and known as the Jeflerson Bible, is on ex- hibition in the Natural History Build- ing of the National Museum. While President Mr. Jefferson prob- ably attended divine service occasion- in the tobacco warehouse on New ey avenue, purchased from Daniel rroll, or in the corridor of the new | Office, where Rev. A. T. McCor- ck preached to his flock each Sab- bath rnoon at 4 o'clock. There is >robably no question as to Mr. Jeffer- also attending now and then nearby iscopal churches, including those of Madison was a dyed-in-the Episcopalian, and probably fol- 1 Jefferson’s example in visiting the different Episcopal churches until the erection of St. ecnth and H streets northwest, 1 he made this church his regular ¢ of worship. Incidental the er stone of this structure was laid ptember 14, 1815, by the Grand ge of Masons, with Right Worship- ful Grand Master John Davidson pre- sid This popular man was the son of Gen. John Davidson of Annapolis, Md., who was one of the original pro- ¥ of Columbia, his farm running from about New York avenue north to K street and from about Ninth street to Fifteenth street. John Davidson, the son, was born and resided in Richmond, Va., until he had rcached early adult life, when he moved to this city, and for many years thereafter was a resi- dent of the first ward, and conducted what was known as Davidson's Wharf, near the mouth of Rock Creek. He was prominent and active citizen, and identified with all the progressive move- ments of the period. In common with the leading citizens of that early day, he was a member of the Union Fire Company, which held many of its meet- ings at his house. In 1820 the west transept of St. John's was extended to Sixteenth street and its pillared porch and steeple were built, and in 1822 it was further digni- fied with a bell in its belfry, while from here Mrs. Madison’s funeral took place in 1849. The pew set apart in this church for the President was also occu- pied £7 James Monroe, who was a com- municant of that faith. e i b OHN QUINCY ADAMS was originally & Unitarian, but a little more than a year after his inauguration he made a public confession of faith and was received into the membership of the Congregational Church in Quincy, Mass. Wilhelmus Bogart Bryan in his “His- John's Church at | etors of the land within the District | Outside of Present Federal Area——]ackson‘s Famous Controversy. | of John Quincy Adams’ religious activi- | ties, has this to sa; | | ““An habitual churchgoer, the acces- | sion_to the presidency made no change |in that respect for Mr. Adams. It was not uncommon for him to go twice to | { church on Sunday. In the morning he ymight hear a sermon of Rev. Robert |Little, the pastor of the Unitarian | Church, at the northeast corner of | |Sixth and D_streets northwest, and | then in the afternoon walk across La- fayette Park to St. John’s Episcopal Church, where the rector, Rev. William Hawley, conducted the services, or at- tend the preaching of Rev. Daniel Baker, the pastor of the Second Pres- byterian Church, which stood at the |apex of the western triangular square formed at the intersection of New York avenue and H street northwest.” | The Unitarian Church attended by | | the second Mr. Adams for many years | | occupied the site of the present Police | | Court, and was itself for many years used for this purpose. It was dedicated | June 9, 1822, and was designed by | Charles Bulfinch of Boston. Here five years later, it is said, Ralph Waldo Emerson, then but 6 months in the ministry, preached one Sunday while | on his way home from & trip to the | South. In 1857 the original building | was “greatly and substantially im- proved” by stone steps, etc. No doubt there are ever so many people who re- | member the old Police Court building, even if they do not remember it as the Unitarian Church. For many years Judge Snell presided here in all his glory, and the oratory of Campbell Carrington, Dan Cahill and a number of other lawyers of this court could be heard in defense of their respective clients, who sometimes were adjudged “guilty” and sometimes adjudged “not guilty.” The colored prisoners appearing be- fore Judge Snell declared they could tell the sentence to be meted out by the judge by the number of times he turned around in his swivel chair. One turn meant $5 or 10 days and two revolutions meant $10 or 20 days, and so on to the limit of the court's’ jurisdiction. 1t seems to the writer that it was before Judge Snell that Gen. George H. Harries was haled as a “vag.” when that distinguished gentleman was a re- porter on The Star, having assumed this disguise for the purpose of being “sent down” for 30 days in order to get inside information regarding the running of | the workhouse and jail for his paper. The ruse worked admirably, and when the necessary information was obtained the release of Mr, Harries was speedily secured. e NE thing about Presidents and churches might be mentioned. Al- though a President may have attended a service at a particular church, this is no indication that in reality he was a communicant of that church. He may have attended there only once for some specific purpose, and may really have tory of the National Capital,” speaking GEORGE WASHINGTON made that his first and last visit. When ‘WORSHIPED. TS W ITH THE USE OF TINY MODELS. BY GEORGE H. DACY. GROUP of Government scien- tists clustered around an in- SOLVING THE SKID SECR clined plane—a laboratory sim- ulation of a steep hill—down which midget models of motor cars were pivoting and pirouetting. As these tiny models, such as your children, and mine, would delight to play with, made their s scrambling descents, they left records n black and white has aided in solving the former per- plexities of automobile *turnabouts and pivots. The surface of the plane was covered with large sheets of white paper over which ordinary carbon or tracing paper was placed. Thus each test car so ar- ifting, sliding, | information that | emergencies involved in down-hill skid- ding “wrote its own history.” The car- r traced its wheel tracks—the acted as substitute penc a technical record was made of cach descent. Motorists from Maryland to Mexico, from Ohio to Oregon have been argu- ing for years over the causes and ac- tions of skidding. Pivoting has been a controversial subject. Some claimed the motor car did such and so in skid- " | ding under certain conditions. Others claimed it did otherwise. The reviews of accidents were hodgepodges of con- flicting opinions. Standardized expla- nations of pivoting were never filtered from this miscellaney of evidence, ranged as to imitate the various road | FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, JOHN MARSHALL PLACE BETWEEN C AND D STREETS, WHERE | ANDREW JACKSON ATTENDED SERVI | | | | | | Then he began to work for her lots and houses, which so far she had managad to keep as her own separate estate. Sk refused to give it up to him and he serted her. She wrote to him to come back, she could not live without him. He replied that he would not come b and be distrusted. He did not want her property, but if he was not to be | trusted with it he was nct fit to hoid the relations of a husband. | “The villain conquered. He was told to come back and he could have all.| John M In less than two years, after first dis- arming suspicion. he had converted it | all dgto money, and one morning dis- appeared. Not alone, however. He n taken with him his wife's grandchild herself a wife and the mother of tu isfant children. the same day, and by on2 and the same villain. This was the cruelest blow of all. For a year the now aged la moved as in*a dream. She could hard- 1y helieve that she had been so dupod |and cheated. Her money and pro) | ty were nearly all gone, her family wa | doubly disgraced, and she had nothing | detectives. who were on the watch. | | rested and put in_prison. | to be release | There was only one condition on | she would consent. | prosecution and let him go free Photo by Harris & Ewing. we read the unqualified statement that a certain President attended service at scme particular church, the statement may mean nothing. One must bear in mind that the President is a public of- ficial, and as such is frequently called upon to attend Divine service in church- es holding a different faith from that of his own, and in this connection it is not a rare thing, by any means, for the | President to attend mass at St. Patirck’s Church here in Washington when the diplomats of the South American Re- publics go there to celebrate some par- ticular event. The President of the United States presides over more than 115,000,000 people of all sorts of de- nominations, and the President, as such, shows no partiality in visiting among the various churches. Recently the writer attended service at the Washington Heights Presbyterian Church and had the pleasure of seeing President Coolidge there, but this, of course, did not mean that Mr. Coolidge | was a Presbyterian, for we all know he is a Congregationalist. * ok ok ok President, he first took a pew at the Second Presbyterian Church, now known as the New York Avenue Presby- terian Church, on New York avenue be- tween Thirteenth and Fourteenth streets. Subsequently he gave up this house of worship for the First Presby- terfan Church, on John Marshall place. This change was brought about by the indifference paid to Mrs. Eaton—other- wise known as the celebrated Peggy O'Neil—by the young pastor, Rev. John N. Campbell, who afterward became pastor of a large church in Albany, N. Y., where he labored successfully for many years and where he closed his life. Gen. Eaton was a member of Jackson’s cabinet, and Mrs. Eaton had a stanch friend in “Old Hickory.” On HEN Gen. Andrew Jackson bccnme: daughters, all of whom were married, her account a disturbance broke out in the cabinet and also in the church. The “old hero” insisted on the recog- nition of Mrs. Eaton by the young pas- tor, but Campbell was stubborn and would not yleld, whereupon Jackson left the Second Church for the First, where he remained till the close of his public life. Poor Margaret O'Neil! Her two great faults—if faults they were—were that she was handsome and was the daughter of John O'Neil, a tavern keeper, who, from a business stand- point, would compare with the hotel proprietor of the present day. Her end was very sad, indeed. Perhdps you are familiar with her marriage to Lieut. Timberlake, her husband's death, and her subsequent marriage to Gen. John H. Eaton, who became President Jackson’s Secretary of War., * K ok K BECOMXNG a widow for the second time, she, however, was left with an ample support. She had three and for herself there seemed the prom- ise of serene old age. But fate willed otherwise. Her subsequent life, even interesting at the present time, is well told in an old narrative: “Included in the property left her by Gen. Eaton was a store with a hall in the upper story, used generally as a dancing hall, and one day one of her grandchildren brought home with him an Italian dancing master named Bu- cignini, from ,whom they desired to take lessons. ‘Would she rent him the hall?’ was the burden of his errand, and ‘could she permit the rent to be paid in tuition?” She could and would. So Maestro Bucignini was in- stalled as tenant, and began to earn his humble income. The children became attached to him. He was so affiable, so patient, so good. He had seen better days. ‘He was the son of 2 count or a count himself. But had a long line of ancestry stretching back to the ten Doges. Grandmother, —mother and children all became interested in him. It was not long before he became a member of the family, and dined at the family table. He was an Italian noble- man who had been obliged to teach dancing for a living, and, eVen if he were not, why should Peggy O'Neil turn up her nose at him, when she was only the daughter of an Irish tavern keeper; at all events she didn't. “It was not long before Bucignini paid assiduous court to her, and the lady listened. She was old enough to be his mother, but that, perhaps, was not so 1 'mber and May have united before and since, and the world has not made much noise about it. This was only October and May, and yet there was a great ado over fit. Everybody said she ought to have known better—when they saw how it turned out. “Mrs. Eaton and Mr. Bucignini were married and in a little while were for- gotten again. Step by step he got possession of her property. He treated her with the utmost courtesy. The children, who were at first the most incensed, were, one by one, won back to the old-time appreciation of his character and_goodness. He was oily and shrewd. His wife had some ready cash—$26,000 she says it was. It lay in the Gramercy Park Bank of New York. .Mr. Bucignini was tired of Washington, tired of seeing the curious point at him and stare at him, and wanted to live in New York and go into business there. Mrs. Eaton drew out her $26,000 and gave it to him. He invested it in a valuable cigar store, and soon lost it. but revenge to live for. “Two years later Mr. Bucignini re- turned to the United States from his European trip with his mistress, and Mrs. Eaton was informed of it by the She went to New York and had him ar- He begged ; begged oniy to see her. hich Y He should lic in | jail until a divorce could be obtained, {and when he married the girl he had | stolen, then she would withdraw_the This | was agreed to and done. The deserted {husband had obtained a divorce long | before. “Somewhat as Ham follows Steer- forth to force him to make an honest woman of Little Em'ly, so did poor | | Mrs. Eaton follow her Ifalian husband |to_wring from him justice for her guilty grandchild. That done, she re- turned to a ruined home and crouched | down beside a cheerless hearth. For | many years—a dozen, I think, since the last “event recorded-—Mrs. Eaton has |lived in the Capital of the Nation al- { most unknown, where once she exerted | such tremendous power. Even in her | scanty wardrobe she always appeared as though stylishly dressed. There was |a nameless air about her that | the things she wore. Her conversation was always bright and cheerful—rather | grandiose in vein—but correct. At times | she forgot the topic and wandered from THE BUILDING AT 510 NINTH STREET WHERE MRS. JOHN H. EATON The grandmother and | | her granddaughter's husband were both | bereaved, wronged and abandoned on | t off | it. At other times she would relate rather incredible and almost impossible events, but in the main her statements were corroborative of known facts, of easily supported by them. PR ()N November 8, 1879, at abqut 12 o'clock noon, Mrs. Eaton breathed her last at the residence of Mrs. Smith, 512 Ninth street northwest. She was 81 years of age and had been in fecble calth for some time. Her body was interred in Hill Cemetery. The First Presbyterian Church, to which President Jackson transferred his favor, was originally in a structure south of the Capitol Building. but removed to the present site on rshall place, which was then the center of the fashionable life of Washington. An e issue of The star gives the following brief history f the church: “The church dates its existence back 1 , when in June of that year the presbyiery met at Bladensburg and ordained ond installed Rev. John Bracken the ‘Fed then called was Washington wai t known place of in the carpentet shop erected for the Work= men”employed in building the Whits House. Afterward they met for a time in a frame buiiang on F street near Tenth, and subsequently in_the emy East, a frame edifice near yard. _ After the old Capitol had Heen nearly completed congregation used the United i Supreme Court room. During ear 1812 the congregation had | gular place of mee nued until 1823, moved to the ¢ nd-a-half sfrect and sold the old church building, which stood directly west of the site now occu- pied by Gen. Butler's houses | “The location is now filled in and the colored congregation of the Israel Bethel Church, which bought the property, occupied the large brick structure at the foot of the hill. The building as originally erected on Four- | and-a-half street was a sand-colored | structure with three or four columns in front upholding 2 kind of portico. “In 1859 the church was renovated as it stands at present. Mr. Bracken-, ridge continued with the church for a number of years, and then he was | succeeded by Rev. Reuben Post, who | was pastor from 1819 to 1836. He | was succceded as follows: Rev. Wil- | liam McLain, 1836 to 1840; Rev. | Charles Rich, 1840 to 1843; Rev. Wil liam F. Sprole, 1843 to 1847; Rev. | Elisha Ballantyne, 1848 to 1851. The | present pastor, Rev. Byron Sunderland, was installed in 1853 and has occupied the pulpit ever since.” > the church n the congr present site on n NORTHWEST (IN CENTER) (PEGGY O'NEIL) DIED IN 1879, ing Motor Cars May Soon Be Greatly Reduced Delvers Into Science of Subject Find a Few Baffling Puzzles. but Have Decided That Some Front-Wheel Braking Is Effective in Approaching And even at present, certain aspects of the mooted pivoting problem still | baffle sclence. The speculations of the |average motorist on this topic are ! usually anything that he wants them | to be. For there exists only a mini- mum of demonstrated facts and figures | to say him nay. From Uncle Sam's simple tests, made at the Bureau of Standards with tiny | models of automobiles, definite data have developed which throw consider- able light on the subject. But much more rescarch must be begun and com- pleted before all the major and minor causes and effects of pivoting are ex- | posed and explained in ordinary layman anguage which “Bill” Smith and | “Tom” Jones can understand. S SEVERAL of the automotive engineers of the Bureau of Standards applied i some of the practical information that accrued from the inclined plane and; 'toy automobile tests to the readjust- ment of brakes on their private motor cars. Subsequently they have tested the machines under the gamut of highway and touring conditions. They are con- | vinced of the wisdom and drastic need | of certain revolutionary brake readjust- | ments, | Merely to suggest such changes in a | braking system to a certain class of timorcus ‘drivers is to breed verbal | pyrotechnics and dynamic adjectives. | Yet in the cause of greater driving safety it has to be done. | When weather conditions are unfa- i vorable the highway is slippery and | you lock the rear wheels of your car, equipped with two-wheel brakes. The car will almost inevitably pivot because of its unstable equilibrium. The direc- | tion of this skid will be influenced most by the direction of the curve on which the car may be traveling at the time of locking. This pivot may be either to the right or left. If the skid is par- ticularly violent, the center of gravity of the automobile may follow approxi- | mately a straight line, although the wheels will describe a series of curves of large radius. The car will pirouette laround in the direction of the skid, | dependent on its velocity, the abrupt- ness of brake application and slipperi- * Better Conditions. watch the experimental cars in action down the imitation hill. Better yet, inspect the official records of previous performances drafted on paper by the diminutive automobiles. In all cases where both rear wheels are locked the cars in sliding down the declivity will pass through a 180-degree turn; that is to say, the radiator end of the machine will be pointing uphill at the conclusion of the test. It mat- ters not whether the rear wheels were locked at the beginning of the descent or during its progress, the results are the same. On the other hand, if you start one of the cars down the hill with the front wheels locked and the rear wheels free to revolve, the little machine will travel straight ahead without any in- dication of skidding, even though the incline be unusually steep. Ask any of your motoring chums who spend their vacations in touring Amer- ica's foreground, background a.ad the country in between, and almost unani: mously they will answer that “skid- ding is worse where two wheels on one side of the car are locked than if the rear wheels alone are locked.” Uncle Sam’s experiments, howover, tend to show otherwise. Which logically ex- plodes another tradition of popular mo- toring experience. Both the laboratory trials and prac- tical road tests have d2monstrated that the most serious skidding results where the rear wheels of the motor car are locked. Pivoting is more likely to occur under such conditions than where one front and one rear wheel on the same side of the car are locked. * ok Kk N the road tests several cars of na- tional prominence equipped with four-wheel brakes were used. These brakes were disconnected and then ad- justed to suit the requirements of the various tests. In one instance, the r only the front-wheel brakes were used to stop the machine. In another ex- periment, the braking arrangement was reversed. In additional tests, the brakes on but one rear and one front wheel on each side of the motor car were used. The majority of motor cars with ness of the pavement. It you doubt this fact. stop in some day at the Bureau of Standards and our-wheel brykes are serviced so that the prepondersnce of braking force is exerted on the rear wheels when the |lates to_going around blind curves or wheel brakes were disconnected and ! machines are delivered to their owner. In many cases, six-tenths of the brak- ing power is applied to the rear wheels while four-tenths is centralized on the front wheels. In at least onc make of popular car, the mechanism for brake adjustment is such that as the car grows older in service the preponder- ance of braking effort shifts from the rear wheels to the. front wheels, Practical and scientific research shows that skidding would be ameliorated and less serious accidents would multiply an- nually if four-wheel brakes were so ad- justed that most of braking force were concentrated on the front wheels in- stead of being centered on the rear wheels. The automotive authorities in lmcle Sam's professional service verify this. Skidding due to the action of brakes quickly and foreibly applied at a time of need and pivoting due to the action of a curve are two identical cases of the selfsame motoring phenomenon. Dur-~ ing unpropitious weather, when high- ways are slippery, the driver should proceed as cautiously as possible with- out checking the normal flow of traffic along arterial highways, main traveled roads and city thoroughfares. This means that he should modulate his speed according to the -exigencies of the highway at hand and the road ahead. This is particularly important as re- where the necessity of abrup} changes of direction may develop. If the ordinary motorist would reduce to a minimum the hazards of skidding, he should have his four-wheel brakes adjusted sgthat, say, 60 per cent of the braking er is focused on the front wheels, with the balance of the brakage directed to the rear wheels. * oK oK K CAR models with the front wheels locked and the rear wheels free, to turn negotiate the steepest “hills” with- out any evidences of skidding. A stand- ard motor car with the braking force centered chiefly on the forward wheels can be driven safely on slippery streets and around curves at a velocity much greater than otherwise would be safe. ‘The popular objection to such an adjust- ment is that the driver will lose steer- ing control, However, merely by re- leasing his brake, he.can regain steer- ing control at any moment, so that this objection is not as vital as it appears to be at first glance. The simple way in which to avold a turnover or acci~ dent on a curve—where maximum braking is exerted on the front wheels —is to release the brakes and steer forthwith in the safe direction. For example, let's suppose that my car-is adjusted with three-fifths front wheel braking force. Traversing a slippery curve I meet with the condi- tions which ordinarily would result in a dangerous pivot if the rear wheels of a motor common—with the customary four-wheel brake adjustment —en- countered similar conditions. I apply my brakes so that the front wheels lock momentarily before the rear wheels come to a stop. My car, instead of | pivoting, continues straight forward. But as I am proceeding around a curve, the machine will turn turtle if it con- tinues straight ahead. Hence after the velocity of my car is checked adequately, I release the brake and steer in the de- sired direction which carries it forward in safety around the curve. In the case where the brakes are so readjusted the operator has a chance to pick the spot into which he will steer. Where a car with two-wheel brakes that function on the rear wheels meets with similar road danger, the driver has no option as to where his car will sweep in the course of its gyrations. ‘The same is true of straightaway driving. If, because of any sudden hazard which obligates an immediate curtailment of speed, I apply my brakes abruptly, the car will come to a halt from a high velocity in remarkabiy short space. Any tendency which under ordinary adjustment would engender a pivot is condensed in straightforward motion of the machine instead of in sidewise spinning. Steering is momen- tarily eliminated from the picture, but by releasing the brake, I can at once gain steering control after I have slack- ened the speed—and escaped the threat- ening danger. Front-wheel braking as a rule means maximum braking power. It is a de- batable ' question ~among motorisis whether such full force brakage is de- THIS MODEL AUTOMOBILE IS EQUI PPED WITH ELECTRICAL BRAKES. 1 must not apply them suddenly full| force unless there is dire danger. With front-wheel brake control he can stop his machine so quickly that the pas- sengers riding in that car may be in jured by being hurled forward violent- ly as the automobile stops. There is the added menace that a trailing car may not be able to stop as rapidiy on signal and might jam into the forward machine from the rear. Box ok ox DURING wet, slippery weather, the great majority of automobile acci- sirable at all times. If a driver can have it available for emergencies and not use it constantly at “full pressure” it is desirable. Translated into car op- cration this means the clous use of the judi- ‘The driver dents are due directly or indirectly to skidding. Yet the annual records of the principal tourist States which keep tab on au ille smash-ups do no specific cases as due to pivot. ing. take the arbitrary stand that during slippery weather the avere age operator should drive so cautlouse ly as to avoid dangers from skidding. In practice, motorists as a class do not drive safely and sanely on such occasions. They have important en- gagements to meet. They travel at customary _dry-weather speed. Acci- dents by the million result each year from skidding, even though the records do not classify them as such. -Any recommendations which will decrsase this sacrifice of human life and limb are_particular boons to all motordom. ‘The motorist who operates a car with two-wheel brak:s can decrease dangers of slow skids neuver his machin> in such a way as toouse the front wheels as tsmporary ctitbs on the vagaries of ths rear wheels,