Evening Star Newspaper, December 25, 1928, Page 8

THE ‘With Sunday Morning Edition. WASHINGTON, D. C. TUESDAY.....December 25, 1928 THEODORE W. NOYES....Editor The Evening Star Newspaper Company ‘Business Off 1ith St. and Pennsylvania Ave. New' York Office: 110 East s2nd 8t. Chicago Ofice: Tower Building. Buropean Office: 14 Regent St.. London, Engiand. Rate by Carrier Within the City. e Evening !l:r!‘md.’ gty 3¢ per month ays : e Evening ane n unday: .80c per month 85¢ per month The Sunday Sta: -5¢_per ccpy Collection made at'the end of cach month. Orders may be sent in by mall cr telephone Main 5000, Rate by Mall—Payable in Advance. Maryland and Virginia. tly and Sua 10 00; 1 mo., 35¢ ily only .&. $6.00; 1 mo.. 50c Sunday only -AW. $4.00; 1 mo.. 40c All Other States and Canada. | 1 yr., $12.00: 1 mo., $1.00 1yr., $8.00; 1 mo. 75¢ i 1 mo. 50¢ Member of the Associated Press. The Associated Press is exclusively (ntitled of all ews dis- also the local rews s hts of publication of #pecial dispatches herein are aiso reserved. Christmas. | Into a world filled with wild beasts ! came a spirit of gentleness. | Into & society based upon conquests by power of might came an enthralling conception of sway by the power of right. Previously the world had known only | fear and the resuits of fear, but when Jesus Christ presented His message it knew something better—love. ‘The pyramids had been built for centuries, but nowhere in their up- rearing was a sign of kindness, of love between man and man, or man and God. i Great cities had come and gone, but their hanging gardens and tremendous walls had been constructed by slaves under the fear of the lash. Here and there, in more favored countries, human kindness had peeped out, making strange little spots of hap- piness in the general appearance of | xvalty. There was, however, no general con- ception of human kindness, one to an- other, man to man, God to man, until Jesus of Nazareth taught the world these things. Amid s civilization of outworn creeds, He appeared to redeem humanity from its animal heritages. Hitherto man had displayed more of the wolf than of the man; he had found too great a satis- faction in his animal lusts and muscular usages. All this time there had been lurking in the background a longing for better things, a hesitating belief that some- how man was made for something bet- ter than the rending and slaying of his | kind. Childish innocence had pulled at heartstrings, but no one had been brave enough to proclaim that love should rule, Mother love, the great feminine in- stinct, had placed its benediction upon mankind, but it had been accepted apologetically. Jesus alone among men was brave enough to stand firmly, without trace of shame, for the great spirit of lnve.l dimly foreseen by others, by Him pro- claimed with ringing insistence. Upon this, the anniversary of His birth, it is well to lay aside all disputa- tions, and to think only of what He loss of life. It is to be hoped that a thorough study be made of the Laurel fire by Maryland authoritles to determine whether the structure of similar thea- ters elsewhere should not be more care- fully regulated. It should not be neces- sary to wait until such a fire takes place somewhere else with heavy loss of life to focus public attention upon it. The person who enters a moving picture theater should be able to do so confidently, assured that fire is next to an impossibility and that the structure is such that flames will spread very slowly, if at all. There is no disposi- tion to criticize the management of this particular country theater. It is to be congratulated for the good luck which enabled the entire audience to emerge safely. But it is a situation which demands investigation and re- search. Doubtless these will be forth- coming. } | r————— Tangles of Red Tape. It is only natural to expect that in | the due course of human events there | will come a day. And on this day some workman will turn a valve, thereby re- leasing a flood of sparkling clear water, which will fill to its brim the fine new swimming pool in the grounds of the new McKinley High School. The day should not pass unmarked. One of the features of the celebration should be a pageant, in which pretty young ladies would take the part of the “Peepul” and in the end triumph over a demon dressed as governmental red tape. The complete history of the battle for a swimming peol has not been written yet, but the tale so far told has been entrancing. The fiscal year of 1928 was preceded by several years of effort to secure an | adequate swimming pool, one of a num- ber which, it was planned, would some day dot the District in Summertime like oases in a desert. In the fiscal year 1928 Congress appropriated one | hundred and fifty thousand dollars for the construction of two such pools, and after lengthy speculation the National Capital Park and Planning Commis- sion recommended, and the Commis- slon of Fine Arts approved, two sites. One of them was near Twenty-fifth and N streets northwest and the other in the grounds of the new McKinley High School. Plans were drawn for the McKinley pool, including a brick bath house and the plumbing, filters, pumps and other features necessary for a fine establish- ment. Bids were advertised and a con- tract awarded. In September work was | begun and through the months of Oc- | tober and November of 1927 proceeded merrily. But in the month of Decem- ber, a year ago, the controller general of the United States held that the con- | tract was illegal, because the site for the McKinley High School was not purchased for use as a park, play- ground or parkway, as the swimming | pool legislation prescribed. By this time the excavating had been done, part of the concrete forms had been installed, the bottoms of the pools had been rolled and the exterior walls, in part, were laid up. Work had tog4stop, however, until Congress could insert in the independ- ent offices act for 1929 a provision au- thorizing the swimming pool in the Tech grounds. Work, therefore, could begin again, but by this time the ele- | ments had done their worst and it was | found that the cost of repairing work already done could not be met out of money available. An additional appro- THE EVENING EVENING STAR [slonally there is a heavy and needless | war as this to guarantee the respect of established neutrality and the main- tenance of the general principles em- bodied in The Hague conventions.” Exactly fourteen years ago this week Woodrow Wilson was being hailed in Paris and London as the arbiter ex- traordinary of the future destinies of a war-racked Europe., His already well known plan for a League of Nations was one of the projects which fasci- nated the allied peoples and caused them to welcome him with fanatical fervor. It looks now as if some of the thun- der that reverberated in his honor should have detonated in the region of No. 10 Downing street. e Be Careful! Electric bulbs on Christmas trees, replacing the dangerous if beautiful tal- low candles, and the enforcement of city and State laws against fireworks, have appreciably reduced the hazards of tragedies on Christmas day—trage- |dies made more poignant because of Christmas. But no modern device can climinate altogether the danger of fire, and accident from the combined pres- ence of numerous electrical devices, with amateur wiring, and accumulated waste paper and trash from wrappings of Christmas gifts. So be careful! Of course the children will cut them- selves on the new pocketknives. Of course they will fall off their bicycles and bang their hard young skulls against the pavement. Of course they will fall and suffer wounds from the sharp edges of tin utensils and toys. But these are minor casualties, not often serious, and they come as the inevitable aftermath of Santa Claus’ | visit. But watch the youngster with his | new steam engine and see that he doesn’t overturn the alcohol lamp; guard against a short circuit on the electric toy or the Christmas tree; be prepared for the worst if an otherwise harmless bit of celluloid comes in con- tact with a flame or overheated wire. And the careful householder will im- mediately rid his cellar of the moun- tains of wrapping paper and excelsior and put them where they belong, in the trash barrel near the rear gate. Christmas spirit, which flows as well as pervades the atmosphere, tends to make us careless. But caution and an eve to ever-present danger will keep away the hand of tragedy that lurks around the corner on Christmas day. ————rt—.— The weather officials pretend to no autocratic powers, Otherwise they might be relied on to transfer some of the favorable weather to the Fourth of March. ] The only consolation for those of us who forgot to shop and mail early lies in the fact that there will be an- other Christmas day in 1929. e Welcoming the New Year displaces Santa Claus in favot of the chef who regulates the menu and justifies the cover charge. L —— e Disorders in Afghanistan offer new evidence that the spirit of world con- ciliation must contend against local influence. " ————— Peace negotiations are universally jfavored. This fact is of itself an en- couragement to the hopes of the world. ————— ‘Theaters hesitated to open on Christ- mas eve. Old Santa is the star who has the center of the stage. — e A “lame duck” always has a chance of taught the world, for He taught it |Priation of twenty thousand dollars was | flying high again in private employinent, much. Wherever a little child shall laugh today, there He reigns. When men think today of their mothers, separated from them by space or by that vaster space called Eternity, the gentleness of Jesus Christ brings mist to their eyes. Wherever and whenever kindness places a gentle hand upon fevered brow, or harsh words are withheld, or soft words turn away wrath, there shail be | found the spirit of gentleness which makes Christmas not merely a day to be celebrated, but a state of mind and heart to be cherished by the sons of men for all the days to come. ——————— New York is energetically prosecuting criminals regardless of the fact that by #0 doing the big town may ecreate an unjust impression that it has more than its proportionate share of them. ——aee—. Even the holidays bring remorseful fteminders as good friends are recalled to whom you forgot to send Christmas cards. e A Flaming Warning. There was all the material for a heart-rending tragedy at Laurel Satur- day night when a small moving picture theater, crowded with children, caught on nately nobody was injured. The coolgheadedness of the proprietor pre- ventid 2 panic among the two hundred boys” and girls as the flames spread rapilly through the frame, sheet-iron covi structure. It was a situation a false move might have cost wi scorgs. of little lives in this season of JoyoRs. festivity. the fact that this village theater | efi 80 near being a flaming coffin for tl children should be sufficient to guafantee more adequate precautions agal the possibility of such a trag- edy. The building burned rapidly to the iground. Obviously, then, it was mnk sort of structure for a moving pief theater, however caréfully the actual projecting apparatus and the highly inflammable film were protected. The cause of the fire apparently has not 'n determined, and it is difficult to dogmatize under such circumstances. The gact remains that once the flames were Yinder way there was nothing about the gonstruction of the building itself to retard their progress. Frame moving picture theaters of this type are quite common in the vil- lages and smaller towns throughout the country. In most cases they were not built for the purpose to which they have been put. They have been converted into cinema houses, often without re- gard to the fact that the moving pic- ture theater, with its peculiar dangers, demands a special sort of structure. ‘The movie house every year is becom- ing more and more important in the socjal life of the American people. In- eidgnts similar to that at Laurel Satur- ¢ay;night are not uncommon. Occa- then obtained in the second deficiency act for 1929. This, it would seem, should have made everything lovely. But the controller general decided that the work of repairing the work already done would have to be covered in a separate contract. So the pians and specifications for repairing the pre- liminary work must be drawn, bids ad- vertised and a new contract signed. Then the repair work may be completed and the original contractor may pro- ceed with his interrupted work. Mean- while, the contract for the other pool has been let and the work completed. It is simple to figure the cost of a swimming pool. But has any one ever made a budget to cover the expense of red tape? ———— ©Old-time sentiment is reflected from the lights of a Christmas tree which stands boldly forth as a reminder of conservative faith in peace and good | will, —_— e The American public will never be persuaded to regard the inauguration of a President as anything but an occasion for general and sincere rejoicing. r——— Who Invented the League? Christmas rejoicings of the Wilsonian old guard are likely to be tempered by mixed emotions in light of revelations Jjust made by the Department of State. From the hoary archives of our min- istry of foreign affairs is forthcoming the revelation that it was a British diplomat—Sir William Tyrrell—and not the World War President of the United States who first suggested the idea of the League of Natfons. Sir William not only projected the thought, but actual- ly invented the name eventually select- ed for the international organization now functioning on the Quai Woodrow | Wilson in Geneva. Tt is an undoubtedly interesting bit of history thus for the first time and in indubitably authenticated manner here disclosed. It gains in authority from the fact that it is a Democrat— and a Princetonian at that—Dr. Henry van Dyke, who assumes responsibility for the statement. That poet-professor in 1915 was American Minister to his ancestral Netherlands. Writing Secretary Lan- sing from The Hague under date of Sep- tember 7, 1915, Dr. van Dyke records a confidential dinner conversation in Lon- don with Sir William Tyrrell, then sec- retary to Sir Edward Grey, British for- eign secretary. Tyrrell had spoken “with such evident intention” that Dr. van Dyke felt at liberty to communi- cate the text of his remarks to his chiefs at Washington. Britain's peace terms for Germany included, Sir William told the American Minister, restoration of Belgium and Northern France, compensation for damages caused by the Germans, and “after that, a ‘Leagtie of Nations’ * * * to prevent the of such & oo SHOOTING STARS. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. Greetings Anew. Hello, good friend Santa Claus, Traveling through the sky, Serving in a generous cause— Hello! And Good-by! You'll be back another year. ‘Time is not so slow. 8o, we whisper in your ear, “Good-by—and Hello!" Limitations of Service. “Did you get what you wanted in November?” “I did not,” answered Senator Sor- ghum. “You wrote many letters.” “True. Santa Claus may be all right for Christmas, but he’s no good in an election.” Jud Tunkins says a man's success depends less on the work he does in eight hours a day than on the manner in which he uses the other sixteen. Holiday Belief. In cynicism youth may pause. Our tasks are not forgot. Big folks believe in Santa Claus, ‘Though little folks do not. Comparing Comforts. “Do you think wealth brings happi- ness?” “No,” answered Mr. Dustin Stax. “In days of privation I had more comfort when I was underfed than I am now when I overeat.” Drowned Out. “You have ceased to show a sarcastic wit.” “What's the good of a sarcastic wit,” said Miss Cayenne, “when everybody is listening to the big boy who plays a ukulele?” “We give playthings to children,” said Hi Ho, the sage of Chinatown, “in the hopes of making ourselves happy in the reminders of early youth.” Cheerlessness. ‘The friendly bootleg man drew near With what he sald was “Christmas Cheer.” And yet, despite his smiling face, Of headaches he brought many a case. “Of course, dar ain’t no Santa Claus," said Uncle Eben. “If he had kep’ com- in’ around wif a sleighload of presents a gunman would have got him long ago.” What Memories! Prom the New Castle (Pa.) News. If money really talked, an old dime could tell some wild talés about what 1t used to buy. And a Colder One. STAR. WASHINGTON, D. C. TUESDAY. DECEMBER 25 THIS AND THAT Birds have a game of their own which they play with a big bread crumb. ‘Besides furnishing a certain group of birds with the “ball” for their game, we have specialized in watching them at_play. Bill ball, as one may call it, is played by any number of birds, which use their bills as human beings might use their arms. The “ball” is any particularly large crumb in the mass placed in the yard for the benefit of the feathered life at this season of the year. Any one can have a Christmas day bill ball game if he will furnish the birds with the material The game begins when one bird swoops down and seizes a neat chunk of bread. The other birds, instead of following his example, since there is enough for all in the pile, immediately turn their attention to the first bird. They all want his piece of bread. Now the fun begins. Bird No. 2 makes a dart at Bird No. 1, and spears | the bread out of his bill. _The sccond bird hops about 2 feet, when Bird No. 3 jumps in. Zip! He grabs the disputed bread crumb and hops away with it in his turn, but give him no rest. First one and then another gets possession of the bread ball. Each time it changes hands—er, bills—it is a bit smaller, since the for- mer possessor manages to swallow a morsel or so before another gets away from him. * ok Kk Evidently birds are something like human beings. What the other fellow has always looks hetter to them than what they may get for themselves. Tt is more fun, evidently, to steal the bread out of a mate’s mouth than to rustle up an even bigger crumb for one's self. We have been watching the birds in the back yard for several weecks, and have yet to see them settle down on a patch of bread crumbs, each bird for himself, every bird minding his own business. No, sir, what each bird does is wait for one bird to grab himself a chunk of bread, then the entire flock tries to take it away from him. Sometimes it is a blackbird which dips in first. Then the whole pack, blackbirds, English sparrows and the rest of them, are after him pell-mell. The sparrows, as might be supposed, are nervy enough for anything. We saw one of them dart in and take away a plece of bread from a blackbird four times as big as he is. Just what sense the birds use in spot- ting food will remain a mystery to the amateur backyard observer. He will continue to believe, until told other- than smell it, or discover it by any subtle sixth sense. This is borne out by the invariable bread crumb game which we have at- tempted to describe. At first the birds are wary, each waiting for another to jump in. The moment one of them seizes a crumb, however, those shiny little eyes see the food in his bill. They now have an absolute objective, toward which one after another moves. Prior to this initial game the entire neighborhood of birds must be able to see the food, wherever it is, or what- ever it is. When one first begins to put out food for them, 5 or 10 minutes wise, that they see their food, rather | BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL, will elapse before they will begin to fly down. After several days, however, they begin to understand that they are being fed. | Uusually they will fly, as one saunters | down the path with a plate of crumbs, but now they will not fly so far away, and the moment the donor turns his back the feathered creatures begin to gather. By the time one is back in the house the flock has descended to the fence, along which it perches with many a flirt and flutter. Only a few seconds now elapse be- fore the brave first bird grabs that first crumb and the game is on. S Perbaps the most striking thing about birds, to the lay mind (aside from their feathers, which distinguish them from all other created things), is their incessant activity. Most birds are on the wing or on the hop from sunup to sunset. Then, let /it be stated in passing, they have enough sense to go to bed. All day long they use the wonderful structures which Nature has given them. Did you ever stop to consider how weil the birds evolved for the stunts they do? | Look at that big chest, supplying | tion in flying. | See the taper bill to cleave the air. I How neatly the tail acts as rudder, | how gracefully the forelegs became wings, sprouted feathers, now fan the | air at a rapid rate? There is here an adaptation of panis to purposes which must win the ad- miration of evolutionist or theolagist. | The bird knows nothing od disputation. He flies. Flying is as natural to him as playing all day long to a healthy child. A | bird flies because it was made to fly. set sail again for many hours. Migration, still one of the great mys- | teries, shows nature lovers the astound- |ing spectacle of small, weak birds fi: | ing 2,000 to 3,000 miles in a compara- | tively short time. | . Consider the ruby-throated humming bird, which migrates to the District of Columbia every Spring from away down in South America. This daintiest of feathered creatures is so small that a breath of wind would seem to be strong enough to blow it out of its course, yet the plain fact is that he—and she—gets here every year, and nobody brings him— and her—up in a car. They come “on their own” over for- | est, streams, flelds, farms, mountains, | houses, straight to the District of Col- umbia. | Two of them may make their way | ‘o your own back yard, than which there |is no better garden luck. Nothing makes | a garden a garden more than a pair of | humming birds. They will wing their way to window boxes of petunias, so that the home | owner may watch them in their unpar- | alleled feat of standing still in the air. This effect they secure by beating their wings at a tremendous rate, keeping “thvmselves motionless while they dip | their long beaks into flower bells. As far as we have read, the humming bird |is the only creature which can achieve this feat. ite, but at this season of the year one must be content with those interesting larger ones which come to the back walk for food. Bread, suet, meat, apple, | seeds—all are welcome. Put out half an agple and see how neatly the birds ' will hollow it out. Believers in Old Remarks by Henry Ford which have been interpreted as advice to youth to avold the accumulation of money bring sharp criticism from those who feel that such a suggestion is likely to be mis- understood and harmful even though it is pointed out that the manufacturer was far from advising wasteful expen- ditures. Some observers, however, think Mr. Ford has done his generation a service by “with refreshing candor,” as it appears to the Columbus Evening Dispatch, deprecating “the old, moth- eaten advice of the successful to the rising generation—work hard and save.'” “This,” says the Dispatch, “al- ways has been more or less flimsy ad- vice by which comfortable men who have made their pile impress upon the public that they have been imbued with an irresistible force before which all obstacles have had to give way, plow- ing their way to success by dint of superior virtues, among which are sobriety of outlook, strength of purpose and unusual intelligence. * ¢ * The contribution of useful and valuable service to humanity is the true epitor* of success.” %0 o % the boy's success in life,” asserts the Charlotte Observer. “He tells the boys that they will never ‘get anywhere' without work. He never knew a young man worth 5 cents who would not work.” The Butte, Mont, Standard holds that “he does not belittle the spirit of thrift, byt as a matter of fact he glorifies it,” n|¥'d that “he was thrifty for a purpose.” Of both Ford and Edison, who was mentioned by the former, the Standard remarks: “They did not save their money but they made it serve them.” Less favorable is the comment of the New York Sun, which summarizes its views with the statement: “It is pretty hard to imagine even a clever young man being able to copy Henry Ford in either word or deed. The truth is that he is one of a limited company licensed to speak nonsense without pen- alty.”” The Sun also warns: “The im- provident will not notice what he added —that money not saved should be spent on things that improve a boy. Even with this qualification the remark sounds more like Ford the historian than Ford the manufacturer.” * ok ok ok “It looks as though Mr. Ford, in the light of past homilies from him, had thrown into reverse gear,” remarks the Tulsa World. and the Salina Journal feels that “the statement is unfortu- nate,” offering the explanation: “It is probable that Mr. Ford meant that merely saving a fraction of daily wages would never accumulate wealth. But he didn't say it that way. It is the money thus saved, saved by a strug- gle, that becomes the little pile that enables one to seize opportunity when it comes.” “When Mr. Ford cites Mr. Edison’s case,” the Milwaukee Journal thinks, “he cites the case of a genius—one boy in generations, driven on by a force within him that he could not have stayed. Not many hoys are so earnest, s0 moved by creative impulses.” As to spending “to improve themseives,” the Journal adds, “Not many boys or young men will understand how to do that. They more easily grasp the mandate, ‘save.” For the bulk of young Americas moderate saving and the old plodding road to a competence is still the safer course.”” The Kalamazoo Gazette agress that “when normal youths spend freely they are quite likely to spend for things which, save by the most lib- eral stretch of the imagination, cannot be regarded as instruments of self- improvement.” * % * ¥ Assuming that Mr. Ford “puts work and a disposition to learn and get on far above saving,” the Boston Tran- script states: “Benjamin Franklin would not quarrel with Mr. Ford on this last point, for his early career shows that he knew how to invest what little From the Oakland Tribune. It is another kind of solid bu!h that Comdr, Byrd is investigating..: . money he had. But neither, we fancy, would Mr. Ford deny that the success- ful and ambitious boy, in order to have 4 & > Think Ford’s Advice “He summed up the whole recipe for | Thrift Maxims Dangerous a little money to spend for his own improvement, must save it first.” “Ford had no thought of preaching a gospel of extravagance,” in the judg- ment of the Scranton Times, however. “He was simply protesting against the habit of those who hoard their money when they could do more good for themselves and the world by spending it.” The Binghamton Press comments: “What Mr. Ford meant to say, it is safe to venture, is that it is better for young men and young women to spend money as they go along for information and training, for things of the mind and the spirit, than it is to make the saving of dollars a chief aim in life. There ought to be moderation in the practice of thrift just as there ought to be moderation in all things. Don't squander! Don't hoard! There's a common-sense middle ground.” * K k% “Mr. Ford, in giving advice to the he | boys, ought to have the chance to fin- |1sh a sentence,” advises the Savannah ..orning News, with the interpretation: “The statement creating such trouble just now is merely the front porch to | the real edifice in words he erected The rest of the sentence was ‘for some- thing to improve himself” And that | changes the whole meaning. He was trying to urge, not waste, not extrava- gance and improvidence, but real in- vestment, immediate investment, in- vestment continuous of what the boy gets in something really worth while, the equipment to improve himself. Mr. Ford is all right—except as a writer. “Mr. Ford has risen to the heights of the industrial world,” says the Roa- noke Times, “through the application of sound principles. His advice is en- titled to be received with respect, for he has demonstrated an ability to make money second to no other living man.” Comparing ‘his thrift statement with another made recently by Mr. Ford, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette observes: “He believes that eventually mankind will know what is transpiring on other planets. * * * This globe, he says, has been inhabited by intelligent peo- ples millions of times. Ancients far beyond our historians probably had air- planes, automobiles and other scientific equipment. Mystics, of course, have talked somewhat in the same strain, but Mr. Ford was supposed to be emi- nently practical. In this instance he is doubly progressive, seeing amazingly far in both directions. Still, as pointed out, it is much safer than indulging in any word that might be caught up as ngablflnsb reasonable saving of money by a boy.” ————————— Paying "Em Is What Hurts. From the Canton Daily News. An Omaha judge refuses to garnishee men’s wages during the holiday season, and now all we need is an injunction against sending out January bills, e > Ao That’s No Distinction. From the Boston Evening Telegram. ‘When it comes to prohibition, Kansas City is described as a wide-open town. Is this to be regarded as another bit of community advertising? .- Yes! In the Head, F'rinstance. From the Indianapolis Star. It must make a policeman terribly mad to wear a bulletproof vest and then get hit somewhere else. But They Buy Liquor. From the Butte Daily Post. After all, Hoover’s good-will tour has nothing on that of American tourists to Europe, who left $700,000,000 there this year. ) Needs Bonded Customer. From the Indianapolis Star. In stating its reasons for declining to permit the extradition of Mr. Blackmer, the French government failed to men- tion its desire to keep a very good cash customer, R the other boys are after him. They |Plenty of air for proper blood circula- | | Most of them are tireless; a few mo- | | ments’ rest on a limb enables them to | This beautiful little bird is our favor- | 1928. NEW BOOKS AT RANDOM LG M MOTHER GOOSE'S MELODIES. Moth- er Goose. Boston: Thomas Fleet, | first_ publisher. | ‘Thomas had something on his mind. | | Any one could have seen that. The johnny-cakes, piping hot upon his plate, | were disappearing in a plain case of | | absent treatment. The warm low kitch- 1 en, dark save for the glowing firelog and the single lit candle on the table, was at that moment a long way off from | Thomas. Now when anybody, anywhere, fails | Ito consecrate the whole of his being | |to the simon-pure Yankee johnny-cakes | for breakfast, why that person is surely | gone—evanished, vamoosed. “Ma"—Thomas talking out of the | distance into which he had moved— | “Ma, I'm going to put all these tunes | { you sing tc the children into a book.” | “New, Thomas Fleet, have you lost | your mind entirely? Don’t throw away { any mcney like that. Yoy know as well | | as T do that you can't make a book out | | of tunes that are good for nothin’ at all | | but to sing the young ones to sleep or make ‘em forget they've got the stom- | lfi(‘h-nche from suckin' in a lot of wind. | { Don’t be a fool. Thomas!" “Well, I'm figuring that what's so | good for our young ones might be good | for other folkses’, too. Anyway, I'm goin’ to try it.” And, getting into his big overcoat and pulling his woolen cap down to meet it, Thomas went out into the bleak New England morning and | on down to his shop in Pudding Lane. No, you might hunt the city over to- day, but you'd not find Pudding Lane. For, as Boston grew bigger she grew prouder as well, discarding such savory | names as Pudding Lane for others, more sounding perhaps, but not half so tasty | on the tongue. The morning I'm telling you about is a long way from here and now. It is nearer—a good deal nearer, in fact—to that Mayflower-Plymouth Rock adven- | ture than to our own Christmas of 1928. bas Thomas Fleet, a printer by trade, had | a_ cubbyhole of a shop in the Lane. His stock in trade was made up of ballads and songs, pamphlets and little books for children. So it was only natural, after all, that into his head should pop the plan of making a book out of his mother-in. 's rhymes. Didn't I tell you that “Ma” was Fleet's wife's mother? Well, she was, and very good friends indeed were Thomas and “Ma.” (This was long before the day when that young smart-alec with the wry mouth invented the modern joke about the mother-in-law as a pestilence and a plague.) Now Thomas and his wife were of the fecund sort proper to their day and | generation. .And to them seven chil- dren came along in the regular timeli- ness of complete parental efficiency. As a matter of course these became in large part the care of their grandmother, Mother Goose. It was she who soothed them, in turn, to the drowsiness of early bedtime, or in many a daylight hour led them along paths of joy and laughter by way of the jingles that she made up out of nothing at all. And because ‘Thomas himself was in secret a child, just as each’' of us is, these songsi touched his own heart and then tapped | softly at the window of his mind with that hint about the book. And that is | not a bad way for anything to come to | pass. ERE So, the book was printed, christened, | its price set, a place secured for it in the Boston stores. Maybe there was a notice running something like this: “Mother Goose’s Melodlu.;ryublhh:d in 1719 by Thomas Fleet. ice, “2 cop: pers.” To be found in the Boston book- stalls. * k% ¥ That was the beginning, but by no | meang the end. Indeed, the end is not vet irf sight. From the start delighted youngsters looked after that and are still seeing to it in an undiminished | zeal. Likely it is“that as long as chil- | dren are turned out in the immemorial | pattern of babyhood, just so long -will “Mother Goose’s Melodies” continue to hold the record of best seller for a longer period of time than any other book printed in the United States. Two hundred and nine years of active life with not a sign of old age upon it is a very Methuselah of a book, it seems to_me. In not so long a time Thomas Fleet, publisher, had plenty of company. Other publishers, ambitious and prosperous ones, were in increasing numbers glad, finally, to put the best of their book- making skill upon the “Melodies.” Art- ists were more than willing to try out in pictures the spirit and action of such a theme as, say, “the cow jumped over the moon” or “the man in the moon came down too soon,” or, in more sub- lunary vein, “the dish ran away with the spoon,” with hundreds of other ap- peals to the powers of the artist. Asj the “Melodies” grew in beauty and the cost of making, the book, as a matter of course, increased in price. The original “2 coppers” has run up to $5 or more, with many stopping places in between to fit the purse of every small buyer. More than 30 editions of “Mother Goose's Melodies” are today ready for little customers of every degree of finan- clal standing. One publisher dedicates the edition put out by his house to “John Flzet El- fot, the-Great-great-grandson of Eliza- beth Goose, Known Wherever the Eng- lish Language is Spoken as Mother Goose.” * oK K K Now is the time, it seems to me. for a word about the real Mother Goose. To most of us she has been a fairy, an elf, a sprite—certainly has she belonged to the being created by the fancy of genius. But, it turns out that Mother Goose was real—real-er, after all, than the most of us. Born a little girl up in New England, she was christened, when the day came around, Elizabeth Foster. In the course of time,and nature Elizabeth became the wife of Isaac_Vergoose of Boston. At 50 she began singing to her grandchildren as they with fine regularity fell into her arms. An early start, it seems to us now, but what a tremendous endin No ending at all, however, since, by vir- tue of the “Melodies,” Mother Goose circumvented time and remains today the beautiful friend, alive and laughing, of every little child who shouts in glee as he rides “a cockhorse to Ban- bury cross,” or adventures otherwhere at the height of good humor and hap- iness. About these rhymes. You have won- dered, no doubt, why the books vary. Not all the same, as one would ex- pect them to be. There are only in truth, so we are told, about 150 rhymes made by Mother Goose herself. Other jingles, “seeking good company, have from time to time been included with these genuine ones. The long and short of the story as a mere business venture is that Thomas was right when he in- sisted on making the “Melodies” and Mother Goose was wrong, for once. ‘Think of it for a minute from the point of view of the money-maker! If the posterity of this woman, Mrs. Isaac Ver- | goose, could up to this time have had the protection of a copyright—why, here would have been a new millionaire family to go along with the growing tribe of Ford and Rockefeller. Never mind. Who wants the worry amd bother of money! Instead let us get out into the shops. There, right now, you will see what has been going on for weeks. One of the bright corners of these shops is the book corner. And every day there goes the round of these the gayest, happiest, youngest lady that it has ever been your good fortune to meet. But you'll not meet_her, worse luck! You'll not even see her, for, round and about her, rows deep, are youngsters of all ages, but in one state of heart— just gladness and h\&hur and jo{ and love. And from the midst of the crowd a voice swings out into song, or is it song? Maybe, instead, it is just the i f ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN. Have we had the pleasure of serving you through our Washington Informa- tion Bureau? Can't we be of some help to you in your problems? _Our business is to furnish you with authori- tative information. and we invite you to ask us any question of fact in which you are interested. Send your inquiry to The Evening Star Information Bu- reau, Frederic J. Haskin, director, Wash- ington, D. C. Inclose 2 cents in coin or stamps for return postage. . Where was the first electrically Q. lighted outdoor Christmas tree?—D.N. | A. The Madison Square tree in New York City is said to have been the first. It was first lighted 16 years ago. Q. Why are evergreens used for dee- | oration at Christmas?>—A. D. A. The custom of hanging evergreens | in the house at Christmas time original- ly had a purpose beyond decoration. In olden times, each kind of evergreen was supposed to confer special blessings on those who passed beneath it. To pass under holl sured good fortune for the coming year. Q. What is the meaning of the word “Noel” used in Christmas music?—J. M. A. “Noel” is the French equivalent for the English word “Christmas.” Q. How long have Christmas cards been in use?—C. C. A. Thomas L. Masson says that they have been in use about 82 years, the first one of which he knows having been designed in 1846 by J. C. Horsely, R. A. It was not. however, until after 1860 that they came into general use, John Leighton, in 1862, having made designs for Messrs. Goodall of London. Q. Why was December 25 chosen for the celebration of Christ’s birth?—I. H. A. It probably was chosen because it was the date of the great Yule feast. when many pagan countries celebrated the passing of the shortest day in the year. Q. What is the_aver: Christmas trees?>—B. L. A. They vary in height from 1 to 15 feet or more, the greater number probably being 4 to 8 feet tall. Q. What is the earliest mention of December 25 as Christmas day?—C. S. A. The earliest reference is found in an ancient catalogug of church festivals, about A.D. 354. Q. Who originated Santa Claus? —T. L. A. The American Santa Claus is a corruption of the Dutch San Nicolas. G. H. McHughes says: “Santa Claus, the name derived from St. Nicholas through the familiar use of children in Teutonic countries, crossed to America. ge height of ‘The direct route followed by him is somewhat open to question. On the way he traded his gray horse for a reindeer and made changes in his appearance.” Q. Does the great exportation of Christmas trees from Nova Scotia de- plete the forests of that country?—N. M. A. More than 300 carioads are now exported annually. The Christmas trees from Nova Scotia are all taken from pasture lands, and, instead of creating a depletion in the Nova Scotia forest, are simply a means of clearing the pastures without reducing the value of the property. Q. Is the Yule log still burned in Eng- land?—J. M. A. The custom of burning the Yule log,on Christmas eve is not prevalent in England. The custom is still follow- ed in some of the rural sections. It is more prevalent in the Scandinavian :l countries. Q. When were Christmas trees first used in the United States?—A. L. T. A. Christmas trecs became popular in the United States about the same time that they were introduced into England. In England the first Christ- mas trees were set up in the Rogal Palace of St. James at the time Queen | Victoria married the Prince Consort in l 1840. | Q Are Christmas carols sung in | many American cities?—I. H. A. The old custom of singing carols | In the streets was revived in 1917. In | 1918, 30 cities co-operated. It is esti- | mated that carols are sung on Christ- mas eve on the streets, in the parks, as | well as in the churches, schools and |Dubllc institutions of about 1,500 com- | munities. l Q. Who wrote “Holy Night, Silent Night"?>—F. G. J. A. The song entitled “Holy Night. Sllent Night,” was written by a Germen composer named Father Joseph Mohr | This pretty little carol was written for | Christmas in 1818, while Mohr was an | assistant clergyman at Lauren, on the | Salza, near Salzburg, and was set to | music by Franz Gruber, schoolmaster | at the neighboring village of Arnsdorf. | Schoolmaster Gruber was born Novem- | ber 25, 1787, at Hochburg, near Linz. | and died June 7, 1863. Joseph Mohr was born at Salzburg, Austria, on De- | cember 11, 1792. After being ordained | priest on August 21, 1815, by the Roman Catholic Bishop of Salzburg, he was | successively assistant at Ramsau and at Laufen. In 1828 he was appointed | vicar at Hintersee. He died at Wagrein. | December 4, 1848. The only hymn by | him_ translated into English is “Stille | Necht, Heilige Nacht” (“Hely Night, | stlent’ Night™). BACKGROUND OF EVENTS BY PAUL V. COLLINS. To travelers in the corn belt and the wheat belt of the United States, it has long appeared a wicked waste of raw skies with huge blazes, destroying their skies with huge blazes, destroying theiir straw and their cornstalks. This refuse was not only of no commercial value. but it costs thousands of dollars to got rid of it. For many years the problem of how to utilize constalks and wheat str has vexed inventors and scientists. Twenty years ago it was thought that some methods had been found for using the cellulose of the vegetable matier. Announcements were made that, with cellulose, patent leather could be manu- factured; packing for the walls of ships would be made of it, for, in case of a leak, the cellulose would instantly swell and close the leak; enamels were to be produced with _it,-strawboard, building boards and wall. plasterboards and varlous other uses were proposed, some of which have long since been for- gotten. % 0 ‘It was well recognized that from straw a coarse paper could be pro- duced and a factory for that product | was built in Northfield, Minn., depend- {ing upon the straw from the great | wheat region northwest of there. But it was soon found that, owing to bulk | and weste, the straw could mnot be gathered with commercial profit. To get quantity sufficient it had to be hauled long distances. At last the problem, so far as con- cerns paper made from cornstalks, has been solved. The December 15 issue of the Prairie Farmer of Chicago, with a circulation exceeding 250,000, was printed on cornstalk paper — the first publication in all history using such paper. The paper was all made in a special factory located at Danville, Ill., and the raw material was all grown in Illinois and Indiana cornfields. This marks a new epoch in agriculture, as well as in the paper-making industry. *x% % ‘The successful invention of the new process is of such recent date that its use now on a commercial scale is sen- sational, and its possibilities for the immediate future are decidedly dizzy- ing. Just when farmers were looking toward failure and farm abandonment, unless the Government came to their relief in organizing a foreign market for grain and other staple products, | chemistry finds a way of “subsidizing" agriculture with a market for its waste, worth at least $200,000,000 a year. when the paper market had despaired of ever again finding enough raw material —whether cotton or wood pulp, within the domain of the United States—and beheld our annual tribute to the| forests of Canada, doubling every nine years—from 6,000,000 tons in 1919 to 12,000,000 tons in 1928—at last, the ef- forts which reawakened in America in 1927 reached success in August, 1928, and produced paper, better than wood pulp print, in time for a weekly pub- lication dated December 15. Short-fiber cornstalk paper better than long-fiber wood print? Yes, cheaper to produce and tougher, and with a superior finish. Instead of each | year's demand exhausting hundreds of | square miles of spruce forest, which can never be replaced within the pres- ent generation, the new raw material is a by-product of King Corn and re- produccs its supply annually. Just why the short-fiber cornstalk paper is tougher than that made of long- fiber wood pulp is a mystery, but is as- serted as a fact. The tensile strength of all papers is tested regularly, with mechanisms for that purpose. N It is well understood that experiments for methods of making cornstalk paper have been tried out for many years. How to free the cellulose of the stalks from other chemicals and how to get the raw material in _commercial quan- tities to the center of manufacture were two puzzling problems. The successful inventor is an Aus- trian, named Bela Dorner, a chemist. He has been working on the problem for 20 years. In 1912 he believed he had found new sources for cellulose, and he patented his method. Then he sought capital, in vain, both in Europe and America. Two years ago an Indiana chemist, Frank K. Gardner, was in Austria, seek- ing to_make arrangements for a New York financial” syndicate to handle a certain issue of Austrian bonds. He had finished his mission and was wait- ing in the station at Budapest for his train, which would carry him out of Austria, when he accidentally met a fellow traveler, Herr Dorner, and, as they both were chemists, their ac- uaintance quick W, now has been gathering children into the comforting warmth and hominess of the heart of Mother, Goose, the blessed joyous friend of Bvery little child. A Year. to-belo Just | the American of his process for making cornstalk paper and Mr. Gardner be- |came engrossed with its importance. The employer of Gardner, the New | York financier W. Jule Day, Ilater | shared his recognition of the impor- tance of the process, and ever since the | Spring of 1927 that Austrian chemist has been maturing his processes in a | New Jersey and, later, an Illinois lab- | oratory. Even since coming to America | with his experiments it has taken .000 to perfect the methods and cquip the first mill. Other factories are to be built ymmediately in the varfous parts of the country. * ok ok ok As was the case in the Minnesota experiments with wheat straw for pa per, one of the most formidable stum- bling blocks was how to get enough of the raw material to the factory, with economy of handling. This part of the work was intrusted with Harvey J. | Sconce of Danville, who was a practical | corn raiser, farming on a large scale. | The stalks may be, cut by the farm- | ers, either by binder, corn sled or corn knife, and set up .in shocks several |times as large as ordinary shocks | Later, the stalks are gathered with | special loaders and shredded and baled on the individual farms, by the corn- ! paper company, which owns and op- erates all the machinery used for that | purpose. The paper-making process, | therefore, begins on the farms, directly by the company, but with the help of | the farmers, who receive going wages . for their labor. The farmer gets noth- |ing for the stalks, beyond his own | wages while the fodder is being shredded and baled, but he saves his former ex- pense in getting rid of the waste | nuisance, and his wages come at a sea- | son when otherwise he would be idle— late Fall and Winter. As the business develops in volume, it is probable that the growers will be able to dictate a market price for their raw material, but, today, it has no commercial value except what is given it by the paper mill, hence the mill | does not pay for it. Right now, the sugar planters of Honolulu are undertaking to utilize the fibrous sugar cane stalks in the same way, but whether they are informed as to this Dorner system, the report does not state. x % x % The history of paper-making is it- self rather short, so far as Europe and America are concerned, although paper had been made in China and Japan for many centuries before the secret was stolen in a raid by Moors and Arabs, and the first paper mill was built in Bagdad in 795 AD. It re- mained an Eastern monopoly for 99 years more. Paper was not made in | England until 1695—two generations after the Pilgrims landed in New Eng- land. The first paper mill was built in America near Philadelphia in 1690. | Up to the beginning of the nineteenth century all paper, made anywhere, was a hand product. The first paper- making machinery was invented in 1803 by a French printer, Nicilas Robert, as- ]sisted by Bryan Donkin and certain capitalists whom they interested. John Dickenson in England invented a cylin- der machine in 1809, and the first drying cylinders were added in 1821. It was not until about 1880 that the use of wood pulp for print paper was substituted for rags, and now, within less than half a century, the forest depletion makes it imperative to find a substitute for the spruce pulp. The statistics of the acreage of vis for- ;st fem:ll’eld '-‘:! produce enoug per or a single issue of a appalllnm! - - | | y * ok x % According to experts, the process cornstalk paper manufacture ?l chnn:: than that of wood pulp paper, for it goes from the raw stalk into paper, in a third of the time required for wood: it therefore requires less wages, less machinery and less chemicals. Corn~ stalks require only 2 hours’ cooking, as against 14 hours for the wood. It takes 70,000 gallons of water for one ton of corn paper, as contrasted with 100,000 gallons for wood pulp paper, per ton. The raw material grown within the same distance year after year around the mill, while Torests be ' come more and more distant with each year’s consumption—thousands of square miles of forest devastated annually. { The use of the cornstalks for papes’ will carry them off the farm, which ' will lose their fertilizing value. A far- | mer who burned his stalks instead of distributing them for manure was never an aj flax grown in the Nerthwest for its seed alone, and another varisty in !re'l,l‘nd fDI"“l linen fiber, same flax plan not successfully &mamummmm.mwm e same corn. 1928, by Panl V. Gollina.)