Evening Star Newspaper, May 5, 1929, Page 102

| 2 | MIe Became Ed i | Erected in 1800 at Streets—It Was Use Public School and Fourteenth and G d for Many Years as 1 Turned Out Many ; Able and Conspicuous Graduates. | dent of the board, who congratulated waited upon him for the same purpose. | 2nd although this appeal did not meet | with immediate favorable results, vet it evidently led up to a granting of the request. since in 1821 the President au- thorized its use for public school pur- poses, and on July 30 of that year the School Board took possession of it in & parade followed by appropriate exer- | cises. The Intelligencer of August 2| stated that “at 10 o'clock & _procession | of girls and boys, between 130 and 140 in number, preceded by their teacher ! and followed by the trustecs, moved | from the old and incommodious build- ing on F street to tbat prepared for them opposite to the Foundry Chapel. | An address was delivered by the nresi- the assembly on the improvements in the system of learning and on the im- mense benefits promised, particularly to the poorer classes.” In August, 1821, notice was given that “the Lancasterian Western Public School of the firet district would be opened on Monday, September 3, at the new building. corner of Fourteenth and G streets, for the admission of children BY JOHN CLAGETT PROCTOR. NOTHER Interesting spot in the | heart of Washington, especially | to those whose meémory will take them back for at leasi 50 years, is the southeast cy*ner of Four- teenth and G streets northwest, just oné blosk north of the Press Club‘ Building, and now occupied by a bank | building. { This corner is regarded as historic | because here was erected in 1800 the White House stable, & buiiding which | was later turned over by the Federal Government to the Jocal authoritizs for use as a public school, and as echool buildings were few and far between in the pioneer days of Washington'’s edu- cational system, and as this particular | building was right in the most thickly | settled part of the city, it was always, naturally, well attended, especially so after the people got over the idea that a free school was intended only for paupers. | Two buildings have stood upon this | site before the present structure, namely, | the Stable School Building and the | Small Building, erected by J. H. Small & Sons, florists, about 1888. The date | of the erection of the Stable Buflding | was fortunately jotted down in her | diary by Mrs. Ann Maria Thornton, wife of Dr. Willlam Thornton, who | made the original designs for the United States Capitol Building. Under date of | June 13, 1800, Mrs. Thornton says: | “Friday. 13th, hot, with a breeze; | high wind in the afternoon, with a little rain. Daniel came from the farm | sick. Dr. T. went to the office. Imme- | diately after dinner set out with Mr. | Hoban to go to Mr. C. C. Jones'. I| went to Mr. Whann's to have the Wedgewood ware brought back to put | into a store near us, thinking it would | be more likely to sell here at present. Walked to look at the Presiden''s Sta- | ble, which 18 just begun, near us. It is| [to] serve till the public can build such as will be suitable to the House on the | Square. The President went away this | morning.” Christian Hines, in his “Early Recol lections of Washington City,” in spea. « ing of the houses standing in certa sections of the city in 1800, corrobo. rates Mrs. Thornton's statement when he tells us that: | “On square bounded by F and G and | ‘Thirteenth and Fourteenth streets, five houses and the President’s stable (now & schoolhouse) ; one a three-story brick, owned and occupied by Dr. William | ‘Thornton: one small frame, occupied | since by Dr. Cutting! a two-story brick | back of the oak tree, owned and occu- pled by Mrs. Johnson, and the two- story frame occupied by a Frenchman named Julian.” Hines also tells us that in the year 1800 there were but six houses in the | square in which the Press Club is lo- cated, as follows: “One two-story brick, tached, occupied by Stephenson: one small brick and two small frames; also a two-story frame oc- cupied by & Mr. Botts as a tavern.” The Clotworthy Stephenson here re- ferred to performed the duties of grand | marushal, at the laying of the corner stone of the Capitol. He is referred to | as “a man of fluent speech, good pres- | ence and quick resource,” and “con-| spicuous on all public occasions.” He | died in 1819, » * % % LTHOUGH the old White House stable building, which stood so long on this corner, was erected during the last year of the administration of Presi- dent John Adams and was used by that President and his successors up to the latter part of the first term of James Monroe, yet for some unknown reason 1t is generally referred to as the Jeffer- son Stable School. The only reason for giving it this name, so far as the writer knows, was the erroneous impression that it was erected during President Jefferson’s first administration. ~Sub- sequent events made it also well known a8 the Lancasterian or Western Lan- casterian School, the Ould School and the Strong John Thomson School. 80 far as known, no effort was made to obtain this old stable building for school purposes until the latter part of | 1816, when the committee appointed that year for the purpose of interview- | ing President Madison on the subject re] back on December 3 that “his reason was that sald stable would be | otherwise occupied during the remainder | of his term.” { President James Monroe came into office on March 4, 1817, and the follow- | ing December 1, & similar committee | | erected in 1800; value of furniture, $150; | education of the orphan children of Eu- of the first. second and third wards ugnose parents are unable to educate them.” And 50, on this last date, the so-called JefTerson Stable School opened its doors to the poor children of Washington, and the use of this stable bullding for edu- cational purposes no doubt accounts for | the noticeable amount of real ‘“horse | sense” displayed by so large & number | of men and women who attended here during the years it was used as a public school. Here Henry Ould became the first teacher, and probably continued as such | for 15 vears, IN the report of the public schools for 1866-70 a description of the build- ing and ground is given, as follows: Square feet in lot, 2,089; value of lot, $5,000; material of bullding, brick; di- mension of building, 36 feet by 40 fest 3 inches: value of improvements, $500; * ko % one-room structure; 14-foot ceiling; 64 | seats.” ‘The Lancesterian educational system, which was taught in this school from its opening, was probably continued with slight modifications until 1844, when the law of December 13 of that year put a new system in operation. However, up until this date the Lancasterian sys- tem proved popular, probably because it was cheap to the taxpayer. The system took its name, “Lancas- terian,” from Joseph Lancaster, an Eng- lishman who was born in London in 1788. Like President Hoover, he was in religion a Quaker, and it was a con- troversy with members of the Estab- lished Church that caused him to come to this country in 1818. The following year he visited Washington, where he was accorded the high honor of a seat on the floor of the House of Representa- tives in a resolution introduced January 26, 1819. He remained in America and died in New York in 1838. ‘The Lancasterian system had its ori- with Dr. Andrew Bell, a Scotch glican priest and a military chaplain in India, who was born at St. Andrews March 27, 1753, and died at Chelten- ham, England, January 27, 1832. In 1787 he went to India, where he be- came manager of the institution for the ropean soldiers at Madras. His inability to obtain the services of capable as- sistants compelled him to resort to the expedient of making teachers of the scholars themselves by way of mutual instruction. He made them do every- thing themselves, so far as possible, even to making their own pens, ruling their own paper, etc. # On his return to Europe, in 1797, Dr. Bell published & pamphlet, entitled “An_Experiment in Education Made at the Male Asylum of Madras,” in which he gave an account of his system. The system was first adopted in the charity school of Bt. Botolph's, Aldgate, and gradually, through the influence of Joseph Lancaster, it was widely intro- duced in England and in almost every other civilized country. Henry Ould, the first instructor at Fourteenth and G streets, married, in 1821, Elizabeth Cloud Peirce, a descend- ant of the Peirce who erected the mill of that name, still standing in Rock Creek Park. His death as chronicled in The Star of September 16, 1871, reads: “Ould—On_the 15th instant, at 8 o'clock p.m., Henry Ould, aged 80 years. “The friends of the family are re- quested to attend his funeral tomorrow (Sunday) afternon, at 2 o'clock, from THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C. MAY 5, 1929—PART 7. P | | | | i | | Rodier succeeded Miss McGill lng | years back, for $7,706.97. ' was demolished in 1886 to make way | that Strong John Thomson, a noted | taught school, succeeding Mr. Kelly in | ber 13, 1819, and died here at his home, | following day his biography appears in | The Star, together with an account of “He Believed in Not Sparing the Rod. Was in Charge The ucational Center of City ‘Great Teacher, Strong John Thomson, re for Many Years. Although His Life Was Uneventful, He Was One of City’s Noted Leaders. taught Female No. until 1876. In 1872 Congress gave the Governor of the District of Columbia permission to sell the ‘property and to invest the proceeds in other school property. It was sold to Andrew Gleason, & well known Washington contractor of a few It later be- came the carpenter shop of Notley An- derson and continued as such until it Secondary for the Small Building. It was at the JefTerson Stable School educator of his day, for many years 1855. He was born in this city Decem- 1107 Fifth street northwest, Sunday Morning, January 10, 1897, and on the his funeral, which reads: “‘STRONG JOHN’ DEAD. “The Oldest Teacher in the Public Schools. “Funeral Arrangements. “Mr. Strong John Thomson, the old- | est teacher in the Public Schools of | the District, died at an early hour yes- terday morning at his home, 1107 5th street. | “The news of Mr. Thomson's death | will be & cause of genuine sorrow and | regret to a very wide circle, for during | | the many years of his history as a | WHITE HOUSE STABLE BUILDING, SOUTHEAST CORNER OF FOURTEENTH AND G STREETS NORTHWEST, ERECTED IN ISUOAAVD DE- MOLISHED the residence of A. C. P. Shoemaker, Seventh street road.” i ‘Two days later The Star printed this item: “Yesterday & large number of our citizens attended the funeral of the late Henry Ould, from the residence of Mr. Plerce Shoemaker, near Brightwood, and followed the remains to nea; Pierce’s Mill, where they were interred. A delegation of Beacon Lodge, No. 15, | of which the deceased w member, was present. “Mr. Ould was nearly a half a century | ago a teacher of the school at the corner | of Fourteenth and G streets, then | known as the Western Lancasterian 8chool, and many of our oldest citizens | were taught by him to ‘read, write and cipher. " | b e OSHUA L. HENSHAW began teach- | ing at the First District School, corner of Fourteenth and G streets, in | 1836, and it is probable that Henry" Ould continued to teach here until that | date. In 1849, the year Mr. Henshaw resigned this position, he was assisted in the female department by his wife, | Mrs. S. G. Henshaw, and by Miss Frances Henshaw, the latter volunteer- | ing her service: Miss Henshaw instructed the girls in | fancy work and taught music as well, and seems to have been the ploneer in the District public schools in teaching | music and in instructing in manual | training. In 1848, the ages of the scholars at | this school ranged from 5 to 16 years, | and in studies from the alphabet to the higher branches of knowledge. During year the following received premi- ums: Susan Clokey, Ann Emma Barron, Mary Gallagher, Catherine Gradey, Mary Prier, Edith Henshaw, Mary Brannon, Margaret Leath, Joanna | Miller, Rose Connaughton, Euphemia Baxter, Elizabeth Fowler, Anna Fowler, Eliza Padgett, Mary Gradey, Ellen Ten- ley, Miss Willie F. Barron, Margaret Godfrey, Mary J. Grant, James F. Owens, John Z. Collison, James Crog- gon, Josiah V. Grant, Charles Laporte, Joseph Godfrey, Dennis Gallagher, John Connor, Henry Howlett, Howard Howlett, Chapman Ourand, Isaac Jones, Jesse M. Ferguson, Robert Ferguson, James Collins, Charles Denham, Samuel Clokey, Joseph Plowman, James W. Ashton, George T. Cassell, James Cas- sidy, Thomas Fowler and Joseph s Oroggon, well bered by ames , well remembered by many of our citizens, with Anna Emma Barron, were the medal scholars in July, IN 1886. THE BUILDING WAS USED AS A PUBLIC SCHOOL FOR MANY YE % | STRONG JOHN THOMSO: ‘WHO TAUGHT SCHOOL TEENTH AND G STREETS NORTHWEST FOR MANY YEARS. AT FOUR- 1849, and Charles Davis, Robert Leh- man, Willlam Brown, Edward Sipe, Henry Croggon, Susan B. Clokey, Mary Kavanaugh, Amanda Johnson, Edith O. Henshaw and Anna E. Collins re- ceived diplomas. After Mr. Henshaw resigned to teach privately Samuel Kelly was transferred | i | to this school from the boys' school in | | the basement of the Central Presbyte- | rian Church, and during the year 1850 | the services of Mrs. Henshaw were | continued. In 1851 the female department was | transterred to the German Hall, on | Eleventh street near F, and the Male Primary School took its place, along | with Alfred Lindsay, whose previous ex- | perience had been with the Boys' Pri- | | mary 8chool No. 1, in Eighteenth street | near I street northwest. Mr. Kelly con- | tinued as principal until 1854, during | which year the Female Primary School ! was transferrql to the basement of | | Union Chapel, on Twentieth street | northwest, | In 1850 medals were awarded to Wil- | liam Goldsborough, Anna E. Collins and | Edith O. Henshaw, and premiums were presented to Rohert Ferguson. James Croggon, Edward ®ipe, Charles Davis, James Maddox, James Given, Samuel | Collins, Georgianna Shields, Ellen Mor- ris, Anna K. Fowler, Mary Gallagher, | Elizabeth Fowler, Harriet Spellman and | Mary Morris. William Goldsborough | received the medal, and under his as- sistant, Alfred Lindsay, who taught the | Male Primary, the medal was awarded |to W. D. Lindsay. In the combined | classes the premiums were awarded to | | Robert Ferguson, J. P. Powell, W. T.| | Powell, Joseph Roberts, William God- | dard, James Croggon, Charles C. Bor- land, Edward Sipe, William Gould, Walter Sims, Warren White, Chari Anderson, Noble Magee, J. F. Mado: | J. B. F. Sothoron, D. W. Prentiss, C. | Coburn, W. H. Bates, R. S. V. Talbott, | Dennis ‘Magee, Van Buren Triplett, W. H. Moran, James E. Cassidy, J. T. Cas- sidy, Charles Tillatt, Charles Bradley, R. M. Clokey, L. P. Clarke, J. E. Given | and William Clampit:. * K k% IN 1861 the Jefferson Stable School became Primary School No. 1 and | Miss M. J. Richie became principal in charge of a class of girls. The follow- | ing year Adaline K. Lowe succeeded | Miss Richie a8 principal of the Female Intermediate School and continued as such during a part of the years 1863 and 1864. Helen E. Williams taught the Female Intermediate here during the years 1865, 1866 and 1867, after which it was temporarily abandoned. Mrs. M. I. Sampson began teaching here in 1870 and the school became the Male Pri- mary School No. 9 of this division. 1In 1871 it again became a girls' school, and Mary C. McGill was assigned to | cipal teacher of the first district male Female Primary No. 7. Mrs, Marias E. teacher several thousand boys sat under | him and there is not one who has not | today vivid memories of the man who led them along the paths of learning. A large number of Mr. Thomson's boys have achieved prominence in various walks of life and no small share of the | eredit for their success is due to the thorough training he gave them. | x X * X “MR. THOMSON was born Decem- ber 13, 1819, and was hterefore in | his seventy-eighth year. About 10 days | before the Christmas holidays he was | taken ill, but Was able to go back for | a couple of days. With the new year | his iliness took a serious turn and he ‘ failed rapidly. He awoke shortly before | 5 o'clock yesterday morning, but told | his wife that he would soon be asleep | again. A few moments later his breath- | | ing became heavy and labored and he | | passed away without a struggle. | “Mr., Thomson’s life was comparative- | 1y uneventful and yet he was one of | the most interesting men in Washing- | ton and there are few whose death | would be more widely regretted. He was | born in this city.and received his early | education here and later at Jefferson | College. He taught school for some time in Maryland and in 1852 he com- menced his connection with the public | schools of the District. In 1854 he suc- ceeded Mr. Samuel Kelly as the prin- school. With the exception of one brief | period, he had been connected with the | public schools ever since and for many years he had been the principal of the Abbot School. During the regime of Mayor Bowen there was considerable talk of introducing mixed schools, col- ored and white pupils together. Mr. | Thomson would not agree to such a thing and he resigned. For several years he was the principal of a flourish- ing private school at Twelfth street above K, but soon drifted back to the public schools. “He was twice married, the second time in 1896, to Georgla C. McGill of this eity, who survives him. He also left a son by his first wife. The son lives in Maryland. Mr. Thomson whs for many years a prominent Mason and for more than 30 years he was the secretary of Eureka Chapter. He brought to the duties of that office the same painstaking care that he gave to his work as a teacher, | and his loss to the order will be no small one. He was & thirty-second-degree Mason, a member of Federal Lodge, No. | 1: Eureka Chapter. Columbia Command- ery, No. 2, and the Scottish Rite. His body will be removed to the Scottish Rite Hall, 1007 G street, this evening and will lie in state tomorrow. Tonight the midnight Kadosh service will be celebrated. There will be a command- ery service tomorrow afternoon at 3 o'clock, after which the remains will be taken to Glenwood Cemetery for inter- ment. The Blue Lodge service will be celebrated at the grave. “As a teacher, Mr. Thomson left his impress on many a scholar. He was in his prime before modern methods of education had got such a hold as they have today, and he believed that the only way to make a boy learn was to make him work and work hard. If the boy would not work it was the worse for him, for Mr. Thomson was ‘strong in name and strong in deed,’ as the boys used to say. He was a consistent be- liever in the virtues of corporal punish- ment and he was never slow to put his principles into practice. It is remem- bered of him that in one of his school rooms he used to have as a motto on the wall the phrase, ‘Per aspera ad astra,” and he m his pupils work hard to reach the stars. Yet his boys went out into the world strong, manly fellows, and many of the men who spoke today with most regret of him were the boys he thrashed the hardest a generation ago. It must be said of Mr. Thomson, however, that when he began his work here a difficult condition of aTairs prevailed. There was less of the ‘kid glove’ element in the public schools than there is today. Those were the days when pitched battles were common between the different schools and stones were used with freedom. There were few ‘ologies’ and ‘isms’ taught, but ‘Strong John’ was strong_on ‘reading, writing and arithmetic.' Thirty and 40 vears ago there were all sorts of com- petitions for prizes between the differ- ent schools, and it is said that his school invariably carried off the lion's share. He also won for his boys more Kendall scholarships at the Columbian University than did any other teacher in the pub- lic schools. "His boys knew their gram- mar and they could figure, too. They” had to. If they were remiss ‘Strong John' was sure to be after them with a strap or the birch. * k2 x “AGEN‘ERATXON ago it was the thing for each school to have & banner. Mr. Thomson's was the hand- somest in the District. On it was em- broidered & spreading tree, beneath which were the words, ‘The roots are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.’ About a year ago Mr. Thomson presented that banner, which is the only one known to be in existence, to the Columbia His- torical Soclety, and it will be preserved along with the other interesting posses- slons of that body. At a meeting of the society last Spring Mr. J. Ormond ‘Wilson, formerly the superintendent of schools. read a paper on the history of the schools of Washington, in which he spoke of Mr. Thomson as the ‘senior of the corps, and without a rival in the number of Washington boys who have acquired under his tuition a sound and thorough education in the elementary studies.’ “Mr. Thomson never quite lost his faith in the theory that the more bitter the roots of education the sweeter the fruits, and it was with some regrets that he saw corporal punishment abolished. Certain it is that the system worked well with him, for his school always stood pretty close g _the top in the matter of scholarship. His principal rival as a teacher was Mr. John E. Thompson, ‘Strong John and John E., or ‘Thomson without a p and Thompson with a p." “Mr. Thomson was the head of the old ‘First Ward Grammar Schocl,’ which stood on the site of the present Berret building, Fourteenth and Que streets, when the Spencerian system of hand- writing was introduced. The superin- tendent of schools visited the building one day accompanied by an expert pen- man. The -atter examined the copy books and found the writing in them all o precisely like the engraved copy that he insisted they had all been written by the same person. Such, of course, was not the case, and the superintend- ent asked Mr. Thomson how his pupils had been taught so thoroughly. ‘With the strap,’ said Mr. Thomson briefly. “When the news of Mr. Thomson's death spread about the city this morn- ing there were many expressions of sor- Tow. A movement was at once put on foot among his old scholars looking to a proper recognition of the sad event. and it is probable that some concrete action will be taken on the part of those who knew and respected him.” Just a few doors below the Jefferson Btable School, at 609 Fourteenth strest, Jefferson Davis, the Southern chieftain, lived for a while prior to the Civil War, when he was a member of Congress. In this block 2lso lived other distinguished persons. Getting Back at Nature BY WEARE HOLBROOK. ANY a man has set out to be & gardener and ended by becom- ing an entomologiss Until I took up horticulige I had ways supposed that an ear- wig was an_early Anglo-Saxon noble- man. Now I know better. Earwigs are what you get when you plant dahlias. In the short time we have had our garden I have acquired a modest repu- tation as an authority on pests such as| cutworms, bectles, sow bugs, snails, | slugs, grasshoppers, chickens, children | and Airedale puppies. And after weeks | of research in various uncomfortable | positions I have come to the conclusion that where there is flora there is bound to be fauna—not to mention larva and poor little pupa. The combination iz inevitable. One cannot appreciate the beauty of green, growing things without appreciating also the industry of black crawling things—their patience, persistence and philoprogenitiveness. A trip through our garden is really a sort of parasite-seeing expedition. 1If T kedn't taken that course in con- temporary drama at college perhaps I never would have been so keen about were always on their way to or from the garden, and although it was all hear- say one got the impression that a garden must be a very interesting place. ‘The lovely Lady Eleanor invariably paused, as she made her exit, to remark itly: “If you want me, Geoffrey, be in the garden.” The heroic 8ir Lionel was ever ready upon the slightest provocation to go out into the garden and give his villainous half- brother an opportunity to abstract the will from behind the sliding panel in the library wall. Ronald, the breathless juvenile with buck teeth and an Oxford blazer, was eternally popping in at the French window and gasping, “I say— dash it—where's Gwen?” And Hickups, gardens. But the lords and ladies in the English drawing room comedies The Gardener Raises Flowers; Then the Bugs and Worms Raze Them—That’s One of Nature’s Even Chemical Warfare Fails to Turn Back the Worms, and Little Jokes. by Outtricking the Wary Garden Pests the Only Way to Best the Pest Is to Trick Him. the butler, was eternally replying, “Miss Gwendolyn is 1: the garden, sir.” * % % THE remarkable thing about these off-Stage gardens was the way the lords and ladies could come Lack from them, looking as clean and fresh as if they had just stepped out of their dress- ing rooms (which, as a matter of fact, they had). No scratches, no insect bites; no cobwebs across the nose or mud under the fingernails or fertilizer “I WENT OUT AND BOUGHT A FORMIDABLE AND VARIED AS SORTMENT OF GARDEN TOOLS." clinging to their boot heels. Not a sign of any bugs or slugs crawling over their collars. One could not blame the dramatis personae for wanting to spend all their spare time in such tn idyllic place. I used to wonder Low they had the heart to tear themselves away irom it in time for the grand cnsemble at the end of Act IIIL All in all, the contemporary drama- tists made a garden seem a most desir- able adjunct to a home, and I deter- mined to have one some day—a small garden with hollyhocks against the wall, & stone bench and a sundial. I would spend my old age there; every sunny afternoon, with my gnarled hands clufed over the head of my cane, I would sit on the stone bench, listening to the drone of the bumblebees among the hollyhocks and feeling the ants crawl up and down the back of my neck. Well, it just goes to show that if you want something, and want it badly enough, you generally get something eise. That is the law of compensation. Here I am with the small garden, the wall, the bench, the sundial, the cane, the gnarled hands (the preliminary phases of gardening are excellent for gnarling the hands), the ants and the bumblebees. And here, on page 53 of | the seed catalogue, are the hollyhocks. E R MY flower garden started in a modest way, and it is continuing in a way that is downright deprecatory. At firs there was only Junior, the pet geranium, who lived in a pot on the window sill. Junlor required very little attention and seemed to thrive on dust and dead flies. Having raised Junior from a mere slip with so little effort, I was inclined to be optimistic about the entire vegetable kingdom. I looked at the world through geranium-colored glasses. “Phoebe,” I said, pointing to a double- page illustration in the seed catalogue, “there is no reason why we can't have a arden like that in our own back yard. ouldn't you like one of those arched trellises covered with roses?” “Yes,” sald Phoebe. “All we'd need would be a ribbon labeled ‘Success.’ Then we could open a delicatessen.” “Of course, our garden wouldn't be very elaborate,” I continued. “But after all, it isn't the flowers themselves I want; it's the fun of raising them.” p: glad you feel that way about it.” sald Phoebe. “It will save you & lot of heartaches.” Her lack of enthusiasm spurred me on, and I went out and bought a for- midable assortment of garden tools, in- cluding an English digging fork, a shovelplough hoe, a plant spray, prun- ing shears, a rake, a spade, a trowel | and a kneeling-mat. Later I added | to this collection a first-aid kit, lini- | | ment and a pair of crutches. There are, tion, two distinct types of gardenini In my | offensive and defensive RESCUE IN AILING along through a snowstorm, apparently making its usual trip with mail and passengers to Salt Lake City, a mail plane suddenly went out of control and dived January 25 and the pilot and his two passengers seemed doomed. Word went out that the plane | was missing and other planes went out in_search of it. Finally it was found jammed against 2 windswept ledge of rock in the Ruby Mountains of Nevada. ‘What followed is another heroic deed to add to the long list credited to the forest rangers of the Department of Agriculture. Word was flashed of the location of the plane. Ranger August Rohwer of the Humboldt National Park quickly summoned a rescue party and started for the wreck. Leaving at night, the party led by Rohwer went on horseback BLIZZARD. into the face of a driving snowstorm and soon found conditions so bad they were forced to take turns going ahead on snowshoes to break a path for the horses. Finally, after almost superhuman ef- fort, they reached the plane at 1:30 in the morning. They found the pilot semi-conscious and the two passengers suffering from shock and cold. The victims of the crash were bun- dled up and placed on horseback, and then the grueling trek back got under way. After six and a half hours of | fighting with the blizzard the party |ruched the safety of a ranch. | The heroic action of Rohwer and his | party was recognized by the department |and Sécretary Hyde sent a letter com- mending the ranger for the courage and llbllr:!y which led him so quickly to the Spo , | stick with a tag on it bearing the name n this age of specializa- | ime | DX petuous, boyish fashion, I went in for | both, and bought several agricultural | weapons which proved absolutely use- | less except as museum pieces. The most offensive item in my equipment was & ten-pound bag of fertilizer. After some experiment in planting seeds and watching the neighbors' | chickens eat them, I decided to raise only the kind of flowers that grow from bulbs—tuberoses and syringas, for instance. It takes a chicken so much longer to eat a bulb than a seed that often you can get out of the house and shoo it away before irreparable damage has been done. * ok x % | GO I set out a batch of gladiolus bulbs first, placing them in holes about six inches deep at intervals of two hours. Above each one I placed a of the flower that was exepected. | Gladioluses—or gladioli (or “glads,” | as we old flower fanciers call them)— | have names like race horses. Our first | gladiolus bed included Bengal Tiger, Jenny Lind, Mrs. L. Douglas, Giant Myrtle, Lady Ophelia Hendershot. Rev. A. J. Rumble, Old Subscribes and Mr. ;and Mrs. Addison Mizner. There" was one little bulb that had lost its identifi- cation papers, and as we did not know what its name was, we called it John oe T had some doubt as to the propriety of putting Lady Ophelia Hendershot | and Rev. A. J. Rumble in the same bed, | but Phoebe assured me that it would | be all right. “You must remember,” | she said, “that this isn't an old-fash- 10!11:d g-rdenl." " was quite exciting lining up the bulbs at the start and the b:ck-‘}ence spectators cheered wildly. Jenny Lind was an odds-on favorite because she had already begun to sprout a little before I put her in the ground, but I put my money on Purple Glory, a 20- to-1 shot. Only six entries went to the post, Mrs. L. Douglas and Old Sub- scriber having been scratched by a bantam rooster who Tot through ~the fence when I wasn't ooklnf, For days and days we waited eagerly for the gladioll to appear. Meanwhile, to relieve the tension, I planted some tulips and dahlias. “It's too late for tulips,” protested Phoebe, who had been reading the Old Farmer's Almanac, “and much too early for dahlias.” “Better late than never,” I replied cheerily. “And as for the dahlias, the early bulb gets the worm.” The tulips and_ dahlias had name tags, too. hen they were all planted, each with its stick and its label, our en resembled a gigantic pin cush- on: I had to pick my way about cautiously, like & tightrope = walker, using my hoe as a balancing rod. * X ok * Y the time the first pale green shoots | appeared (baby gladioli they were) | life. Beetles, bugs and worms came back yard. Holes were selling eight weeks in advance. An army of ants | hung around the place for weeks, ap- | parently under the impression that we were going to raise peonies. ‘There is something honest and unas- | suming about a bug; it will look you in | the eye frankly without smirking. But | worms are deceitful. You never know where you are with a worm—or when. | Both ends look alike and if you try to | pin it down to some definite course of | action it writhes around in embarrass- | ment like a kindergarten prima donna who has forgotten her lines. Finally, after weeks of chemical war- | fare, I realized that I would never be | able to persuade those insects to leave my flower bed and board. 8o I turned the place over to them. This year, however, I am having my revenge. Our garden is, to all appear- just s usual. In the early Spring o ed.“hto:d, h;almmed and went al e motions of gardening, while the bugs and slugs llth‘e‘\’ed fl’o:'l miles around to watch me. In every flower bed I placed neat rows of sticks, | the Summer was well advanced and our | each bearing a label with the name of |garden was seething with life—insect | & flower on it clearly printed. But—and here is where my flendish | from far and near to burrow in our |CUNDING asserts itself—there are no bulbs under those sticks. There is not a seed in my entire garden! The insects, of course, do not know this. Attracted by the mendacious labels they continue to wait patiently for the flowers to appear. Many of them have already strayed to death or been devoured by their comrades. Old age and deprivation are accomplishing what Paris green failed to do. Soon they will all be gone and then I can attempt a little actual gardening. In the mean time I am getting my flowers from the florist down on the corner. Mother Nature is all right in her way, but she isn't half so depend- able as G. Pappapoulos. ey CATTLE”