Evening Star Newspaper, May 26, 1929, Page 92

THE SUNDAY, STAR, WASHINGTON, D. MAY 26, _19§.-PART % ment of his notable career, a dramatic moment not too well known in America history. Muhlenberg was - an Episcopal clergyman strongly devoted to the cause of independence. Stationed at Woodstock, Va.; one Sunday morn- ing he ascended the pulpit in usual canonical obes, At the close of & great. patriotic sermon Yie threw mside his vestments to reveal himself +the uniform of an officer of the Con- tinental Army, his hand on his sword. By pre-arranged signal a drum corps stationed in the churchyard beat a shrill, soul-stirring rat- a-tat-rat-a-tat. In response to the sermon, the revealed uniform and the call" to arms, nearly 300 man parishioners joined the Revolu- tionary ranks and fought for independence. Miss Nevin depicted Officer-Clergyman John Peter Gabriel Muhlenberg at the moment he threw aside priestly garments to disclose fighting ones. It is fairly well known that the present Stat- uary HalF was the House of Repre- sentatives until that branch of the Legislature was moved into the present hall, the south extension, December 18, 1857. Seven years later, April 19, 1864, a joint resolution, debated and passed, turned the vacated House of Rep- resentatives into what it is known today as Statuary Hall. The first “whereas” of the reso- Jution recited that the “old House of Repre- sentatives, being now worse than uselessly occupied as a place of traffic and storage,” the President of the United States was author- 3zed to invite each State of the Union to con- tribute marble or bronsze figures of two of her most notable sons connected with her military, civic or historical renown. Mr. Morrill, Ver- mont, in speaking to the joint resolution, said pomace—a Shat, while the old Senate Chamber had been mained empty and deserted, was actually “un- ous nuisance.” (“Pomace” merely being apple T e The old House of Representat fittingly devoted to the Supreme Court, the old hall of the House of Representatives re- SRR ives, now used as Statuary Hall. appropriated waste, draped in cobwebs, '.Ith dust, tobacco and apple conspicu- skins, seeds and sections ground under numer- ous trampling heels.) The Vermonpt member declared that “Congress is the. guardian of this fine old hall of surpassing beauty, all the rooms of -this vast pile, and should protect it fromy desecration.” L EPRESENTATAVE SHENCK also spoke on the deplorable condition of the old hall of the House of Representatives, stating that it was a “disgrace and a reproach, and that when he passad through the Rogers’ expensive bronze door, he entered into the old hall filled with apple stands and hucksters.” He declared that he never passed through this hall without feeling himself reproached by the spirits that haunted the place. “I look around,” he re- marked, “to where the venerable John Quincy Adams trembled in his seat and voted—and I see now a huckster woman selling gingerbread. look to see where Calhoun sat, and where and I find a woman selling oranges beer. I look to see where these men stood when they uttered patriotic sentiments, when patriotic sentiments were heard with reverence, and I see a floor rotting and trem- bling under my feet.” But the joint resolution was passed. Clean- ers, carpenters and decorators transformed the hall into what it now is and invitations were personages. The first statue received was that of Gen. Nathaniel Greene, when, amid public exercises held in the Senate, the gift from Rhode Island was accepted, January 31, 1870, and placed in position in Statuary Hall, So They Erected 2 Monument to a Famous Cheese Europe at least, hardly a village stands that has not at least one monument to honor its man of old.ungs.prlneeugs.'flw'l.exm tists, great religious leaders, politicians and even famous murderers, thieves—monuments th:h-hmhe&n certainly the originator of s delicious food ean fairly be ranked as such—will eventually be re- membered. In the case of Marie Harel, the dng manner in 5 One morning recently the little city of Vimou tiers, iIn Normandy, France, was much excited over the arrival in the one-horse bus of the Hotel du Soleil d‘Or, which is supposed to meet all trains, but does not, of a very voluble little To the few assem- bled traveling salesmen who composed the guest list of the Hotel du Soleil d'Or, these words meant very little, After discussion it was de- wcided that the voluble gentleman spoke Eng- lish, and was an American, as he also said *New York” a great number of times. Vimoutiers is not a tourist center. It lles far from the main line, is tucked away at the bot- tom of a delightful little valley. The trains, only two a day, take two hours to cover 35 kilometers from the mnearest junction point. ¥This explains why Vimoutiers ignores tourists, It is then easy to understand why the ar- xival of this stranger caused comment, The only person who every one knew could under- stand him was the mayor. Some one was sent ‘at great speed to his house, and soon came back accompanied by the doctor, who conversed with the newcomer, “My name is Dr. Joseph Knrim,” said the Jatter, “and I have just arrived from New York. Before landing I sent to the president of the Syndicat d‘Initiative of Normandy a radiogram telling him to meet me at Cherbourg, but there ‘was no one there, and to take me to the ceme- tery where Marie Harel, inventor of the Camem- bert cheese, is buried. By her invention she saved the lives of very many people in my country. I have, for the last 29 years, con- ducted in New York a sanatorium where the only medicine I gave my patients fur all kinds of stomach ailments was warm Pilsener beer and Camembert cheese, and I made them all ‘well again. Now I have a double debt of grati- The world’s first monument to cheese. to pay Marie Harel. She saved many lives she made my fortune. I have brought with in cold storage from New York a wreath intend to lay on her grave, then I pro- raising of a monument to her memory benefactress of humanity.” The mayor, of course, had heard of Marie Harel. He knew where her grave lay. He knew the farm where she was born and where her descendants are still residing. But that she was the inventor of Camembert cheese!— of that he knew less, But the American gentle- man was quite certain of this. He had read about it in some very old book. He knew what he was talking about. By his visit, Dr, Joe Knrim started the bail rolling. The interest of the people of Vimou- tiers was aroused to their importance in the world. Their country had given birth to an inventor and they did not know of it until a foreigner told them about it in his barbarian tongue. ‘HE mayor immediately consulted the ar- chives of the town hall. Dusty and pon- derous tomes, bound in pig leather and printed in old French, some on paper and others on parchment, were consulted, all to find about Marie Harel. Days were spent, until the diary of a prominent citizen, who had lived during the days of the revolution and who had the good fortune to escape with his head, was brought to light. It spoke of Marie Harel of the farm of the Beau Moncel in Camembert, and how she had taken to making cheeses round and thick, the size of a large bun. These cheeses tasted de- lightfully. She took them to market at Vimou- tiers and other neighboring little towns. No one had made such cheese before, and she would tell no one of the secret process. All she would admit was, that during the days of the Terror she was awakened one night in Winter by a loud knocking at the thick oak door of the farmhouse. During these troubled years people were not very keen at letting in late visitors. However, Marie had a good heart. Armed with her candle, she went to the door and was told it was a priest who had escaped the revolutionists. Marie opened the door. There entered a white-haired man, trembling with cold and fainting with hunger, She led him to the hearth, and, reviving the fire, gave him to eat and drink. Many days the priest hid from his pursuers. Several times soldiers came to the farmhouse to search for refugees, but the priest escaped Little French Village Is Quite Proud of the Honor Paid Its Favorite Product. Y LT o The Inside Story of a Cheese Known Around the World. i o k¥ g if i ; | 7 i i 2 8 il 3 1 &9F § z T 3 fegs F 1 : i : : dopis E?eg?i Fonawhfletm.saeemedmttennthatm going to remind the world of the existence of Marie Harel. But the sympathetic mayor was still thinking of something more befitting not only the memory of Marle Harel, but also all the women of Normandy who have come So the idea of a monument, which would be erected in Vimoutiers, on the main place, came to Dr. Dentu. He asked several leading sculptors for designs, which were submitted, and Eugene L'Hoest’s was chosen as represent- ing fittingly not only Marie Harel, but per- sonifying the farmwomen of Normandy. Some time later the monument was in- augurated by Alexandre Millerand, former President of the French Republic, and the oc-" casion was feted in Vimoutiers by popular re- Joleing. Vimoutiers became important. Pathe sent moving picture men and the mayor of the town and all the others who had contributed to thé ercction of the monument were taken in reels of films to be shown to other parts of France. This fame reached the farming dis- trict of South America. People from there wrote asking to be allowed to pay toward the erecting of an iron grating around the monu- ment of Marie Harel, Although the original formula of Camembert cheese, as Marie made it, has stayed in the family, chemists were employed to experiment in the fermenting of milk for cheese-making purposes, and they succeeded in producing com- mercially the Camembert cheese which we eat today.