Evening Star Newspaper, February 16, 1930, Page 97

D. C, FEBRUARY 16, 1930. Henry Memorial Award Stories } B WS A N \ AR N == '“\\\\‘- > AW AR ~ yirrs 50559 8T G577 { 1 W' 7, P (LU / a7y / ‘1:,/' ’l/ /‘ ) W.ORBERPSY divorce suit, alon g with a furrier. I didn’t know she was married, did you?” ought out about how much I'd enjoyed my- f. And he told me the next time I wanted a b in the wheat fields let him know and he'd me up. Next Summer maybe, he said. And thanked him, but I had made up my mind at the only thing I was going to do with heat from that time on was eat it. hat's the last time I ever saw Marjorie. hgust, 1916. I wrote Stu a letter from the heart out and, ether he liked it or not, I couldn’t help it. [know better now than to try to interfere in e affairs. But I can’t say I'm sorry about at I tried to do in this one. Not that it hde much difference. In time—ch, in much time—I got back to family’s bosom. I had lost 18 pounds, but at was left was right fair. ave Stu a ring. Out of town, they said, ne cut West. I began to think I was quite e l:tter writer. >F As soon as he came back he called m2 up, anted me to come out and see him as soon I could. I went right over and we had dinner at the fayette. He said I lookad a little fine, which, turally, I knew. I didn’t think he looked so od, himself—and he didn't eat much dinner oticed. fter we'd finished, he lighted a cigarette d gave m= a funny look and said, “Joe, I hate tell you this, Marjorie and I have sp'it.” ‘Split?” I said. “Yes . . . Wait a minute, Joz. You know 2t dizzy Folsem kid?” “Maisie?” “Yes. Well, her husband’s named me in his orce suit, along with a furrier—yes, a fur- fr and a couplz of other people whose names s forgotten. I didn’t knew she was- mar- pd, did you?” “No.” “I'm ... Im very fond .. . of Marjori>, Joe. t it'’s no use. I told her and . . . well . . ., at's all over. Now what do you say? There's new show over at b “A new show!” I said to him. “Ycs, you're md of her, all right. You certainly are! . . . . .. I'll ask you to excuse me, Stu. I don’t el so good.” You sce, I was fond of her, toco. And of bim. s a wonder to me h: didn’t get up and make e feel a Joi sicker. But he just sat there rt of grinning and tapping his cigarette ainst the tray. Tap, tap, tap! Tap, tap, tap! Next time I saw him was a long time after- prd. I was one of these 90-day wonders of rrant officers on the Rogway, an cld Russian b they were using for a transport. Stu was bng. He had a couple of crossed .guns on collar and two silver bars on his shoulders. e, that makes him a top sergeant of Ma- The war is over, fellows, the wer is er! “Hello, Stu,” I said and we shook hands. Maybe I wasn't glad to see him, too. I saw him quite a few times on the way over, long enough to smoke a cigarette and chew the fat a little. Once he asked me: “Ever hear from Marjorie, Joe?” “No,” T said. “You?” “No. Why don’t you write, Joe?” “You big bum, why don’t you write?” I sald, “Maybe I will, Joe. Maybe I will. The . . . the war will change a lot of things, won’t it?” We used to think it would, too. That's pretty near all. I NEVER heard another thing about Stu till I was home on leave after the armistice. New Year day it was. After the traveler home from the sea got his bearings and the main brac: spliced, my father said: “Heard anything about Stuart Harkness?” Pop never Jiked Stu much. I guess he'd have liked to go into th2 line for about four min- utes the day th:y carried Jim out. I looked at him. “Bumpad off?” I asked. “Yes. Suppose you didn't know. He sent me some papers for you, Joe. Sent them from Liverpsol. After he crossed with you. Got them in the safe d<posit box. Get 'em tomer- row.” “Sent me scme papers?” I said. “Yes ... Joe...uh Jimran seross a story about him 4n- France.. Jin? Sure, he's at St Namaire, ok. Expect him any day. Any day. They say Harkncss, ub, Staert Hu'imess us:d to go over hollering “Allep oop!” and “Come on, you Big Green . . . you- Big Green—" pop looked around and whispered, “You know the word he used, Jo:.” Next day he gave me Stu's papers. The let- ter he sent to mec follows. It explains the others, which are not to me. Dear Joe: I want you to do som: things for me. I want you to look over the inclosed letters and see whether you think they're ok., good English and spelling and everything. I looked up most of the words in this small English- French dictionary, but I couldn't find all of them. . You look them over and pick out the one you think is the best under the circumstances and send it to Marjorie. One of them, you will see, is a little bit different from the others. You see, Joe, it's like this. I want Marjorie to get married. I want her to. It's an awful waste if she don’t. I'm not that kind of guy, not to want her to. But I'm afraid maybe she won't, because, as you know, she’s not such a kid. And if she don't I want her to know that she was the only real thing in my life. That if it's me she wants and no one else will do and there’s any future life, I'll get to her. I'll get to her if it takes 2 miilion years. That I hope it’s not me she wants, because I'm not fit to tie her shoes. But if she does, I'll get there. There’s not enough of those little guys with the pitchforks' to stop me and keep me away from her. I love Marjorie, Joe. These other women don’t matter. They never have. 13 y Edward L.. McKenna So you think it over and figwe which shell do and give her the right one, will you? Thanks, kid. Keep the book for yourself, STU. I don’t know which book he meant was for me. There’s the book by Dowson—it's Dowson, I find out. The fiy-leaf is torn out of it. . I looked at it and there's her name in a page of it. “Marjorie.” Underneath is some junk about a guy named Cynara. Funny place to write her name. . . . There's nothing else in the book. I looked. Well, I made up my mind and went out West after I was discharged. I didn't touch his let- ters. They look ok. to me, good English and all. Anyway, I wouldn’t touch them. The trouble’s this. I've been out to her place. She's gone. No- body knows where she’s gone. Her father died and she left. That's all they knew. I tried the bank. They didn't know. The neighbors can't tell me. The post office people say mo address. 7 Maybe she's married. Maybe she's dead. My idea is that she’s neither, that she's away some- wheres, teaching school maybe, or taking care of kids or helpless people somewhere. I've been very careful about this. It wasn’t Fargo. His name 'wasn't Stuart Harkness. Nobody knows me out there or will remember me, except as a young kid in a pressed suit which had formerly been worn in a -coneert camp. Only ycur name's right, Marjorie. If you see this, you'll know. Marjorie, I've got two lette: for you. . (Copyright, 1930.) . - Fulfilling W aslziégton s Wish. Continved from Third Page Memorial will be the greatest honor yet paid him, as it will represent the fulfillment, after many gencrations, of his own wishes, and, more- over, as it will be one of the most magnificent temples ever erected to the memory of one man. It will fill a long-needed want in the National Capital, as up to the present time Washington has no adequate meeting place for a great world conference. To quote a bulletin issued by the general secretary of the association: “These gatherings are multiplying yearly. They more often meet in the national capitals of Europe. It is a reproach to us, as a people, that we have no accommodations to offer these bodies com- mensurate with the dignity and importance of their scientific, educational and public welfare work. They would welcome an invitation to Washington. “The conventions now held in Washington on great humanitarian subjects ought to be ac- cessible to the traveling public—the people of leisure and means, and also to the families of our Senators and Representatives resident in Washington, in order that the enthusiasm may be carried or disseminated throughout the coun- try. It is now practically impossibie- for the people to attend these gatherings, even when they are held in Washington, for many times they cannot accommodate even their own dele- “It is well known that Washington was very eager that our National City should have an institution which could be a dynamic center ‘for the diffusion of knowledge.’ * * * It:is fitting now that his wish be carried out in the spirit of the advanced education of the day. And that it take the form of these educational, scientific and public welfare conferences; that - it provide headquarters for patriotic, scientific - and other national organizations, which need such facilities at Washington; that it furnish research rooms for students who desire to avail themselves of the unusual facilities afforded by the various bureaus of the goveriment, and that it afford those States which make adequate ap- propriations toward its cost a room in which to exhibit their resources and achievements to the vast throngs of Americans and Europeans who visit our National Capital.” 'HIRTY-ONE years ago last September the George Washington Memorial Association was founded by a group of patriotic women, with the purpose in view of carrying out the first President’s wish for the promiotion of science, literature and art, and to provide an institution for “the general diffusion of knowl- edge,” and recommended by him in his various messages to the Congress and as substantially contemplated in his last will and testament. ‘Washington left as a bequest 50 shares which he held in the Potomac Co. (at that time val- ued at $500 each) “toward the endowment of a university to be established in the District of Columbia under the general Government.” Although the shares had since become worth- less, the members of the association believed that his wish should be carried out, and at a meeting, held in 1901, it was proposed to raise funds to build an administration bullding for the George Washington University, formerly called the Columbian University ; . Definite plans for the “future work of the association were not formulated, however, untit 1909, when Mrs. Dimock of Washington was elected president. Due to the growth of educa- tional facilities throughout the country and the - change in educational methods since the days of Washington, these plans were broadened in scope, and it was felt that the wishes of the first President could best be carried out by erecting & building “where every society of every State in the Union could ‘meet, giving ;hc results of their conferences to the world at arge.” Former Chief Justice Taft in indersing the aims of the association said in a leiter to Mrs. Dimock: “What we need is a great, beautiful building that shall not only be- a triampth in architecture worthy -of George Washington, but a structure which shall be a model auditorium, & spacious place for the gathering and feating 8 thencands of Wersiinglon's counitymen, re- minding them constantly of the wonderfual treasure we have in his example.” An active worker in the association, to whom tribute is due fgr much that has been accom- plished, is Mrs. Joseph B. Foraker, Ohio vice president, at whose suggestion the plan of life memberships in the association was adopted. In 1913 Congress granted the site on the Mall, the land worth more than a million dol- lars, and authorized the erection of the build- ing, naming as administrators the board of regents of the Smithsonian Institution, com- posed of the President of the United States, the Vice President and Chief Justice, and three Senators, three Representatives and six distin- guished citizens of the country. The following year a competition for plans for the building was held by the leading archi- tects from -the different States. A committee was formed.to pass upon the plans and their decision went before the Commission of Fine Arts. The present scheme of Tracy and Swart- out was adopted as best incorporating the re- quirements of beauty and utility. Then the war intervened and further progress was inter- rupted. Two years after the armistice was signed actual construction was under way and on No- vember 14, 1921, the corner stone of Vermont marble was laid by President Harding with fitting ceremonies, which included addresses by the President and other high officials of the United States in praise of the lofty ideals which are embodied in the purpose for which the monumental structure is being erected. Copies of the will of George Washington, the Declaration of Independance and the Constitu- tion of the United States, records of the George Washington Memorial Association, and an offi- cial program of the exercises on Armistice day, 1921, at Arlington National Cemetery for the burial of the Unknown Soldier, and copies of The Washington Star for November 10, 11, 12 £ and 13, 1921, containing complete accounts of the tribute paid by America to her unknown dead and of the assembling of the historic Con- ference on Limitations of Armaments and Far Eastern questions, were among the documents of historic interest placed in the corner. stone. Pointing out the practical and sentimental objects of the buliding President Harding said ’ in his address: “There begins here today the fulfiliment of the striking contemplations in the last will of the father of his country. It is an impressive fact, worthy of our especial thought, that in the century and a half since Washing- ton became the leader, the heart and soul, of its struggle for independence and unity, the Na- tion has so many times found occasion to record devotion to the precepts which he laid down for its guidance. So today, after more than a «century’s delay, we are come to pay tribute to the foresight which first encouraged and en- dowed the institution here established * * * Patriotic women and men have made possible the.institution of which we are now to lay the corner. Very properly they have conceived ‘Washington’s impelling thought to have been a gathering place for Americans, where American minds could meet in fruitful exchanges.” Tnl Secretary of War, John W. Weeks, pre- ‘sided over the exercises and the other speakers were Gen. John J. Pershing, com- mander of the American Expeditionary Forces in the World War, and Admiral Robert E. Coontz, chief of naval operations of the United States Navy. 4 5 When after the completion of the founda- tions of the front and rear approaches to the building it was decided to delay further prog- réss, a fence was built around the entire tract of land. On this vast foundation, eovering a wl resembling an uncom- -line, concrete mixing ‘apparatus win hauled in place, the signal bells of hoisting resound and the scene will be “inte ohe of busy activity,