Evening Star Newspaper, April 7, 1935, Page 35

CRIME IN CAPITAL LAID TONEGLECT BY CONGRESS Voteless Citizens Hélpless to Remedy Underlying Condit Go Unheeded—Co-operation Asked. BY WILBUR LA ROE, JR, Chairman. Committee on Civic Affairs, Washington Federation of Churches. N STUDYING crime- there is a tendency to deal with its manifes- tations and with the means of punssnment rather then with the fundemental causes underlying it. dt is more thrilling to pursue a Dill- inger or a Floyd than to analyze the @ocial, economic and psychopathic factors which convert human beings into public enemies. Congress, through one of its com- mittees, is now investigating crime conditions in the District of Columbia, but as yet it has made but little study of the causes of crime or of the extent to which Congress itself is responsiole for the conditions which exist. ‘We start with the obvious proposi- tion that the people of the District of Columbia are not permitted to make their own criminal laws, provide their own police force, choose their own district attorney, or elect their own Commissioners. They are ruled by strangers, by persons whose chief interest lies many miles away. The people are taxed., but have no repre- sentation. They can speak. but their voice is not heard. For this condition Congress is largely responsible. It has always dodged the issue, and is continuing to dodge it The gambling laws in the District of Columbia are disgracefully inade- quate. The proprietor of a numbers racket can provide himself with 10.000 numbers racket slips, hand a thousand of them to each of 10 assistants, send all 10 out to sell them to the people of the District and even to Govern- ment employes. all 10 can be caught with their pockets bulging with these tickets. but they must be released be- cause under our gambling laws they have done nothing wrong. In the face of such a condition the police, who are so bitterly criticized, are prac- tically helpless. The condition is one for which Congress alone is re- sponsible. Property Owner Immune. If I own a building in the business center of Washington, and lease it at high rental to a gang of gamblers, with full knowledge that it is to be 8o used, and it is so used, and I derive profit from the high rentals, I have done no wrong, solely because of the inadequacy of our laws. For this condition Congress is responsi- ble. For two years legislation for the tightening of our gambling laws has been pending before Congress, but the | committee before which it is pending has shown little interest in it and at least two members of that com- mittee have declared themselves in favor of legalized gambling. The subcommittee has resisted every at- tempt to expedite the legislation and gambling continues to flourish. Three recent murders, including the Wilson murder, were the direct result of gambling. Our police force is inadequate. due to the failure of Congress to appro- priate sufficient funds. The build- ings used for police headquarters and for police courts are antiquated, gloomy, disreputable. The buildi in which the efficient Woman's Bu- reau is housed is an old, abandoned precinct station in one of the worst sections of Washington. There can be no such thing as dignity or morale in a police department that is housed in dingy, antiquated structures. Con- gress alone is responsible for this condition. Our city is flooded with prostituts plying their trAde openly and brazes ly. The law provides no jail sentence for soliciting prostitution. In New York City the maximum penalty is one year; in Philadelphia, two years; in Baltimore, one year and $500 fine. In Washington the maximum fine is $25, which the women pay and laugh about it. These women thumb their noses at the police. One woman was arrested 32 times. Congress, through the laxity of the law, has in practical effect extended an in- vitation to women of bad reputation to come here, with assurance that they will not be jailed or heavily fined. For two years the major and superintendent of police has recom- mended a tightening of the law, but a careless and indifferent Congress has paid no attention to his recom- mendation. ions Because Pleas Many of our school children come | from poor and inadequate homes, | where the poverty is so extreme as to make even a modicum of character education difficult. Last yeaf a sys- | tem of character education was inau- gurated in our public schools under the competent leadership of Miss Ber- | tie Backus. A more constructive move against the roots of crime would be | difficult to imagine. This year the entire appropriation for- character ed- | ucation has been stricken from the bill by the Appropriations Committee of the House, apparently for the | purpose of saving the small sum of money involved. One of the best and most modern | | methods of striking at the roots of | crime is the parole system. This is | primarily a system of rehabilitation under which the authorities take hold of a prisoner the very moment he en- ters the gates of the institution and | endeavor to rebuild him. This is not a coddling process, but a kind of discipline that supplies vhat is lack- | ing in the prisoner's life, teaching | him a trade, overcoming his physical | ailments and otherwise improving | him. Congress enacted an almost ideal parole law for the District but has consistently failed to appropriate money needed for the rehabilitation. The local Parole Board now has 318 pa- roled prisoners under one parole offi- cer. This is a dangerous condition | for which Congress is directly respon- sible. The parole system as now | operated is not fair either to the pris- | oners or ‘o the public. There is & most undesirable condi- tion at the Lorton Reformatory, where young offenders are mixed with hard- ened criminals. The Lorton Reform- atory was oirginally intended exclu- sively for the rehabilitation of young prisoners. Now it has more of the | aspects of a Federal penitentiary and includes in its population some dan- | gerous criminals. It 1s difficult to! conceive of a worse way to strike at | the roots of crime than to throw young prisoners together wtih hard- ened criminals. Other communities have modern reformatories for young offenders between the ages of 18 and | 22. A distressingly iarge number of | our prisoners are of this age, still | young enough to be reconstructed. ! Not only co we not rehabilitate them, but we house them together with the more desperate criminals. The pleas of Supt. Barnard for a correction of this condition have not been heed- ed by Congress. | Committee Handicapped. 1t is gratifying to note that the able | committee investigating crime condi- | tions here shows a disposition to dig beneath the surface. This is also true of this counsel. But the committee | is handicapped both by inadequate | personnel and by time limitations. However, if the committee is entirely frank, and does not wander too far afield, it will discover that some of the chief factors contributing to a disgraceful situation in the District | of Columbia can be disclosed without prolonged investigation and responsi- bility placed in quarters not far re- moved from the Capitol. It would be unfair to place all the blame on Congress. Others are partly | responsible, some very much so, for existing conditions. And behind it all | |lies a cause factor so deep and so | serious that it challenges all of us. I refer to the fact that we have in tthe District thousands of under- | | privileged people, many of them col- | ored; many young men reared in ex- | treme poverty and with virtually no | training in their homes. Given equal | | opportunity this class would be no more troublesome than any other, but 11 know for a fact from my Parole | | Board experience that this class is | responsible for the greater part of the minor felonies. | We could eliminate 20 per cent | | more if we could bring about the en- |actment of reasonably strict criminal laws. We could eliminate 20 per cent more through vigorous enforcement | and prosecution. Still another 30 per cent would disappear if an under- | privileged people could be elevated to decent economic and social standards. We may not accomplish all of these objectives, but if we can bring about | the co-operation of all concerned, |Including Congress, we can accom- plish wonders. 4 Osaka Gains Fame 1 as Industrial Nerve Center of Japanese Empire OSAKA, Japan—“Being a manu- facturing and commercial city, Osaka does not contain many places of gen- eral interest.” So the official guide book of the Japanese empire describes this city, passing it off lightly, as it were, in a single simple sentence neither inspiring nor provocative. Most of the foreign business men, Americans among them, bankers, manufacturers’ agents or importers, seem to feel the same way about it, for each will confess with a slight grin that he does not live in the city—he merely commutes from Kobe or way points each morning of the business ‘week. Osaka 15 much like Pittshurgh or any other American industrial city. ‘The youthful employe of the American bank will tell you Osaka reminds him of Pittsburgh; the importer of Amer- ican raw cotton will say the same | thing; so will the American insurance agent, and each will add that it is like Pittsburgh except that it does not produce steel. Nerve Center of Empire. ‘The Japanese will tell you Osaka and Kobe, especially the former, are the nerve centers of the Japanese em- pire. Upon Osaka the commercial might of the empire depends. It is the largest single importer of raw products from the ends of the earth. These are transmuted through the long daylight and night hours and through feverish processes into the finished goods which today are swamp- ing world markets, causing tariffs to «be raised, quotas to be designated, cre- ating il feeling for Japan abroad. Twenty years ago Great Britain would, and did, fight to maintain her commercial supremacy. Today, threatened by Japan, she erects tariff walls, stipulates quotas and wonders what can be done next without open resort to warfare. Osaka is the party of the first part principally interested, in fact most vitally concerned. Young Men Are Alert. Streets, filled with well-dressed, alert young men. It is their youthfulness and freshness that first strikes the eye. In the Alaska Restaurant, 10 stories up, glass irclosed, they assemble for lunch. They don’t take two hours for “tifin” and then sluggishly slump into an easy chair as they do across the narrow Yellow Sea in Shanghai— the business metropolis of the Far East. Not these people. They eat ’, offices and factories are | | clam chowder or oyster cocktail, onion | soup, a light salad and an ice cream while discussing business with an ! American or one of their own country- | men. With a quick nod, not un- | kindly, to their associates, they dodge back again to their office or shop or factory and quickly absorb themselves in the details of their trades and busi- nesses again. | If there is a depression Osaka | doesn’t appear to have heard of it. In fact, a month ago almost to the | day this city was hit by a terrlflc} | typhoon that came roaring up from | off the Philippines, up the China Coast and through the bottle necks of the famous scenic Inland Sea. When it had passed on its way Osaka estimated the damage as about 300,- 000,000 yen—or, as others said, close to a billion yen, depending upon who make the estimates. At all events it was an enormous damage for a wind lasting less than 10 hours. All Is Normal Again. Osaka then announced to the world through the Japanese foreign office that things are normal again, that it is prepared to fill all outstanding orders before they were sent else- where. No speed had been spared to | gut factories and workshops into full orking order again. Things here | move rapidly. Except that it proves a competitor to their business, Americans ought to admire Osaka, for it is one city they could quickly understand—its speed, its directness, its capacity to take an awful wallop on the chin and then come up smiling again in less than a month. The admiration, however, will not be evoked by the beauty of the place, for Osaka is, like most in- dustrial centers, comparatively ugly. But the spirit of the place is one to ‘wonder at and admire. (Copyright. 1934 by Chicago Daily News.) The Easy Task. From the Paducah (Ky.) Sun-Democrat. ‘The foreign diplomat who asked | America to collect its thoughts appar- | ently thought that easier than collect- ing its war debts. A Mere Trifle. Prom the Beaver Palls (Pa.) News-Tribune. A woman threw her hat into the ring for mayor of Chicago, but if it was the type of hat women wear nowadays the politicians probably never no- ticed it. ~ ' THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, APRIL 7, 1935—PART TWO. Some Myths of History Was William Tell a Real Individual?—Was There Ever a “Man in the Iron Mask”? BY RAFAEL SABATINL OR some centuries the figure of William Tell, that foremost of Swiss national heroes, has been conspicuous in the Pantheon of History. To this day his image. shouldering a crossbow, is to be seen on the Swiss stamps. There is practically no important fact of William Tell's life with whicn we are not acquainted. We learn that he was born and lived at Burglen. A chapel dedicated to his memory, adorned with scenes from his heroic life, stands upon the site. It was built about 1580. Himself noble. he was connected by marriage with the patri- cian house of Attinghausen. He was farming his lands at Burg- len at the dawn of the fourteenth century, when the nucleus of the Swiss Confederation was emerging from the Forest States about Lake Lucerne. Three of these States—Schwytz, Uri and Unterwalden—entered into a solemn league to defend these free ! | communities from the encroachments of the predatory Hapsburgs. In this league William Tell is a prominent figure. An Austrian landvogt or bailiff named Gessler, presumably suspecting the existence of this anti-Hapsburg league, hit upon an ingenious device for discovering the malcontents. He caused a “cap of maintenance’—a symbol of authority—to be set up on a pole in the market place at Altdorf, and demanded that all passers-by should do reverence to it Tell comes along, accompanied by his little son. He pays no heed to the emblem. Challenged. he stoutly refuses to uncover. He is seized. Gessler intervenes. Out of a refine- ment of cruelty, aware of Tell's great reputation as a marksman, Gessler gives him a chance of saving his life. If from a given distance he can hit an apple placed on the head of his son, he shall go free; but if he fails both he and his son shall perish. Tell accepts the condition, having indeed little choice in the matter. His arrow unerringly splits the ap- ple—which must have brought dis- appointment to the tyrant who sat on his horse, a witness of the feat Gessler is reluctant to let him go. He questions him about a second ar- row, which Tell had taken from his quiver and placed ready to his hand in his belt. With the proud, reckless courage of the hero, Tell avows its purpose. If the first had missed the apple. the second would certainly have not missed Gessler's heart. Taken Away to Die. Now. that is not the way to speak to a man invested with despotic power. Gessler orders him bound and brought along to the Castle of Kussnacht,| where he proposes to give himself the | pleasure of hanging this stubborn | rogue. They embark in Gessler's barge, so as to cross the lake to Kussnacht. | A storm springs up. They are in great danger. Tell a powerful fellow, a skilled waterman. He is unbound and given the tiller. He brings the boat alongside a rocky promontory. Then, snatching up his | cross-bow, which had beéfn carelessly | left within his reach, he leaps ashore, | and in the very act spurns the boat back among the windswept waves. On this rocky promontory, known as Tells Platte, stands a commemo- | rative chapel built at the end of the fifteenth or beginning of the sixteenth century. | He clambers up the mountainside | while Gessler and his men are left | to struggle with the storm. He makes | his way to the heights above the | Engegasse, the narrow way, or hollow way, by Kussnacht, there to lie in wait for the homing Gessler, and there, eventually, he shoots him dead. On this spot another commemo- | rative chapel was bullt about 1570. Tell's deed is the immediate cause of the rising of 1291 against the op- pressors, in which he plays a leading part. Again he is prominent in the bat- | tle of Morgarten in 1315, which shat- tered the yoke the Austrians sought to impose upon the Swiss. Finally his death is placed in 1354. Heroic to the end, he loses his life in an attempt to save a child from drowning in the Schachenbach. A statue of William Tell stands in | the market place at Altdorf, on the | spot where he shot the apple from his son's head; it was erected in 1895. | There is another well-known statue of him in Lugano, and lesser statues are dotted up and down Switzerland in honor of this man who for cen- turies has been an inspiration in patriotism to the Swiss people. To his skill with the cross-bow and his feat of markmanship at Altdorf we may attribute the zeal with which the Swiss have aimed at rendering themselves a nation of marksmen. Periodically in Switzerland great shooting competitions are held, at- tended by competitors from every country of Europe. And these un- doubtedly rest upon the inspiration derived from the memory of Willlam Tell, which again they serve to com- memorate. Accretions to the Story. Now, the story of Tell's adventures with Gessler presents many suspicious features. There is an opportuneness about the events and a liberal sea- soning of coincidence to help out dramatic situations. We are justi- fled in suspecting that accretions have swollen the story. But it is staggering to find upon investigation that, in spite of numerous statues erected to his memory; in apite of & 3 RAFAEL SABATINL He explodes some time-honored myths. coat of arms and a very circum- | Marchioly, and his age at the time of stantial personal history, this man never lived at all. In short, that the whole story from beginning to end is a fabrication, a legend, a myth without the slightest founda- tion. With the value of the legend as a national inspiration I am not con- cerned. My concern is solely with its right to a place in history. From this at last, and very reluctantly, it has been expunged. Therefore, I need not trouble now to trace its gradual growth and development through Johannes von Muller and Melchior Russ, back to the White Book of Sarnen, in which it has its spurious source. The Man in the Iron Mask and all the legends that have accumulated about him are much in the same case, for, properly speaking, there never was a Man in the Iron Mask He is one of history’s synthetic mys- teries—a mystery gradually built up by succesive historical writers in their endeavors to explain the initial mys- tery discovered in the earliest accounts of his existence. Let us strip away these speculative explanations, which have been ac- cumulating for 250 years. and con- sider the few bare bones of fact with which we are left. In the reign of Louis XIV there was in the frontier fortress of Pignerol in 1679 a prisoner whose head and face were covered by a mask. After a time, when Pignerol—the modern Pinerolo—was given up to Savoy (in 1694) he was removed thence with other prisoners and trans- ferred to the Ile Ste. Marguerite. Four years later, in 1698, he was trans- ferred again, this time to the Bastile, where he died in 1703. In the register of the Bastile his name was given as' —Underwood Photo. his death was said to have been about 45. D3 WHITE HOUSE GOSSIP President Clevelan riage Was Prin DURING THE EIGHTIES d’s Probable Mar- cipal Tea-Time Topic in Washington. This is the forty-ninth of a series of weekly articles on interesting persons and events in the National Capital during the 80s, by Frank G. Carpenter, world-famous author and traveler. The mext chapter in the series will be published next Sunday in The Star. CHAPTER XLIX. BY FRANK G. CARPENTER.. LEVELAND, the hardest work- ed man of the administration, | ( is apparently the healthiest. | He sleeps like a top when he | does sleep, and grows fat on | work and worry. I heard a day or so ago how surprised his secretary, Col. Lamont was at Cleveland's power of getting along without sleep. When Lamont first called upon him at Buffalo and spent a day or so with him there the two sat talking until after mid- night. Dan supposed that they would sleep until about noon the next day He was aroused at 7 o'clock the next morning by hearing some one black- ing his boots and whistling like a bird in the next room. It was the festive President, dressed, looking fresh as spring water, and ready for breakfast. | Lamont went through some dumb- bell exercises with his shoes to get his | system up to its usual tone, called out “Good morning” as though he was not accustomed to more than five hours’ | lows that the disclosure of his identity must be attended by the gravest conse- | * quences. It also follows that his fea- tures are well-known, that he is a| iperson ot some worldly consequence. Therefore, it comes to be reported that he is treated with the utmost deference, and that he is always ad- dressed as “Monseigneur.” [ This title materially narrows the tion fails to discover the disappear- ance in Europe of any personage of | The mask covering his head and | the eminence implied by it, you would | face lend him at once a mysteriousness | SUPPose that speculation would con- | t which is an incitement to invention. | fess itself at fault and turn in its| President in our history who seems to Since the mask is the starting point | tracks. Not at all. That is not the of the mystery it should also be the Wway of sensation mongers. Since no starting point of investigation. | living monseigneur can be discovered Our first shattering discovery is | to have disappeared, the identity of that the mask is made of velvet—a the prisoner is sought among the| sort of casque, or helmet, covering the dead ones. One man after another entire head, fitting tightly to it and | of monseigneurial rank is put forward held in position by steel springs on as having survived a falsely reported each side. It is not difficult to perceive how fancy was captured by springs. Attention becomes so ab- death. This mask is said to conceal the those steel features of the Duke of Monmouth, beheaded in 1685; of the Duke Beau- sorbed in them that it soon loses sight | fort. who died in Candia in 1669: of of the fabric of the mask itself. As we advance, narratives cease to men- tion it. They mention merely a mask with steel springs. are, after all, akin: and perhaps be- Steel and iron had certainly Louis Comte de Vermandois, son of Louis XIV by Louise de la Villiere, who died in 1683; of Fouquet, who been imprisoned in Pignerol and who died there in 1680. cause iron has a slightly more sinis- and of several others, among whom ter connotation—I can think of no we find the son of Oliver Cromwell. other reason—it comes to be preferred by the sensation monger. Presently the actual springs go the much of this nonsense that way of the velvet; substance remains; of the iron mask is complete. only the metallic the manufacture The | Mask. Voltaire is responsible for so much of this fury of speculation and so it is scarcely too much to say that he is the inventor of the Man in the Iron In his “Siecle d Louis XIV." mystery has become deeper and more to explain the masked prisoner of sinister in consequence. Therefore. | Pignerol, he imagines an elder brother speculation must exert itself still more of Louis XIV, of a countenance so actively to explain it. Such a mask must naturzlly be fixed and immov- able strongly resembling the king's it was necessary to cover his features lest Why else should it be made of | they should betray this terrible secret. iron? Eighteenth century writers are | Because there is something lacking busy clamping. riveting or padlocking here to make this story quite con- this iron pot to the prisoner's head. vincing, another pen, a little later, Inconveniences arising from the in- | explains that this elder brother is ability to wash and the growth of hair really only a half brother, the child and beard are not considered. A reason for this mask must be pro- vided, and imagination goes briskly to provide it. conceal the features of a man it fol- HISTORIC INTEREST CLINGS TO VANISHING BUILDINGS Ieaders of Nation Sheltered in Old Hamburg Houses Being Demolished | by George Washington University. Note.—This is & second and closing article on the historic backgrounds of that section of the city in which George Washington University is lo- cated. BY JESSIE FANT EVANS. HE historic old building at 2027 ‘ G street, soon to be torn down to make way for a new George Washington University build- ing, was once the residence of Comdr. Easby of the United sutes‘ Navy, who was chief of naval con- struction in the Navy Department and son of Capt. Easby, who was a shipbuilder of importance at Easbys Point and owner of extensive lime kilns there. The university purchased this property and the adjoining house, also to be torn down, from Comdr. Easby's two daughters, Rosa L. and Fanny, who never married and who were known for their good works and quiet, unostentatious charities. Building K of the university, which was once St. Rose’s Industrial School, is occupied by the university Library, and so is the common meeting ground of all the university’s diversified groups of students, coming from every State in the Union and from many foreign countries. The building’s ac- quisition by the university was made possible through the generosity and J.blic-spirited interest of Abram Lis- ner of the Board of Trustees, in whose honor it is known as Lisner Hall. Here, in addition to the adequate requirements of a modern university, are interesting old volumes to delight the book-lover's soul. There are rare vellum-covered volumes dating back to the early part of the sixteenth century. valuable and extensive, from the collections of Prof. Curt Wachs- muth of the University of Leipsic and Prof. Heinzel of the University of Vienna. As you unlatch their quaint old clasps you may perhaps view & Boccacio's “Philosophy of Love,” & second edition printed in 1612, with Richard Heinzel’s signature upon the outer vellum cover. There is but one copy of the same book and edition, in the Rare Book Division of the Library of Congress. The university possesses also the most complete known collection of a uniquely rare work entitled “Robert Harris' Collec- tion of Sermons.” The first date given is 1610. This volume has the distinction of having been prinfed on the same press as the works of Wil- liam Shakespeare. But one other copy of this collection of sermons is extant—that owned by the British Museum. A less complete edition has been acquired at great cost by the Huntington Library. A quaint bit of Americana is & volume _entitled “Washington's Po- litical Legacies,” to tached an account “of his illness, death, and natfonal tributes of re- spect paid to his memory. with a bio- graphical outline of his life and char- acter.” Published in Boston by sub- scription in 1800, the list of sub- seribers includes the leading citizens of the time, and by permission the book is dedicated to Mrs. Washington by the publishers. The only other | copy of this volume is in the Rare | Book Division of the Library of Con- | gress. A volume fascinating in its appeal to the collector of old books is one bearing Gen. Woodhull's name, in- herited from his library. It is the “Alice in Wonderland.” Still another in this same category is a first edi tion of “Swallow Barn or a Sojourn Pendleton Kennedy, with this typical | bit, from the author's viewpoint, as to Colonial country life in Virginia: “Here was a thriftless gayety. a dogged but enviable invincibility of opinion, and an overflowing hospitality that knew no ebb.” 1t is interesting to note references to the university in certain old Wash- ington publications in possession of the university library. Thus, in Wash- ington and Georgetown Directory or the Strangers’ Guide Book for Wash- ington and Congressional and Clerks’ Register, printed in 1853, it is stated that “The college (the university at that time was known as Columbian College) was established in 1821 and it has educated a large number of young men, many of whom are now filling distinguished stations of honor and usefulness in our own and other countries. In local advantages the university is unsurpassed by any in- stitution in the country, possessing all the facilities for imparting a thor- ough and liberal education.” Neither were Summer sessions a novelty. In fact, they appear to have been a scheduled part of the colle- giate year, for we note the following announcement in this same volume: “The collegiate yeaf begins on the third Wednesday in July, when an- nual commencement occurs.” Spring vacations, on the contrary, were much more of an extended feature, the statement being made that “There is a vacation of one month from the week in April” On One of Old Maps. In J. H. Colton’s General Atl.l.l.‘ the second edition of which appeared in 1852, the university appears on one of the old maps with the citation: “It has a good library. Its catalog embraces a President and 12 pro- second issue of the first edition of | of Anne of Austria and Cardinal Mazarin. ‘Those who are familiar with Dumas If we are at such pains to will remember what excellent use he makes of this extremely romantic ma- terial in his “Vicomte de Bragelonne.” In some ways this fantastic story is the most plausible that has been put forward to fit the accretions accumu- lated about the bare facts of the Man in the Iron Mask. Corrupted Italian Name. To leave these fictions and return for a moment to the known facts. Marchioly, the name in the register of the Bastile, appears to be a corrup- tion of the Italian name Mattioli. A man named Ercole Mattioli, born in Bologna in 1640, was minister to the Duke of Mantua and Governor of Casale. This frontier fortress was coveted by Louis XIV. and Mattioli | sold it to him for 100.000 crowns. But on the eve of its occupation by the French, Mattioli double-crossed the King by betraying the transaction. Louis XIV was not the man to allow this to go unpunished. but he was faced with obvious difficulties in punishing a foreign subject. However, in 1679 his agents kidnaped Mattioli. who forthwith disappeared. Now, 1679 is the year of the arrival at Pignerol of the prisoner in the mask. subsequently registered at the bastile as Marchioly. Need we look further? Would any one have looked further but for the mask and the irresponsible transmu- in the Old Dominion,” by John | pedient to impose it upon a prisoner | literature of the subject, amounting third week in March to the third| error as a result of faulty observation or faulty interpretation of the facts tation of its substance? ‘The mask itself remains to be ex- plained. It is possible that consider- ing the violation of a frontier entailed by his arrest, it may have been ex- whose anonymity it was desired to insure. On the other hand. it is just as possible that the prisoner was masked of his own volition. After all, the wearing of masks by state pris- oners was by no means uncommon in the seventeenth century, when the mask was recognized as a more or less ordinary article of apparel. Certain it is that the type of mask worn by | was one | — — — the prisoner of Pignerol which he could put on and off at will. It was for this very purpose that it was equipped with the steel springs which are responsible for the vast by now to some 50 volumes. When we reflect before the discovery and manufacture of rubber steel springs ‘were the only elastic substance known to man, the purpose of these become manifest and all mystery vanishes. Careless Reitertaion. ‘The innumerable narratives as fan- tastic and groundless as the two we have examined would never have found their abiding place in history if | historical writers, instead of hammer- ing them in by careless reiteration, had applied to them the tests which common sense dictates should be applied to statements relating to present-day events. In adopting such statements responsible writers pro- ceed cautiously. For one thing, there is today a law of libel to inspire this caution. It helps us to remember that all human evidence is liable to observed. It is also liable to deliberate dishonesty. Human nature does not change. As it is today, so has it been in the past. Therefore it is the duty of the his- torian to deal with the evidence sup- plied by witnesses or chroniclers of the events in precisely the same man- ner as obf in civilized courts to- fessors, including those of the Medical ) sleep during the night and told Cleve- land that he doted upon early rising. Lamont had, I think, intended to have spent a week with Cleveland, but on the next night, after sitting up again until 2 o'clock and being again waked at 7, he feared that his constitution would not hold out with his profes- sions; so pressing business called him opportunely back to Albany. Cleve- land is a good deal like Napoleon in the matter of sleep. A few hours of | field of conjecture upon his identity. | rest puts new life into him, and he ¢ | When the most searching investiga- | looks better now than he did when he came into the White House. Presidential Walkers. President Cleveland is the | only need no amusements whatever. George Washington was noted for his mus- cular development. He was fond of jumping and to the last day of his life kept a pack of hounds for hunt- ing. He could dance upon occasion, but he was careful enough of his health to go to bed every night at 10 o'clock. Jefferson was a great horse- back rider; he rode throughout the country about Washington daily dur- ing his presidency. He usually spent two hours each day in the saddle and he was fond of mixing with his fel- lows. At his home at Monticello, he paid great attention to farming, and he often walked about the streets of Washington while in the White House When Cleveland was inaugurated the press was full of wonder at his getting up for breakfast at 8 o'clock in the morning, and the whole Na- tion patted him on the back for it as it were. Still Washingion got up et daybreak and JefTerson crawled out as soon as the light struck his chamber. John Adams. who was as fat proportionately as Cleveland. used to take a walk trom the White House around the Capitol before his break- fast. which, by the way, he took as early as Cleveland, and John Quincy Adams was wont to go down to the Potomac and take a swim before he ate his morning meal. Both of the Adamses were great walkers, and while John Quincy was President he used to walk out to the race course, two miles from here and back again whenever any great sport was on hand. Andrew Jackson was a hard worker, but he liked horse- racing. cock-fighting and a good so- cial smoke. He often attended the | cock-fights on Washington Heights, above Sixteenth street, and at one of the great races during the days of his presidency he had a horse of his own admitted in the name of his private secretary, Maj. Donelson President Harrison was a great walker. He did much of his own marketing durmng his short stay in the White House. He would get up and go to the market before breakfast, and though he was an old man he often went about without an overcoat. Frank Pierce, another great horseback rider, was accustomed to gallop through the streets of Washington at midnight on a fine blooded steed. Buchanan was a beau socially, and his chief exercise was walking, Lin-| | coln drove about the city often. He !liked the theater where a box was always reserved for him. Grant | walked up and down the broad pave- | ment in front of the White House for an hour or two every morning, | and his love tor horses and driving | amounted to a passion. He was not averse to having his friends call upon him in the evening and he partook of much social enjoyment. Hayes’ reign was a great one socially. while | Arthur kept his house filled with | guests and took a long drive into the | country daily. | Thoughts of Marriage. ‘The report is that President Cleveland is to marry Miss Van Vechten. There is no doubt of the | fact that the young lady has been | spending a great deal of time at the | White House, and it would be strange, indeed. if the President had not paid her some attention. | The gossip about the President merrying springs up with every new | girl to whom he pays a compliment. I doubt not there are a score of Wash- | ington beauties who have set their upon which history depends, the first inquiry should concern the qualifica- | tions of the witness testifying: it | should seek to discover what facilities | he enjoyed for observing the matters which he reports. In the second place, | it should be investigated whether mo- | tives of interest or bias might sway him in one direction or another. In | the third place, corroboration of his statements is to be sought from other | witnesses and from what we may term the’ logic of actual events. Only by such processes of sifting and collating can the truth of any | past transaction ever be reached. It | is certainly true that in the main these processes have beea scrupu- | lously followed by conscientious and | painstaking historical writers. But it | is no less true that very often they have not. The foolish prig who conceives that he is impressive when he asserts that | he never reads fiction because he is a | student of fact, and who rejects with | disdain the well-made, careful and | instructive historical novel, will con- | sume the proud delight (because it | gives him, with little effort, the sense | of being a student) the ill-made grotesque, impossible and sordid fic- tions artlessly presented under the spurious label of fact. It was prob- | ably one of these who as a result of | the particular well from which he | drew his bucket first asserted that | truth is stranger than fiction; but day. To test the truth of statements ) he failed to discover that well-made fiction is never stranger than fact. | caps for him., Matchmaking widows | do their best ogling when they are | in the President’s company, and since | he has been in the White House a full baker's dozen of ladies have been | revorted as sure to marry him. Miss | Folsom of Buffalo was here last Winter with her mother and was courted by not a few as the White House lady in prospect. A few years ago, it is said, Mr. Cleveland paid his attentions to Mrs. Oscar Folsom, and the rumor was that he would marry his old partner's widow. But gossip went on to state that Mrs. Folsom was like the Vicar of Wakefield, a monogamist, having decided prejudices against second marriages. Cleveland then let his eyes drop, and instead of the mother they fell upon the daughter. Miss Folsom was fair to look upon, and it may be that she will yet come here as the White House mistress. Old friends of Cleveland. however, will take you aside and whisper em- phatically that the President will never marry. will tell you, and how true it is I know not, that the only woman that the President every really loved has been in her grave for 25 years or more. He met her, they say, when he was a school teacher in a little town in New York, when the down had just begun to come upon his lip and when she was sweet 16. They loved, but were 00 poor to marry. Cleveland went West to make a fortune, and while he was gone his sweetheart fell il and died. James Buchanan's love jilted him when he was a young man, and he never couried another. Fillmore had much the same experience as Cleveland in that he was too poor to marry when he first fell in love. He went off and spent three years at Buffalo without seeing his swectheart, because he had not even enough to pay the travel- ing expenses over the 150 miles that lay between them The President’s matrimenial affairs form the gossip of the week in Wash- ington. Half a dozen people claim to have seen letters from the family, into which the President is said to be about to marry, speaking of a match which is to take place this Summer. This family is that of the late Oscar Folsom of Buffalo. Oscar Folsom was one of Cleveland's dearest friends. He was his law partner, and after Folsom's death, Cleveland esxtended his friendshi 1 men- tioned previously how it was reported that Cleveland at c time had made love to Folso) s 22, who last year was a student at Wells College. in Aurora. N. Y. Last October she and her mother made a short visit to the White House, and they are now trav Some of the veteran 1 Capital tell me tha wedding is to take place this Summer and that Miss Folsom is laving in a Pars trousseau of extravagant dimensions Others say that Cleve'and is footing all the expenses of the European trip and e or two can predict for you just how the wed ill take place. They declare it will be a quiet affair, something like that of John Tyler, who rushed off to New York one night and was married quietly in one of the churches there. Cleveland will perhaps go off on his vacation and at our breakfast tables we shall read the annotmcement that the President has b2en married and that there were no cards, The Ex-President It is wonderful how little interes* comparatively is taken in a President after he leaves the White House. Chester A. Arthur is now lying at the point of death. and not one man in a thousand in Washington pays any attention to his condition. A little over a vear ago the countrv went wild if he was the least bit ill, and when he had a billious attack durfng his trip to Florida the papers were full of editorials about him Arthur's sickness is largely due to his life at the White House. He lived too high. exercised too lit too scant attention to hours. He did not get his breakfast much before 10 o'clock and his supper did not begin until 9 or 10 o'clock in the evening. He often sat at the table until after midnight and though he was not a glutton, he liked fine wines and terrapin. For a time he took his horseback rides which the doctor prescribed for keeping his system in order: but he soon discontinued them and toward the close of his adminis- tration he grew heavier than ever. He said once that he needed only &ix hours of sleep. but that he generally allowed himself seven President Cleveland takes no more care of himself than did Arthur. The fact that a man as heavy, as he has put on 40 pounds of fat. is against the prospects of good health. Long Live the King! The most painful contrasts in Amer- ican history are found in the lives of our Presidents. The American people are as fickle as the Italians. They worship the up and never look at the down. The King is dead, long live the King! The President of the United States has more power than the Queen of England: the former President is worse off than the ordinary citizen. We exalt a man to the throne for four or perhaps eight years. We expect him to entertain like a prince and to administer affairs like A statesman. At the end of his term we tear his robes from his back, cut off his salary. and cast him upon the world expecting him to maintain the respect due the position he has helc. There is no more pitiful picture than the last days of Jefferson. After a lifetime of hard work for his country, he was worried to death with debts in his old age. His library, which cost him $5€,000, he sold to Congress, which jewed him down to $23.000. John Adams had just enough to keep him- self comfortable at his country home in Massachusetts, and President Monroe spent his last days living on the charify of his relatives. President Arthur left the White House like a gentleman. He attended the inauguration of his successor, and, in turning over the White House to him, he gave Cleveland and his friends a nice little dinner and then withdrew. He took up his residence with Senator Frelinghuysen. There was little that was mean and small about Arthur, and the contrast of his departure from the White House with those of some of his predecessors is greatly in his favor. When Thomas Jefferson was in- augurated, John Adams ordered his carriage in the middle of the night preceding the inauguration and drove away from the White House with the firm conviction that the country was going to the dogs. His son, John Quincy Adams, was out riding in the vicinity of Washington when Andrew Jackson was inaugurated and he would not come in to grace the occa-