Evening Star Newspaper, April 14, 1935, Page 29

CATHOLIC PEACE DINNER APRIL 22 Event Will Feature Two-Day Conference—Leaders to Take Part. Representitives of the diplomatic corps, the hierarchy, Government offi- cials, Catholic organizations, semi- naries, colleges and universities in various sections of the country have been invited to attend the international dinner to be held at the Mayflower Hotel April 22 as a feature of the ninth annual conference of the Catho- lic Association for International Peace. The conference will be in ses- sion April 22 and 23. Most Rev. Michae! J. Curley. Arch- | will serve as | bishop of Baltimore, honorary chairman of the General Committee in charge of the conference. Dr. Herbert Wright of Catholic Uni- versity will be chairman of the inter- | national dinner, and among the speakers will be Prof, Charles G. Fen- wick of Byrn Mawr College and Prof. Parker T. Moon of Columbia Univer- sity. Many well-known Catholic leaders, both laymen and clergy, will take part in the conference. The session will open with 14 committees holding separate meetings on the morning of the first day. That afternoon Michael Fragcis Doyle of Philadelphia will preside at a general meeting On April 23 Rev. John La Farge of | New York will preside at the morn- ing session. which Mrs. H. F. Chadeayne of St. Louis will preside, will present a num- ber of students who will discuss ques- tions of the international peace. The afternoon session will be de- | voted to a discussion of the church question in Mexico, at which a num- ber of distinguished leaders will | speak. A business meeting and elec- tion of officers will conclude the con- ference. ‘AIDA’ TO BE GIVEN AT SYLVAN THEATER Director of Capital Civie Opera Company Asks for More Singers. All the colorful costumery and full orchestral accompaniment of Verdi's “Aida” will be staged by an all-Wash- | ington cast in the open-air Sylvan Theater June 5, it was announced yesterday by the Capital Civic Opera Co. The opera will be presented un- der direction of Eugene Martinet, who organized the group here last year. Since it is being given in the open | air, it will be necessary to increase the number of singers and Martine: has asked all Washington singers to get in touch with him at the Central High School any Tuesday. Rehearsals| are being held at the Central High School. The Capital Civic Opera Co. pre- sented “Cavalleria Rusticana” as its initial performance at the Wardman Park Theater last February 5. It is| planned to present several of the lead- ing operas in order to give local sing- | ers an opportunity to sing. The presentation of *“Aida” was made possible through the co-opera- tion of the District Community Cen- | ter Depurtmem wi!.h the opera group. | CONGRESSMEN GUESTS Pennsylvanians to Attend Demo- eratic May Day Dance. The Democratic congressional dele- | gation from Pennsylvania will be guests at a May day dance to be held by the Pennsylvania Democratic Club of Washington at the Shorenam Hotel May 1. Plans for the affair are being su- | pervised by Joseph F. Quinn, chair- man of the club. ® PLAY YOUR FAVORITE INSTRUMENT @ A NEW XYLOPHONE and 55 Private Lessons for Only Mr. Batalini, staf lnxtruclov, playing his ‘master zylo- Phone. Our Latest Combination Offer + .+ and one of our best. Just think of buying 2 new Deagan Xylophone and learning to play it for only $1.50 weekly. There is no other charge—you are required to pay for a few lessons in advance, but you take the instrument home at once. The instruction is given by one of our selected staff teachers at hours convenient to you. given opportunities to gain experience by playing on our radio programs and in special concerts, Come in today and let us give you 2 free demonstration Similar Offers on the Piano, Accordion, Cornet, Trampet, @ . Saxophone, Clarinet, Violin or Trombone elso available @ on the Same Low Payment Plan. HOMER L. A peace luncheon, at| BY FRANK L. CARTER, JR. i She is the daughter of a former slave in Maryland’s Prince Georges County, and 70 years ago today she Wwas an eyewitness to the escape of the man who shot Abraham Lincoln. “Aunt Maria” Simms. well past 80 now, and on Federal relief, can't “rightly” remember her age, but she recalls the events of that tragic April 14, 1865, as though they were yester- day. Fresh from the Maryland planta- , tion where she had been freed when she was 10 year old, Aunt Maria be- came a maid's helper at one of the houses that faced on E street, and Settled in the servant's quarters in | Baptist's alley opposite the F‘ord‘ | Theater. | Saw Flight Begin. Here it was that she heard the fatal | shot and saw the beginning of the | wild flight of John Wilkes Booth fol- | lowing the murder of the emancipa- tor of her race. For in this alley Booth ‘hnd his horse waiting. [ To this and the exciting scenes that fcllowed, Aunt Maria, then called “Topsy.” was an eyewitness. She viewed them from the porch overlooking the alley where she and three of her brothers and sisters | slept. Shortly after dusk they had been | sent to bed, but were wide awake listening to the music and the hum | of voices from the theater when the | | crack of a pistol reached her ears. She thought it was part of the play at first, she says. But almost im- mediately thereafter she heard a com- | motion in the alley and peeked over | the rail in time to see Booth fell the young lad who was holding his horse, mount it and dash away. The remainder of the night, ac- cording to Aunt Maria, the young servant children crouched in their beds listening to the tramp of march- ing feet, the sound of musket fire and the excited questioning | that filled the alley. Recalls Old Scenes, | Al this and more was refreshed in | Aunt Maria’s memory the other day when she walked down Tenth street to view the new Government build- ings on the Avenue. Downtown Washington is hardly recognizable to her now, for she first saw the District when its streets were “a cloud of dust in Summer and a| | mire of mud in Winter.” Today Aunt Maria is as spry as many women scores of years younger. Not quite 5 feet high and with gray- white hair, she faces the world with a happy mien, though she says times are | hard and she must rely on the Fed- | eral Government for subsistence. | " Before the Civil War she was a| housemaid in the “big house” on a plantation in Prince Georges County. She is the daughter of Adam Simms |and a granddaughter of Lucinda | Green, who were both slaves of a family in nearby Maryland. | When the War Between the States | started Aunt Maria's master freed her | and all of his slaves. Her grandmother | then brought her to Washington with | her brothers and sisters, where at first | they lived on “the island”—now South- | west Washington—which was sep- arated from the rest of the District by a canal. Several years later Aunt Maria with | ‘her kinfolk became servants for the | Davis family, which lived on E street | { between Ninth and Tenth. It was while she worked there that she wit- nessed the events following Lincoln’s | death. voices Coal Oil Lamps. After her visit to the Avenue the | other day Aunt Maria recalled many | of the sights of her early youth. When she was a girl, she said, the street | i lights were coal oil lamps set in glass | | JOE HIGH| INCORPORATED " "OuR PLUMBER” As students progress they are lesson. KITT CO. 1330 G Street HOME OF THE KNABE PIANO THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C. 'APRIL 14, 1935—PART ONE. HODGES FIBRE RUGS Remembers Booth’s Flight “Aunt Maria” Simms, Daughter of Slave, Has Seen Capital Grow. “AUNT MARIA" SIMMS. Who witnessed the escape of John Wilkes Booth in the alley of the Ford Theater, after he had assas- sinated President Lincoln, —Star Staff Photo. frames, and in that day their chief pleasure on Sunday was to walk along the canal or to St. Patrick’s Cemetery. Tiber Creek, she recalled, was flanked on one side by a footpath which was used for a promenade and an the other by a road that on Sun- | days teemed with fine carriages. She | also recalled the canal boats that | floated up and down the creek. She has lived in Washington through three war-time eras: the Civil War, the Spanish-American War and the | World War, with all of their prosperity and depression periods. During the War Between the States, she remembers the city being over- | | run with soldiers. “We uster follow them around.” she says, up the money they'd drop, and take them back to gran-mammy.” Many | of the bills, she recalls, were of 20, | 25 and 50 cent denominations. Notes Changed Times. From candleg to electricity, from horse-drawn carriages to automobiles, from dirt streets to paved highways, | and from horse cars to motor busses “and pick | the “Topsy” of slave days has watched the city grow, and has seen the world change, as she expresses it, “from an old folks to a young folks world.” Many of Washington's outstanding personages she has known; chief among them was Dr. Mary Walker, the Civil War surgeon who advocated equal rights for women and wore masculine attire. Today Aunt Maria patiently awaits the time when she will be called to “green pastures” to once more join her friends of yesterday. —— B’NAI B'RITH PLANS FOR MAY CONCLAVE International Convention Here Expected to Be Order's Most Important. The international convention of the B'nal B'rith to be held at the Willard Hotel from May 4 to May 8 will be the most important conclave in the his- tory of the fraternal order, according to Harry Viner, chairman of the local ing preparations to welcome the dele- gates. Vital decisions will be made by the delegates on the work of the organi- zation in combatting Hitlerism and the spread of Nazi propaganda. Since the last quinquennial conven- tion of the order the B'nai B'rith has greatly increased its membership and expanded its activities. District No. 5, of which Argo Lodge of Washing- ton is a constituent, has been par- ticularly active during the past few years, increasing its enroliment from 300 members to more than 600. For the second consecutive year, according to Viner, the Washington lodge has oversubscribed its quota to | organization. to maintain the Anti-Defamation League and the A. Z. A, a junior branch of the order. 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