Evening Star Newspaper, June 20, 1936, Page 19

FARM ART IS FERTILE THEME AT THE EVENING STAR, WASHIN RING OF TRUTH IS FOUND IN WORKS Sensitiveness to Beauty, Wherever It Is Encountered, Evident in Varied Forms—Horatio Walker, American Painter, Takes Prominent Place in Field Which Was Dominated for So Long a Period by Millet. By Leila Mechlin. IX THOUSAND farm women, from all over the world, recently met in convention in Wash- | S ington. One of the topics dis- ‘ cussed at that time, in round-table conferences, was art on the farm, or in connection with farm life, in its various ramifications. This is a| large and a fertile theme. Art is Just as much an “open window” for | farm dwellers as for shop workers, ex- | tending vision and enlarging sight. | The idea that appreciation of art is | found th.ougn know:edge of nature work was produced. Pigs are not of necessity unsightly or repulsive crea- tures, although many contemporary painters seem to delight in so pictur- ing them. The life that is common does not need to be vulgar. Why should ugliness and vulgarity be starkly represented pictorially for per- petuation? But that is the tendency of present-day art, in painting and in literature. It is & perversion of hu- man instinct, for man craves beauty almost as a necessity and finds con- tentment in looking up rather than down. That which is sordid may tem- lection, is “Moonrise,” a small but characteristic canvass. Among his important works in private collections are “Girl Feeding Turkeys,” “Sheep ‘Washing,” “Peasant Scraping a Pig” and “Ploughing in Acadia.” At an exhibition held by the American Art Association in 1887 Walker's paint- ing entitled “Milking,” a large canvas, was awarded a gold medal by vote of his fellow exhibitors—a signal honor. In 1891 he was elected a member of the National Academy. At the expo- sitions in Chicago, Buffalo, St. Louis and Charleston he received awards. has been proved incorrect, for the | porarily attract the crowd, but it does|In 1906 the Pennsylvania Academy of fact is that through art, and the eyes of the artist, the unrealized beauty of nature becomes manifest. | But art does not merely mean, as | some suppose, painting and sculpture. | It finds manifestation in craft work | as well as in the furnishing of the | farm house and the planting of home grounds. All this was brought out in the recent conferences, in the ex- hibitions set forth by the Depart- ment of Agriculture, and other agen- cies, notable among which was a col- lection of embroidery by an English group. Obviously, art which finds expression in creative effort is of a | most vital sort | But art which manifests the beauty in farm life is by no means to be despised. Such s the art of the great French painter, Jean Francois Millet, and is that of Horatio Walker of our American school Both of these men saw beauty in the homely routine of farm life and gave expres- sion to it in their paintings. They were keen observers, sensitive to beauty wherever found. but also seek- ers for truth. They did not romance or idealize, therefore their paintings | Ting true. Jules Breton was also a good painter, but his peasants in the fields have an air of a ality; they do not be- long, they act a part, just as Marie Antoinette did when she put on peas- ant dress and played she was a farm | maid in the cottage erected for the purpose at Versa BlILLET was of peasant birth, and although he studied under good | masters in Paris, he did not “find | himself” until he returned to country | life and devoted himseif to the in- | of rural subjects. n 1850, first brought In the salon. three| years later. obtained a second- class medal. “The Angelus” was| painted in 1859 and sold to an Amer- ican for 1,500 francs. later to be resold | for 800,000. Many of his subjects | were homely. such as “Pig-killers,” | *“Potato-planters,” “Woman Carrying Buckets,” but he always saw them beautifully. The majority of his paintings which brought him distinc- tion were done in the small farm cottage in Barbizon, near Fountaine- | bleau, where he spent the last 25 years of his life, and reared a fam- | ily, in what we should now consider | great poverty (for he did not re ceive high prices). but also great contentment. When in 1874 his health began to fail, and he realized that | the end was approaching. he is said to have laid down his brushes with regret, saying, “It is such a pity, I should so much like to go on working a little longer.” This is the spirit | of other great artists—our own Wyant, the great Japanese print-maker Hokusai—wt ved their work and continuously ve for finer accom- | ion paint fame he to not hoid attention. It is the tradition | the Fine Arts gave him lts gold medal | plishment. Something of Millet's feeling for his art, and gift as an| artist, can be seen in the three char- | coal drawings and two pastels by him | in the Clark collection of the Cor-| coran Gallery of Art. Indeed, often a better understanding of an artist, his viewpoint and equipment may be had from his drawings than from his Ppaintings—his finished works. The service that Millet did in turn- ing attention to the potentialities of beauty in farm life in France has | been continued in this country by | Horatio Walker, born in Listowel. On- tario, Canada. in 1858, and repre- | sented in the Corcoran Gallery of Art | by his exquisite and masterly paint- ing, “Ave Maria.” Walker was [he‘ =on of an English army officer. From | Canada his family went to Rochester | to live, and from there, in 1885, he | found his way to New York and seri- | ously began his career as a painter. It is said that he was mostly self- | taught, and. after all, that is true of | many accomplished painters, for art | eomes from within, and only the me- ehanics thereof can be learned from others. Although Horatio Walker mzm-’ tained a residence and studio in New | York from 1885 until a few years ago, he went for the majority of his subjects to the Island of Orleans, in | the St. Lawrence River, about 20 miles | from Quebec. “Here,” we are told, “the | descendants of the early French set- | tlers still retain the simple faith, and | habits, and fine ingenuousness of the | peasants of northern France; a sturdy | race, close to the soil, and drawing | dignity as well as nourishment there- from, perpetuating their origin even in their belongings; the domestic uten- sils, the farm implements, in the | racial characteristics of their horses and oxen, and in the very fashioning of their harness.” No doubt the picturesqueness of this Hife appealed to Mr. Walker but he saw in it something more than that. There is a sturdy quality, strength and simplicity, vitality and integrity as well, in the pictures he has painted of these peasant people, our northern neighbors beyond the great boundary river. It has been said that man is the most interesting of all exhibits to man, and doubtless this is true. Re- member how the benches on the boardwalk at Atlantic City are turned, back to the ocean and toward the passing show, consisting of human- ity. And life is the problem which among all others engrosses most at- tention. Horatio Walker has shown us man in relation to life with sympathy and understanding. And he has found ‘both good: not from artificial veneer but inherent nobility and orderliness. As, in a measure, Winslow Homer painted the seafaring people of the Maine coast, so Walker has painted the farm people of the Island of Or- leans, more gentle perhaps but also rugged and self-contained. WALKB'R did not avoid homely sub- jects—one of his paintings is of “Boy Feeding Pigs.” another was of & *Pig Stye” but in such instances it was not to emphasize ugliness and filth but to set forth pleasing effects of light and shade and color that his v | head | what a composition! of beauty exemplified in great works of art that has attracted hordes of | travelers to Europe and still does. The mundane, the commonplace, has no power to stir the emotions. Walker's “Ave Maria” coran Gallery of Art shows a French Canadian farm boy pausing, on his | way home, at evening, to bow his in prayer before a roadside crucifix. The sun has set and the sky is illuminated by the afterglow, a glorious radiance, which gilds with light the figure of the Savior on the cross. Such a scene as this, once witnessed, would never be forgotten. Mr. Walker has preserved it for us for all time. But this is not a tale which, once told, loses its meaning. There is always new meaning in this painting. One stands before it in reverence and delight. Never was an afterglow more beautifully painted. It is not pigment. but the very es- sence of light that the painter has given us. We are moved by Nature's manifestation as much as by the painter's art. Realism perhaps, but realism of a very high order. And | The dark clouds | above balancing the dark-shadowed earth below, the figure on the cross complementing the group on the road- way. It is a record of a great mo- ment. Even the dull, heavy oxen | seem awed. The universe seems to | pause to behold the miracle of beauty to which the simple peasant pays | tribute in mute prayer—the figure on the cross, representing man’s redemp- tion, seems likewise the symbol, sin and sorrow overcome. But the dra- matic is at no point overdone or too much emphasized. To the contrary, this picture is very quiet and full of dignity. It is gravely and very beau- tifully painted. The Corcoran Gallery is more than fortunate in its posses- sion. ONE of the first paintings by Horatio Walker to be shown in Washing- ton was “Oxen Drinking,” which was shown in an exhibition” held under the auspices of the Society of Wash- irgton Artists in tha hemicycle of the Corcoran Gallery of Art more than 20 years ago. A yoke of oxen were pic- tured drinking from a trough beside a well, their driver standing by to the left, waiting for them to be done. In the distance, across open fields, one sees the houses of a rural settlement, the spire of a church. But the sky is dramatically cloudswept; a violent Summer storm seems immi- nent. Some of the same feeling that is found in “Ave Maria” is here, but on the whole the effect is more usual and less impressive. The City Museum of St. Louis owns Mr. Walker’s “Wood Cutters,” an ex- cellent work, which certainly would have won the plaudits of Millet and not unlikely of Cezanne, by its strength, and vigor, action and fine interpretation. In this collection also is his “Milking—Evening”—likewise a notable work. “The Harrower—Morn- ing,” “The Harrower” and “The Sheepfold” are all in the Metropolitan Museum, New York; the Albright Gal: lery, Buffalo, has “Sheep Shearing” the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, “A Cenadian Pastoral.” and here in the National Gallery of Art, Evans col- r in the Cor- | tant horizon. These risings and set- tings of the sun, that he loved so much, have run their course through the ages; not a little of his love of them no doubt is due to their sug- gestion of infinity in relation to the life of man; and that life, too, he prefers to view as itself a heritage of the ages.” American Primitive Dominates Art Work Under W. P. A. THE national exhibition of oil paint- ings, sketches for murals, water colors and prints, produced under the art project of the Works Progress Maria,” by Horatio Walker, on exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery of Art. | of honor, Of his art it has been said that | while immediately concerned with | the local and individual, it also has to | do with beauty in the abstract and with the relation of that which is finite and temporary to that which is universal and eternal. It is this uni- | versality of truth. in conection with | the elemental, that gives to Walker's | paintings permanency of interest, | timelessness. | work was derived from something in | himself we can easily believe. “It | comes,” | ago, “of the large seriousness with | which he thinks and works, of the true perspective through which he views his subject, wherein facts and sentiment take their relation to a dis- That this quality in his | wrote C. C. Caffin some years | Administration, which opened, with a private view, in the Phillips Memorial Gallery last Monday, to continue until July 5, is geographically, as well as | specifically, comprehensive. Of the | 122 or 123 exhibits 54 come from New York, 12 from Pennsylvania, 8 from Massachusetts, 6 from Cali- fornia, with from 1 to 5 each from the District of Columbia, Colorado, Towa, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Jer- sey, Ohio and Wisconsin. The works shown are in a great variety of media and set forth many diverse themes. One whole gallery is set aside for children’s work, 10 paintings and 3 works in sculpture, done by under- GTON, D. C, | paintings | selve SATURDAY, . JUNE 20, 1936. B3 WOMEN’S SESSIONS “Golden, Colorado,” by Eugene Trentham, included in the national exhibition of the Federal art project of the Works Progress Ad- ministration, on view at the Phillips Memorial Gallery. houses and other social centers in| New York City. All of the exkibi in this unusual showing were sele ts d and arranged by Mr. Phillips, dircctor | of the gallery; Mrs. Phillips, who has attained to distinction as a painter and C. Law Watkins, educational director of the gallery and director of Studio House. The display occu- pies not only the main gallery on the second floor, but the foyer, stair | hall, library, living room and dining room on the first floor and five rooms above stairs. The exhibits are hung with the utmost care and attencion to effect, and are as beautifully shown and as well lighted as though they were the works of great masterc. The artists should be much gratified, for certainly their works could not pos- sibly be shown under better circum- stances or more distinguished aus- pices But perhaps this very fact stumbling block to their ecvaluati One expects so much znd finds so little. Never was thcre a more puz- 2ling and disturbing displav. The visitor familiar with the zreat art of the world. knowing weli tne revclu tionary steps in its develcpment, eager for the discovery of new tajent, is confronted with work which is trivial and childish and without the qualities which, widely varying, unmistakably set aside 2 real work of art. Seen as the product of an extensive Federal relief program, these and prints would afford food for thought, but would not so amaze and perpl x as now, o are exhibited under the mos | ing conditions as of worth in taem. . The more one looks the greater | becomes the bewilderment, the riore | useless the standards of jrdgment established through -onsensus of the leaders in this field, not merely tor generations, but centuries. In this instance these must either be ois- carded as outgrown and no longer ep- plicable, or the works under con- sideration adjudged below the mark Short of a heaven-sent sign of reve- lation, to cling to the standards which have so persisted would certainly seem the more logical course. | It has been said that these paint- ings show a wide range of expression and vigor, and independence of style— that the work is imaginative—that it shows nationalistic trends and, finally, that the artists manifest “a new sense of identification with local backgrounds and tradition.” But to many the | impression is of extraordinary same- ness—a childish naivete—an unimagi= native outlook, and contentment in transcribing that which is‘most com- monplace and unlovely. That the | privileged youngsters, guided and in- | works are objective, illustrative, there structed by teachers functioning under | is no doubt, but we are supposed to ]‘ this art project. This particular work have got beyond this phase and be. was all done in clubs, commurity | come interpreters rather than copy- is a| tll | ART IN WASHINGTON ‘The Corcoran Gallery of Art, Seventeenth street and New York avenue northwest—Open week | | days from 9 to 4:30 o'clock. Sun- days 2 to 5 pm. and Mondays | | 12" n0on to 4:30 p.m. Permanent Collections—Paint- | | ings by American artists, paint- ings by European artists of the nineteenth century. The Clark | | collection, Frengh period rooms, | tapestries, lace, paintings and | | drawings. Sculpture by Amer- | | ican sculptors, Barye bronzes, St ! Memin portrait collection. Prints | | and miniatures. ! The National Gallery of Art, { | United States National Museum, | Constitution avenue at Tenth street northwest—Open daily 9 | | am. to 4:30 pm. Sundays 1:30 to 4:30 pm. The Gellatly col- lection of paintings by American artists and object d'art. The | | Harriet Land Johnston and the Ralph Cross Johnson collection of paintings by old masters, the William T. Evans collection and ranger bequest paintings by American artists. Also nucleus National Portrait Gallery—war portraits. Herbert Ward sculp- tures of African Negroes. Works in plaster by American sculptors. The Freer Gallery of Art, on the Mall opposite National Gal- lery of Art—Open daily except Monday from 9 a.m. to 4:30 pm Collections bequeathed by Charles L. Freer. Oriental art and art of the Near East—sculpture, paintings. bronzes, potteries, miniatures, etc. Paintings, prints and the peacock room by Jamef McNeil Whistler, paintings by group of American artists The Library of Congress, Di- vision of Fine Arts—Open daily 9 am. to 10 p.m. Saturdays 9 am. to 6 pm., Sundays 2 to 10 | | pm. On exhibition—lithographs | | by Joseph Pennell, prints by con- | | temporary Europeans and Amer- | | ican print-makers, original illus- trations from Cabinet of Ameri- can Illustrations. Others on re- quest. Photographs of early Colonial architecture. Art read- ing rooms. ists. The majority of the pictures set forth in this exhibition are urban scenes; there are very few landscapes and these few are dreary and topo- graphical, with perhaps one or two | exceptions. Here and there one comes | across a glint of humor, but not often, | and from first to last one finds al- | most no expression of sheer joy. But what joy is there in painting pictures to pay for a dole? ‘Why should |Fine Work Is Done by Miss Corby With Some Credit in the Prize Class. By Florence S. Berryman. CULPTURE, like architecture, is generally regarded by the av- erage person as & heroic me- dium better suited to the abili- ties of men than of women. The chances of the latter for pre-emi- nence would appear to be stronger in painting, etching or literature. But as a matter of fact, the works of cer- tain American woman sculptors in the past two decades have been not merely good, but outstanding. Monu- mental war memorials, - equestrian statues, bronze gates, architectural decorations have been produced by Anna Hyatt Huntington, Evelyn Longman Batchelder, Malvina Hoff- man and Angela Gregory, to mention but a few of them. The character of their work is such that it merits consideration with the best American sculpture, not with “the best by wom- en” or any other qualifying phrase. ‘Washington now has a young sculp- tor whose name may be added, some day, to that list of distinguished women—Eleanor Corby. She is both a native and resident of Washington, although Maryland can also claim her, through her house at Chevy Chase circle. has entered work in only three pub- lic exhibitions—the Greater Wash- ington Independent Artists’ Exhibi- tion, shown in nine department stores in April and May, 1935, in which her “Head of a Negro” received the sec- ond prize for sculpture; the annual of the Society of Washington Artists at _the Corcoran Gallery last Janu- ary, in which her “Girl Braiding Her Hair” won the popular prize, and the special exhibition of works by local artists, held at the National Museum two months ago, under auspices of the General Federation of Women's Clubs. Her “Head of a Russian Peas- ant,” shown in the last-mentioned ex- 4 as the District line extends | Still in her early 20s, Miss Corby | of the latter. Washington Girl, as Sculptor, Models Miss Eleanor Corby with Frau Herbert Blankenhorn, wife of the German attache, and the portrait bust she has made hibition and reproduced in The Star of April 11, is a portrait of the young woman who posed for Epstein's “Oriel | Ross,” but Miss Corby was not aware of this fact until the Epstein sculp- ture was shown here by the Junior League early this year. ISS CORBY thinks-her interest in modeling began when she was “making mud pies” at the Montesori School some years ago. She subse- quently attended the National Cathe- dral School for Girls, where she studied under Mrs. Lola MacDonald Sleeth. In 1932 Miss Corby worked under J. Maxwell Miller at the Cor- coran Art School, and the same year spent several months in New York City, studying under Hans Reiss at the Reiss School. “Public appearances” of her work began the following year, when her statuette, “Youth Ready to Serve,” | for the Junior N. R. A. of Massachu- setts, was T presented to President | Roosevelt by Edward A. Filene, ehair- | man Embassy. She is now working on man of the Massachusetts State Re- covery Board in 1933. This figure was reproduced on a pin worn by mem- bers of the Junior N. R. A. of Massa- chusetts. Two years ago Miss Corby again worked on sculpture :n New York City for several months with occasional criticism by Paul Manship. Most of her work to date has been portraiture, for which she is well equipped by her gift for achieving ¢x- cellent likenesses of her sitters. Her studio, incidentally, presents sn inter- esting study in ethnology, as she has made portrait busts of persons of 11 different nationalities, and has kept casts of most of them. Among them have been Capt. Berislav Ahgelino- vitch and Ivan Franges of the Yug slav Legation, Dr. Josef Nemecik, Czechoslovak Legation; Edward Wein- tal of the Polish Embassy, and H. M. Van der Wyck of The Netherlands Legation. Miss Corby has nearly com= pleted a portrait bust of Frau Blank- enhorn, wife of an attache at the Ger- T Racial Types Individuality Is Well Defined and Subjects Skillfully Shown by Artist. - a life-size statue of Marcus Woodring, 2-year-old son of the Assistant Sec- retary of War, and grandson of Sen- ator Coolidge of Massachusetts, ISS CORBY has also made M busts of Henrietta Reiss (Eng- lish), noted textile designer; E. A. Lopez, Venezuelan painter, and a number of Americans, all of which are straightforward likenesses. A few others are sensitive interpretations of mood. Mario Braggiotti; Italian pianist, 1s represented as improvising, with an expression of dreamy intro- spection. Hatsu Kuma, Japanese singer, is perhaps the most stylized head, modeled with economy of de- tail, and telling emphasis on hair ar- rangement in carrying out design; this bust has serenity and contempla- tive quality. The well-defined individuality of all these works, careful differentiation between long heads and round heads and other variations of bone construc- tion, set of eyes, etc., convinces one of their faithful presentation of the physical characteristics of the re- spective subjects. Miss Corby expressed admiration of the work of Paul Manship, Georg Kolbe, German sculptor; Ivan Mes- trovic, Yugoslavian, and Jo Davidson, American. None of the stylistic man- nerisms of the first three are discern- ible in her work, however; perhaps Mr. Davidson's sculpture is her chief influence. She has essayed other types of work occasionally; a pair of book ends, in the form of hands, 8 man's and a woman’s, has been particularly suc- cessful. Reproduced in wood, and also in ceramics on & wooden base, these book ends have been acquired by a number of private collectors. Miss Corby expects to go to Europe with her mother and sister the end of August, and plans to study in Italy. She is well prepared to get a maxi- mum of benefit from her trip. | we expect it Bome of these painters do a picture a day, others take five or six weeks to produce a canvas. The | pay is from $35 to $103 a month, and | the works produced are the property | of the Federal Government. Seventy- | five per cent of the s employed | are young and practically unknown | The hope has been that from among | these some of extraordinary talent | will emerge, but the works exhibited | do not encourage fulfillme | Strangely enough, the dominant in- | fluence in this work, as a whole, is the so-called “American primitive"—: of amateurs of a century or more ago —which have been discovered and ex- ‘!enn\'ely exploited by certain wealthy | collectors this past year. These paint- ers are primarily picture makers, not | artists, and in most instances they [ have not learned their craft. Some have produced works which are es- sentially graphic, but they tell us next to nothing of their own reac- tions either mental or emotional. Per- | haps they have nothing to tell. But | if so, more is the pity. Also, as the exhibition is so distinctly geograpt cal, the thought is forced home th: many of these painters have no knowl- | edge of tradition and little or no | conception of the width and breadth | and inner meaning of art. If so perhaps the present experience may lead to an awakening, but not unless | extension of knowledge goes hand oduce. does the master our ons shall in hand with oppc capable aspirations and deepest em week through mi. til Septembe nd in the al is assistant die series of es of Modern / as heret at 5 o'cl GENIUS OF WIRES (Continued from Page B-1) ! over the world. Every great newspaper in America has a correspondent here and so have the newspapers of Ber- lin, London, Petrograd, Paris, et al Of course, the foreign correspond- ents send their stuff by cable; but even so it must clear from that little room on Thirteenth street—for the cable wires and the telegraph wires are sisters under the insulation. As a matter of fact, the news must be telegraphed out of Washingtcn be- fore it can reach a cable—in New York. So that room has the honor of knowing more about what is happen- ing in Washington than 211 the com- | bined heads of news services in the town, and knowing it first. There has to be, naturally, a cer- tain amount of ethics involved in this sending of the news—otherwise one news service would not be able, from time to time, to score a beat—a scoop, an exclusive story. While Washington is the great news center, sometimes the scene shifts— as it did when the Republican National | | Convention was operating in Cleve- | |land, and as it will again when the Democrats take up the white man’s burden in Philadelphia next week. Even so—that little Toom on Thir- teenth street remains as busy as a bee- hive, for news comes into that room as fast as it goes out, on those occa- | sions when the news center of the Nation carries a different date line | from Washington, D. C. When the orators orate in Philadel- | | phia, and when the President, espe- | cially, makes his acceptance speech, the wires will buzz—and when the | wires buzz the teletype instruments in | the Thirteenth street room will hum. | | For that is the collecting as well fls‘ the distributing point for news. | Ordinarily, such a room should be | manned by newspaper men, but there | is not a newspaper man in the place. | Instead, only highly-trained techni- | cians. They are not concerned with | what goes over their wires so much | as they are with how the wires carry | the freight. It is freight, and precious | freight at that: perishable freight, as every newsman knows. The story | that was a “lead all” at 9 o'clock in | the morning is a dead issue at 5 o'clock in the afternoon, which is the WAY news goes. | | | | | THE handling of this news, though. is something else again. Under the old system, granted the same set- | up was in operation, every man who had a piece of copy to file would | probably send it to this room by a | messenger boy. Now, all that same correspondent has to do is file it in his own office. It will turn up on the teletype, be distributed at the little room on Thirteenth street, and even- tually find its way into some news- paper office—in one of the 48 States. They are mighty proud, and justly 50, up there on Thirteenth street over | the manner in which they get out this news service. They serve all manner of men—special Washington correspondents, news services—and that means everything under high| heaven, from racing news to sports to politics. Nothing seems to dazzle the corps of operators in charge of the teletype machines, for the machines have been 8o perfected that they need no human services, with few exceptions. Some one must oil them, but no one is needed to start or stop them, pro- | viding the electricity hoids out. 1 i | are ready to carry some | news. IT COMES about that while the news is tr | over the telet humans con with this transe- mission kne g about what is oing on over the wire. They st: the machines in the morning and cut them off when the news correspondents have finished sending. Or. the machines start and stop themselves In the case of the Associated Press, | which is on the job 24 hours a day, the machines never stop. In the offices of the Associated Press in The Star Building there is a battery of machines grinding away day and night—with the tion of three hours on each Sunday morning, between 6 and 9: but even then they important should anything hap- those somber Sunday piece of news pen within hours. Double and triple trunk lines are necessary to handle the traffic in Close to a hundred thousand miles of these wires are in operation 24 hours a day for the A. P. alone. Double wires, used less than the 24 hours, total more than 16,000 miles. Then there is a network of single State and interstate wires running a length of another hundred thousand miles. Special sporting and financial wires are extra added attractions and cover close to 50,000 miles. 'HUS, from Washington emanates the greatest network of wires the world has ever known. Most of these wires start at the cen« tral distributing point, which is the little room on Thirteenth street, in tle Telephone Building Toll traffic superintendent at tlis point is A. A. Gazda, and Mr. Gazia will tell you that the most interestiag job in the world is routing wordsge destined to find its way into eviry large city, every little hamlet, ev:ry small town in America—and over the seas. Occasionally, it becomes necessar; to supplement the wire service with tle- phonic communication — and in the room adjoining the teletype exchange is the long-distance service out of Washington, where some 200 operaors are on the job at once. newt ASIAN ARTS Japanese Summer pocketbooks, beverage trays and coaster sets. Chinese pewter and porcelain ash trays, unusual cinnabar and bronze book ends and vases. 1143 Conn. Ave., Nat. 4535 STUDY this Summer in our air-conditioned studios FELIX MAHONY’'S NATIONAL ARY SCHOOL IMTR 1 AVE N W, NA 258