Evening Star Newspaper, August 8, 1937, Page 34

Signs Recall Refuge For Marie Antoinette French Royalists Built Largest Log House in U. S. Near Wyalusing, Pa., for Queen’s BY JESSIE FANT EVANS. To many it is news that a band of royalist refugees from France in 1793 established near what is now Wyalusing, Pa., & colony where they hoped their glamorous Queen, Marie +Antoinette, might find refuge with the royal children and certain members of the King's household during those perilous times when the French throne was tottering to its ultimate fall. Here, upon a broad expanse of mountain fastness looking out over the Bhenandoah’s winding way, they built “La Grand Maison,” or “Queen’s House,” the largest log structure ever erected on the American continent. Eighty-four feet long by 60 feet wide, its 16 large fireplaces, eight to each of its two floors, were planned to provide such comfort for the expected royal guest as pioneer conditions would per- mit. From the name which they gave this, the great central dwelling of “Azilum,” or “French Town Asylum,” as the project became known to nearby American neighbors, it is sur- mised that they either did not expect Louis XVI or were aware that his death had occurred. Today, & monument along the Sulli- van and Roosevelt Highway near the top of Rummerfield Mountain at Rock Mount, between Wyalusing and To- wanda on Route 6, recalls to the pass- ing motorist the one-time existence of this, one of the strangest and most dramatic of all of the colonies which existed for a time in our New World. Oddly enough, its real history, until long afterward, remained more or less & mystery and a tradition. “The Count” Arrives. In flight from the horrors of the Prench Revolution there came to Philadelphia in 1792 Viscount Marie de Noailles, who was to become fami- liarly known as “The Count” in the New World colony which he was to help motivate. Accompanying him was Marquis Antoine Omer Talon, head of Louis XVI's secret service and chief plotter for the King's escape from | Paris. Forthwith, upon their arrival in America, they began to formulate plans for assembling at some refuge | in America many of their associates | among the nobility in France and cer- tain other monarchists already in exile in the Rrench colony in San Domingo, where their slaves, stirred by revolution in France, had revolted against them. Descendants of the more loyal slaves | who chose to remain with their owners and accompany them to Penn- sylvania are still to be found in Bradford and Sullivan Counties. In- termarriage with Indians and trappers and much interbreeding among them- selves have produced a strangely blended race colloquially known as *“Pooles,” probably a diminutive from Van der Poole, one of the most dis- tinguished of the early French slave- holding families. These “Pooles,” be- cause of their dark skins and gutteral patois, are easily recognizable among their present neighbors to whom they present & community problem. Fought for Independence. De Noailles, brother-in-law of the Marquis de Lafayette, and son of Marie Antoinette's first lady of honor, as well as a frequent partner of the Queen’s at court balls, was already | favorably known in America as one of the most brilliant followers of mili- tary science in the annals of his time. Not only had he, like Lafayette, fought with the Continental Army in the cause of American inde- pendence, but he also had been com- | plimented several times by Gen. Wash- ington in his orders and further dis- tinguished by being designated with an American officer to receive the | sword of Cornwallis at the surrender | of Yorktown. His father, the Marechal de Mouchy, was & member of the French Assembly and a great favorite &t the French court. All of his family, except his son and daughter, perished | by the guillotine. The site which De Noailles and Talon selected as a refuge or asylum | n the State of Pennsylvania for their | Queen and their fellow-countrymen oontained over 2.000 acres, whose broad, pleasing panorama is at this peason viewed by hundreds of passing motorists from an opposite shore of the Shenandoah, where a boulder monument with a bronze tablet com- memorates the memory and deeds of the many distinguished scions of | old France who were residents or visitors here during the colony's duration. House Torn Down in 1842, W. P. A. projects have recently com- pleted the erection of stone parapets, supposedly in the French manner, from which one may still view in the present-day road boundaries between various fertile farms, what were the outlines of the streets of that long- ago venture. Quite clearly, too, is visible & house owned by the Hager- man heirs, which is close to the site Retreat. i where “The Queen's House,” even- tually occupied by ralon, and not en- tirely torn down until 1842, once stood. Some of the timbers of La Crand Maison, which for a time housed Louis Phillipe, Duke of Orleans, afterward King of France; the Prince de Talley- rand, the Duke de la Rochefoucald, the Duke de Montpensier and Count Beujois, brothers of Louis Phillipe, who accompanied him to America upon his visit here in 1797, were used in building a carriage house still stand- ing near what is today known as Hagerman House. One sees, too, clumps of tress marking the two God's Acres where rest the remains of those exiles from home who never lived to return to their beloved France. The higher Table Rock, where the ladies of that long ago venture de- lighted to serve their afternoon tea, is upon an eminence commanding such a pleasing vista that one is quite in sympathy with their demands that laborers engaged to go forward with certain vitally necessary housing projects, should, instead. expend their energies in chopping down the tall trees which obscured the view of the shining waters of the Shenandoah River in its winding course past their temporary asylum. Starting here in 1793, the colony, which probably at its height never consisted of more than 50 houses or more than 300 people, dragged out an existence here for about 10 years, dogged always with the specter of in- sufficient funds. Victims of Profiteers. The barriers of language and cus- toms and the rigors of a virgin wilder- ness separated them from their Amer- ican neighbors, many of whom charged them extortionate prices for the neces- sities of life, which they were in many cases neither able nor had the necessary experience to wrest from their new surroundings. For their re- quirements, these French -colonists, loften in good faith, gave notes for | sums which they expected could be | realized in France, only to find when | their agents went to collect them that their effects had been confiscated by anti-royalist groups. But here, while the streets of Paris ran red with the blood of their one- time associates and the Queen for | whom they had planned this asylum | bared her neck to the merciless guillo- tine with a courage and fortitude that has challenged the attention of history, aristocrat and plebian asso- ciate found common bond in the scars left by shared problems. Despite the fact that their hearts were forever in France, their ears strained for in- frequent news of the home land. Though dismayed by the short-lived hope that their Queen and her chil- dren might reach them, the prevail- ing note was one of cheerfulness. D'Autremont, in a letter to friends, speaks of their retreat as a “refuge for sinners, and says, “I must not sound like a crying bird.” The amusements of these exiles, according to old accounts, consisted of riding, walking, swimming, music and dancing. Sometimes they passed their time with cards, chess or the backgammon board. In their manners they were courteous, polite and af- fable. Great Lady Thoughts Survive. “Even in their log houses,” we are told, “the women of the colony appear to have changed their dress several times a day and to have been just as great ladles amongd their cows and chickens, having to wash and mend their own linen as had their mothers, who had worn to their garters the escutcheon of their house embroidered in silver and gold.” Many vears afterward, so local tra- dition has it, the descendants of rly residents in the neighborhood of Asylum were wont to refer to a newly made clearing as a “chop- ping.” after the fashion of the French refugees. They also delighted to tell of how the lovely ladies of France would entertain themselves by having a freshly hewn log placed across a suitably sized tree stump, and with the see-saw thus made to serve their needs let their merry laughter ring out through the forest, as they “tee- ter-tauted” up and down. Kindly memories long persisted, too, of a group of defrocked priests in exile who were forced to wrest a liv- ing from their surroundings by keep- ing a general store. Then there is the account of the canoness, Mlle. de Maude who, tak- ing her coufage in her hands, joined forces with De Blacons, fugitive Dep- uty of the French Assembly, and started a haberdasher's shop whose reputation and excellent wares at- tracted customers from over 50 miles around, to the great disgust of local rivals. Mme. de Sibert prospered likewise amid an orchard of 900 fruit trees D S Y VTGO MDD M0 M D™D 607D 6D — o TN Traini Business E STRAYER courses ng for mployment have fitted thousands of young men and women for positions of leadership in business and government. SECRETARIAL courses especially de- signed for High School graduates and College students and graduates. ACCOUNTING courses, offered in Strayer College of Accountancy, lead to B.C.S. and M.CS. degrees, and aration. include C.P.A. prep- Superior Employment Service. More than 1500 Employment calls received annually. Registrations are now being made for Fall term classes. Catalog mailed on request STRAYER HOMER BUILDING ¢ CoOLLEGE 13th AND F STREETS P. J. HARMAN, DIRICTOR ® NATIONAL 1748 THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, AUGUST 8, :1937—PART TWO. and a garden which was the delight of this wilderness. Charles Hamet, another member of the Asylum Colony, was sald to have been a steward in the household of Louis VI. He and a country man named Laporte, were among the French refugees who did not return to France when Napoleon offered them amnesty after his accession to the throne. ¥ Hamet's descendants, thrifty and prosperous, helped to populate what is Bradford County, and & town nearly opposite Asylum was called Homet's Ferry, his home having been located in the lower part of the town where & Methodist Church was subsequently erected. When the general exodus from the colony to France began, Bartholomew Laporte, always the trusted land steward of Talon, purchased in his own right, and upon his own terms, a large tract of land including Talon's house, or “The Queen’s House.” This he paid for by installments as is at- tested by the deeds which may today be seen in Towanda. Of him at the time of his death, the National Intelligencer of Washington, said, “He had one son, John, whom before his death, the father had the proud satisfaction of seeing elected and re-elected to a seat in the highest and most dignified deliber.tive body in the United States or in the world.” His descendants still living on the site of French Asylum, gave the land on Which in 1916, the memorial boulder com- memorating the colonization and those who had a part in it, was placed. The county seat of Sullivan County, not far from Dushore, derived from Du- petithouer, name of the famous French admiral, who for a time was an inmate of the colony and later upon his re- turn to France died a hero’s death in the Battle of the Nile with the British fleet under Nelson bears the family name of Laporte, Court Florist Buried There. In the town of “Wyalusing, near which are the ancestral homes of Capt. Chester Wells and Admiral Ed- ward Kalfus of the United States Navy, is an old cemetery where rests the bodies of Anthony and Marie Lefevre, Lefevre having been a court florist prior to the French revolution. A visit to the Bradford County Historical Society’s collection with courteous Miss Mary Wilt, who has the museum in charge, gives a fasci- nating glimpse of a very old map, worn in its creases, which was once the property of an early Laporte. It reads, “A Plan of the Town of Asylum,” and shows with meticulous care and de- tail what the motivators of this French colonization scheme in Penn- sylvania had in mind for its develop- ment. An interesting group of fig- res in one of its lower corners is shown with beckoning hand and glance to be inviting toward this re- treat those who would seek haven there, it being estimated that a pos- sible allotment of homesteads up to many thousands was envisioned. Another antiquarian treasure in the Historical Society collection is a rough tree stump from which some long ago French refugee, either aris- tocrat or artisan, caused to be carved forth in striking bas relief from it, & bust, believed to be that of Louis Phillipe, King of France in 1830. With his two royal brothers he visited Asylum in 1797 and with them was 8 guest for a considerable time at | “The Queen's House,” presided over by ! Talon. ROYAL ARCANUM Oriental Council met Tuesday un- der the leadership of Regent J. | Carleton King. Past Grand Regent Frank V. March, assisted by Collector Corbin Birch, arranged the enter- talnment. Grand Regent Dewey L. Shaw and his officers peid an unoffi- | cial visit. Municipal, Kismet and District Councils have all held recent meet- ings and are planning their work for the Fall and Winter months. | Councils meeting this week are— Municipal, Monday; Kismet, Tuesday; | District, Wednesday, and Capitaol | Thursday; all at 930 H street, | DE MOLAY Robert Le Bruce Chapter will have | 8 “splash” party at the East Potomac Park swiming pool next Wednesday | at 7:30 pm. A bathing beauty con- | test will be held. A stag outing to Bay Ridge was held. Meetings this month include initia- tion of a large class of candidates. —_— are Intensive, EASY, | ii HY Complete. Short. repre- | senting the latest ideas in Business and Secrelarial _procedure. = Begmners and Review Courses starting. Large Employ- | ment Agency openings hourly. Est. 20| ¥rs todayv. BOYD SCHOOL | 1333 t. (Opp. Capitol Theatre.) Nat. 2342, ! E T0 LOSE nd OPPORTU- NITI BOYD Courses | “CONTI MO! Register Winning Contract BY THE FOUR ACES. ‘worl (unvid lalrnltln& Merwin P Majer. Oswald Jacob; i of-four. inventors of the x! ‘s leading team- Howard - Schenke item that has = eaten every other system m Qualified Force. N ADDITION to the clubs car- ried by thesevery-day golfer, the real expert carries one left-hand- ed club for use in occasional emer- gencies and is proficient enough in its use to hit the ball from the port side almost as well as from the reg- ular side. If an ordinary player, on the other hand, tried to hit with a left-handed club he would undoubt- edly either miss the ball entirely or get into worse trouble. ‘The qualified force in contract cor- responds to this left-handed golf club. The really advanced player who has practiced it can use it with success. The ordinary player, trying it for the first time, is likely to get into: trouble. And while we have discussed it we recommend that aver- age players stick to bids that are either forcing or not and do not bother with this particular example. ’I‘HE qualified force is a bid which theoretically commands partner to bid again and continue on to game; but in the event that partner has pre- viously given misinformation concern- ing the strength of his hand, he is able to reason that the combined hands can produce no game and may therefore pass. For example, let us suppose you open in third or fourth position with & hand that is not really worth a bid, hoping to obtain a partial score. Now your partner responds either with a temporary forcing bid in a new suit or a game-forcing jump to two no trump or three in your suit. If you have a bona fide bid—no matter how meager—you should respect his force But suppose your opening bid in third position has been one club, holding: Spades X X Hearts X X x Diamonds x x x Clubs AKJxx Your partner has passed originally; hence, irrespective of what he has passed, the chance that you and he can make game is practically zero. If you bid again, he will mark you With a normal opening bid, and in the event tht his pass has been a maximum he is likely to take you right to game, whereupon you will g0 down instead of making a partial score. “Accordingly, you pass. However, suppose your hand is a little better, and in addition to the five clubs to the ace king jack you have a king. Now you have a proper opening one-club bid and hence must bid again after your partner’s quali- fied force. R, LET us take Another tase. Your partner opens the bidding with one spade. You hold: Spades; Hearts, xxx Diamonds, Kxxxx x Clubs, x X x x You really should pass your part- ner’s opening bid of one spade, but in- stead you bid two diamonds hoping to improve matters. Now he jumps to HARGRAV “MAKING MILITARY ACADEMY MEN—NOT MONE Accredited college preparation under experienced sympathetic instructors. Junior School. De- velops character. Business courses. Gym. all Pool Moderate spors Tate Mount Aloysius Academy In the Heart of the Alleghenies Cresson, Pa. Accredited residential and day scheol for girls. Conducted by The Sisters of Mercy tory—General Aeademic O e mer cia i Masic—Home ‘Econom. les and Art. Horseback Riding and Outdoor Sperts. Board and Tuition, $350 a Year For further informat Address The Princip: VAi fiSetrzrondary échool for Boys Under the direction of Xaverian Brothers. Thorough preparation for coliege or business. Regional and state accreditation. 62nd year. Junior school. Moderate Rates. Catalog. ADDRESS Brother Edmund Director, Box Y Carroll Station, Baltimore, Md. National University 69th Year Begins September 27, 1937, at 6:30 P.M. Registration Now Open LAW DEPARTMENT Three-year undergraduate course for employed stu- dents, leading to the degrees of Bachelor of Laws (LL. B.) and Doctor of Jurisprudence (J. D.). Students accepted for full Graduate school offers one and two year ate degrees in law: Master of Laws ( and Doctor of Judicial Science (8. course only. courses leading to the following lrld':; LL. M.). Master of Patent Law (M. P. Students may register for any ene or more of the subjects offered in this department. Interstate Commerce Law Patent Law and Practice Admiraity and Maritime Law Public International Law Private International Law Jurisprudence and Legal History Modern Political Constitutionalism w Radio and Air Administrative Law Constitutional History of U. 8. Federal Trade Commission volution of Legal Systems ractice s Advanced t Court Government Contracts and Claims Federal Procedure Land. Mining and Irrigation Law Federal Tax Laws Law of Trusts and Monopolies SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS AND GOVERNMENT —Offers » tweo years’ Pre-Legal course, and subjects in Economies. Government, and the Social Sciences leading to the Adul m. r may register for special sub however, must be met before matrie r without 44 he. rees of Bachelor and Master of Arts. Tete academic preparation. e entrance requirements, e ting for degrees. Among the subjeets scheduled for 1937-1938 are: Aceounting Prineiples of Economies Business Finance Credit Prinies Credit Collectio ederal Reserve System Nerotiable Instruments ‘axation Iru ompany Management ortation Principles of Politieal Science fAmerican City Gevernment Municipal Adfinistration 'ms of Government chology Ameriean G Erineiples of & ory ef Science Histery lnflnnrhy Des Literature - Legal Hivtors o Folitical History Ro ivilization Efements rudence of Ju American Foreign Peliey International Law stery International Relations Classes held in early morning and late afternocon, convenient for employed students. Requirements for admission and full information upon tion. Registrar’s Office open for registration, 9 AM. to 7 P.M. 818 13th St. N.W. S 25 Tel. NAtional 6617 three spades. He thinks he is forcing you. But now you say to yourself: “I should have passed his one-spade bid. Not only is my hand practically worth- less, but I have no spades at all. If T continue on, we will get to game or a slam and probably be doubled. 1f my partner has a strong enough spade hand to make game with my hoding, he would have opened with a two bid. I had better pass now before we are in too deep.” Acdordingly, the jump rebid to three spades was really only a qualified force. ‘The player making it thought he was forcing, but the partner, who should not have responded to one spade in the first place, was privileged to pazs three spades. However, if you have a proper re- sponse, such as Spades, Hearts, xxx Diamonds, KQXxXxxXx Clubs, K x x x even though it is very weak, "you should riot pass your partner's jump to three spades, and with this particular hand should rebid to four diamonds. IncidentaHy, it will be noted that we recommend a rebid to four diamonds, not to three no trump, the reason being that with a weak hand the most im- portant thing to do is to show your distribution if you can. SUMMARIZXNG: ‘The qualified force occurs when a player makes a bid, which he believes is forcing, but the partner, whose last bid was deflnitely not warranted by the cards in his hand, now decides to pass for strategic reasons, (Copyright, 1937.) The Four Aces will be pleased to answer letiers {rom readers if & stamped (8-cent). self-addressed envelope inclosed ~with each communication. Tf you desire the pocket outline of the Four Aces' system of contract bridge. send with your request a stamped (i-cent). self-addressed. large- size_envelope to the Four Aces. Inc. 130 West Forty-second street New York City and vou will receive an outline without any charge. Transparent Gum Lenses. Sales of spectacle lenses of methl- methocrylate, the artificial transparent gum, are mounting rapidly in England. AUSTRIAN NAZIS GAIN UNDER PACT Independence Supporters Are Fearful of Fate, but Trade Picks Up. BY HENRY A. DIEZ. VIENNA.—One year ago Austris and Germany ended a three-year period of pointed unfriendliness by signing a pact of peace. The Austrian chancellor, Dr. Kurt von 8chuschnigg, hesitated long before be consented to this accord, but Premier Benito Mussolini, wishing to close the gap in his Rome-Berlin axis, insisted, and Reichfuehrer Adolf Hitler made the important concession of formal recog- nition of Austria’s full sovereignty, declaring Austria “the second German state.” The results of this new pact have not been very encouraging, but it produced some benefits which cannot be denied. Austria's trade balance, for instance, has profited from the new possibilities the pact opened. The chief obstacle to & real under- standing are the Austrian Nazis. They demand union with Germany at any price and oppose all political agreements that delay it. Since they cannot rebel against a pact ap- proved by Hitler, whom they consider their real leader, they do what they can to makes things dificult for Schuschnigg and demand an ade- quate share in the administration of the country. They speak of “paci- fication,” but their ultimate aim is the Nazification of Austria. Caution Practiced. Under the new regime of German friendship the Austrian government cannot resist. its Nazis as relentlessly as it did before the July accord. After all, they are Hitler's best friends on this side of the border, and through the accord Hitler has— formally at least—become & friend | of Schuschnigg. One must be care- ful in one's dealings with the friends of one’s friend. This is the weakest point in the whole scheme, for the average Aus- trian does not understand why the Nasis at one time are dednedl enemies of the state and then again are treated with surprising leniency. Almost every week Nazis are arrested for illegal actions and then released by order of the federal chancellery. For the man in the street this sys- tem is too complicated, and the Nazis interpret it as weakness. At any rate, the first year of the accord passed in comparative har- mony. As it drew to its close, a mixed committee of Austrian and German officials met in Vienna to examine the situation and see what had been achieved and what could be done better. Both Somewhat Disappointed. Hitler, s0 it was said, is disup pointed that his Austrian followers are still without representation in the cabinet, and Schuschnigg is disappointed because the Nazi party organization party in Germany con- tinues to encourage and subsidize the anti-government intrigues of the Austrian Nazis, although the second paragraph of the July accord says that each gorernment shall respect the internal affairs of the other state, “including Austrian National Socialism,” and promises that no direct or indirect attempts at inter- ference will be made. v The mixed committee deliberated a long time and ifi official circles in Vienna one was given to understand that it achieved little. But the Ger- man delegates hardly had returned home before it became clear that they had accomplished a lot. As a first measure the press was muzzled. Previously the Austrian papers had been permitted to speak their minds on Germany and the subsurface relations between Ger- many and the Austrian Nazis. Now they no langer are permitted to do 30, for such reports and articles might be regarded as unfriendly acts. The German press is supposed to observe the same rule in regard to Austria, but it is in a different Pposition because he is the aggressor. “Mein Kampf” supported. It was also agreed to permit Hit- ler's “Mein Kampf” to be sold in this country, although the hook openly preaches Anschluss (union of Austria and Germany) and says— among other things—that the people of Austria and Germany are one and the same nation and should be united. Eleven days after the conference many political pardons were granted. Dr. Anton Rintelen, who two ye: ANNOUNCES Another Well-Know Name to The Shoe Family— The FAMOUS ago was condemned to prison for life as ringleader in the putsch of July, 1934, in which Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss was assassinated, was released together with 110 others, These releases were effected clan destinely and it was denied officially that they constituted real pardons, because the government wished to avoid giving the impression that it had yielded to pressure from Berlin, Pardon or no pardon, the release of these men granted one of the chiet demands of the so-called “Nation- alist opposition,” whica is hard tn distinguisb from Naziism, except that the former is tolerated and the latter outlawed. Only on two points the Austrian | gRovernment remained firm. It re- fused to appoint Nazi ministers to the cabinet, although it did call two moderate Nationalists to the execu- tive body of the Fatherland Front, And, second, it declined to lift the general embargo on German daily newspapers in Austria, from which only five journals are excepted. Independence Faction Uneasy. ‘The concessions which Schusch- nigg considered necessary to keep Hitler in good humor have caused much uneasiness among those Aus- trians who watch jealously over the independence of their country. They are not so much afraid of annexa« tion by Germany, which would bhe | a flagrant violation of the July part, as of the gradual growth of a state in which they would no longer bs | masters in their own house. | The Austrian Nazs agam demon- | strated their rec ssness on July 118, when they staged great demon- | strations for Hitler in the U | Austrian town of Wells at a meeting of Austrian and German war vets | erans. The Germans must have gona | home with the idea that Austria v immp Nazi than their own cot | The advocates of Austrian | pendence fear the Austrian patriots produce a situation in whi | let things drift, s e el Leaving a Traffic Lane. | Make certain that no car is speed- |ing up from the rear before pulls | out of your lane of traffic. This ac | is the direct cause of some of tha | most serious accidents. Safe driving | requires that you know the conditions of traffic both o the front and rear, iF:p«-m; is this true in country FLORIS $6.75 10es that hug the heel, hold instep and free the foes.. The Identical Styles That Are Sponsored by Fashion Dictators Everywhere! «+.Don’t spend your life - “twn feet from happiness” Wear NATURALIZERS —We are proud to present these fine shoes to the style-conscious women of Washington! 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