Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1894-05-02
IN HOTEL CORRIDORS.


George Meigs Of New York tossed q
sparkling. uncut diamond in his hand at
La Normandie last night as he spoke. II
bought It as . memento Of the best piece
OF work did while In the customs service
Don't think I'm Dragging when tell the
story. We had been having q great deal Of
trouble with diamond smugglers. Dead
loads Of fine. new stones were being offered
BY Maiden Lane brokers. and the service
knew they had never paid a cent Of duty.
Every boat coming over was closely watch
cd ana suspects were put through q course
OF sprouts in the searching line such as
they had never imagined possible Boot
heels were bored to find hidden gems:
trunks searched for secret drawers: cloth
ing examined In every portion and cakes
OF soap In the possession of suspected pas
sensers cut up and mashed nat, but to no
apparent use. although several cakes of
soap were found to contain liberal sup
plies OF the sparklers. One day, In my
walks up town, saw q good-looking wo-
well-known diamond broker at the 23d
street entrance Of the Fifth Avenue Hotel,
and as / approached I heard her tell him
70 be sure and be home to dinner. That
brokers' wife. and then it suddenly struck
me that had seen her face before. put
on my thinking cap and soon remembered
that she had recently made several trips
TO Europe. 1t didn't take me long to make
up my mind to search her baggage pretty
thoroughly II she ever made another trip,
ana then turn her over to the lady in
spectors for closer investigation, for her
husband had been one of the brokers who
had recently been selling numbers of dia-
monds at very low prices. Two months
afterward the New York came in on her
Initial trip and who was a passenger on
board Of her but my Mrs. Broker No pas
senger ever submitted to a more thorough
search with better grace, and / was knock
ed out when she was reported clear Of all
contraband goods. knew. as well as I
knew was living. that she had smuggled
diamonds somewhere in her possession, but
was at my wits end to discover them. She
was about to leave the office when I sud-
denly noticed that the hat she wore was
trimmed with grapes. There were several
compact punches Of them on her bonnet
and with sudden impulse I politely ask
gave me one look Of malignant ferocity-
can describe 1t in no other words-and
then tainted dead away. While the ladies
were bringing her to, broke open one Of
In its interior This is the stone. Every
grape had a diamond for a seed, and the
gems altogether were worth $1,000. The
duty and penalties were paid, and her hus-
band sold me this gem in admiration Of
my gall as he termed 1t"
IT reckon I'll bring down the wrath Of
100000 people upon my devoted head"
said Walter Travers Of Poughkeepsie at the
Riggs House yesterday 'by expressing my
opinion Of the cause Of the prevailing dis
tress In this country. but believe 1t Is
traceable as much to the general education
of the people as 1t is to unrestricted immi-
grafton. The present public school system
IN this country is entirely beyond anything
that its originators ever dreamed of. I
think that the teaching of the masses of
our children at the public expense should
be limited to the primary branches of edu-
cation. There can be no doubt that this
was the intention of the men who first con-
ceived and agitated the idea. Yet see what
the system is today. The taxpayers are
paying for nothing more nor less than uni
versity educations for the boys and girls of
America, who are largely drawn from the
children OF the classes who contribute moth
ing toward the expense. They go from the
grammar schools into the high schools,
where they are taught higher mathematics.
| the languages and are initiated into the
mysteries Of all the isms and ologies you
can think of. Such an education units a
boy or a girl Of humble parentage for hon.
est employment. They everyone want to
become a member of the learned profess
| sions. The carpenters son becomes asham-
ed Of the hammer and nails: the mechanics
boy shrugs his shoulders and turns up his
nose at lathe; the farmers offspring
81. GERS at the idea Of following plough or
cleaning out stable. and rushes of to the
city to find 'congeniar-how 1 detest that
word-employment The higher education
now given by the public schools is a bane
| to the honest industry Of the Union in
making its victims dissatisfied with their
condition by distorting their desires and
turning them to objects beyond their ca
pacity. 1t has filled the country with poor
lawyers and worse doctors at the expense
Of practical trades. Why. 1t has come to
such a point that one cannot get a man or
woman servant of intelligence nowadays Of
native American parentage without a great
deal of difficulty. AS ] leave town tonight
hevOnd ClntCheQ IL
school officials here in case you print my
remarks"
"A reform has been adopted in New York
by the street railroad companies that might
be followed with good results by similar
corporations in other cities" said Thomas
r. Lewis Of Cleveland, at the Ebbitt this
morning. "A week ago the ukase was is
sued that newsboys should no longer be al
lowed to sell their papers upon the street
cars, and now those energetic youngsters
are compelled to ply their vacations on the
sidewalk. The order was brought about by
the large increase in the number of acct
dents to the boys caused by the fast running
cables. Then complaints of passengers who
were annoyed by the constant yelling of the
lads in their ears, to say nothing Of the
soiled and torn dresses of the ladies due to
their inroads had a good deal to do with it.
In Washington street car passengers seem
| to me to have more cause for a growl on
this score than any where else Coming
from the Capitol Saturday evening in an
open car there was scarcely a rod that
some boy did not shout Evening Star in
my ear at the top Of his voice. notwith-
standing 1 had copy Of the paper open in
my lap, and at 18th street / counted no less
than five newsboys on the train at one
time. l am not more nervous than the
generality of people, but such things are an
noying. Boom the idea of such a reform
here and the people will call you blessed"
A broad, muscular young man with good
| nature beaming in every line of his attrac
tive face was telling about his visit to the
Coxey crowd at Brightwood in the Airing
ton last night. but quickly changed the sub
ject to athletics when the outlook for col
lege foot ball this year was preached. He
was Walter Black. formerly of Yale. and he
is an authority on the sport.
II am looking forward like all other foot
ball fans with consuming interest to the
report of the committee appointed some
time ago to revise the foot ball rules" he
remarked. 1.-The committee consists Of
Camp of Yale. Bell of the University of
PENNSYLVANIA, Dashed of Lahigh, Brooks of
Harvard and Moffat of Princeton. They
have been hard at work for some time, and
their report is expected next Tuesday. 1t
is generally known that they have decided
on some important changes. One, in par
10 pood raduceS