Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1898-07-01

lives see log school house"
Did your"
Il never saw any other until I left home
for college, and then the war came. and
didn't see much of any school after that.
l just wish you could see that old school
house in Ohio. l wonder If it is standing
yet? My, how those logs were hewed! Bill
Longerbeam scored them. I've heard him
| say SO hundreds of times. And l can just
remember the raising. I knew the men
who notched the corners. They called them
'cornders' in those days. Steve Reed had
the northwest corner-the one nearest our
house, and the one l saw first and last 60
| ing and coming to school, Lord! what a
'cornder' it was! Steve drank gently and
progressively all day. they said, and he
raised his 'cornder' about foot out of
plumb. My father used to say Steve was
the best chopper in the county when he
was good and dry, but when he was soaked
he couldn't get anything plumb, level or
square.
Building the Old School House.
Jim Guilderfoot notched the northeast
corner toward Uncle Ben's place; Hank
Bsddlecome did the southeast corner. Liz
zie Tinchman used to come sharp around
that corner in winter time, her cheeks red
as Spitzenberg apple. The fact was l
used to go around that corner too, on
moonlight nights, and some that weren't
so 1gnt, with Lizzie, seeing her home after
spelling school.
Poor Willie BROWN notched the south
west corner and | saw him when he was
hit at Resaca The ball took him lust as
he pulled the trigger. His arm was up.
holding his gun, and the bullet hit his fun
ny bone, shattered his shoulder and pierre
ed the jugular. He was a handsome fell
low and he taught the school two or three
winters. l remember he isawed out a set
of Eastwood blocks 70 illustrate cube root.
What flood of light those blocks let in
on my bewfldered mug. b
"By-the-way, the shingles and seats were
made by Truman Simpson, and a good
Iran he was. too. l cans see him now as
he would take a piece of. chestnut, study
IL a moment to see how the grain ran then
put his froe across the heart and split out
the pretty, straightforward slices of wooG
Then how he would make, the shavings roll
up on his old battered shaving horse. The
seats were made of slabs nicely planed and
the desks were made of mil-sawed planks
hauled thirty miles from our town. That
was in the forties- " ~ =
at hardly seems possible we were SO
primitive in the great stateS of Ohio go
late as that. But 1 can remember my
grandfather walking eighty miles to
Toledo to borrow hundred dollars at 25
per cent interest. And he thought he was
lucky, too, for one of our neighbors the
year before made the same trip. to borrow
two hundred dollars at 30 per cent That's
Gospel truth Simpson, fifty years ago
there We're men who gladly paid fifty per
G mt for the use of money.
In the Same Latitude,
went to Toledo, and wasn't it cold, though!
And, by the way, do you know our Toledo
and SPANS are almost in the same lati-
tude? That's where I'm enjoying this war
L m looking up the ATTITUDES, you know
When l was in that log school house back
there in Ohio l didn't dream there was so
much IN geography-we called it 'iogafv'
Ieacher and all did that. We learned the
oennltlons OF latitude and longitude and
We're told they were of use for mariners to
nnd out where they We're at sea- never
suspected that there was any latitude or
longitude on dry land, and l was twenty
years old before discovered two places on
opposite sides of the earth could have the
same latitude. Just think the two ToIedos
| are about the same distance from the eoua-
tor Spain's Toledo is in the land of lem
ons, oranges, wine and raisins, and ours
only ninety miles further north is a thou
sand miles from lemon. This war was
worth something to me, If only to make me
brush up on 'jogafy.'
Now, what place, Simpson, in this coun-
try Is on the same parallel with Gibraltar?''
oh 1 suppose Minneapolis or Quebec"
"Ha! Ha! You're way off-coider than
Quebec itself. Why, Norfolk's the place.
Just think Of it-Norfolk. Toxic, Shanghai,
clothes line. Funny. isn't it?
Now, here's another, Simpson. Did YOU
suspect that the Canary Islands and Mount
Foo Chow and New Orleans? Well, thew
are, all of 'em. I tell you 1t is glorious to
look these things up, and 1 never thought
OF doing it until Dewey banged the Spanish
all to pieces at Manila.
See here, Simpson. did you know Cai1o.
the Punjaub, the Blue sea and the north
ern part of the Desert of Sahara were on
that same parallel with New Orleans, Del
hi, Foo Chow. Mt. Sinai and the Canaries?.
Well, they are.
Now, take London, Simpson; what town
over here is on the same latitude?"
ItSht he .rlr
well. it isn't. All England is further
north than any part of the United States.
except Alaska. The Aleutian Islands and
Winnipeg, up in Manitoba, are in the Sans
Here's scorcher now, Simpson. There's
Venice; If Venice stood still and the earth
turned round under her. What places would
give it up. Well, north wisconsin, Simp-
son. Just think of it-up there in the land
of saw WI, mills and danse houses, brook trout
There are 1000 miles difference in the eli
| mate of those places, Minneapolis and St
Paul, too, would seeiVentee as they rolled
New York and Pekin. g are on the same
line and Edinburgh and Irkutsk. in KAN
schatka; Marseilles., in France. is north of
Florence. Italy; C4pstaltinople. Omaha,
Salt Lake City. Naples. barcelona, Proyi,
dence. R. l.; Chicago and vladivostok, are
On the same hien string 1Sg e. bsads Thank God
| to booking up on these things
What places" asked Simpson, ARE on
| the same parallel with Washington"
Hawkins trembled.
Simpson, l ought to know that. It ia
| important. But 1 confess don't know. /
haven't looked 1t up. How on earth could
| have overlooked that? By the way, re-
member Lisbon. Malaga. Smyrna and Box
hara are on a par, so to speak. That's the
best can do for you just now. Simpson"
The car stopped and with 1t Hawkins
string of latitudes He had coma N hga
street
"Fll look that up, Simpson, he said as
he landed on the asphalt "just as soon as
get the lawn sprinkled- To think I
shouldn't know all about my own latitude
by this time. It's simply dense ignorance"
The most magnificent tomb in the world
is deemed to be the palace Temple of Kaa-
cak, occupying space of uine acres, or
twice that of st. Peters at Rome. The tenn
pie space is a poets dream of gigantic COL