Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-02-10


nose that a cent dated 1896 IS worth a!
much as five dollars? ''-,se.s,,
This question was asked aud answered by
a man who happened TO drop into one OF
the offices in the District building on bust
ness Il day or two aEo-and his answer teok
the form of an exhibition Sof one of the
smallest treasury checks If not tAe smallest
ever issued It was check No. % III. issued
To Joseph A. Hoover, and counts rsigned by
Andrew Parker. captain ana aetng pay
master of tie District Of Columbia In1iitia
special discussing officer the amount Of the
obligation of the Eftftetf States TO Hoover
being one cent. The present owner OF the
check admitted having paid five dollars Tor
the piece OF paper, and declared MS ihteh-
ton of retaining Il as a souvenir
Her name is not De Snythe 1t is even
more distinguished than that, and she comes
from the land of the sacred Goldfish and Is a
relative of a distinguished senator from the
same region. Her age is less than SIX, and
like good many children of her age she
has developed into cheerful and vivacious
little liar. This Is not very serious, for chill
dren frequently have that affiiction and g 4
over it. but 1T recently led 20 inter-neigll-
borhood complications She informed lot
of her little friends that the immense St.
BERNARD who lived a few doors from them
was not dog at all. but WAS in realitye a
big brown bear. and that he had that morn
ing eaten two little girls before breakfast
The result was that most or the children
on that block fatty declined to go TO school
that morning. and the mother OF one OF
them. finGing out what was the matter wrote
a note to little Miss De Smythe's mother
calling her attention to the awful habit her
daughter had acquired and suggesting
parental correction.
Mrs. De Smythe was properly Mortified
end told GLADYS that she certainly wouli
lax.a To in her
and ask the Lord to forgive her. Gladys
dutlfully replied that she would, though
the enormity of the offense did not seem to
weigh on her particularly.
Next morning her mother asked her 1t
she had prayed for forgiveness for her
mendacfty.
''Oh, yes" she replied, airily, Il asked
the Lord to forgive me, but He said 1t was
all right.
"He said it was all right?" asked her
mother with an air of Incredibly May
ask what converse ton you held with Him.?
oh yes" replied Gladys. He ust SAID:
Don't you worr! about that, Miss DE
Smythe When l first saw him | really
thought myself that he was bear.
certain little boy, who has barely
reached the talking age and whose fond
parents are continually rernarling upon his
depth of understanding, was saying his
prayers at his mothers knee recently, as is
his nightly custom. He always repeats that
time-honOred baby prayer which begins
Now I lay me down to Sleep and this
evening, when he had finished, he looked
I'D into his mothers face with a puzzled ex-
preston and inquired:
Mamma, what does 'fishudie' mean?''
At a loss to know what lie meant but
thinking that perhaps 1t was some new
and hard word that the bright little thing
had picked up some place, she smilingly
asked him to explain, SO that she could tell
papa about his wonderful progress.
why fishudie,'" he repeated, NOW L
lay down TO sleep; fshudie before L
wake, pray the Lord my soul to take
X * M&
They were discussing the other after
noon the question of currency symbols
The discussion had started by some one
making casual remark about IL. S. d.
referring, of course, to pounds, shillings
and pence" The question arose why some
of the coins We're denoted by letters that
had nothing at all TO do with their spelling
and there was not one in the crowd. though
there were some nominally welI-informed
people present, who could tell the sgniti-
canoe of the letters till the question was
looked up. IL appeared that the pound
sterling mark was simply capital l. with
a line drawn across the stem. 1t came
from the Latin word ''librae," meaning a
POUND. The "a used for the penny came
also from the Latin meaning 'denarius,
originally q small Roman silver coin, but
later having developed into a generic term
for money and specifically for small cop
per coin OF insignificant value.
The 'lb'' mark. also used for the avoir-
dupois pound, came from the same weird
'Hbrae,' as in Saxon times the pound avoir-
Gupois was the same weight as a pound
sterling of silver and the shilling was one
twentieth of this, making the old shilling
about three times the size of the present
one
When it came to the dollar mark "s ,
there was more discussion, there being half
- NTla ngY tAFl- for Ia etc Eoyrr +Ee,
most likely seemed to be that 1t was simply
a modified figure s." there having been
eight silver reals in the old Spanish dol
lar or piece of eight" In use in this coun-
try long before the introduction of Ameri-
can currency.
X X ! s. x
At a little dinner the other night which
was attended by Secretary Wilson of the
Department of Agriculture, one of the
guests remarked that Secretary Wilson has
been longer in Office az a cabinet officer
than any other member of Presidents
official family since the days of Albert
Gelatin. Mr.. Wilson was appointed Sec
rotary OF Agriculture by President Nc
KInley March 8. 1897. and served continu-
ous,y ever since.
Albert GaIlatin was appointed Secretary
OF the Treasury by President Jefferson IN
1901 served through both OF his admins
trations. through the first of Madison's
and unul April Ia. 1SlS. or his second.
GRllatin was foreign born, as was Secre-
tary Wilson. the former a native of Swift
zcriand and the latter OF Scotland.
y +
THE man who is fond Of whlstling on
the public streets has no business living IN
a city remarked a citizen to several
friends one day last week. IT think Judge
KtInball was right when he held man for
dlsorderly conduct because he had exer-
cised his lungs by whistling on the street
at night
Il was walking along f street one bright
afternoon. and noticed on the opposite side
OF the street weIl-dressed lady and gen
tleman, the former walking some distance