Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-01-22
THE NEW HAMPSHIRE
AVENUE MYSTERY
-vIMTED ny OFFICIALS AID
THoUsANDs or cITIzxHs.
Whisked Away at Night by Weird
Workers, and Now It II to
he Seen No Nore.

mass OF mctcOf1c IRON supposed TO come
from the planet Mars upon New Hampshire
avenue published exclusively in Sundays
Star. without regard to expense or super
human effort, caused a great sensation
throughout the city and neighboring coun-
| try.
The Star had hardly made its appearance
when visitors began to arrive on the scene
and the numbers constantly increased until
by II o'clock am. tt was difficult to force q
passage through the eager throng that filled
the street and sidewalks. It IL a conserva-
tive estimate that not less than 20, 600 people
visited the place within forty-eight hours Of
The Stars publication. The visitors almost
uniformly in examining the remarkable OBJ
ject put their hands upon It cautiously to
see II 1t was still warm. Groups were seen
on all sides surrounding some person who
was reading aloud from The Star to see IL
the description of The Object in that paper
tailed with its appearance. Adventurous
boys showed their reckless hardihood by
clambering all over the concern. thou
sand kodaks were busy getting views in all
directions of the visitor from Mars. Some
Of the visitors expressed incredulity as to
its coming from that planet
One testy old gentleman, after walking
around it and touching It with extreme
care, was so unjust as to pronounce 1t IAN
Internal fake" These were his very words,
IAN Internal fake"
1t was interesting to watch the reverend
ing throng of visitors that continued until
late in the night, and was resumed at day.
light Monday morning.
Quite early yesterday morning the Dis
trict officials began to put in an appearance
Col Biddle. who Is the Commissioner most
directly in charge Of street affairs. came
tlrst. He walked around The Object, In
spected 1t from all points Of view. pressed
the two front fingers of his right hand
against his corrugated brow in a medita-
tive attitude, pondered for season, shook
his head gloomily and went away.
little later Commissioners Macfarland
and West visited the scene They walked
| around The Object, inspected 1t from all
| points of view. pressed the two front fingers
| of their right hands against their corrugat-
ed brows. pondered for season, shook
their heads gloomiIy and went away.
Then came DR.. Tindall the veteran secre-
tary Of the board. who, from his long ex-
perience. is able to give the Commissioners
very able advice when they are in a
| quandary. He was followed by the street
sweeping inspector. John T. Twohey. who is
| naturally good deal upset by his failure
to clean New Hampshire avenue through
fits occupancy by the Marian mass. Next
came Snowden Ashford. inspector Of build
ings who has to guard the public against
injury from the falling walls OF insecure
buildings. They all walked around The
Object. inspected 1t from various points
Of view, pressed the two front fingers of
their right hands against their corrugated
brows, pondered for season, shook their
heads gloomily and went away.
Thus the day wore on. The residents upon
the street who had hoped much from the
visit Of the District officials, began to de-
spair and this feeling was Intensified by
the rumor late in the afternoon that the
Commissioners had concluded to apply dy-
Mantle to the great obstruction as the only
means Of getting rid of it. The residents
retired for sleepless night, pallid with
the apprehension that they might at any
moment be blown sky high by a blast Of
dynamite.
About midnight there were indications
that something was doing upon the
street. myriad Of dark, weird figures
suddenly swarmed about The Object.
Thousands of tiny, curiJusly shaped,
many-colored lanterns darteo about like
so many fireflies. There was a sound
of hammerinG. acc 1'npa1' u Ivy the shouts
of the fairy-like visitors, speaking in an
unknown tongue. rhe1 at a call from
the Master Spirit in the group there was
swishing sound as u some great bird
fists In the air, lash CT vivid white
light blinded the spectators, and when
they recovered their vision, 10! the whole
enormous mass had disappeared as II by
magic, with all the busy fairy crowd,
and New Hampshire avenue was left as
dark and tenantless as if it had never
been incumbered by the great obstruc-
ton.
1t Is needless now ~ discuss tie oues-
ton where it came tron--.that is all as
idle as the question OF mans existence:
whence and whither?" II the Great
Object was not from Mars where did If
come from? Who can tel;' Tile eres.
point Is that 1t has gone. And The star
claims with pride that by its publication
it has compelled some power or other,
supernal or Internal, to get a NOV, on
the concern.