Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-01-04

The old adage that you'll get along bet
ter If you keep your mouth shut and let
the other fellow do the talking was well
illustrated at the closing meeting OF the
annual Spiritualists convention recently.
A man about thirty-five years of age was
sitting in the front row. and during the
time that one of the mediums was trans
uniting messages from the spirit world
20 persons in the audience he seemed
much interested. Finally the medium
paused and asked if any one in the
house not believing in spiritualism wanted
test. The man arose to his feet at
once before the medium had finished
speaking. He was eager. He wanted a
test. The medium could not begin too
soon. His eyes cleaned as he looked, as
though he wanted to look the man over
who could see into his inner life.
There is a spirit standing beside you,
said the medium. land she carries little
babe in her arms. She is robed in white
and comes to you tonight to tell you that
her love for you has never died, even
though she is in the spirit world. She is
your deceased wife" By this time the
man was looking uncomfortable. Then
the medium told him of several rules OF
conduct for his general life stated to
emanate from the spirit world and turned
TO another auditor. During the delivery
of the message the newly welded wife
or sweetheart of the man addressed sat
by. his side and seemed very unhappy.
The facts as outlined were afterward adj
mitted by the man. Like the parrot, he
looked as if he had talked too much.
X * + X x
"A very pretty, but entirely mythical
story" says d local matchmaker, goes
the rounds of the press every once in a
while telling how the original manufac-
turer of watch signs placed the hands In
position to point to eighteen minutes
past eight, it being stated that this was
done because President Lincoln was shot
at that hour. The absurdity of the story
IS proved by the fact that Mr.. Lincoln
was neither shot nor died at the hour
named.
ut was half past eight o'clock when
the President, Mrs. Lincoln, Miss Clara
Harris and Major Rathbone left the
White House for the theater, and it was
while the second scene of the third act
was being performed that John Wilkes
Booth shot the President. Just the exact
time to the minute has never been
known, but 1t was a few minutes past ten
when the shot was fired which plunged
nation into grief.
AN examination of the watch signs
throughout the city will disclose a few
which bear evidences of being of the
vintage of the seventeenth century. and
all these as well as forty-nine out of
hands indicating the hour and minutes
stated. When a watch sign is found
with the hands pointing to a different
hour and number it can safely be assumed
that it was made by a local manufac-
turer and one not acquainted with the
common-sense reason assigned for having
the hands pointing as indicated on the
old-time signs. This reason is that it
Of for
the jewelers., name and advertisement,
making 1t unnecessary to cross the hands
with the lettering or interfere with the
circle which holds tile second hand.
Nearly all these, watch signs are manu-
featured at a town In Ohio and in
Chicago. and are usually ordered through
wholesale Dealers"
X x *
? A bunting party composed of several of
wasfffSeton's wealthy men. returned re-
Gently AroN a trip through Wyoming.
Its AAawful thing" said one of them.
''to beitorSpred for hours for the lack Of
little arinB of water. and not to know
whena- feflbw is going 10 get one.
''WeSk-that was our fix out there once
Tor about twenty-four hours. We got
teparated from the guide. The supply of
water We caIyiedy gave out, and We just
didn't knoy what to do. AS we were de-
being fRc'0uestion, one of the young men
vee and funbling among his luggage.
produced small silver flask. Its con-
ierss were only spfncient to Just wet our
lips. And did not help the situation a bit.
Where did you get that fiask?'' asked
.one of the men.
"Why. my mother gave it to me Just be.
fore l left on this trip. L had forgotten
well. the next time you come on a trip
like IBIS. bring the flask that father gave
1T is no longer an honor for a word to
have place in a dictionary" said United
States Senator Penrose of Pennsylvania
the other day. while discussing the evolu-
ton of the English language with a party
OF visiting professors. Dictionary pub
fishers seem to have only one thing in
mind these DAYS in compiling new editions
of Webster. They all vie with each other
30 collect the largest number of words
They are not only satisfied to go out into
the highways and byways OF literature to
collect all the manned and halt and obso-
1ete words that they can find, to stuff the
language list, but they penetrate into the
slums and round up what they seem to
consider choice collection of slang words.
II Smiths dictionary can claim that il
contains a thousand more words than
any other dictionary, its superiority Is
supposed to be established. until Brown
brings out new dictionary containing
nine hundred words more than can be
found in Smiths great work. The result
of this method of dictionary making is
that dictionary is no longer of the
slightest use in determining the question
whether any given word is good English
or not. In the opinion Of the dictionary
makers. all words are born free and
equal, and are entitled to be used by any,
body. The barrier between what Is Eng
lish and what is simply slang has been
swept away, and there is no longer any
authority which tells us what words we
may use and what we may shun
Possibly there may be a reaction
against this invasion of GIctionaryland by