Staunton spectator and vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1896-1916, 1909-04-09
NEW YORK 5 NEWEST.
A Sick GIRLS Heroic Deed Recogniz-
ed at Washington.
MUSEUM TREASURES KNOWN TO FEW
RESI- DENTS.

MUSEUM TREASURES KNOWN TO FEW
RESIDENTS.
This city is splendidly stocked with
heroes, real heroes, of flood, field and
fire, and most Of them admit that their
honors came to,them Unexpectedly and
by mere accident, but one Of the most
remarkable is Miss Jennie McCann, q
modest girl whom the United States
has just summoned to Washington to
receive gold medal awarded to her for
having saved nine lives. Several years
ago the excursion steam General
Solcum was destroyed by fire, as were
many Of her passengers who were not
drowned. Jennie McCann, then only
fourteen years old and just convalesc-
Ing from typhoid fever, was living on
an island near the steamers course.
Seeing the moving mass Of flame she
hurried to the shore and out into the
water, where she rescued, one by one,
nine different children who had Jump
ed overheard or had been thrown over
in the hope that drowning might be
less agonizing death than burning. It
wasn't the kind OF job that a doctor or
whole college Of doctors would have
selected for slight girl who has been
down with typhoid fever, but it was
one that needed to be done and she was
the only person at hand to do it, so she
does not yet understand why such
fuss is made over her and why the
leaders OF both Houses OF Congress
thought it an honor to be asked to be
present at the formal giving Of the
medal. AS to the children who were
rescued and are now old enough to
have heard of heroic women, they
think more highly Of Jennie McCann
than of Boadicea and Ida Lewis and
Florence Nightingale and Joan Of Arc
combined and their parents and friends
are of the same state of mind.
One of the disadvantages of living in
New York is that mans 0ut-of-town
acquaintance may display more knowl |
edge about the city than the resident
himself. The latter feels sheepish about
IL, and resolve to shed his ignorance at |
the first opportunity-which never
comes. am being reminded of this
by friends as far west as Alaska, also |
in Europe. who write me Of treasures
In our two great museums in Central
Fark-treasures which never saw, al |
though have been in each museum
at least once in three years-sometimes
oftener,-if had visitor from out-of-
town over Sunday and all other places
but the churches were closed. The
mere annual additions to either of these
great collections would make q per-
petual wonder-house for city of mod
crate size; for example, the Museum Of
Art has acquired more than ten thou
sand new objects in the past two years
and the Museum of Natural History
has been equally active, setting up,
among other things, some gigantic fos-
sils that would make all our local |
drunkards swear off forever could they
be shut up with these monsters for an
hour. There is also new bird collec-
ton, of American species only, which
foreign naturalist say is unequalled in
Europe for size, beauty and complete
ness, it is an exhaustive object lesson
in American ornithology and all under
one roof, although it cost nearly hun
dred thousand miles of travel, eight |
years Of hard work, and more money
than the givers care to talk about. Yet |
you might safely bet thousand to one
that no man you meet in the street will
mention these things or confess to have
heard OF them. 1t is the same with |
everything not out of doors :and on a
trolley-car route. 1t recalls story of |
the late Jay Gould, whose wits were all
there and whose longings were not re-
stricted to stocks and bonds and rail-
way lines. One day in his old office
overlooking Trinity churchyard, he
told visitor that he hoped some day
to visit the graves of three great men,
if they were not too distant-Alexan-I
der Hamilton, our first Secretary of the
Treasury, Albert Gallatin, (who was
given Hamilton's job for the purpose
of finding fault but honestly admitted
that there was no fault to be found)
and Robert Fulton, the pioneer Of
transportation by steam. The visitor
led Mr.. Gould to his own window,
pointed downward and said, ''There
they are" And there they were, a
scant hundred feet apart in Trinity
churchyard, and Mr.. Gould exclaimed,
in the vernacular of his native state
AT-1l IL