Evening star., 1909-07-18

fingers back in civil war times, Wllen he
became assistant to his father, the Rev.
Charles Boynton, editor of the Christian
Nation, Cincinnati. During his service in
Washington he has had intimate relations
with the makers of our history and has
been the safe repository Of the most i'm
portant government secrets. During the
South African war the British embassy
relied upon him for its news from the
front, as did the Russian embassy and
Japanese legation during the Russo-Jap-
aneSe war.
*
Another American journalist decorated
by the nikado in recent weeks is Hamil-
ton Holt, managing editor of the Inde-
pendent. Mr.. Holt. after going through
Yale, had just finished a postgraduate
course at Columbia and was only twenty
five when he succeeded to the managing
editorship Of this magazine. in 1897, since
when he has been a factor in the great
state, national and International organiza-
tions for the promotion of peace between
nations and the arbitration of industrial
disputes. But what has led more directly
to his decoration by the mikado has been
his activity as a member of the Japan So
ciety of New York. He is given the Or
der of the Sacred Treasure.
The kaiser some months ago conferred
the Order Of the Crown of Prussia upon
William Charles Reck, the well known
Journalist, who is now one of the princi-
pal owners Of the Philadelphia Ledger
and New York Times and who, like Mr..
Holt. distinguished himself for his pre-
cocity In the journalistic field Starting
as a Philadelphia reporter when but nine
teen he had become editor of the London
and Paris editions of the New York Her
aid when but tWenty-four and city editor
Ntx--H "a
While still in his thirties he became pres
ident of the Herald Company Two years
ago he became president of the Phila-
delphia Public Ledger Company.
The "commandatore's" degree of the
Order Of the Crown of Italy has been
received from King Victor Emmanuel by
Henry ST. George Tucker of Staunton.
Va, who was in Congress for eight terms
until succeeding his father as professor
at Washington and Lee University. where
he afterward became dean of the law
school. His decoration is the result of his
international relations as president OF the
jamestown exposition. The order confer
red upon him was founded in 1868
The Grand Duke of Bnden has recently
conferred not only decoration but a life
size portrait of the late grand duke upon
Nathan Straus, the millionaire merchant
of New York and Brooklyn, who Is a
brother of Oscar Straus, our newly Sc
Iected ambassador to Constantinople. Mr..
StrauS is well known for his pure
milk charities in Greater New York.
where for the past twenty years he has
maintained at his own expense system
of distributing sterilized milk to the poor
"a system which the statistics OF the
health department show to have saved
many thousands of infants lives. But
1t is not generally known that Mr.. Straus
has instituted the same charity in Ger
many. 1t is this charity in his native
empire which has led to his decoration.
The first American negro to be dec
GRATED by a foreign government is Booker
Taliaferro Washington. the ex-slave, who
as president of the Tuskegee Institute
has made himself the leader of his race
in this country. Liberia has conferred
upon him the Order of African Redemp-
ton, which. according 10 our minister
to Monrovia. the Liberian government
confers with care and which has never
before been given to an American citizen.
It is given to the negro educator as a
reward for interesting the State Depart
ment in the protection of Liberia from
the thraatenedr encroachments of Euro
pean powers. The only other negro gov
ernment which is known 10 have ever
decorated an American is Ethiopia, whose
emperor, Menelik, conferred the Order