Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1913-11-09

- 'Whim,'" says Emerson in one of his
essays. He was speaking metaphorically, of
course, expressing by this figure of speech
his scorn of conventionality and consistency.
IN the same mood Rabelais invented for
the gate of his imaginary Abbey of The
lena the famous motto, Fay que voudras
do as You Please, which in real life was
subsequently adopted by the more or less
infamous Medmenham Abbey, that club of
prodigals and prohigates which was founded
on the banks of the Thames by Sir Francis
Eastwood, Chancellor of the Exchequer in
days when English financial ministers were
considerably less decorous than David
LLOYD George, and didn't mind associating
with Poetaster Churchill and Squirting John
Wilkes.
TACK LONDON looks back with some
thing of the pride that apes humility to
his youthful experiences as tramp. New
ertheless, those experiences have not taught
him hospitality to the masses.
On the front door of his home in California
this legend greets the wayfarer, No Adj
mission Except on Business. No. Business
Transacted Here
The back door is equally forbidding.
please" SO runs the sign, Do Not Enter
MARX TWAIN had device that wa;
w equally inhospitable; but he would
laughingly explain it away to his friends.
Here are the directions he gave to Cass Gil
bert, an architect living in Connecticut
village not far from his own home at Red
ding:
"Off the high road is a smaller road which
turns off at tree. On that road IS a large
sign which reads, Strangers Are Not Adj
mitted to These Grounds; but don't you
believe tits a id lie."
MARQUIS DE GALLIFET, one of the
~ survivors of Sedan and the Second
Empire, follows in Jack London's lead;
though his notice to callers is not quite so
brusk:
Knock once, knock twice,
And some one will come;
If you have to knock thrice
1t means mot at Home
HANS Won BULOW the pianist at one
- time posted on his door a notice that
was quite in the London vein, Before
Noon, Not Receiving; Afternoon, Out
ZIP among theshills surrounding Florence
- in Italy and adjoining a villa until re-
Gently tenanted by Signora Duse, is prop
erty still owned by Gabrielle d'Annunzio,
though now abandoned to a horde of
pampered dogs, ministered to by cook
and waiter. On the entrance gate to the
farm is cut one Italian word 'Pensa!"
CThinkD The house itself is centrally seated
in a high-walled garden. On one post of
the great iron gate, just under the bellpull,
are cut the words, in Italian, Don't touch
mel" On the other post the motto is an
inscription that some authorities would
TREMENDOUSLY translate, Fear the Dogs and
the Lord; but it may be alternatively con-
strued as Fear the Dogs and Their Owner,
and so turned into hint of human rather
than divine vengeance upon the transgressor.
THERE is French proverb which says,
! :" By reason of a punctuation mark Mar
tin lost his Donkey And thereby hangs a
tale:
Over the Abbey of Asinello in Italy
(asinello, it may be further explained, is a
diminutive, meaning a little ass) there once
presided a liberal minded monk who caused
these verses to be inscribed over the outside
door:
Be open ever more, 0 thou my door
To none be shut, to honest or to poor!
This CHEEKY man died. and was succeeded
BY Brother Martin, who was as penurious
as his predecessor had been prodigal. Mar
tin retained the couDlet: but altered the