The Washington herald., 1918-10-13

One Of the pretty incidents OF the
afternoon was the arrival alongside
! OF the Everglades. Col. Robert Thomp-
sons houseboat. you know. which he
has turned over to Mrs. James Car
roll Frazer TO be used to give conva-
lescent soldiers little river trips. 1t
had been down the river with its
usual party of convalescents in charge
OF Mrs. Frazer, Col. and Mrs. Thomp-
SON. and Mrs. Thomas F. Bayard.
And seeing that there was A party on
the Warrior. it ran up alongside, flew
the British jack, and while the men
stood at attention the victrola played
Britannia. In response, while Sir
Eric Admiral and Lady Grant and
Secretary Daniels stood at attention,
the band on the Warrior played The
Star-Spansled Banner" after which
the soldiers on the Everglades gave
what Col. Thompson called rousing
British cheer. which didn't differ
greatly from "A .rousing American
cheer. After this exchange of arneni-
ties the Everglades proceeded on its
way greatly pleased with, itself.
For fact the Everglades has a
7 right to be pleased with itself. Never
in its long career of pleasure giving
has it given as much as during the
past few weeks since it has been In
commission as an excursion boat for
| conyalecent soldiers. 1t is doing the
| best work of its life right now. and
| is contributing materially to the re-
| covery of some of our men. And II
| has happened-I don't know that they
| do it every week-but 1t has hap
| pened that il has contributed also to
- Mrp LN-o1 10
| who has certainly earned whatever
rest and recreation she will allow
| herself. A couple of weeks ago-and
/ possibly last week, too-it took Mrs,
| Frazer and eight or ten of her asso-
cintes in the strenuous work of the
comforts committee of the Navy
| League for a little weekend trip down
| the river, lay at anchor all day Sun
dav, and made the return trip after
midnight to avoid contravening the
| request for gasless Sundays.
It really was a happy thought OF
Captain misunderstanding his resi-
dence to Uncle Sam for that pur-
pose-and it isn't fair to make light
of II. But it is getting to be some
thing of a joke in Washington the
way that wealthy and socially i'm
portant people, If they think that
Uncle Sam has his eagle eye on their
| property, and may commander 1t
hast to offer it to him-for. GER
tain uses-thereby saving it from
| the stigma OF having been comman-
deered, and from the worse fate
| that might be in store for ii, If il
were left to Uncle Sam to use II
| for whatever he happened to think
he, might most need it for.
For instance, 1t is generally told
that the Edison Bradleys offered
their splendid Dupont Circle resi-
dence for use as a hospital, or con-
yalescent home-if 1t should be
needed. And Mrs. Mclean herself is
authority for the statement that the
Ned McLeans offered Friendship
their suburban estate for similar
uses. They were prepared to equip
it and run it themselves, or to turn
it over to the War Department as
branch ofrWalter Reed Hospital
fully FIVE miles away-just which
ever Uncle Sam preferred.
gather that Uncle Sam preferred
| to use it to quarter some of the Off
GERS who are running Camp Leach
by. to putting it to any sort of hos
| pital use, and has'them already in.
| stalled. Washington has found II
hard to reconcile itself to Friend
ships being closed to the public. a.
| it has been for the last two or thre,
years. In the time of the late Johr
R. McLean-Edward BIS father
! was practically a public park. TIL,
|
with certain reasonable restriction
the public was Hospitality welcom
to wS,.. or stroll through the beau
tiful grounds. In winter everybod,
in that part of Washington wen
skating ION McLean's pond" Blu
since the death of the elder McLeal
the gates have been shut, and tn,
public barred. OF course the publi,
has been inclined to resent tn,
change-and to criticise Ned Nc
Lean, unjustly, because it did no
understand.
The answer to the whole question
is-the children. Just that. Ther,
isn't a more democratic fellow livin,
than Ned Mclean. But from the da,
his first child was born. and much ad
vertised as the hundred million dol
| lar DaDy, MI anu MIS- mclean have
been in almost constant terror of kid
nappers, and have received many let
ters threatening the disappearance O
the children. OF course now tina
there are three husky sons. no on,
of them would rank as hundred
million-dollar. baby. But for a Ions
time there was only little Vinson. art
his parents had reason to believe thai
4 he
danger. Naturally the children hav,
spent much Of their time out q