Evening star., 1921-12-18
r. following the ancient Wash
~ 1ngton-Baltimore pike, it Is
mile and q half from Vans

l.
Mllo to Muirkirk, or about
twenty-five minutes walk at an easy
pace. Half q mile northeast of Vans
Vile you pass Ammendale. The pike
Is as straight as surveyors could lay
it out. The Baltimore and Ohio rail-
road. quarter Of q mile of the left
hand, is also straight and the old
wagon road and the old railroad are
parallel. Further OF the lefthand-
that is, to the west-is tho Washing
ton and Baltimore boulevard. It, too.
Is straight, but not parallel to the
railroad. It slants northeast at a
greater degree than the wagon road
and the railroad. and approaching
Muirkirk and at Muirkirk passes
within a few yards Of the iron tracks.
but as you no doubt know, does not
cross them.
The boulevard holds its course for
several hundred yarda beyond Muir
kirk and then veers to the left. The
railroad swerves more to the north
east and at Muirkirk the boulevard
and the great historic way Of heavy
steel rails, oak ties and granite bal
last are nearer each other than at
any other point along their course
through Prince Georges county from
the District limo to the Patuxent river.
except where they cross at Hyatts-
Vile.
Between the wagon road and the
railroad runs a stream. No surveyor
of this world marked out this way.
Its route was laid out by the Great
Surveyor. It does not travel in a line.
but makes many graceful changes Of
direction. From tho highlands. the
rounded hills and tho oak and pine
grown plateau east and west a num-
Der OF brooks come to join 1t. The
streams flowing from the east pass
through ono Of the old iron mining
regions Of America, perhaps the old
est in America. On that point, such
records as exist are conflicting and
confusing. but It is perfectly safe to
write it down as one OF the historic
iron districts-one of the pioneer iron
districts OF our land. Though many
Of you do not know it, 1t is an iron
mining and iron smelling district IA
nous more than two centuries for the
quality Of Its ore and the quality OF
the iron which has come from its fur
naces. And the iron smelted in this
district. just a few miles outside of
Washington. has helped the United
States to win all the wars in which
the American people have taken part,
and iron from this nearby region
did its duty in making civilization
triumphant in the late great war.
DUT this region has done better
than turning out war iron. Its
iron has entered all the arts OF peace
1t has helped in husbandry. in trans
port. in mechanics and in all forms
Of human industry. 1t has served the
people of our country in every way
that iron can. Its reputation was
high in the colonies and in Europe,
| and its reputation is still high. Some
| metallurgists and some biologists
hold that the charcoal iron turned
| out from the old Muirkirk furnace is
! the best pig iron produced in the
United States. and not one Of the au-
| thorities looked up by the Rambler
has written that any better pig iron
| Is produced than that which has gone
forth into the world from the old
furnace about fourteen miles from
Washington. Surprising to you, isn't
1t? Many Of you never heard of this
before. and perhaps at this moment
you are asking for an authority on
| this. Well. in a publication by the
| Maryland geological survey on ''The