Evening star., 1923-09-16
Capital Sidelights
by WILL p. KENNEDY.

more to his associates--will be graft
| $4,000 has been raised for the Sher-
| man T.. Burroughs memorial fund.
| Mr.. Burroughs proved himself es-
pecIalIy a friend of washingtonians
| by fathering the Legislative proposal
to give residents of the District of
| Columbia voting representation in
| Congress and in the national election.
! The completion OF the fund is an
nounced by John r, McLane, who was
law partner of Representative Bur-
roughs and is acting as treasurer of
the fund.
] The purpose of this fund is three
| fold. First, there will be available
each year q stated income. OF which
the New Hampshire Childrens AID
and Protective Society can be GER
| tain, to be used to broaden the scope
! of the work of that organization.
Second, the society has been prom
| ised a gift of $4,000. contingent upon
the collection of the subscriptions TO
this fund. The income from this
additional gift is to be used for work
among the crippled children of New
Hampshire.
Third, the fund will prove a fitting
memorial for the late Sherman 70.
Burroughs, the first president and
| one of the founders of the society.
Service was the keynote of the
splendid career of Representative
Burroughs. The extent to which he
realized his ambitions and desire$ on
this line was emphasized in all the
tributes which followed his untimely
and much lamented death at Wash
ington on January 81. and especially
| in the memorial exercises held in the
Capitol. One of the ways in which,
during the last years of his life. this
desire to serve his fellow men found
very useful expression was in his
work as president of the New Hamp-
shire Childrens Aid and Protective
Society.
Representative Joseph jefferson
Mansfield, from the famous gulf coast
district of Texas, says he is not su-
perstitIous at all, but that no induce
ment on earth could cause him to
burn a stick of sassafras wood. He
says that in his early boyhood, just
after the close of the civil war, coffee
in Wayne county. w. Va, where he
then lived, was regarded as a great
luxury and was as scarce as cooking
stoves. which none but the rich and
the near rich could afford. The prin-
cipal table beverage of the country
folks consisted of a tea made from
the roots of sassafras tree, which
could he found growing in any of the
nearby woodlands.
There was u persistent superstition
in that section of the county to the
effect that bad luck would certainly
follow those who would burn or
otherwise destroy sassafras trees. On
one occasion during a very cold win
ter, while "snaking' in with yoke
of steers a few saplings for fuel. ne
chanced to cut down and drag in q
nice saSsafras tree. The tree was
cut into cordwood lengths and placed
on the fire before any member of the
family had noticed that it was the
forbidden sassafras. but when the dis
covery was made Il great commotioI
ensued, and for a time it appeared as
though he might be called upon to
seek living quarters elsewhere than
| in the ancestral farmhouse. Even the
neighbors discussed the matter, pre-
dieting that bad luck of some kind
| would surely follow in short time.
Two days later Mansfield was mer-
cilessly lnanhandled when he got the
first and only thrashing he ever re-
ceived at school. He says that he can
still feel the sting of the rawhtde that
was applied from shoulder TO calves
I fon that -be-forgotten occa-
sion. The same week an overflow oc-
Cured in Beech fork of Twelve Pole
river. on which the family was living
at the time, and washed away Il
brand-ncw "staSed and rider" fence
he had just finished building around
the eight-acre field he expected to
plant in corn with the coming spring
time. The overflow came with the
close of a long, cold winter. and great
quantities of ice were washed out
| proving destructive to property gener-
ally, but perhaps nowhere doing more
damage than to the public roads. The
Beech Fork road at the time Skirted
along the bank of the stream. at some
/ places on the top and at other, or
| the side and at still other places un-
| der the bank, and almost or quite al
| the waters edge. Level farm land
was a mighty scare commodity in that
section of West Virginia, and the
roads were located with a. view tc
conserving as much as possible OF
/ that valuable asset. and not wasting
| ii for road purposes.
For several days after the flood
| had subsided public travel on Beech
! fork was reduced to q minimum on
account of the roads being blocked
with great gorges of ice in some
places and washed completely away
at other places. Right in the midst
of this condition of affairs the family
! Mansfield. who was the mill boy OF
| the outfit. was placed with two
| busheI sack of shelled corn on the
| hurricane deck of Old John. the
| family horse, and started for the
mill at the falls of the river some
six or seven miles away. He soon
| found the road well-nigh impossible
! even for sure-footed, steady going
| old farm horse. Upon reaching q
point about half way to the mill he
| found the road completely blocke
with driftwood and huge blocks OF
! In i1I n
| piled to q height of six or seven feet
! He attempted to ride around this
! obstruction on the side next to the
| river. but there was not sufficient
! room without riding on a large block
of ice in the narrow passageway
lying at an angle of about ten degrees
| and extending to the brink of the
| river bank. When Old John conf
IDENTIFY stepped on this block of ice,
| his feet shot from under him, and
a six-foot embankment into the
river and were completely sub
merged for a time in the ice-cold
| water When they came to the sur
| face they were widely separated; Old
John swan out on one side. Mans
| fed on the other. and the sack of
corn swiftly floated down the stream
Representative Mansfield says that
a number of things nearly as bad
happened to him within the next few
weeks, All OF WnlCn became Benerally
known to the community and were a
general topic of conversation. When
ever he CHANGED to meet any of his
neighbors he was severely upbraided
for burning sassafras wood, and
many of them Job-comforted him by
| declaring he deserved all that was
meted out to him.
| mo, sir, I am not the least BIZ
superstitious," asserts Representative
Mansfield. THE numbers 13 and 2a
have no terror for me whatever: ]
| never hesitate to walk under a lad
| der any old time-even on Friday the
18th; whole droves of black cats
may cross my pathway with impun-
| ity, but no inducement whatever can