Evening star., 1923-12-09
Capital Sidelights
BY WILL r. KENNEDY.

BY WILL r. KENNEDY.
There's a certain red fox that daily
barks his defiance at Senator Frank
B. Brandegee of Connecticut. and fox
ologists In the Capital environs are
much Interested in the phenomenon.
They call him "Brandegee's singing
fox"
Senator Brandegee has a wonder
fully beautiful place. OF some thou
sand acres, on "the old River road"
along the Potomac, which goes
straight from Tenleytown to Great
Falls and beyond. This farm is In
and Cabin John creek. The man In
| charge of this farm beautiful" one
T. c. De Priest, Is an enthusiastic fox
| hunter and keeps some of the finest
dogs In the country. He also keeps
some white Leghorn hens. He made
a long pen and keeps the dogs in one
end and the hens In the other. sepa-
| rated by strong wire fencing.
This old red fox has been coming
| up to the chicken end Of this pen and
stealing chickens right under the
nose OF the dogs. who couldn't catch
him because of the wire obstacle. Not
, satisfied with such tantalizing ma
old fox has acquired the habit OF COM
ing up under an old persirnmon tree
close to the house and barking. Those
who claim to be well versed in fox
lore say that 1t is practically un-
heard OF for a fox to bark at this
time OF the year. and they express the
opinion that it is plain defiance.
Louis Seibold. one Of the veteran
Washington correspondents. who
| knows something about fox hunting,
fox" he ever heard Of.
Senator Brandegee's place" is on
the edge of the best fox-hunting
stretch of territory in the entire
United States.
On an old Virginia plantation be-
| low the James river. Senator William
Cabel1 Bruce OF Maryland spent his
youth, where the monotony of ex-
istence in a remote and sparsely set
tied community was never varied by
anything more exciting than a Pres
byterian revival. a country side dance
! or day Of quail or rabbit shooting"
Senator Bruce recalls. There was no
fishing" he continued, because, as
John Randolph Of Roanoke once said,
with some truth. the rivers in south
| side Virginia are .fishless.' When I
was not riding and shooting or hunt
ing there was little for me to do at
my boyhood home Cat Staunton Hill.
In Charlotte county, Va.) except to
read English classics; and / am glad
that there was not. for the library
that my father gathered about him
was the foundation of such profess
sional and public success as 1 have
Gen. Isaac r. Sherwood, who sat in
the House fifty years ago, antedating
any other present member. has his
History Of the Civil War coming out
during the Christmas holidays. Gen.
Sherwood knows whereof he writes
He went into the war as a private in
the 14th Ohio Infantry and was mus
tered out as brfgadier general. He
was in forty three battles. 12s days
under fire and was ten times compli-
mented in special and general orders
and on the field Of battle by COM
manding generals for gallant conduct.
ne commanded his regiment in all the
oattles or the Atlanta campaign, and,
after the battles of Franklin and
nashville, Tenn, upon recommends
tion of the officers OF his brigade and
division, and on the Endorsement Of
Gen. Scoheld, commanding the Army,
he was made brevet brigadier general
oy President Lincoln, for long and
faithful service and conspicuous gal
lantry at the battles Of Resaca, At
ianta, Franklin and Nashville.
Representative Ralph Gilbert of
Kentucky Is one of those members
OF Congress who succeeded to seats
formerly occupied by their fathers.
Before coming to Congress Mr.. Gill;
bert served for seven years as Judge
of Shelby county court. He practiced
law mostly in the country. This
calls into play all the resourcefuI-
ness one has, much more frequently
than city-practice. 1t was the pleas
ure OF Judge Stout, now dead, in the
circuit court Of Frankfort, KY, to tell
this true incident of Judge Gilbert's
bert recalls as follows:
While trying civil case my op-
ponent introduced witness to prove
the bad character of my client. The
quently in my court at Shelbyville.
| KY. and usually as a defendant to
some breach Of peace suit His tes-
timony, however, took me by sur
q,
, away from home without witness
there to establish the good reputa-
ton or my client or to show the bad
reputation of his detractor. So look
ing the witness in the eye, with a
very firm voice / asked the witness
what his own reputation. in the COM
munity in which he lived, for peace
and general ,ld morality srl was, when the
ed that 1t was awful bad
II have often been told this was
the only time 1t has ever occurred
| in a Kentucky court for a lawyer to
a witness by the witness himself"
Representative Gilbert. like many
other great men, carried newspapers
on the streets for several years. He
which has jurisdiction over the. Ma
tional Capital and takes Ieat pleas
make the city of Washington the
most beautiful and best equipped d
city In the world.
KS 4
When Representative Henry T.
Rainey, who was chairman Of the
democratic caucus and who Is sched-
uled for a place on the ways and
means committee. returned to Con-
gress he had to make pig sacrifice
him away from his beautiful estate
Of 500 acres which he has turne d
into public park.
For many years Representative
Rainey and his wife realized the need
in central Illinois. where there arc
few lakes, Of a place wnere people
could enjoy themselves in the open.
Twelve years ago they bought farm
one mile out of Carrollton which
had been a show place since before
the civil war. Here the Raineys had
two small lakes built and opened Up
a tract of 165 acres OF natural prai-
rfe and woodland to whomsoever
cares to enjoy 1T. A wading pool has
L Ill In, klan ira