Evening star., 1924-12-20
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE

Diary OF a Washington correspond
ent; Week end on Capitol Hill finds
average member Of Congress in far
more Of Yuletide than a legislative
spirit. Holiday recess is usually
only a boon to Senator's and Repre-
sentatives within a nights ride OF
Washington. Exceptional to find a
statesman from a district west OF
the Mississippi River heading home
ward. Folks from the Pacific coast
for example, would use up virtually
the whole recess getting to and fro.
Man from the extreme northwes stern
corner OF the Republic assures me
It's good argument in favor OF
tran splanting the Capital from the
Potomac to some more geographically
central point-like the southern tip
OF Lake Michigan. Congress adjourn.
amid doubtings and chickering's on Mus
Gle Shoals and postal pay bills.
4 y x X
Julius Kahn, though he had not
served in the House as long as Henry
Cabot Lodge sat In the Senate, was
almost as much of an institution In
Congress as the scholar In politics
was. j never could look at or talk
to Kahn without remembering that
his early training was on the stage
Every gesture, every intonation, even
his exterior, suggested the footlights.
The member for the Golden Gate was
truly lovable personality. He had
as few foes in Congress as he had in
the San Francisco district, which re-
nominated and reelected. him time
after time without opposition. Last
time / met Kahn was at dinner at the
home of Gus karger, lamented Wash
ington correspondent. They lived in
the same apartment house on Con-
necticut avenue and were bosom
friends. The Californian thought so
much Of Karger that Mrs. Kahn,
fearing to shock him with the news
of Gus passing, never told him. They
have Joined the Great Majority to-
gether within month. Am remind
ed that in Karger, Gompers and Kahn
the National Capital has lost, almost
simultaneously, three Of its foremost
Jewish citizens.
X X X
Night of December IT Is red-let'
tered in my memory, for l sat at
table with Americas gallant young
Magellans of the air, the world fly
ers. No nation was ever brought
imperishable glory by men so modest
as Smith, Nelson. Harding, Wade, Og-
den and Arnold. They have COM
pleted their official log for the War
Department and now have scattered
to the four winds which once they
rode so triumphantly the whole
earth round. A few weeks of leave
and then service again at their reg
ular stations. Each Is weighted
down with one of the most luxurious
cigarette cases smoker ever carried
the gifts of New York City. The
cases are of gold. some by inches
in dimensions. On the front is a
relief replica in silver. accurate in
minutest detail, of one of the )rld
planes. On the back Is tr, in
graphic outline the oceans he
continents the flyers traversed. ! 18th
Indicated. Inside are engraved de-
tails of the flight.
I look forward to delicious nights
of personal reminiscence with the
posthumous memoirs of my friend
and mentor, Maurice Francis Egan
His "Recollections of a Happy Life
described by Henry Van Dyke as
'the best memoirs since Lord Fred
eric Hamilton's autobiography" is a
Christmas bookstand best seller
Egan was my professor of English
at Notre Dame. / remember, as If
yesterday, my swelling pride when
class essay, The Courtship of Miles
Standish," was found worthy of pub
lication, at Egan's direction, in the
Scholastic, college weekly. "You
should become a newspaper man.
I,he adventured. We never met again
for almost a generation, when ]
turned up at Copenhagen, where