Evening star., 1925-04-05

u and repuDlShed many adVer-
tisements and news bits of
1852. In spite, or because, of its lit
erary defects and lack of originality
it was successful story in that sew
eral old Washingtonians read it, and
! t is the old Washin gtonian at whom
the Rambler aims his stories. If an
old Washingtonian applauds him or
writes a letter to the editor that he
ought not to be fired, the Rambler
cats with content his midday slice of
pie and goes to bed with peaceful
thoughts.
OF course. the Rambler tries also
TO please Washingtonians who are
not old, even though they have lived
here 10 years, and for that purpose
he writes some jazzy lines and toots
the saNophone for a paragraph or so.
The Rambler writes to eat. and should
MS fond readers turn him down he
would have to go to work.
The ramble from the early Star
was SO poor from a literary point of
view that many persons thought it
good, and the Rambler is emboldened
10 try another story in the same key.
He will not leave the file room of
The Star without bringing out for
your benefit some of the things he
found there
You remember unless you are
strangely forgetful. that he wrote
series OF stories about ancient busi-
ness firms in Washington, and he
took the liberty, or exercised the
right, to define an ancient business
firm as one that was so years old.
Some of his friends in the history de-
partment of the Washington univer-
sites and in the Geological Society
may protest that the word ancient"
was treated too lightly. but as they
have not agreed as to what year sep
arateS ancient and modern, the Ram
bier has felt free to give the word
his own Interpretation. He fears
or. at least, he does not fear-that
great scholars will differ with him,
but they differed with him on so
many other things that he no longer
lies awake o nights lamenting the
errors into which great scholars fall.
The file room is one of the i'm
portant places in the world. There
is no other library of Washington
history so large and varied 1t is
also library of American and world
history. 1t approaches as near ac-
curacy as history ever does, and near
er than history usually does 1t
holds the record of millions of events
Tor 7O-odd years, and the record of
those events was made when the
events befell. There are divergent
accounts of the same event, but the
hles set down, not one side of a mat
ter, but as many sides as there are
Years after an event the files follow
it and give place to memoirs of actors
in 1t, recollections of men who had
direct knowledge of it, and interpre-
tationS put upon the event by men
who had only a reading knowledge
of it.
The files tell the history Of times
before them. They carry the narra-
tives and the biographies of men who
were old when the first tila was
bundle of fresh newspapers. They
tell what many men carried in mem
ory of the Washington from 1871 to
the beginning of the files. They tell
what thousands of men have been
able to collect fKom all sources, re-
lating to this part of the country,
from the coming of European settlers.
The files are the history of the
American Capital, the progress of the
sciences and the course of man. This
store of knowledge is not codified and
indexed so as to be ready to the
hand of any man, and such arrange
ment of it would be a stupendo,:s
job, but 1t is one of those stupandous
Jobs which must in time be done.
x \ x x
THE patient and industrious man
- with a special technique uses the
files for his own and public advantage.
From the old files he may write
theses on many subjects, and the files,
If they do not supply all the ma
terial for a thesis, make valuable
contribution to it, Many a man has
got his reputation for wisdom or
learning from the files, but rarely
does one make public acknowledgment
of his debt. by painstaking research
l have prepared this ntribution to
knowledge" he says, and his hearers
clap their hands. He takes all the
credit. Not once does he say, The
old files gave me this information"
The Rambler takes off his hat to
the files and salutes them. If you
think the "rambles' good reading,
their writer asks you to praise, not
only him, but the files.
The old files do not live in luxury
They are not even embalmed in lux
ury. a new subeditor often has a
better room than the old files. But
The Star treats its files pretty well.
1t gives them steel shelves, off which
they come, perhaps, to look at men
they never saw before. II an old file
could speak the language of its print,
it might say: MY type was set before
you were born. Hold me at the win
dow. The Avenue is not so grand as
/ thought it would become. Rather
shabby. So many changes in the city
l could not find my way around. All
my printers. editors and subscribers
are gone. Put me back on the shelf
among my friends. Gently, please;
don't break my binding"
Books of 10000 words, many of
them ill-used and with only three
facts, all of which are wrong, are
given finer bindings than old files.
The janitor has no reverence for
them. The library assistants, when
they think of them, think of them as
heavy and hard to handle, and Won