Evening star., 1926-04-28
WASHINGTON OBSERVATIONS
BY FREDERIC WILLIAM VILE.

fore it.. The terms of the members
of the board expire June 2, 1926. No
announcement concerning new ap-
pointments authorized under the 1926
revenue act has yet been made. The
average amount involved in tax ap.
peals was recently computed at SIS
S94.93. There have been more than
$4,000 appeals altogether, involving
some 100000 900.
Miss Ethel Christensen, a State De-
| partment clerk in the Division of Far
Eastern Affairs, is serving her coun-
try efficiently in Peking She is at
| tached to the American commission
| which has been struggling for the
| past few months with ways and
means for disentangling China's Gus.
toms tariff affairs, under the pro-
visions of the Washington conference
| OF 1922. Miss Christensen has been
| in the State Department for more
| than Is years. During most of that
| time she has been in the Far East"
| and served at the elbow of John Y.
A. MacMurray, until that distinguish
| ed young diplomat was appointed
| American Minister to China a year
ago.
Representative George Holden Tink.
ham, who seems to have a mortgage
on the eleventh Massachusetts con-
gressional district, was informed the
other day that there is an ambitious
young man living in Jamaica Plain.
| Gaspar Bacon, member of the Massa-
chuSetts Senate, son of the late Rob
| ert Bacon, an Ambassador and
| Secretary of State in the regime of
President Theodore Roosevelt, who
would like to succeed him. II usually
take ham and eggs for breakfast"
remarked Tinkham, but / would not
object to switching to Bacon and
eggs for a change"
| X X X X
| Lieut.. Gen. Sir Robert Baden
Powell, who will be in Washington
this week for the sixteenth annual
! meeting of the Boy Scouts of Amer
| lea, has the distinction of adding a
| word to the Kings English. 1t is the
verb Ito maffick," derived from the
| town of Mafeking, In British South
Africa. Gen. BadenPowell comma nd
ed the forlorn hope of a British gar
rison which withstood the Boer siege
of that little stronghold for many
| months. When the siege was lifted in
the Spring of 1900, after a long and
gallant defense by Baden-Powells s
/, men, London and the whole British
empire went deliriously mad with
| JOY. This writer, then a cub reporter
happened to arrive in England the
night John Bull lost his complacency
and phlegm on that historic occasion
Mafeking thenceforward became
synonym for general and unrestrict-
ed public rollicking, and ito maffick"
in Britain ever since has meant to
give ones self over to fun, frolic and
| jubilation unrestrained Gen. Baden
Powell, who is chief Scout of the
world and founder of the movement
in Britain, lists as his recreation
| pig sticking" He's written q book
about it.
| X X X X
| Somebody named Heinrich Charles
| of New York wants to submit to the
| congressional committees on educa-
| ton the result of his researches as to
how America got her name He is
prepared to blow up the theory that
| Amerigo Vespucci filched the credit
| due to Columbus and foisted his own
! name on the New World. Mr.. Charles
says it was not Vespucci who named
! this continent, "but genial Alsatian
| poet by the name of Matthias Ring
mann, who coined the word America
and induced his friend, the great car
| tographer, Martin Waldseemueller.
| to put it on the map. How 1t all
happened is the strangest and most
romantic episode in American history" !"
Copyright. 1928J