Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1926-09-19

:, Xs5f&R . War. They came
| ) {.22 ~ home pleased and
| Is a1A - refreshed from
| w 5na the outing, and
Ma that was all there
was to it. except
| T1H%1 3&2iM III: for the different
accounts h e y
gave to a woman
Nthey know pretty
Us, q, IS. " y,
| W frankly consider:
~ ed that event the
star feature of the trip-nice road and
all. but couldn't call southern Mary
land progressive, seeing that ouggies
and even OK carts and mules have
right of way, and most Of the farm
fields are fenced In with oldtime rails
Instead Of wire But the fishing Off
Benedict-taylor, trout, sheepshead-
well, sir.
The other man came home with
story about a granite shaft rising
from grass that ripple in the breeze
like a pond. 1t stood bit from the
road, and it's base was sided with
bronze tablets that restored the name
and state of every prisoner that had
died at the Point. The unexpected
ness Of it gave him thrill.
"Thev tell me that most OF those
old families in southern Maryland can
claim ancestors who wore white Wigs
land danced minuets. and l guess II
must be so. for they are the polltest
people | ever saw in my life. Even
the ancient colored men and women
still lit hats and bob curtseys to
strangers who ask directions on the
ROAD colonial custom handed down
from their white families OF the
long and long ago. And those peace
full. fine-nlannered people are chuck
full of memories Of their past AZ
ST. Marys City. say. where the hrst
Maryland pilgrims came In 1854. ana
formally took possession or the ,ano,
there Is a Catholic church built or the
bricks of the old courthouse, which
were brought from England. and In
its sanctuary stands the trunk OF
mulberry tree under which the first
mass was said when the pioneers from
the Ark and Dove landed on Blacki-
stones Island. There is another
granite monument in the Episcopal
graveyard, placed there by the Daugh-
ters of the American Revolution. on
the site Of a tree under which GOV.
Calvert stood when he declared liberty
for all coIonists Of all faiths
land this first great Catholic chief
of the new colony Is so beloved, and
owned by the Episcopal members OF
the picturesque little temple set In
the midst of shafts and slabs that
record their dead. that always the
monument is decorated with flowers
and wintergreens throughout the
year.
Talk about the ocean at Atlantic
City? You ought to see that mighty.
shoreless sweep Of Chesapeake Bay.
as 1t tumbles headlong from the sky
line onto the stretch Of beach that
runs out to make the Point!
Fishing? Oh, yes. we had cou-
pie Of days Of 1t at Decentralization
and trout didn't catch Sleeps
head. but Joe did. What got me was
the people and their pleasant ways;
their history and their homes; the
pastoral beauty Of their country. and
Their Chesapeake Bay"
If you want TO know more about
Nicaragua than the papers are tell
Ing. go over to the Smithsonian lnsti'
tuition and find out for yourself.
Most of us have already identified
the republic with that yellow splash on
the map and have read our thimbleful
| about its sacred volcano. its golden
sands frothed with blue-green break
ers: its ancient legends and its strict
w present row. Maybe you own
terra Gotta something you like to call
a tear bottle, or a queer concn. with
lips the pink Of sunset, or delicious
| possibility, q reboSa, woven by some
primitive child of nature with a skin
las brown as a coconut and soul
the white Of milk. But. with all these.
the chances are that the archaeological
collection at the Smithsonian will give
| Won your first real understanding or
| Nicaragua and its tropic, islands in
those way-back days when a lonely
brown creature. crouched on the shore
Of an untraveled sea. Clipped stone
and moulded clay with never pre-
nnonition Of the explorer, who was to
SCOOP him from oblivion. nor or the
museums that would hold his crude
ware above the kilns Of Sevres.
Limoges and Wedgwood. because 1t
bears the potters stamp Of historic
man.
As YOU touch the top step of the
drean1ily silent floor given over to the
exhibit, your eyes will fare against
1.-TWO idols of chocolate-brown sand
stone. They are stocky gods with in.
distinct faces that have been chiseled
with an implement too crude to
fashion other expression than the
sealed lids and the inscrutable bland.
ness that characterizes most prehis-
toric sculpture Of this continent. Their
| souatty limbs are too short for the
bodies and their misfit arms end in an
elaborate display of fingers that con-
trast with their vague attempts at
ltoes. Some of them sit serenely bow
legged and few crouch frog fashion
with their fingers on their toes.
One hideously affable rain god bears
on his head a huge serpent, coiled In
fat. satisfied rings that sort Of sug-
gsst that he is resting up after dip
lomatic days work in the garden with
Eve. This symbol OF the serpent
crawls persistently over every other
water deity and manifests itself in the
pottery these ancient Nicaraguans ate
from and the urns that packed their
dead-most Of the vessels being paint
ed or crusted with vertebrate outlines
that vary from a good sized water
snake to the one tiny wriggle that be-
; gins and ends a worm. And because OF
the presence of the snake and OF the
] cross that figures so frequently in
the archaeological researches OF this
continent, notably on the tablets OF
PalAnuue. some theorists. unable to
senarate these emblems from Scrip
ture. ascribe them to the agency OF
missionaries who preached the Gospel
long before the advent of Pizarro or
Cortez. One authority. at least, scouts
this claim as being as stupid as the
one deriving our North American In
dian from the Hebrew.
| It Is risky work trif1ing with the