Evening star., 1928-11-25
The "three sisters" of
Arlington.
BY DON GLAsSMAN.

w YORDS, words, words, words,
4 words, words
NM Forty to the second, 300 to
the set, 2,400 to the minute,
$4,000 to the hour, 3,456, 900
10 the day and 24,192,000 to the week.
Shot from the talking towers of Ar
hngton. Swept by electrical energy to
far-fiung corners. Winged words, swift
as lightning bolts. Torrents Of words,
avalanches, floods. downpours and cloud
bursts of words. Unctuous words, gentle
words, hard words and funny words.
Words from Arlington buzz around
you day and night. They swim around
the heads and necks of congressman.
They even drum on the ears OF Mr..
President and his cabinet
Yet lust a stones throw from Ar
lington's Three Sisters is the National
cemetery where lies a regiment OF
honored dead. wordless. Silence hangs
over the tonlbs. The buried men VINO
sang and talked in life are speecnless
in their sad plight. But Arlington's
towers talk and talk. The tide of
words is endless. It always flows, it
never ebbs. Its weight is crushing.
Thus side by side the wordless dead
men and the talking mountains. But
the talking mountains might just as
we'll be dead They maintain discreet
silence on this hallowed spot. Yes, the
Three Sisters of Arlington are silent,
though their voices ring round the
world.
Flung to every point of the mariners
compass, words mouthed by the Three
Sisters creep through the ornaments
of dreadnaughts, climb the Rockies,
Himalayas, Andes and Alps, and trip
q May dance around the frigid poles.
What loquacious women are the
Three Sisters. When an admiral of the
Presidents Navy wants to know the
temperature in Washington, he listens
to gossip from the Three Sisters; when
dozen continental governments want
the "low down" on the globes weather,
they hark to the ladies, too; when Con-
greSsmen resort to f1sticuffs, the damo-
selles discuss that, also.
And still, were you to park your ear
to the ground outside the spiked fence
at Arlington, nary word out OF all
these words and intelligence would
hammer on your ear drums. The ST.
lence is that of the tomb.
"Stop!" In plain American the sign
at the entrance to Arlington invites an
urgent halt. Keep of Government
property, or words to that effect.
Plainly, the Three Sisters want no COM
pany from outsiders. Indeed. ladies
who wag their tongues with such agil-
ity have no time for local conversa-
tions. Long-distance talking is their
forte. They court admirals and meteor
ologists. Local celebrities are taboo.
But armed with an official passport
from the Secretary of the Navy, the
road is paved. Chug chug chug, you and
your equipage drive up to the awesome
gate, pass beyond its precinct and roll
audaciously up the roadway.
X X
HERE comes w. S. Mckay, COM
IL mandant and chief radio electri-
clan. man of seven seas and guardian
of the Three Sisters.
Stranger, what brings you to the
Island Of Arlington?"
THE business of words
But there are no words here" he
says. Nobody comes here. And We
my men and I-dont talk so much"
second, 2,400 to the minute, 144,0 to
the hour 3,456000 to the"
"Whoap he eXclaims.
We point to the talking towers; we
make a grandiose sweep of the arm.
"Ah!" he says. You're thinking of
the Three Sisters. Sure, they talk.
And how! They're never silent. Going
at it all the time. But where's your
passport?"
EIlLIdIlCt eAdulnldllOn JIlG
sentinel assigned to guard the Three
Sisters forked over the key to Arlington.
And so through the main building,
filled with generators SWitchboardS,
buzzers, keys, vacuum tubes and mis-
cellaneous tangle of machinery which,
notwithstanding its importance, means
nothing to the untutored mind. This
machine buZzes, another huns. Here
there is a clicking sound, Offset on the
other side by little humpa dee hump.
Everything spins. huns and moves
without any one seeming to give it at
tention. An automatic word factory.
If you can read code, there is little
key that tells the story on the lips of
one of the Sisters. But Arlington has
eight sets, and when they lay down
word -barrage together, the atmosphere
is thick with the bullets of lexicog-
Taphy.
A billiard room supplies recreation;
chow comes from the galley. There is
a small library Mckay and fellow
officers and their wives inhabit the
spacious brick house built for the late
chairman of the Federal Radio Com
mission, Admiral Bullard. Their assist
ants live in a large one-room dormi-
tory bathed by sunlight from three
sides. The Nays key radio station
occupies approximately 13 acres ceded
for that purpose by the Army.
About 25 rerSOnS live on the Airing