Evening star., 1928-11-04

experimental farm. Until about two
years ago, when he had to quit work
cause got so porely," Parks had
worked in and about Arlington all of his
long life. He remembers when Mrs.
CustS died, telling me accurately that
that sad event occurred in 1883 -four
years before Maj. Gusts went, too" He
said, without any suggestion from me,
that Maj. Gusts died October 10,
1857" and that he was a boy of Is or
l6 years Of age at tiat time. He was
present at the burial of his master.
standing with the other black folks
apart from the white folks, when they
laid Mr.. Custis beneath his own trees
not far from the great house, that
stands today overlooking the Potomac
and the Capital City. But when I
asked him about the old grave of Mrs.
Mary Randolph, who died in 1928, and
is buried in the brick-walled vault
about go feet down the north walk from
the front OF the mansion, and If he
knew what relation she was to Mrs.
Custis, he promptly told me that he
never knew; that was long before his
time
I SOON saw that James Parks was not
at all inclined to supply with his
imagination anything his mind lacked
by way of facts. If he knew something
I wanted him to talk about, he spoke
freely and convincingly, but If he did
not know he was neither afraid nor
ashamed to say so: he never hesitated.
Once OF twice l tried to lead him be-
yond his depth, just to try him out, but
his utter simplicity and sincerity were
so patent that almost felt ashamed
OF my effort to probe his genuineness.
MY first effort had been to find
Uncle jim Parks, but had no idea
OF a protracted interview as we'll, so I
was without notebook or camera and
unprepared to make any record of his
interesting "reminiscences. In order to
correct my shortcomings in this par
ticular, asked him If might soon call
again and take his picture. Receiving
his polite but dignif1ed assent, together
with Thank you, suh," for what / slip
ped into his hand, left him to finish
his afternoon siesta beneath the apple
tree, with the chickens and the chill
dren.
I was back again in two days. well
fortified this time with kodak. notebook
and competent secretary who could
take notes as rapidly as Uncle Jim"
could speak He was sitting in the same
chair under the apple tree and received
me with the same grave, courteous re-
spect. He posed for as many snapshots
as l desired to take, but seemed not at
all naCtered that / should want them
nor old ne make any inquiry as to what
proposed to do with them. Seemingly.
as far as he was concerned. that was
my business, not his. He expressed no
desire to know why / wanted him to talk
about Arlington, so merely volunteered
that was interested in the history of
the old place and let it 90 at that.
Would ne go with me in the auto
mobile down to the old Gusts springP
Sutn'y, sub, If de nanny of desc chill
lun VIII look arfter dem while wes
gone" So, he let me help him into the
car, after I had given my assurance
that / would bring him safely back and
we went to find some of the places that
were famous considerably more than
hall a century ago Down through the
Department Of Agriculture experiment
tai farm. past the Government barns
and through the brick and stone arch
tunnel that once carried the Chesa-
peake d Ohio canal through Arlington
plantation to Alexandria, and we soon
STOOD beside the famous spring, now
hldoen by bushes and sflrubbery, but
still gushing forth its crystal-clear water
Here, he said, with a sweep of his arm
were the picnic grounds, where thou
sands of people iourneyed for holiday
from Washington. Georgetown and
Alexandra in years gone by, and came
to slake their thirst at the great spring
that was the pride of George Washing
ton Parke Custis. No doubt its fame
Was tust as firmly established earlieZ