Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-07-06
FORD, BEMEANINC HISTORY,
BECOMES IT'S CUSTODIAN
Car Which Most Famous Collector of
Antiques Made Has Led Pro-
cession of Change.

and boiling water on an electric stove.
Whether that particular revolution IL
ahead of us or not, 1t can be taken per-
fectly for granted that analogous revo-
lutionS are under way-and very rapidly
under way, because such innovations
move much faster now than they did
when Mr.. Ford was introducing his
automobile. When these revolutions
now going on about us shall have been
completed what objects familiar to us
today will have become antique, and as
such will be in process of collection,
let us say, about the year 1850, by some
future Henry Ford?
Covered Bridge Already Doomed.
Among institutions or objects already
clearly doomed one that has happened
to interest the writer recently is the
old fashioned covered bridge-wooden
highway bridge with a roof on it. Has
Mr.. Ford yet secured one of these for
his reproduction of an old-time village?
If not he had best be prompt, for they
are rapidly succumbing to broad, two
way concrete bridges, built according
to the standardized specifications of
highway engineers, the one in oregon
made on the same pattern and of iden-
tical materials with the one in New
York State.
AS the new bridges supplant old ones,
the latter, as rule, are ruthlessly torn
down, their venerable umbers scattered,
often burned on the spot as rubbish.
Has any American community had sem
timent enough about its local covered
bridge to take pains 10 preserve it? I'm
less they are preserved by conscious de-
| liberation they will disappear from the
surface of America more completely
than the buffalo, as devastatingly as the
passenger pigeon.
| k~tI dc a
property of town or county or State;
consequently no one person has control
of it's destiny or power to save 1t for
sentiments sake. Also, a covered bridge
is rather too big an object to be slowed
away in the attic with the spinning
wheel; too big, also, to be bought by
collectors of the type who seek out
Windsor chairs and candle molds.
Henry Ford is about the only man IN
the world likely to buy wooden bridge
and perserve it, as he is preserving other
| objects as large, such as the ancient
Postville court house he bought in IL
linois and moved to his old-time vii
lage in Dearborn.
Suggests Cooperation by Communities.
One feels like disavowing any notion
that the saving Of specimens Of the COW
cred bridges should be left wholly TO
Mr. Ford One would rather see many
communicates many communities as
still have one-undertake the work Of
preserving them and keeping them, and
keeping them where they now are, III
the daily sight of the children or grand
children of those who used the bridge
in the days when 1t was a marvel,
proudly possessed improvement upon
the ford that could only be crossed
in times of favorable weather.
II Mr. Ford should set out to get
venerable covered bridge for his COL
lection, he should get the Oldest And
where in America Is the Oldest covered
bridge? One feels it should be found
somewhere in New England or New
York State or Eastern Pennsylvania.
The prize for Mr.. Fords collection
should have a certain size. One less
than 80 or 40 feet long would hardly do.
for that was not enough to create the
atmosphere the old-time covered bridge
had, the sense of soothing shade 1t
provided in Summer, OF shelter IN VIM
ter; the aroma that went with 1t, COM
bined of the pleasant odor Of old wood
and Of the scent that came from the
water and the swampy, rich water-side
vegetation below.
The writer Of this article undertook
recently to get an old-time object-not
so very old-time; 1t must have lasted
as living institution as late as 1910
an object more portable than a wooden
bridge. What I sought was a dance
program, feature of a time when dances
had programs. Nowadays dances seem
to be continuous performances; one
tune and one dance merging into the
other In the Statelier, more decorous
years of the early part OF this century.
or of the COS. the custom was to have
from Is to 20, or more, formal num-
bers, each separate, with rests between.
The airs to be played were planned in
advance The names of the tunes or
of the dances-two-step, waltz, schot-
tische, polka, lancers. with an occa-
sional reel or hornpipe-were listed In
formal order, and the list was printed
upon alluring folders, which subse-
ouently became souvenirs. Opposite the
name of each dance was blank. upon
which the name of the lady's partner
for that number was written with a
tiny pencil attached to the program by
silk cord. There must be in Ameri-
can attics thousands of such old pro-
grams, and they compose MOTTO be
ignored record of the ways in which
America amused itself land conducted
its wooing) some IS to 40 years ago.
Impressive Railroad Pass Gone.
Another old-time object that eluded
search was the railroad pass-the rail-
road pass in its impressive dignity Of
used-to-be, not in its attenuated and
demeaned estate of today. There are
still railroad passes, but they are con-
fined to railroad employees, and in
printing and formal they are about as
glamorous as an income tax form. The
railroad pass-what everybody rs years
ago meant by pass" or an annual
was substantial, ornately printed in
colors, often decorated with careering
railroad engine, or buffalo head, or
some such insignia Of speed and power.
It was substantial, not only in its phySi-
cal self, but in what 1t symbolized. To
have a pass was to be a person of some
consequence In the community, and the
railroads we're careful to see that every
person Of much consequence in any
community had one. Members Of the
Legislatures had them. Newspaper edi-
tors, without exception, had them.
Members of Congress and Governors
had them To considerable degree
members of town councils, officials Of
party organizations-everybo whose
position gave him possible influence
upon railroad legislation or upon the
fortunes of railroads with respect to
suits for accidents on the road or to
immunity from what the railroads re-
garded as excessive taxation. It was
this aspect Of the railroad pass that
brought about its doom. Ordinary folks
who paid their fare came to feel that
passes were used as a seductive bride
for political influence. And. in truth,
that is what they we're. The railroad
pass made much history in America.
history in the most serious sense. Pos
session of passes Influenced, often de-
termined, not merely legislation about
railroads, but legislation and public ac-
ton on every sort of subject. The rail-
roads, or q high individual official of
a railroad, who had the giving of passes
set himself up as political boss. or as
the man behind the boss. The railroad
| mass accounted more than anv other