Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-06-15

In the writer's time he never heard a harsh
word said of Friend and he has always heard
them spoken of as industrious, thrifty, God
fearing and being all that the word friend"
implies.
Two other traits the writer has found in the
Friends are those of confidence and hospitality
1t is well enough and nice enough for each
of to have a separate and distinct way of
worshiping God, but to be of real value to any
special religious denomination we must show
by precept and example as do the Friends that
we ourselves, at least try to carry out and abide
by the teachings of the religion we would have
others believe in.
Five years ago. when the writer was doing
some broadcasting, he received note one day
from two very charming women residing at
Sandy Spring, the noted Friends" settlement
about Is miles north of Washington. 1t was a
very generous sort of note coming from two
sisters, Miss Mary B. Brooke and Mrs. Edith
(Brooke) Green, descendants of James Brooke,
who settled Charley Forrest Sandy Spring,
about 1928.
Later, by invitation, the writer and his wife
called upon these good women in their stately
colonial home near Olney, and since then the
friendship has continued.
When the writer first visited their old home
in 1926 everything about the place impressed
him being very old even for this section of
the country, the house particularly striking him
as having been built considerably more than a
century ago. though today the walls are ap-
pdIchIly DIS Luul anu SOllO as the Gay Lney were
built.
p ECENTLY the writer decided to call on his
old Quaker" friends near Olney and find
out something about the old house in which the
two sisters still living is also the daughter
of Mrs. Green, Miss Mary F. Green.
1t a charming Sunday afternoon and a
delightful hour or two spent talking of the
history of the old homes of the Brooke family
and of the Friends settlement at Sandy Spring.
where is the meeting house attended OCCASION
ally by President Hoover, himself member of
this faith, and whose ancestors are reported as
having lived nearby
The records in the possession of the owners
and occupants of this old home show that it
built about 1773 by Basil Brooke and origi-
nally called BelleviIe, but later changed to
Failing Green by Miss Mary B. Brooke the
beautiful sloping green fields suggesting the
The house is typically Colonial built of bricks
burnt close by on the place, and laid in Flemish
bond courses, a style of early architecture which
continued in this city up to about $780, when
it gave way to the header" style in general use
since that date. Additions and improvements
have been made to the old home since it was
erected, three years before the signing of the
Declaration of Independence, but the main
building stands today substantially unaltered.
The interior is veritable curiosity shop, with
its multitude of antiques which almost beggar
preserved, is the stairway that leads to the
upper rooms from the passageway below and
here the period Of architecture would remind
one Of Mount Vernon so dear to us ALL though
If anything, it has the appearance of being the
older of the two buildings, for at Falling Green
the door hinges are of the strap variety and
extend across the entire door. They are hand
wrought, and so skinfully is the work done that
the marks of the hammer cannot be seen any,
where.
Not like the present city home where all
sentimentality has been removed from the
walls-simply to keep pace with the modern
trend-here we find conSpicuouSy framed the
family tree of the Brooke family, pictures of the
members of Brooke relatives and ancestors
individually and in groups of especial interest
being number of silhouettes some of which
undoubtedly antedate the daguerreotype and
ambrotype. One of these of especial merit
shows In wedding costume the great-grandfather
and great-grandmother of the present occupants
Of the house
In another part of the house is to be seen
an old grandfathers clock which has stood in
the same place ticking of its time for nearly
century. 1t was purchased years ago by
Richard Brooke at sale for a very low price
because 1t was thought too old to run. But it
continues to tick, and no can say Just when
1t viii cease to count of the minutes and the
hours which figure so much in the life of mortal
man.
Here against the wall is an old bookcase OF
uncertain age, made in Philadelphia at a cost
of SIS, and Settee and two armchairs made
by Anthony Poultney, cabinetmaker of Fred
erick Md, and bought by Gerard Brooke for
use in Failing Green.
r ICHARD BROOKE, son of Gerard Brooke
Q760-1021), and who was born in 1880
was resourceful sort of a man. who made a
bedStead sufficiently large to accommodate all
his children at one time. After his death in
1862 a sofa was made from it that still serves