Evening star., 1934-11-23
ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS
BY FREDERIC ]. HASKIN.

A reader can get the anSuer to
any question OF fact by tDriting The
Washington Epening Star Information
Bureau, Frederic J. Haskin, Director
Washington, D. c. Please inclose
stamp for reply.
@. Please give a biography of Luigi
Pirandello, winner of the 1884 Nobel
Prize for literature-J. L.
A. Luigi Pirandello, Italian dram
atist and novelist, was born on June
%, 1867, on an estate near Girgenti
Italy. He first went to Rome at the
age of 10, staying there until 1891
when he went to Germany and gradu-
ated in philosophy at the University
of Bonn. He subsequently returned
to Rome and taught at the girls high
school until 1928. His first literary es-
says were in verse. Capuana persuad-
ed him to devote himself to fiction
and in 1894 he published his first
novel. In 1904 his most celebrated
novel, "Il fu Malta Pascal" appeared
Pirandello's plays have been translated
into many languages. In 1925 he Gre
ated an art theater of his own in
Rome, where both foreign and Italian
plays are performed.
@. How many reptile skins enter
the leather trade annually?-A. S.
A. approximately 100000 alligator
skins enter into the trade annually;
about 2,500,000 snakeskins of various
types have been consumed in the shoe
and fancy goods manufacture annu-
ally and about the same quantity OF
lizardskins has been used for the same
purpose.
O. How many international monu,
ments are there along the United
States-Canadian border?-W. H. S.
A. The International Boundary
Commission says that the total num-
Der Of monuments which mark the in
ternational boundary between the
United States. Canada and Alaska is
5000.
O. Can a person be imprisoned for
debt anywhere in the United States?
j. w. B.
A. Imprisonment for debt was abol-
ished in New York in 1881 and shortly
thereafter by other States in which it
had been permitted. In many States
it had never been recognized. A linn
tied right of coercing a dishonest
debtor by arrest in civil process is
permitted by statute. 1t is generally
allowed in actions for injury to the
person or character, or for injury to
or the wrongful taking of property;
embezzlement by public officers or per-
sons acting in a private f1duciary ca
pacity as trustees; for misconduct in
Office or any professional employment; +;
in actions to recover personal prop
erty where it is concealed or kept out
Of reach by the sheriff, and where the
defendant has been guilty Of fraud in
contracting the debt or in avoiding
payment. In some cases, such as
failure to pay alimony, the delinquent
may be jailed for contempt of court.
@. What is the purpose Of the Stein
Fund?-O. j.
A. The Stein Fund was established
by the president of the New York
League of the Hard of Hearing, 480
Lexington avenue, New York, N. Y,
to provide hearing aids to people liv-
ing in New York. .
@. Please tell something about
Colonial libraries in the United States
B. R. w.
A. The earliest libraries in the
Colonial period of America were
private Among the notable ones
of this kind were those of Elder
Brewster of Plymouth, Gov. winthrop
of Connecticut, DR.. Cotton Mather OF
Boston, Col. Ralph Wormeley of Vir-
ginia and the Rev. John Harvard.
Toward the end of the seventeenth
century the Bray parish libraries be-
gan to appear. These were collections
mainly of religious books sent to
America through the efforts of Rev
Thomas Bray of London. The first
subscription library in the colonies was
projected by Benjamin Franklin in
1871 in Philadelphia.