The Washington times., 1934-09-24


Helen EsSary actly as if
Freddie Hibbard were being
punished, by being sent to such
a remote place. 1t is truly con-
sidered the worst diplomatic
post in both hemisphereS.
Until a few years ago Negro
representatives we're sent there.
But now somebody quite special
must go to Liberia. 1t is not
. post for a married man, nor
q man who isn't adaptable and
clever. It has to fall to some
body's lot. And now it is
Freddie Hibbard'S turn.
He won't have to stay in
Liberia long. The State De-
partment rotates it's diplomatic
corps members there every six
months or so. This is fortu-
nate. There will be only one or
two white men beside Freddie
in the whole country. Mon
rovia is a pretty squalid and
malarial place. The houses
aren't much more than huts.
The town of Monrovia is
lighted by kerosene.
And yet Liberia, one of the
most primitive countries in the
world, has been causing much
trouble to both cautious rulers
and bold dictators. Although it
was established during Presi-
dent Monroe's time as a noble
gesture-a means of returning
to Africa the unfortunate slaves
who were carried off by the
white men-Liberia now in
dulges in domestic slavery.
It sells its own citizens to
each other.
The League of Nations is
bothered about this, and has a
special committee pondering
over Liberals behavior. In the
State Department of this coun-
try there is one man who has
time for no other problem but
Liberia.
And Poor Freddie Hibbard,
who has been sought after by
art Washington hoStesSeS
ever since he came to town
every one likes him-is being
complimented for being sent to
this forlorn spot.
Well he'll do his best-angels
could do no more!
Peggy's school begins on
Wednesday. For the last few
days she has been brooding
over certain stupidity in
educators. Not that she has
described the situation in these
words.
What she really said was that
"they don't teach you the right
things in school. At the movies
you learn lots of swell things"
.(This probably is too trueO
IT mean," said Peggy, that
you'd like poetry better if books
made poets look like Frederic
March and Norma Shearer in
The Barretts of Wimpole
Street. instead of like an old
man with bushy white beard
and an old lady with funny
curls.
"You know that's the way
Elizabeth Barrett and Robert
Browning are in English lit
erachoor. School does the same
things to all the poets. There's
Tennyson and Longfellow and
William Cullen Bryant. Just
look at their pictures!"
Privately I agree with Peggy.
No poet should have his photo
graph made after he is 35.
One may find romantic imag-
ination still exquisite in the ell
derly mind, providing one isn't
pursued by the elderly mind in
. marginal photograph.
Of course, this stunt may be
q part of the publicity for the
league of Jouett Shouse, AL
Smith, John w. Davis, and
other conscientious objectors.
Shelley, Keats and Byron are
probably regarded as the great
romanticists because they died
too young to leave memories of
hoary boards and dim eyes. To
avoid a modern form of dis
illusionment radio entertainers
should never have their pictures
made. They should be heard
and not seen.
AS for the columnist-who
must have daily twitterings in
troduced with "half-column
cut" (see top of page)-Heaven
help her!
The Hair Cloth Manufacture
ing Industry asks "for an eX-
emption under the code" I"
Wasn't it Herbert Hoover who
started the vogue for hair
shirts?
The New Yorker looked in the
Manhattan telephone directory
and found 1877 businesses begin
ming with Liberty and AZ with
the New Deal.
Unable to believe a similar
misunderstanding "of the prin-
cipleS Of Patrick Henry and
Franklin D. Roosevelt existed in
the nations capital" I searched
the Washington telephone di-
rectory to find 18 businesses be-
ginning with Liberty and six