davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Evening star., 1935-03-28

practices. Attending a concert In
wolves a certain correlative expense.
The shops and stores of the city may
not realize it, but in sober fact they
profit both directly and indirectly
through catering to the orchestra's q
patrons. It may be asserted with con-
fidence that every business house in
the District Of Misunderstanding
the street car. taxi, electric power
and telephone companies-has been
advantaged by the demands for goods
and services which the National
Symphony has stimulated.
1t follows that the business inter-
ests of the Capital should be generous
in their support of the orchestra en-
.terprise. Some of Them probably have
recognized their obligation, but what
of the others-have they done their
duty? If not, the opportunity still
is open and certainly ought not to be
neglected.
Evening star., 1935-03-28

auire for expression the devsing OF
some new fiscal term. If the planners
are looking for a big undertaking to
absorb the idle working force, surely
this Is one worth considering.
Physicists may demur to the propo-
sition, even as economists have de-
MED some of the expedients of relief
through the distribution Of the money
of the taxpayers. They might be
disposed to question whether the
dumping of ten or hundred times
the volume of the material comprising
the Rocky Mountains into the At
lantic would raise its level to any
measurable extent. Somebody with
q taste for mathematical research
might compute the small fraction OF
q foot to which the ocean level would
be raised, if any. And then, again
some may be disposed to ask why &c
to all this trouble and expense to
obviate the necessity of maintaining
the Panama Canal, which is function
ing well enough to meet the needs
of commerce.
But these again are querulous points
of objection, considering the eco
nomic fantasies that have actually
been put into the form of law and
administrative planning. The sus-
picion grows that Senator Vanden-
berg's correspondent, whose name
really ought to be given to the world
is in truth just another cynical COM
mentator upon the trend of planned
economy.
Evening star., 1935-03-28
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

| Often the house projection will cut
OF the sun for Just enough time to
make the difference between success
and failure.
1t Is curious fact that q great
many persons who take up the good
outdoor sport of home gardening lust
Tor the fun Of it" sometimes fail to
get much pleasure from the occupa-
ton.
Sometimes they deliberately cut
themselves of from the best enjoy
ment Of gardening on q small scale
because they insist on expecting q
100 per cent return.
This, Of course, is simply foolish.
There are few things in life that turn
out 100 per cent perfect, and the
garden certainly is not going to be
one, on account Of the varying condi-
tions and unknown factors
These factors persist despite the
individual planters experience and
knowledge. He may think he knows
great deal about roses, but from
time to time some specimen will do
very poorly. for no apparent cause,
as far as he can see.
The same with lilacs, those lowell
est and often most disappointing Of
the major shrubs.
One home owner sends away for q
dozen f1ne specimens. When they
come they look as good as he ex-
pected. He plants them according to
his best knowledge and waits for
them to bloom.
They never do.
He inquiries among his friends and
finds that theirs seldom bloom, either
He reads all he can find about lilacs.
One says to strip all the leaves off
in August, that this will make them
bloom surely the next year.
Another says to dig in old shoes
and garbage, because lilacs, for all
their lovely blossoms. are gross feeders
Another says to pour the wash
water on them every evening. (No
doubt the small amount of potash
in this is supposed to be helpful, in
addition to the constant watering)
After several seasons there stand
the lilacs as bloomless as ever.
X x
Well, what shall be done about Il?
There is much moan in the world
today without adding to 1t all because
a dozen lilacs stubbornly refuse to
bloom.
The shrubs looked all right when
they were put in the ground; they
have leafed out ever since in good
style; they have grown some-but
they haven't bloomed
Something is wrong, evidently,
but what?
Let the owner refuse to worry about
it. Has he not good leaves; has he
not some of the loveliness of lilacs?
Let him not worry, therefore, but
regard their blooming as a prob
lem to be solved some day.
He should not be in too great a
hurry about it.
Hurry and worry-these must be
left out of every worthwhile garden.
And If they are left at the gate.
no matter how little of a garden it
may be, or how few its blooms, to the
casual eye, it will be a garden of gar
denS, one which the owner of the
greatest estate well might envy
The garden without perfection Is,
nevertheless, perfection itself, if it
lacks hurry and worry, those two
friends Of the outside world.
Evening star., 1935-03-28

Critics of the administrations mon
etary and budget policies welcome the
statement from Lewis w Douglas, for
mer director of the budget, outlining
steps to strike balance between Gov
ernment income and expenses and
forecasting chaos unless the present
course is checked.
His warning" thinks the Los An
geles Times, was not spoken lightly.
Douglas pointed out that no country
had ever been able to escape the
penalty Of continually spending more
than is taken in in revenue-the pen
atty being destroyed currency and
chaos certain to result in dictatorship
The weight of economic forces compels
change in political organization. No
body wants a dictator in this country
except handful of Communists and
an equally small Fascist group; but
it will be difficult to escape one if
steps are not taken soon to balance
the budget"
The effect Of rising prices on those
that he calls Americas middle class"
is deplored by the Buffalo Evening
News, and that paper says of the
Douglas views: The small merchants,
the professional men and women, the
clerks and other 'white-collar' workers
to whom enrolment on the relief rolls
is bitter necessity, the school teach
ers-these bear the burden of rising
prices. They did not draw huge divi-
dendS in 1929, they did not earn big
pay checks in steel mill or on the
line in an auto factory. Imitation will
benefit them not at all, rather VIII
1t increase the degree of genteel pow
erty with which they are afflicted.
Middle class, what now? Lewis Doug
las foresees time when America viii
swing Socialist or Fascist. That time
will not come so long as there Is a
middle class left in the country. Only
after those liberal and democratic ele-
ments have been 'leveled down in
the social and economic scale"
Every few days." observes the
Akron Beacon Journal, Secretary
Roper gives bland assurance to busi-
ness interests that the administration
does not contemplate new taxes at
this time He has just renewed this
promise in 0 memorandum addressed
to the so members of his business and
advisory planning council. Quite a
different expert opinion comes from
Lewis Douglas, late budget director for
the Federal Government. He says that
IL the administration pursues its pres
ent course, If 1t insists upon spending
and spending, in spite of an unbalanced
budget and heavy deficits. sooner or
later it will exhaust its borrowing ca
pacity and be forced to resort to the
power to coin money for the purpose
Of paying its bills. Taxes would be
too onerous to be borne. With the
budget already unbalanced by S10,-
0OO, ,000. 900, the country will be likely
to conclude that the ex-budget director
is the winner Of this joint debate with
Roper"
"It took Mr.. Douglas himself quite
a while" according to the Providence
Journal, ito realize that his contact
work with the general public was not
nearly as essential as with the admin
istration itself. BY the time Mr.. Doug
las had the people well warmed up to
the task, he discovered that President
Roosevelt and his other aides had be-
come thoroughly cooled of. There
was not going to be any balancing Of
the budget-not right away. at least
ruled the President. As for the econ
Evening star., 1935-03-28
Law1ess Recognize Law.
From the San Francisco Chronicle.

From the San Francisco Chronicle.
Another Democratic institution Is on
the way out-the kangaroo court, the
informal institution that prisoners in
Jail organize for their self-government.
The Department of Justice has
notified county sheriffs that no more
Federal prisoners will be held in jails
that tolerate the ancient institution.
AS the board and keep Of Federal
prisoners is good picking, the sheriffs
will no doubt comply.
In a sense 1t Is too bad. The
kangaroo court taught its lesson. 1t
was a striking exernplification of tie
instinct for organization and law.
Society cannot exist without it, even
in Jail. When the first thing lawless
men do Is to organize for law and
order It is conclusive answer to the
dreams Of the philoSophic anarchists
that all law Is an evil. Even the old
I. w. VS. couldn't stand for rugged
individualism in jail-the first thing
they did was to form kangaroo court
for government Of law.
Evening star., 1935-03-28
Orchestra Campaign and Business.

The time limit of the current CAM
paign in aid of the National Symphony
Orchestra has been extended, and q
new appeal has been issued to the
music-lovers of the community and
their friends to subscribe to the hun
dred-thousand-dollar fund required to
guarantee the organizations continued
existence.
But little can be added to the obvi-
Gus argument for the success of the
drive. It's esthetic aspects have been
urged repeatedly and convincingly,
and it safely may be presumed that
the public at large is reasonably SYM
pathetic in its attitude toward the
orchestra as valuable institution in
the Capitals cultural life.
One phase of the matter, however,
may be worthy of further emphasis
the frankly commercial significance of
it. The orchestra, as it happens, is
good for business" It stimulates
trade. The musicians, having employ
ment, are earning money which they
spend for shelter, food, clothing and
all the other necessities of survival.
Were they disbanded. they might join
the already over-swollen army of the
idle. be potential candidates for Fed
eral relief, constitute liabilities rather
than assets to the mercantile estab-
lishments of Washington.
Granted that "a such misfortune
might be a relatively minor variety
Of accident, it should be remembered
that it would have larger effect in
that it would interfere with the rou-
tine Of spending which the audience
Evening star., 1935-03-28
"And the Mountains Shall Fall" ="

"And the Mountains Shall Fall"
plans" for relieving the depression
are being devised at rate that indi-
Gates that whatever has happened to
the American people their imagination
has not been dulled by the adversities
OF the past few years. Senator Van
denberg of Michigan makes the fol-
lowing announcement:
have received q very interesting
suggestion from man who indicated
II would make more work and accom-
plish relief better If the sdministra-
tion would remove the Rocky Noun
tains and dump the soil In the Atlantic
Ocean, which would, in turn, raise
the Atlantic to the level of the Pacific
and do away with the necessity Of
the Panama Canal.
Ignoring for the moment the Sug-
gestion that the Senator's corre-
spondent may be humorist, it is
in order to observe that this project
Is about as sound in its physics as
some of the plans" Of the New Deal
are in their economics. The idea Of
excavating the Rocky Mountains and
hauling the material across the con-
tinent to strew 1t into the Atlantic
probably by short haul to the Gulf Of
Mexico, which would serve as well as
anywhere else-commends itself at
least OIL the score of making work
for multitudes now idle. The job
would last a good many years. perhaps
nifty and indeed even . hundred. The
amount of money expended on this
made-work project would perhaps re-
Evening star., 1935-03-28
STARS, MEN AND ATOMS
Notebook of Science Progress in Field,
Laboratory and Study.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.

the only light getting through is the
! Ultra violet, which is invisible. But,
| laboratory experiments show, this
ultraviolet light striking the eye
produces a flusrescence of blue light.
1t is the same phenomenon as occurs
when rocks are irradiated with ultra
violet light. They proceed to emit
lights of their own and change color
accordingly Whites become pinks
and browns vivid reds So specific is
the reaction that it can be used in
rough chemical analysis. The human
eye acts just as do the rocks.
| But one sees an object by the light
reflected from it. The only light re-
fected from objects in the great
depths is the ultraviolet, to which
the human retina is insensitive. Con-
sequently nothing can be seen. But
one Is sensitive to light fiuorescence-
In this case blue-which is coming
from the eye itself.
Alchemy, the effort to transmute
other metals into gold from which
much of modern chemistry arose,
ordinarily is associated with the
Middle Ages.
But it once fiourished in America
and, curiously enough. on the present
site of Wall street. The strange story
has been resurrected from old rec
ords by DR.. G. A. Browne of the Bu-
reau of Chemistry and Soils of the
Department Of Agriculture. DR..
Browne is one of the foremost au-
thorities on the history Of chemistry
| in America.
Chief among these American al
chemists Vas a German. Jan Max
Lichenstein, who had been a financial
adviser to the Russian court. had lost
his position through his addiction to
alchemy and gambling, and had been
aided in emigrating to America by the
American Minister to st. Petersburg.
Here "he carefully boarded his
earnings until he was able to pur-
chase small tenement in Wall street.
where he erected a furnace with a
triple chimney and renewed his search
for the arcanum magnum. Every day
he was occupied for two hours in the
morning IN counting room. Then
he was seen walking in Broadway,
after which he shut himself in his
laboratory until dusk, when he issued
forth to resume his solitary walk"
Meanwhile Wall street was chang
ing from a street of dwellings to the
Nations financial center. The al
chemist was no nearer the secret of
making gold. But suddenly, in a
most unexpected manner, he sue
ceeded. His lot had become a desir-
able site for newly chartered bank.
One day while Lichenstein was busted
over his furnace there came a mes
senger from the president Of this
bank. 1t was the first time he ever
had been disturbed at his work and
he was furious.
The messenger offered him $25, 900
Tor MS lot. He had paid $3.50 for it
and had no idea, so absorbed had he.
been IN his experiments, that it was
increasing In value. He was 50 as
founded he could not speak. The
messenger took his speechIessness for
refusal and left.
The next morning an agent Of
rival bank was on hand offering him
S30,000 BY this time the alchemist
began to suspect something. Before
the day was over he had sold the lot
for $4,000.
But with his new-found competency
ne moved to the country and devoted
the rest Of his life fruitlessly to his
alcnemical experiments.
Evening star., 1935-03-28
A New Health Program.

Additional funds sought by DR.
George c. Rutland, health officer,
from the Senate subcommittee on Dis
trict appropriations represent rel
atively modest request for greater
public health protection in the Dis
trict Of Columbia. with the approx
imately 5000 requested. DR.. Rutland
would expand the public nursing
service, increase the school inspection
service and coordinate, under a full
time director. all Of the city's agencies
engaged in anti-tuberculosis work. All
of these undertakings might be classed
as preventive measures, and while the
sum now sought does not cover the
cost of an adequate public health pro-
gram such as DR.. Rutland and others
interested i'll public health would like
to see for Washington, the money
would enable the Health Department
to take the essential steps in the
direction Of such program.
The Commissioners took eXtraordi-
nary measures to obtain for Washing
ton health officer who would meet
the high standards outlined by an
advisory committee of distinguished
physicians and public health experts.
The Commissioners are backed to the
fullest extent by the local community
in their desire to place the local
health department on par with the
health departments of other progress
sive cities of the country. and DR..
Rutland accepted the position here
with the understanding that such
was TO be his assignment. In the
short time he has been in Office he
has discovered the weaker spots in
the city's defenses against disease and
is now asking Congress to exercise its
exclusive authority in making funds
available with which to strengthen
them.
The result of his preliminary re-
quests will be awaited with interest.
Dr. Ruhland's task is not to convince
associates in public health work of
the merits of the needs he has out
lined, but to persuade the small group
Of legislators who hold the purse
strings for the District that his pro-
fessional judgment of the situation is
correct. Certainly there are few
municipal activities so important as
safeguarding the public health: GER
tainly in these days of vast expendi-
lures the amount now sought for pre-
cautionary measures is small indeed.
Evening star., 1935-03-28
ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS
BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN.

A reader con get the anSper to
any question OF fact By iDrtting The
Washington Euening Star InJorndtio ton
| Bureau, Frederic J. Hdskin, Director,
Washington, D. c. Please incloSe
stamp for reply.
@. How much do polo ponies
cost?-J. M.
A. A string of six good polo ponies
costs about $4,000.
@. How much gasoline was used in
the United States last year?-G. M.
A. According to preliminary figures
prepared by the American Petroleum
Institute, gasoline consumption in the
United States in 1884 amounted to
16.617,o50.o00 gallons.
@. Who invented the French style
of telephone?-J. K.
A. The so-called French phone, or
handset, is not of French origin. as
supposed, but early American. This
type of telephone was first developed
by Robert G. Brown, chief engineer
of the Gold & Stock Telegraph Co.
Of New York, in 1873, and was used
by operators until 1884, when it was
abandoned, as the more efficient tele-
phone transmitter at that time could
not be uesd on it. Mr.. Brown was
engaged as electrical engineer in
Paris shortly after he developed the
handset and brought with him the
patent.
Q. How long has it been since John
D. Rockefeller played golf?-R. c.
A. Mr.. Rockefeller gave up golf in
1882.
@. To what church did Mary Baker
Eddy belong before she founded
Christian Science?-D. A. P.
A. She was member of the Con-
gregational Church, as were her
parents.
@. How long did the flower show
in New York City last?-D. M
A. The International Flower Show
York, was held from March 18 to %.
@. What surnames are most COM
mon in the United States?-J. E. S.
A. Basing a reply on telephone
directories of 1882, the names which
appeared most frequently we're Smith
johnson. Brown. Jones. Williams,
Miller, Davis, Anderson, Wilson and
Moore.
@. Where does the Indian River of
Florida rise?-M. E. P.
A. The Indian River along the
coast of Florida is really an arm of
the sea incloSed by string of long,
narrow islands and. q long, narrow
peninsula. 1t stretches along the At
lantic Seaboard from the northern
extremity of Brevard County to north
Martin County, distance of ITO or
lis miles.
@. Can a person, standing in front
of a mirror. take his own picture?-
M. B.
A. This can be done.
@. Please describe Colleen Moore's
doll houSe-A. F.
A. The house weighs a ton, is g
feet high and contains 5000 indi-
vldual pieces. It was built at a cost
of s500,0 and its construction took
nine years. The doors and windows
open and shut, it has real carpets.
400 tiny electric lights, water and
gas heat. Miss Moore is sending the
house on a tour of the world. The
receipts will be turned over to hos
pitals and charitable organizations.
@. Has France issued a medal Of
President Roosevelt?-L. w. M.
. A. The French government mint
has issued portrait medal of the
President in high relief by the Eng
lish medalist, Theodore Spicer- Sim
son.
@. Please give list of the most
important business women in the
country.-F. w. C.
A. The Bureau of Economic Re-
Evening star., 1935-03-28

Plant life In this vicinity is recover
ing from the setback 1t received VIM
ter before last, not last Winter.
Despite last Winters cold. flowers
and shrubs Of all kinds are from two
to three weeks earlier this Spring
than last.
This means that they are becoming
accustomed to seasonal cold OF an ex-
treme type they did not have to con-
tend with for many years.
1t will be interesting to watch the
growth Of privet hedges. for instance,
from now on, to see If they make up
for the damage done them In the
Winter Of 1884.
Those that survived went through
the season just past without further
damage, evidently
Bulbs Of various types have their
leaves far up, and some of them are
in bloom. including the narcissus.
Typical wild flowers are doing well
at this writing.
Those who may have planted this
material last Fall should not expect
too much of 1t this Spring.
Perhaps 1t will require all Summer
and another Winter to put them in
good trim.
Establishing wild flowers in new
homes, no matter how carefully the
transplanting is done, is far from an
easy matter.
No doubt this accounts for the plain
fact that great many otherwise
ardent gardeners will not bother with
them.
A curious fact is that one cannot
be precisely sure what sort Of mate
rial one Is getting, no matter how
much is paid for it.
Therefore it will seem to some
planters that they will do as well by
themselves and their gardens by
sticking to local material as much as
possible. Claims are made for North
ern-grown plants, and no doubt these
claims are we'll founded. but always
the planter farther South must real
ize that conditions are vastly different
here.
The strength to stand subzero tenn.
peratures is helpful to any plant, but
Il lopAdIltAle CdlAo AO1 q 0AlcICuL SUI
OF strength.
1t means that as little time as pos
Sible ought to intervene between one
position and another in the earth.
The question of failure Is always in
the gardening mind.
The real question. however. Is just
how to regard failure.
Some plants will die every Winter,
others will not do well, others may
drag along for years without being a
satisfaction to their owner or them
selves.
Some enthusiasts put too much
stress on specimens that do not do
good" as they say.
One ought to learn to expect a Ger
tain amount of failure.
Out of every dozen rosebuShes, for
instance, one may die
Just what this percentage of fall
ure is going to be, in any given case.
is impossible to state, for too much
depends upon the gardener and his
soil
The position he chooses for one
shrub, for instance, may seem to him
to be exactly the same as that for
another, but actually the soil may be
entirely different and the amount Of
sunshine vastly less.