Evening star., 1935-02-03
le met even q year ago on any given

he met even q year ago on any given
date.
AStill,. I remember the Bsllinger-
Pinchot contest and that Pinchot had
with him then Lewis CLAWS, who Ii |
now under fire' in the Interior De-
partment. I remember the tnvestiga-
ton of the Titanic disaster, with |
Senator William Alden Smith Of Min |
nesota as chairman of the investigat- |
ing committee. Yet I cannot tell
what happened on my birthday an
niversary two years ago, or even last
year."
Birthday Forgotten. i
Dick Spenser, nationally known art
ist visiting in Washington, was asked
If he could remember what hap
pened on his birthday two years ayo.
mo" he said, II can remember moth
ing" Nor could he remember what
prominent persons he had sketched at
certain periods Of the year 1882, wnen
he was making drawings for ma
tionally known magazine. ..
Louis j. Fosse, general manager
Of the Washington Auditorium, and
before that general manager OF the
old Polls and Belasco Theaters, has
met hundreds of thousands Of people
in hotel lobbieS-and seen that same
number of faces through box-ofice
tickers, but even he could not tell
you who they were, or are. las for
going back two years, believe 1t
would be impossible for me to re-
aon a,o,, ma mot in INV fhaatar
no matter what the circumstance
and pin it down to any day or night"
A. H. Whitney, 1872 Longfellow
street, a novelty salesman, now SELL
ing stamps, says that he has come
in contact with many persons in the
course Of his career-but he could
not tell what happened in his life
two years ago, on his birthday or off.
If saw one person and were asked
to recall that person, after two years,
there would have to be some dis
tinguishing mark-like a limp. or the
loss of an eye or some deformity.
Remembers Birthday Accident.
r. H. Koontz, assistant manager of
the Raleigh Hotel, says he couldn't
remember anybody-even a woman
with a baby-walking up to the desk
If the event took place two years ago.
Not unless I wrote it down." he said,
land had an accurate description of
the party. About my birthday, March
80, there is only one thing I can re-
member. I got four broken ribs that
day-in an automobile accident. Only
for that would have forgotten 1t was
my birthday"
Joseph L. Gooch, 1880 Montague
| street, who runs a novelty store on
Pennsylvania avenue, believes it Is
impossible to remember any particu-
lar event that transpired on any par
ticular day two years ago-unless that
event Is tndelibly imprinted on the
mind.
Louis Conradis of the Cavalier Ho-
tells, who has been in business here
for many years, and meeting people
| all the time, claims 1t Is impossible to
remember anything back two years.
Byron Dement,, clerk at the Har-
rington Hotel, says he would not be
able to recall certain events that hap
pened two years ago, and yet there are
many incidents that he can recall. II
can recall, for instance, some of the
old-time statesmen who came in at
that time, some Of the men who are
now of the road-because of business
conditions; but am afraid it would
be rather difficult to pin memory
down to a specific event"
DR.. Marjorie Shaw Stuart, with the
clinic for the feeble minded at Gal.
linger Hospital, and formerly on the
staff at st. Elizabeth's Hospital, said:
In the first place. unless under some
mental or physical strain, the average
person could not remember anything
that happened two years ago. or any
1 specific date; but, of course, the aver
age person might remember some
trivial incident on a given occasion
for no good reason-while at the same
time something of great Importance
would slip a memory cog. That Is
why so few can remember what hap
pened on their birthday anniversaries
over a period of years. Paradoxical
as it may seem, they remember birth
day feasts Of many years ago better
than they do those anniversaries of
recent date. The memory is rather a
tricky mechanism"