The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1936-04-07
NOW
Cub1's Chieftdin
On Way Here
PROGRESS
BY HELEN EssARY

A President-elect out seeing I'M
world before settling down to gov
ern his own country!
Senior Miguel Marino Gomez, re
Gently elected the President o.
Cuba, will arrive in Washington ir
about two weeks from California
where he is now visiting. He will
be accompanied by his wife, Nine
Gomez.
Senior Gomez is young-in his
early forties-handsome, and very
energetic and capable. He was
formerly mayor OF Havana and fol-
10 years was an excellent admins
traitor Of that office.
The cuban President-elect is a
member of an illustrious family
His father, Senior Jose Miguel
Gomez was a former President OF
Cuba and the founder Of the Lib
eral party in 1906.
Few definite plans have been
made for the entertainment OF
Senior and Sonora Gomez while in
Washington because of the uncer'
tainty of the date of their arrival.
However, the Assistant Secretary
Of state and Mrs. Sumner Welles
will entertain at dinner in their
honor at their home at Oxon Hill
on April %. Mr.. Welles was for
merly the American Ambassador
TO Cuba.
Note on Progress and the
Higher Civilization:
Pepys reports with relish in his
great Diary how he and thousands
Of other citizens Of London used
to go to Ludgate Hill to see men
hanged. drawn and quartered by
the executioner: how the women
fought for the best seats: and q
good time was had by all: and
how after the execution, friends
got together and had the equiva-
lent of the modern cocktail party
while they discussed the details Of
the victims conduct under the
saw, the axe and the knife.
We order these things better
nowadays. We sit comfortably at
home by. the radio or with the
newspapers in our laps and hear
or read how a man was burned to
death by electricity shot through
his body by the State.
Imagination heightens the hor.
ror of it, and we enjoy the execu.
ton to the last volt, and draw ex.
element from the tortured nerves
In the nearly three hundred
years since PepyS repaired to Lud-
gate Hill We have progressed.
The pushcartS, bright Splashes
Of color at many Washington
street corners, remind me Of Mrs.
Archibald Hopkins, that great
old aristocrat.
When sharp District laws were
about to drive the flower push
carts from the streets, Mrs. Hop
kins invited the pushcarts in the
yard Of her home on Massachu.
sets and Connecticut Avenues.
Permitted potted plants and
flowers to be displayed along the
edge Of her porch steps. And
thus politely called attention to
the absurdity of an antipush-
cart ordinance.
Mrs. Homer S. Cummings, who
with the Attorney General is
just back from the Boca Ration
Club in Florida, says you couldn' t
throw a pebble three feet in any
direction from where she was
staying without hitting a Van.
derbilt or a Mccormack.
''The only things Democratic
&1Ou4AO O4AO0C Pol 0hLuOj
"were the Cummings and the
SUM-
A news note from Peiping says
that the city fathers have gath
cred up all the beggars and hid
them away because of the coming
Of large groups of American tour
lists whose dainty susceptibilitieS
would be offended by the sight OF
the crawling beggars.
This seems to me decidedly I'm
fair-to the American tourists. Il
beggars are a characteristic fea
ture Of Peiping life, the tourists
ought to be permitted to see them
Imagine how unreal Washing
ton would be if the District sent
all the lobbyists off to Baltimore
during the cherry blossom and
tourist season.
As well go to Venice without
q single gondolier or to Naples
without an 20 Solo Mic" being
sung along the waterfront.