Evening star., 1937-11-21
Nv JESSIE FAINT EVANS.

~AC Va w o0AaAAA6 WA - AsAVNAScSAbe 'So
itors until after Thanksgiving is Miss
Elizabeth w. Schermerhorn, Vassar
graduate. who has attained interna-
tional eminence as q student author,
lecturer and recognized authority on
that fascinating feudal organization,
the Knights of Malta, who first came
into prominence during the Crusades
because Of their services to Christian
ity.
With her friend, Miss Jessie Ditto,
whose family long has been identified
with Washington's cultural and educa-
tional interests, Miss Schermerhorn
has just returned home after nine
year sojourn abroad.
With Rome the center OF the order
Of the Knights Of Malta of today, the
pair made it their base for their jour-
neyings all over Europe in their ex-
haustive search into old archives for
records, souvenirs of former holdings
of this once powerful organization
which fiourished throughout the Chris
tan world from the time Of the Mid
die Ages until the overturning Of So
ciety after the French Revolution.
AS a result of their familiarity with
the Italian language and literature,
their long residence in Italy and many
contacts among all classes Of its peo-
ple, they have followed the progress
of Fascism in the land of the Caesars
with great interest. They have little
criticism of its working in Italy and
feel that III people generally in the
United States understood the system
more thoroughly as it is being applied
to Italy, they might learn much from
it. because of the excellent things for
which it stands there. Under no cir
cunstances. though" can they re
motely conceive Of Fascist regime
being successful in the United states
or desirable for it in its main prem
ises."
Study Is Aided.
They are enthusiastic. too, over tne
cordial cooperation which the regime
is always ready to extend to young ana
old who are seeking to promote studies
and Investigations in the various ltaI-
ian centers of learning.
New England born and bred, A. b.
and A. M. at Vassar, with graduate
work at Radcliffe. Miss Schermerhorn
still retains the flavor of this heritage
in her speech, despite as Cosmopolitan
an after-career as can be imagined.
The daughter of the Rev. Martin H.
Schermerhorn, eminent Unitarian
clergyman of Boston and Cambridge,
whose studies and writings upon COM
narrative religions were famous in his
day. she inherits from this background,
her friends say, her absorption in an
ideal and the intellectual zeal whlcn
has carried her near and far in her
historical research concerning the
Knights of Malta and their service 10
humanity.
Through earlier acquaintance with
source history incident TO publication
of The Life of Benjamin Constant
and THE Seven Strings to the Lyre,
a life of George Sands, Miss Schermer-
horn turned from French biography
to a study of the Crusades.
In the dramatic pages of Prescotts
Philip II Of Spain" she explains she
became intensely interested in the
siege of Malta and the heroic defense
of this little island by the Christian
4. lights Of Malta against an over
whelminsly large infidel Turkish fleet
and army. Later she visited Malta
two successive winters that she might
Sc. for herself the many palaces. the
hospital and the prison of the Knights
occupation, which still remain intact.
England, she said. has held the island
since the Knights were expelled by
Napoleon. and has taken great pains
| and care to preserve these holdings as
we'll as the documentary material and
records pertaining to them.
Series Of Long Journeys.
Thus there began for Miss Scher-
| merhorn a series of historical pill
grimages with her friend, Miss Jessie
Ditto. in quest Of information con-
cerning this great motivating force OF
the Crusades, which was later to be-
come closely affliated with the Roman