Evening star., 1939-09-17
Last Living Red Cross Founder
Keeps Up With Things at 90
Hope We Stoy Out
Says Mrs. De Grow
Of War in Europe

It's like stepping into a past
generation to enter the lovely, quiet,
cool brick -and-stone house that has
stood at 2lC Maryland avenue NE.
for more than As years.
At the right of the front hallway
is, Enthusiastically, parlor-that
Victorian institution long replaced
by the living room, the reception
hall or what have you of an era of
more hurried, less spacious liv-
ing. This parlor has cream covered
chairs, the kind you enjoy sitting in;
a sofa of the same texture and one
of those pianos of long ago. Here
and in the room beyond are cabinets
filled with lustrous things-rare
plates and dishes, unusual glasses
and china ornaments. In the dis
tance the stairway winds upward. 1t
all breathes of the 80s and COS, of
the most cultured ways of that
period, for there's never a hint of
clutter or overfurnishing anywhere
it's all in consummate taste.
But there, floating down the stairs,
appears the frail looking little
woman who built this house, and
she has Just entered her ninety-first
year. She's as much part of the
house as the antimacassars or the
enchanting painted screen half
folded in the entrance to the dining
ROOM
Home Has Every Convenience.
Yet, if you think she's mid
Victorian or end-o the e-centuryish.
you've got shock coming She's
apt to ask you the latest war news
And she certainly wouldn't thank
you for calling her home gay
nineties or severe-seventies. Shed
hasten to tell you it has three baths
and every convenience anybody
could want
This astonishingly modern and
lively woman who celebrated-or, as
she would prefer it, observed-her
Goth birthday Thursday, is Mrs.
Emma L. De Graw. And, despite her
long past, she does not live in it.
She listens to the radio constantly,
especially now for war news, she
conflded yesterday. And, her eyes
having failed somewhat, she has
the newspapers read to her every
day. She keeps up with things.
Every morning she has her walk
and she still insists on doing the
marketing for the household-she's S
been doing that SO many years she'd
feel old if she suddenly quit.
Her only other regular diversion
is solitaire.
Still Plays Piano.
1t took considerable pressing to
draw from her the admission that
she still plays few chords on the
piano occasionally, if she's sure no
one is around. She used to play all
the tune. She likes good music but
mot too good" she said, explaining
that the strictly classical demanded
too much attention.
Mrs. De GraW is tolerant soul.
She has no condemnat ton for the
frivolitles of the newer generations.
Everything is simply different" d"
she commented. when I was a
girl, we took life very seriously in
deed. Now young people don't worry
much over anything. It's different
point of view
Mrs. De Graw, who can remem-
Der the Civil War as a young girl
and lost brother in it and has OBJ
served as a close bystander Ameri-
cas- later wars, had this to say Of
the new conflict in Europe:
I'VE should mind our own busi-
ness and let them settle it. I only
hope we can keep out of it,"
But she's deeply interested, in view
of the tragic times, in the success
of the 1899 roll call of the District
Chapter of the American Red Cross
September 28-October 10. And no
wonder She is sole survivor of the
little group that founded the Red
Cross here on May 81, 1881. She
attended the meeting at the house
of Miss Clara Barton that resulted
in the formation of the society, and
she was one of the 81 men and
women who signed its first consti-
tuition, and the last to survive.
What a wonderful work the Red
Gross has done, in war and peaceI"
she exclaimed.
Came to District as Bride.
Mrs De GraW is the widow of
Peter Voorhees, De Graw, a noted
Washington newspaperman. once
secretary of the Gridiron Club. He
died in 1914.
She is a native of Philadelphia.
She came to Washington as a bride
in 1878. These days she and her son,
Edwin B. De Graw. chief clerk of the
Panama Canal, live together" as
she put it. She explained that she
does not live with him nor he with
her. The third permanent member
of the household Is an old friend, a
woman whom Mrs. De Graw has
known since youth.
Birthday flowers still banked the
parlor, but Mrs. De Graw fastened
to say she didn't make any fuss
over the anniversary. All she did,
she pointed out. was to have lunch
con at the Columbia Country Club
with her son and with her nastor