Evening star., 1942-04-05


so volunteer Cathedral guides.
Zation of the group.
BY JESSIE FAINT EVANS.
Neither the war nor the tire short
age has affected the number OF
visitors to the washington Cathe-
dral.
Since March 1, more than 1,00C
visitors day, of all denominations
and faiths, have made the pilgrim
age through the great edifice which
towers on Mount St. Alban as a
symbol of Christian faith and for
titude.
This is the highest average in its
history. although the visitors In the
last few years have totaled from
300, 900 to 100000 each year.
Exceeding all previous records are
the number of schools from far and
near, who are including the Ca
thedral in their Washington spring
sight seeing itinerary for their
young people.
Staff Of Aides Directs.
Showing the visitors about the
Cathedral is delegated to an attrac-
tive, well-informed volunteer group
of about so women who are known
as Cathedral aides.
They are directed by Mrs. James
A. SALESMAN, who is on duty every
day from am. to pm. Her as
sistant is Mrs. Howard Marlowe.
Cathedral aides are carefully
trained in their duties for three
weeks under the general supervi-
sion of Canon Curtis Draper OF
the Cathedral before they are in
vested with the purple caps and
robes which are the insignia of their
service to the Cathedral and the
general public.
Their vestiture is similar to those
worn by academic groups on special
occasions. Purple is the color OFF,
cially designated for the Cathedral's
use.
Ahl &C AAVul DdAAy 1ANSh.
Each aide gives scheduled serv-
ice of three hours day. OBJECTIONS,
except for illness or other unavoid-
able cause, are practically unknown
Before 1882, the Cathedral de-
pended upon a force of paid as
sistants working part time to inter-
pref the Cathedral to the visiting
public. The business slump neces-
STATED the withdrawal of this service.
Then, at the suggestion of Mrs.
SALESMAN, the Cathedrals smoothly
running system of volunteer women
guides was organized. That was 10
years ago. Not once since then has
it broken down or failed to function
according to its carefully planned
and faithfully carried out schedule
No fee is required or accepted for
this free-will service of the Cathe-
dral aides to the hundreds of thou
sands of the Cathedrals annual
pilgrims. They conduct their sight
seeing tours of the Cathedral in
Vulnerable times a day. Their in
dividual groups of visitors range
from IL to 200 in numbers, and are
evenly distributed between men and
women, young and old, boys and
girls.
Leaf1et Given Each.
A little leaf1et epitomizing the
service of the Cathedral, as the
symbol of a free church in the Ma
tion's Capital, symbol of a free state,
is handed each pilgrim when the
tour is ended.
These tours of the Cathedral are
scheduled about every Is minutes
from m. until 5 pm. every week
day. On Sundays they follow the
II am. and the pm. services.
The Cathedral aides all come to-
gether as an organized group once a
month. Their meetings alternately
take the form of a corporate COM
munion and of a social and business
gathering, except during each Lent
en- season. Then, they are devoted
entirely to the corporate commun-
ion.
Out of the little band of Is
pioneers, who constituted the
original group of volunteer aides a
decade ago, the following are still
functioning under Mrs. SALESMAN S
direction: Miss Anna Burchard, Mrs.
Robert Kirkpatrick Noble, Mrs.
Thomas Treadwell, Mrs. Ladder
Mackall and Mrs. James Henderson,
wife of the chaplain and senior
master of the ST. Adams School for
Boys, who has recently been made
honorary canon of the Cathedral.
The attitude of the young people,
who are in the Cathedrals throrg of
1000 visitors day, is invariably one
of great reverence" MIS-. SALESMAN
said. They may start out upon the
tour with bit of gayety and youth
full nonchalance But they always
conclude it with some such remark
as, oh, wouldn't have missed this,
or, How glad am that I have seen
this beautiful Cathedral
Each Finds Favorite Feature.
It would be difficult to set one
feature of the Cathedral above an
other as being of most interest to
the visitors, according to Mrs. Salts
man and her aides. Little children
all love the Children's Chapel, which
is the only one of its kind on this
Continent.
A general favorite with all is the
Cathedrals gioriously beautiful rose
window with its rich, glowing colors
Increasing numbers stand before
the tomb of Woodrow Wilson and
voice some such sentiment as I'VE
must let nothing interfere with our
finishing the Job this time"
Visitors from all over the United
States have great satisfaction in
locating their State flags hanging
in the Cathedral from the triforium