Evening star., 1944-12-24
Fifty Years Ago
According to a correspondent who
signed himself "A Citizen" the night

According to a correspondent who
signed himself "A Citizen" the night
performing enemies of the
wicked pestiferous ornitholo O gical
AI;e,e emigrants of half century
ago ought not to have been
discouraged. The reader and writer
referred to desired The Star for De-
cember 10. 1894, to understand that: II
notice two accounts of policemen en-
deavoring to shoot owls which were
killing sparrows in this city. and there
Is record of success in one case Against
this practice, protest in the strongest
manner. Instead of being killed, the
owls ought to be encouraged to continue
their good work, for If there ever was
an internal nuisance without one re-
deeming trait it is the English sparrow.
They have damaged me to the amount
of hundred dollars by building their
nests in my down spouts and cutters.
If they Cthe police want to
exhibit their skill at shooting birds, let
them shoot the sparrows and not the
owls engaged in the good work of rid
ding us Of these torments."
+ =
Here today and gone tomorrow" ap-
peared to be the lot of modern litera-
ture as visualized by The
ephemeroi Star for December IA, 1894,
Books which editorially opined:
Book lovers and collectors
of rare volumes may be panied to learn
that M. Delisle, chief of the national Ii
brary in Paris, has discovered that the
paper put into modern books is of inferior
material and that it will soon rot, giving
but very few books now published a
chance of long life. He estimates that
all the books of the present day will have
fallen to pieces before 1885, 1t will be
interesting to know just where and when
the cheapening processes of paper max
ing that has contributed to this state
OF things began, so as to estimate when
the decay of our literature will itself
commence"
Under the heading Notable in Eng
ish Letters The Star for December ID,
1894, noted the demise of
n. l. ,. Robert Louis Stevenson
Goes Out in Tahiti, saying the
English newspapers de-
vote columns of space to obituary
notices" The celebrated author, it was
understood, died on the evening of De-
cember 3. He had been talking with
his wife, seemingly as usual, when he
suddenly said to her: I have strange
pain in my head: Immediately after
ward, he fell back insensible. Within
two hours he died" What are his monu-
ments? Echo answereth: Treasure
Island" kidnapped" David Balfour, 4"
Travels With Donkey" "A Childs
Garden of Verses" Requiem" and all
the other fruits of his brave and pro-
ductive life.
According to the Associated Press from
Yokohama, reproduced in The Star TO,
Dec e m r 19
japanese American 1894, news that
Friendship revised treaty
between the
United States and Japan has been
signed was received with great salts
faction throughout the empire. No one
who has watched the progress of Japan
during the past quarter of century can
doubt that its sentiment enters largely
into her political relations with the
western world and IS beyond question
that the good opinion and friendly dis
position of America are most highly
valued by her government than any de-
gree Of favor that could possibly be dis
played by European states"
Oh, yes, and then came Hitler, Musso-
Ini, the Axis-and Pearl Harbor: A
disillusioning sequence of developments
which now are history.
4 \
The Star of December 20, 1894, carried
news item which in its own particular
way forecast the aban-
Executive donment, perhaps til e
R.s;d.,,. destruction of the White
House. Senator (Mat-
thew Quay (of Pennsylvania, it. said,
to-day introduced q bill in the Senate
appropriating 1000, 900 for the purchase
of q site for home for Presidents of
the United States. The property de-
scribed in the bill is the well-known
tract Of ground at the northeast corner
OF Florida avenue and Fourteenth street,
on portion Of which the residence Of
A. L. Barbour stands" Half a century
later, the Chief Executive still resides at
1000 Pennsylvania avenue NV.
Being at last freed from debt" the
Church Of the Ascension, Twelfth street
and Massachusetts,
Ascension Church avenue NV, was
Consecruted consecrated on De-
cember 20 1894,
and The Star for the next day described
the impressive exercises and ritual
which attracted large gathering Of
clergymen not only from the District
but from Maryland and Virginia" Bishop
Paret presided. 1t was set forth that the
building was memorial to the Right
Rev. William Pinckney, fifth Bishop Of
Maryland, and that the land for it had
been donated by the late w. w. Cor
coran.
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