Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1945-04-22


told him that married man does not
make courtesy call on bachelor.
Mr.. Bloom might be considered the
Tammany Congressman who made good
he is becoming the most famous New
Yorker in the House since Bourke
Cochran. Unlike his colleagues, many
OF whom used to commute from the
metropolis to make important roll calls,
he made Washington his new home
bought large house here.
In Diplomatic Washington
Diplomatic Washington always well
comes man of official position who has
the wealth and the willingness to enter
tain well. Both Mrs Bloom, who was q
sculptor as we'll as composer, and her
daughter who had learned German and
French from her goyerness along with
her English, had great charm. The
Blooms were soon in the swim of diplo-
matte society.
He was appointed to the Foreign
Affairs Committee after his first term
and through political mortality among
his seniors was soon ranking member
Among his congressional colleagues, few
of whom haG travelled except on Official
Junkets, Mr.. Bloom was a cosmopolite
For years typical summer for the
Blooms had been two weeks in London
at Claridge's, month in Paris at the
King George, two weeks in Rome at the
Excelsior and then two weeks in coun-
try they had not visited before.
Meeting Mussolini
1t was on one of these trips that they
met Mussolini. Vera, then II, had am
billions in international journalism. She
wanted to interview D'Annunzio, then
defying the organized world from the
city of Fiume, which he had seized for
Italy. When the Blooms got to Milan,
some one suggested they go to Popolo
DItalo to get aid in crossing the closed
border. Father and mother, who were
abetting Vera's journalistic star-shoot-
ing as well as chaperoning her, went
with her. The editor was Mussolini
He gave her note that got her to
DAnnunzio and she scored a beat.
When the Blooms returned to Italy the
next summer, Mussolini was the Duce
Vera interviewed him for another beat.
Mussolini was great hero with the
Blooms, especially when he postponed
anschluss by mobilizing his troops
against Hitler on the Bremen Pass.
But when he joined with Hitler to form
the Axis they sadly took down his
picture
The Blooms greatest social triumph
was scored one spring before Mr.. Bloom
accession to the Craftsmanship Vera,
with her mother, sailed for England
under orders of secrecy as is every deb
utante on a similar mission. She was
presented at the Court of st. Jamess.
With the traditional three feathers in
her hair, she made her curt sy to Queen
Mary.
Mr.. Bloom joined them later for the
summer tour. Their pleasure at meet
ing royalty caused him to offer in Paris
to introduce them to a member of a
royal family he had met years before.
He wrote a note recalling the incident
to the Infanta Eulalia aunt of King
Alphonso of Spain. The 60-year-old
Bourbon princess had retired to Paris
from the court in Madrid. He re-
celVed an answer directly asking them
to call and they were graciously re-
ceived. The Infanta Eulalia had been
In Chicago. AS the Columbian EXPO
sltion was held to honor the 40Oth an
niversary of the discovery of America,
the Spanish court was invited to send
representative of the Queen who
hooked her jewels to finance Columbus
And when the Infanta was at the fair,
the midway exhibitors asked her to
present diamond medal to the young
man who had done so much to pull
honky-tonks out of the hole-Mr. Bloom.
The Bicentennial
The public knows Mr.. Bloom, not for
his legislative or social triumphs, but
for his George Washington bicentennial
celeoratlon. Things began to happen
when Mr.. Bloom was named director.
For instance editors began to find
George Washington in the news cross
ing their desks, news that could not be
spiked. There was the time that Walter
johnson of the Washington Senators,
fastest pitcher in baseball, went to the
Rappahannock to throw a dollar across
at the point where legend said George
Washington had done it. Mr. Bloom was
trying to explode the legend but the
Big Train" made it stand up. He sue
ceeded in two out of three tries.
Mr.. Bloom got a flock of professors
under Harvard's hirsute historian Al
bert Bushnell Hart busy winnowing fact
from tradition. The director took Par
son Weems' confession, that his cherry
tree story in the first Washington bioe-
raphy was fib, as his personal discov.
cry.
He sent model of the Houdon bust
OF Washington to every school and a re-
production of the Gilbert Stuart Athe-
neum portrait to every classroom-70, 900
Of them
High point of the celebration was the
washington bicentennial ball at the
Mayf1ower, an 18th century costume af-
lair The F. F. V. who had been affront.
ed by the popular nature of the celebra-
ton in its first weeks were fighting for
tickets along with the Sons and Daugh-
tiers OF the Revolution and the Society OF
the Cincinnati. Sol Bloom looked like
Benjamin Franklin in his tricorn hat
and knee breeches
Learning About the Constitution
When the bicentennial was all over
and it lasted for nine months, Will
Rogers said, Until your celebration we
had just pictured him as man stand
ing in a boat when he ought to have