Evening star., 1946-05-05
Fifty Years Ago
The literary world was no less activ
half a century 400 than il js nou "Ne,

4He literary WOFlQ was no less actlVe
halt century ago than it is now. New
publications. chronicled
New Books in The Star for April lS,
Listed 1896, included: "A Lady
Of Quality" Frances
Hodsson Burnett: "A Whirl Asunder,"
Gertrude Atherton; The Mighty Atom"
Marie Corelli: The Heart of a Mys-
terry T. w. speight; The Damnation
Of Theron Ware" Harold Frederic;
Clara Hopgood," Mark Rutherford
"Dr. Congalton's Legacy" by Henry
Johnston; "A Roman Singer" F. Marion
Crawford; Robert Atterbury," Thomas
H. Brainerd "A Woman Intervenes."
Robert Barr: The Broom Squire" S.
Barring Gould; "A Daughter of the
South" Mrs. Burton Harrison; The
Temptress," William lie Queux; also
The House" Eugene Field; The Man
Who Became a Savage" William T.
Hornaday; History of the Independent
Loudoun. Virginia. Rangers" Briscoe
Goodhart; The Irish in the Revolution
and in the Civil War" DR.. j. C. O'Con-
nell; History OF the Monetary Legisla-
tion and Of the Currency System of the
United States" by Robert E. Preston; "A
History Of the American Tariff, 1789-
1880" Eugene c. Lewis: Handbook of
Arctic Discoveries" Brig. Gen. A. w.
Greely, and AN Introduction to the
Study Of American Literature" Prof.
Brander Matthews. Not many of these
books still are read. but some of them
are and others might be with profit.
A distinguished Washingtonian was
included among five members of the
Mr.. Hommond ond form Commit
Friends Condemned tee of johann
nesburg in
South Africa who pied guilty to treason
for their part in the Jameson raid at
Pretoria on April %, 1896. and were
John Hays Hammond, he was an engi-
neer and had been associated with
Francis Rhodes. George Farrar, Lionel
Philips and Charles Leonard in an
endeavor to force changes in Boer
methods Of government but had not
specifically approved DR.. Jameson's pro-
cedures. Now he was condemned with
the others. For at least a few hours
he was in danger of being shot or
hanged. But his sentence was COM
muted to Is years Imprisonment and
later to 3l25,000 fine. When released
he went to London and in 1900 returned
to America. The professional interests
OF his sunset years were mining, water
power development and irrigating prof.
ects., He died June 8, 1886.
~ X n
In The Star for April 80, 1896, there
was printed a report of the problems
incident to a plague of
Robbit rabbits in Australia. The
As q Pest New South Wales gov
ernment had offered
reward of f25 900 ito any person or
persons who could suggest an efficient
method of getting rid" of the undesired
rodents, but although this liberal re-
ward led to the receipt of no fewer
than 1000 schemes from all parts of
the world, none Of them was regarded
as satisfactory, and the offer was with
drawn" Meanwhile. the rabbit family
increased and multiplied exceedingly
Its members had become what the
Encyclopaedia Britannica philosophic-
ally describes as IAN unmitigated nuis-
ance." The Stars story indicated that:
The final outcome of royal COM
missions, of intercolonial conferences
and Of the testing of every practical
method of determination is that the
most effectual method of dealing with
the evil is found to be the construc-
tion Of rabbit-proof netting, by means
Of which the animals can be shut off
from food supplies" One such fence"
was 407 miles long, another 346 miles.
But the surveyor general of Queens
land had no faith in even the best
OF artificial barriers. The rabbits he
argued, came through them "in mobs
and droves."
The Star for May 4, 1896, contained
lengthy article on monuments and me-
MORALS to great and
Mony Stotues near great persons
PIanned then contemplated
Among the number
were proposed statues in homage to
John Paul Jones, Zachary Taylor, Abra-
ham Lincoln, U. s. Grant, Gems
George c. Meade. Ambrose E. Burn
side. John Sedgwick and Henry W.
Slocum; the reformer. Robert Dale
Owen; the humanitarian, John Amos
Comenius: the homeopathic medical in
novator, Samuel Hahnemann; Chief
Justice Chase and others. Senator ia
cob Harold Gallinger of New Hamp-
shire, 1t was explained, was the spon.
sor Of movement for the erection oi
a bronze efIigy OF Secretary Of Wal
Edward M. Stanton. the same to be "o1
heroic size and - cast, II practicable
from -" . condemned cannon capturec
or used during the late war"