Evening star., 1950-06-11
Just Between
Ourselves
BY Philip n. Love.

"shP tt' 6o'S
Dad, if one may judge by the
cards available for Fathers Day
greetings, can take a heap more
kidding than his wife.
Most Mothers Day cards fairly
drip with sentiment. Mother.
they say, is beautiful. wonder
full" loving" the best ever" :"
Quite often, she is all of these
things, and I'm not saying it's
wrong to tell her so. My point is
simply that you rarely see a
Mothers Day greeting that is any,
thing but serious.
But for Fathers Day-next
Sunday-members of the National
Association of Greeting Card Pub
fishers seem to have skipped light
ly over the II Love You" sort of
message and concentrated. in
stead. on ribbing the head Of the
family.
One card, for example, shows
the poor old fellow coming out of
a backyard doghouse. Letting
You OUT for Fathers Day" is its
title.
On another card, q mouse wear
ing a derby and tied with huge
ropes calls for Liberty to Dad on
Fathers DAY."
A hammer-and-saw design sug-
gests that Fathers Day, being
Sunday. is fine time for Clean
ing up odd jobs around the house. i"
And a cutout cardboard lawn
mower hints, anything but gently.
my love for you is like the grass
it always keeps on growing!"
Well, it's all very compliment
tary, really. It shows that the
manufacturers of greeting cards
who, OF course, are in business to
make money-are sure that Dads
sense OF humor isn't the kind that
shuts OF automatically when the
jokes on him.
The first year book ever issued
by an elementary school-or, at
any rate. the first one I've ever
seen or heard of-is that Of the
Barrett School. Arlington, Va. It's
of standard magazine size and
contains "a pages of interesting
photographs of the school, its
faculty and the various activities
OF its students. The heavy paper
cover is decorated with a half
tone reproduction of a wash draw
ing of a typical schoolyard scene
Barrett opened in 1899 with 4
classrooms. 81 pupils and teach
ers. Miss Hattie Hanks was
principal.
Enlarged in 1947 and 1850, IL
now has II classrooms, nearly 60c
pupils, faculty of 18 headed by
Principal Raymond H. Rignall, q
librarian and a secretary. 1t also
has fine auditorium for use not
only by the children but by the
community.
The school was named for DR.
Kate Waller Barrett, a Virginia
physician who. in the words OF
the year book, gave lifetime of
service to such humanitarian
work as the Florence Crittenton
Mission, the parent-teacher move
ment and the field of child well
fare" r.
To the Barrett PTA. which pub
lished the book, this columns
congratulations.
Junior jottings: Fathers Day is
two years younger than Mothers
Day. When the latter was found
ed, in 1907. Jane Addams, famous
social worker. lamented: Poor
father has been left out in the
cold" zeus, father of the
gods of ancient Greece, also was
the patron of Greek fathers. On
his feast day. Greek fathers re-
ceived a gift from their sons and
daughters-a bunch of grapes.
Champion father of all time
probably was Emperor Mulai
Ismail Of Morocco, who died in
1927 at the age of 81. He had
548 sons. $40 daughters. Run
nerup. it is believed, was King
Chulalong Korn of Siam. When
he died in 1910. he left 134 sons,
236 daughters. Ancient Egypt's
No. father, Pharaoh Rameses II,
had 103 sons. SO daughters.
In ancient Rome, fathers could
punish disobedient. wives and
children with death. And dis
cipline was even stricter among
the Gauls, according to Julius
Caesar. who recorded that they
considered it q disgrace, punish
able by death. for a teen-aged son
to appear publicly III his father s
presence. In the world of
1850, Dad is bottom man on the
totem pole in only one place that
I know Of: West Africa-where,
when a son wants to marry, he
asks the consent of his mothers S
eldest brother.