davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Evening star., 1950-05-14
Student Finds Rugged Sport
In IyMorning Cliff Climb
Prize Contribution
BY Borboro Thompson, II


Have dreamed of being climber?
have from time to time dreamed vaguely scaling
rugged cliff Recently had this experience found it
far from dreamy.
The day picked for the climb perfect
her gloomies The hour the assembled
Evening star., 1950-05-14
Family of Five Weld GoNels
In Variety of Local Groups
By Sam Eostmdn

Being president to run in" the sowde family of 24o
Twenty-irst street NE.
parents M. Sowder.
Cynthia, presi-
kind O another
first to WELD month. she
Evening star., 1950-05-14

The Mason-Dixon Line was sur
veyed in colonial times to estab-
lish the boundaries between lands
granted to the Penn and Calvert
families.
Evening star., 1950-12-25
John Bibb Mills, Is, Dies;
Ex-Senaie Doorkeeper

John Bibb Mills, 70, retired
superintendent of the Alabama
Anti-Saloon League and a former
Senate doorkeeper, died here Sat-
urday.
Mr.. Mills was born in Mont
gomery, Ala, and was graduated
from Western Maryland College,
Westminster, Md. and Maryland
University Law School in Balti-
more. He practiced law in Ball
timore and later in Birmingham.
Ala, for a number of years and
was active in the Alabama Anti
Saloon League. He retired as its
superintendent in 1912 and moved
with his wife to Washington. They
lived for several years at GIL B
street NE. About two years ago
he retired as Senate doorkeeper.
Mr.. Mills was Mason. Sur
vivors are his widow, Mrs. Anna
H. Gait Mills, who lives at 38
Bryant street NV: two daughters,
Mrs. Sarah Louise Moody, Los
Angeles. Calf, and Mrs. Marietta
Murchiscn of Alexandria. La. and
brother, Joseph S. Mills, Flush
ing, N. Y.
Funeral services will be held
at 10 am. Wednesday at Cham
bers' funreal home, 1400 Chaplin
street NV. Burial will be in Bal
timore.
Evening star., 1950-12-25
Christmas Spirit
OF Grocer Strained
By 1926 Theft

Louis Schuman's grocery sup
piled somebody with the makings
of a Christmas feast, but Mr.,
Schuman isn't feeling very merry
about it.
To police this morning he re-
ported the store was entered
some time between pm. yester-
day and am. today and these
items were taken:
Eighteen turkeys, IA to 18
pounds each. valued at $156.
Meat worth $276.96.
Candy worth $3.50.
Twenty-Five cartons of ciga-
rettes, worth $3.50.
Total loss, $395.56.
The thief-or thieves-forced
the back door, police were told.
The GROCERY is at zoos Fourth
street S.W.
Evening star., 1950-12-25
Two Policemen Play
Santa to Victim
OF Grocery Theft

Santa Claus, in the guise of two
District policeman, provide d
Christmas groceries for Takoma
Park (Md.) family today.
The policemen, PvtS. Charles A.
Dabbs and Bernard P. Stepanek
of the second precinct, answered
a theft call Saturday night at the
home of Mrs. Dorothy Hayden of
12l Bates street NV.
There they found Mrs. Hayden's
daughter, Mrs. Eugene Magruder
"a, of 139 Grant avenue, Takoma
Park. distraught over the theft of
all her groceries from her auto
mobile parked in front of her
mothers home.
Mrs. Magruder explained she
had spent her last cent for the
food and couldn't get any more
money until the banks open to-
morrow. She hadn't enough
money to buy even milk for her
two young children, she said.
The officers wrote down the
information, gave Mrs. Magruder
$s and returned to their job.
Evening star., 1950-12-25
Mrs. John |. Ryan Dies;
Iona in Revenue Bureau

Mrs. John L. Ryan, 58, employed
for more than 80 years at the
Bureau of Internal Revenue, died
yesterday while visiting her sister,
Mrs. E. E. Marshall. at Eastman,
Va. Mrs. Ryan had gone to her
sisters Friday to spend the
Christmas holiday. She died after
heart attack.
Mrs. Ryan, the former Niaude
Mallory of Scottsville, Va, was
the widow of John L. R' an. a
Washington interior decorator
who died about 1912. Mrs. Ryan
lived at Ais Thirty-eighth street
NV.
Mrs. Ryan lived in Richmond
before she and her husband came
to Washington more than 80 years
ago. She was employed in the
Internal Revenue records division.
Besides her sister, Mrs. Mar
shall. she leaves two brothers. O..
w. Mallory of Richmond and E.
Ross Mallory. Eastman, Va.
Funeral services will be held at
noon tomorrow at the v. L. Speare
funeral home. 1909 H street NV.
Burial will be in Abbey Mausoleum,
Arlington.
The family has requested that
flowers be omitted and instead
that money be donated to a heart
society.
Evening star., 1950-12-25
Police Seek Statesmen
In Car Pass Forgery

Police today were still seeking
the statesmen" for a Washington
couple who have been charged
with forging Capital Transit Co.
passes.
The pair. John Jackson, 26, and
his wife, Ethel Jackson, 26, col
ored, of the 5400 block of Nash
street NE. were arrested Saturday
and freed on bond for a court ap-
pearance January IT.
Police said Jackson, a former
Government Printing Office en-
ploye. began tracing the streetcar
and bus passes for his own use last
January, but expanded the busi-
ress to sell the fake passes for
81 .25-75 cents below the cost of
legal ones. Detectives of the check
and fraud squad estimated the
scheme may have involved SAC, 900
worth of the fake passes.
Evening star., 1950-12-25
Five Marine Enlisted Men
Promoted for Recruiting

Five enlisted men, on duty at
the Marine Corps Recruiting Sta
ton. 1400 Pennsylvania avenue
NV, have received promotions
this month for outstanding work,
Capt. Warren F. Lloyd, their COM
manding officer announced today.
A new master sergeant, a new
technical sergeant and three new
staff sergeants have been added to
the rolls. Heading the list is
M/Sgt. Francis A. Reissig of 306
Regina street, Alexandria, who has
been in the service since 1912 and
Is veteran of Pacific war.
The new technical sergeant Is
Nicholas Gledich of 1909 Riggs
road, Hyattsville, who fought on
Guam and Two Jima. The new
staff Sergeants are: Roger A..
Machado Two Jima combat vet
eran; George Carr, jr., who served
in China with the occupation
forces snd Roland c. Cyr, who
served two years in Bermuda.
Evening star., 1950-12-25
.S765,S32 Contract LET
For Second Part of
Georgia Ave. Project

The Maryland State Roads
Commission has awarded to the
Wilmoth Paving Co. of Washing
ton a contract for construction of
the second section of the Georgia
avenue widening project in Mont
gomery County.
The Wilmoth job will consist of
a divided highway from Seminary
road to point near Viers Mill
road. The firm bid for the 1T
mile project was $765. 1929
lowest of the three submitted.
The contract is the second to be
awarded of those for the three
sections into which the Georgia
avenue improvement was divided.
The first section, from Colesville
road to Seminary road, was
awarded october 4, also to the
Wilmoth concern, for $790,394.
Work was started October 10.
The commission plans to adver-
tise soon for bids on the third
section between Viers Mill road
and Glenmont.
Two contracts for more than
81 million including two Wash
ington County highways also have
been awarded by the commission.
The largest of the two jobs
covers the virtual rebuilding of
the 6.7-mile Lappans-Sharpsburg
road for $685. 1927 by the Arthur
A. Mackie Construction Co., of
Baltimore.
The other contract in Washing
ton County was awarded to
Bester-Long. Inc, of Hagerstown,
at $383,527 for resurfacing of
4-nile portion of Route so, start
ing at Northern avenue in Hagers-
town and extending northeast to-
ward Leitersburg.
Evening star., 1950-12-25
Woman Injured Critically
When Struck by Train
By the Associated Press

LURAY. Va. Dec. 25.-Miss
Jane Presgraves. %, of Rileyville,
was injured critically near here
late yesterday when she was
struck by a Norfolk g. Western
Railway freight train.
Attendants at Page Memorial
Hospital said the girl received a
fracture at the base of her skull
and possible chest injuries.
Miss Presgraves and her mother,
Mrs. Virgil Presgraves, had walked
across the railroad track at
Vaughan's Summit - about six
miles north of hereto get a
Christmas tree and were returning
home when the accident occurred.
The girl was struck in the back
by freight train which was pull
ing onto side track to allow an
other train to pass. Mrs. Pres
graves was not injured.
Evening star., 1950-12-25

she explained later. The doctors
wife. sensing what had happened
in the King home. advised her to
raise a window and then located
the doctor at the home of another
patient.
DR.. Cannon arrived within 10
minutes. found the front door
partly open but the screen latched
Mr.. King made his way to the
door to admit DR.. Cannon, re-
turned to his chair and collapsed
Mrs. King was told Of her hus-
bands death after she had entered
the hospital, but her condition
today was described as satisfac-
tory. She is Sc.
They have one daughter, Mrs
E. Crawford Morton, jr., of Ticon-
deroga, N. Y. Mr.. King also has
a brother, Norris King, of Towson
Md.
Evening star., 1950-12-25
Man and Woman Die
In House Fire Near Laurel

A man and woman burned to
death early yesterday in a fire
that destroyed a two-room frame
dwelling just north of Laurel. Md.
The bodies were identified ten
tatively by neighbors as Ada Sue
Green, 35. and Bruce Kelly, %,
both colored.
Maryland State police said the
bodies were found on the floor
of one of the rooms. A woman
who lived in the adjacent room
told police she was awakened by
her neighbor's screams of fire and
ran out with her four children.
Firemen said the blaze appar-
emily was caused by an oil heater.
The bodies were burned beyond
recognition, police said.
Evening star., 1950-12-25

supporting and strengthening the
old walls.
Frank M. Harmon, McShain's
superintendent who worked on
the Pentagon and some of New
York's biggest skyscrapers, says:
This is the hardest job I've
ever worked on in my life" =
Asked about that, he says:
Building a new building is
easy. You take the plans and
build. Here we are almost do
ing the impossible-making a
modern building with old walls u
! Target date for completion is
next fall. Everybody on the jot
is certain that the President will
be back at the White House be-
fore next Christmas.
From now on the interior will
begin to lose the factorylike ap-
pearance. 1t will soon be resplen-
dent with the pristine purity OF
fresh white plaster. In a shed
behind the White House the Flora
vanti brothers, Quirino and Ar
nolfo, who learned their trade in
Florence before coming here more
than four decades ago, are work.
ing on the plaster decorations.
The old decorations are followed
closely except that in many in
stances heavy molding is made
| lighter.
In the same building Ferdinand
Bruyninck, artist. sculptor and
craftsman, is working on the de-
signs of the new medallions and
other details. Right now he is
busy on an American eagle. It
is like the old eagle in posture
and size. But the modern Ameri-
can eagle he is producing is no.
ticeably tougher.
Evening star., 1950-12-25
Keni|worth Ave.
To Become Link
In Expressway
Section Will Connect
Rood to Proposed
East Capitol Bridge

Kenilworth avenue will become
a limited-access. siX-lane, divided
highway. to connect the Balti-
more Washington expressway
with the new East Capitol street
bridge, under District plans re-
vealed today.
Deputy Director of Highways
Samuel R. Harrison said the plans
are expected to be laid before
the District Commissioner about
February l. About mid january,
preliminary program for the
bridge and its approaches is due
from the Districts engineering
consulting firm, j. E. Greiner CO.
Mr.. Harrison said the exact To-
cation Of the new bridge remains
to be decided. Many of the
streets now feeding into Kenil-
worth avenue will be shut off, un-
der present plans, Mr.. Harrison
declared. Only six or eight ac-
cess points will feed into the ave-
nue. between the District line and
Benning road, he explained.
Stoplights Will Be Used.
Parallel to Kenilworth avenue,
service road facilities will be con-
structed, the deputy director
pointed out. so that traffic can be
brought to the access points. Stop
lights at these points will bar
Kenilworth avenue from becom-
ing a high-speed uninterrupted
thoroughfare.
At present there are no plans
to continue Kenilworth avenue to
connect with Anacostia Park at
Pennsylvania avenue, Mr.. Harri-
son said. Plans are in the making
to extend the avenue to connect
with the approach highways to
the projected bridge across the
Potomac River to Alexandria.
Just beyond the District line
plans call for construction of a
cloverleaf traffic interchange to
get traffic on and off the Balti-
more Washington Expressway.
The Annapolis Washington Ex-
pressway, now under construction
also, is expected to end in this
cloverleaf.
Other Streets to Be Widened.
Traffic from these expressways
would be brought downtown
along a widened Constitution or
Independence avenue, under ulti-
mate District plans. Mr.. Harrison
declared.
| Under the new program. Kenil-
worth avenue will be extended
south of Benning road to give
access to the new East Capitol
street bridge. Extension of New
York avenue NE, from Bladens-
burg road to the planned clover
leaf interchange will afford an
other traffic artery to connect with
the Baltimore and Annapolis
Expressways, under current plans.
In Baltimore, construction is
underway to take Expressway traf-
1c well downtown.
Evening star., 1950-12-25

saying. "It's amazing what you
can do with SIS million"
He saw excavations so deep
that it made him dizzy to look
down in them. The interior of
the White House today has the
appearance of a factory. Every
where men are cutting pipe or
shaping sheet metal or stringing
wires. The complexity of the
installations is almost dismaying.
Many Of the lines and pipes are
run in the channels of the great
Isteel beams used as supporting
pillars. Then the steel is incased
in concrete forming a column
about two feet square.
One thinks: Wouldn't it be
awful if some one forgot to in
sert one of the wires or pipes
before the concrete is poured"
The floors have been poured.
floors so heavy that they add to
the factory appearance.
Walls Go Down 28 Feet.
The White House walls and cel-
lar never had any great depth.
Now the walls go down % feet
and there are Easements, mez-
canine Easements, cellars and sub
cellars.
Steel markers were put in place
all around the outside of the
White House at a height of about
Is feet. Government men meas
ure their height above sea level
every few days with instruments
that split the inch into 10,OO0ths.
The engineers of John McShain.
Inc. the contractor. are proud
to report that so far there has
been no sagging.
Much Of the work has been N
Evening star., 1950-12-25
Cripple Is Found Slain
In Philadelphia Hotel
BY the Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 25.-His
hands strapped to his chest by
his own belt and his body bearing
marks of a. beating. a 25-year-old
cripple was found dead yesterday
in a midcity hotel room.
Homicide detectives said Rich
ard E. Rosen called at the hotel
Saturday night. accompanied by
an older man. to visit two young
men who had registered an hour
earlier. Yesterday his body was
found lying across a bed.
Mr.. Rosen wore heavy braces
on both legs and his right arm
was partly paralyZed. He had suf-
fered an attack of infantile pa
ralysis at the age Of 6.
Evening star., 1950-12-25
Soldiers Wife Found
Dead in K Street Home

An autopsy was to be performed
today on the body of Mrs. Conita
McKinny, Al, of ISIS K street
NV. who was found dead in her
bed about 1:50 pm. yesterday.
Police entered her apartment
after friends became alarmed
when she didn't answer tie tele-
phone. Her husband, Pvt. James
E. McKinny. stationed at Fort
Belvoir, was on duty when she was
found, police said.
Evening star., 1950-12-25
.WoIser Heads Board
On Engineer LISTING

Daniel c. Walser was named
chairman of the five-member
Board of Registration for Pro-
fessional Engineers in elections
here last week.
Leo H. Cleary was elected Sec
retary-treasurer of the board
which is appointed by the District
Commissioners. The board is pre-
pairing an information circular on
the regulation of the practice IN
the District.
Evening star., 1950-12-25

day any gentleman of standing
in the community who called on
the holiday would be uShered into
the Presidents presence. The
journalist found several Washing
tonians Of prominence sitting
around and chatting with Mr..
Polk.
The open house on New Years
Day. as many remember. was one
that survived even World War
and continued into the adminis-
tration of Herbert Hoover. At
the meetings of the Association
of the Oldest Inhabitants of the
District of Columbia it is occa-
sionally proposed that the Presi-
dent be petitioned to revive this
custom. The Oldest Inhabitants
used to go in a body and there
were those among them who could
brag that they had shaken hands
with more than five Presidents,
The proposal is always withdrawn
when wiser counsel assures the
optimists that the custom will
never be resumed.
Pilgrimage to Seat of Power.
Although the White House is
an empty shell today except for
the presidential offices; although
the Presidents residence is now
across the street, and although
the President himself was at his
own home half continent away,
the people focked to the White
House last night as in other ma
tions in other centuries they have
gone to the palace, the seat of
power. In the Christian world
people have always prayed for
their rulers, and there was pray
erful atmosphere in the carol
singing last night.
Evening star., 1950-12-25
FIue Gas in Home Brings
Fatal Heart Attack to LAWYER

A heart attack induced by fue
gas in his tightly sealed home
killed a Washington attorney yes
terday. His wife, also a victim
of partial asphyxia, is recovering
in Georgetown University Hos
pital.
David H. King, SO, of 1886 T
street NV. former immigration
Service lawyer. died within four
minutes after arrival of a doctor
who had been summoned in an
almost incoherent telephone call
from Mrs. King.
DR.. James A. Cannon, jr., said
the Kings had sealed the doors
and windows of the house against
the cold and that the gas appli-
ances, operating in the almost
air-tight dwelling, had produced
gas. He also said Mr.. King had
suffered from a heart ailment for
about two years and that death
came from a cardiac shock. An
autopsy is to be performed today.
All Openings Were Sealed.
Safety Engineer H. L. Leonard,
of the Washington Gas Light Co.,
said all the appliances were in
perfect working condition but
that the basement doors and win
doWs-even the letter drop in the
front door-had been sealed with
newspapers.
He explained that such an air.
tight condition causes the f1ue
action to reverse itself, releasing
gas in the basement which then
rises through the house. %
Mr.. King answered the door
when DR.. Cannon arrived. The
retired attorney then went to a
chair, sat down and collapsed as
his semiconscious wife lay nearby.
Mrs. King became i'll and un-
conscious shortly after the they
came downstairs for breakfast
about Z am. Mr.. King went back
got a blanket and cov-
cred her with it as she lay on a
sofa. Then he collapsed.
Told to Open Windows.
Several hours later, she re-
gained consciousness and dialed
the telephone number of DR.. Gam
non after 40 or IL attempts to
find it in the telephone book"
Evening star., 1950-12-25
2 Red Birds of Paradise
Added to Zoo Collection

Two red Birds of Paradise ar
rived yesterday at the Washington
Zoo from a New Guinea fowl
dealer.
DR.. William M. Mann, Zoe
director, said both birds are males
and are about the size of a pigeon
and relation of the crow. They
have flowing plumage of brilliant
red. They are the first birds of
their species to be exhibited at
the Zoo in some time, DR.. Mann
said.
Evening star., 1950-12-25
By George Kennedy

American cities, especially in
this century, have given much
thought and planning to their
community centers. Some CEN
tral square is usually considered
the heart of the city and great
Importance is placed on it's ap-
pearance.
Washington, which is different
in so many respects. varies also
in this. 1t was planned from
the start that the Capitol should
be its center but the city long
ago grew away from it. The citi-
zens of the modern city have al
ways felt something is lacking.
Probably that is the reason that
movements from time to time get
under way to build stadium
something that Washington can
call its own.
If this city of magnificent dis
tances has center, it is not the
Capitol but another famous build
ing which is just about on the
middle of the original 10-mile
square set aside for the Federal
city. That building is the White
House.
1t has always been the heart
of Washington and still is. Last
night, despite the cold. More than
5000 persons stood outside the
fence in the rear of the White
House and sang Christmas carols
after President Truman, by re-
mote control, from his home in
Independence. Mo. lighted Wash
ington's community Christmas
tree.
Moving Experience.
It was a moving experience.
There in the background was the
White House surmounted by a.
great timber tower from which
concrete is being poured to make
the Executive Mansion as bomb
proof as an old building can be
made to be.
The singers really put their
heart in it when they came to
the familiar verses in 20 Little
Town of Bethlehem:
"Yet in thy dark streets shineth
The everlasting Light:
The hopes and fears of all the
gears
Are met in thee tonight"
It recalled the same Christmas
ceremony of only nine years ago
at the White House-the Christ
mas of 1941. less than three weeks
after Pearl Harbor. On that
Christmas eve President Roosevelt
and England's Prime Minister
Churchill took part in the Christ
mas tree lighting ceremony by
speaking from the balcony to a
huge crowd gathered in the
garden.
Wake Island had just fallen.
The British forces in Hong Kong
had surrendered. The japanese
were advancing on Manila and
on Singapore. Hitler's armies
were advancing on Moscow.
Churchill's Remarks.
Mr.. Churchill said:
This is a strange Christmas
eve Almost the whole world is
locked in deadly struggle. Armed
with the most terrible weapons
which science has devised. the
nations advance upon each other"
Mr.. Roosevelt said many peo-
pie were asking:
How can we light our trees?
How can we give our gifts? How
can we meet and worship with
love and with uplifted hearts in
a world at war, a world of fight
ing and suffering and death?"
He continued:
Even as we ask these ques-
tions, we know the answer. There
is another preparation demanded
of the nations beyond and beside
the preparation of weapons and
materials of war. There is de-
manded of us also the prepara-
ton of our hearts. And when
we make ready our hearts for
the labor and the suffering and
the ultimate victory which lie
ahead. then we observe Christ
mas Day-with all it's memories
Evening star., 1950-12-25
Lip-Reoding Glasses
To Beqin at Bethesda

Hard Of hearing adults will re-
ceive lip-reading instruction at
Bethesda Chevy Chase High
School beginning at 7::30 pm,
January 4.
The classes, to be held each
Thursday from 7::30 to $50 pm,
will include beginning as we'll as
advanced courses. They are part
of the adult education program OF
Montgomery County. Mrs. G. M
Appel will be instructor.
Evening star., 1950-12-25
Former Sheriff Charged
In Wounding of Wife
BY the Assoeioied Press

GRUNDY, Va, Dec. 25.-A 60
year-old former sheriff of Bu-
chanan County was being held
today on a charge of felonious
wounding following the pistol
shooting of his wife, Mrs. Mary
Goff.
The condition of Mrs. Golf, ST.
was reported fair after a .38-cali-
ber bullet was removed from her
hip. Witnesses said A. H. Goff
had been drinking heavily before
the shooting.