davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Evening star., 1950-09-10
Births Reported

(By the D. C. Bureau Of Vital Statistics
BOYS.
Rooland and Helen Ackermann.
MarTn anS and ss5etp
Harold and Rosalie Blasky.
Victor and Ellen Bondi
William and Gilda Burke
Matthew and Mary Carroll.
Louis and Frances Cecchini
Donald and Elizabeth Davis
Francis and Mary Divilio.
Leonard and Dorothy Doran.
Donald and Patricia Finnell.
Ralph and Ellanor Hicks.
Leslie and Helen Holtz.
William and Florence Keen.
Joseph and Joyce Koenig.
Georges and Dawn Mccormick;
William and Barbara Mcdonald
Alexander and Rosalind Mcleod.
Francis and Margaret Murray.
Jesse and Lucille Newberry,
Richard and Hazel Ecwland.
Gerald and Vera Nut.
Louis and Marian Oliver.
Harry and Virginia Peck.
5smes James snd and fSeIIn Ns1l1s Res5. Resd.
Herbert and Virginia Thatcher.
Clinton and Barbara Thomas.
Orfeo and Danica Ticac.
Robert and Mary Wieferich
william and and Nancy Aiken:
Wilbur and Barbara Crawley.
Lincoln and Ida Dade.
Arthur and Shannie Huntley.
Walter and Helen Johnson.
Percy and Beatrice Knight.
John and Elizabeth Lawrence.
Abram and Doretha Ledbetter.
James and Anna Minor.
Arthur and Henriette Pressly.
H,I1 Harrison :, am and y,, Virginia Robinson
Albert and Thelma Teasley
John and Eleanor Thompson.
James and Elsie Wood.
GIRLS.
Robert and Mary Alexander,
Richard and Eileen Bartik.
John and Elizabeth Berry.
Harold and Eve Bloom.
John and Jane Brady.
William and Mary Broomarl.
Glenn and Ruth Byington.
Alexander and Elizabeth Cornell.
Grover and Ella Daussman.
Michael and Shirley De Bernard.
Kurt and Ilse De Witt.
Lawrence and Helen Doherty.
Jack and Hilda Faucet.
Vincent and Alma Flocker
Ryland and Joyce Hall
Karl and Arlean Hoffman.
Warren and Oracle Mosahook.
William and Wiltshire Howard.
John and June Hutchison.
Grant and Mary Hyde.
George and Dorothy Jesses.
William and Joan Jewell.
Joseph and Mary Keating.
James and Mildred Lawry.
Herbert and Mary Locke
Maurice and Evelyn Mc1nerney.
Vivian and Donald Morgan
William and Irene Niswander.
John and Milryn Nourse.
Arthur and Mary Pardee.
Edward and Janet Pearson.
William and Betty Pike.
Valentine and Elvira Riva
Gabriel and Elizabeth Rosay.
Julian and Myrtle Sanders.
Robert and Elva Shaw.
John and Ann Shepherd
James and Dorothy Simmons.
Lawrence and Helen Speelman.
Alfred and Pauline Suraci.
Morris and Yetta WeisZ.
Morris and Florence yelling.
Clayton and Agetha White
Charles and Charlotte Wolfe.
Jacob and Sylvia Violin
Hugh and Madeline Wood.
Grace apd Iva Blair.
Leonard and Mary Brice.
Ulyssis and Ernestine Delaney.
Thomas and Shirley Graves.
Wallace and Ida Haddon.
Cephus and Lucy Hargrove.
Charles and Birthene Howard.
James and Verna jackson.
Vernon and Sophie Nelson.
Evening star., 1950-09-10
Board Of Trade Made
Defense Buying Center

The Washington Board of Trade
has been designated as dissent
mating point for information on
Government defense purchases and
contract awards.
The board announced yesterday
that under agreement with the
Commerce Department it has
available for inspection by both
members and non-members daily
lists of items on which bids are
requested and weekly synopses of
contract awards.
The boards said also that it has
compiled for the use of its mem
bers all available mobilization
data.
Evening star., 1950-09-10

The Tractioneers-a group of
about 40 local men interested in
railroad lore-will don Gay Nine
ties costume today and ride
around town on an old streetcar
and trailer of yesteryear.
The tour, on the latest thing
in 1890 streetcars, will usher in
Transit Progress Day." to be
observed by hundreds of cities
tomorrow.
The Tractioneers will be guests
of the Capital Transit Co., who
are taking the old streetcar out
of mothballs for the occasion.
The car, once operated by the
old Capital Traction Co. here,
will leave at 1890 pm. from the
Peace Monument and tour street.
Evening star., 1950-09-10
Tructioneers in 'Nineties Gorb'
To Tour City in Old Streetcur

car routes throughout the city.
The Capital Transit Co. also
has announced winners in its
Transit Progress Day Contest.
"A $1OO Savings Bond has been
awarded to Mrs. j. Rex Pimlott,
II Ericsson road. Bethesda, for
her letter on What Transit
Progress Mean to Me-" Second
prize of a $75 bond went to Miss
Anne Spainhour. 1888 Rhode
Island avenue NV. and third
prize of $50 bond went to Me-
Lellan Smith, Ais Davis place
NV.
Presentation will be made at
II am. tomorrow at the general
Offices of the company. Thirty
sixth and M streets NV.
Evening star., 1950-09-10

Richard and Rosa Phillips.
William and Maria Reeder.
Nathan and Lillian Taylor.
William and Mary Wheaton.
Herman aud Ling Woods.
Evening star., 1950-10-12
By WiIIiom A, MiIIen

TODAY is the day on which Columbus
Il is honored as the "Discoverer of
America" If all the claimants to that
title were to be similarly honored-and
each given his own holiday-America
calendar would be badly disrupted.
The history books say Columbus land
ed on October IL. 1892, on San Salvador
(now known as Waiting IslanO in the
West Indies. AS every schoolboy knows,
he was accompanied by some 100 sailors
in three vessels-the Nina. the Pinta
and the Santa Maria. Thus did the
admiral of the Ocean Seas achieve un-
dying renoWn. He made four voyages in
all, landing at Cuba, Haiti, the Virgin
Islands, Peurto Rico. Nicaragua and
many other places well-known to latter
day Americans bent on absorbing a lit
tie Caribbean sun.
1t probably never will be established
who was the first non-American to set
foot in this hemisphere. but there is no
doubt at all that 1t was not Columbus.
Some say it was Lief Ericsson, son Of
Eric the Red. Some say it was Bjarni
HerjolfSson of Iceland, who is supposed
to have come here around the year 987.
1t could have been Thorvald, who is said
to have spent winter in Labrador
where he was mortally wounded by an
arrow.
There is claim that Morse expedi-
ton reached the State of Washington.
of all places, in 1910. The sagas of the
Evening star., 1950-10-12
By Charles E. TroceweN

Modern America is very afraid of
"high hat and "highbrow."
The person who talks like book" in
other words we'll, runs the risk of i'm
pressing the ordinary guy as being
highbroW.
Often that is disastrous. Thereafter,
the honest guy looks with distrust upon
you, though your crime has consisted
only of using good word you knew
but he didn't.
The desire to know new words is, in
itself, slightly highbrow, it must be ad-
mitted. 1t smacks of the lamp, of in
terest in words as things. It spells
something otherwise than watching or
listening to football.
In recent years there has been rash
of books written about words.
All of them are interesting, some of
them useful in the everyday life.
The fact is that people with the largest
vocabularies will be the first to be
interested in words as things. and the
most desirous of adding new ones to
their lists.
To go at this purposefully. one may
believe, is not so good as to take words
as they come, through good talk and
good books. Increase your vocabulary,
If you must, but do it as an aside, casu-
ally, as favorite modern word has it.
This way, one runs much less risk of
being called highbrow.
Evening star., 1950-10-12

Norsemen tell of great western voyages
to a strange land. The champions of
this theory point to monuments sup
posed to have been left behind by these
early explorers. The sagas have it that
"Vinland" was last visited about 1347-
this was place rich in grapes, believed
to have been along the New England
coast.
Morse ruins were found in Labrador by
the Chicago Field Museums sub-arctic
expedition under Comdr. Donald D. Nc
MILAN. And then there is the old stone
mill at Newport, r. L. which is cited by
some as the work of early explorers.
All this is small peanuts, of course,
compared to the claim that Chinese
Buddhist priests discovered America
sometime in the fifth century. The
Chinese are said to have called this land
Fusan, from a tree that grew here.
All in all, the list of claimants to
Columbus title is impressive. 1t in
cludes the Phoenicians, the Egyptians.
the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, the Portu-
guese, the Spaniards, the Chinese. the
japanese, the Norsemen, the Welsh
and, of course, the Irish.
There is even a contention that the
race of Indians on this continent de-
scended from the ancient Britons. AS
far back as ITO, it is claimed, num-
ber of people from Wales landed on
these shores. Madoc. Welsh prince
who had reputation as a navigator, is
credited with the discovery of North
Evening star., 1950-10-12
This and That

Finding new words in the daily life
is easy, of course; all one has to do is
look over any page in the larger die
tionaries.
New words that way, however. are
not much fun.
They must come to you in your daily
reading, or be offered by some one else
in talk.
No doubt much of the pleasure our
ancestors got in lectures came from
hearing few new words spoken by old
masters.
When Emerson strobe the lecture
stage, undoubtedly he used some words
entirely new to some of his listeners.
He was such craftsman that he
used them to make his listeners under
stand just about what they meant, so
that they did not hurry to the dictionary
when they got home unless they wanted
to. In the main, they already had a
fairly good idea of what the new words
meant.
In what may be called everyday writ
ing and talking the best usage is to use
plain words known to every one.
What is the use, for instance, of saying
a matter is eXiguous, If we can say it is
scanty?
Much, one may say most. depends
upon the writer and his readers.
II he Is not afraid Of words, and
Evening star., 1950-10-12

knows his unusual word is right, in its
proper place, and takes care to give its
meaning by the context, he may use it
till the COWS come home, no reasonable
reader will mind, in fact most will thank
him.
* X
Three unusual words came into our
ken the other day, in a perfectly natural
manner.
One was homologoumena.
Sounds American Indian, but it isn't.
1t means the books of the New Testa-
ment
And there was horripilation.
Horror, sure enough. It means bris-
ting of the hair; goose1esh, in other
words.
One much like it is horrisonant, mean
ing sounding dreadfully
Our larger dictionaries are simply
crammed with such words, little used,
but still good enough if one adds them
to the personal vocabulary.
To trot them out in ordinary TALK it
must be admitted, is something else
again.
Even the well-read person has COM
paratively limited vocabulary. Each one
of us knows enough words for ordinary
daily use, and some more in reading and
writing, not literary words, in any sense,
but words seldom used In everyday con-
versation.
Evening star., 1950-10-12
What's Wrong With Derby Hats?

century ago an imaginative EngliShman
named Bowler, bravely breaking new ground in
the world of fashion, invented a piece of male
headgear that came to be known in America as
the derby hat, though his own countrymen, with
appropriate simplicity, just called it the bowler
The men of Britain still think great deal of it.
Nearly all of them wear it. In fact, they like
it so much that they are even now holding
centenary celebration-wth dinners, speeches
and everything-to pay tribute to it's creator
and to make clear that they intend to keep on
using it as an active part of their wardrobe
But here in our own country, alas, the story
is quite different. The derby hat is not what it
used to be; it is all but forgotten; except for
few eccentric places-like the theatrical district
in New York-nobody seems to be wearing it any
more. Yet once upon a time, not so very long
ago, great numbers of American men considered
it the piece de resistance of getup that included
pearl gray spats, velvet-collared Chesterfield
coat, and in some MISUNDERSTANDING the really
smart set-a handsome walking stick. The thing
was fairly common Derbes could be seen almost
everywhere, sitting neatly on many self-satis-
fed head and lending kind of smooth dash to
our street scenes. Times were not so bad then,
either. Under the hard dome of his sleek bowler,
man didn't have to worry about such stuff as
the Russians or the atomic bomb. On the whole,
the world just seemed pretty good and pretty
safe, and he felt quite stylish
Can it truly be that these dear dead days are
altogether beyond recall? Is the American derby
really gone forever? If so, why? What's wrong
with it? What's felt hat got that it hasn't? Can
the felt hat match it in endowng a mans looks
with dignity? Of course not. Nor can any kind
of headgear equal it a safeguard against
falling plaster, tumbling cornices or footpads
with blackjacks in their hands Decorative and
protective at one and the same time it is without
peer in its own field, and this great country of
ours lacks certain charm without it. The sooner
1t is back in vogue, the better for all those who
have forgotten It's many virtues.
Evening star., 1950-10-12

is Fairmount Park, "the first design of the Gothic
revival in America"
AS early as 1900 Latrobe was employed by the
Federal Government. Jefferson brought him to
Washington as surveyor of the public buildings
in 1803 He constructed the south wing of the
Capitol, executed colonnaded terraces for the
White House, remodeled Thorntons Patent Office,
supervised the city canal, did much work for the
Navy and the State Department. Meanwhile, he
created Baltimore Cathedral and a long list
of supplementary edifices in Philadelphia and
around Washington. Resigning his post as
Architect of the Capitol in 1877 he went to New
Orleans to finish the water works begun by his
son and died there of yellow fever in 1920.
Statuary Hall and the old Supreme Court
room, ST. Johns Church and the Decatur house
are Latrobes local memorials, but his influence
is everywhere. Considering this fact, 1t is remark
able that the Post Office Department has not
honored him in its series of stamps in homage to
eminent Americans whose lives were devoted to
ideal ends.
Evening star., 1950-10-12
Plight Of the Temporories

have, for 20 years and over, been
doing government work. am still tenn
porary, and as am not allowed to pay
in retirement on temporary work and
as we are not allowed to pay In Social
Security and with things so high, what
will we do when our job ends and we
grow old?
Why can Government workers not be
entitled to anything in the way Of secu-
rity when they are out or too old to
work? This Is so unfair and after all
of the service, should be allowed to
pay in on my retirement to make 1t large
enough to live on when retire. There
are so many like myself that they have
asked me to write in as this is important
to many Some of them have not been
in so long as others and they should be
able to secure Social Security anyway.
Why leave some of the Government en-
ployes out without anything-not even
as much as domestic jobs?
Dorothy X. Thompson.
Editors Note: While still not elig-
ible for Civil Service retirement bene-
fits. temporary Federal employees will
receive Social Security status as OF
January /, 1951.)
Evening star., 1950-10-12
Abe LincoIn's Shawl?
John H. Curtin.

1t is proper that every relic of Presi-
dent Lincoln, connected with his aSSassi-
nation, should be placed in the Museum
at the old Ford's Theater on Tenth street
NV. But they should be genuine relics.
and there should be no taint on their
connection with the murdered President.
A case in point is the Scotch shawl that
was given to the museum last WedneS-
day. The Star headlined the story of
this gift: Museum Exhibits Shawl Lin
coin Wore on Night He Met Death"
Among the occupants of the box at
Ford's Theater on the night of the mur-
der was Maj Henry r. Rathbone. He
was there with his fiancee, Miss Clara
Harris, both invited guests of Mrs. Lin
coin. Two days following the death of
Lincoln, the major detailed the incidents
of the evening as he witnessed them,
in an affidavit he made before Judge
A. B. Olin of the District Supreme Court.
In this sworn statement he said:
when the party entered the box
cushioned arm chair was standing at the
end of the box farthest from the stage
and nearest the audience. :. The Presi-
dent seated himself in this chair. and
except that he once left this chair for
the purpose of putting on his overcoat,
remained SO seated until he was shot"
Historians will confidently accept this
statement as the truth. The conclusion
is inescapable that Lincoln did not wear
a shawl to the theater the night he kept
his rendezvous with death So the Scotch
shawl which was deposited in the Mu-
scum had no connection with the crime
that was committed there.
In the informal presentation of the
shawl to the Museum it was asserted
that when the mortally wounded
President was carried out of the theater
some one snatched up the shawl and
Evening star., 1950-10-12
Letters to The Star -.

covered his body with it, In this way it
became spotted with his blood"
DR.. Charles A. Leale, United States
Army surgeon, was the first doctor to
get to Lincoln after the shooting. He
had Lincoln's coat and vest and upper
garments cut from the body, leaving it
nude. The actor, E. A. Emerson, long
a familiar figure in Washington, who
witnessed that scene from the stage, in
statement in The Star Feb. 8, 1919,
said that those who stood on the stage
with him could see them Che doctors)
tearing the martyred mans clothing
from him in a mad search for the
wound"
There is an abundance of reliable con-
temporary evidence to support this state
ment. and also the fact that when Lin
coin was taken up to be carried from
the theater his coat and other garments
that had been removed from his body
were laid on top of it. Nowhere is there
mention of a shawl.
DR.. Leale had Lincoln lifted from the
chair in which he was seated and placed
PROSTATE on the floor so that he could
make a thorough examination in his
search for the wound. While this was
going on, DR.. Charles Sabin Taft another
Army surgeon, entered the box from the
stage boosted up by E. A. Emerson and
others. In his diary DR.. Taft states that
''the wound in the head had been found
before leaving the box. but at that time
there was no blood oozing from it," DR..
Leale confirms this, and says that when
he finally located the wound in the back
of the head it was not bleeding. but the
orif1ce was closed by clot Of blood.
which he removed.
It is difficult to see how a mythical
shawl laid over the front of the body
Of Lincoln could have become stained
with blood from wound In the back
Of the body which did not bleed.
David Rankin Barbee.
Evening star., 1950-10-12

America, sailing west from Iceland about
that time. Unfortunately, he later
disappeared into the unknown, taking
feet of 10 vessels with him.
According to one theory, Columbus
himself visited Iceland as a young man
probably about 1477-and learned
from it's inhabitants of the exploits of
earlier daring explorers who stopped in
on their way over here. (There is al
most as much dispute as to who discov-
cred Iceland as there is over the dis
coverer of American
Indirectly, some scholars hold, the
credit for early exploration efforts in this
part of the world should go to Marco
Polo. H. G. Wells Outline of History"
says it was the publication of his "Trav-
els" which spurred explorers into finding
the Land to the West" Marcos book
wasn't written, however, until about
1900.
Historians even have hard time de-
Gliding where Columbus is buried. It
might be Havana. 1t might be Seville, in
Spain. On the other hand, it might
also be in the mother church of this
hemisphere, at Ciudad Trujillo, Domini-
can Republic. which used to be known
as Santo Domingo City.
But there is one claim they can't take
away from Columbus. He was the one
who really opened up the Western
Hemisphere. paving the way for the trek
of colonists that made us what we are
today.
Evening star., 1950-10-12
To Curb Dangerous Driving

There is a great deal of merit to Traffic
Director KeneippS proposal that revocation of
drivers permits should be made mandatory in
more types of cases than the District Traffic
Act allows. The present law makes revocation
mandatory only when driver is convicted of
driving while drunk. There are other traffic
offenses that qualify for imposition of this
penalty.
driver who has been convicted of negligent
homicide or manslaughter should have no right
to continue driving on the public streets. Neither
should the person who has been convicted of
fleeing from the scene of an accident involving
injury, or of causing injury through reckless
driving, or of using his car in committing a
felony, or of turning off his lights to avoid
Identification, or of swearing falsely in his appi-
cation for permit. Such drivers usually are
deprived of their licenses by the Board of Revoca
ton and Review, but this process takes time
Meanwhile the public must run the risk inherent
in allowing dangerous drivers to remain at the
wheel. If automatic revocation is justified for
drunken driving, it is justified in cases involving
the serious offenses listed by Mr. Keneipp.
And Mr.. Keneipp is right in contending that
there should be no appeal from automatic
revocation. Such administrative action is based
on the findings of court after a fair trial.
OF course, if the conviction in court should be
reversed on appeal, the revocation would be
nullif1ed and the permit then should be restored.
The Commissioners have the power to issue new
permits in any cases where an injustice is shown
to have been done However, there is no record
to date of any automatic revocation case that
warranted restoration Of permit by the
Commissioners.
Evening star., 1950-10-12
Let the Buyer Beware

Your recent editorial. LET the Buyer
Beware" rightly observes that it will be
interesting to discover how the public
will benefit from the victory" of the
Justice Department in the matter of
brokerage commissions on real estate.
Experienced realtors know the per
cent schedule rejected by the court has
almost invariably operated as a ceiling
rather than floor. 3 Nor do I need to
point out to The Star, whose advertising
and subscription charges have not shown
any tendency to remain fixed and i'm
movable, that realtors costs have risen
too, and that if the Department of JUS
tice makes it possible for realtors to re-
Evening star., 1950-10-12
Honor for Lotrobe

At the Library of Congress tonight the
Washington Chapter of the Archaeological 1nsti-
tute of America will stage a meeting in honor
of Benjamin Henry Latrobe. Professor Talbot
r. Hamlin of Columbia University will be the
principal speaker An exhibition of Latrobes
drawings including his design for the original
Library of Congress- will be available for inspec-
ton The public is invited to attend.
Such tribute certainly is deserved Latrobe
was a poet and philosopher well as one of
the most famous architects and engineers who
ever has lived in modern times. washington and
the United States at large owe him tremendous
debt of gratitude for his services and the example
of service which he set. Born of Moravian stock
at Fu1neck near Leeds in Yorkshire, England in
1854, he was educated in Germany receiving his
serving an enlistment in the Prussian army as
a cornet of hussars.
Later, back in England, Latrobe studied
under Cockerel and Smeaton, excellent teachers.
His first independent efforts were residences
and a canal. Before he was 80 he was offered
important opportunities in London, but the death
of his first wife in 1893 and gradual change
in his political views led him to emigrate to
Virginia He landed at Norfolk in 1896 and soon
was busy with commissions equal to his genius.
Among his "jobs" were new type of penitentiary
and the completion of Jefferson's State capitol
at Richmond. Moving to Philadelphia in 1913,
he built the Bank of Pennsylvania, "the first
monument of the Greek revival" on this side OF
the Atlantic Coincdentally he was responsible
for the mansion Of William Cramon in what now