davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Evening star., 1953-10-18

Very bad luck" JAMS voice sounded un-
familiar ''Im sorry. You were away quite
long time, May. Did you take walk?"
Max gave his provocative half-smie Right
to the crossroads and back, darling. ="
When early winter dusk fell, the house
became fairyland of twinkling lights. A
great log fire blazed in the library.
JAM vision in palest blue, knew that she
looked charming - and she knew that Max
was proud of her.
When the colonel announced his daughters
engagement, he said, grinning impishly at Jan,
that he was sorry she hadn't picked soldier
instead of lawyer. But he added:
MAX Finlay is rising young barrister with
a bright future, and when he's High Court
Judge any one of us may have cause to be
glad that he's a friend of ours"
Max responded modestly. Jan loved the
easy resonance of his voice. There followed
the usual chorus, cheers popping of corks,
exhibition of gifts, and threat of tears from
Mrs. Wharton.
Dancing was resumed. Jan and Max went
out onto the porch. Max stopped and kissed
white shoulder as he helped Jan into her coat
MAX darling!'
Tell me you're happy, as am, Jan. Some
thing seems to be worrying you. What is it?"
Jan found it hard to answer.
Moonlight touched the snow-robed garden
with magic. Max's kiss had thrilled her. If
only that wretched cloud hadn't come down
again when she had seen him climbing over
from the field PATH But his frank statement
of where he had been had banished it. They
had often taken the same walk together.
JAN told herself, bitterly, that she was a
jealous little cat But then, following the
phone call from Greta, she discovered that
Max had retired as her fathers assistant, pro-
posing their friend Phil Dwyer as substitute
This would leave Max free during the time
that everybody else watched her fathers illu-
sion
Nothing is worrying me- Max-really-''
Max put his arm around her. tightly.
champagne makes some people morbid!'
Does it?" Jan peeped up at him over the
furry collar. Tell me, Max, why did you let
id(lICl OOWA lllCoII1 WHY OlO yOu
change your mind?"
Max laughed and Rugged her closer
Surely that's not your worry? The colonel
agreed that as assisted at Christmas, and
again at New Years, some of them might sus-
pect collusion Bad showmanship, jan It's
a long time since Phil appeared in the act, and
briefed him as soon as he arrived What's
wrong with that?"
Nothing, darling. Isn't it divine night?"
Soft strains of Cuban melody stole over the
frosty air. Let's 60 in and dance"
1t was nearly midnight when calls for the
colonels celebrated trick became insistent.
He always waited for this moment
Jan, flushed and happy, came into the
library, Max's arm around her. Max placed
her comfortably, smiled and moved away as
Evening star., 1953-12-06
An Important Bond Issue

Fairfax County will decide an important
oond-1ssue question in special referendum on
december Is. Because the outcome of the
Young Will have major bearing on future
development of the county, the citizens should
oe 1ully informed on the purpose and urgency
OF the proposed $20-millon sewer bond issue
Inc borrowing plan has been proposed bv
Cne county sanitation authorities as means
OF correcting serious sewage-disposal problems
arising with the phenomenal growth of resi-
oential communities throughout many parts of
tne once-rural county. Septic tanks and hap
hazaro SUBDIVISION sewer systems have become
overloaded with potentially dangerous effects
1or tne residents concerned. To relieve these
conditions the county wants to build 129 miles
OF collector sewers, 81 miles of trunk and sub
trunk sewers, 10 miles of relief sewers and
several pumping stations and treatment plants.
Inc program would provide Fairfax County for
tne nrSt time with an integrated sewer system
comparable to that in adjacent Arlington
Inc bonds would be retired from service
charges and connection fees from those benefit
Ing directly from the construction. with
guarantee that any deficit in revenues from
CheSe resources would be made up from tax
FUNDS. Thus the loan is expected to be repaid
Dy users of the service. The whole county
STANDS to benefit, however, from installation
OF modern sewer system in an area where
tne need for one has reached an acute stage
All voters should keep that in mind when thew
20 10 Cne polls on referendum day.
Evening star., 1953-12-06
Scraps of Paper

One of the most deplorable aspects of the
New York City newspaper strike consists of the
failure of the non-striking unions to live up to
their contracts
The only union actually on strike is that of
the photoengravers, who have refused to arbi-
trate wage dispute despite the fact that their
international president has urged them to go to
arbitration. The photoengravers alone, how
ever, would not have been able to shut down
the papers. The papers have had to suspend
publication because the members of the other
newspaper unions have refused to cross the
photoengravers' picket line. Yet these other
unions have valid contracts with the papers
contracts which are being ignored by the union
members in order to support a strike by union
which has rejected an appeal from its inter-
national president to submit the dispute to
arbitration.
This is an attitude which certainly reflects
Q high degree of responsibility, and which
reduces the contracts to the level of the pro-
Evening star., 1953-12-06

on today's records by the deeds of
vanished yesterdays. A striking pas
sage from the drama of Job is: His
bones are full of the sin of his youth,
which shall lie down with him in the
dust" That sentence, flashing with
deep inSights, from story old but
ever new is saying: Life keeps books.
A wise man explaining that sentence
to an inquiring student said: 1T
means this. Your body is like sponge.
It. takes things in and holds them, and
feeds upon them. A part of every
apple you eat sinks down into your
blood and bones. You cannot get it
out. It's the same with the book that
you read and the thoughts you enter
tain. They go down into your bones,
and you can't get them out. A mans
bones are full of the sin of his youth
which lie down with him in the dust!"
How close that is to my Lord is
writing all the time!"
That valiant and charming person,
Nine. Chang Kai-shek, not long ago
was asked to state what was the prin-
cipal lesson the years had taught her
in the hard school of experience. She
replied: DAY by day, we write our own
destiny; for, 4inexorably, we become
what we do. In my opinion. this is the
moral foundation Of the universe: Life
keeps books!" And there is no juggling
with that solemn fact.
William James speaks about a man
weak of will. yielding often to the
hellish gravitation pulling to things
below, turning periodically to the in
dulgences he had vowed to rise above
Succumbing often to the opportunities
of dissolute companions he would
banter. well, I'll have a fling this
once but won't count it. this time"
James comments significantly: 1T
was counted nevertheless. It was
written in his weakened will, in his
inf1amed appetites, in the jangling
nerves Of his dissipated body. The
prodigal might jauntily say. I won't
Evening star., 1953-12-06
ReuI Estate Assessments

According to The Star of Decem-
Der /. the Maryland State Tax Com
mission found Montgomery County
among a group of eight counties where
real estate assessments are fairly uni
form. In this group, the commission is
quoted as saying, the assessments range
between As and SIS per cent of actual
sales value. ......- .....,
My recently purchased Chevy Chase
home was reassessed this year at
$18,380. Either it was "a steal" at
$29,500, which is what paid for it in
April, or the State Tax Commission
should correct it's range to include
61.9 per cent. ,
Request a reduction? An acquaint-
ance did. Assessments on his house and
others, all in KenSington development
of originally identical structures, were
skyrocketed The neighborhood pro-
tested. AS direct result, assessments
were not lowered-instead, the houses
with additions pushed -out backs, new
porches. etc. were promptly re-re-
assessed still higher. A letter from the
tax office, itself, bluntly informed us of
this precise cause and effect.
ProteSt again? We wrote letter,
filled out form, and eventually was
included in an interview with tax Of
f1cial who turned out to be a young
Washington attorney working at night,
part time. "The addition to the house
cost less than its assessment" I pro-
tested. Would you sell the house for
its assessed valued" he countered. re-
ferring to the law that assessments may
be 100 per cent of value. Accomplished
by our considerable time and effort?-
absolutely nothing. Yet the property in
question may be purchased today at
$l4,5O0 Cor less) and is assessed at So
$50. which approaches SO per cent.
These are but two examples and am
sure Star readers can give case his
tories of many more. -'.f.
Will some Maryland tax authority
have the courage either to raise the
Evening star., 1953-12-06
Letters to The Star, .
Pen-1a111es may be used If letters carry
1OriterS' correct names and addresses.
All letters are subject to condensation

commissions As toss per cent range"
for Montgomery County, or else spon-
sor reduction of individual assessments
to maximum of SIS per cent of verified
sales value?
And will all the other tax authorities
please assist us by getting rich them
selves, simply by swapping up the real
estate bargains available below actual
sales value. Man With "a Bargain.
Step to Curb Delinquency
Parents should be doing something
about their childrens recreational ia
cilities. But they have problems.
School principals and teachers are not
at fault either. The schools are so
crowded that individual attention,
sometimes required, can hardly be ex-
pected. In one way or another this
situation should be taken in hand.
In one nearby section of Washington
that is being done. There boys and
girls both take part in a voluntary
recreational program recently set up
by the Lions Club of the Wheaton area
with the assistance of officer and en-
listed personnel of the 5th Special In
fantry Battalion, U. S. Marine Corps
Reserve. Marine Corps Reserve Train
ing Center at the Naval Gun Factory,
who give their time for this service. On
Wednesday evenings at Glenhaven
School in Wheaton many children
gather for an evening of supervised
recreation and instruction. A drill
team for both boys and girls is being
whipped into shape: movies are shown;
they are being given instruction in self
defense; planned parties are given; and
the youngsters love it. They feel that.
they are receiving attention that they
may not otherwise get.
This letter is being written for the
sole purpose of spreading the word to
all other sections, with the idea that
they too may do something about the
delinquency situation that now exists
The front pages frighten us with
stories about the teen-agers being
hoodlums, small-time gangsters and
Evening star., 1953-12-06

work goes forward in a new home in the
heart of the Capital of the Nation.
X
On November 16. 1903, The Star an
nounced the death of William H. Smith
at his residence, 816
Williom E. Smith Fourth street NV,
Reported Dead this morning" He
had been in the serv-
ice Of the Senate as a youth, then as
siStant librarian of the House of Repre-
sentatives and eventually librarian of
the House, being regarded "as an au-
thority on matters of reference
freely consulted by members of both
parties" President Grant appointed
him a member of the Board of Police
Commissioners for the District Of
Columbia. He also served as a men,
Der of the local school board. One of
the original members of ST. Augustine's
Church, he likewise was a founder of
the Knights of st. Augustine The Star
said he was born in 1888 and COM
mented: There is probably no colored
citizen who possessed wider range of
acquaintance among public men gen.
erallly than did Mr.. Smith,"
In the society column of The Star
for November 25, 1908, there was the
following paragraph:
PoWer-Stonton "One of the prettiest
Wedding weddings of the week
was that of Ellen T.
Power and Daniel M. Stanton yester-
day morning at 9 o'clock at st.
Stephens Church. {. Agnes Stanton,
sister of the groom, was the brides
only attendant T. j. Trodden, jr.. was
best man, and M. j. Ready, j. A.
Power, jr., were ushers. The altar was
beautifully decorated with palms and
chrysantl1emums. Marcos mass was
well rendered by the junior choir. under
the direction of Nellie Gillen. organist.
At the offeratory an Ave Maria was
beautifully rendered by Mrs. Catherine
Evening star., 1953-12-06
Spires of the Spirit
Life Keeps Books

The ebony face of travelling Negro
evangelist frames vivid boyhood men,
ory. Standing in the pulpit of a little,
white village church, he intersperSed his
fervent eXhortationS with piercingly
poignant songs winged with an intensity
that the years have not erased. One re-
frain repeated until it was engraved
forever upon the mind and heart of
listening lad, with all of life then
stretching before him. had to do with
an All-Seeing God, who was merciful
and yet just and who was writing all
the time" Across the years can hear
that lowly. almost illiterate preacher,
singing plaintively: "He knows all you
do. He hears all you say: My Lord is
writing all the time.
That idea did not come as an al
together new picture of the God and
Father of the gentle Jesus meek and
mild" to whose listening ears the pc
titions of childish lips rose nightly from
the altar of the counterpart with pro-
tecting benediction of mothers arms
not far away. For had not that one
whose face is kept now only in memory
spoken often of how her own early
conduct was colored by framed motto
in her childhood home: Thou God
Seest mel" But to the thought of an
present God, from whose gaze one
never could find hiding place, the song
added the somewhat frightening asSer-
ton to little child's conception, that
this God, who hears all you say and sees
all you do. is writing all the time, taking
down your record. The long years and
INn ,.ivA nf ifa 1aV
brought, of course, larger interpreta-
tions of that Holy One whose name we
utter with increasing awe and deeper
reverence. as the heaven which lay
around our infancy is left far behind
in the roseate past. But, in dreaming
of "the greater God" which Tennyson
speaks of as a normal process. there Is
nothing to dispute or refute the burning
truth proclaimed in the spiritual Of the
untutored spreacher-the Omnipotent
Pennan is writing all the time.
4
How true that thousand things have
been written in the Book of Nature and
sealed for centurieSl There is being
found and read the record of million
years. the saga of emerging life. It is
stamped in enduring rock, penned in
the expanding trunks of great trees.
There is still much history filed away
in the uncut leaves on the shelves of
buried libraries. But the searching,
solemnizing fact is that not only does
the earth keep records; life itself keeps
books.
Our yesterdays are inscribed on our
todayS. And today will be recorded in
all the volumes of the tomorrows. A
habit, good or bad, is something written
Evening star., 1953-12-06

Power Waters, sister of the bride. A
wedding breakfast followed at the
home of the brides parents, Mr.. and
Mrs. John A. Power. Later, Mr.. and
Mrs. Stanton left for New York and
Philadelphia, and on their return, after
December 4, will be at home to their
friends at 2315 L street." Exactly half
a century later to the very hour the
bride and groom of 1903 knelt at high
mass at st. Stephens for the religious
observance of their golden wedding
anniversary. In the congregation all
seven Of their living children-Power,
Ethel (Mrs. Maurice Talley), Gertrude
(Mrs. Alexander Konouck), Howard,
Paul. Leonard and Robert were
present. Also attending were 19 of
their 81 grandchildren, with four of
the boys serving at the altar, and all
six of their at-grandchildren. The
musical aspect of the occasion featured
Power Stanton in the choir and Mrs.
Waters daughter, Ann Granados, sing
ing Mother at Thy Feet Is Kneeling."
Mr.. Trodden was in the congregation.
still as much the grooms best man as
ever. The Stantons now reside at 1888
Thirtieth street NV, with Mr.. Stanton
now and again revisiting the Post
Office Department, where he long was
employed. He still maintains his in
terest in the Ancient order Of Hiber-
mans and in the Holy Name Society of
st. Stephens. His bride meanwhile keeps
busy with the two youngest generations
of the family, bringing them up in the
ST. Stephens tradition.
Commenting editorially on violation
of automobile laws, The Star Of No
vember 27, 1908, said:
'Scorcher Further evidence that
Editorial the regulations against
excessive speeds are not
being properly enforced comes to hand
in the Police Court report today Of an
automobiliSt who was permitted to
Evening star., 1953-12-06
Expenditures vs.. Revenues

President Eisenhower was placing the Gov.
ernmentS fiscal problems in a sound and proner
perspective when he told press conference
tnat the prime objective is to bring expendi-
lures down to present or somewhat lower rev.
=enue levels. In his opinion, he said the Gov
ernment cannot and should not try to collect
greater revenues than 1t is currently getting
from taxation
Even so, in view of tax reductions alreadv
.scneduled for next year and to which the
administration is committed, there must be
pickup from sources already being tapped or
from new ones yet to be found. Expiration of
tne excess profits tax at the end of this year is
expected to cost the Government 81 billion
IN tne nScal year 1855, as compared to fiscal
ASo4. reduction OF individual income tax rates
by 10 per cent at the same time is expected to
cost an additional $1.9 billion. If these are the
only losses suffered, continuance of the present
rate OF Government spending would still leave
deficit now estimated at about STE billion An
additional 81 billion is at stake, however in the
drop In the corporate income tax rate and in
certain excise taxes now scheduled for next
April. In May Of this year the President recon-
mended to Congress that these last two reduc-
tions be reScinded and it is expected-although
he would not confirm it at his press conference
that he will make similar recommendation
While the President was emphasizing his
hopes that essential savings may be effected
through improvement in management methods,
Senator Byrd of Virginia renewed his economy
drive by proposing three steps: The adoption of
the single-package appropriation bill with a
limit on expenditures in each fiscal year, the
granting Of power for presidential veto of spe-
cifc items in appropriation legislation and
the limiting of defense appropriations to the
amounts actually needed in single year. At
the same time, the Senator restated his opposi-
tion to raising the debt limit above the present
$275-billion level.
Actually the battle of the budget-when or
how it is going to be brought into balance
will be fought out this winter at both the leg
1Slative and executive ends of Pennsylvania
avenue. Powerful sentiment exists on Capitol
Hill for tax reduction-even greater than that
now scheduled or seeming to bear executive
approval. At the same time despite the deter
mination for economies in spending, there will
be the usual presSures for Government commit
mentS-alwayS strong in an election year. The
President has indicated his own leaning toward
a cautious middle way which, like most middle
ways, does not Immediately or fully satisfy the
other divergent points of view The implemen-
tation of his formula of trying to bring expend-
itures down to present or somewhat lower rev.
enue levels will require selling" both to the
departments and to the Congress.
Evening star., 1953-12-06

other names they choose to call them
selves.
This is a plea for mothers and IA
theirs to find out about their children,
what they are doing, with whom they
are associating and make sure they are
having genuine fun of sort that i'm
poses responsibility and sense Of fair
play, not to mention patriotism.
In all the events at Wheaton in
which these kids participate they form
their own committees and are in
structed Just how to run their own or
ganization. These are your future citi-
zens who will one day take very i'm
portant part in your Government and
mine.
In my capacity of adviser and in
structor to the Wheaton Teen-agerS"
I am impressed by the conduct of all
our members. When we have such
good young people in community you
have the best prevention for the spread
of delinquency. Remember there are
not so many bad boys and girls, but it
takes only few to give the good ones
bad name. william M. Browning,
Major, 5th Special Infantry Bat
talon. U. S. Marine Corps Reserve.
Evening star., 1953-12-06
Fifty Years AGO in The Star :.

The Star on November 16, 1908, used
the best part of an entire page to tell
4, =. about the cele-
New York Avenue bration of the
Church Centennial Tooth anniver-
sary Of the
founding of New York Avenue PreSby-
terian Church, then going on. It re-
printed the whole text of the centenary
sermon of Rev. DR.. Wallace Radcliffe
in this connection. He said in passing:
ut was the age of the beginnings. ma
tional and ecclesiastical. 1t was the
day of the Louisiana Purchase. the day
of the Jefferson administration, the
day of the beginnings of men and
things for the larger national life and
experience of today. A little handful
of Scotsmen and their families came
with the Government from Philadelphia
to Washington, and to them came the
Rev. Mr.. James Laurie from Scotland,
by the advice of the celebrated DR..
Mason of New York, bringing with him
his wife from Scotland. :. He gath
cred together his little band and their
first meeting place was in the lobby of
the old Treasury Hall, believe de-
stroyed subsequently by the British.
His inadequate salary compelled him to
seek a clerkship in the Treasury, in
which double work he continued all his
life. 1t was his responsibility not only
to preach, but to solicit funds for the
new building as far North as Boston
and as far South as Savannah; it was
his duty even to make the fires and
sweep the floor. In few years little
building was occupied on the corner Of
Fourteenth and streets. where por-
ton of the New Willard now stands,
and in 1907 enough money was collected
to erect a brick building, which subse-
quently was known as Willard Hall.
And there he gathered his people, spoke
His word and laid the foundations for
all that '1ife Of effectiveness and honor
which we enjoy" DR.. Laurie was pastor
Of the congregation for so years. His