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^-^65-- £ !•••• ,'i' *r:?'-',-i - . " • ' * ; ' V - * ; - s ' . " * Volume 57 M'HENRY, ILLINOIS, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1931 No. 14 Black Cat Solved Murder Mystery Twice Told Tales of NEW YORK ****** > 4 By H. RAY WALKER .. .... •*• "• Austri*. August 8, 1031. ' . - . -.v.- , T -* •• | .v< . . "•; '• ' " - Saturday, August first, we/motored to Bayreutli where I bad not been the vyar, The old town Is much the same and attendance at the fe«- »arge biu: lacking the usxial number of Americans and other foreignr}:•• y-iers. X saw few people I knew except Max Smith, a former music critic of -;r.New York and a great friend of Toscanini, and Dr. William C. Carl, organ-. rr: ; ; J«t of New York, whom have Invited to give soine organ recitals at the '• World's Fair in PJB3. * The "Taiinhaeuser" pertdrm$inc& und^r -Mr.Tos&mlolwas^very fine fin; .general ensemble, hut some of the singers wer? not exceptional. The "Par-. ;;^vsifai" performance, also conducted by Toscanini. was excellent, but wltl) •• tempi', slower' than we are accustomed to. The Parsifal, Fritz Wolff, was <aympathetlc and the voice very good. He Is a lyric dramatic; teno* and a* 3*T<tef-s,. while Some older member of the •great improvement on the-pld type of German heroic tenor who used to shout the part. The moving scenery is still used but we are now too sophisticated and we have seen too many marvelous things done on. the get the old effect from what Is after ail a rather childish affair. Also, -tor of no theatre which can rival our own In effective, lighting on the stage. The management was most hospitable apd kind, amL Mr. Pollak and I given seats in Madame Siegfried Wagner's private Jogs, where we saw and heard everything .splendidly and met mauy famous people. J found great Interest In mir own' Opera, and artltMs And conductors all \Vanted Information a* tp our plans for the future as well as details about our new opera house, which evidently has excited much curiosity and favorable comment for Its new style.' "Rudolf - Bockelmann. one of pur leading baritones, is slriglng at Bayreuth. He is a" most ' popular artist and I had a long visit with him. Mr. Pollak has been of great assistance during my stay In Germany, and his host , of friends have been most entertaining. ~We are now In Salzburg, where we are hearing Italian as well as German artists The program on Monday was "Don Giovanni," with "Don Pasquale" last night. Tonight we will hear 'The Marriage of Figaro," directed fey Drf Krauss, a young conductor who has become quite the rage. Bruno Waiter conducted the "Don Giovanni" Monday evening. The tempi were very fast. This performance offered opportunity for thought regard- There ar^ many brownstone houses still left on the side streets of New. York.- Now that daylight saving gives as long twilight hours after the work of the day is over, you see the Irish • steps leading up to the doors of these Rouses covered with the inhabitants, just as you might see persons sitting on the front steps in any little tbwu. New York is only a collection of little towns held together by a City charter. Npt only the streets but-the roofs are rest er play area® in sumriter; I7ani pot talking of pefcthouse roofs. but just of the ordinary roofs of bulldinfesl , Looking down from an upper window of any of the tail,buildings, you citn "See children playing oh the flat family sits, usually in a rooking chair, watching them. Some of these watchers have rigged sunshades for theoi- "Belves. When the weather grows really hot, those roofs will have cots or mattresses on them and theip owners Will be sleeping as near to the stars as they can get. - no Bright Stnra of the FeaHvnl Pictured With ecntive* of World-Fnnn Left to IliKht. Vieiinii O pern Company) Arttmle IMreetor nf the Chlraico Civic Opera) A.nitn Colombo. MnnxKer of l,n Senlii. Milan, ami l.otte l.ehiiinno. Soprnno of the Cliii-nKo Civic Opern Feii«ured Artist ut the SttUburjt in opera. "Don Giovanni" was written to an Italian text, and not only was the music .composed by Mozart to Italian words, but we must remember thai here In the South there Is a distincj Italian influence,: l» music aswell as in architecture. , So the speed of the anisic of "Don Giovanni" is incompatible with the German language and. therefore, to me. the opera lost much of Its charm., I like ^JE^ktmelhaus here, which I had never seen, as It Is only a few years old. irhas quite a charm in Its simplicity. , Yesterday we motored to Ischl to hear some singers. «|nd while there inet Eric -Korngold, the composer of "'Die Todte Stadt." He played for us his new "Baby Suite," a charming composition, modern but full of delightful meloijjes. Like all really talented people, he is simple and unassuming. <a perfect host. . This trip has given me a new- picture of post-war operatic conditions in Europe. I hope we. ma^ soon have our own training school for younger artists so that we may create our'own Stars and educate t hem according to our standards which are In many ways very different from what are accepted over here. - • v ' '• Best regards, -> HERBERT Wlj?H IERSPOON. Among the attractive apartment In New Yot-k are the o Messmore Kendalls. They live over the Capitol theater and a door of their apartment opens into a private box from which they can see any performance, while themselves unseen. Florenz Ziegfeld has somewhat the same, arrangement in his theater, the box in this case being hung like a bird cage against a door, which opens from his offices. Many of the producers Who own theaters in New York have a somewhat similar arrangement. But that has practically nothing to do with the story I heard recently. It starts with the fact that the' Messmore Kendalls gave a dinner and that among their guests were the Count and Countess von Luckner, That furnishes the cast. Now for the plot. New York h&s so many telephones that it has become-necessary to issue the telephone books in seCT tlons. In other words, ther$ is a book for Manhattan, one for Brooklyn, one for the BrOnx, and several others. The rds yO pear most likely to use and the others are furnished on request. Mrs. Kendall had," for some reason, experienced considerable difficulty-In getting one book, but had finally obtained it. Now It seems that when the dinner was over and only the men were left at the table, the conversation turned to feats of strength. Count vort Luck^ tier is very bigv rwy likable, and very strong. In discussing such feats as tearing pack.5 of cards and other things In two, he offered to Illustrate his point, and material was .furnished for the demonstration^ When Mrs. 'Kendall-next saw her prized telephone book, It was torn neatly In four FIFTY' YEARS AW» learn, that Allan Walsh Schreiner's saloon an<f taurant opposite the Parker house and will take possession aboxit Sept. l; li. Bishop shipped another carload of witjgons to Dakota last Week. We learn that someone stole about sixty feet of carpet from the Crystal Lake Congregational church on Tuesday. If found out someone shouhl send him a copy of the revised new testament. We learn that Mrs. Clark, a sister to Mrs. Stebbins, died at Kansas City last week. •^The horse of Rev. J. P. Jordan, while crossing the~ iron bridge 6n Saturday evening, was frightened by Ihe blowing of the whistle on the steamboat and ran away. We learn that a daughter oi_ Whv, ^ interest Take# Prom Files of the Plaindealer Years Qeorge Washington Had a " Good Sense af Humor Tonyan had the misfortune to break her ahjpt on Monday last. ^ FORTY YEARS AGO new German Lutheran in tliis village will be dedicated Sunday, Sept. 6. We are informed that John Evanson, the' general merchant on the West Side, has purchased the entire dry goods stock of Heath & Johnson, of Elgin. W. A. Cristy informs us that he has already taken in about 12,600 bVshels of cucumbers, and his receipts daily are still large. The patrons of industry of Lake county will hold a basket picnic at Wauconda on Monday, Sept. 7. Our public school will open- ,on n«ct, "SeprrtJ: ./ •'/. *~ Foster, the weather prophet, says: "I expect a killing frost in the northern edges of the corn belt on Sept: 17, with a probability that a frost wiil do some damage on the 13th. VOLO Wilson and Waukegan ^ Mr. "an(l Mrs. Frank daughter, Beatrice, callers Thursday. Miss Vera Vasey returned Thursday to Eldora, 111.,, where she will reher teaching in a school there. Sarah Eddy visited at the home of her parents, Mr., and Mrs. JHarry Passfield, Tuesday. * Mrs. Elmer Gottschalk of Lake ch called on Mrs. Lloyd Fisher ly morning... ^ Mr and Mrs. Vernon Baseley and daughter spent Sunday with the lat ^ fer's parents, Mr. and Mrs. Roy Pence, •Mt Wauconda. Mr. and Mrs. Joef Passfield, Mr. and ;j|trs. George Dowell and family, Mr. •*wid Mrs- Vernon Baseley, Mr. and irs. Frank Dowell, Lloyd, Milton and trood Dowell, Mr. aijd Mrs. Clifford iwell, Mrs. Richard Dowell and! lying Idle, iter, Ada, Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd attended the carnival Wauconda Saturday evening. Arthur Wackerow has an ulcer on the eye ball. Mr. and Mrs. Esse Fisher, Mrs. Vernon Basely and daughter, Mrs. JJoyd Fisher and family were Waukegan shoppers Thursday. - James Dowell has returned to the 'of his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Dowell, after being a patient the Sherman hospiuH at Elgin for i'.:':JB»e past few weeks. Mr. ar.d Mrs. Earl Hironimus, Lloyd -Dowell and friend attended the carat Wauconda Sunday. Miss Edna Fisher and Nick Hycuri ;'«f Waukegan spertf Sunday at the of Mr. and Mrs. Esse Fisher Mr. and Mrs. Frank Dowell and s-ter cf Elgin spent the " With relatives here. Gunny is derived from the Hindi and rit word "goni," meaning a sack, term originally designated the coarse sackc1<»th manufactured ifhlefly in Bengal, India, from jute. It 9$ used for clothing by the poor, but bagging Md swapping. Legion Woufd Push Work on Public Improvements Chicago.--"While the American Legion is constantly looking after thfe welfare of physically disabled comrades, the Legion now feela^that It should give attention to the • mapy thousands of veterans who are* physically sound but financially disabled." This statement was made by Ralph T. O'Neil. national commander of the American Legion in.commenting on the public Improvement programs being sponsored by the ten thousand Legion posts In ten thousand cities. "Government reports show >thnt there >are about $C,.">00,000.000 wbrth of public Improvements planned and nearly ready to carry through," points out Mr. O'Neil. "But many millions of dollars worth of projects are tied up in red tape and money appropriated Since a gi;eat deal of man-power Is required In construction work, labor's share, of this two-and-ahalf- hillinn-dollar program will be in the neighborhood of one and. a half billion . dollars. Labor needs that money "The American Lepion unemploy? menf commission, headed by Howard Savage, past national commander, asks that each Legion post support in its own community needed projects so that employment, may be furnished Immediately. This will be to the public benefit for projects built now will cost far less than later when higher prices return. Further, money productively spent to the benefit of labor and the community will not have to be spent next* winter In nonproductive relief work with the same men. The ex-service man asks no charity, but an opportunity to support himself/by up his community and his "' ;-V'.' •' • Variable Weiffct A "stone weight" is a measure of weight, avoirdupois. In Great Britain, legally equal to"SJS pounds, or to oneeighth hundredwe^iJit. but varying in practice at different) places and from-five to 32 pourwls. . * Virgin <^scovered the Virgin on his, second voyagre In 1496. S Is said, amazed at the feared there would not be to go around, so he put under the sacred patronage of 11,000 martyred virgins of St Experimental evidence indicates that pasteurization does not injure the chemical -or nutritive value of milk to an appreciable degree. It Is possible that vitamin C, which protects against scurvy, is Injured or destroyed by pasteurization, but that is at little import tance, except in the feeding 6t In- There art almost as boxing fans in New York as there are men. You see a great number of women at all the big outdor boms and a, surprising number are regular attendants at the bouts In Madison Square Garden. A lot, of them come from the Park avenue section and sit close around the ring.. Tex Klckard and Anne Morgan between boxing fashionable and It lost Its attraction. • •' • • When New York opens a new subway, the mayor usually drives the first train through It and there :^re Speeches and a general celebration In which the Officials of the company .and citizens' committee take part. News papers carry stories of the thousands who will be benefited but they rarely mention the few who may be crushed by the wheels of progress. There are, for example, two women who have been running a newsstand for many £e*rs. It has furnished them~With a decent livelihood, perhaps clothed and educated their children. Recently those women have been looking worried and forlorn. The opening of a new subway has diverted traffic from their stand and It looks as if they night have to give it up. ' ^ • • • • \ "Women are much more particular about their hairdressers than men are about their barbers. So long as a man doesn't get the old country bowl, hair cut, he Is pretty well satisfied, but there appear to be dozens of ways of cutting and fixing a woman's hair. 1 have known women to come back le town in summer from places which were an over-night trip; 'just to have their hair done by thpir accustomed coiffeur. At the present time, my wi.fr is disconsolate because her favoriti hairdresser, Pierre, is moving to Clev Th£ other evening a group were talk log of questionnaires. • Finally the; got to asking one another question based on general observations ant knowledge. Among them were : Whirl, face cards in a deck are in profile" What states bound Oklahoma? Whai does-' "moiety" mean? What is the difference between bi-annual, and bienniel ? How many keys on a standard typewriter? Identify Sidney Porter: Samuel J. Clemens, William Harrison Dempsey. . What are the colors of th< dnited States military academy" Name the birthplace of Charlie Chap lin, Mary Pickford. Gene Tunnev Who were the Mayans? Whose por trait is on a *2 bill? A $10 bill? How many of these questions can •? TWENTY-FIVE YEARS AGO "Mrs. Sally C. Cotting of Richmond, celebrated her 101st birthday anniversary on August 22, A girl arrived at the home of Mr, and Mrs. John Phalin last Friday, Aug, 24, and John is passing the cigars. That the McHenry baseball team, The Blues, can be classed among the leading teams outside of Chicago has been proven beyond a dotibt by the result of last Sunday's game, wheh the locals won -over, the fast Fuqua Giants by the score of 5 to 2. County Clerk George F. Rush ton was united in marriage to Miss Jean Burger at Woodstock on Aug. 18. The marriage of Frank Bennett, a former McHenry boy, but now of St. Paul, Minn., to Miss Ruth Parrence is to take place on October 4. Next Sunday, Sept- 2, the new dam in Fox river, about two miles below McHenry, will be formally opened with appropriate ceremonies, and it is expected that a large group of inpeople will be present. (WNU Sprvice.1 I TP THE stairs scampered the black cat, as the ancient dock clanged 10 and the wind howled a mournful serenade. Alone I sat in the lower hall, lis tening to the kerchug-kerchug of the old-fashioned Registrar of tline and watching the antics of the cat, \yiihin a few feet of where I sat two men had met death mysteriously <lljr,}.ng the Inst sis months. I John Si ww>n , had ,t>een a. nittunijist .«#; « ba».*helor. He hpd rentetl the house for a home, but on the morning, foi losing the day <jn which he ntoved Ih, his dead body w'its foond at jhe foot , ot the •stairs;-' The coruner pro noUnced It heart disease, but when Alfred l.oxier, another tenant/ met the Same fate three months later, thi ovvnei of the property, Frank Judsbn, called on me to investigate. My quest led me to call on Gudlow, the caretaker of the old house who occupied a shanty a half mile away.* "Sjure, I know who done it," said Gudlow, decisively. "Judson knows, too, only he won't admit it. Them two men wjere killed by the old In* ventor Mcl^we--or rather.-.by _NlcKee s ghost. McKee lived in the "hoiisy a year ago, and Ive seemed an all right sort of a man until he got -taken sick, and the way he raved tlien made me think he must be crazy. The day he died he called me to him and said: "Gndiow, I'm going to die; but I'H haunt this rilace forever. I'm taking a secret with me--a secret that may n>ean death to manyr---Bul only Denton knows the secret, and he'lL never tell " The caretaker then Bexplained that Demon was his black cat, which had been accH8loined.ro sj^end consider able time witn the old inventor and who even now . frequented the house. When I entered ihe house of m.vs tery there was the black cat, ami he Interested me- strongly, particularly on account of the supposed' secret he held In his brain*. For the third- time I watched him skip up the "stairs, "wheel'""af"tTie™l¥nWng an<T"^?em»fe~hFs steps. Suddenly my conscious mind grasped a fact with which my sub conscious brain had hem < Juggling. Each time. In ascending iind descend log, the cat had leaped over a step about midway in the>lflght. the step ugainst which the Wg clock seemed to Jean.'. * TWENTY YEARS AGO After passing a quarter of a century in an invalid chair and bed, Casper Wirfs, one of McHenry's pioneer residents and former business men, passed away at his home on Aug. 24, at the age of 76 years. A boy arrived at the home of Mr. and Mrs. John Regner on Monday of this week. The duck hunting season opens on Sept. 1, and local hunters are getting their weapons in shape for the season's sport. Surveyors for the Woods^k-S more Traction, company ^tre in McHenry and are now engaged in surveying the right of way between this village and the county seat- Gustav Storm, who has been eonducting a resort on the east shores of Fox river;" just north of town, was arrajgned on a charge of selling liquor without * license. The fine to $142. It waa about time for me to get busy, so I picked up the smoky lart tern and mounted the stairs.. Pausing on tluT tenih ""step. I examined the eleventh, but It looked no different from the olhers. At the top of the flight I turned right and encountered a door *Mcb admitted mefto; a bed room. -The room was pai^ly furnished: and I lay down on the bed after extin giiishlng the lantern and placing mj niishllght" and auiomajlc conveniently TEN YEARS ABO vrJatnes Perkins, trouble man at the local telephone exchange, captured a young coon west of town last Friday afternoon and now has the animal at his home. Hunters are now looking for the ^parents of the young animal, whicfr Chey believe are in the same neighborhood. -* Tlfree members -of the Paulist Choristers had a narrow escape from drowning at Pistakee bay during a recent storm, when the craft in wKich they were riding capsized. The front and lobby of the Empire theater have b^en redecorated, giving the playhouse a decided improvement. Henry Ahrens, the West Side cement worker, has just had delivered to him a cement mixer of the very latest design and sufficiently large to enable him to take the bigger jobs in the future. . A hew cement Sidewalk has beencompleted in front of the Northwestern ice; cream parlor on fee West When the midnight hour began to clang I sat up, possessed of an iuex plicahle conviction that something was about to happen. Scarcely had the twelfth stroke died away when a loud, flapping noise came up from the firsi floor. I sprang' froip the bed, with the flashlight In one hand and Jhe rc volver In the other. ,rrhe noise had ceased, but began again as 1 passed Into the upper hall. If lasted only a moment then all was qqiet except the clock--and the wind. The flashlight found the explana tlon of the hiss It showed the black cat standing on the bottom step, his hack arched his tail standing straight up, his eyes biasing at fne/llke emeralds Guided by the flashlight,. nerve taut, I finally reached the^step which waar the tenth from the top Bending over I "held the light close to the eleventh--and there partly I solved the double murder mystery, although the ^-horrifying discovery for a moment threatened to congeal the «blood in my body. » The rest of the solution was In the frig clock. I had all along believed, apparently without reason, that the huge timepiece had something to do with It, and the revelation on the eleventh step sent me nurrylng to the clock, which I proceeded to dis Sect with the aid of found ou the premises. An Intricate device, v a strong spring aside that gave poWer to the deftly concealed from any one Wind ing the time machinery./ in a wa'j this device was like thaK of an alarm clock, only"Hnstead of ringing a hell it unfolded.a thin steel arm. which extended itsejf and rap|>ed aKairist the glass face of Ihe clock. This or curred every twenty-four boars, at midnight.. " The rapping against the glass served as the lure to gel the dead inventor's victims to the eleventh step. The same device _ controlled mechanism under the step, which at midnight thrust tweoty npwlles In two rows through tiny holes lp the step, causing them to rise aljout a third of an inch above the surface. This double row o,f needles, extending across the step, comprised the discovery I had made while descending the stairs. As I suspected I found that the needles were hollow aOjl contained a virulent poison which was injected Into the veins of htm who chanced to step with his bare op tf>« eleveu«.h <tep at 1%^ lH>ur. ' . ' As we approach the ?ear 193'^ when the nation will Celebrate the Two Hundredth Anniversary of the Birth of George Washington, America seems due to, receive still another service front its greatest man. Tlje yefkr of commemoration has turned the thoughts of every American, to the historic days when Washington lived. This new history lesson has given us all a sense of our heroic beginnings. It has turned our attention t0 George Washington as hover before and has permitted ;a vast new outpouring,, yf the facts concerning every phase of hi& character and his career. " • -The conseouence is that we ijbw see George .W ashington, riot a's the cold and serious figure we had imagined him from sketchy history lessons in school, but as the warm, emotional, kindly, and even humor-loving human being that he really was. In our change from the^apifclfr view, we have come to resize that Geofge Washington loved laughter and had a sense of humor, Washington's mirthfulnes's, "I have sometimes "fflade him laugh most heartily from sympathy with my joyous and extravagant spirits." That he could be quite playful and sportive he proved in more than one of his letters to the Marquis de Lafayette, Kut during the. Revoluticri these occasional bursts of humor ^rere. apt to take a grim turn, as whom he wrote of affairs at Morristown, to 1777;.4'The men .with me are too. few to -fight and not enough to run' awav with." Conwn^nting on the wholesale' desertions at ^ortistown,' Washihgton •exclaimed* "We shall soon be ob- ^'"" liged to detach one half> the army to . bring back the other.' ' > 1\ ^ The fact has be«i^^erloOkejt that the Revolutionary army suffered greater hardships in winter quarters at Morristown than.at the more famous Valley Forge, yet under Washington's orders at Morristown the troops laid to and built a breast-work which they called Fort. Nonsense-- though they built it not so much for m and " *" 1 in that he wrote many a letter in slily humorous vein,' fun as to keep themselves and that while he. may have been no [ for exercise. *" ' » great hand at cracking a joke, he | One of General Washington graceful bits of humor crops letter he wrote in 1779; in\Tti eral ladies to dine at his tal prepare for them for the spa they might have to face, he "Since our arrival at this spot, we have had -a ham, (someti could laugh heartily at the jokes and pranks of others. - * • James Madison, we are informed by the United States? George Washington- Bicentennial" Commission, who saw much of Washington on intimate personal terms," has written,' "The story .of his never laughing is wholly J a shoulder) of bacon, to gract utttrUe; no man seemed more to enjoy j head of the table; a piece of gay conversation. He was particu- beef adorns the foot; a dish of larly pleased with the jokes, good i or greens, (almost .imperceptab humor, apd hilarity of his cort^ | decorates the center. When the panions." Madison further told Jaredj has a mind to cut a figure, (which Sparks, president of Harvard College, i presume will be the case tomorrow, when the scholar was waiting a Jife of we have two beefsteak • py.es, 0 1 . '-v Washington, thajt though "Washington was not 'fluent nor ready in conversation, and was. inclined to be taciturn in general society," yet "in the company of two or three intimate friends, he was talkative, and when a little excited was sometime^ fluent or, even eloquent." While ..Washington--was. President Bishop White of Pennsylvania was a guest at dinner with the Washing dishes of crabs, in addition, each side of the center dish, the space $nd reducing the dista between dish and dish to about 6 ft which without them* would be near feet apart. Of late he has hfed surprising segacity to discover, apples will make pyes: and its a ques tiom-if, - in- the. .violenpe. at ..h.i^. effort we do not get one <-* apples, instead of beefsteaks. Iff the ladieS can p«t tons jn Philadelphia, and records that up with such entertainment, and will.7 'much hilarity prevailed." This of a' submit to partake of it in plates, once1 tin but now iron-(not become so by | the labor of scouring; I shall be happresidential dinner during the istrktion of George Washington! Nelly Custis, has left testimony to py to see them-" ^ O ttr ' Washington --By-- National, Editorial .X Autumn is Washington's pre-Congressional season when' political prognosticators map out the entire program for the next session of Congress. The great difficulty is lac^ of co-ordination, even among legislators of the same political, faith,r Republi; can leader Senator James E. Watson of Indiana, Who . sees eye to eye with Mr, Hoover, i§ confident that Congress will reject all proposals for a dole., will not attempt to revise the tariff law, and will not enact legislation to increase taxation. At the same time Senators Couzens of Michigan and LaFollette of Wisconsin, Republicans, are sponsoring a plan' to boost income taxes in' tl\e higher brackets, and Secretary Mellon is understood to favor certain - upward •changes. Two Republican Senators, Vandenbei;g of Michigan and Steiwer of Oregon, have announced that they will champion a bill providing unemploymet insurance through the use of the federal taxing power. If thje'se divergent views are - carried fnto jthe next session March 4 will terminate a Congress of great confusion - and little accomplishment. *- The illness of the aged Oliver Wendell Holmes has brought to life again the long-mooted question of his resignation and successor on the Supreme Court Bench- If Justice Holmes resigns it will provide Mr. Hoorver his third opportunity to name a member to our highest tribunal. The supposition is that he will name a democrat,, although he is not bound to do £0-' Newton D. Baker, of Ohio, is universally recognized as of Supreme Court caliber and iri times past has been credited with Supreme Court . aspirations. Mr. Baker was Secretary of War in the Wilson Admintstration and may the choice of the Democrats for sident if Governor Roosevelt of New York should be side-tracketL Baker, as a member of the Wickersham law enforcement commission, declared himself for the repeal of the Eighteenth Amendment. There is nb outstanding figure among the dry Democrats who may be nominated for president unless it be Senator Joe Robinson of Arkansas, Democratic leader of the Senate and running mat6 ofjAl Smith in 1928- Therefore, the elevation of Mr. Baker to the Supreme Court Bench would remove a dangerous contender for the presidency. Political observers are interested in the forthcoming* visit of C. Bascom Slemp to New- England, here he plans to visit Calvin Coolidge. Slemp, now a Washington attorney, was th«» expresident's ftecretacy for a number .41 years and la Republican politics. He, insists tha* the visit tb his former Chief if » merely a social call before returning , to his duties in Paris as Commission* er General from the United States la the French Colonial Exposition an<| no political significance. He proposal to "draft" Coolidge to run again •• in 1932 is often discussed by politi->; cians here, despite the fact that renomination of president Hoover is generally predicted. The only-activity on Capitol' Hill . these days is the investigating committee, which is* delving into the charges that Bishop James Cannon, Jr., in 1928 violated the corrupt practices act in the campaign of that year " by not reporting contributions- Certain of the Democrats, some of them * drys from the south who remained . loyal to their party ticket, are seek' ing to make political capital pf the matter. But it is believed that the „ upshot of the investigation, if -anything, will be to injure the dry cause rather than the Republicans, unless , it be argued that the G. O. P. is entirely dominated by the drysi and anything that injured them will injure the party. An acute financial problem faces Washington's diplomatic corps this winter. Although figures are not available in each case it is an open secret that the salaries of virtually every diplomatic mission here have i suffered drastic cuts and some are not being: paid at all. Among other things thfs situation means tAat the hitherto almost fabulous supply of diplomatic . liquor is no longer available. Am- ' bassadors and ministers are guarding their cellars with the zeal of prison wardens and the precious liquid is"/, poured sparingly to a few American friends- Many diplomats are moving into less expensive quarters. It is hinted that some of the smaller countries, such as Ecuador, which is struggling to keep up a mission heri without visible means of support may follow- the example, of Albania's Minister, who is urging* that his govern-... ment abolish the legation in Washington. 'r-" :.v Wwth.r Both tree and vurvis are mute witnesses to weatiier fluctuations. Very old trees shoW H ick and thin r,'njs. Layers of clay, called varyes, fottiwi in the former beds of ancient h kes fed by melting ice sheets, form another record, 'rh ^e l.i.yers are due to the annual deposit Wse-iiaiieht. Thick layers^ were Ut jM^Ited^ In w^rm summers when melting was layers In cool snmmt>rs. Chivalrous "Doirt <ft>eer, bOys, the. are dying:." was said by^ Jack Philip. United States navy (the lat« Rear Admiral J. W". i'hitij^). wbo wu la command of the United, St a; ^battleship Texas in Santiago harhmrr- it was said re£ae»::«? on .the cruisers infanta Maria Tere-*a and the Ojuendo wht*n forced to surrender-- to/auiet Jfce-taud cheeritis of the .ApMjr