Great Britain’s New Embassy in Washington
Work on the beautiful buildings of the new British embassy in Washington is nearing completion. The loca¬
tion is Ideal—on aristocratic Massachusetts avenue next to the Naval Observatory grounds.
Gathering Virginia Apples for the English
- ■. m
Hi
Scene in the Winchester region of Virginia while a part of (lie state’s usual export crop of a million barrels
mC apples was being picked. These summer apples are shipped mainly to KnglanN.
CALENDAR REFORMER
Ho interesting visitor to Washing¬
ton recently was Moses B. Cots worth,
the man who has done more than any
other in bringing calendar simplificn
tiiHi to the world’s attention. He is
the originator of the 13-months inter¬
actional fixed calendar, and is ititer
aationaliy known. Mr. Cotsworth was
advisor to the League of Nations on
calendar reform, and has sailed for
JBwntli Amerirn, with credentials from
the league, to Interest governments
there in the subject.
WINS TWENTY GAMES
Aided l>y home runs from the bats
at his teammates, George Earnshaw
thirty breezed into his twentieth vic
taty, which had been so difficult of
attainment. The Philadelphia right¬
hander thus became the first major
tongue pitcher to reach the twenty
Term for Light Year
Loiao is a new term for the light
year astronomical unit of distance
aeggested by Arthur Ebbels, in a eotn
■Nmlcation to the Astronomical So¬
ciety of the Pacific. It is the Latin
tor “light year.” which is the distance
that light, speeding at about 186.000
■tiles in a second, travels in a year.
JSipressed in a more common unit, the
tight year is equal to 6,000,000,000,000
jnles.—Exchange.
CLEVELAND
Big Bill Comes From the Orient
Harold .1. Coolidge of the Kelly-Koosevelt expedition with the Giant
Hornbill shot in a remote part of Tndo China for the collection of the Field
Museum of Natural History at Chicago. Coolidge. twenty'-five-year-old nat¬
uralist, is a distant cousin of former President Coolidge and a member of the
staff of Harvard university.
Berlin Has a Water Traffic Cop
Herr Hammer, the water traffic cop on the Wannsee, popular resort lake
near Berlin. He's signaling to a pleasure craft to stop. When he is not regu¬
lating traffic lie uses Ids signals to paddle around. On his feet are metal
paddles which lie uses to “walk.” His suit is of rubber, equipped with a
pneumatic buoy.
MANY LIVES DEPEND
UPON OLD RECLUSE
He Guards the Big Bridge
Over Pecos River.
Dei Rio, Texas.—Far from civiliza¬
tion, unearthed and unsung, lives an
aged man upon whose shoulders rests
the responsibility for the safety of
thousands of lives.
In the solitude of a gorge which
rivals the -Grand canyon in size and
beauty, J. R. Hutchins daily performs
his role of guardian of the third High¬
est bridge in the world.
Flinging its arms of steel across the
Pecos river, about four miles from its
junction with the Rio Grande, tne
Pecos high bridge daily carries the
weight of a dozen Southern Pacific
trains with their loads of hundreds
of human beings.
To “Old Bob” Hutchins is entrust¬
ed the task of seeing that this lofty
highway o" steel remains in perfect
condition and that neither the ravages
of time nor the vicissitudes of climate
detract from the rigidity of ttie struc¬
ture.
Hutchins’ house Is tucked away
among the rocks on the side of the
canyon. Below him is the Pecos, 130
feet wide, impetuous in its rushing
flight toward the Rio Grande; above
him stretches his “pet," 1,521 feet long
and 321 feet above the river bed.
The bridge, one of the greatest en¬
gineering feats of the West, is in¬
spected daily. With an ear trained
to catch the slightest variation In
sound that comes as a train rumbles
over the structure and an eye that can
discern the slightest deflection of the
huge towers, Hutchins guards this ex¬
pensive piece M property.
“Old Bob” has been at his post for
five years, tie has watched the Pecos
rise until It lapped at the very door¬
step of Ids humble dwelling. He has
pulled elephantine 100-pound catfish
from the water and caught alligator
garfish weighing over 200 pounds.
—
Cistern Is Dried Up
by Bolt of Lightning
Indianapolis, Ind.—Gan a flash of
lightning dry up a ciatern containing
0f> barrels of water?
Local weather bureau officials faced
that question after Police Sergeant
George it. Liese started to clean out
his cistern and found that it was dry,
although n test showed there were no
leaks in it.
Lightning a few weeks ago struck
I.iese’s house and witnesses said that
there was a blinding flash, the whole
hack yard near the cistern appear
lug to be filled with a huge, hissing
bi^ll of fire.
Weather bureau officials said thai
eases of tornadoes sucking up open
wells are on record, but that they
never heard of lightning evaporating
a cistern.
Big Porcelain Memorial
Dedicated in Germany
Meissen. Germany,—The world's
greatest porcelain monument, which
has taken eight years to complete,
has just been dedicated in the seven
hundred-year-old Nicolai church in
fids city, where white porcelain was
invented. The walls of the church
are covered with 1,800 porcelain plates
of citizens of Meissen killed during
the World war. These plates are
grouped around 30 over-life-sized por¬
celain figures of mourning mothers
and eight giant porcelain figures hold¬
ing the eternal death watch. Between
altar and nave there is a large porce¬
lain arch. In a special stirine, made
also of porcelain, a golden hook with
records of the dead soldiers is kept.
-- I
Ring Long Lost Found
in Nest of Magpie
Great Falls, Mont.—A ring lost five
years ago was found securely im¬
bedded in a magpie's nest here.
Roy Johnson lost the ring in 1924
while feeding cattle on a ranch 42
miles south of Belt The ring was
found the other day by Norman John¬
son. ten, when the boy tore down
a magpies’ nest, bniit in the willow
roof of an old cow shed. Twigs and
grass were so closely woven around
and through the ring that the lad had
difficulty extricating the shining
piece of gold.
Mountain Boy Never
Heard of Lindbergh
Washington.—At least one of
President Hoover's neighbors in
the mountain tops of the Blue
Ridge range has been busy find¬
ing out about one Charles A.
Lindbergh, who visited the Rap
idan camp over a week end.
“Lindy's in camp," a member
of the President's party told a
ten-year-oid barefooted lad who
trudged past them on the rnoun
rain trail.
“Who?” demanded the young¬
ster.
“Lindbergh's back there.”
said the President's guest, point¬
ing down the mountain in the
direction of the camp.
“How old is your horse?” was
the young mountaineer's re¬
sponse.
"Have you ever been up in
an airplane?" the visitor asked.
“No; have you?”
“No.”
“Has the President?”
“No.”
“Has Lindbergh?” the youth
demanded eagerly.
SUDBURY PLANS TO
HONOR GEN. DAWES
Party for the Ambassador in
Ancestral Home.
London.—In 1635 a stone mason
named William Dawes left his home
in Sudbury, Suffolk, and set sail for
America. In 1929 one of his descend¬
ants, Gen. Charles Gates Dawes, left
his home in America and set sail for
England as American ambassador to
the court of St. James.
Sudbury desires to recognize official¬
ly the fact that the Dawes family
prospered in America, and that the
most notable member of the family
has come back to England as official
representative"* of the United States give
government. So Sudbury is to
a party for General Dawes.
The ceremony is scheduled for early
in October. The freedom of the bor¬
ough will be bestowed upon the Amer¬
ican ambassador. There will be a
public luncheon, followed by a spe¬
cial meeting of the council. The
charming little town will do full jus¬
tice to the occasion. The achieve¬
ments of the Dawes family will be fit¬
tingly honored.
To America in 1635.
William Dawes was a boy of fifteen
when he hoarded the ship Planter on
April 6, 1635, and started West to
found the American branch of the
Dawes family. His father, William
.Dawes, Sr., had gone out to America
in 1628 with Governor Winthrop,
founder of Boston and Salem, hut re¬
turned the following year. He and
his wife returned on the Ambrose and
a son was born on the voyage. The
boy was christened Ambrose.
General Dawes would like to know
more about the first William Dawes,
for there Is no trace of him in the
family history except for the record
of his round trip to the New world.
A great deal more is known about
young William, founder of the Ameri¬
can family. "He settled first in Brain¬
tree. Mass.,” General Dawes said in
tracing the family history, “where he
(harried Susanna Mills of that place.
The marriage took place about 1641.
when William was twenty-one years of
ege. A son. named in the records
Ambrose, after hts ship-born uncle,
was born In the same year.
Baronetcy Now Extinct.
“Tn the year 1652 we find William
Dawes settled in Boston, where he
built for himself a family mansion on
the east side of a lane afterwards
called ‘Sudbury street’ Five gener¬
ations of our family lived in this house
until it was pulled down in 1775. Wil¬
liam Dawes died in the year 1703, at
the good old age of eighty-three, leav¬
ing numerous descendants, from one
of whom 1 nm descended.”
A privately printed record of the
Dawes family, published in Boston in
1870. was compiled by Henry W. Hol¬
land for the New England Historical
and Genealogical society. General
Dawes owns this work, which contains
portraits and a complete genealogical
tree. The American branch of the
Dawes family has always claimed the
right to the arms of Abraham Dawes,
of Putney, who suffered undei Crosi
well and was made a baronet by
Charles II at the restoration. The
baronetcy is now extinct. The shield
hears three swans on a bend in a field
of six battle axes. The crest is a
dragon supported by a battle ax.
Effort at Hypnotism
Cause of Pistol Fight
Paris.—Keep your parlor tricks for
parties is the moral of a trial at the
Seine' Assizes.
Louis Due, a market employee, was
in company in a cafe one evening with
two men friends and a woman. One
of the friends. Barnlard by name,
offered to hypnotize Due, who seems
to have agreed. The amateur hyp¬
notist tried hard, but with no success.
Then Due grew angry. He rushed out
of the cafe, ran all the way home,
seized a revolver, returned to the cafe
and bang, bang, bang! They took the
would-be hypnotist, his friend and the
other man to a hospital and Due to
jail.
But ail’s well that ends well, even
in court. The wounded victims told
judge and jury they were friends
again, so the kind-hearted judge
handed out two years’ suspended sen¬
tence, Due going free at once.
Devilfish Battle Ends
With All but One Dead
Hamilton, Bermuda.—The age-old
drama of the survival of the fittest is
being enacted in the big octopi tank
of the Bermuda aquarium. What
Curator Louis L. Mowbray calls “the
summer grouch” has caused the octopi
to war upon each other. Only one
battered devilfish remains out of what
was said to be the finest collection in
the world.
During the winter rnonfhs the oc
topi live in peace and harmony, but
as the water grows warmer the big
octopi become quarrelsome and a sub¬
marine battle royal follows.
The specimen boat of the aquarium
is scouring the reefs and coral bays
for more examples of the fish.
Gophers Put Phone
System Out of Business
Manteca, Calif. — An underground
lead telephone cable was found to
have been punctured allowing water
to leak in and cause a “short” that
put the system out of commission. It
was determined that gophers had
gnawed through the lead cable, the
imprints of the rodents’ teeth being
clearly outlined.
PIRACY IN PACIFIC
CURBED BY MEXICO
Gulf of California Folk Are
Brought to Time.
Mexico City—Piracy and other con¬
traband activities in Mexican Pacific
waters, principally in the Gulf of Cal¬
ifornia. are decreasing, due to meas¬
ures taken by the government, ac¬
cording to Jose Lorenzo Sepulveda, di¬
rector of fisheries.
Fishermen iD the border waters
have long been engaged in such ac¬
tivities as smuggling and pilfering and
have been a source of worry to au¬
thorities. whom they have in many
cases openly defied. Their acts have
at times resulted in violence. They
were organized to combat ail opposi¬
tion to their operations.
One piracy ring was known to have
its- head in Los Angeles, according to
“Excelsior.” Leaders of the ring sent
large groups of men to the border
waters in quest of toot They carried
fishing nets, less for the purpose of
catching fish than as blind3.
Affairs came to a head recently,
however, when President Emilio
Fortes Oil ordered Senor Sepulveda to >
“clean up” ttie California gulf. As a
result of the activities of the direc¬
tor of fisheries, piracy in the Mexican
Pacific is now noticeably declining.
With the revocation of alleged dis¬
criminatory tariff regulations govern¬
ing fisheries in the Mexican waters,
legal enterprises are springing up In
place of fisheries which heretofore
have operated without license.'
Shark and Sunfish Fight
Off Jersey Ends in Net
Beach Haven, N. J.—A 200-pound
suntisli and a shark five times its size,
battled to a draw three miles off the
coast here recently, before the strug¬
gle ended when both flopped into a
net spread by the crew of a fishing
boat.
The fishermen were out after their
usual catch when they saw water
spout high and the flash of great, sil¬
very fins. When the fish were hauled
in the shark had lost none of its bel¬
ligerency and snapped its great jaws
at the fishermen, while the sunfish still
was full of fight, although badly
mauled.
The shark was 12 feet long and its
mouth measured 21 inches across. It
was allowed to remain oe the beach.
Known as a basking shark, it is the
second of its kind to be captured here
in the last five years, and only two
others of the species ever have been
caught between Maine and Florida.
Schoolhouse Builders
Must Spare Old Tree
Attica, N. y.—A stately elm, known
to be at least one hundred and fifty
years old and possibly two hundred,
has given the trustees of School Dis¬
trict No. 9 in this township a problem.
The trustees recently acquired a
parcel of land on which the old elm
stands for the site of a modern
schoolhouse. When the deed was
conveyed to the school district, it
was found to contain a clause stip¬
ulating that the old tree must not be
cut down. Plans are being made tc
erect the new building so as not to
harm the tree, which has seen Attica
grow since its founding in 1806. The
“Old Brick Schoolhouse" has served
the district for 77 years.
Most Modern Harpoon
Electrocutes Whalei
London.—A new method of har¬
pooning whales is more certain of the
kill and less painless to the animal
A metal line is attached to the har¬
poon, and when it is imbedded in thq
victim a strong current is turned on
electrocuting the whale.
Swift Justice Here
Greenwood, Miss.—Mayor John As!
craft claims the unusual record of si
ting as judge in police court on 2,22
cases in the two years he has bee
mayor of Greenwood. There are n
jail waits, as the mayor-judge heat
the case immediately after the arre;
and pronounces sentence. Most cast
have been disposed of within an hot
after the arrest, he claims.
Sees Humans With
Short, Frail Legs
London.—Human beings of a
thousand years hence may have
very short, frail legs and tiny
feet with only four toes, ac¬
cording to the belief of Dr. How¬
ard Somervell, the explorer of
Mount Everest. ,
Somervell, who was talking
to Kendal school boys, declared
that in this age of automobiles,
air liners, trains and buses, hu¬
man beings are actually forget¬
ting to use their legs.
F, C. Jones, vice president of
the Surrey Walking club, how¬
ever, entirely disagrees with
Doctor Somervell. He declares
that there are thousands more
people walking in Britain right
now than ever before, and al¬
though thousands are going
along on wheels there are just
as many on foot.
“The point is this,” said
Jones; "there are fewer people
who sit at home today than
there were a few years ago. Be¬
sides walking in the ordinary
sense, walking as a sport and
recreation is increasingly popu¬
lar.”
