The Sun and the New York herald. [volume], September 05, 1920, Section 4 Sunday Magazine, Page 8, Image 44

About The Sun and the New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1920-1920

Image provided by: The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundation

                
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THE SUN AND NEW YORK HERALD, SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 5, 1926,
America Gets Priceless Relic
From King's Royal Rifles
Famous Regiment Organized in 1756 Bestows Original Colors
Chapel at Governors Island, Its Birthplace, as Memento of
Close Ties Binding Two Nations
r
HK gift t.n America.-the mom Jeal
ously guarded treasure of any regl
ment has Just lieen made by field
Lord fJrenfell. Colonel commandant of the
King's Royal Rifles, Sixtieth Foot, who, as
spokesman for his organization, gave the
original regimental colors to the chaplain of
Governors Islund to be held as a national
relic of the Revolution.
The regiment was organized on the little
Island in New York Harbor In 1 756, under
the name of the "Hoyal American Rifles."
In 1773-4 it was transferred to the West In
dies to avoid its Mug Involved In troubles
between the colonies and the mother country
lhat were imminent at the time. In 1788 the
colors, which have been preserved In good
condition to the present day, were presented
to the regiment, which still held th name
"Hoyal Americans." After the recognition
of American Independence the name was, of
course, an anomaly and It was changed to
"King's Royal Rlfiee," which it is called to
this day.
Design of Famous Banner.
The flag iself Is of blue silk slightly
faded, but not torn in the slightest. Km
broldered on one side are the royal cipher,
with the inscription "limn unit qui mal y
petite" and a wreath of the rose and thistle
growing on the same stalk, symbol of Eng
land and Scotland united. Underneath is
the inscription "60th Rcgt." The other side
has nol the motto nor the wreath, but is
otherwise the same.
The recently acquired colors will he placed
With some II ft y other similar souvenirs of
Amerlca'l military history in the Episcopal
Chapel bf St. Cornelius the Centurion on the
Island. Chaplain Edmund Hanks Smith,
w!io was lurccly responsible for bringing the
olors to the first home of the old regiment,
Will be the official guardian of this treasure.
The formal installation will take place at
some later date, with due and proper cere
monies, including the presentation of the
flag by some prominent British official and
Its acceptance by some equally prominent
American.
The unusual offer of , regiment to part
with its colors for the sake of aiding the
growth of understanding between nations
recalls that recently England has officially
and. according to report, enthusiastically
celebrated American Independence Day. Hut
even trtie British sportsmanship suffered a
little twinge In parting with a thing so dear
to the heart of a soldier as the symbol of his
regiment's honor, for In the letter offering
the flag Lord Orenfell speaks of the chapel's
"taking it in charge" and does not describe
his action as "giving" anything.
Grrnfell's Letter.
His letter, which is dated from 16 St
James street, S. W.. London, says:
"The Officers and Men of the Kings
Royal Rifle Corps have the honour to re
quest that the accompanying Regimental
Colour, Which was presented to the lat
Battalion in 17SS, under its original name
of The Royal American Regiment, may
he taken In charge by the Vicar and
Church Wardens of Holy Trinity Church,
Oovernors Island, in memory of the fact
that Oovernors Island wa from 1756 to
17S3 the depot of the Regiment: and Holy
Trinity Church that in which Its officers
and men habitually worshipped.
"It la hoped also that this Colour may
serve as a memento of the fact that the
Royal American Regiment anil the Regi
ments of New York fought shoulder to
shoulder not only during the many years of
warfare, which ended In the conquest of
New Prance and the subjection of the In
dian Tribes bordering on the (Ireat Hakes,
but also, after the lapse of a century and
a half, against a common enemy In a more
terrible European conquest.
(Signed) Obenfim.
Field Marshal,
Colonel Commandant.
King's Royal Rifles.
The regiment when organized consisted
of four battalions of a thousand men each
and was commanded by Lord Loudon as
Colonel in Chief. Each battalion was com
manded by a colonel and the orlginnl com
manders were Colonels John Stunwlx,
Charles Jeffereys, Joseph Dusseaux and
James Prevost.
Another Connecting Link.
Another connecting link between to-day
and Revolutionary times so far as these
regimental colors are concerned Is the coin
cidence of a battalion and regimental head
quarters of the Twenty-second Infantry,
now being stn tinned on the Island
On May 12, 1767, Captain John Mon-
tressor, known as the "Chief Engineer o
Royal Americans were side by side on the
island in 1767, the Twen ) WCOfld to-day
Is only a namesake and no) a lineal de
scendant of the 22d mentioned by Captain
ii CHAPLAIN
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Vdl V ffHflHP Contmurd from Sixth rngr
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Montressor. And their service In the recent tary police duty in this country. The only
world war was only figuratively side by side Hermans the American Twenty-second saw
as the new Twenty-Recond was one of those were In Hoboken. nlthousrh large groups of
organizations that were restricted to mlli- men from the regiment were sent to France
New York Cotton Exchange Is Fifty Years Old
a OTA I M wis LJ KA .fT ErVYr
ROYAL AMERICANS, AFTERWARD
KING'S ROYAL RIFLES-1756 .
America," wrote In his journal: "On return
from Inspection at Albany. .. .found en
camped on the island the 22d and two bat
talions of the Royal Americans. Encamped
outale of ye stockade also the 44th."
Although the Twenty-second and the
Girl, Not 13, Is Ready for College
of his own pocket than have a customer of
his do so in the parlance of the trade,
Hiordan "gives away points" to make a trade
DOk tight.
There is one man on the exchange who
lias been In the business over fifty years and
a memlier for forty-five. "Hob" Allen they
all call him. and from the point of activity
he Is the-real old timer of the present era.
Allen worked for the first man to start the
selling of cotton for ,d -livery on month,
contracts. E. J. Donnell. Allen in his day
has executed some of the largest orders in
history.
"Cotton merchants in 1S70," said Allen,
when asked for some of his early recollec
tions of the business, "used to carry around
the square their samples of the cotton they
had to sell, and brokers did the same. I be
came a member of the exchange In lSio.
after having been an Attorney on the floor
for five years. When cotton was delivered
on contrnct then It was brought by MBgon
in front of the old India House Huilding.
where It would be Inspected There were
numerous corners In the market during the
first twenty years, many of which I entered,
some to my sorrow. Before the exchange
Waa started brokers traded from 8 o'clock in
the morning until 8 at night, very different
from the hours of 10 to 3 of the present day."
'there are a number of other old timers
doing business to-day. S. T. Hubbard, ad
mitted forty years ago. may always be seen
on the floor, trading beside such men as
Marcus J. Parrott, .George T. Dixon am'
Continued from Second Page.
normal. The future will be looked to in
order to see if these early tendencies menu
more than Mrs. gioch thinks they do, a prom
ise of success due to the power of application
rather than genius-
Sidit a Forced Product.
This child's case is in every way different
from that of the wizard Sidis. mainly so by
reason of a different parental treatment of
It. Little William James Sldis, who startled
the Intellectual world at the age of eight
years, in 1906. was really the forced product
of his father's system of education, one ut
terly at odds with the one accepted the
world over. Prof. Sidis in criticising the ac
cepted mode of education found every fault
with It and delivered himself of language
which Included this: "The echool system
Should be abolished and with it should go
the present day psychologizing educator, the
schoolmaster and the schoolma'am."
A hint appears a'bove as to the educational
ideas of lYof. Boris Sidis. and their action
on the mind of his own son has been fol
lowed since the boy was first heard of in
1906. When William Jamee Sldis had ar
rived at the age of twelve his proud parent
thus wrote of him:
"He is able to read Herodotus, vEschylus,
Sophocles et al, with the same zest and ease
as the ordinary schoolboy reads his 'Robin
son Crusoe.' The boy has a fair under
standing of comparative philology an I
mythology, He is well versed In logic, an
cient history. 4c."
The charge made that this forced produc
soon after was "in a sanitarium, old and
worn out fat 12)," Dr. Sidis declared to le
false and described his physical condition as
splendid. "His cheeks glow vith health
end many girls would envy his complexion.
His constitution, weight, form and hardi
hood of organs, far surpasses that of the
ordinary schoolboy. He Is healthy, strong
and sturdy."
Eight years later, or In 1919, this. product
of the now education, confined so far as Is
Known to his father's curriculum, was sen
tenced to six months Imprisonment In the
House of Correction for rioting in Roxbury,
Mass., on a May Day. In his examination
he declared that he was a Bolshevist, didn't
!elleve In God or in the United States of
America "further than the Constitution."
The wonder child had grown to be a man
of twenty-one. Whether the father regrets
that with his system he created a sort of
intellectual Frankenstein is not known.
Prof, Sidis has made no confession of failure
If he felt there was one,
A likeness between the Boston wonder and
the Bronx wonder is hard to find except In
physical conditions. If Dr. Sidis truly de
scribed the state of health of his son In 1911
correctly. It can be said as truthfully that
the little lady mathematician at the same
age looks like a physical hit. She Is nor
mally tall, rather too stout,' and in her
cheeks glow the roses of health. In every
other way the training has been different.
Helen Koch has been given the training of
the regular school system at which Dr.
Sldis railed. It is but a fortunate accident
in her Cue that she fell In with a teacher
who had a fondness for mathematics.
It Is possible, too, that both "wonders"
owe a good deal to the Intellectual quality
of their parents. Dr. Boris Sldis was him
self something of a prodigy, At Harvard
he took his A. B. one year, his A. M. the
next and his Ph. D. the next. Mrs. Koch Is
a cultivated woman and while she proved
noncommittal when asked if she had taught
school before her marriage, she did not
deny the Impeachment and her manner and
speech seemed to confirm it. The child In
cluded her mother in the statement that her
sisters and brother who had been graduated
before her in her school had liked mathema
tics and that, In fact, the liking was a family
trait.
1 -JjrWff MURPHX W
3ffll ONE of TWO YfWM W
to form the nuclei of military police units
abroad.
The Twenty-second Regiment mentioned
in the old Journal Is still existent, however.
In the British Army and is known as the
Cheshire Regiment. The Forty-fourth Is
known as the Essex Regiment.
The activities of the Royal Americans
during the French and Indian wars are still
traceable on the battlefield of Ticon.iernga.
Buttona bearing the number 60, and other
metal fragments from the uniforms and
equipment of the troops are occasionally
found on the field.
The reason for present ng th" flag to the
chapel Instead of to the War Department or
a representative is that the chapel already
has a collection of about fifty similar relics
and the property of the chapel will be sur
to remain on the Island, the first home of
fOth Foot. The chapel's charter is English
in origin, too, being a part of the old
Trinity Parish granted In 1697 by William
III. and having given Its revenues to the
English Crown during the reign of Queen
Anne.
Another flag In the chapel Is the old
standard of the First Regiment, dating back
to 17S9, which was carried through ths
Mexican War by the flist New York Volun
teer Infantry. This regiment was also
mustered In on Governors Island, Colonel
Ward Burnett, an early graduate of West
Point, having been the mustering officer.
There are also flags captured In the Philip
pines by the Tenth Cavalry and Thirteenth
Infantry, Chinese flags captured by the Ninth
Infantry during the Uoxer troubles, civil
war regimental colors and guidons. A Moro
flag from Zamboanga as well as Cannon,
paintings, crucifixes, stones from the dun
geon of Joan of Arc at Rouen and other
military or religious souvenirs.
The new possession is to have a choice
position as the prize of the lot.
The existence of the colors and their in
timate connection with American Revo
lutionary history was discovered by Chap
lain Edmund Banks Smith in compiling:
data for "Governors Island: Its Military
History Under Three Flags from 1637 to
1919." The chaplain immediately took steps
to get possession of the colors for the
island and the gift is the result of a long
correspondence between him and Lord
Grenfell.
A Radium Sale
RADIUM being incomparably more
costly than gold naturally has to be
carefully gifarded, and a special safe
for this most precious of metals Is possessed
by the British Radium Corporation.
The safemaker had, like Casar at Alesla.
to face hi? defences hoth ways. To defy
burglars' tools he had to have walls of steel,
and to keep the radium emanations from
escaping he had to construct an Interior
cage of lead, lead being practically the only
metal not penetrable by the rays.
Another difficulty to be overcome was the
construction of a door that would prevent
the lose of emanations when It was opened.
Valves are fixed In the door, through which
tubes of mercury can be passed for the col
lection and storage of the emanations.
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T NEW VORK COTTON EXCHANGE
Robert P. McDougall, the lost two members
since 1879.
When the gong at 10 o'clock announces
the opening of trading on the exchange
hundreds of thousands of eager eyes watch
for first sales. The Southern grower reflects
how the price will affect the value of his
crop,- New England mills decide whether or
not to enter the market for fresh purchases,
and that great centre of the spinning In
dustry, Manchester, England, then an
nounVes to the world the price for cotton
goods of all descriptions. A day on the Cot
ton Exchange is always interesting to
watch and visitors are welcome and daily
enjoy the antics of the excited brokers on
the "ring steps."
To the uninitiated it Is all a meaningless
Jumble, but the trained eye easily follows
iperatlons. On one side of the "ring" there
may be a group of the most famous
iperators In the world. William Bchlll may
be selling 5.000 hales of futures to William
Mitchell, or "Jimmy" Riordan may be buy
ing up everything in sight for the big men
on the outside. Here brokers operating for
Southern Interests may be selling to Liver
pool, while at the very same Instant
Japanese spinning men buy from local Wall
Street traders. Amid all this confusion there
is system, however. Sales are recorded in
stantly and flashed to distant parts of the
world, while brokers, receiving orders from
their offices, take hut a moment to complete
them.
No expense has been spared hy Exchange
authorities in preparing for the anniversary
day. There will be a band concert In the
afternoon and a luncheon served to all pres
ent. Perhaps thoae who attend will re
member this hit of verse chanted years ago:
Old Cotton will pleasantly reign
When other kings painfully fall,
And ever and ever remain
The mightiest monarch of all.
Invitations have been extpnded to Gov.
Smith and Mayor Hylan and to u number
of Senators.
The Homing Hawk
AN English woman possessed a novel
and Interesting pet, She was staying
on the little Island of Rottnest, op
posite the port of Frcemantle, in western
Australia, a place where everything had to
be brought across a stormy channel, and to
im-port birds or other pets was so difficult (a
to be out of the question. She therefore
hailed with pleasure the offer of a boy to
t ring her a half-fledged hawk, as tame as it
was in the nature of a hawk to be.
There was no question of a cage, and
"Alonzo" was established on a fjerch In a
sheltered corner of the upper veranda. H
was fed at short intervals on raw meat and
proved very voracious. All day long he sat
motionless on his perch, only coming on his
owner's hand for his meals.
For two or three week Alonzo enjoyed the
attentions of his mistress. Then one morn
ing at early daylight she heard an unusual
noise on the veranda and came out Just In
time to see the little hawk spread its wings
and sail off Into space. He had been wise
enough to devour all the meat left in readi
ness for his breakfast.
Deeming that a bird of so wild a nature
when once free would remember his friends
no more, she concluded he was lost to her, but
a few hours later, as she was standing on
the veranda, she Stretched out her arm be
yond it as far as she could reach, when the
hawk dropped like a stone out of the cloud
less ulue and sat on her arm as composedly
as If he had never left the shelter of his
home. He was ready for his dinner and re
ceived a good one.
After that It became an established custom
to put every evening a saucer of chopped raw
meat on a table in the veranda, together with
a pan of water, that the hawk might have an
early breakfast. He foraged for himself all
day, coming back at night to roost In the
veranda.
It was curious to watch his return. He
generally made many attempts before he
could accommodate himself to the slope of
the roof, so as to get beneath It. After each
failure he would soar away out of sight, only
to come back and circle round the house till
he had determined how low to stoop. Then,
like a flash, he would dart beneath the
projecting eaves.
Apparently It was necessary to make but
one effort, for there was no popping In and
out, no uncertainty, but when he came it was
with one majestic swoop, and the next mo
ment he would be on his perch as rigid a
unruffled as if he had never left it.