Evening star. [volume], June 21, 1954, Page A-12, Image 12

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A-12
MONDAY, June 21, 1954
Friendship's Salesmen
That the problem of providing Washington
with another major airport has not been given
up as unsolvable is reassuring to those who are
concerned over the increasingly serious air
traffic congestion at the National Airport. The
need for an auxiliary terminal has become so
acute that the search for a solution ought to
be pressed relentlessly, despite recurrent oppo
sition to the project.
It may be hard for newcomers to the city
to understand why there should be such vig
orous opposition from outside sources to this
peculiarly local problem. The tip-off as to the
reason for an all-out, continued offensive by
Maryland against any new airport for the Na
tion’s Capital, or even for use of part of An
drews Air Force Base, is to be found in identical
telegrams which Senator Beall sent to Air Force
Secretary Talbott and Commerce Secretary
Weeks. The telegrams, after protesting re
ported negotiations for partial commercial use
of the Andrews facilities, said: “Friendship In
ternational Airport remains available to relieve
the traffic burden of Washington National Air
port and I am not convinced that either Air
or Commerce have given adequate consideration
to proposals that Friendship be used.”
But there is plenty of evidence that every
body officially interested in relieving the dan
gerous congestion at the National Airport on
Gravelly Point has given due consideration to
the repeated efforts to sell Friendship to Wash
ington as a substitute for a new air terminal
here. And everybody except the friends of
Friendship seems to be agreed that the Balti
more airport is too far from Washington to
qualify as an auxiliary terminal for the Capital.
Yet the selling campaign goes on and on. There
may be good reasons for not converting any or
all of Andrews Air Force Base for airliner use—
technical reasons as well as those relating to
public safety and neighborhood opposition. But
the need for improving lagging business at
Friendship Airport should cut no ice in deciding
whether or not to use Andrews or any other
convenient location for a second Washington
airport.
Sending Surplus Abroad
Although there are major differences to be
resolved in conference between House and Sen
ate, both branches of*Congress now have passed
legislation authorizing the President to dispose
abroad of some of the farm surpluses now held
in storage.
The House bill, reported now as likely to be
nearer the final conference version, would per
mit sale, for foreign currencies, goods or serv
ices, of $1 billion in American commodities. In
addition, the President would have authority to
give away an additional S3OO million in com
modities to relieve famine or meet “other urgent
relief requirements." While the legislation is
Intended primarily to provide away to dispose
of some of the Government-held surpluses, the
House bill would permit Government financing
for export of certain privately held items in
surplus.
Basically, the three-year program contem
plated here is a good one. The tremendous
surpluses that have been piling up in Govern
ment-owned or leased storage places represent
a costly investment and one of continuing high
expense. In permitting their exchange for for
eign currency, goods or services, the House bill
provides a means by which we can—without
expenditure of so many dollars—acquire addi
tional strategic materials, defray part of the
costs of our military base construction program
abroad or meet others of our overseas commit
ments. As far as the “give-away” section is
concerned, there have been occasions when
gifts of food under crisis conditions have been
proved a most effective stroke of diplomacy,
distribution of food packages in West Berlin
and the shipment of wheat to Pakistan ara
examples of generosity fully rewarded by repay
ment in good will.
One important provision in the program
has been left to conference discretion, namely,
the matter of setting up an adequate restriction
against the dumping of our own farm surpluses
in away which could be damaging to the export
trade of friendly nations. The charge was made
freely during House debate of the bill that our
own State Department has been more con
cerned over protecting the trading position of
other commodity-exporting countries thin over
the interests of our own farmers. Chairman
Hope of the House Agriculture Committee ac
knowledged this sentiment in agreeing to take
the problem into conference, but he indicated
further that he would not personally favor leav
ing the way open to “a price war among the
exporting nations of the world.” While it is
unlikely that our own Government would initi
ate sales of commodities under conditions which
would be harmful to our friends, some safe
guard in law might be deiirable.
Joseph Rider Farrington
'Older members of the Washington press
corps knew Joe Farrington as an esteemed
newspaperman before* he left Washington to
return to Hawaii for a political career which
earned him distinction in other fields. His sud
den death on Saturday is a great loss to friends
here as well as to the people c? Hawaii, whose
Interests he served with singular devotion. A
native Washingtonian, he became one of the
J *
foremost residents of Hawaii, and hisvlife was
in a sense equally divided between this city and
the islands, inspiring from him a deep loyalty
to both. His fatal illness had become an afflic
tion before his death, but Mr. Farrington never
seemed to lose the youthful buoyancy which
made him such a congenial companion and such
a stalwart champion of the aspirations of his
fellow Americans In Hawaii for full participa
tion in the affairs of their Nation. Successors
will carry on the fight for Hawaiian Statehood
which he did not live to see realized, and this
victory will someday be won. But no matter
how vigorously the fight is pressed, there are
none who will carry it on in Congress with more
grace, and a deeper conviction of the righteous
ness of a cause, than Joe Farrington.
'Soviet—Stay Outs
The real issue of the Guatemalan crisis was
summed up, but unfortunately not resolved,
when Ambassador Lodge angrily warned the
Russian delegate to the Security Council to “stay
out of the Western hemisphere.... Don’t try to
start yoqr plans and conspiracies here.”
For what is happening in Guatemala today
is merely another chapter, and one that has
been foreseeable in recent months, in a Commu
nist design to establish a beachhead in the
Americas. The makeup of the Arbenz govern
ment and its behavior in the American com
munity have shown clearly enough its close
relationship to the Communist cause and Mr.
Lodge’s questions were rhetorical only when he
asked the Council what could be the interest of
the Soviet representative in vetoing the pro
posal that the Guatemalan problem be referred
to the Organization of American States. For the
OAS, as Delegate Tsarapkin knows, is dedicated
to the objective of protecting the sovereignty,
territorial integrity and Independence of the
American nations—an objective obviously in
compatible with Communist international plan
ning.
The OAS, through its five-member Inter-
American Peace Committee, will initiate an
exercise of its rightful jurisdiction in a meeting
here today. Meanwhile, it is too early to tell
what effect, if any, will result from the Security
Council’s call for an end of bloodshed in the
little Central American country. .Martial law
has been declared but rebel forces are reported
still moving toward the capital city and there is
some question as to whether the Guatemalan
Army is strongly inclined to fight for the Arbenz
government.
Whatever the immediate developments,
American diplomacy is being finely tested. Al
though the record shows close bonds among the
governments of this hemisphere there are strong
spots of anti-Yankee feeling. Anti-United
States demonstrations, probably Communist
organized, have been reported from several
American countries over the week end.
Our continuing conduct in the Guatemalan
crisis must be planned carefully lest we walk
into the propaganda trap which Moscow is try
ing to set for us.
$
More Chains for the Czechs
Judging from speeches made the other day
at the Communist congress in Prague, Czecho
slovakia’s economy—which has been function
ing poorly on a number of fronts—now is going
to be tied in more closely than ever with that
of the Soviet Union. In effect, what this means
is that the country’s chains are to be tightened
for the greater honor and glory of the Kremlin.
Os course, ever since the traitorous Red
coup in 1948, the captive Czech people have
been working primarily not for themselves or
their once-independent land, but for Communist
Russia. To that end, their puppet regime,
taking its orders from Moscow, has forced them
to concentrate their labor chiefly on heavy
industry, with special emphasis on military
production. The result of this, has been that
their standard of living—which used to be one
of the highest in Europe—has steadily declined
to an exceedingly depressing level.
Thus, as the Czech Communists have them
selves just acknowledged, the country’s agri
cultural output is sadly deficient. Its cattle
production and certain important crop yields—
such as potatoes—are below the pre-1939 levels.
The same holds true for numerous consumer
goods needed for household and individual uses.
In sum, as a result of having had their economy
hitched to the Soviet wagon, the people of
Czechoslovakia have been subjected to such
impoverishment that even the puppet Prague
tyranny has been forced to admit the existence
of poor working morale on a widespread scale.
This morale—which has expressed Itself
in the form of shoddy and short production in
many fields—reflects the deep anti-Communist
bitterness and resentment of the country’s
masses. Nevertheless, to assuage it, all that the
Prague Reds now have to offer, again on orders
from Moscow, is greater enchainment to the
Kremlin. It is not difficult, in the circum
stances, to imagine how the people of Czecho
slovakia must hope and pray that events will
somehow give them an opportunity to rise up
in successful rebellion to win back their lost
freedom.
The Flying Windmills
Another preview of air transport service of
the .future is showing in ordinarily staid London
these days with initiation of a helicopter serv
ice between downtown Waterloo Station and
the London Airport, 15 Mi miles away. The flight
is scheduled for 22 minutes as against slightly
more than an hour by bus.
Neither thinking of nor experimenting with
commercial helicopter service is a new depar
ture in commercial aviation, of course, but it
is still in a pioneering and not fully tested stage.
An interairport service for passengers is operat
ing now between Newark, Idlewild and La Guar
dia fields but not'into downtown Newark or
New York City. An Intercity service between
Newark and upper New York State recently was
initiated and there is another passenger service
between Miami and some of the beach com
munities. Sabena Airlines (Belgian) has been
a pioneer in Europe with a helicopter network,
tested first on mail and baggage, now carrying
passengers between several European cities.
Safety requirements—calling for more than
single-engine craft—and sufficient capacity to
make the operation profitable are among the
first considerations being studied by air trans
port interests in this country. Military develop
ment of rotary-wing aircraft probably has con
tributed much toward progress in this field. It
seems reasonable to predict that the rotary
wing type some day will provide the answers:
(1) For shuttling passengers frotl downtown to
distant airports and (2) for short-haul inter
city travel by air. The London experiment
should provide some Interesting information on
tha first type of operation.
Story Behind One of Our Art Galleries
By Jock Voslpd
STANDING ALONE and aloof from
the limestone and marble buildings
which surround it in the Mall area
is a simple, squat, square building of
Florentine design on the northeast
corner of Twelfth street and Independ
ence avenue. The building is a testi
monial to the fact that the Horatio
Alger legend is not altogether fiction.
The building is the Freer Gallery of
Art, a branch of the Smithsonian In
stitution. Every month an average iff
6,000 people visit the gallery and en
joy the unusual collection Charles
Lang Freer of Detroit made available
to them. The gallery houses not only
a fine group of American paintings by
such artists as James McNeill Whist
ler, . Winslow Homer and John Singer
Sargent, but also has one of the finest
Collections in the world of Oriental
paintings and other ohjects of art from
China, Japan, Korea, India, Indo
china. Iran, Iraq, Syria, Asia Minor,
Byzantium, and Egypt.
The life, of Charles Lang Freer is
the typical American success story of
the poor boy who made good. Bom
in Kingston, N. Y., in 1856. Mr. Freer
had to leave school at 14. He first
worked in a cement factory in his
neighborhood and at 16 became a
clerk in a general store. Col. Frank
J. Hecker, superintendent of the New
York, Kingston and Syracuse Rail
road, whose offices were in the same
building as the general store, be
came aware of the ability of young
Freer and in 1873 employed him. After
several years of railroad work. Freer
went with Col. Hecker to Detroit,
where, in 1880, he took part in the
organization of the Peninsular Car
Works and became assistant treasurer.
Between 1880 and 1900, Mr. Freer was
associated with this company and with
those which succeeded it. In 1900, at
the age of 44. after completing his
work in the organization of the Ameri
can Car and Foundry Co., he retired
from active business. From 1900 until
the time of his death in 1919, Mr. Freer
pursued on a full-time basis an interest
which he had begun in the early 1880 s,
the study of art.
Untutored and unschooled in art, Mr.
Freer began acquiring etchings and
lithographs. This led to a meeting in
1888 with James McNeill Whistler.
Whistler, then 54, and still struggling
for recognition, was eventually spon
sored by Mr, Freer, who learned from
this association not only about the
Letters to The Star..
Statement of Faith in U. S.
I wonder if you could spare the space
in your valuable paper for what may
sound like an old-fashioned statement
of faith in the United States. Despite
the daily outpourings of speakers,
columnists and convention resolutions
which assure as that we are rushing
headlong to Hitlerism and that every
body hates us, I believe that this is
still the most wonderful country with
the greatest freedom and opportunity
in the world.
I also believe that 99 percent of the
American people and perhaps as many
others feel the same way. Those who
have some doubts on this score should
recall that every single Communist con
spirator who was offered a free passage
to the Communist “Utopia” or jail in
the United States, instantly chose the
latter.
Finally, I believe that those who
think that they are molding public
opinion while painting the United
States in totalitarian colors, would find
that their efforts have greater credence
If, while sniping at the United States,
they give an equal amount of space to
spelling out their opposition to com
munism. Surely they can find some
thing wrong in a system which has
ruthlessly taken liberty from millions,
keeps more than 10 million human
beings in beastly labor camps, has
slaughtered other millions through
purges, forced collectivizations and
mass evacuation.
James T. Long.
Goes to Bat for County Police
As a voter and landowner in Mont
gomery County, Maryland, I believe
this letter will be of interest to other
county citizens. In view of the coming
elections here, there are, in my, opinion,
several very important questions that
should be answered. It is my under
standing that Montgomery County is
among the top counties in Maryland
when it comes to wealth per family,
but, to this voter’s mind and in con
sideration of this factor, there are
several matters that just don’t add up.
For the last few years I’ve been actively
engaged in promotion of traffic safety,
both in the county and throughout the
State, for several civic associations, and
there’s one question that seems to take
an act of Congress to get settled. That
question is when is the County Council
going to correct the bad situation con
cerning our underpaid and overworked
policemen? After a little investigation
of my own, I have found out our county
policemen are still working a very hard
six-day week and are getting between
S4OO and SSOO less per year than our
This and That. . . By Charles E. Tracewell
Old-fashioned people, as they are
called, often resent changes, some of
them very bitterly, although they may
never say anything.
Templeton Jones is one of these.
The latest dress style for men irks
him. . .
It is this thing of being well dressed
except for the tie.
The shirt button is buttoned, all
right, but there is no tie.
There is, of course, ho law (yet)
requiring the wearing of a tie, either
cravat or bow.
Men’s styles are fairly static, so that
even the littlest change attracts at
tention.
* *
T. Jones can see no reason whatever
for dropping out the tie.
If the collar is unbuttoned, as some'
of the sMung Models wear ’em, then
leaving out the cravat is necessary, of
course.
There is a sloppy effect, but it is
what might bs called a good sloppi
ness. (There is here, as elsewhere, a
good and a bad.)
But to solemnly button that top but
ton, and then leave the gap gapping*—
That, to Templeton Jones, seems the
worst yet.
• * •
Just why some toys resent the tie
is unknown.
If they left the button unbuttoned-
—iTKMr'
—Star Staff Photo.
Freer Gallery of Art: Legacy of a Poor Boy Who Made Good.
techniques of art but also about the
appreciation of art. Os the total of
1,511 items in the American collection
now in the Freer Gallery, the Whist
leriana—including drawings, wood en
gravings, etchings, lithographs, oil and
water color paintings, and copper
plates—accounts for 1,323 items. Mr.
Freer even purchased the Peacock
Room which was created by Whistler
for the London residence of F. R. Ley
land, British shipowner, had it dis
mantled, shipped to the United States,
. and installed at the Freer Gallery lust
as it was created by the artist.
Though the American collection in
the Freer Gallery is good and repre
sentative, the most outstanding thing
about the gallery is the collection of
Oriental and Middle Eastern art.
The gallery owns one of the most
valuable libraries in the world devoted
exclusively to Oriental and Middle
Eastern art and archeology.
Part of Mr. Freer’s interest in the
• art of the East probably was directly
stimulated by Whistler. Whistler’s art
Itself was greatly influenced by his dis
covery of the Japanese and Chinese
color print as an art form in the early
1860 s. Both the Japanese and the
Chinese had devolped painting into a
highly stylized art form, consisting
nearest police department, whidh is in
Washington.
We have one of the best police de
partment’s in the country and very
little crime, gambling and other vices
at all because of our fine, clean-cut and
hard-working policemen, who have the
highest regard for their jobs. They
are doing the job of law enforcement
and the protection of my property and
yours exceedingly well. Most of our
policemen have to maintain part-time
jobs in order to meet their expenses.
Why are all our police stations short
of men? Why doesn’t our police de
partment have a reserve of young men
ready to be trained to replace the
department’s older men? What kind of
a retirement plan can Montgomery
County offer to retiring policemen?
One main reason, in my opinion, for no
reserve of young men is a starting
salary of $3,369 per year for a police
man. A. Jack Kelly.
Unde Sam Free Spender
As an ordinary citizen, who is not
much more than a bare taxpayer, I
wonder when this Nation will stop its
march to socialism? Each evening your
paper carries reports of the tax money
of our Government being disbursed to
this or that little group. History repeats
itself. Are the events of today signaling
the decline and eventual disentegration
of the current greatest civilization on
the earth, the United States of
America?
Why is our Government possessed
with trie abominable ,obsession that it
is our duty not only to regulate and
support all our own citizens, but also
to freely send our dollars and America’s
finest young men to all countries except
those which have the dignity and cour
age to refuse them? Os course we be
lieve in helping others, but why must
we leave buckets of American blood on
foreign shores, when the people of the
other nations refuse to defend or even
help themselves? Have we really gained
anything by this waste of our Nation’s
most precious resources?
Our country is rapidly becoming the
laughing stock of the world. South Ko
rea criticizes us for not giving them
enough money, and furthers criticizes us
for our slowness in compensating them
for the damage done to their country
by the American “invaders.” England
criticizes us because of our blundering
diplomacy and our crudity. But that
accusing finger rapidly turns into an
outstretched palm, with a fervent prayer
that the uncouth, unpolished American
dollar will soon grease it. India refuses
to permit our planes to fly over her
“friendly” soil; yet, the very same day,
we give India $305 million of our tax
But they do not. they close the gap,
then leave off the tie. Now. perhaps
9 out of 10 men feel constrained
around the neck when they first but
ton up and tie up in the morning, but
the feeling of strangeness soon wears
off.
Bf the time breakfast is over, they
have forgotten about the blooming
thing, and go the rest of the day
wholly unmindful of the fact that their
neck is in a controlled noose.
* *
These strange wights who leave off
the tie, after buttoning the button—
Well, Templeton Jones thinks they
are just responding to the general
mental elimate of the times.
They are showing resentment the
only way they can.
They are defying something or other,
and you can call it convention if you
wish, but that isn’t it. It is more likely
to be a slow-burning resentment
against what is going on everywhere.
What is going on?
* *
Well, the trouble is that nobody
knows. One writer says it is the world
wide change from individual status to
communal status. Another as heatedly
says that it is nothing of the kind,
that what really is wrong with the
world is McCarthy, or advertising men.
or even political columnists, who seem
to be everybody’s target right now.
primarly of the delineation of forms in
relation to objects, the arrangement of
forms, the elimination of the extrane
ous, and the application of colors in
a soft, subtle manner so that the paint
ing would have a “pleasing” effect.
Shortly after Mr. Freer died In 1919,
his collection was transferred to the
gallery, for which he had previously
provided building funds in 1914. He
also provided funds for new purchases,
but Congress agreed to pay for the
maintenance and upkeep of the collec
tion.
By terms of his will, the Freer Gal
lery cannot accept gifts or loans from
outsiders, and can add to the collections
only through purchase by funds left
to the institution by Mr. Freer. There
are items in the collection which were
not originally purchased by Mr. Freer,
but which qualify for the collection be
cause they were given as gifts to Mr.
Freer personally. *
Actually, only about eight per cent
of the total collection is on display at
any one time, but these always repre
sent the highest quality of the particu
lar object exhibited. Many of the
Stored items are considered by the gal
lery to be of research and study value
only and consequently never are ex
hibited.
Pen-names may be used if letters carry
writers’ correct names and addresses.
All letters are subject to condensation.
funds to build a power plant to help
our “friends of India.”
Who is the ostrich with its head in
the sand, and the common sen* 0 of
an idiot? Quo Vadis.
On Tighter Censorship
A recent letter to The Star called to
attention the evils of comic books that
are filling our cnildren’s minds with
crime and all its sordidness. Now I
understand that the motion-picture
censors are revising their code to
permit more and more of this sex trash
to be thrust upon the public, and at a
time when juvenile delinquency is
causing tragedy and heartbreak all
over America. .» .
What’s wrong with the American
people that we don’t demand a stop to
this constant lowering of moral stand
ards? Has there ever been a time in
our history when we-needed to be any
more morally strong than we need to
be now?
Our Congress would do well to in
vestigate the powers behind these
various sources of trash—comic books,
motion pictufes, television programs,
etc., for if there is anything that is
subversive in the true sense of the
word, it is any attempt to corrupt a
t nation’s morals. Can these people who
; promote this filth be communistic, or
i are they seemingly loyal Americans who
i desire to fatten their pocketbooks at
the expense of the Nation?
No truer words were ever spoken than
L those of St. Paul when he said “The
' love of money is the root of all evil.”
I E. B.
»
l Tragedy of Our Times
At 10:10 the fire alarm and air raid
signals sounded through our elemen
t tary-school building. Quickly but quiet
i ly the children from kindergarten and
i seven primary rooms filed into the cor
l ridor and crouched on the floor with
1 backs to the wall and their heads and
i backs of their necks covered by their
arms. They sat silently and nearly mo
> tionless for the duration of the drill
[ until the all clear came,
i The teachers who supervised them
5 looked on with pity, close to tears, at
i the tragedy of our times. In this school
, alone. 240 children, all under 10, are
1 being trained for the death or terrible
5 injuries that may, come without warn
l ing because their elders in the world
i have betrayed them in peaceful govern
r ment and their faith in God.
i No wonder children, plagued with
s neuroses and psychoses, present dis
• cipline problems. What hope do they
have? What can they foresee of s»cu
[ rity, peace or happiness? A. B.
The truth, Jones oeueves, is xar
otherwise.
The truth, as he sees It. is that the
world is now in what Toynbee chooses
to call a time of stress.
What makes it is a complex subject,
so difficult to point out that the aver
age man. who asks nothing better
than to be let alone (the last' thing
he gets, any more) cannot do anything
but register a general protest.
Some guys do it, evidently, by getting
soused, others by getting into fights,
etc.
Some just defiantly button their col
lars and forget the tie.
* *
Jones says he is going to stick to
his cravat.
It has held his chin up and his neck
band in for so many years now that
it is an old friend.
Why should man go back on his
cravat, any more than go back on his
dog?
The faithful, in this world, are very
precious. Some races are- faithful
people, .and deserve our love and help.
Some people are distinguished by their
loyalty. No greater disservice has been
done in this age than offhand sneer
ing at great and good things as "old
fashioned.”
Thank heaven for old things, says
Templeton Jones, gazing down at his
old cravat like a ban looking into s
bottle.
Ch'uan Miao Regard
Afl Things as Living
Group in Western China
Believes in Supernatural
By Thomas R. Henry
There are people to whom years and
days are jolly fat men and motherly,
sweet-faced women, dashing college
boys and sylph-like sirens.
They are such in retrospect and an
ticipation. To some, months are colored
and weeks perfumed. To some they
are lions or horses.
Time intervals take the form of liv- .
ing things. This curious psychological
phenomenon perhaps reaches its climax
among the Ch’uan Miao of western
China, as described by Dr. David C.
Graham. Smithsonian Institution col
laborator. in a comprehensive treatise
on these non-Chinese people who
number about 150,000. Dr. Graham,
a former missionary, spent several
years among them.
Only after long association is it
possible to penetrate their strange
spiritual world, he says.
Even Sound Is Living.
“They regard all things as alive and
sentient. The sun, moon, stars, moun- ,
tains, rivers, rocks, trees, thunder, the
echo, the rainbow, beds, marriage,
swords, the harvest, the years, and
even the sound of the ceremonial drum
are considered to be living things.
“A year is a living creature with a
head like that of a human being. Moun
tains have heads, feet, hands, eyes,
ears, hearts, breasts, veins and arteries.
A plain may be male or female and
has a mouth, heart, veins and sinews.
The sun and moon have parents. Rocks
and stones are male and female, grow,
have offspring and can speak. Thunder
is a living creature, in size and shape
like a rooster. It is small but powerful
and its call is the noise of thunder. It
has a knife of fire and when it throws
this there is lightning.”
This universal animism, Dr. Graham
points out, has been influenced some
what by the neighboring Chinese,
especially in respect to worship of an
cestors. But the Chu’an Miao retain
most of their own concepts of the
supernatural world.
On top of the sky. Dr. Graham says,
is the “ancient level land,” where the
souls of the dead remain with their
ancestors after death. Here there are
no hills to climb and neither sickness
nor death. The sun shines every day.
People do not farm but gather fruits
and berries in the forests, which are
much as the forests were on the earth
in very ancient times.
At festivals each year the living
descendants of the spirits in the level
land provide them with food, clothing,
money and wine. Formerly, the people
believe, there was a ladder connecting
earth and sky but in recent times, they
say, this connection has been broken.
World Under the Earth.
“Under the earth,” says Dr. Graham.
"is another world, a land of dwarfs
who are about two feet tall. They live
much like people on earth, having
houses, farms, a king, soldiers and a
government. One Miao once entered
this world through a natural cave in a
mountain and remained so long that
the people on earth had forgotten him.
Another fell through a hole in the
floor of the emperor’s palace and after
two or three years was able to crawl
back onto the earth through a crack
caused by drought.
"Some of the stories speak of a dark
place inhabited by demons and pre
sided over by a demon king. Demons
are the souls of human beings, birds,
reptiles or inanimate things. Idols in
Chinese -temples are regarded as de
mons. There is one devil called Cfldng
Da Lo, who is so big he can step from
one mountain top to another and from
the earth to the sky. He can kill a
person with one blow of his thumb.”
One of the Chu’an Miao deities is
called Ye Seo. He is kindly, merciful
and just and helps people, especially
the poor, who are in trouble. Ha often
is seen in the clouds and can make
himself visible or invisible.
Now, Dr. Graham points out, in the
Chinese province of Canton, the for
mer abode of the Chu’an Miao, the
name Jesus is pronounced Ye Seo.
Does the use of the same name in the
western mountains, he asks, indicate
some ancient contacts with Christian
ity? He is unable, however, to estab
lish any certain conneetions.
Certain kinds of trees are sometimes
worshipped as deities. These generally
are trees on hills and mountains that
are old and do not shed their leaves
in winter. A strange custom is the
worship of the door. This worship is
an elaborate ceremony in which a pig
is killed. A warty toad is believed to
possess marvelous powers and to cause
hailstorms. During such storms men
shoot guns to frighten the toad.
There is a dragon king who lives in
a palace beneath a lake. Tigers, foxes,
snakes, banana trees, vines, rats, frogs,
cattle and eels are believed to change
into human form and vice versa.
Questions and Answers
A reader can tet tbe answer to an* question
o! fact by writing The Evening Star Infor
mation Bureau. 1200 Eve St. N.W.. Washing
ton 5. D. O. Plea** Inclose three <3) cent* for
return postage.
By THE HASKIN SERVICE.
Q. Where is the biggest shopping cen
ter in the country?—L. F.
A. In Yonkers, N. Y. It is the Cross
County Shopping Center, which has
iy 4 million square feet of selling space.
• _
Q. What organizations are respon
sible for buying the food for the armed
services? —O. G.
A. The Quartermaster Market Cen
ter System is charged with purchasing
food for all the services. The annual
food cost is well over a billion dollars.
Foster-Father
His life was like a tree thfit stood apart
From all the forest —lonely— far
away;
No one to fill the niche inside his heart.
Reserved by nature for a child at
Play;
At length, he found a homeless lad
named Jim
Whose sad eyes seemed to search his
very soul;
He took the child; a tree must have a
limb
Or more to make its structure bal
anced—whole.
And now the breath of youth plays in
the boughs
Os one glad tree—the forest seems so,
near
He sees it as a full and happy house
With laughing children scampering
there and here;
At last he knows the strength a branch
can throw
Into the trunk to make the spirit
grow.
Jmh Chalmers Donaldson