Show at slie national capital gossip of people and events gathered in washington DIVING AND SWIMMING TEST FOR REAR ADMIRALS great con sterna washington tion Is felt in the navy over the an no aid to have been made by assistant secretary newberry that rear admirals must shortly undergo a test to show whether they can swim or not in the army a test of whether colonels can ride horseback was re bently made mr newberry s beclar atlon in favor of a swimming test tor admirals however is considered tar worse although the average colonel weighs several times more than his horse the assistant secretary s plan is to have rear admirals dive from shore shore and swim to their ships many admirals who have not moved a wheel for years except from the navy depart ment to the club are indignant it Is felt that what the assistant secretary is really proposing Is a general harl karl among the most eminent naval heroes of the age Ne verthel s the rear admirals ac capt mr newberry s announcement as a fact against which there is no use in kicking and are preparing tor it rear admiral cowles the WAS george washington a liar must another idol be shattered 9 these questions seem to be answered in the affirmative by official records now musty with age but in a fairly good state of preservation for years there has been a legend in virginia that george washington was seven times indicted for perjury no one gave serious consideration to the ru mors unworthy of association with the beautiful childhood dream of the little hatchet and the cherry tree A young man of inquisitive temperament hear ing the legend made inquiry at the congressional library to ascertain whether any records gave it support he was cited by the expert in charge to the court records of fairfax coun ty there he discovered that me dowell s men after the battle of bull pun ransacked the courthouse and carried away most of the records but that one volume bad recently been re covered through the executor of the estate of one of the pennsylvania sol diers this volume was carefully ex and it was found that on may 21 1760 the grand jury returned a presentment against george washing ton for having dodged taxes on a RACE WAR WITH COURT WRITS AS THE WEAPONS THE injunction has been invoked in a local race war the white zens of a suburb of this city propose to restrain a negro from occupying a house he purchased the suburb known as bloomingdale lying between the northern boundary of the old city and soldiers home was several years ago subdivided and long rows of houses erected tor sale the purchasers were given a deed which stipulated in one of its clauses that at no time should the property be sold to a negro one of the original purchasers sold his residence to a man who placed a second trust mort gage on it ahe holder of this second mortgage to protect himself placed the house on sale with a real estate firm which disposed of it to a negro when the sale became known to the household geneau GEORGE VON L MEYER has leased the jewett mansion on the corner of con avenue and S street it Is the intention of mis meyer to return to the national in time to pre sent her pretty young daughters to society during the soc al season these girls have been presented at the rus sian and british courts but it Is now quite customary to give a series 0 debut parties miss jul a Is barely 20 and her sister two deaia her junior so they are still el gible to coining out functions they are ly alike and have been eddi abed together and seem to have identical character with miss edith krot they w 11 form a delightful diio ot cab net girls and will be the oaly in that depleted set with the pas ing of th misses shaw and miss hitchcock washing ton might well wail wanted a few handsome and socially inclined maid ens tor the highest executive set the misses meyer aie unaffected girls sure to be popular for their in ter course with kings has not turned their heads any more than it has changed their chaining ch aiming mother both have studied music and art under the best masters abroad and having re sided in many alien lands are gifted linguists seoung mr meyer aged 16 has been the schoolmate pf cernut roosevelt at groton and for a few months in the spring took a preparatory course at dent s brothe in law is the ame size from his collar bone to his fourth rib after which he juts out in a lar manner between his wishbone and his waist line admiral cowles weighs more than many persons do between their shoes and their hats the sight of admiral cowles down on the potomac river front trying to afy for mr newberry s test would draw tears from the eyes long unused to grief deports from rear admiral evans s headquarters by intimate friends of his are that fighting bob Is conn dent of to come up to new berr s test evans ever since the battle 0 fort fisher swims entirely with one foot the other being used mainly as a sort of screw propeller the general effect is that of a flat wheel locomotive trying to climb a hill evans fortunately la the same size all the way down he has nothing to kick about the walls that are now deafening dei fening the washington horizon arise from globular admirals with con vex abaft and midriff RECORDS CHARGE THAT washington TOLD LIE wheeled vehicle washington was in good company the presentment also naming george william fairfax william mason and a number of other distinguished gentle men of the day at that time in the colony of virginia two methods were in vogue for taxing property both personal and real either the assessor was permitted to make the list or the subject under oath submitted a list As the presentment was returned against george washington it la evi dent that he made oath to the list of his property and failed to include a wheeled carriage of which he was possessed washington not being indicted shows that the grand jury acted upon its own initiative because had the matter been called to their attention by the prosecutor for the colony an in would have been returned there Is only one volume of the rec of that time and it does not show what became of the presentment whether washington was tried will not be known unless some veteran of mcdowell s command directly or through an heir returns the volumes that were carried off after bull run ers for blocks around they at once started a subscription in which dent gompers of the american feder aaion of labor Is reported to have joined there are few residence blocks in washington upon which negroes do not occupy one or more houses except in the ultra aristocratic and even in that section some negroes dwell race prejudice ie constantly growing more intense here and in the new subdivisions in the suburbs the whites have attempted to protect themselves against negro invasion by restrictions placed in the original deeds similar to that carried by the bloomingdale conveyances the negro owner will assert his right to hold the property under the fourteenth and fifteenth amendments and a merry race war Is promised MRS MEYER TO PRESENT DAUGHTERS TO SOCIETY geore washington university in washington mrs meyer s a delightful conver nationalist and she can chat very en about royal babes whom she has known |