Evening Republican, Volume 59, Number 61, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 April 1917 — INTERESTING ITEMS FROM THE CITIES [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

INTERESTING ITEMS FROM THE CITIES

Washington’s False Teeth in a Baltimore College JJ ALTIMORE.—The Baltimore College of Dental Surgery owns, the only set Dot false teeth-jn—existence which belonged to George Washington. The only other set of artificial teeth Washington possessed was buried with him. These teeth are the work of Dr. John

Greenwood of New York, who was tha first American dentist. They were presented to the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery by Doctor Greenwood, and are the set worn by Washington at the time his portrait .was painted by James Sharpless in 1796. The artificial teeth account for the “calm and benign” expression which he wears in the portrait. The set is a complicated affair, and is ground and carved out of wal-

rus tusks and not of soltd~ lvory, The those of a are’carved in careful Imitation of nature. There are full upper and lower sets. The plate of the upper set is made of gold, with the teeth carved of walrus tusks, while the entire lower set is made of walrus tusks, no effort being made to imitate the gums such as is found in the methods of today. Tiny phttf num pins are now -used to hold the teeth to the plate, but Hie set belonging to the Father of His Country contained rather crude wooden pins. The two sets are joined by a gold spring, clqsely wired. The idea of comfort,,seems not to have entered into their construct ion, so it is naturally supposed that Washington wore them Only on state occasions. Yellow with age, and dark about the ridges, the teeth, doubtless worn on many an occasion of the greatest Importance to the young republic, are Impressive to one who views them for the first time. Pictures of the banquets and the great occasions of state to which they were worn flash through ths mind of the observer.

Fake Art Being Ousted From Independence Hall PHILADELPHIA. —Desperate efforts to forestall disclosures of the extent to which fake paintings have been foisted on the city of Philadelphia reached a climax when the city council passed an ordinance recently that led to the

very revelations which the measure was designed to suppress. .... - The ordinance provides for the creation of a commission to take charge of Independence hall and all Its paintings and relics. It is nothing more nor less than a “ripper bill” aimed at the art jury, which has been engaged in cleaning out the fakes from Independence hall for the last three months. More than a third of the 342 paint-

Ings in the collection at Independence hall have been passed upon by the art jury. The percentage of rejections hue not been announced, but it is large. Paintings ascribed to early American artists of note like Gilbert Stuart and Charles Wilson Peale, and denounced as fakes heretofore, are to be eliminated. But the big task which the art jury has set itself is to clean out the “French” gallery at the hall, the paintings by Albert Rosenthal, Philadelphia artist, of which no originals exist. Nearly all these paintings were sold to the city by Rosehthal as copies of originals In the Museum of Versailles. Andre Perate, assistant curator of that museum, says that in at Jeast jiine„ Instancesthe ..originals arernot at . .V.ersaiilesk-a,nd to the best of his -knowledge do not exist. Vouchers on file at the city hall, and reached after considerable difficulty, show that Rosenthal was paid from .$250 to SI,OOO each for these paintings. In a little more than 12 years Rosenthal has sold 129 painting? to the city for the Independence Hall commission. Thus nearly half the entire col leet|on is the work of Rosenthal. When letters from Perate were shown to Rosenthal denying the existence of originals, which he said he copied at Versailles, the Philadelphia artist produced .pen and ink- sketches-as his proof. He admitted that he had made many of the paintings in this city from the sketches, all of which, he contends, were made at Versailles. 1

Ferocious Rabbit Is Terror of the New York Zoo NEW YORK. —Bunch was exiled the other day from the comfort and warmth of the hayhouse In the Central park zoo to solitary confinement in the araall house back of the zebu corral. Bill Snyder, animal lover and head

keeper, gave a sort of farewell party to Bunch in the afternoon, when his friends gathered for their weekly talkfest in the hayhouse. As he held up Bunch by his long ears he explained that he was, so far as he knew, the only righting rabbit in existence and that Ms bfirifshmerrt hnd been ttriatty and reluctantly decided upon only after Bunch had nearly killed a champion and valuable gamecock. When the rabbit started first upon his prize-ring career, Bill was very

proud of his pet, but Bunch became such a ferocious bully of small animals -and fowls that the keeper concluded that a beast so dangerous should be confined where he could do no more harm. As Bill held the rabbit up for the, inspection of his friends—Bill's. not Punch’s—the small fighter much resented his attentions. One of Bunch’s ears is torn, and there is a scar across the entire top of his head, souvenirs of ah encounter with Spot, Bill’s fox terrier. One of the rabbit’s hind legs is out of alignment also, from injuries received in a three-round bout with Judy, a fighting orang-outang now some time gone to rest. Bunch tried desperately to wriggle from the keeper’s grasp, and it was plain to be seen that but for the man’s superior strength the dauntless rabbit would have attacked Bill wtth ifreat fury, ___ - ■ ■ ■ . ■

Remarkable Enterprise of the Junkmen of Gotham NEW YORK—“There are tricks In every trade,” remarked Honest Bill Quiglev the Butterv boatman, as he moored his faithful Whitehall in th® bargefofflce basin, “but the stunt I just saw pulled by a South Brooklyn junk-

man was the best I have seen lately. “He had a fine lot of old hawsers and jropes piled In his boat. This is the day of prosperity with the junkman. and even old hawsers sell for five cents a pound. But this fellow didn t seem to think his ropes weighed enough. Leastwise, he performed a remarkable operation on them. - “To begin with, he untwisted tall the strands on a rope and then inserted bits of wood between them. He did this until he got a bunch fixed up and

then he dropped the Jot over the side and let the rope soak while he untwisted a fresh lot. ” - _ “After all the rope had been well soaked he pulled It out of the water ana pulled out the sticks that held the strands apart. Then he let the outside of the hawsers dry off and went on his merry way to sell them. Of course they weighed a good many pounds more than before the wetting process.” The junkmen, said Quigley, now have’ to paint their license numbers on their boats “with white paint a foot high.” Always regarded by the harbor nolice more or less as pirates, the junkmen are compelled tocarry these numbers conspicuously on the sides of their boats, which these days are usually motorlaunches painted a dark gray or green. Notwithstanding the vigilance of the marine bluecoats, the river pirates are always turning new tricks. Recentlv one of them was caught boring holes through the floor of the Spanp”r Ot Profitable .(room. ot coeoa poured Into the Juukwwrtbd.fi until he was caught at It and the practice stopped. .