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and puffed and blew itself off in regular locomotive style. Edward Thomas acted as engineer and conductor, and at the proper moment put on the brakes with professional skill. The great Washington and Gettysburg railroad has actually begun. Someone discovered that the road is built and running for six miles out of Washington. Our enthusiasm was at a high pitch when one of the oldest members remembered he had ridden over that six miles when a boy, back in the forties, but that express trains do not stop at Hyattsville. Ellen Stabler remembered that the feeling of expectation and anticipation of the railroad reminded her strongly of the same feeling 40 or 45 years ago. Edward Thomas is authority that there are at Hyattsville, men and mules and wagons and that "dirt is flying." The road is actually building towards - just here is a mystery. The only facts Edward has are that the road has started. He does not know whether the road is to go through, or within ten miles of Sandy Spring and he does not know who does. Here is a good healthy railroad starting out from a definite point and getting lost in the woods. It don't know where it's going but it is on its way. Seriously, the prospects of a railroad passing or skirting the Sandy Spring neighborhood look brighter than at any time in the last ten years. It is opined that the lack of knowledge on the part of the builders is not ignorance - not at least of a visible density but business accumen: that any one can obtain a knowledge of the route of the road by purchasing a proper amount of the stock and bonds. He will then know whether to buy land and whether to sell.
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435th Meeting - Olney - 7 Mo. 18, 1910
The severity of the hot wave had left us. The day and evening showed weather typical of the S.S. neighborhood, that delightful combination of temperature and moisture that so heightens its value to birthright members and is one of the chief attractions to summer visitors. The porch, before supper, was our gathering place. The H.I. has traditions, - and clings to them. One is that the meeting at Olney is not called to order till twenty minutes to eight. At this time the variation was not over thirty seconds. We lingered over supper. But it was a supper to linger over. And then a stroll over the honeysuckle [?] enclosure. The old knocker on the front door attracted attention. This knocker was not rudely torn from its fastenings in Alexandria seventy years ago. The entire door was removed. And it still remains to the worshipper of the antique, something to a door. The confidence was felt that this door and knocker would continue for another seventy years, the one to announce and the other to open in welcome to all visitors whether of high degree or humble origin.
At the psycological moment - I think this is a proper phrase, its in the newspapers, over and over again and must be all right - we might consider it as Robert Ingersoll put it regarding the tenets of a certain faith "you've got to believe it but its a blessed thing you don't have to understand it." Anyhow, at the proper moment our hostess appointed
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Arthur Stabler to preside. Arthur has not been to a meeting in a coon's age and it was altogether fitting and proper that he should be seized on and impressed to duty before he had opportunity to get away for another Rip Van Winkle period. Authur makes a good chairman. If politics makes strange bedfellows it also makes for ability to handle a meeting. Reports were asked for, questions were put and passed around, and business transacted with such alacrity that at twelve minutes before the regular time, Sarah Thomas Miller asked for adjournment! Whether in appreciation of Arthur's thoroughness, or the school, or a suddenly renewed attachment for Mount Airy, the secretary was unable to fathom.
The absentees were John Thomas, Edward and Mary Bentley Thomas, Alban Thomas, Cornelia and Virginia Stabler, Carrie Brooke, Hallie Bentley and Anna Nesbitt. We always miss the absentees, always, but on this occasion noticeably so. Someone said this was a small meeting. The record showed average attendance. But we missed the men Thomases - John with his dry humor and wholesome advice - Alban with his forethought of what every boy likes - fireworks and circuses and ice cream - and especially Edward, for is he not our railroad committee, and does not the H.I. yearn for the latest bulletin about the railroad and where it's "at?" And it is not too much to say that Mary Bentley Thomas is to the Forethought Committee what her husband is to the railroad committee. We miss her genial presence and her forethought suggestions. The visitors were:
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Charles H. Brooke and wife Mary B. Brooke, Roger B. Farquhar, Mrs. M. B. Magruder and her daughter Mary Eliza Farquhar and Anna Farquhar.
It was a quiet meeting. Benjamin Miller did not have even a fish story to tell us. A story was there however. It was about corn. William Moore has corn on this 18th day of July twelve feet high - and there is reported an official record of corn growing 14 inches in twenty four homes! Then came the story, the paternity of which is affirmed upon Ernest Iddings. We can believe it. That is the paternity. Anyone who has ridden with Ernest on the front seat of the stage from Ashton to Laurel can testify that his string of new and delightful stories made the journey of two hours and a half look like thirty minutes.
"Some corn was so high a boy was sent up the stalk with end of a measuring tape. In coming down it took so long the boy was called to learn the reason of his delay. He reported he was coming, and fast, but the corn was growing so rapidly it kept him in almost the same place."
Forethought: No members of this committee being present, the volunteer suggestions were: Keep the covering of ice in ice house well down especially in the corners. Now is the time to set out cabbage. It is too late for tomatoes. Cut down weeds. This is important. Some southern cities put a money penalty on owners of vacant lots who fail to cut weeds in August. Weeds