tion of sex, then residing within the territory affected, as expressed by their votes. The proposition was rejected by a large majority, and, strange to say, the women voted almost unanimously against it. In other words, they did not enthuse very much over popular education if they had to pay for it.

I cannot refrain from saying a word about that beloved man, J. Ormond Wilson. Kind, considerate, thoughtful, painstaking, magnetic, thorough-the type of a man you could not help loving and admiring. He and my father— for whom I was named—were close friends and associates. Mr. Wilson became Superintendent in 1870, under Mayor Emery, he having been previously a member of the Board of Trustees since 1861. In 1866-67 he was a clerk in the Sixth Auditor's Office, Post Office Department. My father, John Clagett Proctor, served as Treasurer from July, 1868, to May 1871, under Mayors Bowen and Emery, and during this period occasionally performed the duties of Secretary as well. Evidently he was regarded very highly by the Board, as the following, under date of July 12, 1869, would indicate: "Resolved, That the thanks of the Board are eminently due and are heartily tendered Mr. J. C. Proctor, our worthy Treasurer, for the faithful and efficient manner in which he has discharged his duties the past year, and he is respectfully recommended to his honor the Mayor for renomination to the same office for the ensuing year, and that the Secretary pro tem be requested to inclose a copy of this resolution to the Mayor." Other pressing duties, however, compelled him to decline to serve after 1871.

It was while he was serving as Treasurer that an incident occurred showing Mr. Wilson's solicitude and consideration for others.

It seems the day had arrived for the school employes to receive their monthly salaries. My father was extremely

busy that day with his duties as City Editor of the National Republican. However, being punctual in everything, he determined not to disappoint the teachers on this occasion, and so, arranged to pay them off at eight o'clock that night. He drew the necessary money from the Treasury and took it home in a satchel and gave it to my mother with the strict injunction not to let it get out of her sight, and to bring it down to the Franklin Building at eight o'clock that night.

Living then in a declining neighborhood, on the edge of what was fast becoming "Hell's Bottom," the thought of the great responsibility of having so much money to look after, worried her to such an extent that when she at last delivered the money to my father in the Franklin Building, she collapsed and fainted, and was sometime coming to. Mr. Wilson, having knowledge of the circumstances, took my father kindly to task for what he thought was an imprudent thing to do; he attributed my mother's condition to heart trouble, and said that he had a weak heart and that he knew it was wrong to excite a person with a weakness of this character. He said it would be better to postpone the pay day to a future day rather than subject my mother to this undue excitement. Needless to say, it never happened again. My mother lived to be nearly 77; Mr. Wilson must have been around 80 at the time of his death. My father, who claimed to have nothing the matter with his heart, died at the age of 43.

Mr. Wilson, to use a slang expression, was always on the job. He visited all the schools and familiarized himself with the progress of every class. He had a penchant for humor, and well I remember an occasion when he visited our school at Ninth and S streets, N. W. He asked the boys what they made out of elephant's hair? Every boy had a different answer, from tooth brushes to whitewash

brushes, stopping only this side of scrubbing brushes. After all had finished, he told us that an elephant had no hair, at least not sufficient for commercial and manufacturing purposes.

Personally, I knew Mr. Wilson well. I have been to his home in Highland Terrace on several occasions. He was really one of the best men I ever knew. Indeed, I believe we all can truthfully say: Superintendents may come, and Superintendents may go, but the name of J. Ormond Wilson will live on forever.

EARLY MOVEMENTS FOR

FOR A

A NATIONAL

OBSERVATORY, 1802-1842

By DR. CHARLES O. PAULLIN

(Read before the Society February 15, 1921.)

DURING the first half of the nineteenth century the

Federal Government was exceedingly penurious in its encouragement of knowledge and learning. Many members of Congress believed that an appropriation for this purpose was unconstitutional. Those members who were imbued with the theory of States' rights saw in the establishment of scientific bureaus an undue extension of the powers of the central government. Moreover, the interests of parties, classes, and individuals were involved in these questions, and as a result the cause of knowledge suffered. Culture and education were then less widely diffused than at the present time, and the people, therefore, were generally indifferent' to the national encouragement of science. Even work of great practical value, such as the survey of the coast, the preparation of a nautical almanac, and the study of winds and weather, was regarded by many as unnecessary. The inland states were disinclined to vote for these purposes, since it would chiefly benefit the seaboard. A few progressive men, the choice spirits of their time, however, early advocated the encouragement of knowledge and learning by the Federal Government.

Various projects were formed for a national institution devoted to the study of astronomy. Thomas Jefferson, as an amateur, made astronomical observations, and at one time had a plan for a national observatory. Some of the

leading professors of Bowdoin College and citizens of Brunswick, Maine, early memorialized Congress to establish an observatory in their town. Writing in 1824, H. C. Knight favored the establishment of a "National Observatory, whose top, with a sublimer intent than that of ancient Babel, should look into the sky; with complete astronomical apparatus, and resident professors, and salaries so liberal as to induce the most elevated intellects to devote their entire energies, during life, in tracing the marches and countermarches of the planets, and deciphering the golden hieroglyphics of heaven. Now Rittenhouse is above the stars, let Doctor Bowditch sit up in the toptower, and be the first Herschel of America." When in the thirties of the last century the founding of a naval academy was being discussed, it was proposed to connect with it an astronomical observatory, whose professors should constitute a "board of longitude." Many other isolated proposals and suggestions might be mentioned. '

1

There were four general movements for a national observatory, each of which extended over a considerable period of time. Each was originated and chiefly promoted by a single man-by F. R. Hassler, William Lambert, John Quincy Adams, and James M. Gilliss, respectively. The Hassler movement is connected with the founding of the Coast Survey, and the Lambert movement with the establishment in the United States of a first meridian. The movement of Adams formed a part of his plan for the promotion by the federal government of science, learning, and public improvements. The undertakings of Gilliss in behalf of an observatory grew out of his actual experience as an astronomical observer in a little building

1A. A. Lipscomb, Writings of Thomas Jefferson, XIII, 111; XIX, ix; House Repts., 19 Cong., 1 sess., no. 124, pp. 22-23; H. C. Knight, Letters from the South and West, 47; Military and Naval Magazine, IV, 170-171.