STARLING 



5532 



STAR-SPANGLED BANNER 



THE STARLING 



of the war he served at the head of various 

 departments. Stark was rewarded by thanks 

 from Congress and the rank of brigadier-gen- 

 eral, conferred in October, 1777. 



STARLING, a song bird related to the black- 

 bird, common throughout the Old World. It 

 is black in color, glossed with greenish, purple 

 or lilac, and has its feathers tipped with buff. 

 The common starling is a favorite bird in Eng- 

 land, where it is 

 resident for most 

 of the year, re- 

 tiring only in the 

 coldest weather to 

 Southern Europe 

 or to North 

 Africa. It is seen 

 in large flocks 

 even during the 

 nesting season, 

 and is invaluable 

 to farmers on ac- 

 count of the num- 

 bers of insects it 



devours; in the fruit season, however, it eats 

 so many berries, cherries and even apples and 

 pears that it is considered somewhat of a pest 

 at that time. It nests about buildings or in 

 holes in cliffs. The eggs are four to seven in 

 number and a light greenish-blue in color. 

 About sixty common starlings were liberated 

 in Central Park, New York, in 1890, and have 

 spread to all parts of the city and surrounding 

 country. Bird lovers of that section are doubt- 

 ful as to the benefit of these newcomers be- 

 cause of their quarrelsome habits, which are 

 driving out the native song birds. 



STAR OF BETHLEHEM, a small, hardy 

 plant of the lily family, the flowers of which 

 have the form of a six-pointed star. The petal- 

 like sepals are white, but have green stripes on 

 the outside, a color scheme repeated in the 

 leaves, which are green with white stripes. The 

 star of Bethlehem is a native of Italy, but has 

 become a common garden plant in America. 

 The flower stalk springs from a coated bulb. 



STAR ROUTES, the name given to desig- 

 nated routes over which mail is transported, 

 under private contract, in the United States, 

 by messenger on foot, on horseback or by 

 wagon. The name star routes was applied be- 

 cause in government records all such routes are 

 marked by an asterisk, or star. Many people 

 live in districts remote from railroads ; this has 

 been particularly true in the West, and in many 

 sections the condition largely prevails to-day. 



Routes over railroads or by steamboat are 

 not called star routes. It should be noted also 

 that rural free delivery routes are not star 

 routes. A star route is one in which mail is 

 transported in bulk from a point where it leaves 

 a train or steamboat to designated post offices, 

 there to be distributed to individuals addressed. 

 There are many star routes in the United 

 States, but with the extension of railroad fa- 

 cilities they are constantly decreasing in num- 

 ber and in importance. 



Star Route Frauds. This term was applied 

 to irregularities in the postal service on star 

 routes, discovered in the last days of the ad- 

 ministration of President Hayes. Fraudulent 

 petitions were forwarded to the postoffice au- 

 thorities in Washington, urging the creation of 

 new star routes and furnishing "estimates" for 

 carrying the mails over them at prices far 

 above the necessary cost of the service. These 

 estimates were allowed, and the money fraudu- 

 lently derived therefrom was divided among 

 the parties to the plot. The guilty parties were 

 finally exposed and the conspiracy was broken 

 up in the administration of President Garfield. 

 T. J. Brady, second assistant Postmaster-Gen- 

 eral, and S. W. Dorsey, a Senator from Arkan- 

 sas, were tried for complicity in this plot, but 

 were acquitted. William P. Kellog, a Senator 

 from Louisiana, was also indicted in this con- 

 nection, but his case was not tried. It is esti- 

 mated that the plot, if successful, would have 

 defrauded the government of half a million 

 dollars a year. It is said that only one person 

 connected with these frauds was ever punished, 

 and he was believed to be innocent. 



STAR-SPANGLED BANNER, THE, an 

 American patriotic song, written by Francis 

 Scott Key. After the burning of Washington, 

 D. C., by the British soldiers, in August, 1814, 

 Dr. William Beanes of Upper Marlborough, 

 Md., threw three British refugees into jail, and. 

 for this he was arrested by an English regi- 

 ment and taken as a captive aboard a warship 

 in Chesapeake Bay. John S. Skinner of Wash- 

 ington, and Key, then a young attorney in the 

 District of Columbia, were granted permission 

 by Secretary of State James Monroe to inter- 

 cede for the doctor, and these two boarded the 

 vessel just as it was preparing to bombard 

 Fort McHenry, the chief protection of Balti- 

 more. The British officers agreed to release 

 Beanes, but refused to allow the two Ameri- 

 cans to leave the vessel until after the battle, 

 lest they should tell the plans to the patriots 

 on land. 



