BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH liii 



ing in, even the editor's sisters were pressed into service and 

 put to setting type or dampening the sheets. The office force 

 was small and sometimes conspicuously absent. Besides the 

 editorials Andrew supplied a great part of the literary con- 

 tents himself by translation and articles of his own. The 

 "Vienna Times" had a fairly wide circulation in Northern Vir- 

 ginia and extracts were sometimes copied from its pages into 

 other papers. 



After graduation, while engaged with the paper, he grew 

 interested in the telephone, just then becoming known. As an 

 entire instrument could not be bought, he purchased the 

 various parts, put them together, and found himself in posses- 

 sion of two telephones. With the aid of three young friends 

 of his own age, he set up the poles, stretched the wires and 

 established communication between Vienna and his own home. 

 The four young men did the work with their own hands, 

 including the cutting of the poles. This was in the open- 

 ing '8o's. 



To the Shipman home drifted every foreigner who en- 

 tered that end of Fairfax County. That Andrew Shipman 

 spoke Spanish was well known. More than one Spaniard 

 or Spanish American family sought him out to explain his 

 or its situation or to find possible employment. Andrew even 

 stood as godfather to their babies. 



One day in the autumn arrived one Stefan ^Mel zer. That 

 was only part of his name, for Stefan had a Bohemian father 

 and a German mother and the Czeckish name was too difficult 

 for Fairfax throats and lips. Stefan was in his seafaring 

 costume, a draggled fur cap and a ragged jersey. He had 

 just landed at Baltimore and had set out to walk until he 

 found employment. He had been forwarded to Andrew Ship- 

 man as one who could understand anything a foreigner said. 

 He had been in the Austrian army and spoke German, which 

 was the medium of communication between him and Andrew. 

 Stefan, being a hoch bauer, was anxious to learn and better 

 himself, and finding the young master of the farm was curious 

 about languages, exchanged Czeckish for English. This was 

 the beginning of Andrew Shipman's fruitful interest in the 

 eastern European languages. When Stefan went West a 

 year and a half later — the hot summers of the South were 

 too much for him — Andrew used the tongue with considerable 



