Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 171, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 July 1920 — Cales of GOTHAM and other CITIES [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Cales of GOTHAM and other CITIES

America Is to Have Own Oberammergau

LOS ANGELES. —After nearly a century of pilgrimages to the Bavarian Tyrol, America is to have its own Oberammergau. In California, among the hills of Hollywood, there is a canyon, a half-hour’s journey from Los Angeles but seemingly miles away from the world. The sides of the hills that form the caipon almost meet, forming the proscenium areh of a theater of nature. When Mrs. W. Yorke Stevenson of Philadelphia saw the canyon, the plans of the big idea unfolded themselves to her. Possibilities of a new world Oberammergau had been fn her mind for some time, and the enthusiastic approval of her project had come from many religious leaders and Interested laymen. And so Mrs. Stevenson bought the canyon and has since transcribed the gospel into a dramatic presentation of the life of Christ.

“I have wanted for a long time to see established in this country a place that Americans would hold sacred —a place to which pilgrimages would be made,” said Mrs. Stevenson when the play was written and everything was ready for beginning the work this summer. “Now, if ever, seems the time to 'start. After the war and the unquiet of peace, people are turning to religion as a source of relief. “But It must be made very clear, everywhere, that the play will not be given unless the people want it and support lt«” Since 1840 thousands of world wanderers, religious enthusiasts and many others have turned their footsteps to Oberammergau, where every ten years the peasants present the Passion play. The Oberammergau Passion play lasts eight hours, with time allowed in the middle of the day ’ for refreshment. The play itself confines its action to the last week of the life of Christ. The American pilgrimage play depicts the whole life of Christ, and the words of the Savior are given literally without alteration, substitution or interpretation. The performance will last only three hours. It is planned to give the play every year during two summer months.

So Much Feminine Beauty Is Dangerous

CHICAGO. —The sisters Di Folne, Josephine, eighteen, and Theresa, seventeen, en route to a soft drink bar near their home, 817 South Aberdeen street, entered into a discussion of their respective feminine charms. Antoinette Litrento, sixteen years old, 509 South Aberdeen street, paused on her way back from the soft drink bur, and listened. “Huh!” she said. “I’m lovelier than both of you put together.” “What a long tail our cat has got!” said Josephine. “And what a sour look!” said Theresa. "You’re jealous of me,” said Antoinette. “You know I’m lots better looking than either of you. My ma told me so—and she ain’t the only one either.” The argument grew. So did a crowd. So did the noise. The disturbance attracted the attention of Mrs. Di Foine and of Mrs. Litrento. They rushed to the aid of their darlings and became oratorical. Soon the crowd saw a distressing g|>eCfacTe.~ 7 'Blows were ’sEFuckF. Hair, beautiful hair, was pulled, not to say yanked. Beautiful nails cut dainty scratches in peach-blow cheeks and noses that were beautiful only skin deep.

The crowd yelled with delight. Men shouted: “Go to it.” Women shrieked. But the beauties and their mothers fought on; three on one side, two on the other. It looked like defeat for the Litrentos. Antoinette dashed Into her home for a knife. Mrs. Di Folne received a wound. The police came. All the disputants were put in the patrol wagon. Beauties or not. Ambulance Surgeon McElroy sewed up ’ the cut in Mrs. DI Foine’s head, using six stitches. “Hold the two mothers.” the lieutenant said, “and the girl who did the cutting.” ~ “I don’t care,” said Antoinette. *1 am the best looking, and the judge will tell the world so when he sees me In court. Ma, where’s my vanity case?”

Even More Universal Than United States

NEW YORK.—MIIe. Emllienne Romeuf of Orleans, France. Could speak no Italian. Signor Nicola Raspa of Brooklyn, Pa., could speak no French when they met on the good ship La Savoie from Havre for New York. But with the aid of a French-Italian dictionary and an Italian-French ditto — to say nothing of the universal, language that speaks from hand to hand and eye to eye, they got to understand each other very well on the smooth, moonlit crossing. And so in the office of the Travelers’ Aid society. Lexington avenue and Forty-fifth street. Signor Raspa announced that they would be married as soon as the society found him to be a proper person.

Mlle. Romeuf charmingly smiled absent Signor Raspa is an American citizen who has been studying singing in Rome, the city of his nativity. He was on his way back to his Pennsylvania home when he encountered Mlle. Romeuf. The unusual part of this romance — aside from the dictionary courtship— Is that the French girl was on her way here to be married to another man, Sergt. Ray Hewlet of Findlay, 0., when she met the Italian singer. As soon as this meeting occurred, she said through an Interpreter, she knew she did not really love the soldier. So when La Savoie docked she and Signor Raspa endeavored to avoid Sergeant Hewlet, who was at the pier to meet the ship. But he found them, and Mlle. Romeuf had to confess that she did not wish to marry him. Hewlet did not readily give up hope. He has sent a cablegram to the girl’s parents, telling them of her change of heart, and asked them to use their influence upon her. They met in Orleans 18 months ago, when his- regiment was billeted in the town.

Winds of Colorado Continental Divide

DENVER. —Airplanes have been flying around the Colorado Rockies of late, and aviators have been boasting that the winds of the Continental Divide didn’t amount to much after ail. Planes have flown over the high peaks of the Front range from the West. A plane went up from Estes Park and circled around Long’s, Peak (14,255). But the other day an airplane left Denver for Glenwood Springs—westward over the divide — and got a hint of what winds sometimes do among the high peaks. Buffeted by a gale which swept over the backbone of the continent at a velocity at GO miles an hour, forcing his 163-horsepower Curtiss biplane back and down, Walter M. Ainslie, president of the Colorado Aviation corporation, was compelled to abandon his attempt to fly from Denver to Glenwood Springs, and made a forced landing two miles this side of Golden. For one and one-half hours the big plane wrestled with the storjn. Ainslie and his mechanician, Harold Park, then turned back. Riding with the wind, they covered to ten minutes the distance which had taken nearly one and one-half hours against the wind.

When they landed' at Golden the air* plane motor was burned out. They were within two miles of the top of the continental divide when they were forced back. The wind, rushing over the divide has a downward sweep on this side sg it was impossible for them to- hold their altitude. From 14.000 feet they were blown down to 11,000. Then they managed to climb to 15,000 feet, only to be driven down to 11,000 again. “Several times we had to go into r nose dive to right the ship,” said Ainslie. “Time after time we were blown into tail-spins. The air was terribly rough and it was an awful job to keep the ship righted.”