Indianapolis Times, Volume 45, Number 255, Indianapolis, Marion County, 5 March 1934 — Page 9

Second Section

It Seems to Me By Heywood Broun MIAMI. March s.—Edsel Ford, who has never been rated precisely as the horse's friend, did h:s bit the other afternoon at Hialeah Park to improve the breed. Mr. Ford and I were on a horse together. We both had Scythe in the third race six furlongs. 3-year-old maidens, claiming, purse S7OO. The automobile man and I backed Scythe in precisely the same way. Each of us had $5 on the nose and another $5 ticket for place. It would make a good story if I said that when the pack swung into the stretch Edsel Ford undertook to root his horse home with loud cries of “Ride ’im. Wright! Boot that baby home! - ’ My devotion to the integrity of the news compels me to report that Mr. Ford did

nothing of the sort. It was not a whipping blanket finish, for Scythe came down in front by about three-quarters of a length under a nice hand ride. Still it was close enough to raise the blood pressure of an aged columnist who had not won a bet all day until he found himself by chance in association with Mr. Ford. it a a Calm Industrialist IT is not my own custom to . root for such horses as bear my wagers. Generally it. seems a little silly to call the attention to the fact that a race is on.

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Heywood Broun

One does not kick a man who is down or belabor v ith encouragement or denunciation a horse which lias been left at the pot. Even when my forlorn hope is thereabouts the shouting of his name in a public place may tend to distract him. My technique is that of the late Pittsburgh Phil. Nobody can tell from looking at my face whether 1 have .just lost $2 or gained $lO. Still, of the two men on the clubhouse porch who had their all on Scythe. Edsel Ford was the calmer. He watched the shifting colors in the scramble down the stretch much as if he were a dahlia judge at, a flower show. They would be dahlias in a brisk wind. Hr was interested but not in any sense car- , r ,\ , . Indeed, he asked the man who accompanied him. “That was my horse, wasn’t it?" Assured that Scythe had turned the trick, Mr. Ford turned quite briskly to the stairway leading fjnwn to the windows where the machines pay off. •Oh. just, a minute, Edsel,” said his friend. ‘lt isnt official yet.’’ a a a Easy on the Flamingoes MR. FORD came back and. for all I know, shared with me that agony which any winner undergoes while he still fears that maybe somebody will claim a foul and the fair rewards so close to his grasp may be snatched away again. And they were fair rewards. Edsel Ford got for his investment of $lO the sum of $26.80, which represents a profit of $16.80. Just what peiceni.age of return upon your money that may be is a little too hard for me to work out in my head. I imagine Mr. Ford would know. He looked across the Widener lake to the outer edges of the track. “Nice little plant they have here.” said Edsel Ford. That rather surprised me. I wasn't, at all sure he would think so. After all. the infield was cluttered up with a couple of hundred flamingoes doing precisely nothing. If Mr. Ford were in chatge of the track it would seem to me that his first job would ho to call in an efficiency man and compute the amount spent on the upkeep of the birds and the precise amount of business which thej biing in to the corporation. It is my very strong impression that very few of the patrons of Hialeah Park take the slightest interest in improving the breed of flamingoes. I fear that under a Ford regime some plant inspector would come around on a tour of inspection and upon finding a flamingo standing on one leg encaged in philosophic speculation would fire the whole crew and covey. a a tt More Ford Efficiency Neglected THERE never has been much of a flamingo touch in any of the Ford operations. It s official now,” said the friend, and an instant later Edsel was all business. In ppite of overweight and advancing years very few people can out rush me to the window when J. have a winning ticket in my hand. I'm always figuring that something may happen. And I don t want to lose the interest on the money. Nevertheless. Edsel Ford beat me to the pay booth by at least three lengths. The window was not yet open, and he had to stand in line for three or four minutes. And once again I was surprised. That didn't seem like Ford efficiency to me. No key industrialist, can afiord to waste three or four minutes to get $26.80. The time of captains of business is much more valuable than that. And no skilled labor was required. I could have cashed both tickets myself and cut the operation in half. I trust that this brief record of Edsel Ford’s race track fling in Florida will not serve to frighten the stockholders. If I am any judge of human nature I think it is safe to assert that there is no evidence as yet that the life has got him. I think that at the end of the meet he will still be the more solvent of us two. (Copyright. 1934. bv Tbe Times)

Your Health r,Y DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN

PERSONS who enjoy ill health are unfortunate for themselves and for those about them. Eton the physician would like to avoid them. Hypochondriasis has been called the most foolish and at the same time, the saddest of all diseases. No one is perfectly healthy. Even those persons whose pictures you see in the physical culture magazines. swelling the muscles and dotting the lightning, have aches and pains. The vast majority of persons, however, have thresholds of irritation —that is to say, the minor things do not disturb them. They pay no attention to themselves as long as they can do their daily work and be unaware of their bodies during tunes of both work and recreation. There is no fear so dismaying as the fear of disease. So long as we are unaware of pains, we are bigger than they are. Eventually, however, when a pain breaks into the consciousness, we become subject to the pain. tt tt it ONE of the greatest assets in overcoming fear of anv kind is knowledge. Thus, we have the old saying that familiarity breeds contempt. The man who knows disease is not afraid of it. To the hypochondriac, every couch means a warning of consumption. To the informed individual. a cough is merely a symptom of a tremendous number of conditions, only a few of which are serious. This does not mean, however, that you should disregard any kind of symptom. tt tt a WE know today that symptoms of various kinds are the means by which nature warns you that something is wrong with your body machine. Again, the reaction of the normal individual to any kind of symptom, if he is intelligent, is not a reaction of alarm, but merely a signal for investigation. The intelligent and courageous man. who hears a noise in his house during the night, knows that In the vast majority of cases it is merely the effects of the wind, of climatic changes, or of some ordinary manifestation. He. therefore, coolly investigates before calling the police. The alarmist or hypochondriacal individual takes every sound for an invasion of burglars or the beginning of an explosion, and constantly subjects his nervous system to a series of unhealthful shocks.

Fnll Leased Wire Service of the t nifed Press Association

This it the fourth article in a series describing the life, personality and career of Charles Dickens, whose posthumous "life of Our lord.” starts today elsewhere in this newspaper. BV WILLIAM ENGLE Times Special Writer “Tl|Y friend,” said Mr. PickIVJL wick, “you don't really mean to say that human beings live down in those wretched dungeons?” “Don't I?” replied Mr. Roker, with indignant astonishment. “Why shouldn't I?” Well, Dickens, who never forgot that as a little boy he saw? his improvident and hapless father in one of those cells for debtors, told many times why the Mr. Roker of his “Pickwick Papers” should not have looked upon prison abuses as a matter of course. And Marshalsea and Fleet, the English dens for debtors, are gone. But he always kept in character. He was a story teller. He never presented a detailed plan of social reform. He did something which even more sharply brought the need of it to the public consciousness. Time and • again something such as this: "Live down there <in dungeons)? Yes. and die down there, too, very often!” replied Mr. Roknr. "And what of that? Who's to say anything ag'in it?” Dickens was. He never relented in his articulate scorn for the stupidity of the jail system of his day. His words were among the first to beat down, finally, walls of vengeance and open the way for such humanization of prison life as Lewis E. Lawes now? makes succeed in Sing Sing. a a a HOGARTH he called the “great moralist and censor of his age.” and W. Walter Crotch, his English biographer, called Dickens that. Yet he is remembered best, as it is probable he thought he would be, not by his ideas of reform but by the individualism of the characters he created. The prison injustices of his day in England have been abolished. So have those of that day in America. Sing Sing football and dramatics are today’s answer to Dickens’ voice—although no one can forget that Welfare Island is not, nor the gunfire that roared not long ago in the cell blocks of Auburn, nor the debtors’ prison of New York, its alimony jail. It might have been alimony jail that Dickens saw when he visited his father, and put the story later into fiction: “It strikes me, Sam,” said Mr. Pickwick, leaning over the iron rail at the stairhead, “it strikes me. Sam. that imprisonment (for debt) is scarcely any punishment at all.” “Think not, sir?” said Mr. Weller. “You see how these fellows drink and smoke and roar,” replied Mr. Pickwick. “It's quite impossible that they can mind it much.” ‘Ah. that's just the very thing, sir,” rejoined Sam. “THEY don't mind it; it’s regular holiday to them—all porter and skettles. It’s t’other vuns as gets done over vith this sort o’ thing, them downhearted fellers as can’t svig at the beer, nor play skettles neither; them as vould pay if they could, and gets low by being boxed up ” a a a DICKENS, vigorously opposed by reactionaries of his time, worked for just such reforms as are vigorously opposed in this time hv such men as Judge Marcus Kavanagh. of Chicago. He is the seer who is always willing to declare that the problem of law breaking is the result of babying prisoners, the solon who thinks that the modern cell block is too much like a gentleman's club. He believes it is a luxury for a prisoner to have a cell and a radio imparting “all the speeches

Kate Smith Knows How to Develop Rhythm in Her Songs and She Does Just That in Her Appearance at the Indiana This Week BY WALTE R D. HICKMAN

KATE SMITH, like all others who are worshiped at a distance by thousands, faces a serious problem when she makes a personal appearance. Miss Smith faces the many difficulties of a personal appearance

3liss Smith

menace, and she meets the problem by just being herself. She makes one error by bouncing on to the stage on her first appearance. This acrobatic appearance lets her down and it takes a little time to overcome the first impression. The moment she becomes Kate Smith and her voice comes over the loud speaker system she recaptures the admiration of her audience. She handles the microphone differently than any one in the business. She grasps the “mike" and sways to the rhythm of the melody she sings. Miss Smith relies upon the quality of her voice and her inflection to put her songs over. She knows how to develop rhythm as few do today. For a musical background she uses Jack Miller and his good band, as well as her own accompanist at the piano. During the last part of the act, she serves as

The Indianapolis Times

IMMORTAL DICKENS MARCHES ON

He Is Remembered Best by Individualism of His Characters

by appea ring with a large orchestra and five acts of vaudeville under the title of “Swanee River Revue.’ In the past, many leaders in radio entertainhave turned out to be flops on the variety stage and with one stroke des tr o yed the admiration and respect ot their fans. Miss Smith is aware of this

INDIANAPOLIS, MONDAY, MARCH 5, 1934

Mr. Micawber and David Copperfield go walking—from a Crtiickshank illustration. Right: Old Marshalsea Prison, of which Dickens w?rote in “Little Dorrit.”

of leading statesmen and other thinkers.” He does not mention that as far back as 1923, when the “club facilities” were far better than they are now, because of less crowding, “clubmen” to the number of 2,500 executed daring and dangerous escapes. Dickens would have liked to put Judge Kavanagh into a book. a a a DICKENS, characterizer and reformer, through all the years that followed robustious “Pickwick,” was not, however, a bitter cynic. “His private life consisted of one tragedy and 10.000 comedies,” wrote G. K. Chesterton. “By one tragedy I mean one real and rending moral tragedy—the failure of his marriage. “He loved his children dearly and more than one of them died, but in sorrows like these there is no violence and. above all, no shame. The end of life is not tragic like the end of love. And by the 10,000 comedies I mean the whole texture of his life, his letters, his conversation, which were one incessant carnival of insane and inspired improvisation. “So far as he could prevent it he never permitted a day of his life to be ordinary. “There was always some prank, some impetuous hospitality and some sudden disappearance. “It is related of him that in his last visit to America, when he was already reeling, as it were, under the blow that was to be mortal, he remarked quite casually to his companions that a row of painted cottages looked exactly like the painted shops in a pantomime.”

master of ceremonies and re-in-troduces the various acts which have preceded her. Her revue is not elaborate, but she has talent which pleases. Every second of her act is clean and wholesome. The Reilly children are good tap dancers and they work with speed. Don Cummings talks while he manipulates a rope and gives his impression of Will Rogers. Some of his rope patterns are excellent. Steve Evans, by fixing his hair and changing the expression of his face, imitates many Hollywood stars. The movie is “I’ve got your Number’’ and tells in a breezy and at times slangy style the trouble of the trouble hunter of a telephone company in a large city. This one gets the laughs and hands out a few' thrills. It is audience proof. Now at the Indiana. FIVE NEW BOOKS ARE RECEIVED AT LIBRARY “Toward Liquor Control" Among Volumes at Branch. Five new books were received today by the business branch of the Indianapolis public library at Ohio and Meridian streets. The books are “Towards Liquor Control," by Fosdick; “The Tax Racket," by Untereiner; “Truth About Life Insurance.” by Hughes; “Personal Achievements,” by Roberts. and “Financial Examination," by Thornton. Concerning the book, “Towards Liquor Control." John D. Rockefeller Jr. makes the following statement: “To develop the habit of temperance. to take up again the slow march of education—that is the fundamental approach to the problem of alcohol."

STRAIGHTWAY, mimicking a clown in a harlequinade, he tapped the doorpost with his fist, then ceremoniously lay down across the step, ready for some one within to bustle out and tumble over him. Then he arose sedately and went on with his abashed acquaintances. Still this man who often was one with the “divine lunatic” in “Nicholas Nickleby” was, Crotch maintains, “the interpreter, the guide and, I may add, the prophet and teacher of the English people, not only for his own generation but for now and all time. He had an intuitive understanding of their character, an insight into their mentality and a. lively consciousness of their faults that no one in the whole range of literature had possessed save and except William Shakespeare. “His novels are as full of moral significance, as fresh and powerful in their warning mandates, as timely in their criticsm, at once so genial and so effective, as when they were first penned threequarters of a century ago, and as they will be a century hence.” a a a HIS style, of course, is dated. He described degradation, but not as Caldwell or Hemingway or James M. Cain w?ould today. It pleased him, he said, never to have written a book unsuited for the eyes of a child. In his Victorian time the day of completely reported vernacular was three-quarters of a century away. Yet harsh truth, in the form of fiction, he told with biting effectiveness.

Pop Loves His Children “■pOP" CAMERON admits that i he loves his three children — Bob, Dave and a blond daughter —so much that he could knock ’em down and even break their necks. The Four Camerons, a variety

stage institution built along burlesque lines, is the center around which “Bottoms Up." anew vaudeville revue, is built. Dave still is the “most terrible" member of the Cameron outfit. His quarrels ■with his father on the stage have been repeated so many times that this act has become a stage standby. But

Miss Oliver

the Camerons do it well and their material always appears spontaneous. The Chester Hale Girls show the results of splendid training. The costumes in all numbers are beautiful and the girls in the ensemble numbers work in perfect agreement. The Lee Gails are magnificent ballroom and acrobatic dancers. Their idea of the Apache dance is drawing roars of applause, especially when Lee throws his partner into the orchestra pit. It is all in fun and no damage is done. The Gails form a splendidly trained dance team. The sensation of the revue is Helen Homan, who gives impressions of Hollywood stars. The very best impressions of Mae West and Zasu Pitts are offered by Miss Honam. Her Mae West is almost on a par with the original as to voice, walk and appearance. Miss Honam is a genius.

Hfe 1 * j|t i Jb - r -A-1 /*7 iEf A.' .- M •• ‘ - '

Telling it in 1849—when he was 37 —he reached what is generally regarded as the high point of his fame. He worked all that year—at Bonchurch, in the Isle of Wight, in the summer and at his London house at Devonshire Terrace in the winter, then the next summer at Brighton—on “David Copperfield.” And it is his own life story. The fervor he puts into it is plain in a note he sent at the time to a sub-editor: “I am in that tremendous paroxysm, having my most powerful effect in all the story on the anvil, that you might as well ask me to manufacture a cannon seventyfour pounds as to do anything now.” What he meant, undoubtedly, was that he was writing the unforgettable fifty-fifth chapter, with the storm and the shipwreck and cruel, handsome Steerforth suddenly, unbelievably dead on the sands at Yarmouth. a a a THIS was the grievous denouncement: “Tlie old remembrance that had been recalled to me was in his look, and I asked him, ‘Has a body come ashore?’ “Yes.” “Do I know it?” “He answered nothing, but he led me to the shore. And on that part of it where she and I had looked for shells two children—on that part of it where some lighter

Miss Dolly Bell is a splendid acrobatic dancer and Beth Miller sings blues songs well. The feature movie is “The Poor Rich,” and has the comedy services of Edward Everett Horton and Edna May Oliver. At the Lyric. n tt tt Here Is a Singing Romance TT is the music of Jerome Kern and the singing of Ramon Novarro and Jeanette MacDonald, which makes “The Cat and the Fiddle.” The movie version really has too much story and plot. The

first half of the movie (the way the many tunes are put over in a natural way by the two singing stars) is a gem. The last half loses that intimate charm by becoming too much Hollywood. Mr. Novarro is cast as a popular song writer of the Bohemian and is - trict in Brussells

Mr. Novarro

and Mrs. MacDonald arrives there to study music. Ramon goes ga-ga over Jeanette, but it requires a lot of work on Ramon’s part to get Jeanette interested. But when she falls, she falls hard. Os course there is a “villain" always just around the comer ready to snatch the beautiful Jeanette from Ramon. The villain is Frank Morgan and he does a nice job of it. Finally, Ramon and Jeanette separate while Ramon is seeking inspiration for his new operetta, “The Cat and the Fiddle.” The -last half of the movie is devoted

fragments of the old boat, blown down last night, had been scattered by the wind, among the ruins of the home he had wronged —I saw him lying with his head upon his arm as I had often seen him lie at school.” Dickens liked the book better than any of his others. “Like all fathers,” he once said. “I have a favorite child and his name is David Copperfield.” He put his own father into it and made him. as Mr. Micawber, live dofcn the ages. One paragraph, after Mr. Micawber, as he had to do so often, had fended off a “ferocious” and “dirty-faced” creditor, gives you the man: At these times Mr. Micawber would be transported with grief and mortification, even to the length (as I w?as once made aware by a scream from his wife) of making motions at himself with a razor, but, within half an hour afterward, he would polish up his shoes with extraordinary pains and go out. humming a tune with a greater air of gentility than ever.” a a a ONE reason, of the many, why such characters as Mr. Micawber were vivid, seems to have been the choice of their names. Dickens pondered on them interminably; carried slips of papers along with him on his long walks and jotted down possibilities.

So “Martin Chuzzlewit,” for example, was the product of an evolution during which at different times he was Sweegleden, Sweezleback, Sweezlewag, Chuzzletoe, Chuzzleboy, Chubblewig and Chuzzlewig. And David Copperfield evolved, at the end of a long line, from David Mag. The people who in his time read him, esteemed him more for such characterizations than they did for his underlying sociology. So do most of the people who read him today. It is the fate of the reformer to be remembered as the creator of people whose counterparts still live just around the corner. a a a T his 50s, when with the death sentence in his eyes he came the second time to America. Americans lionized him not so much as a sociologist, as a town crier. At that national occasion the press dinner for him in Delmonico’s on the night of April 18, 1868, beside the guest of honor sat Horace Greeley, and down front were S. S. McClure. Thomas Nast and Charles Eliot Norton. That warmed the liver, lights and heart of the man from Kent. But he was happier when, a little later, he got back to his own Gad’s Hill. Then the villagers, with fluttering flags, conducted him home. Then for him, from the parish church, there rang a peal of bells.

to Ramon's troubles in getting his show r produced. Os course, Jeanette appears in time to sing the chief role and the ending is very, very much Hollywood. The two chief singers handle the demands of the musical score in a pleasing manner. The comedy relief is supplied ’ by Charles Butterworth. Butterworth is one of the screen's best droll comedians. Now at Loew’s Palace. a st tt In Other City Theaters : | "'HE Apollo today offers Will Rogers in “David Harum." The Circle is presenting Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert in j “It Happened One Night." Both I have been reviewed in this de--5 partment. Other theaters today offer: “Dinner at Eight" and “S. O. S. Iceberg" at the Ambassador, burlesque and movies at the Rialto, and burlesque at the Mutual. LUMBER CO. MANAGERBARELY MISSES DEATH Bullet Crashes Through Door of Firm's Office. A bullet crashes through the front door of the Phoenix Lumber Company, 1319 North Capitol avenue, Saturday, narrowly missing the head of Willard Holliday, manager, and shattered a rear window of the shop. Police investigating the case, learned from neighbors that five shots had been fired in Cora street in the rear of the lumber company and a car occupied by several men was seen speeding west on Cora street toward Capitol avenue. No description of the car could be ob--1 tained, , ht

Second Section

Entered as Second-Class Matter at Postoffice, Indianapolis

Fair Enough By Westbrook Pegler THE prizefight between Primo Camera and Tommy Loughran in Miami established a modern low record in the matter of gate receipts with a gross of $40,000, scant, in the midst of the spendingest population in the world. Tex Rickard, in his day, was known to get 525.000 for the radio rights alone, and he sometimes was compelled to give away in graft to the local statesmen more money than his successors in the Madison Square Garden firm were able to collect from all sources for their production. Two obvious reasons why the customers did not wish to invest in this show were Primo Camera and Tommy Loughran, respectively. If Primo had knocked Loughran out that would have proved only

that Loughran had no business in the ring with a man eightysix pounds bigger. When Primo failed to knock him out, that proved that he was a terrible fighter and no fit custodian of the heavyweight championship of the world which the orators at the prizefight banquets used to describe as the fairest bauble in fistiana’s diadem. The result, when Loughran still was alive and in tolerably sound health after fifteen rounds, merely identified Loughran as the next best man to the worst heavyweight championship of them all, a minor distinction and a finding of little cash value. But, in addition to the two

principal trade deterrants, it must be kept in mind in a study of this solemn situation that the two funniest and most provocative prizefight commissioners that ever lashed about them with the bladders of high authority in pugilism had passed from the scene within the past year. William Muldoom and James A. Farley, whose official decrees used to keep pugilism in print in a hilarious way on many dull days when the gladiators and their managers were sulking in their speakeasies and refusing to fight because they disliked one another, were of no help this time. a a a Often Broke Rules MR. MULDOON. weary to exhaustion of the mischievous little problems which lie used to take so seriously and never could solve even by fiat, had died. And Mr. Farley, who governed pugilism by year with an easy disregard for the rules which he had laid down nimself. had progressed to greater responsibilities in the postoffice and patronage. It is to be hoped for the good of the new deal that Mr. Farley administers his duties in the postoffice with a more careful regard for the laws than he showed when he was chairman of the prize fight commission. As prize fight commissioner, Mr. Farley often revoked himself and broke the rules of his administration to confer valuable favors on his friends. One of his friends was James J. Johnson, the present matchmaker of the Garden corporation. Two of the fighters who were disqualified from competition for life by Mr. Farley and with no little indignation, either, for conduct contrary to the high principles which all true sport lovers hold dear, were Primo Camera and Bat Battalino. But each of them was readmitted to resoectable professional society within a short time by Mr. Farley in order that his friend Mr. Johnson could present them in contests which enabled him to turn a profit. Mr. Farley may not need reminding that the same sort of generosity toward his friends in the postoffice and patronage departments likely is to be taken much more seriously and resented muen vigorously. The sport journalists used to make more or less merry over fils informal ways with the laws of pugilism. Eut the political correspondents in Washington are a mirthless lot and they would be likely to ride a man out of office and smear up an entire administration if they should ever catch him conferring favors of corresponding size on his friends at the expense of the official rules and ethics of public office. a tt tt They're Like Coolie Labor MR. MULDOON and Mr. Farley were a stimulating influence in pugilism. They were always solemn about their duties and the more solemn they were the funnier. Consequently, in their time as commissioners, pugilism was one great round of hilarity. A secondary, but important factor in the decline of the prize fight industry has been the bashfulness of all the champions except Barney Ross, who holds the lightweight title, at a time when the amateurs have been fighting tremendously for pleasure and souvenirs of no intrinsic value. In these great amateur competitions, notably the Golden Gloves, the customers sometimes are invited to watch the fighters fight in two rings at once for four or five hours an evening, for a maximum price of sl.lO. or a minimum of 25 cents. Under this scale the contests cost the spectator about 2 cents a struggle in the preferred sections and about two-for-a-cent upstairs. They are enthusiastic struggles, too, with a minimum of clinching, whi Is a dull business and Tommy Loughran's specialty when he is fighting big men. And they provide sufficient skill and carnage, in the course of an evening’s program, to fulfill the expectations which always are being aroused by the prose- ioral gladiators and almost invariably thwarted. Primo and Tommy fought on a scale of from S2O down to $2. The amateurs represent a sort of coolie labor. For the protection of the prize fight profession they ought to be enjoined. (Copyright. 1934. by United Feature Syndicate, Inc.)

WE sometimes call the twentieth century the Age of Specialization. That must make mother nature smile, for specialization is one of her oldest tricks. Professor A. S. Pearse of Duke university cites a sample case. “At the mouth of the Menam in Siam." he tells us, “there are three species of gobiold fishes which live together on the muddy beaches. They do not occupy horizontal zones, but skip together when the tide is out, hunting for food. “On examination the largest goby was found to subsist chiefly on fishes and crabs, and the length of its intestine averaged about two-thirds that of its body. The goby of medium size had an intestine nearly three times as long as its body and ate little but algae. The small goby fed mostly on insects and had an intestine shorter than its body. “The parasites of the gobies were also quite distinct and characteristic. Though the three species of gobies were occupying the same area, each was adjusted quite differently to the environment." Animals tend to become specialists in their relations with their en-’ironment, Professor Pearse says. tt a a PROFESSOR PEARSE is interested in that branch of biology known technically as ecology. It deals with the mutual relations between organisms and their environment. There are three great “ecological realms”—the sea, fresh water and lands. An area in any of these where conditions are more or less uniform is known technically as a “habitat." “If one studies in detail the adaptations of animals to environment,” Professor Pearse says, “he is often surprised at the degree of accuracy with which many of them fit particular habitats. Along the shores of the coral islands at Dry Tortugas there are four species of hermit crabs and each is adapted to life at a particular stratum. “A gigantic species which lives at depths of from one to sixty fathoms has twenty-six gills. Another rather small species that lives in a zone about one meter thick just below the tide mark also haa twenty-six gills."

Today's Science BY DAVID DIETZ ■■■■-

■ * '&*■ M and . "■■■ >*r \4 V

Westbrook Pegler