Indianapolis Times, Volume 46, Number 198, Indianapolis, Marion County, 28 December 1934 — Page 17

It Seems to Me HEtm BROUN MIAMI, Fla., Dec. 28.—Perhaps it is yuletide season. It could be repeal or possibly some change in the Gulf Stream but I have in my heart a gnawing that Miami is going respectable. The mining camp with white tiles of a year ago is not rolling along at the moment, visitors are here in great numbers but they are of the golfing, church-going Put-a-two-dollar-bet-on-the-favorite-to-show sort. Last night the bell in the hotel jingled a little before midnight and the clerk handed along the complaint of some client who said the party was making too much noise.

That could not have happened oack in the roaring day's of February. In those dear days anybody who thought that a neighbor was making too much noise indicated that fact by shying an empty gin bottle at his window. In fact one came through our transom last season which contained almost a pint of very potable liquor of some sort which we could not quite identify. But the city of sin has gone back to being a health resort. People actually getting up at 9 to meet foursomes or sailfish, and others sit under the blazing sun hoping to win back some part of youth which they

Heywood Broun

have spent in other places or even here in the days when the hopes of men spun around a little track of black and red like greyhounds in pursuit of the electric rabbit, ponce de Deon walks these shores again and a Miami which did not give a single rip has become blood pressure conscious and rejuvenation minded. tt tt tt Broun ‘Buys’ an Indian IDO not think the fountain will be found. I base this prediction on a tale told to me by an ancient Seminole Indian, late at night in a lunchroom. And I submit, your honor, that when I am reduced to talking to Indians in lunchrooms that is a distinct reflection on the tempo of the town. The ancient Seminole said he would tell me a story of news interest if I would buy him another plate of ham and eggs. After he had finished I had a vague feeling that the old boy had sold me a short story by Nathaniel Hawthorne simply by adding a little dialect. But if I ever read the Hawthorne piece I have forgotten. At any rate I paid a plate of ham and eggs for this (and possibly got stuck) and so I will pass it along without dialect and in my own words. Historians err in assuming that Ponce de Leon failed in his famous quest. He found the fountain of youth, the authentic spring from which the lifegiving waters bubbled. My friend, the ancient Seminole, had an ancestor who was present at the moment of the discovery'. De Leon never drank of that spring nor would he permit any member of his party to do so. He had stooped and cupped the waters in his hands and then let the liquid trickle to the ground for he had in a short space seen visions and dreamed dreams. a a tt He’d Sell the Works \ ND he said to hi! comrades, “It will not be well for us if we do this thing. We will be men set apart in the world. Suspended in time and space like demons of the pit. For our friends and all those we love will grow old and die and we will need to wait and watch dissolution and then to love again and so on endlessly through the ages.” But there was a younger member of the party who was avid to drink of the waters and he exclaimed, “Is it not true that every tree puts on new leaves in spring and takes glory in the circuit of the seasons?” Ponce De Leon spoke again and said. “We are not trees, but Spanish gentlemen worthy of the dignity of age and the boon of death and if any one of you advances toward the fountain on him I will confer that boon.” And he boarded over the spring and upon it he heaped earth and sod and trod upon the jointure so that man would never know the spot again, hidden as it now must be under luxuriant tropic growth. Yet even after he had told the story the old Indian lowered his voice and said, “But I think maybe because of maps that have come down to me I could find the spot if you will pay me now $200.” I thought of what I had done that day and what I would do the next and I said to the Indian sternly, “Ponce de Leon was right.” And in addition I found that the suspicious old Seminole would not take a check. (Copyright. 1934)

Today's Science BY DAVID DIETZ

AUTUMN ended the drought in a big way. In many of the interior states where the drought had hung on from the first of January to the end of August, the weather picture changed completely from then on with abnormally heavy rains in September, October and November. These facts are pointed out by J. B. Kincer of the United States Weather Bureau, Washington. However, despite these heavy autumn rains, the subsoil moisture is still deficient in many states and the average rainfall for the year will remain below normal in these same sections. Another interesting fact about the autumn was that every state in the nation had temperatures above normal. This happens only rarely, Mr. Kincer says. Usually when one part of the country is warmer than normal, some other part is colder. Many states in which the rainfall up to the end bt August had averaged only 50 per cent of normal, had rainfalls of 150 per cent for September, October and November. Here are some of the figures given by Mr. Kincer: lowa, 65 per cent from January through August; 150 per cent from September through November. Nebraska, 50 per cent, 103 per cent; Kansas, 57 per cent, 134 per cent; Missouri. 59 per cent, 164 per cent, and Illinois, 67 per cent, 154 per cent. The fact remains, however, that many of these ■tates will be below normal for the year. a a a ALL of the nation, however, did not fare as well in autumn as the Middlewest and the Central Valley. The Ohio Valley remained dry. Ohio, Mr. Kincer says, after a moderately dry summer, had only 80 per cent of nprmal rainfall for September, October and November. The far Southwest and the Northern Great Plains also continued dry through the fall. North Dakota, after 52 per cent of normal rainfall for the first eight months of the year, had only 68 per cent for the next three. This means that North Dakota will finish the year with only a little more than half normal rainfall. a a a THE Southwest likewise had a dry autumn. Colorado, with 67 per cent of normal rainfall for the first eight months of the year, had only 62 per cent for the next three. In Utah, the corresponding percentages were 63 and 90, in Arizona, 81 and 54, in New Mexico, 69 and 66. Autumn rains were abundant in the middle Atlantic states and in the Mississippi Valley states. Among those with the larger percentages were Wisconsin, 170; Maryland. 164; Virginia, 152, and Mississippi, 148. Rain was plentiful in the East during autumn wth the excepton of Georgia and Florida. These two ran into a serious dry spell during the latter part of the faU. The abrupt change in weather conditions in many states * •om summer to fall illustrates the difficulties facing meteorologists in making long-term weather forecascs. I Questions and Answers Q —How many Negroes served in the United States Army as officers, enlisted men, nurses and field clerks in the World War? How many were in the American Expeditionary Forces? A—There were 404,348, of whom 1,353 were commissioned officers; 402.971 enlisted men, 15 army nurses and nine field clerks. Os these* approximately 840 officers and 194,000 enlisted men served in the American Expeditionary Forces.

Full Leased Wire Service ol the United Press Association

VEIL LIFTING ON ISLAND DRAMA

‘ Empress' Gone From Galapagos • Paradise'Fate Is in Doubt

By XEA Service UP from the Galapagos Islands, which lie baking stolidly under the equatorial sun 500 miles west of Ecuador in the Pacific, come drifting piecemeal the details of a strange story of jealousy, violence, and death in an island Eden. The finding by a chance call of a tuna fishing boat of two bodies on the beach of barren Marchena Island set the stage for revelation of a drama, all the acts of which are not yet known, that looks unbelievably lurid and melodramatic. Searchers, chief among them Capt. G. Allan Hancock, Los Angeles capitalist and scientist, now in the islands, and Capt. William Borthen of the fishing schooner which found the bodies, are trying to piece together the fragments of this tale of a lost Eden. As developed to date, here are the acts of the tragedy: Two years or more ago a strange expedition came to Charles Island, one of the dozen or so which make up the Galapagos group. There are few more remote and God-forgotten spots on earth than these islands, which belong to Ecuador, but which are seldom visited by human beings except when explorers like William Beebe, Col. Theodore Roosevelt, William K. Vanderbilt, or Vincent Astor touch there as an adventure. Yet when the three newcomers landed on Charles Island, they found it already occupied by two couples intent on finding a paradise far from the world. There were Arthur Wittmer and his wife Margaret, nudists living with their two children in a fantastic house contrived of native stone and sheet zinc. And there were also Dr. Karl Ritter and Frau Dore Koervin, who had left behind their respective mates to seek anew paradise The newcomers were more oddly assorted than that. There was the

Baroness Eloise Bosquet de Wagner Wehrborn, once of the gay life of Vienna and Paris salons. There was slight, unimpressive Alfred Rudolph Lorenz, her lover and her business partner when they ran a dress shop in Paris. And there was Robert Philippson, just a good friend of both the others. So here were the makings of modem Eden. But the old residents were soon scandalized by the goings-on of the new candidates for bliss. On this island of nudism and unfettered freedom, they were shocked at the baroness traipsing about the island in a costume that consisted mostly of a large pearl-handled revolver. s tt a CORDIAL with a Parisian savoir faire to the infrequent explorers who put in at Charles Island, there were rumors that the baroness was domineering by nature, and had imprisoned visiting fishermen and threatened the occasional natives who from time to time visited the island. In so far as there can be gossip and political intrigue on an island with only 10 inhabitants, they pointed to ambitions of the baroness to become empress of a south sea domain. She began to domnate Lorenz, who had been h p r partner and lover, reducing nixn to a sort of dish-washer and general menial in the scheme of tilings. As time passed, she showed an increasing preference for Philippson. It was a very old story of two men and a ivoman, the only difference being that it worked out somewhat more savagely under primitive conditions than in Vienna or Paris. Several savage fights between Lorenz and Philippson varied the tedium of life on Charles Island. In fact, a Norwegian sailor who called there and talked with Lorenz wrote a letter in which he said Lorenz told him they fought with hands, clubs, and rocks for the one-time noblewoman, while she stood on the sidelines and egged on the combatants with thrilled enthusiasm. tt tt tt LORENZ, being a slight and none-too-healthy man, came off second-best in all these en-

The DAILY WASHINGTON MERRY-GO-ROUND By Drew Pearson and Robert S. Allen WASHINGTON, Dec. 28.—State Department higherups are anxious to clean out some of Jim Farley’s appointees to the diplomatic service. On the top of the list are Hal Sevier, statesque American ambassador to Chile, and Alexander Weddell, wise-cracking ambassador to Argentina.

Both, incidentally, married women who helped materially in pushing them to the ambassadorial rung. Weddell was a consul in Calcutta when he met wealthy Mrs. Virginia Chase Steedman of St. Louis, then on a sight-seeing trip through India, and married her. Sevier’s wife is the former Clara Driscoll, Democratic National Committeewoman from Texas, prominent Texas author, and head of the founders of the Alamo. She carries considerable weight with Jim Farley. When Hal, her husband, first was appointed ambassador to Chile, Mrs. Sevier’s name was the only one in the family which appeared in Who’s Who. Newspapers made much of this. So the latest issue of Who’s Who finds Mrs. Sevier’s name withdrawn, and her husband’s featured. Both ambassadors are now in the United States on leave. Arriving in New York, Ambassador Weddell was interviewed by the press. “President Roosevelt is a mystic,” he announced. “Argentina’s huge wheat crop can benefit the United States,” he continued. “Our recent drought will probably necessitate the importation of Argentine wheat.” Officials of the State and Agriculture Departments winced. Secretary Wallace had issued several scathing statements criticising Argentine for raising so bumper a wheat crop in violation of the international wheat agreement. Later, Ambassador Weddell sought an interview with his chief, Sumner Welles, who is Assistant Secretary of State in charge of Latin-American affairs. Welles kept him waiting four days. a a a DURING a recess of the munitions investigation an attorney for one of the manufacturers got into a friendly discussion with Senator Bennett Clark on the question of military secrets. The lawyer voiced the fear that the committee might divulge a war secret. ‘Unintentionally, of course,” he hastened to add. “Hell,” snorted Clark, “there aren’t any secrets to divulge. The evidence we have produced shows that they have already been sold to Japan and Great Britain. 1 *

The Indianapolis Times

counters. Once he left the love nest and stayed some time with the Wittmers. Then he returned. But the rivalry with Philippson continued. Sometirrfes they fought as often as three times a week. Finally it become plain that Philippson had replaced Lorenz definitely in the affections of the tempestuous baroness. The snake of jealousy not only had reared his head in Eden, but he had taken his first bite. Last March (so slowly events straighten themselves out in island Edens) there came a crisis. Investigators have not yet straightened out exactly what happened. Lorenz told a visiting sailor that the baroness and Philippson left him behind when they sailed away together from Charles Island in a small boat, evidently seeking another and even more remote paradise. But a month or more ago the partly-mummified bodies of Lorenz and a Norwegian sailor named Nuggeruud were found on the beach of Marchena Island by Capt. Borthen. There, too, was a pile of baby clothes, some French money, Lorenz’ passport, and a bundle of letters in German, Swedish, and English, mostly bearing the name of Mrs. Margaret Wittmer. Here certainly was a pretty mystery for a desert island. tt tt tt IT appears that the letters and baby clothes were the Wittmers’, possibly, being sent out by Lorenz as a messenger who was to match the clothes and mail the letters when he reached a steamer lane. But he did not reach it. Apparently the small boat was wrecked and Lorenz and Nuggeruud reached temporary safety on barren Marchena Island, only to die slowly and miserably of starvation and thirst on a coast that has neither food nor fresh water. But the baroness and Philippson have No one knows where* they are. Did they sail away, as Lorenz indicated before his death, in a direction in which there are no habitable islands? Are they, perhaps, even today in seclusion somewhere on Charles Island, having forced Lorenz to

NRA authorities say privately that one of the serious be-hind-the-scenes complications in the troubled auto labor situation is the fact that many of the workers secretly belong to both the A. F. of L. Unions and the company unions. This “playing safe” by the workers makes it practically impossible to determine whether the independent unions or the company unions are the predominant organizations, gives the employers a powerful weapon in combating the claims of the former. a a a HISTORY, politics, the ebb and flow of prosperity and depression, the coming and going of Congress never change. Here is a summary of the condition of the country in 1873 published by Appleton’s Annual Cyclopedia just as Congress was about to convene: “It was believed that the depressing influences which had been felt with such force for more than two years had nearly or quite exhausted themselves, that no measures calculated to disturb values or check the restoration of confidence were likely to be taken by Congress, and that trade and commerce, left to legitimate influences might be expected to exhibit satisfactory revival on the opening of the year 1876.” a a a BEHIND Administration tactics in whipping up support for the Bankhead cotton control act lies an intimate story of diverse views within the Department of Agriculture. Both Chester C. Davis, administrator of the AAA, and Secretary Wallace were back of the plan to exempt farmers growing only two bales of cotton—but for different reasons. Wallace wanted the two-balers exempted because he thought the little fellow had received a poor deal; also because he favors less restriction and more cotton. Davis was loath to see restriction slackened, even for the twobalers. But he sensed growing adverse sentiment in the South, saw the Bankhead act going glimmering unless given pulmotor treatment.

INDIANAPOLIS, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1934

. Picture at lower left, copyright, 1934, by G. Allan Hancocfc. In the God-forgotten Galapagos Islands, whose remote location is shown in the map (lower right), a strange drama is now' unfolding. Baroness Eloise W’ehrborn (upper right), is missing from Charles Island, apparently with anew love, while the body of her former love, Alfred Lorenz (insert in circle at left), was found on another deserted island of the group. Below is the home of Arthur Wittmer on Charles Island, showing Mrs. Wittmer and one of their children. The Wittmers “forsook the world” to make a new life on Charles Island some years ago.

set sail on the voyage which brought him and the Norwegian sailor to their deaths? Did Lorenz, furious at being displaced in the baroness’ affections, perhaps kill them both before he himself left the island? Hancock and others are still in the Galapagos, seeking the answer, tt tt tt PERHAPS Dr. Ritter could have told the answers. But when the Hancock party arrived at Charles Island to investigate the deaths of Lorenz and Nuggeruud,

BROOKSIDE WOMEN TO HOLD ANNUAL DANCE Charity Social to Be Held Tonight in Community House. The Brookside Women’s Club will hold its annual dance tonight in the Brookside Community House. Mrs. Walter Baxter is general chairman in charge of the dance. She is assisted by Mrs. Walter Winkle, Mrs. Raymond Yount, Mrs. Vera Byman, Mrs. Olite Ellison and Mrs. Kate Lucas. A Federal Emergency Relief Administration orchestra will furnish music and the proceeds will be used for relief work. Hurt in Hop From Freight Albert Sandlin, 27, Evansville, was cut on the head and injured on the arm last night, when he jumped from a freight train just west of the city limits. He was taken to Robert Long Hospital.

SIDE GLANCES

“What’U m make the chicken salad oat oLtodaxtZ

they found that Dr. Ritter was also dead. He had died naturally, of a stroke, in November. It was felt that he might have known how Lorenz and Nuggeruud came to leave the island to find death. But the others left on Charles Island seemed uncertain of what had happened in the other “colony.” A search for buried treasure may reveal the key. For on Chatham Island, somewhat more populous unit of the Galapagos group, there is a rumor that the erratic

I COVER THE WORLD a a a a a a By William Philip Simms

WASHINGTON, Dec. 28.—Cutting her last important tie with the western world a few hours before the official deadline Monday at midnight, Nipp< .1 will start the New Year off with the greatest deliberate gamble of fall time.

Having withdrawn from the League of Nations, and scrapped the far eastern and naval limitations pacts, she will have gained a free hand to arm hersejf and do as she pleases. But she will be almost completely isolated from the rest of the world. Once before Japan staked her erjstence upon a throw of the dice. Czarist Russia, in 1904, challenged her position in the far east. Accepting the well nigh

By George Clark

baroness buried valuable jewelry on Charles Island. Should search uncover such a cache, it would lend color to the murder theory, for it is assumed that not even so erratic a soul as the baroness would depart, leaving such a trove behind her. Such a finding would seem to indicate that murder had been added to the vicious quarreling and pitiful deaths which have already marked this latest effort to find paradise by leaving all the world behind.

hopeless odds, Nippon, by a miracle, won. Today, she is on the point of a bigger gamble still. And for a still bigger stake. Supremacy over the entire Orient. The odds seem to be overwhelmingly against her. If she wins, half the population of the globe will be directly or indirectlyunder her control. If she loses, she may face the future as a third class power. That Nippon is aw'are that she may be staking her future on the next few throws is amply evidenced. That is why, tomorrow, she will notify the United States of her wdthdrawal from the naval pacts. She then may try to build herself a navy second to none. That is why, too, her munitions factories are going day and night, and why she is accumulating reserves of oil, iron, acids and other raw materials needed for national defense. * a a a NOBODY in authority here fears an attack on continental United States. European statesmen are not afraid for Europe. The world’s anxiety arises elsewhere. Great Britain fears for her interests in Asia and Australasia. France fears for her position in South China. Holland is afraid for her vast colonial possessions in the Malay Archipelago. Soviet Russia fears for her outlet on the Pacific and the United States for the phillippines. All western powers fear for their world trade which, by a combination of modern chain production, government subsides, cheap labor and aggressive business methods, Nippon is grabbing at an alarming rate. Japan is seen as bent upon making herself mistress of the Orient and upon fighting, if needs be. to hold all comers at bay. But what makes it an extra hazardous gamble for her is that while she has mapped out a program as grandiose as any the mighty British Empire ever conceived, even in its heyday, at present she has the national resources only of a second-class power. Japan’s debt is piling up giddily. The budget calls for nearly 2,200,000,000 yen, par value $1,100,000,000.

Second Section

Entered as Second-Class Matter at Postoffice, Indianapolis, Ind.

Fair Enough WESTBROOK PEGLER NEW YORK Dec. 28.—There are hopeful indications that the trial of Bruno Richard Hauptmann, the German carpenter who was arrested for minding $15,000, cash entrusted to his care by a penniless friend, will be conducted in strict accordance with the highest principles of American journalism and justice. Under the American system, the ideal trial is one which is held bt'orehand in the newspapers and on the radio. Accordingly, in the Hauptmann case, the evidence has beer, very thor-

oughly canvassed in advance and the court has been relieved of all but the most nominal responsibility in the matter. All that remains now is for the jury to retire with a complete newspaper file and decide upon a verdict, according to the interviewers and the pictures. The jury will, also doubtless give due consideration to the radio appeal of Mrs. Bruno Richard Hauptmann broadcast on Christmas night in the course of which she said she had not brought their own child around to see him in the jail because that would have broken

the loving father's heart. There were other references to the Hauptmann’s own baby in the radio appeal which doubtless went straight to the hearts of the jurors who will bring in the verdict after the purely nominal courtroom trial has been unished. a a o The Character of the Press TT might have been a fine artistic touch to pinch the Hauptmann’s baby or jab it with a pin and stick its chubby little face up to the microphone so that it could squawk an innocent babe’s appeal to the jurors on Christmas night. But then, on the other hand, this might have been inadvisable as tending to remind the jurors that the son of Charles A. Lindbergh also may have cried a babe’s appeal to the man who stole him out of his crib at night and crushed his head. There was a delicate decision to be made there. But, considering the risk involved against the result which might have been obtained, perhaps it was wiser not to pinch or jab the Hauptmann’s innocent babe and make it squawk its heart-cry for its daddy on Christmas night. American journalism, always a leader in the fight for swift, unconfused justice in the courts, will have reason to take particular pride in its conduct of the Hauptmann trial. No detail has been overlooked and the public, including the jurors, has been kept thoroughly informed at all times by the kind permission of the copyright owners. The copyright owners have been uncommonly public-spirited in permitting the state of New Jersey to hold a trial at all, a fact which must always be considered hereafter when the freedom of the press is threatened. The press has shown great character in waiving the courtroom rights to the state of New Jersey, only insisting upon the right to print the evidence and conduct the arguments first. The arrangements for the nominal courtroom formalities have been just about completed and great feats of journalism, strictly in the interests of justice, may be looked for. The roster of the experts has not yet been formally announced but the field is remarkably rich at this time. * tt tt a Everybody Will Be There HpHERE are noted moving picture critics, phrenologists, gossip columnists, novelists, football coaches, celebrated gangsters, baseball players, night club comedians and homespun humorists in abundance available to present the readers with living, human documents as stark tragedy stalks. The active list of journalists who can be called upon for special work includes the Dean brothers, Dizzy and Daffy who will be remembered for their stirring accounts of the last world series in which each one wrote every other word. Max Baer, the hard-hitting heavyweight champion, is a strong, rugged author and Jack Dempsey is still around town. Miss Peggy Hopkins Joyce, blasted a niche for herself in journalism with her powerful essays on the social significance of the Snyder-Gray trial some years ago. She might be prevailed upon to do it again. Up to this writing, the radio rights have not been disposed of by the copyright owners, but negotiations are understood to be under way with a manufacturer of ladders. A home-made ladder was used in the Lindbergh murder and the ensuing publicity is believed to have been a great thing for the ladder trust. The home-made ladder proved unreliable and broke. The autobiographical rights are well in hand, however, and the customary vague proportion of the net receipts will be awarded to the gin fund. One New York editor has made arrangements to cover the trial strictly as news and employ only newspaper reporters on the assignment. He will doubtless be looking for a job before long. Enterprise and pride of profession are dead in such an editor. (Copyright. 1934. by United Feature Syndicate. Inc.)

Your Health BY DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN—

A PROMINENT specialist in diseases of the bones and joints has described the case of a girl 10 years old who suffered from pains in her feet, and who finally began to use crutches because it hurt her so much to walk. When a careful study of this child was made it was found that she was inclined to fat, that one leg w’as slightly shorter than the other, that she had knock knees i nd turned ankles, a certain amount of curving in her spine, unevenness in the shoulders, and that she held her head in the wrong position. The trouble with her feet was apparently the slightest of her difficulties and was most explainable by her overweight. It was, in fact, merely a part of a general disturbance of posture. X-ray pictures disclosed a complete twisting of the spine, including the pelvis, which was really the most important and serious of the conditions that troubled her. It became possible through use of correct shoes, strapping of the feet to hold them in the right position, and suitably applied exercises, to obtain complete relief from the trouble with the feet in about six weeks. a ft SUCH investigations are particularly important foi growing girls. While they are active in theii school work and in their gymnastics, they are likely to pay little attention to their posture. As they get older, the conditions accumulate, and eventually they begin to suffer from pains in the back or sciatica, or similar troubles which could have been prevented by proper consideration during the period of youth. Sometimes all that is necessary after the child is examined is the raising of the heel of the shoe on one side, or treating of the heel to correct faulty twisting of the leg. Some girls develop a tilting of the pelvic bones due to habitual sitting on one foot. an tt IF you notice that your child is having difficulty in walking, that it carries its body badly, or that it complains a great deal of fatigue when standing, have a proper examination made of the child’s pa* ture. Such examination will include not only a study of all the usual things that are looked at in a physical examination, but also a determination as to whether the pelvis is even, the spine normal, and the legs of equal length. In making such measurements, it is desirable to use a plumb line, such as builders use to determine alignment in buildings and also actually to measure the distances with a measuring tape rather than to guess at them.

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Westbrook Pegler