Indianapolis Times, Volume 46, Number 239, Indianapolis, Marion County, 14 February 1935 — Page 13

It Seems ioMe HEYWOHI BROUN AS I understand it the recent election in California was to decide whether the state was to be handed over bodily to Moscow or saved for the Union by Fearless Frank Memam. After a good deal rs shivering and quaking and the liberal use of campaign money Mr. Memam was elected by a substantial majority and the general assumption was that the crisis had ended. Unfortunately, thus does not seem to be the eaflse. In spite of the leadership of Fearless Frank. Cali-

forma is still seeing spooks and even I a red sunrise causes vigilantes to toss uneasily in their sleep. One young I woman is on trial for revolutionary activity in Sacramento because, according to the testimony of a reliable witness, she ‘‘distributed literature in the California Packing Corp cannery urging the employes to demand shorter hours, less work and more pay.” The newest menace to the safety of patriotic Californians is a Bishop of the Episcopal Church. Hi.s offense against hearth and home and Hearst was committed at the 85th convention of the Episcopal diocese of Cali-

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fornia. It has not yet been suggested that the entire rhurrh body is a Communist nucleus, but one out of thnr number. Bishop Edward L. Parsons, had the temerity m stand up and speak slightingly of mob violence He voiced the waminc that the present wave of terror acair. * radicals might lead to Fascism. And hr added that certain super-loyalists, "gather under the one approbrious word red' all who venture to hold unpopular op.mons." ana Just Amused Laughter THIS monster in clerical garb went on to say, "In California we nave had disgraceful mob violence, sometimes coupled with official lawlessness. Civil rights were denied isl the Imperial Valley. Vigilantes raided Communist headquarters In San Francisco aP er the great strike. The vicious criminal syndicalism law .s still on the statute books and no dead letter-as witness the Sacremento trials." Seemingly, no wave of horror swept over the assembled clergymen and no lightning struck through ♦he roof in defense of God and Merriam.'’ Indeed there was amused laughter when the bishop said that he himself could be sent to jail because of his opinions under the broad anti-radical legislation now pending at the state capital. But the Dishop spoke wittingly. Things which do not shock an Episcopal minister in California may well send an employer into a swivet of righteous indignation Where the pulpit failed Fearless Frank Merriam. the press rushed in. The Sacramento Bee captioned its indignant editorial "Peculiar Plea Is Made by a Christian Bishop." The publisher was honestly puzzled by the fact that anybody in the state should have the audacity to defend free speech or criticise the terror which followed in the wake of Merriam’s successful campaign to save California from crackpots. Like other editors the proprietor of the Bee had been a busy recruit in the battle to bury Sinclair and the bill of rights and lea\e life, liberty and the pursue of happiness to Fearless Frank. m m m From an Unexpected Source IIKE others he had assumed that once Frank _j came into power Mr. Hearst would be in his San Simeon and all would be right with the world. When a bishop breaks out one has the housemaid s knee in the right ear - aid gout in the shoulder blades. It was an eruption from an unexpected quarter. . . . • He denounced.” said the Bee in shocked accents, "the criminal syndicalism law is vicious and excoriated the necessary’ and justifiable steps taken by the farmers of California to protect their lives and their property from terrorizing radical organizations whose avowed purpose is not bnly to destroy the American government by violence, but as well to extirpate the Christian church in America. Perhaps the Bee was thinking of those vicious reds among the lettuce pickers of the Imperial Valiev who had the revolutionary audacity to ask for, among other things, clean drinking water instead of the warm and muddy fluid of the irrigation The Bee does not precisely suggest that Bishop Parsons should go to jail. It merely warns him The naDer has a right to fear the worst. A halt must P be called somewhere. Otherwise some morning this Christian bishop might get up and preach that the money changers should be driven from the temple. Frank < Fearless* Merriam is not going to stand for any Moscow nonsense of that sort. Copy right. 1935 >

Today s Science by DAVID DIETZ

T'OR the first time in the, history of the world a f molecule has been seen under a microscope. The existence of molecules large enough to be seen in this wav has been demonstrated by Prof. George . famous chrmist of the University of lUmois. They are six one-hundred-thousandths of an inch Prof Clark found these giant molecules in lnse the material which forms the walls of Lie cells of plants. The discovery is expected to lead to important results, not only in the world of theoretical physics and chemistry, but also in the w>~ - ld of applied chemistry. For one thing. Prof. Claik < elieves that it may point the way to ? successful synthetic rubber. Botanists have k town for a long time that the basis of cellulose structure was a series of tiny, uniform crystalline particles linked together lengthwisc. ..... It has been shown by Prof, dark that each crystal consists of a single giant niblecule embedded in a ’ellv-like substance. Bv devising a method of dissolving this substance he has disclosed the molecules so that they may be viewed under the microscope. The molecules are egg-shaped, having the form o. perfect ellipsoids. Molorules are the fundamental units of chemical compounds. There are 92 chemical elements, consisting of as many different kinds of atoms. These atoms are then put together to make the molecules of compounds. nun THE hydrocen atom, smallest of all atoms. Is so small that it would take 250.000.000 of them to make a row one inch long. The uranium atom, the largest known atom, is about two and a half times as large—loo 000.000 to the inch. Complex niflecules may contain thousands of atoms. Thus, for example a molecule of starch contains about 2500 atoms. But it would still take 10.000.000 of them to make a line one inch long/ A particle must be 100 times larger than the starch molecule to be tust on the limit of visibility of the most powerful microscope. Up until the present, it has been assumed that the molecule of rubber had a molecular weight of 68.000, that is. that it was 68.000 times heavier than the hydrogen atom. It would, on this basis, contain fewer than 68 000 atoms ince many atoms are much heavier than the hydrogen atom. The molecules discovered by Prof. Clark have a molecular weight of 500.000. that is they are 500.000 times heavier than the atom of hydrogen. . FTom this fact Prof. Clark draws the conclusion that in the making of synthetic rubber the chemist xr.ll have to strive to create much larger molecules than he has previously made. a a a PROF. CLARK, who is one of the leading X-ray experimenters of the nation, began his study of the pant molecules with the aid of X-rays. Hitherto the X-ray has been the chief means for determining the size and shape of molecules. When Prof. Clark realized the true size of the giant molecules frmn his X-ray studies, it was a simple step to put tfvem under the microscope. The importance of his discovery may be compared to that of the recent discovery of giant chromosomes in the cells of salivary glands of the fruit-fly. The study of these under the microscope revealed for the first time in history, the gene, the unit which is responsible for the transmission of hereditary sac-

Full T.ap<l Wir Sprrlp* of tb United Prea Association

NAPOLEON NOTES FIND OF AGES

Letters Appearing in The Times Fill Gap in Emperors Life

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Josephine, from a Contemporary Painting * BV WILLIAM ENGLE Times Special Writer gCHOLARS versed in Napoleonic history agreed today that the recent discovery of Napoleon Bonaparte’s love letters to his second wife, Marie Louise —notes tvhich have been missing across the 121 years since he wrote them —ranks as one of the great literary finds of the ages. The letters—more than 300 of which have been discovered—fil' a three-year gap in the world's knowledge of the Little Corporal's life, and are now being published in The Indianapolis Times. Dr. Geoffrey Bruun, professor of history in New York university, Washington square, who lectures on Napoleonic literature and the Napoigpnic period, said he regards them -as particularly valuable both to scholars and the public because they cover the years of the mighty Corsican’s life during which there previously has been available only diplomatic correspondence. “The letters afford a clew to his most intimate thoughts during the years of his most desperate gamble and his ultimate defeat,” he said. “The recovery’ of the letters,” he declared, “is an event of deep interest not only to historians but to the general public, for although Napoleon wrote an astounding number of letters—bis collected correspondence comes to about 40.000 items—we have known of only three or four letters before that he wrote to his second wife. •When he wrote these he was at the turning point of his strange career—lßll to 1814. He saw his dynasty apparently assured by the birth of a son, then he became aware of estrangement with Russia. was forced to undertake a disastrous Russian campaign in 1812 and finally, in 1814, had to abdicate the throne. “His marriage to Marie Louise, Jpe always said, marked the beginning of his end; he called his marriage bed a ‘pit covered with roses'.” * a a a PUBLICATION of the letters, Dr. Bruun said, is one of the historic events of the kind of this generation. They were written, the gawky, scribbled date lines reveal, in the riays-of a turning point in history. The sallow stunted military genius, whose conquests surpassed those of Alexander the Great and Genchis Khan, was reaching his zenith, then passing into the gray shadows of Flba and St. Helena., It was in those days he was saying: “I don't care for the lives of a million men.” He was bleeding France white. He was killing off a generation. But the magic of his name was like a sign across the sky. The discovery of the letters, disclosed dramatically when an auction catalog in London in December briefly stated they had been “the property of a nobleman to whom they have descended by inheritance,” has few more romantic parallels than the finding of the correspondence between Robert Browning and Elizabeth Barrett of Wimpole-st. , Robert and Elizabeth "wrote to each other a long time before they married, as Napoleon and Marie Louise did. and in the New York Public Library now there is the bulky volume called “Letters of Robt Browning,” collected by Thomas J. Wise. But thqre is no book of the collected letters of Napoleon and Marie Louise: that will come later. There * are. however. 80 different books describing the romance of Napoleon and his first wife, Josephine. Napoleon was one of the most prolific letter writers of all time: bibliophiles estimate that he left 100.000 letters behind before the drab tragedy came to the bitter end. To his first wife. Josephine he wrote voluminously and for years the letters have been hardly more than bonng to those interested in Napoleonana. In the New York Public Library there are 30

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different books discussing their affairs, ail under the heading not of “Napoleon'’ but of "Josephine.” a a a THESE, available to any one who wants to read about Napoleon and Josephine, include: “Letters of Napoleon to Josephine, complete Collection,” 236 pages, published in 1931. “Letters de Napoleon a’ Josephine,” the French edition. (And editions in four other languages are contemplated.) “Josephine, Napoleon's Empress,” by c. S. Forester. “Napoleon and Josephine, the Rise of the Empire,” by Walter Gear. “The Memoirs of the Empress Josephine,” by Clair Remusat. But about Napoleon, when he got to the perilous age of 40 and began writing amorous missives to anew love, nothing. In the history of the little Titan’s love life there was for 121 years a three-year blank, and then that catalog in London in December said that 300 letters amazingly cleared it up. They light up the emperor's lordliest days and his blackest days, from jhe arrival in France of the Austrian archduchess to the tragic parting at Fontainebleau. They make the man come to mind clear, not as an imperial ruler, but as the lovelorn fellow getting on to middle age and wondering. as Cabell's Kennaston in “The Cream of the Jest” wondered, how to eke a little more

SIDE GLANCES

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“Jim hasjihvaysJjeen wild about kids-, They just seemjto take to,him.”

INDIANAPOLIS, THURSDAY; FEBRUARY 14, 1935

The Emperor Napoleon, in Characteristic Pose

ecstasy, even a little more mild joy. out of a life by then ordained to have a darkling end. Interest in the letters has grown, too, because of the mystery of their origin. The catalog of the sale merely said they came from the nobleman to whom they had “descended by inheritance.” They were said to have been found by accident in an ancient Austrian castle. a a a THE word of that find flashed around the world. Bibliophiles from London to Singapore were fascinated. They knew that Frederic, Masson, who had devoted a lifetime to Napoleonic study, building up a tremendous documentation about him, had been obliged in his volume, “L’Tmperatrice Marie Louise” to make this melancholy admission: “I lack a vital element; the correspondence between Marie Louise and Napoleon during the three years, 1812, 1813 and 1814. “They w'rote to each other daily, often several times a day, and of these thousands of letters, apart from the official dispatches, I have discovered but one from the wife and five or six from the husband. “For this fearful gap, which in all likelihood will never be bridged, I have made up to the best of my ability, but all too imperfectly.” Other Napoleonana the collectors have found in abundance, while the love letters of the middle years have remained a mystery; they have found hundreds of his signatures from the early

By George Clark

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strong-lettered ones to the last scrawled ones. There, for example, is the record of the day. May 18, 1804, when the little Corsican became the Emperor of the French, and jettisoned then, forever, the surname “Bonaparte.” Then, in his chirography he became “Napoleon,” with the name dashed off in an arrogant flourish. Thomas F. Madigan, New York’s most noted authority on autographs, explained today that the arrogance had been observable in earlier writing as the Little Corporal’s military stature grew. He had been making the “Bonaparte” of his signature bolder. It had become “BoNAParte.” The three letters, NAP, in the middle of the name, had been written much as the three letters later were written in the name, NAPoleon. The soldier, even then, it was obvious, was dreaming of kingship. a a a THEN, as the power of the name increased, as the little man’s duties multiplied, the signature grew shorter; the young and ambitious Bonaparte had signed the name in full; the older, mighty Napoleon decided that was not necessary. His last letters tapered off into an almost unrecognizable scrawl; the signature finally became “Napol,” or “Napoln,” or “Nap.” or merely a regal, wavering “N.” 1 His signature, among collectors, according to Mr. Madigan, is no rarity, but his letters in full — holographs the experts call them —are rare. One reason was that his handwriting was atrocious. He said, himself: “I can not write well because my mind is engaged on two subjects at once; one, my ideas; the other, my handwriting. The ideas

Take It Away —It Smells That Was Judge’s Reaction to Exhibit of Jail Food Purchased on Fee System in 1920.

BY’ GEORGE DENNY Times Staff Writer “Take it away—it smells awful!” said Federal Judge A. B. Anderson. The date was March 30, 1920, and Judge Anderson was referring to a plate of sauerkraut and decayed liver. The occasion was a hearing in Federal Court when Sheriff Robert (Honest Bob) Miller was accused of “raking off” between SBOOO and SIO,OOO a year on the feeding of Federal prisoners in the Marion County Jail.

The plate of sauerkraut and rotten meat was offered as an exhibit in the case. United States Attorney Frederick VanNuys, now senior Senator from Indiana, produced witnesses who testified that the food was an average dish of prison fare. Old newspaper files show that The Indianapolis Times was a leader in the fight to outlaw the system of allowing sheriffs a daily fee for the feeding of prisoners. The sensational disclosures of the 1920 case, in which Sheriff Miller was shown to have made an estimated profit of $35,000 a year by serving prisoners in his care m the Marion County Jail food costing from 14 to 20 cents a day, resulted in the 1921 act of the Legislature which abolished the fee feeding practice. The new law provided that prisoners be fed on a contract let by the County Commissioners. Since that time they have been receiving the same fare as have inmates of other county institutions. Last Friday the Indiana General

Portrait of Marie Louise go on fastest, and then goodby to the letters and the lines.” So often his letters ended in nothing more impressive than a blot. Asa result, the .greater part of his correspondence was dictated to his aids, and the items are not known as holographs. The fact that the 318 letters to Marie Louise are holographs is one of the considerations that makes them of priceless value both to the historian seeking clews to personality in handwriting and language, and to the collector. It is true that they are no more legible than most of the emperor’s other writings; to decipher them has been a grueling task for experts, and the scholars in Napoleonana disclose that even when Marie Louise received them she cojild not read them; one of the ladies of her court had to tell her the words. a a a FINALLY the letters from Elba, with the Little Corporal's sun then far down in the sky, bore only a wretched “Napn” at the end; hut at the very end, from St. Helena, in shaken, crooked letters came the old brave signature of young manhood, in full—“ Bonaparte.” Os this writing, of the letters to Josephine, scholars have known for decades. But they wondered about the three years when Napoleon was courting Marie Louise —a letterless stretch in history. Now, at last, word comes across the years. The 318 letters Napoleon wrote in that time turned up and the government of France —the Prime Minister, M. Flandin; the Minister of National Education, M. Mallarme—decided that they must forever belong to France. * Charles de la Ronciere, Chief Custodian, Bibliotbeque National of France, writes: “From the very first, indeed, the Administration General, Julien Cain, took in hand the work of rescue, called -upon the ministers, saw the journalists, co-ordinated the efforts of all. Were we to see the treasure escape us in the head of auction? We knew we could not let the precious documents leave our native land. “In the evening of Dec. 17 a telegram from London brought M. Cain the news of the victory. -“Napoleon’s letters, said the message, had reverted to his own country; from London Napoleon’s letters were coming back to Paris. They were to find what M. Cain described as sanctuary in the “Reserve des Manuscrits” of the Bibliotheque Nationale bought back b.v the France of the Little Corporal—and they were to be made available for publication.”

Assembly slipped through a bill that would return Marion and Lake Counties to the daily fee system that Judge Anderson so bitterly assailed in 1920. The measure in question had passed the House and was up for third reading in the Senate before the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce called attention to its “joker.” Supporters of the measure, alarmed because their little scheme had been discovered, pulled the bill out of its regular place in the Senate calendar and rammed it through before the heat became too great. They admitted to an Indianapolis Times reporter that they feared to let it go over the week-end because "you fellows might beat it.” Mans Senators were misled by whispered reports that the bill was backed by Gov. Paul V. McNutt. Others, frankly ashamed of their affirmative vote, declare that they knew nothing of the “Joker” clause.

Second Section

Entered m Serr>nd-Cla Matter at Postoffice. Indianapolis, Ind.

Fair Enough HIIMMEt IT is a pleasure to report that the Messrs. John D. Rockefeller Jr. and Alfred E. Smith, prominent ..-a loon keepers, have been joined in their new profession by a distinguished colleague. Jack Dempsey, the old heavyweight champion. Mr. Dempsey is opening his saloon, grill and sportsmen’s rest in the old Morning Telegraph Building across the street from Madison Square Garden He will be on hand during regular business nours to shake hands with his customers, autograph menus and tell each one,

individually, his version of the historic long count that night in Chicago when Gene Tunney gave his spirited exhibition of the dashing advance to the rear. Unfortunately, the title Jack’s place has been more or less prompted on behalf of Mr. Rockefeller Jr„ by his customers. Therefore. Mr. Dempsey, rather than cause any unpleasantness, has decided to call his sportsmen's -est Jack Dempsey's Place. Mr. Rockefeller's place, as many persons already know, is on the 65th floor of Rockefeller City and Mr. Smith's is on .the 86th floor of the

Empire State Building. The line, technical point has been made that Mr. Rockefeller's place, having no stand-up bar, is not properly a saloon, but more correctly a night club. n u a At Has the Personal Touch HOWEVER, a certain odium attaches to the term night club. It is remembered that the late Legs Diamond and other undesirable characters once were the leading magnates of the night club profession and that many respectable citizens were clipped in night clubs. Therefore, in view’ of Mr. Rockefeller's clear record, it is generally preferred to refer to his place by the more wholesome name of saloon and dance hall. The police report that it is a refined. orderly place, no complaints having been received of fighting, clipping or offensive dancing. Mr. Rockefeller, being of a rather retiring nature, does not mix with his customers and talk over the old days when he was contributing large sums to the Anti-Saloon League. But Mr. Smith, always an easy mixer, makes frequent personal appearances in his .saloon when he is' in town. Like, Mr. Dempsey, Mr. Smith shakes hands with the sightseers, gives them his autograph and builds up his business by the personal touch. Saloon lovers of the new school are eagerly waiting to see whether the Messrs. Rockefeller, Smith and Dempsey will revive an old sentimental saloon keepers’ custom of cleaning out the till of an evening and taking a crowd of friends on a tour of the rival saloons as a gesture of good will. The late John L. Sullivan used to do this and so sentimental was he that in time he found himself hanging around rival saloons exclusively and shaking hands with his rivals’ customers who flocked to see him. That, of course, was carrying the amenity to a foolish extreme, but it would be a revival of a pretty little traditidh if Mr. Rockefeller should drop into Al’s place and the sportsmen’s rest to give his rivals a play, as the saying used to go, and they should make a point of calling on him and one another. There was a time a few years ago when it was unthinkable that Mr. Tunney should open a saloon called Gene’s Place, possibly dropping- one letter out of the word “saloon” so as to make it read “salon." True, saloon keeping was the traditional fulfillment of the career of a former heavyweight champion of the world, but there was something about the profession of saloon keeping and something about the social character of Mr. Tunney which made the idea a trifle incongruous. m m Saloon Keepers Get the Edge THERE has been a considerable change, however. Nowadays, not only the three celebrated saloon keepers, but hundreds of socially refined New r York ladies and gentlemen are either running saloons or working in them. The saloon Business has been elevated to such a degree that sight of an electric sign in the night winking the invitation, “Gene’s Place, Salon, Grill and Dancing” would do no violence to the ideals of those who have always held Mr. Tunney in the highest admiration. Certainly if Mr. Tunney should start a salon or even a saloon as respectable as Rockefeller’s, Smith’s or Dempsey’s, that enterprise w’ould compare very well with his activity in the affaire of the New York Shipbuilding Corp. Nor would his colleagues in the saloon business suffer by comparison with his associates in the shipbuilding company. Respectability has always been rated high by Mr, Tunney and he would find the Messrs. Rockefeller, Smith and Dempsey at least as respectable as the Messrs Smith and Bragg. In a showdown, some persons might be inclined to give the saloon keepers a shade. (Copyright. 1935. by United Feature Syndicate. Inc.)

Your Health -BY I)R. MORRIS FISHBEIN—-

THE condition called typhus fever is spread by the body louse from one person to another. Therefore, whenever large numbers of human being are collected together under insanitary conditions, typhus fever becomes a menace to life itself. In earlier wars this did not have the seriousness for mankind that it has had in recent wars, when tremendous numbers of men were closely packed together under conditions in which sanitary control was exceedingly diffic ’.lt. Until the time of the World War it seemed unlikely that typhus fever could be stamped out from among civilized men. The “fact that it was transferred from man to man by the body louse was determined by Charles Nicolle in 1909. a e u TYPHUS fever began to show itself in the Serbian army in November, 1914. At that time the Serbs had from 60.000 to 70,000 prisoners without adequate facilities for taking care of them. ' There were fewer than 400 doctors in Serbia. Most of the able-bodied men were used in the army, and almost all these doctors sooner or later developed typhus fever themselves, the disease being fatal in 126 cases. At that time 2500 cases daily were admitted to military hospitals. In less than six months 150,000 persons died of typhus fever and at least 30,000 of the 60,000 Austrian prisoners died of this condition. n u u DURING the World War, in the armies of the Austrians, Germans, French, English and Americans, bathing and delousing were efficiently carried on. and thus the spread of typhus fever to the civilian population was stopped. In Russia, however, the number of cases of typhus was terrific. During the first year of the war about 100.000 cases occurred in Russia. In 1916, the number of cases recorded was 154,000. It was calculated finally that there were 25,000,000 cases of typhus in the territories controlled by the Soviet in the period from 1917 to 1921, with-2,500,000 to 3,000,000 deaths. Typhus fever is not yet stamped out. In civilized communities it may be controlled by cleanliness, by destruction of lice, and by continuous warfare against dirt, with which the spread of lice is associated. Today occasional cases are seen in large cities where persons are crowded together in hovels and in tenements under insanitary conditions. Q —What is the address of Walt Disney, who draws the Mickey Mouse cartoons? A—2719 Hyperion-av, Hollywood, Cal. Q—ls a child born in the United States of Chinese parents eligible to the office of President of the United States? f A—Yes; because he is a natural bom American citxze^.

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