Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 24 August 1936 — Page 9
SARATOGA SPRINGS, Aug. "how are you enjoying your stay at the Spa, Mr. 8.7” 1 inquired of my newspaper friend. ¥ “Very much,” he replied, “except for the birds 'in my room.” “Birds?” 1 asked. : “Yes,” he answered. “It would all be ever so pleasant but. for the pigeons. 1 don’t like so many
Mr. ‘Bron I admitted that I did.
“Well, naturally I.called up the desk and com--
plained to the clerk. ‘Mr. 8. he said, ‘this the finest suite in the hotel and also ‘the only one remaining vacant. 1 will try to explain ™ you the affieuly,
Fredatory Birds Get "Butter
HE tenant before you was a lover of birds, He used to come down to breakfast and order hot yolis. He never ate any of them, but secretéd them and all the bread on the table, as well as the butter, . dn. his coat pockets. The house detective who was assigned to the case reported hack that our tenant wotlld crumble the hot-buttered rolls and the bread in small fragments which he would leave outside the window and even upon the floor of the apartment. In no time at all the pigeons began to assemble. The house detective reports to us that there is a sharp class consciousness among pigeons. Certain predatory ones took over the living room and the buttered rolls as their particular province. The mass of pigeons
subsisted on the crumbs of dry bread which were left |
on the window sill.” ” : “How long had the suite been vacant?” I asked friend Mr. S. mw. “That was the strangest part of it,” he replied. “Nobody had occupied the room for more than a year and a half, and there wasn't a single crumb for any . pigeon. Instead they put pepper and paris green and other baleful substances around the room. But it seems they can’t discourage the pigeons.” “Why not?” 1 inquired.
»
» = Pigeons, People and Politics IGEONS,” sajg my friend, “are very curious. In the last few days I've had a chance to study them. They are not like our public,” the general reader. They do not keep abreast of events. So shallow is their mentality that all they can retain is the fact that some time in the distant past there were hot rolls and bread crumbs in this room, and so they hang around. The pigeons are still hoping. You can fool them all of the time.” “+ “Mr, Speed,” I said, “you are utterly mistaken. George Cohan wrote a play called ‘Pigeons and People,” and he was quite correct. He maintained that there is no essential difference, Take the present campaign. What is th: Republican Party offering to labor? It is offering the fact that once upon a time there was a great Republican. commoner named Abraham Lincoln. It is offering the same thing to the Negro voters. But the truth is that Lincoln doesn’t. live there any more, and nothing Jemains but pepper: and paris green. And yet some o ung. pigeons still hang around. They still erumbs of comfort.of more than half a century ago. They try to warm. their hearts against neglect by thinking Landon. and Lincoln have something ‘in common. And, indeed, they have. Both names begin : with an L.” r. Speed: made no reply. for his paper is. an an <New Deal organ
My Day
BY ELEANOR ROOSEVELT
Y¥DE PARK, N. Y., Sunday.—There is nothing like revisiting the haunts of one’s childhood to bring back floods of memories. Yesterday I drove to Tivoli, N. Y., past Claremont, built in 1730 by Chancellor Livingston. We went to see the house built by my Grandfather Hall on land which was part of the Livingston grant. Here 1 spent summer after symmer when 1 was a child. ‘I used to visit my grandmother with my mother and little brothers, and later the house became our real home when my grandmother took charge after my mothers death. Every time I go back there are many changes. but I can still see the old place as it was when I lived there. : I people it again with all of us as we were then, easily casting aside 40-odd years of time. ; There are sad memories as well as happy ones, but I shall never know any place, or any house as well as I know that one. Though it must be sold and will pass into other hands, I hope I shall be able to keep a few things near me which will always vividly bring before me ghosts of past We spent a quiet e work and so the rest than usual care. ; Mind” by Rachel Field, which kep midnight. ; . It rained again this morning and I did “ride early, but the President and I wen : had a substitute minister, as
dis- ] “Tonight the President leaves for Washington pre- . paratory to leaving Tuesday for the drought area. : (Copyright, 19, id United Feature Sysidica, ne)
w wills Thornton NEA Sonica Writer
™. DIONNE HOME AND EMPORIUM
Revealing how prosperity has come to Ontario . towns, with thousands of tourists flocking in to see the Dionne quintuplets, Willis Thornton here writes the Jntroductory story of a series, with ‘following - stories by Dr. Allan Roy Dafoe.
(CALLANDER, Ont., Aug. 24.—Carnival has come to Callander. Around the five’ unmindful, blissfully unheeding little Dionne girls, there swirls a daily whirlpool of bustling activity. Each day brings a new swarm of intent pilgrims,
come to look upon a wonder.
From 2000 to 6000 people daily wd the roadway before the Dafoe nursery. Three-quarters of a million will have made the pilgrimage by the end of summer. Pilgrimage is the: only word. The attitude of the visitors is that of pilgrims {fulfilling a vow by this visit. The scene about the nursery: is like .that of a holy
- place . in“‘the- Middle Ages—Can-
terbury or Mecca; or Jerusalem— with vendors of souvenirs and relics clustering about the central point of interest. Stones by the ton from the hospital yard have been carted away as relics or charms. Business boonis, land is sold at unheard-of
figures. Inns, hotels, tourist camps
are full every night. The resultant jobs have almost entirely erased relief rolls. The crowd is orderly, quiet, expectant. The older pilgrims are in some cases almost reverent; in others, near hysteria. Women have fainted at the sight of the chubby girls climbing like monkeys up the bars of the “gym” that stands in the middle of their play-yard.
HE lady from Maryland. had tears in her eyes as big: as Concord grapes. . You ‘wouldn't have picked her out as especially sentimental ‘as she walked across the road and flung, herself down
NEW STAFF HOUSE
DAFOE NURSERY
TaYeRiue OBSERVATION GALLERY
‘overtaken fiction.
on a bench in front of Oliva
Dionne’'s souvenir But— “I thank my Almighty God,” she intoned, “that I have lived to see this day!” ‘ The lady from Maryland was only one of some 2500 people who had just filed through the cov-
emporium.
- ered gallery from which they had
watched the Dionne quintuplets at. play: during the showing.” There were just as many during the afternoon, their dusty cars parked in. quarter-mile rows and acre-solid blocks. There are just as many.every day, and more on Sundays and holidays. I counted licensé plates from 31
‘states and Canadian provinces at
one “showing.” Though most of the visitors are not as extravagant in their expression as the lady from Maryland, practically every one comes out with the firm conviction that he or she has seen “the greatest show on earth” after watching the little Dionne girls. Meanwhile, tuplets go about their daily routine of playing and sleeping and eating, utterly unmindful of the hubbub outside the gates: of their snug haven. 2 The scene is already far] be the imaginative one conju
by the writers of the movie, “The pe
Country -Doctor.” . Reality - has ® td #
I= is 6:30 in’ the morning and the scene is the main street of Callander.
opened. After all, the first “show-
ing” of the miraculous children
is ‘not until 9:30.
The street is sleepy and silent,
In the tourist camps, the lone hotel, and “Rooms for Tourists” homes, the visitors still sleep. Ev= ery hotel room and every bed available for tourists within 10 miles is occupied. That includes North Bay, a city of 17,000, with three hotels. Every room has been occupied since early June. Now a couple of dusty cars swing into the town, follow a plain signboard, make the turn toward the Dafoe Nursery. The occupants crane their necks as
“morning
the famed quin- :
where ©
The information. booths, gasoline stations, souvenir and hot dog stands have ‘not
LET'S EXPLORE YOUR MIND
BY DR. ALBERT EDWARD WIGGAM
they pass the little brick house of Dr. Dafoe, and disappear toward the Dionne home. ' By 7:30 they appear with some frequency, by 8 they are a constant dribble; by 8:30 they are a parade. A few stop. They get gasoline at Leon Dionne’s garage, where a 10-year-old boy serves them, announcing that he is “a cousin ‘of the Dionnes.” They stop at one of several information booths. They hesitate, sometimes stop at Dr. Dafoe’s house. Most cars, however, are driven straight through to the nursery. today, hard-
The road is eons, surfaced and suggesting
nether the Sod, rutted lane that led through the bush on that May morning of 1934, nor even the sand-sirowa, lane of a year ago. A new electric: warning sig-
| nal adorps the single - railway
crossing on the way. Long before ‘you cover the 2% miles to the Dionne home, the sound of hammering and. the smell of new lumber are evident. Souvenir and hot” dog stands, selling everything from postcards to pumpernickel, are ‘rising’ on every hand. yr n » » N their midst is Oliva Dionne’s + still-unpainted beard house, how by an eight-foot * board Telee except on the road, “No Admission” warns off ‘visitors. The Dionne house, where the babies were born May 28, 1934, is’ the only thing in sight that looks as it did two. years and more ago. In the Ingato : Beyond. the
vr
Dionne houss, the road: Has toon)
broadened until it accommodates three rows of parked cars, with'a wide roadway still between them, By 8:30, an hour ‘before : “show time,” several hundred cars: have already been directed by a watch-
| man’s red flag to places in the |
three lines,
Later, the parked cars: will overflow into a huge parking place that used to be the Dionne pasture. Parking is free, and so is the “show,” but if you want postcards and souvenirs, refreshments -
and gifts, you will pay well,
: 2 x 8 i LONG the wirs “fence - that separates the nursery grounds
- and the road, people cling, seek-
ing a peep at the gaily-clad little girls, who are conscious of nothing except that it is about time to go out into their. Playground and play. A line, orderly and quiet, forms at the entrance gate to the observation gallery. Before 9: 30 more. than 1000 ‘are in line. "A yowl ‘from inside the play space brin Pings an awed. gasp of “A-g-ah!” : m the waiting: line, in: which. mother, and & and SSpecially elderly women, Most of the mep iy te. little
- self-conscious, but -no more so
the women. who shyly iff chunks of stone and pebl les from
Tine," 4 y They are the fattious stones ‘from the nursery yard or Dionne farm which are . esteemed as charms for Jertility,, or : Tor: sim‘ple souvenirs. = : Tons of them have been cartied
Gov. Landon Making Campaign
Trip Too Early, Johnson Says
BY HUGH 8. JOHNSON EW YORK Aug. 24—While the President is invading the West on an “errand of mercy,” making no political speeches but many spot decisions on what to do to relieve each stricken area, Gov: Landon will be barnstorming the East, making | dozens of three-minute . back-plat-. form appearances and “three politi-
cal speeches presumably attacking | the President and all his works. . ‘In the political effect of this, the |
| break goes to the President. It is
easy to be cynical about it and say that somebody is “playing politics with human - misery,” but what is the alternative?’ To do .ndthing| of about the. drought, for fear that
people will say that what you do is|x
for political gain? That isn’t what
.| Gov. Landon did.
{| He got busy to secure reduced | ai bE ie to use whatever facilities were avail-|
able in Kansas to
de water and} relieve suffering.
politics a man can practice is make good on his job. PNET % x =.
OR another reason, 1 wasnt 220d judgment, for this, Gov=
ou can’t criticise | fe either effort. The best and: fairest ib
of them have sald—that there are:
enough Roosevelt-haters to beat the President with a Chinese, they had better take a recount. Gov. Landon will have to speak and he will have
to say something. eb lage pleas~:
question-mark shadowing his ant face in the minds of most work-
ers and neatly all farmers. To win | in both
‘he ‘must have Many votes
classes -to add to Sis “nest-egg of
at Ey ak
Knox can do this job for him. ‘The office of President is so powers
ful that you can’t sell voters a :surprise package for the job. The Tory, torch-bearers, coupled |
2 hase Governor's. .indefinite pro- :
"make
to, see the children again.
away. ‘A : A jewelry firm in. New York is even receiving, them to “charm” jewelry in the form of a five-stone bracelet. Ni ® ® = USY hammering is‘ going on at the new staff house, and
: the pavilion where Oliva Dionne
now operates a souvenir and variety store. Crowded quarters
* within: the nursery itself’ for the nurses, police, housekeeper, cook
and orderly have made _ it advisable to build a separate residence,
.or “staff house,” for them.
French-Canadian boys from the
neighborhood have already learned
that’ by polishing the travelstained windshields they paps vest tips.: ‘Several lads broken calves . to harness Fk rigged up little carts, in the seats of which they will photograph tourists for a fee.- Hawkers peddle pennants, stickers and postcards. The “show” begins. Chains are loosened, "the visitors shuffle through turnstiles and pass in two streams around both sides of a circular - gallery surrounding a grassy playground. A painted screen covers the windows facing the playground. There are the five little girls, cherubs in pink, yellow: and green. «dresses. of dimity-‘or voile. play with one gnother, the from ‘their Evin asiie oes Ae fall into the wading
pull- one ‘another: x a ev
crete sidewalk in little carts. They are completely oblivious of being watched ° by breathless throngs.
~The line shuffles through, urged
‘on. by the voice of Constable
Burke, veteran of the “Mounties”: we a Jas} look, now,’ and hop
A
¥ » 8 LAST. Took, and the pilgrims are out in. the sunshine
again. They have seen the quin-
ftuplets. Many step across the Street ‘and congregate in Oliva Dionne’s new shop, where 10 clerks sell toys, animals, dolls, calendars, ash trays, picture mote tos, birchbark and burnt-wood
souvenirs, “postcards - and : soft
od as fast as they can handle em, ‘Those who are lucky may find the famous father himself in a little ‘glassed<off private “office at the rear, autographing postcards. ‘Some go back through the line One party passed through
“three times in one morning, re-
gretful that after that the childreri .were taken back into the nursery and the “show” was over. Everybody Seems pleased, delighted, ‘at the thought that he actually has seen the quintuplets. A little old lady pauses, eyes
| shining, as she leaves the gate. ho “We dro
ve 590 miles to see this. Bui; my, gtacions: Sc1was worth
sa
_made hilarious sport of
-k Hitler
NEW ¥ YORK, Aug. 24. S-Onie beautiful of civilization shines through the clouds over Spain. Adolf Hitler has warned the Spanish government that Germany will not - permit unlawful molestation of Germany's neutral vessels on the high seas. This reps resents a distinct change of mood and morals in
many since the days of Admiral Von Tirpits and the: unlimited submarine campaign.
‘The proprieties of the present sit-
uation differ slightly In detail but
Germany obviously has reversed her attitude toward neutral shipping, which 48 a gain for international law. Hitler has gone even farther, ‘for he has claimed the protection of the law for the shipping of a neutral enemy, a cheering sign of redemption in a nation which once shelling neutral sailors adrift in open boats on the high seas. J Of course a captious adherent of the Spanish government might find a little fault with Hitler in the present case. There has been no declaration of war in Spain and the ships of all nations under a strict interpretation of the statutes migh seem to be free to:move about as usual. Yet, any one so well informed as tha German Caesar must have heard that there is a little trouble going on in Spain ‘and, .if he wished to be really neighborly to a friendly power, might be expected to stand off vhilg the government put Sows the rebellion. ”
Bloodshed Shocks Nazis :
N the contrary, however, Caesar, through his ad« mirals, has.paid official compliments to the eres mies of the friendly government of Spain, and Gers man merchantmen’ interposed their sensitive press ence in the line of fire where the government was drawing beads on the enemies of order and lawful authority. : . The bloodshed in Spain has shoeked the Nazi state, but it might be pointed out that when blood was “spilling in Germany the Spanish government some= how managed to bear in mind that when factions start shooting, cutting and clubbing within a country, that is strictly a family row. A Spanish ship running guns, ammunition and food to Hitler's opponents in those days or a Spanish admiral calling on the leader of the opposition might have aroused active resentment. But above all these considerations, there is another gain for civilization in the feeling of the Nazis at this moment. For surely when the Nazi government goes: sentimental to the point of deploring wanton destruc “tion of holy things, bloodshed, brutality and Vestal}
Mr. Pegler
that represents a reas step forward.
”. 8 War of Coniest
IY this country there is strong emphasis on he! horrors perpetrated by the government faction, to the neglect of the Fascist: horrors and of the horrors of ordinary life: in Spain which drove the people to the left. People don't torture their own countrymen, pillage and burn their own cities unless ~they have been made savage by ignorance, Jobbery and vicious exploitation. This war seems to be ..of the. people against. a. professional: army. backed and by that_other ‘Caesar: who wrecked | ) ‘Ledgue of Nations With ah’ unprovoked and frank
a 1 Predatory war of defense agdinst the Ethiopians, §
es away. ‘Pew Americans will sympathize with Communism in Spain if, indeed this is a Communist government ‘with Russian support and inspiration, a suspicion not . yet ripened into fact by credible. proof. But syme= pathy for the other side will be sucker sympat, Certainly this people has no reason to pull for the Italian Caesar in his effort to gain a Moroccan foots - hold near Gibraltar as the anchorage for his cons quest of a new empire. Christianity is said to be at stake to be a war for Serbo;
Merry-Go-Round
BY DREW Ty-S AND ROBERT S. ALLEN N ROUTE WITH GOV. LANDON,
There are a lot of things you can't. help liking assuming
but this is going
sbout Alt Landon, and one of them 1s his
, managing. editor of the Kansas City Star and leading member of the Landon brain
Tn the dinner. was about over, Gov. Land dropped in, just as casually as if he were one of the family. The talk drifted around to the
and the problems the Republican Party had to overs come to defeat Roosevelt. per man present had his §
and most EE Petiopapek express not hes to them. Governor came out with ‘this remark: Finally a “You forgot one problem we have got to ov cor - which may be the biggest of all. I've got to conv the American people that I'm capable of running & coun ps then with a half humorous smile, he added— “ am.” Another thing that strikes yoir about Landori tat he is totally