Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 15 October 1936 — Page 17
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“FROM INDIAR A
By ERNIE.PYLE
OEUR D’ALENE, Idaho, Oct. 15.—Meet the man who is famous for writing letters to the newspapers. « Meet the most prolific writer-tgrthe-
papers in America, perhaps in the "world. Meet Charles Hooper, of ‘Coeur d'Alene. There probably isn't a newspaper editor in Amerfca who doesn't knows of Charles Hooper. Most of
them, at some time or other, have published his letters. Many of them suppose he is a crank. He isn't. He is a learned man.
Hooper lives alone in a neat little tourist cottage among tall
trees in the city park. He. has
never married. He does his own cooking and washing and mending. He does not, as we mundane eobeople say, have regular employment.. He. just writes letters.
He is not the crummy hermit.
His place is clean, and he is clean, and he dresses nicely. He is hospitable and a delightful conversationalist, He is a good-looking man; fairly tall, well built. : He bends forward a little as he walks, sort of in eagerness, it seemed to me. He doesn’t ever tell his age, but my guess is a little above 50. His whole appearance is that of a very likable professor. Charles Hooper is a New Yorker. He was born and raised in New York City. He is a blueblooa. His ancestry is Scotch. His father was a wealthy Park Avenue art dealer. His relatives are ‘millionaires. Charles Hooper says he could have been a millionaire. -- He went through the City College of New York. He graduated from Union Theological Seminary, intent on being a minister in the Scotch Covenant faith. He took post-graduate work at Columbia University. He traveled abroad; lived for a time in Lomdon. Then something happened. He abandoned the ministry, but he is still religious. The thing that happened sent him away from New York, sent him west, +20 years ago. He has never been back.
8 8 5
id 0dd Jobs
E lived in Seattle'and Spokane and other Washington cities for 10 years. He did odd menial jobs; worked in the apple orchards; on the docks; ran a sidewalk candy stand in Seattle. Sometimes he had money; sometimes he hadn't. Ten, years ago he came to Coeur d’ Alene, and he’s still here.” He has a small private income, which pays his expenses and buys his paper and postage. Charles Hooper wrote his first letter to’ the newspapers about 1905. He wrote it to the old New York ' Herald, ‘complaining because a drinking fountain on
Mr. Pyle
! Riverside Drive across the street from a beer parlor*
had been turned off. He thought maybe the saloon " keeper had something to do with it. He Has been writing letters ever, since. He sends his “essays,” as he calls them, to about 300 newspapers a week. He doesn’t send to the same
300 each week. ” ” ”
Writes Two a Week
B actually composes only two original letters a J week. The rest of his time he spends in making <wwarbon copies.
He considers his letters more literary than journal-
istic. He writes about social questions—government, religion, medicine, philosophy. He shies away from economics.” Says he doesn’t know anything about it. His letters are published all over the world. He made the London Times a couple of years ago. His name is especially well known in the Orient, where he is often pubished. He freguenty sends letters. to European papers, written in German, Italian, Spanish, French. He does his own translating.
Mrs. Roosevelt'sDay.|
-$pt Me. Simp fils King, pigs.
BY ELEANOR: ROOSEVELT.
ONTIAC, Ill, Wednesday. —I was just abot to step into bed about midnight last night when I heard a knock at my door. I opened it a crack. Mr. Marvin McIntyre, assistant secretary to the President, stood there and asked, “Are you still dressed?” “No, I'm just about to get into bed,” I replied. Reproachfully and sadly, but quite hopelessly he remarked, “There's a tremendous crowd outside and they are calling for you.” I doubted Mr. McIntyre's veracity, because I remembered a past experience when the President couldn't appear and I was sent out to the back platform to explain. But I couldn't even get a chance to speak because of the cries of “Get the President out here!” “We want the President!” It is one thing to go out with the President and have every one welcome you kindly, but quite another ' thing to meet a disappointed group of people who have no desire to see any one but the President! I was relieved that I could truthfully say: “The back platform is out of the question.” This morning we left the train in St. Louis where the President dedicated the new memorial to the World War dead. Then we drove down along the
riverfront through some of the old parts of the city
where a memorial highway is planned. I hope the old gathedral will not be destroyed. It is, I think, the oldest we saw in St. Louis. - Fine new buildings are
all very well, but when beauty is combined with age,
I think we should have interest enough in our traditions to preserve something of the past. Also overlooking the water is an old house called the “Old Rock House.” If was built, I imagine, in the early days out of native rock. That, too, is very
intgresting, and I hope it can be preserved, for we:
should have some saniples, at least, of the type of houses those early settlers’ built. . I wish I could get over worrying about what the police horses may do to the crowds in a moment of excitement. Both the men and the horses are marvelously trained, but it always seems incredible to me
that a horse can stand so much noise and so many: people around him without forgetting his manners, I tremble for the children, and am glad when the : crowds stop pressing forward and the horses ea,
stand still.
Daily New Books
T= met and known fairly intimately most of: the British bigwigs who are engaged in this war.” So writes Frederick S. Oliver in THE ANVIL OF WAR (Macmillan, London; $3.13; Stephen Gwynn,
editor). He adds that he is very close to. what he terms the “controlling minds at the British nerve center,” Mr. Oliver was of the generation that directed England's policies during the World War, Although he was very close to Sir Douglas Haig, David Lloyd George, and the other war leaders of England, both civil and military, he himself held an official position for only a short time, when he aided John Buchanan in the Propaganda Department. This was his preference; referring to it, he says, “I
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1936
Entered as Second-Class Matter at Postoffice, Indianapolis, Ind.
Divorce Action F ocuses Eyes
‘WHO IS THIS MRS. SIMPSON?
of World on n Friend of Edward
(Last of a Series)
" BY LAURA LOU BROOKMAN. ~~ NEA ‘Service Staff Correspondent iis ALTIMORE, Md., Oct. 15.—The vivacious: American,
photographed so often with ~King Edward VIII of :
England, and now the center of England's most: sensational divorce suit in years, may be “Wally” to her London friends and Mrs. Ernest Simpson to the world, but ‘she is still “Wallis Warfield” in Baltimore. - : Perhaps itis ‘because the name of Warfield has been so long and prominently known here. There was Gov. Edward Warfield, cousin of Mrs, Simp- |
son’s. father.
There was.“Sol” Warfield, resident of Seaboard ‘Air line Railroad and well-known Baltimore banker, who, when he died, a bachelor, In 1928, left his niece, Wallis, the income from a $15,000 trust fund for life, with the nota~ tion that “my niece has been educated by me and otherwise provided for by my mother and myself, in addition to the
provision made herein.” What are they saying of the famous Mrs. Simpson in Baltimore today ?
“Oh, yes—Wallis Warfield!” a young woman, prominent in Baltimore . society, exclaimed. 1 didn’t_see her that time she was here for the races in 1934. I wish I had. They say her husband's right handsome. Do you think he’ll - be knighted?” Said a member of the ‘family now occupying Mrs. Simpson's home at 212° Biddle-st: “I guess those Warfields--had to struggle along just about the way we are now. ‘Gosh, wouldn’t it ‘be funny if one of us should ever see a
~ palace!”
Mrs. Simpson’s closest relatives here—Henry M. Warfield, an uncle, and Mrs. Zachary Robert Lewis, a oeousin—are among those who have no comments to make about their relative in London. They do not wish to be quoted. o = 2 ODAY Baltimore seethed with excitement over the news that Mrs. Simpson had filed suit for divorce from her seeond husband. - Former acquaintances particularly were interested in that
. phase ‘of developments which
‘quoted friends of the former Wallis Warfield as saying that it was “ridiculous” to think.that she may become the bride of King Edward, following the expected divorce. Previously, the best her friends here could ‘hope, “for, had been a friend . knighted, through which ¢ Jceremony, of course, the former Baltimore debutante would become a titled lady. Now, that seems to be unlikely, but some ‘were found who at least found pleasure in meditating on the possibility that possibly something even better is in store for her: These well wishers ‘were quite willing - to believe that the former Wallis Warfield, the little Baltimore beauty, whose mother at one time took in boarders, is destined to .become the next Queen’ of England. There is interest, too, in ‘Baltimore, in Mrs. Simpson’s new home at No. 16 Cumberland Terrace in London. Those who have visited the Simpsons’ apartment in Bryanston Court hope they'll be invited to the new home. They don’t expect Mrs. Simpson to be stand-offish or “upstage, now that her name appears frequently in the British Court Circular. They point out that she never has been standoffish. Her Bryanston Court apartment
was notable for its homelike atmosphere. The drawing room had apple green walls and ceiling, with curfains and carpets to match. There was a fireplace, shelves lined with books, plenty of easy chairs, a mirror over
the mantel. The dining room: was -
decorated in‘amber, a shade most
becoming as a background for the
dark-haired hostess.
# 8#%sn
T is {old here that Mr.. and Mis.
Simpson. met many of their present friends through Lord and Lady Furness—an acquaintanceship that arose from the fact that Ernest “Simpson, like Lord Fur-
‘ness, is engaged in shipping. Lady
Furness is the former Thelma Morgan, beautifuls twin sister of Mrs, Gloria Vanderbilt. It was Lady Furness who introduced Mr. and Mrs. Simpson to the Prince of Wales. Soon Mr. and Mrs. Simpson, with Lord and Lady Furness, were invited to spend a week-end at Fort Belvidere, the royal week-end house near London. That first «invitation to Fort Belvidere was followed by others, and presently the Simpsons were seen at the Prince’s table in fashionable ' restaurants in the ‘West End of London. They were seen together at dinner parties, night clubs, and in the royal — at Covent Garden.
Mr. and Mrs. Simpson became definitely numbered in = the Prince’s circle of close friends—a list that was not long. Inéluded were the Duke and ‘Duchess of Sutherland, Lord and Lady Louise . Mountbatten, the widow Dudley, the widow Lady the Hon. and Mrs. Evelyn Fitz=. gerald, A. Duff Cooper and his wife, Lady Diana Cooper, and Mr. and Mrs. Simpson.
o a 2
INCE his accession to the throne, Eqward VIII has maintained the same list of intimates. All are about the King’s age. All are “middle-brows” instead of “high-brows,” with the exception of Duff Cooper, minister of war in the British cabinet and recent biographer and defender of Lord Haig. IL.ord Louis Mountbatten is a kinsman of the King and Lady Mountbatten is one of the greatest heiresses in Britain. The Sutherlands have wealth and outstanding social eminence.: So has Lord Dudley. Capt. Fitzgerald, like Ernest Simpson, is a business man, comfortably well off, but not in the “big rich” class. It was Mrs. Simpson’s presence on the royal yacht, Nahlin, on King Edward's holiday cruise of the Adriatic that set the match to current talk about her association
Earth May Meet
Rusty Death,
Princeton Astronomer Says
BY: SCIENCE SERVICE
ASHINGTON, Oct. 15.—Death by .rutsing, rather than by freezing ‘when the sun goes out, or in the apocalyptic fires of a Judgment Day, may possibly be the eventual fate of the earth. This suggestion is made by Prof. Henry Norris Russell, Princeton University astronomer, writing in the new annual report of -the Smithsonian In-
"Oxygen, % éverybody now knows, is the real -essence of the breath of life. If -it were to be wholly renioved from the atmosphere of this planet, we should all perish—mouse and man, toadstool and tree. Some rocks contain oxygen, locked up in chemical combination. Some times
+ stitution.
this combination can be cracked, as
by volcanic action. Then the oxygen is turned loose, largely as carbon |
suppose all human government—even of Cyr. by"
is like this; nine-tenths of ithe brains of the country ate ved in defeating calf anether. That is the real tragedy of politics. It makes me thank God that up
Gil mow have kept shop insend of Sigg In the
incils of State.”
Howard Week ending Oct. 10 are: % : “hawk, in Gaza. :
NON-FICTION: Live Alone and Like Amer. Doctors Odyss
‘Ban-
But it = not due to-arrive ‘Here tomorrow or the next day. Perhaps in a billion years, says. Prof. Russell. : : Reports from many watchers of the skies, whether of remote nebulae and stars, or of the nearer planets and “satellites, or of the doings of the ‘earth’s: own intimate envelope of gases rE we call the atmosphere; are found in the new Smithsonian report. . Possibilities: of long-range weath-
er forecasting ‘are discussed by the Smithsonian I
We Ep: gy
Surrounded by a distinguished gathering of Brit= ain’s elect, and escorted by King Edward VIII, the scene ahove in ‘a. London theater lobby typifies the
with . the King. Particularly, it was the number of. newspaper photographs showing: His Majesty in informal sport attire and, almost Invariably, Mrs. Simpson nearby. . Ss ae Ernest . Simpson, . it - was. explained, was detained in London on important - -business. | He was not present, “either, ‘when Mrs. Simpson recently was a guest at Balmoral Castle in Scotland. The Court Circular stated simply that: Mrs. Ernest A. Simpson and Mr. and Mrs. Herman I, Rogers have arrived at the castle.” bo 2 2 a =» UCH a guest list makes it clear that Mrs. Simpson holds a place in British royal society that
acme’ of ‘social
is y- secure. =~ : “ NR Poti are ls
‘these ‘days, among the old friends here will be first to receive a letter from Mrs. Simpson, describing her new home and her: stay at Balmoral Castle? Who will be first to see Mrs. Simpsn’s new drawing room where,. doubtless;
a king will often be entertained? :
In Baltimore, now that Wallis Warfield Spencer Simpson has reached the topmost rung of the social ladder, there is keener interest than ever concerning her further adventures. She has traveled an ‘amazing
distance from the boarding house ;
on Biddle-st. .. What next? THE END
"CONQUERING THE MIGHTY PACIFIC"
A series portraying the achievement of the giant Clipper. planes begins tomorrow in
The Times
position. attained by Mrs. Ernest
Simpson, the former Baltimore girl who seeks to divorce her second husband.
Mrs. Ernest Simpson in her old London home.
| was the life of the party a hundred years ago.
POLITICS AS CLAPPER SEES IT
BY RAYMOND CLAPPER
ASHINGTON, Oct. 15.—Gov. Smith says that if he had known what Roosevelt was going to do in the White House, he would have voted for Hoover in 1932.
The implication in this, and in the.
speeches ‘of - Republicans :dealing with the “broken promises” issue, is that Roosevelt won the presidency under false pretenses. Roosevelt has broken some of his
that if needs i unemployed re-
‘quired appropriations - which would
‘a | keep the budget out of balance, he
i . Abbot's approach earth's weather is through the sun's radiation, a subject he has studied for many Sours .
di —-
\T I can’t understand,”
IA Woman's s Viewpaint-- Mrs Wal er Fe
doer seighbon, “1s Now. a generation that x
‘would not hesitate to spend what-
ever necessary. Prolonged: unemployment forced Roosevelt to the point where he had to break one promise or the other. After ‘making
said my next
a brief stab at economy, principally through reducing veterans’ payments, he broke his economy promise and embarked on’ the spending program, taking his: chances on being able to justify ‘his choice between these conflicting pledges. However, the broken-promise charge takes on the broader and more sinister implication that Roosevelt tricked the Democratic Party and the country and that after he was elected he pulled the New Deal out of ‘the hat, sneaking his own program across and betraying conservative, Democrats. -
MITH, who left the Chicago convention in 1932 before it was over—his feet already were begin-
velt’s acceptance speech to the convention. That is ac bad. Other-
erguson
‘right then;
with him.
speech:
affecting economic and social ‘life.
sift through, to labor, to the farmer, to the small business man.
the Tories left this country in 1776.
wise Smith could have saved time Fand begun walking the other way because.” Roosevelt | warned the convention and the ‘country that Democrats like Smith would find themselves out of step
That notice, and Roosevelt’s opinion of the tory philosophy, were given to the convention in this passage. of his 1932 acespiatice
“There are two ways of Yiewibe the government's duty in matters
The first sees to it that a favored few are helped and hopes that some of their prosperity will leak. through,
That theory belongs to the party of Toryism, and I had hoped that most of
“But-it is not and never will be
By ANTON SCHERRER
5 MIGHTY few members of the Second Presbyterian Church, I'll bet, know that Henry Ward Beecher raised the fi cauliflower around here. I didn't either until ‘the other day and I wouldn’t have kn it even now had not Kenneth Loucks let me in on his collection of premiere performances pulled off in Indianapolis. Youll be surprised to learn wha that man knows about first things.
According to Mr. Loucks, it was as early as 1823 that Alexander ° Ralston raised the first tomato around here. It couldn't have been any later, says Mr. Loucks, because that was the ‘year Mr.’ Ralston planted his big garden ‘back of his home in W. Mary-land-st. i ; Mr. Ralston called the tomato a “loye apple” and, to complicate 2 a still more, ‘ explained to those willing to learn that it was - an annual of the nightshade fam-
ily. What's more, he planted it in his rosarium which shows, perhaps as well as anything, what Mr. Ralston knew ‘about tomatoes. Or anybody else, for that matter, because it wasn’t until 20: years after Mr, Ralston’s death that Indianapolis caught on to whay tomatoes were good for. As a matter of fact, says Mr. Loucks, tadianapells knew about swallowing oysters before it knew whag to do with tomatoes. 3 # James Blake, it turns out, brought the first oysters to Indianapolis. Mr. Blake, it appears, made a good "many trips between here and Philadelphia because, very early in his career, he discovered that there was a market there for ginseng. And as Mr. Blake's luck would have it, ginseng was the most ornery weed that grew around Indianapolis. Anyway, Mr, Blake made a pile of money hauling ginseng from here to Philadelphia and it was on one of his return trips that he brought the first consignment of oysters with Hm, wd 2
Mr. Scherrer 5
tJ ” ” Oysters Were ‘Pickled’ \HEY were the “pickled” kind and didn’t find much favor at first, but they went over big during the celebration of James Polk’s victory as the * eleventh President, which happened to be in a month with an “+” init. By the time the first railroad came | here Indianapolis had two oyster bars. Mr. Loucks also suspects Mr. Blake of bringing the first celery to town and knowing what I do about Mr. Blake I am willing to siring slong with Me,
aH Loucks.
Be that as it may, Mr. Loucks is sure that Micah * ~ Fergusson had the smallest farm around here, a paltry 48 acres in Range 4, but that didn’t keep him from having some pretty big ideas about farming. #8 8° : Money Raising Beans M* FERGUSSON had a fantastic notion, for ine stance, that given time and rain, he could make as much money off his little plot raising beans as did Bob Harding with his 253 acres over in Range 3 raising anything else, A Well, to hear Mr. Lotcks tell” it, “Mr, Feiguison
oh -made a big hit with his beans and shortly before his
"death ventured the opinion ‘that the ‘time would come when any man around here could’ make a living out of five acres of beans. When Jerry Johnson, the town wag of a century ago, heard about. Mr. Fergusson’s prediction, he shook his head and said: “Yeah, but the trick is to make a living without the use of your bean.” Mr. Johnson Mr. Loucks: says he’s going to keep on digging until
he proves that Mrs. Beecher thought up the sauce for her husband’s cauliflower.
Hoosier Yesterdays |
OCTOBER 15
OE of the most abiding lessons history can teach us is that while situations may change, the coms plexion of the people ‘remains much the same from generation to generation. The presidential election of 1824 in Indiana res sulted in a spirited race between the three candidates, Jackson, Clay and-Adams,
The lawyers and the professional men preferred Adams, while the business men and prosperous farms er flocked to the Clay standard, because of the cane didate’s policy on ‘tariff and internal improvements.” The pioneers, men and women who came Wes§ into Indiana to start a new-life, favored Jackson bee cause of his opposition to the banks. The panic of 1818-1823 aroused a wave of popular indignatic against the bankers. Indiana gave Old Hickory “& plurality, although the combined votes of Clay and Adams would have defeated him in this state. Another burning political-social question in the ‘early part of the Nineteenth Century in Indiana was the slavery issue. - Hundreds of free Negroes canie to Indiana from the South, and one wealthy Tens nessee plantation owner asked the Indiana Assembly for. permission to buy homes’ for his 40 fréedmen jy Indiana. Southern newspapers accused the ‘Hoosiers many. times of aiding Negroes to escape into Indiana. * Kidnaping of free Negroes in Indiana and ships ping them across the border into ‘slavery was a coms mon practice which was vigorously denounced by the General Assembly of 1818—By T. C.
Watch. Your Health
BY DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN Editor, Amer. Medical Assn. Journal WE, a person has been shocked by electricity, it is first necessary to remove him from contact with the electric conductor. Employes of e concerns do not stop to shut off the current.
_