Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 8 July 1937 — Page 15
From Indiana—Ernie Pyle
Steamer Loses Battie With Glacier When Whistle, Trying to Make Ice ‘Tumble Down, Has Day of Bad Luck.
KAGWAY, Alaska, July 8.—We sailed A . from Juneau at 11 a. m. I went right to my cabin and opened my typewriter and began rolling out hterature. The first thing I knew I had reeled off two masterpieces and it was 1 o'clock and I realized the ship's engines were stopped. So I went out on deck to see what the trouble was and saw all the passengers lined up at the rail staring forward. So I stared too, and there about a mile ahead was that old Taku glacier again. Seems that the steamer had gone out of its way by a couple of hours just to give the passengers a squint at what the steamship folders show you. The ship kept casing up closer to the glacier, with men out on the foc'sle-head taking the depth of the water all the time. And pretty soon the whistle blew. The folders say, you know, that the ship steams alongside a glacier and blows a whistle, and that vibration makes great hunks of ice fall off with a mighty crash into the water. Well, no ice fell off that I could see. And apparently the captain couldn't see any either, for he kept blowing the whistle about every 30 He'd blow a lot of little short ones. And wait. And then a couple of longer ones. And wait. And then, getting desperate, he'd hang onto that old cord for
Mr. Pyle
nearly a minute, and everybody would have to hold |
his ears. and the echo would rocket around among the mountains for no ice fell off. 1 felt sorry for the steamship people. They just blew the devil out of that whistle, but they couldn't get any ice. We hung around there for an hour, and finally the captain leaned over the bridge rail and laughed and said “She’s stubborn today,” and then we turned around and hurried away.
Weather? Don't Mention It
All afternoon we steamed northward through what they call the Lynn Canal. I don't know why they call it a canal, for it must be four or five miles wide and doesn’t look any more like a canal than the rest of the “Inside Passage” we've come through. But it is the most beautiful part of the whole trip from Seattle to Skagway, I think. The mountains are high on both sides. And instead of being snow-cov-ered just on top, theyre almost solidly white. We passed two or three good-sized glaciers, streaming down out of the valleys. But we didn’t whistle at them And how was the weather? Oh, pouring down rain, and very dark and gray, and colder than the inside of an icebox. People had to stay indoors all the time. This, of course, was a new bunch of passengers to me. They had come right from Seattle and most of them were round-trip tourists. I heard four or five of them moaning about the weather and wishing they hadn't come. After supper we played bingo in the smoking room. The game was run by Herbie, who is officially the deck steward, but who is a master of ceremonies at heart.
Clown Without Laughter
Herbie is one of these funny-looking, natural getalongers with people. His nose is bigger than the rest of his head, and he takes liberties with the passengers and they take liberties with him, and he clowns all the time without laughing. It was Herbie who, after we had been blowing in vain at Taku glacier for half an hour, strolled up on the top deck and leaned far over the rail and whistled with his mouth. Herbie is a scream. To make a long story short, we played for a couple of hours, and one woman won three times in a row, and wound up by also winning the last game, which was a two-bit pot instead of a dime. She came out about $10 ahead. Remembering my own phenomenal bonanza of $1.60 achieved coming up on the Northwestern, I kept right in there trying till the last number was called. But I dropped $1.65 into the hopper and nothing came out, so now the steamship company owes me a nickel. 1 went to bed in disgust, and when I woke up we were in Skagway,
at 11
Mrs.Roosevelt's Day
By Eleanor Roosevelt
Navy's Search for Amelia Earhart Buoys First Lady's Hopes of Rescue.
ASHINGTON, Wednesday.—Today we are still anxiously waiting in the hope that the Navy will be successful in its search for Amelia Earhart and her navigator. I begin to feel somewhat breathless, for every time the telephone rings I hope it will bring some kind of news—good news of course. If one could only get word of her exact position, but I know from long experience that suspense of this kind 1s something we all have to learn to endure. I've alwavs hated it in big things and in little things, but as the years go by I bear it better than when I was voung and impatient. An amusing headline in one of the papers struck my eve this morning. Here it is: “There's probably a king or two up in your family tree.” I imagine that is so of almost everybody's family tree, and I was tempted the other day to go searching back into my own, a thing I have never been interested in doing. Some kind friend sent me several typewritten pages which are being circulated in an effort to prove that the Roosevelt genealogy back in the 1600s had some particular strain of racial blood. I read it with great amusement, for I imagine if any of us were interested enough to go back and search through our ancestry we could find almost anything we were looking for sometime in the years gone by. After all, we either all came from-Adam or from the monkeys originally, and down the line there probably must have been some skeletons in the various closets of every family, and some things of which all families may be proud. The most we can hope for is that when the balance is made in each generation, the majority of our forbears have been useful members of society, regardless of what nationality or religion they may have belonged to as they meandered through the centuries. Yesterday afternoon, I think I began, for the first time, to have a real sense of leisure. After doing a certain amount of work, I put on a bathing suit and spent an hour in and out of the pool and lying in the sun. I had to get up this morning at 6:30 in order to catch the train for New York, where I did some errands before taking the 2 o'clock plane for Washington. It was rather a bumpy trip down, but cooler than it had been on the ground and I had a delightful book to read for a leisurely day, “The Town of Tombarel,” by William J. Locke. It is not a new book, but I think anyone will find the character of the Mayor of Creille charming. The glimpse the book gives of the human stories which go on in the smallest of places, might well serve as a suggestion to many of us who think we have to live in circumscribed surroundings. As a matter of fact, if you have eyes to see and a sympathetic heart, no matter how small the place you live in, you can find any amount of human nature to study.
Walter O'Keefe —
FY HE John Barrymores are stream-lining Shakespeare on the radio. Elaine is the ex-wife of the aging Romeo—or at least she was when this went to press—but their recent reconciliation may soon have them at the altar for retakes. Don’t take any more stock in this than the rumor that Dizzy Dean will pitch on any given day. Considering the on-again off-again romance of the Barrymores, it might be a good idea to insert a clause in Elaine's contract which will prohibit her from divorcing him in the middle of the program,
-
seconds, |
haif a minute afterward. But |
ell
Colorado Fights Grasshoppers
Insect Horde Menaces Midwest's ‘Bumper Crops’
By NEA Service
fickle wind. Nearly 20,000 square miles of plains land are infested. State college entomologists estimate an average of 257 grasshoppers to the square foot in some areas. Where did this vast, destructive army come from? Last fall, just before winter - ended her brief half-year life span, the female grasshopper settled on the ground, inserted her extended abdomen into the soil and laid her eggs in the tunnel thus formed. Throughout the winter these eggs lay dormant, in the “pod” or gelatinous sac provided by the female.
With the advent of warm weather,
however, they germinated and soon emerged, small and wing-
less, but nonetheless hungry reproductions of their parents. The grasshoppers do not undergo the grublike larval stages characteristic of moths and butterflies, but come trom the eggs as fully developed individuals, lacking only wings. For the past few months they
'RAINDROPS' MAKE HIGH VOLTAGES
By Science Service
Showers of | charged man-made raindrops are the basic factor in the newest highvoltage electrostatic generator just
sell of Port Jefferson, N. Y. In this respect the high voltage is obtained in quite the same way— | but under controlled conditions of course—in which nature builds up
the voltage of enormous potential seen in lightning. The Radio Cor-
| poration of America has been as- | signed the patent rights to the in(vention. The equipment is designed
either for experimental research in bombarding the atom’s nucleus or, more practically, as the source of potential on super X-ray tubes for treating malignant diseases, like cancer. " =” » HE man-made rain consists of a spray of some semiconducting liquid like water which falls through an intense electric field. Electrical charges are thus carried to the | “ground” below, which is a con- | tainer attached to the generator of | high voltage. The little electrical | charges on the raindrops are con- | ducted off to the great storage | spheres which can serve as the ends of the auxiliary accelerating apparatus. The important feature of the new invention is its extreme simplicity and absence of moving parts.
» = = M>T of the electrostatic generators today, including the giant of them all at the laboratories of Prof. Robert Van de Graaff of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, use silk or paper belts to carry up to the storage spheres the small charges of electricity which ultimately attain a potential of as much as 5,000,000 volts. In the Hansell patented generator the falling “raindrops” replace the belts; belts which have caused much annoyance because of their relatively short-lived wearing characteristics.
Side Glances
ASHINGTON, July 8—! electrically
| patented here by Clarence W. Han-
THURSDAY, JULY 8, 1937
HOUSANDS of Midwestern farmers to whom the promise of “bumper crops” came this s come relief from long years of barren ye now are watching with anxious interest the outcome of Colorado's battle against an invading horde of grasshoppers. Ideal incubation conditions—warm, dry weather—have made Colorado the focal point from which destruction may spread, in widening circles, according to the vagaries of a
»
as a wel-
have been growing, shedding their skins as they outgrew them, and when they take flight, to range for hundreds of miles a potential and intensely real menace to every farm in the MissouriMississippi valley. = » ” PPEARANCE of wings, usually within 40 to 60 days from their hatching period, brings the ‘hopper to the adult stage, ready to reproduce and await the coming of winter and death. The majority of the pests now infesting Colorado are of the species known as the lesser migratory grasshopper, reddish brown, with a distinct patch of black on the back or collar and averaging about one inch in length, Despite its small size, it is a strong flier and is capable of inflicting vast damage to crops. Other varieties which also may be found include the differential grasshopper, distinguished chiefly by a yellowish color and clear glassy hind wings. Distinct black chevron markings on the hind legs also identify this species. The two-striped ‘hopper, characterized by two yellow stripes along each side of a brown back, finds its natural habitat in the greater portion of the Midwest. The red-legged species, reddish brown above, and yellow underneath, also is widely distributed. No living plant, in the path of an invading horde of grasshoppers, can escape. Relentlessly the pests devour crops wholesale.
» = ” ND the “tall tales” the elders tell of finding rake and pitchfork handles eaten away are undoubtedly true. But it is the salt, left by perspiring hands, not the wood, that the ‘hoppers feed on. Natural enemies — birds, flies and certain species of wasps—are
powerless to cope with a widespread infestation, although they are effective in controlling the pests under ordinary conditions. Man must rely on poison baits —mixtures of poison, bran, molasses and sawdust—to check the pests before they leave the ground. Once the migratory flights begin, little can be done to avert the damage the ‘hoppers are certain to inflict. That is why the hopes of the Midwest for abundant crops rest now upon the outcome of the valiant battle of Colorado farmers against the army, which portends even greater havoc for the farmer than the years of drought.
tered
After five lean years in the dust bowl, plentiful spring rains have at last produced the makings of a bumper wheat crop for 1937.
raisers on the South Plains of the joyfully almost shoulder-high in
Grasshoppers! Eastern Colorado wheat farmers
viewed with horror the swarming
fong-winged migratory grasshopper over an area already as big as Rhode Island and Delaware comIn a desperate effort to head off the pests
bined!
Texas wheat Panhandle stand golden grain as
of hordes of the
State and Federal Governments combine in relentless campaign to stamp them out. Dr. H. H. Bennett of the Federal Soil Conservation Service in Washington, inspecting hoppers on the side of a house in Hugo, Colo.
the great combines reap anywhere from 25 to 50 bushels to the acre. But even amid this rejoicing, trouble and disaster are threatening, treme northwest, black rust is already cutting in on the bountiful yield, while in Colorado—
In the ex-
HE a Here is
Chronological History of Supreme Court Proposal Now Being Debated in Senate Is Outlined
By E. R. R. ASHINGTON, July 8.—A chronological history of the Court proposal now being debated in the Senate follows: Feb. 5—President Roosevelt asked Congress to authorize appointment of an additional Supreme Court justice for every justice who does not retire after age of 70. Also to allow justices over 70 to retire with full pay and to let Government intervene immediately in all Federal cases involving constitutionality, such cases to go directly to the Supreme Court from lower courts. Bills for these ends introduced at once in Congress. Feb. 10—Strong opposition manifested itself, not only among political opponents of the President, but among many members of Congress, individuals, and associations considered pro-New Deal. President
By Clark
| Democratic victory dinner, defended proposal, saying economic con- |
begins to confer with members of Congress on the plan. House of Representatives passed by vote of 315 to 76 Sumners-McCarran bill to let justices retire at 70 with full pay. Feb. 14—Predictions made that Administration can line up House for proposal, but Senate opposition formidable. Poll of New York newspaper friendly to the President, hostile to Supreme Court plan, Showed | 33 Senators for plan, 29 opposed, 34 noncommittal. Feb. 23—Senate Judiciary Committee reported favorably on Sum-ners-McCarran bill. Feb. 24—Another poll of the New York newspaper showed 49 Senators for Supreme Court proposal, 40 against, 7 noncommittal. ‘Feb. 26—Senate passed SumnersMcCarran bill by 76 to 4. ” » ”
ARCH 1—Supreme Court votes 5 to 4 to uphold resolution of Congress abrogating payments in gold. March 4—President Roosevelt, at
ditions require the change now. March 9—President Roosevelt defends proposal in radio fireside chat. Congressional and public opposition firm. ' March 10—Senate Judiciary Committee opened hearings on the bill embodying the proposal. First witness, Attorney General Cummings. March 22—Senator Wheeler, at Judiciary Committee hearings, read letter to him from Chief Justice Hughes, indorsed by Justices Bran-
fusing to compromise. Opposition growing. Republicans letting Democratic opponents of proposal lead the fight against it. May 10—Poll of New York newspaper hostile to President, hostile to Court plan, showed 40 Senators for (including 2 Independents) to 46 against (including 28 Democrats), with 10 Democrats noncommittal. May 14—Ma jority Leader of Senate Robinson said proposal has “fair” chance of victory. ” ” 2 AY 18—Justice Van Devanter announced retirement from bench as of June 2, several hours before Senate Judiciary Committee voted 10 to 8 against the Supreme Court proposal. The majority composed of 7 Democrats, 3 Republicans; the minority of 7 Democrats, 1 Independent. May 25—The Supreme Court upholds the unemployment insurance
provisions of the Social Security Act by 5 to 4, the old-age pensions provisions by 7 to 2. June l1—Supreme Court recessed for summer. Three days later it was criticized by President for vacationing with important cases pending. June 14—Judiciary Committee majority submitted report condemning proposal and President Roosevelt in scathing terms. No minority report, June 25-27—Proposal discussed at Democratic “love-feast” on Jefferson Island. Senator Burke, opponent of proposal, announced that the Senate seems about evenly divided on it, and that the opposition will organize a protracted filibuster to preyent a Senate vote. July 2.—Administration compromise plan infroduced in Congress. July 6.—Bill opponents avoided initial vote test as bill was called up for formal discussion in Senate.
Speak NG OF SAFETY
deis and Van Devanter, saying that the Court is reasonably up in its | work, that idea of letting panels of | the Court decide cases is unsound, that more justices will delay rather than expedite the Court's work.
March 29.—Supreme Court by 5 to 4 upheld Washington Minimum Wage Law for women, explicitly reversing its 5-to-3 decision on that subject in 1823. The Court upheld unanimously the Railway Labor Act and the rewritten form of Frazier-Lemke Mortgage Moratorium Bill. i ” ” ” '
PRIL 7—House passed by 122 to 14 the Summers bill to let the Government intervene in all Federal cases involving constitutionality and to have such cases go directly to Supreme Court from lower courts. April 12—Supreme Court upheld Wagner Labor Relations Act by 5 to 4 (7 to 2 on interstate carriers). April 23—Senate Judiciary Committee endéd hearings.
You MAY FORGET TO MAIL YOUR WIFE'S Mes) LETTERS.
1—President
-- OR YOU MAY HAVE A POOR MEMORY
Bur WHEN YU START A CAR INSIDE A GARAGE,
OR You may BE ABSENT MINDED
MISTER, YOU'D BETTER REMEMBER, TO LEAVE THE DOORS
WIDE OPEN /
En as Second.Class at Postoffice, dianapolis, Ind.
Matter
PAGE 15
Our Town
By Anton Scherrer
Rose-Clad Cottage on New York St. Scene of Joe Jefferson Pilgrimage After Death of Artist Tom Glessing.
N the south side of New York St. just a stone’s throw east of Military Park is a one-story frame house that looks for the world like an architectural fragment of President Lincoln’s Administration. It’s the
worse for wear today, but a coat of paint might do wonders. Seventy years ago, the house was one of the sights of Indianapolis. A rambler rose had taken root beside the queer, little jig-sawed portico and under the tender care of its gardener had spread all over the place. It covered the whole front gable, and spilled over onto the roof. In the late spring, it was the loveliest sight for miles around, and people used to drive by in their family carriages just to have a look at it. Those who didn't have carriages took the trouble to walk. One evening in the Eighties, or maybe in the Nineties—I don't know just when, but it was sometime after 1882--a stranger knocked at the door of the rose-clad cottage, and said: “I hope you'll pardon my intrusion, but this was the home of Tom Glessing, one of my dearest friends, and being in the city today, I couldn’t resist the desire to come and see the old house again.” He was invited in, and while he was there, he told of his fondness for his old friend who had died in the meantime. When the stranger rose to go, he dug into his pocket, and pulled out a card. On it was the name “Joseph Jefferson.”
First Visited City in 1869
Mr. Scherrer '
As near as I can figure out, Mr. Jefierson’s first .
visit to Indianapolis occurred during the season of 1869 at the Metropolitan Theater when it was under the management of Charles R. Pope, and it was probe ably at that time that he met Mr. Glessing. Maybe he
- renewed his acquaintance, because Mr. Glessing really
started out as an actor. At any rate, Mr. Glessing came to Indianapolis ir 1861 and remained until 1873, during which time he was the principal scenic artist of the Metropolitan, at the corner of Washington St, and Capitol Ave. Back in those days, the traveling companies didn’g carry their own scenery. At any rate, not all of it, because it's a matter of theatrical history that Mr. Glessing prepared special scenery for Jefferson’s presentation of “Rip Van Winkle” at the Metropoli« tan in 1869.
Gave Artist a Painting
Apparently, Mr. Jefferson was so impressed with Mr. Glessing’s work that he presented the painter with a sterling silver service. Indeed, the friendship was so close that during the severe illness of Mr. Jefe ferson in 1872, Mr. Glessing received daily tele« grams of his condition. After his recovery, Mr. Jeffere son sent Mr. Glessing another present, this time a painting by George Armfield, an English artist of some note. It was exhibited in Lieber's Gallery at the time. Tom Glessing died in Boston in 1882; Joe Jeffer= son, twenty-three years later. Up to the very last, the scenery of Joe Jefferson’s “Rip Van Winkle” showed
signs of Tom Glessing’s inspiration. After that, the
rosebush on W. New York St. didn’t feel like g0=-
ing on, either. At any rate, there isn’t a sign ‘of it™ ==
today.
A Woman's View By Mrs. Walter Ferguson
Reunion Discloses Fate's Vagaries, But Leaves Feeling of Permanence.
USINGS on reunion: The gathering together of a group, once intimate and dear, after 20 year’s separation, gives one a feeling of the flow of life and of a fate that must surely shape human destinies. Best of all, though, it prdves that personality is permanent. Whether it iives in another life or not, it is more enduring than granite in this one. The years only seem to shape it to a more perfect pattern. There were nine of us, women who had been cole lege chums, linked by association and happy meme ories. To each, life had brought her share of toil, de= feat, success, happiness and sorrow. We had loved and laughed and wept in our turns, There were gray hairs where the sheen of brown or black or blond had once shone; complexions were not so radiant nor forms so fair, but that which was in essence Adelaide, May= belle, Leota, Blanche, Alta, Ina, Nina and Merle, re=mained unimpaired by the years. After a few minutes all the dear remembered gestures, tones, expressions, swept away the decades as if they had been cobwebs, How strangely fate had disarranged our plans for each other. The girl who had known the most presse ing poverty had become the wealthiest among us. The witty scatterbrain was now a successful teacher; the intellectual whom we had believed selected by nature for that work, our most devoted wife and mother. The restless girl who had hoped to travel to the world’s ‘end had grown domestic, and the loveliest in the old days was the only spinster of our group. But the steam-rolling years, and the buffeting of circumstance, had not changed the quality of any personality. Mel= lowed we were, but not essentially altered. If our next reunion should take place in some realm where time is called by another name, I know I should instantly recognize Blanche’s laugh, Leota’s turn of phrase,
i Maybelle’s grace and Adelaide’s serene tenderness,
New Books Today
Public Library Presents—
THOROUGHLY unpleasant gentleman and a completely ungracious host was Gen. Sir Arthur Billington-Smith; so one of his numerous week-end guests made a perfect job of stabbing him and providing a problem in deduction for Inspector Harding in Georgette Heyer’s new mystery story, THE UN=FINISHED CLUE (Doubleday), After three days of blustery tempers and insulting interviews with guests and relatives, a burning desire for the sudden death of the general could easily be ascribed to anyone present. However, the perpetrator had very cannily left few traces; the unfinished clue, the most important, was only a piece of paper with the word “there” scribbled on it. Miss Heyer writes with her tongue in her cheek, and her characters and comments are thoroughly amusing without slowing the pace of her story. She certainly has fun with her mystery, and so does the reader, ” ” ”
§ ami our newest National Park has already proved a fascinating playground for many a city tired vacationist, to the public at large it is still unknown territory. Laura Thornburgh has written THE GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS (Crowell), an excel lent descriptive guide to this picturesque region of wooded heights that rises between the states of Tene nessee and North Carolina as a climax of the Appa= lachian system. The author was born and reared within sight of the mountains. She knows every trail, every glorious vista, and can name every species of the great variety of flora that exists in the region. She is well acquainted with the native mountaineers, and heir vernacular in quaint and amusing but always With ) Soopect and sltecsion) 6 and e fu Jags their part in insipiring the reader 4 Smokies,
AE A ML SNS BFA