Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 16 July 1937 — Page 15
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From Indiana — Ernie Pyle
Klondike Kate, Spurned by Lover | She Staked, Relates How She Found Loyal Romance Thirty Years Late.
STEAMBOATIN’ DOWN THE YUKON, July 16.—The Lady Known as Lou hasn’t put in her appearance yet. But this evening, coming down the Yukon into Dawson, I sat on the deck of this little river steamboat and heard the story of Klondike Kate— from her own lips. The Lady Known as Lou was fiction. But Klondike Kate is real. She came to the North in 1500
to perform in the dance halls of the new Eldorado. She came
The Indianapolis Times
Second Section
down through White Horse rapids dressed as a boy. She is a genuine sourdough. But Klondike Kate is no crude nugget—isn't today and never was, despite that nickname. She is tall and straight and stately. Almost regal. Her table steward tells me she has the finest manners, and is the most considerate, of anyone at his table. He says her manner is like that of a queen. Even when she’s rolling a cigaret. In 1200 her name was Kate Rothrock. She was voung and beautiful and good. Everybody in the Klondike, even today, knows the story of Klondike Kate and her man. They lived in Dawson three vears during the boom dayvs—Kate dancing, her man tending bar, working in stores, finally going into a little business. You would know the name of the man if I told it. He became rich and famous, known throughout the United States. And it was Klondike Kate who staked him. It was Kate who shelled out her poke for him, because she loved him, to give him his big chance “outside.” And he took it, and made good,
Mr. Pyle
and then he threw her down. She didn’t cry or squeal. She went to work like an man. She staved in the show business until a knee injury put her out of professional dancing for good. And then she took in washings. And finally she homesteaded a place back in Oregon, and proved up on it. She traded that for a house in Bend. And that one for another. She built herself a beautiful garden, and a fireplace with rocks all of different kinds.
Couldn't Learn to Hate
Somehow she could never learn to hate him. Even in later years, when she went to him appealingly and was turned away, even that didn’t teach her how to hate him. She staved in love, and the years passed to 10, and to 20, and to 30—and still she couldn’t hate him. During all that time she never Dawson The Klondike was far, far And then a funny thing happened. She got a letter. It was from a prospector, somewhere up on one of the Yukon tributaries. He had seen her name in the paper. He said he remembered her from the dance-hall days of 1900, and wanted to correspond with her, So they corresponded. And finally the prospector went all the way from the Yukon frontier down into Oregon to see Kate Rothrock. And they were married. It was one of those unbelievably fictional things. Johnny Matson had fallen in love with Kate Rothrock when she was a Dawson dance-hall girl. But he was a rough, backward man, and she was taken anvhow, so he said nothing. And then she disappeared; to where, he didn’t know. He stayed on in the hills, panning a little gold. Not much; just a little. Through all these vears he has lived out on the creek, alone. And then he found her. That happened less than five years ago.
Makes Yearly Visit
Kate Rothrock still lives in Bend most of the year. But every summer, on the first Yukon boat, she comes north all the way to Dawson to see “her Johnny." Thev see each other only twice a year. He comes in from “the crick” for a few days after she gets here. And again for a few days just before she | leaves in the fall, on the last boat out. That's all | Kate Rothrock sees of “her Johnny.” She'd go out on the crick and live, gladly, but he won't let her. “No, he says he waited 30 years for me. and now he's not going to have me living | in a cabin up some crick,” she says. “This is what he wants me to do, and I want to do it for him.” All summer she stays in Dawson, living in & | room in the home of a friend, strolling the board- | walks of the town that once roared and fumed to the touch of gold. {
Mrs. Roosevelt's Day |
By Eleanor Roosevelt
went back to behind her.
Exception Taken to Report Urging
Consolidation of Secret Services. |
YDE PARK, Thursday—I was interested in an | account the other day of a report made by the Brooking: Institute w the Senate Committee on Government Reorganization. According to the newspaper report I read, they recommended that ths Secret Service and Postal inspectors force be merged with the Bureau of Investigation of the Department of Justice. There has been a great deal said lately about the consolidation of this and that and I think there is no question but what many things should be consolidated in the interests of efficiency. { The forces, however, which are doing Secret service work, or investigation of different kinds, are not parts of the Government which it would seem wise to me to consolidate. Under various forms of government in different parts of the world, there have grown up secret investigation branches under one head. At times they have practically superseded all other arms of government and spread terror among the | population. It seems to me, that it is better for us to have these necessary forces divided up under different department heads. There may be a certain amount of rivalry, but that will do no harm if the heads of the departments have the proper spirit of co-operation. The men will understand that when they need to assist each other they should do so in the interests of law, order and justice, which they all serve. As long as they remain separate there will, however, be no danger of a secret octopus growing up to control in harmful ways. There were a few terrible seconds in my broadcast last night, for in some inconceivable way a page disappeared from my script. If you are not paying any attention to a script it is perfectly easy, because your mind follows your train of thought and you can say what you have to say without anything before you. But where they make you write it down and something happens to what you have written, it takes you a second or two to collect your thoughts and start in again.
Walter O'Keefe —
9 HE Democrats of New York City are in a pickle over their man for the Mayor's job. There are almost as many candidates as there are voters, It might be an entertaining campaign if Jimmy Walker came out of retirement to fight for the title. Surely Farmer Jimmy would stand a chance of capturing the rural vote—I've never seen Jim's farm, but I hear that his scarecrow makes the world’s best- | dressed men look like tramps. It stands out there on the field wearing a high silk hat, evening clothes with a gardenia, and tosses wise-cracks at all the passing motorists. : Jimmy is through with politics, though. These | days he's more interested in the laying of eggs than cornerstones. I can’t understand why so many people are anxious to become Mayor unless it's because the World's Fair is near and the Mayor will probably have to pick out all the fan-dancers.
FRIDAY, JULY 16, 1937
Entered at Postoffice,
as Second-Class Matter Indianapolis, Ind.
PAGE 15
President Roosevelt has directed Dr. Thomas Parran Jr, U. S. Surgeon General, to begin a fight on venereal diseases. The United States as a whole has a black record. On the average one out of 10 persons has or has had the disease. That means that in Indianapolis some 36,000 victims are mingled with the population, potential spreaders of infection. The Times joins its forces with those of the medical profession already mobilized and with this article starts a series on the history, gravity. treatment and control of syphilis.
HEN Columbus returned from his first voyage of discovery in 1493 he brought back many strange examples of the life, culture, flora and fauna he found in the isles of the Indies. But one thing he brought was a stowaway on his ships about which he knew nothing whatever. It came aboard from the Island of Haiti. Its presence was not discovered when his crew went ashore at Lisbon and Barcelona to receive the plaudits of
Theophrastus Paracelsus, great 16th Century German physician, made early-day investigations of syphilis.
the people. Nor was its arrival suspected for months afterward. This unheralded and, as events turned out, sinister visitor from the mysterious lands bevond the sea was the germ of what later came to be known as syphilis. At any rate, many eminent medical historians insist this was the manner of its entrance into Europe. Others disagree, call the story stuff and nonsense. Controversy has raged ever since, one of the hottest in mecdical annals. But an unprejudiced reviewer cannot fail to be impressed by the weight of evidence linking Columbus’ home-coming with the outbreak of the disease among the Latin races of the Old World.
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ITHIN a few weeks after the expedition's return a strange, apparently new malady began to be reported by physicians in Spain, One of these was Diaz de Isla, a noted surgeon of Barcelona, who treated several members of Columbus’ crew and wrote a description of the disease, including testimony of the sailors that had contracted it from the Haitian natives who were similarly afflicted. As the disease spread in Spain, terror spread with it among the people. Superstitions became rampant. God, man and beast were variously saddled with responsibility for its visitation. As-
Side Glances
trologers blamed it on the planets. Apparently Europe had no previous experience with it. Ancient literature as far back as Hippocrates contained no reference to it, nor did the famed medical records of the Arabians. Two other noted chroniclers corroborated the Diaz story of West Indian origin. One was Oviedo, a Spanish courtier. He was a friend of Columbus and his three chief lieutenants, the brothers Pinzon. From them Oviedo got, a full account of the transAtlantic voyage, which he incorporated in a lively and vivid report to the crown, including ample evidence that the expedition had brought syphilis to Europe. One of the Pinzon brothers had contracted {he disease while in the islands. Las Casas, a friend of the Indians and student of their culture, was the other recorder who backed up the Diaz theory. He wrote a history of the Indies, after a visit there in which he gave much native testimony as to the antiquity of syphilis both in the islands and on the mainland of Central America.
” ” ”
ONTEMPORARY records exist on the other side of the argument but they are declared to be forgeries. Franz Joseph Bordmann and Petrus ‘Martyr insisted upon the ancient exist-
By Clark
"Oh, yes?
Well, I'm withdrawing all my shares from your com-
pany! What do you think about that?"
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left) gave syphilis a much prety tier name than it deserved, Dr. Karl Sudhoff (above) “proved” it was present in the Old World before Columbus discovered Amer-
SYPHILIS
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TUBERCULOSIS
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AUTO ACCIDENTS
PERMANENT DISABILITIES
hin DIPHTHERIA
NEW CASES
Syphilis—The Secret Scourge
Origin of Disease Is Subject of Medical Controversy
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This chart, compiled for the magazine Survey Graphic, shows the
extent of the dread disease.
Fach man in the chart represents 50,000
cases recorded in 1934. A syphilis germ as a scientist sees it is shown in the ultra-microscopic photograph to the right of the chart. Below this photograph is reproduced the title page from Bartholomew Steber’s “Syphiiis,” 1497 or 1498, probably the earliest illustration of the treat-
ment of the disease.
ence of the disease in Europe. Martyr wrote a letter describing a case in 1489, but both his letter and the earlier work of Bordmann are said to have been written in the early 1500s and predated, for what reason the record does not say. In more recent times scientists have even gone to digging into prehistorical burial grounds for bones showing traces of infection. Some claim to have found them in New York, but Dr. Ales Hrdlicka. anthropologist of the Smithsonian Institution, insists he has uncovered no bones in the
Americas with telltale marks of the disease. For that matter no
| bones have been found in Europe
dating prior to 1493 that give evidence of its existence. Modern champions of the opposing camps are Dr. Iwan Block of Berlin, who wrote a treatise exhaustively upholding the Amerjcan origin of the disease, and
| Dr. Karl Sudhoff of Leipzig, who
just as positively “proves” that syphilis was present in the Old World for centuries before Columbus discovered America. One of his prime arguments is that syphilis could not possibly have spread so rapidly from one source as it did during the Great Plague. But this argument is turned right around and used by the Bloch school, which argues that the rapidity and virulence which marked its spread during the Great Plague proves Europeans had not developed immunity, as would be the case if it had long been in their blood. ” ” = HATEVER the origin, there can be no question about the severity of the epidemic in southern Europe from 1494 into the early 1500s. And to make matters worse, history played one of its fiendish tricks right at that time. King Charles VIII of France chose that of all times to start his war of conquest upon Naples. For the purpose, he gathered a huge army of mercenaries, many of them Spanish. Little did he realize that along with the thousands of his hired soldiers there marched into Italy millions of far more deadly conquerors, the germs of syphilis in the blood of the Spaniards. As the French army drove south through the Italian
peninsula the disease spread like a conflagration. Ironic fate seemed to dog his expedition. It caused the great Christian reformer Savanarola to play an unwitting part in bringing syphilis among his own peopie of the lovely city of lorence. Charles had paused at Pisa. The Florentines, under the lash of Savanarola's zeal, had defied the Medicis and therefore welcomed the advent of the French army. They sent Savanarola to Pisa to urge Charles to move on at once to Florence.
n » n
O it was that the polyglot army occupied Florence, bringing the plague along. But Charles
a ins |
Giralomo Fracestoro (above,
ica.
outstayed his welcome and the Florentines sent Savanarola to urge him to continue his advance on Naples. Again he obeyed the bidding of the priest and the syphilitic invasion of Italy continued southward. The Italians, alarmed by spread
“of the malady, began calling it
the “French evil.” Like a hot potato the French passed it on to their Castilian neighbors and dubbed it the “mal Espaniola.”
Spain, in self-defense, called it first the “Haitian pox” and later the “Italian plague.” No nation was willing to accept responsibility ‘for its origin. It got to be a sort of game. But a much prettier and more romantic name finally became permanently attached fo it, a far more attractive name than it deserves. One Giralamo Fracastoro, an Italian physician, astronomer and poet, wrote a poem recount ing the amorous adventures of a swineherd named Syphilis who contracted the disease. The poem was entitled “Syphilis Sive Morbus Gallicus” (you see Fracastoro was blaming it on the Gauls, too). The name was quickly seized upon and the poem remains the classical description of the symptoms of syphilis in its early stages. ” ” nN HARLES of France was forced to retreat from his Italian campaign because of the sickness of his troops. His mercenaries
fled back to their native lands, spreading the contagion over all Europe. It was estimated 30,000 cases existed within a short time. The Diet of Worms in 1495 issued an official edict warning of its ravages. But they were not to be stopped by edicts, kingly manifestos, parliaments, preachers nor any other temporary power. Not, indeed, until the 18th Century was any successful effort made to combat it. By that time men of medicine were beginning to learn some of its secrets.
Next—How they tracked the guilty germ of syphilis and discovered the reasons for its terrible effects upon the human system.
A MAN MAY HAY MANY COLLEGE DEGREES
Boy UNLESS HE KNOWS
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SPEAKING OF SAFETY
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THE TRAFFIC LAWS OF THE STATE AND CITY HE ORIVES | IN= HIS EDUCATION IS NOT COMPLETE!
THIS IS A S
aS : UNDER STAND EINSTEIN'S THEORY OF RELATIVITY
A DISTINGUISHED GLOBE ~ TROTTER
| Betsy Ross now holds out,
Our Town
By Anton Scherrer
Appearance of New Old-Fashioned Structure on Circle Calls to Mind What Location Looked Like in 1860.
UT it off as I would, it has been obvious for a long time that, sooner or later, I would have to get around to what Architects McGuire & Shook have been doing behind the boarding at 46 Monument Circle. The boarding is removed now and reveals, of all things, the Canary Cottage. It's a connotation for a new restaurant. I don’t know what the Canary part has to do with it, but I'll probably be enlightened on that point too before long—especially if people around here keep up their delightful practice of plugging up the holes in this column. Dismissing the Canary part for the moment, there ‘remains, of course, the Cottage. It's a very nice cottage with muntinned windows, flower boxes and a big reassuring chimney to hold the whole together. Which is to say that it's as far removed from cellophane and chromium as anything you can imagine. The chimney, I dare sav, will be even more reassuring this coming winter than it is right now. I don't know whether the Canary Cottage marks a new trend in restaurant architecture or not, and to tell the truth, I don’t care. What moves me today is the fact that the architects’ contribution gives me a chance to go back 70 years and tell you what the Circle looked like when it consisted almost alto= gether of pretty little cottages and big brick resie dences. For example, on the site of the Canary Cottage stood the little frame house of Mrs. Abhy Cady, a well-known and popular lady who, besides weilding a powerful influence in society, was also related to Charles W. Cady. He did more to make the mustache an object of adoration than any man in early Indianapolis. To Mrs. Cady’s right, lived Austin Ballard, a handy mechanic, who had his shop in the rear of his house. At the corner of Market St. lived the Hunt family.
Corner Lot Sold for $15.75
In the northwest quadrant, at the corner of Mar= ket St., was Henry Ward Beecher’s Church, and following in order, were the homes and big yards of Wil liam H. English, James W. McKernan and Attorney Quarles, who lived at the corner of Meridian St. This corner lot, by the way, was sold in 1834 for just short of 16 dollars—$15.75, as a matter of fact. Even more exciting is the disclosure that the entire quadrant, embracing all the ground now occupied by English's Hotel and Theater, was sold under various transfers between 1836 and 1840 for a total of $2290. Mr. English got it finally, sometime in the late Seventies for $83,777. Goodness knows what it's worth now. Across the street from Mr. Quarles’ home was Christ Church, of course. William H. Morrison lived on the site of the Columbia Club, and next door to him was the home of Bishop Joseph Talbot. It's where the Water Works people now do business.
Personage of Curiosity
Across the street on the southeast quadrant where was Mr, Lingenfelter's boarding house, and next came the residence of Oscar Mayhew's family. Mr. Mayhew was the object of con siderable curiosity because of his two girls who went on the stage. Kate, the younger, became quite famous. She was the first one to star in “M’liss,” the dramatization of Bret Harte's poem. Next to the Mayhew home came a coal yard, afterward Wood's livery stable, and next to that came another livery stable owned by a Mr. Long. At the corner was the Western Union, originally built for the Indianapolis Journal. Before that, it was the blacksmith shop of Adam Haugh. Sure, the same man for whom Haugh=ville was named. Across the street where the Guaranty Building now stands was Wesley Chapel, the predecessor of the Meridian Street M. E. Church, and next door was the two-story brick house of Mrs. Paxton, widow of Col, James Paxton. Which brings us right back to the Canary Cottage.
A Woman's View By Mrs. Walter Ferguson
Club's Community Activities Held To Be Business as Well as Pleasure.
Mr. Scherrer
FREQUENT criticism of women active in club work is that we had better stay home and attend to our own business. But what, we ask these complainers, is our business?
Not surely the simple routine of the ordinary household. Not only the ability to select first-class foods, to get our husbands off to work and our children to school; not merely the comfort of their bodies or even the welfare of their souls. Mother's business today is of far wider scope.
Because they affect her home directly she must be aware of international relations, world markets, the political situation, the educational system, trafe fic problems, crime, and the cultural progress or dee cline in her locality. The businessman who takes no part in come munity activity is regarded everywhere as a slacker. He is a slacker. Because for each advance his city makes, his business benefits: and for everv inch it
| retrogresses, it suffers, and in a measure he is re
sponsible, In precisely the same manner, todav's mother is compelled to count her duties. It is not enough for a woman to keep a home, to teach her children the simple formulas of goodness and honesty. Added to these old tasks are a thousand new jobs which she cannot neglect. And it is through her club work that she fs often able to keep up with them. What kind of environment does her family have? Are their opportunities for growth many or few? Do they receive character training as well as scholastic instruction in their schools? To what forms of entertainment do they have access? And what sort of world will they enter when they leave her loving care? All such big social questions are a part of every mother’s business.
New Books Today
Public Library Presents
OR over 30 years, beginning in 1847, the Oneida community existed, a little Communist society set, in the midst of an often hostile, often scandalized world. Endeavoring to reproduce the life of the Primitive Christians, the members aroused the ridicule of the orthodox individualists hy their rejection of the competitive motives of living, and incurred the condemnation of clergy and moralists in general by their communal form of marriage known as “complex marriage.” Pierrepont Noyes was born in this colony, the “ile legitimate” son of its founder and prophet. MY FATHER'S HOUSE (Farrar) is his story of the com-= tunity as he knew it. He sets down the memories of