Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 17 July 1937 — Page 9

Vagabond

From Indiana — Ernie Pyle

Dawson Turns Out to Be a City of

1000 Residents and 29,000 Ghosts, Where Small Change Is in Disgrace.

AWSON, Yukon Territory, July 17.——it was 11:30 at night when the steamboat gave its three blasts and the engines stopped. I dashed out of my cabin and there was Dawson—the Dawson of Robert W. Service, and the Klondike, and the sourdoughs, the Dawson of the greatest gold stampede in our history —there it was, just ahead. The light was good. We could see the whole city plainly—the sea of old ‘gray houses, the big Mounted Police barracks on one end, the big hospital on the other, the mile-long waterfront of dead old Dawson stretched between them. It was chilly, and I wore my heavy coat ashore. We walked for several blocks, We passed store buildings by the score. Many have fallen, or been torn down. Through the vacant lots you can see the backs of others. That is where vou see best what has happened to Dawson. The backs of buildings are intricate heaps of junk, old piled lumber, old boilers, old engines, old beds, old things simply left by the thousands who went away. I have been in a good many so-called “ghost towns.” Tombstone in Arizona and some of the mining camps of Colorado, and oil-boom towns of Texas, and the ancient ruins of Mexico—but the only one which has actually made me feel it is really a “ghost town” is Dawson.

Mr. Pyle

Bigness Is Surprising

For it is so big. Surprisingly big. It must be more than a mile long and half a mile wide, entirely filling the valley—the Yukon and Klondike Rivers framing two sides of it, the mountain ridge the other two sides. Once it filled the valley thickly. thinly. The skeleton ic still here. 1 don’t suppose = fourth of the houses are occupied. It is a town now of less than a thousand, rattling around in the shell of a city of 30,000. The 28.000 others are those who went away—they are the ghosts. I suppose it was the combination of the night chill, the weirdness of twilight at midnight, and the realization that here at last was I, walking the old boardwalks of such a fabulous city—but whatever it was, it gave me a sense of regret so acute I could almost feel it hurt. Next morning I walked the streets again, and didn’t feel much emotion. I swung along briskly with the feeling of “Well boys, here's Dawson at last. What do you think of her? Quite a good-sized place, huh? Mist have been a great town in the old days.” They're still taking gold out of the Klondike. A few dredges are working, not many miles up the creeks. And there are scores of “snipers”—lone individuals working over old ground, some of them taking out as much as $15,000 a year.

School-Boy Gold Rush

It still fills it, but

The new claim stakes mark a new rush—yep, last

week some school kids were poking around and found a little gold, so they all rushed in and staked claims. Dawson just won't die completely dead. Pusiness is good, for a little town. The N-C store is putting in a big addition. The two or three drug and notion stores do a good business. There is a movie, and a fine hospital, and the prospectors and snipers still bring in their pokes of dust from the creeks.

It was only last year that Dawson finally gave in and came down to little things like nickels and dimes. | Before that you couldn't buy anything for less than |

a quarter. Bu, the old-timers don’t like it. The drug store man says an old-timer won't take change less than a quarter. He'll just leave it on the counter, or £0 out and throw it in the street. That's the kind of stuff

1 like.

Mrs. Roosevelt's Day

By Eleanor Roosevelt

‘Mrs. Robinson's Thought for Others

In Time of Grief Brings Admiration.

ASHINGTON, Friday. —I stepped off the train WwW this morning to find it fairly warm in Washington. After breakfast alone on the porch I had a little talk with my husband and, to my great joy, found letters from Mrs. James Roosevelt and John, mailed at Gibraltar. The trip seems to be very happy so far and they are finding the Italian boat delightfully comfortable. Mama is, as always, most enthusiastic and John tells me with glee that the captain gave a party for her and she was the life of it. The work of changing the roads south of the White House seems to be going on very rapidly. As y°t, I can’t quite picture to myself what it is going to look like, but the landscape people all seem to think it will be a great improvement. The President, who has the capacity for visualizing things which are on paper, I am sure, has a perfect picture of what we are going to see from the south portico in the future. It is sad to come back to Washington on such an

errand as Senator Robinson's memorial services. I | | | years for the people of this nation.

do not wonder, when I read of the years that Senator Robinson spent in the Senate that his colleagues of every party grieve over his loss. There was & statement in vesterday's newspaper, however, which gave me rather a curious feeling. The gentleman seemed to feel that he was so receptive to information from the Almighty that he knew the reason for whatever might happen on this little planet of ours. What a satisfaction that must be when most of us grope so much of the time to explain the various horrors which occur in the world, and finally decide that the Almighty leaves us with a good deal of personal responsibility. The ceremony in the Senate chamber was very impressive and the two hymns, “Lead Kindly Light” and “Abide With Me,” were sung by a woman with a very sweet voice. I hope they brought some comfort to the family, who must be suffering from the suddenness of the shock as well as from the grief which comes to anyone at such a time. After the service I joined the President and went in for a minute to talk to Mrs. Robinson. 1 have always thought her a very remarkable person. Her calmness and thought for others at a time like this added greatly to the esteem in which I have always held her. She was surrounded by her family and friends, but at such times as these there is a curious feeling that we walk alone. People may want to help us and their love may give us courage, but in the end through ‘all the great moments of life we walk alone. Today, many people were sympathizing with her and if thoughts can buoy up one's courage I am sure that she ‘will receive that kind of help at least.

Walter O'Keefe —

HE schoolchildren of today are having a darned sight happier time of it than the kids of yesterday. New York City has just decided to carry a book on Mickey Mouse as recommended reading, and recently, in the classrooms, they have shown moving pictures which tie up with the study of history. The first thing vou know they won't be able to get the youngsters into a classroom unless they hold bank night. The idea of a mouse in a school is by no means news. We had mice in the little red schoolhouse back home, but they weren't named Mickey or Minnie. Lads ‘who play hookey from the classroom movies will probably alibi it by saying, “Sorry, teacher, but I seen the picture before.” It'll be funny to pass the schoolhouse and see an electric sign blink out, “Today only—‘The Big Ax Mystery,’ starring little George Washington and his cherry tree—also get the lowdown on the numbers ‘racket—a daring, thrilling expose tion sable.” i

* 4 Vv

The Indianapolis Times

SATURDAY, JULY 17, 1987

Entered as Becond-Class Matter at ndianapolis,

ostoffice,

Second Section

PAGE 9

Ind.

Syphilis—The Secret Scourge

Lucky Mistake Aided Early Treatment of Disease

John Hunter, a medical martyr, established a false theory that persisted for almost a century.

(Second of a Series)

BECAUSE, in its secondary stage, syphilis produces sores upon the body, Europeans of the 16th Century thought it was a skin disease akin to the “itch,” the ordinary scabies of today. For more than 100 years they had used a simple salve of marcury and lard for the latter, so it was natural and most fortunate that they made use of this same remedy, which they had borrowed from the Arabs, to treat the new

scourge.

Fortunate, because mercury is one of the few metallic remedies most readily absorbed through the skin and although these Europeans did not know it, the only specific worthwhile in combating syphilis is one that can penetrate deep into the system. Mercury remained practically the only drug used for the disease for more than 300 years. The terrifying sweep of the disease in the early 1500s baffled medical authorities. They recognized its venereal character and also its hereditary tendencies,

fe foRowing is the recent peroration of Senator

court enlargement plan: 1 give the President all credit

Wheeler | (D. Mont.), against the President's |

KEIM ENTDECKTE,

MENSCHENSAAT

GROSSE TAT

DER LIEBESLUSTUND |

ENSCHHEIT SCHRECKTE ZUM DANK FUR SEINE

Jean Fernel (upper) made an important discovery. The tablet bearing Fritz Schaudinn's likeness, reproduced above, was in recognition of his work in tracking down the spirochaeta pallida.

held it up as the classical example of the Biblical dictum that the “sins of the fathers shall be visited upon the sons,” but they knew ho way to bring it under control, n n 4

HE Protestant Reformation probably was a lucky deterrent against its too rapid spread in the northern countries. Puritanism, with its emphasis upon temperance in all things and its rigorous chastity, was a controling factor, some present-day theorists suggesting that the Puritan code of morals was inspired to some extent by fear of the alarming spread of the malady. Our own Pilgrim fathers were the lucky beneficiaries of this circumstance. Those who came over in the Mayflower were said to be practically free from infection. The. result was a period of amazing human fecundity on the newly settled shores of New England, a feat of procreation never since equaled. Free of syphilitic taint, the incidence of still birth, of death in childbirth and of paresis among the settlers was almost nil, co that they were able firmly to establish themselves in the wilderness through the rapidity with which they built up a numerous ard virile progeny.

HIS accidental phenomenon of control by keeping the blood stream untainted seemed to pass entirely over the heads of Europe's medical authorities, however, and they continued to search for other means of combating the dread disease. One of the experimenters was the famous Paracelsus, who conclusively proved the effectiveness of mercury as a remedy, suggested the possibility of arsenic also, but gave currency to the erroneous belief that syphilis and gonorrhea were the same disease, a mistake that afterward was compounded by another investigator and set back medical progress almost 100 years.

Jean Fernel, a French scientist, made the first real important discovery. He noted the prevalence of sores or chancres on the sex organs of victims in a high percentage of cases and deduced they were characteristic of the early stages of the disease. Outbreak of sores in other parts of the body later meant the virus was carried through the svstem by a general infection, he inferred. But, he decided, infection from outside the body could come in only through a sore or break in the skin. This was an illuminating contribution to knowledge of the evil One by one through the

three billions of currency. remonetize silver up to 16 to 1. He has two billion dollars with which he can buy German marks, British bonds, French francs, or Japanese

ven, or take any other course he for the great things he has ac- may desire for the purpose of |

complished during the last four | stabilizing our currency.

We have given him more power than any President of the United States has ever had in peace time or in war.

We delegated to him the power |

to issue currency and to fix and regulate the value thereof.

He can raise or lower the gold | content of the dollar. He can issue |

Side Glances

He can raise or lower the tariff on practically everything that is produced in the United States. He

| can close the stock markets for a |

period of 30 days. u ” »

E have just given him a billion and a half dollars for

relief purposes, and he has wide

He can

|' when we should say,

Senator Wheeler, Pleading Against Court Bill, Asks Executive Curb

| to say to the farmers of the country, |

| “We will give you money for not | producing crops,” and 500 million

| will pay you for not planting it.” | We have given him the power over the economic lifé and destiny of the American people. He has a substantially subservient Congress. No man in the history of the United States, not even the Father of his Country, ever had reposed in him such vast and extraordinary power. We have given him the power to declare war. We have given him a power over treaties never given to any other President of the United States.

| FRITZ SCHAUDINN |

| (BERLIN 3 MARZ WOS) |

16th, 4 commonly together, as two sep-

| arate diseases.

He can say to ohe community. Denver for instance, “I will give you | money for a project in your city,” | or he can say, “I will deny a project to your city.” He has the power to say, “I will build a project in Houston, Tex., but I will deny a project to some other place in Texas.”

o Ld ” : E has a right to say to the peo-

ple of the State of Illinois or the people of the City of Chicago, “I will, at the behest of the your leaders grant your request,” or he can say “I ‘will deny it.” He has ‘he right to say the same thing to the City of New York. I am not complaining. Conditions in the coun-

try ‘were such that we had to give him that power and I am not complaining about the way he has used it

But with a subservient Congress, with such tremendous power in the Executive, has not the time come in this nation when we should say there is a line beyond which no man should pass? Has not the time come | “No matter | how beloved you may be, no matter | how profound and wonderful you may be, no matter how much your sympathies are with the masses of the ‘people of the United States, no matter what you want to do, the time has come when ‘we should say there is & line beyond which, under this American Government of ours and our ‘Constitution, no man

| SYPHILISSPIROCHAETE|

a aa

The “spirochaeta balbiani,” a germ of the same type as that which causes syphilis,

17th and 18th Centuries delvers added to this store of knowledge. They proved that syphilis can be transmitted by kissing or drinking from a c¢ontaminated cup or coming in contact with osher external sources. They accumulated evidence that syphilis and gonorrhea are not different manifestations of the same disease. Then came John Hunter! n un » UNTER was a brilliant -English physician. It was non-

sense, he maintained, to consider these two infections, occurring so

other

“I'll prove they are the same,” he said. Thereupon he became the first, of that company of medical He inoculated himself

gonorrhea and developed in himself both gonorrhea and syphilis. “There you are!” he cried, ‘they are the same, not two diseases!” What he had failed to discover was that the patient from whom the virus was taken had both syphilis and gonorrhea! But John Hunter was of such eminence that the medical world believed him. He died ultimately from an aneurysm induced by the spyhilitic infection. The false theory he established, however, lived for almost a century after him. Medical progress was halted by the confusion he created. In the middle of the 19th Cen-

Phillippe Ricord by ingenious experimentation proved conclusively gonorrhea and syphilis have no relationship.

tury a skeptic arose to challenge Hunter's theory in the person of Phillippe Ricord, an American of French parentage. By ingenious experimentation he proved conclusively gonorrhea and syphilis have no relationship and that the latter is marked by three distinct stages over a long ‘period of development, whereas the former is a comparatively limited disease of short duration. This opened the field again for new research, but medical science had not yet arrived at the stage where it could discover the exact cause of the disease. ” uo ” HE 20th Century dawned before Koch and Pasteur had raised the veil to reveal the presence of minute organisms known as germs in some forms of disease and Metchnikoff had developed spyhilis in monkeys by innoculation. What kind of a germ then did this disease employ? This was the question the medical world asked, and immediately - adventurous pioneers began expeditions into microscopical jungles to track it down.

In 1906 Fritz Schaudinn and Frich Hoffman found it. A pale, spiraling, nervous wraith it was as seen through their microscopes, and they named it spirochaeta pallida. Exceedingly minute, dif ficult to see wholly because of its shape, the germ defied complete description until the slanting light rays of the dark field method of microscopy revealed its true form, » Ww Ww

HEN it was that spirochaeta pallida was found to be a corkscrewsshaped, wiggling demon belonging to the protozoan or animal side of life, like a tiny worm or serpent. Once introduced into the human body it squirms to a favored spot and at once begins its stupendous process of propagation, multiplying with unbelievable rapidity. Soon there are millions of these agitated organisms in the system, not a nook or cranny being free from them. They penetrate the brain, the bones, the muscles, the nerves and all the organs. They flow in the body fluids. One human being will be host to as many of them as there are people in the world, Being so all-prevalent in the body they are hard to exterminate. But medical science, having once tracked down and identified the miscreant, set grimly out on the next step, an unrelenting search for the weapon that would definitely lay spirochaeta pallida low.

Next—How science finally found and perfected this weapon.

THIS 1S JOE BULLHEAD, A DRIVER WHO COULON'YT BE BLUFEED ww.

PodR Joe!’ HE DIED MAINTAINING HIS RIGHT TO THE RIGHT-OF-WAY.

=a SPEAKING OF SAFETY/

Jot STooD UP TOR WIS a on row o NAD Wis W THE RIGHT-OF-WAY /

/ fo

. i

Our Town By Anton Scherrer

Wherein It Is Told How Mr. Taylor Almost Obtained That Long-Wanted Signature on a Jefferson Picture.

HE private life of anyone is his own, 20 far as I am concerned, just as his home is his castle, but 1 think it's up to me to tell you about William M. Taylor, the one who lives at 1449 N. Delaware St. It's mighty

interesting in the light of what I've already told you about Tom Glessing and Joe Jefferson, When Mr. Taylor was ready to enter the Massae chusetts Institute of Technology in 1882 (that's right), he took with him a letter of introduction to Thomas Gless= ing, who at that time, you remember, was living in Boston. Well, when Mr. Taylor got around to it, he looked up the Glessing address, and was admitted to the home. He found Mr. Glessing dead in bed. As fate would have it, Mr. Taylor arrived just before the undertaker came to put the crepe on the door. Mr. Taylor says he didn't stay long on that occasion, but he stayed long enough to meet Kate Fletcher, Mr. Glesse ing's sister-in-law. And that brings me to the sece ond part of the story.

Bought Picture for $26

Years later, when Mrs. Glessing and her sister returned to Indianapolis to live in the W. New York St. house, Mr. Taylor received a letter from Kate Pletcher asking him to come out to the house. And that's when Mr. Taylor spied a picture painted by Joe Jefferson. Kate let him have it for $25, and Mr, Taylor has it hanging in his home today. Probably because of Mr. Jefferson's modesty, the picture was unsigned, but it was authentic all right, because Kate assured him that it was a picture Mr, Jefferson traded for one of Mr. Glessing's. The fact that the picture was unsigned always worried Mr. Taylor, and so when Mr. Jefferson came to Indianapolis in 1904, Mr. Taylor went around to his hotel, and told him about it. Mr. Jefferson remembered the picture and the circumstances, and told Mr. Taylor that if he would bring the picture and some paints around on the actor's next visit, he would like nothing better than put his name on his wrk.

Finds Local Touch in Boston

Mr. Jefferson never came to Indianapolis again, because six months after that, he, too, was dead. All of which leaves me room for two more items which have come my way since I last mentioned Mr, Glessing. When James Whitcomb Riley was inh Boge ton in the early Eighties, he was mighty homesick, and to find relief, he went to the Globe Theater, His spirits revived immediately. It wasn’t the play, hows= ever. It was the scenery. Sure, it was painted by Tom Glessing. The other item is about Thomas Cilessing Lingham, who turns out to be Kate Fletcher's son. He was bora ih the rose-clad cottage on W. New York St, right here in Indianapolis, He started his career in 1895 when he joined James O'Neill in “Monte Cristo.” After that, he played the ghost in O'Néill's production of “Hamlet.” Tn 1960 he was playing with E. H. Sothern, and that's as far as my informant could remember,

A Woman's View

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

Candle-Lighted Dinners Hard for Men, but Make Ladies More Lovely.

N observant and witty French visitor said of us -. last year: “In this land of electricity, the richer people are the dimmer are their homes. A mere millionaire hides hiz lamps behind screens or in the cornices of his rooms. The multimillionaire sets out candles. A billionaire of refined sensibilities goes as far as tapers.” Probably this gentleman did not know he was getting into treacherous territory. The subject he introduced fs a dangerous one in every ‘American home that can afford electric fixtures, Year in and year out the battle rages between the males and the females, with almost sure victory for the latter. “Why can't we have some light in here?” roars the Man of the House, especially when his wife is giving a dinner party. Seeing no response to the suggestion, he waxes sarcastic. “I suppose you'll provide the guests with pocket flashlights,” he says. “I happen to know that old Lady Wilson is half blind anyway. But it won't matter if the furniture is scuffed up when the crowd stumbles over it in the dark. 1 can always buy new things, and there's no need to worry about the food at all. Nobody will be able to see what he's eating in this dining room. It ‘will be swell sitting®all evening in this Black Hole of Calcutta.” and so on, During these tirades his lady will go calmly about touching matches to the candles, and throughout the meal the men will be merely small splotches of White against black shadows on the dim background and the women will look like bright-colored flowers in their gay gowns. In no event will Father ever get his way on this, pecause eéven the most modern woman is medieval minded on the subject. You know why. Dim light is so flattering to feminine beauty. So the mien glare und growl and suffsr. Candles sputter and drip and smell. Guests grop. their way about gloomy dining rooms, But how lovely the ladies look!

New Books Today Public Library Presents—

8 long as John Public’/pays his fee to see the “Barnums of Bounce” perform, the theory that a fool is born every minute will have sufficient foundation. FALL GUYS (Reilly) in Marcus Griffin's own words is “the inside story of the wrestling business, America's most profitable and best-organized sport.” This history of modern developments in the most ancient of all athletic contests is studded with the names of the headliners of the last three decades as well as the lesser known promoters who rule the game from their hotel room. Anyone gullible enough to think every wrestling bout fs an honest contest may be rudely shocked, as each page brings to light some new trick of the manipulations behind some of the scenes. For the masses who are content to attend the matches solely for entertainment, the stories of inside intrigue and the rattling of skeletons prove interesting reading,

” ” ”

OW oan we, as citizens of the United States, ai law-enforcement? Why aren't criminals caught earlfer in their careers? Melvin Purvis answers these and other questions fn a series of case reports. AMERICAN AGENT (Doubleday) fs written from

Mr. Scherrer

“| gthe inside looking out, by one of the most famous

h ‘ever ‘employed by the FBI, hy ing the neadlines: Ce

reulity The ‘Burenu of Tnves 58