Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 5 August 1937 — Page 17

- Vagabond

From Indiana — Ernie Pyle

Fabulous Alaskan Mosquitoes Held Worse Than the Fables About Them; Nets Help Some, but Are Bother.

J AIRBANKS, Alaska, Aug. 5.—Before going any farther, we might as well clear up this mosquito business. You have probably heard stories about how bad the mosquitoes are in Alaska. Well,

the stories are not true. 1 am willing to go before a notary and swear to that.

Here is the truth—the mosquitoes in Alaska are |

10,000 times worse than the tallest story ever told about them! One Alaskan mosquito story runs as follows: A bunch of ordinary mosquitoes had killed a man, and were arguing over where to take him for the final feast.

“Let's take him down by

the |

river, and eat him there,” said one. |

“*No,’ the leader,

won't

said do.

“that | If we take him down |

there those big river mosquitoes |

will take him away from us.”

Now, in all honesty, I haven't

seen any mosquitoes yet that approach that size. In fact, I have not seen any bigger than those at home. It isn't so much the size

Mr. Pyle

200 Mosquitoes a Person

form a cloud around your head. in saving there are constantly

the number.

literally I believe I'm honest 200 mosquitoes within a radius of two feet of your head. If there are 10 people standing in a yard, then there are 2000 mosquitoes around them. And they are persistent. Brushing them away does no good. I've seen a man brush his hand past a mosquite on his face half a dozen times, and finally have to take his fingers and pick the little devil off bodily.

They

In all the towns of Alaska a leading store-window |

display in summertime is mosquito paraphernalia. In one window I counted 12 kinds of mosquito lotioni—supposed to keep them from biting, or to take out the sting after they've bitten you. Other mosquito armor consists of spray smudge pots. mosquito nets for the face and and cotton work gloves dipped in rubber to them bite-proof. Although Fairbanks accepted headgear

guns, bed. make

is close to the Arctic Circle, for summer the tropical sun helmet. It's partly because these helmets keep off the sun, but mainly because the wide. stiff brim is ideal for a net, holding it far out from your face.

Net Has Disadvantages The mosquito net is a black. fine net, with rubberbanded opening at each end. One end fits around vour neck, the other around the crown of your hat The net billows all around your face and shoulders. They aren't especially pleasant to wear. You cant see as well with them, and they are hot, and you can't smoke a cigaret, and worst of all (please excuse the stark realism of this) I sometimes forget I have the thing on, and spit in it. Yes, we in the States think we've seen mosouitoes. But until vou find yourself with one eye swollen shut: your forehead and your face a welter of whitish, red-rimmed bumps; the back of your neck something that looks like a relief map of Yellowstone Park: welts on vour hands from which little veins of pain run clear to your elbow; bumps on your ankles; bumps on the top of your head and around you constantly a buzzing, hideous, darkswarming inferno cf vicious black insects—then, boy, and not until then, have you seen mosquitoes.

the IS

Mrs. Roosevelt's Day

By Eleanor Roosevelt

Husband's Plans Being Uncertain, First Lady Budgets Engagements. YDE PARK. N. Y.. Wednesdayv.——There is alcertain amount uncertainty in the movements of public servants and. fortunately for me. IT am no stranger to these changes. But it does result in confusion for all the rest of the family as

wavs a of

well I rather hoped the President would be here tomorrow morning. He evidently is not going to arrive If and when he does, I shall probably be tied down bv scme other engagement. So far I have very carefuliv planned nothing which would take more than a few hours at any time in the coming weeks. I started out hopefully to ride in the woods this morning. A lady in whom I have great confidence told me if I used a lotion on my horse's ears and head, the flies would stay away. drawn to the poor animal more than usual. Dot and I were miserable. When at last we got out into the open country. I found she had been bitten all over her face until blood flowed freely. Yet how well she had behaved! Except for continu-

Instead, they seemed |

The Indi.napolis Times

Second Section

THURSDAY, AUGUST 5, 1937

Entered as Second-Class Indianapolis, Ind.

at Postoffice,

Matter

PAGE 17

(First of a Series)

By Gordon Turrentine NEA Special Service Writer AYMONDVILLE, Tex. Aug. 5.—Death strikes again at the great King ranch, fabulous 1,250,000acre “principality” at the southern tip of Texas, deepening the air of mystery that has hung over its vast acres ever since last November. : Today it is George Durham, 42, autocratic foreman of the El Sauz section of the ranch, who is dead. Three doctors and an undertaker certified that Durham died naturally of a heart attack while branding cattle. This quieted widespread rumors of a shooting. But the farmers outside the berders of the King domain remember the Blantons, father and son, who climbed the fence into El Sauz last fall and never returned. And they wait grimly to hear the report of Capt. Bill McMurray, most famous of modern Texas Rangers, who says he has solved the Blanton case and will announce his findings as soon as the case is “ironclad.” ” ‘MURRAY, recently named by the Governor as the outstanding and most typical Ranger, was put in charge of the case after long investigation of the Blanton disappearance had satisfied nobody, proved nothing. His announcement of a solution inspired confidence, but the sudden death of Durham fanned once again a feud which has smoldered and broken into intermittent flame for vears between the farmers of Willacy County and the armed riders who guard the fenced borders of the vast. almost autonomous King ranch “empire.”

2 =

» =

on Nov. 18. 1936, that Luther Blanton. 57, and his son, Johh, 24, climbed the fence between their tinv farm and the El Sauz section of the King ranch. . That fence encloses continuously a million and a quarter acres spreading over eight counties in southwest Texas, an area scarcely smaller than the state of Delaware. For generations those who ran the King ranch have been practically a law unto themselves within their own domain. The Blantons had two shotguns and three shells and they were going to hunt ducks. The King ranch, maintaining at some cost a game preserve, protects it by ranch-paid game wardens and armed fence riders. Just before

n T was

Capt, Bill McMurray highway patrolman and both factions searched. Nothing was found except a few duck feathers and the spot where some men on {oot had smoked a number of cigarets. The Blantons have not been seen since, and as the davs nassed after their disappearance new stories cropped up of other men who had entered unwanted the brushlands of El Sauz (the southernmost division of the King ranch) and had never returned.

ENN

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The vast extent of King Ranch is shown abeve, with its location.

None of those stories have been substantiated. Most of them are legend or vague recollections. But they stirred the hatred of the farmers, and expeditions were organized to search the ranch When they were barred by armed guards, the Rangers went in. and relatives of the Blantons said they would leave the investigation

Indiana One of 16 States

With Debt-Free Highways

By L. A.

spending approximately

nually, Indiana rates among states whose highway system debt-free. a survey showed today. Explaining the

get Director

B” 20.000.000 dollars in easoline tax funds and more than eight million dollars from motor vehicle taxes an16

“pav-as-we-go” state highway program State BudEdward F. Brennan ;said tax collections exceeding 23.-

| In 1831, the proportion was 496 per cent, having risen from 37.1 per cent in 1923. { ” RITING for the National Mu- * nicipal Review, Edna Trull of Dun & Bradstreet said in the decade prior to 1932, the states had increased their borrowings for all purposes more rapidly than any other | group of civil subdivisions.

” »

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ft.

iy kT * ad: RC

Louis Lamadrid

# rah FR John and Luther Blanton

up to Capt. Bill McMurray ~nd his men. ” ORE days and weeks passed with no word of ths Blantons, no solution to the mystery. Searchers, of course, had barely touched the outskirts of even El Sauz. whose line fences run into the salty waters of the Guif of Mexico. Literally miles of gnarled. sprawling mesauite thot tears at men's clothing lay within the boundaries. Men had be~n lost for days there. Dusty cattle trails led to dry water holes. On the hottest days buzzards wheeled and turned overhead. One slope looked like the next, one leafless tree like anotaer. Men might die and their skeletons not be found for years.

When summer came and no solution was in sight, the Blanton relatives raised a little money and Louis Lamadrid entered the scenc. A native of Brownsville, Lamadrid slipped in and began working among the Mexicans around the ranch. He listened much and talked little. He went to a ranchhands’ barbecue and he even preached at a revival.

” ”

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RC ARE Ay NIA BIE oh Rall ff Ea ‘

George Durham

Power Fenner, a 6-foot, 190-pound Ranger, on a gun-carrying charge filed in Brownsville. An attorney filed a writ of habeas corpus and after the hearing was set, Fenner and Game Warden Morgan Milier whisked Lamadrid to Brownsville where the officers were cited for contempt and fined $50 each. Judge W. E. McCharen, issued the writ and who them for contempt. appealed to Governor Allred to relieve the men {rom duty in that section Miller resigned and Fenner, whose sister is married to Tully Garner, son of Vice President Garner, was dismissed from the force. At his trial Fenner drew a gun on a newspaper photographer, tried to destroy his camera. Judge McCharen interfered.

who cited

N ”

T was then that Capt. McMurray entered the case personally. And a few days later he announced that the Blanton mystery was solved Where the men were he did not say. Whether dead or alive, there was no hint. It was just that laconic announcement: “The Blanton case is solved. When it's ironclad we'll have an-

”

Qur Town

‘By Anton Scherrer

Wrecking of Langsenkamp Home Stirs Memory of Former Business; This Time It's Famous Black Walnut.

T'S all T can do to keep up with the housewreckers of Indianapolis. Today, for instance, they're tearing down the old Langsenkamp home on Virginia Ave., and like as not, I would have missed that too, had not William P. Carpenter taken the trouble to call me up and tell me about it. Mr. Carpenter knows what he's talking about be= cause he works just across the street for the Harry

A. Sharp Co. Inc, and can’t help seeing what is going on. He even knows what's going to happen after the Langsenkamp house is torn down. Believe it or not, the Harry Sharp peovie are going to use the vacant Int to display their used cars. I don’t know whether you have experienced the feeling or not, but I never go to a house-wreck-ing—or a funeral for that matter —but what I have to readjust my whole life. For sxample, I've lived in this town for goodness knows how many years secure in the belief that William Langsenkamp Sr., built the house they're tearing down today. Why, it looked just like him. Certainly. it looked just like the kind of house Mr. Langsenkamp would have ordered to shelter his large and growing family,

Why Was House Built?

Well, it turns out that Mr. Langsenkamp didnt do anything of the kind. He bought it from John PF. Hill, who pur it tp in the first place, I haven't any more idea than you have why Mr, Hill puilt the house, but I have a guess. As a matter of fact, I have two guesses: (1) He could have built the house to shelter a family as big as Mr. LangsenKamp’s, or (2), he could have put it up to advertise his business, The second guess is the better hunch. i believe, because if you dig into Mr. Hill's past. you'll discover that he started a planing mill in S. East St. in 1858. It attracted a lot of attention at the time because 1t was the first mill in Indianapolis to operate a shingle machine. Mr. Hill didn’t build the Virginia Ave. house to show off his shingles, however. That was just inci dental. He built the big and fine house to advertise his stock of Indiana black walnut.

Owned Famous Black Walnut

Maybe you don't know it, but Indianapolis back in those days had the best stock of black walnut anywhere in the world, and Mr. Hill had a good part of it. Indeed, Mr. Hill's stock of Indiana black walnut was so good that the whole world beat a path to his door. Anyway, it commanded the best price and the greatest sale in Europe, as well as at home. The demand for it cleared it off with a rapidity that would have amazed even the publishers of “Gone With the Wind.” The funny part is that Indianapolis remained a world’s market for walnut even after the Indiana variety was gone. Its place was taken by walnut picked up by agents in all part of the Mississippi Vale ley. And just to show you how big the business was, there is a story that Col. A. D. Streight, all by himself, sold $500,000 worth of black walnut every year for a period of 15 years prior to 1882. I guess Mr. Hill did every bit as well. I had no more idea of talking about plack walnut

Mr. Scherrer

| when I started this piece than vou did.

A Woman's View

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson Woman Visitor at Training Camp

Scorns Romantic Stories About War.

Aan lust returned from a visit to a Citizens Military Training Camp sends the following comments: “The sight of all those men going through their paces was stirring to the senses. It was not until I heard an officer speaking to them that I realized how uninteliigent the reasons given for such training ace tually are. He said the usual things: The physical ex ercise and discipline are good for the citizen soldiers; it is necessary to have on hand such materials for fu-

| ‘ture Army reinforcements; men are not men unless

they are prepared to defend their homes and families, and so on, “Where do you suppose we ever got the idea that a man is defending women and homes when he sets out to fight? How do we reconcile the horrible waste of money spent on war with the protection of women and children? The more I thought about what the officer had said, the more I realized that men are the real sentimentalists. “One has to question whether the male mind is

000.000 dollars next year are to help! During the depression, highway

other announcement.”

ously shaking her head, her conduct was exemplary. My neighbor's guinea fowls were strutting along the stone wall as we passed, making a great noise. Dot did not like it. But a cow staked near the road did not like us, as we cantered past. and ran around in circles as far as her chain would let her. Coming back, we were more thoughtful and walked along quietly, until the poor cow could see we were harmless.

I am always sorry for animals. because generally |

you can’t explain things to them. You have to trust to their instinct and their sense of confidence in vou. They are peculiarly sensitive to anv nervous-

dusk the sound of three shots came out of the tangled, thorned mesquite brush and tall grass.

5 =

HE Blantons did not return and when dawn came 100 farmers and townsmen were gathered on the cottonpatch side of the fence. On the other side were ranch officers and farm hands who said they would do the searching themselves.

finance the expansion program.

| For a vast system of modern | traffic arteries of 792.872 concrete miles the states spend about 750.{000.000 dollars annually—and a con- | siderable part of that is borrowed (money. At the end of 1936. Dun & | Bradstreet estimated that 45.59 per {cent of all net state bonded debt had been incurred for highway-building purposes, and even this figure rep-

resented a depression deceleration |

| “that

borrowings increased more

slowly

than in the preceding decade, but |

svlvania and Texas. “It is clear,” Miss Trull

uted to normal

wrote, the bulk of the state debt now outstanding cannot be attribfunctions of gcov-

AMADRID was, he said, just «4 about to find a key to the mystery’'s solution when word of his activities leaked out. He was arrested in Raymondville by

Lodge Vote f

NEXT-—How Capt. Richard King built his Texas embnire so vast that a horse couldn't cross it in a week.

or Wage Bill

| well balanced after all. | begin their programs for defense?

| civilization.

For what happens waen they Usually all of them strong enough to do any work are drafted into the Army. They are handed over to the mercy of arbi trary, dictatorial authorities, and it's the women them=

| selves who are obliged to support the children, and

maintain the home, and everything else of value io Yet the men go on speaking of theme selves as defenders of the weak.”

New Books Today

Public Library Presents—

ECREATING some 30 years of Indian history bee fore and during the tragic days of the Mutiny in ‘57, Maud Diver in the story of a dramatic life, HONORIA LAWRENCE (Houghton), presents a picture of British India when Indian service meant often “life leng exile, constant ill health and early death.” None of these formidable bugbears nor the four months’ journey on a sailing vessel on which she must even supply the furnishings for her own cabin, were sufficient to deter this eager Irish girl from joining the gifted young Henry Lawrence on that far-flung frontier. There was consummated a marriage which for 16 vears of almost incredible stress burned with the clear light of an idyllic love. Of the work of Sir Henry Lawrence the world is well aware. This first British ruler of the Punjab, beloved by native tribes for his power of understanding the devious Asiatic mind, with his distinguished brothers, wrote the name of Lawrence high on the

Act to Aid New England

| ernment. Rather it has been | caused, first, by the desire to pro- | | vide quickly for the building of a | By Raymond Clapper a rk modern highway system is Supp Te mon rape labor in other states. Tam happy at| a complement to revolutionary : 5 tor a this opportunity to keep my word.” changes in transportation; second. | ASHINGTON, Aug. 5.—For a "°F ps i by doies to veterans, aid to farm- | moment it looked as if some | ers and the unemployed, and by Republicans in Congress were at last | deficit refunding.’ (coming to the aid of the underdog. | " Word went around that 25 or 30 HE total net debt of all states at | Republicans in the House are ready the end of 1936 was estimated | to support the wages-and-hours bill by Dun & plang at yy an5, | provided it comes up approximately 091, of which $1.162.104.313 ad Reh in the form of the Senate version. | contracted for highway eonstruc- Also there was the remarkable (tion. “Net debt” means gross debt vote of Young Henry Cabot Lodge, { minus debts for revenue-producing | new Senator from Massachu. enterprises. O | setts Jon=- 1."

: iG He was the only Haat: Sixteen states — Arizona, to stand out against Et

Trouble was averted bv a State Side Glanc = R 7 7

of highway borrowing.

ness you may feel. I have noticed this in horses and dogs particularly. Ther react at once to fear or uncertainty in human beings they trust. | The papers are not pleasing reading these days. with &ll the wars and rumors of war thev report Today the wreck of the airliner off Cristobal. Canal Zone, is a tragic occurrence How gaily we go along from dav to day, and how little we consider the possibility of a quick ending! If we only felt that more keenly, we might make a greater effort to love, instead of hate: ever to be kind, instead of cruel on our uncertain journey through the world. The other day I read something written a good many vears ago by a gentleman called Pericles. [It is worth repeating today: “For the whole earth is the sepulcher of famous men; and their story is not graven only on stone over their native earth, but lives on far away, without visible symbol, woven into the stuff of other men’s lives.” That is true of us all, not only of famous men. We can weave bitterness and hate and cruelty in other men’s lives, or we can weave Kkincliness, love and joy.

Walter O'Keefe —

cutting of Massachusetts by cheap |

e To a

3 = er - : = -_—

necticut, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, | : h Rl Adc Towa, Kentucky. Nebraska, the bill, a polite form of buriai de

Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma on | signed—this time in vain—to assist Dakota, Texas, Vermont, Washing-

| some Democrats who were against ie i Wi in were listed as [the bill but lacked the nerve to vote ols a i ey Of Honotid, she whose ton and Wisconsi > debt for | 228Inst it directly. Senator Lodge fame which was the genius of BE Law E Lie having no outstanding de ti ul (and Senator Davis of Pennsylvania | Ae Ca Ya a ow 10 lear : ly vj enry Tence, we highvay SU pees: Sng , » | were the only two Republicans to | =, are Just p eam July. orida, a as being entirely debt-free.

| ’ n u » vote for the bill on final passage. . | I his first novel Archie Binns told his story of The per capita net debt out- # | standing for highway purposes at

the lightship men of Puget Sound simply and OM SOPWITH, England's ranking yachtman, a Ione Ions To tne 32 HIS suggested a break toward a understandingly. In his new novel THE LAURELS knows now how Lemke felt after the last elec- E | ener I Aves: more progressive evolution in ARE or DOWN (Reynal) he has done the same tion. : ; Fa | Alabama, $13.39; Arkansas, $70.04; the Republican Party, and that per- or the people of fe Puget Sound country, those If Tom wants to take the America’s Cup back to ) . i = California, $7.66: Colorado, $26.09: | haps the underdog finally had be- who went out to the last frontier and made their England hell have to put a couple of sails on the | | Delaware, $11.00; Idaho, $1.57; Iili- | came strong enough to snap at some

ROADSIDE DEBATE

T'S okay, boys, growl and snarl

The main story is about two affectionate and

settlements at the edges of the old forests. Queen Mary.

Tuesday he overhauled the boat and threw away

the sails. That's where he made his mistake. He should have kept the sails and thrown away the boat. In the newspapers these days everybody is trying to explain vachting, but it would be more interecting if somebody could explain the Endeavour.

nois, $17.08; Kansas, $1.83: Louisiana, $40.52; Maine, $29.68; Maryland, $9.08; Massachusetts, $0.05; Michigan, $3.77; Minnesota, $12.62; Missiscippi, $4.72; Missouri, $28.11; Montana, $3.52; Nevada, $2.78.

New Hampshire, $1542; New Jer-

of the Republicans and drag them That would have been

into line. news. “Underdog bites Republican.

But young Senator Lodge turned Everything is

cut to be no heretic, all right. “I voted for this bill,” said Sen

| | | | |

| works.”

at each other, Remember, the

best defense is a good offense, so

just keep on giving each other “the These two gents act as if the caution light was the signal to throw caution to the four winds.

loyal brothers who, as little boys, walked a mile through the deep woods to school and later helped their father slowly and painfully clear the few acres which he farmed. From Alaska, where they sailed their little sloop on prospecting trips, they came down to enlist for the Great War. But they were sent instead on the

There's a humor around that mav account for the eccentric behavior of the British entry. They say that the crew running Tom's boat is really the Brooklyn Dodgers Anvway, Tom. you've been a great sport about it all, and youre not the only person who's spent | * .- ' . to 4k $3000,000 and still couldnt keep up with the Van- Junior! Don't go stepping in the derbilts.

sey. $1469; New Mexico, $25.20 | ator Lodge, “because I regard it as New York, $3.71; North Carolina, |a step in the right direction. It 826.71; Oregon. $2325; Pennsyl- | will, if enforced, stop once and for vania, $6.02; Rhode Island, $0.41; | all the flight of industry from Mas South Carolina, $16.38; Tennessee, | sachusetts to places where labor is 815.43; Utah, $2.48; Virginia, $1.51; | cheap and sweatshops prevail. One | West Virginia, $41.05; Wyoming, |of my campaign pledges was to do | $14.50. all in my power to stop this under-

futile American Expedition to Siberia, where George was Killed. Alfred came back after nearly three years as a helpless witness of revolution, to find the America he loved changed and suspicious. We feel, however, that he will keep his head and his individuality, although he has lost the girl both he and George had loved, ~

Better to wait until the green light actually flashes before starting across the highway. It's tough on vour blood pressure to make vourself fly into a rage just to lead the other fellow to think that after all it’s his fault, not yours.

potato salad with those new, expensive shoes of yours!" ® . {