Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 6 August 1937 — Page 17

A ——

FRIDAY, AUG. a Yoar

Vagabond

From Indiana — Ernie Pyle

Alaska Is Really Light All Night, Skeptic Finds Out and Tells How It Feels to Go to Bed With Sun Shining.

FAIRBANKS, Alaska, Aug. 6.—Now for a little dissertation on how it feels to Hove daylight all night. The subject could } covered by simply saying “It feels ites funny,” but I suppose the boss wouldn't

consider that worth a day’s pay, so we must elaborate.

I always have been skeptical about this all-night |

daylight business. I didn't think I'd see any ever. It was my belief it would be an inferior brand, not really what an honest man would call daylight at all. But as usual, I am wrong. We are having actual daylight all night long now. True, it isn't as light at midnight as it is at noon. But it's like real daylight all night. You could stand out in the open at midnight tonight, anywhere on the whole mainiand of Alaska, and read a newspaper with ease. The light would be about like it is in the Midwest a half hour after sunset. Or on a very cloudy day. Not bright, but you can see. I saw it bright daylight at 11:30 p. m., a fairly bright twilight at 12:30 a. m., and brilliant sunshine again by 1:30 a. m. The best way I can describe it is to say that during the “darkest” hour of the night you can see just as far as you can in daytime, but at a distance the detail is not as sharp. If you are in the house—for instance my which has only one window and is on floor, and has other buildings across then you can't see to read a newspaper. can almost do it.

Gets Fooled on Lights

The hotel here has a good joke on me. I was working at my typewriter the first night, and about 10:30 p. m. the daylight was getting weak so I snapped on the wall switch. But there weren't any lights. Now on the boat coming down the Yukon the electricity was turned off all day, so I supposed they did the same thing here but just went a little farther and kept it off all night too. I figured they regarded their lights the way Californians regard their heat— too proud to have any even when they need it. didn't say anything, and just went to bed. Next evening I was talking with a friend staying in the same hotel, and happened to mention not having any lights. And he said “Why, I've got lights in my room. Had them last night, too.” So I asked the hotel clerk if it was just an old Alaskan custom to turn off the lights in summer, or what. He said “My goodness no, they're never turned off.” Then he investigated, and found a fuse blown out. So he fixed it and apologized and I felt a little sheepish.

Doesn't Affect His Sleep

The way you come on Alaska’s midnight daylight, traveling northward day after day, seeing darkness come a little later each night, and sunrise a little earlier accustoms you to it by the time the two finally meet and you have daylight all night. I had heard that this daylight upsets your sleeping schedule, and that people couldn't sleep in the summer because of it. Well, I can sleep all right

Mr. Pyle

room,

the alley— But you

when I go to bed, but the point is I forget about going |

to bed. Time just passes, and it doesn't look like bedtime, and the first thing you know it's 1 a. m. turn in. And then an hour later you'll wake up with the sun blazing through the window right into vour eyes. light to me. In the States I'm an eight-hour-sleep man. But in

the last three weeks I haven't had more than five |

hours any night, and seem to think nothing of it. They say up here that in the summer people set their alarm clocks to go to bed by, instead of to get up by. And I Md 1 ‘guess XH 's true

By Eleanor Roosevelt

Nature Lover, Businessmen Author Call on First Lady for Aid.

YDE PARK, N. Y. Thursdav—I had a mixed group of visitors vesterday. How many different interests it takes to keep this old world going! . My first visitor was deeply interested in a society which is trying td preserve the beauties of the banks of the Hudson River. The members are particularly worried about such quarrying as is done for profit without considering the fact that it spoils the scenic beauty of the famous Palisades. It is strange how rarelv the servants of beauty and the servants of material gain see eve to eye, or desire the same thing. Of course, there is little or nothing I could do for my visitor. But she has been very fortunate in enlisting the interest of Governor Lehman, William Church Osborn—who now heads the society—and other prominent persons in the state. Undoubtedly they will be able to do valuable work. Listening to her, I thought of a beautiful play I saw last winter, “High Tor,” written in defense of the Palisades. but which could be used as well for any of the beaufies of nature despoiled by man. Then came a lady who has done some of the most beautiful books I have ever seen, requiring minute research and careful editing. She is interested in get-

ting them into the hands of school libraries where |

they would be of great value. Later in the afternoon came two gentlemen interested in commercial enterprises in West Virginia. One of them, a German by birth though an American citizen now, was most interesting to me. because he brought to his state of West Virginia some of the

qualities most noticeable in the German people, par- |

ticularly among th= scientists. Germans have a meticulous thoroughness which few of us in this country can equal, because of our impatience. My visitor knew more about his adopted state than, I imagine, does many a citizen who has lived there always, or whose parents have lived there before him. This is an example of the good that comes to us in this country from our mixed population. We must expect, occasionally of course, to get some bad along with the good. At lunch yesterday I met Mrs. James Lees Laidlaw and her daughter-in-law, with Miss Dickerman and Miss Cook. It was a joy for me to see them again. Mrs. Laidlaw’s account of her experiences at the coronation, which speaking Union, was both interesting and amusing. Last night we read aloud in “The Countryman’s Year,” by David Grayson. There are so many things in it I want to remember, and must pass on to you. “Long ago I made up my mind to let my friends have their peculiarities.” How wise! If only all of us could do the same!

Walter O'Keefe —

HE New Dealers have picnicked at the Jefferson Island love feast in June, and are scheduled to put on the feedbag again at next week's “harmony” panquet. This is a lot different from the Hoover Administration, when nobody ate. If this keeps up future Senators will be sent to Washington because they have fine legal minds and are suffering from malnutrition. Not since John Barrymore and Elaine reconciled has the country been treated to such a renewal of

lovers’ vows as they have in the case of the warring

Democrats.

A Jot of political significance is being attached to

these dinner invitations, but the truth is that the Missus is away so much that the President simply has to eat out with the boys. Everything is being done for harmony. If the boys overeat Jim Farley probably will be right there with the bicarbonate.

the ground |

Sol |

So you |

That is the biggest kick of the all-night |

and |

| date, and John L.

| keep a luncheon appointment.

| someone was speaking. | Mr. | O. mentioned. | telling the world what he thought | {of both. He didn't like them. Lewis asked the driver what | | program was coming over the radio. |

ona | scratched from Mr. Lewis’ list.

she attended for the English- |

but one thought I love

The Indianapol

s Times

Second Section

FRIDAY, AUGUST 6, 1937

(Second of a Series)

By Gordon Turrentine

NEA Special Service Writer

K INGSV ILLE, Tex., Aug. 6.—Stenmbont Captain Richard King wanted an empire in Texas so wide that a man riding in a straight line on a good horse couldn’t cross

it in a week.

He wanted a home for himself and his bride,

set on a land heritage which would last a hundred years

and more.

He founded the great King ranch, which covers or

laps into eight counties in south Texas, and whose sprawling miles would

founder the strongest horse. It has lasted since 1854 and shows few serious signs of disintegration. Richard King was born in Orange County, N. J, in 1821, found himself apprenticed at 10 to a jeweler, didn't like it, and casually ran away. He stowed away on a vessel bound for Mobile and, with something of the luck which pursued him throughout his life, happened to find one of the few kindly men who in those days went down to rough seas on rough ships. The captain liked the boy, sent him to school and later taught him the trade of steamboat captaining and how to trade shrewdly.

un n

ING fought in the Seminole war and the Mexican War and became acquainted with that unbelievably sluggish and unattractive Rio Grande, with its sagebrush borders, its quicksand and its preposterous meanderings. He met schooners at the mouth and brought their cargoes 40 miles up the stream to sun-baked Brownsville where a handful of people lived in houses with adobe walls two feet thick. On one of his tips to the border

Times Special Writer NV Aug. 6.—Political consequences sometimes turn on small incidents.

| to call | they were in the same hotel in Cali- |

| fornia, Johnson's |

One such |

has come between Secretary of Agri- |

| culture Wallace, who is a prospec-

tive Democratic presidential candi- |

Lewis, who may

| tor declined he lost the chance that |

have something to say about who |

the candidate is to be. Sometime ago Mr. Lewis was in a

Washington taxicab on his way to}

| taxicab driver had his radio on and

The speaker was

Mr.

The driver said it was the Agricui-

{ Hour.”

Suddenly | vention was ready to take on sight

Lewis heard his name and C. I. |

The |

| Coolidge, although he was only

| ture Department's “Farm and Home |

Frm ea en at ue v—

Mrs. Henrietta King, in the days when widow of the founder of the great King ranch, administered its affairs. An oldtime stage coach was still the only way for her to get “outside” the vast King domain.

town the young steamboat captain met Henrietta Chamberlain, whose slightly impractical father was

Radio Program Widens

L -Wall Mrs. Roosevelt's Day SWS a Ri

' By Raymond Clapper

causing Mr.

| | |

on Senator Johnson when |

| friends to turn on Mr. Hughes, knif- | {ing him in California and thereby |

electing Woodrow Wilson President. | Four years later President Hard- | ing asked Senator Johnson to be his |

running mate, and when the Sena-

came to Coolidge by another freak | | incident. After Senator Johnson re-

fused, a delegate, Wallace McCammant, from Washington State, | hopped up and yelled that the convention wanted Coolidge. The con-

the first willing man. So it took!

name to the delegates. n n un EORGE NORRIS would never

have remained in the Senate | not |

if a newspaper reporter had

| | | |

a |

| waylaid a, telegraph messenger boy. |

You can imagine that right there |

presidential possibility n »

OLITICAL history with freak

incidents

was |

In 1924 Senator Norris decided not | the |

to run. On the last filing dav,

Senator in his office here, wrote a!

| telegra m declining

to permit his |

name to be filed and called a tele- |

is studded | graph boy. When the messenger boy | which | started dowh the corridor, Paul An-

the way Charles Evans Hughes, |

| to Nebraska. That night friends of

isn no fault of his own, failed | Senator Norris filed for him.

Side Glances

By Clark Municipa

17 NEA SERVIER 1A Ju 5 ay

Pc OE SN RA SIT ren

“Let the neighbors yell! Some day they'll be tuning us in on their radios and boasting that they knew us when."

| | | | |

| representative,

{

7 OND —

lay ‘3 NZ Vf

ranch home, whose ranges wiljoin the King ranch.

occupied with the discouraging task of enticing Mexicans to church at an hour which seriously interfered with their siestas. A few meetings with Miss Henrietta convinced King that steamboat captaining was too lonely, and one day he rode away with a voung officer named Robert E. Lee. After several days through chaparral and mesquite, road runners, armadillos, and flatheaded rattlesnakes, they came to a gently rolling country on the coastal plains. King looked about him. “We've come far enough,” said.

n ”n ”

E bought his first land—75,000 acres—in 1852 and soon thereafter married Henrietta. King had an idea. First he wanted a home. Then he wanted to acquire all the land from the Nueces River to the Rio Grande, quite a sizable tract? On that land he wanted to raise cattle and become rich. He knew nothing about cattle, nothing about ranching. But he had an idea that cattle would thrive on the brushland. The flesh of the animals meant nothing to him. He wanted their hides and their tallow for profit. He built his first home in 1854 on the acreage he had bought, and he dated his empire from that time. He called his first home Santa Gertrudis and now, more than 80 years later, Santa Gertrudis stands for the largest ranch in the world, for a magnificent new breed of cattle and for a private empire. ” » ING kept his steamboat as a sideline and made a fortune during the war between the States by running hides, tallow, and cotton Into Tree Yuesicsh ports where

CAN Ee A ZITA PIR

RRR RL He A

they were reshipped by British vessels. He bought more land—the high-

est at 5 cents an acre, the lowest at 1 cent. He fought rustlers and ticks, armed expeditions after bandits, increased his herds, hired more riders—and bought more land. He took another steamboat captain, Mifflin Kenedy, into partnership and they began grading their herds, fencing the land. That partnership later broke up and now the Kenedy ranch, Kingcontrolled, comprises Kenedy County, a kingdom within an empire. Kenedy County for years defied the State, and only within the last year has permitted a Texas highway to cross its fenced borders.

eager

| Finance Agent

Gets Data Here

‘By L. A. HE work of the Municipal Finance Officers’ Association, according to Mathias Lukens,

—) is to gather data on| the accounting practices of munici- |

pal corporations, summarize it, and |

| set up standards. Mr. | recently to interview City Controller

Lukens was in Indianapolis |

| Walter Boetcher, Purchasing Agent | | Albert Loesche and William Book, |

| Chamber

It is imposible, however, to follow association standards ex- |

state constitutions.

on » 2 UNICIPAL finance officers are now embarking upon what

of Commerce eXecutive |

| vice president. ail for cities |

| actly, he said. because of varying |

| consider

Carl H. Chatters calls the “third |

crusade” methods. Mr. Chatters, aszociation executive director, has reference to the fact that a general movement toward better municipal accounting got under way at the turn of the century under leadership of the National Municipal League, and that a second movement beginning in 1911 resulted in considerable additional progress. The National Committee on Municipal Accounting was organized in 1934. Even so, the financial machinery of the average city almost never emerges for public scrutiny, possibly because such matters as “accrual bases” and “double-entry bookkeep-

for improved accounting |

ing” are lacking in the essential | | drama that makes the headlines. “A Detroit city employee,” says Mr. Chatters, “had to shoot himself in 1936 before the public would pay any atention to city finance problems. When the city defaulted interest on more than $200,000,000 in bonds only a few citizens lost any sleep. And when the City’s credit was re-estab-lished by a gigantic refunding opperation not a cheer was heard. “But the bullet which ended the life of an embezzler was to Detroit like the shot heard round the world.”

officials

into several ‘‘functional” groupings, but all are allied for the essential purposes of assessing and collecting taxes and purchasing supplies and services. Control of the budget, says Mr. Chatters, is essential. City charter provisions governing expenditures under budget allotments vary widely. Kansas cities, for example, are compelled to limit spending to actual cash received; in Duluth, Minn, City departments may spend no more than 95 per cent of a budget appropriation until a larger amount has actually been collected. In more and more cities nowaday, expenditures are controlled by an allotment scheme which calls for careful estimates, by monthly or quarterly peri-

Hoo § » le 4 AL hil \ WW dL | \

en ®)

| | | |

Entered as Second-Class Matter Indianapolis. d

at Postoffice,

PAGE 17

Ind.

Our Town

By Anton Scherrer Boys May Have Their Points Today, But in Writer's Opinion They're Not So Good at Whistling With Fingers.

"LL. grant that modern boys have their good points, but doggone it, they can't whistle the way kids of my generation could, At any rate, they can’t whistle with their fingers the way boys used to.

Of course, this doesn’t mean that all boys of my generation could whistle with their fingers. Not by a long shot, but they tried to, anyway, which is more than you can say for the present generation. As near as I recall, there were two kinds of finger whistlers when I was a boy: Those born with the gift, and those who had to learn the trick. Which, when you come to think of it, is the difference between boys who do a thing instinctively, and those who have to be taught. Far be it from me to account for those born with the gift. After all, there's no explaining genius. The best I can do today is to stay with those kids who had to sweat for everything they learned. Well, if I remember correctly, a good fingers whistler used the index finger and the long, or mide dle finger of the left hand. These he stuck into his mouth, somewhere and somehow between the front

Mr. Scherrer

teeth. The right hand was kept in reserve, I remems ber, to wrap around the whistling hand. Properly done it controlled the sound. Indeed, it could be manipulated for soft and soothing, or sharp and strident tones. Moreover, a good right hand could be made to muffle the tone until it had the quality of rubato.

Right Hand Important

The right hand did more than that, however. It served to cover up what the left hand was doing, A lot of people, who don't know any better, think

it was done to keep the secret from spreading, Nonsense. It was done to keep the whistler from looking sick or foolish, because if you have ever watched a finger-whistler before he cups his right hand over his left, you'll agree that he looks like a boy with a bad case of toothache. I remember a lot of boys, for instance—grown-up men they are today—who just missed being good finger whistlers, because they couldn't help looking foolish. Which is just another way of saying that they couldn't cover up what their left hand was

HEN Capt. King died in 1885 he left the solid beginning of the vast King ranch. On its acres Kingsville and six other towns have been founded, of, by and for King ranch people. Fifteen hundred miles of the ranch are fenced. Five hundred line riders travel its borders. The first Santa Gertrudis home is now the Santa Gertrudis “Palace,” estimated cost $350.000. Outside holdings affect 37 Texas counties. Legislators lend kindly ears when requested. The Corpus Christi deepwater port was buiit because of King influence. And then, there is that little phrase with which people around here like to impress strangers “It is 75 miles from the front gate to the ranchhouse.”

NEXT—How the boss of Fl Sauz died, and men whispered, for the feud with the men from the “outSide” would not be ‘quieted.

YH LLM

By National Safety

| FOU DON'T GET ME ANEW BULB, 'T MAY MEAN LIGHTS OLT FOR BOTH OF ULS!

WHEN LIGHTS FAIL

EEP some spare light bulbs in your car. Lights burn out every once in a while you know—and more often if there is something wrong with your electrical system. So carry a few “spares.” Bulbs are mighty cheap when compared witn doctor bills and hospital charges. Remember, it is against the law in most states to drive with a headlight missing. And of course it always is a violation of the law of safety. It only takes a minute to change a light bulb, It's a simple

ods, of expenditures and revenues. trick—if you've got the “spare.”

| | | | 3 art—no pure art, { | |

Coun®il

| dying consciousness | |

doing. To hide their confusion, they always tried to smile, which was the worst thing a finger whistler | could do. I remember others, too, who had an idea | that their personality could help them out. It never did, of course. It couldn't, because there isn't another anyway—that depends so little on personality and so much on practice.

It Paid, Too

| The reason I know so much about whistling is because my part of town had the best whistlers in { Indianapolis. Nobody to my knowledge ever beat | Harry Gumbinsky of S. Illinois St. for instance. Harry could whistle anything—with or without fingers | —and got to be so good that he went to New York, | changed his name to Harry Von Tilzer, and made a | barrel of money composing songs like “A Bird in a Gilded Cage” and “Wait Till the Sun Shines, | Nellie.” Let me tell you something more. Whistlers wers s0 good around here in my day that the boys had a hard time keeping up with the girls. There were the McCorkle sisters, for instance. Both went on the vaudeville stage with a whistling act, as did the | MacMannies girls a little later on. I remember, too, and so does Adolph Schellschmidt, that a Madame Shaw, from Detroit or somewhere, used to come | and warble a whole night at English's Opera House, | She was so good that she got $1.50 a seat.

A Woman's View

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson Putting-Up-Fruit Season Is Time of

Work-a-Day Joy for All Women.

UTTING-UP-FRUIT time is the pleasantest of the year for women. When there is fruit. And 1937 has been lavish with her gifts. Peach, apple, plum, pear trees are heavy with their luscious hars vest. On the vines grapes ripen in the midsummer sun. Vegetables glut the market. For one fat year at least there will be orgies of preserving, pickling and canning. And you should see the ones who are at it! The jelly makers are not confined to the habitually dc mestic type. Thousands of business girls, teachers and society women have the bug. For you don't have to be a natural-born cook to love making jam. Be= hind all such sprees is the hoarding instinct, deep as hunger and love, and those who respond to its urges come from every group. What fun it is! You grapes at market, let us say, they would be excellent for jelly. attack starts. Home you go with the grapes, probably more than vou can use, and vou call off all engagements for | several davs and plunge into the most enticing of | all feminine labor. First vou'll ransack the cupboards and cellar for receptacles, and it's always more satisfying if you don’t have to buy new glasses. There is the added feeling of accomplishment in digging out all the odd bottles and jars you have on hand and seeing them begin to be filled with their amber, purple and crimson treasures. | The house smells like a | Spices, pungent boiling vinegar, | of cooking fruiy, perfume it for days. Every member | of the family—even Mom, who is usually dieting— | goes back to eating thick slices of bread, well buttered and jammed. The pots and kettles are sticky with | thick, fragrant goo, and the tables and window ledges | hold rows of clear, beautiful perfectly thickened juice. Afterward, there is the blissful feeling that | you have saved something, stored something away | for tomorrow's needs. And so to bed, your body weary and your filled with thankfulness because the jelly jelled you are dropping off, the random thought pricks your Maybe our lives would jell bets ter if we exercised as much judgment, care and work as we do during just one putting-up-fruit season

happen onto some nice and the clerk suggests That's the way the

little corner of Araby. and the heavy odor

soul AS

New Books Today

Public Library Presents—

FTER 15 years of exile, Pietro Spina returns to Italy in order to engage in revolutionary activie | ties among the peasants. Spina, as he is portrayed in BREAD AND WINE (Harper), by Ignazio Silone, is at once a man of action and an idealist. In addition to plotting with | the peasants for the overthrow of the present dice tatorship, he attempts to reconstruct his shattered social and religious beliefs and to answer the ques tion: “What place is there for a free man in a dice tator-ridden world? Is intellectual integrity still pos= sible?” Writing in exile, it is inevitable that the author use defeat and degeneration as the main thread of his theme. Silone writes about a revolutionary who has lost faith in revolution and.about the masses of peasants who have lost faith in themselves. Most depressing of all, the writes about his contemporaries who hoped for some promise in fascism but have been réduced to despair by it instead.

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