Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 27 August 1937 — Page 17

agabond

From Indiana —Ernie Pyle

Roughing It Near the Shore of the |

Bering Sea Isn't as Tough a Life As It Sounds, Reporter Discovers.

PLATINUM, GOOD NEWS BAY, Alaska, | Aug. 27.—Olsen’s platinum-mining camp is a little oasis of civilization in the vast bare desert of southwestern Alaska’s tundra. It sits out on Squirrel Creek, 10 miles

from Platinum, a couple of miles from the Bering Sea. There are half a dozen bunkhouses, a big cook- * house, a couple of small homes for the owners, an office, a radio shack, warehouses and repair shops. There are electric lights. And-—there is food. Pilot Ralph Savory and I dragged into camp after our tough 10-mile walk from Platinum a little before 6 p. m. Our dogs hurt and our stomachs were gaunt. We knew they would put us up and feed us, and not charge a cent, for thai is the etiquet of mining camps. But we didn’t know just - what the standard of living might i he, for after all things get fairly primitive along the Bering Sea. So you can imagine our surprise when we walked up to the cookhcuse, some 6000 miles from Broadway, and saw standing on the steps a handsome woman in a green smock uniform, ready to ring the dinner triangle. It was Mrs. Pearl Gustafson, wife of the welder at the Olsen camp. She took us back and introduced us to Mrs. Brown, the chief cook, and then to Mrs. Ed Olsen, wife of the camp owner. Savory and I were flabbergasted to see so many women around. They gave the place a “home” touch which took away all sense of isolation.

Food Fit for a King

They got us hot water to wash up in. And then we ate. And boy, the grub they put out for those miners! I believe it can be truthfully stated as a national trait that in Alaska they feed abundantly and well. But at Olsen's—the food goes 100 per cent beyond that. The men all eat at a long table. Everything is white and clean, and the table so full it . almost runs over. Olsen's is a big and busy camp. to start operations around here, four years ago. has 25 men working now, and within a few days there'll be 50 more, putting the new dragline and dredge together. These two will be ready to work by, next spring and next summer the platinum will be \flying right and left. The dredge, which will work on nearby Salmon River (really just a big creek) has enough ground ahead of it for 20 years’ work. You don’t, of course, ask a mining man how much money he has made, so I don't know how much the Olsen's have taken out. But when they started here four years ago platinum was $25 an ounce and they were set up to make money at that price. Platinum Is now better than $60 an ounce—so you see they can afford to eat: well.

* $15,000 Pile of Sand

After supper we went down to where the drag-

It was the first

line is working on Platinum Creek, half a mile from | work two 10-hour shifts so |

camp. At Olsen's they the dragline is idle twice daily, for two hours each time. We went down during one of those periods, which gave us a chance to see the sluice box when it wasn’t flooded with water. Well, that was another disillusionment. They were to have the “cleanup” next day, which meant that right there in the black sand before our eyes in the box was probably $15,000 worth of platinum. But do you think we could find a single little grain? Nope. Not a one. Of course I wouldn't have known platinum if I'd seen it, but the superintendent said he couldn't find any either. He said that was always the way— when you want to find a nugget to show somebody, there never are any.

When we got back to camp, Mrs. Olsen said Pilot | Savory and I were to sleep in the back end of the | back, and there we |

office building. So we went were in a little apartment with twin beds, and electric lights, and extra blankets, and even an alarm clock. Talk about roughing it on the shore of the Bering Sea!

Mrs. Roosevelt's Day |

By Eleanor Roosevelt

Story of Elderly Couple's Romance In Hospital Interests First Lady.

YDE PARK, N. Y,, Lillian Wald's is becoming so familiar to me that the two hours it takes seem to flv. Miss Cook and I arrived there half an hour before we announced we would. There was Miss Wald who, after having talked Henry Street Settlement business with a luncheon guest, was ready and anxious to see us and looking as bright and cheerful as ever. Miss Wald showed us some pictures taken by a Henry Street nurse who is caring for a couple who had met and married while in a hospital. He is an elderly man in a wheel-chair, she has lost an arm. She has a lovely voice and when he heard her sing in the ward, he fell in ‘ove with her. In spite of practically nothing to live on, they are married and live in a little apartment on one of the most unfashionable avenues in New York City. Despite the business of life, there seems to be time among their neighbors for kindliness, The man does the housework from his wheel-chair with what little help his wife can give him. They cannot go out, they sit by the window and drop a string with a note down to the floor below and a neighbor does whatever needs to be done outside the house. A Henry Street nurse comes in occasionally to keep an eye on them. Two people whose paths in life crossed rather late, who know what hardship and grim unhappiness are, are ending their days with the light of love to make bearable anv of the little material sacrifices which must he made. Miss Wald told me the story and looked up with a most delightful smile, saying: “A pretty story, isn't it?" She meant more than pretty however, for deep down in her heart she still carries the interests of every one of the people who touch Henry Street Settlement. This morning I rode in spite of gray skies, for the sun seems to have decided to show itself to us on very rare occasions. My swim in the poo! last night was very cold because the sun has shone so little during the past few davs. I only hope it will warm up a little now, or my husband. who at last is arriving tomorrow morning, will have very little chance to swim. Evervthing is being made ready for the “President.” Even a man who has been drawing some clay from a place back in the woods told me today that he wanted to get through before the President arrives. I am afraid he can't do it. but it is a laudable spirit which tries te have everything in apple pie order for his arrival.

Walter O 'Keefe—

IM FARLEY. the happiness boy of the Administra-

tion, held his first press conference Wednesday in |

five months. He insisted that his political machine hasn't got carbon in the cylinders and that anyone can see there's nothing wrong with Democratic harmony ex-

cept everything. Jim admits that the Democratic National Commit-

tee is $200,000 in debt, but everybody knows that the '

book-selling business falls off during the summer months.

They owe John L. Lewis’ organization $50,000; they probably owe another $50,000 for the Jefferson Island |

love feast and the harmony banquet, and, of course, the other $100,000 is for the aspirin they needed during the Supreme Court fight. So they're going to keep up the harmony banquets because, like Napoleon. “travels en its stomach.”

If the split gets any wider there will be enough |

«oom to hold the next love feast at the top of the Washington Monument.

just |

It |

Thursday—The drive to Miss

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Second Section

FRIDAY, AUGUST 27, 1937

M unicipal Airport’ s New Equipment Safest Yet Devised

By Sam Tyndall "PI ANAPOL AS calling Flight 10. Stay at 2000.” “You can come in now 2, ceiling 500.” Thus commands a policeman of the airway sitting in a glass inclosed control tower atop Municipal Airport’s administration building as he directs traffic with $100,000 worth of the latest aeronautical radio equipment. Department of Commerce aeronautical experts say the airport's radio control equipment completed this

week is the most up-to-date in the country—the system nearest to perfection of any yet devised. The result of the Commerce Department's latest experiments, the airport radio control system now makes it possible for an operator at the port to transmit directions, information and enforce regulations safeguarding lives of hundreds each week who land and take off from Indianapolis. Nish Dienhart, airport superintendent, whose efforts have gone far to make the Indianapolis airport the most modern in the country, said more trained men are to be hired soon to put the control center on a 24-hour schedule.

# # ®

ITTING in the center of a semicircle of radio receivers and transmitters, the traffic director presses buttons to talk with pilots guiding the great luxury airliners to and from the landing field. “And when the sky is black and lightning is cracking, and the wind is trying to blow a plane right out of the sky, don’t think those pilots up there don't wait for every word,” Mr. Dienhart said. Five of the latest type aircraft receivers are at the command of the traffic director. Each one, several times more powerful than the ordinary radio set, picks up calls from pilots. Between two receivers stands a tall cabinet containing a 15-watt radio transmitter, a late Commerce Department development. Commerce Department experts also have set up a transmitter of still later design. They still are experimenting with it, however, seeking through new frequency control to further eliminate static. As the guardian of the airways sits facing the port's runways, he can reach another panel controlling the Lorenz blind landing equipment which guides pilots when the ceiling blankets down to “zero.”

rz ” » MICROPHONE and trans-

mitter control panel are on a desk at the director's right,

The glass-inclosed control tower.

A view from the control tower.

while in front of him is a battery of 16 red lights marking the switches controlling the wind T, revolving beacon, boundary lights, auxiliary beacon, flood and runway lights and lights for blind landings. Flanking the row of lights is a huge instrument resembling a speedometer—the Kollsman altitude barometer. Pilots who wish to check their altimeters for barometric differences before at-

tempting to land in bad weather ©

may call the operator and receive information enabling them to determine their altitude accurately. Then there are two more large dials—the wind direction indicator and the wind velocity gauge. As the traffic director sits with his powerful mechanical eyes and ears, his view of the ~mrrounding sky is clear except directly in front. There stands the airport's 38.-000,000-candle power flood light which illuminates the field for night landings. Mr. Dienhart said that pilots consider the local light one of the best. “You can read a newspaper a quarter of a mile away from the light when it is turned on,” he said. Six aerials dispatch and receive the messages exchanged by pilots and the operator. «

» » =

OMETIMES four or five fast transports head into the port at the same time and several small and slower planes may he in the air, making landings hazardous without fast, accurate traffic control, Mr. Dienhart said. The radio control installation has been the dream of Mr. Dienhart ever since the airport was constructed. Now that it is com-

Side Glances

Jim feels that a Congress |

“Sorry to vn

you, sir, but this hotel specializes in moun-

tain dinbire and we're starting right away.”

| vision for more than 20 years;

plete, he announced he is going to require every craft flying from the port to install a receiver to keep in constant touch with the traffic director. Another regulation is that no plane may take off the field without “checking out” with the radio control tower. Mr. Dienhart said the only equipment remaining to be installed is an interport communication system to speed transmis-

Entered as Second-Clads Matter Indianapolis,

at Postoffice.

Policing the Airways by Radio

Mr. 1 Dienhart gives a “go” sign to a plane.

sion of weather information to the tower from the weather bureau located on a lower floor of the building. Municipal Airport was chosen some time ago as headquarters for all Commerce Department aeronautical radio experimentation. With one system of blind landing already installed, Mr. Dienhart said Commerce Department officials plan to bring two others here for experimentation.

Asked if he had other plans for improving the radio control system, Mr. Dienhart replied: “Plenty, but it takes money.” He said that unspent WPA funds from original grants for runways were used to purchase the high-powered receivers; that the Commerce Department paid for and installed the Lorenz blindlanding equipment and that the City paid for the rest.

Y the end of this year, Indian- were 5 to 10 years old, and 371 had |

apolis will have a new building | | code which will be the equal of any | in the United States, according to | existed George R. Popp, city building code building in many of these places | was regulated by a state code.

director. The Indianapolis building code is

vision. When the work is completed, it will cover air-conditioning, prefabricated housing and other new construction methods which did not exist when it was last revised in 1925. Although Indianapolis is going ahead in this field, many American cities are content with obsolete codes. These often block adoption of new methods and the use of new materials which would make for more economical and safer construction. They may stand as a serious obstacle to the initiation of lowcost housing projects.

n » 5 A STRIKING example of the instood for long periods of years without revision is found in their fail-

| ure to regulate installation of airconditioning equipment in apart-

ment houses and other large structures. Lack of such regulation may directly contribute to fire hazards in three ways. First, the air-conditioning ducts

which honeycomb modern buildings

are often lined with combustible in-

sulating material.

| now in the process of complete re- |

| standard specifications available to municipal officials to aid in draft-| ing or revising building codes. Such | | a project is now getting under way

within five years.

| under the auspices of the American Standards Association. ing Code Correlating Committee of the than a score of organizations inter- ; ested in the generai field of building | tW0 years and w.s seriously ob-

regulation. | structed by the pulling and hauling

No local code

in 946 communities, but |

” » ” EVERAL efforts have been made from time to time to make

The Build-

association represents more

Sectional committees cover special.

New Indianapolis Building Code To Cover All Latest Problems

the sake of economy. One of the

been enacted or generally revised | most widely followed “model buildthe Pacific Coast |

ing codes” is Building Code of the Pacific Coast Building Officials Conference which is revised periodically. It has been adopted by more than 150 cities and towns mostly in the Far West. A suitable building code—even an ideal code—may readily be drafted, but difficulties will be encountered in most cities in bringing about its adoption. Manufacturers of building materials and their dealers will bring pressure to obtain preferences | for their products in specifications. The work of formulating New

York's new building code took over |

of politicians. An obsolete or unrea-

problems in the field. The Correlat- | sonable building code will often per~ ing Committee replaces the Building | mit corrupt city officials to wring Code Committee of the Department rich rewards from builders, contrac-

{of Commerce whose work was ter- | | tors and building owners through minated during the depression for '

adequacy of codes which have

| | |

Second, when only one switch is |

provided to cut off the blower,

to spread rapidly throughout the | building.

| | | | |

Third, if soldered joints in pipes |

carrying poisonous refrigerating gases are permitted within the duct system, a fire may melt the solder and allow the gas to escape into the system and the building. New York City recently replaced a building code that had been in effect for more than 20 years with an entirely new code. A code which has been in force as long as 10 years without general revision is likely to be obsolete. The most recent complete survey

| of the status of building codes | throughout the country was made

in 1935 by the Federal Bureau of Standards. Reports were received by the Bureau from 2579 cities and towns of 2500 or more population. The survey showed that 160 mu- | nicipalities had codes in effect which had not undergone a general re165 | had codes 15 to 20 years old: codes were 10 to 15 years old;

317! 620 |

“selective enforcement.”

E WATCHFUL for stop signs and signals.

National Safety Counce

Observe them by coming

to a complete stop. Failure to do so is an important cause of accidental death and injury. Regardless of whether the road seems to be clear of traffic, play fair with the officials—and with yourself too—byv

obeying your traffic laws. “Didn't

have right of way” is written on

many an accident report and behind this phrase, all too often, lies fail-

ure to observe stop signals,

PAGE 17

Ind.

ur Town

By Anton Scherrer Indianapolis Oddities Come to

Light; Famous Names, Architect's Jinx, and Climbing Antics Noted.

MAYBE this is the moment to mention that George Calvert contemplates reading Burton's “Anatomy of Melancholy” this winter. I've carried the item around in my pocket for goodness knows how long,

hardly knowing what to do with it. It isn't the only one of its kind. For example, Julius Caesar lives at 541 S. Cene tral Court. . . . Edgar Allen Poe runs a filling stae

tion at 256 N. Capitol Ave. . . . Architect Arthur Bohn will not start a building on Friday. He did so once and remembers that the hod-carrier on the job died on a Friday eight years later. . . . Mrs. Will Forsyth opines that Indianapolis robins, too lazy to hunt worms, too eager to pick up crumbs, are getting to be more like chickens every day. ... Kenneth Loucks has documentary proof in his possession that a good carpenter got 87': cents for a day's work in Indianapolis in 1833, but hastens to add that good whisky sold for 25 cents a pint at the time. . Katrina Fertig knows the birthdav of evervbody she knows. . . .

Dreiser Made a Hoosier London Punch, once

Mr. Scherrer

upon a time, credited Ine dianapolis with being the birthplace of Theodore Dreiser. . . . Less ghastly, perhaps, but Just as exe citing is the mildewed item that, once upon a time, Tom (Bud) Gould climbed the 80-foot-high tower of the Emrichsville bridge with his overcoat on. He finished the job with walking on his hands around the top edge. . . . And Chris Bernloehr remembers the day Robert O'Neill fell from the top of the Home Brewery's smokestack, apd walked away none the worse for experience. Mr. Ake lives at 1040 N. Garfield Drive; Mr. Paine, at 1107 E. Market St.

Adolph Got Pair of Pants

There's the one, too, about Adolph Schellschmidt. It's had me worried ever since I bagged it. Seems that Mr. Schellschmidt, when he was a kid. used to go in search of walnuts in the grove where the Women's Prison now stands. Well. on one occasion when he was in company with Constantin Rieger, they threw rocks up into the trees, and, believe it or not, a pair of pants and suspenders fell down.

And here's another that leaves me kind of helpless. Ernest (Ernie) F. Werner, who superintended the construction of Wasson's new building. always carries a volume of Shakespeare around with him. To read, of course. He allows nine days, no more no less, to a play. He reads the “Passionate Pilgrim” only in leap years. My market man says you ought to pick cantae loupes the way you do bathing beauties--the longer and slimmer, the better. I thought vou ought to know.

A Woman's View By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

Dreamlike Los Angeles Proves

Traffic Inferno for Vacationer.

yoann NOTES: Today we moved into the un= real atmosphere of the City of Angels. For the essential quality of this part of the world is unreality. First impressions were those of terror. I drove the car straight into bedlam without a notion of our destination. It is a feat I shall always be proud of: when I'm too old to hold a wheel I will certainly bore my grandchildren telling about it. I know now how an abandoned soul in hell feels on the afternoon of its first day in the infernal regions. Autos to rizht of us. autos to left of us, volleyed and thundered: into the Jaws of death drove the intrepid Fergusons! Shall we turn at the next signal? Is the city ahead or at our rear now? Behind, the horns honked maddeningly each time we hesitated. Motors scraped our fenders, darting in front of us at every intersection. Enormous streetcars bore down upon us, their bells clanging. Ambulances shrieked; towering busses pursued us; pedestrians popped up before us, out of man=holes, apparently, Altogether it was one of the most thrilling adventures in many a day. We survived only by scooting into every conveniently located filling station, where the four of us would promptly swoon away, thus gathering strength for a fresh sally into the traffic current. Is there anything new to be said about Los Angeles, lovely, perfumed, tinseled, maddest, merriest of all American cities? It has no form; sometimes one feels it has no substance. It is a place of fairy beauty flashed for a little while upon the screen of human consciousness. Surely it will vanish soon; its glamour, vivid coloring and languorous grace will do a fadeout, leaving only *the sea, mountains and shore, as they used to be long ago when the country was voung, slows mceving and filled with peace. If the ghosts of padres walk in old haunts, how awed those simple souls must be at the changes that have taken place since they dreamed here under the der the pepper tree trees.

New Books Today

Public Library Presents—

ARBARA, a pretty debutante with a level head, is the first member cf the Sentry family we meet; then there are Mary, her older sister who is planning on marrying a medical missionary; Mrs. Sentry Sr.; Phil, who is in Yale, and Mr. and Mrs. Sentry. In a lovely home they live quiet, decorous, well ore dered lives, lives about which there has been no faint« est touch of scandal of sordidness. But suddenly into their decent lives fate throws a bombshell: The police come and arrest Mr. Sentry for murder! And each member of his family has evidence which, if given, would help convict him! Into the CRUCIBLE (Houghton) go their sane orderly lives to let the white hot flames of scandal, of sordid gossip, of newspaper publicity, of pity from friends, of desertion of false friends, burn, melt and purify them. When the fierce heat has burned away, we find those not destroyed by it, purged of pride and selfishness. Not a murder mystery, but rather a study in chare acter development. CRUCIBLE, by Ben Ames Williams, is a hook you will not lay down until you have read the last page.

= u LJ

OR seven months the frigate Lydia had been a world complete in herself. ' Then, one day, she slipped into the Gulf of Fonseca. And there, according to his orders, Capt. Hornblower offered stout British aid to Don Julian Alvarado, who was fomenting a rebellion of the New World colonies against Spain. How Capt. Hornblower dealt with Don Julian, whe was quite mad and had himself worshiped as “El Supremo”; how the Lydia had twice to fight the Natividad, once for the colonies and once for the part of Spain; how the ship returned to England around Cape Horn, with Lady Barbara as passenger— all this makes BEAT TO QUARTERS (Little) a grand tale of the sea, with a flavor of salt spray and the smell of burnt powder hanging over it. Further distinction is added to the book, however, through «. S. Forrester’s- portraiture of Capt. Hornblower. Holding before himself his ideal of a ship's master, he was so distrustful of himself that he hid his kindliness and sensitiveness behind his gruff “Hah'm!” little realizing that the loving eyes of the crew pierced his armor and loved him the more. The author, too, loves the captain, and depicts him with an affectionate care which makes the book one to be long remembered.

LE A A Rin 4