Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 27 September 1937 — Page 11

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- Vagabond

From Indiana — Ernie Pyle

Mercury in Alaska Hits Downward Trend, Which May Be Reason for Eskimos' Retarded Intelligence.

ABOARD CUTTER NORTHLAND, Sept. 97.—This business of Eskimos has been receiving considerable attention from me lately, and I have come up with the final conclusion that I sort of like Eskimos. In fact, if they smelled a little better, I might grow to love them. They are a gentle people. I like gentle people immensely, because there are so many people in the world who are not gentle. The Eskimos as a race are peaceable, and generous, and friendly. } - No matter what you take away from them, they just accept it, and seem to get along about the same. I do not believe Eskimos are, or ever have been, a brilliant people. They are like children. They are easily led; too easily swayed; just as easily swayed back again. Ethnologists are pretty well agreed, I believe, that all the aborigines of North America came out Mr. Pyle of the same pot—Asia. Some just traveled farther than others. Then why is it, you might ask, that those in Mexico reached such a high state of civilization, while those in the Arctic did not? The answer is climate. Don’t you know you've got to be hot to think? Take me for instance. I hardly know my own name when the thermometer is below 85. That's the reason I've never been able to write a book; I've never been where it’s hot enough.

No Igloos for Eskimos

Most of you, in case you've ever thought about Eskimos at all, have two wrong notions. First, you think there are Eskimos all over Alaska. And second, you think they live in round igloos made of blocks of ice. The answer to both is “No!” Except for a few strays, Eskimos live only along the west and north coasts, and on the islands of the Bering Sea. They do not live inland. :

And about the houses. Eskimos live in everything from grass-covered cellars to shacks built of gasoline cans, but they do not live in ice houses in Alaska. Eskimos are short, and usually well-built. I've seen some pretty hefty Eskimo women, but I don’t remember seeing a fat man. Some of them are very ugly, some are fine looking speciments in an Eskimo way, and once in a great while you see one that is good looking. I have seen only one I would call beautiful. She was a girl on St. Lawrence Island. Her features were definitely Oriental. She looked like a picture out of a magazine. She had on a bright red calico dress, and she was so beautiful I got fluttery and didn’t have nerve to ask her to let me take her picture. Later I asked the doctor if she was married. He said, No! She was only 14 years old.

My Diary

By Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt

Hot Springs and Animals Interest

President's Party at Yellowstone. TAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS, Yellowstone Park, Wyo., Sunday.—When we are doing as interesting things as we have been doing these last two days, Sunday. is a bad day for my column. There is so much I want to write about and so little space in which to write it. We got off the train at 10 a. m. and started in an open car for our drive through Yellowstone Park. Each of our national parks seems to have distinctive features of its own and the more I visit them, the more surprised I am that there can be such a variety throughout this country. Of course, the first things that strike one are the extraordinary hot springs bubbling up and changing constantly. . What is a colorful terrace today with the hot water flowing over it, will, in a little while, be white as chalk when the water ceases to bubble and flow and keep the tiny plants, which give color to the hillside, alive. The next greatest interest is the animals. A herd of buffalo was interesting, though we only saw it from a distance, Close to the road we saw a great elk with fine antlers herding his harem. A little later we saw a lone elk against a background of pines and wondered if he had been driven off and had lost his ladies to the other gentleman. A number of deer and antelope came quite near us. The President fed bears on the trip into the park. One of them became a little too friendly and put his paws up on the side of the car right next to him and the superintendent of the park, Mr. Rogers, immediately ordered the car to move on. The thought of the bear’s claw tearing the President's coat caused all of us too much anxiety for us to loiter any longer. After we moved on, the bear held up all the other cars by standing in the middle of the road.

Children Hug Grandfather

When we got back to Mr. and Mrs. Nichols’ house, which they have very kindly turned over to us, Anna, John and the children were waiting for us. They hugged their grandfather warmly for they had not seen him since January. Then I went to tea with Mrs. Rogers, wife of the superintendent of the park, and the family had supper together at 6:30.

+ With so much talk going on we were barely ready forthe broadcast at 8 o'clock, which was made from the living room. This is a charming house and we are so grateful to; Mr. and Mrs. Nichols for letting us have it, as it really has given us a feeling of being at home. \ This morning one of the rangers took Eleanor and Curtis out in his car to look for animals. They dropped another ranger naturalist and myself at the top of Mammoth Hot Springs terraces. We walked down them and seldom have I had a more interesting hour. : The children and I then went over to the store and purchased some little bears which Swiss carvers come all the way over here to do. I can’t help feeling that we should encourage some of our North Carolina mountain carvers to do a number of the park animals as these souvenirs would be more interesting if done by American talent.

New Books Today Public Library Presents—

N these days when the militarism of official Japan stares from the headlines every day, it is delightful and no doubt salutary to read LIVING IN TOKYO (Harcourt) written by Katharine Sansom, an English woman long resident in Japan. The book is an “attempt to answer the questions of friends and relatives who ask what is it like to live in Tokyo.” Mrs. Sansom shows appreciative, friendly understanding of the Japanese, the great mass of whom are childlike in their simplicity, struggling to bridge in a few years the chasm between their delicate medieval culture and our western culture with its mechanization and complex problems of living. She emphasizes the almost unique position the. Japanese hold in their understanding and appreciation of beauty. “It is as natural a subject of conversation for a Japanese to discuss the charm of some art subject as it is for both him and us to discuss the weather,” and not only does he live in‘ this atmosphere of chaste regulated beauty, but every time he puts brush to paper there is the same training in exquisiteness. The reader suspects that the author has had little contact with some of the worst aspects of _Japan's Industrialization as told us by Kagawa. But enlightenment and pleasure may be gained from this recent picture of the “gentleness, courtesy and always b the Japan: be ots

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~The Indianapo

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 1937

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Why Women of Today Live Longer— Terrors of ‘Into the Valley of the Shadow of Death’ Are Lightened

Winner of the 1937 Pulitzer Prize, David Dietz, ‘Science Editor for ScrippsHoward Newspapers and The Times, has a nationwide reputation as a writer

of popular articles on medicine.

In this article, first of a series, he discusses the

amazing advances which Twentieth Century medicine has made in dealing with the problems of childbirth and the health of women in general.

ss ———

By David Dietz

Times Science Editor

IN TO the valley of the shadow of death goes each mother to bring back her baby. She risks her own life to usher a new life into the world. How she is permitted. to make that journey, how the rest of the world regards it and makes provisions for it, is a test of the state of civilization.

munity.

David Dietz

It brands the age, the nation, the com-

In barbaric times, the expectant mother was treated with callousness and indifference. failed to proceed smoothly, brutal, inhuman methods were used to hasten it. One proof ofs the greatness of Egyptian, : Greek and Roman cultures is that in each an elaborate art for the care of the expectant mother arose. But with the collapse of Roman civilization, the old, savage

When the process of birth

outlook returned to hold sway for 13 centuries. Not until the Renaissance did the world begin to concern itself once more with the problems of the child-bearing woman. Each great medical advance of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries has contributed to the welfare of the expectant mother. Greatest among the achievements of the present day is its treatment of mother and child, a greater triumph

for civilization than the tallest building, the longest bridge or the fastest ocean

liner. The triumphs of modern medicine in this realm are doubly amazing when it is remembered that the progress of civilization has made childbirth a more difficult process. There are a number of reasons why the primitive woman had an easier time of it.

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T° begin with, primitive women"

were stronger on the average than modern women. Primitive life exercised a ruthless

weeding out process so that weak-

lings did not survive long enough to reach the childbearing age. Secondly, the primitive woman, because of the active life she led, had a small baby. This made delivery easier. Moreover, her active life tended to shake her baby into the head-down position, which is the normal position for birth. Because of the restrictions of primitive society, there was no cross-breeding of races and so the woman was sure to have a baby of a size suited to the bony ring of her pelvis through which it had to emerge into the world. This was no longer true after the interbreeding of racial strains that came with the passage of the centuries. a Finally, the primitive woman was more protected from the diseases which came with civilization. Having lived all her life in the open, she had received enough sunlight and so was unlikely to have pelvic bones deformed by rickets. At the time of the birth of her child, she did not have to worry about the infections which came with the crowded, filthy conditions of the Middle Ages and which still obtain in some unfortunate parts of the world. Thus it was that the Indian squaw, when her tribe was on the march, could stop off by the side of some stream, have her baby, wash it in the flowing waters, and then hasten to join her wandering tribesmen.

But it must not be thought that

the primitive woman did not experience difficulties at times or that she had no fear of childbirth. Her one great fear was that her child, instead of lying head down might lie transversely across the pelvis. ” ” 8 HE transverse position which presents no very great difficulty to the modern obstetrician, meant to ‘the primitive woman that her baby could not be born.

It meant certain death for both her and her baby. Completely misunderstanding

the processes involved, primitive

peoples imagined that the pains of childbirth were due to the child’s efforts to enter the world. They supposed that when the time was ripe, the child fought and struggled to emerge into the world. When childbirth was slow and difficult, they blamed it upon the child and adopted harsh and brutal methods, without any concern for the health or feelings of the mother, to persuade the child to hurry. Thus the Indians, when labor was prolonged, would pick up the woman by her feet and shake

her, or bounce her on a blanket.

Another trick was to let her lie on the ground upon an open field while a brave on horseback, shouting "and waving his tomahawk, rode at her. Straight for her he would ride, as if to trample upon her, only turning aside at the last moment. Such crude methods belong to every age and land. In ancient Greece, despite the fact that there was a high regard for women, cases of difficult labor were treated by repeatedly lifting up the woman and dropping her upon the bed. Another method

-was to tie her to a table top, set

the table up on edge and pound it against the ground. The midwife made her appearance early in history. Originally a pregnant woman might be attended by some friend or any old woman in the neighborhood. But gradually certain women began to pay more and more attention to this type of activity and so the midwife came into existence. ” ”» 2 IDWIVES constituted a well established class in ancient Egypt and ancient Greece. Despite the ctudities of the day, these women undoubtedly collected a fund of practical knowledge that had some value. In ancient Egypt, the midwife might call in a priestsurgeon in difficult cases, though his chief value was to perform the necessary bloody operation of removing a dead baby piecemeal. In Greece, the midwives were privileged to call in the physicians but the service was regarded as none too dignified and a physician who devoted too much time to it earned the name of a “he-grandmother.” Greek medicine migrated to Rome, where it continued to flourish. In the field of maternity it

- reached its high point in the

work on midwifery, written by

Side Glances—By Clark

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._COPR. 1937 BY NEA SERVICE. INC. T. M. REG. U. S. PAT. OFF. »

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"Now don't go gallivanting ovér the country looking for a buyer-or

you'll. burn up more gas than the wood will bring."

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“Another trick was to let her lie on the ground upon an open field while a brave on horseback, shouting and waving his tomahawk, rode at her. Straight for her he would ride, as if to trample upon her, only turning aside at the last moment.”

Soranus of Ephesus in the Second Century, A. D. : Soranus cautioned care and patience in the treatment of the expectant mother. He counseled against the use of herbs and drugs to hasten childbirth and he warned against violent methods of expediting delivery. : He also described the procedure known to modern medicine as “podalic version.” The great fear of the primitive woman had been that her child might. lie transversely in the pelvis so that it

could not be born. The midwives of both ancient Egypt and ancient Greece understood how to reach into the uterus and turn the baby around so that it might be born properly. 2 » 2 UT after the destruction of the Roman empire this knowledge of podalic version was lost to the world until its rediscovery in the 16th Century. Soranus himself practiced midwifery but during the Middle Ages both custom and law denied that

The Swiss Is a Lucky Man,

Amidst Europe's Turmoil

By Raymond Clapper Times Special Writer GENEVA, Sept. 27.—Your average Swiss man is one of the luckiest mortals in Europe today, although he need not be envied by the average American. ‘He is not burdened with top-heavy armament costs. Taxes are low. True, he must get along with less material comfort, because he struggles with high prices and low wages. But he has plenty of work. Business is good, with the flight of capital from more troubled countries to safety in this secure city of refuge, and with the city’s chief industry, the League of Nations, making work for a huge and permanent bureaucracy. Official delegates here have liberal expense accounts, and that helps business. a Above all, the Swiss is secure in his democracy, with no menace of fascism or communism.

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O he is content, because he sees that he is so much better off than his troubled fellows in countries all around him. Thus there is not much complaint from the average carpenter, paid less than $60 a month. Or from the bank clerk who gets $80, as does a competent

A WOMAN'S VIEW

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson

HESE have been heartbreak - days at college. Tragedy stalked the campus where swarms of hopeful high school graduates failed to make a hit with the right rushers, and at home countless mamas existed in a state of tension for fear Sally and Bill will not be pledged to their pet fraternities.

To the boys the ordeal doesn’t seem to be fatal. But the girls—my word, how they carry on! They faint and weep and have hysterics and nervous breakdowns and sometimes give up the idea of education altogether. ‘Aha! You are saying to yourself. She’s against fraternities! But you've guessed wrong. In my opinion, there's nothing whatever the matter with college secret societies, but there is something the matter with parents who allow their worth to be overestimated by the children. The young woman lacks character who puts ‘membership in a Greek letter society at the head of educational advantages, and whose fault is that? Objections would go over better with me however, if I didn’t know so many parents who have harped on the subject for years, making their children believe life isn’t worth carrying on unless Sally’ makes Mom’s sorority and Bill, Dad’s frat. It is the truth that a large part of such fraternal ambition comes from the elders. It is high time college graduates behaved like graduates and that parents, big sisters, and maiden

aunts let the coeds solve their frat | .

male secretary—those being two mass occupations in this international banking and diplomatic community. : But the clerk’s. $80 a month doesn’t go far. He and his wife need at least $140 a month to maintain a minimum standard of decency. And that doesn’t give them frills. In order to afford this both husband and wife must work. » » = . UR $80-a-month man must buy many things at prices as high as America’s. A toothbrush is. 50 cents. A plain layer cake is 60 cents. Bread is 10 cents a loaf. A white shirt with soft collar costs two to three dollars. The best eggs are 35 cents a dozen, and oranges 45.

His children have a spotless town |

to live in and the best of schools. The Government is conservative and competent, and he has enjoyed for years the soeial insurance which we in America are just starting. There is something about this peaceful place, snug and secure within its mighty Alpine walls, set apart from the raging world outside. Yet, walking along the streets I saw in a drugstore window a display of gas masks with the warning placard, “Protect Yourself.” Even here they don’t feel com-

pletely safe. ,

right to the physician. And so countless mothers and their children died because of the lethal combination of ignorance, filth and superstition. : Meanwhile, birth had become more difficult for the mother than it was in primitive times. Because of the interbreeding of racial strains, it was far more likely than ever before that a woman with a small pelvic ring might have a very large baby, in particular a baby with a very large head. City life was beginning to have its effect upon women. And most important of all, the crowded, filthy conditions of the Middle Ages were making infections commonplace. Remember that the Middle Ages were the periods of the great plagues. The Black Death or bubonic plague scourged the world. Typhus raged everywhere; so did smallpox and many other diseases. At the end of the 15th Century, syphilis made its appearance in Europe and swept across the land like wildfire. t- 3 82 ” : OW terrible conditions became can be judged from the fact that in 1580 a law was passed in Germany to prohibit shepherds and herdsmen from | attending cases of childbirth. Surgery in those days was beneath the dignity of the medical profession and so when a Caesarian operation wa€ necessary, it was intrusted to a barber. Imagine that operation, performed with no adequate knowledge of surgery, no anesthetic of any sort, and no slightest notion of the importance of cleanliness, since the germ theory of disease was. as yet unknown. Because the knowledge of podalic version was lost, ignorant midwives, aided by the bloody barber-surgeons, often killed babies that could not be born normally and removed them piecemeal. Such were the “good old days.”

NEXT—The world advances.

Jasper—By Frank Owen

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"It's not Jasper's sheik outfit that gets ‘em, Papa—his girls heard he was gatiying bis nickel today!" :

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Second Section

PAGE 11

Our Town

By Anton Scherrer

Old-Fashioned Grape Arbor Played Important Role During Growing Up Period of Indianapolis Youngsters.

DOUBT. whether adequate analysis has yet been made of the old-fashioned grape arbor, and the part it played in the backyard of my generation. The grape arbor’s location was pretty well fixed, I remember. As a rule, it started somewhere near the kitchen door, and ran toward the alley in the rear. Sometimes it terminated in the chicken yard; sometimes, indeed, it didn’t lead

anywhere, and it was just as good a way as any, because like some

" other things of my generation, the

old-fashioned - grape arbor was sufficient in itself. A good grape arbor, I remember, always had a brick walk, and a couple of benches, too. Judged by modern standards, the benches weren’t anything to speak of, but for some reason they lent themselves better to the reading of “Treasure Island” than anything thought up by modern men. Contrary to general belief, too, the grape arbor was not a seasonal affair. To be sure, it was superb in the late summer when the bloom was on the grape, but’ it was pretty nice, too, in the winter when it traced the pattern of its trellis on the snow. It was just .as lovely to watch in the spring when the hesitating tendrils, for all the world like a child learning to walk, reached from one rung to the next, and finally achieved the top. By this time, it was June. For some reason, however, we boys liked the grape arbor best in the fall when the leaves began to wither. That’s when we hatched our plots, and tried our best to keep father from finding out that we had learned to smoke cigarets made of dry Catawba leaves.

And | Smoked My First Cigar

As a matter of fact, father never did discover that I smoked grape leaf cigarets, and I guess it was just as well, because he had some queer ideas on that subject. Not that he was opposed to smoking—he couldn’t very well with his quota of cigars every day —but he had it in for cigaret smokers. Which brings me back to our grape arbor again, and the day I returned from my freshman year in college. Father and I were sitting under the grape arbor that evening, I remember, when I pulled out a package of real cigarets, and started smoking one. He stood it as long as he could, and then asked me to join him in a walk. We ended up in Borst’s drug store, at which place he bought a 10 cent cigar for me. Fact is, he bought two cigars.

I thought, of course, he was going to smoke the other cigar himself, but he didn’t. He put it in his vest pocket and we returned to the arbor, and it was there that father watched me smoke my first cigar. Well, I got deathly sick, and the worse I got the more father seemed to enjoy my predicament. Anyway, at the precise moment when things were at their worst and I didn’t care what happened next, father reached into his pocket, and handed me the second cigar. es

Mr. Scherrer

Jane Jordan—

Evaluation of Friends Should Be

Measured by Strength of Faith.

| D JANE JORDAN—I am a young. man who will soon be 22 years of age. Like many other young men there is something wrong with my mental attitude. I am sensitive and self-conscious and my life is miserable at times. I have a job, automobile and a little money for pleasure, but due to my selfconsciousness I cannot enjoy going to dances, clubs, school plays, churches and other places. I try to please everybody so that they will like me, but so far I haven't many friends, only my family.

I am afraid to trust other people for fear they will say something about me to hurt my vanity. I am going to tell you why I am so self-conscious. I

think it is my looks. Not that I am bad looking, I

have been told that I am good looking, but some people make cracks about my looking effeminate and it worries me. I got sick and almost had a nervous breakdown from this worry. I have a nice girl friend now, but am too. self-conscious to enjoy myself in a crowd with her. : Jd. J. ANSWER—I do not think your looks have much to do with your trouble other than to give you something tangible to blame. As you have remarked your attitude of mind is shared by many others, both men and women, who suffer from the same feelings of self-consciousness without the same reason. In my opinion the trouble with the self-conscious is not external, but internal, and is caused by a wrong attitude early adopted by the sufferer toward himself and his relationship with his fellow man. differs I cannot do more than make a few general remarks which may be enlightening. The desire to be popular has become one of the competitive drives of our culture. This is not true

"in other countries where people are content with a

few friends and unconcerned about mass recognition. Actually it isn’t important whether everybody likes us or not. At a dance or a party or any other gather ing if we find two or three people who enjoy us it should be sufficient. The rest are strangers or casual acquaintances who have no influence on our lives, and whose passing admiration for us is more or less valueless. : Few young Americans recognize these facts but judge themselves and others by the number of conquests they make. boy may not be worth as much as the one who suc ceeds with a few friends only. No one can. please everybody, even by working his personality overtime, and in trying he is bound to be guilty of insincerity and sycophancy. i : It is natugal for us to want to be liked by those whom we like ourselves. In this you have succeeded. But is not natural to have such an overweening need for affection that we want everybody we meet to be fond of us. It is one of those goals impossible to achieve and when it is stubbornly cherished by the personality becomes one of the many causes for self consciousness and anxiety when the individual ate tempts to mingle with others. JANE JORDAN.

Put your problems in.a letter to Jane Jordan who will answer your questions in this column daily.

Walter O'Keefe—

N unconfirmed rumor from Washington reports that there were signs of life recently in the Re< publican Club. The Black situation seems to be make ing things brighter for the G. O. P. Incidentally, Hugo is still ahead of his pursuers. Of course, the Republicans are not making any

trips around the country like the Democratic chiefs

but that is only because they haven't got the raile road fare. : They plan to hold a convention sooner than usual to plan for 1940. They figure this is necessary if they are to hold Maine and Vermont. ; It is easy to understand the present Republican activity. They're all busy filling out those blanks in the unemployment census. Nevertheless, things must be better with them because John D. Hamilton, their chairman, hired a secretary the other day. He must be expecting &

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Since each case

An exceedingly popular girl or

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