Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 2 December 1937 — Page 19
s x \
Vagabond
From Indiana — Ernie Pyle
Famous Nevada Town Wtirs Again Atop the Historic Comstock Lode, Bringing Back Memories of 1860s.
IRGINIA CITY, Nev., Dec. 2.—Virginia
City sits right on top of the famous |
Comstock Lode. The Comstock was the richest vein of ore ever found in America. It has produced more than 700 million dollars
in silver and gold. The Comstock was so rich it was ridiculous, It had ore running as high as $5000 a ton—while all over the West today they're mining $5 ore at a profit. The Comstock was discovered in 1858. For months nobody knew what they had found. They were looking for gold, and were annoyed by the sticky blue stuff that clogged their rocker boxes. Finally someone was smart enough to realize it was silver in gargantuan quantities, and then the rush was on. In 1859 Nevada was merely a territory, and there were no more than a few dozen people in it. But within a couple of eye-winks Virginia City had a population of 30,000. - It went wild. It splattered money in its Civil War type of splendor; the great actors of the world came here to perform; in the first 72 murders there were but two convictions; 1t was in Virginia City that a Samuel Clemens ‘started reporting on a newspaper, and assumed the pen name of Mark Twain, For nearly 20 vears Virginia City was the hottest thing between Chicago and” San Francisco. - And then exhaustion came to the Comstock Lode. The tycoons moved out in 78. Old age set in on Virginia City. It has been alternately dying, and coming faintly to life again, ever since. But this is 1937. Every afternoon I drive over here from Reno. It is only 20 miles away, and the mountain road, once a death trail, is wide and excellent. Virginia City doesn't show until you come round the last bend and look straight upon it. And there it clings, 6000 feet high, plastered to the side of a steep hill.
New Life in Ghost Town
The main street is mostly still here, in skeleton. The famous “C” street. Fifty years ago you could have asked almost anybody west of the Mississippi where “C” street was, and he would have said “Virginia City.” The big brick building which housed The Enterprise, the paper Mark Twain started on, is still here, A plague on the front tells about Mark Twin, but the building itself is empty. The famous Crystal Bar is now a soda-fountain bar. The Sawdust Corner saloon still stands. Some of the sidewalks ‘are board, some are concrete, There are many vacant lots, and many empty stores. You can see the old Wells Fargo Express office, through which hundreds of millions in silv~~ bullion ‘passed. But you can't rent a house in Virginia City today The mines are working again. “Since Roosevelt raised the price of gold, Virginia ‘City has oozed back into life once more. New shaft houses have gone up; and new mills costing $150,000 each; old shafts have been reopened, surveyors work the hillsides, laying out property lines; the population has come from a mere 300 back up to 1200 or so; precious metal: is coming out of the Comstock again at the rate of: $2,000,000 a year. Why, I wonder, can't an old place really die?
Mr. Pyle
Why can’t it lie down amid its old drama and wrap |
its romantic robes about it and pose there, unstirring and ghostlike, for the trembling contemplation of us late-comers?
My Diary By Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt
Christianity's Message Preached
On Stage Wins Acclaim for Actor. (Editorial, Page 20)
EW YORK CITY, Wednesday.—It is, perhaps, somewhat ironic to have to go to a theater to hear true Christianity preached, and yet that was my experience last night. I went with a friend to see “Many Mansions,” in which Alexander Kirland stars. Judging from the applause, he has made himself popular, and I think he does a very good piece of acting. Starting as a weak and immature boy, he gained strength before the final scene. Christianity as expressed in the Sermon on the Mount, is simplicity itself. I read some editorials recently about a minister who is trying to practice the very simple commands of the Sermon on the Mount, much as this boy in the play thought he could do. The editorials react to much the same influence, political, financial and formally religious, which are revealed in the attitude of the people and the different episodes in the play. Yesterday afternoon I went to the opening performance of the Dance International in Radio City. Many of the consuls from foreign nations were there. The dances were charming. I have not as yet seen the exhibition which is shown in connection with these dance programs, but a great deal of praise is due the group which had the imagination and interest tc gather all this material with the thought that this would be a new approach to a better understanding among people. And Christmas Shopping Is Done! Today I went to open the graduate course at the Todhunter School. This opening class is usually given at the Junior League. his year Miss Dickerman decided to hold it at the school and the first talk, be-
cause of our visit to the TVA, was on rural electrifica-
tion. I finished my last fittings yesterday. All my wiriter clothes are bought and fitted, so I will not have to think about clothes again until spring. Also, all my Christmas shopping has been done. Of course, in spite of one's best efforts, one is dashing
into some shop two or three days before Christmas for | something forgotten on one’s list, but the less one has | to do. the better for the girls behind the counter, who | must have a hard time developing much Christmas | spirit with the rush that occurs just before the holi- |
day.
New Books Today
Public Library Presents—
ANY people will regard book THE FIRST REBEL (Farrar) as an interesting fable or romance, for most of us have been
taught that the first battle between Americans and |
the British soldiers was the skirmish at Lexington.
But the first uprising against royal troops in the | colonies took place on the Pennsylvania-Maryland |
frontier in the Conococheague valley settlements, in
1765. The leader was James Smith, the “first rebel” |
of Mr. Swanson’s biography. James Smith is an exciting figure. Captured by the Indians and made to run the gauntlet, he lived with them several years before he was able to escape. After he gained his freedom, he raised and trained his own company of volunteers, the “Black Boys”; he fought through the Pontiac war, made repeated attacks on the British in the Pennsylvania insurrection, was tried for murder and acquitted, frontier regiment ‘in the Revolution. = o = N a lonely villa, on the outskirts of Paris, the body of Rose Klonec is found with four
—and one of these had been used to kill her. Richard Curtis, a young English lawyer who has came to
Paris in the interests of his client enlists the aid of |
Henri Bencolin, the famous French detective. This clever sleuth finds many baffling clues. ends in a gambling establishment where Bencolin finds his man and solves the case. is THE FOUR FALSE WEAPONS (Harper) by John-
Dickson Carr, is a swiftly moving mystery tale,
Neil H. Swanson's |
and became colonel of a |
weapons of death beside it, poison, a pistol, a razor, and a stiletto |
The trail |
The Indianapolis Times
(Second of a Series)
By Norman Siegel HE prosperous face of Herbert Hoover, which has flashed across the American scene many times during the past two decades, led television out of the darkness of the inventor’s closely guarded workYop into the bright sun4ght of public inspection 10 years ago. Herbert Hoover brought television to the American public by performing on the first sight program ever broadcast in this country. He was the first actor of the new art of sight and sound radio. Just as a yvear later his election to the Presidency made him the symbol of eternal prosperity, so in 1927 Mr. Hoover, through his broadcast, represented the fulfillment of an age-old dream of long distance sight transmis-
sion.
Mr. Hoover was selected to help introduce the new form of broadcasting because of his position as Secretary of Commerce. In that role he had already made one great contribution to American radio. It was Mr. Hoover in the early ‘20s who cast the die for this country’s radio system by decreeing that it should be operated along commercial rather than Government lines.
» ” =
ELEVISION was brought out of the workshop by the American Telephone & Telegraph
Co., through its subsidiary, the Bell Laboratories, on April 7, 1927. The program was transmitted by wire from Washington, D. C., to New York, a distance of approximately 200 miles. Secretary Hoover in Washington spoke to and was seen by Walter F. Gifford, A. T. & T. president, in New York. The demonstration was a result of experiments conducted at the Bell Laboratories by a group of scientists headed by Drs. Herbert E.
. Ives and Frank Gray. The picture
image was three feet square.
As a result of this demonstra-
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1937
tion it was predicted that the inauguration of the next President in 1929 would be visible by television to the nation, Mr. Hoover was that President. But his oath of office was not televised. Frank Jewett, president of the Bell Laboratories, stated, following the first television demonstration: “Today we are relatively further along in our work on television than we were on trans-Atlantic telephony in 1915, when A. T. & T. conducted the first successful test from Washington to Paris and Honolulu. The ultimate field of television will be closely associated with telephony.”
o ” 5
HE dream of television Is as old as mankind itself. Long before he 'visioned the broadcast of sound he thought of the transmission of sight over great distances. Ancient Greeks and Romans gave their gods the power to see thousands of miles away. While man long thought of television, little was done to achieve the scientific goal until 1884 when a Russian scientist by the name of Nipkow developed the first principles. He invented the scanning disc and suggested the use of a photo-electric cell in transmission. This was 10 years before Guglielmo Marconi started his experiments in wireless telegraphy. In 1875, a scientist by the name of Carey produced the basic principles. Ayerton and Perry started building an apparatus in 1877, but Nipkow's work is best known.
In 1906, two Frenchmen, Rignoux and Fournier, rigged up a checkerboard screen of 64 squares, each of which was connected by wire to a corresponding checkerboard on the other side of their laboratory. With the ald of a lens they were able to transmit the pattern of the picture from the first screen to the one at the other end of the room, Then television practically went
to sleep until 1925 when G. Francis Jenkins, hailed by many as the “father of television” in this country, transmitted a program in his Washington, D. C., laboratory as a forerunner to the marketing of sets and television parts to amateur set builders. Two years later A., T. & T. staged the first major public demonstration with Secretary Hoover.
HIS was followed by the Radio Corp.'s first demonstration at Schenectady, N. Y. The picture was broadcast on a short wave beam of 37.8 meters and the voice carried over the regular long wave channel of Station WGY. A 24¢inch scanning disc with 48 small holes around the circumference to pick up the image was used. A magnifying lens on the receiver enlarged the image to three feet.
The same month NBC staged a demonstration using apparatus developed by Dr. E. F. W. Alexanderson, consulting engineer of the General Electric Co... The program was broadcast to the home of Dr. Alfred N. Goldsmith, noted radio engineer, 25 miles from the antenna. As a result of this demonstration, General Electric officials announced that a television set retailing for $200 would be on the market by Christmas, 1928. Station WOR in Newark, N. J, purchased a transmitter to broadcast television programs. And it was announced that 10 persons could view the pickup on television receivers at the same time. In February of that year a trans-Atlantic television broadcast was relayed from a London studio to Hartsdale, N. Y. The first figure placed before the electric eye was a ventriloquist's dummy, so even Charley McCarthy has had his predecessor in radio. By November, David Sarnoff, RCA head, predicted television broadcasts on a daily schedule within two to five years. He stated that more sensitive photo-elec-tric cells, more brilliant and flex-
Television comes out of the laboratory.
-
Entered as Second-Clas§ Matter at Postoffice, Indianapolis,
Betty Goodwin, NBC's
television model, inspects the new “Kinescope” projector, newest sight
broadcasting development, upper left.
Former President Herbert Hoo-
ver, America's first television actor, upper right. Part of the television transformer in NBC's transmitter in the Em-
pire State Bldg, lower left.
Motion picture projection machine at
NBC for film broadcasts, lower right.
ible lighting devices and more perfect synchronization of light elements were among the problems then being studied by television engineers, They still are today. In 1920 was seen the first demonstration of two-way television by wire and Dr. Alexanderson produced a 14-inch square picture without the use of any enlarging devices. The following year tests were made on the projection of an enlarged picture on a six-foot screen and RCA offered other manufacturers licenses on its television patents. General Electric conducted successful television tests across the Atlantic to England and Germany early in 1931. And later that year RCA and the Columbia Broadcasting Co. erected experimental transmitters. Columbia went on the air with a daily schedule. Peggy Hopkins Joyce, Primo Carnera and James J. Walker, then Mayor of New York, appeared on the program inaugurating the service which was stopped after two years. ” ” ” P until now all experiments were being conducted on a scanning disc system, which contained movable mechanical parts. Then out of the laboratory came the first spark of an all-electric system in the invention of the “Iconoscope” and “Kinescope” sending and receiving tubes by Dr. Vliadimar K. Zworykin, director of RCA's electronic research laboratory: These two inventions changed the entire engineering aspect of television, eliminating the great obstacle of mechanical limitations. From this point on in 1932, television was on an allelectric plane. v Television remained in the laboratory in .934. Then it burst its bounds with a bang in 1935. Great Britain authorized the building of & sending station, which was put into daily opera=tion in March, 1936, with the pre-
diction that the world would be able to watch the King broadcast his Christmas Day message. RCA announced a million-dollar appropriation for television tests from an NBC studio through a transmitter on top of the tall Empire State Building. RCA also announced that it had produced a 343-line image in its laboratories at Camden, N. J. Today all television tests are being conducted on a 441-line basis, which is expected to be the ultimate standard for general use. RCA President Sarnoff predicted regular television service by 1940 and said that television was now in the earphone stage.
= ® #
N 1936, Philco Radio & Television Co., which had also been con=ducting laboratory tests aimed at developing receivers, leased a coaxial cable, which the Bell Laboratories had developed for wire transmission of television, for tests between New York and Philadelphia. The cable between those two points cost $580,000 to install. RCA also started its experimental service, installing sets in the homes of 100 of its engineers and executives in the New York area. Germany also started a telephone television system from Berlin to Leipsig. : That brings us to the present. The RCA-NBC system is not operating on a regular schedule. Columbia has ordered a $500,000 transmitter and will resume its tests again. NBC is awaiting the delivery of two mobile television transmission trucks for outdoor experiments. Television is closer to the home than it was when it received its Hoover baptismal 10 years ago, but the road from the studio to the living room still is a long one.
NEXT-Dr. Viadimar K. Zworykin, the television streamliner, who gave sight broadcasting a new set of eyes.
| us plenty.
| subject.
| shows no other grades | enough to warrant investigation.
Side Glances—By Clark
SR
N; -—
ARR
"| hate to bother you about a raise, chief. It's my wife's idea and you know how she is."
A WOMAN'S VIEW By Mrs. Walter Ferguson
O nonparents, parents must of- |
ten appear very silly creatures.
dren, mine among them, go through their stage programs.
First we had trudged through long corridors, following the routine of our sons and daughters in order to become acquainted with their daytime habitation during so much of the year. There we sat, rows of us, while the pageant of the life of Horace Mann was re-enacted for us, and no doubt many a father and mother learned for the first time a little about that great man who left such a lasting impression upon our country and the world. We were, in fact, being educated by our children. Probably there was not a childless individual in the audience except the teachers. If there had been, that individual would certainly have been entertained. And the real entertainment would have been furnished by ‘the parents, each of whom sat entranced, carried away by admiration of his own child or children. Every runty small
boy, every
plain little girl, wore the same kind | of halo that I saw shining about |
my son's red head. To outsiders they were probably mischievous brats, but how much more than that they are to us—these creatures wha carry our dreams in their hands. It’s all a little pathetic, and at
the same time it remains the most
moving emotion in the world. x
| I couldn't help thinking of that as | I sat in the junior high school audi- | torium recently watching the chil- |
|
| | |
{
|
Jasper—By Frank Owen
"If his girl doesn't like his serenade, he's going to reverse the
charges!"
| the teacher is right; probably he isn't.
Second Section
PAGE 19
Ind.
Our Town
By Anton Scherrer
Old Saloon Here Really Had Floor Of Silver Dollars, but Chronicler Saw Stranger Sight in New York.
_W. COXEN of Elwood wrote in the other day to ask whether I remember the Silver Dollar Saloon. Sure, I don't think I'll ever forget it. It was the one run by John R. Barrick on the east side of Pennsylvania St., between Market and Wabash Sts., just a little south of where Keith's Theater now is. Father took me to see it, I remember. an idea that it was his business to supplement the work of the public schools, and that's why, I guess, he always picked Saturday to show me something new and novél around here. Once I recall, he took me to see Crown Hill. It was all right, but it wasn't as exciting as the time we went to see the Silver Dollar Saloon. We walked up Pennsylvania St. I remember, and when we got to the place, Father opened the door, stepped aside, and invited me to enter first. It wasn't politeness on his part, it was just his way of dramatizing my education. Now that I think about it, some of my schoolteachers could have profited by Father's methods. At any rate, I remember entering Mr. Barrick's place first, and you bet my eyes popped when I saw the inside of it. Believe it or not, the floor was paved with silver dollars. That's the way it seemed, anyhow. As a matter of fact, it was a tile floor laid off in small squares with a silver dollar imbedded in the corner of each square. The effect was immense. The curious part of my experience, however, was that this wasn't the first time I had seen a floor paved with silver dollars. A year or so before, at the time of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, Father had taken me around to see the Palmer House barber shop which also had that kind of a floor. It pleased me too, but somehow a barber shop paved with silver dollars didn’t have the esthetic appeal of a saloon paved with silver dollars. Either that, or Father knew that our appreciation of' fine things depends largely on out having seen them before, and recognizing them for what they are worth.
They Had Em in New York, Too
Be that as it may, I had another experience with floors paved with silver dollars. Father was in on that, too. We were in New York at the time, and one morning Father invited me to join him at the Hoff man House bar. It was part of my education, he said. Well, believe it or not, the old Hoffman House bar also had a floor paved with silver dollars. It pleased me immensely; mainly, I guess, because I was brought up to like that sort of thing. Anyway, we were admirs ing the floor when the barkeeper came from behind the counter and said: “You ain't seen nothin’ yet.” (This was 20 years before Al Jolson cashed in on the nifty.) To prove his point, the barkeeper put two fingers in his mouth and produced the kind of whistle you don't hear any more. From the rear of the place
Father had
Mr. Scherrer
| came an awful looking bulldog, the ugliest I ever hope
to see, and stationed himself at his master's feet. After
| that the barkeeper took both hands and pried open
the dog's mouth. I don't expect you to believe it, of course, but every tooth in that dog's mouth was mada of solid gold. Honest. It struck me at the time that I couldn't make up my mind whether I liked the effect or not. I took it up with Father, I remember, and he said it was be« cause I hadn't seen anything like it before.
Jane Jordan
Let Boy Solve Own School Problem
As Adjustment Lesson, Parent Told, EAR JANE JORDAN-My 16-year-old boy is away from home in a preparatory school which costs He is making excellent marks in every sub ject but English in which he barely makes a passing grade. This is the first time he has had trouble in any It is not that I put too much stress on high marks as such, but one 75 on a report card which less than 95 was unusual
In questioning my son I found that his English teacher was a difficult
| and irritable man whose manner was confusing to his | students.
He would even go so far as to count 10 while a boy was trying to answer a question, presums=
| ably on the count of 10, he gave the boy a failing
| grade. when the boys ask for a conference period in English
This teacher is also the athletic coach and
he cannot give it because of his other duties. I have no wish to baby my son, but it occurs to me that I would be justified in asking to have his English teacher changed since this one subject is all that i8 keeping my son off the honor roll on which his heart is set. My son does not wish me to do this as he thinks it would get him in bad with the coach with whom he would have to deal in athletics if not in Enge lish, What do you think? ANXIOUS.
u ” ”
Answer=-I think your son is right about it. If his difficulty with his teacher resulted in failure in all his subjects the problem would be more serious, but one low grade is not disastrous; it is not even a failing grade. To remove the problem instead of letting the boy cope with it might cripple his ability to deal with other difficult situations when they arise. Part of the value of sending a boy away from home to school is to break his dependence upon parents and give him a chance to solve his own problems without help. On his way through school he will meet other difficult teachers to whom he will have to adjust. Ib will not be possible for you to have every instructor changed who does not suit your boy's requirements. Moreover when he gets into the business world he will be obliged to deal with many unreasonable executives who will make his English teacher seem pleasant in comparison. Part of our job in life is to learn how to get along with other people of all sorts, kinds and varieties. Among them there will be plenty of mean, sadistic individuals who make life as miserable as possible for as many as they dare. He who cannot get along under adverse circumstances with unsympathetic people, is not well fortified against reality. Encourage your son to find a technique of dealing with his tough teacher. You need not assume that Nevertheless, there he is, and there will be others like him long after you have lost the power to remove such ob= stacles from your son's path. Let him see the valu= able practice he is getting in handling a so-and-so is worth more thar a place on the honor roll. Be sure to keep in sympathy with the boy and to coms pliment him on his sound attitude. JANE JORDAN.
Put your problems in a letter to Jane Jordan who will answer your questions in this column daily.
Walter O'Keefe—
ARIS, Dec. 2.-In the Nazi exhibit here last week they had postcard pictures of Hitler, and in one he actually had a smile on his face. You couldn't tell
| whether he was thinking of the British Foreign Office | or the Ural Mountains in Russia.
Adolf certainly has become Public Conversations alist No. 1, first with his chum Mussolini and later with Lord Halifax of England. He turned on the talk and now the French have run across the street to the British to find out if Adolf had anything nice to say about them. The British aren't as good talkers as Adolf. They've been talking to Japan for months, but the cannons have been making so much noise the Japanese can't hear