Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 8 December 1937 — Page 13

ih Ne ER > EER

: ABOARD S. S.

~~ From Indiana —Ernie Pyle

That Hawaii Takeoff Was Mistake: ‘Wanderer Finds Self on Shore Again, But Gets Second Start Over Pacific.

LURLINE (Tied up at the dock), Dec. 8: —Well, this just proves that man never knows what the rising sun will bring. * : Last night I'stood on the rolling deck in the cold wind and heard the wash of the ocean against our sides, and saw the moonlight make 2 boiling strip across the flaky waters, and felt by morning we would be hundreds of miles from land, . out alone, a white speck on’ the Pacific. So at 7 this morning I came awake and looked out the porthole, thinking maybe I might see a whale. And what do you think I gazed upon but a whole string of dirty freighters and pier-sheds and oil derricks and old warehouses. We were in Wilmington, Cal, tied up at the dock! Wilmington is a part of Los : Angeles Harbor. Well, .I didn’t know we were coming down to Los Angeles. Nobody told me anything about it. I thought we were going to Hawaii. This will teach me never to get on a boat again without asking somebody where it’s going. It really is the correct boat though, and everything will turn out all right eventually. It seems they always| come to Los Angeles, and if I'd read the steamship [folders I'd have known it. : Since we weren't to sail again till 10 at night, most. of the passengers set off for a day of touring about

Mr. Pyle

But I've seen Los Angeles. So that left nothing to

do bit go to a phone and call up Cavanaugh and tell

him {to come down to the boat." Cavanaugh is very witty, and makes many funny

. remarks about southern California. He has lived out

here 10 years now, but hates it worse every day, and ring to go back to Indiana and raise hogs. :

Will You Dine on’ Board?

_ As soon as he got aboard, Cavanaugh took -off his shoes and curled up on one bed, and I curled on the othér. and we both slept nearly all day, leaving the twol chairs to the. womenfolks. They are very witty,

* About dark we woke up, and as we had invited the Cavanaughs to have dinner with us on the ship, I t down to the purser’s office to buy the guest tickets. ; What I found out there would have embarrasse many people. But it didn’t embarrass me; it merely changed my plans. For the steamship people wanted lapiece for those guest tickets. ‘We all laughed loud and long, so the steamship pple could hear us. And then we went to town and bought a dollar’s worth of sandwiches, and came batk to our cabin and ate them, right here in this xury liner. . Then the whistle blew, and the Cavanaughs had

| It was atte a sight there at 10 o'clock 4t night, der the big searchlights, with the band playing and the ship sliding once more along the pier, and us tually headed for Hawaii, with no more stops any-

ere. I stood at the rail and scribbled off this column on the back of a sandwich, and threw it to Cavanaugh sé he could mail it. But it fell in the water, so I shiess you won't get to read this column, unless it should wash up on the beach at Waikiki in a bottle, and somebody radios it back. (Editor's Note—That’s what happened, of course!) .

y Diary y Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt

Japanese: Woman Voices Feeling of Friendship for Chinese Mothers.

YY SEmaron Tuesday—Off the train this morning at 7:30 and had just a word with my little cousin, who was breakfasting in my sitting room before she started off to school. : I had my usual interviews and then dashed down to see the new furniture in the formal Blue Room on the first floor. : We have had so much discussion as to just how this furniture should be recovered that I was anxjous to see it. I am very glad it has turned out to be dignified and really very lovely. Now that I have seen it, I am deeply grateful to Eric Gugler and .the Fine Arts Committee who have advised us so patiently. ; 3 The President seemed very cheerful and, while they are still discussing what will happen to his tooth, they have found there is no infection in the pone. I imagine that with care it will gradually heal. My first press conference was attended by a Japanese ‘woman, Mrs. Waka Yamada. She is a wellknown writer and told us through an interpreter that for 25 years she has headed the Mothers League of Japan and fought for better care of mothers and children. ®

Cites Friendship of Mothers She informed us that Japan had passed a law

- granting’ aid to mothers of children up to 13 years.

She said she was over here now to explain that the mothers of Japan had only-a feeling of friendship for the mothers of China, and wished to end the conflict between the two nations as soon as possible. 1 imagine many Chinese women could be found to echo these sentiments. We had a large representation at the press conference. One representative told me she represented a Hawaiian paper. Another was a correspondent from England, particularly interested in youth move-

ents. : I told her I hoped the development &6f youth hostels and less expensive travel in foreign countries would make it possible for- many of our young people to: know young people of other countries. I feel the youth of today is interested in peace and the

methods by which ‘we can improve our international:

understanding. They will be more intelligent workers in the cause of peace than my generation was at the same age. i

New Books Today

“ “Public Library Presents—

PERFECT setting for a mystery story is the rocky island off the north coast of Scotland where the two Londoners in R.A. J. Walling’s new novel find

themselves MAROONED WITH MURDER (Morrow).

Enhanced by a wild storm complete with lashing waves and dashing rain, the story s further appurtenances of crime in the medieval castle dungeons, a hidden cave on the mountainous coasf, and a scuttled ship washed in by the fury of the storm. : Mr. Walling has provided an attractive cast of men and women who obviously have something to hide, and a sleuth, Mr. Tolefree, who is as canny as any of the native Scotsmen. The action is speedy, and only in the last chapter does the reader know who murdered

| whom, and why and how, which for detective story _ addicts means a corking story. :

‘ : 4 8 8 N the preface to his HAWAII: ISLES OF ENCHANTMENT (Appleton-Century), Clifford Gassler says his aim “is to write a national biography and to paint, in broad strokes, a character it, illuminated here and there by anecdote, of a country and a people that I have loved.” This he accomplishes admirably. History, ilegend,’ political and character analysis, and beautiful descriptions are amply included, all written with skill and humor and given life by the drawings of E. H. Suydam, The picturesque t of humanity, the soft and lovely names of streets and places, the scent of tropical flowers, the rustle of palms, the fogs rolling down tains, the clean crash of seas—the

spirit ;

T. is very easy for Al Capp, who ereated Li'l. Abner, to tell you all about his hillbilly boy. Three years ago Abner was born, age 19 years at birth, znd has stayed that way ever since. But the important

as a modest little venture, and in a scant three years has grown to be the hero of one of the most famous comic strips in America. ~ Abner came riding intp° existence through an odd series of incidents. “It all. started about 11. years ago,” Al Capp said. “One summer I went bumming through the South with Donald Munson, now an established short story writer. Unshaven, ragged, but happy, we were sleeping in hay lofts and living on the cotintry. We were borrowing our food from farmers’ fields, and our lodging from any shelter we could get into, and our rides when we could. “We had wandered to southwest Kentucky. And then it started to happen. It was a hot day, and my thumb had no takers. So to break .the monotony and postpone some weary hours of trudging, I started to sketch. : : “While I was indulging myself with the arty landscape along came a strange young hillbilly.” “Whatch-a a-doin’?” the - boy asked. : bes “Embalming this landscape: for posterity,” I réplied. “That don’t make sense." . Another look at his drawing and Al agreed with the critic. But Capp promised to give the boy a portrait of himself if he would pose for a sketch. The hillbilly thought this was a lot of foolishness but reluctantly agre:d. When the artist finished the drawing he proudly presented it to his model. The hillbilly's disgust was ill-concealed. He returned the sketch book. “It don’t lock nothin’ like me.” : 8 8.8 THAT Capp had produced was a picture of his own face and frame done @ la hillbilly. The real hillbilly thought that part of it was very handsome, but the rest was jest plain ugly.” At the Pennsylvania School of Fine . Arts in Philadelphia, the great ‘temptation of his life beset him. For a while his closeness to classical art almost drc¢ve him to become serious. But that wave of madness eventually passed, and Capp was saved for the funny papers. With a_ portfolio full of drawings and sketches he boarded the train for New York. He was 27 and had $6 in his pocket. He got a job right away with the Associated Press doing odd jobs around the place. “That meant,” Capp said, “that I did everything for the big fellows from drawing strips and writing gags to wiping their pens and running out for sandwiches and beer. = : “Then I got a break. I was given a chance to do a nationally syndicated feature. Of course, I . was wildly exuberant. I was determined to make ‘Mr. Gilfeather’ the greatest comic in the world. I worked night and day on it.” Capp was the youngest national syndicated cartoonist in the country. This was distinction. But his work won another distinction. One newspaper editor wrote that the creation “was by far the worst cartoon in the county.” = It was, Capp admits, a dismal flop. He quit the job, went to Boston, entered the Museum School of Fine Arts. He supported himself by doing illustrations and cartoons for yarious nzwspapers and magazines, and married a féllow

thing is that Abner started ,

Al Capp, Creator of

(Lil Abner comic strip, Page 22)

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1

ho Makes You Laugh

Li'l Abner, Inspired by Hillbilly Song

Abner came riding into existence through an odd series of incidents,

student, Miss Catherine Wingate Cameron. They went broke, and Al set out for New York again. ? 2 2 » HEN a second miracle came to pass. Capp, with a sheaf of rejected drawings under his arm, wrapped in the familiar blue paper with. which all syndicates wrap rejected. cartoons, ‘was stopped on the street by a man and a smartly dressed woman, who drew their car up alongside him. The man said to Capp: “1d like to make a bet with you. I'll bet that what you've got under your arm is ‘rejected cartoons.”

Capp stared at him, none too “I'm not fixed to pay .

pleasantly. bets, so I'm not making any. But if it makes you feel any better, you're right.” Al started to walk on. The man called him back. “Don’t get sore,” he ‘said. He was one of the country’s most famous comic artists,

and, perhaps to make up for his .

rudeness, he offered the now awed Al Capp the chance to earn a 10spot. The job was finishing a Sunday comic page, and when the

work was completed, he offered Al

a position as his assistant. ; After a short respite in security, Capp again got the desire to do a feature of his own. He threw up his job, returned to his garret in Greenwich Village. He was ambi= tious and daring, but as yet hadn’t an idea for a feature. He

RS cataaiansaas)

: Al Capp, Creator of Li'l. Abner. y

Then an over-noisy radio in the courtyard rasped, “I love mountain music, good old mountain

music, played by a real hillbilly

band. . Capp leaped into the air and dived into an .old packing béx

which ‘contained the remnants of

his days in the fine arts and a’

number of discarded cartoons. He pulled forth the picture — done long ago in the mountains of Kentucky. And thus was. born the strip

about a Southern hillbilly, who

certainly has some New England ancestry. . : 54 ” " ” JL,'ROM his memory of the mountaineers he had [learned to know intimately on ‘his walking trip, he recreated Abner, the tall hillbilly youth with a shock of black hair, strong body, naive manner and innate sense of honesty and: decency; pipe-smoking Mammy, with poke bonnet, calico dress, leg o’ mutton sleeves and high shoes; lazy, shiftless Pappy, not too brave, but with a heart of gold; and Daisy Mae, blue-eyed, golden-haired, sweet, sentimentally, terribly in love with Abner,

a high'level he will have ve ihe

With 12 weeks of the ‘strip completed Al headed for the United Features Syndicate. Al waited around -all- day hoping to'get an audience. The same thing happened the second day. ‘And the third was just another ditto until late in the afternoon, when the editor spotted him. still holding his seat in the waiting room. At last Capp had a chance to show his wares. It didn’t take two readings for the syndicate’s executive to discover that Li'l Abner was a winner. The strip was a “natural.” There wasn’t another hillbilly strip on the market, and this one was really funny. Al Capp was placed under contract and . started to draw royalties almost immediately. ; Ret He hasn’t forgotten: his early, inglorious flight as a young syndicated cartoonist. He knows that in order to maintain his strip aé

improving himself. During the winter he attends classes-at the Boston Art School. , Le

ue el ESIDES his art studies, Al has taken short story writing at

& np

Entered as Second-Cla t at Postoffice, Indianapblis. Ind

In a scant three years he has : grewn to be a hero. Capp, says, “The life of a cartoonist is just about. as easy as that of a day laborer. It takes me

. eight hours a day to do my daily

strip and a day and a half to do the Sunday page.” : Next to his two daughters and his wife, Al Capp loves the Yokum family better than anything else in the world. Just after the Yokum family -comes his public. And the public returns the love. Capp’s fan mail contains a minimum of the usual ‘demands for’ autographs and pictures. A large

part of the letters .are just thank- -

you-for-being-so-funny letters. He recently. received the following tribute from ga little girl in Verdaman, Miss.: . <r “Lil Abner! Li’l Abner, ‘Where are you today? Why don” you come back To yore bootiful Daisey Mae?

“If yo’ could only hear Yore rival make speeches, Yo’ would want to take Him down a: few stitches.

“But, Li’l Abner, I'm telling these folks I enjoy your comical backward jokes More than anything else in the paper, : 4nd if you keep on I'll sure cut “#8 caper.” :

See this page tomarrow for REACHING FOR: THE STARS

Harvard at thé past: two summer schools. Ra yr

who never has realized what it

paced the floor and tore his hair. 0 was all about. 7 t

NLRB’s Censorship Tactics Described as Playing Labor Board Into Hands of Critics

as to his dispatches. In America we tion of the Wagner Labor Relations haven't had to report to Govern-|Act. If the management posted a ment ‘officials for cross-examina- | printed notice on the board telling tion. But now anyone writing about | its men that they would be fired. if labor . conditions. will have to be|they joined the union, that would careful. - He might be advised to|clearly be intimidation: in- violation destroy: his notes. Because if some | of the law. Isn't it aiso intimidaemployer should reprint the article | tion, the Board asks, when the and distribute it among his em-| management buys copies of a ployees, the writer might be called | magazine article which denounces before a labor board examiner and |the Labor Board and circulates be required, under penalty of being |them among the employees? To haled into’ court for contempt, to |obtain evidence which will stand up divulge all he knows. - | in court, it has to have the sworn » ‘#8 testimony. of the magazine. editor.

F B On the editor’s decision to ignore ny eto mania the edi. | the subpena of the NLRB and, the tor. The Board says it doesn’t care referring of the case by the resigns) a hoot whether ‘articles are pub- | Board to the Board's national oflished criticizing it; The Saturday | fice, many see the attempt by the Evening Post is out with one. this NLRB ‘to let the matter drop rather week ‘and nothing will be done | Dan arouse more public opinion on about it. But in the Mill and Fac- | he issue. . However, Board attortory case, the article was reprinted | 260° have indicated they will foland distributed by the company low up the case. among its employees, the Board | ao = suspects, ; OW the sworn testimony of th The Labor Board thinks that is |. editor may help the Board win intimidation and coercion in viola-! its case. But it will be the most

A WOMAN'S VIEW. | Jasper—By Frank Owen

expensive evidence the Board ever collected because it puts the Board in the position of subjecting the writer of a critical article to a third degree. No technicalities will prevent this case from standing es an instance of interference with the freedom of the press, and a fulfillment of all of the prophecies about the abuses that would come from giving broad discretionary power to a board. : \ It. is indicated that the chief contest on the Board's right of suopena in the case will center around the provisions of the Bill of Rights of the Constitution, guaranteeing freedom of speech. J] This case is just what crilics o the pending Wages and Hours Bill have been looking for. They were prepared to argue that such things could happen. Now they are in a position to say that they are happening. Thus the Administration gets damned by the blunders of its own people.

By Raymond Clapper Times Special Writer ASHINGTON, Dec. 8—The roughest blow which the Administration received last week didn’t come from any. of our notable Republican or anti-New Deal Democrats in Congress, nor even from a high-powered editorial writer. It came = from the Administration’s own angel child, the National Labor Relations Board. ; : J By an incredibly stupid. act, the National Labor Relations Board subpenaed the editor of the trade magazine Mill and Factory, ordering him. to: produce-his papers, cor=respondence and memoranda relating to the publication of an article which he wrote criticizing . the board and its investigation of labor conditions in the Weirton Steel Co., at Weirton, W. Va.

When a newspaperman comes out of Russia, he hides his material on his person or slips it to a friend to be smuggled.out. In Germany .and some other countries “he may be cross-examined by the Government

Side Glances—By Clark :

By Mrs. Walter Ferguson A WELCOME platform visitor is sald 1 xp 'J. B. Priestley, the English nov- | REESE SE hb \ i |elist, not only because he is a dis-| REA. 4 tinguished ‘writer but because he believes that the life of man is something moresthan a trivial accident. | || The opposite attitude begins to i |pall a little. I, at least, am pretty ~|tired of . the ‘writers and speakers i {who presume to tell us that our i|earth is only. an insignificant -body . in space; that we are nothing more ‘ |than & few chemicals hatclied in the laboratory of the universe and . |that everything we do is meaningi |less. . This: seems a very senseless doctrine. : Eo : Mr. Priestley believes , we . are. ! | Heaven-bound in the ‘unorthodox _|sense of the word, and that before long we'll be off on some colossal ad-, venture in a world of other dimensions which our minds can not now. comprehend. “Science,” he. says, | “has not answered the riddle of the . |universe when it dismisses : the vhilosophers’ and saints of centuries as if they were nothing.” To put}: it as simply and beautifully as he | | does, “People everywhere are better, | than the lives they live.” 3 1] It seems to me we've got to believe something of the sort. Other-| - | wise, where is the sense in working | so hard to improve society, and in keeping one’s up? It is quite literally true that people are finer than their behavior would imply. | Inside himself every man carries a hope and a vision, and: although our banners ‘often trail in the dust | E25 and we seem to be slaves or knaves, | . | we are torchbearers of something in-

A *

1] |

= By

do is try as hard if they. ‘wi

Second Section

}

PAGE 13

Matter A)

Our Town

By Anton Scherrer

Mail Order: Matrimonial Aspiration | Impaired Hired Girl's Culinary Art, | But Direct Tactics Won a Husband. |

WwW HEN it came time to.read “Vanity, | Fair,” I distinctly recall that the char- | acter of Amelia Sedley interested me far more than that of Becky Sharpe. I guess it was because one of the best hired girls

Mother ever had also had that name. Our Amelia came to us from Teutopolis, a hamlet over in Illinois just this side of Effingham. Fifty years ago, I suspect, it was a pretty hard place to get to. Today you can’t miss it mo-

toring to St. Louis. It has a big | church with a steeple dominating thes whole landscape, and back of the church is something that looks like a nunnery. I've never had a chance to investigate. I'll bet, though, that most of the people living around there are good Catholics. The chances are that our Amelia was a good Catholic, too, but for the life of me I can’t remember. All I know is that she had the kind of good conscience it takes to make a good Catholic. Of course, Mother looked for more than a good conscience in her hired girls. Our Amelia had that, too. She was especially good in the kitchen, I re< member, and I still recall the kind of breakfast rolls she made. ir 7 were unlike anything around here,

Mr. Scherrer

and I guess if ‘I'd dig into it I'd find that they, too, were something indigenous to Teutopolis. 3 That wasn't all there was to Amelia, however. Among her more remarkable gifts was her ability to finish her work around 3 o'clock in the afternoon. That’s when she did her reading and writing. She subscribed to two papers, I remember. One Ras Fireside Companion;’ the other, a paper published a matrimonial bureau, and designed to bring-lonely people like Amelia together. Sr I guéss it was about a year after Amelia came to work for |us that she took me into her confidence. I was 10 years old at the time; and I remember how it tickled my vanity when she asked me to help her with. her letters. 7

Letter Was Work of Art

z It turned out that she had been corresponding with a handsome fellow in Chicago, one she had picked up in the matrimonial paper. I know he was handsome because Amelia showed me his photograph. It was that of a man of about 30 with a priceless, black handle-bar mustache, and a luxuriant growth of hair on his head. The letter Amelia and I wrote that afternoon was an invitation asking him to come to Indianapolis. ‘We knew he'd come because we put everys thing we had into the writing of that letter. I remember, too, that just before sealing the letter, Amelia | inclosed 10 $10 bills. It represented the savings of ja lifetime. Well, the next Saturday the man showed up. He was bald and had a white mustache that didn’t Ibok anything like a handle bar. He was every bit of 60 years old, too. Amelia didn’t say a word, but I could see that she felt sorry for the old man. Next day she put him on the train and never once mentioned the money. The quality of Amelia’s baking fell off after that, but not for long. Inside of a year shé was her old ‘gelf again. By that time she was. going with A clerk who worked in a butcher shop on McCarty St. They got married’ without writing a letter. After that, Mother had to look for another girl, and believe it or not, she went all the way to Teutopolis to find one good enough to replace Amelia.

Jane Jordan—

If Marriage’ Is “Proven Failure,

Try to Make a New Life, Wife Told.

years and live in a furnished apartment. I have had to have my husband in court four times for nonsupport. He goes out and stays as long as he wishes and will not tell me ‘where he has been. He says it is none of my business. Two months ago I took him back. He came and told me that he had quit his job where he was making $240 a month, counting over time. Now he has to.take what work he can get but nearly always makes $30 a week. I get very little of it. He never kisses me, never says goodby, sleeps on the couch and will fuss if I speak to him. I just cannot account for his actions and this treatment has hurt me terribly. I am good to him, but when I go to kiss him he will turn his head; so for the past two weeks I have let him alone. I am nice looking, keep house well, fix him as good meals as I can afford but he has not changed. I feel like just disappearing, never to come back. My health is failing; I am 32 years old. I asked him to tell me what was the trouble. but he says “mind your own business.” TI have just learned that he borrowed $300 from a loan bank. A notice came here that he failed to pay on time. I wonder what he did with all that money. I never got one cent of it. He drinks and gambles, but not lately, for he has not had the money. Tell me please, am I doing right by letting him alone and not bothering him? : READER. ” #

” Answer—The wonder 1s that you took him back after 11 unsatisfactory years as his wife, While I do not blame you for having him in court four times for nonsupport it astonishes me that you expect him to feel affectionate toward you after these attempts to force him to carry the responsibility of his marriage. Usually a woman does not haul her husband into court until love between them is dead and she has no other alternative. Love cannot be expected to survive the antagonism generated by the appeal to law. or 2 It is not unusual for a man to lose a good paying job under such circumstances. His failure to earn money is an act of aggression against his wife. “If 1 have to give money to her, I won’t earn any.” -Your husband shows his resentment by refusing to give you any more than he is compelled to, by staying away from home as much as possible, and by withdrawing from all affectionate relations. He does not regard you as an asset but as a liability. The fact that he is in the wrong doesn’t help matters any. We never like people whom we have injured, no matter how hard they try to win our favor. I do not know how you can reinstate yourself in the man’s affections after you have established yourself as his opponent rather than his partner. At 32 your life isn’t over and you can’t disapvear, no mattér how much you would like to be rid of the whole ‘miserable problem. If you gan’t win him py your policy of making him comfortable, and letting him alone, you can af least make a new life for yourself without him. It wouldn’t be the first time that a woman found a better life for herself after . quitting an unsatisfactory marriage. All you can as you can to make things work find the courage to-light your

ey. ‘won't, her altars _ JANE JORDAN.

the

EAR JANE JORDAN—We have been married 1% 7