Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 13 August 1938 — Page 9
agabon From Indiana = Ernie Pyle
So Our Wanderer Didn't Purchase The Doll He Wanted, but Everyone Was Swell About the Whele Thing:
TTAWA, Ontario, Aug. 13.—Here it is ~~ Ottawa again, and ne'er did nimble time flee so impetuously on wings of spider-down fluff. Or am I Shelley or am I Keats? Three years ago | stood on the sidewalk
of the Parliament grounds and talked with"
the Prime Minister of Canada, the Hon. R. B. Bennett. He was very chatty and gay, and commented interestedly on my shoes, which he called “Scotch > Moccasins.” So a snap and a jump, and here it is three years later, and Ottawa again. « Mr. Bennett is no longer ‘Premier, and I stand on the sidewalk with nobody to talk to. Time. flies and things change, and Premier King won't talk to a guy. I take my same Scotch moccasins for a walk, but there is no official Ottawa to admire them. Ottawa brings a memory of a man named Freddie Edwards. He ii was a Canadian by birth, but he Mr. Pyle went to New York, and worked him- . self to the top of the newspaper heap. He won the Pulitzer prize, if I remember. Then he disappeared. Three years ago, we ran onto him here in Ottawa. He was with Mr. Bennett then, direeting publicity for the Conservative Party. He was staking his future on the party’s victory. : But the Conservatives lost. Often we've wondered what happened to Freddie Edwards. Now in Ottawa, we wonder again. Some one says he’s in Montreal And then while we're wondering, we see his name over three different articles in Canadian magazines. He must be doing all right. In a store the other day I had to say to a sales girl, “I'm from the States.” , © “Yes, T know you are.” I said, “How could you tell? She said, “I don’t know how, but I could tell. From your talk, I guess.” s Which chagrined me very much, because I can’t tell the average Canadian from an American. I honestly can’t see a bit of difference. And as for their cities, you couldn't tell you were outside the States.
The big Canadian cities have Daylight Saving Time, which I hate. A Canadian gallon is five quarts, called an “Imperial gallon.” It costs only 65 cents to send a telegram: from ‘Toronto to New York. Washington, D. C., is closer to Toronto than to some parts of Virginia. : The Ft. Royal Hotel in Toronto is the biggest hotel in the whole British Empire. It has 1200 rooms, .all high-priced.- I went and sab in the magnificent lobby, and rolled a cigaret.
Complications Develop
American’ tourists are allowed to take back $100 ‘worth of purchases duty free. With that in mind, I bought a doll at a big department store in Toronto, and had it shipped to a little girl in Alaska. At least I thought I did. 1 he so 3 ‘But then complications developed. e store sai thon have to hold the doll till I left Canada and the customs man at the border sent them back an O. K. to ship it. started before that. They said to try the customs man at the Union Station. He understood the situation, but said it couldn’t be done. If you ship out of Canada, you have to ship it home to yourself. ‘ Then I had a bright idea. I said, “Lets just let on like I'm a Canadian, and go ahead and ship the doll and I'll pay duty on it.” The customs man laughed. “Do you know what the duty on dolls is? he said. “It’s 70 per cent.” Ta So, on his advice, we decided just to drop the whole business. I went back to the store, but the red tape of “getting” My mohey ‘buck: took another hour. : Added together, it took me half a day to buy, and then “unbuy,” that doll. The only nice feature “ was that everybody, frém clerks to customs men, was perfectly swell about it.
‘My Diary "By Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt
First Lady Is Thrilled to Receive Her Newest Book From the Publisher.
YDE PARK, N. Y., Priday.—I don’t know if other H authors feel as I do when a copy of a new book first appears from the publishers, but I always have a little sense of wonder that I actually wrote so many words and that anyone thought it worthwhile to publish them! This morning there came into my hands a new book. It will not be out unt the 22d, so I really cannot tell you about it, but I can’t help imparting a little of my own thrill. Not long ago someone sent me an article by a very, well-known journalist who proved that, as a family, we all liked publicity, for otherwise we would not write so much and talk so much and do so many things that put us in print, or in the public eye-in one way or another. The gentleman forgets that it is not entirely our ewn doings which put us in the public eye. But IT fear I must plead guilty to the writing and the talking, for I did both before my husband became President and I hope I shall continue to do so after he ceases to be President. 1 have no illusions about being a great speaker or a grea: writer, but I think in some of us there is an urge to do certain things and, if we did not do them, we would feel that we were not fulfilling the job which we had been given opportunities and talents to do. Frequently, too, there is an objective approach to oneself in viewing one’s activities. In much of my own life, for instance, I stand back and look at myself and think: “That isn’t you as an individual, that is you as the personage you may happen to have been for that period of time.” I imagine that comes from having been a shy child with very little personality and having become accustomed to do things because they were expected of me and not because I wanted to do them. :
Rides Through Backwoods Se
Today has a touch almost of autumn, which is * frequently so in August. I do not like it, for 1 realize how quickly the next few weeks will fiy -by. 1 thought the flies would all have been blown out of the wood by the breeze we have had in the last few days, so, after several weeks during which I have not ridden, I took my horse this morning and went through the backwoods to see what was happening to my husband’s “retreat.” Then we went on to see a little farmhouse he is going over to rent and to look over anothér old farmhouse on the place, which some boys broke into the other night. The flies still bothered the horses but I obtained an idea of the extent of the damage. It is well to learn when you are young that the instinct of vandalism is.a dangerous one and I hope these youngsters will find that this little escapade of theirs really was not worthwhile. I cannot help feeling, however, that we ought to do something to provide country boys as well as city boys —with some place where they can seek recreation and occupation when they are out. of school or out of work.
Bob Burns Says—
: OLLYWOOD, Aug. 13.—You know, it all deH pends on how you're situated and how you feel whether somethin’ strikes you as funny or sad. suppose that’s just another way of sayin’, “What's one man’s meat is another man’s poison.” But when ‘somethin’ happens to me, I try to remember that in a
mye EES
ear or so, I'll probably look back and laugh about
: hats troublin’ me now. It's just like when my Aunt Lujy accepied the man she married. : ‘She ‘met Grandpa Snazzy on the street and said, “Snazzy, I've accepted Alfred and I'm going off to live in India.” Grandpa said, “India? Say, Lujy, did’ja know that they have night when we have day, and day when we have night?” Aunt Lujy said, “Yes, IT suppose it’! seem mighty strange At first, but a can uged to anything in time.” 2
She smiled and said, |
I told them the doll had to get’
A wv
By Marjorie Van de Water
Science Service Psychology Writer
You can be proud of fail-
ure. It isn’t everyone who can feel discouraged and know what it-is to los out. j The feebleminded, for example, may never have the experience of failure. Thev may flunk out on every job they try, but they de not notice it and go on blissfully unaware of any shortcoming. r : Men who. have lost the important higher thought centers in the brain, because of brain tumors, have also the ability to know failure. So closely is this thinking part of the brain tied up with failure, that one psychologist told me he has renamed it the “worry center.”
Mental patients in their excited states are also unable to experience failure. For them, the words “impossible” or “defeat” simply do not exist. Even though they may have missed every chance in life and are totally unable to get on outside a mental hospital, still they are riding on top of the world—supreme successes.
Failure is pretty terrible to the one who lives with it, to be sure. It can cause complete mental breakdown. For this reason, psychologists have become concerned over the possible effects on the mental health of the nation of such a mass failure as came with the Great Depression. Every effort is being made to protect, little children, at least, from the depressing experience of repeated failures. But failure can also provide a powerful stimulus to great successes. Such a profound setback as that of a serious physical handicap may contribute a great deal . toward urging a man to world renown.
” » »
HE inventor Steinmetz was seriously deformed physically. The great musician Beethoven was deaf during much of his life. So also was Edison, renowned for his inventions of hearing devices. Presiderit Roosevelt, early in his political career, was stricken with infantile paralysis. Whether a person will be broken
hy failure, or will be driven to -
great successes, depends upon the individual and perhaps somewhat upon his early training, it has been found by Dr. Dorothy Gan-dine-Stanton, psychologist of the University of Manchester, England, whose study of failure has just been made public in the international scientific journal, Character and Personality. Watch a child at play and you can see for yourself how characteristic is each individual's reaction to winning and losing. When Johnny. loses the game of checkers, he may. push: the board away, and say, “Aw, let's play ball.” Tom, on the other hand,
cannot be induced to give up un-
til he has won. Ted, when he sees. the game going against him, begins a frantic pushing of men that leads him into new losses. Joe sets. up a howl that somebody cheated. Mary cheerfully starts the next game—she can’t see that it makes any difference whether she wins or loses. Ruth is reduced to tears over her chagrin when she is defeated by her younger sister. To some extent, it may be possible to change these reactions to
defeat by proper training, but for
the most part they persist through the passing years, Dr. GandineStanton found.
® av 8
UTH, weeping over her defeat, is not to be blamed or pitied too much. Those who, like Ted, react to difficulties by increasing their activity feverishly and without reason are not those who
Be Clad ® Ye
Setbacks Can Provide Powerful Stimulus to Great Successes
RARE f
oF
now ¥
Hitler and Mussolini are two men who admit no failures, Their autobiographies do not mention a single mistake,
make the most of their abilities, Dr. Gandine-Stahton found. Instead success appears to come to those who, in difficulties, reduce their activity. They seem to make the most of their abilities and achieve more than might be expected of them. :
It is not necessary to reverse the old adage and say, “If at first you : don’t succeed, don’t try again,” she warns. = Persistence that brings success is not at all
_the same as activity. In fact, ac-
tive children ‘usually go out of the game earlier than passive children.
What Dr. Gandine-Stanton’s studies seem to show is that failure can be turned to success only by the person who has the ability to recognize his own limitations and who, when faced with defeat, can sit back and think. \ A study of literature revealed to Dr. Gandine-Stanton that some individuals can write the whole
story of; their lives and never
mention a single failure. “Conspicuous among them are those of Hitler and Mussolini,” she said. “While Hitler makes no reference to any failure of his own, he suggests that in others it is only due to ‘cowardice, laziness or incapacity.’ “Mussolini is more explicit about his. own immunity from failure. He writes: ‘I have always felt a power over events and over men. . .. I never had any feeling of uncertainty. . . . The Grand Council has always succeeded. I preside over it.'”
o o ” “YN striking contrast to these
who admit no defeat are the .
accounts of those who at once admit their own inability and withdraw from the contest. Such behavior has been found in distinguished men in all spheres of
* activity. Lindbergh describes his
first flight: ‘When the plane was about four feet from the ground the right wing began to drop, so I decided it was time to make a
landing.’ ”
Fortunately, most of us do at some. time or other experience
- failure, Dr. Gandine-Stanton says. Yet even though failure is a nec-.
essary balance wheel of person-
ality, everyone is reluctant to ad-
mit his shortcomings. It is quite impossible for any person to face the admission that he is completely a failure. To avoid acknowledging failure we argue ourselves
into making virtues of our short- .
comings or blame others or “bad luck” for our deficiencies. . Likewise we must feel that whatever we identify with ourselves is perfect. Thus our ruler
The breadlines of the world: represent mass adversity, How they come out of this experience
is infallible, our nation sinless, our church divine, our family blameless, our possessions desirable, and our race supreme. The feeling of (our) race su-
periority and (other) race inferi-
ority is causing much world distress today. ” : 2 x = “FNDIVIDUALS are reluctant to admit failure; groups rarely, if ever, do so,” Dr. Gandine-Stan-ton says. “It is too difficult.” She quotes Jacob Wassermann as making this clear when he writes: “To be proclaimed inferior as an individual is far more easily borne than disparagement of one’s race. . . . Against libels of the race all arguments and proofs are ineffectual, and the inmost and ost carefully guarded. mirror of the consciousness grows dim and tarnished.” Yet naturally he does not’ be lieve his race to be inferior, Dr. Gandine-Stanton comments, for he adds later:
“The tragedy of the Jew's life’
is the union in his soul of a sense of superiority and the feeling that he carries a stigma of inferiority.” No group has ever been found to believe that it is inferior to others. Bi “It is doubtful,” says. Dr. Gan-dine-Stanton, “if a group ‘could survive the experience of failure.
1938
Wn
BONE a LE RY
ou Foi
Sntered as at "Postoffice.
were va
Col, Chas. Lindbergh ‘meets failure by stopping ils activity and doing some thinking, the best way to overcome defeat. :
| | | | | |
Such experience often leads to the disintegration of the individual ‘as is shown in neurosis, and I believe it would inevitably lead to the disintegration of the group. To maintain the necessary ‘sense of superiority,’ we ra-
depends upon the stuff each one is made of. Suffering can be the stepping stone to success. :
tionalize as groups even more fiercely than as individuais.” Perhaps that is ‘because we un-. consciously see in the grandeur of our race and its heroes a compensation for our own individual
Jack of importance. ' (Copyright, 1938)
By NEA Service
ONDON, Aug. 13.—Elisabeth Bergner, Dr. Paul Czinner and
Sir (formerly Baron) Georg Franckenstein—Austrians all, people of more than local fame— the other afternoon held one of the strangest teas for three ever pulled in this tea-loving land. At a film studio near London they were toasting each other because they were all now British subjects. The ex-\ Baron Franckenstein got his final papers. July 9, then was knighted.
exiles all,
Miss Bergner and her husband
got theirs two days later.
Elisabeth Bergner is, of course,
the beauty who won fame and for=tune as the greatest woman Thespian on the German-speaking stage. Then came the Nazis. As a nonAryan, Germany, and later Austria, was closed to her. and conquered London in “Escape
She came, saw
Red Tape Slashed So Noted Exiles Can Become Britons
Me Never.” Her husband, ' Dr. Czinner, a well-known film director, also came here to make ‘a new career for himself. . : Perhaps the strangest naturalization was that of Baron Franckenstein. For 18 years he had been Austrian Minister to Great Britain, Tall, gentle-voiced, cultured to his fingertips, Baron Franckenstein was one of the most popular hosts in London. an As a convinced monarchist, as a broad-minded man who made no distinction between his Aryan and his nen-Aryan friends, Vienna became impossible for him when Hitler grabbed the country. - He remained in London, of course, moving out of the legation, So popular was he among people in high places that red tape was cut by the yard so that he .quickly could become a naturalized Briton,
Po e—
"She says so Many cute thifigs | have fo write them down or I'd for-
| Everyday Movies—By Wortman.
Elen
viwmont
"Let's'not get married. ill after we've had our vacations, ‘and then
i
# maybe the boss I give us another two weeks for our honeymoon." #
1 - f=New York,
TEST YOUR - KNOWLEDGE
1—On which continent are the Andes Mountains? 2—Did aliens who entered the U. S. Army during the World War automatically become American citizens? 3—In law, what is the name for a formal written accusation of crime against.a person, presented. by a grand jury? 4—What is entomology? © 5—What is the full name of Joe Louis, the world’s 'heavy- . weight boxing champion? 6—How many time zones are there in the United States : ; proper? Tey ‘ 7—In which state are the Cats kill Mountains? = _ ;
a "8 Answers
‘1 —South America. 3—No. -3—Indictment.
ss 8. 8
ASK THE TIMES: = |
) of fact or information to The Indianapolis ' Times 1013 13th St, N. W,, Washington, D. C. Legal and medical advice cannot be J an
Second-Ulass Matter Indianapolis. . Ind.
h
2 Second Section
PAGE 9
Our Town By Anton Scherrer hl
300 Local Babies Were Forgotten ! In the Nation-Wide Search for a ~ Cure for Mayor Shank's Rheumatism ;
This will be Mr. Scherrer’s last. column for several weeks. He is leaving for a well-ea vacation in Europe.—The Editor.
I PUT off telling about the mystery of the 300 babies back in Lew Shank’s adminis tration because I never could make up my mind whether to start the story with*Mr, Wasserkrug or Mr. Shank’s case of lumbago. Well, I finally made up my mind. It's going . to start with Mr. Wasserkrug. ° \
It was just about 25 years ago on a sticky morning ' that Mr. Wasserkrug of St. Louis blew
into the Mayor’s office and intro- : duced himself ‘as the representative of the Temple of Childhood which, he explained, was to be one of the features of the Panama-Pacific Exhibition to be held in San Francisco in 1915. Mr. Wasserkrug said that: all he wanted the Mayor to do was to pick the 300 prettiest babies in Indianapolis and forward their pictures to ig The Dictuses, of . course, were own in the . Temple of Childhood along with ail Mr Scherrer the rest of the prettiest babies in the United States, = Nobody could understand why a politician of Mr, Shank’s astuteness would want to tackle a job as ticklish as that, but the fact remains that he fell for it. His wife, Sarah, when asked about it, said that Lew didn’t know what he was doing because he had a bad case of lumbago at the time.
Well, having accepted the job, Lew had to see it |
‘| through, and so he decided to hold a reception for |
the babies and their mothers. They came in droves from all parts of the city and held up traffic for blocks around. So much so that it practically suspende® business in the City Hall. More serious, however, was | the fact that. Mr. Shank wasn’t anywhere to he | seen when the reception opened. He had skipped out, At that particular moment he was sitting on the porch of a Martinsville sanatorium smoking a 10-cent cigar, Seems that his lumbago had gotten worse and turned into an aggravated case of rheumatism. Which exe plains why Annis Burk, his private secretary, had to receive and register the babies that day. When the | whistle blew, Mr. Burk had registered more than 700
What Happened to the Babies?
I've never been able to discover whether the babies’ pictures ever got to the Panama-Pacific Fair. In- | deed, I can’t find out whether anything was ever | done beyond registering the babies. One reason why | the babies were forgotten was because just about that | tim, everybody tried to help Mr, Shank with’ his rheumatism. Frank Johnson who had several bee= | hives out at his place on Fall Creek and 38th St. ine vited Lew to come out and get stung. Mr. Johnson 2 there was nothing like a bee bite to cure rheumatism, . : .
By this time everybody all over the country was interested in Lew’s rheumatism, even Mayor Gaynor of New York. He wrote a long letter deriding the plan of Mayor Shank to have himself stung by bees, Mr. Gaynor suggested wasps, or still better, snakes. - Mayor Shank’s case of rheumatism was a topic of conversation for the better part of six months with the result, of course, that by the time he was cured everybody had forgotien about his promise to pick the prettiest babies for the Temple of Childhood,
Jane Jordah— Like Interests Rather Than Like
* Ages Make for Successful Marriages.
: EAR JANE JORDAN—I am a man of 43. For 14 years I was married to a woman who was virtually an invalid. My wif2 has been dead for about two years and now I am in love with a girl 20 years younger. I have an opportunity to go to Califo and start life anew. Should I marry this girl, or go away and forget her? I am afraid that she does not realize that it is not the problem of happiness at present that worries me but the fact that when I am 63 she will only be 43, in the prime of life? ‘I have all the memories of my former marriage behind me, but she has been a very quiet homebody. WIDOWER.
Answer—All you can do is put it up to the girl and let her decide. It is fortunate that you take a realistic rather than a romantic view of the situation. You can explain to her that in marrying you she is making an investment upon which she will receive diminishing returns. You will be old while she is still young, but if the two of- you are unusually congenial now; perhaps the intervening years will be worth what you lose in the end. - It is true that the percentage of failures in mare riages. between le with 20 years difference in age is high. Yet I know of several striking excep< tions to the rule. The failures are in part due to the gap between the interests of the partners. ik But you have sacrificed 14 years of your life to an invalid wife. You may have a yearning to make up for these with a younger woman. The young lady whom you describe as a quiet. homebody may not. be as giddy and irresponsible as the average young girl. Your tastes may be closer together than your chronological ages indicate. = ®
8 ‘ EAR JANE JORDAN—My daughter. is a girl in her twenties. She was a victim of tuberculosis for a number of years but has been cured. She feels cheated of the good times other girls have had, as so many of her friends have married and have families of their own, She has two boy friends. One of them our family approves, but the other we object to very much. She naturally leans toward the one to whom we object. Could she consider marriage with him? What about children? A MOTHER.
Answer—Put this problem up to the doctor. He will know whether she is able to marry and have children. If he tells her it is a physically safe proposition, then she should be allowed to marry the young man she prefers, unless you can convince her that you are right about him. Jr gi : JANE JORDAN.
tter to June Jordan, who. will 3
. blems in a le ——— Your ne in this column daily.
New Books Today Public Library Presents—
XCITING reading, this! FLYING FOX AND DRIFTING SAND (McBride) mixes scientifie data, records- of biological curiosities, and human “interest stories in a grand » 3 an - authentic “feel” of under.”
names which was enough as far as he we concerned,