Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 9 December 1938 — Page 23

Vagabond

From Indiana =—Ernie Pyle

River Trip Proves Dull and Party Welcomes Spat With Mayordomo Just to Relieve the Monotony.

N THE RIVER PARANA, Dec. 9.—Our

“days aboard are uninteresting. Everything is so rushed and efficient that there is no possibility of relaxing over a good book. It is too windy and cold to stay long on deck. The shoreline is dull, flat and unromantic. And we can’t talk to anybody. We would be very ill at ease were it not for our friends the Jencks. We four are the only Americans

on board, and, as far as we can tell, the only English-speaking people. The Jencks speak Spanish, and we hang to them. We've struck up a few small acquaintanceships through them, but we can only sit and listen to talk we don’t understand. : One of our new friends is a Senor Alfredo Estensser, a Bolivian. He dresses in blue coat and white trousers, and is one of the friendliest men we've ever met. ; When we left Buenos Aires we were in the River Plate. It is so wide you can barely see across it. During the first night, we entered the River Parana. It, toa, is tremendously wide. When we are in the middle, we must be at least half a mile from each shore. : One day I worked enough for the two screwed to the floor. bunks to work at the culties, I would call it. literature. 3 One afternoon I had my hair cut. Ome of the waiters is a “roving” barber. There isn’t any barber: shop, so he comes to the cabin, But our cabin is 50 small there wasn’t room for the barber and me at the same time, So we went out into the companionway. . I got to thinking about the screwy haircuts I've had. Once by a Filipino deck hand sitting on a load of lumber off the coast of Panama. Once by a woman barber in Alaska, on the coast of the Bering Sea. ‘Once by a Japanese girl barber on the Island of Maui in Hawaii. And now here on the Parana River, with a tablecloth around my neck. And the funny part is that in four years of grabbing haircuts here, there or any old place, I've never had a bad one, Of course there isn’t much on my

head to confuse a barber. :

Shows His Authority

We changed to a smaller ship at Corrientes. We will soon turn into the Paraguay River, and it is too shallow for the bigger boats.. We had a little incident at juncheon, our first meal . aboard. We four Americans went into the dining room. The waiter took us to a table and sat us down. It was the only vacant table. ; But in a moment the mayordomo—the head waiter—came barging up like a cyclone. We had no business there; get-out; we were to eat at second table an hour later. “L” he said, beating his chest like a Gilbert-Sullivan character, “am the mayordomo!” ; We said all right, except the waiter had put us there. So he rushed and bawled out the waiter, then returned and bawled us out again. We got up without any fuss and left. But just as we were at the door, one of the other diners took a hand. He jumped up, rushed across the room, and grabbed our friend Hugh Jencks by the arm. He yelled and waved and the Spanish flew. He was a huge man, a Swiss, it turned out. I thought he was further denouncing us for having the temerity to think we might sit at first table. It looked to me as though he were going to take a sock at Jencks, whereupon I prepared rapidly not to go to his rescue, ; But it turned out just the opposite. The man was defending us. He was urging us to go back and sit’ down. He wanted to make a point of it, and his crowd weuld fight on our side. But we are men of peace, so we said no and went on out. And apparently that made our defender sore, for he hasn't spoken to us again. The incident wasn’t pleasant, but at least it was something. The trip has been so dull we're thankful even for an unpleasant incident.

My Diary By Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt

Enjoys New Play, "Rocket to Moon"; Thinks Odets Chose Difficult Theme.

N= YORK CITY, Thursday.—Last night, four of us went to see Clifford Odet’s play, “Rocket to the Moon.” I enjoyed it very much, particularly the first two acts, but I am afraid he chose a subject which leads to no conclusion. Few of us can describe real love. We know the “Mrs, Starks,” and the “Cleo Singers” of the world, and all the other characters in the play are familiar, too. But even as “Frenchy” could not really tell the kind of a girl he was looking for, so the play failed to tell me just what the answer is for people who search for the “perfection of love and happiness.” They seem to feel it is a concrete thing to be found somewhere, but who knows where? I have an idea there is only one way to write the third act to that play, and that is to choose the finest people you know and watch them live out their lives. You make some curious discoveries as you move on, one of them being that there is no such thing as a concrete object labeled “perfection and happiness,” that the state in life for which youth in particular searches, is really an evolution often attained through sorrow, discipline, unsefishness and a realization of the truth of something which was, written long ago—that sometimes the best way to keep something is to give it away. Today has been a curious day, touching on a great many different interests. First 1 visited my ‘mother-in-law, who “seems to feel nearly well again after her sore throat; then the dentist, and then a few brief moments facing innumerable cameras with Mr. Jack Benny, two very lovely young ladies and a number of other people of importance in the motion picture industry. I bought the first ticket jn . their fund-raising campaign for the benefit of German: refugees and wished them well.

Some More Shopping

Then I did some Christmas shopping and lunched at a counter on a glass of milk and a sandwich. At 2:30, there was more facing of cameras while I watched Mayris Chaney and Eddie Fox, who are going to dance for us at the cabinet dinner on the 13th, . doing one of the dances which they have dedicated to me and call “The Eleanor Glide.” I was amused to find they had taken some of the old-fashioned steps which my brother and I showed them one night. We described to them thé dancing school of our childhood, where we had been taught the intricacies of the waltz, the polka, the barn dance and the mazurka of those gay nineties. ; I managed a visit to my friend, Mrs. Alice Huntington, whom I rarely have an opportunity of seeing and who will be wending her way to Charleston, S. C., for the winter on Saturday. Finally I came home to write this column and do a little more work on the ever-present mail,

Mr. Pyle

all day. Our cabin is just big punks, with a table between, I have to sit on one of the desk. Literature under diffiExcept I wouldn't call it

Bob Burns Says—

HSL TwoeD. Dec. 9.—I've always heard that the worst husbands get the best wives. I never did put much stock in that until my Uncle Nat got married. He was a great big, loud talkin’, overbearing bully sort of a fella that never cared how he looked and he married the sweetest and shyest little woman in town. Everybody felt sorry for her because they knew he’d make a slave out of her. : Pretty soon, after he was married though, everybody started noticin’ how neat and natty my uncle looked. When they asked him about it, he stuck -his chest out in 3 pride and says: {Yep, one of the first things my

butions/and dam sox) os

i Third Section : e

BY GILBERT LOVE

DISTILLERS CONSCIENTIOUS «=

(Fourth of a Series)

WITH five years of repeal behind us, let’s see what it has done for, and to, the nation. On the credit side of the ledger we can list a big “new” industry employing about a million persons; nearly a billion dollars worth of tax money a year; the availability of beverages that will not take the enamel off the kitchen sink, or the drinker’s teeth ; elim-

| ination of the country’s

major racket, and probably a general improvement in regard for the laws of the

land. On the debit side we have an increase in drunken driving, a national alcohol consumption that seems pretty high, and a. number of minor irritations. - Let's examine those items a little more closely. A million jobs, plus more than a billion dollars invested in the liquor and beer industries, seem to represent a large net gain. Befgre the cheering starts, it would be well to remember that many persons were employed in making and selling illicit beverages before repeal, and that much money was involved, but the legal liquor industry still represents an economic improvement. Jobs and money are much more secure today. Hundreds of thousands of vacant storerooms have been occupied by barrooms and liquor stores. Carpenters, decorators and other craftsmen have been employed in converting basements and hotel lobby space into marine rooms, Bavarian rooms, palm rooms, green rooms, blue rooms, etc. The billion a year in liquor tax money is impressive enough in itself, but it represents an even greater gain to the public treasuries. Toward the end of prohibition, the Federal Government alone was spending about $225,000,000 a year in an attempt to enforce the Eighteenth Amendment, and getting no revenue from liquor. This year the Federal cof=fers will probably receive between $600,000,000 and $700,0000,000 in liquor taxes, and spend a relatively small amount for enforcement of its alcohol tax regulations. 2 8 =»

T should not be necessary to cite facts and figures to prove that liquor and beer made in modern distilleries and breweries is more wholesome than moonshine. And everyone knows that the big liquor and beer rackets have been washed away in the flood of legal liquor. : ; Plenty of small-time bootleggers still exist, of course. In fact, the Indiana Anti-Saloon League ine sists there are nearly as many bootleggers in the state now as during Prohibition, ¢ Estimates, hardly more than guesses, have placed the total amount of bootleg sales at 20 to 40 per cent of the nation’s total consumption. But bootlegging has become a fairly hazardous occu-

* pation. Its chief protection—public

opinion that vaguely regarded it as a benefactor — has been removed. After some hectic times during the first few years of repeal, the liquor trade ,seems to be now emerging as a fairly well-behaved unit of the nation’s economic life. The taproom, usually the “bad boy” of the liquor business, has been improved in most areas through the weeding out of the most flagrant violators of the law and by self-regulatory efforts of organizations formed by the proprietors. : The manufacture and wholesale distribution of liquor is, in general, conducted on a remarkably high plane. Many distillers have been under heavy financial strains, due to investments in aging stocks, and a few short-

cuts to profits were tried in th

earlier days of repeal, but most of the irregularities have now been eliminated. The pains that the distillers are taking to avoid discrediting their industry is illustrated by their cooperation with the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board. In that state, although not required to do so by law, they have voluntarily agreed not to advertise by radio, in the movies, or in Sunday newspapers. They do not picture women in their ads, and have even agreed to keep Santa Claus out of the advertisements during the Christmas season. So much for the brighter side of the picture. Here's the other side. ”

2 2 HE average American, according to recent estimates, now consumes about 15% gallons of alcoholic beverages annually. Beer and ale account for 14 gallons of the total, “hard liquor” about one gallon, and wine half a gallon. When it is considered that the population includes large numbers of | children who drink nothing stronger than milk, and many adults who never venture beyond the soda fountain, it would appear that the average drinking adult must consume several times the figure quoted. Hoosier drinkers apparently consume less than the national average, judging from the tax records of the Indiana Alcoholic Beverages Commission. The ABC estimated -consumption in the state last year at 36,374,510 gallons of beer, 3,255,087 gallons of hard liquor and 368,780 gallons of wine. This is equal to an average of 11.3 gallons of beer, one gallon of hard liquor and one-tenth gallon of wine for every man, woman and child in the State. These consumption figures include both State products and imports from other states. Much of the beer produced by Indiana’s breweries is exported fo other states, while about onethird of the beer drunk here is imported. The Indiana Brewers’ Association reported that in 1937, the 16 Indiana breweries set a new production record with 2,124,142 barrels—65,848,400 gallons—er more than 20 gallons per capita. A lot of interesting things could be done with the consumption figures, but the facts that have been cited should be sufficient to show that repeal has not brought abstinence.

NTOXICATION, however, is believed to be on the wane throughout the nation. It seems logical to assume that, with a bar on almost every street corner, drinkers are not so likely to “load up.” Yet, Indianapolis police records show the number of arrests for intoxication and driving while intoxicated have gained substantially under repeal. In 1932, there were 4045 arrests for intoxication and 459 for drunken driving. Last year, there were 5134 arrests for intoxication and 732 for drunken driving. : The number of arrests in Indianapolis in the first 11 months this year, however, has declined— 4294 for intoxication and 590 for drunken driving. The extent of drunken driving, and its effect on the accident toll, is a controversial subject. Prohibitionists are likely to blame a large proportion of the accidents on drink, whereas many “wets” claim that the effect is negligible. Driving licenses of 572 Indiana motorists were revoked by the State in 1933 for drunken driving. In the same year, 376 driving licenses were revoked for reasons other than drunken driving. The number of revocations has grown each year. In 1937, the number of licenses revoked for drunken driving has trebled, reaching 1954, while revocations for other causes totaled only 618. The best available nation-wide figures show that drunken driving

is not one of the principal causes of accidents, but that it is taking a larger toll each year.

” 2 CCORDING to National Safety Council figures, 5 per cent of the drivers involved in fatal accidents in 1933 were either intoxicated or had been drinking. The percentage rose to 6 in 1934, 7 in 1935 and 1936, and 8 in 1937. Pedestrians who had been drinking were involved in 6 per cent

Scientists Are Attacking Influenza

And Colds From New Angle

By Science Service — EW YORK, Dec. 9.—A new line of attack on the common cold and influenza is being made in the laboratories of the Rockefeller Foundation here. The attack is centering on changes occurring in the nasal lining membranes during a cold or an attack of influenza— changes which may give resistance or immunity to colds and flu and similar infections. Drs. Thomas Francis Jr., and C.

H. Stuart-Harris have found such changes in nasal membranes of ferrets which received repeated inoculations of influenza virus.

The -changes in the ferret nasal membranes are changes not so much in the structure of the membranes as in their functioning. In the ferret the changes result in complete resistance not only to the influenza virus but also to chemicals.

‘The immunity or resistance thus induced is entirely a matter of cell resistance and has nothing to do with immunity in the usual sense. The latter immunity depends on the existence in the blood of germfighting substances called - antibodies. : Both mechanisms, antibody formation in the blood and changes in cells, probably interact to produce complete immunity to infection.

of the fatal pedestrian accidents in 1933, 8 per cent in 1934, 9 per cent in 1935, 11 per cent in 1936 and 13 per cent in 1937. The Safety Council summary indicates that the alcoholic content of persons involved in accidents is not always reported. It quotes a special study conducted at Uniontown, Pa. in which 155 drivers involved in consecutive personal injury accidents were examined. Thirty-one per cent of

these drivers had blood-alcohol i concentrations which indicated in-

toxication, and 12 per cent more had sufficient make a physical necessary. Similar tests conducted in Cleveland and Evanston found smaller proportions of the drivers under the influence. In spite of all this, however, the

concentrations to examination

traffic accident charts do not shaw.

any unusual upturn between 1933 and 1938 that could be attributed to repeal. In fact, on the basis of miles traveled and cars in operation, there were fewer fatal accidents last year than in any year

since 1925.

NEXT—Comparison of present conditions with preprohibition days.

tered as Second-Class Matter at Postoffice, Indianapolis, Ind.

e learned me was how to sew on |

CaPR. 193 INC- REG US PAT-O PF.

trying to use so many big words

n-9

n't understand t

Everyday

FRE

"Well, make ‘up your mind, Marie—movies before Christmas and

cheap. present, or

shows and maybe a better present a»

ton, D. C. Legal ‘ad

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE

1—In military law, what is con- -

scription?

2—Name the capital of North "Dakota. 3—Who was awarded the 1938 Nobel prize for literature? 4—What is a carniverous animal? 5—Do alien children, when adopted by American citizens, become citizens of the United States? 6—Where is the Vaal River? 7—What are the dimensions of a one-dollar bill? 8—How many brothers did Christopher Columbus have?

2 8 8 Answers

1—Compulsory enrollment for service. 2—Bismarck. 3—Pearl Buck. 4—One that feeds on flesh. 5—No; but they may become naturalized citizens. 6—South Africa. 7—6 5-16 x 211-16 inches. 8—Two. 2 o 8

ASK THE TIMES

Inclose a 3-cent stamp for reply when addressing any question of fact or information to The Indianapolis Times Ww n Service Bureau, ‘1013 13th St, N. W., to and D

vice cannot be given nor

. Zora Neale Hurston, althou;

PAGE 23

Our Town

By Anton Scherrer

Peg Hamilton Was Ace Hack Driver, But He Owed Much of His Talent to | Tips Furnished by Able Colleagues.

UST because yesterday’s piece about Peg Hamilton amounted to a rhapsody is no reason why you should jump to the cone clusion that Peg was the only hack driver on the Levee. Not by a long shot. One hack

driver doesn’t make a Levee any more than one swal= low makes a summer. Which brings me to the point of today’s piece and the tantalizing question whether

Peg could have reached the heights * had it not been for-his competitors, men like Pete Egan, Jim Scanlon and George Allgood, who were good enough to give him the benefit of their experience. These men were older than Peg and came to the Levee by way of the hackstand on McNabb St. a lively little thoroughfare made up mostly of hotels, restaurants and the like which made it their business to

Mr. Scherrer cater to the hungry and thirsty

crowds in and around the Union Depot. McNabb St. - &

is gone now because 20 and more years ago the raile road; people thought they needed the Jace for more tracks. Goodness knows why. a

The original hackstand stood right in front of the old National Hotel at the corner of McNabb and Illinois Sts., but as time went on it spread to include the parking places in front of the other hotels in the district, like the Illinois House, for instance, and the California, the Congress, the Nickel Plate, the Indiana House and even the curbs in front of Tony Bals’ bakery and Sam Moran's saloon. It was the busiest place in town. So much so that one day the hotel people uptown woke up to find that the places around McNabb St. were picking off all the business.

To put a stop to this sort of thing, the Bates House i | engaged Al Blake as a “runner,” a euphemism ine =

vented at the time to describe the business of nab= bing a prospective customer and hauling him away

from McNabb St. In Mr. Blake's case, of course to i ar

the Bates House. The Occidental Hotel went the Bates House one better and engaged two runners— Mike Bodkin and Dick Armstrong.

They Went Round and Round

The Occidental people simply had to do something about it after what happened one night in the Eighties. That night, a tired traveler got off the train and asked to be driven to the Occidental at the corner of Illinois and Washington Sts. Sure, said the cabby, cracked his whip and started off. After a 10minute drive, he deposited his customer. Next morne ° ing the customer found himself sleeping in the Nae tional House which was exactly where he stepped into the hack the night before.

And on another occasion, a little lady burdened 5

with baggage, asked to be taken to the California House. After a half hour’s drive including four whirls = around the Circle, the cabby let her out. She was right across the street from where she started. Such vicious methods were common in McNabb St. but mark this, they were never practiced by the ethical drivers mentioned in today’s piece. Nor did Denny Sullivan, Billy Miller, Lew Minnick, Harry Williams

and Jonesy Jones, to mention some of the McNab b

St. drivers who lent luster to their profession, ever stoop so low to gain their ends. : 1 mention the vicious practices of McNabb St. to

show there was something about them to sharperths

wits’ of ethical hack drivers and steer the younger . generation straight. Otherwise it wouldn’t be possible :

Jane Jordan—

Irate Reader Told Psychiatrists 5 : Treat Others Besides the Insane, ;

EAR JANE JORDAN—I read your answer 0 . “Disappointed” and I must say it was disgust= ing and showed very poor judgment. The idea of

telling a husband to persuade his wife to see a

psychiatrist! Do you really know what you print, or

do you need the care of a psychiatrist yourself?

Haven't you read how those two young women who

were called mental vags were dismissed by those good

judges? This is just an excuse for a husband to get rid of his wife. Are you so dumb? If a wife is jeals ous she sure has some cause. I don’t believe what that husband wrote. Still you advised him to walk out on her or punish her by his coldness toward her, That is sure a way into divorce courts. You are most inhuman. If you ever knew the misery a wife has to go through, you would think far different. That advice that you gave only puts the idea into that husband’s mind to get rid of his wife. We do not. care to read such trash.. Kindness goes farther than: your advice. : we I have a son who is going to get married Christmas week. His bride-to-be is jealous and so is my son; so what would you call that? I would like to hear what some of your readers think of your advice to. Disappointed. OUR CLUB OF HOUSEWIVES.

Answer—After I recovered from my first @stonishe ment at reading your letter I began to see why you misunderstood me, You must believe that a psychiatrist is a doctor who treats only insane patients. The scope of a psychiatrist is much greater than this. He is one who makes a systematic study of emotional and personality difficulties as well as , mental diseases, and is able to help unadjusted people

with problems which well-adjusted people usually

solve by themselves. You suggest that I may need the care of a psychiatrist myself. I have never hesitated to confer with a psychiatrist when stuck with a problem. For years my children have had the advantage of expert psychiatric advice, Neither of them has the slightest fear of a psychiatrist but look upon him as a boy's best friend in time of stress. I believe that a psychiatrist at court would be very useful in. preventing divorce. Many a divorce could have been prevented if the warring partners had the

advantage of a little education in co-operation. Dis. = |

vorce was far from my mind when I advised a dis= appointed husband to take his wife to a psychiatris¢< for treatment of pathological jealousy. I often in this column have distinguished between normal and abnormal jealousy. “ Normal jealousy is based on fact and abnormal jealousy on fancy. I should not call the foolish jealousies of a young en= gaged couple abnormal. When each

of the other it will vanish. hslove : JANE JORDAN. .

Put your problems in a letter to Jane Jordan who will = : answer your questions in this column daily. ? 3

New Books Today

Public Library Presents—

4~HE West Indies Islands are revealed, not as tours ists see them, but as a bit of darkest Africa diluted with a form of Christianity and transplanted at our very door in Zora Neale Hurston’s TELL MY HORSE (Lippincott). The author discusses such subjects voodooism: the sect rouge, a cult devoted to the eal= ing of human flesh; zombies, those soulless bodies that supposedly return from the graye to 'walk the earth; and the subtle workings of secret poisons. Part I is devoted to Jamaica .where & mah can : declared legally white although racially bl Wd where friends of a deceased man observe “I Nights” to insure the permanent gebatture of dead, Part II, the longer, deals with Hail, . 3 BE

feels secure im