Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 8 February 1939 — Page 11

’ 9

Ysleniine Cleaners,” the bellboy said.

= conldn’t find it either. - people in St. Petersburg are. Friendly.

"written of somebody else being flat broke. me, I married money, and am so rich I can’t sleep-

‘From Indiana= Ernie Pyle

Some Notes From St. Petersburg, A Warm-Hearted City, W Symbol Is the Long Green Bench. PETERSBURG, Fla, Feb. 8.—St. Petersburg is this kind of city: We

checked in at a hotel, and I sent my suit out: to be pressed. When it came back there |

“Compliments of “No.

wasn’t any bill on it.

charge.” “‘¥ou could have knocked me over with an ironing board. 1 don’t know whether that sort of thing

would go on indefinitely or mot. |

Having only one suit of clothes, and.

not wanting to send it right back |

again, I wasn’t able to experiment further. A friend of mine arrived from Ohio the other day. He drove up to one of the parking meters. But when he went fo put in his nickel, he couldn’t find the slot to put it

Be na he swears that within 30 seconds ' there were ‘15 people around him, all trying to help him find ‘the sot. ®The story has a punk ending, because the 15 helpers. But anyway, that’s the way

“Mr. y Pyle

I went to a store to have a prescription filled.

: Ive been carrying the prescription around. for two . years, getting it filled wherever I happen to be.

‘When I went back to. get the medicine, the man

‘said: “T.see by the marks that this prescription has

been: filled in Honolulu. I want to go there. Is it ‘modern? Is it pretty? Tell me all about it.” So'I told him all about it.

10 minutes.

The newspaper which runs my column here got a

call from a woman reader. She said she had read where I was flat broke, and she would gladly lend.

She had, of course, misread the column. I had (As for

nights.) * " So we called back and explained to the woman, and thanked her. But mistake or not, it just goes

~ to show How people are in: St. Petersburg.

And then to top it all off, a messenger arrived

.- with the most beautiful basket of flowers you ever

saw, for That Girl. - The card read, “Welcome to the Sunshine City—st. Petersburg Chamber of Commerce.

Difficult to Find a Seat : Good old Midwestern friendliness is. the keynote

. of St. Petersburg. And the green sidewalk bench is

the symbol of that friendliness. It has come to be known around. the world. The green bench is to St. Petersburg what the lei is to Hawaii, the gondola to Venice, the Tolling chair to Atlantic City, the sidewalk cafe to Paris. At. the latest count there were 4697 of these benches. About ‘1200 of them are owned by the city, ‘and are in parks. The rest are owned by merchants, and placed in front of their stores for the public. The benches are of wooden slats, and each one is long enough: to hold four or more people. The sidewalks ‘here are very wide, and the benches are on the outer edge, at right angles to the’ street. One after another, like the rows in a theater, for block after block. By 10 o’clock of a warm morning it’s almost impossible to find a seat. And it is an unwritten law that you may sit down beside any stranger on a green bench and start talking to him. If he doesn’t respond and talk pleasantly back, then he is rude, and we hope nobody ever speaks to him again as long as he lives. It is actually a city law that all public benches must be green. They must be made of wood, in this regulation style. And they must be repainted once a year. Theyre more than just something to sit on. They are a symbol. Long live the green bench,

My Day

By Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt

Visits the Home of Norman Davis: Work of Parent-Teachers Lauded.

ASHINGTON, Tuesday.—Yesterday afternoon we held a tea for the society of sponsors. This is a rather small group but among them. are many people I have known for a long time. This makes it a rather unusual tea party, for a familiar face in line is quite a novelty. Afterward, I drove out to see Mr. and Mrs. Norman Davis at their Alexandria, Va., home. I don’t wonder that they are pleased and seem quite content with it. There is a lovely garden completely sheltered for spring and summer days, open fireplaces in every room, and that enchanting arrangement of rooms at various levels which indicates a house has been added to at different times. We had an interesting talk about the number of things which the Red Cross is doing. I hope none of us are going to forget that both at home and abroad there is always work for this organization. After a quiet dinner at home, the President settled

down to his usual baskets of mail and I went out |

to talk to a parent-teachers meeting at one of the high schools. These groups are always very interesting to me, for they bring‘ together the people most vitally concerned with the younger generation. This contact is most important for without co-opera-tion the best service cannot be given to the younger generation. Incidentally, have you seen a most beautiful new

~ publication called “The Junior Classics”? It is in 10

volumes and the print is easy to read, which is important to young children. The illustrations are enchanting and I think will be a very delightful addition to any youngster’s library.

A Helpful Suggestion

In yesterday’s mail I received a notice which Iam passing along because it is the answer to a question which many people have asked me. There is a general realization - today. that we need to do something positive to make every person in our community aware of their obligation to the Government under which we live. We have a republican form of government and a constitutional democracy which requires the real interest of every citizen to function properly. One group has gathered and sent out to its communify ' organizations. the - following ' suggestions:

(1) Write to, or interview, the editor of your local

newspaper and ask him for a daily column: things we take for gran way of life. (2) Write to, or interview the leaders of public thought in your community and ask them to speak and preach about the joys and privileges of democracy and religious tolerance. Four other methods of accomplishing this are listed, but, of course, these methods vary in every community. I only cite this as an idea for groups to follow in different es.

“The

Day-by-Day Science.

By Science Service N NORTH and South Carolina during watermelon season it is the practice of many families in small towns to have a few melons cooling down at the community ice plant awaiting disposal in the proper gustatory mantier. ' Although no fee is charged and the practice would have to be discontinued if it ever became too prevalent, this custom makes use of what is becoming known in the Middle and Far West as the “food locker.” Food lockers started, just as the melon: instance indicates, ‘as a sideline with the ice plants. But now the practice has been put on a commercial scale and one can rent a food locker just as you might rent a safety deposit box at your bank. While vegetables and fruits furnish some small part of the revenue of companies managing food lockers, the great bulk is in the cold storage and freez. ing of meats In fact, if you can afford to buy a whole carcass of beef you can have it processed completely for you and preserved and yields from live beef, it is reported that the cost of the average run of. beet outs will’ be-ghout 1D a

Second Section

Whose:

We talked for at least |

i. e. our democratic [*

until you can use it. At normal prices |.

Dick Simon

. ‘Some persons are bromo and some are water and

occasionally these persons. meet—and then something

fizzes and the world benefits.

They may be close or dis-

tant in their private lives, but in their exploration of the arts or business or the professions or sports—whatever their field may be—together they make a team. Some of the successful partnerships have been profiled to find what makes them tick and the results are presented in a series

of which this is the first.

By Elliott Arnold

Times Special Writer

EW YORK, Feb. 8.—Max

with an idea ‘to streamline ‘the Bible.

Schuster popped up one day His editorial

staff looked at one another and somebody coughed and

said:

“Please sit down and be good, please. We've got seri-

ous work to do here.”

Dick Simon laughed and Sizpped him on the back

and said:

“Sounds like a good idea to me, Max; go ahead.”

Then there was the day Dick Simon got back from a long automobile trip with three busted fenders and palsy. He ran into the Inner Sanctum offices waving his long arms and yelling that he wanted to publish a book on safe driving. The editorial staff pointed out with logic and patience that anybody who wanted such.a booklet could get it: for nothing from any one of a dozen places, including the corner gas station. Max

Schuster took off his glasses and wiped them and said: “The suggestion appeals to me, Dick. Go on and get it.” So, despite the lugubrious faces

and dismal prophesies of the In-

ner Sanctum staff, Simon & Schuster brought out “The Bible, designed to Be Read as Living Literature.” It was just the King James Bible, with the begats and footnotes reméved. The volume has sold more than 300,000 copies at $3.75 each, both here and in England, and is rapidly assuming the status of a classic. And Essandess also brought out “Sudden Death and How to Avoid It.” Just a collection of standard safe-driving rules put together intelligently ‘and then fizzed a bit. This bucolic endeavor has dis-

posed of more than 500,000 copies of itself, and there still are a lot of reckless drivers to buy more. “You see,” Mr. Simon mourned today, “our editorial staff is too

conservative. How they worry trying to save our money!” 2 ” ”

NORTUNATELY neither Max Lincoln Schuster nor Richard

Leo Simon pays too much attention to their editorial staff, or to

anyone, for that matter, except themselves. They, personally, are Simon & Schuster, and they are Simon and Schuster every day in the week and for every book that comes out under the Essandess imprint. They started out 14 years ago because they had a colossal faith in each other and $10,000 between

them. They never had to use all

the $10,000, and more than ever they’re amazed at each other's brilliance. “The man is a genius,” Mr. Simon said privately of his partner. “He's the most galvanic human being I've ever met.” : “Dick has the most fertile mind

I've -ever known,” Mr. Schuster’

said. “He’s a human dynamo.” You must understand, first, that more than two-thirds of the books published by Simon & Schuster are written on assignment, and that all the assignments come from Mr. Simon or Mr. Schuster.

Simon and Schuster Back Each Other In New Ideas

‘Opposite in appearance, opposite" in manner, opposite in many tastes, hobbies and choice of

friends, the two men fuse per-~

fectly, and since they started their firm lost money only in one year—1930—in the depth of the depression. Today Simon & Schuster is one of the most solidly es‘tablished firms in the business. Dick Simon is tall, ‘aggressive, a super-salesman. He's nervous, restless, interested in a hundred things—and usually has books written about them. He's a really fine pianist. His friends insist he hates books. He says that’s a lie. He says 'he loves books. One of his early loves was bridge. As soon as he féund out

. about the game he had a couple of / experts write books about them

for his firm. Best sellers, they were. Somebody told him about. golf. He decided a lot of people didn’t know about the game. Pretty soon Essandess came out with “A New Way to Better Golf,” "by Alex Morrison, the pro. It has sold 66,000 copies to date and a lot of duffers are growing up. There's a good yarn in that book. #” ” 2 IMON was just alittle leary of the idea. So before the thing was even contracted for he put an advertisement in a newspaper. Persons interested in the book were asked to send in a clipping. He got 600 answers to the $250 ad, did a little manipulation and decided to go ahead. “It was a great book,” he said. “I should have studied it more myself—instead of just writing the ads.” Now Mr. Simon is an amateur photographer. But he’s really got it ‘bad. This time he wrote the book about it himself. “Miniature Photography From One Amateur to Another.” Fifteen thousand copies. All right? Mr. Schuster is a different lad altogether. He’s the scholar of the team, although only his partner calls him that. He hates the

- word. He’s shorter, more retiring,

a little more intense in his speech. He collects thousands of books in two private libraries. That's his only hobby. He comes into the office in-the morning and goes through the newspaper like an editor. He rips out story after story, scribbling across the clippings ideas for books. In one morning he collects enough items to fill the firm’s list for the next year. The Essandess list, incidentally, is much the smallest of any major publishing firm in the country. They put out between 40 and 45 books a year—as contrasted, say, to the 600 Macmillan might publish or the 200 to 300 Doubleday, Doran might put out. Simon & Schuster subject each title to a terrific barrage of advertisement. Mr. Simon is an advertising man at heart—only in this case, you see, he makes his own budget. * You can trace the weightier Inner Sanctum tomes to Mr. Schuster. He's still wide-eyed about books and authors and his success still surprises. him. Once he read a short essay on philosophy in the Haldeman-Julius 5-cent blue books. He called up Mr. Haldeman-Julius and asked him who the author, Will Durant, was. Mr. Haldeman-Julius told him he had 10 other Durant essays on the blue book list and Mr. Schuster could buy them for a nickel apiece.

#2 8 =» : R. SCHUSTER read through the 11 of them. He put them all together into one book and gave it a beautiful binding job. The book was called “The Story of Philosophy.” It has sold 550,= 000 copies.

“We didn’t change 2 per cent of the text from the blue book originals,” Mr. Simon said. “Any other publisher could have had it for years.”

Mr. Schuster used to. be im- .

| L

* Bitered as Second-Class Matter /at Postoffice, Indianapolis, jJnd.

~ Max Schuster

pressed by the lectures given by Walter Pitkin in Columbia Uni-

versity. He used to love the books of John Cowper Powys. Both Essandess. ‘authors now. = Leon Shinkin, general manager of S. & S., told him Dale Carnegie used to have a lot of people listen to him. Mr. Schuster told Mr.

Shinkin to grab hifh, and he needled Mr. Carnegie into writing

his epic. Mr. Schuster visited Artie McGovern’s gym. A book came out of that, too. In Mr. Schuster’s office there Is a large sign. It reads: “This is a publishing office—the cross-roads of civilization, the ref-

uge of the arts against the ravages

of time; the armory of fearless truth against whispering rumor; incessant trumpet: of trade. From this place words may fly abroad, not to perish on the waves of

sound, not to vary with the writer's. hand, but fixed in time, having been verified by proof. Friend, you.

stand on sacred ground: this is a publishing office.” Mr. Schuster believes that. It’s there in front of him all the time. Also in front of him is a framed Ripley cartoon (Ripley is another Simon & Schuster author) which illustrates Huxley’s crack that six monkeys, at six typewriters, could in time write all the books in the British Museum. Between those two extremes lies the credo of Max Schuster. ” ” ® Te LSO in Mr. Schuster’s -office is a black volume . called “Sources of Best Sellers.” The pafles are divided as follows: “Date, copies ‘sold, title, pivotal origin,

primary source; secondary source,

background, and other books which it led to directly or: indirectly, remarks.” At the head of the list is the: very first book published by Essandess. The legend goes like this: ° j : “10-5-24; Cross - Word = Puzzle Book; RLS idea, on Jan. 3, 1924, the second day of the Inner Sanctum’s life; desire of Mrs. A, Simon (Mr. Simon's. aunt) for a gift of cross-word puzzle book for presentation to Helen (her niece); nucleus of fad in New York Sunday World; the Rock of Gibraltar for

an infinite number. of other puzzle ’

books, and through its spectacular sales, the beginning of the S. & S. best-seller legend and tradition.” The Cross-Word Puzzle Book and its annual successors have sold 1,483,176 copies up-to-the first of this year. Mr. Simon’s book on photography is also detailed. Under “pivotal origin” Mr. Schuster wrote “RLS idea and interest in howe

raphy.” Under secondary source: “MLS presentation of camera. to Dick and Andrea for wedding gift.” Mr. Schuster once edited a book of -world events in photographs. On the list, under the head of re-

marks, he wrote, “The condemned man ate a hearty breakfast.” Both Messrs. S. and 8. insist

* they sell their books because they

publish what they feel people want to read. “We try to keep in touch with what’s going on around us,” Mr. Simon said. “We don’t want to feel we are publishers—far above or away from life. We try to keep very close to things. We try to retain our amateur standings .as human beings.” One of their ways to keep in touch with readers is to insert in every copy of their books a little post-paid card. The reader is asked to fill in the card, reporting what he: thought of the book, why he bought it in the first place, and anything else he can think of. In this simple direct fashion they are able to keep tabs on the effectiveness of certain types of advertising, the different advertising outlets, the power of individual critics, and so on.

* 5 =

PFTER reading “The. Art of Thinking,” one reader wrote in simply, “ ‘The Art of Thinking’ was written for me.” Mr. Schuster thought that was so good he made that crack the theme of the

- advertisements. A booksellers’ or=-

ganization voted it the best ad of the year. .~ Max Schuster was a former New York correspondent for the Boston Transcript. Dick 3imon was a salesman for the Aeclian Piano Co. Mr. Schuster’s offce was in

‘the Aeolian Building,

“Business was terrib! ‘le, sO one day I met Schuster,” ivr. Simon said. “It was raining, and I went up to see if he knew .anybody who wanted to buy a piano. I saw a

copy of ‘Jean Christophe’ on his -desk.

I've always loved music, and I thought anybody wha would be reading that book would have a lot in him. We became friends.” Then Mr. Simon'became a salesman for Boni &. Liveright and used to make a lot of advertising layouts. He always told Mr. Schuster he wished he was doing it for himself instead of for someone else. Affer getting musically drunk at a couple of Carnegie Hall concerts they decided .to go ahead. He still writes most. of the advertising for the firm.

NEXT—KILIAN AND VOPEL.

Side Glances

Everyday: Movies—By Wortman

“Gregory. darling, |

e matc od to see wiih h of ourhusbands: would:

+ ALLA th SPAS tb HL

wn 03

ass,

T - “iggsedmew pg

1—Which State

TEST YOUR" KNOWLEDGE

is called “Apache State?” 2—If two children are horn of ‘the sanie-mother a .day apart are they twins? 3—Name the administrator of - the WPA. 4—Where is the mative habitat .of the chimpanzee? 5—How many cubic feet are in -one cubic yard? +6—In which country is the seaport. city of Callao? 7—Who succeeded Col. Jacob Ruppert as president of the New York Yankees? ‘8—Name the capital of Amert= can Samoa. % tJ 8 =

Answers :

2—Yes. 3—Col. Francis ¢. Harrington, 4—Equatorial Africa. 527. ; 6—Peru, : T—Edward G. Barrow. 8—Pago Pago. i

ASK THE TIMES

Inclose a 3-cent stamp - for “when addressing ‘any "question of fact or. info Indianapolis’

Washinton v 1013 13a 8, N.

PAGE 11

or Town

By Anton Scherrer

Here Are Some More Interesting tems, Lacking Which No History Of Indianapolis Would Be Complete.

ORE memorablia set down for the future use of him or her who may one day attempt a history of Indianapolis and tell everything there is to tell, not forgetting ‘what happened to John W. Holtzman back

in the summer of 1900: On that day, Mr. Holtzman came walking down Meridian St. when in the neighborhood of Walnut St., he spied a little lemonade stand out on the pave=

ment. It was in charge of the _ Parry boys, Addison and Maxwell. “How much is it?” asked Mr. Holtzman. “This glass is 3 cents, and this one is a nickel,” they told him. Fumbling in his vest pocket, Mr. Holtzman found three pennies, and said he’d take the 3-cent kind. He drank it, smacked his lips, and then asked the boys why they had two kinds of lemonade. “Why, our pup fell into the 3-cent kind,” said Ad. Somewhat in the same tradition is the story of Louis Hollweg and the house at 1121 N. Pennsylvania St. You may recall that when I reviewed the history of the old house the other day, I dismissed Mr. ‘Hollweg with the tantalizing remark that, once upon a time, he bought the house, but never moved his family into it. Today, I'm in a position to tell you why. Seems that Mr. Hollweg was walking down 'Pennsylvania St. one day back in the Eighties when a crowd in ‘front of No. 1121 attracted his attention. He joined the group to see what it was all about, and next thing he knew he was watching an auction. That same moment, he noticed a friend waving at him. Mr. Hollweg ‘nodded in return. There was a crash of the hammer. “Sold to Mr. Hollweg fof $24,000.” He was stuck with the Fletcher house.

The Report Was Unfavorable

Well, that same evening, in whatgis now remems- ° bered as an outstanding exhibition of aplomb, Mr. Hollweg told his family about their new home on Pennsylvania St. Next morning, bright and early, : Mrs. Hollweg went over to see it and reported that if Mr. Hollweg expected her to run the place, he’d have to arrange for three more servants. At least that number, she said. Why, it would keep one girl busy all week dusting down the woodwork, said Mrs, Hollweg. - Moreover, there was the matter of stepladders. The Hollweg menage, she announced, didn’t have a single stepladder tall enough to reach the 14-foot-high ceilings. Which is why the Hollwegs went right on living at 9563 N. Meridian St. Carl Prinzler remembers, too, that when he went to work for the Vonnegut people more than 50 years ago, they had their place of business on E. Washington St., next door to Edward Mueller’s cheese store. When it came time for the Vonnegut people to move to their present location, the hardest problem they had to lick, says Mr. Prinzler, was to convince blind people that they were in the right place. The new Vonnegut store didn’t smell right, they said.

Jane Jordan— Boy Assured Inability to Go With One Girl Is Normal for Teen Age.

EAR JANE JORDAN—I am a high school pupil of 17 and I am somewhat bothered by the woman situation. When I meet a girl I can usually get a date . with her. After I get the date and I like her, I give her a big rush. Then one of two things happens: I either get a cold shoulder because of my ardent attention or I get the girl's complete attention, in which case I get tired of her and drop. her. I want to make love to a girl immensely, but if she lets me I immediately get tired of her and go after other girls. Now just what is wrong with me? E. M.

Mr. Scherrer

Answer—There is nothing wrong with you. You're just young and: afraid of women. Of course theyre so attractive that you can’t let them alone, but the minute one of them gives you a little encouragement you protect yourself from getting in too deep by losing interest. It is a sort of “sour grapes” arrangement that you have with yourself. . At 17 a boy is struggling hard against the tie to his mother and trying to center his affection outside the family. His first experiments bring him many mishaps. Adolescence is not the period of constancy ‘and stability in love, but of trial and error. Most people can come through the fickle era of the teens fairly well. The chances are that you will, 400, : 2 = = EAR JANE JORDAN—I am 18, In love with a man of 26.: My mother does not think him too old. He goes with another girl who is 18 also. When she was out of town he paid quite a bit of attention to me. When she came back he saw her often. My bewilderment as to whether he is in love with the other girl or not has made me very nervous. I know I love him because when I go with other boys I think of him and anything they do irritates me.

I am sure this is a crisis in my life. How am I to find out how much he cares for me? PUZZLED.

Answer—If only I could persuade you not to take your first love affair so hard! You don’t realize how fusual it is for a young girl to first set her heart on an older man and endure all sorts of sweet agonies in his behalf. But believe me, she usually recovers and the wounding experience doesn’t even leave a scar. A year; trom now you may wonder what on earth you saw in this man to cause such a stir. JANE JORDAN.

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

New Books Today Public Library Presents—

9 Gi about 2000 years since you left Palestine,” said the captain of the ship which was carrying Ernst Harthern to the Holy Land. going home.” Twelve generations of his ancient Jewish family had lived and died in Germany. He himself is one

“And now you're

‘| of the thousands of “assimilated” Jews whose hearts

and spirits have found their homes in the land long since adopted by their forefathers, and whose lives have been so brutally wrenched by the successive antiSemitic measures of the last five years. GOING HOME (Bobbs-Merrill) is his story of his three months’ stay in Palestine—of first acquaintance with the national home of his wandering race. It is an honest and a moving book, for even. the feverish desire to find his haven there does not prevent the author from seeing the hard lives which some have to lead, from appreciating the miserlin of the land. + And it is a pathetic book, too. For here in this land. for good or for i, we find doctors lawyers,