Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 8 April 1939 — Page 9

Vagabond

From Indiana —Emie Pyle

Marksmanship Like Food and Drink To Ad and Plinky Topperwein, for 40 Years Top-Ranking Sharpshooters.

SAN ANTONIO, April 8. They call him Ad, which is short for Adolph. They call her Plinky, because when she was learning to shoot she'd keep saying, “Throw up another one, and I'll plink it.” Ad and Plinky Topperwein are one of the great shooting teams in the world. They've been making their living by fancy shooting fer nearly 40 years. There was never a gun-toter in the old Southwest who would have stood & show if he'd ever had to draw against Ad Topperwein. > Yet Topperwein has never been called upon to defend his life with a gun, and hopes he never will. The nearest approach was many years ago when an escaped lunatic tried to get in the house. And on him, Ad used a club! Ad was born a few miles north of San Antonio. His father was a gunsmith, and Ad started shooting when he was 6. He will be 70 his next birthday. He apparently shoots now as well as he ever did. They have a farm outside of town, where they go to shoot whenever they're here. Their son Lawrence was telling me about it. His father pulled off a series of difficult shots. And Lawrence’s mother said, “Isn't he wonderful. I don’t see how the old fool does it.” Which I suspect is slightly rhetorical, because if there's one thing Plinky Topperwein loves more than shooting, it’s her husband. They've been married nearly 40 vears, and she still adores him. Topperwein also is an artist. His first job was a chalk etcher on one of the San Antonio newspapers. Even today, drawing is his hobby, and his outlet for nervous energy. His drawings can be found on windows, walls, doors and mirrors all over the Southwest. The owners are proud of them, and leave them there. Lawrence is even a better artist than his father. He worked for many years as a newspaper artist. He is a reporter now, and loves the newspaper business. Incidentally, he couldn’ hit the Municipal Auditorium at 20 paces. When he was young, Ad Topperwein traveled with a circus, doing trick shooting. They spent a winter in Mexice, astounding the crowds. Then the Winchester Arms Co. heard of his ability and hired him to go about the country giving sharpshooting exhibitions. That was 39 years ago, and he’s still at it, for the same company.

She Hadn't Forgotten

On one of his early visits to the Winchester plant at New Haven, Conn. he met “Plinky.” They were married. It was pretty tough for her at first. She'd either have to stay home, or else go on these exhibition trips and just twiddle her thumbs. So she said if her husband could shoot, why couldn't she? She made him teach her. And it wasn't long until she was as good a shot as her husband. Then Winchester hired her too. For 29 years the world’s greatest shooting couple traveled the continent together. Six years ago the Winchester people, for economy or something, dropped Mrs. Topperwein, and it almost broke har heart. She is still sad over it, and wishes she could go on the road again. Left at home, Plinky turned to other things for recreation. She started bowling. She got so interested in it that for a year she hardly shot at all. Then one day her husband said he felt she'd been bowling too much and had forgotten how to shoot. So they drove out to the farm. Plinky was hurt, and scared stiff too. “Maybe I have forgotten how to shoot,” she thought. If he were right, she was disgraced in her husband's eyes, and in her own too. Ad started tossing targets into the air. One by one, linky picked them off. Her old confidence came back. Before they were through, she had gone through their entire old routine without missing a shot. She hadn't forgotten. Never was there a happier woman.

My Day

By Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt

Across the Continent by Plane; Weather Fair Until Last Stop.

TEW YORK CITY, Friday.—Not until just outside et of Newark, N. J, yesterday afternoon, did we encounter any really bad weather. We had a slight flurry of snow Wednesday night, a beautiful sunrise as we came into Fargo. N. D, through a bed of fleecy clouds in fog, a slight snowstorm in Minneapolis, Minn, and good weather in Chicago. That is the log of my trip so far as the weather goes! In Minneapolis the press was particularly wide awake, it being fairly early in the moming. However, they did allow me to wash my face and hands and comb my hair before they asked me to be photographed First 1 stood with a very attractive young woman who carried a sweet youngster dressed entirely in lye. Then, they evidently thought contrast was what was needed, so, while they told me that the baby was taking her third trip by air, they discovered an elderly lady who was starting for Denver, Colo., on her first trip, and they asked us to sit together for a photograph.

A Person Unafraid

I was glad to do this, for she had a most interesting face. I discovered that she had been away from home for two years, evidently dividing her time with different members of her family. Her last visit had’ been in the South, after which she stopped with her sister in Minneapolis. Now she had had made up her mind that traveling by air would be easier than a long train trip for a person who walked with a cane and had arthritis, and was going home to her daughter in Colorado that way. Her sister leaned over us while we talked and said: “If I were taking this trip, I wouldn't have slept for a week, but my sister isn't afraid of anything.” The expression on her old face looked as though that were true. Most of my day today has been spent in trying on spring and summer clothes. I also saw, what was, I thought, a very large group of the press and photographers in June Hamilton Rhodes office, where I told the story of the woolen material which the American wool growers are giving to the Queen of England, and the wool growers of the Dominion are giving to me. This reciprocal gift is made so that we may both meet in perfect comfort in sheer woolen dresses on the 8th of June in the city of Washington, D. C. I am hoping for a cool day!

Day-by-Day Science

By Science Service ARWIN as the spiritual leader for the sick world and a system of morals and society based on his understanding of man’s rise and place in nature— that is the naturalistic philosophy of the California zoologist, Dr. William E. Ritter, honorary president of Science Service. Dr. Ritter, long a student of man and nature, finds that an understanding of morality can best be arrived at, as Darwin did, by “an adequate analytic description and definition of the human species, Homo sapiens.” This implies a human and scientific definition of right conduct, not one divinely revealed or obtained a priori, from cause to effect. Viewing his fellow scientists, Dr. Ritter senses ® strong tendency, especially recently, to conceive science in such a way as to virtually exclude from it the sort of work that led the great Darwin to his theory of evolution. One prominent biologist has contended that Darwin's treatment of the moral problem has “no scientific validity” which to Dr. Ritter is the same as saying that Darwin's treatment of the nature and origin of the living world does not stand up scientifically.

The Indianapolis

Second Section

SATURDAY, APRIL 8 1939

Entered as Setond-Class Matter at Postoffice, Indianapolis, Ind.

RR AR AEA

IE

Indianapolis bowed its head in Good Friday worship as it anticipated Easter. 1—Kneeling before one of the stations during the Way of the Cross at Obelisk Square are (left to right) the Rev. Edward McLaughlin of St. Meinrad's Abbey;

the Rt. Rev. Msgr. M. W. Lyons, Our Lady of Lourdes Church pastor, and the Rev. Malo Topmiller, also of St. Meinrad'’s.

2—The cross bearer and acolytes for the procession. 3—Part of the overflow crowd at Christ Church.

Times Photos. 4A section of the crowd at English's Theater.

5—Boy Scouts formed a lane for the procession at the

Obelisk Square services.

6—The little girl pictured at a downtown flower store, thinks this Easter lily is just the one for mother to buy.

Side Glances

Yet the g

TEST YOUR

KNOWLEDGE

1—Name the republic of Central America between Nicaragua and Panama.

2—What is the first name of the compiler of Webster's dictionary? 3—What kind of food contains the most fodine? 4—Name the second planet, 5—Was South Carolina one of the thirteen original states? 6—Does the Chief Justice of the U. S. Supreme Court cast his vote only in case of a tie? 7—With what sport is the name of Paul Runyan associated? ” J 2

Answers 1—Costa Rica. 2—Noah. 3—sShellfish, particularly oysters, clams and lobsters. 4—Saturn. 5—Yes. 6—No; he votes on decisions the same as the Associate Justices. 7—Golf.

® # ® ASK THE TIMES Inclose a 8-cent stamp for reply when addressing any question of faet or information to The Indianapolis Times Washington Service Bureau, 1013 13th St, N. W,, ton, D. C. Legal

largest

Everyday Movies—By Wortman

Wartman

Mepey Dick and the Duke

as well en«

PAGE 9

Our Town

By Anton Scherrer

Jose Families Made Quite a Colony And Operated a Community Table With Pleasant Resuits All Around.

N an Easter Eve like this when all the world is spoiling for a fight, almost my only comfort is the Jose family and the social experiment they started around here some 30 years ago. The Jose family, as far as Indianapolis is concerned, started with Nicholas Jose and his wife, Johanna, who came to this city in 1847. He acquired

a large tract of land on the South Side on which he

built a homestead and a big truck garden. The entrance was by way of a little gate on the corner of what is now Orange and State Sts. The estate was quite a distance from what was then the town of Indianapolis and was approached by a road which was the continuation of Virginia Ave. A toll gate stood at South St. Mr. Jose used the road only when he had to mar= ket his crops, but once, in 1854, he made a special trip to town to help Mr. Scherrer organize the Indianapolis Maennerchor, along with Edouard Dongerich, Gottfried Recker and Adolph Schellschmidt Sr.

The one ambition of Mr. Jose was to keep his family together and with this idea in mind he divided part of his property which faced Orange St. into large building lots and gave one to each of his chil« dren with the understanding that they should build and live on them. There were nine children in all— four boys and five girls—and when the plan was put into effect, Orange St. was mostly a matter of Joses, Fact is, it was called Joseville, By this time, though, the Jose girls had different names, like Mrs, Charles Adam (1815), for instance, and Mrs. John Rhodehamel (1730), Mrs. Julius Frick (1802), Mrs. Peter Balz (1810), and Mrs. Barnard Stokesberry (1814)-——the parenthetical number in each case referring to their Orange St. address. As for the boys, they answered to the names of Victor, Gus= tave, Herman J. and Oscar.

Big Bell Summoned Clan

Well, in 1905 the great social experiment was pulled off, the like of which had never been seen around here. Nor since, for that matter. Believe it or not, it was the spectacle of nine (9) families eating har= moniously under one roof. Three meals a day, mind you. By this time the nine (9) Jose families ems braced 41 people. Apparently it had occurred to one of the Joses that it would be a great saving of labor and expense if the families could all arrange to eat together, buy their groceries in wholesale lots and employ servants in common. Accordingly an ample dining hall was built back of the row of houses. It stood back of the Rhodehamel’s place (1730), the geographical center of Joseville, and it was part of Mrs. R's business to ring a big dinner bell to call the clan together. Fach family had a separate table and the meals were run on a strictly co-operative plan. One cook presided over the kitchen assisted by the necessary dishwashers and waiters. The menus were made by the nine (9) ladies in turn, each serving for a period of a month, after which there was an eight-months vacation before her tum came again. It was the slickest labor-saving device ever invented and what's more, it worked. It lasted seven (7) years, the equivalent of 1095 meals, and the only reason it stopped was because some of the Joses moved to the North Side. Some of the children, too, got oid enough to go to college, and with this and that, there weren't enough left to make it worthwhile. It lasted seven years, though, mind you. The old dining hall is still standing, but not in its original place. It was changed into a cottage and moved back of Victor Jose's old home (1820) which, by the way, is the site of Nicholas Jose's homestead, the man who wanted his children around him,

Jane Jordan— Man Seeking Freedom Urged, for Child's Sake, Not to Leave Home.

EAR JANE JORDAN=I have a much bothered soul. A desire to leave my wife and child is wearing on my nerves, but yet I feel that it would be doing them a great wrong, a wrong that would always exist in my conscience. I wouldn't want to forget them. I would still want to help the child, but I have fallen in love with freedom. I want a taste of free life to do as I please, go where I please and enjoy a little variety, But first I want to be free from my wife. I do not drink or dance, but I enjoy such things as tennis and fishing. It is a delicate thing to say, but I believe my wife and I are mismated. It just isn’t in me to cheat. To be callous enough to do such a thing with my wife's knowledge wouldn't be my way of enjoying life. I want to enjoy more than just the impulse of living. I want the emoe tional value with it which I feel I do not have with my wife. Don’t tell me to talk it over with her, for I do not want her to know how I feel. It only would mean a tantrum on *:r part, and I would never cease to hear of it from her. What would be your solution to such a problem? A YOUTH IN DISTRESS.

» ” »

Answer—] would think first of the child. The damaging effects of divorce upon children is becoming more and more apparent. I don’t say that a broken home is any worse in its effects than a home where the parents hate each other, for I do not know that it is. I am afraid that if you deserted your wife, she would despise you for it and teach the child to hate you. This would hurt you, but not half as much as it would hurt the child. However much you may dream of freedom, the facts are that you aren't free and can’t be without doing your child a great deal of harm. The trouble with you is that you are afraid of your wife. In some way she has secured the upper hand and you are afraid even to talk to her, afraid to let her know of your dissatisfaction, Your ime pulse is to run from her instead of facing it out. In other words, she has damaged your masculine self-esteem. You certainly give her tantrums plenty of power and as long as she can control a situation by having a tantrum she will continue to do so. She would respect you a lot more if you had the strength of character to control her. Your cue is to get the upper hand yourself. Why do you allow your wife to rule the roost? Peace— it’s wonderful, but not peace at any price. I should think that you both could consult a psychiatrist with profit. JANE JORDAN.

Put vour problems in a letter to J answer your questions in this column daily, Jordan. whe Will

New Books Today

Public Library Presents—

N THREE GUINEAS (Harcourt), Virginia Woolf once more champions the rights of women. Termed by many England's most distinguished woman novele ist, Miss Woolf challenges the civilization created and ruled by men educated for the task in the centuries old institutions which have been traditionally mascue line. The book would seem to bear out the familiar “Men must work, and women must weep”; but the work of the world appears to be man’s prerogative, while the feminine lament is for the discrimination against women in the professions. Written in epistle form the book is a protest against the narrow scope of women’s activity and influence. It is undoubtedly a truer picture of life among the ypper classes’ of England than of this country. Miss Woolf

discusses women’s p in the prevention of war and