Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 28 June 1939 — Page 13

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 28, 1939

PIR or Raw

SECOND SECTION

Hoosier Vagabond

MESA VERDE PARK, Colo, June 28.—The new mummy and I arrived at Mesa Verde the same day.

Fortunately, I had a White House press card in my pocket, so the scientists had littie trouble distinguishing between us. It was quite an event to be here when the new mummy came. For it is, they sav, the finest mummy ever found in America. It is in a perfect state of preservation after these hundreds of years. The mummy was found by Carnegie scientists last fall, in a cave over near Durango, some 40 miles east of here. The Carnegie people studied it all winter, and now have given it to Mesa Verde Museum. The mummy arrived by express, in a big wocden box marked “This Side Up.” Don Watson, the park’s ranger-naturalist, invited me to the uncrating or unveiling or whatever you call it. “We're going to excavate a mummy this afternoon,” he laughed. The box was down in the museum’s basement. Don pried off the top boards, and then started taking out wadded-up newspapers by the score. About half way down we came to the mummy. “Well, there's Susie,” Watson said. After that we all called her “Susie,” or sometimes “Susie Q.” Don lifted “Susie” out of the box and placed her on the carpenter's workbench.

= 2 n Puzzles the Scientists

The mummies found in America are rot like the famous Egyptian mummies. The Egyptians knew the science of muwmmification. They prepared the bodies by a certain process. and then wrapped and rewrapped them, around and arcund. But our Indians did nothing like that. All they did was just drag the dear departed to the back of the cave and leave her there amiast the trash. This thin, dry air down here did the rest. The bodies simply dried up, like old watermelon rinds. Their only covering was a blanket, made of turkey feathers woven into a fiber network. Usually some pottery and a jar of shelled corn were set beside the body.

. Our Town

Anybody old enough to remember the Grand Opera House will recall Tim Murphy—not only because of his sentimental plays but because of his robust curtain speeches. I guess I saw most of Mr. Murphy's plays, but the oae that sticks in my memory is “Old Innocence.” He brought it to Indianapolis about 40 years ago and I distinctly recall that it was right around Christmas week. At any rate, that was the reason given for the small audience that night. It was the reason, too. for the kind of curtain speech Mr. Murphy -made that night. Once upon a time, said Mr. Murphy, a company of actors found themselves stranded in Hot Springs, Ark. The manager had skipped with all the box office receipts. It looked pretty blue and there's no telling what might have happened had not the manager of the opera house at Little Rock turned up with a proposition. He said that if the company could scrape up enough money to carry it to Little Rock he would tender the use of his opera house free for one week, at the end of which time the proceeds would no doubt be sufficient to take the whole party back to New York.

» = » A Rude Awakening

The proposition was immediately accepted and by pawning their jewelry and most of their wardrobe, the members of the stranded troupe got together enough money to buy railroad tickets to Little Rock. It was a gay and lighthearted company that reached the Arkansas metropolis on the evening be-

* Washington

WASHINGTON, June 28 —Recently I reported the testimony of Judd Dewey, Deputy Commissioner of Savings-Bank Insurance in Massachusetts, who described to the O'Mahoney Committee the operation of Savings-Bank Life Insurance and gave comparative

tables to net costs, which he said were lower under the bank operation than those of regular insurance companies operating in the state. This testimony has aroused intense controversy in the insurance world and has brought to me numerous letters giving the other side of the argument. I quote from some of these as follows: Agent, Indianapolis: “The much despised life insurance agent is nevertheless the cornerstone on which the American life insurance companies have built and the very kevstone of the arch. Indeed his work-day and night and seven-day week has made it possible at this late date to sell some life insurance over the counter. He has created his own competition and may perhaps destroy his job.” E. R, New York: “Life insurance is purchased mainly as a result of the educational work of the agent. Month after month. year after year, the agent is presenting to the public the value of various forms of insurance. Ultimately the individual becomes aware of the value and necessity of insurance and the next agent to call appears to fall heir to some easy unearned commissions. Once in a great while, the individual has been so well educated that he acts automatically and goes out and applies to the Massachusetts savings bank plan and the savings bank has written a policy without the use of such ah agent.”

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Calls It a Parasite

A. S., Chicago: “The life insurance furnished by the mutual savings banks in Massachusetts makes the remarkable showing which it does because it is a

My Day

HE PARK, Tuesday.—I started off bright and early this morning. In the first place I was much flattered to be asked to go to Beacon to see -a head which Mr. Jo Davidson had just finished of Secretary Morgenthau. It is a remarkable thing to have in your hands the power to make a lump of clay come alive and, not only look like some one, but give the feel of the personality which lies behind the features. From there I drove across the Mid-Hudson Bridge to meet Mr. Karl Hesley, the State Director of the NYA, and a number of other gentlemen,. whom I had kept waiting for 25 minutes. I was deeply apologetic, but we made up the time on the trip to Woodstock, where we were going so that I might lay the cornerstone for an NYA building. They had planned first to take me to a resident center where the boys are living temporarily, while they build their own workshop and sleeping quarters for this new resident project. The City of Kingston has donated the land, about 40 acres. and it will be an ideal place for teaching a variety of skills. The community is very much interested and I can imagine no more wonderful place for these boys yo be, for all around them are people who are experts 2} a : ET 2

By Ernie Pyle

® It is by these trappings that the scientists usually place the: age of a mummy. But they are a littie baffled by Susie. There is conflicting evidence. For one thing, they've found stuff of the “basket-maker” era in the cave with her. That would place her approximately between the vear one and 70 A. D. Yet, if Susie were a Basket Maker, she would be tiny. The Basket Makers were seldom over 5 feet tall. But Susie is tall. Must be 5 feet 4 or so. Park Superintendent Nusbaum gave me a thrill when he said, “We wouldn't be surprised to find evidence taking her back to B. C.” That would make Susie 2000 years old. And here was E. T. Pyle holding her in his arms! 2 2 »

Not a Beauty, Anyway

Susie is so well preserved that there is only one break of the skin on her whole body. That is on her back—a place about half as big as a saucer. She is brown, and her skin is like rawhide. : Her legs are drawn up against her stomach, for that was the burial custom at the time. Her toes and fingers are as natural as though she had just died a little while ago. Her hair is brownish-black, and cut in the sort of boyish bob that was the style in those days. She was a buxom lass, with an enormous chest. She was about 20 when she died. And now we come to Susie's face. It’s a good thing the Indians didn’t have clocks in those days, for Susie's face would have stopped them all. I believe she would even have stopped a sun-dial. Apparently she died a horrible death. Her entire expression is one of intense agony. There are no marks to indicate violence. So we can only assume that Susie died from a green apple stomach-ache. Or maybe just from being so ugly. Susie weighs 16 pounds. In her hey-day, she probably tipped the beam at 140. Don Watson carried her up to his office and laid her on top of his desk. Then he stood and looked at her. “Here I've been waiting for this moment for months,” he said. “And now that we've got her she’s so hideous I hate to put her on exhibition.” This morning I was up early. I prowled over to the Museum and peeked in the window, and Susie was still lying there on top of the desk, as nonchalantIv as a paper weight. She hadn't got any better looking during the night, either.

By Anton Scherrer

fore the opening. The play to be put was adequately advertised and the manager of the opera hecuse assured the company that they would have a big week's business. Assured of success, the troupe piled into the bus at the station feeling entirely too prosperous to walk to the hotel. There was just room enough in the bus for all but one of the company and so the “heavy” man of the troupe volunteered to sit on the seat with the driver. With a condescending wave of the hand, the actor opened a conversation with his neighbor—something like this: “This is the first visit I have ever paid to Little Rock, but I think I shall come to like it. That magnificent sunset over there—I've never seen anything like it in my life.” And the heavy man pointed to a great ball of red fire outlined against the sky. “Sunset,” said the disgusted driver. “That's the oprey house burning down.”

Sequel to the Comedy

What happened after Mr. Murphy's visit was even funnier. Soon as Mr. Murphy left the Grand Opera House, John Hare and his distinguished English cumpany moved in. Mr. Hare's play was “A Pair of Spectacles,” a comedy he had heen playing in London for gootness knows how many years. I don’t expect you to believe it, but it’s the gospel truth that when we want to see “A Pair of Spectacles,” it turned out to be exactly the same play Mr. Murphy had put on the previous week. Mr. Hare was the maddest man you ever saw when he found it out. He said he had no idea there was a pirated edition of his play until he came to Indianapolis. That's what I mean when I keep reiterating that Indianapolis is a place where anything can happen and usually does.

By Raymond Clapper

parasite, first, upon the mutual savings banks themselves, which have absorbed and allocated to the banking departments the overhead expense of the life insurance department; second. upon the institution of legal reserve insurance, whose agents have educated the public to the needs for life insurance, resulting in their purchasing that much more life insurance from the mutual savings banks.” H. E, Pittsburgh: “I am not in the life insurance business but I am a great believer in life insurance and I have always been satisfied with the terms of my policies and they have all been sold toc me by men whom I consider first class in integrity and reputation. The amount of insurance which has been terminated as against that which has been written does not represent frustration of the original idea with which the policyholder took out his insurance. I took out insurance in the amount of $7500 as a protection on the mortgage on my home. After the mortgage was paid off, the protection was not necessary and the insurance was terminated. Does that sound like frustration of the original idea? . . .”

Committee Seeks Light

Most of the letters which I have received stoutly defend the life insurance agent and assume that the TNEC investigation is aimed at them. I am not the one to speak for the committee but I feel safe in saying that the committee is not gunning for life insurance agents nor for anyone else. It is assembling the data that will throw some light on whether life insurance is too expensive. Chairman O'Mahoney has said that in the last 50 years premium income was sufficient, except in four years, to pay all claims, leaving the income from investment of reserves as velvet. In view of this situation, and with assets increasing at the rate of one billion dollars a year, until they now amount to some 28 billion dollars, the committee felt warranted in studying the circumstances and effects of this extremely important element of our economy, as New York State did when it put Charles E. Hughes on the job 30 years ago.

By Eleanor Roosevelt

in some art or craft who, at the same time, have made a study of a way of life which should be helpful. I was pleased to find how much interest the

Mayor of Kingston took in the NYA projects. He invited me to see the NYA work center in Kingston, where young people have been doing over school and park furniture. The project also seems to have won the interest of the community and sometime I hope to have time to see it. ‘ Now I must tell you that I have just finished a book which is an unforgettable experience in reading. “Grapes of Wrath” by John Steinbeck, both repels and attracts you. The horrors of the picture, so well drawn, made you dread sometimes to begin the next chapter, and yet you cannot lay the book down or even skip a page. Somewhere I saw the criticism that this book was antireligious. but somehow I cannot imagine thinking of “Ma” without, at the same time, thinking of the love “that passeth all undetstanding.” The book is coarse in spots, but life is coarse in spots, and the story is very beautiful in spots just as life is. We do not dwell upon man’s lower nature any more than we have to in lite, but we know it exists and we pass over it charitably and are surprised how much there is of fineness that comes out of the baser clay. Even from life's sorrows some good inust come. What could be a better illustration than. the closing chapter of this book? ,

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GIRLS AT CAMP

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Times Photos. Three hundred Marion and Hancock County girls were getting ready to pack their swimming suits, tennis rackets and other vacation equipment today as the annual 4-H Club camp at the Boy Scout Reservation drew to a close. 1. It's time to get up when the alarm clock sounds at 8 a.’ m. Doing half their “daily dozen” in bed are these two campers, Joan Anderson (upper deck) and Barbara Delong. 2. Mrs. Esther Sohl coaches beginning swimmers from the sidelines, giving them instruction first in proper movement of the legs. +. 3. With their towels and tooth brushes Elda Harris (left) and Mary Myrle White head for the showers. 4. Joan Tracey apparently has no fears of high places. . 5. Not all is sports at the 4-H Club camp. Miss Virginia Richards (right) instructs Bernice Kendall (left) and Elaine Edwards (center) in handicraft work. . 6. After a busy morning it’s time for lunch. 7. A good, fast game of tennis is the next thing on the program for Phyllis Hyde (left) and Mary Glosshrenner. -. Miss Janice Berlin, Marion County Home demonstration agent, was

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TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE

1—Which of the Great Lakes is wholly within the boundaries of the U.-S.? . 2—1Is the turkey a native American bird? 3—Who was recently nominated as Ambassador to Chile by President Roosevelt? 4—_What is orography? 5—How many times did Bobby Jones win the U. S. National Open golf championship? 6—How is 1776 written in Roman numerals? T—What river borders New York State on the north?

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Answers

1—Lake Michigan. 2-—-Yes. 3—Claude G. Bowers. 4—-That branch of physical geography which treats of mountains. 5—Four. 6—-MDCCLXXVI. T—St. Lawrence.

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In and Out of the Red With Sam

"Sure we lose again, 'cause the forty dollars we gotta spend to take him to the fight has gotta come outa that price and it ain't