Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 26 December 1939 — Page 11
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TUESDAY, DECEMBER 26, 1939
SECOND SECTION
Hoosier Vagabond
MERCEDES, “The Valley,” Tex. Dec. 26.—On the assumption (possibly false) that everybody in AmerIca is just splitting to own a grapefruit grove, I will continue today to shovel out the grapefruit dope. There are some 9000 individual owners of citrus groves " in this valley. In addition, there are many vegetable farms. The Valley holds the biggest vegetable farm in the world. But big farms are the exception. Most of the groves are in small plots. The average is probably not more than 10 acres. And oddly enough, nearly two-thirds of the grove owners don’t live here at all. They are people who invested their savings, continued their businesses back home, and come here just for the winter, if at all. They hire professional orchardists to care for their groves. Even if they lived here they'd have to hire professionals anyway. For it's like this: Suppose you own a 10-acre grove. tractors and big spraying machines. Ten acres isn't enough to carry an overhead like that. So you contract with some professional, who has the equipment to care for yours and many other groves. I talked with one up-on-his-toes grower who owns about 100 acres of trees himself, and manages and cares for 600 acres belonging to other people. One odd thing about citrus growing is that the grower’s work ceases when the fruit is mature. He doesn’t harvest it himself. Not one grower out of a thousand does his own picking. That is done by the packing company which buys his fruit.
You must have
® & 4 The Christmas Spirit
The harvesting and selling of a crop is called a “deal.” There is the “vegetable deal,” the “citrus deal,” the “tomato deal.” I have asked a dozen people, but none knew why this word came into this use. Also you never hear the word “orchard.” It's always “grove.” The citrus “deal” lasts all winter. It starts in early fall, and the state sets a certain spring date
Our Town
MORE MEMORABILIA for the book. Item 1: Back in the Nineties every Indianapolis home blessed with eligible daughters had a couple of so-called “confidence cushions.” They were big square
pillows without frills covered, as a rule, with denim or mohair plush. When not in use, they stood in the corner of the parlor near the fireplace. When in use, they were placed at the girl's feet, thus affording a seating place for the lowly individual who wanted to look up into his sweetheart’s eyes. Item 2: The first piano seen around here was the one in the wagon load which brought James Blake and his bride, Eliza Spoule of Baltimore, to Indianapolis in 1831. Legend has it that it was the same piano that inspired the best poem Dan Paine ever wrote, The poem was 12 stanzas long and was supposed to picture the lovely Mrs. Blake sitting at the keyboard: “She sat at the old piano, Her fingers thin and pale Ran over the yellow keyboard The chords of a minor scale.” = = »
Napoleon's Gun
Item 3: Back in the Nineties, the Rev. Aaron Walker of North Indianapolis had what was generally known around here as “the Napoleon gun.” As near as I recall, the story ran something like this: During the Battle of the Pyramids there was a time when Napoleon's army appeared to be licked. At any rate, his men were fast becoming disheartened. Napoleon, seeing that something had to be done, jumped from his horse, grabbed a gun from a fallen soldier, took his place in the front ranks and began firing at the enemy. Inspired by the sight, the soldiers went to it with renewed vigor and in a short time the battle was won. After the fight, Napoleon was entertained by the Khedive of Egypt and when he departed for France,
Washington
WASHINGTON, Dec. 26.—John W. Hanes, a Wall Street broker, came to Washington a few years ago
to work for the Roosevelt Administration. First he was on the Securities & Exchange Commission. Then he went to the Treasury, and he has just resigned as Undersecretary. He is a man of large affairs and could not neglect them indefinitely. A recent incident in the life of John Hanes tells a good deal about him, about the Government and about businessmen who occupy their leisure hours complaining of Washington. Mr. Hanes went to an important commercial city to make a speech. Before the meeting began, he listened in the general conversation, to the usual complaints. One banker was almost apoplectic in his rage against Washington. After Mr. Hanes made his speech, questions began and the banker leaped to hi: feet demanding to know why businessmen could find nobody in Washington except crackpots, 2 8 =
He Didn't Accept
“Well, my friend, I'll tell you,” replied Mr. Hanes “I find that patriotism stops at about $30,000 a year. At this very moment I am looking for a man to help us in the Treasury on matters relating to business and taxes. I get $9000 a year. This job I am trying to fill pays only $8000. But I know vou are a good banker. a civic leader in your community and just the kind of man we need to bring an understanding of business problems into our tax work. I know $3000 a year isn't very much. But it is all the Government will pay. However, I'll make you a proposition. If you will take the job, I'll add $1000 a year to your
My Day
WASHINGTON, Monday. —Saturday was really a hectic day for me, ending up with a few minutes broadcast right in the middle of dinner, but everyone else went gaily on eating and I was back before the next course was served. Since it was Jimmy's birthday, we all drank his health and sent him a round-robin telegram. We tried very hard at dinner to make the President enter into a real old-fashioned, family argument, but he said the Christmas spirit was upon him and he was not going to argue with anyone! Sunday was divided between church in the morning, where we were reminded that, though it might be Christmas eve, still the fourth Sunday in Advent was what the church was celebrating, and we could not expect to sing only Christmas carols. I have to own that the grandchildren and I felt much more like Christmas carols! After lunch, we dressed the family Christmas tree: Anna and John had taken their ride in the morning, but Maj. Hooker and I managed to have a short ride in the afterngon. Then all the family attended the lighting of the municipal tree at 5 o'clock and listened to the Pxgsident’s Christmas message. I like very muh the letters which the President
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By Ernie Pyle
when every grapefruit must be off the tree. This is because of an annual fruit-fly infestation. If you haven't sold all your grapefruit by this date, then you must pick it and bury it deep in the ground. Shipping of Christmas gift baskets is a spectacular thing in the Valley around holiday time. All these thousands of winter visitors, and the local people too, send baskets of fruit to their freezing friends back home. The packers do them up in fancy Mexican baskets, mix up grapefruit and oranges and tangerines and kumquats, and you've really got a basket for a King. EJ = = Lack Unity of Action There is little unity of action in the citrus business, and that is the Valley's downfall. Anything as perishable as fruit comes on fast, is here but a little while, and goes away like lightning. And your chance is gone until next year. Because of an every-man-for-himself attitude, growers begin to cut prices the minute a “deal” opens. The little, hard-pressed fellows have to have some cash, and will undersell their neighbors. That knocks the whole thing down. You and I buy our grapefruit at the grocery at so much per individual grapefruit. But the grower sells by the ton. Althought they have gone up since, grapefruit have been down to $4 a ton this winter. You can’t produce them for much less than $6 a ton. There are approximately 2000 grapefruit in a ton. That means that—at $4—the grower gets twotenths of a cent per grapefruit! I haven't been out shopping in Indianapolis lately, but I assume you can’t get much of a grapefruit there for less than a dime. At that rate, the ton of grapefruit that brought the grower $4 in Texas costs the housewives of Indianapolis $200. I don’t know how that happens, and I don’t know who gets the rest of that money. I don’t know anydhjug about it at all, and I wish I'd never brought t up. But I do know that citrus farmers are hard pressed, while friends of ours in the North have quit buying grapefruit because it is so expensive. And down here they feed citrus fruit to cows!
By Anton Scherrer
he left his gun and sword behind him. Until 1883 they were preserved as relics by the different rulers of Egypt. A year later, the Khedive sent the gun and sword by a special commissioner to London where they were placed on exhibition in the British Museum. The next year the commissioner came to America and brought the relics with him. In Toronto, he fell in with an old acquaintance, a Canadian preacher as I recall. As an expression of joy, he gave the preacher Napoleon's gun. In some way, the details of which have escaped me, the gun finally came to Indianapolis—a gift from the Canadian preacher to the Rev. Walker, I believe. Anyway, it was an old-fashioned flint lock of German make and a great deal larger than an American musket. There were 14 notches on the gun. We kids were told at the time that it was customary to cut a notch for every battle he was in. = = EJ
An Air-Minded Composer
Item 4: The first performance of a Gilbert-Sul-livan opera around here was “Pinafore” which the Indianapolis Light Infantry put on in 1881. Believe it or not, all the characters were taken by men. Pink Hall was the original “Buttercup,” and he had everybody fooled into believing he was a real-for-sure girl. The dress and bonnet he wore were made by his wife. Mr. and Mrs. Hall live to tell the tale. Item 5: A little later, the same bunch gave the “Pirates of Penzance,” but this time they thought enough of the ladies to let them act, too. Item 6: Back in 1891, Isaac Doles was living at 234 W. Michigan St. and it was in that very house that he composed “The Air Ship Waltz,” the first airplane song ever composed—anywhere in America, mind vou. It was dedicated to the Married Ladies Musicale of Greensburg, Ind. Mr. Doles came to Indianapolis from Greensburg, his birthplace, which explains how the married musical ladies got involved. Item 7: The first store around here to share the Christmas spirit with its customers was the old New York Store. The holiday decorations consisted of rows of little Christmas trees across the entire front of the building. Gosh, that must have been more than 50 years ago.
By Raymond Clapper
salary out of my own pocket and then you'll be getting as much as I am.” Note—The banker did not take the job. When Mr. Hanes moved into Washington from Wall Street, and took a place on SEC, there was some suspicion among extreme New Dealers. They knew that during the early days of SEC it was John Hanes who was their friend around the Stock Exchange and that he did much to soften the die-hards and bring about some kind of working co-operation, but still they were suspicious. However, Mr. Hanes is not only a most disarming individual but he proved to] be honestly trying to find common ground for work- | able relationships between Washington and Wall | Street. = = =
Backed by Morgenthau
Then he went to the Treasury and there undertook a similar mission in trying to bring about a better relationship in the field of taxes. In this he found that his new chief, Secretary Morgenthau, was already taking the lead. The two have worked as a| close team. They have had Mr. Roosevelt with them | as much of the time as could be expected, everything considered. x He has served as a channel of communication and mediator between the business world and the Administration, a friend to intercede in New York for | the Administration. Many of the Administration’s troubles result from having so few men like John Hanes around. One| of his type on the NLRB would have killed off a vast | amount of the grief ncw coming home to roost. Mr. Roosevelt has tried a number of businessmen, not always with such happy results as in this case. Sometimes the New Dealers gave them the hatchet. | Sometimes they were not good salesmen around the White House. And sometimes they became bewildered with the strange world of poltics and went away mad,
By Eleanor Roosevelt
has written to the heads of the Protestant, Roman Catholic and Jewish churches. It is, of course, but a gesture, still it keeps before us the fact that all churches continue together to wield a spiritual force in the world and that they have the power to exert an influence over the material forces about us. The President did not have the time to read the whole of Dickens’ Christmas Carol, so he and Sisty decided which parts should be read this year. They chose first the trips made by the ghosts to the Christmas scene in the mine, on the sea and in the lighthouse. Then there was a difference of opinion whether the Fezziwigs ball or the Christmas party at Scrooge’s nephews should be read, but there was a unanimous demand for the last scene, for one and all wanted to hear Tiny Tim's blessing. Christmas morning began early with the children racing around to tell everybody that it was time to wake their grandfather and to find out whether the stockings hanging on his mantlepiece had been filled. I had a rather late breakfast interspersed with telephone conversations, and then went to the community church service. After lunch, the tree and the opening of presents took place. It is most unusual for me to go out on Christmas afternoon, but former Secretary and Mrs. Daniel Roper celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary, and at 5 I dropped in there for a brief visit. Now I am back to prepare for the Christmas dinner, which this year is really a grand gathering of the family as well as friends.
Best Seller a Riddle That's Anyone’s Guess
Of the millions who read books few people are aware of the mysteries and technique of book publishing. After looking into the business Frederick Woltman gives his impressions of publishing, authors and best sellers in the first of a series.
By Frederick Woltman
Times Special Writer NEW YORK, Dec. 26.— The young man sent in a batch of manuscripts. It was the early Nineties in the old Century Co. on Union Square. For eight years he had been a cub, then a regular reporter for the Lahore Civil and Military Gazette. He had published some verse and tales of picturesque India and Britain's conquest there by setting the hand type himself, and he marketed them with order blanks on post cards
he printed. Here at 26 he was making the rounds of the American publishers to try his chances at earning a living writing. There was a long delay. Then a secretary came back with his manscript and this admonition from the editor: “Young man, you will never be a writer. Our advice is to go back to the army and stick to reporting for a career.” The other publishers gave the same answer. He returned to England and became the ballad-writer and phrasemaker of the British Empire and one of its foremost men of leters. His name was Rudyard Kipling. Generations of The Century Co. the oldest American publishers, have handed down this legend to illustrate a point, namely: “In the book business nobody knows for sure; everybody guesses.” For book publishing, fundamentally, is a gamble. There's speculation on the part of author, publisher, bookseller and, to be sure, the reading public. The riddle of the best seller and what makes it so keeps publishers alert, zestful for living and sometimes dyspeptic. And it caused one of them once to remark: “Astrology and necromancy are dull sciences compared with publishing.” ” = =
# YAUGING the public taste in reading is an uncertain business. Of course, by no means all of the 9464 new books turned out last year, including 1217 new novels, involved an element of chance. The vast traffic in school textbooks, the sustenance of some publishing houses and the envy of others, is constant as a railroad schedule. In fiction there was no gamble tos “The Grapes of Wrath.” That was a sure-fire seller which the trade roughly defines as any book that goes over 30,000 copies. His “Of Mice and Men” had already established John Steinbeck, the former newspaperman who once carried a hod on the Madison Square Garden construction. Top sales are a matter of “absolute chance” in any book, according to William Wells of Denhard, Pfeiffer & Wells, who supervises more book advertising copy than anyone in publishing. ! If Margaret Mitchell were to
GIRL WHO SAVED 2 LIVES IS REWARDED
Times Special SHELBYVILLE, Ind, Dec. 26.— Mary Rose Driscoll, small daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Clarence Driscoll. today had an extra Christmas gift, a huge doll, she received from two men whose lives she helped to save several weeks ago. Mary Rose ran for help when she discovered Theodore Weisse and| Jack Morris, of Kokomo, overcome
by carbon monoxide gas while sleeping in their truck here. Mr. Weisse and Mr. Morris rewarded her with the doll as a Christmas gift.
FEDERAL BANK HERE RECORDS 8719 LOANS
Home mortgages recorded during November in the district served by the Federal Home Loan Bank of Indianapolis totaled 8719 and amounted to $23,605,000, bank officials reported early today. In Indiana there were 3994 mortgages, totaling $8,971,000 last month and in Michigan, the other state included in this district, there were 4725 mortgages recorded, totaling $14,634,000. Most of the financing was done by banks and trust companies. This group recorded 2874 mortgages last month for a total of $8,218,000. Savings and loan associations were second with 2920 mortgages totaling $5,907,000 and insurance companies were third with 736, totaling $3,612,000.
REPORT COSTA RICA QUAKES
NEW YORK, Dec. 26 (U. P.).— Fordham University’s seismograph recorded two earth shocks of mild intensity today, centered about 2000 miles distant in the general direction of Costa Rica. The first recording was at 6:01 a. m. and the
write a successor-novel to “Gone with the Wind,” which she has announced she will never do, good or bad, it probably would have an advance sale of 100,000 copies to the book stores before the public saw a copy. But, of course, “Gone with the Wind” is an exception, indeed, almost a miracle in the publishing business. Macmillans knew they had a hit in this story of the Civil War South and distributed thousands of advance copies to book dealers and reviewers. The sales manager predicted it would reach 100,000 copies. But Macmillans placed Charles Morgan's “Sparkenbroke,” a nostalgic, mystical novel, first on its list of hopefuls. Actually, “Gone with the Wind” rang the bell for a new high, 1,300,000 sales in the first six months after publication.
= E- = HE big gamble is with the unknowns, the newcomers. There are some “made” best sellers in which the perspicacity of the publisher figures largely (of which there will be more later). But most publishers will tell you that, unlike other commodities, books can be promoted without the slightest success if there's no “feeling” or “movement” for them on the part of the reading public. “In other words,” says Mr. Wells, “publishers can’t create a market in books. All they can do is try to outguess the public. But it is the public that calls the turn. If it doesn’t want to buy a book, no amount of money sunk in promotion will sell the book.” The trade calls the unknowns “dark horses.” For several years Publishers’ Weekly, virtually the official organ of book publishing, ran a book forecast in the style of a race track tipsters sheet. New books were classified as:—1. “Neck to Neck,” the leading sellers; 2. “Betting Favorites,” or next on the lists; 3. “At the Post,” the books just out; 4. “Dark Horses,” forthcoming books.. One of the fabulous gamblers in the business was the late Horace Liveright, bond salesman turned publisher, whose list included such famous names as Theodore Dreiser, Eugene O'Neill, Dorothy Parker and Hendrik Van Loon. At his death $199,000 was
ai SEE
In the gamble of book publishing nothing succeeds like the last big book of the year to come out before Christmas. In fact, the Christmas season is the best seller's Nirvana, as this scene from a large book
store indicates.
outstanding in unearned advance royalties paid authors for books not yet published or not yet written. Gertrude .Atherton’s “Black Oxen” was one of Liveright's spectacular fiiers. Although Miss Atherton had not been published for 10 years cor so and the Liveright readers were skeptical, he is said to have given her a fabulous advance for the manuscript. “Black Oxen” sales went over 100,000 considerably jogged up by a particular angle of the novel Liveright exploited thoroughly which caught the public's fancy, namely, gland rejuvenation. The idiosyncrasies of books furnish the publishing field with a substantial lore. There's the story of David Harum, of course, which made its unhappy rounds of all the publishers in about the year they were rejecting Rudyard Kipling. In despair, the author, Edward N. Wescott, took it to D. Appleton & Co. which accepted and greatly revised the manuscript. Mr. Wescott died before its publication but the book ran to 1,200,000 sales eventually. ” ” » EARLY every publisher in New York turned down the Grand Duchess Marie's “The Education of a Princess.” Hoping to dispose of a casual 5000 copies or so, Viking Press at length brought
it out. One shop sold 1000 copies in a single afternoon, bearing the Grand Duchess’ autograph. Sales exceeded 1,200,000. What they ignored was the important factor publishers call snob appeal, or the compulsion to buy a book just because your friends own copies. Marie’s second book, “Princess in Exile,” sold not nearly so well, probably because the novelty of that appeal had worn off. With all bets in favor of a book, the opposite is just as likely to happen. Thus, Gene Stratton Porter’'s “White Flag.” Four of her latest books, published in the balmy pre-World War days, made a list of the nation’s 70-odd best sellers that have exceeded 500,000 sales since 1875. The four topped
Stork Stops Here With 16 Christmas Babies
Old Doc Stork subbed for Santa Claus 16 times yesterday in Marion County. His earliest stop Christmas day was at 4:03 a. m. when he brought a girl to Mr. and Mrs. Glendyn Monday of Camby, Ind. at St. Vincent's Hospital. He worked 19 hours, making his last stop at 11:05 p. m. when he delivered the second of boy twins to Mrs. Hazel Ruden, 1427 N. Chester St. The first was born at 8:22 p. m. Eleven boys and five girls were born on Christmas, one at City Hospital, six at St. Vincent's, three at St. Francis and six at Methodist. Others born yesterday were a boy to Mr. and Mrs. Leo Wall, 1612 Churchman Ave. at 5 a. m.; a boy to Mr. and Mrs. Norle Hause, 11 E. 24th St. at 5:10 a. m.; a boy to Mr. and Mrs. Irving Goldman, 1201 Union St., at 6:40 a. m.; a boy to
Mr. and Mrs. Rothwell Brinsley, 2926 Temple Ave. at 7:3¢ a. m.; a girl to Mr. and Mrs. Douglas Cleary, 1915 Koehne St. at 8:42 a. m., and a girl to Mr. and Mrs. Forrest Johnston, 430 S. Rural St., at 9:10 a. m. Others were a boy to Mr. and Mrs. Hal Walden, 56 N. Hamilton Ave, at 9:41 a. m.; a girl to Mr. and Mrs. Vernon Acton, 1218 W. 31st St. at 11:17 a. m.; a girl to Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Feltman, 1817 New St. at 4 p. m.; a boy to Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Skinner, 5407 E. 39th St., at 5:28 p. m. and a boy to- Mr. and Mrs. Agnew Reid, 1133 S. Tremont Ave., at 9:30 p. m. Two babies were born at St. Francis Hospital at 12:15 p. m. yesterday. They were a boy to Mr. and Mrs. Fred Kattau, 1442 S. Paul St., and a boy to Mr. and Mrs. Morris Barlow, 233 Tarkview Ave. Beech Grove.
BRITISH TAKE NAZI SHIP THROUGH CANAL
CRISTOBAL, C. S, Dec. 26 (U. P.).—The German freighter Dusseldorf, in the hands of a British prize crew, was in the Caribbean Sea today after passing through the Panama Canal from the Pacific. The British naval ensign fluttered over the Nazi Swastika on the Dusseldorf’s stern and British bluejackets patroled the decks, as the vessel was towed through the Canal.
MEXICO CITY, Dec. 26 (U. P). —The newspaper Universal said it had learned that several British warships are in the Gulf of Mexico awaiting the departure of two German merchantmen from Tampico.
HUNTER IS WOUNDED
NEW CASTLE, Ind, Dec. 26 (U. P.)—Sam Higinbotham, 25, New Castle, shot himself in the right knee yesterday while hunting rabbits near Modoc, Ind., with a re-
second at 6:06 a. m.
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volver.
SIX ORCHARD PUPILS START 11-DAY TRIP
Six Orchard School boys were to leave at 4 p. m. today on an 11-day camping trip to the Gulf of Mexico. They will travel by station wagon and plan to camp out each night. The boys are Wymond Angell, Tom Cox, Fred Lesh, Mitchel McDermott Eldon Nyhart and Tom Wainwright. They will be accompanied by Herbert A. Sweet, Orchard School faculty member, and Victor Jose III, school graduate.
Their itinerary includes Atlanta, Ga., St. Petersburg, Fla., Ft. Myers, Fla., and Captive Island, famous as a hiding place for pirates, captives and buried treasure. They will visit Qkeechobee, Fla., where the Audubon Society guide will assist them in gathering bird data. They hope to identify and collect a number of bird and ani-
mal specimens during the trip. @
1,500,000 apiece; in fact, “Freckles” (1904) hit the 2,000,000 mark. Doubleday, Doran brought out “White Flag,” then running as a serial in a magazine. On the strength of the serial booksellers everywhere enthusiastically loaded their shelves with an unprecedented number of advance or prepublications date copies—210,000. On the day of publication the sales manager was about to order another 50,000 copies from the printer. A hunch held him off. Within a month the book turned out to be a bust, probably, it was concluded later, because “White Flag” was Miss Porter's first problem novel (lightning killed the heroine's betrayer) and lacked the wholesome, nature-loving appeal of her Limberlost books, to which the vast Gene Stratton Porter public was accustomed. A current publishing mystery is the failure of the book, “Information Please,” to approach anywhere near the popularity of the radio program. So far it's done no better than 15,000 sales. Novels and nonfiction about China were anathema to the American book trade before the John Day Co. published Pearl Buck's “The Good Earth.” Her first book, “East Wind: West Wind,” expanded from an article in Asia Magazine, shuttled among publishers for 47 weeks. Believing it would probably lose money, the Day company, nevertheless, published it on the hunch Miss Buck's next book might be a stingeroo. They guessed right. Miss Buck made a fortune from “The Good Earth,” won the Nobel Prize, married her editor and opened the entire Asiatic field to a succession of best sellers.
ISTORICAL novels and books on doctors and hospitals, if at all reliable, have come to be regarded as sure-fire in the last few years, at least up to the minimum best seller sales of 30,000. Clifton Fadiman, the astute book editor and critic and master of ceremonies for radio's Information Please, believes doctor books have now run their course. “I wouldn't
PARK SCHOOL GRADS WILL DINE TONIGHT
The Park School Alumni Association will hold a Christmas dinner and party at 6 o'clock tonight at the school gymnasium. School seniors will be honored guests. Speakers will include Fred Hoke, State Board of Public Welfare President; E. Francis Bowditch, school headmaster; Louis J. Reichel, football coach, and Alex Carroll, alumni association president. Charles E. Buschmann will be toastmaster. An alumni-varsity basketball game will be played following the dinner. Other games will be played later at a gathering at Mr. Bowditch’s home.
CUMBERLAND LODGE OFFICERS SELECTED
George E. Fuson will take office as worshipful master of the Cumberland Masonic Lodge 726, F. & A. M., at a public installation to be held Thursday at the Lodge Hall. Others to be installed are William Boswell, senior warden; Ralph Hamil, junior warden; William Bowman, treasurer; Homer McBreyer, secretary; Arthur Witle, senior deacon; Paul Cannady, junior deacon; Alfred Muesing, senior steward; Clarence Hansen, junior steward; William Weidenhaupt, chaplain, and John Langenberg, tyler.
248 STATE SCHOOLS GET AID FROM PWA
Times Special WASHINGTON, Dec. 26. — Two hundred forty-eight school projects i? Indiana have been built with the air of Public Works Administration funds at a total estimated cost of $39,358,066, WPA officials announced today. The total PWA investment amounted to $17,174,651 in grants and $113,500 in loans, the report stated,
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gamble on another one now,” he says. “Lincoln’s Doctor's Dog” is the mystifying title George Stevens, editor of the Saturday Review of Literature, chose for his 77-page book on best sellers, written for the publishing trade. The title illustrates a favorite hypothesis of publishing, Mr, Stevens explains, that; “All books on Lincoln sell, all books about dogs sell, and all books by doctors sell—so the man who writes about Lincoln's doctor’s dog is going to clean up.” History's three most conspicuous book flops (on first publication) are Samuel Butler's “Way of All Flesh,” which George Bernard Shaw brought to life by reviewing a reprint published five years later, in 1908; Arnold Bennett's “Old Wives’ Tales” and Norman Douglas’ “South Wind.” All three now rank high in modern English fiction. Timing a book can be all-im-portant, according to Albert Leventhal, sales manager of the spectacular Simon & Shuster, who nonetheless believes the publisher is “the original buyer of a pig in a poke.” Today “Flaming Youth,” “The Plastic Age” and “The Shiek,” huge sellers in the giddy 20s, would be dull and laughable, he offers; five’ years earlier they would have been unbelievable. Eddie Cantor's “Caught Short" came at just the right phase of the depression to be appreciated, later it might have been resented. Both the author's reputation from his “Queen Victoria and the promotion emphasis on “The Love Life of the Virgin Queen” motif helped the phenomenal sale of Lytton Strachey’s “Elizabeth and Essex” which sold 73,000 copies within 21 days. There was also another stimulus, relates Mr. Stevens. That was the timing for the Christmas season. “Nothing succeeds like the last big book of the year to come out before Christmas; but it must be a big book and must be published no later than the first week of December or it will be swamped by competing titles in the bookstores.” All part of the publisher’s gam=ble, no doubt.
Next: “Dark horse” best sellers.
13 Nighties Lead to Cell
Times Special FT. WAYNE, Ind. Dec. 26.— A 49-year-old man is spending the holiday season at the Indiana State Farm for stealing 13 nightgowns from a downtown store Friday. He is serving a 180-day sentence. The man adniitted the theft but had nothing else to say. Police caught him after he abandoned the night apparel in a tavern. He was followed to the tavern by a stockman in the store, The gowns were valued at $1 each.
TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE
1—Are national bank notes being printed at present? 2—What is the product of 5x5x0x2? 3—With what sport is Ward Cuff associated? . 4—Whom did President Roosevelt nominate to the Supreme Court to succeed Louis D. Brandeis? 5—Name the first important battle of the Civil War. 6—What is lineal descent? T7—Name the Premier of Belgium, ” " ”
Answers
1—No. 2—Zero. 3—Professional football. 4—William O. Douglas. 5—Battle of Bull Run (Manassas). 6—Descent from a direct line of ane cestry. T—Hubert Pierlot.
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