Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 23 May 1940 — Page 18

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| | THURSDAY, MAY 23,

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The Indiana

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SECOND SECTION

Hoosier Vagabond

(Ernie Pyle is on vacation and at the request of his readers we are reprinting some of Ernie's favorite columns.)

LANGTRY, Tex., May 19, 1936.—In southwest Texas, tradition revolves around Judge Roy Bean, self-styled "Law West of the Pecos” back in frontier days when horse-stealing was worse than murder. Judge Bean held court on the porch of his saloon. He always had two things on the bench in front of him—a law book, which he didn't know how to use, and a six-shooter, which he did. Books have been written about Judge Bean. He died in 1908, but his saloon is still standing in Langtry, empty now. I drove past Langtry, and took a picture of the saloon, and asked a couple of loafers if anybody was still around who remembered Judge Bean. They said just one fellow was left, and that was Ike Billings, who lived on a ranch four miles out. So I drove out over the desert to Tke Billings’ place. He'd just come in from “pointing up” lambs, which means cutting their tails off and snipping their ears.

= = = Played Poker With the Judge He washed up and then we sat down and talked. Tke Billings didn’t look as though he were old enough to remember Judge Bean. Billings is one of these hard-working well-preserved desert men. He was 59 last week and has & daughter 37 years old, but he doesn't 100k more than 45. He was born in mid-Texas. near San Antonio, and came to the Pecos country in "93. “Sure; T used to play poker with Judge Bean & couple of nights a week,” Billings says. “He was a queer character, but people around here liked him. “T remember once a cowboy fell or jumped off the railroad bridge up here a piece and was killed. They found $40 and a six-shooter on him. The judge convened court over the body, and took the six-shooter and fined the fellow $40 for committing suicide. and then had the county bury him because he was & pauper,

Our Town

TODAY T'M BROODING over a letter written ‘by H. D. Hetzler, secretary of the Great Lakes Deaf Bowling Association. Back in 1915, Mr. Hetzler was “a second baseman of some incompetence.” he says. Which is just his way of hiding his light under a bushel. In the course of his letter, Mr. Hetzler puts his finger on a defect in this column and calls attention to my failure to explain why Eddie Nolan, the fabulous Indianapolis pitcher of the Seventies, earned the sobriquet of “The Only Nolan.” “TI am as familiar with our national pastime from the 1870's on AS most men born in the 90's,” says Mr. Hetzler, “and I cannot, recollect Nolan's name in the record book at all. I am positive he never led the league in pitching, and feel sure he never even came near it. He set no strikeout. records that I remémber, and when I was a hoy I had available to me a nearly complete set of baseball guides which I devoured over and over again. How, then, did Mr. Nolan become known as : “The Only?" : Well, if you ask me, Mr. Nolan was the kind of genius whose achievements can't be measured by a record book. Either that, or it's still more proof that intangibles count more than tangibles—at any rate, in a final showdown. Which is to say that the things vou can't put your fingers on bulk bigger than those that can be handled. » » »

Disagree on Inventor

For one thing, Eddie Nolan was the first Indian- : apolis man to throw a curve ball. That made him ! the “only one” around here. He learned the trick in Paterson, N. J., before coming West. Of course, that : doesn't mean that Nolan was the first pitcher to use a curve, Still less does it mean that he invented it. The question of who first used the curve ball seems pretty well agreed upon, the honor being generally conceded to Arthur Cummings. But on the question of the inventor, authorities disagree. This is owing to the fact that the curve ball came into

‘Washington

WASHINGTON, May 23.—Too much precious energy is being wasted in an attempt, conducted largely from the arm-chair front. to demonstrate that President Roosevelt, has been a complete boob in the matter of national defense. The plain fact is that the whole country was caught napping by the sudden crash of events in Europe. When Mr. Roosevelt was warning of the danger long ago, he was either booted down or branded as a war monger. You remember the beating he took when he tried to help the French obtain airplanes before the war. You remember that the Republicans, with few exceptions, fought bitterly his attempt to repeal the arms embargo and had him licked until the war actually began. Had the repeal been enacted when he first requested it, our aviation industry might have been further along as a result of the stimulus. The President has long been far ahead of the country in sounding the alarm, So much so that, until recently, that fact was one of the strongest campaign issues of his opponents. ~ n

Educational Orders Cut

Congress is complaining, But it is interesting to note a small incident in connection with the Military Appropriation Bill. Industrial production is the key to modern war preparation. Some 10,000 plants are earmarked for possible war production. Of these 1200 are scheduled to produce highly specialized items distinctly of non-commercial character but vital to war preparations. The Army has been trying to train those

My Day

ELKINS, W. Va, Wednesday —Yesterday after- ! noon the agencies taking part in the Commumty { Chest campaign here gave a delightful county fair at a beautiful place far out on Massachusetts Ave. Each agency had a booth in which they displayed

the work they are doing. Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts were in evidence helping everybody from every settlement house and gency which works with children, a group of which had been chosen to give an entertainment. For a little while we sat on the slope of a hill and saw the different groups in costumes and heard the first song. Then I had to come home again to talk about the housing bill for a few minutes and to have tea with : : Mrs. Helm, who left early this ¢ morning for her summer home in southern Illinois. It is always sad to have her go and some day I hope we will enjoy leisure time together. As ijt is, Miss | Thompson, Mrs. Helm and I have enjoyed these busy : years of work. ¢ ° Mr. and Mis. George Bye, Mr. and Mrs” Robert Deans and my brother came down for the newspaper dance last night. More people were here for dinner

, and by the place it struck on the rear wall.

“There was & pile of rocks outside Bean's saloon,

and he kept a big sign out there saying “Tee Cold Beer.” In those days the railroad ran right through town. and in the summer tourists would get off here to get a cold drink.”

“They'd ask for beer and it'd be hot when they got it, and they'd say "How about that sign?” and | old Bean would roar and vell. "Who in hell ever heard |

of ice in this country in the summer time?’

“He had another stunt. These tourists would get) some beer and give him & ten or twenty-dollar bill, and then he'd monkey around very busy and let on

like he was having trouble making change, and the first thing you knew the train was puiling out and the tourists would have to run and jump on without their change.”

Billings himself was “the law” here for six years. |

That was after Bean died, and old man Dodd was Justice of the peace, and Billings was constable. » » »

Last of the Old-timers

His territory covered all the country west of the Pecos, and he had to do a lot of horseback riding. “I never did have any trouble,” Billings says. “I never was shot at and never shot at anybody but once, and then I missed him. It was a dark rainy night, and I was chasing & Mexican who had killed a fellow on the railroad. I shot at him when he ran around a building.” Billings moved out to this ranch in 1911. He had

2500 head of sheep and some goats and a few cattle. He has 12,000 acres of desert land, and 35 miles of

fence around it. j “Most people wouldn't give a cent an acre for it’

he says, “but we like it here. We don't have things!

very fancy, but we get along.”

“1 guess it's true I'm the only old-timer left around |

here. Old man Dodd died last November, and the others have died or moved away.” Ike Billings, like every person I have met on the desert, is friendly and hospitable,

“I sure wish you had been here last Wednesday,” |

Tke said. “We had a big goat-fry down the erick here, celebrating my birthday, and people from all over this part of the country were here, If you ever come past this way again, you want to be sure and stop to see us.” And we sure will,

By Anton Scherrer

general use at once after it was discovered in 1876, and credit for inventing it has been given to nearly all who used it the very first year, including Fred Goldsmith (Chicago), Tommy Bond (Boston), Blondie Purcell of the Olympias (Paterson), Bobby Matthews of the Lord Baltimores, and Eddie Nolan of

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Indianapolis, who, you can bet your sweet life, isn't | going to be robbed of what's coming to him, if I have | anything to say about it. Period. And if that isn't enough to persuade anybody that Mr. Nolan deserved his sobriquet allow me to add that Eddie was among the first to control a curved | ball. With the result that he was the very first— | anywhere in the world, mind vou — to throw an | inshoot.

» " : on Convincing Dr. Jordan Well, that brings me to one of the, prettiest and most precious stories of the Indianapolis Saga. name- | ly the case of David Starr Jordan. a teacher of biol- | ogy at Butler University in 1877. Sure, the same Dr. | Jordan who later became president of Leland Stan- | ford University. When Dr. Jordan heard that Eddie | Nolan was throwing a controlled curve ball, he poohpoohed the whole idea claiming that such a thing | was utterly impossible, fantastic. and contrary to | all established laws of nature. Immediately everybody took sides. The Butler pro- | fessors supported Dr. Jordan, of course, and the In- | dianapolis baseball team, thoroughly aroused by this | time, came to Eddie's rescue. Not only that, but they said they'd show Dr. Jordan even if he was a | Butler professor. The test was made on the vacant lot back of the | old Maryland St. Engine House (No. 7) which was | more or less of a hangout for the ball players of the | time. feet apart and across them was stretched a sheet of paper. About 10 feet back of these were placed two other poles similarly equipped. The one and only Nolan then took his stance and pitched the ball through the two sheets of paper enabling Dr. Jordan to trace the course of the ball by the holes it made It was a curve, all right. Dr. Jordan said he wouldn't have believed it had he not seen it with his own eyes,

By Raymond Clapper

plant: by placing subsidized “educational orders” so that equipment might be set up and workmen trained. he program is pitifully small considering the problem ahead.

Even so, the budget request for $16,250,000 for the

placing of educational orders was cut by the House |

to $2,000,000. Budget requests for $36,500,000 for the War Department industrial preparedness program were cut to $11,250,000. That is less than one-third of

the amount needed to assure adequate progress in in-

dustrial preparedness. The War Department has sent to military committees of both Houses a bill to eliminate some of the red-tape. It would waive civil service requirements and permit contracts vo be negotiated instead of let by bidding, thus inviting the interest of manufacturers who would not be in a position to bid cold for Army orders. It is a “velocity” bill to speed up procurement machinery. »

Austin Urges Board

A most important amendment has been offered by Senator Austin of Vermont, one of the few Repub-

licans who has been in Mr, Roosevelt's corner on for- | eign policy. He would authorize the President to ap- and tore up greens at the South point a non-partisan board for mobilization of in- Grove golf course last week.

dustry. Senator Austin intends to make a fight for

this, If he fails, he will hope at least to impress upon |the community in rounding up the co-ordinator to|hoodlums, the Board ordered Munido what Bernard M. Baruch did with the old War cipal Gardens Commounity House,

Washington the need for an industrial

Industries Board. This Administration needs a businessman. an industrialist, on the job Mere as a link between the

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VANDAL REWARD

Community Houses and Golf

Sallee Tells Board. |

The Park Board today took drastic steps to halt vandalism at com- | munity houses and golf courses |

to City properties during the last two weeks. The Board offered $100 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of vandals who broke windows at Municipal Gardens Tuesday night. Similar rewards were offered for vandals who

wrecked the Riverside clubhouse

In a move to enlist the aid of

where 36 windows were smashed and the frames ripped out, boarded | up until the vandals are caught and

Government and the industries which are vital in our convicted. Damage there was esti-

defense production. With this is needed a defense industries labor board. a special body to handle Justments that are ahead.

By Eleanor Roosevelt

than the little dining room could hold at one table and, of course, with supper to serve later in the evening, we could not use the state dining room. Necessity often drives one to do new things, and so we had four tables in the little dining room and quite comfortably seated more than we ever seated before. The President received all the guests as usual in the East Room and the grounds were gaily decorated with colored lanterns. I think this dance, given every spring for the newspaper people in Washington, is one of the prettiest and nicest parties of the year. It is crowded, however, and last year the fact that we had rain at intervals during the afternoon and evening made it impossible for people to enjoy being out of doors. This year it was warm and pleasant and the moonlight made it even prettier as the night advanced. I hope everyone had a good time. I know I enjoyed myself. This morning, Mrs. Henry Morgenthau Jr. Miss Thompson, Mrs. Allee Freed, Miss Mary Switzer, Clarence Pickett, Mr. and Mrs. Deans, Mr. and Mrs. Bye and I started off by automobile for Elkins, We took our lunch with us and went through the usual throes of finding just the right spot for a pienie. Now we are at Elkins going out to Tygart Valley in a short time for the commencement exercises there, and later motoring on to Arthurdale to spend the night. : :

mated at $200. |

Park Superintendent A. C. Sallee |

the many labor ad- said that the repeated vandal at-

Attributed Partly to Gains in Auto Sales

Checking Transactions in

Courses Are Damaged, City 13 Per Cent Above

1939 Figure.

Times Special

BLOOMINGTON, Ind., May 23.— During April, Indiana business im-

which has resulted in $500 damage | Proved for the first time this year| and regained much of the ground

lost in March, Indiana University’s Bureau of Business Research report- | ed today. Much of the rise was due to the|

large increase in automobile sales, |

the Bureau said in disclosing that! its business index made a sharp re-| bound of more than six points during the month. In Indianapolis the Bureau re-| ported checking transactions, a! measure of money spent, advanced | about 1 per cent and were 13 per| cent above last year. Although there! was no change in the amount of newspaper advertising lineage from March to April, total April lineage was 9 per cent greater than the same month a year ago.

Livestock Receipts Up

“Building permits issued were

(tacks would deplate the Park De- Valued at $1024.640 as compared

partment's budget unless checked immediately. At the Riverside clubhouse, van- | dals peppered windows with .22-| caliber rifie bullets, causing $200 damage, Mr. Sallee said. The superintendent also reported that about $50 damage was done at the South Grove course and additional $50 damage to Finch Park Community House last month.

WEIR ASSAILS F. D. R. FOR FOREIGN POLICY

NEW YORK, May 23 (U. P), — Ernest T. Weir, president of the American Iron & Steel Institute, charged today that President Roosevelt has been “provoking bad foreign relations” while leaving this country as unprepared against invasion as Finland or Norway.

Speaking before the 49th general meeting of the Institute here, Mr. Weir declared that the United States has “no place” in the Buropean war and called for a jpint effort by Government and dus! to correct the “inexcusable” state

America’s defenses,

with $776,703 in March and $1,606,523 last year. Declining 3 per cent, postal receipts were 5 per cent above |April, 1939. Livestock receipts were '7 per cent higher than in the previous month and 32 per cent above, a year earlier.” Employment in Indianapolis de-

clined 2.1 per cent from March 15

to April 15 while payrolls dipped two per cent, the Bureau said. For the state as a whole the only parts of the Bureau's index which did not show April improvement were department store sales and newspaper advertising “which declined slightly as is common following Easter,” and pig iron production which had the smallest output since September” reflecting the downward trend of industrial production which had been under way for some weeks.” The Bureau of Motor Vehicles reported new car sales larger than for any month since March, 1837, which was an all-time peak in Indiana.

Other ‘parts of the Bureau's index

made only small improvements. Building Contracts Gain

“Bank debits were fractionally higher than In August, electricity production also was but slightly

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| better than a month ago and, sea- | sonally, coal production was better than in March but somewhat under April last year, the Bureau reported “More than a seasonal gain was made by building contracts awarded but with this improvement, building was still much below April of last year,” the Bureau commented. “The betterment in general conditions was reflected in the rise in farm income. Farm prices were about two points higher than in March and livestock sales on the whole made a slight gain. Cattle sales were the best for more than a year although cattle prices averaged somewhat lower than a year ago. | The slight decline in cattle prices was more than offset by the total income to all farmers through the rise in marketings. Hog prices were unchanged from March »ut marketings were larger than any month for more than a year, with the exception of January.”

AMBULANGE DRIVERS’ FATE STILL UNKNOWN

PARIS, May 23 (U. P.).—The fate of eight missing American ambulance drivers in France remained unknown today. Lovering Hill, chief of the American Field Service, left for the front near Amiens to try to find out what happened to four men missing from his organization. The American Volunteer Ambu|lance Corp, meanwhile, had no in- | formation concerning four drivers 'missing in the Ardennes area.

The corps said it had no knowl. edge of the whereabouts or condition of Laurence Jump, or of Louis Wehrle, 42, Pt. Wayne, Ind., two 4 the missing.

This new United Press map shows in detail the sections where the fighting is heaviest and the territories to which the hostilities may spread. It includes fortifications, military objectives, communications and transportation lines of the Allies and Germany. Preserve it to enable you to keep | up with the war developments.

CITY POSTS $100 State's Business Shows Advance in April, BRITISHGETU.S,

DRUGS BY PLANE

Local Red Cross Reports ~ Contributions Swell Fund | To $26,000.

The Red Cross has been flying | supplies of certain drugs needed in [emergency brain operations to Enge ‘land by Clipper planes, the local | Red Cross chapter reported today. The organization already has cone tracted for a million dollars worth | of hospital supplies and ambulances | because both England and France

| report a desperate need for equip={ment to care for injured and ill | refugees swarming into Paris and | other cities south of the battle lines, | The refugee relief fund being | raised by the local Red Cross today mounted to more than $26,000 as | contributions continued pouring into [chapter's offices in the Chamber of | Commerce building. Mayor Reginald H. Sullivan, | chairman of the relief fund commit= | tee, said there will be a continuing | demand for civilian relief in Europe |and appealed to the public to be | prompt and generous in forwarding | contributions. | Among the larger contributions reported today were: Vonnegut | Hardware Co., $100; Henry C. Thome | son, $100, the Fair Store, $50; Bane | ner-Whitehill Inc, $50; Mrs. Georga | Lilly, 825; F. 8S. Cannon, $25, and the O. J. Smith Realty Co. $25. A number of $5, $10 and $15 contrie | butions also were received.

AYRES LEAVES WIFE MOST OF ESTATE

A major portion of the estate of Frederic M. Ayres, president of L. S,

Ayres & Co., was left to his wifa, Mrs. Alma H. Ayres, according to the terms of his will on file in Pro bate Court today. Mr. Ayres died last week. Inder the terms of the will, Mrs. Ayres receives the income from thea estate for life, and upon her death the es tate is to be equally divided among his three children, Lyman &. Ayres, Frederic M. Ayres Jr. and Mrs, ‘Frederick W. Taylor. Mrs. Ayres ‘was named executrix. and bond of ' $500,000 was posted. | Although there is no estimate of [the value of the personal property ‘and real estate, the will stated Mr, | Ayres owned more than one-half of [the common stock in the. department store. The will was dated June 17, 1932.