Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 17 July 1941 — Page 15

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EFTHURSDAY JULY 17, 194

: ‘Hoosier Vagabond

3 . CENTRAL CITY, Colo., July 17.—If you come up

to Central City a few days ahead of the Festival opening, as I did, you have a chance to see this historic mountain town as no mere opera-attender ever knows it. Even ahead of opera time there is a 2 . great deal to see and do. Such as, 2 for example, sleeping in Gen. Grant’s bed. . Gen. U. S. Grant visited Cen“tral City in 1873. The suite he occupied at the Teller House has ‘become a landmark. There are all sorts of traditions about it. One has it fhat after his visit * the suite was immediately shut + off, and has never been occupied . Since. ’ | Consequently it was arranged, as a sort of journalistic concession, \ for me to spend the night in the General Grant suite, and subsequently record my gmpressions for posterity. 5 like to gather freak

noteworthy. I am one of the few people on earth who know the difference between “further” and “farther.” There is no one else in my whole acquaintance who ever sat on the Equator and ate lunch. Rare is the man who can claim, as I can, to bave worn the same pair of shoes for nine years. . And now, with this new opportunity, I could go down 1n history as the only human extant who had slept in Gen. Grant’s .bed. -It was settled. And so, with proper ceremony and before sworn witnesses, I was deposited betwixt the covers of this historic : couch.

A Shattered Illusion

It-had been my original intention to keep.one eye open all night and watch for ghosts, or at least for mice. But I am what might be called a sleep addict. Even ghosts do not disturb my childlike slumbers. The next thing I knew the sun’ was streaming. in Gen. Grant’s window; and it was morning. I hadn’t seen a thing all night, nor absorbed & single impression. Now this was indeed a predicament for a writing fellow to be in. I had muffed my golden opportunity.

* I could no longer call myself worthy of the reporter’s

steel. I went down to breakfast with a furrowed "brow. But I needn’t have. For it was at breakfast, while pondering an old printed account of Grant's visit, and discussing it with a friend who is expert in the lore of Central City, that I turned up two startling and pertinent facts. As follows: First—It is pure myth that the Grant suite has been closed ever since his visit. In fact it has been

By Ernie Pyle

occupied almost constantly, and apparently nine out of every 10 Coloradans you meet have spent the night there. ET : ; Second (and worst)—Gen. Grant never slept there anyhow. : He was only in Central City a couple of hours at midday, and didn’t even shut his eyes. He did come up to this suite to wash his hands, but that was all. He could have washed them in the men’s room and saved me all this'trouble. Thus ends the story. - o 1 will appreciate it if you do not mention th name of Ulysses S. Grant in my presence hereafter. I don’t think he was ever even President. ‘ Having disposed of Gen. Grant, you can walk around Central City and absorb a little of the old town’s genius for captivation. It is not beautiful, but it is fascinating. . “ The main part of town strings down the bottom of a valley, or gulch. The streets are mostly gravel, and the sidewalks mostly plank. It is hard to find a place to turn a car around. :

Breath-Taking Sights

Once you leave the main street, you have to start climbing. You will get around Central City better if you have a little trace of goat in your.lineage. Shere are places where you almost stand on your ead. : ; You are very high at Central City—8500 feet—and" breath comes short and you.can see a long way. What you see in the far distance is imposing. Great mountains with snow. and cloud that almost take what little breath you have left. And in the foreground, all around the city, the hillsides are pockmarked with old yellowed tailingpiles and crumbling mine tipples.. You must step carefully, or you may go plunging down an abandoned mine shaft. : : There is a story that the city has placed mattresses at the bottom of these old shafis, for the drunks to land on when they fall down them on the opening night of Festival. I don’t know whether this is true or not. . ‘The houses of Central City are mostly of the lacy era, certainly not pretty, but at least clothed in a beautiful sentimentalism out of the old past. They are.seldom given fresh paint, for that would destroy the illusion. Denver people have bought up these old houses— often for as little as $40—and they use them for summer week-ends. It is the idea to retain as much of the old as is practicable with loungy living. Most people keep the original wallpaper, and the old bedsteads, and even the ceiling coal-oil lamp on a pulldown chain (except that they put an electric-light bulb in it). In fact Central City is a “fad,” but a very nice one I must say, and one that has not become either phony or showy. And there isn't a tourist camp in town..

Inside Indianapolis (4nd “Our Town’)

A LOT OF FOLKS have asked us what's going into the Apollo Theater Bldg.: Well, it’s going to be 8 “Three Sisters” store, one of a widely-known national chain handling women’s ready-to-wear. Up to now, the “Three Sisters” chain has been proudest of its Lincoln, Road store in Miami, but we understand -this one will take the cake in looks. All they're leaving of the original Apollo is the four walls and the roof. . . . Charley Jewett, our former Mayor, is spending his vacation working from sun-up ‘till sun-down on his farm southwest of Franklin, helping build a new dairy barn and slice down some weeds. . . . The Stockyards can boast a couple of swell Holsteins. One is Clyde C,, executive vice president of the Belt Railroad and Stockyards Co. The other is Charles W. of the Holstein Animal Feeds Co. . . . Persons on the Circle Monday night got a look at a variant of the usual chivaree. Instead of

* bride and bridegroom riding in a car with a tin-can

tail, the bridegroom was piloting a wheelbarrow with the bride as passenger. Once around the Circle and the bride climbed out, members of the chivaree party tossed the wheelbarrow back into a coal truck and

* away they went. ... And W. E. (Nick) Carter called

up to say that he spotted corn growing on the north end of the War Memorial roof and were we interested? Definitely. : Tieing a Tin Can to’ E FROM “A USUALLY unimpeachable source,” we

"earn that the brewers are worrying their heads off

espite business being first-rate. This has all the appearances, we understand, of being a fine beer sea-

Washington

WASHINGTON, July 17.—The question : before Congress is whether to hold National Guardsmen and selectees in service for more than a year. The Army sees it as a question of‘whether the Army is to be in large part demobilized and returned to civil life during 2 . the next few months. Out of a present force of 1,400,000 men, only 200,000 have had more than one year’s training. Army men consider that one year’s training might be called a grammar-school * education in the Army. They consider it inadequate training for troops in modern warfare. All except 476,000 of the present Army are in for only one year unless Congress should legislate to hold them. As the law stands now, it would be necessary, begin- . hs ning in the fall, to demobilize twothirds of the trained enlisted strength and threefourths of the trained officers. Gen. George C. Marshall, Chief of Staff, says that this, in view of existing conditions in the world, might well involve a “national tragedy.” : : : = Senators and Congressmen are being very mysterious, and talking about something that if it became known would knock the hats off the public. Such statements are apt to conjure up all kinds of conjectures which have no present basis in fact.

Gen. Marshall’s Problem

"" There isn’t much in the picture that is not already

i -

« publicly known in a general way. What another year p Or two years of war might bring nobody Rnows. But

on the basis of the present outlook there do not seem to be any startling ventures in the wind.

My Day

. BOSTON, Mass., ‘Wednesday—Yesterday was one of the loveliest days I have spent in a long while, éxcept for the fact that I was entirely stupid about

fp my route, On that score, I think I can

give ‘myself zero. In Bangor, Me, I turned in the

a ‘full hour! SF .« , I had planned to cover a good many miles, but I added 88 unn ones. While it was a pretty road, I might have taken it. some other time, without disturbing my plans quite so much.. As it ‘was, I could not dine with Mr. and Mrs. Henry Parish, but reached the Mountain View House in Whitefield, 'N. H., just as they finished dinner and spent a very. happy hour with them, also of our rector and his wife, Dr.

‘I had a glimpse

looked very well. Ct ig young Mrs. Dodge Tee rei thot ay Toveaet visit,

wrong direction on Route 2 and. never realized; it until I had driven

son. The brewers say a combination of hot weather and plenty of money are the responsible factors. What they're worrying about is-a scarcity of cans. They keep running lower and lower, but: try as they will they just can’t seem to convince the Government that a beer can is a national essential. Wonder if the bottle people are disheartened?

Around the Town

| REP. OSCAR JOSE JR. local real estate man, has left for Wyoming on his first trout fishing expedition. He had to go to a sporting goods. store .before he left to be outfitted completely, boots on up. . . . It’s the little things that count, insist our Indianapolis contractors. They say that while they have to pay more, they're not having any particular trouble getting lumber, bricks, concrete, etc. But they're fighting and scrambling all over the lot trying to pick up little pieces of pipe, tin sheeting, doorknobs—anything that's metal . . . and, oh yes, that whisky liquor price war we mentioned recently still is going good and strong, with everybody waiting hopefully for the A. B. C. to move in and do something about it. Anything to Be of Service MOST FOLKS THIS YEAR have tomatoes growing in their little back yard gardens. Well, here's a tip from an expert. Horace Abbott, County Agricultural Agent, says the way to water tomato plants is NOT to sprinkle ‘em. Don’t get the leaves wet. Just water the ground. . . . Leaning against the rail of the putt-putt boat course at Riverside Park the -other night was none other than Hizzoner’s faithful amanuensis, Russell E. Campbell. He was waiting for the boat to come in bearing his two. youngsters on their umpteenth ride and he looked just a wee bit weary.

By Raymond Clapper

Gen. Marshall is charged with building the military defense of the nation. He now faces the possibility that most of his Army will be mustered out from under him. : : We have just two divisions, or at most four, in shape now for action. Of the Regular Army divisions, only one, the First, is a solid Regular Army outfit, with only a negligible sprinkling of less than 10 per ‘ceht of selectees. And this division has 75 per cent Reserve officers, meaning that approximately three out of four of its officers are free to leave the Army at the end of one year. : The other divisions have from 20 to 81 per cent selectees who cannot be held more than 12 months. In fact, all except the Second Triangular Division have more than 30 per cent selectees and most of them more than 50 per cent. All of them have 75 to 80 per cent Reserve officers.

Some Comparisons

Take the four armored divisions, in which long training and technical skill are required.’ Eighty-two per cent of their officers.are Reserve officers. Their percentage of selectees runs: First Division, 50 per cent; Second Division, 45 per cent; Third Division, 62 per cent; Fourth Division, 81 per cent. In all we have some 30 divisions in preparation, compared with Germany’s 260 divisions. Germany and Russia each have more than 160 divisions fighting against each other now. Those figures give a geperal idea of the size of our Army against the two main: armies in the world. The prospect of having virtually to disband this Army, which would be none too large even if it were thoroughly trained and equipped—and it is neither— is what has driven Gen. Marshall to insist upon: a showdown in Congress, although warned that there is intense opposition to continuing .draftees in’ service beyond one year.

By Eleanor Roosevelt

to. start out very early this morning, so we decided to spend the night in a cottage attached to the Mary Elizabeh Inn near Lancaster. Here we were very comfortable and carried out our plan of leaving just as the sun began to warm up the valley. : The view of the red sky back of the mountains last night, with one bright twinkling evening star, was unforgettably beautiful. A very friendly lady in the cottage next to ours came over to speak to me help me fasten down the top of settled down for the night. This mor familiar road down to Boston. past the mountain.” I would have liked to but I had promised to:be ready to children at 4 p. m. in Boston, so better not dally too long on the way. We were all saddened on Monday to - death of our young friend, Miss Mar - who was married just before her death Mills. - She had been for many years to Mr. Louis Howe, and then to our son, J was loyalty and devotion itself. i . Margaret Durand had friends among portant men of the day as well as amon and least important people. All of of her qualities of h wishes she could haye been

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Burning : Lond ‘We Were Conscious Presently Of the Stagnation of the Air=—

Acrid First, ThenUnbreathable’

- ‘Copyright, 1941, by The Indianapolis Times and The Chicago Daily News, Inc.

One night they tried to burn London down, and thus began what to my notion is the greatest newspaper story

of our time. wi

London was burning. London, the glorious and irreplacable, would be ashes tomorrow. London, the immortal,

would be dead.

From the roofs of high

buildings in Fleet Street we

watched the approaching doom with unbelieving eyes. The light of the pyre made a brilliant glow all across the East-

ern sky—and it was getting ~oyt was gone, : : From where we looked into the cavernous recesses

of “the city” and over the elegant old wrecks of aristocratic Mayfair, along the mysterious river and beyond the spire of Westminster and the towers of the House of Parliament, there didn’t seem to be a single shadow left in London.. The steeple of Bow Bells rose like’ a sword against the flame. - The dome of St. Paul's, ethereal and fragile as always, was marked with a million glittering facets.

The streets, to use a phrase of EG Angly’s. were spattered with

gold. London, about to die, had bugkled on its most gorgeous armor to do the dying in. There had been no fire like this in Europe since 1660, when a smaller London was ‘laid in cinders—probably there had been no such fire anywhere since the burning of Rome. Great cumulus: formations of smoke billowed out of the raging east, rolled to the sky and flattened southward.

” n

Air Becomes Stagnant

THEY DID NOT look so much like smoke as rivers of slow-mov-ing white-hot slag. Some of the fumes were working their way in our direction although we couldn’t see them, save as misty blemishes on the bright metallic surface of the sky. But we were conscious presently of the deadly stagnation of the air. First it was merely hot. and lacking in oxygen. Then it was hotter and scented with oil and burning wood. Then it was acrid, choking, almost unbreathable. “I guess there must be half a million people down there in their fine, fireproof Anderson shelters,” said a man from Commercial Telegraph. “I wonder how much ‘longer they're going to be dble to get air.” : “How much longer do you think they're going to need air?” asked a man from Exchange Telegraph. By this time there was plentiful evidence of the thoroughness of the raid. Hitler's effort, it appeared, wasn't directed solely toward the demolition of London’s most populous slum—it was spread out to embrace congested areas south of the river and the night club district in Leicester Square and the sacred pagodas of the rich and mildewed in sainted West End. Queerly camouflaged by the thousand glittering reflections of the night, the planes hung high above the light, and dropped their bomhs With ease and precision on perfectly illuminated targets. There seemed to be hundreds of them—probably were. The rhythmic groan and grumble of them seemed no farther away than the hoods. of the flues above our heads.

” » tJ WE HEARD THEM bracketing Fleet Street, and the Strand and the embankment with sticks of hombs . . . one-two-three-four-five. . . . some of the ecrumps were

WAR BRINGING

MANILA BOOM Defense Needs of U. S. Proves Bonanza to

“Pearl of Orient.

By WALTER ROBB

' MANILA, July 17 (by Clipper). — War needs of the United States have brought a bonanza to this “pearl of the Orient seas.” Stimulated purchases and high prices have rescued American pioneer - plantation owners out of threatened adversity and have given a new reign of prosperity to half of the archipelago’s population. To the exclysion of other producers of raw materials, however,

American orders here favor two 2

classes of miners and two classes farmers. ma

chrome steels, and growers of coconut, n for fats which are ‘scarcer as the war grows older, required for

brighter. “The dismal black-

so close that they seemed to have been aimed at us, personally. We crouched in the dubious protec~ tion of the concrete parapet as the blasts went off below us and the rattle of tumbling glass continued when the echoes of the ex~ plosions had ceased. All night this went on, and with some hours of respite almost as intensely the next day. On Mon"day, Sept. 9, daylight raiders came to strew crumps in St. James’ Park and -in business thoroughfares and to machinegun shoppers in the streets.

And for just a moment that day Hitler appeared to have won his argument. The people of London moved that day like drugged unfortunates awaiting execution. The greatest city in the : world might have crawled more or less successfully out of the ashes of the East End, but there was no victory. Just about 6,000,000 men and women had been removed from life into a Nirvana of mass hypnosis and shellshock. For many an hour they were just as dead, even though they could still move their hands and feet, as if some undertaker had laid them out for burial. ein That, although he had no way of telling it, was Hitler's moment. For the Ifirst—and only—time since the beginning of the war he ‘had flattened opposition. He had smashed up England's sole remaining = asset—an intangible thing that visiting lecturers used to bore you about, the British spirit. : But, in a fashion that almost leads one to accept the Englishman’s view of the divine mission of “The Empire,” a miracle was tossed at just the right moment and Hitler's net accomplishment in civilization’s finest display of savagery had been the manufacture of a lot of ash heaps along the Thames.

8 » ”

The Trance Ends

| LONDON SHOOK itself suddenly and came out of the trance. People moved normally in the streets and quit looking up at the sky. They no longer shivered when the sirens bleated. They put out incendiary bombs with mops—or their hats. They were concerned only with the crumps that fell near to them. Distant blasts were, in this philosophic division of worry, somebody else’s bad luck. In a way it is difficult to convey any conception of the Battle of Britain in words. Because this, which turned out surprisingly to be one of the most important engagements of the war, and probably the most astonishing in the history of battles, cannot be considered as a single dramatic event with the customary unities of motivation, suspense and denouement. Rather it is a mosaic of many events, each with its own significance, each related intricately to the basic plot. , And the basic plot, briefly outlined, was something like “who’s afraid of the big bad wolf?” We used to ride down to Dover now and then and watch the

HOLD EVERYTHING

‘three-a-day air battles as the Luftwaffe tried to get over the channel, and the Spitfires and the Hurricanes®came out $o chase them back. : We learned down there that the amazing .audits of profit and loss issued daily by -the RAF erred if| at all on the side of conservatism. ' One day we stood by while the RAF knocked 186 Nazi planes out of the sky and proved to Hitler the unsuspected proposition that skillful management may give a few good planes and pilots the advantage: over a lot of mediocre ones. Never again after that diy did a Junkers 88 show up over England. Never through that terrible winter was there any doubt that England had regained superiority in her own air, Night. bombing went on, a ghastly lot of it, but that had nothing to do with air superiority, as was demonstrated

by the British bombers who dili- *

gently carried out a similar program over Germany. # » # HITLER MADE one psychqlogical blunder in his plan to demol-

ish Landon. - So long as he ‘was bombing the East End and blasting the poor. and undernourished out of their wretched homes there was - some chance for diversion of opinion in the town over the workings of .a democracy. You could hear murmurs down there (if you weren't deaf or censored) about an obvious deal between the ruling classes of England with powerful interests that did not have to be mentioned by name. “’Tis the rich wot tykes their pleasure. . .. 'tis the poor as gets the blyme. . .” bombs). The refugees from the East End were asking, with the illogical persistence of the deeply hurt, why they had been picked for this visitation. Why were they sacrificed when there . was fine shelter in the swank ' hotels, while the - noble lords and ladies sat unharmed and unshaken on their velvet cushions in Mayfair. {One can see that there might easily have been quite a lot of re-

places, as they could no longer séll|stitute half ‘of the insular popula-| their Japanese neighbors. Taxes : : r

rs . ¥ i § i ore + . . a “No, wise guys—checkers definitely is not a war game!” $d! ox : ' Par kt ARTA a eT . ed. | Théy were stuck with their| Philippines, with their families, con-| >,

tion. «

rose, prices for hemp and copra fell,|

(and : the -

sults from this line of. argument and agitation, But Hitler fixed ‘that up. He strewed Mayfair generously with super-crumps and

‘ finished .the East End’s last basis

for: a yowl about partiality by

blowing up a chunk of Bucking- -

ham Palace. The King had just finished his prayers in the chapel when: a bomb hit it. The Nazis ,couldn’t have done any. better if they'd been deliberately trying to promote the solidarity of the Brit-~ ish people. - It was a little difficult living around London during the long months of the blitz Crumps would drop in streets and smash up water mains and gas mains. And, people would have to go for a long time without baths and without cooked food. Once a network of telephone lines went out. 5 oh couldn't telephone to .anyly; in, say, .Claridge’s ' Hotel, even: had you wanted tq telephone to ‘anybody ‘in Claridge’s Hotel. Eating ‘was something of a problem, too. . Food continued to be plentiful enough in theory. Our restaurants weren't very durable. Literally you never knew where your next meal was coming from.

Hotels Collapsed HOTELS had a way of falling down about your ears. And you wandered through London from door to door, feeling something like one of the pilgrims in the Canterbury - Tales, for, no matter where you went you kept seeing the same faces and the same voices

that you'd seen and heard just before your midnight exodus from some other high-priced target. You got to know a lot of people that way. .As on shipboard, you met them easily and got to know them intimately in a few minutes.

Whenever you got to the street

before. a time homb went off or a wall collapsed you were buoyed up by ‘the thought of a reunion at the next assembly point. Sometimes, of course, you didn’t meet them all when. you moved as usual to the best hotel within walking

U. S. ‘FREEZING KEY MEN IN JOBS

Maritime . Board Warns * Resignations. Accepted With ‘Prejudice.’ Pry: Times Special

. WASHINGTON, July 17.— The Government has taken a first step toward “freezing” Federal employees in their jobs. ‘The = Maritime ‘Commission has issued an order to ‘its Technical Division warning that resignations from naw on will not be accepted “without prejudice.” This has the effect of barring from Federal employment, possibly forever, anyone who quits his position with the

|| Commission.

‘The order, dated July 5, reads: “While the Commission understands that members of the Tech-

.<people nd

with | B-The Bure of Everaving. snd

distance of your old home. The law of averages always contrived to leave a percentage of them be-, hind in the wreckage. You nevef talked about such people. You never noticed—publicly—that they were not there. ° bak The public shelters of London were unbelievably and disgrace~ fully bad and probably still ate sheds of brick topped with a thick layer of concrete. Concussion’ is generally enough force to knock the bricks apart—the tons of con=« crete lid come down. The more tality list in such cases is gengr= ally pretty complete. Anderson shelters are nothing more than an arch of sheet iron covered with

dirt and their protection against -

a half-ton bomb is just about what you'd expect it to be. ! The subways are deep ‘and ses cure but too small to care for

more ‘than a fraction of 1 per cent of the populace, and most = one night in them”

prefer to die out in the open.. . London's, task in the blits has. been one not only of extreme’ bravery but of adaptability ‘and patience and endurance. : : ; ” » ” ONE NIGHT in December the Nazis dropped 700 tons of TNT on London, and 100,000 fire bombs. But by that time the new mode . of life had become commonplace. You didn’t. relate your personal experiences unless your hquse had disintegrated and you had to re< port a change of ‘address. : An unshaken people, standing . in masses of wreckage and acres

of desolation, .lived for each day : alone and were cheerily grateful .

when they. were able to look out :

upon a new dawn. : Maybe death was constantly a : little nearer than it had been in © 1938. Maybe living: was a little ® more difficult. But the theme of : existence was that of the para- ° phrase of King George's famous Christmas message. . , “and I said : to the man who stood at the gate : of the year, ‘How’m I doin’?’ And | he said, ‘You're alive, ain't you, . Chump?’ » ia .

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE

or.

E IN SN ? on fu .

1—The ladybird is a bird, beetle fish?

2—Name the former emperor of & world power who died June 4, 1041. . : 3—Who is the Co-ordinator of Com« mercial and Cultural Relations between the American Republics, in the National Defense program?

4—For what did Sir Galahad cons |

duct a successful search?

5—Which gaseous element was de tected on the sun before being

discovered on earth? cl 6—The Liberty Bell is in Faneult =

Hall, Boston; Independence 3 Philadelphis, or the National Mu+ seum, Wash D.C? + 7-—Which three horse races - Whirlway win to earn the myth« ical “Triple Crown”? | }

8—Where are the postage stamps of

the United States manufactured?

Answers 1—Beetle. Ma 2—Wilhelm II, former Kaiser of

|3—Nelson A. Rockefeller.

4~The Holy Grail. 5—Helium, 7—Kentucky : Derby, Preakness and Belmont Stakes %