Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 18 April 1944 — Page 11

CED

Ft.

Price 20c Ft, 10c Ea, 3.00 Ea, 3.35 Ea, 15¢ Ft, 15¢ Ft, 50c Ea, 50c Qt. We FY, 30c Ea

too, (and in case of shipping to Anzio, the Greeks and Poles as well),

‘Hoosier Vagabond By Eric Pyle |. WITH 5TH ARMY BEACHHEAD FORCES IN ITALY, April 18 (By Wireless). —

The real drama of this Anzio beachhead campaign is the supply system. I'd almost like ‘to write that sentence twice—to make sure you get it. The supplying of this 5th army

beachhead has been one of the superlative chapters of our Mediterranean war.

The beachhead is really like a little island. Everything has to come by water.

Without a steady flow of food and ammunition, the beachhead would perish.

All this concentration of ® shelling and bombing against - the Anzio-Nettuno area is for

Up Front With Mauldin

the purpose of hindering our movement of supplies. They have hindered it some. I can't give you the percentage, but you'd be surprised how low it really is. They certainly have not hindered us enough. For the supplies keep " coming, and the stockpiles have J, now grown So | great and so numerous that we've almost run out of room for establishing new dumps, |

MANY BRANCHES of the serve ice deserve credit for the supply miracles—the navy, the merchant marine, the combat engineers, the quartermaster corps. And again let me remind you that the British are always there, too. You don't hear much about them from me, because my job is to write about the Americans. But in all our allied work down here the British do their part,

American army engineers are in commund of all port facilities at the beachhead. The city of Anzio is a mess today.

Just off the waterfront, there is absolutely nothing but wreckage. And the wreckage grows day by day under German shelling and bomb- : s ing. We call Anzio a “potential Bizerte,” for soon it may be in as complete a state of wreckage as was that thoroughly wrecked city in Tunisia, Yet our soldiers and sailors continue to live and work in Anzio. There isn’t a man in town who hasn't had dozens of “experiences.” If you try to tell a bomb story, anybody in Anzio can top it. Casualties occur daily. But the men go on and on. ” o ”

THE AMERICAN SOLDIER'S irrepressible sense of humor still displays itself in Anzio, Down on the dock is a big, boxlike cart in which they pick up slop buckets and trash that gets in the way on the dock front. The cart is freshly painted snow-white, and printed in neat blue letters on each side is “Anzio Harbor Department of Sanitation” You'll have to see the bedlam of wreckage to get the full irony of the “sanitation” part. : At a corner in Anzio some soldiers have set up a broken statue of a woman (the place is lousy with statues), and put a sign under it saying, “Anzio Annie” If somebody would write a poem about her, she might become as famous as “Dirty Girtia.” I noticed another sign—this one not funnv—along the waterfront. This sign said, “No Parking—For Ambulances Only." Evervhody jokes about the perilous life in the Anzio-Nettuno area. I've been with it long enough

figured in the beginning was possible.

“How ya gonna find out if they're fresh troops if ya don’t } wake ’em up an’ ask?”

myself to appreciate the humor of nervousness, Some people have had to leave because of nerves, and those who stay like to make fun of their own shakes. The jitters are known as “Anzio anxiety” and “Nettuno neurosis.” A lieutenant will hold out his hand and purposely make it tremble, and say, “See, I'm not nervous.” Then there is “Anzio foot,” where your feet are pointing In one direction and your face in another— the position sometimes momentarily assumed when youre going somewhere and the scream of a shell suddenly turns you on another course, =" = »

. ALSO, we have the “Anzio walk,” a new dance in which the performer jumps, jerks, cowers, cringes and twitches his head this way and that, something halfway between the process of dodging shells and just plain nuts. You wouldn't imagine people could joke about the proximity of death; but you sometimes have to joke about it—or elise. And through all this, men keep working and supplies keep coming in. I can't, of course, tell you in figures the total of this magnificent job they've done. But I can say that today this beachhead is receiving nine times as much supplies daily as they It has been a thrilling privilege to be here and see them do it.

Inside Indianapolis By Lowell Nussbaum

FRED BASSETT, who is with a dairy machinery firm, was visited recently by his boss, who lives in another city. The boss mentioned that as he drove in from the north he saw a sign advertising scottie dogs, and he wanted to buy a pup. Fred agreed to go with him, and they drove out Meridian, When they got in the 6100 block of N. Pennsylvania, they turned in the driveway of Harry E. Scott, vice president of the General Tire Co. here. “This can't be a kennel,” protested Fred. “Oh, yes, it is,” replied the boss. “See that sign over there?” He pointed to a little iron scottie'dog on the front lawn—Mr, Scott's “trade mark.” Fred explained that it was just an ornament. The boss decided that maybe the man who lived there had had a little dog that died and they buried him in the front yard and put up a little marker for him. ... S. Sgt. Addison Coddington Jr, stationed on a small coral atoll in the Pacific—probably in the Gilberts or Marshalls —found a lot of variety in his mail one day recently. In a letter just received by his parents, dated April 2, Fe said that in one day's mail he received a Christmas card, Valentine card, St. Patrick's day card, an Easter card, a box and a Dec, 20 newspaper. On the same atoll—unless by now they've moved closer to Tokyo—is another Indianapolis soldier, Sgt. John L. Butler, formerly a photographer for the Times,

What—Again? THE STATE selective service headquarters force was all confused the other day when one of its staff, Pfc. John Zartman, received an official communication from draft board 1. It was an order for him to appear before the board at 4 p. m. yesterday, for reclassification, Pfc. Zartman, who was inducted last November and has been on duty at the state headquarters since December, took the problem to his superior officer who “fixed him up” with board 1. It was a mixup. . , . One of our readers relays a complaint. He says he saw a military police car parked in front of the Mutual theater the other day—

My Day

HYDE PARK, N. Y, Monday.—Yesterday, Miss Thompson and I came up to Hyde Park. Chirles Keene Taylor is our guest here. This morning we are visting the Franklin D. Roosevelt high school and I shall spend a good part of the morning listening to school problems and hearing Mr. Taylor discuss and, I hope, demonstrate his ideas on vocational guidance. : Signs of spring here in the country are not as evident as they are in Washington, but nevertheless, every time I have a glimpse of my own home surroundings I am conscious of a great longing to stay and watch the gradual unfolding of spring. It is so many he years since I have seen ihe lilac : bushes bud and the lilies of the valley push up through the ground. In Washington, spring suddenly seems to burst

upon you. Here it creeps, but it is nevertheless a

miracle of beauty and hope. With so much death and destruction going on throughout the world,

the fact that the seasons follow their course, that there is rebirth when the time comes, must bring

somyfort tg/many sad souls in the world. Dean Eleanor Grady of Hunter college came to

Ste me in Washington on Saturday to talk -about what the college could do for the returni

girls as

with the motor running, “S'matter,” he asks, “don’t those soldiers know there's a war on?”. . . Draft board 12 received a letter the other day from seven soldiers over in Italy. In part, the letter said: “We feel it is not too much for you to ask of us to leave our families and dear friends in the U. S. A. to come over here to seitle arguments of a handful of the

moneyed men of the world, but we think you have |

carried it entirely too far when you fail to keep us informed on the happenings and whereabouts of

Dick Tracy and Smiling Jack. The last we knew of |

poor old Tracy, he was staked to the floor under a huge icebox supported by two cakes of ice. ... What on earth ever happened to him? The suspense is gradually killing us.” The letter, which continues in the same vein, was signed by Cpl. Clyde V. Thompson, Sgt. Aldo F. Tersillo, S. Sgt. H. A. Paschall, Sgt. Leo W. Rosset, Sgt. F. I. Ross, T. Sgt. G. A. Stewart and Sgt. B. D. Smith.

Who's Right? We Are! OLLIE BACH, the former city councilman, sends us a note asking “the truth about sugar stamp 37." On his letter he pasted clippings from the ration calendars in Saturday's Times and from another newspaper the same day. The Times said: “Applicants applying for canning sugar should send in spare stamp 37, attached to their application, not sugar stamp 37.” The other paper said: “Sugar stamp 37 must accompany applications for additional canning sugar. Do not send spare stamp 37.” We don’t blame you for being confused, Ollie, git shame on you for asking which one is right. Naturally, The Times is right. Yep, it's spare stamp 37—NOT sugar stamp 37. The mistake occurred in an OPA publicity release, which we managed to get straightened out before the other paper did. , .. Speaking of.the OPA, a Gibson county rationing board received a letter from an applicant for a stove. In explaining why it couldn't be repaired, he waxed poetic: It leaked, it rusted; it can’t be-trusted.”. , . And then there was the case of a consumer who asked Vv county board 3 for an extra 40 po sugar. When he didn't get it right away,

he grumbled: “Well, hurry up. I need that canning sugar for the table.”

By Eleanor Roosevelt

am sure the college will do its part, for cne always finds Hunter thinking ahead on the problems of the day where girls are concerned. Just now I have before me the notice of a conference to be held in the Hunter college auditorium on April 19 on “Religion at Work in the Community,” Some. 2000 leaders, educators and laymen will hear specific programs discussed, and I am sure that this coming together of the various religious leaders with the laymen is a valuable and necassary step. The churches must lead in the spiritual regeneration of our time, but they cannot lead unless the laymen will accept a fundamental truth—that the ideas which they hear spoken from the pulpits of their churches must be translated by all into action in their daily lives. Otherwise, these ideas will have no influence on the life of the times. Sermons may carry inspiration, but they may be completely sterile if they cease to have any effect when the members of a church group pass through the doors of the House of God and out into the world. : This is true of all our religions, and I am glad that this meeting brings together representatives of vazious groups—Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish—

for-all of us must work together or there will be no religious leadetship of great influénce in any

"The Indianapolis

imes

SECOND SECTION

TUESDAY, APRIL 18, 1944

ur Town

Play Ball-No. 1)

PAGE 11 .

ANTON SCHERRER

In these uncertain days

when all authority totters on

the apocalyptic brink, it’s mighty comforting to have a

truth or two to hug—for example, the documented fact

that once upon a time, back in 1870, an improvised Indian apolis baseball team went to Cincinnati and beat the daylights out of a club known as the “Reds.” The humiliation handed the Reds, together with the story leading up to their defeat, marks the beginning of professional baseball

around here.

In 1869, so runs the tale,

a Cincinnati salaried team wearing beards, short pants and long red stockings considered itself so good that it went on a coast-to-coast tour taking on all comers. Nothing like it had ever happened before. The tour ended in June, 1870, in the course of which the Reds traveled 11,877 miles and played 57 games. They won 56 and tied 1; scored 2395 runs to 574 for their opponents;

‘ and batted a total of 169 home

runs, an average of nearly three to a game. * Among their victims was an Indianapolis scrub team hastily put together for the occasion. The game was played in a converted corn field at the northeast corner of Delaware and South sts., where the Big Four people now do business.

Jones Boys Had Answer

The stinging defeat might have left an everlasting scar had not the Jones boys known what to do. When the triumphant Reds returned from their barnstorming tour, an Indianapolis team led by Aquilla Q. Jones (p.) and his brother Ben (c¢.) went to Cincinnati and gave the up-till-then unconquered club the drubbing of its life. Shortly thereafter the Reds disbanded. As for Aquilla Jones, he ended up an eminent Indianapolis attorney whose courtroom strategy was not unlike that of a quick-thinking ball player which still remains (thank God) the prize example of mind over matter, The first real-for-sure professional team to represent Indianapolis was the one organized in 1876 by W. B. Pettit, 3 baseball character who had been connected with the game almost from the days of its conception by Maj. Gen. Abner Doubleday in 1839. The very next year the Pettit team won the pennant in the International associatich, a league whose pretentious name is accounted for by the fact that originally it included the Tecumsehs of London and the Maple Leafs of Guelph, two towns in Ontario, Canada, This happened almost 70 years before Wendell Willkie thought up “One World” and passed it off as something new.

Nolan Was Hurler

The pennant-winning team of 1877 was built around a battery comprising Eddie Nolan (p.) and Frank (“Silver”) Flint (c.), both of whom came to Indianapolis by way of the sandlots of St. Louis. In no time at all, the Nolan-Flint combination achieved-a reputation which couldn't be matched anywhere (including Canada). The regularity with which Eddie mowed ‘em down finally got people to wondfring what he had on the ball. All sorts of rumors were afloat and among the most fantastic was one to the effect that Eddie had a curve ball in his repertoire when he came to Indianapolis. What's more, that he had learned to control it after establishing

-residence in Indianapolis,

Eddie christened his controlled

By Science Service ANNISTON, Ala., April 18.—Tales

he called | them would be dismissed nowadays ing group of writers saw with 20th! on the board. Told the certificate would be mailed, as fables belonging to the Arabian

DETAIL FOR TODAY mp

MP IS THE ABBREVIATION for .military police, a branch of the service devoted to keeping

soldiers out of trouble. The ave erage GI, -however, believes the

primary purpose of the MP is to

see that he gets into trouble. With complete authority over all military personnel, an MP, if he happens across an officer who has gone berserk, can completely ignore the offender’s rank and tell him just what's what—this being about the only time a GI likes to

- see an MP in action. “O; K,, sol-

dier, break it up!” is an MP phrase distasteful to the soldier, especially. when he has just put

| Nights. Added stories of cloaks that

anderburgh of birds with breath of evil that only add to the feeling of fantasy. | unds of icanning slew men by merely flying over

_ {settled quickly toward the ground.

{swift swings of his arms, and then _|slipped it over himself,

curve an “inshoot” and, because he was the only one anywhere in the world to know its secret, the Indianapolis pitcher came to be called “the only Nolan,” a name that stuck to him the rest of his life, .

Here Comes Dr. Jordan

All of which sets the stage for David Starr Jordan, a Butler col« lege professor of science. As soon as the professor heard that Eddie Nolan was pitching a so-called “curve,” he pooh-poohed the idea as utterly absurd and contrary to the laws of nature. As an alternative, he suggested that maybe an optical illusion was involved. With a finality known only to professors and policemen, Dr. Jordan dis missed the pitching of a curve ball as “a feat incapable of dem« onstration.”

Immediately everybody took sides. Butler's faculty supported. Dr. Jordare of course, and the Indianapolis team, thoroughly aroused by this time, came to Ed‘die’s rescue. Not only that, but they challenged Dr. Jordan to a show-down. They'd prove it, they said, even if he was a college teacher of science, The test was made in a vacant lot back of the Maryland st. fire engine house (old No. 7) which was the hang-out of the ball players at that time. Two poles were placed a few feet apart and across them was stretched a sheet of paper. About 10 feet back were placed two other poles also plastered with paper. The one and only Nolan then took his stance and pitched a ball powdered with chalk through the two sheets of paper, a slick way of enabling a college professor to trace the course of the projectile—first by the holes in the papers and finally by the white mark it left on the rear brick wall. Sure, it was a curve. Dr. Jordan said he wouldn't have believed it had he not seen it with his own eyes.

Blunder Suppressed

Among those present that his toric day were Charlie Houts (1b.), Joe Quest (2b), Ed William=son (3b), Jack Nelson (ss), Rush McKelvey (If), Eddie Rocap (cf), Pigtail Riley (rf) and, of course, Silver Flint, the only catcher who could hold Nolan's blistering curves—with his bare hands, mind you. As for those who came to help Dr. Jordan celebrate, the less said about them the better. By way of parenthesis it may not be amiss to note that Butler managed to suppress the blunder; otherwise it wouldn't be possible to account for Dr. Jor dan’s appointment to the presidency of Leland Stanford university in 1835, just eight years after his run-in with Mr. Nolan. In 1878, Indianapolis was a member of the National League. Honest. The six clubs that year finished in this order: ‘Boston, Cincinnati, Providence, Chicago, Indianapolis, Milwaukee. Except for the delight of looking down on Milwaukee, the season was a fiasco, It ended $5000 in the red with nothing left to pay the players. The mismanagement, or whatever it was, led a lot of

‘Cloak’ Protects the Soldier From Poisonous Gas Spray

can protect against the peril would!

Yet this is one thing that a tour- | century eyes when a plane roared low over a body of troops on a road- | side in the Camp Seibert, Ala., re-| gion. From the rear of the plane] issued a cloud of brown mist that!

Each of the soldiers did what looked like a brief dervish dance. At the end of about five seconds they all stopped ‘abruptly, crouching partly down to the ground. Closer inspection showed that each man had whipped out of his gas.mask carrier a kind of personal envelope, spread it open with two.

The top part consisted of transparent plastic sheeting and the rest of the garment of an impervious brown. paper. Having served its purpose in warding off one cloud of blister gas spray the whole thing is cast! aside. It is cheap and easily replaced. ‘ While crouching under the shel ter of this protecting envelope the soldier adjusts his gas -mask. Of course the spray used in the demonstration was not mustard gas, But the protection would have worked as well had the game been “for keeps.” ' Another fabulous thing that the Chemical Warfare Service showed was the fog of invisibility. A small group of men with a few of the not-new but only recently noticed 4.2- inch rifled mortars so filled a whole valley with the white fumes

Indianapolis scrub team to Cincinnati and beat the daylights out of the “Red Stockings,” an up-till-then unconquered baseball club,

ore sm ” “ a

In 1887, after having achieved fame as the founder of the When Clothing store and the unforgetable When band (more than enough for one man), John T. Brush acquired a franchise for Indianapolis in the National league.

people to associate professional baseball with crookedness; with the result that for the next few years Indianapolis had to get

oalong with nothing better than

scrub teams,

Two More Aces The best scrub team of this period (circa 1884) was the one organized by Dan O'Leary, a champion pedestrian who had a record for walking a string of iles faster than anybody in his day. Mr. O'Leary developed two extraordinary players: Larry McKeon (p.) and Jim Keenan (c.). This amazing pair was sold to the resurrected Cincinnati Reds in 1885 for $10,000, an alltime high until 1887 when Mike Kelly, a Chicago second baseman

HOLD EVERYTHING

4-18

| the “sitzkrieg,”

| with the rates, di-

come tax, commu- | tation of quarters,

COPR. 1944 8Y NEA SERVICE. INC. T. M. REC. U. 8, PAT. OFF. |! ll.

“No jelly beans again, eh? Ill di [doesn’t get thatfa’

be glad when this war's over!”

of phosphorus that a whole bat-| |talion could have attacked under its dent, is urging

ZAK WALTON CLUB’ HOST TO SPORTSMEN

Conservationists, sportsmen and outdoor enthusiasts will be guests at a meeting of the Marion county chapter of the Izaak Walton league at 8 p. m. Friday -at the Antlers hotel. Milton Wysong of the educational division: of the .state conservation department will speak and -Arthur Wilson will show technicolor motion pictures which he took on recent fishing -and ‘hunting trips in

[any

i Daniels,

In 1877 when he was a Butler college: professor of science, David Starr Jordan declared the pitching of a curve ball “a feat incapable of demonstration.” Eddie Nolan, an Indianapolis pitcher, convinced him of his blunder.

(“Slide Kelly, Slide”) was sold to Boston. The next year (1885) the O'Leary team entered the Northwestern league and two more stars were developed: Larry Twitchell (p.) and Sam Thompson (r.f.), a farmer's boy who hailed from somewhere in the neighborhood of Danville, Hendricks county, A year later Detroit bought the whole Indianapolis team in order to get Twitchell and Thompson. IN 1887, Indianapolis was back in the National league largely because of the vision of John T. Brush, who could look farther into the future than any man living at the time. It was he, for example, who was the first to see that little boys grow up to be men and that a fast-growing town like

—

ours had to have, above everye thing else, a well-stocked readye

made clothing store and, after that, a bang-up band. He ore ganized both—in the one case, the huge When store on N. Penne sylvania st., and in the other case, the unforgettable When band, Both achieved the stature of ine stitutions.

Free Baseball

My first pair of pants, I don mind saying, was bought at the When and with it, I remember, came a gift in the cthape of a baseball. Kids lucky enough to get a complete suit received not only a ball, but a bat besides. All of which is submitted to settle, once and for all, the cone tention of some that Mr, Brush’s interest in baseball began with our re-entrance into the National league. Nothing could be further from the truth. The memory of my first pair of pants is suffie cient proof that Mr. Brush’s love for the national game started. considerably earlier than 1887, Indeed, there is a local legend that Mr. Brush had a stake in the old Nolan-Flint battery,

Buy St. Louis Club »

Be that as it may, this much is reasonably certain: In 1884 when the St. Louis club was for sale (because of internal strife), a group of Indianapolis men led by John T. Brush and A. J. Treat, crossed the Eads bridge (the eighth wonder of the world as it was called at the time) and bought' the Missouri club lock, stock and barrel, including not only its franchise but all the players as well. This was the foundation of a club that lasted through '87, '88 and 89, a pe=. rjod sometimes referred to by roe mancers as the golden age of baseball in Indianapolis notwithe standing the fantastic fact that the Brush team finished last in 87 and seventh in ’'88 and 89. The anomaly is explained by the rather curious circumstance that the Brush team consisted of nothe ing but stars every one of whom was intent on handing in a style ish performance and to the devil with the score. The only thing to compare with it today are the players of some symphony orches« tras I could mention if I wanted to

The Brush Team r The stars of the Brush team comprised, among others, Jack Glasscock (ss), Jerry Denny 3b.), Bassett (2b.), Ed Buckley (c.), Emmett Seery (lf), Paul Hines (cf.) and Henry Boyle (p.), probably as colorful an outfit of solo players as the game has produced. In support of which let me cite just one example: In 1878, Paul Hines, then playing with Providence, executed a triple play unassisted. It was the first time in the National league that anyone thought of playing such a solo. Almost immediately the trading value of Paul's picture hit an all-time high. Back in those days a kid was rated by his collection of miniature photographs of ball players ‘and actresses. The pice tures came wrapped in the packe ages of Sweet Caporal cigarets. Until the day of the triple play it was no trick at all to swap a pic= ture of Pauline Hall for one of Paul Hines. After the triple play, Paul's picture commanded a trade ing value of not only Pauline’s photograph (this time in tights) but also one of Lillian Russell plus a triangular Good Hope stamp.

(Continued Tomorrow)

Col. Ben Lyon Gets Snarled

In-Finances of London Home

By ROBERT J. CASEY

Times Foreign Correspondent

Shortly thereafter, Bebe, who had intended to return to the United

LONDON, April 18—If you want States, took up what appears to be

ito know how complicated life can {get in our present re-enactment of | consider the case of i Ben Lyon, former flying ace of the {movies and at present a working [lieutenant colonel | States air corps.

It’s all got to do

lapidation tax, in-

rent, exemption and the per diem

— only not s 3 8, much the : *

more, Col. Lyon came over here about

Mr. Casey

seven years ago with his wife, Bebe to make a few pictures. {They were still here when the big {blitz came along and that caused the first complication. The block in which the Lyons lived was badly everybody moved

plastered and away except Ben and his wife,

Landlady Cuts Kent

Ben said afterwards that his immobility had nothing to do with bravery or even foolhardiness. They stayed because they couldn't find

any place else to live in.

The landlady, however, was much pleased at the reliability of her tenants, so she insisted on reducing the

rent which, it seems,

| the legal status of the lease—or did} it? Anyway, it affected the charge-| offs ascribable to dilapidat:

in the United]

{life work in “Panama Hattie,” so

the Lyons’ tenancy came to be

{classed as one of the more permae ‘nent things in Londen. {went until the United States got

So things

into the war and Col. Lyon was called from reserve to active service. The colonel was given a staff ase sighment in London so he continued

to live at his flat. But somewhere .

around this period, he realized the blitz wasn't serious any more and it hurt his conscience to keep on accepting the rent reduction.

Arranges New Lease

He called in the landlady, insisted on an immediate increase, with back payment of a considerable pore tion of the rebate, and thereby fixed up another lease, so it was useless in court or ‘wherever they argue about income and outgo.

your wife is tapping a gold mine, like “Panama Hattie,” maybe you can pay more. Col. Lyon had been contemplating the possibilities for a long time when the final blow fell. The air force finance officer de~ cided to cut