Indianapolis Times, Indianapolis, Marion County, 20 April 1952 — Page 21

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Inside Indianapolis By Ed Sevola ; . IF YOU had an opportunity to talk to several hundred high school students, what would you tell them? : The two convocations to hurdle are sponsored by the National Honor Society of Washington High Is something

To begin with, the National tie with the

As dublous as you are of his finger on you, his initiative Senior Jerry Kerkhof is the president of the Washington High School National Honor Society and above all, he says, he wants de Arrange a program that the students will enjoy: Pp.

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WHAT ARE the qualifications for’ membership, Jerry? It's been 15 years and the mind gets fuzzy about such details. Oh, yes, the upper third of the junior and senior students are put on a list which the teachers study and elect 15 per cent of the nominees to the society,

An idea begins to take shape. It stems from the principle that was prevalent years ago and somewhat became lost in the shuffle of prosperity: If you don’t work, yoti don’t eat. Maybe it would do some good to tell the students that the honeymoon .will be over one fine day and dates, dances, convertibles, horseplay will become secondary. After all, you've been through the mill. The temptation is great and finally the mind is made up. Be serious, one more dull convocation won't matter. Miss Lillian Niemann and Mrs, Margaret McWilliams of the faculty and co-sponsors of the National Honor Society stick out the glad hand

icH By et, fo hi

NEW YORK, Apr. 10—We sit on the sidelines today—you and I—watching one of the monumental battles of history.

It’s the centuries-old struggle of Medicine vs. Cancer, This may be the last round.

Cancer has been thought of as incurable since it was mentioned in Egypt's ancient papyri. Hippocrates knew of cancer in 400 B. C. and so did Leonidus in 180 B. C. But your family doctor, unmindful of all those centuries behind him, has his eye on tomorrow, and thinks maybe in 5 or 10 years . . . who knows?, : Because of this optimism, there are more “eancer cures” lately than presidential candidates, No one; of course, cures cancer any more than a candidate cures politics. d 5 &

“SO WHAT may we really expect?” I asked, button-holing Dr. Stanley P. Reimann of Philadelphia, new president of the American Association of Cancer Research. “Don’t get overanxious now,” re answered. “You ought to see some of the ‘cures’ we get. “Somebody says cancer is the result of sleeping east and west instead of north and south. Another says cancer comes from eating sandwiches. : “I say, ‘Did you ever hear of a tomato plant eating a sandwich?” Sette . “The fellow didn't. So I say, ‘Well, a tomato plant gets cancer, too.’ But there is one thing hopeful.” . “What, for Heaven's?” I pleaded. “We've found that the newt and the hamster can be used for experimenting, besides rats, mice and guinea pigs. They get cancer, too. They are new tools to work with.” The big drug companies are working secretly, mysteriously, even extravagantly, toward some “miracle cure.” o.0

MONTHS AGO I heard (unreliably) that Parke, Davis of Detroit, which developed chloroemycetin, would announce a sure cure this spring. It does have a crude compound, an antibiotie, being tried in a few hospitals. But the Parke, Davis researchers—whom 1 visited in Detroit— don’t think it’s more “hopeful” than other companies’ compounds. Modest, like. most medical men, they merely said they’ve submitted hundreds of these to SloanKettering Institute for testing. And that they've nothing to be optimistic about. So far all the compounds are so crude they're just “mud,” says Dr. Cornelius P. (Dusty) Rhoads, the tireless head of Sloan-Kettering. But if one of them comes true—remember, I told you first. ‘ Dr. Reimann just wouldn't predict. & “1 isten,” he said, “we're not working night

Americana By Robert C. Ruark

NEW ORLEANS, Apr. 19—There is no way te compute the rights and wrongs of the Air Force fliers’ strike at Randolph Field in Texas— 30 way to estimate justly the value of what amounts to mutiny, There is nearly always some logical excuse for rebellion against authority. Personally, you may think it silly to call back a flier with five kids and tell him to go be prave in a big iron bird. I think so myself, because a warrior loses worth when age and discretion creep into his personality. He won't gamble on his reflexes, and what you want out of young men in a war is reflexes. But no matter where the right les in the case of the y \ fliers’ rebellion, I believe that } they should be punished to the hilt, smitten with the book, and held up as an example, to complete the cliche circuit. When a military man dares to flout his immediate authority, your whole country dives down the drain. Enough wildcat strikes can wreck any structure of organization.

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NO MAN is actually bigger than the country which, rightfully or wrongfully, impresses him into service. The privates are answerable to the sergeants, who an&wer to the lieutenants, who bow. before the captains, who obey the majors, and so on upward to where the generals do not ordinarily defy the President of the United States. That is the only way you can run a military force, We are forced to cling to a few copybook rulings in the business of living in a society, One is that cops wear the right on their side. Law is law and order is order, and when the Army or Navy or the Air Force takes a man he is supposed to obey his superiors. Or suffer th consequences, Else, anarchy results, ;

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YOU HAVE seen the French become a silly nation, because individuality has been indulged to a point where you can’t keep a cabinet around for much more than 20 minutes, and in the last war the French military acted on personal whim. The psychologists have peddled a premise im recent times which says that the individual shall and must indulge himself in his whims or alse he becomes frustrate. The unions have adopted this for selfish purposes. In other lands politicians have followed suit. "1 do not buy the individual ight to rede] against the common good, whether he is a union man or & member of the military. We live in

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They Wanted Fun: ~ Look What They Got

and roll a couple of feet of red rug out. They “feel confident” that the talk will be well Sue Cauble, Jerry Kerkhof's first vice presi dent, says the students she talked to are expect ing a good program. After all the “funny stun you've been doing” there probably won't be room in the aisles to roll around. Yike. But the tiller is set and full hot air ahead. The first blast, “If you den't work, ysu don't eat” hits the mass of smiling faces. The reaction is immediate, The smiles disappear as if a giant eraser passed over the audience. There is a noticeable amount of movement in the seats when the speaker says the youth of today has too much money, too many automobiles, too much leisure time. The auditorium is quiet when the speaker says ambition and industry still pay off and the road to success is still wide open if work isn't frightening and that the time to prepare for Be igi is now. no “You have the choice of equipping yourself to handle a shovel or a stethoscope. You don't prepare yourself for the jackpot at the corner drug store, In a car with jet pipes, big talk under the street lights.” * & ¢ ’ SURPRISINGLY enough, there was a feeling in the &peakers bones that some of his ideas were getting through. It was an alert audience. The response to this question: How many girls in’ the audience can smoke cigdrets better than they can cook? was deafening. Boys applauded and the girls screamed. Before anyone could get vegetables aimed, the speaker sald, “A girl looks at a young man who has a fine position, new car, money in the bank, excellent potential and tells herself she's good enough for him.” More shrieks. “Can she cook, sew, keep house, fire a furnace? A man generally must prove his ability to provide before he’s acceptable. A woman is content to learn her responsibilities after she’s married.” Judging from what was said after each convocation, we had fun. The allotted time was disregarded twice by 20 minutes. The audience participated at each session with questions, In a spirit of fun, Juniors Dolores Runyon and Phyllis Myers, food majors, protested that all girls know only how to smoke and use makeup. Glad to hear it. Especially glad to be invited to come back. Ah, youth, isn’t it wonderful?

Is Fight on Cancer Near Final Round?

and day on those rats and mice because we care about the health of rats and mice. “But I'm no prophet. And don’t try te be.”

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THE MIDNIGHT EARL . . . Producer Cy Howard, radio and TV-—says he does best on radio. “In Denver,” he said, in Sardi's, “they think television is a city in Palestine.” Wm. O'Dwyer’s the most popular man in Mexico, reports Bill Gaxton, just back. . . . Paulette Goddard's returning from Europe — with loot and love letters—to meet Cy Howard. . . . The Summer Slump hit B’'way before summer did. “We, the People” will cover the political campaign starting May 9, its writing and research done by Life. . . . Hope Hampton bought a Greenwich house to duck atom bombs. Now the highway has signs saying that in an emergency, the road up to her place will be closed. Seeing John Ringling North talking to Toots Shor, Eddie Hanley, the star, remarked, “Oh, Ringling talking to Gargantua.” . .. Which will be resented by Johnnie Ray, a regular at Shor’s. , . As though the Copa wasn’t overcrowded enough by Johnnie Ray fans, Dagmar dropped in. Expecting: The Whitey (NY Giants) Lockmans, the Leo Goreeys. . . . Dean Martin & Jerry Lewis postponed their May 1 Copacabana date. Peter Donald spurned a TV show opposite Bishop Sheen and Uncle Miltie, saying he didn’t wan't to be Uncle Wiltie. . . . Berle'll tour in onenighters this summer. . . . The OPS found some old menus of an East Side restaurant in a cellar, They revealed price hikes of 90 per cent. Composer Bob Merrill says a Holl defendant was warned anything he said ‘would be held against him so he said, “Marilyn Monroe.” > © 9»

WISH I'D SAID THAT: “To save money on a date, always ask your girl just before going into a restaurant whether she hasn't been putting on weight”— Bob Hawk.

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EARL'S PEARLS . . . The biggest April shower of 1952, according to Robert Q. Lewis, is Johnnie Ray, Dorothy Shay, the Park Av. hillbilly, opening at the Waldorf, sald she'd sing a song written by.a girl who was present last night. “And if you don’t like it,” she said, “I'll never write another song.” . . . That's earl, brother.

Hope Hampton

Urges Book Be Thrown At Reluctant Fliers

Some semblance of leadership must be maintained, or else the whole ship goes haywire, “» ob © IF WE THINK back a little to the last war, and what might have happened if all the fourteen million pressed people had indulged the right of self-determination, I suspect that the issue of Guadalcanal might still be in doubt. We have one small hope against the possibility of destruction, and that is unity. I shudder it the potential of widespread rebellion in the armed forces. - It can catch on as a popular pastime if any branch of the.services allows a ‘ew men to get away with an open flouting of uthority.

<« “o> & IT SEEMS to me the country has been coming \part at all sorts of seams lately, and this strike »f the fliers is one of the more blatant aspects of collapse. For complete success of internal destruction, we own most of the ingredients already. We have a beautiful internal political warfare going. We have strikes which threaten the entire economy. And so now we have a disruption in the armed services to top off the platter. I was never a sympathizer with Capt. Bligh but in this instance the warmth is not with the modern Fletcher Christian, If these guys who are told to fly won't fly, slap 'em in the clink as a warning to the others. Else we have no military strength, and right now military strength is a thing we need.

Dishing the Dirt By Marguerite Smith

Q—When should ‘I move a hardy amaryllis? I took care of a cousin who was {ll a 16ng time. When she died she said she would give me these two clumps of hardy amaryllis she loved so mueh. Now I want to move them, Mrs. Varena Yates, 1624 Bacon St. A—Hardy amaryllis, the “magic” lily (because it blessoms in late summer from bare ground after the foliage has died), blossoms much better if you leave it alone. But since you must move these, the best time would be late summer just after they have bloomed. If you do need to move them right away do it with care and you may be able to avoid throwing the plant into the sulks. Take up just as much dirt as you can get with the clump of roots and set them out again without disturbing fhem or breaking them up unless they are really huge root clusters. The leaves come up in spring. Soon they will die down. Then the beautiful mixed pastel flowers appear in late summer, If you set something like lavender petunias around them to cover the bare ground, you'll have a. prettier picture. Give them sun, rich, humusy soil, ; ;

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~The: Indianapolis Times

Homer Didn't Believe In Omens

NOTE:

Jack Welsh, In- . dianapolis Times sports writer, uncovered the ironic story of Jockey Homer Spears o’ - - while reporting thoroughbred racing for Triangle Publications several years ago In Ohio. It is reported in its entirety for the first time )

By JACK WELSH

SOME SCOFF at superstitions of owners, train. ers and jockeys in horse racing. But the story of

Homer Spears causes' many to stop and think.

Spears’ name has long since dropped into obscurity. But there are many horsemen who still remember the young apprentice jockey as the central figure in one of the strangest stories in turf annals . . . a story in which a superstition was ignored. Death followed. 1 had almost forgotten the name of Homer Spears. It has been 16 years since he earned: space on the sports pages. It wasn't until Jockey Thompson of Jeffersonville was killed in a spill at Gulfstream Park recently that I recalled the strange tale of the promising young rider. Spears always wanted to be a jockey. His mother, Mrs. Nell Spears, was divorced when Homer was a baby. She remarried Barney Weitz, Cleveland sportsman who trained horses and later became an official in the Ohio chapter of the Horsemen's Benevolent Protective Association. The Tennessee-born lad was a natural for the saddle. A compact 110 pounds on a 5-foot, 4inch frame left Spears free of weight problems.

SPEARS was 14 when we allowed him to put a leg upon a thoroughbred. The _spindle youth spent two years learning riding fundamentals. Homer finally was placed under contract to Frank Grand. The boy had a few mounts in the East but it wasn’t until New Orleans the railbirds began to take notice. Spears was a frequent visitor to the winner's circle but he still hadn't fulfilled his first ambition. Homer wanted to win a handicap race. Four days before the New Orleans handicap Spears was assigned to ride Julia Grant, a proud chestnut little filly from Grand’'s stable, “We can do it, Frank. This - little filly can take it all Saturday. She's got plenty of speed § and won't quit,” Spears reas- LM - sured his employer after giving the horse an impressive work- 3 out. : y ‘Spears knew what he was talking about. Julia Grant broke on top and showed her heels to the fleld. There was a three-length advantage as the sleek pair whisked under the finish line. In the jockey room after the race, & fellow rider extended a hand, “That was your first wl 2 handicap, Homer, How does it y \

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feel? ; “Great, but that’s only the beginning. You guys ain't seen nothin’ yet. The next day was bright, a clear blanket of blue overhead. There is no racing Sunday at the Fairgrounds. The jockey’s step-father took Homer and several other riders for a drive along the New Orleans’ country side. They passed an airport and Weitz turned to the riders. “Say, boys how would you like to ride in an airplane?” Spears’ cut his step-father

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“WAIT a minute, Dad, you can have the airplane. We'll take the horses. You can feel safe on a horse's back but up in the air anything can happen. No siree, I'll take the saddle.” The other jockeys agreed. “Okay, boys, suit yourself.” Early Monday morning Homer was back at the Fairgrounds. He returned home before noon for a light lunch before resuming his riding assignments. After lunch, Homer retired to his room to finish dressing. “Hey, mom, what time is it?” “It's just 10 minutes before noon, son.” “Holy cow, I gotta hurry, A

Beauties Score Clean Sweep in Clean-Up Week

couple of jocks are comin’ by to give me a lift to the track.” Homer hitched up a pair of slacks and slipped into a multicolored sport shirt. When Homer was In a hurry it was always helter-skelter around the house.

~ » » “DON’T FORGET to close the bureau drawer, Homer. You usually do.” 8pears followed his mother's instructions but before the echo of slamming drawers had died, a loud crash resounded in the bedroom. * “What's happened in there?” The lad’s mother was quick to investigate. “Nothing, mother, nothing at all,” Spears stammered. One of Homer's prizes was a picture of himself in racing silks. The gold-plated frame was adorned with a horseshoe on top. The impact of the closing drawers knocked the picture over. The horseshoe had broken loose and shattered the glass frame. The glass was shattered right across Homer's face and left shoulder in the picture. His mother picked up the picture. “Wait Homer, you can’t ride today. That broken picture , it's a certain premonition of death.”

”

“Aw, mom, that's just foolishness,” Homer was gentle but emphatie, “I don't believe in such things. And besides, I don't want the fellows, to think I'm too yellow to ride in a race.” “Mom, I'm going good now. I don’t want anything to break this hot streak. Nothing's going to happen. I've taken spills before, Remember three weeks ago?” » » » REMEMBER . , . yes, she remembered all too well, Homer went down in a two-horse spill

while moving through the stretch, Homer's mount rolled on him but the plucky youngster escaped with only a bruised leg. When a jockey can come back from a bad spill and resume winning form he's proven his nerve in the saddle. Spears proved it, Riders even kidded him about having ice water in his viens. Spears didn’t have a mount until the third race. His parents arrived at the Fairgrounds just in time to see Spears pilot Die Hard to the wire in a sixfurlong sprint, Homer saw mother as he started back to the paddock. “Hey, mom, I told you there was nothing to worry about, If

I can ride a horse like that and nothing happens... I'm a cinch to be all right.” Spears was scheduled to ride Enola in the fifth race. Enola, owned by Grand, was a capable runner but the type of performer that required an extra lot of riding for her best effort. The field broke from the gate without incident. Dust along the back stretch rose in a cloud as-the horses approached the far turn, - The smooth-striding Enola was fourth behind Portam, Insomnia and Smooth. The horse felt strong beneath his legs and Homer knew it was time to make his move. The motion of horse and jockey were one as Spears slashed away with his whip. He saw a small opening between Portam and Insomnia. Smooth was running on the outside, In a desperate hid for the lead, Enola stepped on the heels of the front ‘runners. Spears felt the horse lurch, S8he was going down and all the rider's skill couldn't keep her upright.

# » = ENOLA crashed into the ground, Spears went sprawl-

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ing, caught In a ‘tangle of hu- ° mans and x The crowd was stunned inte silence, completely oblivious as = the remaining horses ended the Journey before the grandstand. Mrs. Spears and her husband =~ stared with disbelief, “It's true = . «+ It's true . . . the omen didn’t = lie.” : Jockeys Polk, Parks and Donoho picked themselves up out’ of the dust. Donoho had a broken nose and the others’: - suffered minor bruises, Spears did not move. br When track attendants reached him, there was no need = to hurry. Homer Spears was . dead , . . a riding career snuffed out before it scarcely began. It will never be known which . horse inflicted the fatal wounds, But Spears’ dirt-stained face and skull were smashed and his left shoulder shattered. The injuries were received in the identical areas penciled out by shattered glass in the picture. Four days after Spears had won the New Orleans Handicap his funeral procession left Our Lady of Holy Rosary Church, Spears was clad in the cerise and gold colors of the Grand stable.’ Fellow riders served as pallbearers, wearing their racing silks, Homer was the first jockey in American history to be buried in his colors. ” » . THE YOUNG zody's final. resting . place was rustic St, Louis cemetery. The plot of ground, shaded by magnolia trees, was just across from the Fairgrounds track. It was a typical humid New Orleans morning. A light rain fell from an fron-gray overs cast, As the casket was lowered Into the soft, dull-colored soil, the bereaved mother cried out, “He wouldn't listen. I tried to tell him but he wouldn't listen.” His mother was right. Homer wouldn’t listen. The game little guy gambled for a winner but at the payoff found a requiem of thundering hooves.

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Boo— SOUTH BEND, Apr. 19 (UP) ~- Robert J. Hildebrand, 26, South Bend, drove to the Mishawaka police station today and reported that he was followed at a high rate of speed from Elkhart by a strange car,. He was. The car belonged to Elkhart County Highway Of« ficer Stanley Johnson who arrested Hildebrand on charges of * reckless driving and driving under the influence of alcohol.

SWEEPING UP—These three pretty Yowg ladies gave a helping hand by wee ing the 300 "PAINTING UP" — Yester.

J 4 : : j Officer Johnson said he had block of Emerson Ave. All members of Sigma Delta Tau Sorority, they are (left to right) Mrs. Ken- day. started Clean-Up, Paint. followed Hildebrand % neth Lee, Bridgeport, Miss Betty Wilson, 910 Centennial St., and Miss Phyllis Birssrors, 101 N. Up, Fix-Up week. "Ts ing ho miles at speeds up to yf mai

out to "make a new face" is pat hour after

rum * Miss Lola Stokes, 372 S. Ritter. :

Drexel Ave. A house at 336 Emerson Ave. was completely renovated as part of the opening day