Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 17, Number 7, DeMotte, Jasper County, 3 January 1947 — To Rent Columns Full Of Color [ARTICLE]

To Rent Columns Full Of Color

Housing Shortage Produces Many Amusing And Interesting Pleas For Homes Omaha, Neb., Dec. 31 Sherlock Holmes, you will recall, used to say, “The agony columns of the paper, Watson, are my favorite place to flush a likely bird.” Sherlock, however, would find the ‘agony columns” dull reading these days. They are full of laundry and travel agency ads, and the ‘agony” has moved to another •part of the classified page—- “ Wanted To Rent.” “Wanted to Rent” has become one of \e mosot colorful sections of any newspaper since the homeless, despairing of getting an apartment by mere offers of cash rewards, are racking their brains to produce eye catching, original ads to snare the elusive landlord. An Omaha veteran, ex-Lieuten-ant Harold Roland, recently offered twelve medals, including the Purple Heart, which he had won duiing the war in exchange for an apartment. Roland, who had served as an Air Force officer in Africa, Sicily and Italy, held the Bronze Star, the Purple Heart, the -Air Medal, with several Oak Leaf Clusters, the Presidential Unit Citation and the Allied Colors medal, awarded for service with the Royal Air Force. In his ad, the Lieutenant described himself wistfully as “a broken down second-lieutenant, and his wife, will trade 12 medals for the privilege of renting an apartment.” Many of the wanderers, who have hefen a little luckier along other lines, try and play one shortage off against another by offering to. sell new tars, nylons or scarce manufactured items to anyone with a roof to rent. One man, evidently well-connected,, offered a liberal supply to his future -landlord—his ad appeared the same day President Truman lifted the meat controls!

The ad writers go at the job of filling their tiny bit of column space with the fervor and originality of an agency copy-writer plugging a new perfume. “Webster says an apartment is two or more rooms set apart for lodging.” We read it. Can you prove it? Vet and wife anxious to find out” ran one these gems, and another pleads,! pathetically: “Hitler was my enemy too. I fought him for three years, and now I can’t find a place to live.” The ads sparkle with glowing self-portraits, “very reliable—excellent references absolutely sober not drinking, no smoking, no parties, no pets, no children.” and one seeker adds: “You won’t be sorry.” But the housing shortage is a national tragedy, and it has brought many personal tragedies in its wake. An Omaha couple recently inserted the following plea. “Just left our four babies, ages 6,8, (10, and 12 in an orphanage. First time away from home. We were evicted.” The couple was Mr. and Mrs. Howard Preston, who were turned out of thuir home when it was sold. Their chilrden, Shirley, Sharon, Jimmy and Joseph, went tearfully to Omaha’s St. James Orphanage while the parents, using a furnished room as a base of operations and eating “out” searched frantically for an apartment or house for rent. Love’s young dream gets many a setback from the home scarcity, too, and every column contains pleas for “a home so we can get married.” One would-be groom produced the following: No home. No wedding, just ‘engaged: can’t live in. too crowded; can’t buy, too costly, too disastrous. But sometimes, someone gets fed up with the whole business and produces an ad like the following: “Apartment wanted. Have dog. cat. three children. Will drown the dog. cat and two younger children. But would like to keep the eldest as we have grown rather fond of him.”