The Bismarck Tribune Newspaper, July 27, 1929, Page 10

SaeS SEPEL REESE “SS EGR E2. aPEZR°R8E. FREES By RODNEY DUTCHER (NEA Service Writer) Washington, July 27.— During the hot months, when droughts some- times wither crops, the rainmaker is abroad in the land. Officials of the United States weather bureau be- Lieve it would be just as well for all s concerned if he were in jail A popular belief persists that it is possible, by scientific tract rain from the hea when prayer fails to work, a rain maker is called in to end a drought. The rain-maker ally offers to a: luff on a ba “no rain no but demands his expenses in any event. If the rain comes he gets his fee, which may run as high $10,000 and more. Otherwise, he out anything and the rain-s community suffers a while longer. Australians Like It Various of these artists pretend to have their own secret processes, but the weather bureau is perpetually anxious to discover some rain-making device and it has yet to be shown. Nevertheless, whenever there is a ser- fous drought anywhere, rain-maker: ‘are sure to show up and offer to func- tion. The Canadian government em- ployed one not long ago and although rain-making has thrived in the we: ern part of the United States the bus- iness has been especially good in the more droughty sections of the world, especially in Australia. “Rain-makers are either ignoram- uses or rascals,” says Dr. Willian J. Humphreys, the bureau's expert on meteorological physics. “I have al- ways proposed that they be required to post a bond to be forfcited in cas they don’t produce the rain. TI would finish the rain-making busi- ness. “The trouble is that the facts of meteorology aren't generally known and that people are in dire extremity when they employ rain-makers and are willing to try anything. Of course, by that time rain is generally | pretty nearly due and the rain-maker stands to collect when it comes along yw 4 be Za 2 jin the natural course of events, though he pretends that it has been produced by some hocus-pocus of his own. Of course, he is in a position to look the situation over and see whether it merits taking a chance on his time.” Dr. Humphreys is the author of ral interesting volumes on me- 1 Making n .” “Fogs nd Clouds” and “Weather Proverbs nd Paradoxes.” vilized countries all sorts of religious ceremonies and de- re used to bring rain. Among he pretense of sci- entific methods is set up. And all over the worl whenever it i cople pray for rain ‘There badly needed. is no evidence that any of th vices ever worked. ys there’: that battles cause that a big battle is followed by rain, but— large battles have occurred ions of moderate to abundant a “where gen- few fair days rations for bat- commoniy made during fair Hence, by the time the pre- vers have been com- and the battle fought the next in, if it has not already occurred is, le, about due rmment Has Tried It cluding many govern- ment 5 . have tried to make in in times past. ‘They never had luck, though Humphreys says the efits of justify the expense of trying—<o lo) the experiments | are based on correct science and don't cost too much. Attempts have been made or suggested with chemicals, with dynamite. to force vertical con- vection, by building fires, by cooling the free air. by dusting the sky, by electrically charging the free air and sprinkling clouds with electrified sand. Methods of itinerant rain-makers, of course, are less scientific, but much more bizarre and varied. SEEING GOING PLACESF AND THINGS Hollywood — Manhattan's Hosea aap film lot of any consequence ‘Tin’ Pan Alley now scatters from Santa Monica canyon to Hollywood Boulevard and back. And in this process of wide distri- bution it has lost its romance and color. Its piano thumping brood now parades along the boulevard or rush- es into a studio “huddle.” There arc no picturesque little coops whercin song pluggers gather, while inspira- tien runs at white heat, and synco- pation comes out by the yard. The creation of the movie theme | i song has brought about a strange | / metamorphosis, both in the method of | ing a cer Freeustion and in the medium of cemposit.on. No longer does the song writer produce his wares from ideas worked out in his song-shop. Some- thing of the factory output idea has slid into his daily life—pardon me. | ‘while I brush avay a tear! se ‘ Since theme songs are being hummed from one end of the conti- nent to the other and since they are likely to go on being hy d, wheth- er or not I like it, it might interest someone-cr-cther to learn how they are being mac-. To begin with, the boys of Tin Pan Alley are as thick as midgets in the old Hippodrome basement. Like the children of the old lady in the shoe, there are so many cf them here they don’t know what to do. The movie concerns, in their almost hysterical convolutions—produced by the talking pietures—have grabbed helter-skelter, hit-or-miss; picking up playwrights, gag-wrights, poets and heaven knows what. As I have had occasion to re- mark at one time or another before, there is a temperature of at least 104, with the patient often becoming de- i in the few months of its in- , the process of elimination has made its appearance and of those who were grabbed up nurses at birth are now wandering to Broadway. There will be many more doing the same before the Jeaves turn red and the fall rains turn the burned California hills back to AT i lie ae | ‘To return to theme songs, however mething like a score of Tin Pan expatriates. At one place you y find Gus Edwards or Fred Fish- . of “Japanese Sandman” fame, or Nacio Brown or Vincent Bryant. At another you'll find De Sylvia, Hen- : nd Brown. And so it goes. y, when it's theme time out jin Hollywood—there I go, doing it | myself—they send out a call for all the Tin Panners on the lot. At that [r ¥ it, the composer may not have had the slightest vhat he was going to do next. go into a huddle coneern- ertain picture, Soon thereaf- the bright young songsters are en to sce the picture in its silent ha Jan . boys,” they are told, when it down, “get some bright idea ching this picture and run | write a song to go with it.” | The songs, by the way, are fitted |into the picture after it has been made—that is, in all instances I have observed to date! For instance, the other day the picture revealed the fact that some young boob had dodged women most of his life, until along came Joan Crawford. When the ers were turned loose they | all rushed to their inspiration cham- jbers and someone came out with a j pum entitled, “I've Waited So Long For You"—or something like that. * ok ‘Thus it gees on. A couple of dozen | lyricists and music writers rush away, fresh from a showing of the picture, and go into the silence and try to grab an idea out of the air. Out of the bunch some one, or more, hap- pens upon a bright idea. apped. Now and then a couple as are worked together in the ‘cng. The first consideration is for a title—"“Redskin, Why Are You Bluc?” or lurder, Why Will You Cut?” After that, everything seems . The writing boys dash s and the music boys cif their tunes and out of the ble one emerges which finally ind: 5 way to the recording room, and thence across the nation. GILBERT SWAN. (Copyright, 1929, NEA Service, Inc.) ~ YOUR CHILDREN & Claw Ryseres Barton @ high and dizzy picture ap- on the screen, it would be in- of the actors bal- of the steel girder way, look out the audience and count the num- of ups—grown-ups, mind eyes tight shut, their pressing desperately man, will be bal- i Nae ie i ! headed monster manage to get us be- tween itself and the wind? Well, I'll tell you when it got me up the wind. When I was five years old in Pitts- burgh there was built an enormous skyscraper with about fifteen stories, | or was it twelve, called the Hamilton | building, It was the wonder of the country and the price of liniment went up considerably the first month after it was completed and its fame spread abroad. Visitors came from far and | near to see it. , But we were more lucky than the | others because my father came home | one night and said he was going to ‘ take us all over next day and up on |the roof. The height of that build- | ing was talked about until I began to think nervously that it must be higher than the world. In Dread of Experiment I hedged. 1 didn't want to go. I ‘was a sensitive, nervous child anywi and I didn't like experiments. But my father was one who be- lieved in the toughening process. went. I was taken up an endless Journey in an elevator, then up a pair of stairs, and a ladder to the roof. I hid ¢ and cried. But The rest! ‘THE BISMARCK TRIBUNE, SATURDAY, JULY 27, 1929 wT DO You TUINK OF THIS, FRECKLES HEY, WHAT'S ALL. THE HULL-A-BA-LOO ABOUT IN THERE 2 Boy! tu say You O10! wuaT AcE Ny, Sure UNCLE HARRY ‘STARTED IT FoR NE DIDNT I MAKE IT 1 SIMPLY CAN'T’ MAKE THIS CHILD TAKE her Batu! YOu JUST DON'T KNOW “THESE @RE FUNNY LOOKIN’ PANs — WHERE TH’ Heck DIDOTA GET EM? y the United States” Bureau of|of the attendant, but with the new Standards, course shift indicator, any devia- It is a radio beacon course shift) tion is immediately indicated, and indicator. Designed primarly to] may be corrected. sim y ioe marae 2 tbe sadio bane nat to the in ‘its course, the - 00 YOU REALLY WANT To jZNow ? WELL, TA GOING “Wer Re NOT Pans! hex’Re, coLanpers! CAME FROM OSHKOSH ! ea WELL HOW Do YOU TRIBUNE’S PAGE OF COMIC STRIPS AND FEATURES | WASHINGTON LETTEI EXPECT TO BE A V\__ NIL TL) WTA } THEN OID? MIGosH t TMOUGUT “a GOT ‘em IN cHicaso—- - ) , the semi-official press of| sidewalks be for|Stamboul cites the ankles in thiek| ish. women, © In a serious editorial a ading dailies BATHING BEAUTY IF YOU DON'T BATHE? “THEN'RE ALL RIDDLED WITH SBULLETS {f writer