Evening Star Newspaper, June 25, 1933, Page 75

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, JUNE 25, 19}3. Sunday Morning Among the Cross-Words 95. Encounter. 97. One time. 98. Iroquoian Indians. 100. To boil. 102. Insane. 104.Son of Coz: I Chron, iv, 8. 106. Celestial being. Across. 1. Male student who for a de- gree without honors. 8 Improves. 15. Limps. 22. To acetify: rare. 23. Daughter of Pol- 108. Middle. onius, in *“Ham- 109. Having a common let.” root. 24. Ear stone. 114. Alleviation. 25. Notched like a 116. Bright red cherry Saw. color. . Radiant. 121. To worship. _City in Wisconsin. 122. A military fork .Sang in a low with hooked tone. points. . Loss. 124, Metric surface . Appetitive. measure. . Entrance room. 126. French author _Muse of history. and critic: 1823- . First name of the '92. ' Italian premier. 127. Not won. . Blow with the 128. German duchy. foot. 130. Scapstone. . Tilted up. 132. Barter. . Thrown into 133. A palm civet. ecstasy. 135. Shell or cup of 43.Size of paper. pastry. 44 Punitive. 139. European country. 45. Pieces of glass. 141. A lichen used in 47. To reach. dyeing: E. Ind. 49. A heptagon. 142. Corrected. 51. Vehicle. 143. Negotiator. 53. From this. 144. Makes melodious. 55. Hindmost. 145. Particular. 56. Marks with small 146. Closé of day. spots. 147. Dust storm: In- €61.Oil of orange dia. flowers. 148. Despotism. 63. Ghost. 149. Divided by a par- 68. Gulf in Ionian tition. Sea. Down. 69. Alighted. 1. Pertaining to 71. Giving medicine Passover or Easter. to. 2. Ncedle-shaped. 73 Take lining out of. 3. Koprosterin. 74. Five-dollar bills. 4. Saunters. 75. Utmost extent. 5.Indian title of 77. Breakbone fever. respect. 79. Son of Shimon: 6. Ancient Mexican I Chron. iv, 8. race. 80. He: Latin. 7. Sewing instru- 81.0f the seventh ment. brother I Chron ii, 13. 13. Annular. 14. Russian measures of length. . Things of the same fundamental type. . Colorado county. . Os. . To defame. 19 Enrdiling. . Moral. .To fetter. . Feminine suffix. . Imeritian. . Ready-tied cravat. . Solar disk. . Peeled. . A rod used as a tie. . Father or mother. . Small shrubs of the Pacific Coast. . Loops. . Taboo: var. . Faith. .To shrink. . Reductions in cost. . Make ready. . Periodical. .To become cheesy. . Silly smile. . Michigan county. .Masculine name. . Cultivating. . State formally. . Failed to follow suit. . Names. .Dressed in a cer- tain manner. . Diacritical marks. . Great regard. . Course of action. . Relating to meas- urement. . Ten years. . Detestation. . Hindu queen. . Largest aquatic mammal. . Mixture of corn e ol & B . Q degree. 83. Division. .Part of a chim- ney. .Water nymph. 8. Town, England, scene of battle in which Richard III was killed. 9. Hebrew dry measure. and beans. Narrative poem. .Son of Beriah. . Part of an arrow. . Warmly. . Egyptian peasant. . Speed. .To tinkle. . Kitchen utensil. 10. Demonstrative word. 11. Pcortable lodge. 12. David's eldest CANCELING THE PETS HEN the Worples informed me that their gatelegged table was named Towser, I suspected them of deliberate whimsicality—that delayed Peter - Pannishness which often afflicts middle- aged couples who have no children to worry about. “Good Old Towser,” said George Worple, patting its sleek mahogany surface, “home wouldn’'t be home without him.” “And don’'t forget Agatha,” Mrs. Worpie reminded him as she tock a fat silver tea- pot dcwn from the shelf. “We've had her ever since we started housekeeping, and she really seems like one of the family. She has such expression in her spout, don't you think?” “Indeed she has,” I lied. To me, Agatha was just another teapot. I was quite unable to appreciate the human attributes with which her doting owners endowed her. And when Judge Ponderby showed me his collection of ivory elephants and porcelain penguins—with all the pride of a fond father displaying & nursery snapshot—I felt that time was truly turning backward. It wculdn't have surprised me to learn that he kept a celluloid duck in his bathtub, UT since experimenting with vaiicus repre- sentatives of the anima] kingdom in the home, I can understand the increasing popu- larity of inanimate pets. An ivory elephant may not be an exciting adiunct to the house- hold, but at least it doesn’t have to be taken out for an airing every night. You don’t have to feed it, water it or rescue it from brawls with other ivory elephants. All you have to do is to blow the dust off it occasionally. If foreign peace can be assured by the limita- ticn of armaments, perhaps domestic peace can be assured by the limitation of pets. Certainly home life has grown less strenuous since the days when every family kept a cow and a horse. The peevish householders who complain of the milkman’'s early morning tinkle have forgot- ten hcw, as children, their nights reverberated with the keening of discontented cows. The sulky self-made man leading his wife’s Peking- ese reluctantly through the park does not re- member the arduous chores of his boyhood when it was his duty to wait on the live stock every day at 5 am. Of course, the live stock was kept for utili- tarian rather than for sentimental reasons; but the owners were as fond of their Dobbins and Bessies as we are of our Fifis and Chin- Chins. The modern pet, however, is never an asset and always a liability. And the larger it is, the greater is the owner's re- sponsibility. This may explain why so few people keep giraffes and hinpap-tamuses. There is obviously a deflationaiy movement afoot, where animals are ccnceined, and judging by my own experience as a pet fapcier,.J should 112. Masculine name. 113. Noisiest. 115. Monk’s title. 117. Persistent: Bot. . The star thistle. . Scented: rare. . Rose-like orna- ment. say that it is inevitable in a highly disorganized society such as we have at present. My descent through the animal kingdom has been swift and disillusicning. After the war, when Rin-Tin-Tin was at the height of his glory, I bought a German police dog named Adolph. The kennel proprietor who sold him to me said that Adolph was a one-man dog— and so he was. But I was not the man. Adolph spent all his time—and mine, too—following the white-aproned youth who delivered meat for Braunschweiger’s butcher shop. I had assumed that if my eyesight should fail this faithful dog would guide my faltering footsteps, but I scon realized that Adolph could never be depended upon in such an emer- gency unless I carried a beefsteak ahead of me on the end of a fish-pole. So I gave him to the buteher's boy, much in the same man- ner that China gave Manchukuo to the Jap- anese. ADOLPH‘S successor was a black tomcat named Eight-Ball, with a habit of sleep- ing in unlikely places. He was the champion catch-as-catch-can napper. It may be bad luck to have a black cat cross your path, but it’s worse luck to have it stretch out in the middle of your path and go to sleep—especially in the dark. Eight-Ball's favorite resting place was in the main traffic lane of the front hall, where every one coming and going had to step over or on him. Painful experience never taught him to stay away from the danger zone. Almost before the echoes of his last wail had died away he would be under foot again, inviting further torture. It is my opinion that he did it de- liberately, perhaps in expiation for some old sin, perhaps merely to excite sympathy and attention. But whatever his motive, it was nerve-wracking for the rest of the household, and after three months of his society, Phoebe and I decided that a masochist with nine lives was too great a strain on the family tie. With the help of a kindly veterinarian, Eight-Ball was put on the spot. For the next fortnight our home was pet- less. Then one of Phoebe’s aunts bequeathed her a parrot. One parrot can last a family for generaticns, and this bird had been brought back by a seafaring uncle in the '80’s. But its vocabularly was limited to two words—“So what?"—a simple phrase which can be ex- tremely disconcerting when projected unex- pectedly into a general conversation. If you have ever reached the conclusion of ycur favor- ite anecdote, only to be greeted by a sardonic “So what?”—you can appreciate the devastat- ing effect. At first Phoebe and I tried to ignore it by talking very loud and fast. But sooner or later there would be a pause—and then the in- evitable comment! Later we went to the other .extreme, speaking ‘as little as possible, and 118. Want of energy. cramp. 119. Prominent. 125. Puffs up. 120. To expand. 128. Anxieties. 123. Affected with 129. Oklahoma county. eventually we were reduced to writing notes to each other on the backs of old envelopes. The situation was intolerable. Finally, in desperation, I presented our feathered friend to Ho Hum, the Chinese laundryman. It proved to be an ideal arrangement, for Ho Hum chat- ters on blithely in his native tongue, oblivious to the parrot’s interruptions. The parrot, how- ever, is not so happy. It still says “So what?” at frequent intervals—but the old sardonic sting is gone, and in its place I can detect a note of genuine bewilderment. In fact, the last time I saw the parrot it looked downright worried. FEW weeks after the parrot episode, Phoebe brought home what she considered the per- fect pet—a Mexican jumping bean. We put it in a brass bowl in the hall and its cheery ping! resounded through the house for days. Then one morning it stopped jumping. We prodded it and shook it in vain. “It is dead,” said Phoebe at length. “We might as well bury it.” But even as she spoke, a vibrant ping in the brass bowl contradicted her. There was life in the old bean yet. From that time on, the bean alternated be- tween long periods of inactivity and brief spasms of vigorous hopping. Sometimes it would lie dormant for nearly a week. It had a hypnotic fascination for me. I would watch it by the hour, waiting for a reassuring twitch, and always my patience was eventually re- warded. And it was this intensive bean-contemplation that almost proved my undoing. The nervous strain of the long vigils beside the brass bowl began to tell on me: I found myself staring at other small round objects with the same breath- less expectancy. This habit was harmless enough as long as I stayed at home. But one day last month, as I walked along Park avenue, the buttons on a doorman’s uniform caught my eye—the third button from the top, in particular. I was un- able to resist an impulse to sit down on the curbstone and watch that button intently. For more than two hours I sat there, waiting for it to jump. Then a suspicious policeman took me home. Phoebe, alarmed, consulted a psychiatrist on my behalf; and the psychiatrist told her to throw away the jumping bean and get a corn pcpper. He said it would provide me with an emotional release. For three days thereafter, I did nothing but pop corn. At the end of that time, the spectacle of small round objects suddenly leaping into action ceased to have the slightest interest for me. It is a far cry from German pclice dogs to Mexican jumping beans, but it is typical of the trend of the times, and I suspect that I have reached the final phase of my career e 2 P 131. To bend. 124. Town in Galilee, scene of first miracle. 136. Ancient Peruvian, 137. Norse god. 138. Not fat. 140. Ooze. By Weare Holbrook as a pet fancier. I am back on the goldfish standard now. A goldfish may not be the low- est form of animal life, but it is undoubtedly the dullest. Yet there are moments when I envy the ccllectors of porcelain penguins. After all, & porcelain penguin doesn't have to have its water changed daily. 55-Cent Wage on Farms HE one break the average farmer has had in the series of discouraging developments has been the oversupply of farm labor, which has permitted him to get his work done at rock-bottom costs. However, the farmers’ gain has been the farm hands’ Joss and daily wages have sunk to a heretofore almost unk¥nown level. Day wages without board in Massachusetts have been highest, the rate being $2.10, ranging from this high peint dcwn to a wage of 55 cents a day in South Carolina, Georgia and Alabama. In contrast to such wages, the $1-a- day pay scale of the reforestation camps seems almost prodigality. New Roads Aid Mails HE development of the highway system of the United States, which has been carried on by the Department of Agriculture and the State highway commissions in co-operation has been of considerable benefit to the Post Office Department. A recent statement by Postmaster General Farley indicates that 5,000 rural routes have been eliminated in the past seven years because of the ability of the carriers over better roads to cover greater distances. This concolidation has meant a considerable saving to the de- partment and future road development will naturally aid in continuing this combining of routes with more curtailment of expenditures for rural mail service. Boston’s Name HIS old town, about which centered so much of the early history of our country, was named for Boston in England. That town grew up around a church which was founded in Lincolnshire by a Roman monk by the name of Botolph or Botholp; that is, Boathelp. As the town grew in size it was given the name of Botolphstown, which was contracted to Botolphston, and then to Boston. From the town in Lincolnshire there came to America the Rev. John Cotton, who gave the name of Boston to the first settlement on the Massa- chusetts Peninsula. Thus the Puritan settle- - ment owed its name to a Roman Catholic saint and monk.