Evening Star Newspaper, June 29, 1935, Page 8

TA-8 ® THE THE EVENING STAR With Sunday Morning Edition. WASHINGTON, D. C FATURDAY ..... ...June 29, 1935 +s oo Editor THEODORE W. NOYES The Evening Star Newspaper Company. Business Ofce: 11th St _and Pennsylvania New Ycrk Office: 110 Eas! Chicago Ofice: Lake Michigan Ave. nd St Building European Office: 14 Regent St.. London. England | Rate by Carrier Within the City. Regular Edition. The Evening Star The Evening_and Sunday Star (when 4 Sundays) The Evening and Sunday Star (when 5 Sundavs) 45¢ per month 60¢ per month 65¢ per munth 5¢ per copy 70c per month Night Final Star 55¢ per month Collection made at the end of each month Orders may be sent by mail or telephone Na- tional 5000. Rate by Mail—Payable in Advanoce. Maryland and Virginia. Daily ard Sunday.. $10.00: 1 Daily_only o S000 1 Sunday only $1.00; 1 85¢ Boc 40c mo.. mo.. mo.. All Other States and Canada. Dailv and Sunday 1 yr. $12.00: 1 mo. Daily only 1 yr. "$8.000 1 mo Buncay only 1 yr. $5.00: 1 mo. Member of the Associated Press. The Assoclated Press is exclusively entitled to the use for republication of all news dispaiches credited to it or not otherwise credited in this | paper and also the local news published herein All rights of publication of special dispatches herein are also reserved Can Congress “Take It ? It is undoubtedly a fact that had not Inspector Bean revealed and Represent- ative Blanton and Maj. amplified in testimony the details of the so-called “gentlemen’s agreement’ re- garding the planned elevation of In- spector Headley to be assistant superin- tendent of police on Bean's retirement, | the changes would have taken place as scheduled and little or no public interest or comment would have been aroused. In other words, the personalities of Headley and Bean were not involved to any great extent, nor would the propriety terday by the Commissioners have been seriously challenged had they not been preceded by the revelations of Mr. Blanton's dictatorial interference in the administrative affairs of the police department. That was what caused opposition to the changes. That was what caused widespread condemnation of the so- called “gentlemen's agreement.” That was what caused gratification over indi- cations that the Commissioners would repudiate an agreement to which they were not parties in the first place. And that is what causes the chagrin over the Commissioners’ abrupt change of | face when Mr. Blanton applied the heat. | There is strong foundation for such gentiment. Anybody knows that dis- cipline and morale are impossible in a police department responsive to political or other pressure exerted by individual members of Congress; that such inter- ference, made effective by the power of circumstance, has no proper place in the affairs of a police department or any other administrative function of government. This is not the first time that Mr. Blanton has chosen to exercise a per- sonal power that springs from his own vigorous personality, together with his extraordinary control over appropria- tions and appropriations policies for the District. And the affirmative expression of his power is accompanied by an ability to inflict injury on the com- munity or the officials responsible for administering its governmental affairs. That is to be borne in mind by those who would too quickly criticize the Commissioners for yielding—to the extent of reversing themselves—to Mr. Blanton's powers of persuasion. They were undoubtedly influenced, not so much by the thought of what might happen to them by defying the lightning, as by powers of reprisal over the com- munity which Mr. Blanton in the past has demonstrated he is perfectly capable of calling into play. Representative Norton, a good friend of the District and sympathetic with its people, suggests that “If they can take it, I can.” The question of “taking it” would more appropriately be put to Congress, at the mercy of whose whims and vagaries, or those of its individual mem- bers, the people of the District have been left. e —————————— A baby, put out of the House of Rep- resentatives’ gallery, was evicted for taking her dinner in a perfectly natural and customary way. She might have been tolerated if she had left an after- | math of cracker crumbs and sardine tins for the attention of the caretakers. e AT Getting business out of politics is hard. It may be even harder to get politics out of education. ——— History Hunters. Nine hunters have been named by the chief archivist of the United States to go researching through the various Gov- erarment buildings in Washington, and perhaps elsewhere, in search of historic material to be placed in the new na- tional hall of records on Pennsylvania avenue. Their task will take them through all the veritably countless cub- byholes of storage, where for many decades old papers have been filed, re- ports, vouchers, surveys, letters, ;ledgers. and all incunabula of adminigtration. | Many tons of this material must be handled, item by item, to separate the historically significant from the chaff of routine of no significance. The construction of the hall of archives, long delayed though the need was urgent many years ago, will permit the assemblage of documents which will represent a cross-section of American | history. It will furnish, in convenient arrangement, the priceless material for historians, for students and for investi- gators in all lines of Government work. The assemblage of these papers at one point will correct a condition that re- flects the haphazard manner in which the Capital of the United States has been developed in the course of a cen- tury and a half, though a shorter period as relates to Washin, Each depart- Brown later | of the changes ordered yes- | ment and bureau has had its file room or rooms, usually dark chambers of im- | molation, in many cases damp and, as | & rule, rarely cleansed and rearranged. Interdepartment communications were retarded in consequence, and as the years passed in some cases records re- quired for current consultation were not | | proved to be entirely illusory and he to be found. They were simply lost in | the mass of material. The fear of fire has always been pres- ent. Now and then fires have occurred and some of this material has been de- stroyed. Perhaps it was good riddance, possibly 1t was an irreplaceable loss. While the present search is for the purpose of the discovery and segregation of aterials of historic value, it might well be accompanied by a readjustment in the department and bureau file rooms | to eliminate much of the remainder and bring the Government service truly up to date in respect to its record keep- ing. The system should furthermore be revised and adopted to reduce 1o a min- imum the accumulations of semi-current materials and to establish a uniform system of file keeping which will facili- tate both departmental and interdepart- mental researches. The hall of archives when these files of permanent importance and signifi- canvce are transferred to it will become a veritable temple of history available for scholars and writers and researchers | in the field of American national development. o Pro-League Britain. That sort of a “great and solemn | referendum” which Woodrow Wilson once urged upon the American people | with respect to the League of Nations has just been held in Great Britain. It loses nothing of impressiveness be- cause of its wholly unofficial character, having been ofganized by the British League of Nations Union, in which Viscount Cecil of Chelwoed, a co-archi- tect of the Covenant at Paris, is the moving spirit. The referendum leaves no doubt that Britons are overwhelmingly League- minded. A total ef 11,627,765 men and women, or forty per cent of the entire electorate, took part in it. The poll | comes within 300.000 of the record vote cast for the coalition “National” govern- | ment in the 1931 emergency election. With the exception of that election, the British “peace ballot” exceeds the vote ever cast for any political party in the kingdom. The nearest approach was the total amassed by the Conservatives in 1929—8.656.473. There was a tremendously affirmative vote in favor of the five major proposi- tions on which the country was polled, namely, continued British membership | in the League; all-around reduction of armaments by international agreement; all-around abolition of military and naval aircraft by international agree- ment; prohibition of manufacture of armaments for private profit, and either | economic or military measures to com- | pel an aggressor nation to desist from attacking another country. Most of these proposals with reference to arms and peace preservation are cardinal League principles. Britons leave no doubt that in preponderant they heartily subscribe to them. In the crisis now threatening peace, Italy’s determination to make war on Abyssinia unless the Ethiopians submit to Mussolini's demands, Great Britain has evinced that her chief concern is maintenance of the League's potency. In Geneva the British see an all-power- ful instrument for British policy in Europe. With the striking evidence just. given it of popular support for the League idea, the Baldwin government may be expected to exhaust every pos- sibility, hopeless as the outlook is, to persuade Mussolini not to smash what | | is left of the international organization ! by defying its jurisdiction in the Abys- ! | sinian affair and deserting Geneva if | Britain and other League powers in- sist upon Italy's fulfillment of her obli- gations under the Covenant. Mr. Baldwin faces a general election. The League poll must convince him that a vast body of British voters is not | likely to condone any failure on his part to fight for League prestige to the uttermost in the critical dilemma Mus- solini has provoked. R Col. Lindbergh has interested himself | in a heart that keeps on beating. More important would be a brain that keeps on functioning. — e Preparations for war may be figured as threat of a crime wave, with no G-man in sight big enough to take care of it. B Get-Rich-Quick Schemes. The truth of the old saying, “There’s | a sucker born every minute,” is again attested by the procegdings that have just been instituted against a stock broker of New York who is now missing | under accusation of a large-scale in- vestment fraud. Under promises of | huge pyramiding profits, many wealthy persons, most of them women, have ! been induced to entrust to this broker large sums for what they believed were stock market operations. Specific re- ports have been had of at least $375,000 thus placed in his hands, and the total is believed to be nearer half a million. The bait offered these “investors” was a possible profit of 1,860 per cent on ! | repeated quick turnovers in the market. As far as ascertained the contributors | to this fund have received nothing in return and have lost their capital. Memories of Ponzi and Miller, both of them super get-rich-quick perfom}erx in the field of finance, are revived by this disclosure. It would seem that the pub- licity given to the nefarious careers of these fraudulent operators would - have | lasted long enough to save the persons who have just been mulcted by the missing broker from venturing into such a net of allurement. But memories are short and the wiles of nefarious pro- moters are persuasive. Ponzi, it will be remembered, played the game back in 1920, when he gathered in. some forty 4housand investors who : million dollars. | enterprise, | margins. He took in millions of dollars, | He, numbers STAR, intrusted him with more than fifteen His scheme was the purchase of International Postal Union reply coupons throughout the world, taking advantage of favorable rates of exchange. Inasmuch as the entire issue of these coupons had not exceeded $500,000 in six years, Ponzi's mathematics EVENING finally went to jail for a term of from. seven to nine years, being released in February, 1934, and shipped back to Italy, his native land. Miller's scheme was a straight stock or rather speculation on starting his game with a two-cent stamp. too, served a term in jail after having collected a great sum from a large number of gullible people. No matter how often this prepos- erous project is advanced it seems the least reasoning should demonstrate the fallacy upon which it is based. This latest performer in the field of financial WASHINGTON, Federal Employes And Social Security To the Editor of The Star: In reading the various editorials in ‘The Star and other newspapers in refer- ence to the just passed social security bill by Congress it is regrettable to read and note that there is no mention made with reference to the Federal employes being exempted from the unemployment insur- ance part of the bill. ‘The Federal employes are no doubt the only employes that have received their full pay back from their high point, while the rest of those connected with industry have stood by month after month hoping that business will get better so that salaries will be put back on our last high. In many cases in- dustrial employes have stood by and taken cuts in' their salary to help in saving their company from going into | receivership, while the Federal Govern- ment has gone on an uncontrolled spend- wizardry appears to be a man of mag- | netic personality, suavity and persu: siveness. of “inside information” respecting the vagaries of the stock market and now is somewhere at large. But the hand He lured his victims with tales | of the law is reaching for him and he | | no better than the rest of our people | will probably he caught and punished and another warning sign will have been erected on the highway of specu- lation to be heeded for a while and then | forgotten. B Adherence to the League of Nations was strongly favored in an English | referendum ballot. All that is now | needed for a glorious policy is to pass | a memorandum of the result through Europe and make it, so far as the con- tinent is concerned, unanimous. — S Civilization is compelled to face rude awakenings. There was a time when the average Englishman thought the word Ethiopian referred to a man who blacked up, shook a tamborine and sang a song about his “Happy Little Hudson River Home." —_— Science has done much in developing fingerprinting as & means of identifica- tion. It cannot yet go so far as to judge the danger of a propagandist by his particular style of news print. Cordial among diplomats. In some of the meet- ings, so far as practical results are con- cerned, the boys might as well forget their cares and play pinochle. B ) One of the considerations that turn every man's hand against the hold-up | bandit is the fact that he does not try to invest his graft with even a super- ficial show of decent deliberation. B By applving himself strictly to abstruse science Charles Lindbergh serves notice that there will be no use of trying to capitalize his brilliant reputation for political purposes. e There are still echoes of T. R., who referred to “malefactors of great wealth” without the gift of brevity to invent the term, “chiselers.” = ——— Foreign artists have made a brilliant display, although history reveals no instance in which a nation was saved by grand opera. e Reckless expenditure is coming up for consideration in Japan. Even the Mikado may have his McCarl. —_— e ——— Shooting Stars. BY PHILANDER JOHNSON. Butterflies. You are, O charming butterfly, A thing of beauty rare, We marvel and we wonder why You are so passing fair. Your beauty lies in spreading wing Which finds attachment firm Unto a small and sentient thing Which looks much like a worm. You show us little real use In glory so complete. The caterpillars you produce Do little else but eat. Channels of Distribution. “Do you think wealth should be dis- tributed?” “Wealth is always being distributed,” said Senator Sorghum. “At present too much of it is being distributed through night clubs and the prize ring.” Jud Tunkins says open confession is conversations are reported a good thing, but that's no excuse for | a grafter being shameless. Tart About, If kidnapers grab all the money And leave other folk to complain, A world upside will seem funny As the loot men may strive to regain. As people demand restoration Of coin they had struggled to earn, They may offer a strange demonstration And kidnap the bandits in turn. Equality. “Women are advising equal rights for men in matters of alimony,” remarked the hostess. “We might go even further,” said Miss Cayenne, “and insist on a Blue Eagle code for gigolos.” Conflagration, Some of the wars that prove the worst, With devastation far and wide, Start with one little blaze at first, Then flames arise on every side. That great Chicago fire, 'tis said, Which folks remember even now, Spread from a lantern in a shed Upset by Dame O’Leary’s cow. “De Fourth of July sets a fine exam- ple,” said Uncle Eben. “All we needs to do is to limit ourselves to skyrockets and letfge machine guns alone.” I'e ing program, with no regard for those in always to succeed despite the fact that | \DJUStry who must pay the bill. It is almost impossible for one even with $1800-a-year income to make ends meet on account of the A. A. A. causing the price of farm and table products to rise so high that the average person cannot buy even a good cut of meat today. D. (. SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 1935. THIS AND THAT BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL. ‘Templeton Jones had an unfortunate | | if one insists on talking to persons, at habit of wanting to talk to strangers. It was unfortunate for him, because he felt the occasional rebuff more than | he enjoyed the usual response. Yet he kept right on, in the midst of the big city, trying to be friendly to others. If he happened to be on = public vehicle, and something happzned in the street to attract general attention, Jones had some comment to make to the man sitting next him. ‘This was, of course, second nature to him, as it is to so many persons, men and women. A friendly person, by nature, likes to | talk. Exempting the Federal employe from | the unemployment insurance tax in the social security bill is the greatest in- justice ever put over on our people, and the people are going to have something to say about it. Federal employes are and should take their place in line the same as the rest of us in doing their part. Even the occasional rebuff, such as it is, does not deter him. The reverse of the proposition is that haphazard, one must run the very grave danger of being bored. It so often turns out that way, espe- cially on public vehicles, when the pleasant person who so democratically responded to conversational advances turns out to be a terrible pest. There is no way of telling. The first time you talk he is fine, but the next time he gets going on a favorite theme, maybe politics, and you are supposed to agree with everything he says. If you do not he grows red in the face, talks loud and embarrasses you before the entire coach. Suppose he is one of these fellows who hates the ladies. You do not know * ¥ x % City life does not deter him, either. Just what one means by the term “city life” is pretty well known. It is something of itself, and then again it is nothing. Most people will be themselves, wher- | ever they are, but there is no gainsaying that the city does do something to | every one. Just how this will work out depends | upon the person. Some it makes crabbed, some more friendly, some more reserved, some more | loquacious. If it were not for industry where would | the Federal pay checks come from and | also farming? Has it been on account of those who | drafted the social security bill on unem- | plo/ment insurance not wanting to de their part toward unemployment because they would be taxed when they exempt- ed Federal employes? It certainly looks so, and then they call themselves pa- triotic. It is more like a circus barker than anything else. No more selfish | move could have been made than ex- empting Federal employes from unem- ployment insurance. May God speed the day when we can rid ourselves of the Government experi- menting on the people like they were a bunch of white rats. If a manufacturer should try to experiment on the Ameri- can public the way our soap box poli- ticians have, they, the manufacturers, | would not last a day. | The greatest thing for America and the people of the United States today is to get back to common horse sense and forget the ideas of foreign powers, especially Russia, P.C. MARSHALL. R | Peffer Whiskers Poem Is Finally Recovered | To the Editor of The star: | The memory plays some strange tricks upon one, and perhaps the meanest of these is that of half remembering. I am | Just now, with assistance, triumphant over one of these baffing blockades of the mind and wish to share my ex- traneous success with others who may He who can walk in the midst of the crowd and keep the sweet innocence of litude—so Emerson put it, or words that effect. It is an ideal worth striving for, and | Templeton Jones dared hoped he had attained it. * k% % Dared, that is, until he ran squarely into one of these crusty fellows who simply wants no one to speak to him without a proper introduction. No dowager of the old school insists on it more than one of these male wiseacres. He resents the addresses of a stranger as much as the demure miss of old times. “How dare you, sir?” he seems to say to the friendly Jones, latter makes a mistake, as he sometimes | does. Jones always kicks himself heartily every time he goes out of his way to speak to such a fellow, only to find that the wight prefers to be let alone. Templeton Jones believes that he would do him some good by bringing a bit of true democracy to his obsessed | soul. have had the same experience. Recently | I read in The Star an editorial which, apropos of the suggestion of a fellow Senator that Huey Long, then engaged in his unsuccessful one-man filibuster, give his voice a rest by singing, related how once upon 4 time another filibust- erer, Senator Peffer of Kansas, had “broken into song.” And as I read I was | conscious of a flash of memory of a bit | of verse about that same Senator Peffer of the long whiskers, which came into being at the time when he was cam- paigning for the Upper House as a Populist or after he had taken his place in that body. But try as I might I could not draw together the filaments of that fugitive recollection. There was & sort of refrain that kept half-way humming, but the words would not come back. This evening I was reading in the Atlantic Monthly a very interesting article by Albert Jay Nock entitled, “Thought on Utopia,” in which he re- | views the rainbow chasings of this and other periods of public unrest, and there I found my fugitive verse. He says: “I saw the crusades of Bryan, Coin Harvey, Coxey, and I have a vague recol- lection of the searchings of heart caused by Senator Peffer and the Populists; I even remember a couple of stanzas of newspaper verse that date from this last | period—how is it that such trash man- ages to fix itself in a boy's memory that | one is likely to remember it forever?” And then he quotes my long-lost jingle | of the days of Peffer and “Sockless Jerry” Simpson. For the benefit of | others who may have had the same ex- | perience of half remembering something | eventual recovery by chance I will quote these two stirring verses: I am Peffer, Peffer, Peffer, From the wild and woolly West, And I have so many whiskers That I never need a vest. T am Peffer, Peffer, Peffer And the breezes always sing ‘When they meet me: to my sluggers They don't do a blessed thing. So there it is, that precious poem, re- covered at last. And it would seem to apart from its metric merit and it per- fect rhymes, in the reference to the vocalization of the breezes, which might well apply to the cadence of legislative vocal cords that are now and then set athrob on Capitol Hill. LLOYD GRISWOLD. o Georgetown Traction To the Editor of The St 1 have been a resident of Georgetown for 23 years and much to my truly great surprise I now observe suddenly that the local street car company, either the dictates of the Public Utility Com- mission, is falling down to a very amaz- ing degree in its duty to render to the citizens of the area and nearby areas car service which gives any semblance of keeping abreast with the times. During the past few days we have witnessed the amazing spectacle of hav- ing our car service, to what is generally known as the F street business area, completely ceasing to exist and in its place a bus line established which takes us for a sightseeing ride down by the river. just mentioned the citizens of the area had access to F street from Fourteenth eastward and also to the Union Station without even having to transfer. As matters stand now, after these recent changes in street car routing, we of the Georgetown area do not have access, via the street cars, to either the F street shooning and theater district, to Con- necticut avenue between Dupont circle and Seventeenth street or to the Union Station without having to walk at least one block from a bus to a car or be- tween two cars. We here in Georgetown do not even have good transfer con- nections with the nearby Mount Pleas- ant area. The Public Utility Commis- sion knows full well that we are being so inconvenienced, and I, for one, would like ta know the true circumstances that brought about such a condition jin street car service. -GEORGE SH 3 1l the fault of its own or due to T | is talking suddenly changes the tone of Up to the time of the change | | of no particular importance and of its | | any time by the proper stimulus. | of the most effective ways is to repeat | *x ok x For the person who turns an icy stare onto the innocent person who insists on regarding him as human, is surely suffering from something. And you never can tell by looking at ‘em, that is the unfortunate part of it. The man or woman who puts on the high-and-mighty is not to be recognized by appearance, or clothes, or previous condition of servitude. So it must be something in the ego or_soul. Part of that “something” is just plain fear. What such a person is afraid of is another matter. a sad experience of some sort or other and is determined not to be caught again. Perhaps he lost some money once as a result of an impromptu conversation on a corner. He will not be caught napping again. * x x % ‘Templeton Jones has a sneaking no- tion that maybe the fellow is right after all. (Jones is one of the few men in the world who admits that any one eise can ever be right. Even he doesn't do it very often.) STARS, MEN Notebook of Sciene Laboratory when the | Maybe he has had ' that, of course, when you first speak to him ‘out of the essential goodness of | your heart, saying that it is a fine day, isn't it? He agrees. No one could agree better. It gives you a glow to be agreed with, right off the bat, instantly, and that | sort of thing. Only the day before you made the | same remark to a stranger, only to be | regarded with the very deepest suspicion. The man really looked hurt. So you glow inwardly at the good re- ception of your latest effort. God's in His Heaven, all's right with the world, | as sweet Pippa said, only you are saying it now, and that makes a lot of | difference. make, in such a world as this, if all of | us coulde utter the best things of litera- ture, not from the pages, but from our own wise hearts! * ok ox % Templeton Jones had no such hope as that, but he thought at times he was doing pretty well, no matter what others thought, just so long as he was attempt- ing to point out the beauties of Nature to souls seemingly lost in themselves. No soul, however noble, or however scheming, ought for very long to remain sunk in itself in a world so teeming with splendors. Jones realizes these splendors better than most, that is why he deems it his What a wonderful difference it would | | auspices of the Catholic Church. business, every now and then, to pick | out some soul benighted and remind him of the loveliness of a Washington sunset. It is his custom, traveling home in the evening, while taxis roar on every side ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS By Frederic J. Haskin. A reader can get the answer to any question of fact by writing The Washing- ton Evening Star Information Bureau, Frederic J. Haskin, Director, Washing- ton, D.C. Please inclose stamp for reply. Q. How many people are employed on | the New York Stock Exchange?—C. G. A. There are 2400 employes. Q. Please give the history of the “Marseillaise.”—L. M. A. The French national anthem was composed, both words and music, in one night (April 24, 1792) by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, a French cap- | tain of engineers, who happened also to be a musical amateur. The need of a marching song for the French had been expressed by the mayor of Strasbourg, where De Lisle was then quartered, and the world-famous hymn was his re- sponse. Tt derived its name from the fact of its having been sung with such enthusiasm by the troops on setting out from Marseille for Paris. Q. When was the pillory as & form of punishment abolished in England? —H. M. A. It was abolished in 1816 except for perjury and subordination, and the per- Jjurer, Peter James Bossy, was the last to stand in the pillory at the Old Bailey for 1 hour on June 22, 1830. It was | finally abolished in 1837 at the end of Willlam IV's reign. Q. What were the earliest schools for the blind?—F. H. A. Education of the youthful blind in Europe began én Paris in 1784; that in the United States, in Boston, New York City and Philadelphia in 1832 and 1833. These earliest schools and four others are incorporated, residential, State-aided institutions. Four others are under the In 1837 Ohio established the first State- supported school for the blind, and many States quickly followed. Q. Who was called the modern St. George of the pen?—E. M. A. This expression was applied to Thomas Nast, the famous cartoonist. Q. Please give the origin of the term four hundred as applied to society —E. F. A. The term originally appiied to New | York society and is said to have arisen and sometimes on both sides to keep ! in mind the reds and purples of the setting sun, so that this supreme mani- festation, whose glories are open to the richest and poorest alike, can do its | share in making him feel a little bit more at home in an awful universe. Perhaps that is what is the matter with these crusty ones, these insuffer- able persons who dare not be kind or | friendly except to those they know. Perhaps, thinks the affable T. Jones, | they need a little cheering up. Perhaps if that sublime spectacle were pointed | out to them maybe they might unbend, unfreeze (why not?) and permit them- selves to be human once more. “Lovely sunset,” remarks Jones. “Hump,” replies the other, if he re- plies at all. Mostly he replies not. He stares straight ahead, as if admiring that wonderful man, the bus driver, far greater than any sunset, he seems to assert. Sunset, bah! Who wants to look at a sunset when he can look at & bus driver? Templeton Jones feels squelched. But he looks at the sun. AND ATOMS properly e Progress in Field, and Study. BY THOMAS R. HENRY. A strange disease of the mind, un- known among civilized people, is report- ed to the British medical journal Lancet by Dr. Y. Uchimura, Japanese psy- chiatrist. It exists only among the Ainu, the | primitive aboriginals of Northern Japan, and is known as the Imu, or old woman’s disease, since it is largely confined to women and seldom appears before the sixtieth year. The malady is characterized by epi- sodes of insanity, which start and end suddenly, leaving only a vague memory of what has happened in the mind of the victim. -Curiously enough, those subject to such attacks are usually women of better than average intelli- gence who are members of more pro- gressive Ainu families. An attack can be brought on at almost One | within the hearing of the subject the Ainu words for “snake or “frog.” The re- action is even more violent when she is | shown one of these animals. have a certain particular value now, | ‘The manifestation takes various forms, | depending on the personality of the in- | den outburst of extreme violence. | woman throws anything she can lay | In one form there is a sud- The dividual. | her hands on at any one who may be l standing near. Not infrequently she kills or seriously injures an innocent by- | After a few moments the at- | stander. tacks subside and the victim has no | memory of what has taken place. Service Inconvenient | | more pronounced, than the echolalia. In another form it is manifested as an “echo disease,” somewhat similar, but which is part of the syndromes of some | recognized forms of mental abnormality among civilized peoples. The woman will be engaged in an ordinary friendly con- versation. The person with whom she voice and speaks some word not at all pertinent to the subject under discus- sion, thus breaking into the train of | thought. The woman repeats the word and thenceforth for several moments will echo every word spoken within her hear- ing without rhyme or reason. Dr. Uchi- mura reports that he tried this experi- | mentally several times. He would say in Ainu: “You are a fool.” “You are a fool” the woman' would reply in almost perfect imitation of the doctor’s voice. “Bow-wow,” he would say. “Bow-wow,” the woman would echo. ‘Then he would lapse into Japanese, & language with which the subject was entirely unacquainted, but she would echo perfectly the strange words. In other cases every action is imi- tated exactly. If the doctor shakes his fist in the woman’s face she will shake her fist in his face. If he waves his right arm she will wave her right arm. This propensity of some old woman is known to mischievous Ainu children. They will shout “snake” within a vic- tim’s hearing, and then amuse them- selves by standing on their heads, turn- ing cartwheels, etc. She, despite her years, will go through exactly same performance. Sometimes, however, both these mani- | festations take a negative form. The woman will always respond to a word spoken with its opposite, or something that occurs to her as its opposite. For | example, to the word “one” she will | respond “two.” To the word “man” she | will respond “woman.” Dr. Uchimura wanted to get a photograph of one of these victims. The Ainu dread being tain her consent. The problem was the manifestations of the disease. He said “snake” The woman at once showed signs of the customary disturb- ance. ture taken.” he said, showing her his him to photograph her. induced hypnosis in which the victim will do everything she is asked to do, wrinkled old hag will dance with all the sprightliness of a young girl. She wilk roll down a bank or climb a tree. * x ox % of the world's rarest birds in collections, sonian Institution. They were collected by Dr. Hugh M. Smith, formerly fisheries adviser to the Siamese government, from the upper slopes of a high mountain, Mount Kao Sabap, in Southeastern Siam. There they live, usuaily in pairs, in the tops of forests. Because of their lofty habitat, specimens are hard to obtain. the habits of the birds. They apparently are migrants, having been reported pre- viously from Southern China and French Indo-China. They are remarkable be- cause of the pure white breasts of the males. This bird is related to the Old World orioles and is in no way related to the common Baltimore oriole of the United States. This American bird is a form of blackbird, which owes its name to its resemblance in form and color pattern to the European oriole familiar to the is more closely related to the crows. In this connection, it may be pointed out, there is no relationship, as is often as- | sumed, between the Baltimore oriole and the robin redbreast. The latter is s species of thrush. Sitting and Setting. Prom the Rochester (N. Y.) Times-Unlon, Indiana educators in convention as- sembled have adopted a resolution de- that & hen may either “sit” or “set” The matter was settled just as the sitting sun sat. ———. Wilhelm to Adolf. Prom the Winston-8alem (N. C.) Journal. For sword rattlers the paths of glory sometimes lead to the woodpile, as ex- Kaiser Bill might remark to Herr Adolf. —— vt Excessive Zeal. Prom the Atlanta Journal. It seems that no matier what the weather does in Kansas, it does it with entirely too guch enthusiasm. have just been obtained for the Smith- | the highest trees of the dense evergreen | Practically nothing is known about | English colonists. The Old World bird | in 1892 when Mrs. William Astor asked Ward McAllister, a leader of society, to assist her in cutting down the invitation list of her annual ball to 400 persons as that was as many as her ball room would accommodate. McAllister was heard to remark afterward that there were really only 400 people living in New York who had any claim to be called society. The remark was re- peated and spread rapidly, becoming commonly ‘used. Q. How old is Omaha, the race horse? —A. K. M. A. Omaha was born March 24, 1932. Q. How many Big Brother and Sister | organizations are there?—D. H. A. There are 55 Big Brother or Big Sister organizations united in & na- tional federation. They attempt to keep boys and girls who have begun to show behavior problems from becoming delin- quent, to improve their environment and to help them with their various per- sonal and family problems. Q. Please describe the eruption of Krakatoa in the 1800s—E. W. A. In the Summer of 1883 an eruption occurred on the small volcanic island of | Krakatoa in the Sunda Strait, whose eflects were far-reaching. The finer par- ticles of the volcanic dust attaining the higher layers of the atmosphere were diffused over a large part of the sur- face of the earth. Within the tropics they were borne along by air currents at a rate of 73 miles an hour from east | to west until within a period of six weeks they were diffused over nearly | the whole space between latitudes 30 degrees north and 45 degrees south. Eventually they spread northward and southward and were carried over North and South America, Europe, Asia, South Africa and Australia. It was reported at the time that ashes fell on the decks | of vessels at sea many miles distant photographed, and he never could ob- | | simple, however, to one who understood | “You must not have your pic- | camera, She at once began imploring | Still another manifestation is a self- | regardless of discomfort or danger. A | | Specimens of the “white oriole,* one | from the source of the eruption. Q. Was the A. A. A. program of much benefit to the wheat growers?—S. M. A. The major achievement of the wheat program in its first two years was the increase in income of wheat growers as a group by probably more than $200,- 000,000 above what they otherwise would have received. Q. Who won the Houghton Mifflin lit- erary fellowships?—K. M. A. The two Literary Fellowships of $1,000 each, offered in January by Houghton Mifflin Co. to encourage young writers, have been awarded to Jenny Ballou of New York City and E. P. O'Donnell of New Orleans. Q. What is the superstition attached | to the mandrake plant—P. D. A! The root of the mandrake of his- tory, namely the mandragiora, is sup- to become forked and resemble the human form. In this condition it was used as an aphrodisiac. It is allied | to belladonna and has poisonous quali- ties. In ancient times human figures | were cut out of the root and special virtues ascribed to them. It was also thought that mandrakes could not be uprooted without producing fatal effects, so a cord was fixed to the root and around a dog's neck so that when the dog was chased he drew out the mandrake. Another fallacy was that & small dose made a person vain of his beauty, and a large one made him an idiot; yet another belief was that the mandrake utters & scream when it is uprooted. It was supposed to he a creature having life, engendered under the earth of the seed of some dead person put to death for murder. Q. How old is the town of Saybrook, Conn.?—E. J. A. Saybrook was founded in 1639 by George Fenwick, whose wife, Lady Fen- wick, is buried in the old cemetery thers. A Rhyme at Twilight By Gertrude Brooke Hamilton Queen in His Kitchen The rings are stripped from my fingers, ‘The maids are gone for the day, Buttoned into the cook's white apron, I'm armed for a crusty fray. In a model kitchen, None to question why, I'm going to bake a huckleberry pie. With dusk, and his royal footstep, T'll carry a sumptuous &éray To the marble seat near the woodbine, Close to the fountain spray. Kissing in the gardea Under deep blue sky, m t*l my King with huckieberry N‘é -