The Key West Citizen Newspaper, August 7, 1940, Page 2

.PAGE TWO Che wey West Citizen IN PUBLISHING CO., INC. Daily Except Sunday B: AN, President Publisher cN, Business Manager From The Citizen Building Corner Greene and Ann Streets ‘nly Daily Newspaper in Key West and Monroe County , Florida, as second class matter | r of the Associated Press ed Press is exclusively entitled to use lication of all news dispatches credited to ot otherwise credited in this paper and also ews published here. SUBSCRIPTION RATES "ADVERTISING RATES n on application, SCIAL NOTICE ' rds of thanks, resolutions of | ete., will be charged for at ne. inment by churches from which Tiyed are 5 cents a line. forum and invites discus- subjects of local or general publish anonymous communi- THE KEY WEST CiTIZEN always seek the truth and print it nd without favor; never be wrong or to applaud right; for prevress; never be the or- outhpiece of any person, clique, ; always do its utmost for the never tolerate corruption or ; denounce vice and praise virtue, WILL id good done by individual or organ- tolerant of others’ rights, views and rint only news that will elevate not con and ninate the reader; never com- principle. IMPROVEMENTS FOR KEY WEST ADVOCATED BY THE CITIZEN Tage. Apartments. g Pavilion. and Sea. solidation of County and City Gov- and Most of timating us are extremely modest in our own faults. The sensible love letter is among the — most unsatisfying things in the world. d Ford won't build airplanes for the ~British, but maybe he’d be willing to send ~another “peace ship.” In New York a would-be suicide de- -cided to live when he found 25 cents on the . Street. Aid from an unexpected quarter! If you are a Democrat and desire to in one, don’t go near Willkie; his per- sonality, it is said, is more captivating than ~Roosevelt’s, " Political platforms are stratagems to ‘win votes. For instance the Democratic platform cf 1932 promised a 25 per cent “cut in the cost of government and a “Fed- ‘get annually balanced.” Instead per cent cut we got about a 25 per cent increase, perhaps more. ven advanced € at,the Havana , the exchange of Army and Navy ers of this country with those ~c. Latin-American countries, one to cProve of greatest value in the “Stop Hit- -ler’’ drive and the cementing of the Good- Neighbor policy. provisions ~Conferenc is A Ir a recent speech Prime Minister Winston Churchill linked America’s de- ense directly with Great Britain’s fight r “We are fighting by ourselves , but we are not fighting for ourselves : ‘he said. All right, old top, charge xt account of the $10,000,000,000 2 e us, on which England has _ not ven paid the interest, not to. mention a gs »keh payment. alone to « ou o 3 Reversing himself is one of President ~Roosevelt’s chief attributes. In 1936 at Suenos Aires he declared that nations which spend big sums on armaments “in- “evitably face the day either when their us of destruction must be used against their neighbors, or when an un- sound economy like 2 house of cards must “fall apart.” Now he has asked Congress Jor $10,000,000,000 for armaments, say- “jng: “We will not use our arms in a war “of ag, ion; we will not send our men 40 take part in European wars.” HIGHWAY REPORT ENCOURAGING Release of the monthly report by the Overseas Road and Toll Bridge District yesterday brought a continuation of good news from that quarter with the realiza- , tion that business through the toll gates is | keeping up the same consistent percentage of increase as has been reported each month this year over the same periods last season. eee There, were those that pointed “out that the increase of construction work in Key West, withyits attendant influx of workers from out of town to take over cer- tain skilled work assignments accounted, in a large measure, for the increase in | July. Maybe so. The point is, business | was up: What does it matter how better times come—just so they come. Just about a year ago there was a great hue and cry raised in regard to al- leged mismanagement of the Overseas District—especially having bearing on the danger that the District was going to find itself in serious financial straits before lcng. Doubts were raised as to whether maintenance expenses could be met after bend and _ interest payments were made. It appears pretty certain now, how- ' ever, in view of the periodic release of re- ports that show a decided upward swing in business that will find this year nearly 000 ahead of last year in total re- ceipts, that the Bridge commissioners will find it quite within their financial ability to make all necessary payments and have a healthy reserve on hand when the an- » nual meeting is called next month. As the Bridge District goes, so goes Key West might be a slogan that we might | all rally under, as we realize that visitors } coming to our city, whether laboring | classes, military or tourists, travelling over j the highwa: they must, spells future | betterment for our city. Therefor, it comes as good news to be celebrated | county-wide to witness the improvement | being shown in the District reports issued | monthly. FIRST BATTLE FLAG The question of when and, where the | American flag with stars and stripes was | first carried in battle has been the subject ; of much controversy among historians ever since the Revolution. In fact, in spite of | the Betsy Ross tradition, the origin of the | first flag is uncertain. It is a matter of history that the flag of 13 stars and 13 stripes was adopted by Congress on June 14, 1777, but the exact | date on which the first flag was made is unknown. As to the flag’s first display in battle, there have been conflicting claims. Until recertly it was generally supposed that thiseoceurred at Fort Schuyler, N. Y., on August 3, 1777, when that post was be- seiged by the British. The flag used on that oceasion was said to have been made | from a blue jacket and a soldier’s wife’s red petticoat, with stars cut from a white | shirt. | War Department officials who have recently made researches with a view to clearing up the matter now declare that city and | THE KEY WEST CITIZEN - | | “AND SHE SAID THAT HE SAID...” Even though sidewalk gossips block your way, don’t step off the curb unless it’s safe to do so. PENETRATOR PENS _ Friday we double dumps for ere down in the the African caf that got into our two reasons; cellar. first the fleet was leaving, We hadn't for second, we were leaving Key three years, nor written, and We:xt, too, on a business trip that here we met smack dab in the {held no anticipation of pleasure. center of Key West. And how We had turned in our last copy that changed the prospect of our at the office and were bound ‘trip teoFampa and St. Pete! Gor- away. Our horizon was biacker!don and Squirrel are in St. Pete than anything out of Jungle'and we shall visit with them. It Town. We stopped for a traffic; won't be a formal visit. The light at Duval and Fleming and jond time we ever s: then before our trip was hardly er the cat episode, they came to started adventure, thrill, antici-\ our house to call and within ten pation of pleasure, all loomed minutes Gordon was_ stretched ahead as we saw someone cross- full length on-the rug petting our jing our bow. perfeetly -harmless old house cat. “Gordon!” we screamed. Meeting Gordon pulled us out of A man stopped, incredulity one dump, but we still wished breaking into a smile. Being a the fleet wasn’t sailing. So much Britisher, one of his favorite ex-'for Friday. calmations is “Incredible!” and) H that was the word he used then.| Move After we got the how-are-yous come! Saturday before dawn out of the way we asked him.;we left Key West and it appear- “What are you doing here, are ed we were driving straight into you staying and where?” a bigjblagk cloud. A tiny chink He explained that he was in-of light broke through, then an- Key West on the Nemesis, the other, until there -was- enough coast guard cutter out of St. light te-reflect the night clouds Petersburg, sailing again within in the.water. At last we have the hour. seen the blues and purples of a “How do you rate a trip on the; Maxfield Parrish dawn. By the Nemesis when we can’t seem to time we reached the seven-mile get any such thing?” we asked. bridge everything was tinged His eyes twinkled. “My good.with pink or orange, like a sun- looks and clean -living”, says he. set. It was well worth the effort “I see where that lets me out” we of early rising. said H ae Gordon MacCreagh and his: We might be termed a leap-frog wife, “Squirrel”, are the kind of driver. We hop and stop. Our folks with whom you can let first and longest hop was to your hair down when they are Homestead. We bought gasoline around. The first time we met there, 19c a gallon. Intended to was when we were introduced wash up and have breakfast. We by a cat Gordon had brought washed but passed up the break- back alive from Africa. Pene- fast. We had breakfast and trator’s readers, if any, may re- lunch combined when we -came call the story in this column a to the Tamiami Trail. short while back. We introduced A sign “Key West Information” Gordon to you as world traveler, prompted us to stop and ask what explorer, author and owner of kind of information they had seen Gordon over | the evidence favors Coochs Bridge, Del., as . the place where the first battle flag with | stars and stripes was unfurled. This was during a skirmish which preceded the bat- H tle of Brandywine, and occurred on Sep- | tember 3, 1777. In any event, the history of the first battle flag is of no great importance just now. What is important is that we should be making more rapid preparations to de- | fend the flag and all for which it stands, because of the present crisis in world af- | fairs. WHY NOT PRAISE VIRTUES? One of the traits of human beings is the habit of criticising others. Nearly every individual can find some fault with friends and relatives. This is an art that is easy to acquire. What most of us find difficult is the art of seeinggood in others. Everybody has excellent qualities, regardless of their faults, and it might be better all around if we attempted to discover virtues rather } than faults. Human nature beirg what it is there is a natura) tendency to overestimate our own virtues, which we know and take pride in, and to completely lose sight of similar virtues in others, of which we know not. : It is impossible, despite the magicians, to 100k at an individval and read his mind, | much less his soul. Why take the ehance? Go $395. ~ ‘needed the exercise it cloud, here we! jabout Key West. The proprie- tor and his wife give~out mfor- mation about stopping and eating places in Key West, as a service to their customers. This tavern ‘is located where Key West- bound tourists are almost sure to stop. Three years ago they handed out Chamber of Com- merce literature but that supply has long since been exhausted. They would like tc have more —C. of C. please note. “More en- terprising restaurants or tourist hotels and rooming houses could put their own literature into the hands of these people direct. We jbelieve they do contact the tour- ists who are really asking for de- iailed information. If interested in knowing the name and location of this tavern, contact Penetrator when we return to Key West. Our next hop lasted a half hour. Then a Fort Myers car flagged us down. We always help a damsel in distress and here were five damsels, two chil- jdren, a flat tire and no jack. With true optimim our jack had ,been packed under luggage and the front seat but we suppose we took to |get at the jack, after sitting still so long. The jack worked all right but the women couldn't. We struggled with it by turns but lacked that. certain some- thing. Then along came a knight in armor from Punta Gorda to our collective rescue, and with what was seemingly a slight twist of the wrist, accomplished the im- possible. At the finish of the job, Prince Charming wiped the dirt from his hands, got into his car and drove off. The ladies _ returned the jack and they drove .'off, both cars leaving Penetrator alone on the trail to solve the problem of re-packing the jack. Old Penetrator, always the grist between two mill stones. We overtook and passed the knight in armor, just in case. You see, we carry a jack but have no pump. Qn our next hop we stopped at a place opposite an Indian vill- age and got a tip for the city council on how to save gasoline money on street sweepers. Im- port a few Indian women, their skirts sweep the streets. At the same place a tourist couple had just finished eating. “Let’s go over into the Indian village”, said she. “They look pretty dirty to me”, he said in a deafening whisper. And with wifely frankness she retorted, “They are just as good and clean as you are”. Needless to say, they went. We saw a car with a bumper card which read “Ruby Falls”. That made us think of a Key West Ruby who became a navy wife on Friday. There was a case where love and the home fires burning won out over more money and a life of adventure. Ruby had two chances to get married. She chose the boy who makes less money but who is stationed in Key West and let the higher pai man sail Gasoline at 224g¢ m Napies it was just the right kd of a day to cross Tamiemi Trall @ August. Overcest sky. no bright sun, 2 brisk breeze and mo ram No rain? Not until we made Bonita Springs and from there on we nearly drowned. Ef ever we want to commit a cumier we would choose to do & m@ 2 Fier- ever see you. down before you and you cant see ten feet ahead. We put car lights on, hoping the other fe low could see us, because were doggone sure we see him. We slowed 15, even to 10 miles per motor began to sputter meant we had to speed up keep the motor and wires hot or we would be drowned out We pat the wagon up to 40 and hoped we were on 2 straght road You couldn't tell the difference between the canal alongmde and the road, they both looked exact ly alike were e canal when 2 truck passed us like we were standing bout this time we ducer leak under the dash board. the water just pouring m. Gown ‘the wires to the switch Icck We wound a turkish towel around the lock and wires. At Fort My ers the motor started singing Peep-peep, pop. peep-peep. The turkish towel fel = the Switch, soaking wet We grabbed our bathing suit and wrapped that around and by Sarasota that, too. fell off. soaking wet At Sarasota it had develaped into a mere drizzle im comparsor to the floods we had jest come through and we stopped there for gas. this time Zl‘ee 2 gallon It was nearing 5:30 p m wher we got to Bradenton and decided to stop at the Munitipal Trailer Park. We could have pushed on to our destination and friends but we had two reasoms fer mot doing so. Did you ever land & on friends you had mot seem for @ long time. tired, dirty. and = eager to tell everything a at once that you found everybody shrieking im high pitched nervous voices? Experience prompted us to wait unt tomerse Ger other reason was that we wanted to write to you folks tek & Key West. We hope you're m- terested. Heats faster — stays hotter all through ironing — irons faster and easier. Starts ironing in THIRTY SECONDS after you connect Irommaster! Reaches FULL HIGH HEAT for heavy, damp linens in 21/; minutes! The ONLY Automatic iron with a Thumb-tip Heat Regulator up im the handle, cool, away from the Gngers, conveniently marked for all types of fabrics. Weighs only 334 Ibs.—en<s tired arms, aching wrists, weary shoulders. \ We were quite sure we &