The Key West Citizen Newspaper, August 23, 1952, Page 10

Page 10 ‘THE KEY WEST CITIZEN Saturday, August 23, 1952 OBSERVATIONS OF - AN ADOPTED “CONCH” By COMDR. RAY W. BYRNS, Retired A recent front page news item in the CITIZEN told of the abundance of ‘conch shells” in the waters surrounding Key West, and reported that cench shell fishermen are reaping good returns from their fishing ventures and laying up a large, supply of shells for the com fall and winter tourist trade. tlews intefested me, as im- mediately my thought reverted to the Island old superstition still prevalent among many of our people here in Key West that a conch shell in the home, or in one’s possession, brings misfortune or lghleneh Twente Century should jeth Century sl believe that a lowly conch shell- an inaminate object possessing in power- a beauti- in my opinion and which friends buy and prize— the power to hurt that matter as the e, bring good luck thinketh.in his heart e Book of Proverbs t is certainly true beliefs. Shake- “There is nothing but thinking makes believe that a conch bad luck or s{peeney ite ae e z E 3 e $ & zi af i ! i 3 z a3 ag 8 3 chunk of pavement i beautiful appearance and which they richly mount on_ intricate carved stands as an ornament in their homes, but for its religious signifance as well. It’s regarded by them as an emblem of the voice of BUDDHA preaching the laws of his doctrine. They believe that the conch shell throughout ages innumerable and over many lands were holy things principally because of the whorls in the shell, moving from left to right, possess- ing mysterious sympathy with the Sun in his daily course through heaven. The conch shell was for centuries one of the insignas of Chinese Royality, used no doubt because it is one of the auspicious signs on the Footprint of Buddah, allegedly found in a stone in India and preserved in a Monastery in China. The Chinese never regard the Conch shell as a harbinger of misfortune, but on the contrary as the symbol of good luck. and of a prosperous voyage. And so here we have roughly depicted two contrasting forms of s¥perstition - two contrasting mode of thinking. To some of our Island people, misfortune and ill luck. To the Chinese happiness, a prosperous voyage and the voice of their religious leader. And yet Key Books (MARIA CROSS by Donat O’Don- nell, Nine Critical Essays, publish- ed by Oxford University Press, New York City, 267 pages.) A writer’s imagination is pro- foundly affected by any philosophy or religion which permeates his childhood or adult ‘life. Critic O’Donnell discusses the imaginative patters in the work of eight modern Catholic writers. - Francois Mauriac, George Ber- | nanos, Graham Greene, Sean O’Faolain, Evelyn Waugh, Paul Claudel, Leon Bloy and Charles Peguy. It is interesting and signi- ficant to note that none of these Mr. ‘Maria Cross” is the name Mai basically we know by a simple process of orderly deductive rea- soning that both modes of thinking are entirely without Prin- ciple or reasoning foundation. Both Es daily ride or walk, pebble we might . All are truly a of thought or Webster says si i ga 8 & Ze Ge *e are in the realm of the mystic- entirely in the ignorance of the human mind yet uninstructed in the reality of being. Someday we shall happily arrive at the great fundamental truism that we are the arbiters of our own fate, for has not our Heavenly the| Father given to each one of us “Dominion over the fish of the land | sea and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all Bandit Steals $5M Payroll TAMPA (®—F.. V. Durrance, as- office manager of an auto- m's viday, Detective Sgt. 0. C. Beynon said told this story: office of two the earth and over every creeping | thing that creepeth upon the earth. And this of a surity means do- minion. over the lowly Conch Shell and over all other forms of su- perstitious beliefs as well. Seven Unemployed In Monroe County State Unemployment ; Payments for the ‘ August 15. totaled 001, an crease of approximately $27,000 over the previous week, Ray...ond .E. Barnes,. chairman of the | Florida Industrial Commission, re- vealed today in the weekly Un- employment Compensation report. | This amount was received in check payments by 12,868 unemployed persons throughout the state, mak- e ing am average check of, about $18.98. by an OCALA (#—Active support of the Democratic presidential ticket by Sen. Spessard Holland depends upon position taken on a number issues. ‘The Florida Senator said in an here he had fought for tidelands to the states \ ee but household management 1s very much o business. Why not pay bills the buunese| like way: budgeting will be easier and ex Pense records more wse @ checking account_Open one_here, DA NATIONAL BAN AT KEY WEST | THE FLORI Figures for the corresponding t period in 1951 disclose the amount [of payments to be about ~$14,000 higher this year, while the number of unemployed in 1952 contrarily stays around 1,000 below 1951 fig- ures, indicating better employment this year than in the past. Within this county, seven unem- ployed persons received $116 in checks from the division. and against the civil rights pro- gram; and he also wanted to know “how closely they ally themselves to President Truman, the Ameri- cans for Democratic Action and other ultra-liberal groups in the party.” your only™“office"} id reget e@ccurote when id K Member of the FDIC One of the Florida National Group of Banks Growing with Key West Amour’. the by uthor explains "3 words, and eye i g A i f 8 g : ir i rs il ges eee : ite g i ; E i g 4 5 Pas gE fe 38 i 3 8 i iH Zo : ! eee 3 a 8 gs° be A fe 3 i i EF FE I ciirte i & g- f 3 = i qe ah Fa a iG 2 8 | i i I f 4 Wi et wed BF < : E2F ie fg EF. aBy ea? | a 7 i i : i mm 5 e ~ 5 & 4 i rs i Ei iz. : | F a ribet Hi in : z ¢ | | raf Pj HI bp i He ie ite é iH BEE. i ‘Es off a z [ i f a z Rg gee Be z i i ATL ina fi rf RLF ? 7 [ j # f | t ll | of murder, rape and loot soldiers Navy PIO Delayed By Auto Smash Lt. Comdr. James R. Fores- man, public inforntation offi- cer of the U.S. Naval Base will be delayed ten days re- turning to Key West from leave because of an accident that smashed his car badly, but left the Foresman family unhurt. The PIO wired the Naval Base Fri. morning of the ac- cident anc asked for an ex- tension of leave until Sep- tember 5. His brand new Ford was seriously damaged and will. require extensive repairs before the family can return, it was said. The Navy did not say where the accident occurred. In Lt. Comdr. Foresman’s ab- sence, Jack Burke, Editor of the Key Outpost will con- tinue to handle the Public Information Office, climate makes most of the articles sketchy. In the course of an aver- age lifetime the writer cannot, for example, cover all the f.olkways 'and temperaments of all white the sums up | perch prowling all our waters. his conclusions in the last section '(FLOWER IN THE GUTTER by of the book. First, the title of the Ion“ Braby. Contemporary novel, published by E. P. Dutton & Co., ’s | New York City, 350 pages.)GUEST She is; REVIEW BY A. H. WATNEY, mistress of a | English journalist. erchant, ‘Victor| The action of this book takes place in Berlin immediately be- fore and after the fall of the city, and during its occupation by the Russian troops. It portrays the surrender of the Nazi capital and at the same time has a wider significance in its picture of any large city on the eve of final de- feat, The tale is grimly authentic, the atmosphere of gradually mount- ing tension excellently rendered. The author takes a representa- tive group of German citizens, and by describing with impartial ver- acity their emotions and behavior, he uncovers for us all the ugly symptons inseparable from defeat- the cruelty, suspicion, cowardice, curtain of civilized manners. Men and women go back to a primitive level where hunger and despair are an excuse for previously uncream- ed-of actions. The principal character, Veronik Rathke, tries harder than the other to retain certain standards of de- cency and honesty. But in the end she too surrenders in part to the moral destruction which losing a war brings in its train. She is not a wholly appealing heroine. Sometimetimes she is left un- moved at the sight of death and suffering. She can watch an old horse killed, and be. the first to cut. meat from it. Yet she does more than any of her fellow citizen to help find a doctor for a woman she hardly knows, who is crying out for help in childbirth. Her para- doxical attitude may suggest a true picture of the Nazi idea, that the future race is all-important, the aged and infirm useless. While she denies Nazi sympathies, her whole personality has been shaped by the same ideology, the worship of » Physical or moral. The remaining characters are finely drawn. The Jeschkels, Bloe- mer, even Kappel, are real people, yet they seem intended by the author as symbols, In every to war there may be another Bloem er, another Jeschkel. They are im- portant in so far as they represent a way of life, and it is this way | of life that crumbles in the tense days when they wait for the enemy to arrive, It is unimportant that this is Berlin, and the conquerors the Russians. It would be the same if the town were Prague or Lon- don, Paris or New York, and the cccupying forces Chinese or Egypt- The novel tells of the disruption of normal civilian life and the sud- den shift of values. Fur coats are considered a good exchange for a bicycle or a few potatoes, the m: city services cease to function as the guns come nearer, and hope finally gives way to despair. The follow the same pattern have always followed in their first delirium of victory. Perhaps it is unfortuna' The thought recurs that one trage- | dy is the inevitable outcome of the | It is not clear whether this rather | depressing novel was written to | point a moral about what can abp- | pen to the Master Races of the world or as a warning against de- feat - a modern “vae victis!” The i ‘FoR IT 1S NOT THE MAN WHO COMMENDS HIMSELF THAT WANTED: DOWN-TO-EARTH HUMILITY e hun 15 ACCEPTED, BUT THE MAN WHOM THE LORD COMMENDS! wt CORE ee Louis F, Curry ° . Little White : ° Corn Available TAMPA Ww —There has _ never been so little white corn available for making grits in the knowledge of Cecil Webb, president of the Dixie Lily Milling Co., here. “The white corn in the south is all burnt up, and the north has turned from growing white corn to the yellow hybrid variety be- cause the yield is so much high- er,” Webb said Friday. 4 Warren Follows IN KOREA is A 3/c Louis F. Curry, serving with the 67th Maintenance Sqdn. of the U.S.A.F. He has been in ser- vice one year. Young Curry is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Otis Curry, 6F Porter Place. His overseas address is Louis F. Curry, AF 14426726, 67th Main- tenance Sqdn., APO 670 c/o Postmaster, San _ Francisco, ° ° ° Miamian Killed FT. LAUDERDALE (#—A Mi- amian was killed Friday when his automobile skidded and hit a tree during a rain storm on State Road 84, 14 miles west of Ft. Lauder- dale. The Florida Highway Patrol iden- tified him as William Otto Freese, 28, Miami. week and unconvincing. To suggest, as Mr. Braby does, that the Ger- man people saw the U.S. troops in the light of saviours, or to suppose that the average GI was a saint compared with his Russian com- sade, is laying it on a little thick. frau Rathke goes against her whole background and personality when she welcomes the advent of he American troops, in order that the book might fall into line with current political trends. Let us give you ® MEASURED See the new idea in Venetian Blinds Lawyers’ Plan BARTOW (#—William A. McRae Jr., president of the Florida Bar Association, said Friday Gov. War- ren has agreed to appoint Supreme Court justices from a list submit- ieee by the state lawyers’ organiza- ion. McRae told a civic club here that the governor had followed the list in naming E. Harris Drew to succeed the late Roy H. Chapman. The bar association head sai Warren’s policy refuted arguments against expansion of the Supreme Court which comes up in a ref- erendum this fall. Some critics of the proposed amendment to add three judges to the court object on the grounds Warren would have named a majority of the court. Governor Praises Game Commission AUBURNDALE (# — The great- est thing the State Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission has done is organize junior sportsmen’s clubs, Gov. Warren said Friday. He spoke at a ceremony mark- ing his signing a charter for Flor- ida’s first statewide Junior Con- servation Club League. It was held at a summer camp near here for members of the junior sportsmen’s SUNLIGHT HT POPUAATAAEEEAAEALAEAAA PEAAUAAALUAANTAI TAA Ih i I |Law To Clamp Gamblers Is Not Working Gambling Still Widespread And Not Much Money Collected By FRANK O‘BRIEN WASHINGTON! 7-=The Bureau of Internal Revenue says the law Congress wrote last year to make gamblers pay taxes—a move de- | signed both to put them out of | business and to raise revenue—is )| just not working. Not much money has been col- | lected in taxes, and gambling is jlast November up to the end of | fiscal year 1952 on June 30. The law provided that certain gamblers must register as such and buy a $50 occupational stamp each year, and then pay a tax amounting to 10 per cent of their total take. The bureau said in its report of wagering tax provisions have failed to produce the desired results. . . It appears that the tax yield in a full year of operations will be about eight million dollars, or 2 per cent of the original estimate of 400 mil- lions. As a regulatory measure, the provision may prove equally non-effective.” The report said there had been a “marked decline in large book- GROUP 1 Dorn Held For Federal Jury ington has more gamblers thar any other state, or more hones ones, because it led in registra (eae e tax on 4 These Washington, 4,359; Illinois, 3,234 Montana 2,257; Utah, 1,617; Lou isiana, 1,351; Indiana, 1082 anc Ohio with 959. Gamblers in highly populated eastern states, where gambling is swpposed to be widespread, appar- ently paid no great attention to the law. New York reported only 189 registrations. New Jersey listed 79. States which led in tax on bet- ting: Louisiana paid in $840,000; Tli- nois $827,000; Bam $419,000; which registered only 494 gam: blers, paid in $273,000, ae: al Ladies Summer Dresses Formerly Sold up to $10.95 SALE PRICE $3.98 GROUP 2 Ladies Summer Dresses Formerly Sold up to $17.75 SALE PRICE $5.00 CHILDREN’S Summer Dresses Formerly Sold up to $6.95 SALE PRICES os $1.50 <$2.25 $2.98 - $2.00 - $2.88 CHAS. ARONOVITZ az KEY WEST'S LARGEST STORE