The Key West Citizen Newspaper, December 9, 1952, Page 8

Page 8 THE KEY WEST CITIZEN FLASH GORDON BOOHOO! YOU JUST DON'T UNDERSTAND ME OR THE THINGS if IMPORTANT TO ME LIKE Mig SEWING AT ALL... 2SNIFFi KIT? HOW CAN LOTHAR HANDLE THAT MONSTER? I SHOULD STOP LIKE TWO JUNGLE BULLS, LOTHAR AND T THE GORILLA CIRCLE EACH OTHER WARILY—-WATCHED BY THOUSANDS-- opt 1992. King Peetu Syadvae, tae, Wedd eps roared Tuesday, December 9, 1952 AM A I NEED A WARDROBE... SERVANTS... THINGS 1B YOU CAN'T BEGIN / [TO UNDERSTAND... WASN'T THIS A BRILLIANT IDEA OF MINE THE DAY US, SOCKY-- Shh--LOOK -- HE’S GOT HIM! 1... UNDERSTAND! THE * PASTURIANS WON'T LIKE IT... BUT Chg GET YOU THOSE AS LOTHAR STARTS IN, THE BEAST SUDDENLY CLUTCHES HIM IN HI MIGH TY AAMSS ee THE PHANTOM MAN, THE CHIEF LL BE SORE WHEN HE BIG BEN BOLT O.K., PAULA:.. HOME YOU GO... WHILE LAUGHING GOES BEDDY-BED! By Lee Falk and Wilson McCoy Hie FIST DARTS ABOUT, PRESSING Sigelnthits WHERE YOURE] |GEN7LY> AMD EACH TIME LEAVES GOIN HIS MARK! & By John Cullen Murphy SCARED, =e + YEAH...I'M SCARED. BUT TLL BE THERE ONTIME. G'NIGHT, NEW YORK (#—Are you going to have an office istmas party this year? Well, the chances are it won’t be as wild and woolly as the season before. The office Christmas party is on the way to becoming as safe and sane as the Fourth of July. The wives are seeing to that. They’re turning it from a Roman holiday into a family affair. The office Christma. party has a long tradition in American folk- lore. In the old days the boss: used } to call in the clerks ten minutes before quitting time. He broke open a bottle, poured a round of drinks, and toasted them to a “Merry Christmas.” He then grimly locked up the bottle, and everybody went home from work three minutes early, feeling a bit misty-eyed about the old man’s generosity. With the entrance of women into the business world the system sub- tly changed. Over the years the boss was finally educated to the idea it would be a fine thing if HE went home early: The employes then broke out their own bottles, had some sandwiches sent up, and the spirit of revelry took over. Some connoisseurs regard this as the true hey-day of the office Christmas party, and it is still celebrated that way by some firms. “I remember the year the book- keeper was chasing a stenographer from the top of one desk to another, and he fell off and broke a leg,” one oldtimer recalled fondly. “We use to gather around the water coolér and sing, and then have a fist fight or two. For days they’d be sweeping up broken glass and pulling lost employes out of, the filing cabinets.” The wreckage and pagan aban- don of these celebrations led many employers to put out a flat order: “No more Christmas parties in the office. Hire a hall.” This is exactly what the em- ployes did. But the hilarity was still unrestrained. Many a divorce case started because a husband returned from the office Christmas party bearing lipstick souvenirs from his office wife. Many a cele- brant didn’t even get honfe until Christmas dawn—and found his kids already had opened their presents. Well, wives weren’t going to stand for that kind of thing for- ever. And they haven’t, Today Mama insists on going right along to the office Christmas party, too— and if Papa gets out of hand, she’s meg there to take him back in From being a spontaneous thing the office Christmas party has turned into a planned production, complete with evening dresses, oy oe 10 ik leader of the horsemen Ties his hand in a half-mili- tary salute and ‘then, when Toni responded, he asked her name. There was a ring of pride in her voice as she gave him Clay’s name and her own, the pride of a neo- phyte who has been accepted by the masters of some inner circle. The old man barked sharp commands at one of his followers | and without a word the rider | Whirled around and galloped ‘ headlong toward the gate. After a moment the old man turned his mount toward the gate and motioned to Clay and Toni to { follow him, The two other riders j fell in behind them and in that | brief, half-ceremonial calvacade they rode through the wide gates | and into the courtyard beyond. The gates clashed shut behind them and Clay was aware that the space inside the stockade was as busy as some colonial plaza on a market day. ,, The old man led them through it all, looking neither to the right nor to the left, until he reached the wide veranda of the great house that dominated the entire establishment. There he swun; himself out of his saddle. wait without impatience until Clay and Toni had dismounted, and then led them up the steps and across the veranda to where a man was waiting in the doorway, his body oddly twisted and. gro- tesque against the soft glow of candlelight that came from the wide hallway behind him. The man in the doorway greet- ed them in a voice that was like the Keay @ throbbing of a great | drum. And yet, instead of the heavy, dragging mote most such voices have, there was so~™>thing in it that was akin to the brave; blare of bugles chaliengir< the y. “Sefiorita O'Neill and Mr Far- rar, I am Blair Palmenter. a! your service. It is an honor to offer you the hospitality of Palmentera.” Clay’s eyes probed the shad- owed face in sudden surprise. This was no slurred and elliptical manner of speech. This was the hrasing and intonation of intel- fect and. rigid schooling and a rare distinction. - They shook hands and Clay Florida Democrat Says Party Needs Change At Top JACKSONVILLE — Richard D. Barker, Democratic national committeeman for Florida, says the party needs a change of na- tional leadership instead of a “‘re- organization at all levels” as pro- posed by Rep. Bob Sikes, Barker, who did not support the party’s nominee, Adlai Stevenson, for president, said: “The real reason that the people T= dinner was a meal they would not soon forget. Re- plete with food and drink and the sopenite warmth of the they returned to the great easy chairs, content only to be quiet and com- fortable and at ease. He looked up now and Clay felt the im Palmenter’s eyes 4 TSF have; knoiea for many yaks and of Seforita O'Neill,” he said slowly, “but I have not heard of ou. before, Mr. Farrar. I some- ow have the. impression that Texas might be new to you.” Tt was courteous enough, but its meaning was unmistakable. “I am new in Texas,” Clay ad- mitted. “Eve been here only ten days or so, Unfortunately,” he tossed the words out ca: aS Palmenter lea: denly, his jaw muscles wages ‘into tight sinews of surprise, eyes fixed and unblinking. “Four men!” he repeated. “You are, shall I say, somewhat gen- erous with other men’s lives, Mr. Farrar.” “They were in a mood to be a little spendthrift with mine, sir,” Clay answered dryly. “I don’t be- lieve they were fri or of yours, either.” Clay glanced at Toni and saw that she was leanin; her chair, her eyes it of mine— FESS FSESSR SES quivering on her lips. She lifted her eyebrows in a silent questi: and, at Clay’s nod, she plun, into the conversation. “The men who were kill were ators,” she told menter breathlessly. “Five of them were none to whip mt to death. Clay killed three ot them and Dexter i “Of course.” Palmenter nodd as if it Pena — most logic: thing in world for fugitives te seek him out. “But Mr. Farrar spoke of four men.” Clay got up and walked part way across the room so that he stood with his back to the roaring fire. Bing I tell you the whole , Mr. Palmenter. I'll make it brief” Briefly, unemotionally, he sketched in his own bac yund: the growing up on his brother Brad’s Kentucky plantation, the endless trips up and down the pees 2 as he took Brad's horses from one race meeting to the next. He told Palmenter about the oe he had been forced to kill Blaine Shepley in St. Louis and how that led him into a jour= ney from Westport to Santa Fe ended with the finding of Jake Meisendorf’s treasure of buried Spanish gold. He told him about San Marcos and the men who had died there and why they had died. Only two things he omitted. One was Toni’s Petiet that he should lead the landless men. against the Regulators; the other was the fact that she had mentioned Las Espinas as they waited in the fields outside Pal- mentera. When he had finished Pal- menter was leaning back in his chair, his eyes closed, his mind ing the implications of the odyssey he had heard. Toni was leaning forward. in her chair, her eyes alight with pride and a half- smile of triumph on her lips. Pal« menter looked up with a quickly sei en it took ev~ erything at once, smiled a little as he surprised the look on Toni’s face, and turned back to Clay. “I appreciate your confidence, Mr. Farrar,” he said courteously. “You may be sure it will be re~ forward in| spected. ‘words [AMBER T [O[OIL) PIVIRIE| Al| 1 JARRE ILE | AIRITIA IRIE /O (DIE INE! NIEIA HE mR OlT EIRISITMENIO/D| RIAISIE|S MEM 11D AITIE MES IOIOIN AIR] tISIE INES IE es OK, SIMON LEGREE, PUT DOWN THAT WHIP ! wiaiters, and dance bands. Even |0f Florida left the Democratic the boss feels safe in coming, |Party in November was because knowing that with the wives there |the party . . . did not recognize no over-exhilarated hired hands | the fact that a change in political will back him into a corner and |Philosophy was long overdue.” start bawling him out for his mis-| Sikes said Saturday, “A reor- takes of the previous 12 months. | ganization of party machinery at Yes, there is no doubt they have | all levels to include only active taken much of the mad, bad glad- | and loyal Democrats is now essen- ness out of the office Christmas |tial for the future success of the party. But the verdict of most|Democratic Party in Florida.” wives is: “‘We hate to spoil a man’s| He also said “Florida’s defec- fun, but we had to do something |tion from the Democratic ranks to be sure we'd get him home |in November was due in part to before Santa Claus.” the failure of the party machinery to function and to the lack of ac- tive support by party nominees.” KIDS ACT AS SANTA Barker, calling for ‘‘a change of NUERNBERG, Germany ( —|leadership at the top,” said “only American school children in Nuern- | then will the thousands of Demo- berg played Santa Claus Saturday|crats in the state who crossed to 130 refugee youngsters who faced| party lines feel inclined to come a bleak Christmas after a Czech | back.” admitted gambling away money contributed by a displaced persons | marks ($101.15) to make up the labor unit to buy gifts for tots. loss—25 marks ($5.95) more had The U. S. kids chipped in 425 | been gambled away. By George McManus|\O@ZARK IKE ‘BARNEY GOOGLE AND S$ BEREBE:::.. E ie Hy PT Bae AP Newsteatures READ the CLASSIFIED ADS in The Citizen Daily FATHER OH-STOP COMPLAINING ABOUT MY NEPHEW *KUMQUAT"! WHILE / 1M OUT LET HM PLAY WITH ANYTHING HE SEES/-- eA. et