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McCORMICK MESSENGER, McCORMICK, S. C.. THURSDAY, JUNE 17, 1937 'Way Back When By JEANNE AN OIL DRILLER /^*LARK GABLE was little differ- ^ ent from any other small town boy. Born in Cadiz, Ohio, in 1900, and later living in Hoped ale, Ohio, population 500, Clark Gable was a regular American boy, fond of the outdoors and all sports. Mother less from the time he was seven months old, he was raised by his grandparents until his father re married. He held a deep love and respect for his stepmother. Idke any other normal American boy, Clark Gable was not sure what position he would like to hold in life. He thought for awhile that he might be an architect, and later he studied medicine at night school. Ambitious but poor, he had to work from the time he was seventeen years old, and his jobs were as va ried as his opportunities. He was time-keeper in a rubber factory, call boy in a theater, an oil driller, a telephone linesman, a surveyor's assistant and a lumberjack. Clark Gable might have been anything but a motion picture actor. He became a star by traveling the hard road of theatrical stock companies and motion picture ex tra, overcoming many disappoint ments, until he reached the pinna cle in “It Happened One Night,” which won the Motion Picture award for the best picture of 1934. CARL SANDBURG NEVER WOULD SETTLE DOWN H OW many times have you heard someone say, “I don’t know what to do about that boy of mine; it looks like he never will settle down”? Carl Sandburg was like that. A boy who skipped from job to job, and gave his simple Swedish immigrant parents many a worried hourl He was born in 1878 in Gales burg, HI., of people who were un educated and kindly, simple and poor. Forced by poverty to go to work when he was thirteen, he be gan the seemingly endless series of jobs that gave him such true understanding of the common peo ple. He drove a milk wagon in Gales burg and he blacked boots in a barber shop. If you could have looked into the future and said that some day Carl Sandburg would be a great poet, they would have laughed you out of townl He be came a scene shifter in a cheap theater, a truck handler in a brick yard, and then a turner’s apprentice in a pottery shop. Cheap manual labor, nothing skilled about most of it! He worked as a dish-washer in mid-western hotels, a harvest hand in the Kansas wheat fields, and a carpenter’s helper. Carl Sandburg was learning the painter’s trade when the Spanish- American war broke out, and he enlisted. A comrade persuaded him to go to Lombard college and he worked his way through as a bell ringer, gym janitor and college cor respondent for the Galesburg Daily Mail. In college his literary ability developed and he became editor of the school publications. After grad uation he supported himself as ad vertising manager of a department store and sales manager of a busi ness machines firm. He entered politics, became a re porter, and in 1917, Carl Sandburg joined the staff of the Chicago Daily News, where his work has been out standing. A rolling stone, a restless jack-of- all-trades has been Carl Sandburg, but from the time of his literary awakening in college, he has writ ten steadily stories for children, a biography of Lincoln, and hundreds of poems about the mass of people. So, if that boy of yours is rest less, if he skips from place to place, be patient. Carl Sandburg gained fame by knowing many people, many jobs, many problems. ©—WNU Service. Wood-Burning Engine in Yucatan. Prepared by National Geographic Society, Washington, D. C.-—WNU Service. HE peninsula of Yucatan projects northward between the Caribbean sea and the Gulf of Mexico like the thumb of a giant hand. Located in its northern half are the states of Yu catan and Campeche and the terri tory of Quintana Roo, in the Repub lic of Mexico. It is almost as flat as the prover bial pancake, though, as one travels from north to south, a few low ranges, little more than foothills, are encountered, few exceeding 500 feet above the sea. The country is a limestone plain of recent geologic formation, covered with a dense, rather low forest which increases in height from north to south as the soil grows deeper. Yucatan has no surface water, no rivers or streams, and relatively few lakes, but everywhere are to be found large natural wells called cenotes, which made life possible in ancient times. In the formation of these, the surface coralline lime stone, honeycombed by the action of water, has broken through, ex posing the subterranean water lev el. / The cenotes and modem wells vary in depth directly with the in creasing elevation of the land as one withdraws from salt water, from only a few feet at the coast to about 100 feet in the interior. The level of the subterranean water table, however, always remains the same. There are only two seasons, the dry and the rainy. The former be gins in December and lasts official ly until May 3, Santa Cruz Day, when the faithful believe the rains should commence, though actually it may have been raining since the middle of April, or Nature, in a contrary mood, may have held off until the middle of June. The thermometer does not fall be low 39 degrees Fahrenheit, and does not rise above 107 degrees. But these two extremes do not tell the true story, since the average max imum is in the eighties and the av erage minimum in the sixties. The nights, even after the hottest days, which are in April and May before the rains break, are cool, because of the trade winds which sweep across the peninsula from east to west practically throughout the year, bringing the freshness of the Caribbean sea to cool the sun- parched land. Almost Completely Isolated. Although Yucatan is a peninsula joined by a broad base to the con tinental land mass to the south, it is, practically speaking, an island. For every person who manages to fight his way into the peninsula through trackless jungles, across vast swamps and over stony ranges of low hills which together form an all but impassable land barrier, hundreds reach Yucatan by air or water. This circumstance profoundly af fected the civilization which flour ished there in ancient as well as in modern times. Because of its almost complete isolation, the peninsula was select ed by the Carnegie Institution of Washington more than two decades ago, as a center for the intensive study of American aboriginal civi lizations. Foreign influence having been reduced to a minimum, Yuca tan is an excellent “laboratory case” for such a study. This subtropical paradise is not difficult of access from the United States. Merida, the capital, is only nine hours by air from Miami and less than six and a half from Mex ico City. There are regular steam ship sailings from New York and from New Orleans to Progreso, port of Yucatan. There is every facility for convenient touring about the peninsula, even the modern Maya- land lodge in the venerable ruins of Chichen Itza. Meri<ja, with about 110,000 people, must be one of the cleanest cities of its size in the world. All the streets are paved. Ninety per cent of the houses are rough masonry coated with lime plaster. Flat concrete roofs rest either on wooden beams or, in the modern houses, on steel beams. The houses are painted in every color imaginable, pastel shades of cream, pink, green, blue, and yel low prevailing. Patios Are Delightful. As in all Spanish cities, the dwell ings present to the streets either entirely blank walls or heavily barred windows, but, once within the great front doors, even the hum blest have their enchanting patios. In the more pretentious homes broad-arched cloisters with tiled floors surround the patios on all four sides, and in more modest ones on one or two sides. The patio itself usually is a riot of brilliantly colored tropical flow ers, many of which distill rare per fumes. Today, with its well-lighted, clean streets, its many parks, its movies, electric signs, autobusses and mill ing newsboys, bootblacks with their little portable boxes, and sweetmeat venders, Merida is a city of the Twentieth century. But with Maya Indians in their picturesque native costumes rub bing shoulders with Mexicans in the more familiar habiliments of the modern world, even with Amer ican visitors in plus fours strolling beneath the medieval dignity of the cathedral towers, a thousand years of human history unfold before the eye. The story of man’s earliest occu pation of Europe has been recov ered from the caves of France and Spain, so in Yucatan the archeolo gist naturally turns to the caves, of which there are many, for evidence concerning man’s antiquity in this region. It would seem that the dwellers in the caves were the same people as the builders of the great cities of stone, since excavations disclose that both appear to have used the same utensils, the same kinds of dishes, bowls and water jars, the same kinds of corn grinders, arrow- and lance-heads, fiber cleaners, pot tery burnishers, and the same kinds of jade ornaments, earplugs, nose- plugs, beads, and pendants. However, about th$ builders of the cities of cut stonb, the ancient Maya, the archeologist knows more than a little, and with the Maya the clouds of obscurity surrounding the ancient history of Yucatan begin to dissipate. Sometime during the early years of the Christian Era there developed in what is now the northern part ot the Republic of Guatemala—more exactly, in the Department of Peten, Guatemala, south of Yucatan—a civilization which archeologists have called the Mayan. This civilization, which was des tined to become the most brilliant cultural expression of ancient America, was based upon agricul ture, chiefly the raising of corn. ' Mayan Civilization. Because the early Maya were pri marily farmers, they became inter ested in the phenomena of time, the passing of the seasons, the several stages of the farmer’s year—when the forest should be felled, when the dried wood and leaves should be burned, when the corn should be planted, and when harvested. All these were of vital concern, so their priests at a very early date, prob ably by the beginning of the first millennium before Christ, turned their attention to the measurement of time and to the study of astron omy. Although the Maya in their knowl edge of the apparent movements of the heavenly bodies—the sun, moon, Venus, and probably other planets as well—far excelled both the ancient Egyptians and Baby lonians, their greatest intellectual achievement was the invention of a chronology, exapt to the day within a period of 374,^OO years, which is as accurate as our own Gregorian calendar. For the first time in hu man history, their mathematical system to keep account of this chronology made use of a positional system of writing numbers involv ing the conception of the abstract mathematical quantity of zero, one of the outstanding achievements of all time. While our own numerical system is decimal, increasing by tens from right to left of the decimal point, the ancient Maya system was viges imal, increasing by twenties from bottom to top. But all the essential elements of our modern arithmetic, including numeration by position and use of a symbol to represent zero, had been devised by the an cient Maya 2,000 years ago, and at least five centuries before the Hin dus had developed the fundamentals of Arabic notation in India. By their exceedingly accurate system of chronology as well as by their knowledge of the apparent movements of the heavenly bodies, the Maya priests were able to pre dict eclipses and the heliacal rising and setting of Venus. Moreover, what was of even greater impor tance to the Maya farmer, they had determined the length 6f the trop ical year with as high a degree of accuracy as Pope Gregory XIII did a good thousand years later. ★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★A I STAB. * | DUST | J IMLovie • Radio J ★ ★ ★★★By VIRGINIA VALE★★★ A LWAYS a dauntless trail blazer, Sam Goldwyn has just announced that in future all of his productions will be filmed in Technicolor. Where Sam leads, others feel that they must follow, and the chief drawback is that it is going to be very expensive, because Technicol or film costs considerably more than black and white. First of the Gold wyn Technicolor films will be “Fol lies” with Helen Jepson, the Ritz Brothers, Zorina, the great Russian ballerina, Virginia Verrill, beloved of radio fans, to swing those blues and a vast array of comics. Robert Young got a wonderful break when M-G-M loaned him to play opposite Claud- m ette Colbert in “I Met Him in Paris.” His own studio offi cials who lately had been treating Bob rather like a com fortable old shoe, went to the preview f and came out rav- ing about him as if he were a new dis " covery. Right away they went out and bought the screen rights to a grand story called “Wit ness to a Murder,” and presented the star role to Bob. Robert Young There is a pretty thrilling story of grit and courage connected with the Hal Roach picture “Pick x a Star.” A blonde beauty named Ro- sina Lawrence who sings and dances light heartedly in that and in “Nobody’s Baby” was paralyzed as a child as the result of a back injury. After months of consulta tions, her mother located a doctor who thought he might improve her condition by giving her exercises. Now she is strong and healthy and agile—much more so than other girls who did not have to fight for a chance to walk and dance. There isn’t a busier girl in all Hollywood than Dorothy Lamour, which is a break for film fans, but bad news to the many radio fans who have been wishing she would find time to sing regularly on a radio program again. She has just finished roles in “High, Wide, and Handsome” and “The Last Train From Madrid” and will start any day now on “Her Jungle Love.” Her first big success, you will re call, came when she played “The Jungle Princess” and Paramount has been looking for a sequel to it ever since. Connie Boswell is the latest radio singer to succumb to the pleas of motion-picture producers. She will warble in Paramount’s “Artists and Models.” But the most exciting news on the Paramount lot is that Mary Livingstone, the giddy comic of Jack Benny’s program and in private life, his wife, is such an in spired screen comic in her first pic ture that all her supporting play ers are sulking. The picture, called “This Way Please,” was supposed to sta' Shirley Ross and Buddy Rogers, but Mary is just romping off with all the scenes. It looks as if Kenny Baker of the air waves will be a strong rival of Bing Crosby’s on the screen just as soon as “Mr. Dodd Takes the Air” is released. Walter Wanger, who has been searching for a good - looking young singer to play the lead in “52nd Street” persuaded Mervyn LeRoy to let him see as much of the picture as has been filmed. Imme diately, he decided was just what he had been looking for. Kenny Baker will have Pat Patterson, wife of Charles Boyer, playing opposite him i^ the Wan ger film. That’s a break for him, because she is one of the most utter ly charming young women in all Hollywood. ODDS AND ENDS .. .Scrcawis of rage and violent protests broke loose on the Paramount set for "Artists and Models" when he-men like Richard Arlen and Rube Goldberg, the cartoonist, found they had to get all prettied up in knee breeches and lace ruffles for a masquer ade scene . . . Motion picture producers are trying to argue Barbara Stanwyck and Robert Taylor out of galloping through mountain passes on frisky horses. Bar bara took a nasty fall the other day— with the horse landing on top of her. She wasn’t seriously hurt, though . . . Motion picture stars can get into acci dents anywhere, it seems, because Sylvia Sidney took a header on the slippery floor of a beauty salon and cut her face quite badly . . . Ginger Rogers and Har riet Hilliard have more fun on Sundays when streams of tourists are haunting all the well-known Hollywood cafes. They pack a lunch and go picnicking, and no> body recognizes them. © Western Newspaper Union. Bing Crosby Kenny Baker % AROUND >h. HOUSE Items of Interest to the Housewife Cooking Rhubarb—Rhubarb is disliked by some people because of its acidity. But this can be considerably reduced if the fruit is covered with cold water, brought to the boil and then strained before being stewed in the ordinary way. This method is only recommended to anybody who dislikes ordinary stewed rhu barb, as the healthful salts are lost when the fruit is cooked twice. * * • Brightening Piano Keys—Dis colored piano keys can be bright ened by rubbing with a soft cloth dampened with alcohol. • • * Tinting Milk—When small chil dren refuse to drink their daily milk requirements, try tinting the milk with vegetable coloring. • • • yolks of two eggs. Beat eggs slightly, add sugar and salt; stir constantly while adding gradually the hot milk. Cook in double boil er till mixture thickens, chill and flavor. • • • Boiling Sirup—If the saucepan is well buttered around the top sirup that is being boiled in it will not boil over the top of the pan. • • • Cabbage Cooked with Milk- Two cups milk, six cups shredded cabbage, one-third cup milk or cream, two tablespoons melted butter, two tablespoons flour, half teaspoon salt. Heat milk and cook cabbage in it two minutes. Add milk or cream, flour blended with butter and salt. Cook for three or four minutes, stirring constantly. • • • Keeping Flowers Fresh—A cou ple tablespoons of sulfurous (not sulphuric) acid added to each pint of water encourages buds of cut flowers to continue growing and leaves and stems remain greener. * * * Storing Tea and Coffee—Home supplies of tea and coffee will keep their flavor longer if stored in stone jars. • • « Custard Sauce—One and one- half cups scalded milk, one-eighth teaspoon salt, one-quarter cup su gar, one-half teaspoon vanilla, Ask Me Another 9 ^4 General Quiz © Bell Syndicate.—WNU Service. For Blacking Stoves—An old shoe polish dauber is an excellent tool for blacking stoves. WNU Service. l/nda Phil®, Determination Has Inning Hanging on to a forlorn hope re sults in success as often as it re sults in failure. Fault of the automobile horn la that too many drivers think that when they sound it, their respon sibility ends. An egotist thinks he cannot make a mistake, so he has no misgivings and frequently gets something done. Share in Troubles ■■—niB—■■■■■■■mi—■■ 1. Where was the first session of the United States Supreme court held, and how many justices were present? 2. Are the authorized version and the King James Bible the same? 3. What animal is the fastest runner? 4. How big is the standard par achute? 9. When was the federal income tax first -imposed? 6. What state has furnished more Presidents than any other? 7. How many counties in the state of Delaware? 8. How many kinds of time in use in the world? Answers 1. The first session of the United States Supreme court was held in the Royal Exchange in New York, February 1, 1790, with three of the six justices present. 2. They are. The King James Bible became known as the au thorized version, probably be cause it bore the line “appointed to be read in churches” on the title page. 3. The cheetah in short distance runs. It can run down a deer or antelope for a short distance. 4. The standard airplane para chute has a spread of 24 feet when open. 5. In the year 1916. 6. Virginia. 7. There are but three counties in the state of Delaware. 8. Sixty-three kinds of standard time are used in the world. Who said no one is interested ia another man’s troubles? We are— if we like the man. A wolf lives only 10 years. Thai comes of living a life of fury. The really congenial people &dra the good-natured. Struggle to b# one. Independent Indolence Sometimes, one may feel indo lent enough not to want Oppor- tunity to knock. After all, on* may be able to shape his own course, without outside aid. If there were more women par- agraphers you’d see the men’s hats made fun of, too; and never has it been explained why there are so few women paragraphers. Polemanj AIR-PRESSURK Mantle LANTERN Use your Coleman in hundreds of place* where an ordinary lan tern is useless. Use it for after-dark chores, bunt ing, fishing, or on any night job ... it turns night into day. Wind, ram or snow can’t put it out. High candle-power air-pressure light. Kerosene and gasoline models. The finest made. Prices as low as $4.45. Your locai dealer can THE COLEMAN LAMP AND STOVB CO. Dept. Will72, Wichita. Kana.; Chicago, ULs Philadelphia. Pa.; Loa Angeles, Calif. (61721 ^Oh, I remember now—you bought, d quart of Quaker State when we were first engaged!" BEFORE YOU NEED A QUART ' ' '• ' '' ' Bpi inH. Always adding oil? Then make the “First Quart” test. It’s easy. Just drain and refill with Quaker State. Note the mileage. You’ll find you go farther before you have to add the first quart. That’s because there’s an "extra quart of lubrication in every gallon. ” The retail price is 33^ per quart. Quaker State Oil Refining Corp., Oil City, Pa. QUAKER STATE MOTOR OIL I C E » " F« E J 5-APAN^EED