McCormick messenger. (McCormick, S.C.) 1902-current, June 17, 1937, Image 3
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