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McCORMICK MESSENGER, McCORMICK, S. C.. THURSDAY, JULY 29, 1937 'Way Back When 1 • I By JEANNE WALT DISNEY WAS A MAIL CARRIER \\7 HAT are the secret ambitions ** of those who serve us, par ticularly those whose occupations are mechanical or lonesome enough to allow their minds to drift often into the realms of fantasy? Walt Disney is an example. Born in Chicago in 1901, his first job was as a mail carrier there, at the aga of sixteen. As a little boy he liked to draw, and he liked to draw ani mals; but the famous creator of Mickey Mouse had to make a living delivering mail. He had no chance to express his creative genius un til after the World war, when he obtained a job as a commercial artist in Kansas City. In his garage, he experimented with animated newsreels called “Local Happen ings." which he sold to Kansas City moving picture theaters. He fol lowed these with a series of fairy tales for local clubs and church gatherings. This modest success prompted him to try Hollywood, where he started in an unpretentious little building far from the big emdioL. There be created “Oswald, «he Rabbit," but after making 26 sub jects, he and his backer separated. The backer owned the rights to “Oswald, the Rabbit" which is still being shown in the theaters, and Disney was left without his most promising character. Out of this adversity was born “Mickey Mouse" and the “Silly Sympho nies." Today, Walt Disney employs a staff of artists to draw his charao v ters but he is, himself, the voice of Mickey Moused • • • PICTURE MAGNATE WAS A PEDDLER F ”S fun for the young man who was born to be president of his rich father’s company: a month in the shop, a month clerking, and then general manager. But consid er the discouragement and heart aches of the boy too poor for an adequate education, too poor for nourishing food or decent clothing, too poor to meet people with influ ence. That such boys, possessing only courage, ambition and brains, can still rise in America is this country’s strongest defense against fascism and communism. William Fox was born 1879 in Tuichva, Hungary, son of a small shopkeeper who extracted teeth as a side-line. The family moved to America when William was nine months old, and settled in an East Side tenement district of New York city. His first job was at the age of nine, when his father, who was out of work, made * stove blacking in their small tenement and William peddled it from door to door in the neighborhood. Later he sold candy lozenges at the Third Street dock and at Central park on Sundays. At the age of fourteen, he was forced by poverty to quit school. He obtained a job in a clothing firm and rose to be foreman in charge of lining cutting, at the magnificent salary of $8 per week. To augment his earnings, he bought umbrellas and peddled them in front of thea ters on rainy nights. With $1,600 savings accumulated through many privations, he started a cloth ex amining and shrinking business, when he was twenty-one, and at the end of the second year invested his profits in a nickelodeon or five- cent motion picture house. Twenty- five years later he headed the great $200,000,000 corporation which bore his name, including a picture pro ducing company, distributing agen cies, and thousands of theaters throughout the United States. Who knows for what high posi tion that peddler who calls at your door may be preparing. William Fox rose from the same start. WNU Service. Travelers Rarely Realize Whirlwind of Activity in Pennsylvania Station Prepared by National Geographic Society, Washington, D. C.—WNU Service. ALTHOUGH it celebrated its .xV twenty-fifth anniversary in 1935, the Pennsylvania station in New York still is the largest in the world. Walk around it and you have tramped half a mile, with no more sight of train or track than you would encounter about the Vatican or the Louvre. The station really is an eight-acre platform, with a mammoth super structure, bridging the Manhattan mouths of two tunnels. Some trains run through these tunnels for seven miles, from New Jersey to Long Island, under the Hudson and East rivers, pausing beneath the station, but never emerging into the day light or night glow of New York city. Northbound trains pass the most complex traffic corner in the world, for above the train tunnel, at Her ald square, in the order named, are the Sixth avenue subway, the Hud- son-Manhattan tubes, the street-lev el bus lines and the Sixth avenue elevated. Imagine an airplane over head, and it would be perfectly feasible for six vehicles to pass that intersection at one time. Half Million Tickets a Month. It takes a staff of 76 men to sell tickets at Pennsylvania station. In a normal month they sold 553,204 tickets for $1,595,280.60. The months of Easter, Christmas and Labor day raise that volume by a third or more. Printed tickets ready for sale, 150,000,000 of them, are stored in a room where they are guarded like notes in the United States treasury. Some of these tinted, water marked slips are worth a hundred dollars and more when stamped. Beside each seller’s grilled win dow is a rack from which he flicks out tickets with familiar noncha lance. These racks are mounted on wheels and have folding fronts and locks. Each seller has his own rack and key. When he goes off duty, he rolls his rack back of the line, locks it, and deposits the key in the cashier’s safe. The tickets are charged out to him and he must return the unsold quota and the money for those he sold. Selling Tickets Is Final Step. The station cashier’s office is like a bank. You may have noticed that when you pay for meals on a dining car you always receive crisp, new bills in change. The cashier must have on hand these “fresh" bills for stewards. Some $3,000 in “ones" are enough five days of the week, but on Saturdays, Sundays, and holidays he must have a stock of $7,000 or $8,000 in ones alone. Selling tickets, however, is only the final step in a series of events. “When does the next train leave for Topeka, Kan.?" “What connec tions do I make for Chicago?" “What is the fare?" Only a small fraction of such questions are asked in person at the conspicuous information booths. Normally 20 clerks are on duty at a time answering some 700 tele phone calls an hour. The peak of this year’s inquiries exceeded 1,100 in one hour before Labor day. Forty-four clerks work in shifts to dispense information. If you watch the smooth operation of the soundproof telephone room not once will you see a clerk con sult a timetable. They are too cum bersome and tell too little. Foolish Questions Come Often. Instead, the information chief works with card-index experts to compile all information about sched ules of all railroad, airplane, and bus lines and all fares on visible card files. One file gives name of all im portant golf clubs on Long Island and the nearest railroad station to each club. It takes poise, tact, resourceful ness, to answer some questions. As examples: “Do I have a berth all to myself or do I have to share it?" “What hotels in Washington have swimming pools?" “My husband left last night on the B. and O. Where fs he going?" “Have you any hay fever fares to New Hampshire?" These ’Phones ARE Busy. “What time do I get a train to go to Mr. Abram Walker’s funeral at Toms Ferry?" “Should I dress and undress in my berth or in the men’s room?" When you reserve a ticket by telephone you call one of the busi est telephone numbers in New York city. In addition to outside lines, 130 branch ticket offices in Manhat tan, Brooklyn and Newark are con nected with the central reservation bureau by private wires. In a spacious gallery from 15 to 20 clerks sit before a series of aper tures like old-time village post-office boxes, except that these cases are mounted to move along a track from clerk to clerk. In the boxes are piled the reser vation cards, the kind the Pullman conductor always is fingering just before the train leaves; in each pigeonhole are marked-up cards for 60 days ahead. Lights Govern Conversation. Before each clerk is a series of ten red lights and ten green lights. The green lights denote a ticket office call; the red lights an outside call direct from a passenger. A green light flashes. “Lower ten, K7, 3 p. m. Chicago. Today. Ticket 7,492. Right." In very different tone and tempo is the next response to a red light, an individual who must have expla nation of price, type of accommoda tion, daylight time in summer, and a “thank you." No switchboard operator inter venes in the 10,000 or sometimes many more calls that come in daily. An automatic selector, worked out with the New York Telephone com pany engineers, routes these calls from ten lines out of the selector room to ten “positions" at the “card tables" in the reservation bureau. If one operator is busy, the “se lector" shunts the call to another, lighting the red or green signal to denote its origin. In an average 24 hours 63 clerks are employed in shifts to make some 8,000 reser vations for berths, chairs, compart- mepts or drawing rooms. What They Leave on Trains. Perhaps the high light of “human interest" in the station is the lost and found storeroom. There are stored and ticketed some several hundred different items, enough stock for an East Side second-hand store. / The articles recently included a basket of spectacles, skis, two cats, a bootblack’s outfit, books in six languages, a pair of crutches, three sets of false teeth, a restive terrier, dozens of umbrellas, tennis racquets, more than twoscore wom en’s coats, piles of gloves, a fresh sirloin steak (sad harbinger of do mestic recrimination) and $20,000 worth of bonds about to be returned by special messenger. In subterranean corridors, far below the station tracks, may be piled hundreds of pigeon crates. As many as 3,200 crates of homers have been shipped in a month, as far as a thousand miles, to be re leased by baggagemasters for races back to home lofts. Other strange shipments come through the station for baggage or express cars—baby alligators, pedi greed chicks, honeybees, game, thousands of crates of “mail order eggs" and bullion cargoes accom panied by 25 or 30 armed men. Saturday nights from 75 to 80 trucks race with their loads of Sun day papers to catch the baggage cars attached to the “paper trains." One newspaper’s £arly Sunday edi tion goes to press at 9:10 p. m. and is loaded on a train leaving at 9:50. If the driver gets held up by a single traffic light the stationmaster must hold the train. Handling the Mail. Some 150 carloads of mail are handled in and out of this station ev ery day. If the sacks were piled and hauled along platforms passen gers would not have space to board trains. They are dropped through trap doors beside mail cars where conveyer belts carry them to huge separating tables. There men assort the bags as they pour in and pitch them into chutes for other belts that run be neath the street to the city post office adjoining, or to belts that connect with outgoing trains. Around special tracks, to which passengers are not admitted, where mail cars await loading, are spy galleries from which postal inspec tors, unseen by the workers, may watch the operation. Nearly 150,000 sacks of mail a day, about 1,500 trunks and other checked baggage, 2,200 pieces of hand baggage checked in parcel rooms and a thousand more pieces in parcel lockers, from 20,000 to 30,000 pieces of parcel post—these are some of the operations that must not obtrude upon passengei comfort. 1MPROVED „ j UNIFORM INTERNATIONAL S UNDAY I chool Lesson By REV. HAROLD L. LUNDQUIST. Dean of the Moody Bible Institute of Chicago. © Western Newspaper Union. Lesson for August 1 LESSON TEXT—Exodus 13:17-22; 14:lfr 15. GOLDEN TEXT—And the Lord shall guide thee continually.—Isaiah 58:11. PRIMARY TOPIC—A Shining Cloud. JUNIOR TOPIC—Forward March! INTERMEDIATE AND SENIOR TOPIC— How Qod Leads Today. YOUNG PEOPLE AND ADULT TOPIC— A Nation Following God’s Leadership. The destinies of the nations are in the hands of God. Mighty are the warriors, learned are the advisors, clever are the diplomats, and when they have exercised all their human ingenuity and have only brought themselves and their nations to “Wits’ End Corner," God must lay hold and bring order out of chaos. Happy is that people where rulers recognize God and seek his guid ance. Israel through the human instru mentality of Moses was ruled by God. He had prepared for them a leader and had prepared the people to follow that leader. Now he brings them forth out of their bondage. l. “God Led Them" (Exod. 13:17- 22). It is significant that he did not lead them by the easy way to Ca naan, by the short route through Philistia but rather led them south into the wilderness. How often it seems to us that we could improve on God’s ways. Suf fering, sorrow, affliction, we would shun and would go the quick easy road, where all is bright and happy. But God’s way is the best way, even though it leads through the wilderness. His purpose for Israel was that they might not be disheartened by the warlike Philistines (v. 17). Thus it was really his loving-kindness that sent them the long way. See Prov. 14:12, and Prov. 10:29. Another and equally important purpose of God was that the un disciplined multitude might in the trials and responsibilities of their journey through the wilderness be prepared to enter the promised land. The miraculous pillar of cloud and fire was God’s constant assurance of his presence with them. Hardly had Israel withdrawn, and the wail over the death of the first born in Egypt ceased when Pharaoh regretted that he had permitted his slaves to escape, and set out in pursuit. He represents the world, the flesh, and the Devil in their re lentless efforts to hold back those who would follow the Lord. Making a decision for Christ, and experienc ing his redemptive power does not mean that the enemy has given up. Temptations, doubts, trials, will come. When you come up out of Egypt do not be surprised if Pha raoh pursues you. The situation could not have been more difficult. Hemmed in by the flower of Egypt’s army, with the Red sea before them—a group of men not trained in warfare—with women and children to care for, and 4 God forgotten in their disbelief and discouragement. Moses, who was their great leader in the hour of triumph, tastes the bitterness of their hatred and un belief in the hour of trial. A leader of men for God must know that God has called him and have faith in his almighty power, for in the time of crises he will find those whom he leads ready to condemn him. What is the solution? m. “Stand Still" (w. 13,14). Sublime in his confidence in God, Moses bids the people to cease their petty complaining, to abandon their plans for saving themselves. “Stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord" (v. 13). Perhaps these lines will be read by some Christian who is fretting and fussing, bearing all the burdens of the universe on his shoulders. Be still, my friend. God is able to care for you, and for all the burdens which you are needlessly trying to bear. Trusting God will result in real spiritual progress. IV. “Go Forward" (v. 15). Humanly it was impossible, but “with God all things are possible" (Mark 10:27). When every circum stance says “Stop," when the coun sel of men is against attempting anything, when human leadership seems to be lacking—just at that hour God may say, “go forward." If every true Christian who reads these words will respond to the Lord’s command, “Go forward," hundreds of locked church doors will be opened, new Sunday schools will gather children to hear God’s Word, men and women will be won for Christ. Let us “go forward." The God who brought Israel dry- shod through the Red sea is just the same today 1 Enjoyments and Troubles I make the most of my enjoy ments. As for my troubles, I pack them in as little compass as I can for myself and never let them annoy others.—Southey. Faith Given a man of faith, and the heavenly powers behind him, and you have untold possibilities. Right Kind of Growth All growth that is not toward God, is growing to decay. Sew-Your-O wn Style News LJE RE is something ■LI practical, something sweet, and something or namental for your mid summer wardrobe. Simple As Toast and Coffee. At breakfast time you need the crisp shipshape style of the little model at the left. He’ll proffer that eight o’clock kiss with alacrity and fervor when you greet your hubby in this pleasant surprise. Make it of a gay tub-well cotton for greatest usability. Lines That Live. For luncheon in town, for cut ting up touches on the Club ve randa you can’t find a more fetch ing frock than the one in the center. It combines sweet swing with nonchalance. Never has a de signer given more flattering shoul der and waist lines than these. “And what about the skirt?" you ask. Obviously it has the most finished flare in town. Chiffon, ac etate, or Sports silk will do justice to both the flare and you, Milady. And If Autumn Comes. It’s a help to have a dress like the one at the right around for it gives that feeling of prepared ness. Prepared in case a cool Fallish day or evening is slipped in .without warning. Then, too, it won’t be long before cool days will be the rule rather than the exception. So it would seem a logi cal as well as a fashionable step to set about making this elegant model right away. Be first in your crowd to show what’s new under the fashion sun for Fall. The Patterns. Pattern 1354 is designed v for sizes 34 to 46. Size 36 requires 4% yards of 35 inch material. Pattern 1307 is designed for sizes 12 to 20 (30 to 40 bust). Size 14 requires 3% yards of 39 inch material plus 7% yards of ribbon for trimming as pictured. Pattern 1324 is designed for sizes 14 to 20 (32 to 42 bust). Size 16 requires 3% yards of 39 inch material plus % yard contrasting, and 1% yards of ribbon for the belt and bow at the neck. / Send your order to The Sewing Circle Pattern Dept., Room 1020, 211 W. Wacker Dr., Chicago, IIL Price of patterns, 15 cents (in coins) each. e Bell Syndicate.—WNU Service. Be a Friend The only way to have a friend is to be one.—Emerson. Hold It! The greatest remedy for anger is delay.—Seneca. - CHEW LONG BILL NAVY TOBACCO LIFE’S LIKE THAT By Fred Neher “No gas man is going to track np my clean linoleum 11" _