Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

Below is the OCR text representation for this newspapers page. It is also available as plain text as well as XML.

McCORMICK MESSENGER. McCORMfCK. S. C.. THURSDAY, MARCH 24, 1938 ! STAR ; | DUST | ★ jMLovie •'Radio ★ ★ ★ ★★★By VIRGINIA VALE★★★ J UDY GARLAND, Metro-Gold- wyn-Mayer’s wonder girl, will be starred in “The Wizard of Oz M and that is just the first of many fairy-tale pictures that you may expect to see in the next year. Ever since “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” started its record- breaking runs, motion-picture pro ducers have been wondering if a fairy tale with human actors wouldn’t be a good bet. All the companies are looking for fairy tales, and as fast as they find them, all the younger stars from Shirley Temple to Deanna Durbin will be put to work in them. Considering what has happened to other operatic songbirds in pictures, sudden stardom and then a com plete loss of interest by the studios, Helen Jepson is very happy that she plays a fairly small part in “The Goldwyn Follies.” She thinks that her career in pictures will prob ably last a long time if she doesn’t Helen Jepson want to be the whole show. She would like a chance to see some of the scenes that were cut out of “The Follies” though. There was one where she really looked like herself, no wig, no special make up, and her favorite dress. There was another where Bobby Clark dropped her kerplunk on the floor. *— Reports of “Merrily We Live” in which Brian Aberne co-stars with Constance Bennett were so good that the Hal Roach studio immediately wired to New York where he was vacationing and nrged him to re turn at once. His new picture is to be “There Goes My Heart” and when he left a lot of young New York actresses said that the title expressed just what they felt. —&— “Arsene Lupin Returns” is a de lightful and gripping jew,el-thief mystery, played with great skill by Melvyn Douglas, Warren William, and Virginia Bruce. William’s part, though not as large as the others, is a memorable one, for he plays a G-man who so relishes seeing his picture in the papers that he isn’t worth much to his department, which cherishes a notion that se cret service should have something secret about it. * After all these weeks of triumph, Fanny Brice just got around to ex plaining where she got the idea of Baby Snooks. It seems that when Fanny was a little girl she longed to play Topsy in “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” and no one would give her a chance. Baby Snooks is her idea of a white Topsy. —*— When Robert Taylor isn’t actually before the microphone during the “Good News” program, he is sitting just off-stage talking to Barbara Stanwick. Since she has become a Robert Taylor Barbara Stanwyck regular visitor to the broadcasts, two chairs are placed in this spot every week. —*— ODDS AND ENDS — Unlike moat actors. Bob Burns doesn’t spend his spare time going to pictures to see what his competitors are doing. He saw only three pictures last year, all sad ones, and he hasn’t seen any yet this year . . . Andrea Leeds and Janet Gaynor look so much alike in real life that they love to stand in front of a mirror together and make faces, seeing if the resemblance still holds true through laughter, tears, and grimaces. It does . . . With Mar- garetle Shanna at the piano, and other cast members playing drums, xylophone, and trombone, the. "Arnold Grimm’s Daughter" company holds a daily swing concert to relax between rehearsal and broadcast. • Wootern Newspaper Union. ADVENTURERS’ CLUB HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES OF PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELF! it 9* The Crack of Doom By FLOYD GIBBONS Famous Headline Hunter H ello everybody: Fate plays dirty tricks on some of us—and to others it gives all the breaks. George Keiser of Clinton, Iowa, must be one of Fate’s favorites. George woke up one day out of a sound sleep to listen to the Crack of Doom—and he lived to tell the story. George is a railroad man—and the lads who work on the railroad all seem to have an adventure yarn or two under their hats. George’s adventure came to him in 1931, when he was working as head brakeman for the C. M. St. P. & P. railroad, on a run between Nahant and Green Island, Ipwa. It was the morning of April 5. The night before George had had a meal in a restaurant in Nahant, and some of the food he ate—well— George thinks it was tainted. Anyway, he woke up the next morning a very sick man, with a lot of the symptoms of ptomaine poisoning. George felt pretty bad—but he thought the feeling would wear off if he pitched in and worked a bit. It was a freight run he was braking that day, and when the train started out George was aboard her. But that terrible feeling didn’t wear off. Instead, it got worse. George Was Sick and Went to the Caboose. He stuck to his job and managed to perform his duties until the train reached Le Claire, Iowa, and then he felt he couldn’t take it stand ing up any longer. He went to the conductor and told him what was wrong. The conductor called in the rear-end brakeman and told him to take over George’s work. George went back to the caboose, thankful for a chance to lie down and rest. But he wouldn’t have been so happy about it had he known that Fate had picked that train out for its especial attention that day, and that the caboose was due to be the most dangerous spot of all. George lay down in a bunk and began to doze. Soon he dropped off into a sound sleep, and while he was sleeping, Fate began to set thu Buried Beneath a Pile of Wreckage. stage. The train stopped at Comanche, to set out a car. The conductor was given some new train orders. He looked over the orders—but there was one he missed. And that order had to do with a certain train—on the same track his own train was using—which had left Davenport behind him and was coming along at a fast clip with no stops scheduled. How It Feels to Be in a Collision. George was asleep, so he didn’t see anything of it. He had been told about it later. But that second train—a C. B. & Q. freight, came up behind them, smashed right through the caboose in which George lay, smashing it to matchwood. Then it kept right on going until it had smashed up two freight cars up ahead of the caboose. Figure George’s chances out for yourself. A sleeping man in a caboose that had been ploughed right through by an engine. Anybody who would give a nickel for George’s chances would just be throwing away good money. “Since I was asleep at the time,” he says, “I couldn’t know what was happening. The first thing I was aware of was a terrible crashing that broke into my slumber. The crash was followed by an almost deaf ening roar of escaping steam. I felt as though I was being picked up bodily by some giant hand and thrown a great distance. “I opened my eyes just then, and the sight I saw was appall ing. Everything about me seemed to be breaking. The bunks were tearing from the walls and bending at crazy angles. The sides of the car were splitting and breaking. The back end was crushed in. The floor was bucking and heaving. For just a small part of a second I watched the car falling to pieces—and then blackness!” George doesn’t know how long he was out, but when he regained consciousness he was buried beneath a pile of wreckage. Was he hurt? He didn’t know. His body was numbed by the pressure of the debris that held him down. He tried to wriggle around to take a look at himself and see if he was bleeding, but he was pinned fast. Then He Heard the Deadly Steam. “I was held down so tightly,” he says, “that the only thing I could move was my eyes. I lay still a minute, and then, suddenly, I heard the hiss of escaping steam. I began to scream for help then, but the noise of the steam was so loud that my voice couldn’t be heard.” Again George screamed—and again! The sound of the steam threw him into a panic. Hot steam from an engine boiler has scalded many a man to death, and every railroader knows what it means. But this steam wasn’t close enough to George to harm him, and finally one of the trainmen from the C. B. & Q. freight heard his cries. Frantically, the whole crew began dragging for his body, prying up timbers and pushing the debris aside. They were only a few minutes at it, but it seemed hours to George as he lay there fighting the pressure of the stuff that was bearing down on his body. At last they got him out. Not one of that crew of rescuers expected to find anything but a man badly, if not fatally, injured. After all, when a locomotive crashes through a car, smashing it to matchwood, you don’t expect the man inside to come out unhurt. But THAT’S EXACTLY WHAT GEORGE DID! When they got him out there was nothing showing on his body but a few scratches. They took him to a hospital, and the doctors couldn’t find anything else wrong with him either, outside of a bad case of nerves. And if George isn’t one of Fate’s white-headed boys—well—I’d like to know who is. Copyright.—WNU Service. Naval Time Is Correct When you ascertain the time of day at the naval observatory you can rest assured that it is the right time, says the Washington Star. The instruments used for the measure ment of time include three stand ard clocks maintained in an under ground vault under constant tem perature and air pressure. No one enters the vault except to repair the clocks, which are viewed by visitors by means of a periscope arrange ment. Composers Used Same Titles An astonishing number of musi cal works with identical titles have been written by different compos ers, states a writer in Collier’s Weekly. The index of the Ameri can Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers, shows that “Lullaby” is the title of 721 pieces, “Romance” of 628, “Reverie” of 615, “Nocturne” of 548, “Barcarolle” of 496, "Memo ries” of 530, “Longing” of 313, “Maybe” of 291 and “Someday” of 190. DORIS DEDFS column Pre-Arranged Matches Seldom Satisfactory for Lack of Love. D ear doris dene: i am twenty-two and the man I am to marry is twenty-six. For certain reasons our two families are very anxious that we should marry. We are not in love with each other but respect and admire each other. My parents tell me that there is a chance of our falling in love after we’re married. I only hope this is true. I have talked things over with my fiance and he has agreed that it might be a good thing to talk over the situation with an outsider. Please give your opinion.—Mary F. ANSWER—It’s a pity that these nice arranged-for marriages don’t go through as per schedule. It would be so comfortable if we could just allow our parents to fix us up with a suitable life - companion whom we would promptly fall in love with once the wedding bells had rung. Nothing could be more satisfac tory than a state of affairs in which neither the boy nor the girl had to take the responsibility of deciding what constituted a perfect mar riage. Think of all the worry and anxiety to be avoided if the match could be arranged by somebody else —and guaranteed to bring everlast ing happiness! But alas, it doesn’t work out. Men and women don’t fall in love with each other after they’re married. The fact of their being bound to gether doesn’t cause them to feel greater tenderness and love for each other. On the contrary it more than likely makes them restive and disagreeable. Without love to help them over that discontented feeling, they are merely too miserable mis fits, tossed into matrimony. Marriage doesn’t make devoted lovers of two good friends. Too often it makes enemies of erstwhile sweethearts. Even the most ecstatic couples find that their early married life is a series of painful discoveries about the human weaknesses and foibles of the beloved. Imagine then the threefold misery of early married life with a man you don’t love enough to for give his faults and irritating ways. Sometimes a woman can per suade herself into being in love with the husband who is good and kind to her. Woman is a possessive sort of creature who hangs on to what she’s got and even learns to build a few illusions about it. DEAR DORIS DENE: I am one of five children. I help to sup port my mother who is aging. The other children are married and have left home. I have been engaged for four years but have hot seen my way clear to marrying yet as we can’t afford a nurse for mother and she can’t be left alone. Now I am wondering if it is not my duty to give up marriage and stay home permanently with my mother. My brothers and sisters help support her so they are not being unjust. I have tried to puzzle out what my duty is, until my head aches. Can you tell me what is right? My sis ters think I should remain, my brothers advise me to get married. —S. J. ANSWER—Few men could be cal lous enough to tell a sister that her duty was to give up love and stay home with an invalid mother. But the female of the species has often absolutely no compunction about urging a good-natured sister to put aside romance and all the pleasant things of life and tread the straight and narrow path of duty. The more comfortably married the adviser is, the more strenuously she advocates spinsterhood for her sister. Ask yourself, S. J., why it is your duty and yours alone to take the full responsibility for your mother’s well-being. Why aren’t some of her other daughters ready to assume their share of the burden? Their answer is of course that their hus bands and their children come first. But you can point out clearly that but for your sense of duty and your refusing to desert your post you might even now have your home and husband and children to take care of. I honestly see no reason why you should be the family martyr. I don’t believe the role would suit you. You couldn’t go on being brave and sweet and noble through weary years of service—not unless you’re a born saint. In time you would come to understand fully the injus tice of your fate and then you’d re sent the well-wishers who assured you that you would find perfect hap piness in a needless sacrifice. Certainly men and women have attained real peace of mind through giving up their lives to someone else. But their sense of achievement has helped toward their peace of mind. You, S. J., could not have that sense of achievement, know ing as you do that with a little manage ment and planning, the care of your mother could be evenly apportioned throughout the family so that no one son or daughter was given more than his share of the responsibility. You will be bound to feel one day that your sacrifice was unnecessary, and nothing is more bit ter than the realization that one’s splen did self-denial has been futile. And what about your duty to the man who’s waited for you for four years? Are you forgetting all about him? Doesn’t his opinion count for something? Don’t brush his ideas aside as unimportant because he’s not a member of your family. He has a real claim on you—and you have a duty toward him. Don’t for* get that. ® Bell Syndicate. WNU Service. HCWJQ SEW 4^" Ruth Wyeth Spears B D o ■3777 £ o Why Not Fix Those Sagging Springs? S PRINGS in furniture seldom break. The twine that holds them does break and webbing wears out throwing the springs out of position. To set the springs you will need a ball of twine and a needle such as used by the upholsterer, enough webbing to replace the old, tacks %-inch long with large heads, a block of wood for stretch ing the webbing, a tack hammer and a tack lifter. Remove the cover from the seat carefully so that it may either be used again or serve as a pattern. Most of the padding may also be used. Ob serve how each layer of material is fastened in place, so that you may put it back the same way. Remove the springs and all old tacks. Tack the first strip of web bing to one edge of the bottom of the frame, letting the end extend % inch beyond the edge, then fold the end over the first tacks and tack again as at A. Draw the webbing across the frame us ing the block of wood as a lever to stretch webbing taut as at B. When all the strips have been stretched and tacked across the frame one way, stretch strips of webbing across the other way weaving these over and under the first ones as at C. Now, sew the bottom of each spring to the web- TIPS to (jardeners Vegetable Pests 'T'HERE are two major classifi- cations of insect pests—suck ing and chewing. Chewing insects, such as beetles, leave telltale holes in leaves. They are best controlled, according to Harold N. Coulter, vegetable expert of the Ferry Seed Institute, by dusting or spraying plants with arsenicals (poisons with arsenate of lead as a base). These arsenicals are known as stomach poisons, for they must be eaten by the insects. Plants at tacked by chewing insects include cucumber, squash, other vine crops, mustard, tomato, pepper. Sucking insects, such as aphids or plant lice, can be detected in small groups on the under surface of the leaves. Control by dusting or spraying nicotine sulphate or pyrethrum directly on the insects. Plants attacked by sucking in sects include peas, pepper, cab bage, and crops grown for greens. Make certain what type pest you are fighting. Buy properly pre pared poisons; follow directions. Jlsk Me .Another 0 A General Quiz 1. What city is called the Moth er of the World? 2. Government meat graders rec ognize how many grades of meat? 3. How many cities have the city manager form of govern ment? 4. Are there any stingless honey bees? 5. What was the longest nation al convention of the Democrats or Republicans? The Answers 1. Cairo. 2. Five grades: (1) Prime, (2) choice, (3) good, (4) medium, (5) plain. 3. There are now 465 cities and 7 counties using this form of gov ernment. Staunton, Va., started the movement 30 years ago. 4. There are several species of stingless bees native to tropical and subtropical countries, but they produce very little honey. 5. The longest national conven tion of a major party since 1880 was the Democratic in 1924, last ing 17 days before the Davis- Bryan ticket was nominated. bing with the upholsterer’s twine and curved needle as shown in this diagram. Next, turn the frame right side up, drive tacks part way in along the edges; then tie the springs across each way with upholster er’s twine as shown in diagram C. The twine is tied to the tacks and to each spring and regulates the height of the springs—the out side edges usually being lower than the center to make a rounded top. When the springs are regu lated evenly, drive the tacks in; then replace burlap or muslin cov erings and padding. Have you seen Mrs. Spears’ book SEWING for the home dec orator? Forty-eight pages of step- by-step directions for making cur tains, slip-covers and other house hold furnishings. It is full of in spiration for homemakers. Read ers may secure a copy by send ing name and address with 25 cents (coin preferred) to Mrs. Spears, 210 S. Desplaines St., Chi cago, 111. Do You Sniffle? “2-Drop” Treatment BringsHeadColdRelief Simply put two drops PenetrO Nose Drops in each nostril and breathe relief from stuffed nos trils due to miserable head colds. Penetro Nose Drops contains ephedrine which helps shrink irri tated swollen membranes—allow ing more room to breathe, other ingredients help bring relief from miserable, watery head colds. Start this “2-Drop” treatment now—Get Penetro Nose Drops— 25c, 50c, $1.00—at all druggists. As We Sow Most of us reap exactly what we sow and if we go about sowing nothing but trouble, the harvest is bound to be more trouble. Wheat never yet grew from Can ada thistle seed.—Vash Young. (f/UUldMUlb HOT LEMONADE • • • LUDEN'S Menthol Cough Drops 50 Both have an Alkaline Factor that help* yon resist colds I Proper Diversion Of all the diversions of life, there is none so proper to fill up its empty spaces as the reading of useful and entertaining authors. WOMEN WHO SUFFER Birmingham, Ala. — Mrs. Daisy Walker, 10S N. 39th St., says : “I used to suffer from irregularity, was awfully nervous, and had cramps and pains and headaches associated with functional disturbances. Dr. Pierce’s Favorite Pre scription helped to relieve me of this condition. My ‘ appetite improved, 1 S ined strength and felt just fine." Buy it >m your druggist today. A Sure Index of Value ... is knowledge of a manufacturer's name and what it stands for. It is the most certain method, except that of actual use, for judging the value of any manufac tured goods. Here is the only guarantee against careless workmanship or Buy use of shoddy materials. ADVERTISED GOODS / 'I A