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/ \ McCORMICK MESSENGER, McCORMICK, S. C., THURSDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1941 Private Papers of a Cub Reporter: Thornton Wilder was recently re calling his last visit to London . . . After a luncheon at Barrie’s flat, the exquisite little genius. Max Beerbohm, said: “Mr. Wilder, you haven’t remarked on the view of the Thames from here” . . . Wilder replied to the general effect that nothing adequate had occurred to him . . . Whereupon Beerbohm said: “People usually do, you know. Only last week, for instance, Mr. Gene Tunney, the fighter, was here and admired it tremendously. As a matter of fact, he spoke of it with such eloquence and such sensitive ness that, really, I felt quite coarse.” The FBI is more interested in a prominent Chicago psychiatrist, who obtained an appointment to The Morale Board of the Col. Donovan Office . . . This doctor, a Hungari an who recently became a citizen, was given a routine check by the G-Men . . . When an agent called at his home, he spotted a large framed portrait of Mussolini, affec tionately inscribed . . . That made it more than a routine investigation and led to the fact that Fritz Hor vath, Hungarian Nazi leader, is a frequent guest at the Dr’s house . . . And at conferences in a hide away in Chicago . . . Horvath has definite Berlin connections—and the doctor may learn for the first time— that he is not going to be accepted for that swell job with Col. Donovan. The Women's Business and Pro fessional Group annual Friendship Dinner took place the other night . . . They had previously announced that they would make known at this dinner—the ten big, important wom en chosen to represent the U. S. . . . To inspect civilian defense in Eng land . . -. The list was prepared and sent to Mrs. Roosevelt for her okay . . . The names submitted did not measure up to her require ments, and dissension grew to such a pitch that the idea has been tem porarily deferred and possibly shelved. A vet Broadwayite recalls when Chinatown was big news every night . . . And how an assistant district attorney was phoned out of a sound slumber one wee hour with the news of a massacre in a Chinatown dive . . . When he got there, still fasten ing his clothes, he found the joint deep in blood, and bodies on the floor—the hatchets and knives still in ’em . . . The bartender was moan ing and weeping noisily . . . “What happened?” the d. a. shouted. “What happened?” was the reply, as the tears dangled from his mus tache. “Every customer ran out without paying his check!” Notes of an Innocent Bystander: The Networkers: Dinah Shore sings the blues on her new solo Sun day spot and relieves you of yours . . . Frank Black’s classic rendi tions via NBC’s “American Melody Hour” are something to hug . . . Take big-time talents like Paul Muni, Judith Anderson, Raymond Massey, Ruth Gordon, mix with a top-notch script, and you have that Red Cross program—good as the cause . . . Betty Hutton is a zippy person, welcome to the Bob Hope bill. He said “vitamin pills take her!” . . . You don’t wonder, hear ing Richard Crooks sing, why he is with the Met—but you wonder why James Melton, who precedes him on the same station, isn’t . . . Every body was that surprised when the N. Y. Times succumbed to radio. It is only adding a voice to the ribbon that unwinds the flashes around the Times Bldg. The Story Tellers: C. V. R. Thompson is selling his favorite old story again—Cafe Society—this time to Click. Amazing how interesting Thompson can make them seem in print. In reality they are as dull as a blank wall . . . “How to Be Cole Porter” is the caption of a Look article about the composer. It’s good advice if you happen to be Porter, but late even for him . . . Movie-Radio-Guide starts a two-in stalment expose on this column’s favorite news commentator in the current issue . . . The fallacy that the Middle West is isolationist—is exploded by Time, which points out that polls have proved otherwise. “The so-called isolationist Midwest,” it says in part, “exists only in the minds of congressmen who have failed to keep abreast of a great surge of public opinion during re cent months” . . . Some people, it seems, mistake the Chicago Tribune for the mid-West. The Press Box: Another corre spondent with a good book is Ray mond Daniell — “Civilians Must Fight.” Daniell, who covered the London raids, reports a failure to chase his office boy to cover when the bombers came. The kid squawked the underground hideouts were too risky. The last time he went down, he lost $10 playing cards . . . Somerset Maugham, in a fore word to the Daniell volume, explains news censors as “more anxious not to do the wrong thing than to do the rigM one.” Eleanor Roosevelt DINNER WITH PRESIDENT We had a very pleasant dinner party one night, consisting of my lusband and myself! He ate milk toast and I ate one poached egg, which was good for our figures and permitted much conversation, since aeither of us had to pay attention to our food. I spent the evening wrapping Christmas presents and was joined ay one of my friends, who arrived 'rom the train. She remarked that *he had not found me in such a aarefree mood for a long time, rhere was no mail in sight and no interviews scheduled, just a deluge af Christmas wrapping paper, rib- Dons and cards. • • • PRIORITY PROBLEM One noon, I met a very charming froung woman who, with her sister, aas taken over her late husband’s business, the making of wire screen ing. Priorities affect this industry, especially where they use copper. It is not a very large industry and the amount of materials needed in it are not very great, but Mrs. John Ralston is here not only in the inter ests of her own plant or the indus try, but because of the danger she feels a shortage of screen wire will mean to the health of the nation. She points out that screens are of vital importance in our camps, and in all our defense industry buildings. Without them, we lay ourselves open to epidemics of all kinds which are spread by flies and mosquitoes. * * * HEALTH GROUP Talking of health, a most inter esting health co-operative came to my attention the other day. It is called the New York Volunteer Health co-operative. You have a ' certain freedom in the choice of doc- I tors. You pay $18 a year without j hospitalization. You cannot belong if you earn more than $2,000 a year while single, or $3,000 a year when married. There are already over , 1,000 members. 9 # i There is much I should like to find out about this organization. For instance, just what are the services rendered if hospitalization is not in cluded? I suppose if there is only , a limited choice of doctors, there ! will be the same complaint about the doctor-patient relationship. Peo- i pie in this salary range do need more access to good and inexpen sive medical care. • • • FULL SCHEDULE Here was my schedule on one busy day: Beginning with a meeting in the morning at nine o’clock at the of-, flee of civilian defense, I had no free minutes until I was back at the White House at 12:15 to meet and be photographed with Miss Margaret Hamma, the world’s champion typist. Then I went to the Women’s National Press club lunch eon. In spite of my membership in this club, I rarely manage to get there for lunch. Tuesdays come and go and there always seems to be some thing desperately necessary to be done at home. At 2:30 I went to the sale for United China relief, received a group of 10 people at the White House a little after three, and made a four o’clock plane for New York city. This was followed by a speech that night at Hunter college. * • • WAR NEWS I find it increasingly difficult to feel either elated or depressed by the news which comes to us from the actual theaters of war. When I read one dispatch, the Nazis claim continuing victories. When I read another, the other side has moved forward without any setbacks. I now just pray that I can believe the things which I want to believe, and try to forget the rest. • * * MUSIC AND DEFENSE One morning there came to my of fice in Civilian Defense headquar ters, three women representing the National Federation of Music Clubs. They told me of the work they are doing for defense, and what they have accomplished is really astound ing. Through their state and na tional organizations, they have al ready given phonographs to every camp. They provide records and their members volunteer to teach choral singing, to play for entertain ments and to give concerts in vari ous camps and nearby places where the boys congregate on leave. Here is an organization which really has something to offer in the way of entertainment and has quiet ly gone about its work and already accomplished a great deal. * * • ‘UNEMPLOYABLES’ I received an interesting little folder the other day sent out by the Community Service society in New York city. It describes their em ployment service, which is largely devoted to placing people who, for one reason or another, have lost confidence in their own ability to hold a job. This is a difficult serv- | ice because it is hard to find the right conditions and the right peo ple to work together, so that the person to be rehabilitated will finally feel capable of standing alone. The Junto Lives Again IF THE spirit of Benjamin Frank- lin had been strolling along the streets of Philadelphia on a recent ‘ night, it is not unlikely that a pass erby might have heard the ghostly presence of the immortal Ben chuckling to himself. For that day had witnessed the spectacle of 2,000 of his fellow-Philadelphians crowd ing into the Academy of Music to re vive an organization which he start ed 214 years ago, and, according to Time magazine, “at week’s end fresh hordes were still coming. It. was the biggest cultural revival in many a Philadelphia year; the cozy little study club he founded in a tavern with 11 convivial compan ions in 1727 has a mammoth re incarnation.” This “cozy little club” was the famous Junto or “council,” a mutu al self-improvement society, formed by Franklin and several of his “in genious acquaintances.” It was a democratic organization, too, for among its members, besides 21- year-old Ben Franklin, were a sur veyor, a glazier, an Oxford scholar and a “young gentleman of some fortune.” Although the proceedings of the club were secret and no minutes of its meetings were kept, Franklin, in his writings, has revealed some of the topics which the members of the Junto discussed. Among them were these: “Whence comes the dew that stands on the outside of a tankard?'* Earliest known portrait of Frank lin, painted probably about 1748, now owned by Harvard university. “What unhappy effects of intem perance have you lately observed?” But the Junto is important in American history if for no other reason than this: It was this club which helped launch Franklin upon the career as a scientist which brought him world-wide fame, es pecially in the field of experiments in electricity. Franklin first became interested in electricity in 1746 when he attended a lecture by a Dr. Spence of Boston. This led eventu ally to correspondence with Peter Collinson of London who sent him an electrical tube and with it Frank lin performed various experiments for the edification of the members of the Junto. Writing to Collinson later, Franklin said: “I never was before engaged in any study that so totally engrossed my attention and my time as this has lately done, for, what with mak ing experiments when I can be alone, and repeating them to my friends and acquaintances, who from the novelty of the thing, come continually to see them, I have, dur ing some months past, had little leisure for anything else.” Undoubtedly the encouragement which he received from his fellow members of the Junto had a great deal to do with his continuing the studies in electricity and branching out into other scientific fields. “Franklin seems to have carried on his studies in physical science, natu ral philosophy, wholly during the period 1747 to 1756, and then to have been driven off from his work, which he described as the most ab sorbing of his life, by the increasing demands of public life and civic ob ligations.” Thus writes Howard McClenahan in the chapter, “Franklin, the Philosopher and Scientist,” in the book, “The Amazing Benjamin Franklin.” In it he lists all of the “striking phenomena observed for the first time by this fundamental physicist.” The Junto lasted for 40-odd years and out of it grew the American Philosophical society, the oldest sci entific society on the American continent. During its existence of four decades it was the originator of many important institutions—in all of which Benjamin Franklin played a leading part. Among these were: 1731, the Li brary Company of Philadelphia, the first circulating library in America; 1736, the Union Fire company, the first volunteer fire department in Philadelphia; 1749, “Proposals re lating to the Education of Youth in Pennsylvania,” which led to the for mation of the College (afterwards the University) of Pennsylvania; 1751, the Pennsylvania hospital, the first of its kind in America, and 1752, the “Philadelphia Contributionship for the Insurance of Houses From Loss by Fire,” the first chartered fire insurance company in America SOWING CIRCLE J UST the kind of dress the larger woman appreciates—it is inter esting and individual and at the same time manages to make pounds seem to disappear. The full bodice sections are excellent £• {V. (V, (V. (V. CV. (V. {V. (V. O- CV. O-* O- 0*0- j ASK ME ; ANOTHER t ? ■ ? ? | A General Quiz (W {%• o* o~ o* o* o* o* o* o* o* o- o* o~ o* o~ o~ o* The Questions 1. In what sport do the partici pants wear bathing suits but try to keep out of the water? 2. What is the largest railroad tunnel in the Western hemisphere? 3. What is another name for the Suomi? 4. What country ranks next to the United States in the number of miles of railroads? 5. In what year did Joe Louis win the world’s heavyweight championship? 6. The trident is the symbol of authority of what god? The Answers 1. Surf-board riding. 2. Cascade tunnel in Washing ton (7.79 miles long). 3. Finns. 4. Russia. 5. In 1937. 6. Neptune. There’s always a Cousin Joe *om Kokomo on your Christmas st. You’d like to send him more lan a card, but you can’t afford n expensive gift. Send him a arton of cigarettes or a pound n of smoking tobacco. The cost i moderate and it’s a gift any moker welcomes. More smokers refer Camels than any other cig- rette and, of the smoking tobac- os, the National Joy Smoke is 'rince Albert. Local dealers are maturing gift-wrapped Camel car- ms and a novel package of four flat fifties.” Also Prince Albert moking Tobacco in pound tins nd pound glass humidors hand- for the larger figure and the vestee section between continues as a smart slimming belt. If you want a dress which is decidedly differ ent make this part of a lighter tone than the rest of the dress, or contrast it in beige, for instance, if the dress is to be brown. * • • Pattern No. 8971 is in sizes 36 to 52. Size 38 requires 5 1 /* yards 35-inch material. Contrast section would take % yard. For this attractive pattern send your order to: SEWING CIRCLE PATTERN DEPT. Room 1324 311 W. Wacker Dr. Chicago Enclose 15 cents in coins for Pattern No Size Name Address Kipling Found His Anger Was Profitable—to Another A bus driver once crashed his vehicle into one of the trees out side the home of Rudyard Kipling. The author wrote the man de manding reparation. The driver ignored the complaint and sold the letter to a friend for 10 shillings. Not receiving an answer, Kip ling penned another note threaten ing legal action. This scathing let ter the driver also ignored—and sold. Finally losing patience, Kipling called on the man and angrily demanded an explanation. “I was hoping that you would write me some more letters. Sell ing them is most profitable,” re plied the man. It’s not how much you pay, but how well it is received, that makes a Christmas gift welcome. That’s why Camel Cigarettes and Prince Albert Smoking Tobacteo make such ideal gifts. The cost is mod est, the welcome assured. For Camel is America’s favorite ciga rette, and Prince Albert Smoking Tobacco is the National Joy Smoke. Local dealers are featur ing Camels in your choice of two handsome gift packages — the Camel carton of ten packages and a gay package of four “flat fif ties.” Prince Albert is featured in the pound tin and the pound glass humidor in specially designed Christmas gift wrappings.—Adv. Pull the Trigger on Lazy Bowels, with Ease for Stomach, too When constipation brings on acid in digestion, stomach upset, bloating, dizzy spells, gas, coated tongue, sour taste and bad breath, your stomach is probably “crying the blues” because your bowels don’t move. It calls for Laxative-Senna to pull the trigger on those lazy bowels, combined with Syrup Pepsin for perfect ease to your stomach in taking. For years, many Doctors have given pepsin prepa rations in their prescriptions to make medicine more agreeable to a touchy stom ach. So be sure your laxative contains Syrup Pepsin. Insist on Dr. Caldwell’s Laxative Senna combined with Syrup Pep sin. See how wonderfully the Laxative Senna wakes up lazy nerves and muscles in your intestines to bring welcome relief from constipation. And the good old Syrup Pepsin makes this laxative so com fortable and easy on your stomach. Even finicky children love the taste of this pleasant family laxative. Buy Dr. Cald well’s Laxative Senna at your druggist today. Try one laxative combined with Syrup Pepsin for ease to your stomach, too. Benefit From Trouble But for some trouble and sor row, we should never know half the good there is about us.— Dickens. TWO DROP- sniffly watery misery of your head cold Just two drops Penetro Nose Drops in each nostril as directed helps give that cold the air as cold clogged nasal breath ing passages open up—and rushes in its healing aid. 25o buys long lasting sup ply. 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CAMEL -THE CIGARETTE OF COSTLIER TOBACCOS