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About The frontier. (O'Neill City, Holt County, Neb.) 1880-1965 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 4, 1934)
Science Changing “Girl-Boy^ to Man Dwarf Child Will Never Be Physically Fit. Kittanning, I*a.—There la a long, uphill struggle ahead of Clara—now renamed Clarence—Schreckengost, the twenty-year-old dwarf whom surgeons are changing Into a nor mal man. The new science of the ductless gland treatments Is being used with success. It was learned, and the phy sicians are confident that the “gtrl mau” will win the fight. A physician familiar with the case said: “Clarence will never be complete ly normal. We believe, however, that gradually ‘he' will Improve physically. We have not changed his sex—such a thing Is Impossible. All we have done is to encourage the development of the patient's real sex." The child Is only 51 Inches tall and unable to read or write, and has six normal brothers and sis ters. Cates Not Rare. Changes from one sex to another, as In the case of Clara Schrecken gost, are far from being rare, al though seldom heard about outside of medical circles. Modern medical science has dis covered that the change from one sex to another Is the result of strange variations in the embryo or In Imbalance In the ductless glands. In such glands hormones are pro duced. They are responsible for the secondary sex characteristics, the masculine voice and benrd of men, for instance. If something goes wrong among the endocrlnes, a girl may grow more like a boy, and vice versa. This accounts for bearded women of the side shows and other like freaks. •■Better Off Dead." For twenty years Mrs. Lcttle gchrenckengost has guarded Iter secret, even from her husband, Clark Schreckengost. a silent moody man of this Pennsylvania back woods farming country. And neither did Mrs. Schrecken gost say anything when their fam ily physician, kindly Dr. George S. Morrow, now dead, laid In her arms the malformed little creature who was to be named Claire. The ancient Greeks hnd a word for It, and a myth, to explain these thwarted children of Hermes and Aphrodite In whom the sexes were fused in a mystic union. But to the country practitioner of two deendes ago, the Schrecken gost offspring was a biological quirk and better off dead, accord ing to the mother. “He said that it would be more kindly to put It aside and let it die.” Mrs. Schreckengost said. “The doctor told me." she said, “that It might be either a girl or a boy, and naked me how I would "l|" " - ' -J. 47 Soviet Labor Unions to Be Split in 154 Units Moscow.—In line with the Soviet union’s new policy of decentraliza tion In government nnd Industry, the All Union Trade Unions coun ell has decided to split Russia's 47 trade unlous Into 154. The purpose of this decision which haB the personal support ol Josef V. Stalin, secretary general of the Communist party. Is to make the unions more eflldent and stronger. It was explained, and bring the men Into closer contact with union leadership The divi sions will be both geographical and occupational. F6r Instance, the gigantic All Union organisation of coal mines will be split Into three unions—one for central Russia, another for the east, and another In the Donetz basin region. The railroad work ers’ organization will be divided In to unions of engineers, trainmen and similar groups. The existing unions are felt to be unwieldy, some having more than 1,000,000 members each. dress It. 1 said I would dress It like n girl. “He said 1 ought to call It by some name that would fit either « girl or a boy, like Francis, nr Fran ces. So I said I would name it Claire and If It developed like a boy, 1 would leave off the K." And though It was no secret In the rural neighborhood that Claire was somewhat different, a girl she remained, In habits and dress, un til the first of a series of remnrk able operations In the West Penn hospital at Httsburgh this sum mer disclosed the fnct that the R could, with propriety, be deleted from her name; that Claire was of masculine persuasion. Lost People of Guinea Plateau to Stay Nude London.—The newly discovered race on the New Guinea plateau Is to remain nudist. That Is ns far ns the missionaries are concerned, for an expedition hearing civilization to a newly dis covered race of people living in complete Isolation from the rest of the world on a plateau In New Guinea, Is excluding clothes from among Its gifts. Itev. V. H. Sherwln of Gosport, who tins left home to take religious and medical comforts to the 200,000 Inhabitants of the new territory, expressed himself strongly on the point. “One of our policies Is to fight against clothing natives. The big mistake western civilization has made Is to put natives Into clothes. "These people ordlnnrlly have a high standard of morality, wnlklng about often naked, nnd are not pos sessed by the sexual exaggerations thnt we have In civilization. “Moreover, in humid heat the more the body Is exposed the bet ter from the medical point of view." SELF-HELP DRESS Hr CHKRIK NICHOLAS Una cunning truck earned its ti tle In that It buttons down the front and so, seeing that the wee maiden who wears it can button It without the aid of mother or big sister, It Is cnlled a “self-help” dress Recent ly the Chicago wholesale district staged a style pageant, n special fea ture being proper apparel for ttrst school days. ThU attractive little gingham dress In bright plaid brought forth no end of applause. The narrow niching trim down the front, the wide white collar and the tiny puffed sleeves are note worthy styte details. NEW SUBSTANCE TO KILL CANCER CELLS Important Discovery Made by Vienna Doctors. Vienna.—The antidote of cancer, a substance which dissolves and kills the cancer cells or microbes, has been found by Vienna scientists working under the guidance of Dr. Adolf Edelmann, director of the Vienna Cancer Research Institute, founded by the late American mil lionaire, S. (‘aiming Childs. Dr. Edelmnnn and Ills associates have produced from human cancer ous tissues an organic substance which dissolves cancer cells Just like the ‘•bacteriophage" dissolves the bacilli of its own kind. “Baterlophage,” or bacterium-ent er, discovered by the French bac teriologist d'Herelle, Is a special type of cell produced only by or ganisms attacked by a contagious disease. The bacterium eaters can he found In the blood of diseased persons and they are believed to constitute a sort of counter-attack of the organism on the disease germs. The ‘‘bacteriophage," however, can also be produced artificially in a "culture” of bacteria. This fact became of tremendous importance, as it enabled bacteriologists to pre pare serums against various con tagious diseases. Now Dr. Edelmann and his col leagues, of whom the most promi nent is the professor of Vienna uni versity, Dr. Fritz Sllbersteln, claim to have found the "bacteriophage” of cancer. They named It "Autoly sat” or “self-solvent” because It could not yet he proved whether or not a cancer-bacterium exists at all. But whether cancer cells are con taining parasitic microbes, or are Just diseased ceils of the human or ganism, “Autolysat” dissolves them and prevents the growth of new cancer cells. Perfect X-Ray Is Hot Enough to Make Jewels London.—An X-rny machine ten times more powerful tlinn any other In the world Is nearing completion at the Davy-Farnday laboratory of the lloyal Institution, London. It will have a power of fit) kilowatts, or nearly 70 horse power. This apparatus will be used for “high-speed X-ray analysis." It will show exactly how the innermost atoms of materials are arranged. One of the mysteries which has been solved by “X-ray analysis” Is that of the permanent wave. Beau ty specialists found various methods to produce the waves, but even sci entists did not know why they were "permanent." Now X-rays have shown that when the waving specialists have finished with a girl’s bend the ar rangement of the billions of atoms In each hair has been completely changed. This new machine will be able to produce rays of heat so Intense that If trained on a block of steel sev eral feet thick they will Instantly burn through it. Artificial diamonds could also be produced by training the bent rays on carbon; and rubles made from aluminum oxide Easy Cure for Insomnia Is Just Stop Thinking London.—A Bure cure for Insom nia Is to stop thinking. And to stop thinking, according to Lilias MacKinnon, a well known British educationist. It only needs a little practice. McKinnon snld: “With practice one can learn to stop thinking altogether. The way to do It Is to relax the muscles of the face, Including the muscles of the eyes, and gradually all thought will drift away. “You will have a feeling of de lightful drowsiness and you will be able to fall asleep at will and at any time. This Is a certain cure for Insomnia." Pale*tine’« Synagogue* Synagogues in ancient Palestine were set facing In the general di rection of Jerusalem. First View of Argentina’s Disastrous Oil Fire Aerial view, tlia Brat to arrive in the United Htatea, of the lire that ravaged the «dl tanka of the I'otnpania Manorial de 1‘etroleoa. a aubaldtary of the Htandard Oil comi>anjr at UAui|«gna. Argentina. Three perauug wvre hilled in the Are, and about f3.4OU.O0U damage waa done. SEEN”' HEARD around the National Capital gg ™— By CARTER FIELD—-aas Washlngton.—A definite program for new taxation to be recommended to congress In January Is being worked out by experts In the Treasury depart ment despite the bland assurance of Senator Pat Harrison of Mississippi, chairman of the senate finance com mittee, that no new taxes will be needed. In fnct, the program, with few ex ceptions, Is almost “frozen” already. The goal is half a billion dollars more revenue annually—or at least until the present need passes. It will be recalled that president Roosevelt pointed out months ago that it was the drought relief cost, estimated then at $525,000,000, that upset his budget balancing program. One of the striking features of the new tax program is a new excess prof its tax, graduated on much the same line as the Income tax brackets, so that It will hl,t the big profit makers harder than those corporations mak ing smaller profits. This, of course, will be in addition to the already very heavy corporation income taxes. An interesting feature of this pro posal Is the theory behind It, involv ing regulation by the government of business, prices, labor costs and profits. Not long after the war the government deliberately scrapped the then existing excess profits tax, which had been imposed with a view to getting at war profiteers. It had been thought too difficult and time-wasting in the rush of war preparation to battle too much over prices pnld for supplies. So this tax was devised with a view of catching any contractors or manufacturers who made too much money as a result of this more or less open-handed buying by the government. But after the war it was discovered, in very careful investigations made under the direction of Senator Arthur Capper of Kansas, Hint the thing just didn’t w’ork the way it had been in tended. Especially when the ordinary citizen and not the government was the buyer. It was found that prices were pyramided to include the excess profits tax and still give the seller en tirely too large a profit. So the tax was repealed. Now it is to be reinstated, but with the conviction that government regula tion will prevent any such results. To Cut Exemptions Another provision of the new tax program, the writer learns, would re duee the present exemptions for mar ried persons from $2,500 to $2,000 and for single persons from $1,500 to $1, 000. Still another is a sharp raise In rates on the lower Income brackets, the rates on the higher brackets hav ing already been stepped up consider ably from the low to which they had been reduced under the Mellon regime, in fact practically back to wfar levels. This new tax on the "lower middle classes,” as It was called by a sena tor who learned about the program by accident. Is apt to produce a real tight in congress unless President Roosevelt cracks the whip too hard. It is the one detail of the plan that may find rocks ahead, in the private views even of the experts framing it. Por it Is not regarded as particularly good politics, however sound may be the economics. There are too many voters in these classifications. Incidentally, some of the old heads In the revenue service always have contended that the difficulty and ex pense of collection in the very low brackets did not make up for the bur den imposed. Taxation on corporation surpluses is another feature of the proposed pro gram. This is an old hobby of the President. He Indicated his thoughts on this subject as far back as in his acceptance speech before the Chicago convention, and has made frequent references to It since. He believes that this “piled up sur plus” was very close to the genesis of the depression. Had It been paid out in wages, in reduced prices, or even In dividends. It would have produced greater buying power, he has pointed Oil* G. O. P. Hopes in New York With the Jim Parley-Vincent Daily upstate New York machine function ing in every precinct, Republican se cret canvases do not reveal a pros pect of gaining more than three seats in the house this fall in the KVnpire state. Tills, despite the fact that the Dem ocrats now hold -XI of the state's seats In the national bouse, and the Repub licans only 18. While details are not made public, naturally enough, of the particular spots where the Republicans hope to make these three gains, probability is that two of them are the seats at large, and the third is the Seventeenth district In New York city, once repre sented by Ogden Mills, and later by Ruth Pratt, hut which the Democrats captured In the Roosevelt landslide. There Is excellent reason for be lieving the Republicans can win the Seventeenth district back. It happens to be the rleh«**t district In Amer ica. More securities In corporations whoee profits may be threatened by the New Deal are held there Mian In most states. Moreover, there is the fact that the old and famous ’’upstate" la no longer the Republican tJIhrultnr It uacd to tie. For one thing. Parley and Daily organised It, back In the MttO elec lion, when Roosevelt was elected gov ernor and started on the road to the Presidency. The days of half a mil lion and more majority In New York city being wiped out by a Republican sweep of the upstate apparently are gone forever. Of High Importance Which raises the point: What has happened to the Republican party in New Y'ork? The question is of enor mous Interest In Washington because of its effect on the house of represent atives, even in this off year. One of the reasons why no Republican has been so optimistic, at any time since last spring, to claim that the Repub licans might capture the house of representatives in this election is that every well informed Republican real izes that no substantial gain can be counted on from New York state. Which is rather amazing when one looks back just a few years. It would seem that something happened to the New York O. O. I*, along about 1921. That year marks the dividing line. The 1920 election, which was the Harding landslide, marked the high tide of Republican members to the house from New York. The 1916 elec tion had resulted in the delegation being composed of 16 Democrats, 20 Republican and 1 Socialist. There was a Republican gain in 1918. and then in 1920 the Republicans elected 33, the Democrats a bare 9, and the Socialists 1. Rut that was not only the high tide. It was the last time the G. O. P. elect ed a majority of the New York dele gation. * In 1922 the Democrats went into the lead with 22 to 21. So, If the elder La Follette had won enough electoral votes in 1924 to have thrown the elec tion of a I’resident into the house. New York, which had cast nearly a million majority for Coolidge, would have been recorded for Davis! Curiously enough, even this tremen dous Coolidge majority did not pull through enough Republicans to give them a majority of the delegation. The Democrats held their 22 in that election, and the Republicans lost one, with one Socialist elected. Nor did the Hoover landslide jar this Democratic majority loose. On the contrary, the Democrats gained one. No Rush for Bonds Nothing like the expected rush to convert Liberty bonds Into the new* issue, despite the bait of a free month’s interest for prompt action, followed the latest announcement of treasury financing. It may be that the half billion dollars’ worth of bonds still held out will come In before Oc tober 15, the final date on which the outstanding bonds are called, but meanwhile there is considerable spec ulation as to the motives actuating bondholders who, at the moment, seem to Intend to demand cash on October 15 rather than take the new Issue. The surprising phase of the situa tion is that the new bonds bear inter est at 3V4 per cent. This is 1 per cent less than the 4% paid by the Liberties being called, of course, but it Is re garded as very high for government bonds, especially in view of the uncer tainty with respect to private invest ments, and the eagerness of capital to find some investment which involves no risk no matter how small the re turn. * Yet apparently, unless holders of the outstanding Liberties that were called are just procrastinating, re gardless of the “free Interest" bait until October 15, a very large number of holders intend to take cash on Oc tober 15 rather than take the new government three and a quarters. A Washington professional man who recently sold a house, taking all cash, was thinking of investing the amount in a small apartment house. On this, of course, he would have to borrow considerable additional capital. With in the ten days following the treasury announcement, he was offered all the additional money he wanted to buy the apartment house by two different banks. The interest rate each bank asked was 5 per cent! Incidentally, the offer of each bank was predicated on the Idea of a five year mortgage, not callable during that time, yet with the provision that the borrower could make payments of any size he desired on any interest date. Banks Loosen Up In other words, the would-be bor rower was given all the advantage of any change in conditions. If he found after a year or at the end of three years that he could borrow money at 4 per cent, he would be at liberty to make the new loan, and pay off the mortgage. Whereas. If Interest rates should rise, and the bunk could easily make loans at 0 per cent, the bank would not have the option of calling bis loan. This situation of the banks here, anxious to niuke long term loans to trustworthy Individuals on good se curity at 5 per cent, while government bonds do not seem to he In particular demand at H'4 per cent, arouses con siderable comment ns to the whys and wherefores. For the one explanation given by governmental critics—that people are reluctant to buy government bonds be cause they are afraid of some wild In flation—would seem to apply equally to long term private loans. Also It would seem to Indicate that the banks are not anything like so "tight” with their money as some of the governmental agencies have been charging In eases, of course, where no question of an overzealoua national bank examiner la Involved. Csevrtsht.—WHl! S»r*ts*L UpTheOrinoco IF—II An Orinoco River Turtle. Prepared by National Geographic Society, Washington, D. C.-WNU Service. □TRIP up the Orinoco In the wake of Alexander von Hum boldt, a century and a third after the voyage of that famous naturalist and explorer, finds the great stream little changed. The Orinoco ranks third among the rivers of South America. Esti mates of its length are as diverse as they are numerous, and all are but approximations for the upper most reaches have never been charted; but probably the best fig ures are those of the Venezuelan national cartographic office—1.800 kilometers (1,118 miles). The mighty stream sprawls across the map of Venezuela like a giant fish hook, the shank flattened out to form a delta, the point stuck far away somewhere in the shadowy range called the Sierra Parlma. Its tawny flood is discharged into the Atlantic through no less than 3G distinct channels radiating north eastward from the main stream in the form of a fan. Only two are considered practicable for steamers. Cano Macareo, which offers the most direct route from Port of Spain, is used so long as the depth of the | water is sufficient; at other times boats enter via Boca Grande. Beyond the Delta. On the second day of a steamer trip up the Orinoco, the boat emerges from the delta into the Orinoco proper—a river of truly ma jestic proportions and a placid sur face, though jaundiced of coun tenance. Wide savannas roll away on either hand, those to the south breaking against the rocky, gold bearing hills that held Sir Walter Italeigh’s last hope of redemption. Some distance higher up, two an cient forts occupy strategic posi tions atop rocky eminences on the right bank where the river is squeezed Into a narrow channel. These are Los Castillos, and mark the site of the old Spanish village of San Thome, which was captured and ultimately destroyed by Sir Walter's forces in 1G18, on that inimitable adventurer’s last expedi tion to the Orinoco in search of El Dorado. This fracas with the Spaniards cost Sir Walter his elder son and his own head. For the third time passengers go to bed to the churning of the stern paddles, but awake to face Cuidad Bolivar, surmounting a low rocky hill on the south bank, her^ white washed walls still somber when the first rays of sunlight strike the ca thedral's checkered tower. In Cuidad Bolivar. This little city of 17.000. 228 miles from the sea, is the capital of the state of IJolivnr and gateway to an enormous region as yet served only by river. It is the metropolis of the Orinoco. It was founded by the Spanish In 1704, under the name of San Thome, and exhibits the massive, boxlike, flit-roofed houses built in solid blocks, the pro truding, heavily barred and shut tered windows, and entrancing pa tios so typical of Spanish America. Its chief claim to fame is tlmt It Is the birthplace of the Venezuelan constitution and Angostura hitters. Quite naturally, the town soon came to he known as Angostura (strait), because between Its rocky hill and the one from which Soledad faces It, the whole Orinoco Is squeezed to a width of only 800 yards. Swirling with tremendous force through this narrow gap, the river has scoured out a chunnel to a depth of 2t!2 feet below sen level. The mean depth of water Is 335 feet, but the river has been known to rise 52 feet above low stnge and flood the entire hunlness section of the town. ('uidad Bolivar Is n pleasant place In early morning, when the market bustles with activity, nml at eve ning, when the town turns out to take the air on the breeze swept Paseo; at noontime it swelters in the glare and heat of a tropic sun, and even the Imperturbable burros nod as they mince along the steep, flag-paved streets. Above the Angostura constriction the Orinoco is again a splendid stream, maintaining for several hundred miles an average width, in cluding islands, of three and three quarter miles. Of course this does not compare with the Amazon, but because of its numerous playas (sand beaches and exposed sand bars in midstream) and the relief of its banks, the Orinoco is the more picturesque of the two. Flocks of water-fowl, and numerous cay mans lying like water-soaked logs on the margins of the beaches, add life to every scene. Pelow the little mid town of Mapire the Orinoco is doubled back sharply by a range of hills and forced through two rocky channels ^ so narrow that during the rainy sea- ^ son the current at times attains a velocity of 12 miles an hour. This is El Infierno, the most respected rapid of the middle Orinoco. Gathering of the Turtles. Above La Urbana the hills become higher and some sweep up from the very stream. A tldn line of gallery forest still hides the savannas from the river, but no tree relieves the somber slate-gray of weathered granite. Table-lands break in sheer ^ cliffs; isolated bosses knobs, and smoothly polished domes rise on every hand; monstrous rocks are thrown here and there in utter con fusion, and where they are touched by the Orinoco in its rise and fall, are covered by a highly burnished enamel as black as ink. Here on two islands of fine, buffy sand takes place the great annual gathering of turtles, one of the most remarkable phenomena of the Orin oco. to tnese sanu oars at me oegin ning of each year the big turtles come literally in thousands, followed by a human horde bent upon their destruction. Formerly there were no restrictions, and those who were able helped themselves, but in the many fights which ensued the na tives spilled so much of their own blood along with that of the turtles that the authorities finally inter vened. Now each year the turtle rights are sold as a concession to the high est bidder. In December the con cessionaire raises small white flags on tall poles as a warning to steer clear of the island and not frighten the turtle vanguards. In season the camp at Playa Pararuna, where the turtles concen trate in greatest numbers, is on a high sandy bank, the only roof a thatched hut serving as a store house for provisions. Hammocks, unsheltered, hung from almost every tree, ('raft of every description are tied up at the bank. 'Upper Reaches of the River. As far as the "turtle islands,” and a little beyond, both sides of the Orinoco are Venezuelan territory. From the Meta southward to San Fernando de Atahapo the western hank belongs to Colombia. On a point of saml in the angle between the Meta and the Orinoco, hacked by n low hill of naked black rock, stands Puerto Carreno, the only Colombian village on the whole frontier. It did not exist in Hunt- ^ boldt’s day. A stiort distance above Puerto Carreno the Itnudal San Itnr.la—n swift rapid—confronts tin* voyager. A small steamer has great difficulty In fighting Its way through to calm er waters above. In llumhohlt s time there was a mission here—n strategic place for salvaging souls J that had been frightened into re- a pentance. Approximately .in miles farther up stream Is the small settlement of Puerto Ayacticho, Just below the two impassable rapids of Atures.