Gold Hunters Rush
to Mojave Desert
..
Rich Strikes Recall Glam
orous Days of ’49.
Mojave, Calif.—Following one of
the most amazing and sensational
gold strikes in all history, Cali
fornia is witnessing a new gold
rush which recalls her glamorous
days of ’41*.
The first huge strike—the Silver
Queen—already has been optioned
to a South Africau syndicate for
$3,250,000.
Scarcely had the first rush of ad
venturers filled this small desert
town to overflowing, when dusty
miners came with news of two
more rich strikes, only a few miles
distant.
Gold mining exi»erts from all parts
of the world hastened to Mojave.
For months the news was kept se
cret. Then It leaked out—and the
rush was on.
Located in 1933.
The Silver Queen was first lo
cated In September, 1933, by George
Holmes, thirty-two-year-old former
student of the University of South
ern California.
Holmes, who had prospected the
Mojave area for fourteen years,
found a fragment of gold-bearing
ore broken off a ledge while scour
ing a hillslope about seven miles
from Mojave.
Holmes asked a friend, Bruce
Mlnnard, twenty-eight year old prac
tical miner, to help him find the
ledge. By a thousand-to-one shot,
they dug a trench and discovered
the mother-ledge—only six feet be
low the surface.
Holmes gave Mlnnard a 20 per
cent shure. They then drew In Vir
gil Dew. For Ids digging under a
blistering sun he, too, was given a
20 per cent share.
Mlnnard and Dew furnish the
first tragedy of the new gold rush.
As months slipped by they lost con
fidence.
Eventually Mlnnard sold his hold
ings to Cy Townsend for (500.
Shortly afterward Dew sold his
share for $1,000. Townsend and his
associates bought him out.
Option for Three Million.
Finally a syndicate offered Holmes
and his father, who own 00 per
cent of the claim, $10,000 for the
ledge. They refused It. Succeeding
ofTers of $75,000, $250,500, $300,000
and $750,900 likewise were rejected.
Then the world’s most noted gold
mining experts began to nrrlve.
Among the first were the old Gold
field crowd—Senator Key I’lttman
of Nevada, George Wingfield and
Walter Trent. Also came former
Senator Tasker L. Oddle of Nevada,
who, with Jim Butler, discovered
the rich Tonopnh Held, and A1
Myers.
In all, gold fields of South Af
rica Bent fifteen men to Mojave.
And not long afterward the South
African company took an option on
Holmes’ Silver Queen for $3,250,000!
It was when news of the big op
tion price leaked out recently that
the world at large first became ap
prlsed of California's new amaz
ing gold strike. And the rush was
on!
The hlghwny lending to Mojave
la Jammed with automobile*, busses,
Sun Spots Promise
Era of Prosperity
San Jose, Calif.—Eleven yearH
of redoubled shining on the part
of the sun, bringing animal und
vegetable fertility and general
prosperity to the world, were
forecast by Dr. Albert J. New
lln, director of the Itlcard Memo
rial observatory at the Univer
sity of Santa Clara.
Sun spots. Doctor Newltn said,
Indicated the Increased solar ac
tivity. ills observations were
borne out by the opinion of Dr.
Oreutes Caldwell, vice chalrmnn
of the advisory committee of the
American Museum of New York.
heavy trucks hauling lumber and
mining machinery, and thousands
of cars of tourists and sightseers.
Early In the rush, however, an
nouncement was made that the
new strike would prove of little
value to the casual prospector.
Hunt for the precious metal around
Mojave Is no game for the Inex
perienced, experts warned.
Columbus Brought
Oranges to America
New York.—Christopher Co
lumbus, It has Just been discov
ered, was the hitherto unknown
planter who first brought or
ange seeds to America.
According to researches made
in the course of a food survey
carried out by the New York city
department of markets. Colum
bus imported orange seeds on
ids second voyage In 1493, and
planted America’s first orange
orchard at Isabella, on what is
now the Island of Haiti, San Do
mingo.
Philadelphia Once Favored Lotteries
Churches Used Public Gam
bling to Raise Funds.
Philadelphia.—Lotteries now un
der han by federal law once flour
ished In Philadelphia, "cradle of
American liberty."
Dating as far back as 1753,
churches used "public gambling" as
u means to raise money for a new
steeple, clock tower or whatever
was needed.
Probably the first sanctioned pub
lic lottery was the one inaugurated
by Benjamin Franklin and his
friends to build an "Association
Bnttery” ns protection against
feared attacks during the early Brit
ish French clashes. Tickets were
sold for 40 shillings each.
Popularity of the "gambling" be
came so great that by 1700 lotteries
were being held In all section*
throughout the Philadelphia area.
At the outbreak of the Revolu
tionary war the thirteen states,
sorely In need of money to finance
their armies and fight for Inde
pendence, sanctioned lotteries, and
congress authorized printing of 100,
000 tickets.
Some of the more important lot
teries before and during the Revo
lution were: For 3,000 pieces of
eight to finish St. Paul’s Episcopal
church; to raise 500 pounds to tin
LAME AND VELVET
Ily CHKRIB NICHOLAS
Bruy ere of Paris creates this de
lightful evening ensemble In terms
of metal cloth and velvet. The
dress features the silhouette which
adopts the simple lines of a monk's
garb. The cord and tassel girdle is
In keeping with the Ideu and Is such
ns designers are widely featuring
this season. The call for glitter
and gleam In the evening mode is
answered In the sparkling gold and
red lame which fashions the dress
and the youthful evening hat. The
cape Is of velvet In a golden tone
to blend In with the general color
scheme. A square gold buckle
closes !t at the throat
Isli Trinity church, Oxford; to raise
0,000 pounds for the New Jersey col
lege, which later became Princeton
university, and to rnlse 3,000 pounds
to build a lighthouse at Cape Hen
lopen and improve navigation In the
Delaware.
Many of the early roads and
streets In Philadelphia were paved
with money from sanctioned lot- j
teries. The state legislature, to
prevent Increase of taxes, author
ized a lottery In 1791 to rnlse $30,
000 for construction of the Philadel
phia and Lancaster turnpike, now I
the Nutionul highway.
Nowadays, "number" racketeers
have taken over the "business"
here. Philadelphia is one of their (
greatest centers.
“TAXI" OVER OCEAN!
18-HOUR SERVICE
New York to London Round
Trip Flights Planned.
New York.—An eighteen-hour per
sonal’’ express service between New
York and London may be Inaugu
rated within a short time if George
Hutchinson, head of the famous
family of “Flying Hutchinsons,” is
successful In demonstrations he is
planning.
Hutchinson two years ago had
the entire world worried about his
wife and two little girls, who were
with him In a plane lost somewhere
In Greenland. Now he declares his
Intention of beating two great com
panies, with unlimited resources,
which plan to establish transatlan
tic lines next summer.
ITutchlnson himself hns no cap
ital backing, but if ids first round
trip flights to London, now being ar
ranged, are successful, he hopes to
ndd three more ships to his new low
winged monoplane with a 700-horse
power Cyclone motor.
Declaring that with a two-stage
supercharger this ship can approach
300 miles per hour in the strato
sphere, Hutchinson said:
“If l/os Angeles is only twelve
hours from New York, why is Lon
don more than eighteen hours from
this city?”
With two companions, a radio man
and a navigator, Hutchinson can
carry 000 pounds of pny load to
England. At 88 cents an ounce, he
figures that he can make $10,000 a
trip.
He plans on regular landings at
Harbor Grace, Newfoundland, and
at Galway, Ireland.
Cash, Not Angels, Calls
Preacher From Old Post
Oklahoma City. — Itev. Homer
Lewis Shelter Interpreted for his
congregation the meaning of a call
which had come to him.
Itev. Mr. Shelter said he would
have to leave the church here, where
he has preached during the past
seven years, and go to Spokane,
Wash., to revive a church there.
*‘I assure you there have been no
pious conversations with the Al
mighty," Shelter said. ‘‘The reason
for my resignation will be apparent
to all who know the financial con
dition of the church.
"Money is speaking In tones of
thunder and I am answering Its
| call.”
Miami Coast Guard Planes Salute the Pandora
Three of the Miami coast guard planes, the Arcturus, Acanar and Sirius, suluting the Pandora, newest of
the government’s coast guard patrol boats, as she nears Miami, Fin., where she will make her permanent base.
SEEN-'HEARD
around the
National Capital
SSSSSmBy CARTER FIELD5=a=»
Washington.—A great deal of
[ peering into the future ns to effects
; In the years between 1936 and 1940
| of the present heavy spending by
j the federal government is being
done by President Roosevelt nnd his
advisers. Incidentally, the recent
message to congress nnd the budget
j message which followed gave an
j inkling of this to one who reads be
tween the lines.
What is bothering the President
Is that unless there is a very sharp
nnd fairly speedy curtailment of the
so-called extraordinary budget ex
penditures, such as public works
and relief, it wlll^iot be possible to
avoid putting on very much heavier
taxes. The additional impositions, or
at least any very burdensome addi
tions, may be postponed for a few
years. But they cannot, by any
stretch of the Imagination, be post
poned until after the end of the sec
ond Roosevelt administration.
Which Is not to say that Mr.
Roosevelt is looking at the situation
with a purely political eye. There is
some politics in the lens, of course,
hut there Is a good deal more.
Roughly, the continued spelling of
amounts far in excess of revenues
can quite easily turn on and wreck
all the social reforms the President
is very desirous of bringing about.
Imagine, for example, an elec
torate in 1040, which is sick and
tired of high tuxes—so annoyed
that every time one of the reforms
the New Deal has brought about is
mentioned the taxpayers want to
scream. Which, far from being a fig
ment of some comedian’s imagina
tion Is a very real danger in the
mind of none other than Franklin
D. Roosevelt.
The result of such a state of mind
might easily be that some dema
gogue might be nominated on an op
position ticket who would promise
to sweep the whole Itoosevelt pro
gram off the books and out of the
window. Or from the Roosevelt
standpoint, to turn the clock back
for twenty years. True, from the
radical standpoint this sort of thing
would bring on the revolution, and
would actually get us ahead faster
than If the Roosevelt program had
stayed on the books.
Not Acceptable
But neither Is acceptable to
Roosevelt. He neither wants the
clock turned back nor the revolu
tion
But how Is he to curtail emer
gency spending rapidly enough to
prevent the danger of excessive
taxation in the years Just before
1940?
For It Is imperative, in his view,
to keep on spending fast enough to
prime the business pump. Mr.
Roosevelt believes that government
emergency spending In various ways
Is directly and almost solely respon
sible for the revival In business that ’
Is now generally conceded.
He hopes that If this priming is
continued just a lltle while business
will get going on its own momen
tum, and that would mean such an
increase in taxes without increasing
the rates or the imports.
And it is also imperative to pre
vent starvation and freezing, wheth
er or not the states and local com
munities tnke over the "unemploy
ables” from the federal government
Or rather whether they are able to
take care of them after they have
been forced off the federal rolls.
In the meantime the mental atti
tude on Capitol Hill is not at all
sympathetic with Presidential fears.
Congress is positively drunk with the
success of past and promised gov
ernment spending, ns demonstrated
at the November election. Its funda
mental attitude toward appropria
tions is way out of line with Roose
velt’s viewpoint. It is not worrying
about the place in history of the
New Deni reforms. Roosevelt Is.
New Liquor Order
A “boon to bootleggers" Is what
high officials in Federal Alcohol
Control administration, and in vari
ous liquor code authorities, say of
the new order of the treasury re
quiring liquor to be sold only In
bottles with blown in words forbid
ding their lllegnl use.
Secretary of the Treasury Mor
genthaa imposed this ruling over
the protests of the liquor code
authorities and of the best judg
ment In FACA. Tlie bottle making
Interests sold him the idea—which
was that a very good check could
be obtained, which would thwart
the bootleggers if the government
would license all plants producing
bottles for the alcoholic beverage
trnde. Of course the thought was to
deprive bootleggers of a source for
their bottles.
"Of course," one high officer of a
code authority said to the writer,
holding up one of the new bottles,
“when the bootlegger sees the words
blown in the bottle forbidding him
to use it. he is just going to drop
dead! He wouldn’t think of violat
ing the law.
“What lias already happened is
that it puts a premium on the reuse
of legal bottles. If there were any
way of providing it. I would wager
a fair sum that the very people who
put tliis over with Morgenthau, the
bottle makers, are going to suffer in
the long run.
“Naturally they are coining money
right now. Distillers assert that it
will cost them something like $3,
500,(XX) to discard bottles already
purchased and substitute the legal
bottles. I>Jt what Is going to hap
pen when there is a full supply
out? The bottle makers will make
no more profit on the new ones than
on the old. Also, they will begin
to be irked pretty quickly, by the
government licensing system they
requested to have put on them
selves.
What Will Happen?
"But aside from that, what will
happen to these legal bottles? Your
ordinary hotel bar will have a case
of some special gin, say, In the new
legal bottles. Will the fact that
the bottles have these words blown
Into their glass stop that harkeep
from refiling them when they run
low? \\'e know they are doing It
now. What will be the difference?
"The bootlegger who refills the
empties he obtains from trash col
lectors, etc., will have an additional
point to convince his patrons that
he Is giving them genuine stuff.
Bottles are very cheap. Most boot
leggers would rather buy their bot
tles In quantities. But the glass
bottle plants being licensed now,
they cannot. So they will turn to
the trashmen. Bottles will be used
over and over again, npt only by
the bootleggers, but by all the bars
willing to make a dishonest penny.
Also by bartenders whose employ
ers may be honest, but who wish to
graft a little.
“So In the long run I think the
bottle makers will sell less bot
tles, and the amount of bootlegging
will not be decreased one iota.
“Of course, what the government
ought to do, what it ought to have
done long ago, Is to put the taxes
down to such a low point, for a
time, and make the restrictions so
mild, that the bootleggers and moon
shiners would be driven out of
business. Then taxes could be
raised gradually.”
Ready for Hatching
Looking ahead to possible work
relief and construction activities
this year, the recovery program has
established several agencies, which
might be called “breeder units.”
These are now sitting on a string
of goose eggs in the form of plans
which can be rapidly hatched if a
figure and dollar mark Is placed iu
front of them.
Federal Emergency Relief admin
istration has rural-industrial hous
ing plans on a potential scale be
yond the federal housing which has
gone before.. Soil erosion service
not only has been developing ex
tensive plans but has trained 1,000
college men how to handle the work
in the event the government goes
into soil protection on a big scale.
These men were trained last sum
mer and fall, showing that certain
New Dealers were looking further
ahead and planning more practi
cally than the brain trust is usually
given credit for doing.
Citizen Concentration camps, ty
ing in with the forest service, park
service, War department and others
has a framework, which can be ex
panded by hundreds of thousands
of workers virtually overnight.
Plans for rural electrification, and
the various phases of hydro devel
opment key into this system.
Almost any of several overlapping
agencies is willing to spread Its
wings over any sort of nest-egg the
new program provides—from hum
ming-birds to ostriches.
Much of the guesswork which has
been going on about what the gov
ernment would do. had what those
talking It thought was authentic
information behind it. The only
thing left out before the story had
been told many times, in each In
stance, was that the scheme, though
made by high officials of the admin
istration, had not yet been approved
by the President.
Some Surprises
And the President has been
springing a lot of surprises. To cite
a converse example, he cut the
ground under a group of admirals
who had been working very quietly
hut effectively drumming up con
gressional sentiment to incrense the
navy by 5.000 men. They had
begged for this addition back in
the early fall. The President and
the budget bureau had turned them
down. They thought they could
use the resentment hnsed on Ja
pan's denunciation of the naval
treaty to put it over. Then sud
denly the President decided that
they could have 5,500 men—500
more than they had originally hoped
for!
Old Hoover admirers—yes there
are a few of them left around—
are getting a big chuckle out of
Secretary of Commerce Roper’s plan
to ask congress for a big In
crease in personnel so as to take
care of foreign trade service, trade
treaties, and the newly authorized
free port zones. The Hoover men
are laughing because right after
the Roosevelt administration came
in it fairly tore the clothes off the
old bureau of foreign and domestic
commerce.
But Jim Farley Is not laughing.
Nor Emil Hurja. Nor nny one of
the patronage hounds. Recause
Roper has not been playing ball
with them on appointments at all.
In fact, they are saying around In
certain quarters that Roper must
go. If lie does, whoever puts it
over will know he has been in a
fight. Roper is an old hand at such
things. He has weathered many
storms. And he generally emerges
with most of his feathers, though
there has been no loud squawking
to attract attention to the battle.
Copyright.—WNU Service.
Sidewalk Solarium at St. Petersburg.
Prepared by National Geographic Society,
CWashington. D. C.—WNU Service.
T HE southern trek of winter
vacationists of eastern Amer
ica to Florida is on. As north
ern resorts close their portals, tour
ist agencies are besieged with
queries about Florida resorts; and
railroads, and steamship lines spend
their annual advertising appropria
tions, boasting the merits of cities
on their routes.
North Florida is as different from
south Florida as lower Alabama is
from Cuba. Colonists had settled
and developed an ante-bellum cot
ton and tobacco aristocracy at Tal
lahassee and thereabout when low
er Florida was still a howling wil
derness. Even today, we are told,
one-fifth of all Florida’s population
was born in Georgia and Alabama;
but that will not be true a decade
hence.
Long ago, when bears fattened on
crabs and turtles’ eggs where Miami
Beach and Palm Beach now blos
som, Spaniards built St. Augustine
and Pensacola and connected them
with a 400-mile military highway.
You motor over much of this same
old line now when you drive from
Jacksonville west to Mobile and
New Orleans. In the Cathedral at
St. Augustine are to be seen crum
bling, parchment-bound records of
marriages and baptisms among
Spaniards and Indians dating back
to 1000. Yet Florida—but for that
settled strip along her upper edge
—stood still for generations, while
the rest of America was in the mak
ing.
The reason, of course, was tne
trend of migration to the Great
West. Till recent years, when bet
ter communication came and Amer
ica’s food habits began to change
Intensive distribution methods, re
frigerator cars, and liigh-power ad
vertising, there was no grent con
sumer market for the golden win
ter fruits and green vegetables
which the state today grows.
Also, years ago, there was yellow
fever. In epidemic days it para
lyzed Pensacola, New Orleans, and
Havana. Then came Iteed, Carrol,
Gorgas, and other great men of
medicine, and through science life
was made safe for whites in mos
quito lands. “When I came to
Miami, after the Spanish-American
war, it had 300 people,” said a lead
ing banker. “Unless yellow fevor
and mosquitoes had been conquered,
Florida could never have grown as
she has.”
“Flagler’s Folly."
As science whipped mosquitoes,
so bold builders conquered swamps
and jungles, and humanized coral
born keys, tying to the nation’s rail
was net a new world of strange
sights and smells. Down to Tampa
the steel was thrust, annexing a
quaint. Spanish-speaking city. And
down this line in ’98 roared boys in
uniform, “average Americans," see
ing Florida first on their way to
help in a war of Independence.
Far down the then empty east
coast pushed yet another spearhead
of twin steel, a “seagoing" railway.
“Flagler’s Folly,” critics said of
the one man with vision who built
and paid for It. “A railroad and a
string of railroad-owned, million
aire hotels way down in that empty
wilderness! There’s no freight to
haul, no passengers, no customers
for all those palatial hotels.”
But Flagler looked across at
Cuba; he looked up, saw the sun,
and felt the trade wind’s kiss. Then,
In his mind’s eye, he probably saw
what critics with sensory eyes
alone could not see—he saw the
earth tracking in space, tilting first
one end and then the other, mak
ing the play of seasons, but leaving
Florida more sun than any other
place in the enstern United States!
On down the coast he went with
his horse and buggy. Back in New
York, where many calamity howl
ers lived, it was below zero; yet all
about the warm sunshine bathed
this Land of Flowers that lured
I’once de Leon centuries before.
“The people will come,” Flagler
said. And they camp. Hotels built
decades ago—and flocks of newer
hotels—at times turn real dollars
away in droves, so great is the
mass demand for bed and board.
They Go by Plane, Too.
Then freight came—an amazing
traffic with Cuba—even as Flagler
dreamed. Cuba is our second best
customer in all Latin-America,
trade statisticians tell us.
Sliding down the sunbeams, like
giant roller coasters of the sky,
come now the planes. Into greater
Miami, with its many airports, fly
Ing fields, and seaplane docks, from
Cuba, Haiti, Puerto Ilico, Nassau,
Panama, and South America come
and go the big three-motored cabin
ships. Customs men are at the air
ports to inspect bags and ask for
duties, while immigration officials
examine passports.
Restless, absorbing America 1
Land of magic economic change
that fathered Florida! You sense
its fine aggressive spirit when, rid
ing in from sea, you watch Miami
and Miami Beach silhouette their
towering architectural masses
against a sunset sky. Amazing they
are, In their effect if stark sim
plicity and power, lifted by puny
men from the sand pits and man
grove swamps of yesterday.
Always the contrast persists.
Ten miles west, the Everglades; a
crane gulping down a wriggling
snake; a ’gator pulling under a
wild duck; a homing Seminole, si
lent, watchful, in his dugout; abys
mal waste, solitude, fascinating to
the naturalist.
Yet, if you think in time and not
space alone, you can vision what
Florida’s population must some day
be. It is the way of subtropic
lands, where living is easy, as in
the West Indies.
Life here has a different tempo,
a sort of tropic rhythm. Sun, sand,
the blue sparkling waters of the
Gulf Streamr blossoms of every hue,
and waving palms bring a sense of
luxury even to the masses. They
are among the state’s intangible as
sets and quicken man's Interest in
cosmic things.
Tobacco and Tourists.
West of Tallahassee one rides
past many tobacco fields where
plants are grown under “shades.”
These shades are made by stretch
ing thin cotton cloth over frames
of poles and wire, for farmers have
found they may best grow certain
vegetables under the same proper
ly tempered conditions in all sea
sons. Tobacco seed, for planting In
Virginia and elsewhere, is often
grown in Florida, since better seed
develops where plants enjoy the
longest periods of daily sunshine.
Of course, sharp clashes of ideas,
to make conversation an adventure,
are rare among tourist groups here.
They have too much in common.
One intellectual oasis, however,
is the “open forum” at St. Peters
burg. In a park there, after the
band concerts, crowds of many hun
dreds remain for organized debate
and good-natured harangue. Argu
ment is rife on any theme from egg
laying contests to whether the in
fluence of Ibsen is permanent or
evanescent.
Socially speaking, In Florida the
whole is not equal to the sum of
the parts. You cannot add St. Pe
tersburg, for example, to Palm
Bench or Miami, because you can
not add unlike things.
Life among the Idle well-to-do at
east coast resorts, as pictured in
Sunday rotogravures. Is a familiar
theme. Sunburned beauties sprawl
ing under beach umbrellas; self
anointed social queens in raiment
that would discount Joseph's cont
of many colors, being trundled
along under the palms in an "afro
mobile”; fleets of private yachts
and comfortable houseboats at an
chor; gay race crowds or dancings
groups under moonlit palms—all
these are well-advertised aspects of
Florida winter-visitor life among'
those who, with many servants and
mountains of baggage, move leisure
ly north each year, following the
march of spring from resort to re
sort, up and down the Atlantic
coast. Just the same, one finds at .
the principal resort centers like
Miami and Palm Beach the finest
sort of concerts and lecture series
made up of world-famous artists
and cultural speakers, and there is
an overflowing attendance.
But In all America there is prob
ably no group just like the 150,<km>
or L'00,000 tine type of farmers and
small-town folk who visit St. Pe
tersburg. It is an amazing sociolog
ical phenomenon, peculiar to this
unusual state. It is worth contem
plating.
Here flourish 31 different clubs
and societies, formed among tour
itsts from various cities and states.
There are even clubs of Canadians
and Scandinavians, half a world
away from their homes. There are
dance, dramatic, and sunshine card
clubs; clubs of roque, croquet, and
shuffleboard players and a Three
Quarter Century club, all of whose
members are more than seventy-five
years of age.
