Queer Vocabulary
Spoken by Hoboes
Punk Means a Boy Tramp
or Loaf of Bread.
Baltimore, M<1.—Most folks think
Bailors have the strangest vocabu
lary of their own, but sailors have
nothing on the American hobo when
It comes to quaint and curious lingo,
writes Charles A. Scar|>ello in the
Baltimore Sun. That Is my Anal
opinion after a few hoho trips of tny
own In which I drifted from port
to port.
I was born In ttie city of Chicago,
where 1 completed the seventh
grade In grammar school before 1
ran away to sea at the age of thir
teen. In my nine years of wander
ings, loginning as mesa boy and now
as a quartermaster, I have sailed
the Great Lakes and some of the
tributaries of the great Mississippi
and the well known seven seas. I
have been on the bench In Havana,
Copenhagen and Stockholm. In be
tween trips I have hit the trail
through every state in the Union
and Canada and Mexico. And the
folks who think a tramp Is Just n
tramp or a hobo ought to try the
life for a while and see.
Among the tramps with whom 1
have traveled In the United States
are blndle stiffs, pack stiffs, mission
stiffs, Jingle stiffs, gas bounds, mush
fakers, Jungle buzzards, panhan
dlers, bowery bums, highway bums,
dock rats, beachcombers, rubber
tramps and local characters.
The Blndle Stiff.
The blndle stiff is a hum found
In southern nnd central California
mostly. You can s<“o them any duy,
rain or shine, either In the Jungles
or walking along the railroad trucks.
He is either carrying his bed roll or
blndle or Is followed by a young
boy whom he calls his punk and
who carries it for him. Most blndle
stiffs are too lazy to cnrry It them
selves. The hindle consists of a
piece of canvas, two blankets or
quilts, a »ew pieces of clothing,
Bonp and towel, shaving nnd sewing
gear nnd cooking utensils. It Is tied
up and slung over the shoulder.
The pack stiff Is somewhat like
the blndle stiff and you find hint
mostly In nnd around Oregon, Wash
ington, Idaho, nnd Montunn ; almost
anywhere In the Pacific Northwest.
He almost always carries hls own
pack. Lumberjacks carry a pack
looking for work, but they are not
to be classed as trumps like the
pack stiffs.
The mission stiff is seen mostly In
the big cities where there are lots of
missions, soup lines nnd bread lines
and they can live without work.
They get up In the mission prayer
meetings and tell how religion has
snved them, nnd tell about their
wicked, sinful lives before they were
saved. The wilder the story the bet
ter, because It arouses the sym
pathy of the worshipers therein.
The mission always feeds them nnd
gives them u place to sleep, and
old clothes until they find a Job.
They never find It When one mis
sion wears out they tackle another.
1 even found several who made such
Eat. 80 “Hot Dog* ”
“I* Not Very Hungry”
Belgrade.—Itrngolju Illlc wns
not very hungry, otherwise he
might have bettered hls record
of eighty sausages at one sit
ting. Illlc, a carpenter, de
voured eighty of the Serbian
"hot dogs” called "eevapclcl,M
highly spiced roasted pieces of
lamb, pork and venl, washing
them down with four bottles of
wine.
He started fnst on hls first
forty, hut lagged a little the next
ten and counted on toward sixty.
There the going got tough, and
he barely limped through the
last twenty.
A large crowd watched him
and applauded hls efforts.
convincing speeches that they began
to believe it themselves and become
religious fnnatics. All the others de
test the mission stiff. When any
other kind of a tramp or bum goes
to a mission the mission stiff acts
ns If he was the whole cheese and
you ought to bow down to him he
cniise lie Is ••saved," and they even
preach to you.
Teacher of Bumology.
In Los Angeles a few years ago
the best place to get picked up by
the police was Just outside a certain
mission. The police railroaded you
on a vagrancy charge and you either
got rto days in Lincoln Heights Jail
or 24 hours to get out of town. This
is called getting a floater out of
town.
The hoboes have a vocabulary all
of their own. Funk means a young
boy tramp or a loaf of bread. Ityno,
dyno ami dingbat menn old bums.
A Jocker Is a teacher of bumology.
A buck Is a Catholic priest. A
banjo Is a frying pan. A telescope
is a series of tin cans each smaller
than the other which are carried in
side each other for cooking in the
Jungles. A hlpplns Is a mattress of
straw or wadded paper. A sougan
Is a quilt. Gas Is denatured alco
hol diluted In equal parts with wa
ter. Peoria may be a city In Illinois
to some. To a tramp it is a dish of
potatoes and onions, first boiled and
then fried. A shack is u railroad
brukeman. A hole Is u railroad side
track. A malley is a mountain loco
motive. A town clown Is a consta
ble. There are plenty of other words
more familiar to most people.
Wasps Build Nest Out of
Merchant’s Money Hoard
Oslo, Norway.—A merchant here
who has been hoarding for years a
fortune In paper notes suddenly dis
covered the whole of Ids hoard
gone. The bundles of notes were
kept In an old suitcase, and when
he opened the ease he discovered
that It was almost entirely tilled by
an enormous wasps’ nest. The
wasps had used almost all the notes
to construct their nest.
Rock Cork Is Used to Deaden Sound
Planetarium to Give Feeling
of Being Under Stars.
New York.—"A Midsummer Night’s
Dream" will come true In the Hay
den planetarium now nearing com
pletion at the American Museum of
Natural History through the use of
rock cork, sound-deadening Insula
tion, according to Dr. Clyde Fisher,
head of the department of astron
omy and curator of the planetarium.
“Although the room Is enclosed en
tirely,” stated Doctor Fisher, “one
feels that he lias been suddenly
transported under a clear night sky.
“For years scientists have been
baffled by the presence of walls
In tin* attempt to complete the Il
lusion of being out under the stars.”
continued Doctor Fisher. “The rock
LINEN AND VELVET
By CIIKItlK MB IIOIAM
There's n suggestion us to what
to weur to span from winter to late
spring. It Is a stunning suit of
rhuiu brown cr.vstelle velvet. To
give It a refreshing "llrst robin of
spring" look, have the blouse made
of heavy cream linen. The lady In
the picture climaxes her stunning
outfit of velvet and linen with a
corsage of brown lady-slipper or
chids and a cream colored rough
straw hat
cork eliminates all reverberations,
echoes and noises, and at the same
time makes possible a light, self
supporting dome, several Inches of
rock cork being equal to 11 feet of
solid stone In Insulation value.
“One of the unique features In
the planetarium is that there can
be no windows. The rock cork,
which also is an Insulator against
temperature changes, combines with
air conditioning to keep the tem
perature constant; otherwise It
would he Impossible to have the Il
lusion of night.
“Rock cork is the latest of many
developments In the planetarium
field. In the center of the room
will stand a Zeiss projector that
will reproduce on the dome all the
celestial objects visible to the hu
man eye. One can go backward or
forward In time or can be trans
ported to any longitude and lati
tude. The planets In their courses,
the rising and setting of the sun.
all these can he reproduced.
"The planetarium will seat 7f>0,
special chairs tilted so thnt a spec
tator can see any portion of the
sky being another novel feature.”
Log Cabins Are Back in
Favor Again fcr Poor
Dallas, Texas.—Rural rehabilita
tion work In this country Is seeing
a revivnl of log cabin building,
where fumllles are anxious to get
hack to the soil and have not the
money to build lumber houses. Re
lief Administrator E. J. Stephany
says there have been built In the
Seagovllle section of the county 24
pioneer log cabins and 20 more are
to be built soon.
The houses are built of logs from
trees In nearby forests and are
“chinked" and plastered with a mix
ture of mml and hay. Many will
bp whitewashed, presenting an ap
pearance not unlike plnster. They
are snug and attractive.
Families selected for the homes
are being provided w’ith 10 to 15
acres of land, a sow, two pigs, a
flock of chickens, farming Imple
ments and tools, a well, seed and
furniture.
Spectacles Collection
Feature of Hobby Show
Boston, Mass.—One of the most
Interesting displays at the flrst New
England Hobby Collectors’ show
was that of Dr. C. O. Berger, a col
lector of old spectacles.
Ills exhibit Included the gold
rlmmed glasses worn by President
Taft’s grandmother. Doctor Berger
also showed si>ectacles that were
made of wood, some that were tied
over and under the ear, a few that
were held In place by springs which
pressed cork pads against the tem
ples, and still others that had two
extra lenses to be swung Info place
when the wearer wished to rend.
Fighting Their Way Through Indian Locusts
Ueceutiy a great cloud of millions of locusts appeared In the region of Itawlplndl, India, and within a few
hours had devoured every bit of vegetation. Two men of the Royal Signal corps are seen beating their way
through the storm of Insects.
SEEN-™' HEARD
around the
National Capital
i ■ B By CARTER FIELD ssass
Washington. — Probability that
congress will enact legislation forc
ing every state bank (except mutual
savings banks) to take out a federal
charter Increased considerably with
endorsement of the plan by Repre
sentative John W. McCormack of
Massachusetts. McCormack is a
member of the house ways and
means committee, which does not
deal with banking legislation, but
the Importance of his view on this
subject Is due not to Ids committee
connection, but to his own Influence
in the bouses, plus the fact that he
Is very obviously carrying the flag
for the Treasury department.
No one In the treasury, from Sec
retary Morgenthau down, and In
cluding Comptroller of the Curren
cy J. F. T. O’Connor, is talking on
this subject at all. It Is not a sub
Ject which lends Itself to much open
talking, for to advocate such a
change Is to antagonize not only
the stockholders, officers and direc
tors of all the state hanking Institu
tions, but the 48 state hanking of
fices. The latter see In any move to
end state banks a throat at their
jobs. And some of them are quite
Important politically.
Hut down underneath the admin
istration Is strong for a unified
banking system, for much the same
reasons as voiced by McCormack.
And If treasury officials see a
chance to get the desired legislation
enacted they will come out for It
strongly. They have several Influen
tial members of the house and sen
ate talking their arguments—with
out official authority—and trying to
find out what the chances nre.
For in the nature of things the
administration would much rather
this particular move originate In
congress than to demand It. And
It Is not vital enough to President
Roosevelt’s program for him to
turn the heat on members whose
connections back home would make
It politic for them to oppose the
change.
“The present depression has
shown the weakness of the present
hanking structure,” Mr. McCormack
told the writer. “The conflict of
laws and of supervision Is resiamsl
hle for much of our banking trou
bles. The idea of having 49 author
ities granting charters to hanks Is
absurd. The Idea of 49 agencies ex
amining banks to see if they are
solvent, nnd are complying with 49
sets of hanking laws, Is ridiculous.
Require Federal Charter
*'I would force every bank doing
a commercial business to take out
a federal charter. In fact, I would
permit no hank save mutual savings
banks to do what Is normally re
garded as a banking business. Then
nil the banks that loan money com
mercially would have similar char
ters, granted under the same laws
nnd by the same agency of the gov
ernment, nnd all would be exam
ined by the same agency. It Is not
just a question of economy. That
Is Important enough, but the bene
fits of tiie change far transcend
that.
“I am not discussing the central
hank Idea, nor the authority of the
Federal Reserve board over the 12
regional banks. I am considering
simply the question of granting
charters, nnd of examining the
hanks which loan money to our citi
zens.
“1 am strongly In favor of our
dual system of government, nation
al and state, nnd I would resist
strongly the encroachment of the
federal government on the rights,
functions and prerogatives of the
states. But times and conditions
change. It Is no longer the case
that what happens to our banks In
Boston Is confined. In Its effects,
within the state lines of Massachu
setts.
“Any ten-year-old child knows
that If a group of banks, or perhaps
only one big bank, should close In
Chicago, the reverberations would
affect business harmfully from
Maine to California. The people of
Oregon have a right to have their
national government protect them
from harm, which may come to
them through reckless banking In
Florida.
“I meet men who oppose this
change. In defending state rights
they ask me If I would have the
federal government take over con
duct of the schools also. It seems
to me that the line of demerkation
is very clear. Of course I would
not want to have the federal gov
ernment take over the conduct of
the schools.
Would Affect All
“Suppose anything Imaginable
that might happen In the schools
of my city of Boston—a strike of
the pupils, or the Inclusion of some
debatable subject In the curriculum,
or whatnot How could that pos
sibly affect the people of Ken
tucky? Or Texas?
“But if two or three big banks
In Boston failed, every hank in
those states and every other state,
would he affected, seriously, and at
once. And those failures might he
due entirely to perfunctory, care
less, or even crooked examination
of those hanks by the state bank
ing examiners, or perhaps by some
oversight In drafting the state
banking lnws, or any one of a dozen
things about the set-up with which
no one outside Massachusetts had
anything to do whatever.
“Many 01 us remember the so
called panic of 1907. It was started
by the collapse of the Knickerbock
er Trust company In New York city.
There was no excuse '«r a depres
sion at that time. It was simply a
money panic produced by a very
local situation. We learned our les
son from that. As a result, we had
first the Aldrich Vreeland emergen
cy currency bill, and later the fed
eral reserve system.
“Now the time has come to take
the next step, and make Impossible
for the future nation-wide troubles
due * to preventable local disturb
ances. Hanking Is not a local func
tion any more. It Is national. If not
International. So It must he con
trolled, In toto and not just In part,
by the strong arm of the federal
government.”
Extend Authority
Not only does the administration
want to force all commercial hanks
to become national (tanks, as told
In a recent dispatch, but If desires
to have the authority of the Fed
eral Reserve board over the 12 re
gional banks made a great deal
stronger.
The fact Is the aim of the ad
ministration is not very different
from the purpose of the late Sena
tor Nelson W. Aldrich of Rhode Is
land, whose centrnl hank studies
were actually the basis of the fed
eral reserve system.
When the Democrats came Into
power In 1913 they rewrote the
Aldrich bill, giving him ns little
credit as possible. They did not
change the fundamental features
very much, (tut In several spectacu
lar details they vnried It. One of
the most Important details, in the
minds of the Democratic framers.
Including Senator Carter Class, then
chairman of the house banking and
currency committee, and Senator
Robert L. Owen of Oklahoma, then
chairman of the sennte committee
of the same name, was that Instead of
one central reserve bank they made
12.
Carrying their idea of decentral
ization as far as possible, they gave
a degree of independence to these
12 regional reserve banks, which
has often irked the federal board
since, and for that matter, various
Presidents, who found themselves
unnble to control the policies of the
individual reserve banks ns much
as they would have liked.
Bearing In mind that one of the
objects of the new system was to
get the financial control of the coun
try away from New York, and down
to Washington, It is rather curious
that the reserve hank which has
given Washington the most trouble
ever since has been the New York
bank. Headed by strong-minded
gentlemen, who knew what they
wanted, and had firmly fixed notions
of what was best, the New York
bank again and again disregarded
the pleadings, even, of the federal
reserve authorities.
Irks Reserve Board
Reserve board members still re
member with anger the stubborn
ness of the New York bank In the
early days of 1929, when the re
serve board was doing Its utmost
to stop the sensational rise In prices
on the stock exchange. This effort,
backed by President Hoover, proved
futile. What would have happened.
If the New York bank had been un
der the control of the reserve board,
no one is sure. But as good an 11
lustration as any other is that the
federal board began trying to hold
down speculation when American
Telephone was around 225. Where
as the boom gayly continued until
this stock touched 310.
Many contend that anything done
at that time would have been fu
tile so far as heading off the crash
Is concerned, hut the present ad
ministration wants to he able to
control the reserve hanks—to be
able to give them orders.
This Is not the same as the cen
tral hank Idea about which so much
has been said, and which Secretary
Morgenthau has advocated. So far
there Is no Indication that Presi
dent Roosevelt has been convinced
of the necessity of this. On the
contrary, all Indications are that he
Is not for It.
Soldier Bonus
The very top figure on which the
administration Is willing to com
promise on the soldier bonus Is
$1,200,000,000. So that the fight Is
to save something like $1,000,000,000
more. Friends of President House
velt say the sky Is pretty nearly the
limit to which he Is willing to go
In fighting to hold the bonus figure
at $1,200,000,000.
If the bill which should pass con
gross exceeds that amount, the Pres
Ident will veto It. beyond any doubt
The next step Is not much In dis
pute among those who have can
vassed the situation The house will
pass the bonus bill. In whatever
form It may be by that time, by
more than the necessary two-thirds
majority to enact a measure over
the veto.
The only doubt Is ns to the sen
ate. Friends of the White House are
confident that they will he nble to
prevent a two-thirds majority for
a bonus bill larger than $1,200,000,
000
Any opinion based on the can
vasses Is only an opinion. It can
not be anything else, for the simple
reason that there Is a small numbei
of senators who do not themselves
know at the moment what they will
do In such an emergency.
Copyrtf bt—WNU Barrie*.
%
Honey Anty
The Ants Clinging to the Ceiling Are Filled With Honey.
Prepared by National Geographic Society.
CWashington. I>. C.—WNtJ Service.
T HOUSANDS of tourists visit
the Garden of the Gods In Col
orado each year. They stand
In awe before fiery-red pinnacles
etched against the blue sky. They
marvel at those fantastic rock
formations—the gods of mythology,
with their human shapes, some of
their hats, most of their spears, and
a few of their cathedral spires,
towering above them in red sand
tone. They are unaware of an an
cient, dramatic “civilization” living
under their feet.
Yet here, in the sandstone ridges,
dwell creatures who might them
selves have stepped from living
myths—creatures with yellow heads
and large, Inflated, translucent bod
ies, who are, perhaps, the most self
sacrlflclng beings known.
In fairy tales boys and girls are
fattened by witches, so that they
may later be eaten with gusto. In
this race, dwelling in darkness in
the Garden of the Gods, children
are fed enormously, so that a few
may become overeapacious and
hang In underground cellars for
months, for years, as living casks
of honey. This would be terrifying
were these creatures human. In
stead, they are honey ants.
Honey ants are unhuman and un
like any other Insects in their trans
lation of themselves Into honeypots.
They gather a honey not unlike that
of bees and store it In round, thin
casks that let the beautiful amber
of honey shine through. But the
casks possess living trunks, living
heads, living legs. They hang by
living claws to the cellar roof, and
open a living spigot when an im
biber comes to drink. For this,
children are fed to enormous size
and chambered In eternnl darkness.
Here and there across the tufts
of grama grass and wild sunflower
heads, gleam little mounds of red
sandstone and hright-eolored quartz
—craters cut Into rock. The red,
lose stones roll out on all sides to
a diameter of about thirty inches,
with each mound rising to three or
four inches, pierced by a large cen
tral entrance hole.
Outside, all looks simple; hut In
side, a descending shaft runs verti
cally for a while before carrying off
sharply to a long gallery and other
shafts, forming galleries under gal
leries, all running in the same di
rection. Then, seldom far from the
surface, usually up or down a few
steps from the main gallery, single
or In suites, are the wine cellars,
the honey chambers, the forever
homes of the swollen members of
the race.
Wonderful Honey Chambers.
The honey chambers where they
hang are virtually death chambers,
except that life flows from them
freely. The severed casks of honey
In the burial grounds form a night
mare thing, cask rolled beside cask.
But beauty exists in the ants’ re
fusal to touch a honey cask after
Its owner has died. The little
crammed honey-pots stand Idle and
untouched, once they are rolled Into
the cemeteries.
Be an Alice In Wonderland In
such a home. If you will. Come
down that wide central stair, hav
ing ducked Into the rabhlt hole,
passed sentinels at the gate, and
given the essential salute. All Is
dusky dim; only that glimmering
round of daylight above. You turn
left down a long, narrow passage,
which leads Into deeper and deeper
darkness; hut the floor glints up
with a Arm polish—the floor delib
erately made smooth, not merely
worn smooth by the passing of In
numerable feet. All the walls are
smooth and straight, a sort of guide
In the dark.
Little feet rustle by—ants laden
with earth, excavating u new room
fur at the end of the passage. All
that mound above was formed hy
similar excavations; each pebble,
each shining bit of quartz, was car
ried along galleries up the main
stairs and out.
“Um-m-m I" An ant licks her man
dibles, giving off a vague sweet
scent. Honey! Somewhere near Is
a honey cellar. The ant has paused
In working to take a good stiff
drink, A shaft descends darkly to
the left; cautiously down, down, to
a grent vaulted, globe lighted room.
The vaulted room Is clustered
with enormous hanging lamps. No,
not lamps; pale amber spheres,
hanging about midway Into the
room, occupying half the cellar
space. The globes glow with the
light that Uvea In honey; their pale
Ifuid color la the rlchnesa of honey;
that scent rising from them Is the
warm flavor of honey. Each globe
Is a living jewel, nothing more nor
less than the distended body of a
living ant, filled almost to bursting
with limpid honey, clutched to the
roof hy its claws. They crowd the
arched ceiling; stir restlessly; twist
their yellow heads, squirm their
shoulders, but do not loosen hold.
Below them the clean walls slope
to the level floor, which is swept,
polished, made smooth. But the
roof is gritty, purposely left rough,
for the claws to maintain perch.
The roof arches half again the
height of the walls; a cellar made
deliberately for honey casks, to al
low free passage beneath, space for
keeping the honey casks clean and
the cellar free from mold.
An Ant Takes a Drink.
There are little soft sounds, as
the great globes stir, shift an arm
or foot, sway a little nearer to a
neighbor. “Careful! Don’t dare
lean. You might break mel” And
one turns a pointed yellow head
toward another’s. The globes are
not all clear amber. Queer dark
planes streak them. Their trans
lucent part Is inner skin stretched
to balloon proportions, pushing
apart the dark planes of the outer
body, forming Islands on a globe
map of strange world seas.
Suddenly an ant enters to drink. >
She looks like these hanging ants,
yellow-headed, yellow-waisted, but
she wears no inflated balloon. Her
antennae lift inquisitively. Already
the foretaste of honey is in her
mouth. She stands almost erect,
climbs to the hanging ant, leans to
its little close mouth. “Open,
please." Obediently its mouth opens.
Up comes a clear drop of honey,
pushed up by some inner move- ^
ment, to hang a moment, glistening,
on the cask’s lower mandible, be
fore droplng into the waiting ant’s
mouth.
She takes one, two, even three,
drops. “Thank yon; you may close.”
She climbs down, and the little
spigot mouth closes. Before the ant
leaves she daintily wipes her mouth
against the back of her hand,
smooths down her back hair; theifc
trots off, groomed, well fed.
Another ant enters; another, an
other. Each climbs, to a chosen
sphere; says, “Open, please,” with
that leaning of mouth to mouth and
the mouth opens and up comes the
honey drop.
Developed Into Honey Casks.
Poor little doomed creatures f
What determined such a fate? When
young they resembled other ants.
They had the same two stomachs—
one private, the other for commu
nal use. Much that entered their
mouths they never tasted, for It
passed at once Into the communal
crop, to be fed later to the queen
(whose duties are like those of
the queen bee); to males (resem
bling drones In a hive); to work
ers, or to baby ants, but some
showed an enormous capacity for
food. How they begged, their pale
mouths open all the time! Mow
these are the honey casks.
Late dusk in the Garden of the
Gods. The sandstone gods are cold
and dark. They have had their play
of light all day, while the red
mounds of the ants stayed quiet,
with gates closed. Seemingly alt
Inside were asleep; yet few ants
slept, being busy, most of them,
with underground tasks.
Now ants push out of that round
tubular hold so fast they cover the
mound. If this were daylight, no
red rock would shine. Yellow ants
are everywhere, by hundreds, by
thousands.
A ring of sentinels begins pacing
the outer edges of the mound. Oth
ers guard the gate, their heads %
thrusting up, like soldiers with bay
onets. Still others move about the
narrow platform surrounding the
gate, while one ant, then twenty,
then a whole column of ants, move
off over the ridge, preparing for a
march. In the vales between the
ridges, far, far away, low scrub
oak In the light of the moon, thrust
up their dark, thick leaves. The ants
know these dwarf oaks.
All night while they were away, 1
sentinels paced the outer walks. ^
Hungry now, surely; yet surprising
ly few sentinels request honey from
the filled ants. They only challenge
them and cross antennae with an
tennae in salute. Inside, work
ers crowd the entrance stairs, beg
ging, relieving the bearers of
weighty drops. Honeydew passe*
from month to mouth.