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About The frontier. (O'Neill City, Holt County, Neb.) 1880-1965 | View Entire Issue (April 11, 1935)
San Francisco Bridges and Exposition The site selected for the Shu Francisco exjiosltlon or UM8 Is a shoal lying beside Yerba Buena Island In San Francisco hay. The bridge across the bny. eight and one-fourth miles long, will provide access to the exposition. The Golden Gate bridge, a little more than one mile In length, faces the exposition grounds look ing toward the Pacific ocean. The picture shows an architect’s drawing of the coming big fair. Mysterious People Found in Ireland Scientists Discover New and Surprising Facts. Dublin.—Ireland, lund of fairy legends und romantic twilights, Is being put under the scientific micro scope by American experts from Harvard university, who are en gaged In a five years' archeological, anthropometric, social and econom ic survey of the country. As a result, all kinds of surprls tng, fascinating facts are being dis covered, Including u mysterious type of dark-haired, blue-eyed and fair-skinned people. Dr. a VV. Du Pertuls, head of the racial section of Harvard’s survey, who has established temporary headquarters ut Ennis, County Clare, described how he and his lit tle band of experts are taking the measure of Paddy and Molly. With him Is his wife, an enthusiastic worker, who acts as recording sec retary. Will Measure 10,000. Ten thousand people will be measured and classified In 18 months, Doctor Du Pertuls hopes. In five minutes 125 facts are col lected about each Individual. At the end of the survey the Harvard workers will be to possession of one and a quarter million facts, which will be taken to Harvard and tabulated, a two-year task. One thousand people will be measured In the Clare district dur ing the next mont*, Doctor Du Per tlus said. When all the facts have been di gested at Harvard, Doctor Du Per tuls hopes they will answer such questions as: Who were the Celts? Where are their descendants? And so on. From his preliminary work Doc tor Du Pertuls hus roughly classi fied the different predominant types as Nordic, John Bull, Sligo, Oalway, Leitrim, Midland, Red Head, Aran, Mnyo, Kerry and South East. Irish literature about “types” of people is not a true guide, he has found. "For Instance,” Doctor Du Per tuts said, "In County Galway, where from the literature one would expect to find a dark swarthy type of Spanish extraction I found very little of such. Of Spanish Descent. “Similarly in County Clare I am led to believe that the dark type will be found on the coastline ow ing to a portion of the Spanish Ar mada being wrecked there. “It may be a pure racial type. 1 did, however, discover one type of more than usual interest, possess ing blue eyes, durk hair, and fair gklns. At present I have no Idea how this type originated. It Is what we call a ‘dlsharmonic combination.’ We have in this type a most un usual and peculiar combination of Rooster Has Two Hearts, Each Working by Itself East Windsor, Conn.—When Emil Mulnite killed one of his choice roosters for dinner he found It hnd two normal sized hearts, each op era ting Independently of the other. The only other abnormality was an enlarged liver. The rooster, he said, did not differ In outward ap pearance from others of a dock batched last spring. Dionne Babies Balk News of Oldest Man Corbell. Ont.—Within ten miles of this village, birthplace of the Dionne quintuplets, lives a man who spent more than 10O years In this district before ever be ing mentioned in the news. While world interest centers on the quintuplets, John liireh ts almost overlooked, although he is al lowed to be the oldest man in Canada. Last June 4, he cele brated his one hundred and elev enth birthday. colors, from what we know of the other peoples of the world. "It may be a pure racial type or the results of a mixture. If a pure type It may represent the remnants of the Celtic people; If a mixture, the remnants of the Milesian and the Flrebolg peoples." Doctor Du I'ertuls said It was possible to Identify present day types with earlier types hy com paring measurements of the pres ent day head and other parts of the body with those of skeletons and skulls found in various parts of the country by the archeological section of the survey. One of Ids objects Is to prepare a true living type map of Ireland for comparison with the archeolog ical early type picture, the data for which Is based on the buds of skeletons and skulls. Invalid Mascot Dog Is Rescued by Coast Guard Norfolk, Va.—The coast guard was called out here the other day to rescue a tiny dog whose eyes were blindfolded and whose feet were encased In leuther shoes. The dog was the mascot of the American steamer Cranford. It de velo[>ed an Infected eye and the crew covered the optic with a bandage and put soft leather shoes on Its feet to prevent the animal from scratching the sore spot. The animal fell overboard from the deck of the ship and was found struggling In the water by a pass ing coast guard patrol crew. The guard lieutenant ordered the rescue and the pet was returned to the Cranford. Steers Replace Mules Mobile, Ala.—Steers Instead of mules will be used on Alabama re habilitation farms in tilling their 19115 crops. This plan last year re duced the rehabilitation cost of $100 per family. About 10,000 steers will be used. First Vineyard is Credited to Noah He Was a Frenchman, Wine Tasters Are Told. Paris.—That Nonh was a French man and planted the first vineyard Is a foregone conclusion In the minds of a group of devout wine tasters who have Just organized n society here called "The Knights of the Wine-Tasters.” Too much attention, they aver, has been given to the exploits of Monsieur Noah and his Ark enter prise. nnd not enough puLllclty to the fact that It was he who first sowed the seeds of the beverage that has made France famous and Intox icated the world. The new-founded order of the Knights of the Wine-Tasters honors three people—Noah, the first wine grow’er; Bacchus, the god of wine; SUIT SEASON By ('HEKIK NIC HOLAS If In doubt buy a suit, for this Is going to be a big suit season, and there Is no question about it. Sim pie suit types like the one pictured are especially smart. This is a charming model of sheer black wool en the skirt of which is topped with gray and white striped taffeta. This costume is equally attractive with out the swagger jacket. The high ruff about the throat Invites spe lux, a washable velvet, aud crystelle necklines are sponsored far and wide this season. Also the bell sleeves of the jacket are character istic of the new trend. Her beret Is worn bonnet fashion You will see many of the younger set v.eai lng them Just like that. and St. Vincent, patron saint of wine-growers. "Our emblem," a member said, "Is a wine-taster, or tiny glass tube re sembling a miniature pipe profes sional wine-tasters use when deter mining the respective virtues of the fruit of the vine. “Of course, water drinking Is counted as a misdemeanor, and nat urally all water drinkers are barred from membership In our order," he continued. "In fnct, In our ritual there are some pretty bitter tilings about water drinkers and particu larly about American prohibition ists. Our criticisms, however, are cordial. We are very frank, but not malicious. We meet only In wine cellars and we have a grand mas ter and a grand lodge. We hold our conclaves by candlelight." Thus the Americanization ol France continues. Secret orders heretofore have been practically nonexistent in France. There are no college fraternities, no Knights of Pythias or Columbus, or any thing else. The Masonic order was the only exception until the present founding of "The Knights of the Wine-Tasters." Although outsiders may discuss the virtues of the new order with members, no outsider (s permitted to witness the initiatory ceremo nies. There are no press confer ences allowed. The ritual Is said, however, to resemble the ancient Investiture of a knight by his king, and It Is known that at all meetings the knights must wear the distinc tive uniform of the order and re cite all the pass-words and give the hlgh-xigns before the wine-tast ing beglfis. Fussy Old Snake Won’t Eat Nice Fat Chicken St. Louis.—Such delicacies of diet as white mice, fat young rats, small chickens and birds so far have failed to tempt the appetite of the eight foot bushmaster, prized tropical snake now at the St. Louis zoo. but officials hold no fear for Its well being, according to 11. Marlin Per kins. Perkins, youthful curator of rep tiles. spent six months In South America four years ago In a search for such a specimen, but It was only a recent lucky chance that sent the snake here. “These snakes, which are highly poisonous, are found only In South America and very rarely does any white man qualified by knowledge to study these vipers, see them,” lie commented. “Our specimen arrived in fine con dition,” Curator Perkins said, "and lor this reason we do not fear for Its welfare. One factor more than anv other should tend to keep such a viper alive. It does not have to keep up a certain body tempera ture.” Ily this was meant that since the snake Is a cold blooded animal it ilocs not require food In order to keep its body heat constant as does man and certain animals. SEEN"'HEARD around the National Capital ».By CARTER FIELD——Si« Washington. — During the next few months President Roosevelt will seem to be moving a little to ward ttie right, on every issue of any consequence except the public utilities. Actually there will be very little change, but the appear ance will seem very Important, and there will be loud cries from the radicals. In fact, the left fringe of the brain trust is already disturbed. So much so that it is feeding out propaganda Intended to have a di rect effect on Roosevelt personally. It Is certainly not intended for any one else, for the last thing these particular radicals want to do is to hurt him. The trouble with them is that they have not analyzed the higher politics of the situation. They are worried about an eddy In stead of the main course of the river. And their conversation Is so fn*e, at ail times, that even if the President was concerned about their attitude he would not dare tell them. For in that case they would not he able to rest until they had told their favorite column con ductors, just to show they were still In the "inner circle” and knew what was going on. The present situation starts, not with the President, hut inside the Republican camp. Yes—strange as it may seem—there is still such a thing. The Republicans, not all of them hut some of their strategists, are simply delighted with the Huey Long-Father Coughlin situation. What they want more than any thing else in the world is to see a third party—a very radical third party—with a Presidential ticket in the field next year. Their theory is, of course, that this radical party will garner a few electoral votes—Wisconsin, the Da kotas, possibly Montana, and may be Washington and Nebraska; that it will poll a very large vote in some of the big eastern states such as Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois—enough votes in this last group to make sure that the Republican candidate would walk off with the electoral votes. They are not worrying about Con necticut—which stood by Hoover, although the majority was very small, nor Rhode Island, which has suffered so in its textile industry that Republicans feel It is “In the hag." See California Safe Nor are they worried about Cali fornia, whose hig electoral vote is now so essential. The Golden Gate state’s rejection of Upton Sinclair, and its outraged protests about the reciprocal trade treaties, makes them sure of it. Altogether, they think, their only problem is to get the right candi date and the right platform! Of course, in the Roosevelt view, that is just where they fall down hard. Who, Roosevelt’s friends in quire. cynically, would the candi date be? And what could the plat form say? But It has never been part of any Roosevelt strategy to underrate an opponent, nor to leave any stone un turned just because it did not seem necessary to move it. As witness the efforts in last fall's election. So Roosevelt is maneuvering Into his favorite middle ground position, between the Tories and the rad icals. And to make this more se cure, he is going to seem a little conservative for a while. He con fidently expects to scare the Repub licans to death by this course, for the natural reaction will be just what they have been planning, with one important exception. Roosevelt plans to have the rad icals grow in strength, while he grows in strength with voters who are normally Republican! But who are frightened at the radical men ace. Meanwhile the radical fringe of his own supporters, trying to figure his course out, have come to the conclusion that the trouble is that Louis McHenry Howe has been sick. So they say M. H. McIntyre, the secretary who makes all the President's appointment, will not let anyone except conservatives see him ! "Scotch” Tied Up Millions of gallons of tine—and perhaps not so good—Scotch whis ky, are lying in government ware house's, under the eagle eye of Uncle Sam's customs officers, and with little apparent prospect of being marketed through ordinary chan nels. This stock offers a tine chance for bargains, if one could only ap praise the quality of the liquor In some fashion But how to do it? How to tell what is really good liquor, so to speak, and what would have no appeal whatever? For the trouble Is that this whis ky Is what the trade calls “unknown brands." it is perhaps the best ar gument in favor of heavy advertis ing for brands and labels that has ever been presented. For, while this whisky is lying unsolicited and unwanted in the warehouses, run ning up storage charges and threat ening to add freight shipment charges tiome, the regular brands are moving about as expected. Normally, such a stock of any commodity hanging over the mar ket, would play hob with every body in that particular trade. But the owners of this whisky cannot dump it on the market at whatever the market price happens to be, for there Is no market price for an un known brand. The man who drinks Scotch whis ky normally prefers a certain brand. He may like half a dozen brands. But when lie is buying whisky he buys what he thinks is one of his favorites. He Is not interested in some brand that he never heard of before, except at a great sacrifice in the price. And with an import duty of $5 a gallon, plus an excise duty of $2 a gallon, plus stamp and other tnxes, It is not possible to of fer these unknown brands at what looks like a real bargain. The tax collectors are not offering to share the loss. They Insist on their $7 to $9 tax on each gallon regardless of quality or marketsliility. Tried for Clean-up This big undigested stock or Scotch, much of which is in New York, Boston and Baltimore, is the result of two attempts at specula tion when the prohibition ban was first lifted. In the first rush, a great many foreigners saw a good chance to make a clean-up. They knew that Americans had been buy ing—from bootleggers—all possible sorts of liquor with apparently very little concern as to brands or varie ties. And at very high prices. So they thought they could buy up a lot of whisky cheap in Scotland, ship to tips country on consign ment, and take their protits. Meanwhile an equal number of speculatively inclined persons in this country, who had never been in the liquor distributing business and knew little, if anything, about its ramifications, took out import ers' permits, and applied for large quotas. Then they proceeded to buy large quantities of liquor, some times In bottles and sometimes having it bottled. All went nicely until, the liquor arrived in the ports of entry. Then came the problem of selling it. And there were no offers. The drinkers, who, during prohibition, had taken anything that was wet, inside a good-looking package, were imbued with the idea that they wanted particular brands. The ordinary liquor trade knew how to handle the well-advertised brands, and had no Idea of tying up a lot of money in brands that might not move, and at any rate would have to be pushed. The real murder, of course, lies in the fact that so large a percentage of the total cost of a bottle of imported whisky is tax, and therefore not susceptible of he ing shaved. A sev»re cut on the pnrt of the price exclusive of tax would not appear to the customer such a big reduction! It would not deter him from taking his favorite brand. Unpleasant Surprises President Roosevelt has had a number of unpleasant surprises in his attempt to swat the utilities— particularly on the Wheeler-Ray burn holding company bill. It is no secret that one of the surprises nns made one of the hill’s “authors” — Senator Burton K. Wheeler of Montana—just a little sorry thnt he sponsored it. Then the local yelps! For instance, Pres ton S. Arkwright, president of the Georgia Power company, who ex pressed the opinion that the bill would “hurt Georgia more than New York.” Perhaps the Senntor Wheeler case is tiie most interesting of the sur prises. As soon as the utility crowd realized what was hap pening. they got very busy, in deed, in Montana. The situation is something like this: The utility In terests, alone, nre not very impor tant In numbers or influence in Mon tana, but they are allied with. If not controlled by, the .same interests that control Anaconda ‘copper. Now Anaconda is very influential, indeed, In Montana. In fact, they say that Anaconda generally gets precisely what it wants, even on election day. And it so happens that, as these gentlemen want not only that their utility interests should do well, but their copper in terests also, they have seen to it thnt their utility interests buy all their copper for wires, etc., from Montana copper mines. Now It happens further that the ramifications of the holding com pany interests involved stretch to many far distant states. If the proposed legislation should break up the holding companies, and all the operating companies should he Independent, presumably, it has been carefully pointed out to mine workers of Senator Wheeler’s state that the operating companies not In Montana would buy their copper in the cheapest market, it is also pointed out with much force that the cheapest copper to be ob tained, despite the tariff, is not Montana mined metal, but import ed. whether from Africa or Chile. All of which has brought a re markable deluge of protests against the holding company bill from Mon tana. the copper miners joining the shareholders and bondholders. Mon tana is not a large state in popula tion. though the third largest in the Union in area, but enough people became excited about the situation to run an average of about 500 let ters of protest a day to the senior Montana senator’s office. And not enough letters of approval to be worth considering! Copyright.—WNU S«r»lc«. Qa\Xaj Fighting Ants With Smoke in Brazil. Prepared by National G^opraphlc Society. Washington, L>. C.—WNU Service. THE word “ant” in Japanese consists of two complex char acters. The first character means “insect”; the second, “unselfish, justice and courtesy.” In other words an ant is “an un selfish, just, courteous insect.” That is a delightful compliment, and many species may deserve it; but there are ants as savage and ruthless as the ancient Huns or Mongols—ants that devote their lives to foraging In vast armies, de stroying the nests of others, and killing all insects and animals in their way. There are queen ants that enter a foreign colony, ingratiate them selves with the citizens, foully mur der the true queen, and usurp her place. There are ants that raid the nests of their neighbors and kidnap their young as slaves. Some, high in the scale of ant civilization, make their own gar dens and grow their own special food. There are unts that keep “cows”; others that gather and store honey in barrels made from living nest-mates; still others that use their own young as spools of silken thread in making nests. In sheer numbers, too, the ants challenge imagination. Their legions outnumber those of every other land creature in the world, except possibly some minute forms of life. So far, some 8,000 species, subspe cies, and varieties have been col lected and painstakingly classified. Interesting Study. The immense amount of work de voted to studying ants in all regions of the world bears witness to their magnetic appeal to the interest of man. Thus there have been published monographs on the ants of Mada gascar and of New Caledonia; cata logues of the species which inhabit Brazil, Chile, Switzerland, Connecti cut, and the peninsula of Baja Cal ifornia. One huge volume.concerned with the ants of the Belgian Congo alone contains 1,139 pages. The common little yellow house ant takes readily to life on ship board, and so has traveled to all parts of the world. It takes kind ly, also, to heated houses, and so, although a tropical ant, it thrives in northern countries and has be come a pest everywhere. Some warm day, preferably aft er a shower, find a nice, flat stone on a sunny hillside and turn it over. There probably will be an ant nest beneath it—a series of channels leading from one cavity to another. Worker ants rush about, excited at the sudden uncovering of their home. One, very much larger than the others, is the queen, or there may be several of them If the colony is a large one. If there are males, they are pres ent only during the mating season; they are usually much smaller than the rest, generally dark in color and wearing large wings. Females Protected. Piles of larvae and pupae, a few of them unusually big and destined to become females, will be whisked below out of sight while you are watching. If you look closely, you may see the eggs, little clusters of tiny white specks adhering together. The “ant eggs” of commerce are not eggs at all, but pupae of the large red ant. The cocoons, from which adult ants soon would emerge, are gathered in large quan tities In Europe and dried and ex ported, to be used as food for gold fish and captive soft-billed birds. At zoos a few of them are put in custard fed to the anteaters. In our nest under the stone there may be one or more reddish beetles stalking slowly about among the ants. These are guests or para sites. Often they have a strange hold upon the affections of their hosts. They beg liquid food regur gitated from the communal crop, or storage stomach, of the ants, which sometimes so neglect their own young to pamper these insidi ous spongers that the colony be comes debilitated and dies out. On the roots of plants in the passages there may be plant lice, or aphids and coccids, the “cows” of the ants. As the weather gets warmer, the lice will be taken out and “pastured” on the roots of oth er plants, sometimes on Indian corn, where they do much damage to the farmers’ crops. In this ease, ants are an accessory to the fact. It is the aphid that does the harm, but the damage is greatly exaggerated by the ants’ tender care. By a stroking process similar to milking, the ants obtain from the plant lice a highly valued food sub stance, honey-dew. This Is the sweet sap of plants after It has been sucked out and passed through the bodies of the tiny insects, most of which take more than they can ab sorb. As this forms the chief food of many ants, they tend and protect their cows as conscientiously as do any pastoral people. Sometimes they even build sheds of carton, a papery substance, on the trunks of trees to shelter them. At the ap proach of cold weather the ants sometimes gather them into their nests on plant roots, taking them out to pasture again when the dan ger of frost is over and their proper food plants are growing. One Point in Common. All ant colonies have one point in common. The members, excepting, of course, guests, parasites, and other intruders, are all children of a widow queen who has left the home nest on her nuptial flight. After mating high in the air, the male always dies, as he falls to earth far from the home nest and is helpless without workers to care for and feed him. The female, how ever, has marvelous resources with in herself, and all alone she estab lishes a home and a family of her own. After fertilization the queen creeps into some cranny beneath bark or under a stone; sometimes she constructs a small shelter of crude paper made by chewing bark from a tree. Now she lays her first eggs. During the time when she was a larva and a newly hatched female in her home nest, she had been con stantly cared for and even pam pered by the workers of the parent colony. Special foods were given her. From now on there is no further use for wings, so she scrapes or bites them off. The wing muscles disintegrate and add to the stored up food which she is able to feed her first babies by regurgitation. The first hatched are runts and weaklings, but ants, nevertheless. Their instinct is fully developed and they go to work collecting for their mother and for their new and constantly appearing sisters. An ant colony has been created. The queen, her troubles over, be comes a mere egg-laying machine, carefully fed and protected by her children. Although practically all ant colo nies are founded by a lone female, there are some extraordinary excep tions. One is Carebara, an ant of Asia and North Africa, noted for being a great enemy of the “white ants,” or termites, on which it feeds. Takes Help With Her. When the mother-to-be Carebara goes on her honeymoon, a number of the almost microscopic workers attach themselves to her legs by their jaws, and in this way are with her to be of help when she starts the new colony. Extraordinary and somewhat pi ratical methods of establishing col onies are followed by the females of some ants, usually species not physically capable of caring for their own first brood. One kind steals into the nest of a related species, hurriedly seizes and makes a pile of the pupae already there, and fiercely defends them from their rightful owners. When adult ants emerge from these pupae they are loyal to their kidnaper mother and, antlike, commence to care for her eggs and for the young hatched from them. This results lu a mixed colony of two species. A few species of western ants of the genus Formica have very small females, thickly covered with soft yellow hair. Entering a colony of another, though closely related, species, they so ingratiate them selves with the workers that they are adopted and the rightful queen is murdered by her own progeny, who devote the rest of their lives, to the new queen and her young. They original inhabitants eventually die off, leaving their native nest en tirely in the possession of the usurp er and her brood. In north Africa a fertile queen of the “decapitating ant" (Bothrlomyr mex decapitans) will fly to a nest of Tapinoma, a much larger ant. and loiter around the entrance un til Tapinoma workers seize her. They take her into the nest, but for some reason do not eat her; where- i upon she climbs onto the back of’ the rightful queen and saws at her neck until the head falls otT. Then the Tapinoma workers adopt her and care for her eggs and young until the nest is populated only by the offspring of the regicide. More males and females are pro duced; queens fly away, find an other nest of Tapinoma, and repeat the process.
