Image provided by: University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries, Lincoln, NE
About The frontier. (O'Neill City, Holt County, Neb.) 1880-1965 | View Entire Issue (June 6, 1935)
Left-Handedness Is Brain Mystery Light Thrown on Phr-nom enon of Ambidexterity. London.—A former do; ;* ^ mlssloner of London's nwttv'jv police once half seriously s.:«pes‘e - that a police car should he per,*T*> ally parked before 45 Hans par*— so often did Scotland Yard rec Hr* the services of the man who lives there. This man. also known as tfce “unofficial counsel to the G. 1. P ls Sir James Crichton Browne, au thor of some novels based on para doxes of legal medicine and serious works on nervous diseases, and vice president of the Royal Institution. Just 27 years ago he concluded a lecture on “Dexterity and the Bond Sinister." at the Institution with the words: “We cannot get rid of rlght-or left-handedness try how we may. To rate out the written troubles of the brain is no easy matter; to delete Its deeply engraven records Is a task Impossible." Expert Elucidates. A representative of the Dally Mail having recently read a report of the lecture through and falling to grasp It entirely called at 45 Hans place, thinking to catch Sir James capping. In one way he did, for Sir James had just been celebrating his ninety-fourth birthday. In another way, he didn't, for when he left he took with him an elucidation of tbe lecture of 1908 which, In the Dally Mall, reads in part as fol lows—an epic of Its sort: “Ambidextral culture, useful enough In some specially employed persons, must on the large scale tend to confusion. “Rlght-handednesa is woven In the brain and ao la left-handedness, and to change the pattern you muat unravel the tissues. My conviction is that as regards left-handedness It la well to leave well alone. “I am Interested to note, there fore, that our London school doc tors who have been Investigating the teaching of left-handed chtldren have come to the same conclusion as that at which I urrlved so long ago. Their memorandum Just pre sented lays stress on the serious danger that may result from pres sure In correcting left-handedness in children when It Is either natural or well established. ‘There nre cases of genuine und permaneat ambidexterity, notably that of Lord Bnden-Powell, that benefactor of his country, who Is accustomed to uBe both hands In terchangeably. “It hus never been suggested that left-handedness or umbldexterlty Is Indicative of any mental defect or Incompatible with the highest In tellectual (tower or with genius. Leonardo da Vinci was left-handed. “Natural left-bandedness is mere ly a trmiBference of power from one side to tbe other, and acquired am Plans Search for Log of Sir John Franklin Montreal.—F. K. Pease of Lon don and his dog Jill arrived In Montreal en route to the Arctic cir cle, where they expect to spend three or four years searching for the logbooks of Sir John Frnuklln. Pease, who brought with him 80 tons of equipment, Is a young man In search of adventure. Ue will walk, skll and sled It from Churchill to Chesterfield inlet, then on to the unnamed island where be believes the valuable logbooks are cuched. He will depend for guidance on a map, given to him by the dead Danish explorer, Knud Rasmussen, which Is believed to have been left by one of Franklin’s party on the Ill-fated quest for the northwest passage. Water for Horse Costly Davenport, lowu.—It cost Scott county $22 to water a junk man's bony nag during April and the su pervisors became so wrought up about it that they have ordered the county’s last survivor of tbe horse age—a public watering trough—re moved. Mhrvre-tP wears the special train ing of or«ss groups of muscles ki>t !if»r *y-r.ngt In the brain for oerra.r woeeirents. It Is all a mat r«r of cerebral organization. W»rt*r e* of the Brain. "The two hemispheres of the brain are not functionally symme trical. In a east majority of per sons the left hemisphere Is the more voluntary, the right the more automatic, but there Is an occasion al reversal of this arrangement “Now the hand and arm centers are adjacent to each other and closely linked with the speech cen ters In the brain, and It Is a sig nificant fact observed by the Lon don school doctors that stammering Is among the nervous systems In duced by Ill-Judged efforts to cor rect left-handedness In young chil dren In whom the evolutions of the brain centers are still going on. We have right and left-handed ness everywhere. In the human aub Ject It Is well to accept It as It Is, und make the best of It without at tempting any futile, perhaps haz ardous, transformation." Fireworks Producer Looks for Big Year Saint John, N. B.—The year 1935 will be a “booming” year, T. W. Hand, Canada's foremost “fireworks man," believes. Although his efforts have gone up in smoke for 47 years, Hand Is an optimist He manufactures most of the booming crackers and whirring rockets which Cana dians let loose at divers nation al, regional and local celebra tions. “The year 1935 will be one of the biggest celebration years In the last thirty,” he predicts. “The king’s silver Jubilee cele brations in Canada, plus annual fairs and exhibitions, will set a record for Illuminated shows this year.” Student Hopes to Hunt Big Game With Arrows Los Angeles.—An ambition which Don Carson, medical student, hopes soon to fulfill is to hunt big game in Africa with bow and arrow. With Howard Hill of Los An geles, nationally known archery ex pert. he hunted In the Florida Ever glades recently with only a bow and quiver full of steel-tipped arrows, bagging alligators, wildcats, opos sums and raccoons. Sheep Take Place of Cattle in West - -—_ Famous Old Trails Now Have Federal Sanction. Phoenix, Arlz.—The western trail herd have not paused, but today they are sheep and not cattle, with numbers driven regularly exceeding the count of the most famous old trails. It's a faux pas, of course, to mention sheep and cattle in one breath (to a cattleman), but the former still are featured In big drives—In fact the business of sheep driving has grown, while cat tle are moved by rail. It’s largely a matter of very sim ple business. Cattle lose weight when driven cross-country. Cows ore valued not by the hoof, but by the beefsteak, IN HIGH-STYLE Ilf (IIKRIK NlfHOI.AH Maid and matron, daughter and mother, silver-haired, blond or bru nette, "sweet sixteen" or past forty, It matters not, for everybody’s look ing young and up-and going In the sprightly prints, shiny straws and colorful bouquets which fashion Is gifting her followers with this spring and for summer to come. See mother pictured above In her stunning rough straw sailor topped with Its pert velvet bow, and her striking print frock, and wearing a corsage of those most elegant with thick tjteaks bringing more money. The money crop of sheep Is their wool, which can’t be walked away. So today some 300,000 complain ing “woollies” are taking the long trek from southern pastures in and about the Salt river valley to north ern Arizona, where they will wait out the summer at high altitudes whose ranges are not withered by the desert sun. The business of trail driving has become a big Industry. The govern merit sets aside regular strips for sheep to follow as they go north and as they return south Some make a round trip of 4<X) miles. Trails followed are as old as the Industry. They are picked original ly because of advantages of feed and water, and once set by custom received governmental sanction Homesteading or script purchase ol land In the sheep “strips" Is for bidden. The oldest of them recently blos somed out with a shiny new suspen slon bridge, which sheep weekly cross to avoid wetness and possl ble quicksand of the Salt river below. Following the drives demands alertness and sacrifice of herders. Mountain Hons are not a myth, but are plentiful In parts ol the sheep range. Wild dog packs nre a menace In the Salt river valley, and may kill scores In a night’s bloody orgy Coyotes are present everywhere, vigilant to take stragglers. City Has to Fence Self In to Keep Cattle Out Midland, Texas.—Depredations of cattle that roam the streets of Wink, boom oil town neur here, at will have caused the city author ities to resort to the old stand-by of ranch country wire fences. Mayor Thedford of Wink bought cedar posts and the entire corpora tion of Wink will be fenced off, be coming like the cities of old, which were wailed In—except that the wall will be barbed wire in this case. With the outside cattle fenced out, those who keep cows Inside the corporate limits of Wink will be re quired either to keep them staked out or In the pen, ns an ordinance forbids live stock of any kind run ning at large. and luxurious of flowers—orchids. Daughter, posing below In the Illus tration, competes with mother In this matter of wearing orchids Her new flowered taffeta frock Is a "dear.” It is trimmed In the Kegen cy manner with bows of bright vel vet ribbon. Do not fail to observe the swanky little sailor which climaxes this costume. It Is of shiny stitched blnck oilcloth. Earthquake Shakes Mountain Where Ark Landed lteports from Turkey tell of a violent earthquake at Erlvan which stirred Into volcanic activity Mount Ararat, the 17,(XK>-foot peak on which Noah's Ark landed, according to tradition. Many persons were killed nr Injured b» the temblor. The Illustration shows Erlvan with Mount Ararat in the background. gB^**gBBg!^BSgB=gg m SEEN-”1' HEARD around the National Capital S=-a-By CARTER ITELD5HH= Washington.—The question of new taxes, often hinted, though never given much official notice, Is right on top of the heap again as a result of the bonus situation. Every one on the inside in Wash ington, providing his vision was not distorted by what he wanted. Instead of what cold reason would demonstrate, has known for some time that some form of bonus legis lation would pass and that its passage, unless the whole Roosevelt formula was to be set aside, would necessitate additional taxes. In the President’s mind, the bo nus is on all fours with the cotton processing tax. “Where would the money come from?” his question to New England and southern demands for repeal of the cotton tax, applies equally to the drain on the treasury that a bonus compromise would make. The only change in the situation is that the probability now Is the compromise will result in taking sev eral hundred million dollars more out of the treasury than had been fig ured up to a few weeks ago. Fot ex ample, it has been known for some time that, despite the President’s views about the bonus, he would be glad to compromise for some thing like $1,200,000,000. But the prospect today is that it will take at least $1,500,000,000 to turn the trick. Incidentally the President put a powerful lever In the hnnds of the bonus advocates In insisting on a larger amount when he discussed that idea of $750 Invested now in a government bond amounting to $1,000 by 1945. If he had used the legal bank rate of Interest, 6 per cent. In calculating the "present value” of the bonus certificates, he could have said $500. Actually a little less. Low Interest Rates It is the first time that the low interest rates the government has been moving heaven and earth to bring about have worked against the federal treasury instead of for it. Over a stretch of ten years a difference of 1 per cent in inter est makes a great deal of difference, especially if the difference is com pounded. as It is in the illustration the President used. The sixth grade arithmetics used to tell us that money at 5 per cent doubles Itself in 12 years, compounded. It Is not definitely known just what the administration will recom mend in the way of new taxes. Congress leans heavily to heavy In heritance taxes. T^iis fits in with the Roosevelt policy of whittling away at inherited fortunes. It is in tune with heavy Income taxes, re duced Interest on investments, smaller profits for business, etc. In fact, It is almost a necessary part of New Peal philosophy. For granted that the Roosevelt program for small profits, etc., would work, the whole tendency would be to freeze existing conditions, prevent ing any new fortunes from be’.ng created, but, by the safety thrown nround existing enterprises, tending also to preserve existing fortunes. Assuming they were big enough to stand losses in certain directions— utility earnings, for example. So it appears likely that heavier inheritance taxes will be one of the surest factors In the new tax program. Under consideration also, though with no formal blessing as yet from the White House, Is the pro posed tax on life insurance pre miums. This would be 1 per cent, but would be paid by the com panies direct. Policy holders of course would really pay it, for their dividends and policy reduc tions would naturally be less. There is plenty of political dynamite In this one. Even more protests would be caused by another tax under con sideration by the treasury experts. This would reduce the present ex emption of -10 cents on movie admis sion to TO cents! Real “Drive” Possible If three thousand farmers Just happen to decide to pay a visit to Washington, enjoy the sights, tell congress to pass the Agricultural Adjustment administration amend ments, and listen to a speech by the President, with no organization to stir them up, no one to pay their expenses—the whole thing Just out of a blue sky, so to speak—what may happen when there Is really a "driver Washington may see the answer. For sooner or later there is go ing to be a serious move to re duce, or maybe eliminate, these ben efit payments. Already there is a strong conviction—and those who hold it are getting reinforcements all the time—that the whole system of benefits is wrong. Wrong In that In the long run it Is not a good thing for the farmers themselves. Then there Is another large group who want to curtail or eliminate the benefits for an entirely differ ent reason. This group does not think the treasury can stand the strain indefinitely. Or, to put It another way. that the taxpayers (for the benefits are paid out of proc essing taxes) cannot stand the strain. Put the two groups together and vou have a pretty fair nucleus. It ' would not take much augmenting, say next year, to have a majority in congress for curtailment If not elimination. Then there would be a real march on Washington by the embattled farmers. Those who have considered the whole problem say that is very un likely prior to election. They say the President would never dare to attempt to cut ofT the farmers’ payments until the re-election is safely achieved. That, naturally. Is Just opinion. It is the ordinary mental process of a politician—one who knows that Franklin D. Roosevelt Is also a poli tician, and who cannot conceive his doing anything so unpolitlc as kick ing a lot of perfectly good voters In the fnce just on the eve of their going to the polls. Doubtful Logic They may be right and they may be wrong. But it was the same sort of logic that led many allegedly astute political minds to assume that the President would not veto the bonus bill. Including Huey I/ong. Including Father Coughlin. Including many others. So that maybe this logic cannot be taken at its face value. It might be said that the two things are very different. That ve toing a bonus bill never yet has hurt a President. It certainly did not hurt Coolidge. There is grave doubt that it hurt Hoover, although difficult to prove. Most veterans who happen also Po be politicians will tell you privately that Hoover was hurt a great deal more by his handling of the bonus marchers than by his veto of the bonus hill. But the present situation pre sents the sort of thing that has sel dom been tested. It Is not a case of refusing to try a scheme about which there is violent difference of opinion, such ns the equalization fee Idea of the McNary-Haugen bill. It is a case of cutting off money pay ments, which were already being re ceived by a large class. And that might be difficult! Different Story I Lots of water has flowed down stream since the good old days when both house and senate rushed through the administration’s secur ity and stock exchange regulation bill. That measure, drafted by two of Felix Frankfurter’s boys, Cohen and Landis, was put through in the early days—when President Roose velt’s wishes did not have to be ex pressed by the king himself to be come a law. The word of any of his ministers, or his lieutenants, was enough. And everybody knew that Frankfurter’s boys were close to the throne. But what a different story now! Which does not mean the bonus— that always was outside the ordi nary orbit of administration pro gram material. Nor the World court. Nor the St. Lawrence seaway if and when it comes up. No, the difference shows up on just the ordinary run of the mine, so to speak, legislation. And the answer is two fold. First, the legislators on Capitol Hill have discovered that the king’s ministers may be very powerful for a time, but their time is apt to he short. Douglas is gone—lives in outer darkness. Not forgotten—far from it—but just out of the picture. Hugh Johnson is out, still praising the “Chief,” but kicking the shins of the king’s ministers vigorously. Though of course loyalty always had lain to the king, not the king’s min isters. The most loyal subject could always deplore the folly of the king's advisers. That has been true since the dawn of history. It is not a development of the Roose velt administration. Now the most powerful minister in Washington is not very frighten ing to the bad boys on Capitol Hill if they think he is apt to be out of the picture say six months hence. That’s the way politics is. There is no use trying to please anybody who won’t be around to return the favor later on. Especially if pleas ing this person in temporary author ity means irritating folks back home who Just may remember it on election day. The most impos ing figure loses Impressiveness if the pedestal is noticed to be wob bly. And the national legislators have come to the conclusion that there is not a single firm founda tion under a single one of Roose velt’s present advisers. May Still Be Around This is probably a very jaundiced view—on their part. It may be that lots of them will be around, and powerful, a year hence. But the fact that so many have slipped prevents any one of them from speaking with the old note of au thority, so far as Capitol Hill is concerned. Congress abolished its lame ducks. After a senator or member of the house is defeated he no longer can either vote or debate. But there is a certain lame duck suspicion attached to all the brain trusters. Then there is another reason. In the early days of the Roosevelt ad ministration the jobs done in draft ing legislation were very workman like indeed. As, for example, the aforementioned Cohen and Landis securities and stock exchnnge reg ulation hill. Whether one approved the Ideas behind the measure or not, there was no discounting the skill with which the precise Intent of the framers was spread on the statute books. Copyright—WNU Servlc*. 'TYLcm±6^i/ta± The Black Virgin of Montserrat. Prepared by National Geographic Society. EWashington. D. C.—WNU Service. AUDLY out of sight of the smoking factory chimneys and scarcely out of hearing of the noise and bustle of Barce lona, busiest and most restless city of Spain, a medieval Benedictine monastery clings to the face of a fantastic stone peak that rises bold ly from the brown foothills of Cato luna (Catalonia). It is Montserrat, the nation’s holiest shrine, to which thousands of the Spanish faithful make pilgrimage each year to pay homage to what is called the Black Virgin. Montserrat is the name of the strange mountain, and also of the monastery, which clings like a swallow’s nest halfway up Its pre cipitous cliffs. The Black Virgin, a wooden image darkened by age, is not the only reason why it is a place of pilgrimage. Montserrat, in Catalan tradition, is the Mon salvatsh or Monsalvat of the Mid dle ages, site of the castle of the Holy Grail. The Arabs called it Gistaus, or the stone watchman. Here Ignntius of Loyola, a wound ed soldier, knelt in prayer, and went away to found the Society of Jesus. In more recent years the Montserrat choir school has become celebrated. “Ah, but senor,’’ a hotel man ager asked a traveler, “have you seen Montserrat? It is Spain's most sacred shrine. It is very quaint and old, and the Benedictine monks will let you live with them in the mon astery for three days! It is not far from Barcelona. You should see the Black Virgin, and the view from the monastery is magnificent!” Monserrat is accessible to Bar celona by both railway and road. One way is as picturesque as the other; for, while the highway climbs to the monastery in a series of hairpin turns and horseshoe curves, the last few miles of the 35-mile railway journey may be made on a narrow-gauge rack-and pinion line or in the bobbing cage of a new aerial cableway. Trip There Is Interesting. Many, who are In no hurry, choose the railway and the rack-and-plnlon route. Once clear of the spreading suburbs of Barcelona, the main-line railroad strikes boldly out into the beautiful plain of Sardanola. The countryside here resembles southern California! There are green fields with angular irrigation ditches; rocky river bottoms, rising at first gently and then abruptly, into brush-covered foothills; and scrag gly rind unkempt clumps of eucalyp tus and pepper trees around the water holes. Gradually the scenery changes, as it enters a region of irregular hills and rocky valleys, sparsely cov ered with vegetation. The line twists and turns, now hurdling a deep ravine on a stone viaduct, now plunging Into a short tunnel. Not until one is very close to Montsprrat does the mountain come into view. The train emerges from a tunnel and suddenly a giant mass of rock seems to spring from the foothills, flinging a thousand ca thedral pinnacles skyward! As the train swings closer, so that only a deep river valley separates it from the Brobdlngnagian mass, a fan tastic stone forest of smoothly weathered domes, sugar loaves, minarets and organ pipes Is sil houetted against the sky. Of the monastery nothing is vis ible at first. Then, one catches a glimpse of tiny buildings which seem to be carved from the rocky cliffs themselves. The little build ings are rather extensive; but against the vast bulk of the moun tain they seem no larger than wren houses. The group of buildings snugly fills a notch or narrow ravine cut deep into the mountain side. A thousand feet above it. the topmost pinnacles of the mountains rise menacingly, but the notch is safe enough. Thousand Years Old. While most of the present build ings are comparatively new, the monastery itself dates from A. D. 976; and legend reports that a nun nery that preceded it was founded in 880. So faithfully have the monks followed the lines of the older parts of the monastery in making addi tions that even the new garage, for modern pilgrims who come by motor, has an age-old air of per manence. The archway emerges into a sun lit plaza or market place, filled with lowland peasants hawking their wares, and groups of pilgrims of all classes actively and noisily bar gaining for food. Among city Span iards dressed in modern garb, one sees farmers in red caps, or gorros, and sandals; working men in velvet knee breeches and faded scarlet sashes; wives with mantillas and shawls drawn closely over their heads; pairs of somatenes, the typi cal Catalan state police; monks in sable cloaks and children of all ages. A few pannier-laden donkeys nibble at the grass under the stunt ed trees. Except that the setting is undoubtedly Spain, it is all very much like a page out of “Canter bury Tales.” A traveler directed to a terraced arcade at the far side of the court, within which is the office, was given somewhat of a surprise. Over the desk of the father in charge of pil grim registration was a shining electric light, and at his right hand was a telephone! He had not ex pected such innovations in a Bene dictine monastery. Had he been better acquainted with the rule of St. Benedict he would have known that the manner of life among Benedictine monks has never been austere. The Black Virgin. In order to see the sacred image which is shown at the 10 o’clock mass one hurries down to the court yard. A steady stream of worship ers tiles through the carved door way of the basilica. According to legend, La Moreneta, as the Black Virgin is called, was carved by St. Luke himself and brought to Bar celona A. D. 50 by St. Peter. Dur ing the Moorish invasion and occu pation it was hidden by Christian) monks in one of the caves of Mont serrat near the site of the present monastery. Years later shepherds discovered it and told stories of strange music heard in the vicinity. An effort was made to bring it down from the mountain, but, al though the statue is not quite life size, it could not be moved beyond the ledge where the monastery now stands. The basilica, accordingly, was erected to protect it, and the monastery built to care for the throngs of pilgrims who climbed the mountain to worship at the Vir gin's shrine. Especially do young couples come to Montserrat, for the blessing of La Moreneta is said to insure a happy union. The dinginess of the interior of the basilica serves only to accentu ate the brilliance of the altar, with Us jewels, silver plate and bright vestments. It was on this altar in the Sixteenth century that Loyola laid his sword when he abandoned his military life to devote himself Jo the service of Christ. Above the high altar, surrounded by lighted randies, is a small stage concealed •y two velvet curtains. You keep your eye on those curtains for you know the image must be back of them. Presently the chanting of the priests increases in volume, and the curtains are drawn slowly aside. You gasp! Even though you have been told that the image is black ened from age, you had not expect ed anything like this. White vest ments nnd a light background make the face and the hands gleam like jet! For a silent moment every one gazes, and then the curtains drop together. Only so long is the sacred image exposed to view. Quietly you make your way to a door leading upon a paved terrace. "El Cami dels Dehotalls” (The Iload of the Drops), a sign reads. The "drops” do not refer, as they well might, to the breath-taking abysses along the side of the path, but to a kind of grotto, moistened by trickling water, which is reached after a few minutes’ walk. Here is one of the finest pano ramas in Montserrat. Almost half of Cataluna is spread below. Sur prisingly near is the sparkling blue water of the Mediterranean, while the white peaks of the Pyrenees seem but a good stone’s throw away. The river, which was a silver rib bon from the cog railway, is only a thread from this dizzy height. It is a view to stir the imagination and to make the head swim.