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 23, 1938)
essr .rs-w- ."" 'HflfM I): What Shanghai ) I Is Like ] Shanghai’s Skyline From the Race Track. Huge, Picturesque Shanghai and Its Famous International Settlement Prepared by National Geographic Society, Washington, D. C.-WNU Service, WHILE the major bat tles between Japanese and Chinese forces have raged of late in the northeast province of Shan tung, Shanghai still has re minders of the conflict which swept through the city last year. In accordance with ar rangements of long standing between the Chinese and foreign governments, the lat ter maintain units of their troops at several points in China, one of the most im portant of these being the International Settlement in Shanghai. Excepting occasional stately junks with eyes painted on either side of the high bow to enable them to "see their way," there is little to suggest the Orient on the way up the Whang poo river in Shanghai. Before the dock is reached, however, China ob trudes itself upon the sight and its odors penetrate the nostrils. From a downstream wharf it is a half hour’s ride in a tender to the customs jetty in the ciiy. Wharves, warehouses, and factories line the shores. Immediately beyond the Japanese docks in Hongkew appears the curve of water front upon which three con sulates now stand. Beyond lies the mouth of Soochow creek, the crowded stream which meanders tortuously through the city. It bristles with the floating homes of innumerable Chinese—Chi nese who are born, live their entire lives, and die on the sampans which huddle together in its murky water. Babies, toddling too near the gun wales, sometimes topple in, and, having been Ashed out, are set casu ally to dry. Water dipped up over the side is used by the women for cooking rice and vegetables; clothes are washed in it; and it imparts that certain flavor to tea. A sampan gaily pavilioned and festooned in red indicates that a wedding will soon take place. English Had First Foothold There. Great Britain was the first of all the nations which now have such valuable commercial interests in the city "above the sea” to recognize the vast potentialities of the little fishing hamlet on the muddy shores of the Whangpoo. In 1842, emerging victorious from the so-called "Opium war,” she con cluded with China the Treaty of Nanking by which Shanghai and four other coastal cities were estab lished as treaty ports. Within two years the United States and France, realizing that Shang hai’s geographical position made it the natural outlet for products of the rich Yangtze river valley, followed suit and signed trade pacts with China. Ninety-six years ago, when the foreigners first obtained areas for settlement, land on the water front brought only $200 (Mex.) an acre. By 1935 an acre of Bundside property was valued at more than tour millions. An amazing variety of traffic throngs the Bund, that splendid wa terfront boulevard which is the cen ter of Shanghai’s bustling activity. Fine Buildings on the Bund. Imposing buildings, reminiscent of London, line the Bund; banks, busi ness houses, newspaper offices, clubs. The conveyances of the East, rickshas, handcarts, and wheelbar rows, bearing an unbelievable vari ety of loads, make way for lumber ing double-decked buses, trams, and sleek foreign cars. The Chinese have proved remark ably adaptable in adjusting them selves to contact w'ith English speaking nations. They have adopt ed automobiles, foreign clothes, jazz, and golf. The natves of the treaty ports have evolved a bizarre speech based on English with which they can communicate satisfac torily with the stranger. Since the average occidental resi dent of Shanghai will not take the troublfe to learn the local dialect, the natives used pidgin, or "busi ness English." In fact, two Chi nese from different provinces often resort to this jargon, for each is al most sure to have difficulty in un derstanding the dialect of the other. In pidgin English one word often does duty for three or four. Thus ‘‘my" signifies also “I, me, mine” and their plural forms. “My no savvy,” of course, means “I do not understand.” “What thing have got?” is to say "What have you?" When the supply of butter is ex hausted your cook will come to you with the complaint, "Butter have finish, missie.” There is the tradition of “face” which governs the duties of each employee within Ironbound limits. Your cook will not mix cocktails. He leaves this to the number one boy, who, in turn will not clean shoes or run errands. These tasks are the coolie’s “pidgin.” The wise foreign er does not attempt to change cus toms which have existed for cen turies. Chinese servants are justly fa mous. As a class they are unsur passed in loyalty, industry, patience and cheerfulness. They sometimes wonder at the strange customs of the foreigner, but they bear with him. Night Life In the City. Even during "trouble” the famous night life of this cosmopolitan city of Asia continues with vigor. At such times private entertaining is somewhat curtailed. Pity the poor hostess whose guests have been caught by the curfew and who has them on her hands until dawn! Hotels and night clubs offer the usual diversions, profiting by the in creased trade which results from the enforced stay of those who are caught by the curfew. At such times, as well as under normal con ditions, the conservative old Palace hotel on the Bund and the Cathay, its up-to-date counterpart across the street, present pictures of gaiety at cocktail time. The bar at the Cercle Sportif Francais, the popular sports’ club in the French Concession, is noisy with sprightly conversation in a half dozen languages. Chinese boys in long white gowns, their black panta loons bound tightly about the ankles, move silently through the crowd with chits and laden trays. The 20-story Cathay hotel offers diverse amusement. The glittering shops in its arcade are stocked with Peking rugs, Jewel Jade, silks, and curios. For swank one dines in its grill under the lofty black pyramid which surmounts its roof. The or chestra which plays in its air-con ditioned ballroom pleases even blase American tourists, and imported singers and dancers entertain the guests. Chinese dance halls have opened in large numbers in the last two or three years. The native musician has not yet become a master of American syncopation, and the or chestras are usually Russian. A modern young Chinese in for eign clothes, complete with horn rimmed glasses and brilliantined hair, executes elaborate steps with his slender, narrow-eyed compan ion. She is gowned in high-necked brocade, dainty, exquisite. Some times as she sits sipping her drink, she renews her make-up with the contents of a compact. Until well into the Twentieth cen tury Chinese women of the better class were not seen in public. When they did leave their homes, it was only in sedan chairs, concealed from the eyes of the world. With the in flux of Western ideas of women’s freedom the Chinese woman emerged from her isolation. Foot binding, possibly an expedient for keeping women at home, not only went out of fashion but became il legal. Women Go I’art Way Modern. The transition period had its amusing aspects. Today the eman cipated Chinese woman has her hair permanently waved, smokes, works in offices, frequents night clubs, and drives a car if she has a mind to. But with all hef modern ideas she still is reluctant to adopt foreign dress. She wears silk stockings, dis cards her flat, embroidered satin slippers for uncomfortable spike heeled shoes, but she resolutely clings to her long gown with its stiff, high collar and straight lines. The gown may be split to the knee as are modish gowns in the Western world when the designers so decide, but her modesty still for bids her to expose her throat. The majority of Chinese shops flaunt gay red banners bearing in gold characters the description of goods carried within or announce ments of bargains. These banners have almost entirely disappeared from Nanking road, but they hang in profusion the full length of the congested cross streets in the heart of the city. SEEN and HEAR > around the \% NATIONAL CAPITAL! By Carter Field FAMOUS WASHINGTON CORRESPONDS NT WASHINGTON.—A considerable bloc of railroad officials do not want any more government help in the form of loans. They think more borrowing merely increases the in terest they are already groaning under, and making the future black er instead of brighter. They are strongly in favor of permitting such railroads as cannot now pay their bond interest to go through the wringer. Of course this does not include borrowing from the government to retire existing bond issues. For example, if a bond is sue of $10,000,000 should fall due next month for railroad A, and this bond issue bears interest at 0 per cent, while the government is will ing to lend railroad A the ten mil lion at 4 per cent, then the road will save $200,000 in interest charges every year from now on by taking advantage of the RFC offer. That is quite a different thing from borrowing money for no other reason than to pay bond interest, and thus keep out of the hands of receivers. In this latter case, which is typical of most of them, the rail road would be in a worse fix next year than this, so far as interest charges are concerned. Next year it would have to pay as much in terest on outstanding bonds as this year, and in addition would have to pay interest on the money it bor rowed from RFC to pay the interest this year. There are plenty of reasons for the present difficulty of the rail roads, but most of them are not susceptible to much change. The only improvement, apparently, can come from increased traffic, and this can come only with better times. Even that is threatened here and there by the development of more and more rivers for naviga tion. It is not important, from the standpoint of the railroads, that these rivers may never actually handle much traffic. The important thing is that the development of the rivers for traffic will prove an ample excuse for shippers in that territory to obtain rate reductions on heavy products from the interstate com merce commission. Hit by River Traffic It is only on heavy products that the railroads at present can depend for revenue. A very small increase in rates on light products will drive shippers to trucks. So that the railroads are menaced from the top by trucks, and from the bottom, measuring in terms of rev enue per pound, by river traffic. The administration, however, is anxious to avoid a flood of railroad receiverships. It sounds bad. It tends to make conditions generally worse. From the cold-blooded Treasury standpoint, it tends to re duce revenue, particularly from personal income tax returns. For obviously every time a railroad de faults payment of bond interest a good many personal incomes are reduced, and this reduction is the cream of the income from the Treas ury standpoint. Naturally it comes off the top, and hence out of the higher tax brackets. There is the additional worry to the administration that default of railroad bond interest bears heav ily on the savings banks and life insurance companies, which have a heavy stake in these securities, once considered the most prudent investments in the world. Some of the railroad men who do not wish to increase the present debt load of their properties are not averse, however, to advertising to the country the tremendous bur den the roads are bearing in taxa tion, not only federal but state, coun ty and local. Tennessee Is Next The next political question in volved in the "purge,” now that the Iowa contest has become history, is what is to be done about Tennessee. Senator George L. Berry has from the administration standpoint, “stuck his neck out” and is sure to face attempted reprisals. Never was any senator closer to the White House at the time Major Berry took his oath before Vice President Garner. He had worked for President Roosevelt in a dozen different capacities. He had been put in the senate, on appointment by Governor Gordon Browning, by the persuasive powers of the Pres ident. In fact, Browning had very different ideas when the vacancy in the senate occurred through the death of Senator Nathan L. Bach man. But all that has been changed. The split began, apparently, about the time Senator Berry discovered that David E. Lilienthal, of the TVA was not as friendly as had ap peared. Or perhaps Lilienthal had been sincere in his friendship but was compelled to change his atti tude. At a^y rate Berry thought Lilien thal was treating him fairly, and bitterly resented the implications of Arthur E. Morgan, chairman of TVA, the latter plainly implying, as he later testified, that Berry was just trying to hold up the govern ment, and get some millions of dollars for "worthless marble” sub merged by the TVA development. Berry lost his fight before a tribu nal, but, much worse, he not only was deprived of the money he had expected, but he was maligned in a public hearing by the TVA congres sional investigating committee. Ber ry had expected A. E. Morgan to at tack him. In fact he probably knew that some admirers of A. E. Mor gan hoped the "Berry marble case” would prove very effective in turn ing public opinion against Lilienthal. Turns on Berry But the senator was shocked be yond measure when Lilienthal vir tually joined A. E. Morgan in at tacking Berry, thus taking this case, unless A. E. Morgan springs some thing now unanticipated to clinch this particular point against Lilien thal, virtually out of the controver sy. Since this "repudiation” Senator Berry has stopped being an admin istration rubber stamp. He actually voted to curb federal loans and grants for the construction of gov ernment electric plants—with the relief money—to compete with pri vately owned electric plants. He voted for several other amendments to the relief bill which were dis tinctly distasteful to the White House and Harry L. Hopkins. So now he’s on the list, and the administration hopes very much that he will be missed after the No vember election. Tennessee being overwhelmingly Democratic, the ar rangements to have him missing when the senate convenes next Jan uary in its next session will have to be aimed at the primary. Which is rather amusing when it is re called that President Roosevelt just a few weeks back was writing an earnest letter to Representative Samuel D. McR^ynolds to keep that veteran in Tennessee politics from opposing Berry. Also the Berry case may compli cate an existing very warm strug gle in Tennessee politics, in which armed clashes threaten between Ed Crump’s police down in Mem phis with special state police ap pointed by Governor Browning. Crump backed Browning two years ago for the nomination for governor, but he has turned on him, so that the gubernatorial battle so far has •vershadowed the senate fight. St. Lawrence Seaway Prospects for the St. Lawrence seaway, despite the beautiful pic ture of what could be done as paint ed in the note to Canada by Secre tary of State Cordell Hull, con tinue to be very dark indeed. This is revealed by conversations with senators as to the probability of any treaty involving the idea being rati fied. It might not be difficult to obtain senate approval for a St. Lawrence river development, including all the features of the Tennessee valley development, if only the one phase of navigation should be left out. The privately owned utilities of course would fight it, but they have not shown themselves very successful in blocking legislation, and there is not much indication that they would be successful on the St. Lawrence. In fact, they would be more impotent there than in some other proposals, for whatever they may think about other power projects, the general impression on Capitol Hill is that Niagara power is a good idea. The senators can sense the power possibilities there, and harnessing the falling water seems to even the least informed of them a practical matter. The sticking point in the whole beautiful picture is navigation and nothing else. Incidentally naviga tion has been the driving force be hind the whole movement ever since its inception. Originally it was in two parts. The cities on the Great Lakes, with the exception of Buffalo, were intrigued with the idea of becoming world ports, with ships from all over the globe steam ing into their harbors. It aroused the chamber of commerce and civic booster spirit to the nth degree. Buffalo had a different angle on the situation. Its citizens feared in the early days, and still fear, that if ocean-going ships could navigate right into the Great Lakes, Buffalo would lose its present tremendous trans-shipment business. Farmers Interested Even more important, politically, was the desire of the farmers in Minnesota, the Dakotas, Montana, Iowa, and other nearby states to obtain lower freight rates on their wheat shipped to Liverpool. For many years the price of wheat any where in the world has been deter mined by the price in that British city. The price anywhere else was and is the Liverpool price, less the freight rate from the point in ques tion to Liverpool. Various estimates as to how much the freight from northwestern points to Liverpool could be cut by the St. Lawrence seaway have been made, but what ever figure was used appealed very strongly to farmers shipping large quantities of wheat. However, since the early days of the movement, the exports of wheat by the United States have been de clining. Manufactured goods bulk much larger now in the export to tals of this country. £ Bell Syndicate.—WNU Service. I Thyroid Gland Removal By DR. JAMES W. BARTON . © Bell Syndicate.—WNU Service. ONE of the most dramatic occurrences in the prac tice of medicine is to see the thin, excited, nervous, sleep less patient suffering with the severe type of goiter, un dergo operation for the re moval of the thyroid gland and two or three weeks aft erward become a most changed individual. The strained, excited appearance has changed to one of calm ness, the heart, which was beating at the rate of 84 to 96, is now beating at 72 to 76, the appetite improves and with it comes also re freshing sleep. I have in mind a physician who was always very conscientious about his work. He ried about the ex amination of re cruits for war serv ice and as I hap pened to be presi dent of the medical board before whom the doubtful cases were paraded, he was almost continu uusiy ui mging cases Dr. Barton before me for dis cussion. He went overseas and when he returned he was more conscientious than ever until finally, having had a metabolism test, goiter was dis covered and he underwent opera tion. Two weeks after operation he came into my office a changed man. He was quite calm and asked me to take his pulse. It was beating 72 to the minute instead of the 96 to 108—the condition before operation. Results Quick and Good. In speaking of the excellent and quick results obtained by removal of the thyroid gland, Dr. Terence East, King’s College hospital, Lon don, in his little book, “Failure of the Heart and Circulation,” says: “Nothing is more remarkable than the complete recovery of some patients from their congestive heart failure once the thyroid gland has been removed. Unless the heart has previously been afflicted by some other disease, such as former rheu matism, restoration to health is most satisfactory. No ill effects seem to persist due to the presence of the goiter.” Where surgery is inadvisable or patient is unwilling to undergo op eration, X-ray treatment gives good results but takes considerable time. In early or light cases, rest, iodine and plenty of nourishing food give results. * • • Don’t Let Child Get Thin. Just as 25 per cent—one in every four—of all adults are overweight, so about 25 per cent of all children are underweight. In children, being of normal weight or slightly above normal weight is considered helpful in maintaining health and preventing the usual children’s diseases from undermining the strength of the body. Although it may appear to be nat ural for a youngster to be under weight because the parent he most resembles was underweight at the same age, the underweight mav be due to the same faults or causes that kept the parent underweight when he was a youngster. In the examination of school chil dren the records show "that the too thin child usually has more physical defects than the fat child. The aver age number of physical defects found in the underweight child is six as against an average of two de fects in children who are more than 20 per cent overweight.” The youngster who is of normal weight or above normal weight usu ally has a well developed body, good posture—shoulders back and head erect—wants to play, sleeps well, and has a good appetite. The underweight youngster, be cause he is not getting enough of and the right kind of food, or be cause of some underlying condition —infected teeth, tonsils, sinuses, adenoids, or not enough sleep, is usually undersized, has a poorly de veloped body, face drawn, poor posture—head forward, shoulders drooped, tires easily when he plays, j Naturally the first thought in in creasing the child’s weight is to in- j crease the amount of food—giving more of the rich concentrated foods, , but before food can be effective the child should be given a thorough ex amination by the family physician and dentist. Nature can not do much about increasing weight when infection must be fought. If the ex amination shows defects these must be corrected, and then the three fundamentals of health must be observed—good food, plenty of sleep, outdoor play. One Sad Incident in Life ‘ One of trie saddening incidents of life,” said Hi Ho, the sage of Chinatown, “is the discovery that one whom you regarded as a dis interested friend is only a diplo mat.” Ttoyd *ij' ADVENTURERS’ CLUB HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES li OF PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELF! ” “Death Headed North” By FLOYD GIBBONS Famous Headline Hunter Hello everybody: Now this is the story of an adventure that almost any one of us might have got into. Anyone who has ever ridden on a railroad train has taken a chance on finding himself in just such a terrifying situation. As luck would have it, it happened to Fenton Barrett of Shaker Hollow, South Salem, N. Y. And, boys and girls, I wish it to be distinctly under stood that I am very glad it happened to Fent Barrett, and not to me. Fent Barrett is an actor. He had just finished a run in a successful musical show on Broadway not long before he starred in the thriller he is going to tell us about now. When the show closed, he went south for a vacation, but he hadn’t been there long when he got a wire telling him to come back to New York and start rehearsals in a new product tion. Fent left that night for Washington, and in Washington he got aboard the train for New York—the train that was to carry him smack into the most thrilling moment of his life. Fire Started in the Wash Room. It was a hot day, the first of August, 1928. Fent decided to ride in the smoker where he could take his coat off and be comfortable. Usually the smoker is up front, next to the baggage car, but in this case it was the last car on the train. The train bowled along over the countryside, without any interruption, and without any hint of the drama that was to come. It was getting near the Big City, and the train porter came in and began cleaning up the car. Fent was sitting in the third seat from the front, and was watching the porter idly as he moved about. The train was coming into The Whole Wash Room Was Roaring With Flame. Elizabeth, N. J., and the porter, with a large bundle of old newspapers, had just gone into the men's wash room. “That porter,” says Fent, “had been in the wash room only a few seconds when suddenly he came leaping out into the aisle. As he did, I saw the reflection of flames on the highly polished door. The porter made a desperate attempt to close the door, but by this time the whole wash room was roaring with flame, and he was beaten back.” Fent jumped to his feet. He was one of seven men in the car including the conductor and porter. Before he could get out of his seat, the flames were almost on him, and he had barely time to grab his coat and brief case and dash to the rear of the car. Couldn’t Stop the Blazing Train. Meanwhile, with all the windows open, the blaze spread through the car like wild fire. As Fent reached the rear of the car he looked back, just in time to see the conductor reach for the signal rope to stop the train. The rope was blazing, even as he grabbed for it. As he pulled on it, it snapped in two. Their only way of communicating with the engineer—the only means of stopping that speeding train—was gone. "We all crowded back to the rear platform,” says Fent, "and divided three on each side. The porter had climbed over the iron gate and was hanging to the back end of the train for dear life. By this time half the car was on fire, and with us in the last car and the train doing sixty-five miles an hour, it certainly looked bad. “One of the passengers became hysterical and the conductor had a hard time trying to keep him from jumping off the back end of the train. We were all choking and almost overcome by smoke and the fumes of burning paint and varnish. I felt myself getting panicky and dropped to my knees and put my nose to the floor, trying to get a good breath of air.” The fire was all through the car by this time—streaming right down the aisle and shooting out the door onto the rear platform. Fent felt something move beneath him. It was that iron lid which covers the steps. The porter had loosened it and was motioning the three men who were standing on it to step back so he could swing it open. They squirmed around until they could get it up, and then they crowded down onto the steps. All Jumped at 30-Mile Speed. The porter screamed to them not to jump. The flames crowded them harder now, and Fent was kept busy dodging broken glass and tongues of fire that licked back at him through the rear windows. The heat was so terrific that he made up his mind to jump soon, rather than be burned to death. And then—the brakes went on. The train started to jerk and slow down. It slowed from sixty-five—to fifty—to forty. When it was going about thirty, Fent jumped, and the rest of them fol lowed. "I was thrown up against the bank,” Fent says, “but I wasn’t badly hurt. A few scratches and brusies—but I was too glad to be off that burning car to pay any attention to a little thing like that. The train went on for half a mile before it came to a stop, and we ran and caught up with it. By that time, the car we had been in was just a red-hot steel frame. Not a window or a seat left. And they were having quite a time trying to disconnect it from the rest of the train because the steel was so hot the brakeman couldn’t touch the couplings. We got into another car, I fell into the seat exhausted, for it was then that I first realized what I had been through.” Copyright.—WNU Service. Florida Gardens The Ravine gardens of Palatka, Fla., are located in a natural am phitheater covering about 85 acres. The gorge extends for five miles, festooned in tropical shrubbery and azaleas of many distinct varieties. Along the slopes of the ravine, which rise to a height of 120 feet, are thousands of palms interspersed with native trees. A spring-fed brook, with flower-decked islets, winds along the floor of the gorge. France’s Famous Cavern The Grotte de Dargilan, one of the underground caverns of Millau, in south central France, has a cav ern, 400 feet long, 200 feet wide and 100 feet high, contains a mosque, a church and a belfry that is 75 feet high. Elephant Would Rather Wallow Months of patient training is need ed to teach circus elephants to push circus wagons out of mud, for the elephant would much rattier wallow in it. I Tung Oil Long in Use For centuries the Chinese have used tung oil (or Chinawood oil) in mixtures to paint and calk their ships and boats. It gradually spread into world commerce. Portuguese spice traders introduced it into Eu rope in the Sixteenth century. The oil began coming to the United States in the late 1860’s. When its quick drying and waterproofing qualities were discovered, demand for it increased. Have Odd Grain Bin Indians of southern Mexico have a unique bin for storing shelled corn against weather and the depreda tions of the harvester ant. It is built in the shape of a cup and saucer, with a thatched roof, and the saucer part is filled with water. Name Austin of Latin Origin The name Austin is of Latin origin It may be a contraction of Augus tine, which has about the same meaning, but is considered a sep arate name.