Territory Reclaimed by France
Dubbed ‘Hell Hole of Creation’
Prepared bv National Geographic Society,
Washington, D, C —WNU Service.
As northern Africa recently
echoed to the tramp of mobilizing
men, French troops made headlines
by marching again into a strip of
land on the northeast coast of the
Dark Continent which had been un
der French ownership before. The
territory reoccupied was a region
between Italian Eritrea and French
Somaliland. Little more than 300
square miles in extent, it was ceded
by France to Italy in 1935 under an
agreement which the Italians them
selves repudiated just a few months
ago.
The area into which the French
are reported to have moved has an
important strategic location. It
commands the southern outlet of
the Red sea at the narrow strait of
Bab el Mandeb between Arabia
and Africa. Furthermore, it is di
rectly opposite, and only about 10
miles away from, the British-forti
fied island of Perim, off the coast
of southwest Arabia.
Holds Key to Trade Lifelines*.
Through the bottleneck of Bab el
Mandeb sail the ships of four em
pires, Great Britain, France, The
Netherlands and Italy. This strait
Is the third geographic key, follow
ing Gibraltar and the Suez canal,
which unlocks the Mediterranean
short cut from Europe to east Af
rica and the Orient. Its treacherous
currents have earned it the name
“Gate of Tears."
Including the 10-mile stretch of
reoccupied territory, the coast of
French Somaliland now overlooks
the major portion of the Bab el
Mandeb gateway. With the excep
tion of its convenient and strategic
situation, however, the additional
land has little to command it. It is
hot, dry, and sparsely settled. Un
der a blistering sun, temperatures
rise so high that the struggle mere
ly to exist is an endurance test.
Not a Pleasant Place.
Its barren, sandy shores merge,
toward the interior, into dry, rocky
plateau land with little vegetation.
Waterless, except in time of rare
rainy-season floods, river beds are
usually little more than deep desert
ditches. Although the climate is not
considered especially unhealthful
for white men, the possibility of
The small area in black
shows territory reoccupied by
France after it had been ceded
to Italy under the treaty of
1935, in order to strengthen
the defenses of Assab. The
area covers only only about
300 square miles but is of
great value for control of the
llab el Mandeb strait.
sunstroke is a constant menace.
One explorer traveling over a route
not far away named the entire re
gion ‘‘Hell Hole of Creation.”
In this northern section of French
Somaliland, the inhabitants are
largely Dankali, sometimes called
"Black Semites,” because of their
intermingled Arab and Ethiopian
blood.
They earn a precarious living as
nomadic herdsmen in the uplands
and as fishermen along the shores.
Pearl diving is also an important
coastal occupation.
Fish are plentiful there and are
the chief food for many of the na
tives, supplemented only by rice,
dates, and coffee. In the bush, men
add to a scanty food supply goats'
milk, and an occasional gazelle
brought down by expert marksman
ship with sling or dart.
Minorca, Spanish Stronghold
Important to World Traders
The surrender of Minorca gave
the Franco Spain control of the last
Loyalist-held island of the Balearics
group, off the eastern coast of
Spain.
Minorca is the second largest of
15 islands in the Balearics. In an
area of less than 300 square miles,
it holds—in normal times—some
45,000 inhabitants.
Strategic stepping stones between
Europe and North Africa, the
Balearics lie in the path of two im
perial sea lanes. Minorca, eastern
most of the islands, is a geographic
halfway mark between France and
her North African possessions. To
the south runs the British short-cut
to India, by way of Gibraltar and
the Suez canal. In addition, on both
sides of the islands, ships ply direct
routes that link the Atlantic ocean
with ports of northeast Spain, south
ern France, and western Italy.
Important In History.
To its position on the crossroads
of the Mediterranean, Minorca owes
an early place in international his
tory. Two centuries before Christ,
Mago, brother of the famous Car
thaginian general, Hannibal, found
ed the island's capital of Portus
Magonis, now Mahon.
In the war against Rome, the Car
thaginians made good use of the
Minorcans’ special talent for sling
warfare. Eventually, however, the
Romans took over the island. The
Vandals and Moors followed; after
which Minorca, with the rest of the
Balearics, became a Moorish king
dom—and a pirate stronghold.
Conquered by James I of Aragon
in the Thirteenth century, the island
was seized by the English five cen
turies later. In the struggles that
followed, Minorca changed hands
five more times. It was shifted
from French to English to Spanish
possession, then returned to Eng
land, and was finally turned over to
Spain. After the treaty of Amiens
in 1802, the entire Balearics became
a Spanish island province.
An Island Melting Pot.
Modern Minorca shows the effect
of its varied occupations. English,
Spanish, and Arab types persist, de
spite the general race mixture.
Whitewashed houses and garden
walls reveal the Arab influence.
The excellent port of Mahon on
the southeast coast suggests the
English provinces, with its gleam
ing brass knockers and lace blinds.
Visitors to Minorca's country homes
tell of seeing Eighteenth century
English furniture and French en
gravings from the time of the revo
lution.
On the other hand, Ciudadela, for
mer Moorish and Spanish capital
on the west coast, is an old Spanish
town.
Even the prehistoric past is ar
chitecturally represented in Minor
ca. Mysterious monuments of the
earliest inhabitants are the numer
ous cave dwellings that honeycomb
the mountains and the queer-shaped
stone structures scattered about the
island. In different forms, the lat
ter are known as talayots, taulas,
and naus, variously supposed by
students to have served as ancient
defense towers, as religious and
burial chambers, or as practical
storage rooms for grain and fodder
and shelter for domestic animals.
Of special interest to Americans
is the fact that this little island in
the Mediterranean is the ancestral
home of Admiral David Farragut
of Civil war fame. The father of
the admiral, George Farragut, was
born in Minorca of the ancient
Spanish house of Ferragut, as it is
spelled there.
Hollywood Hoax
Finally Exposed;
Just a Balloon!
HOLLYWOOD—The next time a
close-up of a snarling movie mon
ster brings Junior yelling out of his
seat next to yours at the theater,
push him back and assure him it's
only a big balloon.
And when the kid brother comes
home praising the golden tresses of
the screen Loreleis in "Footlight
Parade,” retort: "Aw, rubber.”
For again you’ll be right.
H. H. Knudsen, Hollywood offi
cial of the B. F. Goodrich company
and a seasoned expert on motion
picture uses of rubber, reveals that
almost anything seen in the movies
may be rubber.
For example, most movie mon
sters are made of rubber. The
toothy crocodile in the Tarzan se
ries was 40 gallons of solidified rub
ber latex with seven electric motors
in his innards to make his jaws
gape and his tail lash. Remember
the dreadful face of King Kong, the
mountainous ape? That was rubber,
too. And the giant dinosaurs which
walked, roared and tore through
"The Lost World” were motor-driv
en rubber latex critters.
As for the blondes, continuous wa
ter scenes in the musical wreaked
havoc with their coiffures. So Knud
sen supplied rubber to make water
proof tresses for the beauties.
The majority of the horses in
"The Charge of the Light Brigade"
were only rubber equines mounted
on tracks and controlled in battle
through ingenious mechanical de
vices, Knudsen reveals. And the
figures that come hurtling down
from airplanes, precipices and
bridges—they are sponge rubber
dummies.
Small statues which are bounced
off the heads of movie husbands by
embattled spouses are made from
rubber, as are the guns and knives
in G-Man pictures.
Rubber has its prosaic uses in
the movies, too. Witness the rub
berized underwear supplied by
Knudsen to the Alaska-bound "Call
of the North” company to ward olf
colds and give protection against
low temperatures and cold waters.
WHO’S
NEWS
THIS
WEEK
By LEMUEL F. PARTON
NEW YORK.—Just a year ago.
Will H. Hays noted a possibly
regrettable tendency of the movies
toward "escapism.” This led to
suggestions that
Billy Hays Now he was suc
A Matter of cumbing to the
Fact Eudemonistverbnl enchant
ments of the
Hollywood intelligentsia. That all
blew over, but here is Mr. Hays
today frankly proclaiming himself a
eudemonist. Our somewhat con
servative dictionary is a bit vague
about it. but, in his rough outlines,
a eudemonist seems to be one who
believes in fairies.
In his annual report as president
of the Motion Picture Producers &
Distributors of America, Mr. Hays
cites with satisfaction the record
box-office success of "Snow White
and the Seven Dwarfs,” and is hap
py that “there are still a number of
eudemonists left in the world.”
There is no disparaging or invidious
reference to non-eudemonists, but,
since Mr. Hays also reports with
gratification that there are no
"isms” and no “social significance”
in "Snow White,” it is perhaps a
fair inference that such black witch
ery is the dramatic antithesis.
Practicing law in Sullivan,
Ind., the homespun, sagacious
Mr. Hays was no rising young
eudemonist. That came later. He
was, however, a rising young
Republican politician and a
Presbyterian elder, one of the
deftest inner-circle technicians
of the Indiana party tourna
ments, where professional stand
ards and scoring are high. That
led him inevitably to what
statesmen of his earlier day
used to call “political prefer
ment,” and, as postmaster gen
eral in President Harding’s
cabinet, he exercised political
power of wide range and pene
tration.
For seventeen years now, he has
headed the moving picture industry.
„ A round of eight
Czar Is Out, “silents.” when
Prefers ‘Bill* he left his cab
As His Handle inet p°8t' “J
now about 28
companies putting out highly vo
ciferous Aims—no wonder he be
lieves in fairies. He doesn’t like to
be called "czar,” preferring just
plain “Bill,” if there is any call for
an informal salutation. Hearing
him wind up in an address, or even
in casual talk, one could understand
how he could be a eudemonist, as
he invokes the founding fathers or
the palladium of our liberties,
against this or that, but he usually
coppers such oratorical bets with a
remark like this: “And, after all, it
probably wouldn't work.” Thus he
is revealed as what might be called
a pragmatic eudemonist.
In his county seat town, he
inherited his father's land-law
business. A fragile man, with
• slight limp and outstanding
ears, he has the mannerisms of
the country lawyer, and be wins
over opposition, as he used to
win juries, with a winsome and
disarming smile. He is at times
a euphemist, as well as a eu
demonist—insisting, for in
stance, that censorship is mere
ly "self-regulation.” Several
years ago, he was worrying be
cause the movies were going
"masochist.”
Sullivan, Indiana, is still home
base for Mr. Hays and he is the
town's favorite son, in spite of his
philological flare-up.
IT WOULD be fine if we had a
cash register which would ring
up a true prophecy when it was
turned in. About a year and a half
a# ... ag°. George
Messersmith Messersmith,
Called Hitler’s assistant secre
Moves Early ,ary of stat«*
former consul
general at Berlin, called Adolf Hit
ler’s next moves as clearly and ac
curately as a spieler for an old-fash
ioned barn dance. He turned in to
the state department a precise state
ment of what der fuehrer had on
; his mind, now fully validated and
certified. Naturally, it got little at
tention because it was obviously in
credible.
The Nazis can’t say it was a
prejudiced opinion. When Hitler
was emerging, Mr. Messersmith
thought "evolution would follow
revolution," and everything
would work out nicely. He
changed his mind. When Dr.
Albert Einstein suffered certain
indignities in getting his pass
port, Mr. Messersmith was un
justly accused of responsibility.
This was all straightened out
and President Roosevelt upped
him as minister lo Austria.
He returned to his present post in
July, 1938. He was for 14 years
superintendent of the Delaware
schools before entering the consular
service.
6 Consohri ipd News Feature*.
WNU Service.
NATIONAL I
AFFAIRS
Reviewed by
CARTER FIELD
New Dealers conducting
campaign to aid nomination
of Thomas E. Dewey as Re
publican presidential can
didate; the plot being to
prevent the nomination of
Senator Taft, whom they
fear . . . Backers of bill to
take profits out of war
really do not want the bill
to pass, and it probably
wont . . . Little likelihood
of railroad legislation at
this session of congress.
WASHINGTON. — New Dealers
close to the White House are actu
ally conducting a publicity cam
paign which would seem calculated
to aid the nomination for President
by the Republicans next year of a
man President Roosevelt cordially
dislikes. That man is Thomas E.
Dewey.
Not that this publicity campaign
is praising Dewey. Quite the con
trary. It avoids any
reference to Dewey
wnaiever. ino, me
campaign takes the
form of trying to
wreck the man who
is regarded as Dew
ey’s chief contender
for the Republican
nomination, Senator
Robert A. Taft of
If any group of 10
T. E. Dewey or m0re persons is
polled as to the man they would
name if going into a pool on the Re
publican nominee, a majority of
them will be found to be voting for
Dewey. This is by no means to say
that a majority of every such group
actually favors Dewey—that re
mains to be demonstrated by polls.
But he is the man a majority of
people seem to think has the edge
at the present moment.
If the same groups are asked to
name the man they would give sec
ond place in probabilities, Senator
Taft is almost unvaryingly the one
named. This is not a matter of con
jecture, and is not news. It is mere
ly stating the foundation on which
the activities of an important group
of New Dealers seem to be based.
Every time in the last few months
when a group of New Dealers would
be at some party or gathering where
friendly newspaper men were—espe
cially parties where there could be
mixing around and small group con
versations, it has been noticed that
within a few days attacks on Taft
would appear in the newspapers rep
resented by these correspondents. It
has happened too many times to be
a coincidence.
New Dealers, It Appears,
Do Not Like Senator Taft
One explanation, of course, lies in
the fact that of all the men who
have been prominently mentioned as
probabilities for the Republican
nomination, Senator Taft is beyond
doubt the one whom most ardent
New Dealers would dislike most to
have as President. He stands four
square against more New Dealisms,
and is on record as criticizing them
and demanding their repeal, than
any other Republican who has been
mentioned as having a chance for
the White House.
Far more, for example, than Sen.
Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachu
setts, who is inclined to be liberal
on many issues. Far more than
even Sen. Arthur H. Vandenberg of
Michigan, who is probably more
popular personally than almost any
one who has been mentioned.
Whereas Mr. Dewey has stated his
position on very few issues indeed
so far as the national picture is con
cerned. He is against crime, and
rackets. But so is everybody ex
cept the criminals and racketeers.
Small Chance for Bill to
Take Profits Out of War
With 50 senators pledged to the
proposed bill to take the profits out
of war. it would seem that nothing
could stop its enactment. Yet the
probability is that it will be stopped,
if not in the senate, then in the
house. The proposal has had a
strange history, often making ap
parent progress, but always falling
by the wayside in some unexpected
manner.
The answer is simple. Most of the
congressmen backing the measure,
or supporting it, do not want it to
pass. There are a very few sincere
senators and representatives who
{ believe that it would be a good
thing, but most of them know that
actually it would do little to pre
vent the country getting into war,
and its presence on the statute books
during the period immediately pre
ceding our entry into war would be
little short of a catastrophe.
Let us assume that the bill be
came law, as the present demon
stration of strength among senators
would indicate that it readily might.
From the day war wa% declared,
any corporation which made any
profits from supplying w'ar materi
als to the government would be
taxed virtually 100 per cent of those
profits. So there would be no selfish
reason for any manufacturer to de
sire to get the country into war.
That is the real object of the
legislation. Its backers want to stop
the machinations by which the wick
ed munitions makers involve the
world in suffering, destruction and
death Just in order to make their
own filthy profits. The public is
very well sold on this idea. There
have been lots of plays, movies and
propaganda putting it over. There j
has never been anything approach
ing a sane consideration of the ques- ;
tion.
But now let us assume that the
steel makers of this country clearly
see that the United States is bound
to be involved in a major war. Un
der normal circumstances every one
of them, with the war and navy de
partment experts prodding them at
every turn, would begin getting
ready. Before war was declared,
unless it came with terrific sudden
ness, their plants would be ready to
start turning out munitions and guns
of the precise type needed by the
army and navy.
United States Navy Made
Good Showing in World War
As a matter of fact, the United
States navy made a very good show
ing in the World war, while Frank
lin D. Roosevelt was assistant sec
retary, because Sam McGowan, the
paymaster general of the navy, got
away with murder in placing or
ders before the war declaration, j
That is why the navy was fixed so !
much better than the army, and
why it was so much less criticized, j
But under the proposed law any j
steel manufacturer who spent a pen
ny on the chance that the United
States might get into the war would
be a traitor to his stockholders, even
if he had shown a patriotic spirit.
Why? Because there would not be
a chance of his making any money
for his stockholders, and there would
be the cold certainty that, in addi
tion to not making any money dur
ing the war period, he would run
into severe losses immediately after
the war period.
The history of every munitions
making enterprise in private hands
has been that it made big profits
during the war, and then took ter
rific losses after the war, what with
cancelled orders, unused inventories
and unneeded expansions of plant.
So they just wouldn’t.
Answer: Government monopoly of
the munitions manufacturing busi
ness if the law passes. And the
army and navy don’t like that. They
fear congress would never be liberal
enough in advance to have the na
tion properly prepared.
Unlikely to Be Railroad
Legislation at This Session
It is very unlikely that there will
be any railroad legislation at this
session of congress. Congress has
been tussling with legislation to put
the railroads back on the track to
financial stability almost continu
ously for the last 20 years. Their
condition has been worse instead of
better and no laws will be enacted
this session which can be of any sig
nificant benefit to them without the
prospect of a larger volume of traf
fic. The very best that congress can
do is to help the roads take better
advantage of more business when it
comes.
The problem resolves itself into an
attempt to put a better face on the
plain fact that the public demands
several transportation services but
refuses and probably is actually un
able, certainly at times, to support
them all adequately — railroads,
trucks, busses, inland and inter
coastal waterways, pipe lines, and
air lines. What the public as a ship
per won’t pay has b«en met to some
extent by subsidies but with the idea
more of provoking extension of al
ternative, competitive services than
of maintaining them.
Difficult for Congress to
Turn Out Satisfactory Law
Couple the railroads’ proposals as
presented to congress in the “com
mittee of six” bill with the opposi
tion of water, highway and air lines,
plus the objections of the railroads
and their employees to any com
pulsion to develop more compact
operating systems by consolidation
and co-ordination, then add the re
sistance of creditors to accepting
losses inevitable in railroad reor
ganization which offers any prospect
of continuing solvency, and the
chances are slim indeed that con
gress will be able to grind out a
law that is of any more durable
value than the transportation act of
1920, or the emergency transporta
tion act of 1935.
In the last year two separate and
opposed expeditions into the trans
I have set out from
the White House.
Following the inter
state commerce
commission’s deci
sion last March
granting the rail
roads a 5 per cent
increase in rates on
their petition for a
boost of 15 per cent,
■■ rrcaiuciu auuacvcu
J. B. Eastman called jnto confer
ence Commissioners Splawn, East
man and Mahaffle of the interstate
commerce commission, Jesse H.
Jones of R. F. C. and other ad
ministration officials, Carl R. Gray,
vice chairman of Union Pacific, Hen
ry Bruere of the Bowery Savings
bank and George M. Harrison,
chairman of the Railway Labor Ex
ecutives association. The upshot was
a report by the I. C. C. commis
sioners which the President turned
over to congress in April with a
message in which he reiterated his
opposition to government subsidies
i and government ownership.
<B BeU Syndicate.—WNU Servio*.
Hoyd </i66cfvs‘
ADVENTURERS' CLUB .1
HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES
OF PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELF! ^
“Terror in a Tent”
Hello, everybody:
You know, there’s always a lot of hard luck on camp
ing trips. Somebody is sure to get sunburned, and some
body else always steps on a rusty nail or clips himself wTith
the hatchet while chopping wood for the fire. The bird who
is doing the cooking burns half the food, and just when
you’re comfortably settled and getting along fine, Farmer
Jones comes along and orders you to move on.
Camping trips just breed hard luck, but the one Syd %
Rapoport went on was the champion hoodoo camping trip
of them all. It started dealing out tough breaks before Syd
and his pals even got started.
Syd lives in Brooklyn, N. Y. It was in the summer of
1935 that he and half a dozen other lads began planning that
camping trip. They had picked a spot upstate, in the neigh
borhood of Poughkeepsie, and were all ready to go. Then,
two days before they were due to leave, there was a terrific
rainstorm in New York and, after inquiring about the
weather, they learned that it was the same upstate.
The gang decided to go anyway—at least, some of them
did. When the day of the big trip rolled around one fellow
had the mumps. Another was laid up with an infected foot, and two
other fellows had mothers who said they couldn’t go camping in such
weather because they’d catch their death of pneumonia sleeping on damp
ground. The trouble had started early, but it was nothing to what
Syd was to get into before that trip was many days older.
The Hikers Find a Camping Site.
"There were only two brothers and myself left,” says Syd,
but we went anyway.” The brothers were Harold and Jerry Left.
The three of them took a boat to Bear Mountain and then started
to hike, with two tents and blankets and equipment on their
backs. After a day on the road—and Syd doesn’t say whether
they walked or thumbed rides—they reached the spot they had
chosen and picked a camping site. .
The ground was wet, and the earth was loose. They had a little T
trouble putting up their two small tents. But finally everything was
Finally he had a horrible dream.
shipshape. They got a fire going, cooked a meal, and when they had
eaten it they were ready to turn in. Jerry and Harold occupied one
tent, and Syd slept alone in the other.
Syd dropped off to sleep, but he didn’t sleep very well. Finally, he
had a horrible dream—a dream that something cold and slimy was
crawling over his arm. The dream woke him up, and as he came
slowly to his senses he realized that that dream was a cold, hard reality.
Something cold and slimy was resting against his arm.
In an instant Syd was wide awake. A full moon was shining
and its bright light streamed in through the open flap of the pup
tent. In that light Syd saw something that made his blood run
cold. His arm was lying outside the blanket and a snake had
crawled up and nestled against it. And Syd recognized that
snake for a poisonous copperhead!
Frozen With Fear, He Cannot Move.
Says he: "My first impulse was to jump up and scream. But
I couldn’t have moved to save my life. I was frozen stiff with
fear. The moon bathed the head of the snake with light, and as I
lay there stiff and trembling it crawled up to my shoulder. A
cold sweat broke out on my forehead. Now I began to realize that
I didn’t dare move, even if I could. One move would cause the
reptile to strike."
But it seemed to Syd that he could hardly keep himself from mov
ing. Somehow he managed to lie there stiff and still. The hours rolled
on. Syd doesn’t know how many of them went by. Each minute seemed
like a year and each second was like a week of torture. “I wanted to
scream,” he says. "I felt as if I could control myself no longer. At
last the sky began getting gray, and off in the distance I could hear
some farmer’s rooster crowing. Then, again, the snake shifted its
position. This time it came to rest with its head across my gullet.”
Now Syd was afraid to swallow for fear of disturbing the snake. He
felt his spine begin to creep and his hair felt as if it were standing up
on his head. It was getting lighter now, and Syd was able to distin- *
guish objects around him that he had lost sight of when the moon
went down. Still it was a long time before dawn, and his only hope
was to lie still until his pals awoke.
The Snakes Smelled of Rotten Cucumbers.
He could see the snake clearly now. And then, out of the cor
ner of his eye, he saw another—and another. There were a bunch
of them In the tent. And two of them were over four feet long.
“I couldn't see the others very clearly,” he says, “for I didn’t
dare turn my head and it strained my eyes to look at them from
my position. I was beginning to shiver. My muscles were
cramped and saliva dripped from my mouth. The snakes smelled
of rotten cucumbers and the odor sickened me. But the sun was
coming up, and I could hear movements in the other tent. That
renewed my courage.”
Harold and Jerry were up. A couple of times they walked past Syd’s
tent, but they didn’t look in. Then Jerry glanced through the open flap
and his eyes froze on the terrifying sight. Syd says he owes his life to
those two brothers. He thought Jerry was going to scream, but he
didn’t. He remained cool and so did Harold. The pair of them stole
up behind Syd’s tent, gathered some damp hay from a field and set it
afire. Huge billows of smoke poured through the tent.
“I began choking,” says Syd, "but so did the snakes. They moved,
and I lay back and breathed a sigh of relief. After a few minutes I
went outside, picked a spot in the sun and dozed off. It was seven hours
before I woke up again. And if you want to know what a nightmare is
like, just ask me. I’ve had dozens of them since that night.”
Copyright—WNU Service.
English Language Hard Though Rich, Flexible
The English-American language,
with its 500,000 words and its un
matched flexibility is the richest in
strument of expression in the world.
One reason for this is to be found
in history, which shows it to be the
fusion of two language elements, the
Germanic and the Romance. The
other reason is that the peoples who
speak it are and have been for cen
turies the top-dogs of the world.
The little island-English branched
out and made of their tight little isle
the greatest of empires. The Amer
icans developed a virgin continent
into the richest nation in the world,
and were in their time (let us hope
it is not past) the most energetic
people on the globe
The fact that the English-Ameri
can language is the richest, the most
varied, and the most complex in
strument, makes it also the most
difficult to handle. You can do more
work with it, but you can make
more mistakes. Only a few men
understand Einstein, because the
language of relativity is diffi
cult; and only a double handful of
men exist who can use our language
flawlessly. Between the lowest and
the highest we vary only in the num
ber and kind of mistakes we make.
A man can overdo it, like George
Ade's character, Oscar, who said,
“Whom are you?” for he had been
to night school.—Alison Ainsworth
in Coronet.
