Tloyd
ADVENTURERS' CLUB 1
HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES
OF PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELFI ^
“A Lightning Shave99
Hello everybody:
Now this is the story of a close shave—the closest
shave John Pisano of Clifton, N. J., ever saw in his life. If
I’d said it was the closest shave I had ever seen—well—that
might not mean anything at all. But when Johnny Pisano
says it he speaks with the authority of a man who has been
seeing close shaves all his life—and giving them. You see,
Johnny is a barber.
Johnny has been a barber for the last 17 years, but he
says he’d never had anything exciting happen in his shop
until the summer of 1934. And how come Johnny waited
until now to tell us that story? Well—you see, Johnny was
just a bit skeptical about us. Here’s how he explains it:
“My wife,” he says, “has been buying your paper ever
since we were married, but neither one of us ever believed
in contests. We thought they were all faked. Then, my wife
tried one and won a prize, so we had to change our minds.
Now she wants me to try my luck in your department.”
And now let’s take a look at Johnny’s yarn. He says it
wasn’t as terrifying as some of the stories he’s seen printed
in this column because it happened so fast and was all over
ao soon. But just the same, it was a bird while it lasted, and it left
Johnny in Buch a state of jitters that he didn’t want to do any work
for the rest of the day.
Back Door to Shop Brings Bad Luck.
Johnny’s shop has a front and a back door—the back one
leading to a pool room that is no longer used. That back door,
Johnny says, is always kept closed in winter, but in the summer
when it’s warm, he opens it to give the breeze a chance to circu
late. Johnny used to keep that back door open all summer long
during business hours. Nowadays, though, there are times when
he keeps it closed. The minute more than two small clouds ap
pear In the sky together, Johnny shuts It—and it takes a darned
good customer to talk him into opening it up again.
Johnny’s wife is a little bit afraid of lightning. She had often told
him about that door. She said lightning followed a draft, and that he
ought to keep the back door closed whenever it began to thunder.
But Johnny never paid any attention to her. If he had—well—then he’d
——J KAMI r mi - I
i_:=_'"t M M—* yn »1/////1— ~ i
—A shower of bright, yellowish sparks coming out of the end of
his razor.
never be telling this yam to us today. And take my word for it. It’s
the dog-gonedest thing that ever happened to any barber while at work
at the tonsorial art.
It was along in the afternoon, and the sky was cloudy. There was
no one in the shop but Johnny and his helper, and they were thinking
about sitting down to a game of checkers until the sky cleared and the
customers came out of their holes again. Thunder was rumbling in the
distance and coming closer with every rumble. It started to rain—and
Just as it did, a man came in. He sat down in the first chair and ordered
a shave. So Johnny forgot about the checkerboard and began working
up a lather in the old shaving cup.
Before the soap had begun to cream up, the storm broke.
The rain came down in sheets, and the thunder, which had been
a distant rumble before, now sounded like the report of a 16-inch
gun going off right alongside your ear. But that didn't bother
Johnny. His wife might be afraid of lightning, but he wasn’t. He
scooped up a big wad of lather on the brush and began rubbing it
over his customer's face.
He spread the lather and rubbed it in. His helper was standing at
the window, idly watching the water collect in the gutters. There was
another crack of thunder—louder and closer than any that had come be
fore. Imperturbably, Johnny finished lathering the man in the chair
and picked up his sharpest razor.
Customer Becomes Rigid, Unconscious.
Johnny picked up the razor—brought it down on his customer’s
face for the first long, sweeping stroke. Then, in the next second,
everything in the world happened!
Johnny felt a sudden, numbing sensation In his right arm. A
bright light blinded him momentarily, but as it died out a bit, he
could sec what had caused it. A shower of bright, yellowish sparks
COMING OUT OF THE END OF HIS RAZOR.
The next thing Johnny knew, the razor was wrenched from his hand.
It fell clattering to the floor. Johnny looked down at his customer. He
lay in the chair rigid—stiff—and totally unconscious. And Johnny stood
beside him, his face white, his whole body shaking—feeling as if he’d
like to pass out himself.
He stood trembling until his helper came and led him to a
chair. Then he sat, dazed, while the helper soaked a towel in
cold water and applied it to the face of the man in the chair. In
a few minutes the customer opened his eyes. He looked around
the shop, and then at Johnny sitting In the chair. He sort of
looked as if he expected Johnny to finish shaving him—but not for
Johnny. For all the rest of that day he couldn’t hold a razor in
his hand. His helper finished the job he had started.
So now. whenever the sky begins to cloud up. Johnny shuts that
back door. And one of the things he and his wife agree most closely on
is that little matter of lightning.
(Released by Western Newspaper Union.)
Inventor of ‘Death Ray’ Refuses to Reveal Secret
It is possible that "death rays”
may some day be used as an awful
weapon of war, but Dr. Antonio Lon
goria, wealthy Cleveland, Ohio, sci
entist and inventor, who in 1923
perfected a "death ray” apparatus,
will have nothing to do with recreat
ing such a machine.
This Dr. Longoria made plain in a
recent interview. He recounted that
his apparatus had killed pigeons on
the wing at four miles, and that he
then destroyed the machine because
of its danger.
.fit’s quite possible that someone
may stumble across the particular
electric wave I used,” Dr. Longoria
said. “I found it accidentally my
self, and I certainly am not proud
of the discovery. The machine
killed small animals, and it could
kill human beings just as easily.
“The ray lies in one of the unex
plored frequency bands in the vicin
ity of the X-ray. It kills painlessly,
without burning, by changing the
blood to a useless substance—as
light changes silver salts in photog
raphy. But I don’t like to talk about
it, because it could wreck civiliza
tion. I’ll have nothing to do with it.
My hands will be clean.”
Dr. Longoria said he first demon
strated his ray while working in
California on a colored motion pic
ture process, showing a group of
scientists that the ray could kill rab
bits even when the animals were
encased in a thick-walled aluminum
case.
Later, in Cleveland, he demon
strated that the ray would kill
pigeons, he added.
“I could assemble such a machine
again,” Dr. Longoria said, “hut 1
never shall. I have no drawings.
The plans are in my head alone.
My inventions have brought me
wealth. I am interested now only
in doing something to help civiliza
tion, which seems to be going barP
ward instead of ahead.”
Ti-1
NATIONAL
AFFAIRS
Reviewed by
CARTER FIELD
Preparedness spendingvs.
budget balancing is major
political problem . . . Wash
ington ponders problem of
shipping war supplies . . .
Garner's personal strength
big factor in presidential
situation.
WASHINGTON.—While it is ex
tremely difficult to forecast what
the effects of the European war
will be on the presidential election
campaign in the United States next
summer, It has already insured a
very Important effect on the budget
balancing situation. This is the sit
uation, after all, which is and has
been giving more concern to mem
bers of both parties than any other
one thing, with the possible excep
tion of the war itself.
There has not been any doubt,
since the war broke out, that the
i United States would tremendously
increase its expenditures for mili
tary purposes. Sharp increases in
the army, navy and marinr corps
enlisted strength have already guar
anteed that, with the reconditioning
of the more than 100 World war de
stroyers contributing its quota.
But that is Just the beginning.
There is going to be a tremendous
boost in the appropriation this win
ter for airplanes, for training air
plane pilots, and maintenance of a
larger air force. There will be, in
all probability, further authoriza
tions for more enlisted men and of
ficers in the army, navy and marine
corps, entirely aside from the in
crease in personnel in the air forces
of all three arms of the service.
Running into more spectacular
figures, however, will be the new
navy building program, and new de
fenses for Panama, Hawaii and cer
tain points on the Atlantic and Pa
cific coasts, not to mention Alaska.
There is very little opposition to
all this. But consider for a moment
Just what it does to the hopes for
balancing the budget! Not that
there were really any such hopes.
Spendinz-Debt Issue May
H reek Next Administration
This spending-public-debt issue is
the one on which most politicians
privately agree the next adminis
tration will be wrecked. It is the
reason so many senators and rep
resentatives say the next President
will be a one-termer.
Their theory is very simple, and
applies to any Republican who
might be elected Just as well as to
any Democrat. The next President
must either go on with spending
more than the government takes in
or he must cut expenditures dras
tically. Every one agrees that taxes
must and will be raised—probably
after the election—but no one be
lieves that taxes can be raised
enough to balance the budget unless
present spending is heavily cur
tailed.
So the next President will be facea
with the problem of whether to cut,
and infuriate the farmers, or the
unemployed, or all three, or to go on
spending, and scare the daylights
out of the folks who are worrying
about what will happen to this coun
try if the federal debt goes on
mounting.
This last may sound far-fetched
and academic to some readers, but
a brief confidential talk with any
shrewd politician may surprise
them. Just a few days ago Secre
tary of the Treasury Henry Mor
genthau Jr. told newspaper men
that the treasury would not issue
checks after the federal debt had
passed the present legal limit un
less congress changed the present
law limiting the debt.
Imagine the debate in the senate
when that bill comes up! And the
newspaper headlines and editorials
about it!
Changing of Ships' Flags
Arouses Severe Criticism
There is no doubt that Roosevelt’s
foot slipped a little on that business
of permitting ships of the United
States lines to change their flag to
that of Panama. Actually the Pres
ident thought the idea was good.
Neither he nor Secretary of State
Cordell Hull foresaw the public re
action, and apparently gave little
thought to what the world in general
would think. But, having noticed
the domestic buzz saw, they stepped
promptly away.
People are talking here about con
gressional indignation and political
consequences, but the extreme
probability is that this will be purely
academic not only at convention
time, next June, but even when
congress meets in January. A lot
of water will have flowed under
bridges, meantime, and there will
| be far less certainty then that the
j idea had the President’s complete
approval than there is now
Some of the criticisms of the plan
—which was perfectly legal, of
course—are rather amusing. As a
matter of fact one of the most suc
cessful shipping companies in the
history of the United States is a
fruit company which, back in 1909
—to go way back before even the
World war problems—was operating
a fleet of 76 vessels. Of these only
! four were under the American flag,
i Most of them flew the Union Jack
or the flags of the three Scandina
vian countries.
They operated them under other
flags because it was cheaper to do
it that way. The present system of
encouraging shipping, of course,
with what virtually amounts to fed
eral guarantees, makes the notion
of transferring ships flying the
United States flag to other registries
just a little cockeyed. But the pres
ent system did not contemplate a
war. Most of all it did not con
template a United States law which
would forbid ships flying the Amer
ican flag to take part in the highest
paying commerce in the world—that
of carrying supplies to the belliger
ents.
Will Leave Plenty of Trade
For United States Vessels
Actually, of course, ships of other
nations will be drawn to that com
merce by the incentive of profit—
insurance at high rates covering the
risk and being paid for by the cus
tomers—which will soon leave plen
ty of ocean-carrying trade for the
American ships. United States
ships, in short, will do the least
profitable business, taking the
places of ships of other nations at
tracted to the more profitable trade.
That is all right with congress.
naa mere ueen a voie un umi sun
pie proposition alone, unencumbered
by the arms embargo repeal, the
vote for It would have been ten to
one. But it is a little tough on the
men who were trying to build up
an American merchant marine.
But what the President really was
Interested in was not to provide car
goes for United States ships, but to
insure a steady flow across the At
lantic of American-made planes,
tools, munitions and supplies of all
sorts, from cotton to guns.
As a matter of fact he would have
greatly preferred to have congress
go back to international law, and
took the “cash and carry" provi
sions only because he had to in or
der to get the arms embargo re
pealed.
Right now a new plan for a steady
flow of war supplies is being worked
out. What it will be nobody knows
as this is written but it will be
done. The administration is re
sourceful. Remember how the AAA
changed into a soil conservation
1 project after the Supreme court de
cision? The advisers capable of
solving that legal knot are not going
to be stumped by the failure of the
plan to hoist the flag of Panama on
the United States Lines boats.
Garner Real Candidate for
Presidential Nomination
It has been a long time since there
has been any real doubt that John
Nance Garner would be a real can
| didate for the Democratic presiden
[ tial nomination at the national con
vention next June, and in some of
the primaries to be held in the
spring. Yet so little had been heard
about his candidacy for the period
including the extra session of con
gress, and the hectic war news
which preceded it that some had
assumed the Garner candidacy had
died a natural death.
Gamer has two tremendous ele
ments of strength—will have three
if President Roosevelt gives him his
blessing instead of fighting to nom
inate himself or some one more
openly New Deal in economics and
associations. First, Garner has,
for reasons which can be assumed
since there is little doubt of the
accuracy of the general statement,
a very wide public confidence.
The second element of strength
possessed by Garner is the friend
ship and confidence of most of the
Democratic politicians. This was
never better demonstrated than in
the house of representatives in the
neutrality fight in the special session
of congress. Garner virtually took
over the direction of that fight, and
by his personal influence turned
what might have been a very bad
situation from the administration's
standpoint into a real victory.
Carrier Sensed Situation
And Went to Work Himself
Garner sensed that situation even
before the newspaper men began to
count noses—to add polls of this
delegation to those of that—and find
out that the vote was apt to be dan
gerously close. Realizing the dan
ger, Garner wired Sam Rayburn,
Democratic leader of the house, to
hurry back from Texas and get on
the job. Then he went to work him
self.
It was long association, inspiring
friendship and confidence which
made this so effective. But in the
course of the nearly 40 years in
which Garner has been a factor on
Capitol Hill, hundreds of Democrats
have passed through the house and
senate, and gone back either to pri
vate life or offices back home which
appealed more to them.
There are lots of flukes in politics,
of course But on the whole an elec
tion to the house means a good deal
as to the influence and position of
the man elected. This does not en
tirely disappear even if he retires
to private life. Some vestige of in
fluence remains. Garner probably
has more friends of this sort, of
varying degrees of importance and
weight, scattered through the coun
try than any living man.
All this cannot be added up to
make the result that Garnet-could
defeat Roosevelt for renomination if
the President went after it. There
is no way of telling how such a fight
would work out, though most observ
ers in Washington would bet on the
President. But there is a growing
number of Democrats important in
the party who hope the President
will not seek a third term.
(BeU Syndicate—WNU Service.)
WHO’S
NEWS
THIS
WEEK
By LEMUEL F. PARTON
DR. GODFREY LOWELL CABOT,
donor of the Columbia univer
sity prizes in journalism, awarded
to two South American editors, gets
_ , top rating in
Dr. G. L. Cabot this depart
Listed High as ment’s war
‘Lamplighter' time listing
^ ° ofmenof
good will, as against the disturbers
and trouble-makers. Dr. Cabot, 78
years old, has all his life been a
steady ground-gainer, in the cause
of science and the humanities, a
scientist and humanitarian in his
own widely varied endeavors, not
only bankrolling progress but bring
ing it through by his own inventive
ness and enterprise.
The experimental house, being
pictured in the newspapers, as
scientists seek to trap sunlight
and store it in the cellar for
winter use, is traceable to Dr.
Cabot. In 1937, he gave Har
vard university $615,773 to carry
forward some of his ideas about
storing solar energy. A year
later, he gave a similar amount
to the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology for the same pur
pose. And now Prof. Hoyt C.
Hottel of M. I. T. has his sun
shine bungalow built, with a
heat trap on the roof, sluicing
sunshine down into the cellar.
Perhaps with a winter supply
of sunshine, put up like jelly or
preserves, nobody would want to
start a war.
He has been a generous patron of
aviation, learning to fly a seaplane
in his late years, inventing a system
by which a plane can pick up fuel
in flight, and is now governor and
former president of the National
Aeronautic association. He has en
dowed various branches of research,
including botanical studies.
A native of Boston, he attended
M. I. T. two years, was graduated
from Harvard in 1882, and laid the
basis of his fortune manufacturing
lampblack in Worthington, Pa., in
1887, branching out in gases and
carbides.
% ^
Donald willis douglas,
president of Douglas Aircraft,
Inc., of Santa Monica, Calif., says
war orders for American planes,
and the spurt
Our IVar Boom jn building.
No Bubble, Says won’t end
D. W. Douglas ?.bb“£
bubble.” He and other plane build
ers tackle $140,000,000 worth of or
ders and promise they can deliver
8,000 planes a year.
“Who knows what will come next
after the European nations settle
their own quarrels?” says Mr.
Douglas.
Mr. Douglas is in the midst
of a strictly orthodox aviation
career, without any stunting or
barnstorming. A Brooklyn boy,
he was grooved quietly through
the M. I. T. and into the Glenn
Martin plant, as chief engineer.
He will get an important niche
in aviation history as the de
signer of the first plane to lift
its own weight. That proved
him an expert on the pay-load,
an advantage which he has
pressed hard.
He was in the U. S. signal corps
at the start of the World war. In
1920, he founded the Plane Manu
facturing company which later be
came Douglas Aircraft.
GYPSY SMITH, a full-blooded Ro
many Gypsy, born under a
hornbeam tree in England 78 years
ago, is the world’s most famous
„ c iit evangelist,
Gypsy bmitn, now preach
Once Militant, ing in New
For Persuasion uirn-f from
turns from
militancy to persuasion. He says he
has given up “scolding and fright
ening” people. On this, his thirty
fifth visit to New York, he preaches
“love and hope.”
For 60 years he has carried a
clothes-pin as a symbol of his
personal salvation. He and his
father made clothes-pins. An
old lady bought some and gave
him a Bible. He was 18 years
old then, had never slept under
a roof, and was unable to read,
but he taught himself with the
Bible. He is a small, spruce,
compact man, with broad shoul
ders and the general look of a
successful business man. He
thinks the great evangelists,
Dwight L. Moody and Charles
G. Finney, helped to end other
depressions and that the way out
of this one is the path of a new
faith for the multitude.
His name was Petulengro, and he
couldn’t spell it when he first learned
to read. He believes great wars
and disasters will end when we have
become "masters of small things,”
but that faith and religion must be
of ever widening scope. It must be
persuasive rather than militant
evangelism, he insists.
(Consolidated Fealures—WNU Service.)
I _
OP° SEW
Ruth Wyeth Spears c-3^
\A/ITH the holidays almost at
* ’ hand everyone seems to be
giving curtains a thought. An en
thusiastic reader of Sewing Book
No. 3 writes, “I have a bay win
dow in my dining room that has
always been a problem to ourtain.
Right now I would like to make
pinch pleated drapes of figured
damask to hang from cranes to
the floor. I would also like a
valance.” With this letter all the
window dimensions were given.
The sketch at the lower right
reveals the difficulty. The space
between the top of the windows
and the top of the bay made it
impossible to hang the draperies
as desired. A 1 by 2-inch strip
of wood nailed next to the ceiling
Jlsk hie Jlnother
0 A General Quiz
—————————————————————————
1. What is the origin of the army
term “furlough”?
2. How often has the United
States sent soldiers to foreign
lands?
3. What is meant by a Jerusa
lem pony?
4. What tree sometimes grows
a foot a day?
5. In Europe what is meant by
a pension?
6. What is a bull session?
7. What is the largest single real
estate mortgage in America?
8. A victim of autophobia is
afraid of which: speed, solitude
or automobiles?
9. What are four nicknames for
the United States flag?
10. How fast can a swallow fly?
The Answers
1. “Furlough” comes from the
Dutch “ver lof” meaning “for
leave.”
2. More than a hundred times
during its 163 years of existence.
3. A donkey.
4. A bamboo tree.
5. A boarding house.
6. An informal group discussion
of miscellaneous topics.
7. One covering a loan of $44,
300,000 made by the Metropolitan
Life Insurance Co. to Rockefeller
Center in New York city.
8. Solitude.
9. Stars and Stripes; Star Span
gled Banner; Old Glory; Red,
White and Blue.
10. A mother swallow, taken
from her nest and put in a cage
with an identity mark on her foot,
was carried by a car a distance
of 79 miles in a direct line, and
released. She arrived home in
43Ms minutes, having flown at the
rate of 108.5 miles per hour.
of the bay and extending 6 inches
over the walls at the sides as il
lustrated will solve the problem.
The cranes for the side drapes
may be screwed to this strip,
and the rods for the pinch pleated
valance fastened to it. The rods
for the glass curtains may then
be attached in the usual way to
the tops of the window frames.
* * •
NOTE: Readers who are now
using Sewing Books No. 1, 2 and 3
will be happy to learn that No. 4
is ready for mailing; as well as
the 10 cent editions of No. 1, 2 and
3. Mrs. Spears has just made
quilt block patterns for three de
signs selected from her favorite
Early American quilts. You may
have these patterns FREE with
your order for four books. Price
of books—10 cents each postpaid.
Set of three quilt block patterns
without books—10 cents. Send or
ders to Mrs. Spears, Drawer 10,
Bedford Hills, New York.
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Moderation
Moderation is the silken string
running through the pearl-chain of
all virtues.—Fuller.
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1937 and 1938 winner of the U.SL
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