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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (May 28, 1940)
THE DAILY NEBRASKAM BMaWWOfc1!! Illil l'M,IIMIIIBMaM .till Article Story Essay Poetry 0 Tuesday, May 26, 1940 ii:ii!nii!:i:ii!i!!!i:!!!!: 2 b t. r it Any war is plain international dumbness By Paul E. Svoboda. i motionless looking off into space, for the waiter to bring another i them Germans? Can't they wait those guys ever managed to fly ' . . . .. . . bottle. I 'til tomorrow to start pluggin' at that plane half way over Germany "Hey, waiter! Give us four more) DrinK to tne acaa. pierC( got any cigarettes? Hey, us? Their 75's have been landing without getting blown to pieces, of those things, you know, the "Well, who will we drink this pjeret wake up! What the Hell ya all-over the country. Either the The French papers said they went man gesticulated with his hands one too ? Paul dead somewhere doin' ? Dutch asked. gunners are drunk or they're just at night, but Christ, with all those for loss of words, 'those things m Alsace-Lorraine? To Chuck, A good target. plain fools," Mike said when every- plane detectors and things', I don't vin de fleur, or whatever you cau wn0 crashed his plane on the other thl ... fhaf.a ,. body started to move about again, see how they did it." them-and rush it, willya?" 8ide of the line, or Bill, or Jim, or 'J"s thinking, thats all, jus t ' Hi voice was almost dro-vned in ?" I thinking about tomorrow when we 20 million men. Its this way. the noise of the crowd. The men "For Christ's sake, Mike, shut gotta go up there and play target "Probably fluke shells," Piere "I met a guy just before our and women laughed and danced in up! Ain . t enough that maybe all for them Nazi bullets and Wonder- said "Good powder is getting company was transferred up here o h,..Vi.H f,v aa it thov were of .. wl out there with a load nS ma.Ybe I'll get back to Mis- plenty scarce for them just like it from the Italian border, Dutch ti-vine to crowd all their gaiety J . . . " Into one night. Uniformed men, tired of war, its dirt and filth, sat drinking their wine in a business- like fashion trying to forget that tomorrow they were to move into the line near Flambeaux where the Nazis were pushing hard with all they had. Even now they could hear the dull roar of cannon and bombs unloading their cargoes of death in the distance. Occasion- ally the windows trembled when a shell exnloded far behind the lines and everyone in the small cafe sat J Alice was The Third Sister7 At thirty-five she looked like fifty By Carol Wheeler. sisters she was going to the li- Miss Alice began at five to pre- brary. They merely nodded when pare supper. The bare little kitch- she spoke. en was shadowy In the early win- The night was clear; the wind ter dusk but she put off turning had gone down. The street lights on the light as long as possible, glowed forlornly down the empty She heard a sound at the door, and blocks. Alice took the long way to opened it to Peter, fat blue cat the library. She enjoyed the quiet with fur ruffled from cold and stars and the cold air against her wind, and eyes greedy as he mewed face. She felt almost young, and for milk. Alice spread a linen cloth no longer alone, on the small table, sliced the bread The library was warm and and spice cake, and put the kettle brightly lighted. Alice returned on for tea Louise would be clos- her books, and browsed about a in the shop soon now, she re- bit awkwardly, hating to leave, fleeted Their rooms were behind She finally selected two books, her sister Louise's odd, dusty little checked them out, and smiled notion store. She neara int oeu over the door in the shop tinkle and knew that Emily was back from Ladies' Aid. She prepared the tea and placed the creamed po tatoes and fried ham upon the table. Louise and Emily came in from the shop, Louise heavy and placid in her dark dress, Emily still in coat and hat, talking nervously- Vices and men. ". . .and Mrs. Carlson said he did it deliberately. Deliberately." "Did what, dear," from Alice by way of greeting. "Jimmy Connors taught Ann Btnnett to smoke. Deliberately. She's only seventeen, and he's twenty-two. Everyone says they're engaged, but you can't tell. Since he's been away at college he's picked up some wild ways, I guess. Why Mrs. Carlsen says she saw him only the other night, cold as it wa1?. ."More and more and more. Alice thought her head would surely split. Every night it was like this, with Emily dispens ing the latest gossip and Louise, pompous, encouraging her. Somehow supper was thru, and she could finish the dishes. Her head ached a little, and her feet were tired. She dreaded going into th box-like living room where her sisters spent their maiden eve nings. She had learned them by rote. Louise would work on her accounts, perhaps write a letter to some obscure relative. Emily would recite gossip incessantly, with her ever moist blue eyes gleaming brightly behind her black ribboned spectacles, and her hands busy with crochet. At ten one sister would put up her pen, the other her needles, and off to bed they'd go. To get away. Alice wiped her hands and took off her apron. "I can take back those library books," she thought, suddenly grateful to get away. She liniped to her room, smoothed her hair, and put on a drab little coat 'and hat. She stopped by the door of the living room to tell her of lead U our ribs? What's the use of bringing them up? What's done's done. No matter what you or I say ain't going to change it any." "Yeah, I guess you're right, Frank, Mike said thoughtfully, yeah I guess you're right." "You bet I am. Drink up and we'll have another. How about you Dutch? Piere?" The two men downed their wine quickly and shoved the glasses to the center of the table. Frank raised his hand and gesticulated Z (see THIKD SISTEK, page t.) He talked amazingly well for a corpse and had to interview him By Don Bower. 'And I died." My dear fellow, I Insist that you could not have died." I was just a little tipsy, and I knew darned well that twp things were wrong. I knew this guy couldn't be dead, and I knew that if he was he couldn't be telling me about it, "My dear fellow, for an hour and many minutes I have been lis tening to you, and I have con cluded that you do not know what you are talking about." "Listen, mister," he says. "You're a reporter. Fine. I wanted to give you a break. I wanted to let you have the biggest scoop in history. I wanted you to interview a corpse." He talked in an amaz- ingly clear voice for a corpse, Even with the six Collins he'd had on me. But I wasn't convinced. It wasn't locical. and I wasn't the guy to believe it. Interview with a corpse. r "Sure," I said, "you want me to have a scoop. Thanks. This would be the biggest scoop I ever had. Only trouble is, it'd be the last." Our conversation had been moving in that same circle for quite a while, and it was 3 a. m., and I had a wife, and she had a temper, and I had better get home. Maybe in th nn,r. Qn out all night, but I wasn't in the movies. And although my wife was a. iny unuurautnuing woman, i had to have another drink before I was convinced ohe would be- neve mis taie. uaicu, oL-oup, me corpse yelled at me. He decided that I should be Scoop because of the Qi ir- Qo-Qin Paoaia noona m a rx wui i obutxt. wdkjiv a v lot; more than ever now since the kid came. Funny, I ain't seen him yet. Here it's dawn near Fourth of July and the kid'll be four on the 26th and he ain't never seen his pop. Bessie and I got married in February of '41 and we lived to-i gethcr for three months best three months I ever lived then I got called over here to help fight this war that somebody got us into just because we have to pro tect our rights. Can't see how toeyre my rights The only right I I have is the right to live." His clenched fist pounded the table, "I gotta get through it. I gotta!" In same boat. "We're all In the same boat. Mike here has a wife and two kids waiting for him in the Bronx, rw... woM, in Tin. bui a. uivi ""'v " nois, and I, well, I hope I've got a girl waiting for me back in Ne braska," Frank said. The windows rattled again; even the wine jiggled in the glasses a little as another shell exploded somewhere close. The music from the three piece band came to a discordant stop. The bartender let the whisky overflow from a glass he was filling. Everyone seemed cemented in his tracks. A moment later the band took up again, the women began to laugh a little, and a few dancers began to move about the floor. Soon everything was the same as be- lore. "What the Hell's wrong with scoop that he was going to help me scoop. "I have decided that y" dont believe me. I just read vmir minH rornsAa a pa nhl to Ho that and you were thinking that I was lying to you. It's a lucky thing I'm an understanding spirit, or t wo.iiH rm wi, to mv grave and leave you high and dry. But MnS an understanding guy, ghost. Bartender, Mr. Scoop wants i win prove 10 you mai a am a me to have another drink." This guy's batty. Hell, I thought, this guy is bats. I don't know why, unless I did have one drink that I shouldn't have. I staved and listened to him Besides, it was costing me money, But I decided to let him prove to me that he was a ghost. "How can you prove it?" I says. "Well, I'll take you out to my p-ravi. " I wasn't in the mood to go to any grave. Particularly to the one a.Li. . a in,s wa.9 suPPsea 10 occupy. " w" rainmS , ". anu 1 naa a vviic. xiiia waau i mc xcanuii iiwua raining, but it would be a reason for her reigning blows on me. Besides, graveyards are not my idea of pleasant places to be. Not at three in the morning. The last drink did it. Next thing I knew I was in my roadster sitting beside thia talkative corpse, Changed address. -we won't nave to dig up my grave. I moved to a vault shortly after I died. Hell, I thought, why spend au day in that cheap cof- nn : ine oiu ooy wno was in tne vault was too feeble to argue, so we changed places." ia no Xith OA Yiil1inn m on iq ivi uoi viii4 lutiiiuu blowing hell outa each other day and night there's bound to be some kind of shortage. I heard that the boats from home can't haul the stuff over here fast enough. Mike pushed back his chair, gulped down his liquor, and stood up. He cocked his overseas hal over his eye and straightened his tie. "You're not leaving are ya", Mike?" Frank asked. "Hell, no. That little French gal over there by the band winked at me and I never was the man to pass up a chance. Probably be the last girl that'll ever wink at me after tomorrow. Well, I'll be vou;" ... ... . e. re f athem arou"d the table laughed raucously. They un- derstood. War makes a man un- (WotanrI a W nt tViinoo Whir in the Hell shouldn't a man have little fun? May be hia last Women and war. "Give her our regards," Dutch said laughingly as Mike made his way across the dime-sized dance floor. They bent over their glasses again as Piere said, "Say, I heard in St. Barritz when I was in the hospital that the president asked congress to give those four college kids who captured Hitler for that miltlon bucks a bonus of a hun- dred grand apiece. Man, what I couldn't do with a hundred G's." "Me too," Dutch exclaimed, "You know, that was the damn- dest thing. I can't figure out how He was a neighbor of John Dillinger I had quit talking. I was whistl- ing or trying to. It was cold, I ffue3aat least my teeth were chattering. I was darn sure I dn t want to visit any vault. I wanted to get home to my wife I never realized how nice my wife rvna. 411c wiiiu was uiuvvmg uu jnjr face, and a couple of Collins wore off. I began to ret scared more scared- Butt 1 kePl BOS- "e told me wueie iu gu, tiiiu x wrm. The graveyard was in the coun try. I knew it would be. Not only my teeth were chattering now. My whole body was chattering. Why was it me who got into things like this? Thousands of reporters, and I get to interview a corpse. Pals with Dillinger. "Buck up, Scoop, I'll soon show you where I live and you'll have your scoop. Old John Dillinger 'ianK3 around mv Place to- Maybe he's Kt something to say to the illVSS. --- Jeez, I was scared! My hands were frozen on the wheel, and I couldn't turn back. Why was this guy so damned unpleasant? The graveyard loomed ahead. The gravestones stood out in the dark ness. They reflected the light of the moon. Only there wasn't any moon ! W stopped. He got out. I got out. He walked to the gate. Then he went through it. I didn't. I turned around. A dark object loomed up behind me It had "yes a foot in diameter. They glowed They were white, and didn't haveJ any pupils. It was my car I got in. I went home. I told my wife about it. And then I died The rip-roarin glory of the day when Dad wt-nt to college t niA nlniniAl Via trnawr nna rt' otXlii 11 c tianucu rvi iv vv uul v. the fellows and he said their plane had a silent motor that didn't make any more noise than an elec tric razor. He said they worked on the motor secretly. Nobody knew about it, not even the gov ernment. I guess they bought a plane and installed this new motor and then they took off across the ocean. This guy I met said they landed on one of the Oikeny Islands and played like they were American flyers. They had faked papers them 1 and the Britishers took ;m for ." "That ain't the way I heard it," Piere broke in. "I heard the gov ernment fixed them up with that new plane and sent them over to England where they were sup posed to try from. I heard those kids went to see the president about doing the stunt and he balked at the idea for a while but he came around after he saw that maybe with Hitler out of the wav. the Germans wouldn't fight anymore. He was dead wrong though. It just made them Nazis sorer than ever and Goering took over just where Hitler left off. From what they say he's doing a better job than the Old Boy did. At least we ain't pushing ahead as fast as we were six months ago when Hitler was still running1 things instead of sitting in Al catraz waiting to be shot." This guy was saying. "Well, this guy T was talking to seemed to know his stuff," Dutch, continued, "and he claims it waa this way. They flew this plane over to them islands without any body knowing about it. They had these faked papers and uniforms and played like they were lost. Said they were doing reconnai sance flights over northern Bel gium and a storm came up that made them lose their way. Well, the Britishers let them fill up their ranks and gave 'em something to eat, then they took off heading straight for Germany." "Aw, hell, those Tommies might be dumb, but they ain't that dumb," Pierre exclaimed. "That's what I say," Frank said. "Okay, you guys are so smart. But this buddie I was talking to in the hospital said they took off in the evening and got to Ger many about two in the morning. Somehow they found this country place where Hitler was staying. It was storming to beat the devil and rain was falling by the barrel. The guards were sitting in out of th3 rain and didn't hear the plane when they finally set it down be hind a bunch of trees." They sneaked up. 'Two of them stayed in the plane while the other two went sneaking around the house look ing for a way in. From what this guy told me, they looked in a win dow and ther e Der Fueher was sit ting in front of the fireplace with a couple guards at the door. For some reason the guards left and the Old Boy was left alone, so these two college kids jimmied the window open and one of them crawled in while the other stayed outside to watch. I guess Hitler was dozing a bit and didn't hear the guy come in. There wasn't anything to it then. He just conked him on the head with hi. pistol and drug him out the win dow. They finally got to the palne but had to kill a couple guards to do it. When they took off tha rest of the guards saw them and See WAR, page 6.) STUART TOMORROW! i i