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Show o Seminoles Misrepresented By Sensational Writers By BAUKIIAGE News Analyst and Commentator. WNU Service, 1616 Eye Street.N.W.. Washington, U. C. (This is the second of two articles based on visits to the Seminole Indian reservation at Brighton, Via.), SOMEWHERE NORTH OF THE EVERGLADES. Whenever one tries, as I did, to study the human side of the Seminoles that nation which has left so little written record rec-ord of its short historic life span one is del-urged del-urged with information infor-mation and misinforms mis-informs tio n. Misinformation of the type on which the Sunday supplement writer writ-er feeds. For example, examine the con- .jjWral tradictory data on me oeminuies Baukhage "nd nake killing: When I caUed on Agent Boehmer, his wife recounted re-counted how a greatly-excited Indian In-dian had appeared one day on their doorstep to announce his pressing desire that Boehmer come to the Seminole camp a 100 rods or so distant to kill a rattler. Boehmer obliged. He carefully voided carrying the corpse through the camp (a Seminole taboo), and be noted the usual fire lighted at the point where the victim fell. As usual, the Indian children had cooperated co-operated with him, without actively participating in the execution. There are two explanations as to why the Seminoles would not themselves them-selves kill the snake. One is that once in the past the Seminoles were ordered by the White Man to leave Florida for points west. They prepared pre-pared to remain even though it meant retiring deep into the Everglades. Ever-glades. However they decided it would be a good idea tor both parties if they made treaty with the snakes. They did so on a "live and let live" basis. That is one explanation. ex-planation. Or it may have been one of those common sense arrangements embellished em-bellished with the authority of mysticism. mys-ticism. There are few snakes which, if left alone, won't reciprocate. Another interpretation may "be that when a white man attacks the rattler, the chances are that if anyone any-one is bitten, it would not be an Indian. I understand Seminoles do kill snakes when it seems necessary. nec-essary. Boehmer, whose opinion I learned to value as I pursued this subject, thinks the rattlesnake situation is Interesting, but I couldn't get him to say it meant the Seminole was superstitious. Gaudy Costume Intrigue Observer Like every observer, I was impressed im-pressed by the Seminole attire. Not by the men's they wear conventional conven-tional garments lightened by a gay handkerchief about the neck when they pursue their daily tasks, hunt on the reservation or loaf in camp. They have shortened the long skirtlike skirt-like garment (comparable to the woman's cape) to sport-shirt length, even in ceremonial dress. I found only Sam Huff, reputed to be a medicine man as well as the handy man at the school, wearing wear-ing the long skirt-like garment, plus the blouse. Some say Sam clings to this outfit merely because of his love for the past; others say it may have something to do with his special spe-cial function as a medicine man; there is a whisper that it is a badge of repentance or punishment for some past sin. Sam is a grandfather grand-father today. He still lives in the nearby camp with the rest of his three generations. The younger men save their gay shirts for dress up occasions (the annual green corn dance and the bunting dance), but they have adopted modern trousers. Their shirts are coverd with complicated geometric tracery; their scarves are bound by a metal or wooden clasp; they wear beads or other brightly-decorated fobs. The most striking piece of Seminole Sem-inole clothing is the woman's billowing bil-lowing skirt; next come the beads which cover her neck from shoulder blade to ear tips; then her hair-dress. hair-dress. Unlike the men, the Seminole women (except those who have been completely converted to modern ways) wear their special garb and wear it all the time. Consequently, BARBS . . Static in your automobile radio may come from your tires. A static suppression powder has been de-Vised de-Vised which will cure it The wild life census will be taken this month. I wonder if they have much trouble getting a 200-year-old turtle to tell her age. l S . but VU1 ,.-"'1 f f ? i ' they always look "dressed up." The hairdress, an innovation and a highly practical one, dates back only some six or seven years. The woman's smooth black hair is brought forward over a semi-circular cardboard form like the wide peak of a cap. This gives her the appearance of peering at you from underneath a wide, circular hat brim, and is achieved easily without with-out the aid of the beauty shop and virtually without mirrors. Furthermore, Further-more, the couture is one development develop-ment that has no connection with the White Man's culture. Women's Skirt Are Real Art Unlike the hairdo, the Seminole skirt and cape haven't changed ex cept to grow more artistic and more intricate with the advent of colored textiles. They likewise have become less difficult to create, thanks to the hand-driven sewing machine. This gadget long since has been as common in tepee, hogan or even igloo as an ice-pick In a modern flat. The skirts are made of parallel bands of a brightly colored patchwork patch-work design which experts claim are real art. They are fashioned of hundreds of separate pieces of colorful col-orful cloth, blended or contrasted to make a barbarically splendorous whole. The skirts bell out, widening widen-ing in circumference as they approach ap-proach the hem which, according to regulations, must trail at least three inches or thereabouts on the ground. How can this be a practical everyday every-day dress in a country of swamps and morasses, of barbed and cutting cut-ting underbrush? That is the first question I (and every ignorant ob- tit v Seminole maid and brave sporl native dress In Everglades. server) asks. But they are practical, practi-cal, say the experts who have seen them In operation. Through wet going go-ing and wading, they are "histed" (there are no undergarments to complicate com-plicate matters). Traveling over the dry and dusty fields, rife with snakes and other annoying reptiles, rep-tiles, they protect the bare feet and shins. As Miss or Mrs. Seminole moves forward, toeing in slightly, according to good Indian custom, she gently kicks the dragging rim forward without baring the bare feet to inquisitive eyes or any flora or fauna that might obtrude. The only other cloth garment is the cape. This Is usually a single solid and bright color matching the skirt. The Seminole beads remain a mystery. So far, I have been able to learn little concerning the origin, purpose or excuse for them beyond the explanation offered by Agent Boehmer and supported by his wife: "They wear them because they think they're pretty." And what better bet-ter reason in any woman's lexicon? lexi-con? It does seem strange, though, to see a comely Indian matron, her skirt tucked high before a roaring fire on a hot Florida day, or working work-ing vigorously in a tomato patch, or even strolling through a shop among sweltering whites in low cut dresses or open sport shirts, with perhaps 23 pounds (they have been weighed) of beads in a solid collar rising as high as the whalebone-enforced whalebone-enforced "chokers" American girls wore in the first decades of the 1900s. . by Baukhage Half of the individual owners of the steel industry are women. Good restaurants may be serving serv-ing Guatemalan honey instead of sugar for coffee some day, says Middle American Information. Nice, but we'd settle for a littie more sugar. IWIM V.I Ml-l EDISON CENTENNIAL Early Efforts Backfired but Lessons Brought Lasting Fame WNU Features. During his lifetime Thomas A. Edison found time to root around in about everybody's backyard, doping out a gadget or a machine or a formula that would help hi3 neighbor. He was crammed with ideas about many things, some of which, as everybody knows, brought him enduring fame. There were some, however, that his 84 years did not give him time to perfect. As the 100th anniversary of his birth, on February 11, 1847, approaches, ap-proaches, there are probably very few people who know that Edison once won a patent on a "flying machine." ma-chine." Back in 1910, he doped out an idea on a helicopter, in which field he thought the future of aviation avi-ation lay. On another, occasion, he was granted a patent on a method of preserving fruit, and when he died he was working on a formula for extraction of rubber from the lowly goldenrod. 'Wizard' Was Human. Edison once even worked on an insecticide, and this experience shows a human side that belies any suggestion that he had a "magic thumb" in the inventive business. He was just coming into fame as the "Wizard of Menlo Park" when he was approached by a neighboring neighbor-ing farmer whose principal crop was threatened with destruction by an invasion of potato bugs. The year was 1878. Tom was 31, and he already had to his credit such inventions in-ventions as the phonograph and a score of telegraph patents. The farmer allowed as how an up-and-coming young Inventor ought to be able to find a way to kill off the potato bugs. Accepting the challenge, although he knew ; relatively nothing about bugs and plants, Edison collected a quart bottle full of potato bugs and set forth to compound a lethal potion. po-tion. Testing every chemical in his laboratory, he hit upon bisulphide of carbon as a sure-fire potato bug killer. Jubilantly, he and the farmer farm-er sprinkled the Infested potato vines and waited to tabulate the results. re-sults. The bugs died like flies but o did the potato vines; and Edison Edi-son had to pay the farmer $300 damages for, as he put it, "not experimenting properly." He never again made the mistake mis-take of not experimenting enough. Consequently, some of his inventions took him years to perfect, and because be-cause of his patience the world has become a much better place in which to live. His invention of the electric light made necessary a system sys-tem of electrical distribution which brought not only light but also scores of electrical gadgets to the farm home as well as city residence. resi-dence. His phonograph put the best music into the home, and his numerous numer-ous other inventions, including the motion picture, made life easier, more comfortable and entertaining. Worked Too Well. There was one other of Edison's creations which backfired, but it wasn't because he hadn't perfected it; this one, on the contrary, worked too well. At one time he was working as night telegraph operator op-erator in the Grand Truck railroad station at Stratford Junction, Canada. Can-ada. One of the requirements of the Job was that Edison, then 17, must check in on the wire every half hour by sending the signal 6 in Morse code to the train dispatcher at a nearby station. Edison deplored this arrangement because it prevented him from catching up on the sleep he wasn't getting during the daytime, which he spent in study and experimentation. experimenta-tion. So he rigged up a device for automatically sending out the signal sig-nal 8. He hooked up the instrument instru-ment to the office clock so that every ev-ery 30 minutes the signal went out over the wire, thus reassuring the dispatcher that Edison was on the Job whereas, in fact, he was sound asleep. This ruse was successful until one night the train dispatcher dis-patcher tried vainly to contact Edison on the wire during one of his catnaps. Alarmed by the prospect that the Stratford Junction Junc-tion telegraph office was on-manned, on-manned, the dispatcher made his way to Edison's office on a handcar. He arrived just In time to find Edison blissfully sleeping sleep-ing while the young inventor's machine obediently dotted-and-dashed the prescribed signal. The next day Edison started looking for another job, but the ex- I periment proved of incalculable vame oecause it started nun on a Hypnotism Aids in BAKERSF1ELD, CALIF. - Hyp- i notlsm, long considered a good stage i trick but also utilized in medicine and in curing mental ills during recent re-cent years, found a new use in dentistry den-tistry here. When Mrs. Violet Nicola went to a medical-dental clinic to have two teeth extracted. It was discovered that she was allergic to all types of anesthetics. The dentist called two doctors and a psycho-therapist Into Two highlights In Thorns A. Edison's Edi-son's amazing career are shown In these pictures. Top, Edison la shown demonstrating his first phonograph at the White House on April 18, 1878. Lower, the inventor is shown operating oper-ating an early and crude model of his first motion picture machine. XlKrr- . j ! . , ,It, , ;, -f-m - - -&2l AJ i it' .is2"'' " train of thought that led him first to the invention of a stock ticker and an automatic telegraph, thence to the phonograph and later to the motion picture camera. V..'-'-Earns First Money. With the Idea planted in his mind of constructing telegraph apparatus that would automatically send and record messages, Edison invented nnH natontd on imnrnvpH stnrlf ticker. It was so much better than j the crude tickers which antedated I his that a telegraph company paid I him $40,000 for it the first money I Edison ever received for an invention. inven-tion. With the $40,000 Edison established estab-lished a shop in Newark, N. J., in 1870, and began the manufacture of stock tickers. He was 23, and for the first time in his life he had enough money to experiment with the hundred and one ideas that coursed through his agile mind. One of a score of telegraphic patents pat-ents he took out as a result of his experiments in Newark was on an automatic telegraph, which could send and record messages on a strip of paper tape at a rate far beyond the speed possible in sending send-ing and receiving by hand. In seeking seek-ing to improve his first automatic telegraph, Edison experimented with a machine employing a turntable turn-table covered with a paper disc. Perforations in the paper disc sent out dots and dashes when the turntable turn-table was rotated. One day, however, how-ever, the turntable was operated at an excessive speed and, instead of dots and dashes, the result was a musical hum. Edison was quick to sense the possibilities of his discovery, dis-covery, and on July 18, 1877. he made the following entry in one of the 2,500 notebooks he filled with scientific data and reports before his death at 84 on October 18, 1931: "Just tried experiment with a diaphragm having an embossed point and held against paraffin paper moving rapidly. The speaking vibrations are Indented Indent-ed nicely and there is no doubt that I shall be able to store up and reproduce automatically at any future time the human voice perfectly." Less than a month later he did just that. First Movie Was 'Talkie.' Ten years later, in 1887, Edison set out, as he later commented, "to do for the eye what the phonograph did for the ear." The result was the birth of what today is probably the most glamorous industry in the world the motion picture industry. Thus it was that the germ of an idea which took root in Edison's mind when he was fired as a telegraph tele-graph operator ultimately led to invention in-vention of the stock ticker, the automatic au-tomatic telegraph, the phonograph and the motion picture camera. Edison probably is best remembered remem-bered as the inventor of the first practical Incandescent lamp: The lamp was a handy symbol of achievement seized upon by the public, pub-lic, but actually it constituted only a small portion of his work in the Tooth Extraction consultation. The consulting psychotherapist psycho-therapist started talking to the patient pa-tient and within a few seconds she was in a hypnotic trance. Thirty minutes later Mrs. Nicola was brought out of the trance, minus her two teeth but completely unaware that they were gone. Although Al-though the doctors and two other witnesses told her the operation was over, Mrs. Nicola was not convinced until she looked in a mirror. I : I M f v 1 ; 3 f ' 1 1 field of electric lighting and power distribution. From 1868, when he receive! his first patent for an electrically electrical-ly energized voting machine, until un-til his death 63 years later, Edison Edi-son created 1,097 patentable inventions in-ventions by far the greates number of patents ever issued to any one Individual by thi United States Patent office. The wide range of his accomplishments accom-plishments is almost unbelievable. un-believable. The carbon transmitter that made Alexander Graham Bell's telephone a commercial success was an Edison Edi-son invention, and for many years the names of both Bell and Edison appeared on telephone instruments. This same transmitter later was adapted to radio and served as the first broadcasting microphone. Perfects Telegraphy. Edison patented a system of telegraphy teleg-raphy through space six years before be-fore Guglielmo Marconi made the instrument that earned him the title of "Father of Wireless Telegraphy." Teleg-raphy." Edison Invented, built and operated oper-ated the first electric railroad in America. Some of his patents caused revolutionary changes in the cement Industry, and as early as 1908 he was building cement houses with prefabricated molds. He invented an electric automobile, automo-bile, a helicopter, a method of making mak-ing plate glass. He patented a method of preserving fresh fruits and vegetables in glass containers; he devised a machine, called the micro-tasimeter, for measuring minute heat fractions, and another, the odoroscope, for registering the presence of odors, however slight. Indefatigable Worker. Before introduction of the typewriter, type-writer, Edison invented an electric pen which cut stencils of handwriting handwrit-ing so that one letter could be reproduced re-produced in illimitable quantities. Its modern counterpart is the mimeograph machine. These and scores of other creations, cre-ations, some of great importance im-portance and some, like his talk ing doll, hardly more than novelties, nov-elties, came out of Edison's mind. He rued the fact that the day contained con-tained only 24 hours, because it did not give him enough time to do everything he wanted to do. His favorite fa-vorite motto and one which he displayed prominently on the walls of his laboratory and offices was a quotation which said: "There is no expedient to which a man will not resort to avoid the serious labor of thinking." Although Edison lived to be 84, he continued to put in long hours of study and work right up until a few Weeks before his death. When friends chided him about not retiring re-tiring to a life of ease, his reply was that "There'll be plenty of time to think about retiring when I reach 100." Tom Edison has "reached 100" and he has "retired," but his memory mem-ory lives on in a thousand creations that have benefitted mankind. Boy Peruses Comics As Home Fire Flares CHAMPAIGN, ILL. Even a fire in his own home could not induce seven-year-old Bernard Burke to abandon his comic book. Firemen, called to the Burke home to quell a blaze, found Bernard in the bathtub bath-tub reading a comic book. To anxious queries, Bernard calmly explained: ex-plained: "I'm busy. The firemen will put it out" After the blaze was out, Bernard was still in the tub. 111 THE general attitude toward urn pires is, in our opinion, one of tht greatest crimes in sport. Ball play ers in large numbers have been con victed in the past of selling and throwing throw-ing games. Players and managers have been indicted on other counts, outside out-side of baseball. But no umpire that I can recall has ever been connected with a scandal of any sort. They have been the backbone of baseball the foundation of base GrantlandRice ball. What has been their reward? The age old cry of "Kill tfie umpire." They have been hated and assaulted assault-ed and scorned by the mob. The; have been stormed , at. cursed, insulted in-sulted by players and managers whe In the main were using these um pires as alibis for their own mis-takes mis-takes for their deleats. I can go back a long way in umpiresTim um-piresTim Hurst, Silk O'Loughlin, Tommy Connelly, Billy Evans. Bill Klem (and what a guy), Cy Wrig-ler. Wrig-ler. Hank O'Day, Bill Dineen, Lord Byron, Arlie Latham, Charlie Mo-ran, Mo-ran, on and on and on. A great bunch. Dead honest. Dead game, these Big Boys in Blue. You couldn't buy one of them ft any price. You couldn't scare 'em. No one can bluff any of them. Once in a while they may get to be overly tough, overly officious. But after all they are supposed to run the game and when they don't the game will be a farce. A complete joke. Honest and Tough I've known umpires for over 40 years. Among the top ones I've never known anyone who wasn't honest hon-est and fearless and tough when he had to be. Honest, fearless and tough. For the umpire knows how the managers and the ball players use him in an attempt to cover up their mistakes. Umpires make many mistakes. But Ty Cobb only batted .367 and Babe Ruth wasn't even close to this mark. That means mistakes for the ball player over two-thirds of the time Who is perfect or close to being be-ing perfect in the world's most imperfect im-perfect period of time? What is the umpire's reward for the job he turns in? An outcast, as a general rule. Sure the hours are good, as Tim Hurst once said, but no better than the hours a ball player play-er or a manager knows. Not only a social outcast, but also the subject of vile abuse from managers man-agers and players and from the crowd if the umpire doesn't happen to call the play in favor of the home club. What can the crowd in the stands see? The angles on strikes plays at the bases nothing at all. They don't know that slight angles can make a difference of many feet. These crowds haven't the slightest idea of what actually happened. They can miss a strike or a ball by over a foot. So can any manager man-ager sitting on the bench. He also is all out of line. He is only guessing his own way where on a general average he Is completely wrong. A vital part of an aggressive ball team, including manager and player, play-er, always concerns attacking and riding the umpire. This is supposed to mean a fighting, hustling team. Why was it, then, that Walter Johnson John-son never protested an umpire's decision? de-cision? Why was it that you rarely saw Joe McCarthy or Billy South-worth, South-worth, certainly two of the best, storming from the dugout in some protest? These two let the umpires run the game. Riding the Umpire John McGraw, a great manager, came up in a different era. McGraw Mc-Graw always faced two opponents the other team and the umpire. You couldn't give McGraw enough opponents, oppo-nents, including hostile stands. All Mac wanted was a fight with anybody. any-body. ' But the game has changed in later years. And now we have too many managers and ball players trying to copy McGraw. They are using umpires um-pires for their mistakes as alibis. The point I'd like to make is this here we have a group who should belong at the top of sport. And yet their reward is abuse from the crowds abuse from the ball players abuse from the managers. About 95 per cent abuse. In the main these umpires are picked from the best of the ball players. From the smartest smart-est and the most courageous. The wonder is that any sane citizen would ever want to be an umpire. The Middleiveights The middleweights, always among the best in the ring, still dominate all division' by a wide margin. The middleweights mean quality as well as quantity. Some while ago we figured five top middleweights running the show, rhvy were Zale the champion, Graziano, LaMotta, Cerdan and Abrams. The verdict was that either ei-ther Cerdan or Abrams had to be eliminated. But the Cerdan-Abrams party was too close to be decisive. SEWING CIRCLE (Button-ront Jroch 3i Vertalife Smart ebaijtimer for oCarcje Jlgur win Mr Mm III p::t:i :::: 9U tw $ W Popular House Dress CTART your day with a song in a jiffy-on house frock like the one illustrated. The popular keyhole key-hole neckline is set off with colorful color-ful ric rac trim, which also edges the pocket flaps. Ideal for afternoon after-noon wear too if you make it with the three-quarter sleeves provided in the pattern. 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Pattern No. Size Name- Addresa- 15th-18th Century Sundial Were Elaborate Devices The most elaborate sundial ever made were the portable. watch-sized instruments designed in Europe between the 15th and 18th centuries, says Collier s Besides a compass, some coi tained as many as 15 device among them being, for example" dials for determining the nocturnal noctur-nal hour by either the moon or certain stars, an adjustment for changes in latitude, a diagram showing planetary positions and a. contrivance for ascertaining the time when the sun and moon: would rise and set. You start right when you measure the required amount of Clabber Girl into your flour . . . You are sure to get just the right rise in your mixing bowl, followed by that final rise to light and fluffy flavor in the oven ... That's the story of Clabber Girl's balanced double action. |