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Show W&it O "JhJimhd about Prehistoric Lore. DEL RIO, TEXAS. According Ac-cording to the scientists, who have a great way of naming earthly phenomena without inquiring into the wishes of the phenomena, we are now living in a terrestrial era known as the Hollocene period. This will be news to a lot of people peo-ple who rather suspected we were living through a stage which might be called Chaos. Still, it's no wonder won-der that the word hasn't got around generally yet, because be-cause this present era is quite a young era as eras go. It's merely a few million mil-lion years old, whlr-lv in nnr trnp r 1 ; i ri" I i geologist, Is the IrvinS. Cobb same as yesterday. Mention a few million years to him and he'll say "phew! ".and just snap his fingers like that. I wonder if the authorities would pardon a suggestion from a poor ignoramus whose acquaintance with geology is largely limited to two of its surface phases, namely: Regular Reg-ular paved roads and those derned detours. When we consider most of the humorous illustrations and the bulk of the humorous text printed in the average smart magazine of today, and the even spicier lines heard in smart modern plays, wouldn't it be more fitting to call it, not the Holocene, but the Obscene Ob-scene period? The Law's Long Arm. THE long arm of the law it's a grand phrase, isn't it? So mouth-filling, mouth-filling, so satisfying to the honest citizen's soul! It conjures up visions of unrelenting unrelent-ing warfare against crime, inevitable inevita-ble punishment for the guilty. It's the bunk! It's the bunk because of crooked lawyers; venal policemen; complacent compla-cent prosecutors; soft-hearted or corrupted jurors; witnesses, bribed or intimidated; the law's delays; reversals of fair verdicts on foolish technicalities; a false sentimentality sentimentali-ty which forgets the widow and orphan or-phan of the victim and thinks only of the family of the killer; most often of all, abuse of the powers to commute and to pardon and to parole. pa-role. These days, when I see a sentenced sen-tenced offender handcuffed to an officer, I find myself saying to myself, my-self, "Chances are that fellow, literally lit-erally or figuratively, is wearing that decoration only temporarily." The Passing Tears. TjVERY newborn year is a rosy --' prospect just as nearly .every dying year is a dun-colored disappointment. dis-appointment. But without revived hope what could we look forward to except being measured for a shroud? It seems only yesterday when 1937 was busting in, a radiant, bouncing baby-child, his arms burdened with promises, bless his little soul! After several false starts, happy days were here again. Nobody was aiming aim-ing to remodel the Supreme court. Senator Ashurst told us so, and didn't he know? He didn't. Secretary Wallace, slightly assisted assist-ed by Divine Providence, would immediately im-mediately have the crop situation well in hand. Grass would grow only in the street leading to the almshouse. The Wall Street boys were expecting two suckers in every ev-ery pot. And the song of the Bulbul was heard in the land ah, the bull-bull! bull-bull! Within the 12-month the Republican Republi-can party again would be a going concern. Well, if it's a going concern, con-cern, the question is, where? And now, laden with future gifts, comes 938. How time flies! Why, before you know it, Sistie will be old enough to take a job with the radio and Buzzie will be signing testimonials. testimo-nials. Gambling Houses. A ONCE famous card-sharp not reformed, but retired said to me: "Show me a professional gambling gam-bling house where the roulette wheel isn't crooked, where any other oth-er mechanical device is on the square, where the operatives from the bosses on down won't skin a customer call him a sucker, if you want to; the terms are interchangeable interchange-able and I'll drop dead from shock, because no such outfit ever existed nor ever will, not so long as games can be tricked, as all of them can, and gamblers are out for the coin, as they naturally are, and the hand is quicker than the eye, which it is." "But how about the mathematical percentage in favor of the bank isn't that enough?" I asked. "How about the mathematical percentage of crooked law-enforcement officers who have to be bribed?" he countered. "There's never enough coming in to satisfy those babies." IKVIN S. COBB Copyright. WNU Service. I |