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Show 'Way Back When o By JEANNE FORMER MAYOR WA3 A SONG WRITER ' 'HERE wcro twclvo children In our fumily and it was necessary to have a pretty strict rule about being reasonably quiet In the house and at the dinner table. My father repeated bo often, "Children are to be seen and not heard" or "Silence is golden" that just to think o those old adages brings back the echo of his voice. I can't agree with the principle of those sayings. Child-dren Child-dren who ore encouraged to join In tho conversation are likely to have more self-confidence and to be more social minded. In some cases, their very talkativeness may be golden. Take Jimmy Walker for instance: James John Walker, who later became be-came mayor of New York City and was one of the most popular men ever to hold that office, was born in New York's Greenwich Village in 1881. When still a very small boy, he was nick-named "Jimmy Talker" because he could not be kept quiet. His father was running run-ning for alderman at one time, and Jimmy was sent to explain that he could not be present at a political polit-ical rally because of illness. The crowd called for a speech from the young boy, and he did so well that his father was elected. Jimmy Walker went to school in New York City, and studied law; but for a while it looked as though he might be a professional song writer instead of a lawyer or a politician. He wrote several songs which were published and made a national hit by composing "Will You Love Me in December As You Did in May?" None of his other songs enjoyed the popularity of this one, however, and Jimmy decided upon a more conventional career. He went to work as a clerk for the Union Surety Guarantee company com-pany and with his earnings returned re-turned to law school. He established estab-lished a fine law practice, and became be-came more and more prominent in politics. In 1925, he was elected mayor of New York City and en- joyed more mass popularity than any mayor of recent times has known there. INVENTOR RAN BICYCLE REPAIR SH3P THE seed of success is ambition, and Orville Wright was ambitious ambi-tious from early boyhood. He was born in Dayton, Ohio, in 1871, the youngest of five children, and as they grew up Orville and one of his older brothers, Wilbur, became inseparable. in-separable. A highly respectable mid-western family, the father was a bishop of the United Brethren church and later publisher of a religious re-ligious newspaper; but the family never had a lot of money. Orville Or-ville Wright started to make money early In life, going about the neighborhood neigh-borhood and collecting old bones to sell to a fertilizing plant. When he was fourteen, he published a school paper with a toy printing press. Later Lat-er he made a press of his own and Wilbur improved it. Next he invented invent-ed a paper folding machine for his father's print shop. He quit school in the third year ol high school and, with Wilbur, started a weekly newspaper news-paper which lasted only three months. They then turned to job printing and later started a bicycle repair shop. At about this time, they became interested in aviation and proceeded to construct the first heavier than air machine large enough to carry a man. As in their previous activities, activi-ties, Orville was the creative genius, gen-ius, Wilbur the perfecter. Their first successful flight was at Kitty Hawk, N. C, in 1903, and the success suc-cess of aviation was assured when Orville made a flight lasting 62 minutes min-utes and 15 seconds, in 1908. --WNU Service. |