The Alamance Gleaner 1 VOL. LIV. GRAHAM, IS, C., THURSDAY JUNE 14, 1928. ' ? NO. 19. J WHAT'S GOING ON | ^ I NEWS REVIEW OF CURRENTEVENTS Four)Aviators Make Flight Across Pacific Ocean in Three Big Hops. By EDWARD W. PACKARD ^ ALIFORN1A to Australia by al% ^ plane In three hops I For the first time the Pacific ocean has been traversed by the air route, the great feat being accomplished by two Aus tralians, Capt Charles Kingsford Smlth, war ace, and Charles T. P. Ulm, and two Americans, Harry W. Lyon and James Warner. Their machine was the monoplane Southern Cross, once used unsuccessfully In the Arctic regions by Captain Wllklns. In constant communication with the mainland and with vessels by radio, the airmen made the flight to Hawaii without much trouble. The worst part of the trip was the next bop, nearly 3,200 miles to the Fiji Islands, and during this they ran Into repeated storma that were most skillfully dodged by Klngsford-Smlth, the chief pilot. This was the longest overseas flight ever made, and If they had been forced down before reaching Suva the .only possible places to light without disaster were two coral atolls In the Phoenix group 1,866 miles from the starting point In HawalL As Is was they landed safely at Albert park, Suva, with only 30 gallons of gas left In the tanks, having made the hop In M hours and 38 minutes. Whites and natives of FIJI joined In giving the flyers a rousing welcome. After a brief rest the plane was flown 10 Naselal beach for the take-off for Bris bane, Australia, 1,762 miles away, the route taking the airmen through a re gion of frequent storms, south of the Loyalty Islands and New Caledonia. From Brisbane they were to fly to Syd ney, 500 miles to the south. Sydney newspapers printed the re port that Captain Klngsford-Smlth was on the brink of Insolvency and started a campaign to raise a fund for him. When the trans-Paclflc flight orig inally was planned Klngsford-Smlth sought the aid of the Australian gov ernment and It was promised. Ad vance payments purchased the plane and the flyer came to the United States. There followed the disastrous Dole flight from Oakland to Honolulu In which seven lives were lost The Australian government withdrew Its support and urged Klngsford-Smlth to return home. He refused and con tinued plans for the Callfornla-to-Aue tralla flight on limited resources and Anally obtained backing from Allen Hancock, millionaire oil man of Los Angeles. But even with this backing the flyer faces financial ruin. During the week there were reports, based on alleged radio messages, that Noblle and the dirigible Italia were on Franz Josef land east of Spitsbergen. Search for the missing explorers was continued by the steamship Hobby, by Lieutenant Holm, Norwegian aviator, and by parties of Alpine chasseurs. The Italian department of aeronautics was In communication with Captain Wllklns, hoping to Induce him to join In the hunt by air. SO FAR as the Republican national committee waa concerned, Herbert Hoover waa given nearly all the con tented Southern delegates In the hear ings conducted at Kansas City. The contests, however, it was stated would ba carried before the committee on credentials and possibly before the convention. In the committee hear ings the secretary of commerce won (0 out of 73 contested delegates, his Boat Impressive victory being In the cans of Texas In which he gained the entire delegation. By conservative aotls?(?a this brought the total num ber of Hoover votes to 472, the ma jority necessary to nomination being 540. The experts then figured that Mellon with his 7b Pennsylvania dele gates could put Hoover across the Una If he chose to do so. The con tent lor the South Carolina delegation. Which was for Lowden, was withdrawn by the Hooverltes. Among the politicians gathered In Kad^as City many expressed the opln John D. Rockefeller Highest on Tax List John D. Rockefeller, Jr., hae be rome-the heaviest Individual taxpayer Id the Bnlted States, the tax assess ment maps of Green burgh and Monnt Pleasant township* show. These maps, opened for public In spection for the first time, show that Mr. Rockefeller Is assessed for 13.588, 000 worth of property on the basis of an average rata of 129 per thousand According to est! ma tea, ha will pay Ion that Senator James Watson of In diana or Senator Charlea Cortia of Kansas would make a good vice presi dential nominee. Some Hoorerltcs es pecially favored Wateon for. second place, figuring hla nomination Would "pull the stinger of the corn belt." Farmer cruraders of the regions sur . roudlng Kansas City were preparing to move on the convention city In con siderable numbers, by automobile and train, and many of them wore badges on which was printed this amended version of the Hoover slogan: "Who but Hoover? Anybody." ACCORDING to the partial report of the senate campaign Qrad com mittee, total expenditures In behalf ' of the various Presidential candidates to date have been only $731,067. Of this sum the Hoover expenditures have been $380,822. Frank O. T.owden Is credited with having spent $&), 622.00. The committee found $-17R90 has been collected and expended by the supporters of Vice Preside* Dawes. The expenses of Governor Smith of New York, leading Demo cratic aspirant, were $121,471.04. Col lections to the Smith fund amounted to $120,911.40. ? The Reed preconven tion campaign fund amounted to $41, 430.64. His expenditures are listed at $38,752.79. GEN. JOHN J. PERSHING made I rnsh trip from Paria to Cherbourg and lamped aboard tbe Leviathan for the United Statea, and both in New York and In France the report was circulated that he was called home hnrrledl; by friends who were starting a boom for htm as a dark horse can didate for the Republican nomination for President Marshal Chang tso-lin, Northern war lord, gave up hit dictatorship and abandoned Peking to the Nationalists. With his household be fled to Manchuria and just as his train reached Mukden It was bombed presumably by Nationalist agents. Some soldiers were killed and Chang himself was so badly Injured that his recovery was considered doubtful. The Nationalist troops gradually oc cupied Peking while forces left by Chsng and those of the foreign lega tions strove to prevent disorder. Gen eral Hsl-shan, for years known as the model governor of Shnnsl province, was appointed garrison command*!*""Of the Peking-Tientsin area and at once began the work of reconstruction and development The-Nationalist govern ment asked the Immediate evacuation of American troops from Tientsin, where the United States has main tained'part of a regiment since the Boxfr rebellion. In Washington It was ftated that our government could not comply with the request st once. DASSING upon two cases arising In ' the state of Washington, the Su preme Court of the United States har roled that evidence of prohibition vio lations obtained by wire tapping Is admissible In a criminal proceeding and that a conviction resulting from such evidence Is not a violation of the constitutional guarantee against "un reasonable search and seizure." The question was decided by a Ave to four ruling. Chief Justice Taft wrote the majority opinion. Justices Holmes and Brandeis. In dissenting opinions, scath ingly denounced the placing of judicial sanction upon the commission of a( crime to detect crime. Justice Bntler also filed a dissenting opinion and Justice Stone announced he concurred with the views of Justices Holmee. Brandeis find Bntler. In holding wire tapping did not amount to a search and seizure with in the meaning of the fourth amend ment to the Constitution. Chief Jus tice Taft said that while, this amend ment might have a proper application to a sealed letter because of the con stitutional provision for the Poet Of fice department and because each a letter is In the possession of the' gov ernment It could not apply to com munication by wire. UNCLE SAM proposes to frtt a lot of money from Henry M. Block mer, the wealthy Denver oil operator ?M fled to France to avoid the Tea pdt Dome Inquiry. Income taiee; In tereet and penalties aggregating 18, 4fl8.93."> have been asaeased against him and tax llena Died In Denver and these two township# and the village# of Tarrytown and North Tarrytown ebont *137.000. For this money Hr. Rockefeller will demand little In retnra, for he sop pllea pollc# and fire-protection, make# all road Improvement# and anpplle# bin own water on the raal estate lo cated In tbeae communities. The assessment, however. Is *100. 000 tn excess of the assessment last year, although Mr. Rockefeller recent ly donated 100 acree of gronad to the New Tgrk federal courts. Also write of attachment against an; property held by or for Blackmer were filed with 22 companies or Individuals. In cluding all financial Institutions In which Blackmer Is believed to have nccounte> In New Tork city they were also served upon hanks with which he did business. Only a part of the tax, Interest and penalties assessed against the oil man was understood to he for his alleged profits In the Continental Trading com-* pany, an adjunct of the Teapot Dome case. I LITHUANIA'S assertion, In her re cently adopted new constitution, that Vllna Is the capital of the conn try was denounced before the League of Nations'council by Poland when the council opened Its fiftieth session in Genera. Foreign Minister Zaleskl sub mitted a copy of his note of protest to Korno In which he asserted this could only enrenom the Polish-Lithuanian relations. Lithuania's claim, be said, bad no Juridical foundation as Po land's'rights orer Vllna were definite ly established by the Vllna and Polish diets and by the ambassadors' confer ence In 1924. It was not believed this session of the council would do much business as both Brland of France and Stresemann of Germany were absent on account of Illness. VIENNA received reports, reemlngl; authentic, that Ahmed Be; Zogu, President of Albania, was getting read; to proclaim a monarch; with himself as the king. He has had a storm; career, lighting with the Dem ocrats and Liberals and once being wounded b; an assassin, in Decem ber, 1924, he led a successful revolt against Bishop Noll's rule and next month was appointed President b; the national assembl;. He Is onl; thirty four ;ears old and besides being Pres ident has held the odices of premier and commander In chief of the na tional forces. PREMIER MUS80LIN1 took a good ? deal of wind oat of Ufa sails of his detractors by the restraint of his annual address before the Italian sen ate. His bearers were especially In terested In what he .might gay about the threatening situation In the Bal kans. hut the Duce cut nut all violent talk and made ? plain offer of friend ship to Tugo-Slavla. Then dismiss lag the Idas of enmity, he declared Italy could not wait forever for Tugo Slavla to settle Its domestic problems, and warned that treaties would be 09 good anyway If a friendly, moral at mosphere between the two peoples was net developed. He ridiculed the pre diction made by a former Yugo-Slav minister that war soon would break out between the two countries, end ing with a peace signed at Venice. He had nothing to say concerning the dis putes with Austria about Upper Adlge. but announced that a treaty would soon be signed with France that would settle all outstanding differences be tween the French and Italians. Mussolini spoke at some length about the astonishing growth of the United States In wealth and world power. He said be had no complaint to make against American Immigra tion restrictions and the Italian quota, though deploring the reasons which prompted that legislation. "As for the naturalised Americana of Italian orl , gin," he continued, "they are Ameri can cltlsens and therefore foreigners so far as we are concerned. We limit ourselves to hoping they will continue to be proud of their Italian origin." ATLANTIC CITT having abandoned Ita annual beauty content, the "'Internationalpageant of pulchritude" held In Galveaton attracted the atten tion of thoee who enjoy auch affaire. ' Selected beantlee from many atatea and a number of foreign countrlea gathered In the Texaa city, and paraded along the aea wall. Mir* Ella Van Hueaon, the entrant from Chicago, waa flrat chosen as "Mlas America," and then, being adjudged the most polrhrl tudinoua of the whole lot was crowned "Miss Universe." She la twenty-two years old. tall and slender, with long, darf brown hair. The other prlite win ners In their order were the glrla from France. Italy. Colorado. tVest Vir ginia. Canada. Luxembourg. Ohio. San Antonio and Tulsa. Town officials poluted odi thai Mr Rockefeller bad added dnrlng the laa* year more than 400 acres opposite thr Rockwood Belt ,cotintrj rlnh to hli Pocantlco Hills estate. Tbej also pointed out tbai th? Rockefeller boldlnfs were aasessed al about one-third their market value I' thej were cut Into plots for develop oral The manalon built and occupied hj John D. Rockefeller. 8r.. Ip assessed fee W7S.OOO and the smallest pa real o? land la mnii) far RA ^JEHUS' Wend Children on Way to School by Boat. (Prepared br the National Oeotraphle Society, Waahinnton. D. C-l LONG ago, when the Goths laid waste to western Europe, a small band of halt-wild fugitives bid for safety In the great swamps near the Oder?that low, flat, wooded region known now as the Spreewald. The Wends, this odd frag ment of a lost tribe call themselves; and to this day they are hiding there, In this Spreewald swamp. Clannish, Isolated, and happiest when left alone, tbey are concerned not at all with the rise and fall of nations around them. Though In Germany, the Wends are not of It. Even the Germans them selves look on this lost tribe more as curious specimens of an ancient race than as a part of their citizen body. They are Slavs. Probably 1,500 years have passed since the Wends first colonized In this great swamp, and sallied forth, led by their pagan kings, to kidnap children and to plunder food in what Is now Poland and Germany. Today only a few thousand of the tribe remain; but through all these centuries they have clung tenaciously to their own edd speech, their social forms and super stitions; and, except for a few of their qoeerly clad girls, who sometimes go to Berlin as nursemaids, the Wends seldom quit their Spreewald haunts. let, content as he Is wltb his eel traps and cucumber patch, his hay field and cherry trees, the wary Wend will drive a sharp bargain wltb out siders who come trading for bis carved novelties, his wooden shoes and dishes, bis smoked eels, and the cucumbers of bis Island gardens. Stranger than his diet of eels and cucumbers, however, and stranger even than his hermitlike seclusion. Is the unique plan of the Spreewalder's village and his method of getting about The Spree river, rising down near the old Bohemian frontier, flows up through Saxony Into Brandenburg and splits here Into hundreds of brooks and canals whose watery net work Ilea all over the Spreewald re gion aod forms thousands of tiny Islnnds. The ancient village of Let.de, built 1,44X1 years ago, literally covers a whole group of these Islands, each Individual house standing on a tiny tale all Its own. Thsir Streets Art Streams. So, Instead ot having streets and sidewalks like any normal town, a Spreewald village Is served entirely by tbese crooked water streets. Kvery family has at least one boat, and In summer the boat Is the street car, so to speak; and there are Hoes of public bouts, poled by stalwart "motormen," that run on schedule time over regu lar routes and loops called "Grobla." All along tbese water streets there are signboards that greet you and point the way to various settlements. But Instead of saying "two miles." for example, to such or such a place, the sign says "two hours," as all dis tance Is measured by the time It takes to pole to a place. Some phases of this novel amphibi ous Ufa seem almost absurd to a visit ing American. The American boy, whether be Is fourteen or forty, gets a thrill from a brass band ant a street parade?and so does the youth of the Hpreewald. But we have distinctly American Ideas about the correct uni form a brass band sboold wear, and we Insist that a street parade shall march In the street - But the Spree wald form of celebration la wholly different Here the members of tbe band dress In long black, funeral-look ing coats and two-quart bowler hats: and. Instead of marching, they squat In a flat boat tbe baas drummer In the stem pounding away an tbe boat Is poled along the canal I The country here Is too low and wet for grain, but wild bay is cut In abun dance. A platform of piles Is raised high above tbe swampy ground ao?t | an this tbe haystack Is built Boat ? toads e< bag. moving through the' man; canals, look from a distance as If they were sliding curiously about the country driven by some unseeo torce. In winter the whole waterway net of the Spreewald la frozen over and becomes avert table spider web of lev lanes and avenues. Then the Wend werfrs special lceshoes, with his skates bnllt fast to them. Aided by a light ten-foot pole with a sharp spike In one end, the Spreewalder glides easily about bis tce-Bound colony, not for pleasure, bjit for speed and con venience. Then, too. all burdens that are carried by boat In summer are loaded on sleds. Eels and Cucumbers. Eels, cucumbers snd cherry pies as big as prayer-rugs figure In all feasts In these Spreewald Swamps. The Spreewald eel, slim and slip pery, smoked or stewed, Is enshrined in the songs and traditions of this singular community. A Spreewald swamp home without Its eel traps would be like a chicken farm without chicken coops. Whether you Ilka stewed eel or not, you can't sit down In a tiny Spreewald restaurant with out buying one; It simply Isn't done! And the eels, gastronomtcally, are muted for life with the cucumbers! These giant cucumbers, deadly green In shade and wickedly curved like scimitars, threaten you at every turn. Cucumbers In heaps on the river banks; punts plied high with cu cumbers being poled to market at Burg pr Cottbus; men. women and children plucking, peeling, packing or eating cucupibers, or asleep on piles of them, are always In the summer picture. Ton wonder the whole world could consume such uncounted tons and not succumb to International In digestion. Even the huge cherry pies, delicious as they are, fairly overwhelm you by their stupendous size. Throughout the region big, broad-mouthed clay ovens, built apart from the bosses, are busy baking these pies, and as you glide along the canals on a still day the forest air Is laden with their appe tizing odor. Iluxom Wendlsh muldens, swamp angels In knee skirts and bare legs, push and pull the pies about In the ovens with ten-root folea, pausing now and then to recrack some old bucolic joke with a near-by Spreewald aw.-tln busy slicing cucumbers or skin ning an eel. Tourists by thousands from near-by cities flock to this quaint nook of Eu rope In summer; and then the Wend cashes In bis cucumbers, bis eels and cherry pies, reaps a rich hartest from bis oddly carved wooden geese and dolls, and takes toll for poling lovers and sightseers up and down the laby rinth of water lands dividing the Spreewald Into a thousand charming green Isles. Here, too, all kinds of so cieties and bunds come for their out ings, many walking clubs of school boys and girls coming from as far away as Berlin and Leipzig. Superstition Still Rife. Slaves still to some ancient super stltlons, the Wends carve crude wood en figures of beasts, birds and flsbes and mount tbem on the gables of their bumble hots. These Images, they say. keep off evil spirits and disease ant* bring good luck. 80me of these old Wendlsb super "stltiona, dating back maybe 1,300 years, And their counterparts today in many rural American communities For example, the Wends say that a crowing ben must be killed or she will bring bad lock. Another Wendlsb be lief common among other races Is tkat wbbn a man dies a window sbould be opened, so that his soul may take Its flight If It thunders during a Spreewald wedding every odo la very unhappy, for this Is a bad omen. Moke a wish when you see a shoot ing star and the wish will cone (ran o?-o?o?o-?o?OO?OO . o ?o-o-?-o?9 I SILAS I I APPRECIATED f | HIS PAL | *