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THE MAN EVERYBODY KNOWS ? Yet No One Has Ever Seen Him! By ELMO SCOTT WATSON Bruce barton once wrote a book which be came a best-seller despite the (act that more than ten million copies of the Bible are printed and distributed every year, not to mention the fact that the New Testa ment is available in 316 lan guages and dialects. For his book was the story of Jesus Christ and he called it "The Man Nobody Knows." I sing of the man whom everybody knows but whom no one has ever seen. Come to think of it, that should be "men" rather than "man," for there's more than one of him. Take Elmer, for instance ? that is, take him if you can find him. If you can, you're a better detective than the members of the American Legion. They've been trying to locate Elmer for the last five or six years and they haven't succeeded yet. When the Legionnaires descend upon a city for their annual con vention, it's only a question of time before some "buddy" raises his voice above the hubbub of hotel lobbies and corridors to utter the belJowed query: "Where's Elmer?" From that moment on, until the last veteran leaves for his home town, there's scarcely an hour, day or night, when that question isn't being repeated. What if it's never an swered? They keep on asking it just the same. Second only to the ignorance of Elmer's whereabouts is the baffling mystery of his identity. Who was this Elmer, who gave the Legion a slogan, a watch word, a rallying cry. Rare, indeed, is the Legionnaire who can't answer that question, ?vcn though the accuracy of his answer is doubtful. "Sure, I know all about him," one of them will assure you. "He was a fella from Massachusetts and he brought his r Where's L Elmer? Watching the Legion Parade in Chicago in 1933. Elmer's fame spread from the Legion to the country at large. New York newspapers reported that the city was "in the grip of a new wisecrack having to do with the whereabouts and health of Elmer." One highbrow reader wrote to the Herald Tribune in protest against this "malignant growth" and "contagious stupidity." But the scorn of highbrows has never yet halted the spread of a popular phrase and "Where's Elmer?" seems destined to become a fa miliar American byword, its com mon and widespread use enjoy ing a curious revival each year at the time of the annual Ameri can Legion convention and im mediately thereafter. Elmer may never be found nor his identity established but enduring fame is his as the prime example of the man whom everybody knows but whom no one has ever seen. Have you a friend named Dal ton and, if so, have you ever laughingly exclaimed "Curse "There Goes Old John Santa Fe!" wile with him to the Detroit con vention in 1931. The night before the big parade, he got separated from her aomewhere on Wood ward avenue. No, I don't think he ditched her deliberate but 1 guesa he spent the night cele brating. "Anyway, the next morning, she kept the telephone wires hot calling up his mates and asking ?Where's Elmer?' The Massa chusetts boys tried to help her out by calling (or Elmer all along the parade route. Pretty soon everybody was yelling 'Where's Elmer?' And that's how the whole thing started. "What was his last name? Don't think I've ever heard. Bet ter ask some of the Massachu setts gang. They ought to know." "No, he wasn't one of our out ftt," a Bay Stater will answer yfip question. "And it didn't start at Detroit, at all. It all began out in Portland in 1932. A delegate from Iowa got lost from his buddy whose game was ' Elmer. Hekept yelling "WHere's Elmer?' until a lot of others took it up. Then the radio man who announced each day's proceed ings over a loud-speaker began asking the same question and pretty soon everyone there was yelling 'Where's Elmer?' I don't think they ever found him, but maybe some of the men from Iowa can tell you who he was." From Many States. Inquiry among the Hawkeye Legionnaires only leads the questioner to another state and , confirms the elusiveness of both Elmer's whereabouts and his identity. He was a North Caro linian, a Califomian, a Missouri an? a Vermonter, a Texan ? or a native of almost any other state you care to name. He was still being sought at Chicago in 1933, at Miami in 1934, at St. Louis in 1935 and at Cleveland last year. ? "Chicago convention you, Jack Dalton!" Or, for that matter, haven't you at some time pronounced that anathema upon some one, whether his name was Dalton or not? Who was this Jack Dalton, whose name has come down to us as the symbol of villainy? Several years ago William H. Dalton of Connecticut, whose friends had nicknamed him "Jack Dalton," became curious about that and tried to And out who his namesake was. He received a variety of answers from people among whom he inquired. "He was one of the Dalton gang of outlaws, " said one. But the difficulty with that theory is that not one of the three Daltons, whose gang was wiped out at Coffeyville, Kan., in 1892, bore the name of John or "Jack," nor did any of their six brothers who were respected citizens and had no share in their careers of banditry. "He was once the official rat catcher of the city of London,'1 ?declared anoiKer. "He was a character in a book written by Charles Lever," affirmed still an other. A number agreed that "he was the villain in a melo drama which gave a thrill to Americans of the Civil war era," but they were unable to be more specific as to the name of the play or the date. However, by following this lead, Mr. Dalton and others, not ably Roy Day, librarian of the Player's club, brought out the interesting fact that the villain In the famous melodrama, "The Ticket-of-Leave Man," produced by Tom Taylor in London in 1863 and in New York in 1884, was named Dalton. But he was called "James Dalton, alias Downey, alias The Tiger.' " The Typical Villain. Just when or how Jim Dalton became Jack Dalton is unknown. But be has com* down to ua as the typical villain ? you know, that tall, dark man with the white teeth which gleam beneath his long, black mustache as he hisses at the shrinking heroine or the manly hero "Ha! At last, I have you in my power!" So when you exclaim jokingly "Curse you. Jack Dalton!" you are perpetuating his fame ? an other man whom everybody knows but whom no one has ever seen in real life. If you've ever traveled in Texas or elsewhere in the Southwest, you've probably heard about Old John Santa Fe. Everybody has, _ even though it would be difficult to find anyone who has ever actually seen him. One of those times when the train on which you're riding stops in the outskirts of a town, ask the conductor or the brakeman if you've arrived at the station yet. The chances are that he will answer "Nope, got to wait for Old John Santa Fe, you know." For Old John is the fellow who always has to be ahead. If he isn't always ahead, at least he thinks he always ought to be. Just what was the genesis of Old John Santa Fe is unknown. Ac cording to one story, he was born as the result of a situation in Forth Worth, Texas, where the "Cotton Belt" and the Santa Fe lines intersect and the "Cotton Belt" uses the Santa Fe station. So when trains on the two lines are approaching the station at ap proximately the same time, the "Cotton Belt" train, even though it should be nearer to the station than the Santa Fe train, waits until the other pulls in before drawing up to discharge its pas sengers. From this practice, pre sumably, the mythical character of Old John Santa Fe and the tradition that he "always has to be ahead" was created by the railroad men and by them made familiar to the public. A Perpetual Plaintiff. Mention of Old John Santa Fe suggests another famous John whom everybody knows but whom no one has ever seen. In one of the early books of English legal forms, a typical case of ejectment was cited in which the plaintiff, to whom the name of John Doe was given, brought suit to force the defendant, a certain Richard Roe, (also a ficti tious name) to vacate property belonging to the aforesaid Doe. It's probable that there was once a real John Doe and perhaps he was a clerk or other minor of ficial of the Court of the King's Bench in which the action of ejectment originated. If he was a real person, the facts about him have been lost in the mists of antiquity but that doesn't mean that he and his opponent are any the less well known. Un til 1852, when ejectment was abolished by the Common Law Procedure act, Messrs. Doe and Roe were involved in every case of this kind. Even after that date they continued their litigious coarse, tjotiim ?ErfgtarHT ana r~ America, to which they apparent ly migrated at a very early date. But John Doe wouldn't be so unfavorably, as well as widely, known if he had been only a party to civil actions. Unfortunately, however, he hasn't. Poor John Doe! What a host of crimes have been committed under his name. Is a public official suspected of being recreant to hi* trust and accepting bribes or otherwise in volved when graft and corruption rears its ugly head? Immediately the grand jury meets, brings in an indictment and issues a war rant. Whose name is on it? Who else but John Doe? When the district attorney de cides to suppress -gambling or clean up illegal dispensing o f spiritus frumenti, whose gam bling dens and illicit stills are raided? John Doe's, at course! A man is fouad murdered (with ? "blunt instrument," no doubt). Does the crime go down in the records as having been commit ted by a "party or parties un known"? For a little while, per haps, but when the authorities are ready to accuse some one of the crime, the first man they think of is our old friend, John Doe. Sometimes, by way of varia tion, he is given an ali^s as "John Jackson" in New York or "John Den" in New Jersey. (Incidental ly, is the "Joe Dokes" or "Doakes," whose name one hears so frequently these days, a de scendant of the immortal John Doe, or is he just "a couple of other fellows"?) But the most places it's John Doe who is selected as a "fall guy" on whom to hang all manner of crimes and misdemeanors. He must be the master criminal of all history for, although often accused, there is no record of John's ever hav ing been placed on trial or sen tenced to prison or condemned to be executed. So year after year he goes on his nefarious way ? that is, if you can believe the warrants. Is it possible that John Doe has been able to escape punish ment for all the crimes laid at his door because he has had the services of a "Philadelphia law yer"? Of course, you know about that attorney. You've heard him referred to in such expressions as "That beats a Philadelphia lawyer" or "It would take a Philadelphia lawyer to figure that out" or, as the saying is current up in New England, "Three Phil John Doe and Richard Roe. adelphia lawyers are a match for the very devil himself." All of which are a tribute to his astute ness, sagacity and unusual abil ity, even though the last quota tion carries with it an implica tion of sharp dealing. In doing so it does a grave in justice to the memory of the "Philadelphia lawyer" whose ability was responsible for the prigin of that expression. He was Andrew Hamilton and away "back in 1735 he was called upon to defend a printer and publisher named John Peter Zenger charged with criminal libel against the colonial governor of New York. So skillful was Hamil ton's defense that Zenger was ac quitted and his acquittal is now regarded as a milestone in the history of the fight for the free dom of the press in this country. Since Andrew Hamilton, h i ? "Philadelphia lawyer," was giv en credit for this epochal victory, the highest praise that could be given an attorney in the early days was to say that he was "as smart as that Philadelphia lawyer who defended John Peter Zenger." Gradually the circum stances under which that ac colade was won were forgotten and only the symbolism remained in the various terms of reference to ? ^Philadelphia lawyer/^ ^tytlrijcbLen' @iiu v y Peiping Merchants Bait Poles With Toys. Prepared by National Geographic Society, Washington, D. C. ? WNU Service. WITHIN the Imperial City of Peiping, on the exact cen ter of all, oriented to the cardinal points of the com pass, is the Forbidden City, the Violet Town, which was the resi dence of the Dragon emperors. It is an inclosure a little longer than broad, and lies behind a wide moat and a double wall. The moat, in the summer time, is full of flower ing lotus, and white cranes stalk thoughtfully among the rose-pink blooms. Each corner of the wall has its tower, small, but very richly orna mented. There are four gates, one to each face of the wall, and their names are notable : East Gate Glori ous; West Gate Glorious; Gate of Divine Military Progress, which is the Shen Wu Men, the North Gate, wherefrom in 1644 the last Ming emperor went sorrowfully to strangle himself on Coal Hill across the way, while the triumphant rebel soldiers were breaking into the Im perial City outside. Through it fled the Empress Dowager when the In ternational Column battered down the southern gates in 1900. On the south is the Wu Men, the ^leridian Gate, the great gate of ceremonies, not opened since the fall of the empire. Only from Coal Hill immediately to the north, or from the White Dagoba in the Pei Hai to the north west, can you bring the Forbidden City within the eye at once. From either height, you see the simple outline of its plan. Down the center line the great pavilions march one behind another, their roofs tiled with imperial yellow, since all this was of the throne. They are audience halls, council halls devoted to this phase or that of ancestral veneration, and im perial living quarters. Smaller build ings lie along the wall to east and west; houses for the concubines and eunuchs, and space for stores. Each pavilion has its courtyard and its formal approach. The Courts are threaded by little conventional moats with white marble balus trades; the terraces are balustrad ed, as are the ceremonial flights of steps. In the north end are the pavilions and gardens that the Empress Dowager used. They are small and intimate, landscaped, shaded by cy press and cedar, and traversed by narrow walks among flower beds and fountains, for the old lady loved such things. Decoration Is Colorful. Some of the buildings are used as museums, displaying much unusual treasure, although, at the time of the disturbances in 1932 and 1933, most of the exhibits were boxed and shipped south, to the great in dignation of Peiping. The Forbidden City displays the Chinese decorative scheme at its most extravagant and royal. It is done in reds and yellows and blues and greens, all most violent. A little money is spent on its upkeep, and perhaps the close-set walls save it from the grinding of the wind-blown dust that dulls the colors and the gilding of places in the open. The proportions of the buildings are majestic without being vast, for the Chinese architect knew how to create his effects without relying on mere size. The cle?r sky and the brilliant sun enter into all con ceptions; the secret of their excel lence lies between the air and light and a just balance in line and mass. Yet, as for size, there is a court yard in the south section of the Forbidden City where, at a vic tory celebration in 1918, some 15, 000 troops were arrayed, with a large number of civilian officials and spectators, and it is related that the courtyard seemed in no sense crowded. _ What now "is seerTin these palaces and courts is a setting only, a stage from which the players have de parted, with their bright robes, their banners, and their stately proces sionals. About the public buildings of Pei ping, the shrines, the halls, the pavilions, and palaces, there are many books written. German and Russian and British savants have measured, dissected and surveyed. French scholars have breathed much life into the dry bones of architecture, dwelling with ardor, also, upon the pavilions of pleasure, and the marble-capped wells in which were filed, head downward, discarded favorites, male and fe male, of not-too-immaculate sover eigns. Many of the structures are jerry built and flimsy. The Chinese lac quer witb which the surfaces are faced is cheap stuff, prone to flake i# before it attains age. The flne ci-lous thai arch the streets and define the approaches to important places are frail things which must be propped from every side while they are yet new. The stone, so in tricately and beautifully carved, is soft and subject to quick erosion. Many Lovely Things. Many of the most imposing edi fices, such as the White Dagoba that dominates the Pei Hai, one of the "Three Seas," are of brick and rubble, surfaced with plaster which, unless renewed every season, sloughs away in patches. Distant views are impressive, and close in spection disappointing. Yet there are many things that are beautiful with an ageless beauty: corners of the Forbidden City, as delicate and fine as jewel filigree; the elaborate and cunning ornamentation under the eaves of the pavilions; the porcelain screens and arches; the timeless splendor of the tiled roofs, that persists in spite of the weeds and shrubs which spring from accumulations of dust in the cracks between the tiles. The patterns and designs are frozen in convention, but trees and water, air and light, are integral parts of every arrangement. After you have dutifully followed the guidebooks through a score of temples and palaces, your impres sions will tend to telescope upon themselves. But there are two things that you will never forget: the Temple of Confucius and the Temple of Heaven. The Temple of Confucius is in the North City (the northern section of the Tatar City), between the Lama Temple and the old Hall of Classics. You come to it through noisome alleys that swarm with scavenger dogs and naked children. A passage leads under murmurous dragon cypresses, between ranks of tall memorial tablets commemorat ing the visits and the patronages of emperors and princes. The passage opens upon a low terrace from which you descend to the central court by marble steps that flank a spirit stairway ? Dragon eternally contending for the Pearl, between sculptured masses of sea and cloud. From it you face the temple, look ing along an avenue of ancient trees so thickly set that their interlaced branches cast a cool greenish gloom, very grateful in the summer time. Flanking it are low buildings that serve as storehouses and sleeping quarters for the priests. The sun strikes through the trees and burns upon the old red walls of the pavilions, and the freshly paint ed patterns under the overhanging eaves glow richly in reflected light: turquoise blues and emerald greens, purples, and reds, and yellows. There are small golden roofed kiosks, and sacrificial burners of a bronze no longer ca3t. The noises of the city do not enter here. A gentle, courteous old priest with hairless, ascetic face materializes from the shadows to attend you; he is unobtrusive and detached in robes of gray and black. Thei 2 is no statue in the shrine: it is the High Place of an idea. Tablets, rich ly engraved, hang above the altar, publishing the virtues of the Sage, and the gray ash of joss sticks in the incense burner testifies to the devotion of many worshipers. The thing is wholly of the spirit. You need know nothing of Confu cius, nothing of China, to realize that here is peace made visible; here is tranquillity; here are a bal ance and a symmetry removed from striving; the conception of minds that have, after mature thought, settled their problems. The Temple of Heaven. Very different is the Temple ol Heaven, out to the south in the Chinese City. It stands most fiercely in the sun, its walls enclosing a park larger than the Forbidden City. You go up from the highway along a broad avenue, mounting by a ramru to tiie center of a terraced line of pavilions. To the north is the round Hall of the Happy Year, its brilliant blue tiles and triple-roofed silhouette one of the distinctive things on the Peiping skyline. Turning your back upon it, you walk south, through open pavilions and successive archways, to a stark altar of white carved marble, ap proached between winged columns. The altar consists of three round terraces, set one upon another, the top one smallest. The steps that ascend to it are in groups of nine, the mystical number; and the flag stones of the pavement are laid in concentric patterns in multiples of nine. And the roof of that altar is the vault of heaven. Here the Emperor came to offer the Great Sacrifice on the day of the winter solstice, to render his Im perial Ancestors an account of his stewardship, and to solicit their guidance for his people through the succeeding year. \ Filet Chair Set With an Initial Grand, isn't it ? that big, stun ning initial adding that definitely personal touch to a chair-set of string I Select your initial from the alphabet that comes with the pattern, paste it in place on the chart, and crochet it right in with the design (it's as easy as that)). You can, of course, crochet the Pattern 1399 initials separately as insets on lin ens, too. Pattern 1399 contains charts and directions for making a chair back 12 by IS inches, two arm rests 6 by 12 inches and a complete alphabet, the initials measuring 3% by 4 inches; ma terial requirements; an illustra tion of all stitches used. Send IS cents in stamps or coins (coins referred) for this pattern to The Sewing Circle Need leer aft Dept., 82 Eighth Ave., New York, N. Y. Please write your name, pattern number and address plainly. Mu ravotita Janet Saynor / Movi? Star Ice-Box Cookies 1 pound butter 5 cupfuls flour l\<2 cupfuls sugar 3 eggs Dates and nuts to suit Vanilla flavoring Cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs, one by one, beating the mixture meanwhile. Add the five cupfuls of flour gradually while beating the mixture. Add the dates and nuts, which have been previously chopped into small bits. Add the flavoring. Shape this into a roll. Put In the ice-box overnight. In the morning slice into thin layers, making the cookies, and bake in " moderate oven. Copyright. ? WNTJ Serric*. Direction Is the Thing More important than your go ing, is to know where you are go ing before you start. Walking in the wrong direction means the faster you travel the farther you are from your destination. 3 Genuine O-Cedar spray is quick, cer tain death to moths, flies and insects. Guards your health, protects your clothing, rids home of annoying house hold pests. Has a clean, fresh odor, will not stain. Fall satisfaction guaranteed o^t~l Spray /ill, Variable Clime Love is a pleasing but a various clime. ? Shentone. Stomach Gas So Bad Seems To Hurt Heart "The gas on my stomach was to bad I could not eat or sleep. Even my heart aeemed to hurt. A friend sug ? gaatad. Adlerika .XhAJlcsidose-k* brought me relief. Now I eat aa I with, aleep fine and never felt better." ? Mra. Jas. Filler. Adlerika acts on BOTH upper and lower bowels while ordinary laxative* act on the lower bowel only. Adlerika gives your system a thorough cleans ing, bringing out old, poisonous matter that you would not believe was In your system and that haa been causing ga? pains, sour stomach, nervousness and headaches for months. Dr. V. L stumb, Nam Yark, raparUt "In addition ta int**tinal damming, AdUrikM greatly raduca* bactarim and eatam bmeUiW Give your bowels a REAL cleansing with Adlerika and aee how good you feel. Just one spoonful relieves GA8 and atubborn constipation. At all Leading Druggists.
The Alamance Gleaner (Graham, N.C.)
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May 27, 1937, edition 1
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