• —Curiosa
•
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* By Elmo Scott Wateon
MUI Hitched to the Moon
REMEMBER the old admonition
to "hitch your wagon to a
star"?
Caleb Hodgdon did better than
that. He hitched his mill to the
moon and for 111 years the moon
has been running the mill for him
and his descendants.
It was back in 1825 that Caleb,
sailing down the coast 'Of Maine,
reached the mouth of the Damaris
cotta river and saw a 40-acre nat
ural pond which opened into the
river through a very narrow inlet.
This perfect tidal basin was filled
and emptied twice a day by the sea,
and since the moon controls the
tide, it is literally true that he
hitched his mill to the moon.
j Caleb built a dam and a bridge
Evhich are still in use today. He
nstalled the old type undershot wa
iter wheel to run his mill and used it
as power for grinding grain as well
as sawing lumber. Next he added
a shipyard and began building ships.
Later generations of Hodgdons
continued to operate the mill and
shipyard, and one of the products
of the latter was the schooner, Bow
doin. which Commander Donald B.
MacMillan used in his Arctic ex
plorations. Later Hodgdons also re
placed the undershot water-wheel
with a turbine, but the principle of
operation of the mill is the same
with it as with the water-wheel.
When the tide rises, it forces open
the gates in ''ie dam which Caleb
built and fills the pond. When the
tide is on the ebb the doors auto
matically close and the water is
prevented from flowing out of the
pond except through the turbines
of the mill.
Go to East Boothbay, Maine, to
day, and you can see the mill which
Caleb Hodgdon built and hitched
to the moon.
Double Meaning
IT FIRST appeared in a Philadel
* phia newspaper in 1770 thus:
llark! li.uk! the trumpet sounds. the din of
war'* alarm*,
O'er mm* ;.nd solid grounds. doth call us all
to arm*;
Who (. r KIT IR lieorge lo*l» stand, their honors
soon shall shine;
Their 1 inn is at hand, who with tlie Congress
»«>in.
The .iets of Parliament, 1 much de
light.
J hate their cursed intent, who for the Con-
Kress light.
The T»»rie« of the day, they are my daily
toast.
They noon will sneak away, who Independence
boast;
Who non-resistance hold, they have my hand
and heart.
May they for slaves be sold, who act a Whig
gi*h part;
On Man«fteld. North, and Bute, may daily
blessings pour.
Confusion and dispute, on Congress evermore:
To North and Jlritish lord, may honors still
l«e done,
] wish a block or cord, to General Washington.
It was reprinted in many other
Colonial newspapers. "That's fine!"
said British army officers and Tory
officials. "The man who wrote that
is certainly loyal to His Majesty."
If any Patriot heard one of them
say that, he must have smiled tc
himself. For if he was "in the
know," he didn't read the poem as
it is prirted above. He read each
line as far as the comma in the
middle, then he read the next' line
the some way and so on. Or he be
gan reading at the comma in the
first line, then dropped down to the
comma in the next and so on.
That gave the poem a very differ
ent meaning indeed. Try it and see
for yourself why the Patriots read
it that way!
.Mad Poet
/~\NE of the most beautiful de
scriptive passages in all Amer
ican literature is these often-quoted
lines:
Nor twilight lets her curtain down.
And pins it with a (tar.
They were written by McDonald
Clarke, the "Mad-Poet" who died
in the "lunatic asylum" on Black
well's Island, New York city.
Characteristic of hh. gift of com
bining the ridiculous with the sub
lime was the poem which he wrote
about George Washington:
Eternity—give him el!»ow room;
A spirit like his is large;
Earth, fence with artillery his tomb,
And fire a double charge
To the memory of America's greatest man;
Match him, posterity, if you can.
fc» \V intern Newspaper t'nion.
Poisonous Snakes
Rattlesnake is not necessarily a
"gentleman snake" which rattles
its tail before every strike. A cot
ton-mouth water moccasin can and
docs bite under water. The cop
perhead is the most common poi
sonous snake in some sections,
says a writer in the St. Louis Post-
Dispatch, and, in the dead grass
and dried up leaves which it in
fests, is one of the hardest to de
tect
Giant Forest Hog Largest
The £iant forest hog is the larg
est of the pigs, and bears a Latin
name, Hylochoerus Meinertzha
geni, in proportion td its size. Threo
times as heavy as a wart-hog—an
adult may weigh up to 500 pounds
—it is often compared in size with
a donkey or mule.
Many Languages in India
Britain's great linguistic survey
of India, twenty-five years in proc
ess, describes and lists 850 lan
guages and dialects of the country
Scenes and Persons in the Current News
j^jß^ S Ns s^-^ - Pp?:' '-J
1— Crews of two Japanese warsh
cemetery. 2—King Edward VIII of !
Ernest Simpson, one of his guests. 3
tial trial that resulted in their convici
OUSTED FROM MEXICO |
Gen. Nicolas Rodriguez, leader of
the Gold Shirt movement in Mexico,
which was officially banned recent
ly by the government, shown on ar
riving at the International bound
ary at El Paso after being trans
ported by plane from Mexico City.
The political refugee predicted the
possibility of a civil war similar to
that raging in Spain.
Lumberjack Shaves With an Ax
mg .
Jack Wallulis, lumberjack who works among the giant firs of Ore
gon, shown shaving himself with a double-bitted ax which has one
blade ground to a razor edge. He has shaved with an ax for three
years without an acc'dent.
Big Airport Which San Francisco Will Build
' r mv ' •--- Mgg w WKW?. -
First official sketch of San Francisco's new municipal airport,, to be opened in 1940 Et Yerba Buena
Shoals. The 430-acre site, now under reclamation by army engineers, will be the scene of the Golden Gate
International exposition in 1939. Part of the exposition program is the construction of the three permanent
structures shown in this oil painting—the Administration building, embodying the most modern design and
equipment of aeronautical engineering, and the two hangars. The three buildings, financed b« FWA grant*,
will cost mora than $1,600,000.
THE DANBURY REPORTER THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1936
Ips paying their respects at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington
England, vacationing in Yugoslavia, enjoying a motorboat ride with Mrs.
—Generals Goded and Burriel, captured Spanish rebels, at the court mar
tion and execution.
Marital Barque Launched in Lake .
Five years ago, Merlin Andrews, life guard at Lake Pontchartrain,
New Orleans, rescued Miss Elsie Hagner from drowning in the lake.
The other night he took her back into the waters of the lake and mar
ried her before a huge audience that lined the beach.
FIRST G-WOMAN
/-J
Margaret Eleanor Connors of
Bridgeport, Conn., has become the
country's first G-woman. Attorney
General Homer Cummings has an
nounced her appointment.
National Topics Interpreted
by William Bruckart HiWf^
National Frw Building Washington, P. C.
Washington. The Associated
Press carried a dispatch from Mos
, n . , cow a few days
Social Defense' a g Q that had
in Russia more in it than
just the an
nouncement that certain opposition
ists among the Soviet leaders were
tc be executed. The dispatch re
ported that 16 confessed conspira
tors against the Soviet state were
sentenced to .death by the firing
Squad as the "highest measure of
social defense" of a government.
. It reported a new stage in the so
called progress of Communism in
the Russian state. For the first
time since the Bolsheviks came into
power they ordered the death penal
ty for some of the leaderr who
marched in the Revolution of Octo
ber, 1917.
Sd we have a clean sweep now of
the men who sat next to the dicta
tor, Lenin; the men who were his
closest advisors in council are out
of the way, and in their place re
mains the extensively practical and
strong-willed executive, Stalin, who
has in this instance declined to al
low theory to interfere with e condi
tion.
Here is the picture. Leon Trotsky
in exile and under sentence of death
if he returns into Russia. Zinoviev
shot to death. Kamenev also exe
cuted by a firing squad (he will be
remembered as an outstanding pil
lar of Bolshevism). Tomsky, a sui
cide. Rykov, Bukahrin and Rodek
under investigation by the dreadful
Ogpu. A hated secret service is
looking into the records of Sokokni
kov and Pyotakov. The latter two
have been important advisors to Stal
in. But what is all of this about?
The answer is simple. While these
men were charged with plotting the
murder of Stalin, with conspiracy,
beneath it all lies the thirst of ;nen
for power. Through all of this since
the fall of the Russian empire and
the execution of Czar Nicholas,
the Communists have pushed for
ward. The strongest of them have
traveled. That is the why of Stalin.
Yet as most always happens under
any circumstance where the will of
a few men runs free, they have in
flicted to the last degree the power
that they have gathered unto them
selves. In so doing they have not
failed to reserve unto themselves
such considerations as they thought
necessary—a perfectly human trait
of character answerable only where
a whim becomes a will and there
is power to carry it out.
Between Stalin, who was able to
enforce his will, and Trotsky, who
dwelt in the starry heavens of the
ories and dreams, there is only a
theoretical difference. Each want
ed Communism. Trotsky consid
ered the problem in the terms of
world revolution; Stalin thought of
it as the Russian state and recog
nized his capacity to carry his plans
through in that jurisdiction. So the
Stalin-Trotsky feud, as it has turned
out to be, has become ferocious and
any one who has gone contrary—
even entertained thoughts contrary
to the will of tjie mighty Stalin—
committed a sin against the state.
And a sin against the Russian state
under Stalin means to disappear.
• • •
It seems to me there is an im
portant lesson for the American
. people in that situ-
Lesaon for ation. Stalin,
Americana along with Hitler
and Mussolini, is
always right. It matters not what
the people may desire, what their
philosophy of life and living may be,
how they propose to encourage or
accept responsibility for self-gov
ernment, the dictatorship continues.
Many times in these columns I
have criticized bureaucracy in the
federal government. There are so
many bureaucrats in Washington
now that some one has bitterly de
scribed them as locusts. It may
seem quite a jump from bureauc
racy to dictatorship but the differ
ence actually is very small. When
the people of the United States con
cede to the federal government such
rights as the federal government
attempted to exercise in NRA and
even to a greater extent in the AAA,
they are taking the first step to
grant to a centralized government
the authority that leads to absolute
control of the person and every
thing that person does.
There are conditions undoubtedly
that need to be remedied before our
form of government is anything like
perfect. • There is always to be con
sidered changing conditions and
the changing whims of people them
selves. But I entertain the con
viction that so long as the Ameri
can people are unwilling to accord
increasing powers to the federal
government, the nation as a whole
will go forward, civilization will
progress and we will enjoy having
a government.
t.-.T ...
The transfer of William C. Bullitt
from his recent post as ambassador
_ ... . to Russia to a sim-
Bulhtt a il ar assignment in
Big Job France upon the
resignation of Am
bassador Straus > has occasioned
but very little comment, but it
seems to me in view ot all condi
tions jnd circumstances that it
should attract attention. He will
take up the job as the chief Anrferi
can diplomat at Paris in most
troublesome times, the most dif
ficult, perhaps, that have confronted
an American diplomat anywhere
since the days of 191-1 to 1916. Ap
pointment of Mr. Bullitt then, it
would appear, is a move that calls
into consideration not only the con
ditions which he will meet as our
ambassador but also his qualifica
tions for the job.
It is to be remembered, first,
that the post of ambassador to Paris
is tfje.second highest in rank among
our' foreign It is a post
that always has called for about
the'best : that our nation can turn
out in the way of tactful representa
tion .even : though we always count
the assignment to London as the No.
1 ranking post. The reason is that
we seldom, if ever, have had the
problems to deal with in the case
of. the London government that con
tinuously arise .between the United
States and France. We always have
been friendly with France in mod
ern times, but it can not be denied
that there has been constant fric
tion between the two peoples. The
same has not been true concerning
Anglo-American relations. Hence,
the job at Paris has always been
regarded as more difficult than that
at London.
As for Mr. Bullitt's capacity,
there is a general feeling that he
is not an outstanding diplomat. He
has achieved success in some lines,
yet I believe the consensus is that
in so far as his recent service at
Moscow is concerned, the Russians,
can claim much greater success in
dealing with the United States than
we can in dealing with the Soviet.
Those of us who were present as
observers in Washington during the
days when Foreign Commissar Lit
vinov met with President Roosevelt
in the series of conferences that re
sulted in recognition of the Union of
Soviet Socialistic Republics can not
fail to recall how Mr. Bullitt la
bored to accomplish that recogni
tion. It will be recalled as well that
Mr. Bullitt insisted throughout these
negotiations how trade would follow
recognition. He urged that the 13-
year old policy of non-recognition,
held by Wilson, Harding, Coolidge
and Hoover, should be cast aside
in the interest of trade, predicting a
great flow of commerce between
the nations. President Roosevelt
eventually made that the real basis
for granting recognition.
None of the predicted trade has
come about. None will be possible*
until the Soviet finds means of pay
ing for American goods. Ameri
can business men are a bit old fash
ioned. They want to be paid tor
what they sell.
After what some critics have
called Mr. Bullitt's "dismal failure"
at Moscow, he is promoted to the
French post. The selection comes
at a time when French internal
politics are boiling. It comes like
wise at a time when the Washing
ton government is striving to ex
pand American exports and when it
is hoped that there will not be a fur
ther decline in outbound shipments
such as official figures of the De
partment of Commerce show has
taken place in trade with Russia.
• • •
Senator James Couzens of Michi
gan who is up for re-election this
fall has sort of up-
Upieta se t a ppi e car t
Apple Cart 'or the Republi
cans, although
they profess not to be particularly
worried. The senior senator from
Michigan has always served in the
senate as a Republican but now
he makes the announcement that he
is going to support President Roose
velt for re-election and that brings
the senator's regularity as a Re
publican into question.
Senator Couzens has been a pow
erful man politically in Michigan in
years past. He has served his city,
Detroit, and his state and the na
tion in a distinguished way. Ob
viously, such service builds up an
important political following but,
according to superficial indication,
no one knows exactly how much re
mains of that following. This state
ment assumes that the senator's
strength is not as great as it used to
be and all current information sup
ports that view. Yet, in politics,
nothing is certain and that is the
reason why Senator Couzens's ac
tion has proved disturbing.
Former Gov. Wilbur M. Brucker
is seeking the Republican nomina
tion lor the senate in Michigan and
thus the incumbent has his diffi
culties in getting the nomination be
cause the Democrats will have a
candidate of their own. Be it said
in favor of Senator Couzens, how
ever, ha was fair with the voters of
his party by announcing befor* the
primaries what his 'a'ttitifcte' would
be respecting the presidential can
didates and his sincerity in this re
gard may have some effect. On
the other hand, it is difficult to say
how dyed-in-the-wool Republicans
can remain with Senator Couzens
after an announcement by which he
virtually has read himself out at the
party.
• Wtttcra Nniftpo Itate
V •• « "ifc