It’s the Law!

BY Dick hyman

In Collingswood, N. J., dogs are forbidden by ordinance to bark between the hours of 8 PM. and 6 A.M.

An ordinance in Mt. Pulaski, Ill., forbids boys to throw snowballs at trees within the city limits.

It is against the law in Maryland to knock a freight train off the track.

Florida has a law forbidding you to hire away your neighbor’s cook

IT’S THE LAW appears each month in The American Magazine

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Cobb Acts for the “Movies”

Irvin S. Cobb, the” well-known humorist, recently had the. interesting experience of acting for the “movies” in connection with “Our Mutual Girl” series—to be more exact. Reel No. 24.

In this film production, the Mutual Girl meets Irvin S. Cobb, who takes delight in telling her a story. It is a narrative of great humor and credit is due to Our Mutual Girl Weekly for the account given below.

“In a small Southern town two negroes, who were both personal and business enemies, kept rival short order eating houses. One evening the official bad man of the community, a killer with half a dozen notches on his gun stock and an ambition for further ornamentation along the same lines, swaggered into one of these establishments. He was half drunk and he fixed a bloodshot and threatening eye on the dusky proprietor, who instantly became uneasy and excessively polite.

“‘Nigger,’ he demanded, ‘have you got a beefsteak here that measures about eighteen inches from tip to tip?’

“‘Yas, suh,’ said the darkey, ‘I got a——’

“‘Well, you fry it for me—with onions; and don’t ever fry it too much or I’ll fry you, see? And you spangle it over with fried aigs and bring it to me purty damn quick, along with some fried potatoes and griddle cakes and celery and a pot of coffee and apple pie and anything else you’ve got around this dump that’s fitten to eat!’

“The negro, who was both waiter and cook, hurried away to his cubbyhole at the rear and almost instantly the smell of hot grease filled the place. In an amazingly short time he was back staggering under the weight of an enormous platter piled high with smoking dishes. He spread the order before the glowering patron in an array which covered the table. The bad man ate what he wanted and ruined the rest.

“When the meal was over he leaned back and producing a spring back dirk knife flipped out a five inch blade and began casually picking his teeth with its point. Suddenly he turned on the scared darky.

“‘What sort of a dump does that nigger up the street keep?’ he demanded.

“‘Boss, you wouldn’t lak dat place at all,’ said the darkey. ‘It ain’t fitten fur a white gen’l'man to go into. Why, boss, dat nigger thinks a fly is somethin’ to cook wid-—he do so.’

“‘That ain’t all,’ said the bad man. ‘That nigger is a robber. I went in his place last night and had jest about what I had here to-night—maybe a lettle more, maybe a lettle less. And when I got through I asked him what his bill was, and do you know that black pirate had the nerve to charge me a quarter ? Yes, sir, a whole quarter of a dollar! Of course I oughter killed him. That’s what I oughter done—jest killed him on the spot. But something stayed my hand. All I done was jest to cut off both his ears with this here knife and throw ‘em in his face.’

‘Now,’ he added, ‘what do I owe you for this mess of vittles?’ “‘Boss,’ said the darkey, ‘I reckon a dime would be ample. Yas, suh, ample !’”

Mr. Irvin S. Cobb on being interviewed about his appearance in the film, made the following remark concerning how to act:

“To beginners I would say that when engaged in being a movie actor it is well just to be a movie actor and let it go at that. This is, the system which I pursued. I began by demanding the center of the picture. I believe this is customary among the veterans of the profession. I insisted that all the other performers so favored as to be permitted to appear in the same film with me should take the background and make themselves as unobtrusive and inconspicuous as possible. This also I understand to be the standing rule among those actively engaged in the business. Finally I made a point of requiring that my picture should be featured on all advertising, lithographing and other printed matter and that my name should appear in letters not less than eighteen inches high and correspondingly broad. Wherever possible I favored red letters. In short, I endeavored to act as nearly as possible like a regular movie actor.

“I trust the completed film will show that I succeeded.”

Behold the Cripple!

By Bernarr Macfadden

IF YOU lose an arm or a leg you are classed as a cripple.

If you walk with a limp, or have an unmistakable indication of a physical defect of any sort, you are put in the same class of the disabled.

Now there are plenty of people who are defective mentally and physically, but as far as you can see they possess normal powers.

There is no limp in their walk, and superficially they seem to be normal mentally.

But there are many in this class who are really cripples.

They have failed to develop their full quota of physical powers. They could in some instances possess twice the amount of vitality and vigor they now enjoy. They have not the ambition and enthusiasm that could easily be theirs.

Comparing such individuals with what they should be and what they are, you can rightly maintain that they are cripples.

They are defective as men or women. They are lacking in the powers that they should possess.

And they go through life defective, mentally and physically, when compared to the supermen and splendid women that they could have been if all their powers had been completely developed.

To lose the sight of one eye, to be minus the powers of hearing, to be unable to talk, is indeed a catastrophe. It is self-evident.

But when you fail to make yourself a complete man or woman, in every sense, your defects may not be apparent, but, nevertheless, you have to suffer from them.

Whatever mistake you may make in life, do not be a cripple. Do not go along day after day satisfied with ten or twenty per cent, of your possible powers, when an intelligent adherence to the rules of life essential to your full development can be constructively followed.

Make yourself a complete man or a splendid, finely developed woman!

Then, you will not have to admit that you are a cripple in any way.

You are complete in every sense; you possess all your attainable powers.

As a man you are capable of assuming the full responsibility that masculinity demands of you.

As a woman you are vitally feminine, with the radiant health that makes life so exquisitely alluring.

Why be a cripple when such glorious powers can be attained?

The way is clearly indicated; the methods are plainly set forth.

You can be a man or a make-believe. You can be a woman or a female caricature.

What you make of yourself may depend partly on inheritance, but it depends largely upon the efforts you make or fail to make.

With a normal supply of ambition and enthusiasm, the glorious rewards that are offered should insure the strenuous efforts necessary to make you a real winner in the great game of life.

EYE STOPPERS

HOT DOG cools off with special sunshade which is secured by reflective aluminum sheet harness. Pooch hails from London.

EYEBALL POPPER is actress Sandra Giles’ fur-coated ‘T-Bird. What happens when it rains?

GENTLE SQUEEZE begets milk as fresh as any udder from unique squirt apparatus. It is located in coffee bar in merry England.

STOGIE PARKER in Holland art gallery allows pure Havana lovers to store rope, pick it up after seeing exhibit.

New Fountain Pen Umbrella is Latest From Paris

PARIS, the creating source of the latest fashions, sent this new fountain-pen umbrella to America recently. This very new device is merely a standard umbrella with a hollow handle. A top is screwed onto the handle, making it a container into which a regular fountain pen is placed. Truly it is a modern idea, for the carrying of a fountain pen is a problem that has vexed many of us. Women especially appreciate this idea because the average pen is too large to carry in the purse, while a small one is not large enough to be of practical value. There are no two items of personal property that are as subject to loss as the umbrella and the fountain pen. Here are both of them in the same combination. If one is lost so is the other. Of course with two such “loseable” objects together, the owner should be able to keep them at hand. The device cannot be distinguished from an ordinary umbrella.

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Our “Mother and Daughter” Contest

Which Is the Mother?

HERE ARE THE PRIZE WINNERS LITTLE did we think, when we ran that box several months ago asking for letters and photographs of mothers and daughters who look like sisters, that we would receive entries from every state in the Union. The letters came pouring in, with photographs that told a remarkable story. Apparently, modern women are learning the value of good health as an aid in keeping youth and beauty. We even heard from some grandmothers, although you would never guess they had grandchildren by looking at their pictures!

The winner of the first prize of $50.00 is Mrs. Iveen Lawrence of Hollywood, California. She is the mother of five, and has a grandson. Her daughter Margaret writes as follows: “This photograph shows my mother, my sister and myself. We are the two younger girls. We have a married sister and two brothers, one of whom is married and has a six-months-old son.

“Mother taught physical culture for twelve years. She gave us valuable training which has enabled us to do stage and radio work. We have always been ardent physical culturists, both by early training and preference. We eat mostly fruits, vegetables, and nuts—no white-flour products or refined sweets and very little meat. We neither smoke nor drink.

“Mother is a real pal to us, and has kept young spiritually, mentally and physically. We .always have to explain to strangers that she is our mother, and not a sister, or the wife of one of the boys.”

The second prize of $25.00 goes to Mrs. Herman Bragg of Huntsville, Missouri. There are three little Braggs, all being raised the physical culture way. “Here comes a country woman with her oldest daughter to enter your contest. My big job in life is to keep our home clean and attractive, and to serve wholesome well-balanced meals which will keep my family in good physical condition. But not all my time is spent keeping house. I have several hobbies which I ride hard— oratory, dancing, gardening and swimming.

“We start the, day with setting-up exercises, and plenty of water, inside and out. Digging in the garden affords wholesome outdoor exercise for the whole family, and all year around there are hikes, which my husband and I enjoy as much as the children. When summer comes, we spend most of our spare time in the water, for we are never happier than when Dad calls out: ‘All aboard for the lake!’”

What a fortunate family! Mother and Dad and the kids—all healthy and full of the joy of living.

Mrs. H. E. Spear of National City, California, is the recipient of third prize— $15.00.

“Having the good fortune to live in southern California,” she writes, “we can indulge in outdoor sports all year around. Swimming and horseback riding are our favorites. We also belong to a gymnasium which we attend regularly. My daughter is thirteen and I am thirty-two. I have a younger daughter, aged ten, who is also very much interested in acrobatics.

“I feel younger today than I did fifteen years ago, and I expect to go on getting a kick out of life for many years to come.”

California seems to be well represented in this contest. One might almost think we owned real estate there! San Francisco is the home of Mrs. Myrtle Loomis, winner of the fourth prize of $10.00. Mrs. Loomis writes as follows: “I agree with you that it is unnecessary for a woman to become old merely because she has children. If she starts young enough, and keeps a healthy body and an optimistic mind—and they are correlative—she need not look other than like a big sister to her children. I have three girls between ten and seventeen. People quite frankly disbelieve I am the mother of my oldest girl until they hear her call me ‘Mamma.’ ”

When we came to judging this contest, we wished that we had more than four prizes to award, for after the winners were selected, there were many excellent photographs remaining. Some of these photographs, by way of “honorable mention,” will be published in “Our Physical Culture Girls” department in an early issue.

KING OF THE EGGHEADS

THE drollest collection of painted eggs in the world probably belongs to Stan Bult, curator of a London museum. Bult’s hobby is living part-time in the world of circus clowns—a habit he got into as a boy when a troupe of friendly clowns lived next door. The faces he paints on his eggs are authentic copies of those belonging to members of the International Circus Clown Club. As secretary of the European division of the club Bult keeps a file of faces so that clowns can avoid copying each other. Each clown’s make-up is his professional, jealously guarded property.

KING GEORGE BUYS PIPE

WHEN the King and Queen visited the British Industries Fair in London, His Majesty was extremely interested in a tray of pipes.

There were pipes of all sizes and kinds. There was one pipe that took the eye of the King. It was the largest of them all. King George seemed to feel that the huge 2-foot pipe shown here would be just the thing for Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, so he bought it as a gift.

Related posts

• Smokes Without Glow (Feb, 1929)
• PIPE FOR FALSE TEETH SMOKERS (Feb, 1929)
• Smoking Now No Effort at All—Dispenser Gives You Lighted Cigarette (Feb, 1929)
• Handy Lighter Built in Cane (Feb, 1929)
• Cigarette Holder Filters Smoke (Feb, 1929)
• “Its not how long you make it…” (Feb, 1929)

House Shaped Like Elephant
A HOUSE built in the shape of an elephant is located at Margate City, N. J. Erected in 1882 by James V. Lafferty, the novel home is said to be the only one of its kind. The body is 38 feet long, the circumference, 80 feet. The head is 26 feet long and 48 feet around. Legs are 22 feet long with a diameter of 10 feet. Glass eyes have an 18-inch diameter.

Madman MORAN – Screwball Promoter

THE man is mad! He spends his time on crazy projects like the ones shown in these pictures: (1) Getting half-baked by exposing half his body at a Florida beach to test its sunshine against California’s supercolossal rays; (2) personally hatching an ostrich egg; (3) finding a needle in a haystack—he sifted two tons of hay for 82-1/2 hours before he spotted the thing, and (4) riding across a river near Reno in an Uncle Sam outfit to prove that any American can change horses in midstream.

“I am a screwball,” Jim Moran, Hollywood publicity promoter, admits. And this time he makes sense.

He used to be a “hot” radiator salesman—took him a month to get up steam for a sale. Once he sold an icebox to an Eskimo—after Moran told him an icebox was a great gadget—to keep food from freezing.

Moran finally decided he could do his best work lying down—and snoozing. For a $200 fee he’ll take any publicity problem and go to sleep on it. Maybe hell dream up a goofy promotion idea—maybe he’ll just goof off. He did sit up to hatch that baby ostrich and got $5000 for this extra effort in promoting the movie, The Egg and I. Moran is mad—mad like a millionaire!

O.K. Murphy’s Electrical Massagers

OWEN K. Murphy of Adamsville, Pa., is a relaxed fellow with an invigorating mind. His mechanical massage units have resulted in making people, from housewives to businessmen, massage-conscious. His Niagara Manufacturing Company puts out 14 different electrical units which are designed to relax and tone up tired muscles. They can be used anywhere from weary feet to throbbing heads. Prince Sulaiman of Saudi Arabia bought five Niagara chairs for his wives.

Drug Said to Cause Clairvoyance
A SOUTH AMERICAN plant called Yage is believed by natives to have the magical property of enabling the drinker to see great distances or through obstacles. Before the drinker falls asleep everything seems to be filled with hazy bluish rings. As the stupor deepens the sleeper sees vivid visions of things or people known to be somewhere else. This is the reason the drug is supposed to cause clairvoyance.

Black Spray
of carbon is blown into the face of this industrial worker to test the efficiency of a respirator incorporating a revolutionary new dust filter. The mask was developed by the American Optical Company to protect laborers exposed to microscopic poisonous and disease-producing
dusts smaller in diameter than 24 millionths of an inch.

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Snowshoes, Jelly Beans and Rat Bait Cheese

YOU can buy anything from a buggy whip to a bustle at the Old Country Store, South Sudbury, Mass. Wilfred Allen, originator and proprietor of the old-time emporium, has it packed to the rafters with relics that would have made your great great grandpa do a jig of joy. Modern items are also sold because Allen has to balance the budget, but it is the antique furnishings that give his shop its unique charm and flavor of days gone by.

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The House That Death Built

by Dean S. Jennings

DEAD leaves, whipped from stark lonely trees by the valley wind, sing a dirge in the night glow of a winter’s moon.

Behind the skeleton screen of withered oaks whose rotting limbs droop to pungent ground, you can see the house, gabled and gaunt, rising wraith-like against a blue shadowed mountain backdrop.

They call it the “mystery house,” and “the house that death built” or “ghost house.”

It’s the strangest structure in the world, a rambling labyrinth of 160 rooms, a $5,000,000 mass of wood and masonry set down in the heart of the peaceful Santa Clara Valley in California. Its mahogany halls have been empty these many years, its dusty rooms hollow and sad.

But there was a time when hammers pounded and saws whined; when a wrinkled old woman, listening to the commands of ghostly whispering voices, shuffled through the house and gave orders to workmen which resulted in blind stairways, chimneys without stoves, closet doors with closets, pillars upside down and many other peculiar things.

“You will live,” the voices had told her decades before, “only as long as it takes to build your house. When hammers are quiet, then death will come.”

Frantic, desperate, the woman summoned an army of workmen, drove them to ceaseless toil with her bulging purse. For 38 years they labored and the house grew, like some monstrous tumor, spreading octopus-like over the estate. And it was still unfinished when death snatched her away.

Today, the house once more echoes to soft footsteps, the voices of unseen beings chatter in ancient rooms, and they say the spirits—which fled when the old woman died—have returned once more.

Before I take you through this nightmare of architecture, let’s turn the calendar back for a moment. . . .

In New Haven, Connecticut, William Wert Winchester, scion of the famous rifle manufacturing family, was building a new home for his lovely wife, Sarah, and their baby daughter. Just as the house was finished, the sinister shadow over the family made its first appearance. Winchester and the baby girl died suddenly and Mrs. Winchester, stunned by the tragedy, fell into a coma so serious that physicians despaired of her life.

Finally she recovered and, at a friend’s suggestion, visited a medium. During a seance, according to those familiar with her story, she received a communication from her dead husband in which he said: “Sarah dear, if our house had not been finished, I would still be with you. I urge you now to build a home, but never let it be finished, for then you will live. . . .”

Fearful of electric storms so common in the East, the young widow hurried to California, bought 160 acres of land and an eight-room house. There, hiding herself from the world, she began the incredible task which led to the creation of what is now known as “The Winchester Mystery House.”

Mrs. Winchester’s income was $1,000 a day. Most of it was spent on salaries to workmen, on carloads of building materials from every corner of the world, rare woods, exquisite marble, costly glass, fixtures— many of which were never used and still repose in storage rooms. Beautiful floors were inlaid one week, ripped out the next. There were many servants, but only one ever came in contact with the eccentric widow. In fact, when the late Theodore Roosevelt visited California, officials in San Jose called on Mrs. Winchester.

“The President of the United States is anxious to meet you and visit your home,” they said excitedly.

The woman, peering through the front door of her mansion, shook her head.

“I have never bothered anyone,” she said acidly, “I expect no one to bother me. Good day!”

Ignoring the pleas of the officials, Mrs. Winchester walked slowly back to her “blue” room, the tiny bare chamber where, in the dark hours of the night, she communed with invisible friends.

Sarah Winchester, cloistered in supreme loneliness, died on September 5, 1922. The builders gathered up their tools, the great rambling structure gathered dust and age. But she left an astonishing heritage which, in summary form, looks like this: 160 rooms.

13 bathrooms.

47 fireplaces.

Thousands of windows and doors.

Five Tiffany windows costing $1,000 each.

A front door worth $2,000.

3 elevators.

40 stairways.

5 separate heating systems.

9 kitchens.

Transparent floors, screens on inside doors, doorknobs and fixtures of gold, silver and bronze.

One has the macabre realization that these rooms were made for spirit guests; that no human being was ever destined to sleep in the bedrooms of dazzling beauty, or^sit down in any of the vast reception rooms, whose walls are covered with embossed wall paper studded with bits of crystal.

Sarah Winchester had a weakness for the number thirteen. All the stairways are constructed in series of 13 steps, walls have 13 panels, glass doors have 13 pieces, chandeliers have 13 lights. On one chandelier, having no room for a thirteenth light, Mrs. Winchester punched a hole in the gold conduit pipe and fastened therein a plain iron gas jet.

You can find dozens of closet doors that open on blank walls, stairways that end in mid-air, trap doors, blind chimneys, secret passages, screens placed on blank walls, doors with knobs on only one side. The house was so arranged that carriages or automobiles could be driven inside, with no prying eyes able to watch the silent widow step out.

The mansion is indeed a remarkable feat of the builders’ art. For, although few of the rooms are on a level with one another, the structure stands solidly, rising to a maximum height of five stories in spots, stretching out like a village in others.

Sarah Winchester’s burning zeal to “keep building” is reflected everywhere, particularly in one stairway, with 44 steps 2 inches high and seven turns in a total rise of only ten feet.

If you were taken to the center of the house and left there alone, it might easily take a day to find the way out.

Today, with Sarah Winchester but a memory, with the age-browned halls and rooms deserted shells of once busy hours, strange phenomena have aroused the countryside to a furore of gossip. The spirits, which must have followed the old woman to her marble tomb in New Haven, are once more flitting through the labyrinth . . .

Weird rappings filter down from above to the caretaker’s room on the ground floor. Footsteps, soft, gentle, come and go through the night in padding cadence. Sibilant whispers, they say, swirl around your ears . . .

A woman who went through the house recently, said in hushed awe: “Someone—some unseen guide—was at my side as I walked into Mrs. Winchester’s room. Another time, I felt a gentle pressure on my arm. Superstitious? Not a bit. But I can’t understand it. I could feel this invisible thing in every room.”

Many other recent visitors have reported similar puzzling experiences, paralleling familiar psychic demonstrations in other parts of the world.

The late Harry Houdini, prince of magicians, went through the mansion in the dead of night some years ago but gave out no public impression of his visit. He had planned, however, to return and spend a week within its mystic walls.

Has Sarah Winchester come “home”?

What does it mean—the unearthly tramp-tramp of unseen feet, the eerie cry of voices from shadowy, cobwebbed eaves?

Who knows?

The dead leaves fall, the lonely trees bend to the wind, the blue mountain gazes down sphinxlike on the house where Sarah Winchester looked alone at her soul . . .

STAINLESS CHOPPERS
STEELY SMILE of John Gilpin, village blacksmith of Livingston, Mont., is really friendly although strangers are sometimes awed by it. Gilpin broke a set of store teeth 16 years ago, replaced them with rugged stainless steel.

Fish-Net Shirt is a satisfactory substitute for the Eskimo caribou garments in the Arctic. It allows body perspiration to evaporate and form a vapor barrier, thus conserving all possible natural heat needed in frigid climates. First used in the Canadian Arctic by Operation Musk-Ox, this hole-some shirt is now worn under army winter underwear.

Hangover Heaven is the apt name of the unusual bonnet at right. Originally developed by makeup man Max Factor for the benefit of actresses who wish to refresh their faces on hot studio sets without spoiling their makeup, the facial ice pack was quickly diverted to another purpose by festive Hollywoodians. The headpiece, adorned with water-filled plastic cubes, is kept in the refrigerator while the water freezes.

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Personology—Science of Success

Bob Whiteside, Personologisf, is startling the scientific world with an amazing new system for determining a person’s aptitudes by his physical appearance.

By Lee Edson

THE man and woman standing in front of the studio audience at a recent San Francisco radio show were plainly skeptical. And so was the audience itself.

They stared at ex-newspaperman Bob Whiteside with a show-me attitude that for a lesser person might have been disconcerting. But Whiteside, who was on the program to demonstrate what he could reveal about a person merely by looking at him, was used to skepticism. He looked his subjects over carefully. He had never seen them before and there was little about them that could distinguish them from thousands of others.

“You, sir,” said Whiteside calmly, “should work at directing people. You’d do it well even though you might be abrupt with your associates.” He paused. “You’re probably bothered more by little things than by major emergencies.” – Whiteside turned to the young lady. “And you have emotional capacities that should make you a fine actress.”

The conductor of the program laughed. Whiteside had called the shots. The man was David Diamond, a Hollywood movie producer, and the young lady was Margaret Field, an actress. Mr. Diamond, much impressed, later wrote that Whiteside’s analysis was amazingly correct.

Hocus pocus? A lucky guess? Or a remarkable new science of prediction?

Bob Whiteside, an alert vigorous man of 44, has no doubt of the answer. As head of the Personology Foundation of San Francisco he has been studying human beings for the past six years and he has found some amazing correlations between personality and physical characteristics that have enabled him to make startling analyses. Some years ago, for instance, he was invited to test a group of convicts at San Quentin Prison. One man, who was serving a five-year-to-life term for armed robbery, interested him. He analyzed the fellow as being a frustrated poet and told him he should write poetry. The convict laughed and went back to his cell. But a year later Bob Whiteside received a privately-printed book of poems written by the con. Not only that but the prisoner said that writing poetry had given him a new leas^ on life and currently, having completed his parole, he was making good as a salesman.

In another instance Whiteside was called in to examine a teen-ager who had assaulted the principal of his school. The boy was surly and defiant and none of the medicos or psychologists could do anything with him. The San Francisco Personology Foundation head noted the boy’s physical pattern which indicated a big ego and a dominant personality and he pointed out how the boy could use these traits positively. After an hour’s discussion the lad apologized to the school head and promised he would straighten out in the future. The judge was so impressed with the boy’s change of attitude that he stated in court that “more scientific approaches to young- sters would result in more satisfactory solutions to juvenile problems.”

In one form or another, personology— the science of persons—is as old as civilization. The early Greeks are credited with developing a system of physical “character readings” by which they catalogued their politicians and statesmen. Literature, of course, is full of references to these qualities. You can still read about a “heroic jaw” or a “lean and hungry look” and every day you yourself probably make decisions on whether a man is trustworthy by the cast of his eyes or whether he’ll be fun at a party by the shape of his face. But despite their popularity these notions have fallen into the disrepute of phrenology and palmistry and scientists have tended to dismiss the entire subject as devoid of adequate evidence.

In recent years, however, the picture has changed remarkably. Such scientists as Prof. Ernst Kretschmer of the University of Marburg in Germany, Dr. William Sheldon of Columbia University and famed anthropologist Ernest Hooton of Harvard have indicated that the body gives definite clues to a person’s temperament and character. Listen to Drs. Frances L. Ilg and Louise Bates Ames of the well-known Gesell Institute: “The child is born with a very definite personality (or at least with the possibility for the development of a certain definite personality) just as he’s born with a very definite type of physical structure … In fact, the two things are not really too much different because, we believe, the child’s behavior is a function of his structure. This means that he acts as he does because he is built the way he is.”

Dr. Sheldon, who started his own research to disprove such relationships once and for all, ended up by devoting 15 years to the study of how your physical attributes mold your life. After examining over 4,000 people he came up with a classification that divided the human race into three broad categories: the endomorph or rolypoly, the mesomorph or bone and muscle, and the ectomorph or string-bean type. The chubby people, he found, are generally convivial, gossipy, interested in comfort. The bone-and-muscle men are the adventurers, athletes and the first to rush to war. The string-bean types are efficient, have a love of privacy, sleep poorly and are tight-lipped to strangers.

Bob Whiteside has gone a step ahead of all this. He has “validated” over 53 measurements of the human body and correlated them with specific qualities. Take your eyes, for instance. Are they wide-spaced? The chances are you are a pretty tolerant person. How about your ears? Do they sit near the back of your head or are they close to your cheekbones? Taken with other qualities they indicate something about your showmanship or your capacity for bearing a grudge. Similarly, the texture of your hair, the tone of your muscle, the lines under your eyes all reveal personality traits that can be read by the men and women trained in personology. Let’s see how all this works. The parents of Vaughn Shahinian, Jr., brought their son into the Whiteside office for an analysis because they were troubled about his career. They wanted the boy to become a doctor but he had expressed no special interest in medicine. What was the lad fitted for? Whiteside first measured the gross dimensions of Vaughn’s body: the arm span, the length of the torso and the length of the legs. He then went on to finer measurements: the eyebrows, nose, proportion of eye spacing to head, relative length of the fingers. Simple instruments were used in some cases, like an ordinary paper gauge to measure hair thickness and a small rectangular grid to determine facial areas. The analysis took three hours and resulted in a physical profile from which Whiteside made his deductions. In the case of Vaughn, Whiteside suggested the military life because the boy had all the qualities of a good officer. The parents pooh-poohed the suggestion. But as things turned out the boy took the West Point examination, came out highest in his Congressional district, and today is a career officer.

In another instance, Alice Elmgren was employed as a bill collector in San Francisco. Her analysis showed she had artistic ability. Whiteside convinced her she should paint and since then she has won three scholarships in art. An equally striking result occurred in the case of 13-year-old Ronnie Barrett of Piedmont, California. Ronald’s parents were disturbed about their son’s progress as a piano student until Whiteside explained that the boy had musical talent but was restless and needed to move around. Because of the boy’s strong lips Whiteside suggested a mouth instrument. Ronnie took up the trumpet and in one year he had won an award as the best music student of his school.

Young couples frequently consult Whiteside before getting married. He tells them whether they’re suited and in several dozen marriages so far he hasn’t struck a single divorce. In one case an executive had divorced his wife twice and then remarried her. He was contemplating a third divorce when he came to see Whiteside. Bob showed them the bad qualities they should watch for and today, armed with this self-knowledge, they’re back together and making a go of it. Whiteside has also successfully analyzed the members of marital triangles and by taking the physical measure of each he has consistently worked out a suitable solution to the difficulty.

Businessmen have turned to Whiteside for help in curing absenteeism. In one insurance office, for instance, where sick leaves were abnormally high the personology expert found the cause in a rule that the girls couldn’t leave their desks and walk around unless absolutely necessary. Even the office manager who had made the rule suffered from headaches and backaches. Whiteside pointed out that the girls who had a long torso compared to their foot length needed to be on their feet to be happy; the girls with a short torso had to sit down. By analyzing the entire office staff one of Whiteside’s students was able to recommend shifts that would make the girls happiest at their work. Six months later, absenteeism had been reduced by half and the tension in the office had disappeared.

Then there is the case of Ralf Maki, owner of King Kovers of Oakland, California, which is said to be the second largest auto seat-Cover shop of its kind in the country. Maki has become so enthusiastic about personology he makes a practice of having all his employees physically analyzed. “Our business was growing so fast,” he explains, “that there was constant bickering in the plant. But Whiteside’s analyses helped me place the right man in the right job and in the last 18 months there has been no serious scrap and only one man has left our employ. Thanks to personology, I think we now have the most congenial employer-employe relationship in the city.”

One remarkable diagnosis made by Bob Whiteside involves something he calls the “casualty syndrome.” The results of examining several hundred accident-prone people N had shown that the variation of the iris of either eye from level is a feature related to the individual’s accident-proneness. An amateur pilot, he had found the same characteristic in his own physical makeup and promptly given up flying after several slight mishaps. But the striking relationship was borne home to him even more strongly when his own daughter, who had had more accidents in her youth than the average girl, fell from her bike in front of an automobile. Whiteside cautioned her on this characteristic and ever since she checks herself in the mirror before she leaves the house. If too much white is showing under the iris, she knows she is under strain and liable to be the victim of another accident so she takes things easy. Result: she hasn’t had an accident since.

Today Whiteside conducts regular classes in personology attended by doctors, lawyers, employment counselors, nurses, housewives, radio directors, millionaires and entertainers. One of his classroom techniques is to spot-analyze an individual in the audience. If the group knows the person, he frequently has them keep score on the specific character traits he reads off from observation. Needless to say, he usually hits nine out of ten.

“After that, people said it was a put-up job,” recalls Bob with a grin. “All I can do in such cases is accept the comment as a compliment.”

In all of his work Whiteside stresses the fact that he offers no medical advice but the personologists nonetheless have accomplished some amazing things.

The doctors and nurses who attend the personology classes have reported some striking correlations in their practices. In cancer and gastro-intestinal patients, for instance, they have noted the presence of at least one of four traits—intolerance, exactingness (fussiness), considerateness (those who plan your life but spend their own lives feeling they are not appreciated) and criticalness.

All this, of course, is in the future. Meantime, Whiteside continues to amaze the skeptics by making his own astounding predictions from a person’s carcass.

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10,000,000 UFO witnesses can’t be wrong!

By Otto O. Binder

A GALLUP POLL discloses the astonishing fact that 5 million Americans claim to have seen a UFO at one time or another since 1947. Even if 80 per cent of these so-called sightings can be proved to be of such ordinary objects as balloons, high-flying aircraft, birds, stars, etc., that leaves 1 million unsatisfied witnesses. In America alone!

But UFOs also have been reported from more than 70 other countries and the estimated grand total of living witnesses for this little orb called Earth exceeds 10 million. Ten million men, women and children who have seen something out of the ordinary in the sky!

In the face of these overwhelming figures, officialdom has yet to accept the reality of the UFO phenomena, whether they are craft from another planet or not.

It is not the first time that the scientific community or established authority has had its head in the sand. To take one historic example, scientists in the 19th Century scoffed at thousands of reports of stones falling from the sky as the imagination of the uneducated. What scientist today will deny the meteorites seen by the derided witnesses of a century ago? Ironically, these same falling stones often are cited to explain away many of the recent UFO sightings.

Most Americans share the misconception that UFOs are almost exclusively U.S. phenomena. It is now known that nearly every country has had its saucer waves in which for weeks or months large numbers of people have reported sightings.

The American press virtually ignored the French wave of 1954, which was greater than the black-headlined Washington Attack sightings of 1952. Hence, the mere lack of UFO news in your paper does not mean the mystifying things have vanished. On the contrary, a wave of sightings usually is occurring somewhere on this planet at any given moment.

The implications of this enormous body of recorded sightings is staggering.

If we want to be ultra-conservative, suppose, instead of knocking out 80 per cent, we knock out 99.9 per cent of all claimed UFO sightings as attributable to known phenomena, natural or man-made.

That leaves 50,000 unknockable sightings throughout the world over a period of 20 years. Yet the U.S. Air Force, which has investigated more than 11,000 detailed sightings, recognizes only 659 as true unknowns.

It was the late Capt. Edward J. Ruppelt, chief of the USAF’s Project Blue Book (UFO evaluation program) from 1951 to 1953, however, who estimated that 180,000 saucer sightings were made each year in the U.S., of which the USAF received reports on a small fraction. By extrapolation, he believed that the unknowns must be ten times the Air Force figures.

Another factor the Air Force does not give much weight to is that multiple sightings of the same object are sometimes made by dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of people. To give a partial listing of only those sightings witnessed by over 1,000 pairs of eyes: • November 1896 to April 1897—a mystery airship was observed by residents of a dozen states, from California to Illinois. There were an estimated 1 million witnesses.

• July 1952—the Washington Attack, during which 67 UFOs were detected visually or tracked by radar. Seen by perhaps 250,000 in Washington, D.C., and environs.

• August 1965—a fleet of UFOs was seen over seven states from North Dakota down through Oklahoma and Texas by 100,000 witnesses.

• Periodically since 1965, at Wanaque, N.J., UFOs have been observed by police officers, the town mayor, engineers and other professional people, plus an estimated 300,000 other residents of nearby communities. This is considered the greatest flap in UFO history. New Jersey, incidentally, has reported more UFOs than any other state in the union.

Foreign countries have also had their mass sightings:

• September 1954 —thousands of residents of Rome saw a half cigar hanging and maneuvering about a mile above their city for an hour. It was tracked by radar and pursued by jets to no avail.

• September to December 1965—USAF pilots and hundreds of thousands of Japanese saw UFOs, singly and in groups, repeatedly buzz Mt. Yokohama.

• January 1966— a UFO was seen by some 10,000 people in Perth, Australia, and was photographed in color.

The UFO Evidence, a listing of hard-core sightings put out by the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (a private, nonprofit research organization headed by Maj. Donald E. Keyhoe), includes at least another dozen UFOs photographed, radar-tracked or seen by hundreds of thousands of witnesses.

We are concerned here with the past 20 years only. Sightings actually go back to Biblical times. At least 500 UFOs were reported from the first century B.C. up to 1800, more than 240 from 1800 to 1900. Uncounted thousands of other sightings can be presumed.

In America, the modern UFO era began with Kenneth Arnold’s sighting of June 24,1947. Arnold, a 31-year-old Boise, Idaho, businessman who flew his own plane, was cruising toward Yakima, Wash., when he delayed to join a search for a Marine transport (C-46) down in the Mt. Rainier area. Around 3 p.m. he noticed nine bright, disc-shape objects flying from north to south at an altitude of 9,500 ft. in a stepped-V formation near Mt. Rainier.

Methodically marking his and their positions on a map, Arnold estimated their distance from him at 20 to 25 mi., their length at 45 to 50 ft., and their speed at an incredible—for those days—1,700 mph. The fastest jets of 1947 could do no better than 600 mph.

Upon reaching his destination, Arnold reported his strange experience in detail, offering that the objects “flew like a saucer would if you skipped it across the water”— one of the common denominators in subsequent UFO sightings.

The press, not Arnold, dubbed them flying saucers, a name that has stuck to this day and is applied to UFOs of all shapes. At first, the press ridiculed Arnold. But upon checking his story and the character of the man himself (he boasted a solid reputation as a no-nonsense representative of a fire-control equipment firm), the newsmen had second thoughts. The story spread like wildfire.

Many debunkers tried to attribute what Arnold saw to some sort of illusion or mountain mirage due to an inversion of air but Arnold calmly pointed out that he had seen the nine objects dip behind mountain peaks at times, weaving in and out, something no mirage could do. Well aware that Arnold was a veteran flier familiar with the area and had no ax to grind, the Air Force gave up trying to find a natural explanation for his sighting and it is listed among their 659 unknowns.

There are many other utterly baffling UFO reports that read like science fiction but were made by science-minded people of great reliability.

Perhaps the best substantiated sighting of all was the Bellefontaine, Ohio, incident because it was corroborated three ways.

Date—August 1, 1952.

Time—10:51 a.m.

Place—Near Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, where the Air Technical Intelligence Command, which investigates all UFO reports, is headquartered. Thus this unknown was dumped right in the USAF’s backyard.

Sighting—Radarmen at Wright-Patterson AFB picked up and tracked an object moving at 480 mph. At the same time several residents of Bellefontaine saw the object moving high over the airfield. They reported it as round with a metallic gleam.

Ground Command Intercept contacted two airborne F-86 jets, piloted by Maj. James B. Smith and Lt. Donald J. Hemer, which were only 10 mi. from the UFO. Vectored in by radar, they climbed to 30,-000 ft. and soon spotted the round, glowing object.

Both pilots switched on gun cameras and climbed straight toward the UFO at full power, only to find it elusively above them at 40,000 ft., which was their ceiling. Both planes stalled and had to turn down but Maj. Smith nursed his plane back above 40,000 ft. and this time shot several feet of film. He also got an independent fix with his plane’s radar, which determined that the UFO was well beyond the range of any then-known aircraft.

Maj. Smith was just confirming this with his telescopic gun sight when the object accelerated and disappeared at tremendous speed.

ATIC Report—The object, estimated to be between 24 and 40 ft. in diameter, was real because it was sighted both visually and by radarscope. It traveled too fast for any weather balloon and moved against the thermal current. It could not be any known conventional craft. It was not an astronomical body (star, planet or meteor). It could not be a meteorological mirage caused by an air inversion because it was above the weather.

Conclusion—unknown.

The clincher was Maj. Smith’s film. Though in poor focus, when developed it showed a definite ball of light in the sky.

Human eyes, electronic sensors and photographic film all had verified the UFO that mockingly sailed over the headquarters of Project Blue Book that morning. No explanation has ever been ventured by the Air Force. It has them licked.

And ponder this. If even one sighting is authentic out of all those reported it does not matter how many others are false. •

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WORLD’S WACKIEST INVENTIONS

“Nonsensical” describes this inventor’s nutty devices but they’ll guarantee a chuckle.

RUSSELL Oakes’ knack for dreaming up wacky inventions can be charged to his desire to simplify the complexities of modern life. Though his nonsensical creations may be more involved than the problems they’re designed to solve, you’re guaranteed a chuckle using them. Oakes has contrived such devices as a cocktail glass with a movable bottom that enables you to get at the cherry without straining your tongue; a device for knocking flies off a sandwich while balancing a cup of coffee, and a fan that operates via jaw-motion for speakers in hot climates. Nutty devices—but fun.

HE HUNTS GHOSTS
ONE of every 14 Britons claims to have seen or heard a ghost, according to Philip Paul, vice-chairman of the Ghost Club of London. Investigating specters, sleeping in haunted houses and reporting to the 150 members of the century-old Ghost Club are Paul’s hobbies. (Ghost Club members also dabble in hypnotism and fire walking.) Pictures show Paul checking up on a haunted dwelling and dressmaker’s shop in London where a poltergeist (noisy ghost) had been rumpling beds, heaving flatirons and glasses and scaring the help. Sorry, no photos of the spook.

Oil-Soaked Bricks Lure Lobsters

A NOVEL bait for lobsters has been developed by New England fishermen who, knowing that lobsters hanker for anything having an odor of oil, conceived the idea of soaking some common house bricks in kerosene for 24 hours and then placing the oil-soaked bricks in the bait cabin of the trap. Since the bricks are porous, they absorb quite a lot of kerosene and the oily smell clings thereto for several days.

More lobsters are caught in traps so baited than in those in which mixed bait is used. Due to the fact that the bricks retain their oily odor for several days, the work of baiting the traps is lessened and the expense is not heavy, for a gallon of oil will serve to “oil” a large number of bricks.

Why Fat Women Are the Happiest

FAT women, especially those in middle age, are usually happier than thin women because they are better equipped to withstand the nervous strain brought on by the active pace now required of middle age women, according to Dr. McPhedran, of Toronto.

Women of 40 and 50 are expected to manage the household, take an active part in club and civic affairs, and still be fresh for parties in the evening.
All this is contrary to nature, and a reasonable degree of plumpness cushions the body against physical shocks and strain.

New Belt Buckle Has Secret Compartments for Money and Photographs

APPEARING to all outer evidence like the regular thing, a new belt buckle on the market has two concealed compartments for carrying money and other valuable objects. In addition, a photo of the wearer, or even his best girl, can be carried in secret, along with an identification card, as shown in the accompanying photo.

SCOOTER CANNON combines scooting with shooting. French gun is a short-barreled, 75mm re-coilless job. It carries six ammo shells in place of saddle bags.

Why Men Are Superior to Fish

THE reason why men have better brains than fish and why land animals have evolved so much more rapidly than sea animals is to be found, says the Russian biologist, Dr. M. A. Menzbier, in the ability of men and other land animals to turn their heads from one side to the other.

Most fish never turn their heads sidewise but must turn the whole body if they wish to see something not already visible to one of their eyes. The development by the first air-breathing lung-fish hundreds of millions of years ago of the method of breathing air through the mouth into lungs released these creatures from this rigid, stiff-necked condition and made it possible for their descendants, including mankind, to have flexible necks, mobile heads and both eyes pointing to the front. All of these changes aided greatly to exercise the brain and improve it.

Wrestlers Stage Underwater Battles

Submarine matmen are staging underwater wrestling matches in a swimming pool, as a novel attraction for vacationing visitors at an Atlantic seaside resort. Viewed through glass windows in the walls of the swimming tank, the wrestlers seem to be staging a slow-motion bout as they make and break holds beneath the surface of the water.

Air-Raid Suits Are Made of Fireproof Cloth

New York style experts are turning from spring fashions to air raid clothes. The latest creations, shown at the right in light brown and blue, have pointed hoods to protect the face and are made of fire-proofed cloth. For protection against shrapnel fragments, plates of one-quarter-inch thick plastic can be slipped into pockets in the lining to cover the chest, back, and midsection. The plastic plates weigh about fifteen pounds as compared to fifty pounds for an equivalent protection of metal. The suits are loose-fitting and designed for warmth.

Tractor Out-pulls Elephant in Tug-of-War

SEVENTY-TWO hundred pounds of elephant came in second best in a tug-of-war recently conducted between Ruth, a 30-year-old elephant, and a small tractor. Four legs proved to have less “pulling power” than the caterpillar treads of the tractor. The elephant is shown bracing herself just as the irresistible pull of the tractor began to carry her backward.