St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 24

2C ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1949 THE EVERYDAY MAGAZINE BROADWAY By WALTER WINCHELL Will Wahlgren Have to Move Over? Woolly Bear Being Looked Upon by as True Weather Prophet OFF THE RECORD By Ed Reed 1 i I By Dickson Terry Dear Mr. AXEL WENNER-GREN has a damage suit against him for $100,000 in Supreme Court for alleged breach of contract As a result, many internationally known people have taken the first boat or plane right outta here. He's at the 1 i 1 Kits Carlton. Called that fashion copywriter (at that 5th Avenue store) to check the talk she will wed a General now overseas.

Urged you not to print his name; said it would "hurt him." Shell let you know when, etc. F. Eberstadt sends such a nice letter he rates getting his side of it in print, although he doesn't want any correction or anything. Wants you to know it isn't true he tried to get G-Man Hoover fired. Time's art section has a story about a long-missing Van Gogh painting.

If it seems familiar, you ran it In two lines months ago. Well, air, you've been pushed, shoved and attacked -J -ED PEED 1 1 I I Vs And stop saying that's apparent' every time I ay I didn't raise my boy to be a soldier. Men Have Women on Their Minds WALTER WINCHELL 1 1 Si ing squirrel, fox, and so on. right through the animal kingdom in alphabetical order. The cat for example, can hardly do anything but what it turns out to be a weather report When she sneezes, rain; when her tail is up there will be wind, if she washes behind her ears, more rain; if she snores, foul weather; if she washes her with her back to the fire, expect a thaw just to name a few things a cat can tell you.

IF you know, how, you can tell the weather by watching the birds. They know. For instance, if they fly in groups during rain or hail, it will sleet; if bluebirds twitter and sing, it will rain; if the cock crows especially early 'it will rain; if one crow flies alone, foul weather, but if they're in pairs, fine weather. And so on, through the antics of 61 birds, and the bat Equally gifted are the fish and the crustaceans. If you want to know if it will rain, go watch a clam bed.

If bubbles appear it will. Lacking a clam bed, go catch a cod fish. They take on ballast before a storm and if you find it has been swallowing stones, then a squall is coming. The woolly bear, we find, is just one of many insects which can give you the dope. Others are ants, crickets, butterflies, bees, cockroaches, crickets, flies and so on down to wood lice.

If you see wood lice running about in great numbers, expect rain. i According to our authority, an old woman with a hook nose and piercing eye who lives under a bush in Forest Park there are no fewer than 60 plants and trees which can foretell the weather for you, including the bean: "Be it weal or be it woe," she says, "beans must blow ere May doth go." We don't know exactly how a bean blows, but there you are. When you get right down to it our old friend in the park points out, there's hardly anything that doesn't forecast the weather. Just to name a few, air currents, appetite, bells, brick walls, coals, coffee bubbles, dreams, dust, ears, guitar strings, salt, toothache, water bubbles, tables and chairs, boots and shoes and, we have no doubt, buttons and bows. Is it so strange, then, that the woolly bear can do it? Someday there'll be a woolly bear in every home.

A man will only have to glance at it, on his way to work, to see what the weather is going to be. And someday, too, the world will smile when it thinks of how we believed in such things as pressure areas and cold fronts and Mr. Wahlgren. WE know a groundhog that doesn't believe in Weatherman Harry F. Wahlgren.

He refuses to be drawn into any discussion of the matter, but points out that superstitions such as Wahlgren have existed for years, and that they probably will persist for years to come, despite everything that groundhogs have proved to the We bring this up because the groundhogs axe now being backed up by another group in their battle to dispel popular belief in things like meteorology, the woolly bears. As near as we can find out the woolly bear is not really a bear, but a sort of fuzzy caterpillar which appears In the late summer and fall, for the sole purpose, we are inclined to believe, of informing people what the weather will be like in the winter to come. There is a growing school of woolly bear weather prophets, we find, and this winter has been to them a season of glorious fulfillment If he continues his uncanny prophetic success, it appears, he may succeed in rocking the very foundations of science and giving the business of weather forecasting back to the insects, the animals, the trees, the reptiles and the peasants where, it he-comes increasingly clear, it belongs. The woolly bear theory has been around a long time, it seems, but scientific interest was first manifested last October when the curator of insects and spiders at the American Museum of Natural History led an expedition to New York's Bear Mountain. The expedition caught a number of woolly bears in paper bags and brought them home for further study of the brown bands on the insects' backs.

To those versed in such lore, the width of these bands indicates the length and duration of winter weather, not to mention the number and depth of snowfalls and other precise indications of what is to come. It seems that these woolly bears proclaimed, to a bear, that there would be no zero temperatures, no heavy snows a winter of unexampled mildness. Well, as everyone knows who reads the papers, while the West and the Middle-west have had devilish weather, the people in the East have been soaking up vitamin D. Tulips have been blooming in New England. In New York, it is reported, a man entered a bar, mopped his brow and ordered a Tom Collins.

According to the bands on the backs of the woolly bears, this sort of thing is expected to continue SOMETIME ago this column added up to the fact that women are thinking about men a BIG part of their waking hours 90 per cent of the girls say "most of the time" at least about some one man. And what are the men thinking about meanwhile the Nebular Hypothesis? Differential Calculus as Applied to Synthetic Poopse-gacs? Well, that's what they'd like the girls to believe. Stern, stoical stuff and no female fripperies, by crinkus! "Never show a woman that ye care a snap av a finger for her an begad she'll come bleating to your boot heels." That's how they want it to, work. But as Gertrude Atherton pointed out "No matter how hard a man may labor, some woman is always in the background of his mind." Recently a professor of psychology stated that it is masculine nature not to like to appear interested in the opposite sex. That may account for so many men seeming to take their wives for i I I THERE IS A GROWING SCHOOL OF WOOLLY BEAR WEATHER PROPHETS.

e-rettf dfil" nf ih. tim And they feel that a man's job not a blonde is a woman's big competition. The girls say, for pie: "He thinks first of his work 8 I i then of women" "He thinks ui wuuiru must, ui nc uiuc ca- cept wnen wonting na thinks of women after the office closes (They don't know the half of it do they, Pi.indexter?) until it merges right into summer. The Museum intends to continue a 10-year survey before it recommends that weathermen be permanently abolished, but the opening success of the experiment has made the handwriting on the wall pretty clear for popular myths and legends like Harry F. Wahlgren.

The woolly bear doesn't seem to have gained much of a foothold in these parts. Mr. Wahlgren, a whistler in the dark if we ever saw one, claims never to have heard of the woolly bear. As for the woolly bear school of weather prophesy, he dismisses it with the statement, "There's one born every minute." Dr. Hampton Carson, an entomologist at Washington University, knows about the woolly bear, but dismisses his prophetic potentialities as "a lot of nonsense." We're now shopping around for a woolly bear.

We want to find out what it thinks of Mr. Wahlgren and Dr. Carson. Come the revolution, all a man will have to do is strike up an acquaintance with the first animal, insect reptile or bird that comes to hand. We've been looking into the matter and we find that we're virtually surrounded with things that can tell us what the weather is likely to be.

Among the animals, there is the beaver, bear, bull, cat, chipmunk, deer, dog, donkey, fly I I ALL GOODS ADVERTISED GLIM FABRICS CAN IE PURCHASED THE TEXTILE CENTER 3(04 S. Iraa4wav A IRANCH STORE grantedthe most irritating trait that hQibands have, according to the votes of a couple thousand wives. But just let the little woman get sick or break a leg or run away and watch the "disinterested" male suddenly start to appreciate her. I was just reading where a man whose wife deserted him pulled a fire alarm after thinking about her a couple months. "It was cracking my nerves," he said "all this cooking, washing, scrubbing, making my bed." Anyway, a study shows that 22 per cent of men admit they're thinking about women "most" of the time 66 per cent say, "a great deal of the time.

And 50 per cent of women claim that men are thinking about women most of the time when they are not actually working 83 per cent, "a in many places, but your latest critic is a corker. The Morning Freiheit (Yiddish language daily) gives you a going-over for "hurting Paul Robeson. Things to worry about YVONNE ADAIR of "Lend an Ear" and Sandy Scott have tiffed. (Only dawgs stay maaaad!) The Jerry Lewises (Martin Lewis) have been reconciled by his mother, a very sweet lady. Londoners tell me the Aly Khan-Rita Hayworth romance is nothing compared to the one between Lynn Casey and John Readymoney.

London editors wish they could learn more about her. Did you know that among the 300 experts imported here from Germany the foremost scientist is Werner von Braun? He invented the V-2 rocket Phony 10s and 20s are around again. Show business is like this: "Carousel" asked backers to take a cut because even if they pack the house they gross $32,000, and the nut is $30,000. THE NEW IIOOFKR has you and Fibber McGee tied for third. All ratings a little down.

Benny still on top. You'd be surprised at the number of officers being called back to active duty. Mrs. Vivienne Wooley-Hart (who got into that Buckner gambling case innocently) has hired Charles Washburn to get things laundered in the gazettes. Newspaper Guild is trying to unionize the staff at Variety.

Previous efforts got them nothing but trouble. Fred Astaire will have a thriller in "The Barkleys of Broadway. AH the shoes in a shoe store start dancing when he does! SAW NOTHING in the papers about Mae West's name being forged (costing her a pretty sum) at a mid town place. Food prices aren't the only things diving. Several showmen are capitalizing on new shows at 25 per cent of previous budgets.

"The Ivy Green" show is about Dickens. I hear itll raise eyebrows for those who think of the famed writer as a proper Victorian. Opens March 4th in Judith Evelyn's home burg, London, Oontario. DOES THE MIAMI HERALD know that four ex-Presidents of Venezuela are nov- in exile in Miami? Kay Armen (thrush on "Stop" he and director Guy Thomajon are in harmony. Washington girls swoon when Cong.

James T. Patterson (Conn.) passes by. Handsomest member of Congress. He's the ex-Georgetown U. football player.

I hear the Philly Record won't be revived, after all. The money deal didn't jell. THE NEW Police Commissioner O'Brien is popular with New Yorkers already. He has a nice face. That gleam In Fran Warren's eye is socialite Howard Styne.

Mrs. Charles Chaplin will appear in the coast production of Sa-royan's "Don't Go Away Mad." The producer is her stepson. ARTHUR MILLER, author of "Death of a Salesman," had neighbor whose life and death paralleled the chief character In the hit, I am told. If you win a washing ma-china or refrigerator (or any other bulky item) on one of those quiz programs, don't expect to get it delivered into your home. For some unknown reason the truckmen Just dump it on your sidewalk and let you lug it in yourself.

So what's the bargain? They say Gene Fowler spent $65,000 gathering data for his new book about Jimmy "Walker. Hem says: I don't cars about making money from them I Just like to write about my friends." Barbara Van Paign, veddy wanky model (of here and Santa Barbara), can be found each Sunday morning (around eleven) in Central Park's sheep meadow playing football with male huskies. Oops, there's my date at the door and I haven't even put on my face! YOUR GIRL FRIDAY. My Day It's an Idea By Vera KOOL-VE1MT Ventilated Aluminum AWNINGS Letter Written by Teddy Roosevelt By Eleanor Roosevelt Direct From Factory to You SUPERFLUOUS HAIR Wart end Molct Ramavaa' Permanently ly Multiple Neadla Electralysis ElrcUolofiit Arcade llde. Suite ITS CH.

1213 112 OLIVE Atk tor Moll at aa eclgaffea. r.ra,iii?r.irt'm...'ii i ADVERTISEMENT THE TENDER TOUCH A bit of surprise for tomorrow's How It Started By Jean Newton Calling the Cloth "Denim." THE correspondent who asks for the origin of "denim" as a name for certain yard goods refers to some uses to which modern dress designers are putting the material. However, denim, as we know it is cotton drilling which has been most familiar for generations in this country in the making of overalls and more recently as one of the coarser, durable variety of decorative fabric It was not always thus. "Denim was originally "De Nim." An example of this usage is on record in an issue of the London Gazette of the year 1700, in a reference to "A Pair of Flower'd Serge de Nim Breeches." Now "Serge de Nim" was the English version of Serge de Nimes, a cloth produced in the celebrated textile city of De Nimes. In southern France.

From -de Nim" came the still further corruption to "denim." There was a time when both the correct name and the two abbreviations or corruptions were current In England. If we consider these as from "de Nimes" to "de Nim" to "denim," we find a recorded use of the last actually five years earlier than the quotation from the London Gazette of the second version, "de Nim." In 1695, a London publication called the "Merchant's Magazine" referred to "Serge Denims" costing 6 each." The fine French serge was a twilled cloth and the cotton fabric with which we are familiar as "denim is a twilled cotton. Thus endeth the story of denim. breakfast: Add sour cream and a dash of cinnamon to the maple sirup you pour over those sweet for a softer caress 7 griddle cakes. cumulated riches, imposing and widely heralded industrialism, feverish activities, are neither profitable to the individual or to the nation.

"I do not underestimate the value of those things which are the body of the nation. I only de-eire that they shall not make us forget that beside the body there is a soul. "I thank you again for Mrs. Roosevelt and myself and believe me. Faithfully yours, "Theodore Roosevelt THIS LETTER leads me to a little reminder of a matter that touches the spirit and our desire for equal opportunity to be given to a group of our people who are wards of the state.

Six thousand Navajo school children, I am informed, will have their schools closed on March 15, because a deficiency appropriation of $550,000, approved by the Bureau of the Budget for continuing these schools, was stricken out by the House Appropriations Committee. Do our citizens know that only one-quarter of the 25,000 Navajo children of school age are now able to obtain schooling, and that of the entire Navajo population more than 80 per cent are illiterate? Isn't this a neglect of the spirit which Theodore Roosevelt said was more important to a nation even than its material pros Fill broiled peaches with currant jelly and serve on a platter of pot roast Cut the pot roast in serving-size pieces in the kitchen. HYDE PARK. 1HAVE just received a copy of a letter written by my uncle, Theodore Roosevelt to the French poet, Frederic Mistral, who a lover of peace and who felt strongly that a federation of the democratic nations of the world would some day be possible given strong moral and spiritual leadership. Just as the French gratitude train is making its way to different parts of our country, it is interesting to read what Theodore Roosevelt wrote to this dreamer who dreamed constructively of a future peaceful world.

HERE IS the translation of the letter, which was sent me in French. It was written at the White House, in December, 1904. "My Dear M. Mistral: Mrs. Roosevelt and I are delighted with the books which you have sent us.

For 20 years we've had a copy of This copy we will now close and keep for the memories which are attached to it The other which comes to us with a personal autograph, however, will from now on hold the place of honor. To you and your collaborators we wish complete success! You teach a lesson which none more than the American people, ardent nation, anxious and desirous of acquiring riches, needs to learn. This lesson reminds us that after the acquisition of a relatively considerable material success, the things which really count in life are things of the spirit "Industries and railroads have their value, of course, but courage and endurance, the love of our children, the love of our country and our hearths, the love and imitation of heroes and the heroic virtues, are really the highest things in life. Without them ac 'WE KNOW HOW' Neva fear OH Sliieer Macftfae Marfa late BEAUTIFUL J30 PORTABLE Offter Make 132.50 8fina Hi-rfctiit Men. All 'WORK crAJt-ANTKEU.

Plc-np n't dlTw1 FREE. Clnnrt nil edlasted Electrify voitr m4 FREE. 4 4 en-rice. treadle wecnine, SIS Henry Sewing Machine Co. Of N.

9th, Cf. 411 300-2 N. Creed, I. 1S2S perity? By the way, a nice cleaning compound for washing painted walls can be made with one tablespoon of trisodium phosphate to one gallon of warm water. This may go down in the annals as the strange peace the one In which the parties thereto send out peace feelers.

rap ana To make a cornflake pie crust crush enough of the cornflakes to make a cup of fine crumbs; then mix them with a third of a cup of melted butter or margarine and a quarter cup of sugar. Press the mixture into a pie pan and chill it before adding a custard or fruit filling. The finer facial tissue that's actually washed to pure, aoft water to give it that soft, soft tender touch. Box of 300, 27c They'll Do It Every Time By Jimmy Hatlo Fletcher's Castoria i CTir tC-P -Aim "WVu fit AD Vrl JUTM- W0fmPH JUST A 1 O0R GIRLS. My 60 vM TlOrJED XT.

I HAvE ID WILL OON be HOMfc I rWN jr my w-xua TO VOUR 1 1 si i rv icT r-. Vt Tfce laxatha mode espacor lor Mania mnd thildram FROM SCHOOL 1 -VSA60ir3 TO KEEP S' Those Relatives By Angelo Patri THIS is an imperfect world peopled with imperfect people. Each of us likes himself and sees much that is blameable in other people. If we remember that In our relations with friends and relatives, we will skip a good many unpleasant moments and have less irritation to contend with in the family. Children must live in this world as they find it They will not be able to remake it to their liking, but they will have to live in It The sooner they learn how to do that without hurting themselves and other people, the better for them.

Aunt Marie picks on the children. "What mark did you get in arithmetic? Why dont you stand straight? Dont they teach you any manners In school?" WELL, THAT'S AUNT MARIE. You cant change her. You can't wipe her out You have to get along with her, so you for? her picky ways and you look for something nice about her. There is something1 always.

Point that out to the children and say, frankly, "I know how she is, but there's Aunt Kitty. She makes up for it Just keep out of Aunt Marie's way, try to see her good points and youll get along." Grandma Hay likes to hear the children about the house laughing, talking, making their happy noises whila Grandma Grass says children should be seen and not heard. It is hush-bush for Grandma Grass, that's alL When she is present her ways must be considered. Children must like their elders, adjust to conditions they cannot change. If they are free to get out of the way of them, that may help.

It It is their duty to stand by and take It they do that CHILDREN are tough in body and mind. They can stand more than their elders if they are treated with frankness, candor and good will by those they lean hardest upon Dad and Mother. Wnen they establish a friendly understanding with them so the children know that Dad and Mother are on their team, they can be marvels of politeness, consideration and self-mastery. It is better to be frank and friendly about the people who are close to the family than to try to force the children to shamming acceptance of what the whole family refuses to accept You cant hope to change people's ways. You adjust yourself sensibly to them and do the best you can, knowing somebody is painfully adjusting to you at the same time.

raw brib'w vl- a i i w' I h'i riniiMai -J J- Ji r. Flaky p'es and fluff That's what Mommy elwoyt molts. Since she vset that grand new Shortening mod by Hone-Der. 01 Honey-Dew Shortening re- quires no refrigeration. Always asy to use end blend.

Makei Huffier, lighter coke ond biscuits, flakier, more delicious pies. Try a can tomorrow. SIEIIFF PACKIR6 LUIS THOROUGH 2 AND EFFECTIVE I 7 SO PLEASANT "TASTING! If your child is fretful because tl HUH? WHAT WAS WT MXJ LADy? of "Childhood Constipation'', it's wine to give Fletcher's Castoria. Mad especially far infanta and children, this thorough, effective laxative is so gentle! it won't upset sensitive digestive systems. Con Site anginai aadl gaaaiaa CASTORIA tains bo harsh drugs.

Will not cause griping or discomfort. Fletcher's Castoria Is so pleasant tasting, children love itl 1 i 1',.