Oakland Tribune from Oakland, California • 85

TRAVEL MOTOR JOURNEY GARDENS IHTERlOnS WEEKEND WORKSHOP CONFIDENT LIVING CLOSE TO HOME i A LETTER From HOME 1 agazine WRITTEN FOR THE TRIBUNE BY RAY HAYWOOD I eatures MEMItR OF rACIFIC SUNDAY MAGAZINE GROUP jf Av 11 1 A. OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA, SUNDAY, SEPT, 25, 1955 If! talk meant action, our community would have few problems left unsolved. However, because talk does at least denote concern it is interesting to note there is much civic discussion concerning many problems. For instance, a 15-member committee is being formed to bring about a transit district for Alameda and Contra Costa Counties where at the moment the lack of facilities: are the subject of heated comment at practically every bus stop. The City of Oakland -also is discussing a five-year plan which would, among numerous other things, end slum conditions, generally improve public and private buildings and provide such things as a Recreation Center suitable for conventions and sports near the Auditorium, a museum and art gallery, new marina-type yacht harbor, a Hall of Justice, adequate off-street parking, repaved streets, a union station for joint use by railroads and buses, tend a police training academy.

We are almost certain to see changes within five years. The civic improvements might still be in the talking stage but at least a few different people will be doing the talking. I Automation was much in the local news with two announcements. The Remington Rand Company will build an electronic computer for the Atomic Energy Commission's Livermore nuclear research laboratory. The device, 1,000 times faster than any now in use, will cost $2,895,000.

It will do anything the boss desires except sit on his lap. You will need a $75-a-week secretary for that specialized duty. The Liquid Carbonic Corp. has completed the area's first fully automatic factory a $1,500,000 carbon dioxide plant on the Oakland Embarca-dero. The product is used to carbonate beer, soft drinks and mineral water.

Although the plant is so automatic it can be operated by only two men, officials say it will help increase employment by providing a product for Which a hundred new uses have been discovered during the past 10 years. Drilling has started on three oil and gas wells on property, two miles from San Ramon. The developers, the Buttes Gas and Oil say the wells will determine the possibilities of the last untested basin in the state which has gas and oil possibilities. The first well will reach a depth of 9,000 feet, unless commercial production is possible at a shallower level. Drilling will take from 60 to 120 days.

The second two wells will be shallower. The company, which pioneered development of gas wells in the Sutter Buttes near Marysville, said it expected to spend $300,000 in the test drilling. It will be happy birthday, the 50th for the City of Richmond, with the party scheduled for the period between Oct. lj-9. Richmond, which originally was a Spanish rancho, was founded by Augustine S.

Mafcdonald, for whom its main street named. In 1894 Macdonald was hunting in the area now known as Point Richmond. He noticed it was one of the few San Francisco Bay shoreline areas with a deep-water harbor plus terrain suitable for rail connections. In subsequent years he interested industries, such as the Santa Fe Railroad artd Standard Oil in locating in the new city. Richmond received its city charter Aug.

7, 1905. Joseph R. Knowland, The Tribune publisher, then a congressman, obtained the first coast and geodetic survey which made the Richmond harbor possible. Richmond's growth became phenomenal in 1940 when World War II shipyards located there. i Oakland has filed formal request with the state for widening the Eastshore Freeway east of High St.

The request, for third lane each way, was couched in this language: "Traffic congestion has reached the point, not only in peak hours bui" also in the off-peak period, that traffic movement along the'; freeway is extremely slow and hazardous. As a result, motorists are using parallel city streets, and these streets are, rapidly becoming loaded beyond their capacity." City En-; gineer John A. Morin suggested that the widening be given I priority over any other freeway routes being considered-! within the city, The state has started construction of ovef pass systems which will eliminate the numerous traffic light stops along U.S. Highway 40 through Vallejo. Last rites were held for three well-known local women.

'Mrs. Daisy M. Snow, 78, whose husband, Henry A. Snow, founded the Snow Museum at 274 19th St. Miss Mary Barmby, who founded the Alameda County Library and served as head librarian for 24 years until her retirement in 1941.

i Mrs. Elizabeth Jane Shakespeare, 101, of Berkeley, whose late husband traced his lineage back to the family of the man who wrote in Avon. Other names in the news included four Berkeley police officers who retired after a combined service of more than 100 years. They were Inspector Ray Foreaker, 5V mm i. T71 T) EC OC wrAAwe' a 1 it It i A i y'tf -p vvt pirfi I 4 -rffiN'li 1 A Li, tSSSVm' 'l vnaAKB'WK, StISWvT.

ill 1 pL-A JrA fiPtr.J i -m 'r; 'aA ..4: fe 1 I "v' lOTiwiiMinmifiiOTiriiofmwiniritnfriiifmmin ir r-i frtfflwswi V' i a i years service; inspector iuwiii aiivci, jj, ju Inspector Leroy Neary, 51, 22 years, and Patrolman Charles Matlih, 50, 27 years. The Aircraft carrier Bon Homme Richard rejoined her; sisters of the high seas after a $67,000,000 reconversion job afcr for the carrier to handle the latest in supersonic jet pianesw Capt. Lamar P. Carver, her skipper, said the "Bonnie as she is known to the crew, now has a "striking power greater i lie 1 0A "oi-t Martin T.3W. rence, USN, will become commander of the Mare Island Ship-" yard when Rear Admiral P.

W. Hass Jr. retires Oct. 1. Captain Lawrence now is director of the Bureau of Ships technical division.

Alameda heads will rest easier on their pillows. The Oakland Aircraft Engine Service Co. announced it would discontinue its midnight to 7 a.m. testing of aircraft engines. The City Council, spurred by numerous complaints from sleepless citizens, had threatened abatement proceedings.

No change in Oakland's taste in popular music. The Sherman, Clay Co. reports the first five continues for the second week in this order: 1 "Yellow Rose of Texas," by Mitch Miller. 2 "Learnin' the Blues," Frank Sinatra. 3 "A Blossom Fell," Nat (King) Cole.

4 "Rock Around the Clock," Bill Haley. 5 "Something's Got to Give," Sammy Davis Jr. The books most likely to be borrowed by the neighbors this wpek. according to the dealers, are: Fiction "Auntie Mame," Double negative Ketograph merges past with today the First and Last Chance Saloon and the London bust in Jack London Square. Hisli Genius Has Defied The Inroads.

Of Time By JACK BURROUGHS And his urge to the restless heart; you told Of the Spark that flees the. crumbling clod And leaves it cold. "You banged the board with your fist, and spoke Your strong-voiced protest at the lash Of economic ills I woke To your lightning flash. "But can the dead speak so? I wonder When your ashes to earth we give Will the voice of that volume yonder Be as the empty echo of thunder? No! In these covers, Jack, you LIVE!" QUOTES FROM JACK LONDON "The sleds were singing their eternal lament to the creaking of the harnesses and the tinkling bells of the leaders; but the men and dogs were tired and made no sound." "The gates of speech were closed." "He strained his ears, his restless brain for the moment stilled. Not a stir, nothing.

He alone took breath in the midst of the great silence." "At last the measure of his life was a handful of fagots." "The cold of space smote the unprotected tip of the planet" "The erasure of summer was at hand." by Patrick Dennis; "Bon jour Tristesse," by Francois Sagan, and "The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit," by Sloan Wilson. Non-fiction "Gift From the Sea," Anne Morrow Lindbergh, and "High Sierra Country," Oscar Lewis. The Bay Meadows horse-go-round was In full operation with customers eagerly reaching for the pari-mutuel gold ring. Bay Meadows innovations this meeting include closed-circuit TV throughout the plant, which makes it possible for all the customers to see all the races. The management also has introduced a new method of separating the customers from their money.

It is a type of wagering known as the Quinella and applies to only the last race. If you pick the first two horses in the last race you receive a Daily Double payoff. Bay Meadows also will continue its regular Daily Double routine on the first twp races. A capacity crowd was expected today in Kezar Stadium as the 49ers and the Los Angeles Rams open the regular pro football season. The 49ers defeated the Ram seasily, 31-10, two weeks ago in an exhibition game in the South.

However, not even the most optimistic rooters expected it to be ihat easy today. Fans are still attempting to determine exactly what caused the Oaks to move to Vancouver, B.C., after failing here. Emmons Byrne, for many years The Tribune's baseball writer he now has moved his talents to the University of California football team sums up the reasons for the lack of interest in this manner: "High prices, low temperatures and TV." And that once again brings us to the end of our allotted space. See you next week? Same place? Same time? Sept. 25, 1955.

When the telephone in my Russian Hill flat thrilled at an unholy hour one Thursday morning nearly 40 yefjrs ago, I thought it must be heralding a major disaster, which, in a way, it was. Iq downtjown San Francisco buildings were toppling atid no commuter-laden ferry boat was jsinkinfl! in the Bay. It was no such pectacuhir break in the casual succession of minor events. It (was simply that a bony hand had tapped a public idol on the shoulder. Jack London Was dead.

Carl Hoffman, city editor of the old San Francisco Bulletin, was on the city room end of the line. Never one to waste words, especially with an edition coming up, Carl broke the Ipews in one crisp sentence and hung up. Carl knew me better than I knew myself in thos diys. He knew that if he asked for a made-toj-order obituary poem about the rugged adventurer and spinner of equally rugged' yarns who had been his friend and mine, he would gjet just that. A neatly tailored poem to lit special occasion, even as a neatly tailored uit fits a meticulous customer.

So he asked for nothing and lef( me on my own. Jack London was a sort of demif od to aspiring younf writers of that period. Especially was this true of us striplings who did not wpr-ahlp from afar, bat at close range. Each of us nurtured the hope that deep within himself, potential which would one day enable him to emulate the master and turn out a thousand words of matchless prose a day as naturally as a spider spins her perfect web. Over the intervening years come fleeting impressions of that cable car ride to the Bulletin office on the morning of November 24, 1916.

The numbness which cushions the first shock of a sharp blow was wearing off and I became oppressed with a sense of irreparable loss. The first line of a quoted quatrain on the flyleaf of "Martin Eden" forced itself into my consciousness: "Let me live out my years in heat of blood!" By one of those strange tricks of associative memory I had a vivid mental picture of Leo, a red-headed copy boy on The Bulletin, who had been educated by the Jesuits and was a profound Latin scholar. He was also a poet who was a couple of decades ahead of his time. You may have met him in Jack's novel "The Little Lady of the Big House" under the name "Theodore In one place Jack says of him: we call him Leo. He really writes some remarkable verse when he does write; but he prefers to dream Leo once rhymed "Cardinal Newman" with "albumen," which seemed somewhat startling at the time but which is quite in the Kenneth Patchen tradition today.

Leo was a frequent week end visitor at London's Glen Ellen ranch. One day Leo's thatch of red hair annoyed one of London's prize bulls. The bull chased Leo up a tree and kept him there till he was rescued by the eminent author himself. I celebrated the occasion with a jingle in my daily column in The Bulletin, accompanied by lively illustrations by Louis Breton, the Bulletin's cartoonist. Jack was delighted with the result.

The memory of his laughter mitigated the sense of depression which was enveloping me like a cotton wool fog on that long-ago cabfe car ride downtown. All this time I was not actually aware that I was composing a tribute to Jack's memory. Phrases were shaping themselves in my mind without my volition. It is after this fashion that the threnodies and paeans of even us minor poets come into being. My tribute to Jack was no major opus, but it was spontaneous and sincere, just as the canny city editor kflew it would be.

Here it is, resurrected and dusted off for one more brief day of life: 'They tell me you are dead. Last night Down from my shelves, I drew a book; There, in the log-fire's dying light, My hand you took You led me over barren spaces Into the glow of polar dawn; Into the far, untrampled places You led, I followed on. "You spoke to me of the Wander God like a treasure of unmlned gold, lay a Duma.