The Washington herald., 1920-03-28
New York City
B; o. o. MeIntyre

O'Brien, New York journalist. Is
again to answer the far of call of
dying race. o'Brien Is a seeker
after remote places, adventurer.
wanderer, author and bachelor. He
has heard this call. while visiting
New York amid the rattle and bang
Of the swiriing city.
He is going back to have a last
look at the Marauesans - that
strange white-tawny people. who.
some time in the infancy Of the
world. migrated from Ireland per-
haps across the land bridge which
stretches its crippled body along the
floor of the Pacific and are now in
the throes of their hnalrstruggle for
existence. far away under the glow
of the Southern Cross.
The Marquesas Islands lie midway
between South America and AUS
tralia in the South Pacific Ocean.
They comprise n group of thirteen
patches belonging to France. stand
ing at the far-fiung outposts of
civilization.
They comprise a group indeed of
lost people. Here once dwelt a race
of magnificent men and beautiful
women who among whalers, sea
traders and early adventurers bore
the reputation of 'cannibals. but
whom O'Briep learned to regard in
more kindly light.
Wearing only a loin cloth, he lived
for a year among the reformed man
eaters, unreformed wild women.
lepers, derelicts, beach combers.
mosquitoes and devout French
priests and now that the call has
come to him again. conveying the
news that a terrible epidemic had
all but wiped out the last remnant
of the remnant. he Is going to go
back to live with them again before
they are finally exterminated from
the list of peoples inhabiting the
globe!
I'VE are going" a letter written
to o'Brien by the Ghost Girl, one of
the young girls he met in the islands
said: mo more children are Being
born. The last plague has come to
kill US. There is no more hope.
dear friend"
To those whol have read O'Brien's
white Shadows in the South Seas.
the story of O'Brien's adventures
among these strange people is
known. Those who have not read it
should secure il, from their public
library. y greater book has never
been written In this decade. He has
played and lived among the canni-
balls. One of his friends was an old
war horse who had admitted eating
100 human beings.
Some idea of the rapidity with
which the Marquesans are vanish
ing may be-gained from the fact
that of the hundreds of thousands
formerly inhabiting the islands only
about 500 are left.
A party of New Workers is to ac-
company O'Brien, at least as far as
Tahiti. Among them are Jerome
Blum, a painter. and his wife, Lu-
ellie, a sculptor; Lydia Mestre, a
painter and poet, and Harold Mestre.
her husband.
New York manufacturers and en-
ployers of big labor generally are
interested in the announcement of
the formation of the Industrial In
formation Bureau with headquar-
ters in Boston. The organization is
headed by John Koren, one of the
worlds best known statisticians and
for two years president of the
American Statistical Association
Fhe purpose of the bureau is to
prevent strikes and lockouts. pro-
mote stable labor relations and dis
tribute information relative to en-
The bureau will state, without COM
ment, bias or opinion, facts obtained
from official and unofficial sources
and from special staff Investigations
made by its experts in different
parts of the world.
Associated with Mr.. Koren will be
Prof. Carroll w. Doten, Charles G..
Wood, Edwin Mulready and William
correspondent for the Boston Tran
script. Another feature of the serv-
ice will be to interpret the laws re-
lating to the health and safety of
employees.
"Lightnin' has achieved the
longest run ever recorded on Broad
way. 1t is believed that il will run
two years longer and 1t has made a
fortune for everybody connected
with it financially. 1t brought also
to Broadway an actor who was
never able to appear before an au-
dience in a city larger than Sacra-
mento, Cal. Frank Bacon was get
ting old playing in cheap vaudeville
houses. He was using a tabloid
version of "Lightnin'," introducing
himself as "Lightnin' Bill Jones'"
the lovable old hero-liar who chased
bees across the desert and was
known by Gen. Grant as willie, :,
But genius will have its award. He
gathered up enough money to come
to New York and he interested John
L. Golden in the venture. Seats are
now selling for twenty weeks in ad-
vance. That is the best answer to
its success.
There has been a lot of rubbish
about Nicky Arnstein being the
master mind" in the great $1,000
600 bond robbery. Arnstein has been
cleverly eluding the police from
week to week-but those who know
him as he lived the lazy, dissipatory
tinselled life of the White Way say
that he has very little from the
neck up" being Broadway's way of
expressing the fact that he is not
clever. He was merely a beau of
the underworld. A hashy dresser
who lived by means hard for the
layman to apprehend. Like others
OF his ilk he was mysteriously sup