Evening star., 1926-10-11
THIS AND THAT
BY CHARLES E. TRACEWELL.

! the organ over my set, but seldom
get to enjoy it.
This day, however, I managed to
! make it. l pulled the switch in the
middle of a, number. The organ came
rolling in like the real thing. 1t was
perfect. l got real kick out of it..
Sometimes l think we use our radios
too much. We get fed up on so much
music, as they says
Il had not heard ~he organ recital
for so long. however, / thoroughly en-
joyed it. I sat back in my chair and
was having a good time. This was
about 1920 pm
"At 1926 o'clock some one in the
neighborhood sent a long, quavering
whistle into my set. 1t was one of
these darn bloopers. You have heard
them-the whistle starts out low,
mounts in intensity, reaches the top
of the hill of sound rolls over. gurgles
down again.
This blood-curdling Shrek spoiled
the climax of the beautiful number.
played by a lady who fondly imagined
that it went over perfectly. Well, it
did come over finely-but she was
not taking into consideration little
Johnnie playing with his fathers
radio set.
II soon realized that it must be
little Johnnie. for the brat-no other
word is good enough for --him-sat
there for 80 solid minutes, and moved
that ticker control back and forth.
''Whee! Wee-oop-whee. What
chance had Beethoven, Mozart. Ruben
stein, against such monkey tricks as
that? L waited patiently, hoping that
the kid would tire of his performance.
He was due back at school at
O'Clock, of course-no doubt he would
quit, then. The organ would too, un-
fortunately.
Sure enough, at precisely five min
utes to l O'Clock, Johnnie gave over
his little game and turned off his set
[ got to enjoy three-fourths of one
number in peace. The fact that the
blooping ceased at the time it did
convinced us that it was a schoolbOy.
X x X X
II recall one time last Winter when
some similarly playful youth grew
tired Of listening to the symphony
orchestra concert. and sent a sue
cession of squeals into radio sets for
almost as minutes without cessation.
Il have been told of two boys who
spent their evenings signaling to each
other by means of their regenerators.
It was nice for the boys, but pretty
tough on the real radio fans.
MANY persons have bought radio
sets within the last year or so--sets
so easily operated that they do not
have to knoW.a thing about the inner
construction. To many of these per
sons the mysterious squeals that come
out of their loud speakers are utterly
ineXplicable.
"Well, most of them are produced
by some kind neighbor who is bored
with the program, and just takes out
his spleen on mankind in general, and
the soprano in particular, by making
nuisance out of himself with his
regenerative set.
There have been many proposals
Of banning these sets by legislation,
but it is pretty hard to do a thing
like that in the United States. Time,
which cures most ills. Is slowly
curing this one. AS better sets have
come onto the market, people are buy
ing them.
"In time, no doubt, every owner of
straight regenerative set will junk
it. We hope they are thoroughly
junked. A museum is about the only
place for them, for they are not safe
in the hands Of boys. I guess If 1
were kid again just for tonight 1
would make the old set squeal, too.
But ought to be spanked if 1 did"