The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1933-05-17
BY ARCH STEINEL
II ~ -tan Writer

on tbe life and activities Of Paul "
McNutt.
BY ARCH STEINEL
ii c7 -.an Writer
TN the days Of the Scottish
Il thistle and the French Aeur-
de-lis. knights in armor ratified
swords in salute TO fair ladies'
They varied, wooed, and won
near castle meats.
In 1917 life was strife. Wooings
of olive dlbO warriors was done
on dance floors and beneath ar
official palms between foX-trots.
Gun caissons rumbled over roads.
Troops tramped Knighthood
lowered again as in days of old.
And lean-faced professor of
law with a bit of the thistle of
the old Mcknight clan of Scot
land could have trotted over to
the library Of Indiana university
and found history note after note
on the De Guise nobility Of
France, king-makers.
But that was before he knew
that the thistle and the fleur-de-
lis would meet.
The professor Paul V. McNutt,
was busy with his law treatises
and lectures. The only ear he had
for another world was the sing
song "right-face" and squads
left" of a company of collegians
training outside his widow.
The rattle of the old Krag-
Jorgenson rifles. resurrected from
some city armory bivouacked law.
McNutt joined the campus squads.
DRILLED at three 1apjacks
~ after 6 a. m There was
fleet scanning of war news and
brushing up on trigOnOmetry for
it'd come in handy managing the
big guns. He kept time with his
pOnderous feet-he wore number
twelve shOes-tO the "Tenshun!
March = of the drillmaSter, Pro-
fessor K. P. Williams.
President Wilson cracked under
the war clamor. The gauntlet was
tossed.
Undergraduates of I. U. rushed
to the cOlors. The big-footed pro-
fessor. on leave from the school,
led the charge to the officers
training camp at Fl. Benjamin
Harrison.
Army beans put weight on him.
Army officers put captains bars
on him.
He eted a dog robber" boot
black and nts-presser-to the
naive.
Camp Travis, at San Antonio,
felt his heavy boots and sharp
commands to erring recruits.
Rockies at Kelly field felt the
swing of the authority that
CARRIED him.
IT'S next post would have made
l. i West Pointer quail. 1t was
a cavalry fort, twenty miles from
San Antonio where he became
instructor of a battery composed
of regular army and national
guard "non-coms.'
He had to tell them how to
tear down guns they'd been turn
ing into Junk heaps for years.
The captain got away with it,
and with discipline, too.
San Antonio was alive with SOL
diers then, as it was alive with
legiOnnaireS on another memoir
able Gay in the life of McNutt.
"FoX-trot with a soldier, leave
him with a smile. for tomorrow
he may be cannon fodder" was
the view of the feminine patriots
of San Tone.
The town was deep in beauty
and gold and silver bars.
1t was Christmas eve, 1917
Come on, Paul, let's go up to
the Country Club dance. There's
girl l want you to meet" sug-
gested Captain L. Kemper Will
lams. New Orleans, to his buddy,
the man from Indiana.
TOWED by his friend, he
Il stepped into a whirl of ball
room gowns whiSked by drab-clad
men in clinking boots around and
around the room.
The music ceased. Chatter
took up the refrain. Girls hummed
or hung on arms of escorts.
Captain McNutt was showed
: into the middle of the dance floor.
His jet-black hair-it was like
that then-gliStened under the
lights.
A tall, winsome girl was pushed
between couples TO his side.
Miss Kathleen Timolat. I want
you to meet Captain McNutt.
And the thistle and the fleur-
de-liS met
The thistle is Indiana's Gov
ernor now and the fleur-de-lis
his wife.
And the family creSts of the
MacNaughts of Scotland and the
Timolats of De GuiSe ancestry
of France were joined in a simple
little ceremony on April 20, 1918,
in an Episcopal church in the lee
OF TT. sam Houston.
II was one of hundreds of war
wedlocks of the Texas town and
all towns in the nation and it
was one that stuck.
NTRS. MNUTT, in the Cover
NI nor's mansion on Fall Creek
boulevard recalls their brief army
romance. She had danced with
lots of soldiers. She knew the
life of army posts. But this tall
man, broad of shoulders, thin of
hips, nimble in dancing, captured