The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-03-21

for The Times goes where he pleases.
when he pieases, in search of odd stories
about this and that
NEW ORLEANS. March al
IN The evolution of Frans Blom
has been queer one.
He was born and reared in Dem
mark, in an atmosphere OF coun-
try estates. comfortable wealth.
scholarship and art.
His evolution carried him out to
grinding filling station pump IN
Mexico City, and scramb.ing over
mountains on muleback as an oil
geologist.
From that he sprang into arch
eology, and today is one of tie
worlds authorities on Mayan cul-
ture and all things concerning
early Central American civiliza-
ton.
And he is director of Tulane Uni
verSity's Department of Middle
Research.
Frans Blom is not past 40 at the
most. He is slight, with a thin
sensitive face. His blondish hair
is rather long, like an ARTISTS, and
his clothes are not too sharply
pressed.
His voice is soft, and it can han
ole six languages perfectly, although
he never studied them in books.
You would never take him for a
scientist, or an adventurer, or d
scholar, or wealthy man-and he
is all of these things.
He has a beautiful young wife "a
Long Islander, an apartment that
probably takes second place to none
in New Orleans, a Scottie named
Peck that gets onto his masters
bed and won't let the maid make
it up, and lots of friends and a
job that many men envy.
Yet he is not wholly happy until
he unpacks his mule under the
tropical sun. 200 miles from a rail-
road station, takes his shovel and
starts digging.
MTE strolled through the mu-
w scum on the top floor of one
of Tulane's halls. HideouS and beau
tiful faces. colored and grotesque,
stare at you from glass cases.
Case after case of images And
pottery that would drive a collector
crazy. And old wooden war drums,
and what's this?
I was staring into the wide open
IF clyttn ls~t III
over it, and imbedded in the dirt
in its mouth was a green ball, like
a marble.
That's Magyar skull" Blom said,
land that's piece of Jade. We
dug it up down there. When the
Mayans buried a man, they'd fill
his mouth full of corn and precious
stones, so he'd have food and money
in the hereafter. Notice his teeth,
too
Three of his front teeth had bright
green jade filings.
Nov we'll show you our treas
ures," Blom said. He and an as
sistant brought out some strong
boxes, and unlocked them. Then
they showed me the first laws ever
made for white man on the Amer
lean continent. They were written
in ink, page after page Of them,
and at the bottom was the sigma
ture of fernando Cortez. The date
was early in the 1500s. 1t is claimed
that this manuscript is the most
important single document in the
legal history of the Western Henri
sphere.
Then they showed me a letter of
Cortez', in his own hand, written to
friend in Cuba, telling him Of
the glories of this new land Of
Montezuma, and inviting him over.
ERANs BLoM made his first trip
Il from the Old World in 1919. He
went to Mexico with a British oil
company. He has been an haDltue
of Central American ever since.
For II years he has been there
more than anywhere else. You
couldn't say he makes trips to
Mexico, he makes trips from Mex
leo.
For while he was chief archeol-
ogist for the Mexican government.
Then he was in charge of the Car
negie Foundations work in Guate-
mala. Ten years ago he came with
Tulane. Most of the 10 years he
has spent in boots and sombrero
out in the wilds, digging.
And he has built Tulane's Middle
American museum from two cases
to the finest in the United States.