The Coolidge examiner., 1938-06-23

trench~people of their serious sit,
uation in Europe" and urges them
10 consider realities.
1t is quite possible that rope-skip-
ping is mainly accountable for Gen
eral Petain being alive, trim, fl
and active at eighty-two. He is
an inveterate rope-skipper, elected
from his apartment in 1914, be.
cause he Jared the plaster from the
walls. This writer's record as 10
that goes only to 1884. but, in that
year, he was still skipping diligent-
ly. Joffre, Foch and Maginot,
among the French. Won Mackensen,
Ludendorff and Hindenburg among
the Germans - non-skippers all
have passed. but Marshal Petain
lives on, venerated by his country
men.
1t was he who said. They
shall not paSs"-On February 5,
1916, to be exact. He was the
savior of Verdun, and, in this
connection, a deft historian
might discover that rOpe-skip-
ping saved France. The gen.
tral spent a solid week in an
AutOmitralleuse without sleep,
and the London Daily News
commented at the time that no
man who was not in perfect
physical condition could have
survived such ordeals. 1t was
suggested that his energy and
endurance had turned the tide
of war.
He was born Henri Philippe Be
noni Omer Joseph Petain, the son
Of baker in Couchy a la Tour.
Man Mountain Dean, the wrestler,
running for the legislature in Geor-
gia, is after only
Deo" one seat, but he
Girds for will need three or
PoIIo, Ro,,, four if he is elect
ed In retirement
on his farm, near Norcross. he still
weighs 3l7 pounds 1t is a unique
contest for him, with no chance
for his running broad-jump attack,
in which he hurtles his body against
his opponent.
His career seems to have been
mostly his wife's idea. Born
Frank Leavitt, in New York,
known as the "HelPs Kitchen
Hillbilly," he did a hitch in the
army and thereafter engaged
in some desultory wrestling and
mauling as a Soldier Leavitt.
Nothing much came of it, and
he began placidly taking on
weight as traffic cop in Miami,
Fla. Doris Dean married him
and began prodding his tagging
ambition.
He started graphing again, in
Bostin in 1888, with fame still elud-
ing his half-nelson,
doubted for when a German
Film Star promoter took him
as Henry VII on a tour Of the
Rhineland This
was more successful, and brought
him to the attention of Alexandra
Korda. who needed a double for
Charles Laughton as Henry VIII in
the wrestling scene. Thus came the
famous whiskers, an important de-
tail of his wife's clever Snowman
ship in the build-up of the Man
Mountain. 1t was she who persuad-
ed him to take the name Dean and
who managed the histrionics which
made him a fabulous creature. He
was born in West Forty-third street
in 1891, weighing 161z pounds.
GEORGE E. Q. JOHNSON, the
~ slight, self-effacing, bespec-
tacled man who sent Al Capone to
Alcatraz, is deyoting his life to So
cial betterment.
He Sent He wants to make
Capone to cities less fertile
AI- soil for crime,
and to that end,
would flush city and country chill
dren back and forth, interchange
ably, to the benefit of each. he be-
lieves, and the nurture of good be-
havior.
1t was as United States at
torney that he deftly enmeshed
Capone In a silken spider-web of
evidence, laboriously gathered
and spun. The next year, Her
bert Hoover made him federal
Judge, but he stayed on the
bench only a year and then went
back to his law practice.
He broke the gangs in Chicago
His story Of how he shared Capone,
told before the senate judiciary
committee, with its tales of trap
doors and secret panels, was Grade
A melodrama. but he didn't make il
sound that way. He is a modest
man, with no instincts of Snowman
ship.
g Consolidated News Features.
WNu Service.