davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Tacoma times. [volume] (Tacoma, Wash.) 1903-1949, 1940-12-03
early knoekdown Ia have the
Fnglishmsn hanging on the
final heats.

During the past year. Mccoy
has knocked out Nathan Mann and
repulsed Buddy Knox and hello
Bettina. lie lost disputed deois-
ions TO solly kreiger and BILLY
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-12-01

models weigh from one to six pounds.
depending upon the class, and are
guided by long cords attached to a
center stake. The formal tracks now
have guide rail to which an adapter
on the axle is attached to keep the car
in line. dispensing with the cord.
In this hobby. too. the cars are
sometimes entirely hand-built, but
more often bought in kit form for from
$3.50 to $50. without the engine. Un-
like the other model hobbies, however,
assembly is routine job requiring but
two or three hours: the skill in this
game is the mechanical knack of
porting" engines or hopping up"
fuels to get maximum of power. Your
real bug will spend S22 for an
engine at the model store - and $35
more to have it doctored according to
his ideas, Notwithstanding the fact
that these little two ounce jewels come
from the manufacturer with pistons
diamond-bored to 10000 of an inch
and will deliver up to 1880 revolu-
tons per minute When the boys get
through with them, however, these
four or five-pound cars will turn up
as much as sixty-six miles per hour.
No Tiviot Russims
kALL of which is to say that model
making in all its branches is no trivial
pastime wherein a lot of men get
childish and revert to their bygone
toys.
Whatever phase you choose, scale
model making is an invigorating and
constructive form of recreation that
serves as safety valve in tense. over
wrought civilization; to thousands OF us
it is release for the pent-up yearning
to do something with Our hands. And
if model aircraft has served to keep
numerous Wichita boys out of Jail. it
is equally true that model trains. ships
and cars are also keeping an awful lot
of older men out of asylums!
On top of this, model makers spend
a good $40. 600. 900 a year in American
money on their hobbies which means
$4,000 900 worth of jobs for others.
When you place two and a half to
three million model makers end to
end. they scale up to a new industry!
The Ed
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-12-01

In ANCIENT Athens the philosopher
Plato taught for nearly fifty years on
an estate that had once belonged to a
wealthy Hellenic citizen and which
still bore the former owners name.
After Plato's death his followers con-
tinued to make this estate their meet
ing place and school for almost nine
hundred years. Both the original own
er and the estate were named Acade-
mus.
Though historically unimportant,
the wealthy Greeks name has been
preserved for over fourteen centuries
through Greek and Latin and English
in the word academy.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-12-01

remains that a good 100000 enthu-
siasts get priceless kick from hobby
that brings 1000 customers a week
into the railroad department of just
one small model shop in New York.
Market surveys indicate that forty
five per cent of these fans spend under
$40 year and nine per cent spend
$500 and up. But whatever they
spend, you can't price-tag the pleasure
of operating model road where trains
run forward or reverse at your will,
couple and uncouple automatically;
where freights are diverted to sidings
and locals wait for expresses and ex-
cursions swoop out of tunnels with
breath-taking speed, but in the COM
plete safety provided by automatic
block signals quite as elaborate as any
you'll find on life-size systems.
Ifyou secretly cherish yen for that
sort of fun, your best assurance that
it's nothing to be ashamed of can
come from the tremendous number of
genuine railroad men who are up to
their ears in this hobby In the wait
ing room of the Baltimore & Ohio sta
ton at Wheeling, West Virginia, en-
ployees of the road have their club
layout of $50 feet of track, over which
runs the "B & o, Jr.," to the delight
of waiting passengers.
Next in Importance among the
modelers are the devotees of a hobby
that dates back to early Egyptian
days: the shipbuilders. Here we have
three distinct groups: the shelf-model
builders and collectors (who include in
their ranks the President of the
United States; the working model
builders, dominated by racing yacht
fans; and the neutrality-suspicious. en-
thusiasts. Among them they pur-
chased probably half-million kits
last year, costing from dime to over
500. OF this group, perhaps $4,000
are serious, scale-model builders, and
these represent the most mature group
in all the model hobbies: retired men,
mostly, and especially retired seamen.
1t is significant that this field, like
the airplane and railroad hobbies, also
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-12-01
THIS WEEK MAGAZINE
KIDS CALL IT FUN
Continued from poge seven

interests those engaged in the genuine
thing for livelihood, for seagoing
men don't have to be retired in order
to be ship modelers. Those in the
know, however. make an interesting
point about sailors as modelers: while
their ships are meticulously perfect in
rigging and gear from the deck up,
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-12-01

forty per cent of them operate their
layouts twelve months a year, these
fans are distinctly not playing with
kids toys! Not when some of the
locomotives sell for $500!
Most roads are electrically operated,
although few run by live steam. But
regardless of motive power. the fact
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-12-01

IT IS indeed ironic that the name of
one of the greatest thinkers of the
Middle Ages should be used to de-
scribe fool and a blockhead. This is
the story: Because they blindly op-
posed the great Renaissance move
ment, the followers of that great
medieval scholar and philosopher
Duns Scotus were attacked on all sides
as stupid. Duns Scotus's disciples
we're known as dunsmen or dunsers,
and it was not long before slight
change in spelling was made and Ounce
began to be applied to any person with
a backward mind.
- NORMAN LEWIS
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-12-01
Corrstf Prize

they are often clumsy from the deck
down. Presumably, the sailor doesn't
know SO much about the hull below
the water line.
In any case, the shelf-model field
attracts the born craftsman, for it is
not at all uncommon to devote three
or four years to the completion of one
ship model. Many parts and fittings
are made, many are bought, but the
intrinsic value of these things is I'M
important. Skill, artistry and devotion
to historical detail are the elements
that. combined with two or three dol
lars worth of tools, enable a man to
take SIP or $40 kit and convert it
ultimately into $500 or $1,000 ship
model. 1t is time, sentimental value
and exquisite craftsmanship that &C.
count for the fact that two of President
Roosevelt's priced models are insured
for $40, 1000 apiece.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-12-01
MinvfsIy DstoiIsd


lHE building of working models is
more akin to the other two hobbies,
for here the miniature not only has to
look good but must also perform per-
fectly in sailing competitions or speed
tests. Famous yachts are reproduced
to the last minute detail; in speed
boats the main idea is to turn out a
craft which will burn up knots.
The miniature racing car is the new
est of the matchmaking hobbies, and
in few years has captured SUBJ
stantial field for itself. 1t is so young
and is growing so fast that nobody
knows how many devotees it can
claim, but estimates put the probable
number now active at 5000 to $4,000
- the bulk of them on the Pacific
Coast. California already has three
formal tracks for these midgets, and a
recent race in Fresno drew over four
thousand spectators. At both the San
Francisco and New York Worlds
Fairs miniature cars staged races
every week all summer.
These cars mustn't be confused with
those other midget racers" driven by
men over dirt or board tracks. The
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-12-01
Shows Draw Tho vsonds


BECAUSE of the space required, model
railroading is natural club activity,
expenses being paid by dues. aug
mented, usually. by an annual show
at which admissions are charged. The
fact that a recent Boston show drew
1000 paid admissions is an eloquent
tip-off on the yearning for miniature
trains which stirs in most adult bosoms
Again, miniature railroading is a
natural club venture because of the
wide diversity of skills involved, for
this hobby requires all of the patient
craftsmanship of airplane building
plus a lot of other things. Aside from
laying track and building accurate
train replicas, your model railroader
constructs trestles. tunnels and bridges
of every known type, turntables,
roundhouses, water towers and other
railway buildings - all in minute scale.
Domestic and commercial buildings,
factories, oil refineries and other
typical right -of-way structures are
required. Automatic signaling and
remote-control systems. whereby ten
or more little trains are operated at
once from a panel board, represent
one of the most technical phases of the
hobby.
This is model railroading, as dis
tinguished from merely playing with
your sons Christmas set of trains
until the poor kid gets discouraged.
Hardly man is now alive who has
not estranged his offspring in this
fashion. but when talk of model
railroaders" l refer to some 2OO,O
adult men who spend five or six mill
lion dollars year in this hobby for
their own ediication.
Seois Model ond "Tinplofs"
HERE there are two groups: the 100
percent scale-model men who build
everything themselves, and the tin
plate" fans who buy their rolling stock
readymade. There are over 10000 of
the former. about half of whom are
college graduates. Largely maintain
ing their own workshops, they con-
struct everything to meticulous scale
for their "O-Gauge." "HO-" or 100
Gauge" roads. (HO-Gauge is scaled to
80 nm. per foot. or about l 1877 actual
size.)
The chief enjoyment of the tin
! platers" is in operation rather than
building. This group buys miniature
trains. also in exact scale, to the tune
of some 100000 annually. And since
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1940-12-01

a miniature-railroad club and plays it
up in the local papers.
OF course, some of these clubs we're
ten or twenty years old before the
reporter discovered them, but they
are always news to those of us who
didn't know that there are 200 to 300
such clubs in Boston. Washington,
New York, Philadelphia. St. Louis,
Milwaukee. Portland. San Francisco,
Los Angeles and scores of other cities.
where members gather to build and
group-operate elaborate miniature
railroads with anywhere from 500 to
two thousand feet of track and ten or
fifteen trains.
In addition, there are thousands of
fans who have built their own roads in
spare rooms at home. Indeed, one
New Yorker living in hotel rents the
hotel balcony for his Layout" which
represents an investment of several
thousand dollars to date - and which,
of course. will necer be entirely COM
pleted!
The Waterbury Democrat., 1940-04-04
The Iron Claw

Since the "iron claw" was adopted by the Police Department last year as an instrument to pacify "vicious characters or tough guys," there have been many reports that the manacle has also been used indiScriminately, often resulting in indescribable agony for the victim. There have been no complaints to the Police Board, except by one man who last year said he was subdued by the "iron claw" at Lakewood. AS matter of fact his actual protest was not at use of the "iron claw" but that he was arrested. The board disposed of this complaint.
 There have been other instances when the "iron claw' was used and no con- plaint registered. We mean on drunks. Obviously man who is drunk and on whom the manacle is applied is not apt to make public complaint, even if he felt abused. He would probably feel that in exposing any alleged abuse of the iron claw'' he would also be giving public notice that he had been under the ln- fluence of liquor. Few would complain under such circumstances. Perhaps few would be believed, if they did.
 There have been times in the last few months, however, and these occasions are said to have caused comment among Police Department members, when the "iron claw" was used so viciously the victim screamed in agony. We do not mean to say that the patrolman meant to cause agony, but perhaps he was not aware of the producing properties of the instrument. It takes only slight turn of the wrist to bring big man to his knees. A little more pressure and he feels as if he's being broken on the -a-'7 -o1
 Most of the time the police know their 6asi ss and how to conduct it lot bet -Csz U. n the average layman, but some times this very fact tends to produce a state of affairs not in line with modern justice and law enforcement: Use of the "iron claw" should be tempered with both judgment and consideration for the victim, as we'll as for the effect on the general public.
The Waterbury Democrat., 1940-04-04
Pouring off the Cream

Reports Altering into Paris indicate that Nazis in conquered Warsaw are pursuing vigorous offensive against Polish intellectuals - against lawyers and engineers These people just disappear precisely what happens to them. Con- centration camps for some, perhaps; death for others.
 To guard against uprisings of an un- happy, captive people, conquerors have always acted thus eradicating all possi- ble leaders of revolutionary movements. What conquerors forget is that right sS % tvqan will its sTns sadsr nation under his thumb for very long.
The Waterbury Democrat., 1940-04-04
Preventing Tomorrow's Okies

A group of persons, interested in con- servation, organized recently to conduct a campaign to save the soil. Known as Friends of the Land, the sponsors are convinced migration of farm families is largely attributable to lack of soil con- servation efforts in the past.
 "No matter which political party gains ascendancy as the years go by," said Morris L. Cooke, one of the sponsors, whether we remain at peace or to go to war again, this fact will remain; so long as we keep scrubbing off top soil and wounding our water sources, business and social conditions in the country will re- main fundamentally unsound."
 Any steps that can be taken to keep land fertile for longer period of time should be considered seriously. It may be important in saving ourselves from having to consider the problem of mi grants in years to come.
The Waterbury Democrat., 1940-04-04

graves or whose remains never found shelter of a grave. Much has been done by the Legion in identifying and marking appropriately the graves of veterans throughout the nation. There still re- mains the duty of recalling the poor un- fortunates of the war. This is something that we'll might be regarded as civic undertaking. It is the very least that can be done at such late date.
 The one definite recommendation of a monument at the intersection of Grand and Meadow Streets, facing "weSt", has merit and sentiment in it. Continued discussion would satisfy those interested as to the worth of the idea and the suit ableneSS of site.
The Waterbury Democrat., 1940-04-04

New Britain is currently in the throes of a red-hot political campaign with Mayor George Coyle, Democrat, seeking reelection. He is opposed by several can didates, among them that hardy peren- nial, Ex-Mayor George A. Quigley. The battle of the Georges" is attracting con- siderable attention. And to add spice to the affair, there is third candidate. Mrs. Elizabeth M. Roche, who once sought the Democratic nomination but was defeated is running as an Independent this year. We were interested in remarks made by MT. Quigley in campaign address re- gently. He said publicly that if elected one of the first things he would do is order an audit of city spending made with particular stress on the Water and Public Works Departments. MT. Quigley could also have added that even if he weren't elected there would be audits made of city spending. The state law now de- mands them, the law having gone into effect this past January.
The Waterbury Democrat., 1940-04-04
Wholesome Respect

It's most worthy proposal that World War veterans are making with regard to erection of a memorial in Waterbury to those men who were lost in the last war. Many honors have been paid the boys who went across and failed to come home or those who died in training camps or base hospitals far from the scene of battle. All were noble patriots and to them we owe much The little we have paid in the way of tribute is but bare recom- pense for a life laid down for ones country.
 Now the American Legion offers the suggestion that memorial be erected to the boys whose bodies were never found or identified - they who lie in nameleSs
The Waterbury Democrat., 1940-04-04
'LO, THE POOR RED MAN"
(Hartford Courant)

It makes one really feel his years to read that an enterprising re- porter could find but one cigar store Indian still on duty in all of New York City. And now he mentions it, is there a cigar ctore Indian left in Hartford? We have old Hayfoot, the port-sided. stone Civil War soldier who was intended for a memorial but who was properly rejected when veteran pointed out that his equipment was all on the wrong side. But a usually trustworthy memory does mt recall single &C., tive survivor in the city of the once numerous tribe of wooden, cigar bearing Indians. It seems only yesterday when they were as com- mon as - one had started to say wooden horses in front of har- ness-maker's shops, but alas, they are gone too.
 It is sad to think that a genera ton is growing up without ever having seen wooden Indian on duty. Often they were braves in war bonnets, though occasionally a chastely attired sqIaw got the as- signment, Usually, the Indian car- ried a bunch of panatellas in one hand-the left, if one recalls cor rectly-while the right hand shaded the eyes in that gesture that im- memorial tradition assigns exclu- sively to te red man. Brave or squaw the Indian gazed sternly down the street at the derby hats, stiR collars,
The Waterbury Democrat., 1940-04-04
War Horrors on Main Street

Most of us shudder at the mere thought of living among the terrors of modern mechanical war. Far from combat zones. we get the jitters when we read of Euro peans struggling daily with the threat of bombs, artillery fire, floating mines, hos tile submarines. We don't realize that many of us invite deliberately the same death hazard day by day which people at war are forced to face.
 The Family Economic Bureau of the Northwestern National Life Insurance Company has taken great pains to fig ure out:
 When lodging across busy Amer ican street in the middle of the black, your chances of sudden death are almost exactly the same as those of European in a city under lombard ment during the time it takes you to reach the opposite curb.
 A drinking driver puts himself and his passengers under the same haz- ard as if he were aboard a contraband- carrying ship passing through sub- marine zones.
 The driver who does 60 m.ph. at night has 20 per cent greater chance of getting killed than do student pilots at army and navy fly ing schools.
 The housewife who cleans with naphtha, benzine or gasoline is under twice the hazard that faces the student air pilot.
 The driver who goes through a :. stop sign incurS death hazard only 20 per cent less than that of sailor in the British navy aboard ship in the war zone.
 We don't need to call conference o1 diplomats to end our casualties. All we need is a little common sense, applied thoroughly over all of the populace.
The Waterbury Democrat., 1940-04-04

If it wasn't enough for New York to provide motorists with an easy means of access and exit along its western border, via the West Side Express High way and Henry Hudson Parkway, the city now is about ready to throw open a similar belt-line along the East River. The East River Drive has been road project long in construction. Parts of it have been completed and now tis almost all ready In June long stretch from 18th to 93rd Street will be opened to traf- fic. This is the section involving the along a cliff. By the end of 1940 the entire highway the length of Manhattan Island should be completed.
The Waterbury Democrat., 1940-04-04

duced and at the 1888 Interna- tional Exposition of Cinemato- graphic act in Venice it won first prize among T competing en- tries.
 Lorentz's third picture, recently released, "The Fight For Life," is film about childbirth and ma ternal welfare based on the best seller by Dr. Paul de Kruif. De Kruif turned down a fat Holly wood offer for the movie rights in order to give them gratis to the government. After the pie lures premiere in Manhattan, The New York Times declared, "We wish there were some form of Pulitzer award for the kind of cinema journalism MT. LOrentz has been doing."
 NOTE-Lorentz, who gets $10,- GOO a year, has turned down Holly wood offers as high as $50,000 for one picture. Rep. Malcolm Ira yer, economy minded Georgian who raised the technicality against the Film Service appropriation, is not so economy minded in his own affairs. He has son, Mall colm, Jr., on the congressional payroll as his secretary at $3,- 300 year.
 POLITICAL CHAFF
 Louisiana insiders predict that after the April 16 referendum on the Huey Long sales tax, which they say is certain to be repealed, Mayor Maestri of New Orleans. the last of the Long moguls still in office, will resign Poli- ticos are wondering if there is any connection between the editorial on the current Fortune" boost ing Wendell Willkie, No. utility foe of the New Deal, for Presi- dent and the fact that Russell Davenport, managing editor of the ritzy magazine, has taken a three months leave of absence to mas er-mind Willkie's campaign =. .. New Dealers are urging John P. Devaney, former Chief Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court, to become the Democratic candidate against Senator Henrik Ship stead, who hasn't decided yet whether to run for reelection un- der his Farmer-Labor label, or as an Independent or as Republi- can. Last year, after serving Is years in the Seante as Farmer Laborite, Shipstead asked for committee assignments as a Re- publican, and since then has generally voted with them on major issues.
 Copyright, 1940, by United
 Feature Syndicate, Incl
The Waterbury Democrat., 1940-04-04
Selected Poem
COMMANDING OFFICER
Cwalt Gormley in the New York sun)

(Walt Gormley in the New York Sun) Inspections on! The captain finds hls crew
 Drawn up upon the hangar deck at nine, Rank upon rank in pressed and serried blue. Blue hawk-eyes each face he threads each line. Painstaking is his progress, tired his pace,
 And junior pilots, nudging messmates, say: "The Old Mans years are showing in his face; Times changed since that old canine had his day!" It's twenty summers since those wrinkled ears Have heard the thunder of deep below, Crying aloud for him. and for his fears,
 And being vanquished, mocked. Men should know No chit-chat harms that pioneer of yore
 Who dropped on Lisbons Bay the NC-4