The Wyandotte herald. (Wyandotte, Mich.) 1879-1943, 1943-02-05
Dream OF Shack
On Trcpic Island
Becomes Reality.
Ex-Reporter Now Lives Life
On Pacific Atoll He
Yearned For.

EAST HAMPTON, L. Its q
long way from the now extinct
Press building at the recent Worlds
fair to a tiny atoll in the South
Pacific. But a mans dream laughs
at time and space. 4
During the reportorial dog watch
on Flushing's great Mad Meadow,
when the last visitors were strolling
YEARLY through the exits, the re-
porters used to sit in chairs propped
against the fiimsy, cardboard walls
of Building T and talk about what
they'd do In the real" World Of
Tomorrow.
One of those chaps was Ed Bough-
ton, night man for the Standard
News association.
Some day." Ed would say, I'm
going to build a grass shack on
Pacific island. In front of my door
will stretch the endless expanse of
the blue ocean.
''And all day I'll eat and swim
and sit in the sun. Maybe I'll dream
sometimes about the Futurama and
Ile american jubilee.
But mostly" he would add with
a grin, "I'll think about you lads
covering fires in the rain and I'll
reach for another coconut and say,
And they laughed at Boughton.' "
Then someone would ask what the
final figure for attendance was that
day and the spell would break.
When Dream Comes True.
Ed Boughton's dream, born in the
World of Tomorrow, came true. For
mer associates of his recently re-
ceived letter signed Lieutenant
Edward Boughton.
Sent from an island Somewhere
in the South Pacific" where he is
stationed, the letter opened with
these words:
1.-The first day l arrived here a
couple of native boys turned up and
wanted some work, Having always
wanted that grass shack-remem-
ber?-I started them to work imme-
diately.
Their names are Timothy and
Moses" he added, land they COM
menced with vigor to build tie
shack which they said would take
four days. Their enthusiasm start
ed to flag about the third day. De-
spite continuous brides of cigarettes,
/ could never get them to work
over four hours a day."
The shack is described as being
IL feet square and feet high, made
of poles bound together with vines
and covered with plated leaves
from coconut trees.
In their construction work the two
natives employed a boy assistant.
who gathered bark used to bind tine
coconut leaves to the framework.
The assistant, called hlongooSe,
because, one native explained, ''He
quick in boosh,' would disappear in
the bush for few moments and
come out with several saplfngs.
Banged Self on Head.
''He would take one of these
Lieutenant Boughton explained,
hold it at the ends with his hands
and split it by banging himself on
the head with it. He would then
strip off the bark with his teeth"
When the shack was finished Lieu
tenant Boughton covered the floor
with fine white sand from the beach.
Il got three rocks and made crude
fireplace" he wrote, land now I
have hot water for shaving" Pack
ing boxes serve as furniture.
AS he sits in the sun during lei
sure time in front of his shack, Lieu
tenant Boughton reports:
Il have group of three or four
natives squatting in front of the
door, observing everything l do.
They watch me shave, and when
take out a new razor blade, it and
its paper wrapping always bring
forth much chattering and corn
ment
Their morning visits have be-
come habit by this time and now
the entire village comes over"
The letter makes no mention of
the Worlds fair or the Futurama.