The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1944-07-12
BY WESTBROOK PEGLER

his readers His articles serve the good purno.e ~
making people think.
BY WESTBROOK PEGLER
NEW YORK. - Mayor LaGuarda has an.
! nounced the conditions governing gainful sum-
mer employment for boys between the ages
of IA and 10 and his personal opposition IN
all work for hire by those who are under "A,
The elgbles must obtain official permits and
boys under is are forbidden to work in ship
yards, factories, bowling alleys, liquor estab-
llshments, garages. bakeries, laundries, tailor
Shops and newspaper and publishing plants
These restrictions, applied in othec DAYS
would have hampered and probably would
have altered the careers of men now noted
for their achievement and proud of their earlv
adventures.
Jim Farley. for example tells us that wnen
he was about 10 years old, his father died
from kick of the family horse John. which
he was nitching to the surrey for the funeral
of neigbor's child, the morning after the
wake at Grassy Point. There was little insur-
ance SO, about two years later, Mrs. Farley
with five small dependent children, bought
with her last $500 small grocery and sa-
/ LOOM Meanwhile jim and his brothers had
run errands and sold newspapers.
F, In his autobiography, Jim wrote that the
saloon was not beer parlor but a saloon
in the full meaning of the word and that he,
at tender age, tapped kegs and served
drinks of all kinds. This gratuitous candor
recalls an interview with Babe Ruth when
ne was just becoming a national personality
in the era of wonderful nonsense Assigned to
do the Babes autobiography, and coming to
the subject Of his youth, 1 tactfully suggested
that we just say he had been boarding
| student in Catholic school for boys. ~'2
Hell no. the Babe said. 1T was re-
form school"
Mr.. Farley worked in a brickyard, showing
sand in a wheelbarrow at the age of u and
thinks the work was good for him, although
today by Mr. LaGuardia he would be for
hidden lest he stunt his growth, he being
six feet some and LaGuardia about five nine.
The mayors life story, on the other
| hand, is poor in early experience and ne
seems to me to be reaching for an adventure
that wasn't really there when he tells of hav
ing been an accredited correspondent at
the age of Is in 1898. He was living on the
post at Prescott, Ariz, when the Spanish
broke and his father, bandmaster, was or
dered to active service with his regiment. We
are invited to believe that the doughty little
| fellow, alone, found his way from Prescott to
st. Louis and there got the job co..
respondent for the Post Dispatch. always, in
my time, exactng paper with high pro-
| lGSSlOudl SldUQdTuS ana no VdCdllOn tJldy-lo
for little boys. But then it develops that he
was with ais papa at Mobile and Tampa and
that Signor LaGuardia was mustered out in
August and returned to Jefferson Barracks,
which is in ST. Louis. He wore a little SOL
diersuit in the photograph of the boy war cor
respondent and looked real cute but suspicion
persists that this was just summer vacation
war and we are left hungry fo- samples OF
the pieces filed to the P-D by the young
genius
| You can check back Farley's story not
/, that you feel any need to.
Some men think up the damnedest early
hardships and adventures for themselves.
George Berry, the president OF the Press
mems union, fo- years was known IN recur-
rent newspaper biographies as a homeless
boy who, among other adventures in waytar-
ing had won the national amateur hght-
weight boxing championship.
This reputation may have helped him some
in winning bloodless decisions over lrresolute
opponents in union politics, for most laymen
hesitate to trade punches with one VINO mas
| had ring experience, even in the amateurs
| But the truth is that there was no such cham
pionship around 1906 nor for about a dozen
years later I once asked Mr.. Berry whom
he had ever licked and his answer was very
sketchy. He said he had had to engage IN
a few fights for the purpose OF gettng money
to buy FOOD which sounds pathetic, 10 be
s,re hut every other fighter l have known
however obscure has been right there with
names and places and other details. Similar
ly. Earl Browder our chief communist can't
remember single incident of his alleged
career as a professional ballplayer IN Kansas
and Nebraska which seems very un-Amefl-
can ,.,. =.
Some years ago, at large drinking IN
II p.1n, Roach New York professional Irish
man and rough diamond was 1ecountlng, as
he often did for the amusement OF the rlcn,
his Youthful trials and his life as Walf in
! the Brace Newsboys' home under the Brock
lvn bridge. He had typed himself as an Alger
hero and had held many an audience with
his memoirs.
IN this evening, however, another Irishe-
from HelIs Kitchen who had lived nelghbor
to him in youth, listened quietly and blew
him up. .a, 49,: ,
had fine mother who kept good nome and
supported her kids by taking in washing when
the old man died But this louise was just a
natural born sleep-out. He always came home
when ne got hungry and the reason he ran
awav was that his mother used to make the
kids 90 to confession and communion More
=, over he didn4 want to turn in the money he
got selling papers, to help keep the home
together He would spend it on himself till
/ ne got broke and then 60 home to his mother"