The Wilmington morning star., 1944-04-24
BY wEsTBRooK PEGLER

NEW YORK, April I'll guess / must be
kind of queer because when I was in the sport
business I was notorious umpirelover and
used to associate openly with such quaint and
morose outcasts as Dog-Face Guthrie and big
literature is magazine which might not ap-
peal to you but just fascinates me, called
Casket and Sunnyside, trade journal, in
deed, believe, you could almost say the Of
fetal organ of the mortuary profession think
that is the incest name for such publication
and like the editorials, too, such as the one
in a recent issue slugged on to Oklahoma
City, and the high spirit maintained by P. N
Rothe, the editor and manager 487 Broadway
New York 10, N. Y
The latest copy to come into my hands from
an undertaken friend in Albany. the January
ISSUE has purple cover with an illustration
which at first glimpse seems to be something
out of Frank Crownnshield's collection of
modernistic art but proves to be, as the cut
line says, thoracic and abnodiman aorta with
main branches. The leading article in this
number is entitled broadening horizons of en-
balming, by Prof. Charles A. Renouard, a
gentleman of very dignified mien with a white
goatee, who takes time out from his subject
TO write new year salute to his constant
readers under the title, Thanks to all everv-
where 1t is enclosed in box-border CON-
posed of holly leaves and gratefully acknow-
Lodges the many expressions of appreciation
and good will from readers of his columns
and says their words of encoura cement and
appreciation are the finest reward any con.
tributor could possibly receive. I wonder if
you ever knew that columnists for mortuary
journals got fan mail such as one reading: 81
read your articles in Casket and Sunnvside
Keep up the great work."
No wonder Professor Renouard feels happy
and encouraged if that is the kind of mail he
GETS although 1 wouldn't go so far as to say
such letters are the finest reward any contri-
butor could receive. Because. after ALL, you
have to be sensible and you can't stand off the
grocer with batch of fan mail, however
kind although 1 once did get an invitation
from a teacher up at Yale (rah) to put
couple of bushels of mine under seal in the
library to be opened around, say, the year
1000, and 1ibrarianized so as to show what
the people were thinking and saying back in
the 1940s, particularly about me. Why should
want posterity to know what they were
thinking and saying about me? Anyway l am
still sore at Yale for all those years when
they wouldn't put a roof on the press-coop
and it used to rain or snow, or both, every
afternoon in the football season; nor any cleo
trio lights, either; and many's the time
stumbled on those concrete stairs In the dark
and like to broke my bloody neck.
The practical optimism of the department
entitled thinking out loud which I take to
be the special feature of Mr.. Rothe, the edi-
tor, is very inspiring, as when he remarks
cheerily, ''flue epidemic brings sharp rise
in Deaths; and again under the subtitle
1.-The war prosperity that 'the funeral serv-
ice industry move forward to new levels dur
ing 1943.''
1.-THE majority of funeral directors parti-
cipated in more or less degree in the boom
conditions stimulated by the war economy,
writes the man who thinks out loud while
merchandise scarcities and limitations. man.
power shortages and transportation curbs be-
came increasingly severe, volume both In
cases and dollars matched, and, in numerous
instances exceeded the levels of any other
period, depending, of course, on the local situa-
ton. True, Re high-value sales OF other years
h.w. decl;rzd sharply but ofsetting this factor