AMERICAN LIFE

Evening Star, Issue 19409, 18 November 1926, Page 4

AMERICAN LIFE

EXTRACTS FROM NEWSPAPERS POISONOUS ADULTURAHTS President Coolidge played a quiet but 'powerful hand in forcing the Prohibition unit to back down on its plans to put .poisonous adulterants into liquor as a means of enforcing the dry laws. His work was done so smoothly and effectively that the most rabid Prohibitionists will never be able to say that the President interfered with the scheme. What he did was this. A storm of protest broke over the country when the now plans were announced. It found its way into the Press. President Coolidge clipped all stories and reports from the newspapers with his own hand, and ordered that they be sent to the Acting Secretary of the Treasury (Mr Winston). They were sent without comment by the President, hut the fact that they came irom him is said to have been interpreted as evidence of his displeasure. It -was since the President’s arrival hero that bad liquor poisoned thirty-, seven persons in Buffalo. The Treasury Department has abandoned its original plan, and has now ordered its chemists to search for an adulterant which will make liquor loathsome to taste, but not poisonous. THE CENTURY PLANT. The century plant, the most temperamental of all the floral performers in the New York Botanic Gardens, broke out recently with a severe attack of blossoms. Fifteen feet from the ground, half concealed in the leaves, a cluster of greenish-white buds relieved the monotony. The blossoms may last several weeks. Then, again, they may fold up and depart any time they feel that way. A century plant blooms whenever it pleases without regard for the calendar. This specimen bloomed about forty-five vears ago, but forty-five years feel like a century if you are ■waiting on a temperamental plant. SOME PROHIBITIONIST STATIS- , TICS. Enough liquor to give every man, woman, and child in the world a onepint flask, or to give every inhabitant of the United States a two-gallon demijohn, has been confiscated during the six and one-half years of Prohibition by Federal Prohibition agents in Georgia, W. T. Day, bead of the local Prohibition enforcement organisation, declared. Day estimated from records kept by the department, that liquor and “mash” seized by Federal agents "in Georgia during the dry era would total 222,010,459 gallons. At bootleg prices the seized beverages would gross at 3.884,183,032d0l— enough to pay for a sizeable war. The illicit liquor would float a ship larger than the Leviathan. The dry agents arrested 7,565 persons in connection with their seizures, ajid destroyed property worth 3,235,057d0l in raids. AN OMELETTE FOR THEOSOPHISTS. The pea soup fog of gloom that descended over Chicago’s big butter and egg men v with the arrival of Jiddu Krishnamurti, “ the physical vehicle of the World Teacher,” consumer of fractional eggs, has been lifted. It has become a sunburst, an aurora borealis. The reason for the lifting of the pea soup fog is that as the piece de resistance of the Theosophists’ convention banquet, at Krisbnamurti’s special request, will be served a super-omelette. For this great splurge the Hotel Sherman steward has ordered no fewer than 30(1 dozen eggs—thirty-six hundred of them.—and 8001 bof mushrooms. It is expected that about 200 Tlieosophist.s will sit down at this more materialistic banquet. This will mean nearly four eggs per head, so that butter and egg men rejoice. TAXING FALSE TEETH. The County Tax Board in Atlantic City had a hard problem to figure out an assessment when it came upon a set of platinum teeth owned by former Mayor William Riddle. It took two days to jurisdiction and fix the valuation, which was announced as 1,200d01. _ } _ The problem was unsuspectingly precipitated by the former mayor, when be appeared boforethe board earlier in the week to appeal from a valuation of 958,000d0L placed upon his property at Pennsylvania avenue and the Broadwalk. In the course of the hearing he took out a set of platinum teeth. It caught the eye of Walter M'Devitt, an assessor. “ Why, ho hasn’t even been assessed for the teeth!” exclaimed the assessor. “I move you, Mr President,” said the assessor, addressing John T. French, “that wo assess the teeth at 2,000dol.” The board then encountered an obstacle. Raddle lived in Ventnor, and an Atlantic City assessor was trying to levy upon his teeth. The question of jurisdiction stumped the board. The board adjourned m perplexity, Harold Cain, another Atlantic City assessor, came to the rescue. “The teetli should be assessed in Atlantic City ? because they were found in Atlantic City,’? he said. This seemed plausible, so the board turned to the question of valuation. “ I paid l,20(Jdol lor tho set,” admitted the former mayor, “ but I don’t know how much I could get for them in the open, market.” “ Why /iot assess the teeth at the full face value,” interposed M'Devitt. And the board did. The tax on them will be 30.58d01. CURFEW IN CHICAGO.

“ Ain’t it a shame the way these little kids in short skirts and all are let run. around the streets at night i'”

the Chicago patrolman said to himself. Them he rcmemheied that one of his new duties is to shoo such children out of the way of bootleggers’ feuds and the other perils of the big city after 10 p.m. So he stepped up and ordered her to go home to mamma. Never before bad his professional advice been so well received, Thebobbedhaired wearer of the short skirts was forty and married; she thought it was so nice of tho gallant officer to take her for sixteen, even from the hack. But the policeman was embarrassed, All over Chicago one night, the - first night of the 10 o’clock curfew for girls under seventeen, his fellows were having the same trouble. After all; they raounned, how’s a fellow to tell grandma from a flapper if she won’t grow up? Sometimes, though, the cops were right. Five hundred of the pick-ups were actually between thirteen and sixteen, and were sent home with warnings to stay out of dance halls and ofl the streets after curfew. A SEA OF “POP.” Thirsty Americans drank enough “pop” during the fiscal year ended June 30, 1926. to float a fleet of battleships, according to a survey made public by the American Association of Bottlers of Carbonated Beverages here. Thejmnsumption of “pop ” amounted to 10,002,502,500 half-pint bottles, an increase of 2,000,000,000 over last year’s total. Tho “ pop ” bottles emptied by the American people during tho year, if placed side by side, would encircle the globe six and one-fourth times, it was stated. The contents would fill a 625,000,000-gal reservoir. The drinkers paid 500,000.000d0l to 250,000 retail “ pop ” sellers during the year, it was reported. The association also revealed that Cleopatra some 2,000 years ago produced file first recorded carbonated beverage when she dissolved a pearl im a glass of wine. The association traced ginger ale back to King Tut’s time, “ It remained, however, for an American to found tho industry which is now one of the largest and fastestgrowing in tho country,”, the bottlers stated. MR COOLIDGE AND THE “ AVERAGE MAN.” So long as ho is President, Calvin Coolidge intends to make regular pilgrimages to the homes, farms, and workshops of the plain American citizens who' make their country what it is to-day. That was a basic object of his week’s sojourn among the humble villagers of his native Vermont, it was announced to-day. Ho feels there is always tho danger that officials in high places of authority may forget how Mr Average Man lives and what ho needs. He frankly confesses he finds it_ helpful to go back occasionallv and live among them lest he forgets or grows out of sympathy with the plain people who really carry on the nation.

THE INDIVIDUAL’S WEALTH. The average American is wealthier to-day than at any time since 1920. The amount of money in circulation on August 1 . was estimated by the Treasury at 42.01d0! per capita, as compared with 41.31d0l a year ago, and 52.36d0l 'on November 1, 1920, tho highest figure on record. 1m reaching its estimate, the Treasury calculated the population of the United States at 1.15,641,000. Tho money in circulation on August 1 amounted to 4.858,473,503d01, while the total stock of money was 8,399,076,061dol.