Coral Gables Historical Archive
Coral Gables Riviera
Friday, December 5, 1941, page 6 (of 8)
The page
The text of this pageRead by computer from the scan, so some words may be wrong. The page picture is the original.
CORAL GABLES RIVIERA
AN INDEPENDENT COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER Published every Friday by the Miami Riviera Publishing Co., 306 Coral Way, Coral Gables, Fla. Established January, 1926 Combined with the Dade County and Coconut Grove Times, 1929. ALBERT E. HARUM - President and Publisher JAMES B. MOORE - Managing Editor Mailing Address, P. O. Box 704 Telephone 4-1634 Member, Florida Press Association National Editorial Association Represented in the National Advertising Field by the American Press Association, New York City SUBSCRIPTION RATES One Year by Carrier, Coral Gables and Six Months | $1.25 One Year | $2.00 Entered as second class matter May 21, 1926, at the Postoffice at Miami, Florida, under Act of March 3, 1879.
A Job Well Done
Tonight in Burdine Stadium, win, lose or draw, the University of Miami Hurricanes will wind up the most successful gridiron season in the school's history. With only one debacle, the Hurricanes have made the name of the Coral Gables school famous throughout the country as a hard hitting, fighting, aggregation that gave the best teams in the nation a tough battle. When the final whistle blows on the V. M. I. encounter tonight, the Hurricanes will have checked off a schedule that was decried by many as being "way over their heads". To Coach Jack Harding and his fighting gridders go the congratulations of all Coral Gables for a job well done.
The Orange Bowl Float
This year's Orange Bowl parade will again see the City of Coral Gables represented by a float, sponsored by the city and the Chamber of Commerce. Sponsoring of a float means an expenditure of approximately $500, well worth it when it is to be considered that thousands of visitors will see it in the parade. We would like to suggest, however, that a little more consideration be given the planning of the float this year than was done in the years past. It should be typically Coral Gables and easily recognizable as such; not just a conglomeration of tinsel and baubles with the name of the city displayed on it. Let's make the float this year so typical of our community, that is would be recognized even if it did not bear the city's name.
Don't Disappoint Them
This editorial is directed to every Gableite with a spark of kindness in his or her make-up. That should make it unanimous. In last week's issue, through the "Our Town" column, the attention of the residents was called to the fact that toys for poor kids were coming in very slowly this year. Firemen are very much concerned as they look over their long list of requests, many in the form of childish letters to Santa Claus, and realize that to date they haven't enough toys to fill the bill. Following the publication of that plea last week, the Coral Gables Kiwanis Club decided that at its pre-Christmas meeting every member would bring a toy. It is hoped that the Lions, Optimists, Breakfast Clubbers and other civic bodies will follow suit. This will help immeasurably. But the bulk of the burden is still up to the residents of the community. The firemen are not asking that you spend money for toys. All they ask is that you look around your house, pick up worn and broken toys that have been discarded by your children, and turn them in. They will repair them, paint them and fix them up as good as new to gladden the hearts of the less fortunate little ones who will gather around the big tree on Christmas Eve. Don't disappoint these kiddies, Gableites. Turn in your broken toys today.
Give Him a Break
Without a doubt, the bringer of more glad tidings and the bearer of more cheer at Christmas time, is that fellow in gray that you see pumping his bicycle up and down the streets of Coral Gables, your mailman. While Christmas is a busy time for all of us, he's the fellow who bears the brunt of the work. He enables Aunt Nancy in Pomona to send a new sweater to Cousin Bill in Coral Gables, with a minimum of effort. Give him a break this year by mailing your cards and packages as early as possibly. And spare his eyesight by addressing packages and cards legibly and with a return address.
Make It Tough
Coral Gables broke out in a rash of burglaries during the month of November, with 14 cases being reported by the local police. The coming of the winter season always means that a certain number of the light fingered gentry wend their way to our clime and attempt to live the life of Riley at the expense of local residents. Too many of us make it easy for them, by leaving doors and windows open or by going off on trips without reporting to the police that our homes will be vacant during our absences. We can help the police keep down these petty burglaries by checking our homes, making sure that locks are secure and in general, making it tough for would-be burglars to gain entrance.
OUR TOWN by Jim Moore
JIM MOORE The old adage "You Can't Please Everybody" is certainly a tried and true one. Now it comes bobbing up in relation to the colored arrows that have been placed in the streets to guide visitors to the various points of interest in our city. Inspired by the green arrows in the New York subway station, these markers run down the center of the streets and are in three different colors. All arrows, which are painted along the traffic lines, originate at the intersection of Ponce de Leon Boulevard and Coral Way. Yellow arrows lead to city hall, Venetian Pool, Congregational Church, Miami Biltmore and the Catholic Church. Green arrows lead to South Greenway Drive and the Country Club of Coral Gables, while orange goes south on Ponce de Leon Boulevard to University Drive and the University of Miami to Bird Road where a large arrow points the way to Tropical Park. Eventually, it is planned to start the arrows at the various entrances to the Gables, with signposts outlining their routes. One would think that this system would be practically foolproof and could bring no cause for complaint. But now comes the Chamber of Commerce with the report that one of its members has found a flaw in the idea. Seems that F. S. Scherr, owner of the Parrot Jungle, wrote in to say that the arrows are an excellent idea but that they should be painted on the right side of the streets instead of in the center. Mr. Scherr believes that visitors unfamiliar with the markers will get the impression that the streets are one way thoroughfares. The Chamber has turned the idea over to Captain Reeves at the police department. Personally, we can't see how any tourist, with a grain of sense, could possibly get the idea that our wide streets were "one way". We doubt if all the trouble the city would have to go to to make the change would be worth it. If this situation does arrive, an easier solution would be to paint another head on the arrow, so that it would point both ways. Well, that will all come out in the wash. The point is that this new system is causing a lot of interest, even to the point of having people come in and make suggestions. Alvie Lindborg over at the Chamber of Commerce, tells us that practically every visitor that calls there has some favorable comment to make about it and Pierre Huss of the International News Service informed us that he was going to send a story about it out in their feature service. This means that it will be printed all over the country. With hundreds of tourists reading about it before they come South, residents of this community can expect many questions about the arrows this season. We should play smart, therefore, and familiarize ourselves with the system, so that when a tourist asks us the way to some point, we can smile and say simply, "Just follow the arrow". One of the best factors about the guide markers is the simplicity of the system. Any Gableite can memorize it in a few moments and save hundreds of words later, trying to tell a stranger how to get to the University or the Biltmore. Yes sir, we've got something in those arrows. Let's make the most of it.
TURNING A NEW LEAF
Thanks to an observant newspaper boy, an obscure old man whom the world had passed by, suddenly found himself in the spotlight with reporters, news camera men and authors at his heels. James Eaton, 89-year-old sailor known as "Sailor Jim", sat on the front porch of his modest Tampa cottage smoking his pipe and working on a model of a clipper ship. The Tampa Tribune carrier boy was so impressed with the model that he told a news man about it. A feature writer and news camera man shortly called and were equally impressed with Jim and his craftsmanship. The result was a story in the Tribune, illustrated with a picture of the "old salt" and his ship model. In Babson Park, Fred W. Bowers, author, with a flair for sea yarns, read the item became interested, and called on "Sailor Jim". He found an old man in years but a young man in spirit and from him obtained the story of a sea career that went back to the days of the old Clipper ships when America ruled the seven seas. That was nearly a year ago, and last week a group of friends gathered at a Spanish restaurant to celebrate the publication of an 80 thousand word story entitled "Sailor Jim", written by Bowers, and being a more or less authentic account of the remarkable experience of this 89-year-old "youngster" who sits in the sun today and dreams of the past as he carves faithful replicas of his ship "Soverign of the Seas" of which he was soul survivor when she went down in a storm years ago.
Dollars and Sense
By ROMEYN W. SMITH Investment Consultant Mr. Smith Many people have sought investment advice from a number of sources and have found them of little or no assistance. Sometimes these sources turn out to be a more of a detriment than an aid. As sources of advice we can mention investment bankers, band and trust companies, brokers, investment dealers, statistical organizations financial services and magazines, and investment trusts. Anyone who has lost money is prone to blame his adviser, if he had one. Sometimes it is no more the adviser's fault than it is the investor's. But we are not going to deny that a great deal of the investment advice in circulation has been far from good. Our own experience has been, after giving considerable thought to the subject, that frequently investors misunderstand the function of their advisers. No one is ever forced to buy or sell a security. Along with this misconception of the investor, we have come to the conclusion that many people who sell securities, or at least their representatives, have a misconception of their own function in the complicated investment business. In our discussion of these "sources of investment advice", we are going to try to be absolutely fair. We are not conducting a defense for the investment business. Neither are we engaged in muckraking. Many mistakes have been made. Instead of unearthing and rehashing these mistakes, it seems to us wiser to find out why they are made, so that we can all do our part in avoiding future losses because of the same errors. To get the proper foundation for our discussion, we believe it is first advisable to determine what we want in an investment adviser. Few investors have reduced this thought to a concrete statement. What we want, and what you want, is expert and unbiased advice. Expert advice is of little use if it is biased in the slightest degree by some other influence. And unbiased advice is of little help unless it is expert. With this premise, we can now proceed to determine how to judge expertness and to detect ways through which experts may (consciously or unconsciously) be biased. It seems to us that we have an almost infallible rule by which to judge investment expertness, provided that the test can be applied in bad times as well as good. Many a good boat sails easily with the wind. But it isn't worth much tacking back against the wind. Many a man can run his business well when times are good, but lacks the ability to cope with adverse conditions. Many a halfback who does not make the first team is marvelous on the offense, but no good in defensive play. The investing game requires both defensive and offensive play and strategy, so our test of ability must include bad times as well as good times. We are in a good position for this test right now. We have had the boom of the 1920's, the depression in the early 1930's, and a political and social upheaval since the advent of the New Deal. The first test of investment advisers is the record they have made during the past 15 years. The clue to not downsbtaid by the size of the adviser's bank account. No one can deal in securities without a certain minimum of capital. If an adviser has a poor record, then one of two conclusions would seem to be in order; either the adviser is inexpert, or he is biased, perhaps by some influence so subtle that he himself does not realize it. We have given this subject of bias a great deal of thought and have come to the conclusion that in nine cases out of ten, bias-frequently unconsciously-is engendered by the method of compensating the adviser. We live in a selfish world. It always pays to look carefully for the selfish, or self-interest, motive in men's actions. If you are to get the best result from any sort of service-be it the service of a lawyer or a tailor-you must pay for it. You must pay well. The better the lawyer or the tailor, the more he will charge you; but you will win more lawsuits and wear better fitting clothes.
Too Late to Classify
BY RUSSELL KAY Civilian Defense officials are bemoaning the fact that the public at large has assumed an attitude of more or less indifference to the program designed to prepare us for any emergency on the home front. True, "home guards" have been organized in some communities; harbor patrols are functioning at other points; gasoline stations have been opened and closing like elevator doors, according to the ringing of the bureaucractic bell; Boy Scouts have scampered about collecting waste paper until their enthusiasm waned; patriotic groups led aluminum drives; volunteers took up positions on roof tops to watch for enemy planes while amateur radio operators manned a volunteer communication system. Such activities, as important and worthwhile as they may be, occupy the attention at best, of only a limited number of folks. and their interest is hard to sustain over a long period of time in the face of inactivity, other than "being ready". Civic defense boards, councils and committees have been set up and their members placed in the hands of political favorites who draw nice salaries and are charged with the responsibility of stirring the public emotions and encouraging the average citizen to buckle his armor and sally forth with no compensation other than that intangible reward which attends the knowledge that they* "seen their duty and done it". From the viewpoint of an observer, it would appear that like a lot of other efforts this civic defense program is suffering from a severe case of over-and super-duper organization. Committees have been appointed on top of committees and councils on top of councils, charged with the supervision of anything and everything from the herding of finger prints to the tabulation of tiddlewink experts. The cry of "wolf, wolf" has been ringing throughout the land so long and so loud and so consistently, without the appearance of any wolf, until the confused and bewildered "average citizen" has failed to hear it any more than he hears the ticking of the clock on his mantle or the drip of the leaky hydrant in the sink. He has been warned, re-warned, threatened and admonished that his gasoline was short, his paper was scarce, his automobile becoming extinct, his Frigidaires limited, while his good wife has been led to believe that she could get no more silk stockings, would run short of cooking utensils and wake up some morning without even a hairpin. But Mr. America, in spite of it all, finds himself fighting off the automobile and Frigidaire salesmen. The newspapers and magazines continue to carry bigger and better ads of new and improved models which he is urged to buy. The housewife who failed to join the mad throng of frightened women who mobbed stocking counters while she can obtain a lot more hose than she can think of purchasing on every store counter and at the prices even less than some of her alarmed sisters paid a month or so ago. Gasoline stations that were closed a few weeks ago now stay open all night and some of them are putting in more pumps. Another thing. "Mr. Average Citizen" finds it very, very hard to work himself into even a semblance of a lather on the question of defense, whether it be at home or abroad, when he sees Congress and the administration more or less unalarmed and unconcerned over the fact that the national program is allowed to stop any time some peanut labor official sees fit to raise his hand and call out a hundred thousand workers. True, the President and Congress have openly admitted that defense strikes are not helpful to the program, but so far they haven't had the courage to do anything about it. A bushy-browed labor leader practically tells the President to "go to hell" in not even a nice way, and gets away with it. Labor leaders, thus encouraged, lick their chops and call for another series of longer and larger strikes while "Mr. and Mrs. Average Citizen" are DEFENSELESS in spite of all our frantic DEFENSE efforts. It just don't make sense, and until we get it into our head that we are all in the same boat, government, labor, industry and layman alike, and all take our turn at the oar and pull together unselfishly and patriotically, we aren't going to get very far.
Finds Self Guilty
Inverness, Dec. 4 (FNS)— W. S. Alyea, 80-year old mayor of Crystal River, recognizes the fact that "the law is no respector of persons" and when he finds himself guilty under its statutes he didn't attempt to escape by hiding under the cloak of his office. On the contrary, he brought charges against himself, hailed himself into court, pled guilty and astonishe'd county judge E. C. May fined him $25 and costs which the Mayor paid without a whimper. It all came about when the local marshal attempted to arrest a man for drunkenness. He was having difficulties when the Mayor happened along and attempted to assist the law officer in handling the culprit. During the melee the Mayor's temper got the best of him and he let go a mess of language that was known in the best circles as "profane". A bystander remarked within the hearing of the Mayor that he was guilty himself of using profane language and should be arrested. Admitting the truth of the statement, the Mayor led himself to the bar of justice.
This One's on You
PET-We can't let you in on all the details of this little story because the city officials might get after us-but we will tell you that we have a new pet. Or rather our children have a new pet. Morris Cold, under whose magic touch the Riviera rolls off the press each week, gave us this pet, a beautiful, haughty, stately duck and its rich baritone gurgling has intrigued us ever since. The duck, promptly dubbed "Quack Quack" by our two youngsters to give concrete evidence to their originality, has made itself quite at home in the back yard of our home in the midst of residential Coral Gables. Morris gave us the duck so that we might fatten it up for the holiday dinner table, but softies that we are, we're afraid "Quack Quack" is destined to die only of old age. Morris gave George Duncan, our linotype operator, a duck for his holiday dinner, too, but knowing George's wife as we do we're afraid that he, too, has acquired a new pet and another mouth to feed. And what a mouth those birds have! DOMESTIC THREAT—"Bunny" Hiss is very curtain-minded these days all because husband "Sandy" got a spurt of energy the other day. "Sandy" weeded the lawn, cut the grass, made a few repairs and polished all the brass around the house. Then looking around the house for something else to do, he spied some curtainless windows. "If you don't do something about those soon," he threatened, "I'm going to make them myself." GUESS AGAIN—Mrs. Frank Race tells this one about her young son, Bobby, who came home one day last week with justly swollen chest to announce to the family that he was to be in a play at school. "Fine!" applauded his mother. "And what are you to be?" Stumped, Bobby was silent. Then he came up with "Well I don't know-but it's something important." "But don't you know what part you are to play?" "Well, it's about-well, you know, what is it that goes on in Heaven at Christmas?" The family caught on. "Oh, you're to play the part of Jesus?" "Nope." "Joseph?" "Nope." "A shepard?" "Nope." "Mary?" "Nope." "A wise man?" "That's it!" nodded Bobby. "I told you it was somebody pretty important!" TRICK VOICE-Louis Thebault, 2003 Alhambra Circle, has a lot of fun at places where group singing is taking place. By shifting his tonsils in some mysterious manner, Louis can burst forth in a loud clear soprano, causing fellow singers to look around to see where the woman singer is. SUBSTITUTE-Carpenters were busy in Mannie's Delicatessen the other day when we walked in to see how things were coming along. Feeling coy, we walked around the new counter-and cases and then asked Mannie, "How about a pastrami on rye?" Quick as a flash he came back, "We can't give you that yet, but how about a sawdust sandwich on beaverboards?". CRAMPED QUARTERS—Ike Parrish, convention director of the Miami Biltmore, arrived last week just as the first convention was moving into the hotel. He was given a room, but told that he would be moved to another one later. As he stood at the lobby, looking at the display booths being erected for the Building and Loan League meeting, he asked the room clerk what room he would have when the convention arrived. The clerk looked dubiously at the huge reservation list and then pointed to one of the booths, saying, "It looks like we'll have to move you in there."
IN OUR MAIL BAG
Editor, The Riviera: Can't something be done to make the City conscious of the crowded conditions in the Gables buses around 11 a. m. each day? I realize it must be a tough problem running a bus line with time schedules, etc., but it seems that there could be a second section or something to handle this 11 a. m. rush. You get pushed in and then stand for 6 miles. There are usually more than 50 passengers to a bus. If they get me mad I'll walk to Miami. R. J. N. Editor, The Riviera: I just want to place it on the record somewhere-being just a nobody without a column to spout in-that the Hurricanes lost to Alabama last Friday but, Boy, they certainly went down fighting. I wrote once before asking everybody to come out to the games-it seems they are taking my advice. They sure turned out in droves last week. Keep it up and we'll cheer the boys to victory this week. FAN