Miscellany: Wyngarden

Near Zeeland, Mich. Gerrit Wyngarden was struck in the eye by a stray bullet while hunting. He went to Ann Arbor for treatment, found he might lose the sight of both eyes. Then he was stricken with appendicitis, underwent an emergency appendectomy. Then, while Gerrit Wyngarden was recovering, his wife was brought to bed of a child, died. Next day his chicken hatchery, sole means of subsistence, burned to the ground.

Polk

In Demarest, N. J. Mrs. Claire Polk, elderly relict of Nathaniel Polk, who was reputed to be a grandson of President James Knox Polk (1795-1849), had lived alone in one tightly shut room of her large house ever since her husband’s death in 1889. She did her own work, spoke to no one but the village postmistress, one Ann Huess. Last week Ann Huess missed her, got police to break into the house. Mrs. Claire Polk sat by her fireside, warmed by a flickering gas log. She had been dead a week, of carbon monoxide poisoning.

Stiff

In Los Angeles, Calif. Samuel Reese Stiff petitioned Superior Court for permission to change his name to Samuel Arthur Reese. Samuel Reese Stiff is a medical student.

Ember-Better

In Chicago, last December, John F. Barrett, stockbroker (John F. Barrett & Co.), bet his friends that there would not be an official temperature reading as low as zero in Chicago before March 1. He won $1,250. His system: “For years I have been using the wind direction on Ember days as a basis on which to forecast. The Ember days, you know, were named as movable dates for prayer and fasting by the Council of Placentia in 1095. When the December Ember days came, the wind was, over the period, predominantly from the East. As the eastern part of the continent was then having unseasonably warm weather. I knew we were in for a comparatively warm winter.*

Exchange

In White Plains, N. Y. Barber Anthony Marteilo, seeking divorce from his wife, Mrs. Maria Rosina Marteilo, accused her of misconduct with Frank Ballantesi, another barber, with whom he usually traded shaves and haircuts. The judge questioned Barber Ballantesi: “Have you exchanged haircuts since this suit started?” Barber Ballantesi: “Oh, yes.” Judge: “You haven’t exchanged any shaves, have you?” Barber Ballantesi: “No, not any shaves.” Judge: “. . . Decree granted.”

Perfect

The nation’s perfect man is John Tempre of Manhattan, chosen from some 300 candidates by the Clothing Designers’ Executives’ Association. Perfect Man Tempre, selected because of the fortuitous “proportions and postures of his body,” is 28.5 ft. 8 in. tall, weighs 138 lb., unmarried. His chest measures 36 in., his sleeves are 17½in. long. Stylists were inspired to design for him a modish, summery tea-dance outfit.

The clothiers announced that they wish to get away from British traditions in styles, to abolish class distinction in clothes. Said Harry Simons, member of the Association’s Style Committee: “To some extent we have already succeeded. At a ball game . . . you will have trouble —unless you are in the trade—in picking out the son of a millionaire from a crowd of clerks in his father’s office. In England that isn’t so. . . . The clerks and small shopkeepers dress badly. We don’t want that in America. Proper clothes put a man at his best.”

Garbed in proper clothes (“novelty stitchings, pleats, panels, distinctive colorings”) four male models paraded before the assembled clothiers. Commented Style Committeeman Simons: “They are fine young men!”

Fingertip

In London, Morton Crimmins burgled a house. As he fled through the frosty night he touched a freezing cold iron fence, the tip of his little finger came off. Two hours later Scotland Yardsmen apprehended Morton Crimmins, identified him by his fingertip.

* Ember days are the Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays in the four Ember weeks of the year: weeks following Holy Cross day (Sept. 14), St. Lucy’s day (Dec. 13), first Sunday in Lent, Whitsunday. They originated in the fasting periods preparatory to the three great Early Christian Festivals of Christmas, Easter and Pentecost. Their reputed efficacy in weather-forecasting is probably due to their proximity to the equinoxes and solstices. Had Forecaster Barrett held wetted finger to the wind on an ordinary, non-Ember day in the same week he would probably have forecast with equal luck.