Miscellany, may 14, 1951

All in the Family. In Columbus, Texas, Teacher Grace Truman McArthur informed her students that she was not taking sides in the current controversy.

Manifest Destiny. In Evanston, Ill., the keynote speaker at Northwestern University’s annual “career conference” was the state Selective Service director.

The Changing West. In Oklahoma City, a downtown parade of Eighty-Niners, commemorating the opening of the state to settlers in 1889, was put to rout when three teen-agers opened a barrage with BB guns and slingshots.

The Higher Motive. In Waco, Texas, a 22-year-old student admitted the theft of a movie projector, which he needed, he said, to show religious films at church revival meetings.

Probation Period. In Detroit, after winning a divorce from his wife, whom he accused of “bad temper and nagging,” Charles Heil, no longer trusting his judgment, asked for, and got, a court order restraining him from marrying during the next year.

Convert. In Atlantic City, N.J., someone slipped into St. Augustine’s Protestant Episcopal Church, put back the crucifix that had been stolen a month before.

The Inner Woman. In London, charging his wife with desertion, Francis Brooks presented as evidence a letter she had written from Ireland: “It’s no use trying to get me and the kids to come over to England to share your semi-starvation. It’s bad enough coming to a place you loathe without being half-starved as well. We are staying where the food is.”

Last Resort. In Moncks Corner, S.C., opening a campaign against traffic offenders, cops served notice in the weekly Berkeley Democrat: “We have tried everything we know, including repeated warnings. Now all we can do is enforce the law.”

The Tie that Binds. In Columbus, Ohio, the will of Thadeus S. Backwood bequeathed $5 to his stepson “to buy enough rope with which to hang himself.”

Self-Defense. In Los Angeles, the motorcycle cop who stopped George Fisher Jr. for doing 78 m.p.h. in his small British car, dutifully recorded the explanation: “[Defendant] stated that due to small car, [he] gets pushed around. So takes lead.”

Instrument Flight. In Leicester, England, after Frank Cox swung the propeller of his training craft, the plane took off without him, flew about for two hours before cracking up in a pasture.