The Texas Aggie. (College Station, Tex.) 1921-current, October 01, 1932, Image 3

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    EEE
SECOND CHAPTER LONG
TRIP
TAKES READER-TRAVELERS
THRU SOUTH, INTO CANADA
Editor’s Note: —To those of us who classify
the AGGIE offers a
trip to Europe, thru the pen of Curtis Vin-
“as ‘‘stay-at-homes,”
son, able scribe and publicity director of
the college. The story will be told in four
installments, this being the second. Prin-
cipal characters in the story are Mr. Vin-
son, three A. and M. graduates of 1932,
and Professor and Mrs. J. S. Mogford ’16.
The trip was the outcome of an idea born
and developed by Mr. Mogford. If you long
trip to Europe your
for an educational
dreams may be partly realized by follow-
ing Mr. Vinson’s interesting story.
PART II
(By Curtis Vinson)
Despite the rigorous schedule fol-
lowed, we saw many phases of the
Great American Scene besides the
cotton industry on the journey from
‘Texas to Canada. Thirteen days and
a lot of gasoline were required for
that part of the pilgrimage. But they
paid rich dividends. :
A ferry ride by starlight across
the Mississippi, the beauty and lan-
guor of the Old South, seafood at
Antoine’s in storied New Orieans,
Mobile Bay in moonlight, Georgia
peach orchards, the sidewalks of New
York, historic Lake Champlain—
these and many other sights, scenes
and experiences are among the mem-
ories of the winding trail we fellow-
ed.
It was at Stoneville, Miss., near
Greenville, in the heart of the delta
country, a country that has sent
many a bale of cotton rolling down
the Mississippi by steamboat to New
Orleans, that we made the first ma-
jor stop of the journey. There we
visited the United States ginning
I
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SA
A counter
25.000 miles long!
Western Electric goes all around the world to make its purchases.
Five continents sup-
ply raw materials.
gold, Australian wool. (I, Not only is purchasing done on a world-
wide scale, but buying is raised to the status of a science at Western
Electric. It includes thoroughgoing studies in the fields of economics
Think how far your
Bell telephone has
already traveled.
In distant parts of the earth materials are gathered for manufacturing
Bell telephones—silk from Japan, mica from India, South African
WY
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Testing is part of
purchasing, here.
and geography, rigid chemical and physical testing of many
samples before definite selections are made. (I, Western Electric
men, as a kind of second nature, are constantly striving for
improvements. In serving the Bell System, they search constantly
for better materials, better methods of manufacture, better means of distribution.
-
Western Elecfric
Manufacturers . . . Purchasers . . . Distributors
SINCE 1882 FOR
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| Captain Rusk became
| volunteering the
| General Thomas Jefferson Rusk, who
| served as chief justice of Texas as
| well as U. S. Senator from the state,
| was his great uncle.
{i er
| laboratory where specialists of the
United States Department of Agri-
culture are finding out things about
ginning methods and their relation
to the quality of lint turn-out.
F. L. Gerdes, by the way, a grad-
uate of the College of the class of
1928, has charge of the fiber testing
work at this laboratory. Later on
during the tour, at Washington, D.’
C., we saw and learned much from
him about what is being done in that
field of research.
The route from the college to
Stoneville led through the oil belt of
East Texas. Towering derricks,
frame shacks, thick clouds of dust,
hamburger stands, and a teeming ac-
tivity, all on a Sunday morning, tes-
tified to the replacement, temporar-
ily at least, of cotton by a newer
crop there in a. section once white
with bursting bolls of fiber.
Spurred on by the lure of the road,
vacation time and the distant but
clear call of Europe, Huley Horn
pushed his noisy but dependable road-
ster far into the lead on this first
part of the trip. Past flower-filled
yards of peaceful farm homes, fram-
ed in groves of great trees and lux-
urious shrubs, we followed through
Northern Louisiana, and then, as
night came down, through Southeas-
tern Arkansas to the wide sweep of
the Mississippi opposite Greenville.
“Yes,” said Captain Arthur 8S.
Rusk, skipper of the Steamer A. C.
Jaynes on which we crossed the
great river, “they were here earlier
in the evening. Three of them. In a
roadster. Said to tell you when you
| came along they had gone on to
| Greenville.”
Learning we were from Texas,
reminiscent,
information that
Proud of his steamer, he invited
| us to the bridge for the crossing.
| Proud of his years of service and his
knowledge of the river, he told us a
| bit about ferry steamboating.
“We go between two little islands
to land on the Mississippi side,” he
said “When fog hangs over the riv-
and it’s impossible to make out
the bearings by sight, I have to de-
termine the exact location of those
islands and my course by the echo
of the steamer’s whistle as we ap-
proach.” :
It seemed that an echo or two
might help even in the absence of
any fog as we strained our eyes to
catch the dim outline of the shore
for which we were headed. Close
about us hung the magic spell of the
great river, rich in images of the
life and glories of -the Old South
that it evoked. Overhead a million
stars gleamed fitfully. Around us all
was vague and indistinct.
But with uncanny sureness, Cap-
tain Rusk, chatting quietly all the
while, guided the pulsing sternwheel-
er between the two little islands and
in to her landing stage, apparently
without effort or concern. There
wasn’t even a bump as she came to
rest alongside the wharf.
It was on the journey to New Or-
leans, shortly after leaving Stone-
ville, that we found in Mississippi
the only spot in the United States or
Europe, at least so far as we noted
on the tour, untouched by the well
known and highly advertised de-
pression. That particular spot was
Hazlehurst, county seat of Copiah
county.
“No, sir,” said Mr. McManus, pro-
prietor of the Bell cafe there, where
Mr. Mogford, Mrs. Mogford and I
stopped for food—Huley Horn’s car
was still sprinting ahead—“there’s
no depression in Hazlehurst and Co-
piah County, Mississippi. The people
here grow tomatoes and other crops
besides cotton. They have work to
do, food to eat and enjoy content-
ment of mind.”
It was refreshing to say the least
And something to think about. The
philosophy and friendly chatter of
Mr. McManus, would have delayed
us overlong in that happy spot but
for the inflexible schedule by which
we traveled. It was not, I might add,
without sighs of regret at bidding
the cheery scene goodbye that we
left for further journeying through
the night.
The lure of New Orleans, hedged
in between the great Lake Ponchar-
train and the mighty Mississippi,
made up somewhat, however, for loss
of the contented atmosphere of Haz-
lehurst. In the Crescent City the of-
{ices of the American Cotton Coop-
erative Association were visited.
We had lunch at Antoine’s famous
restaurant in the French quarter,
visited consular offices for passport
vises and drove the wrong way on
all of the one-way streets in that
fine old Southern metropolis. At
least, after we were on the highroad
again, the latter was suggested by
Huley Horn’s account of his exper-
iences. However, New Orleans folks
were very accommodating. They
shouted repeated instructions about
which way to go, often shouting
loudly that they might be
quite
heard above the roar of traffic and
the clatter of Huley’s racer. Oh,
well, life is ilke that. It’s impossible
to do everything right.
The most pronounced welcome of
the whole trip, at home and abroad,
was extended in Alabama, shortly
after entering that state on the
drive from New Orleans to Mobile.
We had skirted the beautiful shore
of the Mississippi Gulf Coast, from
Bay Saint Louis through Pass Chris-
tian and Biloxi to Pascagoula, a drive
past an almost unbroken line of fine
residences looking out across the
Mississippi Sound. Night had fallen
as we entered Alabama and Tom
Drew, scenting the resinous aroma
of pines as only an East Texan can,
proposed camp for the night amid
the towering conifers alongside the
highway. I won’t say that nostalgia
had anything to do with it, but Tom
was insistent. Huley and Otis voted
aye. The rest of us moved on into
Mobile.
Tom, Huley and Otis arrived in
Mobile long before morning, their
faces strangely swollen. It seems
there were mosquitoes among the
pines that night also. “Bigger and
better mosquitoes than ever flitted
in East Texas,” Tom described them.
And coming from an East Texan
that was a real tribute to their prow-
ess. In any event the savage hordes
made quite an impression. One that
lingered long, as it were.
The drive from Mobile to Atlanta
was one of the longest drives in one
day of the trip. From Atlanta we
drove to Clemson College in South
Caroline to inspect cotton spinning
research work being carried on by
United States Department of Agri-
culture experts and then moved on
to Greensboro, N. C,, in the heart of
the cotton milling section of the cot-
ton growing states. At mills in
Greensboro we saw Texas cotton be-
ing utilized in the manufacture of
miles and miles of blue denim.
The journey through Alabama and
Georgia included brief stops at Tus-
kegee where the noted school for
negroes is located, and Auburn, home
of the Alabama Polytechnic Insti-
tute. We passed vast peach and ap-
ple orchards, many of them abandon-
ed and in a state of neglect, on the
drive through Georgia. Thirst—it
really was quite warm—caused a
brief stop at a roadside stand where
{ apple juice was advertised Mr. Mog-
ford was so thirsty he spilled most of
his on his trousers. It was really a
warm day. Wild pink roses, growing
in profusion along the roadside, are
among the memories of that section.
At Lynchburg, Va., where we spent
the night after visiting the cotton
mills at Greensboro, Huley Horn ac-
quired another treasured souvenir.
No, not of the romantic sort. But a
souvenir, nonetheless. It was a no-
tice affixed to his car advertising
that Lynchburg authorities didn’t
care to have visitors park their cars
in fire zones. He found it in the
early morning light as he climbed
into his car for another day’s ride.
The car had been parked at the curb
near the Y. M. C. A. You never can
tell where fire zones are, it seems.
The route from Lynchburg to
Washington was by way of Lexing-
ton and through the beautiful Shen-
andoah Valley. We had breakfast of
ham and eggs—such ham and such
eggs!—at a little mountain tavern
not far from Lynchburg. Coffee,
boiled in an old fashioned pot, serv-
ed with plenty of grounds and flavor-
ed with eream from a can, added to
the repast. It strengthened us con-
siderably for the hairpin turns of
the climbing, winding road across
the mountains.
We took time out to see the Nat-
ural Bridge in Virginia and to gaze
at the initials G. W., carved in the
stone under the bridge by George
Washington when, as a young man
of about eighteen, he surveyed the
property of which the bridge is a
part for Lord Fairfax. Later King
George III of England granted the
Natural Bridge Estates to Thomas
Jefferson.
A view of the cavalry and field ar-
tillery stables at Virginia Military
Institute, which we passed in Lex-
ington, recalled life at Texas A. and
M.
A few miles north of Lexington
we stopped at a roadside marker,
erected by the Kiwanis Club of Hous-
ton in 1927. Letters graven in its
face announced: “On knoll in rear of
this spot, stood the log house in
which Sam Houston was born in
1793.2
Washington was a point of reha-
bilitation, that is, a point of rest and
recuperation. At least it was for me
We arrived Saturday afternoon. Sun-
day G. L. Crawford, formerly with
the Experiment Station of the col
lege, and Mrs. Crawford conducted
the Mogfords and Tom, Huley and
Otis about the National Capital.
Research work of the United Stat-
es Department of Agriculture was
observed on visits to governmental
laboratories Monday. Program for
the visit there was arranged by Dr.
R. W. Webb, of the bureau of agri-
cultural economics.
Washington, Baltimore, Wilming-
ton, Del, Philadelphia, Trenton, N.
J. knew us briefly. Then with a roar
through the land Tunnel beneath
the Huds ver we burst upon
New: York The Cotton Exchange and
the Stock Exchange there were visit-
ed through the courtesy of Robert
M. Harriss, of Harriss and Vose,
formerly of Dallas. And we had a
pleasant talk with George S. Will-
man, of the firm of Harriss and
Vose, who attended Texas A. and M.
College in 1894 when former Gov-
ernor Lawrence Sullivan Ross was
president and George Bartlett was
commandant.
Huley Horn didn’t particularly ap-
prove of New York traffic but there
wasn’t time to do anything about it.
The beauty of Riverside Drive and
the Hudson River in the early morn-
ing did much to calm jumpy nerves,
however, as we left the metropolis
on the final leg of the overland jour-
ney to Montreal. Brief stop was made
at the. Boyce Thompson Institute for
Plant Research, Inc., at Yonkers, N.
Y., to observe cotton research work
there.
Then there was nothing to do but
enjoy the beauty of the Hudson Riv-
er valley and the lake country of
Northern New York as we pushed on
to our port of embarkation for the
journey across the Atlantic. The
scenic wonderland about Lake George,
Schroon Lake in the Adirondacks and
historic Lak Champlain afforded
plenty of enjoyment.
At Chestertown, N. Y., where we
stopped for the night at Meadow
Brook Farm, operated by a thrifty
New York upstate farmer, Huley
Horn and Otis Beasley organized a
little social soiree. The farmer's
daughter had a friend and a phono-
graph and there was dancing. How-
ever, the farmer and his wife kept
early hourse and at 10 o’clock the
strains of the final waltz softly fad-
ed away.
Road signs on entering Canada
were in both French and English.
We used only the English directions,
never once needing the French to
reach our destination. Huley, Tom
and Otis found a very talented bar-
ber, so they reported, in Montreal.
The tailor they called upon about a
little matter of pants pressing didn't
prove so popular. He wanted $2.50
for a cleaning and pressing job. He
still wants it, I guess. I learned
from Huley he didn’t get the job.
I don’t think Montreal prices had
anything to do with it, but there
were many Scotch people on the
Letitia when she steamed down the
St Lawrence the next morning. The
journey to Liverpool was very pleas-
ant and more or less noteworthy.
We saw icebergs, glistening like
great jewels in the sunlight, off the
Labrador coast.
Tom, Huley and Otis became ex-
pert tea drinkers at ten, two and
four. Huley didn’t miss a meal a-
board. Tom retired to his cabin for
a brief period. It wasn’t seasickness,
he said. He just wanted to rest. Mr.
and Mrs. Mogford missed few meal
calls. Mr. Mogford did leave the table
rather hurriedly one day. But he
wasn’t hungry. He wore a brave and
valiant smile as he bowed himself
away.
Costume dance aboard proved 4
very colorful affair Two babies were
born at sea and rocked in the cradle
of the deep, so to speak. Most of the
Irish passengers got off at Belfast.
We left the ship at Liverpool. And
then a series of quiet but interesting
adventures began.
pa
A——
L. W. “Lem” or “Light” Webb ’27,
sends in his dues with the news of
his transfer early in the year from
Denver to Chicago, Ill. He is with
the American Telephone Company,
208 West Washington Street, Chi-
cago He says he’s chasing decibels
instead of coulombs and that he has
been fairly lucky in everyhing but
love.
ee
—
William Tautenhahn ’15, was elect-
ed commissioner of precinct 3, Har-
ris county, in the recent elections.
This precinct covers a rich agricul-
tural and industrial area of the coun-
ty and the position was hotly con-
tested for. The election of Tautenhahn
came as a distinct surprise to the
politicians of the county. He makes
his home at Westfield, Harris coun-
ty.
Roy E. Biffle ’30, is with the State
Highway Department and located at
this time at Buffalo, Texas.
Max Gilfillan ’17, was a recent
campus visitor. He is in the brick
business and has a big plant at Lin-
dale, Texas. His bricks are going
into several of the new buildings at
A. and M.
Harry Keeton Jr. ’30, has moved
from Tulsa to Oklahoma City, where
he gets his mail in Box 1164. He
reports prospects up there as “look-
ing” good.