| HURRICANE
HAZARD
88
By R. H. WILKINSON
<£ Bell Syndicate.—WNU Service.
/ / y T s,tlil*l wonder," 1 saiil mus
I ingly, "that hotels entering to
I seasonal trade are Inclined to
charge high rates for what they
offer. Why, take here in Miami, for
example. The season can hardly be
called longer than three months, four
at the most. During the remaining
eight, or nine months all these hotels
are vacant. There i absolutely no rev
enue for maintenance cost, taxes, In
surance and the dozens of oilier ex
penses sudi a project entails."
I’eside me. Col. .Joe. Tucker chuckled
at some memory my words revived.
The colonel nnd I are friends of long
standing. Today we were seated on
the veranda of his winter home at
Miami beach looking out over ; brassy
sea. overshadowed by n leaden, cloud
less sky. it was parly May. The tour
ist season was past. An atmosphere of
desolation and forlornness hung over
the city.
The day was iint, though the mer
cury was considerably less than the
average northerner Is apt to think of
It being In Florida, between May and
N< vemher. A gentle breeze swept up
from the water, and was cooled In the
shade of palm trees and oleanders be
fore reaching the veranda. To the
right the tup stories of the famous
Reach hotel were visible above a
fringe of cocoa nut paints. It was sight
of this man-made structure that had
prompted my remark, for Rorls Flake,
Its owner, Is n close friend of the col
onel, hence one with whom I am In
clined to sympathize.
Colonel Tuck r net tire to a long
black cigar and crossed ids legs atop
the veranda railing.
‘‘Back in lO-il," he said, “the city of
Miami was nearly wiped off the map
l,y n hurricane. You remember It.
Worst storm on record. Hundreds of
buildings whisked away as if they had
been so many cardboard boxes. Thou
sands of dollars worth of property ut
terly ruined. The extent of the dam
age reached an astounding figure.
“It was a setback to Miami and ad
jacent cities. It meant years of jvork
to rebuild wlmt had been destroyed.
And worse still it meant the greater
undertaking of dispelling In the minds
of outsiders, who had been In the
habit of coming to Florida during the
winter, the Idea that such a storm was
apt to repent itself during the tourist
season. Even now your northern pa
pers announce that Miami Is being
swept by a hurricane every time the
wind blows at n slightly greater than
normal velocity. Up In New England
you can have high tides, blizzards anil
100-mlle-nn-hour gales and they’ll nev
er be called any more than a bad
storm.
"However, Miami was confronted
with the job of overcoming the hur
ricane hazard. She had to convince
you northerners that there was a sea
son for hurricanes and that season be
gan In late August, and ended In late
October. And, second, she had to do
something to assure the folks who
sometimes stayed down here during
the summer months, that In the event
of a second storm such as that In
1020 there were shelters that could
withstand the ravages.
"Boris Flake built the first hurri
cane-proof hotel. (And incidentally
there haven't been tunny built since.)
It cost him thousands of dollars. In
fact several thousand more than he
had anticipated. When the thing was
done he discovered Ids finances ex
hausted anil his creditors pressing.
Hopeful of realizing a profit on Jiis in
vestment, however, be held on during
the winter season of 1027, only 10 dis
cover that either the storm of the
previous year had cared off the tour
ist trade, or Miami wasn’t going to be
the popular winter resort tlmt natives
had bragged about. At any rate, busi
ness wasn't so brisk that winter, and
by the end of the season bis financial
condition hadn't Improved to any
marked degree.
“The outlook seemed pretty black.
Boris decided to stay on the ground
during tlie summer, however, and
spend Ids idle time in concocting some
plan whereby he could retrieve some
of Ids investment. An old hand at
tlie hotel game Is Boris; thoughts of
admitting defeat were too humiliating
to lie considered.
"During August of that summer
Boris got a break. Weather authori
ties predicted that a hurricane of
great velocity was naklng up in the
Caribbean and was heading straight
for Miami. Tlie report got around that
the city was again doomed. Govern
ment officials advised every one to
either get out of the clt.v or take shel
ter In some building that could with
stand the storm.
“Folks begun to look around for
such a building, and it wasn't long be
fore they discovered that Boris' Reach
hotel was the only structure in town
guaranteed hurricane-proof. The re
sult was quite astounding, and satis
fying to Boris. Before he realized what
was happening more than half of the
rooms in his hotel were engaged by
frightened citizens. At tills point he
awoke to the situation and auctioned
off the remaining beds nt prices that
were higher than his winter rates.
‘‘For more than two weeks the beach
was filled to capacity, while the pre
dicted hurricane went prancing
around the Atlantic, nnd finally
sheered off the coast by reason of
some climatic fluke, and spent Itself
at sea.
"But Boris was grateful. The money
that he had taken in was clear velvet.
Moreover, the incident served ns a
splendid advertisement. The name of
the Beach was emblazoned on the
front pages of newspapers nil over
the country as the only hotel in which
hundreds of people sought refuge
against the anticipated hurricane.
“Boris opened up the next December
and did a normal business throughout
the winter. However, by spring he was
still In the red and ids creditors were
pressing harder than ever. If it hadn’t
been for the fact that the next August
another hurricane was predicted and
the Beach enjoyed a repetition of the
previous summer's business, he would
likely have bad to board up the doors
and windows. But with the profits re
ceived from frightened hurricane es
capers. lie managed to stall off the
creditors, and was able to open up for
his third season.”
The colonel paused In the telling of
Ids tale and looked out across the
lawn and over the fringe of eocoanut *
palms toward the top stories of the
famous lteach hotel. I saw the twinkle
In the old man's eyes and said: “Boris
was never closed out. then? The hotel
Is prosperous now; a paying proposi
tion?”
Colonel Tucker nodded. “No,” he
said thoughtfully, “no, Boris never had
to close up. But it was the summer
trade that kept him going; still Is, as
a matter of fact. He couldn’t compete
with the other hotels during the winter
because his overhead was so great.”
lie paused, and the twinkle developed
into a smile. “Every August, now, j
folks move into the Beach and stay
there until after the hurricane season
is over. Boris makes a regular busl
ness of the trade, sells his rooms out
in advance and has never failed to
have a full house.”
“Which means,” I suggested, “that,
every summer, weather officials pre
dict a storm making up in the Carib
bean and heading toward Miami with
disastrous Intent. That hardly seems
possible."
Colonel Tucker nodded amusedly.
“It isn’t pcssible, and yet the rumor
somehow gets around.” He paused
abruptly, looked at me with a shrewd
expression in his eyes. There was also
in his tone a note of reprimand.
“Didn’t I just tell you that Boris was
an old and accomplished hand at the
hotel game?” Suddenly he laughed.
“Excuse me. I forgot we three are all
good friends. You see, the weather
officials don’t always report the com
ing of a destructive storm during Au
gust. But Boris does."
"Mott Accurate" Clocks Made
Declared to be the tour most ac
curate clocks In the world, novel time
pieces nre being exhibited by the
Keiths Institute for Physics in Berlin,
where they were made. They are op
erated by the vibrations of a quartz
crystal, and nre said to deviate from
the right time only 0.002 seconds in six
months. The crystal Is hung in h
vacuum glass tube which is placed In
side a box surrounded by a second box.
The walls of both boxes nre composed
of copper tubes, air, aluminum and
teatliers, which keep the temperature
within unchanged. An electric current
is sent through the crystal which vi
brates 60,000 times a second, and these
vibrations influence an alternating cur
rent which keeps the clock going.
Fearful Sultan of Turkey
No monarch ever lived In greater
fear of Ids life than Abdul Hamid,
sultan of Turkey, 1876-1009. Although
Yildiz palace In Constantinople was
highly fortified, his private rooms con
tained trap doors, ndrrors set at an
gles, loaded revolvers and lifelike wax
models of himself—in various posi
tions— which he hoped would fool as
sassins nml receive the knife or bul
lets Intended for him.—Collier’s Week
ly. _
Thackeray’* Dread
The novelist's great fear Is that he
may write himself out, his Invention
might become weary. Thackeray told
the world how lie himself felt this fa
tigue and how he often wished he could
get some one (o do "the business” of
ids stories. The love-making parts of
“the business” particularly annoyed
him, and made him blush, in the pri
vacy of liis study, "as if he were going
into an apoplexy."
Deciding on Name U. S. A.
The name United States of America
was agreed to by the Constitutional
convention on August 7, 1787, in con
sidering the report of the committee
of detail. The selection of this name
was logical, since It was composed of
states which were uniting, and the
whole country was commonly termed
America.
Let Our Motto Be
GOOD HEALTH
BY DR. LLOYD ARNOLD
Professor of Bacteriology and Preventive
I Medicine, University of Illinois,
College of Medicine.
STREAMLINE HEALTH
Streamline construction of automo
biles, railway locomotives and trains
is becoming so com
mon no w t h n t
streamline seems to
lie n fixed word In
the I n n g tt n g e .
Streamline con
struction Is associ
ated with speed,con
venience and com
fort ; in other words,
with increased efli
ciency.
Have y r n ever
stopped to consider
■ that, due to the ef
forts of your public licalth ofliclnls, you
liave more etiicleut health than your
grandfathers had, or that your father
had In his youth? You really have
streamline health. You can work hard
er for more years of your life than
your forefathers did.
In 1835 the span of life expectancy
was only 30 years; today, 1935, it is ap
proximately increased exactly 100 per
cent.
We take It so for granted today that
a large city is a healthy place In which
to live that It Is difficult to think back
to the 17S0-1S30 half century when
I.ondon was changing from virtually a
village to the first great Industrial cen
ter of modern times. That half century
was the beginning of tin* machine age.
And that beginning took a tremen
dous toll of life. The country popula
tion flocked Into I.ondon to get the pit
tance of the machine, hut as soon as
they came they died. The crowded
squalid living conditions and the long
dark hours were too hard. Though the
Inlltix was constant. It was no', enough
to balance the rapid death rate. An
authority of that time made the state
ment in 1800 that the death rate was
In proportion to the density of the pop
ulation. He said he hnd observed that
the more people were congregated to
gether In cities, the higher was the
death toll.
If this condition had continued to he
true—during the one hundred and thir
ty-five years since that time, I doubt
If we would have any cities of over
10,000 population. No one would want
to live In such unhealthful places.
Hut we have made vast progress In
safeguarding health. The health con
trolling agencies have made It possible
to keep healthy ns many people as the
architects and engineers can concen
trate in any given area. Indeed, the
present-day death rate In large cities
is as low If not lower than In sparsely
populated rural communities.
It Is not only doctors thnt are In
charge of this public health service.
There are many other highly educated,
well-trained men and women responsi
ble for a large part of the success of
the work.
First there are the sanitary engi
neers who are employed In the prac
tical application of the principles of
sanitary science, such as safeguarding
our drinking water. This requires a
knowledge of the biological life In
streams nnd rivers, nnd of stream pol
lution with human nnd animal excreta
and with Industrial wastes. Mosquito
control also monies In this department,
and the engineers must know about
the life nnd breeding habits of mosqui
toes, and must be able to Identify the
various mosquito ruces so as to distin
guish those which carry malaria, yel
low fever nnd dengue fever.
If you could peep Into the depart
ment of vital statistics of your state
health oflices, you might wonder what
the mathematicians you saw there
would have to do with health. They
seem to be keeping books, but the
books are those nearest to St. Peter.
You and I are on their books. They
make two records for each of us: our
entrance Into this world and our exit
from It.
The department of communicable
diseases is made up of doctors who
have smecialized in this field. Then
there are laboratories in which there
are many persons trained in bacteri
ology, serology and chemistry. They
make tests and analyses of nil sorts.
In brief, every matter connected with
public health in any way comes under
the supervision of your state depart
ment of public health.
It is due to this supervision that wo
no longer fear typhoid fever, cholera or
other epidemic diseases.
Hut while we have made enormous
strides in public health, most of them
in the last hundred years, we public
health officials are far from satisfied.
We want ttie public health to he much
better than It Is. We want, for instance,
to wipe diphtheria ofT the face of the
earth. We have the knowledge to do It
now, and if every parent in the coun
try would co-operate, we could accom
plish it.
£). Western Newnpapcr UnloL
Tfloni&c'i/tai
The Black Virgin of Montserrat
Prepared by the National Orographic Society.
Washington. D. C.-WNU Service.
HA HOLY out of sight of the
smoking factory chimneys and
scarcely out of hearing of the
noise and bustle of Barcelona,
busiest and most restless city of Spain,
a medieval Benedictine monastery
clings to tlie face of a fantastic stone
peak that rises boldly from the brown
foothills of Ciitnlnna (Catalonia). It
is Montserrat, the nation's holiest
shrine, to which thousands of tho Span
ish faithful make pilgr'mage each year
to pay homage to what Is called the
Black Virgin.
Montserrat Is the name of the
strange mountain, and also of the mon
astery, which clings like a swallow's
nest halfway up Us precipitous cliffs.
The Black Virgin, a wooden image
darkened h.v age, is not tlie only rea
son why It Is a place of pilgrimage.
Montserrat, In Catalan tradition, is tho
Monsnlvatsh or Monsalvat of the Mid
dle nges, site of the castle of the Holy
Grail. The Arabs called It Gistnns. or
the stone watchman. Here Ignatius of
Loyola, a wounded soldier, knelt In
prayer, and went away to found the
Society of Jesus. In more recent yenrs
the Montserrat choir school has be
come celebrated.
Montserrat is accessible to Barcelona
by both railway and road. One way Is
as picturesque as tlie other; for, while
the highway climbs to the monastery
In n series of hairpin turns and horse
shoe curves, the last few miles of the
35-mlle railway Journey may he made
on a narrow-gauge rnck-nnd-pinlon line
or In the tubbing enge of a new aerial
cableway.
Trip There Is Interesting.
Many, who are In no hurry, choose
the railway and the rnck-and-plnlon
route. Once clear of the spreading
suburbs of Barcelona, the main-line
railroad strikes boldly out Into the
beautiful plain of Sartlnnola. The
countryside here resembles southern
California ! There nre green fields with
angular Irrigation ditches; rocky river
bottoms, rising at first gently and then
abruptly. Into brush-covered foothills;
nnd scraggly nnd unkempt clumps of
eucalyptus and pepper trees around
the water holes.
Gradually the scenery changes, ns
It enters a region of Irregular hills
and rocky valleys, sparsely covered
with vegetation. The line twists and
turns, now hurdling a deep ravine on
a stone viaduct, now plunging Into a
short tunnel. The cars sway drunken
ly from side to side a-, they climb to
the plateau.
Not until one is very close to Mont
serrat does the mountain come Into
view. The train emerges from n tun
nel nnd suddenly a giant mass of rock
seems to spring from the foothills, fling
ing a thousand cathedral pinnacles
skyward! As the train swings closer,
so that only n deep river valley sep
nrates It from the Brohdingnnglan
mass, a fantastic stine forest of
smoothly weathered domes, sugar
loaves, minarets and organ pipes Is
silhouetted against the sky.
Of the monastery nothing ts visible
at first. Then, one catches a glimpse
of tiny buildings which seem to bo
carved from the rocky cliffs them
selves. The little buildings nre rath
er extensive; but against tlie vast hulk
of the mountain they seem no larger
tl an wren honsps.
Thousand Years Old.
The group of buildings snugly fills
a notch or narrow ravine cut deep
Into the mountain side. A thousand
feet above it, the topmost pinnacles
of the mountains rise menacingly, bul
the notch Is safe enough.
While most of the present buildings
are comparatively new. the monastery
Itself dates from A. D. U7G; and legend
reports that a nunnery that preceded
it was founded In 880. So faithfully
huve the monks followed the lines of
the older parts of the monastery In
making additions that even the new
garage, for modern pilgrims who come
by motor, has an age-old air of perma
nence. There Is no embellishment any
where except on the chapel, with Its
rounded apse.
The archway emerges into a sun-lft
plaza or market place, tilled with low
land peasants hawking their wares,
nnd groups of pilgrims of all classes
actively and noisily bargaining for
food.
A traveler directei to n terraced ar
cade at the far side of the court, with
in which Is the office, was given some
what of a surprise. Over the desk of
tl.e father In charge of pilgrim regis
tration was a shining electric light,
nnd at his right linnd was a telephone!
He had not expected such Innovations
in n Benedictine monastery.
Had he been better acquainted with
the rule of St. Benedict he would have
known that the manner of life among
Benedictine monks has never been
austere.
The fattier takes your name and
place of abode nnd Informs you that
you may remain for three days. You
are then assigned to a room, given an
armful of linen, nnd turned over to a
lay brother. Solemnly the latter leads
the way through the sepulchral corri
dors of one of the large dormitories,
fitfully lighted here and there by a
dim electric light hull), to a small,
plainly furnished room overlooking one
of the courts. It is clenn and neat,
with two iron beds, a table, a chair, a
basin, an empty waterpot, and a can
dlestick without a candle. The lay
brother hands yon a key. Informs you
thnt meals can be taken In the res
taurant of the monastery, accepts a
small tip under protest, and with
draws.
Tne Black Virgin.
As the monk's echoing footsteps re
cede down the, corridor, something of
the blissful pence and quiet of the
place steals over you The clear sun
pours through the window, dazzling
bright against the whitewashed walls.
In order to see the sacred Image
which Is shown at the 10 o’clock mass
one hurries down to the courtyard. A
steady stream of worshipers flies
through the cnrved doorway of the
basilica. According to legend. La
Morenetn, ns the Black Virgin Is called,
was carved by St. Luke himself and
brought to Barcelona A. D. 50 by St.
Peter. During the Moorish Invasion
and occupation It was hidden by Chris
tian monks in one of the caves of Mont
serrat near the site of the present
monastery. Years Inter shepherds dis
covered It and told stories of strange
music heard in the vicinity.
An effort was made to bring It down
from the mountain, but. although the
statue Is not quite life-size. It could
not he moved beyond the ledge where
the monastery now stands. The basil
ica, accordingly, was erected to pro
tect It, and the monastery built to care
for the throngs of pilgrims who
climbed the mountnin to worship at
the Virgin’s shrine. Especially do
young couples come to Montserrat, for
the blessing of La Moreneta Is said to
Insure a happy union.
The dlnglnoss of the Interior of the
bnsilicn serves only to accentuate the
brilliance of the altar, with Its Jewels,
silver plnte and bright vestments. It
tvns on this altar In the Sixteenth cen
tury that Loyola laid his sword when
he abandoned Ids military life to de
vote himself to the service of Christ.
Above the high altar, surrounded by
lighted candles. Is n small stage con
cealed by two velvet curtains. You
keep your eye on those curtnlns for
you know the imnge must be back of
them. Presently the ehnnting of the
priests Increases In volume, and the
curtains nre drawn slowly nslde.
You gasp! Even though you have
been told tlmt the Imnge Is blackened
from age. you had not expected any
thing like this. White vestments and
a light background make the face and
the hands gleam like Jet 1 For a silent
moment everyone gazes, and then the
curtains drop together. Only so long
is the sacred Image exposed to view.