Newspaper Page Text
Radio Script Wins First Scholastic Writing Award A 15-year-old Gonzaga High sophomore won first prize in the Scholastic Writing Awards Con test, conducted in this area by The Evening Star, with his first radio drama script, it was announced today. Thomas J. Walsh, son of Mr. and Mrs. J. Herbert Walsh, 1747 Shepherd street N.W., won out over more than 800 contestants in the 21 fields of writing. Tom’s script was entitled “The Emerald Flame,” a story of St. Patrick and the lighting of the first \fire on Easter morning. Second place winner was Miss Lorraine Glaberman, 17, daugh ter of Mr. and Mrs. Irving H. Glaberman, 757 Upsal street S.E. Her prize entry was an essay, “A Eulogy for Barbara.” Lorraine is a senior at Anacostia High. Tom received a portable type waiter, presented by the Under wood Typewrriter Co., and Lorraine was given a fountain pen and pencil set by the L. E. Waterman Co. Both Winners Surprised. Both winners seemed surprised at their selection. They said they thought their other entries in this and former contests were better than the ones chosen. “I entered a psychological drama called ‘Janus Is a Two faced God,’ ” Tom said, “and I thought it was much better than ‘The Emerald Flame,’ which I wrote when I was a freshman.” Tom learned his script-writing technique as a member of the Ra dio Guild at Gonzaga. The guild, composed of about 30 members, is advised by Mr. Joseph Kerns, S.J. “We have a half-hour weekly program over WBUZ-FM and we write scripts for it.” Tom explained. He won a second prize at the school in a writing contest with the script that didn't win this time. He also is active in the school’s dramatic society and has a supporting role in a production of the group this wTeek. Lorraine’s essay was inspired by the death of a schoolmate. Helped By Teacher. “I almost didn’t enter it because one of my teachers told me the judges either w’ould like it a great deal or dislike it tremendously,” Lorraine said. However, she said her teacher, Mrs. Agnes T. Beck with helped her a great deal by reading it and making comments. Lorraine who is a member of the Leaders Club, a school honor ary society, and of the Debate Club, and is an assistant editor of the yearbook, The Totem Pole, plans to study journalism at the University of Maryland when she is graduated next February. “Who knows,” she said to a re porter, “maybe I’ll have your job on The Star someday.” Last year one of Lorraine's poems, “On Memories,” was printed in the National Anthology of Poetry. The final judges were more than an hour deciding between the two winning entries and “A New Face,” 1 ' ' .. by Betty Jo Whitten of Washing ton-Lee High School and “Globe Trotters,” a sports story by Bill McNaughton of Montgomery Blair High School. Preliminary Judges. The preliminary judges for the contest were Dr. John L. Lewis, Wilson Teacher's College; Dr. Ivan E. Taylor, Howard University: Richard Finnegan, Catholic Uni versity; Ferdinand Ruge, St. Al ban’s and the following from the editorial staff of The Evening Star; John A. Cline, Francis P. Douglas, Carter B. Jones, Ralph L. McCabe. Charles M. Egan, Fletcher Isbell, Newbold Noyes, jr.; Bel mont Faries, Rex Collier, Wil lian H. Harrison. Bill Coyle and Howard P. Bailey. The judges who considered the final selections to select the first and second-prize winners of the entire contest were Dr. Rudd Flem ing, Maryland University; Dr Richard N. Foley, Catholic Uni versity; Dr. Richard H. Moore, George Washington University and Dr. John Clendenin, American University. - A complete list of winners will be printed in The Star tomorrow. CONTEST PRIZE-WINNERS — Lorraine Giaberman, 17, of Anacostia, winner of second prize, and first-place winner Thomas J. Walsh, 15, of Gonzaga, look over their awards. The typewriter was first prize. —Star Staff Photo. Six Airmen Taken From Ice Floe In Arctic Ocean Plane Rescue By the Associated Press ANCHORAGE, Alaska, Mar. 15. —Six Air Force men were snatched to safety from their floating camp site 130 miles north of the tip of Alaska in the Arctic Ocean Mon day, the Alaskan Air Command disclosed today. A big grinding iceberg which looked like its nickname—Cathe dral—was blamed. The camp—an experimental air rescue station—had been estab lished February 20 on a huge ice floe. Sunday the icepack and an ice berg began to overlap, with huge chunks being broken off. When forced to depart, the men left behind all but a very few items. Some of the huts used as homes on the floating island had been damaged before a ski and wheel equipped C-47 transport plane picked up the men and took them to Barter Island, on the North Alaska coast, thence here. Two of the eight men stationed at the camp had been flown out earlier on a resupply mission. Personnel stationed at the “Polar Air Force base” included: Capt. M. F. Brinegar, Falls City, Nebr.; Catholic Chaplain Capt. Tom Cunningham, Little Diomede Island. Alaska; T Sergt. Keith R. Clemmons. Trenton, Mich.: Sergt. Donald H. Gardner, Clarendon, Pa.: Lt. Jesse F. Char bula, Port Lavaca. Tex.; S Sergt. Hubert B. Rooney, Norwood, Mass.: Corpl. Joseph X. Gauthier, Shrewsbury, Mass., and Corpl. James F. Flannigan, Long Beach, Calif. The Air Force did not disclose which six were the last to be plucked from their frigid floe. The station was an experiment to determine the feasibility of es tablishing a semipermanent res cue station in the polar area. British Protestants Ob ject to Princess Visiting Pope Pius By th« Associated Press LONDON, Mar. 15.—A Prot estant group campaigned today to prevent Princess Elizabeth from visiting Pope Pius XII when she goes to Rome next month. A similar campaign by the same group—the National Union of Protestants, numbering about 20, 000 members—did not deter Prin cess Margaret from calling on the Pontiff when she went to Rome in 1949. There has been no public an nouncement that Elizabeth would visit the Pope, but reports pre dicting such a call have been car ried in the British press. The Protestant Union drew' up a resolution yesterday declaring that it would be “dangerous to tije safety of the British Empire" if the Princess were to visit the Pope. “The union believes it is un constitutional for a prospective British monarch to have an audi ence with the Pope,” the resolu tion said. Second-Place Essay: A Eulogy for Barbara This is the essay that took second place in the Scholastic Writing Awards contest: By Lorraine Glaberman It*s funny how you think about a person after they’ve died: your im pressions change and you suddenly find yourself remembering the life things they did or said. You say. "Remember the time we did . . . She said . . . Weren't we burned up!" And so it goes, Barbara is dead. As I write this now it seems al most sacrilegious, for I believe in heaven, and I believe that some where in Eternity Barbara is looking dowm and reading the words: Barbara is dead. And I feel: How does she think of them? Should I witness a sort of shame in writing this, to take advantage of a per son's soul to put a few words down on paper? As these sentences tumble out. I can feel or think I feel a hole being bored at the back of my neck, as if I were being stared at, hard, bv a pair of eyes. Until a short time ago. I used to think of death as something ouite beyond my reach, something that was sad and tragic in books, something that happened to old people of whom it was always said: “Ah well, she’s better off where she is.” This was much dif ferent. This was my friend, Bar bara. She was 17. The last time I saw Barbara was at a sorority meeting. She was vi vacious and boisterous as always in a pair of dark slacks. Her hair was long, just below her shoulders, nor short and close to her head as was the rest of the girls’. Her eyes were big, black and so very dark, and she was chewing gum. crack ing it with every other breath. I remember someone telling her she looked like a street girl with her mouth going a mile a minute but she only laughed some more. We were happy then: we planned our coming dance with joyous ex pectation, paid dues, delighted in seeing people we hadn’t seen for some weeks and decided to lecture the pledges, who had been acting very dumb and naive, at the next meeting. When we left, we just yelled a hasty “So long,” never dreaming that we wouldn’t see Bar bara again. At that same time the next week, she w»as in the isolation ward at a local hospital. We prayed for her, half-heartedly, so sure that, of course, she w'ould get better. People we knew so well and so young never died. They always recovered. There were a few of us, Lois, Pau line, Marlene, and I, her closet friends who wanted more than any thing to see her. It W'as impossible, the hospital said; she was in isola tion. But we went anyway. It was Friday, a crisp cold sunny Friday in December. The trees were bare and the streets quiet, for the children were at school. The night before, we learned that Bar bara had contracted pneumonia and somehow we just couldn’t seem to concentrate on our schoolwork. So we went to the hospital. Lois came by for me in the car about nine, and we picked up the other girls. It was very cold, or at least seemed so. and the sun wasn't warm. It seemed like a lump of cold, nard gold. Yes, that’s the word to ex plain it . . . hard. I hated to have the sun on me that morning. Driving to the hospital was a dull, quiet affair. It wasn't at all like the noisy Saturday afternoon rides we used to take almost reli giously. No one spoke except Lois, who said “Damn” when a car, going over the speed limit, brushed' nervously near us. w« parked on a vacant lot and walked to the hospital. It was large and sprawling and we didn't know which building to turn to hrst. We stood helplessly in the middle of the long cement path, and the four of us must have presented a sorry sight, our hair disheveled by the wind, our coats blowing out behind us and a look of worry and excitement on our faces. A nurse, coming up the walk pointed out the building we wanted but added hastily. “You can’t go up there.” We nodded and smiled agreeably, waiting until she was out of sight behind another building before con tinuing on our way. We went into the hallway, blink ing our eyes to accustom them to the dimness and looked around. There was no one in sight, The hall was emoty and, except for the strong smell of antiseptic which hung thick in the air, it seemed like any other building at any other time. We saw stairs to the side and a small sign which told us the isolation ward was on the second floor. The elevator looked inviting to our tired feet, but we didn't dare, for there was always the chance of being caught and sent out of the building. We trudged up to the second floor and down a^ong corridor. Lois said, “She's in 203.” None of us ever questioned how* Lois knew the room numbber. We didn't say a word. When we got within a few feet of the door and heard a move ment inside, we were afraid to go on. We were afraid to see Barbara, how she looked and what condition she was in. None of us said a word, but the same thoughts, I am sure, went through the minds of all of us. Lois caught at my sleeve and pulled me on. “Come on,” she whispered "We've come all the way for this. You don't want to turn back now.” She and I stepped in front of the door while the others stood seveial yards down the hall and looked in the small window so typical of an isolation ward. An iron lung stood against one wall and we caught sight of Bar bara's mass of dark hair. There was a nurse feeding her through her nose. I wanted to knock on the window and gain the nurse's attention, thinking she might be liberal enough to let us catch a glimpse of Bar bara, but as my hand moved up ward, a nurse came walking down the corridor, her flat heels making a series of soft thuds on the linoleum floor. She was furious with anger, and she sent us out of the building, following us all the way to the door, making sure we would not re-enter. As we passed under Barbara’s window, her nurse called softly to us and asked if we were her friends. To our affirmative answers, she told us to stand a few feet back from the building and she would hold a mirror in front of Barbara so that she could see us. She was very kind. We stood for a few seconds and then Marlene called: “Does she recognize us?” The nurse disappeared and then returned. “Question’’ was all she answered, letting us interpret it in our own way. Soon she was bach again and said, “Barbara thanks you for coming.” That was all. She closed the window. And the five of us stood silently, unmoving, feeling helpless ana young and ignorant. Marlene pushed at a stone with tiie toe of her shoe, and I saw there were tears in her eyes. We moved back to the car, dragging our feet, and Lois and I told the others what we had seen. That day we stood in the bright and yet cold sunshine, with so many prayers for Barbara going throupi our heads that quite suddenly and unbelieveably my mind was a com plete blank. It was so quiet. 1110 earth of the vacant lot was a dry brownish color with tiny stubs ol grass that seemed to be swept across the held by the wind. All the leaves had left the trees; all the life had left everything. I think we must have had a sense of utter helpless ness, watching days go by, watch ing an organism die, and knowing there is nothing we could do about it. So the days passed. I don’t know where they went, but suddenly we were just on the brink of Christ mas. And it w-ould be a good Christ mas, for Barbara was getting bet ter. Acquaintances of hers, people who didn’t know her well thought and said loudly and assuredly that, of course, she would recover. There was no doubt about it. Barbara would get well. And Barbara died on Christmas night. When every one was full not only with roast turkey and chestnut stuffing, but with goodwill and good cheer as well, Barbara passed away. We never even knew either until the next afternoon, so, of course, we spent Christmas night in a buoyant frame of mind, and this time Bar bara was last in our thoughts. Hadn’t she asked her mother when she could come home, and hadn’t she sent us a message thanking us for the get-well cards we had sent? sent* I, who had never known a person to die, now faced the thought of lasing to God and Eternity one of my best friends. The grief of a mother can never be measured. All of us, her friends, relations and even mere acquaint ances ielt helpless and so down trodden at the funeral home. After the services, as they carried the casket to the waiting car, we girls of the scrority lined up to form a path. I remember feeling as if I were standing in some ancient Roman building with just high, white pillars stretching up to the sky and on all sides of me, as if I were al! alone, watching the picture of what was happening. I felt an overwhelming desire, a terrible wish to help Barbara's mother. I felt overpowered by all the unknown and mysterious sources of death around me. Older people—they knew and un derstood death. Perhaps they had witnessed it; had seen their parents and brothers or sisters die. How had they felt upon seeing a loved one consigned to the ground? I have tried to ask myself, and I have tried to ask God many times | over—What could the death of a ! young girl have to justify in this j world, where too many people are living without a purpose and with iout a goal? And to all these ques ; tions. how ever many times I may ask them, there is only one answer: It is not for me to say. We ll probably always remember ; Barbara. Even now, almost one year after she died, I sometimes catch myself thinking of her at the oddest moments—at a movie, laugh ing at a joke some one told, just falling off to sleep. Barbara is a symbol; she is a sym bol of all girls who died at seven teen. She is a symbol to us, her. friends, who now realize, young though we are, we have many things to accomplish before we, too, are summoned to join the “innumerable caravan.” But there are many peo ple who will remember only too viv idly and never forget the memory of a plump, dark-haired girl, singing lustily and living exuberantly. For them, there is only time. U. S. Army Once Small At the time the Spanish-Ameri can war broke out, the United States Army consisted of only 2,000 officers and 25,000 men. Franco Cracks Down On General Strike By the Associated Press BARCELONA, Spain, Mar. 15.— Some 50,000 workers in Catalonia's Outlying industrial cities who left their jobs three days ago protest ing high living costs were expected to end their general strike today. The government cracked down on the strikers with threats of dismissal. The order said the workers were to lose pay for time spent on strike. The strike was widespread in surrounding districts, but 90 per cent of the workers in Barcerona, Spain’s second largest city, re turned to their jobs yesterday. Mayor Manresa warned that if the remaining 10 per cent did not show up today, they would be fired. He told employers that if they did not have enough man power to operate, their businesses would be closed indefinitely. Arrests of demonstrators con tinued in Barcelona, where al ready 200 persons have been imprisoned. Two persons were killed and many were injured in two days of disturbances. U. S. Owns Hot Springs HOT SPRINGS. Ark.—The hot springs of Arkansas, 47 in num ber, are Government owned and operated. Luxembourg Grants U. S. Hamm Military Cemetery By tht Associated Press LUXEMBOURG. Mar. 15.—A small parcel of the tiny Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is to be come virtually American soil Tuesday. It is the military cemetery of Hamm, near Luxembourg City where Gen. George Patton and 6,000 American soldiers are buried. A treaty will be signed here Tuesday by Foreign Affairs Min ister Joseph Bech and United States Minister Perle Mesta. Un der the treaty Luxembourg will grant the United States a perma nent and indefinite lease on the territory of the Hamm Cemetery. It provides for special tax exemp tions and facilities for the Ameri can personnel who will be brought in to insure maintenance of the cemetery. Nat Cole's Home Seized LOS ANGELES, Mar. 15 — Internal Revenue agents yesterday seized Musician Nat (King) Cole’s $85,000 residence and big sedan for non-payment of $146,000 in taxes covering 1947-8-9. Neigh bors protested when Cole bought the house in the Hancock Park region in 1948, but when the Su preme Court outlawed race-re stricting covenants the protests died. Music Lessons on Television Tried Here With Fine Results Some 200 District school chil dren have received their first les sons in music via television. School officials and Television Station WNBW yesterday put on the 45-minute TV class—the first tried in the Washington area. It was received by the pupils scat tered in five elementary schools. Everybody concerned pro claimed the first TV classroom a success. The experiment will be continued weekly for the next seven weeks. Youngsters par ticipating will be tested at the end of that time to see if the classes are valuable enough to continue. Dr. Carl F. Hansen, associate school superintendent, said tele vision was no substitute for the classroom teacher. He added: “But, it can be used to bring the skills of the music and art teachers to every classroom in the city. He learned from the first lesson that the students do more than watch the screen. They par ticipate.” The teacher in this first experi ment was Mrs. Emma Nauman of the Patterson Elementary School. Her sixth-grade class was at the television studio in the Wardman Park Hotel to furnish atmosphere and participate. Other classes in the Cooke, Murch, Takoma. Grant and Kings man Elementary Schools took part via television sets installed in their looms. The program was in two sec tions—musical theory and singing fallowed by 15 minutes of instruc tion in how to play the flute. Miss Helen Redfield. school specialist in instrumental music, gave the flute instructions. The music lesson telecast was similar to a regular music lesson given in the schools under normal conditions with a few concessions to the TV cameras trained on the instructors. After a few minutes of flute in struction, the students at the stu dio and in the schools were able to play “Mary Had a Little Lamb’* well enough to recognize. Billion Acres of Grass in U. S. There are almost a billion acre* of permanent grasslands in the United States, mostly unimproved. Try NUCOA yourself and prove there’s no tastier spread at any price! Millions have discovered that, no matter' what you spend, you can’t buy a fresher, tastier spread than Nucoa margarine. Most important also, this delicious spread is as high in food energy and vitamin A, on a year-round count, as the spread that costs almost twice as much. Give Nucoa to your children. It’s so wholesome. Use thrifty Nucoa as a bright, flavorful sauce on hot vegetables ... to make light, tender cakes, delectable cookies and candies ... and for pan-frying. Yes, use Nucoa margarine in all your cooking. Put fresh, rich Nucoa on your shopping list right this minute and enjoy it every day from now on. <jm7AK£Tm COUPON TO you* OKOCeZs