Latin School of Chicago - Sigillum Yearbook (Chicago, IL)

Page 46 text:

SIGILLUM UNO. The last letter is A, as in apple. Pflaum said: My copy is E as in Edward. The censor retorted: It is the village where I was born, and it's A as in apple. And we took his word for it. The relief censor who works on Sunday night cannot take it. Pllaum had read about 2,ooo words in a weary voice when he stopped suddenly to remark: This censor must trust me-he's fallen asleep. It seemed like a good idea at 2 a.m., he added. When we have a question to ask Madrid there are a number of little tricks to get round the censor. One of the best is to use American slang, such as one time when I broke in to ask: Wait a minute. In connection with this story, we have a rumour that the Big Shot was bumped off and IO men in the rival mob thrown in the hoosegow. Can you check that? But if it is a formal question, I always wait until the end when the censor will let me speak. All correspondents must telephone from the Central Exchange at Madrid from open booths along the side of the room. Two or three times a night Pflaum shouts: 'cWait a minute. They've switched the lights out on me! This seems to be one chief form of amusement for rival reporters who have finished their telephone calls. The censor was quite suspicious at first at one of my usual phrases, namely: Wait a minute. Must change the cylinderf' The censor wanted to know what I was doing. Pflaum explained that I was hardly taking thousands of words in shorthand, but was recording each call on records on a dicta- phone in London. And the censor seemed thrilled to know that his every word was recorded in London, a thousand miles away. The dictaphone is considered far better than shorthand for news reception, as it enables us to check and recheck technical terms, the spelling of new names and of towns. Also, on one call by piecing together several disjointed phrases we were able to decide the fact that an air raid was then in progress over Madrid. The machine recorded the sirens, bursting bombs and the rifle fire, and all the other sounds of terrible slaughter. The average call from Madrid is 20 to 30 minutes. The longest I took during the war now has been 52 minutes. And when Pflaum was about to ring off, saying Good-night, the censor chimed in with: Good-bye, Mr. London.

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From Madrid Tn london IDOUGLAS DIES Douglas Dies, ,3O, Harvard I34, is a United Press correspondent in London, England. The following article is reprinted from the Newspaper World, Oct. 737. From midnight to 8 a.m., I receive news in London telephoned from every capital on Continental Europe, or nearly all of them. These include usually calls from Paris, Berlin, Rome, Vienna, Geneva, Moscow, and that focal point of the eyes of the world these days, Madrid in Spain. Although the Moscow line is generally considered worse than calling Junior to dinner, Madrid now is even more difficult. When our switchboard connects me, I have to argue with the London operator, an excitable Parisian and a suspicious Spaniard-then I hear the slightest whisper from our correspondent, saying: United Press, London?,' I recognize the voice of Irving Pflaum, with whom I have talked nightly for six months, but never seen. I bellow Yes four or five times before he is convinced, through so many relays. Then he begins: 6'Dateline Madrid . . . In the vicinity of Huesca Cthat's spelled H for Harry, U for Uncle . . .J . . .M But the line fades. The normal telephone lines to Madrid have been out of order since the beginning of the war. Present connections run to Bar- celona, through Paris, thence to Madrid. I cannot speak Spanish, but I continue shouting: Hello . . . Hello! until Paris comes through with One minutef' and reconnects us. Pflaum meanwhile is giving his third story, but must begin again. He is good-natured, insisting again on spelling out Huesca as above, althoughbothof us know the identity of the Spanish town perfectly. The censorship in Spain is tighter than a pneumatic vise. But our censor, or Hawkshaw, is human. Once when Pflaum was read- ing a notice on the protection from various gases having Spanish names, I asked him which meant mustard gas and which tear gas. He was not familiar with the technical Spanish names, but Old Hawkshaw at his elbow spoke right up, breaking in to give me all the details in spite of the fact that I only wanted to know which was which. Another time Pflaum spelled the name of a town out, ending it with . . . and E for Edward? The censor broke in with:

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A letter From Hawaii JOHN STUART COONLEY John Stuart Coonley, '16, Yale ,2O, at present with the Dole Pineapple Co. I am just going to write a few words about Hawaii. The Islands are grand from any standpoint. The people are delightful, the schools are good, the climate is without comparison, and the scenery is hard to improve on. It is an excellent place to work and play in. Jobs are decidedly competitive, which means that one has to work harder here generally, than in Chicago, to keep his head above water. But hard work is compensated for in hard play. Swimming, tennis, and other athletic activities supply the safety valve. Winter sports too. It is an odd sight to see two or more couples, with skis on their shoulders, walking to the inter- island steamer in Honolulu to journey for a week-end to the slopes of the mountains on the island of Hawaii. The mountains rise to nearly 14,000 feet and so frequently there is suflicient snow for real winter capers. Each island too, has its own particular charm and points of interest. Hawaii, for its mountains, lava flows, fern forests, sugar, and a 750,000 acre cattle ranch. Maui, for the crater in Haleakala, the largest extinct crater, I believe, today, the valleys, sugar, and ranches. Lanai, the pineapple island, owned by our company, and devoted to pineapple and ranching. Molokai, for its virgin forests, pineapples, and leper settlement. Oahu, for Honolulu, Waikiki beach, scenic beauty, sugar, and pineapples. Lastly Kauai, the garden isle, for its streams, water falls, grand canyon, and again sugar and pineapples. There is something distinctive about each island, they cannot be properly described in writing. My recom- mendation is-come and see them.