By WILLIAM C. UTLEY OU’'D never believe it, but it all started in the House of Peace. And it has caused more excitement, noise and general pandemonium in the giddy so- cial whirl than anything since Gilda Gray and the thousands who imitated her shimmy. That's the ‘‘Big Apple.” An un- tamed, exhausting thing that re- leases all the wild urge of youth in a modern, nervous age. To say that it has taken the country by storm is like saying Shirley Temple has charm; you've got to add: "And then some!" A few months ago no one had ever heard of this dance. Yet today you'll find the “Big Apple’ in places of such widely divergent character as Chicago's ‘black and tan’’ belt and New York's Rockefeller Center; al- most any cross-roads Saturday night dance hall and Hollywood's Brown Derby. The ‘‘Big Apple’ is not a fruit growers’ promotion gag, although perhaps nothing has publicized the apple so widely since the phrase, “An apple a day keeps the doctor away,” was coined. It was named for the negro night club where it originated—the Big Apple club in Columbia, S. C. In other days the building had been a synagogue called the House of Peace—an odd enough birthplace for this frantic frolic of the feet. You've Got to Be Athletic. Negroes invented it, young col- lege students saw it and introduced it at their parties, and from there it spread to the four points of the compass faster than the latest Mae West joke. Let's visit a party where the “Big Apple” is in progress. at a fraternity dance in one of the large state universities, at a fine seashore hotel, at a swanky coun- try club or at a honky-tonk joint in Harlem. The rigorous routine is the same, The band leader is the boss here, and he can drive his slaves to er in an ancient galley. He throws them waving their arms and kicking their feet into the old familiar “Charleston,” and with another call he plunges them into the newer and wilder “Suzi-Q.”” ‘Swing high’ sets the circle shuffling in a clockwise direction; *‘swing low’’ shifts it into reverse. Couples '‘cut the apple” and ‘heel the apple’ at the call. Survival of the Fittest. After this preliminary workout the leader calls upon individual cou- HQ armen re mon so — a — . AS ADVENTURERS’ CLUB HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES OF PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELF! “The Terror-Stricken Hermit” By FLOYD GIBBONS Famous Headline Hunter ELLO, EVERYBODY: Green eyes of a wildcat in the dark, a pitch-black road their favorite new ‘‘swing’’ craze. from the leader, all the couples who have not by this time fallen by the wayside duck their heads and stag- ger into the center crying "Wahoo!" What does all this represent? return to the savage and pr Is civilization degenerating? haps. ut is not ‘“‘swing’’ musi itself merely a technical refinement of the primitive, elemental rhythm of the tom-tom? Only sophisticated overtones have been added. Most “Big Apple” modern civilization, for civ though we may be there is a wild urge in the meekest among us, and the dance gives that urge safe phys- ical expression. Probably the “Big Apple” is no wilder for us than the Virginia Reel rilized ples to “shine.” Each couple, at a nod from him, takes a turn in the center of the circle while the others thankfully drop to one knee, clap in rhythm and cheer the “shiners” on.” Couple after couple demon- strates the progress or the retro- gress of the modern dance—depend- ing entirely upon the point of view. There are dozens of varia- tions, among them the Camel Walk, Peckin’ and Posin’, the Flea Hop, the Bunny Jump, the Sugar Foot and (probably most wviwolent of all) the Lindy Hop. When one couple has performed everything it knows or exhausted every last ounce of strength, another is called upon. The music gets faster and faster, the wails of the trumpet and clari- net grow more and more weird, and the moans of the saxaphone lower and bluer. It builds up to an ex- citing peak, and then at a signal was for our grandfathers and grand- mothers. The waltz, sweet, graceful and proper, was the popular dance of two generations ago. But a faint glimmer of light heralding the dawn of a new age was the faster, jerkier variation called the Boston. The dare-devils danced it. Ragtime Revolutionizes Dancing. The Spanish-American war, the horseless carriage, the phonograph and other innovations speeded up life, and the dance kept pace with the one-step, and later the two- step. Things were perking up. Came 1910, and the American dance suddenly became a craze. The Turkey Trot had been invented. A guy could now dance a lot closer to his gal than the waltz ever per- mitted. The sanctimonious lifted worried eyebrows, but the young folks kept right on with their jerky new step and even invented more daring variations of it—the Bunny Hug, the Grizzly Gotham Gobble and the Lovers’ Walk And then! dear, the “Alexander's Ragtime Band!" The broke This was a brar kind of music Exciting. Stimulating. Hot Dancir open. The restaurants storm nd-nev Ig came out hie had led sweet, sic numbers suddenl their hips in the new rhythm ¢ From South America came ti Tango, about the same time that t} Turkey Trot made its bow. It was d it y began fo swa) f feu Ve id nas Vernon and Irene Castle, mous dance team, were the idol youth in those days. Early in they bowied the country over w grace and inventi made a graceful, more pleasant thing of the Turkey Trot Thou- sands flocked to see them in Louis Martin's Cafe de [1'Opera. Castle Killed in 1918, The Castles probably did more than any other professional dancers to increase the popularity of public dancing. Their most important con- tribution was the invention of the Fox Trot, which is the basis of most dancing today. Originally, it consisted of eight running steps and turn; later it slowed down to four slow and four quick steps. All through the World war the craze for the Fox Trot continued. Vernon Castle was killed in 1918, but not before the changes in danc- ing which he had helped to bring about had become well established. The soldier boys danced it with their wives and sweethearts before they went overseas and after they came back. It was upon their return that the mad period we call the Jazz age be- gan. Youth wis finding a new free- dom. The speakeasy had become a national institution. The cry was for more and faster and "‘hotter” music. And some weird and abor- tive dance steps found their ways to the public fancy. Enter the Rhumba. Probably we might have expected ballroom dancing to wane in popu- larity during the dark years of the depression; but the opposite was the actual case. The explanation may be found in the fact that dancing provided an escape from gloom and in the added leisure which most people had to endure, The Rhumba came in during the depression. Some tourists probably picked it up in the West Indies and started the country on the way to a new craze. It will never become | as popular as the Fox Trot or waltz, | because it is too difficult, but it may | remain beside the Tango as a “stunt” number for the more ac- | complished dancers. : i vations is “swing’’ music, which is hardly more than a rehash of old- time Jazz. With it came the lively Shag, a dance which is the most im- portant fundamental of the Big Apple. But in America more than any- where else fame is a fickle crea- ture, and who knows, perhaps next year the Big Apple will have been forgotten and some new and even madder dance inspiration will fire the country. © Western Newspaper Union. comprise the bill-of-fare dished up today by Casper Stupin of Hoboken, N. 4. Casper, an ex-Civilian Conservation corps worker who was eighteen at the time, encloses his discharge, which reads: “By this all will know Casper Stupin served his country well as a member of the Civilian Conservation Corps, that magnificent army of youth and peace that puts into action the awakening of the people to the facts of conservation and recreation; and that with all honors he completed his tour of duty at Company 262, CCC Camp, Fla. SP-3, Se- bring, Florida, on March 26, 1835." Road Full of Sleeping Snakes. On this fateful night, October 20, 1934, Casper missed the last truck back to camp, which left at 10:30 p. m. sharp. He would have wel- comed a lift from a coal wagon rather than walk. Here's why: To begin with, the camp was four and a half miles from town. Four and a half miles is a constitutional, but when you have to do it in pitch dark, alone, not so good. And that's not all Because the roads stay warm at night from the hot Florida sun, snakes are fond of lying in them at night and sleeping. Do you begin to get the picture? Four and a half miles, in the dark, ex- pecting any minute to tread on a sleeping snake. And still not all. Casper had started walking and had done his first mile in darkness s0 intense he could see only a few feet ahead, when behind him he heard a soft, scratching noise, “as if someone was following me,” he says. He turned to look. Nobody. He hastened his steps. Presently the sound came again. Casper stopped short, turned; thinking, perhaps, it was another CCC boy hoofing it to camp. In answer to his shout he got a soft, steady “‘Meow-w-w." “That,” Casper says, “was enough. Then I really did get fright. ened.” You see, they have wildcats in those parts. Wildcat Was Ready to Spring. Fearfully Casper looked in the direction the sound had come from. Sure enough, two gleaming red-and-green eyes glared straight at him. Casper’s heart just about stopped beating. Less than fifteen feet away was a wildcat, ready to spring. There was just one thing to do—run. Casper ran. In fact, he took to his heels in practically a blind panie. The nearest farmhouse was a quarter of a mile away. this farmhouse was fairly infested with snakes. That The road to didn't bother He Raced Along a Snake-Infested Road. Casper now-—he had bigger worries. For that matter, if he did step on a sleeping snake, he was traveling so fast by this time he'd be out of sight before the snake woke up enough to do anything about it Casper did the quarter mile to the farmhouse in time Jessie Owens wouldn't have sneered at. He had just one idea—to get away from that wildcat. Perhaps that's why he was almost on top of the house before he gave a thought to his destination. To most people it might have seemed cheerful. To Casper it was a reminder that suddenly brought him to! The farmhouse was occupied by a queer old hermit! But—there were the gleaming eyes behind him, and Casper had no choice. A second later, panting and shouting, he was pounding madly on the shack's door. Closer, closer came the red-and-green eyes. Casper redoubled his pounding, his frantic shouting. The door shivered, the knob rattled, the door swung back. It framed the figure of the queer old hermit. But what made Casper halt on the threshold, frozen with terror, was the shotgun in the hands of the fear-struck man. For its twin barrels, like the eves of a death's head, were trained on Casper’s heart. And its twin triggers were controlled, Casper knew, by fingers that took their bidding from a terror- stricken, unpredictable mind. Saved by Frightened Hermit. On came the wildcat. Light from the shack door reflected from his blazing eyes. [t was this light that probably saved Casper’'s life. For an instant it blinded the oncoming wildcat, slowing it up. And in this in- stant the terror-struck hermit caught sight of the blazing eyes beyond, and sized uo the situation. He swung the shotgun away from Casper in the nick of ime, drew bead on the wildcat’'s eyes and let go with the load. The roar of the shotgun was too much for Casper’s frayed nerves. The wildest was finished, but he didn’t stop to think about that. In fact, Casper was well down the road before he realized he hadn't even thanked the man for saving his life. With the wildcat and the shotgun and its strange owner behind him, Casper still had a mile and a quarter of snake-infested, pitch-black road ahead of him. Worse still, there was nothing to stop a second wildcat from taking up the trail So when Casper’s overwrought nerves heard again the same scratch- ing sound that had signalled the wildcat before, he didn’t waste too much time looking. He just bolted-—as fast as he could, trying to put as much distance between himself and this second pair of gleaming eyes as possible. He didn’t get far. Two powerful headlamps appeared in the distance, lit up the road, came closer, and drew up. And in their welcome glow Casper saw that what he had mistaken for eyes of a wildcat were in- stead the eyes of a police dog, “Trooper,” belonging to one of the CCC Lieutenants. *“‘And,”" Casper says, “was I happy!” I'he Lieutenant—for it was his car—drove Casper back to camp ely ©-WNU Service, Practiczl, Practicable Practical means that which is adapted to actual conditions; that which experience has proved to be useful. While the others dering what to do, J Shoe-Tossing Old Custom Shoe-tossing is older than either confetti or rice throwing. Ancient Israelites started it. When a piece of land was purchased, the buyer tossed a sandal on it. That gesture symbolized change of ownership. Later, Anglo-Saxons carried it into i i g i He if the marriage ceremony. The father would remove one of his daughter's shoes and pass it to the bridegroom. The latter would touch the maiden’s forehead lightly with the shoe, in- dicating authority had passed from papa to the new husband. A tap be- came a toss with passing years. Parents would hurl shoes at a newly F terial problems are all right ory, but are not practicable 378 3 — Home Heating Hints *w sas Heoting Expert Rubbish and Garbage Should Not Be Burned in Your Furnace; They Cause Trouble. SHOULD like to caution you against burning garbage and rubbish in the heating plant of your home. Many home-owners are given to this practice, know- ing it is a quick and easy way to dispose of garbage, but not real- izing fully that it is very harm- { ful to the furnace. Your furnace was built to burn | coal, and coal only, Garbage and rubbish, when burned de- | posit a thick crust of soot on the in it, burning surfaces, and this soot | absorbs much of the heat that should go into your rooms. They | also form clinkers which, as you know, cause no end of trouble for you in keeping your fire burning Don't burn rubbish or garbage in furnace. } to cake heat and also cause form. Keep the ashp i temember this: They cause heavy soot surfaces and waste clinkers to it clean. A clean nace, like a clean au | gine, will give better servic greater comfort, WNU Service on fur- (175 GREAT ) T0 BE BACK AT WORK when youve found a way to ease the pains of RHEUMATISM and do it the inexpensive way, too. L oh You can pay as high as vou want for remedies claimed to relieve the pain of Rheumatism, Neuritis, Sciatica, etc. But the medicine so many doctors generally approve— the one used by thousands of families daily — 1s Baver Aspirin ~~ 15¢ a dozen tablets — about 1¢ apiece Simply take 2 Bayer Aspirin tablets with a half glass of water. Repeat, if necessary, according to directions Usually this will ease such pain in a remarkably short time. For quick relief from such pain whick exhausts you and keeps you awake at night — ask for genuine Bayer Aspirin, 1 virtually TABLETS (GOR cent a tablet Wasted Treasures Many a beautiful library is only | looked at and pointed at by the pwner. A Good Laxative The bad feelings and dullness often attending constipation take the joy out of life. Try a dose of Black-Draught at the first sign of constipation and see how much bet- ter it is to check the trouble before it gets a hold on you Bilack- Draught is purely vegetable and is 80 prompt and reliable. Get re- freshing relief from constipation by taking purely vegetable ONS Leh WNU—4 4731 HELP KIDNEYS To Get Rid of Acid and Poisonous Waste Your kidneys help to keep you the. blood. If 7% i il i if
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers