Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (March 8, 1936)
-tfFatherjf State Societies11 5s World's Champion Brewer of Coffee On His Second Million Gallons, AfysClJ SIllpS ;4 New SCFICS 6f Exciting Sea StoHeS Clark H. I arsons Sets unique Mark As Prolific Coffee Maker THEY slapped the hands ot little Clark H. Parsons 75 years ago on an Iowa farm be cause he howled for coffee. Deep In his young spirit a re sentment fizzled and stewed. So, they wouldn't give him coffee! Well, he'd show 'em! Little Clark obediently plowed and milked until he was old enough to go away to college. He drank five cups of coffee a day at Lennox college, taught school In Iowa, brooded over books and stationery counters In Salt Lake City and then, In 1898, an enthu- I V V"H ... MtA Clark Parsons, 81-year-old "Father of State Plonlos," who has made more coffee than any other person the world ever knew. He brews It In 100-gallon tanks and has served It to men and women from every corner of the United States. slastic coffee brewer with enormous ambition, he came to the Pacific coast. Settling down to a lumber busi ness near Los Angeles, he began to bump into former lowans. The whole end of the state was alive with them, all bumping into one another. One day In 1800, Clark Pi!" sons coneeived his great Idea. With a whoop of Joy his cup of stcnmlng coffee dropped un noticed to tha Hour. Not long afterwards, while the Springtime (lowers of 11100 still were sweetly abloom, he was bustling about Los Angeles busier than a hen with 40 chicks. That year there was founded the Iowa State Society of California, and at its first gala picnic none other than gay Clark Parsons was brewing the coffee and pouring It into tin cups. FROM then on, life took a new glow for the one-time farm lad whose hands had been slappedi He was destined to make coffee in larger quantities than it had ever been made before. While waiting multitudes held out tin cups, he was to brew coffee in 100 gallon tanks and stir it with a five-foot staff. He organized state after state and set Southern California afire with picnic fever. By April 24, 1B0D, acknowl edged leader of one of the great est mass organizations of the West, he was ready to federate hlB many state societies, and he did it in one masterful campaign. Years whisked by unobserved by the father of state picnics. Kansans, Nebraskans, Missouri ans, Texans and many others swelled each year's picnic throngs. Always presiding over the coffee, exulting like some strange spirit of picnicdom, eter nally busy, the life and soul of the party, was Clark Parsons. At the hey-day of the picnic business, in 1928 and 1929, he had 38 state societies meeting each month. He attended at least one picnic or indoor meeting every day the year around, and he never tired of making coffee. He loved to make It. At some of the larger picnics he looked up, from his labors by the vats, and gazed out over the tens of thousands of former "out-of-staters." THEN, of course, the bottom fell out of the picnic business, but times are better now and Clark Parsons, at 81, is busier than ever. He hasn't missed a day's work since he had measles In boyhood. He avoids photographers as he would avoid hostile machine gun ners. He wears a felt hat almost as old as himself, and he has more energy than an airedale pup. He brews coffee in bigger vats than ever and is now on his second million gallons, according to his owri estimate. Ho has made fnr more coffee than any other person In the world, he believes. In fact, he figures that If all the tin cups he has filled with coffee were stacked one on top another, the shining, steaming stack would be 757 miles high. POETIC bnllHds presented in public squares! Srhools of po etry In every Pnclflr. Const city! Thousnmls of monuments by West ern artists! Citizens alive to the talent of their own community! These are events of the near future, visualized by John Masc flold, England's poet laureate, as he chatted about Western art and artists luring a roccnt vli'.l to San Francisco. Ho had just visited Colt's Tower on San Francisco's Telo- r- Poet Laureate Sees West v As Art Center Of Future John Masefield, Visiting United States, Believes Public Enthusiasm Is Near you call Colt's Tower, is a splen did example of the help your ar tists need. You hnve changed my 'mayn't' to 'may.' You are recog nizing what 1 felt when I came West. "I expect to see the day when there will be groups of artists giving dramas and poetic ballads In Union Square and other public parks. I seo no reason why every city in tho West should not hnvo Its outdoor group of poets in out door schools, learning to write and recito as well. It Is Inevitable." POET MASEFIELD feels that artists cannot help but pro duce In tho climate of tho West. "Tho gray skies of England are very different. You do not. out hero, fully realize what a source of energy you have 111 the sun." Poetry can be as practical as any other work, he believes. "It Is too often divorced from his fit ting accompaniment, which are costume, color, and music. H tins been severely handicapped by tin pr luting press, for gixxl poetry should be recited or chnntcil aloud. Not ninny people like to read to themselves, and a book of poetry may lie Idle for a hundred years In-fore It finds Its proper lvader. Then It comes to life -through a voice" The old days of poetry, he be lieves, are returning. "At one time," he said, "a mei would re cite versus In the street and stop t'littlc with the beauty of his words Then he became a vaga bond, pntronlrnl. but looked down upon." JOHN MASKFIKI.D loves the West, and experts to return again nnd ngnin. "The variety beauty, anil fertility of your mountains, valleys and deserts, gives a panornniH of abundance Bliuh the western artist cannot Ignore." 1 . V f i ' ' J John Maiefieltt graph IMII. studying the work of mural artists done undor govern ment suervlsion. This endeavor is what he had In mind before visiting the Tower-when he com posed four lines, so far unpub lished in his works. He quoted himself aloud: "Friends, give the artist folk your pity. They live within the glorious city Which they'd make lirauliful with paint, Hronite nnd marble hut they mayn't. " "This cenotaph." he said, "which PAGE EIGHT This is the first of a series ot tea tales that will keep you fascinated and, perhaps, puz zled as well. Strangely, the sea has taken toll of men and ships without leaving any trace of what caused 'he tragedies. Watch turther stories of mystery ships they will ap pear regularly in this magazine. Editor. The Mary Celeste THE weather had been calm for weeks ... a light breeze that sailing men like. Mary Celeste was painted on her stern a strange brig, run ning aimlessly before the wind, her jib and foremast staysail set. She was a ship without a crew. The master of the Dei Gratia overhauled her 300 miles off Gibraltar on a December day in 1K72. Silence answered his hall. He lowered a boat and pulled across to tho brig. No one was at the wheel, no man on deck. A search was made from end to end: the ship was in perfect condition, with plenty of food and water. Clothes hung on a line to dry, and in the galley were ashes of a fire. The table was laid for bieakfast, which was half eaten. A cargo of alcohol remained be low. She was deserted, but how? Ihe life-boat still hung on the davits! THIRTEEN people were aboard, according to Lloyd's Register Captain Briggs (an intensely pious man), his wife, child and crew of 10. . Not one of them was ever seen again, though inquiries and In vestigations have been made by half the maritime world, and a dozen theories offered.. Did the crew mutiny? The bows were slightly scratched as if by a sharp Instrument; a cut lass was smeared with what may have been blood; one barrel of alcohol was breached, and the chronometer and bills of lading were missing. No other signs of violence were found. Did the crew get at the alcohol, murder the Captain, his family. and escape to another vessel? Where did they escape to and without the use of a boat? Was the Captain a religious lYinntAC ? His cabin contained many religious books, and he was unusually devout Did his reason snap like the spring of a watch, as he decided to put his wife and child and crew out of the misery of a wicked world? Did he attack them one by one and throw them overboard and In despair follow when his mad ness passed? Their fate is one of the famous unsolved mysteries of the sea. Amateur detectives and seamen speculate and argue, but find no satisfactory answer. One writer, a student of sea mysteries, recalls that at least six "solutions" to the puzzle were published at various times. All purported to be based on evidence of survivors yet all failed to bear the light of subsequent investiga tion. The mystery remains un solved to this day. The Mary Celeste was one of those hoodoo ships "built in the eclipse, and rigged with curses dark." VARIED THIS OLD FAVORITE r NEW WAYS s IN HALF A DOZEN HAPPY I -A' ') M ' ' ' u f ' ' J - ' . ' K f . - fl ul.o-vK !) K?-v. -:-r aj I fcCobbU" H Y7 7 " g 5PERRY 0 1 Change to Drifted Snow Flour ... try the "Home-Perfected" method of baking . . . and get the new White Layer Cake recipes in this book. Free inside every soct! inderelia came out of the chim ney corner an J wa die belle of die ball. Now Martha Meade makes White Uyet Cake... so old and so familiar! ... in six new enchanting styles that will be the hit of your tabic. Six White Layer Cakes, all different, are part of Martha Meade's famous "Six-of-a-Kind" recipes. Sperry offers this unique book to in duce you to try Drifted Snow Flour and the "Home-Perfected" way to better baking. The key to success in cakes, pies, and other baking is . . . flour! Unreliable flour that varies in quality causes one-half of all baking fail ures. This fault cannot occur in Drifted Snow Flour because it's "Home-Perfected." Every batch is tested in advance by homemakers like yourself, working in 1 17 Western homes. Only flour which makes perfect cakes, pies, and other foods in all localities is sold as Drifted Snow "Home-Perfected" Flour. "II DRIFTED SNOW 74T FLOUR It's worth trying Drifted Snow Flour just to get Martha Meade's "Six-of-a-Kind" recipe book. Order a sack from your grocer you'll find the book packed free inside. Hear Martha Meade Interview Radio Stars Famous radio entertainers of the West are revealing their food hobbies and favorite recipes on Martha Meade's morning program. Tune in any NBC station and hear these popular stars talk to you as if they were guests in your home. Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10:00 A.M., P.S.T. Oowrllbl Iwa. Sirt Klimi Co . s.n Fr.nrl.co Y0UI lKI Vlt YOU tlMt AND MrOIT Thou'inds of bkers in rheir cleanly, modern lukrrics crve you delicious brrsds, cakes, pas. fries, at very moderate prices. Boy (rom your baker cr patronize your grocer's bakery counter. Watch their windows for delightful new ideas in haking'based upon those tempting and nour. ishing foods baked wheat products. i iTJ -.f i SPECIAL OFFER "SO Cakes lor SO Occasions" Okt wipe, .ppfopfi.rt lo erfnr ortiin, p"7 and dinnrr mtnuv ji raitnc h,im. ttrvina toi n.ilitrri R.aul.t pint b 'C mupon relit hw Drilled Snow Fli.ui vwikiii irri thnA4 r-aae book at lraaia rare.. SPERRY FLOUR CO., San Francuco. California Plow and me Miithi Mr.dc'i book, "so Cake, lot ",o Occaamn.." I encloK lll cm. limp, or com .nd srocet t ulei ll.ri iho.m. r-.ich.ie o. l),:ned Sno. Flow.an, Ulk. ,RcgllUl p Mithtmt ulei slip J jt.n. PmiOMt. t rire In m.:,,nih n.me of row oapet.
