Image provided by: University of Oregon Libraries; Eugene, OR
About Medford mail tribune. (Medford, Or.) 1909-1989 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 9, 1957)
O o EIGHT MEDFORD (OREGQK) MAIL TRIBUKZ Friday. August 9, ISS7 " ' ',p" :- I I ; r - T""" , i MEMORIAL FIELD IN MINIATURE Glenn Van Wickle, Camp White veteran, reproduced this replica of the playing field and stadium, exercising his hobby of making caricatures out of wood, for the ballplayers and the fans In the stands. The Camp White team is in the field with the heavy hitting Cheyney Studs at bat. Van Wickle discovered his ability to carve lifelike figures with a modern touch when he was working at the Naval shipyard at Bremerton, Wash., during the war. Now that he is living at the VA Domiciliary he is glad he has found this skill in making numer ous figures in characteristic poses. He nearly always dramatizes his poses with a setting such as this, which reproduces the Camp White Memorial field in detail. (Jerry Gamble Photo) Is That So? The beaver which once lived in large numbers across all the woodlands of Eurasia and North America has intrigued man from earliest days. Rightly so. It can cut down trees 5 feet through and 100 feet high. To build its great 1,000-foot long dams across running water, it often transports a hundred tons of materials including rocks and special mud. It erects 20-foot wide homes, 5 feet high with complex entrances, internal flooring and other devices. To keep supplied with food during the winter, it spends months of arduous labor cutting special sticks and anchoring them in the mud at the -bottom of its artificial ponds. To many, all this intricate worka implies an intelligence closely akin to man's. The more because the results of the beav er's work seems to be based upon scientific principles and man, essentially, is a scientist. The more one studies the beav er's work, the more mysterious and complex it becomes. He seems to draw upon sources of information which reach back in to the memory of previous gen erations. How else can you ac- ly EUGENE BURNS Ranger-Naturalist count for the fact that they can accurately judge the height of floods that are not to come for several months which will raise the water to within a few inches of the living platform within their lodges; and exactly how far water is going to be backed up by the dam they are building? How do they know how strong and high the dam must be to fulfill its function? How do they know they must store large amounts of food at the bottom of their pond against freezing winter weather which solidify the saps in trees and make their natural food too hard for even their chisel-like teeth to gnaw. Full Cooptration And more. In performing their work, like men, they work in family communities with full co operation and considerable discipline- under the guidance of experienced individuals. Yet, experiments tell us that the beaver is a nonthinking ani mal, really. But he does what he apparently does mechanically: captive beavers will work cease lessly at their dam building ac tivities, when there is no need for them to do so and even when they cannot achieve anything by doing so, states Ivan T. Sander son (Living Mammals of the World, Hanover House, Garden City, N.Y.). Yet, how the beaver cuts tim ber; hauls heavy stones, builds dams, digs and transports mud to plaster dams and homes, ex cavates 1,000-foot long canals with special locks to bring ad ditional water and float heavy loads, erects vast houses, anchors a winter's food supply at the pond bottom how he does all these things, seemingly purely automatically, without fore thought, there says Iverson is the real mystery. Racial Experience After all, all this Implies a cumulative racial experience. A learning from what has gone on before. But if so, how is it trans mitted from generation so that a young beaver kitten can be separated at birth from his col ony and do these things, unlearn ed and on his own. Just possibly, man himself has not yet come up with the right intelligence to evaluate the kind of intelligence the beaver pos sesses to do these things which provides him and his progeny a safe winter home and an ample food supply under the winter ice. (Copyright 1957. by Eugene Burns) (Released by McClure Newspaper Syndicate) Free: By special arrangement with the editors of the Encyclo; pedia Americana, my panel of judges will award each week to the reader who sends me the best true-life nature adventure, or the best nature observation, or the best question on nature and wildlife, a complete 30- vol ume set of this world-famous re ference work- in a handsome Sealcraft binding. Each week new submissions will be consid ered. Sorry, I simply can't an swer your many friendly letters. Please address your letter to: Is That So! co Medford Mail Tribune, Box 575, Sausalito, Calif. HEAVENLY HAAS CANDIES Store ' Has Moved to LITHIA HOTEL Formerly BIG Y MARKET, Medford Daily's U-Drive Medford) Airport Us Tribune Want Adi Around Hollywood By ALINE MOSBY Hollywood (IF! The oldest weekly series on network TV begins its eighth season this October be cause a hus band and wife believe in tak ing this enter tainment busi ness easy. George Burns and G r a c i e Allen hive outlived all Aline Mosov the other regu lar weekly TV series. Even the high-rated Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz tired of the pace and cut down to four shows a season. And of all the weekly enter tainers on the home screens, only Arthur Godfrey (starting his ninth year) has kept his popular ity longer than George and' Gracie. An investigation cf this phe nomenon .today disclosed, the famed husband-wife team of vaudeville, stage, radio, movies and CBS TV relaxing in the den of their home. Why do they think they've lasted so long? George Does Talking "Because I'm so darling," Mrs. Burns said promptly, and twitted happily from the rcfom as is her custom, leaving George to wave his cigar and do the talking for the family. "We do our shows easily," re flected Burns. "We don't try to get all the laughs. There's very little pressure. "Most performers work hard and fast. When you watch their show you eat fast and get indi gestion and don't watch the show again!" Although most series rehearse for two days. Burns and Allen "block out the show" one day and shoot it fluffs and all the next. "Rehearse! All we do is sit around and drink coffee," said Burns. Burns insists "It doesn't help a series to change the locale or bring in a new star you can bring in new subject matter." "We added Ronnie, our son, to the show and it opened up a new subject for stories, the prob lems of a 21-year-old boy," Burns went on. "We don't have guest stars and write a show around them. For example, we had parts last week for four beautiful girls so we got the four Miss Uni verse runners-up. Makes Changes Gradually "Furthermore, we don't wait until the end of a season to change anything. In the middle of a season we went to Europe on the show, for example. The changes are gradual that way. "We treat our show casually I look at the camera. And our sponsor is wonderful, leaves us alone." This fall their new competi tion on rival NBC will be a west ern series. "They're using up all those stock shots of sheep eating grass," snorted George. "You can't look at that all season." He puffed on his cigar and echoed Gracie. "You know, we are here for many years because of Gracie," he said. "You don't ever get tired of Gracie." A FIGHTING CHAMPION Pontecourne, Italy W A burly truck driver, annoyed at the motorist behind him in a traffic jam Wednesday who was leaning on his horn, climbed down and slapped the short driv er's face. Police said that when they revived the truck driver they told him the little driver was European lightweight box ing champion Duilio Lou Recent Scientific Tests Prove- AIR CONDITIONING-TEMPERATURES MADE TO ORDER-AT NEW LOW COST. GET A DEMONSTRATION! r " ' . X 'f: NUMBER ONE IN CROSS-COUNTRY ECONOMY TEST -CHEVROLET! Drive the car that recorded up to 17 greater fuel savings in a conclusive trans continental economy test of the three leading low-priced cars sanctioned and certified by NATA. Here's the car that gets not only frisky per formance out of a gallon of gas but money- saving mileage as well. It's all in the NATA record book how Chevrolet rolled in with the lowest total operating cost after 2,873 miles of thorough testing! It just goes to prove that Chevy offers more of the important things that make for happier driving. Remarkable pep and han dling ease; that kind of road-holding ability usually associated with sports cars; and, to round it off nicely, outstanding economy. Drive one soon at your Chevrolet dealer's. i 'National Automotivt Tetling Association I 1 L MORE PEOPLE DRIVE CHEVROLET? THAN ANY OTHER CAR Only francbised Chevrolet dealers display this famous trademark See Your Local Authorized Chevrolet Dealer IB ft T ONLYlOAROLL
