Newspaper Page Text
THE THREE SCORE AND
\ TEN CLUB
(By Helen Van Hoy Smith, in
Atlanta Journal - !
It’s lots of fun to be 70 years old
if you live in Miami, Fla., for then
you can be a member of the i'umous
Three Score and Ten Club. This
organization is one of the best known
in the United States, and is said to
be the only one of its sort in the
union. Its activities are chronicled
by news services along with those of
the moat important folk in Florida.
It does not "hibernate" during the
summer season, either.
Club rooms in the Venetian Ar
cade are open every day in the year,
except Sundays, and each day sees u
large number of men and women,
all of whom have passed the three
score and ten mark, enjoying vari
ous recreations. Card tables are in
one room, and bridge, five hundred,
dominoes and checkers are enjoyed.
In another room are easy chairs and
a library containing more than 1,000
well selected volumes, all of which
have been contributed. A most de-
ligntful atmosphere of cordiality pre
vails, and the rooms hum with con
versation and laughter.
Members of this club range from
mere youths of 70 to those who
have reached the more mature 80’s
and 90’s. The oldest member is T.
B. Burtch, who is 99 years old, and
doesn’t care who knows it, because
he doesn’t look it. One cheerful
little woman was designated by an
other member as our "hop, skip and
jump” girl.
Thomas S. Meek, who organized
the club, is its president. Other
officers are Judge E. S. Ellis, first
vice president; Mrs. Mary B. Bail
ey, second vice president; Charles
C. Nicholls, secretary; Mrs. Lillian
A. Shackelford, financial secretary;
Jett Cox, sergeant-at-arms, Mrs.
Florilla Bell, treasurer, and Judge
R. H. Knapp, librarian.
The organization meeting was
held January 3, 1929. It was brought
about by a chance encounter in the
park between Thomas S. Meek, a
Miamian, and anotluir man more
than 70 years of age. The other
man was a tourist. He told
Mr. Meek that he enjoyed Miami and
that it w'as imperative for him to
spend his winters where the climate
was mild, but that the truth about
it all was he was just plain lonesome.
Every one seemed so incredibly
young and always in a hurry. No
one ever seemed to have time to
talk to a lonely old man in the park.
This gave Mr. Meek an idea. He
had small notices inserted in each
of the daily papers, invited every one
more than 70 years old, w’ho cared
to, to meet in Room 222 Venetian
Arcade Building. He really expect
ed that perhaps the man in the park
and a dozen others would respond.
To his surprise, more than 200 men
and women attended the meeting.
Since then the popularity of the
club has increased by leaps and
bounds, and today the membership
roll stands at 1,243. During the
month of February last year, a total
of 2,621 registered at the club
rooms, and there are always f>oo to
600 who come up every week. Use
of the club rooms is given by owners
of the building, and club members
have invitations galore. In fact,
every one in Miami seems to want
to make members of the Three Score
and Ten Club enjoy to the fullest
extent, life, liberty and the pursuit
of happiness.
On each Tuesday of the week the
club holds an open forum meeting
•when various subjects are discussed.
Each member who speaks is allotted
five minutes and he is advised to
make his talk “snappy and interest
ing." Some of these subjects have
included: “Do Dreams Ever Come
True?" “What Is Your Favorite
Keepsake and Why Do ou r l reas
ure It?” “Brief Description of In
teresting Places Visited Here and
Abroad.” “Were the Old Ways Bet
ter Than the Now?"
The Three Score and Ten Club
includes many members who have
traveled extensively. Members rep
resent every profession and business
imaginable, and they are from every
state in the Union, as well as from
Canada and England. In addition to
being a happy-looking aggregation,
the men and women of this club are
all nicely dressed and well groom
-ed. •
Judge R. H. Knapp, former pro
bate judge of the state of Idaho, pre
sides over the library. Though he
declares that he will be 89 years old
his next birthday, he scarcely looks
the required three score and ten.
“I was born in New York state,”
he said in a reminiscent vein, after
he had displayed the books that are
his special pride, "and 1 started to
school before 1 was 5 years old. I
had a most distinguished teacher,
and 1 am glad that 1 remember her
vividly. Her name was Frances E.
Willard. One day at recess we
children discovered a drunken man
lying in the snow. Miss Willard took
us back to the schoolroom, and if I
ever heard an eloquent temperance
talk it was one that day. She had
the- example to point out. The last
time I saw the features of Miss Wil
lard was one day in Washington,
1). C., during the W’orld War. I was
walking through Statuary Hall, and
there was the face of Frances E.
W’illard, the famous temperance
leader, in marble.”
Judge Knapp’s memories include
many stirring and eventful days
pioneering in the Far West, as he
obeyed Horace Greeley’s advice
early in life. He finds the Miami
sunshine congenial and intends al
ways to live there.
On each Thursday of the week
the club holds a s ecial meeting at
the First Christian Church. After
n short business s -ssion, there is n
program— and such a program!
James Silver, whose hair matches his
name, but whose face is as young as
April, and his carriage as jaunty, is j
entertainment chairman and pro
vides the programs. Mr. Silver is a
retired vaudeville actor, having been
on the stage for more than fifty
years.
Since the club was organized, sev
en weddings have taken place among
club members, and on the walls of
the clubrooms are pictures of more
than thirty couples who have been
married more than forty-five years.
In the 1,243 members there are but
five “bachelor girls.”
A group of members all more than
85 years of age had their pictures
taken recently on the beach. In
this picture is J. L. Ponder, an ex-
Confederate veteran, formerly of
Forsyth, Ga. Mr. Ponder has lived
in Miami for ten years. When the
club was visited recently, Mr. Pond
er was deep in a game of “five hun
dred.” He says he intends to learn
bridge. One of his checker compan
ions is an old Union soldier, and he
says that they get along fine. Mr.
Ponder was with John McLaw, "at
the right of Pickett,” he explained.
Honorary members of the club in
clude Thomas A. Edison and John
D. Rockefeller. The late Howard
P. Taft was also an honorary mem
ber. In fact, as the constitution of
the club states, “Some of the great
est achievements and most benefi
cent deeds have been wrought by
people past 70 years of age, and the
general necessity and value of good
old men and women in every com
munity is recognized.” And who
are we, who are younger, to deny
this undeniable statement? Brown
ing, putting it a bit more poetically,
remarked: “Grow old along with
me, the best is yet to be the last
of life for which the first was plan
ned.”
All of Florida has its hat off to
the Three Score and Ten Club of
Miami. Many elderly people are
watching the calendar and counting
the days until they will be 70 and
eligible to membership. For then
the real fun begins.
At intervals, club members enjoy
dances when old-time square dances
and Virginia reels are enjoyed along
with modern steps. There is a
chorus of club members, called in all
good fun, the synthetic chorus. At
least it’s not a choir invisible or in
audible, for there are many excellent
voices to “make a joyful noise.” As
sembly singing is popular, and the
old-fashioned songs are favorites.
Amqng the Georgia folk who are
members of the club are Mrs. Hanna
M. Owen, Mrs. Harriet' Marks, At
lanta, and Mrs. Carrie Paul.
The club is non-political and non
sectarian. A meeting was in pro
gress recently when a message came
from another meeting then in ses
sion. Those attending this second
meeting were praying that the Flori
da house of representatives would
not override the governor’s veto on
the horse racing bill. They invited
the old folks to get down on their
knees and pray likewise. The Three
Score and Ten Club sent back word
that it had no interest in politics and
that its members did their praying
individually and in private.
Joseph W. Dodge, formerly of
Ohio, a retired contractor, apologiz
ed for having to stop and put his
glasses on when he was showing
some records in fine print. Then he
gave us a typewritten copy of the
following, which others might also
enjoy:
“If depressed, read the Ninety
first Psalm.
“If your heart is glad, read the
Hundred and Third Psalm.
“If your pocketbook is empty,
read the Thirty-seventh Psalm.
“If people seem unkind, read the
Fifteenth Chapter of John.
“If discouraged about your work,
read the One Hundred and Twenty
sixth Psalm.
“If you are losing faith in man,
read the Thirteenth Chapter of First
Corinthians.
“If you can’t have your own way
in everything, keep silent and read
the Third Chapter of James.”
Iron Is Needed In Our
Blood
The iron supply for children on
an ordinary diet is probably below
their requirement. This was point
ed out recently in a study of the
iron requirement of a child two
years and seven months old done in
the Nutrition Laboratory of Colum
bia University under the direction of
l)r. Mary S. Rose. This experiment
is of special interest because it is
the only measure of the iron needed
for children from the age of two to
five known.
This child received the following
food for the twelve day experiment
al period. Milk, Wheatena, orange
juice and toast for breakfast. Milk,
mashed English peas, baked potato
and prunes at eleven o’clock; milk at
two o’clock and milk, wheatena,
prunes and toast for supper. Moth
ers probably think a child would not
eat the same thing for twelve days
but generally it is the mother who
influences the child’s opinion or gets
tired of preparing the same food.
The child would be perfectly satis
fied with a regular food supply and
would be better off provided his
meals were adequate.
Prof. Virginia Harris Harrold, of
the Home Economics Division of the
Georgia State College of Agricul
ture, says: “This diet contains our
outstanding sources of iron; prunes,
peas, potatoes whole grain cereals
with milk to aid the body in making
the best possible use of the iron.
But even with these valuable iron
bearing foods the child did not have
enough to supply her needs during
the the experiment. How inade
quate, in comparison, must the ordi
nary child’s diet be who happens to
be fed white cereals and fruits and
vegetables not especially rich in
iron.
A child is born with a store of iron
in his body that supplies his needs at
least until he is six months old. At
that time his milk diet is usually re
enforced with egg yolk, vegetable
juices, prune juice and meat juices.
If this is not done he becomes pale,
sickly and malnourished when his
store of iron is exhausted.”
The growing child needs a bountiful
supply of this food iron to prevent
anemia and to build his blood, tissues
and healthy body. A mother can
best supply this by including every
day in his diet, an egg yolk, a green
vegetables (turnip greens, spinach,
string beans), whole grain cereals,
potato and a quart of milk, with
prunes, or dates, or figs and meat
juices once or twice a week. Since
the iron supply for the average rural
family in Georgia has been found to
be 83 per cent below the standard,
and since this recent experiment
sets the child’s standard requirement
even higher than before, it makes a
serious dietary deficiency for the
youth of the state.
THIS ENGLISH
We’ll begin with box; the plural is
boxes,
But the plural of ox should be oxen
not oxes.
One fowl is a goose, but two are
called geese,
Yet the plural of mouse should never
be meese.
You may find a lone mouse, or a
whole nest of mice,
But the plural of man is always call
ed men
Why shouldn’t the plural of pan be
called pen?
The cow in the plural may be called
cows, or kine;
But a bow, if repeated, is never call
ed bine;
And the plural of vow is vows, never
vine.
If I speak of a foot, and you show
me two feet,
And I give you a boot, would a pair
be called beet?
If one is a tooth and a whole set are
teeth,
Why shouldn’t the plural of booth be
called beeth?
If the singular’s this, and the plural
is these
Should the plural of kiss ever be
written keese?
Then one may be that, and the two
would be those,
Yet that in the plural would never
be hose.
And the plural of cat is cats, and not
cose.
We speak of a brother, and also of
brethren,
i But though we say mother, we never
say methren.
Then the masculine pronouns are he,
his and him,
But imagine the feminine, she, shis
and shim!
So the English, I think you all will
agree,
Is the funniest language you ever
did see.
—Selected.
S' /)
-y n ' ./K C' c
o
\et's cut through this welter of words
\\V P l ' <.rf- 'A' ■■ g
WHEN you set out to buy tires,
don’t you really want the most
miles and the utmost in safety at the
lowest possible price.
That being your objective, which tire
should you buy?
If the experience of 20,000,000 mo
torists means anything, you should
certainly buy Goodyears.
But if you try to puzzle through the
welter of statistics on thick
nesses, weights and diam
eters you lose the main
issue and are as much at sea
as ever.
The one and only reliable
guide for you to follow is
the seasoned preference of
the public.
And that preference is over
whelmingly for Goodyear.
J There’s the only buying guide that means anything to you car owners.
G O O I 1 E A R ALL-WEATIER
st^ e ’
Other sizes in proportion reputation?
Jefferson, Georgia.
MORE PEOPLE RIDE ONI GOODYEAR TIRES THAN. ON ANY OTHER KINDI
NOTICE OF LOCAL BILLS
Notice is hereby given, as requir
ed by law, that the following locals
bills will be introduced at this ses
sion of the General Assembly of
Georgia; Viz.
1. An act to amend an act creat
ing a Board of Commissioners of
Roads and Revenues for Jackson
County, approved December 18th,
1901, and all acts amandatory there
of, providing for the annual salary
to be paid the chairman of the
Board of Roads and Revenues of
Jackson County, and for other pur
poses.
2. An act to amend an act cre
ating the City Court of Jefferson,
approved November 30th, 1897, and
all acts amandatory thereof, provid
ing for the annual salary to be paid
the Judge and Solicitor of said
Court, and for other purposes.
This the 29th day of June, 1931.
Renew Your Health
by Purification
Any physician will tell you that
“Perfect Purification of the System
is Nature’s Foundation of Perfect
Health.” W r hy not rid yourself of
chronic ailments that are undermin
ing your vitality? Purify your en
tire system by taking a thorough
course of Calotabs, —once or twice a
week for several weeks—and see how
Nature rewards you with health.
' Calotabs purify the blood by acti
vating the liver, kidneys, stomach and
bowels. Trial package, 10 cts. Fami
ly package, 35 cts. All dealers. (Adv.)
INSURANCE
Jefferson Insurance Agency,
General Insurance. S. C.
Morrison, Mgr.
This fact expressed year after year by
Goodyear’s great leadership is con
cretely told again in the findings of an
impartial investigation made by an
unbiased dependable institution that
asked 205,000 car owners this simple
question:
QUESTION: "Regardless of price,
convenience, etc., what make of tire
do you consider the BEST tire made?"
HOW CAR OWNERS VOTED ON THE QUESTION
"WHAT TIRE IS BEST?"
... Bate,l on a National Tire Survey in 1930 by a large unbiated organization ...
GOODYKAR3O7j)BMBHMHBHMMMMHWaMiar
COMPANY li I3LB ~|i|!i; l,|l||| 111 [
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G 37 mKm I mt Kmtrurn protre Cni|mt TV*. Thto peal .
L 24 8H... . LX-L - - fc——
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- • J Hate ta lit* tomutry tm4 la *r
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All OTHERS 10.4 II I .4-11.1 liil |iJ-iL
NO CHOICE 4.4 CHS ’ 1 ! 11' Ii I [lilllll jHI I [Mi i1! il. Ii !HfIFF
TOTAL IQO^
TEN LITTLE FINGERS
r —r r ■. f—
j i .
ARMANDO, internationally famous caricaturist, catches
B. A. Rolfe in a characteristic pose. Mr. Rolfe, spurning
the customary baton, directs the Lucky Strike Dance Orchestra
with his ten dainty digits.
COW FOR SALE
Good cow, fresh in, for sale. See
Clifton Barnett. _ ,
Book Agent to Farmer:
ought to buy an encyclopedia, n
your boy is going to school.
Farmer: “Not on your life'
him walk, the same as I