Granite City, Ill., April 1 –
William F. Kaiser, Granite City township assistant supervisor, is doing his bit to help finance the war. On the 7th of each month – the anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack – he burns a $25 defense bond. He sends the government a notice relinquishing his claim on each bond. He intends to continue the plan for the duration.
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The Pittsburgh Press (April 2, 1942)
By Ernie Pyle
PALM SPRINGS, Calif. – Today I have achieved a status in life which I am sure must bring delight to all my friends and a vile green envy to my enemies. I have really arrived. I am a guest at a dude ranch!
I never supposed I’d make it. But perseverance, long hours, honesty and forthrightness have brought their just reward. Life for me has reached its goal.
But before I depart for a future that can be only anti-climax, I must tell you a little of what life on a guest ranch is like.
This ranch, for instance, (it’s the Deep Well Ranch) is only a mile and a half out of Palm Springs. It is not a real working ranch; it is admittedly and honestly just a guest ranch. It’s just as nice as staying in town, except you’re out in the country.
People “rough it” with every comfort up here, which is right up my alley. I spent 19 years washing outdoors in a washpan, going 100 yards to a “Chic Sale,” riding horses because I had to – and I never liked it and don’t see why I should pay high prices to do it again.
I do passionately prefer the open country to the smothered city, but I like to take my city conveniences with me to the open spaces – so I approve of the Deep Well Guest Ranch.
In one building here there is a huge western-type lobby, with rawhide chairs and a fireplace and saddles hanging on the wall.
In another building is the dining room and kitchen. The owners live in a beautiful ranch house right in the middle of the works. And scattered around, here and there, on various sides of various grassy plots, are the rooms and lodges for the guests.
Visitor treated as a guest
Some 40 people can be accommodated. The ranch has 25 horses for them to ride, including three Tennessee “walking horses.” It also has a lovely swimming pool, innumerable lawns and low canvas chairs for lolling, a paddle-tennis court, bicycles, and lots of sun.
The fundamental principle is that the visitor is treated as a personal guest in the owner’s home – except that, of course, he does have to pay. The theme is to do what you please, so long as you’re a nice guy about it.
The ranch is essentially for rest. But when the rest cure has begun to take effect, then there is entertainment if anybody wants it.
Such as, for instance the breakfast rides. Everybody who wishes gets up early (8 o’clock!), climbs on a horse, and rides 45 minutes out into the desert. Real western stuff.
At the end of the trail they have breakfast out in the open. (It has been delightfully brought out ahead of time by some thoughtful stranger in a chuck-wagon.) And then, after gorging and sniffing the desert air, they all ride back again. Puts steel in a man.
But mostly, the men just sit all day long, and the women lie around the swimming pool. In late afternoon, cakes and sherry are served as “tea.” The ranch has no bar, so it escapes the too-rich-to-work type of cut-up vacationer.
At night the ranch wagon takes those who want to go in town to a movie. The others sit around talking or playing dominoes or cards. The guests go to bed fairly early and get up late. Hardly anything is stirring before 8 o’clock.
Ranch stresses informality
The ranch is a friendly place – not professionally friendly, like an obsequious waiter – but actually so. Nearly all the guests call the owners by their first names. The owners are Frank and Melba Bennett, who seem to have been born to the art of guest-ranch-running.
Melba Bennett is really a genius at this sort of thing. She comes from a well-to-do but earthy family. She has always known ranch life, has always loved people. She has a gift.
The Bennetts came here originally as guests, and Melba was so disgusted with the way it was being run (a “ranch” where a head-waiter met you at the door in full dress) that she itched to get her fingers on the place. She did, and it isn’t that way now.
Most people wear shorts or overalls, and you eat as you are. The ranch likes to make people feel welcome, so if anybody accidentally drops a spoon, everybody in the dining room drops one. It makes a terrific noise.
Frank Bennett, pursued by his many duties, is usually late to dinner. So when he enters the guests all sing a song to the effect that “Frankie is late again.”
Melba Bennett has always wanted a real western ranch, with actual cattle on it. So, in her folders and correspondence, she dotes on their prize piece of beef known as “Ernie the Cow.” I started for my shootin’-hip when she said that, but it turns out that “Ernie the Cow” was a part of the business long before Melba ever heard of me.
When guests arrive, the first thing they want to see is “Ernie the Cow.” Unfortunately there isn’t any “Ernie the Cow.” Melba just made it up. There isn’t any cow at all. The best Melba has been able to achieve so far is six calves.
Like all resort owners, the Bennetts are trying to look ahead and fit their business to war conditions. Melba has it all figured out.
By next season Frank will be in the Army or defense work. So Melba figures on cutting the meals down to one main dish instead of a choice of three, having the guests keep their own rooms tidied, cutting the rates, and she’ll run the place herself, alone.
And she can do it, too. If I weren’t such a vital cog in the international situation myself, I’d like to come out and help. Maybe I will anyhow. I could be “Ernie the Cow” and just chew straw all day.
U.S. Navy Department (April 3, 1942)
Southwest Pacific.
The United States aircraft tender Langley, the naval tanker Pecos and the destroyer Peary were sunk by the enemy in the vicinity of Northern Australia and in waters south of Java in late February and March.
A number of survivors from these ships were rescued and reached port safely. The next of kin of all personnel lost in the Pecos have notified. The next of kin of those lost in the Langley and Peary already have been notified or will be notified as soon as information available.
Official reports from Tokyo claimed the sinking of the Langley, least three times during the first month of the war, during which period the Langley was not damaged. She was sunk after a prolonged attack by the enemy south of Java in late February. Except for about a dozen men, all Langley personnel survived the attack and were transferred to the Pecos which was itself sunk a few days later.
The Pecos, a small tanker, employed in supplying fuel to units of our fleet in the Far East, was sunk in early March.
The Peary, a World War destroyer which received minor damage in the Japanese bombing attacks on Cavite immediately after the outbreak of the war, was sunk in the harbor at Darwin about February 19. The Peary had participated in many of the offensive actions of our destroyers in the Far East. Observers who witnessed the last engagement of the Peary described the conduct of her crew as beyond all praise. Gun crews remained at their battle stations continuing the fire until they were forced by rising water to leave their stations. No officer or man left the ship until it sank under him. A number of survivors were later rescued.
War conditions in the Southwest Pacific have greatly complicated and delayed reports of casualties, and the public is urged to refrain from initiating individual inquiries regarding casualties. The next of kin of all casualties are always notified by telegram as soon as possible.
There is nothing to report from other areas.
Reading Eagle (April 3, 1942)
Chinese generalissimo reported to have contacted Nehru
Allied commander and Cripps confer on problem for hour
By the Associated Press
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They will follow, if justified, after full inquiry is conducted
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West Greenwich, RI, April 3 (UP) –
Five men were reported killed today when an Army bomber crashed on Hopkins Hill.
Police immediately closed off the area, keeping observers away from the wreckage.
Scene of the crash was approximately 25 miles south of Providence.
Camp San Luis Obispo, Ca., April 3 (AP) –
In a page one box, The Camp News carried this advice:
Skip the blonde! Buy a bond!
Defenders are reported ready for another fierce assault
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4 members of Congress optimistic in battle of production
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The Pittsburgh Press (April 3, 1942)
By Ernie Pyle
PALM SPRINGS – It happens that, in addition to the many signal honors that have come to me – such as being frequently mistaken for a poet – I am also blessed by being a personal friend of the most popular girl in this popular desert resort.
She is the queen of this year’s annual desert circus. She is referred to in the newspapers as “the tops in local royalty.” Everybody is nuts about her. But having known her and her whole family for some years. I just treat her like dirt, which gives me a terrific sense of superiority over the rest of the population.
This girl’s name is Edie Bush. She is 21 years old (and purty, too). Despite my superior airs toward her, I make it a point in a sort of underhand way to court her good-will, because by the time she’s 40 she’s going to own this whole damn place, and 20 years from now I may be needing a nickel for a cup of coffee.
Edie is hostess at the Deep Well Ranch where I’ve been staying (in fact, that’s why I’ve been staying there). If it would interest you, I’ll tell you how such things as this come about. If I had time I’d make a novel out of it.
Well, some five years ago I was going down the Yukon River on a paddle-wheel steamboat. That sounds pretty romantic, but it was cold and the mosquitoes were terrible, and anyhow Edie wasn’t on the boat, so don’t get ahead of your story.
But on this boat I met a couple from San Francisco – Duane and Sevigne Bush – and we became good friends. I stayed with them at their gold camp in Alaska, and visited their home on our return to the States.
He meets rest of the family
The following winter there came to this couple a beautiful baby daughter named Vondre, a remarkable child, and for some mysterious reason I was appointed godfather to same.
In the ensuing years I have cultivated this child with perfumes, candy, gardenias, love letters, old lace and an occasional pinch, and have finally made such an impression upon her that now, at the age of 4, she actually remembers my name.
In the course of this courtship of my god-daughter, I naturally met the rest of the family, including my god-daughter’s elder sister, Edie (now 21 and purty – or am I getting old and repetitious?) But, anyhow, I met her, and then she went off to Oregon to college.
After three years of higher learning she decided her time had come, so she turned her back upon the classroom and looked about for something to conquer. And since her Cousin Melba rather runs the Deep Well Guest Ranch, she chose that as her first conquest.
She didn’t choose wrong. In one season she has captured the whole place. Everybody in town knows her, from Mother Coffman down to the lowliest cowboy. She walks gaily into the snooty Racquet Club in her overalls as if she owned the place, and they hold out their arms.
She hasn’t been out of overalls since last October, and dreads the near day when she will have to return to San Francisco and put on a dress. She wears her hair in pigtails, and guests can’t believe she is more than 15. That saves her a lot of trouble, too.
She is absolutely agog over “hostessing” at the ranch. She loves to ride and swim and talk to people, and thinks it’s perfectly ridiculous that she should be getting paid for it.
She plays miserable paddle-tennis (I beat her, 6-2, and me with athlete’s foot) and she’s lousy at dominoes, but she’s got what it takes to make the guests happy. She has a crush on the word “wonderful.” If a disgruntled guest were to come up foaming and yell, “This place stinks!” I’m sure Edie would say, “Wonderful, Mr. Nibbs,” and he would be whipped.
She does her bit for war
She has one day off a week, and spends three hours of that day serving as airplane-spotter on top of a Palm Springs office building. She has completed her Red Cross course. She sold more defense bonds than anybody else in a recent Palm Springs contest.
Her family home is within poor-aim range of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco, and she has only disgust for those who talk big and do nothing about the war.
Edie smokes cigarettes, used to take a cocktail but doesn’t any more, and keeps her overall pockets full of string and nails and things, like a little boy. She knows her way about the world, and yet there are a lot of bad things she hasn’t learned yet.
For instance, one day coming from town in the station wagon, one of the ranch’s women guests got mad about something, and told Edie and the other girl hostess off in a manner considerably unbecoming to a lady. The girls arrived at the ranch practically in tears.
So Frank Bennett tried to get out of them what had happened, and just what the woman had called them, and finally they told him, but neither of them knew what the words meant. And Frank said to them, “It’s a hell of a lot of good three years of college did you girls. You don’t even know all the words.” (The vulgar guest left next morning, by request.)
In the big Palm Springs annual circus, Edie will ride (or has ridden by the time this appears) on the leading float surrounded by her “court” of five girls. I wish I could have been there, to swell with pride. But a man can’t have everything, and I’ve already had my inning – walking nonchalantly down the main street of Palm Springs with overalled Miss Bush on my arm, the cynosure of all eyes, as they say. It was “wonderful.”
U.S. Navy Department (April 4, 1942)
Southwest Pacific area.
Recent reports indicate that the following damage has been inflicted on enemy ships by United States submarines operating in waters of the Java Sea and the Indian Ocean:
a) One light cruiser was sunk in the vicinity of Christmas Island, south of Java.
b) One light cruiser was damaged, in the vicinity of Christmas Island, by a direct torpedo hit and on the following day another direct hit was scored which is believed to have resulted in her sinking.
c) Two seaplane tenders were damaged near the island of Bali.
d) One supply ship was damaged in waters near Lombok Island.
e) In the vicinity of Bali, one barge transport and one unidentified ship were damaged by one torpedo hit each.
The above damage to the enemy has not been reported in any previous Navy Department communiqué.
There is nothing to report from other areas.
Reading Eagle (April 4, 1942)
Brighter picture for Allies as aerial strength increases
Hospital set afire as Nippon fliers strafe towns in Burma
By the Associated Press
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