“A Tree
Grows in
Brooklyn”
By JOHN SELBY
AP Arts Editor
JEW YORK—Betty Smith’s
novel which is called “A Tree
Grows in Brooklyn’’, sets up an
image in the reader’s mind. The
real Betty Smith tears it down,
and substitutes another.
For instance, you come out of
the book with the feeling that
the author is a very young, quite
shy little person.
But when I tracked her down
the other day she had a small,
very smart suite in one of the
largest, very smart hotels at the
southeast corner of Central Park.
Nor is she shy. She had. in fact,
just married a young soldier
named Joe Jones, and wras already
tired to death of comments on
heT being Mrs. Smith-Jones.
Nor is she a girl,
“You know’,” she said, “I don’t
know whether it was fair to Joe
to make him a potential grand
father at his age.’’
For Betty Smith has two chil
dren, both in the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
^■* --m ■■■ ■ - - — ■ i — .
Betty Smith-Jones
. . . Tired Already
That’s where she lives most of
the time and she likes it very
much, too.
She likes, too her friends there
—Paul Green, the playwright; j
Noel Houston, the short story
writer; Charles Hills, the novelist
—and others.
Miss Smith's novel is about a
little girl named Francie growing
up in the Williamsburg section i
of Brooklyn, about Francie and
her Austrian mother and Irish
father, and the tangled life the j
lot of them led. About Francie’s
aunt, too, who loved ’em and left
’em.
But Francie remained essential
ly a little girl, and it’s a shock
to find her creator the creator
also of some 70 published plays,
and a lot more besides. “A Tree
Grows in Brooklyn’’ is Betty
Smith’s first novel, but by no
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T RjD 0 P S H I P—The Larfrst ship ever built in the Port of New York area, this riant troopship .was
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means her first published work.
And she’s spent years in various
universities, trouped as an ac
tress, worked in factories, offices
and stores. She’s held both a
Dramatists’ Guild and a Rocke
fellor fellowship in playwriting.
Point is Miss Smith knows
what she wants, and means to get
it. By chance, J*>e Jones and
Betty Smith lived six years in
Chape] Hill without meeting.
When he went into service a cor
respondence started—she met him
one day in Norfolk, Va., he pro
posed and next flay they were
married. He rated a 10-day fur
lough, and so could come to New
York with her.
Betty Smith-Jones. is not op
posed to the movies despite the
fact she turned down Holly
wood’s preferred $1,200 because
last year it offered her just 50.
Somebody turned up with an idea
far a script that she could work
on here in New York. She took
that job on, and 1 think she said
it was bringing in $1,000 a week.
CAT'S PRIVATE DOOR
INVADED BY SNARE
HUTCHINSON. X&s. — (AP)
—When the cat a*. William Fred
erick's home wants to go ir. or
out nowadays, it has to sit down
and yowl just like any ordinary
cat—It no longer has a private
entrance.
Tabby didn’t to anything to
forfeit its right tc a miniature
doorway leading tc its sleeping
room. It was just that the fam
ily made the startling discovery
that a snake was using the same
doorway.
So the hole was boarded.
Look for it in The Nugget—
youll find it!
KING’S RIGHT!
INSPECTION — With Windsor castle in the background.
King George VI of England inspects lines of the Boys' Brigade.
Womeldorff Given
Legion of Merit
Av —_
HEADQUARTERS, ALASKAN \
DEPARTMENT — Lt. Col. Vir
gil L. Womeldorff of Webster
City. Iowa, has been awarded the
Legion of Merit for “exception
lally meritorious conduct in the
performance of service” as com
manded of a comtsat engineer
regiment during the battle of At
tu, it was announced recently by
Lt. Gen. Simon Bolivar Buck
ner, Jr.'s. AD headquarters.
“That Colonel Womeldorff dem
onstrated outstanding ability and
understanding in trainging his
unit for amphibious operations
was evidenced by the excellent
manner in which the unit func
tioned both during and after op
erations,’’ his citation read.
“His sound judgment and ca
pable leadership fere important
factors m the final crushing of a
fierce enemy counter-attack. Ujp
completion of the combat opera
tions he became resident engi
engineer and through his initia
tive, professional ability and good
judgment contributed greatly to
the successful construction pro
gram on Attu.”
Also awarded the Legion of
Merit was Major Jack G. S. Max
field of Waco, Texas, Chief of the
Medical Corps’ X-Ray service
at Amchitka.
"Under most trying conditions
of weather, lack of facilities and
little assistance, he rendered ex
cellent services from his depart
went day and night during the
initial phase of the landing,” his
citation noted. “In addition to his
own duties he volunteered his
services and took personal charge
of erection of several buildings
of the station hospital.” He was
at that time a captain.
“Captain Maxfield set a high
example to all men he worked
with, and through his leadership,
energy and high devotion to duty
contributed greatly to the devel
opment of the medical facilities
at this station.”
CIVIL WAR STRATEGEM
STILL FOOLS “ENEMY”
WITH THE SECOND ARMY
ON MANEUVERS IN TENNES
SEE—(AP)—Paratroops fell for
a ruse on maneuvers that won
a battle for the Confederacy
some 80 years ago.
Lt. Col. Obvious O. Martin,
Jr., Vero Beach, Fla., realized
that his infantry battlion was
about to be attacked by an over
whelming force of paratroops.
Rembering a ruse used by
Gen. Nathan B. Forrest, Col. Mar
tin marched small detachments
of his men in view of the enemy,
marched them back under cover,
marched them across in view
again.
He repeated until the alarmed
chutists postponed their attack
and hastily dug in.
train for
SHARPSHOOTING
LYNCHBURG, Va. — (AP) —
The latest thing for preparation
for Army induction—a school to
learn how to shoot the pistol or
rifle. The Lynchburg Rifle and
Pistol Club is conducting its
eleventh school to teach firing
from prone, sitting, kneeling and
standing positions, but only men
within the draft ages are admit
ted to participate.
. —■ —g—j—j- I
LITERARY
GUIDEPOST
By JOHN SELBY
” ' ' 1
“Country Cured,” by Homer Croy
(Harper’s; $3).
Homer Croy’s “Country Cur
' ed” is carelessly written and re-!
i petitive and yet it certainly is i
j the finest autobiography I have j
I read in a year. It needs a little j
i explaining, and this is difficult.
Mr. Croy has even omitted a
great deal that he should have
included, yet the book is a per
fect picture of the author, and
no reader could doubt it.
The author of “West of the |
I Water Tower” was born of “Ohio !
j people” in Northwest Missouri, *
j near Marysville, is father was
| a farmer, and a good one. Homer
i was a farm boy in the days when
| a rain isolated the familv for I
I days, and sometimes in winter it!
| was impossible to get to town for
weeks. Those were the days i
when a farmer’s harness was in- I
variably handmade, and a milk- i
ing machine would have been :
considered a dangerous contrap-!
tion, most likely.
The boy grew up with all the
urges of youngsters today, but
with the feel that as a farm boy
he was a little inferior to city
iiboys, meaning the youngsters
who had the advantage of life in
Maryville. But he went to school
htere, riding a horse in from the
country when the weather was
possible. And then he went to
the University of Missouri; his
entire experiences of the world
before this time was a visit to
Omaha and another stay, some
what longer, in St. Joseph, Mo.
Eventually he went to New York,
---—'—
V ’*>.
and eventually w^s a free lance.
Knowledge of life as it is lived
nowadays came hard to Mr. Croy,
and he tells about the process
with complete frankness. He was
shy, and he forced himself out
of his shyness. He was a very
bad business man, and he still is,
in a way. As an expatriate, he
succeeded in producing only one
good Paris novel and spending
all his money. All his life he has
kept his farm perspective, and
for that matter, his father’s
farm, the last with some diffi
culty. The feel of the farm is all
through the book, but so is the
feeling of the wirter for his craft.
The unpredictable course of
events is symbolized for the read
er by the drainage ditch dug,
years ago, by Croy, Senior, and
Croy, Junior. It is now a great,
raw gully. And Croy, Junior, is
still learning.
WHAT THEY NEEDED
WAS A DRAWBRIDGE
WITH THE SECOND ARMY
IN TENNESSEE —(AP> —While
an engineering unit was thrown
ing a pontoon bridge across the
Cumberland river as amphibious
jeep sank on the upstream side
of it. The engineers called the
coast guard and finished the
bridge while the guards salvaged
the jeep.
Ten minutes later the engi
neers had to tear out a section of
the pontoon bridge to let the
coast guards go back down
stream.
A release to the American Red
Cross by the U. S. Commissioner
in Nome of a certfied copy of the
marriage license of Bertha Asi
tona Hart, for the purpose of es
tablishing evidence supporting
her claim to the War Department
for support as an army wife.
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