Americana

MANNERS & MORALS

Notes on U.S. customs, habits, manners & morals:

P: To publicize Navy Day, Rear Admiral Monroe Kelly, commandant of the Third Naval District, turned over his command for the day to James F. Rappaport, 14, of The Bronx. Settling back in the admiral's chair, young Rappaport announced: "When I grow up I want to be a lawyer."

P: Wheat at $3 a bushel had sprouted a rash of "wheatleggers." Organized like racketeers, they case a remote granary, on a quiet night back their trucks up close, bore a hole, and fill up. A single haul may be worth as much as $1,300. Said Jake Sims, director of Oklahoma's Bureau of Criminal Investigation: "They've got a better racket than the bank robber. It's not only safer--there's more money in it."

P: At the New York Times' annual "Fashions of the Times," sportive designers presented living caricatures of the three basic silhouettes of the "New Look" (see cut): the melon, the pyramid, and the "derriere de Paris."

P: The U.S. Naval Academy discharged Midshipman Frederick W. Lauer Jr., a senior, who had bought up 400 extra tickets to the Navy-Penn game from lower classmen at $3.60 apiece for sale to a scalper. Possible profit: at $20 a ticket, $6,560.

P: New York University offered a new course in practical education--a course in "Smells." Designed for future perfume experts, the course will try to teach the student that he smells not with his nose but with his mind.

P: In Manhattan, 494 rare items of old English silver from the estate of the late J. P. Morgan were auctioned off at record prices: $31,000 for twelve Elizabethan dessert plates, engraved with the Labors of Hercules.

P: For 33 years, Ford employees from janitor to vice president have been forbidden to smoke on the job. Old Henry did not approve of smoking, thought it made workers inefficient. Last week, six months after Old Henry's death, Young Henry lifted the ban--for all but women office workers.

P: In Newport, dimming Socialite Mrs. Hamilton Fish Webster, 80-year-old widow, adopted Brigadier General Ralph C. Tobin, 57, former commander of New York's old 7th Regiment of the National Guard, as her son. General Tobin, retired, has been living with Mrs. Webster since May, will inherit her personal estate, estimated at $158,300.

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