TACOMA LUMBER SALES

is a very important part of our work- in the midst of intense activity and endless detail involved in supplying the exacting demands for high grade materials for the war effort.

It is our belief, based on sound deduction and observation, that the retail lumber dealer will be much more in the picture in the future, in the merchandising of hardwoods to the customer.

Washington said: " . remember that you are free, fighting for the blessings of Liberty; that slavery will be your portion and that of your posterity if you do not acquit yourselves like men"

Talk about things that are getting scarce, and why. The U. S. Quartermaster's Department is reported on good authority to have purchased 750,000 pairs of dice for the soldiers. Yes, friends, there are various ways of carrying the war to the people of foreign lands. No doubt those dice are for educational purposes, only, and who knows how many benighted heathen in Africa and other foreign lands may be given a course of instructions in the use of Mississippi Marbles.

Which incites me to tell again what I think is far and away the best story of the present war. This tough soldier is shooting craps with a gang of like kind and caliber. The dice are his. He is down on his knees. His money is all covered. His point is nine. And he makes it the hard way -THREE TREYS. If that doesn't hit your funny bone, then you won't be able to understand the reason for those 75o,ooo pairs of dice.

Best sales story I've heard lately: A real estate agent is showing a house and lot to a couple of prospective buyers, and he says maybe the place won't suit them in one way, the soil in the yard is so very fertile that the basement won't be big enough to hold the foodstuffs they can raise. ***

Speaking of gardening. The American people seem particularly interested in two important rnatters right now; raising chickens, or raising a Victory Garden. Might I suggest that here is where a certain amount of cooperation and coordination would come in very handy. Before you make up your mind which you are going in for, find out about your next door neighbors. Because if you should pl.ant a garden and they should go in for chickens, it Eight be bad for your garden- and your temper. Find out Grst, and coordinate your efforts. No charge for this advice.

A gang of soldiers are talking about brave service men. One of them said the nerviest man he had known in the service was Jim Becker, who, although a man of modest size, walked right up and smacked a big, tough Top-Sergeant right in the nose. Another soldier spoke up: "I'd like to meet a man with that much nerve." The first one said: "You can't meet him, pal; it's too much trouble to DIG HIM UP." ***

Ttemistocles, the Athenian, used to boast that he "could tell you how to make a city grow." I read a story recently that could be used for that purpose, it's so doggoned good. Reader's Digest tells about a visitor to Richmond, Virginia, who sat down to breakfast in the leading hotel his first morning there, and asked the grizzled old colored waiter what folks mostly ate for breakfast in Richmond. The old man said: "Judge, folks eats jes' 'bout de same vittles here as dey does othah places. De only diffunce is, befo' dey eats dey alutuz says: 'Thank Gawd, I'm in Richmond."' I think that story is so good that the Richmond Chamber of Cornmerce ought to be able to build a campaign around it that would double the population of the city. No foolin'.

A SPECIAL SUGGESTION: Turn to the page of "FUN-FACTS-FILOSOPHY" elsewhere in this issue and read a tribute to Abraham Lincoln you will find there. It was written by a famous old-time Southern Editor, and is so inspiring it belongs in every scrapbook. You'll thank me for reminding you.

Read a two line want ad in a Southern newspaper the othei day that stopped me cold. It simply said: "Wanted, to trade squirrel dog for coon dog." To me there is pathos in that advertisement. That guy simply wanted a dog which, in these days of meat shortages, would bring in bigger game. A guy can starve to death on anything as small as squirrels.

The proposed pay check deduction that has been agreed upon by a Congressional committee would take 20o/o at the source from every pay check. The effect is certain- not problematical. It would simply mean that one-fifth of all t}re creditors in America would come up short.

*t*

Until the Ruml plan came along, not even the dreamiesteyed member of the Income Tax Department had thought of collecting two years' income taxes in one year. Ruml just gave them the idea, and they cut loose. Today the Ruml plan is in the same fix as the fox who was being chased by a pack of hounds, when, at a corner, a beautiful young female hound joined the pack and the chase. Inside of a mile the fox was running fifth.

,6**

Statistics are sometimes interesting. For instance, I read where some statistician says that there are only onetenth as many comediennes as there are comedians. And I would like to add-from the heart-that only onetenth of those who think they are comedians-ARE. ***

We call it the Pacific Ocean, and pacific means peaceful. Yet a kid I know in the U. S. Navy tells me his ship rode through a storm in that ocean in which the waves were actually sixty feet high. "What did you boys do?" I asked him. "Said our prayers," said the sailor. "What the Hell else could we do?" ***

Eddie Rickenbacker has found out in a very short time that a safe way to remain a national hero in this country is never to utter an honest opinion, never be suspected of political ambitions, never step on the toes of the racketeers.

***

Who invented that deadliest piece of war explosive, the torpedo? One naval expert says it was Robert Whitehead, an English engineer, and that without the torpedo the submarine menace would not be one. True as to the latter part. But there are those who insist that the first torpedo was invented by no other than that great American in. ventor, Robert Fulton, who likewise invented the steamboat. It is stated that in the year 18fi), Fulton created a torpedo for Napoleon, and that one of these Fulton torpedoes was used by the French to blow up a ship in the harbor of Brest. That was 69 years before Whitehead's torpedo came out.

Much discussion, mostly political, about Stalin's attitude toward religion. The fact that he recently sent a frienclly message to the head of the Russian Orthodox Church roused suspicion - that he is softening in his attitude toward organized religion. However, I read on good authority that before the Commtnists took charge

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