Two Red Apples

Since Professor Michael Idvorsky Pupin of Columbia University, Manhattan, penned his phenomenally popular autobiography, From Immigrant to Inventor (1925), the literary world has shared the opinion of many scientists that Professor Pupin is perhaps the greatest living exponent of electromechanics.

Last week the Professor, who as a boy arrived at Manhattan in the steerage from Austria-Hungary, lunched at the Manhattan clubrooms of the American Jugoslav Society with M. Pavle Karovitch, Consul at Manhattan for Jugoslavia, a nation which now includes Idvor, the birthplace of Michael Idvorsky Pupin.

Since Consul Karovitch will shortly return to Jugoslavia, Professor Pupin addressed to him a warm personal farewell. As he spoke, two red apples and a baseball lay before him on the table.

"Friend Karovitch, you are returning to the land where many of us have relatives and all of us have friends.

"It is our fondest hope that Heaven and its Holy Trinity will always protect their peaceful homes, their grazing flocks of sheep and herds of cattle, their joyful vineyards and fields of golden grain, which are now preparing for the merry harvest season. May the happy harvest songs of their busy busy boys and honey-hearted girls soon resound from one end of Jugoslavia to the other, praising the Lord for his abundant harvest blessings.

"And now we do not want you to go emptyhanded. Here are two gifts representing the best products of the blessed land of America.

"If suitable opportunity is offered, present these two American apples to their gracious Majesties, the King and the Queen of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes [Jugoslavia], to remind them of generous American friendship.

"And here is another gift, which please deliver to the little Crown Prince [Peter of Jugoslavia]. It is an American baseball, a symbol of everything which spells joy and happiness to the heart of the American boy. It will remind the Crown Prince that little American boys love him and love the boys of Jugoslavia."