PEOPLE

"Names make news." Last week the following names made the following news:

Tracy Drake, boniface of the smart Drake and Blackstone Hotels, Chicago, protested, last week, against a new action of the Illinois Bell Telephone Co. to cut commissions on income from public booth phones. Said Mr. Drake: "We're all slaves of the monopolistic telephone company. You know we have to pay the loss on bad slugs." To which, William D. Bangs, general counsel for the telephone company, queried: "Is it possible that the clientele of the Blackstone and the Drake should drop bad slugs in the phones?"

John Ringling, circusman, purchased last week for $400 the bathtub in which French Revolutionist Jean Paul Marat was lolling when Charlotte Corday assassinated him. Other famed bathtubs, unpriced, are linked with Diogenes, Earl Carroll.

Leroy S. Buffington, in 1830, was a young Minneapolis architect with an idea. He had conceived a building which he called a "cloud scraper." Simple was the construction principle -- a steel skeleton with a shelf at each floor to hold the sur face masonry. He took out patents on it. Since then, almost every skyscraper in the world has been built on Mr. Buffington's principle. Last week, Architect Buffington, 89, received a check for $2,250 as royalties on the construction on the 25-story Rand Building, in Minneapolis. It was the first time, despite eleven infringement suits, that he had ever received royalties on a skyscraper.

Henry Ford in his new book, My Philosophy of Industry, writes: "In common decency the liquor generation should be allowed to die in silence. Its agonies should not be the constant topic of Ameri can journals."

Mrs. Theodore Roosevelt was guest of honor, last week, at a reception in her late husband's birthplace, No. 28 East 20th St., Manhattan. Plans were announced to raise a $250,000 endowment fund for the maintenance of the Roosevelt birthplace; a $50,000 mortgage on the house was ceremoniously burned. Then, she sailed for Switzerland to visit her son-in-law and daughter, Dr. and Mrs. Richard Derby.

Great traveler that he was, Theodore Roosevelt's world-wanderings have been rivaled, perhaps eclipsed, by those of his widow. Since his death, on Jan. 6, 1919, Mrs. Roosevelt has traveled some 115,372 miles, as follows:

Four trips to Europe 26,000

World Cruise : ...... 28,675

Brazil 14,000

South Africa 17,196

Cuba 3,000

Yucatan 3,000

So. America 15,000

Central America 8,000

Total miles 115,372*

The late Isadora Duncan left some $25,000 worth of real estate in France and the rights to her book, My Life. Her will was filed last week in Manhattan by her adopted daughter, Irma. It had been written six years ago in Moscow, just before she left by airplane for Paris on a honeymoon. At the chance suggestion of a friend, she scribbled it in pencil on a page torn out of a little notebook. It said: "This is my last will and testament. In case of my death I leave my entire property to my husband, Serge Yessenin. In case of simultaneous death, then such property to go to my brother, Augustin Duncan."

Serge Yessenin committed suicide three years later.

Augustin Duncan, blind, is still alive in Germany.

Rev. J. Frank Norris, fundamentalist pastor of the First Baptist Church of Fort Worth, Tex., took, last week, a swift automobile ride which ended with a view of his church, Sunday school building and gymnasium--all destroyed by fire.

Previous doings of Mr. Norris:

1912, was indicted for arson and perjury in connection with another burning of his church, was acquitted.

1917, denounced Y.M.C.A. practice of giving cigarets to soldiers.

1923, predicted from pulpit of Rev. John Roach Straton that "sin-steeped" Manhattan would be demolished "within one hour."

1926, killed Lumberman Dexter E. Chipps in the study of his church, was acquitted of murder.

Roscoe ("Fatty") Arbuckle, onetime cinema funnyman, was haled into court in Culver City, Calif., last week, to show cause why his roadhouse should not be padlocked as a nuisance.

*The dates of these trips were:

Jan. 1919--to Paris and the grave of her son; Nov. 1919--to Brazil; Jan. 1922--Antwerp, thence to South Africa; Dec. 1923--World Tour. (New York. Tokyo, Moscow, Berlin, Paris, Naples and home); Dec. 1924--Cuba: May 1925--Italy; Jan. 1926--Yucatan (to study Mayans); Jan. 1927--South America (Bolivia, Montevideo, Argentina, etc.); Jan. 1928-- Panama. Salvador, Cuba, Guatemala; Aug. 1928 --Europe; Jan. 1929--Switzerland.