"TIME brings all things."

Family

At Fort Madison, Iowa, four years ago, Roy Lewis Gray, 43-year-old clothing merchant, was filled with strange emotions when American Magazine singled him out as the average American Citizen.*

In Indianapolis last week a family of Browns was filled with the same emotions by the same cause.

The Average American Family was that of Sales Manager Merrill Jerry Brown, 44, of Pitman-Moore Co., pharmaceutical manufacturers. It is composed of Mr. & Mrs. Brown, Daughter Louise, 15, and Son John, 13. They have an eight-room house, a sedan, a radio, a piano. They like motoring, cinema, tennis, golf. Mr. Brown sits in his office under a framed certificate of his membership in the Hole-in-One Club.

Method of choosing family was as follows: The magazine reasoned that since more than 56% of the U. S. population is urban, the family must be city-dwellers. Indianapolis was chosen because it is a rail, highway and airway centre and because it is the nearest big city to the geographical centre of population of the U.S. (1.9 mi. west of Whitehall, Ind.). In Indianapolis the 598 Smiths, 174 Whites, and 3,366 Millers, Johnsons, Browns, Joneses, Davises, Wilsons, Moores, Williamses, Thompsons and Taylors listed in the telephone directory were asked to define the typical family. Then Reporter M. K. Wisehart.of American Magazine obtained from the local Chamber of Commerce a list of typical corporations, cut it up, drew one from a hat. It was Pitman-Moore Co. To the officers of Pitman-Moore Co. he gave the definition adduced from the replies of the Smiths, Joneses, Browns, et al. They replied: "That's Brownie, our sales manager!"

Backward

At Abilene, Tex. Pennie L. Wingo, wearing special periscope goggles, started north for New York City, walking backward. AROUND THE WORLD BACKWARD read a sign on Pennie L. Wingo's back.

Forward

At Liverpool, Peggy Davies and Phyllis Robertshaw told newshawks they liked their job which has taken them 12,000 mi. in the four years of their employment. Their job: walking forward 12 mi. per day to try out new boots and shoes for a manufacturer.

Cow

In Paris, a Monsieur Vache (French for "cow") applied to the courts for a change of name. M. Vache said 14 girls had refused to marry him; he had to marry a Polish girl who understood no French.

*Last week Roy Lewis Gray was still at Fort Madison, still a clothing merchant. He said: "There has been no profit for me in being chosen as the average U. S. man. I haven't made a thing out of it. ... I never said I didn't read the foreign news. Sometimes I do and sometimes I don't. Most of the time I do."

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