Americana

MANNERS & MORALS

P: Disinflation note: In Denver, a loaf of bread cost 5-c-.

P: In Alaska, where there are two men for every woman, Representative William Egan proposed a $50-a-year tax on unmarried females, to "further the institution of matrimony, relieve the housing shortage."

P: Nevada Assemblyman C. C. Boak, 79, introduced a bill to grant divorces by slot machine. The divorce seeker would punch the machine once a day for 42 days, to establish residence, then insert 200 silver dollars. As the divorce popped out of a slot, colored lights would flash, wheels spin and a jukebox would play America. P: Hoping to sell more pretzels during Lent, Alex V. Tisdale, president of the National Pretzel Bakers Institute, explained that the twist was originally supposed to represent arms folded in prayer.

P: James E. Maher, who wanted to return to Ireland but hated to leave the modern American comforts of his seven-room, prefabricated house in Pinehurst, N.C., solved the problem by knocking it down, packing it into 59 giant crates, and shipping it off to Ireland ahead of him. P: Annoyed at her gentleman friend, Evelyn Panagakis, 31, of Peterborough, N.H. got into a car, and made three runs on his parked automobile, smashing in the front, side and rear.

P: Manhattan's League for Less Noise sighted on a new target: the loose manhole covers that go clonk-clonk when cars pass over them.

P: To prove to Iowa legislators that hog cholera virus might kill hogs but was harmless to human beings, the Iowa Farm Bureau's Attorney Carl P: Stephens downed a swig on the spot. He suffered no ill effects, but (as a possible carrier of hog cholera) was urged to stay away from hogs for at least 19 days. P: Shoving an 1,000-ton barge, the Federal Barge Lines' diesel towboat Harry Truman chuffed valiantly from New Orleans to St. Louis, failed by one hour and 17 minutes to match the 79-year-old record (three days 18 hrs. 14 min.) set by the steamboat Robert E. Lee.

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