Edna Rose Ritchings, "celestial" white wife of Negro Cultist Father Divine, told Ebony magazine that many people "wonder if we are happy together living lives of purity and chastity . . ." Wrote Mother Divine: "I am as virtuous today as the day Father took me unto himself as his spotless bride ... To be daily in the presence... is the most glorious privilege any human being could have ... I am a sample and example for all to copy if they desire to be supernaturally and eternally blessed . . . Father Divine ... is greater than any atomic or hydrogen bomb."

Chanteuse Hildegarde, off on a 30-state tour complete with a six-car cavalcade of maids, musicians and pressagents, paused for an observation on modern living: "There is no such thing as a provincial town in this day and age."

"My trip is not political," British Fascist Leader Sir Oswald Mosley explained on his arrival in Buenos Aires. He was merely going to study the book market, he said, and maybe peddle a few.

A California court granted Dr. Peter Lindstrom an uncontested divorce from Cinemactress Ingrid Bergman nine months after she had gotten her Mexican mailorder divorce in order to marry Director Roberto Rossellini. Said Ingrid in Paris: "I'm happy that it's finally over." She added that she might be interested in making more movies, having more children. "You know how these Italian families are, ten or twelve ... I don't think I'll have that many, though."

To a young artist on her first exhibition in London, Master Portraitist Augustus John wrote: "You must admit that it isn't enough to have the eyes of a gazelle (although they are fatal); you also need the claws of a cat in order to capture your bird alive and play with it before you eat it, and so join its life to yours. This is the mystery of painting."

Chatting with Novelist Edna Ferber, Alice Longworth, daughter of Theodore Roosevelt, recalled a recent illness in an isolated western cabin: "There was a foot and a half of snow outside, and my temperature was 103. Of course, I had my own aureomycin with me, but I thought, 'Wouldn't it be strange if I died here in this log cabin?' " Quipped Author Ferber, "Just think what the headline writers would have done with the story. I can see it now, 'From White House to Log Cabin.' "

The Brimming Cup

In Stockholm, Sweden's new King Gustaf VI took the royal oath, announced that his personal motto would be "Duty Above All," with Queen Louise acknowledged the cheers of his subjects. Then the King picked up his tired little grandson, Crown Prince Carl, 4, heir apparent to Sweden's throne, and carried him off to the quiet of his palace room.

In the White House rose garden, President Truman presented the Harmon international aviation trophy, topnotch aviation award, to the outstanding aviator, aviatrix and aeronaut of the past decade: Lieut. General James H. Doolittle, wartime boss of the Eighth Air Force, leader of the first Tokyo raid; Jacqueline Cochran, wartime head of WASP, and dirigible expert Vice Admiral Charles E. Rosendahl (retired), wartime chief of Naval Airship Training.

For their one public movie of the year, Britain's royal family turned out for the command performance of The Mudlark, starring Irene Dunne as Queen Victoria, later met and mingled with some visiting Hollywood royalty, including Gloria Swanson (see cut).

In the annual diplomatic shoot sponsored by France's President Vincent Auriol, U.S. Ambassador David Bruce copped the championship title by shooting 114 pheasants in three hours.

Among those selected as the "best pajamaed males in the U.S. in 1950" (by pajama manufacturers): Vice President Alben Berkley, Dwight Eisenhower, Erroll Flynn, Ezzard Charles, Nelson Rockefeller, Leopold Stokowski.

Wear & Tear

Asked by a Washington reporter to comment on the partition of Ireland, Britain's Minister of Defense Emanuel Shinwell snorted: "I do not intend to mix in U.S. domestic politics."

In Portland, Me., just before curtain time, Actress Lynn Fontanne fell, broke her left wrist, but went on to play her part in 7 Know My Love with husband Alfred Lunt.

In Chicago, warming up for his 44th year of tournament play, Billiard Champ Willie Hoppe chalked a cue and mused: "At 63 I know I'm not getting any better. All I can do is hold my own, but my own is still good enough."

At a Washington cocktail party, Perle Mesta, U.S. Minister to Luxembourg, and Mme. Henri Bonnet, wife of the French ambassador, arrived in identical hats (an elephant-grey number embellished with shell pearls and sequin-dotted veil). The two ladies, both schooled in diplomacy, merely spoke politely.

Governor James E. Folsom, in no kissin' mood, sued the Reader's Digest for $1,000,000 on the ground that an article on the Alabama penal system called "Devil's Island, U.S.A." was a libel on him and "on the people of Alabama."

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