As the Earth Turns (Warner Bros.) (1934)

and ‘The Little Poor Man’ we S Maine goes—so goes the Nation!’’ The truth of this saying has been evidenced by so many political landslides of country-wide significance, that one is reminded of the Down East farmer who said to an argumentative friend: ‘‘The way you put it—looks like there ought to be something in to it!”’ Maine’s motto is ‘‘T lead.”’ One further proof that she lives up to her motto, is the fact that Maine elections are held in September — and her ballots cast, counted and returns broadeasted—long before the eventful November day, chosen by the rest of the States, as the expression of the will of the people. Red Men of the Forest Indians have played a varied role in the history of Maine—and their memory is embalmed in her picturesque names—Androscoggin, Aroostook, Kennebec, Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, Sagadahoc, Skowhegan, Wiscasset and thousands of others! During the French and Indian Wars and in Revolutionary days many lurid massacres occurred. The legends are numberless and extremely imaginative. Of especial interest is the myth of Glooskap, Great Spirit who created Maine. Glooskap, it seems, lived in great serenity with his grandmother, Mrs. Bear, and his beloved pipe, until he incurred the hate of the wizard, Winape—who drove him from Maine to Nova Scotia and finally to Newfoundland. Escaping from there, he mounted the back of a reluctant whale, who so resented his urgent commands of ‘‘Go faster’’—that she ran aground. Missing the water, however, the Whale set up such convulsive weeping, that Glooskap relented and pushed her back into it with a great splash. Instead of swimming off, however, she begged for a pull at his pipe. He granted her wish, and the Whale had no sooner got the pipe between her teeth, than she scuttled off to deep water with great haste. Glooskap never saw his pipe again but when you see the Whale spouting you’ll know she’s smoking it! Maine’s Robinson Crusoe Among Maine characters none is more intriguing than giant John Darling the village loafer, who was banished to an island in sight of the mainland. The thrifty householders deciding that they would not saddle themselves with John’s board and keep, canoed him off to the rocky land that jutted from the water, supplied A winter evening in a typical Maine home—a scene from Warner Bros.’ “As The Earth Turns,” the picturization of the best-selling novel. him with tobacco and absolute necessities and left him to work or starve. John Darling—between the devil and the deep blue sea—set to work— built himself a hut of driftwood, rocks and sod—and earned his livelihood by fishing, shooting wild game, picking berries, and cultivating a garden. For months at a time he saw no human being, though at long intervals his friendly enemies arrived with scant supplies, and rowed away again. He had no man Friday. For twenty years John Darling thrived, grew brown and muscular and seemed well content. One winter it was noticed that no smoke was rising from his tiny chimmey and his captors went to see what was amiss. They found him rigid as the icicles that hung from the eaves of his hut. Radical treatment for loafers—exile to Barren Island where the only slogan is Maine’s Own Don Quixote At Edgecomb, on a height overlooking rolling farmlands, may be seen to this day the white colonial house which was to have sheltered the Queen of Louis XVI of France. 66. work or starve.” Cap’n Clough, master of a clipper ship plying the seven seas, came in touch with the friend who was engineering the escape of the Queen from the terrors of the Revolution. The hold of his ship was loaded with fine Mat No. 12——80c Indian attacks, bloody battles, and constant warfare were accepted by early Maine settlers as part of the day’s work. furnishings for her American refuge, and Clough wrote his wife that she would seon be expected to entertain a person whom he described as ‘‘a poor broken-hearted lady.’’ When the plans failed and Marie Antoinette rode bravely through the streets «. Paris to the Guillotine— Captain Clough sailed back to Maine. The fine things were transferred to his mansion. After his passing they were distributcd among various families of the district. The Wettest Dry State Maine, fighting valiantly for first place—was first to pass laws limiting the sale of liquors. The first prohibitory law was passed in 1851, through the efforts of General Neil Dow—twice wounded in the Civil War—a huge and dynamic figure, whose fists were as eloquent as his tongue. In 1884 the sale and manufacture of spirits was ‘forever’ prohibited. In 1933, Maine and Utah ran a race to see which should have the honor of turning the tide for repeal. If Maine came out second—she may still claim that it is the exception which proves the rule. Once more the old soaks can say ‘‘Well, I got to go down 1o Bangor and git drunk—and gosh—how I dread it!’’ It is a commentary on the humanity of Maine—good or bad, according to your point of view—that capital punishment was banished half a century ago. More Maine ‘Leads’ Maine had the first National Park in the United States! The first New England Thanksgiving Day was celebrated on Allen’s Island on August 9th, 1607. The first gold in the limits of the United States was discovered in Maine. The first fort and stockade was built at Pennaquid, and the first trading post near Augusta on the Kennebec River in 1628. The first incorporated city in North America was Georgiana, now York. The State had the first organized government in New Egland with Sir William Phipps as the first Royal Governor. ee Re ee ee Turns,” talks it over with Jean Muir, star of the film of the same name. fas tite lebih ates At. ahaha bea =e Maine leads New England in having built the first ship—and in the manufacture—before anyone else was in the field—of cotton and woolen goods, white flour, paper, clothes, boots, toys and snow-shoes. Notables Past and Present ‘‘Maine Woods’? was Henry David Thoreau’s tribute after a visit to the Pine Tree State, whose forests cover twenty-one thousand square miles. Longfellow was born in Portland. Whittier loved Maine and Hawthorne spent many summers on the shores of Sebago. ‘‘Uncle Tom’s Cabin’’ was given to the world from a quiet Maine town. lLincoln’s favorite humorist, ‘Artemus Ward’ was a native son, so was his famous contemporary, Bill Nye. And who has forgotten ‘‘James G. Blaine of the State of Maine’’? Emma Eames, Lillian Nordica and Clara Louise Kellogg were among famous Maine singers. Edwin Arlington Robinson, finest poet of our generation, was born in Gardiner and Booth Tarkington has for years exiled himself from Indiana to live and write in Kennebunkport. Thornton Wilder of ‘‘The Bridge of San Luis Rey’’ is a Maine man and so is Phillip Lord whose ‘‘Sunday Evenings at Seth Parker’s’’ were so successful on the radio. Rudy Vallee belongs to the clan. Before going to Yale he went to the University of Maine—whose Stein Song he taught to the country, from Coast to Coast. Maine as a Best Seller Last year hundreds of thousands of Americans visited the rolling farm lands of Maine—in mind at least— spirited there by the magie words of a Maine girl—Gladys Hasty Carroll. Her book was ‘‘As The Earth Turns’’ and it follows the lives of the family of a sturdy Maine farmer, through a year — Winter — Spring—Summer— Fall—and Winter again! For many months the book was a national best seller. It is safe to say that no one read ‘‘As The Earth Turns’’ without determining to actually visit Maine, by hook or by crook, sooner or later. Mrs. Carroll’s heart-warming love story has been transferred to the sereen with unerring fidelity to its changing moods. Jean Muir is featured as en Shaw, the heroine—with Donald Woods as the young Pole who emigrates from Boston to the adjoining farm. Others playing important parts are Russell Hardie, Emily Lowry, Arthur Hohl, Dorothy Peterson, David Landau and Clara Blandick. Directed by Alfred E. Green, the film, ‘‘As The Earth Turns,’’ comes to the............ Theatre yi Me Ns next.