In the gay days of Author Owen Johnson's imperishable Dink Stover, ruthless upperclassmen used to "sell" to bug-eyed freshmen their radiators, wash-stands, fire-escapes and other dormitory fixtures.
In the gay days of Dr. James Monroe Smith as head of Louisiana State University, a Federal Grand Jury in New Orleans charged last week, a ruthless group of five politicos sold L. S. U. the Bienville Hotel for $575,000, lock, stock & barrel, then sold the hotel fixtures again to the University for another $75,000.
Not only that, said the Grand Jury, but the politicos had the University pay them $14,196 for the full 1936 taxes on the hotel, despite the fact that the University bought the hotel in December, only owed 27 days' taxes, not 365. The New Deal's rufous Galahad, Attorney General Frank Murphy, swore to smite Louisiana sin hip-&-thigh regardless of the prominence of anyone found involved. "This thing has just begun," said his agents in New Orleans.
"Now is the time to chase a lot of rats out of the State pantry," shouted the Rev. Carl F. Lueg, Methodist pastor of Hammond, La. "Business is picking up, eh, boys?" to newshawks said huge, rich ex-Governor Richard W. ("Dick") Leche, who turned the ruins of the old Huey Long machine over to Brother Earl Long in the nick of time.
Louisianans, sick at heart but fighting mad, opened Grand Jury investigations all over the place. Down went the powerful like tenpins. For years the wise have whispered. "They'll never get Weiss!" Last week panting newsboys shouted before New Orleans' great Roosevelt Hotel, "They've got Weiss! They've got Weiss!" Every citizen knew what they meant.
For Seymour Weiss, the bald, polite $15-a-week shoe salesman of 1924, the $25-a-week Roosevelt Hotel barbershop manager of 1925, has been immensely' wealthy and powerful since he polished up Huey Long's manners in 1927, taught him to play golf and enjoy himself in night clubs. Weiss became pressagent for the Roosevelt Hotel the same year, gave bounding Huey and his bodyguards a free suite of rooms for the publicity, has harvested ever since from that gag.