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Henry Ford added another generality to his large list.† Said he, in an interview in the January McClure's: "This globe has been inhabited by intelligent people millions of times, and very ancient people, I believe, were highly developed in the arts and sciences. . . . I am sure they had the automobile, the radio, the airplane—everything that we have, or its equivalent, and perhaps many things that we have yet to discover." Historians and geologists, with whom Mr. Ford has not always agreed, did not agree with him in this case.
Theodore and Kermit Roosevelt, sons of the late hunter-President, arrived last week in Rangoon, sojourned with Governor Sir Charles Innes of Burma, prepared to push on into the jungle, there to hunt big game and gather strange specimens.
Mrs. Oscar S. Straus, 70, widow of the late Secretary of Commerce & Labor under Roosevelt, friend of the late Hunter Carl E. Akeley, will sail on Jan. 19 for Africa, push up the river Nile, into the Livingstone Mountains, in quest of birds, beasts and vegetation for the American Museum of Natural History. No gun-toter, she will use the camera.
Maude Adams, 56, will sail for India in January to direct the production of a cinema (in colors) of Rudyard Kipling's Kim. When she returns to the U. S., she plans to go on the road with dramatic readings of her oldtime successes (Peter Pan, What Every Woman Knows, etc.). Her home is at Ronkonkoma, Long Island.
Queen Victoria of Sweden who is generally indisposed and keeps to her hotel on the Riviera, received last week an island in the Swiss Lake Constance from her late brother. Prince Max of Baden, onetime Imperial Chancellor to Wilhelm II of Germany, and first to announce his abdication.
Cornelius Vanderbilt Jr. received from his father and mother a check for $1,000,000 to pay off the creditors of his defunct tabloid newspapers. One million, two hundred fifty-seven thousand dollars of his heritage was also released for him to repay persons who lost money in backing his papers. This means that he was completely reconciled with his father. Brig. Gen. Cornelius Vanderbilt, who had not approved of the newspaper ventures. After the family reunion, in Manhattan. Vanderbilt Jr. left for his ranch near Reno, Nev., to spend the holidays with his second wife, the former Mrs. Mary Weir Logan.
Burges Johnson, 51, has written pleasant books for children and for grownups, too—Bashful Ballads, The Bubble Books, etc. From 1915 to 1926, he was professor of English at Vassar College (female), where his courses were well liked. Last week, he made a speech in Chicago: "There no longer are any effective cuss words. Profanity is just a greeting, an indication of closest friendship and regard." Professor Johnson is now on the payroll of Syracuse University.
* Active, potent Elder Daughter & Heir of the late last male Krupp. She directed the vast Krupp Works during the World War.
*The United Press was the first to locate Playwright O'Neill in Manila.
† A fortnight ago (TIME, Dec. 24), Mr. Ford said: "No successful boy ever saved any money."