NEWS AND FEATURES FOR BOYS AND GIRLS ACTIVITIES OF YOUTH IN WASHINGTON AREA WASHINGTON, D. C., JANUARY 31, 1943. E—7 Capitol Pages Get Close-up of FBI Methods ^ Boys Make Tour of Bureau in Party Led by Agent Priie Contribution By LYLE G PECK. 16. Capitol Page School. It was my good fortune recently to make a tour of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, in company with a group of Congressmen, their secre- taries and Cap- itol pages. It was an interest- ing and educa- tional experi- ence. Our party was escorted by a special agent to a large class- room. where we saw a movie on the manv activ- ities of the FBI. We were then led to the cryp- tographic d e i,yi« rrt. partment and shown how to find the key to any code. Next came spectrographic investi- gation. Here material is burned and the flame photographed by spectro- scope to determine its composition. Since each of the 72 elements burns differently, the FBI can determine the composition of any substance to approximately 1/100,000 of 1 per cent. Microscopic analysis also plays an important part in criminology. In the blood sera department we were told that, besides the four main I blood types known to most people.: there are 13 minor types. After j hearing how blood analyses aid in solving murder cases, we were shown the ultraviolet ray. which reveals j many kinds of invisible ink. On file in the FBI are the finger- prints of 60,000.000 persons. These prints arrive at the rate of 100,000 a day. They are the prints not only of criminals, but of Govern- ment employes, servicemen and others. The FBI captures criminals at the rate of 850 a month, and finger- prints play an important part in this great work. Fingerprints also have been the means of identifying the bodies of seamen washed ashore from tor- pedoed ships. Tire chances of any two people having the same prints : are extremely remote—onlv 1 in 1. 606.937, 974,174.171.729.761.809,705,- i 564,167.968.221.676,069,604,401.795.301.- j 376. Try reading that figure aloud,! you boys and girls who always get j an "A" in mathematics! As a matter of fact, one finger- print may be different from another ; in several hundred ways, and only j a dozen differences are needed to constitute evidence in a Federal court. Even John Dillinger, who had expensive and painful plastic sur- gery done on his fingers, could have been Identified in several hundred ways. Of considerable credit to the FBI Is the decrease in the number of: kidnaping cases since J. Edgar Hoover's sleuths took over. Of 875 kidnapings. only 2 remain unsolved —the Mattson and Levine cases, on ! which the FBI is still hard at work. ; In the Mattson case alone more than 20,000 persons have been ques- tioned. The FBI is truly the “guardian of our home front.’’ While Waiting Mary's Beau: “Is Mary your old- est sister?" Kid Brother: “Yep!" Beau: ‘‘And who comes after her?” Brother: "You and two other guys.” „ Sister—Go upstairs and get my watch. Brother—Oh, wait a while. It'll run down. Use This ‘Qrille’ to Send Secret Code Messages Mapk ©omcpoht^^* I M 1 i I i i *?apk© om ™5?S*® © OM BftCK _:DIA<3I2AM. A. fWORD rIgI^F —I I SHALL APTER PLANS |S I 1^1* S'GNED SCHOOL MEET I cmp. AT °° the IpasI , ™E SECRET I DIAGRAM. B i ! ©r ism SMA^d_f_”1_ _ „,, >r__Em WtZrW 1 I “_Ii__„ laS^TI II By R. W. DOLDGE. It is very easy to write a garbled secret message that may be trans- lated into readable language only by the correspondents with whom you wish to communicate secretly, provided you are willing to spend a few' minutes making a cut-out "grille” according to the following directions: First, obtain some cardboard of post-card size and thickness, and measure of! one of the cards into 24 spaces, according to the plan illus- trated by diagram A. Notice that there are four quarter sections of six pieces each. Tire ■ .. i Prizes Totaling $5 Offered for Best Contributions Five prizes of $1 each are awarded in evAy issue of The Junior Star for the best original stories, articles, poems and cartoons by boys and girls of high school age and under.! All contributions must bear the name. age. address, telephone num- ! ber and the school of the author. j Written contributions must be on i one side of the paper, and, if type-1 written, double-spaced. Drawings I must be in black and white and mailed flat. The editor's choice of winners will be final, and he reserves the right to use any contribution in whatever form he may deem advisable, re- gardless of whether it is awarded a prize. Checks will be mailed to winners during the week following publication of their contributions. No contribution will be returned. Writers of stories and articles which, in the opinion of the editor, are of sufficient merit, will be given cards identifying them as reporters for The Junior Star. The editor re- serves the right, however, to decline to issue reporters’ cards or to revoke those already issued whenever such action appears advisable. Address contributions to The Junior Star, 727 Star Building, Washington, D. C. Room Was Dark Judy's mother keeps her jellies and canned fruit in a dark closet under the back stairs. One day she asked Judy to go there and get a glass of jelly for lunch. "I don't like to go into that closet,” objected the little girl, “it's always awful late in there!” Cross-Word Puzzle 1, Limited or definite ex- tent of time. 6. Mortal. 10. To feign. 14. Song. 15. Turkish decree. 16. Persian fairy. 17. Industry's war job. 19 Den. 20. Goddess. HORIZONTAL. 21. Severely. 23. Batch of letters. 24. Gaseous element. 25. Happened 28. Yielded as profit. 32. Arabian name. 33 Private matters. 37. Crude metal. 38. Relative. 39. Cut down. 40. Ethiopian prince. 41. Greek letter. 42. Frying pans. 46 To inquire. 47. To tell. 49. Engraves. 51. President. 53. Armadillo. 54. Zodiac sign. 57. Hodgepodge. 61. Wolf. 62. War victims. 64. British oolony. 65. Canted. 66. Verve. 67. Inlets. 68. Nostrils 69. Withered. 1. Hawaiian cloth. 2. Gops astray. 3. Melee. 4. Title. 5. Capable of being molded or modeled. 6. Russian labor union. 7. Oriental fish. 8. To beautify. 9. Mild. 10. Surgical appliance. VERTICAL. 11. Top. 42. Seed covering 13. Muddy. 18. Mountains. 22. Departs. 25. Pastry cook. 26. Choicest part. 27. Last. 23. Pentateuch. 30. To obliterate. 31. Writing tables. 34. Greek letter. 35. Color. 36. Sheep. 42. To halt. 43. Water fowl. 44. Quo'es. j 45. Booth. 48. Work garments. 50. Boxes. 52. Australian bear. 53. To divert. 54. Flat stone. 55. Musical passage. 56. To submit to. j 58. River. 59. Belongings. 80. Serf. 63. Term of j address. L1 ■ L.I I LJLiL.1 1 Li 1 1 I ? i- ►spaces of each section are then j numbered from 1 to 6, always start- ing at the outside corner and hav- ing each group progress in the same order towards the center. Original Design. Cut out each of the shaded sec- tions in the diagram along the dotted lines with a sharp knife or shears. If you prefer, you may make up your own original grille design, using other spaces, provided you cut out only one rectangle of each num- ber shown on the diagram, and dis- tribute the six selected for cutting over the entire cartj. Be careful to cut out only one of the four Fig. 1 spaces, only one of the four Fig. 2 spaces, etc. Then identify the top and bottom positions of each side of the grille by plainly marking the figures 1 and 2 on the front, and then turn over the “grille” and mark 3 and 4 on the top and bottom positions of the back. It will be necessary to make up extra grilles for each of your correspondents. Therefore make certain that each extra copy has these same numbers marked in ex- j actly the same positions as on the j original grille. Your cut-out grille is now placed j over a plain piece of paper cut post- j card size with the aforementioned; Fig. 1 at the top. You are now ready to start writing your secret message. I Line by Line. Write one word of your message in each open space, proceeding line by line from the top to bottom of the entire card. You will note that six words may be written In position 1. Now turn the grille around so that Fig. 2 is at the top and write six more words. Turn the grille over and with Fig. 3 at the top, write six more words, and do the same with Fig. 4 at the top. You now have : written in all of the 24 spaces and ! your message will be a jumble of words similar to Diagram B, which was written with the grille shown in A. When a correspondent or perhaps a member of your secret club re- ceives a jumbled message from you, he will place his copy of the grille over the message with Fig. 1 at the top, and read the words visible through the spaces. Then do the same with Fig. 2 on the top, and also 3 and 4. By this procedure, the message shown in Diagram B will read: "We shall meet at the club right after school. “The secret password is Felix. Do not betray our plans. Signed, The Club Captain Doing All Right By JULIA SLAUGHTER, lfi, Armstrong High School They're getting along all right, I'll .say, Those Allies over there; They’ll win it now 'most any day— On land, on sea, in air. They're getting along all light, you bet, The Axis feels the sting; Old Glory's waving higher yet— Oh, hear our freedom ring! They'll got along all right, always, Because of you and me; We’re all together and we praise Our blessed liberty! * Riddle Answers ! 1. “You’ve been framed, kid. and now they'll hang you sure." 2. One eats too long and the other longs to eat. 3. To keep a check on his ! stomach. 4. A frog, because he will croak if you touch him. 5. Because it is the center of light. “Shucks,” cried the .farm hand as he shoveled in the corn husks. Answer to Yesterday's Puzzle. FfH1 rrHilT R~F [i]M11lTb|A jPBBsjBjN S E P U pWm |b U tMi I ill BK K M ■sip E dKi ____ K I IBS K 0|WM0 J iJLL * p|? a IaiqTh i j PI* la I mioipiBi iRlolalgl i Just Between Ourselves -Bv PHILIP H. LOVE- Edfor. The Junior Star. Older boys and girls of today are in danger of having their lives warped by too much prosperity. The war has resulted in shortages of competent help in many fields. And these shortages, in turn, have resulted in higher pay even for help that is less than competent. Employers reason that any kind of help is better than no help at all. so they bid for the services of people whom they would not con- sider under normal conditions. Be- fore the war young people seeking their first jobs bemoaned the fact that lack of experience made it hard for them to get started. Now anybody can get a job. regardless of experience—and at good W'ages. And. as a consequence, more and more boys and girls are giving in to the temptation to quit school and rake in what appears to be easy money. * * * * I know a 16-year-old boy who has stopped high school in his junior year to take a job paying $55 a week. He is a laborer on a war project and his new prosperity has made it possible for him to buy a shiny automobile and lots of clothes. Another 16-year-old boy of my acquaintance told me last week that he had just been promoted from a job paying $130 a m$nth to one for which he will receive $170. That is better than $40 a week. * * * f It is nice, of course, to earn so much money so early in life, but it is dangerous, too. The danger is that the boys may come to regard this abnormal prosperity as normal and take it for granted. Then, after the w'ar. when employers no longer find it difficult to obtain experienced and competent help the boys may have to seek other work. And, since they will have sacrificed their edu- cational opportunities they may dis- cover that jobs paying $170 a month and better are hard to find, harder to get and even harder to hold. They may wish then that they had stayed in school long enough to fit themselves for a stable position in life. 'W -w ^ » Of course, this is not to say that young people should not do every- thing they can to help the war ef- fort, even if it means going to work. The manpower problem is critical, and boys and girls should do everything they can to aid in its solution. But.— They should not shoughtlessly throw away their opportunities to get a good education. They should take no job just for the money In it. The only kind of job worth taking is one that will help to win the war; if, in addition, it offers possibilities of future ad- vancement, it is doubly worth while. Any other job is not worth con- sidering, no matter how much it pays. They should stick to part-time work, if possible, so they can con- tinue with their schooling. If they do take a full-time job, however, they should work out some prac- tical plan for continuing their education. They should not allow themselves to be "spoiled” by high pay. They should remember that they may never again be paid so well, and therefore should save a substantial portion of all they earn. And, of course, there is no better way of saving than through the purchase of War bonds and stamps. * * * * My father’s first job, as an errand boy and clerk in a grocery store, paid him $3 a week. My first job, as stock clerk in a wholesale dry- goods house, paid $8. Your father's first job probably paid little, if any, more than mine. Your first job— well, no matter how much it pays, you will do well not to let it go to your head! Riddles 1. What did the mirror say to the picture?—Fred Whiltach. 2. What is the difference between a glutton and a hungry man?—Jane Stone. 3. Why should a greedy man wear a plaid waistcoat?—Angel Rodri- guez. 4. What is the most delicate ani- mal in the world?—Harold R. Man- ning. 5. Why is the letter O like the sun?—Marietta Irene Downs. "Father, I want your advice.” "No, son, it isn’t my advice you want. It's my indorsement of some- thing foolish you've already decided to do.” Silver Spring School Sets Up Victory Corps Montgomery Hill Students Work Out Broad Program Prixc Contribution By CAROLYN HEERY, 13, and EDWARD J. FOX. 14. Monttomery Hill Junior School. Montgomery Hill Junior High, Silver Spring. Md., has joined the ranks of the schools having Victory Corps units. The new organization is follow i n g a program worked out by the facul- ty, the Student Council and its president, Bob Lambert. The corps, in co operation with the Mont- gomery County Board of Educa- tion, has six purposes to be kept in mind constantly dur- ing the remain- Curolyn Hecry. der of the school year: 1, nrail n— We must be in the best possible health, so as to be able to per- form whatever duties may be assigned to us. 2. S a f e t y— Accidents pre- vent efficiency i n studies and unbalance the school schedule. T h e r efore, we must insure the Etfwird Fox. maximum pro- tection in our activities. 3. Conservation of materials—Ma- terials are vital to our war effort. War labor cannot be diverted to supply us with materials that we can conserve by careful use. 4. Interpreting the school to the community—This Is necessary in order to co-ordinate the efforts of the community with our own. 5. Direct participation in the war effort—Salvage drives, Red Cross campaigns, the selling of War sav- ings bonds and stamps, etc., are being carried on under the direc- tion of homeroom officers and teachers. 6. Interpretation of world affairs —Intelligent analysis of the present world situation, largely by the social ^ience students, is essential for the direction of our efforts, and that we may worthily participate in the peace to come. In addition, various subject fields and school services were thought to require emphasis in this critical period of our lives. The plan for our Student Council tills year is .entirely different from fhat of any other year. In the past the council has been composed of representa- tives of the various homerooms and has used as its theme the betterment of the social life and the task of settling everyday problems in gen- eral. But this year both the home- rooms and the subject fields have representatives. The homerooms share in the ad- ministrative duties and are in charge of such activities as school policies and routine, lost and found, the safety program, supplies and lockers, cafeteria, assembly planning, recrea- tional program, art services, inter- pretation of the school to the com- munity, traffic control and partici- pation in the war effort. Each homeroom has been assigned one of these duties in order to relieve the secretary and members of the faculty for other responsibilities and to give more valuable experience to the students. The important task of interpreting this plan to the students now falls on our president. We can trust Bob with the guidance of our program, as he has had experience in one of the larger junior high schools in Washington. Young Money-Maker Lewis Lee Alley has begun to earn money at the age of 6 Lewis lives in a trailer camp in Anaconda, Mont. He owns a small coaster wagon with which he col- lects and sells bottles, paper, scrap metal and rubber. He also does chores and runs errands for neigh- bors. Lewis has set no price for his services—his clients pay him what they think the job worth. One woman rented his wagon to take her clothes to a laundry and paid him 11 cents. Many people give him a 10-cent War savings stamp. Drumlike Box Will Keep Your Stringball Handy By ELM A WALTNER. Did you ever spend half a day looking for the stringball which some one had misplaced, and finally find it in the wastebasket or the puppy’s bed? You won’t have that \ trouble again if you make this decorative drumbox in which to keep the ball. The only things you will need are a pint-sized round ice cream container, an extra container lid and some paint. Put the bottom of the container into the extra lid and push it down as far as it will go. Punch a hole through the center of the real lid, punching from the top side of the lid. and snip off the ragged edges until the hole is as smooth as pos- sible. Put the lid in place on the con- tainer. This doesn’t look much like the drums you have in your school band except for the shape, but wait until you have painted it. Leave the top inner circles of the two lids their natural color, to look like the heads of a drum. Paint the rims of the two lids red and the box between the rims light blue. If you prefer another color com- bination, that's fine. Use quick- drying enamels for the paint job; they give a smooth, glossy finish with one coat. Put lines on the box with black enamel to resemble drum head tightener*, using a fine a water color brush to make them narrow. When the paint has dried your box is ready for use. Take off the real lid and place the string ball in the box. Thread the end of the string through the hole in the lid and replace the lid. Qirl’s Skill as Cartoonist Helps School Projects Jo Alice Lowrey at work on a War bond poster. —Star Staff Photo. Priw CMlrikutian By SHIRLEY TURNER, 16, Roosevelt High School. Joe Alice Lowrey, 16-year-old Roosevelt High School Junior, Is a tal- ented amateur cartoonist. Having been interested In drawing for more than three years, Jo Alice conceived the idea of drawing a comic strip after reading a book on the many uses of cartoons. “Drawing cartoons is a fascinating pastime,” she says. “The hardest pari oi me jod is getting ideas, n enjoy drawing people's figures most because, for me, they are the easiest subjects.” The first time Jo Alice had a comic published was last Octo- ber, when the Roosevelt Re- porter began us- ing her strip, ‘Roosevelt Rookie.” The feature depicts amusing in- cidents in the life of a student. Jo Alice Is a member of: sn art class at Mlirles T»rn*r. Roosevelt. She spends a lot of time doing art work for the school. One of her bigger jobs was helping to design the scenery for the operetta last fall. She also turns out pasters promoting the sale of War savings bonds and stamps. Her ambition is to become an advertising artist spe- cializing in the drawing of people. Also interested in nature, Jo Alice especially enjoys going on hikes. She is a member of the Oirl Scout Mariners and acts as yeoman at ship meetings. Radio Technicians Are Needed for Airplane Work By I. R. HEGEL. More than 100,000 airplanes are to be built during 1943. AH wUl be radio-equipped. There must be radio technicians to install those radios, to operate and maintain them. That there is a shortage of men having the specialized training demanded by aircraft is becoming increasingly evident. Boys who like to tinker with radios and who have any kind of amateur radio experience ought to concen- trate on such subjects as physics, chemistry, algebra, geometry, me- chanical drawing, meteorology and public speaking. These constitute a good foundation; from such sub- jects, an advance can be made to a pre engineering course in a university. These pre engineering courses are urgently recommended as preliminary training in radio at an approved aeronautics school. The truly big advantage of radio work on airplanes is that young men can do their patriotic duty in this present emergency and, at the same time, train for the rado work of tomorrow. Commercial ra- dio is going to touch new heights in the post-war world. Television still is in a comparatively undevel- oped state. World-wide commercial aviation is also going to expand. Radiotechnicians will be vitally needed in all these fields. Tire Federal Communications Commission now requires that aU operators in charge of aircraft radio ground stations have at least a second-class commercial operator's license. This certificate is a pre- requisite for employment on airlines and in civil service jobs. —...-—— Playing Soldier Prig* Contribution By JUNE SICKELS, 16, Control High School. He's laid aside his teddy bear, And his wagon is still by the door, While he plans an important battle With his troops on the nursery floor. He’s made a camp for his soldier men, And it's hidden with great care, In all the gloomy shadows Underneath the nursery chair. He's a bold and brave little lad And fears not the devil himself, Who Is one of his favorite stuffed playmates Sitting on the nursery shelf. He's too small to want to be A soldier in this war; Instead he's content to be a general! Commanding troops on the nursery floor. Poser Answers 1. West. 2. New York—seven wives came from there. 3. Master of ceremonies. 4. No, it flies no straighter line than other birds. 5. The tiny worms inside it. 6. Be- cause nickel has become so impor- tant in the war that silver will be used in place of the nickel In the coins. 7. Sturgeon. 8. The same amount of rain falls over a whole district, so it means one vertical inch of rain in any space—an acre, a glass or the bathtub. J > ________ Jefferson Donates * All Its Trophies To War Effort Frlic Contribution By EULALIA BRANCH, 15, Jefftrion Junior Mich School. Because metal is essential to vic- tory in the war, the students of Jefferson Junior High School have given all their trophies to the Government. Jefferson has won many tro- phies through the years. Its c o 11 e ction in- cluded large and beautiful loving cups, as well as smaller memen- tos, and all were treasured. But, of course, the students treas- ured their free-- dom above Ealalfb Bruch, everything else. Patriotism is outstanding at Jef- ferson. The school has 24 clubs, all allied to the war effort in one way or another. These groups' ac- tivities were depicted in a colorful assembly held recently. Flags of the United Nations, sweaters and scarfs knitted for the Red Cross, model airplanes, letters to soldiers, marching squads, scrap- books, repaired clothing and Christ- mas packages—in fact, every prod- uct of the various clubs’ patriotic efforts—were represented on the stage of the auditorium. The Stamp Club reported the sale of War bonds and stamps worth $2,600 from Oc- tober to January. Aside from the clubs, each of which is sponsored by a teacher, Jefferson's war work has included collecting papers, keys, tin and other scrap. It was the first school to reach the 10-ton goal in the paper collection. To date, it has gathered 103,629 pounds of paper. It has also turned in 755 pounds of tin and 28 pounds of keys. Posers 1. In what direction does the main entrance of a cathedral al- ways face? 2. Virginia is called the "Mother of Presidents.” Which State could be called the "Mother of Presidents’ Wives”? 3. What do the initials "M. C.” stand for in radio? 4. Is it true that a crow always flies in a straight line? 5. What makes a Mexican jump- ing bean Jump? 6. Why won’t it be correct in the future to call a 5-cent piece a nickel? 7. Caviar is the roe of what fish? 8. What exactly does the Weather Bureau mean when it says "an inch of rain fell”? Young Franklin Found Joy in Good Books Taken From School At 10, He Educated Self by Reading By t’NCLE RAT. When Benjamin Franklin was born, in 1706, the village of Boston had grown into a city. It was small, as compared with many cities of the present, but it was the chief town of New England. Benjamin was the 15th child in his family. All told, he had 16 brothers and sisters. His father, J o s i a h Franklin, a ;andlemaker and soap-boiler, sent him to a gram- mar school when he was 8. The boy learned to Vnti* Bar. write quite well, but arithmetic was hard for him and he failed in the subject. When he was 10, he was taken from school and set to the work of candlemaker. This trade he did not like. Ships came into the Boston Har- bor from time to time. The life of a sailor seemed to call to him, but he was too young and his father did not like 1be idea even for the future. Mr. Franklin began to wonder what he ought to do with this young son of his. Became Apprentice. While Mr. Franklin was doing his best to And pleasing work for Benja- min, another son, James, returned from England, bringing a printing press. Benjamin then became an apprentice and was expected to work for his brother until he was 21. James Franklin published one of the earliest newspapers ever put out in the American Colonies, but he did not treat his brother well. Now and then he gave the lad a whipping. In the midst of his hardships Ben- jamin found joy and education In the reading of good books. From time to time the apprentice tried his hand at writing. Knowing that his brother might not like the idea of printing what a boy wrote he slipped his writings under the office door for James to And. Some of the articles were printed, much to Benjamin’s delight. Benjamin liked the trade of print- ing, but did not enjoy being under the charge of his brother. When he was about 17 he decided to run away to New York. He sold his books and took passage on a ship bound for that city. No one in his family saw him leave Boston. Ar- riving in New York after sailing almost 300 miles, he went to the office of William Bradford, a printer. Off to Philadelphia. "Can you take me In your shop? asked the youth. * "No," said Bradford. “I cannot give you work here. But I have • son in Philadelphia who is also a printer. If you will go there I be- lieve he may employ you." Benjamin decided to travel to Philadelphia, partly by boat, partly by foot. A storm struck the boat on which he traveled from New York to a port on the New Jersey coast. The journey took 30 hours. During that time a Dutchman was washed overboard. Young Franklin plunged his hand into the water, caught him by the hair and drew him to safety. After his stormy sea trip Benja- min continued his journey on foot The first morning it rained and h« was soaked through and through He was glad when he reached an inn where he could dry his clothes and rest until the next morning. Another night was spent at an inn farther on his way. The owner, a friendly man known as Dr. Brown was a lover of books, and enjoyed talking with the young traveler. He remained a friend of Franklin for years afterward. Burlington was reached the next day, and there Benjamin found a boat which carried both sails and oars. It was soon to set out for Philadelphia, so he went aboard. There was no wind and the young fellow did his share of the rowing, Philadelphia was reached the fol- lowing morning. (Next week: More about Franklin.) • i—. -■ i.i ■■ » —i Was He Guilty Lawyer—“Have you any money to pay your attorney's fees?" Client—“No. but I've got a hog.” Lawyer—"That’s fine. Now what is it they accuse you of stealing?” Client—"A hog.” How to Make Faces (TaUE ©OR £Jh(p/ THIS SDORDFIS W see ms to ee upsetting- the boat/ k/HIS LESSON MAy SEEM DIFFICULT BUT TRy HARO AND YOU'LL MASTER IT/ 'V
