1/28/34

1. Simile: As left-out feeling as a boy whose best girl has just got a new kitten.

2. I suddenly remembered: my chagrin when Knerr changed his “Happy German Twins (or Kids – I don’t know which it was) to The Katzenjammer Kids – because of World War anti-German sentiment.

3. Thought to check up on: Musicians play to moods. Divine the mood by studying numbers selected. Tonight “Painting the Cloud with Sunshine” and “Let’s All Sing Like the Birdies Sing” were spontaneous selections[1] and my guess is the mood was “left-outish,” because I did not call this afternoon as I had been invited to do. Which would indicate a desire to palliate with an opposite or cheery music – maybe I’m bragging. But, as I say, it will take study.

4. An advance to JH of 5, 10, maybe 15 years from now: A false feeling of beneficence and “sharing one’s joys with the neighbors” is in me merely a desire to “show off.” Sharing has for me little joy unless I am, by doing so, made the “big shot” at the time – so to speak. I’m afraid this is true, and I can only hope that I will live it down. Thus, I address this to myself 10, 15 years from not. Memory of the thought will likely be amusing then. Parenthetically: A good idea for a novel essay of the “Golden Book” type would be to write a series of letters to oneself 10 years in the future.

It seems I cannot appreciate listening to a radio as much unless I am at the dials, and am able to rest assured that the selector dial is exactly on the station – that the volume dial has not been unnecessarily opened up to take care of improper selection of the station. This is only a partial explanation – I believe the real reason is that I want to be the center of the show – the man who sets the dials – the one to whom all the listeners should be indebted for their mirth, their enjoyment, and their thrill at hearing the voice of some popular idol of the day. I don’t enjoy my auto ride nearly as much as when I am doing the driving, picking the route, etc. I only hope this is a passing youthful foible – it is certain to become offensive to someone, if it hasn’t already.

5. In a newspaper today, an item, or rather a statement, to the effect that success in the future will be measured by achievements other than the accumulation of wealth – achievements such as come in the fields of art, science, and human welfare – my only chance to be a “success, I fear.”

6. Yesterday was a “red letter” day in the way of new achievement. My posts on The Mountaineer[2]: interviewer, feature writer, editor, book editor, head writer, advertising copy solicitor, type setter, proof reader, make-up man, and press feeder. Proud? Sure, why not! What if it is only a 5-col., 4-page sheet!

7. Bud just dropped in on his late check of exam-cramming Hoon Hallers.[3] Must quit.

[1] Bernice enjoyed playing the piano.

[2] The Mountaineer was the Schreiner Institute school newspaper.

[3] Hoon Hall was one of the dormitories on the Schreiner campus.

The Milam Building

John Henry's office was located in the Milam Building, in downtown San Antonio.

After he passed the CPA exam (around 1950?), he started his own accounting business. I believe one of his early clients was KACB Radio, which also had their office in the same building. Another was the San Antonio Country Club, which was managed by Klaus Andersen. Klaus and his wife became good friends with John and Bernice.

A San Antonio builder, Lloyd Denton, was involved with John's business, either as an investor or as a partner.

Around this time, John served as Treasurer of Grace Presbyterian Church in northwest San Antonio. I think Bernice served as organist.

9/23/34

My sense of distance – especially where any great distance is concerned – is very tricky and my conception of the location of foreign countries is apt to merge into the mysterious. Mexico and Canada are properly situated in my mental picture of the world. When Mexico is mentioned in conversation, somewhere in my consciousness is registered a security in the fact that Mexico is “so many” hundred miles to my left or over yon hill-top, to be more concise. If a conversational gesture is needed, no second-thought is necessary to jerk a thumb in the direction of Mexico, Canada or any one of the United States. But out of this range, places and peoples merge into a dim geographical twilight, and their mention will call up only remembered names, racial peculiarities, famous buildings, or characteristic pictures of the country, and often an image of the shape of the country’s boundaries gained from study in a geography or territorial map of some kind. This discourse was impelled by the broadcast just now from the summit of Jung Frau Mountain, highest point in Switzerland. Something to think about this – Sounds of a train, of human voices high above Berne, where the temperature was -4° C. at 7 o’clock in the evening.

6/27/34

In a man’s lifetime comes a time when he needs someone to respect him, love him, and look to him for protection, and under the guiding hand of Nature, which is God, he himself creates that someone.

6/13/34

Here’s hoping the day will not be long coming when an employe [sic] may bargain with his employer in a manner suited to the dealings of two traders, both of whom have something of a known value which can be measured for its worth in a given quantity from the store of the other. While commodity prices have dropped to maybe half or one-third, the market for employment dropped out of sight. An employer knows he holds in his little industry a strong power of persuasion which he can exercise with little fear of losing a good trade. He knows that all his opposing bargainer can do is bluff; and all he has to do to call the bluff is pass on to the next man – there are plenty of others standing in line.

The employer who throws up to his employes the fact that hundreds are waiting, willing to step into their places, and uses that to enforce long hours, doubled duties, and slashed wages gives little room for all of the little extras that make effort and industry a fair trade – and then some – for the dollars and cents paid out for it. The conscientious worker puts in more time than his eight hours a day would indicate. In the first place, that man more than likely had to learn his trade with no small expenditure of money and time. Behind his ability are years of servitude at small wages, study, and worry incident to selecting an occupation. The conscientious worker, furthermore, spends part of his wages and part of his spare time improving his own capacities and acquiring the latest information relative to his trade. It is not likely that a man’s mind is entirely vacant of his daily routine when he goes home at night, and no doubt many weighty problems are solved in the wakeful hours of the early night. The employer is not charged with this time, and yet they are the best hours of a man’s life. The conscientious worker is always an advertisement for his employer, and that is about 16 hours a day – twice the time he turns in.

5/24/34

Rain, the great equalizer – it gets the rich man just as wet as the poor one, if we get out in it together.

If it hadn’t rained today, I would have gone to S.A.[1] to be fitted for a pair of glasses. Now, I don’t know when I shall be able to go.

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[1] San Antonio.

5/23/34

Idea for a story: treat two characters separately, telling first of one and then the other, dividing time evenly and in short doses – now here, now there, here, there, etc. bringing each to the climax without meeting the other until then; Fate! (similiar [sic]: O. Henry’s Roads of Destiny)