Americana

Notes on U.S. customs, habits, manners & morals as reported by the U.S. press:

P: Baltimore citizens wear out an average of 25 postoffice pen nibs a day, snitch another five, ruin some more by using them as nail-cleaners, reported P.O. Custodian Howard Walter.

P: A few days after he leased a five-room, $150-a-month Manhattan apartment, Student Benjamin Chilman, 19, advertised it for rent, collected $6,500 in advance from seven eager sublessees, gave each a phony key and told them all they could move in on the same day. Thanks to a suspicious eighth tenant, police moved in instead.

P: The little farm town of Vandalia, Ill. just about doubled its population in one day. Some 4,000 newcomers, almost all of them blind, deaf, lame or incurably ill, were there to be healed. The self-styled healer: William Branham, a bald, narrow-shouldered, shiny-eyed Kentuckian and ex-power company lineman. As each patient walked or was carried past, Branham prayed over him, felt him to see if he vibrated with demons. When the last hallelujahs had died away and the collection had been taken, one young man announced that he had flung away his hearing aid.

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