The Black Swans 



old friend George Scott — who in ante- 

 bellum days played alleged golf at 

 the Midlothian Club — as acting gen- 

 eral manager for the American Red 

 Cross at one dollar per annum, has 

 issued a statement from his Washing- 

 ton office advising that the yarn supply 

 for the busy knitters can scarcely be 

 maintained this winter at its past 

 maximum. Just how many hanks 

 have been wound off long-suffering 

 hubby's hands into balls for sock-and- 

 sweater-making since the first call 

 was made cannot here be stated. I 

 know that it took, in many cases, a 

 hard-working sheep somewhere a whole 

 year to grow eight pounds in the grease, 

 and that in the scouring this dwindled 

 down to maybe two and a half or three 

 pounds of clean fiber, and I know 

 that if the countless flocks needed to 

 produce these great stores of soft, 

 warm yarns were grazing today in our 

 own country instead of in the Anti- 

 podes our people would be better 



[138] 



