Tom, 12, Turtle 

 Nearly Collected 



Son of American 

 Official Aids D. C. 

 Scientists With Finds 



By W. H. SHIFPEN, Jr. 



Star Staff Correspondent. 

 BUENOS AIRES. — A collector of 

 turtles and snakes like Tom Davis 

 is not to be daunted by the thought 

 that he might have been collected 

 himself. 



That was two years ago, back in 

 Bumatra. Tom was only 10 then, 

 much smaller and less experienced, 

 but still able to be a rescuer, instead 

 of the rescued, when a big python 

 broke free. 



Tom with his father, Monnett 

 B. Davis, now American Consul 

 General to Argentina, were visiting 

 Washington Zoo Director William 

 M. Mann in his collecting camp in 

 the East Indies. Tom, the budding 

 young naturalist, slipped away to 

 investigate the mysterious crates, 

 cages and boxes arranged about the 

 compound. He disappeared from 

 the view of his elders just before 

 a Malay servant came running to 

 cry: 



"Doktur, snake eat boy!" 

 Tom Held On. 



Dr. Mann and Mr. Davis raced 

 for the sound of a struggle. They 

 found a 20-foot python trying to 

 swallon the arm of a native hunter 

 while its body threshed in the 

 grasp of five or six men— Tom had 

 hold of a section, and clung on 

 until the battle ended with the 

 python back in its crate. The native 

 hunter went to a hospital. 



Tom was a house guest of Dr. 

 Mann's last summer while his 

 mother and father were in Wash- 

 ington pending their transfer to 

 Buenos Aires from Sumatra. 



The young naturalist spent most 

 of his waking hours in the zoo. Dr. 

 Mann gave him a fresh-water tur- 

 tle which he named "Speedy," and 

 brought South with him. Tom's 

 parents, after sharing a bathroom 

 with a turtle for three weeks on the 

 ocean, were happy that their son 

 only started his collection in North 

 America with a single specimen. 



Tom has room to branch out in 

 the Davis' apartment here. He's 

 been saving his allowance to buy 

 snakes, frogs, turtles, etc., for the 

 Washington Zoo. The young collec- 

 tor refuses to pay tourist prices. He 

 goes down to the water front to 



tribution comes up to expectations, 

 he will use his influence to have the 

 young naturalist put on the United 

 States Government pay roll at a 

 dollar a year. 



"That wil lscarcely pay expenses,' 

 Tom said, "but I appreciate the 

 honor!" 



TOM DAVIS, 



haggle in Spanish with the fisher- 

 men, and organizes collecting expe- 

 ditions among his schoolmates. 

 May Aid Dr. Steineger. 

 Tom's collection of fresh-water 

 turtles, Dr. Mann hopes, will aid the 

 investigations of Dr. Leonard Steine- 

 ger, dean of Washington scientists, 

 who is completing a monograph on 

 turtles, and wants to observe at 

 first hand some four rare species 

 found only in Southern South 

 America. 

 Dr. Mann says that if Tom's con- 



gentine Artist Teaches Poor 

 The Color of Their Daily Li^es 



Born of Laboring Class, 

 Painter Backs School 

 On Water Front 



By W. H. SHIPPEN, Jr., 



Star Staff Correspondent. 



BUENOS AIRES. — The painter, 

 Benito Quinquela Martin, believes 

 the laboring class from which he 

 came should find more beauty and 

 dignity and less discontent in hard 

 work. 



He practices what he preaches 

 with his brushes so vigorously that, 

 well past middle-age, he is still #iry, 

 muscular and agile-able, it seems 

 apparent, to earn a living with the 

 stevedores who load ships of all na- 

 tions on the docks under his studio 

 Senor Martin is as much a pa . t oi 

 water front life as the freighters 

 tramps and fishing vessels tied up 

 almost at his front door-more m 

 fact for he was born to the com- 

 munity that services the transient 

 ships. He grew up among the pool 

 and refused to leave them when suc- 

 cess beckoned him to other sur- 

 roundings. 



When fame came to the painter, 

 he turned it to his own use by per- 

 suading the authorities to bu Id 

 model school on his water front 

 property for underprivileged chil- 

 dren whose lot he knew so well. Six 

 hundred children now study m the 

 bright, airy class rooms that Senor 

 Martin decorates with his own 

 brushes after his own social ideas. 



The class-room murals show such 

 scenes as laborers moving up a gang- 

 way, giant bodies bent under baskets 

 of coal; fishermen landing their 

 catch and drying their nets; ship- 

 builders outfitting a vessel for sea, 

 stevedores about huge cranes un- 

 loading freighters; wives and chil- 

 dren of sailors waving good-by to a 

 departing schooner. 



Color of Daily Lives. 

 The artist wants the children to 

 recognize in his pictures the figures 

 of their mothers and fathers to 

 appreciate the usefulness of their 

 work and to sense the drama, coloi, 

 vigor and motion of their daily lives. 



After work comes relaxation ana 

 e-aietv There are carnival and nesta 

 Icenes. An impromptu celebratjoa- 

 starts on a sailing vessel at the 

 wharf The crews of neighboring 

 vessels join. in. A sailor band plays 

 dance music with harmonica guitar, 

 violin and accordion. On still an- 

 other boat jars of wine and baskets 

 of fruit and bread are being brought 

 up from the cabin. 



A circus parade, complete with 

 elephants, clowns, monkeys and a 

 brass band, is the theme for a 

 mural done in tile in an assembly 

 hall Senor Martin laid out the 

 mural, the children themselves col- 

 ored the tiles, and they were glazed 

 nearby. Even the school's basKet- 

 ball court and open air gymnasium 

 has two walls of mosaics done m 

 colored cement. 



Senor Martin's studio is a great, 

 glassed-in room on the fourth floor, 

 overlooking the busy harbor scene. 

 In three directions one sees color, 

 action and the ships from many 

 ports, arriving, discharging, loading 

 and departing. The studio seems to 

 belong as much to the public as 

 Senor Martin. Sight-seers, students 

 and school children have the run 

 of the place. Senor Martin s friends 

 among the struggling young artists 

 of the city use his studio, his time 

 and materials. He appears to give 

 them all with a lavish hand, yet 

 he accomplishes a great amount oi 



BENITO QUINQUELA MARTIN. 



creative work of his own. How he 

 does it, nobody knows. 



Wants Similar Schools. 



Senor Martin hopes that similar 

 schools will be built throughout the 

 Argentine. He feels that the tenders 

 of vineyards, the herders of sheep 

 and cattle, the growers of fruit and 

 the harvesters of grain are as pic- 

 turesque as water front dwellers 

 He is not the man to be content 

 with hoping alone. 



His idea, I gathered, is that edu- 

 cated, hard-working, self-respecting 

 young people will better their 

 community, or their nation, for that 

 matter, without the necessity of a 

 social revolution. 



All of which sounds like the moral 

 at the end of a sermon— but. not 

 Senor Martin's. He could tell me 

 nothing, as he understood no Eng- 

 lish and I almost no Spanish. He 

 was happy, however, to show me his 

 school and his paintings. 



They spoke for themselves, even 

 to one who is neither a linguist, 

 educator, reformer nor artist! 



