MEN LIKE GODS

For some time now the East has been missing something. But it appears not to have known what it was missing until a California booster sent word, in the guise of a new wonder, that California weather and California people are still the finest in the world. It was Othello who remarked that "he that is robbed, not wanting what is stolen, Let him not know't, and he's not robb'd at all". Unfortunately the restless Westerner could not keep his cat in the bag and the East must recommence its yearning for the glory that is California.

This gentleman from San Diego has informed a prominent Eastern newspaper that he holds in the hollow of his hand the realization of the superman of Shaw and Wells. In fact he has been holding it there for fifteen years, but no enterprising magnate has had the energy to remove it and put it to work". The recipe is simplicity itself. Take one hundred orphan children; add a few good foster mothers and ten thousand acres of California land; then mix well with three hundred and thirty-five days of sunshine per year. Let them eat, be educated, and intermarry. In short, run what Mark Twain once described as a "human stud-farm". "In the second generation", to quote the cheerful Californian, "there would be a race of superman gods on earth".

As usual the wild and woozy West is ahead by a good two generations of the rest of the country. Two-score years hence Mr. Wells's dream will have become a reality. An automobile trip in the fashion of his hovel will not have to end in a wreck which magically throws its occupants into another world. A peaceful journey to California will accomplish the same result, and the weather is sure to be better than in Mr. Wells's Utopia.