Vineyard Boys Serving in Far Eastern Forces

A tremor of mixed excitement and dread swept the Vineyard on Sunday when the first news of the Japanese attack on the Pacific islands became known through the radio broadcasts. Not for eighty years has this Island scene been duplicated, when the opening of the Civil War found Vineyard men at sea and in or near the war zone. The opening of this Far Eastern war likewise finds Vineyard men in or near the scene, not merely in ships of commerce, but in the armed forces of the country.

Island Accepts Challenge of Air Alarm Quietly

Civilian Defense organizations of the Island responded to their first real call to duty about 1:30 Tuesday afternoon, when air raid signals were sounded the length of the coast, following the report of hostile planes off New York city, a tip which proved unfounded and which some reports say was planned by the government as a test of the air raid facilities of the northeastern coast.
 

Island Quota $4,250

Martha’s Vineyard’s share in the $50,000,000 war fund asked by Norman H. Davis, national chairman of the American Red Cross, is $4,250. Mr. Davis’ appeal was broadcast Monday night and alluded to the destruction wrought at Hawaii and other points attacked by the Japanese.
 

Editorial: A Century Lies Between

One wonders what Nathaniel M. Jernegan would think if he were alive. Or his wife. They were together on the whaleship Eliza Mason in 1851 when Captain Jernegan sailed his vessel into Hakodate while Perry was still there. This was one of the first of the treaty ports when Japan was opened, reluctantly, to the world, and Mrs. Jernegan was the first white woman to sleep ashore in Japan for more than two hundred years.
 

Peaked Hill Contours Undergo Marked Change

The contours of Peaked Hill, as viewed from the Middle Road, have changed almost beyond belief, due largely to the construction of the road which winds around its steep sides and has been carved deeply into them. The hill is topped by one of the skeleton towers so largely used for signaling purposes, and is now manned by a detachment of the U.S. Army Signal Corps. The handful of men assigned here, presumably in connection with the tests now going on to prove or disprove the effectiveness of coastal defenses against invasion, is quartered in tents on the hill.

Vineyard Tests Its Strength in Mock Bombing Raids

The Vineyard called out its civilian defense organizations on Friday and again on Tuesday to tackle actual problems such as might follow the dropping of bombs by hostile planes. The whole affair was a kind of sham battle hitherto unknown, in which men, women and children were summoned from peaceful occupations in civil life to show how they could defend their community against the demoralization and damage of bombing. No planes roared overhead, but the practice was none the less realistically carried out.

Investigate Purchase of Beach by the State

A representative of the state De­partment of Conservation made an in­vestigation on the Island on Friday, in company with Rep. Joseph A. Sylvia, in order to prepare a report on the matter of state purchase of the beach between Oak Bluffs and Edgartown. The sentiment of those who were approached was strongly in fa­vor of the project, which is for pur­chase of the beach with stipulations that no buildings shall be placed up­on it. There seemed no doubt that the preliminary report would be favorable.

His Dreams of America Have Been Realized Even If It Isn’t as Rosy as His Visions

On Thursday, Rev. O. E. Denniston, founder of the Bradley Memorial Church, celebrated his fortieth anniversary as pastor of that Baptist church in Oak Bluffs. Mr. Denniston is the oldest minister in the service of the Massachusetts Baptist Convention.
 
“I’m not the oldest minister in service in Massachusetts,” he hastened to say, “but the oldest member of the convention, because I have stayed in the same place while other ministers have moved from state to state.”
 

President Nearby: Roosevelt’s Yacht Anchors in Tarpaulin Cove

While mainland newspapers and radio scouts hunted in vain, to use their own expressions, for President Roosevelt, on Tuesday and Tuesday night, the Chief Executive was lying snugly and quietly aboard the Potomac, anchored in Tarpaulin Cove. The presence of the presidential yacht in the cove was known on the Vineyard in the early afternoon, but so far as is known no one attempted to approach the craft and certainly no one who knew of her presence there, tipped off any institution or individual that might have invaded her privacy.
 

Planes Catapulted From Nearby Warships

Menemsha residents rubbed their eyes in amazement yesterday afternoon when six warships loomed up on the horizon shortly after noon, approached to within a mile of the beach and anchored. It was learned that among them were the cruisers Augusta and Tuscaloosa, the destroyers Samson and Winslow and two other unidentified destroyers. A fifth appeared about an hour later and joined the others.
 

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