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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Times-Advocate, 1935-10-31, Page 7/= • •••Personal Reminiscences • ••• III fHE EXETER T1MES-ADVOCATE THURSDAY, OCTOBER 81st, 1035 By George Feuwick sible to again meet McEwen and possibly lighten his heart a little by telling him that his stone-cracking job that season in Exeter did not just end at the completion thereof but that it had inspired at least one per­ son to. -often carry on in the fac© of •great discouragement. Kicked by Horse The ramshackle barn located on the property where we lived now hous­ ed an additional span of draft hors­ es that father had purchased for the purpose of freighting his milling pro­ ducts to Goderich, .Hensail, Seaforth and other outlying districts where the demand for his output had ma­ terially increased. Victor Muthart had been hired as driver for these cargoes; and Vic was one of those fine, rough-and-ready fellows whose heart w’as always overflowing with blythness and whose smile was a characteristic part of him. On many occasions he had warned Thomas and I to keep away from the heels of one of tihe animals as- he was given to us­ ing his legs upon the slightest pro­ vocation. All went well for a time —lovely. Then about five-thirty one m-orning William and Thomas were feeding, upi and doing tihe chores, when, for some unaccountable reas­ on, the horse kicked Thomas fair in the face with such force as to send him through the side .of the box stall and hurl him out upon the stable floor far more dead than alive. High Tribute to Dr. Browning Dr. Browning was immediately summoned—dear Dr. Browning, the truest, most faithful, most capable, were being brought out and over- I most conscientious and self-sacrific- ihauled, hay stacked, lofts jammed ! ing human being that either an in- ........................ ' dividual or a community could claim as a friend. For, s-teeped as he was body and soul in that divine large­ ness, which was the better part of him, stressed to administer to the led from th©. crestt of the rise , above ; stricken ones and where, when the ' I call came, be it night or day, through darikness, sunshine oir storm, through > slush and mud, snowdrifts or hard, 1 rutted country roads leading out in­ i' to the sparsely-settledi and almost ; inaccessible parts .of a raw, upbuild­ ing country where stricken ones lived in shacks, often hid from view of the roads so that they were difficult to locate, and where the very prim­ itiveness Of the living offered him less than no. aid at all in his admin­ istrations and where he had to fight ignorance, sloth and unsanitary con­ ditions in addition to the disabilit­ ies of his patients—but where the very man in him never faltered, and where his admirable courage never fagged, where his self-sacrificing self and his will to dio- was always, in tihe ascendency, where the surety to aid oir cure was always a paramount part of him, where kindness of heart and optimism of spirit flooded the sick room to the elimination of all else and- to the entirityi of himself —this was the man. Dr. Browning, often .sorely tried but never found to be wanting in all those -close unto seventy-five years of his- special call­ ing and in his toiling among the g0|0d people of Exeter and surround­ ing country. And. he .stands today an embodiment of the highest type of citizen and plublic benefactor that any? community in any part of the civilized world could lay claim to and -honour! He it was, that was instrumental in bringing about all .of us children into the world, that attended us in , our ailments and that was so close a friend to our family for so 1 years. 'But I -.remember one though, and unbeknown to- Browning, when he received as a turn-down as one could very suffer. Father and mother had to- town leaving us children home <on the farm. And while we were busy at our playing, William passed the alarm: "Here -comes Dr. Browning!” We all looked up and sure enough there he was coming along the road in his gig, that famous and possibly forgotten gig, the like of which never existed before or since, ’resembling a cross between a jinrichishaw and a cairretara and we scattered like a family of young jackrabbits. Amy rushed fio.r tihe house and crawled under mother’s bed, I ran for the milk cellar and banged the door, William and Tho-mas lit out bn the double-quick for the barn, and. Dr. Browning was left to wander about the premises unwelcomed and alone as if he was- a marauder, no doubt wondering what had become of the Fenwick family. Finally he took his departure. Dr. Browning arrived to our home about six a.m. in response hasty call and never left bedside until one p.m. the day while his patient lay s-o very near the Eternal and often a downy feather The fall season of 1875 was slowly receeding within its cloak of seclu­ sion, and as quietly and in a stately manner-—as always the way nature adopts in ushering in her innova­ tions1—was now introducing into the lives of the people a recurrence those delightful prevalent in this of Ontario. For whiteness of the entirely and makes beautiful be­ yond description the entire country­ side, introducing a period of quiet­ ude and cleansing, of ecstasy and re- juvination, where the masis-spirit of the people flings its radiance far and wide until it reaches high heaven with its outermost circle in one great united spirit of thanksgiving. Already the beech and maple for­ ests, the wide-spreading elms, un­ derbush and clinging vines had, in some mysterious way, drawn liber­ ally upon the etheral colorings of gold and purple, of blue and orange, in delicate shadings of mauve and yellow with which to paint their foliage in a glorious array of rain­ bow tints in preparation to hurling them to- the breezes that these gifts-, destined to find a resting place upon the bosom of mother earth, thus might express, in a small measure, their thankfulness for the abundance of her life-giving gifts. ■ . And in their more material and necessary way the -people, as a whole were busy in their ,anticipation of this period, for farm machinery, was being stored and protected from the wintry blasts, sleighs and cutters ; ■of winter months so northwestern part here, the dazzling snows transforms beautiful and a ( taking to capacity, fields fertilized general reappointment was place in all walks of life. Even the village of Exeter to- line .and" had Main street gravel-' the market corner, which property was later purchased by Mr. Verity upon which he established, his foun­ dry and plow works, one of Exeter’s leading industries for many years. This barn contributed to the loss of a front tooth for me and, inci- dently, a good dressing down in the bargain. Tihe way of it was like this: I was feeding the cow one morning, a job not at all to my lik­ ing, and because she did not step from one side of the stall to the other side as spryly as I thought she should, I proceeded to help her out by prodding her on the legs with a fork. And, being a -lady bovine, she naturally! resented such treatment, and to demonstrate her feelings in no- ucertain way she let fly with her hoofs .which, coming in contact with the fork handle, got one of my front teeth. Now, one would have naturally concluded that this was punishment enough to shoulder on a kid for so slight an offence; but not so- with father. For, taking me over to the stable as a means of verifying my explanation of the matter, which, I might add, was quite elaborate and in which the leg-jabbing act had not been mentioned, in fact, was com­ pletely ignored, and he seeing just what had taken place, was not slow to. prove to. me as a tragic conclus­ ion, that neither falsehoods or jab­ bing cpws -legs with a fork was ac­ cording to Hoyle, and, therefore, was not to be tolerated. Had even this ended the matter everythin® would have passed off O.K. But 'being that the loss of this tooth caused me- to speak with a lisp and did not in the -least add to my personal appearance, I not on-ly lost face with the girls in my room at school but was compelled to endure the jibes or the boys who ended up by giving me the pseudonym of ‘‘Whistling Pete” a nickname I did not al all like and which I fistically -resented to the best And ths is where I close contact with strap. of my ability, 'first came in 'Mr. Gregorys A Fight at fell in-I the Bauble to 'the extreme southern limits of the business section and beyond. And in conjunction therewith it was my good fortune to learn one of the most valued lessons of my life. In those days’ the massive and effic­ ient roadbuilding equipments now in use was still in the embreyo of crea­ tion, and where work was to be done good old man-power buckled down bo task and, with brawn and grit, completed the work in hand. In this instance, it was necessary—so city fathers opined—to have larger rocks, from the size of a golf ball up, cracked into smaller frag­ ments; and for this task they had hired a man by the name of McEwen —if I am not mistaken in the name —who, witih- a sedge-hammer like tool, drawn out so- at to form blunt points and tempered, and hung upon a comparatively slender shaft, all weighing about three pounds so that the weight of it at the same time should not tire him and still be ef­ ficient when wonk. the the in accomplishing its- purpose coming in contact with his Breaking Stones Here (he labored day; after day, week after week, bending over his task, painstakingly and patiently, never; hurrying, never, apparently becoming discouraged by being con­ fronted with these millions of rocks, large and small strewn out before him and that required cracking— bending over this -work and wielding his tool with pendulum-like regular­ ity as he dexterously! placed the toe of his (heavy right .shoe just above and behind the rock he was aiming to c-rack, and then bringing his tool down witih a well-directed blow as crack, crack, crack, the blows fell renting the stones into fragments and thus forming a comparatively even surface .for the grinding- wheels of the farmers wagons that aided to a marked degree the pulverizing pro­ cess so that, within a short time tihere was a solid, -substantial -road­ bed capable of supporting with ease and comfort the heaviest traversing vehicles. And often for an hour or two eaah day I would sit upon the edge of the board sidewalk gazing with a sort of yiouthf-ul awe at this methodical-working piece of human machinery, complacently facing his stupendous task as he ground the hours away. "Don’t you ever get tired, mister?’ I asked him on one occasion when my utter’ weariness at seeing the re­ gularity of the machine-like process of etone-cracking being carried on. McEwen -rested his tool fo-r a mo­ ment and glanced down at me with a wrinkled face that was now lit up with a -smile. "Tired, sonny? It’s not for me to get tired. These rocks are just -cryin’ out to be busted an’ I’m goin’ to bust ’em.” So crack, crack, crack the continuous whacking went on as, at less- than s snail-like pace the crept on to the completion of the work laid out for him to accomplish. And in after yea-r-s, whenever I had some task confronting me that seem­ ed almost impossible of accomplish­ ment, when the upward climb seem­ ed so stiff and the summit so high—- there would flash before my mind eye this man McEwen patiently and bravely bending over this- stone­ breaking job and, presto-, the trick would be turned. I have often wished since then that it were pos- many time Dr. ■cold, well gone to our Thomas’ following hovering Gateway was held before his mouth as the only way in detecting the presence of the breath of life. And that ho recover­ ed at all was wholly due to the skill of Dr. Browning. But for several months following I was bereft of a good old chum, as he and I were great pals. Father, seeing the necessity of a larger stable in Which to house his stock, either purchased intact or erected a building about midway in the block east of Main street from School It was during recess when John Creech, who was a larger and a stronger boy than I, banteringly hurled the "Whistling Pete” busi­ ness at me with, what I opined, was a too far-fetched emphasis on tihe "Pete.” And as I had several cham­ pions who. urged me on I doubled to the fray without more ado-, giving no- heed of time or location. Unfor­ tunately the school bell commenced to clang, calling the children back to. their studies-. And by the time we hadi settled our little difference we found, that, not only our cham­ pions and backers, but all the rest of the children had disappeared thro’ the school door, for no doubt they had previously came into too- close quarters witih this man Gregory, or at least had seen him in action. At any) rate when Creech became fully cognizant of our plight he land­ ed a final blow for good measure then beat it, I following .close upon his heels, hoping that Mr. Gregory would have gone to his room (where he belonged so that we could sneak into our rooms unobserved. But no such luck. For there he stood, strap in hand like a conquering and avenging god. And though he had a smile upon his face it didn’t just strike 'me at the moment as be­ ing very generous, or well-disposed in fact, nothing very heavenly about it. And the longer I stood gazing at him (which, in reality, was but a few moments) his> smile seemed to grow satanical and to hiss out: "Ha- ha, Ive got you now!” During this interval he was walking back and forth in his bobbing way. Then ac­ tion began. “Come here!” he fairly bellowed and we wilted and faced him. “Been fighting, eh?, fighting!” And with this his vicious straps came into play with us 'boys running about the hall and Mr. Gregory bobbing about after us, getting in many good' licks on legs, back' and shoulders. And finally when he had tired him­ self out in this minature marathon we were ordered to our -rooms, also quite -out of breath and also quite sore on certain parts of our bodies. Right then and there I came to the. conclusion that it paid not at all to be late in entea-ing the school door after the bell called us back to our studies. C. G. I. T. OF JAMES STREET The Intermediate and Senior C. Gr. I. T. groups met at a joint meeting in the form of a travelling tea. The gi-rls met at the church and then went to the homes of Cam'p, Mrs. where they The groups and joined A poem was read by Laurene Beav­ ers and Ardys McFalls gave a prayer "Follow The Gleam” was sung. Grace Strange read the Scripture less-on and Betty -Coates read the story "Un­ to one of The Least of These.” Mrs. Taylor introduced the book "Jungle Preferred” and Ruth Taylor read a story from it. Sing songs were sung after which the meeting closed with Taps. Two carloads of the 0. G. I. T. attended the Conference of the Girls and Boys Work Board at Wingham on October 12th. Mary Van Taylor and Miss Hunter, had different courses separated for business again for the program. The five Canadian manufacturing comipanies'specializing in lawn mow­ ers produced 24,469 machines in 1934. MZM MHMI fi0MB MRMfeWe have leased the building in £ E | ° formerly the Evaporator property on Station street and will be open for business every Wednesday from 1 to 6 p.m. and every Saturday from 1 to 9 p.m. until further notice Lakeview Poultry Farm KENNETH, WEIN, Dashwood, Ont. All kinds of high quality Poultry Feeds for sale at economic prices. LARGE TYPE S. C. WHITE LEGHORNS ■1 iHkw J Feeds that we sell are exactly the same as fed to these birds.The best is none too good for ns. Complete 40 per cent protein Concentrate $3.00 per cwt. makes 500 lbs. of Laying Mash. Mix 100 lbs. of Concentrate with 400 lbs. of chop. Don’t confuse this 40 per cent. Concen- . tirate with' 30 oir 33 per cent. Protein Concentrate that will make only: 400 libs, of (Laying Mash. 19 Per cent. Egg Mash, $2.00 per cwt. contains all the best quality ingredients necessary to make a good Laying Mash. Spray for Cojds, 30c. a pint. This is an excellent ISpray for colds. Spray over the birds with a fly tox spray while on the roosts at night. Vita-Tone Pure Poutry Tonic, 20c. a lb. contains nd filler. Use 1-2 lb. to 10-0 lbs. of mash. For best results feed this to get your birds into production quickly and at intervals of one month for 5 o>r 6 days at a time or whenever your birds are out of condition or show signs of lagging a little. Split-Action Worm Capsules $1.50 per 100 (1 egg or less per bird). We firmly believe it is the beet policy to. worm your pullets when they are put into their laying pens no matter how healthy they may look. A few weelkis ago we took some pullets out of one of the health­ iest flocks in the district to- the Veterinary College, Guelph put them under the microscope and found them infested with’ worms. | | Canadian Magazine!yr. | | Current Thought .! yr. | | Pictorial Review...! yr« yourself and your family lasting enjoyment and enter tainment the whole year through have to do We also have Oyster Slielll, Hog Concentrate, Black Leaf 40, Etc. We are trying to give you the best quality in chicks we possibly can and are trying to- do the same in Feeds and at'as low a price as possible. We are feeding over 2,000 birds on this feed and guarantee th'e feed we sell to be exactly the same as fed to our own poultry. W. H. Kraft, of Dashwood, who- has our stock and is feeding our 40 per cent. Concentrate from 400 hens, 350 of them pullets and <5 0 are grading very good. We cannot give you those eggs bring around $6.50 per day. The net profit over feed cost of about $4.50 a day. good business. is getting around 250 eggs per day at present yearlings. They are still gaining and the eggs exact figures but as close as we could estimate feed cost is less than $2.00 per day, so he has a from 400 hens. I thiniki .you will agree this is ’Good Feeds maikie Good 'birds lay better. If you have a good flock of pullets or hens start feeding a good laying mash or concentrate now while egg prices are- high. If not make your plans now to have a good flock of Early Hatched pullets laying next fall when egg prices are highest. Bring your Poutry Problems to us. Our five years experience handling poultry in large numbers have brought us through many trials and experiences and we are always glad to give advice. A few hours- s-pent with us may mean dollars in your pocket. TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THIS Here is a real offer that will save you money and you will receive the whole 4 publica­ tions for one year from the date we receive the coupon- Here is the amazing COmbmat ion low Our Guarantee to You I price. —. This wonderful offer is avail­ able to old and new subscrib­ ers to this newspaper. We guarantee the fulfillment of all magazine subscriptions and you have positive assurance that this generous offer is exactly as represented. Re­ newals will be extended for full term shown. | | National Home Monthly ......! yr. | | Canadian Horticulture & Home Magazine 1 yr. MAIL' COUPON TODAY Gave Please clip list of Magazines after checking 3 Publica­ tions desired. Fill out coupon carefully. Gentlemen: I enclose Please send me the three magazines checked with a year’s subscription to your newspaper. NAME .......................... STREET OR R.F.D........ TOWN AND PROVINCE F# «**«•**«««••*• The Exeter Times-Advocate