The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink AboutThe Exeter Times-Advocate, 1953-08-13, Page 2THE TJMES-ADVOCATE, EXETER, ONTARIO, THURSDAY MORNING, AUGUST 13, 1953 T! This journal shall always fjght for progress, reform apd public welfare, never be afraid to at tack wrong, never belong to any political party, never be satisfied with merely printing news. THURSDAY MORNING, AUGUST J3, 1953 Both Parties Celebrate Liberals Sweep Canada PCs Win In Huron No Use Everybody ran for cover during the civil defence practice period held recently at Vancouver. When sirens sounded, the streets were cleared as if by magic, In spite of all the advertising the mock raid received and the very splendid co operation from the public as a whole, there was one individual who just wouldn’t play ball. When the sirens sounded, a lady was busy in a telephone booth at a railway sta tion. She had placed a dime in the box for her call and apparently she was going to get hei* money’s worth out of it air alert or no air alert. Twice a policeman knocked at the door and tried to get her to take shelter. The policeman might as well have talked to the telephone booth. Civil defence officers and all policemen in Vancouver or elsewhere should know that one of the most difficult things there is to do is to separate a woman from the tele phone once she has started to talk. * * * -x- * Thank You, Kind Sir! (The Listowel Banner) Probably with unconscious humor, some earnest official of the Department of Agri culture has penned these immortal words in the course of a dissertation on care of the lawn: “Mowing should not be too frequent in very hot weather . . .” We are going to clip out these official words, take them home and paste them in a prominent place on the kitchen wall. When The Little Woman gets that shifty-eyed look as she glances around for some handy chore for The Old Man, we will maintain that we and the Department of Agriculture deem it the better course to refrain from lawn cut ting, in its own best interests, and go fish ing instead. Mr. McLean, we extend our sympathy and our heartfelt thanks for his excellent repre sentation during the last parliament. Both major political parties celebrated election night in this area, The Liberals won another tremendous victory nationally and the local Conservatives elected a member of parliament for the first time-in 21 years. The countrywide Liberal sweep was predicted by the Gallop poll two days be fore the election. Although many people ex pected at the start of the campaign that the opposition would gain strength, Liberal strategy changed their minds before Mon day. Led by the venerable and wise Prime Minister, the Grits maintained their sub stantial majority. While the Liberal party has received a justifiable renewal of mandate, there still remains the need for stronger opposition at Ottawa. Democratic Canadians love keen competition, in politics as in business. It is apparent, however, that they have not found in the Conservative party under Mr. Drew the type of opposition they want. In another four years, the next election may show considerable change. Tt is quite possible that Mr. Drew will be replaced and that Mr. St. Laurent will retire. Even Mr. Coldwell, national president of the CCF, has talked of withdrawing from the political war.«• * In Huron riding, electors will congratu late Elston Cardiff and the PC party for their win. However, they will also be dis appointed over the defeat of Andy McLean. Mr. Cardiff had in his favor, besides a former majority in the new riding, a slight PC trend in Western Ontario, his more ex tensive experience in the political field, and his more rural appeal. There is no question that he will make an excellent representative; he has proven his ability for over a decade. The riding will regret the loss of Mr. McLean. Although he only served in parlia ment four years, the Seaforth publisher showed considerable progress in government circles despite the many other Liberals in the house. His appointment as delegate to the United Nations, and to important com mittees of the house, indicates he was high ly respected by the powers of the Liberal party. To Mr. Cardiff go our congratulations and best wishes during his new term; to YOU Could Be Killed | A “vehicle-vehicle” crash destroyed a holiday weekend in July. | Three people died. Injuries to three more included fractured skulls, broken | legs and “miscellaneous cuts and bruises”. | It was a warm weekend and a man and his wife set out to visit i relatives, They were driving north. Southbound, came a car carrying four § young people on an evening^ outing. | Attempting to pass another vehicle near the crest of a hill, the | northbound car pulled into the path of the young people. f There was a tremendous crash. The tangled wreckage was wind- | shield to windshield and great difficulty was experienced in getting the f victims released. | As in most other “accidents” the bitter Sacrifice was mad6 to bad = judgment or sheer defiance. • „ Wfyt Exeter ®imes=£li)bocate Times Established 1873 Amalgamated 1024 Advocate Established 1881 Published Each Thursday Morning at Exeter, Orttario An Independent Newspaper Devoted to the Interests of the Town of Exeter and District Authorized os Second Class Mail, Post Office Department, Ottawa Member of the Canadian Weekly Newspaper Association Member of the Ontario-Quebec Division of the OWN A Metaber of the Audit Bureau of Circulation Paid-in-Advance Circulation as df Match, 1953 2,494 SUBSCRIPTION RATES Canada, in advance, $3.00 a year United States, In advance, $4.00 a year Single Copies Each X Melvin Southcott - Publishers - Robert Southcott JASPER _____ By Simpkins “What bear rug are you talking about, dear?” 50 YEARS AGO An enthusiastic meeting was held in Kirkton for the purpose of discussing the erection of a telephone line from Exeter to St. Marys. Elected to office were, Dr. Ferguson, president; J. G. Jones, vice-president; W. R. Carr, V.S., secretary, and A. Brathour, treasurer. David Bonis was appointed to purchase the material and equip the line sub ject to approval of directors. Miss Amy Johns left for Wood- stock where ■ she has entered upon her duties as soprano singer in Knox Church. She will also conduct a class in voice cul ture and instrumental music. Mr. Cunningham, of London, passed through here on his way from Goderich on his gasoline motorcycle. The machine attract ed considerable attention. Mr. R. Sweet has disposed of his boot, shoe and harness busi ness to Mr. House, of Goderich, who will take possession next week. Mr. Sweet intends to move at once to the great Northwest. 25 YEARS AGO Michael Hogan, 22, of Mt. Carmel, was almost instantly killed when the car in which he was riding, crashed into a ce ment bridge at Corbett. Dennis Doyle, who was severely injured, was removed to St, Joseph’s Hos pital. A number of Indians from Muncey Reserve have arrived in the community to pull flax. Dr.-» and Mrs. H. Cowen and infant daughter, of Zurich, es caped without serious injury when their car overturned on the Blue Water Highway north of the Bend. A motorist comihg out of a laneway, ran into their car, causing Dr. Cowen to lose control. Rev. Ernest Grigg, returned ■missionary from Burma, who is visiting his sister, Miss M. Grigg, occupied the pulpit of James St. United Church last Sunday and gave an interesting address on his work in Burma. Fire which broke out in Lewis Kirk's butcher shop early in the ■morning was believed caused by thieves who broke into the shop during the night. Jottings By J.M.S. Summer Driving Is Dangerous I am a little late with an article for this week—-just seem ed that I could not get around to it, Now I am wondering if it is the hand of Providence or sjust plain luck that I can sit down to the typewriter instead of be ing in a hospital or perhaps in the morgue. Yesterday I escaped an accident in no shorter time than it takes to blink an eye. Every day we read of motor accidents and particularly on the busy weekends and one wonders how persons can be so careless as most accidents, I think, could be avoided with a little more car© in driving. I have often remarked that seldom is a long motor trip taken but that somewhere along the route there has been a close shave and always in a way that is least expected. Sunday evening I turned onto Highway 21 at Grand Bend from a sideroad. There was no traffic just at the moment. I stopped to talk to a friend who was turn ing the corner we had just come from. I was going north and on the wrong side of the road but there was no oncoming traffic. When I pulled away I glanced back and I didn’t see any car •coining. Slowly I was crossing to the right side of the highway and was just at the centre line when a car out of the nowhere buzzed past me at at least 50 miles an hour. It was like a bolt from the blue and gave me a sudden sick feeling to think had I gone a couple of yards further an accident could not have been averted. Whether the driver of the other car was aware of how close he was to an accident I do not know. He did not sound his horn but whizzed right on past. A Near Drowning J recall another time when the fate of my life was decided in what seemed a most miracul ous manner. Years ago as a young man I was bathing in Lake Huron at Grand Bend. In those days Grand Bend was not as popular as it is today. Most young people who were camping soon became acquainted with the other campers. I remember one young' girl from London who was rather fearless in the water although she had only learned to swim. On one occasion she was out in a boat with a number of swimmers around her when she jumped from the boat on a dare from the boyp. One afternoon a number of us were swimming near the dock, the others had wandered off and this young lady and I wore alone. She asked me if I would swim with her to a ladder on the dock a distance of about 15 yards. I consented and just as we were to start, to our surprise, another swimmer, out of the depths of the lake came up facing us not two yards away. We acquainted him with what we were intending to do and the three of us started to swim for the ladder. We had gone only a few strokes when the young lady's courage failed and she grabbed me and put me under. I held her above water while the other swimmer took hold of her. When he went down I took hold of her and- by re peating this process we managed between us to get her to the ladder. I often asked myself after that, was ft Providence or just an accident that my friend had dived off the dock and swam towards us at a time when he was most needed^ as without his assistance there could easily have been a couple of drownings that day. There are those who believe in predestination and will tell you that when your time comes there is nothing you can do about it. Certainly on both of these occa sions there was bad judgement and a miraculous escape. \s the TIMES" Go By 15 YEARS AGO Earl Christie, a student mini ster, son of Mr. and Mrs. C. W. Christie, was drowned while at tending a Sunday School picnic at Burk's Falls in the Parry Sound district. An impressive funeral service was held in James St. United Church with Rev. R. C. Copeland in charge assisted, by London, Toronto and Kingston ministers. Elgin Luxton, 21, son of Mr. and Mrs. John Luxton, Usborne, thrilled spectators at the London airport on Sunday when he made his first parachute -jump from about 2600 feet. Miss Doris Salter, daughter of Mrs. Emily and the late Martin Salter, died after an illness of two months with heart trouble. Mr. and Mrs. William Allison attended the marriage of John Allison Rydall to Miss Anne At- cheson at Shallow Lake. Local bowlers held carnival night with members of the Parks Bowling Club, St. Marys, as guests. One hundred bowlers in costume lined up at the igreens. and paraded down town led by the Exeter band. 1O YEARS AGO F/O Donald D. Graham, son of Dr. and Mrs. M. G. Graham, of Dutton, formerly of Exeter, was killed on active service accord ing to a cable received. by his parents. W. I. Dougall, Hensall, won the Cartier oats field crop com petition with a score of 86 points. Cai>t. W. E. Weekes of the Military Hospital, Woodstock, is spending two weeks’ leave at his home here. Susan Alma, daughter of Mr. and .Mrs. William Winer, became the bride of Dr. Campbell Mc- Lagan, of London, in a candle light wedding in Trivitt. Memor ial Church. Word has been received by their families of the safe arrival overseas of William Penhale, Jack Jennings, Wesley and Mah- lon Ryckman, Walter-Davis, Ed ward Triebner, Elmer Hunkin and Richard Etherington. Marjorie L. Heywood was mar ried to Trooper Janies Bower at Main St. United Church. ................................. News From Our NEIGHBORS New Agent At Ailsa Craig After serving as CNR station agent at Granton for the past 17 years, Fred Crouch, with his family is transferring to Ailsa Craig, Mr. Crouch was presented with an electric clock and an electric razor by Gordon Rathburn and Art Harlton on behalf of the Foresters Lodge of which Mr. Crouch is a member. (Parkhill Gazette) Start New Road Work commenced this week on the paving of the Township of Tuckefsmith r oad adjacent to and south of R.C.A.F. Station, Clinton. Because of the heavy airport traffic which it carried, main tenance of the road was diffi cult. The paving, extending easterly from No. 4 Highway, is being laid by the Highways Department of the County of Huron, as con tractor for National Defence. Cost of the work is approximate ly $13,000. (Huron Expositor) Finds Stolen safe Cat Martin who has procured quite an elaborate underwater breathing and diving apparatus has located a stolen safe which Saturday Night Through The Ages (“Blue Bell”) for some time has reposed on the bottom of the St. Marys swimming quarry. Cal had a look at the safe one day this past week and found the 45i0- pound strong box in fairly good condi tion with the -door of same lying nearby. The safe is about 21 feet under the'' surface and the water at that depth is so cold that Cal could only stay under a few minutes. He also reports that a water plant growth covers most of the quarry bottom ex cepting along the outer walls where lack of sunlight appears to retard this growth. (St. Marys JOurnal-Argus) Delay Phone Sale Goderich Township Council, meeting at Holmesville Monday night, failed to give third and final reading to the’by-law pre pared and given two readings at the July meeting regarding the sale of the Goderich Township Municipal Telephone System to the Bell Telephone Co. of Canada. A joint meeting of the Council and the telephone commissioners Monday night resulted in the de cision to make further investiga tion and call a special Council meeting this week, when it is expected that the by-law will be passed. The first bathtub in the Unit ed States, made of mahogany and lined with sheet lead, was in vented by Adam Thompson of Cincinnati, Ohio. Thompson en joyed his first bath in the con trivance on December 20, 1842, and on Christmas Day gave a party to which he invited his friends to try it out. News of the invention resulted in contro versy, and legislation banning the tub was passed or considered in such centres of culture as Phila delphia , Hartford , Providence , Charleston and Boston. These statements first ap peared in an anonymous article entitled “A Neglected Annivers ary” in the old New York Mail on December 20, 1917. They were written by H. L, Mencken as a hoax, and there is not a word of truth in them. Nevertheless, they have since been widely and fre quently reprinted as history, de spite the efforts of Mencken to reveal the hoax and scotch the story. At no time in history has op position to bathing been as great as is popularly supposed. From Earliest times our ancestors did bathe, although perhaps not as frequently as we do, and more often for reasons of godliness than of cleanliness., For example, the Hindus have for - thousands of years been sprinkling themselves out of lit tle jars or dunking themselves in the holy Ganges River, but the object is spiritual purification, not dirt removal.- The consequences of failure to wash one’s feet at the proper moment can be serious indeed. We are told that a certain King Nala offended the god Kali, who kept constant watch on him for 12 years until finally he caught him neglecting to wash his feet at the propel' time. Kali imme diately turned himself into a set of dice, and the next time Nala gambled, caused him to lose everything he 'owned except his loin clothv Writing'10 centuries before the birth of Christ, Homer mentions the bath as one of the first forms of refreshment offered by a nobleman to a guest. The visitor was invited to sit down in a bowl made of silver or wood, while cold water was poured over him by a handmaiden. Bird Bath. • Usually, however, the Greeks contented themselves with stand ing beside a .glorified bird bath and splashing themselves rather than plunging in. They also had showers, accommodating more than one bather at a time; the water poured down from gar goyles on the tops of pillars. Despite a fondness for diving into hot springs, the early Greeks condemned the use of hot water in the family basin or in public wash houses as unmanly. In later degenerate days, however, hot 1 Water came into increasing use and in Athens the State itself' set up establishments for warm water bathing. Lacking good soap, the ancient Greeks cleaned themselves by ap plying oil and removing the dirt With iron or silver scrapers, This practice was adopted by the Ro mans, under whom the art of bathing reached its height. . By the fourth century A.D., Rome had a bath for every 1,000 inhabitants. The bath of the Em peror Diocletian could hold 3,200 persons and included a theatre. That of Caracalla had lecture rooms and a library. Just like the modern bather, the Roman of old left his clothes in a locker, Then he could take exercises in a gymnasium, per spire in a steam room (sudator ium) or hot room (calidarium), dive into warm water in the tepi- dariuni, and finally into cold in the natatorium. Cleaning was carried out on the way by ser vants armed with scrapers. There were also lotion and scent rooms. The philosopher Seneca wrote, “To such a pitch ot^ luxury have we reached that we are dissatis fied if we do not tread on gems in our baths.” Took Three Baths During the Dark Ages the Bar barian invaders of the Roman Empire allowed the great aque ducts to go to ruin. It was this more than opposition to the use of water that caused bathing as an art to decline during the Mid dle Ages. Pope Gregory, about 600 A.D., strongly recommended bathing as long as it did not de generate into a "time-wasting luxury”. On the other hand, some monks washed only three times a year—at Christinas, at Easter, and on September 8. Medieval baths resembled wooden wash tubs, and might be round or oval. They often had canopies and curtains to keep out draughts inevitable in medieval castles, and some were padded with linen. By the fifteenth cen tury, the oval bath came to be preferred, but the reason for in creasing the length was not to enable the bather to lie down, but to permit a second one to get in. The two faced each other, often with a tray stretched across between them for dining while soaking. The private outdoor swimming pool is not a Hollywood inven tion. Even in the Middle Agee, in countries with summer clim ates, there was outdoor bathing in garden pools. These were open to the sky, with perhaps a screen or so around them. Persons of both sexes might be present, and there were minstrels and refresh ments. Special mention might be made of the Ancient and Honorable Order of the Bath. On the day when a gquire was to be knight ed, he went to court with two sponsors. A barber prepared a tub equipped with elaborate can opy and curtains and draped with linen. The candidate was shaved and escorted by minstrels "sing ing, dancing and sporting” to the bath, where the sponsors un dressed him and put him in. While he sat in the Cold Water, a knight lectured him on the rules- and traditions of the Order. After being dried in a bed, he was clothed "very warm” for li's all-night vigil in the chapel. In the morning he was knighted. Bathed In Wine A recipe for making a beauti ful complexion in the time of Queen Elizabeth I was first to take a very hot bath to induce excessive perspiration, and to fol low this up by washing the face with plenty of wine to make it fair and ruddy. Mary Queen of Scots is alleged to have bathed in wine, for which reason she had to apply for an increased allowance. This practice was adopted* by the elder ladies of the court, but the younger ones had to be content with milk. (In .the 1890s Florenz Ziegfeld pub licized the actress Anna Held by reporting that she bathed in milk.) We are told that Louis XIII liked to soak amid red roses floating on the water. Despite these hopeful reports, bathing was still by no means general at this time. In Germany it was the custom even at court for a young lady to give up wash ing as soon as she had obtained a husband. During the seventeenth cen tury experiments were made with baths shaped like wooden shoes. The bather’s feet fitted . in the toe, and only his head appeared. The usual tub, however, was a rather skimpy hip bath, with a high back to support the bather while his feet dangled over the end. It was not until the 'begin ning of the nineteenth century that the present form made its first appearance. During the early years of this century the most popular form of fixed tub, chosen because of its comparative cheapness, was made of wood lined with copper. Gradually, however, the enameled iron and porcelain tubs found favor. Today, in Canada and the United States, the bathroom is so glorified that one writer has even suggested that it is the only necessary room in the house! That is, the modern family is so seldom at home that even the functions of dining and sleeping are carried on outside. No False Modesty But it should not be assumed from this that bathing has been neglected in foreign parts. The Japanese, who have been called the cleanest people on earth, are noteworthy for their complete lack of any false modesty of the body in the bath. Both sexes bathe together, and frequently little effort is made to conceal the nude bathers from view of passers-by oh the street. When the Occupation authorities asked a Japanese bath house proprietor to segregate the sexes, he tied a string across the pool. To Russia belongs the credit for having the hottest and the coldest baths on record. Russian steam baths often ran higher than 130 degrees. The bathers flogged one another with birch twigs, and after enduring this torture as long as possible, dashed out to roll in the snow or dive into the river through a hole in the ice. In the days of the Tsars, it was hard to get a servant without promising two such baths a week. The delay is not considered to be of a serious nature, but caused merely by the need of Ironing Out minute details, (Clinton News-Record) New Church Plaiis for a new EbeneZer Church to replace the one which was destroyed by the tornado several months ago are now well underway and it is expected that work will start on it after the harvest. The Ebenezer congrega tion have been holding regular services in the hall at Devices and in the meantime donations to the building fund continue to come in. The cost Is expected to be over- $10,000, (St, Marys Journal-Argus)