HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1959-10-22, Page 2FAIRY TALE-COME-TRUE — His name's really Jack, and the
monster plant was grown from a bean. Jack Skinner Jr., 8,
can't begin to reach the top of this giant castor bean plant.
Like Jack's bean stalk in the fairy tale, someone threw a bean
away, and the plant just grew.
BLE TALKS
6a:rvz Aramws.
-during the winter, test they .get
too dry.
While you are 'working in the
flower borders,. you might like
to pot up healthy specimens of
Zinnias, marigolds, calenchilaS,
and similar eendels before frost
and bring them into the how%
for flowering plants. Mix into
the soil, before potting them,
generous .portion .01 plant food
—about a teaspoonful to a quart
Of soil, writes the Garden Edi-
tor of The Christian Science,
Monitor.
You ,probably know the trick
of watering outdoor plants on
cold nights to keep them from
being frostbitten. Dahlias will.
often come through this way,
and marigolds and zinnias in
bloom, Hardy chrysanthemums
can be covered for the night
with large sheets of polythene,
burlap, or building paper when
heavy frost threatens, but take
it oft again first thing in the
morning.
Many Skeletons
In These Cupboards
Skeletons ranging from that of
an Irish giant 8 ft, 4 in. tall to
those of pygmies barely half his
size are housed in one of the
world's little-known museums at
the Royal College of Surgeons,
Iincoln's Inn. Fields, London.
Founded by a man who has
been called the father of modern
surgery, John Hunter, the mu-
seum contains countless skulls
and skeletons — a queer collec-
tion of old bones from all over
the world. It was once claimed
that all the races of the earth
were represented in this "skul-
lery," as some medical students
call it.
Bombs damaged and charred
some of the specimens during the
war but the Irish giant's skeleton
was unscathed, HoW it originally
got into the museum makes a
bizarre story.
The Irishman's name was
Charles O'Brian (sometimes
spelt Byrne) and while he was
alive his great height and bulk
made him an object of curiosity
wherever he went. He probably
suffered a good deal from peo-
ple's stares and had a suspicion
that when he died his body
might not be safe in an ordinary
grave.
So before his death at twenty-
two, In June, 1783, through ex-
cessive drinking, he bequeath-
ed to two fishermen £100 each
on condition that they would
take his body out to sea and
drop it overboard. He had an
inkling that Hunter was anxi-
ous to g e t possession of h i s
skeleton and felt sure that his
burial-at-sea plan would defeat
the surgeon's object.
He was wrong. Hunter told
the fishermen that he did not
wish to prevent there earning
their £200 by disposing of the
giant's body at sea, but he sug-
gested that if they would first
tie a rope to it, he could after-
wards haul it up again and then
pay them another iC200,'
They agreed. Hunter got the
body,, and the Irish giant's bones
finished up in the museum.
In Stockton, Calif., Teodoro
Lopez' Herrera held up a bank,
was asked by the cashier to sign
his name for the money he took,
dutifully obeyed, was soon track-
ed down and arrested.
ISSUE 4a — 1959
seeee'lfee A
Trying To Recoil
Those Old Rhymes
The recent confession here
that, I couldn't jest remember
the counting-out rhyme for the
number .of kernels in a hill of
Corn brought a complaint front
p, niece, She wanted, to know
why I could remember intr.
InIntY, and not remember "two
„for the crows ,"
I can, indeed, remember inty-
minty, but it is not my own
Voice that I hear when I say it.
Instead, I hear the eager, high
squeal of a certain bug-eyed
young lady who was said to have
this haunting eomplexion about
the eyes because she jumped
rope all the time, She did—up
and down, up and down, her
long black braids flopping
around, and the excessive exer-
cise was supposed to keep her
lean and pop-eyed. She was
pretty, and inty-minty was her
counting-out rhyme, probably
coming down to her from gener-
ations before,
There is, in certain of the va-
rious Mother Gooses. a counting-
out rhyme that starts, "Intery
mintery, cutery corn. „ ." The
one this young lady would recite
to commence our playtime per-
haps had a phonetic relationship,
and it went about like this:
Inty-minty, dibbety fig,
Delia, nom-a-nom a-nig.
Eye-cha, kigh-cha,
Dow-a-nigh-cha
HUM
PUNG
TUSK
Galliga-balliga-boo
Out goes Y, 0, , • ,
My niece knew I could repeat
it, for I taught it to her once.
But in all my misguided youth
I never actually counted out with
it. I merely heard, many times,
this rope-skipping nymph of the
startled eyes say it. I heard it
enough so I have it for all time.
I give it, thus to the antiquar-
ians who may want to jot it
down.
This girl had many rhymes,
and as I run through some of her
rope-skipping jingles, it sudden-
ly occurs to me that times have
changed, Antidiscrimination and
reciprocal toleration have come
into our focus, and some of those
childhood rhymes won't pass to-
day's requirements! Although
they were innocent, and full of
fun, I can't nevertheless. set
them down here! Isn't that in-
teresting! One of her best skip-
rope rhymes ended with:
Salt, Vinegar, Mustard,
Cay-ANN PEPPER!
Then the two rope-holders
really started to whirl, and tried
to make the rope go so fast the
young lady couldn't out-skip it.
They would count—one. two,
three. . . And the girl would
still be going at ote-hundred-
and-twenty-two, one-hundred-
and-twenty-three , , . It took a
lot of pepper to out-twirl that
one!
The counting-out rhymes, we'd
better tell our moderns, were III
determine sides, or who would
go first—or last—and there was
a juvenile faith that whoever
did the counting-out would play
the game fair. You could if you
took advantage, waggle the fin-
ger once too few, or once teo
often, and shift the beat. But
nobody did that, much, And with
18 or 20 youngsters gathered by
lks,,pesture gap in the luscious
twilight of bygone times, using
the drawn-out enjoyment intend-
ed. Sometimes it could be quite
late before we did anything.
One of our best games was
called "Hoist The Green Sail,"
which we all thought was "Oys-
ter Green Sale," whatever that
might mean. We would count out
and divide up, and one side
would run off into the surround-
ings and hide,
When that side was well hid-
den their captain would come
back to the "gool" and with a
stick in the loose sand would
draw an elaborate Map purport-
ing to show just where his col-
leagues were hiding. The rules
about this were definite. He was
supposed to be holiest, and give
Lis a fair picture of the route
taken to the hideaway. Signifi,
cant landmarks had to be shown,
Deceit came, mostly, an the dis-
tances, He could, make a mile
look like 20 feet, or like 10 miles.
lie might indicate a "tree," but
it could be two feet high or an
ancient oak,
When we were satisfied we
knew the devious route to
pursue to find the hidden team,
we'd all start out, Sometimes, if
the search didn't go well, we'd
have to come back ad look at the
map again. Eventually, we'd
find them, and then there'd be a
a fight over the mapmaker's
race for the "gaol," and usually
basic honesty and upright na-
ture. Not a real fight—we didn't
fight much,
Once, to show how it some-
times went, one team decided to
hide in Mr. Ramsay's oat bin.
Mr. Ramsay kept trotters, and
had a big bin lined with zinc. It
smelled lovely in there, but Mr.
Ramsay frowned upon our en-
joying it. You got in by drop-
ping through a lid, and you
couldn't get out unless somebody
handed you up, or reached down
and pulled you,
On this day about a dozen
Oyster Green Sailors dropped
through the hole, and joined a
tramp who had gone in there to
take a nap. Nobody knew he was
in there, It wasn't hard for the
opposition team to locate the
hiding place, for the to-do was
considerable. Mr, Ramsay had
arrived, too, and as the tramp
emerged Mr. Ramsay chased him
across the field with a buggy
whip, and we all stood in the
barn doors and called "Oyster
Green Sale!"
None of this, I suppose, was
very much fun, for it didn't
survive. I suppose it didn't,, any-
way. Haven't heard that they've
launched any space ships with
inty?minty, have you?—By John
Gould in The Christian Science
Monitor.
Crook Betrayed
By Best Pal.
Warning of a great fire at a
two-acre waste rubber dump in.
Tottenham, London, was given
recently by a former police dog
who jumped on a wall and start-
ed barking. The watchman, 78-
year-old Fred Pullen, raced to
his wooden office in the centre
of the dump and just managed
to telephone the fire brigade be-
fore the flames reached him.
Many folk have cause to be
thankful that they keep a dog
when the house blazes or bur-
glars pay a visit. But over in
Milan, Italy, one man is not so
pleased with his too-friendly
pooch.
Police arrived the other day to
charge him in connection with
an alleged fraud of $18,000, They
found only his wife at home and
she assured them that her hus-
band Was away,
The police seemed satisfied
and were on the point of leav-
ing, but then his dog appeared.
Hearing his master's name
spoken, the faithful little hound
barked excitedly and wagged his
tail. Then he went to a cup-
board and barked again. Open-
ing the cupboard door, the police
found their man crouching inside.
Says Railroads
Should Wake Up
We've never met Sherwood
Githens Jr. of Durham but we
feel we'd like to.
We think this because of a
letter that came into our hands
the other day carrying his sig-
nature. It. was a copy of an
original addressed to the South-
ern Railway.
What was so intriguing about
it was that Githens had the tem-
erity to suggest that Southern,
if it wanted to, might compete
With the airlines fat passenger
dollars. In addition, he outlined
a few ways for improving ser-
The Earth AS Seen
From Plan0 Venus.
*If Venus is a, brilliant object
in our sky, Earth would be a far
more brilliant abject as, seen from
a position in the orbit of Venus.
Let us consider just what could
be learned, about Earth by the
methods that •we have to apply
when, studying the other worlds
of the Solar System,
Suppposing we are at the point
occupied by Venus when it is
nearest to Earth—when Venus is
in 'inferior conjunction,' that is,
when it crosses an imaginary
line, running from directly over-
head to the south point of the
horizon at the same time as the
Sun while in the 'earth-side'
half of its orbit. Earth would
be seen 'in opposition,' the whole
of its disc fully illuminated, To
the naked eye it would dominate
the night sky making even the
most brilliant stars seem feeble
glimmerings of light compared
with it. It would be fully six or
seven times as bright as Venus
appears to us, because when we
see Venus at its brightest only a
fraction of the illuminated cur-
'face is turned towards Earth.
The chances are that the Moon
also would be visible .as a Com-
pletely illuminated disc,
Continued observations would
show the movements of the
Moon, and it would be seen to
travel from one side of the
planet to the other; the separa-
tion of the two 'stars,' when
greatest, would be roughly equal
to the Moon's diameter as seen
from. Earth; quite sufficient for
the unaided eye to recognize the
movement despite the over-
whelming brightness of Earth.
The Moon yould look brighter
than any real star and even
without a telesccope, there could
be no doubt that our world has
a very considerable satellite, A
difference in the colour of the
light should be quite noticeable;
Earth's would be white, and
rather bluish, while the Moon's
light would be yellow. . . .
Blue light is scattered by the
atmosphere much more than red,
and as a result of this the oceans
on Earth would appear
not through, light reflected, from
their sUrfaces but because f the
overlying, blue light in the atmo-
sphere. In the same way, colours
of the land surfaces would be
modified. The dark brown areas
would tend to become dark
green, yellows would be green-
ish, while any really black parts
of the surface would tend to
look blue-black. In regions per-
manently covered with snow and
ice, the white would be glaringly
bright but the use of filters at
the telescope eyepiece would
show that this, too, was slightly
blue,
Soon it would be possible to
build up a picture of the con-
tinental outlines. Certainly, the
map would be far from complete
end would be incorrect in a num-
ber of important respects. Even
so, after a few successive opposi-
tions of Earth, ideas about our
world, so far as the actual dis-
tribution o f continents an d
oceans are concerned, would cer-
tainly be nearer to the truth
than the ideas held by men
about their own planet a few
centuries .ago. — From "Other
Worlds In Space," written and
illustrated by Terry Maloney.
vice if the railroad was really
interested,
No crackpot schemes, just sug-
gestions like:
Replacing the 14 "old-fashion
ed Pullman" cars operating in
and out of North Carolina with
the new shiny, stainless steel cre-
ations;
Creating passenger schedules
with the passenger's convenience
in mind;
Employing attractive hostesses
who would appear before civic
and business groups, extolling
the virtues and dependability
of "modern" railway travel;
Offering a few niceties, such
AS free "goodwill" coffee and
doughnuts to early morning
boarders and cutting total rail-
toad passenger costs to the point
that they will be competitive
with air travel;
Converting day coaches into
"rooms" resembling hotel lob-
bies and emphasizing the no-
cramp advantages of traveling
this way;
Launching an intensive adver-
tising and promotional campaign
to tell the public that passenger
trains are still running and that
dirty cinders, stuffy coaches and
cracked white porcelain wash
basins are not necessarily stand-
ard equipment.
"We have seen Southern Rail-
way ads lauding your innova-
tions in the handling of freight
but never anything on your pas-
senger service except to adver-
tise your losses," writes Githens,
In essence, all this Duthamite
is suggesting Is that the rail-
roads apply a little Twentieth
Century business savvy in their
passenger service before writing
it Off completely. He hold.s that
a railroad, if it wants to, can of-
fee a dependability, if not a
ineastire of Comfort, that airlines
and but companiee cannot:
Charlotte;, N.C,, Observer.
Remember the apple butter of
your childhood? Cooking gently
on the kitchen stove, it smelled
spicy and cidery and appetizing,
Then. when it was done, the first
taste of it served on home-made
bread was a special autumn
memory. Here is a recipe for
this butter which you may want
to use right now,
APPLE BUTTER
5 cups prepared fruit (4
pounds ripe apples)
7% cups (3% pounds) sugar
3/2 teaspoon algpice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 bottle'liquid fruit pectin
First, prepare the fruit. Re-
move blossoms and stem ends
from about 4 pounds of ripe ap-
ples. Cut into small pieces (do
not peel or core). Add 61/e cups
water, Bring to bell. Cover and
simmer 10 minutes. Crush com-
pletely. Cover and simmer 5
minutes longer. Place in a large
sieve lined with a double thick-
ness of cheesecloth. Drain off
5 cups juice to use in making
apple jelly (recipe follows). Set
juice aside. Use fruit pulp for
making apple butter.
To make the butter, press
pulp through sieve, Measure 5
cups Into a very large saucepan.
Add sugar and spices, Bring to
a full rolling boil and boil hard
for 1 minute, stirring constantly.
Remove from heat and at once
stir in liquid pectin. Skim off
foam with metal spoon. Ladle
quickly into glasses. Cover at
once with GIs inch of hot paraf-
fin. Makes 6 pounds of butter,
Or enough for 12 medium
glasses.
APPLE JELLY
5 cups juice (see recipe above)
7 1/2 cups (3% pounds) sugar
bottle of liquid fruit pectin
Mix juice and sugar in a very
large saucepan. Bring to boil
over high heat, stirring con-
stantly. At once stir in liquid
pectin. Bring to a full rolling
boil and boil hard 1 minute,
stirring constantly, Remove from
heat and skim off foam with
metal spoon. Pour quickly into
glasses. Cover at once with 1/8
inch of hot paraffin, Makes 6
pounds of jelly, or enough for
'12 medium glasses.
If you'd like to have your own
applesauce this winter, make it
this way: * s
APPLESAUCE
Wash and drain 'fresh, sound
apples. Remove stem and blos-
som ends, Slice apples. Cook
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until soft, (May need a little
water to prevent sticking.) Press
apples through sieve Or food mill
to remove skin and seeds,
Sweeten sauce to taste. Reheat
to boiling. Pour boiling hot,
into hot glass jars. Stir to re-
move air bubbles. Process 20
minutes in boiling-water bath,
Note: Duchess and other apples
which "sauce" without straining
should be pared and cored before
cooking.
If you like a combination of
fruits in your conserve, try
putting blueberries with your
apples.
APPLE-BLUEBERRY
CONSERVE
4 cups chopped apples
4 cups blueberiles
6 cups sugar
% cup raisins
4 tablespoons lemon juice
Wash fruit, Core, pare, chop
and measure apples. Mix all in-
gredients. Boil until thick. Pour,
boiling hot, into hot glass jars:
seal at once.
APPLE-CHERRY-
PINEAPPLE CONSERVE
3 cups chopped apples
cups pitted cherries
2 cups chopped pineapple
11 cups sugar
% teaspoon salt
1 cup shelled nuts
Wash fruit. Core, pare and
chop apples. Pit Cherries, Pare
and chop fresh pineapple (can-
ned pineapple may be used).
Measure fruit and mix with
sugar, Let stand 4-5 hours, Boil
until thick. Add salt and nuts
about 5 minutes before remov-
ing from heat, Pour, boiling hot
into hot glass jars and seal at
once.
The Story Of
A Lovely Tree
Fragments of birch bark, Toll-
ed for ease of storage, provide
one of the very oldest examples
of the use of trees by mankind
in Britain. They were intended,
it is believed, for making con-
tainers, and they had lain buried
in the peat for some 7,000 years
before they were unearthed,
about 1950, at Starr Carr near
Scarborough. The pollen grains
preserved with them sleeve 'that
at that early date birchwoods
already overspread much of
northern England; ,they had in-
vaded the slowly-warming tun-
dras after the ice had retreat-
ed, , ,
So began the story of a lovely
tree that'has ever since remain-
ed a leading element in the
woodland scene.
Birch is above all a pioneer,
One of those trees that can read-
fly invade fresh territory. As
trees grow, it is short-lived, sel-
dom standing for as long as 100
yeara. . Its' fragile grace con-
ceals an innate toughness of
character that enables it to colo-
nize bare ground, even on the
fringe of polar regions where
the soil is frozen for most of the
year, and never thaWs for more
than a few :feet below the stir-
face.
The British forester knows
birch best as an invader of felled
woodlands that are left to lie
thiplanted. : Birch makes an
airborne invaSibil, spreading
solely by means of tiny winged
Seeds, released each autumn
from its long lambs-tail catkins
thos break up. Half a mil-:
lion of these scads are needed
to Make tip one pound, and they
Pro, produced Jo. PrO$00 40:
quantities, year after year, to. be
swept everywhere by the winds;
in autumn you cut) see the birch.
woods sprinkled with them., like
confetti, , —
Birch is .above a light-
demanding tree, It can only.
thrive in the .unobstructed. light
of the sun, and dwindles and
dies if set below the shade of
other trees, The forester today
regards the birch with mixed.
feelings, Although he hardly
ever plants it, is is likely to in-
1,1.rate into • every plantation he
makes, every wood he tends. He
is loth to accept it as a main
crop, since it can only yield a
low volume of timber which will
bring but .a poor price as turn-
eNy wood or small sawmill tint-
bet..,
De: pits its beauty, birch is not
very satisfactory as a street tree,
since it is ,short-lived, does not
take kindly to pruning, and lacks
vigour when its roots are set
amid hard pavements, Nor does
it feature well along the hedge-
rows, where again its short life-
span is a disadvantage, But in
a garden, where it can be al-
lowed to expand, unprnried, its
graceful crown of foliage, a
weeping birch makes a lovely
sight; the shade it casts is so
light that flowering bulbs can.
be grown beneath it, to produce
in spring a delectable combina-
tion of their blossom with the
white bark and emerald green
unfolding leaves of the silver
birch. — From "The Living For-
est," by H. L, Edlin,
Fall Is Time. To
Tuck In The Garden
Those of us who live in colder
climates are beginning to' do
"last things" before heavy frost
closes the blooming season.
October is a fine time to do
many garden tasks. It is a plant-
ing time, a clean-up time, and
a storing time, Planting spring-
flowering bulbs is spaced along,
from the tucking in of daffodils,
hyacinths, snowdrops and other
little bulbs, to the stowing un-
derground of tulips.
Evergreens and spring-flower-
ing trees and shrubs are usually
planted in autumn, This gives
them a chance to become estab-
lished. Be s u r e, however, to
keep them watered up to freez-
ing weather, and to mulch them
well the first winter.
The perennial border wel-
comes a going over at this sea-
son. Phlox should be dug up and
divided every three or four
years. It is not too late to se-
parate and .replant iris clumps.
Oriental poppies and other per-
ennials that have finished bloom-
ing also can be moved.
Plant food that works slowly,
like bone meal, should be in-
corporated into the soil, and a
mulch should protect the roots,
Later the whole perennial bed
will need winter protection, but
this should wait until after
freezing.
Gladiolus corms and other
summer-flowering bulbs are lift-
ed, dried, and stored for re-
planting next year. Moth flakes
or DDT dust in paper bagi with
the gladiolus corms control
thrip, Begonia tubers and dahlia
roots will winter in a cool part
of the cellar if covered with dry
peat moss or sand. Remove any
infected portions before storing,
and inspect them at intervals
L
REAK STORM -,., Men and machines work its deer, free
1mbs from it street offer d freak, nine-nich snow fell on.
nverk Cato.
bOES MORE THAN BUZZ — Louis kichards, graduate design
student oi Illinois has harnessed the eerialty buzz of ci
1.37 11,p, model aircraft engine ta -groUnd trOntparfolion. Hit
e'Skteler i" a n 18 inch long alunlinurn platform on wheels,
tarries its pOstnger in two -fooled tornfort Aleut 1 -2 MileS
an hour, three tarter The speed normally ma'cle- by -6 fiedesirion,
Highly tocineuverebil, the 12-pound device folds into a c6nVdt
C6rryin§ tcise.