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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1959-12-03, Page 6Nherb They Reap )farvests Of Cork Portugal is the richest cork: producing.country In the World, Sied many lives and fortunes are lerevocably hound up with these Weird and hardy trees, One summer I was invited for it day or two to a country house right In the middle of vast cork *rests, to watch the bark-strip- Pine process, an interesting heels nees which like all country craftsmanship — looks as easy As chopping up fireweed,. Yet it is one, of the most skilled jobs * all tree cultivation, and the ;nen who practise the art are laid far more than the ordinary abourer, The particular ones I saw came from the province of Vie Algarve in the south, travel- ling to the Alentejo with their headman or overseer, who has been coming to this forest every year for as long as anyone re- members. He was a typical old country character, with deep-set shrewd eyes, and a rather reserved but very great affection for the em- ployers with whom he has work- ed for so many years. These strippers from the Al- garve lived in the open, under the trees of the cork forest. As this job always takes place af- ter the hot weather has set in (from June onwards) this is generally fairly pleasant. Their beds consist of rugs and blan- kets placed on the ground, the bed often bounded by long strips 01 cork bark, I must say they looked very comfortable, and even if a thunderstorm arrived in the night, they could always hoist the inevitable umbrella, so general among all peasant work- ers in the country, All the paraphernalia of camp- ing hung in the trees — extra clothes, food containers, sheep- n trousers, umbrellas, odd- ments of all sorts. Earthenware water-jars were placed here in the shade of the trees, and at the edge of the camp was the fire for cooking. When I arriv- ed, a woman was busy watch- ing the fire, while the men were Away at work. The evening meal was being cooked in a large number of earthenware pots, placed along an extended fire. One's usu Idea of a camp fire is circular, but owing to each individuar having his own pot, it was obvi- ous that a long, narrow fire was the answer, and it looked unique and unusual. At night 'we sat on the ver- anda of the pleasant country house situated- on a hill above the forests, listening to the night- ingales and other birds, listening also to the intense peace of the Bork forests, with their tops sil- houetted against a clear moon- lit sky. Those unmistakable green arms, so carefully prun- ed and tended all their lives— the great silent population of the Alentejo. — From "The Hills of Alentejo," by Huldine V. Beam- ish. "The man I want," said the brriployer, "must be capable of earning ten thousand a year and silly enough to do it willingly for eve." ISSUE 49 — 1959 TAFSLE CALKS (?)at\sz A r‘ci oevs. and used" its 'fa reach one house over rough country and snow. The device is held a few inches aloft by blasts of air forced' out beneath it. The military is experimenting with similar vehicles. LOW-FLYING DOCTOR -- grounds of Princeton Un pilots his "oeromobile." A son built the vehicle. him No Wife-Beating After Nine O'Clock Some of the ancient street cries of London are being revived by enterprising street traders who have found that their sentimen- tal appeal is very good for busi- ness. One young woman with a large basket on her hip regularly walks with grace and dignity through some of the Mayfair streets, as other pretty girls did when the first Queen Elizabeth was on the throne, singing tunefully: "Won't you buy my sweet blooming lavender? You buy it once, you buy it twice — it makes your clothes smell very nice." Heard once again, too, in 1959 are the cries of the watercress man the winkle man and the muffin sellers especially at week-ends. In West London an elderly man often sits on the kerb re- caning seats and stools and chant-, ging from time to time "Chairs to mend" and there's a barrow- boy who cries, as his great-great- grandpaeents probably did before him: "Pots and pans to mend, scissors to grind." The "come and buy" street cries of Old London were suc- cessfiilly revived during the Fes- tival of Britain in 1951 when pretty girls in Restoration cos- tumes chanted sales-talk used in Nell Gwynn's day. Rags and bones, fresh mackerel, peanuts, hot dogs and baked chestnuts are• the themes of men and women who cry their wares in the suburbs of. London' and other big cities nowadays and they manage to, make' themselves heard despite the roaring, traffic. Some cries in Elizabethean times seem to have got on people's nerves, for laws were in- troduced to limit them and no man was allowed "to whistle or blow a horn or sing his wares after nine o'clock or to beat his wife or cause a sudden outcry." 'YES, WE, HAVE BANANAS It's easy to grave a banana tree, Otte:feeding to Ralph 'Hartnen.Harmore itiatieger of 0 gretety spare in Cincinriati s of the tree itatie his father's place in 16tick , In. Ohio, the 'free was plaeled teed greys, froni six inches to 12 feet in SeVen trionthe, But fall air be art nipping' Of the. piant and Harman decided hi White? If eie the store. He %inking of cutting a section Tebbe the store ceiling to see how it'll tie ilideeits, Scooting along just above the iversity, Dr. William Bertelson general practitioner, Dr. Bertel- self from wood and aluminum, Dancing Girl's Plot Doomed Thousands Four wives and seven slave- girls perished as sacrifices on the funeral pyre of, the fabitlous Maharajah Ranjit Singh. But not his favourite wife, Jindan, who had won her way to power as an alluring dancing girl at the court of Lahore. She was far too shrewd for that. Go to the flames for the sake of an old profligate? Not she! Hadn't 'she a small son, Dulip Singh, who would one day rule as Maharajah? Couldn't she as Regent wield power through her lover, Lal Singh, and her brother, Jamahar Singh, both leaders in the State? She was a' past-mistress at in- trigue "I have only to bide my time, set one man against an- other," she told herself, "and everything will fall* into my hands and My Sol-1;s." After Ranjit's death the Punjab suffered under a succession of rulers and pretenders, each in turn dying a violent death at the hands of his usurpers, Jin- clan, pulling a string here, a strangulating cord there, watch- ed it all with a cynical smile art her rouged lips. The privileged "Khalsa" Sikh army built up by Ranjit really ruled the State, making and un- making maharajas at will. In the 1840s many • chiefs, jealous of the army's power, anxious to overthrow it, intrigued secretly with the British beyond the bor- der. tindan encouraged her brother, the Wazer Jamahar, to do se. "The Khalsa stands in our way," she said. "It Must be curbed." But the army got wind of the intrigue, secretly sent- enced him to death, and ordered him to appear before them. He came with his Nephew; the boy Maharajah. "Stand aside from the boy!" they ordered. A file of soldiers then took up position and shot him dead. Incensed by rage and grief — if the the grief was genuine the Maharani ordered his wretch- ed women, two wives and three' slave-girls, to fling themselves on his pyre. Aceorditig to custom, they had to go mournitigfelly in procession, distributing from trays the jewels and gifts deem- ed sacred because they came Item a sett about to die for her lord and MaSter. Forming ranks either side, the Sikhs compelled them to pass between, snatching at their gifts, ripping oh' their earsrings arid other adornments, mocking their entreaties with coarse ribaldry, `When the flames began licking their agonized bodies, the sail- diets eyed tried to snatch the gold fringieg from their trousers. With the accusing eyes of prophetess, one of the women rose Trotri the pyre, pointed to them, and shrielit'id:.'',Woe tO the Khalsa! Before a year be out they will ;,be e 'overthrown and their be widows!" Then she fell back into the flames and was consumed. But only too well was her prophecy to be fulfilled. Jindan, saw to that. The grim' spectacle shocked even her -- and she had seen many, in vio- lent, untamed Lahore. She would , be avenged. If the Khalsa, in view of the popular feeling against the British, could be in- cited to cross the Sutlej border and attack them . . . if, under the leadership of her lover, Lal Singh, and a fellow-conspirator, Tej Singh, they were betrayed, would they not be destroyed and no longer dominate the State? Her crafty lover needed no urging, any more than Tej Singh. Both saw in the treacherous move a path to power. They would make all the military blunders possible while ensuring their own safety and winning British goodwill,• and under Brit- ish influence rule • the Punjab, unhampered by Khalsa interfer- ence, Ripe for plunder, the army crossed the Sutlej in December, 1845, and might have swept all before it, but for the betrayal. At Mukcli, Lal Singh ordered it into battle, then callously left it to blunder into .defeat, Ferozshah was one of the bloodiest engagements in Brit- ish-Indian history, but when, with large Sikh reinforcements, Tej Sleigh had the British at his mercy, he -fled from the field, turning sure victory into disaster. The eight weeks' war ended at Sobraon, where again he fled; though his forces showed them- selves superior. He even dam- aged a bridge over the Sutlej, to hamper his own troops follow- ing. When' they fell back on it, fighting desperately; it gave way, plunging' there into the swollen river. Many thousands of Sikhs per, iehed in this last stand, inclucl, ing Sirdat Sham Singh, a spec- teal figure in white, with white beard, who rode about oil a white mare leading a remnant in a eta] charge in which he was killed. After the battle his servants fetind his body, plated it tever- ently ore a raft, swam across the river with it and bore it with them on a three-day trek back to his honie. But his widow, hearing dread tidings Of the battle, had already eettimitted herself to the pyre, clasping of the clothes he had wore at their i,vedclizig, She wet the last sati to kill herself by traditional Punjab testate, and fi pillar marks the' spot outside the walls, 'tack in Lahore, sulta -tided by 'court magnificence, dressed hi preciettS:silk!; decked With jew.' els, her triumph, The dying sati'e prophecy had indeed'been lel- otth,e Maharani Jitidati hugged When the victorious British garrisoned the city they found the Council of State virtually ruled by her as Regent for her eight-year-old son, with the treacherous Lal Singh as her chief' minister and the other wily, shifty members ender her sway. No woman wielded such power as this former dancing girl, none' so abused it. One of her favourite sports was pushing her slave-girls into a pool, ducking them and laugh- ing at their cries as they struggle to escape. But intrigue proved first her lover',s undoing, then her own.' Lai Singh might use the British for his ends, but only temporar- ily. When he began plotting against them in turn, with Jin- dan's encouragement, they ex- pelled him. Still the intrigues went on be- hind palace walls. She even plot- ted to murder the Resident and free her capital of British con: trot. That was too much for the au- thorities. They expelled her out of harm's way, too.. She had to leave her beloved Lahore, fol- lowing- her lover into exile — though not to be*with him, which might have been some consola- tion. Frenziedly, she threatened to scratch the eyes out of any one of her, enemies who came within reach of those acquisitive taloned hands, as delicate as they were merciless. When her protests were of no avail and she had to go, she clamoured to take all her serv- ants and slave-girls with her. insisted on being escorted as be- 'fitted a queen, and complained loudly abdut the' quarters allot ted her, The 'British found that they had taken on more than they had bargained for. In .1848 the Sikh rebelled and the Khalsa became active again. A powerful chieftain threatened to march on Lahore and restore elindan to power. But the ex- dancing-girL was finished. *She had climbed from 'obscur- ity, using all her seductive wiles, Into obscurity she now faded with her spoilt son. It's Enough To Make You Blink When the average motorist drives at twenty miles an hour, for a period of five hours, he drives for at least ten and a half miles of his journey with his eyes shut! Staggering, isn't it? But it's true. Scientists who have been con- ducting research into the un- conscious Wink that our eyes perform daily reached that con- clusion after extensive surveys on the subject. It has been esti- mated that at that rate, in the course of fifty years a man would blink a total of 1,000 miles, The average blink Means that for one-fifth of a second, 50,000 titria8 a day and 19,000,000 times a year, we are momentarily blind. en our waking hours, when we are gathering our wits, we blink once a second, settee states t • , ti)13 ti kti'a \‘41011t -did we leave btt.,?4 ClillellSTAIAS. C .K1K 1 lle.-rel.,SUIS. currants. lhohtteS CO fine 1 lb. brown sugar mixed peel half cup almonds. 1 lee, enteareon 1„tsp, tietmege ► isp..baking soda. iii weter 1 lb. butter doz, eggs ibottle cherries, red • I. c, 1 e, molasses 3c,flour 1 tsp. cloves 2 taps, baking powder leeTss all together well and bake in slow oven, 250 degree$ for three hours. Makes three differ- ent size cakes, .Do not open oven until after the first hour. ria.4..k.r.,S,104Aelgei:OrilOrtr4W3t404.tr4 FRUIT CAKE 1 lb. butter 1 tb. sugar reb, !four 1 tap: soda 2 boxes raicins seeded and s.eedlese, 3 oz. each citron, lemon peel, candied cherries, pineapple, orange' peel 12 eggs 1 tsp. salt 1 qt. !tuts, walnuts-pecans 1/2 glass lemon juice, orange juice, grape jelly Cream butter and sugar. Sift flour with soda, Mix fruit in 'with flour. Add eggs one at, a time to mixture of butter and sugar, stirring after each addi- tion, Mix fruits with first mix- ture. Bake in slow oven 250 degrees for four or -five hours. pesseereseeseeeeeeeLeAMostegreeeeeggergie4 UNBAKED FRUIT CAKE Line with waxed paper, bot- tom - and sides of five-cup loaf or tube pan. Put into a howl and let stand until needed: Ith c. evaporated milk 16 marshmallows (large) finely cut 3 tbsps. orange juice Put into another large .bowl 4 doz. regular graham crackers (crumbs) • tsp, 'cinnamon' 1/4 'tsp. nutmeg % tsp. cloves 1 c, seedless, raisins (light and dark) VE F. walnuts broken • c, candied pineapple finely cut 2 thin. candied, orange peel finely cut (Candied fruits May be omit- eesesseezegesee ted with c, bulk or e.entled: reedy-mixed cutup et-vetted. fruits be substituted). Add milk mixture to second bowl, Mix with :spoon, then with. hands till crumbs are moistened, Press firmly into pan. Top with fruit and nuts, Cover lightly, Chillfor two days before slieleg,. Veep in cool place afterwarft. Makes. one 21/4 lb. fruit cake. (Some use w li o i e maraschino • eberries, blanched almonds and. colored candied pineapple cut in pieces and Pressed into top of cake for decoration), efewieveoeteMeerettgeergeieeteie CHRISTMAS SHORTBREAD 1 e, butter icing sugar 2c. sifted all purpose flour V2 t5p, salt Cream butter well. Gradu-. ally •ed.d. sugar and continue to. cream until granules are no longer visible. Sift together flour and salt, gradually add to sugar Mixture, Mixing thoroughly with hands after each addition. Turn out on bread board lightly sprinkled with icing sugar. Knead until mixture *creeks slightly, Form into rolls, wrap in wax paper and Chill, Slice and bake on greased sheet, at 400 .de- grees for 20.30 minutes, Baking time depends on thickness of cookies. When kneading cherries or walnuts may be worked int- . mixture, retee*rneeeesereeleeeekereeeeek CHRISTMAS 3 tablespoons quick-cooting tapioca -cue sugar • teaspeott salt e , 2 cups fresh cranberries • cue water lee cups moist mincemeat Pastry Per 2-ctest 9-inch pie 15 to 20 pastry Holly Leaves Combine tapioca, sugar, salt, 2 cups cranberries, water and mincemeat in eancepee. . Cot* and stir over medium heat un- til mixture comes'to a boil. Cool, etirrieg occasionally. Roll half, the pastry 'ee inch thiq,k. Line a 9-inch pie ,pan and trim' pastry at edge of 'rim. Roll remaining pastry ee inch thick and cut several 2-inch .slits or a fancy design near centre. Fill pie shell with fruit mixture. ;Moisten edge of bottom crust. To adjust top crust, fold pastry ' in half or roll loosely on rolling pint cen- tre on filling. Open slits with a. knife. (Well-opened slits are im- ' poetant to permit escape of steam during baking.) Trim top crust letting it extend 1/2 'inch over rim. Then fold edge of top crust under, botiohl crust, TEACHER'S PET? — This car belongs to driving schoolein Rome, Italy. The couple in the back seat seem to be learning .some- thing about the clutch, r.,,Ortet little 10%Vit$619C10010~1,1,1%-'104101-Nle"1,3 70PW,V,11"C'OPVC,41VMPA UP-to-date Fashion SMART SIIIT.bilt88 'backbone Of every well-dressed woman's vvarclrobe. Kied-to-the-hipline jacket hi nevi, longer lengths sliapekeephig flannel of "Orlon" and eenel stays free of wrinkles; tan be washed. Printed Pattern 4838 in Half Sizes i4l' 24%. Send Fifty Cente foe each pattern (stamps cannel, be keepted; use postal note for safety). Please print plainly stic, STOAT,' mill- Seed your order to Anne Adams, Bee I; 123 Eighte'eiith St., New Toronto, ONE:.