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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1960-01-07, Page 2.. , . . . •-•• sAt" Pay For Security But Won't Accept It Walk down any country road itx this region in late fall and YOU will notice that one color predominates. It is blue, in all its varying shades, The bills in the distance are dark blue, Nearer at hand there is the chalky blue of wildberry eanes. Violet turnip, tops, dot the earth. Blue smoke rises from burning cornstalks and the last of the fall rubbish, The sky is a dramatic blue; the shadows are deep blue. The Arniah farm women help with chores and field work in addition to their own heavy schedule in house, poultry yard, and dairy; yet most of them cast about for some way to earn more money. A larger flock of hens in egg production is one way. And Trina, always resourceful, has flats of mushrooms in her cellar that add to her income on market days, since housewives in town have found how superior in size her mushrooms are. And this past spring she went into partnership with Anna and Hilda in an iris- root project that really pays, With a plot of ground no big- ger than a good - sized living room, the partners grew as many as a hundred different varieties of iris, The roots sell for fifty cents or more, and each bulb in- creases from two to ten times each season. There is a terrific demand for all the later hybrids, especially the pinks, the reds, the blacks, and the browns. Word has spread of the six-inch blooms the girls grow, some with red, beards, others with ruffled edges, and people come miles to see and buy iris. And why this preoccupation with money-making among a sect whose needs cannot be as great as if they followed fashion's dictates, or traveled far from home? The simple truth is that the Amish economy has under- gone a radical change recently, and all of them are feeling the pinch. This came about when Congress extended the Social Security system to include farm- ers. Instead of helping, it has worked a hardship on them. Such. Bible passages as 1 Timo- thy 5:8 and others like it have always been their criterion for taking care of, their own. How well they have, succeeded in this is attested by the fact that re- cords show not a single case of 1.01,44rnightrian seeking aid outside his church. So, in their 'troubles with the Old Age and Survivors Insurance system, they are un- willing participants in an ex- panded security they did not need. Yet they must pay up. The Amislaa Society is church-directed, and it is to this fund that members turn in times of need. Members are assessed by the deacons according to their tax statements when the fund needs money, and the only call is for the care of the poor or for members who have suffered property damage. Before the society was established, help was given by individuals who contri- buted livestock, lumber, grain, clothing, canned goods, or what- ever was needed from, their own supplies. The Aid Society pro- vides a much better way of help- ing. But when Social Security payments are added to aid dues, the budget must be revised some- how. And the sad part is that the payments to the government will never be collected back in benefits, It is not their "way." Amos told a recent gathering of Amish farmers, "Our fore' fathers came to America to es- eape the unbearable religious per- xecution that resulted because of their refusal to bear arms for any reason whatsoever. This we all know." And in his role of peacemaker he reminded them that, "In this country our wishes in this' Matter have been respect- ed. We call ourselves Apostles of liNik ikr40, stibove, Gentian' steel. baron, May 'toe allowed to keep his iffeer! and coal holdings by:: the 90,ateart officials,. In 1954 he. was given years to diet. pose bf them, but th'e time is ietrriCitt up and he CarinOt find a Wye?, "He was convicted of 6101g. to derai Rttlet bxa,wde, after the War, e Peace, and we have been allowed to do so, Through two world wars and lesser conflicts, our aversion to the bearing of arms has been respected by the government. As Conacientions Objectors, we were allowed to make our contribution to the cause in other ways. Our people served in hospitals and in Many other ways, Many offea- ed themselves as human guinea pigs in the research for new and better ways to protect human life. But we were allowed a special privilege when we were not required to bear arms, "Now we have a choice to make. We regret that the old order could not prevail, yet we should not question the new," One feels confident, listening to his serious, thoughtful state- ments, that even though the pinch is felt in every home, the payments to the government will be made in this community, writes Mabel Slack Shelton in The Christian Science Monitor, Amos and Eli plan to add to their incomes this winter by sell- ing off some timber, The small sawmill in this locality is owned by an Amish school leader who • buys logs from the surrounding farmers. Trees are cut down with hand saws and the logs are dragged to the mill by horse- drawn sleds or wagons, The mill is a lively place, surrounded by logs and lumber and rutted sled paths. A gasoline engine furnishes power, saws whine, sawdust falls, and payments are in money, It means long days of hard work for the Zaugg men, this logging. But, as Amos says, "A man does the best he can," Meanwhile, Thanks gigiving (Danksagungsdawg) has come and gone, and there were many things for which to give thanks, A new cheese factory close at hand which will require milk from at least two thousand farmers in this part of the state assures a good income from that quarter. And a visit to the plant made for an entertaining day re- cently. The very words "cheese fac- tory" somehow connote elfin jollity. And while the workers at the plant are certainly not elves, they had many a jolly legend about their art, of cheese- making. One of their most glee- ful tales was about how the first batch of cheese attempted in the. bright, new plant turned out to be a mess. The finicky bacteria required to set a batch of cheese to "working" found the spick- and-span quarters too inhospita- ble. They refused to work. What to do? Everyone was frantic. Shelving and woodwork from an old plant were brought in haste, and even old, tangy cheese was smeared on the immaculate walls. The priming done, all waited feverishly while they ran through another batch of milk. .1a! Cheese! Driving home with samples of some unusually mild Camem- bert, Trina was led to say that it should go fine as an accom- paniment for lemon butter on hot toast. The evolution of cheese from milk, any kind of cheese ex- cept Schmierkadse, is a secret be- sayond my ken. But I do know how my neighbors make lemon but- ter, that ambrosial spread. They combine three beaten eggs with two cups of sugar and three lemons, using the juice and grat- ed rind, and one-fourth pound of butter or margarine, and stir and cook the mixture over low heat until it thickens, We use it on toast, on tiny rolled pancakes, or even as a fill- ing for white cake layers, And Trine was correct in thinking lemon butter might have 'an af- finity for mild, fresh cheese They go excellently together. When the Pennsylvania Dutch people say "spread" they mean Lattwaerrick, their won rich, dark apple butter. To our way of thinking, lemon butter de- serves a title of its own that is as universal. The recipe is over a hundred years old. Nearing home after our drive to the cheese factory, we could hear on the still, evening air the putt-putt of Eli's little "'one- lunger" gasoline engine. Bolted to a small, wheeled frame, it can be hitched by a belt to a corn sheller or a silage chopper, or to Trina's hand-power washing ma- chine, Rejected, by others as too old-fashioned, it has somehow- found favor with the Amish bis- hopa, who allow its use. Basically it represents the same source of energy which they find worldly under the hood of a cat,. yet if this has occurred to them they have. tonne some way to over- look its implications. For this we are grateful. De- light in work for work's Sake is an outstanding Amish trait, but there are limits to what one man can do in a day. So the sound of an outmoded engine is sweet to out ears, since we knoW it helps one who richly deserves help. And another clear draws to its peaceful close in Amishland. HOT MONEY Three' YearsVas the prison termhanded to a man in Meths treal s .for peas-60111g fake trioneYs Police found id bogus :06 bills hidden; in hotplate in the Man's house, Some cold winter day, you may feel that the very best food you can think of is oxtail stew. OXTAIL STEW 2 oxtails 3-4 small onions, cut 3-4 carrots, cut 2 cups diced yellow turnips Salt and pepper 1 tablespoon cornstarch Cook oxtails 3-4 hours or un- til tender, in enough water to cover. About 1 hour before ox- tails are done, add vegetables. Season. Thicken with the corn- starch mixed with a little water. Serve with potatoes. * * Here's a combination pf ,egg- plant ''ancPsocitere'that is hearty enough4ot'"main dish, yet de- cidedly different, from "the or- dinary kind of such dishes. - EGGPLANT-OYSTER CASSPEOLE 1 medium eggplant, peeled and sliced 1/4.-inch thick 3 medium tomatoes, peeled and thinly sliced )4 pound Cheddar cheese, grated 1 small can (4% ounces) oysters 1,4 cup fine dry bread crumbs 2 tablespoons melted butter In a greased 9 x 9-inch-square baking dish; alternate layers of eggplant, tomatoes, and cheese, making 3 layers. Drain oysters, keeping liquid, and chats.' oysters. Sprinkle oysters over top and pour liquid over them. Toss bread crumbs in the'rnelted but- ter and •top casserole with them. Bake at 375° F. Tor .1. hr. Serves 6. *M * SALMON CASSEROLE. 2 tbsps. butter 2 tbsps. flour 1 tsp. dry mustard 1/4 tsp. salt '/z tsp. pepper 1 c. milk 2 c. drained salmon 2 tbsps. lemon juice, 1 c. diced celery tbsp, chopped pimento (optional) 1 c.. soft bread crumbs 2 tbsps. melted butter Melt butter in ' top of double boiler over low heat. Add flour, mustard, salt and pepper. Stir until smooth. Slowly add milk. Place over boiling water. Cook until thick, stirring constantly. Remove skin and bones from salmon. Add flaked salmon a lem- on juice, celery and piniento to white. sauce, Mix well, Spoor into buttered one-quart casser- ole. Mix crumbs with melted but- ter. Top salmon mix with but- tered crumbs, Bake in moderate oven 350' degrees for half an hour, Serve hot. * In response to a request from a reader of the Christian Science Monitor for ald-fashioned banana pudding, Marian Parks Grey, sent this one which, she say, "originated in the. South." OLD-FASHIONED„ BANANA PUDDING 1 cup banana pulp IA cup brown sugar 3/1 cup molasses (maple villa may be Used instead) 2 egg yolks, beaten light teaspoon cinnamon 1 cup light cream Peel and remove coarse fiber from banana, Press through ricer, Coinhine other ingredients and add banana pulp as soon as it is prepared. look in buttered individual Custard Cups set in a pan of hot water. Serve told. If you'prefer a banana pud- ding made with gelatin, try this one sent in by Carole P BANANA PUDDING 3 bananas 1 tablespoon gelatin 2 tablespoons Water 1,4 cup boiling water chp'suear teagiooliS lemen Juice ti 080E; 00, 3 egg whites 14 teaspoon salt 1 cup cream, whipped 141 teaspoon vanilla Mash bananas lightly with fork. Soak gelatin in the 2 table- spoons water; dissolve in the boiling water. Stir until dis- solved. Cool. Stir in the banana pulp and lemon juice. Chill 'un- til mixture begins to thicken,' Whip. Beat egg white with salt until stiff. Fold into gelatin mix- ture, Top with the whipped cream to which vanilla has been added. Beat Love Ban By Pigeon Post When a 26-year-old plumber discovered that the girl he loved did not share his feelings, he de- cided to give her the shock of her life. During the night he painted "messages" to her in nine-inch white letters on the roadway all the. way from her home to the station. Next morning the girl saw on the path outside her house the words, "Big surprise at the sta- tion," and in the roadway was the message: "Am sorry, but you made me do it." She gasped with horror when she spotted, on a bus shelter, a painted allegation that she was immoral, and there were similar Messages on the station wall and on a bridge. On the up-platform was a final message saying, "Now let us see you hold your head up. This will teach you not to tread on people, darling," "You know what it is like to be in love," his solicitor told the court when the young plumber' was charged with publishing ob- scene writings. "This man was driven completely up the wall by this girl and did not know what he was doing." For expressing his feelings in such an outrageous way the dis- appointed lover had to pay $90 but no doubt he would have done the same thing had he known'the cost. For when young folk fall in love they are 'often blinded to reality. A British jungle fighter found that the -cost-of romance was nine months' detention. He' had fallen for a beautiful Malay girl and absconded' from his unit four times to visit her. The last time he was absent was after he had been posted for 'Singapore. He was arrested as he set out to see the girl 200 miles away. . It was her love for a British soldier that 'sent attractive 31- year-old Margot Frey to jail for seven months as an East German spy. The Brunswick Supreme Court was told that Margot, si chil- dren's nurse, collected, infOrma- tion on, British and West German military .installations for the East German security seryice. But during her mission she fell in "love with a British sol- dier stationed in Brunswick. She was arrested by the German, po- lice during a routine check on the girl friends of British troops. Of course, falling in love does not always have such drastic con- sequences, but it can have far- reaching effects on people's lives. Pretty 21-year-old Barbara Rule found romance in an unex- pected way when sailing to South. Africa aboard the liner Warwick Castle. Ten days out from London, Barbara, a Canadian girl, met nineteen-year-old Michael Peck while sight-seeing in Genoa. He was a first-class steward aboard the liner; she' was travelling tourist class, - • • • Crew members were not sup- posed to mix with passengers in off-duty hours but the young couple managed to sneak away to .see each other for an hour or two each day. At mealtimes Michael used to send her mess. ages by a steward. They called him "The Pigeon" and he got a bottle of beer for every three letters. By the time Cape Town was reached Barbara knew she was in love. A secretarial - job was waiting for her in South Africa but she felt she could not be parted from Michael, So when the ship sailed for London again three days later she was back on board as a passenger. Twice Michael got into trouble because of seeing Barbara. And well-meaning passengers nearly killed the romance by being too curious.'But it was worth it. "Our love is a genuine thing — this is no schoolgirl affair," Bar- bara declared. Love makes the world go round; it also make people go round the world. Saved. From. Death By Love Letter Suicide seemed the only way out of his troubles to a young Chinese •as, grim-faced, he sat alone in his shabby little ba- chelor room on the eighth floor Of a, Bong Kong building re- cently, Ills girl friend had left him, he was out of a job and he owed considerable aent. He knew it was the coward's way out, but lie had made up his mind. He would climb out through the window en to the wide ledge and then drop to his death. The young man took a last glance round the untidy room, his eyes resting for a few mo- ments on the portrait of his pretty but 'faithless girl friend which stood on the mantelpiece, Then slowly he clambered through the window on to the _ ledge, There he paused, appall- ed by the sight of the hundreds of busy people passing to and fro along the, main street below him. Then he suddenly remember- ed he had left the girl no fare- well note. But it was all right— he could scribble it here on the ledge, drop it back into the room and then plunge to eter- nity on to the pavement below. He began to write the note in pencil taking his time. The door of his room was locked. Nobody could stop him now. A few minutes could make no difference. Suddenly he was startled to hear a voice addressing him from a window close to his. It had been silently opened by an official who was appealingi oto, him to get back into his room. The young man shook his hdad violently, finished the note while the official still pleaded with him and then said: "Please deliver this to the lady whose name and address I have written down." He stretched out his hand to give it to the man. The official, confident because his own legs -were being, held firmly by a colleague, leaned more than half way out , of his. Window and, seizing the .Chines,e by the wrists, pulled him to safety with one tremendous heave. There are many other true- life stories which prove that suicide suieide is not so 'easy to com- mit as some people seem to think, French police still chuckle over the sequeL to the amazing but vain suicide attempts of a smart and pretty showgirl not long ago. 'Why this redhead with the, fiery temperament wanted to do away with heraelf remains a mystery, but she cer- tainly tried hard, She was first spotted by a farm worker as she floundered in three feet of water hi a lone- ly stretch of river in Southern France, Amazed, he watched. her stack her head under the water three times and swallow before coming, gasping, to the surface again, Plunging into the water, he grabbed the girl and escorted, her back to the farm, A week later she made an- other attempt in another river, This time as gendarme spotted her clothes on the bank and then saw her acting strangely in the water, lie ordered her to come out, She refused and gall- ed put: "Please leave me to dr Q w rt myself!" It was only when lie threatened to shoot her if she did not obey him that she emerged, "I try so hard, but always I start to swim when I begin to swallow water," she complained, She .made no more attempts to die, Today she is happily mar- ried to a French peasant. They have three daughters — all good swimmers! Despondent because an army pension he had applied for had not come through, a Swansea man decided to hang himself. But the old rope he was using broke suddenly. This made him reflect and abandon the attempt. Next morning the post brought his long-awaited letter awarding him $300 down and a pension of $10 a week. As the last notes of the High Mass echoed round Notre Dame Cathedral a few weeks ago, a gaunt young Italian student put a pistol to his chest and fired. Priests and tourists rushed to the was' man and a doctor was called, Later he told his story, saying his heart was broken by a lovely woman with whom he had come to Paris. She had left him soon alter their arrival. For days he had vainly, searched the streets for the woman he loved. In his pocket was a letter and her photograph. Said the letter: "My heart ,breaks; I cannot sup- port this pain much longer," The young lover survived. It was the first time anyone had tried to commit suicide in, the cathedral's '700 - year s old , pre- cinct f.r it hater, holy water, Was, sprm- klecl On `the Spot. qrief,ishame, remorse and ex- cessive poverty"— thes6 are the main causes 'of attempted• sui- cides, according to Dr, Harry M. Warren, of New York. He ought to know, for he has sav- ed 30,000 people from suicide thrOugh 'his' national ' Save-A- Life League- It has been oper- ating since ' Dr. Warren and his helpers have stopped many would-be suicides from hurling them- selves over .cliffs into the' Hud- son River and, elsewhere. One -Tune day ' a pretty, nineteen- year-old girl was about to jump into a lake with a heavy iron weight tied round her neck, A member al the League was just' in time to dissuade her. The girl promised she would not take her life for twenty- four,hours. In the interval many inquiries were „made, It was found the man she loved was married, but that his wife had deserted him, aears earlier. Dr. Warien saw t h e • man, made him promise to divorce his wife and marry -the girl. The whole business 'ended hap- pily. Big Fish A fisherman's paradise ayhers fish grow up to ten times their normal size has been discovered in a patch of the Pacific Ocean Off Central America. A team of .American marine biologists;, now, investigating the 'area, believe that the waters there may contain ,some irigredi- ents that will benefit mankind, Marlin caught in theie watere, Where :northern., and, southern ocean cU M rrents eet; litiveaveigh- ed up to 2,500 lb., whereas a nor- mal marlin will weigh only 250 lb. BIG FREEZE IS ON - The ice-coated tanker Taurus, heads down the Chi.cP9,0,,Rixer„in that city after a cold, windy trip on the Great Lakes. The record cold wave slowed iron ore carrier's on the lakes as they raced to the steel mills before winter locked the ports, ~TA BLETALI[S 6ane Andmvs tiovVit'i. Harold .Mticrrallari and thd,r10 aa • ss ` AnkturtAN1N FlARIS'L- While her father 7 i:n44:W'geflitir "Wl,h1h; heads of Western notions, Barbara Eisenhower visits tRe 164* Crass 'center at Q Uai de Valmy, Paris. ''' ''' -- '' k'. -"--' _ ... •• tzwe•:, • WESTERN11114--ftitilt MEET-'-1.-Miefing if) Par-181,El see' PalaCe•. the heads .64 it (EetdPg VII 1 ‘51•AanTi*.'c•ef „ yi 7 9 ri ain oitat discuss World affair's and the, prajectear conference with RusSia: Fedifi AditultUer, Dwight EiSen