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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1962-01-11, Page 5g, neon-lit tionicy., would olloe4,0tPoollltyce rie%VoerStt:ift4t,omr: signs of gambling or vice." But last May, to everYPste's surprise, the heat came to Cicero, Spurred by a newspaper expose in Chicago's American, State's (District) Attorney Daniel 'Warderitci lo3roejeeicl l T. his Scpheinefeer, to investigator, t down. A tough, 'wiry ex-PHI agent', Spencer led a Series of raids on Olcoro's bookie and strip joints, and arrested nearly 100 persons. Whooping It up, The American began running a front- page box score showing arrests by State's' Attorney's police, sheriff's and Cicero'e 130- lice. To no one's surprise, 'the Cicero police department's score has orsetmo f ie retrained t zero; Most c4- working middle-class resider,, approve of the raids and of the attempt of the county authorities to clean up conditions in the city. Plenty of others, though, agree with the man who complained to a NEWSWEEK reporter: "Some of my' best customers are gamblers," Or the mart who commented, in pure Ciceroese; "Why don't dent guys leave dis place alone?" Last month, for the first time within living Memory, Cicero's gambling was entirely under- cover, just as in Chicago, New York or San Francisco. And cer- tain areas of the city's economy were sorely affected, A cab- driver who had a lucrative trade hauling customers -10 miles from Chicago's Loop said business was bad. And in the Frolics Bar, a B- girl sadly eyed the strippers — chastely garbed in heavy net bras and -G.:strings — and moan- ed: "Business is rotten," Furthermore, the State's At- torney's office was planning a second round of raids, Formal notices of each of the prior raids had been sent to Town President Jerry F. Justin and Police Chief Erwin Konovsky and the impli- cation was left that, if illegal activity turned up there again, the . city fathers were likely to wind up on trial with the book- ies and the B-girls. Should such times and customs come to pass, Al Capone would turn over in his grave, CORRECT The professor was conducting an intelligence test. Suddenly he pounced on a student. 'How many make a million?' 'Not many,' said the student. He passed, Bale of Cloth Meant Wide -Spread Death It was a very ordinary hale of clOth. The poor, hard-working villagers ox Eyam paid little at- tention at It was delivered te the workroom of their tailor. Everyday life in this small, remote Perbyshire village went On, as usual, For there was nOth- Mg to get excited about. The tailor often received cloth from London, And ostensibly this was just another normal de- livery. There was not a hint or teat, A suggestion of danger as the village — a collection of staid, grey houses set in a girdle of green hills — slumbered through the rest of that hot summer's day nearly 300 years ago, For none ,of the 350 villagers had any reason. to suspect that the cloth was anything but harm. less, They could not know that it carried the most, deadly, most frightening enemy ever to des- vend on this quiet part of Eng- land. An enemy they could not see, could not understand. One which was to kill nearly three-quarters of them in thirteen, months. As the cloth aired and the. tailor started work on it, the villagers' went about their daily chores , . men scratched their living from the land; women kept their poorly e furnished homes bright and clean; and the sound of children at play echoed through the village. And while the people of Eyain carried on their quiet, unevent- eul lives, millions of tiny mons- ters were building up their forces, preparing for a reign of 'terrifying fear and hopelessness which was to grip the village until October the following year. Four days after the arrival of the cloth, the enemy struck. The first of the villagers doomed to die was suddenly, mysteriously taken ill. It was a man who had helped the tailor to carry the bale into his workroom. Then the tailor and the son of the house where he lodged sickened. And on each of the dying_ men's chests a black mark gathered. By the end of the month — September, 1665 — five of the villagers were dead. Others were sick and dying. The full realization of the disaster which was striking the village did not come immediate- ly. .But in the following month when twenty-six people died — each with the dreaded black mark on their chest — 'the stark, terefying truth dawned, The plague, which had been raging in London and claiming thousands of victims, had reach- ed Eyam. And it was the' dead tailor's cloth which had harboured and nursed the germs on their jour- ney from London, Soon the news spread , . . Eyam had the plague. Through- out Derbyshire and the sur- rounding counties the news caus- ed alarm and distress. People avoided the village. Travellers made long detours. Tradesmen refused to call. Realizing from what they had heard about London, that the plague could cause havoc if al- lowed to spread, the people of Eyam decided that it, was their duty to try to prevent the plagne from ravishing other parts of the country. Inspired and led hy their new rector, William MOmpesson, each of the frightened villagers took a solemn vow. They agreed to iniprison. themselves with the' germs they feared. Until the plague had died not one of them would venture out- side sthe confines of Eyam. And. the brave. villagers kept l'eMpted to tell ,yotir troubles to other people? ReMeMber that half your flatware aren't inter- ested, the rest are via you're finally getting 'what'd entrant to you, MODERN. ART? — In a way, this picture is' more modern than any modern artist's conception to date. it is the type of photograph which led 'scientists to the discovery of a new elementary particle of matter, the omega meson. The omega meson, which plays Important role in the Structure of protons and neutrons—the basis building blocks of the atom—was discovered at the University of California. 4 4 l Owning Up: Al Capone's Town In the heyday of the prohibi- tion era Cicero, a western suburb of Chicago, was in thrall to mob- titer Alphonse Capone, From his headquarters in the Hawthorne Hotel "Sating Al" waged war on rival, gangs, bribed police and politicians with. Impunity, and extended his rule of hot lead to Include most of metropolitan Chicago. When the wind was right, pedestrians on CicerO's embattled streets were assailed by the heavy fumes from Capone's illi- cit brewery, which operated full- blast around the clock. A high- water mark in the community's history „was reached on Jan, 12, 1925, when a caravan of eleven cars rolled slowly past the Haw- thorne, pouring submachine-gun fire into the hotel dining-room windows. The intended victim, Al Capone, received only minor scratches from broken glass. as he lay on the floor, , In time, the' law caught up with Capone,. But not with. Cicero, Capone's successors — known as "The Syndicate" — ran it as a wide-open town. Once, a citizens group formed a move- ment to change the city's name, claiming it had a nationally ordoriferous reputation: Their sons, they complained, weren't able to get into fraternities. "Electra" was suggested, and "Normandy" — anything but l'Cicero" — but nothing much came of the movement. And vice and gambling flourished, Until only a few months ago, bookmaking joints operated above restaurants and at the rear of many of the city's 220 taverns, Some horse players en route to Cicero's two race tracks Sportemans' Park and Haw- thorne Race Course — found it more convivial to drop by cozy bookmaking establishments where they could sit in air- conditioned comfort, bet as little as :50 Cents, and sip drinks 'while the odds were posted on black boards. At night there was rou- lette, blackjack and craps. In convention-conscious Chi- cago, conventioneers were at- tracted to Cicero by the strip joints on Cermak Road where the dancers performed, bare as boiled beets, For years, the Chicago Crime Commission loudly complained about conditions in Cicero for years, the complaints were duly ignored by Cicero police and the Cook County sheriff's office. After a perfunctory tour around mother used for their weaving. Her own is larger, though it op- orates on the same principle. The warp is threaded onto the loom in such tashion that an upper and lower "floor and roof" is provided, and it is through this opening that the shuttle contain- ing the .woof is thrown and the inch-thick strands of cotton or woolen material "banged" into place.' And so skillful has she become at the art' that she can weave in stripes, checks or solids, "It's all in how you use your colors," she says, as she manipu- lates two or three shuttles at a time to demonstrate how easy it is. In what was once a corn crib but is now a well-scrubbed kit- chen to augment'the big one in the house, she showed us how she was making tomato - lemon butter in the oven of the range. Needing only an occasional stir, it cooks while she goes about her weaving. And inside Esther's barn, the cares of the world seem very far away. If ever there was a place of repose and content- ment, it is here. It's Nice Work If You Can Get It SHE-SHORE — Statuesque Marie France Group, lets the soft breeze blow through her 'hair after being chosen "Miss Medi- terranean" in Saint Raphael, France. For driving his, two daughters to and from their private school in one of his two late-model Cadillacs, attorney Walter. F. Wessendorf Jr, of Westmore, N.Y., will be paid $1,300 a year by the local school district, Wessendorf's windfall, which came to light last month, derives from a New York State law that requires local school districts to transport pupils attending pri- vate and parochial schools up to 10 miles from their homes. WeS- sendorf, whose' 5- and 7-year-old daughters . attend the Albany Academy for Girls (total tuition: about $1,000) 8 miles from Guild- erland, 'asked the school to fur- nish transportation. Then the 32-year-old lawyer submitted a low bid of $1;300_ (almost 50 cents a mile) and won the contract. "1 don't like' the law myself," said Wessendorf, who describes him- self as a "Goldwater Republi- can." "But this is no test case'. I'm really saving the school dis- trict money." School superinten- dent Alton V. Farnsworth agrees it's a bargain. "If 'we had to use a ,bus, it would probably cost 50 .per cent more, Said Farnsworth. The State' Department of Edu- cation estimates that between twenty and 30. parents in New York are being paid to drive their children to school, but doesn't knoie how many' own Cadillacs, Most •upset by the Weesendorf revelations is the Albany Academy for -Girls. "Sinee the case broke," moaned a spokesman, "we've been bomb- arded by inquiries, from patents who Want the same sort of &deal —so that they'll be able to afford the tuition, too." SYRIAN SITUATION--- One of the most ancient and one of the newest nations in the world is Syria, which has broken its three-year union with Egypt in the United Arab Repub- lic. Newsmop profiles this strategic Middle Eastern land. Syria's 72,234 square miles—slightly larger than Missouri--- resources, 34 per cent of the .land is cultivated' with a support a 'population of about 4.3 million, Poor in mineral variety of crops (cotton, wheat, tobacco, fruits) and 17 per cent is pasture land. Right of way leases for oil pipelines from Iraq provide a substantial part of counti'y's income. loom that would delight anyone with housewifely instincts, Leav- ing only a stall for the cow and one for sthe hOrse, she has made the 'barn a place of excitement and color, Her loom stands on what was once the old threshing floor, while all, around are dig, played rugs large, and small, in all colors' an AntishWoman'S' dye pot can achieve, and all with neatly knotted arid fringed elide. This fringing is done by Esther's granddaughters and their young friends to earn Pocket. money.. "It's no patienCe I have for the fine work after banging out rtigi for so long,'' Esther says laugh. ingly; as she serves cool" lemon _tide and her own butter cookies to us, her guests. However; sill Insist! that weaving is easy now- adeye, when one can buy coot- meircial carpet warp and dyes for coloring -the materialt. "In- digo they used to use, she says, "and 'it bought from peddler* who cable to the farm, but after that they had to use what they could find, the hulls of black Walnuts would dye cloth brown, though not a pretty clear hrowo, and the bark of black Oak and hickory made' very, nice yellow„ Sassafras bark Made it More Ordrigy, and sumac berries made red.,* Own, Pokeberries Were Used for tede, though the color laded bad With each Washing, And to get tette 'White in their hoinestithi theft, they had to bleach and bleabh Oh the eats, as mains as thirty Or forty Wilda,' Esther has het eritithetii spirt' king Wheel in the barn, but 'only for a keepsake, find the little .loons her grancbtiother n NUCLEAR low enough to sneak beneath orlooiy:,rador, Republic P.,,t05D,. similar to the one above, flew on test mission and Chi` pilot never saw Chi herirby .gredirlit Otept during kidl (64(0114., The Pilet aibflnd gUided by' .delicate novigaironat ai etrilkiloted *Moor bomb ruts. Middieage: That petted, in it kittin'at *bee' he , rather net have P. good bine, than hare to ret "Oiiie Headlight Problem For Amish Buggies This month brings night fogs and early-morning haze — the forerunners of fall — to our valley, They, tone down the red of the barns ,and the green of the, cern, and . until the hot sun burn* them eway, the distant hills,.ave 'a smoky blue smudge on the horizon, Days 'are still and breathless as. the crops ripen in the fields, nights are raucous with the quick cadence of the katydid. Dust billows on the back-eouttry roads when a rig goes by, while the Queen Anne's lace blooming in each untended spot droops with, dust and heat. The oats have been cut and stored, and now when lightning stabs the - sky and Wagnerian crashes of thunder reverberate down the valley, anxious eyes search the horizon for any flam- ing torch that may have been made of a hay-crammed barn by the summer storm. Emmeline invites me to "ride along to town" when she goes to the village to have the mare shod, and the crisp melon the brings for the journey is cold and sweet, a welcome refresh- ment on a burning hot day. Later, the sun beats down merci- lessly on the carriage top as we clip-clop along but Emmeline evinces no discomfort. These are merely dog days and will soon pass into autumn's sparkling coolness, her serene demeanor implies. Going into the village with her is always a rewarding experience and one full of surprises, for Ern- rrialine knows everyone there, as well as the history of every busi- ness place in town. Here are to be found the few local Amishnien who do not fol- low farming for a livelihood, even though they live like farm- ers, with a cow or two, chickens and well-tended gardens. We take time for a quick peek into the furniture shop, where the clear, uncluttered lines of pieces in ftuitwood, maple and walnut would delight the most critical eye. But one of her er- rands today is in a comparatively new place in the village, an in- dustry launched since the com- ing of the automobile in ever, greater numbers. Amish buggies, says the law, must have brighter lights at night. Old-fashioned coal-oil lanterne are hopelessly inadequate in present-day traf- fic. And for a while it looked as if the Amishman might have to observe a sort of curfew, for how could he light his buggy en. cept with a lantern? Then Moses Beilet met the Challenge by putting his wits to good use and coming up with A satisfattOry device which uses Wrap batteries for current. It produces sufficient light to please the men who make the lieWs, and now the buggies are easily discernible at night. View- ed ',rein the front; they giVe bright, yelloWish light. And When approached from the rear, they are recognizable by the pe- Culler motion Of their red tail- lights, which are merely the headlights reflected through red glass installed at the rear of the lanterns projecting from the aides of A buggy, Writes Mabel Slack Shelton its the Christian Science Monitor, The years seem to krill back at the blacksinith shop as we Watch Abram Zeiler; the entitle Use a booty, belliAVS, coax his fire to A: deeper glow es he forges a set of iron shoes for Einittaline'S Mare. ("ten dollars they cost these days," she whiee pets it awe et such rising 'prices.) Abrititt and Einhaelitie are old friends and ekeltatige news Of their families and Other items of interest until the job is finished arid the Then,. "Oe by the leattee a Eddie and visit with Esther" he tirgee. "died the wapiti be to see you 'both," The itiVitatiOn is toe' enticing to' resist, fat Esther Zeiler liar tarried the barn on their neat property Shop where She thikei rugs el P hand 'EXPLAINS PreSidetit Ganial Medal islasSar explainS tiOnti-286,il00' peritarti med into Al 'dOuhlhouria Square in Cairo that he dulled oft kit MIlitcity operetta* beltiaula he did oaf Want "Arab' 111 .4 i1 , 4 1 their vow. Until the plague, died in October, 1666) not one of bust went onts:de klyam's bonne dare. And no one outside the village was allowed to enter. Healthy Men And women—and children—who might have es- caped unaffected, sacrificed themselves, They decided to live with the plague, risking an ugly, painful death. By arrangement with the Duke of Devonshire, food and other essentials were left at pre- arranged spots by people living outside the village. Deliveries and collections were made at set times — to prevent the contaminated vil- lagers from coming into contact with healthy people from out- side the plague village. When payment was required for goods — food was given by the Duke — Eyam money was put late specially hollowed stones filled with water so that when the delivery men collect- ed the money the germs had been washed off, Eyam's church, an obvious danger spot, was closed and ser- vices held in a rocky hollow call- ed Cucklet Dell. Every Sunday, the rector, with his thin, aristo- cratic face lined with worry, preached' to his ever-dwindling• congregation. At first it was thought the villagers self-imposed imprison- ment would be short. Although the plague continued to tread its deadly path 'in November and December as the winter con- tinued, it appeared to be, abat- ing. But it was only a temporary respite — a lull before the full and dreadful force of the storm hit Eyam,, writes Derek Pain in "Tit-Bits." Spring brought no happiness to this Derbyshire village, There was not time' to give the dead full burial services. Men and women shunned their neighbours in case they carried the plague, Eyam became the village of the dead, the dying and — it seemed — the damned. Throughtout the summer the plague raged. In one month fifty-six -died. In a n o t h e r, seventy-six, In eight days one woman watched her husband and six children die. And the rector's wife, twenty - seven - year - old Catherine, fell ill and died. When the first signs of the plague appeared the rector had sent his children to York. And before the village was isolated he had begged his wife to join them. But she decided to stay in the village she disliked , . • nursing the sick and "doing all she could to alleviate the pain and suffer- ing. At last, in October, 1666, the plague died, taking with it 259 victims from seventy-six famil- ies, . When the end came—thirteen months after that fateful bale of cloth had arrived — the people of this tiny village had suffered too much to ,celebrate, It would take years for the scar to heal. Quietly, sorrowfully, the sur- vivors fumigated their village the best way they knew, burn- ing bedding, furniture an d clothing. And slowly, very slowly, nor- mal life returned. But the plague had not yet finished with Eyam. It laid low for 100 years and then, struck again. Once more it was a piece of cloth which brought death to the village. Some workmen dig- ging new foundations uncovered a piece of cloth. And five of them died — of an illness similar to that during the pla- gue. To-day, the horrible events of 300 years ago are just an un- pleasant episode of -the dim and distant past. But not to the people of Eyam. 'They still re, member their forefathers. Fot once every year — on the last Sunday in August — a ser- vice is held in that rocky holloiv where Mompesson preached to the pitiful remnants 'of what had once been a happy village seeeeeie 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 .11 4 4 41 4 4 TURKEYS'` Kamichli ALEPPO Latakia Dayr ex Zowr • Kanto Homo 011,1P., DAMASCUS OIL PIPELINES RAILROADS -mttete Neviiiitap 'fx446., re.MWA:N.,0" '0% • €