HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Advocate, 1919-11-6, Page 2mc Slip of the Sign
Bee EARL R. RICE.
hheetesse
Ni
The terrific storm that raged over
a Western city oue night in June a
few years ago put scores of telephone,'
telegraph and electric -light wires out
of commission. On the following day
many men worked overtime in repair
ing the damage.
Amens them was John Vincent, n
young repair man in the service of the
Abelson Electric Sign Compar.y. .ht
half cast six o'clock, after working all
day, he went to the top of one of the
tallest It 'i tings in to in tri repair a
sign there. Ohl l gaily the jolt would
hove gone over ::tail another day, but
a great convent:en was Meg held in
the city. and a large retail item with
goods to sell that had their store In
the building t'enin aded that their huge
sign be put into tiff orliing order.
Beonieeflelei & SpeekIitt s peerless pro-
deete were useful, inl'.pclieebie and
cheap, and the flaring ign that so
informed the puettee from the top of
the skyscraper had to give ite rightly,
message.
"Fix it up." was the or :er that the
ee mpany sent to the young repair:
ntar:; and although John bed werhe'.
long and bard that play, The p'•i,rres d
to do his hest.
As the ale vote;r rees swiftly tit the
f,.at'te::nth tiattr. the lett ,aciow the
roof, Je.',:n said t a hie eseisaina "We'll,
hurry th:a r:ie.ce ale feet a ,:e tam.
If it's too b1. ' 'I? seethe temp rar
repairs at... e;i.ie haelt he the mornire
It's the last `.brat fer the day. and I'll
be °dot whan we get ;kiwi:.
"Se will I. enid the a,si^tan ••Half
a dozen tees Dike this es enagh for
one day. I've been t:i i y ever &nee
we lett the laet one.
John laughed. "After yea have leen
w th us a while yoa'll get used to the
high onee. I felt that way at fust"
But as they stepped out of the cage,
John looked sharply at his assistant.
"You're all right. Brown?" he
asked.
"Yes," Brown replied. "Or I will
be when we get to work."
Together they pro: eeded to the roof,
r
where John looters the situation over.
Eoomerfield & Speckitt's sign was
twenty-five feet high by thirty feet
wide. The front leaned slightly for-
ward. The upper framework was of
light but strong iron ,trips, and the
lower part was of heavier stuff. The
bolo that tied the joints together
seemed heavy and strong, and those
that fastened the whole structure to
the roof were nearly an inch thick.
The bottom of the frame rested
scarcely a yard from the edge of the
roof, and there was barely space
enough for a man to walk between it
and the battlement in front. The for-
ward tilt of the sign brought the up-
per part of the frame almost in line
with the ledge.
Here and there a stack or chimney.
pierced the flat, sanded roof, and over •
near one corner of the sign a flagpole
rose skyward. John noticed that the
flag at the top of the mast had been
:supplemented by a convention banner,
and that in the fitful breeze both flags
now swung out at full length, now
hug Ump round poje
ty .
Z ueh to his sati action, John found
that the big sign had suffered little
damage. A. few broken bulbs and
some loosened connections were ap-
parently all that needed attention.
Those that were on the lower part of
the frame where he could reach them
he soon took eaxe of,
"Now far those neagrthe tog.," said
John. "Hand me the stuff, Brown,, and
go up."
Working from side to side as oc-
easion demanded, John climbed slowly
up the hack of the iron frame. Perched
twenty feet above the roof, he worked
deftly. He took this dizzy task coolly
--it was all in his day's work. Looking
dawn. he said to his assistant:
"Where is that coil of wire we
brought? I've got to fasten this
braex . The bolt is out."
.,Just a minute," raid Brown, "I
thin% it's over with the toals." He
stepped round to the end of the sign.
"Here it is. Sall I throw it up or •
bring it?"
"Throw it," said John.
C'at,:h?n;g the wire, he quickly clip-
ped the t:eetied length, twisted it into
pk a with hip pliers, and threw the
eel: over his alluthhiers.
"I'll have to have another half dozen
bailie," he announced e moment later.
"-You've got the last of the box,"
said Brown.
"Then get the box we ;eft hr the
t. avatar. Be es quick as yo:l eon, for
1
nt i ettieg tiled."
Brown aisappeare.d down the stair-
v.a;. Jelin, walling in the twilight,
leaked en:dou ly up at the walk above.
'•I' l ste• ho.. many I need," he
s •r
Cloth:lig higher. he shifted his po•:
of ,ver toward the e:hd of the sign.
As he del sti, he felt the frame vara%e
slightly. but he did not worry aboet it
As he turned again toward the middle
of tale sign, however, he was startled
so send thhet the v:'role str.acture had
t.l:e:e ,.langercu !y over toward the
front. His weight on the upper hare
lista tlta•os•rn lige centre of gravity oat-
. side the edge of the roof, and slowly
but surely the heavy fragile was settl-
ing over the ledge. He looked down,
and for a moment hi; head swam, for
his view was clear—straight to the
crowd, in the street ten stories below.
The danger of his position flashed
upon him and for a moment paralyzed.
every nerve. Only for a moment, how-
ever, did he hesitate. He turned quick-
ly to get down from the upper bars;
as he 'did so the Boil of wire round
his ehoulders caught over a projecting'
end of iron and the d onward pull of
his body wedged it fast. He pulled
to free himself, but the effort only
tightened the co'i'l.
Even fractions of a second were
rr ., ious. He could feel the steady
slipping and buckling of the frame-
work; in fact, the sign had sagged so
far that the whole upper half hung
over the street. John groaned as he
thought of what would happen when
those iron bars, massed into a great
projectile, went hurtling down into
the crowd below. But those bars must
not fall! He must save those men and
women an the sidewalk, and himself,
too!
"O Brown!" he called. But Brown
did not answer. Through some mis-
understanding, the box he had gone
to get had been moved, and he had
signaled to the eletator boy; he was
waiting there, wholly unaware of his
mate's danger.
w _ "It's no use! I've got to do it my-
self!"" John said to himself.
- There was need of haste. In its for-
ward thrust the great sign was at an
angle of nearly forty degrees from
the perpendicular. Soon the uprights
along its front would rest on the
masonwork battlement and the final
strain would come. If they broke, the
upper part of the frame would go
crashing down. If the uprights held,
the weight at the outer end of the
lever thus formed would probably tear
The clothes you were so proud of when
new—can be made to appear new again,
Fabrics that are dirty, shabby or spotted
will be restord to their former beauty by
sending them to Parker's.
is
properly clone at PARKER'S'
Parcels may be sent Post or Express.
We pay carriage one way on all orders.
Advice upon cleaning or dyeing any
.1rticle will be promptly given upon request.
PARKER'S DYE WORKS, Loanited
Cleaners and Dyers,
791 `forge St. Toronto
ec.4M74',417.:, ..,� mComFt• t 7
sem: , ,•,, x ,� t
1
Consistency.
Consistency is one of . the funda-
mental
f les
qu•tlr i
of n disc`ipIa'and
e,
from
m own Y re• experience
1 lent I haveu
efond;
P
it to be most ,important. It should
always be accompanied by kindness 1
More mothers have troubles with their;
children because of their own incon-;.
sisteney than for any other one res -
son.
Johnnie comes home from school'
and asks, ":Mother, may Igo over to!
Billy Baker's to play?" and IIather,i.
knowing that Billy's influence is not i
good, refuses. Johnny displays morel
or less temper, but Mother .4 firm,'
and Johnnie stays at home. A few
days later, however, Johnnie makes a
the same request, and Mother, who is e
entertaining a caller, lets him go for;
a little while. This is a case of in
consistency, and, in order to save one'
scene, Mother is laying ;. good founda-',
tion fer many more. The probability
is that had she replied, "Mother has
told you before," the matter would
have ended there, or even if he had
cried a little and "made e scene," the;
eon would have had a. valuable lesson'
and learned that Mother meant what
she saki. His love for the moment`
might have been shaken, but eventu-
ally Johnnie would have been a hap-:
pier boy and his love and respect for
his another would have been greater.
The value of eunsisteney cannot be
overestimated. The tiniest baby
should be dealt with kindly but firm....
ly. A mother can develop the teasing
habit in her chilli while he is still in
his cradle if she lacks this quality cf
cc: s.sten:y. At one time when her
baby cries she dces not pick him up.
for she says, "It is not goof for him
and he is forming bad habits." But
tete next clay, if she is nervous and
unwilling to endure his noise. she
yields -just. for anee." The result is
that she gores in to her child more
o: less through his later cl:ilabcod,
Again. with an elder child, the
mc:b:er tail: partially concede, a sort
of vempronaise. and the child is keen
ero:igh to Ihie•w that be has gained
his point. and e:relh time he will seek
til ga n z I'; tie mere, until the mother.
realizes when it is too late that her
problem is great and her word really
Net very littce weight.
My advice is: Be : eonsiderate in
your regeirements of a child, and
then be consistent in seeing that these
requirements are carried out. Irri-
table, nagging mothers and unattrac
tive, nervous children would be almost
unknown if the former could realize;
the importance of kindness and con -4
sisteney. Lack of sympathy and
strained relations between parent r and,'
their older children often spring from
habitual inconsistency.
Perhaps the most important thing;
of all is this: When you make ale -i
gitimate request you must knew with -i
in yourself that you expe t it to be'
earned out. Then if you are disobey-
ed you must calmly, but definitely and'
e
emphatically, see to it that your re- i
loose the bolts holding the sign to the
roof. and the whole affair would go
• hurtling into the street. In either
case, death threatened John and the f
people below
a
quest is emptied with. This method
cannot be practiced to -day and neg-i
lected to -morrow, but must be eoa-
sistently followed.
The future happiness, character and
well-being of your little one depend
entirely upon firm, wise sad consistent
guidance. It is these fundamental
qualities of mother-dieeipline that
train the strong -twilled little sons and
daughters into splendid men and wo-
hien.
earee ydaring to move, John
twisted his shoulders round till be,
could draw himself down and out of
the coil of wire that held him. As he
did so he had to face the street. and
in that moment he saw what he should
have to do.
An iron brace that had run straight
up the front of the frame had sprung
loose at its lower end and now swung
dangling in the air from its fastening
near the top. It occurred to him in
a flash that if he could reach that
swinging bar and thrust the end of it
.against a window top below he could
stop the tipping sign long enough for
help to arrive. But to do it he must
be quick.
Cautiously he thrust out his hand to
grasp the bar. It was eight inches
beyond his reach.
He dared not climb higher, for that
would hasten the fatal plunge. Thrust-
ing his hand into his pocket for a tool,
he brought out his pliers, and with
trembling hand again reached out.
Out, out he stretched his arm and
body until ,it seemed that he nntst fail.
But no! The teeth of the pliers closed
over the edge of the braceas a gust of
wind swayed it toward him. Drawing
it in, he guided the lower end toward
the ledge below. He was not a
moment too soon, for an instant later
the weight of the frame settled with a
taint jar upon the brace. Holding his
breath, John waited. Would it hold?
His chest heaved, his eyes stared, his
muscles ached as he shrank back from
the threat of that terrible fall.
But it held. A feeli ig of security
came to him, and he backed away
toward the roof and safety!
He haci hesitated only long enough
to clip a strand of wire and pull it
after him. A.s soon as he was safe
over, the ledge and saw the sanded
roof below him, he leaped down from
the buckled frame, carriers the wire to
the chimney forty feet away and made
it fast round the bricks.
When Brown came up the stairway
a minute later he found John wild-
eyed and faint. But the big sign was
safely anchored. Together they cut
the roue from the flagstaff and added
its .strength tc that of the wire.
"It will miss one night of aclver-
tiling, but that's better than what
might have happened,"' said John as
they finished anchoring the sign.
(The End.)
Let's. Start a Propaganda in Favor of
Work.
The crying. need of the world to -day
is far workers. Certainly there was
never a time %den so much work was
waiting to be done, nor when so few
people were willing to do it. The
manufacturer in his plant, the farmer
in his fields, the merehant in his store
and the housekeeper in her kitchen are
all uttering the 'same cry, "Send us
help."
At that there seems to be plenty of
people who plight work. But no one
seems to be standing about waiting
for the jobs that are open for them.
It begins almost to seem as if no ane
really wanted to work.
It is rather foolish to place the
blame for present conditions on any
class, though capital is trying to shift
it all oil labor and labor is blaming
capital. Everybody is more or less
to blame. Such is the nice adjustment
of things in this. world that ho one
can claim to be all right, and every-
body else all wrong.
I've been wondering a great deal
lately just how far we mothers have
ten wrong? How much of the res-
pousiIility,' for present conditions must
we assume? Just what has been our
attitude toward, weak, real per'. that
.s productive, l ke farming or cooking
tar sewing or washing or manufaetur-
ine? Have we hell these jobs up be-
fore our children as the most desirable
fc thein? Or have we warned thein
t.� steer (leer of hard work and look
:'ter somethin easy anal pleasant?
We have always war;el hard olar-
selves. Teo bard by far. the most of
us. And ;•e've hoped with all our
hearts that when our children grew up:
they might have things easy. We've'
talked it before them, what a dog''s'
life was the farmer's, and how house-;
work was nothing but slavery. Un-�
consciously our sons and our daugh-
ters have absorbed the ilea that the
necessary work of life was sort of
beneath them. They have gotten the
impression that life for them should
be a sort of holiday, a place where'
they could do a smattering of work in
a haphazard way and demand a big
salary for it. They have not come up
with the good old-fashioned training
we had ourselves.
Don't you remember whet, you were
coming along that mother's favorite
maxims were, "All play and no work
makes ad. a lazy bay," and, "What
soever thy hand finds to do, do it with
thy might?" When you were being
brought tip the schools hadn't discov-
ered that children were to be taught
without their knowing it, that study
was to be made play for them. Your
mother never heard that children were
to be allowed self-expression; she had
an idea that children were to be given
mina:We Liniment tor sale everywhere.
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the t:pl,"ndlel ossa'rtsm,:nt
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y.,u absolutely i n1:I..
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und.•r no obit i;atsun
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certain tasks to perform at stated!
tinges, and to be taught to mind, be
respectful to their elders and obey the
law.
You are the result of your mother's'
training, a law-abiding, barel-working,?
sober citieen. The present generation
is the result of aur training, a wor1.1;
full of idler, Inoking for effort hours,
light work. high pay and considerable
license w°hre law touches their per-
sonal liberty.
We are reaping what we have sown.'
It is rather late to correct our faults,'
but when we're brooding over presents
conditions and laying the blame on
others, let's try to turn the current
of our thoughts. Let's try to repair as
best we can, and start a current of
thought in favor of real, honest work,
work of the kind the world needs.
la.
S lieves Neoral
>SLS
na>r,l a
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The efforts t► mist. the (iermnn
vessel, scuttled Flow have
resulted in ems :,ttit h p, tine a ereis-
ers and fife. en F...-el'aeyers bt-lett fleet-
ed. -
Place stpe'h on `heave's in a tiny
room near the f.rtr er in a 'warm
attic raunh, They t thee n.lt be in a
damp or frr ty pin. a'. Tb '; i; ill stand
a great ileal of he et and 'lay air, lout
little moirtur . If you want squash
or pumpkins to kaf p -eel:, handle
them earefuily do the.- arc sot lrr:;e°s;
A1l grades. Write for prices.
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Limited
Nionfreai
riyy4-= w.+
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