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HomeMy WebLinkAboutClinton News-Record, 1979-03-01, Page 4PAGE 4 —CLINTON NEWS -RECORD, THURSDAY, MARCH 1 , 1979 No gloom needed We should resist the prophets of gloom. One of these was Aurelio Peccei, president of the Club of Rome. He was delivering the keynote address in Ottawa recently, where he said that the world is getting older but not better, that there is probably less than a decade left before certain options which may still be open are lost. One way to resist the prophets of gloom is to endeavour to see the world in better perspective. For instance, let us imagine that the entire progress of the human race is represented by a period of 50 years. This is for many a more easily compassable period, and carries more meaning than, descriptive writing in terms of tens of millions of years. Until 49 of the 50 years were over man would not have begun to be at all civilized. Having emerged to something worth calling human, he would still be hunting with primitive weapons. He would have no settled environment. Yet note the sudden and swift change. Half -way through the 50th year man invents writing. Only in the last two months of the 50th year would he know the blessings of Christianity. Man's printing press would be only a fortnight old. And only in the last week he travelled by road. An hour or so ago he learned to fly. Peccei's keynote address outlined ,many of the Club of Rome's beliefs first stated in 1968 when the Club of Rome was established. It may be significant that the president somewhat relieved a traditional pessimism by saying, "We are living in a kind of period of grace". Aurelio Peccei spoke better than he knew. Since then Pope John Paul II has become Bishop of Rome. History is full of surprises! For that matter, this world of ours is but a child, still in the go- cart. Take heart. Give it time to !earn its limbs: there is a Hand that guides. (from the United Church) Csugar a„dspice Borrowing money Recently I've been teaching that perennial favorite, The Merchant of Venice, by one Will Shakespeare. It's a light, romantic comedy, but through the pretty speeches and comic com- plications runs an iron and an irony that almost steals the play evbry time it is read or performed: the story of Shylock the money -Lender and his insistence on his pound of flesh. That word and that phrase have become part of our language. You may have heard ,someone say, "He's a regular Shylock," or, "He always wants his pound of flesh." They are synonyms of a merciless greed, hatred, and desire for revenge. For those who have forgotten the plot, or haven't read or seen the play, I'll give a pocket synopsis. A rich merchant is approached by his best friend, a young man who has squandered all his money, including a goodly sum the merchant has lent him. The young fellow wants his friend to lend him another sum, about $35,000, so that he can get himself all duded up and marry a wealthy heiress, upon which he will return all the money he owes. For friendship's sake, the rich mer- chant says, "No problem. All my cash is tied up in ships at sea with rich cargoes, but my credit is excellent. Go 45 borrow the money and I'll back your note." Or words to that effect. I am Will Smiley, not Will Shakespeare. So the young - blade goes to a notorious money -lender, Shylock, who agrees to lend him the money for three months. Usually, he charges more interest than Household Finance, but this time he won't charge any. The plot thickens. In a few sneering asides, we learn that Shylock hates the rich merchant. He has reasons. The merchant has spat upon him, spurned him, called him dog, and hurt him badly in the pocketbook by lending money interest-free. Shylock can stand the spitting and the names, but he turns purple when he thinks someone is lending money with no interest when he could be copping 40 per cent. He sees his chance. Sure, he'll lend the young spender the money, interest - "Careful — it could be an election ploy." Another look at ads Last week, the subject of TV com- mercials made me realize liow much a part of my life those ads have become. 4,00 free, provided the merchant will sign a bond: that if the money is not repaid by a certain date, Shylock may take a pound of flesh from any part of the merchant's body. It's all a joke, of course. 'As Shylock points out, a pound of human flesh is not worth as much as a pound of veal, or even a pound of hamburger. (This was befor ` flation. I wouldn't bet on it nowada . ) The ich merchant agrees, airily: After all, his ships will be in with their rich cargoes a whole month before the bond is due. And nobody would take a pound of flesh. Shhh! We in the audience know that Shylock will take a pound of flesh from the heart area, and that the laws of the city will back him up, if the bond is signed in quadruplicate.) Well, well. It is rumoured on the stock 'exchange that the rich mer- chant's ships have all been lost at sea, and he is bankrupt. Big trial scene. The law upholds Shylock's claim. Old Shy is whetting a big carving knife on his boot. The rich merchant stands, breast bared. It's as good as the old melodrama, with the heroine tied to the railway tracks by the villain, and the train fast' ap- proaching. Smart young lawyer to the rescue. Shylock may take his pound of flesh, but not one drop of blood, not one ninth of an ounce more or less that pound, or his own life, and all 'his property, is forfeit. Try that one on the next pig you kill. Now Shylock was stumped. ,(An old cricket term, chaps.) And that Will Shakespeare knew .his law. He was continually involved in litigation, lijCe many a playwright. A great (to me) line in one of his plays goes, "Let's hang all the lawyers." Anyway. The whole thing got me thinking of usury. This was once an honest term meaning interest on money loaned. It has since conte to mean charging excessive interest on money loaned. A dirty -business. In Elizabethan England, usury was a crime, and hea;vilypunished. Right up to the death penalty, depending on whom you knew, in the right circles. And I began thinking about usury, in The Clinton N•vw•Rieord Is published each Thursday at P.O. Rot MI, Clinton, Ontario, Canada, NOM ILO. -s Member, Ontario weekly Newspaper Association ra. It 1s registered as second class mall by the post office under the permit number 1117. The News -Record in.orporated In 1144 the Huron News -Record, founded In 1111, and The 'Clinton New Ira, founded In 1145. Total press run 3,3011. ‘A•azber Crnedlae CacemunIfy A/ ffe Newspaper Disal•y e+Ivertising rates available on Oequ.st. Ask far Ret. Card No. • effetely* Oct. 1, >I bitzevel Manager • J. oward Aitken editor • Jazzes I. ritzgOraid Advertising director • O.ry L. Halst News editor • Arley McPhee Offlca Manager • Ma rrt Olbb Circulation -,rads Suburlpt'lon Rate: Canade•'14.H par yrar $r. citizen • x'12 pet year U.S.A. IL fo'.IRn •'IS per year. its pejorative (that means name- calling) sense,' in our society today. Is it shameful to be a usurer? Is usury something to be hidden under the rug? Are there any . penalties for usury? Answer: no. Our modern usurers are not even ashamed of what they do. They ad- vertise it in all the media. They run X11 the way from our banks, among our most respected institutions, down to our finance companies, so called, among our less respected in- stitutions, all the way to the hood in Montreal who will lend you money at 100 per cent interest, and break your knees with a baseball bat if you don't pay up. Try borrowing $20,000 from Ann Murray, who touts for a Canadian bank, with no interest. Her look would shrivel your gizzard. Try borrowing from a "finance company" without pledging your grandmother's bones for fertilizer in case you can't. meet the deadline. We are surrounded by usurers, sucking the blood out of us. Maybe Shakespeare was right. Line up all the bank managers in Canada, shoot them quietly, and burn the presidents of banks and finance companies at the stake. I'd enjoy that. For example,, when my coffee tastes bitter, I grumble, "Where is Mrs. Olsen when I need her?" and when I buy cookies that are tough, I fume, "Why didn't that TV granny warn me?" When the milk pitcher slips, I remind myself, "There's no sense crying over spilled milk especially when I can call on the job squad. "If gelatin dessert, ready to serve, can.grow on trees, why can't money?" I reason. When my drain clogs, I'm tempted to call Josephine the plumber. Every time I hear the words "Hi, guy!", I immediately picture two men separated only by the door of a medicine chest, and the remark "One shot and I'm good for the whole day" seems like a natural thing to say. A re -run of a Morris classic brings a tear to my eye and makes me wonder whether his successor will be able to cut it. A sad-eyed'beagle reminds me I need new shoes. Time and time 'again I stare at blurred photos and wonder what Mr. Goof Proof and Ms. Goof Proof of radio fame would say about them. When I hear a certain tune on the radio, I suddenly yearn for a cup of coffee, and if someone says, "We do it all for you!" I'm suddenly overcome by a craving for burgers and fries. Other times, I find myself humming tunes that aren't hit songs but are catchy jingles instead. What about you? If I quipped "You, you're the one" or "Let the Colonel do the cookin' " or "You want it; you got it", would you know what I was talking about? People who watch as much television and listen to as much radio as we Canadians do, are bound to be in- fluenced by the ads that bombard our senses every two minutes,. The 5 YEARS AGO February 21, 1974 A Clinton couple, Mr. and Mrs. , Wm. Pickett celebrated their 60th wedding an- niversary on February 18 with a small gathering of relatives and friends, At the first administrative committee meeting of the Clinton Centennial Band held last Friday night, the foundations were laid for a sound financial future, to ensure that the band is established as a permanent part of the community, according to a committee spokesman. The Ontario Plowmen's Association has announced that Huron County will host the 1978 International Plowing Match. For the third year in a row, Clinton will have at least one team in the Ontario finals( of the Youth Bowling Conference, as the senior boys' team won the zone finals in Zurich on Sunday. The members are Paul Anstett, Peter Wise, Rob Macaulay, Steve Gibbings, Robert Falconer and captain Bruce Collins. 10 YEARS AGO February 20, 1969 Dr. J. A. Addison, a general practitioner in Clinton for the last 28 years, plans to close his office at the end of June. He confirmed• this information this week. His retirefent from active practice comes at a time when the Clinton Public Hospital Board of Trustees is already concerned about heavy patient loads carried by local doctors. The Huron County Board of Education, which had reduced to three the list of potential sites for its head office, was sur- prised Monday night with a new idea con- ceived by its chairman John Levis of Clftttbn and presented by the vice-chairman Robert Elliott of Goderich Township. Mr. Elliott suggested that CHSS, with a capacity of 1,400 students and an enrollment. of only 980, had sufficient space available to house the board offices. 25 YEARS AGO ll: ebruary 25, 1954 A good question of this week might be - characters and products become part of our everyday lives; slogans and jingles creep into our everyday con- versation. "When I'm shopping, I don't con- sciously think about commercials. I'm too busy trying to remember what I need, comparing price tags, and ad- ding figures in my head to avoid a total I shock when reach the cash register. But maybe, subconsciously, my choices ai'e influenced by com- mercials. Ads 'must have some effect on the buying public or they would be abandoned for more practical selling methods. I can tolerate most commercials and even get a chuckle out of a few clever ones, while they are new. Others cause me to scurry from the room, bury my head in a book, turn the volume down, or ,close my eyes and plug my ears. They bore me; they infuriate me. Ads aimed at kids bother me, because they ,fill their heads with all the wonderful things they should have and then turn them loose on un- suspecting parents. The kids become the promoters' most effective tool. I'm not a militant women's libber, but those ads with the demure lady close by her man's side watching him • adoringly and saying not a word tempt me to join. The ones that irritate me the most are those created on the theory that everyone out there in TV land is a dummy. If the sellers want us to buy their products, can't they give us credit for having at least a few brains? Commercials - some insult us, others merely irritate us; some bore us, while others amuse us. But where would we be without them? And where would they be,without us? a look through the news -record files Why not a countywide vote on the matter of location for the new county building? Mr. and Mrs. William Tabb, highly- esteenied residents of the Auburn district, quietly observed their 55th wedding an- niversary on F'ebruary 20. Ed Siddel of Bayfield got out his nets which had been set over three weeks, on Thursday last and found them in not too bad condition. They were filled with grass and some sticks and it is thought that the former protected them. He is the only one fishing out of Bayfield. On Monday he got 100 pounds of whitefish and on Tuesday 800 nounds of perch. 50 YEARS AGO February 21, 1929 A class of eight young men, with their SS teacher, M.T. Corless, went to the "Gully" on Monday evening and according to reports had a real time. After trying all the hills for miles around, and there are lots of them, all gathered at Bartliff's restaurant where -"Harry" in his usual manner, had prepared a real feast. Did you notice it very cold yesterday morfling?,If so you were justified, it was cold. The Government thermometer at the home of Mr. Geo. Baird, Stanley Township, registered 31 below (Fahrenheit) during Tuesday night, the'coldest by a good niany degrees this season and 28 degrees colder than it was at any time last February. At the Hotel Rattenbury on Wednesday, February 27, J.B. Knight will display a complete line of ladies' and gents' hair goods. Advice on all scalp ailments and the use of Inecto Rapid. 75 YEARS AGO February 25,1904 Mrs. French, who has for some time been matron of the House of Refuge, recently insisted upon resigning to which the county council said amen, but she- hes since changed her mind, a woman's perogative. and continues in office, but the engagement is only by the month and a new matron is among the probabilities at a no distant date. A second paRer will make its appearance in Seaforth on Thursday of next week. It will succeed the Sun, whose rays never shone very brightly and will be known as the News. Bad times for the farmer. Cattle have not been lower for 10 years and pigs are at the low mark. Wages must come down before the farmer can prosper. . The Summerhill church has been closed for some months and so far as we know there is, as yet, no minister appointed to take cliarge. The Presbyterian Church at Kippen, in which the disastrous acetylene gas ex- plosion took place a few months ago, is now being lighted by coal oil lamps.' The managers were most reluctant to return to petroleum and as acetylene would frighten the congregation away. 100 YEARS AGO February 27, 1879 About three years since, Mr. John Armstrong of the Base Line noticed a small tumour on his right arm, but paid no at- tention to it. Lately it had grown to such an extent that he deemed it advisable to have it removed and on Tuesday he called on a medical gentleman in town, who succeeded in extracting it, after two hours labor. The arm was first frozen with ether and the tumor then cut away. The Mayor has issued a notice to the effect that all parties driving at an immoderate rate in town will be punished according to law. As many persons are compelled to walk in the middle of the street they are often in danger of being run over by reckless drivers. Some of those who make the public thoroughfares a race course in the evenings and on Sunday, require to slacken their speed' considerably. By the report of the Minister of Inland Revenue, just issued, we find that last year, for Goderich division, over 27,716 gallons of' spirits (subject t6 duty) were entered for consumption Just think of that. Lake Huron Herring are being brought Into town by the sleigh load and retailed at 20 to 25 cents a dozen. INrtY Part Dear Editor: Corrie Brand's letter in the News - Record of February 22, 1979 reminding the people* of Clinton about the dirty part in "The Diviners," which shocked Corrie "to no end", again raises the question as to what the Dirty Part is all about. Although Corrie and Renaissance Canada (does Corrie know the Renaissance folks?) have been giving priceless publicity to the Dirty Part, there are probably still many people in Clinton who actually do not know what the Dirty Part is all about. I would like, Mr. Editor, to suggest a News -Record competition in which Clintonians who have not read "The Diviners" guess what the Dirty Part is about; first prize to be a free tour of Umbach's pharmacy in Lucknow conducted by Mr. Barth; second prize to be a pass giving ad- mission to all strategy meetings of the local chapter of Renaissance Canada. Here are a few clues that may help the contestants, but remember, con- testants must not have read the book. Corrie says that` the Dirty Part is something that "in its proper place would be beautiful" but that it is also "vile and horrible". And Corrie says that if she published one sentence such as is in the Dirty Part she "would get ' all of Clinton on my back". My own research establishes that the Dirty Part does not deal with the Sin of Onan, nor the Sins of Sodom and Gomorrah. So there you are contestants, let's hear your guesses. Let's have a little fun in this literary competition, Mr. Editor, to help get us through the dreary and dirty end of winter! Sincerely, Concerned Uncle, Clinton Good day care Dear Editor: I, as a parent of two children who attended Vanastra Day Care Centre when they were pre-schoolers, can only contribute, praise for the skills my children learned while in attendance. I feel that Day Care should not be con- sidered any less of an education than Public or Separate .School. It is• never just a baby sitting service. It definitely does provide an inspiring atmosphere while a parent or parents work and relieves anxiety on behalf of parents so they can only feel confident that their child is getting care related to that child's needs. In response to the editor's comment on the location of Vanastra Day Care Centre, ` 71•--• do believe that the location is poor for area children, but however, what's done is done, I believe that a satisfactory pick up could be arranged. It may cost money to establish this but it would provide a very worthwhile service to our future adults. It is too bad that our Society often regards our children's future in dollars and cents. It appears that Tuckersmith does have a surplus of money'in their budget at present. Is it possible that pre-schoolers could be considered? June Martene, RR 4, Seaforth Defend board Dear Editor: Due to the fact that there has been much controversy over Tuckersmith Day Care Centre amid I was chairman of the board in 1977 and 1978, I feel it is my duty to defend the board. We did our best to keep the cost down and we had harmony with the board members and the teachers. The 1979 Tuckersmith council made one change on the board, who invited the press to a meeting without the rest of the members having knowledge of it. Overnight everything was in a turmoil. It was very gratifying to me that so many people wrote in praising the Day ICare Centre. A visit to the Day Care Centre would show you how well the children are behaving and an excellent job the teachers are doing. It can't help but touch your heart. I cannot see how anyone can put a price on it when it could benefit the children in future - years. Let's be good Samaritans and forget the cost, which is two cents' per day, per household for the Township of Tuckersmith. Remember, a horse can not pull when he is kicking. Franklin M. Falconer, RR 5, Clinton More on grouse Dear Editor: In reply to Randy Whelan's letter regarding Ruffed Grouse: you are, of course, correct. . Dissection and physical examination of the sex organs is the only definite way to accurately assess the gender of gro4se. All other methods are subject to limitations, usually in juvenile birds. The black band I mentioned has been used by generations of hunters for a quick visual method of separating the hens from the cocks. This technique fails often because juvenile (young of the year) birds are oftn not fully Coloured; therefore, 'youn males may be listed as females. It s generally accepted that any bind with a solid band is a male and if you continue ybur Turn to page 2 • 4