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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1952-1-16, Page 3eves"' 'ran Conner By Richord Ili11 Wilkinson Dela nits thiekinR of pill when. tl a young man 'with the mustache leaned over her counter. Kate- Holland had said that she had seen Bill 'and Reba Eliswcirth dahcing ab Satan's, Kate was a gossip, but Bill hadcertaiely been. acting. stangely of late. "Ytyti're Miss Scott, 'aren't you?" the young man said. Dala glanced up at him and then gave her attention to her switch- board, "Empire Hotel," she said into the receiver, "Mr. Ricker?" Just a moment, please." She plug. ged in. "You must be psychic," she said to the young man. "Or did you inquire of one of the bellboys?" The young man looked surprised. "Neither. The clerk told me." "And now you're going to tell mss, 1 suppose, that you just bought this hotel and unless l go out to dinner with you tonight, I'm fired." "You're quick," said the young man, "It's a good line, mister, but l don't like travelling salesmen, Be- side, I'rn busy—Empire Hotel?", When she looked up again the young man had gone. She was a little surprised. Usually they didn't give up so easily, The telephone was ringing when she 4urned the key in her apart- ment door. at 6.10 that evening. It was' Bill, of course. 'Hello she said, trying CO. tairee casua ncsaslito her tone. "Thanks a heap," said Da1a. "111 • remember you In taffy prayers:" "Just called to assure you that your job is safe," the voice. told her; cheerfully. "Thanks a Neap." said Dela. "I'll remember you inmy prayers." She hung up. Bill didn't call that night. No one did. Data spent a lonesome evening. She was almost glad the next day when the young man with the moustache appeared. "By the way," he grinned. "You're supposed to give out infor- mation, aren't you?" She admitted it by nodding, at the same time droning her usual "Empire Hotel" into the mouthpiece. "Then what's your name?" he asked. She swung around to face him, but somehow decided against • the retort that rose to her lips. "It's Data," she said. "But calling me Data won't help." "Thanks. Mine's Johnny." Data was returning from lunch when she ran into Bill. He was in a burry. Or said he was lie only stopped for a minute. The realization made her kind of sick at heart. No matter whether you loved a man or not, it was something of a Mon to find out he wase'two-tinting you. She jumped when the young man with the moustache spoke into her ear. "1 die hard," he grinned. "There's still tonight. And 1 prom Ise to be good." Dula looked at slim and thought of 11111 Ill right." she sighed resignedly. They had dinuel at a r'estaur'ant where Dais hadn't eaten before. She liked the place and wandered what Johnny slid for a living. . Two &gilts inter Johnny took her to a show and later to a night club. It was then she began to wonder -aholtt him.. Ile regarded Icor in surprise when she put the question "But Poe already told you. 1'111 the man who bought the Empire. 1 thought you ' knew." She said nothing until they were in the lighted hallway of her apart- ment house, "Now tell me," site said, looking at him. "Tell me again." He told lie and suddenly the Boot seethed to give away beneath her. She turned, but lie caught her hand. "What difference does it maker" he ,pleaded. "I knew you didn't know," She p,ut her hand over his mouth "Don't say it. The answer is yes. It's a terrible shock. You see, I've just recovered from being made it fool of by one thrall, And now this—" "This," he told het gravely, ,is, different. We'll make it different. • Shall we?" Site nodded. Seth ing . bout* 'hat Mu• th Coat of earn-, (tido ifs re The auttual mink catch is sone• stent in StBi'1 'ft't:d."ht1i"otyltipingnt where aepuud 3,5 or 4 million. -pens, feneeS alyd, insOn ;it takes Aboat 10 percept of them normal- ,..a good elparl t.RdeCittp(t 7alnar`°'to ly collie from Russia; a few thou" bred 11eaJt4ly ilLinIs :fthe: desired•'. sand 'skins are imported from colors, One Hiatt can'takcercare:•of Scandinavia, and all the rest are about 400 `iflihksrVirt Itr"tal'es at trapped or raised in the United least a cduple'%fnthodsragCanimals States :(especially in the Great t'r> make -a-,going business. Mute. Lakes areal, Alaska and Canada. tions are; de>;eifinR+dt' ot}ly after The total value of their pelts is painstaking studies,pf n .Ilk gene,- about ene•about $80 #trillion a year—as mach tics' and at t11e'expeI1 h of expert• es ormore than the value of all nlenfatian''411rtl of (V"1itv61ve sulk• other furs in the annual catch. stantlal Idssee' of^+arninfals bef`w'r During the last couple of decades, the breed ise1serfacted:' women's interest in furs has come When shell •gpt;-to bo a yea°i''blfl' la rest so passionately and so and ripe for, Ate wearjug,Minks' ate single-mindedly on the pelt of the done in, usually inAatgas chaoit;er,i ,Mustela visor that other furs leave which caiiscs them iio'"pain..,an},• them literally cold, leaves 'the- pelts- Strlscal'fEd. '}'lien, , The popularity of think isn't hares they are skinned and -the -skins to understand. Its Las a good many salted, -later to be..dressed (that things in its favor, including its cured and, softenet.i and cleaned ' striking luster and soft texture, hs (by sawdust in a revolving drum). durability and its pliability, which retakes for easy, slender -lined de•• sign. It also has female psychology, or snobbery, on its side. Costing from $2,000 all the way up to $40,000 for a coat; and $500 to several thousand for a stole, cape or jacket, mink is traditionally associated with class, wealth and luxury — tliinge which women like to be as- sociated with, themselves. In the last ten years or so there has been a lot of money around to buy tuinlc with, but in the case of most people not quite enough. Perhaps twelve to fifteen thousand new mink coats come into the market every year, along with fifteen to twenty thousand new jackets,capeses and stoles. Since a mink asts a gold five years. there must be around 150,000 mink garments in circulation at any given time. That takes care of practically every America woman who call possibly tray for mink, but only a fraction of those who want it writes John Sharnik in The New York Times. Minks arc of two general types, both expensive. The toil$' mink, which nests in burrows along the banks of streams and feeds on worms, crayfish, birds and other animals—some considerably larger than itself—is a rich, dark brown in color, with some white on its jaws and underbelly. The ranch mink, whose diet consists' of such relatively effete dishes as chicken heads, chopped horsemeat and .vi- tamin -enriched cereals,: is 'tired both in the standard brown and'in a wide range of color mutations. The catalogue of mutation mink colors comprises a whole strange vocabulary in itself. It runs from Starlight (which means almost black) through Aleutian (blue) and Breath of Spring (tan) to White (white). In comparison with the price of other animals, the value of a mink • pelt in any of these colors is enough to make a customer's guardfur stand on end. A Persian lamb, which rates as a pretty good Either raw or dressed, the ,pelts • go to Elie audlon th'rket, where they are soldr'iit matched bundles of enough skins for a coat, a jacket or two or three stoles, Each pun; die is 60 per cent male skins— relatively large and toughs,,; to be. used,for the body ,of the coat -and 40 'per cent female—smaller and more fragile, to be used for collars,' cuffs and trim, All but a small percentage of the mink coats produced 'in the United States are manufactured in the New York fur district, a kind of brick -walled, glass -fronted jun- gle in I,Ranhatten's West Twenties and Thirties. The process is a la- borious Lt - bort us and costly one. Unlike other animal skins, . which are merely sewn together according to the pattern of the coat, mink is "let out." That is, each pelt of about 6 by 24 inches is cut diagonally into dozens of strips only a couple of inches long and a fraction of an inch wide, and these are sewn to- gether into pieces a couple of inches wide and as long as the fin- ished garment—anywhere from 46 to 50 inches in the case of 'a coat; and finally the long pieces are sewn together according to the pattern and nailed to a large board to set. It has to be done this way be- cause the hairs on the original pelt thoughtlessly vary — from snout to tail and grutzen (or back) to belly—in sparseness, in thick- ness and in color. But even more importantly, it is because the whole pelt is so short—in other words, because there just isn't enough mink on r' mink. Without letting out, a mink coat would look rel- atively splotchy. In the case of another fur -bear- ing anin-al—say a beaver, which is comparatively huge, tough -skinned and low-valued—such a process would be neither necessary, easily performed nor worth while. But in the case of the mink, it is highly rewarding, alike to the ,pelt, the addition to most w'ont.8 s ward robes, is worth something between. $2 and $20, and it takes fust twenty-four to thirty skins for 11 m oat, A beaver is worth about $20 to $45, and thirteen of them equal" one coat A red foe, which- used to bring a price of,about $30 when it was in fashion, is ,worth, jgst. about 25 cents today, and is gen- erally caught for . the sake of chickens rather than women. On the other hand, mink—tak- ing anywhere from sixty-five to 'a • hundred skins per coot cesfe 'tie- tween $6 and "$60 per pelt; some run as high as $80 or 4100, and, Sapphire mutation pi•1s; have brought as much as $3$0. The high cost of Miilk `starts back on the ranch. The 11111111 is a fairly prolific little beast and a rather hardy one. ft produces a litter of about five or six once a year. along about April or May. and, apart from the risks of being frightened to death or eaten by a ueurotie mother, each little mink has a good chance of surviving the year required to grow a pelt on it. But in addition 10 the invest - wearer -and the furrier. The letting out process is what gives 0 mink coats its pattern of lung, even, sus. trolls striping and its soft, flatter- ing tines Since the process eon sumes a good $600 or $700 worth of labor—as against about $100 fur • an average Persian lamb coat, for iestitnce—it is also the thing that give the fi11a1 hops, to the prix': of a mink emit. Although fur is at least as sus• ceptible as hats and architecture t0 the vagaries of taste and the cycles of fashion, people in the - fur trade doubt strongly that mink migl t one day go the way of the red fox or the monkey pelt. For one thing, it has the advantage of an intrinsic high cost of produc- tion, which keeps it tantalizingly out of reach of most wouten. Sable and chinchilla, the only furs that are generally more expensive than mink nowadays, are so only be• cause they haven't yet been bred successfully in large numbers ,on this .continent; but. their pelts are regarded as less lustrous, less workable and therefore, IN. flat- tering to the wearer. +,e1 f 1i0 Light Headed Lady—In his London studio, sculptor Arthur Fleisch- mann putts the finishing touches to his "Symbol of Light," carved from the largest block of transparent plastic ever manufactured. The three -foot -high held will be installed in a new building of a Botch electric light bulb company to mark its 60th anniversary. THLL&1N FRONT JokilQuL1. A word of caution to poultrymen was recently issued by a noted,ex- pert, who wards that too much grain may lower hatchability. * * * Most, breeder mashes arc de- signed to be fed on a 50-50 basis, with' grain. But when scratch grain' is fed. free - choice with a ntash containing s20 per cent protein, some birds -will 'oat as much as 70' per cent or more scratch, he says. Yet many of the vitamins and min- erals (and most of the protein) re- quired for the chick embryo to de- velop and hatch into a vigorous chick are in the mash, not in the scratch feed. This expert recom- mends starting hens on breeder mash a month before hatching eggs are saved. r. * * Don't add too many males, is another rule which comes in handy with the breeding- flock: Experi- ments indicate that 5 males per 100 hens will produce highly fer- tile White Leghorn hatching eggs when the male birds are placed in the flock two weeks before eggs are saved. With heavier breeds, six or seven males are enough. * * * Storage is the big question as far as hatchability is concerned, once the fertile eggs are produced.. Such eggs do not stand up in stor- age as well as infe rtile eggs and so you Lave -to keep a close watch to see that storage temperatures keep within the 50 to 60 degree range and that relative humidity stays in the 80 to 90 per cent bracket. Also, hatchability falls off rapidly when eggs are stored longer than a week --and you can roust on higher chick mortality. * * * Turning eggs daily is a must for tl ose stored longer than one week —those to beset its less than a week do not require turning at all. A simple turning method is to lean the filled egg cases at a 45 - degree angle against the storage - room wall and reverse ends of the rases daily. All eggs, hatching or market bound, should 1>e placed in the case with the small end down. 4, * $ Clean eggs give best hatch- ability, but soiled hatching eggs may be cleaned by hand buffing with sandpaper or by, washing, For washing, clean, warns water should lie used—water wanner than egg temperature, '1'o rut need for any washing, collect eggs at least three tunes daily. * * 4: Uniform color is desirable in hatching eggs, just as it is in man' ket eggs. HatcLing cgs from+ White Leghorns and attire 't shelled breeds should b. white, since the tendenel tinted eggs may be inherit. * * * Egg size also is related to hatch- ability, Experts recommend choos- ing hatching eggs that are aver- age. size for the flock, avoiding those that are considerably larger or smaller, * * * Skint milk combined with farm - grown grains and cod-liver otl made an efficient ration for laying hens in experiments at a well known Agricultural College. The ration was satisfactory for egg production, fertilityand hatch- ability, It compared well with a ration made of egg -laying and breeding mashes and mixed grain. * * * The milk -grain ration was made rip of 50 per cent corn, 25 per cent wheat, 25 per cent oats to which 400D -200A cod-liver oil had been added at the rate of nine pounds per ton of grain—with skim milk fed free choice. The birds received no water in order to force them to drink a sufficient amount of milk. * * * When compared with a ration composed of the same grain mix- ture without the cod-liver oil, plus layer -breeder mash fed free choice, there was little to choose in results. * * * Average production of Single . Comb White Leghorns over a•two- year period was 53.7 per cent on the milk -grain ration. For the mash -grain ration, the production was 55.5 per cent. Fertility for the milk -grain ration was 92.6 per cent and the hatchability was 85.5 per cent of all fertile eggs. For the mast: -grain ration, fertility was 90.2 per cent and hatchability 751 per cent, Crochet Darning Crocheting is a fascinating pas - while laboriously weaving darning stitches back and forth is prosy work to most women; so why not crochet patches into 'sweaters, hosiery, or any knitted article. It takes less time, and the result is neater than either darning or patching. With a large -size steel hook, hook into the hole along the long- est edge, using single crochet stitch, Into ' the, single crochet, work double crocl.et stitches back and forth, fastening into the edge of the garment each time. This is an especially good` way to repair large holes in sweaters. New Life For An Old Name, Libya Has A Lengthy' kiliforY The United Kingdom of Libya, formally set us recently, cuts a very respectable cantle out of North Africa, but it is only a patch on the map of the original Libya. On the tnap of the world according to Her- odotus, 440 B,C., everything west of Egypt (which was considered a part of Asia) was Libya. But Libya was by no means as large as to- day's Africa, It was cut, off well north of the Equator by the all - encircling, ocean. It was reported that a ship had once sailed from the Arabian Gulf (the Red Sea) through this ocean and around to the Pillars of Hercules. Libya then as now was mostly desert, 'but in those days the Nile was thought to rise far to the west, and to flow eastward for a thousand miles be- fore turning north below Thebes, It was the Libyan counterpart of Europe's Danube. The name Libya was discarded by the Romans, who first gave the name of Africa only to the country around Carthage, and Scipio won his title of Africanus by subduing only that small part of the great continent, Africa Proconsularis was later extended eastward to include the coast of modern Libya. Diocle- tian restored the old name when he was reforming the administra- tion of the empire and the name lingered until the whole of North Africa was submerged by the Arab floods of the seventh and eighth centuries. It was revived by Mus- solini, who took it as a convenient symbol of the empire he was trying to build on the weak foundations ,left by the Turks and the famous Barbarypirates. Libya, by all accounts, is today a miserably poor country, even af- ter thirty years of Italian pioneer- ing. It has about a million people scattered over an area of nearly 700,000 square utiles. The most the size of.Texas with one-seventh of the Texas population. The most revealing statistic in the table of its resources is the one that lists 90,000 camels an only 70,000 cattle. Vast open spaces where camels can live but not cattle. Motor trucks are now taking the place of ,the camels, and in time the dates of the oases and the olives of the seacoast are expected to improve the lot of the free and independent Libyans. In the days of Herodotus, when. little was known and much was hearsay and travelers' tales, Libya was a far more exciting place than it is today. Here, according to Her- odutus was the "populous country of the Nasamones." They used to hunt wild locusts, dry them in the sun, grind them up and sprinkle them on the milk which they drank. Next to them were the Psylli, who marched out into the desert when their water supply failed and were all swallowed up in a sand storm. Near by were the lotus eaters, who gathered sweet berries which they ate and made wine of. Then the Machlyes, who held a yearly festi- val at which all the maidens of the tribe were divided into two bands which fought each other with stones and staves, Further inland, beyond the haunts of wild beasts, dwelt more strange people in oases where fountains of cold. sweet water shot up through hillocks of salt. Here were men who had no name, others who saw no dreams and a tribe whose language sounded like the squeaking of ba,s. And so on to the Atlantes, who shared their name with the Atlantic sea, Cyrenaci, Libya's .eastern prove ince, has a different background, , Greeks frontthe island of Theta, ,claiming to be descendant$ of Jason's Argonauts, 'dUtabllshed a colony at Cyrene, which was flour- ishing when Ilerodotbs wrote, It shared the fate of Egypt' when the Persians were everywhere advance ing, and later was a part of Alexait- .der's empire, It passed eventually to the Romans, but kept its Greek character until it too was blotted out by the westwards ntarcb of the Arab. Remains at Cyrene of a fins Creek city have already been par - Bally uncovered by English arch- aeologists. There and at Leptis' Magna, near Tripoli, the new Lib- yan Government might advance the cause of world understanding by encouraging the search among the sands for Greek and Roman re- mains, which are known to be con- s siderable, The best hope for the new kingdom lies in the future, dimly foreseen by scientists, when cheap power, perhaps from the sun, will make sea water available for irrigation of the deserts. When cattle gaze where now only camels can live the future of Libya should be bright. No Joy Ride A New York Times correspon- dent has found a lot of discontent among American troops stationed M France. "Most enlisted services" he says "are bitter because they do not have the shiny post exchanges, bowling alleys, and theatres avail- able in Germany and a friendlier reception bythe French' He added P that these men are critical also about the lack of laundries, dry- cleaning, shoe repairing facilities and indoor plumbing, g. In commenting on that report Colliers magazine says something that will meet with wide approval in Canada as well as the United States. "It seems to us that there may be something wrong with army training and indoctrination if peacetime duty in a country as civilized as France—even if the plumbing isn't always so good—is regarded as something correspond- ing to banishment in Siberia. Those men have an important job to do. They are facing a numerically su- perior force of tough trained troops whose leaders hold the world under constant threat of a general shoot- ing war. The fire in the far east could break out in Europe any day. And if that should happen there would be little time for chocolate soldering or for bowling alleys. Perhaps then, it would be well if American officers impressed upon their men a little shore of the ser- iousness of their assignment and suggest to them that there ars prob- who would gladly change places ably some men on the line in Kot•ea with those who aro suffering the hardships and privations of peaceful life in rural France." So far there are no Canadian troops stationed in France but be- fore this uneasy period in world history is over we may have then there and also in less comfortable places. That being so it would be well that they know in advance not only what to expect but what the country expects of them. Soldiering in peace or war is serious business and there is nothing to be gained by trying to pretend that it is any- thing else, —From Financial Post. BY • HAROLD ARNETT AN EGG TIMER ON YOUR TELEPHONE WILL HELP PREVENT YOUR TALKING OVERTIME ON LONG-DISTANCE CALLS , THUS SAVING ON YOUR TELEPHONE BILL. JII"ITER you TWO MUsr LEARN TO oUlr FIGNrtNG OR SETTLE YOUR. DIFFERENCES BYTt1E RUl.E5. « r WHEN I TAP THE GONG, START PUNCHINV By Arthur Pointer ti 0