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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1950-1-4, Page 7Fortune Smiles By Richard Ent Wilkinson Caleb Ware was a young man who quarreled with his father and was turned away from his boy- hood home, Caleb always said later that he went away of his own accord. Fortune smiled on Caleb. Five years later he found himself promi- nent in the affairs of the small city in which he had chose)' to live. Moreover, he was rich. It was then that Caleb decided to go home. As the train began to climb into the fresh, clean air of the mountain cc entry, the tired look ninon his eyes vanished. Color ap- who quarreler) with his father 1t thrilled him now to know that he was in position to provide his father with all the comforts 'of old age. 1-1e swung Flinn the train at the tiny depot. Everything was the saute; the cracker -box station, the general store, the post office and the few small dwelling houses. A man with side whiskers and Spectacles peered at hint front the • doorway of the depot. "Hello, Banty, Where's your rig?' The loan • stepper; through the door. "Caleb Ware! Know yah any- where! How be yuh, Caleb?" "Fine, Banty. And you?" "Tol'able, Caleb. Just tol'abde. Figure on goin' out to the farm? Drive you out if you say so." "Figured you would." He climbed into Banty's ancient rig, glad of this opportunity to ride with the station master and learn the news, . "Looks like you done quite well in the city," Banty suggested cau- tiously, "Not bad," Caleb agreed, And he knew that feeling of triumph and victory at his success, He thought of his father's surprise and disap- pointment. It would be a bitter pill for old man Ware to swallow, "How are things at the farts, Banty? How's dad?" "Your dad's ailin ," said Banty. "He ain't been right since you Left five years ago." "Me left him? Why, he turned me outl" "Don't stake no difference, You shouldn't a done it, He needed you "Caleb Ware: Know yuh any. where.! flew be c•nit. Caleb?" at the farm. The place is plumb run down, and your dad ain't well," Caleb felt suddenly that Banty was condemning him, that every- one in the village had condemned hint, "Dad isn't really bad, is he, too sick to work?" he asked, "He is now. A month ago'Ite was took bad. Ain't worked since." .Banty spat and glanced at him sideways. "lie won't be glad to see you, son, not like that. He's got too much pride.". CALEfl UNDERSTOOD, He L knew that his father would never take succor from a son who had deserted him, wouwld never adroit be needed the help of a traitor. Hed rather die starving than that, Batty might have said more, but Calch suddenly leaped from the •Slott --moving buggy, • „Yon just keep on going, Banty, and forget you ever saw ate, Dad need never know 1 ut what 1 come home because 1 had to," Caleb. plunged into the woods beside he road and discarded his coat trail undid his necktie, HIe walked for Sonne distance tlu•ongh the heavy growth beside the high- way, Branches tore a t his fine ,linen and ripped great gashes. Briars • clutched eat his trouser: and tore holes in stem, . 'I'Itti, Caleb carne home, Sight of the farm gave hint e pang, The house and grounds were run down and in need of repair. A cot had been played on the rear porch and on this rot Caleb saw the thin, gaunt figure of his father. He caste and,stood over the figure anti looked down at it and smiled. "Hello, T'athee," he said, "It's Caleb. I've ,come back to ask your forgiveness and to be taketr in, n'oice Was humble, Old man ware opened hit; eyes and looked up at his son, and there was a quick happiness in his ex- pression. His dimming vision saw tate tousled, tagged harm boy who ' had stalked so pt'otuliy away five sears before. "T knew you'd sante back, Caleb, 1 knew you'd awns to Mir old S.:her for help sooner or Woe. And :set glad," They've Cracked 10,000 Safes Safes are getting safer and tough, er, but they still hide no secrets from the world's finest safecrackers, 68 - years -old Dave 1Worrell and his in- ventive sots, Ronald. In a backstreet workshop in the City of London, the Worrell family, hoist that they know more about the making end breaking of locks than anyone else in the world. Neither criminals nor police eau equal their astonishing skill and ingenuity, Honest cracicsntett, who exercise their extraordivat'y talents for legi- timate purpose; only, they recently celebrated the opining of their 10,000th safe—strictly in the course of business, writes Roger Banyan in '"fit -Bits." For test purposes they have' even cracked open the jewel Roost in the Tower of London, home of the Crown jewels, "Could you break optal the, locks in the Hanle of England??" 1 asked these key men recently. "1 think so," Dave beamed, "1 fitted theta!" War Office Booby Traps titheriting two centuries of faun,} skill as locksmiths, the Worralls have also installed—and sometimes cracked—safes in llucicingbam Pal- ace and the Royal Mint.. During the war they supplie ` the War Office with a list of possible booby -traps in connection with safe -opening and trained Commandos in safe -breaking. After a thief has unsuccessfully worked all night, they have been known to open the damaged lock of a safe in five minutes with nothing more than a spindle of hard bent wire. One of Dave's more difficult jobs was when be had to pry open the toughest safe -door in the world, a mass of nteed metal 1 which alone weighs 30 torts, "We operate on some safes by ripping off the back lilce the cracksmen in fiction," Dave told me, "We use a blow -pipe, oxy-acetylene flame or electric drills. Oxy -acetylene cats through steel like butter. But this 30-tonner, made of tough steel alloys, could resist a 4.7 glut at 50 yards." All in the Day's Work Using every process known to science, the Worrals worked' 120 hours on the .prototype safe at the maker's request, testing its safety in the only practical way. Subse— quently, the makers guaranteed it to resist attack for that time. No safe is every completely impregnable, It is immune only for a limited period. Many average safes resist the Worralls for leas than an hour. Opening vaults that have jammed accidentally, or safes for owners who have lost the keys or forgotten the combinations, are all in the day's work. In their workroom re- cently stood a safe coated with dried slime and adhering seashells. It had been retrieved from the strongroom of a sunken ship, Father and son have treated safes crushed in earth- quakes, or seared by explosives. During the bombing days, Dave often found safes too hot to handle. They lay glowing in caverns of steaming bomb wreckage and they had to be given time to cool down. If the contents had been suddenly exposed to normal temperatures, they might have been ruined. Working against a time -switch can sometimes prove a matter of life or death. Not long ago a night employee was locked in a fur stor- age vault, Using an emergency tele- phone fitted within the vault he had telephoned for help. When his res- cuers reached the scene, 'phone calls to the vault were unanswered. Set like an alarm clock, the time lock drops a tripper • that springs back only at the predetermined time. The combinations cannot be work- ed while the tripper is in position, Fortunately the trapped man had read the emergency instructions and sprung the tripper before slurping unconscious. All the key men had to do was find the combination. "If you ever happen to be trapped A HUNGRY BOY'S DREAM—A ragged Italian waif, living in the wake of war, dreams of food. Today he'll receive a glass of Canadian milk from the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF). Canada and a score of other United Nations countries orb helping the sick and hungry children of Europe and the East, The postal address "UNICEF, OTTAWA" is accepting funds from Canadians to buy Canadian .food for such ragged babies as these. Six million children need help. im cold storage," warns . Worall, "lift tate tripper' --or it may take us 12 hours to get you out instead of 20 minutes," During his career Dave has seen safes improved to the pitch of being crime -proof, yet his locksmith's skill has kept pace with progress, Its his apprenticeship days burglars were stip desperately attacking old- fashioned safes by cutting the locks away, or blowing them off with gelignite. The strongroom experts designed a combination -controlled shutter and then went a step farther and developed the keyless couthiva- tiot t lock. No safebreaker in criminal his- tory has ever successfully manipu- lated a combination lock with fingers sandpapered to super -sensitivity, in- tently listening to the click of the tumblers. This scene annoys a Wor- rail workman whenever he encount- ers it in a thriller. The super lock- smiths readily find the first and last symbols of a combination, but work- ing out the center ciphers is a mathematical task requiring infinite patience. "Magnified Can -Openers" Combination safes, however, fail readily enough if a custodian is forced to reveal the secret at re-. volver point. Some cracksmen have bludgeoned safes into surrender by ripping off the back with magni. fied can -openers or pouring nitro- glycerine into the door joint and blowing the door off. So the tech- nicians next evolved a watertight, airtight safe with no hairline gap between the jamb and the door. To- day, fitted in its frame by the mechanism known as the crane hinge,' the door of an average big bank model 'may be controlled by as many as four tine -locks. In ad- dition, since the advent of photo- electric cells and infra -red rays, hid- den wires linked with police head- quarters give warning of intruders, Similarly, there are trick locks de- signed for ordinary bureau use which raise an alarm 'if the key is turned to the right instead of to the left opening a jammed or damaged. safe, a craftsman rarely resorts to explosives. Iising a fine drill, Dave Worrell stakes an incision little larger than a pinhole and drives the drill straighr to the pivotal levers forming the heart of a lock. When the owner .of a safe dies without revealing a combination, the Master mechanic prefers to pit his ,— 8y Harold Arnett SF /NG GOA FACING SPORED 1 WH Eft_ CARD GUAR THE OF I CHIL AND- ITH A OARD REDUCES HANCES JURING A P'S PINGERd. GARAGE L `QJ( A PADLOCK IN A HOLE TRILLED THROUGH THE LOCKING ESAR, WHICH PROJECTS THROUGH Mg -TRACKS, PREVENTS RE '- LEASE OF `11 -IE HANDBA R, skill against the safe without using force. As Dave explains, "When you call a cabinet-malcer in for your furniture, you don't avant it broken upl" A Load of Diamonds On one occasion a safe full of diamonds was travelling from Kim- berley to Cape Town when it fell in unloading and was buckled. Master mechanics in South Africa attempt- ed to open it in vain. The jammed safe had to travel all the way to Britain, where Customs officials re- fused to alioty it to pass unopened. Eventually representatives of the Customs, the diamond owners and the shipping company had to assem- ble its the Worralls' workshop to . see the safe opened. It took 25 minutes, Perhaps the best tribute to today s safe -makers is the fact that, despite greatly improved explosives and the increase in crime, safe -breaking is steadily on the decrease. Like John Dillinger, who boasted he could clean out any bank its four min-' rites, the majority of bold -up men prefer the technique 'of rapid sut- prise. One of the Worralls' little gadget surprises is a drawer which greets its friends in silence but raises an alarm at the first sign of hostility. If valuables. are removed in one particular way, all is well. If they are taken out in any other way, an alarm is immediately transmitted. Keeping Their 'Secrets But the Worralls seldom discuss their family secrets. If they make even a key for a customer they never keep a replica, nor even a record of the address for which it was ordered. Yet special books em- boditing most of their trade secrets have already been printed. With full working drawings of every kind of lock and safety device, intricate tables of figures cover every known cotnbittation. They would perhapg be worth a fortune to a modern raffles, At Scotland Yard, as well as the. offices of the principal safemalcers, the few copies in existence, are kept in safes --safes, that, setting aside the combinations, only the \WorralS can open. T'aok The Tip ; . temperance lecturer had warm- ed np to her subject. "Who hoe the moat stoney to spend?" she thundered, "Who drives around in the finest car? The tavern keeper! Who has the finest fur coats? The tavern keeper's w.ifet And who pays for these pleasures? You do, my friend!" Several days later a Hato and hie wife .who bard been in the audience ' dropped the lecturer in the street and thanked her for her advloe. . "1 am glad indeed," she said, "Phut you have givn up drink." "Olt, we haven't done that," said the man. "We've bought a tavern." Helpful Hints For Busy Women Badly shrunken sweaters make the most wonderful, warns, and at- tractive mittens. Starting with the knitted band of the sweater as a cuff, I trace a pattern of the hand with the fingers together and thumb spread apart. Machine -stitch on the outside and buttonhole the edge with bright yarn. * e a A housewife, going about her daily dusting, can easily get at over- head cobwebs if she'll hind an ordin- ary paintbrush to tate trop of her broom handle. This gives her a very effeettve "two -tray" 511col,ing unit. * 4: * To entertain small children in- doors on wintry days, tnake finger printing of cleaning powder and cake coloring. I,et theta paint the porcelain table or the bathtub. Tltey will love it, and you will, too. when you se,- how easily their art work washes ofr, * * * Work shavings and scraps from the workshop are nut to excellent use at our house. We save them in paper bees, tie the necks of the hags tightly, and use this packaged material as kindling in our stove and fireplace all winter long. * * 4, To keep itty galoshes front getting mixed with with others, I carry a snap clothespin with my name on it right its my handbag. When I clip -this onto my pair, it not only keeps them together, but helps me spot them in a minute, no matter bow many nearby galoshes are exactly litre them. * * F To patch boys' snowsuits, sweater elbows, or trouser knees, try cut- tiug a round or oblong piece from an old leather purse or jacket. Sew it on by hand, You'll find you've in- creased the garment's wear—and even pepped it tap—with the decora- tive patch. Your rolling pin wiil be jus, where you want it—yet carefully out of the way—if you try this simple idea. Into the underside of a handy shelf, screw two large hooks -spaced to support the roiling -pin handles. Set the pin on the hooks when it's out of use and it will be ready and waiting right there when next you need it, _* * I(eep a "basting -thread' 'spool at your sewing machine. When you've used all but a yard or two from a spool of thread, wind it onto the special spool. You'll find that no matter what the color, it comes in ever so handy when you have bast- ing to do, * * y, Here's a trick I've found to keep the tot's wax crayons front break- ing easily while he colors. I wind the stem of every crayon with cellu- lose tape. Then as the point wears down, 1 simply peel the tape back a bit. TIIEF:'-IN FRONT "On the road ahead," reports a man who recently did a lot of driv- ing through the mid -west, "some- thing showed up like a dark blur— just a little thicker than the sur- rounding night. I stepped hard on the brakes. * 4, a. "Then my headlights caught the endgate of a farm wagon. No lan- tern, No reflector. Ahead, a tractor was pulling that wagon along to- ward the barnyard. * * * "Nobody was hurt. But I was scared to death. And I have wonder- ed since how many accidents and near -accidents occur just because somebody forgets to put a lantern on the endgate." * * s: And that traveller may well won- der. It's so easy to relax proper precautions when one is on familiar roads, closeto home. Which night be as good a time as any to remind everybody, young and old, of some- thing that a lot of us know we should do, yet so many of us neglect, * * * It's this; if walking along a high- way after dusk, BE SURE AND WEAR SOMETHING LIGHT; AND 1F YOU HAVEN'T ANY LIGHT COLORED CLOTHING CARRY A WHITE HANDKER- CHIEF IN YOUR HAND, SO THAT IT WILL CATCH THE EYE OF AN ONCOMING MOTORIST. (Of course you al- ways walk on the left side of the road, towards oncoming traffic; at least I hope you do.) * * * Now that I've started on the pub- ject of safety and accident, here's something along the same line that might he worth calling to your at- tention. It's about the best way to cut down the number of hunting fatalities which take up so much space in the papers during the fall and winter. Here's the way an Edi- torial writer in the Agricultural News tells about it. * * * A hunter creeps stealthily through the forest. A twig snaps in a thicket ahead. He freezes in his tracks, his ears cocked. Dry leaves rustle. An- other twig breaks, Something moves in the alders. A deer? It must be. Heart thumping wildly, he pulls up his rifle and lets fly at the moving shadow, * * A human cry Is heard ahnost simultaneously with the crack of the rifle. The hunter rushes forward. What he sees chills his blood. A fellow hunter is sprawled in the dry leaves . , . dead. This scene, with variations, was repeated many times its the woods this past fall. Hunters were acci- dently killed because they were mis- taken for game. Hunters were killed because fellow hunters tripped and discharged their weapons. Hunters killed themselves while climbing over fences and their guns went off acciriently. * * r. Out of all the investigations into such tragic deaths, one fact catne out with strak clarit>. No trigger- happy hunter belonged to a national shooting organization. This is borne out by the National Rifle Associa- tion in the U.S, which claims that in the many years for which statis- tics were compiled none of its 200,- 000 members had accidentally shot anyone. A senior official of the Ca- nadian Sinall Bore Association (now the Canadian Civilian Association. of Marksmen) maintains that for the 15 years he had been connected with it, not one of this group has been responsible for an accidental killing, * * x_ This revelation is highly signifi- cant, It obviously indicates that safety rules drilled into one on the target ranges are observed in the bush. It gives the answer to how accidents with firearms can be dras- ticatly reduced. That answer„ join. your local shooting club or organ- ize one if there isn't one already. Be- come an active member and practice safetly regulations until they be- come part of your instincts. If every would-be hunter did thio,, hunting would Indeed become a safe sport. Which sh* ould be about enough for just now --except to pass ,along a very ancient tale, which I. hadn't heard for many years until a friend revived ft the other day, Probably you'll recall it—the one about tile stingiest man in town, who was toe mean to buy his kids any Christmas presents, but was worried about what kind of excuses to make to them when they awoke and found the hung-up stockings empty, 4, * y, So a bright thought came to hitt. Very early Christmas morning' while it was still dark, he sneaked ".out of the house carrying his shot- gun. Right outside the bedroom window he fired a shot. Then he rushed into the house shouting, "Oh, children, isn't it just too bad, Poor Santa Claus has just committed sui- cide—did you hear the shot?' w +f * * Not so hot? Well, I don't think so either, So I guess I'd batter sign off, wishing to you and yours all the Compliments of the Seasou. Now, Santa 11(7111 Come—Soft coal miner toe Sloka and his this•. Nautili, 1u•ll, tint celebrate the fact that Santa isn't dead. John L. Lewis' order permitting the miners to work three days a Week greatly intgtr, t'es chances Alai. the ti1,'kas and flicoi,.aitd- like therm will. enjoy a merry Christmas ' JITTER iv wa'N6 NAWWNS moss nem Aa- TDNte$r, JsTrice, SOP SEWS' THIS MARE UP Ro4N kWW J. itoS CALt.S PGR, You.:/ti By Arthur ointer O'MoN,JITIER MACE 1T SNAPPY YCute UANCE ewele 055 WNtirr, rs w