The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink AboutThe Brussels Post, 1950-3-1, Page 7Baso! BOCCriloes a Vial(' By Richard [1111 Wllkinsou Basil Winthrop's father had al- ways made his decisions; had con- ducted the boys afTairs, organized his life, superintended hi. doings, Basil was an only child, His mother was dead, and bectuts0 he had in• hcrited his mother's mildnese of manner, and because his father was a domineering type, Basilfollow- ing the line of least resistance, had allowed these things to happen. IIis father was wealthy and generous, 140 why not let the old orae run the show? Basil thought, He ceased to think this when he met the girl with the red hair and blue eyes. She ,was selling kisses at a charity bazaar. Five dollar's a kiss. Basil only had $30 in his pocket, but he stretched out the six kisses that amount would buy sir that other customers got tired of waiting, After the bazaar, he drove the girl with the red hair to the hotel where she was staying. He didn't ask her name; she didn't volunteer it. But they made a date for the next night. As he enteied the front Mill his father called to him. Basil hesi- tated, then squared his shoulders and went toward the voice. Winthrop, senior, seemed in a good snood. "I've just met an old friend of mine, son. Sarah Morti- mer, She and her daughter, Elaine, are spending a few days in town, Son, I want you to meet them, Nothing would please me more than to see you and Sarah's daugh- ter married." Basil stared. This, he thought was the payoff. His father had ar- ranged everything else in his life, but by golly he wasn't going to , pick his wife! "Dad, you're taking too much or granted. I can't marry Elaine. I—I'm in love with someone else." "Someone else? Who?" "I—er—don't know her name." "I see." Winthrop, senior, rose and patted his son on the arm. 0 Basil continued, to 'sae the redheaded girl, and each time he saw her he loved her more. "I've• arranged a dinner party for tomorrow. You'll meet Elaine then." But Basil didn't meet Elaine then. For the first time in his life he'felt` the electrifying qualities of . manhood warming his blood. In- stead of attending the dinner party, he held a clandestine meeting with the redhead. They had a swell time together. By mutual and silent agreement they decided not to con- fide to each other their identity, Afterward, Basil had some re- grets, His father was a powerful influence. He could make things decidedly uncomfortable. And the red-headed girl who apparently, had been used to nice things, [night not be so interested le him if she knew he was penniless. Winthrop, senior, arranged an- other meeting with Sarah Mortis mer and daughter, it was, he de - aided, to be the test. if Basil re- fused to follow his wishes this time —well, he'd have to get under way in taking his drastic steps, When. Basil heard about the ar- ranged meeting he cause to a deci- sion. He would meet this Elaine and tell her in front of his father that he loved another. Then he would keep an appointment with' the red-headed girl and propose marriage, That, he decided, was .the only manly thing to do, and Basil had suddenly become a man. So With his father Basil went to the hotel where the meeting had. been arranged. Mrs. Mortimer and Elaine received them in their suite of rooms. Basil took one look at Elaine and almost collapsed, She hail -rod hair and freckles and buck teeth, She was about tine• homeliest looking creature Basil had ever seen. Moreover, she gig- gled. - Basil didn't wait for the dinner to get under way, I -Ie made his speech then and there, then headed for the door. His father accompanied him into the corridor. "Son," said the old man, "for- , give me, I didn't know what I was getting yon into. Go Marry, your rod head, Site couldn't be any worse than, that." "Thanks, Dad," said Basil, And he went ofi and kept his date with the red -!head, whose name, it proved, was Mary Smith, Ile pt'o- posedand she accepted and they laved happily ever after, Scotland's New Forestry Village Wagons loaded with husbands, wives and children atop of furniture weeded ,their way along the Gouk- stene Burn to,a milestone marked Ae, which will have 'e 'place In tomorrow's history hooks. Ae, just north of Dumfries in southern Scot- land, is Britain's fleet new forestry village, Forestry has come to mean for Scotland a great deal more than the growing of trees and produc- tion of timber for industry. The combination of the forest and the village dependout on it marks a hitherto neglected paeans for resettling men and women in the sparsely populated highland glen:, and lowland valleys. .Cee families Pave occupied their homes in Ae and another 16 are moving into houses almost completed, Soon the village of Ae will have about 90 houses with a populationof nearly 400, The Forest of Ae is just 20 years old, and is stilla forest in the making, Of its area of more than 10,000 acres, some 3.000 acres have been planted, Already its thinnings • are yielding about 3.000 long tons of timber annually for pit props and fencing stakes. When fully planted, the forest will produce an- nually more than 7,000 long tons of timber. Tlie plap,tations are composed en- tirely of coniferous trees, which t .roduce the softwood timber needed in such enormous quantities by modern industry. Among the most popular species is the Sitica spruce, a native of the western coasts of North America, which, strangely, grows more rapidly in Scotland than its European relatives do. The Soots pine and the Japanese larch are other varieties which add orna- ment to the forest by their con- trasting foliage. The road along the valley runs through the farm land, with the plantations rising on the steeper hillsides. This is typical of what happens when new forests are tre- ated in Scotland, the best land being kept under cultivation. But forestry is a vital industry for Britain. Twice in the present cen- tury lbs woodlands have been stripped to meet war emergencies. Two-thirds of all the timber stand- ing in 1939 was felled and reserves sacrifiped to save shipping space. The result was the gravest timber shortage Britain has ever known. Trees take time to grow, and careful planning Is proceeding to create 5,000,000 acres of productive woodlands in Britain in the next 50 years, This' involves government planting of 5,000,000 acres of bare ground, and the re -stocking, mainly by private owners, of Britain's ex- isting 2,000,000 acres of woodlands. In Scotland alone, the Forestry Commission has 150 forests and this number will increase, The village of Ae is but a fore- runner of other forest villages which will be created in Scotland to ensure that Britain's hillsides yield as much timber as its land can produce, Before World War II, 95 per cent of pit props used in Britain were Imported, but within. 30 years one-third of these will be homegrown. WH[Y? Lots Of Canadian Kids Would Like To Know Too! At 11 a boy thinks of baseball and bubblegum and — just maybe, youth being what it is—of hydrogen. bombs. Eddie Rutsky of Cleveland Heights, is just „Such a boy. At breakfast the other morning his father, Dr. Paul P. Rtitsky, and mother discussed the horrendous bomb. Eddie began asking questions, "Some of these questions I could not honestly answer without being cynical," Dr: Rutsicy, a dentist, said. "I felt that the replies would destroy his faith in his parents, teachers, government and humanity in general. His being taught idealistic and democratic principles in school made me ashamed that I had not the wisdom and choice of words to answer,' Curious, sensitive, persistent Eddie Rutsky was determined that someone should answer his question; "Why the hydrogen bomb?" So he wrote a letter to President Truman, a letter his father came upon and which is reproduced here. He hopes he'll get an answer. Or., '.. /Ira A444,4L' 1>w ..i?/C let s r +Q, ees e1tAW =aa QtG - A-., ,te a , ata .cam ,h4:1&404-4, t,., , .4,a tAd, ..44 -.G fl.wax.d,. att o�aa�ed t.aaAlC to e a ? &a.sii:.elen. �i e'fa a -6e44 -1-a., •. % ; " aelajdiel.R4. ^�" P,,o ` fka.st` . % aw a -.. Tee tisrt-- •.*Aram, AAA, .. ,, h,.✓,.ciaf " .ar.. • Asap _Ceaen ecu t..cir�a.• •.At i..t&itSR_ �¢uu..C,etJt1/1'l�.�iGGeo ,. ai# P/Ac-y .44,42Q •"' t ,CItn� +.+ M1.iaa !:rK.R-4i12..t0 ' .1>44,stege, .xis -r to- tirluf yd ".✓N/�%�l.'' ,.ECA7Jev!^'' , '.Gati•+.,! !/bL .. 1' r- , p4." 4 .e4Wa-k $so f >$ "Self -Help" Among Animals and Birds Certainly there is something in "instinct," especially the instinct of self-preservation, A sheep with in- ternal trouble will deliberately seek out particular herbs which it knows will be "helpful' 'to it and eat them. A cat similarly afflicted will go. for grass in a big way. Foxes occa- sionally get jaundice, a complaint accompanied by fever, but usually manage to cure themselves simply 'by going without food for a day or two. Birds, too, have the same sure instinct for self-help. They will plaster a broken bone with mud, which dries over the fracture and 'acts as a splint. Others, having sustained a super- ficial flesh wound, will look around for some soft substance, such as sheep's wool, and twine it around the injured part with their beaks. Again, 'birds of the hawk tribe sometimes get "liverish" when their food is not just sight. Then a vic- tim will .often be seen deliberately eating grit and even small stones, both of which prove an excellent physic for such complaints. In doctoring themselves the crea- tures of the wild have an import- ant advantage over their human counterparts. They are not cursed with imagination. They never worry about the possible dangers of blood - poisoning or picture the dire cala- tnaties which all to often beset the more imaginative human. The' result is that , Nature has ideal conditions in which to exert her own healing powers. And unless the injury is too severe a shock to When AbrahamLincoln Got Really Tough /ilb•nrc ti3 i(1's. . p /%1,„,e4 -w, i/tou.cl.•a•a.,.,, a/S,t,/A-%v a�n+,Vl('w.�,,.w h•,' A'rn (1,7, z.n"•,.f '.' t ..w—� J Ybvt*of.c.�4ems..•4ty,p pa✓ an Oicf5r.,•,no era''rl asar.N✓; Lf.F.•,. •,,4-,�...,....n M �^�-�4 rwYJ•..., /ee,,.2.4, 4- P4 .?r «M1co_ J Ager Mo -Z et«;.C4a.w te-G-e ee-C- ass) /"-• v�.f+' et -e4" Cts.•) w � H G4' is Lincoln lore contains many stor- ies' of the Great Etnancipator's leniency toward military offenders, Scarcely ever did he decline to re- mit sentences—at least to some extent. However, when faced with a situation that threatened tile* stability of the Union Army and thus, victory itself, Lincoln could be ruthless—and was, This is proved by a Lincoln pronouncement recently cone to light and now in the noted Alden S. Coediot collection in New York, Lincoln had to combat a sinster home -front evil. It was the "sub- stitution racket" spawned by the loose draft law of that day. This measure enable any man drafted for service to buy, for $300, a sub- stitute to take his place. Like Prohibition years later, this was duels soup for the hoodlum and gangsters. A substitution racketeer would collect his $300 from a man drafted in New York, sign tip in the army and. within a tris days desert, He would then hop over to, say, Jersey City, as- sume another panne, contaot another willing draftee with $300, and re - met the 'performance, There were thousands of these raoketeem. How Union Army strength was. sapped is indicated by the fact that "Bounty Jumpers" amounted for more than 268,000 desertions. Lincoln's firth attitude toward these racketeers is shown by the message shown Isere, referring to an appeal for executive clemency by five men convicted of the crime and sentenced to be shot as traitors. Here is the text of the telegram to Maj. -Gen. George C. Meade, hero of Gettysburg[ Washington, D.C. August 27, 186.3 Major-General Meade,, Warrenton, Va; Walter, Rainese, Feline; Lae & lierltsn appeal to etc for mercy, without giving any grounds for it whatever. I understand these are very flagrant eases, and that you deem their punishment as being indispensable to the service. If 1 am not mistaken in this, please let eheun know at once that their ap- peal is denied, A Lincoln . This stern message sounded the death knoll of the sordid heftiness. the victim's nervous system, or like- ly to cause death by a loss of blood, a speedy cure is usually effected. Wounded animals will perform amputations upon thrnselves to save their lives, There was a remarkable instance of this not long ago on a farm. A rat had been raiding a barn of fodder, and the farmer had sus- tained such losses that he determin- de at last on drastic steps, and set a breakback trap. It was much against his will, for being a huma.oe man he detested these snares, Next day the raider was caught in the trap by one leg and was still alive. Intending to end the animal's suffering, the farmer approached the trap, but before he reached it the rat freed itself by biting clean through its own leg bone, Next moment it was gone. Gone, yes—but not to die. To -clay that three-legged rat is still occasionally seen about the farm, for the farmer says quite plainly that he hasn't the heart to shoot it or try to trap it again, so profoundly was he impressed by its courage and endurance, "As a matter of fact," he says, "I don't, believe 'Old Tripod' as we call him, would ever allow himself to be trapped again. Rats are' canny, and aren't usually taken twice by the sante means," A -Bomb Effect Felt 2000 Miles Fitton writers are not the only people who tackle "whodunnit" problems. 011e of the biggest photo- graphic companies in America found that their films and plates were getting fogged during stor- age. That was in New York—a few months after the first test atomic bomb had been secretly exploded in New Mexico, well over two thousand miles away. At that time, the photographic 'company, did not know' that there had been an atomic explosion. But they traced the fogging trouble to the strawboard of the boxes used for storage. This strawboard, made specially for then[ by a paper man- ufacturer in Indiana, was giving off unusual radio -active particles, ' By the time their investigations had got as far as this, the New Mexico explosion was no longer a war -time secret. But even this did not solve the mystery. The In- diana mill was a .thousand miles from bhe site of the test bomb ex- plosion; and the radio -active straw - board had been made three weeks after! Then it was realized that the paper mill drew water very heavily 1-roni a river, and the river was found to be bite source of the radio- active vontantfnation. In fact, if batches of strawboard were made soon after heavy rains in the eatcls- nnent districts of this river, the board fogged• films and plates even more. Minute amounts of radio- active substances, formed in the New Mexico explosion, had fallen upon soils over a wide area. Raiit washed tltenn into rivers, and then the river water put theta into paper and board made at the mlill This amount of radio -activity would not endanger health, though JITTER it was enough to cause fogging of photographic plates. Indeed, the some company bad had similar trouble some time before, when the fogging was traced back to radio- active cardboard made from sal- vaged waste, Faulty self -luminous dials made of cardboard at a war- time factory and had gone into salvage for re -pulping, and the tiny amount of radio -active paint from this source had been enough to give fogging trouble. Ice Worms—They're Not Jokes Now Until very recently you would not have been in Alaska more than a week before some veteran of a dozen polar winters told you—with a broad wink—about the ice -worms that crawl across the ice cap. The veterans rolled up with laughter when last spring a Cana- dian explorer said he saw scores of ice -worms on one of Alaska's smaller glaciers, for the Alaskan classes ice -worsts with the Loch Ness Monster—they are something to joke about, "a relative of the unicorn." But they are no longer able 40 pull the greenhorn's leg about wornns that live in arctic ice for hundreds of years. Because a Bri- tish explorer has returned from the giant Seward Ice Cap with a bottle- ful of glacier -worms. He is Dr. N. E. Odell, and his bottled worms cap a remarkable career of exploration. Odell climbed to within 2,000 feet of Everest's summit and saw Malory and Irving leave their last camp for the crest of the great peak, never to be seen again. Twice he has been to Spits- bergen, and last autumn he climbed the 'highest mountain 4n Canada, 15,000 -ft. Mt. Vancouver (on' the Yukon -Alaska border), which had never been climbed before. It 'was ` here, on the surface of the Seward Glacier, that, he saw—and saugiht the legendary ice -worms. He de- scribes them as "bits of wriggling black cotton against the white snow." We have yet to learn what the ice -worm finds to eat in polar glaciers, how it breeds, or how long it lives. What we do know is that when Odell touched thein they very quickly died—bhe warmth of his hand literally burned them up, There are about 3,500 islands and islets around the coast of the British Isles, Man's Best 14,47:d? P -h -o -o -e -y r A Texas collie named Tip, we lead fell in love with his vetoes automobile. Ile wanted to 'sleep near the car, even in wintry weath- er. When, at last, the old bus was sold, Tip refused to eat. His toaster lad to ask the new owner to bring the car where Tip could fend it. Tip did, and Ice's eating again. But, appareunty, he's taken up res!deence• vett the car, not his master. This is a bit of news that could shake our confidence as dog lovers to its very foundations. Have we been wrong all along? Is it merely infatuation for some heartless thing Town, not affection for ourselves e? Nothing, we have believed, could pay us more guileless flattery, un- sullied- by ulterior aims, than the unfailing, tail -wagging exuberance of Ehner's welcome home. Could it be, after all, just some tawdry attaohnaent to our watch chain? And that soulful gaze from Hilde- garde's big brown eyes as we reach down to scratch behind her furry ears! Maybe it's just a special kind of canine eestaey at being close to that old, overstuffed easy chair. Perhaps she thinks the `chair does the scratching. We don't like to contemplate such notions. We'd much rather dismiss Tip as an atypical, abnorm- al, egregious, teratogenetic teals familiar's. or the whole story as just another talc tale from Texas. Really Busy Bees After experiments lasting four- teen years, scientists have succeed- ed in breeding bees which are more industrious than their ancestors. These busier bees have been pro- duced by inseminating queen bees artificially under microecopes. The scientists bred and dross -bred var- ious types of bees unit they got exactly the insect they were seek- ing. The new breed has already proved that they can produce more honey than any other kind of bee. They are also healthier, gentler and more resistant to disease. Merry Menagerie-ByWalt Disney 'Oh, I'm terribly sou'y--I dldn'it. know it was loaded!" ONE GAME WHERE BOTH SIDES LOSE 4340'71,' 'GRANT'S AN INCREASE Of - 1't' TAKES T,,IS LONG' TO RECOVER LUST WAGES` Nobody Wins A Strike--Newschart above shows graphically how long a worker has to labor to make up the wages he lost through being on strike, In the i;gcent steel ,triko, ettO worker lost about $400. In addition to strikers themselves, thousands of workers in other Industrie* lose wages through being laid off because of material shortagees caused by the strike, Come ON,ITTSR••W T If. THEY ARO Alt. WOMsal.•8' WON'T HURT lbu 70 COML IN WHe. d 1'M n BUYINS A NEW OUTNIT/ WHAT A cults PET/ net BASHFUL IaN"T THB S. "Lerma GEE yOLD HIM, I'M Hass curet MUT, e 9 Tr6RTlJfK �-' w, HIMTO MIs M E ?, Set's REAdrroco ve By Arthur Pointer._