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The Brussels Post, 1950-7-5, Page 7'r. VaEaty�s9 By 141rhard bill Wllld,tson "livery man," said luspcv:ur Warren, frowning over tie letter v.hich he held in Iii, hand, "has a weak point. .lu the case of 'The Flash,' most daring criminal of this city's criminal history, pears to be vanity." He gestured toward the letter. "The fellow has .econno drunk with his success hu accomplishing two outstanding rob - bevies, And now he has taken to writing us letters, statin;; just where lie's going to be at a certain time ams! what he plans to do." Detective Fargo blew smoke rings at tlic ceiling and evaded his chief's eyes. "So far," he said, "he seems to have been pretty successful in car- rying out Itis plans. This is the third letter we've received "Each time The Flash has ap- peared where he said he would at exactly the time denoted in Inc let- ters. And while we've stood idly by he's committed his crimes and escaped. What's he up to this time?" "The Devonshire party," Warren growled, The truth of Fargo's state- ment scored hint. "Mrs. Devonshire is planning to wear that valuable emerald her husband brought her from Europe a month ago. The Flash states in this letter that he intends to steal the emerald and defies us to stop him." Fargo crushed out his cigarette. "Have you taken any steps to prevent the robbery?" "Fargo, as you know, The Flash's disguise is perfect. He'll appear at the party as a guest, or servant or someone with whom the Devon. shires are but slightly acquainted. I want you to go up there early, meet Mrs. Devonshire when she comes down stairs and stick with her until the alst guest has gone. Then see to it that the emerald is stored away in a safe before you The butler's face was white and drawn. leave. I'll have Johnson and a couple of other men mingling with the guests." At 11 o'clock on the night of the Devonshire party Lnspector War- ren drew his roadster up before the palatial mansion and ascended the steps. The moment the !Devonshire but- ler opened the door Warren knew something had happened. The but- ler's face was white and drawn, and over his shoulder Warren could see a group of guests huddled in the hallway, with Detective John- son standing guard, \Farren stepped quick) inside. And at that moment Mrs. Devon- shire, accompanied by her husband and Detective Fargo, came flying down the stairs, "What's happened?" Warreu harked at Fargo, ignoring the in- - coherent babble of Mrs. Devon. shire. "It's gone," Fargo grated. "About an hour ago, I was standing behind Mrs. Devonshire in the reception hues Somebody poked a gun in any hack and told ole to walk back- wards, When 1 saw the fellow's face I knew it was The Flash, be- cause lit WAS a dead ringer for myself." "A -ringer for you 1" Warren gasped, "What the devil do yon mean?' "I mean," said Fargo grimly, "that his disguise this time looked Ii14e ane, generally speaking, He -forced rile into a closet and cracked me over the head. Naturally no one noticed that anything was hap- pening, as Mrs. Devonshire was ex• Idbiting her emerald at the time, And when The Flash returned and stood in my place, it occurred to no one that it was not me." "Ten minutes ago I came to and began to kick on the door Devon- shire opened 1t, t rushed to Mrs, Devonsh're and discovered that she had just missed her emerald. — 'Clte Flash has outsmarted us again!" Warren slumped wearily into 1 chair, „Tomorrow'," he groaned. "every ncwsnaper in the city will have the story, It will be the most lmniuli. a ting moment of Pty life.' Fargo smiled bitterly. "Every Paan has his weals point," he said. "Yours seems to be vanity," These Things Make Sewing Easier • Sewing methods are getting more streamlined all the time. The homemaker nerds 1,, keep up to date, if she wuald save time and Irtbohr in garment cut>tuetiun. For instance, the tedious process of hemming skirts by hand is out- datcd. Non you (can do a finished job on the sewing machine. A Wind -stitch attaclunent, recently placed on the maket, makes this possible, You simply remove the 'regular presser foot. from the machine and attach this instead. It is easy to use. It works for hemming tow- els, curtains or almost anything. And on lightweight of heavy- weight Materials. And du you have a buttonhole attachment for your machine?; It is a great aid, if you have lots of but- tonholes to make, If you don't feel like going to this expense,, do, at least, buy a pair of buttonhole shears. Then you can cut each (tole just the right size. At very small expense today you can get an electric light for the sewing machine. It will save your eyes, and help you do a better job of stitching. Check the lights. in your serving -room, too. For good work, you must have plenty of light, without glare or shadows. Now that many houses have elec- tricity, we women all long for a new electricc sewing machine. But if your old foot -treadle machine is in good shape, why wait for that day to conte? At no great cost you can buy a motor attachment for your machine. Any handy man can mount it. Even tlte- best machine won't continue to do good work unless it has regular care• This spring is a good time to go over yours and see that it is thoroughly cleaned and oiled, Better check your supply of sewing machine needles. When one gets blunted, replace it with a new, sharp one. And use a needle of a size suitable for the material you're working on. That goes for hand sewing, too. You'll want a supply of sharp, slender needles, in several differ- ent sizes, Do you have trouble threading needles? Then you should get one of those inexpensive needle threaders. There's a hent marker gadget that any husband will appreciate when he's called on' to stick the pins around the hem of your skirt. It' stands on the floor and has an adjustable gauge which moves up and down a measuring stick. The neat part is the way it holds the goods while you stick a pin through the clamp. Then, presto— it releases and you find the pin piercing the goods, and always horizontally. We could name various inciden- tals you should have at hand before starting your sewing. Shears are taken for granted. But are yours sharp along the full length? Better get them sharpened by a prrofessional if they have a dull spot. A good pair of,shears should be remade of steel. Blades should be held together by a screw instead of being rivet- ed, The handle is bent at an angle so blades can lie more nearly horizontal while cutting at a table. Scissors are differentiated by be- ing shorter. They serve for snipping thread and rougher uses, while the shears should be kept for cutting cloth only. And don't forget your pressing' equipment. A clean, well padded ironing board is a "must." Also a sleeve board. It's not only handy for sleeves but for other places hard to gel at, Of course, you'll want a good pressing cloth. Don't run to the dish -towel drawer when you need one, Specially made cloths hold moisture better and have no lint. Jersey, Velvet and Corduroy Favored Fabrics For Fall Cape influence is typified by gabardine suit. The capelet is detachable. San Francisco—Practical fabrics are the "style centennial" news for San Francisvo's 100th birthday of its fashion industry. Wool jersey, velvet and corduroy share the centennial honors this month as fall styles are unveiled. There's a well -tailored look in everything from play clothes to party dresses, and expensive -look- ing accents aiid trimmings play a second -fiddle. The feminine cape influence is noted in both coats and shits, Generous use of broadcloth achieves this cape -like coat. typified by a detachable shoulder - cape suit. Another cape -like coat Fait yards of broadcloth with deeply - set dolman sleeves that taper at the wrists, topped by a youthful reversible collar. Sophistication is again the ob- jective for sportswear. In this field, the "mix 'em and match 'em" theme in chamois -soft coruroy for an interesting and practical slacks, vest Mother -Daughter and jacket set. It has a two-tone vest to underline the contrasting colored ,yoke. For vening, a raspberry satin skirt with quilted pockets is ac- cented by a jet-black velvet bodice in a formal. Velvet also makes news in hats, many of which have large and angular -shaped brims. duo is in corduroy. Corduroy is in the limelight for mother and daughter, too. There's a jumper set that's demure but durable to go shopping, to school, and to Sunday picnics in high style. It has bertha shoulder interest ac- cented by tiny buttons to the waist which is finished by a narrow self - fabric belt. There Is A Season "For everything there is a sea-. son," said the moody author of Ecclesiastes, going on to specify among other things, "a time to plant, and a time 'to pluck up that which is planted." No gardener could quibble with that. But on a simmering Early Summer day most gardeners can ask why, at this particular time, the seasons so con- spicuously overlap. This is the time to plant and tend the seedlings. But it also is the time to pluck up the weeds which plant themselves. This is the time to cut the grass, which is growing like mad on the lawn, in the orchard,•beside the path and in the lesser tended parts of the garden itself. This is the time to trim the hedge, which was so neat two weeks ago and now is a brist- ling mass of eager shoots intent on rivaling oaks and elms. This is a time to hoe and till and spray and dust and nip off dead lilacs and tie up the rose bushes and stake the peonies. This is a time! , Why does grass grow two inches overnight, just now, when it has all summer ahead? Certainly there is an answer, simple and logical and based in the solid facts of botany. But why, then, does that answer not apply to beans, say, or sweet corn? Besides, your gardener is not real- ly asking for logical answers. He is pleading for time. Tirane to get all the jobs done. The grapes should be sprayed again. Blackberries are in blossom. The cherry trees are loaded, Butter- cups are in bloom. So is hawkweed. Clover and chickweed flourish in the lettuce bed, Iris are in flower. "For everything there is a season," How true, how true! And this seems to be it, the season for everything at once.—Neto York Times. Farewell From Number 4003 Dr, John W. Latick, 75, of Maple Uill, retiring after 52 years of rural medical practice, gets a farewell settle froth three -months -old Cheryl Marie Oliver, the 4003rd and last baby he clelivereed. Holding the baby is her mother, Mrs, Robert Oliver, :Friends and patients, held giant farewell party honoring the doctor on his retirement, There's No Pardon For A Hanged Man So—Consider Your Verdict How would you feel if you were accused of a crime you didn't com- mit? Indignant, of course; but the English legal system is acknowl- edged to be the best in the world, giving the most chances to the prisoner at the bar, so if you're innocent you'll be acquitted. There's no reason for worrying. Yet, if it were me. I know that . I would worry writes Cyril Ramsay Jones, in "Answers." I would re- member a Court of Inquiry in the Army during the war when two equally honest witnesses gave con- tradictory accounts of the same accident. I would consider how dif- ficult it is for anyone—with the best will in the world—to tell the whole truth and 'nothing but the truth." I would call to nand cases where the "culprit" has been given a free pardon after years of unjust imprisonment. And I would be profoundly dis- turbed by the meory, of a book, "Verdact in Disputem" by Edgar Lustgarten, I have just read, is which a brilliant barrister, Mr. Edgar Lustgarten, takes six fa- mous murder cases to pieces with the object of showing that the verdicts were, to say the least, doubtful justice, That is the most awful fate of ail—to be punished for a murder of which you are innocent. There is no pardon for a hanged min Jat.mes Maybrick, a substantial Liverpool cotton broker, died • ort May 11th, 1889. The post-mortem revealed traces of arsenic in his body. His American wife, Florence, twenty-six years his junior, was arrested, It transpired that she had a lover, and during the prelimin- ary hearings Mrs. Maybrick was hissed in court. When she was brought to trial the Crown proved (a) that Mrs, Maybrick had bought fly -papers containing arsenic and soaked theist in water, (b) that nurses had seen her handling her husband's meat - juice which was later found to contain arsenic, (c) that she had written to her lover stating that Maybrick was "sick unto death" at -a time when the doctors were optimistic about his recovery. But the accused was fortunate in Iter defending counsel, Sir Charles Russell, one of the greatest advo- cates who ever stood at the English Bar. Lt cross-examination he esta- blished that the flypapers were bought and soaked quite openly and that arsenic was used as a cos- metic; that Maybrlck's brother had first put the idea of poisoning in the minds of both doctors and nurses; that Maybrick had been accustomed to taking arsenic as a medicine. Sir Charles forced the doctors to admit that death might have been the result of "natural causes." Speaking from the dock (until 1898 defendants were not allowed to give evidence on oath) Mrs. Maybrick stated that she had put a powder in the meat-juiee at the urgent request of her husband, Whether this was true or not, 11itsscll had proved that all the evidence brought by the Crown could equally well point to natural causes and he was, therefore, justi- fied in telling the jury: "There is no safe resting place on which you can justify a finding that this was a death of arsenical poisoning," After a rather muddled summing- up by the judge the jury brought in a verdict of guilty, but as a result of public outcry sentence of death was later communted to life im- prisonment. On the evidence (and a jury has no business to consider anything else) there seems little doubt that Florence Maybrick was innocent. So, according to Mr. Lustgarten, was Edith Thompson in the famous case involving herself and Frederick Bywaters. Late on a March evening of 1922 Mr. and Mrs. Percy Thompson were returning from the theatre to their respectable home in Ilford, Essex. Suddenly a man thrust the wife aside, stabbed the husband viciously in the neck and disappeared. Shriek- ing "Don't! Don'tt' Mrs. Thomp- son ran for help. But her husband was beyond aid, Despite the fact that the wounds on his body were plain for all to see, Mrs. Thompson in her ac- count to the police did not mention an assailant. Naturally, the police made further inquiries and discov- ered that site was having an affair with a Merchant Navy steward, aged twenty—her junior by eight years. Confronted with her lover at the police station Edith broke down and Bywater, though denying murder, admitted the knife assault, This was obviously enough to hang him, and duly proved so. But the police were not satisfied; they charged Edith with murder as well, Since Bywaters, not site, had struck the blow the Crown had to prove that he had done it with her knowledge and at her direction. To do this they relied on a number of of her letters found in Bywater's room, In these there were refer- ences to desperate action, to pow- dered glass and to something bit- ter in her husband's tea. How did the great Sir Henry Curtis -Bennett, who was defending Edith Thompson, meet these damn- ing admissions? By the most atnaz- ing and, ultimately, the most con- vincing pleas ever advanced in a Court of Law. He simply denied that they had any relation at all to fact and set out to prove it. Edith Thompson, he said, was "not some ordinary woman; she is one of those striking personalities that stand out," Possessed of a vitality and a capacity for romantic passion far too great for her dull Ilford husband site frantically sought an owlet for her restless- ness. She found it, as her letters show, in novels whose characters were completely real to het'—more real than the events of ordinary life, Above -II she found it in By - waters. :;he regarded her affair with this rather ordinary slipping employee as one of the great love affairs of all time, When it lacked romantic details she supplied theist from her own active itinaginati01t, Her letters contained a great saga of her battle with her father and sister, who wanted her to give up Bywaters. This was the purest fa- brication, as both father and sister testified in court. Frustrated by ordinary existence she lived "an extraordinary life of make-believe," part of which was the opeFitic plot to murder her husband. She never intended it to be carried out. Indeed, as Bywaters said, there never was a plan at ah. But because he transformed fiction into fact, they both went to the gallows, Mr. Lustgarten does not hold Edith Thompson blameless, but he does maintain that she was not guilty of murder. For to live a life apart in "an endless romantic tale" is one thing; and to intend a man's death attd to arrange for someone else to compass it is quite another. The jury were not convinced, or else refused to see this distinction and sent Edith Thompson to the gallows, Were tate jury prejudiced? It is to the danger of prejudicial juries that Mr. Lustgarten directs his most telling eloquence. Whatever we niay think of the character or behavior of the accused, as jurors we are concerned with the evidence Oily. If on that evidence we find the prisoner guilty we have done our duty. But if, because of our own preconceived ideas, we deny .the prisoner the benefit of any reason- able doubt to which he is entitled, we ourselves are guilty of that frightening amoral crime knownsas miscarriage of justice, Beware Of Poison ivy Your arm begins to itch. You rub it again and again, A rash de- velops followed by inflatnn,ation of the skin, When the inflamed area begins to spread and small watery blisters forth, the itch heroines maddening. These developments may occur in a few hours or may take several days. Poison ivy, Bor- gia of the countryside has structs. Fouad in every province, poison ivy grows in greatest profusion in Ontario and western Quebec. From Quebec City eastward it is found less frequently, and from Winnipeg to the Pacific coast grows mainly at lake and woodland re- sorts. Poison ivy grows as a trailing vine or an upright plant The leaves, arranged alternately on woody stents, are composed of three smaller leaflets. In early summer small whitish flowers ap- pear in the axils of the leaves. Clusters of greenish yellow fruit which gradually turn white, succeed the flowers in some locations. The toxic substance in poison ivy is called "urushiol" which is con- tained in the leaves, floyvers, fruit, stems or roots. It may persist for months on gloves, tools, shoes and picnic outfits, Dogs, cats and other animals may transmit it to humans, It is even claimed that particles of it are carried in the smoke from burning ivy. Treatment for ivy poisoning con- sists of washing affected parks with laundry soap and warm water im- mediately after contact. Washing with alcohol, kerosene or gasoline are alternatives. Potassium perman- ganate solution and calamine lotion are recommended for certain cases of poison ivy dermatitis. Woodlot Farming Brings Real Revenue Modern tree farming has made wood the second most important ccrop produced on the 680 -acre Half -Mile High stock farm of Wal- lace Hanline, Grant County, West Virginia, Two years ago in one selective cutting, Hanline harvested a quartter million board feet of hardwood netting him $5,500, Only through scientific woodlot management has this woodlot farm- er been able to realize his success. Four generations of highly success- ful fire prevention practices and re- stocking with young seedlings has transformed once thought of waste land into a cash crop. Commenting on this increased farthing revenue, several experts feel that many Canadian farmers could enjoy this also. Efficient cut- ting of timber and elimination of wastes would allow for increased yields and prevent destruction of the country's precious woodlands. Cutting should be timed to im- provve the quality of the woodlot and increase cash returns. Im- provement cutting betters grow- ing conditions in the woods. Thin- ning gives the more valuable species room to develop and release -cut- ting controls growth of undesirable saplings. Finally there are utiliza- tion cuttings which prepare logs for sale or fire wood. If the condition of the woodlot is carefully studied and analyzed and good woodlot management practices are employed, the much needed cash for further develop- ment of Canadian farms will be available, Head In The Clouds— "Twiga,'' in the background, giraffe father of week-old "Sambo," seems mighty proud of the atten- tion his offspring is receiving at the Whipsnade loo in England. The newcomer's mother, "Girlie," however is a bit more down to earth, advising her youngster to rubberneck right back at the curious spectators.