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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1958-06-12, Page 2Toast of Princes Died Penniless_ Recently, a 85 -year-old woman died in a New York hospital, where she had been brought from a tiny, squalid room. Few would have recognized her as Belle Livingstone, once the toast of princes andmillionaires, later still the uncrowned queen of the New York dives, Thus ended a remarkable life which had begun when her, un- known mother abandoned her on a doorstep in Emporia, Kansas. The tiny child was found by a, newspaper editor, John Ram- say' Graham, who took her home and adopted. her, By the time she wag 20, Belle had, already rnade up her mind that life in a small provincial town was not for her. She told Graham she wanted to become a dancer, an ambition which he sternly opposed. Almost immediately. B e 1 1 e went out into the street, stopped the first likely -looking passer- by and asked him to marry her. He agreed—to a marriage of convenience—and Belle confront- ed her foster -father as a mar- ried woman, free to do as she pleased. Soon after she had gone to New York, where the critics hailed her as "the girl with the poetic legs", her husband, Rich- ard Waring, died. Since thele had been no time to obtain the divorce they had arranged, Belle inherited his fortune of $150,000. The year was 1897, and she left New York in search of' adventure in the Old World, . For five years ahe roamed between London, Paris and even Arabia, where she patched her tents in the desert in an unsuc- cessful attempt to work a nine. Then she lost all her money ne the stock exchange and she was back where she started—or so it seemed. But fortune took a hand again. She bet a London millionaire, Charles Ansell, that the could go round the world on a mere $25, busing her personal charms to make up for her lack of money. The two signed a contract. If Belle lost, she must marry a man she had previously rejected. But if she won she would be about $25,000 better off. She got as far as Japan, where the met and fell in love with an Italian count. Cabling Ansell to ask whether the terms of their bet permitted her to marry, she received the answer, "Take the man andthe money, too,' A countess now, Belle return- ed to America for It visit. But while she was there the count died and, since the marriage had been in Japan, she could not legally inherit as his widow. There followed a providential third marriage, to a Cleveland millionaire, a fourth, to an English colonel who left her in order to live a quieter life with his sisters. After that, Belle tried the tables of Monte Carlo, where she lost everything. In 1927 she again returned to her native America, where Prohibition was in full force. With money she had earned be publishing her memoirs she opened a chain of dives where customers could buy bootleg liquor—at a price. ' They paid more than $130 a year membership fees for what Belie Livingstone liked to de- scribe as her "clubs", and a glass of very dubious synthetic alcohol could cost up to $5. She was frequently arrested, but invariably discharged, since the police had to prove that she was the proprietor of a dive, and that she herself organized the opAA a of alcoholic drinks. Her "'e,'. u b s" became fashionable among New York society, and she went from ' strength to. strength—till -December, 1930. It was then that three plain- clothes detectives ordered drinks in her club on '58th Street, They put all the waiters and barmen under arrest, then went upstairs to the third floor, where BeUe Livingstone was in pyjamas, in readiness to go to bed.. Belle escaped out of the win- dow and slid down a rope, which was hanging there in readiness for such emergencies, For half an hour the police pursued her over the rooftops, -finding her an easy quarry in her bright red pyjamas. At last she man- aged to get into a near -by house, and thought herself safe; but when she let herself out into the street, two policemen were waiting to arrest her. Her trial was the talk of the city. She appeared in court to- gether with scores of cases of "hooch", brought as evidence. But although she vehemently de- nied every charge, claiming, among other things, that she had been educated' at Oxford and the Sorbonne, Paris, she went to prison for 30 days. When she was released she was banned from opening or running any more "clubs" in the city of New York. Nothing daunted, she moved her headquarters to Reno, but the repeal of Prohibition finally put an end to her fortune. Fait ing in Reno, she tried and failed again in California. Poor, lonely and friendless, she returned to New York in 1937, but her old admirers had for- gotten her. For the twenty years before her death, the woman who had blazed a trail across Europe and. America lived in wretched pov- erty in a bleak Mannattan base- ment. SHALLOW REMARK One day Lefty Gomez turned around and saw Joe DiMaggio playing an excessively shllow centerfield. With Rudy York coming up, Gomez blanched and waved DiMag back. After the game, he asked Joe why he had moved in so close. "I'm supposed to make people forget Tris Speaker," DiMag said with a grin. "If you play in for guys like York, you'll make them forget Gomez," retorted Lefty. SKY SENTRY—Set to start scan- ning the skies in the near future, a giant radar tower nears com- pletion in Munich, Germany. The tower features a 23 -ton an- tenna which will rotate six times a minute from its 70 -foot -high perch. it is capable of "view- ing" all air traffic for a radius of 330 miles and up to 13 miles altitude, IID BL[ FLOWERS—Ldazlo Medve, 70, can't make vegetables Brow as flowers, so he does .the next best things, carves them to look like flowers. Re'a displaying his skill at a hobby show for o,! '=eople. He dyes and perfumes the finished products. TINNED TIME—Clock-eyed shoppers will soon be able to buy tinned time at ihe grocery store. Packaging of one -day and electric alarm clocks rings the bell for a tomortowful' of mer- chandise, hermetically seated in tin, that will be available in your grocery store. •Because of the protective, cushioned pack- aging, clocks won't suffer atmospheric or other'damage. They'll carry a one-year guarantee rather than the conventional 90 -day warranty. TABLE TALKS dam Andrews. Some day this year may be a wedding day in your family. It may be a church wedding that you are planning, or it may be a home wedding, or it may be a wedding in a garden — but. whatever kind of a wedding it is, there must always be a wed- ding cake! There's something about wed- ding calces. For years on end one hardly thinks about them and then, suddenly, when it's time for one to be made or ordered for someone in the family, the cake assumes an importance almost equal to that of the bride's dress or bouquet. Shall it be a square one, a round one or an oval one? With what shall the cake be topped— a miniature bride and bride- groom, decorative wedding bells, sugar flowers, or a pair of alu- minum foil wedding rings? I've just been to a beautiful home wedding. It perhaps yield- ed ideas for the one you are planning. A simple wooden altar was placed in front of a fire- place and covered with white stock' carnations and lilies, writes Eleanor Richey Johnston in The Christian Science Moni- tor. The mantel behind the min- ister -was in-ister'was banked with ferns and white blossoms. Three-foot high candlesticks, each holding five large white candles, stood one at either side of the altar. Wide white satinribbons from the altar to the foot of the stairs made an aisle for mem- bers of the bridal party after they descended the stairs. Guests stood on both sides. In the room next to this, a table holding the wedding cake had been placed across one cor- ner. The cake was oval, four - tiered, and decorated with sugar gardenias, the bride's favorite flower. It was topped by a cluster of three sugar gardenias, and each tier was decorated with them in graduated sizes. The entire cake was elevated slightly above the table, leaving space .for a wreath of fragrant live gar- denias around the base. It made a beautiful picture to be re- membered always. * V * If you want to make the cake for your own family wedding, here are directions. You will need to make the recipe twice, and you can bake it the day before and ice it . the morning of the big day. Four -Tiered White Cake 2s/% cups sifted cake flour 1% cups sugar % cup shortening 1 teaspoon salt 1 cup milk 4% teaspoons double acting bak- ing powder (5% teaspoons of regular) le cup milk 5 egg whites 1 teaspoon flavoring Measure first five ingredients into mixing bowl and mix thor- oughly for two minutes. §Messrs baking powder. Add the % 'hap milk, egg whites, and flavoegeg' and mix thoroughly fori6' minutes. Grease a 13x9x2-i ch ' loaf pan and line bottom ' With heavy waxed paper or lust with flour. Pour in hatter and bake - at 369°x' for 4'. a •'lutes. Make reeip s again :o that you have two 13x9 cakes. Then ar- range them like this; 1st layer: One 13x9 cake. 2nd layer: Cut second cake into two pieces, 7x9 and 6x9 inches. Place the 7x9 -inch piece lengthwise on the first layer. 3rd layer: Cut the 6x9 piece into two equal pieces, 6x4 -inches, and place one piece lengthwise on second layer. 4th layer: Cut the remaining piece of cake into two equal pieces, 3x 4% -inches and place one piece on top of third layer. The last piece is for the bride and bridegroom. Freeze it and wrap in aluminum foil. They can eat it on•their first month's an- niversary. Fluffy Boiled Icing 1?e cups sugar tee cup water 1 tablespoon light corn syrup r1 teaspoon salt 2 egg whites 1 teaspoon vanilla Cook sugar, water, salt, and corn syrup in saucepan over low heat, stirring until sugar is dis- solved; cover pan and boil for about , 3 minutes. Boil without stirring until a small amount forms a firm ball in cold water (242°F. -244°F.). Uncover; beat egg whites stiff. Remove syrup from heat and pour slowly over beaten egg whites, beating con- stantly. Add vanilla. Continue beating until icing is of consis- tency -to spread. Use the above icing to ice be- tween layers, on sides, and top of cake. lelake this recipe twice. It is not possible to double the recipe because the icing becomes unworkable, Ornamental Icing ?s cup shortening teaspoon salt 1% teaspoons vanilla The (Launching Of A Ship Everybody in town followed the, progress of each vessel with great interest. All knew when the keel was laid, when the frame was up, when she was celled and planked, when she was calked, when the masts were set, when she 'was rigged, wheh ihe water line was drawn and the painters were at work. To be sure the men did the actual work, but behind the lines were the women and children, each; helping directly or indi- rectly to bring the vessel to completion. Boys tended the steam -box, girls carried their fathers' dinners to the shipyard, wives and mothers cooked and' washed and sewed to feed and • clothe the men who were work- ing so feverishly from sun to SUM Captains' wives and sweet- hearts anxiously awaited the day when the vessel would, be finished and ready to sail. If the maiden voyage were to, be a honeymoon voyage the whole town breathed one great lover's sigh. As the day of the launching (pronounced "larnching") 'drew near everybody was on the qui vive, In the yard all was abustle and astir for the vessel had to be greased up the day she was to be sent down the ways, In olden times all sorts of grease, even goose grease mixed with flaxseed was sometimes used. In, the writer's day rancid lard, tal- low, pogy poll, soft soap, hard soap, seal blubber and 'New York launchinggrease" were used. Whatever it was, it had to be put on without stint and the ways had to be so very slick and slippery that when the blocks and wedges were knock- ed out the vessel would glide smoothly into the water. The launching always took place at flood tide and about noon. In those good old days anybody who wished could launch aboard. We children would climb the long inclined staging leading from the ground to a point opposite the vessel's rail about midships. That was comparatively easy; but when we reached the narrow plank bridging the gap between the staging and the rail, although there was always a friendly hand outstretched to us, our knees trembled, our legs grew limp and our purpose faltered Only by keeping our eyes fixed on the 2 egg whites 3 cups confectioners' sugar Cream shortening, salt, vanil- la, and 1 cup sugar until light and fluffy. Beat egg whites with 2 cups sugar until stiff. Combine the two mixtures., When well mixed, place in cake decorating tube and decorate cake. To make rosettes, use fluted attachment. Place against cake and squeeze just enough to make rosette, Place silver candy in center of each rosette. Edge each layer, using the same, tube attachment, but allowing frost- ing to overlap every half inch er 50. * • $ If you want to serve punch at the wedding reception, here is a recipe that is easy. It uses frozen fruit juice concentrates. Wedding Punch 3 6 -ounce cans frozen orange juice concentrate 1 6 -ounce can frozen grapefruit juice concentrate 1 quart ginger ale 2 limes Prepare concentrates accord- ing to can directions; pour into punch bowl with ginger ale. Add ice. Cut limes in very' thin slices and float on punch. Thir- ty-two ? 4 -cup servings. rail ;incl„tnustevIng ?ill the cour- age__at me; coiinated coulcl'we take the final stops that put us aboard. The writer duos not know which was the moue thrilling; to launch aboard or to stanci en. the shore and watch the Vessel glide into the, water, Whether Was the sensation as one of night or feeling, it wee subiitne! The tense throng, the curt commands, the concerted acl;lon of the: merit, the frenzied knocking out of the blocks, the sudden quiver of the ship's whole frame as if the breath of life had been breathed into her, and a. movement that seemed to say "when 'tie done, then `tweset well it were done quickly,” and with one majestic plunge, she was in the 'foaming waves. Whistles blew, shouts and cheers rent the air, Proudly rid ing the churning waters which enfolded and caressed her, she seemed like some animate thing. And, indeed, she was something more than a hulk of wood and iron; for hacl not the thoughts and the plans, indeed the very lives of dozens of men gone into the making of her graceful frame? — From "A Town That Went to Sea," by Auhigne Ler mond Packard. Away Up High! The earth's atmospheric veil which gives the stars their scin- tillation or twinkle -twinkle, de - tights dabblers in dreams, but has always hindered astr'- nom.ica7 observations. -Recently, after 22 years of frustrated star- gazing, astronomer Alfred E. Mikesell burst into the clear to become the first astonomer to behold non -twinkling stars. His observatory: A 2- by 4 -foot open air glass -fiber platform lifted 8 miles high by a helium -filled balloon and held reasonably steady in the high-altitude winds under the experienced hand of the veteran balloonist, Malcolm Ross. Bundled up in Navy cold - weather suits ("They looked like a couple of Tedryv bears," a launch crewman remarked), the two men rose slowly shortly be- fore sunset from an open iron mine near Crosby, Minn. "I'm not comfortable el heights," Mikesell, 44 -year-old father o/ eight, said in his, understated manner, "but I had great faith in Ross as a pilot, and once •night Came, the work kept the mind occupied. The stars were start- ling. Jupiter looked as big as si weather balloon. It certainly wasn't like the observatory: While Ross maneuvred to five pre -selected altitude observation points and kept on a south -south- easterly course ("We didn't want to • come down in Lake Mich- igan"), Mikesell worked with his 33 -inch telescope with a photo - tube attached to pinpoint just where the twinkle ends. Tenta- tively he estimates 36,000 feet. The balloon's landing just east of Dubuque, Iowa, was "text- book perfect", according to Ross. But the real high spot was watching Mikesell watching the stars. "We got an astronomer above most of the atmosphere— it was just wonderful seeing him at work there." —From Newsweek, OLD SPANISH CUSTOM Mrs. Carmen Rivera, of Pas- ajes de San Juan, Spain, is pretty certain that her next child — the 26th — will be a girl. So far her children have been born in strict rotation — ons year a son, the next a daughter. Of her 25 children, 13 have been boys and 12 have been girls. Mrs. Rivera, therefore, confi- dently predicts: "This year it will be a girl!" ISSUE 23 — 1958 These Treats Make BY DOROTRY MADDOX For a hot -day luncheon, frozen fruit salad serves as a combina- tion main dish and dessert. Of course, a pitcher of iced tea goes with this luncheon, too. Ice Tea Recipe (10-12 servings) ?remeasure '1 cup loose tea (or remove tags from 15 tea - bags). Bring 1 quart of freshly drawn cold water to a full rolling boil in a saucepan.eRemove from heat and while water is still bub- bling, add all the tea at one time. Stir. Brew 5 minutes, un- covered. Stir and strain into pitcher holding an additional quart of freshly drawn cold wa- ter. (Do not refrigerate.) Serve in ice -filled glasses, with lemon and sugar to taste. Frozen Fruit Salad (About 8 servings) One can (1 pound 14 -ounce) fruit cocktail, 1 envelope un- flavored gelatin, ?h . cup Liquid from fruit, 1 tablespoon sugar, 1 package (3 -ounce) cream cheese, 2 tablespoons mayon• naise, '8 marshmallows, quar- tered; 1 cup heavy cream, whipped. Drain fruit cocktail, saving ei cup liquid. . Sprinkle gelatin, over Ile cup of liquid, Add sugar to the remaining '4 cup liquid and heat; pour over gelatin. Combine cheese andmayon- Hot Weather Bearable What could be better for that midsummer heat spell than cooling ice tea and delicious frozen fruit salad? naise; stir in gelatin mixture, mixing until smooth. Combine with marshmallows and fruit. in a 6 -cup mold or refrigerator tray. Freeze, wfi cut stirring, until. Fold in whipped cream. Pour firm. Serve 4.4 salad greens.