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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1958-10-09, Page 3Rural Happenings away Down East There stern to be several things that deserve mention, We decided to take Sunday afternoon off and get away from the place for a change, intending to drive out and see how the potato fields looked, and when we got home there were seven. notes in the back door starting, "Don't you ever stay home 3" Another thing that happened proves that time is a purely re- lative thing. I hadn't seen Phil Craig since 1924, when he and I were expert shovelers in the Freeport Gravel Pit. We got $18 a week for filling blue tipcarts with gravel, and Road Commis- sioner E. H. T. Malm was building about 75 miles of road for around a thousand dollars. The E. stood. they said, for Emil, and maybe the H. T. stood for happy times, because they were. Phil and I would shovel like mad until the gravel began drip- ping off the top of the load and the teamsters would haul out. Then we'd sit on our shovel blades and rest while another team backed in. This was good exercise and we slept and ate well. We'd discuss local politics and dances at Sylvester's Pa- vilion and the weather, and thus put in a fine summer. I hadn't seen him since, But I parked the automobile the other day in a dilly accredi- ted spot, and as I stepped out there was Phil Craig going by, looking not greatly unlike the same companion of the pit. He lifted his head as he passed and Without hesitation said: "Hello, John!" "Hello, Phil," I replied, Then he continued to walk on into the next 34 years, no doubt feeling he had said about all there was to say, and so he had. That same trip, somebody was telling about the time Whisp'irin' Stetson had a telephone put in. Whisp'irin' was a victim of that down -East sense of the ridicu- lous which also leads to bald- headed men being called Curly, and things like that. His normal speaking voice was a blatant blast that outdid Stentor, the bulls of Bashan, and the bass sec - BONING UP - A girl who ob- viously has a bone to pick with someone is Maureen Smith, pictured as she waits in line for a bus in London, England, The skeleton, an amateur the- atrical prop, probably proved invaluable in getting her a seat. tion of a combined Intercollegi- ate glee club. When he said how do to some passing lady, it would set her right back about three paces. You could hear him all over town. So somebody saw the tele- phone man up on a ladder at Whisp'irin's house and said, "What do you need a 'phone for -all you gotta do is open a win- dow and talk!" Whisp'irin' said, "Yeah, but sometimes I like an answer." We had another fellow, speak- ing of Whisp'irin', who was mild and moderate and never could be heard unless you whated him, and they always called him "Howlin'." Howlin' Gunderson. One thing -puts you in mind of another, so somebody asked whatever became of Sim Greem. Sim was an in -and -outer, mov- ing around the villages doing odd jobs, and once in a While putting on a little show he had, His specialty was fire-eating. During his act he always smear- ed gasoline on his face and shaved with a blowtorch. This was most spectacular. On one occasion he had one side all shaved and was about to do the other when Minniebrook Hall caught fire. This was the social site at Porter's Landing which Sim had engaged for three dol- lars for a one-night performance. They put out Sim and the fixe in that order, and nobody has seen him since. Sim always talked with a rich flow of multilegged words, and that brought to mind Sassafras Joe Minto, who was our best dis- courser. He was supposed to have swallowed the unabridged as a boy. Joe was of uncertain origin (which was not unusual in . that era of Maine seafarers who touched all the front verandahs of the distant world) and had a little salt -water farm on which he raised various things. He'd come one day with shucked clams or spike mackerel, and the next time he might have cucum- bers or blueberries. And his flair for articulation made it a treat to stand and haggle. Ray Dyer was one of his regu- lar customers for eggs, and one day Ray lit into him for bring- ing such small ones. It was pullet time and Joe was working off his peewees. After Ray had ex- hausted his contumely, Joe took a deep breath and said: "I would respectfully request you to comprehend, Mr, Dyer, that these ovoid integers of poul- try production are 'transported to you in the identical measure- ments originally projected by the manufacturing specialists in my employ!" Ray swayed a little, and said, "What?" Joe said, "I say, this is how the hens lay 'eml" I also heard about Marshy Pillsbury, who cranked up hitt old Model T the other morning and started to town. He came off the little dirt road out past his place, onto the hard -top, and got there just as a motorcade by an antique -car club was going by on its way to an outing. Marshy drove right into line, and when he got to the village there was a special motor -police- man there to convoy the antique. cars, and he waved Marshy right along with the rest of them. Every time Marshy tried to turn off the policeman motioned him back ieto line, so Marshy kept on going and went away over to Small Point where they had an exhibition, and Marshy won third prize. This is the first time he ever won anything, except for dry beans at Topsham Fair, and he was pleased, although when he got home his sister asked him some lively questions about Where he'd been. Marshy's is a 1911 Model T; he bought it new at that time; and he didn't know about antique cars. And soon. By John Gould in The Christian Science Monitor. CROSSWORD PUZZLE • ACROSS 1. Commotion 4 Ibsen character 7. Utopian 12. Such sweet sorrow t4 Concise 15. Article 10, Snell 17. Thin out 18. Old Trish coin 20. Instigate 22. Household god 55, Swiss hero 25, Short way 27. Yellow ocher 29. Ventilate 81fiirl's name 23 College degree (eb,) 34 illuronean song bird 27. Lay at ease 80 King of Eashan 40. Venture 42. Faro pasta 43. Also .45, Contents of nn atlas 47. Formerly 50. Choler 52. Long stick, 64. roverage 55, Iteck of a heat 57. Oeonerfield'p Wife 53, At home 60, Annoy 01, Incident 68. Appended 64. i3lnhop's Jurisdiction. s&: noshed fabrlis f nowN 1, To pieces 2. Mother of Perseus 3 Wordof choice 4. Opera K. Vulgar admirers of wealth 0. Berens 7 Pronoun 8. Dingle 0 Silkworms 10 Attribute 11 Shelter 18 For 10 Scheme 21 'Duck 2.9 Famous singer 20 Support 28 Youth 30 Paper (mus,) measure fie. ;tan's 82 Lilyllke plant nicknams 84: African worm 58. Arsenic 8: rat ,2 About 28 Snare (e5mb.) 88, Italian coin 41. Poems 44. Anxious fear 49. Incline 98. Avalanche 49. Dogma 51. Seatcl) nights nderef language 08. County in Ohio 65. Afi written ®!1111■®i% .:1 l,11111111111 it®■ 110111141111111 Answer elsewhere on thii page, GREW OLD TOGETHER - A couple of old-timers get together, Hattie Higgins, 75, holds a 100 -year-old wheat cradle. The crude but graceful implement was common on farms a cen- tury ago, before wheat was harvested by combines. TIWFA2N FRONT Approximately a million dol- lars is being spent this year on poultry research in Georgia, the U.S. nation's No. 1 broiler -fryer state, td` produce improved and tastier poultry in a minimum of time and at the lowest possible cost. The big 1958 investment in re- search, with emphasis on breed - Ing and feeding, comes atop ever- increasing sums which have been spent for the same purpose in recent years. And poultry ex- perts cite that such research is constantly producing worthwhile results. O 0 * As an example, 15 years ago 16 weeks and 15 pounds of feed were needed to produce a three - pound broiler. Presently in Georgia three -pound broilers are turned out in eight or nine weeks on about seven and one- half pounds of feed. Some pro- ducers achieve better than that average. O 0 0 Dr. C. K. Laurent, formerly head of the poultry department of the Georgia College of Agri- culture at the University of Georgia, where much of the poultry research in Georgia is conducted, forecasts that within the next five years a scant six weeks and only six pounds of feed will be needed to produce a three -pound broiler. O 0 0, Charles Vantress, who con- ducts a tremendous independent broiler breeding research pro- gram at the Chas. Vantress Farms, Inc„ sees it a littIe dif- ferently. He believes a three - pound chicken will be produced soon in seven weeks on about 1.75. pounds of feed per pound of meat -a total of 5,25 pounds of feed for the three -pound bird. 0 + * What this should mean to the housewife is easy to see -better poultry at ]ower cost. Georgia poultry experts claim that chick- en has long been the best buy in meat available, and they forecast that the day lies ahead when per capita consumption of poul- ' try will exceed that of pork, whichis currently 80 pounds or more per year. An estimated 25,000 persons are currently employed in the various segments of the Georgia poultry industry which now benefits more farmers and their families than any other single commodity in the state, + * + Funds to carry out poultry research in Georgia are provided by feed manufacturers and deal- ers, manufacturers of feed sup- plements and supplies, and in- dependent breeders, supplement- ed by some state and federal government funds for university research. 0 0 0 In his huge operation, with headquarters in Duluth, Ga., Charles Vantress and his scores of researchers and aids have de- veloped anew variety of broiler, known as the Vantress Domin- ant White Male Line, especially for crossbreeding for meat, and, incredible as it may seem, his males will sire more than 1,500,- 000,000 "Vantress Cross" chicks in the next 12 months.. Males for crossbreeding stock are shipped all over the United States and Canada and South America, They travel in the farms' own trucks, by parcel post, railway express, and air express, In addition to the 400 - acre pedigree breeding farm at Duluth, Mr. Vantress also has a 3,000 -acre mountain farm at Jas- per, Ga., and distributing plants in the Northeast, Midwest and on the West Coast. + * 0 Mr, Vantress himself is still a relatively young man and began his pedigree testing program in Live Oak, California, in 1939. A little over three years ago he moved his operations to Georgia because he felt that this section offered the opportunity of doing the best breeding job possible and also because Atlanta is the hub of the broiler belt. At Duluth, a continuous pedi- gree pure line testing program and pedigree cross -testing pro- gram are being carried out, and results have been heartening. Vantress entries won both of the National Chicken -of -Tomorrow contests and have taken numer- ous other honors. The farms specialize 100 per cent on male - line breeding. * 0 s As a result of the breeding program, coupled with the per- fection of better feeds and im- proved feeding practices, the Vantress farms are now produc- ing birds with better conforma- tion, a larger ratio of meat to the bone frame, a better eviscer- ated yield, and a faster rate of growth on less feed. The Mighty Voice Of Big ben When Big Ben struck three o'clock in the afternoon, we all jumped -and my ears rang for some moments afterwards. You see, I' was standing within six feet of that monstrous bell in the tower high over the House of Commons. With a special party of watch and clockmakers, I had plodded ..up the spiral staircase of 290 steps f r o m the Parliament Square ground level to the clock room, where the mechanism that runs perhaps the most famous clock in the world is housed. We were there at a quarter to three, when the eight quar- ter bells chimed the quarter hour, right on the dot, The ac- tual chiming was far above us, but we could see what made it go. Pulleys pulled, wheels spun. Fans whirred around. Rocker arms went up and down. There was an impressive noise quite apart from the bell. We already had traversed the narrow passage behind t h e clock's four faces. Each dial is nearly 24 feet in diameter. The numbers on the face are each two feet long. The minute spaces are a foot square. The hour hands are nine feet long, and the minute hands 14 feet long After mounting another 44 steps, We entered the belfry chamber and were in the pre- sence of Big Ben itself, I mean herself. Or maybe himself. That requires some explaining Big Ben is the big bell, not the clock, And big bells, it seems, like ships, always are referred to as "she" in the bell -world. This she -bell, however, has al- ways been known by a mascu- line nickname, writes Henry 5. Hayward in The Christian Sci- ence Monitor. Some wanted to call her "Vic- toria." Others advocated "St. Stephen." One of the latter was Commissioner of Works Sir Benjamin Hall, a large man himself, who in 1857 made an ardent speech in the Commons about the new clock. Cried a member: "Why not call it 'Big Ben' and have done with it?" And that was how the name came about. She's a him, But to get back to the big bell that makes one of the most famous sounds in the world. Big Ben is about 14 tons. The first version was cast at Stockton- on-Tees, and the ship that car- ried it to London nearly foun- dered in a storm. This bell didn't "speak" properly, and the experts of the day kept testing it with heavier and heavier clappers until the bell broke. It was recast; to the surprise of many it hit the intended note of "E" and was hauled back to Parliament by 16 white horses. Again, they hit it too hard; again it tacked. But they turn- ed it an eighth and patched it up -and that bell still is per- forming today. The quarter bells are set to the following lines: "AIt through. this hour, Lord, be my guide, And by Thy power, No foot shall slide," Big Ben then booms to under- score the message. Only a handful of times in more than 100 years has Big Ben stopped. Once driving snow halted the hands. But the first part of the clock mechanism to be renewed since 1859, a new pendulum spring, was not re- quired until 1944. During World War II Big Ben had a close call, On May 10, 1941, the chamber of the House of Commons below was destroy- ed by bombing. The clock's south dial was smashed and the belfry damaged. But through- out the bombing of London Big Ben's voice broadcast as usual its message of hope and inspira- tion to the British at home and abroad. It told the world this capital was calmly carrying on. From the outset, accuracy has been demanded of Big Ben The original specification called for the first stroke of each hour to be correct to within one second -and for the clock to telegraph its correct time twice a day to Greenwich Observatory. They said it couldn't be done, that no clock so big could be so accurate. But after 10 years, e clock mechanism capable of meeting the specifications had been produced. The clock formerly was hand Wound, a formidable task which took strong men many a weary hour. Now it is done by an electric motor. Large copper British pennies rest on the pendulum in careful piles to give it just the right weight for split-second accuracy. Amateurs, such as I, give a lot of credit to these pennies, which we under- stand, but we Iooked blank when it was explained that "power Is conveyed to the pend- ulum via double three-legged gravity escapement." Big Ben, they say, has never been more than four seconds off. For weeks at a time it has run to within one-tenth of a second per day of true time. Big Ben is not meant to be heard close to, However, when standing in the tower you hear that mighty voice bong once or thrice, something of the majesty and history of this country sweeps over you with the sound. But, take it from me, 12 would be too much. lifrEstiNDAY nom JJiSSON By Rev R. Barclay Warren B,A., B.t) Introduci"g the - Gospel Luke 1:1-4; 3:1-6. Memory Selection: When the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his son. Galatians 4:4. For this quarter we .,egin a study of the life of Christ based en the three Synoptic Gospels with a strong emphasis on the Gospel of Mark, These record chiefly the events of lhrist's Galilean ministry with Luke in- cluding an account of His mini- stry in Perea. John records principally Christ's deeds and sayings in Jerusalem and Judea. All four give a detailed account of the last week and esr^cially of the last twenty-four hours of Christ's life. The writer of the lesson for today was Luke, "the beloved physician" who joined Paul at Troas on his second missionary journey. There in the account in Acts he begins to use the per- sonal pronoun "we," lie went with Paul to Jerusalem at the close of Paul's third missiol,ary journey and evidently stayed in Palestine during the two years which. Paul spent as a prisoner in Caesarea. During that two years he had abundant oppor- tunity to talk with apostles and gather data of his Gospel also the Book of Acts. During that two years Luke very likely had opportunity to meet Mary the mother of Jesus. One present-day scholar has re- marked, "Luke's exclusive nar- ratives concerning the birth of John the Baptist and of Jesus are such as would interest a phy- sician, to whom such personal disclosures would be confided." Some critics say they do not be- lieve the story of the Virgin Birth because neither Jesus nor Paul mention it. They uncover their own evil heart of unbelief when they reject the accounts by Matthew and. Luke. These are in full record with God's state- ment that the seed of the 'vo- man should bruise the serpent's head; with the prohecies of Isaiah concerning the birth of Immanuel: Paul's teaching of the incarnation and Jesus' re- ferences to His own unique re- lation with the Father. The man who rejects the account of the Virgin Birth rejects much more Of the Scriptures. Let us ap- proach the study of the life of Jesus knowing that He is indeed the Son of God. If all the sack dresses in the world were laid end to end they would reach half way across the ocean -and lots of men third; this would be a good idea, Upsidedown to Prevent Peeking ISSUE 40 - I95tn WAR AND PEACE - A Chinese Nationalist antiaircraft battery in the background spoils the illusion of pastoral 'peace given by the toiling farmers in the foreground: The incongruous grouping was seen near Taiwan, capital of Formosa.