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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1925-07-09, Page 3For the oys Girls NED'S TRIP TO MINOT'S LIGHT. BY EDWARD A. RAND. "Hurrah! Three cheers for the "II -i -s -t!" shouted. Mr. Handy, haw. flag!" ing bound the passengers in, Flag/ Where, Ned?" I There were two men above, and they Oh, that is only our wayat school, began to pull up than: load. Uncle when anything pleases us, I meant Charlie and Ned were c'angiing over the lighthouse. Don't you see it? the dark seawater. asked Ned, excitedly,standing in the i "It's a bit ticklish," thought Ned. bow of the boat and waving his hat. "Glad uncle is with me. Guess I won't Yes, Uncle Charlie could see it, and 1 ride in the dozen chaise. One will do." so did Mr. Handy, an old salt who. "Up, up, up, up, wont the stout was with them. arm -chair, like a big sea -turtle rising There was the lighthouse on Minot's out of the waters with a load on its Ledge, its grhy, massive shaft of stone back. using above the waters sweeping all about it. It was more than a genera- I Ned heard the block in the beam. tion ago when Minot's Light was con- creaking and rattling away, and knew sidtred ono of the'foremost on the lie was near the end of his ride •to coast: As Ned tanned in the direction of the shore, he saw the waves washing over a ledge, and it seemed as if they, too, were lifting their white caps and flourishing them as excitedly as he at the sight of the lighthouse. "Uncle Charlie, how far is the Light from the shore, please?" "Well, Ned, it is about a mile and a half or so from the land. It is built on the extreme point of a dangerous ledge. "I have been by Minot's Ledge many a howlin' night,", said Mr. Handy, "and it is a tough place. Those rocks would chew up a boat in Less than no time in bad weather," They were 114W near the light. "handsome, is it not, uncle?" "Yes; I think it is a noble column of stone," "But how shall we get in? Water is all round it. Oh, I see! There is a ladder up the side. .And look, uncle! See that door away up in the side of the lighthouse." "How high up do you suppose that door is?" "Oh, -I don't know." "Forty feet, and the entire height of the lighthouse is one hundred and fourteen feet. It would need a giant with very long legs to step from our level up to the threshold of that door." "Do we climb the ladder, then? How funny it would be to climb up that ladder and then knock at the door and; say, "Can you let two shipwrecked sailors in?" "Wd can't go by the ladder to -day. We must be close up to the tower for that, and besides, itis delicate work for some landlubbers to climb that ladder." "Then stow do we get up? That puzzles ate. Perhaps they will drop a hook and line and fish for us!" Uncle Charlie laughed and lowered the sail of his boat. There was a rope stretching from the lighthouse to a buoy in the water. "We will tie our boat here, Ned." "Just Iook up, Uncle Charlie!" Uncle Charlie turned and looked up. In. the doorway of stone stood a man. Ho was bareheaded and had a white coat on. He looked like a long- legged seabird with white wings that, flying over the water, had suddenly alighted on the step of stone. From an upper window projected a beam, from which hung ropes that the man put to a gond use for the Iowering of a stout armchair. There was a rope fastened at one end tothe chair, the t r and o o bar end. the pian threw to Skipper Handy, who caught it in his big, brown hands This enabled the skipper to roil the chair into the boat. "I see now, uncle. We go up in the chair." "Yes, Frightened, Ned?" "No, indeed! I could ride in a dozen," said Ned, valiantly. "But you couldn't all at onoe. Let ins see. Skipper Bandy, I guess I will take my nephew in my lap. We are not heavy, you know, elcipper!" The old seaman liked that title. "Aye, aye, sir!" he sung out proud- ly. "You will Iook after the boat, skip- per, while we are gone?" "Aye, aye, sir! I have secs enough of .the light. I don't want to go." "All aboard," shouted Ned, gaily, "for Minot's Light!" "Tie us in now,, skipper, and tell thein to hoist." "Good -day!" said a voice. It was the long-legged se -a -bird with white wings. This man had a pleasant voice, and we will call,him Merry. "Good -morning, Gentlemen!" said Uncle Charlie, addressing Merry and his companion. "So we are up in the sky at last." "You will be, soon as we pull you in," said Merry; and Uncle Charlie and Ned were drawn into the light- house, like birds into'a nest. "Three cheers!" said Ned. Merry grinned. "What do you.call this place?" "This, young man" (he called Ned "young man" and Uncle Charlie "sir") "this, young man," said Merry, "is our. store -room. We keep our fuel here; provisions also." "And this?" asked Ned, pounding With his foot on a round, black cover in the floor. "This is our well. It's thirty-eight "Peet deep " "How much water will it hold?" asked Uncle Charlie. "Seventy-five barrels. Come --up, now, and sere our kitchen --the next room," They followed Merry up the stairs, and entered a room where, the clock ticking on the wall, the shining cook - stove, the dining -table, the pantry, said plainly: "I'm the kitchen, gentle- men." "What's that?" asked Ned, pointing at a stool with a cushion. ' "Stool, isn't it, young man?" "Ye -s; but it looks queer." That is a life -seat. In case we get blown away, we might find it handy in the water," said Merry. The third room was a sleeping apartment. Everything was trim, as if the housekeeping had been femin- ine and not masculine. The fourth room was also for sleep- ing, Then came a place where seven shining copper -butts ranged about the walls, and seven dippers dangling from the seven stop -cocks, said very politely, "I'm the oil -room, gentlemen." "How much higher do we go," ask- ed Uncle Charlie,"before we -touch the roof of the clouds?" "Oh, we are making good progress, sir! We are now going up into the watch -room," This nook interested Ned very much. There were spy -glasses, with which the man on the look -out could sweep the sea. There was the log - At the age of 134 yeas's, this Pole journeyed from isielslc to Warsaw to recover the belts` stolen from •the village church' by the Russians in their last retreat from Poland. What a far-reaching view. Behind them -were the misty lines of the coast, and before them was the wide, rip- pling sea, stretching away till it met the sky shutting down upon it like a blue bowl on a blue plate. "One more place, Ned," said Uncle Charlie, and they followed the guide up into the lantern. "This, Ned, is the most important part. Everything. else exists for this. The foundation, the walls of stone, the kitchen, the little chambers, the oil-e,om—all serve just to support the lantern -light and keep it in good order." Ned wanted more than two eyes to see everything. Outside of all were panes of very thick and very clear glass. Xn the centre was a curtained object, "What is that, please?" asked Ned. The guide lifted a curtain, and said: "This is the lens. It is about ten feet high, kind of cone. -like in shape, you see, and yet not zackly." "Why, uncle, it looks as if it were made of wrinkles, one above another," "It is a pretty good name for them, Ned. They are rings of glass succeed- ing one another, or annular (ring-like) lenses, as they are called. Great pro- gress has been made in lighting up our coasts. Methods once were very different. No longer ago than the latter part of the eighteenth century, we are told that the search -lights of Great Britain were only open coal fires, When the famous Eddystone Lighthouse was built, its first light 'consisted of a few wax candles on a chandelier. Then they began to use Ig y reflectors that caught up the scatter- ing rays and threw them in one beans upon the sea. Then Fresnel proposed the plan of illumination with lenses. The metallic reflectors can be ar- ranged about a cylinder so as to light the whole horizon, but not all parts I with like intensity. Then they have ,been found to absorb too much of the light. "It is said that there is a gain of 1 one-fourth by using glass lenses or prisms. These are ringlike, one suc- ceeding another, and they have this iproperty of catching up the rays Ay- !leg out in all directions, and as they strike these prisms, or lenses, they are slate, for recording each day the ves- - sels that passed the light. "We mustut 'era em all down, said Merry. "Thousands go by every month and more than one thousand. I each week." "What's this? Why, you can step out here" "That, sir, is the parapet." The parapet ran all about the light- house, and was several tiet wide. Al firm iron railing girdled it, 'Quite brge.y out hese" said Ned. ''You'Ig man, in a tough gale cif: wind, 'twill plow every tooth out of sour head, almost." "1 would like to try it sa'ti tho dt,untiess Ned. "And what's thb1" 1' og-bell," Ir was screwed to the wail, its big mouth directed toward the sea, "In a fog, we toll tins, sin" "It must 'make cheerful music. far folks cn the water." "Better hear that than nothin'sir." Nedfeltas if he were away up in a , l Dickens' home in London is dedicated as a shrine to "ail Dickens' a4 - cloud, looking down upon the sea. wirers." Lord. Birkenhead., secretary for India, is speaking front the balcony,. refracted or bent in passing through the glass,' and sent out in 'straight lines across the sea toward every point of the compass. You see, these wrink- les, as you call them, have sharp cor- ners. They are prisms, or lenses, Looking along the edge of this light- house lens, up and down its sides, it is saw -like. These are the angles of the prisms. There are various kinds of lights; Ned. There is the fixed light, shining steadily; there is the revolv- ing light, shining, then disappearing, then shining again; there are sound lights, arranged to throw their beams mostly up and down the sound, rather than across, where the water is not so broad and less illumination is needed, To meet these varieties; there are special arrangements." "But, uncle, you .have been talking of what is about the light. Where is the light itself? It must be pretty big." "The lamp-part,young man? Look in there," said Merry: "Go in, if youl want to," Ned Went inside the lens. He saw the lamp in the centre. There were three concentric circles of wicking, and their diameters were one, two and three inches. "Now, you see," said Merry—"you see that machinery under the lamp. I turn a crank and it sets the machin- ery to moving, and thenthe oil is pumped up into the wicks. "I'll jest give you an idea." Merry gave a turn to the crank, and up flowed the oil. "And these three wicks give that big light folks see at night?" "Yes, with the lens' help." "Did you think it was a tar -barrel burning up here?" asked Uncle Charlie, "Why, no! But that is funny to see how. so small a lamp can make so big a light," "It shows, Ned, how big a dazzle may be made by a little thing, "With 'a little hemp," interposed. Merry. "Could not get along without) the lens." "You must take some comfort, dark, i stormy nights, thinking you are help- ing somebody at sea," 'I do, sir. I come up here and it may be howling fearfully, the night Stories About Well -Yawn ;People What He Smokes, "Although I'm probably the biggest smoker in the kingdom," Sir Thomas Lipton' rernar4(ed to a friend, of mine the other slay, "I never smoke cigars," "You prefer a pipe or cigaretto, pos- sibly?" said my friend. "No, I never emoks either," answered Sir Monne) 'Really! Theis may 1 aslc whet you do smoke?" - "Bacon," was Sir Thomas' Taconic. retort, In Cocoa -nut Land, Growing cocoa -nuts in the West In- dies is not a /Profession that has at- tracted many women. But Mies Nellie Hamel -Smith says it is "the ideal life." She employs sixty natide laborers and operates over a hundred aores de- voted to cocoa -nuts. "Life out there," she says, "is any- thing but savage. There are no earth- quakes, no bad storms, and uo snakes --and we bays got a telephone." Miss Hamel -Smith made good use of the telephone, too, not very long ago, far a man broke into her store to steal cocoa -nuts and she was able -to get the Police on the scent in less than ten minutes. Dandy of the Army. With the appointment of Field -Mar- shal Lord Plumer to the post of High Commissioner and Commander -in - Chief, Palestine comes under the rule of a man beloved by soldiers all over the Empire, "Pa" Plumes, as they have long known hint, used to be thee dandy of the Army, 1:1e still wears tbs stock and monocle and affects the drawl that excited the sarcasm of some of his early War Office colleagues. They soon learned to respect him, and now there are few more popular generals. Once, I remember, ;a gushing woman said to him; "Oh, Gerier•al, do tell me— should one pronounce the tu' in your DAMS short or long?" "Madam," replied Piumer, quietly, "my name rhymes with a certain gar- ment said to be favored by your sex, and I hope— But by this time the gushing one had fled/ He Strunk 0111 Viscount Bearsted, as the great oil magnate, formerly Sir Marcus .Samuel, now becomes., Ls Britain's Rockefeller —"the other span who struck oil," as he is sometinnes called in London. Few people know that his millions are of bis own making, or that he be- gan life with no advantages save a quick and perceptive brain. A mem- ber of a family of nine, he was born in the East -end of London, and at one time was a junior clerk. His father was a dealer, among other things, in boxes adorned with shells; it is from this source that the name of -a famous brand or petrel was obtained. dark, and the spray flying, Then I say, 'Some poor fellow on the water is Wing our light,' and I take a sight of comfort in thinking about it." `The party went down the stairs, through one little room after another, said good-bye to their- kind friend, took a ride down in what Ned called the "sky -car," and soon Uncle Char- lie's boat was dashing homeward through the waves. : REG'LAR FELLERS—By Gene Byrnes. j { GOT 'TEN LET CENTS AN' 1' DON ME GET KNOW WHAT TO Em FOR BUY,CHALkLiT I;Yoi5 LOe CABINS pyp'I•niNT oEtt0HTS OR WCOP.ICE' DRCAt"15. lam, LET ME! Wow 'BOUT ME? AWRI&HT! TELL. ME THE ANSWER TO A RIODLELONE WHa ANSWERS FIRST AN' RIGHT GETS 1.0 eo.E WHAT'S A BETWEEN A -THREE Leeeso oSTRICH AN' A CHALKLIT 'BAR. WITH ALMONDS 1N IT 1 The Loses of Love. All through an empty place I go, And find her not in any room; The candies and the lamps 1 light Go clown before a wind of gloom. Thick-spraddied lies the dust about, A fit sad place to write her name, Or draw her face the way site looked That legendary night she came. The old house crumbles bit by bit: Each day I hear the omninous thud That says another rent Is there For winds to pierce and storms to flood. My orchards groan and sag with fruit, Where, Indian -wise, the bees go round; I let it rot upon the bough; I eat what falls upon the ground. The heavy cows go laboring In agony with clotted tents; My hands are slack; my blood is cold I marvel that my heart still beats. I have no will to weep or sing, No least desire to pray or curse; The loss of love is a bitter thing: They lie who say that death le worse: --Countee Callen, Half and .Half With a Vengeance. - There once lived sonti.wbe,c to Ver- mont two farmers who were noted for their thrift and their exact sense of justice. Tradition says that on the line between the two farms grew a lm'ge butternut tree Every autumn the two men meet to gather and divide the crop. n one occasion a squirrel made a third party end was clever enough to 111 the1sth ter run off with a butternut. Down the line fence he setinsperc'(i and after hint ran the two farmers, each on his own sfdo of the fence, and each shout- ing loudly, "Drop it: Drop it!" The uproar so confused the squirrel that he did drop the nut and shot up a near -by tree. The men pinked up the nut, cracked and divided It in hell, after which each man shouldered his sack and went home well satisfied. Regarding the reflections that went on in the tree top, history is silent. m -- Bobby's Request. The picnickers were obliged to cross a railroad track in reaching the place where they were to have lunch and lit- tle Bobby, going ahead. saw a train ap- proaching. Eagerly he shouted to ]1',t father, who was still on the track, "I3urry, Daddy, or elm give me the lunch." What is a Cyclone? What is a cyclone -wand what isn't? Way back in the year 1848 Henry Piddington of Calcutta, one of the great pioneers in the study of storms, published a treatise called "The Sail- ors' Hornsook," in which he introduced. the term "cyclone" as a general name for all "circular or highly curved winds," This definition was broad enough to include our American tor- nadoes, but the term was not adopted into the seientffie vocabulary in just this sense. Nowadays the name "cyc- lone" is technically applied to a vast system of winds blowing around a centre of low barometer --the "low" of the daily weather map. Cyclones of the tropics, though thousands of times as big as a tornado, are generally much ssnallei• than the cyclones of temperate latitudes, .and aro nearly al- ways violent storms. In our latitudes cyclones may be stormy or otherwise; they affect us chiefly by bringing' weather changes from warm to cold and from wet to dry, A tornado is another affair. The true tornado is a violent local whirl- wind, the chief visible feature of which is a long dangling cloud, extending to or toward the earth. It is altogether different from the little whirls of dust or leaves that sometimes form in dry weather, and also from the tall whirl- ing calnines of sand seen In deserts andknown as "devils" or 'twisters," All of these latter start at the ground and work upward, and are visible oulq on account of the solid materials tbeY carry. The tornado always begins high in the air and works down, and its visibility is due to the presence of a genuine cloud of condensed moisture. The waterspout is a tornado over water, but is far less violent than the land tornado. Tornadoes are much more frequent and, on an average, much more severe in the interior of North America than anywhere else in the world. if /i Val. (-}AKOYER .1111 111 11 s tI111111tllilrr. Rabbit—"I guess a rabbit -trap is like ; Wall Street. It won't hurt you 1f you keep out of it." The Modern Touch. The teacher in a London SuudayI School had finished her lesson, and' was, by way of recapitulation, quer- f tinning her class. -"And who lived in the beautifrtl Garden of Eden?" she inquired. And a little girl replied— "The Arainses, teacher." Of Canada's population of 9,250,000, nearly- 2,200,000 attend school. An Easy Way to Lose 'Ern ALL Rl&elTY! -THEN "YOUD BE PEACHESTO SEND. TO A STORE FOR CHALkL%T BA251. I'LL. 60 MYSELF! �.T env.. (Copyii> ht. 1025, , . ., toil Syudkat Lic.t 0.*1� 0 ENGLISH WOMEN FOR CANADIAN RANCi-iES v j Last year an English girl et literary bent, who has had extensive expert encs as a motor lorry driver on more than one front during the war, in which, a natural love of wont in the open became more highly accentuated, came 'ode to Canada to work upon a Canadian ferm with the' obieet of se- curing experienoe which would. enable ber to go with conidenoe upon an es- tablishinent of her own. She ultimate- ly purchased a ranch of eight hundred acres, about seventeen miles from Cal- gary, in Alberta, where she combined the ,pursuits of ranching and writing, That she carried out the sterner part or her activities with some success would aeenn to be evident in the tact that she harvested 7,000 bushels of grain from 260 acres cultivated, which realized for her the sum of 13,400. This- ail things considered, is not a bad record for an initial year of opera- tion. - Flushed With success, this lady rancher wondered why other English girls could not do likewise, and be - canto convinced that they could. She appreciated the fact that there are many women in the British Isles of independent means, ana with an in- herent love of work le the out o' doors, eager to discover interesting and pro- fitable outlets for their- energies. Whilst overseas' during the past win- ter she wrote extensively in ,the Bri- tish press on "The Possibility of an Agricultural Profession in Canada for Educated Women." She was swamped with letters, end as the first result of which she will be joined this summer by a well-known London lady surgeon, and, later in the year, by two other English girls of education and means, The Scheme Outlined. Her scheme thereafter is more am- bitious anid elaborate, being -to bring out a few women of this class from England each year to train for cer- tain length of time. Before taking up establishments of their own they will receive a thorough training, both thecretioal and practical, doing the actual farm work themselves. She hopes that ultimately it may be pos- sible to build up In Southern Alberta a colony of such educated and inde- pendent women, and is confident that they will find satisfaction and success in their enterprises. The project iso a novel one In many respects, and there 1s much in the general idea involved which recom- mends it. Whilst farming operations in Canada are, in the main, carried out. on such a mammoth and elaborate scale as to, in a general consideration, preclude the engagement of women alone, it Is by no means unknown for women unaided to attain marked sue cese in Canadian agriculture, The Do- minion census shows many thousands of women classed as farm owners and managers, florists and nurserymen, fruit growers, gardeners, ranchers and stock raisers. Women Farm Equally With Men. There is a certain marked difference between the activities of these women already taming In Canada and those suggested in the above scheme, who would come to Canada with consider- able capital and would not depend en- tirely upon the success of their farm- ing operations for subsistence. The former class has, very largely become farm owners from circumstance and frequently has attained success only after encountering much difficulty and surmounting punt g Wavy obstacles. The let- ter would come toh t o land, drawn by a natural love of the open, with e zest in actually engaging in outdoor pur- suits, and though physically equipped. for Site on the land, their functions would be largely of a supervisory na- ture. In this, naturally, a trained cap able woman can be every bit as effici- ent as a man. As this young Alberta rancher states, "0f course, women can ranch as web as. man. You can hire the brute force and muscle and use your own brains." Even so, she takes an active part in her own farm opera- tions, rides a tractor, and last fail ac- counted for two-thirds of the cutting of the crop on her farm. Find Success and Satisfaction. There is really no basic reason wby English women of this class, educated and with independent means, having the inclination towards the land; en- joying actual work in the open, should not follow farming careers in Canada and find not only success• but intense satisfaction in the pursuit.- After all, farming lea business, a very intricate and exacting one, returning more for the brains put into it than for muscle applied., Agriculture is becoming :More highly scientific every day, and me- chanical devices• entering more largely and intimately into operations. It is a profession to tax the finest intelii- genees and return the maximum of satisfaction. 'The Canadian agricul- tural colleges are open to women as freely as men, and here English wo- men may adequately and completely fit themselves for tarns operation of their own. Afterwards, success will be largely measured by the manner In which they apply the scientific knowledge they have acquired and by natural supervisory and 'liminess. abili- ty. Cast iron Propellers. An suamel coating for cast-iron pro- pellers for ships to makethem aa smooth' as bronze ones and prevent corrosion' has beets invented in Eur Ops.