The Seaforth News, 1955-12-29, Page 3"'
TH1Calvert SPORTS COLUMN
Elmo.; o
a The nicest season of the year is not
just for the small ones who believe that
there's a `cal Santa Claus, There is a
real Santa Claus for all of us in the
spirit of a season, born in the manager,
the stranger for whom there was no
room at the inn.
Shadow-box with the calendar as long as you can, there
comes a day — yesterday, today, tomorrow — when that
old Christmas feeling has you and you're in there scralnb-
ling around the stores and the flower shope and the like,
trying to do some of the things you should have done
earlier.
For that strange thing, the Christmas spirit, which
materializes out of empty air, has suddenly caught at your
heart -strings, just as it caught at the almost dead and -buried
sentimental impulses of Scrooge, and suddenly wrenched
him out of his miserable, miserly and unfriendly life to
bring joy and happiness to the Cratchits, That's the power
of the Christmas spirit, that unexplainable power that has
outlasted the centuries, wars, hatreds and, privations.
It is, a power that has you wishing you could in some
way say, "Merry Christmas once more to all everywhere.
Because that is the way it is at Christmas.
Before this week, you were perhaps determined to ad-
here to a belief that Christmas is for the youngsters only,
that you weren't going to plufige into the happy, jostling
maelstrom of Christmas shopping, that you were going to
spend the weekend just as though it was any other weekend.
Don't fool yourself. The spirit of Christmas is "gwine
to get you" in the end. By Saturday night, you'll probably
be wearing white whiskers, and sleigh -bells for a necktie.
You may find yourself sending barrels of apples, great bags
of nuts and candies to the children's hospitals, the boys'
clubs and all the other places that can use Christmas cheer.
We know you're going to do this, or something like
this, because the spirit ef. Christmas is far too strong to
be resisted. And too strange to be explained. this once -a -
year surge of charity that represents the human heart
functioning at its beautiful best,'
Your comments and suggestions for this column will be welcomed
by Elmer Ferguson, c/o Calvert House, 431 Yonge St„ Toronto.
CaLvxt DISTILLERS LIMITED
Atd H ER5T8UR C-. ONTARIO
Swallows Diamond
Chased by Crooks
A convict in a Cairo prison
lace tried to commit suicide by
mellowing sixty five -inch nails,
two files and three razor blades.
ire attempt failed. An opera-
tion saved him and to -day he
la still serving his sentence.
Some people are human ost-
rriebes. It's amazing what they
man swallow They have startled
the medical world by making
hearty meals off such strange
dishes as knives, toothbrushes,
watches and chains, spoons and
nails.
After children, convicts are
the most enthusiastic swallow -
en's of odd articles. A Dartmoor
1pxboner swallowed a 7 -inch
farlig door handle.. Two months
previously he'd swallowed parts
cf two forks and a dessert -
moon.
An assortment of nails, screws,
bolts, pins, washers, tin -tacks
and paper clips weighing three
and a half pounds were removed
3n 1947 from the stomach of a
eenvdct in Kansas State prison.
Me recovered.
A schoolboy swallowed the
hay to his tuckbox which he
Triad placed in his mouth while
unpacking it. A friend had given
ldm a slap on the back and
down had gone the key, ring,
Label and all. The subsegent op-
eration for the removal of these
melees was described as a me-
dical triumph.
A jeweller's employee acci-
dentally swallowed a valuable
diamond. The man refused to be
tl)perated on. He was brought by
This employer before a magi -
citrate, but the magistrate could
dao nothing.
The case was reported in the
newspapers. Within a few days,
two attempts were made upon
the man's life by thieves who
wanted to get the diamond. For
months afterwards, he had an
exciting time dodging amateur
surgeons who wanted to operate
on him. The diamond was never
retrieved.
Doctors point out that once
lodged in the windpipe or gul-
let, foreign bodies can cause
fatal complications, So swallow-
ing experiments on these lilies
are not recommended.
Still Alive
Forest fires recently got with-
in three-quarters of a mile of
the world's oldest living thing
—the 4,500 -year-old, 267 -ft. -high
General Grant sequoia tree in
California's Sequoia National
Park. •
Fifteen hundred fire fighters
fought the fires for many hours,
but two villages had to be evac-
uated before the flames were
quelled. The great tree, whose
base is 107 feet round, was saved
but even had the flames reached
it, it would probably have sur-
vived.
The resistance which these
giant sequoias -or redwood trees
-offer to fire is astonishing. As
an experiment, a slab of sequoia
bark, six feet long, two feet
broad and 18 inches thick was
placed in a sawmill furnace
some time ago. It was surround-
ed by dry pine and the whole
set on fire:
When the fire died down it
was found that, although all the
pine had burned to ashes, the
sequoia bark remained practi-
cally unharmed.
CURE -SIDE VACUUM CLEANER—Streets in Washington are being
cleaned these days by an ingenious device with a tremendous
appetite for rubbish. It's a Jeep with a six-inch suction hose
thatsnuffs up the clay's accumulation df litter, chews It to bits
mind then blows the pulp into the burlap bag at the rearm It
cleans the gutters about six times as fast as the traditional
white -wing with a broom and pushcart.
COfj?]IN' THROUGH — A midget' clown directs "traffic" between
the legs of stilt artist Henry Lewandowski in Ascot, England.
Photo was taken during rehearsals of the Bertram Mills Circus
Lewandawski's stilts are 34 feet high,
She Dias a Trumpet
On Fier Throat
Ethel Merman, U.S. star of
"Annie Get Your Gun," "Call
Me Madam" and other big hits,
has no illusions about the voice
that made her an ace blues
singer, She was born with it
big, she says, and ever since the
age of five she's been selling it
for all she's worth. When she
was a baby and people in the
next room or down the street
heard her they'd say, "That's
Ethel."
The description of it she likes
best is "a doll from Astoria with
a trumpet in her throat." When-
ever she felt throat trouble
coming on she'd go to Dr. Stu-
art Craig, who'd say: "I can't
even see your vocal chords.
They must be somewhere down
in your calves."
When George Gershwin heard
her sing "I Got Rhythm" in
"Girl Crazy" he told her, "Dont
let anybody give you a singing
lesson. It'll ruin you." And she's
never had a lesson in her life.
She's a regular gum -chewer,
she confesses in her breezy
autobiography, "Don't Call Me
Madam", and many a time she's
found herself playing a whole
scene with it still parked in her
cheek.
The same with "peanut brit-
tle" taffy. Comedian Willie
Howard would hand her large
chunks of it and bet her that
she couldn't eat it while singing,
but she'd go on singing "I Got
Rhythm," holding a note for
sixteen bars with a big chunk
' in the side of her mouth.
She likes modern art—some of
it —• but every time she went to
Billy Rose's place and, saw his
Picassos they nearly drove her
out of her mind. When she
heard what he'd paid for one,
a still life of fruit, she told his
wife, Eleanor Holm, "Fifteen
thousand bucks! I, could buy all
of that fruit for thirty-fiv
cents, and eat it besides!"
She tells some merry stories
of fellow celebrities. Whenever
composer Cole Porter and a
buddy of his see Irving Berlin
coming they loolc at their wrist-
watches, make a five -dollar bet,
then start on some topic - any
thing from Mount Everest to
the Dalai Lama. The bet is based
on the number of minutes it
will take Irving to bring the
talk round to one Df his own
songs. The average is less than
five.
One night during the run of
"Anything Goes," when she
spotted the famous conductor
Toscanini out front, she went to
her dressingroom, sent a tele-
gram to the show's musical di-
rector saying, Sorry to have to
say it, but your direction was
terrible, signed it "Toscaninl,"
and so timed it that it was de-
livered during the interval.
For the last half of the show
the jazz maestro sweated heavi-
ly, glared at his musicians, and
kept looking back at Toscani-
ni's seat to see how he was tak- ,
ing the music!
During rehearsals of "Du Bar-
ry Was a Lady," the director,
Euddy De Syiva, engaged a
dancer to dance with Betty
Grable, who made her Broad-
way debut in it, and told him:
"When you sing the song, `Every
Day Is A Holiday,' with Miss
Grable, hold her hand and look
into her eyes as if you're really
in love with her."
"I cain't, suh," said the boy.
"I'm in love with a til' brunette
gal in niy home town down in
Florida, sub. I just cain't do it."
"What kincl of a show is this
anyhow?" Grable stormed. "I'm
not that repulsive."
When Ethel and Jimmy Du -
sante were signed up for a show
called "Red Hot and Blue" her
agent, Lou Irwin, and Jimmy's
Lou Clayton, forgot to specify
who was to get top billing. Vin-
ton Freedley, the director,
couldn't have cared less, but the
agents "cared like crazy" in
case it got around that they'd
for once forgotten.
Durante was away roaming
Italy at the time, so, thinking
he could straighten things out if
he could reach Jimmy by trans-
atlantic 'phone Freedley asked
Clayton where he was staying,
"I think he's in a place called
Rome Capri," said Clayton
vaguely.
Freedley sat up till five a.m.
getting the U.S. Embassy in
Rome, who told him Jimmy had
been there but was now in Ca-
pri, Getting him at last in Capri,
Freedley said: "We're having
trouble with the billing. Get
right on the Deutschland and
come home. It leaves from Ham-
burg."
"Not mei" Jimmy said, think-
ing it was a dirigible. "I won't
fly." It cost Freedley forty dol-
lars to explain that it was a pas-
senger ship.
Mechanical Man
Murdered Maker
A young engineer, Roland
Schaffer, was sitting at his desk,
looking through drawings and
calculations, when he heard a
suspicious noise turned round.
The robot he had created was
marching straight towards him,
swinging an iron club normally
used for forging. Rigid with
fear, he could have had no time
to realize the danger which con-
fronted him.
He . must have stood hypno-
tized, unable to make any coun-
ter-move, The next moment, the
robot smashed the head of his
master with the club, then com-
pletely shattered the laboratory
installations. Only after part of
the wall had collapsed under
ferocious blows did the attack
weaken and the robot, worn out,
collapse beside its victim .. .
A fantasy of science-flction7
No, fact, according to Rolf Etrehl
in a serious survey of electronic
and other modern marvels, "The
Robots Are Among Us." This
marvellous robot, which looked
like a mediaeval knight, had
been exhibited at the Chicago
World Fair in 1932. It could walk
by stamping rather violently on
the ground, move heavy objects,
hammer nails, clean windows
and execute other odd jobs, forge
pieces of iron, saw tree trunks
and pile up the boards.
The above account of the grim
murder was in a police report,
which concluded that the robot
was set in motion by mistake
and only stopped its destructive
activity when its accumulators
ran down. Inside its body- was a
special "organ" which controlled
the whole mechanism by gyro-
scopes driven by electricity, to
obtain its balance. Electricity
and coanpcessed air were its
motive power.
In the head was hidden an
aerial which received wireless
signals, from a special transmit-
ter. Through the aerial went
the current shutting off the com-
pressed air apparatus. A certain
electric signal allowed compres-
sed air to flow into the right
arm, which then lifted itself;
another current moved the left,
a third the ,legs, a fourth set
ESSUE51-1955
"ether functions in motion. The.
robot moved like a man through
the rhythm of signals. It could
even speak through a loud
speaker, answering questions
"heard". through microphone
ears. Its eyes consisted Of photo-
cells lit by electricity.
It wasn't the only robot mur-
derer. In 1946 another, construc-
ted by a young Milwaukee en-
gineer, had in its head and body
200 small electronic valves which
enabled it to perform various
acts. When the inventor, in the
course of his experiments, wan-
ted to adjust a screw on its arm,
the :complicated apparatus failed
and the robot crushed its maker,
who was rushed to hospital with
serious internal injuries and died
on the way.
In 1951' Bristol Polytechnic
students built out of metal
scraps a robot which they chris-
tened "Dynamo Joe," They
taught it to ride a bicycle
through the streets, turn cor-
ners, move its head right and
left and wave to passers-by.
A ight-club proprietor receiv-
ed a million Belgian francs —
about $150,000 — for "relays"
01 his jazz band comprising
three jazz -playing robots. They
rose ghost-like from their seats,
puffed their cheeks, rolled their
eyes in ecstasy, moved each fin-
ger to play their instruments —
guitar, drum and trumpet — and
bowed at the end.
The shape of things to come,
the probable effects of automa-
tion on employment and leisure,
are outlined in this informative
book about devices that almost
"think" for themselves and have
actually piloted a Skymaster
across the Atlantic and landed
it on sound -wave remote con-
trol.
Babies Play With
Live Pythons
While the mothers of Mith-
abhar, India, are slaving over
their fires, preparing meals for
the menfolk, they give their
babies cobras to fondle. And
through the doorway comes the
happy laughter of toddlers play-
ing tug o' war with pythons.
For this village is the home of
snake -charming, and the young-
sters expect no other playmate.
All the menfolk are snake -
charmers, and all the boys ap-
prentices.
Snake -charming has become
more of a religion than a pro-
fession with the people Of MI-
thebhar. They style themselves
"protectors of snakes," not pub-
lic entertainers.
At the time of its capture, a
snake is "promised" its release
on a certain date—ane] the pro-
mise is always kept. Until then,
while it is in the charmer's serv-
ice, it is treated as one of the
family. Its venom is not re-
moved.
Many snake -charmers become
very fond of their snakes, and
will take them everywhere with
them.
Once a year, they go in pro-
cession to pay their respects to
their Swami, the Grand Master
India, who claims to be over a
hundred years old.
He is also their Chief Exaniin-.
er. lie closely studies their per-
formances, and, if their work
is of high standard, he will pre-
sent them with certificates
stating them to be fully trained
charmers, and qualified to dis-
pense medicines and suggest
charms against snake -bite.
Although the snakes are deaf,
in the ordinary sense, they react
to the vibrations of any tune—
so long as •it is played on the
traditional pipe.
COMIC AILING — Buster Kea-
ton, 60 -year-old frozen - faced
comedian of silent movies,
hospitalized by a serious gastro-
intestinal disorder.
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