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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1953-10-29, Page 3Weather Can Change Oilers Whole Life . One pathetic fact stande out irons the terrible murder of Ber- eave. Songhurst and Christine Reed on the Teddington towpath: 'That morning they had intended cyclir-g to Brighton, but clangs .ed their plans because the weather was uncertain. At a loose end, they decided to visit three youths who had told them they would be camping by the river, Returning home at night, they were murdered. It the weather hadn't been unsettled in the morning they would be alive today, Behind Locked Doors How many lives are enenged by the caprice of the weather! Patrick Mahon, the Crumbles murderer, said he met a young woman one wet Fright at Rich- mond, Surrey, where he lived. She was soaked to the skin, clown on her luck, and was walking to Isleworth. He talked with her and saw her home. They met again, and he invited her to spend Easter at the bungalow near Eastbourne. She was there while, unknown to her, the body of Emit,y Kaye, whom he had murdered, was ly- ing in a trunk in a locked room. But for the rain and her soak- ed condition that night it is un- likely that her name would have been linked with that of a notor- ious murderer, or that she would have undergone such an unfor- gettably grim experience. But rain and unsettled weather have brought good fortune, too. Row many happily married couples to -day can say that they met by chance when sheltering from the rain? Proximity in a doorway, perhaps by a bus stop, induced talk — about the "aw- ful weather," Maybe the man offered her the use of his um- brella. They liked each other and arranged to meet again fell in love .. , married . , . had a happy home and a family. Saved by Second Thoughts If the rain hadn't come down when it did, bringing them to- gether, they would still be un- known to each other. Strange, that the big things of life may depend .on a passing shower! I know of a -couple who were Buttons Up Record -- -lust two hours old and still a bit bewild- ered, giraffe stands on wobbly legs beside proud mama "But- tons." "Buttons" holds the record for producing babies in captiv- ity, the newcomer being her eighth. going to buy a bungalow on the East Coast. They fell fox it on a fine, sunny day when the, shore looked a paradise by a calmm blue sea, The bungalow itself suited them admirably. The second time they went there, intending to clinch the deal, it was grey, rainy, blustery, with "white horses" roaring in under a dun sky, They found themselves wondering what 'the place would be like in mid -win- ter, with a gale howling and the sea storm -lashed, or under heavy snow. All vary well m fine weather, but .. . They ,hesitated and in tic, end cried off, But for that second visit in unsettled weather they would have been there that ter- rible night of storm, at the end of January, when the sea raged in, flooded the country for miles in- land, and drowned three people in the very bungalow they were going to make their home At places nearer London. like Canvey Island, many lives were spared in the disaster because people who might have gone for the weekend to the ordinary way did not do so, thinking the weather looked too unsettled. Had it been better, as to some years, the tragic death-rotl would have been higher Iii the ,"ap of the Gods Look out of your door on a Sunday morning, gaze at the. sky, sniff the air and say, "I don't think we'll go, it looks too un- settled" — and in those few moments of casual decision you may be escaping a car or coach smash, or rail disaster How many times have we heard peo- ple say: "If it hadn't looked so uncertain we'd have been it that, But we changed our minds at the last minute," You may also be foregoing one of the biggests strokes of luck in your life — an encounter, per- haps, that would bring you all you most desire. But how are you to know? It's all in the lap of the gods — and the clouds. If the sky hadn't looked menacing at precisely 9,13 a.m. on a cer- tain date, and those few drops of rain hadn't spattered dawn well, you'd have done something quite different, wouldn't you, and your life would have been changed. What do you make of this? A young fellow and a girl, who were engaged, used to 'go out every Sunday in the summer with a rambling club. One Sun- day morning she was late up, with a bit of a cold: the weather looked very threatening, so she decided not to go and didn't turn up at the rendezvous. That day her brother brought a business acquaintance in to tea. They fell in love at fust sight and eventu- ally married. Romance Takes Cover On that day's ramble the boy friend met a girl, a new member, and as he was alone they drift- ed together and became friendly. Soon they, too, were in love and in the end married. Se the weather that morning changed four lives radically — and un- born lives, too, for both couples now have children, Refurbished. To provide a soothing and restful atmosphere for its condemned occupants, the interior of the death house at Sing Sing Prison in Ossining, N.Y., is being painted a pastel shade of green. Flexible Steering Gear For Safety—A test driver demonstrates the action of a newly -developed steering gear at Chelles Airfield in Paris, Prance. The flexible joint "gives" when a collision throws the driver's body forward, preventing his being thrown through the windshield, and at the same time protecting him from rib fractures, A special switch cuts all electrical contacts to avoid past -accident explosions, Netting To it — World's greatest net tossers are said to be the fishermen of the Isle of Margarita, Venezuela, Here Pedro San- chez, one of the best, shows how he catches as many as two dozen fish with a single cast. The net is 24 feet across and is lined with lead weights. When the net hits the water, the fish are frightened and rush to the center. Meantime net sinks to bottom, trapping the fish. Por Comfro:t—A hand of black velvet, tipped with ruby nails, is the latest in hats on display in the autumn collection of Slmcre Mirman, Princess Mar- garet's milliner in London, England. "SEALED" ROOMS IN ROYAL PALACES White with fright, a girl point- ed at the locked door of the seal- ed room of Sandringham. "There's someone in there," she gasped, "I heard them knocking!" Security police hurriedly un- locked the door. King George V's brass bedstead stood made up with fresh new sheets. The old king's Tibetan dressing - gown still hung in the ward- robe, But the room was eerie and unoccupied as it has been these last seventeen years. Then it came again, the in- sistent tapping. Cleaning the room the previous week, a house- maid had left the window ajar and the bobbin of the blind - cord softly rapped in the breeze. Today Sandringham has two sealed rooms. Following royal custom the death -chambers of the last two kings are kept as they always Have been, but with the passing of Queen Mary the room in which her husband died will soon be returned to (muse - hold use. Instead, the whole of Queen Mary's six -roomed suite at Marl- borough House has been set aside, its sumptuous furnishings protected by dust -sheets, its car- pets protected from sunlight be- hind drawn blinds. If the Duke of Windsor decided to visit his mother's Home, he would find everything just as he has always known it. Queen Mary's two thousand art treasures are kept carefully dusted, the glass -fronted show- cases meticulously polished, - just as they were during her lite, Her spectacle case and a favourite photograph remain at her bed- side. And every detail of the room will proably be just the same in fifty years' time. Some other Royal sealed rooms have had to give way to new conditions. The forgotten royal waitingroom at Windsor and Eton railway station slumbered through four reigns until open- ed up recently. By the massive fireplace Queen Victoria used to sit with her ladies, waiting for the train. Modern royalty, however, pre- fers travel by car, and no pass- enger set toot amid the faded splendour for many years. Indeed, as the surveyor pushed open the almost forgotten door in the wall of. No. 3 platform, he Mit the touch of a cobweb. It was a little while before his eyes grew accustomed to the dim light and he sew the crimson - and -gold divans and settees, ivory Cupids and rich furniture —and his finger_ traced a scroll In the dust, Two or three years ago the contents were sold, and the room underwent a strange transforma- tion, Today it is the new divi- sional TLQ, of the railway "police, and is concerned not with Royal- ty, hut with the war aguinst railway thieves! Fire tanning For 6''ears Somebody set fire to New Straitsville, 0 It i o, sixty - nine years ago, and they haven't put it out yet. It was in 1884, during a bitter strike in the local coal mines, that some of the dissident par- ties decided to set the mines on fire. They got a string of loaded coal wagons, soaked the coal in oil, lit a match and sent the whole lot roaring and flaming into the heart of the mine a mile tulcier the hills, The results were spec- tacular. The flames are still burning in what has come to be known as the biggest under- ground mine fire in the world, Where there's fire, there's smoke. You can see it eddying skyward from all sorts of un- likely places. Although the 'coal lies about thirty feet under the town the fires have produced some strange effects in New Straitsville. The water in some cisterns has be- come so hot that the housewives wash clothes in it as it comes from the wells, To drink the water, it must be artificially cooled. -In places grass and plants grow in tropical lushness amid winter snowdrifts. When the underground flames got too close to the school, classes were dismissed while nearby coal veins were scooped out and safety walls sunk as protection. Some houses have caved in when the coal under the foundations burn- ed out and the earth collapsed. Back in 1895 one Sebastian Spi- cer, his t e a m, and his wagon sank from sight in one of the deep fissures. While the writer stood back at a safe distance, Paul Hatem, a local miner and volunteer fire- man, set fire to a piece of card- board by placing it on the ground. The only sign of fire was the smoke seeping up out of the ground and the bushes waving from the eddies of hot air, No visible flames. Yet the cardboard was burning briskly fifteen sec- onds after it was placed on the ground. W. J. Brown, who used to work in the mines, says the reason the fires can't be put out is that they keep getting fresh air from cave-ins and new diggings. It has been estimated that more than $$60,000,000 worth of coal has been destroyed by fire so far. Oil was .discovered in N e w Straitsville in 1909, and for a time, what with coal and oil, the town was booming with a popu- lation of 3,500, But the oil began to peter out several years ago, most of the coal veins were worked out or burned out, and New Straitsville succumbed to the doldrums. Now there are only about 1,100 people, and whole rows of dirty -win- dowed business buildings in the main street are empty, REALLY REALISTIC A Greek artist painted some grapes in one of his masterpieces so superbly that when it was exhibited at a garden party birds flew at them, thinking they were real fruit. Velazquez's portrait of a Span- ish admiral was so true to life that King Felipe IV mistook it for the man himself. He reproved the "officer" sharply for wasting his time in a painter's studio when he ought to be with his fleet! A bee painted on the out- strteched log of a fallen angel 'by Quintin Mateyo, the Belgian artist, looked so natural that a visitor to his studio tried to frighten it away by waving this h an dkerch le 1. When Alexoauder the Great's horse was painted, the artist did it with such fidelity that a real horse began to neigh at it, be- lieveing it to be alive, Happenings At The Seaside A torpedo with a dumuuy-head, fired from an Admiralty range at Binoleaves, Weymouth. last month, went off course and crashed an the beach, ,seuttoring bathers. No one was hurt and no damage caused, and an Ad- miralty spokesman said later: "There was no danger of an ex- plosion." Y e s, queer things frequently happen at the seaside. Some years ago scores of holiday-makers at Southsea had a big thrill because two liners chanced to meet and pass each other in the Solent. You see, a hundred thousand tons, even moving slowly, dis- place a great mass of water, and that's what happened on that sunny day as people backed on the beach. Enormous waves, quickly reach- ing the s h o r e, washed many holiday-makers off their feet and out of their deck -chairs. Hun- dreds of people got a wetting and much property was lost, Children would have been drowned but for prompt action by parents. At Gorleston, near Yarmouth, a whirlwind carried away the roof of a Leach hut in which a young woman was sitting reading, and dumped it into the sea. Oth- er huts were lifted sixty feet into the air. A warning was once isiued to holiday, -makers in Jersey that a quantity of gelignite was miss- ing, They left the beaches in a hurry; the gelignite was washed up and disposed of, nobody being hurt. The gunboat Cheru+ett was rushed from Dover to Folkestone twelve years after the end of the first world war to remove a mine which w a s menacing holiday- makers, It contained 200 lbs. of T.N.T. and had actually been moved and tapped by youths who were within an ace of be- ing sky-high! Crowds watched from the safe- ty of the clifftop while the ex- perts rendered the mine harm- less by withdrawing the detona- tors and the magazine contain- ing the explosive. The mine was British and had been laid way back in 1916. While bathers splashed gaily in the water at Stokes Bay Gos- port, in 1930, a seaplane carrying pilot and observer crashed in their midst. It swept along the beach, overturning six bathing huts, three of which were re- duced to matehwood, and buried its nose in the shingle. One holdiay-maker, ebout to put on his bathing costume, found himself outside his hut without a stitch of clothing. He wrapped a towel round himself and ran to help the trapped air- men, neither of whom was hurt. Mystery Street Made Folks Cry Fur eight years people's eyes watered every time they passed through a certain street in Calle, Germany. Even the most cheer- ful individuals were sometimes known to "burst into tears" at one particular spot! It was all very sad — but nobody knew exactly why. But they've just found out, after the street had borne the nickname "Tranenstrasse" (Tear Street) since 1945. Half buried under the rotting floor of an old shed adjacent to the street of tears somebody discovered hun- dreds of bottles of tear gas which were stored there by troops dur- ing the war — and since forgot- ten. - Tops of the bottles had worked Ioose as time passed and the gas escaped slowly. Millions Mourn For Everest A short thee ago the conquest of Mount Everest thrilled the world. It was a great British achievement; an epic of merest courage and endurance. But 1n India to -day there. is mourning for this conquest. By allowing itself to be conquered by Man, Everest has broken the faith of thousands of Hindus. It was their firm belief that Gauri Shenker (their name for Everest), in whose snowy lap generations of Hindu yogis had sat and worshipped, would never permit men to tread disrespect- fully on its face, much less on iia head. Mountain Hermits The yogis had gazed on Ever- est with deep humility. And the great mountain has inspired that feeling among devout Hindus throughout the ages. Early Indians worshipped the Eternal Abode of Snow. Hindu life was divided into four clear parts — ending with renuncia- tion, Innumerable stories have been told of people who lived in the Himalayas after retirement, spending their time in medita- tion. Everest's lofty peak was e treat for the soul as well as the eye. Hindu gods and goddesses have traditionally resided on the Himalayas as did Greek gods on Mount Olympus. There they could remain on earth without being earthly. Is it any wonder, therefore, that for generations yogis made their solemn journey to the Himalayas, and still do? Legend has it that some of them have been there for centuries, defy- ing death. It is not for nothing that some of the Hindu pilgrimage centres are situated on the Himalayan peaks. Badri Nath, 18,000 feet up, still attracts pious Hindu: from all over India. - Shrine )Profaned? A modern Hindu writer says of Everest: "It is not just a moun- tain, not even the world's high- est mountain, that we know ae Everest. 'It is the abode of our gods, the sanctuary of our saints, the point of our quest of the infinite." Everest has indeed been consi- dered, not merely as the roof of the world, but as a world with- in a world. Now to so many In- dians its religious significance leas been sneered at and defiled by human feet. East and West see things with different eyes. To the Hindus, Everest was a shrine, and the challenge it presented should never have been accepted. To send fudge through the ri.ails successfully, pour the warm fudge in a pan lined with sever- aI layers of waxed paper. When fudge has cooled, lift it out in the paper and wrap it as a block for mailing, Receiver can cut fudge, which stays moist. SALLY'S SALLIES " . and when this one ran out of money I had to run out. too.' Moat Be Hard To Buy Gloves — Govind Desa Kali, 84 -year-old patriarch of itojlcot, India, lower right, rules over his multifinger- ed family with six -fingered fists. His son, top right, and grand- son, lower left, each have an extra finger on each hand, and, a cousin, top left, outpoints theta all, with six fingers on the left, and seven on the right hand.