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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1950-05-25, Page 3Made Big Fortune Front Nightmare Some ideas even their authors can't kill _-;Std '1'at'zan- Was one o. \hent, 1t 1.1 over a year since Edgar .nice Burroughs declared that he was finished with his: famous ape. - matt and wc,Lilil never write another hue about hitt, • Now Burroughs has. (lied -•ht his 75111 scar -diet 'tartan rontilnes to belt Ili:, mighty chest and to tree -5 h p. • Burroughs was known as the world's wealthiest writ er. lu 25 years, his incredible--alil yet crcd- ible--apentao brought hitt in a per- sonal fortune of $10,000,015t and built up gross earnings for a world- wide '1'arri industry of t'125,000,- -000. In a movie sense, 'Tartan recently carne of age. It is 21 years since Elmo Lincoltl first \vent .swimgin„ through the trees dressed from head to foot itt. fur. Since then, there have been nine other Tarzaus, itt- tIti(ting -ate-Mining elialntht Buster C'rabbe and lohtiny \Veisnmller, Itlond Lex Barker took over as i'arzan the Tenth just before his creator's death, Thirty years old, the new Tartan was an outstanding athlete et Princeton University and is the first of the ape actors to have his name in the select New York Social Reg- ister. That's how it should be for, after all, the original ,:Tartan was the son oF an English nobleman - end once sat in the ITouse of Lords, But nothing that has happened to bis jungle creation eau be half as astonishing as the teal life story of !Edgar Rice Burroughs, who once peddled lead pencils for a living and pawned his wife's brooches to help pay the grocer, The first Tartan story appeared - in: a magazine as long ago as 1912, but it was two years before Ile could find a pub- lisher willing to put Tartar, in book form. In all Burroughs was an unsuc- cessful businessman for 15 years before he- wrote a line of fiction, His success gives a persistent Be to the legend that a rolling stone gathers no moss. At one time he tried to sell hooks on the doorstep. "The uppers of my shoes wore out trying to keep the doors. open," lie said. Ile sold everything from cars to chocolates before be landed a job as floorwalker in a . department store. Worried, plagued with troubled sleep, he used to lie awake "' ' at night, telling himself stories, cre- ating diabolical monsters out of the humdrum worries of the day. IIs spun these nightmares to himself for five years before it occurred to -hint that he might sell them. Even then, he thought his stories so medi- ocre that they appeared aider the pert -Saute "Normal Bean" -slang in those days for an average brain. His first stories were fantasies set in Mars chiefly for the reasotl that no one could catch stint out in his facts. Tartan swung out of the jungle for inuch the same reason. Burroughs merely swotted up Stan- ley's "In Darkest Africa" for his background. He never went to Africa. When the money did stmt coming- in, orningin, it came in a torrent. There were Tartan comic books, Tartan games and chewing guns. At one time there were Tartan trapezes, swim- suits, schoolbags. soaps, statuettes and toys. At 55, Burroughs took up flying. Ile married a young actress for his second bride at 58 and, eight year's later. became America's oldest war correspondeut, ('Tartan nteauwhile was banned in Nazi Germany for biting German officers and feeding them to the lions). Burroughs was probably the oldest man to fly over Tokyo in a bomber. But then he suffered a heart attack and his days of adventure were over. Shortly before he died. he de- clared that he had tired of his ape - Mau. "1 yawn when I -wake up and Pause Before Parley-43efore tackling Cold \stat' problems, the Big Three foreign tui titers have an informal talk at Lancaster I-jot:me, London, From left to t'ig'ht are 1, '- , Secretary of State Dean Acheson, .British Foreign Minister, Ernest Bevin and French Foreign .L\ ['ulster Robert Schuman. Schuman gave an account of the plan for pooling the coal -and steel industries of France and Germany. .keep yawning all day hong;' he said. "Every day I think I might start writing again, but thinking about, it alone wears me out" 'Chen he promptly si'r'ote a cringe. story with 27 corpses! "My books sell and entertain," he once said, "That's all I ever in- tended. People who want- to escape ' from themselves are willing to pay for it. That's the whole Tartan appeai in a word--- escape!' Orkney Islanders Real Producers Inhabitants of the Orkney Islands, off the north coast of Scotland, have their own pet ideas • on food production. They are work- ing agricultural miracles. With a population of 2,000 then, women and children, 56,000,000 eggs per year are being produced for export. This works out at 38 pounds per head of population. Sponsored by the Scottish Agri- cultural Organization Society, a super-a;licieut system of egg -mar- keting has been developed., The result is that today the value of Orkney's egg exports is greater than all the pure-bred Shorthorn and Aberdecu Angus cattle sold at public auctions throughout Scot- land. Orkney's fowl population, 4.7 fowls per acre of land, is greater than any county in Scotland. But the industrious Oreadiairs do not rely solely on hens and eggs for their prosperity. Year by year, they are increasing their cattle stocks. This year they expect to make $3,500,000 from their herds. Since 1946, they have increased their mills production tenfold. To accommodate their money - spinning herds was a problem they . solved in their typically enterprising manner. At Government auctions 'they bought up discarded Army. Navy and Air Force huts, They even used these to build their own hones, strengthening them by building cement walls round them and converting them into comfort- able dwellings. Tiley vie with each other in their vigorous efforts to reclaim what , was once regarded as "impossible" land. 'Arable acreage in some cases has increased sixfold since 1948. No wonder there are more than 4,000 cat's and 900 tractors on the islands (for a populat}on of 22,000), almost one car for' every family. And no wonder they are known as the "Milk -and -T ton ey" Orkneys. The Judge Steps Out—Judge Noy Lean steps impatiently out of his special airplane, haring completed an $000 -mile air toter. '1'11e Judge is a 1200 -pound TTcrrl•ord steer that wort grand chnnipionvltip honors and sold fru' $11,50 a pound at the lrt4o1 International Live Stock Noposlllon. Catching Sharks Brings Wealth .. . The shark -murderer of the high seas -is called in France a requin. It conies from the Latin requiem, and therefore speaks for itself! But today, man-eating sharks have, through the brains and ingenuity of a Frenchman, become useful members of society. The story of stow this cause about hits a dash of romance to it. . The Frenchman is an ex -refrig- erator salesman named Andre Couard. In a -lonely spot, aor00 200 miles south of Dakar in French West Africa, he has built.a factory which is the centre of what the French call "A Shark Trust,' Cou- ard has already made a vast fortune extracting an 'oil from sharks' liv- ers, which contains even more vitamins than cod liver oil, But as Couard says, first catch your shark! ,Norway was the country which supplied the world with most of its. cod liver oil before Germany over- ran her. When that happened, the Allies became desperately short of 'Vitamin A -obtained from cod liver oil and essential to bomber pilots as an aid to night visition, So tete American began to hunt sharks off the coasts of California and Florida. The U.S.A. was not then in the war, but knew what a vital contri- bution would be trade if shark liver oll could be supplied. At that time, France had capit- ulated and Andre Couard was in Dakar with his wife and two chil- dren. Suddenly, he had enough of it. I -Ie assembled his entire fortune of 2300, packed Itis family into his old Renault, and drove southwards until he reached a place called Joan -Cap Vert. Couard knew that the waters around Joal were just where he might find sharks, He decided to build a factory, but had no tools. First, he made his own spades -ort of old petrol tins. Ife needed rakes, so he drove nails into sawn-off planks of wood. There were no wheelbarrows, so he used discarded hospital stretch- ers. Then ..he began to build with sand, sea shells and chalk, which took five weeks to dr-. That was his cement! Stones! He hired a native canoe and fetched them from 15 miles away. Wood came from a near -by forest. Couard rut down trees and hired 17 ponies to drag them to his huitding=site. Meanwhile, he was getting ready his first shark -hunting boat. She was called the Dorade. Madame Cotard made the net. Knives to cut up the sharks Couard made from some old motor car springs; three hundred were made in this way and riveted 011 to wooden handles. Couard bought an old lorry. From time 10 time he removed the motor and let it run a mecihanical saw. When he could afford a j(ep, the lorry became a fire engine, In his first year, Couard caught sharks which yielded 40 tons of liver, which, in turn, yielded 20 tots •01 oil. In terms of vitamins, this was 400,000,000,000,000 of units,. Today he has a fleet of nine shark hunting vessels, and he catches an average of 40 sharks a day! Thee is no danger of the supply running out, because there are approximate• ly 4,000,000 sharks in the world's oceans. Every morning the Ihiltt boats put to spa, all of Them, incidentally, built in Couard's own shipyards. A vessel called the Vitawina leads the line, with the Tbiof bringing up the rear. Between them, the boats carry 280 nets, When the signal is given, the boats fish over an area of 10 miles, In each boat is a crew of nine natives. The crews know their prey are about when they see shoals of fish leaping out of the water, fleeing from the sharks, of which there are a dozen kinds. Some of them, like the whale shark, are harmless. But the hammer shark and particularly the tiger shark, a Stan -eater, are very dangerous. They have enorm- ous appetites and are always gorg- ing themselves. Curious things have been found in their stomachs. One had a tom-tom, half a donkey and a huinat foot. Even when a shark is mortally injured, he goes on eat- ing and dies with his mouth full. Other sharks 'will set on hint at such a 11100, finish }rim off and eat flint -all but the ]lead. Natives are not afraid of sharks. They say they'll eat white meat only. If a native's cork hat blows overboard, he will calmly dive after it. But he takes care to rub - tar over the palms of his hands, be- cause they are whitish. After a shark is caught and killed, it is cut up and taken to the factory. The liver is extracted to produce oil. The flesh is boneless. Fresh, the meat is delicious and tastes ex- actly Like tunna fish. Most of it, however, is salted, packed and dis- patched to various countries where it masquerades as salted cod. The less tasty portions are dried and ground down into an excellent manure. The fins arc dispatched to China, where shark fin soup is a great delicacy. , Teeth Make Jewelry The skins of the sharks are tau- ned and slake a very pretty leather which has several varieties of pat- tern, according to the species of shark from which it is taken, The lining of the stomach is soft and durable and comparable to chamois. leather. Inside the stomach of the shark are certain deposits 1010011 are extracted and sent to chemical laboratories. The jaws of some spe- cimens are often found in contin- ental bric-a-brae shops. Sharks' teeth are often used as costume jewelry. It is not surprising, there- fore, that Couard's £300 has been turned into a limited liability com- pany with a capital of 0100,000 --in less than five years! Couard makes his own anchors. Ile has a staff ashore of 1311 --cut- ting up sharks, salting, packing - besides. mechanics, builders au,' carpenters. Between spring and autumn, the height of the season. Couard takes on an additional 100 natives. Today he lives in a fila• nine - roomed house with his family, alis native laborers arc paid the highest wages in French Africa. Ile builds French -type houses for them and recently gave them a cinema -built after a particularly good day's'shark fishing whcu his nine boats caught no fewer than 417 sharks. Pruni the staff manager's office: "Hate you any refe'cuces'r" "Yes, but they're like my photographs -- none of 1110111 does Mc Saw Funny Side Of Everything ng .. . •Marl. Twain died 40 years age, on April 21, 'There have imer ratans, lmnuaroto writers since then, but Mark Twain is still the greatest o1 thein all. lit evolved- a new humour - the comic twist to a scutence that brought to light an unsuspected funny angle. He was frequently cheated by people he trusted; .lost all of his money in wildcat schemes; but he never ln,,t Itis sense of humour. Ile was on a trip abroad when a fellow traveller showed him a mins iatttre of his sister, and Murk 'J'waiu-•.•his real name of Samuel ('leuu•us---iuunediately fell in love with her. Ile went back with the brother, Stet the girl, and without any of the usual preliminaries, he started courting her, Olivia was not at uli sure that she liked this shock -headed man with the queer clothes and uncon- veutional manners, but he grew on her and she eventually capitulated. They were married in 1870 and from then until site died in 1904, she was his other half, spiritually, mentally and physically, She helped him to work to a method and be- came absolutely indispensable to hitt, Mark Twain could sec fun hi everything. Once, when bis wife was ill in bed, he pinned a note to a tree 111 the garden which read, "Notice to birds. Please don't sing too loudly -lady sleeping," 'Then at the bottom he added a postscript, "Baritones come back later," When he became editor and part owner of "The Buffalo Express,' he wrote in his first editorial, shall not often meddle with politics because we have a political editor who is already excellent and only needs to serve a term or two in the penitentiary to be perfect. I shall not write any poetry unless I cot- eeive a spite against the subscril,- ers." His quiet humour is illustrated hi this extract from " Tnnocese Abroad." "Here and there on the front of the roadside inns We found huge coarse frescoes of suffering martyrs. It could not have dirnin. ished their sufferings to be so ma- couthly represented." When lie went to England, the people took him to their Hearts and crowds followed him from hall to hall. Everywhere he spoke, the place was packed to capacity. He would valet on to the plat- form with a pained expression on his face and begin by saying he was deeply ]curt, that he was not a thief and that it was all a mistake. By this time the audience would be wondering what on earth he was talking about. Then he would tell theist that when he first reached London, the first thing he saw was a newspaper placard: "Mark Twain arrives itt London," And under- neath, on the same sheet, "Ascot Cup Stolen." 1 fe enjoy c,1 ctlertaiMn r people, • and .when he became famous and the nnoney was rolling in, lie mitt - tallied lavishly. Ile was vary keen on any kind of invention 11041 be- cause he never lose his lx•vish in- nocence, he was taken in by all sorts of people on the tuakc. - The final result was bankruptcy. When Americans heard that he las brankrupt, they were shocked, and there 40115- talk of a national e.t9,scription. Maty of his creditors waived their claims, - Mark Twain might kayo been are innocent dupe, but he was also stub- born and he refused both the na- tional subscription and tilt. waived 1-1001 o \1f his creditor's, Ile would Pay every penny }u full. He wrote feverishly, aur} th, world gained "Tom Sawym Abroad," "The American Claim- ant," "l'nddin' Vend Wilson." and an historical novel published tinder the nom de plume, called "The - I'ersonal Recollections of 'Joan of Are Ile undertook long lettere tours and by almost ruining his health managed to clear Ills debts and leave enough to keep hint comfor- tably for the rest of his life. For nine years he was a happy man, but when, its 1904, his wife died. his wish to write died too. Then rte was honored with the honorary degree of Docto' of Lit- erature at Oxford University and he was so pleased that for a short time the old Mark Twain revived. On Christmas live, 1909, his fav- orite daughter had a seizure and diedintnmediately. The old main never recovered from till shock, Sie lived until April tine following year and became rather eccentric. When people remonstrated whit mint, he told than that when Hal- ley's Comet reappeared they would have no trouble for he would be dead, And, strangely enou •h, his prophecy was true, When Dalley s Comet did appear, Ile died IT STILL PAYS! A traveller seeking 21drertise- ments for a country newspaper called on the village grocer. "Nothing doing," he ass told. "Been established 80 year; and never advertised." As he turned to lease, the- traveller hetraveller said: "Excuse me, but what is that building on the hill?" "Oh, that," said tate grocer, "ire the village church." • "Been there lohg?" asked the traveller. "Yes," said the grocer, "300 years." "Well." replied the traveller. "they still ring the bell." In Tulsa, Okla., sheriff's deputies watched a drunken pig lurch down the street, They followed it straight to the drain pipe of a still. Art Without Arius-.lrnulf .Erich Stegulatiu. crippled by paralysis. puts tate finishing touches to a crayon drawing al his art publishing office in Deisenhofcti. Germany. Now 38, Stet;,- mann Was paralyzed at the age of tivo and never regained the use of his arras. • 11e taught himself to draw by holding a Pencil 111 iris month, and now employs other handicapped per- sons in his art firm, which he shares with an amputee wiper. ALLRIGIIT, one -mom GAME OF NIDE THE THIMBLE,11Ur, REMEMBFR THIS IS •T}16 ussr ONE. 7 LET JITTPR 510E 11: HM -SWELL IDEA! WI -1E 005E5 Ir. WE") CAN'T PLAY ANY MORE.. a" O.K.JITTER,� YOU HIDE TT THIS 71ME By Arthur Pointer OUCHE I BUMPED INTO 711E FIRE 00465 i'RSO,WHAT I IAYE ' YOU DONE? NOT A LIGHT IN THE }I0USE WILL WORK! PIPE DOWN. IF SHE PING0 US We,01 HAVE TO rix. Ir WAIT't-L_ :r GET THAT . N4 MONK!