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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1952-08-07, Page 3No Women Allowed For 1400 Years: Though in a, fast 'plane one van hop the Atlantic in n 'natter of hours, the Pacific in clays, and sci- entists are now contemplating trips to the (noon, there atilt remain cities that one cannot enter. The best known of these is Lhassa, the capital of Tibet, a country which recently was closed to all foreigners. Perched some 16,000 feet above the sea; storms raked Himalayan passes must be crossed to enter it, and the country is swept by freezing gales: Its great palace of Potala, tow- ering higher than the done of St, Paul's, is one of the most impres- sivebuildings in the world. Tibet has ever been a country hostile to strangers and to new ideas, and when some years ago a body pf young Tibetans, after studying en- gineering and Science in Europe, returned home, they took back ma- chinery with the intention of set- ting it up for the common weal, But the lamas hurled the machinery over a precipice. In 1934, permission was actu- ally granted for the lighting' of some government offices and streets by means of electricity. After por- ters had manhandled hundreds of tons of material over passes higher than Mt, Blanc, the cases were loaded on yaks and carted to Lhassa, where Mr. R. D. Ringang, a Tibetan who studied in London, had to paint out all sacriligeous foreign lettering and substitute Tibetan characters. Mecca is another renowned holy city which is taboo to all but gen- uine believers. Richard Burton lift- ed the veil from AIecca, and after hien a few intrepid Europeans. Alt went there in disguise, for they realizecL that if denounced a pain- ful death would follow rapidly. Hardwar, a town in Northern India, is not a safe place for the European when the annual festival of the Hindus takes place. A special festival is held every twelve years, and at this period the city becomes exceedingly dangerous, Hardwar is the. first town touched by the holy Ganges on its tortuous journey through the plains to the sea. Be- cause of this it has became sanc- tified. Holier far, and infinitely more inaccessible, is Kulu, high in the lofty, icy Himalayas, the goal of thousands of pilgrims, Once the mountains are reached there are no friendly caravanserial and food is scarce. Few, indeed, have the nerve to face the final, dreadful stretch—the terrible, sway- ing ropeway, stretching 2,500 feet from the edge of one precipice to another. A hard wooden seat is suspended from the rope by a pulley. On this the pilgrim seats himself and is pushed off. The rude conveyance travels at such a speed that smoke issues from the rapidly heating rope. Sometimes a passenger loses his grip through sheer terror or dizziness and is dashed to pieces many thousands of feet below, in which case his sins are automati- cally washed away. If he survives the ordeal he is supposed to have acquired sufficient merit to prosper during the coming year! Then there is Ordain Padshah, second only in holiness to Mecca, which lies in the hinterland of Chinese Turkestan, It is a lost city in the desert, its nearest neigh- bours being the romantically sound- ing Kashgar and Yarkand, Kissing: Deadly Sin Ordam Padshah is another city in which the stranger would find it inconvenient to be discovered. It is as hot as a bakehouse, yet, during the month of Ramadan, when outsiders who are Believers are allowed in, no food must be eaten between dawn and sunset. To kiss a woman in such cir- cumstances is a deadly sin for which the most rigorous penances are enforced. Another very holy place, guarded most carefully against intruders, is Jebel Sinjar. It lies in a narrow, sunbaked defile near Ain Satin, which once harboured a quarter of a million inhabitants—the last of the devil worshippers. Now, only 60,000, of Kurdish stock, remain. The holy place at Jebel Sinjar is the tomb of Sheik Adi, and those fortunate enough to slip past the guardians may listen to the preach- ing of the 'pirs' (preachers who are also hermits), and shiver as the 'quchags' (musicians) clash their cymbals. They can watch fascinated the pantheistic rites and the fakirs who dance dizzily till blood noses from their lips and noses. - WHAT A BEAST "What a noble animal," said the nan as he gazed at the lion. "What strength 1 What magnificence t No wonder every other animal quails tt the thought of hint; no wonder tvcry other animal admits hint to to the king of beasts." "Confound that flea I" said the ion, as he 'made one more attempt c+ rid himself of his tormentor, "Hearse" to You—Nurse Viola Imobden, left, and Mrs. Rosemary Brown examine a unique safety reminder outside a big rubber plant. The 75 -year-old horse-drawn hearse serves as an un- usual billboard far the safety message. • Prevention of accidents on the farm is a subject I have frequently written about in this column. Still, the warnings you heeded yesterday won't do you any good if you forget all about then( today: so the fol- lowing taken from an article in "Canada's Health and Welfare" are well worth reading — and profit- ing by tool * * * Canada, with a population of roughly 14 million, has a farm population estimated at three and one. half million and this group represents a segment of the popu- lation which is extremely vulner- able to the effects of fire, accident or illness. On a farm, where illness or accident to one person may bring production to a standstill for many days, there is much truth in the slogan 'one out, everybody out" * * * If a store in a town or city burns there is generally some outer place where the business can be carried on. When farm buildings burn, years of work and an irreplaceable harvest often go up in the flicker of an eye, Illness, accident or death on the farm are often vastly more important in the production pic- ture than similar events in urban areas. 5 * 5 * And the farm, through the years, has been the site of a relatively high percentage of accidents, The accidents occur on all parts of the farm—in the fields, the barns and the home. * 5 * Surveys of farm accidents indicate that falls, encounters with cutting or piercing instruments, and crush- ing account for 71% of the total of lost time through accidents, Al- most 27% of the time lost is due to accidents such as kicks from farts animals and misadventures with tractors and motors. Burns are responsible for the balance. 5 * * Unfortturatcly for farm produc- tion, statistics indicate that by far the majority of farm accidents hap- pen to people in the working years. In fact, 84% of all farm accidents happen to people between the ages ..of 14 and 64. Fifty-eight per cent of the 'accidents occur in the fields and 27% in the home or outbuild- ings, so naturally the provinces with the greatest acreage under cultivation in proportion to the farm population will have the high- er incidence. In other words, it seems that accidents are more apt to occur on large farms worked by a few people than on small, nitre heavily staffed farms. * 5 Irire is the worst accident hazard on most farms. Many farm homes are of highly inflammable construc- tion and employ heating methods that are relatively dangerous from the point of view of fire hazard. Its addition, malty farms still em- ploy methods of illumination in house or barn that are potentially dangerous. .A sizeable percentage of our farm Montes have been con- structed by inexperienced, if will- ing, labor, and often the chimneys and stovepipes could be considered - a menace. 5 5 5 Another factor in farts fires i the type of wood burned lit Inapt stoves - and ranges, Generally speaking, the wood it of whatever type happens to be deafly mesas ible and it may often be of s. type ' that burns rapidly, carrying off large volumes of sparks which may endanger wooden roofs nr adja- cent buildiugs. • * * Considering the proportion of farm residents to the population as a whole, it is significant to note that during the years 1946 to 1949 there were 321 rural homes destroy- ed by fire as compared to 370 urban dwellings. Thus an average of 80 farts homes per year are lost through fire. The death tolls during this four-year period were 576 and 553 respectively. Fifty- five per cent of the victims in rural areas and 51% its urban areas were children. Farm homes are often particularly -vulnerable to fire be- cause of their remoteness from ef- fective firefighting equipment and the lack of an adequate supply of water under pressure. * * * Authorities are agreed that edu- cation presents the only permanent solution to the dangers of farm accidents. To this end many volun- tary and government groups are directing a great deal of time and effort * * * In the forefront of this campaign have been the large Canadian oil and farm implement companies, federal and provincial departments of agriculture and the Doininipn Fire Conttnissioner's office. * * 5 With an eye to the future, much of the accident prevention educa- tion in rural areas is now being directed at the children, the farm owners of tomorrow. Schools, ju- nior farmer clubs, boy scout and girl guide movements and many other groups have played a large part in the continuing plan for farm safety. It is to be hoped that the results twill soon be reflected in a marked lowering of the acci- dent rates among Canada's rural population. Telephone Manners In spite of the nice educational program the Bell Telephone Com- pany conducts to traits people in correct telephone .procedure, far too many people, the nicest people to talk to under normal circumstances, act like complete louts when a tele- phone is placed in their hands. They scream into it or mumble into it, they.slam the receiver down in your ear, they let it ring and ring before answering it, they get a wrong number and hang up on the poor unsuspecting guy who answer- ed the phone without so much as an apology. Its short they do the very things they would find unbearable in others but never give their behaviour a second thought—just because it's•a telephone they have in their hands. "Jazz will endure as long as people hear it through their feet instead of their brains," — (John Philip Sousa). ,1,INDAY SC TOOL LESSON By Rev. R Barclay Warren, B.A., B,D, The Beginning Of The ICingdom 1 Samuel 911-2; 10:24-27; 13:5-7; 19-22. 'Memory Selection: The Lord will not forsake his people for his great name's sake. because it hath pleased the Lord to make you his people, 1 Samuel 12:22 Unfortunately Satnuel's sons were not ad their father but "turn- ed aside after lucre, and took bribes, and perverted judgment." - This, together with the desires to be like the nations round about, prompted Israel to ask for a king. The desire to "follow the crowd" is strong in individuals and in nations. Samuel under God's direction made choice of Saul as king. He was very tall. The people were well -pleased. When he was pub- licly presented they shouted and said, "God save the king." Other qualities being equal the than of greater stature will be the people's choice. Saul had some good quali- ties, too. He did not seek the of- fice; the office sought him. He felt unworthy of the honor for his fancily was the least of all the families of the small tribe of Ben- jamin, Moreover he got along with his father. He did not think it be- neath ]rim to take orders, even to do the meaner chores, such as looking for the lost asses, When Saul and the servant were delayed in their search, Saul became con- cerned because he feared his fa- ther would now be worrying more about them than about the animals. When the servant suggested that since they were near Ramah they night visit the prophet Samuel, Saul was eager to avail himself of this privilege, It is always a com- mendable thing in the young that they wish to consult the wise and the good. Saul was thoughtful, too, in that he hesitated to visit the prophet without a person, a token of respect. But most impor- tant of all in his preparation for this office was the fact that after he was anointed by Samuel, "God gave him another heart—and the Spirit of God came upon him," God's sanction was upon his leader- ship. With such a promising be- ginning e- gin»ng it is sad to think that the subject of our next lesson is "The Tragedy of Saul." Chickens See Red It is believed that turkeys are blind to certain other colours. Experiments with chickens some years ago established that they scarcely noticed violet, indigo and blue. In a dark rooms with seven colours projected on the floor, a scientist found that the fowls at once picked up grains of rice lying in the red, yellow, orange and green rays, but paid no attention to the food that was coloured blue. His theory was that chickens and all birds that fly by clay see the world as it would appear to us if we wore glasses with yellow -red lenses I Travelling By 'Train in Modern India. Just Like "Good Old Days" Of Jesse Jame.' By TOM A. COLLEN —. were 849 train robberies and theft, last April alone. Most exponents of fair -play felt that things had gone a bit too fair when an ex -cabinet minister wan slugged and robbed on the Bona - bay -Madras Mall recently by a pair of thugs, one of whom watt armed with "a rusty dagger," ac- cording to press reports. His assailants gained entry by using a slim youth who slipped his ]read and shoulders into the oar.. row spare between window bars. In the minor leagues, traveling without a ticket is -a sport which has a sizeable portion of the pottu' lat ion as enthusiastic adherents, Nearly e i g h t million deadbeats were detected riding on trains last year, and the farts and penalties collected from Brenn atnouuted to $4,000.0000. Recently the t rain in which K Was traveling to Calcutta sudden- ly stopped (tear the outskirts of that city as the result of some- one pulling the emergency alarm signal (penalty for misuse; 50 rus pees, or $(Ot. About a hundred villagers, or "upcountry" people, as they are called, each loaded with a large bundle, got out of the third-class carriages, "What's up?" 1 asked a fellow passenger. Sen u g g 1 e r s," he explained. "They're smuggling rice from Bttrduatt to Calcutta," Food grains being "frozen" in most parts of India, it is unlaw» ful to transport them from one district to another. Another time. our train was stopped by police who searched the comportment in which 1 was sitting without success, \Viten the police had left the. £trensntn ul pampas s.ta8uassed high spirits, "They are laughing," a passenger told toe, "because the bags of rice are in the women's compartment, and the police dare not eater it." Train travel in India ltas all the thrills of riding an old mail trait into Jesse James' territory with the guards sleep in a poker mune in the caboose, Not only are Indian Itams tate most crowded in the world. They also hold what .is probably the world's record for crime commit- ted on railways. To get an idea of the over- crowding on Indian trains, double the number of passengers who ride the U. 5, rails and reduce the number of U. S. passenger coaches by 411 per cent. The staggering total of 1,307,000,000 passengers, or the equivalent of more than half the world's population, rode Indian trains last year. The crimes these passengers faced ranged from murder, with robbery as its motive, to the filch- ing of light bulks from third class compartments, a seemingly uni- versal practice, Although the chances of a train being wrecked by sabotage are fairly reroute (only 23 out of 229 attempts at train -wrecking were successful last year), the possibili- ty that it may (tit a cow is a live one; it accounted for 5176 accid- ents, or 23 per cent of last year's total. Inasmuch as almost all robberies occur in first and second' class coaches, these upper classes of travel have become increasingly unpopular. No feudal baron ever secured the gates of his castle with more care than that exercised by the average first class passenger in bolting the doors and windows of his compartment before retiring at (tight. The windows, themselves, are protected by iron bars, giving the coach the appearance of a prison car used in hauling chain gangs. Despite these precautions, there Everyone Has Fun When Gabriel Plays His Piano by JACK P. GABRIEL Pianist Bernard Gabriel is hav- ing the fun of discovering that while a first experiment can be a flop, the next try can succeed. He's finally made the grade with his novel "Piano Recital of Tomor- rott.' "Audiences have been getting the sante routine treatment at concerts for so long that they are apath- etic," the dark-haired composer - teacher says. "I thought I'd try something nett." Gabriel's mysterious announce- ment of a "different" recital stir - ed up a lot of interest, but it didn't work out, "I was held up more than half an hour in starting," Gabriel ex- plains, "and that didn't put the audience in a mood to be recep- tive to anything." The stage was set, complete with comfortable chairs and sofas and embellished with lamp s, to look like a comfortable living room in a home, Some of the pianist's personal friends sat on the stage. Between numbers he joined them, leaving the piano but not the stage for a chat or a cigarette. But the audience, accustomed to musicians deserting the stage for a few minutes which gave them time to chat, sat in silence, won- dering what he would do next. When he merely returned to the piano, they shared a sense of frus- tration. It was not enough of a novelty and critics denounced the attempt. "I gave up, the idea of trying to change anything," Gabriel says now. "It seemed the public want- ed to do exactly what they have always done, but what the box office indicated they had wearied of." A few days later, ata session with a pupil, Gabriel had an inspi- ration, "I began to get other ideas about my attempted change in concert form," he said, "It occur- red to me too late that I had miss- ed the boat about a lot of things that would have trade my concert more interesting," , Gabriel made a brave decision; if he tried it again, and the at- tempt flopped once more, it would seriously damage his reputation for further concerts. Once more announcements were sent out for a "Piano Recital of Tomorrow," and when an audi- ence bad assembled they again found the stage decorated like a roost. But this time they were part of the act, Before the concert began, Gab - BERNARD GABRIEL: He's ready to break the ice or others. riel appeared in a comfortable smoking jacket he'd had made to add to the complete informality. Briefly he explained his purpose. "I told them what selections I had prepared for my first group and asked them which they would pre. fer .to hear," he explained. The response was hearty and Gabriel obliged with the most popular re. quests. Between groups, he again sat onstage with his visitors, but chat- ted also with those who had paid to hear the music. The audience participation did it. Everyone had a good time, sharing the feeling of being guests at a party where the host was most at- tentive, and this time, the Denver - born pianist knew his gamble had watt. Iie'a not going to settle for hav- ing once been a pioneer. Re'na'l Gabriel intends to make further progress, thus breaking the ice for others. "It's extremely difficult for be-. giniters to get engagements these days," he s a y s, "and I have a scheme to group several together, pianists, singers and other musi- cians, and give my Concert of To- morrow in that wanner."