Loading...
The Seaforth News, 1959-01-22, Page 2•Dust And Delight In South Africa __— South Africa is a land of end- less scenic wonders, One of the most striking is the Karoo, the great desertlike waste Which confronts the African traveler for •hundreds of miles if he sets out northward from the Cape of GoOd Hope. • It is strange that so desolate a piece of country should exer- cise such fascination. Parohed and sunbaked, there are parts of it where the year's rainfall drops in a shower of a few inin- utes. And a familar South Afri- can story says that if you fall into a river in the Karoo, you Just get right up and dust your- self off — for there never is any water in it, Yet many a lone Karoo farmer would live nowhere else on earth, And there are breath - catching flashes of beauty to its harshness, as sunsets when a sky, listless blue by day, ex- plodes into crimson, and the flaming orb of the setting sun leaves great streaks of magni- ficent red, yellow, and purple against the first stars in the west, But if dawn and dusk soften the hard lines of the Karoo, there seems little romantic about it, if you see it for the first time in the glaring heat of full day, Mile after dusty mile, the s c r awn y, knee-high scrub stretches away, montonous and arid as Arizona always sounds to one who has never been there. But that is perhaps a dangerous comparison, for Arizonians we have met have been doggedly, and probably justifiably, proud of their state. One of them, an American consular official in Africa, used to dispatch maps of the United States to his friends, depicting Arizona as a huge centrepiece, with the other states of the Union attached minutely around its edges. Be that as it may, there is a dash of the jaunty, early Ame- rican West about the Karoo. There are rickety little hamlets, dust -laden and baking, their corrugated iron roofs glinting in the sun. In some of them there is a railway statiOn — with never a train in sight — and the in- evitable, slowly twirling alumin- um -wind-pump sucking water from a hidden well, and perhaps In the background the put -put - put of an electricity generator. Sometimes, if you half close your eyes, you can almost imag- ine Roy Rogers or some other cowboy hero swaggering though a pair of swinging doors and trotting grandly away on his horse. But *hen you open your eyes, what you see is a late -model American car flaunting its chro- mium in front of you; for thcugh the Karoo may look stark, behind this starkness there is wealth enough 'for some. These are the wool farmers breeding huge flocks of rugged sheep originating from Holland, Australia, Spain, and Britain, which somehow thrive in the Karoo, During the years after World War II, a wool boom sent the value of the South African wool clip soaring from about $39,000,- 000 a year to nearly $280,000,000 a year. At least one farmer col- lected a check for more than $500.000 for one year's product, writes John Hughes in The Christian Science Monitor. And so, beside the old wagon trails which still leave their tracks in places, there now runs a tarred national .highway. Though the motorist still needs to work 'out his gasoline points, and take along a can of water in case his radiator should boil, much of the drama of a trek across the Karoo has vanished. However, there is still oppor- tunity for individual initiative, es was once spectacularly proved hy an English news- paperman with whom I traveled across the Karoo. Out of gas, but with an emergency supply pro- cured from some distance away, he found he could not pour from the can into the gasoline tank of his American automobile, without the aid of a tunnel. Un - distressed he unloaded all his luggage 4ncl from the bottom of the car trunk produced an old dusty COW'S horn, This, he an- nounced, he had been saving for some months for just such an occasion, Proudly he sheared off its end with a pocket-knife, and poured the gasoline through the horn in triumph. Such adventures build up something of a cameraderie among motorists along the Ka- roo road and a passing driver will very likely give you a friendly toot -toot for companYI . and will certainly stop to help if you appear in trouble. Some motorists prefer to travel at night to avoid the heat of day and this is not altogether a lonely trip. For if little moves there in the daytime, a variety of shapes peer into the car's headlightse at night. A pair of bright eyes — now here, now gone — could belong to a rabbit, a spring-bok per- haps, or a donkey or baboon, maybe even a prowling leopard! -Like much of the African con- tinent, the Karoo is a land of contrast and though some of it gets but a trace of ram in a year, other parts know savage floods. Some farmers recall storms which piled hail -stones three feet deep upon the veld. Few know where the Karat) proper ends, for after the coastal or Little Karoo, it becomes the Great or Central Karoo, of per-. haps 30,000 square miles. Then it merges gradually into South Africa's main watershed, the Northern Karoo or big veld, en- circled by a great escarpment of mountain ranges running from Namaqualand in the- west to the Drakensberg Mountains of Natal in the east. This total area is probably about 100,000 square miles. Although at first sight the Karoo is dry and uninviting, there are little oases of love- liness where a farmer has tap- ped a hidden spring or •well to transform a few acres about his house into a lush garden of greenery with sunken pools, as well as using the water for his stock. There is also contrast between the little Karoo hamlets and an expanding town such as Beau- fort West, unofficial capital of the Karoo. In the former, visiting motor- ists are still an item of interests to the little colored boys who gather about your car, hitching their thumbs through their sus- penders and regarding you gravely until you descend and greet them. Then they become coy, rubbing one bare foot upon another, drawing patterns in the dirt with their toes, tucking their heads almost under their arms, and going through all manner of shy and embarrassed gyrations, until with a little gig. gle or two they at last break into one of those trusting, wide- mouthed smiles like sudden dawn after night. Here in Beaufort West, the motorist is no longer an oddity and the town is growing fast. There are big bright gas stations, and signs for "Snacks," and an American-style motel with — wonder of wonders after a day in the Karoo — a swimming pool for its guests. But however fast the town grows beyond its limitis it is making only the slightest dent on the vastnessof the Karoo. And though men have learned to live off the Karoo, some of them profitably, it is doubtful whether they will ever change its unique and lonely grandeur. SLIGHT OF HAND—Jut a drop In .the bucket hiniself, tlls Sleepy Chihuahua puppy is simply too tired to fake his bottle, Though he weighed but two ounces at birth, the two -week-old •:hos;. mighty 11C1h1 e—Pablo Romando Chihuahua VanZile Peacock. GATEWAY FROM DARKNESS Floodlights add to the cold loneliness of this scene, a time exposure of the Brandenburg 'Gate in East Berlin, as seen from Red -dominated tertitory, The famed structure is located just across the border from West Berlin, and lights In background stretch into the Western -controlled portion of the beleaguered city. r TABLE TMKS 4t WV, v46.t% „1 I il01114,1,114, dam Andvews. Here is one of the favorite specialties of a famous restaur- ant which specializes on "home- made" foods, APPLE CAKE 34 cup shortening 1 cup sugar 1 egg, beaten 4 medium apples, peeled and chopped 1 cup flour 1 teaspoon soda N teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon cinnamon 34 teaspoon cloves 5,41 teaspoon nutmeg Cream shortening and sugar together; add egg and apple and mix well. In another bowl mix dry ingredients; add this to first mixture. Mix well. Bake in a greased 9x9x3 pan at 325° F. for 25 minutes. Leave. in the pan to cool, This will keep a long time, like a fruit cake, You should put it in a tight -topped box as you would a fruit cake. A frosting many like on the apple cake: NUTTY -CHEESE ICING Blend together one 3 -ounce package cream cheese (room temperature) with. 2 ounces but- ter. Add 1 cup powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and 1/• cup nuts. Blend together well. Spread on cake. • • * • "This Is 'a very, very old re- cipe," wrote Nancy Cabell Saw- yer to the Christian Science Monitor. "I use canned fruits and miniature marshmallows for convenience and freeze in round, tall ice cream cartons." FROZEN FRUIT SALAD 2 cups peaches 2 cups pears 2 cups pineapple 2 cups maraschino cherries 14 cup nuts 1/2 cup marshmallows 1 cup mayonnaise 1 cup heavy dream, whipped Sugar—a little ' Chop fruit; add sugar; drain. Fold in mayonnaise and whip- ped cream. Freeze. * * • Shrimp salad mousse—another party dish—was also sent by this same reader. "This can be prepared ahead of serving time —it's perfect for Sunday night • supper," she said. SHRIMP SALAD MOUSSE 2 cans shrimp or 11/2 pounds small fresh cooked shrimp 1 can tomato soup 2 small packages cream cheese 3 tablespoons .gelatin 11/2 cups cold water 1 eup mayonnaise 3/2 cup each finely chopped on- ion, celery and green pep- per Bring tomato soup to a boil, stirring and watching carefully. Add cheese and heat until creamy. Add gelatin which had been dissolved in the cold water; cool. Stir in shrimp, mayonnaise and vegetables. Pour .into molds and put in refrigerator to harden. When serving, top with a dress- ing made by •combining equal portions of mayonnaise and crearn. • * BREAKFAST WAFFLES (OR PANCAKES) 1 cup buttermilk 1 large egg, or 2 small ones 1 eup unsifted flour '• 1 teaspoon each, baking powder and salt 1/4 teaspoon soda 3 tablespoons bacon grease or other melted shortening Put all ingredients except the shortening in a bowl or waffle pitcher and beat with a rotary beater until well mixed, Then add. shortening. Bake as waffles or pancakes. Serves 2. • * * * Two seafood dishes which wold be a welcome addition to a party buffet table are a hand- some, easy -to -terve, ,salmon loaf and a colourful, tuna -cranberry jellied salad, moulded in the shape of a star. • SALMON LOAF 2 ens (1534 ounces each) sockeye salmon 3 eggs, slightly beaten 134 eupS Soft bread oruntbil ( N cup finely chopped celery 2 tablespoons minced onion N teaspoon Worcestershire sauce Drain salmon and reserve lb cup salmon liquid. Mash fish well and crush bone. Combine eggs and 1/2 cup of salmon liquid. Add bread crumbs and allow to soak for about 5 minutes; beat until smooth. Add salmon,celery, onion and Worcestershire sauce; mixthoroughly. Pack into a greased loaf pan (about 9 by 5 by 3 inches); bake in a 'preheat- ed oven (350° F.) for 40 minutes or until loaf is firm in centre. Unmould and serve hot with a caper sauce, or cold with a cu- cumber -mayonnaise dr es sin g. . Makes 8 to 10 servings, * 5 * TUNA -CRANBERRY MOULD Cranberry Layer 1 envelope unflavoured gelatine 34 cup cold water 1 pound can (2 cups) cranberry sauce 3A cup crushed canned pineapple with juice 1 tablespoon lemon juice Tuna Layer 2 cans (7 ounces each) tuna 1 cup chopped celery 2 tablespoons chopped parsley 1 gelatine unflavourecl N cup cold water 1 cup mayonnaise 34 cup water Cranberry Layer: Soften gela- tine in cold water; dissolve over low heat or hot water. Break cranberry sauce with a fork and stir in crushed pineapple and lemon juice, Mix in dissolved ing plate. Makes 8 to 10 servings, gelatine. Pour into a greased 1 - quart mould; chill until firm. Tuna Layer: DraM ansi flake tuna. Add celery and •parsley. Soften gelatine in cold water. Dissolve, over low heat or hot water. Blend mayonnaise or salad dressing and 1/2 cup water, mixture; mix well. Spoon over firm cranberry layer; chill until firm. Unmould en chilled' serv- Stir in •dissolved gelatine. Com- bine tuna mixture and gelatine' "Jack comes to see the every night, now. Do you think that means something " "Either he's in love with you or he hasn't got a television 'set." Southern Tragedy Late one afternoon recently at the Almacen Vida (Life Depart- ment Store) in Bogota, Colom- bia, Christmas shoppers packed the •aisles. In the long, narrow store, children clutched at toys, their mothers fingered the cloth- ing displays. Many customers stole a moment to admire the brightly lighted creche in the center of the main floor. Suddenly a short circuit flared in the colored lights of the Nativity scene. Flames, fed by the paper and straw in the manger of the Christ Child, leap- ed to counters piled high with flammable plastic toys, Sales- girls' skirts burst into flames. "The fire went up to the ceiling in a cloud of smoke," manager Alberto Mazeura said ,later. "Fuego!" someone shrieked — and the crowd panicked. Those in the front of the store broke out easily through the doors, smashed their way through show windows. People in the rear stormed the back stairs, found they led only to a blind mez- zanine, which quickly turned into a funeral pyre for masses s. of men, women and children. Many were trampled or suffo- cated in the trap between the flames and the rear wall, A critically injured 16 -year-old girl was found alive beneath a mass of bodies on the stairway. The manager and two employees battered the ,ceiling with chairs, finally knocked a hole in it and dragged out ten women. "Then we couldn't stand the heat any more and were forced .10 jump into the street," he said. About ten of the dead were children, A boy of 8 was found •dead in a pool of water, his face burned away; he was still shielding a toy truck in his arms. "A woman knelt as though in prayer beside the boy's body," said a fireman. "She was still alive but she died as I took her in my arms," Fireman Pedro Rodriguez worked his way with a hose to the corpse -littered stairway, then to two rear store- rooms. He found four charred bodies in one. In the other, "I found nine or ten young women kneeling with their arms out- stretched — they were burned to a crisp." Eighty-four Colombians digd, 50 were injured, scores over- • come by smoke. The loss of life was the largest on record for a department -store fire. Presi- dent Alberto Lleras declared national mourning. Just How Much Are You Worth If you calculated a Man's value merely on the total .an.,,KASIe which the chernical• and other constituents in his body would fetch on the world market to- day, what do you think he'd be , worth? Less than $30. Scientists have been telling us that, among other things, the average human body' contains: Enough' fat for Seven bars .of soap. Enough carbon for 0,000 lead pencils. Enough phosphorus to make 2,200 match heads. Enough lime to whitewash a chicken coop, Enough iron to make two znediurn-sized But here's some more cheering. news. To -day, a good human skeleton of the kind needed by medical authorities for research purposes is worth between $120 and $135, Talking of bones, how is it that we are born with 270 but die with only 206? What happens to the missing sixty-four? They join with other bones during our infamy, say physiologists. That great expert, Sir Arthur Keith, said that only if scientific investigation of the human body is continued for another 2,000 years shall we gain real know- ledge of it, • Take the heart, for instance, which weighs only eight or nine ounces, but pumps 2,500 gallons of blood in twenty-feur hours and 55 million gallons in an average lifetime. - "If one man's heart -beats in a single day could be concentrated •into .one huge throb of vital power, it would be sufficient to hurl a ton of iron over 100 feet into the air," a' heart specialist calculates. SNACK—Four-year-old Timothy Short makes ready to feed Nautilus, the seal, at a, private loo in Eppingham, England. Tim's grandfather owns the zoo which houses animals and birds from the British Isles. watt .;..glotte A COL P LUNCH—Thanks to'their "buffalo robes," this pair of bison :at Fort Hays (Kan,) Stole Park doesn't mind riecnt record snows. They manage to graze despite the fall.'