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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1960-12-29, Page 2Health Salts Proved Most Unhealthy Vanity in a man is always dangerous. When it reaches ab- murd levels and the individual is -always trying to get himself Into the limelight, it is more than dangerous, it can prove to be fatal. Middle-aged men Who fall in love with married women fre- quently find themselves in trouble. Falling in love and courting can be a lot of fun. But tt is difficult when. the man is French, the woman English, and neither of them speaks one word of the other's language! Such was the situation in 1923 when Jean-Pierre Vaquier met an attractive woman in Biarritz. She was the wife of the land- lord of the Blue Anchor Hotel et Byfleet, Surrey. The publican was reasonably good at his job, nut his best friends would never have des- eribed him as anything but dull and dreary. When loaded with alcohol he could be amusing, but normally he was a bore, Heavy drinkers married to attractive wives who have roving eyes are always in danger. Unfortunately they often don't realize it. The publican and his wife had lived at Byfleet for many years. In 1923 he was thirty-seven years old and had been married for seventeen years. His wife had from time to time carried on various business- es. She had never been particu- larly successful and bankruptcy had loomed on the horizon on several occasions. By 1923 her creditors were breathing down her neck. However, her financial posi- tion didn't particularly worry her. When, towards the end of that year, affairs were becoming slightly tedious she decided to call it a day and go to France for a holiday. Not the small pension for this lady, Only the best hotel in ]Biarritz was good enough and there she met Jean-Pierre Va• quier, a Frenchman aged forty - Ave. He was a man of strong at- traction, vain to madness, and his principal thoughts were oc- reupied with his appearance. He apent more time on his hair, moustache and beard in a week than most men spend on their appearance in a lifetime. In behaviour and tempera- ment Vaquier was a typical satin. He was intelligent, clever end resourceful, but his vanity end chattiness were to be his undoing. The wife hadn't been in Bier - elle many days before she be- came the mistress of the little Frenchman. She moved from her original hotel to live with him and in the history of love affairs this liaison must have been one of the strangest, From the beginning, the whole of the conversation between them was conducted with the aid of a dictionary. During his wife's romantic interlude in Biarritz, the publi- can appears to have become alightly irritated. He, also, was xtuffering from financial embar- rassment. Ile, also, was tired and In need of a holiday, and before his wife reached home, as a re- sult of his telegrams, he went. Obey the traffic signs — they are placed there for YOUR SAFETY to Margate for a short rest, May- be the East Coast air would help his drink problems. Only a few hours behind the erring wife was Vaquier. Ile was hot in pursuit and the pair, hav- ing :pent a night or two together m Lundell, arrived back at the Blue Anchor Hotel, where Va- quier was apparently prepared to put his feet up indefinitely, writes David Ensor in "Tit -Bits". He was very short of money and before long was being pro- vided for by his mistress, whose husband, having returned from Margate, was in bed with infiu- enzza. Vaquier stayed for several weeks. How much the husband knew of his wife's affair it is impossible to guess, The chances are that, drink being his hobby, he wasn't particularly interested in his wife's behaviour. But ono thing is certain, a great deal of drinking went on at • the hotel and one night to- wards the end of March, 1924, a fabulous party took place, as a result of which a number of guests staying in the hotel had to be carried to bed before mid- night. Vaquier was an early riser and the morning after the party he was in the smoke room drink- ing his coffee as usual, On the mantelpiece, also as usual, stood the bottle containing the publi- can's health salts, It had been his custom for years to come down and have a dose of this pick-me-up before he set about the business of the day. On this occasion, after a very thick night, no doubt he felt it necessary to sample the cool, sparkling drink, He came down to the smoke room, he saw Jean-Pierre sip- ping his coffee. He took his dose of salts and in less than half an hour he was dead. The publican died as the re- sult of strychnine poisoning and while it was perfectly obvious his wife knew nothing about the circumstances of his death, it was equally obvious the excit- able French lover knew more than he cared to admit. Where had the strychnine conte from? For some days there was no evidence that the poison had been in the possession of Vaquier. Nor was there any evi- dence which could show how the poison had been brought on to the premises. Then, quite out of the blue, Vaquier made his f at al mis- take. Not unnaturally the Press had been very interested in the landlord's sensational d e a t h. With supreme vanity Vaquier had enjoyed having his picture taken. It was not surprising that his photograph was recognized. One who saw it was a chemist who managed a shop near the hotel where Vaquier stayed on his arrival in England. He iden- tified the photograph as that of a man who had bought poison from him, including a quantity of strychnine. At his trial Vaquier's denials and stories were even more stu- pid than is usual in such cases. The prosecution's only difficul- ty was to show that Vaquier had had a sufficient amount of strychnine in his possession. Nevertheless it was only after the jury convicted Vaquier that the police found at the Blue Anchor Hotel enough strychnine to poison 740 people. Jean-Pierre Vaquier screamed al his trial. He screened al his appeal. Whether he screamed at his execution we don't know. 41414 MEAL SKY HOOK — Helicopter is used to airlift kite -like alumin- um tower, above, 1.1,'5 miles from assembly point to its eransrnission line base, Entire operation takes only 10 minutes. Tower is part of 138,000.volt line from Smith Mountain hydro- electric dam on Roanoke River. SAM TAKES NO CHANCES Sam, o Russian polar bear at the zoo In Landon, England, frolics in his pool. The "Ilfe-preserver" is a scooter tire that fits his neck comfortably. TA LE MKS Jai Andpews. I don't recall that anyone ever urged me to learn to cook. Per- haps a home atmosphere which included the warm taps of bread fresh from the oven each week, doughnuts crisp from the kettle, and gingersnaps, the spicy, pun- gent smell of which reached me way out under the lilac bushes was its own urging. In any event, there came a day whey I an- nounced that I wanted to e '0k, writes Gertrude P. Lancaster to the Christian Science Monito.. is a .. Mother was pleased and asked what I' would like to make. "Lemon meringue pie," was the answer. For a girl not yet in her teens this may have seemed quite an order, but mother was too wise to suggest anything prosa- ically simple. Lemon meringue pie it should be — in all its glory! As I remember it, mother gave me a list of ingredients, ex- plained what to do with them, and warned me of pitfalls. Now and then she would check my progress, but somehow she ]chew that half the fun lay in doing all I could myself, I don't re- member just what the first pie looked like, but I do remember the warm appreciation of my parents when we ate the fin- ished product. Many pies later, I still feel that mother's recipe for the lem- on custard excels any other I have eaten. 01 course, as any cookbook will explain, tastes vary in how firm a lemon cus- tard should be, in how tart or sweet. Ours is only firm enough to hold a very soft shape; in fact, when the pie is cut, the filling usually oozes gently onto the pie plate. We prefer this to a stiff, gelatinous custard, As for sweetness, it's a bit on the tart side except when I'm having company which prefers a very sweet lemon flavor. if you've been reading lemon pie recipes lately, you will note that today's method of combin- ing the ingredients is not our method. I've tried the new ways and prefer mother's, Hers b simple, for one thing, and 1 like the result° better, foo. Pie shells, and meringues are a separate subject, and I'll not discuss them here. The filling is as follows: Put in a double boiler a cup of hot water and butter the size of a small egg (you ran see from the start that this is not a "scientific" recipe with precise measurements). Add the following mixture: 4 egg yolks beaten well, lee ,cups su- gar. 5 tablespoons cornstarch, •twice and rind of 2 large lemon-. Stir cnrnt:nll}•. scraping the sides of the pan. until.the teat - serif ±hir•k, ne tn•11. 1II gill thicken soar atter you rem,e, 1 front 41, heat and 111 11 e4101,4 A'irdher alwtiys cooled the cus- tard and tee pie ehell thong before adding the former io the latter. thus preventing to Iargc r a:arc ern'14ogginuse of rrurt. The pip needs further "coling atlr r !la- m ringue tr'. , vrolct.d. • item i• nc!v trick for demi mince pie. Add a layer 01 apples the mincemeat and top with 46 butter -sugar topping, then land a little tree of hard splice nn each serving. FICENCH MINCE PIR Pastry for a 9 -inch pie shell 1'r trips mincemeat t cups slieed peeled apples (about 3 medium) 'a cup flour to cup light brown sugar, firmly packed e tablespoons butter Put pastry in a 9-ineh pan, .spread mincemeat over bottom of shell, Arrange sliced apples over mincemeat, Combine flour and sugar; cut in butter until it is crumb -like in appearance, Sprinkle over apples, Bake in pre -heated 400' F. oven for 30- 35 minutes or until topping is slightly browned and apples are tender. Serve slightly warm. v, Here is a recipe for stuffed squash that comes all the way from Argentina. It sounds ra- ther complicated but the resalt is well worth the trouble. STUFFED SQUASH 1 squash Butter Cinnamon Sugar Cut squash in hall, across. Dis- card center and seeds. Put bits of butter inside, sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar (about 2 tablespoons sugar for each half). Bake at 350°F. until done, FILLING 1 onion, minced 1 pound beef, cubed 2 tomatoes, peeled .andfinely chopped le pound butter 2 potatoes, cubed 2 sweet pdtatoes, cubed 11 ears corn cut from cob 3 cups broth or consomme 312 teaspoon each, salt, pepper 114 cups raw rice 3 peeled peaches, cut in small pieces (or dried alf peaches) 6 prunes 1 apple, peeled and cut into small pieces li cup oil Put oil into large saucepan, heat, and add onions. Saute until golden brown; add meat and brown; add tomatoes, but- ter, potatoes, corn, broth, salt, and pepper. Cover and cook over slow fire until done. Add rice and fruit and cook 15 min- utes longer, or until rice is done, Add more broth if you need to keep mixture from sticking. Put this stuffing in the cooked squash end put into oven and brown. SWEET POTATOES IN ORANGE CUPS 4 large navel oranges 6 medium sweet potatoes 1.1 teaspoon salt 3 tablespoons butter ' a cup brown sugar i teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg 2 teaspoons grated ur'arrge peel Pecan halves To make orange cups, hatve orange s, remove pulp (save ,juice). Boil or bake sweet po- tatoes until tender; peel, and place in bowl of electric mixer. Beat at low speed,• adding •alt, butter. sugar, nutmeg, and or- ange ped. Add enough orange juke to make potato mixture. fluffy. Spoon mixture into or- ange cups, pi!in;r high. Bake al 350'I'. Ibr 225-110 nlinetee. Ger. ;rich top of each «'ith ;, pecan malt Serves eight. When London Was Two Miles Long T/01111011 in the 1'uurteeerth (1:A- 1,110' was, walled, except where the Thames protectec! it. Below the wells, like a castle's owlet. flowed the Fleet rind the Wel- brook (now both covered int, The line of the wall had 1 0 niained the same since Roman times, Much of it still rested on foundations which Roman sol- diers had laid. In the Roman manner ii had round bastions every 250- feet.. The wall was twenty-two feet high and at in- towels; along it there were tow- ers rising to forty feet. lls length -- roughly two miles — was pierced by seven gates, all commemorated on the map of modern London. Starting from - the south-west corner, i.e., near Blackfriars, there were Ludgate, Newgate, Aldersgate, Cripple- gate, Moorgate, Bishopsgate and Aldgate. "Gate" means not only the gate itself, but also the con- siderable building which housed it. Newgate and Ludgate con- tained prisons. Other gates could be rented as dwelling houses. Chaucer lived in Aldgate for a time. The eighth gate of London has left no trace on modern maps. This was the gate which guarded the southern end of London Bridge.. , The bridge itself, with its nine- teen arches and a drawbridge, was already two hundred years old, A chapel and wooden dwell- ing houses had been built upon it (the rents of the houses helped to pay for repairing the bridge). in the water below, fish swam... Fish throve in the Thames wa- ter but Londoners liked some- thing clearer to drink, ... There were springs and wells within the city, but a further supply was needed, This was found in the country west of the city. There were springs near where Selfridges now stands. Water from these was carried by lead pipes to a cistern in Cheapsidre-- Chepe, as it was then called. "Chepe" or "cheap" meant a market. Our adjective "cheap" is the same word. Cheapside was the centre of London — a broad open space where buying and selling and making and Mending went on. Nowadays there is a clear dif- ference between the stalls of a market, which disappear at the end of the day, and the perma- nent, glass -windowed shop; but Chepe contained all sorts of pre- mises from simple fish or vege- table stands to wood - framed merchants' houses three or four stories high, carved and brightly painted. —From "Chaueer's England," by Duncan Taylor, Witter hi Britain Has Marcy seethes In wooded country my own choice of the year's pageantry cif beauty is that of winter, on these mild days when the wind coaxes from the blessed south-west. The warm Gulf Stream, which playa so great a part in our elimate, it then mare evident in its benefi- cence than in summer, when the. Sun's greater power warms um independently. We frequently have many weeks in midwinter, here in Surrey, when the damp air enriches all the colours of the landscape. The tints of the lich- ens on tree and hedgerow, tile and wall, stand out in contrast to the pale sky or darkling bank of violet cloud. The beeches and. the poplars, birches and willows in particular have a special ap- peal when their wet twigs are lit by the sun against a rain cloud. Looking into the haze of twigs, glistening in tones of brown, green, and purple, the wonderful contrast against the velvety cloud is a sight which lives with me throughout the year, Many a lovely view is obscured by a massed dome of leaves, and winter shadows slanting over the undulating meadows are tar more interesting than their sum- mer counterparts. , It is only when spring brings its tender green in dappled contrast . or when autumn fires the rides, that winter's softer tones are eclipsed. But this book is about winter, and to winter with its icy winds, its frosts and snows, I will re- turn. In counties other than those which are wooded even milder weather may be a trial. Where mountains prevent the low winter sun from reaching the cold earth, or where the land is so flat that its only winter beau- ty, apart front the thin, low pat- tern of field and hedgerow, is the great arc of ever-changing sky, winter may well be wished away. It may be felt that autumn. would join hands with spring were it not for the almost inevit- able spells of icy weather, and. that to ourselves winter is only true winter when such condi- tions obtain. In other words, that late autumn is sometimes separ- ated from early spring only by a short week or two of weather which is so inimical to growth of all kinds that this book would thereby be considered a mere joke. But I think it will be al- lowed that our winter may be given a period of four months, tfrom the time when the poplars and limes shed their leaves in early November until the burst- ing of the hawthorn into tiny green leaves in March. Let this then be our winter, the period which I will discuss in these pages. 1 am never far away from flowers or leaves. My year is wrapped up with them, and I Brant my winter to have as much of their company as is possible. --From "Colour in the Winter Garden," written and illustrated by Graham Stuart Thomas, The sooner you face a prob-_ lem, the sooner you can turn Hour back on it! ISSUE 52 — 1960 JACK OP ALL NOTES — Happy man is Jean .Jacques Perrey, a Parisian who sounds off on the Ondioline, a 44 -pound elec- tronic device that looks like a hybrid piano -cash register and sounds like any number of musical instruments, The Ondfoline, which has a three -octave keyboard, can be made to sound like o tuba, trombone, clarinet, trumpet, bass fiddle or cello — but only one at a lime.