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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1961-09-14, Page 6Shortage of Harps Felt nim Wales Wales is a Most exciting place ' to visit in this slimmer of 1901, Apart from the fact that the ancient principality is "enjoying a big economic revival, it is as stimulating as only a Celtic so ciety can be — culturally, artis- tically, conversationally, Among the cut -of -the -ordinary topics which are currently pro - yoking lively debate in Welsh towns and villages are harps and kilts and cockles and panzers, The question of harps came up at the Royal National Eisteddfod of Wales which has just been held at the village of Rhes, near Wrexham, in the county of Den- bighshire, This National Eistedd- fod which has been going on for 100 years is a festival of music, • poetry, dancing and art. The harp is the •tracitional musical instrument of Ws:es. In particular it is used for tern ac- companiment of pennilliot`. sing- ing - in which an ram omptu counterpoint is sung agai•"st the melody played on the he p It appears that today Mere is a crisis in the harp besiness. There is such a shortage If Gre- cian and Gothic pedal ha* os that a welcome renaissance i harp - playing is being hamper; 1, So a meeting was held at this years National Eisteddofd by the Cymdeithas Cerdd Dant 'a so- ciety for the promotion al harp playing and pennillion singing) to discuss how to meet the situa- tion, It was explained that a large number of Welsh school children are leaving school these days after having learned to be pro- ficient on the harp, only to find there are no harps for them to play, Virtually all the harps iii ac- tive service are old ones. The harp repairers have been be- guiled away from harp -repairing by the higher rewards of guitar - mending for swing bands and pop singers. At the present time, it was. pointed out, harps are being made in substantial numbers only in parts of continental Europe and in the United States. This means that to import a new instrument into Wales may cost nearly £1,000 or about $2,800. This year's National Eisteddfod provided the usual colorful cere- monies including the Gorsedd procession and the crowning of the bardic crown was the Rever- end Haydon Lewis, Presbyterian minister, of Ton -Pentre, Rhond- da. Some of the women at the Eisteddfod were, as usual, at- tired in their attractive Welsh the bard of the year. Winner of This Saves Money! Wets Witetal, Tlvitty: Easy: So satisfac- tory! :Mahe your own' slip -covers by following our illustrated step- by-step method.• You'll turn out a most prose sional-looking job! .Slip -carer a chair or sofa; Step -b,. --step In.structiors 041 for a basic cover; six other types. Ser,d TE5IRTY-FIVE CENTS ( stamps carnet be accepted, use postal nate far safety) for this pattern to Laura Wheeler. Box 1, 123 Eighteenth St.. New Toron- to, Oct. Prim plainly PAT- TERN NUMBER, your -NAME and ADDRESS. Send now for our exciting, new 1961 Needlecraft Catalog. Over 125 designs to crochet, knit, sew, embroider, quilt, weave — fash- ions, homefurnishings, toys gifts, bazaar hits. Plus FREE—instruc- tions for six smart veil caps. Hurry, send 25e now! ISSUE 36 — 1961 IT'S GINA'S — French actor Alain Delon expresses a cheer- ful "hattitude" in Grotto Fer- rate, Italy. The hat belongs to Gino Lollo'brigida. They're both in Italy for filming of a new movie. national costumes of tall black hat, red jacket and white lace frills. But what of the men? Despite Welsh civilization's being older than that of England the Welsh men have hitherto bad no real national costume, So this year, as part' of the general Welsh revival, a move has been started to design kilts for Welshmen. The Welsh Tourist and Holidays Board has called on woolen manufacturers to submit designs, A spokesman of the board has said, "We are as much a Celtic mace as the Scots. There is a Welsh national costume for wo- men but nothing for men, We are hoping the kilt will be worn on such occasions as the Eisteddfod and the Welsh games." But will the Welshman, who is more often than not of shorter build than the Scot, be able to emulate the Scotsman's swirl and swish and waggle of the kilt which the late Sir Harry Lauder •used to sing about so nostalgical- ly? This is a topic which gets the conversation fairly briistling and. sparkling, writes Peter Lyne in the Christian Science Monitor. As for the cockles (a bivalve mollusk, as the dictionary calls them), they are a factor in the problem of spreading the new prosperity of South Wales more widely to the still economically depressed areas of North and mid -Wales. The South Wales revival has resulted from planned diversifi- cation of industry with the in- troduction of many new indus- tries into areas which were formerly dominated by coal, iron, steel, and tinplate. The government in London now is being urged to take simi- lar action in central and North Wales. The latest government re- port sees' hopeful opportunities in many unexpected directions. It says that the fishermen of the little North Wales harbor of Portmadoc have formed them- selves into a company for ex- porting bottled 'cockles. A ship- ment has already gone to the United States, Here the idea of reviving North Wales by bottled cockles is a controversial one. But it was the same in South Wales when some coal miners were scornful at the thought of starting their working life again making but- tons. Today they see how in- dustrial diversification is paying off. Finally the most lively de- bates of all are raging in Pem- brokeshire and Cardiganshire. There the traditional pacifist Welsh people are being called on to act as hosts this coming autumn to German Panzer units, who will be carrying out firing practice with their 40 tanks on the range at Castlemartin under a NATO exchange training scheme, Many Welsh folk regard this as a supreme affront to "the land of our fathers." But others are equally determined to show that Wales has ceased to be a land of misty remoteness and ancient dogmas, Modern Etiquette By Anne Ashley Q. When attending a buffet dinner, is it nertnissihle for a guest to revisit the table for a seen;•'1 helping? A. This is perfectly proper. The big rule to observe is to refrain from filling the plate a second time, and then leaving sores of it uneaten, Q. Just what is• one supposed to say to the bride and bride- groom at the wedding reception —and also what does one say to their parents? A, You wish the bride happi- ness, congratulate the bride- groom, tell the bride's parents how lovely the bride is, and tell the bridegroom's parents what a charming couple they make. ts- 1't?" HANDLED WITH CARE — Little girl From East Germany waits pa- tiently while her parents complete registration at Marienfeld refugee centre, West Berlin. Her familly was one of many re- ceiving CARE "welcome kits" containing necessities so many refugees had to leave when they fled. uteete Lee ONIC NGERFARM eventl.oUre P. Cie vlcu We drove to Milton last Thurs- day and as is our custom we went by one road and came back by another, but in each case what we saw was the same — field after field of ripening oats laying flat on`the ground, obvi- ously the result of wind and rain during recent storms — storm damage that we hadn't even known about, either by radio or through the press. If there is a bad fire, a robbery or a traffic accident we hear or read about. it until we know all the details, but here was a disas- ter that hadn't attracted any attention at all. Hundreds of people will drive along the road we travelled — and others — and may not even notice the flattened fields, or if they see them they won't even know that it means a loss of hundreds of dollars to the farmers concern- ed. Those flattened fields will have far-reaching results. In some cases farmers will not have enough grain to feed their live- stock during the coihing winter; they must either buy feed or sell some of their cattle and poultry. It will also mean lower financial returns on the milk, cream and egg receipts. Mrs. Farmer may have to go without that new electric stove, or the oilcloth for the kitchen that she had been promised after the harvest was taken care of. It may also mean waiting another year before a trade-in can be arranged on the old family car. But just let Mr. Farmer or any member of his family air their grievances to those who live in urban districts, and their complaints will fall on deaf ears, or• be brushed aside with the usual comment — "Oh, you farm folk — you're never satisfied — the summer season , is either too wet or too dry; too hot or too cold!" Unfortunately, that is all too true. The weather can make or break the farmer. It means more to him than in- convenience — such as a spoilt week -end at the cottage, a day at the golf links, or attending a ball game, No one can change the weather but at least there could be a better understanding between city folk and their coun- try cousins . .. and less grumbl- ing of the price of eggs should go up an extra cent or two in the fall. So, Mr. Motorist, as you drive past those ruined crops, ' have a heart — try to realize there is more work and worry ahead for the owners of those fields than appears on the sur- face. You know, it gives me a queer feeling driving in once familiar surroundings and find that even the roads have changed. Four - lane highways cutting across country means the right-of-way on many back concessions has been entirely eliminated, You have to look up directions before you visit farm folk these days! I never did have a very good sense of direction but now I get completely lost. However, as long as Partner is with me we manage to get wherever we want to go. He seems to know the way by instinct, But he also Bites to get off the main high- ways and that way we often run into trouble — "Detour" "Bridge out" "Road closed" —and so on. You have to keep your eyes on the road the whole time. There was a time when .I enjoyed a cross-country drive — but not any more, not if I'm do- ing the driving. I can still enjoy it if I'm a passenger but that doesn't happen too often. When we got to Milton last Thursday we found poor little Ross running a temperature of 104 degrees — the result of tonsilitis. Poor little chap, he wasn't himself at all. Cedric, on the other hand, was full of beans, charging in and out of the house without a care in the world. There seems to be a lot of ton- silitis around these days. One of our neighbours is suffering from her third attack this sum- mer Apparently antibiotics have no effect upon her at all, She said to me today — "What did you do years ago before penicil- lin and antibiotics had been dis- covered?" Well now, what did we do — I had to think twice before I an- swered. SALLY'S SALLIES "You'll have to blame the reg- ister, lady. It makes all the change," "Well," I replied, " or . one thing. anyone with a high tern perature was kept in bed. come - times the tonsils were painted with idoine, Elnbrecation or oil of some kind was rubbed on the throat and glands and everything' possible was done to bring down the temperature and reduce the danger of a chill. I remember my mother used to wrap a warm woolen stocking around my throat — just as it calve from the wearer!" Things are so different now. A person with tonsilitis often takes a shot of penicillin or sr allows antibiotics for a few days, and thus manages to keep going, Speaking of modern treatments, it might be just as well if people were a little more, careful in regard to self-medica- tion. Even taking too many as- pirin can have disasterous results over a period of time. But a little more sleep never does anyone any harm that is if one is un- der the weather. Jupiter Honeymoon Might Be Better Mars and Venus, the earth's closest planetary neighbors, have been rated the likeliest habitats for extraterrestrial life. Astrono- mers ruled out Jupiter because the intense cold of its atmos- phere (210 degrees below zero Fahrenheit) would freeze any known organism. Now astronomer Carl Sagan of the University of California has come up with a new idea; Suppose the clouds of Jupiter behave like a giant greenhouse, trapping and storing the feeble heat received from the sun? Far from the traditional idea of a frozen waste shrouded by am- monia, methane, and hydrogen gases, the planet's surface might actually reach a comfortable room temperature. On the basis of laboratory ex- periments with a test-tube at- mosphere of Jupiter, Sagan fur- ther speculates that lightning and solar radiation produce or - genie chemicals which sink into Jupiter's warm seas of ammonia and water. There the chemicals may become precursors of living organisms, in much the same way of life is reckoned to have startedon earth, "The possibility of life on Ju- piter seems somewhat better than the possibility of life on Venus," the astronomer says in the current issue of Radiation Research. The latter now seems remote, he said, because the same "greenhouse effect" that may warm Jupiter has heated Venus to a searing 600 degrees Fahrenheit. Fish That Travel Really Fast Naturalists are finding it hard to agree which is the world's fastest fish. Many of them are insistent that it is the sword- fish. One of these mighty fish — their average length is seven feet and weight 250 lb. — poked its sword through twenty inches of hard wood sheathed with cop- per during a clash with a sail- ing ship. "Such a feat would have been impossible at a speed, at the mo- ment of impact, of less than sixty miles an hour," reported a mar- ine biologist. "But the cruising speed of a swordfish is only thirty-five miles an hour." Another expert thinks the swordfish comparatively slow af- ter checking up on the speed of a sailfish in the Atlantic. The run of a hooked specimen was timed with a stopwatch and the speed attained was 100 yards in three seconds. Too Much Leg -Show In Red ChEna Tool Admirably designed to. sheer off pretty legs, the Chinese slit-' ted skirt hat never before gotten into politics, But it is there now — thigh high. Puritanical Red China is to ' blame, By decreeing that their wonton must wear ankle -length, spari'llb bard songly srt oftted things,Mother the CoHum-- monists set ol'f a counteractrese in Hong Kong. Up went hem- lines and up went the side slits to hitherto forbidden heights. They got so high in fact that they brought down the wrath of the Women's Section. of Hong Kong's Welfare Association, Last month, the association's Mrs, Mathilde Ng urged all wo- men to keep their side slits at o maximum 2 inches above the knee, Dance -hall hostesses balked. They said they would continue to expose as much as the trade demanded, and get away with it too, Merely by using zippers on the slits, they pointed out, it was possible for any girl to indicate whether the was in the mood to be a lady or a tramp. Some women claim to keep Secrets to the bitter end — Which is usually the spot Where they meet a woman friend. Plainly Perfect PRINTED PATTERN 4663 10-18 4-141 '-1&.14444 Cut a beautiful figure — it's EASY with this shapely sheath. Curved -on -high seaming accents midriff, simple neckline "loves" strands of glittering jewels. Choose shantung, cotton, linen, Printed Pattern 4663, Misses' Sizes 10, 12, 14, 16, 18. Size 16 takes 31/4 yards 35 -inch fabric. Send FIFTY CENTS (stamps cannot be accepted, use postal note for safety) for this pattern. Please print plainly SIZE, NAME, ADDRESS, STYLE NUMBER. Send order to ANNE ADAMS, Box 1, 123 Eighteenth St., New Toronto, Ont. The biggest fashion show of Summer, 1961 — pages, pages, pages of patterns' in our new Color Catalog, Hurry, send 350. THE MACHINE TALKS BACK — A newly developed electronic brain, called the Cybertron, is' designed to recognize all English speech soundsand, when spoken to through a micro- phone, type out exactly what it has "heard." The new machine Is unlike the usual computer, which is only able to perform according to instructions fed into it, The Cybertron is able to learn from experience and to solve problems in this way,, constantly improving its skill.