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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1961-09-28, Page 6H. Spent Yen Weeks hi Purgatory! For very good reasons of their own, early explorers of Alaska Cve to the spot where Birch reek enters the Yukon River the name Purgatory, But for William C. Waters it Was the spot, or sq he thought, that would make all the' differ- ence 'between survival and death. For ten desperate weeks, alone and lost in the sub -Arctic wilds, he tried to find it. Last Week, after his rescue—and aft- er he had lost 78 of his normal 180 pounds—Bill Waters could manage a feeble joke; "The. trouble was I was going through hell to get to Purgatory, I was going backward." Authorities at Fairbanks had long since decided that Waters must be dead. His abandoned car had been found in late June on the Steese Highway close to its northern end at Circle, 120 miles from Fairbanks. On the front seat was a booklet, "How to Camp Out." A month later, on July 21, a coroner's jury was summoned to make a finding of presumptive death. But the jurors thought there might just be a chance — however slim —, that Waters was still alive. They declined to authorize a death certificate, The jurors were right. At the very moment of their delibera- tions, Bill Waters was working his painful way along the edge of Birch Creek. He had already lived for five weeks on berries and rose hips (the fruit of the wild rose). He was to live on the same diet for another five weeks before rescue came. He had planned it asthe vaca- tion of his life—"I always want- ed to see that Alcan Highway." So Waters, a 42 -year-old bach- elor from Erlanger, Ky., who works as a railway mail clerk on the Cincinnati to Chattanooga run, set out in early June for Alaska. He made Fairbanks with no trouble, then pushed on along the Steese Highway for Circle, the northernmost point of the U.S, highway system. A few miles from Circle, he knew, was Big Lake, where he had heard there was good fish- ing. He left his car, and his "Hcw to Camp Out" booklet, and hilted off over a trail through the muskeg for Big Lake. He had a fishing rod, a tackle box, a machete, a hunting knife, rnd eleven matches. At Big Lake, he caught a pike. Then, bc.:ause the marshy trail had made rough walking, he de- cided to try a different way back. "I didn't have a map," he sighed later. "That was the stupidity of it." He never did find his way back. All he could do was fol- low Birch Creek, which he fig- ured would run into the Yukon and then to civilization. But Birch Creek runs parallel to the Yukon for a good 100 miles be- fore the two join. And• Bill Waters, day after day, pushed through the thick growths of willows on the banks of Birch Creek. At one point, he tried to build a raft, but gave up. His. -SALLY'S SALLIES 0.'Zvlrs. Blaball spilled all that this morning, She's such a gossip:" feet became so swollen he could hardly walls. He lost track of time, "I couldn't believe it When they told me had been gone snore than two months," Two hunters, a man and wo- man from Fairbanks, found him. Maddeningly, Waters had been unable to attract their attention the first time their outboard motorboat went past. His swol- len feet wouldn't carry him to within shouting distance — and he couldn't shout very loudly, either. But now he stayed by the bank. Twenty-four hours later, the boat came past again —and this time the gaunt, beard- ed figure was sighted. From his bed in a Fairbanks hospital, where doctors said he would recover, Waters couldn't believe he had been saved. "I didn't think anyone would look for me," he said, "I'm just a postal clerk." — From NEWS WEEK This Town Adopted A Whole Family After almost twenty years Of homeless, weary wandering a Polish refugee couple and their family have reached journey's end. They are moving into a brand-new house, fully furnish- ed, with food in the larder and flowers in the garden, at Wing- ham, in New South Wales. More than a year ago the peo- ple of Wingham (pop, 2,030) de- cided that they would like to give a home to a European• re- fugee family who, in the normal way, could not migrate. They chose Mr. and Mrs. Mar- cin Reczniarek, who, with their three children, had lived almost twenty years in refugee camps, with little chance of leaving be- cause Mr. Reczniqrek had con- tracted tuberculosis. While he was being treated in Europe, the people of Wingham and its surrounding district built a house and completely furnish- ed it. Recently the family, with Mr. Reczniarek's health restored, ar- rived in Sydney. They were met at the wharf by the Town Clerk of Wingham who pressed into Mrs. Reczniarek's hand the key of the first home of their own the family had ever known. Modern Etiquette By Anne Ashley Q. Is it permissible for one's calling cards to have any kind of decoration on them? A. No; this is only for business cards. Social cards should be of plain white, of good quality, en- graved in black, and without embellishment of any kind. Q. How can a young man and his sister (both unmarried) word the invitations to a wedding an- niversary reception in honor of their parents? A. "Mr. John J. Adams and Miss Mary Louise Adams request the pleasure of your company at the wedding anniversary cele- bration of their parents, Mr. and Mrs. Harry L. Adams, : etc." Q. When women, already seated at a luncheon table, are introduced to one another, do they shake hands seated, when, it is convenient to do so? A. No; they bow. It is much too awkward to reach across a. table to shake hands. Q. Just what is the correct • way to eat an olive? Doesone put the whole olive into the mouth at once,or does one take. only small bites out of it while holding it in the fingers? A. A very small stuffed olive may be put into the mouth whole. Larger stuffed ones should be eaten in two bites. A plain olive is held in the fingers and pieces bitten off around the, stone. ISSUE 38 — 1961 ILOOKINO GLASS — From this single, huge chunk of glass — 48 inches thick and weighing 4,000 pounds - will come a precision -finished telescope mirror 84 inches i'n diameter and 13 inches thick. The glass blank, is destined for a telescope ert the University of La Plata, Argentina. When finished in 1962; the telescope will be the largest in the Southern Hemis. phere. A company official inspects the gloss before it moves Into the melting oven. GRANDMA, MOSES IS 101 — Noted painter Grandma Moses wears " a big smile as she celebrated her 101st birthday on September seventh. RONICLES ,I1 RFAi�M 2}yi�SD.Cietiks Well, the beginning of this column could be just a repetition of last week's in which I said — "And still the hot, humid weather continues!" I wonder howmuch longer we've got to take it? You know, it's a queer thing - the districts we usually think of as either hotter or cooler than here. are just the reverse. Last summer we were up • to Milton several times in hot weather and each time it seemed much cooler when we got home, Partner used to say - "it's because we get the cool breezes off the lake." This year the cool breezes - if there have. been any — must have gone the other way as we found Milton, far less humid than where we are. Which was fortunate, as Milton really had two big days last week. Friday and Saturday saw the first Annual Reunion of the On- tario Steam and • Antique Asso- ciation. And it was an outstand- ing success. There were steam threshing outfits, early tractor- drawn grain ' separators, water - tanks, 'horse-drawn road scrap- ers, early vintage tractors used for threshing, an old fire engine Jiffy "Toe -Cosies" f44444Wheilet, Light up the reindeer's nose with a RED sequin -charm tots with these cozy slipper socks. JIFFY! Knit a slipper in an evening—just one flat piece plus ribbed cuff. Thrifty gift! Pat- tern 928: directions for children's sizes 4 to 12 included, Send THIRTY-FIVE CENTS (stamps cannot be accepted, use postal note for safety) for this pattern to Laura Wheeler, Box 1, 123 Eighteenth St., New Toron- to,' Ont, Print plainly PATTERN NUMBER, your NAME and AD- DRESS. FOR THE FIRST TIME! Over 200 designs in our new, 1962 Needlecraft Catalog biggest ever! Pages, pages, pages of fashions, home accessories to knit, crochet, sew, weave, em- broider, quilt. See jumbo -knit hits, cloths, spreads, toys, linens, afghans plus free patterns, Send 250. Ontario residents must include If sales tax for each CATALOG ordered, There is no sales tax on the patterns. and a great number of ancient automobiles. T h e outstanding feature of all this machinery was the fact that it was all in good working order — so •much so that every mobile vehicle dis- played was included in each of the several parades each day, in- cluding the parade on Saturday which passed through the entire business section of the town. Every so often one or other of the steam engines, would let off a blast from its whistle answer- ed by a toot -toot from an an- cient horn on one of the cars. Cars? Oh yes, there were any number of cars — a few of them probably in better working con- dition than some of the rattle- traps we occasionally see on the road today. At the Fair Grounds the anti- que engines really did their stuff as on each day a load of grain was put through one of the old threshing machines. And do you know what? The thresh- ing machine used for demonstrat- ing was the very same machine that used to pull ,into Ginger Farm many years ago. (This time I didn't have to cook meals for the threshers!) The man who owned ,and operated the machine 'at that time was also on the grounds but only as a spectator. ` Our son Bob was operating the threshing outfit 'the first day of .the Reunion but not the second. He was too busy looking after exhibits of his own a mobile crane and an old Burnley trac- tor — the, latter acquired just recently, and which he drove proudly in the parade. There was also an exhibit- of non-mobile farm machinery -- gas gas engines at one time used for 'pumping water; wooden rakes' and forks for use with horses or oxen and even a •dog -treadmill for drawing water. In another hall there was a marvellous collection of antiques of every description - furniture, kitchen equipment, churns, pot- tery, • glassware; musical , boxes, model steam engines, high wheel bicycle, also a "bicycle built for two". In fact there was just about, everything you ever heard of. And some ,of the things were for sale. I hurried along when I saw the "for sale" notice or I might have come home loaded! All in all it was a marvellous exhibit and demonstration of old' time machinery and equipment and we are glad it is planned to be an annual affair. (Watch for the date next year, folks, it is well worth going many miles to see.) Too soon we forget the hard work and ingenuity that was necessary before our fore- fathers could wrest a living from the soil. They left us a tremen- dous heritage, one that all too often is not appreciated as it should be. Canada is making great strides today but let us not forget that it was the pio- neers who made our present progress •possible. Of course, as a family, we all turned out in full force to see everything we could at the Reunion, No, that isn't quite true at Dee and her family ar•e still at the cottage. Bob was busy all the time;. Partner was roaming the grounds; Joy and I and the two little fellows were on the grandstand, When Ross caught sight of his father in the par- ade he yeiled1and jumped around so much he almost brought the grandstand down, He wasn't so happy when the clowns came by. He found their fates not funny but frightening. I doubt if he had ever seen a clown before. I have promised to make him a clown ' outfit so he will under- stand it is all make-believe. Ross has such a terrific imagination that to him everything is real -- and and I don't like to see him frightened, PS.; I should have said the women of the district were do- ing their part -.- catering and see -le- hot meals real, old- time t,; eshing meals!' Only Wind Your Car Every Three Miles: Thumbing through the instruc- tion manual of my' new car makes me nostalgic. The new car smell brings back old- times. I look again at' the first volume of "The Horseless Age," 1895-6. It opens with a full page .adver- tisement of "Daimler Motor Company's factory and; offices, Steinway, Long Island City, N.Y., Mhere the celebrated Daimler otors, operated 'by either Gas, Gasoline or Kerosene are manu- factured." Picture captions announced that "The Daimler motor carri- ages were awarded the follow- ing prizes, grand prize 5,000 francs at Paris, July 1894; a gold medal and first prize at Turin, May, 1895; 3 first prizes of 40,- 000 francs, as well as the second, third, and fourth prizes at Paris, June, 1895" Below: "The Daim- ler Motor is the most powerful and compact as well as reliable Engine now on the Market" The magazine began as a monthly "published in the inter- ests of nterests.of the motor vehicle indus- try," subscription two dollars; single copies 25 cents. Its open- ing editorial says some may think such a magazineprema- ture but it argues 'that "a giant industry. Is struggling into be- ing." Gottfried Daimler of Cann- statt, Germany, it notes a little later, started things. off when in 1888 he invented a "new pe- troleum motor." Issue No. 1 ,is chiefly a com- pilation of all sorts of self-pro- pelled machines — gasoline, kerosene, steam, and even • the "s p r i n g motor quadricycle,", showing a sedate and full -beard- ded gentleman at the tiller of a machine where "four powerful springs furnish the propelling force." These are said to "make rapid headway on a level road" though it is agreed that "the springs are scarcely strong enough to make a long run on one winding." The owner "hopes to be able to run it at 20 miles an hour and cover three miles on one winding." A traffic -stopper if ever we 'saw -one, turn that driver loose down Broadway in his quadri- cycle! Early issues of the magazine show nervousness over nomen- clature; what should they call the new machine? "Horseless car;iage" didn't seem quite right; readers should please coin expressions and write in. The January, 1896, issue an- nounced that Barnum and Bail- ey's "Greatest Show on Earth" is to exhibit "a. Duryea motor wagon through the country next season." In the motor carriage races at Narragansett Park, Providence, Sept. 7, 1896,. the electric carri- ages won, writes Richard L. Strout in the Christian Science Monitor. The January 1897, . editorial quotes Marcel Desprez, member of the French Institute, before the Automobile Club Of France: "The learned gentleman is haunt- ed by the fear that if this fuel comes into general use for ve- hicle propulsion we shall sooner or later be brought face to face with an oil famine, because only 8,000,000 tons of oil are annu- ally' taken from the earth while 400,000,000 tons of coal are an- nually mined." April 5, 1899 "The proposed bill to license motormen in this. country is an imitative measure from French precedents. It is false toour institution, detrimen- tal to the citizen whose freedom it curtails, an, impediment to a most promising industry." Motorists keeping up with lat- est , developments found what they wanted in the Oct. 11, 1899, issue — "The Pneumatic Cushion Spring Controversy" — a n d again on Oct. 25, 1899 - "The Equine Mind Analysed!" One disadvantage of the ga#: motor, the editors noted in 1907, was that it wasn't self-starting while steam and electricity were, And steam was noiseless too, they pointed ou't, except ,Flieil, it blew up, W z That is a thought to tal+ecawaY with you. 4 : ' it Just 'Call Me Honey: Working for a 'firm in Bono- "• lulu, capital of Hawaii, is an at- tractive girl who has good rea- son to avoid signing her name more often than is strictly neces- sary. Whyf -Because hers is the .longest name in the world to- day. It consists of sixty-five let- ters. How the girl remembers them all mystifies her friends, but she has never been known to misspell her name. Hold your breath - here it i s : I uuleikailialohaopiilaniwai- lauokekoaulumahiehieltealaomao- naopiikea.' The meaning of this strange name is: "My wreath of love of the ascending heaven waters the forest leaves so graceful and its sweet perfume fences the path- way through the clouds," In Europe there are plenty of - long surnames, but none so long as that. The longest belongs to a Greek family and has thirty- six letters. It is: PappatheodorokomandOt- onicolucopoulos, Week's Sew -Thrifty PRINTED PATTERN 4740 SIZES 10-20 44144 /d EXTRA -easy! Whip up this cool, smart, • simple dress and bolero in a day,to wear day aft- er day. Choose linen or cotton in colors bright or basic. Printed. Pattern 4740: Misses' Sizes 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20. Size 16 dress takes 3 yards 39 -inch; bolero takes 1 yard. Send FIFTY CENTS (50f) (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 `J''" Toronto, Ont. The biggest fashion show of Summer, 1961 — pages, pages, pages of patterns in our new Color Catalog. Hurry, send 350. Ontario residents must include 10 sales tax on each CATALOG ordered. There is no sales tax on patterns, 4 A GASSER — Pat Rizzuto's new hat is really a gasser — for jet engines that is, It' Isn't really a chapeau at all but a fuel spray bar for the new J79 turbojet engine.