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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1962-10-25, Page 3' !r Three Sisters inherit Fortune Talk about a windfall on the pools , , , Three sisters, one the Wife of a billsticker, another Married to a labourer, and the third the wife of a filing clerk have had confirmation that a Duper -fortune awaits them! It may well run into millions oe dollars: M1 the heiresses -to -be live in St. Etienne, an industrial city in the French midlands, They are the descendants of a man who emigrated to the United States in 19.08 from the Greek island of Leros, Before the end of this year, these three poor families expect to be rolling in wealth. And al- ready begging letters are pour- ing in... Says Jean Kritikos, the thirty- two -year-old billsticker, whose wife, K r 1 s ti n a, twenty-four, should share the huge sum with her married sisters, Irene Kiris- els, thirty-two, and twenty -two- year-old Ketty Masse: "We have been taking some of our savings nut of the bank and we are buying comforts. Soon we shall be swimming in money —that's far sure. "So we thought we could start improving our lives as front now! "Although we haven't got the money yet, we are swamped with letters from people all over the place asking for hand-outs. "A French bank has even of- fered me, a billposter, a direc- torship—on condition that I take over liability of the bank"! The search for the money be- queathed by a dead man has tak- en thirty-five years. It all began when Dianitrios 19taenatakis, tired of poverty, railed from Leros to try his luck in the New World, leaving his wife, who was expecting their titbit child, and promising to send her money later so that she storuld join him. But this arrangement soon Iaroke down. Poor Dimitrios Must have been dismayed at the vggnexp0ained silence from Greece Ile was not to knew -- but what had happened was this: His letters were intercepted by et niece, also nanved Stamatakds, who, tempted by tete American etoilaas they contained, saw to it they were handed over to her at ilhe post -office. Then, pocketing the cash, she threw the letters away! By 1911, Dimitrios had stopped writing, as there were no replies. He had moved a few months earlier to Alaska and his wife, of course, did not know his new address. A year later the thefts were discovered when a neighbour taw fragments of one of the letters from the successful emi- grant scattered on the rubbish heap in the Greek village. The police were informed and the niece was arrested. But, on the very day the trial was to open, the 1914-18 war broke out and the Italians occupied the island, When the war was over and communications were resumed. Mrs. Stamatakis had completely lost touch with her husband in America, She was never to see or hear from him again. In 1924, Dimitrios's son, Kon- stantinos, then twenty - three, tried, in vain, to pick up the trail of his father in the United States. But, three years later, his mother had word from Greek people visiting Leros that a rich Greek, named Stamatakis. had died in America. Stamatakis, however, is a name as common as Brown or Smith in Canada .. , Konstantinos, still delving away in the States. set out once more on his father's trail. He was helped by U.S officials --- and it was confirmed that a Dur 'ti =: Stamatakis had died a multi - Some of his wealth consisted of a goldanine in Alaska, another one in Canada, a chain of hotels in California, some taxicabs companies—all held in trust by a bank in Alaska. But, although- the Americans had all this information, they were unwilling'to give it to Kon- stantinos without having definite proof he was the son of Alma - trios, And, when the son returned to Leros, the occupying Italians re- fused all his requests. Eventually they offered to endorse hie rights only if their Government handled the affair. Konstantinos, a Greek, said no*ert i promptly had his exit visa withdrawn. , So time went by until the Second World War intervened, when all researchers stopped; After that war, useful inform- ation reached Leros from Koenia Kelandros, a sister of Konstan- tinos, who had stayed on in Bal- timore, and—still more valuable —there were photographs of Dimitrios. Konstantinos began again, this time with the help of an Eygp- tian lawyer, who was replaced five years ago by a Greek law- yer, Maitre J. K. Spithas of Athens. He managed to get documents from the president of an Alaskan bank, and it was finally proved that a fantastic fortune, indeed, was awaiting, to be collected, Maitre Spithas, who contacted members of the family scattered abroad, eventually said he had proof that the three women in St. Etienne have full rights to this fortune. As Dimitrios had heard no- thing from his wife for so many years, he had disinherited her and left all he had to his grand- children. She, by the way, still lives on Leros . Originally, there were five children born to the wife of Dim- itrios Stamatakis—one son and four daughters. On -e o8 the daughters died—she was the other of the three wolnee in St. Etienne, Another daughter still lives in Baltimore, and the other two are also alive. But, like the son, Konstantinos, who ccs now Bixby -one and a ship's engineer, they have no children. Slate Handling is . An Ancient Trade Slate earmarked foe the new roof of the British Prime Minis- ter's official London residence, No. 10 Downing Street, was hewn recently from a huge quar- ry in North Wales where men have been mining for about five centuries. This finest of a 11 slate was quarried in a solid block and then expertly split along the "grain" to form the thin slates needed for No. 10. This splitting was done by men armed with special wooden mallets and thin steel wedges. It was the custom in olden days first to water the slate and expose it to frost to achieve splitting. But this method is too slow for modern needs, No, 11 and 12 Downing Street, which have also been undergo- ing reconstruction, are also be- ing roofed with Welsh slate. Solid masses of slate from 80 to 100 ft. high have been taken from some of the quarries along the west of Britain. When the sun shines on such blocks they exhibit with great brilliancy all the colours of the rainbow. Slate is practically imperish- able. Stone may crumble but slate stands through the ages, hardly toughed by the passage of tkne. PLAN CRASH SURVIVOR — A seriously injured survivor of the Flying Tigers airliner that crashed in the North Atlantic is taken from un RAF helicopter in Cork, Ireland, after be - in.. forrierl frnnt r',e rn"rrhetrit ,tin Celerina. CANAL CUTIE — in o pensive mood, 16 -year-old actress Sue Lyon sits by one of the famous canals of Venice, The star of "Lolita" was in the sunny Italian city to attend the film festival competition, in which her movie was entered. ;rALET iJai l -Andrews. Vegetables are at their peak in quality now, so you may enjoy en abundant assortment of them, and at attractive prices. Before cooking, remove all In- edible or "woody" portions, ouch as root ends of asparagus, tough neidnibs of kale, course outer leaves of cabbage and Brussels sprouts, etc. Pae and slit the thick stems of broccoli; shred cabbage, carvrots, turnips, etc., or coarsely grate them; cube pota- toes and tuenips; slice anions, carrots, celery, etc.; cut into strips root vegetables and also celery, snap beans, patataes. Se- parate cauliflower into flower- less, and divide or out large vegetables into ivdividuad serv- ings. There are a few basic rules far making all vegetables that may help you on your fall proj- ect of giving your family fresh things froan the gardens of bhe country. Clean them and keep •them cool, but don't soak therm in water unless a recipe SO di- rects. Pare thinly. Use freshly bailing water, and as little as Possible. Boil vegetables gently and cook only until crisply ten- der. Cover most vegetables to speed the gentle' cooking, writes Eleanor Rtchley Johnsten in the Christian Science Monitor. There are many ways to .:dd zest to vegetables after they are cooked. For instance, a sour ereaan sauce on cabbage may make cabbage popular in your house. Just add 3 tablespoons each of mustard -base neat sauce and sugar to 1 cup commercial sour cream. Mix until sugar dis- solve. Or, top hat wax beano with dill butter. All you do is add chopped fresh dill to soften- ed butter (you decide on the amount) and top your beans with It. One of Mir reader, bas sent a recipe which she developed, in- cluding •both squash and toma- toes. "Enclosed is a tried and true recipe which I developed," writes M r s. Alberta Sandford. "The beauty of this dish is that • you may vary the quantity of ingredients according to how much of each you have on hand, and it will still be tasty." ZUCCIXINI-TOMATO CASSEROLE 3 cups sliced raw zucchini 1 No. 2. can solid pack tomatoes cup grated Cheddar cheese Bread esntnbs Salt and pepper Butter Parboil zucchini until not quite done; drain well. Place in a well -buttered casserole, Pour tomatoes over zucchini, teem- ing a small amount of tomato liquid. Sprinkle cheese aver to- matoes and top generously with bread crumbs, Sprinicie li.Khtly with salt and pepper and dot with butter. Bake at 325 degrees F. for 45-50 minutes. Serves 7-8. An eggplant recipe was sent by Mrs. Gwendolyn S. Holley, EGGPLANT CASSEROLE. 1 eggplant 4 slices bacon, cliopped 1 Iarge onion, chopped 1 can tomato soup Peel cl g+plti.n( and cut into cube, Boil tr minutes, in iralt.ed water to cover Fry been until .cup; lemon, tr.'nt r. leer ,.nd drain. Put ore it `n '<'11 I and fry in t'•'? 1• t re' .tae! r lea ale and add bacon and anion; top with tomato soup. Bake at 300 degrees F, fou one hour. * * Would you like some Spanish rice to go with your fresh green vegetables? Here is a recipe sent from. Arizona by Ida M. Eggin- san, who says, "Anyone who en- joys Spanish dishes will like this ane," SPANISH RICE 1 cup raw rice is cup salad or olive oil !et cup chopped onion 1 clove garlic, minced 1 cup quick melting Canadian cheese, cut up 1?•s cups tomato sauce 1 cup ripe olives, pitted and eat up 2 cups water 1 tablespoon chili powder 1 tablespoon paprika 1 teaspoon salt Fry rice uil Poil, stiavring and cooking ufamily"e Is golden col- our. Rem. visitor heat and add onion, Templemaiheese, bomato sauce, Moisten rha1•i powdete and Ja''prika with a small Lia" `aeatu Ji}cater and add, with .ilio Delis etvater, to other ingredile Immo, u n ti I well blended, de ing dish: . 'ren 1' hoursd grease atba37e5 degrees J it e * * Or. to go with your fail vege- tables, you may like these por- cupine me -at balls sent by Mrs. Anna B. Smyth. "These are meat stretchers," she writes. PORCUPINE MEAT BALLS 1 pound ground beef 1 teaspoon salt '•i teaspoon pepper 1 egg 1•: cup hot water is cep raw rice, rinsed I No. 2 van tomatoes quantity f. minced onionSmall and greenapepper Combine to e a t, salt, pepper, egg, hot water, and rice; form into bells size al an egg. Brown on all side:~ in heavy skillet. Add tomatoes. onion, and green pepper. Cover end cook slowly until don (If more moisture is needed. swirl tomato 1uico, ) Mts. Smyth also sent a'recipe fur meat balls from Greece. ATHENS MEAT BALLS 1 potted lean ground beef 1 teaspoon sett t _ tcaspoen stepper 1 small clove garlic, minced 1 tablespoon crushed mint leaves (or 1 teaspoon taint flavouring) 1 egg to cup cracker crumbs Combine all ingredients and farm into small baa.hs, about 1 inch. Chill far 1 hour, then fry in olive oi.1 until brown. Marie • on abeerbent paper; server with rice er spaghetti. if desired. •1'l[essecl are the meek—what would bossy people do without tisk Getting In That Whiter Stove Wood Stipping a saw rig onto the splines of the tractor power take- off and running the tractor up into the dooryard isn't much of a job, but it's hardly worth while for today's pile of wood. It takes but a few minutes to disengage the rig after the job is done, and' then the saw rig sits in disuse the rest of the year without mak- ing aking any contribution, We don't begin to saw as much woad as we did in the long ago, back when we kept two=three shoves and a eounle of fireplaces going all winter. Before we had a tiactar and tractors had saw rigs there was always a man who came around, and he'd charge so much a cord for reducing the four -foot lengths to stove size. Before him, this was done by hand, but those cheery days had happily gone and machinery was a great thing. His caw rig was hardly as so- phisticated as the one I've just taken off nvy tractor, but it was a good deal faster than any other way, It was on a set of wheels, drawn by two horses, and it had a huge one -cylinder, make -and - break engine with a heavy fly- wheel. The thing had a way of chugging every once in a while just as you thought it had stop- ped. The long belt off the motor was laid over itself once, to rev- erse direction, and came back to the pulley on the saw shaft. The momentum of the flywheel was absolutely essential to the whole operation. We used to bring our wood down atter the ground dried out in the spring. A lot of farmers tried to get their sheds filled for the next winter before Easter, but we never shot at any parti- cular mark. It was often well into the spring before we got hauled, and then we'd have to wait for mud season to day, and the summer sun and wind were helpful in drying the wood out- doors, anyway. Figuring eight running feet to a cord, if we had 20 cords of wood going it made a pile in the dooryard 160 feet long. It would start by the mail- box at the road and run back behind the house along the barn. When we got it all hauled and all piled the thing to do was wait until the man came to saw it. He had similar piles in other dooryards, and he'd work along toward us, We'd hear him at one place, and then at another, and each time he'd be a day nearer to us. The day he was expected, we'd hurry the chores to be ready for him, and then he would of course be an hour or two late. Horse threw a shoe, or he had to grease the wheels --sorry to be late, but those things happen. I remember with what impatience everybody always waited. and yet the saw rig man never came to anybody's house without being late. His horses would pull the saw rig alongside the pile. care being taken to place !t just right. and the. man would trig the wheels. He'd screw drown some grease cups. flex the belt to see if the tension were right. and when all precautions had been effected he'd wind up the engine. There was a little handle that pulled out of the flywneel, and with it he could, turn the engine over and over. It would gasp and suck, wheeze and blow. and then he'd hold his other hand over the choke and it would pop, Those old engines. so marvel- ! ousiy efficient in their time, were 1 reluctant • to thew high enthu- daent, The pop would not be repeated after any formai rhy ihm of melody but eventually it would repeat. It would go pcip- pop- buff- buff- tuff- full a while, and then at would go pop- fuff-fuff-fuff-pap. The only thing it required was a second pop be•. fore the effect of the first was gone. The flywheel filled in the gaps. After a bit it would attain a reasonable frequency, and you knew by the sound of it that it would go until noon, anyway. The hell would whir, the saw blade would whine, and we were ready to saw wood. One man lifter' ( the pile and handed the =ticks to the sawyer. Ile alwete inked if ,ecu wanted two cute cr three te a four -foot stick, dad it was all ;ne to hind. My job, V nen 1 was big enough, was to stcnd alongside the nailing sew ,'ret nelze away." The chunk, cut cif would fall free. end I'd ,.rues thevtt and toss teem bcnini :re: By nightfall, we'd have tire. woodpile moved trate one sie'i. at the driveway to the reeler. sII ready for splitting and ,vile' -brig into the shed. It was quirt• a day's work, B • cveuias my ter, would be ringing : s evert Indy would have to say evervtni:5g three times, and I'd ye to bt.j. to. stare at the ceiling in rho dark and heave wool all nicht. The man with the portable saw rig is completely gone. Some farmers now work up w' hat wood they still require with a chain saw, 1educing it to stove size right in the woods before they move it. Others, like m 'sell•, have a simple attachment that slips onto the tractor and waits for nobody. Powered by the trac- tor engine, it doesn't slow down and gasp when the going get: tough. The handling of what wood we house is just as heavy and tiring as ever, but the pile isn't 20 -cords long these days. There is a humming in my ears this evening tram the blade, for the noise is just as it always was. so speak up if you have anything to say.—by John Gould in the Christian Science Monitor. Fisherman Catches Three Buffaloes A fisherman in Australia's Northern Territory set his net to catch. salmon, trout and other relatively small fish at a river- bed site seventy miles north of Darwin. Ile gathered not a sin- gle fish in its meshes, but caught three powerful adult buffaloes, each weighing in o r e than 1.900 lbs. The three buffaloes, when ex- tracted from the net, were dead. According to the most plausible theory advanced by local hun- ters, one buffalo c:lginally got entangled in the presum- ably when he slouc ted down et Mary River, when the net was et, for a .drink. Then, infwr,tud Ly t trapped feeling, tee buffalo olmnged out of the teeter, dragging theen- tire net with him He auccceded in rejoinin_ his w i1 d.scrub- roaming herd. Put. a'- he dreg-- gee reg-gee a good rel ii.f l est around wtih !rim lo soon em- broiled two (-ter but fnles in itt me ette.s. Then all titre r,o 't, ihr-..l,- ed and kirkeci to t e .L_nt- e(ves. but on } L -tt , i worse mess, until tied ,t t ..a m n: lal- rzcd b:, the it, p• w,i tua • strands. Leith t. -r1 i n ;1} of ex -- h u.ation. t:rne. it net, with its might!: dragged fifiro ..-os the titer- bed. ISSL'll 42 fell BOMBARD ARSENAL _.- Tanks from Campo de Mayo, the rebel headquarters, be mbord Esteban de Luca military arsen- al of Riachuel Pie r, whrt'i c'nnects Buenos Aires with Avel-• loneda, as hru;:mina r r....1 t ' -ord civil war.