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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1928-02-23, Page 6Have you ever been hungry? Oh, I de not mean the luster appetite that exercise brings,. nor do I mean the faint sensation of discomfort that comes when dinner is delayed. I mean hungry! Not for an hour, net for a day, not for a month, two months, three months! I mean a hunger that is a'slow starvation, that is not con- tent 'to'melt the flesh and shrink the muscles, but works a fatal alchemy upon, the heart and mind. Perhaps you de not believe in such an alchemy. .Nevertheless you will concede that the mind possesses great dominion over the body. And mis' treatd slaves overturn their harsh roaster's. Why should not the body, then, mistreated, destroy the mind that, ruling, has made no success of its reign? I say that no famished man will observe, after he has con- quered fear, the laws that men with full stonraehs have enacted. Conscience, and tbe words it con- jured up before my mind! Honor, fidelity, duty! Well, I had won honor on a certain bloody meadow between two hills in France, Fidelity? For thirty. years I had held the faith im- planted' in me in childhood. Duty? Well, in my pocket was a paper prov- ing that I had been honorably dis- charged from the army of—does it matter which army? Does it matter where I was horn, who were my par- ents, what had been, before the war, my station in life, my education? Let it be enough that i called myself a gentleman, that I still call myself a gentleman, and that scores, even hundreds, of your so-called best peo- ple, terns me such. But I was a very hungry gentleman that night, not so long ago, when I returned to the shabby, even filthy lodging -house on Thompson Street, that I called home. My landlady was seated on a chair in the ill -smelling hall. She met my entrance with a frown. Even had I been the kind to shark an issue, I ^•—•14 not baVe gvrnrjad this one; yt'$ge ratx isiae xrvlt ir:� rocking -fair at the rear of the hall. For a moment she would remove her watchful eye from the brood of half-grown children who played in the kitchen. Sorry as I was for myself, I was sorrier for her. Looking at her, as she shuffled her earpet-skippered feet over the torn and stained oilcloth of the hall, one found It hard to believe that she had ever had youth, beauty and happiness. One seemed to know that she had stepped from girlhood into middle age, and that the step had not been the bound- ing stride of confidence, but a fright- ened, unplanned leap compelled by fate. Even the flesh that shook upon her as she waddled toward nie was not the firm fat of the well-fed, but the gross flesh of those who live indoors, who work too hard, and who replenish their wasted tissues with food of the wrong nutrition value. Without a word she held out her hand to me. I could feel myself color- ing, and marveled that there was enough red in my anaemic mystem to furnish my cheeks with a blush. There is no humiliation more pain- fuI to a gentleman that his inability to pay his debts to persons dependent for their livelihood upon his financial f-ntegrity Red with shame, I could only stammer: "I'm sorry, Mrs. Gan- non." I suppose that year before poverty and worry and disease had left their indelible marks upon her body and character, her mouth may have been pleriaant even inviting. It must have been kissable, for although I had never seen Mr. Gannon, and vaguely understood that he had vanished from my landlady's ken a few years ago, the presence of so many young Gan - teens argued the bestowal of caresses upon my landlady's lips. But now her mouth was thin and eh►rp, in violent contrast to the over- hanging cheeks and the double chin. Years of contact with impecunious lodgers had made a sneer of what might once have been a smile. r'Sorry?'"she repeated, and her shrill voice cut my very soul. "I can't pay my rent with sorrow. Not even with'. nay own• sorrow, , much less a secondhand sorrow that X get from ynu." Her own witticism amused her, but I could see that it did not soften her, From the room nt tire end of the hall one. of the brood saw are. He raced toward us," stopping breath- lessly. "Make a penny disappear, Mr. Ains- leyl"'he cried. "Let him make a dollar appear," suggested his mother,' "Ain't you got a penny, Mr, Ains- ley?" asked the child. I suppose my shame appealed to Mrs, 'Gannon.. Anyway, she pushed the child away, harshly ordering hint to go back to the kitchen, But pity for my humiliation could' not make her forget her own needs. "The rent of your room was due yesterday, Mr- Ainsley," she said. "I'm always willing to give anyone a fah chance, but with plenty of people wait- ing for rooms, people as is able to pay for them, you can't expect me to let you have the room free." She told the simple truth. Even this grimy house had become attrac- tive to me, because it afforded are shelter from the elements, because, for all its degradation, it was better than the hard benches of the park. Mrs• Gannon would have no difficulty in Add to the joy of the open road -this pleasure. giving refreshment. ,et, sugar-coated gum that affords double value. Pep- permint flavor in the sugar coating andpepperfni nt devorcd gum inside. �l0 il,� 90w'Yt prpRtwMiNr. t �± aro BSmoke° etween Q 'I oleUV Na 7' .41 "I get niy dollar or out you go." FO1lt ALL your boking,use K '• IC i� r•S .rr.` BAKP G P� Made in Cenada N� Aloin! Letting the room which I occupied, the rent of which was only a dollar a week, and yet a rental beyond my power to pay. "Well, What you got to say?" she demanded. "It's a wonder to me that a good big strong man like you wouldn't get some kind of a job if you wanted to." I could not debate the question with her. Haw make her understand that a wound, followed by illness, and the latter succeeded by eighteen months of malnutrition culminating in what promised to be actual starvation, un- fitted a man for manual labor? Oh, I could work like a giant for ten min- utes, but after that brief time I be- came as weak as a newborn kitten. But these were matters that pride kept me from divulging to Mrs. Gan- non. She had troubles of her own; nine did not concern her. "Well, there ain't nothing fore for me to say. 1f you can't pay me, you'll have to go. That's all there is to that." She put her hands on her hips and stared at me. 1 Lad never in ail my 1Lipe done a thing which the world 'calls dishonort able. I should have been able to look anyone in the eye. The consciousness of virtue should have sustained my glance. Instead, it fell before her truculent glare. Then X made up my mind. "All right, Mrs. Gannon; 1'11 pay you tonight," I told her. "It's to -night now," she reminded me suspiciously. "I mean in en hour," I explained. She eyed me unbelievingly. Then, reluctantly, ehe said: "Don't think you can put anything over on me, I get may dollar in advance, like it's due' or out you go" I nodded to her apologetically, hum- bly. She pursed her lips, started to say something, chanyed her mind and let her words become an indistinguish- able murmur, turned' and waddled down the hall, I mounted the stairs, I say mount- ed, but I mean that I climbed them by the most desperate effort Silver zigzag lines appeared and vanished before my eyes; tiny points of light g3ew into great molten moons and then faded suddenly into darkness. Nausea attacked me, and I conquered it only by a miracle of effort, At last I reached my room on the top floor. It was hardly more than a +cupboard. There was no window; a Skylight gave what light and ventila- tion there were. , There WS no chair in the room, nor any carpet. The walls had once been papered, but now there remained only a few strips; grimy, cracked piaster, stet the eye on every side. Yet even this refuge was to be de- nied me unless I found means where- with to meet the debt that living in these quarters incurred. I had come to this room, stifling my contempt With difficulty. Now it was as desir- able as an apartment in a palace - Dizzily I clutched at the wall and worked my way around to the bed and sat down upon it. I was shaking and perspiring. It as bad enough to be hungry, but to be homeless also, was unendurable. Well, I would do the thing I had sworn never to do: I would pawn the miniature, painted upon ivory, of my mother. For the oath that I had made to myself, as my other possessions passed into the hands of the pawnbroker, that I would die before I parted with the Fast re- minder of different days, was no long- er binding, My duty to Mrs. Gannon was paramount. I had a shabby, worn-out suitcase in the room. I had thought when I caste here that I owned the irreduc- ible minimum of clothing possible to cover one's nakedness; but I had seen vanish, one by one, the articles of clothing and- of the the that I had thought indispensable, not to luxury, but to life. Now, save for a shirt, an extra pair of socks and a collar or two, the suitcase was empty—save, of course, for the ivory miniature. I had no idea what a pawnbroker . would consider the thing worth, but P knew that it was worth millions to ate; for when I should part with it, I would also part with hope. Looking at it, my eyes blurred, not with the tears of weakness, but with tears of grief. I seemed to see my whole. life pass before me. I was a drowning man, sinking in the waters of failure and despair. I saw myself as a child, winning my mother's smile by some playful prank. I saw myself at a fashionable prep' school, at college, in Paris playing the part of a wealthy young dfilettante, I could neither paint nor write nor compose, but I flattered myself that I had a cultured taste for all of these, Then I saw myself reduced to sudden poverty by the failure of a trust com- pany to which the care of the estate left me by my father had been con- fided. i remembered the blank be- wilderment that had overcome me as I faced poverty, a bewilderment soon. succeeded by confidence in my own latent abilities. (To be continued.) Turning the Tables. A class of children were wrestling witli a lesson in arithmetic, and the scholars found that fractions Were too much for them. The trouble started when little Doris declared that she would rather have halt a jam tart than two-thirds of it,. • "How often have 1 tried to drive it into you," said the exasperated teach- er, "that two-thirds of anything is mare than a half? Now you all know," she went on, "that Doris prefers a small portion of tart to a.lar•ge piece. Funny child., Isn't she?" Doris having been held up as a model of stupidity, put up her hand. "Well, asked the tea:bele eherply. "Please, miss," said Doris, in a small, clear, piping voice, "I don't like tart!" A thrifty person is one whose needs keep his wants In the backgi'min.d. M'inard's Liniment for' asthma, The '14etw Book ' " (froth Palms) A little blue bank of poems, . And utast of the poems blue—. Tough leek for the poet and llublieller, Tough leek for the reader, too. If ever, I useke a Printed book, Wllieh the gracious gods reverend, I'll make mea red-anci•yellow book, A hale `lt ed hearty and mellow book From the first page to the lied, I'll make me a book like a ripe p'luen That's bursting from ite skin, And 'dainty, women will nuzzle it, And lteavyljowled-gontlenieu. guzzle, • It And gulp it down with a grin,' I'll make a book like a Yellow peach That smacks of the summer •sun, Full of the earth, and the sap of trees, And the Warm raino, and 'the boot breeze When the day is done If ever I make a printed book, Which the kindly fates forefeud, I'll make the :a fat unstinted book,. A nothing -concealed -or -hinted book Front the first page to the end. Warren Gilbert. Wilson Publishing Company 1106 OUR BOYS' PATAMAS. It is essential that boys have com- fort while asleep as during the play hours. Mother will be happy to find this simple pajama pattern is large and roomy for the little follow, yet tailored enough to suit the grown-up boy. Any soft washable material is suitable for this night -garment. The collar is high. about the neck or rolled low for the warm weather, and but- tons and buttonholes er braid loops finish the front closing. No. 1106 is cut in sizes 4 to 16 years. Size 10 requires 8% yards ' 32 -inch, or 3% yards 86 -inch material. Price 20c the pattern. HOW TO ORDER PATTERNS. Write your name and address plain- ly, giving number and size of such patterns as you Want. Enclose 20e in stamps or coin (coin preferred; wrap it carefully) for each number and address your order to Pattern Dept„ Wilson Publishing Co., '78 West Ade- laide St., Toronto. Patterns sant by return mail. • Minard's Liniment relieves pain. m^4 •. SOn *:,,people st111use bulk. tea -7410y. think it eheape�'-it learn --!or they are paying dor dust and siftibgs and fer w l uS'.flavour--hey' have not;discover'ed O'SALAbA�r- d ust"free freSh, flit' flavoured -sealed in metal. Sees'Wh,te Race Forced to Unite Ettro,pean Publicist Believes StucTy of World Map Shows a Double Menace For Common Agreement • London—A new fine of approach to the consideration of world problems of the future •fe suggested in an arti- cle in the February -number of the Fortnightly Review from the pen 01 M. Poliakof, a European publicist whose contributions,--rnfiler the nom de plume of "Angar," have for some time past been attracting consider- able attention,' M. Poliakof has given a new turn to the famous dictum of Lord Sails - bury, "Study large maps," Salisbury I had in mind chiefly ,maps of Europe,, Which in his day more or less repr'es- • anted the world with which he was! concerned. He allowed for the ex- tension of Eitropean interests anis and ex - bilious to other continents, and ! maps which showed the possible vela tionehips between European powers and remoter districts of the world were not barred from the study which he invited. But even Lord Salisbury did not call for the sureey of maps on such a grand scale as ht. Poliakof does. In fact, tete latter says: "Maps are misleading things indeed, and traditional geography is the mother of the worst preconceived notions in Politics. For the standard maps in daily ns,e make it difficult for us to grasp the principles of race distribu- tion," Offers Map of World There is but one map which M. Poliakof invites the study of. This is the map of the world which repre- sents the continents together in their respective positions on the sur- face of the earth. Thus, while Salis- bury said, "Study large maps," Pella- kof in effect says, "Study Mercator's projection." From that it will be seen that the lands peopled by the white race or dominated by it aro grouped in two blocks on both sides, of the • Atlantic. "On one hand is Europe with Africa, on the other America, Nortb and South; in the West we find Australia as a powerful racial outpost in the Pacific, while 1n the East are great territories in Asia exploited by tbe whites for their mate- rial advantage." What is the deduction which 1\1 Poliakof draws? It is, in a nutshell, that the webite races In Europe and the. white races in America are boundby mutual interests in "a mighty part- nership within leach they may quar- rel, but the interests of which as a 'whole they have to take into account as a first moral charge on any inter- national policy they may set in mo- tion." Incidentally, it may here be .observ- ed that among the reasons for the skepticism as to eventual results with which a good many European obser- vers have regarded the. Coolidge- Itellogg proposals for the outlawry of war is the belief that the world of the future will present wider grounds for conflict than was apparently en- visaged it: the Iden that some fi'e or eta of the greater lower?, as they 860 now exist, could by a common re- solution make war an impossibility. Competition a Factor • It, is,' howevee, in a. less remote future than might be suggested by 'considerations of this k:•rd that M. Poliakof for'sees dangers against which the nations he includes In his - combination of the whte races wddld be . well advised to reach a common agreement. Before a "desirable con= summation against Bolshevism can be fully achleod Europe will have need to find tti way of dealing "with the 'competition of the powerful American creditor." 11f. Poliakof, apparently believes that the pursuance of this object will assist European nations to forget their domestic sriuebbles.and 'troublee Mid, one must assume,. thereby con- vince the United States that a policy of isolation is incompatible with her own nterests in a future world where the struggle will be between demo- cracy and Bolshevism, between the white nieces and a gigantic league of other races that, remembering the, theory anent scratching a Russian and finding a Tartar, can not be des- cribed as altogether white. • The accidental locking of a pair or handcuffs prevented an .actresstak- ing her part in a Lonclou theatre re- cently. During an interval she slip- pent' on tire' handcuffs to ^ test 'them, and then found the Itey had been mis- laid. Her understudy had to finish the play for her. • "Tice modern woman is bard;' says a writer. But a diamond will make air impression on her. , NURSES WANTED The Toronto llospltal fr rncurabies. 10 affiliation with Bello,: and Allied Hospitals, New York Ctrl, offers a three Years' Course of Training to young „'omen, having the required education, and desirous of becoming nurses This Hospital has adopledthe eight-hour system. The pupils receive Unt:fornrs of thr School,- a monthly allowance- and tr;iveIing espenses lo and from New :ork. For further information write the SUPerihteeden t. Let us bring you • Success -in gardening. Buy seeds direct from us forbest results. Sev- eral new varieties. 24 hour serviceon orders received. Write for our 1928 Catalogue. It's free John A. Bruce & Co., Limited Seal Merchants Hamilton, Qai Mow ,., mea hes cep of B.0 '. A. w.t. Msme P R nr Se P. o Ern, unc able ..tn fheStore or an thephone always ask for ofi. gos'ous health `"' A3,rroWr �Biscuits BEST FOR , .LL YOUR BAKING --- Pies, Cakes, Buns and Bread -- DOES ALL OUR. RAKING RM. A GoodW ill Tour" Canadian•Amex an' ,Moto Cade to; Visi't Europe and .British Isles RECEPTIONS ARRANGED A friendlier' feeling between Cana- titan, American, and Iduropean motor- ista whtolt, in tofu, will be transmit- ted to a meek wider circle of people on ire two eoietinen.ls will, it le hoped,' be engendered as it result of two per- sonally conducted "goodwill" tout's to. Europe this summer organized by the White Star Line under the official aura Nees of the Montreal Motorists' •Leagiie,11 is stated in an official an- nouncement by the White Star Line, A novel feature of the tours will be Met those going to Europe with these wales will take their own cars and motor throngh Europe and Great Bri. rain, Wherever they go receptions will be arranged in the principal cities and It le anticipated that the Touring Chili of Fiance and the Automobile Associa tion of Great Britain; with which the Montreal Motoriste' League is af- filiated, will tender official receptions to the parties and, in this way play their part an aromptfirg goodwill be: tal een Europe and the North Ameri- can continethent. Ait•eady re have been inquiries from Winnipeg, "Vaneonver, Toronto,. several cities in the province of Que- bec, Ontario and' Manitoba, and with the announcement of these tours in the United States it is expected That there will ,be a regular string of re- quests from American motorists. Ono of the principal ideas tuitler'ly- ing these parties is to persuade Cana= dian and Anieric:.0 motoriste, who al- ready have retch in co nrnon, to tree vel across the ocean together and, by personal contact. with motorists in Great Britain and iu Europe, build up a f>riner feeling of friendship between the people on the two continents. The first party, with their ow11 COTS, will sail from Montreal on thetiS hit.e,- Star liner Ilegantie on ,Tuly and return from Liverpool on the White Star liner Colgaric on August 31. The second group will sail from nlontreel on the White Star liner AI- bertie on September 0 and return from Southani,pton on the same steam- er on October 20. Both these parties, will follow prac- tically the same itinerary, landing at Havre and motoring •thence to. Rouen, through the Canadian battlefields by way of Neave Chapelle, Amiens, Doul- lens, Arras, Vimy RLdge,-tlie Somme, Lille, Tournay, Mons, Gambrai, St. Quentin, Compiegne to Paris where several days Will be spent, then by way of Chateau Thierry, to Rheims, Verdun, Luxembourg and Treves, Co- logne, Aix la Chapelle, Brussels, Ant- werp, Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotter- dam, and then by steamer to Harwich, from where the party will make a cir- cular tour of England- and Scotland. Roman Bill Boards Failing to Ruin Increase in Cost Leads Theatre Managers to Start Boycott Rome.—A boycott of billboards has heen launched. Boards which former- ly defaced thelandscape with iiirld posters now are among the most neg- lected ruins of the eternal city. Cost rather than beauty was the mo- tive that inspired theatre mynagers who started the boycott. Neverthe- less there are now fewer billboards in juxtaposition to Rome's ' ancient monuments than at any time in recent Years. The great spaces which were usually plastered with theatrical ad- vertisements are now bare save for a few steamship advertisements. Billboard ;advertising has been a municipal plum for years, but recent- ly the monopoly was fairmed out to a private 'cornpany. The prirato com- pany rati•fd riles its sons, ea contracts expired fit the enc of the yens', The jump in prices was so great that theatre managre : hell an indig- nation meeting They decided to rely in the future o, >,ewrpa1>et Ranouuen- mentfs. Each theatre al o nig eet to cilspley the program of ell the ocher features during the evening. This 'ep- plied to motion )r cttn eti as well as to legitimate thealros The movie then. tres'flash their rive s' .n.nouncemenis en the screen While the legitimate titeah'cspoet their rival's offeriege prominently in the Attlee. --- ' a--- - Canada Over Threshold Prosperity Ottawa, Canada—"Canada is today no longer standing on the threshold of opportunity. She has stepped. across that threshold turd Is peoceeal- . ing swiftly along the corridors 01 h'rmendous economic development.. Her progress is alienate attracting the attention or the resit of the world," said C'reigirton a, I1111, of the Babson Slatisticel Organization; In an ad- dress given recently in Ottawa: "Fundamental conditions in lire Do- minion indicate that general buss- nose in 1928, will exceed thnt of 1927, and while in the Un e I States the trend will be slightly do whiled, in Canada it Is going to be upward. Canada istoday in a po;splen to .maintain an independent prosperity through. 1028," 'elated Mr. ITill. ----0-7-7--- "What --"What do they mean by the 'witch- ing hour?" "Don't you know? That's the hour when the wits greets yo4 with 'Which atoll is it this tittle?"