HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1948-07-22, Page 6Public Enemy Number 1—The Common House Fly
UN FARM. TONT
o . Jokaussa
During the war a well-known cor-
respondent was stationed in Italy
and one evening dropped in for
meal at a litttle restaurant. Over
the door he noticed a big sign read-
ing GUERRA CONTRA LA
MOSCA (War Against Flies).
But when the waited brought him
his meal, the correspondent saw that
the platter was rimmed with flies,
with some of then even struggling
in the spaghetti itself.
"Hey, waiter," he cried, "what
about that sign over the door WAR
AGAINST FLIES?"
'Ile sign is quite true, signor,"
sighed the waiter. "We did have
such a war here once— but the
flies were victorious."
* * *
That little tale is just by way of
introducing the fact that a declara-
tion of war against such pests was
recently made on a national scale
by the Junior Chamber of Com-
merce of Canada: From coast to
coast rural and urban communities
are being urged to rid themselves
of flies, mosquitoes, rats, weeds and
a horde of other pests which have
plagued mankind for centuries.
* * *
Fortunately we are well equipped
to fight a pest war today, as science
has forged weapons which our
grandfathers never though possible.
We have hand sprayers and dusters
—power -dr- in and turbine spray-
ers—and aerosol bombs. We are
even experimenting with airplanes
and helicopters for saying down
lethal patterns of weed and bug
killers. The dawn of a pest -free
world is here but the fight can be
won only if everyone contributes
some effort, no matter how modest.
* * *
A famous authority on insect
pests recently made the statement
that the common housefly is the
most dangerous living thing within
the United States or Canada. This
could apply especially to Canadian
farms, where flies are present in
astronomical numbers during Sum-
mer and early Fall.
* * *
Because of the nature of its
breeding places, and its habit of
crawling over all manner of filth,
the fly is a carrier of many disases
of man, domestic animals and poul-
try. Many health authorities agree
that it is largely responsible for the
spread of dysentery, typhoid fever,
and many parisitic worms.
Like any other campaign against
diseases and insects, fly control
should be carefully planned to take
advantage of the insects' habits and
breeding customs, so that attack
-can be made from every possible
angle. Entomologists give the fol-
lowing advice for practises to be
followed' in all "all-out" anti -fly
war.
* * *
Manure piles and other known
breeding places of the fly should
be sprayed 'with a fifty per cent
DDT wettable powder, mixed at
the rate of one pound of powder to
eight gallons of water. This spray-
ing will destroy both the develop,
ing maggots and the egg -laying
adults. -
* * *
Every four to six weeks walls
and ceilings of barns and stables
should be sprayed with a solution
containing one pound of fifty per
cent DDT wettable powder in one
gallon of water. This amount of
spray should cover approximately
1,600 square feet of surface.
* *
Farm animals should be sprayed
with a solution of one pound of
wettable DDT powder in from ten
to twenty gallons of water. With
this protection against the bother-
some pests, they should show ap-
preciable gains in weight, and cows
will be much easier to handle milk-
ing time.
* * *
As fpr the hone, --a fly -free house
artakitchen is made possible by the
use of DDT household sprays
around window sills, doors, screens
and all other places where flies
gather, or are likely to try and
enter the house.
Russia grows millions of tons of
sunflowers every year. The Gov-
ernment of Queensland announces
that it will devote half a million
acres to the growing of sunflowers,
chiefly for the purpose of feeding
pigs. Arid the British Government
is examining their value and it is
probable that the three million acres,
now being- planted to peanuts in
Central Africa for the purpose of
obtaining vegetable oils, will be
planted in rotation with sunflow-
ers.
The average amount of oil in sun-
flower seeds is 30 per cent, only
6 per cent less than that in peanuts.
Sunflower oil is edible, with a
pleasing odor and flavor and is said
to be even better than olive oil
because it remains liquid at lower
temperatures. For use in paints it
transcends the drying qualities of
linseed by a margin of eight hours.
LIFE'S LIKE THAT
By Fred Neher
"I certainly don't see how you can call being jerked around
by fish a vacation! 1"
THE RUINS THAT WERE.:
ONCE BERLIN
BY BUNNY WILLIAMS
(in London Calling)
On the cold, drizzling morning
my train pulled into Berlin, station,
the city streets were bare and life-
less. ;Thosebare, lifeless streets
and the massive, jagged heaps of
bombed . buildings are Wry, most
vivid and my most lasting impres-
sion of Berlin.
1 was taken by volkswagen to the
hotel am Zoo—or 'near the Zoo,
which 'accommodates visiting news-
paper men and women. There 1 met
Gabrielle, a German•Jewish girl,
home for the first time since 1034.
Through her I had an entree to the
average, middle-class German
home; with Iter I learned my way
about Berlin, and from her 1 hear 1
of the gallant fight that German
culture is putting up against an ai•
most coinplete lack of newsprint
and a thousand other obstacles.
Toward the end of our ten-day
stay, Gabrielle and 1 went to. some
of the night clubs where the miser-
ies of Germany can be forgotten
only by a handful of people—the
few who have, somehow, guarded
their savings, or have done well out
of the biggest 'racket' of all in Ger-
many—the black market.
Middle -Class, German Rome
The typical, middle-class, German
home that 1 visited consisted of
the three, remaining, sound rooms.
of a white -stone villa on a lake -side.
The greater part of the building
was a crumbling ruin/where a bomb
had struck it; so all the furniture,
pictures, family treasures that had
been salvaged froin the wreckage
were cluttered into the three rooms.
[t was a household of five. Some-
one suggested that we should stay
to supper. \Ve declined, thinking of
the Berliners' rations, but our host-
ess insisted. Site was away in the
kitchen for some time, and when
•he returned, she said with some
embarrassment 'Well, at least, you
will have a cup of tea` with us.' So
we drank black, unsweetened tea:
there is rarely sugar, and never
milk, to serve with it.
This fancily was actually well
housed. Not only thousands of
homeless Germans and prisoners -of-
war returning almost every day
front the Russian zone, but the
families of the occupation national-
ities who live in Berlin, have to be
housed, so room space for the Ger- •
ratans is rationed, Few single per-
sons are allowed more than one
room, and the congestion in flats is
terrible. There is scarcely any lab-
our or materials for building, so
Berlin's richest black market is in
building -dockets and renovation-
perrnits.
Marriage Bureaux
Gabrielle told me that the short
age of housing was partly respons-
ible for the increased popularity of
Berlin's marriage bureaux, and ask-
ed would I like to go with her to
one of theist. Although it was in a
side -street off the Kurfurstendamm
—that is the Mayfair of Berlin, still
—it was a murky, dingy place.
A greasy, cringing little pian
greeted tis rather patronisingly, un-
til Gabrielle explained pointedly that
we were not clients. Then he be-•
came voluble, and described his two
ways of doing business,
Patrons, he told us, may pay 100
narks a month, entitling them to
attend two parties a week on the
club premises. They dance and
drink non-alcoholic drinks (he was
emphatic about this), and some of
them look for accommodation. Or
they pay 500 narks, and then each
is given a series of personal intro-
ductions and left alone with the
new acquaintance for fifteen min-
utes or so. Wlten the two parties
in 'this group become engaged, they
are supposed to pay another 500
marks.
The little man complained that he
was turning away hundreds of pros-
pective clients, because he had not
the staff or premises to deal with
them. He showed us his list of
clients—ranging from a princess
through the less exalted ranks of
the German aristocracy to business
men ani women, factory workers,
and so on. In Berlin, there are
three women to every two men, and
the hoardings are bright with the
advertisements of lonely young Ger-
mans for 'sou] mates.' If` the soul
mate has two rooms to her credit,
she is an even better proposition
and a much greater attraction.
The Black Market
1 came to the conclusion that Ber-
liners today ' are really prisoners
within, the four sectors of their city.
Most of their cannot afford any
type of outdoor or indoor amuse
tnents, except an'occasional theatre.
Their tennis clubs, swimming baths,
golf clubs and lakes have, with rare
exceptions,been taken over by the
four zonal authorities, all of which
use the Olympic Stadium—in the
British sector of Perlin -for their
competitions. The smartest of all
golf clubs has been taken over by
the Americans, but a few survivors
of the old German Club are using a
nearby building as their club house,
and they are playing golf again.
They represent the -small section
able to hang, on to a few fragments
of their old way of life.
Few Berliners can move between
the suburbs with any comfort or
speed; the lines need repair, and
there' are few trains and trams.
Accommodation and transport are
recognized as being two of the
greatest obstacles to the rehabili-
tation of Germany—apart from the
lack of food.
And communication within Berlin
is still a problerfr.' There are few
telephones; postal services are so
inadequate that letters inside the
city itself take from two to ten days
to deliver. So most firms employ
large staffs of message boys.
Income tax in Germany is incred-
ibly high: it begins low in the scale
at fifty per cent. And salaries are
low. The legal value of the mark is
sixpence, the illegal, and truer value
is a halfpenny. Professional and
business men may earn from 500
to 1,000 marks month—from ata
to £24, at the legal rate of ex-
change; typists and clerks, corres-
pondingly, £0 to a12 a month,
labourers from £4 to £5,
Many industrialists keep double ac-
counts; the accounts the authorities
do not see may indicate that the
firm is producing double its quota,
and tliey are a full record of the
firm's 'black' dealings—which begin
with coal, nails, and glue, and may
end in food, clothing and house-
hold commodities.
'Income' and 'salary' are almost
meaningless terns today, for there
is no food in the shops, no clothes,
no saucepans nor furniture for the
people to spend their money on..
The weekly ration costs very little,
but it is incredibly small, and often
unobtainable. Germans told Gab-
rielle and me quite franlcly that it
would be impossible to live with-
out 'going black.'
The black-market story is too -
long to tell now, but you probably
all know that cigarettes, coffee, and
soap can be treated as legal tend-
ers in Germany. You can pay a
German taxi-driver in cigarettes in-
stead of marks—he would prefer
you to, for he then sells the cigar-
ettes for five to eight marks each.
Berlin by Night
In the drab, isolated suburbs, I
saw many German children and
their mothers. Most of the children
were tidily dressed, and looked well-
fed and healthy. Of course, every-
thing in German homes, disorgan-
ized as they are, is 'for the children.'
Women of the professional class in
Berlin frequently work, whether
they are married or not. Many
married women without professions
try to find work in British or Am-
erican households, for that means
more food.
School and health services are
gradually being built up, as the
number of schools and hospital beds
increases slowly. Some Germans
would agree with us that conditions
were improving, but many said
'No l'
I have tried to present a fairly
general picture of Berlin by day. At
night it is different, at least in the
city. The ruins become suddenly
alive. There are queues at all the
theatres and cinemas.
Most of the theatres escaped the
blitz, and the German theatre is
practically as it was before the war.
Goethe, Shakespeare, and Schiller
are more often played than the
moderns; costumes in theatre and
ballet are exquisite, and there' is
nothing lacking in acting and stage
craft. Berliners spend as much as
they can possibly afford on the
Hitler's Auto Now Just a .Used Car—Christopher G. Janus,
Managing director of a Chicago importing firm, waited two.
years, for a new car, without ,any luck. Finally he accepted'
a car from Sitteden in payment for a shipment after Sweden
clamped clown on exporting dollars. It turned out to be Iitler's.
custom-built, oi-itate•Mercedes-Benz, in which the Fuelirer rode
in miracles. It's shown being unloaded in New York.
theatre, and, today, if is their 'only
luxury. And as, cinema prices are
lower, , the queues for them are
longer. Many Germans 1 mei have
seen The Overlanders in Berlin, and
loved it.
Little Social Life
Boys and girls in•the average in-
come group may go to an occas-
ional dance organized by one of.
the political parties, but most of,
theist have hardly any social life.
In restaurants, a German may buy
a pot of weak, black tea or ersatz
coffee, without anything to eat—
though sometimes it is served with
butterless sandwich—for only a few
marks. But, if he is very well off,
he may go to a high-class, bls1k-
market restaurant where he can eat
as good a meal as you can buy any-
where in Europe for the equivalent
of £5 to £10 sterling. But thee
people who cab afford these prices
are rich industrialists, spine of the
old, rich class who still have money,
and, of course, the black marketeers.
The thing that struck me most
about' the night clubs was their
cosmopolitanism. The dance band
at the Alhambra was a good ex-
ample of this. The Alhambra is a
club hidden in the ruins of one of
old Berlin's smartest residential
quarters. There i saw a long-hair-
ed Pole playing excellent dance
music; the violinist might have come
front anywhere east of the Danube;
the man who played the double -bass
was a Mexican, the trumpeter a Ru-
manian, our waiter was French, and
the vivacious v'ontententertainer
was a Russian. But Gabrielle used
to say: 'These people are all Ber-
liners—no nationality.'
At last he did speak.
"Juanita," he said, "there is just
one more thing I want you to do for
me — then your work with me will
be finished. I want you to get that
money I took from Flash Conroy
— it's in the cave here — and take
it to the Corpus Christi Mission.
And this time I want you to stay
there. Padre Vincente will take care
of you and your future."
Juanita looked down at him ,for
silent, speechless minutes.
"And you?" she said finally, "Your
work is done also? You, too, will
conte. to the mission?"
"Maybe," Valdez said, and slow-
ly shook his head. "Maybe later --
not
not now. Because, Juanita, my work
is not finished. It's finished here.
Peace will come to Deep Water
Valley again, and my own private
debts have been paid. But my work
will never be done so long as there
are :people in the whole wide West
who are oppressed. I'tn an outlaw
— I can't ever change that — but 1
can make up for many things by
helping others who need help, 1'11
be all right again pronto, and' then.
I'm riding - to wherever folks need
help."
Juanita's hand reached down to
clasp his tightly.
"We ride," she whispered firmly.
And looking into her black eyes,
seeing there the determination and
sacrifical purpose, Michael Valdez
knew that nothing he could ever
say would change Juanita de
Ceuvas' decision to ride thedanger
trails at his side, to share his lot,
whatever that night be.
After a long time he said softly:
."We ride first • to the mission
Juanita." He laughed happily.
"Padre Vincente will be surprised
when he is asked to perform a
marriage ceremony for a man who
said he would never marry. And
there is a blind man down there I
believe will ire nighty happy -for
his sols."
"I know," said Juanita softly. "I
know blind man will be much happy.
I have talk to him."
"You have?" Valdez was vastly
• surprised. "Why, you never told
me. Yon talked to him — what did
he say?"
"He say to ,rate, 'Follow your
heart, little senorita.' Me; I have
follow you, El Cabballero Rojo."
The earabaom, or water buffalo,
is the national beast of burden in
the Phillippines.
So Now You Have to go to University
To Learn—of all things—Hor es Boeing
While we have yet to hear of any
great revival in the buggy -whip
business, it's a fact that in at least
three United States colleges—Mich-
igan State, Rutgers and California—
they have courses designed to turn
out graduates in—of all things! the
ancient art of horseshoeing.
More colleges soon are expected
to be offering similar 14 -week
courses, with no worries about
placement of the graduates. Accord-
ing to the president of the United
States Trotting Association, the
young men who complete these
courses are simply rushed into wait-
ing lobs. The tremendous demand
for their services comes from prac-
tically every state of the union.
The reason,it seems. is the wide-
spread revival of harness racing,
' which is now flourishing in the
U.S. from coast to coast and from
the Gulf of Mexico to points in this
country.
Trained in 14 Weeks
Mast of the old time horseshoers
have departed this earthly scene.
Until recently, few youngsters tried
to replace theist, and the sport oi
harness racing got into a bad way
as a result. half a dozen years ago
or so, less than 4,000 trotters and
pacers. campaigned annually in the
U.S. 'In 1947, however, the number
was close to 9,000. Yet there were
fewer horseshoers than back in 1940
and 1941. As a result, the man who
owned a trotter or pacer, and need-
ed shoes in a hurry, often .found
himself in a serious dilemma,
Then servicemen, returning front
the wars and seeking some trade or
profession which could be quickly
learned, sensed the opportunity in
horseshoeing. Colleges were ap-
proached on the subject of introduc-
ing courses in the art. The three
mentioned responded quickly. and
it was discovered that youngsters
could be adequately schooled in the
fundamentals of horseshoeing with-
in 14 weeks.
Shoes Made To. Order
Shoeing horses for harness racing,
however, apparently is a specialized.
branch of the business. Even in the
case of running horses, shoes can
be tnanufact u'red in wholesale'
quantities. since they are standard-
ized small, thin plates. But shoes
for a harness horse must be made to.
order. A style of shoe which would
fit a certain harness hor.t.perfvrtly
nit13'ht be all wrong for another and
cause him to go into frequent breaks
in his gait.
As its the case oi every other ac-
cessory to locomotion, the tendency
now is to 'make horseshoes lighter
and lighter. In the old days, two-
pound shoes for harness horses were
no exception, the thought being that
so touch weight would cause theist
to hold truly to their gait. It has
since been proven that tratters can
move along in a faultless way with
six -ounce shoes, and the present
aim is to make theta considerably
lighter.
REG'LAR FELLERS—No Respect For Age
By GENE BYRNES
WELL
I'LL DE,'
A
GOLE
MINE/
s
,p
v�
13E.TCHA POP
WON'T MIND WHEN
1 COME HOME WITH
A COUPLA THOUSAN'
DOLLARS!
0
TAKE 'THOSE
DIZTY.'THINGS
OUT OF HERE AND
GORY 'MEM'
MY MOM
SAYS THEM
BEDROOM SLIPFErt5
CAME OVE& 1N
NOAliS ARK!
-'—'73,1e.403*
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