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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1933-01-19, Page 7-THU?RSDAY," JANUARY 19, 1933. THE SEAFORTH NEWS. PAGE SEVEN. v'q &r4 Special Offer --New and Renewal Ye To Subscribers New or Old For the next few weeks the subscription to The Seaforth News is 50c a year, new or renewal. No matter when your subscription expires, subscribers will, save by re- newing now. 50c a Year CIP2 it rly Subscriptions A PROFIT-SHARING OFFER. The Seaforth News takes pleasure in making this very special offer of 50c a year. Rather than spend large sums of money in other ways, such as premiums or contests, The Seaforth News is giving every subscriber who is a citizen of Huron or Perth, this cash advan- tage. This offer is good for the next few weeks only. SNOWDON BROS. Publishers. Nov. 5, 1932. The Seaforth News Freq LTA D, H1 McInnes chiropractor Of Wingham, will be at the Commercial Hotel, Seaforth Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Afternoons Diseases of all kinds `success- fully treated. Electricity used. Founded in 1900 A Canadian Review of .Reviews This 'weekly magazine offers a re- markable selection of articles and car - loons gathered from the !latest issues of the leading IBritish and ' American journals and reviews. It reflects the current thought of •botlii hemispheres on all 'world problems. • Beside this it has a'departm'ent of 'finance., investment and insurance, :arid features covering literature and 'the arts, bhe progress of s'cierice, edu- cation,. the ` house 'beautiful,' andwo- :men's 'interests. Its every page is a;window to_ sone fresh ,vision ILts every column is a live -wire contact with life! W:OEiLD WIDE is a FORUM Its editors are chairmen, not coon baeants. Dts articles are selected for their outstanding merit, illumination and entertainment. To sit down tin your own 'home for . quiet tete a tete, with some of the world's best informed and clearest 'thinkers on subjects of vital interest is the great adivan'tage, 'week hylweek, 'of those who give welcome to this .entertaining magazine. "A magazine of which Canadians• may well be proud." "Literally, 'a feast of reason and a 'flow of sotil'." "Almost everyarticle is :worth ing or sharing with a friend." Every one of the pages 01 World • Wide is P00% interesting to Canadians Issued Weekly 15 cts copy; $3.50 yearly On Trial to NEW subscribers 8 weeks only 35 cts net One Year $2.00 ' "(IOW °tral in llaatre'al and, sub:urbs ,also lar 'U:S. add Te for every week of service. For other •foreign countries add 2 cts.)' THE OLD SEA FORTRESS. For nearly three hundred years the !Portuguese were lords of M;az+agan. (Those were the days when. Portugal dreamed of a mighty empire—when her •flag, envbt1az'oned :With the Royal iArms oif Poetu'gal, .flew 'from .mast cif the castles an'd battlements of bhe Morroccan 'sea 'board, All down the coast one sees 'them these immense sea :fortresses, at ,Mazagan, at Agadir; and the fact that they .remain ,intact and impregnab'l'e td this d'ay says much for ,the work dant in' the fif- teenth century.' The •harbor of Mazagan lies against •the walls of the told itown; and, as we sailed in, the city piled ;itself up :above us. The high Portuguese tower stood black against the Starlit sky, with the still older Moorish watch tower. just behind it, and round about 'them crdwded the' palaces, :houses, and ',fart- res'ses of the ancient city, a1'l enclosed in the immense walls and bastions: ,It was Ilike the drop scene at a theater, and we all agreed it must havebeen a perfect background for the great Por- tugese galleons, sweeping in with strange ip'iichnre's .billowing out on their painted sails, hundreds of years ,agol But that glory has vanished, and no- thing lcoane's ,into Mazagan har'bo'r now but a :few .fishing' craft, one or two coa'sting steamers, and an: occasi'on'al yacht. 'I cannot think why more yachts do net go down the yporo'ccan coast; the sailing is exicelllent and the arvohorage 'good in: all ;the old plonts. Mazagan is ,particularly .favored, for besides its excel'len't harbor it has a great circling .bay which makes a good anchorage. .One •Wonders ' why this fine,.old port was not choleen, in- stead of 'Casablanca, as the commer- cial port of Morocco.' Alt least it has delft 'Mazagan a coastline, elotirely un - anoint by docks, quays or warehouses. One may walk ,for a mile ,and a half along the •broad broullevard outside ,the town, with ,the huge Atlantic waves breakt'nng at ones feet! •Lt was the old 'town i'tsel'f thiel in- terested me most, ''h'o'wever, and :I spent the Whole of the next day w'an- derin'g about it. Such a strange mix- ture Of mankind is 'here—lJ'ews,'A•rabs, IFeen:rihmen, Negroes from Is'ou'tlhern Africa, natives from the Atlas '3I'ou'n- •t'ai'n1s, ;Greeks, .Uervantin'es, sailors from everywhere. The 'bnml'd'ings were just as varied. The huge houses are all olid. lPorttugese; strange, tall, white houses that look as though they could b'anri- lade themselves for defense alt ,any mo'niient. The old tem.', has readily be- come the M'ellah, or Jewish quarter, 'but a nunilber of Europeahns. prefer to live there, too, rather than in the new town outside the walls. The native town is on the far side, toward the "Bled," or Plain, an'd if of the resi- dent Moors come intothe old Portu- gese City. Nevertheless there are many wandering Arabs in the streets —snake- c'h'armers; water carriers, a htild'man utpon a mule, heavily laden donkeys, 'camels; and just outside the gates we came across "a Mooris'h story teller to whom many Moors, seated gravely on the ground in a circle ar- ound him, were listening. But the real glory of Mazagan are the ramparts, that e'normou's sea wail. with its forts and bastions which sur- rounds the whole city, not only on. the Atlantic rade where the ocean had to be kept at bay and sea pirates guarded againslt, 'tint aisle an the landside; for the descending ,horde's of mountain tribes, infuriated sons of Islam, in a frenzy to drive the infidel from tbei: co'as'ts, were es relentless and .inaplac- able 'enemies as were the pirates of the six'teen'th .century! So these mighty walls, on which -twelve horsemen could nide abreast, surround the .whole town; and were .built to last 'forever. One must go over them again and again—in the morning sunshine— when the sun is settin'g—but 'best of a14 .by moonlight, when everything is Apure silver out a'gains't the blaok vel- vet of dark shadows,' and even ,the old s'boneN come to Life. II was h!ap'py that we saw them .for the first time at night, leaving .the ya'ch't after •dinner, and entering- with aur guide 'under that •double gate which spitsthat wall of inim,enrse ,thickness to the lane where the sen- tries stood day and night, and where no one goes now, for it lead's to the bastions ,and not to the streets, of the town. Ascending .gradually, we came first to the .forges, where the .servants of the Pertugese officers took their twas- tees',h'orse's to be shod. It seemed to nre that I could' hear the ringing of the metal, the clamping oif great hoofs, on s'ton'e, the chaffingand laughter of the men. Then along dark 'lanes, cup steep stairs„ suddenly •cb'minug out on the sea-froniting .battlements, Soaking out straight to the Atlantic. 'T'h'ey are not much changed these ,huge bastions and mighty walls, In the half-light you cannot see that the old guns are tottering on their wood- en, stands, that some have fallen qff,. though on others the ,bla'ck muzzlles. still point through the. .embrasures. at an imaginary enemy. A great silence is over all; no sol- diers in the guardrooms; no sentries on the watch towers; just our own shadows for company as we went up and down the battlements, the echo of our feet on the o'Id flagged stones the only sound. Very silently we went round, past one great bastion after another. They have such lovely names-, these turreted 'fortresses which punctuate the walls at regular inter- 'vais; the Bastion of the Generals, the ,Bastion of the !Storks, the .Bastion of St. Anthony and St. Sebastian, the Bastion of the Angel. One of them stood the fiercest attacks of'the great siege 'four hundred years ago, the Bas- tion of the Angel is now a 'powder magazine; the others are deserted. You can look down over the outer walls and see the old port into .which the galleons carne in ancient days, but the sea gate at the end of this, port is now filled in and it is no more used. Same day the in:flowing tide will silt it up with sand and pebbles, the lap - legging of the water against the old waits w^i'bl cease, and someone will snake a garden There—they have a love for gardens in Mazaganl, And so we came night round the' ramparts till .We had 'left the sea be- hind us and were on the landward side, over the outskirts of the native town. Here' the silence was broken by the hau'n'ting strain of .Moorish music, and our guide told ins that the Porte- gese sentries were warned iu olden days not to Took over the land wall whenthe sound of 'Moorish dancing came to their ears. 1\re looked over, 'however, and saw through a slanting window the shadows al women danc- ing and heard the cry of Allah! Al - Allah! as the followers of some hdiy \Iuasulrnan passed down the street. :But oonish ,dancing: and Moorish .music seemed like -a dream in Mazagan. Aswe.came rour.'dto the sea wall' again and saw the bastions in the mo'onbight,' the essence of Por- tugal was abroad and had claimed the old sea fortress for its o'w'n—ail else was but a fiction of the night, AN EARLY Id8DUSSTiRY. That was a long time ago, when lumber wasn't so scarce as it is to ^v; , but he had the vision and the love o.f the woods, and he bought thousands upon 'thousands of acres of land, because of the virgin pine or spruce or hemlock that grew upon it. Mostof it he got for ten or fifteen cents an acre. For some of it he paid as much as one dollar; 'but not very much, because there was so much land to be had at the lower price. He would buy for a mere song square miles of timberlands, vast tracts with lakes and mountains on them, do- mains that ran clear down to the coast. He knew the land was cheap, so he'd 'buy and cut the timber; or sell at a profit and move on, Like so many of the old Maine men, he unfalteringly followed the timber. His quest took him to Pennsylvania and 'tater to Michigan, always follow- ing the timber. His son, my father, also .followed the'timlber. It took him as far south as the Gulf—Louisiana— and as far west as the 'Pacific 'Ocean --California. 'It was in the ,blood of those Maine men. But I am not trying to give you the romance of the luni- ber industry or the tragedy of our un- scientific des'truction of forests, but merely a part of my family history. There has always 'been big money, in timberlands Inc the United States. FEW people here in the East knew old We- yerhaeuser, but Western bankers used to assert that he was a richer man than John D. Rockefeller, and it was all in timberlands. And then consider the Michigan lumber millionaires—do- zens of them. My grandfather died in: 1868, and my father kept on. During the panic of 1873 my 'father was home in Main, He wasn't particularly hard hit, but money was very tight and there was no telling when or how the panic would end, nor what might happen to anybody 'before it ran its course. One day a man walked into the of- fice where my father and his brother,. my Uncle Henry, sat. They did not recognize 'hire, but he 'knew them and came toward them with outstretched ha'nd's. "Well, boys," ,he said, "I ant glad. to 'see you looking so well; you have- n't 'changed ave-n',t'ch'anged much since I saw you last." "You' are looking pretty` well your- self," my uncle assured him, and my father chimed in with "You certainly are," for the stranger certainly was a robust specimen of humanity. They were sure he was somebody who had worked for my grandfather. Nearly every lumberjack in the State had, at one time or another. They could not have named' this one to save their lives. "1 drought I'd like to s'ee the old place again," the stranger went on. "I W'ade up my mind that D'att wasn't going to 'be in Boston and not run up! to see his friends here before he we.ntl bask." "And where are you making your home, Darr " my 'father asked. Dan, he remembered, had hauled logs for the squire years before. "I live in Michigan," said Dan. 'He had followed the timber. It was all he knew. "I did pretty well with my white pine. By the way, you've never done much with that land the squire 41 bought out there, have you?" "Areyou going to?" he asked. And.` my uncle, Maine -like, answered his' question with anot'her. "Would you'like to?" he asked.: "I wouldn't mind. How will you trade?" said Dan. "We ve got to see our sisters," said In, thee "Suppose you make us an off ;Wel an did. My father and Uncle went e and talked to my aunts. They knew only the approximate ac- reage and the price my grandfather had paid for the land. They had never cruised it and didn't know how much it would cut. But they did know these were panic times and getting worse day by day. There probably was a fu- ture, but they thought a heap about the present, and Michigan was a mighty- long way from Maine, and cash was cash. So the •family council decided to accept Dan's offer, which showed a small profit on what my grandfather had paid. When my uncle and my father got back to the office they found Dan there waiting for them. He was pass- ing away the time talking to a couple of old-timers he bad scared up some- where. ' "Well, boys, and what did the girls say?" he asked. "We'll sell," they answered. Dan promptly sat down and made out a check` on a Boston bank for the amount. 'Do you know anything about the lands, Dan?" asked asked my father. "No more than you," he answered. "Do you mean to say you've never been there?" "Never," "Don't you want to look them over first and see what's there?" "Why not?" "Why should I? I knew the squire, worked Twelve years for him, and I'll tell you this: Anything your fa- ther was: willing to ,buy at any time, I'm ,willing to take over at any time. If those lands were good enough for him to' buy and pay for, they are good enough for me to buy and pay for. That's all there is to it. I live there and you don't, so it's no trouble for me to buy 'em" Well, he got the 'lands and went back to M'ich'gan. In 1392 or 1893-T think it was during the World's Fair —S was in Chicago with my father. I was only a boy, but I remember meet - ng Dan. We ran across him in the loblby of the hotel. My father intro- duced me to the old chap, and he said I looked like the squirehis old 'boss. My .father heard off and on; indir- ectly, about Dan, and, knew he had done very well in the lumber business, as .so, many Michigan men had. At one time Michigan lumber supplied the newspapers with picturesque mil- lionaires, just as oil and steel and mu- nitions did at other ;periods.. I hear things have gone very' well with you, Dan." "Fine, my boyl Fine!" - cheerfully answered Dan.. How• did those lands we sold you turn out?" "Fine, my boy! Fine!" "Did ,pretty well with them, eh?" said my father. "I' told you the squire knew timber- lands," said Dan. "He was a mighty smart man, he was" My father laughed, and Dan said, "Oh, you are, smart too. Didn't "mean it that way." My father 'laughed all the more, and then he asked, "Dan. just how much did you make out of that deal?" Dan hesitated, "Don't you want to tell?" asked my- father, yfather, "It isn't that I don't want to, but that I ani ashamed to."' "As bad as that?" 'Yes, I haven't the nerve to tell You." "Go and How much wan it?" And Dan said, "I figure I made bet- ter than twen'ty million dollars out of it." ''W'hat?": yelled my lather. "I, told you I was ashamed to tell you," said Dan, so apologetically; that my father got to laughing once more. What do you think of that story? Well, there is still another '•chapter: Our branch office in Detroit is in the — Building, one of the finest edi- fices in the West, The squire's grand- son, who is in New York, is today paying tribute: to the grandson of the Maine team's'ter who hauled logs for him—and folldtved the timber clear into Michigan. Miller's' Worm Peevders will drive worms frfom the system without in- jury to the :child. 'The Powders are so easy to take 'that'the most delicate stomlach cats assimilate then and welcome 'them as apeedv easers of pain and thus th- suffering of the: child in relieved. t\Vith no sterling a remedy at hand no child should stif- 'ter an hour •from worms