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HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1940-03-07, Page 7Blended For Qutility "SAL 1!! TA (";t MIT DOOR ��/ C C�tC'� c�C 1935 NEA Serv,ce• mc. SYNOPSIS RUTH WOODSON, 19 years old, an orphan, leaves Brooklyn by bus for the mid -west to look for a job. Unable to pay her fare, she is put off the bus in -the little town of Worthville, just as a storm is breaking. She seeks shel- ter in a huge old stone house with a blue door, and faints from hun- ger just as the door is opened by the old housekeeper, BERTHA GIBBS, whom she later learns to call "PENNY." Ruth is carried upstairs by the *aid woman, .assisted by JOHN Mc- NEIL!L, from next door. The half. blind old woman mistakes Ruth for ELAINE CHALMERS, whose grandfather built the house, and who is now at college in the east. Ruth is ashamed of her decep- tion and resolves to leave, but agrees to stay longer when Pen- ny tells her that tomorrow is her 75th birthday and pleads with Ruth to make a longer visit. Ruth has fallen in love with John Mc- Neill and is eager to stay. She is not dismayed by the fact that old Bertha seems slightly "off" on the subject of the blue door, which, for some mysterious reason she paints afresh "every quarter. moon." John is uneasy about the girl being alone in the house with the queer old woman but Ruth as- sures him she is not afraid. She says to him, "Please keep on wor- rying about me. .I don't need it but I like it." .CHAPTER XIII An immense stone building, across whose windows iron• bars kept guard perpetually. This wa the thing the man at the flower - beds hated with a consuming hat- red—his home, Along ,the graveled walks a party of visitors was being con- ducted by a guard—men and wo- men carrying open notebooks and ever -poised fountain. pens or pen- cils. They asked questions and wrote down the guard's answers avidly, consulting each other as they wrote, chattering; looking alertly around, sometimes laugh- iIig. Laughing! The man who bent over the flower -bed gritted his teeth in hatred of ail the laughter on earth. As the party went on its way and entered the jaws of the grim building his hatred followed them. Yet the process did not ease his heart. There was more hatred there, and to spare, for' the man who had put him in this place. They called him Mr. Smith. He was a trusty, and he was espec- cially good with flowers. They said he had been a botanist in his day. Sometimes John Smith's hat- red hung suspended and impotent in the dark chambers of his heart while he contemplated an opening flower, a budding plant, a strug- gling seed, but it never went away entirely. He kept it there, ready to use against life anis the people who has misused hint. For Mr. Smith felt that his sentence to this place was a wrong and an unjust thing. That, however, was the way most of the inmates felt about their incarceration, so in this particular Mr. Smith was not outstanding. When he demanded justice no one listened. Mr. Smith's Plan A plan was forming in Mr. Smith's head. As he worked the soil around a purple chrysanthe- mum he thought the thing out. He would leave with the vis- itors when they went away. In an hoar, perhaps two hours eoeld lin` he sure Because of the tumult in his mind—he heard them coming.' The same guard was with them, a man whom he did not know by name or sight. A man who perhaps did not know him. On this thread hung his first hope. As they circled the grounds, following the graveled driveway and observing the "Keep Off the Grass" signs, they passed quite near the flower -beds. The visitors seemed in excellent spirits. Note- books were still in evidence and fountain pen scratched spasmodi- cally. The guard was answering the questions of a pretty young lady who walked beside him. He fingered the collar of his uniform as he did so, and preened himself. * * * Understanding the Insane They passed Mr. Smith without a glance, for there was nothing about his neat, •thin body and quiet, shuttered face to attract attention. As the last of them went by he straightened himself and joined them. In his hands he held a notebook and fountain pen. He was taking notes. They were approaching a high stone wall where the drvieway led to an iron gate. Guards With guns paced the broad top of the wall. Other guards stood at the gate. Mr. Smith moved into the thick- est of the crowd and continued with his notes. He wrote down a description of the gate and its de- fense. No one was more absorbed than he. When the gate presently clang- ed behind them, his knees felt sud- denly weak, and the breath of his body too light to support him. A few cars were parked out- side, but most of the crowd—there were perhaps 50 in all—moved to- ward a street car which was wait- ing on a switch. The car bore the sign: "Chartered. Normal School." Mr. Smith, still midway of the crowd, boarded the street car. He sat down in a vacant seat beside a woman who looked a little tired and vague. Presently the motor- man clanged his bell and they mov- ed off. Mr. Smith looked over his note. . . . The vague woman addressed him in a troubled ways. "Did you get much out of it?" "Yes and no," replied Mr. Smith guardedly. The woman said, "I feel that way, too. I suppose a lot of these people feel as if they know all there is to know about the crim- inally insane, just from this one trip through the institution." Mr. Smith frowned. "That is utter conceit," he answered. "No one . understands the criminally insane. Not even the doctors. The greatest fools on earth are your good psychiatrists. And when they're not good, but scheming quacks, they're devils instead of fools!" "Would you care if I'd write that down?" asked the untidy little woman earnestly.• "Not at all," Mr. Smith assur- ed her, and watched with satis- faction as she did it. She said then, "I'd appreciate any. other conclusions you could give Inc. This course in abnormal psychology is difficult for me. Which type of insanity, for in- stance, do you consider most dan- gerous?" s: o 0 Follows A Delusion Mr. Smith replied thoughtfully, "Not your dementia praecox case because his condition is usually very evident. He shows his mental disintegration, I'd say a certain type of paranoiac is most to be feared because. he's often an in - 5 -inch Rose buds, Daffodils an Targe as a salad Mate, Hyacinth blooms over 1 foot long, Snapdragons nearly 7 feet high, seedlings maturing in halftheusual time, plants in full bloom and growth transplated without root -shock or set beck, and sickly Vhlents reinvigorated into strong and healthy growth. is k only part of the story, in October issue of "Setter Homes & Gardens," that has electrified the horticultural world by Its description of the marvellous results obtained through scientific study of the newly discovered effects of Vitamin 5.1 on plant growth EASY—SAFE-ECONOMICAL FOR PLANTS INDOORS AND OUTDOORS Ws supply Vitamin 0•1 in a new conve:den Powder form, specially prepared for plan Not a plant food es fertilizer but imparts new growth. No complicated weighing or measurinr v got to the roots so that the plant obtains the whatever. 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Their emotions get the upper hand. 411 of us," he added after a pause, ''rare Pee tential killers, We need only the right state of health and of ex- ternal conditions to bring it out." "How can you say that!" ex- claimed the vague little woman in distress, "Take yourself, for instance. A quiet, studious nan who teaches the young and takes time to study psychology. How could a man like you be a poten- tial murderer?" Mr. Smith smiled with con- straint. "Well," he replied, "per- haps not myself. That would tax your imagination too far-" As his smile faded he was recalling the feel of his hands on 'a certain hated throat, . He wanted to sit quietly and think. Not of that, but of the thing he must do next. Of his way of escape when he should leave this car. But the earnest little school teacher who was taking a special course in psychology would not let him think. She asked, "Did. you get all that lecture on the routine of the inmates? He talked so fast I couldn't take it down." "I didn't take it down either, but I think I remember it," said the obliging Mr. Smith. And he gave her a fairly accurate account Of the lives of those who dwelt behind the walls he had just quit- ted. "I don't recall what he said about the violent cases," he add- ed, "These, I believe, are treated either as invalids or hardened eriminals. Padded cells. Solitary confinement. That s o r t of thing—" The little woman shuddered and thanked him. "I'm ever so grateful to you," she said, Mr. Smith noticed that every- one was getting ready to get off the car which had stopped before an institution, this cne without walls or guards. It was the Nor- mal School. Mr. Smith got oft with the crowd, paying his diene as he did so. His hand touched a billfold in his pocket gratefully, There would not be the dearth of money that mcst fugitives had to face. . . . "Good old Bertha Gibbs!" he thought. "How long since she sold that bond for me?" * o * A New Car He could not remember. ,He only knew the money was safe in his pocket and had been there for a long time. His body and brain were tired together from the tenseness of his plight. He thought, "Pll take a tramp steam- er for South America, of course. But first I've got to wait around a bit. They'll be hunting for nee in railway stations and ship of - To -Day's Popular Design By. Carol Aimes . .4.•. ***...•.a...: 1451 VIA areem ideeelseeeeeeeest 600 FRUIT MOTIF TEA TOWELS Purple Plum, Bright Red Cherries, Golden Yellow Pears, Pale Green Apples and Strawberries in natural colours are our answer to your let- ters asking us for nlc.:ifs for tea towels that work up quickly and give bright splashes of color to make your home workshops gay and good to live in. The pattern . includes transfer of the motifs, material requirements, finishing and stamping instructions, diagrams of stitches and color and stitch guides and keys. Send 15c, (Coins preferred)', to Carol A.imes, Loom 421, 78 West Ade- laide St., Toronto. rices. I've ;dot to bide my tinge ---T" He saw that the crowd was thinning. Those who had come in the street car were entering the grounds of the school. He could not follow them, nor could he re- main standing there ... He no- ticed the motorman changing the sign on his car: He removed "Chartered. Normal School" and substituted "Cross Town, North. End Of Line." Escape John Smith got on. He rode across the city, but he did not go to the end of the line. That might cause him to be remembered, He got off at a brisk shopping eoin- munity, where there were numer- ous small stores and many people milling about. He sought, and found, a second- hand showroom for automobiles. He went in and bought a small used car of reliable make. He sur- prised the young salesman by pay- ing cash for it. He had it serviced and got into it. "Which way to New York out of here?" he ask- ed distinctly. The salesman showed him the street to take, gave him a road- map with marked directions.' The man called John Smith ap- parently followed them. But a few miles distant he crossedtown at an angle and took a road which he knew well. The road toward Cleveland. He was thinking. "The old wo- man will put me up. She'll hide me for a while. Nobody will look for me there. They'll be watch - nig the trains and steamships." A bit later he gained the open road and relaxed. The sun shone mistily on autumn fields, at rest from the summer's fertility. Map- les and beeches and oaks flaunt- ed their foliage. The man laugh- ed. "Worthvills!—I suppose the door's still blue. I'll know the place by that—" He saluted a traffic cop as they passed one another. The officer saluted back carelessly. (To Be Cntinued;, Value Is Seen In White Lies Toronto Child Expert Says Skilful IJse of Them Socia,' Requisite Dr. W. E. Blatz, of the Institute of Child Study at University of To- ronto, told the .Gyro Club in 'a re- cent address that the entire a,au- adiau social structure is based on the use of "white lies." ''The lies are those of loyalty to a group whether one's family or other organizations," he said. "Hit- ler is a person who found it neces- sary to develop the art of lying to protect his ego. I)EV1)LOP IMAGINATION "Our difficulty is to teach chit- dran to use white lies skilfully. Lt is necessary to their social success. Dr. Blatz said that "very few" Ca- nadian children have any imagina- tion loft after they have gone on through public and high schools. Canadians are a people with too lit- tle humor, he said. Except for young queens, all members of a bumblebee colony perish in the autumn. CIGARETTE PAPERS NONE FINER MADE Active Sport Helps Figure Achieve That Longer Look Through The Middle by Taking The Right Kind of Exercisr rhe woman who is determined to achieve the new "stretched look" from top of hipbones to underneath the arms decides right now to go in for an active sport or to revive her interest in one she has learned long ago but hasn't thought about in years. If she lives in a cold climate she chooses between skiing and skating, both of which are won- derful for improving the posture and stretching the muscles of the torso. SWIMMING AND TENNIS If tennis and swimming are quite out of the question, she does exercises which employ similar mo- tions. When poison ivy grows in apple orchards there are apt to be more leafhopper pests, because the hop.. pers find the poison ivy a con- genial host plant. ee, thea Regir.4t,G,. Sfyle'Book fo 194g,,, if c ntaro : str0if ar forts 50',letc"s' Wait dAt it styles,,, Kmf d,sfinc i 4dopls aor gu' ISSUE NO. 10--'40 L1 NIDE Ca SP CEREAL CAN DO WI/ATMENCINES pal? It was my doctor who explained to me. that common constipation is due to a lack of intestinal bulk. Kellogg's All - Bran supplies this needed bulk and also the intestinal tonic vitamin BI. If you suffer, as I did, from this common type of constipation, you'll find that this daily `Ounce of Prevention' is a lot pleasanter and more effective than dos- ing yourself with harsh cathartics. Just eat it regularly, either as a cereal or itt delicious muffins, and drink plenty of water." A11 -Bran is made by Kellogg's in London, Canada, and sold in two convenient sized packages by all grocers. *4» ALL -BRAN