HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1957-01-17, Page 2dada Fortune
T:king Dai, Of'
A. dignified man placed his
hands on little Bernard Baru h's
head. His sensitive fingers felt
the ridges and undulations He
turned to Barney's mother. ' T 1a -
dem," he said, "your son nay be
a fine classical scholar, but his .
bond indicates that he is a finen-
vial genius. Train him either for
finance or politics."
That interview with the pi,re-
nologist sealed the fate of young
]Baruch. Today, at the age of
eighty-five, he is one of the rich-
est men in the world, his for-
tune being estimated at up to
$75,000,000.
At eleven he was stubby, fat
and nicknamed "Bunch" by the
lads in his street who ran their
fingers up the back of his head
as he passed. This riled him, but
he took boxing lessons and lost
both his fat and his quick tem-
per, for it's easier to be cairn
when you can meet personal in-
sults with a handy left hook.
So good was he with his hends
that Bob Fitzsimmons, the fight-
er, advised him to take up hoe-
ing as a profession. But as he
could speak French and German
:fluently, and read Latin, Greek
sand Hebrew, he put his name
down for West Print. One deaf
war,however, prevented him
from becoming a soldier.
Then his mother remembered
the phrenologist's advice and got
.her son into a Wall Street firm
where his job was to convert
dollars into foreign currency.
Soon he could beat the calculator
machines!
As routine work irked him he
trekked to Colorado and, during
the summer of 1890, dug ore in
ar mine shaft. Then with his sav-
:Ings he bought shares in an ad-
jacent mine and thought he was
en the road to riches.
But the ore was so bad that
the mine closed down and he
learned his first lesson—never
buy first and investigate later.
That autumn, almost broke, be
:returned to Wall Street as a $5
as week broker's clerk, filling
inkwells, running errands and
studying the markets. He had
such a brain for figures that
ether clerks found its saved time
to ask him rather than look up
the answers. Unlike them, he
pored over law books, studied
bookkeeping and became so use-
fuI to his firm that soon he was
earning five times his starting
ealary.
Meanwhile, he had met a pret-
ty girl, and asked his boss to
double his salary. "No," was the
answer, "but will you accept a
junior partnership instead, which
en last year's figures means at
least $30 a week?" Baruch ac-
cepted—it was a good wage in
those days.
Later, with an inborn shrewd-
ness and intuition, he calculated
that the U.S. Congress would not
cut the sugar tariff; he gambled
en it and made $100,000. With
:155,000 he bought a seat on the
New York Stock Exchange.
Next year, while holidaying in
New Jersey, his partner 'phoned
o say that Commodore Schley
had destroyed the Spanish fleet
at Santiago Bay. The market was
closed, for it was the long week-
end of July 4th, and he. knew
Mat when business began it
would go mad. So he hired a
locomotive and a single coach
and dashed to New York. As the
office was locked, he lifted his
scan through a small window to
let him in from the inside.
Then he telephoned the tip to
the firm's customers and cabled
London to buy American stocks
the moment the London Stack
Exchange opened, On Monday
stocks surged up and he made a
bundle.
Once, Baruch made a lot of
money lay accident. It was when
big financiers were lighting for
control of Northern Pacific Rail-
road: Baruch bought as stocks•
were rising, but knew that the
stock he was buying was un-
sound and intended selling the
next day. In the morning his
mother 'phoned and said sternly,
"Bernard, have you forgotten
what day it is?"
It was Yom Kippur, on which
no orthodox Jew may transact
business. Yet if Baruch did not
sell, he would be ruined when
prices fell.
"I expect you to stay at home,"
said his mother.
"All right, Mother," he prom-
ised.
Had he been able to use the
'phone on Yom Kippur he would
have mec'e a few thousands; as
it was, shares kept rising and
through no skill of his own he
netted $750,000.
By the time he was thirty-two
he was wortha million dollars
for every year of his life.
When he became a multi -mil-
lionaire he bought a 10,000 -acre
estate, well stocked with deer,
wild turkey, duck, quail and
other game. Here the famous
visited him, and once an admiral
who " was possibly the worst
marksman since the invention
of the shotgun, spent a week
firing hundreds of rounds with-
out hitting anything.
Then a guide led him to a tree
and pointed to an enormous. tur-
key perched on a branch. The
admiral let fly. Down thumped
the bird, but when he ran to it
in triumph he saw a card tied to
its neck. On it was written:
"With the compliments of Ber-
nard M. Baruch."
Baruch knows how to turn
everything to profit; even deaf-
ness, His deaf aid has a secret
cut-off switch. A.sked what he
thought of one politician, re-
nowned as a bore. be chuckled:
"I've heard nothing he's said to
me since 1935."
Money, as such, means nothing
to him. "You can't eat. it," he
says, "and when you have
enough, the remainder is merely
a -liability." He gives away im-
mense sums, and for years has
done government work without
pay. Once he gave a million dol -
Jars to the Red Cross and no one -
knew of the gift for more than
twenty-five years.
But he has such a genius for
making money that he has little
fear of poverty. "Right up to the
day they put the coffin lid on
me," he says with a grin, "I'11 al-.
ways have a dollar more than I
need."
PERFECT ANSWER
Although there are many
centenarians living to -day in
• the United States, it's said that
a clerk in an employment
bureau in New York was as-
tounded when she noticed re-
ently the figures 110 and 107
in the spaces reserved for "Age
of Father, if living" and "Age of
Mother, if living" on the docu-
ment which had been handed
in by an applicant for work.
"Haven't you made a mis-
take?" asked the surprised clerk.
"Surely your parents aren't that
old?"
lite," replied the applicant,
"but they would 'be—if living."
GUESS WHO? That down in the center is none other than tough
guy Jimmy Cagney, made up for his role of Lon Chaney, in
'The Man of a Thousand Faces'". Visiting him on the set in
Hollywood are actors Jimmy Stewart, left, in costume for "Night
Passage" and Orson Welles, complete with plastic nose for his
ranch -baron role in "Pray the Devil".
12 INJURED IN TRAIN DERAILMENT - This was the scene after a New Haven Railroad pas-
senger train jumped the tracks, injuring at least 12 persons. The train was en route to Mon -
ureal from New York.
Jail—Bards
Francois V ilion, Ring of the
Beggars of Paris, was also a
thief and a poet. A good ex-
ample of his modern imitators
comes from the U.S.A. where a
gang of chicken. thieves, after
raiding the local chicken houses,
left behind a hen and a rooster
in each, with the note:
We steal from the rich
We steal from the poor,
We leave this pair
r So you can raise some more:
Many sweet lines have been
written in prison.. It was while
he was jailed that Oscar Wilde
wrote his famous "Ballad of
Reading Gaol." Charles Peace;
who had a taste for versifying,..
devoted some of his spare time
in prison to writing hymns and
even composed his epitaph. Let's
hope that his hymns were of
better quality than another pri-
son epic:
O who can tell the pains I " feel
A poor and harmless sailor. .
I miss my' grog and every meal—
Here comes the blooming jailor!
A case which attracted much
medical interest concerned the
finding of two; bodies in a lake.
By some property in the water
the bodies were extremely well
preserved. The advice of an ex-
pert from the medical .faculty
of a certain university was
sought by the 'police. ' The pro-
fessor's students gleefully re-
corded their chief's interest in
the case with:
Two bodiesfound in lonely mere
Converted into adipocere.
Harvey, when called in to see
'em
Said; "Just what I need for nay
museum."
Carpets of Moss
The country around offered a
scene very uncommon and to
'us quite new. The moss on which
the reindeer feeds covers the
whole ground, which is flat and
only skirted by hills at :some
distance; but these hills also
are clothed with this moss. The
colour • of the moss is a pale
yellow, which, •when dry,
changes to white: the regularity
of its shape, and the uniform
manner in which the surface
of the ground is decked with it,
•appears very singular and strik-
ing: it has the semblance of a
beautiful carpet. These plants
grow in a shape nearly octa-
gonal, and approaching to a cir-
cle; and as they closely join
each other, they form a kind
of mosaic work or embroidery.
The white appearance of the
country, which thence arises,
may for a moment make you
imagine that the ground is cov-
ered with snow; but the idea
of a winter scene is doneaway
by the view of little thickets
in full green, which you per-
ceive scattered here and there,
and still more by the presence
of the sun and the warmth of
his rays. As this moss is very
dry, nothing c a n possibly be
more pleasant to walk upon•nor
can there be anything softer to
serve as a bed. Its cleanness and
whiteness is tempting to the
sight, and when we had nut up
our tent, we found ourselves in
every respect very comfortably
lodged. t had many times be-
fore met with this moss, but in
•no place had I found it so rich.
It was the only produce here,
which nature seemed to favour
and support: no other herb was
growing near it, nor any other
vegetable an the spot, except a
• few birch trees, with their un.,
derwood, and sone firs, dispers-
ed on a hill by the river side.
All these seemed to vegetate
with difFioulty, as if deprived.of
nourishment by the moss, and
appeared withering and stunted.
Some trees, indeed, which grow
very near the water, had the
appearance of being in a flour-
ishing state, perhaps owing to
the moisture they derived from
the river: but, in short, this moss
appeared to be. the royal plant,
which ruled absolute over the
vegetable kingdom of the coun-
T. '.,LE nuts
'el dam Andms.
According to Kipling there
are "nine -arid -forty way of
constructing tribal lays," and
I'm sure there, are at least that
many recipes for making pan -
'cakes, flapjacks or whatever
you like to call them. But here's
a kind that were new to me,
until recently — a Danish va-
riety that I'm sure you'll find
well worth the little extra
trouble of making therm
'' * :r
At least once during the
Christmas' season we have
aebleskiver. They are the little
round Danish pancake balls
that are delicious with jelly and
butter, The whole family en-
dorses them as a breakfast
treat; and they are equally good.
for afternoon or evening re-
freshments, served with jam or
fruit and a beverage:
Perhaps the custom came to
us through a San Fransisco
boarding house where my land-
lady used to prepare these de-
lectable morsels during the
holidays. But • my appreciation
for them goes back even farther
,than that. My Danish school
lends introduced them to me,
writes Evelyn Jensen in The
Christian Science Monitor.
Once I remember visiting a
friend while she was baking the
pancake balls. 'Fascinated, I
watched her carefully grease
each depression in the aeble- •
skiver pan, then fill each three-
fourths full of batter. She wait-
ed until . bubbles appeared ' on
the surface, then with two forks
.flipped each ball so it could
cook on the other side.
"Are they hard to turn?" I
asked.
"You can try the next batch,"
• she asked.
With some trepidation I took
the forks. My movements. were
clumsy, but I got them over.
Not only that, mine came out
almost 'as' fine and round as
hers. Her young brother stared
at me in amazement. "Why, you
can do it, too!"
We all laughed, but I must
confess that up until that mo-
ment I'd shared his •conviction
that turning aebleskiver was an
exclusive : Danish accomplish-
ment. Right then I made a de-
cision, An aebieskiver pan
try, and distributed its bounty
and influence amongst a parti-
cular race of men and animals.
— From "Travels Through Swe-
den, Finland, and Lapland, to
the North Cape," by Joseph
Acerbi.
would be included in my fu-
ture household equipment!
`n indeed it is. We pux-
chased our from 'our local hard. -
ware dealer clueing the early
years of our marriage. Mine is
cast iron, which keeps a steady
heat, and has seven depressions.
As in baking regular pancakes,
the pan is ready when drops of
water bounce on • its surface, or
when it just barely begins to.
smoke. It mustn't be too hot.
A mixture of half butter and
half lard is used to grease the
depressions. I keep it warm in
a fiat - bottomed aluminum
measuring cup and dip it out
with a teaspoon as needed.
Knitting needles will turn the
balls as well as sharp forks. if
you want to be sure there is no
uncooked dough in the centre,
test with a knitting needle or
cake tester. Experience will
soon teach you when they are
done.
If you are wondering about
pronunciation, it's abe-la-skeev-
er, with the accent on the first
syllable.,, (Or; at least that's
about as close as most of us can
get.) Even if you resort to call-
ing them "dingle berries," as
some of our friends do, you'll'.
enjoy them!
:Here are three of our favorite
batters.
*
AEBLESKIVER
Separate 6 eggs. Beat the whites
until stiff
PO the yolks into another bowl!
' and beat slightly
Sift together
3 cups sifted bread floor
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt. Add the dry
ingredients to the yolks
alternately with
2 cups milk and 2 tablespoons
melted butter
Fold in the beaten white. (1
usually halve this recipe for rt
family of four.)
+ * ,
AEBLESKIVER Wir»
SOUR MILK -
3 cups sifted flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
NA teaspoon baking soda
% teaspoon salt. Sift into e -
bowl. Add
% cup sour milk or buttermilk
2 tablespoons cream or melted
butter. Start stirring.
Add 1/2 cups of sweet milk ea
enough to make a batter the
conisistency of waffle batter
Flexor with 1 teaspoon lemon
extract
A. little nutmeg
Add 3 egs, beaten light, the last
thing.
N N *
A.EBLESKIVER WITH YEAST'
Heat 2 cups rich nailk, to luke-
warm
Crumble into this one yexet
cake
Add 1 tablespoqn sugar
IA teaspoon salt
1 cup sifted flour. Beat. Their
add, one at a time, beating
between additions
4 eggs
Add 1 cup more of flour. Beat
Let rise about 2 hours be-
fore baking .
Any of these recipes may be
varied by adding lemon, nut-
meg, or. cardamon. Currants,
seedless raisins, small cubes of
raw apple, or bits of cooked
prune may be dropped into each
individual section just ebefoxe
turning the pancake balls.
BOY AND HIS HERO—Three-year-old. Alex Carroll, Jr., is prob-
ably too young to appreciate his luck, but he knows grownups
are making a fuss over "Bubble," his pet mongrel. Alex, too
lightly clad for winter temperatures, wandered down to •Bull -
skin Run, a creek near his home. He fell in, but,Blubbie's bark-
ing had moved a neighbor, Mrs. Howard Bush,tor keep an eye
on him. She ran to the creek, pulled out .the blue -cold young-
ster, took him home and dried him -out. He was none the worse
for the accident.
NE11111W WELCOMED TO WHITE HOUSE India's Printe Minister Jawaharlal Nehru Is greeted by
President Eisenhower outside the White HouseAt left is Nehru's daughter, Mrs, 'Indira Gandi;r
a nd Mrs, eiserthowen
e.,