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HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1957-02-14, Page 7ry A Nation's Worth We do not need to pay regard to what President Nasser thinks Yf us, nor indeed do we have to rare much that it is acclaimed 'broad by those who seek to pull as down that British influence in. the world is zero, that we are anished and so on. All that will change. It has been like it be- tore. But what dismays me is the view, which appears to gain in- creasing acceptance by too many In our own country, that this Low assessment is justified and that we are in fact a second-rate nation. . . My opinion is that quite the contrary is the case, and that we shall do well to re- sist this mesmerism with all our might. If we reviewour achieve- ments and our contribution to world affairs, we are brought, I believe, to the conclusion that they entitle us to first-class ranking. In the economic field our record speaks for itself. More than one-half of the world's trade is conducted in our currency, sterling. The commod- ity markets, insurance, shipping, money and exchange markets, and the international banking' system are linked together in the City of London and provide the most efficient service of its kind in the world for all to use, a mechanism, a technique, which is unrivalled. And it is not sustained by mere wealth. It is based on trust, mutual confidence, and the power of good judgment and sound common sense. It is the moral worth of a nation which matters more than anything else and there is no doubt that Our sense of fair play and inte- grity of character still form the true foundation of our entire social and economic systems. In engineering, nuclear ener- gy, aircraft design and construc- tion, art, literature, and many other spheres we more than hold Our own, but my object is not just to chalk up our qualities. 1 am merely trying, in all modes- ty, to show that we have much to offer which the world needs, if we will only allow our incor- rigible and superb optimism and confidence to reassert them- selves. The tasks ahead are tre- mendously difficult and they ex- clude complacency or lethargy, but, sunk in a bog of self-deprc- FOR WINNIE - Pictured is a Tiffany -designed, gold medal- lion, first award ever made by the Pilgrims of the U.S., which was presented to Sir Winston Churchill. Obverse side (top) shows a pilgrim, flanked by the American eagle and British lion. Reverse side hails Churchill as one "who has done more than any man in history to advance the unity of the English-speak- ing peoples". elation and accepting an unjust and unfair evaluation of our- selves, we shall be in grave dan- ger of losing our resolution and with it the vision and creative ideas the hour now demands front us. -W, Lionel Fraser, from a letter in The Times (London). Hanged First, Married Later If you visit the Oxfordshire hamlet of Great Tew they'll tell you of Mary Smith who, many years ago, got married three days after she'd been hanged for murder. And they won't be pul- ling your leg. The story is true. Mary Smith was just an ordi- nary country girl. She met a dashing young man who pro- posed marriage -and suddenly disappeared when it became plain that Mary was going to have a child. Overcome by shame, the dis- tracted mother stifled the child soon after it was born. She was found guilty of murder and con- demned to death. After thehanging, the execu- tioner cut down the body. The chaplain said a last prayer. She was then taken in a cart to the mortuary where two doctors certified her dead and then went home, leaving' the corpse to the Silence of the mortuary. One of the two doctors, how- ever, returned to collect some- thing he'd left behind. While he was there he thought he heard a sound. He glanced around, but could see nothing except the shrouded corpse. He was about to leave when he heard a groan, unmistakable this time. Thinking someone was hiding there, he made a thorough search and, while he' was doing so, he was shocked to see theg "corpse" sit up. Mary Smith was still alive. By a miracle she had survived the grim ordeal of being hanged. In those days, if a murderer did survive execution, he or she was often given the benefit of the doubt. After medical attention, Mary was given wine and a good meal. Her neck bore all the marks of the rope, but it had not been broken. Whether her heart had actually stopped beating for a few minutes is not known. This sort of thing has happened since then, and it may have been something of this kind that de- ceived the doctors who had signed her death certificate. Two days later the ex -mur- deress was formally pardoned and released. She was met outside the jail by the man who had wanted to marry her before the dashing lover appeared on the scene. He proposed and was ac- cepted, and next day the couple were married. Mary Smith lived happily for the rest of her life and became the mother of several children. SHAGGY CAT STORY Into the doctor's surgery rushed a distraught woman cry- ing: "Doctor! Please come quickly. My husband has swal- lowed a mouse!" "Hurry back to him," said the doctor to humour her, "and try waving a piece of cheese in front of his mouth. I'll be along as soon as possible." When the doctor reached the' house ten minutes later, he found the husband lying on a settee with his mouth wide open, while his wife waved a kipper close to his face. "You foolish woman," said the. doctor, "I told you cheese." "I know that," she retorted, "but I must get the cat out .first!" A proud father was talking about the intelligence of his son. "You know, dear," he told his wife, "I think he must have got his brains from nie." "He certainly must have 'done," replied the wife. "I've still got mine." CROSSWORD PUZZLE ACROSS 11. Knock 4. Ugly old woman ' 7. Peeled 52. Gourmet 4. Each 35. Of the roof of the mouth 16. Scamp 7. Acidity 8. Tear 0, Small masa 1. still 2. One who walks in water 124. Part of the mouth .6. Corpulent 7. Spanish coin 29. Assail 2. Pattern 3. Anticipate 5. Little Ile 36. Attention 37. Usage 39. Guided 12. Among 44. Cage 45. Nothing but 48.Of lire 48. Not particular ;cop ) 51. Sandy 62, Touche (53, Brood Of '' pheaeante 61. SpX�O dWisoaM s L Iteinitnsrms 7. By 8. Acknowledge 9. Entertained 10. Learned 11. Stain 13. Automobile 19. Vigor 22. Timepiece 2. Speedily 23. Forgive 8. Steersman 25. Close friend 4. hovel 26. Chars 6. Landing place 23. Weep of the arh 29. Working 6. veru cold ' gathering 30. Probe 81. 6atriee 34. Light blow 35. Showy dress 98.Startea 39. Oormoure 40. Obliterate 41. Canceiea 43. Go qulrkly 4v. Grown boys 43. 01d -timer 47. Spade 49 Born 1 2 3:: 1'1,1s: 4 5 6 ': 7 8 9 10 11 12 13:.114 15 ,+<;16 17 +! • 18 19 1, 1, ,), 20 ,t>i 21 ;: �h :81:4,,,...2,;,.) 22• 2.. i,: 24 25 ++. r . 26 •• 27 29 30 31 lili.0 4,Yri?$,i,,r` .Y �r �,��llllll� 32 '• r' ......$•... 36 :•r: 37 se ,p+{ 39 44 41 r+ 42 ' 43 +; r 44 ••: .; 45 46 47 :46 • 45 50 r52 r� MI r Answer elsewhe Oh digit pa^ WHAT? NO TOAST? - A creamery turns out nearly four million pounds of butter annually, aided by this giant aluminum" churn, The churn, scientifically designed to insure rapid production as well as high quality, turns out butter in one -ton batches. An unsigned communication from a New York City reader brings me a clipping I have seen many' times before. This clipping is now "making the rounds" and is prompting all manner of .edi- torial comment here and there. That it appeared. In this news- paper January 8 is significant because I first covered the sub- ject matter here at least eight years ago. This clipping says the poultry expert at the University of Michigan says politeness to hens makes them give more eggs. Hens respond to thoughtful and considerate dealings. This is something the poultry farmer knew many long years ago and which the "expert" at Michigan couldn't have advanced at all recentlyif he expected it to be news. Clippings like this are an in- teresting bit of journalism. Years ago a clipping began making the rounds to the effect that, "Maine has a law forbidding setting fire tip mules." The first time I saw this it seemed an amusing nug- get of curious lore, but after it began being printed and clip- ped, prined and clipped, and ap- peared in any and every publi- cation I picked up, I began to wonder about it. I couldn't find that Maine had any such law. Maine has arson and vandalism laws, and laws forbidding cruelty to dumb ani- mals, and setting fire to mules would of course be a crime in our courts, but any state cer- tainly has the same provision, and there is nothing specific about it as to mules writes John Gould in The Christian Science Monitor. 4' 4' '9 Indeed, there is little logical likelihood that Maine would have such a law, because the state has never been much of a place for mules. I can remember only two pairs that I've seen in my time. A fellow from Ala- bama inherited his uncle's salt- water farm up here, and when he came to take over his prop- erty he brought two aged mules with him, which were something of a novelty. And I know of an- other pair, years ago, over in either Bowdoin or Litchfield - I used to see them on my way to visit Uncle Niah's folks. Other than that, I don't know of any other mules in Maine, al- though of course there have been others. To enact legisla- tion specifically forbidding ig- niting mules would therefore seem to be lavish attention to something almost nonexistent. I did consider the chance that "mule" in this context meant a spinning machine, of which we • have many in our textile mills. But other than general provi- sions against deliberate combus- tion of anything not properly burnt, I couldn't find anything covering this kind of mule. A couple of lawyer friends got in- terested in the thing, and off and on they looked through their 'books, and they told me the item had no standing. * ., b Now, there was always a "hick character" yarn in folk humor, used in vaudeville and minstrel shows, about the farmer who had a stubborn animal. Depend- ing on where the story got told, it was a horse, mule, ox, yak, reindeer, or whatever, and. the story was that somebody told the farmer he could stmt his re- fractory beast by lighting a fire under' his belly. The farmer did this, and the gag -line was that the `, animal moved just far enough ahead to burn up the wagon. I; doubt, myself, if this ever happened, but on the leasis of "what I tell you three times is true" the thing became a peri- patetie clipping, a classic of American journalism, true be- cause it was in print, and some- where along the line a law pre - ,venting. a recurrence was added to the story. I suspect thenai- vete of editors toward certain topics accounts for the wide cir- culation of such items. s s s And'I think politeness to hens ,is anotler such. The word polite- °'tbess' is gadded to the story after 30'c th'e'poultry expert, for elle"' poultry expert doesn't ex- actly mean that. I first heard the thing around 1920 or so when I was a 4-H boy with a flock of Reds.. My' father paid for the feed and I sold the eggs, and I never did better in my Wok - keeping. Each; fall we had county con- tests and hen shows, and always -remarks from poultry experts. ' Prof;' 0. M, Wilbur, the head of the hen studies at the University of Maine, got up one year and told of his experiments with noise around poultry flocks. If you yank the door of the pen open and barge in swinging pails' and baskets, the hens will clamber to the rafters, scramble under the nests, bunch up in the corners, clobber each other, and go into a molt. Hens are like that But if you stop outside the door and whistle, cackle friend- liness, call out hello, or just knock, the hens will turn and face the door inquisitively and won't take fright when you ap- pear. * * * I know. that I have put this into previous dispatches, and I know that since 1920 I have never gone into a hen pen with- out first knocking and stating with elocutionary dignity, "Now is the time for all good hens and true to come to the aid of the parity." This is a mild witticism between me and my hens, and while it amuses them a great deal it should not be scrutinized too much by humans. So, the thing is nothing which makes news at this late date, and certainly Michigan State Univer- sity has no special claim on it. It is handy for filling odd corners of short columns, and possibly has an amusement value to city scribes. Not that it matters too much. A great many kind folks con- tinue to send me clippings, each thinking I may find grist therein, and my gratitude is shown by the fact that I usually do, inclu- ding this one. START SLOWLY It was a teenager's first visit to a perfume counter. Her eyes roved uneasily over the lurid trade names: Night of Passion, Mad Embrace, Irresistible. Finally, she mustered enough courage to approach a saleslady. "Excuse me," she mumbled, "but have you anything suit- able for a beginner?" Most men have two sides to them --. the side their wives know, and the side they think their wives don't know. IINJJAY SCllOOt LESSON By Rev. R. Barclay Warren B.D. Matthew 13: 31-35, 44-52 Kingdom Parables for Today Memory Selection: The king- dom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls; who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it. Matthew 13:45-46. Jesus Christ will ever remain the Great Teacher of all time. With short fictitious narratives called parables he taught great moral and spiritual truths. He compared familiar earthly pro- cesses with truths in the spirit- ual realm. The mustard seed is. very small but the herb which grows from it sometimes reaches a height of fifteen feet. So the kingdom of our Lord from in- significant beginnings spread over the Roman Empire, over Europe, America and is now ex- panding to the ends of the earth. As a little yeast trans- forming a great amount of dough so the Kingdom of Christ has transformed individuals and nations. The social order has been changed. Slavery, polygamy and other blots on society have giv- en way with the advance of the. Gospel. The sick and aged re- ceive care. Justice and liberty are established. The parables of the treasure and the pearl illustrate the value of the kingdom. When a person realizes the intrinsic value of the salvation from sin provided by Jesus Christ he will be willing to give up all to obtain it. An agnostic professor in a Hindu college asked 5adhu Sunder, "What have you found in Christianity that you did not have in your old religion?" He answered, "I have f o u n d Christ" To know Christ is life eternal. In the parable of the net and fishes Jesus teaches that a day of judgment is coming. Those who have received Jesus Christ will be separated from those who have rejected Him. The rejectorsshall be cast "into the furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth." We must not ignore the King.* dom of our Lord, He will tri- uph. If we do not turn from our sins and love Him we shall b* cast from our God's holy pres- ence to dwell with the wicked to eternity. Perils Of Travel It is natural that a wife should get suspicious when her husband arrives home with his clothes smelling of perfume. Especially when this happens day after day. So there were quite a number of suspicious wives in a North of England town recently -until they learned the real reason why their husbands came home reek- ing of scent. The men -clerks, electricians,, miners and so on -all use a cer- tain bus for their journey home from work. Girls frown a toilet soap firm also travel home in the same bus, all of them smelling as glamorous as film stars after their day's work in the factory. And of course the smell clings to the men passengers because in the crowded bus they often sit next to the factory girls. One happily married man said that when he first went home in the bus, his wife looked puzzled, while his mother-in-law looked annoyed. Another man said that his wife, after sniffing his coat, asked him point-blank: "Who's the girl friend?" SLOW SUCCESS Thirty thousand copies of Handel's famous oratorio flu "Messiah" havd to be printed every year. Yet when Handel himself tried to sell it, there were only 127 customers - and the composer twice 'went bank- rupt. Upsidedown to Prevent Peek"iitg MEE 'E©OVMEEU! E©OMEMO COME MODEMED MEED' MOM ©EO 011121 OE© MEMO ;DUE OM MEOW ©E000 MOM OEEDEO,EU© 000 EIEO O !!©M OM MEM MEM ©o©oo MOMUMUQ Moog© WOMEEME onion ©m© ;man CANDID CAMERA CATCHES COPYCATS' COOL. CAPERS - Here ere two of those irrepressible creatures up to their pointed ears in other people's business. They're copycats, all right, but in different categories. The "copy" with which morose -looking "Nosey", below, is concerned is. newspaper copy on the editor's desk of a newspaper. Nosey must be reading of a cat-astrophes to judge from his expression. "Freshie", above, shows that though you may not be able to teach an old hound dog new tricks, a cat's hep to mimicking a certain guitar -belting singer who is enjoying a measure of popularity. these days. Freshie kept things moving at the Empire Cat Club Show.