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HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1957-09-05, Page 2The King Who Was A Woman Christina of Sweden was the zost talked of woman in her day. Her eccentric behaviour Said appearance was discussed lI over Europe. At birth, her body was cover- ed with hair and her crying was seer gruff that the servants rushed to inform the king that his long- ed -for heir had arrived. When the mistake was dis- covered, nobody dared tell him, Until at last his sister, the Prin- cess Catherine, plucked up courage. From that moment King Gustavus Adolphus treated Christina as if she were a boy. Her mother, Queen Marie Eleanore, hated the ugly baby am sight, and such strange acci- dents happened to the child that Suspicion was aroused. After a balgony fell on the cradle, nearly causing Christina's death, the king took over her upbringing. She was educated exclusively lay men and studied for over 12 hours a day. Later she became a blue -stocking and her wide range of knowledge was legend- ary. When the king was killed fn battle, the little Princess cried for three whole days and almost ruined her already weak eyes, At the age of 17, in 1632, she took the oath as King of Sweden. Brilliant and erratic, Christina's energy exhausted the members of her court. She never needed more than four hours' sleep, and ell her spare time was spent in riding, hunting, doing physical exercises and dancing until the small hours. It was regarded as a peimance to dine with her, for she drank only water and ate 'so sparingly that after a few minutes at table she would rise and her hungry guests had to do likewise. When the handsome young French Count Gabriel de la Gardie visited the Swedish court, he swept the young Christina off her feet with his polished charm. Hitherto, she had met only elder- ly men, statesmen and scholars, end she fell head over heels in leve. The first rumors started. It was said that he became her lover, even that she had two children by him. But the proud monarch would never admit her love openly and her reply to the rumors was to find him a wife and send him back to Paris. Gradually Christina began to assume the masculine pose and style of dress for which she be- came famous. Her wardrobe con- sisted "'mostly of riding clothes cut severely in a man's style. She boasted that it took her only 1.5 minutes to wash, dress and do her hair. A startling admis- sion in so foppish an age. Her ministers urged her to marry and provide Sweden with an heir. She hated the idea of sharing a throne and finally ap- palled statesmen by announcing that marriage was• repugnant to her and she intended to remain single all her life. Her words caused great consternation and made her unpopular. At last, rather than marry, she agreed to renounce her throne in favor of as cousin. The last act of her reign was to free all the dangerous criminals from prison. After the abdication, Christina had her long hair cut off like a man's. 'Cut it short," she ordered. °Should I who have given up a 'throne mourn the loss of my hair?" Dressed as a man and calling herself Count Dohna, she left Sweden and started on a series of travels and adventures which surrounded her name with scan- ` dial. Even her first visit abroad caused talk. She had become a Roman Catholic and decided to call on the Pope. Mounted on horseback, she rode into Rome dressed as an Amazon. On her second visit, she paid her respects to His Holiness with dirty face, un- kempt hair and a scarf pinned over a man's coat. She had a strange collection exf followers, and when displeased thought nothing of flogging her servants with a whip. Christina's tecircus" caused trouble wherever they went and many European courts were thankful to see her go. She spent money lavishly but had to curb her extravagance when the Swedish government stopped her allowance. Once again she went to Rome and settled there. The long-suffering Pope made her an allowance and, surrounded by cardinals, she made a sort of court for herself. In middle -age, Christina fell violently in love with Cardinal Azzolino; to avoid scandal, they declared their love to be platonic. Their love letters were written in code; but all Europe knew the truth. The Cardinal was certainly loyal to his strange mistress, and when she died in poverty was the - -only one left to mourn her. Really Suffers In Cause Of Beauty How would you like to shiver in a skimpy bathing costume in a made-to-order snowstorm; bake under a battery of hot lights which make the atmos- phere as hot as the Sahara; sip alternately piping hot and ley cold drinks; chain-smoke in- numerable cigarettes, dip your face in water and, finally, clamp the nearest male in an armlock and implant a kiss lasting near- ly half a minute full on his mouth! There are pretty girls by the score who make a very good living in Hollywood film stu- dios by acting as stand-ins and stunt girls for the stars. But the job chosen by pretty Janie Grant calls for' much more pa- tience and stamina. Janie is a human guinea-pig. She has been on the pay -roll at Max Factor's Hollywood make- up studio in this capacity for several years. On her are tested all this firm's newly created beautify- ing requisites and Janie has to subject them to every predict- able form of cosmetic wear and tear to make sure that they have the glamorizing ' power, Iasting quality and skin -caress- ing purity demanded by a bil- lion -dollar cosmetic firm. If a new make-up formula passes the rigid tests imposed upon it, via Janie, a new aid to baeuty is pronounced to be a healthy and lusty infant.. If it doesn't, the formula is 'rejected,. and the chemists start all over again. Janie likes her unique job. She never knows what she will be asked to do next. Usu- aalIy she is guinea-pig for just one cosmetic at a time. Creams and lotions are tried out on her to check their softening powers on her skin; a new formula for eye" make-up is exhaustively applied to test it non-irritant qualities. And the reason for the changes in temperature she has sometimes to endure is part of the rigorous test to determine how certain cosmetics will re- act to extremes of heat and cold, humidity, dryness and wind. The unrivalled scenic splendor of the Rocky Mountains in A1- berta is a perpetual magnet for artists and color camera enthu- siasts. $JS BY THE MILLION •-- Laboratory assistant Darrell Wilson ntemplates the fact that It would take him about 30 years, sewing at the.rate of one a second, to tally the nearly one billion steel bb's which act as radiation shielding in a new ""loot cell" at a radiation and nucleonics laboratory. The bb's x-35 tons of them --are placed between half -Inch -thick steel walls spaced 15 inches apart, The hew hot cell, developed by Westinghouse, will be used for a variety of research projects. •,11 s r tr ."l " ?''�..ed td .'aSe y. ±� eee s eseeth yt . e�a 1PRl=a 6Y BUBBLES—Allen Simmons as4 Imes a meditative expression while producing fragile soap bubbles. Wide-eyed Allen , 'hCiyvs that whatever fads for children come and go, soap bubble -blowing remains a pereni 1 , favorite. 01- T dam A At various times, over the years, this column has brought to yott recipes for favorite dishes from mnay foreign countries. But never, so far as I can re- . member, have we had any from South Africa. After this week, however, this can no longer be held against us. South Africa is a land qi! golden sunshine and beautiful' fruits. Some of the satisfaction felt by farm workers of all races who gather the luscious grapes, colorful oranges, plums, and peaches seems .to find expres- sion in the dishes which appear on their tables. * *• * The tradition of the well - cooked meal, which was an art in' old Cape kitchens, was.: per- haps best exemplified. by Hilda- gonda Duckitt. She "was said to be the• "Mrs. Beeton" of the Cape, and is to this day recog- nized as a leading 'authority on ,the art of cooking. Her homely recipes live on wherever true South African cookery still lin- gers. Hildagonda's father was the son of an early Cape settlers William Duckitt, anc her me was a Miss Hildagonda "Ver` She was born on her paren 's . farm, "Groote Post,". in the Dar- ling district. * * * Some of the following recipes were originally taken from "Hi1da's Where Is It," and they come t0' you with 4 subtle at- rnosphere of the early Cape set- tlers which still lingers on. Kegeree (An Indian way of dressing cold boiled fish.) Ye pound boiled. fish 34 pound rice 2 eggs 2 ounces butter. A little cayenne, pepper, salt, and nutmeg Wash and boil the rice; break the fish in piece's, taking out all the bones; put the butter, fish, and rice into a stewing pan with cayenne, salt, and a little nut- meg. Stir well, then add the eggs (well beaten). Stir over the fire until quite hot. Serve in a hot dish. WS. Dutch Milk Tart- ishort crust: ;es flour ±r sugar es butter of egg salt ater es sugar 2 r )71+' es butter fp sir„ Ba re °'11u et), cornflour (cornstarch) • clnnaznon - the pastry in the usual did; with it line two flan a pie -dish. Line care- th greaseproof paper and beep the pastry in shape. a hot oven until cooked; the pastry a little before - allow it to dry off. e the filling as follows: e" cornflour and sugar to - and break down with a f the cold milk; heat the th the cinnamon, add the ✓ and cook for 10 min- dd the butter; allow to then add the beaten. Ur this into 'the pastry e powderedcinna- en top. Brown en. &In Fritters es bushed,' cooked pkaiz (dry as possible) •:. age: 11 * * * Bobotee (A delicate minced curry, Malay or Indian.) ,. 2 pounds of meat 2 onions Large slice white bread 1 cup milk 2 eggs 2 tablespoons curry powder 1 dessertspoon sugar 6 or 8 almonds 34 ounce butter Salt Mince the meat, soak the. bread in milk, and squeeze out dry. Fry the onions in the but- ter, add curry powder, and fry that. Add sugar, salt, lemon juice. Mix together meat, bread, and milk, well -beaten eggs, and all other ingredients. Pour into a buttered pie -dish. Stick a few shredded almonds all over it, and lay two or thr st lemon leaves on the top. Bake in a moderatL oven about 1 or 11 hours. Serve with rice. * * * Koesisters ((Batavian or old Dutch Re- cipe.) 3 breakfast cups of flour 1 cupg brown sugar r 2 teaspoons cinnaanon 1 teaspoon mixed spices 2 eggs well breatei9 Ve cup of fai and butter melted Tablespoon of yeast. Knead all well together, and let it stand for half an hour, then roll out. on a board. Cut each IIoesister about ria inches long, let them boil in boiling fat. When done, dip the cakes into a syrup made of 3 cups of sugar and 2 cups of water, well boiled and flavored with crone front Will keep for months. of :salt ces"flour (or enough to ken the pumpkin) poon baking powder the pumpkin, baking pow - ;aur and salt. Add .the well - ,egg. The mixture' must er slack. Fry in lard in rig pan. Sprinkle thickly Sugar mixed with a little d: cinnamon, and serve dot' lemon. 5,::' ; ETREART SAYS "NO" V tly holding out against lttc El t ire•offers from TV for such fil as "Tess of the Storm Coyt' ; and "Rebecca of Sunibrook Farm", "America's • Sweu'heart" of the silent screen, Mar!.,Pickford, 64, told a press confe Bence:"I don't think I'll ever-, let My old pictures be shown on TV. We were watching -them, at Pickfair (her luxurious ,' Bevey Hills home) once when Lionel. was alive and everyone began to laugh at our funny clothes. There were tears in Lionel's eyes." Reign Of Terror Hits Holiday Isle Sicily's dreaded secret society, the -Mafia, is on the march again andel, new campaign to break its power has been begun by the authorities, who fear that, apart freni the bloodshed involved, the tereor reign will deter holiday- makers from visiting the island. The Mafia has terrorized Sicily for more than a century. It is a close-knit brotherhood of mur- derers, kidnappers and gangsters and until recently its power was thought to be declining. But there have been fresh out- breaks of killings and violence. Mass trials have recently re- sulted in 205 members or "em- ployees" of the gang being de- ported to the Lipari Islands off the northern coast of Sicily. Money once used on Yap, a Pacific island, could not be car- ried in a man's pocket. The is- landers' coinage, ' known as wheel money, consisted of solid stone wheels. The largest coin ever made can still be seen on the island. It is 12 feet in dia- meter and 18 inches thick. Trousered Women First women to wear trousers were the belles of ancient Persia, who, judging from old prints, looked rather nifty in them, al- though some of them rather ran too fat. It was the famous Mrs. Amelia Bloomer who pioneered trousers for Western women with the introduction of the "Bloomer's costume in New York in 1849. It was her way of protesting against the crinoline. Her bloom- ers shocked our great-grand- mothers when they were young. London women who first ventur- ed to wear them made them- selves the butt of many jokes when they walked about the streets. With the birth of the cycling craze, bloomers suddenly became, respectable. Whether Mrs. Bloomer would have liked wo- men in today's jeans, several million of which are now sold every year, is another matter. She could certainly not have foreseen that in 1957 there would be a craze among yonug girls in her native Boston, Massachu- setts, for wearing frilly bloom- ers with swirling, square dance skirts. These modern bloomers are in white, pink, cream or blue with pretty -colored bows and embroidery or lace around the leg edges. Telling Time In Od • Ways Clocks in the shape of animals with rotating eyes are being manufactured by a German firm. A slit in the right eye acts as the hour hand and another in the left eye is the minute hand. As the eyes rotate these record the time against the eyelashes round the rims. Because of the constant turn- ing of the eyes, the face seems to be changing all the time. There has already been a big demand for these novel clocks and the firm's employees are working overtime producing them. Pink -faced clocks are being made for use in some American factories. It is hoped that they will make the hours of work seem rosier and less long, said a maker. TRIBUTE TO SACRED TREE—Providing a spectacular and rare sight, paper replicas of the sacred Bo tree are carried by cyclists in Kalutara during full. moon religious ceremonies held once a month throughout the island of Ceylon. The Bo is regarded as sacred because it is believed to be the tree under which Buddha sat and meditated. The paper trees are a specialty of Kalutara and are seldom seen elsewhere. ieSale teet DARK AND LONELY NIGHT—By day mothers rest in Highbridge Park, in the Washington H silence fills the abandoned place of fear. A here a 1S -year-old boy, crippled by polio and teen-age gang. Nightfall and fear have em to cite k the awful rise in juvenile crime. watch their children at play, and the elderly' eights section of New York. By night, a deadly lone policeman watches the shadows. For unable to run, was stabbed to death by a ptied this park. But the police are there trying