HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1954-04-08, Page 2Fisherman's Folly
A COMPLETE STORY
By W. GLYNNE - JONES
Aaron sank wearily into the
armchair and dreamily surveyed
the three yellow buttons of his
frayed waistcoat Rachel, his
wife, glanced at him.
"reeling better?"
"Yes, a lot better today, girl,"
Aaron answered. He'd be wise
not to encourage her to talk
about his health, he mused. She
was getting a bit suspicious late-
ly. He was quite well, of course;
but, all the same, it wasn't good
policy to tell Rachel so. Ever
since his leg had healed she had
been on to him about finding a
job.
He and Rachel managed very
well. She earned a few shillings
from her ironing and washing
for the magistrate's wife, and
another shillingor two was
gained from the garden produce
she managed to sell to the neigh-
bours every week. The rent was
very small, and his insurance
money covered that, Oh, yes,
they managed very well, thank
you.
That was the beauty of having
a wife like Rachel. She was pa-
tient and loving, and a hard
worker into the bargain. Why, •
every year she'd dig and plant
the garden like a man! Not that
he couldn't do it, but—well, she
liked the job, so why interfere
with her pleasure?
There had been no prospect of
a job locally, and Aaron was
glad. It was a grand life. At last
he had all the time he ever need-
ed to do his fishing. Rachel man-
aged to earn while he was "on
sick" and keep their. little home
going.
Aaron stirred in his chair and
yawned. He glanced at the clock
on the mantelpiece.
"Half -past nine, Rachel. Think
I'll go to bed. Feel very tired
tonight. It was hot fishing on the
beach."
Rachel nodded.
"Very well, Aaron," she said.
When he reached the landing he
paused to look at the gleaming
two-piece lancewood fishing -rod
resting in the corner against the
silent grandfather clock. He tpok
it in his hands and judged it lov-
ingly, his fingers moving over
the . ferruled joints.
Aaron patted the rod and
shuffled into his bedroom. Hardly
had he sat down on the edge of
the bed and slipped off his trous-
ers when a loud banging on the
front door startled him into alert-
iiess.
"Now who can that be?" he •
wondered, jumping up from the
bed. Lately, every knock on the
door made him tense with appre-
hension. At any moment some-
• one rrapist bring news of a job.
Such a thought had always ter-
rified him, as it did this very
minute.
Aaron tiptoed to the landing.
Gripping the banisters, he peer-
ed down into the kitchen and
held his breath.
"Hallo, Mrs. Pugh! Aaron in?"
* * *
"Aaron's just gone to bed, Ben.
Won't you come in?" Rachel in-
vited.
The front door slammed. Ben's
voice echoed up the stairway.
"I've got good news for him,
Mrs. Pugh."
"A --a job?"
"Yes, Mrs. Pugh. In the' mills
over at Merton. Now, isn't that
splendid?"
"Excellent — excellent." said
Rachel "Do sit down, Ben. I'll
run up and tell Aaron before he
goes to sleep."
Aaron scampered back to his
room and- leapt into bed. Now
he would have to do some quick
thinking. He could hear Rachel's
footsteps outside the door and
sensed her horrible excitement
in bringing the terrible news to
him.
Drat it — drat itl He must
think of something. His leg was
paining him again? No, that
wouldn't do -- such an excuse
had been worked to death. Be-
sides, he had told Rachel only a
few minutes ago that he felt
much better.
Aaron began to perspire. He
tore at the neckband of his shirt.
His chest heaved and his heart
thumped wildly as Rachel open-
ed the door. He bega`nto s cough. te
"Aaron. Aaron,
matter?"
"Matter" Aaron stopped cough-
ing. He watched Rachel's face
crease into a frown, and her hes-
itancy gave him inspiration.
"A—a stubborn cold I've got
on my chest," he lied, a pained
expression in his eyes, "and a
terrible pain in my stomach. I
feel rotten, girl—rotten."
Rachel sighed. "Oh dear, and
Ben has just called to say he's
found a job for you over at Mer-
ton."
•• • Aaron shook his head slowly
-and clicked his tongue. "Well,
-well, what a shame! And to
think I've been taken ill at the
last minute."
Rachel looked wonderingly at
him. She stepped to the bed and
laid a cool hand on his forehead.
"Strange, you having a cold so
suddenly. It was quite warm on
the beach today, wasn't it?"
Aaron did some quick thing-
ing. He coughed weakly.
"Yes, quite warm; but, you
see, my girl, I went across to the
pier. Then I opened my shirt.
That's the trouble. Rachel, Very
draughty around that pier. Must
have caught a chill in my chest."
Rachel sighed again.
tonight. He'll put you on your
feet, and you'll be right as rain
by Monday."
* * *
"Dr. Morris!" ' Aaron grew
alarmed. Oh, no, he was not go-
ing to suffer a doctor fussing
around, he told Rachel.
Rachel shrugged.
"Very well, I'll have to get you
something first thing in the
morning. I'll tell Ben to call
again to see you. Maybe . you'll
be a lot better by Monday."
Aaron nodded. Then drawing
the bedclothes under his chin, he
coughed loudly and long.
No sooner had Rachel left the
room and retreated down the
stairs than Aaron leaned back,
sighed contentedly, and buried
his cheek In the soft pillow.
The next morning the sun
streamed into the tiny bedroom,
and Aaron woke from his rest-
ful sleep. Rachel was already up.
He could hear her moving around
in the kitchen, busy with the
washing of dishes and preparing
of breakfast. He drew on his
trousers and stepped eagerly
down the stairs. On the third
step he halted. He stared to
where the grandfather clock
rested, His rod—it wasn't there!
* * *
For a moment he was non-
plussed. Rachel must have mov-
ed it. There was no one else in
the house. But why had she
moved it?
He hurried into the kitchen.
Rachel looked at him with sur-
prise.
"Why, Aaron, my boy, what on
-earth are you doing up so .early
in the morning, and you a sick
man? Go back to bed this very
minute," she insisted.
But Aaron took no heed of the
command.
"Where's my rod, girt? My
rod?"
"Your rod? Oh, yes, Aaron. I
Dream Come True—Almost-A email boy's dream of piloting a
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year-old Neil Smith. Neil- got his big chance: to operate ultra-
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Victory Ride — Mickey Owen, former catcher for the Brooklyn
Dodgers, gets a victory ride through the Sixto Escobar Stadium
in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Owen recently piloted his Puerta Rican
team to victory In the Caribbean'World Series against Panama,
Cuba and Venezuela.
Old it to Jim Dawson late last
night, so that I could get a few
shillings to pay for these." Ra-
chel pointed to a small round
tin and a square paper packet
on the table. "And this," she
said. She held up a,bottle of red
liquid, "Ridiculous leaving the
rod lying idle in the corner when•
one could get a couple of shill-
ings
hillings for it," she continued. "And
if you're 'starting work on Mon-
day, you won't have much time
for your fishing."
EARL
CRIM3
Aaron swallowed hard.
"What—what are those'.. he
asked, his mouth drooping.
Rachel beamed.
"Chest ointment and plasters,
Aaron, And a bottle of medicine
for your stomach. I'll have you
.all right by Monday." she said.
"Oh -h -h!" Aaron groaned, He
felt a pain . grip his stomach,
and this time there was no pre-
tence. It was the thought of
work that did it,
—From "Answers."
ECAME A
L FORGER
The love of the. fifth Earl of
Berkeley for the young daugh-
ter of a butcher started off the
most extraordinary train of
events that was ,to snake the
Earl himself a criminal forger.
It is little wonder that the
foolish Earl cried, "Retribution!
Retribution!" when' he lay 'on his:
death -bed.
The butcher's daughter was
Mary Cole, whose father traded
at Wqttonunsler-fte. When she
was seventeen, a dark beauty
with alabaster skin and- flashing
eyes, she went to London to work
as a lady's maid. For a time she
lived with her sister, Susannah,
who was the mistress of a rich •
merchant.
Tis conscience began to trouble
him, particularly when hie
friendsadded their reproofs.
Chapeau, an old friend,
chided him:; "You have children
Who axe holding • up their little
hands to you for protection...
Finally, Berkeley weakened •
arid on May 16th, 1796, Mary
became the fifth Countess of
Berkeley at a marriage cere-
rix x, y, performed by the' Bishop
e lc.uee'ster 'at 'Lambeth:
Susannah, a woman of doubt-
ful morals, undoubtedly had
some hand in what happened
when Mary was tricked into be-
coming the mistress of the forty-
one -year-old Earl of Berkeley.
One night, Susannah gave a
supper party of roast fowl, sau-
sages and a bowl of punch. Then,
in Mary's words: "In the midst
of our mirth a violent noise was
heard in the passage, and in
rushed two ruffians, one seizing
my sister by the right hand, and
the other by the left, trying to
drag her out of the house."
The men demanded one hun-
dred guineas before they would
let Susannah go ... and Mary
fainted with the shock. When
she came to, Lord Berkeley was
bending over her and she turned
to him for help, saying that she
had not the money to buy them
off and adding that she did not
care what became of herself.
This must have been the right
answer, for Susannah was re-
leased immediately and Mary
was carried off by the Earl.
But Berkeley was not without
charm and Mary continued to
stay with him. They occupied
houses variously in Bruton
Street, Grosvenor Street, Park
Street, St. George's Street, mov-
ing from one place to the other
as soon as the Earl feared that
news of the affair would leak
out.
William, their first child, was
born while they were living in
Park Street on December 26th,
1786.
The knowledge that the Earl
was very much in love with her
did not prevent Mary worrying
and feeling about what should
happen if he grew tired of her.
After the birth of William, they
went to live at Berkeley Castle,
where Mary called herself Miss
Tudor and had five more chil-
dren in eight years.
All the time, the idea of mar-
riage obsessed her, and there
were regular quarrels and scenes
with the Earl. A thousand
times she pleaded: "Why will
you not marry me, my lord?"
The real barrier to the mar-
riage was . Berkeley's . intense
fear of being tied down to e
humdrum domestic life, Before
Mary Cole, he had broken his
ties with other women by a
liberal money payment. . Her
reproaches, however, did not
fall on entirely barren grounds,
or a time Mary was happy
She was the Countess, though
many of the titled families
wquld not acknowledge her.
Then ' she 'was suddenly made
desperately unhappy by the
realization that the child who
would soon be born might be a
son, and • if so, he would inherit
the title. Her favourite and first-
born,' William, was illegitimate
and could not inherit.
Now aroused, Cary concocted
a scheme with her sharp -minded
brother, William Cole, ' and
forced it on the Earl. The bright
idea was to • claim that an earli-
er, secret marriage had taken
place at Berkeley Parish Church
on March 30th, 1758, and to sup-
port it with forged entries in
the marriage register.
Thoroughly dominated by his
wife and his strong sense of
guilt, the• Earl persuaded the
canon of the church at Berkeley
to bring the register to the
. Castle. There, in a locked room,
the Earl prepared a bogus page
and pasted it into the register.
This page was designed to show
that banns had been advertised
on November 28th, December
5th, and December 12th, 1784,
and that the marriage had taken
place on March 30th, 1785. the
The • forgery achieved,
Berkeleys now talked openly of
the
false marriage, and the Earl
conferred on William the cus-
tomary courtesy ti leof the Lursley.
Lordteir
o the earldom,
The • new child arrived soon af-
terwards a eon, christened
Thomas Moreton Fitzhardinge.
Gossip grew apace and the
Earl was summoned before the
Court of Claims of the House of
Lords, where he gave a very
odd reason for the "secret mar-
riage." It was that at the time
he did not want it to be known
that his wife was the sister of
loose -living Susannah Cole. The
House of Lords rejected the
Earl's story and •faked evidence.
The Berkeleys put up a brave
front in an effort to convince
the world" about their claim.
Setting themselves up in a man-
sion called the; "Yellow. House,"
they were frequently visited by
the Prince of Wales.
In his sixty-third year, the
Earl was attacked one day by
a maddened deer. He narrowly
escaped with his life, but never
again recovered his full health
end died a; few years later,
In his will, he: declared the
legitimacy of his eldest son and
threatened disinheritance to any
child who refused, to accept the
"validity of the marriage solem-
nized by me. tri 1785."
He Fights Shark*
With till* knife
In Hawaii, In the old days,
long before the dusky girls in
swishing grass skirts and flowers)
in their raven hair ever became
a Hollywood sales promotion
stunt, the native kings used to
hold aquatic bullfights -- with
sharks as the bulls.
A circular wall of stones
would enclose a pool near the
shore. On the seaward side an
entrance admitted the man-eater,
who came swiftly to a bait of
meat. Once inside the pen, the
gap was closed and the native
gladiator swam out to give com-
bat.
Captain Wallace Caswell, an
American fisherman, fi g h t s
sharks in much the same way.
He grew tired of watching
sharks rip thousands of dollars'
worth of mackerel out of his
nets.
Now when one appears, he
leaps overboard to knife it. A
grab at the shark's dorsal fin
with his left hand, a quick slash
with his knife to sever the great
driving muscles running from
head to tail—and the south sea
terror is as helpless as a hunk
of cod.
More dangerous is the techni-
que of attacking sharks from be-
low, or the sport of shark -riding,
sometimes practised by adven-
turous sailors in the Pacific.
You choose a whale shark, or
basking shark, which lives on
small sea -animals and is more
sluggish than its cousins of the
hammerhead or great white
families. The game consists of
getting the shark beneath the
,ship's prow and leaping . on its
back!
A boy of fourteen once tackled
a man-eating shark with his
bare fists. The shark had
sneaked up on one of his com-
panions while they were happily
bathing in the Cataract river.
The boyswam after the monster
and beat it on the head with his
fists. This so scared the brute
that it released its .screaming vic-
tim and made off.
While life -or -death encounters
like these still take place, aharks
to -day are regarded mainly as a
commercial proposition. A great
shark -fishing industry has sprung
into being.
There's not so much adventure
about this. It's so simple that
often the slrsrke catch them-
selves.
A shark prefers a light object
to a dark one. A newspaper
flung into the Indian Ocean a&.
dom fails to bring a shark o
the surface. And if a shark sees
a white net he makes for it.
So nets of strong, white string
are used by the shark fishers).
Into the fine twine the shark
plunges. He gets through the
diamond-shaped mesh, but It
grips the broader part of hip
body close to the gill -slits --and
he can't break loose.
With his head once through,
the shark hasn't a chance to bite
the twine away. It is at last
his turn to know fear. Panic
which has seized so many of hie
victims now grips this mighty
tiger of the warm seas. He rolls
frantically while the twine is
drawn tighter and tighter around
his gills until he finally suffo-
cates,.
All the fishermen have to de
is to collect the dead sharks and
bring them to market.
After his death, the Countess,
now aged forty-two, reported
thatwhenhe called out . "Retri-
bution! Retribution!" she took
it as. a sign that he `was steep
ing mental torture for the
wrongs he had done. And per-
haps - for the scurrilous means
he had taken to put them to
rights.
William, the first born son,
tried to maintain his claim to
the title, but was unsuccessful.
The rightful heir, Thomas More-
ton Fitzhardinge, made no at-
tempt to secure the earldom
during ' his lifetime, and died a
bachelor in order to fulfil his
dead father's wishes.
Throughout a long 'life, hav-
ing survived the fifth Earl by
thirty-six years, Mary, Countess
of Berkeley, tried unavailingly
to get for her beloved William
what she felt were his just des-
serts. She had to be satisfied
with seeing him raised to the
peerage in his own right as
Earl Fitzhardinge.
In due course, after William's
death without issue, another
Berkeley assumed the title and
the properties. But with the,,,
death of the eighth Earl in 1942,
the title became extinct because
there were no males in the legiti-
mate line to carry it on.
To this sad end of a noble
line the tardiness of the fifth
Earl in marrying Mary Cole
had greatly contributed.
These Ghosts Open -
Sleepers' Eyes
Mysterious noises, tappings,
the sounds of footsteps, and the
feeling of being touched by un-
seen hands which tug at people
and force open their eyelids
while in bed, have driven a fam-
ily in West Auckland from their
home. They are now staying
with relatives in Bishop Auck-
land, five miles away.
They are Mr. William Bayles,
46, garage proprietor, his 41 -
year -old wife, Lottie, their sons
William (24) and Percy (21), and
their six-year-old daughter, Dor-
een.
Mr. Boyles said that for three
weeks they had been tormented
and had hardly any rest, until
they could not stand it any
longer. Even during the day,
there had been sounds of some-
one walking about upstairs, and
loud" bangs as 'though . beds were
being bumped about.
One evening, as the family sat'
before the fire, with little Dor-
een. asleep on the sofa, indenta-
tion marks appeared right across
the girl's forehead, as though
unseen fingers were pressing on
the child's brow. •
Then, according to the father,
although the child was fast as-
leep, her eyelids were forced
open in a most uncanny way.
Whenever the ghost is in the
house, all rooms suddenly get
very hot, according to Mr.
Bayles. While in bed,' his wife
has felt a hand tugging at her
arm, while William and Percy
report feeling unseen hands trav-
eling over their bodies and their
eyelids being forced open.
Now the house stands empty.
The Bayles family are to contin-
ue to stay with relatives for some
time in the hope that the sup-
posed poltergeist, left to its own
devices, will get bored and move
on elsewhere.
A poltergeist.. isn't an ordinary
ghost, say psychic experts. It
usually announces its presence
by rapping, throwing things
about, and playing curious tricks
that baffle investigators.
Drive With
... Care
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grid Of The Line •--• Gen. K. S. Thimayya takes a last look at his
deserted headquarters in the neutral zone of Korea. The Indiana
head cif", the Neutral Nations Repatriation Commission later
headed for rest and relaxation in Tokyo.
•