HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1950-03-30, Page 3Carnels Are Desert
"Newly -Arrived'
It is startling, but incontestably
true, that the carrel, which we al-
ways .associate with the deserl
*scene, • was alot used iar the Sahara
until well Into the Christian Rra.
The carrel was impot i.ed into
North Africa from - the Vast and
carne tardily and gradually, Or
lather came back. In prehistoric.
-days it had existed in the coastal
regions that are now called Tunisia,
Algeria and Morocco, Its bones
have been dug up. But the wild
camel died off before man learned
to use it.
The slowness of the process by
which the camel—Che inuch-needed
camel—moved westward froth Asia
Minor toward and into the Saharra
is a puzzle, One would have
thought that this seemingly Heav-
en-sent desert vehicle of transport
would. have swept into popularity
in a few years. But it took cent-
uries.
In early historic days even Egypt
so close to the East, had no camels.
The father of .Rameses 11 was
obliged to, have a cistern built in
the desert east of the Nile so that
his men could reach the gold nines
without risking death by thirst,
they having had no transport but
asses to carry water for their• jour-
ney. By'the seventh century B.C.,
there is noted the limited use of
camels in Egypt . , ,
A small, but significant circum-
stance which' I have noted. is that
at Alexandria, which was far closer
to the East whence camels carte,
and at a considerably later date than
that of Alexander the Great's pil-
grimage, the celebrated . processiort
... included cancels along with
exotic and unfamiliar beasts like
zebras, a white bear, a rhinoceros.
It seems obvious that cancels must
still.have been much of a rarity, else
they would not have been given a
place in this great show .. .
In short, at least a thousand
years, elapsed between the first in-
troduction of the camel into North
Africa, in Egypt, and its adoption
as a regular )Weans of transport.
Yet it was the camel alonte that was
capable of, and eventually did, open
up that in)ncense trans Saharan
trade which made Mediterranean
Africa rich and brilliant in the
Middle Ages and gave splendor saki
culture to the \egro empires by the
Niger.
Before cancels came, such desert
travel as there was used horses
specialty trained to go, two days
without a drink. Pack oxen, also
so - trained, carried water skins.
Asses helped, too. --Froin "North
African Prelude: The First 7,000
Years," by Galbraith. Welsh.
Cost Of Living
ff.gh In Russia
"rhe British roreigli Office has
given, without comment, L list of
prices in Russia after the February
28 revaluation of the ruble, quoting
the wage of a skilled Russian work-
er as from 500 to 1,500 rubles,
equivalent to $126 to $378 v month,
1?nskilled workers' wages were
said to range from 250 rubles, or
$63, a month.
Taking the value of tine rubte
at25 cents,.the prices giver, were:
'Black bread: 2 rubles (50 cents)
a tic o -pound loaf,
14ilk; 3 rubles 60 kopek; a liter,
or about 50 cents a pint.
Chocolate: 145 to 200 rubles a
Idogra.ni, or about $16.80 to $25 a
pound.
Beef: 35 rubles or $4.34 a kilo (2.2
pounds).
Ilam: 47 rubles, or inore than
$5.60 a pound,
'I`•oilet soap: 3 rubles, or 70 cents
S. cake.
W'anlen'o- shoe;,: Fro -n11 ';0 to E40
rubles, or $63 to $134 a pair.
Itdeu's shoes: Drain ,of; t0 470
rubles, or $50 to $1.1.7 a pair.
Handicapped, But Game—This boy, Robin Sutherland, is crippled blit happy. Picture wits
taken at Blue Mountain camp, near Colling•A-vood. It's one "of three sttrnrner camps operated
by the Ontario Society for Crippled Children. The Society's anti.ual J.?aster Seals campaign for
funds continues until. April 9. Donations may be sent to '.'Timmy, Toronto."
Searching For
"Extinct" Monsters
For many years scientists have
agreed that there are more myster-
ies in the sea than are ever likely
to be solved. Unlike the majority
of us they have rarely been incred-
ulous of the stories of monsters
and mermaids that have entertained
us for so long. And they have been
even less so since December 22nd,
1938,
On that day they received the big-
gest shock in scientific history. A
trawler fishing off . the coast of
East T,ondon, South Africa, found
a strange, steel -blue fish ill 'the
catch.
Fins Like Arms
It measured five feet its length
and its most unusual feature were
0
1:. By Harold Arnett 1H1
HOT FLATS
MAKE HOT PLATE F ROM M14 GAN
NI,40 HEA -C LAM) FLEWNT, SCAW t
HEATING ELEMENT INTO $0RE'CEP01tL a a a Ali
To WHICH A PLUG AND CURD ARE A110 4%
AND PIT RECEPTACLE OVER HOLE 1N bO"O. t �����
Olt TINCAN - LIT EDOE 0FCAN, 4' �ott
EXTEND SLIGHTLY ABOVE TbPP
ELEMW AND PUNCH "Ut, IN Eta +pF
CAN P WWKSTO SUPPORT A A't 0
its fins which had developed unfit
they looked like arms or legs.
Because it was so .unusual, the
skipper had it preserved and sent
to Dr. J. L. B. Smith of Rhodes
University.
Dr. Smith examined the fish and
his subsequent story shook the
scientific world to its. foundations.
The strange fish belonged to. a
species that has been extinct for
50,000,000 years—or thought to be.
In other words this species has
actually lived all that time, un-
knov,-n to man.
Unfortunately, after Dr. Smith' .
had finished, the mysterious fish was
handed to a local taxiderrnist who
stuffed it ,throwing the head and
entrails away before biologists
could esaniine tient.
That is why, early in the New
Year, an expedition of twenty-five
scientists sailed to discover, if pos-
sible, the area'here the. spe,6 s, ..
must spawn ad also to loop for
proof of the existence of other
strange marine creatures.
If the seas can hold such a secret
for so long, how many more sur-
prises might there be in store for
us: Perhaps in the not -so -distant
future sceptics will be )Wade to
think again about the existence of
the .Loch Ness monster, for in-
stance.
We—the laymen—laughed when
officers of the Mauretania reported
seeing a curious monster, even
though their story was supported
by passengers. We laughed when
idans Lgede, the missionary, vouch-
ed for one, and even when members
of the %oological. Society reported
another.
We were even disbelieving when
fifty foot carcases of unknown
species have been washed up on
rite shores of India and Africa.
Scientists, however, have not been.
so sceptical—at least not since 1938.
But what of nlernnaids'
Both Beebe and Barton have re-
ported strange sleep -sea fish that
looked almost huu)an, seen through
the windows of their bathyspheres.
At the same time every sailor
who sails the sea, does not spend
his life trying to spoof people.
Scores of times they have told of
ruertuaids, until constant jeers forc-
ers 'them to keep quiet, Vet they
cannot all be wrong,
All Nonsense?
In 18!1.1 a mermaid was reported
to have been seen off the Orkneys,
and all the newspapers carried the
story. She was described as having
a small black head and a milk -white
body with long arms,
11•tt o years later another tuermaid
was seen by a man and his wife at
almost the •iaiiie spot, They agreed
she was beautiful and had lots of
thiel: brown hair.
Nonsense's
Of eotn•,;c it 6 all silly nonsense.
:4o was the atont burnt) once. 5O
was the motor car and the aero.
plane •
Radio Murder
Convicted criminal,-, in a state
penitentiary are supposed to be a
hardened lot, But some things are
too much even for thein to stom-
ach. Judging by an article in the
Monthly Record, a publication pro-
duced by inmates of the Conlnce-
ticut State Prison radio crime is
One of those things.
One, contributor wrote:
1 get glass -eyed wito anger
(when) l thins: how the radio
crime presentation induSLry oper-
ates its debasing crime schools.
A barrage of how -to -do -rt crime
programs is pourisng into the homes
of the susceptible American pub-
lic. Your kids are constantly being
shown that if they aren't as stupid
t,s the villains of the programs,
i;l,ey can easily get-away.with crime.
Every teen ager knows he's not
drat stupid, so lie begins getting
ideas, acid there's another young-
ster headed for skid rote to get a
gun and maybe ultin)ately a trip
to the hot seat.
Headed "15,000 I t u r cl e r s a
Month," the article expressed the
view of a number of prisoners in
the institution that prograons drip-
ping wit
h guile and gore occupy
altogether too large a proportion of
the time on rarlio station sclledulei.
That is expert testincony. Who
should know better what it takes
to male a criminal than those who
have made the grade, the clown -
grade?
,,rile .niers in 1't•'ethersiield Prison
are paying their debt to society
Wheti will the professional and
conunercial exploiters of a de-
praved taste for crime—tire pro-
ducers and sponsors of thinly
veneered glorifications of the gun -
main anis gnu 111011—begin to do as
ill ucli
Inyest a e
Before You oin
BRfore you invest, 3a,veestigats,
T fiat:'; the advice of ithe. Better
Business Bureau and it makes sealso
whether applied in purchasing a
washing machine, a security or .
joining some popular movement, It
i.• ),,articularly applicable just now
when it's hard to tell a Communist
shys:.er front a g•enuin•e social re-
former,
Already a lot of organizations
vdth fine. democratic names have
been exposed as ideological boiler
shops, A 'lot of unthinking liberals
and do-gooders who didn't investi-
gate what, they were getting into,
have been left holding the bag. To-
day there are three or four world-
side Communist sales organiza—
tions, All are selling a highly mar-
letable and desirable product —
"Peacc."
The line is this: 111f war comes
it will bt. the fault of the Trumarn-
iacs. 'Che soviet Union wants to bans
the Bomb. The others refuse to do
so." .lit other words, condition our
minds to accept the Big Lie that
it war does game, it will be of our
making, not Russia",.
One sales fewer: aims at labor;
another at women; a third at the
"cultural" level—the arts, science,
etc.—and a fourth at youth
T.he.,latter organization is called
the World Federation of Deino-
cratic -Youth, There's also a
Women's International Democratic
Federation and a World Federation
of Trade Unions. The kingpin is
the World Peace Congress, The
boss of the Canadian branch, Dr.
James Endicott, ex -United Church
missionary, was in Moscow re-
cevitly. His mission: to give a firsk-
lland report ort the Canadian Peace
Movement,
Recently, the Communist youth
movement staged a World Youth
& Student Festival in Budapest,
behind the Iron Curtain. A young
American who attended, writing in
a U.S. magazine article, said he
was "appalled by what he called
the "defamation" of the West.
Among the hundresd of young
delegates were 32 Canadit4us .repre-
senting these organizations
National Federation of Labor
Youth, National Committee of
LPP Students, The Canadian Tri-.
bune,,Student Christian Movenient,
Canadian Seamen's Union, United
Jewish People's Order, Association
of United Ukrainian Canadians,
B. C. Woodworkers' Initernational
union, CIO Fur and Leather
Workers, " ti oclienblatt" (Canadian
Blind Man is
TV Fixer—Al-
though he's
though he's
been blind for
13 Years, Toltn-
fly L ~
izza, ''5, is
expanding, his
radio repair
shop to televi-
sion. By his
sense of touch
atone, Z.izza
can mare most
repairs on the
00 Ili p 1 i sated
sets. He open-
ed his radio
shop ill 1()45,
and hopes to
save enough
nionev for an
eve operation.
Jewish Weekly) 1£ossuth sick
Benefit Society (flungar.'an), Ile—
deration of Russian Canadians.
Except for the Studect Christian
Movement, . all are either outright
Connmunist affiliates or front or-
ganizations, At least 20 of the 32
delegates were known Communists.
Some were members of the "Bea'
ver, Brigade," This is a Communist
youth shock troop group: Since the
war, they have made annual trips
behind the lrou Curtain to work
with pick and shovel on Communist
work projects.
The Canadian party also included
a contingent of musicians, dancers
and singers. At least two of thein
are members of the Toronto Sym-
phony and one holds a staff poli-
-tion with tit Toronto Rout
Conservatory of Music.
'rile leader of the delegation eras
Norman Penner, long a Coruntuxtist.
He is the head of the LPI"s youth
inovenient. I-ront him and his Que-
bee deputy Camille Dionne, the
conference got its report ori the
state of culture in Canada.
When he cause back, Penner
made a coast-to-coast tour carry-
ingthe Budapest message to the
Canadian faithful and sympathizers.
What Penner and has world youth
movement and all Communists are
selling is totalitarianism done up
In a fancy package. in a wrapper
labeled "Democracy," it has been
forced down the throat of much
of Europe and now China.
Today more than ever before we
should investigate before lending
support to causes no matter how
attractively presented, If we don't
we are quite likely to find that our
names and financial contributions
are b9ing used to undermine the
very things we cherish most.
—From The Financial Post.
Housing Problem.
In a big city departmPilt store,
R woman was extremely interested
in a -display of doll houses. She
examined each one very minutely.
Finally, she stood in front of one,
and when she read the exorbi
taut price tag, she was petrified.
Tine saleslady, noticing her star-
an:g at the expensive doll house.
asked: "May I help you, madam?"
The woman smiled sweetly and
replied: "Of course, you arrange
jfor the mortgage on thisl"
"A'Man Gets Mad Sometimes"-1?ill an•ael Silva tt•rceked itis cement truck km a hill:.ide alien r, -
i caped unhurt. That lie could take A couple of days later, he tt•a� helping to haul the big
I truck up ail en)batikinet)t tvl)en it liddeillN, i.nt): r into 'flan)er•. ']'hen Silva satN reel. ITB da�h-
act to hi seclati parked at the top of the etnbatiknigLt. it>v c! it. altd Craslit'd i1lLy the htiriling
icicle. 1�.ruery'ging frons his wrecked car itnliurt, ,, ilva q id: "A man gets mac „ifne'intt`� {-
rrr�r�trrtn By Arthur Pointer
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