HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1931-01-30, Page 3j Y'$z� iQ i�'F;� ijtJ It
ARYL 300931,
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oto ,ItORK NOasg.
[IS EDN.41 W,�1',NNIlN.,
RV, says no .. 94e CO
take coyrse of Sargon with-
out being greatly, benefitted,
"For three or four years I suffered
.from sluggish liver and constipation.
My skin was sallow. I had no ambi-
tion or desire to work. I was nervous
:and dizzy, had severe headaches and
•could not sleep.
"It is nothing short of remarkable
the way Sargon and Sargon Soft Mass
Pil1s'reli'eved me of these troubles. I
am now simply bubbling over with
new energy and vitality. I do not
believe it possible for anyone suffer-
ing as I was to take a course of Sar-
gon without being greatly benefitted."
—Miss Wannenberg lives at 112 E.
81st St., New York City.
S'ol+d by Charles Aberhart.
SOME WEIRD SUPERSTITIONS
ABOUT CATS
On the evening after Sir Robert
Grant, governor of Bombay, died at
Government House, Poona, a cat was
seen by a Hindu sentry to leave the
front door and walk up and down in
a particular path, as had been the
governor's habit after sunset. The
native guards consulted a Brahman,
who explained that the governor's
soul had obviously transmigrated in-
to one of the house pets,
Unable to identify the particular
pet, the guards d'ecid'ed that all cats
passing out of the main entrance af-
ter sunset should be regarded as the
tabernacle of the late governor's soul,
and far twenty-five years the native
sentries solemnly presented arms to
every cat seen after dusk.
The Burmese and Siamese still be-
lieve that their sacred cats ,enshrine
the spirits of the dead, offerings 'be-
in'g made to them in gilded cages in
the temples. So recently as 1926 a
white cat was. carried by court cham-
berlains in the coronation procession
of a, Siamese king. There ars also
the sacred Kimono cats of Japan.
In "The Cat in the Mysteries of
Religion and Magic," Mr. M. Oldfield
Fowey has collected a mass of strange
and interesting facts and supersti-
tions. He attributes the possible ori-
gin of the sacredness of this animal
to the fact that in repose it forms a
circle, thus symbolizing to the primi-
tive mind the ideograph of the Etern-
al, the 'Complete, and also to its
changeful luminous eye, which was
thought to resemble the sun.
The ancient -Greek historian, Hora-
pollon, states that "the cat was ador-
ed in the temple of the sun in Helio-
polis, because the pupil of this anim-
al follows in its proportion the
height of the sun above the horizon,
and in his respect resembles that
marvellous planet,"
The Egyptians mummified cats. Re-
cent research has revealed thousands
of such mummies at Bubastis, and at
Beni Hassan an Egyptian fellah acci-
dentally discovered a cat cemetery in
the grottos, consisting of hundreds of
thousands of mummies ranged in or-
der on shelves.
"The inhabitants of neighboring
villages turned up in force and burnt
or buried large numbers of the mum-
mies, whilst Levantine antinque deal-
ers took ,possession of many more to
sell to tourists. But the supply still
far exceeded the demand.
"At last an Alexandrian speculator
saw a way to turfs the corpses into
money by offering them as manure.
He shipped tons of corpses to Eng-
land. A cargo, consisting of 180,000
mummified cats, was landed in Liver-
pool in 1890 and disposed of by auc-
tion. The unim'aginati've salesman ac-
tually used one of the corpses as a
)rammer, and knocked down the
strange lot at the price of £ 3 13s. 9d,
a ton, less than a single specimen
would fetch to -day."
With .the dawn of Christianity, the
ancient gods came to be regarded as
devils, and so their sacred animal, the
cat, became symbolical of evil, and
was popularly believed to be the fam-
iliar of witches. It is still .believed in
r1N the Montferrato that all cats •which
wander over roofs in February are
witches, and in Hungary that a cat
becomes a witch between the ages of
seven and twelve and that witches
ride upon tom -cats, especially black
ones.
Writing in 1590, Baguet declared
that a Strasburg laborer was attack-
ed by three huge eats, later he was
arrested and charged with maltreat-
ing three well-known ladies of the
town. It was found that the three
ladies were -suffering from the identi-
cal wounds he had inflicted on the
"cats!"
That such beliefs still exist,.to-day
was discovered by the Rev. Whnt-
worth Webster when collecting ma-
terial for a book on Basque le'ge'nds.
"We were told of a man," he writes,
"who at midnight chopped off the ear
of a black cat who was bewitching his
cattle, and lo! in the morning it Was
a woman's ear with an earring still
in it. He deposited it in the Mairie,
and we might see it there."
So in the superstitious Middle Age
eats were sacrificed to propitiate the
powers of darkness. In England a
custom was observed until compara-
tively recently of whipping a cat to
death at Shrovetide, ,a custom that
Wee comrnenioi aced sen an inn sign
at"All>?iightffla in they .fAillOtWkg COW fee dr;<ll,;, m c : zn7ra"'efi etrya xa .
beta: :powerful b%t stip . n u U to
The finest pastime that is under the the bow and arrow, Xaa'eenrse of time
the dying of tii,3 b W Was to become:
Vie belt. '.ef, alecl'em raeebinevy, jus4
as the drill or 'arrow point 'was i
becarzte the lathe, Through similar
steps the first whistle formed by a
hollow bone, perhaps human, with a
hole cut in it,• evolved into the mod-
ern cornet, and the flageolet or even
the saxophone. The modern) organ•
had a ;different development and is
traced back to the 'bagpipe which is
regarded by Mr. Smyth as one of the
most ancient of weld-or'gan'itzed inusi-
cal instruments. So, too, the modern
battleship is but a progressive devel-
opment of the dugout canoe, a long
sharp -ended box or sufficient die
placement to hold its crew and a
supply of stones which were to be
hurled at the enemy.
SUn
l e whipping the Oat at Aibrighto'n.
When the east end of Westminster
Ahbey was being rebuilt, the shrivel-
led corpse of a eat was discovered be-
tween the walls, suggesting, that the
animal had been walled -in alive as a
sacrifice.
The most amazing ritual was, how-
ever, that celebrated annually at Aix
until 19.57:
"The finest tom -cat in the country
was swathed in swaddling clothes like
an infant, and exhibited to the adora-
tion of the devout in a magnificent
shrine. Flowers were strewn along
the ruote and every knee bent as his.
litter approached. `When the sun
crossed .the meridian on June 24th
the cat was placed in a wicker basket.
and thrown alive into an enermous
bonfire in the city 'square. Apparent-
ly the ritual had the full support of
the Christian church. Bishops and
priests sang anthems in honor of the
sacrifice and after its conclusion held
a solemn procession."
If there be any superstitious lady
reader, let her beware not to dream
of a black cat at Christmas, for Mr.
Howey declares such a dream to be
an •omen of dangerous illness.
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f.IiEAT MODERN INVEN CIONS
HAD PRIMITIVE SOURCES
Is invention a sudden flash of in-
piration, an idea that comes to the
world for the first time like a stray
meteor, or is it merely a further step
n a long trail worn deep by men who
alked that way before? It is much
ore likely to be the latter . than the
ormer, even when the invention ap-
pears to be the most original and im-
ortant. This, at least, is the view of
r. , Wm. H. Smyth, who contributes
n article on the subject to the Journ-
1•of the Patent Office Society in
ashington. He says that to the av-
rage man the inventor is a wizard,
ho moves in an atmosphere of mys-
ry. To himself the inventor is
merely a man who works very hard
✓ rather small reward, but who has
lot of fun and has always before
s mind's eye the possibility of
me prodigious discovery that will
ake him renowned and wealthy.
here are men who go about invent -
g just as some authors go about
eir task—they sit down at a table
d write a certain number of words
fore lunch, and a certain number
ter lunch, and this schedule they
here to irrespective of any such
bious and incalculable quality as
spiration. Sometimes an inventor
is the idea for an invention as
ata must have got the idea for his
em on the nightingale. More often
e inventor proceeds to work like the
thor who has the idea of writing a
tory of York Township.
It happens now and then that from
single original source came extra-
dinary inventions whose common
gin would never be suspected, as
ch against reason apparently, as
ough in a single litter a dog had
en birth to a chicken and an ali-
tor, Take, for example, the bow,
obably the most wonderful inven-
n in all history, if we except the
eel, and. nobody knows who invent -
either of them. The bow seems to
ve come into existence independent -
in widely separated parts of the
rld. It was a development so far
North America is concerned, of a
thered and tint -pointed javelin
ich was propelled by a throwing
k, but as Mr. Smyth says: "No
ention of modern times is compar-
e in spontaneous creative thought
h that required to bridge the gap
ween the hand -thrown javelin and
the how and arrow." It was with the
bow and arrow that the inventive ev-
olutionary process started, to arrivo
'in one direction in the modern grand
piano and in another in the lathe and
all belt -driven machinery.
Mr. Smyth's article contains illus-
trations showing the various steps in
the development, which seems natural
enough and even inevitable as one
studies them, But none of them, in
all probability, would ever come into
existence had not the bow and arrow
in the history of primitive man played
so important a part. He says: "It is
not difficult to understand the feel-
ings almost of deification in which
primordial man would hold this ef-
fective instrument. The twang of the
how world almost inevitably become
agreeably associated in men's minds
with the procurement of food and the
destruction of enemies. The reson-
ant notes are almost certain to have
been the original festive and warlike
music." It would naturally happen
that a bow which produced a particu-
larly pleasant or stimulating twang
would be specially esteemed on this
account, and! reserved for its musical
value. Experiments would follow with
longer or shorter strings. Differences
in tone would be noted, and the ap•
parent causes of them. Then came
the device of attaching two or three
cords to one bow which would be us-
ed especially for the production of
musical sounds.
Somebody noted that when two or
three strings were attached to a bow
the frame would be unduly strained,
with an undesirable variability in the
production of tones. Then the braced
frame was invented and we have the
skeleton of the modern harp. The
strings of the harp are, of course, the
string's of the piano, the fingers com-
municating their demands to them
through the medium of felt -covered
hammers rather than by direct pluck-
ing. While the bow was thus being
developed into the piano, it was simi-
larly being developed into the lathe.
Some observant or lazy savage had
the idea of saving himself the weari-
ness of drilling holes by twirling a
drill between his hands by using his
arrow, around which would be twist-
ed a somewhat loosened bow string.
Holding the ends of the bow in either
hand he would have additional lever-
age and work faster and more easily,
It must have happened that it was
by drilling in wood, whether with the
bow and arrow or the earlier hand
drill, that fire was created by the fric-
tion, and it is possible that the bow
and arrow preceded the discovery of
fire -malting.
Thus we have the fire drill, which
was hnproyed into the four. handed
HE MADE VALCARTIER SPRING
UP OVER NIGHT
Not every often do accountants,
those corporate financial watchdogs,
graduate to the field where brain is
applied with brawn and the mind
trained at figures tackles znen and
materials. Particularly is it unusual
for the financial mind of a railway
to transfer to the sphere of active op-
eration.
(Such was the case, however, with
W. A. Kingsland, who is general man•
ager of the central region of the
Canadian National Railways, with
headquarters at Toronto.
Commencing his railway career in
the accounting department, he was
chosen in 1900 by the bondholders
of the former Great Northern Rail-
way of Canada to watch their inter-
ests. The Great Northern ran from
Riviere a Pierre, Quebec, to Hawkes-
bury, Ontario, a distance of 175 miles
It was constructed by Canadian and
American capital to connect up the
Canada Atlantic Railway with the
Quebec and Lake St. John. Primarily
it was concerned with grain traffic
from the Georgian bay to Quebec city,
joining the lakes to the sea through its
(connections.
Those were chequered days in rail-
way history in Canada. The Great
Northern was taken over by the Can-
adian Northern Railway when its net-
work of lines lengthened out. With
the line the Canadian Northern got
the watchdog, too. As the bond-
holders' representative, Mr. Kingsland
had of necessity to keep close watch
on the Great Northern's operating.
When the Canadian Northern took
over the line he was attached to the
company's operating staff.
In this capacity Mr. Kingsland
performed what was probably the
most spectacular work in Canada
during the great war—assembling and
dispatching the first Canadian division
and subsequent troop movements also
—from Valcartier Camp. OreAugust
3, 1914, the Canadian Northern re-
ceived notice that Valcartier Camp
was to be opened. In a little; more
than three weeks the camp had been
completed and 37,000 men transport-
ed there. In ten days three miles of
railway track were constructed within
the camp. From that time on the 14
miles of line between Valcartier and
Quebec were the busiest in the world.
As the railway operating superintend-
ent at Valcartier Mr. Kingsland was
charged with keeping all forms of
men and material transportation at
this nerve centre continuously an the
job.
Experience has its reward and to-
day the financial watchdog of that
harassed 175 -mile -long railway is
general manager of 8,000 miles of the
heaviest traffic territory in Canada.
His jurisdiction extends from Arm-
strong, Ont., to Riviere du Loup, Que.
He employs 40,000 men and his month-
ly payroll runs into the millions,
Through his territory runs the fastest
train in the world, for its distance,
between Toronto and Montreal, pulled
by a motive power giant who speed
resources have never been probed to
their limit. His unemployment relief
program now under way totals $4,-
000,000.
AUTOMOTIVE MUSINGS
Clamp the hood down as tightly as
one will, it still is affected by the
motion of the car. Its weaving from
side to side is not noticed, however,
so long as the webbing on the cowl
and the radiator shell is soft and pli-
able. Let the graphite which keeps
the fabric in this condition escape
and there is a sharp, crackling noise.
The remedy is more graphite.
* * *
When building that new garage,
don't forget to make provision for
several electrical outlets for connect-
ing lights that will he welcome on
many occasions.
* * *
Did you know that—
The reason for the trend toward
twin -electric horns of matched tone is
not simply a matter of appearance?
Such horns are more pleasant in tone
and much more effective as warn-
ings.
Additions to the surfaced road mile-
age of the United States last year
totalled 40,000 miles? What with
larger appropriations and wider ap-
proval of road building as a means of
relieving unemployment this year's
mileage will be even greater.
While Diesel engines for motor oars
might be cheaper in operation cost it
costs more to build there.
SUGAR, TEA AND COFFEE
DENOUNCED AS IMMORAL
It is interesting to recall for reas-
ons that will present themselves to
all readers that there was a time
when the civilized world was pretty
well divided as to the morals of eat-
ing sugar. The controversy was so
intense and persistent that it produc-
ed the word "Antisaccharities," which
was a term of reproach or endear-
ment, according to one's views on
the subject. It has now disappeared
even from the dictionaries, just as
the argument which coined it has fad-
ed from memory. In the sixteenth
century sugar was blamed for most
of the ills whieh later have been blam-
ed wpon alcohol, its use :wag cell.)
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1
Stock Taking brings to the front many win
have marching orders at prices that aresure to c1
make the .biggest saving of the year. These are
dise, many of them broken lines ofou r best se:
Men's Overcoats
,s
ALL THE LATEST/TYLES, PATTERNS AND SHADES
• This is your opportunity to get a real good Winter Overcoat, one
that will give years of wear.
Regular $16.50 to $20.00
r
lr:
1999
rk
dr
$13.50
A very select line of Blues and Fancy Checks, all in the new
styles; well made.
Regular $22.00 to $27.00
All our highest grade coats go in this group
will he surprised at these values at
318.50
r°" 824.50
Boys' Overcoats
Every Boys' Overcoat or Reefer comes under the one general
reduction in price.
PRICE 20 PER CENT. OFF
irk
Women's Coats
LOT I.—Women's fur trimmed Coats, Navy, Brown, Fawn,
Black. Size 16 to 42. Regular $20 to $25.
Sale Price S.3.95
LOT 2. Special: Women's Coats made of Broadcloth,
Velour or Chinchilla, all this season's best styles, handsomely
trimined with oppossum fur. All wanted colors; full 01 3
range of sizes. Regular up to $25. Sale Price .95
LOT 3.—Women's Coats in clever new styles, extra quality
Broadcloth. Excellent lining; luxurious fur trimming. New
style lines; new cloths; new colors. Sizes 16 to 40. Sale Price
20 PER CENT. OFF
Girls' Coats
Girls' Coats, excellent quality, new colors. Sizes 4 to 14 years.
SALE PRICE, 20 PER CENT. OFF
Women's Dresses
Special rack of Crepe and Silk Dresses, new styles, new col-
ors. Sizes 14 to 42. Regular up to $15.00.
Sale Price
$5.95
Our complete stock of Brand New Dresses in Silk, Satin,
Crepe, Lace, Georgette and Jersey. A wonderful range to choose
from. Sizes 16 to 46.
20 PER CENT. OFF
Women's Fur Coats
All Women's Fur Coats—Hudson Seal, French Seal, Muskrat.
Every coat guaranteed.
20 PER CENT. OFF
FUR CHOKERS, THIBETTINE AND FOX -20 Per Cent. Off
Women's Silk and Wool and Silk Plaited Hose, 75c
REGULAR $1.00 to $1.50
50 dozens of Penman's finest Silk and Wool Hose. Every
pair perfectly shaped and made. Come early and make sure of
getting some of these wonderful values. All sizes. 75c
Regular $1.00 to $1.50 hose. Sale PriceSTEWART gR0S. SEAFORTH
demned on hygienic, moral and
nomic grounds, and for perhaps a
hundred years the voice of scienc
echoed the voice of religion and de-
clared that the nations were in danger
of destruction because of the new-
fangled and vicious habit of consum-
ing sugar. Fortunately, this habit,
since sugar was expensive. In that
respect the evils of sugar eating
were like the evils of over -indulgence
in after-dinner port, and beset the
squire rather than the peasant. But
in time sugar became cheaper and the
vice spread. By the time it had
become cheap enough for eve'rybody
to form a taste for it, the scientific
and religious objections had been ex-
posed as hollow.
It was the cultivation of sugar-
cane in the West Indies which
brought it within the reach of people
of narrow Baring power and
excited the wrath of the antisacchar-
ite Puritans. They seem to have been
animated by the feelings which in-
spired the opponents of bear -baiting,
which they finality abolished. Ac-
cording to Macaulay, it was less the
pain inflicted on the bear that exas-
perated them than the obvieee pleas-
ure of the spectators. In '1'647 Dr.
Theophilus Garenciexes wrote: "It is
therefore 'clearer than light that su-
gar s ?i4oj± n0uria1� efilt, thit tu evil
eeo-
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—not a preservative, but a destroyer."
A few years later, Dr. John Ray, who
is called the "Father of English Na-
tural History," wrote:
"The physicians who lived in the
last century, with unanimous consent,
recommended sugar for complaints of
the lungs, hoarseness, coughs, raw-
ness of the throat and internal ulcera-
tion; yet among us in England, not
long since, it began to be accused and
to labor under great djscredit, by our
own as well as foreign physicians,
who impute the ravages which the
scurvy and consumption have lately
made in England to the immoderate
use of sugar in our foul and drinks."
A morality play of the period
had among its demoniacal characters
Wine, Beer, Ale, Sugar, Nutmegs and
Tobacco. But the licentious youth of
the period was not to be browbeaten
by authority and invented a ribald
song, two of whose lines were
"That which preserves apples and
plums,
Will also preserve life and lungs."
And as time went on soberer voic-
es were raised in defence of sugar,
though some of the defenders, like
Dr. Frederick Slare, for instance,
rather taxed the credulity of his
hearers, He said that his grand-
father had been a life-long sugar ad -
diet, O. )'m'e't ?raibe c on umegr, of 0,
Sett
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and yet had lived to be a hundred.
,Indeed he might have been living yet
had he been bled at the timrof his
fatal illness. At the age of 82 he
dropped his first tooth, and soon all
his teeth were gone, but happily they
were replaced by a second crop. Hds
hair which had been white turned
dark. These phenomena were ascrib-
ed by Slare to the use of sugar.
The first proper scientific defence
of sugar did not appear until 1800
and was the work of Dr. Benjamin
Moseley of the Chelsea Hospital. He
did not go so far as to maintain that
sugar was a food, but he asserted that
it was at least an ingredient in food
and an article which might benefic-
ially be used with food. In the course
of his pamphlet he scored the anti-
saccharites deeply and it was Plain
that they were losing their following.
Dr. ;IVDoseley w is helped to his con-
clusions by the discovery made by
different chemists that many fruits
and vegetables contained sugar and
that for thousands of years mankind
had been eating sugar in varied forms
with apparently no in'juriou's effects.
It was in 1760 that sugar was dis-
covered in beets, a fact which was to
have tremendous consequences more
than a century later.
About the Middle of the 18th ems
tare, Ilebig za_dg his p91)ed Oki it
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announcements. The various consti-
tuents of food were defined as fats,
proteids and carbohydrates. He show-
ed that the heat of the body was due
to oxydization and that sugar served
as a fuel. That sugar was not only
a food but an essential food was nev-
er doubted after Liebig and his as-
sociates demonstrated their case,
though before this time medical opin-
ion was against the theories which
they were able to substantiate. It is
now recognized that one can eat too
much bread or drink too much water;
Sugar as a food, however, ie just as
respectable as beef or carrots, The
stigma of immorality has faded from
it. In tines past coffee and tea were
also assailed on moral and economic
grounds. They were said to threaten
the economic stability of England.
Moreover they were well calculated
to fasten the shackles of vice upon
the people. The public drinking of
coffee was forbidden in various plac-
es. Charles II, a monarch Of suppos-
ed liberal tendencies, which, however
seemed to have been chiefly Mani.,
fested in his sex life, closed the eo'f.
fee houses. Bet public taste proved;
too strong for hint as it has pitrve4
for other refortners from trtne,testline
and for a century tlio dritlidifg d
both tea itrid coffee has been d wa d .
of mooticationt,
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