HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1938-08-05, Page 5ti
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THE WORLD'S GOOD NEWS
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THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
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Name
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NG '
FrNo . ' ld a►gd
The, Three Meetal'iteer6t
Ingtone, Ray Cq'i"iaan,
ceTerhette
elaUNSIVIONE NANCH"-
AIl e.. LeW A reo - Hellen
"KING OF'` HE :N'EWSBOYIS"
:
Bob L.iv-
Max•
-Mack
'Mit/Mai-1T, SHOW
Str,nday, Aug. 7; beglnninp at 12.05
Monday; Tuesday, Wednesday
Loretta Young Richard Greene
' "FOUR MEN AND A PRAYER"
David Niven, - C. Aubry Smith
A story of romance, mystery and intrigue
Next Thursday, Friday, Saturday
'GeneAutry Smiley Burnette
"PUBLIC CQWBOY"NO. 1"
with Ann Rutherford
;Gene Autry scores another bit 1.
Coming—Errol Flynn, Olivia De Hedlund
"THE ADVENTURES OF ROBINHQOD"
JustJust 2z1
Srniie or
Two ,
Mistress: "Good gracioils,
what's all this mess in the oven?"
Maid: "I dropped the candles
:he'water, ma'am, so I put them
:he oven to dry." ,
•
Hiram walked four miles
rills to call on the girl of his
?or a long time they sat silent
by the side of her- log
ut after a while Hiram sidled
o her.
"Mary," he began, "I've got
:learin' over thar, an' a team
ea, and some•'lrawgs and cows,
:al-laate on buildin' a house
Here he was interrupted by
mother, who had awakened.
"Mary," she. called in'a, loud
is that young man thar yit?"
Back came the. answer: "No,
ut he's gittin' thar."
o
Jasper: "How did George break
g?"
Casper: "Do you see those
ver there?"
Jasper: "Yes."
Casper: "Well, George did•n'tX
•
"Admit, my dear boy, that
ne thing to have a lovely woman
our arms." -
":`es, the trouble is that one
p by having her on one's hands!"
•
"If we get any more kinds
s on which we have to keep records,"
ighed the druggist, "I'm going
ave to keep my record books
he shelves. and put my stock
handise in •the safe!"
•
Sick Man (as the nurse let
p for the first time) : "Gee!
ouldn't let them operate
Bain for a million dollars!"
Doctor (coming along just
if /.1 ., mnr•rin,i lnnlr .his
Annie;
in
into
over the
dreams.
on a
cabin,
closer
a good
an' wag -
.an' I .
an'---"
Mary's i
voice,
Ma,
his i
steps
f
s
r
it's a
in
ends t
f
i
of tar- o
e
to
en b
of mer- s
b
o
him sit h
I b
on me k
then f
fsno)•
a
:-1
s
t
2r
ti0
a
w
"I'm sorry, but I shall
you again."
Sick Meta (letting out a roar)—
`Nothing doing! I won't stand for it!
I won't stand for it! Absolutely not!"
Doctor (arguin) ; "But, it's some-
thing that just has to be done. You
ree, a. terrible mistake was made.
When I sewed you up I left one of
my rubber gloves inside you."
Sick Man: "Is that why you want
to open me again?"
Doctor: "Yes."
Sick Man (smiling) : "Don't be sil-
ly! Here's a quarter; go out and get
yourself another rubber glove."
have to open
•
Third Class Caddy,: One who can
go nine holes without losing a ball.
Second Class Caddy: One who can
go eighteen holes without losing a
ball.
First Class Cady: One who can go
nine holes and find a ball.
•
Two women were gossiping about
another friend who had been taking
beauty treatments.
First: ' 'by, you know, my dear,
1 understan that her beauty doctor
n job in makingher
•did an exceA t
J
look younger! '
Second'' (snapping) : "Yes. Shea
almost able to travel half -fare now."
•
Dentist: "Open aider, please—wid-
er." ,
Patient: "A -A -A -ah!"
Dentist (inserting rubber gag, tow-
el and sponge): "How's your fam-
:aly?"
•
"Foe under -eye puffiness," advises
a beauty .hinter, "use a powder under
your eyes and add a tiny tinge of
rouge there." Or, suggests our wise
''friend, try going to bed for a change.
•
McDonald: "So you love spinach?"
MacPherson: "Yes,, it's my middle
xrame."
McDonald: "Really?"
MacPherson: "Yes, Thomas Sandy
71acPhersen,"
•
"I have nothing but praise for the
new vicar," said a member of the
congregation to the verger 'after the
morning service." /•
"So I observed'when the plate was
taken around!" said the verger.
• '
Jeannie: "Why 'don't you eat your
apple; Sandy?"
Sandy: "I'm waiting for Jock
Smith, to come along. Apples 'taste
much better if ther's another, bob
looking, on!" -
FREE SERVICE'
OLD, DISABLED OR, DEAD
HORSE -S;; OR CATTLE
removed prt niptly and efficiently.
S"imrI photic "COLLECT" fo.
WILLIAM' STONE ,{SONS
LIMITED•
PHONE 21 • , INGERSOLL ,
PI4ON 219 ' MITCHELL
......m Yom.
(Cautions$, from The 4ane.�;ica
On • thhe 'morning of December 6th'
,1917, life do the seaport of J-alifas,
Nova St!rotia, went ea serenely for '17
minutes after ar• fiic�ker of blue fiates.
flrat appeared , aboarr1 the munitions!.
ship Mont Blanc..
It was nine o'-clpek, and work had
begun In offices-, warehouses and fac-
tories, all burdened with the rich bus-
iness of war. Out in the Narrows,
freighters were 'being warped into
piers, 'cruisers and 'transports swung
at anchor, seamen toiled over cargoes
of war materials.
Suddleuly, amid! the ,,,.. confusion of
shipping, a lifeboat appeared, manned
by French sailors • rowing furiously.
for the northern- shore. A second
boat followed, also filled with men, all
glanning backward in desperation at
that thin blue flame on the Mont
Blanc. When the first -boat Struck
the beach the sailors flung themselves
ashore in terror, gibbering French
curses and prayers and shrieking:
"Pou-dal; Pou-dar!" •
As the sailors fled up the streets
their warning ran garbled from mouth
to mouth. Some people legged after
the seamen; others hastened to the
water's edge to fiuestlon the men leap
ng'from tbe second boat.
"She's afire!" blurted a Canadian in
the boat. "The Mont Blanc. The Imo
collided with her. Munitions aboard!"
He raced away.
Meanwhile H.M.S. Highflyer, a Bri-
tish cruiser anchered near -by, - had
put a (boat. overs'ide:'" As the flame
waned, 'sprang . up again, this boat
swung smartly alongside the Mont
Blanc. Watchers on shore saw offi-
cers and men clamber to ' the deck
and run toward the fire.
The 17 minutes were up." A shaft
of yellow light, no thicker than. the
Mont Blanc's masts, streaked upward
from her deck, piercing the sunny' air
for a mile. For an instant it whirled
ike a waterspout. Then its top
spread, and the whole pillar of fire
mushroomed into an enormous purple
cloud.
Four thousand tons of TNT had ex-
ploded�--the greatest detonation ever
heard on earth. The Mont Blanc van -
shed: A fragment of her ancihor,
N. half' a ton, flew .three mile
A sheets of flame.' Plates ripped
rom her hull fell in a hissing rain on
hips and houses. An 'immense tors
ent, white and boiling, towered up-
ward where the ship had been. Gulls
high above the steaming maelstrom
burst into gobs of flesh and feathers.
Death then advanced, roaring over
he water. Ships leaped upward, tore
ree from their moorings, fell off craz-
y before the tidal wave. Eight sail-
rs were spattered againgt a cruis-
r's turret. The captain of the Imq
and 30 of his crew were squashed ori
er deck by the force of the concus-
ion- • Only those sailors, who were
elow decks escaped the great globe
f fiery gas which sped landward. A
riga rock, ripped from the 'harbor'
ottom, hurtled through the air and
'lied' 64 workmen on a pier.
On the southern shore of the Hall -
ax Narrows the community of Rich-
mond lies in a trough formed by the
hills. Through this trough the im-
r,-'ense pressure swept. Two hundred
school:°cb.ildren had time only to half
rise from their desks before the walls
fell upon them. Three lived. The
orshippers in St. Joseph's Church,
looking upward in, supplication, died
that way. Factories and entire
streets of houses trembled) and' col-
lapsed; trees leaped from the earth
and went flying like leaves. People
were lifted high into the air, carried
far, then dashed to death against
walls and telegraph poles.
Fires, started in a thousand places,
inet and formed one great consuming
blaze, from which spread the nauseat-
ing odor of burning human flesh. Out
of this inferno, running and stumb-
ling, came the blind and the maimed,
the dogs and cats, horses galloping in
frenzy.
The afterblast of the explosion rush-
ed onward into the city of Halifax it-
self and broke windows, toppled walls
and spread showers of glass, Every-
one who was able rushed to the
streets. They saw the flames and
the smoke, and heard the shrieks of
the dying. A cry went up that a
German fleet a^as bombarding the city.
This was followed by reports of an
air raid, and many people swore they
saw planes in the sky. Panic-stricken
people ran to the open country. Five
thousand crowded onto Halifax Com-
mon.
Then came the invasion from the
harbor front. Preceded by cries of
torment, a mad horde stumbled and,
crawled and groped toward the streets
of the main city. Blood dripped from
their faces. Some ran with stumps
of wrists held before thein. Children
lacerated and bloody, led blinded par-
ents. One woman carried the head-
less body of her baby. Scores fell
and died.
The cessation of the explosions
brought Halifax back to sanity. Cour-
iers were sent over highways and
railroads to tell the outside world
what had thappened. Part of the world
already •guessed. People at breakfast
on Prince Edward Island, 125 miles
away, had seen their plates dance.
Ships far at seat had heard the ex-
plosion.
Rescue work got under way while
firemen, aided by volunteers, started
the long task of extinguishing the
fires. The dead were laid on the
pavements, their bodies piled like
cordwood. As wagons rolled out of
the fire -and smoke, piled
with the
half -naked bodies of girls from fac-
tories, 'ehdldren from schools, and sail-
ors tossed up from tbe harbor on the
tremepdolis tidal wave which follow-
ed the blast, the death list mounted
to 2;000. The injured totalled 20,000.
Five - hundred persons were never
fofind, having vanished'} from the face
of the earth.
Night came over a city lighted only
by torches and** lanterns. Surgeons
operated by the glimmer of oil lamps.
All night long the wagons of the dead
rolled out of the smoke and stopped
at the schools and other buildings us-
ed for morgues. And then a new hole
rot' arrived. A storm blew down otter
the stricken city, the wore't btfk'21ixd
in. its history. Icy winds benumbed
the rescuers. Pneumonia hastened
the deaths of the IOW. ,
)3y this untie ithp ootalide'world hod
begun -an a traordiee4r eifooi't 'to ae-
sist. ,Special train' e1arted fgoan New
Mit with 'medica eneelles, toed : and
doctors, , All the New iilogland States
sent similar contributions. A chip
was loaded at ' Boeten and the 'throng
of contributors: was so ,great that po-
lice reserves were called to keep or-
der. The Canadian Govern -went sent
supplies and workers. But the res al-
eirs came only in time to open vast
burial plots.
What was the origin of the Mout
Blanc explosion? This is the gener-
ally accepted version:
As the Bont' Blanc, arriving from
New York, entered the Narrows that
morning, the Ifno, a Norwegian grain
ship, was proceeding down the Nar-
rows. There were many other ships
moving in the channel, and in a con-
fusion of signals the Imo headed di-
rectly for. the munitions ship. When
the two collided the Imo's prow cut.
into the Mont Blanc and overturned
a drum of benzol up forward. Some
persons maintained ,that the clash of
steel•••bltrew out sparks; others insist
the Frenchmen had a fire going in
the forecastle. In any ev4i t, the fa-
tal flame appeared.
The litigation following,t a disaster
was carried to the highest tribunal in
the Empire, the Privy Council, wihich
fouud bot); ships equally at fault. A
few licensed men were suspended; a
few officials lost their posts, -Then the
books were closed.
But the officers and men of the
Highflyer offer an example of bravery
that will long' be remembered in naval
history. They saw what had happen=
ed. They knew what Was in the Mont
Blanc's h -old. Yet three officers and
20 seamen boarded her to quench the
flames. No one ever knew how close
they came to winning. They were
dissolved in that globe of fiery gas.
Bergen's Brazen Blockhead
(Condensed from the New York Times
Magazine" in Reader's Digest)
Within a year after that impertinent
blockhead, Charlie McCarthy, had
been "discovered—by-Noel Coward at
an Elsa Maxwell party, he and his
master had won a following of mil-
lions; the dummy's' wisecracks were
quoted everywhere, and, in addition
to his fat radio contract, he had been
signed at' $12,000 a week for a Gold-
wyn picture. He even won some
write-in .votes for Mayor of New
York in the election last fall.
Charlie has revived world wide in-
terest in • ventriloquism. Forgotten
practitioners of the art now win ap
plause in metropolitan night clubs;
countless amateurs have started on
parlor careers; correspondence schools
are digging ventriloquism courses out
of dead stock;, dummy -makers are
back at their work benches, and man-
ufacturers are turning out thousands
of Charlie McCarthy dolls for chil-
dren.
The appeal of the talking dummy is
universal, because people delight in
seeing and hearing themselves imitat-
ed by something inanimate. The ven-
triloquist's dummy can get off im-
pertinences no human actor would
dare utter, can prick pomposity,
jab at falsignity with . reckless
thrusts that we may think of but are
too repressed to utter.
Few current generation youngsters
know anything 'about ventriloquism
because the art vanished with the de-
cline of vaudeville, , Yet talking dum-
mies pop up in" the earliest pages of
history. Thousands of years ago they
were used by Chinese priests who
would hold them against their stom-
achs and ask them questions, where-
upon the dummies would answer in
deep sepulchral tones.
The great oracles of Greece, histor-
ians suspect, went in for the same
sort of ventriloquistic flummoxing of
a gullible public. So did the high
priests of the Pharaohs. The Louvre
has a statuette of Anubis, the Egyp-
tian god, built along McCarthy lines,
movable Jaw and all.
Almost anyone can learn "near"
ventriloquism (where a dummy is
used), the degree of success depend-
ing on one's vocal equipment. The il-
lusion of throwing the voice is cre-
ated by acting and by changing nor-
mal speech, keeping it within the
glottis. That vocal diltortion, known
in the trade as "the grunt," is one
of the things that make audiences
laugh; it is the voice of Punch, and
children and adults all over the world
have been rolled in the aisles by it
for centuries: -
For distant 'work—where the voice
seems actually to come from some re-
mote spot—much more practice is re-
quired. The basic sound f 5r that is
called the "drone." The farther the
drone -is forced back in the throat,
the more distant it seems.
Radio is easier on the ventriloquist
than stage work. When playing to a,
visible audience, he must restrict his
vocabularly. He can't, for example,
keep his lips still with a line like:
"Peter Piper picked a peck of picky
peppers"; he avoids b's and p's s
much as he can.
Charlie McCarthy is famous be-
cause his master, a keen wit who
graduated from Northwestern Uni-
versity, had the foresight to subord-
inate his own personality to tbe
blockhead's. That was sound psychol-
ogy and perfect press-agentry. Even
la rehearsals Edgar Bergen maintains
the pretense that his red -thatched
dummy is an individual. Before Char-
lie is taken out of his valise, studio
hands can hear him screaming pro-
fanely for release.
At ope rehearsal Bergen- called' for
the script (he usually works without
one—ad Jibe a lot). The page boy
hurried over, Bergen looked at the
'lines and prepared to go on. Before
the boy got to the door, Charlie Mc-
Carthy called after him sharply,
"Bring that thing back! I want to
see it myself." Withouta second
y oo d
thought, the lad hurried back; blush
ed as Bergen waved him away. Char
lie chuckled.
When W. C. Fields signed the con
tract for his radio appearance with
Bergen, Charlie was looking- on. The
comedian; hat' tilted -over his glowing
nose, was chewing a sea -den teeth -
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EWART BROS., Seaford
pick. "Ah, there, my diminutive lit-
tle pal," said Fields, "I think you
need a haircut." Charlie eyed him.
leered. "Okay, my fat friend," he
said in Pas nastiest, "but you could
do wild a new toothpick."' Fields was
so startled that he almost swallowe'l
rhe toothpick.
Whenever Bergen gets a telegram
at the studio, Charlie will try to hors
:n. on it. "Let's have a look, Bergen,"
he'll :ay; ''that may be for me." He
always treat.r Bergen as something
less then Pu equal, and Bergen en•
courages the idea.
Beri;en accidentally discovered his
gift. for ventriloquism while talking
with schoolmates one day. Something
he said seemed to have come from
far down the hall. Even Bergen was
ilabbergasted, but it gave him an idea
end he sent off for a correspondence
school book on ventriloquism. Like
;:lost professionals, he is self taught.
He made Charlie's body himself. The
ahead was made by a doll carver from
Pergen's charcoal cartoon of a Chica-
go newsbody he knew. .
Charlie McCarthy may attain im-
mor tality for his sheer impudence. He
has the vital spark other dummies
leek. No matter to whom he is talk-
ing, he never pulls his punches. He
is a bad egg—a little vulgarian, a
brassy, blustering, cheeky blockhead
--but we wouldn't harm a splinter in
his hollow head.
Weighed ---and
Found Wanting
(By Robert Littell in Reader's Digest)
Whisking a pair of chickens off the
scales, the butcher announced cheer-
fully, "Two dollars and twenty cents."
Mrs. Powers' casual manner suddenly
changed. "Just a minute, butcher;
put those chickens back on the schles.
I'm an inspector." When the needle
came to rest again, she turned iaeaor-
ably on the- butcher, "You charged
me for six ounces more than the
scales say." "I goes; I was careless,"
he replied apologet Bally. But put
came Mrs. Powers' summons book. Af-
ter a brief wrangle'•'the butcher was
ordered to explain before the Com-
missioner why he had tried to cheat.
her out of 18 cents.
For two day's, as part of en investi-
gatiozi into the short -weight swindle,
I watched Mrs. Powers exercise her
duties as Inspector of Weights and
Measures for tilt City of New York.
Apparently' bona fide customers, we
stopped curbside peddlers, we visited
meat,'delicatessien aid grocery Stores
all over town- • In the shims, where
the cheating was most frequent, but
it was a Park Avenue butcher who
asked, in a low voice, if we couldn't
"square this up-"
About two out of every three stores
visited' yielded some evidence of short
weight. We found discrepancies in
mushrooms, poultry, vegetables; ;n
bags of sugar and potatoes which the
grocer had weighed and stuck under
the counter in anticipation of a rush.
We saw scales skillfully .barred from
the customer's view by piles of pro-
duce; old-fashioned spring scales with
the needle an ounce ahead of zero ;
expensive modern computing scales
which a storekeeper of less than av-
erage height could not help but read
to his own advantage.
When a merchant was caught giv-
ing short weight the usual alibi was,
"I guess I made a mistake." True,
the errors were small; in any one
case it might have been a mistake.
But the mistakes were almost always
in the mere ants' favor.
This sort of ' m•istake,", according
to the alae' Department of Weights
and Measures. takes about ten cents
a day frons every housewife in New
York. Which means• over half a mil-
lion dollars a week i,e pockets of
the short -weight crooks. What of the
rest of the country, which is on the
whole less strictly policed than New
York? According to government esti-
mates, each American housewife is
overcharged on the average as high
as $54 a year by short -weight crooks.
In Pennsylvania, inspectors weighed
499,754 packages, and found 81,098
short. Shopping in 1.691 stores. Fed-
eral Trade Commission investigators
found 44.9 per cent. of the purchases
under weight. In Texas, a creamery
made $70 a day excess profits on but-
ter, a bakery $355 a week on bread.
In San Antonio, three-quarters of the
city's large scales were condenned,, In
an ea.'stern grocery store, all the pre -
weighed packages were under par.
Ranging over the map, one find's •10 -
pound bushels of potatoes which
should have been 60, "five -gallon"
milk cans containing three gallons,
nine andone-half pound turkeys
weighing eight, and pounds of cheese
weighing 13 ounces.
Departments of Weights and Mea-
sures can tell curiou's st.oriee about
the methods used by the shoraweight
racketeers. During the Christmas
rush Mrs. Powers seized .a turkey in-
to which a butcher had inserted three
lead sinkers. Total weight of leads
stuffing: one pound, ten ounces. Pro-
fits are increased by strings tied to
counter scales, by tile' weight of sans'
ages glued underneath platform, by
putting a 25 -pound face en a 20 pound
scale, by placing scales near the help -
panelist fneant'most to housetvives,1 ful pressure of an electric faun. Some
1
butchers cover the scales' platform
with a wet rag or with several lay-
ers of heavy paper, or skillfully add
weight with their thumbs. Moat fre-
quently of all, the needle starts about
three-quarters of an ounce ahead of
the customer—and wins.
Even the finest computing scales
can be "rigged," but even if they
aren't, the • customer, impressed by
their splendor, doesn't notice how the
merchant announces a price before
the indicator comes to rest, or stands
to one side for a more profitable read-
ing. Aside from the few deliberately
dishonest merchants, there are others
who would not admit, even in their
own souls, that they are cheating.
The store is crowded, the type on the
computing scale is fine, the margin
of profit is narrow, and they give
themselves the benefit of the doubt.
Such doubts, multiplied by thousands
of hurried, careless storekeepers, are
taking millions, annually from Ameri-
can housewives.
State Weight and Measure officials
report that short weight or measure
is most frequent in retail foods (es-
pecially meat), and in coal and gaso-
line. An official of a large chain told
government investigators: "It is very
easy to overcharge a few cents in
weighing meat. This is not a case of
fundamental dishonesty, but the tra-
dition in the meat business every-
where has been to take advantage of
any discrepancies in favor of the
meat man. It is done all the time."
How can such "traditions" be de-
striyed? 'Who is to blame? Not the
better scale companies: their ma-
chines, when properly serviced, are
above reproach. And not always the
merchant, whose mistakes are often
the result of ignorance or careless -
nese rather than dishonesty. (The
butchers' trade papers have been con-
ducting a campaign for aecarate
weight). As usual, it comes down to
the public, which ought to be more
interested in its own protection anti
demand stricter enforcement of steiet
er laws_
The public, fortunately, is bents
awakened. Consumers National Fed-
eration has issued a warning leaflet
on shirt weight to all its;rmenibere_
In New York, the Y-W.C-A `is coop-
erating with the Weights and Mea-
sures Department in test shopping,
and is telling its embers how to
guard against being cheated. The De-
Ilartment of Agricultilre is sending
out reports, and the Bureau of Stand-
ards is eager to educate the conatnn-
er. In the last six months, newspaa
per space devoted to short weight
has noticeably increased. To this
wave of interest .officials are respond-
ing. The Texas state division of
Weights and Measures recently cos -
ducted new training courses for its
Inspectors. In Richmdnd, the city de-
partment offered prizes in a campaigns
to educate store clerks.
For your own protection, you should
improve your buying habits. If you
order by telephone, check the buteiter
with scales of your own—scales not
too cheap to be accurate. In the
store, buy in definite weights of quan-
tities, and verify the amounts reeefir-
ed. Watch the scales. See that thew
start from zero, look for the hespec- ,
tor's seal, read the total for yourself,
do your own arithmetic, don't be
afraid to ask questions. And if yon
suspect anythiinig to be wrong, pro-
test, and complain to your bureau or
weights and measures. It deserves
your co-operation and support.
A community where customers
don't do these things bas only itself
to blame if lead sinkers are weighed
along with the turkeys.