Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Huron Expositor, 1939-12-15, Page 6And High er (Condensed from Collier's, The Na- tional Weekly in Reader's Digest) forests,.'.' etatee Mr. George Pia: to his wife, exhaling a cloud Cigarette smoke and waving his :Ann at the scenery, "are a priceless heritage. We must cherish and pro- tect ro- t t them." And flipping his ciga.- xGttecasually out the car window, the Settles himself behind the wheel, and the Sedan rolls our, its way. Mr. Spelvin.'s cigarette lands on a heap of brown pine needles, crisp and day as powder after two weeks without rain. Gradually the needles around the live coal twist a, little and• "grow black. There is a puff of wind and /the Circle of needles glows brightly. A piece of dried bark be- gins to smolder like punk. There is another gust of wind, and a clump of dry brush ,crackles in a brisk bon- fire, spitting sparks. The flame grabs at the lower branches of a pile of slash and swings itself up hand over hand, reaching for the bigger 'branches tovenhead. The whole pile roars aloft. A panic stricken rabbit bolts headleigg into the heat, leaps .convulsively into a tight ball of flame, topples •backward. A lookout in a tower 15 miles away spots the bank of smoke piling up in the southwest. He locates it approxi- mately by the alidi de suspended ov- er his map, and phones the nearest ranger station. Here, the dispatcher checks with another lookout te miles to the west„ places the fire ex- actly where the lines from the two towers cross, and shakes his head. Black Mountain area. Little water available, many isolated trenches to the south. Hygrotuetee readings show that the litter under the trees is bone dry. Me weather report pre- dicts increasing winds, no rain in sight. Be gives the emergency a- larm. Truckloads of men with camp equipment and fire -fighting tools hur- ry into the forest. More and more men follow, all well shod so their feet will not blister on the hot ground 41 strong enough to work day and night amid terrific heat, choking smoke, constant danger, possible death. Late that afternoon a siren sounds; the CCC boys --at Summit clamber into the waiting trucks. It's MAKE BETTER BREAD • FINER FLAVORED • LIGHTER TEXTURED • MORE AIGESTiBLE a crown fire now, (racing through the treetops, irrepistible, ewifteir than the wind. At midnight a warden's car shrieks to a halt at a ranch house. The rancher and ihis older son rush out and jump into the warden's car. His wife and younger boy pile furniture into a wagon and hitch up the ner- vous 'horses. There is a red glow in the sky, and the wind coming toward them has a sickening sweetish smell. It's iheadhng this way. In the dist- ance there is -a steady ripping soun., like canvas being torn sharply, a now and then short, explosions 1 rifle shots. The rancher's w i swings her whip as she glances f fully over her shoulder. A s lights on the blanket wrapped ar the baby beside her. . . Half -naked men come off the lines day after day, faces black eyebrows burned off, shirts in shreds from blistered shout d ke fe r- rk d are ed, Ambulances clang through the thick smoke, empty stretchers are .rushed into the heat, and filled ones are borne out again. , All that'neeek and into the next the fire rages. Calls for more men, shovels, food, bandag- es. A million dollars in virgin tim- ber already destroyed. ;Four lives Rost. Still no sign of rain . . Burned elver' all that nice country where were were," Mr. Geo. Spelvin shrugs, looking up from his evening newspaper. "Lucky we vis- ited it in time. You know," be mus- es, flicking his cigarette toward the fireplace with a practiced snap of his middle finger, "I wonder 'how these fires get started." This year, Mr. S•pelvin's cigarette -tor iris unextinguished match, or a smoldering coal front his pipe, or a campfire he didn't quite put out, or a patch of ground ,he tried to burn over during a high wind --will cause over 150,000 forest fires in the United States. These fires wilt devastate more than 40 million acres of timber- lands. This year, thanks to Mr. Spel vim's carelessness -•it has been estab- lished that over 90 per cent of all our forest fires are man caused, and therefore preventable -the country will lose 50 million dollars in timber alone, ,enough Iu,mber to fill a string of freight cars extending from New York to San Francisco and back a- gain. The game and "fish that will be killed by fire -with destruction of foir•age, of nests of ground birds and wiaterfpwl, of spawning grounds for trout -will more than equal the to- tal of all the hunters' guns and ang- ler's 'hooks combined, The losses in young growth . killed, watersheds 1 ruined, floods, silted reams and bar- ren soil, industry stoged, recreation- al possibilities gone forever, cannot be estimated. To be sure, carel ss smokers and campers are not - ,one responsible. There are iincendiar; fires -blazes set for mischief; for p'ssible employment as a fire fighter or for pure spite. Last year id flew into a web of high •-.' ion wires, burst into flames dropped to the ground, a torch at set off the dry pine litter and destroyed thousand's of acres. In Ore- gon, in 1933, a lagging operation shad snubbed a steel cable around a dead stump and neglected to watch it dur- ing a dry spell. The friction start- ed the wood smoldering, a spark fell into the surrounding tinderbox and touched off the blaze. Though dis- covered almost imi mediately by the logging crew, it roared straight through the finest stand of virgin timber in the state. An army of 3,- 000 men' fought it night and day for 17 daq•s. ` That single fire destroyed ore timber than the total lumber ou. •ut of the United States for an enti year. Less u an ten per cent of our fires are due to natural causes beyond our control; an, contrary to popular opinion, the s , _ ' • ' -' s combustion of forest fuel is lot one of these. Lightning, of course, s the outstand- ing natural cause. In .. ' o, in 1935, a looal thunderstorm las' less than two hour e, but touched off 1 i separ- ate fires. Only the alertness , the Forest Service and CCC preventea major catastrophe. There are three types of forest fires; surface. ,ground and crown. The first consume', surface litter, and sometimes t' r partially decomposed matenial umc .::cn:+h, called duff. If (located while it is a simple surface fire a squad of me.n can usually sur- round it in time. The ground fire is a tougher pro- position. Below the duff is a layer of almost completely decayed organic matter, varying in depth, and all -too - readily readily combustible when dry. This material burns slowly but persistent- ly, and you can never be quite sure when the 'S,re's dead. It may smolder for weeks before it is spotted; mean- time the forest is filling with fire gas- es that a sudden wind may fan into abrupt conflagration. Trenching - cutting a strip two or three miles ahead -may halt the creeping pro- gress of a ground fire; but it is queasy work. When it "blows up," leaps aloft in- to the tops of the trees, it is known as a crown fire, most dreaded of all. A fire that 'has crowned can travel The cast a private ba110t1d 0te e. to 1 that equals or excels remi:-'m iricedgasoline in roadpeijbrmance'/ QUESTiONNAIRE this new gasoline Comparing to the premium -priced gasoline you have been using: On pick-up, acceleration As goad? rettu? UZI .s Val tees "illy It was tested, not against ordinary gasolines but against premium -priced fuels ... in an impartial survey among 1475 motorists in 14 cities. More than 250,000 miles of severe road testing ! Before a single drop of Nu•Blue Sunoco was sold, 1475 users of premium -priced gasolines tested an unidentified gasczline which was Nu -Blue Sunoco with the coloring left out. These tests were con- ducted from Florida to Canada by in- dependent, unbiased research authorities. The returns showed that these motorists voted 9 to 1 in favor of Nu -Blue Sunoco! 9 ort of 10 proclaimed it equal or superior to premium -priced gisolines in road performance. TO MAKE A FAIR TEST, don't dilute Nu.Blue Sunoco with other gasoline. Let your tank run practically empty. Then put in Nu -Blue Sunoco. Compare it particularly with premium -priced gaso- lines. We'll rest our case on your findings. The quicker you start using Nu -Blue Sunoco ate quic4t +K 4t0,, _wef '3 9 E6 AT RECULR GAS PRICE W. A. Wright, Seafortb W. i. Dalr m le, Brucefield ' ••- T J. Hanley, Dublin J. McCully, Bucefield at incredible speed. Just h w fast? We put the question to R. H. Rut- ledge, regional tweeter of the Inter- mountain District in the Rockies. "Sometimes," Mr. Rutledge said, "when a 1orest's already filled with smoke and unburned gayest formed by the smoldering materials, Mg whole thing blows up all at onee. 1 remem- ber onee watching a fire from the rim of a canyon a full mile away. There was a sudden guest of wind, and the next thing I knew the air arou.ndt ane was one solid siheet of flame. Now, how fast did it travel?" Usually there is a little lull before an, oncoming fire, a hollow silence that you can sense. Gradually you begin to fee the heat in short puls- ing wevesk, though the fire may still be three or four' miles away, and for the first time you 'hear the wind be- hind the fire. The sound, wows into a strange 'hissing roar, and then out of the distance, pours a solid black aloud, black underneath, and under that the orange -red glow of flames. Now the roar is like a thousand freight trains crossing steel trestles. The are envelops a whole mountain at orae, leaps a canyon to the next mountain. It crosses a stream} --one moment there is a trout brook, the next moment the, flames have lapped it clean and lent the stream -bed day as dust. You cannot conceive of the heat of a fiorest fire. . A tastily abandoned truck stands in a clearing. The metal writhes as the fire passes, the wind- shield 4s fused to a lump of glass. Two fire fighters, threatened by a sudden gust of flame, start to run, anis-stricken. They have gone but t few yards when a blast of furnace heat strikes them. They falter, shri- vel like bacon, and fall forward on their faces, charred to cinders though no flame has touched them. If ,you are trapped in the path of a fire, the. old-tirpers advise you to get your face close to the grbund and lie still. If possible, soak .a blanket and place it over your head; it will filter some of the smoke and heat from the air. Two men in a canoe in Quebec last year, trapped by fire,. leaped out' and lay on their backs in the stream, breathing through their coats. They survived, though their canoe was burned to the water line. 'Above al lelse, do not get down in a deep hole or well. Fire sucks the oxygen out of the air, and in a con- fined space you are apt to suffocate. During the First Porcupine disaster in Ontario, 14 men sought refuge in a railway cut, a narrow embankment with stoop clay sides that formed a natural pocket from which the heat drew all the 'oxygen. They were found' later, suffocated, lying on a mound of dry grass that was not ev- en scorched. During the whole year our forest rangers are engaged in fire preven- tion work -removing fire hazards, building roads, closing threatened ar- eas to tourists, watching for incipi- ent blazes. Lookout towers dot 157 national forests in 40 States. Emerg- ency landing fields where planes can set down men and supplies ,have been built in the inaccessible back coun- try; experiments are being made from the air -dropping water, chemi- cals and even bombs to retard re- mote fires' until ground crows can reach them. Of great importance are the 500 CCC camps in our national forests. ,Upon .this we found every Forest ;Service man and. ranger and warden in complete agreenient: the CCO, properly guided, can. be an un- paralleled national blessing. The courage of these boys, many fresh from the city, has won the undying admiration sof old-time loggers and woodsmen. Our national forest area covers well over 200 million acres, with one for- est ranger to every 32,000 acres; yet the total fire loss in all this vast ter- ritory last year -was only 105,155 ac- res, as compared with the annual loss of forty million acres in timberlands outside the control of the Forest Ser- vice. The forests belong to you. If they are destroyed, the chances are nine out of ten that it wilt be your fault. So, if you are going to travel in the woods, here are things to think of: 1. Watch your smokes. Be sure the stubs- and ashes are dead before you ?flow them 'away. Kill them in a stream, or grind them on a spot that you are sure ramniot burn. Don't toss stubs -even dead tones -out of your car• 2. Be sure your match is out. Break it 112 two, or put it back in the box. 3. Before building a campfire, scrape away all inflammable material from a spot at least five feet in dia- meter. Dig a hole in the center, and build your fire in it. Keep it small. Take a lesson from, The Indian: - "White man make heap big fire - stand way off. I.ndia:n make little fire -slit down side him." 4. Never break camp until your fire is out -dead out. Stir the coals while soaking thein with water. Wet the ground around the fire. 5. Carry in your car a s'hovel, an axe and a bucket. If you see a small fire, put it out. If you can't do it a- lone, get help. Report all fires to the nearest fire warden or ranger. Remember, the time to stop a fire is before it gete started. Remember also that the flee you may set through carelessness can af- fect the eoontomies of a whole geniera- tion. The lose goes far beyond the destruction of today's timber orop. It will lye ',felt. lin tomorrow's altered climate, in tomorrow's waning agri- culture, do tomorrow's lack of avail- able power. Walk out into a freshly burned ar- ea.. Mile after mile of ebarred trees in a wasteland of ashes. Rocks and dedigen 'stand tout starkly, bare of leaves and mess, the topsoil gone. At the tbottom. of -a gully, winds a brown stream, the water poisoned with lye washed from the acres of althea, fish floating belly, up. A bloated carcass of as moose lies against the bank. . Throw that cigarette anywhere you want now. There is nothing .left here to burn. Theme won't be for another hundred, years. . . , Sunshine is dei4oi'ous, rain is refresh-, ing, wiled braces up, snow is exhil4ar- ating; there is really no such thing as bad weather -only different kinds of good weatkr,-Rut-kint r'. m.; ;TiCtro r, ftil STANLEY Mrs. Margaret E7rratt, .of ]VIuncey, spent the week -end with her sister, Mrs Henry Erratt, and other rel- atives. Mr. and Mrs. Robert E. Robinson spent a few days visiting with friends at Toronto last week. Mr. and MTs. Gordon Hayter and Mr. 'and Mrs. Jack Reid, of Detroit, visited with friends in this vicinity. The annual school entertainment and Christmas tree will a held at Goshen School on Tuesday evening, December 19th. DUBLIN About sixty-five Zion young people assembled at the home of Mr. and 'MTs. Clifford Chowen one evening re- cently to ihonor the bride and groom, Mx. and Mrs. George Chowen. An address was read by Miss Iihea Roney and presentation of an occa- sional chair and end table made by Mrs. Darer Kleinfeldt and Mise Mil- dred Moore. The young, couple gra- ciously expresser' their appreciation. Dainty refreshments were served by the committee in charge. The evea- ing web concluded by dancing, music being furnished by Kenneth Roney, Howard Elliott and Frank Anderson. An unfortunate sequence occurred at the ,home of Mrs. James T. Mal- colm on Saturday. Mr. and M' -s. ,Charles Pepper, Mrs. Bert Yeo, ac- companied by her son and daughter, of Tpronto; Mr. and Mrs. Geo. Pepper and °family, and Mr. and Mrs. Glenn Pepper lied assembled at the home of Mrs. Malcolm to cerebrate the, 83rd birthday of their mother, Mrs. Wil- liam. Pepper, who, on their arrival, took suddenly ill and is still in a critical condition. Mrs. James Shea was a charming hostess recently at two tables' of Five Hundred. First prize was won by Mrs. William O'Rourke, and second prize by Mrs James Krauskopf. Dainty refreshments were served by thle hostess, assisted•. by ber daughter, Mrs. M. M. Klinlehamer. Visitors: Dr. and Mrs. D. E, Stur- gis, Oshawa, and Miss Marion Dill, Landon, at the home of Mr. and Mrs. P. Dill; 'Mr. and Mrs. James Hanley, Toronto, with Mr. and Mrs. William J. Hanley. Mrs. Thos_ J. Molyneux and daugh- ters, Dono€hy and Veronica, spent the week -end in Detroit. Mrs. Joseph O'Reilly, Shakespeare, was a Sunday visitor with her sis- ter, Mrs. Joseph Rowia,nd. Mr. and Mrs. Hugh Benninger spent Sunday in London wbbre Mrs. C. Benninger is. confined at St. Joseph's, Hlospital, , suffering from a fractured leg. Clayton Looby is spending a few weeks in Detroit. The Technique of Lying Awake' (Candemsed from: S•cribner's Magazine in Reader's Digest) A wise physician once defined ,n- somnia as nothing but sleeplessness plug -worry. For this nightly tragedy is usually caused by a sharp mental distress rooted in the belief that much loss of sleep is extremely In- jurious. njurious. Yet there is no warrant whatever for this fear. Few sleep- less persons get lessi than four hours of sheep a night, which, supplemented by four ,hours of real rest, is suffici- ent for health. The secret of the teohnique of ly- ing awake calmly and restfully con• sista in realizing that disturbing emo- tions ---not lack of sleep -deplete our stores of energy. To admonish a sleepless person to -hold a serene tem- per at 4 a.m. seems to expect the impossible. And yet that must be done. Let us turn squarely on our old conception of sleeplessness as a trag- edy of deprivation. and think of it simply as "'lying awake," an inescap- able adventure to be taken philoso- phically. Slep, like happiness, comes quickest to those wari do not retch anxiously at its skirts. Contrary to the opinion of most doctors who tell us 'to go to bed expecting sleep, I cultivate a nionchalant acceptance of the fact that I,shall probably not get enough eleep to satisfy me. Other- wise I lie awake to see if. I am going to go to sleep! Preparations for physical .comfort in lying awake successfully include a reading lam.p, a table within reach, some light fond, tobacco perhaps, and an electric warming pad if possible, for Sleepless people chill easily. And no timepiece of any kind. Nothing is easier for 'the subconscious mind than to set up habits of waking at a fixed time, or of postponing sleep un- til a definite 'hour. Any reference to the passing of time helps to establish this unpleasant habit. To count the hours as they skip by, carryitig with them the slieep one thinks one needs against the task of the coming day, only contributes to mental distress. Upon going 'to bed itis, often effec- tive fit fill, the ,mind withl pictured suggestions of relaxation, and repose; a • tired child asleep en its mother's shoulder, its tread hanging heavily; a house cat asleep beside the fire. To loosen tense muscles and nerves, I sometimes recall a striking .bit of physical relaxation which I -saw at a play: the actress, in an emotional crisis, dropped suddenly at the top of a tong, wide stairway, and rolled slowly, thudding softly down each padeild step to the bottom of the flight. This feat I rehearse over and over in my a rind -the gentle release of the body, the sidewise sway . and the quit deep from step to step -un- til I am as melamed as the actress was. Vividly recalled, such ~scenes will bring deep quft both to mini] and body. Usually'. But there will be times when nei- ther cor tniand nor suggestion will pverdome the devils of unease. Then It is well to ,get up and move slow- ly, sitowly about the room, as heavily as possible, following this with some light gymnastics, again slowly, with deep breathing, and once more lying down to the task of keeping perfect. , .ova tu. �: 'i4��'•, .IEi •41 J1..aJ'r, o, r�+d.:'t,eL ... ,g,� organ BER 15, 1939. OH -E �f EN WARNING Ba clu�che may be the Bit sign of Kilter trouble. When year hods edam, look far' Your kidneys.. Don't fad m to hewarn- ing-it is too important. Take prompt sstiw• to correct Sackaclte.orRsause. At thereat sign of Backache turn confidently to Dei1's Kidney Pills -for over half a «shay the favorite remedy for Edney ailmtests, tell Dodd is Kidney Pills ly still. Eventually muscular relaxa- tion may oomse of itself; without ef- fort or suggestion, if the mind be kept free from disturbing emotions. A final preparation which some Snd helpful kis to cover She eyelids with pads to prevent the stark staring of open eyes, and to give them the slight pressure which. often soothes the nerves. To shut out unwelcome thoughts, I often pick up some mildly diverting mental game. I recount in alphabeti- cal order the names of cities and towns in my native state: Akron, Bucyrus, Chillicothe. This lust com- pleted, I follow the alphabet do -writ ward with names of women; after that, with names of men,. Or I select the longest possible given names, and add a long family name beginning with the same letter, achieving sates delightful combinations as WiLbelmina Wigglesworth. This game during the early stages of my self-discipline kept my mind constantly moving --a great help when the disturbing force is a tenacious problem to which the mind returns over and over to gnaw at as a dog d,oe•s a bone. I found, too, that to put on the reading lamp and pick up a book, to adjust th.• pillows comfortably, per- haps to nibble at a bis'cudt and drink a g]ass of imi1k, often brought a sense of comfort which deepened into teen - quality. But the book nest be carefully chosen. Clearly this is not the time for the book of a thousand thrills, or et en for the newest work of genteass if one's interest is thereby too great- ly reatly captured. Rather, the well -loved leisurely novel, the thumbed' book of poetry, the calm and uplifting coun- sel of the early philossophers I sin- cerely recoinimendi-to anybody else. For myself, give me the huge mail= order catalogues with their beguiling pictures and inexhaustible lists of things for sale, from plumbing to playing sands. Nothing like this to pry loose the demons grip of an ob- sessing thought! Among other artless diversions. what miles of imagined crochet have I not accomplished, choosing the most intricate stitches and following erase- ly each movement of the needle; how many lialf-forgotten songs of child- hood 'have I recaptured, bath words and music, with no veisse of mental effort, but only a happy recognition! And, sleepless at early dawn, what precious recollections of childhood scene's my mind ,holds and cherishes, what riches of beautiful sunrises I have looked upon as the panorama, ch stars slid slowly away from the ris- ing sun!,,.... Then there is the m• ost magical de- vice to relieve the whirling of as over -active brains --the one I ctIt. "tak- ing the mind apart." When one is slipping easily and naturally into the outer chambers of steeip, one . be- comes aware of disjointed fragments of thiought, just brushing the under- standing as they flit. This normal transition state between wakefulness and slumber may be synthetically at- tained by constantly ~breaking up the. train of thought into ill.ogiieal snatch- es, the more whimsical and insignifi- cant the better. Thos,: "I saw a • pink that. Did you go to the circus.? Peter Piped picked a peck." And so, carried on an irresistible stream of nonsense, an anxious and over- tired brain will often drift out steep - ward without knowing it. LONDON and WINGHAM NORTH Exeter 10.34 Henault 10.46 Kippen . 10.52 Brucefleld 11.00 Clinton 1147 Landesboro 12.01 Blyth 12.16 Belgrave 12.37 Wingham 12.46 SOUTH P.M. Wingbam 1.50 Belgrave 2.06 Blyth .-,--.-ti 117 Londesbore 218 Clinton 106 Brumfield i 3.36 Klppep 1.311 Hensall 4 2.46 Exeter 3.63 C.N.R. TIME EAST Goderich Holateeville Clinton Seafarth ••••••• St. Columban h•• Dublin Mitchell W EST Mitchell Dublin Seaforth 11.30 Clinton 11.45 Goderleh e e ..,12.06 TABLE A.M. 6.35 6.50 11.58 7:11 7.17 711 7.30 PAIL 2.20 2.52 SAO 2.10 122 1.29 2.42 11.06 9.19 11.14 9.39 9.47 ILOlI 1.26 C.P.R. TIME TABLE EAST, Go ertc1 Menet McGee Auburn . Blyth r Walton McNaught .., a ...,, Toronto - Toronto McNaught Walton Blyth Auburn McCaw Menset . oderlch . WEST ro:.aaee.,eel ,5•h ti,,. , Y i .:.i.., lin.. },. +• „,oz. P.l. 4.20 4.24 4.31 4.41 4.211 2..05 1.25 9.09 S.M. 6.30 1102 12.12 11212 112.31 12.40 12.40 1x66 , ri -4,