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The Brussels Post, 1956-09-05, Page 4NON-TAXABLE INCOME — Paul Ostrof, nine, wrote a letter to governor William Stratton enclosing his soles tax payment of four cents on his gross earnings of $1.20. Paul, explained in his letter that he has a profitable monopoly on shining shoes around the Ostrof household, and figured he owed the state some money. Revenue officials ruled Paul's income non-taxable and returned the four cents, land that have since been found to exist; she described the black ballast and swift rivulets on the sea coast of Antrim and named tiny hamlets that enjoyed more importance when she was alive than they do today. She remembered the name of her school—Miss Strayne's—and was able to draw a little plan showing her house in Belfast and a near-by church, St, Teresa's. She indicated which roads were cobbled and which were of dirt. She could recall dances and sons and coins of the period, All the bygone life of Ireland seemed to pour from this American girl deep in hypnotic trance. As Mrs. McCarthy, she died after falling down stairs and in- suring her hip. As Ruth Mills, her maiden name, she was born in Iowa in 1923. Records of births, marriages and deaths were not kept in Ireland at the time of _her "former" existence. Discre- pancies found in her story may prove to be natural faults of memory. Yet investigators have even traced the old shops where Bridey bought her groceries! Reincarnation perhaps explains the mystery of the infant pro- digy . the phenomenon of Mozart who asked for a violin at the age of two, of Macaulay who formed his first sentence at the age of eighteen months with the words, "Is the smoke of that chimney coming from hell?" It explains the enigma of John Stuart Mill, who knew Greek at the age of three, and the modern marvel of little Ferruccio &ace who—as if with a life's experi- ence of music—could conduct a symphony orchestra at the age of f our. Maybe most of the human race must relinquish memories and faculties at death, But perhaps there are exceptions who when newlysborn are still equipped with the hard-won experience of a former life. Thousands of people, arriving in a strange place, claim to know the inexplicably strange sensa- tion of "I have been here be- fore," Exploring Holyrood Pa- lace for the first time, a man suddenly knew he would shortly Mount a staircase with five stone steps and enter a long panelled room with four high windows. Sure enough, there were the stairs—and the room just as he expected it. Visiting the village of ,Ave- bury, authoress Edith Olivier seemed to remember an avenue of huge grey stones beyond it where she had see a village fair being held, But the last village fair was held in 1850 and the meganlithic stones are known to have disappeared before the year 1800. Reincarnation? Or do we all inherit a trace of racial memory from our ancestors? One famous actress long felt that she was :haunted by Nell Gwynn. One day an eye specialist had occasion to examine her and he exclaimed: "Your eyes are odd at the back. The only people who have eyes like yours are descendants of the Nell, Gwynn fanillyi" Scientists know how genes can carry down hereditary char- acteristics so that a child may be born with the eye colour and even the characteristic gestures of her grandmother', So why riot the possibility that genes hand down the meitories of a fernier generalises? Or why hot reincarnation?' Says the Rev, Leslie Weatherhead, the well- known Methodist ininistert its encouraging to think that We may get another Aimee tO come back and try again. A lot of people are terribly _ haridie04 ped and never really live at AO Rest before starting Out on a long trip, den% try to drive too fat in a day, Stott for regillat Coffee-breaks on the high*/$0 Reincarnation True Or False In a Liverpool cinema the audience were tensely watching the execution of Lady Jane Grey portrayed in a historical film. Suddenly a woman screamed in the darkness. "it's all wrong. And I know—I was there! I was there" Recovering afterwards in the foyer of the theatre, typist Doro- thy Jordan felt she was in a dream, still living in the Tudor period and dreaming of the twentieth century, Watching the ruovie she had noticed that cer- tain scenes were not as she re- membered them. When the nine-day queen gazed from her window in the Tower, Dorothy knew the real window as too high to be looked through. In the film the crowds were silent as they watched. Lady Jane on the way to execution, but Dorothy knew the real crowds had screamed and jost- led. The movie did not show the black wristbands worn by the executioner, nor the praying boy lathe had knelt by the scaffold. But Dorothy remembered all those things . — And subsequently those details she remembered were proved to be authentic. The film-makers admitted they had taken artistic liberties with the historical facts! The girl who fainted in the Liverpool cinema is now quietly convinced she has lived before —as Lady Jane Grey's lady-in- waiting. A clear case of reincarnation? Sheer coincidence? Or mere hys- teria? Occult scientists find the strange theory of reincarnation —the soul surviving in another body—so intriguing that a sys- tematic overhaul and review of the accumulating evidence is to be made this year. In Asia, after all, a thousand million people regard reincarnation as one of the first facts of religion. Take the extraordinary case of fifteen-year-old. Iris Farczady, dying of influenza in Budapest. There was a moment when she was believed to be dead. Then she recovered, but forgot her na- tive language. She did not recognize her mo- ther and called her in the Span- ish term, Senora. Before anyone could make sense of het words, a Spanish interpreter had to be found. Then she explained: "I am Al: de Salvio, wife of a work- lieg man in Madrid, I am forty years old and have fourteen chil- dren, I was sick and thought to be dying. Now I have recovered here in this strange country. What has happened to me?" What had happened, indeed? Investigators discovered that a wernan named Altarez de Salvia, forty-year-old mother of four- teen children, had died in Ma- drid a month before. No other links could be found between the y dead Spanish woman and the living girt in Hungary, Iris has gradually iorgotten her Spanish trierriories, She is one of the few Women with any claim tel have experienced reincarnation. Is it'poseible that memories of former lives still,earvive in each: of us? In America a heyinatiet put Mrs. Ruth Siiriteions into ex- perienental trance and began questioning her On her baby- hood merneries. Step by- step he forced her back to the ea., Of two, the age of ode, tut there to- his aftlaltetherit, she began talking Of her life iri Ireland' a hundred yeare ago. She had been horn Middy Murphy in the year 11913, shd Minted; had married a barrister tallied Brian McCarthy and had died in Belfast in 1864. 'Thirty-twd-year-old Ruth &M- inims had heifer been out of the United States hi her life, But Beide), talked of places in Ire., --.--eesse4gossaiseesesser DEM DRY BONES -- Phyllis Anderson, left, an anthropolo97 major, and Bennett Graham, a high school student, carefully check a skeleton, estimated to be 5,600 years old. It watt found in the third of five burial mounds discovered at Machu Rock Shelter, near Prairie Du Rather, III, eel DISASTER AREA — Bodies of victims are strewn about the streets of Cali, Colombia, after seven Army trucks loaded with ammunition blew up, The blast tore d crater 70 yards across and from 40 to 50 feet deep and wrecked eight business blocks. The latest official report of the worst catastrophe rn Colombian history says that 376 persons were killed. The bodies of 300 were buried in two common groves. legs. Cleopatra's adored Mark Antony was as fat and flabby as a Japanese wrestler. JOhti- Wilkes, the eighteenth-century politician, was cross-eyed an4 pockmarked, but many were tits hearts he broke. You wouldn't have expected Henry VIII's appearance to ap- peal to women, yet he holds thq record for royal marriages. Ilk was grossly fat and had id grow a beard to hide his reced, ing chin. When you hear of bigarnisie who manage to persuade on$ woman after another to "mar , ry" them, you picture men with classical features, compellins eyes and perfect physiques. Ye( last December papers reported the case of a professional biga- mist who was bald. pop-eyed with protruding teeth and i large nose. He had "married' thirteen widows for their for tunes! Another ugly criminal Ms( enslaved women in the 1930t was Henri Gauthier, a Parisiar window-cleaner. When be was murdered, police discovered that a good many women — several of them wealthy — had fallen madly in love with him. Theo he blackmailed them A man's face — however re- pulsive — need never be e handicap. Women are more likely to be influenced by the way he treats them. Is he con- siderate, has he a good sense 01 humour, is he an amusing com- panion? And a pleasant voice, of course, counts a great deal, Two years ago a London girt heard a man's voice over the telephone. It attracted her enor- mously. Then they met. He was short and fat, bald and ugly, but as soon as he spoke she for- got all that. Now they are hap. pily married. Pretty Girls Fall For Ugly Men Sophia Loren, the Italian film star, has just announced that when she gets married she , hopes it will be to an ugly hus- band, "If I had a husband who is good looking he would attract other women, and I would get very jealous," she added; Take heart, you men who hate to look at yourselves in a mir- ror. The most sought-after males are rarely the good-look- ers. Many pretty women turn up their noses at handsome men and fall instead for a broken nose, a bald head or a face which would be most in place in the Chamber of Horrors. Listen to Patricia Medina. "Handsome men make the worst dates," she alleges. "They're downright dull, smug and con- ceitedAg.i'r 'l who thoroughly agrees with her is Santa Montiel, the well-known Mexican actress, who has declared: "I want to marry an ugly man over forty. I've found that handsome young men forget all about the ladies they are with," Male pinups, she adds, are al- ways preening themselves and aren't nearly so good at kiss- ing as their older and plainer friends. A few years ago Doris Day was asked who made the best husbands — handsome men or plain ones. She retorted, "Hand- some men lack sex appeal and are often selfish and inconsider- ate. Some ugly men," she main- tained. " become magnetic char- acters." Some of our most beautiful actresses have taken her advice and have married men whom even their most ardent fans would hardly call handsome, What about Lauren, Bacall and Humphrey Bogart, for instance, or Rosemary Clooney and. Jos& Ferrer? Men will probably find it diffi- cult to believe, but One Of the largest feminine fan-mails re- ceived by any Hollywood actor goes to Jimmy "Schnozzle" Durante. GiandmOthers and young girls all offer to marry this ageing widower. Another star very popular with women is Edward G, Robinson, All through history ugly men have fascinated the fair sex. Casanova, reputedly an even more skilful lover than Don Juan, had a hooked nose, nar- now eyes and pathetically thin Small Economies Cam Help Emild Savings Small economies help to build up big savings. One item which can be a money saver on the housekeeper's budget is skim milk powder to be used in pleat of whole milk, both for ceselv ing and drinking. It is econom,, :cal since the powder can bs used in small quantities as need, ed and the rest kept for long periods, Milk, whether fresh, whole, skimmed or powered, i$ a good food for all ages. at a signal. A small, sharp knife is handed to him in silence, He quickly cuts his finger. Still in silence, a cup lbf ar- rack is handed to hini, lie holds his bleeding finger over it. Then all drink. The ceremony is over. One more member has been added to the million-strong Hung Society, And disloyalty means death. Although the Hung Society, at first religious in character, be- came political and criminal, something of the old idealism remains, even if twisted and warped. For example, all swear to help their poorer members, to share in everything, and to cover any whose actions brought them within the .criminal law, Stern penalties are exacted for any breach of the brothers °hood rules, such as: "He who mentions the thirty-six oaths of the brotherhood must have 216 strokes of the red wood." Another rule reads: "If a brother commits murder or any great crime, you must not de- liver him into arrest, but afford him the means of escape from the country. In the case of an intended arrest of a brother, or of any evil likely to befall him, give him timely warning, and discover not his place of re- treat." And here's how the society operates elsewhere in the world: The great liner has come alongside in Vancouver harbour, British Columbia. Leaning over her sides are many newcomers from China, seeking prosperity in the new land, In a dingy Shop in the Chinese quarter one newcomer soon starts up a laundry business. Next door is another newcom- er who came ashore off the same liner, He, too, has set up in business. Strange-looking foodstuffs hang in strings in his dirty shop. Two things distinguish these two new Chinese establishments, in Vancouver. Over the door of the laundry hangs a large ban- ner inscribed in Chinese pic- ture-word with this legend: "May you have great joy and happiness." In the laundry large piles of washing show that business is good. But in the food shop there is not a single customer. The explanation is simple. Chinese arriving on any for- elan soil are at once approach- ed by the local leaders of the Hung Society and invited to join. Those who don't are boy- cotted; those who do, get cus- tomers. The legend over the latindry was not just an indication of the proprietor's benevelenee. It was the code signal which said, in effect: "Deal with me, boys, I've joined the brotherhood." Nowadays in Communist China :few talk openly of the Hung Society. It is even said that it has c ea s ed to exist. Others declare that it exists as vigorously as ever and is a head- ache to the communist regime, It is said to have adapted its or- ganization to the new and dif. ficult conditions, And the betting, among those Who. know the Orient is that the Hung Society, by whatever name it goes, will survive the present regime as it has sur- vived Many othets in its 2,000 Years, the rebel headquarters and ar- rest the leaders, Early that day, oblivious of their danger, Wang Lung and Ku Tong sat over their maps in their secret headquarters when a dust-stained soldier of the imperial army panted up. He gave the password and was ad- mitted. "Soldiers are on the way to arrest you. The emperor has ordered your execution!" he gasped. This soldier who was a spy for the brotherhood, hastened away after giving his warning. A national uprising, long pre- pared, •cannot be cancelled in a moment in a vast country with poor communications. When the imperial troops ar- rived to arrest the ringleaders they found ' only an abandoned H.Q.,' with, signs of a hUrried exit. Some hundreds of miles away, in the province of Kwangsi, the first comedy of the Hung rebellion was being played out. A large body of imperial troops was on the march, with their leader, General Tso Tsung T'ang some distance in the rear. Overtaking his troops he caught them unprepared for his arrival. In amazement and fury, he saw the road lined for miles with troops. It was plain some sort of inspection was be- ing held without his orders. "What does this mean?" he demanded. "Excellence," said an adjut- ant, "in our army, from com- mon soldier to captain, all are members of the Hung Society. They are being inspected by the provincial leader of the brother- hood!" With troops having a divided allegiance, no commander can hope to win battles. And so, through the centuries, China was confronted by such Situa- tions as this, the imperial dig- nity and power challenged and 'Often thwarted by this great dragon whose breath could be smelt, but whose throat could never be cut! Here is how the Hung Society initiates a member, A young Chinese kneels before an idol in a dimly-lit- underground room reeking of joss sticks. Over his head three silent fig- ures hold swords aloft to form a triangle. The oath the initiate will take has thirty-six clauses, The. most important one he begins to chant in his high, piping Cantonese: "I swear that I shall know neither father nor moth- er, nor sister nor brother, nor wife nor child; but the brother- hood alone." The recruit rises to his feet Secret Societies Rule Millions The stranger who arrived at Kang Yuan's food shop was bent and old and wore a goatee beard, He bowed ceremoniously' and by a secret sign indicated that he was no ordinary customer. He nod orders for Kang Yuan. "Overthrove Chin g; restore Ming," said the stranger. Kang Yuan repeated the mysterious words, bowing. For longer than any man could remember, members of the Hung Society, sometimes known as the Kuo-Min-Tong n China's international underground move- ment — would utter the mystic words on meeting. They were a password, like a freemason's secret hand grip. Since the year 384, when the society was founded, the Hung Brotherhood had practised secret but purely religious rites, There was something of Buddhism in their cult, something of Taoism. But this particular morning the greeting was somewhat changed in purpose, For the Hung Society had shifted over from religion to politics. And this, the largest secret society in the world, was out to overthrow the hated Manchu dynasty. "Today," continued the visi- tor to Kang Yuan's, shop, "I leave with you also a little • writing," And he withdrew from his robe a paper covered with Chinese word pictures. Kang Yuan read it after ad- justing his horn-rimmed spec- tacles. "Overthrow Ching, re- store Ming," he repeated methodically. Now these words, which had served as password for 1,500 years, had a plain and simple religious meaning, Ching meant vital force. Ming meant light — spiritual light. But in the Chinese picture writing there is little difference between the word picture mean- ing Ching, and, the word picture for the name of the Manchu dynasty. So, the message that Kang Yuan got really meant; "Over- throw the Manchu dynasty and restore the Ming dynasty." The stranger was just one of thousands of messengers deli- vering instructions to the secret brotherhood about the revolt against the reigning 'dynasty. Wang Lung and a Buddhist priest named Ku Tong, were the organizers of this rebellion. But someone "squealed" and the go- vernment in Peking got word of what was afoot. Orders Were given for a strong force of soldiers to raid Lebanoii Ratifies bonvelitien ')it Women's Rights On 5th of June, Lebahoii ties came the '23rd country to ratify the' Milted Nations Convention on Political Rights Of Watlieri, tinder which women Ot-s titled to vote, hold public office and eXeteiee' ether: public futid, tiona on eqUal term With 'men, the Conyeritkei was adopted hy_thie t.t.1\t, General Assembly fit December, 1952, and woe' hi., tti, 1.01.e0 on 7th July,. 1954, after ratifidatfoa by elk v311110.7164', Y LIDHORN' RIDES THS RODS ;Josephine, a yellow leghorti en WM a hankering for travel, rides hobo Style on 'the 'OKI* of a 15-ton truck, The driverS 'Wit noticed her at Lookout Mountain, where she refused to her perch:&one 350 miles farther, the hen Wai happily olutkInd ttrIvilre think maybeShe had time friend. among their oaktieb 60 18,000 froirAin frenti-114 - OUT OF THti Attitt-Cit WAlt 6retife4 ci'urcii, St, Mary's 614tiliSks h as finally• been 'rebuilt, The itio. "plan'6. shows the edifice laaked in 19461. Otinfratted. With. the restoration, below, 11.'6. roof; the 'boicryi attiOutind had to be. great inside hall eon .i64 -25,000 people;,