The Brussels Post, 1956-09-05, Page 5of hot color, the aztwo sky, the
vivid blue sea, the saucy gay-
ness of the Riviera fishing boats,
the harsh white beach, I think
of, -how I made sometimes too,
much of my troubles, the rent
• taxes — after all, 'there is
ways •the SUP in Alano.
And I decide then, thinking of
the tired,. grey Brigiistunan,.
wealthy, but recalling his: earlier
simpler „days — I decide that I
tem not going to listen to liesina
and modernize the shop. You.
see, I like 'being just a 'barber
in .Alene. 1 do not fancy myself
• as a big businessman, with
ulcers le my stomach.
And to thiele that, just be-
lore, the Englishman came in,
was wondering„ how it weelci
look outside —a big, striped,
neon barber's pole. •
From "Tit-Bits"
DREAM IITIENt rzOta DAVY JONE'S LOCKER — A $150,000 Chrysler dream car, which took more
than two years to design and build, went down with the ill-fated Italian liner Andrea Doria.
The car had no door or front posts, but cantilever arches on each side. However, the dream
model, hancl-lauilt in. Italy by Chia, famed Turinsports car maker, was insured.
FREE-WHEELING GLOBE-BIKER — Resting on his bicycle, Cate.
fornian Abbot Dugcilly takes a breathers in Copenhagen, Deem
mark, Dugally, with 87 pounds of luggage, has toured North
and South America and Africa during the post four- years, anti
is now wheeling through Europe, He began with a cash outlay
of $8.25, but gets along on donations dropped in the bike e
coin box by folk along the way.
P a colony -of workers' huts,
school, a restaurant and a pump%
ing station on the raphilit
lengthening dike, On the inside
wall Of the pumping station, said
to be the most powerful in OM
world.
LES APART
Model Murder ,
Unscrupulous people have de-
vised many schemes to defraud
insurance companies, even era
ranging their own murders!
In 1948, the head of a Kansas
loan company was found dead,
by a roadside with three bullet*
in his body. Police learned that
the dead man had been with an-
other man, to a pawnbroker ee
exchange a small 'pistol for a
larger model, The dead man had
said he wanted "a gun thee
would do the job." The second
man was traced and he told the
amazing story that his victim
had offered him $750 to kill him.
It transpired that the loan
company had lost a lot of money
and it was suggested that the
head of the firm wareed` to be
murdered because he was in-
sured for at least $100,000, bat
if he committed suicide the pet-
fetes would have become invalid.
Another case of murder sett-
arranged happened in ,Chicage
when a ,pretty model, net noted
for her intelligence, allowed a
doctor friend to persuade her
they could make their fortunes%
out of insurance companies.
He took her to several com-
panies and they, finding her
health good, issued polices me
her life. The doctor explained
that he knew a drug which
would cause her •to go into a
death-like trance. She would '
"die" in the presence of wit-
nesses and would be taken away
in a hearse. Once out of the
house the corpse of a stranger
would be put in her coffin while
she herself would wake up, col-
lect her share of the prate—and
live happily ever after,
The girl fell for this story
She prepared the Way by com-
plaining of her aches and pains,
then she went to bed looking
ill. Later she took the drug and
tollapsed, writhing in agony. Bet
she had been double-crossed,.
The drug was poison!
MERRY MENAGME
much, younger he looks when
he smiles; it is like a bright
shaft of sunlight on a dark day.
I stand back a little to observe
his jaw and then start to shave
him. While I work, he tells me
this story.
"Yes, Enrico, we'd always been
hairdressers, even my mother,
and so when I married, natur-
ally I married a girl in the
business. .I did not marry 'young.
I was thirty-seven. My parents
were both dead, they had left
me a little money, and I knew
that they would have liked me
to have opened a shop ,of my
own, with the family name over
the door.
'But, you know, Enrico, bar-
bers are not wealthy men, and
even with my own small savings
it wasn't possible. However,
when I married there was just
enough, with the little my wife
had, for a mortgage on a small
shop in Stepney with a two-
roomed flat above.
"We had to work nerd to at-
tract custom, and at first we
only held our own with the esta-
blished shone. But soon we were
doing better business and had a
regular custom. We paid the
mortgage instalments and man-
aged a tiny profit, but we were
both ambitious, particularly my
wife. We wanted to expand a
little, to promote more business.
Ave, my wife, wanted two new'
driers for her ladies' department;
we could just about afford them,
but there was a problem, I had
set my heart on a barber's pole
to hang up outside the shop.
"What I wanted was a hand-
some, flashing neon affair with
coloured stripes, and lettering
that said Ladies' & Gents' Hair-
dressing. We couldin't afford
both, and in trying to decide
which to have, we almost had
our first quarrel. In the end we
agreed to have them both, only
on hire purchase agreements.
The agreements were signed, the
delivered, and the driers in-
stalled.
"That pole was superb — eye-
catching ! it made the shop
look very professional, a n d
there was nothing like it for
miles around. We were keeping
up with the payments on the
driers, and the pole; settling the
rent and just about squaring
ourselves, when we had our first
bit of bad luck. Ava fell sick. I
couldn't afford to replace her, I
needed the money for her doc-
tor's bills, and so I had to close
the ladies' salon."
I wipe the last few patches of
lather from his face; his shave is
finished, I fetch the hot towels,
and the dark man is silent, muf-
fled in the steaming cloths. I
take -them away and he con-
tinues.
A Complete Story by Mak
My name is Enrico and I have
II little barber's shop on the
e.ront at Alano, Alano is a little
town on the Italian. Riviera
where warm blue waters lap
contentedly against hot, white
sands, and green palms line the
winding promenade. It is only
little piece but very popular
with the English tourists. The
service is so much cheaper than
.n the bigger resorts.
My shop overlooks the new-
noon bay of Alano. It must be
!or this view that my robber
es a landlord asks 15,000 lire;
.t can't be for his tiny shop, it
s not worth 5,000, Still the cus-
tom is good during the season;
am a good barber; and. the
inglesi like the view,
I am , opening my shop the
stber morning thinking, as I
ook at the sun-soaked view, of
:he taxes, my exorbitant rent,'
;he slackness of the season, and
sow my wife Rosina keeps nag-
ging me to expand-and modern-
ze the shop.
Then, at this early hour, be-
!ore I can have my usual cigar-
Ate, a customer comes in.
I recognize him from the pre-
vious day, when my cousin Mi-
late, who is a night waiter at
the Splendido, points him out
to me in the street,
He says this is a very rich
man, who tips well. So I say,
Buon Giorno, and show him to
the best chair, He asks for a
shave and a facial,
We chat, this Englishman and
e. 'And as I prepare the shaving
water and lather his face, he
compliments me on nay English,
and talks about the weather
show these Inglesi enjoy their
weather I).
He is a Square, elderly man
with a black bar moustache, not
as tall as you think at first, and
with tired lines around his eyes,
helping to give his dark fea-
tures a very serious look, very
much the businessman.
He is talkative: like many men
the barber's chair seems to relax
his tongue.
"You know I like, your shop,
Egerico," he murmured, "I al-
ways say that you can tell what
kind of a barber a man is from
the way he keeps his shop. I,
was once a barber myself, all
eny'family were, Craftsmen,"" he
explains proudly,
"You wouldn't think it to look
at me now, no callouses on my
fingers, But I Was„ and a first-
slam one, too, That was a long
time 'ago though, and a lot of
water has flowed wider the
bridge since then," °
110 smiles quietly to himself.
I: say, Si, and finish lathering
hts face. I' think to myself how
Holland Wrests
New Land From Sea
Overpopulated little Holland
is winning another mighty bat,
tie for more land to live and
work in.
Fat off its mainland coast, in
the choppy IJsel Meer, a fleet of
hundreds of ships is nearing the
end of a four-year attack upon
nature. From miles off the tug-
boats and barges assault-ship-
like, scurry among the dredged
whose tall superstructures stand
like battleships, thick smoke
trailing across the horizon.
Unceasingly the dredges suck
up the sand from below and
dump it into the barges, the wa-
ter cascading over the sides. Tugs
pull 'them away a few hundred
yards where the load is dumped.
There the dike is rising in the
water, a long broad bulwark
pushing into the sea at the speed
of 30 feet a minute, rapidly clos-
ing in around what soon- will be
the new land.
Sometime in September the
last gaps in the ,dike will be
closed, the world's most power-
ful pumping stations already
built on artificial islands, will
start pumping out the basin
stretching some 15 miles in dia-
meter.
On the erstwhile sea bottom,
still bearing the • grooves of drag-
ging fish nets, a new land of fer-
tile farms
'
towns, and modern
roads will spring up within a
few years under the experi-
enced hands of the Dutch.
This is Eastern Flevoland,
third of the polders conquered
from the water in a massive plan
"which will add to Holland an
area nearly the size of Luxem-
bourg.
All the polder land once was
part of the North Sea, known as
the Zuider. Zee. It was shut off
by a 20-mile-long dike and
turned into a huge fresh-water
lake fed by mainland rivers.
Wieringer Meer (50,000 acres),
first of the polders finished, was
swallowed up by water when the
retreating German army blew
holes in the dike in 1945. The
Dutch plugged the dike and
pumped the polder dry within
two months. Farmers began
plowing right away, working
even by night under spotlights.
They 'did not -miss a crop that
year. The, five.hundred farms
were rebuilt, Today Wieringer
Meer one more is a prosperous
land.
Next came the Northeast Pol-
der, an area of 119,000 acres
which was'completely finished a
few years ago.
Now the sea-conquering fleet
is working on Eastern Flevoland
(133,000 acres). Soon the attack
will start on Markerwaard and
Southern FlevOland, the last two
polders of 133,000 and 11000
acres respectively,
Together the polders will form
the 12th province Of the Neth-
erlands with a total population
of 150,000. Its Capital will be
Lelystad, as yet little more than
VI.Ottesteeee Nesheeeehee.
"The kid built It. They told hlet
they were buying a bird dogt"
a :;anal, boil' that
fected with resin deist end
egused his death.
Tiger Flowers was the next
victim of the Jinx, Losing to
Maxie On a disputed Nei and.
still feeling very much alive.
Tiger agreed to a return contest
in Chicago. It was a place new
to Maxie and he got a shock
when just before the fight he
was visited in the dressing room
by the local gangsters who told
him that if he lost to Tiger he
would be well paid for his
trouble.
Soared stiff, but showing a
bold front, Maxie told them to
clear out. And then wished he
hadn't as they went out, tapping
the bulges under their left
shoulders.
He wished even more that
he'd not been so hasty when
they came back ten minutes
later 'to say they had switched
bets and were now backing him
to win,
"Make sure you get the de-
cision," snarled their leader.
"Or it'll be just too bad for
you!"
Flowers wasn't the type of
fighter you 'could beat as and
when you pleased and he and
Maxie waged a fisirious battle,
first one and then the other get-
ting the advantage.
At the final bell they were
utterly exhausted and to Rosen-
bloom's relief 'the referee de-
cided they had drawn, As the
gunmen hadn't lost their money
Maxie felt safe, but was on edge
all the way back to New York.
Still anxious to prove his
superiority, Flowers sought yet
another contest with Rosen-
bloom, tempting fate again in
the hope of making the third
time pay for all, Maxie didn't
mind. He liked fighting the old
Tiger — anywhere but in-Chi-
cago. '
This time it was in Detroit
and again they. fought a draw.
"Guess I'll have to box you
again, Maxie," drawled the
coloured man. "Wonder where
it'll be?""
There wasn't a next time. A
week later Rosenbloom was in
St. Paul fighting Jock Malone
when, to his amazement, he
learned that Flowers was dead.
In transpired that the colour-
ed warrior had been suffering
a slight eye wound when he
-took the ring against Rosen-
bloom in Detroit.
During the contest the injury
was aggravated and in a few
days had become so bad that an
operation w a s imperative.
Flowers died under the anaes-
thetic exactly as Harry Greb
had done a year earlier.
Now Maxie was really shaken
and for the next few fights he
watched anxiously as his oppon-
ents were medically examined
before going into the ring, even,
asking the- Boxing Commission
doctor to make sure they were
fit to fight.
For nearly six years the
death jinx left Rosenbloom alone.
Then one night, at Houston,
Texas, he met an old acquain-
tance in Young Stribling, The
Georgia Peach had won on
points when they first met and
again Rosenbloom was unlucky
--or was he?
After the fight Strib told
Maxie that his wife had just had
a child and he was dashing off
on his motor cycle to visit them
at Atlanta, about 1,000 Miles
distant.
lie never reached the hospi-
tal, for he was killed in colli-
sion with a lorry. It was ten
days after his meeting with
Rosenbloom in Texas.
But that was the last time the
death jinx struck. Maxie kept in
the fight game for several years
without further incident. "I
reckon I just wore it out," he
stated Soon after his retire-
ment.
Today he's a wealthy night
elublowner in Hollywood, plays
character parts in films and has
a amid cabaret aet of his own.
hilt lifer motoilsti toe isn't equipped Witli tit . telephones the next besi Thing is this tritieniciiiii method being
l'reneti highways, isianieS of autotsts who 'have
*digital* knit id them Ore posted on billbOande Ideated at
ageolegle
fita,,
phititi eking' 'Melee highways, A netion spotting hit
The Panel' tan then proceed la the 'Weakest station Where
Minittaacit watihteA fat- him.
Slapsie Maxie
And His Jinx.
Boxing fatalities -are coin
paratively rare, but they do Oc-
cur and we're always sorry for
the dead man's opeonent, the
boxer who ,la blameless, who is
left with the memory that it
was his fists that battered down
the ill-fated, fighter,
Playboy Maxie Rosenbloom
had- more than his share of
tragedy, A jinx seemed to hang
over him, for so many men died
after meeting him in the ring
that. the more superstitious
avoided hime like the plague.
It wasn't that was a "killer,"
far from it. In fact, they called
him Slapsie Maxie because he
rarely hit with the knuskle part
of the glove. Rosenbloom did
knock a fewhnen out, but never
harmed anyone sufficiently to
cause his 'death.
No, Maxie's hoodoo was not
due to anything 'he did in the
ring. It was the misfortune that
beset his opponents immediately
After they had fought him.
'There were five unlucky
fighters in his life. Joe Scogny,
Harry Greb, Jimmy Delaney,
Tiger Flowers and Young Strib-
ling, and they all died within a
short time of swapping• punches
with Rosenbloom.
No wonder that boxers began
to think twice about signing to
fight him. It's surprising that
Maxie himself wasn't scared
into changing his erodation,
A happy-go-lucky character,
it was fortunate that he was
not the type to let these trage-
dies upset him. Rosenbloom was
a philosopher, and although
genuinely grieved when fate
overtook his "ring rivals, he
knew he could do nothing about
it.
' It all started in New York's
tough East Side when he was
first stepping out on a ring
career. One of his early op-
ponents was a neighbourhood
rival, Joe Scogny, and they had
a terrific and bloody battle that
lasted six rounds with Rosen-
bloom' a points winner.
After the fight they arranged
to meet the next afternoon for
a game of snooker. Joe was -
adept with a cue, but he never
got the chance to get his own
back,
At the appointed hour Maxie
strolled down to the billiards
hall. As he neared his destina-
tion he heard a shot. There Was
shouting and people were run-
ning. Maxie ran, too, Pushing
through the crown he forced his
way into the hall,
There was an acrid" smell and
a wisp or two of smoke. A
small group crouched over the
body of a man. Rosenbloom, pull-
ed someone aside and looked
down — it was Joe Scogny.
Maxie bent down` and raised
his head. Joe's eyes flickered
for a moment, he coughed and
died,
A gunman had shot him
through the heart arid the bitter
part was that the bullet had
been intended for someone else.
Joe had just got in the way.
Rosenbloom was grieved, but
attached he- special inf6rence to
the tragedy until two yeah
later when he niet the renown
;
-
ed Harry Greb and lost On
points.
There Was no Shaine in that
because Greb was the world
middle-weight olitirepion then,
but Maxie was shaken when
}tarry died in hospital, under-
going an emergency operation
on an eye,
He was even more suspicious
that he was being pursued by a
death jites when, foUt thelitha
afterwards, he Met Ellinroy De-
lariey in. Chicinhati,
Delaney Was a very promising
youngster with a big punch, He
almost hijacked llosenbibein out
ht the' fourth round, but Makie
Managed to hang on until his
head cleared.
After that Shock• he gradual-
ly Were the youngster dowri arid
hi the last totted Did him on the
tehede. ticlariey Vas Saved by
the bell; but Atiseribleoni get
the decision and returned to
istew York,
Petit days„ Wee he WAS Meek,
Od to teed that beltin' has died
'Item blood poisoning. When he
Was floored, Anew had fatten
oh his lett tifitis breaking open
"It Was that period before the
holiday season when business
would he at its best; women like
their hair newly permed for
their holidays and the appoint-
ment book was full. It was '30
and troubles seemed/ heavier
under the, shadow of wer.
"I, fell, behind on some of the
hire purchase payments, parti-
cularlythose for the sign. I
didn't :hare about this at first
becauae Ava was so sick and
I had enough to worry about.
"She started to get better and
things were beginning to look
up, when two men arrived from
the credit company to take away
our pole. They started to take •
it down. I argued, hut it was
no use, he could net help; and
the men took away the pole,
"My wife and I were siMple
people; we, ware good hair-
dressers, but we did not under-
stand the law. I took the com-
pany to court over the return
of this sign; and foolishty con-
ducted my own ease. I felt it
was only a question of giving
the court the facts, telling them
the truth, and they would un-
derstand the unfairness of it all.
I know now the power and com-
plexity of the law; and I shud-
der when I think how stupidly
I behaved'.
"I lost the case, and I had to
pay the costs. The company kept
the pole. When I had finished
paying everything• I was bank-
rupt, and still owing for the
mortgage and the driers.
"The bailiffs sat. In our shop
like eager locusts. This was the
most miserable time of all. As
soon as Money was put in the
till, they took it out, every pens
ny. It was heart-breaking. My
wife was in tears most of the
time. If it hadn't been for my
elder brother who helped us out,
and the tips I concealed, we
would have starved,"
He pauses, and reflects. I stop
massaging in spirit and examine
his skin. He is nearly finished.
I start kneading again, and he
carries on,
"For several months we were
both ill with worry and work-
ing too hard in an effort to clear
up our troubles. I was secretly
sure that Ave would be sick
again. One evening the sirens
wailed and we dived for the
shelter at the bottom of the road.
They were 'trying for the docks
and our part of Stepney was
badly hit. After it was all over
we went back, and found the
shop destroyed, everything—all
we had left was what we stood
up in.
"With the shock of all this
happening, my wife was ill, and
things looked black again. I
hadn't a job. But my bachelor
brother once more came to the
rescue; he offered me a job ,in
the electrical shop he owned.
What could I do but accept. Can
you imagine, a barber in an
electrical shop!"
He stops. I have finished his
facial, and dry him Off, I say
to him, "Signor, I'do not under-
stand? This is how you make
money?"
He smiles, almoet sadly.
"Yes, Enrico, he says, "it was.
You see, while I was etaying
with my brother, he liacrin acci-
dent, a bad fall, he: injured his
head and never recovered don-
scinusnees. Ire was a single man,
I Was his only relative arid he
left me the shop. I took it over.
"My brother had taught fife
the business well. I Made steady
progress arid Watched for my
thatiee. ,lust after the War it
chine and I took it with both *
hands. I bought up all the sur-
plus governnient equipment and
vehicles I could, took out all the
electrical fittings, radios, arid
other atiledble parts, end said the'
hulks for Sertne hen, In eleven
et'eat's I reticle a fortune, Anct all
because I wanted a barber's
pole!"
He pays his bill' and leaves.
.And after has left,. I etetid
the open adotWee, his generals
tip in My hand; atid loOk out at
the beautiful' day tie I have done
SO Marty times 'before, Vet seeing' g view, hi the deaf light Of
the Meditetratietiti Perliatier
for the fleet Mite.
I leek at the nehtted itilashea
NOT WHO QUACKED UP' lb =-Orefty good at honking, therntelvesk a 'dal, of chicitti
ttinefeS bleothid ho of aiotoeistk 'WO Severai Otte :of inallattitt
hared lit d backwatee *Igoe Riv6e, lust inside the city limits aernited r,y the -visit
fed deed paitipaeact the ducks. This year, no Oho 's oifiuSed arty aided, for the, wixtialaeit dad. off--"
spM'ig how number about 160. The Cinacking birds ihtecifett to Mittitlitiber the native' citlieniV
- and 'Ile teaffte In them' 'search aloha ',lie road' Me food:
eteeletesessee
ee..eseese7.". ... .. ...
es?.esee
„seaseessess.Wesesse,„