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The Brussels Post, 1949-1-19, Page 3One Dozen Blows By CHAILLOTTTE wreCATLTIiY Mrs, Moyer walked slowly feel- ing as dismal as the drizzly day. This was her wedding anniversary and she knew, with no possible doubt, that her husband had for- gotten about it, Even the head of her fox fur had an almost human expression of weary disillusion as the cold rain dribbled over its nose. All 'very well to remind herself that she ,should be thankful to have such a good husband. Never had he opened his own considerable pay envelope these last ten,years. Nor had he stayed a single evening, nor complained about the way she man- aged her household. But tomorrow the girls would call tep .to find out about her present, and what. could she tell theta? - t.jteewards, • Mrs. Moyer could r 'er retneinby,t just holy 'she got the idea, but she found herself in the florist's. "One dozen of your best roses, please." Her own voice surprised 'her, but she gave her own address calmly, and -told the girl that she did not wish. to enclose a card, 'Years ago, when money had been scarce and flowers an almost un - thought of luxury, her husband had sent her, on their anniversary, a dozen perfect roses. There had been no card enclosed—no need of one. Over the dinner table that night, she chatted about the trivial hap- penings of the day. "Oh dear) That bill at Taylors, and I forgot all about it. This is the fourth, isn't it?" "It's the fourth, all right," His voice was cheerful. "Old Murdoch came around for the rent today, and he never misses the exact date." "I thought you had forgotten the date, but now I can only believe it just doesn't mean auytllitig to you." She tried to keep the tears out of her voice, saying the very thing she had made up her mind that wild horses couldn't shag out She tilted the fragrant blooms to hide her face. "They're. gore-eel:el" of her, but having started she had no intention of backing down now, I'v heard other women saying that their husbands sometimes forgot, but T never dreamed that , , ." The doorbell pealed an interruption. "A box for you .. looks like flowers: She didn't look at hint as she fumbled with the ribbon. She lifted the fragrant blooms to hide her face, "They're gorgeous!" Her fingers trembled, as she pre- tended to search among the rustling paper for a card, "But who could have sent them?" "Don't you remember a certain fellow who sent yott roses 30 years ago? You didn't need a card then," She almost dropped the flowers, Of all the brazen , , bet surely he wouldn't dare pretend , , ? But he evidently 'w'ould. "You_ thought I'd forgotten, didn't you? I haven't asked i0 years just how you feel about it' but to me it's still the most Important date in my life." For the first time in her life, Mrs. Moyer knew that she was going to mance a scene. What she was go- ing t0 1.101 for an excuse, she couldn't for her life imagine, since site just couldn't produce the flor- ist's bill to prove that she knew .he was trying to take credit for something he hadn't done , , , and dressing it up with sloppy sentiment to stake matters worse, Suddenly she became aware that the phone was ringing , shrilly. "Giallo.' Her voice w'as surpris- ingly calm. airs. Mayer? This .s the florist calling, A lady placed an order for a dozen roses to be delivered to your address, and the girl who took' the order did nalt know that all Stu roses had been sold, She didn't Leave a name, As a matter of fact, we did deliver another order there . , , the 0(001' Mr, Moyer ordered, so I hope you aren't too disap- pointed . , , WO would have let you know sooner, but . "Oh, yott let mte- know la tine just in time," she said dazedly and, leaving the receiver i(anglinu from 1110 stook, rushed into the dining room, Sure Sign Of Winter traveling ratan just 111 from a tote' of the countryside reported to this corner the other day that the snow fences are up, Glare been for some time, in fact, The snore fence is a seasonal barometer, of sorts; perhaps it Wright better be called a : ea+ouai marker, +once it does not forecast but Wernly con- firms certain things about seasons two 111 particular --that everybody is pretty sure of already. When the snow fences go up it is a sign tint that winter is ou the i-tay, just over the hill, but that winter is dere, beating at the floor. When they are pulled down one may be sure spring is not about to arrive in a few days or weeks, but that spring has come and already is turning Handsprings across the Meadows, Oddity on the Avenue \Vere someone to ('1111 a enow fence down, say the middle of kifth venue, it is quite possible a lrrge number of persons would not knots what it was says the N. Y. Times. Many city folk might take the red painted fencing to be some new- fangled traffic control device. Bet those who have lived in the oven spaces where snow fences are im- portant would suspect, pardonably, that the city fathers had gone daft and they (night write letters to editors on the futility of putting• snow fences at the bottom of Maw ha tom canons. Fence Against Wind A snow fence is not "horse higfs- bull strong and pig tight," as good fence is supposed to be; bur then its purpose is not to keep livestock from greener pastures. It exists to break the sweep of winds bearing snow, to cause the air ten 'whirl after passing through its pal- ings and in that whirl and momen- tary pause to deposit the tumbling flakes on its lee side instead of upon the roadway a few rods dis- tant, A show fence is not, there- fore, a true fence at all, being simply a device to create snowdrifts to windward of highways, and is called a fence for the good reason that it looks like one. The Forgotten Men The motorist journeying over the countryside without difficulty after a heavy snow is inclined to give silent thanks for cleared roads to the raven who drive the plows—and these often deserve thanks — but he is 1101 likely to give thought to the men who before the snows came set out snow fences which may have diverted tons of snowflakes frons his route before the plows went to work. Putting out snow fences—several hundred thousand feet to a district —calls for a nice discretion. Before he places a snow fence, a man must know something of the prevailing winds; he must know inhere, along a stretch of road, the snow will drift if it is not checked by a fence; he must know also where it will not drift so that he will waste no fencing. If the field where the fence is to be has been planted in wheat and if it is wet when be wants to set out a length of fenc- ing he must wait until the ground dries, for no farmer cares to see part of the crop planned for next summer . being scraped from the soles of muddy boots—particularly if the boots are someone else's. Fences of Yesterday Good snow fences have nothing to do with the making of good ' neighbors, a -function attributed by poets to other fences, such as the fast -disappearing snake f enc e, known also as the stake -and -rider, or Virginia, fence. The snake fence came to the 'end of its lazy crawl across the landscape with the introduction of the mechanical post - hole digger and particularly of fence-nsachines to shape and, pierce posts, making easier erection of the neater but less picturesque plain rail fence of chestnut or locust. As rail fences rot away they are being replaced by, wire fencing, which is tighter and less trouble to set out and to keep up than are wooden sections, But in the transition something is being lost. Many trees along old fence lines owe their existence there to call fences After All, Winter's a Good Skate WINTER stalls traffic on snowy hills, - Wintet' can freeze the plumbing. Winter raises a fellow's bills, But it's nice to know it's coming! WINTER brings the cough and sneeze, Winter endangers a city. Winter makes people fall with ease, But when it comes, it's pretty 1 which served as elevated runways for nut -carrying squirrels and as luncheon tables for birds; from' seeds and nuts dropped along the rails have sprung countless cherry trees and oaks. The use of wire fences Inas reduced substantially fence -line weed and briar patches which the sprawling snake fence encouraged and made available as cover for birds and small game. Farewell to the Stile It seems too bad that no one these days takes the trouble to build stiles over fences. Perhaps the end of stile -building signalled the close of an 0011; W1100 people began to think they were in too great a hurry to follow a fence line to a stile but tools to clambering over anywhere, the age of the stile was dead. Today if a crooked man were to find a crooked stile at the end of a crooked mile, chances are that on the far side of the stile he would see stuck on a crooked post in the field a sigh reading. WARNING. POSTED—KEEP OUT TRESPASSERS PROSECUTED These crooked greetings have supplanted the friendly stile every- where, and we are the poorer for it. Merry Menagerie-ByWaltDisney "Look, Mom --Puss in boots'!" IRi OUR TIME dy Nowt* girths "I've tried all sorts of things but I've had eoee* suer,. 'i't•ZI$ than anything also!' M;sh Really Sensitive William P, Welch and Benja- min J. Cametti, two Westinghouse research engineers, have developed a machine which is so sensitise that with it the weight of a feather can be made to twist a steel bar. The twist amounts to less than one - millionth of an inch. The "twist Vetector"—technically known as an elastic -drift measuring machine— can detect changes in weight as small as one part in 100,000 and can measure a twist of less than one - millionth of an inch. The development of jet engines and other powerful rotating machin- ery has brought a need for more accurate measuring equipnment. Torque -meters or twist measure® are accurate weighing devices in which a steel shaft takes the place of the spring mechanists of the standard scale. The twist in the shaft is a measure of the weight applied, and this can be detected electrically or magnetically and transmitted to teeters for easy read- ing. Although the accuracy is very high—around 98.5 per cent—there are special applications where an even greater precision is required. Hence the new machine. Radium Anniversary Fifty years ago two obscure phy- sicists, Pierre Curie and his Polish wife, Marie Sklodowska, startled the world with the announcement that after much chemical drudgery they had obtained from tons of pitch- blende a few grams of a substance —"radium they called it—which maintained temperature slightly higher than its surroundings and which emitted energy. Henri Bec- querel had previously discovered that uranium, also contained in pitchblende, was radioactive, What distinguished radium was the in- tensity with which it emitted energy. The discovery that the heaviest metals such as uranium, radiutn, polonium and actinium ejected par- ticles which were much stnaller than{ atoms brought about a revolu- tion in physics, But it was not the only discovery that tnade it neces- sary to abandon the conception of the atone as the smallest material particle that could combine with another. The subatomic electron had been discovered and its mass determined. There were other electric pheno- mena that conflicted with the classic atomic theory, When it was found that radiutn shot out the very electrons observed in X-ray tubes anti also alpha particles it was neees- ary to invent a new kind of atom. Instead of the old, invisible atom, somewhat like a minute invisible billiard ball, we now have a com- plex structure that no physicist pretends to understand. Physics was exciting in the Nineties and the early years of this century, when Becquerel, the Curies, Roentgen, E i n s t e n, Rutherford, Planck and others to whom we owe the atonic theory of today were in their prime. In this practical age science is thought of as the handmaiden of engineering, so that it implies motion pictures, electric communi- cation, chemical processes and machines. The change in outlook caused by a great discovery like that of radium is as important as the invention of an atomic power plant. And the change in outlook has been profound since the Curies did their work. In the heyday of Victorian science a physicist rose before the British Association for the Advancement of Science to de- clare that since the universe was demonstrably an intricate, colossal machine, everything would ulti- mately be found to obey mechanical laws, man. included, That cocksure- ness has collapsed. The mechanical laws of nature prove to be man- made—mere statements of statistical averages. Cause and effect have disappeared in atomic physics. Terrified Rats When they are ilia panic of fear, wild rats stand on theiv hind legs by the hour and grasp wires at the top of their cages. Even when their cages are left open, they make no - attempt to escape, but stand motion- less with noses thrust through the wire mesh, eyes fixed straight ahead, They keep this posture for mottles, except when they are disturbed or when they eat or drink. They may run around the cage a few times but go right back to their awkward pose.I Fear of fobd-poisoning is the explanation, according to Dr. Curt P. Richter of John Hopkins Hos- pital, Ile is the scientist who, in the course of psychological ex- periments on the rat's ability to taste, discovered the potent rat poison ANTU. His terrified rats were some that had survived doses of ANTU or other poisons which had made them very i11. In „later experiments, they were given a choice of eating from either of two food cups, One contained the poi- soned food, the other the safe. The rats recognized the poisoned food, but suspected the unpolsoned food as we1I, This fear and suspicion caused their abnormal behavior. TIIL1'ARM FRONT JOkD'RLSeLL. For over a year now, from time to time this column has been point- ing out the danger — to farmers especially—of not carrying enough fire insurance; or rattler, I might better say, of thinking you have en- ou 't when, at present replacement 00510, it is not nearly sufficient. Matter of fact I think that a lot of the insurance companies—and their individual agents—have been very lax in not bringing this matter more clearly to their customers' attention, * * So I was glad to see, in the Farm Forum Guide of January 10th., that there was an article on the same subject, and that it would be dis- cussed as well on the Farm Forum air show. The article deals with a farmer they call Jim Davidson who, after fifteen years of hard work, had almost paid off the mortgage on hie place, and was thinking of taking life a bit easier. * * * Then, One night, lightning struck. Telephone lines were out of order because of the storm, and before help could arrive the barn was a complete loss. * * * It turned out that Davidson had never bothered to take out any in- surance at all — trusting, like too many of us, to luck. Now he dis- covered that it would cost hint around $4,000 to build a new barn— and the whole farm, including house and barn, had cost hint only $8,000 to begin with. Maybe some of you think that I keep harping on this matter too often. But if doing so will induce only one reader to take stock do how he stands In this re- gard — well, I'm not making any apology. * * Now here are a few tips, culled from here and there, which I hope some of you will find of value. Poultry raisers are reminded that after leaving a pen where there are sick birds, it is essential to change your rubbers. Neglecting to do so is taking the risk of carrying disease germs over to houses in which healthy birds are fed, This goes for visitors too. A. trained veterinarian will never go from sick pens to other flocks without changing over- shoes, or cleaning * same* carefully. Also for poultry raisers is the re- minder that hydrated Iime makes deep litter much more absorbent, and less inclined to cake. An agri- cultural experiment station recom- mends stirring lime into the litter at the rate of 10 or 15 pounds per 100 ' square feet of floor space. You can also use a rate of one pound per littler. Even if poultry feed supply and prices may be a bit more favorable than in the past, keep on culling. Low producing hens are expensive boarders, so get rid of thein as poul- try meat. If a hen won't pay for feed with eggs, get rid of her for what she'l*l bring. * * It's the little things—the things so easy to overlook — that makes a farm, according to statistics, one of the most dangerous places there is' to live on. For example, the farmer is probably the "climbingest" person on earth. Yet he takes less care of his climbing equipment than most anyone else, in spite of the fact that falls are the Number One type of farm accident. And there's no real necessity that this should be the case ---eat it you'll do these things. Keep your ladders in good repair at all tines; build barn ladders so that you Call get a secure footing on each and every rung; extend permanent Padders at least four feet above the level of the loft floor; build ladders so that you can grasp the side Tails instead of the rungs; keep ladders and stair- ways clear of hay and other materials; and build a guard rail around all ladder and stair openings. * * * I don't get around to tips far the ladies very often, but here's one which may save trouble for those of you who have washing machines. Cold weather calls for special care of this sort of household equipment. Bring the washing" machine into a warm room for a few hours before starting it going—or else let the tu' stand full of warm water for an hour before beginning to wash. This warms the grease of the motor. And don't forget that hot water poured on very told porcelain may easily crack the enamel. * * City folks are given to complain- ing about the high prices of things like bread and milk — and maybe they have reason for so doing, but they shouldn't put too much blame on the "grasping" farmer. If farm- ers gave to consumers all the,wiseat needed to make bread FREE OF CHARGE it is said that the saving would amount, to something less than three centa loaf. * * * And Isere are a couple of quotes which maybe you haven't seen be- fore. "They're still looking for the perfect tax—the one that's paid ex- clusively by the other fellow."—and "Lots of people can hear a rattle in their cars far quicker than one in their heads". Which should he about enough for just nowt Queer Cases Law courts, at tines, have some queer cases to decide. In a recent issue of the New York Times, ITarold Helper outlines a few that are really out of the ordinary. A Boston Man for pelting his estranged wife with chocolate eclairs. * * * A Pittsburgh man for attempting to force a golf ball into his wife's mouth so she would not scream when he beat her. * * * A New Haven woman for call- ing a judge "a fat Republican." * * * A St. Petersburg invalid for re- fusing to yield the right-of-way and crashing his wheel chair into an automobile. * *. * A Kenosha man for driving his truck into a tavern to get his wife who had been obstinate about leaving. * * * Two Spanish-American war vet- erans eterans for fighting a duel with canes over a woman, * * * • A Brooklyn man for throwing a bull fiddle at another during an argument. * * A Chicago matt for uncoupling the coaches from the engine when he couldn't find a seat on a trait. ARE YOU ISCOURAS:.' E DI because you suffer distress from FEMALE !'.. ipe CO which makes you NERVOUS HIGH-STRUNG on such days? Are you troubled by distreso of female functional monthly disturbances which makes ypu surfer, feel so neruous, cranky, rootless, Weak—at such times? Then do try Lydia E. Pinkham's Vegetable m _ Cont- pound to relieve such sympto el ,. In a recent test it proved helpful to women troubled this way. Why don't you got smart and try Ib yourself? Pinkham'e Compound Is what is known as a uterine sedsttve. It has a soothing effect on one of woman'( moat important organs. PLANTS For over 70 years thousands of girls and women have reported benefit. Just sea if you, too don't report oeec1ia t eoeulte. Worth trying( NOTE, Or yea mny prefer LYDIA E. PINWORM'S TABLETS with ridded lama. Lydia E. Pinkhatn's VEGETABLE COMPOUND JITTER WOWTHIS LANDSCAPE .WILLGETARIBBDN1 5�,11RFt AT VIM CAMERA Cruet TNIS RSD LIGHT DOESN'T s'Mow MUCH OUT I MUSN'r , FOG IT WITH ANYTHING STRONGalt .N Iii i li I il' By Arthur Pointer ,