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The Seaforth News, 1957-01-10, Page 2s. Queer Quirks of Great Authors Some authors are queer coves: Arnold Bennett once told Frank Swinnerton that he had a weak - ass for buying pictures, but his Trench wife objected, so he would bring a new one home secretly; hide it under the bed, and six months later hang it en a wall, "Marguerite sees it, and says: 'Oh, you have a new picture!' I say: 'No, I've had that for months! ' But it wasn't as secret as he though for within twenty-four hours Mrs. Bennett was telling Swinnerton: _ "You know what Arnold does? He buys a picture. He hides it under his bed. Soon, he hangs it on the wall. I say: 'Oh, Arnold, I see you have a new picture.' He says, very in- nocent: That? I've had that a long time!' But I, know!" John Galsworthy, author of th e famous "Forsyte Saga," wrote a short story, "The Stoic," in which an old, sick man, who knows that a single meal of rich food will instant- ly kill him, eats a suicide din- ner. Soon after the story appeared he met Bennett, who said: "That ' meal was a meal!" Galsworthy at once asked him to dinner and gave him, in miniature, the very meal described in the story. When they were both war - correspondents, H. W. Nevinson demanded of Sir Philp Gibbs that he should accompany him on a walk up and down an open Belgian esplanade under Ger- man fire, to show that they were not afraid. "But I am afraid," Gibbs protested — in vain; they had to parade until Nevinson decided they had proved their courage. H. M. Tomlinson, as a young journalist, was told by a friend that a big ship was to sail a thousand miles up the Amazon into the heart of South Ameri- ca. Incredulous, Tomlinson said: "A ship with that draught can't do it." The friend replied: "Come and see for yourself. We have a spare cabin." Accepting the offer, Tomlin - eon recorded what he saw in his successful book, "The Sea and the Jungle." Swinnerton says in a well- written literary memoir of the past fifty years — "Background with Chorus" — that poet Rob- ert Nichols rarely completed the masterpieces he planned. He once confessed that he had seven desks in his workroom, each with the beginning of a potential classic; but although he paused a while at each desk, savouring what he'd written, he eventually found he did not have sufficient talent to finish, them. Harry Lawrence and A. IL Sullen, former publishers, once imported French plates for a luxury erprint of a certain bawdy work, but before they could dispose of the edition they received, to their dismay, a letter from the secretary of a league for the protection of public morals, saying he be- lieved the book to be highly ob- jectionable and his chief inspec- tor would therefore ' call on st certain day to inspect copies of the book. Frantically, they had the stock crated and sent to France at considerable expense, but no inspector arrived on the stated day. The next morning came a further letter saying he'd been prevented from call- ing as arranged but would come a week hence, When he did arrive he proved to be an old playwright friend, who had, sent the letters to give them a fright. Delighted with the success of his joke, he re- funded all expenses. A tragic life -story was that of novelist George Gissing. Lonely as a college boy in Manchester, he picked up a young, loose - living girl and, to save her from ruin, bought her a sewing ma- chine taking money from the overcoat pockets of fellow -stu- dents. Found out, he was sent to the U.S.A., where he spent long months in semi -starvation. Re- turning to England, he married the girl and tried to keep them both by such work as a boy of twenty-one could do, but she vanished and went back to the streets. When she died he was touch- ed to discover that she had kept to the last his photograph and a little picture he'd given her. He wrote "The Unclassed," based on the experience, and other novels about the London poor. Desperate again with loneli- ness and overwork, he ran out into the street one day and ask- ed the first girl he met to mar- ry him. It was not a happy mar- riage; illness eventually robbed the wife of her reason. In addition to anecdotes of famous authors, the book con- tains criticism and inside stories of Mr. Swinnerton's own life as an eminent bookman. E'ELL IN LOVE WITH A PICTURE Holbein's portrait of Anne of Cleves was so flattering that when he saw it, Henry VIII at once became eager to make her his queen, and sent his ambas- sadors to escort her to England. But her appearance did not live up to the portrait and Holbein — a man of many ups and downs — was once more in dis- grace. THEY COULDN'T HAPPEN—BUT DID!—The goofy things that can happen to people! There's a flock of freak accidents. every year and, about this time, the National Safety Council rounds them up for you. Below are illustrated a few of the Council's 1956 collection of cockeyed catastrophes. Many a golfer shoots ,a birdie, but not as literally as 12-year- eld Rick 1?ickard of Baldwins- eille, N.Y. Young Rlckie, play - tag his first golf game, did the first two holes In routine testi- don. At the third hole, he teed off, hit a whizzer down the fair- way, hit a bird in flight and killed it. Airs. Mary Hastings Bradey, of Chicago, is a noted author and !big game hunter. She has sur - %dyed six African safaris with- out injury. But in the calm of She trophy room of her own home, she tripped over a lion's bead and broke her arm. It j lwarn't even her lion—it had I [been shot by her husband. Richard Fleming, of Woodland, 1 alif., had reason for losing his $ead while driving. A wood- pecker was pecking away at 15. The bird, a family pet, was in Bis son's lap when it mistook F ieming's skull for a tree and went to work. The car left the. highway and rolled over twice.. Aleither Fleming was hurt. The woodpecker found a tree. Gorden Gibson, of Knoxville Tenn., Is now a hearty support' er of those states that prohibi the Indiscriminate sale of fire crackers. One day he reached absentmindedly for a eigaret and stuck a two -Inch firecracker in his mouth and lit it. From his hospital bed, Gibson mum- bled through his bandages: "1 aswr g off smoking!" Messy or Wet, They Both Lose 'Pie -eyed" or wet feet, it's the choice of the lesser of two dis- comforts. Georgine Johnson,... right, Is vicepresident of the UCLA.. sophomore class. She's shown with the remains of pie and mud on her face, after she and her, classmates met the freshmen In a pie -eating con- test. Georgina really -tasted de- feat. F. James Barnes II,below, Isn't much better off, as, he slips intothe watery depths of a Daytona Beach, Flat, Tool. Barnes was on the weaker side of a tug-of-war, at a convention of the National Association of - Travel Organizations. TABLE TALKS eiamAnattews Europeans often use fruit with ice cream in the opposite way from which we use it. Instead of putting it on top of ice cream and calling it a sundae, they place the ball of ice cream on the fruit and use many different names to describe it. In one of the S.S. Queen Elizabeth's re- cent trips to Europe we were served crushed pineapple topped by chocolate ice cream. Almost any variety of fruit is used, either alone or mixed with any flavor of ice cream. Inevitably, it is topped with whipped cream and served with a little wafer. In England a dessert that ap- pealed to the 2Q mg��tbers of the party I am travellIng with was apple and blackberry pie. The fruits were combined, the liquid thickened and then put between crusts. I had this combination in a pie in the world-famous London restaurant, Simpson's -in - the -Strand (I had roast saddle of mutton with red currant jelly first), and also at Old House in Windsor where it was served with clotted cream - a full pitcher for each diner, writes Eleanor Richey Johnson in The Christian Science Monitor. In Switzerland, thickened fruit was topped with a meringue instead of crust for a dessert that was popular with Americans. The dessert that has brought more oh's and ah's than any other in my several weeks of travel on the continent was a refrigerator pudding we had at the Hotel Metropole in Brussels. Ladyfingers had been used for the base, lining a bowl, and filled with a combination of custard and whipped cream. It was served with a scarlet sauce that was half cranberry. and half strawberry. It was served quite cold, and was frothy, sweet, and satisfying. The bread puddings of today are often rich and fancy — a far cry from those bland affairs that jokes were made about a few decades ago! For instance, the following one should be served hot out of the oven, all puffed up with its exciting new, macaroon topping. This is a ruby -red pudding: a thickened cherry sauce is blended with bread crumb meringue and gaily topped off with great snowy balls of the same meringue. It is flavored with almond extract. * * CHERRY MACAROON BREAD PUDDING s/a cup butter 2.tablespoons flour Dash salt s cup sugar 1 can (No. 2) sour pitted red cherries, water packed M teaspoon red food coloring 4 egg whites 1 cup sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 teaspoon almond extract 1 quart coarse, dry bread crumbs Melt butter in saucepan. Blend in flour and salt. Add sugar. Drain cherries and add s cup of juice (add water, if neces- sary) to the butter mixture in saucepan. Add cherries. Bring to boil, stirring constantly. Re- move from heat and stir in red food coloring. Cool. Beat egg whites until foamy. Add 1 cup sugar gradually, beat- ing after each addition. Beat until mixture is shiny, and stiff peaks are formed. Fold in van- illa and almond extracts and bread crumbs. Reserve 14 cups of meringue. Fold remaining meringue mixture into cooled cherry mixture. Place in bottom of an 8 -inch square baking pan. Drop 9 mounds of egg- white mixture on top of pudding. Bake at 350° F. for 25 minutes. Serves nine. * * * Here is a "nobody'd-guess-it- was - a - bread - pudding" recipe. Serve it with hot butterscotch sauce for a new, rich, taste. PEACH CUP PUDDING With BUTTERSCOTCH SAUCE 5 canned clingstone peach halves 2 eggs 1 cup sugar Ve teaspoon cinnamon 3 cups soft white bread crumbs 2 tablespoons melted butter Place 1 peach half, cup side up, in each of 5 well -buttered custard cups. Beat eggs; beat sugar into eggs, a little at a time. Add cinnamon, bread crumbs, and butter and blend well. Pour into custard cups on top of peach halves. Bake about 25 minutes at 400° F. Remove from cups and serve warm, peach side up. Serve sauce separately. SAUCE 1 cup peach syrup % cup sugar Few grains salt 2 tablespoons cornstarch 2 tablespoons butter let teaspoon cinnamon Combine all ingredients and stir until well blended. Bring to boil and stir until thick. If you'd like to combine fresh pears and apples with whole- wheat bread in a baked pudding, try this apple -pear bread des- sert. ' APPLE -PEARS BETTY 2 cups soft whole-wheat bread crumbs cup melted butter Scups (3 large) tart sliced apples % 'cup sugar Ili teaspoon nutmeg 1 teaspoon grated lemon rind 3 cups (3 large) firm sliced pears cup boiling water Combine bread crumbs and melted butter; place % of mix- ture in a 1% -quart buttered cas- serole. Cover with all the sliced apples. Combine sugar, nutmeg, and lemon rind; sprinkle half Of this mixture over apples. Cover with tits of crumbs. Cover with the sliced pears, then add the remaining sugar mixture. Pour boiling water over all. Top with remaining crumbs. Cover. Bake 30 minutes in a preheated 375°F. oven. Remove cover and bake 20 minutes more, or until brown. Serves 6. a * * For the men in your family who always want chocolate des- serts, here is a chocolate bread pudding. CHOCOLATE BREAD PUDDING 1 cup dry bread crumbs 1 square baking chocolate shaved or grated 2 cups milk, scalded 1 tablespoon butter 1 cup sugar s/ teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 egg, well beaten Mix bread crumbs with shaved chocolate and add to scalded milk\ in saucepan; stir over low heat until chocolate is melted. Add butter and cool slightly. Add remaining ingredients and mix well, Pour into well -greased 6 -cup casserole and bake at 375°F. for 1 hour, or until a sharp knife inserted in the centre comes out clean. Serve hot with slightly sweetened whipped cream or hard sauce. Serves 6. LEMON HARD SAUCE M cup butter, softened 1 cup confectioners' sugar s/a teaspoon granted lemon rind 1-1% teaspoons lemon juice '4 teaspoon lemon flavoring Work butter until light and creamy. Add other ingredients. DEAD HORSE KICKS MAN "Never say die until you're kicked by a dead horse!" is an old Australian saying. A far- mer, near Bellingen, New South Wales, felt a little strange about the saying recently. He shot a horse, cut its throat and .was skinning the left leg when it jerked loose and whacked- him on the •chin. The farmer had to have six stitches taken. Institutes' Head Backe Attack On Accidents "Heartbreak or happiness — the choice is often up to the hostess who entertains during the Christmas and New Year's holidays", declared Mrs. J. W. Adams, Ethelton, Sask., press.= dent of the Federated Women's Institutes of Canada in a pre. holiday statement, "Canadian housewives must realize the heavy responsibility which rests on their shoulders during this holiday period", she said, "and they must accept tbit responsibility and act accord- ingly." Traffic fatalities during this. festive period have been on tha increase in recent years, Mrs. Adams pointed out, and many of these accidents could have been avoided if more thought had been put into the planning of holiday parties and the refresh- ment served at them. In the gaiety and warmth of family reunions, and the visits of dear and old friends, caution is sometimes "flung to the winds" and what started out to be a wonderful evening ofter ends in tragedy. In concluding, Mrs. Adams suggested a few simple rules tc be followed by the Canadian hos. tess this year in order to ensure a happy and safe holiday season for all: 1. Always have food avail- able for your guests. Tasty spreads and dips for crackers and potato chips, cold meat cuts and e variety of cheeses are always welcome and easy to serve. 2. If you are among many Canadians who serve alcoholic beverages, keep the safety oi your guests in mind and be mod- erate. Give them a cup of hot soup, chocolate, coffee or other alertness beverage before they leave.' 3. Night driving in the win- ter on icy roads or in the glare of snow packed roads is hard on the nerves and the eyes. Suggest to the wives that they take a spell at the wheel if any distance is to be covered. 4. Listen carefully to weather reports on your radio before your guests leave and invite them to stay overnight if a snow. storm is predicted. Saving'theii lives is worth any inconvenience to you. 5. Suggest to your guests that they carry with them a thermos of coffee to provide a break when they have to travel in iso- lated areas. This will help them stay alert and alive. With road conditions the way they are at this time of the year, a driver needs all of his facul- ties, says Mrs. Adams. Not only must he take utmost care with his own driving, but must con- stantly be on the watch for the often hazardous driving of others. Isn't it the truth? "The driver is safer when the roads are dry, The roads are safer when the driver is dry." ROADLESS WONDER No roads are needed for this vehicle, The Transporter can haul a 70,000 -pound cargo over steep embankments and ditches, through mud, sand or snow. Power- ful electric motor is geared directly to each wheel to provide the Transporter with all -wheel drive. VENETIAN SCENE - Looking like a vista along ..the Grand Canal in Venice is this picture of a flooded street in Port Said, Egypt Civilians try to salvage their belongings from wrecked buildings whilst R! British tank stands guard.