The Seaforth News, 1952-07-10, Page 3Tho3dU�
Seize Suit
By MiCHAEL TIFF
It hung on the wall opposite the
door as you cause into the front
room—the picture of my father In
his blue serge snit, the only suit I
had known him to own. That pic-
ture had atways fascinated me. It
presented my father es quite a
handsome young man: the photo.
graph had been taken, of course,
some dozen years ago, just before
he had married my mother. More
than once she had told nee about
how my father had courted her in
that suit and when she had first
seen hint in it she had sworn hint
to be the best looking man in the
world. It had become the symbol
of their merrier days and both of
them cherished it. Only ort two
occasions since their marriage had
my father worn that suit; my chrise
teaiug and a neighbour's daugh-
ter's wedding,
But things between my father
and mother were not altogether
peaceful. They spent their time to-
gether arguing about little matters.
As for instance, my father would
clump into the kitchen ou a wet
day and leave mud tracks on the
floor.
"There you go," she'd say,
"treading mud tracks all over toy
clean kitchen. I suppose yeti like
to see me on my knees scrubbing
away like a slave" And my father
would say, "I can't walk into my
own house without being blas-
phemed."
On a bright suauner morning my
mother was serving breakfast and
I could see Iter eyes sparkle as if
she had an idea. "I'in going to
visit mother in Scottsville," site
said. "1'll take Henry with me."
"Always thinkin' up something.
Where's the money coining from
for tickets?" said my father.
"I saved it up, penny by penny."
"Waste of money," said my fa-
ther. "With so much work on the
farm, in the middle of summer,
she wants to take a trip to her
mother. Huhl"
"I can see my own mother
sometimes in a blue moon. I'd be
glad to get away from you for a
spell, believe me. The way you snap
and bite at me."
"Al! right, then. Go and see if
I care," said my father.
Stolidly my mother packed a sat-
chel, She dressed me in my Sun-
day white blouse and black cor-
duory trousers. I wore my shoes.
My father tools us to Oak Leaf
Junction a mile away. We rode
in the top -wagon, drawn by our
white horse, Prince,
At the station my mother bought
the tickets and we waited in si-
lence. The train clanged in, and
we got ole, and I heard my father
say "Good-bye" to my mother and
she said that to biro. As the train
moved away I looked out of the
window and saw my father stand-
ing near the wagon.
My mother and I went to the
movies in Scottsville and we ate
ire cream and store cake. Life was
full for me, just to walk along
Main Street and watch everything,
My mother seemed different some-
how here in Scottsville; she never
argued with anyone. Sbe even
smiled. Toward the end d the first
week, however, I noticed a shadow
flit across her face. •
One night, as we were return-
ing from a movie, my mother said:
"Your father is a hard-working
man, Henry."
As the end of the second week
approached the favorite subject of
conversation for my mother was
my father. Soon she talked of
hardly. anything else.
We were going home. The train
flitted by forest And meadow and
stream.
I could dose my eyes and pic-
ture my father itt his overalls,
waiting for us with Prince and the
top -wagon, just the way we had
left him.
The train slowed down. Soon we
were being helped off the coach by
the conductor. My mother looked
nice in her new dress, so carefully
selected by her and my grandmo-
ther, bought with the remainder of
my mother's savings.
As site stood on the platform of
Oak Leaf Junction at last, she
seemed to be of the city, indeed. 1
saw my father coming toward us
and hie face was quite clean shaven.
Ile didn't wear his sun hat and
his iron gray hair was rontbed
back. As I looked at hunt my- eyes
opened it wonder, So did my mo-
ther's, lily father was wearing his
blue serge suit.
He nodded at me. He took the
satchel toward the horse and wa-
gon. He stumbled over the single
platform step to the ground and
brushed against my mother. "Ex -
remise 111e," he stammered.
Largest In World — Secretary Delight Dawnhan'
holds a section of the largest stranded electrical
cable ever fabricated for an overhead 'transmis-
sion line. The cable, over 214" in diameter, con-
sists of 108 aluminum wires over a core of steel
wires. Required for the big new aluminum
development in British Columbia this largest of
all electrical cables will carry power over ztl
particularly mountainous 10 -mile pass section
of the 50 -mile long power transmission line be-
tween the powerhouse at Kemano and the alu-
minum smelter at Kitimat. The cable will have
an ultimate strength of 135,700 pounds, At the
left is a cross section of the cable.
From one of the best dairying
sections of New Brunswick conies
sound advice, says an editorial in
The Financial Post. In a recent
editorial the editor of Kings County
Record of Sussex discusses the new
official floor price for cheese. After
reviewing the experience with gov-
ernment purchasing of and assis-
tance to dairy products both in
this country and in Great Britain,
he 'bluntly states that the salvation
of the Canadian industry does not
lie` with governments but with the
dairymen themseives, He stuns it
up this way:
* *
Government intervention into
business, whether it be farming or
anything e'se, seldom works satis-
factorily. There may be temporary
benefits, but in the long run gov-
ernmen' assurances may cause com-
placency which destroys initiative
and the will to sell. If a person
must sell his product or go out of
business, be is much more apt to
try to give the customer what he
wants,
* '1- *
"Dairy farmers in Canada today
have a hard struggle in front of
them. They have lost many of
their markets, Milk and butter
consumption by Canadians has de-
creased. The challenge to the far -
mere is to build up that consump-
tion, and their best chance of
doing so is by- direct dealing with
the tirade; through telling the people
what they have to offer; and by
ael'ing their products at the lowest
possible prices which will give
them a reasonable return on their
investment and labor."
* * *
That is good advice not only for
Canadian dairying but for a great
many other industries, too. During
the war and lint's, too many pro-
ducers .got into the habit of ex-
pecting the government to look
after their marketing and. their
comfort, They forget that this is
a job the producer, manufacturer or
processor can best da himself and
that it is his job to do it.
* * #
Government marketing of wheat,
cheese, meats and other products
hats been a costly business for pro-
ducers, consuters and taxpayers.
It has not produced stability either
in production or in returns to Gte
farmer. It has not protected us
against scarcities or gluts. It has
not opened up new markets.
* * *
In dealittg with an emergency
such as we faced during the war or
when the outbreak of foot and
mouth disease brought an immedi-
ate embargo on the export of live-
stock products to the United States,
there is justification for the gov-
ernment stepping into the picture
—but only temporarily. The great
danger with this sort of thing,
however, is that we tend to regard
every little disturbance as a crisis
calling for emergency treatment.
* * *
The sooner Canadian agriculture
and other industries get back to
normal marketing the better for
everybody.
* * *
Sone Federal veterinarians have
proclaimed their confidence that
the outbreak of foot and mouth
disease in Western Canada has
been conquered, that the eradication
campaign is now in its final stages,
If that optimism proves well found-
ed, then we are fortunate indeed.
* * *
The recent Canadian outbreak,
the first of its kind in almost a
century, has cost us millions its
animals destroyed and its the in-
terruption to trade, especially in ex-
ports of live animals and animal
products to the United States, But
the price is trifling compared to
what it might have been had the
disease continued. and spread.
* * *
Then we would have had to aban-
don all hope of any early reopening
of the U.S. market, an outlet worth
not less than $150 millions lu a
normal year. Repercussions of that
blow would have spread all through
our basic agricultural industry and
from that to a score of secondary
industries that are dependent on
agriculture for raw materials and
purchasing power.
* *
Perhaps it is too soon to assume
that we are out of danger. But
every day clear from now on bol-
sters the hope that the virus has
been stamped out and that within
perhaps a few months we can ex-
pect to sec restrictions lifted and
normal markets to reopen.
Building Mystery
Freight transport these days pre-
sents few, if any, difficulties. No
matter how bulky, unwieldy, or
awkward the load, it can be trans-
ported throughout the civilized
world. From huge generators tra-
velling by articulated lorry or loco-
motive to floating docks towed
across seas, we take it all as a
matter of course.
Yet by no means the least re-
markable of achievements, so far
as transportation is concerned, was
the conveyance from the quarries
of huge blocks of limestone by the
Pyramid builders, Some of the
heaviest pieces weighed as much
as 200 totes.
It is highly improbable, records
Mr. I. E. S. 1?dt,ards in his in-
teresting book, "The Pyramids of
Egypt," that wheeled vehicles were
used, Sledges were the mode of
conveyance. The blocks were care-
fully levered on to the sledge and,
quite likely, the whole vehicle was
then raised again by means of
skilful leverage, and wooden rol-
lers slipped endereuath to help ease
the journey or the runners. The
laden sledge was then laboriously
dragged to its clestinatioa by teams
of men hauling on ropes. To lessen
,Friction, liquid was poured nil to
the ground over which the sled
would travel.
Mr. Edwards's hook provides
satisfying answers to the oft -re-
peated question- ow were the
Pyramids built?
eking For Tr,ct
Of Noates A.lrk
Six French explorers were slated
to leave Naris Juste 13 to look for
traces of Noah's Ark oft t'he Turk•
ills bank of Alt. Ararat, legendary
resting place of the Ark after the
great flood subsided,
The expedition, led by Jean de
Rimier,' noted Arctic explorer, has
special Amcricau apparatus capable
of determining the age of wood.
Two cameramen are ready to re-
cord traces of the elusive Ark if
they find
Titis is the first expedition to
beat the Soviet blockade on Ara-
rat explorers since Dr. Aaron J.
Smith, dean of the People's Bible
School, Greenboro, N.C., failed to
find remains of tete Ark itt a IS -day
search in September, let9.
Several other explorers have
tried to succeed where his five -man
expedition failed, but the Russian
Government has foiled them by
malting strenuous protests to the
Turkish Government, holding that
the explorers were western spies.
The 17,000 -foot peak, highest in
the Caucasus, is situated close to
the junction of the Russian, 'Turk-
ish, and Iranian frontiers, but the
remains are thought to be on the
southwestern .flank, in Turkey.
The French expedition, which
will join with a Turkish priest in
Turkey, also intends to collect
mineral, zoological, and botanic
specimens from the mountain,
The authority for looking on
Ararat is in the Bible, which says,
in the eighth chapter of Genesis:
"And the ark rested in the sev-
enth month , on the mountains
of Ararat. And the waters decreas-
ed continually.....
The first recorded attempt to
find the remains was made by a
German explorer, financed by the
Czar of Russia, in 1829. He failed,
but the legend persisted. World
Interest was revived in 1916 when
a Russiou aviator flying over the
Caucasus claimed to have seen a
vessel perched ou the 17,000 -foot
pueak,
The Communist revolution in-
tervened and all news of the Ark
was suppressed in Russia—the new
rulers felt that discovery would
strengthen belief in the Bible.
2'othing more was heard of the
pilot.
Unable to talk to the aviator,
archeologists. had little to work on.
Some said the retains would be
half the size of the liner Queen El-
izabeth, others predicted a few
spars strewn over the mountain-
side.
TALE OF A DOG
•
Walking down a street, a loan
passed a doorstep on which sat a
Peke and an Alsatian on either
side. As he strolled by 1t was
s{arrtled t Lieu the Alsgtjatd re-
mark: 'Lovely day, isn't ft.
He rustled over to a wot1tanyo
was standing at the (fool and said:
"Th -that Alsatian just spoke to
me."
"Were you fooled, too?" laughed
the woman; "it's the Peke --he's a
ventriloquist"
eeeseeeeeseeeeete
Sure You' Can Itlartt
Aside froth things like glass,
sweet pests and onrsery stock,
which should get established before
the really hot weather, one ran
go on planting regularly right up
to early July in moot parts of the
rountry. Expert gardeners who
want to get the matt out of their
land, indeed, make a regular prac.•
tiee of sowing a iew rows of beets,
carrots, beans, corn, and such
things every fortnight up to the
end of June or even into July. 1f
we give these tate gardens a little
extra cultivation, a little watering
and possibly some quick -acting
commercial fertilizer they will come
along fast and mature in plenty of
time before frost:
When It Gets riot
The wise gardener will change
'his methods a bit when the days!
turn hot. With the lawn he will
cut less frequently, certainly no
oftener than once a week, and he
will usually let the clippings lie
where they fall to form a bit of
protecting mulch. He will also set
his mower a little higher so that
the grass is not cut so short
In the flower and vegetable gar-
den, even if no weeds have been
allowed to grow, he will continue
a light cultivation once a week or
every ten day*, to create what is
known as a dust mulch schien will
prevent evaporation of moisture
front the soil,
Before going on holidays it is
a excellent plan to go over flower
and vegetable gardens lightly with
a cultivator then, if possible, mulch
lightly with grass clippings or sinti-
lar material to conserve the mots-
tare. If necessary and possible one
should water thoroughly the nighe
before this final pre -holiday eultl-
vatinn.
* * *
A Good Thne to Plan
Froin now right through to fait
is an excellent timr.•to look around
and make notes for the bigger and
better garden we are going to have
next year. It's an excellent idea to
keep a note -book and list certain
things we are going to have for
sure next year. We should jot down
such items as color and season of
bloom, height, resistance to disease
and drought and, of course, the
name of anything the see growing
its a neighbor's garden that we hone
to have in otic O [t
With certain line's of nursery
stock, most shrubs trees, vines,
etc., one can buy it tl plant in the
fall just as well as next spring,
By doing this we get these esta-
blished earlier and save time for
other jobs next year.
Who Has Potato Worries?—Not Carl B. Mitchell, of Rock Is{:and!
Village. The 11 -pound sweet potato he's preparing to demolist't
should last him for some time. A smaller, seven -pound spud was
delicious, says Carl.