Loading...
The Seaforth News, 1948-05-27, Page 2;Footsteps In the Dark By . ].9FLEN BEMIS At, f ve-thirty. P. M. as usual,' George Madison left the First Na- tional bank of Crosstown. He start- ed up the busy street with that deliberate tread of his, then swung back to the corner. It might look suspicious to change his ways to- night, The sante, sir?" asked old Tim, blind since the battle of the Marne in World War 1. "Yes," said George, wincing as his niche'„banged the tin cup, "A bit cool for April,” offered Tun handing up the Crosstown Evening News. "Get to know wea- ther, don't we — being out in it every day like me an' you. Say-- jus' ay—jus' how many years you been ton- in' from the First National to get my papers?" George started, paled, Couldn't let on to the old fool that after midnight he wouldn't be around, couldn't explain that after tonight he'd he a free man, a man of means, no longer a slave. Only thing you could call a bank teller, wasn't it? "It's it's about 15 years," came from George's dry lips. "No doubt the bank folks are - .pretty fond of you by this time," commented Tim, "They're mighty nice to me, too—front the presi- dent down." --"Yes, of course," chopped out George, swinging away. Mrs. Murray's gloomy boarding house irritated him more than ever tonight. But after warm food and lively table conversation with the other boarders, his confidence rose. He was able to let himself into the First National that evening,, nearly as calmly as he'd done hun- dreds of former evenings. Only this time he would not be working overtime for his superiors. Just for himself. Finally, he was stuffing big rolls of currency into a traveling bag. He hoped his luck would hold, that Henry, the night watchman, would doze in the back room, as usual. His luck did hold. It held so well it was uncanny. Eve]. his aged automobile ran perfectly till close to daybreak, when he abandoned it and hopped a fast freight for the west, His chief objective now was to, reach a certain man highly skilled in, plastic surgery, a man who'd do anything for a price. George Madison now became James Farnum. His hair was bleached white, his upper lip was "Let me go! I'm James Farnum1" exclaimed the terrified George, smooth -shaven, his once good- looking nose was unpleasantly aqui- line. Even his voice was higher pitched, He not only looked dif- ferent, he felt different. IIe was rich. In Alaska, he went into fur trading, became surprisingly pros- perous. He remained a bachelor and avoided making close friends. Three years of this and grew restless. He went to Chicago, then to New York and took in the hest shows and night clubs. He ran 'into Ed Ratchet, former clerk in the old First National of. Cross- town. He talked with him at length and wasn't recognized. So he decided to return to Crosstown and take a look around. After all it was his home. I -Is was put up at the Cross- town hotel with no questions ask- ed. In the hotel lobby, on the streets and in the shops, he was treated like any stranger. One day as he passed the bank, he saw old blind Tim sitting on his customary. corner, Tint was. selling a newspaper to a strange man. "Guess I'll drop a five spot in Tim's cup for luck," decided George. It gave hint a warts feel- fig insid,0 to be going toward old 1 im again, But as he paused before him, Tint leaped up and grabbed George's beautifully tailored sleeve. He cried, "George Madison! It's George Madison!" "Let me gol I'ni James Fer- min -11" ]. - tainted the terrified Geor- ge, trying to pull away. • "What a break." said the strange • man, holding out handcuffs. "I've been looking for you a very long tin,.l Thought you might blow back—tley generally dol" "Plain- clothes, eh?" sneered George. "l'II prove you're wrong sue—I'll—" "Can't fool me," piped up old Tint "1 get to know a man's foot- steps rfter hearing 'ens for 15 years!" The End In the Holy Land, a New Flag Rises Against Menacing .Mort ars—These 'Lebanese- soldiers of the Arab Army of Liberation are part of a heavy weapons group using French 75 nun trench mortars. Such mortars have been used constantly in the past few weeks in the battle for Jerusalem; as British Moved out, more Arab forces poised for invasion- Two 'IIanganah-soldiers stand guard beside the colors of Israel that were raised over Haifa after the seaport city was captured by the Jews, Departure - of British High Commissioner symbolized end of Britain's rule in the Holy Land and the formal birth of the State of Israel, t c Some Notes From The Fare Front Of Special Interest To Rural. Readers By John Russell , Another faun crop that's corn- ing to the aid of afflicted man- kind is the good old pancake in- gredient—buckwheat. That's because buckwheat con- tains a chemical substance called rutin which—during the few months it has been used—has proved high- ly beneficial in certain types of internal bleeding. Rutin does this • by sfrengthening the walls of the tiny blood vessels known as ca- pillaries. To meet the national needs for rutin in the United States alone, medical manufacturers estimate that at least an extra 50 thousand acres of buckwheat will be needed an- nually. The entire plant, around blossom time, is used for the ex- traction of its rutin, so that no grain from this extra acreage would be available for flour or for livestock feeding. * * * Nothing is of greater importance to the welfare of both man and beast than proper protection of drinking water supplies, Precau- tions which will guard against pol- luted water are simple, and either boiling or chlorination will insure that water is safe for drinking. If boiling is used, the water should be kept at boiling tempera- ture for at least ten minutes. For chlorination, two teaspoons- ful of fresh chloride of lime should be mixed to a smooth paste with a little cold water, To this add one quart of water and mix well. You now have your sterilizing solution, four drops of which — added to one gallon of water and let stand for 15 minutes—makes the water fit for drinking. A fresh sterilizing :solution should be made every seven days. An Australian farmer makes cheap but highly effective bird scarers out of empty fruit cans or jam tins. One end of the tin is removed and then six or seven cuts are made down the sides of the tin to within an inch or so of the other end. These strips are then bent at a slight angle. Dead cen- tre in the unopened end a - dent (not a hole) is made, so that the tin will sit snugly on a .piece of wire stuck in the t;round. The slightest breeze catches the out -turned strips of tin and turns the glistening contraption speedily enough to frighten all the birds from his fruit and vegetables, the farmer claims. A purebred Canadian Holstein cow has -just established a new - world's record, Owned by J. J. E. McCague of Alliston, Ont., in 305 days she gave 28,243 pounds of milk containing 980 pounds of but- terfat. This 305 clay fat production is also a new North American record for the Holstein breed in the ma- ture class and makes her replace —as Canadian ,harnpion over all breeds—an "Ayrshire cow with a marls of 909 pounds fat from 21,241 pounds of milk. The displaced world champion milli producer for 305 days is a United States Hol- stein with a record of 27,613 pounds of milk, * * * Staging a wrestling match with a half-grown beef animal in or- der to clip its horns is far fronn the softest job in the world — par- ticularly as there's a much easier way of accomplishing the same thing. You just use a little caustic • potash on the new-born calf, According to a Provincial ex- perimental station a little, of the caustic, in either paste or stick form, applied to the horn buttons when the calf is a few days old will do the trick. To prevent un- necessary spreading and burning of the stein, apply vaseline or grease around the outside of the area treated. This method not only works on small farms but is being used with success on large cattle ran• clues' ,as well: Protection of crops from frost damage in early spring or at the end of the growing season is 'still a problem that challenges agri- cultural scientists; and although various methods have been suc- cessful to some extent most of them require too much trouble and labor, or are too costly. The smoke screen method of protecting seedlings and trees from frost has worked well on many occasions, but is inconvenient be- cause of the constant attention nec- essary to keep smudge fires going. Lt some places agriculturists have worked on the development of in- fra -red and fuel -burning radiant heat generators; and while these have been fairly successful, the arca each unit can cover is so limited that the cost appears to be much too high for general use. Chemi.' • are working on two other angles of approach to the problem. One is to find a chemical which will increase the frost -resist- ance ot plants - an investigation prompted by the discovery that po- tatoes treated with certain fungi- cides were not killed as readily by fall frost as those untreated. Second approach is through the use of plant hormones. In England, for instance, the same chemicals Which stop apples from dropping off the trees have been used to delay the blossoming. of peaches un- til the danger of frost has passed. Development of plant 'varieties which will grow to ntathrity with in the frost -free period is another form of defence being tried by some Canadian plant breeders. * * Int many soils across Canada it is almost impossible to grow such things as tomatoes, corn, cabbage, . cauliflower and tobacco unless wire - worms are first destroyed. And al- though benzine hexachloride was responsible for tainting such crops as turnips and potatoes last sea- son, its use—under proper precau- tions — for the control of wire - worms, cabbage maggots and other soil -infesting pests cannot be con- demned. In using BHC the recommenda- tions of the Federal Department of Agriculture should be strictly adhered to at all times. For grain; corn, tomatoes .and tobacco BHC dust (.5% gamma) should be broadcast at the rate of 125 to 150 pounds per acre a week to ten clays before seeding, and the soil should then be lightly harrowed. For control - of maggot of cab- bage, cauliflower, broccoli, etc., the sante strength BHC dust is used at the rate of 40 pounds per acre, It. should be applied to the plants and soilaroundthen 3 to 4 days af- ter transplanting, Lazy Ants . American scientists, returni, g from a survey in Ccnt.al America.. —where ants are more numerous and more highly developed than they are in colder latitudes— report that in the average colony only 40 per cent of the insects are real go- getters. Twenty per cent work oc- casionally, and the remainder, we regret to say, are no good at all; they spend their time"lolling about the nest". That is a higher propor- tion of loafers than in any human society. It's all very disillusioning. Couple Live Happily on Alaska Land They Cleared Themselves By Alda Orton c a (In the Christian Science Monitor) ' Strangers who fly over us, come up the river by boat, or hike the two - and - one - half - utile trail, are usually. surprised to •come onto our five -acre clearing, with its cluster of red -roofed buildings, big garden, flowers, goat bells tinkling on the hillsides, and hens cackling ' from their yard. I ant apt to bristle up a bit, how- ever, when a passer-by remarks, "My, you were lucky to find a place like this in Alaska." "We didn't find it. We made it. This side was just like that when we started," I reply, a bit tartly, with a wave toward the other side of the river where the forest crowds close to the bank ,and a mass of brush overhangs the water. Few Tools at First Then we had only a one-man power machine, •Milton, my hus- band, equipped with an ax; a saw, and a handmade gouger. I was no help, for 1 was busy with my two babies. Though he -now has a power winch for pulling stumps and a three horsepower and five horsepower tractor for plowing the garden, mowing hay, etc., it is still no life for a lazy pian. We just grin when someone says, "My, you must live the life of Riley • out herel No time clock, no boss, just work when you feel like it." It's a healthy life, so we gener- ally feel like work. Milton's plans are always far ahead of what he is doing. In the' winter there is a limited, trapping season. In the summer he spends two months down in the bay as stream watch- man for 'Naha River. Even here money is a necessity, Home Tasks Everywhere A home here takes just as much attention as a home anywhere else. It also takes .a lot of work to raise most of our food and make use of our natural resources, so that by winter the shelves of -our root house are filled with canned salmon, veni- son; garden stuff and berries; the bins with root vegetables, and the kegs and crocks with sauerkraut, salted salmon, pickled mincemeat, etc. Alt the leafy and root vegetables do well but it is never hot enough Heard. This Clue? • The famous bandleader, Paul Whiteman, is built on a rather large scale, but he'll never admit that he's fat. When people kill him about his weight, Paul tells then about the millionaire who really was stout. Calling on hint one day -a visi- tor found the millionaire lying. comfortably 011 a couch clad—' all 500 pounds of him—in a bath- robe with enormous checks. In the middle of each of these checks a number was sewed, "What's the idea of those numbers?" inquired the visitor. ."Are you practising for when The Law finally catches up with you • sends you to Sing Sing?". "Watch me," replied the man' of wealth and poundage. Press- ing a nearby button he summon - et' his butler. "Wilkins, scratch Number Twenty 'Three," he coin- inanded with a yawn. for corn. Peas grow two feet. high and yield abundantly. Our cool moist climate is just right for straw- berries, raspberries and currants. My flowers are very satisfying, from the first crocus to the last dahlia. Last summer, my 'sweet peas made a wall of fragrance about my porch. Wild Animal Neighbors Though we have no human neigh- bors, I find my wild one quite inter- esting. Front my kitchen window, overlooking the river, I often watch the black bears fishing for salmon. On and along the river the deer, beaver, otter and waterfowl go about their affairs unmindful of our . presence. Our birds range from the rare trumpeter swan and the lordly eagle to the tiny wrens and hum- ming -birds. Often I like to follow a game trail far up into the deep timber. There in the silence and the dint light, beneath the towering spruce, S feel in tune with the universe„ 'On -land we can travel only as fast and as far as our own two feet can carry us, so we learn to have "see- „ ing eyes" and "hearing ears." Our rifles supply most of our meat, so we have a regular season for ramb- ling the woods. We make the 25 -mile trip to town only once or twice a year, There we thoroughly appreciate a concert or a movie. The boys' schooling has all been by correspondence courses. Conse- quently 1, as teacher, benefit as well as they. Now that David is taking high school work, I have to study, too. New Fossil Remains Of Ancient Ape -Men Over a year ago a scientific ex- pedition left America to study on the spot the fossi remains of man apes found in 1936 near Johannes- burg, South Africa. The remains consisted - of -- two skulls, a femur and an ankle bone;: and they had been blasted by min- ers out of some limestone caves. More bones were later turned up about two miles away, - This. month there canis news of, still further finds, including remains of antelopes, porcupines, bush pigs, hyena`s and jackals; and these new- est discoveries seem to confirm the belief of .the scientists that the earlier discoveries represented sub- human species jvtherto unknown. The early" South African sten apes, or ape -men, were small in stature, only about four feet tall. Their brains were about the size of those of chimpanzees or goril- las; while 'they had the heavy jaws of apes, .their teeth were almost human. There were no over -sized canine teeth, so- cl3aracteristic of the ape, Their hands were small and delicate, and they walked like nen. It is thought that, they stand much closer to modern nankin than do the orangoutang, the gorilla or the chimpanzee.- • These finds have led to the be- lief that at some period in the earth's history there were creatures with ape -like brains combined with limbs and bodies that were virtu - ,'ally human — in other words by, something like the, "missing link" people used to talk about 50 ot 60 years ago. * * How old are these fossil remains. While geological dates must always be accepted with a certain amount 'of caution, these specimens may be anything from half a million to five million years old. The ani- mals, especially the horses, found among the remains indicate that these South African then -apes lived on the plains an environment which would not have been suitable to the forest - dwelling anthropoid apes. And there is some evidence that they lived at least partly by the chase—that is to say, crushed skulls of ancient baboons were re- covered, indicating that they might - have been killed by clubs or rocks. "Butterhoppers" "Butterhoppers" was the name coined on the spot by a bright schoolboy when he examined some curious grasshoppers on display at the Royal Ontario Museum. Obvi- ously they fascinated him. And no wonder—for these 'hoppers from tropical South America, recently acquired by the Museum, had the grim -looking bodies of their kind, but were transformed, into things of beauty by their gorgeous butter- fly wings. With a spread of about six inches, the wings have a colora- tion in shades of reddish brown, and dainty as butterfly wings should be, Hardships Stalk .Palestinians—Even 'babies aren't safe from the war's strife in Palestine, Erna 1 enshtitz, .head nurse at Jerusalem's Wizo Baby Home, amuses one of her charges behind a sandlag barricade, . JITTER y Arthur Pointer GEE, YOU'RE WONDERFUL! HOW'D YOU STOP Ir.? 7145 SWITCH, IS JAMMED oN THIS REDUCING MACHINE, 1CAN`1TURN IT OFF/