The Seaforth News, 1949-09-15, Page 7The Big, Big Apple—Enough to turn any youngster pie -eyed is this 450 -pound whopper displayed
at the Railroad Fair in honor of International Apple Day. Dickie Powers, 7, and Jessie Bustow,.
9, gaze hungrily at the ponderous pastry, billed modestly as the "world's biggest apple pie."
Ten bushels of apples went into its making.
Infectious
Laugh
By Richard Bill Wilkinson
It was Ethan Pryor's laughter
that first attracted Abigail to him,
Wlien Ethan laughed, every one
else laughed. The sound had that
mirthful, appealing quality that was
Infectious. It was good to hear. It
gave you a feeling of well being,
This all happened in 1929, when
Ethan's retail antique business was
netting him $15,000 a year. It was
easy to laugh then. They were a
jolly couple.
In 1931, Ethan's retail antique
business dropped off from one-half
its top amount to one-third, then
to one-quarter.
That year passed and the next.
The Pryors didn't find it so easy to
laugh. They gave up their seven -
room apartment and moved into a
less expensive one. In January of
1934 they moved into a single room
in an unfashionable part of the
city, Ethan was making barely
enough to keep them from starving.
Abigail Bunted for a week and
eventually won for herself a job.
It wasn't much of a job. She sat
behind a glass window all afternoon
and evening selling tickets for a
stock company performance. The
stock company wasn't doing so
well. It looked as though it might
fold up any day. But it paid $15 a
week and would have to do until
she could get something better.
Inspired, a tittle ashamed, Ethan
went job hunting himself. He hunt-
ed a week, two weeks, without
success. He began to brood. Abigail
did her best to cheer him up, to get
hint into a happy frame of mind,
"Let's hear the old laugh ring
out, darling, A pleasant frame of
mind is half the battle," She sat
on the arm of his chair, "Tell you
what. Let's celebrate. Let's take $5
and go down to Tony's. Vire can
have a gay time for a change."
They went to Tony's. They
drank wine and ate a big dinner.
They danced. They sat and watched
the floor show. It wasn't a had floor
show. Among other things, there
was a comedian, The comedian was
sad. IIe wasn't funny. But Abigail
laughed. She laughed as though she
thought he was tremendously funny.
Ethan looked at her, A food light
carne tato his eyes. She was trying
to be gay. She was doing all she
could to bolster up his spirits. He
could at least help.
Ethan laughed. It wasthe old
tinie, mirthful, appealing laughter.
It rolled out and filled the room.
Others heard it. Others laughed.
They couldn't help it. They laughed
with Ethan. The comedian was in-
spired.
After the show, a man came up
and sat down at Ethan`s and Abi-
gail's table. Abigail introduced him
as the owner of the stock company
show where she sold tickets. His
name was Jones.
"Listen," said Mr. Jones, "we'll
pay you $5 a night to come and
laugh at our show. It's supposed
to be a funny show. You can put it
acros."
Ethan scratched his chin. He
looked at Abigail. He said: "Well,
I dunno, For $40 a week, I might
consider it."
"Soldl" said Mr. Jones.
Ethan looked at his wife when
"Well, I guess we laughed. our
way through that depression."
he got home. "You planned itl" he
accused,
"Sure," said Abigail. "When you
have something, it should be cashed
in on. You can laugh your way to
riches, my dear."
Tines were getting better. People
were buying antiques. By the be-
ginning of 1936, be was doing quite
well. That summer he enlarged his
shop;
"Well," said Abigail, happily, "I
guess we laughed our way through
that depress -ton all right."
Ethan kissed her, Then he threw
back his head and began to laugh,
He laughed loud and long, "There!"
he said, "that laugh isn't going to
cost any one a cent. From now on
1 laugh because I want to and free
of charge. Honey, I love you 1"
"Ditto," said Abigail.
— By Harold Arnett
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Changing Of
The Guard
Every morning at 10.30 ever since
1660 the mounting of the Sover-
eign's Guard has taken place in Lon-
don. In 1939 the full dress uniforms
were put away in favour of khaki
battledress but this summer they
have been restored and the Chang-
ing of the Guard in all its glory
now takes place as before. When
the King is in London the Guard is
mounted at Buckingham Palace;
when be is out of town it is mount-
ed from the Colour Court of St.
James's Palace, both perfect set-
tings for the red coats and black
bearskins of the Guards.
The Changing of the Guard is a
unique and stirring ceremony that
visitors to London are always anx-
ious to see, Even in bad weather it
nearly always draws a sprinkling of
sightseers and in summer, in the
streets behind the Palace, dozens of
motor coaches draw up and from
then pour streams of eager tourists,
each party with an omniscient guide
to explain the significance and his-
tory of the Changing of the Guard.
The crowd watching the historic
ceremony often consists of a couple
of thousand people, who press
against the railings of the Palace
courtyard, crowd the steps of the
Victoria Memorial that faces it and
stand along the kerb. Americans;
Europeans, British subjects frons
every part of the Connnonweaith as
welt as people from alt over the
United Kingdom are there, the most
junior members of the crowd perch-
ed high on their fathers' shoulders.
As the new Guard, preceded by
its regimental band, comes swing-
• ing into the courtyard, hundreds of
cameras click into action. Pictures
of the Guards marching with the
precision for which they are famous,
a precision which seems as thought
their legs are controlled by a mas-
ter switch and could not possibly
be motivated by separate men, are
not the only ones taken. It is al-
most a matter of routine icy visit-
ors to stand at the side of a Palace
policeman or an impassive guards-
man outside his sentry box, whilst
another member of the party takes a
pictorial record of the occasion. Re-
cently a 'small kilted Scots girl was
persuaded to stand there, a stance
she was loath to take up, for a red
coated soldier wearing a huge bear-
skin and holding a fixed bayonet
was a terrifying companion for a
five-year-old and one she could not
stomach without the physical as
well as moral support of her mother.
Hot Stuff
Two buzzards were lazily wing-
ing over the Arizona desert when
a jet-propelled plane suddenly went
hurtling by, its exhausts belching
flame and ssnoke. The buzzards
silently watched it disappear into
the Western sky, and then one of
then found his voice. "Holy car-
rion," he said. "Was that bird in a
hurry l" "Listen, Lucius," opined
the other, "you'd be in a hurry too
if your tail was on fire."
Efficiency is getting other people
to do the jobs you don't like.
World Baan
Shortage Now
If you imagine theearth as s
10 -inch ball, then all life is -sup-
ported inside a film of air and water
about two thousandths of an inch
thick. This relatively thin sheet is
fluid with clearly defined current's
of air. A small change in them,
and fertile land would become desert,
or vice versa.
The great Sahara desert, for in-
stance, is merely an area over which
flow currents of air that are very
dry. Hence little or no rainfall, If
it were possible to deflect south-
wards over this area some of the
moist currents coming from the
polar regions, it would get a normal
rainfall:
But if we increase the rainfall in
one place we decrease -it in another.
It wouldn't do to make the Sahara
fertile if at the same time we turned
Great Britain, and possibly France
and most of Europe, into desert.
And even if we were able to dis-
tribute evenly the rain falling on
the land surfaces of the world, there
would not be sufficient to crake all
countries fertile. There is just not
enough water in the atmosphere to
go around, z
With the rapid increase in tate
world's population, this is a serious
business. World population is in-
creasing at approximately thirty mil-
lions annually,
Unless tremendous advances are
made in irrigation schemes and bet-
ter farming methods, many millions
will starve, since there will not be
the rain available to make fertile
enough ground on which their food
must be grown,
The development of new conti-
nents, such as Australia, is vitally
bound up with this question of rain-
farit. In Australia the limit set by
some experts, on account of the
rainfall, is a population of thirty
millions. Yet there is room in terms
of laud for twenty tines that num-
ber.
Still Do
Albert—"l like to think of olden
times when women would sit by
the hour beside their spinning
wheels."
Filbert—"They still do, until
some ratan comes along and puts
their chains on."
BEFA NI FRONT
A week or so ago, I -wrote a
rather depressing account of what
damage grasshoppers are -doing
over in: some of the' western States,
and how the farmers in California
and other coast districts were fear -
ng that the pests vtould finally
reach there and do untold millions
of dollars' damage.
Now, from our own Midwest
comes .word of how a very similar
menace was foreseen and—if not
completely wiped out — at least
largely controlled, I think some of
you might be interested in hearing
about what happened. It certainly
illustrates the value of those twin
virtues, preparedness and co -opera.
tion.
* * *
Last fall, entomological surveys
of Western Canada grain lands in-
dicated 1949 would see one of the
worst grasshopper plagues in the
history of the Prairie Provinces.
This was grim news to the farmer
of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and
Alberta.
For they know the grasshopper
well. They recalled other years
when the winged invaders came:
great areas of lush countryside ren-
dered completely barren as if the
farmers themselves had carried out
a scorched earth policy; empty
grain elevators; empty pocketbooks
and complete desperation.
#. * *
- During previous plagues, little
was accomplished to halt the vora-
cious insect horde. Warnings of in-
festations often caste too late. In-
adequate methods were used to de-
stroy the attackers. Destruction to
crops was usually complete.
* * *
This year, matters were different,
After Last year's plague, teams of
entomologists went out in the field
to determine the degree of infesta-
tion by -counting grasshopper eggs.
They found millions of them. They
charted maps showing the extent of
infestations in various areas of the
provinces. They passed on the in-
formation to the people.
* * *
Then the battle really began!
Agricultural chemists caste out
with two new lethal 'poisons far.
superior to those used previously,
Industry made these available to
Western farmers in great quantities.
Provincial governments made them
available to farmers th-rough their
municipalities. -
.1.
A flood of educational publicity
was turned loose early, in the year
in the press, on the radio, through
lectures by localagriculturalrepre-
sentatives, Every Westerner was so
grasshopper -conscious by the time
the 'hoppers hatched, they knew
exactly what to do to stem the in-
vasion. And they did it!
From latest available reports, the
invasion has been repelled. It is
true that sorne damage has been
done, but only a small fraction of
what was anticipated. It is the
first time a grasshopper plague has
been successfully curbed in Can-
ada.
* * *
Which should be about enough
for one session, except for this yarn
which you ntay not have heard be-
fore—or any way, recently. ft's
about a bunch of race track men
who were. holding a session one
evening and lying—as such charac-
ters sometimes do—about the won-
derful horses they'd owned or bred.
One tall tale led to another until
an old "Kentucky Colonel" came
out with an anecdote that :topped
all:
• *•
*
"I remember, suh, a race of 16
thoroughbreds in which my mare,
Honeysuckle, participated. The
stake was $300,000. Gentlemen who
owned the best horse flesh in all
the South were present, not to men-
tion a few Yankees. Well, suh,
Honeysuckle was leading the field,
which was no surprise to nue, when
on the bacicstretch I noticed her
hesitate. And then and there site
had herself a foal. I had bred her
the year before, but didn't know
she was foaling."
At his point, someone in the
audience sympathized and said,
"Tough way to lose a rare."
"Who said anything about los-
ing?" the good Colonel concluded.
"Honeysuckle never lost. She had
her foal. Then she won the race by
five lengths,"
"And," he added, "the foal cams
in second."
The raving beauties in theso
beauty contests include the losers,
`Hot Dog1 I Can Feed Myself Now l"—The baby feeder, latest time-saver for modern mothers,
consists of a flat cushion with a broad snap -on strap, adjustable to any size of bottle. It holds
the bottle safely so that baby can nourish himself even when mother's busy. This handy gadget
is quilted in long -wearing vinylite plastic, like the crib bumper pads behind and beside baby.
The pacts, which conte in three pieces, protect baby against bumps and drafts.
s
Honey and Hank
By Seeg
5.51