Zurich Herald, 1949-09-01, Page 7es
The 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 snaking.
Infectious
Laugh
By Richard Rica Wilkinson:
It was Ethan Pryor's laughter
that first attracted Abigail to him.
When 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 thein from starving,
Abigail hunted 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 little 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
him 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. We 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 bad floor
,'how. Among other things, there
was a comedian. The cotriedian was
sad. He wasn't funny. But Abigail
laughed. She laughed as though she
thought he was tremendously funny.
Ethan looked at her. A fond light
carne into 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 was the old
time, 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." "
"Sold!" said Mr. Jones.
Ethan looked at his wife when
"Well, I guess we laughed our
way through that depression."
he got home, "You planned it!" he
accused.
"Sure," said Abigail. "Wheh you
have something, it should be cashed
in on. You can laugh your way to
-riches, my dear."
Thnes were getting better. People
were buying antiques. By the be-
ginning of 1936, he was doing quite
well. That summer he enlarged his
shop,
"Well," said Abigail, happily, "I
guess we laughed our way through
that depression 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
I laugh because I want to and free
of charge. Honey, I love you!"
"Ditto," said Abigail.
:0 " _' ' --- By Harold Arnett
HERE'S AN IDEA FOR
A COMFORTABLE
LAWN SEAT'
SIMPLY REMOVE THE
ROCKERS OF Atst OLD
ROCKING CHAIR, IN-
VERT 'THEM, AND
SCREW THEM TO
THE TOP AFTEI
SAWING OFF THE
REAR ONES •----!
aSVD11%
.10P OAC ROCXf/t avow, AND
EN NOE
ut
WEED
C �{i
as
o sN�NG A'��EL!!
R1Oflr HSE , of TOP SIA
e$4.
•—
HAVE 4ANGLESS, WORD
�MoVjN& IMpLE,�FN7cAN
7HArAND 'Ty 7 Hoy 70 "nt'5 AAN WEEDSeiv, CLOSE
R
Sole, AND cuE 68Alr aR7 TONS WN 'r US's GrE5
WEEfa LOOSEN
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 ming is in London the Guard is
mounted at Buckingham Palace;
when he 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 front
thein 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 from
every part of the Commonwealth as
well as people from all 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 though
their legs are controlled by a roas-
ter switch and could snot possibly
be motivated by separate men, are
not the only ones taken. It is al-
most a matter of routine fcg 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 awoke. The buzzards
aitenitly watched it disappear into
the Western sky, and then one of
them found his voice, "Holy car-
rion," he ,add. "Was that bird in a
hurry!" "Listen, Lucius," opined
the other, "you'd be in a hurry tqo
if your tail was on fire."
Efficiency is getting other people
to do the jobs you don't like.
World Rath
Shortage Now
If you imagine the earth as +s
!,0 -inch ball, then all life is sup-
ported inside a filth of air and water
about two thousandths of an inch
thick. This relatively thin sheet is
fluid with clearly defined currents
of 'air, A small change in there,
and fertile land would become desert,
or vice versa.
The great Sahara desert, for in-
stance, is merely an area oee"1' 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 corning 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 make all
countries fertile. There is just not
enough water in the atmosphere to
go around. z
With • the rapid increase in the
world's population, this is a serious
' business. World pppulation 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-
faril. 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 land for twenty times that num-
ber.
Still Do
Albert—"I like to think of olden
times when women would sit by
the hour beside their "spinning
w heels."
. ' Filbert—"They still do, until
some man comes along and puts
their chains on."
IIIEFAIM FRONT
Iulametl..
A week or so ago, I wrote a
rather depressing account of what
damage grasshoppers are doing
over in some of the western States,
aid how the farmers in California
and other coast districts were fear-
ing that the pests would 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.
• * x: a
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 farmers
of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and
Alberta.
* . W. k
For they know the grasshopper
well. They recalled other years
when the winged invaders carne:
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 came 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 came out
with two .new lethal poisons .fax
superior to those used previously.
Industry made these available to
Western farmers i'n:great quantities.
Provincial governments made them
available to farmers through their
tttunicipalities.
* * *
A flood of educational publicity
was turned loose early in the year
,( in the press, on the radio, through
ieotures by local agricultural repre-
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 Iatest available reports, the
invasion has been repelled. It is
true that some damage has been
done, but only a small fraction of
what was anticipated. It is the
fust 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 inay not have beard be=
fore—.or anyway, recently. It's
about a bunch of race track men
who were holding a session one
evening and lying—as such charac-
ters soinetinies do—about the won-
derful horses they'd owned or bred.
One tall tale led to another until
an old "Kentucky Colonel" cairie
out with an anecdote that topped
aIle
* *
"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 flesli 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 me, when
on the backstretch I noticed her
hesitate. And then and there she
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 race."
"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 came
in second."
The raving beauties in these
beauty contests include the losers.
... sesee esstesse.., seri
YOUNG FARMER DRAGS TWO F
CRASHED A I RPLA :' r E
Charles Soucy, of Wildwood, Aka., fights flumes to save pike and pass
It was after midnight when Charles Soucy
heard the airplane crash. Racing a mile
acrose the wheat fields, he found the ma-
chine hi flames — with the pilot and a
woman passenger still trapped inside!
Working coolly and quickly, Soucy managed
to force open the plane door and drag the
pilot to safety. Then, grabbing an axe, he
THE DOW AWARD is a citation
presented for acts of outstanding heroism
and includes a $100 Canada Savings
Bond. The Dow Award Committee, a group
of edidor# of leading Canadian daily
newspapers, selects winners from
recommendations made by a nationally
known news organization.
DOW BREWERY
964
cut away part of the frauaework undan
which the woman was pinned. In epite
of the flames, he finally succeeded in
freeing her.
Thanks to his cool bravery, two lives had
been saved .. and we pay sincere tribute
to gallant Charles Soucy through the
presentation of The Dow Award.
as MONTREAL,
Honey and Hone
4
4
4
4
1