RAISINS: An Accident
M TNTOLD years ago some stone-age
man accidentally left his crop of
wild grapes in the sun. When he re
turned they were dry and shriveled but
he. sampled one and found it delicious.
Today, centuries later, the raisin
industry is important in America, where
dried fruit producers have wrested dom
ination in the field from European coun
tries, especially Spain. Raisins are first
recorded in early Egyptian lore, but the
Bible says a subject of King David of
Israel once brought “asses laden with
cheeses and raisins to pay his taxes."
The industry flourished in Armenia in
400 B. C. Hungary came into promi
nence about 1300 A. D„ followed by
Spain which built a huge business.
mm vamamam
WHEN grapes have reached
their ripest, sweetest stage,
they are cut from the vines in
bunches and carefully laid on trays
(left), exposed to the hot sun and
allowed to dry. They are turned
after a few days to complete the
drying on both sides. When the
raisins reach the packing plant
they are graded for quality,
cleaned, stemmed and processed
before going out to markets of the
world.
Raisins, like spices, tea, cof
fee, nuts and extracts, are today
available for a few cents. A few
hundred years ago they were worth
a king's ransom.
THORNTON BURGESS' WEEKLY BEDTIME STORY
II/HERE the old brush pile had
been in the Green Forest sat
Buster Bear, laughing so that he
had to hold his sides. Up in a tall
pine tree close by sat Hooty the
Owl. He had been laughing, but
he had stopped now. Disappoint
ment had taken the place of laugh
ter. It had been very funny to see
Old Man Coyote and Reddy and
Granny Fox ducking and dodging
and twisting and turning as they
tried to get out of the way of the
flying sticks as Buster Bear tore the
old brush pile to pieces.
But now, the last bit of brush
had been scattered and there was
no Peter Rabbit, and Hooty was too
much disgusted and disappointed
to laugh any more. Of course, Old
Man Coyote and Reddy and Granny
Fox didn't see anything to laugh at.
Indeed, they were too angry to
laugh at anything. Then, too, the
joke was on them, and you know it
is always very hard to laugh at a
joke on yourself. They had watched
all day to catch Peter Rabbit when
he should come out from under that
pile of brush. They knew Peter
was there because Reddy had
chased him there and the others had
seen him do it.
They hadn’t seen the twinkle in
Buster's eyes as he had kept urging
*“*••*—c».,jy'j;fv*»
Hooty the Owl looked down at Bus
ter Solemnly and Suspiciously.
them to come closer, so that there
would be no chance for Peter to
escape. Then he had made the
sticks fly so fast that they couldn't
get out of the way of them. Now
For Beauty’s Sake
-HINTS FROM THE STARS
Brushing your way to beauty is a techique winning new exponents
each day. It*s done by applying dry rouge on a light powder base with a
brush, allowing even application and resulting in an ever so natural
appearance. Posed by Ann Rutherford.
Spanish Soldiers
Flee to France
BAGNERES DE BIGERRE,
FRANCE—Under guard of a lone
French frontier guard, hundreds of
tattered Spanish loyalist soldiers are
shown arriving here after fleeing
across the Franco-Spanish border
to avoid being wiped out when al
most completely surrounded by in
surgent troops. French authori
5 ties disarmed the refugees.
they were sore and lame and
scratched, and worse still, they
knew now that Peter Rabbit had
somehow been too smart for them.
From the way Buster was laugh
ing, they knew now that he had
known all the time that Peter wasn’t
there, and that he had kept urging
them to come closer Just so that
they would be sure to be hit by those
flying sticks when he tore the old
brush pile to pieces. He had simply
played a joke on them. If angry
looks could have done It, they would
have killed Buster Bear right on the
spot. They were afraid of him in
the first place, and had not wel
comed him to the Green Forest.
Now they didn’t dare do anything
but snarl at him and tell him what
they thought of him and how some
day they would get even with him,
all of which made Buster laugh all
the more. You see, big and strong
as he is, he really is one of the best
natured fellows in the world.
Hooty the Owl looked down at
Buster solemnly and suspiciously.
“Did you know all the time that
Peter Rabbit wasn't there?” he
asked.
“Of course, I did,” replied Bus
ter, when he could get his breath.
"Do you suppose a great big fellow
like me would have been mean
enough to spoil the hiding place of
a poor little fellow like Peter Rab
bit without giving him any chance
to escape? On my way up here I
met Peter scampering for the dear
Old Briar Patch as fast as he could
go. Probably he's down there now
laughing in his sleeve to think how
he fooled you all who are supposed
to be so smart, particularly Old
Man Coyotte and Reddy and Granny.
And this is just where Peter was
and what he was doing.
© T. W. Burgess.—WNU Service.
Gay Note Can Be Added to Home
By Pictures with Clever Frames
By BETTY WELLS
It’s too bad that we can’t all own
original Titians and Rembrandts.
But an ambitious painting takes a
lot of living up to, and so for a
simple informal house, maybe it’s
just as well to be glad we have inci
dental pictures to choose from.
Flower, fruit or bird prints, for in
stance. Or reproductions of sunny
water colors, or prints of scintil
lating Van Goghs or Gauguins.
Part of the success of the picture
will be the framing of it. Here are
recent news notes we’ve collected:
Shadow box frames, even for
smallish pictures, are seen often.
Though they are some more ex
pensive, they give added impor
tance to small pictures.
Victorian velvet ribbon is seen
here and there to hang pictures by.
Red or purple or black ribbon
about the width ladies used to tie
around their necks! If you add a
gold tassel at the point where the
cord is hung, you’ll get just the
quaint and fussy effect you want.
Another new idea for an informal
picture (that will go in a provincial
or some other very informal room)
is to use a piece of calico or ging
ham for the mat. Add a plain mold
ing frame of unfinished wood which
acquires a lovely tone if you wax
or oil it. (Maybe the man in your
life can make this frame for you.)
Or use a pie pan! Cut the gingham
the size of the pan, paste the pic
ture on gingham and gingham on
pie pan. Tack a small wooden panel
I to the back to hold screws and there
you are, a mighty clever decoration!
Have you got in your attic one or
more old wood frames in oval shape?
Get them out and polish them up and
use the natural wood color or paint
them white or dull pink.
© By Betty Wells.—WNU Service.
Straiv Pancake
This unique spring hat is a straw
pancake afTair in navy blue straw
with a cock’s comb in the same
shade as its sole decoration. Worn
by Myrna Loy.
ADVENTURERS’ CLUB
HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES
OF PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELF!
“Tale of a Modern Mariner’*
By FLOYD GIBBONS
Famous Headline Hunter
Hello everybody:
Remember that old phrase “Son of a Sea-Cook?”
Well, right here in this club we’ve got one of those old sea
cooks who are supposed to have such ornery offspring. And
by golly, I’d be proud to be the son of this sea-cook.
Yes, sir, this sea cook is H. K. Nixon of Elizabeth, N. J., and he
tells one of those yarns that Joseph Conrad and the rest of those sea
story writers would have given their right eye to get hold of.
Why, this yarn of a modern mariner makes that old rime
of the ancient mariner seem like a bedtime story. Here are the
words and music:
By jiminy, this adventure of sea cook, Nixon—the crew all called
him Nix for short—starts out with a whale of a good word—barkentine—
just like a first-rate pirate story. It was the barkentine St. James, of
San Francisco, and that proud old rakish barque was converted into a
coal hulk. Just to get even, the St. James started building up a history
that made her known all up and down the Pacific coast as the “Haunted
Hulk.” When the war came on they converted her back into a barkentine,
but her pride had been wounded and she kept right on being a haunted
ship.
All Kinds of Bad Luck Signs.
Well, Captain Martin Anderson sailed her into Seattle, loaded her with
mine timbers and cleared for Delagoa bay, South Africa.
Shiver my timbers, if that wasn’t a haunted voyage. It almost gave
sea cook Nix the shivers before the St. James got out of the harbor. Be
fore she cast off, the ship's cat jumped ashore three times and that was
a pretty strange beginning of a voyage. But that cat was thrown back
aboard and maybe she was the mascot that brought that crew through.
And then a few miles out two wild geese swooped down out of the
sky and came aboard the St. James. Cook Nixon did to those birds just
what the ancient mariner did to that albatross. The crew said there
I ___ _ __
She Broke Her Back on the Coral Reefs.
would be trouble and, by the beard of Neptune, there was trouble. But
unlike the ancient mariner. Cook Nixon wasn't the goat for what
happened.
Wrecked on Island of Oneno.
Coming out of the straits of San Juan de Fuca, the St. James ran
Into a howling southeaster. The gale raged for nine days and drove
the barkentine far out of her course. The old St. James battled through
that mad Pacific. She battled bravely, but finally with a splintering smash
of timbers, she broke her back on the coral reefs of the island of Oneno.
The crew took to their boats, but there was little chance for
rescue out there in that vast South Pacific. They rode four days
and nights before low headlands and a fringe of palms lay before
them. Then the lifeboats scraped on the beach of the historic
island of Pitcairn at the break of day, December 17, 1918.
Well, those sailors from the St. James dragged their boats up into
Bounty bay—named after that old mutiny ship—and waited. It was a
swell spot to be shipwrecked in, but it wasn’t the world for Cook Nixon,
nor for Skipper Anderson, nor for the first mate—the second mate and
the Bos’n, who were all named Hansen. For 32 days they kept a lookout
up on that hill beside the ship’s bell and canhon of the old Bounty, hoping
to see a friendly sail.
Islander Had Broken His Neck.
Well, sir, shipwrecked as that crew was. they weren’t in half as bad
a spot as one of the islanders named Lindsay. Three months before
Nix and his shipmates arrived, Lindsay was hunting wild goats, and
pitched over a precipice. He broke a leg and doggone near broke his
neck. There he was, slowly dying out there on the Pacific and not a
doctor or a nurse on the island. Cook Nixon looked Lindsay over and de
cided he’d do some life-saving while waiting to be saved himself.
That’s just where the sea cook became a hero and earned himself
a reputation for being one of the fastest thinkers in an emergency that
I ever heard of. He went to work on Lindsay. Drugs?—well, Nix
figured out a liniment. He used the acid juice of lime as an irritant, and
cocoanut oil as a lubricant, and went to work on that dislocated neck
that made Lindsay almost helpless. Sure enough, in three days time
that terribly swollen neck of Lindsay’s was reduced. But his head was
still contorted and he suffered agonizing pains at the nape of his neck.
Nixon kept thinking this over. One night he jumped out of his
bunk with an idea. Nix shot out of camp yelling, “Lord, man, I’ve
got it!" and he dashed into Lindsay’s house at 2:30 a. m. and got him out
of bed. Nix sat Lindsay down on a chair and told him to hold tight with
both hands. Nix grabbed him by the head, put his thumbs under his jaw
and lifted as though he were heaving the old St. James’ anchor.
How Nix Fixed It Up.
Suddenly there was a snap. A vertebra which had been twist
ed and held fast by one of those tendons Nix had been mas
saging, snapped back into place and Lindsay shot out of that chair
like he’d been sitting on a hot stove.
Well, sir, that islander tried turning his neck in all directions.
By jiminy, it worked as well as ever. He almost wagged his head off
trying out his new neck. Nix tells me that Lindsay started to laugh
and then cry and wound up by doing a series of hand springs and
flip flops. And then Lindsay hustled out of that hut, ran up the hill to the
old Bounty bell and began hammering like a bass drummer, trying to
get all the islanders together so he could tell them the good news.
And that ended the curse that hung over the crew of the haunted
barkentine St. James. When daylight broke, there was a smudge of
smoke on the horizon. It was the old Dominion liner, Port Augusta. Cap
tain Allen of the Port Augusta laid her by until that shipwrecked crew of
the badluck barkentine—yes, sir, and the ship’s cat also—pulled out
through the surf breaking over the coral reefs and climbed on board. The
Port Augusta dropped Nixon and his shipmates in Sydney, Australia.
Copyright.—WNU Service.
Columbia Has Old Church Tiles
Two tiles, taken from the oldest
church in the Western hemisphere
and presented to Dr. Nicholas Mur
ray Butler, president of Columbia
university, as a commemoration of
his visit last year to Santo Domingo,
now hang in the Spanish house at
Columbia. Both ceramics are ac
companied by papers certifying that
they come from the Iglesia de San
Nicolas, which was built in the old
city of Santo Domingo 14 years after
Columbus arrived in America.
Lipstick of Hindu Women
The lipstick of Hindu women is
pan or betel leaf chewed with chu
nam lime, which leaves the tongue,
teeth and lips as ruddy as a sunset.
Most distinctive item in the Hindu
woman's make-up is the wafer
stamped between her brows. This
is not a caste-mark. When black,
the wafer is made of burnt, pow
dered sago, mixed with sandalwood
oil; when pink, it comes from the
dried and powdered “kumku” flow
er, common In the land.