Evening Star Newspaper, December 12, 1936, Page 24

B—8 THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C., SATURDAY, DECEMBER 12, 1936. SIDEWALKS MUST BE KEPT FREE FROM ICE AND SNOW Early Watches Had Elaborate Cases and Dials Up to the Individual To See That All Danger Is Promptly Eliminated If There Is a Vacant House Next Door, It Won’t Hurt to Do a Good Deed by Cleaning . snow fell thickly, Its Walk. BY BETSY CASWELL. and the air was filled with the soft-fairy-like par- ticles. The flakes drifted across the fan-shaped ray of light that sifted through the glass-and-iron massive door of the smart town house, sit- ting so snugly on one of the “best residential streets.” The furry, elegantly numbered doormat was powdered with & layer of white crystals and the little evergreen trees in conventional red tubs on either side of it were also frostily crested. Hour after hour the snow fell. After a time the light from the door vanished—every one within the smarty house had retired for the night, be- neath cozy, featherweight quilts, and virgin wool blankets. Outside the flakes eddied and whirled in the gusts of wind ~—the temperature rose, the snow eeased, little riv- ers of water be- gar meandering down the neat cement walk that led from the side- walk to the front door. Upstairs the master of the house woke. He reached for the light and looked at the 1ittle enamel clock on the table beside * the bed. “Two o'clock! Betsy Caswell, Confound that wild duck! Food like that is guaranteed to break up a man’s sleep and his digestion. Anyway—it is melting outside, I can hear the drip from the roof. Thank the powers— that means no chains on the car to- morrow.” He rolled over, trying to forget the richness of the duck, and the Burgundy that had accompanied it. After a lit- tle time of misery he slept again. * X % x BUT by 3 o'clock the thermometer had dropped—and still was tend- ing downward. Cold winds rose, with & little moaning sound, and the air grew sharp, and bitter. By the time that a disgusted sun had struggled out of a bed of clouds early in the morning, the drip from the roof had formed into long icicles of dazzling beauty and the little rivulets on the front walk and the sidewalk had frozen into black, deceptive surfaces that re- flected the light of the rising sun with & blinding effect. On her way to her work—toiling over the stove of some one who lay snugly asleep in a warm, curtained room—and braving the piercing cold, an old, rather heavy woman, shuffied along the street. In front of all the other houses on this, “one of the best residential streets,” fellow workers of the masculine gender were busy with shovels and ice cream salt, routing the menace of ice and snow. They had all been told the night before, when the snow began to fall, to be out early in the morning in case there should be a freeze or an unprecedented fall, to clear the street in front of the house for those who must go about on foot to their labors. But in front of the very smart house @ll was deserted. There was only the snow and the ice and the drawn blinds. The trim little trees waved their white crests gaily; the rivulets of ice shone brilliantly in the morning sun; the icicles returned sparkle for sparkle— and, dazzled with the dancing gleams, the old woman stepped onto the treacherous ice sheet before the door. When she came to her senses, she pwas lying in a hospital bed. The doc- tors were shaking their heads and working over a weighted contraption that seemed to be about to pull her hip bone from the socket. She was dazed with pain and with sedatives; she could only be conscious of one terrible fear . . . “Would she be crippled for life? Would she ever work again? What would happen to the family that depended upon her for the daily bread?” When, after weeks and weeks of mental and physical torture, she ven- tured to put this terror into the form of a question, she learned that the truth was bitterer than she had feared. Because of the carelessness of one householder, she was doomed to life- long poverty and invalidism—and the horror of seeing the actual suffering of those she loved. * x x % IT CAN happen to any of us. Icy sidewalks and snowy steps are all too common in Washington Winters. We seem to feel that if we are on the protected side of a snowstorm, with & good thick wall between us and the bitter winds, we have no worries or responsibilities. Too few of us give heed to the many who must brave the elements for our comfort and for their own livelihood. Every one of us should take a vow, here and now, to keep our front door- steps, our walks and our length of sidewalk scrupulously clean and free from ice this year. Sand is cheap and effective; ashes are also good; ice cream salt is best of all, for it dissolves all the ice and leaves no treacherous lit- tle lumps to twist an ankle. Put down at the beginning of a snowfall, it will prevent the formation of ice beneath the snow and thereby do away with one of the greatest dangers to pedes- trians. And don’t let's be so tough about doing more than our share! If there is a vacant house next door, and the agent who has it for sale or rent does not keep the sidewalks before it clean— let's do it ourselves! It isn't very much more work, and as a gesture for the good of humanity it will win for many of us a place in the Book of Golden Deeds and blessings from those that must pass our door on their way to their daily labors! Smoothly Fitting Slip Five-Piece Affair Goes Together Like BY BARBARA BELL. P YOU'VE once sewed a slip you'll want to sew this one, a five-piece affair that goes together like a dream. And if you're & begin- ner here’s the slip that will give you Do trouble at. all and be ready so 'S yards of 35-inch material. Ribbon for shoulder straps, 1 yard. Every Barbara Bell Pattern includes Send 15 cents for the Barbara Bell pattern book. Youth Has Life’s Own Opportunity Success, However, Comes Only to Those Who Persist. BY ANGELO PATRL DEAR Boys and Girls: If you could tell your own fortunes, what would you want most to have happen to you? Or, the other way about, what sort of person would you like most to be? You can be just that sort of person. Begin being him or her right now. Maybe you want to be & queen of beauty. That is within your reach. Beauty is deeper than your skin. It goes down to the very roots of your being and rises to greet the ‘world through your eyes, your voice, your manners. Beauty is not pink skin, golden hair and blue eyes. It is the something that lights those eyes and puts the sheen into that skin and those eyes. You can have it simply by being it day by day. You can win beauty by living with it, practicing it in your daily occasions. Some of the most famous queens of beauty were homely women with beautiful souls, souls which they cultivated by taking thought of what they did and how they did it. If that is what you want, take it. Do you wish you were famous? You can have that wish, too, but be sure you really wish it. Just get to work today, and for every day afterward, and do the thing you can do best to the very best of your ability and keep telling the world about it. By and by the world will hear and see, and you will be famous. I didn't say happy. Maybe you will be happy, but cer- tainly you will be famous. All you have to do is to work at your busi- ness and shout loud in the market place. The thing is yours. Would you be rich? Good? Be- loved? What is it you ask of life? It is yours for the asking, provided you pay its price. Everything is for sale— not for money; money buys only ma- terial things that perish, but for the golden hours of your youth. With them you buy good or ill, according to the wisdom that is yours. Choose, LR i ?EEgg I . To the left is an oval French watch made in about 1610, showing the hours, minutes, days of the month and week, the seasons, and the age and phases of the moon. silver case also contains striking and alarm movements. The engraved The Original Timepieces Wonderful Examples Of Mechanical Skill Some of Them, However, Were More Noted for Their Display Quality Than for Their Accuracy. BY EUGENE GUILD. first clocks that were set up in church belfries and public buildings in the later middle ages were crude affairs compared with the scientifically precise instruments of today, but their general principles Were exactly the same. They comprised a power source—usually weights—which moved wheel work, to which was attached some means of indicating the time. at first a horizontal bar, later balance wheel or pendulum, and the power was governed and applied a little at a time by a device known as an escapement, which alternately caught and released some part of the mechanism. It is the escapement in & watch or clock which does the tick- ing; it is truly the heart of the time- Pplece. We think of a clock as chiming or striking the hours, that is what the first clocks did—and usually nothing else. Most of them were simply me- chanical devices for striking the bell in a church steeple; they had no dial at all. The word “clock” comes from an old word meaning “bell,” and the, ‘The rate of going was regulated by a vibrating body, B ‘m heirlooms; we call them “grand- | father clocks.” | * x * ¥ | Bv'l‘ how about watches? It is gen- | erally agreed that the first man to make them was Peter Henlein, an | expert mechanic and locksmith of | Nuremberg, in Germany. About 1500, |shortly after Columbus discovered | America, he set himself to produce a small pocket clock. For motive power he introduced the main spring, and with this as a basis produced little clocks—“watches” as they came to be | known—which would fit in the pocket or the purse. We call an old-fashioned watch a group to the right includes a German skull waich, the lower jaws of which open to disclose the dial; an acorn watch which German word for bell is “glocke” to | “turnip” because it is so thick: but this day. Later, dials were rigged up, | that is nothing compared to Peter with a moving hand showing the time | Henlein's products. They were almost —an idea taken from the ancient|round, and when they were sold Greek water clocks. | throughout Europe they became As time went on medieval craftsmen | KnOWn as “Nuremberg eggs.” Soon developed clocks which were marvels | €XPert mechanicians in other coun- of mechanical ingenuity, if mot of | tries were making them—strange- accuracy. The famous clock of Stras- | 100king devices, round or drum-shaped, bourg Cathedral is an example. nl‘with no crystal on the face and no was put up in 1352 and has been twice | Minute-hand, and a chiming appara- rebuilt, each time with greater elab- | tus to str_lke the hours. They became oration. It is three stories high, ana | the fashion for the wealthy. They fired a flintlock pistol at one o’clock; a dog-watch and two German watches in odd shapes. seventeenth century. Dorothy Dix Says Ill-Tempered Men Leave Nothing But Misery in Their Wake. EAR MISS DIX: The man I am going to marry in the near future has a very high temper, which he has never learned to control. After he has flared up in a rage and said things to me that cut to the quick he is deeply sorry for it. Can you give me any advice in dealing with this problem? S.9.P. Answer—Only not to marry him unless you have the patience of Job, the meeknéss of Griselda and a sense of humor that will enable you to laugh at his tantrums instead of being hurt by them. . x % THE thing that counts most in mak- ing or marring the happiness of a woman after she is married is her husband’s disposition. That is the thing that she has to live with, day in and day out, and that makes her marriage for her a Paradise or a hell on earth. Itisn't a man’'s moral prin- ciples nor even his love for her that make her glad or sorry she married him. It is the way he treats her. Personally, I consider a high tem- per that & man has never learned to control just about the worst drawback that he could have as a husband. No matter how much he loves his wife, it will never keep him from abusing and insulting her when he gets into a rage. It will never make him spare her feel- ings. She will always go in terror of saying or doing something unwittingly that will rouse the devil in him. A woman can get mighty tired of walk- ing on eggs, thinking before she speaks and having to gumshoe around a man’s prejudices lest she bring on a scene. * k% x OF COURSE, high-tempered people always claim that they do not mean what they say in their furies, which is just about as good an excuse as saying you didn’t mean to kill some one you stabbed. They are just as badly hurt, or just as dead as if the deed had been done purposely. Also, high-tempered people always think that they have wiped out a wrong by saying they are sorry. They seem to think that obliterates all memory of their unkindness from the mind of their victim. But this does not happen. We all know that in anger, as in wine, the truth comes out. The high-tempered say and do the mean things that are in their minds when they let them- selves go in their hytserical outbursts, and the husbands and wives who have to stand for this sort of treat- ment soon find their respect and their love gone. Their marriages have none of the joy and peace that they ex- pected to find in them. I am not denying that many high-tempered people have many fine and noble qualities, but they are poor matri- | monial material, and only the fool- | hardy should risk marrying them. DOROTHY DIX. (Copyright, 1936,) Have You Tried This? During the Wirter every house- wife uses chopped meat fairly often. To keep the meat fresh and appetiz- ing in appearance, before putting it in your refrigerator rub the inside of the container with glycerine and the meat will not dry out nor take on the grayish discoloration which is some- times noted. The lid of the container should also be rubbed with the glyc- erine, or if the meat is kept in a lid- less recepacle a piece of waxed paper rubbed with glycerine should be laid over the meat to protect it. All of these were made in the ~—=Star Staff Photo, Courtesy Library of Congress. Considering Everyday Courtesies Paying for Phone Calls—Sending Gifts. BY EMILY POST. DEAR MRS. POST: The other day I used a neighbor’s telephone to make a long-distance call. After fin- ishing, I asked the toll operator the cost and left the amount at the tele- phone. I saw this neighbor this morn- ing and instead of her usual friendly greeting she brought me to task for leaving the money. I was so taken back with her unexpected reprimand that I didn’t know what to say except that I would certainly expect others to pay for their toll calls were they made in my house. Is it really considered an insult to pay one’s obligation in a case of this kind? Answer: I think you were entirely right. It is very unreasonable to use a neighbor’s telephone for a long-dis- tance call without doing exactly what you did, unless, of course, the amount was very trifling. Even so, you wouldn’t repeat a number of 5-cent calls many times. = x % ])EAR MRS. POST: A dear friend who is giving us a party on our wedding anniversary said that if I wished she would suggest to our friends when she invites them that they con- tribute toward a dinner set for us, or, if not a dinner set, she would suggest that each one bring a present of what- ever they choose. Do you think the question of gifts should be brought up at all? Answer: I take it for granted that the people invited are very intimate friends and that the hostess is certain that they will want to give you a pres- ent. Under such circumstances, it would not be out of the way to have her say to them, “Let’s club together and give Mary a dinner set.” The others are free to tell her they would DlARuRS.m:A!!"m ago I sent & pipe and several explain or to say nothing. I feel sure that he could have found out where the present was from by telephoning the store but perhaps this has not oo- . And yet I don’t want i i b E stands against the cathedral wall somewhat in the shape of a great altar with three towers. Among its move- ments are a celestial globe showing the positions of the sun, moon and stars, a perpetual calendar, a devk:e' for predicting eclipses, and a proces- | sion of figures representing the pagan | gods from whom the days of the week | are named. There are devices for showing the age and phases of the moon and other astronomical events. The hours are struck by a succession of automatic figures, and at the stroke of noon a cock, perched upon the tower, flaps his wings, ruffies his neck, and crows three times. This clock | still exists and is working, but its chief interest is that of a mechanical curi- osity, for it keeps no better time than an ordinary alarm clock. * % * x BY 1600 chamber clocks, for use in private homes, had become com- mon, and, as they spread, the sun dial had to yield its long supremacy as the most important means of telling time. These clocks were of the type known as “bird-cage” clocks; they were attached to the wall and driven by weights hung on long chains. In 1658 the Dutch astronomer Huy- were not very accurate; people still relied on sun dials for really correct time; but they were valued as jewelry —and a watch has remained a jewel to this day. Kings and queens owned them. Queen Elizabeth and her court selected watches as modern women do their hats—to match their various costumes. They were often worn on a chain or ribbon around the neck, the better to display them. The jewelers of the time outdid themselves in their ornamentation. There were watches inlaid with gems; watches with mare velously beautiful enameled painting, or with cases covered with gold fili= gree work that is the envy of a modern goldsmith. Still there was no very high opinion of them as time-keepers. Shakespeare takes a nasty dig at the fair sex in “Love’s Labor Lost” when he compares a woman to “—A German clock, Still a-repairing, ever out of frame, And never going aright, being a watch.” Watches were produced in all sorts of fanciful designs, with cases shaped like crosses or shells or mandolins. A peculiar fashion was that of a watch-case shaped like a skull, to re- mind the owner when he looked at it | that time was fleeting and death was | drawing near. The lovely and un- gens produced the first pendulum|lycky Mary Queen of Scots had a clock, the pendulum being a means | skull-shaped watch, and in view of to regulate the escapement—(it doesn't | her death on the headsman’s block make the clock go, as many people it was gruesomely appropriate. Cava= suppose.) This was a great step for- | liers had swords and poniards with ward, and the type of clock developed, with its tall case and swinging pendu- lum, is & familiar piece of furniture in the hallways of our homes today. Many of these pendulum @ocks were made in the American colonies, or imported from England and Holland before the Revolution. To us they ‘lmle watches set into the hilts. We | don't carry swords today—but we | drive motor-cars; and so we have | watches set into the knobs on suto- | moble gear-shifts. ! Something about the development | of the modern watch will be told in the concluding article of this series. | AnOpen Letter To Santa BY MARY ALLEN HOOD. DOG HOUSE, ‘Washington, D. C. R. S. CLAUS, Dear Santa: I take my pen in paw to write you & few lines. Hope that it finds you well and ready to get out. I want to explain about that collar you left me last Christmas. As you know, by checking over your books, I chewed it up. I didn’t mean to be a bad dog. Since I didn’t write you last year you must have mistaken me for the Pit Bull who lives down the street. ‘When I found that heavy, brass-fitted collar in my sock I thought it was thing to chew on. The family Outside of the above, I've been a all year. Here is my list: e. I'd like to have 4. One small red sweater. It's for Nip. You know, he lives across the street. He said he guessed you didn't get his letter yast year. If you bring it to my house, Il take it | over. P 8—You can take off my lead and bring him the sweater instead. He gets awful cold. 5. One light-weight dog blanket. My measurement from the base of my neck to my tail is 22 inches. The boss always blankets me after I've had a bath. (You can forget that, too, if you wish.) 6. One of those red boots with toys in it. I know my people will think it's awfully cute. They can play with the boot and I'll take the rubber toys. Please put in & mouse that squeaks, a bone that crackles when it's chewed and a rubber ball that jingles when I bounce it. Make the ball one of the “indestructible kind.” I'd like to fool ‘em by chewing it up T. A good meal and warm place to stay for all stray dogs and cats. Please don't tell any one I men- tioned this, Santa. I don't want any of the fellows to think I'm a sissy. I can beat any dog in this block or the next block! But, San