The sun. [volume] (Newberry, S.C.) 1937-1972, February 20, 1942, Image 3
THE SUN, NEWBERRY. S. C- FEBRUARY 20, 1942
Kathleen Norris Says:
Women, Get Busy; America Needs You
(Bell Syndicate—WNU Service.)
iiiillii
Harold, my husband, was divorced and his daughter was eight years old when
l met him. He is fifty now and takes her to dances and night clubs. They come in
late, and I hear them laughing in the pantry with her boy friends.
By KATHLEEN NORRIS
HE answer to fully two-
thirds of the problems
women submit to me in
these days will be the same. It
will be: “Get busy. America
needs you. Forget your petty
worries and trials, forget slights
and suspicions and personal dis
appointments, and give your en
tire life to prayer and service.”
We have to do that now. If
we don’t we may lose the es
sential thing that has made us
America and our world a free
world. We stand in serious dan
ger; there is no room any more for
trifles. Things that seemed actually
to wreck your life yesterday, things
over which you brooded through
restless nights and cried through
empty days, must be put aside.
Meet domestic changes heroical
ly. Not with martyred resignation
and reluctant philosophy, but cou
rageously, with imagination and hu
mor. As expensive foods rise right
out of sight, learn to substitute oth
ers, and make them appetizing and
nourishing.
After all, the chief ingredient of
any meal is love; people may call
it a “home table” or “Mothers’
cooking,” but it is love. Anyone can
tell from the taste of a meal whether
the cook liked her job or not.
Every country except our own has
Its cheap “filler” of rice, potatoes,
macaroni, oatmeal, cornmeal, with
such luxuries as meat, shellfish,
cream, roast goose, cake for the oc
casional treat. We will not have
to go as far as Caesar’s soldiers,
who traveled on a pocketful of raw
grain, or the galley slaves who were
doled out six bananas a day, or the
Chinese who can eat a bowl of
steaming rice for a hundred meals
in succession and find it still suf
ficient. But we will have to go
part way.
That’s why my answer to Isa
belle’s letter is perhaps a trifle less
sympathetic than it might have
been a few years ago. Isabelle
writes me, in part:
“I am 32, married to a man over
ten years my senior. Harold was di
vorced when I met him; his wife
had the custody of a daughter of
eight. After our first two cloudless
ly happy years together his first
wife remarried, and sent us the
child, a spoiled, difficult, unfriendly,
delicate little creature who needed
infinite care. Linda was then 12.
Had Special Training.
“I had had special training in the
care of children in a psychology
course, and I did my best for Linda,
and she loved me. Week after week,
year after year, I guided and helped
her; I have no child of my own.
Two years ago she went east to a
girls' college, returning this autumn
to be with us.
“She is now a lovely girl of 18.
Her father is completely devoted to
her. She adores him, and they leave
me out of their calculations entirely.
Recently Harold suggested, kindly
enough, that I visit my sister, who
has a large family of small children
in a neighboring town, while he and
Linda ‘take a little flier’ in New
York. I have never been to New
York. I went to stay with Mary,
doing dishes and didies for seven
weeks, until Harold and Linda came
back.
A WOMAN’S WORLD
We cannot all be called at once
for war services. And we may
not all be able to do ivhat we
want to when we are called. But
there is something every woman
in America can do now and
continue doing throughout the
months, or years, we are at war.
She can make her home a place
of comfort and courage. She can
manage to cook economical foods
and sew inexpensive clothes with
a limited number of materials—
and enjoy it. Women no longer
need to feel that their only place
is in the home, and they must
make the best of it. Many wom
en are already active in volun
teer organizations and in defense
industries. But those who re
main at home “for the duration”
need not feel left out of it. For
the home remains as much as
ever “a woman s world.”
“Harold, just 50, takes her to
dances and night clubs; they come
in late, and I hear them laughing
with her boy friends in the pantry.
We have a fine colored general maid
whom I have trained to do practically
everything downstairs; this leaves
me, a healthy woman of less than
40, with practically nothing to do. I
am neither needed nor wanted.
“Linda’s mother is dead; the girl
has an income of her own. There
is nothing I can do for her. Will you
please help me to find my place
again in my own estimation, for I
feel completely at a loss.”
Trouble Seems Imaginary.
This would seem an almost purely
imaginary trouble, Isabelle, to nine-
tenths of the women in the world
today, and you must try to see it
now in a different perspective. What
other persons can do to us is al
ways of, our own choosing; if we
choose to rise above slight and stu
pidity and to find our own avenues
of work and service, there is noth
ing that a dancing husband or un
appreciative daughter can do to hurt
us.
Youth will go on dancing, for danc
ing is wholesome and amusing and
innocent. But today’s youngsters
are dancing with tears in their eyes;
change, separation, suffering are
ahead of them, and although they
may win through—and they WILL
win through—to a better, saner,
more moderate world, the next
half-dozen years are not going to
be a time when a safe and secure
woman of 32, with no child of her
own over whom to agonize, need
grudge a giri of 18 anything.
As for your husband, he is being
selfish and silly, snatching in a
panic at the last glow of youth; but
he has company. Most men go
through this phase.
Linda will fall in love with a sol
dier, who will either march away
leaving her desolate, or who will
marry her first and perhaps come
stumbling back to be her beloved
care and responsibility for the rest
of her life. She will stop dancing
and Harold will stop dancing, and
both will turn to you. To you, who
keep the home so comfortable, who
are so sympathetic and capable,
their rock of comfort in a shaking
world.
(Released by Western Newspaper Union.)
The ‘First’ Bathtub
HIS year marks the 100th anni
versary of what is probably the
most famous bath in history. The
interesting thing is that the bath
was never taken, that Adam Thomp
son was the man who did"’t take it
and that he didn’t take that famous
bath in Cincinnati, Ohio, back in
December, 1842, even though you can
find plenty of printed “authorities”
which solemnly assert that he did.
Here’s how it all came about:
Back in December, 1917, when
Americans were as concerned about
World War I as
they are today
about World War
II, H. L. Menck
en, later famous
as the editor of
the American
Mercury, wrote a
story which pur
ported to be the
history of the first
bathtub in Amer
ica. “My motive
was simply to
H. L. Mencken have some harm
less fun in war
days,” says Mr. Mencken. “It
never occurred to me that it would
be taken seriously because it was
packed full of absurdities." But ap
parently he didn’t realize how
gullible the public was.
The stcry, which first appeared in
the New York Evening Mail of De
cember 28, 1917, stated that the first
American bathtub was displayed by
one Adam Thompson, “a wealthy
cotton and grain dealer,” to a group
of his admiring friends in Cincin
nati on December 10, 1842. It was
at a party “for men only” and all
of the guests took baths in the new
contraption.
That party, according to Menck
en, had an unexpected aftermath.
The bathtub was denounced by phy
sicians as a menace to public health
and the Boston city fathers passed
an ordinance prohibiting its use ex
cept upon medical advice. In Vir
ginia a $30 tax was imposed upon
the installation of each bathtub and
Hartford, Conn., Wilmington, Del.,
and Providence, ft. I., all charged
extra rates for water in which to
bathe in bathtubs.
The Philadelphia city council, he
solemnly averred, tried to pass an
ordinance prohib
iting the use of
bathtubs between
November and
May but the
measure was de
feated by two
votes. However,
adverse legisla
tion couldn’t stop
the use of the
“new invention”
and during Mil-
lard Fillmore’s Millard Fillmore
administration as
President he had a bathtub installed
in the White House and thus became
the first Chief Executive to take a
bath there.
Such were the “facts” which the
public accepted in all seriousness.
Eight or nine years later Mencken
wrote an article which was syndi
cated to newspapers all over the
United States. Reviewing the his
tory of his hoax, he said:
“Pretty soon I began to encoun
ter my preposterous ‘facts’ in the
writings of other mep. They began
to be used by chiropractors and oth
er such quacks as evidence of the
stupidity of medical men. They be
gan to be cited by medical men as
proof of the progress of public hy-<
giene. They got into learned jour
nals. They were alluded to on the
floor of congress. They crossed the
ocean, and were discussed solemnly
in England and on the Continent.
Finally, I began to find them in
standard works of reference.”
In one of his books Mencken tells
how the story was reprinted in the
Boston Herald with a four-column
head and a two-column cartoon la
beled satirically “The American
Public Will Swallow Anything.” Says
Mencken: “And then, three weeks
later, in the same editorial section,
but promoted to page one, the same
Herald reprinted my 10-year-old
fake—soberly and as a piece of
news.”
Since then the story has been re
printed countless times—some times
for the purpose of debunking it but
more often as an authentic item of
“social history.” Despite all of its
author’s efforts to debunk his own
fantasy, it keeps bobbing up regu
larly and people keep repeating the
yarn as though it were the truth.
As a final touch of irony it has ap
peared at least twice in the news
paper with which Mencken’s name
is closely associated—the Baltimore
Sun!
As a matter of fact, the bathtub
has a much longer history than a
mere 100 years. The cave men left
behind them paintings which show
that they made a kind of bathtub
by conducting water from springs
through hollow logs into rock basins
in their caverns. The people of
Babylon, Mesopotamia, Crete, Egypt
and Greece all had ingenious water
systems and practiced frequent
bathing. The baths of ancient Ro
mans were famous for their luxury
and cleanliness. All of which proves
that the “Inventor” Thompson was
anticipated by many centuries.
Washington Day Ideas
It took Washington to make the
cherry famous by telling the truth
about cutting down that famous tree,
but it takes only a sampling to make
us appreciate the excellence of this
luscious red-ripe berry.
If you’re sensitive to color, and
most of you are, I am sure, then
you can make the
most of the possi
bilities which the
cherry offers for
pepping up win
ter mealtime.
With appetites
riding high, but
opportunities for
decoration fairly
low in these cold
er months, the
Washington birthday and its syno
nym the cherry, come to the rescue.
All of today’s recipes have “Um-
um” tacked onto them, so make
your bids for fame by starting off
with:
♦Cherry Torten.
(Serves 6 to 8)
Torten Layer:
1 cup sifted flour
Vb teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
V* cup butter
1 egg yolk, slightly beaten
Combine flour, salt and sugar. Cut
in butter with knives or pastry
blender. Add beaten egg yolk and
mix thoroughly. Press this mixture
into baking dish or pie tin. Cover
with cherry topping and bake in a
hot (425-degree) oven for 15 min
utes. Reduce heat to moderate (350
degree) for about 20 minutes.
Serve hot or cold, with whipped or
plain cream if desired.
Cherry Topping:
1 No. 2 can red, tart, pitted cherries
% cup sugar
4 tablespoons cornstarch
I tablespoon butter
Drain juice from cherries. Heat
to boiling point. Combine sugar and
cornstarch. Add enough cold wa
ter to make a smooth paste. Pour
this gradually into the boiling cher
ry juice and cook 5 minutes, stir
ring constantly. Remove from fire,
add cherries and butter.
'Phis upside down cake is as good
as it looks because the cherries are
interlaced with
the delicious car
amel mixture.
You’ll be extra
clever for vary
ing the dessert
course with this
newcomer to the
upside down cake
family for it’s
bound to carry
off first honors:
Cherry Upside Down Cake.
2 eggs
% cup sugar
V* cup boiling water
% cup cake flour
Ys teaspoon salt
% teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon lemon or orange ex
tract
IVi cups red, pitted cherries
V* cup butter
Yz cup brown sugar
Beat yolks until thick; add sugar
gradually. Continue beating and
add water. Mix well and add sifted
Lynn Says:
The cherry family is one with
many branches. In addition to
the red, tart pitted cherries which
are abundant in the summer and
which can easily be put up well
in cans, there are two other types
of cherries worthy of mention.
The first of these is a white
type cherry commonly called
Queen Anne. This lends itself
well to salads and adds distinc
tive flavor especially when used
in combination with other fruits
such as pineapple, oranges,
grapefruit and bananas. A little
bit of the Queen Anne cheery goes
a long way.
The other type, called Bing
cherries, are deep, dark red, and
quite sweet. For that reason they
are at home in desserts. They
can be made into sauces and
served over ice creams and pud
dings.
This Week’s Menu
♦Meat Balls Buttered Noodles
‘Creamed Spinach With
Egg Garnish
♦Banana Muffins Butter
Lettuce With French Dressing
•Cherry Torten
Coffee Tea Milk
•Recipes Given.
dry ingredients. Beat in thoroughly
and fold in flavoring and stiffly beat
en egg whites. Melt butter in heavy
skillet and add brown sugar. Over
this spread cherries, then pour over
cake batter. Bake 30 to 40 minutes
in a moderate (350-degree) oven.
If you ever have cherries left
over, you may thicken the juice
with cornstarch mixed in water and
heated to the boiling point. This is
especially good on rice or cottage
pudding or as a sauce over ice
cream.
Cherries and peaches are an in
spired combination, especially in
pie. You’ll be enthusiastic over this
one:
Peach Cherry Pie.
1 recipe plain pastry
% cup sugar
V4 cup flour
1% cups canned tart red cherries
IVi cups sliced peaches (canned)
V* teaspoon almond extract
Yg cup juice from canned cherries
3 tablespoons butter
Drain fruit. Mix flour and sugar
and sprinkle Yt ct the mixture in a
lined pastry tin. Add fruit and cher
ry juice to which has been added
the almond extract. Sprinkle fruit
with remaining flour-sugar mixture.
Dot with butter. Make lattice top
for pie and flute edges. Bake in a
hot (425-uegree) oven 10 minutes,
then in a moderate (350-degree)
oven 25 minutes.
Meat balls slim the budget and
still remain a good main dish for
dinners this sea
son. They’re nu
tritious and fla-
vojful made with
egg, milk and
bread, and color
ful with green
peas riding in the
rich brownish red
gravy:
•Meat Balls.
(Serves 6)
2 slices bread
% cup milk
1 beaten egg
Yi pound ground beef
Y\ cup ground pork
Salt and pepper
2 tablespoons chili sauce
1 small onion, grated
2 cups strained tomatoes
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 cup peas, cooked
Soften bread in milk, add egg.
Mix meats and add seasonings, salt,
pepper, chili sauce and onion. Form
into balls, roll in flour and brown
in hot fat. Add tomato and Wor
cestershire sauce and simmer for
35 minutes. Add peas apd cook until
they heat through.
♦Banana Muffins.
(Makes 10 muffins)
2 tablespoons shortening
Ya cup sugar
Yz cup chopped banana
1 egg
1 cup vitamin-enriched wheat flakes
% cup milk
1 cup flour
Yz teaspoon salt
lYz teaspoons baking powder
Blend shortening and sugar, add
chopped banana and egg and beat
thoroughly. Stir in wheat flakes and
milk. Sift dry ingredients and add
to first mixture. Stir only until
flour disappears. Fill greased muf
fin tins until % full and bake in a
moderately hot (400-degree) oven
about 30 minutes.
♦Creamed Spinach.
Wash spinach leaves carefully un
der running water, being careful to
remove all dirt. Boil without water
5 to 7 minutes or until tender. Drain
and chop fine. Make a medium thick
cream sauce, and blend into the
chopped spinach until it becomes
part of the leaves. Season to taste
with salt, pepper and a little dash of
nutmeg. As a garnish serve wedges
or slices of hard-boiled egg around
the spinach platter.
(Released by Western Newspaper Union.)
Enjoy Stitching This
Pretty Wall Hanging
Pattern 2837.
IT’S fascinating to see this pic-
ture appear so quickly under
your needle—all the stitches are
easy, you know.
* # *
Pattern 2837 contains a pansier pattern
of a 13 by 19% inch picture; illustrations
of stitches; color chart; materials re
quired. Send your order to:
Sewing Circle Needlecraft Dept.
82 Eighth Ave. New York
Enclose 13 cents in coins for Pat
tern No
Name
Address *
Do You Bake at Home?
If you do, send for a grand cook
book—jammed with recipes for
all kinds of yeast-raised breads
and cakes. It’s absolutely free.
Just drop a postcard with your
name and address to Standard
Brands Inc., 691 Washington St.,
New York City.—Adv.
COMMON SENSE..
£
proved thousands upon
? * thousands of timosl
ALL-VEGETABLE
LAXATIVE
• In NR (Nature’s Remedy) Tablets,
there are no chemicals, no minerals, no
phenol derivatives. NR Tablets are dif
ferent—act different. Purely vegetable—a
combination of 10 vegetable ingredients
formulated over 50 years ago. Uncoated
or candy coated, their action is depend
able, thorough, yet gentle, as millions
of NR's have proved. Get a 254 box
today ... or larger economy size.
NR TO-NIGHT; TOMORROW ALRIGHT
«MDT
tOMIPl
The Covetous One
The covetous man is like a
camel with a great hunch on his
back; heaven’s gate must be
made higher and broader, or he
will hardly get in. — Thomas
Adams.
AWAY GO CORKS
Dr. Scholl's Zino-pads in
stantly stop tormenting
shoe friction; lift pressure.
Separate Medication* in
cluded for removing corns.
D- r Scholls hno-pads
Our Business
To turn all that we possess into
the channels of universal love be
comes the business of our lives.—
John Woolman.
One’s Burden
For every man shall bear his
own burden.
QMUPIERS'CIESI COLDS
Mother—Give YOUR Child
This Seme Expert Caret
At the first sign of a chest cold the
Dionne Quintuplets' throats and chests
are rubbed with Children’s Mild
Musterole—a product made especially
to promptly relieve dis
tress of children’s colds
and resulting bronchial
and croupy coughs.
Musterole gives such
iSTEROlt
wonderful results because it’s more
than an ordinary “salve.- It helps
break up local congestion. Since
Mnsterole is nsed on the Quintnplete
you may be sure mother, it’s just
about the BEST product made I
IN 3 STRENGTHS
Children’s Mild Muster
ole. Also Regular and Ex
tra Strength for grown
ups who preferastronger
product. All drugstores.
Secret Sorrows
Believe me, every man has his
secret sorrows, which the world
knows not; and oftentimes we call
a man cold when he is only sad.—
Longfellow.
CAMEL
THE CIGARETTE OF COSTLIER TOBACCOS