Tárogató, 1938-1939 (1. évfolyam, 1-10. szám)
1938-11-01 / 5. szám
14 TÁROGATÓ THE WHEELBARROW MAN. Lord Leverhulme has been telling again the good old story of a visit a group of scientists made to a factory. They were puzzled to know why one of the workers pulled his barrow behind him, while others pushed theirs, and, after trying in vain to find an answer by psychological methods, the scientists decided to ask the man why he dragged the barrow behind him. The man said: “vVell, Guv’nor, it is this way—I hate the sight of the blooming thing.” THE TALE OF OTTAWA’S FLASHING LIGHTS. Coloured lights are used at Ottawa to keep a check on our population. On the wall in the entrance hall of the Dominion Bureau of Statistics is a curious little instrument with coloured lights flashing every three or four minutes. The lights indicate the progress made from hour to hour in building up the population; they turn off and on automatically, and as they appear and disappear the totals accumulate. When an orange light flicks on it indicates that a child has been born, and this happens on an average 645 times every day. Next to the orange bulb is a red light which shows that somebody has died. The average daily deathrate in the Dominion is 288. When the green light shpws it means that an immigrant has arrived. There are 124 of them as a daily average, but agains these are 66 people who leave the country as shown by the yellow light. By addition and subtraction the increase or decrease in population is arrived at. At present there is an estimated increase of one person every three minutes and 28 seconds, and this Is shown by a white light. At the 1931 census Canada’s population was 10,376,- 786, and the estimated increase since then is about 853,000. Good Never the Fruit of Evil By C. A. S. Dwight Among the ancient Greeks a saying was common, “Bad crow, bad egg.” The fruit of evil is always evil. Men do not gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles. An Oriental proverb declares that “expecting good fruits from the wicked is draining swallow’s milk, plucking a hog’s soft wool,” or looking for “sands yielding pomegranates” — that is, expecting the absurd or the impossible. Everything in this world has a cause, and it is useless to look for fortune unless the foundations of success are early laid in right beliefs and virtuous conduct. No man is either wise or good by chance. We get what we go for, and we take ourselves with us as we go. Any deviation from the line of duty, or undue indulgence of appetite, means so much loss of time and tissue, or may lead, if repeated, to final ruin, mental and moral. It is a misichievous error to assume that young people are excusable (or exempt from physical and social penalties) if they sow wild oats. Man is a husbandman going forth to sow, and it is of the utmost importance that he take with him good seed as he tramps the fields. In too many books published to-day the idea is given, or slyly insinuated, that it is rather smart than otherwise to be selfish, sly and sporty. Bad people do sometimes seem to succeed—or at any rate enjoy themselves—for awhile, yet finally there comes disillusionment and despair. It is best to be good, for only so is life full of promise for this world and the next. The heads of forty-one Protestant denominations in the United States have united o nan educational programme toward total abstinence and the complete eradication of the beverage alcohol traffic. The aim is to flood the country with the “facts” concerning alcohol and its work. Canada will probably share this activity with her great southern neighbor. During 1937 The United Church raised $10,000 for the famine-stricken sufferers in China and India, and $55,- 000 to help ministers in Canada’s drougth-smftten areas. It also sent 5,000 bales of clothing to the Canadian West, and helped to fill 900 carloads with fruit and vegetables for the same area.. And the East was none the poorer.
