Tárogató, 1943-1944 (6. évfolyam, 3-12. szám)
1943-11-01 / 5. szám
14 TÁROGATÓ sooner. Xot only for bringing me up to such clean living physically and mentally, but for what you could say, almost literally, saving my life. I’ll explain. In this game, split seconds count, and if it hadn’t been for your training, I probably wouldn’t be here, but I am, and will continue to stay here until I come home. Smoking and drinking, etc., slows up your mind, and reactions are bound to be slower. I’ve got my own ideas about fighting.” —“The United Churchman”. A FREXCH OLI-V-E BRAXCH A recent French programme in the B.B.C.’s European Service described the return of •wounded British prisoners of war from Italy through France and Spain. One of the soldiers, who had lost a leg after fighting in Africa, gave the following impressions of the journey across the south of France. “Towards the end of our journey through France the train stopped for some time in the station of a large village. People came running to the station. Through the window and doors of the train they offered us wine and flowers. What touched us specially was that in spite of being scarce of things in France, and in spite of the lack of tobacco, people offered us cigarettes and cakes hidden among the flowers—so much so that they might almost have been warned of our arrival by some myterious message.” And their generosity, he said, is equalled by their courage. He gave an instance. One of the bunches of flowers contained a small piece of folded paper on which was written: “We are ready. We shall be at your side to save France. See you soon.” And as always with the French, there is also their wit. The soldier told of the gesture of the station master of a village. This station master walked up and down the platform carrying the branch of a tree. The soldier and his comrades woundered what on earth the man was doing, when suddenly he lifted the bough up in the air, and they saw that it was the shape of a “V”. Then the station master looked at them out of the corner of his eyes, and smiled! Father, hear the prayer we offer: Not for ease that prayer shall be, But for strength that we may ever Live our lives courageously. —“Canadian Girl”. SPIDERS AS WORKMEX Spiders are probably the most indispensable workmen in one of the largest English surveying instrument factories. It is their duty to spin the delicate thread which is used for the cross hairs to mark the exact centre of the object lens in the surveyor’s telescop«, states a writer in the New York American. Spider web is the only suitable material yet discovered for the cross hair of surveying instruments. Almost invisible as this fibre is to the naked eye, it is brought up in the powerful lenses of the telescop« to the size of a man’s thumb, so that all defects, if there happened to be any, would be magnified to such a degree that they would be noticed at once and rejected. Human hair has been tried, but when magnified it has the apparent dimensions of a rough-hewn lamp-post. Moreover, human hair is transparent, and cross hairs must be opaque. The spiders produce during a two months’ spinning season thousands of yards of web, which is wound upon metal frames and stored away until needed. A spider “at work” dangles in the air by its invisible thread, the upper end being attached to a metal wire frame whirled in the hands of a girl. The girl first places the spider on her hand until the protruding end of the thread has become attached. When the spider attempts to leap to the ground this end is quickly attached to the centre of the whirling frame, and as the spider pays out thread, this line is wrapped around the frame. Several hundred feet of thread can be removed from a spider at one time. During the winter months the spider colony usually dies, so that an entirely new corps of workers must be recruited. Not every spider will do—only large, fat fellows that spin a tough, round thread are suitable. —“The Canadian Boy”. TESTING TIMES For over three years the flower of Canadian youth has been stationed in England, taking course after course, undergoing intensive training for a mechanized war which demands the utmost in physical fitness and specialized military knowledge. But these representatives of ours, needed as they were to guard Britain, chafed under the monotony of routine army life. They were eager to get into the action for which they had been so long preparing and to participate in the crusade for which they enlisted. Newspapers in Canada, too, were
