Verhovayak Lapja, 1946 (29. évfolyam, 1-52. szám)

1946 / Verhovay Journal

Page 8

September 11, 1946----------------------------- Verhovay Journal

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E------------------------------------Verhovay Salutes The Six Thousand Qirls and Boys for Whom This Page Is Published

Welcome to the Children’s Page, Verhovay Girls and Boys for whom a new school year had just begun. Welcome to you all who had started out on another semester, many of you in 3rd, others in fourlh and so forth up to the 8th grade. Counting all, you are a great army, six thousand strong, and it is a real pleasure to in trpduce the Children’s Page of the Verhovay Journal to you, grade school student members of our grand Association. Hereafter, this .page will reach you a few days after the second Wednesday of each month. I hope you will like your page, but whether you like it or not, I’ll be glad if you let me know about it. Fact is, I would like you to write about other things, too, because I know that there are many of you who know how and what to write. Always wanting to become a writer I started to write when I was a kid and I never stopped since. You are just like I was at that time and so, if you write a good little poem, a short story, an anecdote, or an account of some of your interesting experiences, send it to the Verhovay paper and if it is acceptable, I will be glad to print it. Be sure to address your letter to Mr. Henry Rettman editor. Verhovay Building, 436 Fourth Ave., Pittsburgh, Pa., and don’t forget to sign your own name and to give the number of the Verhovay branch of which you oge a member.

Now that summer vacations are over, school is uppermost in our minds. Whether you like school or not, you can't help thinking about it. Those who like school, are happy in the class-room, while the ethers enter it with unhappiness in their hearts. And because school takes up the greater part of your days there is lots of unhappy girls and boys, and that Is a great pity, for we all wouitl like tó see our kids happy.

Now let me ask you just one question? Do YOU like school? NO? Well, I would like to tell you how to think about school so that you could be happier in the class i oom.

REMEMBER THE WAR?

I’ll have to start with the war and, of course, you know plenty about that. Probably your brother or your uncle, maybe your big sister was in the army, too . . . and they probably told you what a terrible war it was. Hundreds of thousands died and millions were wounded, before we could win. And your mother and father did their part, too, on the home front. The fact is that for four long years we lived for nothing but the war. Not as if it wasn’t worthwhile. Your homes Would have been bombed out, you wouldn’t have automobiles to ride in, nor toys to play with, no cakes, ice cream, and mother could never cook you a real good supper, had our soldiers not defended our land against the enemy.

Now we are safe, but the job has not ended. Just like kids are tired after a long fight, so is oui nation after having fought for four long years. People would like to take it easy and to have a good time to make up for those years lost in the war. But, you see, we can’t take it easy. . There is no time. Now We have to do everything that couldn’t be done during the long war. Homes are to be built, people to be fed all over the world, automobiles, radios, bicycles, frigidaires and thousands of other things have to be made, if we don’t want to become a Very poor nation.

That, however, takes good government in every town, city, county, and state, and in Washington. You know that all these governments are elected by the people. Sometimes, people make mistakes and elect a wrong government and then we have unemployment, strikes, troubles and as a result, wé have not enough food, nor clothes, nor anything that we need or want. But America faces a very, very difficult future. We cannot afford to make any mistakes when electing our governments. But how can we avoid mistakes? Let me tell you ...

SMART CITIZENS NEEDED!

When you grow up and reach voting age, you must be smart enough to elect the right kind of government. But you can’t be smart, unless you know a great deal about how things ought to be run in our land. And that is what school is for. There you learn everything about our country and its people. You will find out what mistakes the people had committed in the past and how bitterly they had to pay for them. That is history. You will learn how great our country is. what it can grow, manufacture, produce—that is geography. You Will learn how people can live and work together, and that is social science. And so it goes with all the other subjects at school. By the time ycu graduate, if you have learned everything you ought to have learned, you will be smart citizens. You will be able to decide what this country needs and you will be able to pick the right people for the government. Then we will have prosperity, peace and happiness all over our great country-Those who don’t like school, don’t want to learn. Well, there are plenty of people who don’t want to learn anything and there is very little we can do about them. But tell me, should people who have never learned anything, be permitted to have the sayso in our wonderful land? Should our president, our governor, our judges and all the other government officials be elected by a majority of people who don’t know anything about why and how things should be done?

Millions Of our yong meh went to war, though they hated war more than anyone ever hated school. They realized that the job must be done. They did it well for four long years. Now it is up to you. You must grew up to be citizens who know why and how to vote. And that you can do only if you learn every-«

BECKO’S CASTLE

Hungarian Folk Tale

The old folks still talk about the beautiful castle that was built hundreds of years ago right on top of the highest peak of the Carpathian mountains. It was so high up that birds got tired when trying to reach it and had to rest halfway up from where the cliff rose up into the clouds. Nobody ever thought it possible that a castle could be built on top of that steep, tall rock and. of course, no one else could have done it except Lord Stibor, the mighty. Actually, he didn’t build that castle for himself but for Becko, his fool.

Lord Stibor was a great man, why, he was richer than the King and on his own land he was more feared and respected than the emperor. He was richer than all the millionaires in the world put together- The endless fields, the rivers and likes, the tall mountains, the forests, the game, the birds, even the air and the sky wepe his property. And Becko was the favorite fool of this mighty lord.

One day Lord Stibor went hunting followed by all the people on his domain. The mountains shook from the clamor of the bugles, the yelling of the people and the excited yelping of ten thousand bird dogs. Wli, hunting was fine and Lord Stibor was in a good mood. Resting comfortably under a tree, he said to Becko:

“Look here, fool, 1 am in a good mood today. Ask me anything your little heart desires and it shall be yours.”

This time, however, the fool was in a bad mood and replied: ‘‘Oh, leave me alone 1 You always promise big things but never keep your word.”

“Why you dirty skunk—yelled the Lord who really got angry— no one ever dared to say such a thing to me. Now you are going to ask for something this very moment or else I’ll have your bones ground to flour!”

“Lay off”, said the fool, “there are a few people here whose bones would make much better flour than mine. But since you insist, I’ll tell you my wish. See that tall peak up there right where the sun sets?”

“Yea.” said Lord Stibor“Alright, build me a castle up there.”

‘‘Shake, fool’’, exclaimed Lord Stibor, “a year from today you can move into your castle.”

Of course, the hunters., listening nearby, were shocked. Why, you got dizzy just from looking at the peak. No human being could scale it, least of all carry up the material and build a castle on top of it I

Well, they may have known their Lord and Master, but not well enough. Just for spite he decided to keep his word and work was started on the very next day. All his serfs were commanded to

thing they teach at school. Thus, you see, school helps you to be a good American! Do you want to be that? Then forget, about hating school and think of it as the place where your teachers will help you to become the finest citizens that America ever had! The future of our country depends on you. If you hate school and all that you could learn there, you will be letting your country down. None of our soldiers ever did that. How about you?

help, even the women and children were put to carry stones and logs. Thousands and thousands of them worked from early morning to late night. And many of the poor serfs met a horrible death, when slipping off the smooth rocks, they fell down into the abyss, lying there with every bone in their poor bodies broken. But their weeping mothers and wives were not even permittd to bury them, for Lord Stibor was a hard and cruel man and he drove them on to work as if nothing would have happened. Wilh gnashing teeth, with fear in their hearts, the people kept to their work, cursing th cliff and the crazy man who promised to build a castle on top of it.

In the meantime, Lord Stibor in vited his friends and neighbors who came in great hordes to his estate- They were given all the food they wanted and twice as much wine as they -could hold and at night, when they were all asleep, the men of Lord Stibor fell upon their servants, bound them and tarried them out to the cliff and put them, too, to worje. And while their masters whiled the time away, the servants from all the other estates helped build the castle.

Woe unto the wanderer, who happened to set foot upon Lord Stibor’s land. Immediately he was captured and found himself working on the steep ascent to the peak and "there was no way to escape. If he wanted to live, he had to work and even then amidst constant danger to his life.

Thus a year passed and Lord Stibor kept hrs word. The castle was ready and an endless row of steps led up to its portals from the valley thousands of feet below. So Lord Stibor took Becko, the fool, with him and showed him around the castle. But as they went from room to room, Lord Stibor liked the place more and more, so much so that he finally told Becko:

“Look here, fool, that place is too good for you. How about trading? I’ll give you another castle and ten thousand gold pieces in exchange for this castle.”

“It’s a bargain”, replied the fool, “I don’t want this bloody place

anyway . . •

And so Lord Stibor moved into his new castle and sent messengers all over the country to invite his friends and neighbors to a great housewarming party that was to last forty-four days. And they all came, because they feared the mighty Lord Stibor, and admired his castle even though they couldn’t help thinking of all the poor people who had to pay their lives for this inhuman project. Of course, Lord Stibor was greatly flattered and he certainly felt good about having such a magnificent castle that no enemy ever could take. There was a great banquet and after eating and drinking for three days and three nights, Lord Stibor suddenly felt , tired and went out to lay down for a while in the garden, for which the soil and the seeds and the young trees had been brought up from the valley.

Suddenly he heard a rustle and opening his eyes he saw with terror in his heart two great snakes right in front of his face. Before he could move, they struck —and winding themselves around his neck, their poisonous fangs hit his eyes. Blinded, screaming from pain and fear, he jumped up, struggling with the snakes and started toward the house, yelling for help as loud as he could. The guests and servants heard his desperate cries and rushed out, but their feet froze to the ground upon seeing a terrible scene. For Lord Stibor, having lost his eyes, did not run toward the house, but away from it, toward the edge of the cliff. He ran with the two maddened snakes flailing his bleeding face —and a moment later he stepped into bottomless emptiness—And that was the end of Lord Stibor.

Becko’s castle has been swallowed up by the passing centuries- But the wanderer, coming upon the rock in the valley from the east, can see the strange form of a weeping woman, cut into stone by the water that streamed down the rock for centuries and centuries. And the people in the little village will explain to him that God had made this statue to be a warning to all who abuse their power by mistreating the poor.

“Please, doctor,” the man cried into the phone, “my mother-inlaw is lying at death’s door; won’t you please come and pull her through?”

A doctor returned from a hunting trip and announced to his wife: “Well, my dear, I didn’t kill anything.”

Her instantaneous reply was: “That’s what you get for going off and neglecting your business.”

An editor had cause to admonish his son because of the lad’s reluctance to attend school. “You must go every day and learn to be a great scholar,” said the fond father, “otherwise you can never be an editor, you know. What would you do, for instance, if your magazine came out full of mistakes?”

“Father,” was the reply, “I’d blame the printer.”

And the father wept with joy, because he knew he had a successor for the editorial chair.

Cop: “Have you a warning on the front of your car?”

Girl Driver: “Yes, sir, I have a little sign that says ‘Dodge Brothers’!”

The young recruit was the victim of so many practical jokes that he doubted all men and their motives. One night, when on guard, a figure loomed up in the darkness before him.

“Who goes there?” he challenged.

“Major Moses,” replied the officer.

“Glad to meet you, Mdses,” he said cheerfully. “Advance and give the ten commandments.”

When you look at the financial condition of most nations today, you are inclined to think the old idea that the world is flat had some merit.

The brain is a wonderful organ. It starts working the minute you get up and does not stop until you reach the office.

WHY HATE SCHOOL: