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PAGE FOUR T H E WATCHMAN THURSDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1939 T H E W A T C H M A N Pounded In 1826 ■nWrad M 8««*nd Claw MatUr at th« Mattltuck Pott Office Publicotion Office M a t t i t u c l c P r e s s Phone 8320 PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY By Mall Weekly - HULL M. WICKHAM ............ Owner-Edltor THURSDAY, OCTOBER 2 6 , 1939 THE LONG EVENINGS About this time in former years many people used to lay out stunts of home work and study to be pursued or enjoyed in the long evenings of the late fall and winter. Out door activities having ended for them, for the season, they looked forward to long periods under the evening lamp, when they could do things that seemed too toilsome or too often interrupted during the sum mer. ; Such resolutions are not so common now, when the long autumn and winter evening is liklsly to be spent at some show, clf^b or^ party. The world is full of distractions 365 days in the year. There are very many people who are going to read this fine book, or perform some stunt of skillful handicraft, at some date in the neor fu»ii ture. But somehow the free time do?s npt turn up. Tomorrow never comes in many things.’ i, Still, there are plenty of studious and Industrious folks who wouJd like to make some use of their winter evenings. While the modern town gives people plenty of things to d©, th«y get tired if they keep going all the time. ^ If people really have the desire to know tnore, these evenings'give them plenty of opportunity. Some part of the evening should be devoted to the careful reading of newspapers and magazines. If time is spent In discussion of the news, young people go out into the world with a far «:clearer idea of the things they have to. meet. ■ \ - The long winter evening* gives people a chance to become experts at bridge or checkers or any game they want to play. |f they are going to play games at all, there is sdtisfaction in playing them well. They should get the habit of see ing how their own mistakes rather than treacherous Lady Luck caused their de feat. You can go farther and fare worse than in the home living room in the long Winter evenings. FORECASTS OF HALLOWEEN Halloween has not been merely a dote when young America breaks loose. It also was once the time when sentimental youth tried to see through the veil of the roman tic future. So they used to go down cellar stairs at midnight, carrying a mirror. In that mir ror was supposed to be reflected the face of the future mate. Was this superstition ever verified? Perhaps the young folks got so scared in the pitchy cellar, where pre sumably spirits were frolicking, that they dropped the mirror. Or the young lady twined together the stems of two roses, one for her lover and one for herself, and repeated a traditional verse. If the suitor was faithful, the rose would turn dark. Our skeptical world pays little attention to such ideas. The young lady is apt to test the fidelity of the suitor by the frequency with which he honks the horn outside her door. PEACETIME CASUALTIES War is not the only thing that wounds people and leaves therri more or less help less in the battle of life. . Jhe Illinois conference op social welfare was told on high authority a few days ago, that 5 000,000 persons on an average are on the nation's sick Isit. It was estimated that the annual cost of sickne^ and pc^N ponable death is about $ 10 , 000 , 000 , 000 . if this charge could be cut down <^e of the great burdens of life would be light ened. To accomplish this great end, mil lions of people will have to learn that you cannot violate the laws of health without paying a heavy price, and many dollars will have to be spent on sanitary and dis ease prevention work. MADE HOMELESS BY WAR A meeting was held a few days ago at the White House at Washington, of the inter-governmental committee on political refugees. President Roosevelt, speaking at this meeting, called attention to the vast numbers of people who have been turned out of their homes through the terrors of war and persecution. He asked the committee to study how to resettle **^®se unfortunate people in new areas of the earth's surface. The world's pity goes out to these poor folks, wandering homeless in a world of conflict and cruelty. Our people would like to take them in, but con not receive many of them, owing to their own un employment. The world is big and rich enough for all these folks. They would toil and struggle if given a chance. Some authority should help them locate in suitable places, where they con feed themselves, and produce things the world can use. ‘'APPEAL TO UNCLE SAM The government of Finland has appealed ri-o the United States to help that little country, which is threatened by the ag gressive designs of Soviet Russia. The Soviet Union, with its vast population and enormous army, is taking advantage of the war to put its foot down on three little Baltic nations, and tell them to mind their great master. Finland, a country of noble and patriotic independence, fears it will have to do likewise. It is distressing to Americans, who re joiced when the happy light of freedom was spreading- from nation to nation, to see the clouds of darkness again settling over many of these lands. The United States unfortunately can not attempt to right all wrongs of the world. It has a' brg job to straighten out the messes under its own flag, but it tells the world that nations will get nowhere by trampling people under their feet. It will have things to say if brave little Finland is made a victim. THE WASPS OF THE SEA Hove the British and French underesti mated the power of the German subma rines? It might seem so, after reo(^ng that the splendid old battleship had been sent to the bottom with 800 of its brave officers and crew, also that three English and French merchant ships were sunk in one day. Merchant ships of a belligerent country, without the most complete convoy, are about as safe in this war os a juicy rabbit among the wolves. And the mighty battle ship, strong enough to blow a city into ruins, may fall victim to ther s^a wasp under the impenetrable surface bf the ocean. Many pf these submarines have gone to the bottom, to keep company with- the ships they have destroyed. - ■ FORBIDDEN WORDS A relief worker recently returned from Czechoslovakia reports that the resurrec tion of Christ can not be discussed in the pulpits of that country, owing to objection of their Nazi rulers. The latter clairn me word has political significance. Probably they think that when people are encour aged to have faith in the resurrection of Jesus, they may be led to believe in the resurrection of their own country from the dust into which it was trampled. You could look for things like that about four centuries ago, when men were forbidden to think. That is can happen after centuries of education, seems like a bad dream, from which the world should awake. FIR5I iHlNeS FIRST MY OLD HOME TOWN — MATTITUCK Time rolls the curtain back To scenes that now seem strange, For here, and there, Yes, everywhere There is a Wondrous change! 2 The quiet street of rural times Is now replete with life; And shows galore Adorn each store — Activity is rife! 3 Gildersleeves’ hold their own — That rock of olden time — Where prices most fair, And goods quite rare Attract dollar, and dime. - 4 We look for old landmarks; As cars fly by, apace, Hamilton’s store We greet once more. And Charlie’s smiling face. ■5 Evening comes, and electric lights Throw a glamour over all; Youth trips along To hear a song, Or dance at Library Hall. 6 Footpaths' have gone for aye, Paved sidewalks take their place; Amid trees tall. One doth recall Broad avenues of space. 7 But naught can change the beauty Of Great Peconic Bay, Whose clear waters blue Do aye ring true To tales of another day! 8 The g r a n d Sound sw e e p s our shores, Past our stqtely cliff towers. Where sand is white, And shells pearly bright. On this fair isle of ours. NELLIE E. L. REIFF, Mattituck, N. Y. GILDING THE LILY^ Speaking of gardens^ our own, on which we spent such loving care, is now a withered waste. The bug is gone from the rose bush; the cutworm is at peace; autumn is here, and already we ® are thumbing the seed catalogs, pondering on the lAysteri’Ps, of na ture, which is such ari' inferior artist, copying so inexpertly ' the beautiful pictures of the various blooms which Mr. Ejurpee and - other floral purveyors paint. How much more lovely our garden would be if it were only done by a competent lithographer. Those # “Giant Dahlia^Flpwered Zinnias,” for in s t a n c ^ ‘‘rharvel6iis ‘ of immense size,” blazing lik e 'a rainbow. And what will we get? Two or three tarnished and lop sided blossoms of raddled pink. It isn’t Mr. Burpee’s fault. Other gardeners we know prune and weed and cultivate. But we have always felt that it is presumptous to assist nature. Naturp^ with all its tremendous resource^, pught to \ be able to beat out a seed catalog. Possibly the n a m e / of t^e flow ers have something to do with it. You can hardly expect even na ture to favor . M : flPWer with a name lik^ beauty of-Livermore or President Herbert Hoover. And when the 4ames o| the flowers are indistinguishablfe from the names of the diseases, and there are so many new'.varieties of both ^ coming out every year, confusion is inevitable. Poliomyelitis might well be a low, bushy plant with hundreds of tiny white flowers. And can you say offhand whether or not calceolaria attacks the teeth? And there is scabiosa, and streptocarpus and lupus, and cor yza. Can you say which is per ennial and which chronic? W A R ! WILL MAKE COAL ADVANCE * * f PROTECT YOUR NEEDS BUY SCREENED COAL i C . H . W l c k h a m | . PHONE 8330 MATTITUCK, L. I. f . 1 I