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ithe tofu horns 4 r merchants, as go cue, make their {lig s. They form-a motley i¥n passing by our win- and their bold calls com- iF ent the charming staccato ¥¥5¢ the getas (wooden shoes) of 'men and women going .to the bath, to market, or to work. Some days it is difficult to come away, from the window and turn to housework." "There is a dignity: about the "bamboo vendor, -the first mer-_ chant to come by after my hus= band has léft to catch the eight o'clock bus.. He walks with a spring and saunter, I suppose because of the balance of the 12-15 foot poles he carries on his shoulders. His cry 'is'a shy "sa oh da ke, sa oh da ke/#and he keeps hisreyes a coord. My imagination tells me that he rises early each morning to tramp through dew into the - woods to cut his poles, and at . dawn boards the train {from Karuizawa ta Tokyo. Soon after the bamboo poles have been guided around the. narrow bend past our neighbor's wooden fence, 1 'hear a bell , ringing, brassy like the old-time __school bell: It's time m ] ing dishes were cleare and' my kitchen : in order, for . this is/the call of the trash man, He has parked his large two- wheeled tagt, containing two to four huge wilder; baskets just down the alley, "apd there the housewives take' tht garbage, writes Nancy 8S. Nelsdn in The _ Christian Science ace) oolie; always' to toc" ay, never -$arr- goldfish seller and' T man have secret ents with the children not M¥me down the street until Yhool is out and they are free follow them. The orange and black fish, sloshing in the * aquariums which are set on an open four-wheeled cart, are an- nounced by: their seller in a high falsetto voice "kin Ryo keen gyo." It is exciting when a child runs out to buy a fish, his eyes 'flashing. in the sun as birghtly as the gold and black , darts swimming in the water. He fin- gers his piece of yen and whis- pers to 'his playmates, and they point and argue. the merifs of 'each fish, Finally he chooses and 'the fish man scoops the choice with a white net into a card- board container, "Domo, domo" the child: cries and runs through 'some low doorway into his yard to squat: for 'along time and "quietly regard his new pet. When I hear the "boom-bump" of a drum and the: chatter of children's feet running down the street, 1 know 'it is time for the baby's bath. For "the '"kamibi-_. shai" wagon comes 'by at 4 o'clock. Its' owner thumps on. a big skin drum and the children run to'beg a few yen from their niothers. Then they surround the candy man and, begin the ritual of choosing from his lollipops, molasses wafers, seaweed candy, or spun cotton: This candy setter told our neighbor his picture, for his business was so good and he had so many children to meet each day! Just 'before dinnertime the ~ fishmongers and vegetable ped- dlers cry their ways through . our. Streets. "Sa ka naya" and "ya oh ya" they call and park * their bicycles and carts to wait tor their regular customers to ' come to 'pick out the food they "will serve for dinner. (Because of lack of refrigeration most 'housewives market every day.) When a fish is selected the monger trims it, wraps it in - wood-paper, and ceremoniously settles it in his 'customer's shop- ping basket, assuring her that. she has chosen a fine fish: Then the streets. are cleaned. Sounds and aromas: of kitchens that he | * scarcely had time to let us take LiACol. R. H. Webb, an enthusiastic phi t, al . ready has collected more than: 300 different types of 'military. postmarks, the majority of which trace thé post-war progress of 'Canadian servicemen through the Korean war to the United ' Nations Emergency Force in the Middle East, - He now is concentrating on a ; . collection of postmarks originat- ing in Canadian military, post offices and field post offices. at home and overseas during the Second World War and the Great War, 1914-18. The job is not as simple as it may seem and Lt.- Col. Webb entertains little hepe of , ever completing his unique task. His unofficial *'history" is an offshoot of his hobby of stamp collecting which he started at the age of nine. He only recent- ly decided to specialize in .mili- tary postmarks. Poel Lt.-Col. Webb believes he lit- erally has the field to himself and won't quit until he has gath- ered enough material to put to- gether a comprehensive pamph- let. So far little or nothing has been written on the subject. . His present collection featuring military postmarks on envelopes handled by Canadian postal per- sonnel serving with 'the UNEF aroused much interest and won a © Canadian Philatelic Society tro- phy and a silver award when eX- - hibited at the 27th annual con- vention and exhibition of the Society in Ottawa recently. Although his post-war collec- tion is virtually complete, one postmark at least has eluded Lt.- Col. Webb. It's one pearing the cancellation CAPO 5002 used when the 2nd Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infan- try first landed in Korea in 1950. Seeks Her War Hero For Sixieen Years 'Sixteen years ago, Ellen Field, then a nurse and undercover worker for the British author- ities in Hong Kong, was trapped on the beach of Kowloon, Hong Kong's mainland 'settlement, with her 3 children, on a fateful day in December 1941. the Japanese invaders attacked the defending Canadian and British Forces she was conduct- ed to safety by a Canadian pri- vate named Flegg of the Winni- peg Grenadiers. He found them a place on a "boat leaving for the island When - TH.:OWING PAINT, MAYBE? -- Frank Paula, right, and Billy Thompson spruce up an empty England zoo. Despite the sign; sidewalk superintendents shoul -cism. : animal cage at the Chessington, they seem to be harmless, But d be wary of overzealous eriti- Attempted Murder -- Or Tittle-Tattle? A Complete Story by Donald Shoubridge Quite a colony we -are at 'Mead Park. Fast trains to Town in the rush hours, but otherwise: -a bit cut off. So everybody gets to know everybody else, : We .all liked the-Jook of the Birketts when they bought one of the last new £3,150 semi- detacheds. She was a pretty little: thing. "Dresden; © shepherdess type," my wife said. He was in the mid-forties, 'about ten years older. \& SET Well, in due. course the usual calls were made and the people living nea nded 'out the usual invitations to firop in one evening. But the 'Birketts didn't accept any, said they were too busy getting the house in order. So we all went 'on thinking what a nice. couple they were. You sce, they -looked it. «---- ~The first whisp of smoke came from Miss Dixon. Nobody is ever - likely to. have: any success with a local paper at Mead Park; not while Miss Dixon's alive. She'd got it .from the woman at the sub-post office, who'd got it from the grocer himself. The grocer had just been - about to knock on 'the Birkett's back door on Saturday, midday, when suddenly a hot dinner, in- cluding plate, came flying through the french windows and Mrs. Birkett shouted, "I won't! I ~ won't touch it, you devil!" stayed there a bit,- . white-_ "But I've promised Birkett." o . "Before you knew about this. I think the most sensible thing we can do is neither to add {to the gossip nor try to stop it." Well, my wife has the habit of getting her own way. So that | was what we did. It was awk- ward if I saw him on the train. I felt guilty, for he must have known that much gossip still was sweeping through Mead Park. And -then the next thing hap- pened -- and I was the unlucky witness. Every Friday I get away a bit earlier and catch the 5.20 instead . of the 5.48. This particular Fri- day I was even earlier at Vic- toria, so I had a cup of tea and then looked at the bookstall, That was how I saw Birkett-- and with a girl An extremely attractive girl in: the twenties. I went hot and cold all over. I mean, it was so-obvious -- they both had that sort of urgent, excited look. Then the 5.20 plat- form was ready for our tran, I: saw her catch his sleeve -- then he pulled her towards him and kissed 'her. What: a fool! Like . that -- in public when there "was already so much talk! Well; after that, I had no more illusions. And my wife was pleased. What I'd seen had prov- ed her right, of course. "Well, what do we do now?" she ask=« + wife. and knock on Birkett's door Ey ie gua accuse him of trying to kill | r had. asked it she could kett said it was wife had a gastric upset, and more or less slammed the door in her face. e w "doctor, You see, Mead "park isn't big enough to have its own doctor yet and Dr. Wil- liamson comes from Himley, two miles away. "The next thing ~ we're going to see at that house is a hearse," said my wife. But it wasn't. The next thing we saw: was a "To Be. Sold" board. Public opinion had won. It -he was going to poison his wife, at least he'd realized he couldn't possibly do.it in Mead Park! Gossip was- not such an idle thing, after all. "It was. quite. a shock a few days after that when one even- |: ing the beh rang and there on our step were the Birketts. "This isn't a social call, I'm afraid," he said, as they follow- 'ed me into the lounge. "Oh," Mrs. * Birkett, so glad" you've called at last," said my "Are "you?" she said, : folly; "No doubt you know we're | selling our house," said Birkett. "We're 'leaving -- and at con- siderable financial loss -- be- cause we have been subjected to, the vilest possible persecution since we came here. My wife's health ig worse than it ever was, she will have to go abroad. for months. It is going to be expen- sive, but that won't matter -- "we shan't be paying. Mead Park wil" "~ «I,ook here, Birkett, I'm not standing for . . ."" #3 "I'm not saying anything be- * hind your back," he replied. "I'm telling. you to your face - that my - solicitors are issuing fourteen writs for slander. I've got enough against Mead Park to / expose it in every newspaper. in the country as a hot-bed for malicious 'gossip.' © "Now, really, Birkett!" "Too late to sq eal now. 1 gave you a chanceé'pnce, if you remember. But aftety that you and your wife were, gossiping more than ever." if ; "Why did you take spup to the ~chemist's to be ansiysed?" my 1 From one she 1 SL elt somebody should | days later, - life 'policies' going to be a whole Utor Ww had a meeting a few In fact, we Ni severa after that. They made me 4 [3 n, = : 5% 2 us £2,700 to prevent it going & court -- nearly 0 each! Bit it might have cost more to fight, and any one ; us might have been caught for hundreds because of something exceptional § rong we'd said. Then thee was the publicity ef- fect on MeadPark -- no, we had. to settle ay we did, even if one ar- ad to borrow on. take out bigger mortgages. And then Mis? Dixon went $0 stay with a frieid in the West Country. And she heard about - almost exactly the same thing on a new estate near Cheltenham. A married couple With a dif- ferent name but with descrip= "Hons just like the Birketts. A * year.before our trou 'Park. : blz at Mead The only difference' was that down there they'd: only had to. settle for £1,900. 4 So we've been holding more yedlings One idea is that we ~fontact these other people with a view to joint action. But as X keep on: saying, if the Birketis are what we think now, what chance have we got of finding: them to get even a penny back?" - But it does explain. those fly- papers. Birkett gave a reason pod everything except buying thoss fly-papers in March. But the season's obvious 'now. Fras He bought 'them: to catch us. 8."