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John McCormack Irelands most famous tenor Hit 1 LI chouse Dear sirs It Is getting near St Patrick Day and I am sending my usual contribution Thanking you for jour kindness in he past Best wishes to vou nil lam sincerely yours Catherine Or ham JOHN John McCormack was Ireland mast famous tenor He was born the 14th June In 1903 at the age of he won a gold medal at the Coeil music festiv held annually in Dublin and from then on he was on his way He studied first under Vincent and then went to Italy and studied under the famous Italian conductor Vin There he made his debut in Opera in That same year lie married I herself a singer of considerable merit In 1907 when he was he made his Garden debut the auricrand his wife lie was Prime Min ister of Cinada from I89G to He was assisted by a famous Cnmdlan singer Eve mthier It was here that Oscar him sing and invited him to sing at Ihe Manhattan House that was 10M a number of years after that he travelled regularly between the US and singing opera He also visited and China He was the first singer to have stage audiences So many people came to hear him sing that they got tired sending them away so decided to let them up on stage This arrangement had Its drawbacks for at times his accompanist and himself had trouble getting near the piano An old Irish man who was silting at the back of the stage was asked if he was enjoying the concert yes said he I prefer back to a lot of their faces Later in his life he gave up opera singing and concentrated on religious songs He inns Congress In Dublin In 1932 and ballads especially Irish airs including Moore melodies During the second world war he gave concert for the Canadian troops They en his songs especially when he sang other Macree In he bought a mansion miles from Dublin Abbey spent his summers there In the twenties remember some friends coming to see our family They were Americana and friends of McCormack and when they came and told us they first paid him a visit we were naturally very that wo were also on their list king back over those years is more like a dream than reality In his day he met and made friends with many famous people Caruso was his con temporary and his friend one of the singers of all time Gene boxer James Joyce Will and he Kennedy am Ily was at a concert In lluffalo that he an his retirement from the stage He went back to Ireland anil died In I re to say that when he died hi muiic wan buried with him Today his name In never mentioned nor do we hear any of his re His wife wrote on autobiography of thcirllfotogcther title I Hear You Calling Me This wan the name of a song he made I shall end with a verse from II I hear you calling me And the ringing gladness of your voice Thoso fears that made my longing heart rejoice You spoke do you remember and my heart still hears the distant music of your GLAMOUR IS an innovation these days at the corner of No 7 Highway and Acton Pat Marehment is the newly hired crossing guard who combines her grade 13 Acton high school program with assisting Bennett public school students crossing the highway She is seen with two pupil customers Paul Lowe of Chruchill and Teddy Reeve of Limehouse 20 years ago Taken from the Issue of the I- March II 1951 Two within hours left 14 people homeless in driving snow storms and high winds Idbt week as flames levelled two dlslnct form homes claiming all the eontcnls A fire tht home of Harold one mile cast of No highway on the south of lilcnspey Mushroom Co Thursday complete levelled rev and half morning nine with seconds to spare from fin at of lodits three miles west of Although o numerical maorilv of Actons retail merchants have inditatcd favor o night store hour over Saturday night opening per cent intlorsimcnl of was not signified I formed a commute to work to v ml the change Want haircut hi less expensive pant his given to the march of higher Acton will hike their from tents to Ml cents are tints Ttu stores will closed all and open Saturday nights till 10 All the pupils of of Who wire entered in txaminulions Kissed successfully The students in leraldine Crump and Carol risen of Vine Ann Train Mary Jam passed examinations She is i pupil Franklin Miss Joan Pickering piano pupils successful In win Jot and i- Ha Ttresa Kilhcrinc Kirkness 50 years ago Taken from Issue of he lrest or Thursday March 1921 A nigger show invariably draws i crowd wis the of in old resident the other evening Wednesday and Thursday evenings the Acton Citizens Band put on their popular minstrel show in the town hill It was unique it was ver It was enjoyable from start to finish A oneact was quite up to the mark The was Mr Plank Mr George Bishop Mr A Mison Mrs A Mrandtr Mrs During the while the was being set for the minstrels i couple of character songs in toslume wire rtndt red by Miss Cross and brother which brought down the house The of minstrels was confined to members of the bind with two exceptions Moson tht position of interlocutor to per indktplllu too as busy with his Thi Dixit quirtet Jim Smith I in Minn and llumlty Tin I imt Kiln club put on i wilh Bishop Itudolph Tom Savage I Inn smith mil Mix Minn liar tour was by Mien Moon igt The town clock the hour of is the nod honis thi Whole show thi program 75 years ago Taken from Issue of the tree March IKM wetks John son of I tlir lsqutsme ited upon I rin Donald ind for He is In i virv intu lint his his been his in In see him to In akiin Hunk is finished v s firvint i is Ik tht port of the I- I cost to Council four months from of the vote on the Thesi four months luivi responsibilit and supervision fir home of Mr Wilson foremin of the glove has plaie of deep mourning Robert the wis going about his work in Ihe when his leithcr apron wis taught b the revolving shaft in an instint he was being whirled to his death As his heart broken father ind others stood looking upon the mingled body the poor ixclaimed Take me father Ira not dead He survived for about an hour and talked freely to his aunt and was able to kiss his parents brothers converse in tellifiblv with his pastor ere the end came The event has cast deepest gloom the The funeral was one of the largest for some time for the sugar bush Real Issue Is who will pay The swimming pool debacle Hills finds itself in is the dir ect result of the introduction of regional government Councillors are almost being asked to choose priorities between the Acton or Georgetown pools when that really is not the issue at all By all means let the town take over financing the Acton pool to get ail the available grants but it in no way should hold up the Georgetown project The real issue is who will pay for the two projects Should Acton and people help pay for the Georgetown pool And vice versa should Georgetown and help pay for the Acton pool We don think so only on a voluntary basis These were projects conceived and developed the of regional government by two separate municipalities The councils of both decided each municipality could afford the projects We believe such projects should be paid by the benefitting municipality Projects conceived and planned after January by the full council of Hills may have to be paid for by all ratepayers but thats another issue All the projects now before council the Georgetown pool arena theatre and addition to the library and the Acton pool should be paid for by the benefit ting municipality Of course there are going to be fuzzy lines in Esquesing which might be resolved by following the borders of the fire area if it is determined rural residents want to contribute to the projects In any event it is foolish for councillors to argue over projects and priorities when they were set before regional government was implemented There was general agreement before the town of Halton Hills was introduced that existing projects would be shouldered by the benefitting municipality Why not simply follow these guidelines and forget the arguing until theres a project in which all four wards of Halton Hills can participate and plan together The Acton Free Press Wed Christmas lighting justified Acton hydro commissioners were apparently justified in stick with their Christmas home decorating contest At the time there was a lot of talk mainly from the U S about the energy shortage However the commission here decided not to cancel their an competition Now the latest issue of Hydro Bill SMILEY Have you noticed the big change in the world of big eipitilism in the past couple of decades The personnel in the inner sanctum of high fmonce is just as piratical as that of the robber baron diys out the things they wheel and deal in ire vastly different The had old boys the and the the J Morgans and the were giants of finance and a pretty unscrupulous lot from all accounts They dealt with solid assets steel and con oil minerals railways and banks Their techniques wire roughly him Mar Get hold of something as cheaply as possible and dispose of it for as much is possible And never pay a working man more than the absolute minimum A simple formula but it piled up millions then billions Today their names connected with philanthropies but when they were ilive their names produced more curses than blessings They fought the unions They bribed and bullied and stole They d hive it the idea that their dprciljtions were destroying the ecology They d have hod apoplexy if some one h id suggested something as ridiculous is fringe Today entrepreneurs seem to be just is arrogant greedy and ruthless but the things thev deal in have changed almost completely flanks and railways and airlines are still profitable but they are no longer the financial playthings of a few men They have become exceedingly dull bureaucracies with little life or color in The new breed of banditti steers clear of them Oh your modem wheeler might take flurry in oil but it more likely to be floating a stock issue than getting the stuff out of the ground Today financial magnate is far more interested the of sports and entertainment then he is in just old things like mines and such He still goes whercthe big buck is but the action has changed Nowadays hes more likely to own a prizefighter or a string of horses than a chunk of a copper mine Today s big money is in publishing radio and television and sports And the big money is in land speculation Your old time financier would have been stunned and envious could he see the doubling ind tripling money in the buying and selling of plain old land So it in the areas mentioned that you 11 find the modern sharks in large schools gobbling up the little suckers and them for all the larger suckers not her big change is in the publicity Involved The magnates of yesteryear were very closemouthed They kept their prl ate lives as secluded is possible retreoled to homes and tried to keep the press at arm length Todays migoots oops a slip ejorv in limelight They are never happier than when they have the medio speculating about their next deal They manipulate the press After all every story drives up the price of whatever they re selling and is also great for the ego They call a press conference to discuss a pending operation for an in grown toenail T the greatest con mm of them all would be green with jealousy if he could see the way some of the modern con artists use every trick he ever knew and some they ve invented to sucker into watching a third rate sports or a third rate prize fight There one other aspect of great for the buck that has changed drastically s the relationship with the people working for the big dealers In the bad old days when faux reigned supreme it was the accepted custom to grind ihe worker down and sweat the very lifeblood out of him to wring the last cent of profit Today the worm has turned par in sports All you need if you re a pretty good athlete is a good lawyer and jou cm put the boss through wnnger Can you imagine the look on the face of J Morgan if someone could tell him that mere bodies were pulling in sahrlcs in six figures This lust aspect would seem to be a matter for sheer joy for most of as watching the bosses being squeezed by the workers But alas It won do Us any good fellow sucker The boss will raise the price of admission and won lose a nickel of his Sounds like the government if When everything costs them more they raise our taxes to pay for the increases When everything costs us more they raise the taxes as a curb against inflation Get in line sucker for the next Increase in the price of tickets News states the supply of city at Christmas time was more than adequate The annual peak load occurred on December the very day homes here were and it was about kilowatts System reserves amounted to over 3000000 kilo watts However Hydro noted that many people did cut down on their traditional lighting and the hydro City lights I was invited to the city To spend a couple of nights I rom skyline flits and automats We took in all the sights We toured around big buildings Took in the City Hall This culture scare was hiding there Inside a concrete wall There was water squirting round the place It was then I got i shock hurt her pride when I asked my guide Why they left that awful rock She said It is a thing of beauty This was a cultural gem irved in stone it stood alone A tribute to men I w is afraid to ask more questions So I stood there looking wise I laughed atone as I viewed the stone They forgot to carve the eyes Thin we went on to the Callery To see the painted These works of art gave me a II was decorators ball We took an elevator up above the crowds Our sup a dollar a cup tip there in the tlouds Sow m back out in the country With nature In the raw With and cow I m contented now seeing what 1 saw Victor Smith people can exactly figure out why Perhaps most people quite sure themselves Perhaps they felt a vague sense of guilt at the thought of advertising their affluence when so many people elsewhere were really feel the energy crunch Others no doubt kept the lights out as their contribution to the conservation of albeit with a very fuzzy notion of what they were plishing Whether or not this ture of selfdenial was meaningful in Ihe full context of the energy supply picture is up to the dual to decide THE ACTON FREE PRESS PHONE Business and Editorial Office REMEMBER THE OLD Hams Woollen Mills along Valley Road Rock- wood Don Hilts of 153 Main St is trying to dig up in formation about the mills before it is no longer available Any in formation will be appreciated