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the georgetown herald wednesday evening july9th 1941 t the british commonwealth air training plan one of a belies of articles written specially for weekly newspapers by jl hnrh tcmphn editor of he fergus news record bcaj manning depot makes recruits into aircraftmen the first impression one gets on visiting the manning depot at toron to is one ofyslze and that impression grows and deepens everything is big or t tremendous or colossal the building itself is the coliseum with adjoining livestock buildings the larg est under one roof at the canadian national exhibition grounds outside the building looks the same as ever except the sign over the door but inside it is utterly changed in parts of the building there are doubledeck bunks everywhere a portion that us ed to house the trucks and farm mach inery and the flowers at the winter fair is now a huge dining room that will seat five thousand at or time and there s a mechanized kitchen that enables the five thousand to be fed in de an hour a modern miracle and they dont eat just loaves and fishes either here the newly enlisted man comes from a recruiting centre somewhere in the province his papers are made out for him and his records hied in the office be is given an identification card signed and sealed without it he cannot leave or enter the depot he gets a number and a bed and the system is so complete that when his friends come to visit him a runner knows where to and him and pages him more effectively than if he was a guest at an expensive hotel the entrance hall is impressive ixmg racks hold the ti cards ol the men at manning depot and there are literally thousands and thousands of them i watched an aircraftman come in pick his card out of the rack fuiribie in his pocket for his ldenttfl cation card punch a time clock as he passed the entrance and then deposit his card in another long rack inside a glance over this rack showed that while most of the cards were white a few were blue those unlucky men tvae confined to barracks because they forgot to make their beds or forsome other offence beds then and now to an old soldier who had spent i many a night in exhibition camp in 1916 sleeping on hard boards those i beds seemed unreal they stretched in endless rows in every direction like the young stalks in a field of corn and each one had springs and a mat tress but my guide flight lieuten ant r l puxley wing adjutant pointed out that there v ere also white sheets and pillow cases some of the ooys who come in have never used them before and keep them carefully folded up under the mattresses all the time i sat in the adjutants office while he explained to me just what they do with the raw recruits at the manning depot to make them into creditable aircraftmen in four weeks or so drills inoculations lectures and the like a knock at the door interrupted the talk and a telegram was delivered it was from a wife with a foreign sounding name living out on the prairies somewhere she wanted to know where her husband was she had not heard from him for six or seven weeks neither had the man nlng depot he had far overstayed a leave but there are few like that the majority are keen to leam and get ahead if not they are soon weeded out once or twice two dlf ferent wives have enquired about the same man but as x said these are the excep tions the young man comes to the manning depot in civilian clothes with the most exciting weeks of his life tying ahead a few are probably homesick at first though the adjutant said he had no complaints along that line and few about anything else in the camp the man gets his unirorm onh his kit i saw two men in brand new uniforms going out that after noon and a proud looking pair they were in the first week there are lectures in service methods and the first drills after that conies guard duty for the future air crews with lectures drill and physical training then the com lng pilots and gunners go out to vari ous schools on guard duty till there axe vacancies at the initial training schools the men of the ground crews stay three or four weeks then go on to various trade schools feeding the five thousand lunch time was past before i went to the manning depot when i saw the dining room i was sorry i would have liked a meal there but there might have been complications x was with two officers and there was a sign on the door saying that officers were strictly forbidden to eat in the mens mess the officers solemnly affirmed it was because the men got better meals so some officers had formed the habit of slipping away from their own mess and eating with the men i asked some of the men about it and they just smiled but they said the food really was good i think maybe the officers told the simple truth i saw their mess too and although it had white table cloths it didn t look any more attractive cc as we see it by j a strang nowhere does one get the impres sion or size at the manning depot so much as in the men s dining hall row after row of long tables stretch across the width of the coliseum a skylight makes the room bright and a great eagle emblem covers one wall the tables were being set for supper and the waiters were carrying in big bowls of canadian apples one more surprise for an old soldier the kitchen completely fascinated me this is a mechanized war as everybody knows but even the cooks must be skilled mechanics there were huge motor driven food mixers with monel metal bowls large enough mash a bushel and a half of potatoes at a tune another machine peels them half a bag is dumped in a big hopper a switch turned on and a stream of water from a hose directed into the machine it whirls around and the peelings are taken off by coarse disks of sandpaper and washed away down the drain there isnt any waste because of unskilled peelers instead of hundreds of unfortunates doing kitchen patrol half a dozen men were digging out the deep eyes i there seemed to be wonders every where around that kitchen i went into a big refrigerator room where the meat was stored and into another where deep pans of jelly cooled on the shelves the meat stock for to morrows soup boiled in great monel metal vessels and tempted the appe tite fresh bread and cakes lined the shelves of the big pantries plenty of recreation beside the dining room is the re creation room with easy chairs and reproductions of paintings of can ada s air heroes of the last war on the walls there is a radio the gift of some friend and writing desks here and there most of them in use that afternoon the theatre is in the north corner of the coliseum and it has a full size stage the letters roaf on the curtain and thousands of seats an electric organ provides the music current moving pictures are shown there several times a week the arena w here the horses per formed during winter fair week is used for games at first it was left with the tanbark on the floor till an epidemic of colds cast suspicion on the tanbark now there s a new as phalt floor in the ring and he colds have ceased several different games were in progress there that after noon the day begins at manning depot lx o clock with physical training for half an hour before breakfast at there is the first parade with drill till 11 jo an hour and a quarter allowed for lunch followed by more drill from 1 15 to 4 30 supper is over b 6 o clock the evenings are free except for some lectures given by college instructors on mathematics to brush up the future air crew mem bcrs who will need their trigonometry and algebra again a month at manning depot and the future pilot or pinner is ready to go to the initial training school which is one of the most fascinating branches of the royal canadian air force h judging by jhe letters that appear in the heraklfrom time to time it is the readers away from home that ap predate the local paper more so than l do the local readers or perhaps the l local readers are a little shy wtf k sometimes forget that the newspaper if is the only means that many ormta- jj readers at a distance have of form lng an opinion of our town of course the local paper is owned by the editor yet everyone of us have an opportunity of maidng that paper more interesting there are plenty m happenings in a community the ize of ours from day to day that would be of interest to others and the local paper is the best means available of distributing that news why not take advantage of its col umns to broadcast any item that you know of that would interest others in doing so you not only help make the herald more interesting but you would be giving our town a boost at xhe same time there would also be that satisfaction derived from so do lng that comes from helping another that is impossible to value in dol lars and cents hawk in th e wind fplcn toppi ping miller yes m i hit him he dropped clean i d have hit the other one buwny gun jammed shut up snapped virgie i m going to take you over the tennes see line and put you on a train to cincinnati tom gulped no m no m j can j go i can t go to no big town d git lost i got to go to jail you next week initial training school joi buses leave to toronto 9 18 am 11 43 pm 4 08 pm 6 48 pm 9 13 p m a 6 08 am b 223 pm a dally except sunday b saturday only to london 9 35 am x 12 05 pm 2 05 p m 6 00 pm a 7 50 pm x to kitchener only a sundays and holidays bus travel information at w h long phone 89 gray coach lines j cooke floor contractor floor laying banding resurfacing finishing we specialize in old floors good workmanship reasonable prices 3 new st phone 838 burlincjt o n some of the local school results were published in last weeks herald we are not acquainted with many of the local students and do not know what percentage or those that tried would be successful we would like to see a list publish ed of those that failed as well as the one of those that were successful the idea is not one of ridicule but it would give the public a much better idea of the school s progress it is very easy to congratulate a winner but it isnt so easy to have the right word for the one that failed and yet it is the one that has failed that needs the en cotfragement it is no disgrace to fail we have all been there in fact many of us would never have amount ed to very much had we never failed and we do like to see the student that has failed dig in all the harder din ing the next term and chances are they will seldom fall again when we were going to school one of the lessons was the one about robert br ce and the spider lis logic still holds since the introduction of motor a r there have been a good many different makes almost tw o h undred on this continent we understand and yet to day there are not very many differ ti t makes of cars being turned out one wonders why some particular car hould go over big and another that looked just as good fall to make the unde weve had a car of our own net 1914 and we recall an incident along about 1919 we were coming into the city st catharines from queenston and noticed a big car parked alongside tre road and the driver was signalling for us to stop at that time we stopped for signals of distress his car which by the way was a brand new cole 8 had balked on him and he wanted to get back to the city to get a mechanic we were driving a model t touring at the time and as this gentleman that we picked up was rather haughty we felt like apologizing to him because we hadn t a better make of car for him to ride in he leaned over from rear seat to enquire how fast can these things go we had a speedometer but as usual at that time t wasn t working and we couldn t tell him however it did take him back to the city and it seemed that his new cole 8 wasnt able to do that today model t and their brothersjoll along the highways by the millions but how many of our readers ever heard tell of a cole 8 it was a nice car too but it failed to make the grade if some cars failed to become popu lar we could say the same thing about many of the improvements that were added to cars from time to time who ever hears of free wheeling today even knee action is seldom mentioned back in 1933 we bought the first reo that came off the canadian factories asesmbly lne equipped with automa tic gear shift we still drive that car and it has gone over 76000 miles and the automatic gear shift still works perfectly we like it we merely steer that car and never have to think of the clutch no matter at what speed we may be driving unless of course we want to stop at an intersection we merely shove out the clutch and step on the brake when the green light flashes we take the foot off the clutch and we are moving with never a thought of shift ing gears it looked like a big lm proveinent back in 1933 it still is and yet it never became popular it is a simple arrangement a dog merely kicks in the proper gear according to the speed of the car there never is any gear clashing no matter whether they move up or down one wonders why an improvement of this kind ntv er became popular temme out of here mis morgan and i u walk back i got to go to jail but virgie only drove faster the rroad was crooked and slippery she had to slow down she would have to buy gasoline at daylight but she wanted to get across the state line first once over she could breathe again she was she knew doing a mad reckless thing defying the law aiding a man to escape a woman of position with a business reputation to uphold but there was nothing else to do she turned west again avoiding the traveled road that led up to the power plant the road she took was wild and wandering boulders scraped the running gear branches snatched at the fenders tom sat tensely talking to himself mum bung you lemme out of here mis morgan you lemme get out and walk virgie s face was grim her eyes fixed themselves on the wan beam f the headlights a few more miles and she would feel safe she saw the other car overtaking her before tom did lights appeared in the mirror over the windshield made the ganglcd growth on either side leap jut of the shadow she knew somehow what it was a horn blasted virgie put on speed but the slewing of her wheels told her that it was no use she had failed she chose a wido spot pulled aside slowed her heart pounding hoping against hope that this might be some mountain boys returning from drink ng in town knowing somehow that it was not tom did not move the car came alongside crowded her so that she tould not go on stopped a man got out virgie said hello lon wearily lon hicks the deputy sheriff said howdy mis morgan i been fol lowing you you got tom pruitt am t you we got to take him back with us virgie employed none of the glib falsehoods she had been making up n her mind as she tore along they would have been useless anyway she could not he she was a moun tain oman without guile she said quietly all right lon i was hoping i d get him over the line so you wouldn t get him quite so quick i guess you better take me along too i m to blame for this not tom he didn t want to tome lon hicks lean face was mscruta ole m the dim light bur his drawl ing voice was quiet 1 reckon i won t take you mis morgan i reckon i d have run tom over the line myself if so be it wasn t against the law you go on home i ain t seen you real good anyway at dawn virgie drove her old car nto the garage the house was dark and still she made herself a cup o coffer- drank it hot went up stairs and took off her damp shoes and her dress she would get a cou pic of hours sleep then erte would go to asheville perhaps to roanoke or to richmond she would get the best lawyer in the country to defend tom it was all she could do now a heaviness of defeat was upon her dark wirgs shadowed the sun rude of wfaecri ng familiarity would be when old jerry lean faced and soureyed said roughly if youre a figuring on working here you bet ter git yourself some working gloves men don l fool with this stuff with bare hands wills coun tered by inquiring where glovea could be bought slightly mollified jerry expressed himself concerning the value of two bit and four bit gloves then as though afraid that he hod unbent ui much growled git a hold this a wu you re the awkwurdem fellui i tvei see wills hud exu ted d alike and re sentment tht u al h stil ty of a clann sh gr u a irui ger and i e wds it ed u e untor no at ti t ai tuf i si onh the thermal young dui e b nw bten definitely unfriei dly d e had shaken ha aa but wit w thdrawn and 1 ishtlv tome i luo look in his ee and had no t- butk to his lab uruiory w ih ui a ba kward look i ht da pntbb the team and the uueftus odors weie pi city bad and willi was noi entirely strong yet bui a d tyed de er mi nation made hint swa ow u nly and stand mated with ry leet apart listen ng to jerry s tmpal em instructions these muscular grim eni men might despise him for an outlander now but they should not pity him for being a weakling and a quitter keep that there moying or dered jerry selling above the howl ing crunch of the drum barkers then he muttered tune and na tionl and scrubbed his nose with his glove across the damp odorous roaring mill a red clad figure was hurry ng marian morgan jerry pushed back his cap in a half grudging gesture of respect the mountain woman has been a chattel and an in ferior for generations the moun tain moo has learned to admire and respect the female sex but slowly wills mouthed good morning but the words were lost in the grinding bedlam marian s face was pale her lips sir light she said i want to talk o you but it was the gesture of er hand that made the words in ii k ble wills handed the wooden paddle to jerry who received it with a chisholm clan held reunion a very successful reunion was icld by the chtsholm clan at the home nl gordon chtsholm at hornby on sat rdaj june 28th there were over 00 present coming from buffalo wal kerton brartfford hiusburg george town hamilton toronto oakville and s irrounding district james windsor noted 13 yearold piper from oakvlue dispersed sweet music throughout the afternoon with his bagpipes before he gathering broke up a collection mo intlng to over 20 00 was taken up tor the evening telegram british war victims fund bcaj recruits on parade at manning depst recent rumors that elsie the in ternationally famous borden cow has met an untimely end must be regard ed as greatly exaggerated for we have it on the best authority that elsie and her luxurious boudoir will visit the canadian national exhibi tion from august 22 to september 6 chapter viii in a long trough fed by slow streams of water a mass of mac erated wood moved steadily toward the great caldrons that would steam and froth and diasqjve it with sharp b sulphides turn every raw green tl ip to a limp and obedient mass i fiber while the nox ous breath of the process steamed out on the m lint a in air branford wilfs his first day in i mill icbs than two hours old od beside the trough and tended tl c moving mass with t wooden tool id madt and p ishel to a rich t na by the t inds of o gtneration i pulpmakers he was learning i e process as rtit had in ructed him ond if tl e men wl o t ated him were suit and curl and turn about answer ng questions us put it down to the nborn al f tss of tie m untaircct the si e lerunt indej endtnte that he had k unttred on the gmerrmenl rk in tl t national park he met the r glum ess w th a el dign tv of his vtn kn ng huw foolisl and r t aken m j tti i want to talk to you and i dont want lucy to hear flourish of obvious relief and fol lowed marian past the battery of steaming digesters through a sheet- ron door into the yard a cold wind was blowing but after the noise of the mill marian s voice sounded loud and fiat please come over here to the ar i want to talk to you and i don t want lucy to hear he followed her into the car she nhut the door drove out the gate and into a little weedy lane that ran through a lumber yard there she stopped the car and said with tut preamble i m sorry to impose on you i know you re busy vith a new job and all but there s no one else i can turn to it s iboul tom pruitt you didn t know tom but he helped my father build his mill he has been like one of our family always a week ago he disappeared and that s why moth er got the idea of putting you in the m 11 she needed a man last night 1 found tom he was over on ha el fork he owns some timber ver there rich timber a man named cragg from baltimore was trying to steal it- and tom shot i im wills sat silent for a moment then he said do they know the men back there7 i suppose so they took tom to jail last night mothar went to ashe ville early this morning to get a lawyer and arrange about a bond for tom then this cragg isn t dead not yet tom shot too low the bullet went into his shoulder and hit the spine i see things were coming clear the attitude of the men in the mill their eyes judg ng him gloomily tom pruitt who belonged to the mill had always belonged was in trouble and he branford wills a young upstart had blandly walked into tom s job the reason i came to talk to you is this marian went on even if you don t admire me an awful lot but great sc tt wills began and then as abruptly ceased he could not say i m mad about you he could not speak out the things that seethed in his heart and stormed at his guard m lips to be spoken she was uiar in morgan of the morgan mill and he was a mill worker empty handed and un distinguished by any prowess of kill or accomplishment but i know martan went o not looking at him that you are fond of mother and this morning after she left lon hicks the dep uty at the jail telephoned he says tom is going to refuse bail that he wants to stay in jail he s old and queer and he was over on that ridge for days with no shelter and very little to eat watching for those men lying in a bush to waylay them he s upset and somebody will have to talk sense to him he has to come back mother need him so i m going over to talk to him and you have to go along i u be glad to help of course- to do anything i can but i m not quite sure what tt is that you want me to do or why you ve taken tom s job it s all over town of course things get around in a trash torn will have heard it by now but if you talk to him tell him he hasn t been pushed out i see shall we go now could i wash my hands and get a coat she drove back to the mill yard and waited aware of lucy fields behind the window of the little of fice watching and on fire with cu riosity probably poor silly lucy wills came back and marian drove away without a word sh sat stiffly erect behind the wheel looking straight ahead the stern lin of her lips and the guarded chill of her eyes hiding the aching tumult that seethed in her heart she was hating herself for being so vulnerable for the mad desire she had now to swing into a lonely side road and let the engine die while she cried helplessly and piti fully in this man s arms he was sitting straight he hadnt cared of course that had been fe ver the foolishness of illness that had made him look at her adoringly and clutch at her fingers and say things about gipsy tambourines and her face burning behind his eywude all night long but she marian morgan who all her life had been so fiercely indi vidualistic her mind as coolly prac tical as a well rjiade watch always sure always selfcontained was no longer sure if this was being in love it was white pain and tor ment and cruelty past belief she stared at the damp road scudding under and at the leafless bushes lipping by and fought for the grim pride she had from her father and with it the sharp tonic of anger that made it easier to be frigid and not to look around at this man sit ting so near to her who even re mote and unconsidering as he ap peared could make tingling mashes of awareness tremble along her arms and hands so that the steering- wheel quivered she fixed her mind on old tom remembering things remembering days when her father lay slowly dy ing when the house was heavy with the tragic air of sorrow when peo ple walked on tiptoe somberly and telephones were muffled with wads of paper she had been very young then practically a child but old enough to be frightened and to suf fer keenly she had been summoned home from school into an atmos phere ol doom and her one comfort had been old tom many tunes when her mother was busy and harassed at the mill and the incoherent mumblings of ths paralyzed sick man made marians young flesh creep and her throat cramp horribly old tom had ap peared in the drive steering a rack ety old truck a got to go up toward little fork to fetch them boys in you com along and gowith me woods is tod lonesome when you get as old as t be feller gets to talking to him self and next thing you know theyll be telling round town that old tom pruitt has gone crazy on those trips tom had taught her all he knew the ways of tht woods creatures how to tell poison- oak from the harmless fiveleaved creeper how to keep silent and ob serve while a snake shed its skin he had told her stories of early days before the highways penetrat ed the mountains when a trip to waynesville was a day s journey when wagons had to be taken apart and carried over the mountains and what dim roads here were followed the beds of streams and were prac tical only for men on horseback he had taught her a little of th odd reserve of the mountain people the friendliness that met an ad vance half way but never presumed never was forward that rested al ways on a stony base of elemental pride the scalawag sons of moun tain men who ran liquor set fires and poached deer on the game re serves he despised and disowned country trash he dismissed them braggarts and liars avoided him gentle mild and kind how could old tom have done this incredible thing what temporary madness had possessed htm whatever the impulse tom hod believed himself fundamentally justified it was an old law in the mountains a man defended his own nov he accepted the penalty with a dignified grace si e could not desert him virgie would lure the best lawyer ivailable bul t lawyer could do little w th ton ind noth ng at all for him till t was kn wn whether the man cra u r enr hie continued next week we print tufty letterhead 3