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Page Four THE COLBORNE EXPRESS, THURSDAY, JANUARY 11th, 1945 OOCKDOCOOOOCXXXDCOOOCO Romantic While It Lasted By VALENTINE ERSKINE OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOCXXXXXXXXX) ic'TpHANK ye," said the druggist as he tied up the perfume, "here's yuh change." Josie took the package, and with a slight nod swept majestically out of the store on the Bowery. Josie McCarthy was a spinster, fifty-seven years old, and although time had not .endowed her with charm, He had generously lavished her with avoirdupois. Josie lived all alone on the top floor of a three-family brown-stone house on Oliver street. She had lived there for 29 years. Everybody on the street knew who sne was and where she came from. They even knew, to a great extent, how she spent her time. But nobody knew Josie, until one day, the Hochmeyers moved into her house. One morning Mrs. Hochmeyer's bell rang furiously. "Who is it?" she shouted good-naturedly at the top of her lungs as she flung a spoonful of salt into the soup. "Candy for Miss McCarthy!" came back from the other side of the door. "Next floor," Mrs. Hochmeyer informed the messenger. "Miss McCarthy lives upstairs." "Well, land's sakes!" she remarked to herself. "That's a surprise. Who could be sending Josie some candy? It £in't Christmas." As soon as she heard the messenger's footsteps going past her door on his way down, she put out the fire under the soup and ran upstairs. Not that she expected to be invited in to share the gift, but Mrs. Hochmeyer had an uncanny instinct for news and knew that she -would discover nothing about the mysterious box of candy by staying downstairs and peeling onions. To her surprise Josie's door was glightly ajar, and she could hear her voice issuing forth in dulcet tones. Mrs. Hochmeyer grinned complacently to herself and sat down to listen on the steps. "Yes, dear," Josie was saying with a giggle, "I just received your lovely box of chocolates. He-he-he! Thank you so much, sweetheart. How did you guess the kind I liked? . . . "What's that, Henry? . . . "Oh, yes, Fd love to. Please do come over. . . . "No, don't bring me any more flowers. . "All right, sweetheart. . . . "Yes, dear, I think of you all the time, . . Mrs. Hochmeyer's jaw dropped in amazement, Josie with a lover? Josie receiving gifts? Why, why, this was Indeed a momentous discovery! Josie, whose double chin shook as she walked, and whose neck was coyly encircled in a black velvet ribbon, re-receiving telephone calls from a man? Mrs. Hochmeyer's chest expanded with excitement and she took a deep breath. Then she took another. And a third inquisitive sniff. As days went by, Josie's gifts from her unknown admirer became more and more frequent. Mrs. Hochmeyer usually knew about the candy, because sometimes the messenger rang her bell by mistake, and other times she would poke her head out of the door when she thought she recognized strange footsteps going upstairs. It was always the messenger boy, and to her great regret Mrs. Hochmeyer never once encountered -the gentleman who could pass for Josie's swain. On Monday morning Mrs. Hochmeyer could stand the suspense no longer and decided to march boldly upstairs to Josie's apartment. In answer to her knock, the door was opened by a transformed Josie, clad in a brilliant pink silk negligee and exuding an overwhelming odor of perfume. The apparition transfixed Mrs. Hochmeyer. "Come in," cooed Josie sweetly. The visitor did not wait to be asked again. She stepped into the parlor and pounced on a chair before Josie could change her mind. 'Tm so tired," yawned Josie as she settled her voluminous self on the sofa, while Mrs. Hochmeyer's searching eyes had already discovered two used wine glasses and a half empty five-pound box of candy on the table. "I'm so tired, we were up so late last night." "We?" queried her neighbor politely. "Yes, me and my gentleman friend. He's an awful nice man; very refined; but he never lets me have a minute's peace. Always calling me up and coming to see me. But he's very refined. Did we disturb you last night?" "Oh, no, we didn't hear a sound." The conversation then turned to a discussion of lingerie. A few days later Mrs. Hochmeyer went upstairs again; but this time she really had to borrow some matches. She noticed the door once more slightly ajar, and pausing at the top step to regain her breath, she overheard Josie at the telephone. "No, sweetheart," lisped the amorous one, "I can't "go to the opera tonight. My dress won't be ready on time. . . . "Yes, perhaps Friday will be all right ... "Henry, dear, don't forget to . . ." Just then Josie's telephone rang. And Josie gave a startled sob as she saw her neighbor from the corner of her eye. Mrs. Hochmeyer decided not to go in. The next morning Josie suddenly became ill, and since there were no relatives, she was taken to the hospital. She died the following week. SQUARE MILK BOTTLES After a year's trial, the innovation of square milk bottles in quarts and half-pints at Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and other cities in the United States, has proved a success. Basis of the change from round milk bottles was the desire to conserve cold storage space and to increase truck loads. It was found that about 45 per cent more milk could be stored and considerably more milk carried in trucks by using new cases, more compact and lighter in make than the conventional type. These cases require about one-third less space inside the truck and save much work and time to the driver. Grocers and retailers say that they can # put 36 square quarts on refrigerator shelf that held only 25 round bottles. • - V- COUNTRY STORE SALES JUMP Country store sales in October of this year increased six per cent in dollar volume over October, 1943, and were 74.6% higher than the average for the five years from 1935 to 1939. Aggregate^ figures for the first 10 months of 1944 are 10% higher than for the corresponding peiiod in 1943. --- V--- Cheese is an important source of calcium. A MAN'S PRAYER TEACH me that sixty minutes make an hour, sixteen ounces on pound, and one hundred cents one dollar. HELP me so to live that I can lie down at night with a clear conscience and unhaunted by the faces of those to whom I have brought pain. GRANT that I may earn my meal ticket on the square and that, in earning it, I may do unto others as I would have them do unto me. DEAFEN me to the gingle of tainted money and blind me to the faults of the other fellow, but reveal to me my own. GUIDE me so that each night when J look across the dinner table at my wife, who has been a blessing to me, I will have nothing to conceal. KEEP me young enough to laugh with little children and sympathetic enough to be considerate of old age. THEN when comes the day of darkened shades and the smell of flowers -• make the ceremony short and the epitaph simple *-- "HERE LIES A MAN.' - - V-- NO LONGER RATIONED Sorghum molasses, sorghum syrup, apple butter and maraschino cherries have been removed from the list of rationed commodities requiring D coupons. - V ■- Buy more War Savings Stamps! IMPROVING, PROTECTING HEALTH OF ANIMALS JACK PEACH Flight Lieutenant John S. Peach, R.C.A.F., has returned to England to join the North American Service of the BBC. The former Vancouver producer and commentator went to England in March of 1941 as CBC correspondent and joined the R.C.A. F. "over there" in the spring of '42. He served in London at head of R.C.A.F. radio public relations until his return to Canada this summer. Announcement of the first measures to be adopted by the Ontario Stockyards Board in its policy of proving and protecting the health of animals passing through the stockyards and being returned to the country, was made recently, in the form of a free service to protect cattle against shipping fevei. The announcement states that upon application by any owner, or his agent, of cattle purchased at the Stockyards to be returned to farms in the country, these cattle will be treated, free of all cost, against shipping fever. The Board has employed a veterinarian who will be in attendance at the Stockyards at all times. The cattle, if the owner so desires, will be given a double treatment, with both serum and bacterin, which combined will give a goodly degree of protection against shipping fever for a period of from four to six months. The serum for this free service by the Stockyards Board is being supplied by the Federal Health of Animals Branch, while the Board will supply the bacterin and the services of the veterinarian. In order to make this service fully effective, purchasers of cattle at the Stockyards should immediately get in touch with their NEED FOR SPEED Proper handling of fresh produce is an important step in the preparation of a high quality 'dehydration food. Sweet corn, peas, and spinach, for example, are so perishable that they should be processed within a few hours after harvest. In the case of unavoidable delays, they will - v-- NEW RATION BOOKS Persons discharged from the Armed Forces are entitled to their civilian ration books imemdiately. They should apply to their nearest local ration board, taking along either their Department of National Defence discharge papers or a letter from one < of the Armed Services certifying to the discharge. agents, if they are not to be present at the yards themselves, to make sure that application for treatment is made. This is an entirely new departure in the way of free health of animals service, and it is in keeping with the intention of having the Stockyards Board take an active part in the work of livestock improvement. The service wiU be available in the Stockyards before the end of the present week. Jo young VyioiPiQAA whose problem is caring lor a Baby . . Many NurseM Are Required Here is a very typical Hospital patient--a premature baby. It must be fed with an eye dropper. Its care requires half the time of a qualified nurse. And it is but one of a hundred or more patients which must have special handling. A hundred and one extra services are necessary in this type of Hospital. No Guesswork-- In our dairy, we daily prepare the feedings for several hundred difficult infant cases. Precise accuracy is the watchword. Scrupulous cleanliness must always be maintained. Half an ounce too much or too little might endanger a precious, tiny life. So double checking is neeessary, though It eoits money. NO-ONE but a> mother can know the tremendous amount of work involved in satisfying the needs of an infant or a young child, for even one day. Attending a sick or injured child for a day in the Hospital for Sick Children demands still greater effort . . . painstaking ... patient . . . alert . . . ever-watchful. In addition, it requires the greatest possible degree of medical skill and nursing efficiency. Multiply this one-day effort by 17, which is the average number of days each Public Ward patient is treated. Then multiply by 8,200, which is the number of patients admitted to the Hospital during one year. The result is a staggering total, measuring as eloquently as cold figares can, the tremendous volume of personal effort demanded from the*Hospital Staff. Despite the fact that the treatment and nursing of children requires such a high degree of proficiency from every angle, the costs of the Hospital for Sick Children are kept at very low levels. Even so, the Provincial and Municipal grants and all other revenue are inadequate to meet the cost. Unfortunately, too, we have no large group of patients who pay high fees -- 400 of our 420 beds being in Public Wards. An annual deficit cannot be avoided if proper care and attention is to be given needy little ones. It is because we believe you would not want us to turn away any child, broken in health or body, that we appeal annually to the public to make up the deficit. This year, we must raise $70,000.00. * We appeal to you for a donation -- as large as your circumstances permit -- 25c, $1.00, $2.00, $5.00, $10.00 -- no amount it too great . . . none too small. Why not send along your donation now? All you need is a piece of paper and an envelope. Write your name on the paper, pin cheque or banknotes to it and fold silver inside. Acknowledgment of all subscriptions, large or small, is made in the column* of The Evening Telegram. SEND YOUR DONATION TO THE APPEAL SECRETARY We do not share in the funds collected by the Toronto Federation for Community Service because we admit patients from all parts of the Province. HOSPITAL FOR SICK CHILDRfn 'ujHeRe no child knock s in vain" ©7 COLLtGt STRE-6T TOP? O D TO. 2