A'
I
DID IT HAPPEN?
?
DON'T think I shall ever quite forget that winter. The weather was depressingly bad all the time and comfort eluded us.
Burned out of our own home, my wife and I had rented, in desperation. a furnished cottage that faced
THE CHINA MAIL, MONDAY, JUNE 13, 1955.
KINDNESS of
HEART...
WITCH Nightaond (19%) W Harold Alfred Kumawood
sowed his fame as a master of the maesbro. One of the best stories in that collec tion
ellied Misery Cottage--which might well be next door to the Yew Tree Cottage in this one.
Fifty and married, Man- hood lives BORI Reflek Sussex. More recent publien- sions include Selected Stories
(1947), and A Long View of Nothing (1953).
44
by H. A. Mankood
bottle of something similar. So I stopped at the first chemist's I saw.
It
was a corner shop in a always with the bony click of busy main street. I went inside the latch and the more solid and there, behind the counter, bump of the garden gate; After write-jacketed and ingratiating, a little while there was the was the middle-aged bird-faced of the one who'd run and left death equally familiar sound
us. He
stared the with bus starting up across
myce *Remember Yew green, It wasn't until I went
He still stared but he to lock the front door, blow out!
201 right for a vein the red-breast lamps that betrayed Sim. Then, precisely: found the girl was still in the "I don't know you or my such
She was sitting in 2
cottage, What hall,
IT WAS COLD and wet for the lovers sheltering beneath the yew tree... and, after all, there was Bat did this tale of a stranga room in the hall.
Tomorrow ending to a kind deed actually happen 7 the answer will be given ...
We stacked a lot of flutter desperately and often the possible.
man would break away only just Kincrack furniture and
plunging across the corner of the settle, head tipped wantece time, creeper- shoveled knick-knacks by the in Was
She was and worny. a ton into side rooms. I bought spongy green, Hinging himself strangely
steel plate and made a Breback aboard the bus. And the girl beautiful, very white and very
would stand sadly alone under, dead, for the main fireplace,
you 15 a while before the trudging away.
a swampy village green.
The coltage
covered. damp
mess of lumpy oak designed by a dog-loving spinster, herself a dwant and with only dwarfs for friends fudging by the peculiar rooks and crannies and squat ress of the pince.
The chimneys smoked, there was only oil for light and cook ing. mice and rats, too, used to hold lecture classes in the shaky walls and there were even this crickets on the hearths. actually being mentioned at the signing of the agreement as if it were a glorious' asset. But it
find in could all we
AVA
hurry.
Shaky ark
the
$15
After that I bought wood by the ton for with the treback blast drew with the chimney furnace strength and it necessary to go over the house several times in an evening to
SUTA it was
201 en are higher up. Even so coe's behind could be frosted while the front scorched.
smokes Lambs courtantly, water dripped curly. winds whistled even when it was quite calm outside, and timbers creaked agonisingly as if the house were corseted too tightly by the fake well, tentacled creeper. saken bucke",
The garden, matched the rest, stone mushrooms and pixies everywhere. crazy paving
reckeries, even ง complete with
the whole lot overgrown
and With all this dis- we kept
overshadowed by an enormous tubance
yew tree. Yes, you've guessed
right; it was called Yew Tree Costage,
the
our
meving
of ลด
evening,
checking
this and that like
Noahs in
shaky
noticed two sheltering
and it was There were only three other ark.
this while doing very similar properties on side of the Green. On the that we
main figures opposile side was road, a pub.
of labourers' school, cottages like a ragged pack of sandwiches, and the bus stop.
a shop or two, a regularly under the
Buses were infrequent,
but
we came to know the times of them very well, especially the late ones.
We did our utmost to make the place comfortable, refusing
believe that it was im
to
Coldo
yow
tree at
the ob-
gate. Lovers, viously, for they would stand clasped tightly motionless.. for long periods.
Just before the lost bus back town passion
Even the slightest cold is to be feared Do not let it spread! Defeat it from the start by taking 1 or 2"CAFASPINS'
CAFASPIN
B
to...
was
due.
would
(BAYER
CHINESE
CREEDS and CUSTOMS
by
V.R. BURKHARDT
ILLUSTRATED BY THE AUTHOR
• Номакона
IDEAL GIFT
FOR FRIENDS' ABROAD
-SEVENTH-IMPRESSION
$18.00
S. C. M. POST OFFICES,
KOWLOON
back.
was
it you
"
To hell with it. Best for- gotten "A bottle of oil.' mention the French brand, The next two hours went at cinema
£1 could pace.
bë' "I'll see.”” · Night after night, wet or not murder. although there seemed so wet-for it was never fine no sign of violence and we had they were there. One part heard nothing unusual. First
Drawing by HESSELTINE
She was sitting in a corner, head tipped strangely back
very white and very dead.
He went into a dispensary at the back of the shop. I heard the clink of bottles. Minutes passed. He was having trouble Anding the stuff, or maybe he was making up some concoction of his own..
'Bird-face'
I wandered about the shop. discovering unheard-of ́cures for unheard of diseases. I even weighed myself. The minutes mounted to 10. I called out not to bother, but no" reply came. Might as well just walk out as he had walked out from us. Then my wife Entered the shop, pinched of face, her voice childishly squeaky.
THE
PROBLEM
Back in
five (minutes
AND NOW
DESTINY
WHEN YOUR FATHER'S MISTER M-G-M
T
By David Lewin
London.
In London this month Marti
ia in OUR FATHER is a Stevens
cabarot, sing: major power in Holly- ing after supper to a crowded room which 'does not realise that wood, with A world-
seeing a girl like Miss Stevens wide organisation and you working at midnight is rather Prime Minister's want to go into show busi- like having a "I've just seen bird-face," sheness.
son at a seaside
concert party. Was it easy for Miss Stevens, said.
YOUR FATHER" controls..
her background, to get
But where did you see him?"
"I know, I've seen him, too. Hollywood's largest studio where she wanted? Is it easy with the biggest star line for a rich man's daughter to get up. At his nod careers can what she wants? "He came out of a side door, be made. You have known, closer look. Miss Stevens (25)
Of course it is-but take In a white jacket. And started all the stars and all the pro- years, old, slim, with honey- running, bumping into people.
my
coloured hair) talking: "All my He ran in front of a Jorry. He'sducers from childhood.
And You say to YOUR life I had known success. still underneath. They can't get
power. Besides my father there him out, They've put a sheet FATHER: "I want to try is
uncle over what's left and are stand-the theatre." And he says: Joe Schenck, ing around telling the driver it"I think you're foolish. Why and he used wasn't his fault...."
control knock yourself out acting to
another majer when I've worked hard all
Part my life to get money to business. make it easy for you?
J
WORLD
the police; the duty man was politely interested, said to touch nothing, certainly not the body, and they'd arrange for a doctor right away.
cularly squally night my wife, aware of the two of them cut side, shivered: "It doesn't seem fair somehow, 'Out of the ex- treme kindness of thy heart...'
himself the damned phrase keep running. The sergeant came through my head. We can't let with the doctor. He knew the the them stay out in this weather. girl; Mary Mallone, from There's the hall; let's tell them smallholdings too pretty by far they can sit there if they want for life in the mud He looked pointedly at us, made us realise to: we won't bother them and that we were strangers in the they won't bother us. It's not place and suspect too.
too palatial, won't inspire them 1oo much, if you know what I mean. We shall all feel more comfortable."
She
Heart failure
I nodded agreement. wrapped herself against the rain of them house-room
Funny idea, giving the pair
like that,
and went out to the yew thee. but he supposed we know our Gwn business best. The doctor The only lamps in the hall were was wearing a raincoat over a two tiny robin-breasted affairs. W
jacket, dinner
had obviously It them both, thinking love been snatched from a party, needed no more. Through the He was very curt and business- After five minutes he snapped of my wife's torch. In a minute
failure. Could have been she was back. The two lovers caused by shock. unpleasant were following slowly behind, news, anything. My wife hustled me before her natural causes. and shut the door firmly you' expuse me.... between the main room and the hall and we heard them come into the hall, heard the door fclick shut and the creak of the
cumbersome settle.
leaded glass I followed the beamlike. His bag shut Heart
On tiptoes
"They were a bit startled, but grateful I think. The girl's
Ho's tal young and levely, bird-faced, quite a bit older. Funny, what people see each other. Good thing we don't all. see alike. I hope we're doing the right thing...."
Death due to
And now, if
The sergeant stayed behind He until an ambulance came. had a drink or two now that the
Was settled SO to more friendly after he'd the contents of the He'd never been a
case
beer drinker,, he explained,
and
beer
Was
COPYRIGHT RESERVED
DID IT REALLY HAPPEN?
YES
NO
up the
top:
"O1 course, all the stars turned out at the party I was' given.
"Even the stars who normally. won't be seen together at the same affair had to be there. I was Nick Schenck's daughter. It was a kind of command performance. They all smiled
a" me-but not with their eyes, ! "I learned about Hollywood
the from
inside-from the power side but I had to get into acting. Not for the money (I could have all that) but for the art, My "father, as a business man who employed and could see how they fell, couldn't
artists quickly understand."
The singer
TARTI
of Alm
MAR
"The people "And remember: If you do want to act I could stop you. I who came to could stop you wherever you our house in
New go: London, Paris, anywhere. I
York were all at the could stop you just by sitting here at my desk, picking up phone and making a
Your name is Mart Stovens, and you are attractive,
intelli gent, talented, YOUR FATHER is Nicholas Schenck, £58,000-- Did Saturday's
of Metro-Goldwyn- story-Odette -year head Knew Better, by Peter Churchill Mayor.
MGM spells" Alm actually happen? Answer: YES, I power, -
• Put your fick in the spare above and keep tila, saoul be you well) tomorrow when the corum will be girea-with omstbar story in this caries by
MAURICE EDELMAN
What would Australians think about this prospective immigrant? THE RED WITCH
OF BUCHENWALD
BY GERALD HARRIS
&
Munich.
MARTI
a place card. Just like any other home you could tell who was in favour by his position at table.
The 'General'
STEVENS
started
Imitating July Garland at parties her father gave
The imitations got her a job in a She New York night club. started to sing. Since there was no break for her as an actress she went on singing.
How much did the fact that
'At dinner every Sunday her father was the General help night-Sunday was open-house her? Marti Stevens faced that. day-there would be
Clark
"It got me intp agents' offices Gable, Joan Crawford, Garbu, fast. It also got me out again. Spencer Tracy. Think of a big The agents always thought;"
girl this we give name and you would find it on
a job will that please Mr Schenck? Or it we refuse her a job will that make Mr Schenck even more pleased?'
She
opened in Hollywood Cabaret, It was the wrong town,
and i I was there at the time and
vas like a royal garden party, The big
names turned out because they had to. Secretly, "So the General's daughter thinks she can sing, Miss Stevens failed. She said: "I wasn't ready, I was just green. I had only known things at the top, I had only known success, so I expected as EL beginner the sort of applause a star gets. I went back to learn the business."
SAID
The
CAID Marti: "People called my
father 'General.' General and his associates would ́decide how much their stars were warth by how much their last film took at the box office. They didn't talk much about art. They
business men: business was their art. I don't go along with their way of thinking but they are hugely successful
.were
RED-HAIRED, green eyed 1lse Koch is learning Eng-and
pleaded with Daddy to keep
and hopes to emigrate to Australia.
they said:
ch?
Mr Schenck's executives gent him.reports on his daughter's progress. They worded them carefully though,
The O.K.
Tlast the father gave way. A All right, "stay in show business," he said. "I think it
It makes you
"In New York they would say: 'So-and-so is slipping. Better get rid of him' A phone call to Hollywood
a contract is dropped." I
Judy Garland at his studio. Called the Red Witch of Buchenwald," Mrs Koch But Judy went and is now a Was sentenced by the Germans in 1951 to life imprison- success again, nearly ment for atrocities against inmates of the notorious con- "The business men do not would be easier for you at home all you ever got. No soda, thank centration camp.
care about star tantrums. They but stay if might make headlines but do phone call to have you stopped. you.
But Frau Koch, widow of the 55 commandant at Buchenwald, Relaxed, he speculated airily: is confident she can gain her freedom within a few years. She the stars fil cinema seats?
is bombarding the West German court of appeals with petitions "I grew up in that atmo- imagine the fellow was
for clemency. The court has rejected one appeal, but Frau Koch sphere and I suddenly realised said Mart Stevens: "
gone keeps firing them in. Sooner or later, she believes, the court feared still to find he
last year that all the people I had sent me Jus: bolted. But we can't crime will soften, as it has on so many Nazi cases, and free her. him for that
however much
wanting to emigrate to Australia are quite knew really well were older we'd like to. Chess you folks logical, according to her barrister, Alfred Seidel, famed for his than 1. The only friend I had of the same age was Judy are lucky that it isn't, another sort of case, Kindness of heart? defence of leading Nazis.
Garland, Although she was Maybe, but you want to watch
young, she was a top star and she would be invited to out for the weak ones."
daddy's house.
swear
That was how it began. They came tiptoeing.in, stayed almost
An unpleasant experience for
but I silently for an hour, and tiptoed us,
Yew Tree out, he to catch the bus, she to Cottage relished it. We left the wander off alone, We didn't place Joyfully at last, moved a
Her motives for
"She has some distant relatives in Australia," he said. "She told me that she wants to learn English because she hopes that some day she will be released and then she would like to emigrate there."
*།
SINGING HORSES ]
So
The debutante.
I won't make that
thing is thi
"Daddy producers
"The strange
to his and let me have a screer. test
phone company and then told
or make a record for his gramo his chiefs to make me work the rough, tough way, the going might have been glad to quit might have been so difficult
and go back home,
have learned to live quietly with the General's name.
uzaing
it. Not ducking it. London night
*Now
Not
I'm booked at 2
bother to inquire who, they long way away, mote anaa U.S. war crimes sentence when General Lucius D. Clay, the who was Martha Schenck, club for the second time I got
בא. once
Mrs Koch, a model prisoner at Aichach, near Munich, eluded were: it seemed better not to hundred miles, and forgot the American governor, ruled that the evidence against her was not
wind
and the rain and know. I sow the man
the sufficient to, permit her imprisonment.
But the Germans themselves picked up Frau Koch after the to travel graveyardiness of it all. Until when I happened home on the same bus that one day three years later. We Americans released her:
in a seacoast town. It 1 Witnesses said that, at her fancy, prisoners were tortured, brought him from the town, Wh Neat, sallow face, thin lips, thin was pleasantly hot for the first beaten, and sentenced to confinement in a camp bunker, where nose, thinning hair, middle-aged time that year, hot enough for fow survives. and no beauty. But then I'm sunbathing. no beauty myself,
The girl I did not see until that last night,
We'd got quite used to it all.
by then, the gentle-Bft-of-the-
latch, sometimes, a whisper 15
Corner shop
soft as a cat's Scratch and the the front pocket of the car a
The Singing Horses of Buchenwald," with which 55 guards used to entertain her, were inmates forced to sing while they pulled a stone-laden cart, prodded on by rifle butts.
One witness testified that Tise was present when the tattoed sidn of a murdered prisoner was ordered to be tammed for her.
She went to prison:
1,fair-saul-in-good-
was
gramophone record offers, I'm invited back when I work any- where.
That can't have By thing to do with anyone else's name--or fame."
It ham't-now. She
has'
UITE naturally Marti Stevens was attracted to acting. Her first chance came when, the was on holiday with friends outside New York who knew the local repertory theatre, Marti tested for a part in Night Must Fall? Got it. Acted it proved herself but she still can
not settle down to the life of a one night.
rich man's daughter. The "Daddy beard about it-and
power-house film the next day I was on the ferry prevents her.
background back to New York. I. pleaded, "I must go on
so much success bit in deep, as a She went on: "I came out as child, I just have to see my nume a debutante instead. As a in lights, But I hope as a
SUCCÉSE,
bad-ampittimet TTADING Coute. She has since was no good, Bald Martland to be a Road not seeing
at Aichach, she is kept busily occupied
For years there had been in health, she has fallen into prison routine. Like all the prisoners Stevens,
"Use: does needlework, sowing and knitting, along with the
She shares a prison cell. K
click of the latch as they left small- bottle of excellent oil, Aineetays Prison Director Frau Stephan, "She is quite good: deb I was deadly, I wanted to, actress this time. It is a fever,
Just before the last bus was French product, and the best due,The sounds, expected and, we'd found against sunbun at only half-heard, were quite Now it was gone, neither of For a time she had, indulged in romantica, and wrote bad normal that night ending a us knew where. Let's stop and verse. But now she has buckled down to learning English..
A go to Hollywood. But daddy that starts when you know how
refused until I was 20 and then the business of entertainment. I went with mother
run from the heart of things.
Is
**