STRANGE RECORDS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXI, 24 June 1937, Page 9

STRANGE RECORDS

WORLD’S MOST INDUSTRIOUS PEOPLE Two interesting men have died lately. One was Charley Brown, carver at a notable London restaurant, where he had worked for 58 years and carved—so it was said—3oo,ooo saddles of mutton.

The other was Charles Beebee, an American, who boasted—and probably with truth —that he had packed in his lifetime 270,000 boxes of oranges. The average of fruit to a box is 150 and each orange has to be separately wrapped. He once packed 127 boxes in one day.

A third record which its owner lived to beat is that of Mr Henry Ford, who since 1923, has made more than 23,000,000 cars. Of late, he has been producing them at the rate of 1.000,000 a year.

The late Canon Hay' Aitken, of Norwich, is another man whose life worts in his special line is an absolute record. He preached no fewer than 22,000 sermons,- and, when celebrating his diamond .jubilee, received a special telegram of congratulation from Queen Mary. One often hears of the records achieved by postmen and policemen, but not so often of those belonging to farm labourers. The reason is that the latter seldom give a thought to the amount of work achieved in a lifetime. Here, however, is one which must be without parallel.

A thatcher named Peach, who lived at Litton Cheney, in Dorsetshire, worked at his trade for 74 years, and, during that period, thatched no fewer than 9.387 ticks. He sometimes worked till midnight and started again at 2 in the morning, working by lantern light. Dr Malcolm Maclaren. mining geologist and engineer, holds a record by having travelled 800.000 miles, most of it over rough country, in the course of 30 years’ work. This is equal to 32 journeys around our planet.

The world’s most, industrious , man was probably the French artist. Gus-

tave Dore, who drew 42,000 iiiustrations in a working lifetime of 29 years

—not slapdash sketches, these, but drawings of amazing detail. Some of them would have taken the average artists a week. Yet Dore somehow, managed to turn out four a day. After a French record an English one. but of a very different kind. The late Mrs Emma Moules, of Bradley Terrace. Wood Green, brouglii up 68 children. Twenty of these were her own, 17 those of her second husband, and to the rest she acted as nurse. Incidentally, 70 children have been born to five of her daughters.

Pat (to foreman): “Can you give me a job, mate?’’ Foreman: “Oi’ve got a man here to-day that ain’t come, an’ if he don't turn up to-morrow, Oi’ll send him away an’ take you on.”

“Considering your never-ending complaints,’’ said the landlady, “I think you had better board elsewhere:” “Yes,” replied the lodger, dreamily; “1 often had.”