The Coolidge examiner., 1937-01-14

larger and more deta ched. Many
have little gardens and hedges. Be-
fore reaching Stormont, you notice
several conspicuously beautiful
places with spacious lawns.
On a sloping hillside in the
center of a large park stands the
imposing white limestone Parlia-
ment building, a present to North
ern Ireland from the British govern
ment. For those who object to the
four-mile trip to and from the city,
attra ctive new homes have been
erected nearby.
Back in Belfast, one finds the
city's magnetic appeal lies in its
industries. Linen and shipbuilding
are undeniably paramount, but
rope-making, cigarette and -four
manufa cture, and distilling also are
important.
The ropeworks has its lure, and
you are conducted over the most in
teresting portions of the many acres
of plant.
Your eyes travel over bale upon
bale of a dirty brown fiber i'm
ported from India, Russia, Italy,
and Belgium. They stand ready to
be transformed into cordage, rang
ing from the heaviest anchor rope
to binder tWine and ordinary string.
You pass on into other acre-area
departments where men sort, clean,
spin, braid, and twist hemp, fax,
and cotton. Long lines of noisy
machines suggest vast armies drill
ing-drilling to double-quick time.
Making Trawl Nets.
You are glad to reach that quiet
section devoted to the making Of
trawl nets used by "drifters" the
world over, especially in the North
Atlantic food fish regions. Each
individual fisherman has his par
ticular idea as to sizes and shapes,
and these vary widely in different
localities. This variety, and the
gradual change, from top to bot
tom, in the size of the mesh, make
it necessary to manufa cture these
nets entirely by hand.
1t is surprising how quickly girls
are able to turn out one of these
unWieldy fish catchers which may
measure 100 feet from its wings"
to its tip. The nets are finally thor
! oughly immersed in a tar bath for
! protection from the action OF salt
water.
The ropewalks where thre e
strands are twisted into rope are
most interesting, though nowadays
they are being replaced by i'm
proved patented machinery which
takes up less room and requires
fewer operators.
When sailing ships ruled the
waves, almost every seacoast town
had its own ropewalk, some quar-
ter of a mile long. In Belfast there
were about a dozen, but by 1886
most of this business was handled
by single company closely affili-
ated with the shipbuilding indus
try Most of the smaller works dis
appeared and gradually the rope
demand lessened as steamships
supplanted the sailing vessels.
The advent of the reaping ma.
chine literally saved the day for
rope-makers and now their largest
volume of business is with Canada,
the United States and South Ameri-
ca, to whom they supply twine for
binding grain sheaVes.
Shipbuilding now is very vital
actor in the city'S life. Such liners
as the Titanic, the Olympic, and the
Britannia were constructed in Bel
fast, and during the World war the
| plants proved of inestimable value
to the Allies. The two giant ship
building concerns have prospereG
| under the very unusual circum-
stance of having to import not only
their raw materials but their coal
The people of North Ireland seem
to consume more tea than the Chi
nese! Tea upon first awakening. tea
for breakfast, tea at eleven Cal
though, of late, coffee drinking has
become popular at that hour, tea
at luncheon. tea at five, tea at ter,
and it is often served at midnight!
Often, in midsummer, one returns
from a dinner party or even from
the theater by daylight, as the sun
does not set until very late because
of the city's northern location. Bel
fast is about on a line with the
northern Aleutian islands and is
nearer the North Pole than the
northernmoSt tip of Newfoundland.
The '1ighting-up time" for auto
mobile lamps in July is about IL
p. m. After o'clock, which is the
closing hour for the majority of the
factories, many streets during the
summer months seethe with hu-
manity till past midnight, making
the operation of a motor vehicle
literally impossible.