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Page 4, Terrace Bay-Schreiber News, Wednesday, March 11, 1987 Schreiber Advertising Office Trying tourism The Aguasabon Chamber. of Commerce held its third general meeting on March 4. There are to date 44 paid members in the chamber and it would have been nice to see more representation from these members at the meeting. It was decided that night that one member will contact all the members to inform them of an upcoming meeting. Good idea. The main drive of the chamber right now is tourism. There's no need to wonder why. Terrace Bay, Schreiber, and Rossport (not to mention Pays Plat) can definitely use a secondary industry- a sort of backup in case the worst happens. Everyone wants Kimberly-Clark to stay in Terrace Bay. But what's wrong with a secondary industry perhaps mat- ching or even superceding K-C? At the chamber meeting, President Mike Moore spoke about the closing of the only industry in a town out West. At one time, a couple of hundred tourists visited yearly. Through tourism, the town succeeded in attracting approx- iamtely 30,000 tourists yearly. A commendable turnaround. Hopefully our tourism plans would have developed even if there wasn't a threat to our single industry town. Look at what we have here on the rim of the North Shore- the beauty, the scenery and the natural elegance of such things as the Aguasabon Gorge, Jackfish Lake and Lake Superior with its Slate Islands- not to mention the possibility of water- front development- a natural haven for tourists. The possibilities are endless. Imagine what could be done with some planning! An exciting and prosperous future may lie ahead in the tourism sector for our area. A possibility that should be on everyone's mind. The chamber has the gears turning- it is up to everyone to help oil the machine. Contact anyone from the chamber of commerce if you have any ideas. Some contact people are Mike Moore (5-3774 or 5-3327), Darlene Noble (5-9261), Bryon Cassie (5-3362 or 5-3244), Kim Murray (5-3891) or Ken Randle (5-9425). worries."" Quote of the Week "'T finally know what distinguishes man from the other beasts; financial -THE JOURNAL OF JULES RENARD Arthur Blacl By Arthur Black "'It cannot be denied that in deal- ing with the public just.a little touch of humbug is. immensely effective..."' - Canadian physician Sir William Osler Humbug. Such a wonderful word. Pity it's not used much any more. My dictionary defines hum- bug as "something intended to deceive; a hoax." The word has been around since the days of Dickens, but it was the nineteenth century Yankee impressario P.T. Barnum who raised it toan art form. Experts disagree about whether or not Barnum really said '"There's a sucker born every minute" but nobody denies he made a lot of money out of fleecing the gullible. He founded a rag-tag circus in 1871, modestly named it 'The Greatest Show on Earth" then sat back and waited for the money to ~ roll in. And it did. In the form of hard- earned nickels and dimes clutched tightly in the fists of naive Americans easily awed by bright lights, loud music and wall-to-wall razzmatazz. Ss " errace Bay The Terrace Bay-Schrelber News is published every Wednesday by: Laurentian Publishing Co. Ltd., Box 579, Terrace Bay, Ontario, POT 2W0. Telephone: (807) 825-3747. - Second Class Malling Permit Number 0867 Editor ce... Gaeaees te anos Pe Oe eee Ken Lusk " yaars Gadde a RES eee oe eS . aa Betty St. Amand ks os AO LAS TOE. CEP RS GS - Gayle Fournier Single copies 35 cents Subscription rates per year in town $14.00 out of town $18.00 Member of Ontario Community Newpapers Association and The Canadian Community Newspapers Gu Association WovLD you ENTRUST A NUCLEAR BOMB 7 THIS BUNCH ? Letters to the editor Bill 30° An open letter to the Prime Minister of Canada - The Right Honorable Brian Mulroney. During your recent visit to Zim- babwe, you expressed the senti- ment of millions of people throughout the world when you abhorred apartheid in South Africa. Although a stand against such an obvious injustice is laudable, the statement, your person, your of- fice, and Canada lose credibility because of the hypocrisy involved. Bill 30 is now an act of the On- tario Legislature which segregates Ontario high-school students into two groups by creating a duplicate, publicly-funded, secondary school system for Roman Catholic students. This is government-sponsored Segregation. It is also discrimination. This segregation and discrimina- tion in Ontario is no less repugnant than South Africa's because of the substitution of religion for colour, and indeed, to some it is considered even more repugnant because of its subtlety. When sir, are you going to ad- dress this violation of social unity _ and human rights in your own back yard, Ontario? Until you do, con- 'tinued statements about human rights abuses in other countries em- barrases Canada on the world stage. They came in droves. They came to see the Feejee Mermaid, adver- tised on a 15-foot long billboard showing a gorgeous creature, half fish, half blonde bombshell. Inside, customers beheld a taxidermist's bad dream consisting of a monkey's torso blanket stitched to the. tail end of a bluefin tuna. ~ Altogether it was a foot and a half long. : They lined up to see George Washington's Nurse -- a female dwarf hired by Barnum. He claim- ed she was 161 years old and had nursed the first American presi- dent. A newspaper reporter cried '*Fraud!" and Barnum confessed immediately. He called a press conference to announce that the nurse was really a robot working with a ventriloquist. Was Barnum crazy? Like a fox. The people lin- ed up to see the new circus sensa- tion. Naturally they had to lay their money down again. Barnum also showed a genius for traffic flow. In order to keep the customers moving briskly through the exhibits, Barnum printed up a fancy. banner.that read. This. Way To . 'The Egress!!. The. crowds rushed.' forward, eager to see what they assumed was another display, only to find themselves outside, wink- ing in the bright sunlight of the midway. Perhaps when they got home the more scholarly among them took the trouble to look up 'egress' and discover that it means 'exit'. If Barnum was the Crown Prince of Humbug, Joey Skaggs must be the Guerrilla Insurgent of the phenomenon. Mister Skaggs is a present-day American entrepreneur and he, too, likes to perpetrate massive con games. But unlike old P.T., Skaggs doesn't victimize the public. : He goes after the media. Many years ago Skaggs deve- loped an intense loathing for the way radio, TV and newspapers trivialize and distort the news. But instead of writing letters to the editor, Skaggs decided to try another option: revenge. He started "planting" stories -- absurd, im- possible fairy tales -- then he stood back to giggle as reporters scrambled all over each other to cover them.. . . Skaggs pulled.a lot of scams. He posed as an angry Romany demanding that the Gypsy Moth be renamed. In another, more prudish guise, Skaggs campaigned to put diapers on the horses that pull car- riages through Central Park. Still another Skaggs incarnation sent out ' news releases about a mythical rob- bery at an equally mythical celebri- ty sperm bank. He also posed as Doctor Joseph Bones, leader of a 'Fat Squad' which could be rented by weak-willed porkies to make sure they stuck to their diets -- with handcuffs, leg irons and strait- jackets when necessary. Did the worldly-wise andcynical New York press laugh him right on to the funny pages? Nope, they ate it up. Editors put him on the front pages of their newspapers and TV producers made him the lead item on the six o'clock news. They fell for it hook line and phoney press release. Not a one of them ever said: "Hey wait a minute, guys, this sounds fishy." Which didn't surprise Joey Skaggs a bit. "Reporters are always more interested in a good As well as being against section 15(1) of our own Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the abuses continued on page 5 Well, that's a sentiment P.T. Barnum would share, even though he would no doubt lament the fact that Joey Skaggs makes no money from his hobby. : That's not a problem that plagues the New York Historical Society. The Society staged an exhibit of ""Barnumabalia" last year -- a collection of letters, pamphlets, pictures and displays from the col- ourful 81-year career of the self- styled Prince of Humbug. It was a smash hit. New Yorkers couldn't get enough of old photos and posters showing such Barnum staples as Jo-Jo the Dog-Faced Boy, General Tom Thumb and Madame Clofullia, the Bearded Lady. P.T. Barnum would have approved. He might have had to bite his tongue to keep from snickering, but