In my previous post about the Atlas Powder Company, I had published a photograph taken from their company magazine, The Atlas Family.
For those who might be looking for family information about employees at Schuylkill County’s Reynolds division of Atlas, I wanted to pass along this story and accompanying photographs from the April 1954 issue of The Atlas Family.
As stated in the previous blog post, I’m hoping that I don’t get into any trouble for posting these, given that it’s being done for educational and genealogical purposes only. If any of these folks happen to be related to you, here is a little information on them and their time at the Atlas Powder Company. The following story about hobbies is from the company magazine, April 1954, Volume XVI, No. 2.
For those who might be looking for family information about employees at Schuylkill County’s Reynolds division of Atlas, I wanted to pass along this story and accompanying photographs from the April 1954 issue of The Atlas Family.
As stated in the previous blog post, I’m hoping that I don’t get into any trouble for posting these, given that it’s being done for educational and genealogical purposes only. If any of these folks happen to be related to you, here is a little information on them and their time at the Atlas Powder Company. The following story about hobbies is from the company magazine, April 1954, Volume XVI, No. 2.
REYNOLDS MAN SMARTER THAN SLY OL’ FOX
Elias Long Makes Hobby Pay Off;
Rugs, Cars, Court Champions Also Are Atlas Features
Some people are “smart as a fox.”
Elias Long can top that wise saying. He’s smarter than a fox.
Leadman in the Reynolds Works acid area, Long is also a terror with terriers.
He’s a terror to foxes, that is, when he hunts with his packs of rat terriers and fox hounds.
The New Ringgold, Pa., resident began training dogs to hunt gray foxes about eight years ago. The hobby has grown to consume most of his spare time.
Why hunt foxes? Fore their pelts, which bring $4.00, for the sport of it, and for foxes to be used in training purposes.
Long is about the only supplier of fox-hunting dogs in his section of Pennsylvania. Therefore he does a good business and is always involved in training more dogs.
This he does with the use of, naturally, a fox. He puts a harness on the animal and introduces it to his dog trainee who picks up the scent.
After a long walk through the fields, Long releases the fox near the spot where it was captured. Usually the fox returns to its original hole.
Back home the dog trainee is released and soon picks up the scent, following it right to the hole. This completes the first lesson.
The next time his dog plays “Friday,” Long takes a steel trap on the trip.
When the fox runs underground, the trap is planted in front of the hole. The next step brings out the extent to which Long has outfoxed the smart fox.
A fox usually digs his hole on the side of a short hill. He then does most of his living about three feet from the entrance.
Knowing this, Long digs a shaft down to the fox residence at about four feet from the entrance.
The dog scrambles down the shaft and the fox rushes out of his hole and into the trap.
That’s the way the script works most of the time. On one occasion, however, a dog was dropped in on a female fox who was determined to protect xis of her puppies. Long had to dig enough dirt out to enable him to shoot the fox and save his badly battered dog.
Going from dogs and foxes to cars is but a short distance up the hill at Reynolds where Bob Gere works in the Research Lab.
Bob, a chemist, is a foreign car fan. His pride and joy is the English-made MG. Sometimes when spare parts can’t be brought to Tamaqua, where he lives, the MG has to be towed to Allentown, where the nearest repair shop is located.
Across the stream at Blasting Supplies Works, Betty Scheitrum has a rug that’s the delight of the female sex.
It’s been displayed for the Schuylkill County Homemakers in Pottsville, Pa., won first prize in the Allentown, Pa., State Fair and will be entered in the Pennsylvania State Farm Show.
There are 616 ounces of wool, worth $268.87, in the rug and it took a year and a half to finish.
Betty’s proud of her rug. She should be, for she made it!
Harry Pollak, of Stamford’s Industrial Finishes Department, is an accomplished shutterbug. His photos have captured many honors. The shot of the farmer at haying time, taken at Bridgewater, Vt., was first in a local newspaper contest. Another picture he took graces the front cover.
