THE NEWS OF ALL NATIONS.
Sale of Letters is Stopped.
The sale of more than eight hundred autograph letters, valued at twelve thousand dollars, advertised to take place at a Philadelphia auction room, was stopped by order of a common pleas court, following injunction proceedings by the State of New Hampshire on the ground that the letters are part of its official archives.
The collection is said to be of great historic importance, and contain letters written by George Washington and other revolutionary statesmen and soldiers. The injunction petition declares that all the letters were originally in the custody of the first governor of New Hampshire. The papers disappeared many years ago, and their whereabouts was not disclosed until May, 1913.
Ban on Alcohol in United States Soon, is His Prediction.
“The greatest good thing that has happened in the world since the resurrection of Christ was the prohibition proclamation of Czar Nicholas, of Russia. One hundred and sixty million people went on the water wagon overnight, and to-day they are all glad of it.”
This statement was only one of many pointed declarations made by Clinton N. Howard, of Rochester, N. Y., at one of the closing meetings of the big Christian Endeavor Convention in Chicago. He addressed delegates from every part of the country. The convention brought more than ten thousand to the Chicago Coliseum.
“We have been applying a small plaster in an effort to cure a big sore,” said Howard, who is known as the “Little Giant.” Tiny of body, he flung down the gauntlet in vigorous terms and predicted a dry United States before long. “We have temporized with John Barleycorn,” he said, “when he has been convicted a million times.
“For many months there has been a terrible war on the other side of the ocean. I venture to predict it will be won by those forces which have forsworn the use of alcoholic liquor.
“Three years before the war began the kaiser, addressing a large body of young men just being graduated into active naval service, said:
“‘I ask that you hereafter dispense wholly with strong drink. I want my men to be able to steer my ships straight, and to shoot straight, and that cannot be done unless a man is sober.’
“To-day there is sitting in the presidential chair of the United States the most princely man who has ever graced that position. He is a good man, a great man, and I would to God he had the same power right now that is vested in Czar Nicholas.
“Alcohol is intrenched on a line which it has held for many years, but the allied forces of decency, honesty, humanity, economy are slowly but surely driving it back.”
Oldest College Man Dies.
Reverend Doctor John Fryer Messick, who has the distinction of being the oldest living college graduate in the United States, died just two days after his one-hundred-and-second-birthday anniversary.
Doctor Messick was born in Albany, N. Y., June 28,[Pg 56] 1813, and graduated as valedictorian of the class of 1834 at Rutgers College, New Brunswick, N. J. He graduated from Rutgers Seminary three years later.
In 1836, Doctor Messick cast his first vote for Henry Clay, Whig candidate for President of the United States. He reached his one-hundredth birthday without any physical defect whatever.
Ball Players Dialect Different from Fans.
Baseball fans used to talk about the same language as the players. But it’s different now. Whether they did it just to be different or just to amuse themselves, the present generation of ball players, including many young gents from our most famous institutions of pure English, have invented a new line of lingo, by which they converse among themselves. Here’s the key to a few of the terms now used by all our best players:
Deceiver—A Pitcher.
Monkey Suits—Baseball uniforms.
Uniform—Civilian clothes.
Dogs—Feet.
Sneaks—Soft-soled shoes.
Wolves—Knocking fans.
Orchard—Ball park.
Glue—Money.
Him or He—The manager of the club.
Agate—Regulation baseball.
Sullivans—Upper berths. Also tourist sleepers which have cane seats.
Ducat—A pass to the game.
Stuff—The curves a pitcher puts on the ball.
Bludgeon—A bat.
Work—The act of playing ball.
Geyser—A spitball pitcher.
Groceries—Meals. Also used to denote prizes offered by merchants for early-season feats.
At Seventy-two a “Schoolboy.”
One never gets too old to attend school is a principle strongly advocated by Joseph Gillet, oldest “schoolboy” in the engineering courses of the continuation school in Milwaukee, Wis. Mr. Gillet has just turned seventy-two, but he has the appearance and memory of a man of fifty. Although he was denied opportunities of learning to a great extent when he was a boy, he has tried to grasp every opportunity in adult life. This is the eighth time he has matriculated at a school which would offer him advancement.
He was born in Alsace, where he was graduated from the public school at fourteen. Later he attended a private continuation school for six months, after which he decided to learn the machinist trade. From 1860 to 1864 he was an apprentice. Three years later he entered a marine-engineering school, where he remained six months. Finally, before leaving France, he tried sea diving.
When Mr. Gillet landed in Montreal in 1872, he at once entered an English school. His progress in the language was so rapid that in a little while he became a teacher in a night school, at the same time studying steam engineering and drafting. In 1906 he began an electrical[Pg 57] course at Marquette College and continued it for six years.
“I have always been accustomed to much work,” declared Mr. Gillet, “and have made it a point to take advantage of it. One can always learn something new in the mechanical trade. I cannot be idle.”
Ground Hogs Invade Indiana Farms.
Farmers in the western part of Delaware County, Ind., are up in arms against the ground hog. Hundreds of the pests overrun the farms in that part of the country.
Many farms are literally honeycombed with ground-hog holes. It is said that on one farm not far from Daleville there are as many as five hundred ground-hog dens. The sport of shooting the animals has replaced all others, and hunters who fare afield after these weather prophets seldom go unrewarded.
Apparently the situation has proved to be of keen interest to the squirrels, which are seldom hunted now in that vicinity, the hunters preferring the larger and juicier game, and at the same time conferring a benefit on the farmers by reducing the number of pests which destroy so much corn. According to riflemen and others the squirrels, which are numerous in that part of the country have become positively tame because they have not been hunted. But the ground hogs have become wary and keep sentinels posted, which, by their whistling, warn their comrades of the hunter’s approach.
The ground hog’s call is a clear, distinct whistle, not greatly unlike the singing of a canary bird, only much louder and even sweeter in tone. It is interesting to observe a full-grown ground hog, weighing several pounds, emitting a melodious warble that might well belong to a feathered songster.
Doctor Camdon C. McKinney of Daleville, is perhaps, eastern Indiana’s greatest “ground-hog expert” and what he does not know about these little animals and their ways of living is not worth knowing. Incidentally Doctor McKinney is a crack rifle shot and not only does fried or roasted ground hog grace his family table as often as he may desire, but he supplies a few friends in Muncie and elsewhere with this delicacy on occasion.
“I like to observe the ground hog in his native habitat almost as well as I like to eat his succulent flesh,” said Doctor McKinney. “The farmer’s chief objection to him and the reason that he welcomes hunters who will destroy the ground hog is because the animals insist on destroying corn. As soon as the corn fills out and reaches the roasting-ear stage the ground hogs get busy and devour the ears, either on the spot where they find them or they drag the corn to their dens and eat it there at their leisure, the whole family of the particular den joining in the feast much as the human family does at the same season of year.
“Family by family these little animals will fill their dens to overflowing with the products of the farmer’s toil, and one family will even assist a neighbor who is a little short of help in the ground-hog harvest time. Thus it may be seen that a large colony of ground hogs may cause a great loss in a corn community.]
“Human beings might well learn from the ground hog the Biblical lesson: ‘It is good for brethren to dwell together in amity.’ Ground hogs do not fight among themselves, but they stand up for each other through thick and thin. A personal incident will illustrate this. The[Pg 58] other day while hunting I noticed one of the little animals stick his head cautiously out of his hole. When he finally ventured entirely out, I shot him, but I never saw him afterward. No sooner did he fall than his family rushed out and dragged him back into the den.
“The only way a hunter can get close enough to one of these animals to make a good shot is to hide himself not far from a hole and wait for the ground hog to appear. He first will peer out cautiously, only the end of his snout and his twinkling eyes being visible. Then withdrawing, possibly to report to the others of the family that the coast is clear, he displays a little more of his body at the mouth of the den, and then again runs back. He does this several times, running back each time, and on each reappearance displaying a little more of his body.
“Finally satisfied that there is no enemy in sight, he comes entirely into view, and, standing upright on his hind legs, cocks his head to one side, like a rooster that has been out in the rain. It is then that the hunter’s opportunity has arrived.
“The ground hog is largely a vegetarian although he does eat bugs, but prefers grains, roots, and grasses. Unlike the opossum, he will not touch carrion nor any unwholesome food.”
For Good Health Drink Deeply of Adam’s Ale.
“A gallon a day will keep the doctor away.”
This is what many physicians say—in one way or another—when asked if it is a good thing to drink much water.
Doctors disagree, however, about whether it is a good thing to drink water with meals, the majority believing that food should not be washed down with liquids, but should be thoroughly chewed and mixed with saliva, which is an aid to digestion. But several doctors who were asked about it asserted that it was good to drink even as much as a quart of water with meals.
All of the seven doctors who were interviewed about the benefits of water drinking agreed that the copious drinking of water was a preventive of disease, and they had known many cases in which health was restored by the drinking of water in large quantities. One doctor advocates the drinking of as much as three gallons of water a day in very warm weather, reducing the amount when the weather is cooler, but never drinking less than a gallon a day.
“Why,” said this physician, “two-thirds of the weight of the body is water. In a very warm day in August an average man who is at work will perspire from two to six quarts of water a day. Where is it all coming from if you don’t drink it? Many poisons generated by the body are exuded through the pores of the skin in perspiration. Many persons think they are not perspiring unless they can see beads of water on the skin. But we perspire at all times, waking and sleeping, and we do not see it because it evaporates immediately. It is almost impossible to drink too much water.”
Another doctor said; “I saw a short article in a newspaper the other evening quoting an eminent medical authority as saying that all girls and women who wished to have a good complexion should drink two quarts of water a day. I would double that and advise them to drink four quarts a day. Give the body plenty of pure water, inside and outside, a gallon a day inside, a thorough[Pg 59] bathing of the whole body at least once a day, and plenty of exercise, preferably by outdoor walking, and you can’t very well be sick. If any one would do that, one-half the doctors would have to seek some other business. If every woman would do that, the rouge and complexion powder factories would shut down. There is nothing so good as plenty of water drunk every day for the complexion.”
One physician said: “I am not claiming that the drinking of plenty of water is a preventive of all diseases; that would be misleading and silly, but I will say this: I have cured several bad cases of rheumatism, and many cases of stomach ailments with water alone. In those cases the patients were in the habit of drinking very little water. I prescribed a quart of water before breakfast each morning and a gallon on going to bed at night. It worked a cure in each case.
“I say this, most emphatically, that a half gallon or a gallon of water a day will help wash out the toxic poisons that are formed in the body, and will tend to keep a person in good health and help him resist disease.
“There is constantly being accumulated in the body not only waste matter, resulting from chemical changes taking place in the upkeep of vital energy, but also the blood takes up toxic poisons from the intestines. Unless those things are thrown off by the lungs, skin, kidneys, et cetera, we become lazy, dyspeptic, and uric acid will accumulate and cause rheumatism, kidney disorders, and other organic disturbances. Now, such conditions would be much less likely to ensue were the simple precaution taken of drinking a pint of water often throughout the day.
“Especially is this true of persons who take little exercise and who live indoors, where they breathe impure air.
“I often prescribe the slow sipping of at least a pint of hot water in the morning while dressing. This washes out the stomach, stimulates the circulation in the lungs and skin and promotes the action of the liver. If a person has a tendency to gout or rheumatism, the water-drinking habit is especially recommended.”
One physician was found who recommended the drinking of a quart of water with each meal, but the majority were opposed to drinking water while eating.
Soldiers in War, 21,770,000.
A German military authority estimates that 21,770,000 men stand opposed to each other—12,820,000 on the side of the Allies and 8,950,000 for Germany, Austria, and Turkey. On the naval side the estimates are as follows:
| Germany, | ||
| Allies. | et al. | |
| Line ships | 113 | 56 |
| Big cruisers | 87 | 17 |
| Small cruisers | 128 | 56 |
| Torpedo boats | 704 | 358 |
| Submarine | 179 | 40[A] |
| Miscellaneous | 231 | 239 |
[A] Number of new boats unknown.
The daily cost of the war to the ten nations now taking part he places at 169,000,000 marks—$42,250,000—and he estimates that up to the first of April the total cost of the war was 40,000,000,000 marks—$10,000,000,000. Italy again excepted, he placed the annual cost of such a war at $15,000,000,000.
It would take 60,000,000 of the huge 1,000-mark bank[Pg 60] notes to pay this cost, and these notes, stacked on top of each other, would make a pile 20,000 feet, almost four miles in height. In gold, this same sum would weigh 24,000,000 kilograms—52,912,800 pounds, whereas the entire gold production of the entire world during the last five hundred years has amounted to but 15,000,000 kilograms.
The daily war costs for the German empire he places at 33,000,000 marks—$8,250,000, and only forty days of this conflict cost as much as the whole Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. The cost to England, exclusive of the colonies, is about the same, and three months of this war cost Great Britain as much as the Boer War, lasting two years and seven months. France spends a little more daily.
Selling Street Cars Popular Bunko Game.
Government buildings, skyscrapers, and “gold bricks” have been “sold” to innocent farmers, who, with carpet bag in hand, stand on crowded corners and view the “wonders” of great cities.
The days of this kind of crooked work are passed, so police say, but nevertheless street cars have been “sold” in Chicago and elsewhere in Illinois, within the last two weeks.
Adorjan Antal is under arrest in Cleveland, Ohio, on a charge that he “sold” street cars to foreigners who recently settled in Kane County, Illinois.
Report from Columbus says the Ohio governor’s office has honored a requisition from the governor of Illinois for the return of Antal, alias Ontal Impre.
Wins in Long Name Contest.
Following the marriage of Anna Staingenskaitiskitage and the receipt of congratulations from Mae Makoupakosalouskis and William J. Pappademanakakoopoulous, the Duquoin, Ill., post-office clerks inaugurated a contest for long names. Demetries Pappatheothoroukoummountorgeotopoulous, of Moline, Ill., was declared the winner.
At Twenty, She Sees for First Time.
After living in darkness twenty-five years, a two-minute operation by Doctor Vard H. Hulen, of San Francisco, enabled Miss Tomsina Carlyle, a University of California student, to gaze for the first time upon her mother’s face.
Miss Carlyle describes her sensations since regaining sight as being difficult to define or classify.
“Being blind since birth,” Miss Carlyle said, “has taught me it is the brain, not the sense of sight, that counts. The speed of moving objects, particularly on the streets, staggered me for a time, and if I become frightened at a street corner, I close my eyes and walk forward rejoicingly in safety.”
Cost of Hanging Man Was Seventeen Dollars.
The first record of warrants ever used by a treasurer of Rush County, Ind., covering the period from 1822 to 1841, was found in the treasurer’s office recently. The record showed that it cost the county only seventeen dollars to hang Edward L. Swanson, the only man who ever paid the death penalty in Rush County.
He was convicted of the murder of Elisha Clark in April, 1829, and, after a motion for a new trial failed, was hanged in May of the same year. The warrants[Pg 61] issued show that five dollars was allowed Beverly R. Ward for making a coffin for Swanson, two dollar was allowed David Looney for digging the grave, and ten dollars was paid William L. Bupelt for “rope, cap, shroud, and gallows for the execution of Edward L. Swanson.”
Twins, Eighty-six, Rocked in Cradle.
Mrs. J. C. Barrett, of Edmonston, N. Y., and Mrs. Nathan V. Brand, of Leonardsville, N. Y., who claim the distinction of being the oldest twins in the State, celebrated their eighty-sixth birthday with some unusual features. The cradle in which they slept as children has been preserved, and the invited guests insisted that the twins be rocked in it in the presence of all, and this was done, adding more merriment to the occasion.
Facts You May Not Know.
There are eighty thousand exhibitors at the Pacific Exposition, and the weight of the exhibits averages one ton each.
The opal is the only gem not successfully counterfeited.
One dollar to get married, ten cents to go to college, and fifty cents to graduate are some of the items in the new regulation “governing the affixing of stamps on certificates concerning human affairs,” which were recently promulgated in China.
The population of French Indo-China is about 20,000,000, of whom 20,000 are Europeans, chiefly French.
The human family is subject to about 1,200 different kinds of disease and ailment.
Motion pictures of insects in flight show that they regulate their speed by changing the inclination of their wings rather than by altering the rapidity of their motion.
All telephone operators in Egypt are required to be able to speak English, French, Italian, Greek, and Arabic.
The American mountain sheep are the greatest leapers in the world.
Women study art with the aid of mirrors.
Bright people look upon the bright side of life.
The more you have, the more your fun will cost you. Auction sales originated in ancient Rome, and were introduced to enable soldiers to dispose of spoils of war.
Military training is compulsory on all male citizens between the ages of twelve and twenty-five in New Zealand.
Jailbirds Sing as They Saw Through Bars.
John Wolfe, undersheriff of Wyandotte County, Kan., was seated in front of the Wyandotte County Jail the other night when he heard the oft repeated strains of “Throw Out the Life Line.” The prisoners were singing. Wolfe crept to a side window and listened.
“Throw out the life line across the dark wave,” floated out to him, and between the words came a sharp sound, as of steel scraping against steel.
Then there was a pause in the singing. The singers had come to the end of the song.
“How are you getting on, Brody?” was the next sound.
“All right, sing up, sing ‘Rock of Ages.’”
“Rock of ages, cleft for me,” the chorus began.
But before that hymn was finished, two deputies and Wolfe stepped into the cell occupied by Jess Brody. He is under fifteen years’ sentence for the murder of Nathan[Pg 62] Gill. With him were Frank Dusenberry, awaiting his second trial, charged with the murder of Jennie James, and Herbert Davidson, held on a statutory charge. In the cell were found ten steel saws and two knives. A bar had been sawed through. Once out of the cell, only a window and its soft iron bars remained between the men and the jail yard.
In the next cell was Fred Wing, charged with the murder of Mr. and Mrs. John M. Crist, his father and mother-in-law, and attempted murder of his wife. A knife was found in his cell.
There were thirty-nine prisoners in the jail, two others charged with murder.
Big Fish Causes Drowning.
While attempting to land a big fish, Frank Waterbury, of Reading, Mich., was drowned in Turner Lake. He was in the same boat with his brother, and when he hooked the big one, both men stood in one end of the boat and tried to land the fish. The boat filled with water and sank. The brother swam ashore.
Stolen Bird Returns Home.
A neighbor of Paul Graham, of No. 3 Bradburn Street, Rochester, N. Y., saw a canary bird flitting about in a tree within a few doors from the Graham home. Members of the family were notified and the bird was at once identified. The bird’s cage was brought out and placed on a lawn near the house. The bird promptly flew to the ground and entered its cage.
Burglars entered the Graham house a few days ago, and, in addition to taking several articles, took the canary. The police were notified of the finding of the canary. The canary was carried away in a new brass cage. How it escaped, of course, is not known, but it evidently was taken far away.
Find American Girl Husky.
The health department has weighed and measured ten thousand New York school children who, from July 13, 1914, to April 13, 1915, asked for working papers.
The boys of English, Scotch, or Irish stock weighed, on the average, 102.44 pounds. They were the lightest of all in avoirdupois.
The boys of Italian stock weighed 104.61.
The native American boys of American-born parents weighed 105.61 pounds.
The boys of German stock weighed 106.62 pounds.
Those of Jewish stock weighed 106.92 pounds.
The Russian, Polish, or Bohemian boys weighed 108.13 pounds. They were the heaviest of all.
The composite average weight of the boys of all nationalities, native and foreign, was 105.71 pounds.
In the matter of height, the German boys were the tallest, with an average of 62.39 inches.
The native American boys of American-born parents averaged 62.38 inches, the English, Scotch, or Irish, 62.21; the Russian, Polish, or Bohemian, 61.87; the Jewish, 60.93; the Italian, 60.30.
The composite average height of boys of all nationalities, American and foreign, was 61.35 inches.
The girls of native American, English, Scotch, and Irish stocks were taller and heavier than the boys of those stocks.[Pg 63]
The composite average height of all the girls was less than that of the boys, but they were a fraction heavier than the boys. The Russian, Polish, and Bohemian girls were the tallest. The German girls were the heaviest.
No Hair Cut in Fifty Years.
Caleb Stone, eighty, Middletown, Ill., received his first hair cut and shave in fifty years. He said a half century ago that he would not permit his hair to be cut or his beard to be trimmed, and kept his word. His white locks had grown down to his shoulders and his beard to his waist.
Groping for Gems in the Sea.
There is plenty of romance and excitement connected with the work of diving for pearls in the waters of West Australia, but one of the strangest things about the business is the curious mental condition of the divers while they are under the water, groping for precious gems, says an exchange. During a part of his time below, the diver is said to be bordering on insanity.
A grudge against or a suspicion of those above is suddenly magnified in the diver’s imagination, and he signals to be pulled up, resolved on immediate revenge. When he reaches the top, however, the imaginary wrongs vanish.
At a depth of eighty feet the diver cannot see well; he moves painfully and he breathes hard. At every foot deeper he thinks how slight a mishap may befoul his life line, and all his thoughts tend to center on his hazards.
At such times the inadequacy of his pay appears to him as a huge grievance, but when he comes to the surface and rests a few minutes, all is again serene.
Man Suffocates in Balloon.
Asphyxiation inside of a balloon was the perilous plight by Andy Doyle, of Krug Park, Omaha, who assisted Veo L. Huntley, balloonist, at the recent celebration in Shenandoah, Iowa.
Doyle was stationed inside the bag space to watch the progress made in filling and to call out for more gas from time to time, as was the usual custom. Because of the strong winds blowing the fumes of the burning kerosene oil to the ground, he was suffocated.
Hearing no noise from him, others went inside the bag and dragged him out. He was revived in a short while.
From Mule Driver to Superintendent of Car System.
“Play straight and keep at it.”
This is the only formula of success followed by William W. Weatherwax, who rose from a “mule driver” at one dollar and a half a day to be a ten-thousand-dollar-a-year street-car superintendent.
Weatherwax told the story of his remarkable rise to Chicago’s street railway board of arbitration at a recent session.
He entered the service of the Chicago City Railways Company as a boy of twenty. His work was driving horses hitched to cars. His pay was one dollar and fifty cents a day. He was known as a “mule boy.”
From that beginning, by steady, persevering work, Weatherwax worked steadily upward. To-day he is in charge of the operation of the surface lines of Chicago.[Pg 64]
Asked to account for his success, Weatherwax said he “guessed it just happened.”
“I worked hard and played straight—that was all there was to it,” he said. “I left school when I was thirteen years old. I got a job with a street-car company at Troy, N. Y., my home town. I started with the Chicago company in 1886. I have been in its employ ever since.”
Weatherwax’s progress from the bottom up ran through these stages. Driver, horse tender, hay-hoist operator in car barn, cable-car conductor, assistant barn foreman, division superintendent, general superintendent of transportation.
To-day he is the operating head of the greatest street-railway system in the world, with two assistants, thirteen division superintendents, and thousands of men under his control.
What Women are Doing.
“Woman’s work never ends,” wrote a poet long ago, and his statement is as true to-day as ever. In addition to the women who work in their homes, performing manifold household duties and rearing their children, there are many who engage in the “gainful occupations,” as the census reports call them. There is hardly an occupation listed in the latest United States census in which woman is not represented. There are, for instance, seventy-seven woman lumbermen—raftsmen and wood-choppers—in the United States. There are 2,550 woman stock herders and raisers, forty-five quarry operators, thirty-one blacksmiths, fifteen brick and stone masons, and forty-four longshoremen. Many women have traveled far up the road to success in their work. Ten women head iron foundries. There are 325 woman bankers and 1,347 bank cashiers. Nearly a thousand women are wholesale dealers. One woman is listed as a railroad official. Three are proprietors of grain elevators.
Our Talc and Soapstone.
The United States produces more talc and soapstone than all the rest of the world combined. Moreover, according to the United States Geological Survey, our production has nearly doubled in the last ten years, increasing from 91,185 short tons, valued at $940,731 in 1904, to 172,296 short tons, valued at $1,865,087, in 1914.
Of talc alone the United States produced 151,088 tons, and of soapstone 21,208 tons. Talc is a mineral of which soapstone is an impure massive form. Few people are aware how much we owe to talc and soapstone. It is one of the softest of minerals. It is so smooth and slippery that it has become a great panacea for friction in many branches of human industry. Talc is used in making talcum toilet powder, the tailor uses it to chalk fabrics for new suits, and talc “slate pencils” and crayons have enabled many scholars to solve knotty problems. Talc bleaches out cotton cloth, and in paints we see it everywhere, but its chief use is as a filler in paper of many kinds.
There are nine States producing this useful mineral. New York continues to be the leading producer, yielding more than fifty-seven per cent of the total production of talc in the United States, and far outranking all other States excepting Vermont, which has in recent years so greatly increased its production that in 1914 its output was about three-fourths that of New York.[Pg 65]
Of soapstone, Virginia holds the greatest supply, and, backed up by Vermont, it meets the great demand for washtubs, sinks, and fireless cookers.
Florida Camphor Industry.
The camphor industry in Florida, which may be said to have begun in 1905, has developed so greatly within a single decade it is confidently expected that within a few years it will be able to supply the demand for this important gum in this country. The bulk of the camphor now used here is imported from Japan. A single tract of 1,600 acres of camphor trees planted in 1908, last year yielded over ten thousand pounds of camphor gum, in addition to the proportionate supply of oil.
This tract of land was planted by a celluloid factory, which is utilizing the gum for its own purposes. Another company last year bought eighteen square miles of land in the same locality, and is rapidly planting it in camphor, 1,600 acres having been planted this year.
Enough seedlings are already on hand to plant nine square miles. Several methods, and also some new machinery, have been devised for camphor production in Florida, which will offset the cheap labor of Japan and insure a sufficient profit.
A Clever Invention.
To combat the cotton-boll weevil, a Mississippian has invented a device which, suspended from a man’s shoulders, brushes the insects from cotton plants into a receptacle holding oil.
Owes His Life to Rise in Price of Zinc Ore.
To one-hundred-and-thirty-dollar zinc ore, J. H. Worth, mine and other property owner of Joplin, Mo., owes his life. Two men, Royal Cardwell and Samuel Houston, prospectors, had been waiting for nearly a year for the price of ore to rise. They knew of an old, abandoned drift in a certain mine, where, if ore prices would go high enough, they might make some “easy money” by scrapping material that had been left years before. Their wish was realized last week, when zinc concentrates went to one hundred and thirty dollars per ton.
Entering the old drift in question, they found an unconscious man tied hand and foot and gagged. He was taken to a hospital, and a few minutes later, when he had recovered his sense, he told a strange story.
Worth had been accosted in a Joplin hotel by a stranger who said he wanted to look over some of the former’s mining properties with a view to obtaining a lease. The stranger’s partner then came up and was introduced, but Worth does not remember either of their names. The three entered a taxi and were taken to the old mine first mentioned, and, after sending the motor back, proceeded to investigate the underground workings. When they had at last entered the old, abandoned drift, Worth was seized by the two men, gagged and tied to a mining timber, where he was left for about an hour.
When the two men returned, they carried a box which had one end of a long fuse attached to something inside. They placed the box at the bound man’s side and stretched the fuse out on the floor of the drift, lighted the far end, and, as they started away, one of them remarked:[Pg 66]
“The fire will reach the dynamite in an hour, and that will be your finish.”
That the dynamite, of which there was about fifty pounds, quite enough to have caved in the drift, did not explode was from the fact, afterward discovered, that the men, in walking about, about stepped on the fuse, cutting it in two against a sharp point of stone, thus stopping the little spark of destruction.
Worth had no idea as to the cause of the attack made upon him.
New Champion Horseshoer.
Harry Wilson, a Des Moines, Iowa, horseshoer, defeated Frank McCarty, of Minneapolis, and Tom Welsh, of Milwaukee, in a shoeing contest. The winner’s time was five minutes, forty-four seconds.
This Lad Makes a Home Run.
A twelve-inch trout, five-foot rattlesnake, and a big black bear can afford a whole lot of excitement for one day. According to Robert Bastian, a sixteen-year-old boy, entirely too much for a tenderfoot.
Robert was fishing in Roaring Run Creek, near Williamsport, Pa. He had just hauled out the trout, when he discovered the rattlesnake curled up beside the big stone. Seizing a club, he started to kill the snake, when he heard something crashing through the bushes. He jumped aside just in time to avoid the rush of the bear.
Without waiting to pick up trout, fishing rod, or lines, he made a home run of over a mile. Folks in one of the houses he passed on his return dash say they couldn’t make out whether he was some low-flying bird or a frightened jack rabbit.
Trees Lightning Is Most Apt to Strike.
What trees are most likely to be struck by lightning? A Swedish forestry journal called the Woods has made a serious study of this subject, and the results are both instructive and interesting. The oak, for example, is about a hundred times more likely to be struck than the beech. Next to the oak, the trees that are most often struck are the poplars, pear trees, elms, willows, ash, and the larger kinds of evergreens.
Those least likely to be struck by lightning are alders, maples, horse chestnut, and beeches. The last-named seems to be the one that is least often injured by lightning. A middle position is occupied by lindens, apple trees, cherry trees, walnut trees, and real chestnuts. The birch is classified by some as being quite safe from lightning, while others have a directly opposite view.
A German botanist, Ernest Stahl, has explained that liability to be struck by lightning depends on the ease with which the trunks of different trees get wet. It is a well-known observation that “dry thunder” is the most dangerous, and it is probable that the wet layer about the bark of a tree acts as a safeguard. Therefore, it is clear that in a thunderstorm it is best to avoid trees with a dry bark, and also trees that have been mutilated in the crown.
It may also be observed in this connection that the number of people killed every year for every million inhabitants amounts to 1.8 in Sweden, 1 in England, 4 in France, and 4.4 in Germany.[Pg 68][Pg 67]
The Nick Carter Stories
ISSUED EVERY SATURDAY BEAUTIFUL COLORED COVERS
When it comes to detective stories worth while, the Nick Carter Stories contain the only ones that should be considered. They are not overdrawn tales of bloodshed. They rather show the working of one of the finest minds ever conceived by a writer. The name of Nick Carter is familiar all over the world, for the stories of his adventures may be read in twenty languages. No other stories have withstood the severe test of time so well as those contained in the Nick Carter Stories. It proves conclusively that they are the best. We give herewith a list of some of the back numbers in print. You can have your news dealer order them, or they will be sent direct by the publishers to any address upon receipt of the price in money or postage stamps.[Pg 69]
730—The Torn Card.
731—Under Desperation’s Spur.
732—The Connecting Link.
733—The Abduction Syndicate.
738—A Plot Within a Plot.
739—The Dead Accomplice.
746—The Secret Entrance.
747—The Cavern Mystery.
748—The Disappearing Fortune.
749—A Voice from the Past.
752—The Spider’s Web.
753—The Man With a Crutch.
754—The Rajah’s Regalia.
755—Saved from Death.
756—The Man Inside.
757—Out for Vengeance.
758—The Poisons of Exili.
759—The Antique Vial.
760—The House of Slumber.
761—A Double Identity.
762—“The Mocker’s” Stratagem.
763—The Man that Came Back.
764—The Tracks in the Snow.
765—The Babbington Case.
766—The Masters of Millions.
767—The Blue Stain.
768—The Lost Clew.
770—The Turn of a Card.
771—A Message in the Dust.
772—A Royal Flush.
774—The Great Buddha Beryl.
775—The Vanishing Heiress.
776—The Unfinished Letter.
777—A Difficult Trail.
782—A Woman’s Stratagem.
783—The Cliff Castle Affair.
784—A Prisoner of the Tomb.
785—A Resourceful Foe.
789—The Great Hotel Tragedies.
795—Zanoni, the Transfigured.
796—The Lure of Gold.
797—The Man With a Chest.
798—A Shadowed Life.
799—The Secret Agent.
800—A Plot for a Crown.
801—The Red Button.
802—Up Against It.
803—The Gold Certificate.
804—Jack Wise’s Hurry Call.
805—Nick Carter’s Ocean Chase.
807—Nick Carter’s Advertisement.
808—The Kregoff Necklace.
811—Nick Carter and the Nihilists.
812—Nick Carter and the Convict Gang.
813—Nick Carter and the Guilty Governor.
814—The Triangled Coin.
815—Ninety-nine—and One.
816—Coin Number 77.
NEW SERIES
NICK CARTER STORIES
1—The Man from Nowhere.
2—The Face at the Window.
3—A Fight for a Million.
4—Nick Carter’s Land Office.
5—Nick Carter and the Professor.
6—Nick Carter as a Mill Hand.
7—A Single Clew.
8—The Emerald Snake.
9—The Currie Outfit.
10—Nick Carter and the Kidnapped Heiress.
11—Nick Carter Strikes Oil.
12—Nick Carter’s Hunt for a Treasure.
[Pg 70]13—A Mystery of the Highway.
14—The Silent Passenger.
15—Jack Dreen’s Secret.
16—Nick Carter’s Pipe Line Case.
17—Nick Carter and the Gold Thieves.
18—Nick Carter’s Auto Chase.
19—The Corrigan Inheritance.
20—The Keen Eye of Denton.
21—The Spider’s Parlor.
22—Nick Carter’s Quick Guess.
23—Nick Carter and the Murderess.
24—Nick Carter and the Pay Car.
25—The Stolen Antique.
26—The Crook League.
27—An English Cracksman.
28—Nick Carter’s Still Hunt.
29—Nick Carter’s Electric Shock.
30—Nick Carter and the Stolen Duchess.
31—The Purple Spot.
32—The Stolen Groom.
33—The Inverted Cross.
34—Nick Carter and Keno McCall.
35—Nick Carter’s Death Trap.
36—Nick Carter’s Siamese Puzzle.
37—The Man Outside.
38—The Death Chamber.
39—The Wind and the Wire.
40—Nick Carter’s Three Cornered Chase.
41—Dazaar, the Arch-Fiend.
42—The Queen of the Seven.
43—Crossed Wires.
44—A Crimson Clew.
45—The Third Man.
46—The Sign of the Dagger.
47—The Devil Worshipers.
48—The Cross of Daggers.
49—At Risk of Life.
50—The Deeper Game.
51—The Code Message.
52—The Last of the Seven.
53—Ten-Ichi, the Wonderful.
54—The Secret Order of Associated Crooks.
55—The Golden Hair Clew.
56—Back From the Dead.
57—Through Dark Ways.
58—When Aces Were Trumps.
59—The Gambler’s Last Hand.
60—The Murder at Linden Fells.
61—A Game for Millions.
62—Under Cover.
63—The Last Call.
64—Mercedes Danton’s Double.
65—The Millionaire’s Nemesis.
66—A Princess of the Underworld.
67—The Crook’s Blind.
68—The Fatal Hour.
69—Blood Money.
70—A Queen of Her Kind.
71—Isabel Benton’s Trump Card.
72—A Princess of Hades.
73—A Prince of Plotters.
74—The Crook’s Double.
75—For Life and Honor.
76—A Compact With Dazaar.
77—In the Shadow of Dazaar.
78—The Crime of a Money King.
79—Birds of Prey.
80—The Unknown Dead.
81—The Severed Hand.
82—The Terrible Game of Millions.
83—A Dead Man’s Power.
84—The Secrets of an Old House.
85—The Wolf Within.
86—The Yellow Coupon.
87—In the Toils.
88—The Stolen Radium.
[Pg 71]89—A Crime in Paradise.
90—Behind Prison Bars.
91—The Blind Man’s Daughter.
92—On the Brink of Ruin.
93—Letter of Fire.
94—The $100,000 Kiss.
95—Outlaws of the Militia.
96—The Opium-Runners.
97—In Record Time.
98—The Wag-Nuk Clew.
99—The Middle Link.
100—The Crystal Maze.
101—A New Serpent in Eden.
102—The Auburn Sensation.
103—A Dying Chance.
104—The Gargoni Girdle.
105—Twice in Jeopardy.
106—The Ghost Launch.
107—Up in the Air.
108—The Girl Prisoner.
109—The Red Plague.
110—The Arson Trust.
111—The King of the Firebugs.
112—“Lifter’s” of the Lofts.
113—French Jimmie and His Forty Thieves.
114—The Death Plot.
115—The Evil Formula.
116—The Blue Button.
117—The Deadly Parallel.
118—The Vivisectionists.
119—The Stolen Brain.
120—An Uncanny Revenge.
121—The Call of Death.
122—The Suicide.
123—Half a Million Ransom.
124—The Girl Kidnaper.
125—The Pirate Yacht.
126—The Crime of the White Hand.
127—Found in the Jungle.
128—Six Men in a Loop.
129—The Jewels of Wat Chang.
130—The Crime in the Tower.
131—The Fatal Message.
132—Broken Bars.
133—Won by Magic.
134—The Secret of Shangore.
135—Straight to the Goal.
136—The Man They Held Back.
137—The Seal of Gijon.
138—The Traitors of the Tropics.
139—The Pressing Peril.
140—The Melting-Pot.
141—The Duplicate Night.
142—The Edge of a Crime.
143—The Sultan’s Pearls.
144—The Clew of the White Collar.
145—An Unsolved Mystery.
146—Paying the Price.
147—On Death’s Trail.
148—The Mark of Cain.
Dated July 17th, 1915.
149—A Network of Crime.
Dated July 24th, 1915.
150—The House of Fear.
Dated July 31st, 1915.
151—The Mystery of the Crossed Needles.
Dated August 7th, 1915.
152—The Forced Crime.
Dated August 14th, 1915.
153—The Doom of Sang Tu.
Dated August 21st, 1915.
154—The Mask of Death.
Dated August 28th, 1915.
155—The Gordon Elopement.
Dated Sept. 4th, 1915.
156—Blood Will Tell.
[Pg 72]
PRICE, FIVE CENTS PER COPY. If you want any back numbers of our weeklies and cannot procure them from your news
dealer, they can be obtained direct from this office. Postage stamps taken the same as money.
STREET & SMITH, Publishers, 79-89 Seventh Ave., NEW YORK CITY