There are many who keep up a great activity, but who, for want of a definite aim or a great guiding ideal, accomplish little good in the world.
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AIR, EFFECTS OF
Attention has been called to some curious effects of rarefied and of condensed air on human respiration. On high mountains some persons experience distressing shortness of breath, one result of which is that they are unable to whistle. Precisely the same effect is sometimes produced by the condensed air in caissons and diving-bells. Laborers working in comprest air frequently find, however, that their powers of exertion are increased as long as the atmospheric pressure is not more than double that of ordinary air; but beyond that point unpleasant effects are experienced after the men have left the working shafts and returned into the open air. On the other hand, high atmospheric pressure in the case of persons not doing manual labor has been found to act as a mental stimulus, increasing the impulse to talk.—Harper’s Weekly.
(61)
Air of Sea as Purifier—See [Purification].
Airship Flight—See [Ambition].
ALCOHOLIC BAIT
In May, 1880, on Platt River, in Benzie County, Michigan, an old man was showing an Indian named Pokagon how to catch pigeons in their nesting-place. He led him to an open pole-pen which he called his bait-bed, where he scattered a bucketful of wheat. While the two watched in ambush the pigeons poured into the pen and gorged themselves. “Come on, you redskin,” said the old man to Pokagon, and they caught about a hundred fine birds. “How did you do it?” asked the Indian in surprize. With one eye half shut and a sly wink with the other, the old man replied: “That wheat was soaked in whisky.”
How many other than birds have been snared by the same whisky-bait!