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THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL
r ▲ TLA* TA, GA., 5 MOITK FOMTTH BT.
Entered at the Atlanta Postorflce as Mail Matter of
the Second Class.
JAKES *. GBAT,
President and Editor
BUBSCMIPTTO* HUGE.
Twelve months .75c
Six months 40c
Three months3sc
The Semi-Weekly Journal is published on Tues
day and Friday, and is mailed by the shortest routes
for early delivery.
It contains news from all over the world, brought
by special leased wires into our office. It has a staff
of distinguished contributors, with strong depart
ments of special value to the home and the farm.
▲gents wanted at every postoffice. Liberal com
mission allowed. Outfit free. Writs R. R BRAD
LEY, Circulation Manager.
The only traveling representatives we have are
B. F. Bolton, C. C. Coyle, L. H. Klmbrougli. Chas H.
Woodliff snd L. J. Farris. We will be reeponsible
only for money paid to the above-named traveling
representatives.
MOTXCB TO IbaSCgIBERS
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SEMI-WEEKLY JOLBNAL, AU anta. G*.
The Duty and Opportunity
of the H 7 . and A. Commission,
Regrettable though it is that the Legislature
failed to pass the Western and Atlantic bond elec
tion bill, the*important fact remains that it did pass
a bill empowering the W. and A. Commission to
deal with propositions for extending the State road
to the sea. The Commission thus is enabled to ac
cept an offer to that end. if it receives one which
it deems advantageous, and to enter into a tenta
tive contract.
It remains to be seen, of course, whether inter
ested persons will submit proposals the final ac
ceptance of which necessarily would depend on fu
ture legislation to authorize a State bond issue and
on a future vote of the people to approve it. There
is every reason to believe, however, that a bond
election measure can be enacted at the next session
of the General Assembly; at the recent session it
passed the Senate almost unanimously, and would
have passed the House but for the fact that so
many of the members were absent at the time of
the vote. There is goo reason to believe, more
over, that such a measure would be approved at
> the polls, for public sentiment and public judgment
as far as they can be gauged are decidedly in favor
of extending the Western and Atlantic to an ocean
outlet.
In these circumstances it is the duty of the
W. and A. Commission to invite proposals for this
great project and to give the matter the widest pos
sible publicity. One proposal already has been
submitted, its terms being such that the State,
within a period of fifty years, could acquire uncon
ditional ownership of a new line without the actual
expenditure of a single dollar. The extension of
the Western and Atlantic means such a- vast deal
to the development and protection of the road itself
and such a vast deal to its owner, the people of
Georgia, that the Commission should do its utmost
to encourage offers from persons who are capable
of co-operating with the State for the consumma
tion of. this splendid enterprise.
The Wealth in Swamp Lands.
Fifteen z miles from Ocala, Florida, lies a tract
of some the thousand acres which was almost
worthless a few years ago, but which is now de
scribed as “the richest body of land under culti
vation in America.'* This seemingly magic trans
formation has been wrought by drainage processes
which can be applied, without great difficulty or
expense, to millions of acres of swamp and
overflowed land in divers parts of the Soflith and
which, if applied, will open the way to billions of
dollars of new wealth.
The Florida land was formerly in the bed of
the Oklawaha river, or adjacent bottoms, and ordi
narily was waist deep in water. A reclamation
project begun in 1912 has been carried to com
pletion, and the investors already are reaping
royal dividends. Last year, according to a corres
pondent of the Manufacturers Record, four and
a half acres which were planted to corn yielded
an average of one hundred and forty-two bushels
without the use of any fertilizer. This year eleven
hundred acres are luxuriant with corn which has
an assured outturn of more than one hundred
bushels to the acre. The soil, composed of the
decaying vegetation of unnumbered centuries,
needs no artificial enrichment. It is stored with
nature's alchemy.
Back of this fertile expanse stretches the sand
soil, which the promoters expect to develop for
live-stock industries. The adjoining higher lands,
says the correspondent, .afford excellent pastur
age. “and the corn will be fed to the hogs and
cattle raised thereon.” Thus from a single drain
age enterprise have sprung opportunities for grain
production, far exceeding anything known in
Illinois or lowa and also opportunities for live
stock raising which will in time be even more
important than the agricultural output.
Commenting on this development, the Man
ufacturers Record observes:
“It is estimated that there are about
50,000,000 acres* of overflowed lands in the
South which can be drained, as is being
done on a large scale in many Southern
States, and in which many duplicates can be
found of the success achieved near Ocala.
This overflowed land, not worth more than a
few dollars an acre as it stands, should, when
drained, be easily worth 1100 an acre. If it
be counted as worth approximately 110 an
acre under present conditions, covered with
water, drainage would mean an advance to
9100 an acre, or a total advance from an ag
gregate value of 5500.000.000 to $5,000,000,-
000.*’
Next to Florida. Georgia has a larger area of
*- swamp and overflowed lands than that of any
other State or. the Atlantic coast, approximately
one-seventeenth of its territory consisting of such
c-iil. Vast regions like the Okefenokee swamp
present formidable drainage problems,
though eventually no doubt they will he grappled
and mastered. But there are thousands upon
thousands of acres which could be drained at z
cost comparatively trivial beside the profitable re
sults to be attained.
tinder the stimulus of the State Geological
Survey and the Georgia Drainage Association, a
number of fruitful projects of the kind have been
carried to success, and others are now in prog
ress. A law enacted by the Legislature several
years ago authorizes the establishment of drain
age districts and the issuance of bonds to pay the
cost of reclamation. By this means, any county,
or group of counties, can convert its useless wet
lands and swamps into areas of bountiful produc
tion —and can do so without an appreciable bur
den upon taxpayers and property owners.
Such enterprises are valuable not only because
they create new wealth but also because they
destroy prolific sources of disease. A swamp, be
fore it is drained, is a drawback and a menace; a
swamp, after it is drained, is a mine of agricul
tural gold. The more drainage projects Georgia
essays and accomplishes, the richer and more pro
gressive the State will become.
An Independent's View
Os Wilson and Hughes
When so free-minded and conservative a news
paper as the Springfield (Massachusetts) Republic
an comes heartily out for Mr. Wilson s re-election
we have rather an impressive omen of how the
country’s independent vote is trending. The Spring
field Republican approaches political issues in the
spirit w’hich Lord Bacon recommends for reading
—“not to contradict and confute, nor to believe
and take for granted, nor to find talk and discourse,
but to weigh and consider.” It is traditionally just
toward administrations and candidates, regardless
of party lines. Unlike the famous statesman who
said he first chose a side and then found reasons
for being there, this deliberate New England jour
nal first finds its reasons and then chooses its side.
In committing itself to President Wilson’s sup
port, it remarks characteristically:
“The patriotic duty laid upon us all, and
the only one which any of us are justified in
urging upon others as a duty, is to consider
as carefully and as dispassionately as possible
the facts and principles at issue, and then, hav
ing decided which of the two holds the best
promise for the country, to support that con
viction with fairness and outspoken vigor.”
By this unprejudiced course, the Springfield Re
publican reaches the conclusion that Mr. Wilson
ought to be re-elected, because his record both in
foreign and domestic affairs proves that he is de
pendable in times of crisis and in every sense ca
pable of serving the nation well. Mr.-Hughes, the
Republican thinks, “would make a good President;”
but Mr. W’ilson, because of his exceptional expe
rience and his pre-eminent leadership along pro
gressive lines “is better fitted to meet the prob
lems of foreign relations and social evolution, in
the broadest sense, which the next four years
hold in store.”
Concerning the partisan criticism that the
President's foreign policy has been vacillating
and weak, the Republican says:
“The conclusive answer is contained in
the bitter protests of the radical faction in
Germany that the German submarines have
been caught 'in a net of notes.’ The out
standing fact is that Mr. Wilson, without
bringing the United States into war, has
forced the recognition of neutral rights.”
The President’s opponents have been partic
ularly violent in their attack upon his Mexican
policy—though of late they have soft-pedalled
that issue, realizing, perhaps, that the majority
of the American people are not averse to escaping
a thankless war upon a broken and bankrupt
nation. The salient feature of Mr. Wilson’s con
duct toward Mexico, says the Springfield Repub
lican, is thia:
“He has grasped the underlying principle
that we shall not have a permanently peace
ful neighbor to the South of us until the
most patent wrongs under which the mass of
the Mexican people have suffered are righted
through their ‘own efforts. The recognition
of this principle in the long run means the
minimum of evil to this country from the
Mexican problem. It is to Mr. Wilson’s
everlasting credit that in spite of difficulties,
discouragements, and possibly of incidental
mistakes, he has not wavered in his endeavor
to apply this principle to the changing cir
cumstances of the times.”
In dometsic matters the Wilson policies have
been as constructive and forward-looking as, in
foreign affairs, they have been prudent and con
serving. No other administration in the last half
century produced such an array of helpful and
revitalizing laws —the income tax. the banking
and currency act, the farm loan act, the vocational
education act, the child' labor act, the great meas
ures for national defense and numerous others
which serve the people’s common needs. This
record shows, as the Springfield Republican ex
presses it, that under Mr. Wilson s leadership:
“The Democratic party is today a better
instrument of progressive government than
in a generation, if not in its entire history,
and, what is more to the point, a better in
strument. in the opinion of this paper, than
the Republican party promises at this mo
ment to become under Mr. Hughes.”
The judgment of this conservative, indepen
dent New England journal is notable because it
indicates the line of thought which conservative,
independent people throughout the country are
likely to follow’. And it is this element which
sways the dvstinies of American politics.
“No post-bellum rights for the United States.”
says the Ixindon Times; by which you might think
the London Times really had some say so in the
matter.
Editorial Echoes.
America has apparently emerged from the fur-
I niture-design-tng horrors of the seventies of the
lasi century. The pictures of chairs, tables, beds,
sideboards, bureaus and the like which appear in
the advertisements of the great stores having
their annual furniture sales show that the design
ers have begun to study the work of the great cab
ient makers of the past centuries and to profit by
what they learn. Where they cannot invent they
reproduce, and they are working to such good ef
fect that the descendants of the families who buy
the well-made furniture of today will be as proud
of it as are the few families who have inherited
from the Colonial period the mahogany which met
the approval of their ancestors. —Philadelphia
Evening Ledger.
THE ATLANTA SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA, GA., TUESDAY, AUG. 22, 1916.
Quips and Quiddities
Peddling Peter shuffled to the bar of the country
inn and ordered a glass of beer.
'Say, boss,’’ he remarked, as the landlord served
him, "d’you want ter buy a patent never failing fly
killer?”
"IJow much?” was the reply.
"Well, guv’nor, if you’ll perwide me wi’ a decent
dinner, yer can 'ave a full sized bottle of my fly killer
for nowt.”
The worthy innkeeper eventually agreed, and when
the repast had been provided and consumed, he said
briskly:
"Now, let's see this wonderful patent of yours.”
"Peddling Peter at once produced a small bottle
from his pack and carefully uncorked it.
"All you 'ave to do," he explained, “is to ’old the
aggrawatin* hinsec’ between the finger and thumb,
press 'im firmly until ’e opens 'is mouth, an then drop
In some of this poison.”
“W—why," gasped mine host, feebly, "If I had him
between my fingers I could squeeze him to death
straight away”
‘Well,” remarked Peddling Peter, as he departed,
"of course, that’s a very good way, too.”
♦ • * •
Horrocks was a past master of the habit of care
’lessness He dropped things around in any old place,
and afterward never remembered where that place was.
One night he rose from bed to get some medicine and
swallowed his collar stud in mistake for a cough drop.
"Mary,” said he to his wife When the awful truth
dawned upon him, "I have swallowed my collar stud.”
“That’s all right,” responded his wife in a tone of
evident satisfaction. "There’s nothing to worry about.”
"Nothing to worry about?” returned Horrocks. “Do
you—” ,
"That’s what I said,” Interrupted little wifey. “For
once in your life you know where you put it.”
• • •
Although Mr. Harry Tate can be as witty off the
stage as on it, at least one occasion is recorded when
he met his match. Seeing a number of small boys en
gaged in propounding riddles to one another, Mr. Tate
thought he would give them a poser. Going uq to one
of the lads, he asked: "Wlhat time is it when the clock
strikes 13?”
"Time it was ‘taken to the watchmaker's to be
mended," returned the urchin.
• • •
They were discussing the right and wrong of a
strike and stout and strenuous were the arguments
on either side.
"Look here! Say I ain't tellln’ the truth! Look
there,” said Bob Pellett, producing a newspaper and
flourishing it under Joe's eye.
But Joe ignored the proffered literature.
“I don’t want to see no newspaper,” he said loftily.
"Wot I knows, I knows.”
“And that ain’t much,” said Bob. ‘Don’t want to see
the newspaper, ’e don’t. Why? 'Cos ’e can’t read. Un
edicated—that’s wot he is.”
Immediately Joseph’s ire rose.
‘l’m as well edicated as you. Bob,” he said, with
dignity. “But, as I learnt it in a night school, o’
course, I can’t read in the daytime!”
• * ♦
A young man became very much enamored of a
beautiful girl and, meeting her at a New Year recep
tion, he determined to know his fate.
“Miss Smith,” said he, leading the beautiful girl
amidst the glad palms and seating her on a soft,
"there is something I must tell you, something that
I—”
“Ail right, Mr. Jones,” interposed the pretty one,
"only you must hurry. I don’t want to miss the next
waltz.”
"It’s a question that lies near to my heart, Miss
Smith,” continued the young lover. "Could youdo
you think you could marry a man like me?”
“Why, yes,” was the calm rejoinder of Miss Smith,
“that is, if he wasn’t too much like you.”
The Dye Industry.
A peculiarly valuable item in the Deutschland’s
cargo for the United States was one hundred and
fifty tons of dyestuffs. The total consignment,
however, amounted to only about one-tenth of
what our industries ordinarily consume in the
course of a single month. Evidently, then, our
dye problem will not be solved by German sub
marine freighters unless they call more fre
quently.
It is encouraging to note that American plants
now are turning out three times as much dye as
was produced in this country before the war; and
in the cheaper grades the domestic supply is not
far short of the demand. But authorities stress
the fact that there is still an embarrassing dearth
of the finer dyes “such as so-cailed vat dyes for
shirtings, indigo and fine shades of developed
blacks.’’
That these can be produced in the United
States, there is no reason to doubt. The raw ma
terial is abundant, and science stands ready to
furnish the needful processes. The main diffi
culty heretofore has been a lack of ample induce
ments and safeguards for the capital required.
Investors were unwilling to lay out large sums
in an enterprise which, profitable though it might
be as long as the war lasted, would encounter
dangerous competition when foreign manufactur
ers re-entered the market.
Such investments are entitled to reasonable
protection against cut-throat competition from
abroad; and if they are thus protected in their
critical stages, they will flourish and, in time, be
able to hold their own in world markets. The
war has taught America indpendence in a num
ber of industrial fields; it is to be hoped that our
progress in dye production will keep pace with
other lines of new and valuable enterprise.
The Legislative Session.
While the Legislative session which adjourned
Wednesday failed in several instances to pass
meritorious measures, it also refrained from pass
ing several bad ones. Thus the net result gives
cause for satisfaction.
The defeat of the bill looking to the tax ex
emption of college endowments is much to be re
gretted, as is also that of the Western and Atlantic
bond election bill. Both these measures, however,
were favored by the rank and file of the House
and Senate, and were lost only because of the two
thirds majority required for constitutional amend
ments. Their friends, though disappointed, are in
no wise discouraged.
On the other hand, the ultimate defeat of
the unjust and undemocratic Primary Election bill
is peculiarly gratifying. Governor Harris is due >
prime credit for his wise and courageous veto, but
the House also is to be commended for having sus
tained him. Efforts to repeal the tax equalization
law met deserved failare, and the capital removal
bill ?het a quietus which, for the good of the State,
ought to be everlasting.
This session of the General Assembly did more,
however, than kill bad legislation. It enacted sev
eral excellent laws, notably that establishing com
pulsory school attendance. Georgia is thus re
deemed from the shame of being one of the only
two States which do not enforce the educational
rights of children. The constitutional amendment
to place solicitors general on a salary instead of
fees and the bill permitting women to practice law
are obviously just.
The Legislature might have done better, but it
might have done worse. All things considered, its
record is gratifying.
THE year 1870 is not so very long ago. Yet it
was in that year, it is claimed, the first
bananas were brought commercially to Bos
ton.
Whole fleets now convey this fruit from the
tropics to the American states; in every city ven
ders sell bananas to the multitude; in every country
grocery they are staple. In less than fifty years
they have become one of the chief means of sus
tenance to the people of the nation.
The banana ranks with the apple, the potato,
the wheat-grain, and the peanut as a prime minis
ter to the life of a hundred million people.
The reason is not far to seek. In the first
place the banana tastes good. There are some
things, like tobacco, that one dislikes at the first
bite; there are others, like the banana, that no
one has to learn to enjoy. There may be some
curious palates here and there —freaks are every
where —who have a distaste for this fruit, but they
are not one in a hundred thousand.
Children cry for them. Negroes, Chinamen,
college girls, octogenarians, invalids, brides and
grooms, messenger boys, railroad presidents, bank
ers, janitors, prize fighters, and pacifists like them.
Secondly, they are carefully protected by na
ture herself in an admirable sanitary covering.
You cannot eat the skin as you do the apple’s. No
matter how unclean the wagon from Which you
buy them, when you peel off the yellow coat the in
ward meat is revealed pure and white “as an un
drlven hack,” as Charley Case would say.
They are good, they are clean, and thirdly they
are cheap. Thus they are an ideal food for the
millions. I like to eat what all humanity eats. I
know some run to caviar, canvas-back, and the
Widow Cllquot, but while they get the sweet savor
of exclusiveness they miss that deeper gusto which
comes from communion with humanity. This you
obtain when you drink water or milk and eat
bread, potatoes, apples, peanuts, and bananas. It
j VEILS AND NERVOUSNESS
BI H. ADDINGTON BRUCB. ——*—
F ROM Bar Harbor, Me., comes a report that the
latest fad among the society women at that
popular resort is the wearing of heavy veils
that envelop the face and prevent recognitlop.
This is not merely a silly device to make oneself
conspicuous. It is always likely to have unpleasant
consequences to some of the wearers of such veils,
by afflicting them with nervousness or increasing
any nervousness they may already have.
Few people appreciate the relation that often
exists between veils and nervousness. Usually the
choice of a veil is determined by the fashion of the
moment, or by the attractiveness of some type of
veil.
Seldom is any thought given to the possibility
that a “pretty” veil may have nerve-racking ten
dencies through its interference with the wearer’s
vision. ?
Yet medical observation and experiment leave
no doubt that this is the case; that there are veils
which women who have any regard for their
nerves will do well to avoid wearing.
Heavy veils, patterned veils, and some kinds
of dotted veils are particular offenders in this
respect.
Some years ago the well-known Chicago eye
specialist. Dr. Casey ft. Wood, made a series of
experiments with different veils to determine to
what extent they affected the ability to see.
Here, in brief summary, are his findings:
Every description of veil affects more or less
the ability to see distinctly, whether the object
of vision is at a distance or near at hand.
The most objectionable kind of veil is the
dotted veil, although the influence of this variety
for evil is more marked in some styles than in
others.
WASHINGTON, Aug. 18. —The other day a man
out In Colorado found what he took to be a
large-sized diamond. The varied mineral re
sources of his native state were pretty well known to
him, and he knew that diamonds are scarce in Colorado
outside of rings and scarf pins. So he sent his And,
carefully registered, to the United States geological
survey at Washington, w’here the mineralogists re
gretted to inform him that it wasn’t a diamond, but a
lump of quartz.
• • •
Diamonds that aren’t diamonds are among the
things that come often to the geological survey for
identification. A large number of rocks of one sort or
another arrive with each day’s mail, most of them from
people who think they have found great wealth. Com
monest of all are specimens of '’fool’s gold"—iron
pyrites, which is a yellow, shiny mineral that comes
nearer the popular idea of what gold looks like than
does gold itself.
• • •
Mica is another strong bidder for first place among
the minerals that look more valuable to the uninitiated
than they are. Certain micas in the form of very small
particles have a yellowish, shiny appearance that leads
to their being taken for gold. Many specimens of this
sort come to the survey every week. Along with the
quarts "diamonds” and the "fool’s gold" they are one
of the commonest minerals that mislead the amateur
prospector.
• • •
The geological survey has little trouble in dealing
with cases such as these, for an expert can tell at a
glance what the mineral In question really is. Several
people every day, however, send in specimens of one
sort or another, with the modest request appended that
the government furnish a complete analysis by return
mail.
• • •
Now an analysis of a sample might cost the govern
ment SSO or $75, and might be a very dangerous thing
w’hen made. The survey is forbidden by law to make
such analyses for private individuals, and is effectually
restrained from breaking the law by the lack of money
appropriated for that purpose. The chemists and
mineralogists are all kept busy analyzing specimens in
connection with the survey work. Officials believe that,
were any good purpose served by making analyses of
specimens sent in by all and sundry, congress might be
persuaded to extend the jurisdiction and the appropria
tion of the survey to include such work. Such a step,
however, might be far from desirable.
• • •
Your miner may or may not be an honest and de
serving person to help. Men have been known to sell
mines with the aid of artistically Illustrated pros
pectuses that were something of a disappointment to
the stockholders after work was actually begun. There
are mine promoters w’ho only need a little encourage
ment and they will sell you a radium prospect in the
middle of the southern ocean.
• • •
The assay is one of the important features of a
selling scheme. The assay is supposed to show how
many dollars’ worth of gold is present in the rock in
question. It is customary—not so much now as it once
waS —to make the assay from one, or two, or three,
fragments of rock. Needless to say, the mine owner
with a claim for sale does not hunt through his rock
dump for an unusually poor specimen as a sample for
assay. He has been known to spend some hours going
over the dump for a rich fragment—maybe the only
one in sight.
• • •
Suppose that he would send such a fragment to the
geological survey, and that the law and appropriation
provided for the analysis of all specimens sent in. The
chemists of the survey would report that rock like the
sample would run SIOO to the ton in gold. That would
be true enough, but a man might spend several years
of his life looking over the hillside where the sample
came from without finding another one as rich. But,
BANANAS
BI DE. FKANK CRANE-
MINERALS BY MAIL
BT FBBDEBXO J. KASXIB-
is an important secret that the most satisfying
forms of pleasure are those that are common to
tii© race.
Fourthly, the banana stands the test of science
as being a valuable food. The government Issues
a deal of literature, the product of its hygignic ex
perttf, endeavoring to enlighten the people as to
what foods are wholesome and cheap.
Following is a comparison of bananas and ap
ples, according to a U. S. government report:
Bananas Apples
(Fresh). (Fresh).
Fuel value per pound.... 460 calories 290 calories
Water7s.3 per ct. 84.6 perct.
Protein ’ 1-3 per ct. 0.4 per ct.
Carbohydrates 22.0 14.2
Bananas. Apples
(Fried). (Fried).
Water. 29.2 perct. 26.1 perct.
Protein 5.3 per ct. 1.6 perct.
Carbohydrates .. .. 59.9 68.1
Fuel valuecalories 1,750 calories.
From this it will he seen that the banana is
rich in nourishment. '
Bananas cost about 7 cents a pound; porter
house steak about 30 ;
John W. Beall stages that in the states of Pa
rana and Santa Catarina, in Brazil, the entire
population subsists on bananas as food, and are
famous for their strength and endurance.
Flour made from dried bananas is superior in
carbohydrates to wheat flour, but inferior in pro
tein or flesh-forming values; but it is very palat
able and particularly adapted to persons of weak
digestive organs.
Buy a banana or so, and a bag of peanuts, for
your lunch instead of gorging yourself on a table
d’hote monstrosity and you’ll feel better, and live
longer. ,
(Copyright, 1916, by Frank Crane.)
Other things being equal, in undotted and
non-flgured veils vision is interfered with in di
rect proportion to the number of meshes per
square inch.
The least objectionable veil is a veil without
dots, sprays, or other figures, but with large reg
ular meshes made with single compact threads.
What these findings of Dr. Wood mean is that
heavy dotted and patterned veils tend to cause
EYESTRAIN. And one of the commonest results
of eyestrain is nervousness. Also it my result in
marked systematic disturbances. As an eminent
English physician has pointed out: i
Eyestrain frequently acts by exhausting the
nervous system of the patient and hence through
the medium of brain and cord often have a pro
found and far-reaching effect on the functions of
the various organs of the body,*and on the general
nutrition.
“In many cases the eyestrain is accomplished
by no pain or discomfort in the eye, but by symp
toms altogether outside the eye itself. Headache,
insomnia, brain : a g,* vertigo, and dyspepsia are
mentioned as having their origin in eyestrain.”
To be sure, if the wearer of an unhygienic veil
is blessed with strong eyes, the interference with
vision may be readily endured. But many people
have weak eyes, or at least have eyes that are in
some degree defective.
These are the people who are likely to expe
rience, as a result of wearing badly chosen veils,
one or more of the manifold nervous symptoms
known to result from eyestrain.
What they need, and all they need, is to be
more discreet when selecting veils, and to let an
oculist provide them with well-fitting spectacles oi*
glasses
(Copyright, 1916. by the Associated Newspapers.)
armed with the official assay on government stamped
paper—consider what a help the worthy discoverer
would find that in selling a claim or promoting a
$10,000,000 company.
• • •
So the geological survey does not make analysis of
the specimens that are continually coming in. The
experts do, however, give the sample their careful con
sideration. As they are able to recognise most of the
minerals of the United States at sight, they can tell the
sender whether his rock is absolutely valueless, or
whether it is worth while to have a commercial assay
made, and a private geologist look over the property.
• • •
Whether the opinion, or the subsequent assay, means
anything or not depends on how representative’ the
sample Is. Not long ago there was much excitement
over a gold strike in New England. Samples assayed
ran as high as SSO to the ton in gold, which would
represent a handsome profit for a company that chose
to mill the rock. The geological survey was asked to
Investigate, however, and they found that the rock in
actual practice would run about 60 cents to the ton.
The samples had evidently been picked with an eye to
richness rather than to their representative characters.
• • •
This may happen with the most honest intentions
on the part of the prospector. The typical mining man
of the practical and free lance variety is a born
optimist. He stakes a claim, works it a while, and
looks over his dump for a sample. He picks up three
or four fragments, tosses them asifle because he feels
that they don't do his claim justice. He wants to be
fair to all concerned, himself included. Maybe he even
throws aside one as too rich. Finally he picks one out
that looks pretty good and has it assayed. That speci
men may misrepresent his mine a thousand per cent.
• • •
The modern methods of big companies In sampling
a new property furnish a strong contrast. Thirty or
forty thousand dollars may be spent in preliminary
work, simply to find out whether the property is worth
working. Since, In cases like the Michigan copper
mines, the investmint in plant may run up to a million
dollars, it is worth while to be sure you are right before
going ahead . One company, in doing its preliminary
work, recently took out fifty samples. Each sample
weighed two tons, a total of 200,000 pounds of rock in
'‘samples.” These samples were thoroughly mixed and
the weight was gradually cut down until perhaps fifty
pounds of rock remained. That fifty pounds was a fair
sample of the 200,000, and the 200,000 pounds was a
fair sample of the property.
• • •
Os course, this is working on an exceptionally larg'e
scale; but the rule holds true that a stray specimen
does not mean much, unless it has been taken by an
expert so that it is a sample and not a specimen. None
the less, the survey likes to get the mass of specimens
that are sent in by the public. They furnish a check
on what is being turned up in the way of mineral all'
over the country: and now and again something comes
in that is of unusual interest.
• • •
Such a specimen will probably come' from a man
who knows a good deal about minerals In a rough and
ready' way and has been puzzled by finding an unusual
rock. He has enough instinct for minerals to know
that his discovery Is something out of the ordinary, so
he sends it in for identification.
• • •
Up in a certain Alaskan placer gold district the
miners washing gold from the gravel were bothered
by the presence of a nondescript brown mineral that
was exceedingly difficult to separate from the gold.
Gold is separated from gravel by taking advantage of
its great weight; but this strange mineral was also
exceedingly heavy. It made a nuisance of Itself. The
miners cursed it liberally, for. liije most practical gold
miners, a few common ores were the only ones they
knew. Finally some of them remembered that one of
the geological survey experts was in the neighborhood,
and they took the heavy brown mineral to him. It
was a valuable ore of tin. And tor four years now
Alaska has been producing tin at a good profit.
• • •
So among the diamonds that aren't diamonds and
the gold that isn’t gold, almost any day some one may
send in some strange mineral to Washington that is
really worth while. •