About Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 15, 1916)
4 THE SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL r ATLANTA, QA- 5 MOITI FORSYTH «T. -r .ntered at the Atlanta Postorflce as Mall Matter of the Second Class. JAKES *. OBAT, President and Editor SUBSCRIPTION FKXOE. Twelve months •-••■ 7sc Six months 40c Three months .25c 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. Agents wanted at every postoffice. Liberal com mission allowed. Outfit free. Write R. R BRAD LEY, Circulation Manager. The only traveling representatives we have are B. F. Bolton. C. C. Coyle, L. H. Kimbrough. Chas H. Woodliff and L. J. Farris. We will be responsible only for money paid to the above-named traveling representatives. - / EOTXOE TO BDMECBXBEBS. Tie label used for addreoauig your paper abowa toe time year aabecrtption expires. By renewing at leant two weeks be fore the date on thia label, yon Insure regular service. In oedertag paper changed, be sure to mention your old. as well as your neW address. Uon a rente, please give the routs number. We cannot enter subscriptions to begin with back numbers. Kesslttaace should bo sent by p oetal order or registered maU. Address all orders and notices for this Department to THB SKMIWEEKLY JOURNAL. AU anta. Ga. A Winning Campaign "Because of the spirit of co-operation among the people of the South in the work of eradicating the tick which transmits Texas fever to cattle, this destructive and expensive pest should be eliminated from the territory of the United States within the next five years.” This announcement by the National Depart ment of Agriculture is broadly significant and en couraging. It means that one of the most serious obstacles to the growth of live-stock interests in the South is yielding at last to scientific effort supported by enlightened public sentiment. As long as the tick menace prevailed, there was no chance for the due development of cattle raising and dairying industries and, accordingly, no chance for the full development of the South’s farm re sources. The successful campaign against this peat open the way to a new era of agricultural progress and enrichment. In Virginia, where only four counties are now under quarantine, the cattle tick will be erad icated by another year of steady work. South Carolina bids fair to be entirely free by 1918. By the end of 1917, it appears, only fifteen Alabama counties will be quarantined, and these probably will be released the following year. The Missis sippi Legislature recently passed a law requiring all counties in the quarantine area to eradicate the tick during 1917. “Nearly all the infested countfee.” says an official report, "have already appropriated funds to build dipping vats, and a State-wide campaign is well under way.” The hardest task, according to the National Depart ment of Agriculture, is in Georgia, Florida and Texas, but in these States as well as in the South at large the rank and file of farmers are alert to their needs and opportunities, and are co-operat ing effectually with the State and federal authori itiee. Since the campaign to exterminate the cattle tick was begun some ten years ago the cattle in dustry in the South has improved from fifty to one hundred per cent. Says the Department bul letin : "Native beef cattle, freed from attacks of the ticks, have put on more flesh; native dairy cows are giving more milk; and, be cause danger of disease largely has been elim inated, cattle of better breeds have been brought into improve the native stock. The South has made greater progress in develop ing the cattle industry in the last 5 years than in the preceding 50 years, and there has been more progress in the industry in the South in that period than in any other section. The States and counties, railways and other cor porations. and business men of the South* have been active in emphasizing the great im portance of tick eradication and In spreading interest and information among farmers and cattlemen. As a result of the operation of all these forces, the work of tick eradication practically has been half completed.” Ten years ago seven hundred and twenty-eight thousand, five hundred and forty-three square miles of territory were under quarantine. On July the first of the current year approximately two hundred and elghty-five thousand square miles had been tick free, and it is estimated that by next January sixty thousand additional square miles will be freed. - These results mean a great deal to the country's welfare, especially in the South where cattle raising on broader lines is essential to agricultural progress. . “Southern Domination.’’ There is a comical diverseness among Repub lican orators regarding the paramount issue of the campaign. Mr. Roosevelt finds the paramount issue in the President’s foreign policies, partic ularly bis failure to prevent the invasion of Bel gium. The Hyphen contingent denounces just as •hotly the President's stand against submarine lawlessness and his refusal to take orders from the Kaiserbund. Mr. Fairbanks, while approving both these contentions, insists in his coldly solemn way that the one great question of the time is the tariff. Mr. Hughes, having played all these and sundry other tunes with little effect, now declares that the Wilson administration should be condemned chiefly for having averted, as it did, the railroad strike. It remained, however, for Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, of Massachusetts/ to hit upon the most distinctive issue the Republicans have advanced. According to Senator Lodge, the darkest evil for which the Democrats are responsible is what he terms “Southern domination*’ in the Government. The South, he bitterly protests, is getting a larger proportional share of federal appropriations than New England, and is paying a far smaller part of the income tax receipts than the wealthy east.. Further, the chairmanships of most of the im portant committees tn Congress are held by South ern Democrats, and in the President’s cabinet Southern men are in the majority. A state of affairs so contrary to the traditions of the last fifty years offends and alarms Senator Lodge’s conservative souL What right has the 4?outh to THE ATLANTA SEMI-WEEKLY JOURNAL, ATLANTA, GA., FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1916. share New England's “pork?” What are things coming to when Southern statesmanship directs national policies? So peeves the Senator. But his appeal to sectionalism finds scant response, if we may judge by the comment of so representative a New England paper as the Springfield (Massachusetts) Republican: “Mr. Lodge seems to be living in the polit ical atmosphere of a dead past,” says the Re publican. “It will be recalled that a distin guished politician once said there was 'one more president in the bloody shirt,’ and Mr. Lodge is evidently his disciple. But what a commentary this is on the search for issues in the present campaign! What has become of Belgium, the Lusitania, Potsdam. American ism, preparedness, Mexico, the national honor, protection to American industries, a national budget, efficiency in administration. Jones the horse doctor, Durand the census man, the son of the late Battery Dan’ Finn, civil service re form. Myron T. Herrick and ‘too proud to fight?’ Have they been exhausted so soon, and is Mr. Lodge now driven by partisan exi gencies to rattle the skeleton of sectional hate which our fathers hoped to see buried beyond the possibility of resurrection in order that the republic might be one and indivisible for ever more?” The fact is, the further Mr. Hughes’ cam paign is pressed, the more evident becomes its lack of a vital issue. The Republican worthies are, in this respect, like the fisherman of the Arabian tale who upon casting his net drew in, first, a mass of mud and then a mass of stones and finally the carcass of an ass. Senator Lodge’s “issue” is more ludicrous than those of his cam paign mates, but it is no more inane or ineffectual. Thoughtful Americans cannot be aroused against a foreign Policy that has preserved at once the country’s peace and honor, nor against a* tariff policy under which the country has prospered without favoritism to special interests, nor against a railroad policy which has spared the country the disaster of a nationwide strike and opened a way to a permanent solution of such problems. Mr. Hughes’ speeches ring hollow because he has no heart or truth to put to them. The appeals in his behalf are lame and halt because they have no ground of justice or patriotism on which to stand. ' He is a candidate without an issue. After the Primary. Political contests naturally engender heat and sometimes, unfortunately, bitterness. But with the rank and file of the people dissension ends at the verdict of the polls; the winners are mag nanimous, the losers are good humored and public interest turns wholesomely again to work-a-daj’ tasks. So it will be, let us hope, with the campaign which has just closed in Georgia. Words spoken in the zeal of partisanship should have no place in the memory of a people who agree on a hun dred things where they differ on only one and whose highest good depends on united endeavor. Politics, like the poor, we shall always have with us. There never will be enough offices to ac commodate every ambition, but there always will be enough elections to give every aspirant a chance. The candidates who win have their re ward, and those who lose can Invariably declare, “I had rather be right than President.” Practical patriotism is infinitely more im portant than successful politics. Especially is this true today of Georgia whose resources must be developed for the common good and whose Democratic strength must be mustered to the full for the approaching national campaign. Dif fer as we may on some issues, we are all together for prosperity. Vote as we may in Tuesday’s pri mary, we’ must all vote as Democrats in the No vember election. In this campaign The Journal has endeavored to be fair to all candidates and to be neutral ex cept toward influences that are proverbially trai torous and avowedly hostile to the Democratic party. Against such influences we always have been and always will be an uncompromising par tisan. We have been constrained also to warn the public against sinister schemes to impair or de stroy the value of the State road. In so far as those issues pointed the way of duty, we have spoken as plainly and vigorously as we could, our sole concern being with principles, not with per sonalities. The primary over, it will be the duty and, we believe, the generous purpose of all good Geor gians to merge their differences and support the chosen leaders in every effort for the State’s honor and advancement. Vanity isn’t on the official list of virtues, yet unless a man has a good opinion of himself he will never amount to much. A Short Cotton Crop. “in addition to high prices offsetting to • an appreciable extent the shortage in produc tion. the South is reaping the benefits of greater diversification of crops. A short cot ton crop is less hurtful than formerly because the South is having to buy less corn and other staples than when it stuck to the one-crop system.”—The Courier-Journal. In the broadest vietf of the situation a short cotton crop is not hurtful at all. It is positively helpful. The year's crop, though much below the average in size, will bring a great deal more money than did the monster crop of 19J4. Twelve mil lion bales at sixteen cents a pound is worth nine hundred and sixty million dollars, exclusive of seed and by-products. Seventeen million bales at ten cents a pound is worth only eight hundred and fifty million dollars. The main advantage in present conditions, how ever, is the fact that the small crop of cotton is accompanied by a varied and bountiful production of foodstuffs The corn and wheat and live stock which Southern farmers have raised this year, and which would not have been raised had they planted cotton to excess, will keep at home millions of dol lars which formerly drifted to distant sections for the purchase of food supplies. Further, the culti vation of these crops has placed our agricultural system on a more efficient and more independent basis. Two years of diversification have done more for the basic sources of Southern prosperity than a decade of big cotton crops could have done. When the war is over and the world's normal demand for cotton is restored, the cotton acreage naturally will be increased, but in no circumstances should it be Increased at the expense of food crops, which are the South’s prime need and surest protection. An Incentive to Cattle Raising. The latest figures on meat exports are a strik ing reminder of the opportunities now open in animal husbandry. In the fiscal year, 1915. tee United States shipped abroad 885,000.000 pounds of meats of all kinds, and in the following year 1,339,000,000 as compared with 455,000,000 in 1914. The New York Commercial Interestingly comments; “This increase l of 100 per cent in the total meat exports in the first year of the war and 200 per cent in the second year, when com pared with the increase of the year imme diately preceding the war, is, however, trifling when compared with the increase in exports of neef alone. The quantity of fresh beef ex ported jumped from 6.400,000 pounds in the fiscal year 1914 to 170.000,000 pounds in 1915 and 231,000,000 pounds in 1916. The fresh beef exports of 1915 are thirty-six times as much as in 1914. In the two years of the war the fresh beef exports have been twenty-nine times as much as in the two years immediately preceding the war. Os beef of all kinds, the export of 1916 were practically ten times as much as those of 1914, having been for 1916, 320,000,000 pounds against 33,000,000 pounds in 1914. In the two years of war, the exports of beef of all kinds has been 597,000,000 pounds against 73,500,000 pounds in the two years preceding the war, or eight times as much in the two years of war as in the pre ceding two years of peace.” These figures become the more Impressive when it is noted that the country’s supply of beef cattle is now hardly two-thirds as much per capita of the population as it was a decade ago. During that period there has been not simply a relative but a positive decline in the number of food animals. In the last year or so the production of swine has increased and there have been appreciable gains in beef cattle. But the supply is still far short of the domestic demand aside from the enormous for eign demand. These conditions mean that meat prices will re main at a high level for years to come and, accord ingly, that the raising of food animals will be among the most profitable of all industries on which farmers can enter. Important French Gains The latest gains of the French north Ox the Somme apparently clinch their possession of the main approach to Peronne which is the chief ob jective of the Allied campaign in the west. Peronne is the junction of two railroads and of numerous highways, leading northward to Ba paume and Arras, southward to Ribecourt, west ward to Amiens and eastward to St. Quentin. Ihe capture of this key point would disrupt the system of free and swift communication which means so much to the German forces and thus would go far toward forcing a general retreat. By taking the vllage of Bouchavesnes and ad jacent territory, the French have expedited the plan to this important end. As the Washington summary of the day’s operations points out, Com bles is now cut off from the south and is in a perilous salient, “while General Foch is in a fav orable position for a stroke from the north at Peronne.” Qne of the foremost of the Allied leade’-s was reported a few weks ago as saying: “We propose to finish the war this year if we can. Maybe we can’t. But when we get through trying, next year’s job will be an ea'sier one.” The present drift of the Franco-British offensive gives strength to that statement. It is doubtful that the German line can be broken, except at points here and there, before next spring or sum mer; and, perhaps, it never will be smashed. But in the meantime the apparently slow but steady gains of the Allied thrust are bringing about a situation that soon or late will compel a German re treat. Quips and Quiddities A six-weeks-old calf was nibbling at the grass and was viewed In silence for some minutes by the city ’'’••Tell me,” she said to her hostess, “does it really pay you to keep as small a cow as that? “What do yoii mean by coming home without a drop of milk in the pail?’’ demanded the indignant farmer of his new odd job man. “Do you mean to say the cow wouldn't give any?’’ , t j “No,” said the man. "She gave plenty of milk and one kick.” A judge, who used to wear very long waving hair and a heavy beard, one day was on his way to court when he was accosted by a little street boot black. with an exceedingly dirty face, with the cus tomary “Shine, sir?” He was very importunate, and the judge, being impressed with the terrible state of the boy’s face, said: "I don’t want a shine, but if you’ll go and wash your face I’ll give you sixpence.” "All right, sir.’’ “Well, let me see you do it.” The boy went to a neighboring fountain and made his ablutions. Returning, he held out his hand for the sixpence. The judge said: "Well, you earned your money. Here it is.” But the boy said: "I don’t want your money, old fellow. You can take It and have your hair cut," and forthwith scamper ed off. Pa, ma, and the six children stood in a row on the pavement beaming on the landlady who had ap peared at the front door, when the head of s he fam ily addressed her. "We have come to spend a month by the ,iea, madam, and I should be glad if you would give me particulars of the furnished apartments that 1 understand you have vacant.” “Certainly, sir—certainly! The rooms are all icady if you care to see them. But your party is rather a large one and I think it only fair to tell vou that there is but one bed.” The family, with the exception of the father, ceas ed to smile, but father was of sterner stuff. “Only one bed? Well, well, it can’t be helped'.’’ lie cried cheerfully. “One must expect to put up with such little inconveniences on a holiday. Besides, were all quite used to roughing it, and the wife and kids won’t in the least mind sleeping on the fljor!” • * • Scribb and his wife were going to the theater. "Will you please go upstairs and get my goats off the dressing table?” asked Mrs. Scribb. "Your goats?” queried the puzzled Scribb. “What new fangled idea have you women got now?” "I’ll show you!” snapped the wife. "Are those what you mean” Why. I call those kids.” "1 used to," replied Mis. Scribb. "but .’•’ey are get ting so old I am ashamed to call them by that name any iongfer.” w He took the hint. ' ’ . LECTURING one day to a class of students in Fordham University School of Medicine, Dr. J. Walsh made a statement which is of di rect and profound significance to every sufferer from tuberculosis. • I repeat it here, in the hope that it will give new heart to some now in despair: “It cannot be insisted too emphatically that there never is a time in the course of the tuber culosis when a physician is justified in saying to a patient suffering from any form of tuberculosis that his case is hopeless. "Practically every town of any size in this country has a number of cases in which patients were told by physicians that there was no hope, and yet have recovered to chronicle as often as they get the chance the fact that they have out lived their physician. “There are patients in whom the prognosis is so unfavorable as to be almost hopeless. There are never cases of which it should be said there is no hope. When patients are told, as they so often are, that they are incurable, absolutely no good is done and harm is inevitable.” Medicine, it is true, has as yet no specific rem edy for tuberculosis. But medicine has discovered that, by certain modes of living, it is possible for tubercular patients to win their way * back to health. More especially it has been found that when these modes of living are adopted the chances for recovery increase in direct proportion to the pa tient's refusal to believe that he is doomed, and his ability to maintain an attitude of cheerful, confident expectation. The explanation of this is simple. Lacking a specific remedy, the hope for a cure depends solely on the development of sufficient resistive vitality to enable the patient to check the Every once in a while, said the fat man, some body comes along with some medicine or treat ment or system of exercise or plan of starvation to reduce my flesh. What do I want to reduce it for? It all feels good. And every time I lose weight I get peevish. What’s the matter with people, anyhow; that they make fun of fat folks? They are the salvation of the race. They keep humanity cheerful. Optimism is mostly a matter of adipose tissue. Fat people like to eat and drink. They don’t have food fads. They enjoy breakfast, dinner and supper, and a bite between. And that’s the kind of people mother loves to cook for, and the rest of the family like to live with. People with appetites are human. Human folks are those who make joys of life’s necessities. Must we eat? They make eating a celebration. Must we drink? They adorn with song the inserting of liquid into one’s anatomy. Must we labor? It shall be to music. Must we exer cise? It shall be a game. It’s your fat men that keep humanity from dying with the dry rot. They make existence a poem. They see the jokes of destiny. Fat men have the sources of humor in them. Some lean persons have been funny, but what would they have amounted to had there been no fat persons to laugh at them? Your skinny ones take themselves too seri ously. They are reformers, prohibitionists, rev olutionists, suffragettes. Their gospel is: What ever is, is wrong. Why do men admire slender women? They nag. WASHINGTON, Sept. 11. —A collection of all the various illuminating devices used throughout the history of the world is now being prepared by Dr Walter Hough, of the National museum here, and will be placed on exhibition as soon as space can be found for it. • • • Stowed away in large air-tight cabinets in Dr. Hough’s office is the complete record of man’s develop ment as shown by his lighting appliances from the days of the primitive campfire to the present Tungsten filament. Here is the firebrand by which our aboriginal ancestor transferred fire from tribe to tribe; here is the animal's skull which constituted the first attempt at a lamp, and the greased stick that was superseded by the candle. A part of the collection Is already occupying three cases in the museum where it attracts a great deal of attention among visitors. • • • The story told by this collection is a most unusual one. According to the museum authorities, it was some time before men began to pay any attention to fire at all. It was all about them—in the volcanoes, in the lightning and in the friction of the tree branches— but they took no more account of it than did the animals. Then some one man, a little more Intelligent than the rest, recognizing its power, undertook to con serve a supply of fire from one of these sources, and finally distributed it by firebrands throughout the land. Thus began the campfire age, which is represented in the museum collection by a picture, and by firebrands of every description belonging to every period. • • e Towards the end of this campfire period man began to display ingenuity. He got tired of traveling long distances with blazing sticks that often burned his fingers, and he got tired of going to war with other tribes who stole his fire. He tried dipping the sticks in resin and fat, which made them burn longer; but even this was unsatisfactory. The age demanded an invention, and it came at last. Some ancient Edison discovered that by putting a lot of fat in a hollow stone, or sea shell, or animal’s skull and placing a wick in It he had a device which would burn for a long time. This was the primitive beginning of the lamp. Often the whole body of a fish or bird was used. In the part of the collection now on exhibit in the museum there is a stormy petrel with a piece of fiber in its mouth, which acted in the nature of a wick. This bird’s body was composed largely of fat and would burn for hours. The next step in man’s development Is represented in the collection by a number of odd curved stone slabs supposed to be lamps which were used in the stone age. Fat or grease was poured into these stone dishes and a circle of moss strewn around the edge to act as a wick. Lamps of this kind are still found in use among primitive peoples. By this time men had become familiar with fire, and had even tried a few experiments with it. One of these resulted in pottery, and pottery lamps became the rage. At first they were simple little bowls with a slight twist in the edge to hold the wick, but gradually they developed elaborate patterns with the growing talent of the potters, until they somewhat resembled tiny tea pots. with a spout in the side for a wick and a hole at the top where the oil was poured in. The museum’s specimens of this type of lamp are especially remark able, many having been sent In from all parts of Europe and Asia, displaying the most ancient crafts manship and design. A hundred or more such lamps were sometimes required to light one room, and, although the people were ingenious enough to invent a perfume for the oil, according to Dr. Hough, the place must have smelled like a butcher shop on fire. A dilapidated old lamp containing some of this early per fumed oil is one of the most prized specimens in the museum's collection. Then came copper and bronze, and the lamps assumed a new symmetry and design as civilization and mechanic arts progressed Pottery lamps were soon out of date, and brass and copper lamps began to ornament the houses and churches, tacked to the walls and suspended in chandeliers. *». is Dr. Hough’s per sonal belief that the famous lamp which Aladdin’s mother gave to the peddler was a pottery lamp, and the new one she received made of copper. The next step in lamp architecture was iron, and many were the curious designs wrought in this metal. An occasional iron lamp from Italy or Spain is always being discovered by some explore: for antiques, who sends it to the museum. But all this time, although various metals had been discovered and applied to lamps, there was no Improvement in the mechanism itself The glass are ha«J superseded iron HELPS IN TUBERCULOSIS BY H. ADDINGTON BRUCE THE FATMAN BY DR. FRANK CRANE- THE LINEAGE OF THE LAMP. - BY FREDERIC J. HASKIN progress of his disease. Despair lowers resistive vitality, hope and cheerfulness raise it. Accordingly, in the modern treatment of tu berculosis the great aim of all specialists is to raise the vitality both by physical and by mental means. On the physical side, chief reliance is placed in fresh air and nourishing food. Milk and eggs become major staples of diet. And life in the open becomes imperative. In the sanatoriums for tuberculosis patients are kept almost constantly outdoors. They are told, and rightly told, that fresh air means life to them. Or, as one physician puts it: “Every extra hour they spend in the air is that much gained; every hour they spend inside is just that much lost in the curative process.” But also, in these sanatoriums, emphasis is • placed on cheerfulness. Means are devised to keep the patient from dwelling on his unfortunate con dition, to save nim from falling into depression. It is appreciated that unless this is done, no matter how faithfully he aeheres to the air and food treatment, his vitality will remain danger ously low. If you who to read these lines happen to be afflicted with tuberculosis bear in mind what cheerfulness and confidence will mean to you. They are helps of equal value with the life giving air and the strengthening food which you must take if you would be well again. Whether you go to a sanatorium, whether you fight your battle among your own people or in a lonely shack —as tubercular patients have suc cessfully done —you must maintain your courage. Maintaining your courage, acting on your doc tor's advice as to food, sleep, etc., the probabili ties are in your favor. Losing heart, they are all against you. (Copyright, 1916, by the Associated Newspapers.) Slim women are neat, orderly, everything-in its-place. They are good housekeepers, meaning that they keep the house fit for everybody but husband and children. And why do women admire slim men, with no girth? Such men are fit for treasons, strat agems and spoils. They beat their wives, if they are vulgar, and persecute them more subtly If they are cultured. Take it from me, girls. Pick out a nice, large, round, juicy man, that likes to feed, and whose conscience is not wormy, marry him, and, as the Good Book says, “let your soul delight itself in fatness.’’ It doesn’t follow that because a man’s fqt he s a slob. Napoleon was roundish. Samuel Johnson was obese, and so was Boswell, who wrote about him. The world and an overcoat, it was said, could not contain the glory of Victor Hugo. And, be lieve me, he was some eater. Here’s one of his meals: Veal cutlets, lima beans, oil, roast beef ;nd tomato sauce, omelets, milk and vinegar, mustard and cheese, all swallowed rapidly, with great draughts of coffee. They called Rossini “a hippopotamus in trous ers,” and for six years before his death he couldn’t see his toes. Alexander Dumas could eat three beefsteaks to any other man’s one; and Balzac looked more like a hogshead than a human being. Besides, added the fat man, if everybody was fat there would be no war. It’s the lean men that fight. (Copyright, 1916, by Frank Crane.) The Journal Information Bureau is prepared to furnish reliable information in answer to almost any question that you choose to ask. You are invited to make free use of this service. There is no charge of any sort except a two cent stamp for return postage. Address THE JOURNAL INFORMATION BUREAU. FRED ERIu J. HASKIN. DIRECTOR WASHINGTON. Ik C for some time before Argand discovered the method of putting oil in a small reservoir and forcing it up through a wick and then covering it with a chimney. This, which was the first real lamp, es we know it today, made its appearance about 1784. • • • Following this invention came the discovery of kerosene and gas, and new fixtures were developed along new lines. So far the collection ends with the Welsbach burner, which is the most recent improve ment for gas illumination, and the Tungsten filament for electricity. In the one case now on exhibition in the museum there are over twenty-four different speci mns of lamps representing the various stages of civ ilization, but these are only the beginning of a collec tion which is to be one of the most extensive in the world. The number of candles and candlesticks alone would probably fill five or six cases, for there were improvements in this type of illumination throughout the ages the same as in lamps. The origin of the word candlestick is shown in two or three of these speci mens which are carved sticks of wood with a small brass dish at the top. Ultimately, Dr. Hough hopes to broaden the collec tion into a complete history of fire rather than a his tory of illumination alone. Among his present speci mens are many curious old stoves and bellows and foot warmers and one curfew, which is said to be the only one in America. It is the popular opinion in this country that the curfew was a bell, but instead it is a sort of brass lid which was used to cover the fire. At one time in England a law was passed requiring every light to be out at a certain hour in the night, pre sumably 9 o’clock, and in order to comply to the letter of this law people had to suppress their fires. Thus the hour when the fires were covered with the curfew came to be called the curfew hour. One time, in traveling through a street In Mexico, Dr. Hough came upon a peddler who had a singular little tin lamp among his goods. Dr. Hough imme diately bought it and later inquired into its use. It turned out to be the type of lamp used by the Mex icans in hunting snails. Another time the doctor was traveling through a railroad tunnel in Italy, when the train was held up while some repair was being made. He observed that the laborers used a peculiar kind of torch different from any he had seen before. He quietly got out of the train and, it must be admitted, stole one of the torches. Later, when he was able to look the matter up, he discovered that the torch, which was made of a greased piece of twisted rope, was the same kind that was carried by the link boys of aarly English history. It is now a valued specimen of the collection. In nothing else, perhaps, is the progress of the race from the dawn of understanding to the present day so evident as in this history of Illumination. After all the race is very young. Our grandmothers used the same sort of lamp, with very little difference, that was used in the days of the pyramids, and as late as 1876, when the Centennial exposition was held in Philadel phia, a kerosene lamp of a common type, with a Liberty Bell as its base, was pronounced the highest triumph of modern illumination. Apparently, the greatest progress has been made in the last ten or fifteen years, but who knows what another ten years may bring forth? The Tungsten filament may yet look medieval. “New York strike growing serious.” They ought to call in President Wilson. Now for the war news once more. Pointed Paragraphs Among other literary stars we find the as terisk. • • • A wise man says just enough and then puts on the ltd.
