HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Advocate, 1924-1-3, Page 2WHEN FARMING.
FAILED
MissIonn.
If you are sighing for a lofty 'work,
l€ great ambitions dominate your
mind,
i Jest watch yourself and see a eu do
not shirk
The common little ways of being
kind.
Burn down your• cities and leave our
farms, and your cities will spring up
again as if by magic but destroy our
farms and the grass will grow in the
etreete of every city in the country."
;it Bryan had wanted a concrete illus-
tration of this sentence from his Cross
of Gold speech, he mighthave found
et in the ruins of ancient Mayan cities
1n the tropical wilderness of Guate-
mala and Yucatan.
Scients of the Carnegie Institution
now engaged in the study of what is
left of that finest Sower of A.merican
Indian civilization have atheory that
its downfall was due to the failure of
Mayan farms.
For the Mayas were a great agricul-
tural people. Farming was the main
occupation. Flourishing cities grew
up; handsome, richly carved temples
were erected. These temples were
centres of agricultural instruction and
the planting of crops was closely in-
terwoven with religious ceremonies.
The priests evidently possessed a high
degree of astronomical knowledge; in
fact, the greatest known achievement
of American Indians was the Mayan
calendar, which has been deciphered
by Dr. Sylvanus G. Morley, So exact
was this system of chronology that It
differentiated any given day from any
atter within aperiod of more than
850,000 years, In their calculations
these astronomers made use of a sym-
bol for zero five centuries before the
Hindoos had invented such a symbol,
and a thousand years before the zero
came into use in Europe.
Primitive Methods.
Yet with all this mathematical and
astronomical knowledge, by which
times tor crop plantings were calcu
Sated, the cultivation of the soil was
Very primitive.
The Carnegie Institution archeolo-
gists think that most probably the
same system was used then as is em-
ployed by the Mayan Indians now liy
era in a neighboring region. This con-
e.ets in burning over forest and brush
tread to clear a field. Atter one or two
mops had been made on this land, it
z. as allowed to lie fallow, and another
field used, and so en until enough
brush had accumulated in the first
field for a new burning. With repeat-
ed burnings, however, grass. eventual-
ly ttkea possession. The Mayan farm-
ers evidently lacked plows or other ef-
ficent tools for tilling grass lands.
About 550-650 A.D., it is thought,
this conversion of farms into grass
lands caused the desertion of the cities
in Guatemala as the people moved
north to obtain a better farming coun-
try.
Some archeologists have attributed
this breakdown of the Old Mayan Em-
pire to great Climate changes or dread-
ful disease epidemics, but the Carnegie
experts hold that the silent palaces
overgrown with, tropical vegetation.
r
ere most probably a monument to
wasteful farming methods.
"And" Or "Balt."
The well-known novelist Sir James
. alarrie is a quiet, retiring man, but as
he is a genius stories inevitably coI-
lect. about him, In his book, Shouts
and Murmurs, Mr, Alexander Woolcott
tells two new ones.
It seems that Sir James' whimsical
fairy play Peter Pan, greatly puzzled
the old-line theatrical men in London.
They could not see how' it could pos-
sibly succeed—until it did. Before its
production Sir Herbert Tree thus ex-
pressed himself to Charles Frohman,
producer of the play; •
`Barrie has gone out of his mind,
Frohman. I am sorry to say it, but
you ought to know it. He's just read
^ play. , He is going to read it to
o e :am, warning you. I know I
not gone woozy -in my mind, be -
se I have tested myself since hear-
- theplay; but Barrie must be mad.
e has written four acts all about
fairies, children and n
d Inidin
s running
through the most incoherent story
you ever listened to; and what do you
Ruppose? The last act is to be set on
top of trees!"
The other story contains an ex -
e of Barrie's wit.
theeeve of one of the usual re-
vivals of the play a player went to
Barrie with the request that he be
"featured in the play bills.:
"And what would `featuring' be?"
asked Barrie cautiously. Whereat the
actor, growing expansive under this
chow of interest, explained in detail
that, though he scarcely hoped to be
starred, he did aspire to have his name
separatedfrom the lesser folk of the
company by a large preliminary
' ;`AND ?" said Barrie.. "Why
If you are dreaming of a future goal.
When, crowned with glory, men
shall own your power;
Re careful that you let no struggling
soul
Go by uuaided in the present hour,
If you are moved to pity for the earth,
And long to aid it, do not look so
high,
You pass soma poor, dumb creature.
faint with AU life is equal in. the eternal eye.
If you would help to make the wrong
things right,
Begin at 'home; there lies a life -
tittle's ton
Weed your 'own garden fair for all
`men's sight,
Before you plan another's
soil.
God chooses His own leaders in the
world,
And from the rest He asks but will-
ing hands,
As mighty, mountains into place are
burled,
' 'While patient tides may only shape
the sands-.
• .Ella'Wheeler Wilcox.
to till
Her High Compliment.
Miss Toman had told the Sunday
school superintendent that she meant
to .give up her .class of boys; "I am
convinced that I am not a teacher,"
;she said. "I have done my beat, but
it seems to me I have made little im-
pression. Of course I love the boys,.
but they are so unresponsive, so try-
ing at times!"
Bat the superintendent persuaded
her to keep en. "Even if your teach-
ing is wasted, which I do not admit,"
he argued, "the lite you have lived be-
fore those boys has not been wasted."
The truth of that remark came to
her in an unexpected way the very
next Sunday. The class were talking
about heaven and how they should
feel to Anti that some one they loved
was not there.
'Supppose we think of it this Ivey,
boys," she said. "We have been to-
gether as a olas for some time. We
have been good comrades, good
friends; we have had good times to
gether. Suppose we got the class to-
gether in heaven and found three or
four missing. You know how you
would feel. Can't you zee how import-
ant it is that we live, each and every
ore of us, so that well all be present
when the class meets,., in heaven?"
The boys were looking at her with
serious, wide eyes.
"That applies to me as well as to
you," she went on. "It is just as, im-
portant that I live so that I'll be sure
of meeting you in heaven. Suppose
allpresent but me. Suppose
were
you hunted everywhere for me and
couldn't find me. _What would you
think'?''
The serious look on their faces deep-
ened. It was, Jim, the noisiest, the
most trying and seemingly the most un-
responsive of them all, that answered,
"We'd know, Miss Toman," he said
earnestly, "that you hadn't died yet."
The other boys nodded agreement.
It was half in laughter, half in tears,
that Miss Toman told the superintend-
ent about the incident. "I wonder,"
she said, "if I'll ever receive a finer
compliment than that!"
1 Qi
ueer Collection.
In Prag e is a museum devoted sole.
1y to a e election: of dress -fastening
..
devices of all kinds and of au ages.
(,why Bring itBack Then? :
king example of "comber
er" Punch tells of tee, grocer
msrlked-- i•eerfully ,to bis cus.
"sae �'S(ever I sell you a bad egg,
hoe. ,a . eael; bring it hack, and I'll'
give yon another one."
"Character education which beans
"Keep on Keepira' On!"
"If the,day looks kinder gloomy
And your chances kinder slim,
If the situation's puzzlin',
And the prosiiect's awful grim,
If perplexities keep pressin'
Till hope is nearly gone,
Juat bristle up and grit your teeth
And keep on keepin' on.
"F
ret in' never wins a fight
t. .
And fumin' never pays; ..
There ain't no use in broodin'
In these pessimistic ways;
Smile just kinder cheerfully
•Though hope is -nearly gone,
And bristle up, and grit your teeth
And keep an keepin' on.
"There' ain't no use in growlin'
Arid grumblin' all the time,
When music's ringin' everywhere
--And everything's a rhyme.
Just keep on snaffle.' cheerfully.
If hope is' nearly gone,
And bristle up and grit your teethe
And. keep on keepin' on.
ee—
t;
-AND THE WORST LS YET TO COME
Curiosities of the' Calender.
Where does the New -Year actually
begin? It starts, of course, six hours
earlier in Central Europe than it does
with us in Ontario, and the farther
East you travel the earlier is its com-
ing. But there must be a limit some
where, for if you went on traveling.
always eastward you would eventually
circle the globe and arrive back in
Eastern Canada..
It was agreed originally that the
days should begin on the 180th degree
of longitude, a line running from the
North Pole to the South, exactly half-
way round the world from Greenwich
Observatory. But this was found to
have curious results.
The line passed right through a
good many countries, so that the date
might be Dec, 31 in one tow n and
Jan,. 1 in another only a mile or two
away. On one island it used to be
a standing joke to send new -comers
a note saying "I shall be glad if' you
will come to lunch yesterday"!
This led to so much confusion that
an alteration was made in the date
line. It now bends in various places
in order to include the.whole of any
country that lies in its path. ' •
There are still some rather weird
possibilities. ` If a steamer sailing
from America to India reaches the.
date line at midnight on - December
31st the captain puts his clocks far-
r twenty-four hours and makes
wad.tw yf e
the date next moment January 2nd.
A Year.
What is .a year?,
A'; man given to cold' 'science and
cosi tic vision. will tell you that a year
is the time , it takes for this insigniii-
cant planet laboriously to 'make its
way around an Inferior star. "Labor-
iousl" in this case' means a: thousand
miles .e minute, the earth' meanwhile
revolving on its own axis at the slug-
gish rate of .a thousand miles an hour,
The spinning of our work!, its tire-
less circling of the sun, the mad .rush
of the whole' solar system toward the
end of the endless street .ef the uni-
verse—these have Human effect only
in the coming of: night and day, the
parade of the seasons and the passing
of the years.
What is_a year?
To ' a child it is a stretch of school
broken by daily play, holidays and
vacations and brightened with a birth- al other animals that it had bitten be -
day, It.is measured by the seasons and:fore it had attacked the boy had shown
unmistakable symptoms of rabies,
their 'sports, the studies and their "An' they say there hain's no cure!"
sorrows, lamented the wozuan,
To adolescence • it is something to . Bus even while they tallied the doc
be parted with for a promise of the tor bad been dictating a dispatch over
future. the telephone ta, the nearest tele.
To youthful maturity it is a flying graph office, Now he caught the Wo -
ed;
gone before' it seems -well start- man by the shoulder and abo'b her
'ed; -a jewel to be tossed into the cap hysterical lamentations shouted to
of the beggar Pleasure or handed her,."There ie a cure, a preventive!"
grudgingly to sober faced Industry. The wild .glint left her set eyes, and
To middle age it is a coin the, she broke into a fervent, "Halleluiah,
worth of whose predecessors was • not i praise the Lord!"
realized. -, Two days later tubes containing the
To the old it•is the measure of the i Pasteur treatment .arrived, and the
long past and the brief future. I doctor began graduated injections. at
How dreary life would be 'without 11 once. The dead dog's brain when -ex-
the• yardstick of the year! Existence misled under the microscope dis-
unbroken by the green bills of recur,. closed a. true hydrophobic condition,
ring spring, the brown plains of sum but, thaegh the animate that the dog
Clet Understanding.
The distraught tamily carie riding
tiro the little, moim:ti de 'town' on two
Mules, The father was. on one mule,
with one small .girl sitting in front of:.:
himt and another behind. On the other
mule was the mother with a babe In
her arms and a bay of ten behind her,
They had :came twenty'miles•: from `
their acme in the heart of the 'Cara-
herlauda. All had been w.eeiiiug.
They drew up' in front of the 'doo-
tor's °face,. and the woman tried in :.
vain to tell the terrible thing that'
befallen them.
"It's the boy," said the father. A d
then with a voice that broke :often he
told oP. a rabid clog that had bitten_ his
son, The boy had been in the road
with his younger sister, and the dog
had batten him twice. The creature
was killed a mile Partner down theme..
r nil a cow and sever
Iver, but meanw e
His ship sees no New Tear's Day at mer, autumn's gold and winter's er-' had bitten died, the boy was saved,
all.
But ix he were sailing in the tip -
posits direction he would - have two
New Year's Days Supposing he
reached the date line one minute be-
fore midnight on January' 1st,' his
clocks would be put back twenty-four
hours, and the next day would also he
January 1st.
"Few parents, except possibly those
who have a teacher's preparatory
training, understand' fully how to deal
with that most. tender thing, the heart
of a child. Many parents experiment,
and experience . teaches them, it is
true,' but in the process of educating
the parent, the soul of the child some-
times receives scars that remain
through life."
The rate of pay of the British sol-
dier was raised from ad. to 1s. a day
in 1795, and he had to wait 122 years
for his next increase.
tat
Very Likely.'
Wooden Soldier. (to drum)—"Well,
in a few days I'll" be minus. an arm,
and you'll have your head beat off!"
mine were a drab thing. Suppose life. and 'the possible danger period long
began and ended with Time unmeas-f since passed.
ured! It would not do. " 'With -all thy getting get under -
For the years are the portions into; standing' is the Scripture that has goy
which the bread of Hope is broken, i erned my life,' said the doctor. "Wheiz
If the lost piece has fallen upon the.I was a boy an ill -trained physician
flea- at Failure, tstill there stands' caused me much. suffering because he
Time, the perfect waiter, to help the. did not understand. I still limp as a
guest anew. I result of his mistake. I made a cove-
We do not know how long old Time pant with the AInaighty that, if lie
has served the years to man. Thee Would see me through medical college,
first via% Egyptian who discovered, 1 would come back among my own
with a stick and a shadow, what a mountain people and give them th
year iy—he did not know,` either, Noel best I could of surgical and med
clay man know how many years there' akill, Several yeara ago I made a
will he before infinity overwhelms .he i trip to get the clinical facts and le
calendar. I the technique of the Pasteur tree.
But we shall. know when the bells! meat for rabies. This is the first tizn
ring on New Year's Eve that one more I have needed that knowledge. Ye.
year is ours. An the years behind arel i'43t understanding, know your tra
as far out of our grasp as the -years.} well, then devote your wisdom to y
of nemeses, of -Alexander .or of Char- fellows.
' lemagne. You cannot reach backward
and undo the plucking of a blade of
grYu's. But you can. reach forward
and change the fortunes of a life.
It is your. year. No Prince or Gov- atone- to Balfour, from Fanny Kemble
ernor can have more of it than you. ;to' Sarah Ilernbardt, figure in the
For the old man with the hourglass Countess : of Jersey's a sprightly " re -
is the fairest of all the giverz.-Realth, zninisoences of the Victorian epoch.
wealth, beauty, intellect,'space-all As a daughter of Lord Leigh and: the
these can be divided' unevenly; but wife of Lord Jersey, she hasp known
to each man is given the same year to most of the British nobility." When
mold as he car, and will.. " Ile makes she was a child she shook hands with
it big or little. the Duke of Wellington and was kiss -
After 12 o'clock on ' -.December 3Ist, ed by the young Queen Victoria. One
1923,belongs to history,n
g but 1924 be-
longs to you!
When the Kaiser Wore
!kilts.
A great many'notables,. from Glad -
Regimental Pets in the British � r
By Horace Wyndham
The number of regimental pets in
the Britieshr Army Is a considerable•
one, for, -while on foreign service, sol-
diers always make a` point of securing
furred and feathered friends, which
accompany them from garrison to-gar-
risan and eventually follow the drum
back to England. The" denizens, of the
animal world which thus embrace a
military career are of various kinds,
and. include not only young bears, but
lion and tiger cubs,.: dogs,, deer, goats,
cats, mongooses, - monkeys and par-
rots, etc. Mr. Atkins, indeed, has a
very warm corner in his heart• for his
dumb companions, and every time the
barracks; camp, or cantonments echo
a bugle there is
to the shrill blast of b g
certain to be one of them near at hand.
Most of them seem to know by instinct
'when it is one o'clock. At any rate,
the moment the welcome "dinner -calk"
is sounded, every dog: in barracks * 11
scamper acrosgr the parade -ground. to
the cook -house door and apply for his
rations like a true -born soldier.' In
fact, it might be said "hounds meet
at one p.m." . On the: coldest winter's.
night, too, the guardroom cat may be!
sure of'the warmest corner beside the
fire, and a brimming saucer of milk'
to reward her efforts when she catches;
a mouse. Regimental pets, indeed,
are invaibiy treated with a kindness
that if generally copied in • other
circles would -reader the activities of
the S. P. C. A. abortive. It is not re-
markable, therefore, that -most of them
live to a considerabie°'age.
•Regimental Goats.
There are black spots, however, on:
the escutcheons of regimental; goats.
Of one of them it 18 said that, `when
,marching ,at the head of his battalion
during the South Mfr�lcan War, he but -
ted a Boer Ge'iieral who was signing
the oath''o! aliegiarco.. This: scandal-
ons action very<nearly had the effect'
of prolonging the campaign. The
Welsh Fusiliers have had a "Billy.' for,
their pet ever- since„ they fought at
Brinker" :11711„•and ,weep. Victorian pre -
inthe school beging six years too late. ' The New and the old.., seated, several specimens from the fa-
i -t was fa-
.
teacher,-wheasaid (Give. Wide—"I never: noticed" skis': was �.:mous dock in VJlndsor'Park.,'A-Much-
ale a child until he is 7 years old and wearing her last winter's 'suit.:until traveled 'goat''was arts that a 'Lancer
l care not who has him afterwards' today,” regimentsbraug.ht back from Matahele-
gut character education must go back Huby-- What called your:; attention ;land. When, however, . the troop-shrp.
beyond the child in the home. It roust to it? arrived at Southampton, a flinty-heart-
g- " P>_.�P`' I h ; I �' ,' Boar of 'sag-rival-tursa refuarte -nee
tZot rn with E_.o parents, C ifr . & ar new at. ed d
mission for it to come ashore. Poor' mal world, the British soldier prefers
"Billy" had, consequently, . to stop a dog; and when a battalion embarks
where he was, and, as the vessel was for foreign' service' it ieeellowed to be
just "starting .off, on another voyage, accompanied by a . email; canine con -
sailed to'India.,, 'Returning a few tingent, not exceeding eight in' num-
weeks later,. the shib;touch.ed.at.ports- ber. Some of thenkbeeome veritable
mouth. Hem "Billy" ou:.d a frien •.in "dogs of war" and:r earn medals like
a staff officer, who by'some means gab their masters, Sealon as-•the.year
him landed_ and .provided him with 186 the Royal Marin ere folia ed
shelter. To travel 20,000 miles before in Spain during the Cerlist troubles
by a terrier called ""Dash";. and
"Sandy," of ,the Royal Engineers, and
"Jack" of the , Scots Guards, were
wounded by Russian bayonets at: Ink
ernan. -When they returned from the
Crimea a .medal was fastened. round
each- of their, necks by Quen Victoria.
Of -more comparatively recent times a
e famous regimental
v ry u dog.: was
who,', appropriately enough, be-
longed to the Berkshires. At the Bat-
tle of Maiwand an Afghan."bullet laid
"Bob," who, appropriately enough,; be -
for dead. To everybody's. surprise and
joy, however, 'six weeks later "Bob".
limped into Kandahar. H -e was :only
a shadow of his former self, but rest
and gond nursing worked wonders, and
he returned to England with `his regi-
ment. en :the wellkuow.u, painting,
"The Stand of the last Eleven at Mai
wand," the artist shows Bob barking
defiance at the enemy. A considerable
number of ;dogs went, through the
being able to bleat on terra firma is
probably a record in the goat kingdom.
Many Strange Pets.•
Soldiers have made some rather
curious pets when on foraign service.
Among such was `•'Derby," a black ram"
belonging to' the' 95th Foot. After
life, he
years f m -liter fe fell
severalye s a a �, Y
down a well and met with a Y watery
grave. The 2nd. Middlesex :Regiment
tonce had a mule, which followed them
in Indian and:' South Africa; , and the
Yorkshire Regltnent have:adopted .a
donkey which wandered, ineea, their
camp at Peshawar. A familial "feature
of,garrison 'life at Gibraltar was e Bet
donkey called ;_"Jenny." This intelli-.
gent little �aniraal used to carry letters
and pa,reels for the. lookout men up to
the signal -station perched on the too
of "the Rock; However, poor "Jenny"
went the way of all quadrupeds. The
following memorial notice in the sig-
nal station visitors' book records -her
,faithful service:—
"Died, en the lath of November,
1910, nanny,' for many years the pet
of the station, while a local laureate
has added'those touching lines:—
"'Tis hard to, have, to gaze upon her
trim and well=kept carcase;
Good-bye, Old' Girl, thy work is done,
naughtelse but death could part
us." . .
The strangest of all `regimental viae -
cots, however, was "Peter;' a goose
which accompanied -the Grenadier
Guards from Canada, to • England and
took up his . quarters at the Tower.
But for, his adventurous •disposition
(which ° led hien to explore ,the world
outside the barrack -yard, and get run
over by a cab), "Peter" might still be
living.' The .drummer boys gave him
a military.Puneral, and his bones and
feathers resit t; imieit 'the eagstoives of.
the courtyard.. ,
Dog Preferred,
'Bat, of all the denizens of the ani -
South African War, and distinguished
themselves on the veldt:. Some : of
them also officiated .as • four-!:hoad sen-
tries round the block -houses, and'more
than once gave timely warning of°the
approach • of : a Boer command. .'f he
12th Lancers had a big retriever called
"Jack," and the Irish Mileswere Pol-
lowedby "Billie," a brindled bull -dog.
Later on, Billie fell temporarily under
a aloud. It was not, however, alto-
gether h.is;faut, hat that of a butcher'a
boy who threw a stone-at:him. ' Na
turaly, resenting this- insult, 13111ie in
-serted his teeth in a tender portion. of
the youth's anatomy. A self-respect-
ing dog who had fought for his coup
try an earned a couple of medals
could scarcely do less. The authori-
ties, however, took a somewhat,severe
view of the case, and 811113 was or-
dered a prolonged rest -cure. This' ap-
parently preyed on him to such an .ex-
tent ;that he showed' signs of illness. With Chec
Thereupon, to the relief of his friers h kin s'
p ds,: 'The g
he was restored to his ,,kennel in bar- !)mus now."
racks. `vee— vith eb
of her girlhood memories' ie of the
wedding of the Prince of Wales in
1863, in connection with which slut
they
worn the 'u
ficer. --
"I am very
er; "he bad
Leopold'
that : lo
rt they (
to °look a
Scottish _s
wear."
An "early
militarism!
esent ex -kaiser,. then Prices.
four, came over with
the wedding. He apt
reinony in a Scottish
lie :fxMini ladies re -
his mother, saying
d that he was to have
form of a Prussian of
•orry,"-replied his moth -
on, but Beatrice and
teageee •awing
o ridiculous with tail
m off, and so we ha
ntli we found an old
is unole'e for him to
ish protest against
I' ha' waii$or T
Wi' ever. - ngti
The- ar P re o
g..
,,. is
m
h
ou
h
g
Was eve' for: T!
Wi' phlduiid "P
Th o0
Ls ev
ed
No begg�; what
hlas cal1e but
Did; feed. ;ca eve's -.«ft, en Aye, an -d thou ;h u11'mauy a sin
Ha' tricked me from Thy path,
I never feared to ask Thee in
Full knowing Thee on earth beiore7 -.
an's Song.
y coming,' Lord,
le's green,
r wbitewashed cot
11, and mean;
ee to pass
i*, neat out grass;
r on:. the latch,
oe'er hiss need,
hat my Ann andl
Neer scorned a sorrowing • sinn+r'.
door.
Lord, I be eight an 'diXty' ear,'
My meetin' wi' The 's d .ate g
r , n .near.
A'11 take it kind :w"arn we• shall
meet
If Tbou "shalt say nil .dowlprs were
The- sweet,
tea well' brewed, t •ri ri
knot,
Same bgggar we ha' helpeford baliw
...was, but Thee, Lord, in earth': :dis
gue
Descendedis from Thy Paradise,
Hoote J'ae
red Careers.
Europe are mere
ltered ci`e.':.„