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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Exeter Advocate, 1924-11-13, Page 6PREVENTING. "C T C„ DISEASES This it the reason of the year when School childreu are moat liable: to com•- mvnioable .or "catching" diseases. In Ootober the common coldis most cone Men.n Noe throat November the sore th oat rate is the highest. The great influen- ts. wave of 1918 swept over the conne try in October. Diphtheria is apt to be at its worst in September, within three weeks after the beginning of school, It Is reasonably certain to reach its peak during one of the months between Labon Day and New Year's Day. The Portals of Disease. Measles, whooping cough, scarlet fever, and pneumonia started mount- ing a month ago-, but they will not• reach their peaks until later in the winter or early spring. All of these diseases enter the body through the /mouth and nose. Probably as many of the rases eget their infections, through the mouth as through the other parts. Diseases are often spread by means of objects which children habitually /rut in their mouths. Among the ar- ticles are toys, pencils, penholders, spoons, forks, cups, the mouth parts Of playground, street and school foun- tains, whistles, the mouthpieces of 'Wand instruments, tooth brushes and fingers. Hands. . A child will not infrequently chew a pencil that is still moist from the !mouth of another child. I -lands are worse offenders than any other objects m•entio:iod beeiiese'they have so many. oeportun1ties for infection and they travel so frequently to the mouth. For- tenately, the custom is for a person to put his hand to his mouth only. There is no telling what would happen if somebody made it fashionable to put one's lingers in another man's mouth. A Possible Spreader. One observer studied the possibility of the toothbrush as a spreader of diphtheria in a boarding school. • The'' boys kept their toothbrushes on a rack, They had a common bowl of ear bolic tooth powder, into which they all dipped. It was assumed that the ear- bolie In the powder made it safe to use it in 'common. The study showed that the disease could be spread by tooth- brushes. Furthermore, it was found that it is not easy to sterilize a tooth- brush with chemicals onoe it hasp be- oome infected. The only sate plan seems to be to train children to keep such objectsas penholders. and pen- cils out of their mouths. The mouth' secretion of a child who seems to be in good health may pause infection. The child may be about to be sick or he may be a carrier. The safe rule is to put nothing in the mouth except olean eating utensils, clean food and clean drink. A USE FOR KEEPSAKES n The problem of the appropriate gift on such occasions as oommencement days, anniversaries, weddings and birthdays is not so simple as it used to be. It is often hard to judge what a. bride and groom who are to begin life in a distant city will need or what will beat suit a young man who is leaving the university for his profession. Gifts of money, of course, are sure to be use- ful; but it is hard to give the desirable touch of sentiment to cold cash. Still the money gift solves the problem of transportation when the new home is far away and the problem of selection When there is no clue to what is want- ed. It risks no awkwardness of dupli- cate sugar spoons, it saves hours of 0eaech for just the right thing, and it permits the recipierm the plelasure of leisurely choice. Therefore there are times when money is the best gift to Make. A litle keepsake of no value, trea- Rured for associations, if sent with the Stoney gift, lends a touch of originality and interest, especially if a note of ex- planation or a jingle goes with it. One mother, who wished to give her son's fiancee a check to cover the oos,t of a tourney across the continent to visit the new family -in-law, enclosed the cheque in a tiny shoe that had been her son's first bootee, kept among her valuables all the intervening years. With it she sent a rime telling about the shoe and the purpose of the gift, ending with these lines: "We want you here to visit us, And so this little shoe Goes trotting over hill and dale To take my gift to you." Another mother gave her daughter a cheque with which to buy her table linen and silver and dinner set, and on the envelope she tied with silver ribbon a souvenir that she had kept for thirty years—the wishbone of the Arse chicken she baked 'in her own erten in her newly -married days. The wish/ one, she assured her daughter in a little note, would bring her good luck every time she used the linen and the china - A daughter, living far from home, wanted to give her mother a silver teapot that she knew she had been wishing for. So, on the mother's sil- ver wedding day, there arrived from the daughter a carefully,paoked wood- en box. Inside the box, safely wrap- ped in folds of tissue paper and ex- I es1aior, was the tiny doll's teapot that the mother had given her little girl Many years ago. And inside the spout ®[ the teapot was a draft for enough; !money for the silver tea things that the mother had wanted so long. Sometimesa keepsake without any romantic associations is amusing. Once upon a time a little girl heard of the old-time custom of saving the first euals of a little boy and giving them pears later to his wife. The .little girl Was thrilled at the idea, for she adored Seer little brother; but he hard straight IL Des Baillets, well-known Cana- dian sporting figure, has been appoint- ed winter :sports, •director at the Cha- teau Frontenac, Quebec. Ile has; had Wide experiet.co in this connection in lihritzerlapilt hair. Still, she resolved that she would find something belonging to him that she could keep for his future bride. Everything belonging to her brother appeared to be in use, except one tiny pair of outgrown knicker- bockers that her mother had reside for him of soft blue French serge. They were far smaller than any pair ever found in any store. She took them and rid them in her treasure box, sate from moths. Twenty-five years 'went by, and the brother became engaged to her own best friend. Perfectly de- lighted, the older sister rushed to the attic, found the little knickerbockers, pressed them neatly, put some five - dollar -gold -pieces into the tiny pocket and wrote a jingle to her friend, the future bride. The jingle contained too many Iines• to be quoted in full, but these are the concluding stanzas: "And so these little pantaloons I stole that very day, And with his future bride in mind I hid them safe away. "The little pocket then contained Some pennies bright and clean. You'll find them in the very place Where they so long have been. "I took them out and shined them up, And now perhaps they'll do To buy some things that you may need When Geoffrey marries you." For a gift to be deposited in a new baby's bank book one proud grand, father sent a Cheque that stuck out of the chimney of the little red toy bank into which his son, the baby's father, {had dropped the first penny that he ever earned. And a young college senior at com- mencement time found in her post - ()Moe box a package from her grand- mother, containing a quaint daguerreo- type of the grandmother at the age) of twenty-two, in hoop skirts and Pais- ley shawl—and folded inside the frame a loving letter enclosing twenty- two dollars "from the girl In the pie- ture." Gifts of that kind are such fun to show to your friends! The little keep- sake that came with the money makes a perfect transformation. "See what nrly aunt sent me for my sixteenth. birthday—a cheque pinned like a sail to the mast of the little toy boat my father whittled for her when she was sixteen and he was ten!" Or, "Just see this clever wedding present—the•/ bride's first toy piano, with a note from her father telling her to ex- change it for a larger one after she gets to her new home." I. G-ifts of money presented in that way never seem sordid or impersonal, The recipient can convert them in imagination into just • what he wants.' No two families keep the same Sort of souvenirs;but nearly every house contains some long -treasured toy or trinket that would add to the value of a gift of money. Some little thing can always be foundto glorify a gold piece or a greenback—and the giver need never worry leat his gift be a "white elephant" to the rscipient. Stage%Coach to Revive London -to. -Brighton Trio Old coaching ..c1 swillbe brought:' back again—although with a differ- ence—when a stage coach far passen- gers will run .between London and Brighton, a distance of fifty miles each way, on alternate • days. It is reckoned that leaving London at 10 am., the coach should arrive at Brighton by 5 p.m., so that it can hardly be Con- sidered a rival of the railroad or the eharabanc, since the drain now does the trip in an hour and the carabanc in just ever two hours. There are to be seven teams of 'coach horses for the journey, and changes. are to be made at the Same places en route as used to be made in the days of old. One Jim S•eiby` covered him- self with glory, and incidentally won a wager, in the time of the early Georget,'by driving his coach: from London to Brighton and back in seven r hours and fifty minettes lug in its location and, construction. The opening in the trees is the bounder between Saskatchewan and Aib r 4 y eta • -AND THE WORST IS YET TO COME ;Orr ufl.Jl10IIM iii Wig 11111111111111111111110 /AV Ill�11Q111111111 Ili SAV The Age of Fourscore. contemporaneous events. — Toronto In. a letter which The Star has re- Stai• ceived from a reader who is in his eightieth year, there occurs this in- teresting passage: "What puzzles me i,s• where have gone the eighty years! They have slipped away almost unnotioed, and I suddenly awaken to a realization of the fret that I have long since passed the allotted span of life, and even with this knowledge I do not feel like an old man who should lay aside interest in contemporaneous events, It really is wiser to lead an active, indus•trioue life. It ensures against melancholy and idle repining, mental conditions that must impress health." • There is surely much wisdom in this opinion based on the experience and obe'ervation of a long and useful life. But even more ineresting than the ex- pressed opinion is the wonder as to "where have gone the eighty years." The years of a man's lite slip by al- most unnoted; they steal by him so soft-footedly that his attention is not attracted. Others, may see changes In hien of which he is unaware. His hair may whiten, but so gently does Time use the brush, hat one does not feel it, and so imperceptible is the change that ono's own eyes can scarcely de- tect it. And a man feels that he is him- stelf; he feels as he expects to feel. If he does no run to catch a street car or a train, it is because he does not want to run. It le a matter of inclina- tion. The question of his ability to run does not arise at all. He is wiser than he was and is in time for his train. Ile is more of a philosopher than he was, and knows that if one street car leaves without him, another will follow almost at once. It is not that he is old, but that experience to him has been instructive. He orders his comings and goings with a just and sensible precision which it would be well if others used. An. English physician has been mak- ing quite a stir by teaching that men do not become stooped because they are old, but become old 7recause they swop. It is so. A generation or two ago in Ontario, in villages and on the farm, men became old at a time of life when we would now call then! middle- aged. No sooner was a man a grand- father than he retired to an arra-chair beside the fireplace, and 'spent the rest of his days talking of hi,st rheumatism, his other ailments and the not always interesting recollections of his youth. His day's work was done, his evening had come, he resigned himself to it, and rested and rusted away. It is not so now—it is certainly not so in the great inclusriai, 'financial and, businesst cenres of (Ontario, where men in their seventies and eighties, and even in their nineties, are ,still ac- tere, influential and, as our coeres- p•ondent says, • keenly interested in Warning! We wish to draw attention to the matter of unpacking the piano during the months between November •and April, when the temperature is liable to be below the freezing point, as, if certain precautions are not observed serious damage will follow. The governing principle is that the Instrument must be warmed gradual- ly before being taken from the case and exposed to the warm interior air; or if this is impossible, then the three impervious' wrappings must be left on and not removed for an instant until the instrument has been taken, into a temperate room and left covered for . at least 24 hours. The physical prin- ciple involved is that warm air carries a larger percentage of moisture than cold, which is being brought in con- tact with very cold •surfaces immedi- aely given up its moisture by conden- sation in the form of a thin film of water which covers• everything, pre- cisely as happens to one's spectacles when coming into the house out of a , zero temperature. This surface mois- ture leaves a coat of rust over all metal parts with disastrous effect; but still more fatal to the highly polished surface of the hard varnish at this time undergoing a severe process of oon- traction and subsequent expansion. If this mater is carefully watched no trouble will result from shipping in cold weather, and the instrument will open up in as good shape as when it was packed. Observe principally that the more gradual and thorough the change from cold to warm before un- covering, the better. { So Well Trained. The school teacher was very proud of the results of her labors during the past few weeks. Day after day she had trained her pupils in the intrica- cies of lire -drill•, and at last they seem- ed perfect. "Now," she said one day, "what would you do if I told you that the building was on fire?" Like one voice came the answer of the hundred or more children assemb- led, .A. few days later a lecturer visited the school. Said teacher, with a beam- ing smile, on her face: • "Now, chi•]dren, what would you do if I were to tell you that Dr. Wisehead was going to lecture here to -day?" ' Everyone knew. "We would rise promptly, put away our books, then quietly and without disorder file into. the street," they re- plied in chorus. Men are often visionaries. Women aro always practical—Mr. Winston Churchill. Zooligical Gardens on Anticosti Island With the object of transforming lit- tle by little Anticosti Island, his do- main, in the St. Lawrence, into liuge E(ro. C 'agi al ..gardens, • senator Monier, ,chocolate ;'king; , has issued instruc- tions to his representatives to take means of bringing two new specimens of animals to the farnoua island. I According to instructions he has • transmitted, a party o1 men will leave early, next spring for . the northern lands to get some musk oxen, a variety of the buffalo, which is on the eve o1 being destroyed in the Arctic regions, • due to the constant campaign conduct - i ed against them by the Eskimos, Used for Food. ; Plans are being made to bring fifty representatives of that dying race to the island, where they will be assured all, the facilities of growing without any interference and under ideal eon- .according on-.according to experts, who claim that Antocosti is wonderfully lo- • cated for such experiments. There is much similarity between the musk oxen and the buffalo and in both cases their destinies buying been subject to the constant attack of the hunters, who had ae an excuse that they were generally the only means they had of food. This is what is stated by the Eskimos, who are said to be slaughter- ing the animals because they are in need of food at certain periode of the While this species will=certaittly prove intoeesting if the •experiment lir„ eueccessfui, Senator Merrier has al decided to try and save anot variety by .purchasing Bone ponies, which are now living under unfavort able conditions on Isle aux Sables, the last 'island in the Atlantic ocean. are for Pontes-" These ponies have an interesting history which brings back souvenirs of over three hundred yezeie ago. At that time an attempt was 'made by Monsieur Do Monte to colonize Canada with some prisoners, who" came from: some French fail. His attempt woe, fortunately, not successful, and the' majority of the would-be settlers starved to death. However, horses which had been taken across by the expedition were able to look' after' themselves, but lost their original character until finally to -day they are of the size of ponies. To try and improve that dyirg race Senator Merrier is to make also an eft fort to get some of those ponies trans- ferred to the island and to meet that end has' entered into pourparlers with the proper parties, As a reettlt next spring a number of the ponies will be transferred to the large island. Edibles from the Ocean. Along the Great Barrier reef of Aus- tralia is found that curious sea beast, the dugong, and those who have tasted its flesh declare there is nothing else to compare with it for delicacy. Du- gong flesh is; now being cured like pork and exported to this country. As population increases man turns more and more to the almost untapped resources of the sea for food, The amount of fish taken to -day is three times greater than it was fifty years ago. The war taught us that the flesh of whales is good food, The tongue and the tail of the finner-whale are as good as beef. The octopus, formerly used only for bait, is, when properly cooked, a real delicacy. In Italy it is a favorite dish. Many seaweeds can be used either for salad or jelly -making, or can be cooked as vegetables. That called '--aver is popular in South Wales•,. and you may see it in the markets in Bath and Ellsetol. Deche-de-mer is now being imported from the trepang or sea cucumber, of fro ratite trepang or sea cucumber, of which there aro no fewer than thirty- six different varieties, Trepang is dried for export, and must be soaked before cooking. • It is boiled for eight hours in salted water and then allowed to cool, after which it can be eaten either with neat gravy or made into soup. Good Advice. "Hey; Joe! " At last I've figured out a sure way to beat the races."' '"Gee! Howzatt?" "Don't bet!" a_ Yreugron a lyrgner term of Goselp. The mere 'existence of newspapers is a proof of the religious instinct among men, that passionate interest in one another which implies that we are all gossips together. Goesips are people who have only one relative in common, but that relative the highest possible; namely, God. --Christopher Morley in 'Iteligio Journa1i�stici." • Plenty to Choose From. Mrs. Gabb (reading)—"Do you know, my dear, that there are approximately 700,000 words in the English lang- uage?„ ' Mr. Gabb-"Only 700,000!' Why, L thought you used a great deal more than that every day!" The Housekeeper. The frugal snail, with foreme4 of re- pose, Carries his house with him vrhare'er he goer, Peeps out, and if there comes a shower of rain, Retreats to his small domicile again. Touch but a tip of him, a horn—'tis well— He curls up in ,his sanctuary shell, He's his own landlord, his own tenant stay, Long as he will, he dreads no quarter day. Himself he boards and lodges; both invites! And feasts hintselt; sbeepa with him, self o' nights. He spares' the upholsterer trouble to procure Chattels; .himself is his own furniture, And his sole riches, wheresoe'er he roam— Knock when you will, he's• sure to be at home. -Charlesele4b. - - s The Left Hand in Piano - )Playing. Are you a one -handed pianist ,A, famous teacher of the piano has re- oently said that there are very few two-handed pianists, to -day, although Most people use both hands in playing the piano. The reason far thin is that very few people can make music with eaoh hand alone and separately, but must have both hands working in the name way. There is music written for the left hand alone, and if people would practice this more than they do, if they would learn to play tunes with their left hands- In such a way as to be pleasant to listen to, the would be better players altogether. People who have studied the subject will give twenty reasows, why left- hand music is useful, but the principal one is that only by using it can we get bath hands, to work equally well. And only by getting both hands' to work equally well can we get both sides of the brain to work equally well, for each • hand is worked by a different side of the brain, the right by the left and the left by the right. "Mad" Men. The recent observance in France of the centenary of Henri Fable), the great entomologist, recalls the fact that to the villagers of Serignan, where he: spent twenty-five years of his lifo,.he:was known as; "le fou"(the madman). A very similar doubt of the mental powers of other great men has been expressed by those about them who observed without under- standing their habits of meditation. Darwin's gardener, when asked about the naturalist's health, replied, "Oh, my poor master has been very sadly, He moons about'in the garden and I have seen him stand doing nothing before a• flower- for ten minutes at a time. If only•he had something to do I really believe he would, be better." An old laborer of the Dales, who used to encounter Wordsworth wandering' along the- roads "booing his pottery," believed him "quite daft" but subject to lucid intervals, when he was: sane enougit to say "Geed morning, John," jua!t .like other people. ',Dean -of Cheater Tells Story an Fewest Words. Many people, probably, are familial' with the story of the serial friction writer who, being asked by his editor. to concludeta certain story in the 'iew- est possible words., owing to exigen- cies of spice, wrote as follows: The hero "thereupon took his, hateisly revolver, his departure, and, finally, his life. ' This storyihas been capped by, the; Dean of Chester with an anecdote Which illustrates strikingly the: ad - 'Vantages, .of• co•nipi ession in speech, A little friend' of itis had' been asked to tell the story of Elisha,,and• her. re- ply was': "`Elisha•had a bear and the children mocked him, .awl'he said';' "If you mock e I me will This mall /site was. formed by-�,ih"o suet: etio work of a colonyset: -1113d � 'lea.: g of beavers, a particularly fine bit of engined - y r on You, and i+ will eat you up:' And: tiler !did, and he did, and; it did,".