HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1920-3-25, Page 7oft Acquainted With Your Car,
Article
Possibly there may bo something
more useless about an auto than a
lel°.-starter whloh will not Start --
either the car or itself—but I do not
happen to recall what 11 18. 11 does
balk at times, and it followe, there-
fore, that it le necessary to learn how
to start a self-starter when pushing
the pedal has no effect, But because
the pedal does not do the trick it were
well to remember, first of all, that
does not mean that the whole works is
out of kilter. It Is on record that one
• fellow, who found the pedal did not
start things and concluded the whole
thing was bad, was amazed when a me-
ohertle next day pulled up the pedal,
which had become stuck so that it olid
not close the switch, and then pushed
it down with regulation effect. Not
guessing or intuition or luueh should
govern your hunt for starter troubles.
Taking it for granted that you have
followed previous advice and have pa-
tiently read the instruction book on
the starter and have sought out the
wiring on the Cars 60 that you know
the layout and just how the motor
starts end how attached to the engine
crank shaft, we may safely proceed.
The connection may be through a gear
.on the flywheel or by silent chain with
overrunning clutch on tite forward end
of the crank shaft, usually arranged
to release the motor as soon as the ere
gin starts. If the system is a single
unit the chain drive is probable.
Where the generator for replenish-,
ing the battery is a separate trait it
may be driven by chain, gear or other-
wise, sometimes 'with a coupling where
the ignition device is built into the
generator. Inspection of your car has
revealed to you Its peculiarities. Be
sure and get it through your noddle
just how the current travels back and
forth from battery to starter and from
generator to battery, through the re-
gulator, cutout, switch and charge and
discharge indicator. The regulator is
to prevent a too high charging rate by
introducing a resistance which open-
ates when the rate is too high. The
regulator is sealed so that you cannot
get at it. If anything is wrong with
it an expert must be called.
The cutout is to make connection
with the battery when the geuerator
produces a higher voltage than that
of the battery, and to break the con-
nection when the generator voltage
falls beldw that of the battery.
The chief troubles in starting sys-
tems come from loose, short-circuited
or broken wires, brushes stuck or
worn so that they do not matte good
contact with the commutators of mo-
tor and generator; dirty or worn
.._ uommutatore, run down battery be-
cause of greater use of current titan
charging capacity of generator; and
mechanical • disorder in starting
switch, cutout or regulator, or in the
connection between generator and
engine.
If the starting motor will not turn
when the pedal is pressed, first see if
there is current in the battery; if
the terminals are tightly fastened; if
the switch works properly; if the
Wires are tight on motor terminals
and if the'brushee make good contact.
With the pedal pressed test for cur•
rent at motor terminate with a volt-
meter, It a good voltage Shows the
trouble is somewhere In the motor,
If the brushes are clean and make a
good contact and no wires loose or
broken, the trouble must be in the
winding and requires the services of
an expert,
If the motor rotates but does not
start the engine, examine the gear or
chain drive to see if it is working pro•
perly. Determine if overrunning clutch
is slipping. If the motor cranks the
engine but it does not start the
trouble Is la the engine, not the start-
ing system.
If, when the engine is running, the
Indicator does got show charge, ex-
amine first the cutout to see if it is
closed and then the wiring beween
generator and battery. While you
cannot look inside the regulator you
can test for current at the generator
terminals with voltmeter, and where
the wires are attached to regulator
and where they leave that device, at
the switch and at the ammeter or
charge Indicator, to determine if cur-
rent is flowing, and thus locate the
points between which the break in cir-
cuit occurs. 1f all lights were burning
they night consume more current than
the generator is producing. If the in-
dicator shows discharge when the
lights are on and the engine is stop-
ped, and does not .show charge when
the engine 1s running at ordinary
road speed, either generator or re-
gulator needs attention by an expert,
I f you did not find the cutout closed
on inspection, close it by hand for a
moment while the engine is running
and see if it retrains closed. It may
have been stuck or the generator
may have needed a slight current from
the battery to renew what is called
residual magnetism, especially If the
car has been laid up a long time. Re-
member this after the long idle Spell
because of this winter's road condi-
tions.
The chief thing to remember in look-
ing
ooking for troubles is that by eliminating
one part of the system after another
soon the search will narrow down to
a small bit of wiring or a single de.
vice, where it is comparatively easy to
locate the trouble. Always work with
the wiring diagram of the car ]randy
for reference, at least until you Have
learned the system quite thoroughly,
and always carry the diagram in the
car for reference by the repair man,
if you call one in for major troubles.
Make an occasional inspection of
the wiring, looking for loose wires
and worn places where they vibrato
against the frame or other parts. The
wires about the Ford tinier are es-
pecially subject to such wear. Keep
the wires free from o11 or grease,
keep the terminals clean, the switch
points clean, and if the battery runs
down, partiouiarly in winter, have it
charged at the service station. With
these precautions your road troubles
with the electric system should be
slight,
Wireless Wonders.
are only just beginning to dis-
cover the possibilities of wireless tele-
graphy.'
The member of the Marconi Com-
pany who made this statement pro-
ceeded to draw a wonderful picture
of its future development, which a
new device, lately tested with amazing
results, now makes possible.
The invention is primarily for the
use of ships. At present most vessels
fitted with wireless have to employ
two or throe operators, so that one can
110 constantly on duty "listening in."
Otherwise signals from other vessels
would not be picked up. By means of
the new apparatus, however, alarm
bells will ring on board every ship
within the wireless radius, when a
message is sent out by 811011her vessel,
When a ship is in distress, the opera-
tor wall merely press the automatic
transmitting key and sot the alarm
bells ringing on all other vessels with-
in a range of 300 to 1,200 miles.
With the extension oe the idea, there
would be no dlfIlcnity in firing a gun
from a spot 300 miles away, or explod-
ing a mine in. New York or Berlin, All
that would be necessary would be to
leave In the cities a receiver suitably
hidden and connected with a mine.
The instrument wits actually used In
nn experimental form during the war
to fire a fog -gun some fifteen miles off
the English coast. Instead of sending
a party out to the guit during fog it
was fired by wireless from the shore.
At a recent demonstration, a small
mine of gunpowder was exploded at
Chelmsford, England, at a given sig-
nal from Cambridge, thirty miles
away. I11 future wars mines will be
laid at spots over which enemy troops
are likely to pass. An aeroplane will
wait till the advancing enemy has
reached the spot, and then explode the
nine by pressing a button and send-
ing out the wireless current,
•
Lady Geddes, Noted Beauty,
Irish Born.
Lady Geddes, wife of the new Bri-
tish Ambassador to the United States,
and who won a prize recently in a Lon-
don beauty competition, is a daughter
of W. A, Ross, a Belfast manufacturer.
Site was educated in Nova Scotia.
Sir Auckland and Lady Geddes have
four sons, the eldest 12 years old, and
a daughter. They were married in
1000, Lady Geddes is more interested
in domestic affairs than she Is in
society, but she is a charming hoatess,
witit a wide knowledge of American
affairs.
Tanning Hints for Hunters
When it is desired to preserve the
skins of wild animals which !rave been
shot or trapped, those may be tanned
either with tate hair on or off, as de
sired. Hair can be removed from
hides by soaking them in tepid water
made alkaline by lye or lithe. Tho fol-
lowing recipe for a tanning liquor is
furnished by an expert; To each gal-
lon of water add one gaart of salt and
ogre -half ounce of sulphuric acid.
This mixture should not be kept in a
natal container. Thin shins are tan-
ned by oris liquor In one day; heavy
aklrls must remain 1111 it tenger. They
may remain ht it indefinitely wltheut
harm.
Wileli removed from this liquor the'
skins are washed several times in
soapy Water, wrung as drY'us possible
(and rubbed en the float side with a
caste 01 hard soap. They are then
tolled in the middle, lung lengthwise
over a line, !hair side out, and lett to
dry, When both surfaces are barely
dry and the Interior is still moist they
are laid over a smooth, rounded board
and scraped on the flesh side with the
edge of a worn flat file or a similar
blunt edged tool, In this way an inner
layer is removed and the skins be-
come nearly white in color. Theyaro
thou stretched, rubbed and twisted en -
el quite dry. If parts of a skin are
still hard and stiff, the soaping, dry-
ing and stretching process is reheated
until the entire shin is sere fresh
butter or other animal int worked into
shits while they are warns raid teen
worked Ont again 111 dry herd wood
sawdust or extracted by a linty bath
in gasolene increases their softness.
Keep Straight On!.
"Turn to the right and keep straight
on, This maxim study well,
Wheue'elr in doubt, wbate'er about,
your way 'twill plainly tell.
So bravely strive to practise it when
you are "in a wood,"
Then you can past mistakes retrieve,
and fluidly make good,
Turn to tine right and keep straight on
---don't undecided gals,
For many a man bas side-stepped at
"the parting of the ways."
But, bravely meeting obstacles, go
steadfastly along,
Remembering, when the going's bad,
- the conquest's to the strong.
And, as you journey on your way, if
you some fellow meet
Who's tripped up by rho wayside, help
to set him on his feet,
Turn to the right and keep straight on,
assisting him in need;
Who does this to his fellows is a man
of worth indeed!
Why is the Sky Blue? •
Not one person in a hundred could
give a satisfactory answer to the ques-
tion.
And yet the explanation, as given
by Professor W. H. Bragg, at the Royal
Institution, London, is quite simple.
The blue sky, he explained, is due
to the interception by particles in the
atmosphere of the blue rays which
form a part of the white light of the
sun, The parts of white light con-
veyed by longer rod and yellow light
waves manage to jump the many sub-
stances in the atmosphere and are
seen at sunrise and sunset.
The professor illustrated itis mean-
ing by showing a disc of light on the
screen which, passing through a bowl
of water, became gradually redder as
the water got cloudier, till at last, ars
ter an imitation of the sun in a Nov-
ember fog, it faded away,
Professor Bragg has also revealed
some of the mysteries of sound, If
you put a stick in a revolving bowl of
water, it seta up little whirlpools be-
hind it. In the same way, the wind
swelling past trees forms whirlwinds
on a small scale, and these cause
those sounds so admirably described
by the imitative word "soughing,"
Similar sounds are set up by telegraph
wires.
Why is it that fishes make no dis-
turbance when swimming through the
water, although there is a rushing
noise when a stone is flung in?
This is explained by the fact that, in
the latter case, it is the filling of the
cavity that hs'made, rather than the
mere impact, which causes the noise,
whereas the body of the fish is so
shaped that when it moves through the
water it leaves no such cavity behind
it and therefore there is no disturb-
ance,
Trees That Talk.
The poet talks of "woodland whis-
pers," but Mr. John Grimahaw Wilkin-
son, who, although blind, is one of
England's foremostnaturalists, will
tell you that trues and plants can
actually be distinguished by the noises
they make.
112r. Wilkinson became blind twenty-
two years ago, and he immediately
began studying scientific subjects, par-
ticularly botany, pursuing it until he
became a leading authority,
"Some years ago," he said, duringa
recent interview, "I discovered that
trees make different noises, and I could
tell them by the sound from the fall-
ing rain. The oak is the noisest of
trees in a storm, because it reflects
the echoes by its leaves and also by
its stem. Raindrops have a more
drum -like effect upon it than upon any
other tree. It is 111 a wood composed
of oak trees that one can hear birds
at their best,
"Among pine trees, owing to the
softness of the wood, birds are not
heard to the same advantage, the
wood absorbing the sound. The pop-
lar tree, being sensitive to electricity,
is almost silent in a thunderstorm,
and yet, after the storm is over it is
more noisy, because the twigs are
more elastic.
I think," continued NIe. Wilkinson,
"that the sound of falling water Is vent
fascinating to the ear. I have part
ticularly marked the contrast between
sound in a place where rocks are bare
and in other places where they are
covered with moss. This gives a kind
of muffled sound to the musical splash
of the water, as also to the songs of
birds." w
Not only by listening to the talk of
trues during showers but also by
merely tomb -leg thele, Mr. Wilkinson
can immediately distinguish them, so
wonderfully developed is his sense of
tomes, At the present time he 10 able
to name 800 British flowering plants,,
foreign trees, and foreign weeds, Gimpe
ly by the sense of touch.
Life's Little Problems,
"George, dear!" began the worried
woman,
"Yes, wotisit!" grunted George,
without looking up "100111 his news-
paper,
"Would you mind helping me with a
little bit of arithmetic?" she pleaded.
"Not at all:"
'Well, 11 we pay the new cook the
wages slto wants will we have enough
money left to buy atlythiug for lhel' to
cook?"
What has become of the lessons mi
in economy that the war Was aliens- A
ea to leave Wight?Two bells at Seaton Parish Church,
Devon, nee st311 sound, tltoegll made 000
in 1480. 8,0
Seranading Lloyd George.
If Mr. Lloyd George, or any otltor
Primo Minister for that matter, wish-
ed to write a thoroughly entertaining
book, he could hardly choose a better
subject than "My Unofficial Visitors."
His doorkeeper could verify the ma-
terial, and also suPPly the Prime Minis-
ter with information concerning many
visitors who never peas the threshold;
for not ail who call at the 010141 real -
dance get more than a glimpse of the
interior,
One unofficial visitor called at No.
10 a few days ago, He knocked on the
door, and whon It was opeued he said
that he had come to sing to the PrimeMinister.
"Does the Prime Minister expect
you?" asked the doorkeeper,
"Oh, no! But I am going to sing to
him," replied the man.
It was suggested that ho plight sing
in the vestibule, but this did not satis-
fy the visitor. When he found that
he was really to be forbidden Mr.
Lloyd George's room, 110 agreed to
make a start on the pavement, and
was about to do so when a policeman
strolled along and asked what he was
up to. -
"I ane going to sing to the Prime
Minister," explained the man.
"011, are you, young fellow!" re-
torted. the policeman. "Well, you take
it from me there won't be no second
verse!"
Then the visitor gave It up, and
went away. I do not believe Mr.
Lloyd George was ever told that he
had called,
Plants as Lamps.
There are plants which eat and
drink, some which bleed when bruised,
and others that are sensitive to the
slightest touch.
A certain Mexican plant changes its
color thrice daily. It is white in the
morning, red at noon, and blue in the
evening. At certain hours it gives out
a strong perfume, while at others it is
quite odorless.
A remarkable plant is a South
American orchid which takes a drink
whenever it feels thirty by letting
down a tube into the water. The tube
is coiled up on the top of the plant
when not required for use.
In Arabia there is a plant whose
seeds produce effects similar to those
caused by laughing gas. The natives
dry the seeds and reduce them to a
powder, a small dose of 11111011 has
curious effects. It causes the most
sober person to dance and laugh ex-
citedly, and to behave in a ridiculous
manner for about an hour. Sleep fol
lows, and upon awakening, the indi-
vidual has no recollection of his an-
tics.
Electric shocks can be obtained In
Central India by merely torching the
leaves of the electric tree, while in
Brazil some plants show remarkable
luminosity. One is so luminous that
it is plainly visible at a distance of a
mile. In its immediate vicinity it
emits sufficient light to enable a per-
son to read the smallest print.
Why Navy Blue?
practically every country clothes
its sailors in blue.
It was about one hundred and seven-
ty. years ago that the first bluejackets
were evolved. It thea became. the
uniform of the British Royal Navy.
This was adopted in 1748 at the re-
quest of a number of naval captains.
The seamen, at a meeting in Mill's
Cogen House, in Scotland Yard, Lon-
don, had decided that the Navy ought
to have its own uniform instead of
wearing either military dress or what-
ever individual captain decided. They
laId the suggestion before the Ad-
miralty
d
miralty Board, and after a little de-
lay for consideration were invited to
confer upon the style and color to be
adopted.
While engaged in discussing the sub-
ject, the Duke of Bedford, First Lord
of the Admiralty, entered and an-
nounced that the Ring had decided up-
on the uniform to be used hi the Royal
Navy. His majesty had seen the
Duchess of Bedford riding in the Park,
clad -ina becoming blue dress, primly
trimmed with white and goad braid,
and, admiring the costume, fixed
on it for the Navy.
It was a happy choice, and the Navy
had god reason to be thankful to the
clever lady who influenced the King
to make his decision,
Expelled Every German.
Liberia is said to have bosh the only
state at war with Germany which ex-
pelled every German from within its
gates and sequestrated all their pro-
perty. Before the war there were
about 300 German citizens 111 Mon-
rovia, the capital, and Liberia was
rapidly becoming a German protector-
ate, says Alan Bonnier Lethbridge.
The Germans, he adds, controlled a
giant wireless plant and evidently had
made arrangements to use Liberia as
a link in the chain of coinntal posses-
sions,
Their places now are being rapidly
talten by Spaniards and Mr. Leth-
bridge predicts that If Spanish inns-
gration into Liberia onetime ,Spain envo the largest foreign colony in
the country,
Canada probably Ilse in use a
greater proportiotl of alurnistiunr trials -
salon lines than any other country,
recent survey by the Comnissiion
of Conservation shows that on all
lines in the Dominion, operating at
10,000 volts and over, there are 13, -
wire -utiles of ithutlitiium and
00 wire -milts of copper,
Mushroom Seeds.
We often wonder et the amazingly
sudden uprising of mushrooms
and toadstools. To -day the green of the
lawn is unbroken. Ina night a gentle
rain falls, and we wakt to en a crowd-
ed group of yellowish -white "Inky -
caps" spreading tbelr parasols In the
very shadow of our doorstep. A
writer describes the marvelous repro-
duetive powers of these fragile and
short-lived plants.
Each species of fungus produces up-
on or within some part of its fruiting
body countiese numbers of minute re-
productive bodies called spores. So
shall and light are they that they float
In the air as an invisible dust. Many
01 them fail to the ground and are
washed into the soil by rains. Others
are wafted away on every breeze, car
riod possibly for days, to be brought
down at length by rain many leagues
from their starting point. In this way
they are carried to the ends of the
earth, dusted into every crack and
cranny, lodged on every exposed sur-
face of wood or soil and caught on
every dew -moistened leaf or twig.
The amazlag number of spores pro-
duced by a single fungus can be real
ized only by knowing their relative
s1ze. Thus in the case of most puff-
balls at least three thousand of the
globular spores, when laid side by
aids, would be required to form a line
one inch long. A compact mass of
such spores, the size of a parlor -match
head, would contain the incomprehens-
ible number of thirty millions of these
microscopic bodies, enough to cover
au acre of ground with four spores for
every square inch of surface,
"He Does Not Sleep."
He does not sleep,
He who is lying there
So pale, so still --
He is not where you gaze:
Hush! Do not weep,
Alt! Calm that wild despair!
no what you will
The body empty stays.
Speak not the drear
01(1 tale of Gabriele horn,
Till which he walls
Fast prisoned in the ground.
He is not here,
For he has been reborn—
From the white gates
He heard that trumpet Sound.
He does not sleep,
For he is far away;
Through lovely space
He wanders happily,
Hush! Do not weep-
You would not bid him stay.
In this sad. place,
Now God has set him free,
Faked Fur.
A new and improved method of snak-
ing imitation furs has been patented
in France.
It is equally suitable for the mane-
facture of false plush or velvet.
The process starts with hair, or a
collection of animal or vegetable
fibres. These are frozen in a block of
ice. The ice is then sawn into slabs,
and each slab is made to undergo a
surface melting so as to partially free
the hair fibres on one side.
After a suitable glue or cement has
been applied to this surface, a sheet
of flexible material is laid on to act as
the foundation of the new material,
When the hairs or fibres have adhered
.to this basis—usually, robber—the
whole is freed from the ice by melt-
ing, and the imitation is complete.
cosmos for a Long Season.
Cosmos sown in pots or boxes in the
house or greenhouse the middle of
March and transplanted twice before
setting them out in the garden, after
danger of frost has passed, will make
stocky plants that will flower early
and for a longer period titan plants
from seed sown in the open ground,
Canada's wheat crop last year aver-
aged only ten bushels to the acre.
CROSBY'S KIDS
JAR! iAiNr
GONNA
PLAY
Nectar and Beeswax.
According to M. Gaston Bonnier, of
the French Academy of Science, flow-
ers make nectar for their own use, and
not, as Darwin believed, to attract the
bees, in order that they may carry the
pollen on their legs and bodies from
one blossom to another. 112. Bonnier
also has demonstrated that bees do not
get the wax of which their honey-
combs are built from the flowers, as
is generally supposed, They secrete
It themselves. The wax is a fatty
substance, formed in special glands,
situated under several rings of the
abdomen. It exudes in the form of
whitish flakes, which the bees gather
with their legs and nae as building
materiah
The nectar formed at the (lase of
the corolla of many flowers is used by
the fertilized fruit or seed as nutri-
ment in growing, much as the yolk of
an egg is used by the embryo chick.
This le proved by the disappearance of
the nectar as the fruit bud enlarges.
But the nectar has another use; name-
ly, to cheek the evaporation of water
from the surface of the plant, for
sweetened water evaporates much
more slowly than unsweetened.
The bees suck up the nectar, which
does not pass into the stomach but in-
to an expansion of the esophagus.
There it undergoes a partial chemical
transformation under the influence of
a substance called invertase, which
acts as a ferment, When the bee dice
gorges the honey into the wax cell It
also discharges a little invertase and,
before closing the cell, a tiny drop of
venom from its sting to prevent fer-
mentation,
"Thus," says Bonnier, "the bees in-
vented antiseptics before Pasteur or
Lister." It is this drop of 'misers that
preserves the honey for years.
Chinese Wax Fames.
Iu China wax is produced by the
labor of myriads of little insects. Their
eggs or cocoons, deposited on tine
branches of trees, yield a rich harvest
of pure white wax.
The only tree on which the insects
will do this grows in the western part
of China, five thousand feet above the
level of the sea, 13y a strange law the
insects will not flourish or produce
wax in their birthplace. 1f they are
allowed to remain there, they will
drop off in a deep mass.
The painstaking Chinaman trans-
ports them to the locality where they
flourish to the best advantage- Thou-
sands of porters are engaged at cer-
tain times of the year carrying mil-
lions of insects from the place where
they were born to some suitable spot.
Nutmeg is the kernel of a fruit
resembling a pear, which grows in the
islands of Malaysia. It is enclosed
in a dark brown glossy shell,
The Other Side of the Glass
A store on a main street puts its
beet foot foremost in the shop window.
The space is valuable, and so is
filled with the most valuable things—
those that will tempt the passer-by
to halt and look and, perhaps, enter
to purchase.
The custom of "window-shopping" Is
as generally recognized as the art of
window-dressing, and it Is a diversion
practicable even for the poorest. There
is no ban on looking, for the aim of
the display is to attract the gazers,
who are potential buyers,
The window-dresser exercises his in-
genuity to draw a crowd, and he 1s
happy when (perhaps by a moving
figure) he can attract a throng so
large that a policeman must stand
shepherding to hoop a clear passage
for pedestrians.
As one watches those who come and
look in the window and admire what
they see, pointing out the things to one
another and comparing what they
want with what they have, one is
stirred to reflections upon the differ-
ence between the inner and the orator
sides, with the 11(1011 glass between.
For a few urinates the poorest is
made rich through what tate eyes can
take —and nobody is roubed. 1t le like
hearing music for whites one (1008
not have to pay. W't' always own as
far as we (15.11 810 or hear, Noue Can
rob us of the atty. The sun and the
blue belong to everybody.
The glass Is there, but it to (ran -
Parent, We e 111101 'halidle, but it
does nut !tide, what fa beyond, •
What is "private ownership," any-
way? One is led to wonder at those
who have a passion for mere acquisi-
tion; who wish to surround them-
selves with a great Babylon that they
have builded out of material things.
To -day people are fretting them-
selves in a fury of spending and get-
ting, not discovering that the chief
joy of having is in order to give, What
pleasure can there be in snaking one's
living -room the mere museum of
things that others cannot afford?
Beauty and dignity do not enter life
by the narrow way of selfish hoard-
ing.
A window never was meant for a
walk Glass replaces the bricks in or
dor that the merchandise may be seen
and not hidden. It it be important
that ou the other side of the glass are
wares worthy to be made visible, what
shall be said of that greatest of all
windows, the human eye? Through
that transparent medium there should
radiate the qualities that endear one
human being to another; yet there are
TIIE QUILL PEN
IN LITERATURE
USED BY MANY GREAT
GENUISES.
Typewriter is Only One of
Many Conveniences Enjoyed
by Modern Writers.
For the most part writer's nowadays
use typewriting machines. Many edi-
tors give fair notice to contributors
that only typewritten manuscripts wilt
be considered.
When all is said, it was a great day
for editors and compositors when the
typewriting machine was invented,
When everybody wrote with pen or
pencil, manuscripts were, as a rule,
"something terrible," Occasionally
there might be found a writer, like
Edgar Allan Poe or Thaokeray, who
took infinite pains with his peuluan-
hundreds whose scowls suggested that
looked as though they had been pre-
pared by the professor of chirography
in a business collage but whore there
was one who wrote legibly there were
hundrds whose scrawls suggested that
a hen, under the influence of strong
waters, had walked over the paper
Only the old-time newspaper men and
compositors know what a terror
"copy" was in the days before the in-
vention of the typewriting machine,
Steel Pen and Lead Pencil,
Writing with a steel pen or a lead
pencil was a laborious job, as every
old reporter knowe. The best steel
pen was a nuisance to men in a hurry.
When it was new it would blot, and
when it was old it wouldn't matte a
mark. Also, when one got a pen that
just suited, some one would, in In
absence, sit at his desk and write a
ringing protest against something or
other, and when the article was finish-
ed the favorite pen was of no use to
the owner.
The pencil was a greater nuisance
than the pee. The point was always
breaking oft just in the middle of a
sentence, and then one had to draw
his knife and sharpen it, with the re-
sult that by the time the job was done
the writer had lost the train of his
thought. In the old days of pen and
pencil there was much grief In news-
paper offices.
But after all, the real grief existed
in the old days of quill pens. Such
implements seldom are seen now in
this country. In England, it 1s said,
there are many old fogies who still
write with them, which is carrying
conservation to the limit. Some day,
for the sake of your education, you
should manufacture a quill pen and
try to write with it, By the time you
have fashioned a dozen words, you
will decline to believe that most of
the world's great books were written
with such a tool. There is nothing
more exasperating than a quill pen;
ft creaks and splutters and blots, and
the point bends out of shape, and
every few minutes you are obliged to
repair the thing,
One can imagine a man writing "The
Anatomy of Melancholy" with a quill,
but It is impossible to figure out how
a humorist could handle such an in-
ploment for hours together and still
be humorous, Yet "Pickwick Papers"
was written with a quill pen, and there
is no more joyous book in the world.
In the early days of Dickens writing
was almost as S1borioua as penal servi-
tude.
And ye, at his Linde old desk.
Dickens, young, bubbling over whit
mirth, used to sit and write his won-
derful stories with an old quill pen!
He used blue ink and blue paper, and
when he wrote at white heat, as he
often ltd, his manuscript was simply
appalling. Each line resembled the
effects of a streak of lightning more
than anything else, and the coutposi-
tors used to weep and gnash their
teeth and wonder why- some one didn't
invent a typewriting machine with
back spacing and tabulating devices.
In Dickens's day there were none of
the conveniences to which modern
writers are accustomed, and which
they take as a matter of course. There
were no screens in 113s windows, and
eel the flies !n London were accustom-
ed to swarm around him as he worked,
doubtless feeling highly honored to
make his acquaintance. When he
wasn't trimming his old quill pen he
was trying to swat the flies, and the
wonder is that he could be humorous
under sueh conditio, Thrn
blotting paper do thonsse day,
eandewas wheno
Dickens had covered a sheet of his
blue foolscap with his copy he had to
hang it up to dry or else sprinkle sand
over it, Authorship was a painful
trade in those days, and when Dickens
had worked at his desk for nine hours
Ile was covered with ink and sand,
and the floor of his workroom wag
strewn with the ruins of quill peas.
The old quill .peet of our forefather's
seems an absurdity now, but all the
sentiment of authorship clings to It.
Can you imagine Sir Walter writing"l
"Ivanhoe" with nu up-to•date writing
achine, having a two-colored ribbon?
o. the old quill pen will continue to
the symbol of literature,
(Incline Plough,
In a gaeolltie plow invented by a
French,nun steal hooks carried on a
revolving cylinder pulverize the soil
t0 is considerable diph.
A place is made more attractive,
more profitable and more Itomelib-e by
fruit trees about it. Plan now oirthe
varieties you will have,
time when the benignity (if we would
be tree to ourselves!, ]trust turn to the be
flash of eighteens anger or an Impal-
ing scorn, If we are e111y and yaln
and selfish, the eye tells of it, and no
act of ours betrays us s0 soon as that
which is read hi Dur eyes. Children
and animals perceive a welcome or a
denial there; the world (oestrus our
htt.elllgenee or our feeble wit by read.
iug us at sight"; mrd if the ]mind
and the heart nre filled with 1111(1,
and goodness, the "window of the
soul" will at once reveal the fuer.