HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1924-3-5, Page 7•
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Compasses the Trees Wear
BY ROTH HARRISON
Buddy and the Profaner were coni- tree?"
ing back through the woodlot, limp "Iluh,' said Buddy, surprised. "Hard -
;grata seen hung over their arms,for ly anyet ail." •••
they had
b0the brush and in protect aeltecattering corn anti drthe 1'at di'ofessore a ha tree is this?"
wheat ender t b
ed fence corners for the quail, They "A tree doesn't have sides; it's
did this every winter and now. tate round," answered Buddy, .
quail were nnipereue and almost "Yes," laughed the ;professor, "Rafts
friendly at times, sides. Nat right and left, of course,
"Ah," chuckled the Professor. but north, scuta, east,and west. That"s
"Thorn they go," as a covey of quail, a what I mean,"
little startled, scurried under cover. "Oh," said Buddy, squinting at the
'They really aren't atraid of us, Bud. sky. "This is the south tilde."
dy, Couldn't be, but I suppose they "And the opposite side where the
think it is just as well ;never to take lichens at'e growing is the north side."
any chances,' "Why do they grow more on the
• A long gine ago the Professor taught north side than on the southr asked
botany in the university, Now be BaddY,
lived on the farm across the road from "That's just it, Why?"
the rural school that Buddy went to, "You said the .lichens grew better
"Look, Buddy!" said the Professor, where it was cool end damp, Tent any
steeping and brushing a little snow colder me one side of the tree than the
from the bottom of a big white oak, other is it?"
"Here is something that le always in- "Well, Bud, it is, Tile sun shines
teresting to look at," and the pointed more on the east, south and wast sides
to some grayish -green, flat, leatherlike of a tree than on the north. Think of
patches growing on the bark of the the windows on the north side of your
tree. They Were curls* on the edges, ]louse; there are only a few days in
"Queer kind of a plant," Bald the Pro- the year that the sun shine through
foseor, breaking off pieces of the thick- them; So there are many cracks and
ly covered bark. crevices is the bark On the north side
Seen tote of that," said Buddy, "on that are pretty much shaded and pro -
old fences and stumps and logs.", tested from the heat and drying of the
"I should say so" smiled the Pro- sun and you eau see that in winter the
tosser. "ICnow what it is?" snow that lodges there stays longer."
"No,". said Buddy, "Never thought "How did the plant know enough to
about it." get on to the north side of the tree?"
'Well, you should,'saki the Proles- "There we have it again," exulted the
sor. "Why didn't you break off a piece Professor. "The plant doesn't know a
and come and ask me about it? You thing about it. It just happens that
do pretty well, Buddy, but I do think way by chance, Most all plants have
you 'boys ought to 'be more curious seeds of some kind, and the sends
About what you see every day." Short- when they happen to fall In a favor-
Iy he continued: able place grow and form more plants.
'This is a lichen, Buddy, and see The lichens have spores instead of
how class and tight it grows to the true seeds, very mucic like the spores
bark," and be lifted one edge of the that are formed by the moss I have
lichen and peeled it back gently, told you about. Now suppose, these
"There! See all that black spongy.; spores, blown by the wind, happen to
looking mass on the underside of the !light on a tree trunk, some on the
lichen? Well, those are ----•" and ho i south side and some on the north.
beganto look around for something. 1 Those on the north side may get
"There! That will do," Walking over ;lodged in a crevice where it is cool
to a thorn -apple bush he broke off a and moist and start growing. Those
long thin thorn. "Now look," and he on the south side fall where it is dry
separated the spongy mass With the and warm end may stay there a long
Point of the thorn. •
i time in a dormant state or die. It
"Huh," said Buddy. "Look like a . simply is true that the conditions on
tot of little tangled threads. I sup-, tho north side are such that the Bola
pose they're the roots." I ens can grow there; on the sough side
"Alrnost," said the Professor, "Not they die, so very few or none aro found
true roots but pretty much like them; there. So, in a way, lichens may be
anyway they bebave like roote and termed compasses that trees wear, for
grow into the cracks and crevices of they indicate the north."
the bark or wood and sometimes stone "And you know, Buddy, there is
and bold the lichen firmly In place and something else about this plant. It
take up water. The lichen grows bet- isn't just one wind of a plant, but two
tor in cool damp places, though after kinds. The lichen itself is grayish or
it gets started It can stand a lot of. dry- whitish,"
ing without dying, and after a wetting "I'd say it was quite a lot green."
it revives very quickly •and goes oa "Yes, but the green is not the lichen,
growing, What you hear called the It is a tiny green plant that lives to
reindeer moss that grows in such the whitish part of the lichen. We call
masses up North is really a lichen and it a single -celled plant, and it is, one. of
not a moss at all. Let's' take a look the simplest and lowest forms of
at that tree again where we found this,' plants. ]'here aro a great many of
"Notice anything?" said the Prates- these single cells living all through
sor, walking all round the tree, "Not the lichen and we call them algae.
ice anything about where these lichens ' They can do what the green cells in
are growing?" I the leaves do—that is, with' the air,
"No," said Buddy, walking round of -1 water and sunshine' they make starch
ter bine and sugar and pass some of It on to
"tins -m;" said. the Professor, "Let's the lichen, The lichen alone cannot
qo round again. You see," lie said, I do this but It does get water through
poking the snow away from the base.' its roots and passes some of It on to
of the troo, "lichens grow all around the algae,
, . tlto tree down hero near the earth, ''Hum," said Buddy, "some more
but what about further up?" ' partners like those little knobs on the
"Orem up the trunk, too," said_Bud- bean roots you told me about"
dee "Only not so many" "Right you are," chuckled theKPro-
"All right," smiled the Professor,tensor, pleased that Buddy had remem-
"How about the other side of the bared.
The Right Time to Sell Pigs.
Yes, the old Irlsh peasant knew his
pigs, knew them rather intimately as
(it. matter of fact When to sell them
n-orden.to get the best prices never
troubled him; he had his, little rule for
fudging. But let Maj, A. W. Long, in
Trish Sort of Yesterday, tell what that
'rule was. The major writes:
Here in a straggling wood of stunt-
zed
tunted oak and birch trees was a low
thatched cottage where Robert told us
• q. river watcher called Pat Lydon lived,
don met s
�y u at his door, surrounded
ren
cbildren—the smallest
in a dross• made of a dour sack and
bearing the brand of the flour In largo
ljlue letters across his little chest—
hens, duck and several dogs, and with
the western peasant's usual courtesy
e insieted that we enter his Cottage
to rest. But Charles firmly declined.
eeing a look of pain and surprise in
the man's eye*, t at once entered and
r•led to make agreeable.
myself a
y g Ela.
While in the lever watcher's. hoose'
I hoard the land grunts et pigs, but
failed to catch a glimpse of theist, On
lire way back 1 asked Robert whether
he knew where the pigs were.
"Indeed and I do well, yer honor," he
gnswered with a laugh, "Sure, Pa:teen
)always kapes• this pigs under his bed,'
Charles shuddered, thankful that lie
lead stayed outside, and remarked. that
it was an unusual plaoo,
"hi Neth yer right, blaster Charles,"
.,replied Robert, "but euro that same
man has a fortune made crit of them
pule pigs and all through leaping
Diem 'Heath the bed,'
For some" time 011arles slid not
'peak; but at last his curiosity got the
flatter of his dignity, and be asked
Robert how a man could amass a' for -
Gino by keeping Disc under his bed. t
"Dognrro," replied, Robert, laughing,
"Many a man bas asked that same
estton of l'atoen and got no satis-
tory answer, but stare 1'11 tell yer
nor. elle easy enough to Beal a pig,
ut batt auougk Itr know the right time
sell tItatsarue pig, and flint's where
o Ned rolnas in."
Again Cbatios walked en, thinking
hard. At east he reluctantly asked
Robert to explain.
"Sure, yer honor's letting on to be
mighty simple to -day," said Robert.
"Pateen has the bed sot so that when
his pigs is, big enough to make bacon
of !t's how they'll be after rising the
bed, on him soratohins their backs—
so they would, the craytures—and
when he can't sleep quiet and aisy lilts
he knows it's time the pigs bo gone."
Living Temple
in Bar.
Several arches famous London es are
0 h
inhabited, The Marble Arch, for In -
steam, Contains quite roomy apart-
ments, and so does the arch whiolt
forms the entrance to Constitution
1 -Hill,
Our ancestors seem to have had a
passion for saving space. It Is con-
ceivable that the .Oaty of London can-
not afford to widen its streets or leave
open span because laud Is so costly,
I but in tite old days why was it thought
necessary to nhalte thoroughfares so
excessively , narrow, and to -belld
houses and shops over the City gates?
The Met of these was the Mena
Temple Bar, removed in June, 1879, it
stood where the Griffin stands now, oli-
paaito• Ohild's Bank,
When
Whet it was doomed t eo t n d to demolition,
partly on account dr its serious obW
struetian to over -growing street traffic
and partly because It was falling into
a state of decay, many tons ot.ledgers
and other records were removed trout
the room over the central arch, Those
were the accumulated archives Of
Guild's Bank, To this day the ahegtteis
of title historic, hoose bear on their
face a print of Temple Bar,
In th.
Second Mate (p0114i0g to inenibed
plate on deck). ---"That is where our
gallant captain fell,"
Elderly Lady leisitor---"No wonder;
I nearly tripped over It anyself,'
Wholemeal bread is pleasing to the
eye and.the paints, and contains value
able mineral qualities which are miss
ing in Lite white variety I
A memorial service at which 12 submarines and three parent ships were
present took place over the spot where the submarine L.-24. was sunk in the
Englisli Channel, with 40 mon aboard- Photograph shows the halt-masting
of the colors while passing the spot.
Insulin in Diabetes.
The men who won the forty thous-
and dollar Nobel prize in 1923 for the
greatest medical discovery of the year
were Doctors F. G. Banting and J. J.
McLeod, of. Toronto, for their work
in the discovery of Insulin: Not only
is this the most notable medical and
soientilic achievement of the year (it
was given to the public the year be-
fore) but it is the most valuable dis-
covery of all time for people who have
diabetes. It means for many of them
the difference between life and death
and every person afflicted with any
degree of diabetic severity will profit
by this discovery.
Many readers have asked me to tell
how insulin cures diabetes, It docs
not cure. Int is a preparation made
from certain parte of the pancreas.
,Administered to the diabetic patient it
makes up for the reltolencles of his
own digestive organs by helping him
to digest his sugars. With this help
he can eat more food and greater va-
riety, and thus build bp in health and
strength. But he is not ,eured, and
perhaps will have to take Insulin oc-
casionally throughout his lifetime, ,
Insulin is not a preparation that can
be taken by the mouth. 1f swallowed
the stomach digests it and spoils its
action. So it has to be administered
by the use of a hypodermic needle.
However, this difficulty may be over-
come by having some member of the
family trained to make the, injection.
The material was very costly at first
but the price has now been reduced
some fifty per cent. and may go lower,
Every person who has diabetes should
learn about Insulin, It is well to know
that another name for the same pre-
paration 1s Iletin.—Dr, C. H. Lerrlgo.
Buying Men in Bits.
A very strange advertisement ap-
peared in a London, England, daily re-
cently. A man offered himself as will-
ing to undergo any. operation where
there was a "sporting outside• cbance
of recovery,"
No one seems to know exactly what
is the legal aspect of tits caae, It
such an offer were accepted, and the
man died under the operation, It
seems possible that the operator might
be indicted for manslhughtor.
It is, however, a well-known tact
that both surgeons and patients are
sometimes willing to pay largo emus
for suitable human subjects for enedt-
cal experiment. The blind Americanerican
Millionaire, Mr, Charles Rouse, once
advertised for a man aufforing from
eye trouble similar to his own who
would be 'willing to' undergo a some-
what painful operation which might
result in cure. He flually obtained a
subject, and retains him for reale
d
years at a salary of $1,250 n year.
Several operations wore perforated
upon the substitnte, but all without
the desired effect. So the.ntit•lionalro
at last gave up hope and resigned him-
self to a life of tlarklress.
Five yeast ago Miss Emma Gallag-
Iter, a wealthy young' lady, was ter-
ribly burned by the sxploelon of a
spirit stove. Her chin, neck, and.
ohoot worn left almost tyre. To eine
goal the scare' the doctors perforated
twenty-three different operations in
skin grafting, the skin being taken
from twenty-three different portions.
The sums paid for other people's skin
worked out nt $1,000 per muerte foot.
An advertisement once appeared in
a New York paper to the street that
Woetern mitlionaha, wile was about
to be married, ware prepared t0 pay
five thousand dollars for a right ear
to be grafted upon hie own head, in
place of one which he had lost in a
mining accident.
An immense number of applications
was received, and 1)0, Nelden, who un-
dortook the operation, stieetett a snit•
able eundidote. A deed of agreement
Was drawn up, nud the physiclan
agreed to keep the mimes of both bee -
or and seller secret,'
The operation was perforated. 'file
upper halt of the volunteer's .ear was
cut. away, ,together with about four
inches of skin at the back of the ear,
and grafted on the millionaire's head.
The two men had to lie practically
motionless until, after twelve days, the
flesh bad united, and the rest of the
ear was cut away and grafted.
Still more, wonderful was the case of
a Scottish lady who sustained shock -
fug Injuries in a runaway accident.
Her skull andboth were frac-
tured, and her left arm and ons side of
her face badly lacerated.
Her son, a young physician, aban-
doned. his practice and set himself to
endeavor to restore his mother's life.
Everyone else had given up her case
as hopeless. Day and night he de-
voted his whole time to her, and so in-
spired not only her nurses, but the
poor sufferer herself, that she sur-
vived and began slowly to mend.
But the mutilation of the face Caused
terrible disfigurement. The son there-
upon insisted upon the attendant
physicians removing elan enough from
his own body to graft upon the scars,
One by one, no fewer than forty
pieces of skin were cut from his body
and grafted upon his m,other's face
and arm. In tho end the lady not only
;completely recovered from injuries
which would have killed ninety-nine
people out of a hundred, but also
showed very slight disflgurement
In this case, of course, filial love
was the motive for the sacrifice, and
perhaps similar disinterested motives
have operated at least as powerfully
in cases of this kind as the hope of
monetary ,gain.
Makeshift Medicines.
It seems odd to call tooth powder a
medicine, yet ordinary camphorated
Chalk has been used before now when
bicarbonate of soda was not available
to check a violent attack of heartburn,
Whoa a druggist's shop is not with-
in reach, rough and ready remedies
for many ailments are to be found in
the pantry. Mustard in poultice form
le about tho finest known remedy for
cold on the short, while a little ordin-
ary mustard rubbed behind the ear
will often ease toothache and neural -
gin, Mustard and hot water is a good
emetic,
Salt mixed with common washing
coda is an excellent cure for stings,
and warm brine has a wonderful ef-
fect 1n stopping the irritation of a chil-
blain Warm brine not too strong, is
also a very good thing for sniffing up
the nose when one has a bad cold, and
se a gargle it will go far towards cur-
ing a sore throat,
While sugar has no disinfecting
qualities, of it Is willed to a clean
wound it'ltolps it to heal rapidly.
A poultice trade of vinegar and stile
bread applied nightly
as one of the
best possible dressings for a painful
earn. Olive oil Is a good thing to put
on 0 barn, and if olive oil is not avail-
able a handful of flour keeps the air
from tho injured spot and cheeks the
pain.
A raw egg swallowed whole will
carry down a fishbone which Itis stuck
In the throat.
He Refused to Answer.
Aunt ,]luny, a Carolina negrees, was
a scent advocate of the rod the a help
In ahilterearing. As n result of nn un'
merciful beating which she gave her
'mingest and "orneriest," she was
brought into court one day by out-
raged noigbbore.
The judge, after giving her a severe
lettere, asked 1r she had anething to
say.
".Test one tiring, ledge," she replied.
"I want to ox you a question: Was
you .over the lutrent or -0 perfectly
wit 1}i1(lee rnilua1 child ?'•
M Sarcasbn.
Alive far the diet 111110 Nn0' 'a elft
ea*t h,g'her kitten by the nape or its
"Yon eller III to be it mother," she
pried stYuthiugiy"You Ain't hnn•diy itt
to be ii father!"
New Airplane Travels 40.0'
Miles an Hour.
The ern of Pugineer Melot's propel
lertess and motorten airplanes, said
to be capable of attaining a speed of
400 miles au hour, into boon received
by the Technical Prenmh Air Ministry
10 Paris. tt
Twelve others .Are under construc-
tion In the suburb of .Colombes and
will be ready In two menthe' time,
While the details of the freak mn-
ehiue aro 'jealously guarded, the prta-
elple appears to be as follows;
Compressed gas and air are fed by
two tabes into a combustion chamber
where an explosion succeeds. The
burnt gases then escape violently
through a series of valves, They draw.
air with them and this action projects
the machine forward. When freed the
Mixture of burnt gases and air comes.
in contact with the open air, and this
shock also pushes the machine ahead,
Originally a motor was necessary
to compress the air and gas, but two
months ago the inventor managed to
effect the compresslon automatically,
and this second discovery is kept most
secret, It was because 01 it that the
Air Minister accepted the machine and
ordered twelve more.
Melot, who was badly wounded in
the war, began his invention work in
1918 on Government funds, but these
were stopped and only revived last
September, when the importance et
his experiments were manliest.
Two great advantages would accrue
if the invention materializes, namely,
the freeing the machine of the great
weight of the motor, and no more
broken propellers. Elimination of pro-
pellers would also greatly increase
speed. Melot's chief difficulty has
been to find material sufficiently light
yet resistant to the enormous tempera-
ture caused by the combustion of air
and gas,
Melot, who is thirty years old, and
living in a modest apartment here
with his wife and child, isnearly blind
from a 1911 wound. His determina-
tion to suppress motor and propeller
I dates from 1916, which year he spent
r vainly trying to design a -turbine en-
gine for war planes.
Promotions.
Promotions usually come to those
who deserve them most. Persons who
seem to advance moat rapidly are
those who have really been preparing
for many years for higher promotion.
They are the ones who did the
things for which they weren't paid;
who carried every task to a complete.
finish; who built up a reputation for,
doing things in a superior way, thus,
proving to those higher up their
ability to handle more responsible
positions.
You are going to get out of your
work just what you put into it, You
are roaster of your destiny, Alen us-
ually get what they go atter, if they go
after it In earnest a.nd work hard. Let
every day be a big day and every op-
eportunity be a big opportunity.
His Cutest.
She was very literary, and from
America. She bad just been "doing"
the home of Sir Walter Scott.
The guide was a Iittle bored,
" 'Marmion' is just too "she
beamed. "And 'Ivanhoe,' why, that be-
longs! 'Kenilworth,' now --isn't that
the real Murry goods? And 'The Lady
of the Lake'—but there, anything of
Scott's--"
"And do you know hie "I:ntulsionl'
asked the guide.
"For goodness' sake! Why. I think
that's, just the cutest thing bo ever
wrote."
The Irish of it,
Kelly- -"I1 yoz force me to pay that
note now, I can't pay it."
O'Brien --"But if I wait till yez pay
it, I'll niver.sit it!"
A Downright Insult,
Jake --"What trade ye leave. Si?"
Si—"It happened at breakfast this
mornin', Jake, and I'd do it ag'in if I
had it to do over. Airs. Brown was
busy bakin' cakes an' when I took
and looks
three or four, she stopped d
sm
traight at e au' said, "Si Simpkins,
impkins,
do you know that's the twenty-fifth
pancake yer eatin'?' an' it nude me so
mad I jest got up from the tablean'
went oft without my brealctast.
Rivers of Ruin,
6 have recently been reminded by
tate floods In France of the e ee.
which, even in modern team and in
bight., developed countries, can be
wrought when a great river oYOrtiows
its banks,
But the damage done br the Seine
and other great French rivers 00 such
occasions is not very considerable as,
compared with the havoc caused by ,
other streams in slnhilar eireinnstau0ea.
The mast tragical river in the world
is the Hoang -ho, or Yellow River,
whish is known throughout the Coles -1
tial }empire as Cliiva's Sorrow. Earth-
quakes and .eruptions claim their via;
tims in teas of thousands occasionally,
but this river thinks notbtag of drown-
ing several millions of human beings
in one fell flood,
Not many years ago, when the
Hoang -Ho devastated an area as large
as England, its victims were estimated
at ten millions. Iu historlc times it
has' changed its mouth eleven times, •
and Its present outlet is three hundred
miles away from its former one.
Another river of tragedy ie the Mis-
sissippi, which also has a tendency to
alter its course and run amok across
field and farm and city, its great, plain
is very fiat, and when it overflows it
overflows a long Way, carrying stock
in vast numbers to feed the sharks in
the Gulf of Mexico. As time goes on,
its banks are being more and more
strengthened; but when a big river
takes matters into its own hands,]
human devices are apt to look foolish; l
The Nile le a river of blessing, and
a river of blight. If it comes up to
scratch and does its duty it Is worth
tens of millions to Egypt and man-
kind; but 1f it fails ---as it has many
times done in history—that !allure
means famine. Since Britain has come
to the rescue, however. and built the
Assuan Dam to: conserve and regulate
the water, so Out the river does not
wash the land away one year and
leave it barren the next, the Nile has
done nothing to justify its former sin-
ister reputation. But in the past its
failure to function normally has cost
millions of lives,
Ivory Raiders.
Among the unpleasant habits of Af-
rican tribesmen in the Karamoja coun-
try is that of egging pits for ele-
phants, and attacking the unfortunate
animals thus isnDrlsoned with their
knives, literally carving them up while
still alive, and eating the raw flesh as;
they do so.
In his book, 'the Ivory Raiders,"
Major Rayne desoribes how he saw;
tribesmen at work on dead elephants i
which he had shot. They crawled ;
across one of the carcasses as thick,.
as ants; they were even inside it, out
ting and hacking with small axes and
great knives.
Ivory raiders - - Arabs, Abyssinians,1
and so on --who invade British cereal
tory In an illegal quest for tusks And I
useful, If treaolherous, allies in these
tribesmen.
Major Rayne once bluffed a force of :
two hundred raiders into surrender,
and it was not until they had given up
their arms that they discovered the,
force behind him consisted of only,
four policemen.
He Who Knows,
HeFwho knows and knows that he
knows, is master.
He who knows and does not know
that he knows, needs a teacher.
He who does not know and knows
that he does not know, needs love,
He who does not know and does not
know that he does not know, is lost. •
Ancient Proverb.
Gross Carelessness,
The young wife sat plying the
needle on a coat of her husband's
when the latter entered the room, "Its
too bad, the careless way the tailor
sewed this button on," she burst ont.1
'T'his is the fifth time I've had to put I
it back for you."
A Hard Lot.
Lady- "My good man, Isn't begging
hard?
Beggar • "It Is, faun; very few pear
ple gimme fresh bread."
The shipping tonnagee
actually;
under construction at the end of Sep I
tember was only 1,029,000 tons, the;
lowest recorded for nearly fourteen;
years in Great Britain and Ireland.
Ripplirdiammo
fl► Walt Cis
FEARFUL SYMPTOMS
It was au evil day for me when 1 sat clown to read the alman-
ac for '23 sent out by old Doe Snged. When I sat down 1 reit as
fine us over in my late;"I wish such buoyant health were mine:'
declared my jealous wife, Then T enjoyed unblemished ltealth,
no oche 00 pain I knew; but Old Line Sneed, be rami by stealtb,
end knocked the works askew. Before 1't1 finished Chapter Three
of his vile almanac, 1 felt tierce tortures in my knee and anguish
iii my Baric. "If you behold 1:10t1 specks," I read -a, floating
in the air, it indicnlee you'il.seen he ,dead, trod should emir ]anise
Prepare: you harbor divers deadly ills, and ,Doll their kick you'll
reel, uelees you take rtty coberefe pills fourteen before cacti
mend.' "lf you aro prone In dizzy spells." the Old Doc merle his
wall, "tile undertaker, wearing' belle, wilt soon 11' 011 your trail.
Is Merea coaling on emir league. and does your :until taste
green': It htdacMee a spavined lung. and abscess of the spleen.
Ts there n ringing In y01hr eats, are Oen aneoyt'ti by chills? You
futon will go to oilier spheres unless yon take my pills." Noir
1 no longer dance and sing or chirp the, joyous wheeze; 11 symp-
tonte cmnu*st fa,r anythhsg I've every ItnOwn aiseasq,
Our Changing Skies.
"EGerrial as the stars thee !thine,"
Now roan., times have we 11ettrd Rita/
expreesienl What vague Iboughte of
yaetatrotclies of time etbriegs to our
miuviei The Axednesa of the skies her
become a byword with as. Do We not
look up at the starry heaven and eau
the Greet and. the Little Dipper night
after night? Doss not the Milky Way'
unfailingly shine down:upon uo? Tree,
the evening star and the moon have a
way of shifting their position Trout
night to night .but within a short time
they are always bat ar in their same old
places, Tbo changelessness of the
elan is the fcuudetion steno et our
faith.
It coulee as something of a shook,
then, to learn that our skies etre grad -
natty changing year by year. Aur
North Star, or polestar, is net the
sante as the one which pointed the
true north for the ancient Egyptians.
The great pyramids, built more than
forty centuries ago, were made with
an opening exactly facing the polestar,
but it was a different star loom tbo
Ono We point out lit cur heavens at
night.
Instead of having only two notions,
that of turning daily on its axis and
yearly around the sun, the 'earth Ilse
no less Gabe eleven motions., astrono-
mers tell us. Instead .of the staid,
sober old earth we thought we in-
habited) we find that we are keeping
company with a fravolon , daneing, al-
most sb.lnimying earth.
It is a third movement of the earth,
similar to the elm circular motion of
the upper part of a fast-epinntng top,
that causes our skies apparently to
change with the centuries. A map of
the sties made in 1800 would not do
for 1880, nor for 1922- The Southern
Cross used to be visdble en Europe
some thousands of years ago, and
same thousands et years' hence um Of
our brightest stars' will have passed
from view of our earth's inhabltahnts.
But there is, after all, a regularity
about this irregularity of the earth's
movements, And 1t la possible to cal-
culate exactly when a certain star will
return to a given position. In exactly
25,765 years our North Star, after be-
ing lost to view foe centuries, will
again be just where it is today.
The -Met time our North Star occu-
pied the position it does to -day, 25,766
years ago, none of the present coun-
tries existed. Donbtlese men had
made their appearance upon the earth
at that time, but they were probably
nnculeurcd and savage beings. --our
stone -age ancestors -and they have
Ieft little record of their existence.
Where shall we be, in our turn,
when, after another cycle the pole
shall have returned to its present post -
lion?
When viewed from the standpoint of
eternity aur vanities and petty bicker
lags have a smallness that is pathetic.
a
The Wheel That Squeaks.
The world is full of philosophers
who urge us to count our many bless -
lugs, just when we reach the conclu-
sion that there will not be enough left
of our year's crop money to put down
the naw rug, much less install electric
lights. And when one of our finest
horses died on a hot day and some-
thing broke on the tractor and
Johnny's fever came up and it looked
like measles, someone gayly quoted to
us: "(ah, well, ain't you glad you ain't
got a harelip?"
Banks would flourish if all bankers
were bachelors; the employer of a nee
minter little cares whether he is mar-
ried or not; a wife playa no part in
the tiring of an engine; but We farm
women know what would happen . to
agriculture if we all hied ourselves to
the city. Thanks be, there is no dan-
ger. Down in our hearts has grown
too deeply this desire to belongto the
first, this feeling of working at worth-
while things, and of providing a home
with Nature's background for our
children.
The discouragemonts of a day or a
season aro not enough to uproot us.
The world appreciation that is grow-
ing will bring results. Every modern
invention will eventually corse to ue.
Someone has said that at is the wheel
that evades wh c
q 1 heta the cone
g grease.
Our wheel has squeaked considerably
and I lirmly believe that the grease ie
being manufactured, that electric)
lower is going to be made cheap
enough that we can all have it eo help,
especially in the home duties that are
n part of our farm lirm's acecmpiash-
men•ts: -Lena Martin Smith.
The Prairie Street.
1,0rers of beauty laugh at this grey
town,
Where duet floe thick on ragged
curbside trees
And compass -needle etreets lead up
and down
And lose MonseiVos in empty
prairie seas.
Here is no w ntau e
1 i g scant d liana, no
hill
Crowned with a stet•+9Trd church, no
garden wall,
Or old grey stone w•llere lilacs Manta
and fill
The air wits fragrancewhen the
May rains fall.
But here istheunsoftened majesty
Of the wide earth 'where all the
wide streets one,
Anti from the dusty comer once may
50e
Tile' fullmoon else sand Ilamiug sun
descend,
'l'its' long luau eta:et, wlienee fermi-
ers' teams go forth,
I.tes like an old sea road, etar•palnied
earth,
- •Idelen. Swetrnyee.