HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1925-1-14, Page 7c'� 1 UBirds'-'--AND THE WORST IS YET TO COME
So much ie wt'itten about the poetry
of bird life, of the dove, whit*-per-
Beneficelove, of the gontlo bluebird at
leeveniy wing, that K ie rather re*
fleshing to lteeW that these winged
voyagers possess ether very human at-
tributee, persecute one .another on tee.
,oea1on or even Indulge In duels. to the
death,
The robbery of the fish hawk, or
envoy, by the bald eagle is Well
known. Indeed, the lordly bird. of
importer wing is said to subsist almost
entirely, in tome localities,, on fish
,enatbhed in air from the fish hawk,
which fa attacked while carrying it to
its nest.
Wilson, the great ornithologist, des-
orlbe8 graphiearly an attack by an
eagle.
lalevated on a nigh, dead limb of
Some gigantic tree that cciumands a
wide view ox the neighboring shore
and ocean, the eagle seems calmly to
contemplate the modon of the various
feathered tribes that,purene their busy.
avocations below — the snow-white
gulls slowly winnowing the air, the
busy terns coursing along the sands;
trains of ducks streaming over the
surface; silent clamorous crows, and
all the winged multitude .that subsist
by *the bounty of this Vast magazine
of nature.
Victorious Eagle.
High over all these hovers one
whose action instantly arrests one's
whole attention. By his wide curva•
tare of wing and sudden suspension in
air, he knows him to be the fish hawk
.settling over' some. doomed victim of
• the deep,
His eye kindles at the sight, and,
balancing himself, with half -open
wings, on the branch, he watches the
o result.
Down, rapid as an arrow front heav-
en,
eat/
•en, descends the distant object of his
attention, the roar of his wings reach-
ing the ear as it disappears in the
deep, making the surges foam around.
At this moment the eager Looks of
the eagle are all ardor, and, leveling
his neck for flight; he sees the fish
hawk. once more emerge, struggling
with his prey, and mounting in the air
with screams of exultation.
These are the signals for our hero,
who, launching into the air, Instantly
.gives chase, and soon gains on the fish
hawk, Eacb exerts his utmost to
mount above the other, displaying In
tbeso encounters the most graceful{f
and sublime aerial evolutions. I c
The unincumbered eagle rapidly ad-
vances and is just on the point of
reaching his opponent, when, with a
sudden scream—probably of despair
and honest execration—the latter
drops his Ash t
The eagle posing himself for a mo-
ment aif
, s to lake a more certain pin,
descends like a whirlwind, snatches it
in his grasp,ere it reaches the water,
and bears hes booty silently away to
the woods. "`
Aerial Duals.
Real aerial duels are not unoolnrnon w
among numerous smaller birds. J. H.
Bowles, the naturalist, made an inter -: a
eating study as to which among the
bird tribes may be considered the b
champion `duelist. He writes:
"For some years after commencing °
the study of ornithology, the kingbird
seemed to me to be Lhe us plus ultra fu
in this respect, the red -winged black -,d
bird, however, giving him a close race 10
for first honors,
"The former is undoubtedly a bully, rbt
for I have seen him attack and knock "
to the ground robins and other birds,
while the red wing is seldom or never e•
known to attack any bird that is not h
several times larger than himself.
"Of course, students of birds have
all seen innumerable encounters be- a
tween kingbirds or red -winged black- til
birds and crows • or hawks, but it is sol.
dom that the mailer birds unite to
it
of tiler number to gain their pellet by ,
continual pestering, AS en eXample,
I once saw a tree swallow on en oleo•
trig wire, with an English .sparrow on
KWh side, e l3oth leaned toward the
'swallow and squeaked for all they
were worth, but neither dared to at-
tack hint, so I left them hard at it,
with several .other sparrows as inter.
ostee spectators•,
Haw. k and Swallow,
"One morning, • while trying to
identify a small bird, I was disturbed
by the excited chattering of a barn
swallow overhead. The cause was a
sharp -shinned hawk, which had prob-
ably attacked it and made it extreme-
ly angry,
"It did not try to avoid an attack by
keeping above, but stayed a cpinpara-
tively short distance below, and al-
ways to one side, ,circling around•so
swiftly that the two wore 'always in
the -flame relative -poeitions, the hawk
,never squarely facing the swallow,
"The former turned around a num-
ber of times. Twice it started to
leave, but'°each time the swallow rose
above and lime toward the hawk, dart-
ing like. lightning to ite original posi-
tion when the hawk turned,
"The third time the hawk started
off, the swallow rose and flew, with a
rather constrained motion, straight at
its back, apparently striking it, for the
Meek made a sort of a jerk, as a crow
does ` when a kingbird is about to
strike, probably an attempt to dodge,
This time the hawk was quite satis-
fied and promptly ,left the field of ac-
tion, while the swallow mounted high
Into the air and then returned to the
barn, apparently considerably ex-
hausted.
x
hausted.
Attacked a.Kingf'isher.
"I will conclude by describing an
entirely unprovoked attack made by
a barn swallow upon a belted king-
fisher. The latter started to fly acrose
a sinal pond, perhaps a third of a mile
wide, when the swallow left its useful
occupation of entomological °electing,
and with a singe blow knocked the
belted knight prone upon the water.
"I was fishing at -the time, but drew
in my line so that the none too plenti-
ful fish should not seize the oppor-
tunity in order to distract 'my atten-
tion from such an interesting en-
counter. '
"The swailow„waa a picture of in-
nocence, flying about, iniiustriously
eeding, until the kingfisher had re-
overed himself and flown a few yards,
when the latter was obliged to dive
wholly under the water by his merci-
less little persecutor: This act was
repeated five distinct times.before the
opposite shore `was- reached, the fisher
staying in the water longer every
time he dove,
"When he finally leaded:-
y he fell,
rather than lit, upon a branch that
fortunately was close at hand, giving
none of his usual lively rattle. The
walow continued gathering material
or slipper—at least, I concluded it
as that meal, it being exactly six
'clock P.M, when I turned and -put on
fresh bait."
An instance of pure malicious frolic
n which our sprightly little sparrow
awk took the prominent part was
nee witnessed by the writer.. I had
een watching the little falcon grace
-
lly circling in the air, when it sud-
enly darted down, and, skimming be-
tween the rails of a low fence into a
t where there were some chickens,
ruck a big rooster squarely upon the
ack, when it rose lightly and quickly
cased on, doubtless enjoying its lit-
e joke and tire wild consternation it
ad caused among: the fowls.
The little shrike, or butcher bird,
hide impalas Its victims on theme
nd barbed wire fences to devour
ern atleisure, lesnore pugnacious
an many large hawks, and has been
own to. attack and kill quarry much
indulge the more brutal tastes in one's ]a
nature, unless in occasional disputes
In the vicinity of their nese.
"in none of the cases here given T
oould nesting have had the least in-
flueneo. The first, and almost the most
interesting, came to my notice while
driving to the station one morning, A
tree swallow Was sitting pluming bim-
self on a telegraph wire, when sudden-
ly, and without any apparent cause,
a kingbird made a Vicious onslaught
rgor than itself.
The Supreme Faith.
TI
is something back of all that is
' more than passing fate;'
There is something back of all that
will set the matter straight;
There is something through all sor-
row and all trouble anil all care
That will sometirnes take the measure
of our needs and treat us fair
ere is something back of all that
has meaning and has will
put back the growing shadows
o'ercome the growing ill;
ere is, something back of all that
've nos
uteotr him, Much to my surprise, the -Th
swallowrose and had 'Tyrranus' in To
the middle of the toad before he fully
realized that he had caught a Tartar.
"Seldom have I seen each grace and ,Th
quickness ofiltotion as the righteously An
angry swallow sheaved in his attack,
which was continuous and from above,
not a fool, from his opponent at any, Th
time, and lasting- no longer - than a
a not doubt or dread,
d` it speaks the final judgment, and
life lives by what is said,
Ole is soleethiug back of all with
quarter Of a minute, This put the An
kingbird into second place.
"The next instance was one :with To
which, 1 imagine, few of us have been'
favored; It was Merely. a skirmish, Te
lasting perhaps .it minute, but some
Idea of- the extraorihnery+ beauty may
be given wbon I say that the two con-
testants were both males of the rose.
breasted grosbeak and scarlet tanager.
It occurred directly over ray head in
'an apple tree alone in a large tract of
alder.% the tanager tatting the • offep-
sive and fleetly cut -pointing, with his
eapler-like bill, his bluff though strong-
eakrel opponent. •
p and true,
t1 It Is not rueet for me end it to not
. '. meet for you
go questioning everts or In giving
Voice to doubt-•--
ere Is something .back or all that
will put the shadows out.
Gam
Tom.
1
i�
i
• The Living Dead.
We count it sad that we forget the
dead --
Give them no grieving through ou
busy days,
Banish their memories from ou
crowded ways,
And scarce recall the wisest words the
said;
Of fickle haste our modern lives ar
bred, And we, who once staked all on sem
Toyed friend,
Now at a newer sbrine ourlancie
bend,.
Even remembrance of old sorrow fled
Ruskin on "Art."
In one of Ruskin's essays he talks
about art, and points out the difference
r between manufacture, craft and art.
How would you 'define them? What
r, does "manufacture" mean? You know
from your music lessons as well as
y from your Latin lessons, that "manus"
e means hand, and "facto" means do, or
make, Therefore, manfaeture is to
make with the hands. Nowadays,
e however, machines have been invent.
ed to help the hands, and thus more
s can be made in a given time. The fine
work 01 the brain is not required but
' is left to others who show the workers
e what to do.
Craft, he tells us, le any thing that
is•done with the hands and the brain;
a so more mental control is required
and skill results. Thus each worker
d depends upon his own brain and in-
vents his own methods of producing
results, and executes .hisown ideas.
Art, he tells ua, is that which is pro -
ad duced by the hands, brain and heart.
Thus, painting, sculpture and music,
are on a higher plane because they re-
quire the co -o
era
q do the head co-operation of 1 d and
heart
soul or spirit, t some may ( p prefer
Y
to call it). Nothing can be called real
art which is produced only by the
hand and head' although it may be
very clever, precise or skillful. It
lacks the inner, appeal—the appeal of
the heart.
la your music a manufactured pro-
duct, with no inteligence behind ft?
Or is it a craft, with Intelligence be-
hind it, but no heart, Or is it real'
Art?
Yet far more tragic) ie it when w
peas,
Unreeognlzing, one who has bee
part
Of outworn interests of head an
heart
In hours forgotten now as last year's
grass;
The buried dead rack not disloyalty-
But,
isloyalty
But, oh, how hurt the living de
must be,
Oharlotte Beck
TheMystery
Meteors.
of Me
The late summer
and
autumn
monthsare generally marked by the 1
appearance o1 large numbers of so-
called "shooting stars." They are not
stars at all, but meteors, solid bodies
of varying size which enter the earth's
atmosphere from puter apace, to be
rapidly consumed by intense heat
caused by friction. This phenomenon
generally starts, about the tenth of
August and• continues into November.
Millions of meteors are consumed
by our atmosphere every year, but
only the larger •ones show that long
streak of vivid light which every one
has seen on a starry night when the
air is clear. Visitors to the Natural
,History Museum at South ifensington,
London, may examine at their leisure
many meteorites which the atmos-
phere has failed wholly to consume,
and whioh have been found burled in
-the earth hi different parts of the
world.
• Many people think that the un-
raveled mysteries of disappearing
ships at sea may 'occasionally have
been caused by a big meteor striking
a vessel and sending it to the bottom.
A sea captain not very long ago re-
ported, on arriving at Falmouth, that
bis ship had been atruek •by something
Which had exploded with the sound of
a cannon, and that the ship was In
consequence partially disabled.
As recently.as 1917 a stone weigh.
Ing 38 pounds, fell near Perth, and the
historic store at Mecca, which Moham-
medians hold in greatest reverence. i
a meteorite,
Our Mixed Language.
When the Normans conquered Eng-
land
ng
land and dispossessed the Anglo-Sax-
ons of their lands they spoke what is
known as Norman-French. This con.
tinned to be the ofliclel language for
many years.
One of the moat remarkable, though
often unnoticed, results of this dual
language in the same country is the
deferent names we give to the dead
and living animate used as food,
The Saxon was the serf who tilled
the soil and tended cattle; the Nor-
man was the overlord who ate the
moat thus provided, . While We call
the living animal a cow, we call the
dead animal beef, the first word being
Saxon and the second Norman.
Similarly, the serf called the living
animal a sheep, but when it was
served on the baron's table It wee
mutton, 'In the same way deer be.
came venison, calf became veal, and
ire hog became pork,
Pennies.
Now that the wrens are sleeping
Down the fox -glove lane,
And`iiittery moths are creeping
On the window pane,
Come, my little housewife,
Lay your apron by,
And we'll go flee for the pennies
They have spilled in the Eastern sky.
Sometimes they're bees among blue-
bells
With honey -sacs at their hips,
Sometimes they're yellow snail-shell:4
Sometimes damson: pips—
But I can always catch them
In the tangled net of your hair
When a cloud •Is dripping moonbeams
Through the twilight -dusty air.
So come, now the crickets are singing,
I've a nest of whinny gold,
Where we'll watch the chanes go wing-
ing -
Homeward, slow and old,
Till the stars come out a -twinkle
And dance on the liquid a
s Then I'll buy a kiss with the pennies o
That I catch in the strands of your
hail•,
—,Tames J, Sweeney, n
in
r, .
WHAT MAKES THE SKY BLUE?
•
• The anelente imagined the heavepe
to be transparent solid Matter, Whirl-
ing round the earth in diurnal revoiu•
tion, and carrying with it the stars,
whtob Were su$posed to be Axed in its
substance. The atmasphere surrounde
the earth /Ike A blanket at a distance
of from fifty to 200 miles. Beyond the
-atmosphere in every direction is
, mace. ,
There are -dust particles even h1 the
• purest alr, and these cause the blue
sky by scattering, disperaing, and re.
fleeting the light from the sun. ,
Tile air is invisible, but it hat
weight and force, It was left to the
great Florentine,. Galileo, to discover
the gravity of the atmosphere, but
• thirty centuries before his time Job
declared that God had assigned weight
to the winds, It le said that the et.
'moat/here which surrounds the earth
is equal in weight to a globe of lead
sixty miles in diameter, One cubit
foot of air weighs 13!a oz.
• The atmosphere is composed essen-
tlally of two gases, oxygen, one-fifth;
nitrogen, fourfifth, with a small mix-
ture of carbou-dloxide, and wherever
air is found this. marvelous. balance le
preserved. Without the atmosphere
we could not breathe; we could not
light a match or candle; sound could
not travel and aeroplanes could not
fly.
The absence of air would mean the
absence of the sky. As there le no air
on the moon there can be no sky, and
1f anyone lived on the moon, instead
of the blue sky he would see the black-
ness of space, and the stars and the
planets would be visible in the day-
time.
Nitrogen does little positive work
in comparison with oxygen, but rather
acts ea a drag or make -weight on its
more active companion. It to an in-
visible gas without odor or taste and
neither barna nor supports combus-
tion, It dilutes the oxygen and makes
it suitable for respiration.
Nitragou does not support 11fe, bu
oxygen is the greateet life.nnpportlog
power on oath. It 4s the breath of
life, but nitrogen dilutes the oxygen
and makes normal and comfortable
fife possible, With every breath we
take in oxygen and give nut oarbonfc
acid. Man and animals exist ort oxy
gen. Trees and plants live on carbonic
acid and give out oxygen, A grown.
man oonsumes, 490 gallons of oxygen
daily,
'Phe atmosphere tempers and retains
the boat et the sun, for without the
atmosPbere the heat which tails on the
earth would be quickly radiated into
space. It is the atmosphere in mo-
tion which causes the waves on the
aea, and tingle aerate the oceans.
Atmosphere carries the clouds along
and the latter are composed of atmos•
pherie duet and moisture, which even.
tually "drop fatness on the land.",
Clouds also accumulate electricity and
produce the violent discharges known
as thunder stoma,
Certain chemical compounds Round
in vegetables are produced by the
thunder storms, and without these
compound/ human and animal life
would be impossible on the earth.
By the use of hydro -filled sounding
balloons with self -recording meteor -
°graphs it has been possible to explore
the atmospbere to a height o1 over
twenty miles, One of the results Is
to show that the .atmosphere may be
divided into two regions or layers.
The lower layer extends six or seven
miles and in it the temperature falls
regularly as we ascend. In the upper
layer the temperature is believed to
remain constant.
Ten miles up the cold is so Intense
that if it could be brought down to the
earth we should all be frozen to death.
Ten miles down the heat is so great•
that if it could be brought up to the
surface we should all be roasted.
A Qomof Living i e+ .
the 3Etnseta?gi fors aiwaelt boeit
great chess players; it is the triad of
t contemplative, Sedentary genic that
suits the Slavic teraperanient, Ap-
parently under the new regime tbs
ancient gam thriyesi let any rate wee
read in the New York Times that tho
authorities in I'etrograd---or Lenin-
grad —•• recently amused thelnselves
and the nubile with a great .genre ,of,
thNavying elms In the courtyard of th0
famous Winter Palace of the Utero.
The match was supposed to be be-
tween the lied Artny and the lied'
,
Imagine dile vast oblongwrites t11e
correspondent, paved with cobble.
stones and clanked on three aides by
the wells o1 the palace. Oat the open
sideis the Paiaee Garden with a view
of the broad river Neva In the back-
ground, Each rail and balustrade wail.
covered with a mass of spectators in
gay -colored summer clothes. Before
the ,entrance of the palace was a stone
tribune holding three thousand people,
and a thousand more were packed
round tho "chess board" in the centre
of the courtyard, each of the black and
white squares of which is fully four
yards across
On one side of the tribune were
aligned the "whites," the soviet navy,
In a trim double row, The pawns were
sailors in long blue trousers,, white
blouses with blue scarfs, and white and
blue flat caps The castles were ma-
chine guns on carriages with a sailor
at each wheel. The knights were sail.
ors astride stolid white horses, The
bishops—called elephants in Russia-
were naval officers hr smart blue
jackets and white trousers. The queen
was a pretty blond girl in a navy cap,
blouse, scarf and short blue skirt. The
king was a big red flag guarded by
two sailors. .
The khaki -clad army had a similar
line -app, except that its horses were
black and Its queen was a charming
brune.M, dressed sea peasant and
holding a sheaf of yellow grain,
Behind the opposing bines sat two of
the best known chess players in the
city, civilians, chosen by each side to
fight its battle, They were perched
on wooden stageslike umpires at a
tennis tournament. On the steps be-
side each of them respectively stood a
sailor and a soldier with a megaphone
to announce the moves,
Both forces stood stiffly at attention
as the dally noon gun .gave the signal
for the game to begin. 11 lasted for
five hours and ended in a draw, but,
despite the intense beat, which made
the courtyard like a furnace, the
pieces, including the queens, never re-
laxed the stlffnette of their pose and
went through the moves with the
rigidity of automatons•. Even the
horses behaved with typical Russian
patience, except once when the steed
ofable
black knight gh den cd in his eager-
ness to take a white castle, From time
to time Red Cross nurses offered re-
freshment to the combatants, who gen-
erally refused it stoically.
Bank -Note Secrets.
Greater privacy surrounds the mak-
ing of notes for the Bank of Engle
than almost any other undertaki
connected with that great institution
The paper on which the notes
printed has been made in the sa
factory, at Laveretoke, Hampshire, f
over. two hundred years. It is' pr
pared entirely by hand from special
selected rags, and is washed in sp
water used for no other purpose.
The formula of the ink used
printing the notes is known to onl
half -a -dozen people. The chief 1
gredient is charcoal obtained b
smoke -drying the wood of Rhea's
vines. Each note wets the Ban
roughlya
pennyto• produce, nCe all
P d th
average g period of circulation is tw
a half months. About 60,000
the notes are printed daily, whi
every year nearly 20,000,000 old note
are collected and destroyed.
•
Sailing Ships Without Sails.
A remarkable new method of pro-
pelling ships has been devised. Th
ordinary masts and salts of a salli
vessel are replaced by windmill
based upon the so-called Magnus effec
—the influence of wind an a rotating
mass. A schooner fitted with this !
vention has made a successful trip t
the Baltic. -
It Is rather early to attempt to jedg
the merits of the device, but In nrakin
any comparison with ordinary sale
ships the complication, maintenance
and relatively high initial cost of th
electrical equipment, the need fo
skilled operators, and the double loss
in efficiency of the dynamo -motor eye -
tem must be considered.
Against these may be set down the
fact that a very small crew is required
to look after this semi-automatic plant
as compal•ed with the number required
to mnipulate the sails of an ordinary
sailing ship,
Wireless in the Backwoods.
In British Columbia lumber workers
and other lonely individuals are instat-
ing wireless sets, which enable them
to catch news and concert programs
from the great broadcasting station. at
Vancouver, and even from the distant
!ties of Portland and San Francisco,
The Indians also have taken en -
Education Defined.
To many of us commas and semi -
rid colons are among the smallest things
ng in our language, yet someone has de-
• 1 fined an educated man as one who
are' knows when to use a semt-colon. If
me this marks the difference between the
or educated and the illiterate we must
e- have a much larger percentage of Il-
ly literacy than even the World War re -
ring vealed, At any rate, there Is nothing
' so small in life that it may not help
in or hinder us. The misuse of commas
Y and seml-colons often -have very seri
n-,ous results,
Y In answering a telegram as to
h , whether an agent should make some
k big purchase for them, the firm wired,
o
Nn price toohi
. P h." But 'h
g the comma
W0 was -p
m1#ted, which changed the mean -
of ing of the message to "No price too
is high." Of course the agent made the
purchase and nearly ruined the firm
because he thought they wanted the
goods at any price,—O, S. M.
e Egypt's Monster Pyramid.
ng The Great Pyramid of Egypt wee
s, erected more than 5,000 years ago,
t and nothing more mechanically per-
fect has ever been built. In massive-
n- ness of construction it far exceeds
o' anything that any nation, ancient or
I modern, has ever attempted.
e Its original height was, just over 480
g feet, and the length of each side at.
g the base 764 feet. Its cubical contents
exceeded 809,000,000 cubic feet, and
e the -weight of its mass 6,840,000 tons,
1' i Its original cubical contents would
have built a city of 22,000 houses, with
'watt a. foot thick, each possess1
"The brilliant dashes Of color, with
green leaves far n baokgrolrnd, can
ore easily be imagined than des-
Bribed,
"The Eixgilsh sparrows seem to
ave a aor't of clan clanahip among
ourselves, and when a bird conies
along that they cannot drive away by
ffghtlu,r, they seem to delegate several.
Difficult I3reathlete
Reggle (awaiting "luncheort)---"l'm
GO empty, Miss Sharpe,' I cawn't
breathe, deader know," p
MIAs Sharpe—"It is always difficult
breathing in, a vacuum, 14f3'. Sapp," e
Date Book Needed.
Slro was tt'o Hours late for her an-
ointment,
"You should carry a watch," he said.
"I always break them, dear," she ex-
haled.
"Well, you might 81 any rate carry
calendar," he replied, sarcastically,
usiastieally to wireless, Indeed in
may ways the Red Indian is becom-
g up-to-date, He cats his wood with
petrol -driven saw, and it is only the
oorest of the tribesmen who do not
we their own rooter -propelled boats.
There is scarcely an Indian home
which does not possess a, gramophone
of some sort. When the Indians leave
their villages to go iishin'g they take
their musical instrttntents with them,
They start the machine In the morn.
hag and only turn it off as the last of
the household steps Into bed,
Prince Otto
Eldest son of the late Kuri Hapsburg,
former emperor of Austria and king
of leuugary. ,There is a movement
01001 in Hungry to piece the tiveive•
year-old lad on the throne as king.
He at present is an exile In Spain with
his nether, the ex•Eirtprese Zita,
The Sahara Railway,
Already conquered by the camel and
the motor car, the Sahara desert will
be traversed• by fast passenger and
freight trains, if plats being made by
French engineers to bridge the Qat-
mg sands with a rai1ioad ar success-
ful. The line will be 2,000 miles long,
end will extend front the Algerian
port of Oran to Wagadugn in the
Freuolr Sudalt, the capital of the ter-
tile timer Volta region„and eouvenl-
ently situated for the establishment
of a centre to link Op the Niger colon.
les,
A World Agricultural Census,
The International Institute of Agit.
culture at Rome plans . a world-wide
agricultural tenses in 1980,,
ng :3c)
lfeet of frontage. Or if the contents
of this vast structure were laid dawn m
in a line a foot in breadth and depth,
the line would be nearly 17,000 miles Fr
in length, o
Herodotus tells us that 100,000 men an
were engaged inits construction for it
a space of twenty years, and modern "s
scholars do not think the estimate an in
exaggerated one, an
a dot
Luck.
What brings you, sailor, bone tram hi
the sea-- tin
Coffers Ot geld and of Ivory? in
fr
The Remarkable Word
"Sack”
Probably none of our readers think •
of "sack" as a word in any way re-
markable, but Dr. C. G. Williamson in
his book Cubrious Survivals reminds
us that the word has a strange origin
and le connected with a curious story.
We probably got that word "eack,"
he says, from a Coptic or Egyptian
word "sok," which means a kind of
canvas or cloth from which a bag was
made, The word survives sockcloth.
The story is that the word "sok"
was the last worduttered before the
tongues were confounded at Babel and
that consequently it appears in every
language in an almost identical form,
Curiously enough, the second state- -
ent is true,
The Irish "soa" Is the same as the
enoh word; the Latin "saccus" is
loseiy related to the Italian "seam)"
d to the Spanish "sacs," In Greek
is 'Bakken," in Hebrew "sake' or
aq," in Egyptian or in Coptic "sok."
Dutch "zak" and in Swedish "sock";
d the same word appears in many
her languages, without any .reel
change, In slang or colloquial to;k
e now appy it in quite another fes -
ole; when we talk of a person's,get-
g the sack we intend delicately to
timate that he has been disoherged
om his employment. That use we
probably derive from the Turkish cus•
tom of getting rid oe undesirable per.
sone by putting them into a sack and
throwing them into the Bosphorus!
When first I went to sea as a lad
, A new jack-knife was all 7. had;
And I've sailed for fifty years and
three
To the coasts or gold and ivory.
And now at the end of a lucky life --
Well, still I've got my old taok knife,
—Wlldfrid Gibson in Westminster
Gazette.
That Reminds Me.
The Toastmaster --"l'917 dtd yell!
say that my story rePethefed Yon of the
old wheeze you milled? They're not
at all alike;'
The After-dtuner Speaker—"No, but
they're bout printed en the same page
01 a joko-book Oubliawe in 1850,"
Stage Fright.
Youthful sufferers from stage fright
may find comfort in the fact that older
and stronger heads have boon end are
fellow -sufferers, Winston Churchill,
hardened stump orator, in a recent
magazine arliele recalls the fact that
bo once broke down in a epeoch in
Parliament and had to tit down, Glad-
stone confessed to being unable to
face ;in audience without fright, and
JohnBright, a consummate orator,
confessed, "I never rise in the House
without a trembling at the knees and
a secret with that shine one else would
catch the Speaker's eye and enable
me to sit down." "Disraeli," his wife
told a friend, "is the sweetest-teller
ed pf zap, brat he is eLYaya to?' WA'
41e whin he it going ' to Wait, a
speech" and she stated thitt When
titeqry drove together to the' house 0n
stieh 000atietre his nervous condition
was swill that she dared act speak to
kite.
--- g
Lake Superior is the largest fresh-
water take In the world, It is situat
000 feet above soa,levelt and covers
an area of 61,200 scplaxo suiiefl,