HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1917-7-26, Page 6High Speed Bad for New Cars,
"A high speed passenger locomotive
offers an excellent comparison," says a
Motor ear expert,
"The locomotive is built to run eas-
ily,'and pull a tremendous load at
seventy miles an hour. But is that
locomotive put at once into such ser-
vice? Hardly, The superintend-
ent or master mechanic who would
permit such a thing would not be fit
to hold his position.
"The locomotive is run 'dead' in a
freight train to its point of delivery.
Then it is easily and carefully 'broken
in' by being given slow freight service
before it is turned over to the passeng-
er crews.
"It is a good deal the same in the
case of a steamship. She is built
under a contract guaranteeing so
many miles per hour, but no shipbuild-
ing concern would think of submitting•
a new boat to a trial run until after
her engines had ample time to 'wear'
in
"It should be the same with motor!
cars. The better a car is built tl.e
more care should be exercised when;
the motor is new.
"Careful handling of a car when
new moans a better and smoother
engine and fewer repair bills."
Two Simple 011 Tests,
There•are two ways to test oil, One
is gradually to heat a bottle of oil un-
til a yellow vapor arises on the sur-
face, Maintain this heat about fifteen
minutes, then let the oil stand about
twenty-four hours. If the oil is of
good quality it will turn only a little
darker than originally, but if it is not
a good quality it will turn black and
a certain amount of black sediment
will be seen. This is exactly what
happens is such oil is used' in the
engine.
Another test is to take an equal
quantity of oil and water and shake
them thoroughly together in a bottle.
After standing for twenty-four hours
the good oil will rise to the top of the
water, showing a clear line of separa-
tion. A poor oil will have a consid-
erable strip of milky fluid between the
oil and the water, and if the oil is a
poor grade most of the fluid will be-
come this whitish substance. This
test is important, because a slight
amount of water might become mixed
with any oil, and the oil should be of
good quality to prevent serious dam-
age in these circumstances.
WITH THE TRANS-
PORTS IN FRANCE
FOOD MUST BE BROUGHT UP
UNDER DIRECT FIRE.
Every Night Goes on the Nerve -
Racking Work of the Canadian
Army Service Corps.
"Give the word to limber up,
sergeant -major. And you might tell
ray groom that I shan't walk my horse
this evening. I'll walk instead."
"Very good, sir," says the sergeant -
major as he salutes and goes out.
There arises a clattering on the cob-
bles of the French farmyard; voices
call out orders; the watercarts are fill-
ed; horses are harnessed to their
limbers; the mail and the rations are
piled on their wagons; and ten min-
utes later the whole column is stand-
ing ready in the dusk, the transport
men mounted, the quartermaster, the
transport officer, and a sergeant on
foot.
The sound of a whistle, a straining
of horses, the cracking of a whip, and
the transport rumbles and pelts out of
the farmyard gate on its way towards
the trenches.
Away ahead the first star -shells
shoot up and sink slowly in brilliance
to the earth again. All the way
along the horizon little sudden pricks
of flame come from the enemy's guns,
the soft "pop" of bursting shrapnel
sounds through the darkness for it
would be folly to set out before night
hid you from German observers, and
the "heavies" away on the right crash
and rumble and then crash again, as
they burst among the broken houses.
The road—a narrow strip of pave with
bottonless, clinging mud on either side
of it—is thronged with lumbers of oth-
er regiments, with cookers, ambulance,
A. S. C. lorries laden with tools and
trench stores and piles of sandbags,.
orderlies on bicycles, wounded men on
their way down to the field ambulance,
and men from hospital on the way
back to their units. And through or
with this stream winds the transport
officer at the head of his column.
Danger on Every Hand.
Now and then there is a sudden halt
—the enemy are shelling the road a
little farther up and there is nothing
to do but wait. The transport officer
fumes to and fro, for he has under
his command a dozen men, more
horses, and six or seven limbers, all
packed tightly together on a narrow
road with the Germans shelling in
front and an interminable line of
transport waiting behind. If the
Roche gunners lengthen their range
by a hundred yards or so—
"Lead on," tomes the word from far-
ther up, and the whole road is mov
ment again. The laden limbers crawl
along over the pave till they reach a
battered old building that looms up
through the night—the dumping
ground where the supplies have to be
left for the men in the trenches.
Privates tramp to and fro with picks
and shovels and ammunition; a
sergeant is there to see that the ra-
tions for the different companies are
placed in different piles; a post -
corporal hurries hither and thither, in
search of "D" Company's letters,
which have been mislaid, and the
transport officer and quartermaster
supervise and control everything—al-
ways in the most impenetrable dark-
ness, save when a star -shell lights up
the white faces, the sweating horses,
the gleaming mud.
The transport officer gives the word,
and the empty limbers jolt out of the,
yard on to the road again to join in I
the stream that flows back towards!
the billets and sleep.
Nights after night there is the same }
3
slow crawl along the road pitted with
shell -holes, and same halts, the same!
dead horse and broken limber in the.
ditch, and the same knowledge that, in
a moment or so, your own horses may
be struggling in their death agony,
your own limbers splintered and
smashed, your own men lying dead or
wounded.
And when the wagons are once more
ranged in line against the wall of the
farms, when the last of the men has
climbed up to the hayloft where he
sleeps, the transport officer sighs with
relief as he drags off his muddy boots.
"Thank heaven, that's over till to -mor-
row night," he mutters,
FACTS ABOUT HUMAN BODY.
Statistics Regarding This Marvel of
Creation. `
There are said to be more than two
million little openings in the skin of
our bodies to serve as outlets for an
equal number of sweat glands. The
body contains more than two hundred
bones. It is said that as much blood
as is in the entire body passes
through the heart every minute, i.e.,
all the blood in the body goes in and
out of the heart once every minute.
The lung capacity of the average per-
son is about 325 cubic inches, the
Book of Wonders instructs us.
With every breath you inhale about
two-thirds of a flint of fresh air and
exhale an equal amount if you breathe
normally.
The stomach of the average adult
person has a capacity of about five
pints, and manufactures about nine
pounds of gastric juice daily.
There are over five hundred muscles
in the body, all of which should be
exercised daily to keep you in the
best condition, The average adult hu-
man heart weighs from eight to
twelve ounces, and it beats about
100,000 times every twenty-four hours,
QUEER BLUNDERS
OF WRITER FOLK
SLIPS OF SCRIBES SERIOUS
AND OTHERWISE.
Quaint and Curious Errors Into Which
Novelists and Other Writers
Have Fallen,
"All in the boat rowed splendidly,
but none so fast as No. 0."
Fortunately, "No. 0" was only a
hero in fiction—"Ouida" was respon-
sible for his extraordinary behavior
hi one of her novels—or one trembles
to think what he would have suffered
at the hands of the rest of the crew
and the coach; and It is to minimize
ridiculous blunders like this getting
into print that a new profession of
feminine adviser to men novelists has
recently been created in Paris.
The idea has distinct points to re-
commend it, says a London writer.
Everyone who writes much must fre-
quently come face to face with diffi-
culties owing to lack of expert knowl-
edge of particular things and phases
of life; and, although, a writer must be
a kind of jack-of-all-trades, in a sense,
he—or she—would need to be a verit-
able walking encyclopaedia to avoid
making blunders now and then.
Battleships at Pekin.
I know this to my own personal sor-
row, as a rather prolific inflicter of
stories and articles on a long-suffering
public, for I have several times caus-
ed absurdities to get into print.
I recently, for instance, wrote a
story in which a fleet of warships
were supposed to visit Pekin. I do
not know why I conceived this impos-
sibility—any Chinese town would have
done me quite as well as Pekin—but
I suffered for my sins.
As the ninety-six correspondents
who wrote sarcastic letters to the
editor of the paper unfortunate en-
ough to print my story pointed out,
Pekin is about a hundred miles from
the sea, and so how my battleships
ever got there was a distinct mystery.
I am seriously beginning to think
that I am not very good at stories
with ships in them. A little while
ago I wrote about a submarine. It
was a thrilling story, but, in my mis-
guided enthusiasm for "effects," I
made a horrible slip. When, after a
breathless adventure, the submarine
came above water, she was flying the
Union Jack! It has been frequently
impressed upon me since that this is
not a way they have in the. Navy with
submarines.
Surfeit of Knowledge.
Apropos, I once read a story, writ-,
ten by a woman, in which a way they
do not have at the 'Varsities was in-
troduced. One of her male characters
"was very popular at Cambridge, and
came away with a double Blue in his-
tory." I have often wondered how he
managed it. I have always thought
that Blues were given for athletic pro-
ficiency, and that they had no connec-
tion with history or other scholastic
subjects.
Talking about history,"when I was a
reporter pn a great London daily
paper I was given a story to do on the
subject of lampreys. There had been
a glut of lampreys in the upper
reaches of the Thames, and to the
facts of the case I gaily started to
tack on some observations concerning
the habits, manners, and customs of
lampreys generally.
Among other remarks I made was
one to the effect that lampreys were
the fish for which King John showed
a fatal fondness. This, I consider-
ed, read extremely well; but, unhap-
pily, as about half a million people
proceeded to pointout on the morrow,
it was not King John, but an entirely
different monarch whose death is
popularly attributed to a surfeit of
them.
An Admirable Crichton.
That, however, was a mild mistake
compared with the following state-
ment for which a woman novelist was
once responsible:
"She came slowly into the paddock,
leading in the winner of the Waterloo
Cup."
The Waterloo Cup is run for by
dogs, not horses, of course, so how
"she" led the winner into the paddock,
and what sort of paddock it was, it is
difficult to understand.
Even this pales before the exploits
of a gentleman—the figure of an auth-
oress' imagination—who was alleged
to have won the Derby one day, scor-
ed w century at Lord's the next day,
and gone partridge -shooting on the
third day,
Considering that the Derby is run
on the first Wednesday in June, one
wonders where he. found partridges to
shoot on the following Friday.
And perhaps you remember the
great writer who made' a P. & 0.
liner discharge its passengers at
London Bridge, and the doctor's
daughter who. went to a dance wear-
ing a coronet.
MORE THAN GOODNESS.
Preparedness and Practice in Good
Works Are Also Essential.
"I"7bn't see the use, of it all," the
young man said to his pastor. "Why
should T go to all of those meetings
at the church and to the Sunday
school? I can be a Christian without
doing all that. I can put in my time
more usefully with books and outdoor
life on Sunday."
"I don't say," his pastor replied,
"that you cannot be a Christian un-
less you do all those things; but you
cannot afford to neglect them if you
are to be fully equipped for the best
Christian service. The church is a
training school for efficiency in reli-
gious activity."
Six years went by; then a letter
came to the pastor from a Y.M.C.A.
secretary, a part of which was as fol-
lows:
"Can you send us for the field out
here a young man who can measure
up to great things? We want a
young man who loves men and boys,
and has worked with them long
enough to prove his power as a soul
winner. Don't send us one who is
simply a good young man. We want
something more effective than mere
goodness."
A few days after that came, the
pastor received a call from one of the
members of his church, the father of
the young man who six years before
had argued that he 'did not need to en-
gage in the activities of church or-
ganization in order to be a Christian.
"John is a good fellow," said the
father anxiously, "but he hasn't done
as well as we had hoped he would.
His mother and I want to get him into
a better place than the one he has
now. You couldn't recommend him
to a position, could you? He would
like church or association work"
"What can John do?" asked the
minister.
"Well, he is a good boy."
"But what can he do?" Was he had
experience in teaching boys in the
Sunday school?"
"No, I think not."
"Did he ever belong to a young peo-
ple's society, and learn how to organ-
ize committee work or solve religious
problems'?"
"I'm afraid not."
"Could he fill a position like this
one?" and tine pastor read the Y. M.
C. A. letter.
The father's face became thought-
ful.
"I know John could not meet those
requirements. They are too exacting.
He hasn't fitted himself for them; he
has missed his chance."
The father went away, pondering
on his son's unusable "goodness"; and.
the pastor found among his active
workers a young man who measured
up to what is proving to be one of the
greatest places of influence in the
Chinese nation.
The time has gone by when any
type of mere goodness will do for
modern reform, or missionary or
evangelistic service. It is even more
true now than in Timothy's time that
the gigantic task of Christianity calls
for "Workmen that need not be
ashamed, . prepared unto every
good work,"
Bordeaux For Beans.
Bordeaux mixture properly used
checks anthracnose on beans and pre-
vents the unsightly spots often seen on
the pods and other parts.
Bordeaux mixture, made of four
pounds of copper sulphate, four
pounds of burned lime and 50 gallons
of water, kills the anthacenose fungus
that attacks beans, as well as cucum-
bers and melons, The Agricultural
Experiment Station advises its use for
spraying when the plants are two to
three inches high, about ten days later,
again after blossoming, and repeated
as necessary,
EUGENIE AT NINETY-TWO.
Near the End of Her Long Life Em-
press Sees Defeat of Germany.
When German prisoners of war am
marched to a barbed wire enclosure
near Frimley, Aldershot, England,
they down ue bel
beautifulpass mansionan , standinaveng onow aa
wooded hill. •It often happens that
as the Germans file past the gateway
lodge, a sad -eyed, venerable woman
is standing or sitting there, It is
doubtful if any of the prisoners know
that she -is the surviving consort of
Napoleon III., wlro delivered his
sword to the King of Prussia at Se-
dan, September 1, 1870.
Empress Eugenie celebrated her
ninety-second birthday on May 5 by
watching the sight of a new and large
detachment of prisoners marching
toward their concentration camp. It
was a dramatic contrast to the events
of many years ago which robbed her
of her seat on the French imperial
throne.
Surely there is not another woman
in the world who has lived through
such experiences as this one, who
forms the link between the stately
past of the French and the glorious
present of united democracies. It was
her beauty and popularity which
aided Napoleon III. to establish him-
self as monarch. It was the interest
aroused by her marriage with Napo-
leon III. which enabled him to bring
about the Crimean war, although that
war marked the beginning of his
fall.
Eugenie's influence over her hus-
band was well known and it is pos-
sible that her intelligence went far
toward helping him to realize that
Prussianism was the real menace of
Europe. When the North German
Bond was formed in 1800 he knew
that here was his real rival. From
the date of the formation of this bund
Prussia has gone steadily forward
with plans for world power which
culminated in the present war, and it
must be with feelings of joy that Em-
press Eugenie sees to -day the great-
est countries on earth allied with
France against the old enemies of
Napoleon III.
Throughout England the name of
Empress Eugenie is revered. Wher-
ever charity and kindness were to be
found it was almost certain that her
name would appear in connection
therewith. Throughout the years that
have elapsed since she went to Eng-
land with Napoleon III. after the de-
feat at Sedan, she has worked un-
ceasingly g y am ong the poor and the
sick. Her wealth has been at the
disposal of charitable organizations.
Her only son, Prince Louis, who went
to England with her, died on the field
of battle in Zululand.
Her home on Farnborough Hill has
been transformed into a hospital for
British officers. Since early, in 1915
she has been using all of her means
and what strength she has left in car-
ing for those men who come to her
from the battle fields of France.
TO CANADA.
Dear heart, my country, as I see thee
stand
For the defence of nations great and
small,
Responsive in a moment to their call.
When Odin's legions swarmed at his
command
To crush their liberty and deeply
brand
The horrid marks of servitude on all,
I thank thee for thy steadfast human
wall
Formed to protect each holy strug-
gling land.
No slavery hath vexed thee hitherto,
Nor must its slimy coils pollute thee
now.
For thy true knights have sworn a
solemn vow
That Allemaine's proud upstart soon
shall rue
His mean ambition to possess the
world,
Like that high rebel from the zenith
hurled.
—0. McCullough,
A man we know went to town the
other day and brought three bolts each
of all commonly used sizes, a couple
dozen screws of various sizes and
lengths, and a pound of nuts for bolts
of different diameters. "Now I am
ready for anything that comes along,"
he remarked; and it wasn't two hours
before a holt was needed in the horse-
rake, and he was able to lay his hand
on the right one.
AN INCIDENT
OF TIE MARNE
A WAR CORRESPENDENT AND
HIS AUTOMOBILE.
The Brave Spirit of a Soldier Who
Stopped a Bullet and Said,
"It's Nothing!"
In the' course of the Battle of the
Marne, the Germans fought a stiff,
rear -guard action at I'riez, At its.
height, Mr. Frederic -Coleman, who
narrates his .experiences in his bgolc,
From Mons to Ypres, found himself'
and his automobile involved in the pro-
ceedings.
One of the Sussex men, says Mr.
Coleman, came running back with the
news Of a general retirement, Rifle
fire in front, rifle fire from our left,
and shrapnel everywhere, made us
wonder whether retirement was not
less wise than staying where we were.
But. orders are orders; so we headed
down the slope fcr the village, where
I had left the automobile.
'Presently we reached a fifty -foot
gap in the bank at the roadside; that
!part of our journey must be taken in
full sight of the enemy. Two soldiers
rushed at it, only to fall before they
had got across. While we paused, a
herd of some twenty cows galloped,
bellowing, down the hedge side in the
•field beside us. Blessed with an in-
spiration, we sprinted down the road
in the lee of the barrier thus provi-
dentially provided.
"We're all right so long a.s the beef
holds out!" panted a Tommy.
Hi a few seconds I had reached the
car. A major asked me if I would
take back a load of wounded.. I be-
lieved that any occupant of a car that
tried to pass thi$ugh the village and
up the slope in plain sight of the
enemy would stand little chance of
escape; but the wounded were tossed
into the tonneau, into the front seats,
on the folded top at the rear, wherever
space could be found. I jumped into
the driving seat. The running board
of the car was lined with soldiers, and
one, the only one unhit, was mounted
on a mud guard.
He Paid For His Ride.
Up the hill we crawled. My load
was eleven, some badly hit. Two
cyclists in front gave promise of block-
ing the way as we gathered speed, but
a shell that burst over us knocked one
of the pair off his wheel, seemingly
a few feet over us. Four men from a
group ahead of us were hit. Bullets
sang all about. Some one hanging
on the running board was hit, and
cried out as he dropped off. As the
slope became less steep, I overtook and
passed an ammunition limber, with the
team—minus a driver—in full flight
toward the rear.
A mile or so farther on we found a.
hastily improvished hospital, where
I delivered my load. ,,
"Wounded?" asked tin orderly as I
drove up.
"Yes," I answered. "All but one,"
and I turned to look back at him.
"I stopped one, coming up the hill,"
he said, with a grin. "I stopped one
proper, I did!" And he opened his tunic
and showed me a blood-soaked side.
"Might have got you if I hadn't been
there," he added, "so perhaps it was
just as well. I couldn't have brought
the others hack in this thing." And
he grinned again.
"Good luck, son," I said, with a lump
in my throat.
His teeth were set as he was borne
away by two orderlies, but the corners
of his mouth twitched in another half
smile, and he said:
"Thanks. Don't you worry about
me. I'm all right. It's nothing!"
I hvae often thought of him since,
and hoped that he came through in
good shape. His spirit was so very,
very fine!
Before you begin making your jams
and jellies, buy some small glasses
about two inches high and wide in pro-
portion. Then as each variety is made,
fill a few of these glasses. You will
be glad to have them next winter
when you want to send a little remem-
brance to a sick friend, or wish to peck'
a box for Christmas. The individual
size is daintier in appearance than the
larger -sized glasses and allows ono to
send several kinds instead of only one.
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SA`I, I WANT To
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TELL- ME, AR5.`!OU A
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FOR. 'The EX -1 RAORDINARI
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POISON AS USED
IN WARFARE.
COMMON BOTH IN SAVAGE AND
CIVILIZED TIMES..
Germans in the Present War Have
Reverted to the Savage Methods
of Olden Days.
As late as the fourth century, A.
D., some of the German tribes were
accustomed to poison their spears
and arrows by dipping them in a pre-
paration of the deadly hellebore.
Now they have returned to the
idea with modern scientific improve-
ments. They are usingg poison gases;
they load shells'(it is alleged) with
prussic acid, which is the most dead-
ly of all poisons, one breath of it be-
ing enough to kill instantly by para-
lyzing the heart action, and it is said
that recently they have resorted to
the expedient of poisoning wells with
cyanide of potassium.
Here we have a reversion to sav-
age methods, pure and silnple. For,
since the very darty days of civiliza-
tion, the use of poisons in warfare has
been reckoned among the impossibili-
ties.
One expects such things of sav-
ages. In fact, among wild peoples
all over the world the use of poisoned
weapons has been rather common.
The Comanches and Apaches of this
continent in former days were ac-
customed to poison their arrows by
dipping them in a mess of putrid
liver mixed with rattlesnake venom.
Poisonous Arrows.
In the National Museum at Wash-
ington are preserved a few arrows
which nobody venturesto handle
without the greatest care, inasmuch
as their points are coated with a sub-
stance that is probably poisonous.' A
slight puncture inflicted by one of
them might be fatal.
These arrows were purchased from
the Seri Indians, a small but ferocious
tribe that makes its headquarters on
a large island called Tiburon, in the
Gulf of California. They are said to
be the wildest people in the Western
Hemisphere, and it is understood that
they are cannibals.
The Seri manufacture their war poi-
son by causing irritated rattlesnakes
to bite repeatedly a piece of the lung
of a dead animal. The fragment of
lung is further envenomed by inducing
scorpions to sting it. Then the heads
of the rattlesnakes and the tails of
the scorpions are mashed and mixed
in a wooden bowl, together with the
poisoned lung, and the preparation is
allowed to decompose until its ripe-
ness and putrid potency are attested
by a noisome and deathlike effluvium.
This is the stuff in which the Seri
warriors dip their arrows. When dry
it appears as a thin varnish over the
iron tip, covering also the wooden
foreshaft and the attachment of
sinews and mesquite gum by which
the head is fastened to the stick,
The First Pneumatic Gun.
The most celebrated of all weapon
poisons is the "woorar•i," employed
by savages of the Orinoco Basin, in
South America. It is an elaborate
product. Two species of venomous
serpents contribute to it, and a third
ingredient is the juice to a vine allied
to the plant from which strychnine is
obtained. To the mixture is added a
quantity of red ants of a kind whose
bite is particularly poisonous.
With this preparation are enven-
omed the darts which the natives of
that region fire from blowguns. The
instrument employed is a section of
reed, hollowed by punching out the
pith, so as to leave a smooth and
polished bore. Such a gun weighs
only about a pound and a half, and,
like a rifle, it has a foresight and
backsight, made of the teeth of a
small mammal called the "acouchi."
The darts are fashioned from the
leaf -ribs of a species of palm. They
are ten inches long, of the thickness
of a crow quill and ninde sharp as
needles by scraping them between
the teeth of the "pirai" fish, A
wrapping of wild cotton fits them to
the bore of the gun, and a puff of
breath fires the projectile, Th' ilow-
gun,,in fact, whs the first ofill pneu-
matic gluts, and it is so accurate an
instrument of marksmanship that the
natives of the Orinoco region use it
for shooting butterflies on the wing.
Poisoned Thumbnails.
The head-hunting Dyaka, of Borneo,
poison their arrows with the sap of
the upas --the "deadly upas tree," so
celebrated in story, The tale former-
ly current was that this tree (which
belongs to the strychnine -producing
family) exhaled a vapr destructive
of al! animal life, The weary travel-
er, lying down beneath its inviting
shade, was lulled to a sleep from
which he never woke up. As a matter
of fact, however, the only deadly
thing about the iipaa tree is its sap.'
The .Otonii Indians of the Spanish
Main used to poison their thumbnails
when they went to war, inflicting fa-
tal wounds upon the'! enemies by
scratching them, The Prussians have
not yet adopted that idea, but who
can doubt their willingness, if they
thought that "military necessity"
calked for the use of such a method
of combat?
It carrying pails of water about, it
is useful to know that a flout of wood
keeps H from splashirg,