HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1924-10-09, Page 7For the _....�..
Boys and . Girl
THE LIGHT 'KEEPER'S SON.
A long, narrow strip of land, be-
longing to the Canadian Government,
and jutting out into the Gulf of St.
Lawrence, was, at the time I write o
known by the appropriate title o
Cape Hurricane.
On account of the dangerous condi
tion of the coast, a magnificent ligh
house had.been built at the extrem
.point of the cape, and hard by stoo
the cottage of the keeper, an old sea
faring man, named Samuel Johnston
Besides two 'daughters, he had fou
sons, the .youngest" of whom, • Hal
aged 14 years, is the hero of my stor
One day in the early part of Sep
tember, the boys and girls,' with th
exception of • Hale, drove about te
inland, for the purpose of bein
present at a wedding the same eve
ing.
Samuel Johnstone, who was a wid
owerwas consequently left alone with
his little son.
As night approached, the forme
perceived, with some anxiety, that'th
sky was' overcast by: heavy clouds, tha
a cold, wet wind"was blowing fr
the north, .and the experienced mar
finer at once concluded that a grea
storm was impending.
"Hale," he said, entering the cot
tage and addressing the boy, who wa
reading by the open fireplace, "ru
down to the cove and pull up you
skiff high and dry. You'll' never' sat
the little Sea Gull` again if to -night'
storm strikes her."
of every nook and cranny in the,prem-
ises, Hale, with the stealthy motion
of a cat, ascended the steep, narrow
winding stairs.
f; For the first time in his experience
f they creaked beneath his weight.
Up, up he. went, every slight noise
sending a thrill of: terror through his
frame; up past loopholes, which now
admitted no single- ray of light;, up,
e until the second last' round was very
d nearly completed'and then' he stopped.
What was it that made him. shiver
e' as though afflicted with an ague?
rIWhat caused him to crouch down in
e, I the inky darkness, scarcely three feet
Y' from the bottom of the last rickety
flight of stairs? He held his breath
el and listened. Deapite the fearful
en I roaring of the tempest. without; Hale
g distinctly heard the low murmur' of
n-Lvoices, and the loud , -echoing sound of
descending footsteps.
el He recognized the wreckers. One
was an Indian, the other Miles Perk-
ier, a white• man, and both suspicious
r' and dangerous characters.
e,' "Ugh!" exclaimed the former,as he
t I paused on the last step.'"Me hear
fro
um noise! 'Sh!"
-The sharp -eared Indian had detect-
(ed the almost suppressed breathing of
Hale. The brave boy never moved a
-I muscle, but the beating of his heart
swas painful in•that fearful moment.
n1 Two steps to one side and either of
rthe rnen would have trampled' . upon
1 him wherehe lay.
s Would they make a search? Would
theystrike a Light?
"Go on, you coward 1" said Parker,
impatiently. "There, ain't no human
e bein' but them in the cottage within
e miles of us. Go on, I tell youl"
e "Ugh! White man, him 'foolleethe
Indian answered, muttering discon-
e tentedly as he passed downward.
Parker followed, and soon their
s echoing footsteps died away' in the
distance, and Hale rose with a prayer
t of thanksgiving on his lips, for the
of danger was past.
r Quickly he ran up the Last flight of
stairs, and one glance showed him all.
The wreckers had not extinguished
the lamp, but simply broken the re-
volving apparatus .In another light-
-house farther down the coast the. light
was stationary. Pilots, therefore,
would naturally mistake ,one for the
other, and run their ships upon the
rocks. The plan of the wreckers was
perfect in its diabolical ingenuity and
in its certainty of success.
Hale, however, was equal to the
occasion. Closing the heavy door of
the little circular apartment, he bolted
and barred it firmly. This was scarce-
ly the work eta minute. Then, stand-
ing on a stool, he found—oh, joy of
joys!—that he could reach the' damp
and move it easily with his hands—in
fine, that he himself could perform
the work of the revolving apparatus.
"One, two, three, four, five, six,"
he counted with the regularity of a
clock, until he reached "sixty," and
then the brilliant light flashed' out
upon the darkness and many a pilot,
miles away upon the bosom of the
stormy gulf, saw the well-known
signs), and steered his vessel accord-
ingly.
It is. scarcely necessary to relate
how the infuriated wreckers, vowing
vengeance upon the person who had
outwitted them, ran up again and
again upon the stout barrier which
separated them from the heroic boy.
Suffice it to say, that amid the'howl-
ing of the storm, the curses, threats
and pistol shots of the baffled ruf-
fians, five feet away from him, Hale'
calmly and precisely continued count-
ing the weary minutes of that long,
terrible night,
His arms ached; his limbs could
scarcely support him; he was almost
overcome with fatigue; but he never
flinched -he stood with invincible de-
termination at his post of duty, saving
by his exertions the property of anxi-
ous merchants and the lives of storm -
tossed mariners.
And when the anger of the storm
subsided and the sun rose in the east,
flinging its glorious radiance over the
sparkling waters of the Gulf of St.
Lawrence, it flashed brightly on the
sails of many ships which, but for the
heroism of a little boy, would have
been shattered on the cruel rocks of.
Cape Hurricane. ' . .
The wreckers, who had made their
escape before daylight, . were after-
ward captured and punished as they
deserved to be—by imprisonment fol'.
a. long term of years.
When Hale, on descending from the
ighthouse in. the morning, releaeed.
is father, the latter` wept tears of
oy in thanking heaven for so heroic
nd noble -hearted a soci.
Later the little fellow "received a
ronze medal for heroism from the
government.
Even at this day, visitors to Cape
Hurricane, hearing this story told,
unite in applauding the grand and
noble deed, and in calling down bless-
ings upon the; hero. Hale Johnstone,
the lightkeeper's son.
A Dress of Handkerchiefs.
At a big bazaar in London recently
one of the novelties was a young wo-
man covered with handkerchiefs,. She
had 140 dainty handkerchiefs, of all
styles and sizes, displayed picturesque-
ly over her frock.
"All right,' father," the boy replied
with alacrity, for he would not los
his swift and beautiful little' pleasur
boat for the world.' "I'll take car
of the . Sea Gull. -Will you light th
lamp?"
"Yes. FIurry up, my boy, for th
storm is breaking already. God help
those at sea to -night! The wrecker
will be happy in the morning."
It may. be well to remark here tha
along the barren shores of Cape Hur
ricane were scattered the cabins
fugitive Indians, outcasts from thea
tribes, and here and there might be
seen the shanty of some fisherman
who could act'also the roles of smug
gler and wrecker when occasion re
quired.
Hale found his task of placing the
Sea Gull beyond dangermore difficult
than he. imagined
Hence, it was some time before he
was ready to return to the cottage,
and when he turned his steps in that
direction, the wind was howling dis-
mally, the waves were already' lashed
into a fury, and the spray from the
rocks dashed over ,the boy, drenching
him to the skin.
The lighthouse lamp constructed on
the revolving plan, now flashed its
radiance through the intense darkness
of the night at intervals of a minute's
duration.
Hale stopped suddenly with an ex-
clamation of surprise and fear as he
approached the cottage. Something
had happened which made the boy's
blood run cold and drove the ruddy
color from hie healthy face.
He crept up to the window and
looked in. One glance, and he under-
stood all. Four wreckers, awkwardly
disguised with masks of canvas, had
captured ,end bound the keeper, wrest-
ing from him at the same time the
great iron key of the lighthouse.
These men, for the sake of the
booty cast up by the hungry, merciless
waves, intended to sacrifice hundreds
of human lives.
A thrill of horror ran through the
boy's frame as he thought of the
enormity of the crime that these men
were about to commit. A cold per-
spiration broke over his brow and he
trembled like'a leaf. •
He crouched, down in the shadows
under the window sill and in a few
seconds had regained his presence of
mind. His father was. helpless. It
was his duty to act—to outwit these
men—to save hundreds of lives now
at the mercy of the wreckers.
Hale had not long to wait. : Two
men were left to guard the prostrate
form of old Samuel Johnstone, while
two others cautiously left the cottage
and ran swiftly toward the lighthouse.
The key turned in the lock and both
entered. The next instant Hale had
followed them.
The storm was raging fiercely. At
intervals lightning quivered through
the sky and rolling thunder seemed to
shake the very battlements of heaven.
The wind howled like a' savage noir
ster in search of prey, and flung foam -
crested waves upon the beach, like a 1
packs of yelling wolves whose white h
fangs glittered through the darkness.
Hale`. quickly removed his shoes as .a
he gained the entrance of the light.
house. The door was left open. He
listened. Both men ascended the stairs.
The boy's heart beat ' with great .
thumps against his side as he felt for
the key.
If he could secure it, it would he
easy to lock the wreckers out when
they came down and then to repair
what damage they might have doneto
the lamp. But, alas, • the key was
gone.
For an instant. Hale vas confused
and disappointed, but it was -not long
before he had contrived another plan,
which he determined to put into exe-
cution.
At all hazards he would follow the
wreckers to the top of the lighthouse.
Trusting to his perfect- knowledge is
The first step towards knowledge
the discovery that you are ignorant.
An Indian boat made of moose skins stretched over a wooden frame is
shown lying at the waterfront near Norman on the Mackenzie River, North-
west Territories. The boats are often sold for their hides,
Thought's 'Dwelling -House."
Don't muse on dreary things—
On graceless deeds,
Unfriendly words, outs, bitterness,
and stings!
For musing thus, the heart with sor-
row bleeds,
And memory wraps drab cloaks about
us there—
Girdled with care.,
zr
Better to shut the door and bar it out,
That hour of grey,
When you and I walked through the.
lane of doubt—
Missing the friends who'd failed us,
gone away!
Look at the sky of blue=the sunshine
bright:
You could not see their glories yester.
night,
Yet they were there! .
And love, and truth and faith; still
make life fair-
Though yesterday they seemed so far,
God lights His brightest star
On darkest nights, and happiness is
still
His gift and will! •
So close 'the door on all that'spetty,
mean--
Throw up your windows on Sonne
. grander scene!
•
—Lillian Gard
Double
Keyboard Piano
Patented in Canada.
One of the most marvelous musica
instruments ever patented in Canada
Is a double keyboard piano, the paten
tee of which is Enunanuel Moor, a
Swiss. Although samples of the piano
have appeared in Europe, as far as Is
known none have reached Canada as
The' Thing That Grips Us.
While visiting Dundee, Scotland, an
American who had heard much of Rob-
ert Murray Meeheyne, . one of the
"saints of Scotland," was anxious to
fiad'someone who could give him some
personae reminiscences_ of the great
preacher: For that purpose he went
to see an old man.
"Can you tell me some of the texts
of MeCheyne's great . sermons?" he
asked.
"I don't • remember them," said the
old man, shaking his head.
"Then can you tell me some of the
striking sentences he uttered or some
of his best sayings?"
"I've forgotten thorn entirely," was
the reply. p -
The American was greatly disa
pointed. "Well,". he said, almost in
despair, "don't you remember' any-
thing about him at ally?"
"Ah," replied the old man, brighten.
Mg, "that is a different question. One
day when 4 was a laddie playing by
the roadside Robert Murray McCheyne
came along and, laying his hand upon
my head, said: 'Jamie, I've been to
see your poor sick sinter. I'm always
glad to see her and help her as I can.'
Then he paused and after, looking a
bit Into my eyes added: 'And, Jamie,
I'm very much :concerned about your
own soul.' I have forgotten his texts
and grand sermons, sir, but I can still
feel the tremble of his hand and see
the tear in hie eye."
And so it is with Jesus and our own
soils ;itis his peroral concern in our
1 ,salvation that grip us. The world is
full of grecut.mottoes and fine sayings,
and there are none
hatter than thosei
that Jesus himself has given to res.
We may gorget his words of truth and
his noble philosophy of life, we may
fail to grasp the breadth, depth and
perfect beauty of his spiritual -king-
dom, but, having once come 1n con-
tact with him and his Gospel, we can
yet. Not long ago Ottawa granted
the inventor Canadian patent rights
covering this instrument, thus protect-
ing,his interests in this country.
The piano is named after the in-
ventor, Emmanuel Moor, "The first
thing you see when looking at it"
states a party who has recently seen
a sample of it in London, England, 'es
that there are two keyboards, like the
manuals of an organ, but the upper
one is only a little above the lower;
the white keys, In fact, are about level
with the lower black ones, so that it
is easy to play on both keyboards at
once with one hand. The notes of the
upper keyboard are an octave higher
than thecorrespondingnotes on the
lower, which means that intervals of
more than an octave can be played
with ease; also, by means of an extra.
pedal, the two ' keyboariis can bo
coupled so that, with every note play-
ices
on the lower' keyboard, its' octave
is sounded as well. Octave passages.
can thus be played with incredible
smoothness, and chordal • of a fullness,
only - Possible in duet playing, are
equally easy. By palling out a stop
the hammers,' instead of striking the
strings direct, engage a series of little
elastic plates that pluck the 'strings,
making a sort of magnifiedharpsi-
chord, capable of great variations . of
power,"
We cannot look, however imperfect-
ly, upon a great man without gaining
something by him; He is the living
light -fountain which it te„ good and
pleasant to be near.—Carlyle.
never _escape his interest In our per-
i sonsl salvation. We are ever fasein-
ated by him whose heart yearns for the
return of the prodigal, who left all to
I find the lone lost sheep, and who died
cn the cross to prove his love for us.
Since Jesus has looked upon us and
awakened our souls to his concern and
love, we are not the same; we never
can be.
A Poor Memory.
Mrs; Worm -"Now remember, you
have those knots tied in yourself, so
you won't forget to bring back baby's
medicine!" '
s
A Chinese sailor whose adventures
have got him into print wears a steel
ring round his neck for good luck, No
ring, of course, not even a wedding
ring, is a guaranty of good fortune,
but you would have a hard time con-
vincing Ah Ding of that, for in six
months he is said to have survived six
typhoons, two battles with pirates, a
fight with Swedish sailors, three at-
tacks of foyer and the Japanese earth-
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SCIENTISTS DISCUSS RESOURCES
Toronto Meeting of British Associatioal Hears Many Papers
on Canada's National Wealth.
Baker (Queen's) and elaborated on by
Prof. A. MacLean, De. S. M. Bell and
Prof. Ellie Thompson..
The question of "Liquid Fuels' In
Canada" was dealt with by Dr, G. H.
Hume, of the Geological Survey of
Canada.
A general talk on the important sub-
ject of developing the low grade coals
of the British Empire was given by
Cot H. D. Savage (New York) and
Prof. W. A. Bone (London), both auth-
orities on low grade and waste fuels.
.Astronomy.—The Astronomy, Section
heard the following papers by federal
officers on matters directly connected
with the country's development,—
"Wireless Time Signals" by Mr. R,
Meldrum Stewart and Mr. 1. P. Hen-
derson, of the Dominion Observatory,
Ottawa.
"Correlation of Records of two .Dis-
tant Milne -Shaw Seismographs" by
Mr. Ernest Hodgson, Domielon Obser-
vatory, '
The Spectra of Nebulae" by Dr, H.
H.' Plaskett, Dominion Astrophysical
Observatory, Victoria, B.C. -
"Methods and Results of Spectro-
scopic Absolute •Magnitude Determina-
tions" by Dr, W. E. Harper and Dr,
R. K. Young, also of the victoria Ob-
Theaneeting in Toronto, August 6 to
18„ of the British Association for the
Advancement pf Science 'served to
show, by the large proportion of the
program devoted to thenatural re-
source's of Cenada, the important place
which those resources occupy in the
minds of leaders of science in the Bri-
tish Ernpire. About thirty papers
were read on subjects directly con-
nected with natural resources adminis-
tered by tare Dominion Government,
Most of these.papers were prepared by
officers of the Government, though ow-
ing to some of them being on duty In
the field their papers were read by
deputies, The subjects -dealt with may
fpr convenience be grouped under the
following general headings:—
Forestry.—The subject of forestry
was ,of major importance, being accord-
ed not less than ten papers and two
joint meetings for,dtscussion. Several
Federal officers gave papers on the for-
est problemsand practices that are pe-
culiar to Canada, including Dr. J. M.
Swaine, of the Department of Agricul-
ture, who dealt with inseot menaces,
and Messrs, E, 11. Finlayson, D. Roy
Cameron, -and Roland D. Craig, of the
Forestry Branch of the Department of
the Interior, who discussed silvicul-
ture, fire protection, and forest utiliza-
tion, respectively.
Other papers were by Prof. J. H,
Faull'(Toronto); Mr, E. J. Zavitz, pro-
vincial forester of Ontario; Dr. A. W.
Borthwick, ,secretary of the Royal
Scottish Arboriculturai Society, and
Mr. lo. Storey, British Forestry Com-
mission.
Surveys.—Under the heading of gaol
graphy were grouped . a number, of
papers and discussions relatingto sur-
veys. The work of the Geologteal Sur-
vey was presented by Mr. W. H. Boyd;
the Geodetic Survey by Mr. Noel Ogil-
vie, and the Tidal and Current Surveys
by Dr. W. Bell Dawson. The general
work oftheTopographical Survey was
dealt with by Mr. E. M. Dennis; Mr.
A. M. Narraway gave a: paper on Sur-
veys by aerial photographs, and Mr.
W. H. Herbert one on magnetic sur-
veys.
Water Powers,—In the engineering.
section 'a paper prepared by Mr. J. B.
Challies, . of the Interior Department,
was presented outlining the extent,
usefulness, and administration of the
Canadian water -powers
The St, Lawrence power and naviga-
tion question was reviewed by Mr. D.
W: McLachlan, engineer of the St.
Lawrence ship canal investigations,
and by Mr. R. S. Lea, of Montreal, Mr.
F, A. Gaby prepared a paper relative
to the 'week of the ' Hydro-Eleatrlc
Power Commission of Ontario.
Minerals.—The' subject of the pre -
Cambrian area of mineralization in
Canada was introduced by Prof. Id. B.
servatory
Agriculture,—ln the list of writers
of agricultural papers are the names'
of Mr. 77. S. Archibald, Dr. G. P. Mc-
Rostie and, Dr. F. T. Shutt, all of the
Experimental Farm, Ottawa; Prof. J.
B. Reynolds, of Guelph, and Prof, J. H.
Paull, of Toronto. Wheat rust prob-
lems were discussed by Profs. Blffin,
Thompson and Fraser and a discus-
sion on dry farming was given by Sir
John Russell„ Hon. John Bracken, Pre-
mier of Manitoba, and'otbere.
Exploration and Research,—Papers
under this heading weregiven by Dr.
E. E. Prince, Dept. of Marine and Fish-
eries, who, spoke on Marine. Research;
Sir Frederick Stupart, on the meteoro-
logical studies' of the Department of
Marine, and Fisheries, especially as to
Canadian winters; Mr. E. M. Kindle,
of the Geological Survey, as to sedi-
mentation on. the Atlantic seaboard;
Dr. R. Id. Anderson, also of the Geo-
logical Survey, who presented two
papers, one on the scientiflc workof
the southern party of the Canadian
Arctic Expedition 1913-18 and a second
on the larger mammals in Canada.
Exhibits,—Several of the Dominion
Government, departments had exhibits
of features of their work which at-
tracted a great deal of attention from
the scientists, These . included re-
cords, charts,maps, relief 'models,
photographs, and ,special scientific in-
struments; exhibits of native art work
in beaten Dopper, carved wood and
ivory, bead work and pottery; and an
exhibit of Canadian minerals.
Nature's Sky Signs.
Autumn is the saason of shooting -
stars, though few who see them now
ever pause to think where these bril-
liant bodies really come from,
They are not stars in the ordinary
cense at all, because the stars we see
shining at night are immense globes
of heated gas, most of them much big-
ger than our own sun, whereas sheet-
ing eters are tiny fragments of metal
or stone which have been made bright
by friction.
It seems to be a rule with scientists
to give all their attention to fixing the
precise spot in the sky where 'shooting -
stars first make their appearance,
rather than to speculate as to their
origin. 1111 1111
A friend of the writer's who could
talk very learnedly about the exact
"radiants of meteor showers, was.
once asked if he could tell where the
meteors came from, anti he replied:
Singular, I never thought of that."
There is, admittedly, an air of mys-
tery about the origin of• shooting -
stars, though they must have been ob-
served by mankind for thousands .of
years. ' Do they come from the sun?
Have they -been ejected from volcan-
oes in the far-off days when volcanic.
energy on the earth was much more
intense than It is now?
Is the moon responsible for their
birth? Are they the remains of
cornets which have been shattered, or
disrupted, by the powerful attraction
of the sun or other-, large body ln,the
Solar System?
These are fascinating conjectures.
Perhaps the last-mentioned is the most
probable of all, fbr there are some fa-
mous
amous instances where a comet has
disappearer or bas been known to
have broken up, and a swarm of
meteors (popularly known as shoot-
ing -stars) has been found to be tra-
velling in the cornet's path.
For all that, there has long been a
feeling that these brilliant bodies are
earth -born, or that they spring from
the sun itself. Perhaps the mystery
will never really be solved,
Expensive Weather.
Jones took a taxicab to his home in
the suburbs It was a rainy day. He
protested when the delved demanded
an extra fare.
' Why," said Jones, "you are clrarg-
ing me Por four miles. I understand
the dfstance is only two and a• half
miles."
"It is, as a rule, sir," admitted the
taxi driver, but you see, we ,skicldod
Thiel Shell of Nuts.
Cultivated hazel. huts have a ehell
only hall as hard as wild oats;
Safeguatrding Flowers That
Cost Fortunes.
There .is more romance in garden-
ing than even the keenest enthusiast
realizes, Plant an ounce of sunflower
seed and you will reap enough seed to
sow a whole acre of ground. An ounce
of tomato seed will yield in one gene-
ration 1600 ounces of seed, or enough
to produce 1,000,000 tons of tomatoes!'
Some seeds are so valuable that
they have to be carefully guarded. One
well-known firm keeps its supplies of
double petunia seed, for example, in a
safe deposit. This seed In worth near-
ly $2500 a pound. Still more valuable
are the seeds of a certain kind,of glox-
inia, which not long ago commanded
asmuch as $3750 a pound. In both
cases the world's stocks are se small
that they could easily be carried in a
coat pocket.
Pew people know that although the
best celery is grown in France, the
seed of French 'celery planted else-
where yields poor crops'. New Eng-
land green pea is equally difficult to
grow outside this country. Plant Eng-
lish peas In Canada or America and you
will be disappointed. Peas need years
of acclimatizing before they will yield
well in a foreign soil.
Tales are often told of seeds that
have germinated after centuries, Most
seedsmen accept such stories' with re-
serve, the number of instances in -
which this has actually, happened be-
ing very small. Not many seeds re-
tain life', after ten or twelve years.
Onion and parsnip seed will not as a
rule, last longer than twelve months.
Lettuce seed sold in the shops is al- ca
ways two years old, the first year's
seeds being unfit for sowing.
The smallest seeds are those of the
common fern. They are more proper-
ly known an spores, and thousands of
them can be got into a space no big-
ger than a pin's head,
KINDLY VEGETATION
COVERS WAR'S SCARS
WAVING FIELDS OF CORN
HIDE CEMETERIES.
Nature's Profusion Throws a
Disguising ` Mantle Over
Battlefields of France.
From Lille to Bethune the road takes
Mr through La Bassee and across the
Red zone. Five years ago it was all
wild waste of war -tormented land
and ruined buildings- La Baseee lay
level with the soil. Por mile* around
the earth was pitted with shell holes
and seamed with trenches. How does
it look to-day?'asks C. R. Hargrave. 1n
The London Daily Mail,
One fine summer mowing I rod nut
along the famous highway' to find :en
answer to that question. Had the
signs of war all passed away? At the
end of the journey I said, to myself
that they had not. And yet the signs
are visible only to one who looks for
them and can recognize there, For
the man who had never heard of the
great ,struggle the answer, I think,
would be that there was no token of
war to be seen.
What would he note? A road for
the most part freshly repaved; a large;
number of people living in temporary
hate; a vast amount of building every-
where, especially in La Bassee and
Bethune.
In the former he might perceive the
ruins ,of a church covered, almost ob-
literated, by rank vegetation, and be-
side it a barnllke timber structure
with a cross over thedoor; but he
might well 4nragine a local fire had
done the damage, In the latter he
would be astonished to find the whole
of the centre, on the Ibilitop, composed
of new buildings of brick or stone; but
he might imagine there had been a
local fire there too. Ile would comment
on the ubiquity of corrugated iron, for
where the roofs are not of bright red
tiles they are all of this material. He
would wonder why only a narrow
wooden drawbridge serves to carry the
highway over the canal.
It was the drawbridge the Royal
Engineers built to enable the troops to
advance, at last, from lines which they
had held for four years. But what re-
mains- of those lines? For miles and
miles before and behind the flat land
is covered by swaying crops. There Is
an interval of a Pew hundred yards.
Your motor car stops and your driver
points out "the trenches," You can
perceive vaguely the entrance of a
crumbling dug -out; you can trace with
difficulty the broken line of a trench.
It is all overgrown, • and the hollows
are fast.fliling up.
Why has this strip of the, earth not
been restored to cultivation? The gov-
ernment has preserved it expressly
from the bands of the tiller of the soil
to bear witness to the past. But na-
ture threatens; to change it into a
simple piece of waste land. She is fast
filling up the trenches and the dug-
outs, making this land look merely un-
tidy and meaningless,'
When the rebuildingis finished,
when nature has done Tier work with
the strips of earth that are intended
to serve as memorials of the war, what
will remain to remind the coming gen-
eration of its havoc? In a backyard
In La Bassee I saw an abandoned Bri-
tish tank—still standing where it
struck live years ago. They will surely
move that to the village square and
set it beside the monument to the vil-
lagers who fell on the field of honor.
Such monuments are rising in every
little town and village, They will be
the sole permanent reminder of the
war—they and the cemeteries.
But of the cemeteries I saw nothing,
for they, too, were hidden by the wav-
ing cora.
Not What They Seem.
From its name, one would think that,
the titmouse was a rodent, insteadof a
harmless, dainty little bird. The night-
ingale is not by any means only 'a
night singer; its sweet song is heard
just as frequently by day.
Small flies are not baby flies; they
never grow any bigger, for the size, of.
files does not vary once they are fully
formed. The dragon -fly is often ac-
cused of sting; in reality, it is perfect
-
1 harrnle�s
It is a fallacy to suppose that a cat
n see better in the clerk than in the
daylight, for it cannot, though its
powers of eight at night are More
highly developed than those of nfaa
and many of the !burbler creatures.
A beef -eater does not get his name
from the fact that he eats nothing but
beef. The original word was buffetier,
a• French word, meaning a man who
waited at the Royal table or buffet.
Perhaps you have thought that it is
steam which you acre coming out of
the kettle spout` when the water boils.
Steam is invisible; what you see ' is
condensed nrotettire.
Wise Old Dad.
Mother -"Who told you Unions were
bad for you, Alice?" '
Dad -='Cupid told her, my dear.''
The total valus of lime produced in
Canada in 1922 was $3,18,:,006. The
total 'production comprised 7,698,028
bushels of quicklime valued at $2,622,-
726 and 44,623 tons of hydrated lime
valued at $642,279.
Knew the Owner.
There was nothing the ,professor
l j I1ked so much• as to see the ignorant
public (e( false ini'ornrat,ion—e5peelal-
ly on the euhject of ornithology: • So
when he observed that: an incorrect
scientific name had been 'attached' to
a cage of birds at the pars zoo, he
summoned the attendt.
"Don't your know dratanthese birds'.do
.
not belong to the family Paradieidae?"
he asked.
"Sure, I do," replied the attendant.
"The zoo bought 'em last week,"
F 1-
7,ree