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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Herald, 1914-01-23, Page 5CALLON T' 60D,s n I. caste back to Prince Ed - Island in April for my vaca- wetited to skate along the to our farm and ear- ny.# ?nib. l y 'coming home a rlra,tr, ;ha'i they expected me; ether woe .mild, and the ice agirinina eta break up, but it 1 "moi`• t•o 'fake a few ohances r than :wait •overnight in. a less hotel for the stage. ft illy. bag at the .stare in the e, put on :a thick sweater, it a pair of skates, and on -the of the creek I 'strapped thew ,rme this afternoon, Jimmy, year cooped up in an office, o salt air and no surf and no hite saltwater ioe l" I shout- immy Mallet, the old lobster an, as I started across the creek. careful, boy!" he sang out. been a• damp, oily day, .and 1 be an ice fog before dark, e • he had stopped speaking alfway to the. dunes. t was the shortest way. to our Along the beach the smooth ice runs out for a quarter ile. It is protected on the by a ten -foot pressure formed by the jamming of" nd heavy cakes that have wn from the Strait of Belle - the winter it is a regular tghfare for hauling wood and ng, and is nearly always h enough for skating. I was on -the ice at last, I tat the bold strip had felt the ect of an early spring. In places .the surface was .rough eyoombed. Now and then I long, jagged crack that ex - teem the shore all: the way the heavy berg jam. Be - the gulf arae dotted with floating out to sea. skated along, I crashed fields of shell ice, and over cracks a foot wide to at looked like white fudge. tines I thought of turning ut I knew that I could turn d walk ashore whenever the oo bad, so I kept on. two miles all went well. so suddenly that it seemed to tit ef thesky, the ice fog nave. It drifted in a great wall over tithe pressure, tretehed long, filmy fin - Toss the dunes, and in a the shore was only a blur, my \ray more carefully, I dies ora,eks became more nu- s and wider. I turned sharp - the right, toward the land, here ,had begun to loom up h the, fog when I saw a, wide line ahead. When I turned 1 our farm, I found that the reached completely round to rgs. It was ten feet wide. bled back, intendingto re - a narrow crack I had just and thus to get to ;shore. it came in sight, a sudden lade me skate toward it at eed. he edge I stopped. Since I ossed over, the ice floe had out toward the open gulf, once narrow crack was now t wide. As I watched, the e increased to twelve feet, ,en • to twenty. Tho whole s fleeting out to sea.. moment 'I stood stupefied. raced out to the bergs to see o was any narrow 'dace I could get across. There ne. I thought of taking Tiff thus 'and trying to swim the widening channel, but I lour swimmer, grid I knew I of live in that ley .water. time I could not see the It •ai1, down on the ice and tried to There was nota house -ole es fora mile, except a little on the beach, owned by An- al, a market -gunner. Would the -dullest I shouted rvith might. , There was lie an - oath a •foggy,afteerneaon, f he, were at. his shanty, e insides near the warm ith the door tight shut. Out must ger, trail the ice broke• e night. .tit oaf the rfeg come a. clear ter -honk! aarr-honk !" Wild he dunes; Xnaught. It mous' Place for there. ° it. eerie May. I had often .theee, and had learned akavith tobsider'able skill isetsatto l answered' theist riot note of the. " r for l el e• olrtr t t 0o e r , g. of est ar eathroega the a 1 I rh 1 h wztn a cry or delight ranese might be Andy's, tame decoys! Perhaps the noise ef the tailing geese would rouse Andy. Eight or ten. good,lust' honks ex- cited more of the geese, until they filled the air with their olarnor. A. minute er two I waited, and then I .;shouted once, twice, 'Trembling with excitement, I listened. Through the fcrg came a faint '`Hel- 10-0-o'!" in • ne voice: 1 recognized. My •repeated yells brought first the rattle of oars dropped In. a boat,. then, the muffled thug 'of -rowlocks.. Half'!.n hour "later. 'I was warming anye feet before Andy's red-hot stove, "I thought 'twos a flock on the way to the Labrador," said Andy, "It's lucky' you learned to coll."— Youth's Companion. 'RUINS OF OLD TEMPLE. Wender of the, Anolent World Un- earthed at Babylon. Through the patient work of Ger- man explorers in Babylon, the Mound of Amram has been, exca- vated to a depth of forty feet and there has been brought to light a temple., which was one of the won- ders of the ancient world. The walls of this. 'temple, says The Christian Herald, have disappeada ed. Only the foundations remain, but" froth them the- entire° plan of the building is distinct. There were the outer and inner courts and the innermost shrine, or the holy of the holies, where the image of the great god stood. About the • outer court were the chambers for the priests, and se- cret passageways led to the shrine. Running from the temple into the city was a paved street, the street of Daniel as the Germans have called it, without any special reason for doing so. Babil, the northern mound, still bears the ancient name ef the city. It is a huge square hill more than a 'hundred feet in height, and with sides so steep that they are diffi- cult to climb. It is especially here that the Arabs have dug for bricks, and now as one wanders about the summit there may be seen far down the shafts the massive walla of the great arches, arranged side by side and tier upon tier. Though the hollows of the arches have long been filled with fallen debris, once they might have been seen through. Dr. :Coldewey believes that the ruin represents alio Tower of Babel, beeau e s it still bears name. e m. More likely the hanging gardens of Babylon were there, Shady trees and hanging vines grew upon the elevated terraces. Water was' rais- ed from the Euphrates to the very summit, and camp trickling down from terrace to terrace to nourish the vegetation. About the terraces were shady walks, and the long pas- sages beneath the arches were de- lightfully cool and_.dark. The en- trances wero.half concealed by the overhanging vines, -and the hot air, tempered: by the trickling -water, swept through them. Here the king and queen passed the heat of the Babylonian summer, just as now the resident of Bagdad spends the hot day iti his underground ser - daub. WEST AFRICAN BUIITALS. C`nri.ous Ceremonies Some of the Tribes Perform. In the minds of moot bush pee-• pies no hard and fast line seems to exist between the living and the dead. Ghosts are thought to exer- eise' great influence over those who still dwell on earth. At; all cere- monies of importance the names of the. principal ancestors are invoked and at feasts part of the feed is al- ways laid aside for thein, in some such words asthe following;: "Listen, my family! Here is the offering (goat, sheep or cow) which we have killed for hhn -who has died. here is your pox'tion. It is time for us to eat." • A libation is also poured out in order that the dead may drink with' the lilting. By a beautiful fumy any stranger. who dies in a town is buried en the goad by which he entered it, so • that his spirit may easily find the way back to his home, or et least watch the road thither orad listen.' for the oohing of friends, Among many tribes those, objects melt need by the dead man while in life .ire broken and laid around his grieve, 'sa that heir spirit, Set free by the breaking of their earthly forms, play be borne lay their owner into the 'yodel of ghosts. The tramp has otic, advantage over .an automobile —: you can't' puncture his tire, 081111. i WUI l 1 :, HO ifiLAIUU PORTUGUESE SPIES ]FLARE REIGN OE TERROR. Hundreds of Portugal's Citizene Are Confined in Dismal Prisons,-_ Since' the Duchess of Bedford +made,her notable attack upon the adMinietration of jt stiee'in ?ortn gal there has been considerable controversy as to whether the peo- ple ef Portugal were in reality liv- ing under a reign of terror, as the Duchess alleged, or whether the at• tacks upon the Portuguese Govern• ment are merely the inspired utter- ances of those who wish to .see the monarchy restored. In 'order to get the facts at first hand, the Lon- don Daily Chronicle sent Mr. Philip Gibbs teethe country to investigate. The result is a seriesof articles, in 'which. Mr. Gibbs offers proof that practically every charge made against the Government is true, and that the Portuguese enjoy about the same liberty as the Mexi- cans. Yet the Government made no effort to prevent Mr. Gibbs in- vestigating, so long as he promised to undertake the task with an open mind. The Cabinet Minister whom he ..interviewed said that he would find Portugal had been slandered. Mr. Gibbs finds it difficult to be- lieve either that the Cabinet Minis- ters are ignorant of what is, going on, since it could not go on without their sanction, and even direction, or that they can believe what is go- ing on is not terrible. Only on the assumption that they regard all persons suspected of sympathizing with Manuel as wild beasts can the attitude of the Government he un- derstood. No justice for Royalists. It is probably true in Portugal that the average man who has not enough money to .attract the graft- ers, who is a sympathizer with the present Government, and who goes about his own business is no worse off now than under the monarchy. This man is not accused of a crime, and consequently the outrages upon justice that are committed daily cannot concern him person- ally. But fur the clan suspected of sympathy with Manuel there is no slzclr thing as justice to be Lad in I ortngal, Persons aecused con- spiring against the republie, and these include all persons suspected of having a poor opinion of the pre- sent Government, are tried by court-nia»tial. A few of 'tame were tried by the ordinary civil courts, but since these courts acquitted several persons they have been dis- pensed with, and now all these trials are conducted by military officers, with juries of soldiers. As a result there are very few acquit- tals. Penitentiaries Are Crowded. The penitentiaries of Portugal are crowded with •political prison- ers, hundreds of them in solitary confinement, going insane at the rate aomctimoa of hall adozen a day. Other hundreds are under- ground in a huge prison outside Lisbon, in which all the Dells are below the surface: of the earth. Many of these prisoners have not yet been tried. They are arbitra- rily deprived of their liberty, and punished as though already tried and convicted. Among them are 'some very distinguished persons. One of them is a famous newspaper editor, .who ventured to criticize the present administration. He has been imprisoned for months, await- ing trial. Of course, there is free- dom of the press in Portugal, free- dom to praise in the most fulsome germs the present Government, and to denounce with the utmost fero- city and in the coarsest language the Royalists in general and Man- uel in part/oilier. Freedom ends there. Without trial or charge pri- vate polio may enter a newspaper ofioe,' throw the types into the street, destroy the furniture, and seize the editor if he has beendar- ing enough to criticize the Mini- eery. • Remitted by Spies. The streets are spyy haunted. One is not in Lisbon hell tin hour be- fore he notioes a number of queer- looking men, with big Meek ties and supple stacks, who are leafing about everywhere, their eyes busy upon the people ppassing in the streets. In the cafes .they are as »t'merous .as Waiters. In ,private louses they disguise 'themselves as ,, e r si. 1 ant s a nd work irides ri usl to find ox.. >nannfectttre evidence ,aguieta a suspected. Royalist, These are the members of the Carbonaria,, _,est .singe krniluence in Portugal to- day. rtug „xto- day. It ie like the Free It/aeons- Of Frn.nee Ar,nd Spain, and is in close totick wi ui I't inder M . WIZ trite tenial lodges that cover• the alountry, Estth little lodge is at, once e centro of spies, and sol- diers for the Government. The members of the Carbonari.a, are well )laid for their yrork. Thous- ende of there give their whole time to the task of "defending the re- public." Others ate .culled upon only for special service, and in the meantime `work at their . trades, their; cants and eyes always open for information.; P'ortugal's Great Betray©r. It is this society that constitutes the reign of terror in Portugal, and whether it is the master, and the Ministry the servant, or whether it ,is ruled ' by the Ministry, no one seems to -know. It was. the Carbon - aria that'adiseovered the famous Royalist plot in October, which re- sulted in the arrest of some 3,000 Royalists. Probably it was the same society. that arranged the plot, for 'rr, Gibbs says that the man who made the grand betrayal was Romero de La.ncastre, He pos- ed as an ardent Royalist, and went about among Royalists getting their signatures to a document that was to be sent to Manuel, inducing others to Oblige him by hiding pis- tols in their homes, borrowing money for the cause from others, and industriously incriminating some thousands of persons who had made no 'hostile move whatever to- ward the Government. At the pro- per morneent Laneastre betrayed these unfortunates into the laantla of the Carbonaria, and to -day they lie rotting in prisons, with the ex- ception of a hundred or more whose sufferings have been ended by death. FOREST PE RES MINIMIZED. Co-Operatire' Prole:Lien Prete?its Lapp Lowes. The, forest fire loss on Dominion Forest Reserves in Western Canada was small•ei= during the last season than ever before. .0n several of the reserves in Manitoba and Saskat- chewan fire occasioned no damage whatever, and on the Dominion re- serves in 'the Railway Belt, B.C., the only green timber injured by fire was fear acres of young lodge - pole pine.: Even on the Rocky Mountains treserve in Alberta, with thea, immbacres, ni. filth whichise area of 133,373,836 is remotese area of 133,373,836fro settle itent, destroyed only n , fir ' e 1,130 acres of young timber, whose present value seas small, and ma- ture timber to the value of $150.00. The total area burnt a,n this reserve was but two one -hundredths ef refile per rent. of the above acreage, and it. is likely, when the reports are complete from the other reserves, which are smaller and usually bet- ter protected, that the aggregate area burnt over by fire will be no greater than one one-hundreedtii of one per cent. of the votal reserved area. The significance of this fig- ure is apparent by comparison with the corresponding figure for the National Forests in the United States, where the area burnt over by fire in 1913, although admittedly the smallest in resent years, was abort 0.03 per cent. of the total area. That the fire lose on Dominion re- serves in the West has been so re- markably small is duo in large meas sure to the fact that the Govern. rnent rangers -unceasingly sought, and obtained, the co-operation of all .with whom they came in con• tact, whether, settler, Indian, hun- ter, tourist or packer. The new fire -posters ask for this co-opera- tion instead:of demanding it as pre- viouslyy a plea for' it is printed on railway timetables and on hunting licenses; it is secured from home- steaders bye; providing thein with fi fire-hting` tools and by connect- ins rural teleplionze lines with ran- ger. .stations on forest reserves, and even the Indians, many of wham were earelesl with fire, are now in- duced to assist in its prevention by, being presented honorary metal badges .by the Dominion Go`rern- ment. Carelessness is the chief eause of forest are and by its elitmi- nation the greatest difficulty in for• est fire protection is overcome. is At Rome Theu. "When can I eurely eatch your hnsbund at 'some 7 "That'e lird to tell, but he's nearly, always here for breakfast." To say a man is happy because he is richis as unwerr.antedas to say a roan is )iea).thy because he caro af- ford to get erinugh,te eat. SPEAKER. . Ea' -Postmaster -General Wat3n't AIN ways So, Rowever, Most Euglish-speaknig Canadians think of ,Sir Wilfrid Laurier as the one Canadian of French origin •who has achieved the greatest sueoess in speaking the English tongue, There are others who yield . the palm. to Hon. Rodolphe Lemieux. His won- derful command of English did not come easily to him, but is the re- sult of years of hard study and per- severance in the face of difficulties. Old -Parliamentarians have a painful reoolleteion el his first speech in the House ef Commons He blundered, stammered, and fin- ally sat down in utter confusion / Ron. Rodolphe Lemieux. without having impressed his thoughts on his audience. After the awkward silence had been broken and the wheels of procedure were revolving 'again, an old gentleman rose up from his seat on the Con- servative side of the House and crossed over to the Liberal side,• where Mr. Lemieux was sitting. He was Mr. W. R. Brock, who was then witting for one of the To- ronto constituencies.' "I will never try to speak in Eng- lish again," said Mr. Lemieux, in deep mortification. S'rlii, .NGE BIRD NEST. Species of Woodpecker That Uses Cactus • Stotts. Ther i� There a species of-vouop<ekor in northern Mexico that frequently makes its nest in the stalk of one ef the large cactuses --the giant cereus—which abound /es the plains in that region, • Undismayed by the spines that cover the trunk of the huge plant, the bird clears a ;:pace, and with great labor digs a short tunnel and a flask-shaped cavity- in the tough, fibrous wood, Both the male and female wood- pecker work .at the task. rays. j Youth's Companion, and they use ' the same; nest for several years un- less the growth of the plant Curbs it. Such a neat i' safe from a]l natural enemies. Oceasionally this lrundss,zne we vd- pecker•--Centurus elegane---digs its tunnel in the trunk of a. palm hi -- stead of the cactus --a, circumstance likely to lead to the desr•ruction of the tree. After the young have flown and, the nest is left, empty, the small seeds of ;the wild fig are often earried into it' .by birds or bate. The moisture of the raiusy- season causes the needs to germinate end to grow tendrils that before long reach the ground and take reed. The wild fig grows rapidly until in a few years it wholly envelops the • palm and suffocates it. - GRAINS GPf;;QLD . A man cannot ravel <,ut the stitches in which early days have knit him.—H. Beecher Stowe. If you wish to destroy avardee you must destroy luxury, which is its mother.—Cicero. It is only when there is no pesai hie amelioration that endurance is fine courage.—U. S. Merriman. The perfect civilized man is not only a sound, strong body, but ft very elaborate fabric of mind. -ell. G. Wells. • Thera are a variety of little things in life which, Like ;pine in a lady's dressy, are necessary • for keeping it together, and giving neatness and eleganee.- fbswell. An Irishman, meeting a friend, • a asked what had become of their old chum Sandy. "Ah, peer old Sandy, IDidn t you hear 1 Why, he was m condened' to be hanged, but axe o saved his life by committing suicide q in prison 8 ,7 la;n;,;iaramirro mp;iitrrrrrmr Rabbits have dam .eed or, 3t,?.. thousands of ;young forest trees i the West by eating the bark area the base of the' stems, Circular saws of paper are increasingly used in Taxi land fo the eutting of thin p ,ire , of "kvo d Vcnesrs road ,in •this way ere`, smooth that oabin;et-rnttkexs: esn use thein without further pleniita. Australian grew -trees b:w'co , ttain- ed the enormous height o.f•480fiiex: whiels' is 140 feet higher those, the meet .gigantic sequoias'•.tii Caliattt iiia, and twice as high as the gxsab firserof:British Columbia,. How irr, eois supply their foliage with water all such: a height is still a ivatter . schen tifio' oo ntreyer iy. The rev siu a r 1rom the edfore_ _l,syt n hoei' Bx a In iniste,r taLen Ftti rserviee last.,. ' ,year amounted to over $14,000,000, The total Dost of fire -protection, -tree planting and; administration genes"- ally, was $8,000,000,:• leaving a riet annual revenue of $6,000,000, whic,b the forests are able coproduce con- tinuously, without .depletion. Mr. W. N. Millar, District, In- spector of Dourini•on Forest R,e-. serves in Alberta., says: "Along .;a north fork of the Sheep Rive* found the Largest body of rpr licensed merchantable timber tale: I have yet seen in the Rocky Mea tains. It is Tether remarkehle ;tr. this timber consists ;almost entire],e of lodgepole pine—there wed be eight at least ten sections (10 ea. miles) of this timber." In Southern Nigeria, ,on he: wosb eoast of Africa, the British Goverrt». ment has done =eh to eztoourage the practice of forestry, and eight hundred- villages now have com- munal plantations of rubber trees; The natives supply the labor, the native chiefs supply the land and the Forestry Department supplies the seeds, technical knowledge anc4. tapping appliances. The ,profitr, are divided equally among the three co-operating parties. It is a common superstitieal among the woodsmen of eastern; Canada that many of the "dead"! larch trees have come to life again.! 1 The trees noticed were not really. dead, however, but had appeared so because they lead been entirely jstripped of their leaves by the bai- 1 e 6 -; Ivas of the larch saw -fly. The tame! 1 rack is a valuable tree beeauet. ijI lie ability to grow in -sequoia, a+d. its wood is highly esteemed for fug•:. ties, fence -posts and construt.titee work generally. 1 -et through the continued ravages of the larch atee fly over one-half the tart/area len eastern Canada has already been destroyed; The largest lake on the east ::lode, of the Rocky Mountains lis at 'slit,: head -waters of the Maligne fl,iver, a tributary of the Athabaska. It i twenty-two miles long and from one to three miles wide, and is rtir- renuded by lofty mountains,' width shake it one of the most bear,utifu'l. spots in the Rocky Mountain re- gion. Yet this lake was praetacat1 unknown until a forest sure, wa made of this region last. sumrr,er by tine Dominion Forestry Paanch. Unfortunately, there are no fish in this lake, owing probably to the feet that the Maligne 'livor flew' underground fvr several miler aiI- ter leaving the lake. The "Great Divide" is seniei,iee • a, very small affair in the. _ 11,c, Mountains of Alberta and Bri. Columbia. Thin summer a fe survey party sent out by the minion Forestry Branch, found •Li,,.., the head -waters of the Athabaesek. River in Alberta were separated only by a narrow strip of low-lying Iand from the waters of a lake itue British Columbia which drains iniette the Columbia River. Were the nut- let of this lake blocked and a. sbaJs. lane trench dug for n ample of hun- dred yards, its waters could bo made to flow east instead of west. A ,soznewhat similar case is &son where the head -waters of tslifii Smoky wind Fraser Rivers, though slowing in opposite direction's, have. their common source at the, base id a great glacier on Mount Robson, which guards the boundary be- tween Alberta and British C"celntnn, hitt. Dark Outlook. "Be"e always finding goner*tb,rs; new to worry about." "What's his latesti" "Ilescfra.id that. if beef goo 1., fn dollar ar; pound 'iia elector tlilJ preecribe it, threetimes a city." iairtox-I 'suppose, .your little' nes ask you many ernbarr•assi»g ue•stiens 1 " Clubleigh--"They ere est like their mother "