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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Herald, 1914-02-05, Page 5BLUEJACKET A �J CKET OVERBOA DIESCRU TIVE OF THE WORK .OF A FLEET AT BEA. Smart Work of British Sailors In Rescuing a Man From Drowning, The squadron of eight battleships is steaming along in two orderly lines. of four vessels each, but so precise are the intervals between the ships as each one followsdead in the wake of her next ahead, that it seems as If all the vessels were 'connected to- gether by an invisible thread, says London Answers. Standing close by the standard com- pass of one of the vessels is her, °Mleer of the watch. He looks absurdly young; he is, in fact, barely twenty- three years sof age, but'still he wears the twc gold stripes of a lieutenant ltpon his coat sleeves, and the fact that he is temporarily in charge of a battlesbip carrying nearly eight hun- dred men, and worth two million of his country's money, does not seem to worry him at all. Young, but Efficient. But it is not to be wondered at, for when he was of the age at which most boys were at school, he was learning his trade and acquiring habits of responsibility in one of the most efficient schools of the world, one of his Majesty's ships. And now, hav- ing attained the dignity of lieuten- ant's rank, he has proved himself Competent for his work. It is Saturday afternoon,the sailor's half -holiday, -and down below on deck the band is playing selections while some of the men are dancing. The officer of the watch instinctively beats time to the music with his foot, when the band stops abruptly, and there is a wild shout of "Man overboard!" With a hurried glance, the officer eees a man's head bobbing up and down in the water on the starboard side of the ship; the marine sentry on the lifebuoy has seen it, too, and, with great presence of mind, lets go the large copper lifebuoy, fitted with calcium lights which ignite on touch- ing the water, as the sailor floats past the stern. On the Lower Bridge. The lieutenant realizes all this in a fiash and puts his mouth to the voice -pipe and delivers a series of rapid orders to the quartermaster at the wheel below. "Stop both engines! Hard -sport! Call away the starboard lifeboat!" Another glance astern satisfies him that the man is clear of the pro- pellers, and he then gives the order: "Full. speed astern both," and gives the lanyard of the steam siren three sharp tugs, to signal for going astern. On the lower bridge,, meanwhile, there is considerable bustle and furry. Oneof the midshipmen on watch has ordered a signalman aloft with a ' • ,telescope to keep an eye on the man in the water, while the men attending the cones, .hoisted point upwards at the yardarm to show the ship was moving ahead, are hard at work haul- ing them down and rehoisting them point downwards to tell the ship be- hind that our engines are going astern. A red, white, and blue pendant, meaning "Man overboard," has been shown just over the bridge rail; some- one has . already informed the captain of what has occurred, while on deck the boatswain's mate of the watch has been piping "Away lifeboat's crew!" at the pitch of his lungs. Seen From Afar. One cutter each side of the ship is always kept turned out ready for an emergency of this 'kind. The great ship swings out of the line tinder the influence of her helm, and a second or two later begins to vi- brate as the turbines drive the pro- pellers astern. The captain arrives on the bridge breathless, but ;seeing that the officer of the watch is doing the right thing does not interfere, and contents hint- self with motioning the commander to lower the cutter, for the ship's move- ment -through the water Is decreasing rapidly. A midshipman scrambles into the boat, and as the lowerers pay out the falls, she descends •towards the water. Luckily, the sea.is almost fiat calm and there is no clanger, and when the cutter is within six feet of the surface, the commander gives the order, "'Vast lowering!" Another nod from the captain, and he orders,' "Out pins!" "Out pins, sir!" replies the midship-. Stan in the boat, "Slip!" The petty officer in the cutter re- leases the line of the disengaging gear, and before we quite realise what has happened, the boat has fallen into the water with a splash and a thud, and her lifebelted crew are getting their oars to work. The engines, meanwhile, have been stopped and the ship is stationary, and every eye in the ship is fixed on the lifebuoy in the water, now fully half a vile astern. At first they can tee no signs of the .an, but at length t • eine sharp har - p Y es of au the lieutenant length 'Watch detects what he thinks is -a human head. "D'you see hint?" inquires the cap. fain anxiously, hearing his subordin. ate's'muffled 'exclamation. - "Yes, sir;" answers the young officer. focussing his telescope on the spot.. l;'I:10 has hold of the buoy ,all right!" "Thank Heaven!" stutters tbe other, -• in a relieved voice. Told by Flags.' The cutter, meanwhile, With her fourteen Sturdy oarsmen making' the water, fly into :foam, le pulling towards the buoy, There the two ' bowmen. boat their oars and drag their sodden shipmate into the boat; and an audible sigh of relief goes up from the .crowd assembled_ .en deck when it is realised the nian is safe. The '.`afflrmitive flag," red with a white cross, is hoisted below the red,. white and blue pendant, to show the fleet that the sailor has not been Vivid Word Picture of. •What We'll, drowned, and even the admiral, far Be Like Eighty -Seven away in his flagship, heaves a deep sigh of satisfaction when he sees it. Yeare Hence. the "negative flag," -white with five black crosses, had been displayed, he would have known that the worst' had happened, and that the sailor. had been drowned. But the cutter, having recovered the lifebuoy, is rapidly approaching. She comes alongside, and a sodden, blue - clad figure, looking very sheepish and sorry for himself, clambers up the rope ladder, and is speedily taken charge of by the doctor. But, beyond feeling very.cold and numb, the victim is none the worse for his involuntary immersion, andhalf an hour later the stove in the sick berth brings about his complete recovery. • The Captain's Praise. On deck, meanwhile, the boat has been hoisted, and the ship has gone on to take up her proper position in the fleet, which stopped when the accident occurred. In half an hour from the time the man fell overboard she is in station, and the whole squad- ron is moving ahead as if nothing had happened. The cantata turns to leave the bridge to resume his interrupted writing, and as he does so, he looks at the officer of the watch. "You did it very well," he observes, with a smile. "I courdn t nave done it better myself!" The lieutenant flushes with pleasure and salutes, and a minute later, when his superior has disappeared, he has resumed his task of station -keeping. wateerg d dvethneascewth force and A HUNDRED YEARS HENCE offoxygen; Dried by Electric Force being finally oxygen bathed as a super - WATER MAY SE THE, KEY TO fluoins -act of sanitary olee,nliness be- fore. being sent to the• table again. HUMAN ' EXISTANCE. And all that has cotne off, the table willdrop through the saulIery floor into the destructor beneath to .: be oxygenated and made away with. Well -arranged houses will have : the di- viding"wail between kitchen and .din- ing room so contrived that a table ready laid at each course can be made to slide through It Into -the presence Writer is to be the key of hunxan of the seated guests. existence in the twentieth century, The sleeping apartments, and indeed if the iipaginatiye resources of T. all apartments, in city homes will con - Baron Russell materialize in the form taro the oxygenator. The atmosphere he is directing them.- ` A hundred of city streets and of city homes will years hence. How will ;people look a be freed from the products of embus - hundred years from now? How win tion andrespiration and endowed with they dress, act; talk, play, worship a. slightly increased proportion of oxy- and work? What sort of houses, gen by a chemical apparatus which cities, • food, transportation, govern- will absorb carbon dioxide and give meat, art and science will they have? oxygen,so that town, air will be just Mr. Russell has constructed the fol- as tonic and invigorating as country lowing vivid word picture of .what air, As the high buildings of the we'll be like 87 year from the present: new age will keep out the sunlight, The difference between the state of electric light, carrying all -the ray the world in 700 and its etate'in X'800 activity of the sunlight and just as - is • insignificant ' compared with; the capable of fostering life and vege- dlfference established between the tation, will serve the streets. latter date and the opening of the Railway transportation will be revo- twentieth century: The beginning of lutionized. Locomotive engines will the 21st century will exhibit differ- have been dispensed with, and what. ences, when compared with our own ever power 1s used will be conveyed day, which even the boldest :i„naagin- to the trains from central power- a'aon can hardly need to -be restrained houses. In collecting : passengers off in conjecturing. We are, in fact, stations the train will not a stop at all. picking up speed at an enormous rate. It will only slacken speed a little. The Witness the difference between 1800 platform will begin to move as the and 1900 and the next decade. The train approaohes and will run along latter part of the nineteenth century beside it so that passengers canget was the age of electricity, just as in and out as if the train were stand- the middle part was the age of steam. ing still. The first part of the twentieth century With trains running at quite 200 is evidently going to be the age of miles an hour, a passenger who puts wave manipulation, of which wireless his head .out of the window would be telegraphy as we know it is but tine blinded and suffocated, so the windows first infantile 'stirring. will be glazed, the oxygenators and The Nineteenth Century' carbon dioxide absorbers keeping the air sweet, and other suitable appliances progressed almost from first to last adjusting the 'temperature. Cities will on the strength of the discovery ._ptbe provided with moving stairways how to utilize the stored energy of always in motion at two or more coal, whether directly in the steam speeds. And we shall have learned engine or indirectly in the dynamo- to hop on and off the lowest speed electric machine and the electt{ic from the stationery pavement and motor. The economical analysis of from the lower speed to the higher water into its component gases, whose without danger, chemical affinity and electrical attrac- , The Clothing of Men and Women tions are already used to some extent, .i will give all movements of the body is a secret capable of extraordinary the greatest possible freedom con - beneficences to the new age. • sistent with warmth, and it will be The rational line of progress is obvi., as easy as possible to take off and ously to seek means of directly ••- put on. The essentials of a satisfac- composing water. When we can Edo .tory outfit will first be an inner gar - this compendiously and economicalen went worn next to the skin merely we shall have an inexhaustible sup, ly for cleanliness, next a middle garment of energy, for water thus used is not for warmth and finally a.n outer suit destroyed as coal is destroyed when for protection. The innermost gar - we utilize its stored energy. The ver} ment will be read of some fabric not act of utilizing the gases recombines unlike the soft, silky papers now made them. Most likely the universal in Japan, so that it can be destroyed source of power before the middle` of as soon as it is taken off. the century will be the recomposition The congested population will have of water. found that they can no longer tolerate In. other words • we shall get all< ale --the waste of a neglected ocean. The power we want by •splitting water into sea -board will have to be utilized and oxygen and hydrogen, as is done to a extended. There is nothing to daunt degree in the oxygen -hydrogen blow the engineers of a hundred years pipe and electrical storage batteries, hence in the project of erecting on and then Allowing them to recombine, the sea a vast floating city fully as thereby returning to ns the energy convenient as the present cities on we have employed in the analysis, .terra .firma, and while vastly more We can use the gases for heat be healthful, quite substantial enough to burning them together. We can use resist storm and every motion of the theta for light by burning then in the sea except the tides on which the presence of any substance capable of city will rise and fall, tides which being made incandescent. We shall will furnish the motive power of many be able to use them to generate elec-: conveniences in ocean cities, tricity by some contrivance akin to the accumulator of the present day and it would be even now a simple matter to utilize their explosive re- combination for the direct production of power as motion. Utilized apart the gases of water have many other uses and possible uses. In the early future we shall employ them in generating etheric waves. POINTED PARAGRAPHS, "Doing it now" is the root of suc- cess. Money may be saved by avoiding sure things. - Man is the architect of his own misfortune. The under dog gets a lot of sympa- thy, but what he wants is help, Why not resolve to get even with the world by paying our debts? Unfortunately, the man who loses his temper always finds it again If a man admires a womanshe should at least admire his good taste. When poverty comes in at the door love makes a .noise like a flying ma- chine, When a man is afraid to think for himself it is time the wedding bells were ringing. Never trusts',man whose dog crawls under the house when he sees him enter the front gate. Our idea of a fussy man is one who isn't. on ,speaking terms with his own conscience half the time. And many the father who thinks he is saving money when he gives his daughter in marriage, discovers later that he has a son-in-law to support. ANOTHER WRECK What's the Use When There's an Easy Way Out. Along with the tea and coffee habit has grown the prevalent dis- ease—nervous prostration. The following letter shows the way out of the trouble: "Five years ago I was a great coffee drinker, and from its use I became so nervous I could scarcely sleep at all nights. My condition grew worse and worse until finally the physician 1 consulted declared my troubles were due to coffee: (Tea, is just as injurious because it contains caffeine, the same drug found in coffee.) "But being so wedded to the bev- erage I did not see how I could do without it, especially at breakfast, as that meal seemed incomplete without coffee. "On a visit, my friends deprived. me of coffee to prove that it was harmful. At the end of about eight days I was less nervous but the craving for coffee was i;atense, so I went back to the old habit as soon as I got home and the old sleepless nights _came near making a wreck of me, "I"heard of Postum and decided to try it. I did not like it at first, because, ,:as 1 •afterwards disoover- ed, it was not made properly. I found, however, that when made after directions on the package, it was delicious, "It bad a soothing effect on my nerves and none of the bad effects that coffee had, so I bad farewell 'to coffee and have used only Pos- tuni since. The most wonderful account of the benefit to be de- rived from. Postern could not ex'• creed my own experience." Name given by Canadian Postum Co., 'Windsor, Ottt. Write for a; ,coP3r of 'Phe :Road to Wellville," • Postulate stow coined in tyro forms; ',Regular reetumt • -• must 'he well boiled. ° , , .I - .. ' 1ii!5tant ogtuxn --- 'it' et soluble Powder,. A teaspoonful dissolves quickly in Is pup•of• hot water and with creat) end sugar, makes s. de- licious beverage, •tuetanti:y.• G:ee- ee.rs sell' •both kinds, ".'.l`hcrje'q. u :Season"for P`esten). in the Home. Power will be so plentiful that the modification and partial elimination of the domestic servant and street lab- orer is certain. Presentlday rooms seem. to have been constructed so as to make it as difficult as possible to keep them clean. Square corners and rectangular junctions of wan and floor and ceiling will be replaced by curves. The kitchen lire, of course, will be an electric furnace, The abolition of horse traffic in cities and the ase of vacuum appar- atus, whieit will be continually at' work in all streets, keeping thein dry and free frons mud, practically will remove the necessity for boot brush- ing, even supposing we shall still wear boas; every man and woman in dressing will pass a vacuum instru- ment over his and her clothes and get rid of even the little dust existing, for we shall be snore and more in- tolerant of dirtinany foam, The new age will be a Clean one. A woman of the year 2000 who could be miraculously transported back to the present moment would probably faint at the intolerable disgu.stingness of the cleanest cities of the world, even Iif the cruelty of employing horses for traction and the frightful recklessness of allowing them to soil . the streets in which people walk did not. over- power her susceptibilities in another way. (iookingl perhaps, will not be done at all 'en any large scale at home—in fiat hones; at .all events, the coolting Will be'a muck less ,disgusting; pro- cess that. it is now We shalt not do THE VALUE OF COURAGE. Timidity Prevents Some Men. From Making Good. `A great deal of talent is lost in the world for the want of a little courage Every day -sends to their graves a number of obscure men who have only remained in obscurity because their timidity has prevnted them from mak- ing a first effort; and who, if they could have been induced to begin, would in all probability have gone. great lengths in the career of fame. The fact is that, to do anything in this world worth doing, we must not stand back shivering and thinking of the cold and danger, but jump in and scramble through as well as we can. It will not do to be perpetually cal- culating.,risks. and adjusting nice chances; it did very well before the Flood', when a man could consult his friends upon an intended publication for 150 years, and then live to see his success afterwards; but at present a man waits and doubts, and consults his brother and his friends, till one fine day he finds that he is sixty years of, age; that he has lost so much time in: consulting his first -cousins and particular friends that he has no more time to follow their advice: Sidney Smith. - Most Unsatisfactory. Poor old Aunt Elizabeth was a, martyr to rheumatism, ,and was consulting hes' nephew, a newly fledged' doctor, as to what she had better ' deo, She was e. wealthy old lady, and her loving nephew. was moot anx itis.ts to make good impression. • "You Should try 'electric treat - Merit, aunt,"he• said, "Electricity most of ;our cooking by such.a waste- is life, yewknow, ,and it is, especial- ful and unwholesome method as boll- ly good in overcoming your coin - ,"Now, , G g. , cion ._ try yourn w-ftut ed• ideas. on •m,e, beeanse l won't have:: it. Electricity,, Ms deed! ,Stuff and nonsense ! You know very well that i was struck by' lightning only a few months ago, and it hasn't, done me a bit of ing, whereby' the important soluble salts of nettS•te' all' foods are thrown away. As animal food will leave .been wholly abandoned before the end of tine century, the debris ai the kit- ebc:tt will be touch more. manageable than at present. ' In ',the new age the dishes to be washed' will be dropped into' an auto - male le . reeelataole, swilled . by clean good '. '"1Fi[QONJ3yi]C2'X" IS 1tEAE. South African Scientist Cotfix'lirte3 the Superstition. It is an ,old tradition that to sleep in the moon's rays was a danger- ous proceeding, and there is such a thing as "moonblink," a tempor ary blindness said to be due to sleeping in the moonlight of tropi- cal climates, while some observers have reported a devitalizing aotion of the moon's radiations on vege• table life. There is even quoted a death the cause of which was officially stated to be exposure to moonlight. Ap- parently the food moat seriously al - footed by the moon's radiations is fish, and eeemingly trustworthy statements have been made as to the ill effects produced in persons who had partaken of ;fish which had been freely exposed to moonlight. E. G. Bryant, writing in :a recent number of the Ohemioal News from Port Elizabeth, South Africa, George, sug genes that a possible explanation o these phenomena, assuming them to be true, might lie in the well- known fact that 'the light of the moon, being reflected light, is more or less polarized, and possibly po- larized light may exert a. peculiar chemical action. Subsequently, polarized light was obtained from a powerful metallic filament lamp, the light being pee larized by means of et pile of sheets of plate glass backed with silver and placed at the correct angle. The experiments showed certain marked results when fish was sub- mitted to the polarized light ob- tained in this way, although it is probable that stronger effects would be obtained with a more powerful source of. light. When two alioe.s cut from the same fish were hung, one in the direct light and the other in the polarized beam, the latter invariably began to decompose be- fore the former, though the temper- ature of the polarized beam was several degrees lower than the dir- ect light. There were indications also in the case of other perishable food substances of a tendency to decom- pose when they were bombarded by polarized light. The question is worth further investigation, and there should be • little difficulty in pursuing such e. line of research. There are so many influences as- cribed 1» moonlight that it would be of obvious interest to have sorb° scientific evidence tracing a definite section to the rays. It would be curious to find that such terms of obloquy as "moonstruck,'' "moon- shine" and "moony" iwere, after all, not entirely empirical. THE HUNGER STRIKE. A Custom of Great Antiquity in Many Countries. FROM ERIN'S UR EN NEWS ET blfJ<J FROM. 1L,JND'S SHORES, Happenings intheErnerald Jtate la Interest to Iris mien. The death has occtirr,ed at Rath more, Portaelington, "of Win: Dunne, aged 105 years. The Bangor urban counoil• hate decided to -provide an infeetiose diseases hospital for the town. A handsome new ball in Glapk, about four miles from Lianas■;y`•., has been opened by J. P. O'Rarme. B•allyoastle. The .•Artl se Town Gommissioness have adopted a resolution express, ingapproval of a; scheme of elec- tric lightingeln the •town. The Dundalk ruralcouncil' is coo sidering plana to" provide ;a wate; - and 'sewerage system for Bl;aekwkl,: at a cost of $100,000. By the will of Miss Isabella lion- an, of COork, wholes estate has been, valued at $766,655, over $500,00tt. has been left to Cork .charities, At the Dublin Housing Inquirer Sir John Moore' M.D., said that serious menace to'the future 1 - the decli�f vaccination in cit ' -.;�. _• During the past week an epi,., of typhoid fever broke out ie .\. ry, and three deaths have own.. There are two patients still in •e. hospital. ' The hon. secretaty of the Neiiag'k branch of the $t. Vincent de Pau Society has provided 50,000 free luncheons for poor children during the past twelve months:. The Portrush polies seized a sup- posed case of rifles at the railway` station. At the barracks it wa; found that they were dummy wood- en guns far the bays' brigade. Damage estimated at $35,000 'leaf caused by fire that broke out in the, stores of Gibson & Co., wholesale druggists and oil merchants, King street, Belfast. 1 hide engaged in prayer in St, Peter's church, Athlone, Sohn. Byrne, retired farmer. fell off hit, seat and died after receiving the last Sacraments in the vestry. The work of starting a bacon fac- tory in Castlebar, is now well under way and a successful future seem' assured for•. the enterprise as, t•1' people are - giving ' rb ent'hus aet- support. 1 Mr. James F. Reade, A.M.I.0:E i has submitted plans and specifia. pions for an important scheme fe the city of Kilkenny main drainage tand sewage disposal works at e cost of $110,000. Athby Urban Council has taker the preliminary steps to proceed with a second housing scheme, so ae to provide thirty-six cottages fel the working classes in the town, A loan of $35.000 has been applied for. From calculations which have been carefully made throughout Ulster. it is now ascertained that more than three-fifths of the mem- bers of the various embodied oorps of the Ulster Volunteers are pledg- ed total abstainers. The house of a farmer at Kilger- vin. near Athlone, :tvttis fired into. and an infant shot dead in its mo- ther's arms. The mother was struck and is not expected to live.* The farmer, in going for assistance,. fell into a drain, and was killed, General regret was occasioned in Newtownbutler and the su• rounding district by the death "Tom" Duffy. The deecased well known in Monaghan and man agh. f History repeats itself. The hunger strike is not an invention of the sutra - gists, but is a custom of great an- tiquity. John Scott, of the sixteenth century, while confined in David's tower in Edinburgh Castle, abstained from meat and drink for 32 days in order to show that he was under the special protection of Heaven. The procedure of fasting was a legal insti- tution of ancient It eland. Having ex- hausted all legal means to conquer the resistance of a powerful debtor his creditor had only one means of constraint left him—that of standing before the door of the debtor and of refusing to take nourishment till the debt had been paid. If the debtor `allowed the person fasting to die of hunger he was responsible for his death, and had to pay his family • a considerable indemnity in addition to This was called "fasting against or on a person." Dom Gougaud adds that in no Christian society to his know- ledge ,has there been such frequent and daring use of this curious process as in mediaeval Ireland. The custom is frequently mentioned in the Brehm Iaws. Pasting seems to have been practised when it was desired to turn a heathen king into a Christian, and the mnonarch, if hard of heart, counter - fasted as a means of protecting him- self against conversion. It is record- ed that St. Patrick "fasted upon" Loegaire, the heathen over-kiug of Ireland, until the later embraced Christianity, aucl in accordance with the superstitions of the times the king and his family felt it incumbent upon them to fast at the same time until this test of endurance was won by the saint. The custom of hunger striking for the same purpose was formerly com- mon in. India, but• it is now almost obsolete. It is known in the East as dharna (or dhurna) baithna, or "sitt- ing dbarna." It was chiefly resorted to in order to force payment of a debt. The creditor would sit at the debtor's door and taste no food until his claims were satisfied,. Jr. ,the debtor allowed the creditor to starve it was believed that he.had laid himself open to super- natural punishment, especially if the etarver . happened to • be a Brahmin; accordingly; Hindus of lower caste would sometimes engage a Brahmin to starve for them. :Few people expose their iguor- ance by keeping their' faces shut. 3 - What Is Household Charms Household charm is the one quality that perhaps every housewife seeks to have, and which everyone ought to wish to give to a house. It is not measured by cost, for, as a matter of fact, it is quite independent of money. Many costly houses, on which great sums of money have beau ere peuded, are entirely without charm; while many inexpensive dwellings are thoroughly attractive in every way. The charming room is the room that gives evidence of personal care and thought, in which the color achene the walls, the curtains, the carpet or rugs tell of manifest intent to pro- duce a harmonious interior, Other- wise it can have no charm, or, at the most, only a slight Interest. .Nobody knows .w:bee is to come. A. great many hours conic in be- tween this. and to -morrow; and 1:.4. one bout, -yea.. in one minute, down falls the house. "Ani 1 the only woman you eves loved 1" "Oh, no," he answered . , promptly, tt you are the sixth. ' lie sixth," • she exelaitneci, sud- denly relieving his ehouldei of the weight of her head. 'l'es,' he rued coldly, ''there were five be- fore you--nlv Mother; an aunt, and.; three sisters."