HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1925-12-17, Page 2FIRES AND FOOIS
By Thomas For�s'yth-Hunter.
It was. spoon, and the heat had be». " Isn't it nearly bine some of you
come intense, Seething arms of fire young men took hold of Yourselves?"
clutched the forest with all the ardor Ile shrugged his 'shoulders, and ask_
of late earths', and the pine, cedar•, ed n u what it west to do with enc.'
birch and'fir were dry as burnt grass. "Do!" I laughed scornfully. "Didn't
-Beautiful, majestic, imposingthe for- you throw away a lighted match?
est looked, with its . thick, masses of "Now I come to--•ah---tlt'iuk of it—
curiehtng ,mighty
1did," he answered, "What
scrapers slrteMhtg lovingly thebah/ {business s 'It of ours?"
sapling's. Silver -tipped ferns, pretty I "Business," I returned, "Its every -
little
verylittle. flowers, coolcushlone of gratis one's business., not only mine If the
and thick berry laden bushes abound human race were all like you, 1u-
ed in profu55ion? A thin breeze neer.; stead of having a great timber coon-
mitred around the forest trails, scent- ; try, we would be destitute o, beauty,
ed with the redolence of piiie and ce- and one of our greatest slices 'of emu
-
date and the delicate savor of wild merce would be wiped cut: Then: You
flowers. Coupled with all this were ask me what business it is of mine.
the Chirps and songs of the wild folk, Look there: That little chip of wood
and the ceaseless• buzzing and hum you so carelessly threw away is the
ming of many insect's•, greatest menace to a forest—It's fire.
* * * * It would soon have spread to the bnsit-
A woodland paradise, yes. But how es, then to the 'trees, and by nightfall
desolate, ugly, bleak if all were but this placewhere we're standing would
blackened stumps, dead grass and be a raging furnace.
bare prosaic bush—all ruins! "This laud belongs to everyone. If
It could happen easily. it was ravaged by fire a great beauty
I. had passed over the suspension spot would. go up in smoke and flames.
bridge, and on the other side had This land is ours as much as our' per -
strolled along for some yards, when sonal belongings are, More so, for
spotting a seat beneath the umbra- houses and other personal things can
geous heads of a group of *trees I be replaced? No! It would take bun -
thankfully seated myself. After wip- dreds of years before it attained the
Ong my profusely perspiring face I lit 'Iuxllriant growth it has ,tilt present.
a cigarette, carefully extinguished the And you, who stroll beneath those urn -
flame of the match, tossed it away, brageous trees, admire the berry -
sighed, and admired beautiful Nature. laden bitshes, this flowers, the masses
Other thoughts carne, and I needle of foliage, hear the songs of the birds
rated on the possibility of fire raging and the humming of the insects, would
and thundering over these . many not, I presume, care to strpll through
luxuriant acres. It was not a nice sup- a field of blackened stumps and dose
•yosition. When one considers an in- laden."
sfpid waste in place of thriving virid- * * * *
nese it is not an optimistic picture: Had this any effect on him? Didn't
I was meditating thus when I heard seem to leave even an impression. He
footsteps and voices. It is human na- turned from me scornfully, after tell -
tura to look up and pass your eye over ing me again to mind my own business
the "intruder" trespassing on your --and, there you are!
privacy, In this ease it was a young . Though one may see at almost every
man, immaculately clad, farinaceous turn in the woods one of these signs,
of face, with white, lily -like hands. By "Beware of fire," very little notice ap-
his side walked a young Sir!. Both parently is taken and certainly little
bad unlit cigarettes between their heed.
lips. .The young man struck a match, Was this young man the only guilty
lit the girl's then his own cigarette, one? There are a thousand of a like
then unconcernedly tossed the still breed. The first to raise their voices in
. flaming torch away. reproach, when fire springs out, and
My eye followed its flight to sonde wonder . fatuitously where the fire -
long, thick grass; in five seconds I fighters have gone to.
noticed a trail of thin gray smoke, What's the use? If you expostulate,
then flickers of flame. I was off my point out the error of .their ways, they
seat in an instant and had stamped the get offended. Yet, I suspect, that on
flame oat. • some, such remonstrances are not
Blazing with indignation I' cried on wasted, though on the majority they
the young man to return. He turned are; but I hope, as many hope with
and stopped, looking at me as if I me, that any man, woman or child,
'was some strange animal. With a who sees another careless with fire in
wave of my 'hand I beckoned him° the Woods, will not fail to lift up his,
Slowly, no doubt only prompted by
curiosity, he came to my side. w.
"Look there," I said, sternly, point-
ing to the scordhed grass. -
or''her, voice in earnest protest.
i've ,4'iotted a. beautiful scone. I'll stop and let you once it
can't see over your one-man top, but you'd better keep on going
prettier than that old you stopped at a whelks ,ago."
(Kindly draw straight lines between the numbered.
Over." "I
if it isn't
Fruits o. -----i
.._ Health in Glass.
The history of glass dates back to
Like Calla to Like,
If $'ou, walls as a friend, you wild find
a friend wherever you choose to.
fare;
If you go with mires: to a far strange
land, You will fled thaalt mirth is
thee,
For the strangea`t pert of thLsi queer
old world is that like will join
with like,
And who walks with love for hie fel-
low -men an answering love will
strike.
O:D "TRADE
MARKS"
; The use of hall -marks on silverware
of British manufacture hoe been ooin.
pulsery since the fifteenth •century. It
is from these marks that. the detail
and place of ananufaoture can be aecer--
tamed,
The marks are stamped with metal
punches, the size of each stamp being
little. less than a quarter of ,an incl.' in
diameter. . Each hall -mark consists of
four or five stamps'.
On small articles a complete series
of marks is not always necessary. One
often finds teaspoons of 1750 or...earlier.
marked with the lion only, while after
that they frequently have the full set
of marks,
On early spoons the. marks were
placed on the back of the stem ia the
narrowest part. From 1780 and until
the present'' tithe they have been
placed on the wide portionof the back
of the stem. ,
Tankards are marked below the rim
near the handle, and on the lid' also, if
there is one; coffee-pots either, in the
same way or on. the bottom,.but some-
times do the •side;, candlesticks on the
base and the sconce.
Not' Often:' Forged,
If yell walk In honor, then honest men
will meet you along the way;
But if you be false, you will And men
false wherever you chance to
stray,
For goad breede good, and the bad
breeds bad'; we are met by the
traits. we shove
Love ;dill find a friend at the stranger's
door where hate would find a
foe.
For- each of. us builds the world he
knows, which. only himself can
spoil;
And an hour of hate or an hour of
shame can ruin .a 'life' of' toil.
And though to the utmost ends of
earth your duty may bid you
• fare,
If you walk with truth and a friendly
heart, you ,will find friends wait-
ing there.
—Edgar A. Guest.
Shot by a Candie.
A remarkable inscription cut into
It is a criminal` offense' for anyone
but a government 'Official to ,stamp • .
these marks on any article, and, since
the risk ie great, ,they ,are not often
the stone wall of the lower ramparts forged: ' A much; safer ernetho&*f' the
Seed -time and harvest never cease a time before the Christian era, The,
within the bounds` of the British of the Round, Tower at Windsor -Castle fakir is' to. cut out. the leall�maeheil•.por•"
ti has Y tion an l p
Em-
pire, and at the Imperial Fruit BIxhibi-
tion at Holland Park Lond•on,,.you may
see the summer produce of two, hemi-
spheres. jostling *one another et the
same moment. The fruit -grower can
follow the ripening sun from the' West
Indies to South Africa and the far-
thest East and have a havest every
month of the year. (man shooting 'a lush -light at him from
All the wealth of the gorgeous fruits some wonderful things about glass'• It 1 a gun. Buried at Eton June 11th.
of the tropics is available every day has been learned that animal life, un-
like plant life,needs the sun's• s. } There is no evidence that the lee
to everyone, and all, of•it is Empire-. isle violet rays. Our ordinary windowgrown. The soription on the castle wall and this
lis, objectionablectable mango of In -only on account of panes shut out tate ,valuable part of entry in a. diary refer to the same in
the sun's light. cident, but the probability is that they
its stringiness, was grafted in the To accomplish 'the health -giving re -
great do. In reference to the event iself, It
great experimental botanical gardens sults that sunlight is capable of, it was probably the tragic end of what
of Trinidad oh the nectarine, and the must not be filtered through a window was meant for a-. joke, the offender
result is a .fruit free from any fibre 1)&116 -
light
even though sun- thinking'a tallow candle would merely
with all the savour of its tender pulp flatten out against he poor fe1lcw e
light be all about us, equipment is not
preserved. easily available to enable us to utilize body and do him. no inaury, whereas
The mangosteen, most delicately':
Savored of all fruits, is grown to -day this health -giving. propertg of God's
not only in its own• habitat of Southern free sunshine.
India, but in all the hot climates of the Recent experiments at the Boyce In -
India, along this line, may have a
world. The persimmon, so strangely e
like a pale twain:, In appearance. and vital effect upon aux lives. Scientists
ancients of that early time gave credit
to the Phoenicians for its invention,
but some historians believe that these
Phoenicians' may have derived a part
of their knowledge of the art of mak-
ing glass -from Egypt. Be that as it
may, all down through the ages,.glass
has been made in various forms to
supply our ever increasing needs.
' But scientists, in exper•.imen Ong
with light, have recently discovered
' excited the curiosit of many visit- of nod spoon. oon 'or other" gleaall
' ors, No date is attached, and' .there 3s' object and then carefully solder ,it in-'
• no' explanation of, its meaning beyond to the'side or bottom afhaa elaborate
i the; actual, words':• "C- Holme -Shot by article of his own recent Manufacture.
' a' Candle." ' Or he may oonveit a genuine piece
j Curiously enough, however, an cid of old silver which he finds unsalable
Windsor diary has come to tight which into something more attractive, with
-
1
contains, under the date • June 8th, not disturbing the original hall -mark. ;
1833, this remarkable entry: "Chas. For instance, • a genuine old child's
Home, Clever Laze, was killed by a cup, although well designed, may be.
difficult to 'dispose of. It will easily
be sold as a sugar basin after it has
received a second handle. There are
many ways in which a skilful,faker,
may double and treble the; selling
price of his antique silver and still
point to a hall -mark that is perfectly
genuine. '•4
The connoisseur must always' know
quality and workmanship, ` as wellas
otyle of design and ornamentation.
The hall -marks confirm his observe-,
it has been. proved thata candle can time and give him historical Informs-,
be fired' through an inch board. tion besides.
---a—e_.. The best-kna"wn and most important
of the four or five devices which foram
the complete set of symbols is the
"lion passant," which hes' been tided
on gold and silver -plate since 1545.
In.6696 the standard of 'silver was al-
tered, 'and the "lion. passant" wa's''re-
placed by ,the lion's head erased. In
1720,the old standard west again made
legal, and from then until now it 'as
remained unchanged.
The original . custom was for each
silversmith to have a symbol, but
eines 1739 the maker's mark has con-
sisted of hiss initials stamped in plain
type. Each maker's mark had- to be
registered at the assay office, and, as
the lists have been published, - the
name of any maker may be foand by
referring to them°
The sovereign's, head to perhaps the
easiest of all marks to identify, and
the presence of the British king's' head
will often enable the 'veriest amateur
to identify a`, piece_ of "Georgian sil-
ver."
of that institution have two types of
It is .greatly to be wondered at that so utter atuement to aver
y -" glass' In. preparation ,produced corn-
! comes to us only klong-I{ong.and•
there are not more forest fires, than paratively• cheap h
there area ° ,"
China itself, where >rGr censiur ,it has: ; tat permit the a12 -
been the staple' food of the silkworm rmpoi3an`t ultra-violerays of the sun
breeders, They must deny 'themselves
to pass through, instead of absorbing
cooked meats for the sake of the deli- them, as does thes..alase in our ordinary
Bate These l precious worms, to whom the wiThese
two new types of glass may
smoke of a fire means death,open new health avenues. If it is pas -
South Africa, Australia, and the sible to have the windows of •aur
West Indies send passion fruit, cur` homes glassed so as not to shut out
tard apples, and, -best of all, the ave- the health giving qualities of sunshine,
cede or alligator pear. Its name is the it cannot but heip'm'a•ke us a 'healthier
phonetic equivalent tif" an. 'unpro- people. Then the very windows of
nounceable Aztec title, but its flavor, our homes will open a way to better
health.
Are Birds Color -Blind? A Planet That' Exploded.
The appearance of the visible world, Will the earth blow up? Science
. especially in the matter of color, de- says it might happen. Apparently
pends so much on the structure of the that very thing happened to a corn-
eye which views it that no one ea -i be panion world oaf -ours, which exploded
quite sure what the actual truth about nobody knows how long ago.
material objeots is— if indeed they Professor Frank Wigglesworth Clark
are not all, as some philosophers sup- says all the "fallen stars,," or meteor-
p9se, mere illusion. Some European ites, as we call them, are pieces of that
naturalists have been studying the ;last planet.
yes' of birds and have come to the sur- There are circumstances, entirely
conceivable, under which' a similar
fate might befall the earth. It might
be shattered almost in a moment into
a multitude of fragments' which there-
after 'would pursue an endless journey
around the sun, like the meteoric
swarms which represent today a sister
world that blew up.
The sun has eight planets. Once
prising con.clu,sl a -that birds de not
, see color well at all; and that they see
everything through a veil of either
orange or blue light that gives • things
the appearance they have when we
humans put on colored glasses of those
tints. The gorgeous; shimmering,
blue-greaa tail of the male peacock
bird, and `the proud feathers of the
barnyard rooster may mean nothing at upon a time there was a ninth. What
-all to the modest pea hen anrt`the lit- become of the missing planet? Pro-
* tie red pullet, for birds do not look at
things the way people do. That, at
any rate, is the conclusion drawn by
Dr. H. Erhard of Munich, who has ex-
perimented
xperimented 'With the eyesight of birds
at the university eye -clinic there. Doc-
tor Erhard found that both male and
female birds that fly by day see every-
thing in a bright redorange light, for
they are but slightly sensitive to the
short waves of light that make blue
and violet visible. Night birds. on the
other hand, never see red, for they are
more or less insensitive to the colors
at that end of the spectrum.
The difference in vision between the
day and night birds is due to tiny
globules of oil in the retinas of the
eYes, accoeding to Doctor Edhard. The
globules in the day birds range in
color from neutral to red, orange and
yellow, while in the night birds they
are blue-green. These act as color
ser eens and determine the bird's' color
sense.
If these discoveries are confirmed
by other investigators, it is in order to
ask whether it will not be necessary
for Science to abandon another of the
Darwinian theories; that is, the •hypo-
thes'is that birds developed their gay
plumage as a means of sex attraction.
If the little female cannot see the
beauty of the male's wings it is ab-
surd to suppose that she Is moved by
it
Couldn't Step,
fessar, Clark says that it exploded.
The flocks of meteors encountered by
the earth in its flight through space
are fragments of it. •
Millions- of "these fragments enter
our atmosphere every twenty-four
hours, but nearly all of them are
burned up by the resulting friction be-
fore they can reach the surface of the
earth. ,Occasionally -one lands, and
we call it a "fallen star."
All the known meteorites•, some of
which weigh many tons, show Indica-
tions of a common origin. The Condi-
tion of the substances composing them
showing alteration by pressure and
other physical influences' proves that
they 'were originally parts of a planet.
Their structure indicates that they are
fragments of what was once a sizeable
world. '
It Must have blown up. If so why,
and how? The •catastrophe may have
happened in either of two ways. The
planet, revolving too fast on its axis,
may have been tore to pieces by cen-
trifugal force. Or, if it has. sere, the
water of the latter may have found a
way into he hot interior and blown it
up.
Wonderful.
The lecturer was' discussing longe-
vity.
"Has anyone any information to
give regarding his own ancestry aed
longevity?"
Pat, who was always very )lunctual "Two of my ancestors,"said one
man in -the audience, "lived one hun-
dred and fifty years`."
"Wonderful!" exolaimed the Speak-
er. "We eta indeed getting hold of.
some interesting facts. Can thio state-
ment of yours be vouched for?"
"Certainly," said the man. "They
were my grandfather and my groat.
grandfather. They lived seventy-five
years each."
,What is the difference between the
SIM and bread? The aun rises` in the
E'astr and the bread irises with the
yeast fa it+
arranged to 'meet Mike at the post.
office at ten o''elock. Arriving a few
Minutes before time, Ptit decided to.
walk down the street 'in the direction
from which he knew Mike would come.
Before he had gone far he observed
alike across • the street hurrying to-
wards the meeting -place. , '
"HI,. there, Mike!" he called, "here
01 am—comes over,"
"Begorre," answered the tardy Irish-
man,, "don't he' after detainin' afire.
Oi've only foive Minutes, to meet yes
at the poateficg." •
once tasted, is inducement enough to
make another Cortes set sail for the
Spanish Main.
All of these, the princes of the world
of fruits, you may buy in London. But
to meet the king himself, the exquisite-
ly flavored but evil -smelling durian,
you must go to his own domain, the
Malay States of Borneo. As befits his -
rank, he keeps royal state, hedged
$5,574,525,952,824,320
Payable in 1000 Years
Henry G. Granger, -former United
States Minister to Colombia, has just
given away $5,574,525;152,824,320, not
about by the "duri," ore theins., that to be cas'iied in, however, for 1,0'00
give him his name. But to taste a years. As a lesson in thrift he has de-
drurian it is worth paying the passage -
money to Singapore.
There are slums of the mind. -Prin-
cipal C. Grant Robertson.
'ADAMSON'S ADVENTURES
posited $10 in a bank to remain there
at compound interest until 2925, when
the total will be 'disposed of by a spe-
cial committee for the best interests
of the United States- and Colombia.
'eke ,t -rom rie;=dyne t\.nows.
"With these foolish and changeable
styles how can a girl ever know where
her waistline fes?'
"Wu er—eny nice feilow.eau show
you that"
e
When Words Fail,
The young village sheik was• taking
his 'beautiful but dumb •sweetlee . for a
ride in his new flivver for ,the first
time. When on a good stretch of
country road, he decided to step on the
gas., but before he did, he askedher
if there was anyone behind, to which
she `replied. "No,"' so' he stepped on the
gas to 35, when he again asked the
same question and she replied the
same.
At about 50 he repeated the ques-
tion and the answer u a,s, '.Why, no,
only 'the little man on the bicycle, and
he's been there all the .time."
Ae.,
.Bora Cie Anxious
• IT'S. Qn lY
CiiLOfOFogIi
(Chp:lil;l,t,1n4, by The BO.tyndlaate, Iht.)
What Writer is Most
Frequently. Quoted?
A correspondent, writing in praise
of Sir Edmund .Geese's article on. Pope,
incidentally states thrat the author of
the Essay on Man is the mast quoted
of air the poets. There can, be, no doubt
that many of his lines have become
part of our common speech, but
Shakespeare and Milton are, I think,'
more quoted than any other writer.
Milton, I find, is quoted very often
without acknowledgement, soto speak.
Do we think of Mitten when we quote;
Then, Co the spicy nut -brown ale;
or, again, when we talk of "the old
man eloquent?"
On the whole, Shakespeare may be
placed first, Diiton .Second, and Pope
a good third. Burns would rank Very
high in thikelase--ln Scotland, per-
haps. in this as in all else, the highest
of all.
Naturt as a Subject,,
I know no 'abject macre elevating,
more amusing, mere ready to awake
y the poetical enthusiasm, the philo"
! sopliicai reflection, end the moral eau -
1 tinrent than tae works of Nature.
Where can we meet with each variety,
net beauty, such ma goificenceea-all
: that enlr.m+ges and, transporta the soul?
What more inspiring than a •calsm,
;'wide stirv`ey of them? Irl every dress
Nature is greatly charming; whether
she puts on the ceimeton effulgence of
noon, the soler emit of the 'evening, :Cr
the (jeep sables of blackness' and tsmp-
c,^t: Holy gay !looks the Spring, how
gleeiotts the Summer, how pleasing
the .Autuntn, and` hew venerable the
Winter. But there is no' thinking of
thew things withoat breaking,rout'in-
to poetry; which is, by the by, a plain,
and unrdeniabl•e argument of their
sur,erior exc'olienee,—•James' Thomson,
Fie Preface .ter 'The Season+e+."
One meal a day is claimed by some
oxperis es the ideal method. They
j state that our digestive systems need
at least sixteenours' rest Out of the
Some Peonle Have to be Shown tsverity-rour.