HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1922-12-07, Page 3Amazing Races Against Time
The recent remarkable performances -..eg ipieting the suit 1»' 7 para., in plenty
, Sobtimurbton' in; Qoaliar-g ,the White i of time for the baronet to don it P ;
paa'atory to sitting down, to his even -
gear ,l�ier Homeric by hand in recox4 ;
time, and. in refitting. the Majestic foxi ing mese,
.filler trip'to NOW York in about thirty At one time the GreatJaste!rn Rall-
working hours, stand out as coespiele way Company perform and the feet et of
of
• ans .exemples of what :can .b_e+ 'aocoxu buil. dirlg 'a 1.ocomOtive
pushed when hareem 'euerge as well as the' `goods type in nine hours forty-
mrechaniea'i ' applfaneee are Put to the seven minutes.
test against time. In shipbuildiatig yards and other con -
Although the present age excels iai structive industries one sees : • wore
-tire art of hurrying in, matters, in speeded up by the use of pneumatic
which machinery ie used, it is sureris- and other tools for which
road ecru
modern
ing how smart our ancestors in the science is l onsirbe andwanhas been.
early part of the last century could be struction and
when occasion necessitated their "get- greatly accelerated .recently by the
ting a move on." use of m'ec'hanical appliances.
For example, in 1337, when wool The papermaking trade can boast.
was •seen on the old jennies and woven of some famous feats in the way of
on hand -looms, a jacket and vest, were quick work. On one occasion ,three
completed at Ettrick Mills in sixteen trees were felled at 7.35 am., and hur-
hours; but in 1816, an American paper rie'd to a factory, where they wea'e
having recorded that "at a woollen :fan- sawlie nto pieces pe then wilt .o ed to long.
tory y at Holliday Cove the wool 'siorii y
e -
from the back of a sheep in the morn- fibrators. . The wood -pulp was run. in-
' ing
n-.'ing was washed, carded, spun into to a vat, mixed with tee
ieensnot
ua l ogee nr
r
yarn of eighteen cute to the pound, harmless but quite
'woVen, dyed, fulled, dried, shorn, and cols, and the process finished; the
made into a coat and worn, all in the liquid pulp was sent to the paper ma-
space of twenty-four hours," the same chi e, which
at 9.34 d sheet our ed out the
the
feat was hours'
performed in t y mindutes.
in firhour and fifty-nine minutes after the
twelve hours• and'- twenty minutes. f•.•rst tree was Felled.
Subsequently a. Canadian firm accom at The mance felled.
then took the
pushed the work in nine hours and a Paper to a printing establishmei'it two
q There is the well-known case, too, of miles, away, and byte -10 o'clock the
a Berkshire baronet who bet a hun trees had been converted into news-
dred guineas that he would dine at papers ready for delivery.
seven o'clock in a suit of clothes made Shoe manufacturers, too, display
from wool which had been growing on wonderful keenness, in beating re-
the sheep's back the same day. Cords..
• As the bet was covered, the expon- In the United States shoes have
directed that been made in sixteen minutes; in the
ent a iOii art of should
bghurrying Midlands of England in twenty min -
theoperations should begin at 5 a.m. with utes; and at the Agricultural Hall, Is,
the -washing of sufficient sheep .toping lington, when the leather passed
vide the wool. From.a neighboring through fifty-three machines and re-
late in th,e
factorythe afternoon, but early enough wool was returned as cloth hired the attention of sixty-three peo
-
to permit of a tailor and his assistants ple.qin. 'thirty-five 'minutes.
ADVANTAGES OF
CANADA'S CLIMATE
LIGHT RATHER THAN
HEAT MAKES PLANTS
GROW.
Human Energy Developed to
Highest Degree in North
Says Stefansson.
,ith the shortening fall days and
proa h. of winter months, once
erifeese in foreign''publieations
aI sa ants and opinions as to the d
gti'ability or disadvantages ,of Canada's
;climate,
We who live. in Canada are quite
satisfied with our winter climate; we
know it is both desirable and advant-
ageous; and that without it we- could
not hope to raise the finest hard wheat
in the world and the splendid crop of
e!turdy, healthy, young men and wo-
men. Farmers know that bracing cold
weather pets bone and muscle, fat and
hide on horses and cattle; lumbermen
and trappens that snow solves their
transportation problem; while to the
lover of outdoors sports, winter time
beentice
word, for, as time goes on, conditions
in Canada change, and with further.
northward cultivation and colonization
the so-called Arctic climate is being
driven farther North. To any who
have read Stefansson's article' on cli-
mate in the February, 1922, World's
Work. 'The Livable North,' the follow-
ing quotation will be familiar; to those
who have not read it, it will be of in
terest.
Old Beliefs Broken Down.
Before quoting - from that article,
however, let us; just joint out that this
question of excessive Arctic climate
and unproductive Northern areas is
fast losing its foundation. Settlement
in the Peace River country, in North-
ern Ontario • and in. Quebec, is. going
areas -that, .. like the
on apace, ':and
Northwest, were • once cotiside•f+ed
inhabitable and uncultivehle, are now
proving desirable and productive..
Back in the early nineties, wheat
grown a thousand; miles north of the
international boundary took flint prize
at the Chicago International Exhibi-
tion, since when settlement in that
area has been steady and expansive.
When Canada is possesses, of a popula-
tion of eighteen millions instead of
eight as at present, this question of
uncultivable Northern areas owing to
excessive climate, will' have faded just
in the' same way as the question of the
fertility and livableness of the North-.
in. Canada is a season to ani - west faded with time and exp'erimen-
pated. Finally, vital statistics bear titian. But let Stefansson speak for
out the fact that nowhere in: the world himself:—
will a healthier class of children be "We have poine other that the
•
found than in Canada, and the state of growth of grass and
is
health of the younger generations is measured in months, but by the number
summ
of hours of sunlight, and that there
are as many hours of sunlight in three
months of Arctic summer as in six
mouths of tropic summer, giving the
plants, therefore, in reality, twice as
long a growing time as, the:careless
reasoner assumes them. to have. This
is one of the fundamental considera-
tions which explain the universality
—AND THE WORST IS YET T,
The . xguage of Bees,
Can anieuele�.and,"insects 'talk to •eeeh
other? A Gerrie n selentis!t, eettese '
Xterl 'Yoe. Frisch, 'whale making tests
Poisons You Eat Every` Dai'.
Hoer Many people who wer'.e startled
by .th+ recent epidemic of food peiso4a-
leg realize that deify' most ,of as eon.
on byre's, discovered many interesting Rene .poison with Our meals?
facts about the eretem of eomentini�ete Bacon, for example, which figures on'
tion adopted by Hueco cr atU3 ee, . most breakfast tables, contains is small
He Plaeed a die!h'af sugar solution amount of ,saltps�bre; it gives• the rind
on a table by an open window, A bee its eo�ioring Take a dose of an ounce
came along and, having stolen as much or so oe Deltpetre, and even if you do
as lie could Gerry, flew away, Before not die you will have a decidedly un. -
1 � ., long tee dish was covered with bees. comfortable tune. .•,
The sugar wa+s removed sad mostof An ounce of saltpetre 'bas beep.
the in;seets disappeared. When the hnrown to kiwi a person in two h•ouxs
dish wee replaced, the swarm return v dle uiedical rewords contain nuiner-
•
ed. By touohing the back of mai bee, cis instances of people, havin. been
with a spot of color, it was discovered made very 111 by mistaking 'tuts sub.
that the later arrivals were not es- stance for some other form of salt.
carted by those woo had been before, Mention of salt brings • to mind the
and it was concluded that they must little known fact mist a favorite Chin-
have been sent. este metlh'e�d of committing suicide is
The next step in•. the in'vestieation by taking a cupful of the common
was to study the behevio'r of the bee table varier, In Gray more than small
which had d•i,soovered that the sugar quantities salt' is a violent gastric tr-
ead been replaced lathe window. When ritant, •ane of tah'e effects of which it
the creature returned to the nest it the setting up Iola fatal inflammation
handed over its load of sugar to the of the stomach.
workers, and then executed a curious Another salt of which most of us
daucs, describing clrcles and other partake fairly freely at some time or
figures. The other bees, watched care- other is oxalic acid, a clistressin'gly
fully, and attempted to touch! hex. powerful irritant and nols!on when
When one of the bees which had been taken. in sufficient quantities. It is
marked succeeded in this, it flew out found in rhubarb and sorrel, and gtves
immediately and went to the sugar. both their pleasant thirst -quenching
The unmarked bees soon •ceased to pay flavor.
any attention to, the discoverer of the Bloaters and kippers are not infre-
sugar. quiently preueaved in a preparation
Then the experiment was repeated containing formaldehyde, which is
with two dishes, one white and one liable to bring' about stomach trouble
yellow. Both were filled with sugar and sometimes worse effects. The
---� and left in the window. -The bees amount used: in caring fish, however,
were marked with white or yellow, ac- is so small as to be almost negligible.
cording to the dish to which they flew. Even your iced Christmas cake can -
The ddsih'es, were removed and the not be absolved from the charge of be -
white one emptied. Afterwards both ing pois!o'n!ous in a slight degree. That
the North were replaced in the window. The full delightful almond flavor, appreciated
per square mile per day at dish was clis,covered by a ye11ow bee, by moat people, is a sign aF the prem
Pole than io the uchaas. Greenland,
moue The .factor of l3arriero' Post, Hud -
s regions, such as. Greenlan d, • ,, � '� an exceptional Which returned to ,the nest and repeat- sem;oe. hi the icing of prussic acid, less
tarpon g sone, Bay.Company, ised the dance. Both white and relic" than one ounce of which is. suiflcieavt
bees then flaw back to their dishes, to kill two or three people in a very
the white ones of course, fleeing north- short time.
ing waiting for them. Many of the cheapest kinds of jam
All this showed that bee language contain arsenic, as do interior brands
is able to •convey information as to the of sweets and confectionery.
presence of'food, but that it cannot Then, again, such familiar items as
describe the position of the find unless cloves, nutmegs, horse -radish, and cer-
th'e place is already kno ve. to the re- tain herbs are poisonous if taken in
cipient of the message. Tee language large quantities,.
is obviously founded on touch rather Black pepper contains an alkaloid
than upon hearing. poison known as piperine, while the
cayenne variety, better known per -
Making Ends hfieet in Music haps as red pepper, las• eves' more pot -
ll iireeerleUt ~
inn!! 1i 11u
Il`I440
II����,
•
A Man to Admire.
there. is left over -from winker, stored
snow to counterbalance locally =this
tremendous downpour of heat; but on
the far more extensive polar lowlands
of Siberia, Canada, Alaska and the
Canadian Arctic islands, there ie no
stored -up snow to temper the summer
heat. which explains the stories tra-
vellers from these regiones tell of the
unbearable swelter of the Arctic sum-
mer and explains such weather bureau paremtLy a large dog, was" following
records as 100 degrees in the shade at him. ' When he looked routed again he
Fort Yukon, Alaska. thought that the animal was rather
Examples. of Unconscious Humor. big far a dog. And< it seemed to be
"The speeches in Parliament of Sir coming pretty close to him. Then he
Edward Blake and others are now understood, It was not a dog; it was
classic in Canada and are there the a polar bear!
best known examples of unconscious Alston had no iveapon of any sort
humor. The English language was with him; he had nothing except his•
taxed to its capacity in sb.owing the lantern;" and he knew that if he tried
obsurdity of the building of the Cana-
dian
ana . to , oi' if he showed any signs of
dian Pacific Railway. The argument fear, he was last. So, turning round,
said in substance that the expense of he walked toward -the bear, waving the
mean. • After reading Mr. Ralph G.
Sto !darCl's article in Outing, we should
sayfth!at:the factor—his. name is Als-
ton-prabably would do•well anywhere
—either among •tli!e polar beaks and, In-
diane of the ice floes or` among the:
lions - and biaaks •of the jungles.
One winter evening, writes 111r. Stod-
dard, the factor, who wasi :returning to
his store, noticed that something, ap-
the very best indication of the advan-
tages of the climate,
In a very eulogistic article on Cana-
da in the October issue of the Inter-
national Bulletin publisthed by the In-
ternational Institute of llconomies of
New York, one • of Canada's great
drawbacks, is stated to be the climate.
"Coeinopolis," who writes the article,
says: and luxuriance of in the
"Canada's chief disadvantage is that North that is always vegetation startling to
her farther northern climate renders the who goes North with a
her products less diversified than mind traveller w with ideas derived
course the Unitedch he States—fndns et grips from school geographies,"
-con
great areas In frosts that forever for-
bid cultivation of then,"
On the face of it, this would seem to
be fact. but It would! bo difficult to con-
vince Stefansson and other recent
tolt'vatlon and lIv second week of July, the earth at sea
In ane
Northern explorers of this fact, "For -
,
over" as applied au x
lag conditionsCanada is a doubtful level receives Froin the stili more heat
"It seems to be light._,,. rather than
heat that makes e plant grow fast. But
if it were beat, the polar plants would
not be badly off, A fairly simple
mathematical c leuiation shows that
from the nest weelc•'at June to the
ent as a poisio•u..
Education. .A. case was reported in which. a wow
'.Che problem .of making "ends meet" man swallowed half an ounce ot.
while continuing their education • in cayenne pepper and died in agony a
music is often the most presis.nnig ques- few hours' afterwards.
tion which confronts the students' of All .doctor's' agree that -over-indulge
to -day. Yet many times the very peo- anon in tea or coffee, owing to the eat -
pie who need it most pass by an op- fein. these drinks, oontain, is decidedly
portunity at their doors- and going far- injurious to health,.
then afield to make money fail Mensal -
building the road would be so great lantern in his face. The bear reared r Y.
On Crusoe's Isle. •
that even were we to accept the moat on Yes Bind legeand• waited till he was As one instance: In the• city of Ot- A holiday on Robinson) Crusoe's•
PICKED
U
p
ACTIVE
SEA MINE
The fishing hin vessel Soorpio recently picked up a live mitre rte Its nets off
Sc�a'r'b�oi~a, England. She was taken to harbor and isolated while the firing
tupp�axartrrs was removed. The mine and the extracted mechanism, awe shown
in the picture,
o tint ; :ytew of what the .resources feet away, then it dropped taw,a a good oons,ervatory with land will be possible in the near fu
ri tz040, ;m. g# , • ls aun.. texe d oft—bluffed! efieierl, er
. s .. tare.
f •et , ' "calllittle island of luau
• :, on`so a reason sols. _ r $' •iif? •ori also knows; how to a a • • + • ' on bh,e line of the •railroads The ahgrmi'ng d
„ carrying them- to the Atlan- a beet" ' Once during a very cold. win- i s a little village that is the centre of Fernandez, where Alexander Selkirk
tariff fory diS
tic would never pay foe the axle ter he visited some Indians.who'were t a flourishing farming community, and I spent four years of his life, and whose
grease of the freight cars. Opponents
of the road were willing to concede
that if anybody had the incredible fol-
ly to squander that much money the When the time came to start back ,one have lost. Each ,of these pupils is It belongs to the Chilean Govern
road could be built. They admitted of the rnd'ians whose name was George willing to pay flfty cents for a half- ment and can be reached by steamer
further, that it could undoubtedly be Gamplained that he was, not feeling hour lesson, w!hiile one family in the from Valparaiso, The island is, thfa•ty-
operated in summer, but submitted well and said that he weenotready to villla.g,e offers + free board and lodging six square miles rat extent, and is
that it was preposterous, to suppose start, Alston wee •satisfied that there a day and a night each week to heavily "coded with splendid tree
that it could be operated in winter, was nothing the matter with the fel zany teacher willing to go from the city
and there followed the self-evident low, bet that -he simply wanted to stay ; to give lessons to the children The
irons at
conclusion that the railway could and visit a: little longer with the In - railway fare to and from children
village
never be profitable, for `no enterprise the encamptnen!t. So lie said;. amounts to one
e dollar and fifteen
can be profitable if it is operated only to him, "All right, we shall return cents This leavesa profit of ten dol -
Half the year.' " without you." tars an•d a ghty five cents for approxi- chat among the ferns. Tee climate le
"it is hard now to realize that this Tim first day after the three had left mutely one 'day's work Almost the 'said to be ideal.
argument was applied in good faith to tile entazmpm'ent the Indian boy came same story with the same inducement At Cumberland Bay, where Selkirk
the district which is now, with some to Alstron with a enroll bag that con- far a teacher holds good of a other vii- landed, is the island's only hamlet, San
justice, called `The Bread Becket of tamed about one day's rations. "That loge in a different direction up among Juan Bautista. A modern hotel is, to
the World,' and to a railway which is is stir we 'have,".he said. I the Gatineau. Hills, but it would not be be erected here, and, a bigweekly-steam
commonly conceded to be the great- "Why is that alnwe have?" demand-; quite so convenient for a student to go boat service is to be run.
est of all railway systems. ed the factor. "I laid out plenty of pro there as to the first place It might, Naturally, the great curiosities of
"Human energy, mental and physi- ''visions!' however, be well worth "hila
eye island are the places where Robin -
cal, is developed to the highest degree "George take them," was, the,ansnver. Fifty cents. a lesson may not be son Crusoe, according to the story,
in tile Northern climates. It may also, "Did you see him take them?'" aslked much to some teachers, but then what passed the best part of his life. First,
in some cases, be developed to a high Alston,
degree in Southern countries, notably eyes.„
on plateaus and where the sea breezes "Wen, then, why didn't you tell
blow freshly. We need not go into mer
any such elaborate arguments as pose The radian boy had no satisfactory
of Ellsworth Huntington's book' 'Cls• answer to give; it was evi ,orae that he the music teachers. cro!ckery'—plates, dishes, soup 'tureens,
hat about it? Are we gating to and even washing basins and tanks.
There is the little bay in which he
used to moor his boat, aitd the plateau
nu which he built his cabin,
An Ideal Memory.
perhaps eight days' journey from Port in this village a class. of twenty-four
Nelson; with' him he took three of his pupils, waits In vainefor a teacher to
own Iiidiane,- two inen and a boy. take the place of the one whom they
story led Defoe to write his famous
nvasterpiece, is to be transformed- into
a holiday resort.
ferns, orange trees, myrtles, and san-
dal wood. It is mouritairious', and. futile
of ravines and torrents. Crows ofi
wild gcats roam through the under -
wood, and myriads of humming birds
about the opportunity for rendering there is the grotto where he made his
real service to those children who are dwelling; it is carpeted with ferns and
still looking for their music teacher? olinebing plants. All around it grows
There must be many other little vii- the pologony, a curious plant, from
lames in Canada in need of help from whose gigantic leaves he made his
d
",crotid e sieiiously injured, so he tookduction of the bleb two Ca Wye - "Never; sot remind him
R
mate and Civilization,' to prove to any
thoughtful man that so long .as� and
have a competitive civilization a
so long as public opinion continues to
allow the energetic and the powerful
to take whatever tbey wish from the
as well as the third Indian was • play-
ing the game with the one who had
stayed behind, They had supposed that
Alston naturally would return when he
found that he., had no provisions, for
the temperature was down far below
lethargic and the weak, so long wilt zero , •
the North continue to dominate the
South as' it is doing to -day, for it pro-
duces the one crop that matters—men
of unsleeping energy and restlese am
neglect our little friends in the rural
districts of this great Dominion?
Tobacco takes its name from the
Island of Tobago in the Caribbean
Sea, where it was discovered, but Mrs. Exe—"Does your husband re_
ButAlston knew that if he did turn "nicotine" was the name first given to Imember the anniversary of your mar-
back
ear
back -hierestige with the Indians tobacco in France through the intro riage?"
the provis.ioms and divided them into Med'.cis by the Ambassador to Lisbon, of it in January and June and ge..
two
1
three po`tfons, "Now," he said to the ,roan Nicot. presents. -� -
bition,"
s•tWo Indians, "take your Wok. We are ----
Twice Net ing, I, going to Port Nelson. I want you to
realize that when a white man sets out
Thomas was not the brightest e!pecir•, to do a thing he does it!"men on earth, and, try as hamight, he They made the journey in bitter cold
could not succeed in obtaining a situs- weather In four days with only one
tion. , day's proyis,ions and arrived thorough-
At lest a bright idea. c,acunred to Mini; ly exhausted at ,Post Nelson. The In -
forwould offer his Services free for. a a drop man lta.d a frozen toot, What a
fortnight, pity it could not have been the 'Indian
Oaged e& tennis mr, Ikey I+'ingelstein who had remained behind!.
engaged
The fortnight having expired, Thom-
ae asked for a "rise."
' 'Vaat is your present salary?" asked
Fingelsteint
"Nothing, sir, said Thomas,
Mr. Fing!atstein :contemplated the
lad.
"Veil, my poy, your vagee le doub-
led!"
And Thomas was quite satisfied. --
until he had had time to think over
the generous. offer;
Uneecpiliodec7 sih,'t , bombs, and other
"live" Wee -soueenii,+s to tiho number of
6,600 have ,been plaited! up lin Faris
obverts since the beginning of this
year; ,it is s+u,gigestEd that owners of
these dangerous articles are " "cru a, p-
ing" theist to get rice of them
A Slight Error.
A traveller rushed up to a stranger
on a raliway station just ao• the train
was about to start, and asked
"Are you going on this train'"
"I are!" was the reply. .
"Weil ray friend, said the traveller,
"you might do mo taxa. 1 have two
big trunks, and thy always melte me
pay e'xto'l for ,olio of them; Would you.
mind tiking one, it will ' cost you noth-
ine?"
"I3ut•-I ,l:nven't .l ticket:" raid the
straitget.
"I thntight you s-nid yell were going
by this train?" excoo lined the tee vel -
ler,
"Yee, l ale!" was the answer, "I'm
one of the company's insireetorS!"
ta-
QUAINT ELECTIONEERING IN ENGLAND
Mrs. J. Tudor Rees overt+are the difficulties ni electioneering in the
untgit,e fls.bing town Iif Clovelly by climbing its steep streets on a donkey,.
Che pirvaie slinwr how the streets are built.