Loading...
The Exeter Advocate, 1923-12-13, Page 6• al lit II Stories About Weit-Kn()Nvil People The Queen's Brother. In becoming GoveraceeGetteral of South Africa, the Earl of Athlone, brother of Queen Mary, will be taking up a, high post -which, in another Do- xntnion,.he might have occupied nine Years aro. He wee, in fact,,norainated Governor-General of Canada, at the outbreak of war, but valved the ap- pointment in order to go op. active ser- vice., The Earl is of a retiring nature, and outside military affairs his interests lie in philanthropic work. He has proved himself a "live" chairman a the Middlesex -Hospital, and has been personally responsible or designing many of the striking posters calling attention to the hospital's needs. One of the Earl of Athlone's most popular stories, concerns General Tuck- er, his former G.O.C., 7/ 110 was noted for his lurid language, In the South African campaign the General happen- ed to meet a war correspondent who was carrying a camera. "Hello! What the blankety-blank have you got there?" inquired the sol- dier. "I'm sorry to say it's only a camera," replied the correspondent, adding: "If I'd known I was going to meet you I would have brought a phonograph!" The Right Spirit A short time ago Lord Beaverbrook, the newspaper proprietor, told a de- lightful story of his aged mother, Mrs. :Aitken) who Ilya* in London. A friend of his met Mrs. Aitken for the first time, and remarked to her; "Mrs. Aitken, I have the honor of knowing your distinguished son." Her reply was: "Indeed, I an very glad,. Which son-" "Thiel said Lord Beaverbrook, "is the spirit in which mothers should bring up their sons," The New Caruso. One of the finest tenors in the world, Mr. Joseph Hislop, the young Scots- man who has been dubbed "the new Caruso," can look back upon a remark- able career. When he left echool he joined a firm of engravers, as he was interested in portrait painting. "Do you realize that you leave a for- tune in your throat?" a musio teacher asked hini while he waa working as a clerk in Stockholm. Hislop was in- credulous at first, but a few Years' vocal training produced astonishing results. His engagements for four years are said to have been worth $500,000. The Welsh Patent Fuel. The present day conditions of the patent fuel trade in Wales might be studied by Canadian miners and capi- talists with some advantage; this trade, however, is very dull 1. Wales to -day, due to a combination of con- ditions, some of whicb are temporary, and some of a more 'permanent na- ture. It would appear that the econo- mic conditions in Wales brought thie product up to such high prices. during 1919 and 1920, that it had the effect of making Continental purchasers look for a substitute wherever possible. Italy, Sweden and Norway, and, Swit- zerland have developed theireevater power; while France and Spain have started local industries from low-grade coal. France has helped her indus- tries along by informing all the State- owned railways that they must use local patent fuel whenever practic- able. The selling price of patent fuel is controlled to a great extent by the dif- ference between the market price of local dust and large coal; to -day this is about ;2.75, which amount must pay all charges and provide a profit for the manufacturer. The largest single item is for the pitch binder, which amounts to $2,25 per ton at the present prices; so this meagre differ- ence of 50 cents must pay all other 'charges and in addition a profit; con- sequently for the time being, at least, the position looks rather hopeless,. As pitch. is a residue from the dis- tillation of coal -tar for other more valuable products, it is difficult to de- termine the actual cost of production; as a result the price is set by demand, and is all the traffic will stand, The demand both in the united States and on the Continent for coal - tar as a road material is so great that its utilization for patent fuel is practi- cally prohibitive. The solution of this particular situation would seem to be the immediate research work to find a new and less expensive binder than coal -tar. Owing to the coal strike in the 'United States and the consequent con- sistent rising cost of Pennsylvania, Anthracite, the Welsh patent fuel manufacturers have developed e, suc- cessful trade in Eastern Canada (-which trade they will do their best to retain). In this Canadian trade only the small size briquettes, or ovoids) are sold, as it is not practicable to use pure anthracite in the larger sizes of patent fuel. There is complete cora- bustion with the Welsh patent fuel; with no clinker, and the present price of e16.50 per tau, this fuel recom- mends itself. Real "Best -Sellers." What is the most popular book in the world? If we take the test of translation, the works of Shakespeare have been translated into nearly forty languages, -and Homer has been rendered into over a score, The blind poet, however, does not run Shakespeare so close as does an- other Englishman, Daniel Defoe. The public was recently reminded of the number of editions of this writer's masterpiece, and of how muck same of them are prized by collectors, by the announcement that an English lady, the late Mrs, George Morrison, had bequeathed to her son "her col- lection of editions of 'Robinson Cru - son. " And a still more famous' col- lection, that built up by Mr. W. S. Lloyd, of Philadelphia, contains edi- tions in thirty-three different lang- uages, including Latin, Greek, Arabic, Persian, Turkish, and Hebrew. If we take the test of circulation in Englishepeaking countries, the novels at Dickens are perhaps the most popu- lar of the classics. They certainly continue to command a wide sale. Bet in point both of sales and trans- lations, there is no book in the world that even approaches the Bible. It stands in a class absolutely alone. Accordieg to the recently -published report of the British and Foreign Bible Society, the number of Bibles and Testaments English' and Welsh bought heat year ;showed an iteerease of 317,000, as compared with 1921, the totel being 1,101,574. a;,,,F.r,SF anee.,,easerereereeesseeee The Message. Red and green and gold and brown, See the leaves come eddying down; While the lawn, so trimly kept, Is bestrewn with nature's gay Mixed confetti where the grey, Patient gardener lately swept. Earlier the land was white With the frost that came by night, Winter's stealthy, silent spy, Reconnoitring all the land Where, beneath that iron hand, . Autumn's splendor shall go by. Branches in that cruel hold Seem to shiver with the cold, And the early morning breeze Strews their glories thick and fast, Till there shall remain at last Only gaunt and naked trees, Naked? Nay, but closely set With a million buds that yet Tell of hope and life and spring, Through the night of frost and snow These shall slumber on to know Nature's glad awakening. The Vine. Lave is quaint like columerne, Queer and new like irises Among moon-faced flowers; a vine All original, like these. And it matters not a 'whit What it climbs an, I am told; An old shed, will do for it— Or a pillar cased in gold; So it have, till it be grown, Something for a trellis,—goodl Old love can climb round its owv. Twisted honeysuckle wood. —Abbie Huston Evans. Brain -Power Secrets. Large foreheads do not always mean large brains. The man with the dome- shaped head may after all be merely an ordinary individual of no particular intelligence. • Dr. Bernard Hollander, the famous medical psychologist, disclosed some of the secrets of brain -power in his presidential address to the Ethological Society. The frontal lobes—that part of the brain behind theforehead—are the chief centre of intelligence and capacity, and they are of greater com- plexity and of finer architecture than any other part of the brain, he de- clared. "Large frontal lobes, however," he added, "d4a not necessarily signify superior intelligence, for there are other factors which have •to be taken into account. The quality of the brain structure, the state of its blood supply and nutrition, the condition of the bodily organs may ali influence mental energy. "The size of the body has also some relation to the size of the brain, though not to the extent frequently assumed, for the body varies in size and weight at different periods of life, whereas the brain undergoes no corresponding change," The destruction of the frontal lobes in man,. through accident, produces curious effects. People so injured for- get all they have learned, and cannot learn anything new. Dr. Hollander quoted instances of patients who, after an injury to the forehead, lost all memory of five years past, and of others wbo, while remain- ing normal in other ways, forgot all the. special knowledge relating' to their occupation. Another characteristic of such injury is cheerfulness and undue ' hilarity. s An Ample Bill "'You seem to coneider yoer hotel bfhl outrageone---what'd ft "For the hotel, 1 —;AND THE WORST IS YET TO COME i " .4 NA a, 44 0.4 r -• 44 • is. 4.4 The Changing East. The old phrase, "the unchanging. East," seems distinctly unhappy in view of recent events in the Orient. Following the awakening of Republi- can institutions 1 China,' and now the Ottoman Empire +ha s followed the Celestial into the dim land of all the yesterdays. By the proclamation of a republic, of whichMustapha Kemal Pasha has been chosen first president, Turkey has broken definitely with a tradition which has endured through long cen- turies. Since the conquest of Egypt by Se- lina the Grim, the Sultan of Turkey has also been the Caliph, and, as such, the spiritual leader of all Islam. This **doubling" of temporal and spiritual dignities gave to the old rulers of Tur- key a power and influence only paral- leled by the union of secular and re- ligious authority in the personsof the Roman emperors. The passing of the Sultanate thus marks a definite epoch in history.- For however great powers may be wielded by the President of the Turkish Re- public, he can never exert the sanie influence throughout the Mahomedan world, or make the same profound ap- peal to Islamic sentiment, as the Caliph -Sultans of the old dispensation. Willie's Guess. Visitor—"How do you do, Willie? I've Come to stay at your house a week and I'm sure you can't even guess who I am." Willie—"I'll bet one thing." Visitor—"'What?" Willie—"I'll bet you're no relation of father's" THE SERVICE STATION I drive up for a quart -of gas, upon my costly tires; my car, of shining tin and brass, such nourishment requires, And, blithe young men in spotlese white come tripping to my van; their smiles are glad, their' eyes are bright, they love their fellowman. They fill the works with sparkling oll, the tank with luscious juice, and they're exulting in their toil, they're glad to be of use. They fill my tires with priceless air, they see the wheels run true, they're dodging round me everywhere, to see what they can do, The young men selling gasoline make life a brighter thing; they have the graces of a queen, they chortle and they sing. If they. have grief or carking woe they hide the same away; they smile like Mona as they go about my panting dray, They welcome me, when I draw nigh, as, though I were A peer; and when I leave a fond godd-by is ringing M my ear. I burn up all the gas I can to giye me an excuse' for driving up in my old van and buy- ing up more juice. For I will always spend a yen, and no regret crime°, to see a bunch of blithe young men pretend that I'm a prince. My Littleness. Two pinholes M the curtain. My eyes; Two weeds flapping in a field of corn My hands. And M the distance like a foghorn blowing. . . . My heart. • I am no bigger than mountains, Or mightier than stars, The Syhinx smells of me familiarly, Daisies touch lips with me. . . . I shall be dust soon. —Loureine A. Aber. Even With the Judge. A certain judge was once obliged to sleep with an Irishman in a crowded hotel in America, when the following conversation took place between them; "Pat, you would have remained, a long time in the old country before you could have slept with a judge, would you pot?" "Yes, your honor," said Pat; "an oi think yer honor would have been a long talme in th' ould country before ye'd been a judge, too," Not to be Compared. Ralph, aged 5, was afflicted with eete! ache and screamed frantically with pain. "Hush, dear," Said the mother,: "don't cry so; it only makes it worse. Don't you remember how nice little baby brother behaved when he had the earache? He didn't make half as much fuss about it as you are mak- ing." "What does the k -kid know 'bout ear -a -ache?" sobbed Ralph. "II -his ears ain't half as big as m -mine." Worry! Wouldn't you? "Why are you so worried over the loss of your purse?" "Great heavens, man, my wife'll have to come home frorn •the shore two weeks before the time!" Sheep=dog Trials in Wordsworth's Country. By Melesina Seton -Christopher All my life I had longed to see the trials of these wise dogs on the West- morland Fells. For once expectation was not disappointed. The sight was unique in its picturesque simplicity and reality. The scene set in the most suitable surroundings — in the heart of the great hills. .A green val- ley gave on the one side an immense sloping stage, and on the other a per- fectly graduated auditorium. Plain boards, ranged in tiers on the ground, were all that was necessary to accom- modate the spectators. Above, the sunlight caught the tops of the hills and. crowned them with emerald and gold. The dogs are not usually of the shaggy, bob-talled Englisb type, but are often lithe, smooth -haired crea- tures of every sort of mixed breed— speed, endurance, and intelligence be- ing the qualities, aimed at. The trials were announced. to begin, on a black- board, in white chalk, freehand, audit was added that the time for each was limited to eight minutes. In that apace the dog, after reaching the three sheep let out from a pen low down on the opposite hill, had to en- deavor to guide his trio up the slope, past one white flag and between two others near the summit—something like half a, mile in.distance. To drive sheep away from the shepherd is in itself a difficult task, as a dog's In- clination and training are to bring them always back to his master. The sheep have then to be brought down the slope between two more flags, across a road, through a narrow iron railing, and back into the field where the spectators are clustered on the bank, and where hurdles and the final pen have yet to be negotiated. The dog is meanwhile guided only by such signs and whistles as the freemason ry between, him and his master have established, and the shephercl tethers himself at the starting -point with a rope passed round, his wrist. Once dog and sheep are back in the- final field the shepherd may help. }Ie plunges dowil the hills•ide and joins his dog in the endeavor to drive the sheep through the hurdles, and then, by a narrow entrance, into the pen where they must be finally folded; and all before eight minutes have elapsed. This allows for very little' error on the part ef either performer, and it was a beautiful sight to see the sheep- dog start, when the signal was given, like an arrow from a bow. The sheep are of the wild, mountain type--Herd- wicks----taken from three different flocks, and each dog has a fresh lot to deal with. After tearing down the slope and half -way to his quarty, the dog Dearly always turned hie, head, cocking his ears and waiting for his master's bidding. With fingers - in mouth the shepherd whistled a. long - sustained carrying whistle, almost •lake the Sound df a, travelling racket, and them genie' fluted like a piping • bird when a cautious foliose Me eras re- • ' • • . • . • • • , , „ , . „ quired. A sharp, abrupt sound, which signifies the dog Is to lie down, is one of the most vital and important sig- nals. With the long -drawn. whistle, off goes the dog in close contact with the sheep, but the latter are by no means tractable. One will break away and bolt towards the flock it has left, and the dog will go whirling off in pursuit, hardly ever failing to. get ahead and turn the erring sheep back to the right eourse. It was marvellous to note how the various whistles of the master gelded the dog now to dart on quickly, then to lie down, now a swift, circling movement and a slow follow on, all punctuated by the sudden crouch whenever the sheep showed signs of following the right course. Nearly all the signals between man and dog are confined to the various whistles and movements at the shep- herd, but now and then a quick "What a' you doin?" "Steady now, lass," "Ga awe' hint," broke out, but verbal direc- tions lose marks to the performers. The early days are past when dogs were in a state of bewilderment, and the shepherd said, in an aside' to his friend: "I donna gen how to talk to the doge with all -they leddies aboot." One of the best dogs we saw was of the collie type—a. sinuous creature, black and tan, with tender chestnut eyes, aged eight. Hp made no mis- takes whatever, but firmly and gently guided his charges with absolute obedience to every sign kiven by his, master. The audience watched .breath- lessly while the shepherd whistled and crooned, now loud, now *oft; now long, now short, to the ever -watchful dog. As each difficulty was success- fully overcome the crowd, composed partly of visitors, brake into an in- voluntary storm of clapping, instantly smothered in a rushing sound of "Hush!" from the habitues, who know well how unfair such distractions are to man and dog. It was, however, ex- traordinarily exciting as the pretty collie brought the sheep into the field and was there joined by his master. Then the man made a cautious move- ment and the dog, at the signal, crouched. Then a slight motion, then a quick lie down, another inch length move and the wee of the first sheep was within the narrow aperture of the pen, Still the slightest false move- ment and the other two sheep might be off. The dog took another pace, then crouched again, and the two hesitating sheep cautiously stepped in, and all three were safely penned with twenty-three seconds to spare. The dog sprang forward with a joyous leap to be patted, and as man and dog reached the clapping, cheering line of people, the young shepherd grinned and said &imply: "Not s'bad that time." The dogs apparently give no fur- ther thought to the sheep as soon as success meets their efforts or the short, sharp, time whistle goes. The sheep are at once gathered up by a clever oollecting dog, whose job it is to do this all day, and who never in- 'terferes with them while they are tak- ing part in the tests, however near they come to him. The collie mean- while had 'retired to the side of a tent, 0....441.44/404144.4.14/4414.444.74 •sms-rikesl Hte ocio et4 —DE-rcrteN porit Kt-tov,i Vik-kAT'SP% 0C-Cc6E1,1PAIPA 1 DO -SO— As 6L)s< L1/40 -1F-17-. C)t-te.X INRENras oC,TOGEN • -e- where I saw him later receiving con- gratulations and graciously extending his paw to his admirers. • Other dogs, who did not quite achieve complete penning of the sheep in time, came in for their meed of ap- preciation, especially if their methods were gentle. "Aye, yon's the lad, a grand dog for sheep; .he'd never wor- ry nor hurry them," I heard, while comments on the Elhephords were also equally outspoken. "Too keen, un- emotional, artistic," were all erne, cisme from the initiated. The shop - herds, for the most part, were young, well-built men in workmanlike clothes, One of them, picturesque in green corduroy breeches and•gaiters, with a sprig of white heather in his cap. The different manner of approach of the dogs, and the extraordinary activity and capriciousness of the sheep, give an endless variety to the trials. One very young dog, only a year old, whose training must have included much inherited instinct, was entered, He flew from his master full of en- thusiasm and circled round his sheep in wide "casts" as they are called ac. compliahing now and then a point al, the gallop, and then looking pathetical. ly puzzled, trying to understand his master's signals. Naturally one so young could not -campus both sheep and course, but was voted "a promis- ing beginner?' Some of the sheep are almost defiant in their attitude, and seem to challenge the dog as they stand ana occasionally stamp a foot at him, or one will start a wild race in which, not infrequently, both dog and sheep take a 'toss together. If all three sheep start a regular bolt it is almost hopeless for the dog to get them steady'again for any success in the re- quired time. Now and then the sheep are steadily obstinate and start eat- ing, the dog meanwhile taking a seat by „them, while the distracted master struggles to convey to him that the precious moment§ are hying. , it is all that the most skilful per • - formers can do to pen in- the time. Of- e ten only about one in ten 'accomplish the feat, bet the interest in eaoh trial is sustained until the :very last in- stant. We saw two. sheep successful- ly folded in the final pen, while the 'third started a regular game of "round •• the mulberry bush" with the shepherd and dog. One.realized a humen being is not a successful barrier against a • wilful sheep. ,While we 'held ete:z breath with nervousness the , do "Floss," found time to put in one joy- • sae roll, and then penned the last de • - faulter in great style, apparently (mite unmoved by her briallant slice The hest dog had his sheep foaled • in the marvellously short space of five minutes, winning the Challenge Cup • as well as the prize raOney. AS we • fleally turned. homeward we felt we, -had never teen -a more interesting and genuinely thrilling couteet of -aninial •• eagac,ity and good understanding be • - isseen manand dog—the Whcile pere' formance set in ideany eerfect • routulings."