Loading...
The URL can be used to link to this page
Your browser does not support the video tag.
The Brussels Post, 1924-12-31, Page 7
• ,Fa the.... Boys and Girls i RICHARD'S WAY OF SAVING He Dame back, resolved to wa t THE SPOONS, 1 quietly until the servants cams down {� "Yes," Philip Howard was saying,in : the back di ng, and then go in by l 11 tell it to you ten tunes more if you say so, It is as true as proaeh-I Ile seated himaelf in .a .sheltered ing, Every time those• bronze dogs on; corner of the porch, where it was com Uslimmers James steps hear the paratively warm, The last stragglers fire alarm they jump do',vn ,and bark,"; from the fire were returning, and .it "Pooh!" amid Ernest Westop, "I seemed as if but a few minutes had,, don't believe it. Bronze dogs can't•' passed, when Ito was startled by the This sun -0144;3,1e Home-made, produced right in his own service depart- hark." sound o£ steps upont the porch, © anent, and 1t serves an the purposes for which Edgar Hanker, an Oakville,, "I didn't say they could," repliedthe e ntadoorithen each of the. o Win- n Manitoba, farmer, intended it, Philip. I only know these do every tune they hear that bell," Bows, "I don't understand it, Of eouree IRichard did not act upon his- first 1 know well enough that it's a trick;, impulse,;' which was to run;cream, nor upon but I can't see through it" said Rich- his second, which was toreto erd Monroe, Say the whole thing cause he was too frightened over more slowly, won't you, Philip?" tiny but his thirdimpulse, which was Philip spoke with great distinct- ;to remain perfectly y st . 1 ness: , I Evidently this was a burglar. Rich-, "You know, I presume, the house on; and knew burglars as members pf the Euclid Avenue, where Mr, James Mon-' community upon whom society, as a roe, who hasthe honor of being my rule, frowned, but he had always- felt uncle, ' . I they had certain compensating, • , ought to," said Richard doubt- privileges, after all, since they had fully, "for I live there myself, if he is such a simple and easy method of, get the Mr. James Monroe who has the ting the things they wanted. honor of being fny father," He was anxious to see how this one "Exactly the same!" replied Philip. t would manage to get into that closely - "Wall, you are aware then that, be-' guarded house, and after a moment or side the steps before that'. house, are; two, ventured to follow him at a safe two dogs, made of bronze. Mares a distance. time and oft have you and I played; Ile had heard that burglars prefer- circus upon their backs, and now you red not to kill people who did not pretend not to understand me when I molest them, and he felt a sttong curi osity to know how they managed. The man , passed around the house, tried every door and window rapidly, but not very scientifically, thought Richard, who had imagined burglars to be as skillful as the people in "Arabian Nights" in doing away with "I never remember, though, being alight obstacles of brick' and mortar. at your house when the fire alarm This one came back to the outside sounded. You must have been there cellar door and Richard soon learned lots of times. Queer you never no- his plan of entrance, for he drew out a ticed them." 'lantern and proceeded to file the lock. "One question more, and I 11 stop," It was very soon done. The man gave said Richard. "Have they always done a quick glance around, saw nothing, so?" softly put back the door and started "Always; just the same as now'" down the steps. Was Philip's prompt response. After a moment Richard followed And Richard, pausing only to say, . him there. He trembled some, for a'I know it's a trick and.not the truth, i the burglar seemed closer than when and Pll find out before Pm done," I he was out of doors, but he kept after walked slowly away from the boys and him, through the cellar and laundry, towards, his own home. up the stairs and across the kitchen. "Why didn't you tell him?" said In the hail beyond the man paused, Ernest to Philip. "He'll bother over and studied the doors, each in turn. it ever so long." He was aiming for the dining -room, "But he'll puzzle it out before he but he made a mistake and opened the stops," said Philip, proudly. "He is door of a long, narrow passage lead- a smart littIe fellow, if he is my cousin, He thinks and thinks, till he gets things worked out every time." On the steps leading up to. the front door, Richard stopped to look at the dogs. They were certainly quiet, as their kind are liable to be. If they jumped down to bark at fires, they were very careful to jump. back in exactly the same place. It was very provoking to be so puz- zled by what he knew perfectly well mendous yell, which sounded through was only the twist of some word; the house from garret to cellar. though he repeated Philip's sentence "You'll bump your head! Look out! over and over without getting .the look out!" he screamed. least idea of what the catch might be. The man did bump his head, but he The next Wednesday he was waken- did not stop to thank Richard for the - ed in the night from a sound sleep by warning. He sprang through the door, the 'noise of a door; slammed violently. and by the time the startled family He started up in his bed, listened, and had assembled to demand the cause of heard the ringing of .the fare alarm the uproar was well out of the way. bell. Then, if ever, was his time for proving that dog story, He was for- bidden to go to fires at night; but Al- fred, who was grown up and did busi- say that every time they hear the Fourth Ward fire alarm they jump down and bark.'; "Did you ever see them do it?" Philip admitted the fact with some reluctance. ing to a. disused conservatory. The ceiling was low, and a depression in the centre, caused by some unaccount- able freak in the stairs above, made a place where the unwary aiwayecame to grief. Richard stood still in the hall and watched the man feel his way through this passage, and as he approached the dangerous place the boy's excite- ment all found expression in a tre- But for the evidence of the cellar door they would have supposed Rich- ard to be the victim of a dream; but the filed lock and the lantern dropped in the kitchen obliged them to put ness with a lumber company, always faith in his disconnected story, for he went. He had slammed the door, tried to assume in the beginning that which Richard knew would be unbolt- it was quite customary for young ed until his return. gentlemen of thirteen th be taking ' Richard had never been told that he promenades at three o'clock in the must not go into the garden to hear morning. the dogs do the steps bark at fire bells, so hastily slipping on shoes and clothes, he made his way quietly down the stairs and out the door. The dogs were in their usual posi- tion, but Richard knew that Philip had some foundation of truth to his declaration, so he waited for the bell to ring again. He leaned upon one of the dogs ---a dangerous proceeding, if the animal performed as Philip pre - dieted. But Richard knew that, if the rush of the hose carts caused a trembling, , or if the wind or echo sounded in their throats the gentlest noise that could be exaggerated into - a bark he should be in a position to hear. But there was neither motion 'nor sound. Again and again the • bell sounded, and each time the dogs fail- ed to jump, or bark, or be in . the slightest degree affected. Ito was so Interested in his experi- went that he did not notice Alfred, who, finding the fire far distant from • his lumber yard, had returned after h few moments. Tho slipping of the bolt on the in- r;de of the door roused Richard to the fact that he was locked out. When he thought of ringing thebell and so gaining admittance, he had for the first time grave doubts es to whether the heads of the household would alto- gether approve his performance even if they had not forbidden it, Moreover, he felt that he would not enjoy explaining his motive; he real- ized as he had not before the utter foolishness of imagining even that those dogs would jump and bark, and he did not Cate to expose hie folly, lie walkedt around the honed, but he knew tho fastenings too well to have any hope of getting in, "Such a chane yeti had to be a hero!" said Alfred. "Here is the key in the door, 'When the fellow was in the passage, you might easily have turned it and locked him in. I cer- tainly never heard of a boy with such a chance to do a big thing, who did a. thing so utterly absurd es to yell to a burglar not to bump his head. You wahted him to get the spoons, did you?" "I don't wonder that you- never heard of such a"thing. If you wait for me to tell, you'll never hear the whole of this," answered Richard, ra- ther crossly, But the next day Philip came, and Richard "gave up" the dog mystery. "I must say I am disappointed in you, Richard," said Philip. I expected that you would think it out, sure. I said that they barked, when they heard the bell—when, mind you. But. as their ears are put on for ornament, I don't suppose they heard the bells the other night; so they coludn't be ex- pected to bark." Richard's thinking power was a family joke for some time. But one day at dinner he said, with great seriousness: "I have been thinking—" "Mother," • interrupted Alfred, "I protest, The last time Richard indulg- ed in a thinking turn, it nearly . cost us the spoons. Tell him to stop it, mother." Thinking about that night," pro- ceeded Richard, not deigning to notice Alfred. "If I hadn't happened to be out, the burglar would have come in just the same, wouldn't he?" The family admitted that he prob- ably would have come in. "And nobody would have heard him," continued Richard. "Probably not." "And he might have carried off everything in the house. So the dogs and I did save the spoons. In a kind of a way I believe I'm a sort of hero, after all. Mother, I'll take another piece of pie, please."—By Harriet B. My Master Hath a Garden. My master hath a garden, full -filled with divers flowers,* Where thou.mayst gather posies gay, all times and hours. ` Here nought is heard , But paradise -bird, Harp, dulcimer, and lute, With cymbal, And timbrel, And the gentle sounding flute. Olsi Jesus, Lord, my heal and weal, my bliss complete, Make thou my heart thy garden -plot, true, fair and neat, That I may hear This music clear, Hasp, dulcimer, and lute, With cymbal, And timbre], And the gentle sounding' flute, -Anon. Lost Cities. The old ,question whether: a thing can be lost when you know where it is applies in port to lost cities, because the 'sites of many of them are known, and in some cases even the buildings ,and statuary are almost intact Now, however, their only inhabitants are the beasts of the jungle; Bona prowl through their echoing halls, monkeys race across their fretted arohes, and snakes lurk in their dark dungeons or glide across their crumb• ling pavements. For instance, the holy city of the Buddhist's, Baraboedoer, in Java, has been forgotten for 600 years when Sir Stamford Raffles rediscovered it and its wonderful temple, the eighth won- der of the world, The jungle of Siam has hidden its ancient capital, Aynthia, for four cen- turies. Its inhabitants died before the conquering Burmese, and never re- turned. It is now said to be the lurk- ing place of thousands of enormous. snakes. Mystery surrounds the dead city of Waterman. Thibet, which Captain Bawling dis- covered. It Is a vast collection of palaces, monasteries, and dwelling - houses, but the Thibetans professed Ignorance of its existence, and also of the reason of its abandonment. Five centuries, ago Angkor had a population of three-quarters of a mil- lion.' • Today it is the Dead City of Cambodia The carved stone ele- phants, the immense causeways, the 'Majestic temples still remain; but the jungle has invaded the streets and squares. Very Short, "That cousin of yours that 1 met is awfully short." "Yee, he's so short that a headache powder affects his feet" Wet leather is damaged' mcuh more readily by heat than dry leather. Many a good shin) has been spoiled by putting it too*close to a stove or radi-' ator to dry. Product of the Mind. Everywhere, 1n high life or in low, in real history of in the fictions of men, in the myths of young nations or in the legends of the old, In the re- ligions of the worshipful or in the skepticisms of the Godless, the outer physical manifestation, consciously or unconsciously, is accepted as the pro-- duet ro•duet of th inner life.—H. L. Piney. Samenessin our daily food. is bad for our digestions. ®W FAST Do OU CROW?. The average baby Is'nieeteen sad a half inches la length at birth, and doors ing its Ar* year of life it grows nine inoiles. It he—or she—kept pp this rate of growth for seventy years, the result would be a giant elxty-four feet in height;. Asa matter of fact, the rate of growth a1 ws down amazingly after the gat year. 'Between the ages of one and two a child grows only three Mid a half inches. After that the rate Wales down to an average of pne and a half inehee Per the next thirteen years, From sixteen years onwards the rate -df growth continues to diminish. During the seventeenth' year a boy grows one and a quarter inches; dur- ing his eigliteeth, ono inch, The nine- teenth sees him grow thiee-quarters of an inch, and the twentieth half an yvThe average young man does ndt at- tain hie fail height until he is twentl''- five years of age; but the rate of in- crease during the live preceding Years is only one•filth of an inch a year, The height of a full-grown and well. - proportioned man should be six and three-quarter times the length of his foot; that of a woman, six and a quar- ter the length of her foot. Different parts of the body grow at different rates, The legs double in length by the end of the third year,. and triple by the end of the twelfth. When growth ceases they are five times as long as at birth, Before the age of ten the foot is, shorter than the length of the head; at ten they are equal; after ten the foot ,is longer than the head. Boys- and girls grow differently. The Year of greatest growth in boys is us, ugly, the eixteeath or seventeenth. That is to say, the weight litereases most during that year, In gide 111.0 chief increase is in the fourteenth' year. Girls usually reach their fall height at or about elxteen, and their tu11 weight at twenty; boys, as WO have scan are slower in-develemnent. Boys are stron,;or than gi'ris from birth to the ego. of eleven; then girls become s'.?erlor physically up to seventeen, after wl1lch age the tables are turned ageln. From November to April children gain little, either in height or weight ' from April to July they gain in height, but not in weight; while from July to November they put on weight, bat do not grow touch in height. Hair grows at the rate of .018 inoli a day, but,tlie We of each individual hair is on an overage only six years. Then it falls out, If hairnever fell out and always went en growing, a woman seventy years old would have tresses nearly thirty-eight feet In length. 8lyelaehes grow steadily, but are not long-lived. They last only four or five ;months, then fall out, Their growth is about cue -twentieth of an inch week - Nails -grew eek- Nails-grew more rapidly than is gen- ' evilly supposed. The linger nails re- new themselves in a little over four monilia, The brain weighs nine to ten ounces at birth. When a man"s is full grown his brain weighs about three pounds one ounce; a woman's, two pounds and ten ounces. THE PASSPORT TO ANIMALS' FAVORi By Leger 13an1is —41 There ere two ways to control a animal--kiudnoss and fear. Inatancee of the first are soca in the relation be tween the owner and sone pet., like a Horse or dog, that has never known cruelty; while tho•oircus furnishes the best examples Of government by fear, 11 you want an animal to love you no well as obey, you must trent that ani. incl in a way to attract rather than re- pel it, just as you would fn dealing with a persona But while kindness is the only road to the heart of a'dog, for instance,there remains the interesting questions of. why some persons will be accepted by liim even before an acquaintance'. is Life. Men ;are blown Like particles of sand From the surf of an unknown sea Endlessly Along the beach of the world. They come a With the beat of unfamiliar blood Heavy and quick in their veins. They come with the sea's' mad monody Mulbied and strange in their ears. They: pass, With slow lips mumbling forth in bro- ken mimicry, Into the blur of time. But history has a name for each: She squats on a towering crag And scribbles in her thickening book The diminutive records Of monstrous agonies. —Guy Carlton Drewry. Books Printed by Blind by Phonograph Method. An unusual example of,the blind al- most literally leading the bind is found in the old home of the Count of Cler- mont-Tonnerre in the aristocratic quarter about the Place de 1'Etoile, in Paris. Forty blind men and women are employed in this house, which now bears the sign, "Cromwell Founda- tion: Aid for the Blind of the War," in printing books for the blind. The book • td be printed is first re- corded on phonograph disks. Each of the blind then listens to the playing of his share of these disks through ear pieces, typing out the story in the Brailite language on special Linotype machines. In this way a very remark- able emarkable library for the blind has been built up 1n Paris, and useful work at the sante time provided for some forty inen and women who are themsolvea totally without sight. One per cent. of the women in In- dia can read and write. The ,human heart, if working norm- ally., expands with •sufficient force to 'lift a weight of seventy-eight pounds to the 'height of one foot every'Ininute. f'anudihn Sportsmen bit the futuro, no doubt, will be doingtheir hunt in atter belay startled by the sound of a piano. rom the air A Uig bull moose is shown at bay in Lake Carillon, Qt ebee, Why a Chinaman is Inexact. If there is any single trait in Chin- ese that overshadows all others, it is that of inexactness. A Chinaman, writes Mr, N. 0. Winter in Travel, will refuse to arintit that two and two are four. He will decline to assent that white is white. If distance is given in miles, you must first ascertain wheth- er a long or a short mile is intended. If you purchase so many pounds of goods, you must inform yourself whether pound% of twelve or sixteen ounces are intended. When the deception is discovered the merchant betrays neither resent- ment esentment nor contrition. He smiles blandly and dismisses theelncident with the remark that you are cleverer than he is. You may tweet a Chinaman some morning in Hongkong, a man whom you know very well, and 'casually re- mark: "Where were you yesterday, Li?" "Why, I was in Foochow," be will reply. "That Ls impossible, 1.4, for then you could not be here to -day. The dis- tance is too great." "Yes, that is so," he says in no way embarrassed. "I was in Amoy." "Now, Li, you blow that is not true. It would take you two days to reach here from Amory, and besides I saw you in Canton," "Yes, I was in Canton yesterday," he finally admits; 'but why did you want to know where I was?" He parries with you partly because he is suspicious of your motives. He hedges largely in the effort to ascer- tain why you are interested in his whereabouts. His movements should be of no consequence to you. Baby Seals. Baby seals are as helpless in the water at birth as is a human baby. They must be taught to swim, and in- structed in all the lore of seal life, including how to hunt food and escape their enemies. From the time a baby seal is laid snugly within a bed of dry seaweed, until he is able to look out for himself, he is subject to an unre- lenting discipline. { In teaching her baby to swim the mother seal flounders out on the rookery, gathers the baby seal under her flapper, and slips carefully into the water. Suspending the baby on her flipper, the mother seal barks, grunts and whines in her attempts to indicate what is expected of the baby. If the baby refuses to perform, the mother spanl.a it with her flipper. The Ming seal learns to swim by flounder. ing a few strokes at a time. When it becomes exhausted and starts to sink, the mother snatches it from danger. Some of the beach combers in Alas- ka adopt baby seals as pets. They be- come as faithful as dogs, and it is im- possible to banish them once they be- come attached to their masters. An instance le cited of a baby seal that was taken out to sea, in hopes that it would reunite with its herd. About midnight there was a plaintive wail at the cabin -door. The seal had come back. He howled until he was admit- ted to the family circle and fed with a piece of Rah, Very Slow, Bugs -"Where you .goin' with the bouquet?" Snail- -"To propose to Miaa lady- bug," Bug-- -"She'll be somebody's grand- mother by the time you get therst" formed, while some others arouse Iris suspicion or anger at the first ap- proach, Numerous theories have been ad- vanced to explain it, the moat popular resting upon the assumption that our dumb aulmals have a sort of special sense, •a protective instinct that ap- plies particularly to human beings. Undoubtedly instinct is strong in the lower animals -1 have seen doge that seemed to read human character with astonishing accuracy; but I be- lieve the sense of smell is the animal's first means' 01 judgment when ap- proached by a stranger, When two men aro fishing within arms' length of each other and one is 'being made al- most frantic by insects while his com- panion is scarcely annoyed at - all, I think there le no doubt that the differ- ence in personal odor, the effluvium, explains it. Another point worth consideration is that this ability always to win ani- mals to oneself seems largely heredi. tory. One zoo attendant in whom all animals seem to have perfect confi- dence immediately states that both his parents and his children possess the same ability. A man and a wo- man, especially in characteristic dress, mast look very different to a wild ani- mal, yet he may accept the overtures of each, then repulse a third person who appears to be a twin to one or the other, Certain it is that the animal's judgment goes below surfaces, Bodily odor we know to be often a family or hereditary feature. Louis C. Mullikin, an expert with animals, explains his success on the theory of odor, He can, on first ap- proach. pet dogs that are so fierce with other people as to be chained. He has petted, wolves and coyotes when they would fight every one else present, and has had panthers snuggle up to him contentedly like a pet kitten. He takes no credit to himself, but says that it is simply a matter of effluvium. His father and grandfather had the same trait, or faculty, and his daugh- ter now displays it to a marked de. gree. The Dog's Savage Relations. The dog is the most respectable member of his family. His relatives include such unpleasant creatures as wolves, jackals, and foxes. Apart from these distant connections, how- ever, there are many first cousins of our household pet whom he would not care to acknowledge. The South African wild or hyena dog is more like a wolf. It runs and hunts In peeks, sleeping half-day and hal&night and hunting the rest of the time. In the East is a great variety of will dogs. The pariah dog lives among human beings, but will attack them if it has the chance. It acts as a scaven- ger and lives on offal, In appearance this animal is tawny -colored, and looks what it is --a most unpleasant brute. The Indian wild dog is somewhat larger than a jackal. It runs in packs and is absolutely fearless. These dogs are difficult to tame, but sometimes they are used to coursing and pig - sticking. Wild dogs do not bark, though one of the South African species utters three distinct and curious cies. As a rule, too, wild dogs hold their tails and ears erect. When tamed they act in a „lmilar manner to the dog which has genera- tions of civilized ancestors behind him. The Australian dingo, however, has a bad habit which no amount of taming can eradicate. Its favorite food, in the wild state, is poultry, 4 An Uncompleted Bargain. One of the good stories about the famous . painter, Meissonier, is in re- gard to his experience with a "new rich" gentleman who had erected a private theatre at his chateau, Mels- sonier was just then at the height of his fame, and was spending menthe painting pictures and Belling, them for about two hundred dollars a square inch. The rich man conceived the brilliant idea that what his theatre most needed was a drop curtain paint- ed by the famous Meiseonler•, So he weut to the artist's studio and pro- posed the matter to him. "How large is the ourtaln to be?" asked the great painter, "It will be thirty feet high and thirty-five feet wide," was the re- ply. "My friend," said Melssonier, blandly, "it will take me twenty yearn to Data such a curtain, and it will cost you six million dollars." The bar- gain argain was not completed, Ne White Pigment There. There is no white pigment' in white hair or to any tvhlte flowers: Cloth fort Turban, A turban requires • fleet ton to fone teen yards; of sloth,