Bellefonte, P ., March 23, 1906.
FOSSIL ¢0 CRE. 3
QUEER FREAKS OF NATURE THAT
ABOUND IN NEBRASKA,
Sigantic Spirals of Minera! Fash-
foned So Mathematically as to Be
Easily Mistaken at First Glance
For Works of Art,
Nobody knows with certainty what
the so called “devil's corkscrews” real-
ly are. They are found by tens of thou-
sands in Nebraska, most particularly
in Sioux county, and some of them are
#8 much as forty feet in height, without
counting the gigantic “roots” presently |
Quartz is the sub-
stance of which they are made, but
bow they came to be imbedded, num- .
! summer, but in November of that year
to be described.
bers of them together, in the sandstone
cliffs of that region is more than any- |
body can tell, unless, perhaps, one the-
ory, to be mentioned later, is to be ae-
cepted as correct.
You are traveling,
horseback through that part of the
country, and, as often happens, yon
gee, standing out from the face of a
sandstone cliff, a gigantic spiral. If, as
geologists have proved, the sandstone
rock be chipped away a corkscrew
shaped thing of quartz is exposed to
view, fashioned so mathematically as
to be easily mistaken at first glance
for a work of art. The white spiral
may be free, as a sculptor would say,
or, in other cases, may be twined about
a sort of axis, as a vine would run
around a vertical pole,
Somebody awhile ago gave to these
spirals the name “devil's corkscrews”
for want of a better and as expressive
of the mystery of their origin. Scien-
tists discussed them in vain, and many
theories were formed in regard to them,
There were authorities who declared
they were fossil burrows excavated in
tertiary times by gophers of a huge
and extinct species, And, to confirm
this notion, the bones of some burrow-
ing animal were actually found imbed-
ded in the substance of one of the
“screws.” This seeined to settle the .
nratter for awhile, until the controversy
was started again by the discovery of
the osseous remains, under like condi-
tions, of a small deer. Nobody coud
assert that a deer was ever a burrow- |
ing animal, and so that notion had to
be abandoned,
Other theorists declared that the “fos- |
sil twisters,” as some folks called them, |
represented the prehistoric borings of |
gigantic worms that lived in the very
long ago. Yet others suggested that
they were petrified vines, though it was
difficult to explain how or why the |
“poles” on which the alleged vines
seemed in many cases to have been |
trained had been so admirably pre- |
served, or, for that matter, originally
erected.
In the midst of #0 many contradictory
theories the problem seemed likely to
defy solution indefinitely. The one that
held out longest and gained most ad-
herenis was that of the extinet gophers,
It accounted for the *“‘root”—a shape-
less appendage of‘en nearly as big as
the “twister” itself and attached to the '
lower end of the latter—which obvious- |
Iy. as it seemed, had been the nest of
the rodent animal, the “corkscrew” rep-
rescnfing the spiral hole by which it | ©f @ family means the extinction of |
wade its way to the surface of the!
ground. What conld possibly be more
easy to comprehend? |
Professor EK, H. Barbour, however, |
Bewor Fifatdpn.
| mtr,
———
i
| and its insignia was four
which was its house ba
| met with approval.
let us say, om
| Issued to John
| vorite,
LIFE dhe .ANCE. =
—— .
¥s Early Struggles and Reverses In
Th origin of insurance in this coun-
try + from 1752 and had its first
: beginning in Philadelphia,
* The first company was the Philad
“ia Coutributionship For the °
wuce of Houses From Los x
ands,
his mark
may still be seen throughout eastern
Pennsylvania and New Jersey on old
time houses. The company survived
till 1847. In 1792 the first life insur-
auce company was founded in the
same city. It was called the Universal
Tontine. The next year similar com-
panies were started in Boston and in
New York. Its avowed aim was “for
the purpose of raising a fund upon lives
to be applied to charitable and other
uses.” Its subscription hooks were
opened on March 29, and five general
agents were appointed.
Some business was done during the
a general meeting of the subscribers
was called, and the idea of a general
Insurance company was suggested and
The proposition
was referred to a committee, and at an
adjourned meeting held at the state-
house on Nov, 12 it was resolved that
“the Universal Tontine association be
and is hereby changed from its original
object and converted into a society to
be called the Insurgnee Company of
North America.” 193 first policy was
Maxwell Nesbitt, its
president, for $5.333.33. It wrote both
fire and life insurance, but paid atten- |
tion chiefly to the former and gradual-
ly dropped life insurance altogether.
In January, 1794, it considered the
policy of insuring persons against cap- |
ture by the Algerians and insured Cap-
tain John Collet “on #4 porson against
Algerians and other Tarbary corsairs
in a voyage from PPhila.ielphia to Lon-
don in the ship George Barclay, him-
self master, valuing himself at £5,000.” |
The premium charged was 2 per cent.
Two similar policies were issued, but
the premium was increased to § per
cent.
sued, approved, one on the life of John
Holker, from June 6 to Sept. 19, for
$24,000, at 11% per cent premium, and
one on the life of Albert Briois de Beau-
mez, for eighteen calendar months, in
the sum of $£5.000., The demand for |
insurance on life was light, and the
business, which was finally abandoned
by the first ompany, was not revived
until 1820, when Hartford men took it
up and Kept it running till it gained
the great prosperity of modern times,
Value of the Average Man,
Genius is a phenomenon: the average
man is a law,
speares and Goethes and Napoleons
and Wagners rise and fall, and he
goes on calmly, knowing that it is he
and not they who are the race. Despise
him, kick him as you will, the last
word is with him. He is nature's fa-
Like a true mother, she loves
her dull boy best. A Shakespeare was
too much for her, but she saw to it
that his faculty perished with him. He
died, a wonder among men, and his
family reverted to the average. Lest
the abhorred thing should reappear in
the course of generations the family |
presently died out. The case is typieal,
It Is almost a commonplace of the sei-
ence of heredity that the
of extraordinary talent in any branch
that branch.—London Standard.
“fobbing Peter to Pay Paul”
This saying had its origin in the
Two similar policies were is- |
He has seen Shake |
appearance
his deciared-—and his decision is ae- | rivalry between St. Peter's cathedral,
cepted provisionally until somebody | BOW Westminster abbey, and St.
offers a better that the corkscrews pre FAUPs. when, in 1350, an appropria-
Of vegetable origin. They ave, he as- | Hon was ade from St. Peter's to
serts, the fossii remains of ancient | AKC good a deficiency in the accounts
water weeds of gigantic size, which of St. Paul's. Much opposition was
grew wiiffions of years ago on the bot- | shawn: to this, and it was for the time
tom of a vast sheef of water that cov- | & popular outcry, “Why rob Peter to
ered all of Nebraska. These must have Pay Paul? The saying was revived
been the biggest aquatic plants that
‘ever existed, and when the huge lake
shat overflowed the vegion in question
dried up the remains of many of the
plants were left bahind buried in the
accumulated detritus at the bottom.
In the course of time—ages after the |
bottoms ef the ancient lake had been
converted into solid rock—rivers,plow-
ed their way through the land, cutting
this way and that and exposing to the
view of the modern traveler on the |
faces of the cliffs the fossil casts of the
prehistoric water weeds just as they
stood when they grew hundreds of
thousands and probably millions of
years ago. Their tissues were replaced |
as they decayed by silica from the wa- |
ter, particle by particle, and thus, as if |
by magical means, their likenesses
have been preserved for the wonder
and admiration of the present surviv-
ors ou the earth.
Such is the theory now pretty well
accepted by scientists in regard to the
origin of the “fossii corkscrews.” Pos-
sibly it Is not correct, but if otherwise
there is room for the exercise of any-
body's imagination in the consideration
of this veritable romance of the an-
cient history of the world.—New York
Herald.
One Way to Get a Persian Carpet.
A woman who accompanied her hus-
band up the Khyber pass in Afghan-
istan tells how she saw a fine Persian
earpet and coveted it. An assistant to
their host went out and returning said:
“My head man says the owner of the
carpet is a wicked old man, who will
not sell his carpet at any price, but he
has gone for the night to sleep in a lit
tle village close by, which is beyond
British boundary. He wants to know
if he shall make a hole in the wall of
the mud hut and steal it while the oid
sinner sleeps. Shall he walk in at once
and kill him and take it? He will do
whichever memsahib likes.” Mem-
sahib, however, discovered that she
as a proverb upon the death of Wil-
linm Pitt, earl of Chatham, in 1778. The
city of London argued that so {llus-
trious a statesman should be buried at
St. Paul's, while parlinment held that
| the remains of so great a leader should
be placed with the dust of kings and
that to bury him away from the Abbey
of Westminster would be again a rob-
bing of Peter to pay Paul.
One Sure Method.
There is a story of a medical student
before a board of examiners to whom
the question was put again and again
of how he would produce perspiration
in a patient. He proposed all sorts of
things, to which one importunate ex-
| aminer always replied:
“Well, and if that would not do?”
At last the poor young man, driven to
his wits’ end, exclaimed, “I would send
him before this board to be examined,
and 1 warrant that would make him
perspire.”
The Obstacle.
“I came near eloping once,” said the
sweet young thing.
“Indeed!”
“Yes, We had quite made up our
minds.”
“Who?” z
“Papa and I, but I couid not find a
man who would elope with me.”
Appropriate,
Charles—1 don’t see how Biank can
make any money out of that tobac-
conist business of his. [e's always
smoking the best cigars himself. Fred
—Oh, that's his method of advertising!
Charies—How so? Fred—Why, puffing
his goods.
Safety.
He—Why does this theater have its
orchestra concealed? She—Why? Just
wait until you hear it play.
Man is ereation’s masterpiece. But
could live without the carpet after all,
who says so? Man.—Gavarni.
—_————— RE
PROBLEMS IN COLORS
WHITE IS COOL, YET ARCTIC ANIMALS |
AS A RULE ARE WHITE.
Why Are tad Bieda Mostly Dark
and Sea Birds, In Many Canem, |
White t~Why Have Nearly All Pure
ple Blossoms Poisonous Properties? |
In summer weather ladies, and men,
too, when possible wear white. Why?
To keep cool, of course, you wili say. |
If this be so, why, then, are almost all |
the creatures that live in arctic regions
clothed in white? The usual reply is |
that the white color is for protective |
purposes—in order, In fact, to make |
them invisible to their enemies in the |
midst of the wastes of snow, i
But, consider, again, is this reasona-
ble? From whom does the polar bear |
need to hide? He has no enemies to |
fear. And as for the birds which as-
sume a white plumage when they mi- |
grate north, surely they also have far |
fewer foes in the polar regions than
when farther south,
Again, if white be a cool color this is |
surely another reason against the in- |
habitants of the coldest regions turning |
white at the approach of winter. It is
easy to strengthen this argument. Visit
the tropies, and you will find hardly
any white animals or birds. In the very |
| hottest regions of the globe not only is |
| man, as a rule, black, but the birds and |
| beasts are either very dark or else ex- |
| tremely brilliant In color. Of tropical |
birds the commonest colors run as fol- |
| lows: Brown, dark green and dark blue, |
| emerald green, reds and yellows, |
| Speaking of the birds again, why is it |
that land birds are mostly dark hued |
| while so many sea birds are white? |
| Here Is another color puzzle. Almost |
|
all song birds are somber in hue, while |
the brightly colored species, such as the !
| Jays, the parrots and birds of paradise, |
have naturally harsh voices.
| The colors of flowers and leaves offer |
numbers of interesting problems, No
one quite knows why the prevailing
tint of early spring flowers is either
white or yellow. Yellow, indeed, holds
| its own to some extent all through the
summer, but the typical color of sum-
mer blooms is pink, while as the au-
tun advances richer erimsons and all
the rich, glowing hues of dahlias and
chrysanthemums are seen,
Hortienlturists have produced pop-
ples of pretty nearly every shade under
the sun, and with many other flowers
they seem able to alter the colors al-
most as they please. Yet the blue rose,
the black tulip and the green carnation
seem as far off as ever they were in
spite of constant efforts to arrive at
them. Nearly three centuries ago
| Dutch gardeners imagined themselves
| on the verge of inventing a black tulip.
The colors of the blossom of fruit
| trees are limited to white, pink, bright
| scarier and purple. ‘The reason no one
| knows. Nor is it clear why nearly all
| plants with purple blossoms have poi-
} souous properties, The deadly night-
| shade is an instance which will be
familiar to all country readers.
{It used to be said and many still
| imagine that intensity of color depends
{ upon intensity of light. ‘The brilliancy |
| of u tropical landscape seems in some
measure to bear this out. But any
| amount of arguments may be deduced
against it. Rubies, opals and other |
| exquisitely colored gems are dug from
| the depths of the earth. :
{ The rays of the sun have never
| touched them. The pulp of some fruits
is more richly tinted than the outer |
rind, while the crimson blood of ani-
mals is hidden from the light. What |
could be more rich and magnificent in |
color than the wings of many moths?
| Yet these are all night flying creatures,
Speaking of moths, it seems odd that
there is no blue moth. Very few show
even a touch or spot of blue. The col-
orings of butterflies present many prob-
lems, for there seems no order or meth-
ed in their hues and markings, and a
strange point is the absolute difference
in these points between species other-
wise closely allied.
Why do autumn leaves turn yellow?
Here is a question which is more eas-
ily answered than some that have al-
ready been suggested. The popular
reply is, “The frost does it.” This is
only partly correct. If a really hard
frost were to happen early in autumn
there would be no tints at all. All the
leaves would turn brown at once. The
really gorgeous colors are produced by
a slow and gradual fall of temperature,
of course, without too much wind or
rain. The cold causes a chemical fer-
ment, which attacks the color com-
pounds in the cells of the leaf. It is
those leaves which contain most sugar
which oxidize most rapidly and of
which, consequently, the color becomes
most rich and brilliant.
A question which is often asked ls,
“Why do lobsters, shrimps and certain
other similar shellfish turn red when
boiled?’ it seems that the black color-
ing matter which colors the shell of the
lobster during life is an iron com-
pound. We know that iron rust is red.
The effect of boiling is practically to
turn this iron compound in the lobster
shell to a highly oxidized rust.
The dislike of certain creatures for
certain colors is strange. If a number
of earthworms be piaced in an oblong
box. of which one half is covered with
red and the other with blue glass, they
will with ore accord crawl away from
the bine light and take refuge under
the red glass, Many other higher crea-
tures share the same dislike to blue
rays. —Pearson’s Weekly.
A Terrible Mistake.
There are women who are smart and
Intelligent. yet they labor under the
delusion th: * no man can tell them a
lle and look them straight in the eye
at the same time.—-Mansfield News,
Joy's recollection is no longer joy
while sorrow’s memory is sorrow still.--
Byron.
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——————————————— Se
Temperance Drinks.
‘Telephone.
OFT DRINKS
The subseriber havi tin » com-
ny is i 4 furnish Soft
Pinks in bottle such as
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SARSAPA A,
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I!
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Bellefonte, Pa.
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sly
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Williams’ Wall Paper Store
|
i
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