Bellefonte, Pa., February 23, 1923.
DIVERGING THEORIES OF LIF.
Question of Chance and Evolution
Aoparently Will Long Be Matter
of Discussion.
Writing on the work of Jacques
Y.oeb, the famous exponent of the me-
chanical theory of life, in Harper's
Magazine, Paul H. De Kruiff said:
“It is constantly remarked by lay peo-
ple of intelligence and by many biol-
ogists that the apparently wonderful
way in which animals are adapted to
their environment is the best evidence
of some purpose and design in nature.
To Loeb, with his detached vision and
his freedom from anthropomorphism,
it is just as conceivable that nature is
accidental and a pure matter of
chance. It is possible that ‘these sur-
vive who have the equipment—they
did not acquire the equipment under
the influence of environment,
It is possible for forms with moderate
disharmonies to survive, those with
gross disharmonies do not exist. and
we are not reminded of their possible
existence." Nature, the master points
out, is enormously wasteful. There
are, for instance, a hundred mi'l‘on
possible crosses of marine bony fish.
Of these only ten thousand, or one-
hundredth of 1 per cent, actually ex-
ist. Hvery one will admit that this
fact is a much better argument for
planlessness than for design. For
out of an almost :infinite number of
combinations it would be strange if
chance did not bring about the exist
ence of a small number of {forms
capable of survival”
‘NATION'S CEST TO FRANKLIN
Outstanding Figure of the Revolution
Should Never Be Forgotten by
Any American.
If a hundred professors of American
history were asked what man, next to
Washington, did most to launch the
American republic ag an independent,
self-moving nation, 99 of the answers
would name Benjamin Franklin. But
it is to be feared that the average stu-
dent of history does not appreciate so
well what this country owes to the
memory of the author, statesman and
philosopher who was born in Boston
217 years ago.
For such, the best course ix not to
plunge into historical discussion, but
to get acquainted with Franklin, the
man. The task, fortunately, is at once
easy and delightful. His autobiog-
raphy, with its shrewd wisdom, incis-
fve wit, kindly humor and amazing
SRANDEUR HARD TO PORTRAY; OLD SONGS BRING MEMORIZS
frankness and Insight, 1g one of the
most. readable hooks in the Inglish
‘language. Let the doubter read that.
and a proper appraisal of Franklin is
almost certain to follow. We do not
underrate our friends, and there is
something wrong with the person who
does not count Franklin a friend
‘after perusing that memoir—Chicago
Journal.
Oldtime Beauty Hints.
Some strange recipes for beauty are
given by oldtime writers, “The eyes
of pike powdered are wonderful in
increasing beauty” naively suggests
one author. In the South of England
even today the eating of herrings’
brains is thought to improve the ap-
pearance. The fat of the grayling
mixed with honey and exposed for a
day or two to the sun made a fine
preparation for cleaning the skin.
The fat of the lamprey, though this
creature
lucky, was efficaclous in
smallpox sears, Wolverine
would cure all skin troubles.
(‘hinese have great Taith.in the medic-
inal properties of water in which
cockles have heen boiled and it is
their favorite remedy for smallpox,
One of the strangest remedies is at-
tributed to the monks of the Tenth
greas:
century who are said to have pre-
scribed ashes of burnt flies for the
complexion.
i
Ancient Citadel! of Athens.
The Acropolis of Athens was the an-
~cient citadel of Athens, sometimes
«called . Cecropia, from. its reputed:
founder, the mythical Cecrops. Tt was !
“pullt upon a rock 500 feet above the
Attie plain. 'This eminence was 1,150
feet in length from east to west and
500 feet in width from north to south,
and was accessible on the west side
only, through the Propylaea or “En-
trances” bullt by Pericles. Upon its
summit were the world famous Parthe-
non, sacred to Minerva, the Temple of
Wingless Victory, the Erechtheum, and
other structures.
Between the Parthenon
and the
Frechtheum stood the colossal figure |
of Minerva, the protlectress of the city,
70 feet In height.
May Fast for Months.
Beaded lizards live in dry places,
hidden by day and become active in
the evening, says the Detroit News.
They lie asleep during the hottest
part of the year. They eat frogs,
worms, centipedes, ants and other in-
sects, as well as the eggs of frogs,
birds and other lizards.
In good times the extra nourish-
ment is stored up as fat in the tail.
When food is scarce this fat can be
absorbed and carried to the hungry
cells through the blood, and thus the
glla monster may go without other
food for several months.
——The “Watchman” gives all the
news while it is news.
The !
ig otherwise considered un-
removing
t
i
“tracts mice and moles to it.
Visitor Asserts View From Summit of |
Andes Is Such as Aimost to Defy |
Description. !
The view from the summit is mag: |
nificent in whichever direction one
turns, but it is rather more interesting |
and varied toward the Pacitie. That |
scean is not over a hundred miles in |
a straight line from the crest of the
divide, but all sight of it is cut oft by
the intervening summits, The scenery
in this, or any other part of the Andes,
is on too vast and imposing a scale for
a man to come to any adequate com-
prehension of it, Still more hopeless
is the possibility of conveying any ef-
fective impression of it to others. You
may think you can describe it until you
try; then you find that you are but
stringing meaningless adjectives and
shopworn similes tqgether.
At first you are Inclined to be disap-
pointed at your impotency; then you
begin to feel small and ashamed that
vou should have presumed to attempt
such a thing; finally, like a man cover-
ing up traces of guilt, you hasten to
tear up and burn what you have writ-
ten before some one comes and finds
what you have been doing. There are |
some men who can draw better than!
others word-plctures of these great
manifestations of nature, just as some
men can paint beiter pictures on can
vas than ean others; but the best de
scriptions are only sounding brass and |
tinkling cymbal imitations of the un
=peakable grandeur of the originals
Personally T throw up my hands and
call myself off at the outset.—Lewls
R. Freeman in the (‘fornhill Magazine.
PUTS NEW LIGHT ON HISTORY
Discovery in Sweden Proves That
Arts of Civilization Are Older
Than Has Been Thought.
A cloak of woolen cloth, believed to
be 3,000 years old, has been found in
a peat bog in Sweden. The slightly
acid water of the peat formation acted i
as a preservative, |
This is the oldest complete garment |
ever found In KEurope, though the |
British museum has several bits of |
cloth that are considered still older. |
But 3,000 years is a fairly respectable |
age. When that cloth was woven. !
Homer's father nr grandfather was a
boy, playing In the streets of some
Greek town. The Israelitish monarchy
was not yet thought of—=Saul, its first
king, probably was not yet born.
Egypt. rich but defenseless, was verg-
ing to decay; but the founding of
Rome lay farther in the future than
the landing of the Pilgrims now lies
in the past. Through most of Iurope,
bronze, - rather than ‘fron, was the
chosen metal. !
Yet even in that mistily distant
time, the northern barbarians either
wove woolen cloaks for themselves or
carried on trade enough to buy them
from more advanced peoples, ol
A good many of the arts of civiliza-
tion date farther back than our grand-
{athers dreamed, and were more wide-
ly diffused, too g
Transient Value,
Purpose-novels, like advertisements,
helong in the temporary department.
As certain goods and wares go out of
date, and the often eloquent announce- :
ments that commended them suddenly
disappear; even so the “burning ques- |
tions” of the hour and age burn out, !
and the solutions of them presented in
the form of fiction fall down with the
other ashes. They have served their
purpose, well or ill, and their transient
importance is ended. What endures,
if anything, is the human story vividly
told, the human characters graphically
depicted. These have a permanent
value. These belong to literature. !
Here 1 would place “Adam Bede” and |
“Silas Marner” and “The Mill on the
Floss” and “Middlemarch,” because
they deal with problems which never
grow old; but not “Robert Elsmere,”
hecause it deals chiefly with a defunct
controversy in Biblical eriticism—
Henry Van Dyke, in “Companionable
Books.”
Elevator Operator Scores.
Elevator service at a Brooklyn
gvmnasium largely patronized by fat
business men is not always what the
members think it should be. On the
way to their volley ball games or set-
ting-up exercises they frequently have
to wait several minutes before the
overworked operator descends with
the “lift” to carry them to the gym-
nasium floor.
The elevator operator thinks much
of hig patrons’ criticism is uncalled
for. So when he was berated the
other day for being tardy in answer-
ing the lobby signals he told one of
fhe grumblers:
“The gymnasium is on ihe third |
floor. You come here for exercise.!
Instead of waiting for the elevator |
|
|
why don't you walk up?”
Natural Mouse Trap.
In the Last Indies there grows a
plant that eats mice! This plant has
a very strong sweet odor which at-
The little
animals, attracted by the strong scent,
run up the stalk of the plant right into
the flower, from which there is no es.
cape, as they are caught In a sticky
substance, and are kept from backing
out by down-pointing bristles which
close around their victim,
Digestive julces, like those found in
the stomachs of animals, exude and
the rodent is slowly consumed. It is
rumored that this flesh-eating plant
may be put to use as a mouse trap, ag
it has an {rresistible attraction for
rodents.
Forgotten Tunes Often Rev. re
Thoughts of Yesterday That Arc
Reminiscent of Happiness.
Songs come and go—have their little
moments of popularity and are ther
relegated to the dim recesses of mer
ory. Occasionally one pops up its heal
as it were from the grave, and toda)
it is not unusual to hear a medley of
old songs played or sung to much ain-
plause in some cabaret. They bring
their memories, these old songs—moon-
lit nights and palm shaded corners iv
dance roeins, an old romance.
The other night the sentimental man
was entertaining a friend. He put on a
record, an old song from “Maritana.”
“Ah,” he said, “what memories that
brings back to me! Old days, oid
friends—"
His companion grunted: “All 1 asso
ciate with that song,” he said pro
saically, “is the bathroom and a dull
razor. Always when I'm not getting 2
decent shave 1 somehow break int:
“The Heart Bowed Down.” It's the
best bathroom song I know."
The sentimental one grinned sheep:
ishly. “Come te think of it,” he agreed.
“the first time 1 ever heard it was
when I was a boy, and my father in
the next room: warbled it, too. I—L"
and here he blushed, “1 never heard
the opera in my life."—New York Sui
ee.
LEAVES FICTION FAR BEHIND
Action of Vigo Authorities in Dealing
‘Vith Treasure Ships Is Almost
Beyond Belief.
Perhaps the largest single treasure
trove lies at the bottom of Vigo bay on
the coast of Npain,
carriers were sunk by the
Seventeenth century and scattered ove
the ocean's floor gold and silver esti
mated at $100.000,000, So far it is all
there, :
The fleet of bullion carriers, con-
voyed by a slightly larger fleet of men
of war, set out from the coast of Mex-
ico to carry the treasure to the coffers
of Spain and sought refuge in Vigo bay
from the approach of the larger British
and Dutch fleet, There they planned
to unload the treasure.
But the customs officers had no in-
structions to receive it.
communicate with their superiors.
admiral of the fleet argued, but the
port officials were adamant. And while
‘ they debated the enemy ships sailed
into the buy and settled the matter for
all time by sinking the fleet,
And what has fiction half so strange |
as that?
How to Torture Your Wife.
A man whose wife was visiting rela-
tives in another state was getting
lonesome, but couldn't get her to cul
short her visit and return home. He
wrote her a letter almost every day.
| pleading he was sick, that he couldn't
get any good food. She wouldn't
budge. Then he had an inspiration,
a hunch some would call it, says Cap-
per’s Weekly. Before the wife left
home she had arranged to have twa
rooms papered, and had ordered the
paper, but was unable to get a work-
man at the time she had to leave for
the visit. The paper came while she
was gone, [I'riend
long letter to his wife, telling her the
(the husband), didn't remember which
paper was to go on which room. He
had told the paperhanger to go ahead,
however, to use such-and-such a paper
(naming the dining room paper), on
the front room, and the other paper
(the front room paper), on the dining
room. The missus reached home on
the next train.
Seller Takes No Chances.
A guest at an up-state hotel re-
cently, making a purchase at the
cigar stand, noticed that the clerk bhe-
fore ringing up the cash register laid
the bill on the keys of the machine,
says the New York Sun. Then hg
pressed the correct button, made the
change, handed it to the customer,
and only then placed the bill in the
proper compartment of the open
drawer.
“1 did ‘it to avoid disputes and mis:
takes,” he said. “As long as the
money is still lying on top of the keys
there's no chance of my giving the
customer short chanse by. mistake
nor of his disputing the change he re-
ceives and perhaps putting one over
on me.”
Cliff-Dwellers Inhabit Plains.
Most of the mysterious ciiff-dwellers
of Arizona lived on the level ground,
as we do, and not like swallows in a
cliff, Dr. Harold Sellers Colton told the
American Society of Eeologists in Bos-
ton recently. Tour kinds of pottery,
indicating four kinds of cliff-dwellers,
he said. have been found in the region
of the San Francisco mountains,
Whether these neighboring races
lived at the same time and yet made
such different pottery, or whether the
four kinds of pottery represent differ-
ent periods of time, Is yet to be dis-
covered, This pottery is apparently
distributed in the horizontal plane,
each kind of pottery having its pariic-
ular region.
Thoughts During Danger.
For ages persons who have recov-
ered from great dangers have claimed
that in a second all their lives flashed
hefore them. Scientists now prove that
these persons have not told the truth,
Truthful persons who have been in
great danger say that their thoughts
are entirely on the danger and their
minds have no chance to flash unless
on things before their eyes.
They must!
The
Here 17 bullion |
Sritish and
Dutch navies in the latter part of tit
1
Husband wrote an!
, paperhanger had arrived, but that he’
Destruction of Records Has Made I?
Impossible to Ascertain Definitely
the Exact Number.
The estimate of 2,200,000 as the to-
tal of the Confederate army for the
foar years of the war does not seem
excessive or unreasonable repre-
senting tue military strenzth of the 5.-
000,000 white population of the Con-
federate states, aided by the 2,000,000
population of the sympathizing border
states, and with an industrial army of
3,000,000 slaves, A. B. Casselman
writes in Current History Magazine.
The Southern estimate, or “legend,” as
it has been aptly termed, of 600,000,
has always seemed disproportionate.
This estimate is of uncertain origin,
and is not derived from any official
source. It did not originate during the
war, but after the war had ended,
when the Confederates had lost thelr
records and were without official data
on which to support their assertions.
No oflicial summary purporting to
show the total number can be found in
the official records. The captured rolls
are incomplete and fragmentary. As
an illustration, it has heen ascertained
that approximately 1,000 names are
missing from the captured rolls of a
single regiment, the Sixtieth North
Carolina. Rev. Dr. McKim, an ex-Con-
federate officer and a writer on this
subject, quotes a letter
him from Col. Walter G. Taylor, Gen-
eral Lee's adjutant general, saying:
“I regret to have to say that I know
of no reliable data in support of any
precise number, and have always
realized that it must ever he largely a
matter of conjecture on our side)”
In the absence of complete official
records, the question still remains
Jargely a matter of conjeciure, Neither
the Confederate idea of 600,000 nor
any later estimate can he accepted as
finnl or as even approximately accu-
rate,
as
APPARENTLY QUITE IN ORDER
Snglish Actor's Witty Introduction of
Two New Acquaintances
Placed Correctly.
Every book of reminiscences pub-
lished nowadays which contains any-
thing about the theater has at least
one anecdote about the late Sir Her-
bert Tree. The author of “The Nine-
teen Hundreds,” who writes under
the pseudonym Reginald Auberon, re-
tails ene of Sir Herbert's spontaneous
flashes to carry on the tradition. Ac-
companied by Lady I'vee, he had gone
down to the Palace theater to re-
hearse a sketch,
ahout the unfamiliar
stage, feeling
very bored and looking like a fish out |
of water, a couple of ‘knockabout’
comedians who had just finished their
‘turn’ approached him. ‘Well met, Sir
‘Br? exclaimed the first one, slap:
ping him heartily on the back. ‘Glad
to welcome you ‘ere!’ ‘Oh, delighted!’
murmured Tree, vaguely, ‘This. is my
mate, ‘Arry. continued the other.
beckoning to his partner. ‘Pleased
to meet you,” declared the second
comedian. delivering an equally vigor-
us slap on Tree's shoulder. ‘Welcome
to the ’alls. The missus showing with |
you? With a magnificent gesture,
Tree signaled to his wife. ‘Maud,’ he
said, ‘allow me to introduce my new
friends. Lady Tree—the Two
Smacks!”
Get Your Share of Fruit.
A great many persons regard fruit
as a superfluity or a luxury; but, ac-
cording to the New York state health
commissioner, fruit should be part of
our daily diet for several very good
reasons. Many fruits contain certain
salts of organic acids which have a
stimulating effect upon the Kidneys,
and some others are decidedly laxa-
tive. Owing to their large content of
water they are always cooling, and
any digestive difficulties which may be
encountered are generally due to eat-
ing too much or too fast, er eating un-
ripe or overripe fruit. Bananas have
a high food content and a low cost.
Fruit eating is goad exercise for the
jaws and puts the teeth in good condi-
tion.
~ Early Wood Carving.
Wood carving was common in very
early Egyptian sculpture. Some of the
most realistic statues of the ancient
empire were carved in wood, such as
the so-cailed “Sheikh-el-beled” and his
wife, and a number of others. Wood
wis a convenient ground for polychro-
matic decoration; that is, treating the
carved figure with a thin coating of
plaster upon which the artist has
placed his colors, This was very pop-
ular among Egyptian artists.
In Greece wood carving probably
was the earliest form of archaic senlp-
ture. The late Greeks and Romans
used it comparatively little, but among
the most remarkable works of early
Christian sculpture are the carved
wooden doors of Santa Sabina, Rome,
Football Then and Now.
If you think that football is a
rougher game now than it was in the
past, read this paragraph written In
1582:
“As concerning football playing. it
may be cailed rather a friendly fight
than a play of recreation; a bloody,
murdering practice than a fellowly
sport or pastime, For doth not every
one lie in wait for his adversary, seek-
ing to overthrow him and to pitch him
on his nose, though it be upon hard
stones, or what place soever it be he
careth not, so he have him down? And
he that can serve the most In this
fashion he is counted the only fellow,
and who but he.”—Boston Transcrint.
received by |
“As he wandered |
Old Silverware, Tea Sets,
Tableware, Etc.
Old Clocks and Old Jewelry
Made New Again
At Very Conservative Prices...
We will be very glad to furnish you an estimate
for the work.
F. P. Blair & Son,
Jewelers and Optometrists
Bellefo.ite, Pa.
61.22 tf
A
CT
he Safe Deposit Box is more than a
convenience. It is a safe-guard. It
cannot be carried away; it cannot be
opened without your consent; its con-
tents are secure. Many of our patrons
have had them here during the past
They could not be in-
duced to give them up. The charge
per year is nominal.
a
fifteen years.
ie
‘The First National Bank
Bellefonte, Pa.
61-46
You Won't, Need be Told b
~ Just, See Them...
167 Pairs Men's “Walkover”
Shoes and Oxfords | §
The year’s accumulation of odds
and ends—formerly priced from $8
lot, at
to $12—assembled in one
For One Week Only
$4.95 |
All “Walkovers”
A. Fauble
i 58-8 ; i ie