Eerste te mE
Demorratic; atc
Bellefonte, Pa., April 6, 1923.
A SONG OF APRIL.
By Gardner Weeks Wood.
Down by the mill the puss-willows are
winking
Eyes full of wonder-light
Born of the winter’s night;
Close by the drifted fence daffodils blink-
ing,
Drowsy-eyed, saffron-dyed,
Nodding heads side by side
Tell of the April tide—come once again.
Warm on the waking world south winds
} are breathing
Life to the wayward streams,
Locked in their cells o’ dreams;
Yonder with tender touch elm tops are
wreathing
Garlands of golden mist,
Crowning the fairy-kissed
Days of the April haze—come once again.
Soft on the upland slope sunbeams a-
dancing
Sing to the hidden grass,
“Rise ere our shadows pass;
Springtime's advancing; her flags are a-
glancing” —
Comes now the robin’s rhyme
Ringing the evening chime;
Hymn of the April time—come once again.
NAT BAKER’S PASSENGER.
It was down at Jupiter Inlet, near
the end of the Indian River, that long
arm of the sea which extends nearly
half the length of Florida, and is sep-
arated from the ocean by a narrow
stretch of sand, that I met Nat Baker.
Nat was a beach-comber, an alligator-
hunter and a fisherman, always full
of information about the region, and
always ready to impart it.
“Panthers about here!” exclaimed
Nat one evening, as we sat chatting
after supper. “I should say so, and
bears, too, and wildcats besides, and a
lot of other beasts not worth consid-
erin’. Would you like me to tell you
a story about a panther? There's
people that calls ’em ‘painters;’ but I
like to call ’em by a real name, for if
you call ’em painters who’s a-goin’ to
tell whether you mean a wild beast, or
the rope that you tie up your boat
with, or one of them fellows that come
down here now and then to make pic-
tures 7”
I assured him that I should be de-
lighted to hear his story about a pan-
ther, and he began:
“One night about a year ago, I
moored my catboat to a little pier
which sticks out into the river about
five miles above here. It was dark
when I moored her, and although
there was a house not far away, it
was a mean sort of a place, and I
thought I'd sleep better aboard. I
had a little cabin which was comforta-
ble enough if 1 didn’t stretch out too
far. I generally slept with my head
toward the stern, so that I could get
more air.
“Well, sir, it was very early in the
mornin’ hardly beginning to be day-
light, when I opened my eyes,—don’t
know what made me open ’em,—and I
saw standin’ on the end of that pier
and purty nigh right above me a good-
sized panther. He was a-standin’
there and lookin’ down and sniffin’. In
a minute I suspected what he was a-
sniffin’ at. There was a hunk of salt
meat in the stern of the boat, which
I'd got the day before and left there
with a bit of canvas over it, expectin’
to cut it up and store it away in the
mornin’.
“Well, sir, that panther was sniffin’
that meat, but he didn’t seem to sniff
me, which wasn’t surprisin’, for the
ham was to the windward of me. My
rifle wasn’t far away, but it wasn’t
handy to get at. Besides, he was in a
bad place for me to get a good shot at
him. But he didn’t give me time io
consider what was best for me to do.
I hadn’t been looking at him more’
half a minute when he gave a jump
down on the top of my cabin, and then
another into the stern of the boat,
where the meat was. Was I frighten-
ed? I should say I was! to be on
board a catboat with a loose panther
is enough to frightea anybody, no
matter who he is.
“He didn’t lose any time gettin’ at
that meat, and I lay still and watched
him. But purty soon somethin’ hap-
pened which scared me worse’n the
panther did. While I was lookin’ at
the beast, I couldn’t help seein’ that
the bushes and reeds on the shore was
movin’ up my way. That meant that
we were floatin’ stern foremost down
the river!
“It was plain to me how that hap-
pened. When I tied up the evenin’ be-
fore I'd noticed that my painter was
in purty bad shape, so I had said to
myself that when I got down to the
lighthouse I'd get a new piece of rope.
But this one had lasted very well all
night and until the beast made his big
spring into the stern of the boat; then
it had parted, and now as the tide
was runnin’ out he and I were goin’
down-stream just as fast as we could.
That made me turn pale, I reckon, for
if the tide was to carry me through
the inlet and out to sea, where would
I be in a little boat like mine with a
panther on board ?
“There was only one thing to do,
and that was to scare that panther so
that he’d jump overboard. Then, if I
was to run up a sail and get at the
helm, I'd be all right.
“I’d often heard that any sudden
shout or yell made by a man would
scare any wild beast, at least in these
parts, and if this fellow was scared
all he could do was to jump overboard.
So I took a big breath and I let out a
tremendous yell, and that scared the
panther sure enough. He gave a sud-
den start and trembled like he had a
chill; then he made a bolt, but he did
not bolt over the stern and into the
water, but just turned sharp, and in
one skip he was on top of the cabin. I
expect what he wanted to do was to
go back the way he came, but it was
no good for him to think of that; we
were too far out for him to jump
ashore,
“But he was easily scared, and that
was a great comfort to me. If I kept
yellin’ at him, and scared him every
time, he’d be bound to jump over-
board, so I slipped cut of my cabin
and went astern.
“There he was at the very bow,
crouchin’ close, and so frightened that
his tail stretched out without any life
in it. I thought of gettin’ my rifle
and takin’ a shot at him, but I was
afraid to do that—and that’s not easy
with a panther—his hurt would take
the scare out of him, and that catboat |
wasn’t big enough for a wounded pan-
ther and me.
“But as long as he stayed scared and
kept away frem me, the thing for me :
to do was to get my boat in hand be-
fore I went into the inlet and was car-
ried out to sea. I might have jumped
overboard and swum ashore, but there
are sharks in this river; and besides,
I didn’t want to lose my boat even if
I did get rid of the panther.
“So I thought if I could get my sail
up and then get back to the helm, I
could run her into the bank some-
where and let the beast jump ashore.
But first I thought I’d give him anoth-
er yell and see if he’d jump over the
bow. So I gave a tremendous howl,
and at the same time I made a little
run his way as if I was goin’ to grab
him. Although I acted mighty bold,
I don’t think I'd have done that if the
cabin hadn’t been between us.
“But that panther didn’t make a
move to jump overboard. When I
made as if I'd pass the cabin on one
side, he just sprang to the other side
of it, and there he crouched, although
there was mighty little room for him.
Now was my time, and I just got for-
‘ard as fast as I could, and at the same
time he slipped aft. I ran up the sail
without losin’ any time about it, and
the panther, he lay in the stern watch-
in’ me and payin’ no attention to the
meat this time.
“‘Now,” says I, ‘he’ll be afarid to
pass that floppin’ sail, and he’ll be
bound to jump overboard the next
time I yell and make a rush at him.’
“It was astonishin’ how brave I was
actin’, seein’ what a coward I was. I
gave another yell and moved his way,
but I hadn’t passed the cabin when he
made a bolt on the other side of the
sail, and there he was in the bow. He
didn’t mind the floppin’ sail a bit. It
seemed to me there was nothin’ he
was afraid of so much as jumpin’ into
the river.
“Now panthers can swim, I knew
that well enough, but I guess this fel-
low knew somethin’ about sharks. At
any rate he wasn’t goin’ into the In-
dian River if he could help it.
“Well, sir, as he went for’ard I went
aft, and as there was a fair wind I
soon Zot my catboat in hand, and there
wasn’t any more danger of my bein’
carried out to sea.
“Now, then, there came a question
as to what I was to do; so I sat and
considered it, and the panther, he lay
quiet in the bow, and for all I know,
he was considerin’ the same thing.
Now anybody with common sense
would have told me that “here was
only one thing for me to do, and that
was to steer into the bank as soon as
I could and let the beast jump ashore.
But a very queer feelin’ had come over
me. I wanted that panther!
“A live panther is a good thing to
have, for it’s worth a pile of money if
you can. get him North, where there
are people who want to buy wild
beasts. Now that I'd found out how
easy it was to scare this fellow, I
didn’t feel afraid of him, and it did
seem to me that there ought to be
some way that I could take him alive
and send him North.
“So I didn’t steer into the bank, but
kept sailin’ up the river thinkin’ and
thinkin’ as hard as I could, tryin’ to
find out how I was goin’ to catch that
panther alive, for I was gettin’ real
gready about him. I’ve heard that the
savagest beasts, when they get them-
selves in a tight place that they don’t
know nothin’ about, and don’t know
how they are goin’ to get out of it;
don’t never think of hurtin’ any livin’
thing, havin’ their minds so entirely
fixed on gettin’ out of danger them-
selves. That was the way with my
panther, anyway; I'm sure he never
thought of hurtin’ me.
“It wasn’t very long after sunrise
when I saw a sail comin’ down the riv-
er. The minute my eyes fell on it I
knew what it was; it was the mail-
carrier’s boat. Martin—I don’t know
what his last name was—was a young
man who used to come down the river
in his little boat once a week to car-
ry the mail from Titusville to Lake
Worth. When he got to Jupiter Inlet
he left his boat and carried the mail
along the beach for six miles. He was
a New England fellow, and had been
to college and he knew a lot, but how
he come to carry the mail down here
I don’t know.
“When I saw Martin’s boat comin’
down I was mighty glad, for he was
just the man to tell me how to get out
of the puzzle I was in about this pan-
ther I had on board.
“As soon as I» came near I hollered
to him to keep away from my boat,
which he was glad enough to do when
his eyes fell on what kind of a passen-
ger I had. I never saw anybody so
excited as he was when he first saw
that loose panther crouchin’ there, of
his own free will, on board my cat-
boat.
“When I told him what had happen-
ed, he got more worked up still.
“Nat,” he hollered, ‘you got to
catch him alive! It’ll never do to let
that fellow go, nor to shoot him.
Thera’s money in a live panther!
“Yes, sir,’ I hollered back, ‘I know
there is, and I'm goin’ to have it if
you'll help me to catch him alive.’
“‘All right,” says he. ‘I'll help you
all I know how.’
“And so he told me if I'd put my
boat about and we'd sail together
down towards the inlet, where there
was a fishin’-schooner from New York
that was catchin’ fish and saltin’ ‘em
to take North, perhaps they could help
us. So I put about and we sailed on,
keepin’ a good distance apart, for I
wouldn’t trust my passenger not to
jump aboard another boat if he
thought it would suit him better.
“When we got up near the schoon-
er, Martin he said for me to tack up
and down away from shore while he
landed and talked to the fishermen.
“I said, ‘All right,” of course, and
then he went ashore. :
“I waited for him a good while,
bein’ mighty careful to keep in deep
water, for if my panther should see
i much out of sight, for
that we was in water shallow enough
for him to see bottom he’d know there
wasn’t no sharks there, and he'd scoot.
“It seemed like a longer time than
it was, I reckon, but after a while
Martin got into his boat and sailed up
as close as he could to me without
gettin’ into jumpin’ distance; then he
told me what he had done.
“He'd bot a big fishin’net on the
schooner and three men to help him
work it. I was to sail away purty
they didn’t
want the panther to see what they
were at, and then they were to spread
that net on a smooth place on the sand
purty nigh the water, and each one of
em was to take hold of a corner of
it, and cover himself purty much up
with palmetto leaves.
“Then Martin, he was to wave his
hat, and I was to come in and run my
boat ashore at the place where he was
to stick up a little stick in the sand.
“‘What’ll happen next?’ says I.
“ ‘Haven’t time to talk about that!’
he shouted back at me. ‘The men are
comin’ with the net. You do what I
tell you and it'll be all right.’
“So I sailed off, lookin’ round every
now and then to see if Martin was
wavin’ his hat. After a while, when I
was puttin’ the boat about to make a
new tack, I saw Martin wave his hat,
then run off and hide himself. So I
made straight for the shore, and when
I saw the little stick, I drove the bow
of the boat right into it. I didn’t have
no chance to let down the sail, for I
didn’t want to frighten the panther
out of the bow, but I just went in,
not mindin’ anything.
“When that panther saw we was
comin’ near shore, he turned himself
around to get ready to jump, and just
before we touched the sand I helped
him out with a good yell.
“He gave a tremendous spring, and
he must have landed purty near in the
middie of the net, and in that very
second up jumped Martin and the oth-
er men, and they jerked up that net
so quick that he was caught in it.
Then they all worked together like
good fellows. I guess Martin had
been talkin’ to em and they wrapped
the net around the panther before you
could have said Jack Robinson. Then
there was a circus!
“The panther got his fore legs
through the net at his first jump, and
that kept him from doin’ his best. But
he bounded and jumped this way and
that way, sometimes tail up and some-
times head up, and he pulled those
fellows around in such a fashion that
I was afraid he’d get away from ‘em.
“But I joined in and helped, and
after a while we got the net under
him and over him so that he could
hardly jump at all. He was like a big
fly in a spider-web.
“Just about then there came along
two fellows from the schooner, rollin’
a big, empty hogshead in front of ’em’
and when they got nearly down to’ us,
Martin, he went to help ’em, and in a
little less’n no time they clapped that
empty hogshead over the panther,
net and all. Three of the men jumped
on the bottom of it and kept it down,
and there he was,
“ ‘Hurrah!’ I shouted. ‘That’s the
best piece of work I ever saw, but*T’d
like to know, Martin, how you're goin’
to keep him in now you've got him ?”
“‘All right, says Martin. ‘You
can’t do everything at once, but I've
got my ideas about him. You fellows
keep the hogshead down on him, and
I'll run to the schooner. One of you
men come along with me, and Nat’l]
take your place.’
“So me and the two other fellows
was left to keep the hogshead down,
which wasn’t very hard to do, for the
panther; he was so tangled up in the
net he couldn’t jump about much,
though he did a lot of howlin’.
“After a while Martin came back
with the other man, bringin’ a lot of
pieces of plank, split up a bout three
or four inches wide and a long piece
of good stout rope.
“ ‘That won’t do, Martin,’ says L
‘You can’t nail them strips on to the
open end of that hogshead; they won’t
hold a minute against a jumpin’ pan-
ther.’
“‘I'm not a-goin’ to nail ’em,’ ans-
wers Martin, speaking kind of short.
‘Pm goin’ to do better’n that.’
“And so he did, for Martin had a
great mind. He took one piece of
plank and run it under the head of
the hogshead, which he had a lot of
trouble to do, for the thing sometimes
went again’ the net, and sometimes
again’ the beast; but he got it under
until it stuck out the other side. And
then he put in another one, until he had
slats under the whole of that open
head.
“ ‘How are you goin’ to keep ‘em
there ?’ says I.
“ ‘Wait till you see,” says he.
“Then he laid about the same num-
ber of strips on the bottom end, which
was uppermost, makin’ the men move
about while he did it. Then with the
rope he tied them strips which were
across the open head to the strips
which were on the solid bottom, lacin’
the rope from one to the other, and
then windin’ the rest of the rope
tight around the hogshead so that the
slats wouldn’t move.
“‘Now,” says he to the men, ‘you
can get off. We've got the panther!’
“Sure enough, when we turned that
hogshead over head up, we looked in
between the strips, and there was Mr.
Panther just as safe as if he had been
in an iron cage. His head was loose,
but the rest of him was purty well
tangled up in the net. He seemed
frightened when he saw us and stop-
ped howlin’. There was a good deal
of the net outside of the hogshead,
but we wrapped that about it, over
the top and bottom, so that we fast-
ened him up still better than he was
before.
“Well, sir, I don’ want to make this
story any longer than I can help, but
there’s no need of my telling you how
I got that panther up to Titusville in
my boat, and how Martin, as soon as
he got through with his mail business,
joined me, and we sailed up together.
There we had the good luck to meet a
man who had come down from the
North to buy some young bears he
had heard about, and when he saw
our panther he wasn’t long in strikin’
a bargain for it. He paid us a good
sum, although I reckon he cheated us;
but as we didn’t know it at the time,
of course we didn’t mind.
“Now that’s my story, but I can tell ;
you somethin’ that’s a good deal more '
wonderful than that. That happened
nigh a year ago, and I’ve got some of
that money left yet!”—Youth’s Com-
panion.
1197 KILLED IN AUTO ACCI-
DENTS IN STATE IN YEAR. 111
INCREASE.
Dr. Wilmer R. Batt, State registrar
of vital statistics, in his complete re-
ports on motor fatalities during 1922
shows that 1197 persons lost their
lives in automobile accidents in Penn-
sylvania last year, an increase over
1921 of 111, although the number of
motor vehicle licenses of all kinds in
effect last year was 829,737, an in-
crease of 160,148 over 1921.
The death rate per 1000 motor ve-
hicle licenses last year was 1.4 the
lowest since the State began keeping
records of automobile fatalities. Al-
though the number of motor licenses
of all kinds increases substantially
each year and the number of fatalities
increases annually, the automobile
death hazard, according to Dr. Batt,
is decreasing annually.
In eight years 8936 persons have
been killed in motor acidents in Penn-
sylvania, an average of 868 annually.
If the number of fatalities in compar-
ison to the total number of motor ve-
hicle licenses of all kinds in effect had
been proportionate to the number of
fatalities in 1915 when there were
160,137 licenses of all kinds in effect,
dctor Batt says the.number of deaths
from motor accidents last year would
have reached the astounding figure of
10,000.
The following figures covering the
last’ five years have been prepared by
the bureau of vital statistics showing
the number of motor licenses, persons
killed in motor accidents and the rate
per 1000 licenses:
Motor vehicles licensed 1918, 394,-
186; 1919, 481,224; 1920, 570,164; 1921,
689,689; 1922, 829,737.
Deaths from automobile accidents,
1918, 355; 1919, 818; 1920, 1042; 1921,
1086; 1922, 1197.
Number of persons killed per 1000
vehicles licensed, 1918, 2.5; 1919, 1.8;
1920, 1.8; 1921, 1.6; 1922, 1.4.
The death rate per 100,000 popula-
tion in Pennsylvania in 1921, accord-
ing to federal statistics, was 11.9.
The rate per 100,000 in Pennsylvania
in 1921 was lower than in twelve oth-
er States, including New York and
New Jersey.
PROPOSED CHANGE IN INAUGU-
RATION DATE.
An important change in the dates
of the Presidential inauguration, and
the meeting of Congress in regular
session, is provided for in the amend-
ment to the Federal Constitution
which passed the Senate recently by
a decisive vote.
It aims to advance the time for the
inauguration of a President two
months, namely from March to Jan-
uary, and the convening Congress
eleven months. The proposition, as
introduced by Senator Norris, of Ne-
braska, provides that “the terms of
President and Vice President of the
United States, elected after the adop-
tion of this amendment, will com-
mence at noon, on the third Tuesday
of January following their election,”
and that “the terms of Senators and
Representatives will commence at
noon on the first Monday in January
following their election.”
It is specified that “Congress shall
assemble at least once in every year”
on the date named, unless a different
date should be fixed by law. It is
claimed for the proposal to fix the first
Monday in January for the meeting of
Congress, and the third Monday in the
same month for the inauguration of
the President that it is logical and
sound.
Senator Norris said it was desira-
ble that when the President came into
office he should find the new Congress
organized and ready for business.
This argument met with favor at the
hands of the sixty-three Senators who
voted for the resolution, and its force
was not seriously combated by the six
voting in opposition.
After the passage of the resolution
by the House, where it is said to be
regarded favorably, the resolution
will be submitted to the State Legis-
latures for ratification during the
next two years. In case of its appro-
val by the necessary three-fourths of
the States its provisions will apply to
the next President and Congress who
will take office in January, 1925.
Among the supporters of the resolu-
tion favoring the Constitutional
change, the opinion prevailed that it
would afford an opportunity for a
quicker response to the popular will,
as expressed at the polls, than that
provided for under the present sys-
tem which was adopted to meet con-
ditions that no longer exist.
Simply Impossible.
In a telegraph office a woman
chewed the penholder, wrote vigorous-
ly, crossed out words and tore up
blanks. This occurred several times.
A bystander observed her with some
interest and then sauntered over to
the operator.
“Seems to be having a tough time
of it,” he said.
“Nothing serious,” yawned the op-
erator.
“Huh?” inquired the onlooker.
“About an hour ago her husband
wired her that he was going to stay
over for a football game or some-
thing,” the operator explained.
“Well 7” still not satisfied.
“She is trying to tell him what she
thinks of him in ten words.”
Rats and Sparrows are Slaughtered
Wholesale.
Howe, Ind.—Eleven thousand spar-
row heads and 300 rat tails were the
net result of a campaign waged in
Springfield township, Lagrange coun-
ty, to rid the section of the birds and
rodents, held by the farmers to be a
menace. A similar contest was con-
ducted in Greenfield township, where
thousands of sparrows and hundreds
of rats were killed.
—Get your job work done here.
FOR AND ABOUT WOMEN.
DAILY THOUGHT.
No accidents are so unlucky but that the
prudent may draw some advantage from
them.—Rochefaucauld. |
In the days of our dear mid-Vie-'
torian grandmothers, when hoopskirts :
extended the proportions of those
worthy ladies far beyond the confines
of a coat, the shawl, of necessity, was
an important article of dress.
Of the many varieties of these gar- |
ments in vogue at that day there were
two of a distinct elegance, the cash-
mere manufactured in the beautiful
Vale of Cashmere, celebrated in song
and story, and the Paisley from the
ancient Scottish town of the same
name. One or both of these lovely
products of the hand loom were apt
to be in the wardrobe of any lady of
affluence a generation or two ago, and
no bride’s trousseau was thought to
be complete without one.
The cashmere, examples of which
are occasionally to be found in this
country at the present time, were ex-
quisite works of art—so soft and so
finely woven that although of enor-
mous size they could easily be drawn
through a lady’s finger ring. The
wool for these shawls came from a
certain breed of goats, from Thibet,
said to be the most beautiful in the
world. Only the finest of this—that
lying next to the skin of the animal—
was used in the manufacture of
shawls. The lovely and intricate pat-
terns for these garments were hand-
ed down from time immemorial, from
an incredibly ancient Hindu ancestry,
the originals of which were preserved
as heirlooms in ancient castles and
were regarded with almost sacred
veneration.
The Paisleys, more frequently to be
met with in our own country, while
often exquisite in texture and of the
same Asiatic designs, intricate and
delicately lovely as old Venetian point,
are, after all, but imitations of the in-
comparable cashmere. In the home
of its birth the Paisley shawl, how-
ever, is not so designated, but is call-
ed a “Harness Plaid” (pronounced
plade), the word harness indicating
the character of the design.
During the time of their manufac-
ture, when 8000 looms were kept busy
all day long meeting the demand for
them, three grades: of the shawls weie
woven—that for ceremony which was
naturally the most lovely, that for
every-day use and the tartan worn by
the men of the clans as a distinguish-
ing insignia.
The shawl of ceremony, which was
the finely woven one with Asiatic pat-
tern, was never worn by an unmarried
woman. On the Sunday following her
marriage, however, when she was
“kirked,” she appeared for the first
time in her “harness plaid.” To be
“kirked” meant simply that on the
first Sunday after the marriage cere-
mony the bride and groom, with their
attendants, went to church in a body.
Of great length—the garment
measures three and one-half yards
long by one and three-quarters yards
wide—it was first folded in the mid-
dle, then across to form a triangle,
the upper point perhaps a foot from
the bottom one, and’ then thrown
across the shoulders and fastened
with a large pin made especially for
the purpose. A silk bonnet tied under
the chin with a big bow was worn with
this and quaint and coy indeed must
have been the fair Scotch lassie so
robed on her “kirking” day.
Queen Victoria, dear old lady of
traditions that she was, loved the
Paisley to her dying day, and every
girl friend of her little Majesty knew
well that on her wedding day a pres-
ent of a rare one from her beloved
sovreign would be hers.
A dear old Scotch lady, who is not |
only rich in memories of her native
heath but has brought with her to this
country many of her family treasures,
includes among these some lovely old
Paisleys. One arrived from Scotland
but a few days ago—a family heir-
loom sent to her daughter. In this,
mother, grandmother, and she thinks
great-grandmother, were “kirked.” It
is a rarely lovely one in both design
and workmanship.
The body of the shawl has a cen-
tral star-shaped design from which ra-
diate in conventionalized form the us-
ual Oriental pear and floral patterns.
The border above a narrow fringe is
woven in squares separated by nar- |
row strips of exquisitely dainty de-
sign. The background of these squares
alternate in greens, blues, rads, black
and cream, and upon them are em-
bossed thistles and other insignia em-
blematic of Scotland.
Doubtless many of these rare old
shawls of Scotland and a few of their
still more rare prototypes of India are
treasured among us as heirlooms.
Happy, indeed, is she who can make a
visit to moth-protected chest and puil
from its lavender-scented contents one
of these gorgeous shawls of the Orient
or even a lovely old Paisley made in
its likeness. Fortunate, indeed, if
these exquisite fruits of the loom have
escaped the vandal’s hand and remain
in fact, and let us hope that, although
at the present moment we are enjoy-
ing a revival of the vogue for these
same old patterns, none of these an-
tique works of art will fall under the
shears of the irreverent and be con-
verted into garments of a passing
style.
In the past, at another period of
frenzy for things Eastern, many of
them were, and in some cases have
they been put to even baser uses.
In a little cottage set on a back
street not so long ago was seen a
weather-stained but gorgeous rem-
nant of an old Paisley shawl spread
over a flower-bed to protect its plants
from an impending frost, and many a
time are bits of those exquisitely wov-
en fabrics used for saddle blankets.
One woman is even now using two
rarely lovely ones as linings for bed
quilts. What would be the feelings of
an East Indian—heir to all the ages—
should he by chance see one of his own
treasures, designed by a master ar-
tist of the remotest past and woven by
an almost adoring disciple of the an-
cient craft, thus dishonored? Even
for those who care nothing for tradi-
tions—for whom the past holds no
particular charm—there should be
some appreciation of the intrinsic val-
ue of these objects of a highly devel-
oped art,
FARM NOTES.
—The use of wood ashes, lime and
fresh stable manure on potato fields,
is known to increase scab infection.
—Would you give a bushel of grain
if you were sure to get six in its place
at the end of the season? This is the
right way to regard the treatment of
seed grain in the prevention of smut.
—Why do potatoes turn dark after
peeling? Because they have been
kept under warm conditions and the
consequent starting of growth has
caused the chemical changes which
permit the tissue to darken upon ex-
posure to the air,
—Information on the identification
and control of insect pests and plant
diseases will be gladly furnished by
the Bureau of Plant Industry, Penn-
sylvania Department of Agriculture
at Harrisburg. Indentifications can
be properly and promptly made from
samples of plants showing symptoms
of the disease or the injury done.
—Unfortunately, however carefully
the breeding pens may be mated and
no matter how selective the operator
may be in choosing the hatching eggs,
it does not follow that all of the eggs
will run fertile. By fertile is meant
the capacity of the life germ or em-
bryo within the egg, sometimes spok-
en of as the germinal disc, to develop
into a chick.
This incapacity is due to the ab-
sence of fertilization. Such eggs are
known as infertile, sterile or clear
eggs.
On the other hand, all fertile eggs
are not capable of normal develop-
ment. The germinal disc may start
life under the influence of the hen or
incubator, and in a few days expire,
or the embryo may attain considerable
size and then die, which is usually
caused by some reproductive weakness
in the layer of the egg or by improp-
er care of the egg, either before hatch-
ing or during the hatch. In poultry
parlance such eggs are called dead
germs,
It is considered good practice to re-
move these non-hatchable eggs during
the period of incubation, especially if
the hatching is done artificially. To
accomplish this it is necessary for the
incubator operator to test or candle
the eggs first, for fertility, on or about
the seventh day of incubation, and
later for the strength of the embryos,
toward the close of the hatch.
Some operators prefer to make only
one test, about the tenth day, with the
idea of detecting both infertile eggs
and dead germs at the one operation.
This plan is satisfactory when it is
known that the rate of fertility is
high, as is usually the case with leg-
horns and similar lightweight breeds.
Hatches can be brought off without
any testing. Witness the hen that
steals her nest. But it is not consid-
ered good practice for the following
reasons:
By removing the clear eggs as soon
as they can be detected, and in the
case of white-shelled eggs, it is no
trouble to examine the contents on the
third or fourth day of incubation;
such clear eggs can be used as food
on the home table or hard boiled and
fed to little chicks, in which usage the
eggs are chopped up, including the
shells, and mixed with stale bread-
crumbs. This mixture makes one of
the best first feeds for baby chicks.
The mixture should be sprinkled with
fine grit, to aid digestion, and fed on
a clean board,
Clear eggs which have been remov-
ed from the incubator within a week
are edible; their quality has not been
impaired, except that they have en-
dured a certain amount of evapora-
tion. And because of this evapora-
tion they should not be sold as fresh
eggs.
Understand, however, this refers to
the clear eggs—the strictly clear eggs,
not to the dead germs. The latter are
worthless, except as fertilizer, and
should be treated as dead animal mat-
ter, for such they really are. A good
plan is to bury them in the manure
pit or compost heap.
Apart from the economy of salvag-
ing the clear eggs as food, which is
considerable where the eggs run 20 to
30 per cent. infertile, as they fre-
quently do among the heavy breeds,
by removing the non-hatchable eggs
as soon as possible, additional room
is created on the incubator trays,
which means greater ease and efficien-
cy in turning and handling the good
eggs.
This is a worthy feature, indeed,
especially if the trays are started full,
as all who have run an incubator will
attest. A crowded tray is difficult to
turn, yet it is advisable to start the
tray full in view of the non-hatchable
eggs which must ba eliminated.
It is more complicated to describe
the work of testing hatching eggs
than it is to perform the work. In
fact, the most inexperienced person
will have no difficulty in distinguish-
ing the fertile from the infertile eggs
so apparent are the distinctions.
The clear egg apears absolutely
translucent, except for a floating shad-
ow, which is easily identified as the
yolk. The live germ about four days
old resembles a spider. The body of
the embryo represents the body of the
spider, and the radiating blood ves-
sels its legs.
The embryo is located about one-
third the distance from the large end
of the egg, floating quite freely. If
the embryo is not detected at first
glance give the egg a quick twist and
the “spider” will come into view.
If, instead of the floating spider-
like germ, there is a bright red line in
the shape of a semicircle, or a red
streak fixed to the shell, it indicates
a dead «germ. Sometimes a dead
germ takes the form of a dark spot
adhering to the shell membrane. Such
eggs should be discarded.
If the embryo in some eggs appear
much smaller than others it is likely
the germs are weak and lack vitality
to develop normally. But do not dis-
card these eggs unless you are an ex-
perienced operator. The best plan is
to mark them with a pencil, and to re-
place them in the machine for further
observation at the second test.
To examine the contents of an egg,
a process known as candling, the egg
is held before a spot of light, in a
darkened room, and the shell of the
egg being translucent, the inside
“works” are made visible,