Bellefonte, Pa., August 31, 1923.
SIGN USED FOR CENTURIES
Probably the Three Golden Balls Is the
Oldest Symbol Known to Civil.
ized World.
In the days when only a few people
could read, emblems and pictures were
used Instead of letters for advertise
ment. One of the best known street
signs surviving from those days is the
pawnbroker’s sign: three golden balls.
One story of its origin is the legend of
St. Nicholas and three doweries he
gave the daughter of a pauperized no-
bleman in Asia Minor. Why St. Nich-
olas, or as we love to call him, Santa
Claus, should be connected with pawn-
broking, the story does not relate. An-
other theory is that the three gold
balls originated as u coat of arms of
three gold coins, meaning *“money to
lend,” and that balls were found an
easier sign to make than coins. This
coat of arms was used by the Lom-
bard merchants in London, the money-
lending class of the days of the Black
Prince, whose father, Edward III, once
pledged his crown with them to get
money for the French wars. Lombard
street, London, Eng. is named after
these gentlemen who used to live
there. The Lombards were the virile
porth Italians, of Teutonic stock like
the English. Pawnbroking is one of
the oldest businesses in the world.
HEAR FOOTSTEPS OF SPIDER
Microphone Able to Detect Sounds
Which Would Seem to Be Abso-
lutely Inaudible.
Two scientists have been listening te
the tramp of a spider.
By means of the ordinary carbon mi-
crophone very faint sounds can be de-
tected, and long ago, David Edward
Hughes, one of the pioneers of wireless
and the inventor of the microphone we
now use on our telephones, was able
to hear on his microphone the tramp
of a fly.
There are some wonderful crystals
which, when subjected to intermittent
pressure, give rise to electric currents
and give forth sounds, and they, too,
can be used to magnify inaudible
noises. Crystals of quartz, tourmalin,
feldspar, sugar, camphor, and so on,
have these remarkable properties; but
the crystals most responsive to pres-
sure are the crystals of rochelle salt
which are found in seidlitz powders.
By means of these rochelle salt crys-
tals two electricians, Mrs. Russell and
Mr. Cotton, have lately been able to
hear a small spider walking about.
They do not describe the sound of the
spider's footfall; but we should
imagine that it would be more of a
shuffle than a fox-trot. Certainly not
a two-step !—Montreal Family Herald.
Words Wrongly Used.
The following are, some words that
are often wrengly used: “decided,” for
instance means “strong”; “decisive”
means “final”; a decided opinion is
quite different from a decisive opinion.
“Pach other” should never be used for
“one another”; “guess” is loosely used
for “suppose,” “expect” or “intend,”
but such use is avoided by the best
writers; “party” should never be used
for “person”; “further” means addi-
tional,” “farther” refers to distance;
“propose,” meaning “to offer,” should
not be confused with “purpose,” mean-
ing “to intend”; “discover” is to find
something which previously existed;
“invent” is to produce something for
the first time; “locate” is a vulgarism,
when used for “settle”; “perception”
means the inlet of all the materials of
knowledge; “apperception” means the
knowledge that one possesses these
materials; a man with perception
knows, a man ‘with apperception
knows that he knows.
Another “Porterhouse” Story.
One of the most popular and widely-
known eating houses in southern Ire-
land at the time the corn laws and
tithes in Ireland ran out along about
1888, was the “Two Pot House” in
Cork. That meant that one could get
potatoes and bread and butter and
two pots of porter, together with get-
ting one's steak cooked, for one shill-
ing: {or 25 cents).
The custom was for the wayfarer to
Cork to buy a steak at some place en
route and bring it with him to the
“Two Pot House.” Thus after a time
it became the designation for the meal
of porter and steak, and subsequently
a porterhouse steak—meaning a
steak of one’s own at the porter house.
Thus, goes one of the numerous
stories of its origin, came the term
“porterhouse steak."
Famous Writers Dull Companions.
Many of the most brilliant and witty
authors have been known tc be very
dull and uninteresting when engaged
in conversation with other persons.
Descartes, tha famous mathemati
cian and philosopher; La Fontaine,
celebrated for bls witty fables, amd
Buffon, the naturalist; were all singu-
larly deficient in ‘thé power of conver
sation. Ma ~the novelist, was
so dull in that a friend said
to him after an ew, “I must go
tales in recomn-
pense to myself for the weariness of
hearing you.” :
Australis a Behind.
Although they cover approximately
the same area, the United States has
about 250,000 miles of railroad amd
Australia about 26.000.
‘ themselves.
WILL ALWAYS HAVE GENIUS
British Scientists Disagree With Emi-
nent American Professor on
Statement Put Forth.
British scientists don’t agree with
Professor Terman, the American psy-
chologist, when the says the number of
geniuses in the future is destined to
be comparatively few. It is said in
London that the professor's remarks
were due to a fear that the standard
of American character and intelligence
is deteriorating in consequence of its
growing alien population. Scientists
in England think that so long as in-
tellectual families continue to inter-
marry discriminately there will be no
danger of a slump in geniuses. QGe-
niuses, they say, is simply a matter of
heredity and quote the following fam-
ilies as instances: Darwin, Erasmus,
Charles and Francis, were all first-rate
men of science. Bach: More than 200
members of this family distinguished
In the family of Samuel
Butler there were several geniuses.
They also quote the brothers Haldane,
one of whom became lord chancellor
and the other an eminent physiologist,
also the Cecils, Balfours, Coleridges
and numerous other families which
have produced the genius in every gen-
eration, confirming the theory that ge-
nius is a consequence of heredity.—
Montreal Family Herald.
OBSERVING HABITS OF FISH
Experiments Have Resulted in Knowl
edge That Is Both Valuable
and Interesting.
Some thirty-five or more years ago
extensive experiments in tagging fish
were made. Small fish were released
alive with the date inscribed on the
tag. Enough of these tags were even-
tually recovered to give the commis-
sion data on which to judge the wan-
derings of these fish. In the case of
ground fish, that is, fish that feed on
the bottom, it was ascertained that
they generally remained close to
where they were liberated.
Fishermen in their way have always
made certain tests of their own, a
favorite experiment being on a chick-
en halibut in the days when those fish
were of no value. The flat side of the
halibut offered an excellent marking
base, and the fisherman with his sharp
bait knife and a few deft strokes,
scored his initials and the date of the
incision and released the fish. Quite
a number of these were eventually
caught, some after reaching maturity,
the inscriptions plainly showing in the
bealed-over scars.
Remains Many Centuries Old.
An interesting discovery has been
made in the Forfar (Scotland) distriet.
While workmen were engaged digging
on a hillockin the Law park on the
Idvies estate near Forfar in order to
make a waterway for a tank being
erected in connection with the Idvies
tennis court, they came upon a stone
cist about six feet below the earth sur-
face. The cist was composed of flag-
stones with a large specimen on top,
and when this was removed a consid-
erable number of human bones and a
clay urn were found. The urn was
blackened as if by fire, and many of
the bones also had a charred appear-
ance. Unfortunately when one of the
workmen attempted to lift and remove
the urn, which is flat bottomed and of
the size of an ordinary flower pot,
marked round with corded or indented
bonds, it gave way in his hands and
was broken,
Odd Turn of Fate.
By a strange trick of fate the French
are now cutting down a forest in the
Rhineland which was planted more
than a century ago by their ancestors.
When during the Revolution the Rhine
provinces were occupied by French
armies they cut down the timber in the
privately owned forests of Hansruck,
Eifel agd Haardt which later became a
part of the Reich’s holdings. The
French on taking possession of the left
bank of the Rhine found it necessary
to replant these devistated areas and
imported large quantities of Norwegian
pines and similar trees from Savoie
and the Pyrenees. Before the World
war the Germans considered cutting
down these trees planted by the French
but the forestry experts advised walt-
ing until 1920 when they would be
fully matured. According to the best
estimates this delay cost the German
empire at least 500,000,000 francs,
Department's Good Work.
Over 90 per cent of cases involving
the loss of goods in transit, particular-
ly perishable, for which weather con-
ditions may be responsible, are set-
tled without ever coming into court,
after consultation with the weather
bureau of the United States Depart-
ment of Agriculture, The report of
the weather bureau as to its records
of temperature and other conditions
along the route in question is usually
accepted as final in such disputes.
Sometimes the shipper and sometimes
the railroad or steamship line is the
one to ask for the evidence of the
weather bureau, but both sides accept
the impartial records in the govern-
ment files.
Where “Doughboy” Came From.
The word “doughboy,” a slang mili-
tary term applied to a soldier in the
United States army, dates from the
Qivil war, when the large globular
brass buttons were used on infantry
uniforms. These buttons were called
“doughboys” because they were a re
minder of boiled dumplings of raised
dough that are so frequently served
in ships’ messes, and are known to all
sailors as “doughboys.”
Percentage of Illiteracy, Shown by Na
tional Census, Constitutes a Na-
tional Disgrace.
The last all-Russian national census
carried out by the central statistical
bureau of the soviet government in
August, 1920, showed the per capita
percentage of literacy for the entire
population at 32 per cent, says L. J.
Lewery in Current History.
In other words 680 people in Russia
out of 1,000 can neither read nor write.
Excluding children under eight, the
percentage of illiteracy still amounts
to 60 per cent. As is the case in all
backward countries, the female popu-
lation lags far behind the male. By
locality, it is found that illiteracy
increases centrifugally from Moscow
toward the outlying parts of Russia,
but more steeply in the eastern direc-
tion toward Siberia, the Caucasus and
the Transcaspian republics. Thus, in
the Samarkand province of Turkes
tan the totally illiterate population
constitutes 94.5 per cent of the total.
In Russia proper there were regis
tered 27,500,000 totally illiterate per-
sons above the age of eight; in the Uk-
raine, 12,000,000; in the autonomous
Federated Republic 6,000,000, and so
forth—a grand total of 54,000,000 souls
above school age.
By profession or occupation, the
highest standard of literacy was found
in the soviet army and in the navy.
Taking the entire able-bodied working
population of soviet Russia between
the ages of sixteen and fifty, there
were found 73 per cent of males and
36 per cent of females who can neither
read or write, or both.
RELICS OF TIMES LONG PAST
Discoveries Made in Texas Will Excite
the Interest of Archeologists
Everywhere.
While digging in an old gravel pit
near Onalaska, Tex., at a depth of 15
feet, a graven rock image or idol was
found by F. M. Burke. Nearby was
unearthed the skeleton of a mastodon
of greater size than any heretofore
brought to light in Texas.
According to scientists, the prehis-
toric animal roamed the earth between
400,000 and 500,000 years ago. The
sculptured image may have belonged
to a civilization that was contem-
poraneous with the existence of the
mastodon,
The discovery has aroused the deep-
est interest on the part of members of
the faculty of the State Agricultural
and Mechanical college, who are in-
vestigating the bones and other relics
found in the gravel pit.
Besides the skeleton, other scattered
bones of extraordinary size are being
found as the excavation progresses.
A lower leg bone was found to be
five and one-half feet long. A jaw: |’
bone with the teeth intact weighs
about 70 pounds.—Exchange.
Belonged to Prehistoric Times.
The stone cist, containing the re-
mains of a prehistoric human, found on
a farm at Catterline, Kincardineshire,
had lain there 3,500 years or more, it
is believed now. Dr. Alex Low, arch-
eologist of Aberdeen university, has de-
cided the rude urn belongs to an early
period of the Bronze age, and he. be-
lieves the skeleton is that of a person
who was buried in the period of 2000
to 1500 B. C. Relics of the Bronze age
had been uncovered before in this
locality, but this find is of much more
importance than the previous ones.
Doctor Low says the skeleton appears
to be that of a person whose height
was about 5 feet 7 inches. The skull
is of the branchycephalic type—short
and of excessive breadth. The head was
round and with a full forehead; the
face was broad and short. The body
had been placed in the cist in a crouch-
ing position, lying on the left side, the
head facing to the east. The left hand
was under the head and the right un
der the chin; the knees were bent.
Shoes From Skins of Snakes.
The latest footwear for the society
woman in London is shoes made from
the skins of reptiles. Snakeskin, ow-
ing to its beautiful marking, is most
sought after. Not many women, how-
ever, have obtained these shoes, for be-
sides being very expensive, the supply /
is extremely limited. Exclusive shoe-
makers use the golden anaconda, a 30- .
foot monster found in Mexico, the boa-
constrictor from Africa, the python
from Southern Nigeria, and the yellow-
jack from India, though the amount of
skin from each snake that can be used
is so small that few pairs of shoes can
be turned out in a month. The skin
of the little Burma lizard arrives in
England in larger quantities and the
best stores have footwear made from it.
Norway Holds Lost Harpoon.
In the carcass of a whale caught in
the Davis strait, Greenland, and re-
cently brought into a Norwegian port,
the head of an old harpoon has been
found, deeply imbedded in the blub-
ber.
Experts declare that the whale
must have carried the harpoon in its
body for some fifty years, since it is
of a pattern used by American whal-
ers when they fished the Greenland
coasts half a century ago.
Affluence.
Our idea of affluence used to be two
pairs of suspenders. Later we changed
that to the belief that luxury consisted
of being able to buy golf balls by the
box. Now we are of the opinion that
absolute independence must be to be
able to buy a complete set of new
tires for the car whenever the old
ones begin to show signs of wearing
out.—Exchange,
RUSSIA FAR BEHIND WORLD
New York's Fifth Avenue Said to Be
the Smartest Street That Any
City Can Show.
It is not an exaggeration to say that
én a bright spring day in no city in
the world is there a highway so al-
together attractive as Fifth avenue
from Thirty-fourth street to Fifty-
ninth street. The most plebian vehicle
is the bus, and that charges double
the fare of other cars, which suggests
a corresponding sense of superiority,
Raymond G. Carroll writes from New
York to the Philadelphia Ledger.
It is the ome thoroughfare in New
York which by common consent has
been reserved for the use of polite so-
ciety. Commercial vehicles such as
trucks are not permitted to invade its
classic precincts.
Motorcars of the most costly type
rolling up to the doors of the stores
deliver stunning-looking women on
shopping excursions; members of the
Emart set who turn up their august
noses at the shop girls who attend to
their wants. Yet a generation back
their own grandfathers were bowing
end scraping in shops further down-
town before other ladies who arrived
in open victorias drawn by pairs of
spirited horses, with drivers and foot-
men.
And those wha are the shopkeepers
of today as like as not will be the
New York fashionables of tomorrow—
for the old town does keep on coming
uptown.
FRENCH URGED TO GROW FLAX
Increased Acreage Government Har
Asked for Will Mean Much to
the National Wealth.
French farmers are being urged to
Increase the acreage of flax on the
grounds that it will give additional
employment, and that 125,000 more
tons of flax could be produced annual-
ly, thus retaining at home millions of
francs paid to foreign countries to
keep French linen mills in opera-
tion. In addition, the utilization of
the seed for oil and oilcake and the
straw for paper would prove an im-
portant source of revenue,
In 1908 the French flax acreage
was 45,000 acres, in 1913, 72,000 acres,
and at the outbreak of the war it had
grown to about 115,000 acres. Vice
Consul D. B. Levis reports that at the
present time the amount of land de-
voted to flax growing shows a shrink-
age of 50 per cent from the highest
prewar acreage, while the French
linen mills can consume the output of
200,000 acres, their annual require-
ments being 400,000 metric tons of
raw flax. Notwithstanding the differ-
ence in price, French flax spinners
are said to prefer the home-grown
product to that of Russia.
Peculiar but Not Bad.
Shortly after our marriage an out-
of-town friend of my husband's was
our guest over night.
In the morning he came downstairs
smoking his pipe and remarked, “I al-
ways take a few puffs before break-
fast. Ran out of tobacco last night, so
this morning I helped myself to some
of yours, Harry, which I found in a
Jar on that table in the upper hall.”
My husband looked puzzled and I
nearly fainted as a heavy, pungent
odor gradually filled the living room.
“It’s a bit strong and has a peculiar
flavor, but not bad.” our guest con-
tinued. “What's the name of the mix-
ture?
Harry, who smokes only cigarettes,
looked at me helplessly, while I found
courage to explain. He had filled his
pipe with rose leaves which I had re-
cently dried, spiced, and perfumed
and placed in the jar which he had
| discovered in the upper hall.—Chicage
Tribune. :
In No Position to Question.
“For five out of six months my gas
bills showed exactly the same number
"of cubic feet consumption each
month,” said Charles A. Rockwell, 3134
Ruckle street, recently, “and I in-
quired of the gas company whether
this indicated anything wrong with
the meter, or whether it was a re-
markable coincidence.
“Verily a soft answer turneth away
suspicion for when I received a reply
it said:
“ ‘While this is a coincidence, it only
indicates a well-ordered and regular-
ly conducted household routine.’
| “When my wife saw that, I was in
no position to question the meter read-
ing.”—Indianapolis News.
Brought Cab Drivers to Time.
The habit of cab drivers demanding
from their fares more than the regular
rates is not limited to the present day,
according to an article in the Mentor.
Two hundred years ago in Bath, Eng-
land, the Newport of those days, cab
runners insisted on exorbitant tariffs.
Beau Nash, who was the city master
of ceremony at that time, advised all
visitors to walk home instead of paying
the prices demanded. The result was
that after some rowdy dirt throwing at
fine gentlemen, tariffs were brought
down to a reasonable rate.
Muscular Energy in Sugar.
Sugar is the leading “quick fuel®
to keep muscular energy going, ac-
cording to George Mallory, one of the
party which climbed Mount Everest
to an altitude of 27,000 feet and who
came to this country on a lecture tour
to raise funds for a mew attempt to
scale the peak next year. He related
how lemon drops,’ peppermint candies
and chocolate were the principal arti
eles of diet of the party that climbed
within 200 feet of thé summit of the
world’s highest mountain.
CAN CHALLENGE THE WORLD
25c¢ts.....25¢ts
All Misses and Growing Girls
Three-Quarter Length
Socks
Reduced to 25 (Cents
These Socks are all
Good Quality and this is
a Wonderful Reduction
All Sizes
---from 77; to 10
Yeager's Shoe Store
THE SHOE STORE FOR THE POOR MAN
Bush Arcade Building
58-27
BELLEFONTE, PA.
Come to the “Watchman” office
Lyon & Co.
for High Class Job work.
Lyon & Co.
Fall and Winter Coats
A large assortment of New Coats
are here for the early buyer.
All
the New Colors—Fur and Cloth trimmed; the New
Side Fastenings.
An excellent opportunity for the
early buyer, at special low prices.
Silk and Wool Dresses
One lot of Dresses, all sizes.
Colors
Navy, Brown and Black ; values up to $28.00—closing
out at $10.00.
Sweaters
See our tables of Sweaters, all sizes
and colors.
Prices less than cost.
Shoes ...Shoes
School Shoes that will give good
wear for boys and girls. Mens Shoes
for work and dress.
Womens High and Low Shoes,
Black and Cordovan—prices the lowest.
Lyon & Co.
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