EE Se
“Bellefonte, Pa., September 21, 1923.
STUDY MAN-MADE LIGHTNING
Engineers Confident That Experiments
Going On Will Prove to Be
Successful.
Two-million-volt artificial lightning
is being created in the research
laboratories of the General Electric
company, Pittsfield, Mass.,, in order
that buildings and high power electrical
transmission lines may be protected
against the powerful “electrical dyna-
mite” that nature discharges during
storms, reports the Kansas City Star.
F. W. Peer, Jr.,, engineer in charge
of the spectacular experiments now in
progress, explains that in addition to
the trouble that engineers have in
keeping power current from escaping
from the conductors there is the very
important problem of lightning pro-
tection. A few million horsepower are
released in a fraction of a millionth of
a second when lightning crashes. Elec-
trical engineers must know how to
prevent this destructive force from
reaching the conductors of power
lines or they must arrange so that it
will discharge harmlessly tc the ground
when it does get to the line.
The highest voltage actually used at
the present time for the commercial
transmission of power is 220,000 volts
on a line in California, but the General
Electric company has an experimental
millien-volt line. Mr. Peek declared
that it is too early to say whether such
* high voltages will ever be acquired in
-
practice,
RETORT WAS RATHER GOOD
Evidently There Were Humorists In
the Missouri Legislature of the
Year 1887.
W. O. L. Jewett of the Shelbina
Democrat tells an incident in the legis-
lature of 1887, in which Mark Twain
figured:
“Henry Newman, representing Ran-
dolph county, was the wit of the
house, and was trying to secure the
passage of a bill to amend the stock
law. This, Robert Bodine, represent-
ing Monroe county, was opposing. Mr.
Newman said in his humorous style:
“‘lI was in the gentleman’s county
once. I made a speech at a big picnic
in Florida, and I thought I made a
good one. In it I referred to the fact !
that we were close to the place where
Mark Twain was born. After I was
through, one of the gentleman's comn- |
stitutents, a tall, raw-boned long-
haired, unkempt individual, came u
and shaking his finger in my face ca,
“What liars you-politicians are. TI have
lived here nigh onto fifty years and
there was nary a man named Twain
about here.”
“The gentleman from Monroe county
immediately was on his feet to reply:
“‘Mr. Speaker, I want it distinctly
understood that when the gentleman
from Randolph was in Monroe county
it was before the enactment of any
stock law.’ ”—Kansas City Star.
Not Prepared.
The old deacon was the kindest of
men, deeply religious and always ready
with 2 good word. One day while he
was driving to town he overtook an
Italian peddler with a large pack on
his back. Stopping his horse, the dea-
con suggested that the man ride. The
Italian carefully stored his pack in the
back of the spring wagon and then
climbed to the seat beside the good
deacon,
For some time the two talked pleas-
antly. Then there was a rather long
pause, and, thinking to improve the
occasion in a religious sense, the dea-
con turned and nee “My friend, are
you prepared to die
‘With a shriek the Italian sprang to
the ground and! disappeared into the
nearby woods. The calls of the deacon
only hastened the fellow’s flight, and
neither the deacon nor any one else
ever saw him again in that neighbor-
hood. It seems that the peddler was
not prepared. °
Sentiment and Sense.
It was evenifig by the sea and the
poetess walked with the professor
along the margin of the ocean. “Don't
you love to see the phosphorescence
on the waves?’ she said. “What can
it be, T wonder? Is it the mermaids
lighting up their lamps, or the glow
from the sea fairies’ ballroom? Or
can it be the reflection of golden
treasure stored in the vasty caverns
of the deep?”
“I think not, madam,” said the pro-
fessor. “It is only quite recently that
the discovery of ‘luminous bacilli has
rendered possible any general explana-
tion of the phenomenon, and even yet
its wide applicability remains to be
proved. It 18, however, generally at-
tributed to the decaying organic sub-
stances of diseased fish.”—Boston
Herald. -
She Had it Right.
Two Irishmen had visited St. Paul's
cathedral, One was from the country
and had ‘been taken to the famous
building by lis friend, who wished
him to be duly impressed by its gran-
deur.
As they came out, the resident of
the city said:
“Well, Mike, and phwhat* do you
think of ft? Ten't it grand?”
“Pat,” sald the one from the coun-
try, “it bates the divil!”
“That,” sald his friend,
intention.”
“was the
—Get your job work dome here.
$100,000 STATUE BRINGS $50
ttalian Farmer Who Found Marble
Torso of a Venus First Sold
It for $5.
The history of some pieces of marble
which were found buried in a field at
Sinnessa, near Naples, in ancient days
the site of a Greek colony, has formed
the subject of a long-drawn-out law
case in which the government has at
length secured an important verdict.
The fragments were apparently of no
particular value and the farmer sold
them for $5. They were on their way
to the new purchaser when the govern-
ment director of antiquities, Professor
Spinazzola, ordered him to return them
to Naples for examination. The profes-
sor, having looked at them, exercised
his powers of compulsory purchase and
bought the fragments for $50.
Under his direction they were cleaned
and put together, when they appeared
as the torso of a beautiful Venus, un-
doubtedly by the hand of Praxiteles
(the greatest of the Attic sculptors of
the Fourth century B. C.) and worth
about $100,000.
The farmer sued the government for
half the value of the find, and after
gaining a verdict in two courts lost his
case when the government took it to the
court of appeals. The statue is now
one of the most precious possessions of
the Naples National museum,
BIRD ENTOMBED BY MARTINS
Sparrow That Had Grabbed Martin's
Nest Is Made the Victim of
~ Dire Revenge.
An English ornithologist, G. Garrett,
makes a specialty of observing the
manners ghd methods followed by
birds. He recently recalled the story
of a sparrow which, finding a newly
bullt martin’s nest, took “possession”
in the absence of the owner. The
martin, seeing the usurper, called for
help, and soon a thousand martins
came, at “full speed,” to attack the
sparrow; but the latter was invul-
nerable. After a quarter of an hour's
conflict all the martins disappeared.
The sparrow thought he had got the
better, and the spectators judged that
the martins had abandoned their un-
dertaking.
Not In the least! They immediately
returned to the charge, and, each of
them having procured a little of the
tempered earth with which they make
their nests, they all at once fell upon
the sparrow and inclosed him in the
nest to perish there, although they
could not drive him out.
The Split Infinitive,
One thinks of that solemn warning
against the enormity of the split infini-
tive which has done so much to aggra-
vate the Pharisaism of the bad writers
who scrupulously avoid it. This su-
perstition seems to have had its origin
in a false analogy with Latin, in which
the infinitive is never split, for the good
reason that it is impossible to split.
In the greater freedom of English it
is possible and has been done for at
least the last five hundred years by the
greatest masters of English; only the
good writer never uses this form help-
lessly and involuntarily but with a defi-
nite object, and that is the only rule
to observe. An absolute prohibition
in this matter is the mark of those
who are too ignorant, or else too unin-
telligent, to recognize a usage which is
of the essence of English speech.—
Havelock Ellis, in the London Mercury.
Odd Way of Drawing Water.
f took notes while we were at Epa,
New Guinea, of a rather curious meth-
od of drawing water from the com-
munal spring, half a mile from the vil-
lage, writes Reginald Pound in the
Wide World Magazine. Twice a day
the women went down in chattering
groups to the spring, carrying bamboo
pipes 12 feet long. These pipes were
made by forcing out the pith at the
joints, and held about five gallons of
water aplece. When full, the drinking
end was plugged with leaves, the pipe
being stood in a shady spot near its
owner's house and used when needed.
Incidentally, drinking from these weird
receptacles was a rather hazardous
business, care being necessary lest a
too copious supply should gush out
when the pipe was held to the mouth.
Blueberries an Inch Thick.
A blueberry an inch in diameter is
aot a dream but a possibility. At the
government testing plantation at
Whitesbog, N, J., about 25,000 hybrids
have been fruited. Berries three
fourths of an inch in diameter have
been produced on many of them, and
one of them this year reached almost
seven-eighths of an inch. The Depart-
ment of Agriculture will ¢ e the
expéFiments until berri nch in
diameter are obtained, ‘
Needed Awakening.
A Yankee tourist was being shown
over an old church wherein hundreds
of people were buried.
“A great many people sleep between
these walls,” safd the guide, indicating
the inscription-covered floor with a
sweep of his land.
“S80?” said the American, “Same
way over. in our country. Why don't
you get a more interesting, preacher?”
She Would Hold the Ladder.
A very loving couple had just re
turned from their honeymoon. “Hilda,
dearest,” said George, “I ‘see thers is
sone asparagus ready for cooking.
Shall we go and pluck it together,
love?”
To which Hilda replied, cooingly:
“George, dearest, it will be heavenly!
Yot shall pluck'it, and T will hold the
ladder.”
INDIAN LEAGUE OF NATIONS
Organization fer Promotion of Uni
versal Peace Existed Among ine
dians Back in Stone Age.
New York gtate Indians In the
Stone age had a constitutional league
of nations for tke promotion of uni
versal peace which was based on and
dominated by woman's suffrage and
in which the initiative, referendum
and recall werq employed, so J. N. B.
Hewitt, ethnologist of the Smithsonian
institution, who has just returned
froma an investigation among the Iro-
quols of New York and Canada, de-
clared here, says the New York Eve-
ning Post. Chieftainesses among the
confederated Mohawk, Onondaga,
Oneida, Cayuga and Seneca tribes
had equal rights and titles with the
male chiefs, who were nominated by
women's votes, his most recent re-
searches into the governmental plan
of these five nations reveal.
The scope of the league formed
among these Indians in the Sixteenth
century, Mr. Hewitt said, was not
limited to the five Iroquois tribes, but
they proposed to bring under thelr
form of government all known tribes
of men. The league was based on
peace, righteousness, justice, power
and health. Laws were provided to
stop family feuds and regulatiaas for
thie promotion of mental hygiene were
laid down.
Hiawatha was one of the league
chiefs selected by the wonien and sub
jected to recall by them, he said. Mr.
Hewitt found that the automobile, the
phonograph and other modern prod-
ucts are rapidly causing the Indians
to forget many of their former laws
and customs.
LIFE ON THE OTHER WORLDS
Astronomers Less Optimistic Regard
ing Existence of Life Than
the Enthusiast,
mins
Discussing planetary life, so fas
as it bears on the planetary system of
the sun, we may state the average as-
tronomical opinion; it is far less op-
timistic for the diffusion of life than
is the opinion of the enthusiast.
(1.) Venus, so far as we can see,
more nearly fulfills the conditions
than any planet other than the earth.
Its mass and orbit are certainly favor-
able, its distance, rotation, and chem-
ical constitution, are probably not un-
favorable, though we cannot penetrate
its dense covering of clouds and seek
out the mysteries of its surface.
(2.) Low forms of life may exist on
the planet Mars, where the thin at-
mosphere does permit our telescope
explorations. High forms of life at
the present time are, however, gen-
erally deemed improbable, and beings
comparable with man and other ter-
restrial mammals are considered ut-
terly impossible.
(3.) The other planets of the solar
system are now quite unsuited to
protoptasmic life—Harlow Shapley,
director of Harvard College Observa-
tory, in Harper's.
Couldn't Wait Longer.
An old lady was on a visit to her
married daughter. One day there was
company, and little Theodore, the hope
of the house, was doing his best to
amuse his mother’s visitors. Present-
ly he left the room, to return soon
afterward with a zinc bucket. This
he planted right in front of his grand-
ma, while the others sat wondering
what was about to happen.
“Grandma,” said little Theodore,
“will oo kick it?”
“Bless the child,” said the surprised
old lady, “why do you wish me to
do that, darling?”
“Because,” replied the young hope-
ful, “I heard pa say we should be aw-
fully rich when oo kicked the bucket I”
His Boss-y.
All good farmers like their cows, but
Lewis Owen either carrieu matters to
extremes or else he must have had an
especially likeable cow. This is the
way they tell the story down in Craw-
ford county, Indiana, where Mr. Owen,
a Kentuckian, recently bought a farm.
One of his neighbors was James H.
Clay, also a Kentuckian, and from him
Owen bought a cow, but the cow
didn’t want to leave her family pas-
ture. She liked the Clay farm, she
was contented there. So they traded
farms and Owen moved over with the
cow. Everyone is said to be satisfied,
especially Bossy.
Yes, Why?
“Do you think I shall live until I'm
90, doctor?”
“How old are you now?”
“Forty.”
“Do you drink, gamble,’ smoke, or
have you any vices of, any kind?’
“No, I don’t drink, I never gamble,
I loathe smoking; in fact, I haven't
any vices.”
“Well, good heavens, why do yeu
want to live another 50 years?”
The Test.
Villager (standing at his gate hold
mg a dog on a leash, to passing neigh-
bor)—Won't you step in and chat a
moment, Monsiéur Paul?
Neighbor—You're sure your dog
won't bite me?
Villager—That’s just what I want to
find out. ' I only got him this morn-
ing.—Petit Parisien, Paris.
Impending Catastréphe.
It was in the midst of a nose dive.
and Reginald, who was making his
first flight, tugged frantically at the
pilot's sleeve, .
' “We better get away from if
he shrieked; “the earth's swelling up
like a balloon and it's liable to bust
any mipute,”
REWRITING THE HOLY WORD
Diitch Historian Explains Why He Hae
Undertaken the Task—Makes Ap-
peal to the Masses.
Fancy the nerve a man must have to
suggest that our grand old Bible
should be rewritten.
And yet Dr. Hedrick Willem van
Loon, famous Dutch United States his-
torian, has undertaken this task, very
seriously and reverently indeed.
He explains: “I firmly believe that
90 per cent of the world’s Christian
population never look at the Bible.
After all, it contains neurly two mil-
lion words, and much of it is written
In a language which only the educated
man can understand.
“My book, which I have called ‘The
Story of the Bible,” only contains 120,
000 words, and the whole of it is writ-
ten in the simplest language.
“In the States, and probably the
whole world over, there are a large
number of the working classes who
want to learn. But until they find
something that they can easily under-
stand they are at a loss where to
start.
“It is true that my way of retelling
the old story may rob it of some of
its charm, but I have tried to be rev-
erent throughout, while all the time
speaking in a language that is easily
understandable.
“This work has taken me nearly two
years and I have spent much labor and
thought on it. I feel confident that the
result will not only appeal to the
masses, but it may Induce them to
study the Bible for themselves.”—Ex-
change.
HABITS OF FALL WEBWORM
Explained by Official of United States
Bureau of Entomology—Question
of “Intelligence.”
The familiar ugly brown patches
which appear on trees in the city, or-
chard and forest in the fall are the
work of the fall webworm, whose hab-
its and life history have been thor-
oughly studied by R. E. Snodgrass of
the United States bureau of entomol-
ogy. These little worms, which are the
progeny of a small, night-flying white
moth, construct bags of glistening silk
among the foliage in the spring and
begin to eat the leaves inclosed in
their houses. As the leaves are con-
sumed, the houses must be expanded
to cover more food, until at length
brown patches of several feet in ex-
tent appear in the trees. The author
gives many interesting details of the
life cycle of this little creature from
the time the moth lays its eggs on a
leaf, through its various stages of de-
velopment as a worm, until it spins a
cocoon and goes into confinement only
to change to a pupa, then a chrysalis
and - finally emerges a full-fledged
moth.
In concluding, the author speculates
as to whether or not such insects have
any so-called intelligence. “Can the
caterpillars have appetites, a sense of
touch, fear of danger, and show resent-
ment at an interference with their
natural rights without some conscious-
ness at least of their own existence?’
What Insulin Is.
Much has been said in the news-
papers lately about “insulin,” the new
remedy for diabetis discovered by Dr.
F. G. Banting, of Toronto University,
but few people knoy exactly what it
is.
Insulin is an extract of fresh,
healthy beef pancreas, a solution of
the internal secretion of the pancreas
of the ox. The extract is made by
soaking the fresh organ in a mixture
of alcohol and diluted hydrochloric
acid. One reason for choosing this sol-
vent is that while it dissolves the in-
ternal secretion, the external secre-
tion (whose chief constituent is tryp-
sin and which is of no value in the
present connection) is left undissolved.
The solution so made is sterilized. In-
sulin has caused sugar varying in
quantities from 2 to 7 grammes to be
utilized in various patients per diem.
The effect, apparently, is evanescent
and lasts only eight or nine hours, so
that injections are necessary every
day.
Crossed Shoes Cure Cramps.
My mother suffered at night with
cramps in her feet and ankles. One
day a sewing-woman told her that if
she would cross her shoes when she
took them off she would have no more
trouble. Ry mother tried it, and we
all laughed and teased her whenever
we saw her little crossed shoes; al
though she assured us that the cramps
had departed. Some time afterward,
in the uppel berth of a sleeping car,
I was seized with a violent cramp in
my right foot. I was undressed and
could not get down to go to the dress-
ing room, because it was early and
people were walking about the - aisle.
Meantime the pain became unbearable,
Suddenly I thought of crossing my
shoes which lay near. I crossed them
and the cramp magically disappeared.
~—Chicdgo Journal.
And After That.
“Where have you been, old-timer?"
inquired Cuthbert, upon meeting up
with ‘his friend Hoffy.
“Been to Iceberg beach?”
“Down where the sea has a perma.
nent wave, eh?”
“Exactly.”
“I. suppose you were engaged to a
summer girl?”
a was.”
“There ig a theory that summer girls
are very fickle.”
“Oh; I don’t know,” responded Hof-
fy. ewMine stuck to me as long as I
had money for rolling chairs and ice
cream soda.”
$3.00
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