Democratic watchman. (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1855-1940, January 23, 1925, Image 2
A AR RP ES RE NRE Eee _— Bellefonte, Pa., January 23, 1925. WRITERS DIFFER ON REAL “ROUGHNECK” One Explanation Does Not Seem to Satisfy. The Klondike poet, Robert W. Serv- ice, who has a prodigious reputation among American university graduates, hundreds of whom cam quote pages and pages of his verse, has finally launched a work of prose fiction called “The Roughneck.” I have often meditated on the origin of that word, and the paper jacket, which incidentally is full of other in- teresting information, gives Mr. Serv- vice’'s explanation: “1 think the or- igin of ‘The Roughneck’ dates back to the time when to shave the back of one’s neck was a sign of sartorial grace. In my early Alaskan days ev- ery barber would ask you if you want- ed a ‘neck shave,” and not to have one put you in the category of those who were Indifferent to their appearance, or too unsophisticated to conform to the fashion of the day. You were a man with hair 6n his neck; in brief, a roughneck. The fashion soon passed but the expression remains.” Now when I was a boy, my virgin aunt, who, like all virgin aunts, knew far more about the world and was far more in sympathy with it than one’s mother, said to me emphatically: “Don’t you ever allow any barber to shave the back of your neck.” She knew. Whatever may later have been the reversed dynamics in Alaska, she knew that a man whose neck was shaved was outside of the pule of pe lite soclety. I was particularly interested in Mr. Service's explanation, for during the iast 20 years in these United States, my observation proves just the oppo- site. I have never seen a genuine tough who did not have the back of his neck shaved. And 1 divide all barbers into two classes—those who, without asking you, attempt to shavé the back of your neck, and those who would no more perpetrate such a monstrosity than they would shave off your ears. It is, as Barrie's policeman would say, a test absolutely “infallible.” No New York or Boston barber has ever done any necking on me; but in every small town west of Buffalo, unless 1 am alert, I get a large dose of lathex _ under the cerebellum. But how In the world did Aunt Lib- bie know this test 45 years ago? That was some time before Mr. Service was born,—William Lyon Phelps in Scrib- fner’'s Magazine. Who Am I? I have scattered bread crusts, egg ghells and paper plates from the Rio Grande to the Great Lakes. I have hacked trees and broken down farmers’ fences from coast to coast. I have hooked peaches from a Georgia orchard and pecans in south- ern California, apples from the beau- tiful Genesee valley in New York and _Aantaloupes from a Colorado truck patch. 1 have thrown tin cans into the Grand canyon and empty bottles into Niagara's roaring tumult. I have seen all, heard all and In my weak way have managed to destroy niuch, I am the American tourist.—Blaline O. Bigler in Judge. Athletics for Babies A gymnasium for bables has been opened In Berlin by a former physical f{mstructor in a Potsdam military school. “Every six-months-old baby should do five to ten minutes’ dally egercise with its mother or nurse,” sald the instructor. “If my advice were followed, the appaling number of eripples In this country would be great- fy diminished. Regular graduated ex- ercises ensure harmonious develop- ‘ment, correct posture, and firm bones.” The gymnasium, with {ts furnighings of miniature swings, ladders and bars, {8 for the professor's older pupils— that is, those from eighteen months to five years old. The Reason Why There is an excellent reason why electric service companies bulld their steam-driven generating stations on the shore of a river, lake, bay or har- or. For every pound of coal burned {in the furnaces of such stations, near- iy a half ton of water is needed to condense the steam produced after it tas passed through the turbine which turns the electric dynamo. At one such steam-operated electric generat- {ng station in the South alli of the water of a sizable river Is diverted trom the river bed and passes over the condensing pipes of the plant's bollers. New Safety Lamp The United States bureau of mines has approved a new type of electrls safety lamp for miners, which pro- duces three times as much light as pre- vious types, while the battery and lamp together weigh but a third as much as the older designs. A speclal famp is used and if It is broken electricity from the two-cell alkaline battery is automatically cut offy Coaling Big Liner An idea of the enormous amount 01 coal carried by the glant ocean liner may be gained from the fact that 300 men working from four to four ana one-half days are required to coal the Olympic. Comfort and Elegance in Revolutionary Days Those who are under the impression that our Revolutionary ancestors spent their daily lives without the comfort which helps to make life more worth while are in error. The articles of household ware, for instance, used by them were abundant, various and serv- iceable, The bed and all that appertained to | it were the pride of the mistress of the house. It was almost invariably of sweet, soft and downy feathers; its sheets were of fine “homespun,” the blankets and rugs of “spotted woolen” and flannel; and the towering posts at either corner of the bed were gar- nished with snowy curtains of dimity. For table use they had napkins of linen and tablecloths of diaper; “di- aper-wove huckaback,” Kkersey and “damask plain and flowered.” The household goods and furniture of those simple times were in strong contrast with those now in use. China was as rare as gold and as highly prized, most commonly three china cups and saucers comprising the en- tire outfit of a respectable family, though the numbers rose sometimes to six, but seldom to a dozen. Pewter and copper were the orna- mental, and iron, then as now, the serviceable metal. Of the two former were made basins, ewers. mugs, por- ringers, ladles and tea and coffee ket- tles. There was little glassware in use, and the few “jelly glasses, half pint and gill glasses,” salt cellars, punch goblets and tumblers of glass were con- sidered unusual elegancies. Clocks and “looking glasses” embel- ished the houses of the wealthy, and the size of the “looking glasses” cor- responded with the degree of its own- er's social standing. Stoves were not in general use, ana coal was unknown except for black- smithing purposes; wood, charcoal and turf were the only fuel. Wood was Just beginning to be burned in “frank- lins,” but generally was used in fire- places, which were provided with dogs and andirons, and in kitchens were huge saverns garnished with a forest of chains, pothooks and trammels, swinging on fron cranes or “smoke Jacks” over fires that were fed by great logs. Civilizations Compared “Nations and individuals are judgea by two factors—their virtues and their vices,” writes Achmed Abdullah, dis- tinguished novelist and playwright from the Orient, comparing the Last and West, in Hearst's International. He says: “I asked myself: Did the Europeans dve up more to the altruistic teach- ings of Jesus than we to those of Mohammed, Confucius, Buddha and Moses? Were the teachings of Jesus more apt to lead His followers in the golden path than those of the other great Prophets? Did the Europeans have finer loyalty than the Arabs, finer filial piety than the Chinese, finer fam- ily cohesion than the Jews, finer sex morality than the Jews, finer char- ity than the Parsees? “My answer was—=still is—'No!' ana { challenge anybody above the level of asinine bigotry te show me where 4 am wrong. “Looking at the other side of the medal : were the unwashed of Calcutta dirtier than those of Liverpool? ere the perverts of Bokhara more degen- erate than those of Naples? Were the murderers of Canton more blood-thirs- ty than those of Paris? Were the saber-rattlers of Constantinople more arrogant than those of Berlin? “Again my answer was—still is— “No Pp ” Boys Chief Stutterers ior every girl who stutters there are five or six stuttering boys. Dr. James Sonnett Greene of New fork, medical director of the National hospital for speech disorders, explains this curious fact In writing for Hy- “gela, health magazine, published by the American Medical association. Girls, as a rule, talk more than ooys and, therefore, get more practice In speech production, Doctor Greene states, Although it is generally con- ceded that girls are more nervous than boys, yet the girl is more capable of maintaining her co-erdination under emotional strain because she is natu- rally more graceful-and her co-ordina- tion more complete. For that reason it requires an ex: ceptionally severe shock to cause her to lose her standard, hesitate and stutter. Sure to Succeed Original men are not content to be governed by tradition; they think for themselves, and the result is that they succeed where others fail. Now, a certain photographer never days to a woman customer, “Look pleasant, madam, if you please.” He knows a formula infinitely better than that, In the most natural manner in the world he remarks: “It is unnecessary to ask you to look pleasant; I am sure you could not look otherwise.” Then click goes the camera and the result is never in doubt.—Philadelphia Ledger. Blind Ex-Athlete Elected Perry T. W. Hale, a Yale football star twenty years ago, and an All- | American center at the time, but now i totally blind, has been elected tax collector of Portland, Cenn., getting the support of all parties and factions practically. He lost his sight in an explosion about fifteen years ago. He i will keep his records in the Braille | system af raised letters and figures, PROTESTS AT YOKE IMPOSED BY COLLAR Writer Demands Justice of Makers of Neckwear. Styles change faster in collars than anything else that men wear. cellar trust evidently figures that sales can be increased by rapid alteration I» names and shapes. Many men find this a nuisance, as they often cannot buy ready to order the collars which they like best, Girard remarks in the Philadelphia Inquirer I wonder if the collar trust is right in its figuring? Some things which are deemed most essential change once where a silly collar name or eighth of an inch ip width may change fifty times. Take cigars and cigarettes. A man will smoke one brand ten years and never desire a change. Only a simpleton would try to im- prove a beefsteak by calling it some thing else. Leading bakers may hold to a cer- ‘ain recipe for bread for a generation. Your favorite salad dressing may be forty years old, and I suspect the mak- ers of fine cheese would hang anybod» who meddled with their formulas. The highbrows in art crave only old styles in pictures, furniture, rugs, po» <elain, Collar-trust ethics would have it Chippendale today, Reginald tomorrow and John Smith the day after if it made furniture after the collar pattern. Snuff is a big industry and there are snuffmakers in Pennsylvania whose formula has been a family secret for a century. Not a change in all that time. Yet the snuff users evidently want it Just that way. Men who swear at all, doubtles. swear oftener at their collars than anything else in the world. There-is no such thing as getting ou familiar terms with collars. They change too often. Men who in olden times stepped up to the same bar and ordered an identical brand of liquor every day for 20 years can scarcely | hope to have affection for collars | which differ every morning. : The trust won't let us get used to a collar before it is outlawed off the ; merchant’s shelves. Candy and ice cream and chewing gum go on forever in the same old way—vanilla being as familiar as the tax collector—but people also like them in that same old way. Old styles and famous names are most valuable assets in almost every trade except collars. There it was Artie yesterday, Bertie today and Ger- tie tomorrow, with changes just enough to make the wearer rave. Once in a while a galley slave es caped, but there seems no way to throw off this dreadful yoke around every man's neck. : 3 Modern Literature We may as well confess that oui idterature by and large is increasing a pretty affair, concerned with the petty affairs of daily life, observes the New York Times. Our nevelists do not stretch broad canvases nor rush, like Victor Hugo, at mighty themes. No deep rhythms sweep through our stories, as in those of Thomas Hardy, tossing the mere details of craft like cockleshells, Our humorists get no farther than :nanners; Dickens dug up the whole foundation of London. Comparisons might be copied out to fill an agate col- umn, all showing that our standard- gauge literature has become narrow- gauge, and that we are drawing in rather than spreading out. To many readers this may sound catastrophie, but it need not be so unless the cur- rent era, too, is catastrophic. For rou- tine literature can be no greater than the age it serves and only a Shake- speare can tower above his time like the Colossus of Rhodes. Proper Care of Goldfish owners of goldfish may be interest «sd in the following advice that an eriployee of the New York aquarium gives: “When a goldfish begins to ‘cluck’—that is, te come te the sur- face and make strange sounds—it is suffering. The best thing to do is to dip some of the water from the bowl and let it drip back into the aqua- rium slowly. In that way the water gets a new supply of oxygen, which is what the fish need. Never change the water too rapidly. If you do, the fish may die of chills or a cold. The water should be kept at a temperature of about seventy degrees.—Youth's Companion. Preserving a Tree The oldest oak tree in New Jersey, if not in the United States, Is very expensive to preserve, according to the pastor of the Presbyterian church at Basking Ridge. In his financial re- port at the celebration of the two hun- dred and fourth anniversary of the founding of the church he said that the tree is 93 feet high and 23 feet in circumference and is 400 years old. It is decaying fast, and during the year three tons of concrete were need- ed to fill the cavities. Thirty-five cables were required to brace it. The labor, concrete and cables cost $3,393.08. Safety in Railway Travel Safety In railway travel depends very largely on microscopic research, which has made possible a number of vital changes in the making of i steel rads. The result is that, wheér- as accidents due to broken rails were once fairly frequent, now they are seldom if ever heard of, the quality of the steel of which the rails are made having ‘been gréatly. improved. Birds Constantly at Work for Humanity In a new country where the natural ' conditlons of plant and animal life The are changed, the balance of nature is likely to be upset. The value of bird life is perhaps greater in checking » plague In its incipient stage. In parts of the Middle West there were serlous outbreaks of the Rocky mountain jocust or grasshopper many ' years ago, says Nature Magazine of Washington, D. C. Prof. Aughey of the University of Nebraska carried on a serles of observations showing that the birds of these localities were help- ing a great deal to check the insect numbers. Thrushes, kinglets, chickadees, nut- hatches, warblers, vireos, swallows, crows, bluejays, blackbirds, kingfish- ers, cuckoos, woodpeckers, hawks, owls, pigeons, grouse, quail, gulls, and even humming birds and water birder . had all taken to eating locusts. Fifty-one locusts were taken from the stomach of a single yellow-headed blackbird. A tiny ruby-throated Lumn- ming bird bad four small locusts In its stomach. Six robins had eaten 265 locusts. Sixty-seven locusts were - found in the stomachs of three blue- capitalist, " whatever they do is right. . birds, and one little ruby-crowned kinglet had eaten 29. Many of these and other birds were feeding thei young on locusts. One bern owl had eaten 89 locusts Five screechowls had eaten 219 lo- custs. Six of the nine burrowing owls had eaten an average of more than fifty locusts each, the magazine article concludes. Hawks, as a class. were scarcely less active, for of the eleven species listed as having been examined by him, five were found te have eaten locusts, A grasshopper pest in southern Ore- gon was something like the plague of grasshoppers that came upon the early Mormon settlers in Utah dur- ing the summer of 1848. The crops of the Mormons were partly saved by the great flocks of gulls that came in and settled over the fields, gorging themselves on the insects. The Trying Fascists Mortimer Schiff, the noted New York was talking about the Fascists in Italy. “The Fascists think,” he said, “that This atti- tude on their part is certainly very trying. “The Fascists remind me of the lady who wished to open an account with a department store. They asked her for a reference; and she gave the name af Charles M. Schwab. “But Mr. Schwab, it turned out, didn’t know the lady, and so, when she called at the store again, the credit man sald to her: “I'm sorry to tell you, madam, that your reference is unsatisfactory.’ “ ‘Well, now, that’s a surprise to me,’ said the lady. ‘I always thought Charles M. Schwab's financial standing was above reproach.’ ” The Change “Times have changed,” sald ola Festus Pester. “In the good old days of yore, when a wagon broke down in the road we used to gather around it and put in several hours aplece In- quiring how the contretemps occurred, sympathizing with the owner of the ve- hicle and recalling and describing in the most minute detail sundry Inci- dents of similar character which had transpired in the past. But nowadays when a motorcar blows out a tire we go right on. Eh-yghl—times have changed, and for the worse. pathy than so many shapping turtles.” —Kansas City Star. Sir Peregrine’s Prejudice Joe Coyne, the Amgerican comedian who has been for yegrs a star of the London stage, had am adventure with a new-made knight last summer. This knight—call htm Sir Peregrine ~refused to rent his cottage at ! Maldenhead to Mr. Coyne because the latter was an actor. “Sir Peregrine,” the Louse agent ex: plained, “rented to af actor once be- fore, and there was a great deal of un- pleasantness.” “Well, you tell Sir Peregrine,” Mr. Uoyne retorted, “that if he believes in condemning a whole class for one In- dividual, he might remember that Sir Roger Casement, knight, was hanged.” Each Thought Other Dead “pDead” brothers met at Cardify, Wales, neither having seen the other for twenty years, and each thinking the other dead. One enlisted at the age of nineteen in 1001, and was re- ported to have been killed during the selge of Kut. The other enlisted In the Cameron Highlanders in 1914, and was 80 badly wounded in 1916, he lost both arms. They met In the Union Jack club and looked at each other without speaking, and while friends were wondering what was the matter one of the brothers fainted. When he recovered, explanations were made, and the reunion was complete, Composes in Worki.ouse Alfred Phillips, an Inmate at the Dulwich (Eng.) workhouse intirmary, has attained some iwaerit as a composer of sacred songs, although he Is past elghty-five years of age. He has been ! at the workhouse irfirmary about four years, during which time he has writ- ten much sacred music. Ingenious Dutch Freight and passengers both are Kauled and an abandoned street car line Is put to good use in Amsterdam by an lzgerlous combination “train” composed of a motor truck ana a sur- tace car ‘traller, Most . people these days ha%e no more sym- | “SCRAP OF PAPER” FATAL TO CRIMINAL ldentification by Typewrit- ing Not Uncommon. Every day science is performing feats that overshadow those of the famous detectives of fiction. Take, for example, the seemingly impossible task of identifying a man by his typewrit- ing—running down a machine-made ~lue. | That a criminal can be traced, cap- tured and convicted through a scrap of typed paper, which apparently is just like any other piece of typing in the world, almost challenges credence; yet to the expert on “questioned docu- ments” such accomplishments are merely in the day's work. Typewriting is almost as personal as penmanship sometimes, due to certain peculiarites or mannerisms that the typist has developed, says Loren C. Horton, typewriting expert of New York, in Popular Science Monthly. Such clues may be found in spacing, spelling or punctuation. Some time ago an oflice of the De partment of Justice was astonished to find a confidential letter from its files printed in a magazine. The letter that had been sold to the magazine was oh- tained, and was found to be a type- written copy of the original, the latter having been in longhand. This type- written copy had so many individual characteristics that the copyist might almost as well have signed his name to it. In breaking a word at the end of a line, for example, he invariably inserted a second dash at the begin- ning of the next line. Also he had a habit of following each semicolon with a dash. With such personal characteristics 48 a guide, finding the seller of the letter was a matter merely of elimi- nation among those who had access to the copied letter. A very slight difference in the length Jf the cross bars of the “t's” once helped expose.as a forgery an alleged will offered for probate in an estate involv- ing many hundred thousands of dol- lars. The company that made the typewriter on which this document was written only recently had length- ened the cross bars of its “t's,” while the “will” was typed on a machine with short cross bars. An attempt ap- parently had been made to remedy this i discrepancy by penciling over the type- writing, but there were so many sus- picious points connected with the doc- ument that it was not admitted to probate. In a somewhat similar case a man ~ho tried to alter a document with a machine of later date than that with which the original typing was done at- tempted to change the length of the cross bar on the “t” by grinding it down with an emery wheel. He suc- ceeded, ‘but only partly, for in doing the work he accidentally shaved the little curl at the bottom of the letter. The odd appearance of the resultant letter aroused suspicion, and magni- fied photographs of the type showed plainly the marks of the abrasive, Rust-Proof Wheat Found? A new variety of wheat which wili resist all attacks of rust, a species of marquis which is said to yield from four to six bushels to the acre more than the ordinary variety, has been de- veloped by Samuel Larcombe, a promi- nent grain grower of Birtle, Man. The new wheat, says a Winnipeg dispatch out in areas in western Canada infest- ed with rust and came through without damage, according to Larcombe. {.arcombe has been a Manitoba farm er for 30 years and in that time has won 3,000 prizes on wheat at Canadian - and Amerlcan expositions. the world's championship for wheat at the Peoria International fair in 1917 and in 1918, the sweepstakes for tha | Best individual farmer's exhibit as well as sweepstakes for wheat in the dry farming section of the International Soil Products exposition in Kansas City. Thrift in Italy Savings deposits in Italy, accord- mg to the last report available, show a total of 2%500,000,000 lire. Of this amount 11,800,000,000 lire : 9,400,000, | were In savings banks, 000 In postal savings and 750,000,- | 000 in the pawn institutions called the Monti d& Pieta. This total compares with a total of savings deposits of 500,000,000 lire in June, 1914. The increase in deposits at the popular postal savings office has been 342 per cent, which is vastly greater than the depreciation of the currency and Is taken to show how greatly the lower classes have improved thelr standard of living.—From Thrift Magazine. Such Is Life “Mother,” said the fair young thing, with a simper, “Mr. Giggub has pro posed.” “I'm not surprised at that.” “Would you accept him?” “Why not?” “But, mother, I've only known him two weeks.” “We must all take a chance, dearle i've been married to your father for thirty years and I don’t half know Lim.”—Louisville Courier-Journal. Embezzled to Help Firm Pleading guilty to a charge of em- oezzlement made by her employers, 4 elghteen-year-old girl in Scotiuna recently showed that she ran the shop, waited on customers and kepi the books, all for $3.50 a week, ana took the money to make herself more presentable to customers. to the New York World, has been tried He won Son's F ailure Led to Lincoln’s Great Effort James L. Ford, In “Forty-Odd Years: in the Literary Shop,” telis that when: he was five years old children began to hear from the lips of their elders. mention of a man named Lincoln. whose speech in Cooper Union hall, New York, provoked much discussion. Many years after Mr. Ford chance: to learn that this speech, whose con- sequences were so far reaching, was the result of his son's failure to pas a scholastic examination. Robert T. Lincoln had come fronr his Illinois farm with the intention of entering Harvard college and had falled In his examinations, says the Detroit News. His father was much distressed and, though money was by no means plentiful with him, he de- termined to go to the boy's assisi- ance, and accordingly made the jour ney to Cambridge. While there one of the committee then arranging for the great Cooper Union meeting, suggested the propriety of inviting Mr, Lincoln, whom he had once listened to in the West, to ag- dress the assembly and the invitation: was promptly sent. So little was Mi. Lincoln then known in the East thas William Cullen Bryant, the presiding officer, introduced him in the follow Ing words: “We shall next have the pleasure of hearing from Mr. Abraham Lincoln of Illinols, of whom some of you have undoubtedly heard.” There were in- deed some present who had heard of Lincoln and his championship of abo- lition and for several minutes a storm of howls and hisses prevented hin { from speaking. He finally did speak. and that speech placed the Presi- dential nomination in the hollow of his’ hand, | | Better Than Average | Mayor Lunn of Schenectady, N. Y. i said at a luncheon: | “The machine candidate, the ma-- ; chine politician—why do we always: support him? “A machine candidate got. elected: to ‘the senate. Six months" went by. i Then John Citizen met one morning | the boss who had put the machine cap | didate in. | “ ‘Senator Swank,” sneered John Citizen, ‘promised us great things if we'd elect him, but what's he done? | U ask you—what’s he done? “ ‘What's he done? yelled the boss. ‘Why, he’s got himself made specia! counsel for the railroad trust, the light trust and the food trust; he's bought himself a town house and a country seat, and he’s started in collecting old masters. That’s what he’s done, darn it—and all in six months, too! "—Los Angeles Times. Progress “When I was learning my trade 1 served for a time in the Gernun army,” a Detroit barber remarked as he tapped his closed scissors. “They let me practice on the other soldiers. All were young men. [I did my big- gest day's shaving once when I cleaned 150 faces of stubble beards. I hired a boy to do the latuering, and I seat- ed my customers in the chairs, Then the latherer prepared the faces, and I started. Every wan had to wash his own face, and none got any bay rum, or any pampering. You see I was paid only a few pfenuigs for the shave. With one good customer to- day I make many times whut I got from the whole 150.” Beautiful and Historic A project is afoot to make Blacksod: ' pay on the west coast of Ireland a big trans-Atlantic port; with a view to- | shortening the time between British i and Canadian and American ports. 1f ' this scheme materializes travelers ar- riving there will be repaid by some of the finest scenery in the British isles, since they will pass close to Achill island, with its wild mountains and magnificent sea precipices. A little farther north in Killala bay General Humbert landed in 1798 with 1,000 French troops, and proclaimed the French republic, marching afterward: i to Castlebar and taking possession of the town. “All's Right With World” Nearly every man believes the world is going to the devil, and that the | pext few years will show great changes. . . . And all are mistak- ! en; the world will carry on in future as usual, with a few changes and im- provements men learn from experi- ence. History records a few violent changes but in each case the people didn’t like the change, and went back to the old, tiresome, but safer condi- tions. . . . Base the next twenty years on the twenty years you have lived and know about, and you wilk be right—E. W. Howe's Monthly. Magic she subject unde discussion by the: grownups was Douglas Fairbanks in “The Thief of Bagdad.” They were commenting on the magic carpet, psi- ttcularly, and how well done were tix: mechanical effects of the picture. "iti little daughter had seen the pictus, also. “Well, I wish I had a carpet like that,” she said. “I'd just say "\Vhis’ and my ‘rithmetlc lessons wenld be all done.—Indiananolis News Educational Obstructions “Why are you wrangline over a ne” schoolhouse for Crimson Guleh? There are no youngsters ‘n the eemmunity.™ “That's as it should be,” answer 1 Cactus Joe. “We're workin’ for the future, and so ler: .its the beard ov edncation keeps tizhtin' the way i+ does we may as well admit the tevin ain't no place for children.”