Democratic watchman. (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1855-1940, February 26, 1926, Image 7

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Powarralic falda,
"Bellefonte, Pa., February 26, 1926.
FIND DIRECTORY SET
UP BY MARK TWAIN
Author Listed Self as “Anti:
quarian” in 1856.
Keokuk, Iowa.—A rare plece of
Americana—a copy of the Keokuk city
directory of 1856, part of which was
hand set by Mark Twain and in which
he listed himself as an “antiquarian”
—recently was found and subsequent-
Iy lost in a curious manner.
The Iowa State Insurance com-
pany acquired and incorporated in its
office building. an adjoining structure
in which Orion Clemens, brother of
the humorist, conducted a printing es-
tablishment in Keokuk in the late ’50s.
In making alterations a copy of the
directory was found beneath the floor
of the room in which the youthfu!
Samuel Clemens worked.
The find was made by a workman,
who, not knowing of the book’s senti-
mental and biblophilic value, exam-
ined it casually, and then tossed it
aside in a pile of rubbish. Later,
news of the discovery became known,
but by that time the book had dis-
appeared. The only other known copy
of the directory is in the Keokuk puh-
tic Hbrary.
Interesting Relics.
Although the building that housed
the old Clemens printing shop virtuaj-
Iy has been rebuilt, the room in which
Mark Twain worked has been left un-
touched. It has been set aside as a
museum and library for the display of
his souvenirs, one of the most inter-
esting being the old printing case.
Other objects include an oil painting
of the writer at twenty-one, a later
portrait, first editions and auto-
graphed copies of Twaln’s books.
The Mark Twain tradition thrives
lustily in this Mississippi river town,
where he made his first after-¢ nner
speech and received pay fer his first
newspaper writing. In addition to the
printing shop, the old Twain home-
stead still stands.
While still in his teens, Mark left
Hannibal, Mo., where he had been
working on Orion’s mewspaper, for a
tour of the East, rejoining the family
at Muscatine, Towa. There Orion had
started a newspaper after his Pranni-
bal enterprise had fafled. Samuel
presently left Muscatine for St. Louis,
where the printing trade offered bet-
ter prospects. Orion moved to Keo-
kuk, later to be visited by Samuel,
who was prevailed upon to remain for
a promised $5 a week.
Starts for Brazil.
Clemens was just approaching his
majority, and with the urge of youth,
he wanted to see the world. He
thought a fortune was to be made in
Brazil, so he prepared to depart.
Dashing down to St. Louis to bid
good-by to his mether, he rushed back
here with an idea that apparently had
much to do wi‘h his later career.
The idea was to write travel letters
of his journey for the Keokuk Daily
Post. George Mees, editor, offered
him $5 each for the articles. Samuel,
much pleased, made a fresh start and
got as far as «Cincinnati, which be-
came the termminus of the projected
South Americam trip.
Clemens contributed three letters to
the Post, couched in the exaggerated
dialect considered humorous in that
day, speaking in ome of them of a
plan to write a book of his journey.
Ten years or so later he did make a
journey around the world, and from
this came “The Innocents Abroad,”
and a secure fame.
Gold and Silver
The value of gold compared with
silver is said to have been -estimated
in the time of the Greek ‘historian
Herodotus, 450 B. C., about 10 to 1.
At the time of the Greek philosopher,
Plato, 880 B. C., it was 12 to 1; today
it is about 30 to 1.
Yew Came From Eurepe
The yew is a large European tree
with dark green foliage. The leaves
are long and narrow and given off
from all sides of the braneh. The
fruit is in the form of a red fleshy
<up nearly inclosing the bony seed.
“Czar” of Latin Origin
The Slavic word czar or tsar alti
mately represents the Latin Caesar,
but came, according to Miklosieh,
through the medium of a Germanie
language in which the word had the
general sense emperor,
Meat From Cottonseed
Beefsteaks made from cottonseed
are forecast by Dr. Davis Neeson, of
London. “It is only a question of
time,” says Neeson, “before chemists
discover how to produce a meat sub-
stitute from the seed.”
Politeness Extraordinary
A trained nurse in Touro infirmary
eays the politest and most grateful
man she ever met is a patient in her
ward, who was eloquent and profuse
In his thanks when she gave him a big
dose of castor oil.
Napoleon’s Wooden Horse
Probably the most expensive toy
ever bought was a broken-nosed
wooden horse that had belonged to
Napoleon Bonaparte, and which was
sold In Paris some years ago for
$2,400,
INSECTS STAR AS
MOVIE ARTISTS
Films of Plant Pests Rival
Screen Thrillers Made
by Humans.
Washington. — When Uncle Sam
wants to stage an agricultural movie
thriller he selects a nasty insect for a
villain and puts the pest through re-
hearsal. Some of the pests are natu-
ral movie actors; others are as tem-
peramental as any Hollywood star.
The primary reason for this, Depart-
ment of Agriculture officials explain,
is that certain insects shun light,
whereas others exult in the glare of
the studio Kleigs.
Consider the case of the common
clothes moth. The department desired
to make a picture showing the de-
structive habits of this pest, but the
Insects refused to work under the
bright studio lights. Moths placed on
an article of clothing flew =o rapsly
into a seam of goods that the close-
ups were a failure. The camera man
then hit upon the novel idea of chloro-
forming the insects to retard their
speed, and the picture was a success.
Cotton boll weevils, on the other
hand, perform best under the intense
lights. They are regarded as star ac-
tors, only close-ups seeming to satisfy
the vanity of the pest. Not content
with flying close to the lens, the boll
weevils fly into the machine so that it
is necessary every now and then to |!
stop cranking in order to clean out
the camera.
Bees Are Hard Subjects.
Honey bees are catalogued as bad
actors. In the midst of a picture one
day last summer the bees descended
en masse upon the unprotected
camera man, who fled and hid in a
cellar. The picture could be com-
pleted only by erecting a canvas shel-
ter over
shade.
places.
Bees will not fly into shads
the common house rat. The depart-
ment wanted some pictures of the
natural habits of the rodent, but the
rat also shuns light. Some trained
white rats were procured. Their coats
were dyed brown, and they were then
sprinkled with theatrical powder to
give them the precise hue of the house
rats. The pink noses were also dabbed
with dark powder. But the rats rel-
ished the taste of the powder and
licked it off as fast as it was applied.
Only by frequently stopping the
camera and powdering the rats’ noses
was it possible to finish the picture.
The “Ox-Warble — A $50,000,690
Tune” is the title of a picture recently
made by the department. Great diffi-
culty was experienced in photograpn-
ing the ox-warble, inasmuch as it had
first to be squeezed from its refuge
in a cow’s back to be “shot.” The ox-
warble is a small fly that lays eggs
in the hoofs of cows. The eggs hatch
a grub, which works through the cow’s
body and comes out upon the back, in-
juring the hide and seriously curtail
ing milk production.
The department’s movie laboratory,
located in Washington, D. C., has been
in existence for nver ten years. Re-
cently a new studio was built and
equipped with thoroughly modern
movie apparatus, such as slow motion
cameras, a large glass-enclosed studio,
rapid developer tanks and drying
racks, and apparatus for making art
titles and animated pictures. George
R. Goergens, the originator of slow
motion camera attachments, which
have been perfected since then to de-
pict muscular movements in sports, is
chief cinematographer of the labora-
i tory.
the camera so as to make
“Shooting” Plant Growth.
A device recently developed by one
of the department camera men is a
so-called ‘time lapse” motion picture
camera, which automatically photo-
graphs the development of growing
plants, from seed to final growth. The
machine may be set to make single ex-
posures from ten seconds to one min-
ute apart and, thus set, produces an
accurate pictorial record of the growth
of plants. The hatching of insects may
also be recorded pictorially through all
| stages of development.
More than 20 motion pictures fea- |
made by the Department of Agricul- ;
ture.
such as the pink boll worm, which de-
stroys cotton, the Mexican bean beetle,
the European corn borer, stable fly,
bedbug, poultry louse, cockroach,
grasshopper and others. The pictures
are distributed free to agricultural
colleges, county agents, and other ag-
They include pictures of pests
| marketing. Confronted, however,
ricultural agencies, some of the reele .
being exhibited ali over the world
Recently the department camera
men made a special trip to Grasshop-
per glacier in Montana to photograph ;
' large urban public as well as to rural
some of the frozen prehistoric grass-
hoppers. This glacier is famous. * It
is believed that these pests were swept
up the canyon, through the ages by :
strong winds, which dashed
against the precipitous walls,
grasshoppers then falling into the glo
cier and becoming frozen in the ice
Grasshoppers hundreds of years old, '
but not unlike the grasshoppers of the
the !
{ thriller. They are:
them
The department’s educational films,
turing insects in star roles have been officials say, have proved a valuable
medium through which to teach im-
proved agricultural production and
with
competition from commercial films,
the camera men must make their pic-
tures interesting as well as informative
—a combination that is accomplished
by weaving the educational material
into an orthodox movie plot.
Zhe department's success in doing
chis has been such that many of the
big city circuits of exhibitors show the
films on their programs and thus get
the department's message over to a
people. Over 200 pictures have been
made by the department.
4 few of the-titles of the films will
readily indicate the imagination of
those competing with the commercial
“Clean Herds—and
{ Hearts,” “Out of the Shadows,” “The
present day, have been found there, |
perfectly preserved. The melted ice |
' have been held by leading eritics to
at the end of the glacier deposits the
grasshoppers on both banks, tons of
the insects having been piled up in
this way. The department
take their pictures.
camera |
9 : . »
men made an ascent of 12,000 feet t- fr enchman, in Flood,
Live grasshoppers are difficult to |
photograph.
iy in making some movies of a female
laying eggs it was necessary for the
camera man to crawl along a road-
side trench on his stomach and “shoot”
close range, catching the insect un
aware,
Working Far Afield.
Federal quarantines on pests, such
as the European corn borer and the
Japanese beetle, are strict and the
department camera men are prohibited
from bringing them into the District
of Columbia so as to work on them
In the studio. This results in eonsider-
able expense, in that the movie force
must sometimes go far afield to take
pictures of the insects in their natural
environment.
The expense is, however, justified,
gay the department movie men, who
point out that it is much better to
take authentic pictures than to “fake”
insects in the laboratory. Faked in-
sects are used occasionally, but only
in animated cartoons. Aa amusing in-
cident in this connection was the con-
struction of a mechanical reproduction
of a Mexican bean beetle, so life-
like that it fooled even the department
entomologists, who thought it real.
The occasion for this deception was
the bullding of an outline map on
which it was desired to show graph-
ically the spread of the pest since its
introduction into the United States.
The habits of the beetle were studied
carefully by the movie men, and an
imitation was made that bore a life-
like resemblance to the original. It
was made to crawl around the map
at will, and the entomologists wanted
to know how the photographers had
contrived so perfectly to train the in-
sect.
Bedbugs, like the clothes moth, re-
fuse to act under the glare of the
studlo lights, or even in ordinary day-
light. In order to make them perform
it was necessary to build a miniature
bed In which a ferret wearing a night-
gown was placed. The ferret had to
be chloroformed to insure its remain-
ing stationary, and the bugs, scenting
easy prey, readlly came out for a
feast, despite the bright lights,
Making Up the Rat.
Outside the insect family, but among
rhe pests that destroy millions of dol-
rg’ worth of property annually, is
The lady grasshoppers, |
in particular, are camera shy. Recent- |
Golden Fleece,” “The Charge of the
Tick Brigade.” “She's Wild,” “Cloud-
Busting,” “There's Magic in It,”
“Weighed in the Balance.” The films
be the best type of educational pic-
tures ever produced.—New York Times.
Saves Mattress First
2aris.—The recent floods have pro-
duced abundant illustration of the fact
that the first household article which
the Frenchman rescues when his home
is threatened with inundation is the
mattress. Strangely enough, the bi
cycle comes second.
Hardly an exception to this order
was noted by a correspondent who
watched boatmen moving the inhabi-
tants from one of the Paris suburbs.
The women were dry eyed and stern
visaged as they were taken from thelr
flooded homes, but obviously were
laboring under great emotional stress.
“This is getting monotonous,” said
one woman who was forced to move
to escape the floods in 1910, 1920 and
1924. “This sort of thing might be
bearable once in fifty wears, but four
times in fifteen years is a little too
much.”
Lived Happily Until
He Inherited Money
Boston.—In the Suffolk Probate
court Judge Dolan started to hear a
separate support petition brought by
Edith M. Piper against her husband,
Fred W. Piper, whom she married in
1904, and with whom she claims she
lived happily until 1920, when Piper
inherited $180,494 on the death of his
father.
After their marriage the couple
ifved in the height of fashion. When
he received his inheritance she clalms
her husband said to her: “Well, dear,
we have now what we waited for all
our lives. We'll go to California and
take trips.”
Instead, she claims, his love seemed
to wane, and in 1922 he stopped" all
her charge accounts and she found
herself, after a time, in actual need.
Winking Bandit
Philadelphia. — A bobbed-haired
winking bandit who threatens to shoot
a victim full of lead is loose. Wink-
ing and waving a pistol as she issued
commands, she has robbed a woman
grocer.
Great for Barbers
London.—Aamong the millions receiv:
ing unemployment doles are no bar-
bers, since English women are spend-
ing $100,000,000 or more annually on
shingling and bobbing.
S_-"
Of Freach Derivation
The name “moire” is applied in the
case of silk finished with a watered
or clouded effect. It is from the
French word meaning wave. The term
“watered” and “moire” both are based
upon the characteristic appearance,
namely, bright and dull in variegated
patches, like the wandering of spilled
water. The fabric itseif sometimes is
taffeta, but is usually of a ribbed type
as poplin.
Wind God a Snake
In ancient Mexico the wind delty
was’ represented by some form of a
snake, a curious fact which archeolo-
gists have not been able to under-
stand. The snake usually took a fan-
tastic shape, having feathers, others
having two forelegs thrown in for
good measure and a curious snout like
a trumpet. The Mexican Indian name
for the wind god was “Quetzalcoat.”
Relativity
The man who has a good job, and
holds it down acceptably ; who supports
a family, and pays taxes, has accom-
plished a little good. The man who
is devoted te public service, and is
always out soliciting funds not need-
ed, has accomplished a little harm;
sometimes a good deal.—E. W. Howe's
Monthly. :
The Dumb One
A husband telephoned to say that
he could not get home to dinner. Late
as it was, it would be much later be-
fore he had finished his business. “You
poor dear,’answered his wife sympa-
thetically, “I wonder you can get any-
thing done at all with that jazz band
playing in your office.”
Great Naval Figure
John Paul was the real name of
Paul Jones, the Scotch-American
naval commander, who distinguished
himself in the American Revolution.
He assumed the name of Jones on his
appointment as naval lieutenant in
1775
Married Men, Remember
“What a pity,” says the Albany
(Ga.) Herald, “we can't forget the
slighting things which other people
say about us as easily as a married
man forgets to mail his wife’s impor-
tant letter. (Note: All wives’ letters
are important.)
Early Fort in America
Iberville, the French naval com-
mander, erected the first post on the
Mississippi, Fort Biloxi, at the head
of Biloxi bay, in 1699, as part of his
mission to establish direct intercourse
between France and the Misslssippl.
Poplar Favorite Wood
Poplar, spruce and balsam are the
chief woods used in the manufacture
of paper in Canada. Soft maple and
other woods are also used at times,
but more poplar is consumed than any
other wood.
Tips
“Imagination is a wonderful thing,”
said Uncle Eben. “It's what makes
you think a no ’count tip on a hoss
race is entitled to as much thanks as
an honest two bits.”—Washington
Star.
Fable
Once upon a time there was an ac-
tor who not only realized that his his-
trionic abilities were enormously lim-
ited, but llkewlse appreciated the fact
hat hls salary was altogether too
high.
Despair
Despair is the thought of the un-
attainableness of any good, which
works differently in men’s minds;
sometimes producing uneasiness or
pain, sometimes rest and indolency.—
Locke.
Giant Deer
The largest member of the deer
family that ever existed was the Irish
elk; he stood six feet high at the
shoulders, and his antlers weighed
about one hundred pounds.
Latest Stage Scenery
Stage scenery now is made in which
two scenes are combined in one com-
posite drawing, one scene of which is
visible under red light and the other
under blue light.
“Sight” of Angleworms
Though angleworms cannot distin:
guish objects, they are not blind. They
have light-sensitive organs distributed
along the whole length of their bodies.
Obedience First
We need only obey. There is guid-
ance for each of us, and by lowly lis-
tening we shall hear the right word.
—Emerson.
Give Him a Race, Anyway
Don’t follow the leader even when
he is on the right track, pass him, if
you can.—N. N. in the Boston Tran-
script.
Gullets and Gullibility
Nobody ever choked to death trying ta
swallow rumors. They slip down too
easily.—Toledo Blade.
Catching, or Being Caught
The early bird catches the worm,
but how am I to know which I am.—
The Third Link.
Wisdom’s Birth
The beginning of wisdom Is to know
you do not know,
NAV AT ATA TVATVATVAV AV AV LUV ATVAVAV AVL VL
here are few short roads between
poverty and wealth. Few get rich
quick chances.
There is one sure road to wealth; at least
comparative wealth.
That road is the savings road.
Ten cents a day saved between the ages
ofgtwenty or fifty. Take your pencil and see
what a comfortable sum results.
NAVA VA VA VA VA TV L/P LAVA VAV AV AV AV AVY oa FO &N
The First National Bank
BELLEFONTE, PA,
“+ |
t is to have a fund in reserve for any
time when you need cash quickly.
fAnd how assuring it is to know
TESTE
that you have such a fund at this bank |
working and adding interest to your
deposits day and night.
3 per cent Interest Paid on Savings Accounts
THE FIRST NATIONAL Pane
STATE COLLEGE, PA.
MEMBER FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM
Lyon & Company
.
New Spring Dresses
s
I
¢
i
e have just received our first shipment of the §
New Spring Dresses in all shades of the new
silk rayon materials—stripes of all kinds, and
plain collars. These are all specially priced at $5.75.
Navy Blue and Pastel Shades are the smart
Coats colors, and the silhouette is the youthful
tailored line ot chic simplicity. Come and see our New
spring Line.
Special Reductions in All Winter Coats and Dresses
t=" Don’t fail to see “Three Faces East” Tues. and Wed-
nesday Feb, 23 and 24—Benefit of the American Legion.
Lyon& Company