THE COLUMBIAN. BLOOMSBURO. PA FOUND PYGMIES Dr. Gell Tcl!s of His Travels Along the Great Wc!l and Its Little Known NcighborhooJ REASON WHY THEY ARE DWARFS Legend Has It that They Were Stunt ed Through Fear of Ecing Buried Alive for Mistakes in the Work Modern Awakening in China. Dr. William Kdgnr Ceil, tlio explor er and writer, recently reached NVw York from a quest In China Unit In volved travelling the whole longtli ot the Great Wall and the discovery of 200 miles of that harrier that never had heen mapped before, lie says that he has confirmed the Btory that in the remote northern mountains of China there lives a race of hairy pygmies which has teen there since 210 D. C. Dr. Gell started out In 1901 to study the primitive rates of the world wherever he could find them. He crossed China and Africa In the course of his search and ventured further Into the pygmy forest of Africa than Stanley had gone. He was gone pr four years and traversed 120,000 miles. This recent expedition of about twenty-five men, headed by Dr. Gell, ptarted In May of 1908 from Shan Hia Yuan, where the Great Wall's eastern extremity is washed by the Yellow Sea. Its purpose was to reach Tibet by sticking to the wall for all of its 1,250 miles. Crawling along with pack mules the party got to the other end of the wall, at Klan Ku Ylan, north of the Nan Shan Mountains, In Septem ber, 1908. Dr. Gell does not know that anybody ever did the trick be fore; It Is certain, he thinks, that no white man ever did. The whole trip was about 1,800 miles. It look the the explorers Into Tibet, where Dr. Cell fell 111 and had to be carried along by his men for several days. The explorer said that he made sure of the existence of the pygmy people by getting Chinese pundits to translate for him Inscriptions in half a dozen dialects on the sides of the Great Wall. These learned men to'd him that It was part of their folklore that whenever one of the millions of men who worked on the construction of the wall was found to have erred at his task he was Immediately burled alive In the wall at the point where be had made his mistake. It was about 210 B. C, according to the le gend, that a body of workmen, tired of seeing their comrades and friends transmuted into building material, fled with their mlves and children into the interior and kept on until they ranie to the deep forest where their descendants now live. Some of them, tradition said, had become demented because of their frightful experiences. "The Interesting folklore that I studied through interpreters," Dr. Cell said, "gave me a line on these wild men. We located them far in the Interior. I have a man among them now, and am interested to know tiow he is faring. "The Great Wall experience of the Chinese who ran away stunted the growth of their progeny, according to the folklore, experts, and that Is why they have kept to themselves as a race of dwarfs." ' The explorer contributed the furth er Information that the pygmies "live like animals, and their long nails and terrible faces give them the appear ance of being of a lower type animal family than the monkeys of Africa. Dr. Gell said he found evidence ot the existence of at . least ten great walls in addition to the famous one that he followed. Ho reasons that the energy that went Into the con struction of all this uiaeonry is the measure of China's true strength. He believes that the empire presently will be in a position to reassert itself. He found that in 2,000 cities and near ly 100,000 towns the Chinese were be ing instructed in the use of arms, end heard that an army nf from 3,000,000 to 4,000,000 men could be put Into the field before long. Dr. Gell Is one of those who believe that China is doing a good deal more than merely turning over for another nap. The members of Dr. Geil's party ' had no serious trouble with the na tives, although they met many to whom a white man was a novelty. The hard going in one place the trail led to an altitude of 12,000 feet seems to have been more hazardous than en counters with the men of Tibet. There wus difficulty also in understanding the maze of dlalect3. Dr. Gell crossed China six years ago, and he says that In many other ways than the upbuilding of a stand ing army there has been a wonder ful advance. The traveller remarked that he had been in the African country where Roosevelt is to hunt and that he could not see any great danger ahead of the former President in so high an alti tude unless be should fall to protect himself against the tsetse fly, which the sleeping sickness Is said to prefer as a common carrier. Cumulative Dangers. "When you have made a statement for which you are sorry, you should own up to it," said the idealist. "No," nnawered Senator Sorghum; "It is bad enough to say something you rogrot without following it up with an ex pression of self-Uibtrust you are sura to regret still more." USES ALLtG.1TGnAS GIHl&lE Bicyclist Pumps Air Into Caurio.i, Tics It to Wheel and Calls Away Merrily. Brooklyn, N. Y. Even an alligator amy serve a useful purpose In the field of aviation. Richard Notts, a baker In I.cfferts nvetu'c. Hoffman Park, between Janinlci and Richmond Hill, has demonstrated that fact, lie Is tli" rcwcut nml the most dangerous rival of Count Zeppelin and the, hero of that section of Queens Horough. Notts needed a horse and wagon yes terday morning. He mounted his w'.'.'H'l and started toward the home of IV it r Heir, a furrier who Uvea in I.rjs l,:r:o. Near Hie home of Horr lie passed a pond owned by Mrs. P. M. Potte of IJrooklyn, and saw In his path a militant alligator four and one- half foot long. The reptilo was itch- lr i for a light and reared itself for an encounter. Notts left his wheel so hastily several of his friends assert he fell off. Anyway, he dismounted and bcRan looking for a weapon with which to fight the alligator. Finally his eye lighted on a large foot pump with which he pumps air Into the tires of his bicycle. Seizing It, he Jammed Wie business end of the pump into tha mouth of the reptile and Its teeth closed on It with a vicious snap. Notts tried to get the pump from between the reptile's Jaws, and was unable to do so. Then a happy thought struck him. He began to pump away, and soon had the satisfaction of see ing the alligator swell to abnormal proportions. The alligator w-as In fnriited to such a degree that Its temper heated the air as It passed Into Its body. Notts pumped nway as hard as he could, and In a few minutes the alligator." filled almost to bursting with hot air, floated clear of the ground and it was as much as Notts could do to prevent It sailing off with his air pump. Fortunately he had a coil of rope with him. Holding the Inflated and angry alli gator with one hand, he cut the rope Into four lengths. To each of the four leg? of the reptile he tied one piece cf rope securely. Then he tied the four loose ends to his wheel, two to the handle bars and two to the frame beneath the saddle, and pump ed more hot air Into the alligator. Horr looked on, and explained the reptile had been In the pond two months and that it had feasted on fifty of his chickens and frightened his ducks and pigs so they would not go near the water. Notts listened impatiently, to all that and to a fur ther suggestion that an enemy of Horr had put the alligator in the pond. Then he sented himself on the wheel, released the anchor rope and sailed off for home, using the tall of the alli gator for a rudder. When he landed In HoiTman Park with his alligator dirigible he created a sensation, which wa3 increased when the alligator gave an expiring breath which blew leaves off a tree thirty feet away and sent the nlr pump and four alligator teeth through a window across the street. The fact that the alligator had died in the in terest of science was a keen disap pointment to Notts. He Just had been figuring on establishing an alli gator air line for the quick delivery of bread when the reptile's released soul started for the Florida Ever glades. KILLED SNAKE, LANDED FISH. Indiana Angler Had Bass on Line and Blue Racer on Leg. Fort Wayne, Ind. Charles Paul of the Paul Manufacturing Company, was fishing in a small lake near An gola and stood on the bank, because there was no boat available. Hook ing a bass he found it necessary to play for advantage in shallow water to his right. His eye3 were glued to his line, and he did not see a big blue racer in his path until the reptile whirled itself around his legs and lifted its head above his belt. Grasping the reptile bj the throat with his left hand Mr. Paul braced his fish rod under his right arm, while with difficulty he reached for his knife In his pocket. Opening the blade with his teeth he cut the gnake's throat, disengaged the folds of the dying reptile, and re scued his play of the bass. He drew the fish to shallow water and lauded it. The fish weighed five pounds, and the snake measured 7 feet 2 inches. Companions saw both. BRING A MAN, GET A PRIZE. Pastor Uses Candy Bait to Enlist Girls' Aid. Wilkes-Darre, Pa. Prizes are to be given to young women who bring young men to the Suuday School at Christ German Lutheran Church at Hazleton, near here. The prizes are offered by the mln ister, the Rev. .1. O. Schlenker, In an effort to win back the adult attend ance at the Sunday school classes, which has fallen off greatly. Pastor Schlenker promises to give each young woman who brings two young men to Sunday School next Sunday a large box of candy. He doo3 not say whether he will give prizes every. Sunday. Raises Peach a Foot Around. Montclair, N. J. In sorting a bushel of peaches, taken from one tree in hia garden, W. A. Hodges, of No. 132 Claremont avenue, found that not one of them was below nine and ono-half Inches In circumference. Most of them measured ten and one-half Inches, and one was twelve inches. There are now tlfty-four phy grounds for children at the schools of Boston and twenty-eight In the parks more than ever before. CITY FOUNDED ON IRRIGATION Rivers Always the Wet-Nurses of the Earliest Civilizations. Rivers are always the wet-nurses of the earliest civilizations, and In this respect the Tigris and Euphrates are rivals of the Nile, for Babylonia, like Egypt, was a river's "gift." The Mesopotamia!! Valley Is Intersected, gridiron fashion, by huge cannls not dug out, but built upon the earth's surface, crossing the plain from river to river and seeming to the traveller like ranges behind ranges of curious ly regular hills. From these, lesser canals branched In all directions and gave birth in turn to others still smaller, until at last the final threads carried the life-giving water to every grove and garden and Individual palm. system of Irrigation so mechanically perfect and on so vast a scale was never elsewhere seen. All the wealth and splendor and power of the ancient Babylonian and Assyrian Empires were dependent upon It. The pros perity of the country hung upon Its wuter supply as absolutely as the ex istence of a Saharan oasis hangs upon Its well. A harm done to the Irrigation system was felt through all the civilization it nourished. It was so the Mesopotamlan civiliza tion died. The complicated Irrigation works which watered the country re quired for their upkeep the superin tending care of multitudes of trained laborers and expert engineers. Only knowledge and skill and large re sources could deal with and maintain the immense canals and sluices and dams and locks which distributed the river water over tie land and which composed a machlrory as elaborate as a clock's, though of water works, not metal works. The hand of a ate dy and strong government was needed to wind that machinery up and keep It going, and there came a time when that hand was withdrawn. Marriage and Meanncs3. Some years ago there lived In Atchison a young woman noted for her good works and gentleness. She was always helping the poor mil wn patient and kind and universally h-1- mired. She married a fairly good man and abused him within U'.ree months. She had been good and pati ent for years, but a husband was too much for her; she had never been cross to any one until Rhe was cros to her husband. There i3 something about marriage that stirs up hidden depths of meanness on both sidca. Atchison (Kan.) Globe. Murder Story a Hoax. About a year ago a man named Meckley who lived near the Buck nell Campus at Lewisburg, was found dead along the Reading rail road track and the theory that he had bi.cn struck and killed by a train was universally accepted. Last week the story gai.ied circulation that a young girl who had been employed in the Meckley home as a domestic at the time, had recent ly been taken suddenly ill, and to relieve a guilty conscience made a confession accusing Mrs. Meckley of murder. According to the story Mrs. Meckley had been intimate with a college student and during a quarrel with her husband about it, struck him on the head with a flat iron and then cut his jugular vein with a pen knife, hiding her crime by placing the body on the railroad track. Investigation has proved the story to be false from start to finish,but residents of Iewisburg are excited over it. The Dazzling Searchlight. On a dark night no warship would be safe from torpedo attack but for the searchlight, says a Lon don paper. The lull moon lights up a torpedo boat so that it can be fired at when nearly a mile away. To produce the same illumination with the most powerful artificial light an electric arc of i6o,coo can dle power placed three quarters of a mile high would be needed if the aid of mirrors were not available. But with this light and an ingeni ous arrangement of mirrors it is possible to surpass the moon. Searchlights are now made which throw light a distance of sixty-three miles, but objects can be seen only a few miles from the source of the light. The effect on the enemy is most demoralizing. When the bright b?am is suddenly thrown ou the eye the pupil contracts violent ly; when the beam is removed the eye can see nothing. If this be re peated a few times if takes all the nerve out of a man, so that only the best trained and most courag eous can continue the attack. An opportunity was given the public to witness a display of these powerful searchlights during thi Hudson-Fulton Celebration, when the international fleet lighted up the heavens with their powerful beams. The project of the Cape Cod Canal, now under construction, antedates the Revolutionary War. At last the Panama diggers have something to which they can point and say, "See how fast we're' working." FOOT BALL. The Rules Should be Changed or the Game Abolished. The Philadelphia Record piints the following timely article on the subject of foot ball: .Vour trained college athletes mid two High School boys have had their necks broken playing college football this fall, and 12 other play ers have met death from the effects of injuries received in this game. One of t lie six with broken necks, Midshipman Wilson, of Annapolis, is not dead yet, but hiscase is hope less and his lot is really more pitia ble than that of Cadet Byrne, of West Point, who, meeting with a similar accident, died the following day. Internal injuries killed five; fractured skulls, three; heart fail ure, two; blood poisoning, one, and pneumonia following injuries re ceived in a game, one. Only one of all this number was of tender age the grammar school grade by whom college football should never be played, thus disproving the oft-repeated statement that it is the novices and not the trained ath letes, who are killed. The present s;ason has been particularly dan gerous to football players of the first grade, but also damaging to the high school boys ranging in nge from 17 to 19 years. The deaths have resulted from all sorts of plays, including the deadly flying tackle, piling up and blows on the head or body, so almost every feature cf the game will be assailed by some one when the football rulemakers meet three days after Christmas to dis cuss the situation. Everyone mu.st realize that radical changes should be made to make football cafe, but just how to bring about the desired result without changing the char acter of the game is a puzzling question. The average college foot ball man loves the game so much that he is practically blind to its faults, and this is particularly true of the football solons who control the destinies of the game. It was with great rcluctai ce that they went about the work of "reform ing" the g. me after the disastrous season of 1905, when 24 players were killed, and it is only reasona ble to expect that they will be slow to take radical action this year when only 17 players have met with fatal mishaps. They argue that if tack ling and piling up, which is the di re :t result of trying to gain so many yards in a certain number of tries, are eradicated, it will not be college football, but another game entire ty. Their fondues? for the game they have built up makes this prop osition seem appalling, and they would willingly let the rules go. un changed for another year in order to demonstrate the truth of their assertion that the number of deaths this season arc due to unfortunate accidents, rather than to defects in the game. DANGER MAKES IT KXCITIXG. College football i too popular a game to be legislated out of exist ence, as lias been suggested at Washington, and yet that may be its fate unless it is thoroughly re formed. If the rules are radically changed at this time :t will be be cause public seutimeut demands it. Pree discussion of the best meth ods to bring about the desired re sults can do no narm, and may re sult in pointing out a better solution of the puzzle than the originators of the game have hit upon. No one can deny that college football is an exciting game, and a good one as well, so far as bringing out the manly qualities of courage and pluck in players. It is exciting be cause it is dangerous. Danger is alluring to most people, particu larly where the danger is to some other person. It is this feeling that makes college football popular among women. They admire manly men and love to see them in com bat. Fashion has set its stamp of app-oval on college football and the women attend in great numbers, although tne great portion of them do not know much about the game. In Spain the same feeling prompts women to attend bull fights. No one can deny the attractiveness of a contest in which men are in con stant danger of iujury or death, but the fact that college football is interesting does not necessarily make it a good game for young men aud boys to play. The 130 deaths and thousands of serious in juries sustained in football during the last nine years shows that the game needs thorough reforming. If it cauuot be made safe it should be abaudoned altogether. It is up to the rule-makers to decide which it shall be. The shepherd dogs used by the police of Berlin cost $18 to $24 un trained, and $72 trained, says our 'Dumb Animals." In Philadel phia they might bring ten thousand dollars a niece to some favored breeder, charging per foot, or per bark. Tlio Kind You Ilavo Always iu use for over 80 years, and jWjy?, fional supervision slnco Its infancy. f-GUcu4i Allow no ono to deceive you In this. All Counterfeits, Imitations and " Jnst-as-ffood" arc but Experiments that trifle with and endanjrer tho health of Infants and Children Experience against Experiment What is CASTORIA Castorla Is a harmless substitute for Castor Oil, Pare goric, Drops and Soothing Syrups. It is Pleasant. It contains neither Opium, Morphine nor other NarcotlG substance. Its ogre Is Its guarantee. It destroys Worms and allays Fcvcrislmoss. It cures Diarrhoea and Wind Colic. It relieves Teething1 Troubles, cures Constipation and Flatulency. It assimilates the Food, regulates tho Stomach and Dowels, giving healthy and natural sleep. Tho Children's Panacea Tho Mother's Friend. GENUINE CASTORIA ALVAYO Bears the The Kind You Have Always Bought In Use For Over 30 Years. Vmi ecNTMin eouMHv. ? mumm STD'cr. new von em. BIG OFFER To All Our Subscribers The Great AMERICAN FARIU3ER Indianapolis, Indiana. The Leading Agricultural Journal ot the Nation. Edited by an Able Corps of Writers. The American Farmer is the only Literary Farm Journal pub ished. It fills a position of its own and has taken the leading place in the homes of rural people in every section of the United States. It gives tte farmer and his family something to think about aside from the humdrum of routine duties. Every Issue Contains an Original Poem by SOLON G00DE WE MAKE THE EXCEPTIONAL OFFER OF Two for the Price of The Oldest County Paper and THE AMERICAN Farmer BOTH ONE YEAR FOR $I.OO This unnarallplrl rfrVr ic 1 - w. j all old ones who pay all arrears Sample copies free. Address : THE COLUMBIAN, Forty Million Red Cross Stamps. 1 The demand for Christmas stamps of the Red Cross Society, the proceeds to be used for fighting the spread of tuberculosis, has be come so great that the order for printing nas Deen increased to 40,- 000,000. It was orieiuallv intended to place IO.OOO.OOO oil sale, hut rt. quests have been coming in so fast mat it nas been decided to have an additional io.oco.ooo printed. The demand for the stamps comes from all parts of the country, but unus ually neavy orders nave been re ceived from the Middle West. Trespass Notices, Card Slf'llS ''NnTrpmnecinn" l, r O ivri Bale at this office. TIipu orAmint. J ' t , .1 fc - ed in accordance with the late act ot 1903. l'rice 5 cents each, tf CASTORIA Tor Infants and Children. Iha Kind You Have Always Bought Bears the Signature mm Bought, and which lias bccii lias borno tho signature of has been mntlo under lus pcr- Signature of One: THE COLUMBIAN morU f a o1 1 .KoiK-.? nnA fcv mi uwn ouuvnuvi and renew within thirty days. Bloomsbunr. Pa. Booze at Mahanoy City. According to figures compiled by Rev. M. S. Rees, an evangelist working in Mahaiuy City for the last four weeks, that town pays an annual "booze" bill of only 11 little less than $500,000. The town, with a population of 16,000, has 166 licensed liquor houses or an av erage of oue saloon to every 100 men, womeu and children. Concluding, he said that there i more beer sold in Mahauoy City on Sunday than ou any other day in the week, citing one instance w-iere he counted 40 men go into cue thirst station on Sunday, while at auother a dozen men bad to remain ou the outside, the inside being too crowded. TheU. H. OoveusmkntIii its "Pure Food Law" does nut "Indorse" 01 "guarantee" nny preparation as sonic manufacture iu their advei tisenieiit would make it appear. In the emu medicines the law provides that certain drugs shall lie mentioned o 1 the labels if they are ingredient of the prepara tions. Kly'a Cream Palm, tlio well known family remedy for eold in the head, hay fever and naal eataiih, doesn't contain a single injurious diiut. bo the makers have simply to print th' fact that it complies fully with aU the requirements of the law. 1
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers