I THE
Imadera flume
1 By DEKISON HALLEY CLIFT. g
Fate, from tho very outset of his
brief college career, seemed disposed
not to favor Neilson. He registered
for serious work In the department
cf civil engineering; but shortly after
the fall semester had opened, he
yielded to tho demands of his college
mates and appeared on the football
field to try for the eleven.
He came from Madera, a small
town In the sunny San Joaquin Val
ley, where he had been flume-climber
for his father's lumber company.
But to the enthusiasts of the univer
sity world he was transformed from
the eommonplace Clay Neilson, flume
climber, to the great and more sig
nificant "Bull" Neilson, "varsity"
half-back.
HiB name became associated with
the veteran squad, and his line-bucking
made the coaches secretly jubi
lant, until there came a day, shortly
before the big California game, when
his ankle snapped In the last prac
tice, and his meteoric career was
over.
He took his disappointment with
stoicism for which no one could
account. In the hospital after the
frame he spent his days absorbing
principles of hydrostatics and study
ing critically designs of arch ribs,
while his ankle slowly knitted.
One day his nurse handed him a
letter from his father, asking him to
come home. The flume "boss" of
the Madera company had deserted.
And Neilson alone could fill his place,
for the timber harvest was at its
full.
So when his ankle was strong
enough again he returned to the
mountains, and the mountains wel
comed him. The hills and valleys
were freshing into green once more
under the soft pelting of the first
rains. The snows upon the moun
tains were resolving themselves into
myriads of tiny streams that rippled
over Btones and gravel, wandering
through hedges of witch-hazel and
manzanita until they joined one an
other at the openings of the gullies
and raced down through the valleys
and the canons.
Among these valleys and moun
tains the Madera lumber flume, which
Is the longest in the world, threads
Its way. Far up among the redwood
forests It begins, and winds down
among dense groves of spruce and
yellow pine, crossing chasms and
cataracts on trestles of steel, and
resuming again the wooden skids
when It crosses through the canons
nd shallow ravines, skirting sheer
cliffs and boring through the tunnels
of the hills, till it falls at last into
the San Joaquin River.
As climber, Neilson kept the flume
In repair. Often he had to climb
amotig the maze of beams and
girders, high in mid-air, calking
lleaks in the great V-shaped wooden
chute, down which redwood logs and
railway ties were shot from the
mountains to the river.
Along the. flume were two tunnels,
one, the long tunnel, just beyond the
Brlnkhead, a towering bluff skirted
by the flume. In this tunnel a leak
sprung one day, until the loss of
water interfered with the traffic. The
tender at Geyser Peak, close to the
river end, first noticed the falling
off of the current.
"The flow is dropping!" he called
through the telephone to the head
of the flume.
The head logger called to Neilson.
At once the climber ordered the drive
Stopped, and seizing his kit, he lifted
the'narrow flume boat into the chute
nd drifted down toward the tunnel,
tour miles away.
"We'll cut off the feeders for an
hour, so watch your time!" the head
logger called after him. "Another
thousand feet must go down be
fore 6."
It was then 3 o'clock. The short
boat carried Neilson rapidly along
the great lumber-flume, now close
along the ground, now bridging
canons and basins of granite, past the
Brinkhcad, until at last the black
ness of the long tunnel enveloped
him. The grade lessens here to an
angle of fifteen degrees.
- Neilson hooked the boat to the
Bide, and climbed over the edge to
the flume-step. Here the great V is
built up from three feet to seven from
Its centre, that the logs may not leap
out in their mad race through the
tunnel.
Lighting the candle in his miner's
pick, he began crawling along the
odge of the flume. Darkness closed
In tight about him, close and ap
palling. He crept on deeper and
deeper, listening for dripping water
above the lick, lick, of the current
tn the flume. The candle threw a
wavering circle of light about him.
Far behind him he could see the
entrance of the tunnel.
After searching a long time ho
found the leak. The licking of tho
water in the immense groove was
lost in the drone of the tiny cataracts
leaping forth between the sprung
planks. Neilscn stuck his candle
pick into tho wooden chute, and be
gan hammering with his calking-iron,
forcing the oakum threads inio the
fleams, and tightening the bolts. He
hurried, for he knew the drift would
toon be resumed above.
Still the water escaped. .He threw
off most of his clothes and dropped
ver the edge Into the running water
of the flume, to work the better from
within. '
The candle sputtered overhead
flickering fantastically, and the
water, dark green in its steady flow,
each moment running swifter, tore
about his legs. Swift and certain
were his strokes, and soon the leaks
were closed.
Then, as he stood silent, shivering
violently, listening for trickling
sounds, a faraway rumble came to
his ears. It began hollow and low
and ghostly, and increased to the
thunder of rapid firing. Instantly
Neilson knew what it was. The hour
has passed, and the logs were rush
ing down upon him!.
Like a flash he dropped the calk
ing-iron and sprang for the top of
the gigantic V. His one thought was
to leap over the side. But although
he had done it hundreds of times, he
bungled that once the once that in
volved his safety, perhaps his life.
He excitedly threw one leg toward
the ridge and struck the candle!
Instantly he was in total darkness,
his grip torn loose.
The approaching roar increased to
the crash of thunder as the great
redwood trunks swept down toward
him. Again and again he struggled
for the top, and each time he fell
back in the face of the renewed force
of the stream. His brain became
dizzy, his agonized voice returned to
mock him.
Then he throught of the flume-
boat, fastened to the flume not far
from him. He struggled ahead and
reached for it blindly. His hands
closed upon the hook that held it.
While his brain echoed to the roar ot
the logs, he crawled upon it, released
the fastenings and shot down the
flume.
The drive came on, scraping and
rending and crashing. He lay flat,
doubled up, gasping and wheezing.
He was conscious only of a dynamic
rush and throb in his head. Half
dazed, his senses returned just as the
drive struck the flume-boat. Neilson
was shot along the tunnel with ter
rific speed. The air swished past
him and the water cut into his face,
blinding and stinging him like drip
pings of molten lead.
Still clinging to the boat, he was
hurled out of the tunnel into the bril
liant sunlight. Ahead he saw, as
through a veil, a white, frothing sea,
dashing always into, his eyes. Then,
as in a dream, he realized that death
awaited him at the jump-off, when
ho should be hurled out among the
logs Into the river! There was but
one chance. If the tender at Geyser
Peak should see him he could stop
the flow. But would there be time
enough to allow the water to cease
and the logs to settle in the chute?
Meanwhile, with a Bwiftness he
had never beforo thought possible,
the lumber forced the boat down the
flume. Behind him the logs boomed
and thundered in headlong, inexora
ble p irsuit.
He was carried through the gloom
ot the short tunnel and over the high
steel trestles as one dropped from
a precipice. The flume Bides became
lower and lower. The speed de
creased in the lower canon, and as
Neilson looked ahead, the converging
blurs took shape in faraway moun
tains, snow-capped in the pale radi
ance of the early twilight, and 'in
thick forests of redwood and yellow
pines, shaggy an gaunt upon the
mountain slopes.
Over the spans that bridged the
boiling streams sped the drift, on
and on and on, hurtling and tumbling
and booming, winding now through
the lower canon tpward the river.
The jump-off was only four miles
away. Could he throw himself over
the edge before he reached it? He
tried to lift his legs, but he was too
weak. Neilson prayed that the ten
der at Geyser Peak would be at his
post. It was his one chance of life.
The timber rushed on, more swift
ly now, close upon Geyser Peak.
Neilson was alert again. As he was
hurled past, he cried out in a voice
tense with agony, the love of life
strong upon him. Had the tender
seen him? Had he heard? The
climber's face was stung with the
rush of water, and his eyes were
blinded.
The drift reached the last grade.
The hills and cliffs gave way once
more to confused blurs, the swish
of air flung back his hair from his
face. Mountain and hill and bluff
whirled past him, unseen and un
cared for. Neilson still clung to the
boat, huddled up, helpless with ter
ror. Miles behind in the mountains
lay the long tunnel; three miles
ahead was the jump-off!
Then suddenly, as Neilson gripped
the flume-boat and prayed desperate
ly for life, he felt the rush of the
craft slacken,, and the terrific force
behind him lost its vitality. New
life sprang into his veins; he thrilled
with the sense of his hopes come
true. Gradually the drift slackened,
the water ceased in its flow. Still the
impetus of the logs hurled the boat
on, now scraping against the wooden
sides of the flume, until at last the
friction brought it to a standstill.
As Neilson lay upon the boat, weak
and exhausted, the river-drivers came
running up the trail from the river,
and found him. And listening, Nell
son heard how the tender at Geyser
Peak had seen him whirling by, and
had signaled to the head of the flume
for the flow to be shut off.
To-day a new climber swings
among the girders and beams, and
Neilson, who assists at the head of
the flume, is always careful when the
drifts are resumed after a delay and
the climber is at work. The caution
lias become " part of the man.
Youth's Companion.
With the Financiers.
Sometimes we send a thief to catch
a thief that robbed a thief lit. 1
Indians as Farmers.
As a farmer the Indian is making
headway the Crows In particular,
since they have the stimulus of an
annual fair, says a correspondent of
the New Orleans Times-Democrat. It
was hard work to prod them into
taking care of their farms each sea
son, until the agent, S. G. Reynolds,
thought of getting up a show on the
plan of the old-fashioned country
fair. The fair has been held threo
years now, and great rivalry has de.
veloped among the Indians ot each
district, to carry away the prizes for
the best crops. A few more years
and the raising of good crops will be
a habit. That is the secret of dealing
with the Indian you must interest
him as you would a child, and then
the rest is easy. In which the Indinn
is not so different from the white
man, who works much better when
his work becomes a game.
There are "boss farmers" appoint
ed by the Government to supply the
Indian farmer with Beed, to teach
him the rudiments of plowing, seed
ing, harrowing and threshing, and to
Instruct him In the science of irriga
tion of and "dry farming."
These "boss farmers" are persua
sive chaps. It takes a rare girt of
eloquence to convince an Indian buck
he should work on a lazy day In
summer, when the meadow larks are
making liquid music, and when the
trout streams are baubling and the
game in the hills is fairly begging to
be shot. But the "boss farmer"
pleads and threatens and cajoles and
bullies, and eventually he gets the
laziest Indian started at the work of
raising a crop, and the results at the
end of the season would astonish the
man who thinks all poor Lo is good
for is to eat Government rations and
emulate the American tramp in dodg
ing anything that looks like work.
Then, too, the Indian is doing won
ders as a stock raiser. The Crows
have always had more horses than
any other nation of Indians. Their
reservation consists of many square
miles of Ideal grazing ground. But
the scrub mustangs are being sold
off at $5 and $6 a head, and their
places are being taken by a bigger
and finer kind of stock. There are
cattle on a thousand hills and
prime cattle at that every steer and
cow and calf bearing the big brand
I. D.," which means Interior De
partment. (
There is hard work each spring
and fall rounding up the colts and
mavericks and calves. There are
several Indian round-up outfits on
the reservation, and the red-skinned
cowboys work hard and faithfully.
In fact, the Crow Indian takes as
naturally to saddle work as a duck
takes to water, as every member of
the tribe Is a born horseman. Even
the squaws are good riders, though
to see them bobbing along on their
thickly padded "squaw saddles" one
would never imagine they could stay
on anything less mild than a saw
horse. Like all the rest of his red-skinned
brethren, the Crow Indian dearly
loves the dance. An Indian will drop
his haying in the face of a thunder
storm to go to a dance, and a squaw
will forget all her hlghfalutln college
education at the prospect of keeping
step to the magic beating of those
tom-toms. The music of tho dance
represents the summons of the ages
it Is the call of the wild which the
Indian cannot resist. The best and
most industrious succumb to its
wiles. Old Plenty ; C'yuse, the big
chief of the Crows, whose pride is
his farm, "all Fame white man," can
not understand why the Government
will not allow the Indians to dance
more. He has gone to Washington
several times to voice the call of his
tribesmen fo;- more dances. But his
requests, with similar requests from
many other tribes, have been turned
down. The Government is trying to
stop Indian dancing on all the res
ervations, for the reason that an In
dian will do nothing but dance when
he is given free rein. Crops and
blooded Stock and all the higher
Ideals of civilization would soon go
to smash on the reservation if the
Indians were allowed to dance when
and where they pleased. So, beyond
a few dances, given at stated inter
vals, and a big "dance fest" at the
time of the annual fair, the Crows
have very little of their favorite en
joyment, unless one counts the
dances that are held "on the sly."
After his harvest is in, there is
little for the Indian to do. He may
work a little on a house, or build a
few fences, or ride out on the range
to look after some stock, but in the
main the lor.-, golden days of autumn
and the bright, crisp days of winter
are Bpent in an idylic, nomadic fash
Ion. A little group of Indiana will
rJde along the road that skirts the
solemn hill that is capped by the Cus
ter monument, and soon there will
be a magic city of tepees in a bend
of the Little Big Horn. Campfires
glow through the dusk, and there
1b the barking of Indian dogs and the
happy shouting of care-free Indian
children. Blanketed squaws stroll
to the river side and dip water for
the evening "bahroosh," or eat; a
buck in garb half wild, half civilized,
leads a bunch of ponies down that
the animals may drink. In the camp
the old squaws are getting out the
Jerked, or sun-dried, meat, and the
young squawb are .making biscuits
In Dutch ovsns. All Is peace and con
tentment. There are no harsh voices
no notes of pessimism. . In the
morning the magic camp is gone. Its
smoke-browned tepee tops have van
ished, but farther down the river
you will find them, and the note of
a great happiness always accompanies
them.
There are squaw men on the reser
vation white men who have married
Indians! They. too. nrefer to llva in
tepees And put their horses In thn
frame Kouses. They fit Into the life,
nair-clflllzed, half-barbarian, and
they siem to enjoy it as though the
blood of the Absarkas pulsed In
their peins. And nobody can blame
themj for there Is a charm about res
ervation life in this land of the tepee
a charm that would soon prove
nothing less than a magic spell to the
man who let himself yield to Its in
fluence.
BUILDING A LIGHTHOUSE ON ICE.
Snving Money and Labor by Work in
Winter.
For a year or more the United
States Government has been planning
to rebuild a little liehthmm In
Memphrm'agoe. near NewnnrK vt
ana aoout two miles off shore. The
original intention was to do the work
In summer. The most Imnnrtnnt nm-t
of the task was constructing s large
cnu ior a iounnation and f.UIng it
witn stone. To get this mnterlnl tn
the water's edge with wagons would
prove a nard job, it was perceived.
The loads would be too mhnii nnrt tha
labor of putting it into the vehicles
costly, me banks were steep, and
there was no good road to the 1
of the lake. Besides, no nr-nwa n
other boats had been provided for
nnisning the Journey. Accordingly,
the execution of the plan was nnst.
poned until winter.
The rock which was to he iixert
was then loaded on to rude stone
boats, hauled to the ton of the nenr.
est bank and rolled off. As the ice
wa3 then five feet thick the stone
stayed on Its surface, and could ha
drawn on other sleds to the spot
wnere it was wanted. Many of the
pieces weighed from half a ton tn a
ton, and were to be piled up outside
the crib, but the filling consisted of
pieces of Btone weiehine from t
to 200 pounds. The material having
oeen conveyed to the proper place it
was put together on the ice. In sum
mer the water is only about Beven
feet deep there, and when the work
was actually undertaken verv llttio
was left under its frozen covering
The crib was twenty feet square, and
nuer it was finished the ice around
it was cut through, and thn rrlh al
lowed to settle. The ice immediately
under it was then pushed to one side
so that the crib could rest directly
on the bed of the lake.
Operations were started lntn fn
January, and finished in about two
montns. There were interruptions
due to high wind, but no Interference
resulted from the cold, though the
mercury sometimes dropped to thirty
degrees below zero. The total cost
($1400'. according to government
officials ras about one-third or one
half ah .Vcat as it would have been
If the vvik had been done In warm
weather, and yet it was performed
in a thoroughly satisfactory manner.
The Ancestral Tree.
"Speaking of heterogeneities and
the homogeneousness of the same, if
one may say it, the American, say BOO
years from now, may have some trou
ble In tracing the lines of his family
tree, said a thoughtful man. "At
any rate, judging from the progress
the United States is making there is
a chance for a few difficulties along
this line. In the erstwhile, and even
now, the job was comparatively sim
ple. It-was and is simply a question
of going back to the days of the Rev
olution, colonial days, the days of
the white-haired grand daines. But
the American ot the future will have
no such simple task. One's family
tree must branch out and expand with
tho country. For instance, the men
and women of the future will have to
trace their lines through an ancestry
thus geographically given: Indian,
Mexican, American, Hawaiian, Porto
Rlcan, Cuban, Philippinlan, Panama
Ian and Alaska. And yet those are
only a few of the possibilities which
might be mentioned in the same con
nection and for the same reason. Un
cle Sam is an expansive sort of fel
low, and Just where he will quit one
may not guess even in the wild reck
lessness of one's fancy. The Ameri
can of the future may be put to the
dire extremity of showing some sort
of remote ancestry association with
even the lynx - eyed Easterners."
New Orleans Times-Democrat.
Both Were Collectors.
A local newspaper artist got a let
ter one day from a man over in In
diana, who said he was making a col
lection of Bketches. "I have draw
ings from well known newspaper art
ists In nearly every State in the
Union," the Indiana man wrote, "but
I have none from Ohio. I have seen
some of your work and I think It is
good. If you will send me-some little
sketch for my collection I shall have
It framed."
The artist noticed from the letter
head that the Indiana man was con
nected with a bank in one of the
small towns over in the State of lit
erature. That gave him a hunch, and
he wrote back as follows:
"I am making a collection of ten
dollar bills. I haven't secured speci
mens from every State In the Union,
but I have several tens and a few
twenties, and I am particularly anx
ious to have a ten-dollar bill from In
diana. I notice that you are em
ployed in a place where ten-dollar
bills are kept, and if you send me
one for my collection I shall be glad
to bve it framed." Cleveland Plain
Dealer.
California's prune crop In 190G was
185,000,000 pounds, against 62,500,
000 pounds in 1905. This has only
been exceeded onca in seventeen
years. That was In 1902, when the
crop, was 197,000,000 pounds.
What Mast Be
Done For Farmers
By PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT.
We hear a great deal of the need
of protecting our workmen from com'
petition with pauper labor. I hava
very little fear of the competition
ot pauper labor. The nations with
pauper labor are not the formidable
Industrial competitors of this coun
try. What the American workman
has to fear is the competition of the
highly skilled workman of the coun
tries of greatest industrial efficiency.
The people of our farming regions
must be able to combine among
themselves, as the most efficient
means of protecting their Industry
from the highly organized interests
which now surround them on every
side. A vast field is open for work
by co-operative societies of farmers
In dealing with the relation of the
farm to transportation and to distri
bution and manufacture of raw ma
terials. It Is only through such com
bination that American farmers can
develop to tne full their economic
and social power. Combination of
this kind has, in Denmark, for In
stance, resulted in bringing the peo
ple back to the land, and has enabled
the Danish peasant to compete in ex
traordinary fashion, not only at home
but in foreign countries with all ri
vals. It is true that agriculture in the
United States has reached a very
high level of prosperity, but we can
not afford to disregard the signs
which teach us that there are influ
ences operating against the establish
ment or retention of our country life
upon a really sound basis. The over-
expensive and wasteful cultivation of
pioneer days must stop and give place
to a more economical system. Not
only the physical but the ethical
needs of the people of the country
districts muBt be considered. In our
country life there must be social and
Intellectual advantages as well as a
fair standard of physical comfort.
There must be In the country, as in
the town, a multiplication of move
ments for intellectual advancement
and social betterment.
Ambitious, native-born young men
and women who now tend away from
the farm must be brought back to.it,
and therefore we muBt have social as
well as economic conditions libra
ries, assembly halls, social organiza
tions of all kinds.
All over the country there Is a con
stant complaint of paucity of farm
labor. Without attempting to go into
all the features of this question I
would like to point out that you can
never get the "right kind, the best
kind of labor If you offer employment
only for a few months, for no man
worth anything will permanently ac
cept a system which leaves him in
Idleness for half the year.
There is plenty that is hard and
rough and disagreeable In the neces
sary work of actual life; and under
the best circumstances, and no matter
how tender and considerate the hus
band, the wife will have at least her
full share of work and worry and
anxiety; but If the man is worth his
Bait he will try to take as much as
possible ot the burden oft the shoul
ders of his helpmate.
Do not misunderstand me. ' I have
not the slightest sympathy with those
hysterical and foolish creatures who
wish women to attain to easy lives by
shirking their duties. I have as hear
ty a contempt for the woman who
shirks her duty of bearing and rear
ing the children, of doing her full
housewife's work, ns I have for the
man who is an idler, who shirks his
duty of earning a living for himself
and for his household, or who is sel
fish or brutal toward his wife and
children.
The best crop Is the crop of chil
dren; the best products of the farm
are the men and womec raised there
on. Serret Writing.
H. T. M. (Norfolk, N. Y.) : Can you
give me a recipe for simple secret
writing?
Answer: Take a sheet of good writ
ing paper, moisten it well with clear
water and place it upon a hard,
smooth surface, such as glass, tin,
stone, etc. After removing carefully
all air bubbles from the sheet place
upon it a dry sheet of equal size, and
upon this do the writing with a sharp
pointed pencil. Then destroy the dry
paper written upon, and allow the
wet sheet to dry in the air (not at the
heat of a stove or lamp). When dry
not a trace of the writing will be visi
ble. But on moistening the sheet
again with clear water and holding it
against the light the writing can be
read In a clear transparency. It dis
appears again after being dried in the
air, and may be reproduced a number
of times by moistening. Should,
however, the sheet be -too much
heated, at the stove or lamp, for In
stance, the writing will disappear,
never to reappear again. New York
Tribune.
Those Westerners.
"Eastern visitors to the West are
generally prepared for any phenom
enal showing in the line of agricul
ture, stock raising and the like," says
a Colorado man, "but once in a while
they are taken by surprise.
"A New Hampshire man, who was
spending bis vacation on the ranch of
a relative in Colorado, went out one
morning to Inspect a large Incubator
in which the youngchicks were hatch
ing. In one corner of the incubator
a neglected pach seed, encouraged
by the warmth ot theatmosphere, had
burst, and a tiny sprout several Inches
long was growing out of It.
"'Suffering Caesar!' exclaimed the
New Hampshire man, as this caught
his eye, 'do you hatch out your
peaches U this country V "
To see an object on the earth's sur
face 100 miles away the observer
must be 6667 feet above the level of
the sea.
The sand of Sahara averages thirty
feet in depth, but in some places it
has been found 800 feet below the
surface.
Some forms of animal life are so
tiny that 2,800,000,000 could be put
In a space of one-thousandth part of
a cubic inch.
Taking the statistics for the entire
world, four and a half persons to the
thousand are either deaf, dumb, blind
or mentally deficient.
Among men fifty-one per cent, are
stronger In the right arm than in the
left. In thirty-three cases the left
arm is the stronger; in the rest the
two arms are equal.
The Jaw of the snake Is supplied
with what might be termed a double
hinge, which nermits the rentlln when
occasion demands to greatly increase-
its capacity, and permits ot Its swal
lowing astonishingly large bodies.
A new office has been created in
Berlin by the British Government to
provide for a regular scientific inves
tigation of the conditions of the Ber
lin working classes, with a view of
obtaining Ideas for the Improvement
of similar classes In England.
A scientist has invented an auto
matic mechanism for preventing colli
sions at sea, based upon the use ot
Hertzian waves. Miniature wireless
telegranhy plants are to be installed
on vessels, effective within mnn
yards radius. Two vessels fitted with
this apparatusapproachlng each other
in a fog and with the mechanism set
would at 1000 yards give mutual and
automatic warning Dy acting upon
each other's signal, which would In
its turn automatically stop the en
gines. Leaves do not fall from the tree
because they are "dead" which we
may take as equivalent to saying be
cause they are no longer receiving
the constituents of their being from
the sap and from the air but as a
consequence of a process of growth
Just at the junction of the leaf with
the more permanent portion of the
tree. Certain corklike cells develop
which have very little adhesion, so
that the leaf Is very liable to be bro
ken away by influences of wind and
changes of temperature and ot mois
ture. Until recently phosphorus for com
mercial purposes was made only from
bones and other organic substances.
Now it is produced also from miner
als. For two or three years past hun
dreds ot tonB ot phosphorus have been .
turned out near Mount Holly
Springs, some ten miles from Harris
burg, Pa., where a deposit of wavel
lite in nodules has been discovered.
Wavalllte is a somewliat rare mineral,
a form of aluminum phosphate. A
mill is required to extract the phos
phorus. Phosphorus from minerals
is also produced at Niagara Falls.
FIGURES THAT ASTONISH.
Physicists Delving Into Things That
Are Infinitely Minute.
What is the food value of a
thought? Dr. John Alfred Bradshear,
tho famous lens maker, says the day
will come when such figures as we
now deem large or small shall seem
crude, says the Chicago Tribune. We
learn from the physicist that an atom
of hydrogen can be broken up into
nearly 1200 corpuscles, an atom of
mercury into 200,000 corpuscles;
that the atom of radium has stored
within It an energy of which our
older science did not dream. Further
more, our advanced physicists or at
least some ot them have relegated '
matter to a new field and" tejl us that
negative electricity is matteVr-bat
electrons and matter are incontro- .
veruuie leiius. loru iveiviu says ot
the atom: "If we raise a drop ot
water to the size of the earth and
raise the atom in the same proportion,
then will It be some place between '
the size of a marble and a cricket
ball. If you fill a tiny vessel one
centimeter tube, about three-quarters
of an inch, with hydrogen corpuscles
you can place therein In round num
bers 525 octillions of them.. It these
corpuscles are allowed to run out of
the vessel at the rate of 1100 per
second it will require 17,000,000,
000,000 years to empty. Such a com
putation seems almost like trifling
with the human intellect, but it is
with these subtle theories that our
physicists are delving into the inner
most chamber of the infinitely1
minute. It may be some day we sh all
be able to construct a living organism
by the combination of the proper ele
ments, some uuy we may kuuw me
food value of a thought."
Has Filed 60,000 Saws.
T. J. Goodwin, of Ohio avenue, de
clares that in the last twenty years
he has filed 50,000 saws and walked
65,000 miles. While accomplishing
this, he says, he has carried with him,
the burden of a saw vise with a seat,
attachment, a contrivance which'
weighs sixty-nine pounds.
From the accounts he has kept the
old man estimates that he has filed
an average of ten saws a day for thoj
last twenty years and has walked an,
average of about twelve miles a day,
for that perlsd. Kansas City Slur. ,