Evening star. [volume], November 03, 1912, Page 8, Image 60

About Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972

Image provided by: Library of Congress, Washington, DC

                
See' W hen You Look!
Vou need glasses! But the optician can't prescribe for you.
He can deal only with local bothers an J correct minor faults,
His skill is suffciently competent for the problems of astig
matism, myopia and sc era, but ha can't preicribe spectacles that
will help this trouble one iota.
It lies further back than your eyes. It's deeper than t'le iris
or retina?your brain's wrong?it's an undersized, undeveloped,
skullful of pulp?flabby from neglect.
It requires exercise. It demands constant education and per
sistent training.
A million b'inJ, unutilized eel's are waiting orders, ready for
cction, eager for work.
You haven't grasped a single per cent of your mental powzrs.
You gaze but do not see. four head is a camera fitted with
lenses more wonderful than were ever ground out of crystal, but
most of the time the shutter is down?the light can't penetrate.
The plates are always in the hold r; but day after day you waste
mighty chances to print en during truths on your mzmory.
Whenever you walk a block Opportunity stares you fall in the
face and you deiberately snub her.
Your vision is primitive. The microscope g'ves y*?u a slight
hint of how often and in how many ways you lack perception.
Every morning the world records some discovery which you
overlooked. Whatever has been searched out by any other human
could have been found by you.
And the few things we do know aren't wor' h calculating when
compared with the unestimated and unattained disclosures destined
for revelation in the years ahead.
The very air is crowded with giants, some day to be dragged
from their concealment and set to wonder works for science and
commerce.
Every city daily destroys in its garbage plants fortunes of
oils an 1 pigments and drugs and fertilizers ai?d chemicals.
Aluminum was in clay banks ?the wealth of Midas was buried
in coal tar, throujh all the ages ihat your fool forefathers were
breaking their necks and hearts searching for El Dorados.
The biggest gold mine in all history yields less than the poten
tialities of your own back yard.
Chances nowadays?man alive?you can't count them?you
cun't move a hundred feet without tramping on or passing
through one, but they might as well be on Mars so far as you are
concerned.
? i
You're all but blind. Your sight doesn't reach beyond your
nose and your nose doesn't sense beyond its tip.
Learn to see when you look, and look with all the power of a
mind illuminated by the flaring flames of imagination. Concen
trate hard enough on any subject?speculate long enough on any
possib lity, and it must become a practical fact.
Look well at the waste in your factories and wonder to what
uses they can be applied.
Look well at the acres round about you and figure some way
to increase their yield.
Look well into the smoke above you?some day somebody
will extract valuable gases and control all the unconsumed power
now squandered through the inefficient handling of fuel.
There's food in sawdust -sugar in shavings?medicants in
scrap iron?anesthesia in old shoes.
There's a better way of doing everything now done -find it!
There's a sure cure coming for every ill and ailment?search
for it!
Tomorrow is a fairy godmother, rich with rewards for all
?who truly use their eyes.
AMONG the trophies of American
naviil victory then- Is a fla?
whose bl.-jtory is lost in the mists
of the early flays of the repub
lic. This evident relic of some
conquest on ti e sea: l?y American naval
heri.e.*, possibly during the war of 181*2,
s at ti. - 5'nited States Naval Academy
at Anna; dis.
It i.- referrd lo simply us ' Hag 'S14,' "
t fcar.sf it i?ar- those ft; ur s in numer
als a yard hi* s In the ?enter of a large
blue field. The flag, which measures
eight feet by .six feet three inches, is
solid bl.ie, e\<ept for a red border all
around it ?<bout a foot wide, and the
mysterious white numerals "$14" in the
center of the blue.
"S-unewhere in ihe back of my head
thb flaij If intimately associated with
the I istorv of some one <>f our vessels
during the war of 1*12,** said Commander
W. C Cole, who i.s ii charge of buildings
and grounds at the Naval Academy and
guardian of the almost l."Vo flags in the
trophv collection of ti.'* academy.
So far as can 1 to in i, however, there
is no record either at the academy or In
the Navy Department archives at Wash
ington of when, where or how 11a? "811"
was captured. Commander Cole has
been trying to trace its history, so far
without success, and has appealed to a
number of collectors and antiquarians
who lie thought might . <? able to help
l ira He is hopeful that h" will yet And
some delver ir.to history who can give
him the desired information
Nearly two score of tiie 13d flags in the
Naval Academy collection were taken
during the war of IM'J, and it i.s b-lieved
that the "standard with the strange
device** will be added to those of that
period, when its history is finally un
earthed. The flag has just been pre
pared for exhibition and preservation.
Although its colors still were good and
ts texture in very fair condition, time,
the destroyer, soon would have laid rav
aging i.ar.ds upon it had it not Wen for
the work which has been done to It
*
Laigely through the patriotic and un
tlrir.g efforts of Commander <*ol?\ Con
gress not very long ago appropriated
? X)0 to be used in preserving all the flags
<tt Annapoli* Flag "S14" was one of the
?Irst to be completed. It is not op ex
hibition. probably will not be until the
*j ring of 1913, w hen it is hoped to have
h11 of tue flags ready for public display.
So carefully is the work of preservation
>jn 13so trophy flags being done that it is
?ald they will last almost Indefinitely. It is
-'alined that after they are completed
they wijl endure tor inan\ centuries.
.After fongress last March gave the
money for the flag work, a scientific
study was made to discover what ma
ter.a is would be the most durable for tiie
purjxjse. As a result, heavy linen $hre?d.
made of the finest arid longest spun fiax
?i the world, is being used in the sewing.
T^iia thread, made esj ecially for the pur
ose.. is in various shades of .blue, red.
yellow, and so on, to match the parts of
-he flag ovei which it is placed. A heavy
backing of the best and strongest .men
cloti' tiiat coirld be made is used to ba k
th?j flag, then the thread is used in the
form of a net to hold the Hag to its
background.
t ? " * *ir
Mrs. Amelia Fowler, a Massachusetts
woman who had had much experience in
flag ?pre?eFvatU-ii. .was chosen . to take
charge of the work at the Naval Acad
THE MYSTERIOUS "FLAG Ml4."
emy. July 12 last the actual work was
started, and it will be some time next
year before it is completed. Her success
in hpr home state in preserving flags for
various historical and patr otic societies
had attracted such wide not ce that, w en
it was learned the United States wanted
an exjert to do similar work, ft rmer Gov.
t'urtis Guild, now I'n'ted States ambas
sador to Russia, recommended Mrs. Fow
ler for the task.
As had been the case with her work
in Massachusetts, both in the capacity
of flag preserver for private asjjociat ons
and as state t!:tg maker, she set nbout
her new enterprise with cureful and sci
entific study. She interviewed and wrote
to experts as to the questii n of dura
bility of various grades < f thread. i:nen
and ot er materials which would be need
ed. It was finally decided that the tlax
grown in a certain part t f Ireland, the
longest anJ most evtn in length of any
that could be found, should be used for
the thread. As f< r the I n> n backing, it
is a> near an possible similar in quality
to that which after m< re than twenty
centuries is f'und preserved iround the
dried forms of Egyptian mummies.
*
i: *
"This is n?>t a work of repair, not one
of restoration or of temporary preserva
tion." said Mrs- Fowler in j-peak ng of it.
"It is an eflf< rt at permanent pre erva
tlon. and if we are ab.e we will put the
precious relics ? f victory in such shajre
t t they will iast fir a thousand years
and more.
' ' itrirt' - I- ? spoice to a ceriu n < \; ert
about t-m linen cloth we arc usin^ to
back the flags, I asked: 'Will it last for
a thousand years?' "Five,* was his terse
reply."
Mrs. Fowler is enthusiastic in her de
sire to preserve for scores of generations
yet unoorn the standards, en.-igns, pen
nants, flags ;ind jacks gathered from tne
seas in ail parts of the wond during the
first century and a quarter of the re
public's exist< nee.
in toe auditorium of Academy
Hali, looking out across tne Severn r.ver,
w .ere many of America's naval heroes
got part of their first training, .i s,oif ui
girls, under he direct on of Mrs. Fowler,
work ah day long on the nags. T.ie^e
young girls. naJ.es of tin* litiie town oi
Annapods, a tew months ago knew notn
ing of sewing more than oidin^ry he.n
stitcning; today, iiaving .:een trained in
groups of lour or nve, they are doing
what is v rtually expert work
Greatest care mus. be luke-i by them in
handling many of# the flags. Some of
tne.n in s;.ots are worn io ,.a^er tin.mess,
others have moth holes, ana sliii others
nave ho.es toin i . then; by shot and siie.i.
the flags reai.y will be presetved between
two covers, on the back of t .em wi?; ?e
tiie heavy linen, whiie over ihe rri.ni wi.l
be the mean work "of linen tiircad net,
done always in exactly tne same ?.o,o.' an
the flag itseif, so mat it does noi cnange
tne appearance of the or gi a.. Alean
w ile ii keej.s the flag in its eternal t ase.
After the preservation worn is com
ji.eted all oi the l.'lti trophies of American
naval prowess, from Perry's famous
Don't Give i'p :iie S i' Hag io the mtj
four reieni reiic& of Manila a,> a'.d
Cuba, will be placed on exiiibilion in
Academy Ilall. In tlie wide halls of the
building twenty big alcoves In the wftlli
are awaiting their prizes. Just how and
where the llags will he disposed will be
dec ded by experts. When the ilags are
finished next spring a number of artists
and specialists in flag ^raping will be
called In to decide on the best arrange
ment for the flags. At present it is
thought that the gorgeous red and yellow
llags of ? he Spanish-American war period
would make the finest display n tlie al
coves at the head of the wide entrance
stairway.
The largest flag in the whole collection,
arid in many ways the most highly prized,
is the English royal standard, the only
one Great Britain ever lost, which was
taken at York, Canada. April 27, 1M'{,
when that place was taken by the squad
ron under Commodore lKaac Chauncey
and a force of troops under Qen Pike.
A catalogue is to be prepared giving in
detail the history of each of the flags in
the Annapolis collection. Commancer
Cole hopes it w'H no' be necessary to
write after flat? "S14" the tantalizing
words "history unknown."
Alas, Too True.
TflfHS. C. W. ALLIEN, the socialist cani
didate for secretary of state,
talking witt Iy at Lake Placid a out hqr
'chances of election. As to her victory or
defeat, she said, smhi-'g iw^mjsi&tfjy; t
W ? it mu t a? ce t ? hat tht fJture
.has in store for u?. We caja t go to.any
other btoic."
ftk? auradl S?s!r@ft?Ery Ktox's Cocoasmft
(Copyright, 1012, by Henry L. Swelnhart.j
COCOANTTS, oysters, the X-ray!
This is not the first line of a
new college yell, much as it may
sound like that. It means that
man has found a brand-new use
for the X-ray. He has just started to
apply it to pearl oyster fishing.
"Go back and raise a pearl." is the
commnnd which he has started to give
to those oysters that come from the bed
of the ocean with no shiny pearl revealed
within by the X-ray. As for the cocoa
nuts, it is probable that they, too, later
on will be X-rayed for pearls before they
are shipped to market for so ordinary a
use as food. Only eleven cocoanut pearls
are known to exist. They look like other
pearls.
*
* *
Secretary of State Knox has just be
come the proud possessor of one of the
eleven. It came to him through the . an
crosity of Mr. James T. Du Bois, Unit
States minister to Colombia. South Amen
ta, a close personal friend of Mr. Knox.
On account of their scarcity, the few
cocoanut pearls in the world have not
been given a commercial value. None
has been bought or sold. In a way,
therefpre, they are priceless.
So far only one of the world's far-scat
tered pearl fisheries is employing the
X-ray to examine its oysters. Those that
contain no pearls are thrown back into
their watery beds in the hope that when
the divers bring them up a year hence a
harvest of precious stones may come
forth. It is off the west coast og Ceylon,
where are the oldest, and richest pearl
fisheries in the world, that the English
corporation which operates the fisheries
under government supervision is using
the X-ray process.
The same wonderful invention which
enables the surgeon to discover diseased
growth within a human body also enables
man to detect the beautiful diseased
growth known as a pearl, for, while
scientists have not discovered the exact
cause which produces this gem, they
know that it is the result either of a
parasite or of some foreign substance
which has found its way into the oyster.
Thousands of oysters are often opened
without disclosing a pearl of any con
siderable value. The X-ray application
will prevent this waste. Pearls never
will become so plentiful that the world
will cease to admire them and desire
them for their chaste, lustrous beauty.
Secretary Knox's cocoanut pearl is of a
beautiful milky white appearance. Mr.
Knox wears it as a stickpin in his neck
tie. The stone came from the Malay
peninsula, where the parasitic growth
similar to that producing the pearl of
ordinary commerce grew inside a cocoa
nut shell into a gem of rare beauty. Air.
Du Bois, before being minister to Co
lombia. - was American consul general at
Singapore, on the Malay peninsula. He
also owns one of the cocoanut pearls,
and one i? in the possession of his son.
Five are In the Kensington Museum,
England. The others are owned by east
ern potentates.
Some scepticism was displayed when
Mr. Du Bois arrived in this country with
his "cocoanut pearls."
"Who ever heard of a cocoanut pearl?
There-is no such thin-',", said the scofftrs.
Mr. Du ? Bois took his precious Kerns to
the treatest expert on pearls in the
United- States, if not in the world.
< '!Why. r yes. they are genuine pearls,"
said that authority; and nothing more
was needed to convince the doubters.
W'i :? *.
i *' * *
Mr, Du ,Bois said that one planter in
.Malay ."who owned a large cocoanut
j.rdve expressed his disgust at the
fa,ct that .such a thing as cocoanut pear's
btul been discovered. "For,'' said the
planter, "my cocoanuts are rapidly di
minishing before the raids of pearl
hunters."
It may seem a far cry from the open
ing of the Panama canal to pearl fish ng.
What connection, except a pleasant al
literation, can there be between them, is
the question which naturally arises. The
answer is that the pearl fields around the
Isthmus of Panama were at one time
among the richest in the world. And the
opinion has been expressed by several au
thorities who made a study of the ques
tion, that, with the use of more modern
diving machinery and with systematic
planting, such as is being employed in
other pafts of the world, and with the
impetus given by the opening of the canal
to commercial activities in that part of
the world, the once famous fisheries on
the coast of Venezuela. Colombia* Panama
and Costa Rica may again come into
their own as t he center of a rich industry.
A group of islands in Panama bay is
known as the Pearl Islands. The prin
cipal oyster beds in Venezuela are situ
SECRETARV KNOX'S COCOANIT
PEARL, STICKPIN.
ated around the Island of Margarita,
Spanish word for pearl. The Spaniards
called the coast of Venezuela and that
part of South America the "Pearl Coast."
These Venezuelan beds were exceedingly
rich when they were discovered by the
Spaniards in the sixteenth century, but
they were practically ruined by overfish
ing. Venezuela now has a law which
limits both in time and place the extent
of pearl fishing. From Margarita King
Philip of Spain in 1">79 is said to have
received a pearl weighing 2o0 carats an I
variously estimated in value at from
J30.0UU to IIOU.OW.
?
*
While the pearl beds around the Pan
ama canal are being worked today to a
certain extent, those in Venezuela more
than any of the o;hers, it is believed that
modern methods, including the use of
the X-ray, will vastly increase the out
put.
When Balboa, classical Spanish ex
plorer. arrived on the Isthmus of Panama
the Indian ruler presente I him with a
canoe and paddles, the handles of the
latter inla d w ith small ju-arls. Balboa
reported this to his kin? as proof of the
richness of the territory he had found.
Today some pearl beds are worked along
both the Pacilic and Atlantic coasts of
Colombia, but these easily might be im
proved, it is said, by the method of
planting now being practiced. The Pearl
Island fisheries are worked by a com
pany holding a concession from the -ov
eminent, and Colombia has a similar
gysieai. . ?
Mosi oi" the pearls found in Costa Rioan
t
and Colombian waters are black, green
and bluish tinted, although delicate pinks
also are discovered. The largest pearl
oyster grounds in the world are off the
northern and western coast of Australia.
Here the mother-of-pearl taken from the
ir.side of the pearl oyster shells brings
three times as much revenue to the
Ushers a?# the pearls. At present the
richest pearl fisheries on the western
continent are along the southern extrem
ity of the peninsula of Lower California,
Mexico.
Salt water is the natural home of the
pearl. Occasionally, however, fresh wa
ter contributes a specimen, and there is
scarcely a state in the United States
which has not produced within its bor
ders at least one pearl to add to the flit
tering galaxy. Only a few weeks ago
Little Big Bear, an Indian, found in the
Iowa river, near Iowa City, a pearl which
he sold for It was a pear-shaped
stone weighing 33% grains.
The finding rtfcar Paterson, N. J., in
1857, of a 95-grain pearl of equisite lus
ter set whole villages throughout the
country gathering mussels from river bot
toms, although with little success. The
Paterson pearl was sold by a New Yo"k
firm to the Empress Eugenie of France
for $2,500, and became known as the
"queen pearl." Xot more than one peafl
in one hundred of the river variety Is of
good shape or luster.
Systematic planting of pearl oysters is
a new enterprise. In the Gulf of Cali
fornia the planting of the oysters is being
conducted on a large scale. The oysters
mature in from six to eight yearn. At
the San Gabriel station. Lower California,
where this artificial propagation is eai
ried on extensively, a series of canals
has been built, so constructed that wa
ter circulates continuously and carries
the food necessary for the oyster. After
having attained a certain growth the
bivalves are removed from the canals to
natural or artificial beds in open water.
Prom the fisheries of the Gulf of Cali
fornia the crown of Spain received im
mense revenues during the early days of
the Spanish conquest. Practically every
crown jewel collect on in Europe contain*
some American pearls The Gulf of Cali
fornia was once famous for the rare black
pearl. in 1SKW the output from Iiowcr
California fisheries was valued at *.*>. ??>,
OoO. Of this amount, $3,0p0,00l> was in
pearls, the balance in mother-of-pearl.
In the Australian beds, the mother-of
pearl is the most valuable in tihe world.
Partly for this reason, but jprinclpally
because it is almost Impossible to keep
the natives from stealing the pearls, some
vessel owners a low their employes to
keep all the pearls found and fig.ire their
profits from the shells alone.
Mnecdofe* Conceiting
Well-Known People.
Th
w
The Critic Critic'sed. Home Straight for Once.
HEODOHE j. ' v * USER, the novelist,
fas talking in New York about a
critic who had condemned his
masterpiece" of '"Sister Carrie."
smile Mr. Dreiser said:
"dreary
With a
PRAX GOI'LI). at a Halloween dl?
* ner, toid a time'.y story.
"The morning: after Halloween." he said,
"a youth remarked to his father:
'I don't know what's the matter with
"I should have answered him, perhaps, mother- 1 never saw her in such a jcocxl
as Whistler answered a critic of onu <?f humor. Sht's slnclng and smiling around
the 'nocturnes.' This critic said the no-> the house like a bird.*
turne in question wasn't good. Whistler ??The oi.i man ,ludded absently over his
screwed his monocle and grinned at the newspaper. Some minutes later, as he
man
Don't say it isn't good," he said. 'Say r?"growdel:
you don't like it. Then you'll be saler. A .?httt *?l into th?
And now come over here. Here is some- arus o.. tnat Halloween banquet of
thing you do like.'
"And Whistler led the critic to a side
board whereon there stood a whisky bot
tle."
banquet of
tira that we'd been counting so rpjch on.
Blest if th-iy gave us anything to drink
but mineral water." "
We'll All Walk Soon.
T:IE
Yt
Literary Saws. the ?ieh cost or ,lv|nt ^ ^
late Adrian H. Joline of New * the rich the-niselves will feel th*
ork was distinguished as a writer pinch of it."
no less than as a lawyer, arid an ad
d ess of his before the Gro ier Club is
still remembered for the many literary
aphorisms it contained.
Among these aphorisms were:
"Fine leathers do not makt- tine works.
"Clrcumst nces alter bookcases.
"Authors wil happen, even in the best
regulated families.
"Never look a gift book in the bind
ing.
"A roving manuscript gathers no
dross."
A Point to Remember.
A WELL kniwn poet and humorist ad
The speaker was Brand Whlt'-ock,
mayor of Toiedo. He continued:
1 know a Toledo banker who has al
ready begun to retrench. His daughter
said to him the other day:
" 'Father, dear, I need a new fall rid
ing habit.'
"Can't a fiord it ' the banker grow ??d.
" 'But. fa her, what am I to do without
a rid habit?'
" "Get the walking habit." "
It's Come to That.
r
A POLITICIAN was talking to 4 re
porter about the obldqtty, so fre
vocated temperance and regular Q?ently unjust, which nowadays attach**
hours in a witty after-dinner speech in to great wealth
Philadelphia. # m,Ufh boy" h?
He concluded with an adjuration to the to.nis father:
business m.in to proceed directly home " *pa I tvmrl in ?.'? i
from [lie olflce, without any stop* at this magazines about "poor
For/' aeUd the humorist. "the man who hon^t"- "?** ^5
cafe or that.
>*. ? r
noes straight home will always go home . "'fiepjiuse,. nr\y . son.' c-.tfc^ .(fitter ? aa
Straight." swexed. nobody woujd believe tfccaa/ ?'