ISSUED EVERY SUNDAY FOR THE BOYS AND GIRLS OF SAN FRANCISCO AND CALIFORNIA
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.
ALONZO HE SAVES
THE QUEEN ON THE MAY
Kite Day Only a Week Off
F. K. BARTHELL
Ileml of Manual Training I)rpurt;ncnt
More than . 200 entries " nlready for
klteday and more on.»the way! Some
of the schools . have not yet elected
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a "kite captain." This should be done
immediately in order that \ the-,"- cap
tains may be', informed as \u25a0. to their
duties.^ ); . ' ' ,t, t \u25a0
: .A 'beautiful cup to be known as the
. Manual. Training cup- will be awarded
to ithe .school making the greatest
number of 'entries in proportion to.
average daily attendance for the
month of April.
This cup, when, won three times be
comes the property of the school. The;
. diplomas to be awarded to the indi
vidual winners \ will represent the
highest dogr*ee of* the printer's art.
The drawings showing kite con
structions are taken from the Manual
Training Magazine from an article by
Mr. M. Miller,, who has been the,super
visor of kite construction for four years
in the Los. Angeles schools'. .
These drawings show very clearly
how to construct some forms of kites
and should be of assistance to those
who have beon afraid to try to make
something new. \u25a0
A Filipino boy at the Horace Mann
school is making a wonderful kite.
The frame is of split bamboo and in*
the general shape of a bird.- One wing
will show the. United States Hag, the
other the FillpinoMlag. The tail will
show the J3 stripes/ while the body will
be a blue field; studded with white
stara. 1 do not know what the head
will be, perhaps just plain eagle.
"Well, May 7 will soon be here, so
everybody, get busy.
(See illustrations on Page 2.)
The Setting Sun
The ancients had some queer theories
whereby they sought to explain -the
rising and setting of the sun. They
thought tho earth to be flat and wero
greatly puzzled to know how the same
sun which plunged into the ocean at
a fabulous distance in th<j west could
reappear the next morning at an
equally greut distance in th,e east. A
number of remarkable theories wero
advanced, and every one of them was
wrong.
Mythologists of old asserted that
after the sun had dipped In the vest
ern ocean at sunset (the' lberians and
other ancient nations actually imagined
that they could hear the hissing of tho
waters when the glowing globo was
plunged therein) ho was seized by Vul
can and placed in a golden goblet.
This strange craft, with its astonishing
cargo, navigated the ocean by a north
erly courso so as to reach the east
again in time for sunrise jthe 'follow
ing ; morning-
Among 'other theories of old, as re
lated by Aristotle, it was believed that
In some manner the sun was conveyed
by night across the northern regions
an. l that darkness was due to moun
tains which screened off tho sunb^ums
durinyr the voyage.
The San Francisco Call.
SAN FRANCISCO, CAL., MAY 1, 1910.
Peculiar Optical Effects
If one places a plnhead up close to
tho eye and directly in front of it the
head of the pin .appears transparent
and things may be seen as easily
through it as through a sheet of Isin
glass, the head appearing simply as a
large round cloud. If it is placed some
what closer no pin or head can be seen
at all. r~>!
If one goes into a very dark room
and puts v lighted candle near the vide
of one eye very pretty and peculiar ,ef
fecls are observed. A tracery, form
ing o regular network, can be easily
detected, and this is merely tho shadow
thrown by the candle on the retina of
the eye of the small capillary blood
vessels between the TCtina und tho
candle. . /'.
If one looks to the ©ide of a dim star
In the heavens the star appears a great
deal blighter than direct vision makes
it appear. This Is because the light
in the indirect view falls on .what is
known as the ''yellow spot, or. point of
keenest vision. As this -Is not put di
rectly behind the front of : the eye the
side glance is necessary. Some people
can see stars that way that-th<*y cun
not perceive at all on direct vision,—
WHY TOMORROW IS A HOLIDAY
r'-j^OMOHUOW id Dewey day, a new
I Jay. among American holidays.
i There- is^ Washington's birthday,
and Lincoln "day, Decoration day, Ad
\u25a0 tnisslon day, the fourth of July, all days
set apart, by our country for ".special
purposes; days on which Vc'^ recall
great men long since dead, pvants that
"happened long, long before any of us
were born. But Dewey day is different.
r lf you Juniors yourselves can not re
member the famous day when' the sol
dier boys came back from the Spanish
\u25a0war, some older brojher or sister can,
so that Jt brings that time very close
to. you and it seems almost as if. you
had been there to .cheer too.. What
has the homecoming of the "boys", to
do with our Dewey day tomorrow?
The homecoming of the American,
soldiers m,eant the end of the Spanish
war, and the .end of the war can .riot"
be reruembered' without thinking/ of •
those anxious days when all'theUnited '
States sat . waiting,- just before war •
was declared at all, and then close on
tho heel 3of the'president's declaration, .
the news that Admiral George' Dewey
was to take command of , the.whble 'I
squndron of , the.' Pacific; '. proceed to
Manila and 'capture It for us. •: '. \u25a0
"If iris tnifi'that every man; gets one
great chance in his life 'Admiral- Dew- •.
ey's came to him then.' * Ho" took it, and
what r he.mado "of it Is now American',:
hjstory. •-\u25a0' \u0084 \u25a0\u25a0•_ •. ... \u25a0 \u25a0; . . ' -. . . , \u25a0 .-; '
Looking back over Dewey's life it
,-' \u25a0 -\u25a0;\u25a0• ;"\u25a0\u25a0>\u25a0\u25a0,;\u25a0\u25a0"':.\u25a0•:\u25a0'\u25a0'\u25a0:•\u25a0;'<\u25a0- •• ;-\u25a0 \u25a0.\u25a0'\u25a0•>:•:,\u25a0 \u25a0•
S)©dfli@iia
fioem.s as If he were always to the front
at the niost'exrltlrig moments. Away
off in civil -war time, In ISG2,' four yetrVs,
after, his graduation from Annapolis,
Dewrjy, then a lieutenant under Farra
gut, was. assigned to the sloop of. war
Mississippi. Ills first active ongVge
rneutwas In forcing a passage up tho
Mississippi river, clearing the way 'be
fore Farragut. This must have • been '
anything but monotonous,' but nothing
,us ..compared tO) the thrilling experience
..nhprtly.rafterward, -thf»".Missis
sippi went aground in the middle of the
\u25a0niffU while she was;tryliig to run the
batteries of pp O rt Hudson. Not only
did the sloop ground, in the blackness
but she was 'so' riddled with shot that
the crew had barely time to escape be
fore the magazine blew up. :. •.\u25a0 . .
\u25a0 In nearly all the Important engage
. merits of the civil war George Dewey
took part. -Ills bravery won him pro
motion after, promotion. By 1870 lie
was given, command of the :Narragani
.sett; in '8:> of the Juniata, one of the
.Asiatic squadron. From '85 -to '88 lie
commanded the Pe.nsacola, flagship of
the European- squadron." In' 1898 • he '
was made commodore, only a few'weeks
before, the/outbreak of the Spanish-
American -war. On the declaration of
..war helwas placed in command of tlio
Asiatic squadron.'' .... .•\u25a0. , .";\u25a0..•
' 'Ori;Aprn':27,- IS9S, Dewey" 'left "m Irs
boy in China, withorders to capture or
destroy.; the : entire -Spanish squadron, j
- Something of an order,' wasn't it? * But
-Dewey-vwent- at it • calmly;"' just as lie
.had gone about carrying out orders in
the old civil *war days.
'At '11:30, p. in.; on Saturday, April CO,
two days after .he had left China,
Dewey and the Pacific squadron
steamed into the Manila channel. What
happened, the conquest of an old and
historic -nation, can be told in a sen
tence. Dewey carried out his orders to
the letter. -By the end of the next day,
by the night, of May 1, he had sunk,
.burned, completely destroyed all the
Spanish ships in the bay of Manila and
had silenced forever the land batteries.
The city of Manila was at his mercy.
How many men had he lost? Not
one. -
How many were ; wounded?' Nine at
the most.
Think of it. A country, old before
America was discovered, one night had
lost the greater part of her posses
sions; lost rich land and men, and tho
great .victory had cost her enemy noth
ing, not a single death, and only nine
men slightly hvounded.
Perhaps in all history no nation ever -
added to its territory with less pay-
Vient of human sacrifice *han did our
own United States on that May morn
ing of '98. • „• i
The rtst of the story," the blockade
and the final occupation *f> the islands
by the Americans, is noM a historical
fact. You study them in the history"
as you do the battle of Bunker hill and
the march to the sea.
Sometimes things that happen to us
seem very ordinary, indeed, and the
events of our time dull and tame.' Many
of those who were Juniors at the time
of the war were so busy with play and
school that they never realized for one
moment that real history was being
made right under their very eyes. But
it J was, and Dewey day is v proof of it.
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