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THE PIOCHE RECORD. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1812. DEFINITION OF WORD CARAT Public mat Should Tl Its Attitude Library Be on Fiction? By DS. HORACE G. WADLIN. Librarian Boston Public Library IN OUK TIME the novel has became the principal form of literary expression. It is within the best novels that one finds the clearest interpretation and the keenest criticism of life. It is a common fal ! lacy to (peak of fiction as if it were "light" literature, unworthy of erious attention, and to group all other kinds of books together, without touch discrimination, as the only profitable reading. But a book that stim ulates the imagination or the emotions may be in the best sense educa tional, and many books written with distinct educational purpose are of little real value. Besides this, fiction is now more widely read than any ether sort of literature, and therefore it is through this medium that those who would move men today make their appeal. In the large output there is, nevertheless, much trash. As Cervantes fence gaid: "There are men that will make you books, and turn them loose into the world with as much dispatch as they would a dish of fritters," and much of the fiction of the day fails to rise above what somebody has called "promiscuous mediocrity." Standards of taste differ, and librarians are not infallible. Jfever theless there is a fairly distinct line separating the wheat from the chaff. It should always be remembered that the selection must be uninfluenced by personal bias, and that merit in a novel is not confined to its literary style, tut includes other values notably truth to life, high ideals, broad human interest and the power to furnish sane and healthy entertainment to the average reader. These principles, if applied in practice, will necessarily exclude many books of the day, which in six months or so will be forgotten. But under this standard no book of abiding merit will be disregarded ; there are too few of them. No two public libraries have the same local conditions, but unless books are to be bought without discrimination the problem of selection must he faced. This, of course, is where the question of fiction becomes troublesome. It cannot be ignored, however, since no public library can buy all, and in most cases only a few of the novels of the day, and every public library is morally bound tit jfL . make the best possible use of its funds. In reply to an article in "When to Head," it can he said that muscular work reduces the power of the brain. When the food is being digested the organs conducting this work need blood. The blood therefore leaves the brain and flows away to assist the stomach and intestines. If, nevertheless, the brain is put to hard reading, the blood will be drawn away to 'the brain. Poor digestion and difficult reading must certainly result. "You can't do good work by doing two things at once." I tried an experiment once in order to Before departing on a bicycle rids one day I fastened a watch Muscular Work Reduces Brain Power By 9 S.Bradenln.lHci.N.Y, Hi - & $.ktfA in 4r son luriii Ti' " tJPZl-r1: A DLSE.RT SHIP U I .:. prove this, on the handle bars. At one time there was a clear road on a smooth boule vard. Taking advantage, I rode on at top speed, urging every muscle in my legs to its utmost and at the same tune keeping my eyes fastened on the watch. What happened? I tried to read the time, hut the letters dimmed before my eyes. Tlie muscles in my legs required so much nour ishment that the blond hurried there from the upper regions of my body. Another case: I have attended high school and on occasions done con- idcrable physical labor. Suppose that after a hard day's work, worn out. ! on'y religion was with fatigue, I should have attempted to solve a problem in geometry or write an English essay. Do you suppose that my brain would respond? Hardly. A feeling of listlessncss and a dull mind would have resulted. At some gymnasium meets I have noted that the participants pre pared their home work beforehand. So, too, in regard to examinations. No pupil should think of study ing the night before an "exam." j All famous athletes refrain from too much mental exercise. P IN the far northwestern cor-1 ner of Atrlca, where the bud beats dowi. hot and fierce. Ilea the little country of Morocco, blinking insolently across the Straits of Gilbraltar at Spain and re garding with equal contempt the rest of the civilized world. For civilization has touched Morocco but lightly and at heart Its white-robed Inhabitants are as savage as were their ancestors who, fighting beneath the Crescent, tried to conquer Europe for Moham med twelve hundred years ago. Those warriors of the prophet tailed, but their descendants still show the same savage spirit now and then, and when they do It Is a good time for those of other faiths to barricade the doors and windows of their houses If they cannot llee. Only a few weeks ago there was a bloody massacre. in Fes, the capital of Morocco, In which hun dreds of Jews, their wives and Jlhelr daughters, were slain. But the power of Morocco Is gone, and Spain today is In no danger from the fierce little country that clings to the northern edge of the Sahara. The Moors may look across to Gibral tar and reflect that It and all the coun try to the north of It once was theirs, but there Is little danger that the flag of the prophet ever will be unfurled again on Spanish soli. Counted It Privilege to Die. It was early In the eighth century that the Moors streamed across the straits and Into Spain. All Northern Africa wbb aflame with the new re ligion of the prophet. From Arabia the followers of Mohammed had Come with fire and sword, converting by force of arms and counting It a privi lege to die fighting for the advance of Islamlsm. Northern Africa, whose dttcadent Chris tianity, had not been long In taking the new faith up, though there was some stubborn fighting against the. Arab invaiiera. The Berbers, who were the principal Inhabitants of Morocco, bad at first resisted, then taken up Mohammedanism with a rush. And then, led by the Arab prlosta and gen- erals and aided by two or three treacherous grandees of Spain, they Women Make Good in Business Field Anyone who believes that woman's field of activity in business is limited should be convinced to the contrary by reading the following figures from a report of the London board of trade: Women bankrupts were less numerous than in 1910, the figure being 3!)D, against 405. The woman grocer was the least success ful among (ho tradesmen of the sex, taking the numlier of failures lis a criterion; the woman milliner and dressmaker next, then (he woman draper, and haberdasher, and, fourth, the woman lodging house keeper. Married women are slightly in the majority of the failures (101) and single women greatly in the minority (81). There were 157 widows. The woman bankrupt entered into many fields. Among others one notes in the list elevon bakers, four butchers, even farmers, five fishmongers, four nurses, two photographers, eight res taurant keepers, five schoolmistresses, six tobacconists, two gardeners, nine toy dealers, six stationers and three undertakers. By J. K. Harpsion, fission, Mass. NOVELTY IN A MOUTH ORGAN Case It Held Stationary In Person' Mouth While Slides Back and Forth Within It. Any man, who, as a small boy has played, or thought he played, a mouth organ, will probably remember how sore his mouth became from sliding the Instrument back and forth An Iowa genius has Invented a harmonica which can be played without any such annoyance. The organ proper slides eight hundred years, were eventually driven from the country. As the Christian kingdoms In the north of Spain grew stronger and United, the Moors were driven farther and farthei south, until at last only the kingdom of Granada remained to them, in 1492 that last remaining bit of terrl. tory fell before the armies of Ferdi nand and Isabella. The last of the Moorish kings was Boabdll, and guides point out still to the traveler the rocky point of land beyond the city walls where Boabdll looked his last npon Granada before he rode away forever from the king dom he once had ruled. The place la called "The Last Sigh of the Moor." In "Sella," a novel published in 1838, Bulwer-Lytton gave a fanolful descrip tion of the surrender of Granada, Ha told how Boabdll rode out from bis fallen city and met King Ferdinand and his queen amid all the triumphant pageantry of Spain, and how smiling that he might not weep, the young Moorish king knelt and delivered up to Ferdinand the keys of the city. Ferdinand gave the keys to his wife and they say that Isabella, looking upon the vanquished prince's sad face, wept In sympathy. Fair queen," said he with mournful and pathetic dignity, "thou canst read the heart that thy generous sympathy touches and subdues; this la my last but not least glorious conquest But I detain ye; let not my aspect cloud your triumph. Suffer ma to aay fare well. So the king rode away. At last he and his little cavalcade reached the summit of a mountain pass that led away to the small principality that was left Boabdll beyond the Alpuxarras, There they halted. From the pasB the vale, the rivers and the towerB of Granada were clearly to be seen, basking In the midday glow. Bulwer-Lytton says: " "Suddenly the distant boom of ar tillery broke from the citadel and. rolled along the sunllgbted valley and crystal river. A universal wall burst from the exiles; it smote, it overpow ered the heart of the ill-starred king. In vain seeking to wrap himself in the Novel Mouth Organ. back and forth in a casing, which is beld stationary In the mouth. A ban die at one end provides the means for sliding the inner portion. In the front of the casing is an opening through which the player blows or draws in bis breath, as the case may be, and the harmonica is operated as the va rlous openings along Its body pass this opening in the case. The effect is ex- actly the same as that achieved with the old-style mouth organ, but there Is no danger of cutting the lips on the tin. Has Different Meaning When Applied to Pyrenees of Gold and size of Precious Stone. Tou have probably often beard of the word carat applied in Jewelry and such things, but perhaps you do not know that it has an entirely different meaning when It is used for a ring and for a diamond in the ring. The jeweler tells you that the ring or your watch case Is 18 carat gold and you have an Idea that it must be pretty good, as you never have beard of any that was 20 or 22. What the Jeweler means is that eighteen twenty- fourths of the ring la pure gold and that the rest is copper.. Pure gold la 24 carats fine and would be too sort for every-day use, so tt Is mixed with an alloy to make It harder. The best alloy known tor this purpose Is copper, as it Interfere very little with the color of the gold. If a ring is only 14 carat, that means that nearly half of if Is copper, and many that are sold for that an not even 14 carats. In England all such rings are stamped to show exactly what they are. But when we come to the diamond in the ring and the Jeweler tells us that tt is two carats or one and a half he does not refer to the pureness of the stone at all as he did when apeak fog of the gold, because a carat Is a weight when spoken of In connection with a diamond. Precious stones are weighed by Troy weight, which runs 480 grains to the ounce, and a rarat Is only about three and a fifth grains. LITTLE TRICK WITH PENCIL Clever Illustration of How Our Senses Are Often Deceived Many Make Wrong Guess. Here is a little trick to try on your friends. Ask one of them to close his eyes and cross his Angers. When ha has done this take a pencil and touch the tips of the crossed fingers with UNIQUE LITTLE AERIAL TOY Anything That Savors of Aviation la of Especial Interest to the Young People Right Now. In these days of aeronautical experi ments, any aerial Invention Is of un usual Interest, even If It Is only a toy. The toy shown In the cut was devised by a California man, and Its peculiar ity Is that a glider is blown into the air, describes an arc over the head of the person who blew it, and returns to his foet from the rear. A cylindri cal caalng has a shaft Journaled In it and extending through it and radially projecting blades secured to the shaft. bad sailed across the narrow strip off eastern pride, or stoical philosophy. Aviation Chances Seem Most Hopeless By Jessie Asamsen, Cicero, III, Of all the experiments the world has ever known, it strikes me very forcibly that aviation is the most preposterous nud its chances for success .the most hopeless. The other day at the ('tearing aviation field an other life was sacrificed, thereby adding one more name to the long list of those that have been killed. Some persist in believing that the end for which they are striving will be accom plished. But are not the odds too great against them and the loss of such brave and water which separated them from Europe and started out conquering Spain. The Gothlo kingdom which had flourished there was destroyed Many of the sturdiest of the Christian Inhabitants of the land fled to the mountains and upland country rather than submit to Moor Jurisdiction. ' Many who remained professed their sonverslon to Mohammedanism, while athera were allowed to remain Christians, although under many hampering restrictions. Gradually little Christian kingdoms were built up in the north of Spain, and these made war against the Moors, who were regarded as the incarnation of ill that was evil. As a matter of fact, they seem to have been industrious, skillful and capable of achievements In architecture and general culture which were considerably In advance of anything the Spaniards themselves had accomplished. Left Some Wonderful Buildings. The relics of their civilisation which exist today, principally In the form of old buildings, palaces and archways, are among the most beautiful things In Spain The Alhambra, where the Moorish kings of Granada lived, is a wonderful labyrinth of walls and bal sonlAs and terraced gardens. Perhaps time has cast something of s glamour over those ancient Moors, but certainly they seem to have been oemen of finer sort than the swarthy cut-throats who make up the popula tion of present day Morocco. Al though their eklns were dark from long residence In a tropical climate, the Moors were not negroes. Their features were fine and regular, their Intelligence above the ordinary, and we even read of Moorish knights fight ing tournaments against falr-balred warriors and being treated as honor able enemies Othello was a Moor, and lu "The Merchant of Venice' The tears gushed from his eyes and he covered his face with his bands. Tba band wound slowly on through the solitary defiles; and that place, where the king wept at the last sight of his lost empire, is still called the Last Sigh of the Moor." fearless men a loss to the world in general f When one realizes the anxiety and sorrow caused in each individual case, it seems that some action ought to be taken to prevent such legalized ' Bbakespeare has the prince of Morocco form of suicidecven though, for reasons unknown to the vast number of ', lg " IZtHfUO? 'mw"nd ' ... , 11 .1 , 1 -I J . I , " o J counters, aviation do an mat can De wisucu ior. I dare say that humanity will never suffer for the need of it. The world will progress without it till the end of time. But for all that. Moors war garded as natural enemies la Spain, and, although they hung oa tor almost Killed the Grub Thief. Two lumbermen Is the employ ol the W. C. Edwards Lumber company, named Lafrenters and Leplatt, had a somewhat exciting adventure while camping In the woods north of Manl- wakl, which resulted in their bagging a fine black bear. ' Pencil Trick. It Then ask him how many pencils he feels. Nine times out of ten he will InsUt that there are two pencils touch ing his Angers instead of one. This trick Illustrates how our senses often deceive. TREE PUZZLERS. Novel Aerial Toy. A blow pipe connects with the casing In eccentric relation to one side, and diametrically opposite the point where The two men were tunning lines in i ,ne b,ow plpe eDtera lhere U an out the timber limits In the afternoon, and on thetr return to camp found that something had been Into their gruk pack. Suspecting a bear, they watched part of the night, but with no luck. Finally taplatt tied the grub sack with a rope attached to It to his tool and went to sleep. He awoke feeling something tugging at his foot, and shouted to Lafrenlere, who got his rifle and fired a shot at random. Lighting s lantern, they discovered that the shot waa a lucky one, as small bear was lylct; dead a taw yards away. Ottawa Cltlsen. let opening. A glider in the form of an elongated plate, with turned down ends, Is set upon pegs on the casing, nd when air is puffed through the blow pipe the glider takes Its (light Takes Two Daya to Land, Pish. To hook a large yellowtall fish one day and land him the next day was the novel experience of O. J. Murphy of St. Joseph, Mo. Mr, Murphy was trolling near White's Landing and after a strike the yellowtall ran out with nearly a hundred feet of Una and entangled Itself in such a manner that it could not be freed. It waa therefore decided to cut the line and leave the yellowtall staked out, as It were, overnight. Next day the angler returned to the spot, lowered the gaff hook and pulled the broken line to the surface. Tte fish, being almost exhausted by this time, waa easily hauled in, and wben weighed was found to be a thirty-four pounder, Avalon (Cat.) comaaondsnoe. New York Telegram. Fashions for African Brides. An Oil river African belle threads a single row of tiny cowrie shells and hangs these round her hips, leaving to the severe propriety of her spouse-to-be tho ordering of more elaborate costuming. He puts his money Into wire and disks of brass, and hangs them on his bride. She Is weighted from ankle to knee so that she can barely walk, and never knows an hour of ease. When hard times come he removes and sells one of her gar ments, which Is a ceil of wire or a plate of brass, the wearing of which has made her straddle deplorably all ber married days. The bride of cen tral Australia is dowered with an apron, with which It Is the privilege of her husband to chastise her. Putting on Frosting. For the first time Ethel chanced to see her father preparing to shave. Running Into the kitchen, she ex- claimed: "Oh, mamma, guess what papa Is doing! "I don't know, dear. What Is ha do ing?" He's making a cake out of his face, replied Ethel. "He's puttlar the Icing an It now." 1 What is the double tree? (Pear.) 2 What tree is nearest the sea? (Beech.) 3 Name the languishing tree. (Pine.) 4 What Is the chronotogfst's tree? (Date.) 5 What tree is adapted to hold shlrt-waUts? (Box.) 8 What tree will keep you warm? (Fir.) 7 What is the Egyptian plague tree? (Locust.) 8 What Is the tree we offer friends at meeting and parting? (Palm.) The tree found In churches? (Elder.) 10 The fiery tree? (Burning Bush.) 11 The tree used in wet weather? (Rubber.) 12 The tree that protects from the fierce heat of the sun? (Umbrella.) 13 The tree used in kissing? (Tu lip.) , 14 The level tree? (Plane.) 15 The tree used in a bottle? (Cork.) 16 The fisherman's tree? (Bass wood.) 17 The tree that belongs to th eea? (Hay.) 18 An Immortal tree? (Arbor Vr tae ) 19 A tree worn In Oriental coun tries? (Sandal.) 20 A tree used In battle? (Bayo netl 21 A tree need In drawing an accu rate line? (Tlum.) 22 A tree used to describe pretty girls? (Peach.) 23 An emblem of grief? (Weeping Willow.) 24 A personal pronoun tree? (Yew.) 25 The sweetest tree? (Maple.) Trick. "Twice 10 are 6 of us. Six are but 3 of us. Nine are Just 4 of us Twelve are but 6 of us. Five are but 4 of us. What are we?"- To people who have never hoard the puszle before the above Is a poser In deed, and the Ignorant mav spend hours hunting for a solution The an swer Is the number of letters In each numeral mentioned, vis., f-l-v-e, f-o-u-r, t-w-e-l-v-e, s i x, and so on. Something Missing. It was Bobble's first day at church and when the organist began to play he asked: "What's that?" "Hush, dear," said hie mother. "That's the organ." "Well," queried Bobby, "Where's th monkey?"