The Starkville news., July 24, 1903, Image 3

About The Starkville news. (Starkville, Miss.) 1902-1960

Image provided by: Mississippi Department of Archives and History

                
WASHING THE DISHES.
* Our Polly groes a-flshlns, be the weather
what it may,
Hot less than twice, and often thrice, on
• every holiday;
She always starts right after meals, and
singing merrily,
Bhe fishes and she fishes in her little Soapy
Sea.
She'll catch the beet pink china cups, and
play that they are trout.
And when she drops her line again she’ll
draw spoon-minnows out;
The plates, of course, are flounders (so
round and flat, you know).
The kitchen knives are hungry sharks out
watching for a foe;
I
Each saucepan is a pollywog, with handle
for a tall.
And-" There she blows!"—the frying-pan!
how very like a whale!
There’s nothing left—pour out the sea, and
put the fish away.
All high and dry, and waiting to be caught
another day.
—Hannah G. Fernald. in Youth’s Com
panion.
BIRDS AND ANIMALS.
In flic Lovely Month of Jane the Hap*
pine** of Their Home Life Is
at Its Height.
You will recall James Russell Low
ell’s tribute to June, which begins with
those familiar lines:
"And what is so rare as a day in June?
Then, if ever, come perfect days."
These expressions also linger in our
memories: "The Utile bird sits at his
door.” "The high tide of the year,’*
and "Everything is happy now.” We
all agree with Lowell that everywhere
in June there is home-life and happi
ness. And what a host and variety of
homes there are! We find them of
many forms and down in queer places.
Perhaps one of the queerest is the
home of the swifts inside a chimney at
the farmhouse. All day these soot-col
ored little birds have been racing
through the air. twittering socially
and gatheringinsects for the little ones
in the many homes down in that big
chimney. Perhaps there may be as
many as a thousand birds living in one
of these large, old-fashioned chimneys
—a bird village in soot and smoke.
Did you ever see a chimney swift alight
on a tree? Did you ever see him alight
anywhere? What persistent workers
they are!
Another family gathering that in
terests us is that of the porcupines
■feeding on water plants at the pond
side by moonlight. Altogether a fam
ily of dull wits we might call them, for
it would be difficult to find animals
more intensely stupid. But they prize
their pondside home, and wander
around among the shrubbery and climb
trees in perfect confidence that no ani
mal can easily drive them away from
their home. The mother porcupine
made her nest in some nearby hollow
log. The little ones, to the number
KINGFISHER’S NEST.
<Aa Hole and Nest Would Be if Earth on
This Side Had Been Removed.)
of two or three in each home, were
born early last month, and by this time
are able to go out with their mother
and seek food as she does.
Then there is that home in mid-air,
the nest of the Baltimore oriole. The
home surely looks enough like a hor
-net’s nest to deceive a bird of prey.
Some naturalists regard it as an ex
ample of real ‘‘protective mimicry.”
In marked contrast to this bird home
swaying in even the slightest breeze
is that of the kingfisher, in a hole in
the solid bank of earth by the pond
side. Not far away from this bank,
down in the deepest water, is the fam
ily of the bullheads —in some localities
called catfish or horned pouts. Hdw
fierce and persistent is the mother in
protecting her little ones! In spite of
this a little bullhead does now and then
disappear, and some perch swims off
less hungry than before. —St. Nicholas.
Kentucky Out> of Debt.
Kentucky has joined the number of
states which are practically out of
debt. Nearly $1,000,000 worth of its
bonds which fell due this year have
been paid off, and the outstanding debt
of the state is now less than sso—obli
gations not presented. r
HEROIC LITTLE MARY.
‘By Her Belf-Poimeilon Ten-Yenr-OM
Katie Marphy Saved Her
Mother's Life.
Hear this story of a little girl who
was as great a hero as any grown man
could have been. She was Katie
Murphy. Katie was only ten years
old, but she had more knowledge tfnd
experience of life than many a rich
girl twice her age has. That is the
advantage of being poor—if there are
any advantages, that is—you learn of
life in many phases, most of them
hard and unpleasant. Bat you learn
also to do things and take care of
things and to think and reason in
some ways that you would never know
at all if you were rich.
Katie Murphy’s mother w r as a widow
with five children. Tommie and Char
lie, aged eight and six, went to school,
while Katie stayed at home and took
care of Mary and Nellie, the little one*.
SHE THREW THE WINDOW OPEN.
Mary was four; Nellie, the baby, wai
two. Mrs. Murphy went out to work
every day, leaving home at seven and
not getting back till six in the even
ing.
Katie was one of those ‘‘little moth
ers” you have read of who have to
keep house and mind whole families of
children while their parents go out to
earn a living. She had never been in
the beautiful country and had never
seen grass* except in a city park, where
she only knew it was beautiful and
something she and her baby sisters
must keep off. But she knew how to
keep house in the fashion of very poor
people and how to mind the babies all
day. She loved -them and devoted her
self to them. She had had so much
care and hard work in her life of lug
ging babies around that sh* did not
look like a child at all. but like a tiny
woman with her paleface and’serious
ways. And she was a real woman,
too. as you will find.
In the pleasant weather she took the
children to the park in the afternoon
and kept them till nearly six o’clock.
Then she trundled Nellie home in the
baby cart while Mary trudged beside
her. At home Katie lit the fiame of
the gas stove, boiled' some water and
made tea, all ready for poor, tired
M rs. Murphy.
But one afternoon there was a pro
cession and a great crow and in the street,
so Katie could not cross with her baby
cart and little sister. She had to wait
so long that it was long past six ere
she reached home. In the hall at the
door of 'their tiny flat a frightful smell
of iras seemed to come from under the
Murphys’ closed door. Katie knew
that was something dangerous.
‘‘Stay by the baby,” she said to
Mary.
Then she dashed into the outer
room. The gas fumes nearly suffocat
ed her. but she sped on into the
kitchen. Her mother lay unconscious
on the floor, with the gas turned full
on in the stove, but not yet lighted.
Katie herself nearly swooned, but she
knew enough to turn off the gas and
had just strength enough left to run
to the w indow’ and dash it open to let
the air in. She put her head out, took
a long, deep breath and screamed and
called with all her might for help.
Many a woman would have lacked the
level-headedness to do that, but Katie
had more presence of mind than half
the grown girls have.
People from the street and neigh
bors ran in in answer to her call. Some
threw open the other doors and win
dows, others lifted her mother and
one tore out for the doctor.
It was an hour before the physician
brought Mrs. Murphy to conscious
ness. He told -them that only Katie’s
prompt action had saved her life.
Even half a minute more and it would
have been too late. Mrs. Murphy had
been taken ill in the shop where she
worked and had come home in the
afternoon. Feeling very weary, she
thought she would make the tea her
self. She remembered lighting s.
match and turning on the gas—that
was all. She must have fainted just at
that moment and fallen upon the floor.
The gas, flowing out, overpowered her
so she could not regain ber senses, and
she would have been suffocated but for
her heroic little daughter.
People could not say enough ip
praise of Katie. But as for Katie her*
self —well, as soon as the people ran
in to look after her mother she went
back at once to see the baby and Mary
and the gocart. —Cincinnati Commer*
cial-Tibune*
TYPEWRITING EXPERTS.
Find New Field for Their Abilities In
Farnieblnfr Testimony la
Lawaaits.
It will come as a surprise to many
people to know that there is a great
deal of character in typewriting.
Were half a dozen operators to use the
same machine, paper and actual words,
each printing off a dozen sheets, and
were all these to be mixed up indis
criminately, a practiced eye could dis
tinguish each operator’s work instant
ly, says the Chicago Tribune.
In a recent law case, where a
lengthy typewritten document of
many sheets was in question, it was
alleged that one of the pages included
had been substituted for another
sheet. Although to a casual eye all
the sheets seemed to be the work of
one hand, experts showed that the
spacing was quite different, especially
between the end of one sentence and
the beginning of another, and on the
substitute sheet the new paragraphs
began in quite a different position on
the lines, and the letters were shaky
instead of upright and firm. And the
punctuation—the crucial test —was
wholly different.
The experts wore unable to trace the
person who had done the bogus type
writing, but they agreed that it was
a woman, young, and)only a beginner
at typewriting; that she was nervous,
not strong, and that her education
was only moderately good.
The writer of the other sheets com
prising the document was defined from
the evenness, correctness and firmness
of the typewriting to be an experi
enced ‘‘typist.”
WONDERFUL MACHINE.
Blows Glass Better Than Men, and
Will Drive Many Workmen
Out of Their Jobs.
The accompanying photograph is the
first ever taken of machine-made win
dow glass in the world. These three
rollers were produced a few days ago
at the Alexandria (Ind.) branch of the
American Window Glass company’s
plant, and where the Lubbers/machine,
the first successful of many made, was
completed and experimented with un
til perfected.
So perfect has this machine been
made that the company is risking mil
lions of dollars in the proposition to in
stall it in its 41 plants distributed over
the country, and dispense with hand
blowers entirely. The men were at
first skeptical when told that ‘the ma
chine would destroy their trade, which
has yielded many of them $450 to S6OO
per mouth; but they have at last been
forced to admit that it has been but too
true, and as a result many of the best
BLOWN BY MACHINERY.
double-ring Belgian blowers are going
back to the old country, and others
are seeking other pursuits.
The machine is the patent o I John
H. Lubbers, of Allegheny, Pa., prac
tical glassblower, who has also made
several rther labor-saving inventions.
Lubbers will reap millions as his share
of the proceeds of the invention.
Skilled mechanics from the Westing
house works, Pittsburg, Pa., have been
working behind high walls and barred
gates for months in the erection and
installation of the machines, which no
man other than old and skilled em
ployes of the company was allowed to
see. The gates are yet closed to out
siders, and the photos were made at
the request of the company, but that
of the machines was denied, as the
latest improvements to them have not
been patented. When all have been
allowed the sompany will let the pub
lic sec the machines work, but not
until then. These rollers are respec
tively 10 and 19 feet in length and 30
inches in diameter—larger than any
hand blower conld possibly make. The
glass is perfect, in temper and free
from biistei*. —Cincinnati Enquirer.
MAKEi ITS OWH LIGHT.
Buoy, Invented by a Germj Genius,
la Livbted by Direct Action
of tbe Tavea.
An inventor in Germany has pro
posed a novel method of supplying
electricity to light a harbor buoy at
night. He dispenses with a cable from
a power-house on land and generates
his own current by the rocking of the
buoy. The audible signals given by
bell buoys fog are produced in the
same manner. The motion of the
waves tilts the apparatus first in one
direction, and then in the other and
makes the clapper strike at abort in
tervalsu
A full description of ihe mechanism
employed in the new buoy is not yet at
hand, but one can ealily fancy how it
BUOY LIGHTED BY WAVES.
i%rranged. A small dynamo is oper
ated by the motion of the apparatus,
and the current is first fed into a stor
age battery, so that the supply to the
lamp may be kept uniform. If the
brilliancy of this light varied with the
condition of the sea the system would
be unsatisfactory. Hence it would not
do to lead the electricity directly to the
lamp. It is said that experiments with
the invention are already in progress
on the German coast.
HISTORY OF GUNPOWDER.
Evidence That It Was Used Long: Be
fore the Christian Era Is Direct
and Irrefutable.
With reference to the early use of
gunpowder and firearms, long before
the popularly accepted, but erroneous,
date of gunpowder discovery, Gen. Jo
seph Wheeler, United States army,
in a lecture a short time ago before the
Franklin institute, remarked that in
many localities in China and India the
soil is impregnated with niter, and
the probable discover}* of gunpowder
there, many centuries before the
Christian era, may be explained in this
way:
All cooking at that time was/by wood
fires and the people lived in tents and
huts with earth for their floors.
Couniless fires made of wood upon
ground strongly impregnated with ni
ter must have existed every day-, and
when such fires were extinguished a
portion of the wood must. have been
converted into charcoal, some of which
would, of necessity, become mixed
with the niter in the soil. By this
means two of the most active ingredi
ents of gunpowder were brought to
gether, and it is very natural that when
another fire was kindled on the same
spot a flash might follow. This would
lead to investigation, and then the
manufacture of gunpowder was con
ceived. Whether this be true or not,
there is abundant evidence that the
origin of gunpowder and artillery goes
far back in the dim ages of the past.
The Hindoo code, compiled long be
fore the Christian era, prohibited the
making of war with cannon and guns
or any kind of firearms. Quintus Cur
tius informs us that Alexander the
Great met with fire weapons in Asia,
and Philos'tratus says that Alexander’s
conquests were arrested by the use of
gunpowder. It was also written that
those wise men who lived in the cities
of the Ganges “overthrew their ene
mies with tempests and thunderbolts
shot from the walls.” Julius African
us mentions powder in the year 275.
It was used in the siege of Constan
tinople in 668; by the Arabs in 690; at
Thessalonica in 904; at the siege of Bel
grade, 1073; by the Greeks in naval bat
tles in 1098; by the Arabs against the
Iberians in 1147, and at Toulouse in
1218. It appears to have been gener
ally known throughout civilized Eu
rope as early as 1300, and soon there
after it made its way into England,
where it was manufactured during the
reign of Elizabeth, and we learn that
a few arms were possessed by the. Eng
lish in 1310, and that they w ere used at
the battle of Crecy in 1346. —Gassier’*
Magazine.
He Saved the Cow and Cow Saved Him.
Belonging to a family in North To
peka was a cow which had been mad*
much of a pet by the children. When
the flood came, relates the Kansas City
Journal, the boy of the
faifiily ran to the barn to liberate this
cow. The next moment the agonized
father and mother saw the boy swept
away hdlding to the rope around the
neck of the cow. For four days the
family were marooned in the house.
All this time they mourned their boy
as lost. But he was not lost. He man
aged to mount the cow and she car
ried him four miles to the bluffs, swins
ming and wading. ~ -
SOMNAMBULISTIC FEAT.
A Writer Stricken with Tj-phold
Fever Write* an Article While
in a Troubled Dream.
Stories of wonderful somnambulist
mind, but this was my own experience
mind, but. this was my own experience
and is beyond qeustion, says a writer
in the New York Herald.
I was being driven to complete the
writing of an article that had taken
considerable time and research, and
unfortunately, just as I had my ma
terial all in good shape, along came an
attack of typhoid fever. The very
hour the physician ordered met to bed
I received a letter from my publisher,
saying that he must have my copy the
following day.
My good little wife tried to remove
my anxiety by asking permission to
be allowed to put my voluminous
notes in shape for me. Sick as 1 was
1 laughed at the idea. Yes, she is clev
er, but not clever enough for such a
task as that. She had done some writ
ing, and though she insists on con
tinually falling into the abs-urd habit
of being prodigal with her capital let
ters, and using them whenever she
could concoct the least excuse for it,
she had done some fair work. But to
write my article was too absurd, and
I told her so. She apparently dropped
the matter, and 1 settled back with a
103 temperature and dismissed the
writing from my mind.
Then came the strange thing. I fell
into a troubled sleep and dreamed, the
article^being the center of my imagina
tion. I thought that ray wife had left
the room, and that I had wrapped my
self in a blanket, gone to my/ type
writer in the adjoining library and
started to workj on my article. Rat
tley. bangl click! click! click! I
pounded on the machine for hour after
hour, until my task was completed.
Then I returned to my bed, but the
click of that typewriter continued to
sound in my ears until broad daylight.
For a few minutes I got a profound
sleep, and when I awoke, there was my
written article on the table surround
ed by my medicines. I could not real
ize that what I thought was a dream
was the veritable trnth, and that while
asleep I had actually composed 40
typewritten pages; but there they
were.
The best part of it is that my pub
lisher said if was the finest work that
I had ever done; but the funniest part
of it is that I had fallen into my wife's
absurd habit of overcapitalizing.
ROMANCE IN VARIED GUISE.
#
Definition of the Mneh-l'aed Wort In
Susceptible of a Widn
Diversification.
What is romance? Even the col
loquial use of the term is varied, says
Harper’s Magazine. When we say
“you are romancing” or call anything
romantic as distinguished from what
is real or what is true we mean one
thing, but quite another when we ap
ply the term romantic to natural
scenery. And in this application we
must distinguish between the effect
upon us of that w hich we call roman
tic because of human associations with
certain sights or sounds and that wild
ness of nature which we call romantic
because of its absolute dissociation
from anything human.
Keeping out of mind for the present
the use of the word in artistic and lit
erary criticism, let us try to find what
element of reconcilement there is in
the diversities of colloquial usage.
In all that is generally called roman
tic in the cases above mentioned there
is the common element of strangeness.
We easily revert to what must have
been the original sense of the word
in its connection with those medieval
modifications of the Latin tongue
known as the romance languages.
The Saxon or Celt would have found
his native tongue sufficient for all or
dinary needs, but if he caught the
Roman air in any way, by travel or
refinement of taste and habit, be
would, to meet the newly developed
need, borrow the graces of the Roman
speech —that is, he would romance.
St on Fire by tbe Sea.
Fancy the waves of the sea setting
fire to the cliffs they break on! Yet
this is what did really happen at Bally
bunion, on the western coast of Ire
land. These rocks, which the great At
lantic rollers have for centuries been
slowly breaking down, contain in their
depths masses of iron pyrites and
alum. At last the water penetrated
to these and a rapid oxidation took
place, which produced a heat fierce
enough to set the whole cliff on fire.
For weeks the rocks burned like a reg
ular volcano and great clouds of smoke
and vapor rose high in the air.
Disproving; Her Word.
It was in the nursery.
“Y r ou know, dear children,” ex
plained the fond mother, “there is
nothing new' under the sun!”
And just then the nurse came run
ning into the room with the cry: “Oh,
please, mum, but Tommy has got the
baby down on the ground and is sit
tin’ on him!” —Brooklyn feife.
Extremely Ancient.
Little Jim—Your Grau’pa is awful
old, ain’t he?
Little Bob —Yes-isiree! Why, he’s so
old tha.t he can’t remember the timQ
when he wasn’t living! —Puck. *