Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 137, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 June 1910 — Page 3

WORSE THAN OPIUM.

(later Kind of Smoke Which Starts In Boyhood Days on Farm. “Opium smoking isn't in it with po-tato-stem smoking,” states a doctor. “Usually the vice—and there are more victims than you would imagine—■tarts in boyhood days on the farm, when the youngster of the family steals his father’s pipe and hides with it and some matches down behind the garden fence or behind the barn next to the field potatoes. He doesn’t dare to take up the straight tobacco, but he tries out some dried potato stams in the pipe. “The smoke sets the experimente# into'a delicious dreamy state at first, but the heart action accelerates in a minute or two in'an effort to throw off the poison through the lungs and skin. The dreamy state quickly disappears, the face gets flushed and the heart action rapidly increases to severe palpitation. “if the dose has been large the victim feels a wild, fierce elation that impels him to action o£ any kin'd. in this state he may do anything, but the stage is reached much more quickly than with alcoholic liquors. “At this stage the heart action weakens and there is either stupor or syncope, in which the victim of the potato poison lies practically paralyzedeand unable to move, while his brain is in an insane whirl. This represents the height of the intoxication, and it is followed by acute depression and melancholia and a slow return of the physical powers. “The potato stem smoke Speedily draws a victim down. He jjrows pale is gaunt and emaciated, ends up with violent acute mania, usually with homicidal tendencies. “I had one case of the kind. A boy of 16 caught the habit trying to find a substitute for tojjaceo. He only lasted about three years. There wasn't anything that could be done for him. “This young chap couldn't be restrained or changed from the potato stem craving by any of the usual drugs. He was kept in bed, roped down during the maniacal stage that he went through. Morphine didn’t seem to do any good. The moment he was freed, after recovering somewhat, he would make a rush for the nearest potato vines, trying to get and smok--the stems, which he secreted in many places cunningly hidden.”

THE STEALTHY TIGER.

An Silently ns Deuth Itself He Approaches His Prey. An English hunter in India Writes: “I have seen a tiger sitting up 100 yards from me in the sunlight, washing his face like a cat, move a couple of steps into the shade and fade away like the foxy domesticated cat; but what is more extraordinary is that he can move without some dry leaf or stalk crackling to betray him. Often in a hunt in the middle of the dry season the inexperienced sportsman’s heart is in his mouth as he hears the crushing of a dead leaf, the slow, stpalthy tread of what seems some heavy animal; but it is only the peacock, the first to move ahead of the beaters. iThen, after a perod of strained watching, when the eye can and does detect the move of the tiniest bird, the quiver of a leaf, suddenly, without a soundr'-the great beast stands before him. "He does not always move quietly, but when he does death is not more silent. The question of how a white or otherwise abnormally marked tiger can take its prey is simplified by the fact that as a general rule the tiger kills at night or at dawn or dusk, and that it is only the cattle-killing tiger who takes his lordly toil of the village cattle by day. “Again, that wonderful voice, the most mournful sound in captivity, which literally hushes the Jungle and fills the twilight with horror is a powerful aid to him in his hunting. Often 1 have heard it. The memory of one occasion is as vivid as the moment when it held me spellbound. “I was stalking a deer in the evening in the glade of a forest, when suddenly from not 50 yards above me, rang, out a long, low, penetrating moan which seemed to fill the jungle with a terrifying thrill, and for a moment made the heart stand still. "The natives believe that the deer, hearing the tiger’s voice, and unable from the reverberating nature of the sound to locate the position of their enemy, stand or lie still, and so give him the chance of stalking his prey. Unless you are following the tiger and have seen him, it is almost impossible from the sound alone to tell with any certainty where he is.”

A Costly Plano.

The new emperor of Morocco came into possession of a curious piano, manufactured to the order of his predecessor, which is probably the most costly instrument of the kind ever made. This piano was made in parts, each being small enough to be carried by a slave, as it appeared that the former emperor firmly refused to trust theiti to the care of his camels, which formed the only other available means of transport. This exceedingly expensive .musical instrument was made principally of tulip and orris woods, inlaid with unpolished jacaranda parquetry, and decorated with scroll work of pure gold. The actual sum paid for it was $20,000.

Post-Lenten Extravagance.

Mrs. Browne—My dear, why do you Bay I am extravagant in giving a dinner right after Lent? Mrs. Towne —Oh, everybody will have such frightful appetites.—Boston Transcript. Wise men make haste but never hurry.

NO LONGER UNDER A BAN.

Hypnotism Hh Become a Benign Influence on Modern American Life. Many leading physicians and scientists in the United States have abandoned drugs as the cure for those patients who, living under high pressure, have overtaxed their mental and physical resources and become nervous wrecks. Many brilliant practitioners now treat such cases, not with medicine or knife, but with thought, or the use of suggestion with the aid of hypnotism. They say to the exhausted, nervous society woman: “You do not need medicine. You must teach your brain and your nerves to rest. You must receive into your mind the compelling message' that the only thing which can help you is calm and repose. We can give it to you, but not by the use of medicine or drugs.” _ To the business man, who has gone under such pressure that he can control neither his nerves nor his brain, they give the same advice. Hypnotism, which was once regarded as witchcraft and later as an instrument only for .harm, has become a benign influence on modern American life, a practical remedy for the distinctively American ailment of “nerves.” It has saved countless men and women from insane asylums, and it has been demonstrated as a reliable cure of certain cases of drug and cigarette habits. There is a popular impression that hypnotism is harmful because it puts a person’s mind under the domination of another’s ideas; also that to submit to hypnotism is to weaken one’s will power. As a matter of fact, It has been scientifically proved that the hypnotist cannot make the patient commit any act or entertain any thought contrary to that person’s idea of morality and principle. Hypnotism can*be, and sometimes is, abused by the professional fakir and operator, but, in the hands of a physician, it is merely a cure for ailments that cannot he reached by other means. The only opportunity for it to impair the will power arises when a person makes a habit of submitting to the same operation for purposes of exhibition and freakish tricks. In this way, in the course of time, the person hypnotized ■does train his mind to a certain extent to do whatever the hypnotist suggests. The great power of hypnotism over the physical functions of the body has been demonstrated by a Pittsburg physician, who put a patient .into a hypnotic sleep and told him that he would suffer no pain when his tooth was extracted. The tooth was pulled, and the patient suffered absolutely no pain. Whether it can ever be used instead of an anesthetic in surgical operations of a grave character, is one of the problems of the art for future years.

THE OLD AMERICAN.

No Poverly, Little JculoiiN Rivalry, but Great Good Humor. Recently a letter written by Gs P. R. James, an English novelist, while on a visit to America about 1850, was sold at auction in New York. The document, written at New Haven, is of interest outside of autograph collectors and reads as follows: “In passing through this land one sees no poverty, no squalid wretchedness, nii hovels and old huts. Great good humor, too, is visible everywhere among the people; each man seems to feel that by industry he can get on as well as another. There is little of that jealous rivalry, none of that irritable envy that we see in older lands, where we are all-struggling for that bread which is not sufficient for the whole.” Here is an echo of the old American, says the New York Globe. Great good humor prevalent, a minimum of jealous rivalry and irritable envy, general belief lhat a kind Providence had called the people of this land to dwell in a pretty good place. Would an English novelist, visiting America now so write? Yet if Americans today were called on to occupy the houses that satisfied in 1850 they would deedi themselves ill used. In New Haven wages are nominally four times higher than sixty years ago, and measures in purchasing power twice as high. The average American stomach is filled with more and better food, and the average American back is covered with finer raiment. It is the spirit rather than that with which the spirit exercises itself which has changed for the worse. It is now almost unfashionable to praise America as formerly it was deemed unpatriotic to have any doubts.

Japanese Monkey Furs.

Yet another animal is being pressed into our service for the production of ornamental furs—the monkey. But it is the prettiest of its tribe —the Japanese monkey. Its long hair harmonizes perfectly with the velvets of which we are so enamored. It is being used for stoles, too. These are made of bands of velvet all of the same width, and alternated with bands of fur, for which the poor animal’s coat is suitable. If one would have one’s stole more bizarre than pretty, the fur can be edged by a narrow cross band of black. We have grown quite accustomed now to the white satin lining of * black fox fur, and look upon It as a Charming combination. Probably the next thing with which we shall have to become familiar is the black satiii scarf bordered with white fox which is very popular in Paris. It is an exquisite little novelty. >-

Real Popularity.

"Is he popular with the fair sex?" "Say, that fellow’s so popular that if every man in the world was a thunder storm the women wouldn’t hear any one but him.” —St. Louis Star.

RECIPES OF OLD HERBALIST.

Some of Them at Interest To-Day— TTaea of Hoiemary and Violets. “A Compleat Herbal,” compiled in the year 1653 by one Nicholas Culpeper “at his house in ‘ Spitalflelds, next door to the Red Lion,” fell the other day into the hands of the writer, the London Daily Mail says. Mr. Culpeper, M. D., was a physician of great renown in the' seventeenth century and with hiß Herbal left upward of fifty choice recipes, many of which were “aids to vanitie,” to his wife. Those women who are now eager to prdcure good recipes for the stillroom will be interested to know that out of the numberless too intricate recipes supplied by Nicholas Culpeper there are some of quite modern interest. For brightening the hair and to bring comfort to the head and brain bathe with a decoction of camomile flowers, which will remove pain and weariness to whatever part of the body applied. J To keep the teeth white it is well to rub them with quince juice copiously diluted with water, which not only cleanses the teeth but fastens them and strengthens the gums. Violets are a “fine, pleasing plant of Venus.” To relieve hoarseness take a dram weight of the purple flowers and steep them in a pint of fresh water. After some hours gargle with the decoction. Julep of violets, like julep of roses, is made by adding two ounces of the syrup of either flower to a pint of distilled water. To purify the complexion drink three ounces every morning of the julep. The sun claims rosemary and it is under the celestial rain. It is a herb of great use “for physical as well as civil purposes.” The decoction thereof iii white wine or water helps rheumatic pains in the eyes. For giddiness the head and temples should be bathed with it. It helps dim eyes and procures clear sight, the flowers thereof being taken all the while if blossoming. Every morning taken fasting with bread and salt a conserve of the flowers is comforting to the heart and to burn the stalks and flowers of the herb in houses corrects the air in them. , In the seventeenth century the dried leaves, shredded small, were smoked in a pipe as tobacco is and were considered very helpful for coughs and consumption. A seasonable remedy for colds is syrup of mints. Take of the juice of quinces between sweet and sour and the juice of pomegranates sweet and sour, of each a pound and a half, dried mints half a pound and dried red roses two ounces, let them steep one day, then boil the mixture Half away and with four pounds of sugar boil it into a fragrant syrup. Take a spoonful of it several times a day. A bit of vine branch burned and the ashes thereof rubbed on black teeth wil 1 make them white as snow. Nutmeg finely grated on to the top of hot milk in a glass eases pain in the head, takes away the weakness coming from a cold and restores the fatigued. Tincture of cinnamon, considered most valuable in influenza colds in the seventeenth century, is once again a favorite remedy with doctors. Take of bruised cinnamon two ounces, spirits of wine (rectified) two pounds, infuse them four days in a large glass stopped With a cork and bladder. Shake twice a day, then dissolve half a pound of sugar candy by itself in two pounds of rose water and mix both liquors. Take a spoonful in water.

Her Interpretation.

The monotony of the postal official’s daily routine is frequently broken by the peculiar whims and caprices of eccentric members of the public with whom he is from time to time brought in contact, said a Londoner. A lady once sent to her son a pair of trousers by book post, which is, of course, cheaper than parcel post. The postal official wrote to her: "Clothes cannot be sent by book post. If you will refer to the Postofflce Guide you will see under what conditions articles may be sent by book post.” After a few days the lady replied: "I have looked into the Postofflce Guide, and find that articles which are open at both ends may be sent by book post. And if trousers are not open at both ends I should like to know what is.”

Only Not In Bunches.

A good story of a specimen of the ordinary theatrical landlady is told by J. L. Shfite. One Saturday evening he and a fellow actor purchased a pound of sausages for their Sunday's breakfast. There were eight to the pound, but when they arrived at the table there were only five. Thereupon the landlady was called in to account for the missing links. "Madam,’’ said Mr. Shine severely, “I gave you eight sausages last night; here are only five. What has become of the other three?” The lady of the house smiled an innocent smile, mingled with pity, and Teplied: "Well, you sefe, sir, sausages always do shrink in cooking.” Which information had to suffice.

The Bagpipe Competition.

At a Highland gathering one Donald McLean had entered for a number of events. The first .of these was the quarter-mile. Donald certainly didn’t distinguish himself in the quartermile. Of eight runners he was the last. “Donald! Donald!” cried a partisan. “Why did ye no run faster?” Donald sneered. "Run faster!” he said, contemptuously. “And me reservin’ mysel’ for the bagpipe competition!”

EATING ON THE PUBLIC WAT.

Tbe Simplicity of Open-air Meals Has Not Died Oat la Many Cities. Street venders of combestibles play no such conspicuous part in the life of New York’s public ways as they once did, and not so long ago. Perhaps the city has grown more dignified, but whatever the reason people no longer walk abroad munching, regardless of appearances. However, these open-air nifeals have not vanished in the financial district of the juvenile business men of New York, for in the first block of Ann street, in the noon hour, newsboys, messenger boys, and office boys, still tin knickerbockers, make hearty luncheons from a variety of tins or from “hot dog” in a split roll. This is but a survival frbm a bygone period when the elders patronized the waffle baker on the corner, Other cities yet retain the pristine simplicity —Hunger is not to be cribbed, nor will it regulate itself by the dropping of any time ball. There still are towns where the hungry man may eat and be not ashamed of eating on the crowded highways. San Francisco still has its tamale, the retailer selling his wares upon the streets by night and the wayfarer welcoming the viand. Scoffers may suggest that seap gull is the principal component of the peppery combination of meat and cornmeal, and the unalterable price of three for two bits lends color to the aspersion. The tamale is none the less a satisfying meal, a meal of the streets, not a thing for a knife and fork and dainty napery. Cincinnati still hears of late evening the plaintive cry of “winnewish.” It demands the resources of philology to discover that it is but the negro attempt to compass “Wienerwurst.” This nocturnal food finds a ready sale among such as are going home at unholy hours. '" Richmond streets are still the market place for fried chicken —yellowlegged chicken on a slab of pone no less yellow. The purchaser of this refreshment may wonder how he gets so much at a price so small. He may estimate that the two levies with which he pays the ancient darky can scarcely cover the cost of manufacture; the cost of material is unaccounted for. Far better leave it unaccountable, save that the chicken was cheaply acquired in the natural way.

QUAINT BRETON VILLAGE.

Sketches of the Kitchen and Company of an Ancient Inn. '' Change seldom visits a Breton village, Its sentiment is of the past and its people are rooted to their customs as firmly as their oaks to the soil. Their houses of solid masonry appear to belong to the ground, somber in color as, though blackened by the ages and immovable to the end of time, and yet the ancient tavern, landmark of decades, has long since been demolished. The hotel at the head of the place bespoke a certain ordered decorousuess not to be trifled with, but the old inn at the foot was Bohemia itself, rays a writer in Scribner’s. Dogs occupied equal room with the proper guests. In the rangy kitchen, the time-darkened fire-place was framed in A —blazonment of brass and copper utensils which blinked, flashed, glowed, according to the ever-changing humor of the light. Flanking the fireplace were two great Breton beds, one richly carved, into which at some mysterious hour crept, as into a ship’s berth, the mistress and her maids, to dream behind their latticed doors as in the days when each man shut himself from nocturnal prowlers behind such bars. At the long table a frequenter might find it necessary to push aside the salad to make room for his glass. The dining room just beyond was paneled from ceiling to wainscot with the work of many men. It would seem that most of the painters of the world had at some time journeyed to Pont-Aven! Here manners were of the easiest, and after,dinner, at which the artists elbowed the collectors of taxes, the rubicund Capitalize de la Douane, and the little notary, the air would grow heavy with a fog of tobacco fumes, but crackling with quip and repartee; if, on leaving, a guest stumbled over the dogs lying at the threshold, the saturnine Patron would swear—but not at the dogs!

PROVERBS OF PEOPLE.

Many are the afflictions of the righteous.—Bible. Keep the bone and the dog will follow you.—lrish. Better gain in mud than lose in gold.—ltalian. Strong is the vinegar of sweet wine. —ltalian. He hurts the good who spares the bad.—French. H Kind words heal friendship’s wounds.—French. A determined heart will not be counseled.—Spanish. Who does right is born sufficiently noble. —German. It belongs to great men to nave great defects—French. Who falls short in the head must be dong in the heels.—Gernjan.

Chinese Combings.

Large quantifies of what are known as combings are imported from China via Trieste or Hamburg packed in cases wrapped in straw and weighing from 123 to 130 pounds per bale. This Chinese hair is all chemically bleached in a solution of hydrogen peroxide and assorted according to lengths, then dyed colors and shades desired by purchasers. The lengths vary from six to thirty-five inches.

BIRD CHAT.

Birds shun pestilent places and all places infected with plagues. The hens of America lay 850>000,000 eggs annually. The swiftest animal is the ostrich, which can do a mile a minute. The Australian mound bird builds the biggest nest in the world. A pigeon has been known to fly a thousand miles in two days, six hours and seventeen minutes. Game cocks and ducks sometimes take to catching mice, which they devour greedily. The voice of the naked-throated bellbird can be heard at a distance of three miles. In the interior of Peru eggs are used as currency. Who knows what kind of eggs they are? In proportion to its owner’s weight, a bird s wing is twenty times as strong as a man’s arm. Every eight months ostriches are plucked, and each plucking yields about a pound of feathers. Stale eggs once had a commercial value, as blackening was originally made of them and soot. The kick of an ostrich is terrible; it will knock 6ut a man quicker than one of Jim Jeffries’ solar plexus blows. The turkey’s real name was oocoocoo, by whieh it was known to the Cherokee Indians, and so called from its call. "T A single crow has been known to destroy “700,000 insects a year.” A sweeping assertion! Who counted .them? The organ of in the turkey buzzard is so delicate that it can scent food at a distance of forty miles. But such food! A bird dealer in Paris is trying to raise canaries of an orange red tint by feeding the parent birds on cayenne pepper. In China athletes train on duck brains, which they regard as the most strengthening of food. Ostriches are now hatched in incubators. It requires forty-one days with the maintenance of 110 degrees of heat before the chicks begin to appear. ——

LITTLE THINGS WORTH KNOWING.

A complete set of British birds’ eggs is worth about SI,OOO. The average cost a mile of a transatlantic submarine cable is $1,200. For every $250,000 spent on engineering it is estimated that a man is killed. There are 270 active volcanoes In the world, many of them being comparatively small. Only about one out of every thousand married couples live to celebrate its golden wedding. Nearly two-thirds of the crime in London is perpetrated between 2pm on Saturdays and 9 a. m. on Mondays. A lock of Napoleon’s hair, cut by his servant on May 31, 1811, at the Hotel de Lorz, Brussels, was sold recently for $4 at Stevens’ auction rooms. Covent Garden, London. Forming part of the breakfast menu of the members of the council of the Royal Zoological Socity of Ireland, at Dublin, recently, were some eggs brought by Sir Charles Ball from China which were laid 40 years ago. By the close of next year about 2,000,000 acres will have been reclaimed by irrigation in this country at a cost of $70,000,000. When the system is completed about 30,000,000 acres will have been recovered and opened for settlement. The heaviest rainfall ever recorded for a single day on the Isthmus of Panama occurred during the great flood of last December, between the hours of 10 a, m., Dec. 28, and 10 a. m. Dec. 29, when the rain gauge ..t Porto Bello showed a fall of 10.96 inches. The total fall for the month was 58.17 inches, which is equal to an average rate of nearly two inches a day.

SCIENCE NOTES.

There were fewer deaths per thousand of population in Philadelphia last year than ever before in the city's history. Argentina consumes 44,092,000 pounds of malt for brewing annually, representing 176,370,000 pounds of barley. The average value of occupied farm land in Canada last year was $38.60 per acre, compared with $35.70 the year before. Of cities of importance, Sydney, New South Wales, is farthest in air line distance from London, 10,120 miles. An architect in Chihuahua, Mexico, has been granted a patent on a method for making concrete bouses in one piece. ' y The known petroleum areas of the country cover 8,850 square miles and the natural gas areas 10,055 square miles. An aeroplane in which seamless steel tubing jtakes the place of wood or bamboo in the frames and planes has proved a success in Germany, The Peruvian Indians are credited with having the greatest range of vision of all races, cases having been recorded of thepa distinguishing human beings eighteen miles away. The production of 1,958 short tons of tungsten concentrates in the United States last year established a new record for the metal. Of this amount i Colorado yielded 1,401 tons.

ATCHISON GLOBE SIGHTS.

Every good business man is able te get rid of an agent quickly, A man usually has more respect- ter another man’s size than for his *ge. A man should be taller, older, heavier, uglier and hoarser than his wife Somehow, “Home, Sweet Home ” home. 1 80UDd rlgbt When yOU „ are tr ying to sell a man wuTnotlce u°° "* to ° «■» A gir ! ho has no rival shouldn’t be proud; her lover is lookfng around tor one, all right. h ™ hen a W ° man has a Party on her To h d »v She W ° rkS t 0 get through; not to have a good time. No man can be called a hopeless fool until he has made a fool of himself twice in the same way. The average idea of reciprocity is trying to make others do more for you than you do for them It is our theory that preachers give the Lord credit for a good deal the women are responsible for. As soon as anyone commences taking a prominent part in anything people begirP poking at him. ’ P The d evii and all his imps do not who G h US f h3lf aS much as the men who have funny stories to tell. If you are foolish enough to engage LY u g T ent ’ alwa ys talk loud?y and excitedly, if you hope to win. eitvY he advanta S ea of life in a large citj is meant the chance to spend m°a e p y ark n **** a “ d 866 moi *eys ** j*. a mighty rich girl who can resist the temptation to reply to an adX a weeT ° f lady Cashler wa “ted at from h n n f an ' ant °moblle stands idle in ront of a man s house as long as tMr. ty minutes at a tim© » * srow terribly l.dlgLan’t.

PROGRESS AND INDUSTRY.

England’s high roads cost $4 000 a mile to construct. The use of trackless trolleys is rapidly extending in Europe. BrTt^ n aDnUal WhCat crop of Great bushels. am ° UntS t 0 ab ° Ut 400 - o °o.°oo The number of horses in the United oS ary 11 19 °°’ was nearly 14 ’- India’s revenue from the opium trade 500 year amounted to about $23,079,registered trade unions of About 5,200 trade marks are registered during the course of the year at the patent office. John Bull’s diet is not exclusively one of beef. At last accounts Great Britain had 1,500,000 turkeys. The value of automobiles enteriug the world’s markets in 1909 exceeded $»0,000,000, against $9,000,000 in 1902. In New York proposed extensions of the subway are contemplated which represent an expenditure of $100,009.The Carnegie Steel Company pays about one-seventh of the entire taxes collected by the city of Youngstown, The grand total of all federal eraP ' oye f 1 at l presen t I® 370,065, as against 306,141 in 1907, an increase in two years of about 64,000 persons, or about 25 per cent. In the newest type of telephone for use on shipboard the induction coil, condenser and bell of the instrument are inclosed in a small white enamel box, and the Bwltch hook, which projects from one side, ig provided with a special retaining device to prevent the receiver from being knocked oft by t*e motion of the ship. As a result of the compulsory adoption of safety devices by railroads a great saving of life among railroad employes is shown. In 1893 one out of every 349 men employed In car coupling was killed and one in 13 was injured ; whereas, in 1908, one out of 983 was killed and one out of 62 was Injured—an increase in the factor of safety against dfath of 181.6 and against injury of 377.

NOTES OF ELECTRICITY.

Of the 1,023 locomotives built by one firm last year, 197 were electrics. The work of compiling a magnetic survey of Africa has been practically completed. During the past year 64,408 applications were received for patents at Washington, the most of which were for electrical applications. Fine grades of paper are now finished on electrically heated rolls. Electricity is being used extensively throughout the manufacture of paper and its products. « The volume of water annually passing into the sea from this country is estimated at 70,000,000,000,000 cubic feet, of which one per cent is used for municipal purposes, ten per cent for Irrigation and five per cent for power purposes. Previous to 1800, tallow dips and wax candles were the only sources of light; then came gas lighting and about 1850 the oil lamps came, becoming very widely used in the sixties. In 1876 the first arc light was used in a lighthouse and later they were installed for street illumination. The incandescent lamp was discover ed by Edison in 1880 and the latest development in electric lighting, the new metal filament lamps, is onlj About a year old.