Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 81, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 April 1913 — Page 3

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T is a far cry from the tall, dignified and soldierly looking officer who walks the quarterdeck es the superintendent’s house at the United States Naval academy, and whose word Is law to the 750-odd ( youths whonj Uncle Sam is training to command his

forces afloat, to the tall but sad faced youngster who for 13 blessed Saturday afternoons paraded the academy grounds, carrying the black flag, back in 78, but the fact that they are one and the same only goes to prove that there Is a generous amount of human nature in the man who now presides over the destinies of the 750-odd embryo admirals. Furthermore, it constitutes strong contrlbutive evidence that human nature, and especially boy nature, has not changed much from 1878 to 1912. But the melancholy tale of “the death of liberty” and the black flag which marked ft must give place to more serious matters for the present. It was in May, 19J.1, that Secretary Meyer detailed Capt John H. Gibbons as superintendent of the naval academy. Captain Gibbons had recently completed a' tour of duty on the Asiatic station, where he commanded the cruiser Charleston, and had been assigned to the general board when the late Captain Bowyer’s falling health compelled him to resign the superlntendency of the naval academy. Captain Gibbons was chosen to succeed him. Fully half of the new superintendent's service had been spent at sea, and twice he had circumnavigated the globe. He had seen service on the little old training ship Jamestown, and rounded the Horn In her back in 'B2, and one of his tours of shore duty had been as naval attache M the American embassy to England. Thoroughness had marked all his work. His courtliness of manner had won for him, almost back of his “plebe" days, the sobriquet of “Marquis de Gibbons," and, above all, he was Imbued with the spirit of the navy. It Is not surprising that his selection should have been greeted with expressions of approval from all who knew him well. Neither Is It surprising that all he has achieved and sought to achieve as superintendent of that educational institution, which was awarded the gold medal at the Paris exporsitlon as the ■finest governmental educational Institution In the world, should have been of a nature to commend Itself to popular as well as to professional approval. It Is not necessary to talk to Captain Gibbons to\percelve that he takes his work seriously, but when one does talk to him and hears him modestly discuss his aims and aspirations for the academy which is so dear to his heart one is Impressed with the full measure of thought and study and, perhaps, even worry which this quiet, determined man Is giving to the most Important work In the navy. Poor ships may be made to give a fairly good account of themselves in the hands of skilful ofllcers, but the best snips can accomplish nothing if they are not well commanded. Moreover, ■on the brains and skill and energy of the young men now being trained at the naval academy must depend $e future efficiency ofthe fleet, for on them will fall the responsibility of deeignlng as well as fighting the navy of the future. Five distinct has Captain ■Gibbons set himself to achieve driving his present tour of duty. These are (1) the facilitation of admission of ■candidates; (2) the simplification of the curriculum; (8) the substitution of naval officers for civilian teachers wherever practicable; (4) the absolute elimination of haring, and (5) the “dignlficatlon,” If the coining of a word be allowed, of the first class. Sad experience—for every occasion for severe discipline Is an occasion of sadness to Captain Gibbons—has taught the evils of the training or coaching schools for candidates for the academy, especially those which involve absence from home, an absence free alike from the Influences of the home and the restrains of military discipline. Boys preparing for their entrance examinations are usually young and impressionable, and too

HE SAVED WOULD-BE SUICIDE

Absentmindedness. which has done some very rash things In Its universal career, was the alchemy that nearly turned a wcAild-be suicide Into just a suicide here. Harry Such, after the usual fight with hts wife, decided to go to the place where wives and marriages are reputed pot to bo, which ought to be a fine place. He tied a few yards of Clothesline around his neck and

Making future Naval Officers

often those who go away from home to coach form habits and associations which remain to hamper them throughout their Career at the academy, which sometimes destroy their chances of success. At many of these schools are met what are known in academy parlance as “bilgers,” young men who for one reason or another have failed in their studies and have been dropped, but who can command sufficient political Influence to grain re-entry. That there may be young men of worth among them is not denied, but that In the generality of cases there is some grave defect of character is the contention of ttye academy faculty, and it to emphatically asserted that contact with them rarely fails to injure the boy who is preparing for his iniial examination. For this reason Captain Gibbons has made a serious and a successful effort to modify the entrance examinations In order to obviate, as far as possible, the necessity for special coacning for the boy with a good high school education and sufficient brains to carry him through once he gains admission. Second chronologically, but not in Importance, are the changes which Captain Gibbons to effecting In the curriculum of the academy. The complexity of modern naval warfare as compared with that of a former generation, the intricacies of the modern battleship as compared with the sailing frigate of the early part of the last century, must be apparent to the veriest tyro. And with this development came Increases in and complication of the academy curriculum. In the effort to turn out midshipmen proficient in all the phases of duty they would be called upon to perform there has been an ever Increasing danger that, like -the proverbial jack of all trades, they would be master of none. The Importance of a change of system was obvious to those who gave the subject sufficient serious consideration. The first step toward correnting the evil was'necessarily In the direction of specialization. There were no superfluous subjects, therefore provision must be made for special training In the subjects eliminated after graduation. Some progress along that line had already been made, but now a pnat graduate school has been established at Annapolis and a systematic and varied course provided. Captain Gibbons has been made head of ihe more advanced school, as he Is of the Naval academy.' The entrance examination has been somewhat simplified by the elimination of world’s history and in some minor details. The first year’s work has been made more elementary and is better designed to afford asubstantlal basis for subsequent education. The practice of sending the first and second classes to sea with the fleet Instead of on school ships during the summer months, in order that they may have an opportunity to apply their knowledge and to supplement theoretical experience, has been adopted, and the more advanced features, such as tactics, law and constructive and designing technical work, have been either eliminated or abridged, with a view to their further pursuit after graduation. The post-graduate course will, In the main, be preceded by three years of sea service and qualification for the grade of junior lieutenant. For the present the course will Include ordnance and gunnery, marine engineer-

jumped off a chair. John Korem, who rooms on the floor above, felt the jar, and hustled downstairs. He to one of those absentminded men who put their clothes in bod and go to sleep In the wardrobe. Therefore, instead of cutting the rope with a knife, he searched leisurely around for a saw, and then—sawed down the beam. It fa hard to say what Such thought of the delay, but he must have been mad.

Ing, electrical engineering, radio-teleg-raphy, naval construction and civil engineering. An immediate occasion of some, at least, of the changes in the curriculum, etc., was the enactment of congress providing that midshipmen should be commissioned as ensigns on the completion of their four years’ course at the Naval academy, Instead of being carried as passed midshipmen for two years before attaining the grade of ensign. Captain Gibbons Is convinced v that no influence is so to the young men at the academy as association with officers of the navy, from whom, he believes, they will, even unconsciously, absorb much of that spirit which has made the navy always the pride of Americans and the admiration of the military world. It is to that end that he would, where it can be done without detriment to the academy, substitute officers for civilian teachers. In some degree this is getting back to the custom which prevailed when he was himself a midshipman, or, rather, a cadet, as they were termed In those days, the cadet becoming a midshipman only after graduating from the academy. The brigade was far smaller than it is today. Officers were more numerous in proportion to the demands of the fleet than they have been for a considerable time, and small classes with numerous officer instructors were the rule. To the good Influence of the Instructors with whom he came in con-' tact Captain Gibbons Is ever ready to testify. This does not mean, of course, that the superintendent contemplates substituting officers for the Instructors in foreign languages—termed “dago” by the midshipmen—or that he would seriously Impair the efficiency of the Instructing body to carry out bls theory, but he does believe that the more the midshipmen can be brought In contact with naval officers the more thoroughly they will be fitted for their vocation, and he would even sacrifice something of pedagogic proficiency to gain such association. For the practice of hazing, or even “running,” which is the term given by the midshipmen to the milder forms of that delectable pastime, Captain Gibbons has little toleration. Congress has forbidden all forms of hazing, and that alone, in the eyes of the superintendent, makes it his duty to stomp out the' practice. And it is safe to say that he has done more to achieve this end than any of his predecessors. He has visited swift and summary justice on those found guilty of disobeying the law and the regulations in this respect. In summarizing the alms of Captai a Gibbons, reference was made to the “digniflcatlon” of the first class, that Is, the graduating class. It to a part of the superintendent’s policy to enhance the standing of that class in the eyes of their fellow-midshipmen in all ways possible and at the same time to Impose on first class men /additional responsibilities, making them In large degree accountable for the enforcement of discipline, and, precisely as from among their number are chosen the officers of the brigade, still further to fit them for the duties of command for which they are being trained, while incidentally they reader valuable assistance by way ot example and control in governing the younger midshipmen.

for he wu bine In the face when Koren finally released the rope. When resuscitated he was asked if he still wanted to die Ho turned a savage eye toward Koren and muttered: “Not yet; not until I got even with that absentminded duck!**—Sou th Norwalk (Coda.) Dispatch to Philadelphia Record. Truth crushed to earth will rise again, but on the other hand a lie, under the same conditions, doesn't have Its anchor fast In the mud, either.

HOUSEHOLD LORE OF VALUE

Some Good Old Rules That Have Been Handed Down Through Many Generations. A capital method of cleaning copper pans and kettles is to fill them first of all with boiling water and then to nib the outside with sour milk. The milk must have reached the condition of thick curds, a little being rubbed on with a piece of flannel. Buttermilk is even more satisfactory. When dry, the metal should be polished with a clean chamois leather. Garlic juice used to be considered the best cement for fine china in bygone days. To extract the juice from the garlics, they were crushed in a mortar and then pressed in a piece of muslin, the juice being then collected and painted on to the broken edges with a brush of a feather. The flnest whiting, crumbled to a powder and then made into a paste with a drop or two of sweet oil, represents an excellent polish for metal dish and pan covers. This should be rubbed on with a piece of flannel, and a little of the powdered whiting enclosed in a muslin bag afterwards Bpdinkled over the top. A gloss may be obtained by finally scouring briskly with a chamois leather. A little soap rubbed on the hinges of a door will prevent it from creaking. An old-fashioned method of cleaning an oven is that of placing a handful of straw inside it aad setting Are to it. The oven door must be kept closed until the straw has burned itself out The smoke was considered to soften the crust of grease and fruit which it is often impossible to prevent after meat or fruit tarts have been cooked In the oven.—A knife may be required to scrape the stains, and the whole must be well scoured finally with a cloth wrung out in boiling soda suds.

SUGGESTIONS FOR HOUSEWIFE

A tiny piece of garlic laid on the lettuce half an hour before serving will give a slight savory flavor. Knives not In daily use should be well polished and buried In a box of sawdust until required for use. - To render boots and shoes waterproof in damp weather rub a little mutton suet around the edges of the spies. Beeswax Is just aa efficacious. Always empty out any water left before filling the kettle. Very frequently the flat taste of tea Is caused by using water that has already been boiled. If a strong brine of salt and water is thrown over the coalk less soot will collect in the flues and chimneys. The fire, too, will burn clear and bright. When baking potatoes grease them first with a little butter, and when cooked they will be beautifully brown and crisp, with the glazed appearance that makes them so appetizing. Mayonnaise dressing will separate when too much salt has been added to the egg yolks, or when the oil has been dropped too fast, or If the ingredients are not thoroughly chilled when used.

To Clean Plaster Ornaments.

Plaster of Paris pieces are pretty just as long as they retain their spotless white color. If they become dusty they ipay be cleaned by scrubbing them with a soft brush dipped In gasoline The first washing will leave the gasoline very dirty, so you must carefully wipe the figures and then repeat the process. When thoroughly dirty, mid even this method of cleaning fails, the' Images may be made to look very attractive by patnting .with whit* alabastine, or given a glossy finish with white enamel. They may also be renovated by making a weak solution of isinglass water In which clean whiting is dissolved. Paint with this solution and set aside to dry. They are also very decorative when bronzed.

Rice in French Style.

Wash well a quarter pound of rice and blanch in boiling water for ten minutes and boll it In a saucepan with an ounce of butter, three tablespoonfuls of sugar, a pint of milk, two bitter almond macaroons, a half ounce of orange peel cut into shreds, a half teaspoonful of orange flour water, 15 or 20 candled cherries cqt in halves, the same number of large muscatel raisins, stoned, and a quarter ounce of candled angelica, thinly sliced. When the rice is done pour the mixture into a mold. When cold turn out on a platter. Serve, it with a sauce flavored with a gill of sherry or rum.

Rubber Cape.

Caps of rubber in plaids and checks, as .well as in solid colors of unusually pretty shades, are finished with a box plaiting of the rubber for a frill. They are quite practical for those who like a shower bath and are also used by the woman motorist for pulling over her hat to shield it from dust or rain.— Newark News.

Pressed Beef.

801 l a nice beef shank in plenty of water until' the meat will tall from the bones ahd the water is reduced to one pint Remove bones and gristle and chop the mdat very fine. Salt and pepper to taste, add the liquor, stir thoroughly, put in a mold and set away to cool. Serve cut in slices.

Removing Rust.

Rust can be removed from steel by covering it with sweet oil for a day, then rub it with- a lump of fresh lime and polish in the ordinary way.

Fork for Mixing.

Try mixing flour and water for thickening with a fork instead of a spoon. It to less likely to tarn lumpy.

NAVAJOS are Self-Supporting

THE Navajo Indian reservation, lying partly in New Mexico and partly in Arizona, overlaps the Continental divide like a gigantic saddle blanket, and may be briefly described further as a great broken plateau of some 25,000 square miles in area, semi-arid in Its climatic features and overgrown quite generally with a hardy growth of vegetation, Including many valuable forage plants unsurpassed for grazing purposes—a resource long since turned to account by its interesting inhabitants, the Navajos, the owners of 2,000,000 sheep, the Income from which renders them practically Independent of the whites and the benevolent paternalism of the federal government. At the time of the American occupa tlon ot New Mexico in 1848, the Navajos had become quite generally a pastoral ' people, subsisting upon their flocks, which -were added to, according to accounts of the times, by others stolen from the Pueblos and the Mexican settlers with whom they were not infrequently at enmity. During the '6o’s when the tribe was at war with the United States their herds and property were ruthlessly killed and destroyed and the men, women and children 'carried oft in captivity to 1 Fort Sumner. Children Belong to Mother. Following their release and return to the reservation, the United States government, In 1869, gave them 30,009 shee/ and 2,000 goats, which by careful husbanding they have Increased to the present extensive dlmensons, becoming the principal possession of each family and Its chief means of support, the flocks of the more thrifty, in many Instances, numbering several thousand head, thus enabling the possessors to live in comparative ease or affluence even. It is, Indeed, the exception rather than the rule to find a family without a herd of sheep. They, in fact, are the royal road to 4 power and influence in the tribe, one’s rank being automatically regulated by the size of his flock, the greater one’s possessipna the more exalted his position. As among other primitive peoples, woman's standing in the Navajo tribe is high, descent and Inheritance being in her line, the children belonging to the mother and her clan. By tribal prerogative she is the principal property owner, the lands, houses, crops and sheep being hers exclusively, ana It Is on her that their care and msnagement largely devolve. The scarcity of water and grass at certain seasons, the difference In altitude of the various sections, the consequent attendant climatic variations and the peculiar character of the plant life on the reservation make It necessary to move the flocks during certain seasons. For these reasons, to which must be coupled the itinerant proclivities of the tribe, the Navajo has no permanent abode, his movements being regulated to a very great extent by the waxing and waning of the pastures, a state of affairs that fits In well with Navajo disposition to wander, Inherited from his forbears, who lived by hunting and plundering, the change from a roving hunter to a nomadic herdsman being an easy and perhaps a natural one. Ranges Divided. In the summer months the family repair with their flocks to the high 4 mountainous areas, where thrive magnificent belts of timber consisting of yellow pine, fir, spruce, scrub oak, pinon, juniper and cedar. Flourishing within these timbered tracts are numerous grassy stretches that furnish excellent pasturage for the herds. Then, too, the climate is more congenial and water more abundant than on the lower semi-arid sections elsewhere. As a rule, whether on the summer or ylnter pasture lands, the family occupy the same locality, in each case, year after year, the range being divided in some manner among the 'various clans that constitute the Navajo tribe, and again subdivided among the families, where It is handed down through some system of entail from one generation to another. In a secluded place remote from springs, war taring sites and trails near a small arable track, the summer hogan is situated, near which are the corrals for the sheep and ponies.

The size of the flocks owned by the individual families vary considerably In some cases. The number possessed by the smallest holders Is rarely less than 250 head. While the more wealthy have as many as 2,000 or more. Soma of the wealthiest hold at their disposal from 6,000 to 10,000 head, but instances of this kind are few and are not known to exist in but ten or twelve eases. Of seventy-seven herds counted near Kearns canyon, Arizona, the average sized flock was found to be very nearly 700 head, which to probably a fair estimate for other sections of the reservation. If there to any difference elsewhere it will exceed these figures rather than fall below them. A herd of this size will easily support an average Navajo family of two adults and three children. The wool sold direct to the traders as it to taken from the sheep should bring 1300. If made into blankets it will exceed this amount by two or three times. Adding to this the returns from the sale of a few lambs or of the matured animals, It toobvioug that the ordinary Navajo family can live easily off the income from their flocks, considering that they are at no cash outlay, except for their clothing, flour, coffee and a few other domestic n* cesslties exclusive of meat, which to supplied from the herd. While no definite figures are obtainable, it seems very probable that the Navajos have on an average 100 sheep per capita for every man, woman and child oq the reservation, which to amply sufficient to solve the bread-and-butter problem for them for generations to come,' granting, of course, that they do not lose their herds from epidemics or from unfavorable range conditions.

TO NATURE FOR REAL REST

• Excellent Advice Couched in Language * That Savors of the Fancy of the 'True Poet ■ ■ ----- Tired, are you? Want a recipe for real jreatJ Well, here’s one, recommended by Nicholas Vachel Lindsay —he’s a poet, but don’t hold that against him —in Ferm and Fireside: “You to whom the universe has become a blast furnace, a coke oven, a cinder-strewn freight yard, to whom the history of all ages la a tragedy with the climax •now to whom our democracy and our flag are but playthings of the hypocrite, turn to the soil, turn to the earth, your mother, and she will comfort yott. Rest, be it ever so little, from your black broodIngs. Think with the farmer once more, as your fathers did. Revere with the farmer our centuries-old rural civilization, however little it meets the city's trouble. Revere the rural customs that have their roots in the immemorial benefits ot nature. “There is perpetual balm in Gilead, and many city workmen shall turn to it and be healed. This by faith, and a study of the signs, we proclaim!”— Detroit Free Press.

Fox Made the Cat Dizzy.

Augustus Johnson, a machinist em-f ployed by the Seth Thomas Clock com-l pany In Thomason, tells this story: I “I went fox-hunting by moonlight.* Near Henry Pickett’s house a large' cat came along pursued by a fox. The feline climbed a tree whereupon the fox began to circle about the trunk. The cat watched the fox until It became dluy and fell to the ground. As the fox started away with the cat I shot and got both fox and eat”— Winsted (Conn.) Dispatch to NewYork American.

Optimistic.

"Well, Bill,’* said the temporarily retired burglar to his pal, “there's one thing we oughter be thankful for hero in the pen.” “Wot’s that?” said Bill. “We ain't bothered much dodgin’ ortermobilee. or worryin’ over the high cost o* livin’,’' said the T. ft. ByHarper's Weekly. . ‘

Brotherly Love.

“Ah!" said a conceited young person, "I have this afternoon been preaching to a congregation of asses.* "Then that was the reason why yon always called them beloved brethren * replied a strong-minded lady.—Ufo*