Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 117, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 May 1914 — Page 2

MEASURING LIFE

Robert H-Moulton

.? AwA latest gospel in tak- ■ ing the health measureK ment of any man is 8| that, no matter if he has been pronounced in \ perfect health by the \W/ beet physicians after \y / the customary examin- . , \ / ation, he cannot be hon- \/ estly assured by such an opinion unless his blood pressure has been accurately measured. The dictum holds good for all individuals, but particularly for I'those over forty. Those who xal ue health for its own sake should welcome a new method of estimation. But the method scores in another way. Where a correct estimation of one’s physical condition is related closely to dollars and cents, as in life Insurance, this gospel of blood pressure cuts a very important figure—in fact, a few of the more progressive companies will not accept a “risk” above the age of forty until they feel safe on this particular. It should not be understood by this that blood pressure itself is necessarily something harmful, because every person, normal or otherwise, has it Only when it is found to be unusually “high” is it to be taken seriously. A comparison, which illustrates the point very clearly, is the pressure exerted by water when passing through an ordinary garden hose. In our bodies the hose is represented by an artery, and the pressure is caused by the heart forcing the blood through this.

Pressure Is less where fluid is passing through a flexible tube, because the walls, owing to their elasticity, offer little resistance. But with the same force behind the pressure is increased if the walls of the tube are unyielding. Tubes of rubber and glass are excellent illustrations of such contrasts. Where hardening of the arteries—due to old age, gout, alcoholism or other excesses—has set in, the blood pressure as a consequence is high. Too much pressure, a “high pressure,*' is very apt to break the artery. If this occurs in the brain, we have apoplexy. A device for taking the measure of this pressure, an ingenious instrument called the manometer, has recently been perfected and is rapidly coming into general Use among the foremost physicians of the world. The instrument records the pressure of the blood on a diaphragm dial very similar in appearance to a steam gauge dial, only, instead of degrees, the scale is divided into millimeters. The apparatus, which is the Invention of Dr. Thomas Rogers of Rochester, N. Y., ie one of the most important surgical instruments Revised in years, ranging with the pulmotor, stethoscope and clinical thermometer. It consists of three parts, a small metal case containing several sensitive diaphragms, a dial and an air bag. Its operation is comparatively simple, but its reading requires an expert. The best results are obtained when a stethoscope is used in connection with it. The air bag is first strapped on the subject’s arm over the brachial artery, and is inflated with a bulb attached to it The operator then adjusts a stethoscope to his ears and finds the pulse, after which he is ready to take his records. The pulse throbbing against the air bag is communicated through a rubber tube to the case containing the diaphragms upon which a vibration is set up. These vibrations which are simultaneous with the pulse,

BIRD MELODY IN THE BUSH

One of the greatest charms of bush life in Australia, and especially in Queensland, is the melody of the birds, which are among the most beautiful in the world. fi A movement is now on foot to prevent the destruction of the native birds —at least those which do no damage. The children are being taught to encourage birds to build their nests near the habitations of men and to' feed them, so that they will not depart for the unsettled parts of Australia, where they can seldom or never be seen. Probably the finest songster in the bush is the lyre bird, and it is a great loss to bird lovers that it has become so rare. Its striking plumage has been largely responsible for its downfall. The gorges along the mountain slopes where the coastal rivers take their rise are its favorite natal abode.

WHEN THE TROUBLE STARTED

City Chap Learned That Bees Had Their Own Idea About the Care of Their Abode. I “Spring cleaning time is now upon us. Here, too, efficiency comes into play. There are efficient and inefficient ways to spring dean.” The speaker was Miss Miriam C. Townsend, the efficiency engineer at Cleveland. The occasion was a clubwomen’s banquet

are translated into millimeters by the delicate needle on the dial. In order to make a thorough record both the-systolic and diastolic, or maximum and minimum, pressures must be taken. The former is produced by the forward and the latter by the backward stroke of the heart.

It is well established that the normal maximum, or systolic blood pressure in adults ranges from 105 to 145 millimeters. Suppose the manometer is applied over the artery of a man still in his twenties. The hand on the dial goes up to about 120. What’s the verdict? That young fellow’s blood pressure is perfectly normal, and the chances are,,even if any other examination by other methods is made, nothing will be found wrong with his heart or kidneys. This test should always be made before anyone takes up athletic work of any kind.

Suppose, on the other hand, that a man a little over forty has his blood pressure takdn, and the hand on the dial turns as high as 155 or 160, then the probabilities are that there is some disease hidden away in his system, though he may never have complained of ill health in his life. At the best guess, his state of health would not be above suspicion, and would require a further search by other means. • Suppose again that some third individual around the age Of fifty undergoes examination for his physical condition, and after the usual “pounding and sounding” in every possible way nothing is found wrong with him. He beams with satisfaction; so far all is well. Then the manometer is brought forth and carefully applied, and the hand moves up to 185. What then? *Even with no other manifestations of trouble, the chances are about even that, unless he adopts some means to combat this high pressure—which it is possible to do—he will develop in the next year or two either a “hardening” of the arteries, «a trouble known as “heart murmur,” or an actual enlargement of the heart; or, if not one of these, then some kidney trouble like Bright’s disease, or some one of the many nervous affections, and even possibly diabetes. He will also run a more than usual risk of dying sooner or later from either apoplexy or kidney trouble. It is not positive that he will, but certainly his chances of doing so are too great for him not to heed

There its, mound nest is to be found, and its liquid melody can be heard at almost any hour of the day, but particularly about sunrise and just before sunset. The lyre bird Is also known as the mocking-bird, and many a sportsman has been deceived by these birds mocking others and enticing him into the thicket under the impression that it is inhabited by the numerous birds which the lyre bird mimics. The bower bird is another beautiful bird. A peculiar, characteristic of these birds is the habit they have of .constructing bowers or playhouses in which to amuse themselves. The bowers of the spotted variety sometimes reach three feet in length. These are constructed of twigs and beautifully lined with tall grasses arranged so that the flower heads nearly meet, the numerous internal decorations consist of shells, small pebbles and bones of animals.

’‘Let us profit” Miss Townsend resumed, “by the sad example of the city chap. “This city chap got a job on a farm and the farmer put him to work at cleaning. “ ‘lt’s the spring,’ the farmer said, ‘and I want you to make the pigsty and the cow stable and the henhouse and all the other houses of the stock clean and sweet and comfortable.* "Well. the new hand from the city < worked with a will for two days. < But) on the third, day he rushed into thej

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER, IND.

volve much worry or nerve strain, have a great tendency to increased pressure in their arteries. Exercise and muscular action of any kind will also raise the pressure, especially in the veins. Even posture has an influence, pressure being highest while standing, and lowest when sitting or lying down. All this has a bearing in certain occupations and makes imperative certain (conditions which each individual must apply to his own special case, for even thjs sort of pressure is conducive to disease.

The importance of testing blood pressure is well illustrated by the action of a progressive life insurance company in the middle West, which rejected in a certain period 365 applicants for no other reason than that their blood pressure was too high Nothing else could be found wrong with any of . them, and most companies would have considered these 365 to be healthy men, and therefore entitled to insurance.

In order to demonstrate the wisdom, or folly, of its course, this company took the trouble to follow up the later health history of as many of these 365 as possible. Considering the fact, worth repeating, that their only trouble was high blood pressure, it is interesting to note that within a year or two 123 of the 365 developed some trouble fully entitled to the name of disease. The average blood pressure of these rejected ones was 170. There is a moral to be read between the lines of all this; no one, especially past the age of forty, can consider himself in' perfect physical condition unless he knows that his blood pressure is just what it ought to be. The only positive way of knowing this is by having the pressure taken about once every year, and certainly at intervals of not more than two years. Mental excitement and perturbation cause increased pressure of the blood, and this fact has been taken advantage of lately in connection with a aeries of interesting experiments conducted by Prof. W. H. Cowing of Harvard unh versity to determine the practicability of blood pressure machines in detecting crime. Professor Cowing’s idea is that the machines would not only record the heart-beats, but, to a certain extent, the emotions of the subject. No matter how stolid a transgressor may appear on the exterior while undergoing the “sweating” process or cross-examination, Professor Cowing explains, the use of the machine in the courtroom will reveal his slightest emotion. The agitation thus disclosed in his mind, which otherwise would be unobserved, may constitute circumstantial evidence which will have a strong bearing on the disposal of his case.

The diastolic, or minimum pressure, which is produced by the backward stroke of the heart, is the most important for the study of the emotions, and it is during this pulsation that the heart is expected to make a sudden leap, when the vital question is asked, which will betray the criminal despite his unmoved countenance. During the experiments conducted By Professor Cowing the emotions of sorrow, joy, hatred, love, pain and pleasure were all recorded 6y the machine before they were displayed by the face. These were registered in millimeters in accordance with the slightest variation or flutter of the heart

It is proposed to make an attempt to have the machine used at a murder trial in the near future, when it may undergo actual test in public.

farm kitchen with both eyes closed, his mouth swollen and red lumps standing out all over his face and neck and hands. “ ‘Give iqe my money, boss,’ be said. Tm through.’ ‘What’s the 'mitter?* the farmer asked. “ ‘Matter? cried the youth. 'No more I country jobs for me. Matter? Burned j If I know what’s the matter, but it hapi pened when I started to clean the bee-

the warning of the little instrument used in ascertaining his blood pressure. It is interesting and Important to note that in persons known to be healthy the blood pressure . will rise under certain conditions and circumstanced Those of a nervous, anxious temperament, engaged in occupations which in-

SOME WRINKLES OF INTEREST

General Hint* That Are Worth While for the Housewife to" Keep 'ln Memory.

To remove rust from a knife plunge the blade into an onion and leave it for an hour. Then polish 1A the usual way. -r—'

Before using a new comb wash it in soapy water; and when dry rub with a little olive oil. It will then last twice as long.

To remove bloodstains, soak the article in cold water to which ammonia has been added; wash in warm water with naphtha soap.

Flowers keep bettor in damp sand than in water. Flowers for the table may be more gracefully and firmly arranged in a jar of wet sand than in a foundation of moss:

Always sandpaper the soles of baby’s new shoes before they have been worn. This keeps her from slipping on the bare or polished floors, and prevents many a bad fall which could easily .result in a sprain or a broken bone. *

Curtains will hang straight and look much nicer if a small lead weight Is sewn in each end of the lower hem. In thin curtains the weight will prevent them blowing about, and they will hang, as the: should, following the line of woodwork.

Lemons may be kept a long time without becoming dry if put into a' jar of water with a lid. The water should he changed once a week if the lemons are to be kept long. When used they will be quite as firm as when fresh, and, if anything, more juicy. To ascertain whether •-a room is damp or hot, place weighted quantity of fresh lime in an open vessel in the room and leave it there for 24 hours, carefully closing the windows and doors. At the end of the 24 hours re-weigh the lime, and if the increase exceeds 1 per cent of the original weight it is not safe to live in the room.

•To wash woolen stockings so that they will not shrink is quite easy. First shred some yellow soap into a small tin saucepan, cover it with cold water, and let all boil slowly on the stove till a jelly. Take some tepid water, and with the boiled soap make a good lather. Wash the stockings in this, rubbing well and using no other soap. Rinse in tepid clear water, wring out and set in the air to dry quickly.

KITCHEN AND PANTRY

If you open a can of peaches and find them fermented do not throw them away. Heat them over, sweeten a little and make them into pie. In making a fruit cake pour half the batter lu tite pan before adding the fruit, then the fruit will not be found at the bottom of the cake. Don’t forget that microbes are apt to lurk about the mouth of the milk bottle. It should be carefully wiped off before the milk is poured off. yhen boiling cabbage try placing a small vessel of vinegar on,the baca of the stove. The odor of the cabbage will not be so unpleasant. A satisfactory washcloth is made of two or three thicknesses of mosquito netting. The edges are finished by crocheting a scallop in pink or blue.

To Retain Color in Wash Goods.

I have a very pretty tan poplin suit that I dreaded laundering because of the "washed out” appearance of. many garments I have seen after being cleaned. As the skirt became soiled long before the jacket, I thought my dilemma quite a serious one. But I have solved the problem in a very satisfactory manner. I bought a package of dye for cotton goods, dissolved it in a quart of boiling water, strained it through a piece of cheesecloth into a jar, covered it and set it away for future use. Whenever I launder a tan or brown -garment I rinse it in water to which some of the dye hds been added, and put a little in the starch also. In this way I have washed the poplin skirt twice and etill It is of the same shade as the jacket.—Mothers* Magazine.

Ginger Ale Salad.

Soak two tablespoons of granulated gelatin In two tablespoons of, cold water, and dissolve in one-half cup of boiling water; then.add one cup of ginger ale, one-fourth cup of lemon juice, two tablespoons of sugar and a. few grains of salt Strain and let stand until mixtdre stiffens. Fold in one-third cup malaga grapes, skinned, seeded and cut in halves, one-third cup celery, scraped apd cut in thin slices crosswise, one-third cup apples, cored, pared and cut in julienne-shaped pieces and four tablespoons canned shredded pineapple. Chill in Individual molds.

Spanish Rice.

Parboil two cupfuls rice in four cupfuls boiling water, one teaspoonful salt, chop one-quarter pound fat pork or bacon and place in frying pan in oven to fry out fat. Fry in this fat one-half chopped onion and one-half green pepper. Put all ingredients together in double boiler, moisten with one pint tomato sauce and oook until tender in double boiler.

Apple Tarts.

Individual- tarts are attractive. Line the small pans with a nice puff paste and fill with apples which have been steamed or parboiled, sweetened and flavored with ground nutmeg. Arrange across the top strips of sweetened pastry, which have been spread with batter. Bako in • moderate oven.

LIFE IN THE CANAL ZONE

lATTERLY the papers have been * telling of the work being done down in Panama, lauding C6l- | bnel Goethals for the speed and excellence with which he has accomplished the task set him and reviewing the story of the big ditch. That there should be another side to life down on the isthmus, that not only the engineers’ wives and daughters and sons, but the engineers themselves should come to miss, more and more keenly with each passing week, the luxuries and manners and customs of their homelands seldom enters into the heads of even the most thoughtful. .■

For a fortnight’s visit, the .Isthmus of Panama is indeed delightfull To wake in the morning to hear the boys calling freshly-caught iguanas for sale for your luncheon bouillon; or to let the silvery flute-music of the scis-sor-grinders come through the, finemeshed screen, at your window, to have orchids on your breakfast table and perhaps pluck your own banarias or guavas, and then to stroll down among the quaint Spanish-Americana Is, Indeed, a treat. But after only five days of it, you’ve quite enough; given years of it, and the pall is indeed a great one.

A "Tlpless” Hotel.

All the world, to a man on the isthmus, must center for the term of his stay at Panama City, the capital and metropolis of the republic. Your first peep of this unique city unfolds itself almost as you leave Uncle Sam’s big hotel on the heights. Governor Goethals has made this a “tipless” hotel. Uncle Sam has laid out a park here, the gentle turf sloping down hill to the city itself, and where American soil meets Panamayan and the quarters of the poor there is a school for Spanish children. It is obvious that the business of the future in PanarAa will be with folk from the States; but, while the school is of boys alone and of whites only, at that, it is conducted throughout in Spanish. Follow the little, whiteclad lads from the school , yard into the neighboring native quarter and you find streets with verandas overhanging, as they do in old Madrid, and here women wash the'week’s laundry out under the tree, while little sons play about, nude as Adam, and daughters loiter, wearing just a calico slip. Children are numerous and the "animated chocolate drops” fairly get into one’s way.' In places the older women hoist water from old-fashioned wells out under the palm trees; carrying the pall on the shoulder to the house. Not a courtyard so poor or lowly, however, that does not support its cocoanut palm or two. Up this the dusky native boys “shinny,” to get the great, green-hulled fruit on demand. With the handy machete they split the rind and firing out the nut Then, with a pocketknife from some Yankee trader, they plug one of the three eyes at the end of the'nut (one of the three is always softer than the others) and

drink the lukewarm, refreshing milk. After that they devbur the fruit, and, be one ever so hungry or thirsty, the appetite is quenched. This ease of satisfying the prime demands of life accounts, of course, for the lack of incentive to work, the laziness and idleness of the Panamayans. Wander further away still from the Escuela Publics, out of sight of the big park and the Tivoli on the heights, and in among the palms and you will meet little boys coming to school chatting in Spanish. They wear slippen, but not stockings, and suits of Hght wear, with quaint straw hats and ties. Some of these children are very black; others are brown; all have the soft, gentle voices. In the old quarter are the shops, interesting to tour, but pitiful to rely on. Drug stores, or boticas—dark, measly places—make one wonder what percentage of germb and grime are added to each prescription. Odd little fruit shops neighbor them—shops With a very diminutive tomato, wrapped in bark and seeming like so

CENTRAL PLAZA, PANAMA

much candy; shops of oranges and what seem green bananas, the plantain, of course. Here, too, are the little brown, naked children, scrambling all over the wares. Off to one side opens the saloon area. Women operate these saloons — a buxom duenna in each —and they do a land-office business, for their little lane forms the short-cut across the arc formed by the long main street of Panama, and men as they pass through must, perforce, patronise.

Ever Present Buzzard. Busy, Indeed, is that Broadway of Panama. Instead of street cars there are hacks innumerable. Traffic costs but ten cents from any one point in town to another and so every one, even to the poorest negro, rides in the landaux. Each such vehicle has its bells, clanging wildly for passage and bringing to mind the drivers* cries for way in equally-crowded Gibraltar. High above the city a flock of buzzards hover, these the scavengers of the place. ‘ You turn from peering high at them! to the little shops in which the famousi Panama hats are sold. Hats can be, had in price from five dollars up—gold always. * All American money in Panama is gold; all Panamayan money isi silver. Whatever its denomination, the silver money is worth just onehalf that sum in gold. Panama has another native product for which she is world-renowned and of which specimens are to be had in these little shops. This is the native lace and embroidery, often made in the rear of the shop Itself. The wares will range in value from five cents the yard up. , . .

Throughout this heart of the business district, step behind the little store and you are in a quaint, interesting! courtyard. One great establishment is known as “The Devil,” and American girls, having bought hfits in it, are wont to make a bee-line to “The Devil’s” back yard to have snapshots taken of themselves among the palm trees. Wander off in another section of Panama city and the old depot recalls memories of. your readings of childhood. Built of stone, now gray with age, the depot is a survival of the daysi almost ot the ’4fters. It brings to mind) the wondrous tales of how, before the railway came, men had to cross the isthmus on donkeys; of the fever and; pestilence from which they suffered;! of the great heat and how mules stumbled to destruction on the trails; howi guides would renegade and held one •up, and how, now and then, outlaw bands swept down and boldly murdered the traveler. There’s a more modern station not far distant.

And then your first evening in Panama! Oh, how you envy the lucky; folk destined to spend days and week® and months here! How yoii look even now, to watching the Sunday; drawing of the lottery, the Sunday afternoon at the cock fight; the early Sunday evening drive to deserted Old Panama —America’s proudest city in Its day,-but wrecked by Morgan, the buccaneer, and since given over to the jungle! But most of all you remember the stroll in the balm of an evening when,, back home, the sleet is freezing the window panes and the mercury Is far, below zero! You forget that familiarity breeds contempt and that 365 i * night* of this takes the romance out of the picture.

“Just see the wind!** exclaimed little Bobby, looking from the window; on a stormy day. “You ask me to do something lm-< possible,'’ answered Bobby’s papa,, who was a great stickler for accuis acy. “Wind is air in motion, and you| cannot see air. It is invisible.” "But, papa—” • “Well, my sonF "I heard you talking about a sightl draft the other day.” And Dana didn't explain how he hasi raised the wind to meet that—cieveJ land Plain Dealer.

Breeze In Sight.