Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 294, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 December 1914 — Page 2

Two Useful Winter Birds

Yean ago when Mr. Eugene Schlef--falj-n introduced the English starling into Central park. New York city, I do not believe that he thought that it would breed so fast as to spread over a good part of the United States, In so short a time, nor that it would become such a nuisance, that the Audu- £ societies are thinking of having it on the list of game birds. This is inse this new comer is driving, out many of our own more beautiful song 'birds, such as the blue bird, the flickier, the wren, and whatever bird nests in holes in trees. I have called this bird useful, in my headline. So he is, because in the «i>mmer time he kills thousands of grubs, spiders and insects in order to satisfy the hungry brood of youngsters, that is always clamoring for more and more. If their number could be kept down, and if they would not perch around our dwellings, we would be very glad to welcome them to our orchards during the grub and insect period. Some sunny morning, you boys will hear a long drawn whistle outside your window, and then a sound very like a chuckle. Open the window carefully, and wrapped up warmly, you can stand there and view the songster, and you will find that between the chuckle and whistle, there are some very sweet notes which you did not hear before. And on the elm tree just outside the house you will see two, four and sometimes six birds which from that distance look as if they were all attired in black suits, which in the sun shine with a metallic purple and green color. You will find a compactly built bird, between eight and nine inches long, with a strong brown bill and a rather short tail. Instead of being all of an iridescent black, the feathers of the upper parts and sides are tipped with deep yellow, the wings and tail are dark brownish gray, tipped with buff, and the under parts are heavily spotted with white. The starlings do not hop. They are walkers like the crows. During the winter they can be studied more carefully than in the summer, when there are so many more attractive birds about. They are great chatterers, and often the listener will be rewarded by a series of warbles and notes of joy, which are like the laughter of little children. If this wise old bird sees you looking at him, he will shut up his mouth right in the middle of his prettiest-notes, and not open it agaifi until you walk around the corner of the house but of his sight. A story was told me the other day of a pair of starlings which built their nest in a hole in the side of a house in our city of Stamford, right under the eaves. There must have been a beam projection for the roughly put together nest of sticks to be fastened to, but even so, when the birdlings grew large enough to move about, they frequently tumbled out of the nest, with great scramblings and flutterings of wings and shrill cries of alarm. Inside the wall of the house was the room of a little boy, and as it hap-

Silver Pheasants —One of the Most Common Species of the Family—The Upper Part of the Body is White Delicately Marked With Black.

pened, the head of his bed was against the very spot where the feathered youngsters took their naps, and oftentimes in the middle of the night the little boy was rudely, awakened by the cries of the babies who tumbled out of their bed. When the little boy learned what the noise was, he watched the parents going in and out of the hole, until one day they all flew away and a piece of tin was placed over the entrance to keep them out. Last summer during a gale of wind an old apple tree in our orchard was blown directly in two. I found that a starling nest was laid bare, and in the nest were four youngsters almost ready to fly. The nest was securely .fastened to the side of the tree which was left standing, fortunately, and so

AS IN OLD SAILBOAT DAYS

American Vessel Will Take Cargo to the We#t CotMt .of Africa to Trade. For about- one hundred years Ameritcan sailing vessels bartered and traded on the west coast of Africa. So again, with the Stars and Stripes flying from its masthead, the Adelia T. Carleton, Ifla American sailing vessel, loaded iwlth a cargo at American goods, will <MII for the west coast of Africa. |

By Julie Adams Powell

these birdlings remained a week longer, until they flew out into the world. One of our very interesting little winter birds, and one of the least conspicuous, is the nuthatch—the whitebreasted nuthatch. He is remarkable for his stout and sturdy build and strong pointed cylindrical bill and very short tail. - The nuthatch is one of our commonest winter birds, and easily identified. To see him run down the trunks of trees, is enough to make one dizzy, and his hoarse cry of “yank, yank” is

Bath Tub for Birds on an Eight-Foot Pole. I—Cat Guard. 2—Cross Pieces for the Birds to Rest on and Dry Their Feathers After Their Bath. different from any other bird call. In some districts the nuthatch is extremely shy, while at other times and places this little bird becomes as friendly as the chickadee, or the winter sparrows. Some writers say that the nuthatch feeds mostly on nuj, meats, while others declare that the bird breaks the shell to get at the insects and grubs which inhabit the nut. It is surely an

insectivorous bird, as one will learn by watching the bird Industriously searching the barks of trees for larvae and insects. Their bill is very strong and the nuthatch will push a nut into a crevice and hammer away at it until the shell breaks. One day in November I saw a nuthatch on the roof outside my window. He had something in his mouth and without noticing my near presence, he hunted about for a place to hide his treasure. Under a loose shingle he pushed it, and then I saw that, it was a cherry stone. He cocked his head on one side and then on the other, for the place did not seem quite secure enough. He made a dive for a leaf, and poked that in after his cherry

This enterprise is due to the efforts of Aurthur Muller, president of the newly organized American Topical Trading company of New York. This company intends to take American goods on consignment—consisting of tobacco, flouiy ifcrk, salt, beef, vegetables, gin, matches, to trade for native products. In the old times the American flag flying from Yankee ships took the place of lighthouses along this coast so regularly were they to be found. The shrewd Yankee trader, quite often

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER, IND.

pit. I thought that it showed wonderful intelligence. The nuthatch is a gray and black bird, about six inches in length. The top of his head and the front of his back is a shining black, while the rest of his upper parts are of a bluish gray. There is white on his wings, and the sides of his head and* under parts are white. Just under his tall will be noticed a dull rufous color. We do not often see the nuthatch about our homes in summer unless we are fortunate enough to live off in the country districts. They build their nests in the hollows of trees, where the entrance is particularly smalt If it is too large, they build it up with mud or clay until it is of the desired size. They are great fighters for a bird of their size, and it is a brave bird that tries tomolest the nest of Yhe little white-breasted nuthatch.

ARE OF THE EARTH’S BEST

Deserved Tribute to the Women of Whom It Is Said They Are “Agreeableto Live With.” ’ "I feel of so little use in these progressive days,” said a woman of mature years. “The woman of today is full of stimulating ideas. She is identified with important movements. She makes the most of her talents, but ll—canI — I—can do nothing. It seems as if I have so much to take up my time and yet I never do accomplish anything that will ever count in the vast scheme of things.” “You have the rarest talent that the world boasts and you-make the most of it every day,” replied the visitor. ■“You are agreeable to live with.” Agreeable live with! Unassuming phrase; with what a powerful reach! With domestic squalls so flagrant, divorce rampant, “incompatibility" a household word, the woman who is agreeable to live with is a mighty factor in the press of progress. She brightens the atmosphere about her at a time when there seems much effort expended to make people good, but little to make them happy. Such a woman has the gift of divinity. She glorifies the commonplace. She nourishes the nation. It is splendid to uplift, to be artistic, to head world movements, but there Is little that so becomes a Woman as to be agreeable to live with. It is a way in which those who tarry at home may keep step with their more conspicuously progressive sisters. —Mother's Magazine. o'

Australia’s Mallee Hen.

The builder of the biggest nest in the world is the Australian mallee hen, a bird considerably smaller than a domestic turkey. The nest is used year after year, and as many as twenty or thirty pairs of birds use the same nest at one tjjne. It is not uncommon to find a hundred eggs in a nest, and these are very good for cooking purposes. A large of earth is scratched together by the birds, the center being filled with leaves, and on these the eggs are laid. They are then covered with more leaves and earth, and the cares of the parent bird are ended. They do not sit on the eggs at all, as the spontaneous combustion of the rotting leaves generates the required heat for Incubation, says the Strand. The chickens are able to run about and find food for themselves from the time they are hatched. The small hen is a very shy bird, and is seldom seen near any habitation.

Peerless Geneva.

The most glowing tribute to Geneva is Mr. Frederic Harrison’s. “I hold Zurich, Basle and Geneva to be the model cities of our age—the fine type of what cities will one day be in a regenerated age—the true type of civic organization, having sites of rare beauty and convenience, spacious streets and avenues, noble public walks and gardens, perhaps everything short of grand antique buildings/* Geneva in particular is finest type of a. rational city that Europe possesses ... a true city where, as in Athens, Florence, Venice, Antwerp or Ghent, or old, men can live some civic life, not in huge, amorphous caravanseries such as London, Paris or Berlin—not in suffumigated barracks such as Manchester, or Lyons, or Glasgow—but in a beautiful, well-ordered, free, organic city.”

This Is Funny.

An English paper says that the hat of a certain short-eighted master at Eton blew off one day, and as he started in pursuit of It a black hen dashed out of the gateway. The schoolmaster saw the hen and thought it was his hat, and so all Eton was electrified by the spectacle of a hatlfess and breathless learned man chasing a black hen from one end of the street to the other. >.

master of the vessel he sailed, evaded or conquered opposition wherever he came In contact with it and returned home with a profit which modern business minds find hard to believe. —New York Bun.

A Poker Devotee.

“Dingburn says he reads everything that comes Into his hands." ' ‘"That oughtn’t to take him long." "Why not?" « "It’s mostly hearts,clubs, spadesand diamonds." a

SLIDING CAR BUFFER

DEVICE TO STOP TRAINS NOT UNDER PROPER CONTROL Recent Test Has Proved the Usefulness of the Invention as ah' Improvement Over the Old-Style Method of Solid Buffers. , Once in a while, owing either to miscalculation on the part of the engineer or failure of the air brakes, > train enters a terminal station with such velocity that it cannot be stopped before reaching the end of the track. To bring the train to, a halt when it is not under proper control, buffers of various designs have been used, but it is no simple matter to design a bumper that will stop a train without, on the one hand, doing harm'to the train, or, on the other, being seriously damaged itself. Recently a car buffer has j been invented which is not rigidly secured to the end of the rails, but 7 is designed to slide upon the rail when the momentum of the train is greater than a certain predetermined

The Pneumatic Plunger of the Buffer Head.

amount This buffer is formed with two long shoes or tapering friction rails that rest upon the track. The train rides up on these shoes, and if not stopped in time strikes a plunger projecting from a pneumatic cylinder. The air cushion back of the plunger serves to retard the motion of the train; but if it is unable tb stop it, the whole buffer slides along on the rail, until the friction between the buffer and the rail is sufficient to overs come the momentum of the train. In a recent test of this buffer, it was found that a 1,000-ton train traveling at three miles per hour was brought to a stop without sliding the buffer. At four miles per hour, the buffer slid nine inches. At eight miles per hour the displacement of the buffer was three feet; at 16 miles, 12 feet, and at 32 miles, 40 feet. Of course it is seldom that a buffer is called upon to stop a train traveling more than three or four miles per hour. After the rails have been displaced over 12 feet the rate of friction runs up extremely high and overcomes the momentum with greater relative ease. Be-

Sketch of the Sliding Car Buffer, Showing the Long Tapering Shoe or Friction Rail.

cause the buffer yields before the impact more or less in proportion to the speed of the train, no damage is done, and the train is halted in the shortest distance compatible with safety.—Scientific American.

Real Father of Locomotive.

The right of Robert Stephenson to. the title, “Father of the Locomotive*” which has been bestowed upon him, is questioned in a book which recently has appeared by G. A. Sekon, editor of the Railroad World,' which gives the honor to Thomas Hackworth. The latter went to the Stockton & Darlington railroad as engineer and general manager in June, 1826. The locomotives the railroad • started with proved unsuccessful. The horses hauling the coal cars were doing the work of transportation cheaper than the locomotives. The directors decided to abandon the locomotives. However, before taking the decisive step, Thomas Hackworth, the engineer and manager of the railway, was asked his opinion upon the subject His reply was: “Gentlemen, if yon will allow me to construct an engine in my own way I will engage it shall work cheaper than animal power." After due deliberation this alternative was adopted, as a last locomotive experiment The engine Royal George was the result built at New Shlldon by. Thomas Hackworth, and tried September, 1827. It ■was a success in every particular and cut down the haulage cos't by more than half.

Russia's Railroad Mileage.

Russia has officially stated its railroad mileage at 48,788 miles, in addition to which there ar# 2,430 miles In Finland and 1,073 in eastern China.

DINERS FOR TROOP TRAINS

Canadian Railroads Make, Elaborate Preparation for the Transport of Soldiers. •* t . *■— ' ■ ;s,'i \ ' ,VCanadians are making thorough preparation for their part of the European war. They are reorganizing themselves upon a military basis at home and one of the latest wartime innovations is the newly constructed and commissioned war dining car. These cars have been put into service on the various dominion railroads for the purpose of serving meals in connection with the transport of troops. This typeof car is called a kitchen car. The war diner, or the kitchen car, is equipped with a spacious refrigerator and butcher shop at one end and a combination pantry and pastry room at the other, with the kitchen in the middle. The kitchen installation includes a coal range, a steam roaster, two soup kettles and four steam cookers. The steam utensils are operated by live steam generated in a vertical boiler with which each car is equipped. Each of these cars Is planned for the feeding of 1,000 men, three times a 4ay. They can be stocked with ed-

Ibles sufficient for long stretches.' Boxes for holding vegetables are placed under the cars. The coal box is so arranged that it extends to the roof and it is filled from a trap. The floors are covered with heavy galvanized iron sheeting. There are three large water tanks under the floor of the car operated by air pressure in addition to those tanks overhead. The war diner is said to be an improvement even upon the German method.

ERA OF ELECTRICITY NEAR

Locomotives of the Future Not Likely to Be Propelled as at Present, by Steam. The centenary this year of the locomotive as a freight carrier—it was in 1814 that George Stephenson’s oddlooking contrivance hauled the first loaded freight cars ever on rails —impels a look into the future, as well as a glance at the past. In one hundred years, the shaky, creaking, groaning machine which

rattled along the Kijlingworth colliery tracks at six miles an hour has grown into a monster of more than 400 tons; as long almost as the whole Stephenson train. About it has gathered a halo of romance which no other bit of machinery, unless it be a modern ocean liner or a battleship, has ever won. Men have come to love it for itself, to attribute to it human failings and virtues, to talk to it as if it were a child, while it flung Itself along the glistening rails into the night. But in the last decade a rival has gained upon it This is the age of efficiency, and it must be admitted the steam locomotive, with its cloud# of smoke, its noise, its slowness in starting and stopping, is wasteful. Electricity is supplanting it Railroads are electrifying their systems. Trolleys are competing for the short haul. It may be that within the present century electricity will supplant steam as a motive power, and the 2014 anniversary will be celebrated in museums where present-day locomotives will be pointed out as curious relics.

Filling Grease Cups.

When filling the grease cups of a car it is much better to remove all the cups at once and take them to a bench or other handy place to be filled than to go about from point to point with the pail of grease, attending to each container separately. For one thing, by the approved method it Is much easier to keep the hand sufficiently clean to prevent grit working into the receptacle than when the cup is removed,. refilled and replaced all at one time. Besides, there is less likelihood of overlooking some important point, as when the number of cups on the car Is known it is easy to keep tally of those of each size that are in plain sight on the bench.

Before Congress of Vienna.

One hundred years ago Alexander I of Russia, the king of Prussia and other sovereigns, accompanied by a large retinue of diplomatists and soldiers, made their solemn entry into Vienna to take part in the congress which was to readjust the map of Europe. The thrones which Napoleon had overturned were to be righted and the old despots whom he had dismissed were to be given back their scepters. The first weeks of the con- ’ gress, however, were not devoted to the serious business at hand, but were spent in a succession of magnificent festivities. Notwithstanding the financial ruin of the country, Austria appropriated sums amounting to thousands of dollars daily to provide balls, banquets, concerts and other entertainments for the visiting monarchs and their advisers.

A GRATEFUL ACKNOWLEDGMENT.

Mr. F. C. Case of Welcome Lake, Pa., writes: “I suffered with Backache and Kidney Trouble. My head ached, my sleep was broken and un-

Mr. F. C. Case.

dragging sensation across my loins, difficulty In collecting my thoughts and was troubled with shortness of breath. Dodds Kidney Pills have cured me of these complaints. Dodds Kidney Pills have done their work and done it well. You are at liberty to publish this letter for the benefit of any sufferer who doubts the merit of Dodds Kidney Pills.” Dodds Kidney Pills, 50c. per box at your dealer or Dodds Medicine Co., Buffalo, N. Y. Write for Household Mints, Dainty Recipes; also music of National Anthem. All 3 sent 'free. Adv.

Hens His Application.

"Here’s a Swiss named Egg who lives in New York petitioning to have., his name changed.” "Sort of an egg shake, eh! What’s the trouble?” “He and his wife have four children, and his family is constantly referred to as *the half-dozen Eggs.’ He claims his yolk is too heavy to be borne.” “Why doesn’t he lay for his tormentors?” "It appears that he did onse and got beaten, whipped to a froth. Poor Egg could barely scramble home.” — Boston Transcript.

FOR SKIN-TORTURED BABIES.

A hot bath with Cuticura Soap followed by a light application of Cuticura Ointment, gently rubbed on the surface, afford immediate relief and point to speedy heahnent of sleep-de-stroying eczemas, rashes, itchlngs, burnings, scalings and crustings of the skin and scalp of infants and children, bringing rest to worn-out, anxious mothers and peace to distracted households. For free sample each with 32 p. Skin Book, address postcard Cuticura, Dept. X, Boston. Bold everywhere. —Adv.

The Presidents.

Seven presidents have'been born in Virginia, of whom five lived in that state when they were elected. Ohio has been the birthplace of six presidents, and five were elected while residents 'of that state. New York and North Carolina have each had three and Massachusetts two. Five other states have had one each.

NO MORE GRAY HAIRS Restore Youthful Color. No One Will Know You're Using Anything. Physicians advise against harmful hair stains and dyes. Bnt why use them when you can bring back the natural, youthful color with Hay’s Hair Health? This is accomplished by the action of air, due to an element contained in this famous preparation. Absolutely harmless; so positive In results that druggists will refund money if it fails. Keeps new gray hairs from showing. Route dandruff; tones scalp; makes the hair strong,vlgorousand beau tiful. 25c, 50c and 11.00 at drug stores or direct on receipt of price and dealer’s name. Philo Hay Specialties Co., Newark, N. J. Adv.

The Old Lady Again.

Mrs. Kawler—l was reading this morning about those picturesque soldiers England has brought from India Mrs. Blunderby—You mean those Sneaks and Gherkins. My dear, aren't they wonderful? Boston Evening Transcript

Important to Mothers

Examine carefully every bottle of CASTORIA, a safe and sure remedy for Infants and children, and see that it Bears the /'‘rf Signature of In Use For Over 30 Ywurs. Children Cry for Fletcher’s Castoria

Brought It Upon Himself.

“Sir, your daughter has promised to become my wife." “Well, don’t come to me for sympathy. You might know something would happen to you, hanging around here five nights a week."

Some Help.

“What are we going to do about this deadlock?" “ftere’s my skeleton key." When women peck at each other hey can it kissing—but is Its

refreshing. I felt heavy and sleepy after meals, was always nervous and tired, had a bitter taste in my mouth, was dizzy, had floating specks before my eyes, was always thirsty, had a