Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 308, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 January 1918 — Page 2

The GATES to the BLACK SEA

* yITH the northwestern battle / theater of the Turks proclaimed by the war prophets as that where the deciding master strokes in this most titan-like of all struggles are to be delivered, a Sketch of this remarkable region’s past, prepared by Harry Griswold * Dwight for the National Geographic society, is of more than usual interest. Here the West won its selfconfidence, and this confidence has borne fruits with splendid richness for longer than 2,000 years. Here the course of civilization has been changed and modified several times, and here, again, the attention of the world has been fijed in the belief of many that the future of Europe will onee more be determined by events there. There is something alluring in the very shape and position of these lakes —the Black sea and the Sea of Marmora—separating as they do the two most historic continents of our globe, and communicating with each other and with the outer seas by openings that seem miraculous. And those landlocked waters have been from earliest times the theater of epic events. For us of the West no legends are older than those of Zeus and 10, of Phryxus and Helle, of the Trojafi war, of Jason and the Argo, which commemorate the earliest voyages into the Great Lakes' of the Levant. Black Sea a Vast Body of Water. Of the two, the MaYmora —the Propontis, if you prefer to be classical—is by Jtar the smaller. Not much more than 100 miles long and some forty miles across at its broadest part, it is about the same size as Lake Champlain. The Marmora has much of the softness of air, vividness of color, and beauty of scenery that we associate with the Aegean and lonia seas. Thread the narrow slit of the Bosphorus, however, and you pass into an entirely different world sterner, barer, rockier, colder. If the Marmora may be compared to Lake Champlain, the Black sea is about four times the size of our greatest lake. Lake Superior is 412 miles long by 167 wide, while the Black sea has a length of 750 miles and breadth

FAMOUS AS CURRANT ISLAND

Zante, in the lonian Sea, Also Is Noted _■ . for Its Olives and Earth--quakes. Zante, the famous currant island of the lonian sea, where the revolutionary movement against the policy of King Constantine followed close upon thetifeels of similar manifestations of discontent in Crete and LeSbos, is described by the National Geographic society in the following war geography bulletin: The frequency with which Zante is visited ’by earthquakes of disastrous severity accounts in some measure for the comparative lack of prosperity on this lonian island, which enjoys a salubrious climate, is 'abundantly watered by springs, stilP deserves the” appellation of “wooded Zacynthos,” applied to it by the poet Virgil, and whose central plain is a veritable garden spot with the succession of vineyards and olive proves., Zane lies eight miles south of the island of Cephalonia and miles west of the nearest point on the Pgjd* ponnesian coast. Its greatest length Is about 25 miles and’ it has a maximum breadth of 12 miles. The western half of the island consists of a series of bare, limestone mountains which slope gradually down to the eastward until the luxuriantly fertile central plain is reached. The eastern Side of the island also Is elevated, but here the hills are clad with vines and groves of the fig. olive and' oraqge. The olives of Zante are. with the exception at those grown on the nei£hbortag Island of Corfu, the largest tills part of the world. The chief product of the island and the principal article of export is the currant (which derives its name from its native city, Corinth). This small grape, which grows on a dwarf vine, has played and is still playing an impart in the economical life of Greece. A mania for currant culture swept over Zante and other sections of the country adapted to the vine’s growth faring tbs last quarter of the Jeenth cehtury, to meet a shortage in

Island of Prinkipo in Sea of Mamora.

of 385. That there is something dark and unfriendly about it is more than a legend. The Bosphorus is 20 miles long, and at one point of its tortuous course the hills of Europe and Asia come within 550 yards of each other. The Dardanelles is twice as long and nearly twice as wide, varying from 1,400 yards to five miles. Its European shore, Gallipoli peninsula, is the Thracian the ancients, and its steep ridge /overlooks the plain of Troy on the Asiatic bank and the broken foothills of Mount Ida. Sea of Marmora Is Delightful. While its two historic gateways are strategically the most important features of Marmora, that picturesque little sea has a character all its own. In any other part of the world it would long ago have become a place of sojourn for yachtsmen and summerers, so happily is it treated by sun and wind, so 'amply provided with boys, capes, islands, mountains, forests and all other accidents of nature that make glad the heart of the amateur explorer. As it Ts, the Marmora remains. strangely wild for a sea that has known so much of life. More numerous tljan the settlements of today aie the ruins of yesterday. About body of water in the world, of equal 'size,, have stood so many stately cities. It is almost impossible, indeed, to give any .coherent account of the story of Marmorgi so much history and legend have crowded its shores. The true question of the straits arose as early as the fifth century B. C., when Alcibiades of Athens counseled the people of Chrysopolls, the modern Scutari, at the southeastern extremity of the Bosphorus, to take toll of passing ships. But the Ottoman regulation of the straits has been far more jealous than anything attempted by the ancients. The Turks have allowed no foreign men-of-war to enter the Marmora unless under rare and special circumstances; and not only do they exercise surveillance over the traffic in the straits, but twice during the four years preceding the war they closed the Dardanelles to navigation of any kind.

France, but it resulted disastrously for the Zantlots. Zante was colonized either by the Arcadians or Achaens in very early times. It remained Independent for many generations, but in the middle of the fifth century, before the Christian era, the Athenian Admiral Tolmides forced the inhabitants to acknowledge the supremacy of his city, while Sparta’s sway was accepted after the Peloponnesian war. In 357 B. C. the island was used as a base of operations against Syracuse by Dion, the pupil of ■•Plato. The expedition was a success, but Dion’s career as master of Syracuse was short-lived, for he fell a victim to the assassin Callippus, one of his own Athenian followers. The Macedonians captured Zante in 217 B. C., and they were followed by the Romans, under whose regime the island was a part of the province of Epirus. Vandals, Normans, Franks and Turks held the island in turn until" 1455, when the Venetians bought it from the last-named conquerors. The long suzerainty •of the republic city is reflected today not only in the appearance of the people, but in their language, arid most' of the Zanitiot aristocracy boast of their Venetian descent, while they speak both the Greek and Italian languages. In 1797 the island became a French possession, and shortly afterward was occupied for a brief season by the Russians, who w'ere followed by the British. In 1864 England ceded Zante a’nd the other lonian islands to the modern kingdom of Greece. An interesting natural phenomenon of the island is a shallow spring on the Bay of Keria, wdiere both pitch and wateß) bubble up. Thel pitch has-been used by the natives in caulking their boats since the days of Herodotus. ' . On the east coast is the capital city and chief seaport, Zante, occupying the site 1 of the ancient city of Zacynthos. Its 14,000 people represent a third of the total population of the island.

■ & ; An electrical process for drying unbarked logsx)f lumber in piles has been Invented by a Frenchman.

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN. RENSSELAER. IND.

SAYINGS OF A CYNIC

The fruit of labor la success, but the juice Is often sbur. Marriage isn’t even a good lottery; a man has a chance In a lottery. A man shows signs of understanding a woman when he doesn’t try to refute her arguments. Gout is too fashionable to be cured.

It generally takes a woman- to mend a man’s ways. , r ♦ From the free list to the blacklist is but a jump. All women are convinced that all men are terrible, except possibly one. About the time a man ought to quit wearing red ties he begins to wear them. • Some people are like shadows—they are with you only when everything is fair. Some nations and all women begin hostilities without declaring war. We often discard the wrong cards, and sometimes it happens that way with friendships. J„ _ The virtues of men, at best, are negative ; I admire a woman for what she is and a man for what he isn’t. When a young man once drops into poetry he seldoih gets on his feet again. —Chicago Herald.

MUCH IN LITTLE.

Cultural stations of the United States lyureau of fisheries produced more than 5,000,000 fish and eggs in the year ending with June, a new high record. The timber possibilities of British North Borneo are to be investigated by an expert from the United States whom the government has employed. In an experimental way, at least, an Italian inventor’s wireless apparatus transmits written messages,, sketches, shorthand characters and various designs. /' As a substitute for a grocer’s scoop an Jnventor has patented a pump that lifts dry articles from their containers, which remain closed to exclude dust. A well-known motion-picture actress has designed an automobile which serves her as a dressing room with almost as many conveniences as a dressing room In a theater provides. From the speed at which earthquake waves travel through the earth an English scientist has constructed a theory that the world has a dense central core, which may be measured in time. In the cities of the Seville consular district there appears to be a growing tendency toward outdoor recreation, which should afford American manufacturers of sporting goods an opportunity to ship their wares to Spain.

WORDS OF WISDOM.

And we, always wonder if the girl at the phone looks as sweet as her voice sounds. . The man who can climb up again after being bumped from a pedestal is the greatest hero of all. Act crazy and you may be re- ' garded as a genius, but are more apt to be considered a darn fool. t When an old woman looks extremely young it is a sign that the business of the beauty plumber is flourishing.

FACTS ABOUT EGGS

The flavor of the egg is influenced by the hen’s feed. The older the hen the larger will be the average size of her egg. The eggs from hens that are not mated keep fresh twice as long as fertilized eggs. * The shell of the egg. being porous, will quickly absorb odors, and these will affect the flavor. The first eggs of winter are generally larger than those laid at the close of the summer season; The sex of the eggs cannot be foretold, not one of the old-time theories in this particular having jeyer beep proven.—Farm Life.

FLASHLIGHTS

Th! than who doesn’t do his best deserves to_fallA fellow wouldn’t have, to tejnuch of a speed merchant nowadays to spend money faster than he . can earn It Don’t spend-time wondering how the other fellow gets his money. In nine cases out of ten the man who has money earned it

THINGS NEW UNDER THE SUN

A new sprocket for motorcycles Is said to eliminate the jars due to irregular power transmission without lessening the efficiency of the motor. . . - - * For motion picture projectors a French Inventor has condensed j the light in an incandescent lamp in a small area by coiling a spiral filament closely.

Explorers believe that Lake Tanganyika in Africa is the deepest body of fresh water in the world, a record heretofore assigned to Lake Baikal in Asia. By heating napthaline under pressure in the presence of aluminum chloride German scientists have produced an oil that can be used for illuminating purposes. A machine has been invented for fish canneries that cleans and dresses salmon at a rate of one a second, equivalent to the labor of 60 expert—hand workers. - r The shade over a new plectrlQ table lamp can be inverted and used as a cooking bowl, while the contains a toaster and grill that lan be placed Inside the bowl. / The rear end of an automobile locker of English Invention is made of ground glass, on which a car’s number can be painted and illuminated at night by a lamp inside the locker. For fighting fires in small towns a light but efficient motor-driven pump has been mounted on a carriage that can be hauled as a trailer by any automobile or horse-drawn vehicle.

SOME OBSERVATIONS.

A true friend is a jewel that shines in the dark. A cheerful lie makes more friends than a solemn truth. A woman of few words usually has the reiteration habit. e A girl thinks a man is brave because he isn’t afraid to swear. People with peppery tempers are not the salt of the earth. No, Raffalo, earthquakes were not invented by the Quakers. As a man grows older he has more sympathy for the chap who can’t deliver the goods. A diplomat is the fellow who has acquired the art' of going after what he wants while the other fellow is waiting. • '

How WOMEN BREAK DOWN

By overeating. By turning night into day; too complex living. . By using more force each day than nature generates. By taking life too seriously—all work and no play. By hurrying, worrying, fretting and straining to keep up appearances. By always reading medical advertlspments and medical books which describe your symptoms. By drawing more out\pf the physical bank than is deposited, which results in physical bankruptcy. By not taking a little outdoor recreation every day. The bow always on the stretch soon loses its spring and elasticity.

DO YOU KNOW

That more than 400 lambs wete reared last summer on the, links of one London golf club? That in Austria smoking is to be restricted to 25 cigarets or ten cigars a week ? That an onion poultice beats all others for easing neuralgic or rheumatic pains, sore throats, etc.? That sal volatile, a teaspoonful to a quart of water, sometimes revives window plants that apparently are dead?

ABOUT FATS

-- The fat of plants is contained in the seeds. At least a third of the body’s food be fat. I J ■ Cocoa is'the only popular beverage which has “fat.” Body fat is of three kinds —stearine, palmitin and oleine. Fats yield glycerin, an essential component of high explosives, 'i A loin of mutton ‘ has more fat nutriment than any other joint. •In human bodies the fat is in the bone, marrow and adipose tissue. British home-grown meat is the second richest in fat, American belnj first , -

AMERICAN RAILROAD MATERIAL IN FRANCE

UNLOADING STEEL RAILS AT A FRENCH PORT.

It Is nothing new for American railway material and equipment to go to France, or any other part of the civilized world, but such a railway as our engineers are bullding back of the lines in France is something-wholly new ta our industrial or military history. The recent government-purchase of 150,000 tons of 80-ponnd rails for it gives a new conception of the magnitude of tne undertaking that we have entered on in France. That means, according to the Railway Age Gazette, enough rails for 600 miles of double track. It will all be used in building a line, with terminal developments, sidings, etc., from the French port to the portion of the western front that our boys in olive drab will occupy, and will be used for transporting them and their supplies.

LASSO CAR WHEELS

Unloaded by “Man-Power” Methods That Are Old. TAKES SKILL TO STOP THEM While Traveling at High Speed They Are Lassoed as Cowboy Stops a Steer—Some Possibility of Broken Legs.

After a railroad car. wheel has been In service for a considerable time the tread, or part that bears on the rail, becomes uneven with wear and the wheel must then be sent to a wheel lathe, where the tread is planed down, to an even surface. The actual work of replanlng the wheels is usually a smaller job than that of getting them to'and from the lathe, as each pair of wheels, mounted on their axle, weighs in the neighborhood of two tons, writes J. E. Murphy in Popular Mechanics. In an industrial district of Chicago, that is busy day and night with the hum of labor-saving equipment, is a wheel-lathe plant where the work of unloading and loading the car wheels Is done by “man-power” methods that are as old as railroading itself. Stopped by Lassoing. With the carload of wheels set on the track alongside the wheel yard, a skid having a rail for each wheel is ■placed against the end of the car so that it forms a steep Incline down to the track. Each pair of wheels is then worked with steel bars to the end of the car and over the top of the incline, fey the time they reach the

Unloading by Man Power.

track the wheels •are traveling at high speed, and it takes skill and strength to stop them. This is done by the same method that a cowboy uses in catching a steer Or pony—by lassoing. Two men, one, on each side of the track, stand ready with wire loops, and as the wheels dash past them each throws his loop over the end of the axle and then runs and pulls back until the wheels are stopped, this being accomplished usually within a hundred feet Occasionally only one of the Joops holds. In that case the wheels are derailed, with the possibility of broken legs and other injuries for anyone that happens to be in the way. Another Primitive Method. The work of loading is done by an equally primitive method. In this Work a steel bar having a fork that fits over the end of the axle, and known as a “wheel stick,” is used. Starting 200 feet from the car, with two men to each “wheel stick,” the wheels are pushed along the track with Increasing speed until, as they reach the incline,* they have the momentum for mounting to the car floor. In spite of' their primitive nature these methods ate likely to be used for many years» as they are the most economical yet devised for a plant where the number of wheels handled is too small to justify the use of a depressed track or the installation of air-hoist equipment

Adopt Steel Passenger Cars.

All steel passenger cars are being Adopted on Egypt’s state railroads.

“SAFETY FIRST” IS NOT MEW

Incorporated In Rules Issued by Philadelphia and Reading Railroad In Year 1855. And while we are examining, literature of tbe period, what do you think of these “Rules for All Passenger Train Conductors on the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad,” Issued in November, 1855, to which a noted Philadelphia historian calls my attention? We find that "safety first” Is not a twentieth century innovation when we read: "In all cases of doubt and uncertainty, Invariably pursue the safest course, even If it should delay a train full of impatient passengers.” What would the locomotive engineer who shoots his' train across Jersey, in less than an hour think of this: “The maximum speed of passenger trains will never exceed 35 miles per hour, or one mile in one minute and forty-three seconds.” “The clock at the Reading depot is the standard of time for the road.” The fire in the stove was to be carefully regulated, “so that the car ends its trip with a low fire, in place of being frequently red hot.” And yet “Passengers will not be allowed to stand outside on the platforms, smoking or otherwise.” —Girard In Philadelphia Ledger.

STOPPING A RAILWAY TRAIN

Cars and Steamboats Have Been Held Up by Insects, and Animals— Earwig Stopped Service. . , . I. .... The earwig which some time ago held up the District railroad service In London by short-circuiting the electric signaling apparatus was unwittingly emulating the spider which, in 1908, dislocated the traffic of the Irish Great Northern railroad for nearly two hours, says London Tit-Bits. The electric staff instrument failed, the cause being traced to a spider between the lever and contact po’ints. It is only three or four years ago that a train was derailed on the London & Northwestern railroad owing to a hedge-hog having been caught between the point and side rails and preventing them from closing properly. A Mississippi steamer was not long ago stopped by an invasion of willow bugs, which made for the engine room and clogged the engines; while about five years ago a swarm of bees took possession of a South African railroad station, -drove off the passengers and officials and prevented any trains from. entering until they took their leave in the evening.

FOREIGNERS BUY LOAN BONDS

Total of More Than $3,400,000 Bought by Employees of Pennsylvania Railroad Lines. . To ascertain the extent to which railroad employees of foreign birth subscribed to the first Liberty loan, a special investigation has been completed on the directly operated lines of the Pennsylvania railroad on its lines east of Pittsburgh. The result shows that out, of 160,127 employees 25,827 were foreign born. There were among all the employees, both native and foreign born, 52,782 subscriptions, totaling more than $3,400,000. Nearly one-third of all the foreign-boru emplbyees were /purchasers.

Highest Aerial Tramway.

Switzerland has built its highest aerial tramway, a mile and a half long and ascending to an altitude of nearly a mile, solely for tourists.

Ralls Help Enginemen.

Rails that "permit enginemen to leave locomotive cabs quickly and safely in emergencies .have been t*i> vented.