The Independent-News, Volume 106, Number 40, Walkerton, St. Joseph County, 12 March 1981 — Page 2

2

- THE INDEPENDENT NEWS - MARCH 12, IMI

TRtMEhWS TRIELES THE WAGER THAT STARTED THE MOVIES No one could ha\e foreseen the connection between a WAGER and the MOTION PICTURE industry . Seems like a trivial thing'* Ihats just the point! SO MANS IMPORTANI THINGS HAVE SI AR FED IN SUCH INSIGNIUCANT WAYS! But—the ktory: The incident happened in Sacramento in the year 1877. Two famous sportsmen of the day fell upon a discussion of a sport they both losed. horse racing. One of these was 1 eland Stanford (for whom the famed university is today named I and the other was a noted sportsman of the day. The point of the discussion seemed to be whether all four legs of a horse left the ground at the same time during a run. a gallop or canter. You must remember that this was before the days of advanced photography and it was difficult to prove what today seems simple, indeed' Feeling became keener as the sportsmen differed, irreconcilably. on this point It ended in a wager of some five thousand dollars. ( And then it was necessary to devise ways and means of complete proof. It was finally determined to utilize (he talents of a noted photographer of the day. Edward Muybridge of New York, and the solution of the problem was placed entirely with him Muybridge ingeniously devised a battery of sixteen cameras, placed within a foot of each other along the course to be traversed by a champion race horse of the day.

I Here’s A I GOLDEN OPPORTUNITY [ For You! i I Start Saving Your Green And Before You Know It, You'll Have Your Own Little Pot Os Gold As Sure As There Are Leprechauns, । This Is A Fine Opportunity! | Farmers State Bank i Wyatt-Walkerton I CM” Deomuiot <wm Te »’OO 000 I 5 “■ 3,3 ’ RXC

Io each of these camera's shutters a string was attached that would be tripped by the horse's legs as he ran. galloped, cantered across the prescribed course. In this way. he would be photographed in sixteen different positions. Now. the story ends in two ways; it definitely established the fact that all four legs of a horse DO leave the ground, thereby earning the wagered sum for his sponsor. But far more important was the incidental and accidental result .... Thomas A Edison was the most important inventor of the day. His interests had led him into many and varied fields But it was never in the direction of photography. One day Edison chanced upon the series of pictures that had been prepared by Muybridge in settlement of the wager. In a flash, he saw in it the central idea of continuous motion: if these intervals tietween the movements could be made shorter, there would be a more realistic effect of continuous motion. That was all that was necessary for the fertile and inventive mind of the Wizard of Menlo Park. It was the beginning of a long series of experiments in the field of continuous motion. It was the beginning of Edison's interest in the pioneer motion pictures with which his name is impenshably linked. FHE MISPI A( El) COMMA THAT ( OST OUR GOVERNMENT $1,000,000. It was the year 1872. The tariff act was being framed. The United Slates becoming more and more

aw.nc of the importance of tropical and semi tropical fruits, desired to entourage their propagation in this country If was decided to permit the im portalion of stieh fruit bearing plants duty free So the framers of the lariff Au of June 6, 1872. included in what was then known as the free list', or the list of items that should be imported free, fimi plant' tropical and semitropical. for the purpose of propagation or cultivation". Ihe bill was framed Then it was copied or almost copied. For a copying clerk erroneously misplaced a comma and made it read, "fruit, plants tropical and semitropical for the purpose of propagation or cultivation". Importers were delighted They imported fruits happily, and insisted that they were duty free. The Government contended that a mistake had been made and that duty must be charged on imported fruit, that it was only for PLANTS which were duty free. The Government contended this and the Treasury ruled against the importers of fruit. But it finally reversed its decision and admitted that the law as published DID list fruit on the free list. So importers who had previously paid import duty on the fruit were refunded the amount of such duty, and the Government lost a million dollars in what would otherwise have been an income from imported fruits. The error was corrected by act of Congress of May 9. 1874 by changing the comma between "fruit" and "plants" to a hyphen, making that commodity listed as duty free to plainly read "fruitplants" and NOT "fruits" and "plants'*. In subsequent Tariff Acts, according to the U.S. Tariff Commission. the hyphen has been omitted and the law now reads as originally drafted, "fruit plants, tropical and semi-tropical for the purpose of propagation or cultivation". A million dollars is quite a sum but it was the penalty for a misplaced comma. THE JEST THAT AIDED OUR I IBERIIES The law of Habeas Corpus—one of the keystones of our present day liberties -was passed because of a joke about the great size of one of those voting for it. Before the reign of Charles II in England, a man could be convicted of almost any crime on the calendar without being allowed to make his defense before the court or even to appear at his own trial. I hen the law of Habeas ( orpus was passed. Ihe Latin phrase said "Produce the Body"—Produce the prisoner and bring him before the court which is trying him. It was a tremendous victory for human rights a great step in progress of civil liberty. It is regarded as one of the great achievements of the reign of Charles 11, altho in fact, Charles did not favor it, (hough because of the general unrest and public demand for it, he did not dare oppose it. But what did a fat lord have to do with it? A fat lord had everything to do with it. The bill was passed because one very fat lord was counted as 10. Bishop Burnet recorded the story as follows: "Lord Grey and Lord Norreys were named to be the tellers. Lord Norreys being a man subject to vapours, was not at all times attentive to what he was doing. So, a very fat lord coming in. Lord Grey counted him for ten, as a jest at first; but seeing Lord Norreys had not observed it, he went on with his mis-reckonmg of ten. So it was reported to the house and declared that they, that were for the bill, were in the majority." Altho the members of the Parliament who were for and against the bill were very nearly tied, the opponents of the bill did not expect the measure to pass. When the count was reported as 57 for the bill and 55 against it. they showed surprise. Lord Shaftesbury, who championed the bill and feared a mistake had been made, immediately rose and delivered a long speech, until several Peers had gone in and come out. W'hen he sat down it was then impossible to recount the vote. The Parliament Journal for that day shows only 107 members present during the entire day, five less than the recorded vote on this important bill. So if the fat lord had not been very, very fat. Lord Grey would not have had his little jest, or as a consequence, his very important majority. The law of Habeas Corpus and the interest of civil justice would have received a great setback The largest diamond ever cut is also one of the most elegant. It is the Star of Africa #1 and is in the British Royal sceptre. It has 74 facets and weighs over 530 metric carats.

THE INDEPENDENT-NEWS Publication Number 261460 ROBERT E. URBIN, EDITOR SUSAN R. URBIN, ASSISTANT EDITOR INDEPENDENT-NEWS CO., INC., Publisher 601-03 Roosevelt Road, Walkerton, Indiana 46574 Telephone (219) 586-3139 PUBLICATION TIME: Thursday of Each Week Second Class Postage Paid At Walkerton, Indiana 46574 SUBSCRIPTION RATES: 15C Per Copy; $4.50 Per Year (50C Extra If Mailed Out Os State) Egyptian vamisb, made by dissolving resin in oil, has been found smooth and uncracked on some mummy cases 3,000 years old. In parts of Panama, one can see the sun rise in the Pacific Ocean and set in the Atlantic. JOHN GLENN 1980-81 SEASON VARSITY BASKETBALL STATISTICS FIELD GOALS FREE THROWS Nam Md. An. Pct. Md. AM. Pct. P.F. T.P. Parker 47 101 46% 25 53 47% 70 119 Tinkey 81 169 48% 46 66 70% 45 208 Elkin 72 166 43% 57 76 75% 70 201 Hathaway 52 122 43% 26 49 53®?0 24 130 Groves 35 99 36% 21 35 60% 26 91 Harness 79 180 44% 40 56 71% 26 198 Jacobson 40 79 51% 29 39 74% 19 109 Kaser 0 0 00% 0 0 00% 1 0 Arnett 44 97 45% 28 31 90% 11 116 Dreessen 0 2 00% 0 0 00% 0 0 Aitken 0 0 00% 1 2 50% 11 Boise 0 0 00% 1 3 33% 0 0 Miller 34 76 45% 24 31 75% 42 92 TEAM 484 1091 44% 298 441 68% 340 1266 OPP. TOTALS 514 1175 44% 238 382 62% 386 1266 Key: Md., made; Alt., attempts; Pct., percentage; P.F., personal fouls; T.P., total points. Qlr». T.O. Off. Def. Parker 81 33 45 85 Tinkey 74 40 49 88 Elkin 83 63 55 M Hathaway 66 45 10 14 Groves 76 28 4 14 Harness 71 43 12 20 Jacobson 60 25 12 30 Kaser 3 2 0 0 Arnett 50 23 8 19 Dreessen 110 0 Aitken 2 110 Boise 2 10 1 Miller 6 2 43 37 50 TEAM 349 233 407 OPP. TOTALS 308 205 348 Key: Qtrs, quarters played; T. 0., turnovers; Off., offensive rebounds; Def., defensive rebounds. Chg. Rec. Vio. BPS Fum. Steals B.S. A,t». Parker 13 9 19 5 13 21 27 Tinkey 2 12 23 5 32 9 42 Elkin 4 23 22 18 39 13 23 Hathaway 0 12 25 8 12 2 42 Groves 1 10 15 2 33 0 35 Harness 0 19 18 5 14 1 19 Jacobson 1 9 9 7 12 5 13 Kaser 0 2 2 0 0 0 0 Arnett 0 5 13 6 13 1 12 Dreessen 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 Aitken 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 Boise 0 0 I 0 0 0 0 Mil,er 1 15 27 1 16 21 26 TOTALS 22 115 176 57 184 73 239 OPP TOTALS 14 107 156 39 116 47 | 76 Key: Chg. Rec., charge received; Vio., violation;B P bad pass; Fum., fumbles; steals; BS.,blocked shots; Ast Two new records were set according to coach Jim Waller, one an individual record, and one a team record. The individual record went to Mike Arnett, who hit 26 consecutive free throws (these were his first 26 of the season, he missed his first to break the string in the last regular season game and missed one in each of the sectional games for 28 out of 31 for the year). The team record reported was: fewest turnovers for the season, 349, or an average of 16.6 per game.