Indianapolis Times, Volume 43, Number 83, Indianapolis, Marion County, 15 August 1931 — Page 4

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Prison Labor Once again the great state of Indiana goes to the court to fight for the privilege of selling prison made goods in competition with frefc laljor. That really means, in this state, the right of the firms which hire the labor of convicts at a few cents a day to sell in competition with those who, as long as they keep running, must pay enough wages to enable their workers to come back the next day. One of the last states to continue the medieval practice of contract prison labor, Indiana fights most viciously for the retention of all that goes with the contract system under which foremen for private firms practically replace disciplinary officers of the state in the control of prisoners. At the same time the state ignores entirely the haw of the state that the labor of prisoners shall be used for those things needed by the different units of state government and to be sold to them at cost. How far this has gone may be judged from the fact that the thousands of catalogs of prison-made goods printed for distribution among state and county and township officials have been destroyed and no longer is any effort made to induce these officials to obey the law. The cost to the people is two-fold. It costs in supporting prisoners for the benefit of prison contractors, and it costs in higher prices for things that could be manufactured for the state. The prison problem, in these days of the great experiment, is becoming more difficult. Every prison is overcrowded. Every prison has a problem in providing work. And it is highly essential that work be furnished to imprisoned men. Idleness is more difficult inside prisons than without. It drives to desperation. It causes outbreaks and tragedy. It leads to madness. It increases the whole prison problem. This state passed what was believed to be an ideal law when provision was made that prison labor should be used upon things that could be used by government. That took out some of the competition with free labor. At its worst, it reduced taxes for free labor. The trouble is that officials who use their purchasing power to keep themselves it office or obtain perquisites never followed the law. So it happens that prison labor, under a contract system, is used to compete with factories that give employment. The competition is becoming too keen. Continued, it means that the law-abiding will lose their jobs that contractors may profit on the labor of the disorderly. As expected, under the limited social viewpoint of our present administration of public affairs, Indiana fights for the prison contractor instead of the employer of free labor.

Relief Propaganda It has been demonstrated rather conclusively that the administration is not gifted with second sight. Sundry prophecies about the extent and duration of the depression, which have been erroneous, have inclined the public toward skepticism. This is lamentable, but true. Statements like that of Allen W. Bums of the Association of Community Chests and Councils, given dignity by White House dissemination and sponsorship, are responsible. Mr. Burns sees President Hoover, reporting that a survey shows that 227 cities, through community chests and local government funds, will be wholly able to care for distress in their communities this winter. How can Mr. Burns know what the exact situation will be? In the first place, no one knows how many unemployed and hungry people there will be. Second, the community chest drives have not taken place, and no one knows what the response will be, and whether donations will be adequate. Third, taxes in most cities have not been collected, and it is not known what funds cities and counties will have available, and to what extent they will be able to use such funds for relief. We wish we could put complete confidence in Mr. Burns’ guess, but Governor Pinchot of Pennsylvania, whose powers of divination are at least as good as those, of Mr. Burns and the White House, says his state will be unable to meet the needs of winter without federal help. We have been informed by Governors that states covering more than half of the population of the country will be powerless for one reason or another, to come to the help of community governments. And we know that many communities already have exhausted their resources. Recent 'White House statements, of which the Burns blast is typical, apparently are part of the campaign against “the dole ’—which is what the administration is pleased to call direct federal relief, despite the fact that federal relief is no more a dole than the city and state relief which Hoover approves. Thus a propaganda barrage is being laid down in preparation for the impending battle in congress. Os course the administration is entitled to its opinion and is to be commended for making its positions clear. But the administration hurts its cause by such clumsy and obvious maneuvers as those used in this instance. Three Millions Jobs Two new moves are being made to eradicate child labor. Th* American Federation of Labor executive commute* has voted to press the child labor amendment in th* forty-two states whose legislatures have failed to act. The White House conference committee on vocational guidance and child labor has announced a set of minimum standards for children. No child under 16 should leave school for work, we are told; boys and girls of 16 and 17 should be forbidden to enter hazardous or work

The Indianapolis Times (A MIKIITh-HOttAKD NEWSPAPER! " n.i ami *.u: i -i daily 'exr-cpi Sunday) by The Indianapolla Times Publishing r n .14 ._'e Maryland Street Indlanapofii, Ind. Price In Marlon County 2 ** < -lit* copy elsewhere. 3 cents—delivered by carrier 12 cents a week/ khvi oral. by ro” w. Howard earl and rak* : p Editor President Business Manager IH>NK—ltlley S1 ' BATURDAY. AUO, 15, 1931, Member of United Press Scrippa Howard Newspaper Alliance Newspaper Enterprise Anise/ elation Newspaper Information Service and Audit Bureau of Circulationß. “Give Light and the People Will Find Their Own Way.”

more than forty-four hours a week; none should work at night. In the meantime, more than 1,000,000 children under 16 are gainfully employed, nearly 2,000,000 adolescents of 16 and 17 are at work in factory, mill, mine and farm. Only six states have passed the child labor amendment to give the federal government the right to regulate or prohibit the work of children under 18. With millions of adults out of work for nearly three years it seems the anti-child labor drive might have been, started sooner. But now we can make up for lost time. Every year’s delay in adopting this fundamental reform piles greater blame upon society for conniving at the social crime of exploiting children and depriving adults of the right to work. Hoover, Roosevelt and Power Every part of the country has a stake in the latest controversy between New York state and the federal government involving development of St. Lawrence river power. It is far more than a local affair, more than just the biggest power development ever undertaken in this country. It is the first attempt on the part of a state to w T ork out effective control of public utilities by other means than the inadequate system of regulation. After struggling for years with the utilities for possession of the St. Lawrence, New York has created a power authority to generate electricity on the big river, to retain permanent control over its valuable resources, and to contract with a private utility for sale of power at the switchboard. Governor Roosevelt and his power authority will attempt to make a contract that guarantees reasonable rates to the domestic and rural consumer. Their success would demonstrate that the contract, instead of regulation, is the practicable method of protecting consumers from utility exploitation. But they may not succeed in making that sort of contract. Only one company, the Niagara Hudson, is in a position to bid for the power. If this company will not agree to the state’s terms, Governor Roosevelt says he will ask his legislature for authority to build transmission lines and control utility rates by direct state competition. This never has been tried before. There have been municipal, county, district and federal power projects; but a state, obviously the most powerful agency, never has tested direct competition with private companies as a means of rate control. Last winter nearly every Governor in the country discussed the utility regulation with his legislature. Only four Governors found present regulation satisfactory. Most of the states are groping for a solution which New York’s experiment may provide. But there is an obstacle. New York can not build her power plant until a treaty is negotiated between the United States and Canada. This promises to be long delayed, because the Hoover administration insists on including in the negotiations virtually all other questions in dispute between the two countries. Delay plays directly into the hands of the power companies anxious to defeat the Roosevelt plan for the St. Lawrence. If Roosevelt is a candidate for President, he will be out of the governorship before the work can get under way. A New Albany regime might make a very different contract with the Niag-ara-Hudson Power Corporation, or none at all. If President Hoover persists in endless negotiations for a treaty to settle the Chicago diversion canal controversy, the dispute over the Pacific fisheries, and other old quarrels—as well as the simpler St. Lawrence problem—he will be providing his Democratic opponents in the 1932 campaign with another effective issue. England, Ark., Remembers Last winter the people of England, Ark., learned how it felt to be hungry; learned the misery of waiting for help from a government willing to feed their cattle, but unwilling to feed them; learned the hardship of waiting for food from a Red Cross that doled it out bit by bit, and never enough. This week the farmers and merchants of England filled six trucks with food and vegetables and sent them to Henryetta, Okla., so that the folks who are hungry this year need not suffer as they suffered. Though it may not have been meant that way, no more stinging comment could have been made on the sort of relief which was administered last year. This poor community would hardly have sent its generous gift unless it had realized, better than any one else, the need for it. The man who goes fishing on Sunday feels guilty as a gunman, because he has a rod in his hands. Most folks, says the office sage, spend their vaca:ions spending.

Just Every Day Sense BY MRS. WALTER FERGUSON

WHEN are you women going to get rid of your childish complex which makes you believe you must do everything a man does, no matter how rotten it is?” This question is put by a gentleman who says he is fed up on emancipated womanhood. A paragraph down he writes that he is an unfaithful husband, although he loves his wife better than any other woman. He can’t see any particular harm, however, in stepping out now and then, and in spite of the fact that she knows about a couple of these childish pranks of his he feels sure that his wife would never do likewise, because she is too sensible and loves him too much. Illogical creatures, these men! With that sort of a mind, it would be impossible, no doubt, to explain that the chief reason women ape men is that they have been trained to believe themselves inferior and have watched the men having such gorgeous times being naughty. It seems quite natural that we should have desired to do what they appear to enjoy. 000 MEN always have spurned the virtues they advocated for women. The thing, however, that irks us to breaking point is that so often they also spurn the women who practice these virtues. One day when the world was young a woman was born with a spark of brain, she noticed that her husband commended her for her restrain and chastity, and then went galloping off after the woman who did not possess these traits. She became the first unfaithful wife. Today her daughters replenish the earth. They are dissatisfied, probably, with outside love affairs. The men are also thus frequently disillusioned, we have beard. The only happy person is the one who does not desecrate love. Nevertheless, men who argue about fidelity like our rorrespondent are responsible for many a good woman flying off at a tangent. The reasoning is so palpably unfair, so senseless. This good-girlie-sit-in-the-corner-and-remember-I-love-you attitude makes us rave. And I ask you. does it make the men the good sports they all claim to be?

THE INDIANAPOLIS TIMES

M. E. Tracy SAYS: We Don’t Seem Able to Get Very Good Government. Maybe We're Mot Willing to Make the Necessary Sacrifices. NEW YORK. Aug. 15.—N0 matter how tough their lot may be in other respects, cotton growers do not face the slightest possibility of suffering for lack of relief plans. Th e farm board’s suggestion that they plow under every third row has led to a veritable deluge of counter-proposals. Only to mention a few, Senator Caraway of Arkansas proposes that the farm board buy 7,000,000 bales of this year’s crop, at 8 cents a pound, or more, from growers who will agree not to plant cotton next year. John R. Pope of Austin, Tex., proposes that the farm board sell to each grower one bale at 6 cents a pound for every two he plows i under, with the idea that the profit | he could make on it would help overcome his loss. J. E. Mundy, Georgia legislator, proposes that every third member of the farm board be plowed under. a u u Doyle’s Millions Horse doctor doyle has been made to talk at last. You remember the horse doctor, of course, who acquired such a reputation as the friend of dumb animals that he was able to collect some $2,000,000 in fees for getting garage and filling station permits from the New York City board of standards. You remember, also, how he was supposed to have split those fees with somebody, how he was called before the legislative investigating committee, how he refused to answer any ad all questions with regard to fee-spliting on the ground that it might incriminate him to do so, how he was held in contempt, sentenced to thirty days in jail and all that. Well, after the appellate court had upheld his sentence, he decided to answer such questions as the court said he must to purge himself of the contempt charge. tt tt e The Doctor Speaks SUCH a breathless suspense as there was when Horse Doctor Doyle took the stand, such a craning of necks and cupping of ears. You’d have thought a Sampson was about to pull one of the main props from under Tammany Hall. Indeed, some people expected no less. But all the horse doctor had to say was, “I did not ever give a bribe to a public official.” And about all Chief Counsel Seabury had to say w r as. “are you now trifling with the committee, or are you giving a serious and truthful answer.” tt tt a Roosevelt’s Plight THOUGH 1 compelled to take the horse doctor’s word for it, the committee has petitioned Governor Roosevelt to call a special session of the legislature for the purpose of giving it more complete power to deal with such witnesses. This petition was approved by the five Republicans and opposed by the four Democrats on the committee. Keeping in mind that Governor Roosevelt is a Democrat, with good chances for the presidential nomination next year, that the committee is investigating a Democratic administration in New York City, with the hope of finding something rotten, you should be able to infer the rest. n u u U, S. Watching POLITICS is politics, except to a few outstanding men. During the next few days you will learn whether Governor Roosevelt should be counted among them. The question put up to him by this Republican-controlled committee is not an easy one. If he stands by the committee he is almost sure to alienate powerful influences in Tammany Hall, though he undoubtedly would make millions of friends throughout the country. It’s good government versus the game. tt a tt Good Government WE talk a great deal about good government. In fact, you can hardly find any one who admits being against it. There probably is no one issue on which w e are agreed so thoroughly in principle. But somehow we don’t seem able to get very good government. At least, that’s what one gathers from listening to politicians. Maybe, the fault goes deeper than politics. Maybe, we’re all suffering from the same trouble that afflicts the cotton growers. Maybe we’re not willing to make the necessary sacrifices. n tt tt Courage Lacking WHEN you think of what people are committing suicide for, or murder, or a multitude of lesser crimes, you can’t escape the conclusion that there is a widespread disposition to regard even small discomforts and inconveniences as calamities. And when you hear all the chatter about self-expression, easy divorce, hooch parties and the inalienable right of people to do as they dam please, no matter who gets hurt, you can’t help wondering whether we haven’t lost something not only by way of convictions, but by way of courage to back them up.

lyHii

HILL 70 CAPTURED Aug. 15 ON Aug. 15, 1917, Canadian troops captured Hill 70, dominating the important French coal city of Lens. Hill 70 had been declared by the Germans to be impregnable. Fighting was terrific in this sector, and the Canadians took positions on a two-mile front south and east of the city. On the same date the United States Food Administration, a $50,000,000 corporation, the purpose of which was to buy and sell wheat for the government, was organized. Also on this date Herr von Waldow became food controller in Germany, succeeding Von BatockL

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DAILY HEALTH SERVICE Salt, lodine Essential to Health

This is the sixteenth of a series of thirty-six timely articles by Dr. Morris Flshbein on “Food Troths and Follies.” dealing with such much discussed but little known subjects as calories, vitamins, minerals, digestion and balanced diet. BY DR. MORRIS FISHBEIN Editor, Journal of the American Medical Association and of Hygeia, tl e Health Magazine. ANOTHER chemical substance of which little thus far has been said, but which is of the greatest importance in the human diet, is salt. Salt is a mixture of sodium, one of the basic elements, and chlorine. The chemical is sodium chloride. Sodium is also found in substances much used in cooking and in medicine. For example, baking soda is sodium bicarbonate. It has been estimated that the average man takes in about onehalf ounce of sodium chloride every day. In the body, sodium salts are found in the blood and in other fluilds. A lower concentration of sodium salts is available in the muscles and in the organs. The amount of salt in the tissues is regulated to some extent by the

IT SEEMS TO ME bv ~

GILBERT PATTEN writes to reproach me for stating that I never knew the name of the man who wrote the Frank Merriwell stories. Mr. Patten reminds me that he sent this information to the column only a year or so ago. Burt L. Standish was the pen name which he used. And, again, the author wishes to correct the statement that he allowed Frank to linger at Yale for eight or ten years. “ Tain’t so, Heywood; ’tain’t so!” writes Mr. Patten. “Either there was malice in the assertion or your memory played you a bum trick. He got only the usual four years, much as I would like to have stretched it. Os course, in a later yarn he did go back to Yale as coach. 000 Just the Usual Stretch “■pvANG it all, Heywood! I fitted for college myself, though I didn’t make it, because I got to writing pieces and selling ’em, which led me to decide that I couldn't afford to waste time around a college. I allowed Frank to do i lot of things a colllege man coudn’t do, even away back in those prehistoric times, but I didn’t keep him in Yale eight or ten years—honest I didn’t. “Everybody knows it’s no job at all to turn off a column a day. That seems a loafer's job to anybody who ever wrote dime novels.” And Mr. Patten's working requirements while in the Merriwell business were enough to make any columnist seem a slacker. At that Mr. Patten admits that he did not rank with the more rapid practitioners in the dime novel field. His best record was 50,000 words in a week. That constituted two novels and a half. Asa rule, he did only 5,000 words a day. Som e of his competitors surpassed this by far. For instance, a man named Ned Buntline wrote a 610page book in sixty-two hours, while Prentiss Ingraham boasted of completing 33,000 words in twenty-four hours. 000 A Modern Speed King THIS mark, to be sure, has been approached even In our owm day by Ben Hecht. At least, he makes* the claim of having done a 60.000-word detective story in the span of twenty-four hours. But in the case of the men who did the dime novels fas a matter of fact, they were nickel novels) this pace, or something like it, was kept up day after day and week after week. One had to work hard, for the prevalent stipend was about a quarter of a cent a word. Most marvelous to me is not the mere quantity, but the technique of story-telling. Mr. Patten writes that in most cases the author started with a sufficiently enthralling first sentence and then plunged ahead through his twenty or thirty thousand word stint without the slightest notion where it was going to end or the precise direction it would take. Possibly this is not as poor & system as it sounds. In many a modern novel of the more serious sort I have been afflicted with the thought that the author was too preoccupied* with his final para-

The Police Dog,

amount of water available. If the amount of salt taken into the body is reduced, there is a corresponding decrease in the amount of salt and water in the tissues. If one takes much salt, he finds himself developing a great thirst, so the balance between salt and water will be maintained. It generally is believed that a human being needs less salt after 40 years of age, and there is some opinion to indicate that salt may influence the blood pressure, causing it to increase. This is not, however, established. As one grows older his appetite may become jaded and he will find himself attempting to stimulate the jaded appetite by eating foods more highly seasoned and more greatly spiced. This tendency may cause a person after middle age to consume more salt than he otherwise would take. One of the uses of the chloride element of the salt is to provide the hydrochloric acid which is secreted by the cells of the stomach as an aid to digestion. Various diets have been developed free from large amounts of salt, but before one undertakes any unusual

graph while still engaged in the composition of his first chapter. I know that critics and publishers take pride in revealing the fact that some young man or young woman went over his book twenty times before he submitted it for publication. This practice of con-st-ant reshaping and revision may produce a work of art, but it can also rob a book of spontaneity. I like to have the feeling that the characters in a story have more or less taken the plot into their own hands and that on occasion they may run away no matter how hard their creator tugs upon the reins. I suppose that by now I would not find great fascination in the MerriweU stories, though I did read a litle Horatio Alger a year or so ago with enormous interest. One quality of the dime novelists ap-

People’s Voice

Editor Times—ls or is not a newspaper a pubic servant? is the question. I’ve known some papers to make a fairly good stab at “news printing” and others do It up brown; and still others ere just so much paper with black marks on, no more than a substitute for a dis- j carded mail order catalog. I wish to congratulate The Times: in its efforts to keep be f ore the public the Surber-Purk-Graham case and its disgusting reflections on a city institution that isn’t an institution as the city demands, but a playground for a gang of macewielders, which is another name no better than gangster or hijacker, or what have you. It’s a fine howdydo for any city when its citizens can’t go out on the street without running a chance of being hijacked. Is it any worse than that? Blah! And they talk of antiknock! But to get back to the newspaper question; If I pay my money for “news,” I want real news and nothing but the truth. Why tal'° a piece of news and turn it over and over until it comes from the press resembling a fairy story instead of a red-blooded piece of jou~*alism? If John Doe is president of the So and So club and gets in a jam with the law, other than tlirough his business or financial affairs, and he shoots himself for fear cf disgrace, why put the story through the wringer and bring it out that he shot himself because of failing health? The Times, thank heavens, did not particularly take sides with Surber or Graham, but deiberately put the story before the public on its front page and as it was told by witnesses and the officers. It was for the public's benefit that it might see what is going on. If you say, “Well, what about what’s going on?” then I say, “Dumbbell, change your vote or pull a little harder for our side next time.” MAN ON THE STREET. Is Notr e Dame college the same as University of Notre Dame? The University of Notre Dame is located at Notre Dame, Ind. There are Notre Dame colleges at South Euclid, 0., and Baltimore, Md., listed in Patterson’s Educational Directory for 1931. p.

diet of this character, he will do well to consult a physician and make certain that the diet is adapted to his particular needs. Another mineral element of great importance is iodine. lodine is particularly associated with the functioning of the thyroid gland. The amounts required in the human body are very small and are easily available in the form of seafoods and of plants raised in territories where the soil is rich in this substance. There are, however, many districts in this country in which the vegetables and plants are grown in soil that is very poor in iodine; for example, the Great Lakes district and the Pacific northwest. In such territories, seafood is not a common article of diet. Hence, physicians advise particularly that growing children receive small amounts of iodine in the form of tablets pr liquid preparations which can be prescribed by a physician and which have the virtue of filling the deficiency, thereby preventing the enlargement of the thyroid gland, known as simple goiter.

Ideals and opinion* expressed in this column are those of one of America’s most interesting writers and are presented without retard to their agreement or disagreement with the editorial attitude of this paper.—The Editor.

pealed to me as a youth and still whets my interest. I refer to the lack of descriptive writing. The man who dashed out these top-speed tales for popular consumption had no time to indulge in word pictures about sunsets, desert country or old manor houses. Somebody had to bite the dust in every other paragraph, and scenery was not allowed to slow up the action. tt u tt Plunged In Blind GILBERT PATTEN, for instance, began the first of his Merriwell series by sending the manly lad to a military academy. The author had never been at a school of this sort and knew nothing about the local color. Tiiat he picked up by the simple process of writing out for a few school catalogues. Later, when it seemed expedient to put Frank Merriwell in Yale, the same difficulty confronted the author. He drew a Yale of his own dreams and subsequently checked up by attending a few football games. Indeed, so successful was the fictitious atmosphere that a number of young men throughout the country went to New Haven for no other reason than a desire to emulate their boyhood’s hero, Frank Merriwell, or his brother Dick. Mr. Patten informs me that Lefty Flynn confessed to being turned Yale ward through the Meiriwell books. And it may even be that Yale in its later days has taken on something of the aspect which was given to it in the dime novel series. Literature always keeps a jump or so ahead of life. And the artist need not invariably hold the mirror up to nature, since nature is adaptable and frequently willing to take a hint. (Copyright. 1931. bv The Times)

The Occult It has always fascinated mankind. Peering behind the curtain of things hidden has intrigued the inquiring human mind since caveman days. Most of our superstitions and beliefs about things mysterious have arisen as a result of man’s effort to pierce the future, tell fortunes and predict events. Our Washington Bureau has a packet of six of its interasting and informative bulletins on these subjects that make interesting reading. Fill out the coupon below and send for them. The titles are: 1. The Meaning of Dreams. 4. Palmistry. 2. Fortune Telling With Playing 5. Meanings Ascribed to Flower#. Cards - 6. Meanings Ascribed to Precious 3. Astrology—Horoscopes for a Stones. Year. CLIP COUPON HERE Dept. B-4, Washington Bureau The Indianapolis Times, 1322 New York avenue, Washington, D. C. I want the packet of six bulletins on OCCULTISM and inclose Herewith 20 cents In coin or loose, uncanceled United States postage stamps, to cover return postage and handling costa: i NAME STREET AND NO CITY STATE I am a reader of The Indianapolis Times.

.'AUG. 15,1931

SCIENCE BY DAVID DIETZ—

Astronomers Are Hopeful That Another Great Comet Soon Will Appear in the Heavens. A BIG comet, visible to the unaided eye, is a spectacular sight, its great tail stretching magnificently across the sky. Astronomers, as was mentioned in tnis column recently, think such a comet may show up in the near future. This view is based on the law of averages. Professor J. J. Nassau, director of the Warner Swasey observatory. of Case School of Applied Science, tells how astronomers arrive at it. Astronomical records record the appearance of about 400 comets before the .invention of the telescope. These comets were obviously visible to the unaided eye since the telescope had not yet been invented. The telescope first was turned upon the heavens by Galileo in 1609. The comet record goes back to about 1000 B. C. This means, therefore, that in twenty-six centuries there were 400 comets visible to the unaided eye. This would be an average of fifteen or sixteen to a century. Now the present century has had only three naked-eye comets—the Moorehouse comet in 1908, Halley's comet in 1910 and Brooks' comet in 1911. Twenty years have elapsed since a big comet decorated the sky. That is why astronomers are hopeful. m u u Fear of Comets COMETS always have been the cause of a great deal of superstitious fear. Shakespeare noted this fact when he wrote: "When beggars die there are no comets seen. The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes.” In 1910, many Chinese villagers shot off fireworks with the hope of driving off Halley’s comet. It is interesting to compare these simple villagers of the Orient with the story of Masani Nagata, the Japanese amateur who has discovered the most recent telescopic comet. Nagata, the foreman on a melon ral ? ch * n the Imperial valley of California, follows astronomy as a hobby. Here is the material for & sermon. In the United States many people believed that the comet of foretold the war of that year ands that Donati’s comet in 1858 heralded the Civil war. In ancient times, the nature of comets was completely misunderstood. Many of the old philosophers did not realize that they were astronomical objects but regarded them as some sort of supernatural fish or dragons swimming around in the earth’s atmosphere. There are many old records which give exaggerated descriptions of comets as blood-red, drippinc fire or blood, taking the form of a hand holding a flaming sword, and so on. tt u u Nature of Comets ABOUT 500 comets have been recorded since 1600. Most of these, however, are telescopic comets. The telescope picks up about five comets a year, although eleven were discovered in 1925. When a comet is first picked up by means of a telescope it appears only as a big star-like spot of light, usually with a fuzzy or hazy appearance. This will surprise many people who always think of a comet as a star-like body with a long tail. The tail develops only as the comet approaches the sun, so that when the comet is receding from the neighborhood of the sun the tail does not trail behind the head, but extends in front of it, stretching out in the same direction that the comet is moving. As the comet fades into the distance the tail grows smaller again and finally disappears. The head of a comet is divided into two parts, a small ’’right center called the nucleus, and surrounding this, a fuzzy, hazy mass called the coma. The volume of a comet is enormous. The diameter of the coma will range from 30,000 to 150,000 miles as a rule. The nucleus, however, rarely exceeds 500 miles in diameter. Most enormous of all is the tail, which may range from 5,000,000 to 100.000,000 miles in length. But while the volume of a comet is great, the amount of matter composing it is small. This is apparent from the- large amount by which a comet is deflected from its original path by the gravitational pull of one of the larger planets when it happens to pass near such planet.

Daily Thought

But watch thou in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, make full proof of thy ministry.—Timothy 4:5. It is the best thing for a stricken heart to be helping others.—A. H. K.