Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 42, Number 263, 15 September 1917 — Page 12

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Jimmie G. and a Clean Plate Jimmie G. was hunsry; really hungry, you know; just as elghtycar old boys are. He and Bill 1 ladle y and Harold JonfS had been making a new automobile, since Rill had come across t great bargain of four rubber-tired go-cart wheels for only seventeen cents, and because Jimmie could run the fastest, he had been the one to push the other two boys when they were trying out the half finished vehicle, and so Jimmie was so hungry he could eat the whole table and table cloth and knives and forks and dishes too; at least that is what he said. "Hey, Mother, whatchu goln' V have for dinner today?" he asked, coming in and banging the kitchen door. ; "Guess," answered his mother. "Pie," said Jimmie, his mind leaping at once to the grand climax. "Yes, and something else, too," added Jean, with a mysterious air, as she helped her mother finish getting dinner ready. " "Warm bread," guessed Jimmie G. "Of course." Jean's tone was "filled with fine scorn. "Don't you know mother always bakes on Saturday? It's something better'n : warm bread." Just then Mrs. Gray took the lid off of the stew kettle and began to dish up the dinner. A thin white ; vapor curled up and began stealing over towards Jimmie G.'s nose. ' "Veal stew," shouted Jimmie, and ; throwing his arms about his mother ( he gave her such a tremendous i squeeze, the poor dinner was alimost upset. "Then dashing into the ; front hall, he actually Jiung his cap I on a hook in the coat closet, just to celebrate. i Jimmie was in his place and waiting when Mrs. Gray finished putting the dinner on the table. "Is that all the veal stew you fixed ?" he asked. I can eat more than that myself. Just "watch me." And Jimmie began to demonstrate. First he put a nice thick piece of fresh bread on his plate, and then his mother covered it with a generous helping of the stew, and from the way Jimmie rolled his eyes around and licked bis lips, it must .have tasted pretty good. Before Jean or Mrs. Gray had half finished theirs, Jimmie's plate was back for the second helping, ami before they had time to even think about their second, Jimmie "was back for his third supply. "Well, Jimmie, you surely are hungry today, but I'm afraid you've had Almost enough of this meat stew," and Mrs. Gray hesitated. "Still," she went on, "just a little of the gravy on this corner of bread will be all right." And so Jimmie had a little more. "I know somebody that can't eat any pie "caase he won't have any more roo-oom," chanted Jean in a sing-ong key. "And It's butterscotch, too-oo-oo." "I can, too," dented Jimmie. "I can eat a dozen pies, and some more of the veal stew besides. See if I can't" At this point the telephone rang, and while Jimmie's mother was

Silas was told it was the proper thing to bring flowers when he called.

THE

answering it, the young gentleman of the family felt it his duty to Bhow his doubting sister just what a man he could be. So going around to the covered dish, he dipped out two large spoonfuls more with plenty of meat and vegetables in it But on the way back to his chair, Jimmie happened to glance out the window, and there he. saw Bill Hadley . and Harold Jones slowly pushing their new automobile down the street. They had started to fix the black top of the old go-cart (from which the wheels had been obtained) over the soap-box seat of the car, and something seemed to have gone wrong. Jimmie stood intently watching for several moments, and then Jean recalled him to present conditions by saying, "Look out, Jimmie, you're almost spilling the gravy on the rug." Hastily swallowing a bite or two Jimmie jushed his plate aside and reached for his piece of pie. "I haven't time to eat all that," he said without looking at Jean. "I've got to get out with the fellows." But before he had eaten more than the little pointed tip end of his piece, a shrill, "Iley, Jim-mie-e" came floating in from the street. "AH right, fellows, I'll-be-out-in-a-mlnute," shouted Jimmie hastily, wiping his mouth with his napkin, and dashing into the hall for his hat And the door banged behind him just as his mother came back from the telephone. That night for supper, Jimmie Gray was the most surprised person in the whole United States. ; At his place sat hi3 old dinner" plate filled with veal stew, and the old butter scotch pie was at its side. "Why, mother," he exclaimed, "what's this for? Can't I have what the rest of you do instead of this old left-over stuff from. dinner?" "Not aonight, Jimmie. boy," was the answer. "This is war time, and don't you remember how we decided to do our bit by eating everything on our plates" "Well, I didn't but I gnss I will next time," said Jinynie, very slow ly. And he did. " Laughs "I had a dream the other night and dream pt that a burglar stole our new golden clock; and I got up to see if it was still there." "Well, was it gone?" "No; but It was going." They say that money talks, and It Is true because it usually says goodbye to most people. "My dear children, kiss this lady's hand, Bhe is the new mother that I promised to bring you." After taking a good look at his new mother, little Reginald said: "Pa, you have been fooled, h ain't new at all." Helen Fulle. Asa Dusenwal says there are two kinds of people in this world. Some who own automobiles and others who don't.

RICHMOND PALLADIUM. SEPT.

CALL BOY RISES

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Harry E. Byres, whose elevation to the presidency of the Chicago, Milwaukee & St. Paul railway has been announced, began his career as a call boy for the Burlington and climbed to operating vice president of that road before being called to the presidency of the Milwaukee.

Facts About The Boomerang

More has been written and less is understood of the boomerang than of almost any other weapon. Everybody knows it to be a flat stick of wood, bent into shape which suggests a combination of a "V" and a "U;" but, in point of fact, boomerangs are of almost every shape, from semicircular to nearly straight, and their effectiveness seems to depend not so much on their shape as upon the curves ! which are shown on their flat sides. If one takes a boomerang and looks along its sharp outer edge, it is seen that this edge presents a wavy appearance a delicately adjusted sinuosity like the lines of a long screw. , This curve is not elaborately fashioned or smoothed into evenness; the hard wood, of which the boomerang is usually made, being picked out with short blows from a sharpened flint held in the hand, almost always shows, indeed, infinite irregularities. What rule of construction the savage artificer follows, even he himself would probably be unable to Fay. Yet he has some definite plan in mind, no doubt, for while e clips and pecks away at the wood, he takes frequent squints along its edge, to see how his curves are progressing.! No two boomerangs are just alike, but all are similar in their relations of curves along the flat side. The boomerang maker knows instinctively just where his boomerang will go when he throws it although he never seems to aim any two in the same way. Some very absurd tales have been told about this weapon. One hears of men who can so throw a boomerang that it kills an enemy behind a tree and then comes cheerfully fluttering back to its owner, who thereupon hurls it on a fresh mission of carnage. A flock of frightened cockatoos, speeding in intricate gyrations through the air to escape the attack of natives who want a bird for dinner, are pursued at every turn by these weapons, which strike them down a dozen each, and so return to the hand that casts them.

15, 1917

TO PRESIDENT Old wives' fables, these, at which Australians laugh, knowing in the nature of things their falsity. In the first place, the war boomerang is not made for return, and is only slightly bent, so that it may go hopping and bounding along the earth like a hoop, and make capacious holes in the body of the adversary. These are of hard, heavy wood and ugly things to be hit withal; but the return boomerang is simply a plaything, or to be used in light hunting, and although it might give a man a painful rap, could not seriously injure him. As for the the cockatoo story, it has this much of truth, that a native boomerang. hurler, if he saw a flock flying by him in a straight

FRIENDS WE NEVER FORGET

THAT OCA OtO POC.VIHO USED TO Strk

course, could so cast his weapon as to coiue upon them unawares at a given point in their flight, and, perhaps, knock one down; but his boomerang would drop, too, having no power of- flight after it had struck anything. The boomerang is sufficiently remarkable without exaggeration, and it is time this strange weapon. The method of casting it is as follows: It is held perpendicularly and taken firmly in the hand by one of its extremities, with the other end pointed forward, and is hurled with a full arm and assisted by a run and a swing of the whole body. A slight turn of the wrist at the moment of discharge causes it to assume various erratic courses. Sometimes it will fly straight forward for 100 or even 200 yards, thon rise shar,ply to a great height, lose it force and flutter down to the feet of the thrower. Again it will rise in the air, swoop down with immense rapidity and skim around in a great semicircle a few inches from the ground, rise once more and return to the spot whence it started. It will also start off in a great swoop to the right, reverse itself and turn to the left, skim around the thrower in a scries of evernarrowing circles, and finding their center, fall into liko an exhausted bird. There is something so strange about. the thing as to appear almost super-natural; its movements a'ro so unexpected and out of reason that it seem to be alive, and to take a savage delight in straight shoots and dashes, which make the "new chum" (Australian equivalent for "tenderfoot") dodge every time it turns lest it should knock him on the head. The yarn about the Australian blacks always throwing the boomerang with their backs to the object they desire to hit is a piece off the same "whole cloth" as the cuckatoo fable, and the lie about the missile returning to its owner after killing the gentleman behind the tree. An expert thrower can cause his boomerang to shoot behind him after a short preliminary excursion in front, but if he really wants to hit anything, either in hunting or war. he doesn't fool away his time with the return . boomerang, but throws the heavy, nearly straight one, which goes direct to the mark without any flourishes. Such i3 the boomerang a twoformed utensil, with one shape used for business, the other for sport.

Oh, Joy I always like to wander home At half past two or three. And then find as I scratch my dome That I have lost my key. Spinks "What made him so mad?" Winks "He told his wife she had no judgment, and she just looked him over critically from head to foot and said she was beginning to realize it." "Say, Mrs. Miganty, Why did you hurl that flat iron at your husband this morning?" "As you know the motto is, "Strike while the iron is hot."