The Syracuse and Lake Wawasee Journal, Volume 13, Number 18, Syracuse, Kosciusko County, 2 September 1920 — Page 5

I I j The Mystery©! Hartley Hoose | I By CLIFFORD S. RAYMOND | >•» Illustrated by IRWIN MYERS * D Copyright By George H. Doran Co* *♦*' A ij<i

CHAPTER IX—Continue!!. —ll— ‘ ' By this time I had my senses fully •recovered. I ran to the nearest window and was just in time to see two figures, one in white, the other Indistinct, at. the far edge of the lawn, running. They' ran into the woods, and while I stood at the window, trying with painful consciousness of stupidity and ineptitude to decide upon a course of action, I heard an automobile engine start in the lane beyond the woods. Out of a stupor, in which I watched the two strange figures* go from the moonlight on the lawn into the dark of the oak grove, I was aroused —pos- ’ sibly by the sound of the engine of,the. automobile —with a courge of action suggested. It tame of fears long entertained, now present with a threat of imminent consequence. I ran for the stairs, flashing the light, up the stairs and to . Jed's room. His door was open. As I have said, this wing was not wired for electricity. I turned my light about the room, saw that the fear which had caused me to patrol the house was realized and then hunted for the lamp, which I found and lighted. Jed’s room was in the disorder in ; which a hard-working housebreaker, Intent on finding jewels he knew the room contained, might have left it. It seemed almost ripned to pieces. On a table was a small pearl-inlaid ebony box. The lid was open; the box was empty. As I stood in the midst of the dis-") array of with, the empty box the most significant thing ih it, the marvelous unreality of Hartley house, a smiling dread, seemed to have visible token. The empty box, I thought, had contained the manuscript which recorded Mr. Sidney’s secret. The flpsh of white which I had seen in the hall indicated the method by which it had disappeared. The two figures crossing the lawn in the moonlight were further indication. There was the sound of the automobile engine. I had a sore spot on my head. The manuscript, I knew —or believed —had beein in the box which stood with significant emptiness in the midst of the disordered room of Jed, who had been kidnaped. If my surmises were correct, Mr. Sidney’s secret, upon which I knew the happiness of the family depended, was in the hands of men designing to make use of it. Jed, being a major-domo about the place, had in his room a telephone connecting with the various servants’ quarters. I used it to arouse the chauffeur. It took five minutes of ringing his bell to awaken him; when he responded, I told him that the house had been robbed by a man and a woman dressed in white, who had escaped, under my sight, ’through the oak grove and had used an automobile waiting for them on the road beyond the grove. I told him to awaken one of the gardeners, take weapons and go as quickly as possible south by the best roads. When this had been done, I called Mrs. Sidney’s maid and told. her to awaken Mrs. Sidney and tell her, if possible without alarming her, that I wished to speak to her on an urgent matter. In a few minutes the maid came back and said that Mrs. Sidney could see me.'- I found*'her. in the sitting.' room of her suite. “It is nothing serious, Mrs. Sidney,” I said —“nothing that we need now regard as serious; and it does not concern Mr. Sidney’s health. There has been an intruder in the house. Moreover, the purpose was to break into Jed’s room, and Jed’s room has been Ol »Oh, If We Can, We Must!” She Cried. broken into. I got a glimpse of tlX' person who did it, a woman. I saw a man and a woman run into the oak grove and I heard an automobile engine start on the road. I have sent a chauffeur and a gardener in chase, but they are traveling against so great a start that I have no hope. What I fear is that they have Mr. Sidney’s diary. Do you know where Jed kept it?” “No, doctor,” said Mrs. Sidney. “If there had been any chance of finding it we should have taken it away from him. In his absence we have searched his room frequently." "These people are after the manuscript. and they are satisfied that they have it.” I said. “I am sure of that There was a small peqrl-inlaid box, open and empty, in the middle of the floor.” “We never found such a box,” said Mrs. Sidney. .

“Then it might have been there?” “It might.” “If it was, they have it and we must get it back.” “Oh, if we can, we must!” she cried, holding her hands so tightly clasped that the delicate bones made a crackling noise. j . I tried to be encouraging and consoling and, as a practical measure, gave her a bromide. CHAPTER X. Hartley house had a general office where the business of the estate was handled. It was to one side of the main entrance. I had promised to be an extraordinary person in meeting extraordinary Circumstances, but all I did was to go so the office and, lighting the lights, sit there. I was in the extreme dejection of a weakling when the door opened . and Isobel came in. “What are you doing, up?” I asked. “I’ll ask the same thing of you. What are you and the whole household doing, awake and moving?” I told her that housebreakers had been surprised at work and had escaped. “If you have been disturbed,” I suggested, “probably your father has, also. You had better go to his room and tell him that the servants have been flustered by a burglar scare, and then you had better go to your mother’s room and stay with her until things quiet down." That seemed sound enough advice, but when Isobel had gone I was left wondering again what to do next. It was out of the question to notify the authorities. The thieves had stolen something which, from what I knew of it, I preferred to have in their hands rather than in the possession of the police. Our detective agency I could trust, but I did. not want to communicate with anyone but McGuire, the superintendent. and there was no need of telephoning him until later in the morning. The as I thought it over, came to this: The Spaniard and the attorney, by the aid of a confederate, a woman, had obtained possession of the diary containing the secret of Hartley house. They woujd soon be heard from. They would not disappear. We did not have to pursue them. They would pursue us. There was the possibility of dealing with them by force extra-legally. Anything we did for our protection had to be done extra-legally. I thought McGuire could and would attend to that, and I intended to instruct him to consider murder the only process not to be thought of. I tried to reconcile my ideas of Mr. Sidney’s character with the facts of the family's terrible dilemma. What could a man of so just and honorable, kindly and charming a nature —as revealed in his old age—have done, even in a hot and passionate youth, which ffie could not face now? What crime could he have committed which not only constituted a danger to his security but remained a source of satisfaction to him? For two hours I sat by the telephone, expecting momentarily to hear from the chauffeur who had gone In pursuit of the thieves. It was about four o'clock in the morning—there was a '.pale, suggestion of flight in the windows —when Mrs. Aldrich, the housekeeper, came to the office. She was an imperturbable lady of disciplinary habit and ordinarily unruffled dignity, but now she was disturbed. “Doctor,” she said, “Agnes, the new maid, cannot be found. She is not in her room. Her bed has not been touched. Most of her belongings and her suitcase are gone. I came to you with this probably unimportant domestic incident, thinking that—well,’ the occurrence of the night might have some connection with this girl." “I think Agnes probably was involved in the matter,” I said. “We have always so dreaded to take a new servant,” said Mrs. Aldrich, “but Agnes came recommended for the month by a very faithful girl who wanted a month’s leave. Has anything of great value been taken?” “Nothing of any intrinsic value whatever, Mrs. Aldrich. I imagine the robbers were alarmed before they found any jewels or plate.” “That’s a consolation, in any event,” said the housekeeper; “but we never shall be able to take in a new servant again with any ease of mind.” The chauffeur telephoned as Mrs. Aldrich went away. The chase in the i night had been useless, as might be i expected, and I told him to return I home. Mrs. Aldrich brought me a light I breakfast, and one of the gardeners came to say that the dogs had been found in the woods. They had been fed drugged meat and were sick and even now barely able to stand. I was preparing to go to Mr. Sidney’s room when the telephone. rang again. It was a call from the village of Horwich, forty miles east, a place’ of some repute, or ill repute, for the number and character of its drinking places and roadhouses. The man calling me said he was thq constable of the township of Horwich and asked if he were talking to a person of responsibility, f assured him he was. Then he told me that an automobile accident had occurred two miles out of Horwich and that the only Identifying\marks suggested Hartley house as a, place to make inquiries. He asked if I could come to Horwich. I endeavored to question him over the telephone, but he'said there was little information he could give, a man and a woman in a car—man past middle age, a young woman in white; the man was dead, the woman badly injured. *

“I’ll be over as soon as possible,” I said. “Please keep the effects all together.” There was no doubt in my mind that the qfiavering little rascal of a lawyer with his precise way and timid but controlling unscrupulousness had come to the end of hfs road —and at the very moment when -he had success in his hand. There was no reason to doubt that the woman was the maid Agnes whom I had surprised at midnight stealing down the stairs from Jed’s room with Mr. Sidney’s diary. But if we were rid of the timorpus, grasping little attorney, we were in worse difficulties. With the- attorney and his Spanish client, we at least knew the manner of dealing. It was disconcerting—l might almost be for-'Dp-Si* I Had My Bottle of Beer. given the exaggeration of saying it was horrifying—to consider that the diary was being handled by a constable, a sheriff or a coroner or even by any idler or resort-keeper in the village of Horwich. If the automobile accident had disposed of one ingenious enemy only to make a half-dozen equally nnscrupulous ones, or to apprise (I was tempted to think this waS worse) one incorruptible officer of the Condition of Hartley house —in either event, we were the worse for the change in circumstance. One of the stablemen knew' how to drive a cart and I asked him to bring out the automobile which I qsed when I went to town. The chauffeur, when he returned, would have been up most of the night. I did not-want to impose on him. 1 might be gone most Qf the day. In a half-hour we were away toward Horwich. I never had been ove? the road, wffiich ran by old farms with stone fences and was little traveled except by the people who lived along it. Originally the place had a respectable tavern. It was called the White Owl. It was stiU respectable, but oddly enough, it was the success of the White Owl which had attracted the other places. I inquired for the constable and was told that I should likely find him at the White Owl, he being a frequenter of that place and now having a case which needed a great deal of drinking and talking over. I went to the White Owl and on entering the barroom, which really had an attractive rather than a disreputable appearance, saw a group of men about a short, broad, square-shoul-dered fellow who was talking to the interest of half a dozen or more fellows. My entrance made no diversion, and judging, from what I had been told, that the squat, talkative fellow was the constable and thgt he was telling the story I wanted to know, I decided to remain unidentified, have a bottle of beer —from the bartender, who came half-heartedly from the constable’s narration —and thus as an eavesdropper get what I came to get in direct conversation. I had my bottle of beer, and the bartender went back to the group, dominated by the squat, talkative fellow. He was not the comic type of constable. He showed Intelligence and decision, but evidently he was fond of a story when he had it to tell. He was saying: “I was up late because there was a bad set at the Half Day, and Bill Dailey thought he might have trouble with them before he got them on their way. About one o’clock they had a quarrel, without anything but talk, divided into two sets and went away in two cars toward the city. Bill and I split a bottle of beer, and Bill said he’d be going himself. It was nearly one-thirty then, and I thought I’d wait up for Number Eleven at two o’clock and see if anyone got off. , “Bill gave me the keys and told me to shut the place up. I had another bottle of beer and was playing solitaire on the bar when Number Eleven stopped. "I went to the front door of the bar and looked over toward the station. A man had got off, and he was .headed toward the Half Day, which was the only place showing a light. I watted in the doonvay, and when he came up, I saw he was a foreigner. He had gold rings in his ears. “He made as if he wanted to come in. He didn’t speak enough English for me to make out what he was saying, I let him in, and he went up to the bar, put down a quarter and pointed toward the whisky. I gave him the bottle, and he pointed to me and smiled. So I said I didn’t mind if I did, and we bad a drink together. I *

THE SYRACUSE AND LAKE WAWASEE JOURNAL

thought I’d like to know what this fellow wanted in town, so I didn’t suggest it was cl&sing time. “'Then I was surprised to hear a car coming along. The other fellow seemed to be expecting it. We both went to the door. The car stopped at the door, and a man helped a woman out He was a little old shriveled fellow. She was young and pretty. “The old fellow said something to my foreigner, and he threw his arms in the air, wriggled all over, laughed and fell on the old fellow and kissed him. The old boy struggled and kicked, but the foreigner just picked him right up and kissed him on both cheeks. “That old boy was mad when he got loose. ‘This is unthinkable,’ he said. ‘lt is beyond expression. You human pig! Dog of a man—-slobbering beast!’ Then he stopped speaking English and said a lot of things the foreigner understood, but it didn’t make him mad. His eyes just sparkled. He put a dollar on the bar and pointed ■to the whisky again. “ ‘Bring our drinks over here,’ said the old boy, pointing to one of the tables in a far corner of the room. “They sat down, and the two men talked. The girl didn’t seem to have the language. The foreigner was excited. The old boy kept wiping his eyeglasses. • He wasn’t showing as . much nervousness as the foreigner, but he was pleased over something. “I kept behind the bar, as near their table as I could, and pretended to play solitaire and wait for their orders, watching them as much as possible and trying to make out what they were talking about. Pretty soon they wanted another round of drinks. When I served them the old boy wanted to know if he could telephone to the city. He paid me the toll, and I showed him the telephone booth and heard him give his number. It was River 4600. “When he got his party, he said: 'ls that you, Sim? Everything is all right. Yes, as expected. Let him go.’ “That was all. He went back to the table. I noticed that he kept tight hold all the time on a leather case. When they got to talking again, the foreigner kept pointing toward the case and began to get more excited. As near as I could make out what was happening, as they kept on talking and motioning, it was the black leather case the foreigner wanted, and the other man wouldn’t let him have it. (TO BE CONTINUED.) MUSHROOMS OF ALL SORTS Edible and Poisonous, While One Species, Grown in Africa, Is Worshiped as a God. In or about the edges of woods one occasionally comes across an unpleas-ant-looking umbrella-shaped mushroom with a red or orange-colored top that is covered with a slimy exudation. Now and then, strange to say, people eat it. They die. Its slime m/yery attractive to flies. They gather upon it, and they die. In Europe this sjlecies of mushroom is used as a substitute for fly-paper. The horrible-smelling “clathrus” mushroom is believed in France to cause cancer. French people call it the “cancer mushroom.” Another cies, which grows on olive trees, is so luminous, at night that one can see to read by it; Other kinds of mushrooms are used for making ink, for stanching the flow of blood and (in Lapland) for killing bedbugs. A European species is employed to stupefy bees, and certain “puffballs” are said to have anesthetic properties. Tribes of semisavages in northeastern Asia utilize a mushroom for snuff. But most curious of all is the Polyporus sacer, which in Africa is worshiped as a god.—Pittsburgh Dispatch. World's Oldest Drawings. The oldest drawings&in the world are believed to have been made about 25,000 years Hi go by prehistoric man in the caves of the Pyrenees mountains, says Boys’ Life. Some of tWese pictures show remarkable skill in drawing, suggesting that civilization was comparatively well advanced at this period. From the relics of this period it is believed that these men had a religion of some, kind, that they buried their dead, were governed by chiefs and made instruments of flint. Examples of tjieir painting and sculpture have been found. As man goes about the earth and dissecting every object a great amount of scientific information is being gathered which will some day enable him to solve the great mystery of his early history. Meredith and Lady Macbeth. Lady Butcher in her “Memories of George Meredith,” recently published, gives the world not a little new information about the novelist which is noth significant and" extremely entertaining. Here is one of the passages she quotes from her diary which shows his amazing power to paint with words: , “Mr. Meredith went with father and me to see Irving and Mrs. Crowe (nee Bateman) in ‘Macbeth.’ During supper he explained the acting of the sleep-walking scene to mother, and wishing to describe the way that Lady Macbeth pushed tlite palms of her hands from nose to ear, he said: ‘My dear Mrs. Brandreth, I assure you that she came through her hands like a corpse stricken with mania in the act of resurrection’!” —From “Book Gossip." To a person, five feet tall standing on the beach at seaside, the horizon is about two and three-quarters miles , awa;

BUSINESS LEAGUE BEGINS TO WORK MACHINERY OF INTERNATIONAL CHAMBER OF COMMERCE IS BEING SET UP. FIELD IT MEANS TO COVER Clearing House for Data Concerning Economic and Social Conditions- —It Will Seek to Remove Friction Between Nations. By JAMES P. HORNADAY. Washington.—The work of setting up the machinery of the newly organized international _ chamber of commerce is now under way in the temporary headquarters at 33 Rue JeanDonjon, Paris. The permanent headquarters. which will be determined by the board of directors, will probably be located at the seat of the League of Nations. Dr. Edward Dolleans, professor of political economy at the University of Dijon, who is the temporary secre-tary-general of the international chamber, is directing the work of putting the machinery in motion. He is being assisted just now by David A. Skinner, secretary of the chamber of commerce of the United The outlook for the "business league of nations” is very promising, according to American delegates who have returned to the United States from the Paris conference where the international chamber was formed. They report that no more earnest group of men ever met for a greater cause than the 500 delegates from France, Italy, Belgium, Great Britain and the United States —the five foundation countries—who gathered for the purpose of building the machine which would be set in operation to deal with commercial problems. Work That Will Be Covered. At the headquarters of the international chamber will be centralized data concerning economic and social conditions. the facts of production and requirements and the possibilities of future production ana requirements. It will act as a co-ordinating instrument for suggesting regulations and legislative measures to facilitate and encourage economic intercourse. It will also place at the disposal of members and of official agencies reports and conclusions which may be issued in accordance with its articles or constitution, and will form public opinion through publication of facts concerning business and economic conditions. An idea of the extent of the work which the international chamber means to rt>ver may be gleaned by mentioning some of the points which were included in the program of the conference, as follows: To make import and export trade easier. Safeguard international trade against unnecessary waste and franch Standardize international documents, practices and laws affecting commercial intercourse. Remove international friction, much of which begins with commercial differences. Increase the total production of the world, and make the product available to the people of the world. Increase the mutual profit in international transactions thereby promoting international friendship which is the basis of peace. Cultivate personal friendship between business men and bankers of different nations, thus reducing prejudice and misunderstanding. The constitution of the new organization provides for a board of three directors and three alternates selecred by each of the countries represented. The American directors are John H. Fahey of Boston, formerly president of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States; /Willis H. Booth of New York, and Edwarfl A. Filene of Boston. The alternates are: Harry A. Wheeler of Chicago, formerly president of the Chamber of Commerce of the United States; William Butterworth of Moline, 81., and Owen D. Young of New York. Newsprint Situation Bad. That forest service of the department of agriculture asserts that the fundamental cause asserts that the shortage of newsprint paper is the serious depletion of the forests- of the northeastern and Lake states, where there is an overdevelopment of the pulp and paper industries. Since the requirements of paper making restrict the kinds of wood than can be advantageously used in making newsprint, four species—spruce, hemlock, balsam and poplar—supplied 84 per cent of the total amount manufactured in 1917, according to the report. The occurrence of these species chijjfly in the Lake states and New England has led to the overcentralization of the paper-making industry there, it Is stated. hl-ntil recently, when abnormal demands, short supplies and resulting high prices led to increased newsprint through the utilization of plants designed for and formerly used in making other kinds of paper, there has been no expansion in the newsprint industry in the United States plnce 1909, and we have had to Import large quantities of pulp wood and pajtar, the report points out. supply Inadequate, Prices High. Even with the imports the supply has been far short of the needs of the newspapers of the country in the last

PROVED HIMSELF HARD TO KILL. There are many cases on record of professional fasters doing without food for 40 days. Some few years ago a French soldier, Corporal Desrats, fell into an old mine-shaft near Brest. He lay there, unable to get out, for 28 days, and that without a morsil of food or drink. Yet at the end of that time he was ahle to call for assistance, and when got out, could tell his story. With proper care he completely recovered.

two years. The contract price has increased more than 200 per cent while spot market prices are 500 per cent more than in 1915. “Prior to the war,” says the report, “the larger newspapers secured ail, or practically all, of their supplies under contract, and a relatively small percentage of the total newsprint consumption was handled on a spot-market basis. During the last year the larger papers have found it increasingly difficult to obtain all of their supplies contract, and have been forced to get the remainder in the open market. It is in the open market that the full effect of competition for inadequate supplies is shown, and this is reflected in the much higher prices. “Unfortunately it is upon the spotmarket that the smaller newspapers, least ablje to increase returns by increasing advertising and raising their rates, must depend.” The result has been that many of these small papers have been forced to curtail their issues and have had the greatest difficulty in obtaining enough newsprint to continue publication. It has been possible for the lumber industry to move to more remote timber lands as forests have been cut away, but the heavy investment required for paper plants has made It Impossible for the paper industry to do this. The result is that existing mills ate finding it necessary to secure their supplies of wood from increasing distances. Spruce from Minnesota and Canada, for example, is being hauled from ~00 to 1,200 miles to paper mills in Wisconsin. Timber in the East Nearly Gone. The timber is going fast, the report says.. It is reported that in New York, where nearly 50 per cent of our newsprint is produced, 60 per cent of the pulp paper mills have absolutely no timber supplies of their own. For these mills there seems to be no othei prospect than to close down in a comparatively few years. In New Hampshire the coniferous pulp wood has been cut heavily, and 10 or 13 years will see the end of the supply. Aside from the state preserve In New York, in which no cutting is allowed, the bulk of the coniferous pulp wood in the east is located In Maine. One company there has enough timber for 40 to 60 years’ cut. Others are estimated to have enough to last 15 to 20 years, but there are about 15 companies which have -gm lands of their own and which will have difficulty in purchasing material within 10 years. In general, the pulp and paper mills of the Northeast are becoming more and more dependent upon Canadian wood. Such dependence, the report points out, is extremely dangerous. All exports of pulp wood are prohibited from Newfoundland. The Canadian provinces have prohibited the export of pulp wood from crown lands, which form a very considerable part of the timberlands in eastern and western Canada. Old Campaign Cries Unheard. It looks now as if the United States would go into the presidential campaign with 'some of the old familiar campaign cries absent. Apparently there is to be no cry of “panic” and the accompanying effort of laying the responsibility for it on one party or the other. Neither, so far as anyone can see now, will that old campaign friend the “full dinner pail” get a bearing in the campaign. While there is possibly a slight reaction in business and a tendency toward tightness in the money market, the campaign approaches with the country on a high wave of prosperity. This is a statement to which everyone can subscribe regardless of his' political affiliations. There will not even be any crop failure to become a disturbing .factor in the campaign this year. It is now settled that the harvest of 1920 will be' one of the greatest in the history of the United States. May Not Mean Lower Prices. ~ “Well, such enormous crops should bring .down the price of living.” This is the comment that naturally finds its way to the tongue of every person who is confronted with the cost of living problem. Whether it will do it or not is a question which the experts here do not pretend to answer. They admit, along with the average citizen, that such generous crops should result in a reduction in the price of foodstuffs in general, but they point out that with the world, or a considerable part of it, clamoring for these products of the soil of the United States, it is not at all certain that a fall in prices can be counted on. Certainly there is a general hope among the people of the land that normal conditions respect to living costs may be speedily restored. The abnormal conditions that sprung Up during the war and have continued, unbroken relate not only to the costs of all food, of fuel and of wearing apparel, but also to housing problems. All these phases of the economic situation will undoubtedly be more or less discussed as the presidential campaign proceeds, but through all the discussion there will inevitably be a note of gratitude over the general prosperity that abounds everywhere. No such’good fortune with respect to the outlook for food and fuel (though as to fuel it is not all it might be) and for all the other things that go to produce comfortable living confronts any European country. Igdeed, no other nation is as fortunatU in all respects as the United States is today. Rare Metal in Coal. The coal production at Vostergotland, Sweden, is said to have the special characteristic of containing the rare and valuable metal vanadium. Analysis shows 0.95 per cent of ash, of which 25 per cent is vanadium.

INGENIOUS INSECTS. When Para rubber trees are tapped, after the gum has run into receptacles and stiffened, a species of large black ant is accustomed to cut out pieces of the rubber and carry them away. Bees also find use for India rubber, and some species in. South America the bark of trees that produce a resinous substance in order to cause a flow of the sap. The gum is einpleyed by the bees as a ready-made wax for their nests.

BROUGHT BACK TOWN CRIER .- Ancient Official Had Brief Day of filory When Only Daily Newspaper Was Burned OuL The connection between the town crier and the newspaper was demonstrated recently when the plant of the Macon’(Mo.) Dally Chronicle-Herald, the only daily newspaper in the county, was so badly damaged by fire it was put out of commission for several weeks, according to the Fourth E» mte. Some important announcements were waiting—a big sto<4< sale, a pubic meeting, features at the movie shows and special sales by the nerchants. There were weekly papers, but these would nor- be out in time. Then someone thought of Dick McKinney, the old town crier, who had been off the job for a decade, and whose retirement had been the cause of much storied sentiment' as indicative of the passage of the old to the modern method which came with the dally newspaper. Dick said he was old and rheumaticky, and that his voice was not what it used to be, but they dug him up a bell, gave him a megaphone and told him to go out and tell the people what was coming. The old town crier did the best he could, but it was evident tlwrt- years had weakened his vocal organs, so that the bell was the most valuable feature of his service. j While the dally paper was out of commission the town slipped back a decade or more. No market reports, nothing about the weather, nothing from the conventions, no announcements of choir practice and socials. The town crier was all in when the paper resumed publication and took his place. But, while his resurrection was brief, the town crier came into such fame ns he hnd never known in his previous humble history. Protecting Australian Animals. At the present rate of extermination Australia’s marsupials will have practically disappeared within 20 pears, says Dr. Colin Mackenzie, In an article in the Melbourne Argus. The revival of shipping after the war with its opportunities for exporters, is giving point to his warning, and it is probable that some steps will be taken to control the export of live specimens of Australian fauna or of skins. At present the protection of Australian animals is purely a state matter, though the commonwealth has customs regulations prohibiting the export of certain skins and of the feathers of specified birds. The unique character of Australian Marsupials has long been recognized by the zoological gardens of the world, and it Is not likely that legitimate exchanges between zoos will be proAustralian protective regulates. Truth About “Dry Rot.” In its investigations of decay 'in wood, the United States forest products laboratory has found that “dry rot” is popularly understood to be decay in comparatively dry places, and. in this sense the term may apply to all kinds of decay In wood. Though the different rot fungi may require various degrees of moisture, absolute dryness prevents their growth as completely as too much wet What is specifically known as dry rot is produced by Merulius lachrymans. and this fungus infects timbers having a minimum of dampness. When well advanced, the infection causes the wood to become brown or yellowish, shrunken, and filled with cracks running crosswise and lengthwise, often with white masses of fungus showing in the cracks. The dry rot fungus chiefly attacks coniferous or soft woods, but is very destructive of timbers in buildings and logs In storage in the United States, Canada and Europe. Utilizing Solar Heat.' The scarcity of fuel has naturally 1 turned attention to solar heat in sunny regions. In a late paper, C. LeRoy Meisinger states that, in Egypt, i the Punjab and South Africa, glasstopped teakwood boxes, blackened inside and insulated, serve as ovens cooking, and find many other uses. The midday temperature inside has been found to range from 240 degrees to 275 degrees F., while an auxiliary mirror may raise it as high as 320 der grees. The “solar cooker” devised at the Smithsonian institution comprises a loop of pipe containing oil, a portion of the loop passing through a box containing an oven, while another portion receives the solar rays concentrated upon it by an iron-backed glass mirror having the form of a half cylinder. The unequal heating causes the oil to circulate throughout the tube. Heat is thus conveyed to the oven and cooking is done without fuel. Statae to Balboa. Panama is to have a statue of Bal-*” boa, the discoverer of the Pacific ocean. The contract for the work has already been signed at Madrid, and the monument has been intrusted to the sculptor Benilliure. That there is to be no .undue haste in the matter Is signified by the fact that the contract does not call for the delivery of the monument until two years after the signing of the agreement. The opportunities for a most effective piece of work are many, with the likeness of the man overlooking the ocean of his discovery. The grandiose setting would seem to call for a grandiose actor to dominate the scene, says the Christian Science Monitor. — 0 Honey Statistics. It is estimated that to collect one pound of honey 62,000 heads of clover must be deprived of their nectar, making necessary 3.750.000 visits from bees, says a writer in Public Opinion. It would set*bi that the reputation of the wonderful little Insect for industry has not been overrated. Wax is a substance secreted by the bees, and is analogous to the fat of higher animals. To produce a single pound of wax the bees must consume from 15to 20 pounds of honey. This expensive substance Is used by the thrifty little insects with the greatest economy.