Evening Star Newspaper, October 28, 1923, Page 65

* American Women Acquiring Charm |Let By Mystic Rituals in Paris Gardens| Solemn Ceremonies Appeal to'WeaI‘tEfi '.Vr's"tqi-s Who Have Been Seeking Something More Attractive Than Mere Beauty—Neglect of Attitude and Movement Characteristic of Nineteenth Century—Mysticism Whick Is Passing Qver. Europe Has Had an Influence Upon the Present Movement in the Direction of Charm. BY STERLING HEILIG. PARIS, October 18. N & ®Paris garden full of great-old trees, behind high walls, a dozen fashionable women do a solemn ritual. They sing low, in unison, simple praises of great things .and g90d, of fdeal and of effort and of harmony" and sweetness hidden in all rlaces. . With joined hands they weave a circle round their mystic leader, s majestic girl with her hair down, bare armed, burning incense on a short stone pedestal. She Is an Amer- ican of wide culture. and strong na- ture, writing successful French verse under a man's name. Another of the coterie traveled in the orfent -and sat under a sage whose teachings of self-mastery (and of power and beauty to be brought out of nature thereby) are’ at the basis of this garden ritual The garden belongs to one of the older American fortunes of New Eng- land. Something of old Puritan in- tensity is in the duughter of the house—third priestess of an eclectic doctrine that ranges from mysticism to Keats' “Ode to a Gre- cian Trn"! “O Beaut. thee! * ¢ . “0 Grace! O Power! We, who seek thee! ¢ * « O Charm! O Power! thee! © © o So they intone their liturgy, re- sponsive to thelr leaders, gliding through long ceremonies that have dignity, intensity and yearning. Their names may not be given—it is promised. And truly, there are other gardens in Paris and London, and other rituals of similar object. Here is a rather mysterious fad of &irls and women in Paris and London that has nothing very mysterious about it when you know it! Mysticism in all its moods Is coming to be an obsession over Europe, even clear-headed, reasonable France yield- + ing for the moment to influences be- lieved to be natural consequences of the war. O Power! We, who seek We, who seek AST year artistic circles of Paris profesved to receive inspiration from little bronze Buddhas. In studios the ceremonies were perform- ed in pajamas, as most nearly ap- proaching the garb of the east Fashionable folks laughed at this crasze for paganism; but the spirit of 1t spread. In Paris a new cult broke out, led by the daughter of a high French functionary, with her father's palace garden for sanctuary. Its girl adepts, called new Joans of Arc, at the climax of their. ecstasy, “tell the un- known." ' As a fact, they certainly do get hold of notable political stories—so that city editors send re- porters to them. Rumania is stirred up over the so- called Metropolitan of Bucharest, who promises worldly success to believers. Vienna has gone in strong for as- trology. Hungary and . Serbia have religious prophets who proclaim the end of the world. North Germany has wspiritual = fascisti® — young folks with a secret doctrine of “all for vouth.” Even Poland is in the throes of a mystic revival, with believers kneeling in the midst of open fields, with white squares of sheeting over their shoulders. Between all this and nature danc- ing is further than from nature dancing to the rituals of refined American women in aristocratic Paris gardens. But a spirit of the times breathes through the whole. When the princess takes a fancy to other women she asks them to purify themselves and pay a visit to her villa. “Eat no meat for three days, and take the 10:40 train for . Versallles,” runs the invitation. “I smell decadence and weakness in meat eaters,” she explains. “So will you, when you have done the bettef way Jacques Delcroze may have started nature dancing; but, seventeen years ‘back, certalnly, the princess and her friends had every principle and fea- ture of it as their own. While others | were “interpreting” general ideas on sunny lawns, these seekers learned wild grace from lion, goat, wolf and bulifrog. The llons, reared by two fearless voung women, were as active and playful as kittens. To music of Pan- pipes (and, perhaps, delight to be in freedom) they would bound across the garden after big orange-colored rubber balls. “Copy the ' free harmonies of oriental | bounded off behind the blg cats; { which, unhappily, were soon too big {for the tranquility of the police com- missaires of Passy and Neuilly, They took the ‘lions off to the Jardin des Plantes. Then down the path forms of brightbrown, side-stepping, kicking, backing, butting to the ymusic. “Goats!” quavered the visitors. One, I remember, had white whiskers; but two were kids, whose playful ways made them perfect nature dancers. The s ay leaped learned- much from fol- lowing .. - goats; but it was, never- theless. tiie frogs in Miss Blank' swimming pond who fix8d a -great principle. “How those frogs sing!" exclaimed the princess. “How they leap! They sing and leap with ecstasy and abandon. Let yourselves joose!” * % ok % HE prince fixed the second prin- ciple of nature dancing by his wolves—of which he had three, from the home estates in Poland. The prince is full of principle; and his wife, an American, got her dislike for meat, as food, from him. “To eat beef is to sin against love” he said. “You kill a cow; but the bull loves the cow, just as I love my wife. If I ate beef, I could not look the princess in the face!" The prince could make his wolves leap, turn, roll and gambol to the musie of an accordeon. “Now, jump in! Jump In!" he cried to the dancers, when the wolves were leaping. “Each of.you should dance just as she feels —all on her own! When you give dancing a trained element, all nat- uralness disappears!” The modeérn principles of nature idancing spread from these ‘modest } seekings between Paris andf Ver- sallles, miore than from Switzerlan where Jacques Delcroze was still wedded to form and unison. It is impossible to grasp the rituals of charm and power, unless you re- view these earlier. things from which they grew, by way of mysticism— newly spread. Of, course, the start was. beauty’s bankruptey. The fashionable - women who be- sleged Isadora Duncan, Lole Fuller and others for training were moved by a deep craving of- our century. They sought something more attrac- tive than beauty, without which mere beauty fails to hold. Grace! It be- came recognized that they might learn, not only..to walk and sit, but to attain the living beauty of attitude and movement. which the nineteenth century neglected. In a word, not to be a stick! Worse! By inspecting renaissance paintings and old Greek and Roman reliefs they found that we were ac- tually ugly in our movements. Girls who were truly graceful put it-all over the beautiful sticks! It led to a deal of professional coaching and private effort that never got into the papers—though ‘good-~ ness knows how much got into them! ‘Why should not thesgrace of artists® poses become natural in everyday 1life? The fear to be thought “affegt- Ferdinand!” the girls exclaimed—and SANOTHER RITUAL. OF CHARM. ed,” which forbade it, would, if car- AND. “LITTLE GIRLS OF FASHIONABLE PAR ‘11\, POWER, IN. A PARIS GARDEN, I riea out. equally forbid women from changing dress with the fashions.and | men from cultivating formal polite- | ness! | It was no laughing adventure, no | breathing exercise nor ten-minute physical culture with a bedroom chair! Through long, secret after- | noons the more retiring did slow | rhythimic dances in their coteries. Responsive to the coach, they would repeat their attitudes from Greclan urns with patient care. And, little by little, when they quit their classi- cal dancing draperies, they took graces with them into everyday life. Rhythmic dances become, in a way, & habit; gave their unconscious move- | ments a touch of living beauty! * % ok %k EANWHILE the nature dancers were proceeding on their own. They “let themselves loose,™ as the prince suggested to those e: dis- ciples. Anything for sprightly surprise (o win attention! They, eaually, pro- ceeded from the principle that mere | beauty of face and figure never had | the power ascribed to it. Certainly men were no'longer content to sit and worship a beautiful face! In society how often it ‘was eaid of such a one: “Of course, everybody wanted 10 dance with her, once! The men were wild about Marle Louise when they first saw her, but nobody asked her a second time. One said it was like trying to get a thrill from an Easter card!” In Paris they got it fairly strong— “each dancing according to her own ideas.” One afternoon, at Camille | Flammarion's estate of Juvisy, there was 'such a glorious rehearsal on the lawn that the prince and Meva, the man of nature, planned an enthusias- tic scenario right there for fifty-eight wild girls to go careering round the ! Metropolitan Opera House stage in | New York, each one “interpreting” all on her own. “The electricians must throw their lights according to their own ideas!” exclaimed the prince. “The orchestra must play according to 1ts own ideas,” cried Mev ach man on his own! No rules! All ma- ture!” - Which brings us, at last, again, to the rituals of charm and power. Both classic grace and lawless, in- dividuality -are fecognized as better working tools than mere beauty. Such is the outcome. But both, also, are recognized as tools to work with, instruments to-play on—rather than the charm. itself, produced by -play- ing! " 3 Charm! After twenty years of seek- ing “grace and renouncing grace, charm is the thing of. power they recognize. Many women have- it naturally, but they cannot-tejl you how they got it. It is held by freak- ish_ hoydens: -equally with -sweet, grave, fatal ‘women.- But when- they start conscieusly to acquire it, there is a natural leaning among’ fashion- able women toward gravity' and grace-and-seemliness. 'And-the wave of " mysticism passing over Europe explains the rest. 1Ty ‘THE-CEREMONY-1S BROUGHT ‘WHO MIGHT SEEM TO BE NATURE-DANCING, BUT WHO KNOW THEIR RITUALS OF CHARM AND POWER.” OW. it is easy to see that a woman - who makes a sustained effort | (though it be copying bullfrogs in | company wikh other women) ‘has an | advantage 8ver the girl who sits |still. And when the subconscious powers are stirred by high and solemn aspirations, exercises of firm believers, all together, can quite be- lievably bring out that living thing { which we call charm. | T know, of four coteries, each nu- | merous, who mect independently, in Paris, for such solemn exercises. One, :In which the English influence Is |strong, repeats something which re- | sembles a religious mystery play of [the middle ages. based on an Egypt- jlan legend. In another, they posture to music composed by a French lpdy of title, who loans her garden for the purpose, How much’of the wayve of mysticiam is In all this, the fair aspirants them- selves probably could not agree. But that it is close to a big phase of the world’s renewed hunger for religion cannot be doubted. *“O Grace! O Power! thee! We, who seek Charm! O Power! We, who seek thee!” The words may seem trivial and, even, pagan. I do not guarantee them verbatim, but such is the spirit. And the spirit is what counts: ‘Se; they intone, to postures and @estures of studled grace and unstudied yearning. And something of charm and power is claimed to come out of it. ¢ Every one. today. is talking about the cultivation of the-subconscious mind. It is sald to" be more closely related to the soul than is the con? Scious brain. Even the efficacy of prayer, in the divine will, may be, at times, related to suoh workings. In a word, auto-suggestion for good is all to the good; even when good ‘women seek, by way of liturgies, for charm and power! - How Hot Is Fire? T~ the manufacture of tron and steel as well as in the chemical proc- esses requiring great heat, it-is often necessary to ascertain the-exact tem- perature of the -product.within- the furnace. No ordinary - instrument can be used for this purpose. Other devices have also heen used, but with only fairly accurate results, until the invention of what fs called the radta- tion pyrometer, an instrument that measures with the greatest accuracy possible. the temperature of the in- terior of a furnace, although located on the outside and at a distance of several feet from. the source of -the heat. If two different metals are joined together and their. junction hested, there will be an electric current de- veloped which will flgw in a elrcut, it one ‘is provided. _The miore"ths point of juncture is heated the: greater ‘the current produced. When we fintro- duce into this circuit an instrument for - measuring -the amount "of *elec- tricity gemerated, - and - instead - of marking the scale'to read in volts or amperes we arrange. it-‘to- indicate degrees of heat, then we have a heat measuring ' instrument that - may be near or far from the heat source and yet secure the sgme ‘accurate result. With the instrument above mentioned the temperature of stream of molteén fron may be taken, although the device is some distance from the furnace. In‘like manner the tempera- ture of a steel biliet may be ‘taken as it passes between -the rolls- which form it into a rafl. A Keyless' Lock. A KEYLESS, lock, ‘recently wx upon the, market, resembles .a appearance almost any other door. lock in a general way, having.a handsome door plate and knob, but at the right side and a little. below ‘the knob is & series of four small levers. Thes operate in various combinations known only to those who are permit- ted free access to the house, and can # changed to’a. different’ combina- fon when necessity demands. The 1éck ‘can be- adjusted so that it will lock on- closing or by turning -the small “button underneatk 'the knob. It 1s opened by pulling.upward,one or more ‘times on one or-more of:'the levers at the side. g 3 8o simple is its ‘operation that = child too small¥to” unl & doar by means of & key can readily giln ad- mittance with-the keyless lock. «This keyless mechanism can be attached to any standard lock, so. that the pur- chase of an entire new, lock'is not necessary. inv order:to. have the ad- vantages of the keyless lock. A key- fess padlock is - also.. manufactured ‘with- 38, L 5: aitereqs rcombinations. | BY GEORGE H. DACY. JOLS -there were—and still are—by ‘the thousands and thousands, ir'one ‘would but judge by tbe 'mut® letters, crazy Inquiries and. laughable com- _{munications which Uncle Sam re- |ceives dally in his valyminous mail which {8 delivered frory the magnifi- cent Washington post office. The chief clerlk, or information and inquiry official, of any of the many government departments can tell of comical cases by the score and score which go to demonstrate the veracity of Barnum, the famous circus owner, in o statement that a fool Is'born every minute. The huge bags of 'mail which fleod the national offices of the whole Sam family every twenty-four hours are replete In nonsensical and humorous epistles—wtitten In serious vein by their authors, who really believe in the Impractical myths and farces concernfng which they seek Uncle {Sam’s assistance fn one way or an- lother. Latterly, the writer spent a morn- ing at the Washington headquarters of the bureau of mines, delving into correspondence curfosities and ferret- iing out funny facts and figures. Conditions at the bureau of mines are the same as those which prevatl in every other prominent national department—every mall brings its share of semi-idiotic inquiries. Uncle Sam, master-miner and met- allurgical expert, receives more than 100,000 letters of inguiry from all parts of the United States and for- elgn countries each year. -Approxi- mately 5,000 of these communications consist of inquiries about buried treasure, - fake devices for. locating buried treasure and subterranean | mineral wealth, how to segarate gold Ifrom ocean water, whether ofl shale | commonly is rich in gold, silver and |platinum deposits, how to -detect “galted” mines, how to obtain armed detalls of national troops to accom- pany ambitious prospectors'into Mex- ico to search for the fabulously rich Spanish mines said to be lost there, land how to perfofm modern.miracles { of metallurgy which nobody will ever ! accomplish. 4 ~ * % % * FJO hundreds of thousands of miners and those Igterested in mining throughout the United States the bu- reau of mines means Uncle Sam. Whenever these people want to know ianything about the government, mat- {ural or technical sclence, the price of tacks or how long an automobile tire’ will last, they write to the bu- reau of mines. Occaslonally they tell all ‘gbout their families' troubles und want advice how to settle them. {Base ball riddles, the “why" and | “wheretore” of pugilistic decisions, {dats about the helght of the Wash- ington Monument, . information on how to doctor & mule's jack spavin— all these and many more conundrums of American miners are sent to the bureau of mines for solution. Just as the miner reverences the ureau of mines as his informative court of last appeal, the American farmer visualizes Uncle Sam - entirely { through the Department of Agricul- | ture. Merchants ask all sorts of queer questions of the Department of Com- merce. Would-be , inventors aimost swamp thé patent office with' their post. marked pleas and plaudits. Small manu- facturers and inventors send a veritable torrent of interrogations to the bureau of standards. The weather bureau re- celves epistles that are so humorous that ‘they would make the notable sphinx of Egypt crack its cheeks in an ear-to-ear grin. 'Fishermen who com- monly trifie with the truth without trepidation send letters to the bureau of fisheries which entirely eclipse the most remariaple fables ‘of either Aesop or Ananias. Tp. search for buried treasure appar- ently is as widspread” an ambition among the American populace at pres- ent as it was during the days directly after Capt. Kidd's demise. The buredu {of mines receives at least 1,000 com- munications a year relative to the prob- able .locations of underground gold. Many of the inquisitors wished to know if Uncle Sam offers any guaranteed in- struments, divining rods or.similar sci- entific _equipment which the treasure hunters can use in their farcical quests. Peculiarly enough, these inquiries do not come from ignorant, .illiterate peo- ple. Business men,-bankers, automobile dealers, butchers, bakers and candle- stick makers write to Washington on their usual letterheads asking national advics ‘and counsel'concerning the in- timate ‘featires of burled treasure hunting. No, these romantic letters are not the aftermath ‘of _the.adventuresqme spirit provoked by the world ‘war. They have been flowing to- the National Capitai from all. parts of Amelica as regularly as ‘mall - trains run, ever since Uncle Sam - established :his ‘seat of national affatrs in the Ditrict of Columbis. Evi- dently, latent in some.people are. in- clinations, : ‘'which ‘date ;back. to the swashbuckling spirit' of the Spanish Main, to secure a fortune.from the earth, to rescue the ill-gotten gold of some- anclent. pirate from the -folds of the encompassing. overcoat of ‘tens of s0il ‘which. conceal it. Even in this day and age.of.aerial circuses and spirjtualistic spooks via radio, expeditions scour the keys and coves-of the Florida” coast, searching for the buried treasure which such notorious freebooters as Jose. Gas- parilla and Jean: Lafitte are reputed to ‘have concealed :there several cen- turies ago. Apparently every man who sets out in search of hidden booty first con- sults. Uncle Sam. Despite that, the United - States government. does 1 best to dissuade: the amateur explor- | | ers from undertaking their foolhardy. rehy The hunis are, neverthe- less, made. Thousands have searched, butsthere is not a single case on rec- ord where any of the gold seekers found the anticipated wealth. * ke IOME of the letters of inguiry re- pTved at the bureau of mines are from“land‘owners, who are sure that minersl wealth -is abundant on the properties of thelr neighbors. They write to Unele Ssm to ascertain If there are any satisfactory ore or oil locating“‘mechanismis on the. market ‘which - they .can use . to- ratify their opinions. If they ' locate natural wealth, they hope to buy the sdjoin- ing land-at lowsviluation and then exploit it riches. 7 ’ Recently, a Texan prospector wrote in that he knew ’positively ‘wh there was a long-lost Spanish mine of fabujous productivity over the line in Mexico. - He requested:that the Usited States Army send down several troops of- cavairymen to: escort and protect him while he explored:and- deweleped this remarkable mine, ‘The:inquisi- : (T SR | Quickly by Means of Sold—Some Want to G | tor even wrote to his local congress- | man in Washington, acking that the leglslator lend his ald to the project. | Our national congressmen, by the way, are frequent recipients of let- ters of this character. “Where can 1 secure a dependable ‘doodle bug wand'?" is a favorite in- quiry that comes regularly in letter | form to the bureau of mines from the ofl-producing sections of the south- west, The ‘doodle bug” operator claims that he can locate oil wells by the use of a magical staff that he car- | ries. Maybe you have heard of how the superstitious try to locate water | in order: to drive or dig a well by the use of a forked willow stick. The ! “doodle bug” ollman claims that he | can find oil wells in a @omewhat sim- ilar wa; 3 Creduléus People pay out large sums of money to these swindlers. | Strange to tefl, once in a while the “doodle ‘bug” method is successful in striking ofl. _ It is not due to any | efficlency ‘of the system, but merely ! because - the operator of the hocus- | pocus ‘happened to stumble onto a| cachs ‘of oll or'a gusher. Such acei- | dental-discoveries-have. spread -afar | the fame of the “doodle bug” busi- | ness. > | Much “of ‘the correspondence re- | celved_from different sections of the | country shows a lamentable ignorance | concerning what the government -can | and can not do in alding landowers in | the_devélopment. of mineral and oil claims. Thiese men generally want the United States authorities to take charge of .their claims and devélop the properties. All that Uncle Sam can do is to lend a sympathetic ear to their questions, answer them as best he, can, -and, recommend them to re- Pputable commercial assayers and en- gineers, who will investigate the lands and their resources. The “salting”-of mines even today finds its victims, who pay large prices for ‘practically worthless property. The ‘bureau of ‘mines ‘gets rafts of letters evesy. year from-people who buy . “salted” mines and. those who invest .their lifetime savings in worthless oil’ stocks. Ote “of the’ cleverest systems of stockinga: fictitious gold mine with | vetns and' outcroppingsof ‘gold was exposed some years ago by the federal experts. .. ‘The,, promoter -lowered a small’cannon into the mine and used It to shoot”and: spatter slugs of gold into'the:walls of adjoining shafts.. He then- opened-the mine ‘to-public ‘in- | spection-and atlowed visitors-to take | away samples -of ‘the *shot” ore for | assayiig -purposes. ' This ingenious v Daily Mail of Government Reveals Extent ‘to’ Which Belief in Possibility of Getting Rich Such Alleged Stores: Prevaflp—Many Report Swindling Opera- tions—Bogus Development Stocks Widely et Gold in Sea. INES ANSWERS 100,000 LETTERS LUDING 5,000 QUERIES CONCERNING BURIED scoundrel sold several counterfeit mines before his secret methods of doctoring the mine walls were ex- posed. VERY week or so the bureau of mines will be questioned by vestors and promoters regarding the possibility of rescuing gold from ocean water and converting it into specie. For the last four decades scientists have known that sea water contained gold in infinitesimal amounts. The problem of its profit- 2ble recovery has been a chemical enigma. It involves the handling of incredibly vast amounts of salt water in a huge commercial plant and the use of certain costly chemicals to ex- tract the gold from the water. En- gineers and eminent scientists say the project will never be developed on a commercial basis, as the cost of the chemicals to rescue the gold from the seven seas would amount to much more than the value of the recovered treasure. Generally speaking there is only 2 to 4 cents worth of gold in each ton of ocean wWater. | The swindle “gold of the ocea scheme—it ~was inaugurated. by a preacher in Maine—which was put| over on the public some years ago, | was one of the most colossal frauds perpetrated in ouf porthernmost state. People bought thousands and. thou- sands _of dollars’ worth of stock in the fake company which was 1o commercialize the process. Just about the time” that construction activitles were scheduled to begin the minis- ter disappeared, and with him the earnings and savings 'of several thou- sand investors, who wanted to get rich in record time. ‘ Hundreds of samplés of iron. py rites, better known as!“fdol's geld” are sent from all parts of the United States to the bureau of mines for ex- amination and analysis. They come from corn belt farmers, sbuthern rlantation owners, suburbanites who live near New York city or prospec- tors who find them in California. ‘Without any technical knowledge' of the geological formations in the sec- | tions where they find the,bogus nug- gets, the discoverers immediately as- sume they have found-gold. Uncle Same does ngt.perform free assaying at Washington.. However, the federal engineers can always rec- ognize the “fool's gold” rspecimens, and subsequently they:advise -their correspondents of ‘the mistakes they have made. . At the precious metals - station which Uncle Sam maintains at Reno, Nev., there is’ free assaying of some THE GOVERNMENT RECEIVES MANY LETTERS FROM PERSONS "WHBO DESIRE. TO'LEARN, HOW TO LOCATE. OIL, DEPOSITS WITH wrt ters About Buried Treasure - Are Received Here by Thousands | ifteen to twenty metals that are rel- | atively scarce in this country. The | Bovernment !s doing all in its power to extend the- discoveries of natura) resources of this type. Such materiale as chrome, platinum, tin and vana- dium are needed for American indus- try, and government analysts of dres thought to contain these minerals and materfals is made at national ex- pense. No assays of gold, silver, zinc Or copper are made for the genera! public at this or any other federa! station of the bureau of mines. UL’NCL‘ SAM annually. gets many letters about the mushroom oit shale investment companies which now dot the states of Colorado, Wyoming and other -reglons where oil shale abounds. The gasoline -in these oi! shales can be made available commer- clajly by expensive. distillation proe- esses. When the price of gasoline increases to 33 to 37 cents 2 gallon, it will be both profitable and practi- cal to exploit the oil shales. Unde: present conditions, it costs more to recover the oil than it is worth. Nev- ertheless, investors are exchanging their cash for ofl shale stock. There are at leat 150 companies which now issue stock of this descripiion. Mu of it represents fake exploitation. The promoters have claimed tha; much of the oil shale is rich in goid silver and piatinum ore. Some of them have even claimed that one tep of the ofl shale would yie.d as muck as $8 in gold. Recently Uncle Sam scnt some of Liv best mining experts to the localities where these shales are found. Hundreds and hundreds of samples were taken and analyzed The richest specimen of ths entire lot vielded only 20 cents worth of gold per ton. The bureau of mines does not believe that ofl shale w1’ | éver be utilized commercially for th. production of gold, silver and plati num, Despite the fact that the entire Tnited States, from widely scattered sources, produces only a few hundred | ounces of platinum a . year, stock swindlers have recently advertised | extensively and sold stock on the | basis of bogus assays. In one in- | stance the assertion was made that a | property contained 10,000,000 tons of !rock bearing precious metal value ranging from $30 to $600 a ton. An- | other concern announced the discov {ery of ore containing platinum and | gold in astonishing guantities, Final- |1y, Uncle Sam took a hand in the |affair and had his experts at Reno. v.. make assays of all the alleged platinum-bearing ores. Not a singl: sample of ore contained platipum in appreciable quantities. Further in- \vestizauon even proved that certain {of the samples had been ‘“salted | with platinum wire and foil in orde: | to delyde the stock-purchasing public Platinum is now six times as.val- uable 2s gold. The total American output is less than 1,000 ounces z { vear. Our jewelers and other com:- | mercial agencies demand ten to fif- teen times that amount every twelve months. Platinum is recovered as by-product in the refining of gold silver, nickel and copper, but the { quantity present in the original is usually too small £ detect. The keen demand for platinum and the grea | general interest which people take in ¥ | the mineral have led to the promotio of many . fraudulent enterprises. Uncle Sam receives thousands of let- {ters from American citizens asking advice about platinum stock invest- ments or bemoaning the fact that the writers lost large sums of -mone: which they invested in counterfeil platinum mines. % % % HERE are no divining rods. min-= eral rods or other applignces: now on the market that will really aid in the location of burfed treasyre. gold and silver ores, or petroleum Special instruments such as the din needle, the magnetometer and the * dial compass have been succeasfully' used in prospecting for magnetic iron™ ores in this and forelgn countries However, these forms of apparatus are not useful in prospecting for precious métals or ‘ores that have no magnetic effect. A working knowl-** edge of geology and the conditions« under which ores are likely to occu |is of the utmost importance to ama teur prospectors who are hunting for minerals. An electrical system of locating ore” deposits by surface examination has:: latterly been perfected.. It is de pendent on the recording of a-difter ence of potential set up-by electrical | staties or dynamic waves that are:. either Induced or pre-existent in the. . ore bodles of metallic ores. An elec- trical fleld is plotted by the mining . expert by recording these differences , of potential at different points in, certain locality, and usually the de-_, { posits of ore are found by means of diamond or churn drilling or by un derground - prospecting ' methods - at the center of this field. The bureau of mines has more than 1,000 different form letters which are used to answer the million and one questions which yearly are received at ifs Washington offices. This does not in any wise indicate that all the inquiries are foolish or’ nonsensical | It merely shows the volume of ques- { tions which flood in from all states and counties. . As many as 15,000 let- = ters of inquiry have been received as . the result of a small news story sent : out by the bureau of mines about the economical operation of your. home, furnace. The people of the United States are constantly 100king to their, government for help in solving thel personal end community problems. The gredt masses of mail which ar-_ rive in Washington daily and are dis. tributed among the various technica and sclentific departments of the gov- ernment strikingly demonstrate the faith of American citigens in the effi- clency and ability, of Uncle Sam'to.; solve millions of riddles and answer billions of queries about enything and , everything. Artificial Marble. A PROCESS for making imitations of statuary marble, onyx and other multi-colored stones, has been devised in France, About 1,000 part: of alum, trom 10 to 100 parts of heavy . spar (barium sulphate) and 100 parts of water are mixed with the requilsite . plgments, and the liquid mass is . boijed down and cast in a mold., The amount of heavy .spar used variés with the degree of translucence de-; sired. After being molded and dried, the artificial stone thus produced can be polished and finjshed a5 desired. * ta