Evening Star Newspaper, May 11, 1924, Page 74

\ ‘THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. O, MAY 11, 1924—PART 5 The Eighth Wonder By A.S.M. HUTCHINSON In Which Young Edmd Bryant Makes a Great Discovery OU probably could not, say straight off what were the Seven Wonders of the World. Personally, 1 am always sure of the Pyramids of Egypt and some- times have been able to add the Hanging Gardens of Babylon. I often Wwith a flush of pride recall supplying, on one of my bright days, the Colos- sus of Rhodes; and I remember how profoundly stirred were the circles in which 1 move when, at & learned talk, 4 young woman of our company added the Temple of Diana at Ephesus. But further than that—-! Still, what's the odds? No one is any the better for knowing what were the Seven Wonders; nor for that matter is any one, knowing them, necessari- !y more widely read. Take the case of Edward Bryant. BEdward, when he mounted the upper deck of the tramcar that w; to take him to a meeting of the Excelsior Literary So- ciety at which was to be read a paper on the Seven Wonders of the World, hadn't an idea of them, not even the Pyramids. He opened the packet of | cigarcttes he had just bought and | took out with « cigarette the picture | card given with the packet; thers was on the one sids a d f the Pyramids and on the other the caption “The S Wonders of World" and their names, “Coh! That's a coincidence for vou!” | exclaimed Edward to himself; and on sudden thought pondered the seven till he had got them by heart. * * % ven the | RRIVED at the lecture hall and ) seated among his fellow mem- bers of the Excelsior, Edward pro- ceeded at once to apply the sudden | thought which had caused him to commit to memory the Seven. The vacant seat he found (an end seat) placed him next to a worthy couple, by name Mr. and Mrs. Hunt. Edward ew the Hunts only by sight, but it was the etiquette of the Excelsiof Literary Society; for neighbors at its zatherings to exchange a bow, a mile and & word or two, and these courtesies Edward with the Hunts herefors exchanged: then applied| the results of that sudden thought of his “Ought to be interesting,” said Ed- ward, indicating his admission card | ©on which was printed the subject of | the evening paper. | “Indeed it should,” agreed Mr. Hunt, £nd held up his own card and read | from it. *“The Seven Wonders of the World'; yes, indeed." “Know what they were, T Suppose?” id Edward carelessly. Mrs. Hunt, who attended the Excel- sior more for its social than for its in structive side, beamed. She liked this friendliness of this personable young man. *No, we doi frankly and invitingly “Tell you if you like,” said Edward, nonchalantly easing his collar. Mr. Hunt gave him a keen look. “Eh, know them?” inquired Mr. Hunt. h, rather,” said Edward, “rather. Let me see.” He spread out the fingers | said Mrs. Hunt, of one hand and ticked them off with —_— A Curious Industry. NE of the most curious industries in the world is that of an eel farm established on the coast of Den- mark by an enterprising citizen of that country. A dam was built on a fjord in Zea- . land with the intention of reclaiming some land for agriculture. The scheme fell through and one Nielsen conceived the ldea of making the place an eel farm. Within the em- bankment there are about 300 acres of water, most of it about two feet deep. The surface of the water is few feet above the level of the rd, which lies on the other side of the embankment. The water of the lake is fresh and the fjord water is fairly ealt, having a marine fanna and flora. The owner keeps up the stock of eels in the lake by the introduction of elvers, which he catches in an in- genious: manner. When the eel-fry put in an appearance in the fiord at the end of their long journey from the breeding-grounds in the Atlantic ©Ocean he lowers a rough crate heaped full of water weeds across the front of the sluice-gate. He then raises the gate so that a stream of {resh water flows through the crate #nd down a sloping channel to the fjord. The elvers, in search of fresh water, make their way upstream into the crate and remain entangled among the weeds, which every now nd then are lifted, spread out and shaken over a piece of very fine meshed net. Mr. Nielsen then collects the elvers in this way, instead of letting them have a free run to the lake, in order that be may know exactly how many he puts in every year. Even more ingenious is the method he employs for capturing the full- grown eels. That also makes u€e of the migratory instinct that drives the mature eels to seek salt water. Slung from a framework of rough poles is | & box or chest about twelve feet long, round the sides of which are openings | about nine inches square. To each, of these holes is attached a small conical-shaped eel-net of the ordi- nary kind, that opens into the box. There are also rows of holes that| permit the circulation of water and | the escape of undersized eels. The | central part of the box is carried up w0 as to be above water when the rest of the box is submerged, and a hatch in the side of this raised part - &lvee access to the interior. By means of a watermill and 2 wooden chute salt water is pumped into the lake in front of the box for a day before a consignment is re- quired. This attracts the eels, which want to migrate to the sea. At night the stream of salt water is led through the box by means of the chute, and thus entices the eels to enter. The box is then hoisted out of the water by a geared winch and the eels are removed. The lake appears to contain plenty of natural food, but tha owner also gives artificial food to the eels. He buys gobles and other unmarketable fish at a low rate, minces them in a mashine worked by the windmill, and throws them into the lake loose. The | the other. | to | chance | and “Thé Pyramids of Egypt, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon— With the ease of one repeating house- hold words he ran off six; with ad- mirably studied effect paused before the seventh: “And, and, let me see; dear me, how stupid of me; ah, ves, of course; and the seventh the Pharos of Alexandria." Well!" exclaimed Mrs. Hunt; and it was perfectly clear from the tone of her “Wel and from the admir- ing gaze at Edwgrd with which she accompanied it that she was far less impressed by the wonderful Seven than by the fact of this likable young man thus familiarly knowing them. Mr. Hunt also gazed upon Edwagd with an obvious respect; and divers other members of the Excel- sfor near about who had inclined their ears towards Edward's voice and for the benefit of whose ears Edward had very kindly raised his voice, smiled and nodded thanks and were heard to whisper: “Very clever young man that young Edward Bry- ant, you know.” It a thoroughly little triumph for Edward, ward was ijmmens himself. “By Jove, cigarcttes in future.” himself gratefully; once more, cam was impre: and BEd- ed with k to those said Edward and happy to h | to rescue him from an appaliing | tastrophe to the brink of which, in of his satistaction, Mrs. Hunt's next words suddenly project- *d him And what,” clear, one, that Pharos of Alexandria™ Poor Edward! He hadn't a notion, not the faintest glimmer of an idea “Why,” said Edward, ‘“the Pharos, of course— Hush. Just beginning. You'll hear in a minute.” A (THE Seven Wonders of the World,” began the lecturer, “as, of course, the members of a society such as this need no telling, were—" Edward, after the first few sen- tences, heard never a word. He was day-dreaming. ing. He was seeing himself climbing up in the world, always thus listen- ed to, always thus respectfully gazed upon, rapidly galning place, power and wealth; and he was ob- serving particularly in the admiring throng a beautiful girl whose hero he was and to whose feet triumphs would be brought. And he was wafted from all the lovely creature, creating her (for she did not exist) and imagining her; and he was thinking all this when suddenly he fund, to his amazement, so vividly and at such length had he the m said Mrs. Hunt, loud been thinking it, that the lecture was | and the chair- over, the lights up, man making an announcement He came to himself.and listened. The committee of the Excelsior Literary Society, the chairman was saying, had much pleasure in adopt- ing the lecturer's suggestion and of- fering a prize—"of five guineas, said the chairman impressively (ap- plause)—for the best essay on the eighth wonder of the world Edward's mind again was swing- ing away. He would go in for this competition; he would win it; he would stand up there and read his paper to echoes of applause. The eighth wonder? What could it be? What should he choose? Wireless? The turbine engine? The aeropiane. The lights, as has been said, were turned up. Bdward's position in the hall was at the extreme end of one of the two hor! into which the chairs were drawn forward in semicircle about the lecturer's table. BEdward thus looked directly upon the faces of the members seated at the farther horn of the semicircle and all of a sudden, lifting up his eyes In his cogitation—the Eighth Wonder? What? Which? The Eighth Wonder? —all of a sudden, hitting him with a shock, and holding him with a breathless cateh, Edward saw The Eighth Wonder of the World seated over against,him! * ok % x THE Bighth Wonder of the World wore a brown dress and held on her lap a brown hat trimmed with brown velvet. She had come in, evi- dently, while the lecture was in prog- ress and the room In darkness, for she certainly had not been there when Edward last could see in that direction and as certainly Edward market price of eels at Copenhagen varies from 10 to 2§ cents a pound, and in one vear alone Mr. Nielsen's ' match amounted 1o over Ja6A0 He was castle build- | this onto concentration on | | | ‘and what was that last| | | never before had seen her. By Jove, he would not have forgotten her if he had, nor been caused, in his day- dreaming, to invent the lovely face that had been necessary to his dreams. Not his fondest dream ever had imagined anything so lovely as this Iighth Wonder that now he aw. Her hair was drawn back from her foreheud and brought forward.in a very mysterjous way (Do they gum it or drive pins clean into their skulls, or what? I mever know) over her ears; and this gave to her face an aspect at once benign and piquant, serene and roguish, challenging and calm. Her feet were beautitully shod in shining patent-leather shoes and ran up through lovely ankles in biscuit-colored stockings of silk. She was about nineteen. Her name was Clarry. (Clarry, or Clarissa, Hunt, by the way; daughter, as it most sur- prisingly turned out, of those two whom Ddward had so greatly im- pressed). Edward, mind you, only by degrees spread over many months, came to realize that Clarry was the Eighth Wonder of the World; but he knew from the very first that was by far the most wonderful thing that had ever come into his lifa or Into nybody's life; and within a few weeks was knowing it cending by oying in her company that paradise of being greeted by her (she used to emerge to him when he was able to be there from the solicitor's office in which she was employed) and of Kissing her and taking her arm and walking with her. It all happencd with astounding swiftne: and simplicity. At one mo- ment Bdward in the lecture hall was the first time in his life staring upon the Eighth Wonder; at the next, to the stupefaction of Edward, the Eighth Wonder had crossed the room directly to him, greeted her parents and by her parents been introduced to him: at the next he was walking towards their home with point of time, but seeming to Ed- ward, existing as it were in a trance, to be but a portion of the very same night, he was the accepted suitor of the Eighth Wonder and their mar- riage in immediate prospect. ® * K% (LY bits of all this can be selected for telling, and I would choose those bits on the one hand as they seemed to Edward peculiar to him- self and never to have happened to nybody before, and on the other | hand as they are common to all the Eighth Wonders and to all thoss thrice favored men on whom not only dis- | covery but possession of an Righth | Wonder is bestowed. There was that first night walking home with the Hunts and with Clarry. Four abreast could not be walked on the pavements they followed, and it was contrived by the parents that Edward walked part of the way with Mr. Hunt and part of the way with Mrs. Hunt, never with Clarry. The Hunts, you see, thought he was with them because it was their company he desired; and Edward at every step of the way to their house upheld them in this belief. “A thoroughly nice, well-informed, good-mannered, clever, agreeable young fellow,” said Mr. Hunt, return- ing to Mrs. Hunt at the departure of Edward. These adjectives were cordially in- dorsed and others added to them by Mrs. Hunt, and their cffect and something mysteriously additional to their effect was formulated also jn the mind of Clarry, left in the hall by her father to close the door upon the departing Edward. Baward had exchanged very few sentences with the Eighth Wonder herself. Those few had the curious effect of sending Edward away in & mingling of rapture and of envy, hatred, malice and uncharitableness. The rapture resulted from the dis- cvery to him of the Eighth Wonder of the worid; the envy, hatred, malios and all uncharitableness arose out of the very last words by her to him ad- dressed. “T expect T know,” said the Eighth Wonder (her almost last words), “who will get that prize that was offered at the meeting tonight.” “Who?" said Bdward, trembling. He was trembling by reason of emotions aroused in him by the hope 4 the Hunts | |and with the Eighth Wonder: at a moment advanced some weeks in | and | | lectunl looking of all “OH, AND I HAVE JUST REMEMBERED,” SAID CLARRY, l‘lil:)leg'r{'. “il‘é’?{"{“‘r I WON'T BE ABLE TO GO TO THE CONCERT WITH YOU that the Eighth Wonder would reply “You,” and by apprehension of all the delicions emotions that would flood within him if she did thus reply. But her reply, as it turned out, caused him to tremblo with emotions very much of another kind. ‘I feel sure,” replied the Kighth Wonder, “that it will be that Mr. Gil- ray. He is clever, don’t you think? I've often thought what a striking face he has; quits the most intel- the members. Oh, yes, I should think he's almost certain to win it Edward, who for twelve minutes had been morally unable to remove himself from the house, suddenly was able physically to remove himself in much less than one; and he walked home, as has been sald. on the one part in rapture, on the other boiling with a furious and most terrible hatred of the intellectual-looking Mr. Gilray THE.\' there was the time (and it was not so very long afterward) that Edward was walking with the Eighth Wonder on a Saturday afterncon in a secluded tract of Hampstead Heath. The Eighth Wonder had taken off her gloves and was carrying them in her right hand. Her left hand, * k¥ | bare, brown, small, capable, exquisite, was hanging next to the right hand of Edward, and Edward suddenly and ever so lightly, because he was ter- ribly afraid and because the stupen- dous thumping of his heart could be heard, as he believed, all over the heath, inclosed her hand in his. “Do you mind?” said Edward, and hated himself for the voice in which he sald it, because it came out, to his very great surprise and vexation, as a husky squeak. She did not appear to mind. She said no word. The only sign she gave was a faint tide of oolor in her cheeks. The thumping of Edward's heart now could be heard, as he belleved, not only throughout the heath but throughout the boundaries of the en- tire parish of Hampstead. He inter- laced the five fingers of his tween the five fingers of the hand of the eighth wonder of the world and held it palm to palm. Then Edward, | terrified that the thumping of his heart could now be heard at Charing Cross, and that certainly it would burst within his breat and suffocate him unless something were done, stopped and did the only thing that could possibly avert so disastrous a calamity. He stopped and stooped and placed his lips upon the lips of the elghth wonder of the world; and immediately the duress of his heart was stayed and he knew that he owned the sighth wonder of the world, and he felt, furthermore, that he owned the whole of the round world whose eighth wonder she was, its riches, its glories, and all that there- in is. 1am a little wrong in saying it was at this moment that Edward knew he owned the eighth wonder, because, as I have said, though he knew from the first moment he set eyes upon her that Clarry was rhore wonderful than anything he had seen or imag- ined, it was not until some time later that he realized her position in the wonders of the world, and this real- ization was yet to come. But I knew it, as I'have told you, all along, and in reporting moments supreme as was that in which he placed his lips to hers I get rather flurried and can- not help anticipating things a little. * * x ¥ 'HEN there was the time—firmly afflanced now, the blessings of the parental Haunts thick about them and negotiations already in train for the rental of a tiny little house in Clagham Common—the time when they quarreled . This terrible event took place when Edward was enter- taining Clarry to an afternoon in the tea gardens of a riverside hotel at Hampton Court, and it was because when Egward, for the purpose of this expedition, met the eighth wonder of the world at Waterioo station he saw upon the head of the eighth won- der of the world a hat which filled him with terror and dismay. I am sorry I cannot describe this hat, but T have no aptitude whatever for fashion-plate stuff. Edward cer- tainly could not describe it; he had no words in which to express what he thought about it. But I have a profound sympathy with the feelings of all Edwards in matters like this, S0 I say simply that it was a hat which attracted attention, and T leave it at that Far worse became the affair when they arrived at the tea gardens. Clarry was by now well aware that something was wrong, but she had no idea what was wrong; and when Edward, first very agitatedly and then very imperiously and sharply, refused to sit at a table in the middle of the gardens and insisted upon one remote and obscure, Clarry also be- came vexed, and the quarrel, though not yet joined, was afoot. Edward throughout the meal spoke scarcely & word. Obscure though the table ‘was, it appeared to the distorted im- agination of Edward to be by far the most conspicuous of all the tables and to be, moreover, the one and only center of observation of the occupants of all the tables. So distorted and inflamed, indsed, had the imagination of Edward by now become that it ap- peared to him, not only that the hundreds of eyes fixed.upon him ‘were accusing him of responsibility for the hat, but that in some myste- rious way the hat was not, in fact, upon Clarry’s head but upon his own head, “I thought,” said Clarry presently, after an enormous interval, in which she had twice suggested movement and twice suffered rebuff—"I thought we were going in a boat on the river?” X k¥ this and to further interroga- tion on the point there were re- sponded by Edward only some vague, indistinct mumblings. Clarry receiv- ed these as long as, and, indeed, longer than, even an eighth wonder of the world can be expected to re- _catve them; and then said Clarry, in- nd be- cisively: “I would very much like to know what it is that's the matter with you this afternoon. Perhaps you'll tell me' “Oh, w if you want to know, sald Edward, stung. “I'm not going to the river with you in that hat, and that's flat” No rose in the whole of that gar- den was anything like as red as the redhess now seen upon the face of the eight wonder of the world. “Oh,"” sald the eighth wonder; and aboyt a year afterward, “I thought there was something wrong,” said she. “There's nothing. wrong with me,” said Edward. No ice cream in the whole of those ice creams being eaten in those gar- dens was anything like as icy as the iciness that now froze the voice of the eight wonderf of the world. *“Thank you,” sald the elghth won- der of the world. She arose and moved with icy dig- nity, like a moving pillar of salt, through the crowded tables. 1d- ward followed her. He had “let her know” (as he expressed it to him- self), and he was glad that he had let her know and he did not care now if two dosen of her hats were to be seen upon his head. He traveled back with her in the train and he conducted her to her gate and in the whole journey no word was spoken. At the gate, “Good-bye, sald Edward. “Good- bye, said the eighth wonder of the world and turned away. “Oh, by the way,” said Bdward off- handedly, “I find I sha'n’t be able to come in to lunch tomorrow.” “Oh, and I've just remembered.” said Clarry brightly, “that I sha'n’t be able to go with you to that con- cert Monday night. Hope you don't mind." “Not a bit,” said Edward cheer- fully. “I expect I can get some one else to come.” “T'm sure you can,” said Clarry. ‘Tl send you the tickets’ “Yes, do,” said Edward. £ % %% ‘HERE followed for Edward two days and two nights (the nights of length never known before except in ‘the polar regions during which the stubbornness and contrition waged terrible war within him, de- vouring him utterly, so that he be- came haggard and consumed. On the third day, the battle being deter- mined, and the fleld wherein it had been waged ravaged and laid waste, the field was in the evening removed by the faltering legs of BEdward to the pavement outside Clarry’s office and posted there, quaking; and at 6 o'clock precisely appeared the eighth wonder of the world and saw the ‘wasted field and rushed straight into it and with tears so watered it and with happy cries so fostered it that it sprang into blossom with a shout and gave forth groans, laughter, peni- tence, promise and love an hundred- fold. - The round world and_all that therein is had at that moment no love- lier sight. “T'Il never wear that wretched hat again,” cried the eighth wonder of the world, clinging. “I swear I'll never go out with you if you don’t wear it every day for a year,” cried Edward, clinging. “Now, then, please,” said a police- man; “can’t stand here all night, you know.” (For, mind you, this was bang in the middle of the pavement in Basinghall street, city, at the eve- ning rush hour.) Then there was the time when they were married and set up In the tiny little house in Clapham Common, the interior. of which, immediately you opened the front door, came at you like a blow in the face with an over- powering smell of new linoleum and new furniture, but with a blow, nev- ertheless, that was to Edward infi- nitely more fragrant than ever the waft of violets across a woodland, and to the Eighth Wonder of the World lovelier far than any savor in | the genersl opinion of all Eighth ‘Wonders considered loveliest. This was the time when Edward, not yet quite arrived at realization that Clarry was the Eighth Wonder of the World, advanced toward that realization in dally progression. Bd- ward was now earning six pounds & week, and he found, to his enormous astonishment, that the wonders of | the Eighth Wonder of the World | caused six pounds a week to go fur- vthex. and to leave a larger balance | when all was covered, for the necessi- |ties of two persons than ever he had contrived to make it go or leave for the necessities of one. And then, 100, was the extraordinary business about his dreams—those dreams of | which I have given evidence at the | Excelsior Literary Society in which ‘he saw himself bounding along to place, power and wealth. * % % 5 I instancs, there was the matter of Spanish. Edward, lying on his back one evening on the new and powerfully smelling couch in the new and powerfully smelling sitting room, | told Clarry that his firm did a very large South American business, and that one day he was going to start learning Spanish, with a view to ad- vaneing himself by getting into the foreign side of the house. This “one day” on which Spanish was to be begun had been in the mind of Ed- ward for five and a half years. By the wonder of the Eighth Wonder of the World it now was astoundingly caused to be the very next day after that on which this announcement was made to her. Edward, returning to the heavenly smell on the morrow, found the Eighth Wonder of the World awaiting him with the text- books of a course in Spanish con- ducted by a school of foreign lan- guages. A lesson a day was tabu- lated by this course. Fired by the wonder of the Eighth Wonder of the World, Edward took the first seven lessons at one enormous gulp on that ‘very same night; on the twelfth day following he did half a lesson; on the fifteenth day the fag-end of a lesson of two days before, and on the twen- doing any lesson, and had no inten- tion of ever doing any lesson again. It was at this point that the Eighth Wonder of the World very se- riously exerted her wonders and put them upon Edward. The words in which they wers received by Fdward abashed Edward and fired Edward; abashed and fired him anew whenever (which was frequently) he wished that Spain and the whole South American continent might be sunk in thelr respective oceans and never again emerge: and ultimately landed him at the stage In which he ad- dressed the head of his firm a letter masterly knowledge of the Spanish tongue and suggesting that this knowledge should be placed at the disposal of the firm, whose interests he had so earnestly at heart, and begged to remain, sir, your obedient servant, Edward Bryant And it was so. “You know,” sald Edward, burst- ing with joy at the very considerable advancement which shortly followed this letter—"you know, 1 abeolutely never should have got this except for you” He was right. x ok x % ‘HUS and in many similar ways were manifested to Edward the wonders of the Eight Wonder of the ‘World; and then thers came the time (and this is the last of them) when broke upon him in actual fact the knowledge that the Eighth Wonder of the world she was. This was the time when the Bighth ‘Wonder of the World spent a con- slderable portion of her days in rest- ing on the sofa; when Mrs. Hunt came to take up .residence with her daughter; when strange packages came into the house and an enormous amount of needle work was con- stantly in progzess; and when finally, on the morning of the climax 6f these proceedings, there entered the place & dragon, gray, stern and grim, dis- guised as a maternity nurse, and car- rying a brown bag of, to Edward, | very sinister aspect. This dragon, divesting herself of her outer gar- ments, appeared before Edward in the sitting room so stifly starched that she orackled in every inch of her person and at every step of her tread, causing him to quail. and teld him he had better go out for the evenin; which Baward, though qualling, I tieth day had been five days without | in perfect Spanish, pointing out his; fusing to do, the dragon commar him to remain in the sitting r and departed, crackling. Next tho house was entered doctor, carrying a black, bag more sinister than the brown bag or the crackling dragon, and there £} lowed now for Edward, incarcer in. the sitting room and hearing ways mysterious sounds and = times very lamentable he breaking sounds, an evening terrible than dny he had ever in ined. ted an He knew that Clarry was in 1 dreadful extremity; and for the rex son that his imagination had approached this extremity 1 was hers, he explored it now v the terrors of one awakening to find himself entombed. He wuas - that Clarry must die. Sometimes } prayed and sometimes—did not sometimes, bowed upon the I fmpotence he beat his head upon !} hands; sometimes, pacing the flc dread he held his breath and to listen He was thinking now over his behavior in the matter of that ia table business of the hat; and he w wondering f Clarry, dying membering his abominable then displayed toward her: was in the last depths of misery grief; and then to his extreme | he heard the doctor departing without speaking to him! W that he did not wish to break news? He blundered to the in his agitation scarcely cou it; and then opened it and caug doctor. “Hullo!" eaid know you wers in. turned you out We splendidly. She's fine. happy father and all that. late you. Son and heir. what! Good night, good night!" * % never the doetor. Though JJ® returned to the sitting Inexpressible tumult disorg ized him. He first was on his & in gratitude. He next was o feet in ecstasy. A son was there hours as it appeared him, torn by these new stre plunged from them back to e anguish, then to his new tu again, before, at last, a message to him to releass him. The crackling dragon crackled and told h grudging! might now go upstairs f —*“And no talk, please.” He Then he went into the even the crackling drago his face as he came in and pe taking compassion on h crackled herself out ir and Mrs. Hunt went he was alone and exquisite n And whe he saw ly her lovely arm and held against he- darling breast the man-child ths mystery and in agony ltvered out of her body tc knew then that she was t Wonder of the World; and the w and glory of her and the mirar mystery of her engulfed him overcame him; and he fell on ! knees by the bed, and bowed dowr his head and cried very much {real tears, dripping: and once |cried (1 don't know w “Oh, | God!; and once he said, very broke 13, “You are wonderful, wonderft and soon after that erackle to him from the passage and got out and pushed him down the & and he went dow because his eves w That is all. Bu he now knew clea what until now he ha ly known, though f: mised. And on the ve ing, as he was pro office, his head his chest as he was perceiv cessive pictures, as commander chief of the British army, first lord, poet laureate, president Royal Academy, lord chancell Archbishop ef Canterbury, debating within himself which insignia of these was least unw to be borne upon the breast « son (then weighing seven poun fourteen ounces)—as he was dc this, there came up to him accosted kim and said, “Hulio, F ant, haven't seen you for years you remember me? I'm Gilra: Jove, do you know, T believe tha ! time T saw you was two years at the Excelsior Literary when they put up & competitior the best ossay on the Eighth T of the World. 1 got the first you know." “By Jove.” welcome to i Eighth Wonder. (Copyright, 1924.) —_— The Match Industry. If all the matches used In (e world in one day were placed end 1o end they would resch to the moon and 10,000 miles beyond. Think ho important these baby explosive bo are in the evervday business of world! she e L ) said Ldward, old man. I g | American matches are usually made of pine wood cut in a round shaps. In Europe they are made of aspen and are cut square. Sheets of aspe wood can be dried artificially | a couple of hours and made into matches within the next hour. Thus hours may ses a change from an o pen log to a few hundred or more boxes of matches. But pine has tc allowed to stand for a couple of before it is suficiently seasoned to be made up. There is more involved in the mat ter of dipping match sticks Into the fire-producing solution that makes the head than one might suppose Match heads are really the product of much chemical research. For in- stance, people like their matches a cheertul color, 8o the chemical has to be dyed a pleasant blue or red. They must be double tip, capable of being lit on any surface—a wall, a stove, your shoe. They must not leave a streak or scrateh after them. They must not be nolsy and pop up at the person using them. The matches must be made so they will not flash up too soon. They must have no sharp edges, but must be smooth and oval so the heads will not rub against one another in peo ple’s pockets and light | They must be fairly watcrproof and windproof, and must burn without smoke or odor three cach other.