Evening Star Newspaper, May 31, 1925, Page 79

THE 8§ UNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C The Family Sees the Game George and the Wife Renew Their Joint Acquaintance With Base Ball, but Why Be A WTLCOX PUTNAM. S Daisy Bell, the authcr of the telephone d truly pointed Greek meets Greek, they open a restaurant, but when hus- band and wife step out together, then comes a tug-o'-war.” And for some yrs. past now I have been noticing how true that is, on account pretty near every time I and George, that's my husband, planned to get a little amusement together. same was very likely to have a over- ture of words that needed no music, such as him saying why and the thunder are you always dragging me #cme place I don't want to go, you never do none of the things I enjoy, Why the heck should I go to this darn party them people bores me to death. Or some other version of the soup & fish blues, as a rule sung by m while climbing into the open-faced scenery. ‘Well anyways, the other day some- thing happened which made me rea- lize where the reason for these pre- party fights was partially my fault. I was putting away our Winter coats in the cedar chest with a bunch of them lovely white moth balls that generally hatches out moths go 2ood, see, and in one corner of this est T come acrost a bundle of let- I had once wrote Geo. and Hot T would hate for anybody 1 was ever such a fool, what BY Sore Over the Thin, to} some of the things I had ac- | put down in writing. And near every cepted a invite to go some place With him, mostly to some athletic event such as a base ball game or rack meet Well, it is a good many years now since I seen any track meet outside of on the railroad. Base ball games Wwas still in existence, or o I seemed to of heard, and somehow or an- other them letters reminded me how T used to go any place Geo. would suggest and sit through it without a murmur, and now I had been a seif- ish brute and dragged him to operas and little theaters when he had rath- er of been getting tickets to some- thing where smoking was permitted. And so naturally I at once had one of them bursts of remorse which any normal wife will get them oc- casiona’ly and I decided where I ‘would humble myself and make up for all the classical concerts I had inflicted on the poor dear boy. So that night when he come home I plunged in quick before 1 give my- self any chance to weaken. Say dear I says, this is Spring, I says, and maybe there is some base ball game going on someplace, I says, why don't you take me to one, you ain't doneé* so in a long while, I says, all smiles. e ELL Geo. looked kinda dazed for a minute, and then his_face lighted up in a dandy grin. Why, would you really want to go? he says. s if he couldn’t believe his transform. ers. And I says ves indeed dead, I'd love to, do take me. I want I should share your pleasures, I says. And ‘while I says it, why, of course, I experienced about the same sinking sensation of a person which has started to drown theirself and found out too late that they may really hat to. Well anyways, Geo. at once says why fine, let's see, the Kats Whiskers are playing the Harps tomorrow af- ternoon, you come in on the 12:20 and I will meet you for lunch, there will be a big crowd. I hope you won't mind if you have to sit in the bleachers. ~ And I says oh no, not at all, I have often done it at Paul's letter I had ac-| [ N “WHEN ARE THEY GON gs That Happened? i ‘h; : NER QUIT EXERCISING AND | Beauty Parlor while that bottle blond, Miss Demeanor, was getting her head { done, T am used to it. Well, right after supper, Geo. got busy with the books he had brought home to work on and that give me a chance to look at the sporting page of the evening paper. Ever since the pres. of our Ladies’ Thursday Club pointed out where we modern women had always ought to read up on every subject we tackle, | why naturally I try to do so, and base ball was no exception. I felt like I was a little behind on this line, not having gone to a game since the Yale-Princeton 1900 one, and I wanted I should be able to chat with Geo. intelligently. Well, Great Caesar’s hair cut! I certainly picked up a lot of news about bage ball right on that one page. To commence with, there was a feller | writing in the paper and he says “in figuring the chances of the eight clubs in the Nat'l league it is impossible to get away from the N. Y. Giants as first choice.” Just imagine, only 8 clubs, when there is nine players! And with all the money they take in! And I | personally myself had always thought they called them bats! But that wasn't all. There was an- other piece which I cut out to call to the attention of our Audubon Society it was a short notice, and all it sa; was Yanks Trounce Robins. Some way for them boys to treat them poor birds! Hot Bozo! It certainly struck me as funny, too, how all kinds of news come out this page, such as a line to the effect “Senators Come Back” and another in the same column, headed Birming- ham, which announced where some Barons had beat some Senators badly. and it give the names of all part but I didn’t recognize none of them as ever having been in the Capitol, but then T don't read the papers much. However, one item struck me as real sensible. It says “Fans Active as Umpire’s Decision Is Questioned.” And this reminded me, see, I had bet- ‘OMMENCE TO PLAY?" I SAY: r take a fan along with me next day, was getting warm and using it would give me something to do. A feller named Evans had a chapter in this paper to the effect “The Reds an Uncertain Outfit,” but I didn’t read that. Bolshevism has gone out of style with our Thursday Club; we are now all trying to convince each other we are reading about the subconscious mind instead. But I must say I was disappointed at not finding more about hase ball in that sheef, and T says 8o to Geo. and he says why lookit the date on that paper it is two months oid I am sit- ting on tonight's paper! Aln't men the selfish ones, though? | * % ¥ % BL‘T y this time I was hausted to try and get any more |up-to-date on base ball |1 already was. I had in one eve. ning progressed quite a lot over 1900. Well, the next day I got all dolled up in a suitable costume with white socks, a cardinal hat, and a robin's-egg blue dress. And Geo. kept me waiting 10 minutes in the office while he says to that stenographer of his a lot of Greek about please call up Mr. Whosls about whatsis, and then he grabbed me by the elbow and says well, well, hurry up or we're gonner be late, and shuffled me off to the ball grounds. We didn’t half to sit in any bleac! ers after all. We sat in the grand- stand, so called on account more standing than sitting was done in it. down and slid around in the dirt. M | T would sure hate to do the laundr: for a ball player! Well anyways, we got our seats, and Geo. says I suppose dear, that you understand the game? And I says oh yes dear, but I thought there was only nine fellers to a side, what are all the rest of them ones doing setting on them benches? And Geo. says why in case one of the players is called off the field to the telephone. Hot Bozo, that was certainly a too ex-| news then | h- | especially when some poor feller fell | thoughtful idea, and it encouraged me to talk, so I says who is the bird in the dark business suit, dear, the one that forgs: to leave the com- forter at home on the bed but has brought it on his chest? And Geo. says oh he's the umpire, the feller that teaches the players elocution, he says And then T says, and who is the one with his face in a cage? do them {players bite, sometimes? And Geo. , naw, they only growl, that onc probably swings a mean’ mouth, he says, and so they have had to muzzle him Well I declare, I savs, it certainly is Interesting out here, what is that | feller walking out to that first bag | for, honey, he didn’t hit the ball? And Geo. says no, but it hit him that's just as good where some play ers is Concerned. Well, about then I noticed where way off acrost the field there was a n working out a big cross-word puzzle on a blackboard ten feet high or_more. He had put in a territ “O's” so far, and then a says why do they let him do that | while the game is going on? I says, lot of I should think the players might get | interested and stop paying attention | | to the game? And Geo. says that is a cross-word | puzzle he’s at, all right, but it at the |same time just happens to be the scoreboard as w And as he says that a_telephone call come for one of the Harps. | and he went off to answer it. and an. | other boy off the bench took his place with loud cheers from the audience. | y dear, I says, who is that bird i they are yelling for? And Geo. says why that is m Smith, the famous pinch hitter. And 1 says Hot Bozo, pinch kitter, eh, how I pity his poor wife, the brute. And Geo. says aw keep quiet, can’tcha, he's gonner bat. Well, this boy took up a club, see, and the player in the middle of the fleld threw a ball at him after sud- Great Neck Items of News These Days Include Troubles of Deaf-Dumb Dogs BY RING LARDNER. O the editor: This is the time of yr. when all the conversation in our neigh- borhood is in regards to flowrs and how fs your delphineums coming along and etc. &nd for a man like I that don’t know a azalea from & 3 toed sleuth about all as I can do is set around with my mouth shut and wished it was foot ball season. Once in a wile I have got to pretend like I was interested and listen to what is being said as otherwise I would not know whether to say how terrible or ain’t that grand. Like for inst. I was talking to Oscar Shaw one day or rather he was talk- ing to me and when he got through I said fine, but come to find out after- wards what he had told me was that he had went to the flower show and boughten $50.00 worth of sweet pea seeds and planted them and not one sweet pea had came up. This was quite a set back because when you come to think of it $50.00 worth of sweet pea seeds is several sweet pea seeds and T suppose if they was shook out of their packages and laid end to end they would probably be enough of them to reach from the Presidio to Grant's tomb so me saying fine to Oscar was like as if you would of went In a telegraph office the § of 1aet November and wired hearty con- gratulations to J. W. Davis collect. But as I say I ain’t no expert on flow- ers and sceds and etc. though 1 the people I am introduced to calls me Gardner. [13 X S SL\'CE the last time I give you the news we have had 4 or § birhtdays in the family including I and the madam but her and I don't brag no more about our birthdays but a birth- day is a big event in the life of the kiddies and they can't think of noth- ing else for a mo. before and after same. As T may of said before the ques- tion of buying xmas and birthday presents has become a serious ques- tion around our little nest not only on acct. of they being such a bevy to buy for but also it seems like they was a curse or blight on our presents the same like on Oscar's sweet pea seeds. For example a yr. ago last xmas we_invested in a radio as the kiddies had been squaking for one ever since Yneg s gur on_the market and Supersensitive Crystal. JARISIAN radio fans are hopeful that a new substance to replace the galena crystal will prove to be the dreamed-of super-crystal and not just another substitute. The sub- stance was discovered by chance by Felix Thuaud, prominent French steel manufecturer. While studying the by-products of steel Thuaud noticed a material that was somewhat like the crystal used in radio sets. He chipped off a few pleces and had raidofans try them.. Their report certs were heard over longer distances and with greater clearness than with galena points. Thuaud also found that it was not necessary to hunt for special points of contact, as the new material was adequately sensitive at any point. The basis of the material is & combination of silicon and iron, with the former dominant. The prod- uet can be made in an electrical fur- nace or in an ordinary crucible, It cast e sold at about -fourth the puice = substances now used. was that con-| when we got it all set up and con- nected why we couldn't even hear static let alone Schenectady. The parrot we bought didn't say boo for a entire mo. Every bicycle we have ordered has been shy a couple pedals or wheels or something and the books has all had whole pages tore out of them and the games has been short 3 4 cards or men. Well we had a long argument in | regards to what should we buy for NAMED HIM “DAVID WAS TICKLED WITH “THE PARROT WE BOUGHT DIDN'T SAY NO FOR A E! NTIRE MO.” little David on the occasion of him being 6 yrs. old and finely decided on a dog though all the dags we ever had was nothing but a misery to us but anyways we plunged on a wire haired fox terrier and David was tickled to death with same and named him Pete but he may as well of left him anonymous as it soon developed that the little canine creature was ab- solutely stone deef and dumb. So poor David hadn’t no sooner than began to love his new pet when same had to be took back to town and ex- changed for another one which can both hear talk but won't never be as high in his master's esteem as Pete was. Personally I have wished more than once since the substitute come that either he was dumb or myself was deef. Accidently David may not get his degree from kindergarten this June on acct. of being laid up with whoop- ing cough which his brothers claim he catched it from the co-eds who in- sist on kissing him all the time. ot all the time,” sald Modest David when this theory was promul- gated. SPEAKI!\‘G about birthdays, another mouth to feed has recently been added to a already numerous array in the person of a calf which has been christened Kate in honor of a friend of ours on acct. of both of thera looking so silly. The master of the house has been sticking pretty close to home as it seems to be cheaper but I did go into old N. Y. one day to tend a lucheon * ok ok % that Ray Long give in honor of Michael Arlen author of the Green hat who I had heard somebody say he was the swellest dresser in the world and I wanted to get a look at him but he was completely showed up from a scenic standpoint by O. O. McIntyre who his friends call him Odd and no wonder and they say he gets his clothes made in Paris Suzanne Lenglen and Irv Cobb s that when Odd is going to have a new suit made he orders material that was intended for fancy vests and has coat and pants made out of it and then selects the vest from assorted college pennants. Amongst the Great Neck items in the papers recently was a item in re- gards to Ed Wynn buying a $250,000 home and the item went on to say that this made Ed a neighbor of Tommy Meighan and I Well it makes Ed a neighbor of Tommy all right, but the home he bought i8 2 and a !4 miles further from me than the home he had and maybe that is why he bought it, but any way when people asks me after this if I don't live pretty close to Ed Wynn I will half to teli them I live pretty close but not to Ed Wynn. — New Comet Coming. AFAL\'T‘ comet, which may, how- ever, become bright enough to be seen by the unaided eye as a small patch of light, has been discovered by Prof. Richard Schorr of the Bergedort Observatory, near Hamburg, Ger- many, according to advices received at Cambridge by Dr. Harlow Shapeley, director of the Haryard College Ob- servatory. ! The celestial visitor is said to be Tuttle's comet, which was first discov- ered in 1780 by P. F. Mechain at the Paris Observatory. After this it was lost until 1858, when C. W. Tuttle, then at the Harvard Observatory, re- discovered it and found that it was periodic, returning to the neighbor- hood of the earth every 14 years. Now it has returned for the fifth time since his observation. At present it is of the eleventh mag- nitude, so that it can only be seen with the aid of a telescope of moderate power. It s in the constellation of the Sextant, below the bright star Regulus, which is directly south about 8 o'clock in the evening. Regulus is at the end of the handle of the “Sickle, a group of stars in the const lation of the Lion resembling that gardening implement. The comet is moving toward the northeast, so that it is coming into a better position for observation. As it is not a very large comet, however, and when nearest is farther away from the earth than the sun, we will not get a very close view of it at the best. sl L S A New Thermometer. NEW thermometer, which meas- ures accurately temperature as low as 380 degrees below zero, Fahren- heit, was described to members of the American Philosophical Soclety by Dr. W. A. Noyes, professor of chemistry at the University of Illinois. As mer- ury freezes at such a low tempera- ture, a bulb connected with a very narrow tube containing’ air is used. As the air expands and contracts with variations in temperature a small globule of mercury, kept at a tempera- ture above its melting point, moves back and forth, thus serving as an index. and 1} MAY 31, 1925—PART 9. What About the New Car? Secret of Motor Contentment Is Not to Know Anything Abeut It but to Speak Fluently on the Subject and to Fix the Speed Indicator. BY STEPHEN LEACOCK T the present season when all the world is out on wheels making motor trips in every concelvable direction, there is no more frequent topic of dis: cussion than the relative merits of the various makes and designs of cars. The public, therefore, gladly welcomes expression of opinions from people of importance like myself. But, in stating my views on the design and improvement of the motor car, let me explain at the outset that though T own a car and use it a great deal, T cannot pretend to any very technical knowledge as to why it goes and what makes it go. I understand, of course, as we all do, the general principle of the gasoline engine, name- ly, that if gasoline is put into an in- sed space and ignited under com pression, it costs cents or more a gallon. But that is as far as I have gone. Nor need I go further. For when I do my driving I have beside me on the front seat my friend and com panion, Fred, the chauffeur. How Fred got to learn how to run the thing 1 don't know—I suppose if a man i$ youns and keen applies himself he can learn I have heard my friends speak of | | learning to drive a car in week: indeed I e that he bou epped into it t his car and sim ¥ Not only do I know him, but him. e is one of forms of liar dacks leverybody knows |the most fami {erated among us But for me it is too late. do it. For it was my fortune not to have a car till I was well over 50, in fact nearly 51, and after 50 some- thing of the first brightness of the mind has gone. So I have never learned. All that I can do in a tech nical way is to give advice that every- body has heard middl out to chauffeurs. I say, while I watch him tinkering under the car, “perhaps one of your | { | | | | denly recovering from a terrible at- tack of stomach gripes. And the |brute hit the ball a terrible whack, so's it went way out towards Kel- leys Alley behind the scoreboard. And 1 guess this pinch hitter feller, | he must of been scared the other boys { would be mad at him for losing the ball, on account he didn't wait for nothing but dropped that stick like it running for all he was worth, and no- body could seem to stop him. This got ail the folks in the grand | stand up and dancing, smashing their {hat and other peoples, standing on peanuts and etc. and velling. Geo. velled also. Hurrah, atta boy! says Geo. F by should think he after knocking that ball way over there nd then not helping to bring it back: Well Geo. didn't seem to agree with me. Quite to the other hand, he ap- tle, kid, he sa in the ni Smith! he says, Who was tied, George Jules? I loose to me, 1 clothes don't seem tied or buttoned, but when are they gonner quit cising and commence to play? I sa: And Geo. says that is what the manager of the Kats Whiskers have been asking his team all season so far, says Geo. Come on home now, Jennie, the game is over, the Harps just won. er- BY PRESTON WRIGHT. HIRTY-ODD years ago in Lon- don, Sir BEdgar Speyer, head of the great banking house which bore his name, discovered in a young man the qualities that make for success in the world of finance. He sent the young man to America to make himself useful in his com- pany's New York branch. The stay was to be only temporary, but the visitor, fascinated by the new coun- try and its enormous possibilities for development, resolved to cast his lot on this side of the Atlantic. Thus did the United States acquire one of the greatest financial genjuses of the twentieth century, and a man who, through his deep interest in music, art, literature and the drama, has exercised a cultural influence of vast_scope—more important, probably, thar! his accomplishments in the realm of business The carcer of Otto H. Kahn is a compelling human drama. But the mere fact that fate, or circumstance, cast his chief role in this country in- stead of Europe is of more signifi- cance to Americans. Had he remained in Germany, the land of his birth, or England, the land of his adoption, the things he did would not have meant 50 much to us. From the age of 10 Otto Kahn in- tended in some way to devote his life to the arts. His love of them was the legacy of prior generations of his family. At first he planned a career in litera- ture. In his early teens he was writ- ing poems and dramas. His attraction toward the dramatic form was so strong that for a time he spent a part of his allowance for lessons in acting. There is no telling to what heights in literature he might have climbed had he continued to devote his gifts to writing. But in his absorption he neg- lected his studies and so attracted the critical attention of his father. Bernard Kahn, a banker of Mann- heim, Germany, ‘a disciplinarian and a man of action, did not believe in schoolboys neglecting their studies. He summoned the youthful Otto to bring his manuscripts to a family con- ference. There was some forceful dis- cussion, and then even more forceful action. 'The elder Kahn threw the whole lot of poems and dramas inta the fire. “That which you need, my boy,” he said, “is the disciplina of business. After you have obtained that, and have made & success, then there will De time to think of literary work.” Probably this dictum, followed by his son’s speedy employment in his father's bank, would not have erased his artistic ambitions from Otto Kahn's mind. But, put to work at such jobs as licking stamps for the malling of circulars, he labored so well that he soon earned promotion. He broke the office record for stamp-licking, in fact, and in the pleasure of achievement began to think of other things than composi- tion. HIS early twenties found him rising so rapidly that he was now in England as an employe of the Deutsche Bank branch of London. One day he casually met Sir Edgar Speyer. His pleasing person, his sparkling personality, the evident marks of an unusual ability, made an impression on the great banker. He kept a clpse watch on the young man. * ok ok ok d industrious and | a man who | and drove right off | a 500-mile trip through the Adiron- | tol- | was absolutely red hot and commenced | Let Fred | - peared to be perfectly delighted. Gee, | he says, that was some pitcher's bat- | tied with no score | I th, and then up comes old | | th says, they all seemed running around | ays, why even their | the way they hang on those boys, | | | at the last | thought the programme was a me 1 L “WE HAD TO JACK HER UP AD WORKING ON HER ignition nuts is upside down,” or else e may have ripped out part of the warm cells of her batteries.’ Remarks of this sort, if the chauf- feur is a civil man, are a great heip all around. Another one that I use in time of trouble I'm sorry 1 can’t offer to lend a hand, Fred.” In reality, I'm not sorry. I rather like the sensation of sitting in the car on a drowsy afternoon and feeling And 1 says well Lucy, why wouldn't says for you the love of tell me, I And Geo. says my goodne: Jennie, ain’t T been patient with you all ernoon, what in the world I ever brought you out here for is more then T know, a worman at a ball game 1s like a mosquito at a nap, this is the last time I take you along, you can't even see what goes on in front of your eyes Well naturally T wasn't gonner let that one get by, so I at onct says, well, I may not be able to tell a pitcher from a ice water tumbler out here, Geo. concert you was at you and that Andante ma non troppo a new style of spaghetti, I that over to Mrs. Freddie dinner the other thought Drama new base ball I night you League was a outfit recruited from ¥s, believe you me, Geo. we ladies do more for our ¥ with our culture then you do_with your athletics influence is awful—didn't hear that umpire this afternoon vell- ing “Strike! Strike!” all the time? Do vou think that's a good influe with_the labor situation the way is? Eh Well, Geo. give me one look at that, but someways he didn't seem able to answer, and so I didn't rub it in After all, why be sore at him when it takes all kinds to make a world, including even husbands? cou: men you it Ay /7/’1// V/ “THREW THE WHOLE LOT OF POE il but don’t you forget that | ! D GET UNDER HER -WE WERE COUPLE OF HOURS. Fred lift me up on a jack. There's an ease about it not found elsewhere. e XDEED, the lenger my experience lasts the more I find that there isa priceless value attached to not being able to run a car and knowing noth- ing of the machine: agreeable than to blow out a couple of tires and then sit behind the side flaps listening to the peiting of the main and to feel the quiet heaving of the car as Fred works underneath What is more, one has the full sense of heroism and adventure just the same in relating afterwards the c of the breakdow Yes,” ay, “we were held up in the storm and had a pretty bad time. We bust ed an axle bar and knocked out the casing of a couple of combustion bolts! We had to jack her up and get under her; we were working on her a couple of hours.” I often find myself relating my tor experiences and breakdowns accidents and extraordinary and ter- rific exertions with a complete for. | getfulness of the fact that Fred did mo- and But I fear that I am drifting away from what I meant to talk about. I ing to show that I have of experience which fits man to know what is a good motor and what {sn't. In the light of which it is clear that @y views on design and improvement are entitled to a hearing. In a general way I will say this, as representing not only my own views but those of the vast mass of the public with whom motor car makers | have to deal, namely, that in design- ing a car the first thing that 1 de mand is that it shail be as light as possible so as to travel easily and at the same time as hea s possible so s to remove from the road anything hat it hits. I want it cheap, tor why put money = i perpetual 2 | For instance, | on a dark and rainy night what more | land which I g left the cheapness off it or out of. it because T want them all I want a self-starter and a self-stopper and a clock and a barometer and hot and cold water—I mean all the little things that good cars have up in front. In general wheels, one at design T like four ach corner. As to the number of seats to have the ma ter is a difficult ome. People who have ar with two seats find it terri noying when t ks extra person_whom the: to take in; they need the the wor 1 s find th: a fourth seat the worst wa: with cars with four seats find they need the fifth seat the worst way. T know a man who has a car with 10 seats; he savs that a 10-seated is all right but the devil of it is that you can't take in an eleventh perso On the whole, perhaps the fewer seats the better. The plague of t extra seats is the necessity that i brings of offering lifts to casua! people. T find myself as I drive dowr town with Fred in the morning being ¢ plagued by having to pick up odd friends and drop them their offic ha of the mean Then [ THINK if I were des T would meet the diffict a trap door in ¥ in the mai: of | behind where Fred and 1 could with a clear conscience pick up a friend and take him along: when said, “Drop me at the corner o Main street,” I would say, “Right oh!" press a spring and drop him. Now that I think of it, this same improvement in design would be valuable while driving along count car body |roads in solving the problem of the |tired pedestriar Like other owners am often misled by sy pathy into taking these people up. It is a mistake. The man at first is grateful and his gratitude is re- |freshing. But he soon grows tire- {some. By the time he says, “The mo |ior is a wonderful convenlence after |all”” T do wish I had the trap door. | The only other definite improvement I could suggest rate and regulation problem of high speed—how to attain it and keep it with perfect security, |is one on h T have reflected deepiy think I may say I have of cars I is in regard to the of speed. The | solved. Everybody knows that in rea the most comfortable rate at whick to travel is about 15 miles an hour— {whether this is ot is a rela- { It is about the speed of |z horse when described as hrough the streets. it is a very pleasant rate at which to move in stor. e with it is that it doesn't look fast enough on the speed ind: People like to wat 1 indicator mounting up from 40 to {miles an hour and enjoy all the da | devil feeling that goe th the fu ous pace. So, in car 1 should like to have an extra little cog whee inserted in the indicator so as to make it go for At 15 miles {an hour it wou 0, and o would get, by hing the indicato s > of flight such as can enjoy. y \es, indeed, I have even thought | ching the indicator and using ithout the car. But as that might be bad for the motor car business perhaps it i ot to suggest it in this place. I fear that I have suggested enou dy for any ona case into the swollen pockets of the manu- facturers, but I refuse to have an MS AND DRAMAS INTO THE FIRE.” Reports from others as to the man- ner in which young Kahn attended to his duties confirmed the opinion of Sir Edgar. In 1893, he offered him & connection with the Speyer house in New York. Mn Kahn was not slow to accept. His father, for taking part in the Revolution of 1843, had been exiled from Germany for 10 years and had spent that period in the United States. | He often had described this country to_his son in enthusiastic terms. While in England the developing banker had so liked English people and institutions he had taken out British citizenship. Indeed, coming to America, he had planned to stay only twp years. But, succumbing to the atthactions of the new country and attracted by its potentialities, he de- cided to remain. All the world knows of his subse- quent connection with Kuhn, Loeb & Co. and of his association with E. H. Harriman, the greatest power in all the history of American railroads. Mr. Harriman and Mr. Kahn dfscovered each other simultaneously. It was due to the genius of the young banker that Harriman was able to put over the famous Northern Facific corner of 1901. Harriman outwitted James J. Hill and-J. P. Morgan & Co. by obtaining $65,000,000 worth of stock before they knew what he was about. Mr. Kahn was the man who raised the money. He was but 34 vears of age at the time. While still in his twenties he had conducted many gigantic opera- tions. But if all the world knows these facts, few know of the very Inter- esting Incident that accompanied Mr. Kahn's embarkation upon his ¢ as a friend and patron of the ar KN reer IS first important interest had been in music. Fear that opera in New York, and kence in America, would be commercialized created in him a belief that he should lend a |hand to avert the disaster. | He sought the advice of a man high in the business world of the 'metropflh& “For God's sake,” said this man, “keep your hands off opera—unless you wish to ruin your business ca- reer. Men in American industry and finance will not understand. You will only earn their distrust.” r. Kahn was not satisfled. He wel to his close friend, Mr. Har- riman. The latter, engrossed in his colos- sal enterprises, had no impulse to interest himself in the realm of music—if, indeed, music had more than the most casual appeal for him. But his genius was not narrow. “Why shouldn’t you occupy your- self as you wish in this matter?” he said. “As long as you attend to your business successfully it will do you !no harm. Rather the reverse will be true. If you engage yourself with the opera you will enlarge your im- agination and your capacity. You will be benefited.” His own opinion thus confirmed, Mr. Kahn proceeded to the steps which have made him the foremost patron of music in America, a powerful friend the benefactor of many a budding talent. In succeeding years he became the of art, literature and the drama and | layman Great London Banker Gave Otto Kahn His Initial Opportunity in Finance vived his of w | ship g Problems™ to False Inventqrs. ULLIBILITY of the investing put and ack of scientifis owledge o t of would-be ir ventors can public mil lions of dol according to a survery pleted by the Bureau of Standa This is one of tk derlying rea- Son for the trans: of the United ates Patent Office from the Interior Depar nt to the Departme; of Commerce under Herbert Hoover. Mr. Hoover and rtment are in closer to b iness world, and consec can afford more pro- tection to bu S men concerning o ‘entions. survey showed ipal classes of , both of highly to the public. ventor” is & simple, out to prey o other cases inventi conscientious expi rant of scientific princt idea: devices the crooked and consclentious ventors, bureau officials saild. Most of the perpetual motion schemes submit- ted to the Government laboratory amount to nething more than devices of such confused construction that the operation of natural laws is not obvious. Thousands of inventions are sub- mitted to the bureau for approval Many of them in which large sums have been lost are rank absurdities from a scientific standpoint, according to J. E. Randolph of the Bureau of Standards. Occasionally “inventors” try to de- ceive even the Government scientists. Devices for decreasing gasoline con- sumption are frequently submitted, some based on sound principles and others pure fakes. “One of the most extravagant was brought to us for investigation at the instigation of a man who planned to put some money into it,” Mr. R; dolph said. “The inventor said could make 50 miles on a quart of gasoline. We suggested a drive to Frederick, Md., and return, a distance of 90 miles. The inventor raised a foolish_objection, so we examined his car. We found two hidden tanks, filled with gasoline, with hidden pipes connecting them to the carbureio: . & Developing in Daylight. PSY-TURVY methods of develop- ing photographic films and plates, by which the process is carried out in daylight instead of the darkroom and the film is placed in the fixing bath first, then in the developer, are possible as the result of recent ex | periments made by Dr. Henry Lefi- |man at the Wagner Free Institute of Science, Philadelphia. ‘The daylight method, using a spe- cial developer, should be a distinct eadvantage. i crook m 2 public. In ¢ devised by ite so igno at thei