Evening Star Newspaper, June 7, 1925, Page 73

BY NINA WILCOX PUTNAM. S Edgar Allen Poe, the well known automobile mfsr., said once in his dally newspaper talks to young people, “A good little vice president should be seen, but not heard.” And this come into my mind at the last meeting of our Ladies’ Thurs- day Club, when I got elected vice president of it. And high time I was, too, on account I had done the club a big service by figuring out how the Hawthorne Ladies’ Auxillary could pay us the money they owed us for the use of our clubhouse. My plan was for us to loan them the money to do it with Well anyways at this meeting, see, they elected me, although I thought they was never gonner get around to it, on account of the way the busi- ness ahead got woman-handled. The first of this was a vote on would we have our ice cream from the Perfection Confections or the Kabin Kandy Kitchen this vear, and should it be Neapolitan blocks each weel, or a different flavor at every meeting? Well, the most of the ladies wanted the mixed flavor because a person can always spoon off their favorite color in that case and leave the rest run its own course. In fact, there was only four out of the crowd wanted the club to change its cream each week But as of course we use regular parliamentary rules, why them four was enough to block the entire vote until Miss Demeanor, that bottle blond, got up and introduced a bill. It was for stationery and supplies and carried a amendment to serve only fruit punch and wafers. By this time all the ladies which was not velling Madame Chairman and trying to get the floor in order to mop it up with some complaint, was talking in Whispers among their- didn’t for order, even our chairman seem to give a rap when Mrs. Cioofrah rapped for it, and it made me ashamed of my sect, espe- clally when I remembered some of the dandy ladies’ clubs I had been at, where the program was as neat and snappy as @ new rubber band. Well anyways, the next order of business was the election of officers and there wasn't much fuss over that, on account not many girls is willing to sacrifice the time to take a office, would rather confine their club activities to crabbing abeut how club is run So. Mrs. Goofnah went back in as pres. and I got elected to be vice pres. and the other minor officers re- newed their subscriptions, and then t last we got down to the subject of the day, which was improving the way our town was governed, and making its administration less waste- ful and etc. and the cleaning | up of all vice * % % JELL, no er had Mrs. Joe Bush heard that proposed for a ctivity then she got active her- self, and says now Madame Chairman, before this Is put to a vote I would like to show the ladies why it is far more fmportant that the club give its attention to rescuing the homeless mice of this city and to chloroforming those who are beyond help, may I have the floor? Well, naturall ves, and ti alone the floor the house and the wt the afternoon, talking t s much, anc ept it up until we lad to adjourn without voting on the civic program, account the five fifteen was pretty near due with a cargo of | husbands and we had the cars. Well en 1 got George, that's my husband, and drove him home. I told him where 1 had been elected vice pres., but T didn't ask him the prin Mre. (oofnah says Bush took not | e remainder of le entire rest of nd talking, but she actually was obliged b he on w B Dawes Ideas to Rule Club George's Wife Gets Some Pointers for Her New Office, But Gives Credit to Vice President’s Friend, Helen Maria. e “I WILL TAKE IT OUT AND SMOKE IT IF WE ALL DIE IN THE ATTEMPT.” which was, what is a vice pres. any- ways? Of course, I realized where, if the club was gonner clean up our town, why the vice pres. was likely to be the head of the vice squadron. It give me several shudders to think of how I might even haf to stop Geo. playing penny ante right under our own roof and take all his tobacco out and burn it with the rest of the old leaves that Junior rakes up out the front lawn. But I am not one to admit any de- gree of ignorance to my husband un- less I want a new hat, or something, and after Geo. had congratulated me s0 heartily on being the new vice, why I wasn't gonner let him think I didn't know how to strutt my stuff. But I was, in secret, terrible wor- ried, until all to onct I realized where this' U. S. A. of America had a Vice Pres., and that maybe if I read up on him a little, I would get a few ideas which I could spring as my own, see? Well, I will admit where, as a rule, a person would be more likely to look in the Cong. Recd. then the news- papers to find out the name of the current Vice. Pres. of America. But this night, when I was reading the comics to Junior to put him to sleep, why most of it, I mean the paper, was took up by our Vice, Mr. Dawes, and the headlines was words to this effect: “Mr. Dawes Claims Senators Talk Too Much. Well, this being the first time T had ever heard a man admit this about other men, why I at once kissed Junior good night, and says lay down now, dear, mamma has got something im. portant to do. And then I went off and read the whole of that piece about Charlie, My Boy,” which I take it, he probabiy the original of the w. k. Rk ELL. from what Mr. Dawes says in that interview, T could easy see where the Senators he was talk- ing about was a good deal like the ladies in our Thursday Club. They all knew what they wanted, but most of them wanted different things at the same time, and what Mr. Dawes claimed they needed was the opposite to a self-starter, that a few self-stoppers wouid be a welcome addition to the Capitol furnishings. cipal thing 1 reaily wanted to kmow, Hot Bozo, the similarity between what the Senate needed and what the Ladies’ Thursday Club dittoed was so great that I got a strong suspicion where it was the famous girl friend of Mr. Dawes, Helen Maria, that gave him the idea. She probably belongs to some fe- male club, her own self. And she very likely says to him, Charlie, she says, you need not put it in writing it you don’t want, but I do wisht you would promise me to do something about time clocks for public speakers in clubs, banquets, Senates, etc, father has the habit, too, but with a little help, we might break him of it and lots of other addicts as well. And Charlle says I can't make them stop, especially the Senators, they got to exercise a little will pow- er of their own, but I will help them quit the stuff, yes ma'am, all I can. Or_words to that effect. ‘Well, it seems llke after he made this promise he set right to work to smoke them Senators out, where the public couldn't help but be wise to their house rules and to the awful fact that many of them boys was making gas attacks on the public in- terest and that no disarmament con- ference had as yet been held as far as_the Senate was concerned. It seems also that the principal weapon Mr. Dawes used in this smol ing out business was a pipe of & real snappy, sporting model. It was underslung, with very little clearance, lots of power, and the grandest, noisi- est kind of cut out. He had used this in many a campaign, too, though never as a smoke screen, so far's I could find out, for all he got such a lot of training in the A. E. F. But there was one thing he seemed to want, which for the life of me T couldn't make out what it was. He wanted the Senate to get more cloture. x x % x IRST off, I thought he meant cul- ture, only the printer had spelled it wrong, and naturally that made no hit with me on account we don't want no House of Lords {n Wash. D. C. We want plain home folks, lon account as a rule, the plainer, the sincerer, if you get me, just so long as they don't go too far and com- mence calling attention to their plain- uess and sincerity. Well anyways, this cloture turned out to be spelled correct, I found it several other places, and so finally I took it to be merely some kinda patent disinfectant, calculated to keep the Senate pure and wholesome, and #0 I didn’t bother with it no further— except to note down the name so's I could ask our drugstore man for some in case we ever needed any over to the Thursday club. A little further on in Mr. Dawes’ opinion, I see where he says that the power of one man to block the pur- pose of the Senate to take a vote often led to checks to mistaken legislators, or something. I guess he meant that the one who committed all that mis- placed language was probably out for no good And at once that put me in mind of Mabel Bush. What in the world did the care about the homeless mice of our city? Except only to get herself made pres. of the Mouse Rescue League, I'd bet! Well, I also seen in the paper how Mr. Dawes had found out that the U. S. Constitution was meant to protect the people of the country as well as the politicians, and how he wasn't afraid to come out and mention the fact that our govt. ain't absolutely perfect. And the way he done it, why I certainly got reminded a whole lot of Pres. Teddy Roosevelt, only of course it was a big stick he used, but I couldn't see why a plpe wouldn't work just as good. However, the principal thing I learned off of reading this piece by Mr. Dawes was that if a person takes a public office, they ought to work at it and not merely go around shaking hands with the parents, patting the little ones on the head, and dedicating statues of leading citizens. And being now a vice pres. my own self, why naturally T thought that over good and plenty. OF course in spite of that Mabel Bush and her mice, our club pro- gramme was undoubtedly gonner call for the cleaning up of the town and the seeing that it got run better. The question was bound to come up, first thing at our next meeting, and what * o ok % Beauty and Salaries in the Movie World, Declares Finnegan, Are Only Film Deep BY SAM HELLMAN. SEE.” 1 remarks to High Dome Finnegan, “that one of them movle picture lizzies has sighed up for $20,000 a week."” “How many wezks?" comes back Finnegan “All 52 of ’em,” ing to the hop I “Hop's right,” returns Dome. “I never seen nobody was so careless with ciphers as them film boys, unless it was maybe the guy that scores for the St. Louis base ball team “What Iying about hands get 113 I wants to the ry them movie “Publicity, feller,” answers Finne- gan, “and the drag there is at the ®ate to see a high-priced flossie do her stuff. In this country, especial, you figures a guy’'s good according to the fron men he's dragging down. The greatest lawyer in the country Is the mouthplece that sna; the biggest fees from the come-ons. He maybe don’t know any more law than you do about nearly any subject 1 might mention, but if he corrals the kale he's Kid Blackstone's favorite gold fish. The same goes for the movies. “Well,” says I, “I guess the dame that’s dragging down the $20,000 or $2,000 or whatever it' is in regular money is probably the class when it comes to movie acting.” “That,” replies High Dome, “is, as the woman who kissed the kangaroo remarked, a matter of taste. The ohances is, though, that there is at least 5,674 actresses that can act rings around her, 6324 that have got her skinned for looks and 7 that screen better.’ “What put her over?” I inquires, sarcastic. “The shape of her grand- father's feet? “I happen to know something about ticular frill you're talking says Finnegan, “me and her having gone to different schools together. From what he tells me she ain’t got as much sense as a backward moth, can't really act good enough to tote a spear in a Number Nine Uncle Tom Company playing woutheastern Arkansas, and outside of the studio ain't got enough looks to et gossiped about in a young people’s meeting. Besides—-"' “T suppose,” I cuts in, “she’s great at that work #nd can make the best platter of bidised tripe in the coun- try “The fase that she ain't got no sense,” goes on High Dome, “is the best thing about her, according to this megaphone toter I'm telling you about. Not having nothing to think with, she does exactly like she is told to do, without no arguments or noth- ing, and, this director happening to be £00d, the stuff she does is good.” * X k% “WHAT about her looks?” I wants to know. ‘“‘Does that friend of yours wish them on her?” “Practically returns Finnegan. “For examples, he was telling me that she’s got hands like a longshoreman, know, ‘‘does of the hired magnets?"” the pa mbout,” director THAN THIS JANE” Her ankles, T understand, are just about as thick as her waist and the same shadow trick has ta be worked to cut off about half of 'em when it's necessary to show that she’'s got ankles at all. Her double chin’s paint- ed red when she works, and that photographs black and knocks one of the chins off.” . o they do about “What,” I ask: her cross eyes? “She doesn't happen to have a set of Turpins,” says High Dome, “but there’s a lotta belladonna and other dope in them peppy lamps you see in the picture houses.” “Why,” I inquires, “did the movie folks go to all the trouble to develop a total loss like that when the woods are full of gals that's got decent ankles and pretty fair looking mitts? How'd they happen to start with a minus zero like that to begin with? Did she see one of them movie mag- nets commit a murder?” “Nope,” says Finnegan, “but she was brought onto the lot in the first place by a lad that was in right with the magnets. A place hadda made for her, and this friend of mine was 80 fed up with the flock of high-tem- pered stars he was fighting with at the time that he was glad to take on a #0 them hams of hers is got to photo- graph in such way that half of 'em is in the shadows and you never see nsre’n her little finger on the screen. dumbdora that couldn’t talk back on account of not being able to think fast enough to carry on a conversation with a stuttering snail. She done THE PUBLIC EYE AT THE BREAKFAST TABLE AND IN THE SUBWAY COMING HOME IN THE EVENING MORE OFTEN everything he told her and as a re- sults he turned out a good picture ‘with her.” “That,” I remarks, “don't explain no $20,000 a week to me. The woods must be full of dumbdoras that obey orders and lots of 'em is still wearing cotton stockings.” “Very true,” admits High Dome, “but along about the time that this baby we're talking about busted into the game she run up against a slick press agent and she done everything he told her, also including collecting a lotta divorces and marriage licenses and getting pinched for a lotta things that front-paged her into the papers. They ain’t a movie actress in the world that's hit the public in the eye at the breakfast table and in the sub- way coming home in the evening more often than this Jane. And that's the answer to the jam at the gate when she’s on the bill.” * Kk “IF she pulls in the big jack at the ticket choppers,” I asks, “why ain't it possible that she is getting $20,000 a week?"” “For good reasons,” replies Finne- gan. “The movie folks ain't paying out that kinda money. Those boys don't never give theirselves the worst of it and an even break with them is the worst of it as far as they s concerned.” “What do vou figure she ting?"” 1 goes on. “According to this director friend of mine five grand a week on the out- side,” he tells me. “Not to be sneered at” says I. “That's heap plenty jack for a dumb belle with thick ankles and Dempsey mitts.” “It's a lotta dough,” admits High Dome, “even if she don't get it, but it's really not as big as you think. When you figures that she's got to lay out a raft of it for the doll rags she flashes in the pictures and be- sides {s probably got to take care of a husband that doesn't even know any- body that ever heard of the word work, the gal ain't got so much left at the end of the per annum. You maybe noticed that when the income tax stuff was printed last year most of them actors and actresses that was touted as making from $3,000 to $10,- 000 a week, pald taxes ranging from 80 cents to $8.30." “Just the same,” T remarks, “there must be scores of flim babies that is knocking out $50,000 and $75,000 a year. A grand or a grand and a half per week ain't so rare, no matter what you say. “You're right,” agrees Finnegan, “but you gotta remember that about 90 per cent of them bimbos and bim- besses only get paid when they're working. A guy may get a thousand a week, but if he only works five or six weeks a year he ain't making the mint jealous.” “I hadn't thought of that,” says I. “Why,” sneers High Dome, “pick on that that?” i el R AT May Give Up Tea. HIGH prices of tea in England have led to the rumor that the British may be forced to become a coffee-drinking nation again. Two centuries ago coffee was the English national drink. is get- Mathematical Skill Used by Experts in Deciding Just When the Party Will Make Its Trip to the Shoal for a Day’s Sport on Vacation. BY STEPHEN LEACOCK. HIS s a plain account of a fishing party. It is not a story. Therc is no plot. The only point of this narrative is its peculfar truth. It not only tells what happened to us—the five people concerned in it—but what has happened and is happening to all the other fishing parties that at this season of the year, from Halifax to Idaho, go gliding out on the unruf- fled surface of our Canadian and American lakes in the still cool of early Summer morning. ‘We decided to go in the early morn- ing because there is a popular bellef that the early morning is the right time for bass fishing. The bass is said to bite {n the early'morning. Perhaps it does. In fact, the thing is almost capable of sclentific proof. ‘The bass does not bite between 8 and 12. It does not bite between 12 and 6 In the afternoon. Nor does it bite be- tween 6 and midnight. All these things are known facts. The infer- ence is that the bass bites furiously at daybreak. At any rate, our party were unani- mous about starting early. “Better make an early start,” said the colonel when the idea of the party was sug- gested. “Oh, yes,” sald George Pop- ley, the bank president, “we weant to get right out on the shoal while the fish are biting."” ‘When he said this all our eyes glis- tened. Everybody's do. There's a thrill in the words. To “get right out on the shoal at daybreak when the fish are biting,” as an idea that goes to any man's brain. If you listen to the men talking in a Pullman car, or a hotel corridor, or, better still, at the little tables in a first-class cafe, you will not listen long before you hear one say, “Well we got out early, just after sunrise, right on the shoal.” * * And presently, even if you can’t hear him, you will see him reach out his two hands and hold them about two feet apart for the other man to admire. He is measur- ing the fish. No, not the fish they caught; the big one that they lost with Mrs. Goofnah, the pres., out of town, why I would be in charge, see, and believe you me, charge was just about what I Intended, and it wasn't gonner be no Light Brigade stuff neither! Not that I wanted to stop our ladies from aiming at better sidewalks for baby carriages, licenses to milkmen ‘with manicured cows only, handsomer policemen, and other civic fmprove- ments, oh no, nix! I had no wish to stop our commit- tees from clearing our streets of crap shooters and conflscating the dice for the exclusive use of our debutante daughters, or from chasing out of town the boot leggers, who, so far, had been chased mainly in order to ask the price per case. 1 was more than willing to lead them girls on any high-hat campaign they wanted, but T had something else for them to do before we commenced. I _had learned off of our Charlle, as I was by now calling him to my face, that good administration be- gins at home, and that no bunch of Senators, or ladies, neither, is fit to rn a country unless they first know how to run themselves; no business they can carry on wiil be business-like ~until the house rules is ditto. And that no public is gon- ner respect a Senate which acts in the Senate chamber in a way which them self same Senators wouldn't tolerate for one minute in their own nurseries at home. And so T have decided that when the day for the next meeting of our Ladies’ Thursday Club arrives, why. 1 will set out to clean up our own club before we tackle the city. And before 1 leave our house I intend to put one of George’s pipes into my pocket, and if them ladies don't listen to me, why 1 will take it out and smoke it it we all die in the attempt! (Copyright. 1925.) “TO GET RIGHT OUT ON THE THE FISH ARE BITING, IS AN IDEA THAT GOES TO ANY MAN'S BRAIN.” SHOAL AT DAYBREAK, WHEN But, as I say, we decided to go early in the morning. Charlie Jones, the rallroad man, said that he remember- ed how when he was a boy, up in Wis. consin, they used to get out at 5 in the morning—not get up at 5, but be on the shoal at 5. It appears that there is a shoal somewhere in Wisconsin where the bass lie in thousands. Ker- nin, the lawyer, said that when he ‘was a boy—this was on Lake Rosseau —they used to get out at 4. It seems there 1s a shoal in Lake Rosseau where you can haul up the bass as fast as you can drop your line. ok ox % HAVE mentioned that Kernin is a lawyer and Jones a railroad man and Popley a banker. But I needn't have. Any reader would take it for granted. In any fishing party there is always a lawyer. You can tell him at sight. He is the one of the party that has a landing net and 2 steel rod in sections with a wheel that is used to wind the fish to the top of the water. And there is always a banker. You can tell him by his good clothes Popley, in the bank, wears his bank- ing suit. When he goes fishing he wears his fishing suit. It is much the better of the two, becuase hi: banking suit has ink marks on it and his fishing suit has no marks on it. As for the railroad man—quite so, the reader knows well as I do— you can_tell him because he carries a pole that he cut in the bush him- self, with a 10-cent line wrapped around the end Jones save he can catch s| this kind of line patent rod and wheel 3 too. Just the same number. Our arrangement to go fishing was made at the little golf club of our Summer town on the veranda where we sit in the evening. The thing somehow seemed to fall into the mood of each of us. Jones said he had been hoping that some of the boys would get up a fishing party. It was ap- parently the one kind of pleasure that he really cared fc yself I was delighted to get in with a wd of regular fishermen like these four, especlally as I hadn't been out fishing for nearly 10 years: though fishing is a thing I am passionately fond of. Oh, ves, I live right beside the water every Summer, and ves, certainly—I am saying so—I am pes- sionately fond of fishing, but _still somehow I hadn't been out. Every fisherman knows just how that hap- pens. The years have a way of siip- ping by. ! Yet I must say I was surprised to| find that so keen a sport as Jones hadn't been out—so it presently ap- peared—for eight years, I had imag- ined he practically lived on the w: ter. And Colonel Morse and Kern- | in—I was amazed to find—hadn't| been out for 12 years, not since the day (so it came out In conversation) when they went out together in L. Rosseau and Kernin landed a perfect monster, a regular corker, five pounds and a half they said; or no, I don't think he landed him. No, T remember, he didn’t land him. He caught him—and he could have | landed him—he should have landed him—but_he didn't land him. That was it. Yes, I rem Morse had a slight discussi it—oh, pe amicable—as to | whether Morse had fumbied with the net—or whether K —the whole ument was ien made an ass of self by triking” soon eno 0, as I say, w next morning and to make start. All of the boys about that. When I say use the word, as it is used to mean pe fellow gets out fishing. forgett once in a w E —it keeps him you X ox * ¥ not ed to go the WE agreed to go in a launch, a large launch—to be exact, the largest in the town. We could have gone in rowboats, but a rowboat is a poor thing to fish from. Kernin said that in a rowboat it is impossible properly to “play” your fish. The side of the boat is so low that the fish is apt to leap over the side into the boat when can easy. would be that could see to getting the worms the man would be sure to have spare lines, and the man could come along to our different the adv decided to get, not onl gest launch in town, up up at hi and said w out first thing in the ed that he knew the sh he knew it. that veranda ti sleep, the mber Kernin and | ¢ n about | g, half “‘played there i= no com- unch a man and take it Panlay said that fort in a rowboat. In a reach out his feet Charley Jones said that 'n a launch a man could rest his back against something and Morse sald that in a laun man could rest his neck. Anyway all the “boys” agreed that the great advantage of a launch we could get a man By that means the man , and to take us. places—we were all and pick us up. the more we thought about ntage of having a “man” to take us the better we liked it. As a boy gets old he likes to have a man beside the water In fac around to do the w Anyway Fran the man we has the big t, what is more, Frank knows the lake. We called him boathouse over the phone d give him $5 to take us norning provid He said I suppose we must have talked on long after 1 in the probably nearer broke up. But morning. than 1 It w when we we agreed that that made no difference. Popley said that for him three hours’ ight kind of sleep, was far more refreshing than 10. Kernin said ver learns to snatch his sleep when he can, nd Jones said that in raflroad wo: a man pretty well cuts out sleep altogether. we had no alarms whatever about not being ready by 5. Our plan was simplicity itself like ourselves in responsible ons learn to ganize things e In fact, Popley says it 1s that facuity that has put us where we are. So the plan simply was that Frank Rolls should come along at 5 .o'clock and blow his whistle in front of our places, and at that signal each man would come down to his wharf with his rod and kit and so we'd be off to the shoal without a moment’s a The weather we ruled decided that ev made no d It was ained that 1 said that ng faulty or s we plan reard Frank Ro! g hi the boat man, whistle opposite hour in the mor g out of bed ng. Even without I could see from mean th: alc I s doze lasting Wh jater in T help being fish anyway? Mining Man Started Secretary Hoover Toward Career That Made Him Famous BY PRESTON WRIGHT. ERBERT CLARK HOOVER, Secretary of Commerce under Presidents Harding and Cool- idge, is so well known to the world as the man whose serv. ice in the World War was the feeding of millions of starving and orphaned children, that few can picture him as having been himself fatherless and motherless before he reached his teens. He was born in a Quaker commu- nity, which comprised most of West Branch, Towa, in 187¢. ¥lis father, Jesse Clark Hoover, a tlacksmith, died in 1880, and his motler, Huldah Minthorn Hoover, an active church worker, who became a preacher after the death of her husband, passed away in 1884. So Herbert Hoover, one of the three children, was an orphan in his tenth year. After living with various kindly aunts and uncles in the Middle West, he went to Newburg, Oreg., to become one of the family of John Minthorn, his mother’s brother, a country doc- tor and principal of the Pacific Acad- emy there. But John Minthorn pres- ently moved to Salem, Oreg., to go into the land business, and Herbert Hoover was given into the custody of his Grandfather Minthorn. Grandfather Minthorn was a very strict disciplinarian. From all reports the orphan was not very happy with him. But about this time there ap- peared a person who seems to have perceived that Herbert Clark Hoover had qualities which would take him a long way in the world. He was the first, apparently, to take stock of the youth—Herbert now was 14—and he altered the whole course of his career. This person was a friend of the boy's father, Jesse Clark Hoover. On his way from Iowa to look over a mine he owned in eastern Oregon he stopped over in Newburg to see Her- bert Hoover. Between the time when the lad was at school or doing chores they visited together. “Well, my boy, what are you going One of the Slowest of Races. RACE that in a peculiar sensethe fleld a mile square, the finish is not to the switt is one that is run—it the word may be used in such a connection—every year in the provincial districts of Germany. Early in May, during the celebration of a festival that to a cerain extent corresponds to the English May day, an ox race is held. The entrance fee is small, but the conditions are peculiar. Each ox must be ridden by its own- er and ridden bareback. No whip, spur, yoke, harness or any other means of guiding the animal is al- lowved. The rider must depend entirely upon his voice to accomplish the end he has in view, and as the oxen do not race on a track, but across a large open field, the training of the animals and the skill of the rider are severely tested. - Speed is a secondary consideration in this race, for the rider who can induce his steed to go in a straight line is sure to win. The start is made at one side of being at the opposite side. When the competitors are lined up and the sig- nal is given the fun begins. Despite the efforts of the riders, the majority of the oxen refuse to head toward the opposite mark, and as spectators are allowed in the fleld and are at liberty to do anything they wish to interfere with the rider except touch him or his mount, the difficuities of the race are not inconsiderable. Oxen are not excitable beasts as a rule, but the shouts of the spectators and the efforts of the riders soon re- duce them to a state of complete be- wilderment. It often happens that an hour has passed before one of the oxen is ridden “under the wire, But when once the task is accom- plished, the winning rider is fully re- paid for his pains. His ox is deco- rated with garlands and flowers, and the lucky owner receives a small money prize. The honor which the victory brings s the great thing. “WHILE WORKING TO SUPPO! A VIEW OF ADMITTANCE IN SCIENCE.” RT HIMSELF HE STUDIED WITH TO A UNIVERSITY FOR A COURSE Cane ANDER DoN — to make of yourself?”” was a very nat- ural question for the mining man to ask. But it was not one that could be easlly answered. Herbert Hoover anticipated going to a Quaker college after he had finished his preliminary schooling. But beyond that—- * % k% 'HE visitor spoke of the value of a professiol. He discoursed upon mining, and, naturally, mining engl- neering became a topic of conversa- tion. The idea of being a mining engineer appealed to young Hoover. Evidently the other saw in him tendencies which would find a vent in such a career. “But you will have to get a uni- versity training,” he said, and he ex- plained the difference between the ac- tivitles of a small college and a uni- versity. ““How would you like to go up to my ‘mine with me?” he asked. Herbert Hoover, fascinated, would have given anything to go, but Grand- father Minthorn wouldn’t give his con- sent. So the stranger went on alone. But the orphan was not to remain long at Newburg. Very shortly he “ran away,” although with the consent of his other relatives. He went to Salem and then to Portland, Oreg. where, while working to support him. self, he studied with the view of ad- mittance to a university for a course in_science. In 18391 Prof. Swain of Stanford University came to Portland to ex- amine candidates for the newly found- ed institution. Young Hoover, now 17, l:\ought himself ready, and entered the Hsts. Infortunately, in his absorption with technical ideas, he had not fore- seen that he must prepare himself in grammar and rhetoric. He would have falled had not Prof. Swain, like the mining man, seen his real quality. He was attracted to Hoover by the evident strength of his will. “He put his teeth together and his whole face and posture showed his determination to pass,” Prof. Swain later said. He made inquiries about the young fellow, invited him to visit him at his hotel and determined to help him—a determination which was not weakened by the discovery that Hoover, like himself, had been raised a Quaker (Swain later became president of Swarthmore College). * % x x IX the end he arranged for his protege to study the rest of the Summer to meet the literary require- ments, and assured him that if he would come early to Stanford for some extra -coaching he would be able to gain admittance. o Hoover was one of the very first students to enter Stanford. He was conditioned in English, and it 1s a fact | But every one { back and forth ! e tir that he didn't get the required credit until he was nearly ready to graduate. prevent him he greatest with ac the globe. > feeding of the Central E & children of »Wn 10 every one. not know the es quality which has been a great in his succes: It is that of quick thinking and quick decision, as the following incident shows: After leaving school he worked as a miner for a time to get practical under- ground knowledge. Then he went to Louis Janin, the leading mining en- gineer in California, and asked for a Job, “I have none for you,” said Janin “However, I could use an additional typis “T'Tl take Hoover. “I'll it’s agreeable. He didn’t explain why he wanted to wait until Tuesday when it was then Friday. Janin learned the reason later. Hoover had spent the interim learning how to bang a typewriter (Copyright, 1925.) —— The Hardest W-ood. doy the job as typist,” sald report next Tuesday if | J_IGNUM-VITAE. the vital wood, or wood of life. which is found in the West Indies and some other parts of the tropical Americas, is said to be the hardest wood nature produces. The reason why this wood is so tough is in the arrangement of its fibers. Instead of being straight, they weave crossing and 0S8~ like the weave of an automobile Another peculiar feature of this wood is that when the tree is the sap cells fill up with a very heavy rosin, which causes it to weigh about 80 pounds to the cubic foot. It is one- third heavier than nd so while excellent for many it would not make a good raft. It is used for carpenter's mallets, as it is so tough that it will not split from hard usage, and it is also em- ploved for tool handles. Of the wood growing in this coun try the hickory is generally supposed to be the hardest, but for maki mallets and other uses where gr toughness is needed, it will not stand one-half as hard usage as does lignum- vitae. in e Largest Water Wheels. ATER-WHEELS in the western world are rivaled in size by four giants which have served to make fa- mous the town of Hama in northern Syria, on the River Crontes. The largest of the four wheels is of wood and is about 70 feet in diameter. The wheels are driven by means of what is known as the undershot principle, the wheel being turned by water flowing beneath it. The creak- ing of the wheels is incessant day and night, for they are never stopped. The water is used not only to supply the needs of the town but for irrigating the surrcunding gardens as well. This is a mest primitive form of water supply, but is, nevertheless, quite ade- quate to meet the needs of the town of Hama.