Evening Star Newspaper, December 13, 1925, Page 94

4 THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTO D. ¢, DECEMBER 13, 1925—PART 5 Explorer Is Sought by Head Hunters in Wilds of Eastern Ecuador | B Wil A0 B ; Shuara Indians in the Land of Tropical Brainstorms, Where Murder at Dawn Means “Luck™—A Direful Prediction Amid Scenes Where Poisoned Spears and Darts Are Common Weapons. Evidence of the Warlike Attitude of Natives Enlivens Journey of Investiga- my lance-jumper, gun poised above his head—muzzle to the rear, grunt- ing, dancing, running forwards, then|and sorcery, which had been prac backwards, just like a wild bull. This | ticed by their forefathers and vhish yduel of grunts lasted more than hulf | was somehow connected with an hour—after which .ny guide took | woman's lock of hai a strong and deep drink of chicha,| ‘The superstitic saying that he had not seen his |that, under the influence of this friend (my lance threatener) for more | vine' nectar drug, the spirits had told than two years, and that he had|a witch-doctor of their tribe that one greeted him for me. | could impose witcheraft on a womar He explained that I dld not know |or, as they call it, “pray her t this formal “hello” and furthermore | death,” if the sorcerer was able to did not speak the Shuara language |steal a lock of hair from the victin. enough to understand such a grunted | head “hello.” Still, to this date I have| The head-reducing fiesta lasted fou never been able to go through one|whole days. Mountains of food were of these formul savage greetings. My | eaten and there was a perfect org guldes have always had to come to|of drunkenness on chicha, and my assistance in any greeting that I|co juice and teas made from myster took part in herbs and drugs. The tsants Nor was milady of the jungle lack were. for the most ing fn interest at this head-reducing 1t prope fiesta. The women, who busied then- y supposed to “Ia | selves serving chicha, meuts or fruits | the spirit of the vietm and 10 preve: to their husband-warriors, were deco- | it from inflicting i rated with triangular black figures on | slayer each cheek with a few black or red dots in each triangle. Over the nose and across the chin and even on the teeth a checkerboard of very small black squares had been designed as part of the formal dress of the host esses. This artistic ornamental design was unusually attractive and fascinating on the teeth because the white showed through like small strips of bright pearl. The warriors, however, I painted thelr teeth completely black “to keep them from decaving. as they explained to me. And surprisir as it may these savages had concoction teeth preserve Around their adornments of of beads mide 4n ancient superstition, in connectio With various phases of witcheraf was to the effact tion. witcheraft or | called The writer of this urticle spent more than a yvear among the | savage tribes of the ador ungle. Upon his return to New York City, he donated a collec ton of varicus objects guthered luring his stay to the American Museum of Natural History This collection included the fan > bark dresses of the In lians of the jungle, their war lances, hlow-guns, polson darts and witch-doctor charms “Land of the lead Hunters, ‘Land of the Phantom Hunter and of Women Man-Hunters. J WAS lucky in not having to slee| in the fiesta house after made orgy was over. No lesser pe sonage than the brother of the slaye himself, ainted from head to foot welrd desig: offered to lead me t his brother's fortified house, for one peaceful night. It was sure he led me! As he got near the place he pointed out a perfectly innocer lookin covered ith vines, satd tray ® % of guides wanted fc ne e 15 string the many-colored seeds which grow in the Oriente These strings were wrapped snug around the neck and held by rainbow- | oy colored gems. Around their wrists | and upper parts of their arms one could see bracelets and broad bands made from the thorns or long pieces of brown bark or red cotton strings which they made from the cotton grown on their own plantations « * oints upw Over closely matted, earth | them, end trc spriniied on this. It ail looked so o examine the di sely, and tried to “Why two?” I gasped “My brother's enen ber one,” he €a d heen spre. VERYBODY WANTED A HEAD WITH GLASSES ON ITS NOSE!™ pical grass see natu T wante for visitors, invisible but sacred. The head-hunters are very jealous. My |last client, he had his head chopped off. He step over the invisible line.” 1 thanked him warmly and told him that, since the line was invisible, 1'd better not get out of bed at all.” He agreed with me When I first got sett Ele quarters [ smelled smoke and thought the place was on fire There was a small fire, but it proved to be the last thing in Indian luxury lo, and behold, a foot-warmer! The bed itself was four feet long and three feet wide, made of bamboo poles, while at its foot was a horizontal bar serving as a foot support. In ever; well appointed native house the foot- armer i{s kept burriug every night, underneath the horizantal foot rest. These fire feet-bakers ure supposed to | take the edge off the night chill and to be an essential part of my bed— * iy ther into the interfor. 1 became bet- | ter acquainted with my host through my ingratiating Juanga. As a mark of his friendship, he took me into his Holy of Holies: the room where he kept his collection of heads. Here, for the first time, 1 handled the trophies of war There were 11 of them, their cheeks tinted with red, their long, coarse | hair flowing free. The Indian word for them is tsantsas. When I touched them they felt like hard leather. The lips were sewn up with red cord, in order, my host explained, “to keep the spirits submissive. Afterward, when I myself was the owner of several heads, bought from the Indlans, I had a chance to prove how durable the tsantsas ure. I threw one against a wall, stood on it and even pounded it with a rock, with Indians. Tn spite of the evidence of the heads I'd seen, I was beginning to think of the Shuaras as a mild, childiike people, not addicted to blood: shed, when something happened that made e change my mind. My guides and 1 had spent the night at the hut of a half-breed trader. | At dawn, when we were just about| ready for & getaway, I noticed with |#'® feeling of horror that one of the | Months. guides was dipping the tip of his lance | 01 by Lindre % 1 A into the gourd of puison that always| About 10 davs later, 1 heard of}, hung, within easy reach, over his|fuch & feast and turned theli shoulder. The haif-breed trader was | f€sta hous invited, ol standing nearby, and I remember that | 41d young, sat about the kg my brain asked a lightning question: | Rificent in bright feathers ar pene Which 1s he going to kill. the trader | 71" seeds, served quantities of or me?" . : which made a human head into a oast monkey meat and boiled yueca : novhen T looked hack at the guide, | TNt D0k el and holed ¥ magic tsantsa, the strange curio sold 1o was staring at the top of @ nearby | 4 i Sl to tourists. chonta palm, but his fingers that I\l‘!lli lesire : Ay | the spear were taut. I was unarmed, | O hat out breaking it or marring it In &ny |, oarrier had my rifle, and there wnu | T8 fests T Grthehe THAT S ra st b - Shnaeasiie explained that he | POU time to jump for it, before ““"?m}m?f ’]:n"";“' R j;;l' superstitions in regard to the powers had acquired these trophies by wiping | Sulde Wwhirled around | ; ; fof lled dream druvg nectar call it, wi out the males of un entire family. %X - | his_enemies by bioodfeud. He luid |y ) me startling m a finger on one of his tiny human| follow, he plunged the lance into | ¢!lmax of a severe convulsion uEe0 close-ups, and remnants, his eves gleaming. “This|(ne halfbreed's chest, piereins ihe | INE around for any poss b in ord one,” he sald, “‘was once on the shoul- | eart!" Then, without & seund, hie van. | Of €scape, my eyes fall upon & long | 15, 1 ders of a mighty man, who had the | iiaq’ into the jungle that was. all|chonta lance, thrust into the ground e work wickedness to steal one of my Wives. | ghant 1 at the immediate left to the entrance | Measuring was pr He and his brothers and his sons,| “Catch him!" T velled out, leaped|©f the doorwaj the wrong wrinkle in the who | few for my rifle and was on the point| My heart s Hanging near thel (o crr o o ors Loras attempting | i of sending a bullet through the jungle | middle of the lance dangled dried | ¢ S Jot we made thelr heads small.” Which is what the Shuara warrior & 505 ut the pluce where the branches had | shrunken Indian head with long black | fereq 1cutie, i soial barely stopped swaying. Then I felt é i 1 gets when he flirts too much with other head-hunters’ wives. This set- hair. 1 took all this in at w glance, | seemed interested die arric tled me once and for ull. During the| the steel grip of Juanga on my wrist, | llke ' drowning man who reviews the | o g fiierested In their new glits. | o remainder of the trip. I never so much and he poured out a stream of Span’|incidents of a lifetime on his last | Anaed jinagined the trick could befnot allowe take them throus as glanced at an Indian malden with | ish trip down o ., 2s natlced by, thesallins: cus But the prices p: but one exception—which comes I‘ater.g Put down the Then I waited, too surprised to Jeflong me ’r“”‘:?m"‘:,eh;;] 3 !':" ;':r\ - ]( Ir h ’v ts have brought a ne I now began a trip which took me | think move, and with not enough control of [ horse halr than that of a human be. | F10, f Dootlegger, tiead leg from one group of families to an- | wise, thieliStiuare lanutingel San th taie | 1t LD DAL of e himanibe fion ¢h ¢ American scene other, always working further into| crazy. I aitan yeara 1t e b Lt hi had Gt [T walted—years it seemed—for my y - el 0 the meayin 2 matter of custom | lanceman to throw his weapon | dek the interior. I found, to my surprise, | & thatl | through me. But he kept on dancing, | trouble 15 ng some one at the break P kept oudnciue | ixoul that the deeper into the jungle 1 went. | the better grew the vonditions of the | foy | el ol reak | grunting, running forwards and back.| I « | of gay. It bring good luck for the | wards, until 1 felt that whasever per but suddenly Sroner @ it advas 2 rest of the trip was up to, he surely was taking how! amc the war: T Bk = Useless to argnue against centuries do- it tiger had dropped out 1e of the | it wos 1Iscovery Ol a ew riter o Oetry SEitmadiont Mitoloen g Tneiiine 3 Gia ‘ [that's arrived with my pack carrfers. He|midst. As they related afterward e I always Kept to the rear, for safety's|shoved me aside, then he started at|there had been revived in their mindg|® Teduced . sake. Several hours later the mur- | derous guide, whom I thought crazy OI] O t' e S a a aS 1 l l e | and lost’ in the jungle, quietly foined . | claiming: “Look at me! I've brought | & luck to vour trip.” | The blood Just which had seized my | planes at Baltimore ra warrio It is a trait that has| crashes, in wh: Those seriously i1 tai £ minor inju are not listed. It cannot be denied th: the for own savage time to of traditiont 1 tollowed the lon line antime my Shuara guide | ne. chonta palms into their very ‘mm T | the column again. His face was serene guide is characteristic of these Shu _(Continyed from Third Page.) so far this ve: going list accidents and fatali glasses. Whereupon Juanga was quick to explain that they brought luck only to their rightful owner. Then they were given buck to me in a hurry . = €5 tall fnto “Their frier explained two. RE I was actually house on the evening before the | mysterious victory feast was to start. I was to see the drinking of the magi solutions of the divine drugs; I was to see their uncan ligious views expressed with wcred rites and with all the the tsantsa ceremonies, These w nly a few of the fea- ures that were flitting through n, not to mention the surpris hat were in store for me during t next four s of the actual cere- monies when T mysel? wus forced to {take actual part in the weird rites in the fiesta If_the for a great or head-reducing tiesta, thorough that they take six 4 year or two years. Gue: hundreds and spend a week REPARATIONS tory feast a vie- d in my new o g4 rriors, fires, and flized Feu fties I p fanta obtain pict On entering the house of this hei ires surements zest rhythm | | was surprised ted and ta wove his grunting like an infuriated wild at the same time jumping ITH a quickness I was unable to|and then bhackwa JOT wishing to be unappreciative, I stretched myself out on the bam- boo and put my feet over the slow | fire. T soon discovered that the fire, though doubtless kept low enough not to burn the tough feet of an Indian, was hot enough to_ broil a pair of | white feet. After 15 minutes I gave it up and was just climbing out of “bed” to look for more restful sleep- ing quarters, when, thank heavens, I remembered the “invisible line.” 1 jumped immediately back to bed and guzed at the sleeping warriors and the dimly lighted distant harems and just about where the “invisibie line” was drawn. I was not going to risk a poisoned lance in my ribs, so I rolled into a ball on the fraii structure and made the best of @ bad so-ca or divine esented nner. 1 de even a dog, orwards the | 1 Glane €500 in a vrofiles nglers {gnorant beer YIIparisor vers m‘ photograpl gressing ni prices, or have the ok de in a weeks the ara Indians now the mysterious preserving solu Only 1 o hair maidens. 11 “Eluador has Indian warriors | maies it passed a law which a crime to sell or even bu wken b heads. Tourists ar to rifle. your customs are You think their customs are ch seems strange the But it is a matter of custom The Indians like region _includes part of Kcuador and part of Peru. !\ JITH a cavalcade and | muleteers, two | | weeks, pushing up into the Andean { heights and then dipping down into {the almost impenetrable jungles of the Shuara Indians, finally reaching the i first real Shuara village, called Are : e picos. This tncluded a nonedes By CARL LESTER LIDDLE. | (J\Ciion of about 15 or o THE first ¢ saw @ shrunken | with dome shaped roofs, thatched with % head—the d Fcuador Tndians |lvaves turn out—1I could hardly believe it| _l.ong before iaking the plunge into was human. It was in the window of | this district I'd picked up every serap | A blg New York store, and there was | ©f information I could get as to the | ® crowd gaping at it 1t was about | SUberstitions of the Indians, and knew | ihaiia it range, black and shiny, | that my best chance of returning alive | marked perfect little! Was to pose _white capitu, or' M ong, coarse. black hair. | witch-doctor. I'd brought along of the thing was repug.|Simple remedies—iodine, calomel, mer- n and yet I was fascinated | CUry olntment and quinine, together By it. The placard underneath ex-|With a complete first aid kit Platnd that it was the work of the| Most important of all, for this witch $huara Indians in Ecuador, but that|business, I'd let my beard grow. The d1d not satisfy me. [ wanted to|Shuaras are heardless, and I'd heard know by what amazing process it|that any man who would go to them was made, and how it was preserved. | with a “Heaver” could count on their Seelng that grisly thing it a fuse | veneration in my mind. And, ulong with strange | Besides my medicine and my beard Stories about divine mnectar drugs,{I'd brought along bundles full of dream beds. ery. charms of In-|things to give away: beads, brightly dlan witch.doctors, I was lured on-|colored cotton cloth, hatchets, mirrors, ward. These were the direct causes|gunpowder and needles. 1 had rifles, of 1 finding myself, months later, | too, but not for use on those Indians, sn_Ambato, Ecuador |if I could possibly help it. I realized I was there as an explorer about|that once 1 had killed a Shuara my %o make the jump into the jungles|life would not be worth much In a| ©f the upper Amazon. I had de:|land of poisoned spears and silent termined to get to the bottom of [ poisoned darts where revenge is a this head-hunting and head-reducing | cult. 1 planned to coax, not to shoot, mnd mysterious fortune-telling busi-f my way through. which the 30,000 Indians of that| As we drew near Arepicos, the| dark region practice “leudIng citizens” came out to look us The day before I was to leave Am-|over, and to give us the Indlan close. Pato o veteran American traveler—|up. Solemnly I presented each with an old friend of mine—insisted on my |a little gunpowder and a vard or| going for u long walk with him. When | two of cloth, paid off the guides who | we were outside the town, SWinging|had brought me across the mountains along a narrow road, he let loose.|and arranged for carriers and new ZFocl” was the mildest of the names | guides familiar with the jungle. he called me. Then I learned, through my in- “Do vou realize” he said, “that|terpreter, that 1 had been invited to you'll he the first white man most of | spend a few days in one of the houses. those Indtans have ever lald eves on | This interpreter—Juanga, by name-- the few whites that have through whom I got that message, was ey enough to risk it?|to be my muinstay on that trip th long black hair are| That evening my host made & place to those devils. But think | for me beside the family fire, on the hey'd do to get hold of a white|clay floor, by shoolng away some of You'll be a curlosity for once|the dogs and chickens, tame monkeys in your life. and tame parrots. There we spent “1f you go In, some Indian will come | several hours in telling storles and to me A year or so from now to get|in drinking the potent chicha, served a thousand dollars out of me for a|by his prettiest wife. Tare white head—nothing like it been| Before I went to bed that night, seen before. And, my friend, that|Juangu—ever present with sugges head will be your head. Don’t go into | tions—drew me aside, “The senor will the Oriente of Ecuador. It's sheer|have take notice,” he said, “that to craziness.” this house are two wings. One of 2 In spite of the well meant advice, | these contain the men, and the other | night for the rest of the torture. 1 started off the next morning for|contain the harems. Between these| 1 stayed three days at Arepicos, this very same Orlente, variously|two quarters there is a dividing line | making preparations for my trip fur- roa not recall just ho wre. I had never my inners conviction tha by the finest e o the head Covyright Lis as ost Oriente of split 1025.) BY JOSEPHINE TIGHE WILLIAMS. 1 WELL known s lunching admirabl smely, in the big cheerful ng room at Wardman rk Hotel. He looks literary us he rnately nib- his food, then reads volume near his plate. “I usually go over it two of three times,” he adds. “taking out extra words here and there. When I saw the offer of a prize for a poem, I worked for days trylng to wiite a masterpiece. When finished, I didn't latter-day poet , whole- naval , the de; atter-day ex battle pract whole broads nd hurry fr haracter of these and the ver ) aviation often been a pusmle to travelers n|Dioce8 In the air with the loss of her like it very well and decided to send | the regions of the upper Amazon, and | (an % CGmIr, Zachary Lansdowne, my ‘Weary Blues' along with the | Sumetimes cost them their heads. This | }\ne totally destroyed ‘masterplece.’ As It tarmed out,|Sudden mania seems to have nothing e ears Blacas {to do with hate. revenge or warfare. nd those sus- The muttered apology, and ev! frequent poerns, negro bus boy, stag- piled-high service | : but purposely joggles poetical one’s arm. The Creative slightly annoyed, to place several sheets beside the volume with a word of dently bad- into what- bus boys ped pap negro bus boy, frightened cubbyhole disappears or butl looking man, who Is Nisholas Vachel Lind- Gien. Booth Enters other, many other, skeptically, hurriedly poetical - than thor of and bex which had just spun itself along and went almost entirely uncorrected, won first prize. “From what I can earn,” he adds, “I want to go to college—probably to Lincoln College, Pennsylvania, a col- lege for negroes.” Mexico! Africa! Italy! From Holland to Harlem! And with reference to Harlem, there’s Langston Hughes’ scolding poem, directed at “Midnight nan,” a denizen of Leroy’s jazz palace in Harlem: TO MIDNIGHT NAN AT LEROY'S Strut_and Wiggle, Shameless mal uldn't ne good fellow Be your palf It is the kind of tropical brainstorm which takes the form of an insane desire to kill. I had gone to the Orlente for the express purpose of seeing human heads reduced, and it was beginning to look as if 1 would go back to civilization—if 1 could get back—with this wish unsatisfied. In the end I saw the whole process by sheer accident. My guides and 1 stumbled into the encampment of a war party. There were 80 of the They had just had a great victory and were half crazy with excitement. yelling and dancing. On a long "“l we are pessimistically | says Secretary Wilbur |look at the shattered hulk ¢ |andoah and deprecate the deca | of the United States Nayy, but £o into the clouds and sée the & commander of that ship, unperturbed and undismayed, giving his order in a quiet conservational tone for the mar agement of his ship In the storm which he encountered: if we see the men and officers under him perform- ing their duties unhesitatingly and without evidence of fear: if, ufter the tearing away of the control cabin. we note the remainder of the crew hin- dling the br a lined “we can the Shen- | tles is app lling, and it would not he unusual the general public should sk: “What is the matter with the Navy? Why all these accidents? 1 the Navy shot to pieces?” As a ter of fact, such misgivings are , but they are no stifted even with this list of exhibits before us Certain it is that our naval authorities must give extraordinary the safety factors in the operation of d aircraft, but the very fact do have these acc Nav in ti for tme Navy that never has any acc attention to ships an that we »paration tu- | | and powd ng rooms, | danger, and except for the mos | perienced and skillful managemer g target practice wou be frequent and terrible Granting all thes, ing for du, 1o equation, due natural of sl giving haz, personal weight to tb the treacher of accidents 1 World War unreasonable ition with ou for th super: 1 search wha hard | ght, 197 little 1ck ? banana leaf lay a collection of savered Srnantsof the ahip @ enemy heads Soon I saw the method by which these were reduced and preserved. A sort of master of ceremonies first dealt each head a vertical blow at the back with a machete. From then on the detalls of preparing the trophy are grewsome in the extreme. ped pages. Then he slowly, meticulously, 1, if truth must be told, ent the the one which is dismantled and laid up on the beach and the one in which ,-A.IKA.J“ are never Admiral E. W chief naval operations, in commenting naval accidents during the last three years, says “For our Navy to be prepared to fulfill its duty in war it must carry 1o s rereads them metrically, a in bewild He ca n the t Hear dat music Junglenight. Hear dat muste . . . And the moon was white. ing your Blues sour. oy ‘want lovin’ And You don't mean maybe. Strutana ‘wiekle. Bamcicss Nan, ouldn’t o "kdod fellow your man? K Dry' Ice.” JCIENCE has perfected a new 1w S T wa frozen in hours a time according to bringing them safely to eart in stead of dwelling upon the loss of life, deplorable and heart-breaking as it is, we recognize the worth of the men who fought with the elements. we see occasion not only for congratulation that the men of the Navy are operat ing the Navy with the same courage Iberle of head waiter and re- Quests instant production of lh‘e bus bo! who, wh he as promptly ar- Aves, looks at the poet as a cat might Yook at a king e keep Ice cream without the use state at vers replies ment and terror, Asses. fning room vigh t Park, be and smart audience mcluded oems waiter at Wardman Park Hotel. indray wealth of gestu and down, voice dropped to pianissimo here, blared to fortissimo there, you'll know how he read and what he did with contest Mtnes! tune nellow dnetions “No Drening a drowsy Rogking 7 leara s Wi on ¥ the_ pale He did a lazy swo s the tune o % ith Ain't T's gw Taump. He played The king demands, “Who wrote this The dining room’s uniformed helper very evident embarrass- I did, sir!” looks at the negro little conversation poet does, from the carrying with _him manuseript That recital at Wardman efore an intelligent, admiring Vachel Lindsay in his reading three of the written and handed him by Hughes, 23-year-old near- n Then boy but the 1 Very the typewritten ngeton 1f you've ever heard or seen Vachel read his own stuff, with much tramping up And T wish that T had dled.” And far into the night he crooned that tune. The stars went out and £ did the moon The singer stopped playing and went to hed Whilg the Weary Bluos echioed through bis e He slept like a rock or a man that's dead. Langston Hughes' ““Weary “a poem, by the way, recently rded first prize of $80 in a poetry instituted for negro poets. How does it begin? Those two first “Droning a drowsy syncopated rocking back and forth to a croon— But as the intro. to a serial story command, o on with the story THE WEARY BLUES | “Blues, a black man’ Lindsay says it is musical, dramatic and poetry critic, agrees with Lindsay. “With his ebony hands on the fvory keys'—ves, that's poetry, real poetry, declare John Farrar, Witter Bynner, James Wel- don Johnson and Clement Wood, the judges who selected “Weary Biues” as the prize-winning poem. In a published article last Septem- ber, Van Vechten devotes a column of spuce to three of Langston Hughes' poems. The first is ““Cabaret,” taken from Crisis, a negro magazine. You who have whirled the red night into spectral gray morning, dancing to |Juzz strains played by colored jazz- men, perhaps can answer, “Does a jazz band ever sob?” The six, sax, sex lines follow: Joea & fazz band ever soh® They say a jazz band's gay: Yet 'as the vulear dancers whirled. Onp said 'she heard the Jazs band sob— ‘When the little dawn was gray. L.n‘:‘lon Hughes Is 23 years old, but into that short period has crowded more adventure, travel, color, excite- ment and observation than most of ~coming from Mr. rl Van Vechten, sncopased tune. back sud forth to & mellow croon. ‘ngro vlay. ooy avenus the other night S patior of an oid ghe light ume o those Weary Blues. his thony hunds on each ivors key e thut Door plano moan with melody. fro on his rickety stool S TReEy tane Like & musteal ck man'e soul voice with a melancholy that old viano a deep song that Negro ] kot nobody in all this world, It 0 yobody but ma sel 1o quit ma frow o " put ma troubles on the shelf And VU ump, went his foot on the floor. WPiow chords then sang some ‘Weary Bl Lo mltied ‘(h:“'l !b'rytqlui 1. 't happy no mo’ sing. ‘more— “I got the fo’« LANGSDON HUGHES, WASHINGION'S BUS BOY POET. Copyright by Underwood & Underwood. —_—— us will accomplish in long and varied lives. He was born in Joplin, Mo., February 1, 1902; was taken from there when ‘about a vear old by his parents, living subsequently in Kan. sas, Colorado, 1llinois and Ohio. His high school work was in Cleveland, Ohlo, where he graduated in 1920, not only ‘as editor of his class magazine, but also ciass poet, and this, too, in a school of mixed races. Class poetry was the first verse he ever attempted. Finishing high schpol, Langston Hughes for a year and a half taught English at Toluca, in the south of Mexico. Then on to New York, where he worked for a year on a farm. Then to sea, making one long trip to Africa, visiting up and down the west coast. Then Europe, with seven months in Paris us a walter in a Montmartre cafe. Italy. Back to America, work- ing his way home as a sailor, and now employed at Wardman Park as bus boy In an effort to obtain money to start himself in college. In appearance Hughes is little dif- ferent from any other youth of his color and age. His manners and Eng. lish are good, he is quiet, earnest, rather gentle and difident. Noc is he tooled with regard to the years of preparation and study ahead of him. He acknowledges that he has no work- ing idea of verse-building, and says that the poetry just “‘comes along as fast as I can write it down. Hughes is one who conspicuously ignores racial bitterness. In this par- ticular he follows the footsteps of Paul Laurence Dunbar, who, with raclal sob deep in soul and throat, sang a sad song of nativity, of cruel clrcumstance, perhaps, but never one tinged with shade of antipathy, un- congeniality or hostility. Van Vechten, writer of sophisticated novels, sponsor of negro music, poetry, spirituels, Jeclares that the work of Langston Hughes “Is informed with a sensitivity and a nostalgia, racial in origin, for beauty, color and warmth. His subjects are extraordinarily di- versified. His cabaret verses dance to the rhythm of negro jazz.” Hughes' “morning the hurt of the black man,” is perhaps best expressed in his tremendously thoughtful free verse arrangement, “I am a Negro,” which is appended: POEM I am u Negro: Blnck as ihe nicht is black Black like the devths of my heen a &lave Cacsar told me to keep hi clean’ 1 brushed the boots of Washu gton heen a worker Under my hand the pyramids arose I made niortar for the Woolworth Buil ing. been i singer: All the way from Africa to Georgia 1 carried my sorrow songs. 1 made ragtime. been a vietim The Belgians ‘cut oft my hends in the ongo. They [ynich me now in Texas. fack 82 the night is back. Black like the depths of my Africa. In conclusion it is but falr to the young negro poet to show that when he writes of “joy,” he feels it, pulses it, sings it in a way that you must sing it, too. What is there about the following eight lines, with their con- stant repetition, that makes you bub- ble with laughter and keep saying, over and over again, “Such company! Such company?” friea oorsteps Jov. went to look for Jos. Slim. daneing Joy. Gay, l’l"hl Joy— vin "(fl"‘hn‘?fiuf’ eart N he. aroms ol mgh‘mheu bor! company. such company. As keeps this voung nymph. Joy! At length a wooden object, about the size of a small orange, but an ex- act reproduction of the original head, was then produced, and over this the tsants was fittel. The victor's fel- low warriors and his faithful wives danced around him. The men yelled and grunted and the wives sang Weird barbaric songs. This uncanny music, I learned, was supposed to render harmless the spirit of the slain enemy. When the tsantsa was bone-dry, a potent liquid was rubbed into the skin to harden and preserve it. And here is the mystery. This liquid is amber-colored, ‘a_concoction made of a number of herbs, but exactly what they are is a Shuara secret. Finally the wooden form was re- moved, the slit in the back of the head waa sewed with fiber from the chambira palm, and the trophy was complete, an object of triumph and superstitious veneration. Eventually it would figure in a great victory feast if the warrlor who owned it managed to escape the spears of his { victim's kinfolk. After 1 process for some time, I sat down, took out a pad and pencil to make a few notes, and put on my glasses. That was a mistake, as & young war- rior gave me a look, haited in his dance, and let out a bellow that sent a chill up my spine. If I never knew what fear was before, I knew it then. For 1 realized In a flash what was In this warrior's mind. He wanted o tsantsa with glasses on its nose. He gave another yell, pointed, and everybody wanted a tsantsa with glasses on its nose. At this critical juncture, while I was attempting my best to appear un- shaken, Juanga, my faithful guide, Isauntered up, with a feigned Indif. ference. e carried a fine rifle and a sword machete. Holding up his hand, he smiled in a superior way. “The two little windows,” he said, “do not grow on the nose like a tooth with a root. They do not hold on tight, like hair.” He stopped, then took the glasses off my face, and placed them on the nose of the young warrior. Astonish- ment was expressed in a wave of guttural exclamations. When this had subsided, the young fellow decided then and there that he'd keep the had watched this unusual | and skill and determination that they have always operated it, but also we will note that the expectations of those who designed the ship, with its 18 {ndependent gas cells, were fustified in their belief that these separate cells or balloons would, in event of disaster, provide a relatively safe means of escape. The greatest loss of life in the Shenandoah accident was due to the breaking away of the control car.” It may .well be added that the r cause of the disaster appears to have been the lack of adequate and fre quent weather reports, which are nec essary perts agree, if we desire to air navigation to its uitimate destiny with safety over the continental area of the United States. While the Navy was mourning the loss of lives in the Shenandoah acci- dent, on September 7 the destroyer Noa suffered an explosion in her boiler room, killing four of her crew. These men, trapped within narrow lim- its, without chance of escape, were in- stantaneously surrounded by a cloud of super-heated steam. Before the Navy could recover from these two terrible disasters word came on September 25 that the steamship City of Rome, off Block Island, had rammed the submarine S-G1 and that the submarine had gone to the bottom, carrying to their death 34 members of her crew. Pitiful as disasters of this kind are, they are typical of the hazards of the sea, for under the most propitious elr- cumstances a seafaring life is danger- ous. The safeguards which are the development of centuries and which have been thrown around the mariner and his floating home by governments and shipping operators intent on re- ducing maritime losses, while contrib- uting to the safety of ocean naviga- tion, cannot remove certain definite hazards always and forever present. ‘The latest visitation of the jinx was on October 25 at Baltimore, where during a tornado which swept over the eastern part of the country seaplanes broke from their moorings and were dashed against a sea wall, totally destroying six of the planes, seriously damaging five and slightly damaging six more. No lives were lost. Not including the Shenandoah disas- ter and the sweeping smashup of the al | | form and must be provided, ail ex- | develop | s out a great variety of drills, exercises, target practices and war games in peace time. There is no way in which these can be made realistic and v able without introducing the element of risk. Destroyers mqst run at high speed at night among columns of bat tleships, neither showing any lights. Submarines must make quick dives at the sounding of the klaxon by captain, when each man must his duty rapidly and ex vithout the supervision of any « and when any single migtake may re sult in the loss of the ship. Air- planes must be shot off battieships by catapults and land on the deck of & carrier. “In addition to these special exer- cises, the ordinary operation of cer- tain types, destroyers, submarines and aircraft is dangerous, When such & large number of ships is in constant operation accidents cannot be avoided. The only way to stop them would he to cease operating. Our accidents are due in some cases to the fault of our own personnel, in others to the fault ctly ficer, of personnel outside the naval service | unusual circum- no one has any and still others to stances over which control.” In justice to our in those cases where being fltted into elements which increase the hazards of operation—the officers and men must be given the benefit of the doubt. Take alrcraft crashes, for example. Here the risk is greatly augmented by training beginners, by experimenting with new and untried types of air- craft, by mechanical devices for launching and landing planes on ship- board and by unknown weather haz- ards. Fven so, despite an increase in operation each vear, the number of hours and miles flown per fatality and crash is running up to new and encouragingly impressive figures. Then there are the submarines, in- creasing in number, in size and in op- eration stunts each year. ubmerged, these vessels are like whales without eyes or ears, and when they are operat:d in A manner to simulate battle conditions there is very great risk_of collision and of mechanical breakdown. Again, the amount Navy, especially new elements are of explosives the organization— | Popular Science ) ¥ possible to send a pint from New York City air mail, and when opened the cream frozen hard. just it came fron reezer many hours before! The wonderful material that makes this remarkable feat possible is called “dry ice It cannot melt fec dry to the touch, and y it %0 cold that it will make a thermome ter go down to 110 degrees zero You have noticed the sn that form and rise to the soda-pop bottle when you pry-off the cap. This new ice is made out of the same gas that forms those hubbles. Ir other words, it is carbon dioxide gas cooled down and compressed until it finally forms a solid, frozen mass. Sclidified carbon dioxide has bee: produced on a laboratory scale several { times, but this is the first application |of this queer freezing agent to the | preservation of ice cream. | the result of a long « i rk ice cream manufacturer for u | method of packing his product fi small packages so that customers car | take it home and keep it in perfect | condition for hours afterward Although the temperature of dry ice | is colder than the North Pole in Win It I8 now of ice crear to Chicago by the package i will be found helow all bubhles urface in u Its use is arch by a New | ter time, it may be handled with the bare hands, provided the skin of the fingers is not allowed to touch the solid lumps for more than a second o: two at a time. In the ice cream plant lumps of dry ice are sent to the pack ing room, where a workman places & cylindrical plece in a large carton which also holds a smaller container filled with ice cream. The outside container, as well as the {one that holds the ice cream, is made of paraffined cardboard and is itself o | fair heat insulator, that the warmth from the outside air pene trates slowly. Instead of heuting | melting the ice cream, the air warms the surface of the block of frozen car bon dioxide and gradually converts the latter back into & gas again. The gas then pas: away through a small hole in the outer containe: and when it is all evaporated no trace remains to show that there ever was anything in the larger container ex cent the package of ice