Evening Star Newspaper, December 9, 1928, Page 104

Y FRANCIS GOW SMITH, of @ Recent Ezpedition to the Brazilian Jungle ~HROUGH impenetrable _jungles southeastward from Henry Ford's huge rubber concession on the Tapajos River there lies, in the most mysterious and fas- ng region of Brazil, the domain of orld’s most picturesque rubber He is the wealthiest man of Matto Grosso—a_jungle mil- re. He lives like a hermit, in a palace, commanding a great re- of peons, who are virtually slaves is known throughout Brazil as the of the Xingu. That very name is 4, not only by whites and colored s, but by wild Indians who fear no human being. He typifies the il tyranny of remote plantation 10ds in Brazil just as his new com- or in the rubber business, Henry i, typifies North America’s indus- enterprise. *d not the least dramatic phase of U's Brazilian project will be the wip- out of the King of the Xingu's l |he at least proved such an apt pupil { when it came to discipline by cruel and extermination that he soon Wi | established as general manager for his | boss, and later succeeded him as czar of the region. Since then he has ex- | dreams of his predecessor. | " He has been able to do this by a reign | of terror such as the Middle Ages sel- | dom knew and by keeping his peons | continually in debt to him. No matter | how much rubber the gatherers may | collect, it is never sufficient to pay for | the extremely simple food for which it is bartered. | ” Elsewhere plantation czars of the in- |terior order their capungas, or ove seers, to trail and dispatch an escaping ubber monopoly, the liberation of his| seons and the dawn of a new day for Srazilian_prosperity. Henry Ford has never met his jungle rival, and there is not much likelihood that he ever will. Nor it is probable that the lord of the rubber gatherers will be presented to Herbert Hoover during his present good-will mission | to Latin America. | But these two—Henry Ford and Her- bert Hoover—are his worst enemies. Thanks to them, the whole system of cruel enslavement and crude methods for which this jungle Croesus stands is | doomed. ‘The President-elect will not have time during his hurried journey to visit such out-of-the-way primitive districts as the territory over which the King of the Xingu holds sway. But much of Brazil's future growth will be based not on commercial progress in the cities, but on the exploitation of the rubber, nuts, lumber, minerals, cocoa and other raw materials of the roman- | tic_interior. | It is in the very midst of this ro- | mantic interior of Brazil that the King of the Xingu has set up his jungle do- main, in the unmapped wilderness be- tween the Rio Araguaya and the Xingu. * ¥ % % THE Zingu River enters the Amazon from the south, flowing through the least known region of Brazil. West of it is the Tapajos River, near the mouth of which is Ford's plantation. To the east of the Xingu is the Tocantins, of which the Araguaya ‘is an upper branch. The rubber realm ruled by the King of the Xingu spreads on both sides of the river whose name he bears, and within indefinite, unmapped bound-4 aries comprises an area fully as large as Portugal, parent-land of Brazil's early days. Within this great area over which the King of the Xingu exetcises the very power of life and death there are| a few thousand white subjects and un; counted thousands of savages. Into this region the present King came a’ quarter of a century ago as a penniless immigrant from Italy. The story goes that he served first as an ordinary laborer among the peons of the then dictator of the region. A characteristic exploit of this earlier ruler was his construction of a canal to shorten the water route to Para. The can:g pas dug by a host of negro and Indiap serfs. Those who were most rebellious in their servitude were or- dered into the ditch on the last day of | construction to clean up a rocky por- tion. While they were working there the water was let in with a rush from the upper end and they were drowned in_the deluge. “AS THE CANOE SWUNG INTO THE CURRENT THE HALF- BREEDS WADED ASHORE.” |'tended his sway beyond the wildest | THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, | Once a month they come in from the | | jungle for their meag plies, mostly | beans with a little pork fat doled out to | them on credit. They leave the rubber | | they have gathered and return to their | patch of jungle, often 30° or ¢80 mil irom the central camp. | By the end of the yeat the rubber | gatherer has turned over to the King's capunga perhaps 3,000 pounds of rub- | ber. Each capunga keeps a compli- cated set of books, which the illiterate | peon cannot decipher. The books in- variably show, however, that the rub- | ber delivered does not compensate for | the supplies advanced through the prev- jous year. The unhappy peop gets r- | new supplies on credit and returns to | jungle. his labors still further in debt. N\Y‘: s o | peon, returning with an ear for evi- | dence of duty fulfilled. But the King of the Xingu has a labor shortage prob- lem to take into account. His peons who seek to break away without paying off their eérushing debts are pinned in stocks, unmercifully beaten, and then left to lie for hours upon the ground. Vampire bats feast upon their blood and hordes of ants gnaw at their bare skins. After such treatment the King of the Xingu is assured that one more victim of his tyranny will remain an abject toiler in his service. * K X X IS reign has not been without futile revolts among the 4,000 or mor2 tor- mented peons under him. But the only plot that ever seriously endangered him was organized by Manoel Luiz, a rough fugitive from the diamond fields. The tempestuous Manoel, run out of Casa- nunga, came down the river and worked as a rubber gatherer to earn a new supply of food. With his wily tongue he began to foment a revolt among the usually listless and abject peons of the King of the Xingu. Manoel saw himself as the new strong man of the country. But before his plot was hatched-—before he had even been able to encounter the elusive king face to face—the latter sent out from his jungle lair a selec.:d trio from his personal bodyguard. They fell upon Manoel as he was cooking supper one night and lashed him to an ant-infested tree known to the natives 2s the “Tree of Saints” because early missionaries had been tied to it by the Indians for treatment similar to that meted out to Manoel. As the first step in the punishment they poured into his mouth a few drops of an Indian poison that par- alyzes the tongue. Meanwhile, hordes ofbet.‘he ants overwhelmed the helpless rebel. Most of the peons, racked by fever and naturally indolent from hook- worms, endure their fate without a murmur, Ordinarily they work in groups from a central rubber camp. Living in filmsy shelters made of sap- ling posts and thatehed with leaves and grass, they lead a solitary existence, working day and night. They spend their days collecting latex and at night, after an unpalatable supper cooked ovea a fire built on stones in front of their shack, they smoke the latex to prepare ‘Whether or not the present King of the Xingu had a hand in that outrage, it for shipment. Mechanical Man of Steel and Electricity Holds Down BY WILLIAM M. LAAS. | E does not look human. He does not smile or whistle. His flesh is of steel, his blood an electric current. But appar- ently he sees and hears, and he performs his allotted task with cold in- fallibility. He is theoretically the per- fect servant—the mechanical man. No ambitions disturb his cog-wheel brain. He has no love affairs, he never argues, he never strikes, he asks no vacation, and he knows only what he has been given to know. est of all for the man who hires him, he works for nothing but his keep and does the work of a dozen mere mortals without fatigue, without a mistake. ‘The mechanical man, dream of in- ventors and fantasy of fiction since an- clent times, is now an actual fact. Members of the new slave caste are even more silently, unobstrusively and efficiently performing various routine tasks. What the men they replace are now doing for a living is a mystery; but at any rate, science has progressed to the point of eliminating the human equation. A huge power house of the Edison Co. in New York City is guarded, regulated and reported upon entirely by recently installed mechanical men. They answer the telephone in response to its ring, receive orders from their master by a series of buzzing signals, perform the operations commanded. and report their fulfillment by signals. Then they signal good-by and hang up. And they never ask for a raise! Televox, as the latest automaton is named, was invented by Roy J. Wens- ley, engineer of the Westinghouse Eiectric Co. It has the mechanical equivalent of one human e—that of hearing. When a certain sound—or group of sounds—reaches its electric ear, it responds by switching on a cur- rent which performs a -arranged action. When addressed by another sound, a different reaction occurs in its complicated system, and it completes another tasl After all, the mechanical man is not so far a cry from the numerous auto- matic devices already in everyday use ‘We have clockwork arrangements which turn on the furnace or the dynamo at the correct moment; thermostats which turn the heat on or off according to changes in the temperature, or turn ‘on the water when a fire starts: ‘automatic train control systems which stop a train when the road is blocked. There are mechanical imitations of various human senses. The photoelectric cell responds to changes in light, like the human eye. The telephone, like the ear, is affected by sound. The bolo- meter reacts to heat even so faint as that radiated from a man's face a mile away. The human hand is imi- tated in the construction of a knotter of a reaping machine, and the folder | money changes hands at all. | the whole commerce, up to the time the | rubber is delivered in Para, is often purely a matter of* bartering raw mate- rials for a new grub stake. Many of the men through whose hands it passes are in debt for supplies to the next man to whom they deliver it. * k% % ONCE a year comes the debt settle- | 7 ment—and then the rubber gather- | ers have an annual spree. They or- ganize dances in the main rubber shack—stag affairs. The men line up along opposite walls, and to the time of clapping hands and singing—assisted occasionally by an accordion—they sally back and forth, advance, swing their partners, return to the wall and repeat. Pinga flows freely, and before the festivities are over the gatherers are too befuddled to know or care just how badly they have been swindled in the debt settlement. Never before Henry Ford dawned on the scene has the King of the Xingu been confronted with the efforts of a foreign capitalist to compete with his primitive methods. Two other ambi- tious efforts, it is true, have been made to develop the count:\, but both failed. One was organized by Dom Pedro II, last Emperor of Brazil, who endeavored to open transportation on the Araguaya with a fleet of tiny steamboats. The hulls of two of these craft may still be seen rotting on the river bank at Leo- poldina. And at Alcobocas rusty moun- tains of abandoned machinery and ironwork are a memorial to the attempt of Belgian and French capitalists to build a railroad into the region. Graft, lassitude and general inefficiency caused the downfall of both schemes. Henry Ford's plan is the first application of capitalistic enterprise from the United States to this enormously wealthy sec- tion of Brazil. Few mea have sought out the King of the Xingu in his jungle haunts. He is suspicious of all strangers, and queer michaps overtake those who venture into his realm in the unmapped wilder- ness. I first heard of him from my friend, Dr. Jose Morbeck, ruler of the diamond flelds, while I.was on my ex- pedition Amazon. He persuaded me to turn aside from my planned course and seek to meet the King of the Xingu in per- son. “Learn something of his methods,” Dr. Morbeck advised me, “and study Indeed, | from -Matto Grosso to the | the pussibilities of the development of the rubber and nut business by North American capital.” So during my trip from the Caraja villages down the Araguaya to the out- post hamlet of Conceicao I turned west- ward into the hinterland. rubber gatherer of Conceicao, a former lieutenant in the Brazillan army, warned me against the excursion. “You may end in the troncos tocks),” he said. And he told how escaping peons from the King's domain and unwanted intruders are captured and tormented unmercifully. Word of these punishments has spread far and wide throughout the I found that my canoem>n knew the terror all too well to make the trip I, contemplated, and I was forced to get two half-wild Indians—a wandering Caraja warrior and his squaw—to handle the canoe. Lo LL this territory in the rainy season is widely inundated by overflowing rivers. Strange interlocking waterways |open up through vast regions of the | jungle, so that it is possible to make extensive inland canoe trips, paddling by the hour beneath the green ceiling of the forest through glades decked with flowering vines. Occasionally dur- |ing the first day of our excursion we | passed the flimsy huts of groups of nut | gatherers, perched on hummocks and half surrounded by the rising water. Then the empty silence of the jungle clesed around us. One evening we emerged from a shal- low bayou into a broader stream and as dusk fell I sighted the red glow of smoking fires. We pulled toward the shore and a ragged group of sullen men came down to stare curiously at our approach. All but one were clad simply irr tattered trousers. It was a rubber camp, in the charge of a stocky mus- tached capunga—himself more pictur- esquely clothed. He wore a black slouch hat with an enormous brim and a shiny snakeskin wound around the crown. In his tooled-leather belt were two muzzle-loading pistols of antiquat- ed make, each more than a foot long and silver mounted. Besides the pis- tols, his belt held a gleaming knife with an_18-inch blade. Before we had landed I realized that this was just what I had come to see —a rubber camp in action. I offered the vaguest explanation of my arrival. The capunga was only partially satis- filed, but he observed the traditional Brazilian hospitality and - offered me such food and shelter as they had. The men resumed their work.: They were rolling the day’s collection of latex into balls of rubber that later would be sent down the Araguaya to Para. Each gatherer has a definite route through the jungle, including about a hundred widely scattered rub- ber trees. When he taps a tree he fastens to it a cup made of a nut shell. Into this the latex, a white, viscous fluid,, trickles. From the shells it is poured into buckets and taken to the base camp. Here, at night, the rubber is prepared over fires that give off heavy clouds of smoke. I watched the process with in- terest. Two men were turning a long stick slowly over each fire. A third man was pouring the latex in a thin, steady stream onto the turning stick. The thick smoke enveloped the latex, which was hardening and darkening into rubber as it accumulated in®an irregular ball. Over breakfast, the morning after my arrival, I became more communi- cative to the bearded man whom I took for the overseer. He was short, fat and swarthy, with a heavy mouth and cruel, shifty eyes which flickered with increased suspicion when I asked directions to the jungle mansion of the King of the Xingu. “He's gone away. Why do you want to_meet him?” he asked. Inadvertently I mentioned Dr. Mor- | beck’s name. My bearded vis-a-vis eyed me coldly. T began to perceive that he suspected me of being an agent of the civilized powers to the south, come to | check up on the cruelties practiced in this rubber wilderness. “You can't see him,” he said at last. “He sees nobody.” And he changed the subject, offering to show me a grove of Brazil nut trees, where some of his men were collecting nuts. B EFORE we started he left me for a moment and spoke to one of the peons, who vanished into the jungle. | We followed and came upon a group of huge trees. Several peons were moving about un- A negro| D. C, DECEMBER 9, 1928—PART T.. King of the Xingu, Brazilian Competitor of Henry Ford in RuH)er Production, Rules With Iron Hand and Is Fea;ed by Slaves and Travelers, but Will Face Defeat in New Conditions Which Are Promised There. “THEY WERE ROLLING THE LATEX INTO BALLS OF RUBBER, TO BE SENT DOWN TO PARA.” ing the heavy shells—as big as cocoa- nuts—each of which held from 10 to 15 nuts. ‘The capunga led me toward “the finest and tallest tree in the grove.” ‘Then occurred one of those casual lit- tle incidents which in this lawless land are fraught with sinister meaning. I had often been told by nut gatherers of the danger of standing under the trees. One of the falling nuts is heavy enough to stun or kill a man if it strikes him on the head: A heavy object swished by my ear as I stood there, struck me a paralyzing blow on the shoulder and landed with a thud on the ground. I leaped aside and glanced up swiftly, and I was sure that I caught | PN8® sight of a human figure concealed in the branches high overhead. It may have been an accident. But it would have been a most convenient accident for the King of the Xingu and his overseer, who want no intruders to escape from their premises with reports of the slavery grsctleed there. Though I passed it off with a laugh, I was glad to make my way back to the camp. There, incidentally, behind the main shack, I saw a specimen of the stocks, of whose punitive purpose I had heard 50 much. Beside the crude apparatus derneath the tall, slender trees, collect- ULAT! MR. TELEVOX, OTHERWISE KNOWN AS THE ELECTRIC MAN, (H?'\ 10N, AND HE NEVER FORGETS SPEAK WITH PERFECT ARTIC- LINES. of a printing press; the human arm, in the electric crane. L I T is difficult to imitate man too closely. He is a complicated ma- chine, fitted for an innumerable varie- ty of tasks—none of which he can do perfectly. The earlier inventors of self-propelling machines attempted to use legs as nature does, but the modern automobile uses wheels. The leg is necessary to the human being or the horse for other purposes besides mov- ing ahead, but the automobile never has to sit down—therefore the wheels. The automaton is made to do only one task; he is the mechanical embodiment of only one physical function. Which is the reason why he does not look like a man, but instead like a roomful of machinery, ‘The televox responds to certain sig- nals, given by blowing a pitch-pipe or vibrating an electric tuning fork. He could, indeed, be made to hear the hu- man voice, but the pitch of the voice is so uncertain that it does not suit the engineer's purpose.. Not only that, but the automaton should be able to understand every language and every dialect. Code signals in a definite musical tone form a universal language —a'sort of mechanical Volapuk. To operate the -automa at the power plant an engineer calls its num- ber on the telephone. A sound-sensi- tive device at the receiving end lifts the receiver on an ordinary telephone at the first ring. It also sets in opera- tion a buzzer which by a certain com- bination of sounds informs the engi- neer that he has the right number and that his servant is waiting. His tuning fork or pitch pipe emits another signal which prevents the automaton from hanging up, and is necessary to pre- vent possible tampering by some mis- chief maker. “Turn on Dynamo 12, gineer’s signal. “O. K.” ~presently buzzes the automaton. ‘“What else?” | “Peep, peep-peep,” commands the mas- ter, and the au‘omaton switches on " peeps the en- of imprisonment were sseveral thick, sinuous whips. the street:lights. A third signal indi- cates “Thanks, old dear, good-by,” and the mechanical man hangs up. Of course, the automatom neither thinks nor expresses himself in just that way. His various parts are al- ready connected to the mechanism he controls. At a certain signal one part of him is set in motion; at another combination of sounds a different part reacts. After each task is performed, a signal at the telephone transmitter is sounded for the information of the en- gineer at the other end. One such automaton measures the head of water in a reservoir at Wash- ington and reports its findings when- ever called up. It can be used for any number of purposes, even to perform- ing various duties about the home. * kK K THE stoty of the automaton runs back to early historic times. All through history men have tried to simu- late nature in machinery, Achytos, a Greek inventor, made a flying dove back in 400 B. C. Roger Bacon and Albertus Magnus were supposed to have made metal heads which could speak, and Louis XIV amused himself as a child with a coach and horses with passengers, all moving naturally, constructed by Camus. In the nine- teenth century numerous writing and falking automata were invented, and in 1875 an automatic card player was exhibited in London. The chess auto- maton attracted widespread interest,, but it always proved to contain, or be controlled by, a concealed operator. In fiction the mechanical or artificial man has played a prominent part. No one who has read Mrs. Shelley's “Frankenstein” can forget the young | medical student’s horrible creaton. Fa- shioned from bits of human tissue tak- en from the graveyard and the operat- ing room, the monster suffered from human cravings which it could not sat- isfy, and inficted the most horrible punishment upon its creator. * ok K % ‘I‘HE play of a few years back, “R. U. R."—from which our word robot comes—told how the mechanical men discovered the secret of love and be- came powerful enough to exterminate the human race. Edgar Allan Poe wrote a story about a chess automaton, and Ambrose Bierce told of a robot poker player who killed his master for cheating. Fortunately for us mere humans, however, a machine which can perform all the functions of mankind is still a wild dream. The nearest approach to it is probably Eric the Robot, who delivered the opening address at a re- cent London exhibition. Created be- cause a certain public man refused to make the speech, Eric is a fantastic- looking man of steel. Seated on a stool, elect lzl.l manipulated by means of 0~ mnp - Meanwhile I discovered that my In- dian canoceman and his squaw had vanished. Whether they were spirited away or what their fate may have been I have not learned. But I saw more clearly than ever that despite the ca- | punga’s oily pretense of friendliness my presence was extremely irksome to him and dangerous to myself. Without my Indian guide I might fail to find my way back to civilization through the tortuous channels by which we had come. I determined to demand a show- to the King's dwelling. I told the ca- u; that I knew the King person- ally, that I had met him a year before at Para when he was there purchasing supplies. The shade of a smile flick- ered over the overseer’s lips. He started spet then checked himself. warned him that the King would pun- ish him, just as the peons were pun- Ished, if I were not taken safely to the clearing where the famous jungle pal- ace stands. “All right,” said the capunga at last. “I will give )'oti two guides.” * % * TWO leering halfbreeds took their places in my dug-out and started to paddie me up stream. Soon we turned into a lagoan and paddled up a stream which became increasingly narrower. Then they told me we would have to portage the canoe to another river. When we were afloat again upon the silent stretches of this new, uncharted stream my guides turned northeastward. It was the wrong direction, I felt sure, and I remonstrated with them. It's all right; this is the way,” the man in the stern insisted. For the time being I gave him the benefit of the doubt. I suspected that | he was taking me back toward the down. I insisted that I be taken at once{ Araguaya, but I could not be certain as !yet, and I was confident that with my | revolver I could cow both men in an emergency. I reckoned without the simple deviltry of their plot. Toward dusk we rounded a sharp bend and a sudden vista of tossing, rock-shattered water c})ened up ahead between sheer walls of foliage. Accustomed to the Brazilian canoeist’s skill in shooting rapids, I thought little of the situation at first. But just before we were swept into the swirling torrent the paddlers swung the canoe about so that it was broadside in the stream. In the next instant both men had dived overboard and were swimming through the dash- ing current for shore. I realized what was up when the canoe was in the worst of the rapids. It was hurled up ungle Millionaire Is Ruthless Baron Defying Law and Order and down and forward at dizzying speeds. As it swung stern down in th> current I could see far behind the two halfbreeds wading ashore. Whether to cling to the tossing canoe or dive into the rapids was a dilemma that looked fatal either way. But I did not have to make a choice. A shatter- ing crash shook the dug-out from stem to stern, and I was plunged into the depths of the torrent. Coming to the surface, I was dashed along helplessly, bruised against sharp rocks and finally | hurled against the left bank of the river. I seized some projecting roots and pulled myself out onto the shore | exhausted. ERIC, THE ENGLISH ROBOT, RISING TO ADDRESS A MEETING OF BRITISH tios through his feet, which are fived to the floor. He can rise and bow, but being still an infant, is not yet able to walk. He speaks through a loud-speak- er in his chest, and turns his ugly head when addressed by a human voice. But he is little more than a toy. In war the robot would be a useful creature, opposing steel instead of flesh against explosive and shell, Inven- ENGINEERS. tors have put forward fantastic schemes of man-shaped automatons moving on caterpillar treads under radio gontrol and mowing down the enemy with cold precision. But the actual scientific ac- complishments thus far are more prosalc in appearance. The United States Army recently demonstrated g robot anti-aircraft gun, which found the range and altitude - | getting back | turmoil. | hastily into the jungle: | seen on an Indian face. | remaining cartridges from the pistol be- 1t was very plain that my presence in this part of the rubber country was not desired by its King. His men appar- ently are trained to eliminate unwanted visitors by methods that look like nor- mal accidents. T built a fire, painfully. by the use of firesticks. All of my supplies were gone, but I still had the revolver and cart- ridges in my belt. I spent most of the night trying to kindle the blaze. Then I began to take stock of my chances of to the Araguaya afoot through the dense jungle. P UT the fire had an unexpected con- sequence. I had suspected that I must be in the neighborhood of the Gaviaos, While I was still pondering | on how to escape without encountering members of this hostile and treacherous tribe, I became aware of three figures, | armed with huge bows, silently regard- ing me through the thickets. My hand ‘was on my revolver. They stood silent, ominously ready with their bows. I spoke a few words of Caraja, but in ain. Finally I arose, smiling as ingra- | tiatingly as I could and throwing my arms wide in a gesture of friendliness. | But I think it was my height, rather | than the cordiality of my gesture, that impressed them. They began to mutter | among themselves as I approached and then turned and melted into the jungle. I followed quietly and soon came upon a village. The place was in a I saw a few squaws flitting ‘The warriors stood clustered about their fat-paunch- ed chief. A pack of dogs rushed at me. I fired into the pack and the dogs scattered, yelping. The effect was all I could have wished. Thé chief sud- denly began to make signs of peace and welcome. I had heard too much of the Gaviaos’ treachery to want to stay among them. Several canoes were beached on the river bank. In sign language I ‘began | to dicker with the chief for one of them. I offered to trade my revolver for a canoe and his bow and arrow. The deal was made, the chief beaming with as broad a smile as I have ever 1 ejected the fore I turned it over to him—and soon | had reason to thank the intuition that led me to do so. For as I paddled out into the stream I looked back over my | shoulder to see the chief standing there | on the shore awkwardly pointing the weapon at me. ‘The next morning I was picked up by a big flat boat, manned by 20 men and laden with nuts and rubber. In command was the negro I had met in Conceicao, the former army lieutenant. During the lazy journey to Para I told him of my experiences. He seemed particularly interested in my descrip- tion of the overseer at the rubber camp. One morning we pulled into the shore at Para, where, from 20-foot scows like our own ragged wharf-rats were un- | loading rubber, cacao, nuts and medi- cinal barks. Here was the point where the products of the Xingu King's em- pire first entered the markets of the world. There was a great clamor of dickering between the men on-the boats and the purchasers ashore.” My negro companion walked part way up the sloping bank with me, through the gesticulating throng of this riverside market. As we were saying adieu he asked me again to describe the ovz:;r at the mysterious camp I had visited. “Very short?” he asked. - “And fat? ‘With thick lips, and a big mustache? grnog Iglt_tle eyes? Did one of the lids “Yes,” I said. “And he wore a snake- skin around his sombrero.” “That,” said the negro, as we parted, “was the King of the Xingu himself.” A Change for the Worst. Bob—*“See any change in me?” Johnny—-“No; why?” Bob—"1 just swallowed 15 cents.” / e s T‘v;:iin One. We had a fine canary; We also own a cal ‘We have no more canary, But puss is now quite Real Job an approaching airplane from the sound of its propeller. Entirely uncon- trolled, it turned and fired with un- can™ accuracy. » torpedo is a kind of automaton, today naval experts have gone so :r as to handle entire battl with- out & single man for a crew. Brit-. ish warship Centurion and the German Zaehringen were experimentally fitted up with radio control, and the possibili- ties of the crewless dreadnaught were successfully demonstrated. They man- oeuvred, fired, forged ahead, slowed down—did everything a good man o' war should do—as if every man were in his place. But as far as can be predicted, the robot has very definite limitations. In the first place he cannot think. And then each of his functions entails a sa{:mte plece of machinery. If some- thing goes out of order he cannot sub- stitute another part to do the same work. The human hand can do a thou- sand things; the robot hand can do only one. A good robot then would need a thousand hands, and to do everything a human can do would have to_be a thousand times as large. Nevertheless, machinery has now been endowed with the sense of hearing, of sight, of sensibility to changes in tem- perature, even of touch. If the robot progresses much further, some of us may soon have to learn new trades. o e Cabbage Butterfly. NE of the commonest butterflies of Europe and America is the large white cabbage butterfly, which in the caterplllar stage does much damage to cabbage plants. When the caterpillars i have eaten their fill and are ready to pass into the pupa stage, they leave the cabbage stalks and wander in search of a suitable spot for the change. They have @ curious way of climb- ing walls by means of a rope ladder of silk. The thread is drawn from the mouth and by a right-to-left move- ment an irregular foothold about & quarter of an inch wide is made for the legs and claspers. One larva 115 inches long made 25 rungs or footholds in proceeding its cwn length. The highest chrysalis was 2415 feet from the and it must have taken a I of Winter unaflected