Evening Star Newspaper, December 30, 1928, Page 67

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. ¢, DECEMBER 30, 1928—PART T 5 Exposing the Patent Fake Medicine and “Health Cure” Quacks BY JAMES NEVIN MILLER. NCLE SAM is having a lively time endeavoring to put out of business the thousands of quacks who flood the mails from coast to coast with flam- boyant literature promising to cure any and every ailment known to man. Ex- tuberculosis, malaria ly few of the diseases which have perplexed the most eminent authorities in the land, but which the “mail order doctors” claim they can cure by virtue of the magic properties of their sundry soaps and lotions, bath salts and ointments, pink pills, me- chanical devices and whatnot Post Office inspectors have estimated that the medical mail order schemes lately put out of the running by the teamwork of the Bureau of Chemistry and Post Office authorities were able to abstract over $15,000,000 from the sick, the near-sick, the imaginative and the infirm. But that great sum is only a drop in the bucket wnen com- pared with the probable total amount so filched during the same period of time from credulous Americans. At a conservative estimate of Dr. Lyman F. Kebler, who has spent 25 years’ investi- gating the situation for the Govern- ment, the public is robbed every year to the tune of a cool hundred million. “As a rule,” says Dr, Kebler, “man has faith in fellow men. If that were not so, then business would be & shaky structure indeed, ready to be demoralized at the slightest fluctua- tion to the bad. But of course the situ- ation is entirely different when it comes to the treatment of our ailments; most of us are mere babes in arms in the matter of credulity. We feel we must implicitly trust the doctor to bring us through an illness, whereas there are countless other implications which we, in our weakened condition of mind and body, do not bear in mind as we should. So it happens that the cre- dulity of the sick. the near-sick, the pseudo-sick and the infirm is almost beyond belief. They will bite on al- most any medical fairy tale. Just as a drowning man grasps frantically at a straw, so do people with an incur- able or puzzling disease clutch at the flimsy straws of the ‘health cures’ in the form of extravagantly advertised products. “Apparently the public has no idea of the fact that these sharpers behind the wonder-working medicines are able to become almost fabulously rich within a few short months by means of schemes that are so obviously fraud- ulent that it is a wonder how every one does not catch on to them. But Barnum seems to have been right. At a hearing not long ago a Chicago villain, running a gland rejuvenation scheme, told us that he abstracted $300,000 from the public in a single year. Then there was the case of the Kansas City sharper, an alleged dis- coverer of the ‘Fountain of Youth. Surely nobedy would bite on that sort of hokum these modern days, you say? Yet within 12 months’ time our am- bitious ‘rejuvenator’ was able to pad his pocketbook with $450,000 worth of greenbacks. * K K % €6 A LMOST every sizable city in the land has its share or more of quacks. One such in New York claimed to be able to cure Bright's disease and other chronic ailments by the simple expedient of urging the patient to take a few healthy swallows of a kind of black-strap molasses. No doubt the molasses was good, for it netted Mr. Sharper close to $500,000 in a year's time. “A Kansas City group of three, op- erating under a number of aliases, cheated the ailing ones out of a million by an_assortment of ‘cures’ among them deafness, asthma, pyorrhea, kid- ney ailments and so on almost com- pletely down the list of human ail- ments in a year. The group recently pleaded guilty and the punishment meted out by justice was that each must fork out the sum of $2,500. “Every now and again the ex-soldiers like to do their bit toward helping out the ailing. One doughboy claimed, not long ago, that while serving abroad he had obtained a treatment from a French physician that positively would cure rheumatism. The alleged prescription constituted a part of the ex-soldier’s advertising material for his benevolent scheme. He endeavored to impress the suffering rheumatics with his philan- thropy by suggesting that they ask the local druggist to attempt to fill the prescription, but that if they could not do so, he, the ex-fighting man, would be glad to supply the medicine at a nominal fee. The prescription was one of the many tricky kinds that presum- ably demand such a rare ingredient that they are not even imported into this country. Quite so, nor into the medi- cine either. By and by the philan- thropist soldier was prevailed upon to inform post office inspectors that he had taken in approximately $100,000 within a year, of which $30,000 was exvended in advertising. His mail average was around 700 letters a day.” Various quacks, Dr. Kebler says, have found a particularly lucrative field in fitting spectacles on a mail order scale. One such group, operating in Chicago under half a dozen aliases, stated at a hearing (which they actually adver- tised!) that they were doing $1,000,000 business annually. Hundreds of com- plaints were received, which resulted in an investigation and later on a hnring to show cause why a fraud order s :cu™ not be issued against the business. Post office officials tell of another organization that widely advertised 14 different brands of “medicines.” No. 1 was for blindness, No. 2 was for insan- ity, No. 3 was for paralysis, No. 4 for spinal meningitis, while No. 5 was for adenoids, and so on. Each boasted of an entirely different but exceedingly alluring color. Picture the surprise of the Government chemists when chem- 1cal analysis revealed that not only were all the “cures” entirely worthless, but that, aside from color, each had pre- cisely the same content. * K ox X POST OFFICE authorities are doing everything in their power to force the quacks out of business. But in their efforts to do so they are laboring under a tremendous handicap. They may be convinced that a certain busi- ness represents the ultimate of fraud, yet they cannot open a single letter to get the evidence. The securing of that requires special methods and especially trained men. Of these, moreover, to adequately protect the public, there are far too few, Dr. Kebler believes. Many times the cases require uninterrupted investigation for more than a year. ‘The information is collected by corre- spondence, interviews, chemical analysis and consultation and study by medical and drug experts. A common procedure is for the various inspectors (once they hear of a case of supposed fraud from an alleged victim or else a competent health authority) to write to the manu- facturer under an assumed name. Thi under the guise of a patient, the inspec. tor may very readily collect important evidence. Concerning the penal laws designed to protect the mails from fraud, Dr. Kebler explains: “The Federal food and drug act provides two courses for adjusting and misbranding, one by pro- ceeding against the person, the firm or company responsible for the violations, and the other by attaching the offend- ing goods. The former is criminal in nawre, while the latter is largley looked upon as a corrective measure. Similar courses of procedure are provided to protect the mails. One is the fraud order law enforced by the Postmaster General and the other the penal stetute enforced by the Department of Justice. These two iaws operate independently. The same evidence, however, may be used woder or both acts. The criminal law is necesarily more drastic, but it is also more difficult to enforce. It is always possible to have a court trial postponed on one pretext or an- other. Until the case comes to trial, moreover, the mail order business goes merrily on unless & fraud order has been issued. The ordinary procedure 45 to give the party a hearing under * | near the middle of December, through- heal the ai Doctors” Who Annually Extract Millions of Dollars From Credulous Americans. Testing a strange looking contraption which was supposed to make water radioactive and ling patient. the fraud statute and then refer the evidence to the local district attornsy for such action as he may deem neces- sty Dr. Kebler goes on to say that re- cently the president of a big quack concern guessed rightly, while his case was being investigated, that his best bet was to insist on criminal procedure for trial. The result was that his case was adroitly stalled along until it drifted so far into the background of events that it never did come to trial. In another notable instance. concerning a cure for thin people, more than $50¢ 000 was extracted from the trust ones during the interim prior to the trial. In yet another case, head of the alleged fraudulent business was arrested, put mn jail and with the con- nivance of the “Jaiier conducted his business from his cell quarters! An eye water quackery case, Dr. Keb- fer says, was the first medical scheme tried by a court and jury. The de- fendant lost and was given a fine of $5.000, besides a sentence of 18 months. After appealing the case to a higher court he lcst again. This time he served his sentence, but did not pay the fine. The Government lost that through the cleverness of his attorney. But harken to the most laughable irony of the situation: The big eye-water quack doctor was shrewd enough to cheat the self-same attorney out of his ingeniously earned fee! And thereafter the money- logged physician was able to live in comfort the remainder of his days. * % k¥ TILL another schemer, this time a rejuvenator of vim, vigor and v tality, managed to extract $500,000 from his dupes in a single year. By and by he drew a fraud order, even though he was a bank director, a pil- lar in the church and the owner of a sumptuously furnished $60,000 house. Nor was he ultimately quite so lucky as the eye-water expert. A grand jury indicted him, a court and jury found him guilty and he was sentenced to serve two years in the penitentiary, ns well as to pay a fine of $10,000. This schemer, like that other one, also ap- pealed, but he lost the case. With such rascals, post office in- spectors obviously cannot afford to use humanitarian methods. Not so long ago an inspector was unkind enough to report the pilferings of one who claim- ed to be able to reduce circus fat women to beanpole proportions by urg- ing them to bathe their corpulent selves in common “hypo,” such as is used by photographers, The mixture he sold consisted largely of sodium hyphosul- phate, which was to be dissolved in a tub of hot water. The bather was to remain in the tub long enough so that perspiration and fat would leavé her person simultaneously. An arch-scient- tist, the “inventor” of this particular scheme! He reasoned, with highly in- dividual cunning, that if hypo could “fix” the photographer's wares so BY MARION MEYER DREW. EW YORK and the cities and towns nearby may prepare during the coming 12 months for all sorts of exciting events such as are dear to the hearts of the front-page newspaper writers, for the horoscope that we astrologers draw up for the basis of our prognos- tication for the impending future is a thrilling one, and any student of this ancient science of the stars will find in it the aspects which point out to the discerning eye the paths which will lead the Nation along some won- derfully interesting and entertaining byways in the course of the coming year. Doubtless the papers have been full of comments on the opinions the sci- entists have held of the effects of the approach of the planet Mars to its nearest point to the earth, about the 15th of this past December. Mars will continue to occupy a position highly influential in the affairs of New { York and its vicinity during the first four to five months of 1929, being felt | speclally by the groups of people born out January, the second and third| weeks of March and the latter half of June. The Beptember and October groups may experience a few of these unusual tendencies, but if they will re- mind themselves constantly that Mars’ aspects affect the will and can be con- i trolled by average, ordinary self-analy- sis, with its accompanying exercise of inner discipline and the rule of in- tellect over emotion at all times, they will find that these thrilling incidents which appear on the surface of their lives just now are not nearly as seri- ous as they seem. Without fail, most of us, particularly those in the groups mentioned just above, will be threat- ened with events bordering upon finan- cial upsets, legal battles, illness and deaths, while public health generally will suffer and fires and accidents and violent occurrences of like nature will be unusually common and herd to avoid all during the first half of this year. During the latter part of 1929 these unsettled aspects which occur are beautifully, it certainly must be able to likewise reduce corpulent ladies to sylph-like slenderness. But the great idea failed. It was not very long until the sensational literature sent out by the “inventor” was being returned to him regularly by the Post Office inspectors, and mark- ed “fraudulent.” Brought before the district attorney for trial, the “hypo™” expert’s opinions did not sound im- pressively sclentific to the keeper of ‘aw and order. So the result was that the defendant pleaded guilty and received a fine of $500 besides a penitentiary sentence of five years. In view of the fact, however, that his efforts only net- ted him about $20,000, the judge, in fair name of justice, suspended the sentence upon promise of good be- havior. ‘With almost uncanny judgment the mail order quacks study the psychology of the average mind. Particularly quick are they to take advantage of epidemics of serious diseases. Some few years ago, it will be remembered, the dread infantile paralysis was terrorizing the country with its spasmodic outbursts. Almost simultaneously, hosts of ad- vertisements of so-called cures began to flood the mails, Even the foreign “quacks” tried out their wares on the frightened Americans. Clearly it was high time the Government did some- thing about the situation. And the proper step was taken by denying entry to the so-called infantile paralysis cures offered for import into this country. * ok ok % NFORTUNATELY, however, it is not always so easy to curb the spread of fradulent cures of domestic birth. The Federal food and drug act applies only to those products shipped in interstate commerce, that is, from one State to another, or which are of- fered for import or export, or which are manufactured within a Territory or the District of Columbia. Products made and consumed wholly within a single State are subject only to such State laws as may apply and are under the control only of State health officers. The Federal law does not apply, for instance, to patent medicines made within the State of New York and sold within New York City. Persons buying or using a “remedy” made in their own State, therefore, must rely on the pro- tection afforded them by their local health authorities. The “radioactive” mineral water hoax some years ago was one of the largest, most cleverly wrought of any fraudulent mail order schemes in history. A num- ber of doniestic mineral water manu- facturers sent out extensive propaganda through the mails to the effect that their bottled goods constituted wonder- ful cures for all manner of incurable or chronic ailments. Foreign water bottlers followed suit with similar claims until the United States Govern- ment stepped into the picture. Expert chemists were told to examine every (I & No, the man is not hanging himself. He is simply testing a device which was claimed to increase the height by at least 2 inches, All photos from Department of Agriculture, The “matvelous electric cap,”. which dia not work very well for the Government’s experts. variety of the wonder-working potion. Their findings were interesting but hardly inspiring. An official report stated in part: “There are indications of the beginning of an attempt to per- petrate a great fraud on the American people through advertising certain min- eral waters as possessing radioactivity. These waters, in some cases, are taken from springs the waters of which as How the U. S. Bureau of Chemistry Is Co-operating With Post Office Officials in Wiping Out the Fraudulent “Mail Order v Dr. Lyman Kebler of the Department of Agriculture (right), testing “an electrical device to bring Herculean strength to ptiny men.” Making an expert examination of the “sex detector,” which was supposed to reveal the.sex of an egg. they come from the ground do possess certain radioactive properties. Exami- nation of many of these waters by specialists of the Bureau of Chemistry indicate that whatever radioactivity they may possess at the spring is due almost entirely to radium emanation rather than to presence in the water otilny substance possessing radioac- tivity. “These emanations in the form of gas quickly disappear from the water and as a result, after the water has been bottled a short time it possesses prac- tically no radioactivity. The belief long held by many people to the effect that some mineral waters used at the springs are more effective than when bottled has been explained by certain authorities on the ground that the bene- ficial effect of these waters is due to radioactivity. As the radioactivity dis- appears as described above then its health value is practically nothing. More specifically, assuming that the radioactivity of water in a given spring is 100, then four days after bottling it will be only 50, whereas after 12 days" bottling it will dwindle to only 10. In a month’s time it will virtually zero compared with the original radioactivity of the water at the original spring. The public, therefore, is warned to regard with suspicion any water advertised as possessing radioactivity. As far as the government's specialisis have been able to ascertain, no bottled waters, no mat- ter how radioactive they might have . been at the spring, retain their radio- activity for any length of time.” ‘The Treasury Department, acting in co-operation with the Department of Agriculture, now refuses admission to this country of foreign waters so labeled now, but real threats of war do not ac- tually menace until late in the next twelvemonth, according to my way of interpreting these stellar positions. I would continue to say, however, that speculators in the stock market were taking more of a chance than they had perhaps bargained for! * K ok ok JANUARY will begin with a week of rough going in regard to social and domestic activities, while theatricals and all forms of public entertainment will probably suffer also. The last 10 days of this month will bring influences which ordinarily serve to emphasize the prac- tical and even the inartistic qualities of our amusements and our occupations for our lighter moments, so that invest- ments in the elaborate motion picture theaters which have been a treasure trove of the past will now be likely to prove themselves a bottomless pit into which to fling hard-earned dollars, and the unostentatious business firms who have steadfastly avoided these trimmed up places of disposing of their cash will find that their judgment and restraint will at last bring results worthy of their self-deniat. Those born near the last week in April, the first week of June and the first half of Oc- tober will doubtless find fortunate in- fluences in the year 1929, all relating to emotional matters, money and any soclal or dramatic interests. The entire month of May—or, rather, those with birthdays which fall durmg this divi- sion of the solar calendar—will find this whole year quite a gala time and one which they should take advantage of by utilizing their opportunities for advancement in business or expansion in their investments. February will bring particularly in- teresting incidents for those who have celebrated their birthdays around the !though the year determines the depart- ment of the life in which the influence will be felt the most keenly. Nearly all of- these people will feel some urge to travel, make changes in living or busi- ness or engage in some activity which entails writing, speaking or some other form of verbal expression which is per- more apt to work themselves out along the lines of international disagreements; we have been simmering over these exciting vibrations for the past year ] haps out of the ordinary. Not all of these may come to purely encouraging cnds, but if you can hold on to your new investments until after the middle What the Stars Foretell for 1929 No Change in Prohibition and Little Farm Relief Next Year; International Dis- " putes, a Marine Disaster and the Doom of Short Skirts Are Predicted. of next August you will find that very different circumstances will alter the results of your efforts and that the final conditions will be far more rosy. Among those particularly apt to feel such changes in their daily vibrations will be Raymond Griffith, Miss Tallulah Bankhead, a dramatic artist more pop- ular in London than America just at present although she is American by birth; the Grand Duchess Charlotte Adelgone Luxemburg, John D. Rockefeller, jr.; Walter Damrosch, Neysa McMein and Antonio Scotti. Col. Lindbergh will find 1929 an unusually eventful year, and if he will prepare for the last week of May and the entire month of June he may avoid a little of the more distressing part of this time, as it seems to concentrate about him just then, of * K ok ok MARCH should be fairly calm as a birth month this year, although the dates around the very last of the month will prove lively and afford opportuni- ties to spend a good deal of money in the course of the next few weeks. The first week of May will be a very active !lem: for all these March-born folk in last 10 days of January of any year, al- | 192! Among the most prominent names in the group bound to feel the effects of this March star-ray—or to be exact, I should say that any one whose birth- day falls in March this year will feel the stimulation of the plus or minus tendencies which the stellar aspects during the remainder of the year will mn. into effect—among this group will noticed John Barrymore, Norma Shearer, Charles Ray, Conrad Nagel, Florens Ziegfeldy Percy Mackaye, An- drew W. Mellon, Rabbi Wise, Betty Compson and Harrison Ford. All of these will be apt to respond to the negative forces so strong in these birth dates, particularly around the middle of May and the middle of November of the coming year, when the aspects will be so strong_for them and remarkably so for the first two names of the group. The, position of the planet Saturn throughout the present Winter months, however, will not benefit the others on the list. During the last of March and all dur- ing the first half of April, that is the birthdays which fall at this time, all promise their sons and daughters a very thrilling time during the following year, with plenty of Uranian impulses, decis- ions and changes to make life interest- ing and many sudden twists to circum- stances and unexpected variations in all departments of existence. June and July will probably be the most thrilling periods for these people, vet November and December, too, of this year ahead will be more exciting than usual, espe- cially in connection with all domestic matters and with any emotional affairs. It is not a really favorable time for these persons to marry, however, and any permanent ties would be better post- poned until some later date for com- pletion. Financial affairs will do rather well for them, though, and reasonable risks might be taken. People whose anniversaries come dur- ing the very last of April, the first of May and the first 10 days of June will find the entire Summer somewhat unsettled, both because of their own state of mind, which will tend toward ‘highly original ideas, mmul of the very hizarze coloring of affalrs all about them, leading them to enter into con- ditions of a very unusual cast through- out. Most of these things will prove favorable and rather progressive in most ways if courage lasts until one can reach the end of the situation; the planetary positions during March and April will be very good for the May born people. October should be another for- tunate month for this Spring anniver- sary group, particularly in regard to business, marriage or love affairs. * ok ok K TH! remainder of the June born group will not find 1929 so easy, however. They are prone to experience goor health, difficulties and delays in usiness all through the year, but par- ticularly during September, November and December; the last week in June holds some dates which are among the most heavily afflicted of any during the coming 12 months. These people would do well to guard their health for the nresent and to set aside a little trust fund for the cloudy days sure to appear later in the year. July will be apt to run unsteadily for nearly all of us—especially so for those whose birth dates come at this time—and this latter group will find the month of October and the last two weeks of December of this year a bit unpleasant. Our national birth date coming at this time shows our year ahead to be characterized by misunderstandings with foreign nations, even to the point of active deceptions, while those who take pride to them- selves that they have settled the ques- tion of rrombmon flatter themselves, as the old joke puts it. This subject will be far from settled all during the late Fall and Winter, when we will generally be interested again in former topics. After the Summer months we will find that our national horoscope makes us quite susceptible to influences which affect the health of the race or Na as a whole, and. we will have to exer-| clse great care to avold entering into| some foreign alliance which will react upon our well being. We also will have to use caution to avoid accident or vio- lence from showing itself in connection with our public officials or in the ranks { astrologer tion | of the * X ¥ verse stellar influences, and the ¢om- ing year is one which shows a good many changes for Mr. Hoover, although some might say that the change to the office of President might fill this head fully, while the latter part of 1929 is apt to bring much depression and many times when health will suffer— particularly true of November, 1929. The eclipse ‘on November 1 will come on quite a sensitive spot in Mr. Hoover's chart, and he would do well to see that all members of his family guard their health with care. LI S!:PTEMBER people will seldom admit that conditions in their lives are such as to bring them into the most blooming arbor of the garden of flow- ers called Life, and even the most optimistic temperaments would scarcely be apt to view the conditions in the horoscopes for the year just at hand and for tMat following 1928-20 and call them ideal. Miss Dolores Costello, whose romantic marriage has filled so much space in the newspapers, would hardly have followed out the matter- of-fact detalls of this present state had she taken the advice of a dependable beforehand, . for she can hardly live through the year 1929 with- out recourse to the divorce courts. October and November are both | equally variable and prone to engage year, while the doings of old people will influence their affairs greatly and the deceptions or occult or mystic activ- ities in their lives at about the first week of June or the last week of No- vember will make a deep mark upon their minds. The December people will find 1929 rather depressing and apt to bring them a tendency to poor health, slow business matters and none too en- couraging in regard to love affairs. The influence of Saturn over these people at this perfod in their lives is not best, and during the first of this year, as well as the latter half of 1029, the retarding tendences of Saturn be strong—so just be patient and wait for him to pass on by into his next sign, which will come about in the course of another 12 to 14 months. of our prominent business men. Our President-elect will take of the seat of honor at a time when he selects foriMimself quite a store of ad- ‘The most significant aspects for: our Nation at this time are doubtless those which_indicate our tendency just now | toward & continuation of freakish finan- A | unfortunate smokers has in legal or medical advice during the [ as to mislead consumers of their real or curative properties. The department fears that unless the public is warned the fraudulent trade in so-called radio- active waters may ‘develop again, just as the fraudulent trade in other min- eral waters was one developed to the point where people with strong imagina- tions would support their bottlers with all sorts of testimonials asserting that these supposed radioactive waters have effected wonderful cures. e N IN these days one does not hear very much about medicines advertised to tree the enslaved smoker from allegiance to the unworthy cause of Lady Nico- tine. The reason is that probably every one of the so-called cures has turned out to be such an out-and-out fraud that the Government has been able in short order to produce sufficient evidence to force the promoters out of business. Yet some few years ago the mail order business in such “cures” was pretty close to staggering in its pro- portions. First rate, though unscrup fous, advertising agencies were employed for the ballyhoo. One imaginative ad writer managed to devise such an in- ge is picture and copy layout for a certain “medicine” that it brought i money thick and fast. The picture rep- resented a modern Gulliver stretched out helpless on the ground while sundry elves and sprites in the hire of Lady Nicotine annoyed him by scampering over and around his tightly bound self. Take note if the following message to a familiar ring: “Do you smoke a pipe, cigars or cigarettes? Do you chew tobacco ex- | cessively or are you a snuffer? If you are using tobacco excessively in any form, then, in the name of all you hold worthy in this life, wake up! Don't wait until it is time to say good-by to the world. Quit the tobacco habit now and get a taste of real joy and pleasure, “See the illustration below, pres ing to view the self treatment set as a rising sun of inspiration. Now’s your time to restore yourself to normal health and contentment.” Perhaps the most brazen scheme of recent years, and one which nevertheless seemed to “get by” with flying colors for a good many months, was the “scientific height-increasing invention.” Himself only about 5 feet tall, the inventor had nerve enough to announce to the world’s poor afflicted short men that with his contrivance they might “increase their height from 4 to 5!z inches. All they had to do, he said, to achieve the desired result was to “sus- pend their body by the neck with the apparatus, thereby lossening up the spinal cord.” It hardly need be said this promise did not help the afflicted ones particularly. They raised such a hue and cry that Government authori- ties squelched the promising inventor. These are but a few of the cases that might be mentioned in connection with Uncle Sam’s endeavors to force the un- scrupulous “mail doctors” out of busi- ness. The fact that in some instances Government authorities seem to have received the worst of the deal from the courts does not by any means indi- cate that Uncle Sam is being thwarted consistently by the quacks. Time and again they are able to reap big profits. But sooner or later they are found out and eliminated from the mails. Some- time within the comparatively near fu- ture one may well expect that the Gov- ernment will have the situation so well in hand that the menace of the mail order sharper will dwindle to insignifi- cant proportions. Paper Old and New. 'ODERN paper receives its share of criticism, perhaps not unjustly. Jt is asserted that present-day paper is perishable and that books printed upon it will not last, and comparisons un- favorable to the paper of today are drawn between the old-fashioned arti- cle and the new. Much that has been said on this sub- ject is undoubtedly true, but the infer- ence must not be drawn that all old paper was lasting. The investigations g0 to show that the paper of past days | was often very poor stuff. The history lof paper making in Europe from the time of its introduction into Spain by the Moors in the eleventh century shows that from its earliest use paper was deemed fit only for passing docu- ments and that when it was first used in bound books it was thought neces- sary to bind alternate leaves of parch- ment and paper, as paper was deemed too brittle to stand the strain. Public documents were not allowed to be engrossed on so fragile a material as the earlier paper was found to be, and it was not until the art advanced that the new material superseded parchment. A careful inspection of several hundred old codices in the royal library at Berlin fails to disclose any lasting prop- erties of the paper upon which they were written. On the contrary, the leaves are in many instances crumbling into brittle fragments, while the writing has become illegible. Nevertheless, it should be added, the German paper has had a test of several centuries, while it is certain that some of the paper made today almost drops to pieces if one looks at it severely. Discoloreci Gasoline. ISCOLORATION in commercial motor gasoline does not necessar- ily mean poor quality, because the brown tints in the fuel, often plainly apparent to the customer served from the modern glass dispensing apparatus, have no relation to possible damage which a fuel might do to a motor. On the contrary, some very corrosive, low- grade gasolines are sparkling, “water- white” liquids. Specific gravity, once a critical meas- ure of gasoline quality. now has almost nothing to do with merits in automotive use. In spite of this fact, one State still demands a certain specific gravity test for gasoline sold in its territory, probably to the actual disadvantage of retail customers. Odor and color tests are equally wide of the mark. With lubricating oils flash-point, boiling-point and various other tests have also grown obsolete, but customers continue to de- mand goods up to the so-called stand- es, and the tendency, seen in an astrological calculation, is clear as a picture of a repetition of a flurry equal to our recent stock market whirl- wind, but taking place in the field cor- responding to the same market relating to real estate, although this may not become evident until late in the year. Investments having to do with water or liquids will prove beneficial, too, even though quite serious accidents are seen to take place upon the water near or after the last week in June or during the first part of July. Neverthels impulsive speculators wary. Sudden ups and downs are unavoidable and losses follow quickly upon such moves as this, * koK ok WEALTHY and impressive mar- riage, the sudden and violent man- ner of a prominent death, little reliet from the measures adopted by the poli- ticians to ease the condition of the farmers, although the Middle West may find more prosperity in those dealings than the East will. Land generally will bear poor crops this year, largely be- cause of water conditions, but also be- cause of speculation in land through- out the country. Styles will enter upon a most interesting period along late in the year—hats will continue to adopt strange shapes and neck pieces will re- main in favor, while feminine curves will keep on with their progress in the rt | paths of fashion. I believe, however, that the day of the absurdly short skirt is doomed and durir * 1929 our daughters will either see us returning to the modest beruffied coverings that we can remember our grandmothers wearing or else will ap- pear in a thoroughly modern version of “pants for women.” Don'l ugh too heartily. You have little idea of how Iclose we are to this development of our costume,