Evening Star Newspaper, February 3, 1929, Page 87

STORIES SPORTS “PIGGY” The Story of a Nickname That Decided a Basket Ball Title By W. Boyce Morgan. INSTALLMENT I Would you belleve that too much vaseline on a small boy’s hair could be a vital factor in deciding a district bas- ket ball championship? Well, it was, and even now I experience a distinct shudder whenever I see a head that has been overzealously greased. To say that Peglar High had & won- derful basket ball team that year would be streiching the truth. It would be more accurate to say that we had Ed- die Lansford. I've seen a lot of good forwards before and since, but I've never seen one who could shoot like Eddie. Bimply because there was no stopping him, we had passed the middie of the season with only one de- feat, and since that had been inflicted by a team outside the State, it didn’t :{:\;m in the district champlionship rat- Of course, everybody had to admit that our team was strong on defense, but as far as scoring went, Eddie Lans- ford was practically our only ‘veapon. Don Jones, the other forward, would drop one in occasionally; Frank Hag- gerty, captain and my mate at guard, was fairly accurate if he got close to the basket; and now and then I was lucky enough to cage a long one my- self. But in ever‘lnme we had played that year, Eddie had scored more than half of our total points. The best part of it was that, al- though he couldn't help knowing he was good, Eddie was never objection- able about it, and he was the best- liked fellow on the team. And while Rags McBride might have been a little Jjealous of Eddie, who beat him out of a forward position, nobody ever thought he really meant any harm when, one :gernugn in practice, he called Eddie Tll never forget that day. The scrubs were giving us a stiff workout and, as usual, their whole team was trying to stop Eddie. He had just taken the ball away from Rags in the middle of the floor, and turned for a quick flip toward the basket. At that moment Riggs Yelled right in his face, “Miss it, Piggy!” For a second, none of us realized what was happening. Eddie had start- ed his shot, and the ball wént clear over the backboard on to the running track above. Then, with a cry of rage, Eddie was all over Rags, flailing him with both fists. Frank Haggerty and I man- aged to pull them apart, with Rags' nose spurting blood and Eddie wild- eyed and white-lipped. Coach Johns came running up, “Eddie!” he cried. “What in sam hill is wrong with you?” Eddie said nothing. He stood, im- prisoned by Prank’s arms, and glared at Rags, while his breath came through his lips in little hisses. “What's the matter with you?” the coach. insisted. grasping him by the shoulder. ~“Tell me!” “He—he called me ‘Piggy,’” Eddie managed to gulp. Then he seemed w0 recover his senses, He brushed the jet black. hair out of his eyes and auug his head. “I'm sorry, Coach,” he said humbly. By this time the whole squad had gathered around and somebody was “Sorry, Eddie,” he said, “I didn't mean to get your goat.” “Sorry I hit you.” replied Eddie, turning away. “I lost my head for a minute.” He was very quiet as he dressed in the locker room after practice, and he left early. After he had gone, Rags told us the story. Rags and E.die had known each other since they were small boys and had attended the same grammar school. When Eddie was about nine years old, a new girl moved into the house across the street. Eddie imme- diately became the victim of a terrible case of puppy love, and the bunch of boys with whom he played taunted him merctlessly. Then the new girl had a party. ‘To Eddie, this was the greatest event of his young life. In his desire to charm his young hostess, he borrowed some of his elder brother's vaseline to make his stubborn black hair stay down, and not being experienced in ;uch matters, he got a very large over~ ose. With the squad gathered around him in the locker room, Rags described what happened. “Eddie was about the last to arrive at the party,” he said. “We were all sitting around, as shy as could be, waiting for something to happen. And maybe he wasn't & riot when he came in! He had scrubbed his face until it positively shone, and that hair! It was simply thick with grease. “Well, you can imagine what that bunch of roughnecks did. One of them, welcoming a chance for some excitement, chortled, ‘Oh, look at Eddie Lansford. He's got pig grease on his hair!’ The rest of us at once took it up, and a laughing chorus of boys, with some of the girls joining in, did its best to make life miserable for him. “He stood it for a few minutes, but then he lost his temper. Suddenly, he flew at the boy who had started the kidding, and in the wink of an eye that lovely party became a free-for-all fight. Eddie got pretty badly mussed up. but he did a lot of damage him- self, and finally he was sent home in dL!kgrzce without any ice cream and cake.” “It must have been rich,” comment- ed one of the grinning members of the _squad. “But that was just the beginning,” Rags continued. “From that day on Eddile got ‘Piggy’ as a nickname on every possible occasion. But he soon stopped it. By the end of the term he had licked every kid in our grade at school who had the courage to say that word to him, and as he grew older and bigger, even gellows in the higher grades ditn"t to mention that party and Eddie’s hair. “I hadn’t thought of all that for years, and I'll never be able to tell what. me call him Piggy afternoon. But,” finished Rags, Le.em"hh nose gingerly, “I wish I “This 18 W to be good,” somebod; laughed. I see where we have a cu-Z cus with Eddi “Maybe so,” I sald, “but for one, I'm not going to say anything until he ts over his desire for murder when e hears that word.” “Oh,- he'll get over it, B}II. replied Wi slapping’ cold water on the back of Rags’ neck to stop the flow of blood from his nose. Rags managed a grin. Frank. “He'll have to, no (To Be Continued Next Sunday.) MAKING A TRUCK SLED 7he Runners Are Side View tMode From Ore Jrors Whee! Now and then you need a sled that is | really serviceable; one which will carry 8 load. easily and without danger of breaking down. Boys living along the shores of lakes and streams will find frequent use for such a sled because it will tote overnight camping or trap- ?rx:,’g equipment, haul supplies to and m town and, in short, help out on all sorts of erands. It is easily made, too. Get a dry goods box somewhere near the dimen- sions shown, with tight corners and a good bottom. Get an old iron cultivator wheel and cut off the spokes. Then cut the tire into two pleces of equal size. Bend over the ends of each half for 2 inches and drill either one or two holes in each end. These are for bolts which you put through them and the bottom or the box. Washers should be placed against the wood to prevent the head or nut from drawing down into it. Cut out a long slim pole for the tongue from tough, hard wood and bolt this to the bottom also, half way be- tween the sides. Bore a hole through the front end large enough to take an iron or hardwood rod and drive this to a tight fit to form the handle. A small brad driven from the top down through this at the center will keep it from working out of place. You will find that a load of two or three hundred pounds can be easily pulled along on ice or hard snow with this MUMMY OF KING RAMESES Long before Columbus discovered the New World, many years before Willlam the Conqueror landed in England, many years even before Christ was born there lived in Egypt a people who were far advanced in clvilization. They possessed knowledge of the arts And one of their mighty kings, Rameses II, died more than 3,200 years ago. Rameses reigned over Egypt from 1300 to 1280 B. C. and was buried, like all Egyptian royalty, in stone chambers that were thought to be hidden from all through all eternity. But before he was buried he was carefully embhlmed; that is, his body was prepared so that it would never decay, and it was then wrapped in mummy clothes and placed in tge gorgeous mummy case. For over his tomb and then, in 1881, he was discovered near the city of Thebes and carrfed into the museum at Cairo. ‘There he lies today and there you can see him much as he appeared when he was King of Egypt 80 many years ago. King Rameses was the Pharaoh who oppressed the Hebrews during biblical times, and he was the father of 111 sons and 59 daughters. One of his sons was Menephthat, the Pharaoh under whom the Exodus took place. The Drawbacks. “Dear Mrs. Pucket,” a schoolteacher wrote to the mother of a pupll. “Wil- liam was absent this morning. Will you please tell me what kept him out of school?” and sciences such as many people of today do not have. They built the enormous Pyramids which stand even now, they built the mysterious Sphinx, irrigation systems, beautiful _houses, large temple the world known at that time; they < were philosophers, poets, astronomers. is keeping time for his father. Last inite he cum home with an exampel I about how long would it take a man | walking three miles an hour to walk they were traders in all{21; times around a field four miles square. And as Willle ain’t no man, we had to send his pap.", 3,100 years did Rameses lie silently in | “Dear Ma’'am,” was the reply. “Willle ' S4e BOYS and GIRLS PAGE 1 THREW DOW! RAN. TWENTY. HALF INCHES THIRSTING FOR The fever of adventure sent Dan Streeter, ex-cotton _manufacturer, from his home in Buffalo, N. Y, 1o the heart of the big game coun- try in British East Africa. There he made headquarters at the farm of 2 settler named Leathers and started into the wilderness under the guid- - ance of two veterans hunters, Flint and QGregg, leaving his 13-year-old son at the farm. His first meeting with a buffalo made him realize his equipment as a big game hunter consisted primarily of a sense of humor and a gun that he was not much good with. BY DANIEL W. STREETFR. IVE minutes from camp we crossed the tralls of our first rhino—two of them—returning from the river to the thicker bush that skirted the mountains. The size of these impressions disturbed me. They were bigger than soup plates, while the weight of the animals was evidenced by the fact that they were | impressed 3 or 4 inches into the un- | responsive ground. Here Gregg left us. “You follow these blighters,” he said. “I'm going down the valley after buffalo.” In and among the clumps of bushes we steadily followed the tracks. Then I was peering across a little glade at two colossal gray bodies. It was all so matter-of-fact and casual it seemed prej us. Above. them fluttered some small birds. “Rhino birds,” whis- pered Flint. The sun was just peeping over the mountains, transforming the steely light into warmer tones. The doves still hurled their soft challenge to_the dawn. My knees began to shake like a couple of aspens. Great wabbly shivers ran up and down my spine. It was not precisely what I expected. There Wwas a sinister insolence about the huge | bodies that filled me with foreboding. “Shoot—shoot,” hissed Flint. “Do you really think I ought to?” 1| whispered. Opening hostilities in this cold-blooded way seemed little short of courting death. “Well, what-the-deuce did you come down here for?” he whispered back. I shot. Afterwards I realized I had merely pulled the trlgger, holding the gun in my hands like the nozzle of a hose. The rhinos relieved themselves of two very authentic snorts and vanished. They were just as frightened as I was. “Sorry,” I said to Flint. ‘Carry on.” he answered, “and next time don't use that rifle as, though it was a bean-blower.” Through a series of small grassy | glades we cautiously picked our way. Then - Flint grabbed my arm and pointed. There, on the opposite side of & small open space, swoé another pair of these slab-sided - angels. They seemed as plentiful as rabbits. In dis- tance they were 22 yards from: where we stood. Afterwards I measured it. Alert, noses in air, they posed, intent on locating the danger some instinct warned them was approaching. “Now,” whispered Flint. “They're nothing but big bluffs,” I murmured, and pulled the trigger. ‘The bullet struck one in the chest— I could see the t. With & snort that sounded like a dozen engines exhaust- ing steam, it whirled with the agility of & cat and charged straight at us. Prom that moment my actions were guided by forces over which I had no control. I threw down my gun and ran. The rhino appeared to be on top of me. In fact he was—right on top of me. Twenty-seven and a half inches of horn was thirsting for my blood. I ran. In three strides I was tangled inextricably abundantly decorated with needlelike thorns an inch and a half long. I heard Flint shoot. “What part of me’ will it enter first?” I wondered. “How will it feel?” Oh! Jeptha, Judge of Israel, how scared I was! For what seemed an age I floundered. Then Flint said: “He's gone. Badly wounded. Come,on.” With difficulty I managed to unhook myself. Indicating my running away, Flint remarked, “The very worst thing you could do.’ “It was natural and spontaneous, at any rate,” I answered unashamed—it seemed the better policy. “Well,” he said, “the next time it happens try not to be natural.” * Kk 'WE followed the spoor in and out | among the bushes. Then, as we i stood in the shadow of a thicket, the terrible explosive snort of the wounded rhino filled the air on its opposite side Again, the impulse to run was well nigh irresistible, but this time I con- | trolled it. There was no place to run. Cautiously we edged around the bush. | The head and shoulders of the beast ybecame visible through the leaves. It was a very sick rhino. Flint and I both shot. Without a sound, it sank ito the ground—dead. To see a monumental animal full of vibrant life dashing about in a frenzy of rage one moment, and the next, abruptly sinking to the earth, an inert lifeless mass, i8 shocking. The world became suddenly still with the dra- matic stillness that follows a catas- trophe. From various dln}les and copes the boys appeared full of delight. Here were tons of meat. The boys were turned i loose on the cadaver. Like a group of | first-year medical students, they leapt upon it. %01 Flint and I sat in the shade watch- ing, a boy burst through the bushes breathless and exhausted. The muscles of his legs were taut. His knee-caps trembled ridiculously. His mouth work- ed and grimaced uncontrollably. Clear- 1y he had traveled fast, and the memory of something disturbing still lingered. He spoke to Flint haltingly, between | theirs. in a thorn-apple tree, | N MY GUN AND SEVEN AND A OF HORN WAS MY BLOOD. gulrs for air, in the most approved, | melodramatic manner. “Gregg is In a herd of elephants,” said Flint. “He's out of hard-nose am- munition. Maybe we'll get a shot. Come on.” For an hour and a half, we marched through the blistering heat watching the legs of this black Paul Revere rise and fall mechanically. Then, suddenly rounding a bush, we came on Gregg sit- ting under a tree sclemnly watching a very sick bull elephant rock slowly back and forth on trembling legs. Almost at once, it staggered and fell, burying a tusk deeply into the hard earth. “There were twelve of them,” said Gregg, without emotion, as we came up. “They surrounded me as quietly as mice, Five minutes before I had met a rhino face to face on a narrow trail. He rushed past me 5o close the mud on his | ribs was scraped off on my jacket. After he went everything was quiet. “When I looked around again ele- phants were all over the place. This tusker was 12 yards away. There hadn't been a sound. The boys ran. I don't blame them. I tell you, ele- phants were all over the place. I gave this one the brain shot, heart shot, tail shot and ran out of ‘hard nose'— enyway, I couldn’t remember any other places to shoot him. There he js. He's dead,” and he regarded the huge car- cass with an incredulous look. Then he blew a whistle, indicating to the hundred odd black men swarm- ing about us that. we were throughi viewing the remains. The corpse was * koK K E now witnessed a prehistoric orgy. in which men became beasts. Stripped to the skin, the black scav- engers leapt on the carcass with ghoul- ish eagerness. Immediately it became invisible beneath half a hundred sav- ages, lusting for meat. Knee-deep, they plunged and staggered, hacking off such bits as they could lay hold on. As they tore loose a handful of meat, they scaled It over the heads of the others to a confederate waiting on the side lines, either a woman or an old a sharpened stick—gobs of elephant meat en brouchette—or thrust it into backets of wild sisal woven on the spot. A short distance away a gray mon- key, with the face of a disillusioned poet, sat on a limb and swung his legs. One could almost imagine him remark- ing: “Thank God, I'm a vegetarian.” Soon came the turn of the old men ,who had been nervously hovering on the side lines like obscene 'birds. Lack- ing the strength to engage in the melee, they had been forced to content themselves with senile hopping up and down. Now came their turn—nothing was left but the bones. A week later I watched a flock of vultures perform an identical ceremony over the body of a hartebeest weighing 350 pounds. In almost every particular the procedure was the same. For 10 days we lived a life of prime- val simplicity at the bottom of the Rift Valley, chilled to the bone at night, parboiled at noon. ‘Day after day the sun rose in a cloud- less sky of cerulean blue—at least I be- lleve it was cerulean, but I had care- lessly left my dictionary at Nairobi; so I'll never know for sure. Our camp had become a thriving community. Each night saw a dozen fires surrounded by 50 boys enjoying the sensation of fullness sequent on crowding the stomach with much meat. Our party had been augmented by most of the able-bodied members of the Elgayo Vfllflgi ‘The days had wings. We were obliv- fous to time. When we estimated that 10 days had passed, we returned to the farm, where I found my son restored to health. There we were informed by let- ter that the stateroom had been secured for us on a boat sailing for Marseille via Suez. We had five days to wait, so we rented an ox-wagon and drifted down the Kedong Valley across a vast plain filled with-grants, tommies, reed- buck, cland, impalla, ostrich, hartebeest and giraffe, r wagon as a base of supplies. One morning we found the boy we had left in charge was in a very dis- turbed state of mind. The previous night, as he slept beside the fire with a small black dog as his only companion, a leopard had stalked them and carried off the dog. The rest of the night he had spent in a tree. “It's against the law, but we'll set a gun trap,” said Flint, The balance of the day we spent in | constructing, about two hundred yards from our camp, a small circular enclo- sure of thorns with a narrow opening over which a rifie was secured, muzzle downward. A string attached to the trigger was arranged in such a way that any ani- mal pushing into the enclosure would discharge the gun and receive the bullet the back of the neck. Bait was placed within. At 9 o'clock we retired. At 9:15 the gun went off. * K X % CLAD in pajamas, the way lighted by a candle lantern, we approached the trap. There, lying on its stomach with its head betwen its paws, as though asleep, was a leopard. In the light of the lantern its spots stood out like jet on a background of yellow vel- vet. A beam of candle light illuminated its eyes. They were round, opalescent balls’ of fire, embracing us in a stare man, who immediately impaled it on | ed. We hunted, using the, Lions and Rhinos Charge 80 venomous- and baleful as to make one shudder. The next moment It would surely spring. This was too much for me. “Jehosophat!” I cried, “it's alive,” and fell over Leathers, who carried the lantern. The lantern crashed to earth, flickered an instant and—went out. ‘The next three minutes were chaos. ‘When the boys arrived, years later it seemed, with a couple of fresh lanterns, I found myself hugging Leather's griz- zled form in a manner that it mortifies me to think of even now. My son was s]owl%oslmnglinz me to death. From the bottom of the heap, Flint in a feeble voice was calling for air. The leopard hadn’t moved. “It must be dead, after all” I sald with a meaningless laugh, as we rear- ranged our disheveled night-robes, “but that light in its eyes—where did it come from?” “It had been dead just about a min- ute when we flashed the light on it,” said Flint. “Its eyes hadn't had time to grow stony. But haven't you been down here long enough to leave off do- ing things like that? You've gotten into the —habit of, $tarting a panic a day. Now you've ruined & perfectly good pair of pajamas for me. IV’S a bit thick.” Late afternoon saw us straggling into Kijabi. At an Indjan Duka I purchased some hatchets and presented.them to the boys as a parting gift. They seemed as pleased as children—all but one, in whose sad eyes two large tears formed and trickled down his cheeks. “What is his trouble?” I inquired. “He says ‘he expected a sword',” re- plied Flint disgustedly. “I can't stand this—I'll give him a sword,” I exclaimed. Then dogs, boys, and Leathers, in a conglomerate mess, boarded a freight train and clattered northwards, ‘That night we dined at Nairobi. Flint had accompanied us to see us off the following day. The evening we spent reminiscing and. packing. “I've only one regret,” Flint remark- . “You didn't get a lion.” ““Another time,” I told him, “for some day we are coming back.” In the morning, dressed in wrinkled, storish-looking clothes, we went to take up our steamer tickets. Then we were staggered by the news that the salling had been deferred a week. A wet rice cargo, swelling, had opened some seams on the boat. E “She is ze most naught riz zis com. pany evar handle,” said the agent. “I go distract. I go crazee.” “That’s all right with me,” sald my son. And we drifted out to hold a coun=- cil of war on the sidewalk. “It’s easier to break into this country than it is to break out of it,” I remark- ed. “What can we possibly do to kilt a week?” “Try and kill a lion,” Flint replied. That afternoon found us motoring to Mechaka, 35 miles south of Nairobi. We passed, at length, a small, rocky hill rising a hundred feet or so from the level of the veldt. “That’s Wami,” said Flint. “If there are any lion in the neighborhood, they'll be on Wami. A man named Stub owns it « o0 E turned toward the hills, passing several orange groves, and stopped before a half-finished mud house. nervous, muscular individual appeared in the doorway. “This is Stub,” said Flint. “I say, Stub,” he continued, “are there any lion on Wami?” “Three,” replied Stub pmmfily. “How about terms?” said Flint. They withdrew and held an animated conver- sation. Then Flint turned to me. “This is a frightfully mercenary proposition,” he reported, “but it's Stub's livelihood at present. If you want to see a lion, here it is. He'll let us kill one lion on Wami for 13 pounds, or two for 25. The proposition is, no lion—no money. “It only figures about sixpence a pound. That's cheap for lion. Our frien@ should stud the roads with signs reading ‘Stub for llons—Sixpence the pound—Fresh daily’ He doesn’t realize t}:f value of a little intelligent adver- tising.” Dlgwn of the following morning saw us comfortably ensconced behind a pile of rocks on the summit of Wami, while 20 boys beat its slopes. I began to feel ridiculous. It scemed a sacrilegious perversion of the ethics of hunting. “This is a little too much,” I re- marked. “If a rabbit breaks cover and charges us, we can always scream for help!” my son volunteered. The afterncon drew to a close. Wi were scuffling aimlessly along the hill- side. Suddenly Stub uttered a manical yell—“There they are!” Pandemonium broke loose. My son and I were thrust forward. Behind us, Flint and Stub seemed to have cnmrxleuly lost - their senses. D'abolical yells and pro- Hlon transformed them into primeval savages. As.for myself, I could see | nothing. “Shoot! She's coming!” yelled Stub. ‘Then a tawny something moved, and I saw them, To horror, 70 yards below us on the hillside, stood—not one, but four, lions; a male, a female and two_half-grown cubs. ‘The lion regarded us calmly; behind him the young ones moved restlessly to 1and fro. The lioness crouched broad- side to us, her head turned in our direc- i fanity split the air. The sight of the, Hunters tion, her tail s.iich.., sinuously from side to side with sinister grace. The look in her eyes haunts me yet. They ‘were as big as saucers, saucers of mol- ten gold, flecked with spots of jade. They fixed us with a stare of such bale- ful intensity my blood turned to ice. For a long moment my heart stopped beating, then began to leap with such violent rapidity as to echo in my ears like the beating of a drum. - t. Do you want to get us all killed?” Stub stuck his face into mine. There was foam on his lips. I fired at the lioness, in accordance with the accepted practice. ‘“Female first—lion afterward” had been drilled into me until it was a by-word. And, under the circumstances, I felt no em- barrassment in the fact that I missed her or, what was worse, merely in- flicted a slight flesh wound in the chest. Shb uttered a howl of despair. * ok ok ok THEN‘she charged, darting up the hill toward us like a streak of yellow lightning. My son opened fire. On she came for 25 yards with incredible swiftness. Then the grade proved too much - for her wind, and suddenly swerving, she bounded into a small clump of bushes 200 yards away on our | right. Immediately a yelping pack of small dogs belonging to Stub surround- ed her. Half a minute later we were there. She crouched in the middle of the bush, defending herself with feline deft- ness from the assaults of the dogs. Again and again they charged, only to retreat in confusion when she lunged at them. As we came up, she turned and made two rapid feints at us, hiss- ing the while like a house cat cornered by a terrier. I pushed my rifle into her face, and fired. The bullet entered her eye. Without a sound she c lapsed. As this occurred, the. distance between us was just nine feet. We turned instantly for a shot at the others—but, during the confusion, they had disappeared. No sooner had the male seen his consort join in the un- equal battle than he slipped unostenta- tlously away, followed by the two cubs. Our lion hunt was over. That night we sat on a platform in the top of an acacia tree. The moon was full again. Far away on the sky line the great snow cap of Kilimanjaro floated in the heavsn like a silvery island. About us, the world was flood- ed with a soft white effulgence. The alr was balmy and charged with cool caresses. Suddenly, the night became vocal. Death stalked abroad. The World of Beasts became vibrant; gal- vanized into pulsating life. Hour after hour, five - hundred yards from our acacia, four lons kept the pallid night a]iv: ;vltlh l";lelr reverberations. “T feel e a thief,” I whispered to f;l;::.m‘;l‘m t!ukh;g nme;hmzh away coun never bre “"“%"fi“n?i' Ty ought into “Well, help yourself freely,” he whispered back. “We'll never glu it.” (Mr. Streeter did miss Africa, and later he returned to it. His gorgeously amusing adventures in the Sudan will be resumed next week.—ED.) (Copyright, 1920.) The Kitchenette BY AUNT HELEN. Gladys Reese, who send this recipe in, must like good things to eat as well as I do. These fruit cookies certainly sound delicious, and we are all greatly obliged to you for telling us about them, Gladys. FRUIT COOKIES. 12 cup lard. ;,2 cup butter, cup sugar. 2 beaten eggs. 12 cup milk, 2 cups flour. 12 teaspoon soda. %4 cup currants, % cup raisins. 2 cups uncooked rolled oats. Cream butter and lard, add sugar, then add beaten eggs. Add milk and | flour alternately. Dissolve soda in a little boiling water and add to mixture. Lastly, put in currants, raisins and rolled oats. Bake in a moderate oven. | Secret of Silk Was Long Kept in China Although silkworms are now cul- tivated in many parts of the world in order to obtain the lovely product which they make, at one time the secret of pro- ducing this cloth was known only China, where it was jealously guarded. Raising silkworms was a great indus- try in China as many as 2,600 years be- fore the Christian era. Try as they might, other nations were unable fo learn the secret of making the fine cloth. But, according to the story, a faithless Chinese princess finally betrayed her ! country by carrying with her to India | some of the of the silk-moth and the of mulberry tree upon which it fed, concealed in her headdress. From India the secret gradually spread to the west, althoug it did not reach Europe until the sixth century, WINNING BASKET BALL BY TOM F. Last week I told you about shooting, and described various methods of get- ting the constant practice that you need ‘in this importan® department of basket ball. Later you can combine | shooting with the passing drill that I described several weeks ago, and thus “kill two birds with one stone.” Still another excellent way of getting practice is to play the center and for- wards against the two guards. Line up the players as shown in the diagram. The forwards then try to score through the guards with the least possible num- ber of passes. This will give the guards good practice in defensive work, as well as offering drill in passing and shoot- ing to the forwards. | The five-man defense is pretty gen- erally used now in basket ball, but no matter what defense system you employ, it is important that every man on the | team be able to guard well. In guarding, play low on your man in a sort of crouch. In this position you ceceive the man as to your height and your ability to intercept his pass or shot, and from the crouch you can spring up quickly to stop whatever movement he makes. It is important to keep your hands off the man you are guarding unless you want to have many personal fouls | called on you. Your arms should be | extended and your eyes should be on| both the man and the ball no matter | where it is on the floor. | Your position should be just one step | away from the man you are guarding. Any less may cause a foul to be called upon you, and that one step is vital in order that you may be able to beat your ‘man to the basket if he breaks away. Remember that he is facing the basket while you must turn, and that one-step lead will enable you to swing around and not be left behind. McMULLEN Former Oregon State College Star and_ Now Coach of Basket Ball at State Teachers’ College, San Diego, Calif. If you are more than a step away, of course, you cannot guard effectively, so that one-step distance is very portant to remember. Alertness is one of the best virtues that any guard can have. Be ready to break for your own basket the moment one of your own players gets the ball, and be just as ready to go back to your own part of the floor as soon as the other side gains possession of the ball. In guarding it is well to imagine a line across the middle of the floor, dividing your half from the opposing team's half. Never guard past the center of = % c the floor—that is, in the other team's defensive territory. When you lose the ball all five men on your team should 'go back to your half of the floor to guard. e This is the month in which Abra- ham Lincoln was born, and in his honor we are giving vou this cross THE PUZZLE CORNER il Here are two word chains that should stop you for a moment. Re- member to change only one letter at a time, and make a real word with word puzzle within the Great Emanci~ pator's sihouette. “Honest Abe.” ‘The definitions ar.. Horizont 1. Lincoln’s nickname. 4. Straightforward. 6. A girl's nickname. 8. Masculine pronoun. 9. The Great Emancipator. 11. A girdle. 13. Those whom Lincoln fx: 16. A canvas shelter. 17. SnakeMke fish. 18. Either. 19. You. Vertical 1. In the Year of the Reign (Abr.). 2. Prohibit. - 3. Half an em. 4. A buccaneer. 5. The bottom timber of a boat. 6. Flemish (Abr.). : 7. A number. 8. Warm. 10. Neat. 12. You and I b 14, Famous Civil War Genéral. 15. A New England State (Abr.). ' g Each of the following queer looking words is the name in jumbled order of a former President of the United States. Can you rearrange the letters correctly? 1. TARGN. 2. SILNOW. 3. MADAS. 4. FARIDELG. Perhaps you have wondered how an Indian is able to tell directions without the aid of a compass or any other sort of instrument. He has many ways of doing this. In the first place, the Indian knows that the sun rises in the east every day, and moves across the sky to set in the west each evening. At the middle point in its long arc, which we call noon, the sun is directly over his head and to the soutn as he faces it, which puts north at his back. Moreover, he knows that the north side of any steep hill is cooler than the south side, and ths snow lies deeper there than elsewhere during the Winter, and melts away later in the Spring. The north side of a hill is usually wetter, also, and for this reason has more trees on it. The Indian knows that small streams flow into larger ones, and the larger ones usually flow into one great river. Thus if he lives in the country west of the Mississippi River, the large| streams near him almost all flow south- ; east, and their branches on the north side flow in a general southerly direc- tlon, while those on the south side are apt to have a general easterly course. Then again, the branches of trees 'ow more toward the light than away rom it. Therefore the north side of a | #tree will have the least branches if it stands in the open. Moss, however, grows on the shady side of a tree, and this may be any side, depending on the tree’s surroundings and position. There- fore moss is not reliable as a direction) indicator. The Indian also knows that the Big Dipper seems to move around the North star, which always stays in the same place, so when he the dipper he can locate the North star by lining it up with the two end stars of the dipper opposite the handle, which always t to it. no matter what the position of the dipper is. The winds are also of assistance to the Indian. He knows that Summer breezes are warm, and mostly from the south and southwest, while the s ‘Winter winds blow cold from the and northwest. Thus see that the Indian has many different ways of keeping track of his directions. He can for nothing.” each change. Change STEP to LEAP in five moves. Change KING to RULE in five moves. g ‘The picture puzzle below represents the name of & man with whom Abra- Lincoln held a famous debate. WHO WAS LINCOLN'S OPPONENT IN A FAMOUS DEBATE? In a three-word square the first is to look, the second is a part of the head and the third is to make a mis- take. Form the square. Answers 1. Cross-word puz=:> - .:on. 2. Grant, Wilson, Awams and Garfield. EN — seep — sees — seas — leas — G — kine — mine — mile—rile— ULE. 4. Stephen A. Douglas. 5. See, ear and err. El Comancho’s Campfire Stories without a guide, knowing always where he is and how to go straight back to the point from which he started. Picture Puzzle Poem BY A. L. F. Whenever we play soldier, We draw a battle map, And carry spears like privateers, And wear a solider —, dr‘c.n y"o:‘ !ln‘dk the leléers !n“the wing make a wor 1 the rhyme?) b Riddle Fans. Perhaps you've heard some of these riddles and have forgotten the answers. ‘Therefore they test your.memory as well as the quickness of your wits. 1. When a man engages 12 & scran with a telephone operator what usually happens? 2. Why don't hens lay at night? 3. What is the best way to ¢ out wrinkles? 4. What is a yuvusujnb? 5. 'What can you a barrel with and make it lighter? Answers. 1. The man is greatly outnumbered. 2. Because they are roosters then. 3. Walk in the fresh air and they will go out with you. 4. Wallpaper. 5. Holes. Good for Nothing, “Now, Tommy, I want you to be good while I'm out. ".‘;‘161'& good for a nickel.” e M