Evening Star Newspaper, December 8, 1929, Page 119

THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, DECF.MBAER 8, 1929, PUZZLES S Do you know what this is? It is a mortar and pestle, with which the chemist pounds up some of his medicines when preparing and mix- ing them. There are some good words in this puzzle. MORTAR AND PESTLE. The definitions are: HORIZONTAL. 1. An ingredient used in medicine. 5. Beverage sold in drug stores. 9. One charged with a high mission. 11, Printer's measures. 14. A secret agent in war. 16. To have an opinion. 18. Either. 19. Sound demanding silence, 21. Night (Abr.). 22. Toward. 23. To make void. 26. To cook with grease in a pan. 27. A matched group. 30. Onme skilled in chemistry. 35. Male deer. 36. Enemies. VERTICAL. Fury. 3. Toward the top. Proceed. 5. Strect (Abr.). 6. Oil (Abr.). 7. To contradict. 10. Southern State (Abr.). 12. A chemist’s vessel. 13. Spelling (Abr.). 14. Tin (chemical symbol). 15. Instrument used ‘with a mortar. 17. A device for pressing elothes. 18. Upon. 20. Exclamation. 24. Eastern State (Abr.). 25. You and me. 26. An admitted truth. To carry. 29. Part of verb “to be.” 31. Noise made in laughing. 32. For example (Abr.). 33. On condition that. 34. Therefore. —2 ' i This is a very clever diamond, formed about a kind of medicine bought in a drug store. The second line is a serpent, the third is a kind of tree, the fifth is danger, and the sixth means nothing. Can you complete the diamond? A 8 = ASPIRIN R : N e We will give you a start on a four-word square, and let you finish it. As an additional hint we’ll tell you that tne final word is the plural of a kind of meat. BATH A T /H e Remove the middle letter from a word for shore and get a word for expense. Remove the middle letter from top milk and get to stuff. o Behead a boy's name and get a word for position. Behead a word for partial darkness and get a frame for weaving cloth. One on Father. Teddy (asking for the third helping of cake) —Father, please pass the cake. Mother—Why, Teddy, you are a little pig! Father—Teddy, do you know what a pig is? Teddy—Sure! A pig is a hog’s little boy. She Got the Money. New Boarder—When I left my last place the landlady wept™ Landlady—Well, I won't. advance. I always collect in %e BOYS and GIRLS PAGE Marching Feet. The Story of a Boy Who Rose to an Emergency. . BY W. BOYCE MORGAN. and stronger bo his elder brother, Jack. . _the last day of school before the as holidays, the Drlnelrll chooses & number at o regard him o:mn contempt, Christm of boys to keep order that night during an enter- tainment in the auditorium, and Harrison is dis- Ppoin use he iz not picked while his brother a beco Jack is. The principal does, however, ask Harrison [ iano before lmll during the k Jarrison in regard to the choosing of the boys who are to maintain order at the school. INSTALLMENT 1L HARRISON and Jack walked to the high school togeth:r that evening, as it was necessary for both of them to be there early. As they entered the building, Jack motioned to the broad stairs at the rear, which were being repaired by workmen. “Let’s go back and see just what they are doing,” he suggested. “Those old stairs cer- tainly needed fixing.” They walked back through the lower hall of the building and gazed up at the scaffold- ing which the carpenters had erected. Part of the old stairs had already been torn out, and the stairway was impassable. “It’s too bad they couldn't have waited until after the entertainment tonight,” Jack com- plained. “It's going to make it a lot harder for us to keep order, with all the crowd com- ng up those narrow front stairs.” They returned through the hall and climbed - to the second floor, where Jack joined the rest of the boys who had been chosen as “policemen.” Harrison went to the piano and laid out the music he had brought to play during the evening. In the hours since the close of the after- non session of school, the rostrum in the auditorium had been completely transformed. Students from the manual training depari- ment had erected a framework from which hung a gay curtain, hiding the stage. On the platform itself was the gayly trimmed tree, cotton strewn about to represent snow, and all over the entire auditorium were festoons of red and green paper, giving the hall a gay, carnival appearance, Soon the hal began to fill with members of the audience. Most of the high school students were there, and many younger chil- dren from the grade schools, with a sprinkling of their parents. In the room off the as- sembly hall, which served as “back-stage,” the boys and girls who were to take part in the performance were making busy and none- too-quiet preparations. Before long Jack and the other boys had their hands full in keeping order. Jack was stationed at the door of the hall which led in from the narow stairs outside, and Har- rison watched him enviously as he kept the crowd moving in methodical fashion. But soon Professor Marks appeared and requested Harrison to play a few numbers on the piano. He took his place at the instrument, and the audience became less noisy as they listened to his music. By the time the entertainment started, every available seat in the hall' was filled, and spec- tators were standing against the rear wall and along the sides. As the lights were dimmed, Harrison arose from the piano and took a chair a short distance away where he could watch the performance. The entertainment had been well planned and the students had worked hard on it, but their efforts were well repaid by the appreciation of the audience. And during the intermission Harrison was pleased by the enthusiastic ap- plause that followed his performance at the piano. Immediately after the intermission a brief Christmas pageant was being performed on the stage. The room was darkened, save for shaded lights on the stage and a candle that had a part in the pageant. Later it was said that this candle caused the trouble, but some be- lieved that a defect in the temporary electrical wiring was responsible. As for Harrison, he never knew. But as he sat watching the per- formance he heard a sudden gasp of dismay from some one on the stage. & burst of flame caught the decorations and lit up the hall with a lurid glare. Children and adults jumped to their feet. Somebody - cried for lights. Teachers rushed toward the platform, but in a few seconds the decorated tree, the curtain and the paper festoons were masses of fire, stretching all along the ceiling of the hall. In a moment the room was in an uproar. Those nearest the doors made a dash for safety, Somebody switched on the lights, but they flickered for a moment and went out, leaving the room lighted only by the ghastly glare of the fire, « Harrison had jumped to his feet at the first alarm and he stood spellbound as the flames mounted. Then suddenly a feeling of sick hor- ror rushed over him as he realized that the stairway in the rear of the auditorium was blocked and all this crowd must get out down the narrow flight of steps in front. And already the stage, only a few feet from the front door, was a seething mass of fire. Instinctively the crowd had run from it and were massing toward the stairs in the rear. Then some of the boys who had been ap- pointed to keep order realized the danger of those stairs in the rear, already partially demol- ished. If the crowd got back there they would pile up on the floor below and many would be killed and injured. The guards rushed to the rear door, blocked it and frantically di- Tected the frightened people toward the front door. With a little thrill Harrison heard his brother’s voice above the cries of the crowd. “This way! This way!” Jack was shouting from his place near the blazing stage. “This door is clear!” Suddenly the crowd, realizing that their only hope of safety lay past the flames in front, turned and poured toward the narrow door, In a moment they were jamming toward it, everything forgotten except the mad desire for safety. Smoke was filling the room now and it added to the terror of the darkness and the flames. (To be continued next Sunday.) He Was It. Intelligent Young Son (to father)—Father, do you know that a device for eliminating sleep has been invented?” Father—Yes, son, we used to have one in our home when you were a baby.’ How Abour Defear? Rastus—Here am a telegram from de boss in Africa. He says he is sending us some lions’ tails. ; Circus Owner’s Wife—Lions' tails, Rastus? What are you ialking about? Rastus—Well, read it yourself. It says plain: “Just captured two lions. Sending details by mail.” Santa’s Ma Concluded from The Star's Magazine of Nov. 24 ¥ (Mrs. W., left alone, examines with great curiosity the meager objects around the room. Presently Mr. Moffat, with a patchwork quilt wrapped around him, hobbles into the room. He coughs as he enters and Mrs. W. is star- tled.) MRS. W. (jumping)—Oh! You frightened me! ad Mr. M.—I was a bit startled myself. I woke up, thinking I heard voices. (Coughs.) Mrs. W.—My chauffeur and I were driving through. My car refused to go and I saw a light burning in the window, so I came in to get warm. I knocked, but no one answered. Mr. M.—Aren't the children here? : Mrs. W.—Children? No, I've se:n nobody. I came in when no one answered—— Mr. M.—Quite all right. It's a cold night. I was asleep—my influenza’s gotten me again. Mrs. W.—You shouldn't be around like this. Go back to bzd and don’t mind me. Mr. M.—I wonder—where the children arve. (He coughs.) Il sit awhile until they come. Mrs. W.—Here, I'll build the fire higher. You mustn’t let yours:1f get chilly. (Voices of the children are heard outside and soon they enter carrying the tree, which is secure in a box standard.) Sarah (excited)—We'll put it in that cor- ner—— Jennie—And we'll make daisy chains for trimmin’—— Sarah (seeing Mrs. W.)—Look! Some one's here! Jennie—Lookit the bag! It's toys, I bett Frankie—Is it Santa’s ma? Jennie—I bet it is! (To Mrs. Wentworth:) Say, are you Santa’s ma? Mrs. W. (laughing) —Santa’s ma? ohnny said Santy wouldn't come ‘way up here for just us— Johnny—But Jennie said maybe he’d serig some one else—his ma, maybe—- Jennie—And you have a bag of toys—— Children (dancing)—You are Santy’s ma, aren’t you? Mr. M. (explaining)—The children ain’t had no Christmas since their mother dicd. We've been so poor up here—and this year, with me sick—— Jennie—See! We got a tree for you—'cause it didn’t look at all Christmas-y without it! Sarah—And we put a candle in the window to show you the way! Mrs. W.—Bless your hearts, it did show me the way. p (Jason enters.) Jason—The car is working, ma’am. loose wire. Weennm.ke?lneOenmeuny . in less than two hours. Mrs. W.—We're staying here tonight, Jason— and tomorrow, too. Children (happy)—You are? Really? Goodfe! Mrs. W.—Yes; you see, Santa’s ma is going to stay here a good long time to make up for the years Santa missed. Bring the bag of toys to me, Jason. Jason—VYes, ma'am. (He hands her the big bag of toys.) (She reaches in and pulls out toys and hands them to the children while they crowd around her with exclamations of delight.) Children—1It is Christmas! Santa did come! Sarah—I knew he ‘would if we got the tree and put the candle in the window for him. I knew he’d come! Johnny—But it wasnt Santa—it's Santd ma—and that’s even better, isn't it, pa? Mr. M.—VYes, indeed. You are lucky Ittle children, for this is the best Christmas you've ever had. Mrs. W.—But Christmas isn't Christmas without carols or chimes. We'll sing the carols first and then I'll cook you a Christmas Eve dinner. Jason, go out to the car and get the goose Children—A goose? Oh! Mrs. W.—Yes, but first the carols! Do yeu know any? Johnny—Oh, sure, we know—*It Ca Upon the Midnight Clear——" ot " Mrs. W.—That’s the one I want. It's the favorite carol of Santa’s ma. (She sits in center, the children gathered around her, and they sing the Christmas earo! as the curtain goes dowg) (THE END.) Answers. 1. Cross-word puzzle solution. [FIO[E]<] 2. The diamond is A, asp, aspen, aspirin, peril, nil, N. 3. The square is bath, area, team and hams, 4. Coast, cost, cream, cram. / 5. F-rank. G-loom.