Evening Star Newspaper, December 15, 1929, Page 123

STORIES SPORTS GAMES Banking Facts For Boys and Girls. By John Y. Beaty, Editor of Bankers’ Monthly. AROLD SEARS overheard his father say at the breakfast table, “I must send the $200 tax money to the county treasurer in North Dakota to pay the taxes on my land there.” Harold and his dad lived in Illinois and so, quite naturally, Harold asked his father, “Daddy, how can you send the money to North Dakota? If you put it in an envelope and mail it, somebody might steal it, wouldn't they? That is a lot of money to put in one envelope.” “That gives me an opportunity to explain to you,” said his father, “how easily money may be sent through the mail without much danger of its being lost or stolen. “I will go to my banker and ask him to give me a draft or a cashier’s check, explaining that I want to send $200 to the county treas- urer in Nelson County, North Dakota. I will pdy him the $200 and he will give me & cashier’s check which I will then insert in an envelope and mail to North Dakota. “This is approximately the same as if I sent my own check, with the exception that the county treasurer in North Dakota would prob- ably not accept my check, not having any knowledge as to whgther I might have a bal- ance in the bank or not. On the other hand, he will accept the cashier’s check from the bank because he feels much more certain that the bank will have a deposit to take care of the cashier’s check. “The important thing for you to know is that this cashier’s check is not made on my bank, but on a bank in the city and the cashier of my bank writes a check just the same as I would write one, with the exception that it has the bank back of it instead of an individual. “In this case the cashier’s check will prob- ably be iade on a bank in Minneapolis where I happen to know our bank has an account. The county treasurer in North Dakota then deposits the cashier’s check in his bank and his bank sends it to Minneapolis for collection. The money is taken out of the account of our bank there. Thus I have paid my taxes.” Optical Illusion An optical fllusion enables you to perform this card trick successfully. Take the 8 of clubs and the 9 of spades, 8 of spades and 9 of clubs and put them on top of the deck in the order named, secretly and in advance of the time for performing the trick. When you get before the audience pick § . PLACE THESE CARDS ON TOP OF DECK BEFORE STARTING SHUFFLE-NQT . DISTURBING' - TTOP CARDS, SHOW TOP 2 CARDS~ THEN BURY IN DECH. TOP CARDS NOW WILL BE CONFUSED WITH BURIED CARDS up this loaded deck carelessly and shuflle it, being careful not to disturb the top cards. Take the first two cards and show them to the audience for a very short space of time. Put the cards back into the deck at random in full view of the audience and leave them on a table in plain sight of all. Explain as you walk away from the table that you will make those cards rise through the rest of the deck and come on top by sheer power of thought. Appear to think hard for a moment and then walk back over and pick up the top two cards from the deck. Of course, they are not the same ones you originally took from the top of the deck, but nearly every one will con- fuse the 9 of spades and 8 of clubs with the 9 of clubs and 8 of spades if they are shown very quickly and not for a long space of time, Try it and see. He Remembered. Teacher—When did shingle come into use? Tommy—1 think it was when I was about five years old, ma'am. Young Girl (watching pole vauit)—Think how much higher he could go if be didn't have %o carry that stick. P Freg o SR el B 5 0908 THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, - DECEMBER 15, 1929. 64e BOYS and ' GIRLS PAGE Marching Feet. The Story of a Boy Who Rose to an Eszergency. BY W. BOYCE MORGAN. Crumpled against the wall he felt a body. Harrison Gore is & boy of slight physique but con- siderable musical ability, and when he plays for the students to march out of the assembly hall at Waynesville High School his marches are irresistible. But Harrison feels that other and stronger boys, his elder brother Jack included, regard him with con- tempt, and he feels bitter when he is not chosen as one of several boys who are to keep order at a Christmas entertainment to be held in the High School assembly hall. Harrison, however, is to play the piano during the program. In the midst of the entertainment the huge crowd is thrown into a panic when the decorations catch fire and spread flames throughout the room. The broad stairs to the rear are blocked for repairs and the only way out is past the flaming stage. Jack, Harrison’s brother, tries to guide the terrified crowd toward the front door in the darkness. INSTALLMENT IIL ARRISON had been well toward the front of the room when the fire started, and he had not moved. Now as the frightened boys and girls made for the front door, something of their panic filled him, and he dashed for- ward. The glare from the flames lighted that end of the room, and as he reached the door the furious light illuminated for a moment the face of his brother. Jack’s face was set grimly, and his eyes were filled with fear. And the reason for that fear burst upon Har- rison as he stopped for a split second beside his brother and turned. Bearing down upon them, like stampeding cattle, was the terror- stricken horde that a moment before had been a quiet, peaceful audience of boys and girls, men and women. The light of the flames was reflected in their eyes as they raced forward, plunging down the aisles, shoving one another aside, bent only on passing that fire and reach- ing the door that led to safety. They could never get through! Harrison realized that in a flash. The other guards were all at the rear of the room—only Jack stood here to try to guide them through the door. A desperate resolve to help his brother came to him, but at that moment the mob was upon them. - The first of them got through, but those be- hind were pushing so rapidly that many were jostled against the wall and thrown away from the door. Frantically raising his voice above the shrill cries of fear, Jack tried to slow them down, to help make them get through the door in some semblance of order. But Jack was helpless, crushed against the wall, thrown aside before the milling throng. Then suddenly an inspiration came to Har- rison. Somewhere in the back of his seething brain there flashed a memory of the orderly students as they marched from this very room to the strains of his music. He remembered how irresistible the beat of march time was— how those who heard it could not help but let their feet move to the rhythm of the music. And as the thought hammered at his brain, he became a fighting, struggling boy, pushing his way toward the piano that yet might avert a disaster. It was physically impossible to get through the crowd. Only one way was open, and that was over the stage, which was rapidly being transformed into a roaring furnace. With a little sob he clambered upon it, feeling the flames licking at his clothes, his nostrils filled with acrid smgke. He stumbled across it in the darkness, leaped to the floor and found the piano. The stool had been pushed away by the rush of the crowd, and the keys felt hot as his fingers found them, but he was unconscious of Punkinville’s Community Christmas Tree KA PTEEPAE 5OC BUD MORROWS PAIN KILLER PILLS alt LOUIE CONSTANT @ PICYCLES REMIRED] WHILE U WAT , RV . HARRY WALIACE SCHMIDT | PINOUHLE & VIS . T8 L EL TTIUEN U X the h.at, oblivious to everything except the necessity of playing. The flames crackled. The air was full of shrill cries of fear. Then suddenly above these sornds there arose the inspired strains of a spirited march. Harrison, playing desperately in the darkness, feared that nobody would hear him. But the music would not be denied. The feet of some of the crowd began to move in time to the music. The pressure at the door relaxed for a moment, and those blocking the ~ exit, crushed against the walls, were able to squeeze through. Others followed, two abreast, and more moved up to take their places. In a few minutes there was a measured tramping on the floor, and as the flames spread over the walls and ceiling of the room, the blanched and fascinated faces of the children could be seen, gazing awestruck at the peril so near them as they marched toward safety. Harrison, at the piano, was in a position of grave danger. Already the side of the instru- ment nearest the stage was smoldering, and the strong smell of scorched varnish came to his senses above a hundred other impressions. The air that he breathed, mostly smoke, seemed to burn his very throat and lungs, and the tears were streaming from his eyes. Doggedly he played on, wondering if he could endure until the hall was cleared. Now the flames were licking over the top of the piano, and he was looking into a furnace as his eyes gazed toward the stage. He gasped for breath, burying his face in the lapel of his ccat to try to shut out the stifling smoke. His senses reeled, but the sounds of the music told him that he was still playing, and he could still hear the beat of feet movirg down the narrow stairs to safety. Choking, realizing that he could bear no more, he looked rapidly toward the door. They were all through! Pressing his arm over his eyes and nose to keep out the heat and the cruel smoke, he staggered blindly toward the door. His groping hands found it, and he cried out with pain, for the framework was burning. He gathered his weakening body for a dash through, when suddenly a low moan reached his ears. Somebody was still there! Somebody had failed to get through. With a desperate effort he forced his eyes open, but now the thick smoke would allow him to see nothing. He dropped to the floor and struggled toward the moan. A dozen feet away, crumpled against the wall, he felt a body. He tried to clutch the shoulders, and his hands passed over the face and hair. Then he uttered a desperate groan. It was Jack, his brother, flung aside and injured as he tried ‘o guide the crowd to safety! (To Be Concluded Next Sunday.) El Comancho’s Stories Something About Crawfishs The crawfish is never seen at all by many people, yet he is an interesting creature in several ways. He can live in or out of water, and he can get along on either a vegetable or meat diet, and he well knows how to take care of himself under any sort of circumstance that he may encounter. For instance, he likes to eat certain small water plants that he finds in ponds and rivers, yet he can drop any and all vegetable food at any time and live on small minnows, or even on fish eggs or insects. He has no difficulty in catching these last with his big, awkward’ pincers, which you would think he could not even move without scaring every living thing in sight. In fact, this creature is not a pretty thing to look at from any point of view. The crawfish is the little fresh-water brother of the big sea lobster and, like him, he is good to eat when he is full grown. When he is small he is just as good to eat, but it tekes too much time to eat him because he must be boiled in salt water until he is red, like the lobster, and then his tail is pulled off where it joins the body and the rest is thrown away. There is no meat in the body and the only edible part of him is the big white muscles of his tail. When his tail is separated from the body it has to be peeled like the tail of a shrimp, for all’ these creatures have a hard, armor-like shell. This hard shell is the same as that of the lobster except that it is not so thick or hard, but .it is still a job to peel it in order to eat the fine tail meat. Crawfish like still water with considerable plant growth in it, so they can be found in almost any pond, stream or lake, where they hide under rocks, slabs, moss beds or any- thing that will protect them from the predatory fishes which all eat them. The fish are a particular danger when the crawfish are small or when they are soft and helpless just after’ shedding their shells, which they do progres—, sively as they grow larger. This shell does not grow after Jt is once formed, and as the crawfish does grow he has to shed his shell. When a pond inhabited by crawfish begins to grow dry from evaporation or any other cause, the crawfish digs down into the mud of the bottom, sometimes as much as two feet but usually about a foot, and there he hollows out a roomy den. This, of course, is full of - water, which is the thing he must have to. live comfortably, because his shell gets hard and brittle when dry. As he digs his hole he piles the dirt up into a chimney above ground, so that his den can always be found by looking for this foot-high chimney. You will some= times see the chimneys in damp, ground in the “{ml g5, el as indried up ponds. ... . @