Evening Star Newspaper, August 3, 1930, Page 99

ecamp, and his roar resounded through the trees. The world stood still, it seemed, abashed and fearful in his presence. No baboon barked, no monkey chattered from his limb, no shrinking dweller in the bush dared to interrupt or raise hi< voice in that most monstrous presence. My watch showed less than an hour before dawn, and still Almighty Voice seemed to be in no hurry to leave the water. I lighted the lan- tern, arose, and had breakfast. Then, 15 minutes before the light was strong encugh to show the sights clearly, I handed a lighter gun to Arabi and took a heavy gun myself. We hurried through the open trees, Arabi a pace or two behind. We walked per- haps a quarter of a mile, and now the light was almost perfect. The sun had not yet risen, but brush and trees stood out in sharp and clear perspective. We hurried on—and then, as I looked ahead, here came Almighty Voice himself, just 50 yards away, strolling casually in our exact direciion. His head was up, but he was looking to the right and had not seen us. I crouched and whispered back to Arabi: “Ahsud! Lion!” A stunted brush some 20 feet ahead was almost in a line between us and the lion. I motioned guardedly, and Arabi and I, keeping that bush in line, eased forward swiftly, stoop- ing low, and crouched behind it. And then it flashed across my mind that Arabi was totally unskilled in the lore of handling weapons, un- trained in bearing guns for white men. He might lose his nerve in the face of a sudden charge and scatter for a handy tree. I took mg- lighter rifle from his hand, cocked it and laid it on the ground beside my foot, so that if Arabi should take to cover the second gun would still be with me. WI’I‘H the most stately, majestic tread, Al- mighty Voice still sauntered directly to- ward us, entirely unconscious of our presence. As I raised the gun and watched him marching on so close, I was utterly astonished by his size. He must have weighed fully 500 pounds. I thought that, should the first shot fail to break a heavy bone or knock him down, he could be almost upon me by the time the second ecartridge was ready in the chamber. I was shooting a bolt action, 425-caliber rifie, a good and sufficient gun. But the cartridges were hardpoints which I had filed slightly across the tips in the dum-dum fashion, to take the place of softpoints that had not arrived before I left Khartoum. Sighting for the chest, I fired. And it was as if the bullet released a spring of steel that worked those sturdy legs. The big brute did not fall or stand and look arourd bewildered for a second, as you might expect. He sprang forward instantly. And as he landed from that spring his head was low and his round, glaring eye, burning like coals fanned by a high wind, gleamed with savage eagerness. He came on at top speed, running low, almost hugging the ground. THE SUNDAY STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, AUGUST 3, 1930. —_————aa——————— % The gun-bolt snapped back. The empty shell flew out, and another was shoved home like lightning. The operation was entirely subcon- sclous and as fast as my hands could make it But fast as that operation was, when I sighted a second time he was almost up fo us, but, strangely enough, about 30 feet to the right. Then I saw the error in his sudden judgment. A larger patch of brush stood 30 or 40 feet to our right and a lttle behind us. This had caught and held his eye as the place where the come from. rush for the larger brush patch almost straight in our direction, now abreast of us and 30 feet to second shot also failed to knock . In a curious way, however, it moved or 4 feet sidewise, as if a great wind him off his path. nt he must have seen us, for saw him swing his head our move to turn. I shot again. llet knocked him down. But so great speed, in spite of the slight the nd shot, that he rolled i Hh £x > FFEg,EEERER §E;EEE§§§ o As I wrung the strains of tune after tune from the wheezing tin harmonica, my hairy audience sat spellbound, in baboon ecsiasy. over and over, into the edge of the brush-patch behind us and a trifle to the right, and disap- peared in tangled grass and bushes. At this most critical moment, with a wounded lion in thick bush no more than 40 feet away, Arabi, giving & typical illustration of the fine headwork of the untrained native, jumped wildly to his feet at my back and wavipg his skinny arms he yelped, at the top of his lungs: “Kollus! Kollus!” (Finished! Finished!). Shades of Nimrod! The show might be only at its start, for all we knew. Was the lion badly hurt? Was he alone, or had he been traveling with others at his heels? With a yank I pulled Arabi down and snapped: “Etnain!” (Another!). I had seen no other, and I dared not take my eyes from that bush long enough to look for one. But the idea being mew to Arabi, would give him something besides celebrations to think about. THE brush parted, and with a roar so deep and vibrant that it seemed actually to shake the ground, the lion hurled himself straight for ws. His mouth was open wide; his shaggy mane stood out beyond his flattened ears, and his eyes blazed with fire. Never in dreams or childish nightmares have I beheld such a pioe ture of fury. In the same split-second that this hairy catapult registered itself om my consciousness, the gun was up and the shot fired. No time to catch sights. No time to think of anything. No time for numbing fear to enter the mind. That shot was instinctive, And the lion crumpled like a pole-axed ox, one jump—some 20 feet—from where I worked the bolt again with clicking speed to slam another cartridge home. He lay relaxed and limp, his legs beneath his heavy body. I kept the rifle on that twitching torso while Arabi, with frightened eyes, watched nervously about for another lon that he thought I had seen. The brute was not yet dead, and the swelling muscles of the back heaved spasmodically. Remembering - the old Antaean fable of strength renewed from the ground, I walked to the side where I had a clear shot for the heart and put & bullet behind the shoulder. Arabi, of course, then let go and staged & fantastic one-man show. “Ahsud Kebir! Wahush sari! Kebir kamel* Never have I seen a beast with such superhs and perfect muscles. The weight and thick- ness of a wild lion are much greater than those of pallid specimens seen in cages at the 200. While Arabi was on the way to camp for & pack camel, I checked the shots. The first had merely grazed the chest. The second, the one that so strangely moved him sidewise from his course, had struck the center of the right shoulder. It should have shattered the shoulder-blade and gone through that stout heart. But I had filed it too much. Against the solid muscle with the heavy bone behind, it had mushroomed and flown to pieces. The shoulder-blade had not been pierced or broken, The third, the shot that knocked him down the first time, had entered softer parts farther back and had behaved as a bullet should. The fourth, the one that felled him, had caught him in the center of the chest, where the first should have hit—and it evidently had been filed gry little, for it plunged through the heavy est muscles and ranged backward through the vital organs. The fifth, the coup-de-grace, entered just behind the second, or shoulder, shot, and reached the heart. Old Pythagorus or classic memory sacrificed an ox upon the day he solved the forty-seventh theorem of Euelid. I had no ox to sacrifice— but doubt it not, I found more joy and relief in the fortunate solution of that lion than if 147 of Mr. Euclid’s most difficult annoyances had fallen to the feeble bullets of my brain. If the Mon had known exactly where I was at first, and 80 not made the one slight er¥or andchouenthemnzbushlnhlsfuflomnfl:. he would have been in springing distance at the moment of the second shot. And then—would that second shot have reached the heart or brain and stopped him instantly? I think the chances heavily against it. Yes, had I brought along a fatted ox, X wm::d have thankfully sacrificed him om the Spot (Oopyright, 1930.) How the Bureau of Standards Saves Millions for America. Continued from Fourteenth Page food products in themselves, with the exception of sugar. The family sugar bowl is of interest. There are three varieties of great importance as foods. The first, sucrose, is the ordinary sugar of commerce produced from beets or sugar cane, and the only one in common use in the household. The second, dextrose, was first produced in crystallized form at the bu- reau from corn, and commercial production now reaches the total of many millions of pounds annually, more than half of it going into the making of bread. The third, levulose, is made from the Jerusalem artichoke, a tuber that can be grown from Alaska to Panama.’ Honey is largely levulose, which is the sweetest and most easily digested of the three sugars. We have already shown how it can be crystal- lized, and we are engaged in solving the many and intricate problems on which its commer- cial production depends. The housewife will eventually have three sugars instead of one, each having its special advantages in baking, prescrving ‘and table use.” TATISTICS show us that about 85 per eent of the goods sold at retail are purchased by women. Like the purchasing agents of great corporations, women want their money’s worth. They want quality and full count and correct weight and measure. Overdiversifica- tion is, of course, a serious economic waste, and the great diversity of qualities, brands, package sizes and other essential matters have occupied the attention of the Bureau of Standards to the advantage of the household purchasing agent to a degree undreamed of by the general shopper. This was one of the problems considered by Mr. Hoover when he was Secretary of Commerce, and in 1921 the “simplified practice” work was undertaken at his suggestion. Producers and distributors, as 8 result, voluntarily reduced the number of sizes and varieties and limited production. to those sizes and varieties which are most use- ful and economical. When the work began there were 33 different Jengths of hospital beds manufactured for general use. There is now 1. The varying widths of these beds have been reduced from 84 to 3, and heights from 44 to 1. In springs and mattresses there were 78 different sizes. These have been reduced to 4, and the sizes of bed blankets from 78 to 12. There were 700 varieties of hotel chinaware. There are now only 67, and by this enormous re- duction the manufacturers were enabled to make a discount of about 15 per cent in costs to users. The savings reach staggering totals, In the building and housing trades, men’s ready-made clothing, boots and shoes and tex- tile manufacturing it was found that the pre- vention of waste which may be made possible by standardization would range from 29 to 64 per cent—a total of $10,000,000,000 annually in these industries. The acceptance of the standards laid down by the bureau in co-operation with the Fed- eral Specifications Board and distributors is not mandatory, but so great has been the in- terest shown in the methods by which the con- sumer can be sure that he is getting goods put upon the market under recognized au- thority that a “quality labeling” plan has been devised which is being rapidly adopted by merchants and manufacturers of many products. The Federal Government has found that some system of certification is necessary for its own protection in the purchase of more than $250,000,000 worth of merchandise yearly. In these purchases the use of specifications is, naturally, mandatory in Government estab- lishments. About 600 of these specifications are in use. If a manufacturer is willing to certify that his product meets in every par- ticular the standard set by the simplified prac- tice division, he is allowed to affix a label to his goods saying that he is willing to certify to the purchaser, upon request, that the material supplied complies with the re- quirements and tests of the master specifica- tions and is so guaranteed. ‘The reception given to this certification plan by manufacturers has been very encouraging, and the specifications are being widely used by purchasing agents not only for the Fed- eral Government, but for State, county and municipal governments. It is expected that the benefits thus de- rived by the large quantity purchasers from the use of the Federal specifications will be recognized by the consumer of over-the- counter goods and that the retailer will de- mand that his commodities carry this gquality label. The trade associations working in con- junction with the board are willing to do this “policing” of production—which is in no sense a compulsory compliance with a Federal law, but simply the application of some excellent horse sense which the Government has found effective in its own purchasing. Bm bringing the self-identifying, quality- guaranteeing, willing-to-certify labeling plan to any group of manufacturers, descrip- tions of the system and the proposal are sent to all interested trade associations and techni- cal societies for their comments and criticisms. Should opposition develop, no attempt is made to bring the plan to the attention of the in- dividual manufacturer, but the plan thus far has met with such enthusiastic approval that the success of the movement is a foregone conclusion. Dr, Burgess has pointed out that there are some 10,000 different brands of flour on the market; more than 4,500 brands of canned corn; more than 1,000 each of peaches, salmon and tea; 500 of mustard and 300 of canned 'Bce."‘ said Dr. Burgess, “is a question of commercial standards. Just as with styles, so with grades, brands and qualities, it would ap- pear to be economically sound to apply the principles and methods of simplified practice. The establishment of definite standards of grade and quality for food products would help to educate the public to buy according to standard specifications and prevent exploitation when inferior grades are sold at prices com- manded by superior grades.” Of course, it is not the function of the bu- reau to determine the specifications for food products, but in establishing standards of pack- age sizes, weights and measures and other physical attributes in Government purchases, it is also pointing the way whereby the average shopper may demand that he, too, be supplied with similarly authenticated goods. Without the aid of unending statistics and tiresome data it is almost impossible to visualize what savings are made and just how they are aceomplished. Still, taking as an instance the matter of containers for food products alone, one may get some little idea of the economies introduced by the bureau’s work and how, eventually, they tend to make the housewife’s necessary daily expenditures come more nearly within the limits of reason and keep her further away from the wiles of the unscrupulous dealer. When this work of simplification was begun there were 49 sizes of milk bottles in ‘current use. Now there are four. There were more than 6,000 different styles and sizes of paper bags, 35 sizes of salt packages and 480 differ- ent sizes and styles of paint and varnish brushes. All these have been reduced in num- ber from 30 to 70 per cent. Now, this means a great saving in time, materials, economy of space and consequently greater production on the part of the manufacturers. Eventually this saving, through competitive prices, finds its way to the consumer. : The bureau has under way the problems cf simplifying and standardizing containers, such as tin cans for fruit and vegetables, glass jars for jellies, preserves, etc., and containers for vegetable shortenings, boxes, barrels, crates, pails, tubs, bottles and jugs. Many .food prod- ucts are put up in too many different sizes of containers, and analysis of the gquantities nor- mally used by the average family shows that certain sizes might be eliminated with benefit to manufacturer, wholesaler, jobber and retailer, Standards of size might well be adopted by packers of olives, pickles, corn, peas and the great variety of foods that most of us dwellers in cities have to use. ‘When all this standardization is finally effec- tive, a vast percentage of the saving of time, waste, space and all the other elements of manufacturing, transportation and storage economy will be translated into terms of saved dollars to the household purchasing agent. Last year something -approaching $100,000,000,000 was put into the pay envelopes of wage earners in the Unitedl States. Of this vast sum about $60,000,000,000 was paid out by the women who do the purchasing for the running of the homes. If, solely as a matter of illustration, the saving by this simplified practice amounted to but 1 per cent of all this, a few calculations will show you that the amount is about $600,« 000,000. Think it over. ’l‘o standardize dress patterns, wall paper and fuel ofls would present a problem to the visitor from New Zealand or the man from Mars. The standard dress pattern doesn’t mean & sort of universal kimono. It means that dress patierns made by the dictators of style shall be calibrated on a known system, based upon certain measurements as to bust, waist, hip, etc.,, and the varying measurementa - previously listed by the patternmakers have been reduced in number to an unbelievable de« gree. Wall papers have been standardized as to width, quality of paper, length of roll, fasthess of color, ete, and the specifications laid dows#™ have been adopted by virtually all the manuface turers of wall paper and dress patterns in the country. 2 So with industrial and domestic fuel ofls, The great increase in the use of oil burners in household heating plants during the last few years has made it necessary to specify exactly the type and quality of oil which can be used with safety and economy, the proper flash point, viscosity, pour point, etc. The American Oil Burner Association assumed the initiative in this matter and developed the first specifications. The assistance of the Bureau of Standards was requested in order to bring these into broader use, with the result that the certification plan was adopted and made effective on July 15, 1929. Thus the benefits long known to users of oil as fuel in great industrial plants ‘have been made available to the small consumer. There is no single thing that has #0 do with human endeavor but depends upon exach measurement for” its effectiveness. Light and heat, power and time, the carbohydrates of our diets and the hybocarbons of our motor fuels, the wave lengths of our radio systems and the reflective quality of the paint on our houses—all these, to do the work for which they are intended to the best advantage, must be measured and made to conform to certain - standards. It is the business of the men wheo work in the great laboratories out on' Cone necticut avenue, in Washington, to set these standards and to apply the principles of thefr operation so that we may eliminate waste and thereby gain in efficiency and well-being. A Seventy-five per cent of the great manufags turing organizatigns and their national socletieg have come to know what all this means, and they have sent selected men to the bureaw where they are working under the directiom of and in co-operation with the great experty in individual flelds of research. The knowle edge thus obtained will ultimately be passed on, get into the products which are marketed by these far-seeing manufacturers and help to make us know that standardisal - doesn’t mean making everything uniformily and durably neutral.