The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, February 5, 1910, Page 1

ISSUED EVERY SATURDAY FOR THE BOYS AND GIRLS OF SAN FRANCISCO AND CALIFORNIA NIOR CALL 1910 SAN FRANCISCO, CAL. FEBRUARY 3, HAVE YOU SEEN ALONZO? oH! ALONZO come OVER. AND SEE WHAT I FOUND . Landes Shei)herds There 1s a vast district in France where the entire community goes about and transacts its business on stilts. This district is called ''Les Landes.” The inhabitants,*who are among the poorest peasants in France, gain their subsistence by fishing, by such little agriculture as is possible and by keep- ing cows and sheep. The shepherds make use of their stilts for two pur- poses—first, because walking is quite impossible on account of the sage and undergrowth of brush, and, second, be- cause the height of their stilts gives them a greater range of vision. The stilts generally are about six or seven feet high, Near the top there is a support for the foot, which has a strong stirrup and strap, and still nearer the top a band of leather fastens the stilt firmly to the leg just below the knee. Some stilts, especially those made for fancy walking and for tricks, are even higher than seven feet, and the man who uses these-—and he must be an expert—can travel as fast as 10 miles an hour, The lower end of this kind of stilt is capped with a sheep bone to prevent its splitting. Some of these Landes shepherds are wonderfully clever in the management of thefr stilts, They run races, step or jump over brooks, clear fences and walls and are able to keep their balance and equilibrium while stooping to the ground to pick up pebbles or to gather wild flowers. They fall prone upon their faces and assume their perpen- dicular without an effort and in a single Moment after they have thus prostrated themselves.—Technical World Maga- zine, Daniels Come to Judgment A Chicago judge has decided that it is unlawful for a landlord to refuse to rent a house or apartment to a family just because there are children in the family. In Massachusetts the state rallway commission has decided that it is both the right and the duty of a §treetcar conductor to put a drunken or otherwise offensive passenger off the car, and that the passenger has no redress even if he has paid his fare. N Pl Wireless in Oceanica ‘'here is talk of a great chain of wireless telegraph stations, to be made by the British admiralty (navy depart- ment) in the Paclfic ocean. Instru- ments will be placed at Sydney, Aus- traiia, New Zealand, New Hebrides, Fiji group, Solomon islands and Ocean island. This Is the most extensive sys- tem of wireless telegraphy yet pro- posed, Descendants of John Alden A recent writer on the Pllgrim Fath- ors states that more than 5§ direct descendants of John Alden and Pris- cilla are now living in this country, * THAT SUSPENDERS ARE M f Gt BET YOU WISHED YOU FOUND THE M Savant Finds Fish With Rudi- mentary Legs Dr. John Haseman on an exploring -trip in South Amerlca for the Carnegie Institute of Pittsburg has discovered the missing link in animal life between the salamander and the fish, according to a dispatch received by Dr. Karl Eigemann, head of the Indiana univer- sity sociological department. At the junction of the Rio Negro and the Amazon river, near Manaos, Brazil, the explorer says he recently found a fish with rudimentary legs. The specles ‘is a scaleless animal, which is blind, has a dorsal, cartilagin- ous c¢ord instead of a true skeleton, has teeth in a small head, mouth on the under side and a protruding jaw, a dor- sal skin flap resembling a fin and the anal opening at the tip of the tail, ap- parently the link between the sala- mander and a fish. The discovery is most important to zoologists. —_—_— New Study for Schools A state commission has reported to .the Massachusetts legislature a rec- ommendation that “thrift” be added to the list of subjects which must be taught in all public schools. The teaching of thrift, the commission says, should show the benefits of sav- ing, both to the individual and the -community, and should make plain to the pupil the principles of investments and insurance. Monorailways No less wonderful than the flying machines is the gyroscope railway, which had successful trials in England, Cars carrying many passengers bal- anced themselves on a single rail and turned sharp corners at high speed without falling, This promises a great cheapening of the cost of building rail- ways in the future, ————— Cruelty to Animals “Cruelty to dumb animals is one of the distinguishing vices of the lowest and basest of the people. Whenever it is found it is a certain mark of ig- norance and meanness; an intrinsic mark which all the external advantages of wealth, splendor and noblility can not obliterate.”—Ella Wheeler Wilcox, Good Work of the Life Savers The life saving service saved, or helped to save, 8,870 lives during the last year, according to the annual re- port, There were 1,376 marine disas- ters in which the life savers gave help; and of 8,900 lives in danger only 30 were lost, Beasts Inherit a Fortune A Boston man named C.'F., Wright left $70,000, by will, to be used for the care of his horses and dogs, Mary, £ W 6 OO I YOU TAUK THAT WAY e TAKE THEM AWAY FROM Craze for Cane Bedsteads The use for cane in domestic furni- ture is of very ancient date. About all recognized styles of household fur- niture. go back no further than the sixteenth century, and cane was in vogue even at that early period. There is really everything to com- mend its use. It is clean, sanitary, decidedly "good- to look at, with its semitransparent diaper weave, easily replaced anq. on the whole, may be said to possess properties all its own. Without having much weight, it is very strong and serviceable, 36 Gl { firm, yet. not hard, and offers a .certain amount of resiliency that ls peculiarly restful to the human body, Just at present cane bedsteads in the early Jacobean styles are enjoving a great vogue in England, and the craze is beginning to show signs of transplantation to this country. The spiral post came bhedstead was in a great favor in the time of Willlam and and it "is now being manufac- tured in this country and promises to have a wide popularity, Cane is an ideal material for chil- dren’s beds, It is airy, light and clean and does away with all the inconven- fence and even danger of metal bars, Boy Soldiers Face Fire Four hundred students at the New York military academy at Cornwall owe their lives to the strict training of the military course., Fire broke out in the main dormitory at night. The building was ablaze when two cadet buglers, roused by a watchman, sound- ed the fire drill call. Nearly all of the cadets, without panic, formed in sol- dierly ranks and marched out of the burning hall as quietly as if the bugie had called them to an ordipary drill. The flames destroyed that dormitory and another near it. None of the cadets was hurt. ’ Immense Fan for Coal Mines - The largest mine fan in America if not in the world is planned for- the ventilation of three mines at Marian- na, Pa. The great fan will be 55 feet in diameter, which is five feet larger than any fan now in use in American mines, and will have a ecapacity of 1,200,000 cubic feet of air per minute, enough to blow the whole summit of the hill at Marianna away if com- pressed. The fan and its accessory machinery, it is sald, will involve an expenditure of $200,000. PUAET G SR L N Ry Moving Pictures From Aero- plane A moving picture operator was taken up by Latham recently on a 7 min- ute trip at an elevation of 80 feet from the ground. He took pictures with the lens pointing downward. Patrons of moving picture shows, therefore, may soon have a chance to see how the ground looks from a flying machine. ADE OF RUBBER HE AND THE PUPPY FORGET O NS, RS AL TNl e —eofe Indians Do Not Wish to B Yo Citizens ' It seems that there are some men modest enough to believe and to say that they are not fitted for Amervican citizenship. Fifteen thousand membersSof the civilmed Indian tribes, the Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws and Cherokees have joined in a petition to congress and the president, asking that citizen- ship be withheld from them. They say they ave not prepared to exercise such responsibility and ask that the United States continue to act as their guar- dian, Farms Making Nation Pros- perous If agriculture is the true basis of national prosperity—and that s the teaching of political economy—our country certainly ought to be pros- perous, The figures given by the secretary of agriculture are astounding—almeost nine billion doliars’ worth of wealth produced on the farms of the United States during this single year 1909! Napoleon There is some talk of establishing a small museum in the house at Ajaccio where Napoleon | was born. A good deal of attention has been given to it by visitors to Corsica of late. The house {s a little old world Italian villa of yellowish plaster work, and windows with shutters which are nearly always closed. It has just the same outward appearance as its neigh- bors in the narrow street in which it is situated. A small garden, with palms, cactus and other semitropleal vegetation separates the house from the roadway with the inscription, “Here was born, the 15th of August, 1769, the founder of the imperial "dynasty.” Queer Insurance Paderewski has his fingers, thumbs, eyes, and toes separately and heavily insured. A few months ago he damaged a finger nail while playing in New York, thus necessitating his disappoint- ing an audience at Philadelphia the next night, and involving the payment of $5,000 to him under an insurance policy. So much depends upon the per- fect fitness of Paderewski's marvelous fingers and thumbs that the most scrupulous care is taken that no in- Jury shall happen to them, e ————e L Who Has $300,000 io Spare Captain Bartlett, who accompanied Commander Peary on his north polar journey, would like to command an ex- pedition to discover the south pole if he can find somebody to put up $300,000 for the necessary expenses, —