Tea Taster for the Government Is Appointed
Angola, Portugal’s
African Brazil
THAW HIRES “FIGHTER”
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Reported Earthquake Brings tlons sre better than on that below.
The transition is from aridity and
It Into Prominence.
lack of vegetation through »ernl-artd-
Washington.—A
recent
dispatch
from Africa stating that “the Island
of Por' Alexander” had been swal
lowed by the sea In an earthquake,
serve» to bring Into news prominence
Angola, Portugal'» huge dominion In
western Africa, says a bulletin from
the Washington headquarters of the
National Geographic society.
“There 1« no Island of Port Alexan
der off Angola," says the bulletin.
"Port Alexander, or more properly
Porto Alexandre, I* an excellent haven
on the southern »nd most remote coast
of Angola, protected by a long sandy
peninsula. This 1» s true peninsula,
well above the water even at highest
George F.
»upervbilng tea examiner, bureau of chemistry, tiu» been appointed by Secretary of Agncui tide, and could not properly be re
tur« Gore 11« the official tee taster, assisted by a board of expert» who met for the flrat time In New York when stand ferred to as an Island. The name has
ar<la of the varioit» teaa were determined. Photograph «how a Mitchell ut the bureuu of cbemlatry demonstrutin.' also been given to a fishing town that
ha« sprung up In recent years on the
the tea tUMtlng that I« hl« <>m< lul job.
malnlinu shore inside the protecting
spit.
Errors Bring Joy
to Stamp Collector
Philatelist Ever on Watch called the clerk'« attention to the er
ror. The Issue wns called In and a
for Printer’s Mistakes.
hunt mads for other errors by the
oooaoooooooooooooooooooooa
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2
5
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A
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I
Oxford. England.—Silas Nor-
ton's house, where William Penn
preached one of his unpopular
sermons in 1087. has recently
been demolished.
Penn was at that time In Ox-
ford only as a visitor. He en-
tered as a student at Christ
Church college at the age of
sixteen, but was very shortly ex
pelled for his religious opinion«.
Thomas Lowe, who Induced Penn
to become a Quaker, was for a
good many years an Oxford rest-
dent.
Penn’s old college, by way of
amends, hns bls portrait hung
conspicuously in Its hall.
As the Pilgrim divines were
chiefly Cambridge men. Oxford.
not to be outdone, makes the
most of all Its American connec-
tlons. Lord Baltimore Is still
without a memorial in his old
college. Trinity, hut as Trinity
has portraits of two of Its stu-
dents well known In American
history—William Pitt, who won
the continent, and I.ord North.
who lost half of It—the college
feels satisfied.
g
o
g
6
5
X
5
§
g
$
g
c
g
3
g
O
post nfflee official». but no more were
found. The other three pane» of the
sheet of errors were discovered at the
bureau.
Mr. Robey sold his block of stamps
to Eugene Klein of Philadelphia for
(15,000 and the denier In' turn sold
them to E. II. It. Green, non of Hetty
Green, for (20,000. Mr. Green broke
the block, kept some for bls own col
lection and put tlie others on sale on
0
the regular market.
They bring
£
$750 each now und the stamp Is said
C
to have a “good future." Which
e
means, hold on to your 24 cent error
g
If you have one.
o
The first Inverted error on record
g
was made In 1809 In the 15. the 24 |
O
and 50 cent values. Some of then«- got |
g
Into the hands of collectors before I
p
they were found and called in. An
g
unused copy of the 15-cent value was
0
sold In New York recently for (4,100.
«nd an unused 30-cent value fetched
o
$3,500. Stamps, like eggs, are valu O0OO00OO00O0O000OO0O0OO0OO
able In proportion as they are scarce
in the 1901 Pan American set there
were inverted errors In the 1. 2 lad In tone that* the others. These three
4-cent values. These have never de- were ordered removed from the plate
| manded prices In four figures, but und new Impressions made.
When
Error Increases Value.
they disappear Into collections not on the printer called for the roller to
Hut an exceedingly Important und. the market.
make these new Impressions he re
to the laymnn, surprising source of
ceived by mistake the roller for the
The 5.Cent Red Error.
rare stamps is the error. In every
5-cent value, which greatly resembles
Issue of »burps errors occur and every | The most sensational error that has the 2-cent roller upside down.
ever
been
made
In
the
United
state»
error Increases the value of u stamp '
Nobody caught the mistake and the
the famous "5-cent red error" of
for the philatelist, but the error he ; was
plate was approved and put to press
loves bet and the one for which tie 1915. Its value 1» not yet great be From March 7 until May 2 the sab
watchfully waits whenever a new Is- cause It had such a wide distribution of tiie Issue went on before the erroi
before it wns called in. The price
sue of stamps Is due 1» the Inverted ranges
from (10 to (1I, according to was discovered.
error. The Inverted error Is always
It Is not to be supposed that onn
liable to occur when the Issue Is a bl- whether the stamp has ten perfora four errors have been made slnct
tions or eleven, or no perforations ut
color Job, which means that the sheets
all. The 5-cent error la Interesting 1M19. Errors are being made all thi
of stamps must be printed twice. on
account of the wuy In which the time. Errors of Inka and colors am
There 1» the danger, from the stand mistake came about.
errors In perforating. Down at the bu
point of the philatelist, that In the
When the plates were ready for reau of engraving and printing the,»
second printing at least one sheet printing a proof was pulled and sub confess to many mistakes in even
will be turned upside down and come mitted to the Inspector for approval, printing but to the expectant, eager
out with an Inverted center. The last on proof of plate 7942, the Inspector philatelist It seems a long time be
ttM the philatelic world hud a thrill markiHl three Impressions as lighter tween errors.
of this kind was In 1018. when the bl-
color aero stamp Issue was printed.
A young private stamp collector
picked up (15,(MX) for the error made
In this issue. The collector wns Mr.
Robey of Washington, a Jeweler
whose hobby Is phllatelism. He had
♦----------------------------------------------------
After this the novice hns to attend
been watching for the appearance of
the new Issue ami when it came he Explorer Tells How Human several meetings, and ou each of
these he will consume smoked human
started out to buy a 24-cent aero
Flesh Is Eaten.
flesh. Torday goes on:
stamp. Sure enough, in a little branch
"When he ha» been sufficiently hard
London.—A “secret society of canni
post office of Washington he discov
ered his error—-a stamp with Its air bals" who consume human flesh purely ened to the practice by eating the pre
plane inverted. He bought the entire from a sense of public duty Is the dis servasi flesh used on these occasions,
pane of a hundred stamps and then covery claimed mhde in the Belgian he will be given opportunity of be
Congo by E. Torday. who describes his coming a full member bv assistititi nt
adventure» among these folk In n consumption of a fresh corpse.”
The Baluba men are expert weavers
HEROIC NURSE IN NOME book entitled "On the Trail of the
and the women efeel at embroidery.
Bushmongo," Just published here.
Torday. who In the course of study Torday says they make, beautiful
of the Bushmongo arts and crafts made clothes, and the idle of some of their
a collection for the British museum, cloth Is short and close, like the finest
Is enthusiastic about the artistic quali velvet. Another cloth is made with
ties of the Baluba—us the secret can da mask designs and among the colors
used are "delicate mauve-yellow, with
nibals are called.
* The tribe does not profess canni a black.”
He writes that ft Is ns sculptors and
balism publicly, and It was necessary
to obtain their confidence before it carverj that the Bushmongo are
was possible to obtain inside Informa known In the world, and within the
tion ns to their rites. Torday liked lust few yeans African sculptures have
the Baluba and they liked him: hence become the craze.
The principal objects produced are
lie got behind the reserve which has
prevented the ordinary traveler pene boxes, cups, dishes, drums, chairs and.
ranking above all, human figures, of
trating their secrets.
Dealing with the “public duty" aspect which the most remarkable are the
of the tribe’s cannibalism, the writer statues of ancient kings.
says: "In every village there are a
Walk 33,579 Miles
certain number of people who some
Portland. Ore.—Mr. and Mrs. II. E
times, simply out of a sense of duty
for the public good, dispose of the Baxter of Sioux City, la., who are non
corpses of slaves and malefactors by on a 50,000-tnlle hike around th'
eating them.” The Iden was that this world, passed through Portland re
prevents souls of the dead returning cently on the way to Vancouver. B. ('
Miss Emily Morgan of Wichita, to take vengeance on the village for They had covered a total of 33,57!■
miles of their Journey when they ar
Kans., the only Red Cross nurse In wrongs suffered during life.
This sort of “public duty" cannibal rived here.
Nome, In doing her part In battling the
diphtheria epidemic at the Maynard- ism Is conducted on secret society
Credits Hard Work
Columbia hospital there. She is In lines, owing to unpopularity of the
Biddeford Pool, Me.—Although sh
charge of the hospital. She helped practice among the neighboring white
keep the death list down while the folk. There Is a distinct rite of Initi admits she doos not like bobbed hair
crack racing dog teams of the Yukon ation. The Introducer of a new mem Mrs. Elizabeth Rich, who observed het
carried their precious packages of ber must first "touch his tongue with one hundred and second birthday re
antitoxin across the snow-swept flats. a piece of pudding dipped In the stew cently, declined to criticize mo ten
Miss Morgan visited the cabins and (human), then he will be made to ent fashions In clothes. Hard work, Mrs
schools of the Esquimaux und aided some of this In tiny bits and finally Rich gave as her recipe for longevity
and good health.
will swallow a piece of flesh."
them to fight off the disease.
Washington.—Consider the pbllntel
1st ; how contrurlly he works Queer
things have always I een done In the
name of collecting und all collectors
have coma to be regarded us having
rule» of their own by which they
live and operate. Hut nothing they
have done la more contrary to usual
laws than the manner II which they
have turned mistakes Into fortunes.
Since time was. people have pro
fessed to derive indirect profit from
their mistakes, but *he collector ac
tually dues reap material gain from
errors
Where do all the rare »taint » come
from? For what does tbv philatelist
value them?
There are the old
stumps, of course, such as the post
master Mumps of the days before
there were government Issues, und
there are stamps valuable for their
Sheer beauty of design and execution.
There art* the stamps of foreign coun
tries which have had various political
experiences such as the Alsace and
Lorraine issues of 1870-1871. These
are interesting as history.
• Has 1,000-Mile Coast.
Demolish House Where 3
“If id earthquake occurred in the
Immediate vicinity of Port Alexander
5 William Penn Preached g it may either have destroyed the
o
SECRET CANNIBAL CULT
FOUND IN BELGIAN CONGO
mainland town or a small supple
mental settlement on the peninsula.
A third possibility is that an Island
at some distance was destroyed and
that the news of the disaster, coming
through Port Alexander, caused the
scene of the tragedy to be confused
with the letter town.
"Angola covers a large part of
•outhwestern Africa.
It stretches
along the Atlantic ocean for a thou
sand miles and extends eight hundred
miles or moie Inland. A comi arable
slice of territory in toutheastern
United States would have a coast line
extending from southern Georgia to
New York city and, excepting Flor
ida, would Include an area greater
than all the states south of New York
and the Great Lakes, and east of the
Mississippi river.
"Thia vast region, although it was
discovered by Portuguese sailors in
1442 and although It has had Portu
guese settlements since 1575, has not
been developed to any great extent.
It was really a victim of the discovery
of Brazil and the route to India, for
Into those more promising regions
was poured all the colonizing energy
of Portugal at a time when that coun
try whs the world's leader In coloniza
tion. Tl.e stream of energy and men
passed Angola by, and It has been a
sort of Portuguese backwater ever
since.
“But there are also potent geo
graphic nnd bonomie reasons for An
gola's lack of development. With the
exception of former German South
west Africa, which adjoins it to the
south. Angola has the dreariest and
most forbidding coast of any section
of Africa.
“Sand dunes cover much of the
hind immediately along the coast, with
here ami there bare rocky promon
tories Jutting out of the shifting
grains. Where the sands are not In
dunes a scrub grows, but It is so
sparse that from the sea the coast ap
pears utterly barren. Where water
courses enter the sea there is often a
luxuriant vegetation in their valleys.
It Is .In such long, narrow oases that
are grown the vegetables and fruits
for the few coastal settlements.
"Behind this worst foot which An
gola thrusts forward Is a region of
surprisingly good potentialities. The
coastal desert strip extends Inland
from 12 t • 120 miles and then the
country rises by a series of huge ter
races to a broad plateau which ex
tends eastward into the heart of Af
rica. On each higher terrace condì-
Ity to s reasonably well-watered park
land of grass and scattered trees.
Much of this plateau Is an excellent
region for Europeans, healthy, cool,
reasonably productive and much of It
tree from the tsetse fly.
A West Coast Transvaal.
“In the southern portion of Angola's
plateau Is a sort of little Transvaal,
displeased with alien control from
which ordinary treks did not seem to
iree them, a group of Boers took the
-earisome Journey across the great
Kalahari desert and settled In th'.« re
mote region. Many perished on the
road, but those who won through have
established solid communities in
which the Portuguera officials have
granted them the liberty and self-
government In their communities
which they so much desire. In their
James J. Skelly, young Washington
settlements, surrounded by bouses of ian, has obtained a rather unusual sec
typical Transvaal architecture, and retarial position, that of "fighting sec
with the great heavy wagons in use, retary” to Harry K. Thaw, who 1»
one might Imagine himself a thousand ' now making his home on a newly ac
miles away in the vicinity of Johan quired estate near Winchester, Va.
nesburg or Pretoria.
Thaw advertised In the newspaper»
"At several points railways extend for a secretary who could use bls
from the coast of Angola to the al I fists if necessary, so Skelly applied.
most temperate zone plateau.
—
"All of the Angola coast Is indebt
Horse
Brings Nickel
ed to the cold current that bathes It
Beggs. Okla.—A horse was sold at
for cool sea breezes and in general a
much more pleasant climate than Its suction here for 5 cents, another was
latitude entitles It to. But the cur sold for 10 cents and a third for 50
rent Is especially beneficent to the cents. These were animals surren
Mossamedes and Porto Alexandre dis dered on mortgages after the former
tricts of the south. These are the owners had starved them rather than
healthiest portions of the coast, with pay for expensive feed.
The live stock auction was started
relatively low mean temperatures, dry,
cool air and freedom from malarial I by farmers and stockmen to place
mosquitoes. The cool current also stock In the hands of men who would
brings to the southern coast vast properly care for It.
schools of fish like the cod, and the
To Bar Tipping
chief Industry is fishing. The climate
Harrisburg. Pa.—A bill designed to
is excellent for drying fish, and a
few miles Inland are inexhaustible prevent tipping was presented In the
supplies of salt The region ships lower house of the Pennsylvania legis
thousands of pounds of dried fish and lature recently. A fine of (50 would
be Imposed on conviction.
much 'cod liver oil.'"
Finds Prehistoric
Irrigation Ditches
gion drained by the lower Salt and
Expedition Makes Impor the GUa rivers. He found that there
had formerly been an Intricate series
tant Find in Arizona.
of ditches which furnished water for
New York.—Indications of prehis
toric extensive irrigation systems and
dense population unequaled elsewhere
in the United States have been found
by Dr. P. E. Goddard, curator of arche
ology nt the American Museum of Nat
ural History, who has Just returned
from e i archeological reconnolssance
near Gb ‘ e, Ariz. Doctor Goddard, who
will go West again to prosecute the
work, said he believed that a thorough
study of tlie region would throw light
on the connection between the prehis
toric people ot the Valley of Mexico
and those who lived and developed a
civilization In pre-Spanlsh times in the
country around the upper Colorado
and Rio Grande rivers. Doctor God
dard's work already has occupied sev
eral weeks and promises rich returns
from a scientific standpoint.
Finds the Ditches.
Taking with him as an assistant
F.hrich Schmidt of the museum staff.
Doctor Goddard began what It Is in
tended shall be a thorough examina
tion of the ancient remains In the re
Bank Copies a Famous Building
large tracts of land in the vicinity of
Phoenix and Florence, Ariz. His In
vestigations developed that. In many
instances, the modern irrigation
ditches are merely the prehistoric ones
cleaned out and repaired.
In this region. Doctor Goddard said,
there also existed structures of consid
erable size, the walls of which are
still standing. He found several pueb
lo? one story in height with common
walls. The ruins, which cover a large
stretch of territory, vary In size as
well as in age.
Doctor Goddard discovered that
some of the pueblos were located near
valleys where Irrigation was not nec
essary for the successful raising of
maize. It Is one of these latter, lo
cated between Globe and Superior,
which he has decided upon for com
plete excavation. In this particular
ruin the communal bouse contains
about one hundred rooms as is indi
cated by the remaining walls. Already
a skeleton In fair state of preserva
tion has been recovered there, together
with fragments of pottery and orna
ments of shell and turquoise.
In the same neighborhood Doctor
Goddard said that he had found well-
preserved cliff ruins. It is his view
that a thorough examination of these
will reveal specimens of the greatest
scientific value and Interest.
Explored Before.
In 1887 and 1888 some ot this terri
tory with its Irrigation canals and
buildings, was examined by the Hem
ingway expedition sent out from Har
vard university under the leadership
of Frank H. Cushing, but only meager
reports of its discoveries were ever
published. There is, however, one well-
preserved rliin in Casa Grande which
Is at present under the protection of
the National Park service of the fed
eral government.
The new field of exploration for the
American Museum of Natural History
was made possible through the Inter
est of Mrs. William Boyce Thompson,
who for some time has made a close
study of archeological remains «he has
encountered in the Southwest. Some
years ago Colonel Thompson estab
lished a home near his mining prop
erties in the neighborhood of Superior,
and Mrs. Thompson, feeling that one
trained In exploration should have an
opportunity of examining the ruins, re
cently asked the museum to send a
representative to undertake the Inves
tigating work.
Mr. Schmidt, who has been left In
charge of the explorations during Doc
tor Goddard's visit here, will continue
directly under the doctor's supervision.
It 1« expected that, by means of mate
rial assistance and co-operation from
Mrs. Thompson, a collection of marked
scientific value will be made and
brought to New York, where It will be
correlated with the great mass of »1ml-
T1 is replica of Independence hall In Philadelphia Is being erected In the lar material which the American mu
seum now possesses.
stockyards region of Chicago and will be occupied by a bank.