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Modern EnterpriseReviving' the Oases and the Desert; New Gold
f
THE &A&7ZiAZ:.Ar
ASSIOUT WHICH THROWS
THE MI.E INTO
JOSEPHS CANAL FOR'
THE FAYOUM ,
BY FRANK G. CARPENTER.
ODERN enterprise Is opening up
the backwoods of Egypt. Syndi
cates with large capital are pros
pecting for coal oil and copper In the
Sinai peninsula. The Egyptian Explora
tion Company Is working gold mines be
tween Luxor and the Red Sea, and the
Nile Gold Fields Company Is operating
further south beyond Assouan. An En
glish syndicate with a capital of two and
one-half million dollars Is about to build
a railroad across the Libyan desert to
develop the string of oases which He 100
miles or so west of the Nile "Valley; and
by the Assouan dam over 60,000 acres
have been added to that great fertile spot
in the desert known as the Fayoum. All
of these regions may be called the back
woods of Egypa. Most of them have long
been considered barren and worthless and
about them little Is known.
. The Gold Field? of the Desert.
Within the past two or three years a
great interest has sprung up as to the
gold fields of Egypt. Prospectors have
been going over the desert above Cairo,
between this country and the Red Sea,
and more than a score of syndicates have
been formed to prospect the various con
cessions. The whole country has been
iivided among them, and the Egyptian
government has instituted a department
of mines to control them. This depart
ment is under the Minister of the In
terior, and It has a camel police so that
Its soldiers can go rapidly from place to
place and keep order. Lines of communi
cation from certain points on the Nile to
the Red Sea are being opened up In order
to enable labor to be more economically
sent to the mines and to give the com
panies better tneans of transport for the
materials and foodstuffs which they re
quire. At present the headquarters of the min
ing department Is at Edfou, between As
souan and Luxor. It has supplies and ma
terial stored there, and It has been mak
ing experiments of crossing the eastern
desert on motor cars and motorcycles to
some of the mining centers. Just now
the chief mines are far away from the
Nile, and It Is necessary to have quick
methods of reaching ' them. A number
are right on the shores of the Red Sea,
and they run up and down through the
whole of the eastern desert in the moun
tainous regious bordering on the Coast.
There are other mining companies oper
ating in the Soudan, and some which
have concessions on the very border of
Abssinla.
Ancient Mines Being Opened.
' A number of these companies are re
opening the workings of the ancient
Egyptians. The Streeter concession, for
Instance, is. looking for emeralds at the
foot of Jabel Nugrus, near where gold
mines once were. Its territory includes
some of the most mountainous country
of Egypt, with peaks rising from a mile
to a mile and a half above the level of
the Mediterranean. It lies within SO miles
of the Red Sea, and is filled with ancient
workings In gold, lead, copper, iron and
emeralds. Just west of the concession
the Egypt and Soudan mining syndicate
has four prospecting areas of 25 square
miles each upon which ancient gold
workings are shown, and evidences of old
mines have been found in many of the
other allotments.
It is well known that the desert east of
the Nile supplied quantities of gold ages
ago. It was for several centuries the
California of the civilized world, and pro
duced enough to make the Pharaohs rich
and to enable them to send treasure to
the kings of Western Asia. Some of the
letters to Pharaoh, which have been dis
covered, come from his royal correspond
ents in Asia, and they are filled with re
quests for gold, which is spoken of as
being as plentiful' in his country as dust.
A little later, when Egypt had lost her
empire and had been overrun by the bar
barians of the north, the amount of gold
yielded by the mines of the desert was
still great. Old Rameses, the oppressor
of the Hebrews, had a big Income from
them, and under the Ptolemies the reve
nue of the country is said to have been
something like $20,000,000 per annum, a
large part of which came from the mines.
On some of the oldest tombs there are
pictures showing how gold Jewelry was
made over 4400 years ago, and one of the
officials of that time states that he had
commanded an escort which brought? gold
from the mines of Keneh and Kossier to
Coptos.
This same region is now being ex
ploited by the Egyptian Mines Explora
tion Company, and not Tar above Kossier,
on the Red Sea, Is the Um Rus Mining
Company, which, with a capital of $900,
000 is working some of those old mines. It
has erected a large plant consisting of an
electric generating station, air compres
sors for driving rock drills, and a railway
six miles long, connecting the mine with
Its ten stamp mills on the seashore. The
main shaft Is now over 600 feet deep, and
the output is $7000 or $SO0O per month. In
the report of last October the Um Rus of
ficials stated that more than $100,000 worth
of gold had been mined, and that Im
provements were under way which would
materially Increase the output. This
mine was worked as far back as 1377 B.
C. and vast quantities of gold were taken
out of It when the Pharaoh of the Bible
was on the throne. At that time it is
said thai the Egyptian taskmasters
worked the mines with slaves. They made
them labor away day and night. The
children were forced to carry the ore and
the old people ground it to powder.
The opening up of the oases of Western
Egypt as an agricultural proposition
rather than a mining one, although exten
sive deposifs- of alum, phosphates and
minerals are said to exist there. Gold,
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which runs as high as $2 per ton, has 1
been found In the lower beds of the phos
phate rocks,' but it is not known whether
it Is merely a local freak of nature or
whether It may expand Into richer gold
bearing ore.
The oases of Egypt He 100 miles or so
west of the Nile, in the heart of th
Libyan Desert. There are four great
centers which have been known for ages,
and some of which were noted for their
fertility when the Hebrews were still at
work under their Egyptian taskmasters.
These oases are Kharga, which lies 120
miles directly west of Esneh, but which is
best reached from Assiout, Farafra,
which is almost directly west of Assiout
and may be reached by camels In the
space of eight days; Dakhla, which lies
between Kharga and Farafra, and also
the oasis of Baharia, which Is about three
days' journey from Girga on the Nile.
The corporation of Western Egypt
proposes to build railroads to these oases,
and as a consideration therefor it is to
receive 600,000 acres of land and Is to
have the right, for 80 years, to mine the
alum, ochres and phosphates with which
the oases abound. A part of its scheme
is to irrigate the lands acquired by the
concession. The company estimates that
It will cost them $25 per acre to do this.
and that the lands will sell for $75 per
acre as soon as the water can be put
upon them. Much of the Irrigation will
be done by artesian wells, some of which
have been already sunk and are producing
flowing streams. The company is com
posed of Englishmen and Egyptians, and
it has a capital of $2,600,000. It has al
ready begun building its railway, and has
laid the route from the. Nile to. Kharga,
with a telephone equipment. Its locomo
tives and other rolling stock are building
In England.
Through Libya by Rail.
When the railroads are completed one
will be able to go through some Interest
ing parts of the Libyan Desert by train,
and it is probable that Winter resorts,
similar to that at- Biskra, in the Sahara,
will spring up in these oases. I first saw
the Libyan Desert in Tripoli. It begins
there and runs eastward to the Nile
Valley. Near Egypt it is a monotonous,
stony tableland from 600 to 1000 feet
above the level of the Nile. It is abso
lutely barren, and is without doubt one
of the bleakest parts of the globe. As
one goes westward and nears the oases
the land drops. The desert is cut up
by ravines and cliffs. The oases are in
a depression running for several hun
dred miles irregularly north and south.
Just west of them the land is still rocky,
but after about six days" camel Journey
it changes to an ocean of sand which
extends on for hundreds of miles.
These oases now have over 30,000 peo
ple. They are Mohammedans, and in
clude both Arabs and Bedouins. They
live in villages of mud brick houses, each
oasis having one or more towns, in Ba
haria there are four villages. In Fara
fra. one, and In Dakhla 14. '
Dakhla is the most thickly populated
of all of the oases. It lias over 17,000
people, and it is watered by 420 wells,
many of which were bored by the
Romans. All of theffc villages have
mosques. In Kharga there are 4800 peo
ple in one village, and it is the seat of
the Egyptian Government. There is a
Government doctor there and also a tele
graph office. Many of the Inhabitants
have never been outside the oases, and
they are said to be Interesting to an ex
treme. They grow fruit and dates, ex
porting the latter to Egypt.
The new company expects to raise rice,
wheat and barley, as well as cotton and
sisal hemp. It has already planted many
thousand date palms and large orchards
of oranges, olives and pomegranates.
The Fayoum.
The largest and most fertile - of all
the Egyptian oases is the Fayoum. It is
so big that' it Is a separate province.
It contains about 850 square miles ana
has a population of 970,000. It lies about
70 miles northeast of Cairo, and there is
only a short strip of desert between It
and the Nile Valley. It Is an oval basin
inclosed by the stony Libyan hills, and
j CHILDREN OF THE EGYPTIAN DESERT. lj
THE SUNDAY OREGONIAN. PORTLAND, OCTOBER 27, 1907.
f ini iw
watered by a great canal which some say
was first built by Joseph, and others that
it was a branch of the Nile and needed
only to be widened and deepened. The
canal which feeds It now is called the
Bahr Yusef, which means Josephs Canal.
It begins a mile or so north of Assiout
and flows through upper Egypt, watering
thelile Valley until about 70 miles above
Cairo, when it turns to the left and flows
through a break in the hills . Into the
Fayoum depression. The canal is 270
miles long. I have seen it where it be
gins near Assiout, and it looks like a
wide and deep river.
In ancient times a great lake formed a
part of the Fayoum. It was 450 miles
around and in places was 300 feet deep.
It was used as a reservoir .to supply the
delta with water, in times of low Nile,
and a canal 300 feet wide connected It
with the Nile River. This was the Lake
Moeris, mentioned by Herodotus and
also by the geographer Strabo. That
lake has now almost disappeared, and its
bed is covered by some of the richest
farms in the world. The only part of it
which remains Is Lake Karun, thirty-five
miles long and six miles wide, which lies
at the northwestern edge of the depres
sion a the foot of the Libyan hills. A
great part of the land about the lake is
desert, and Its banks are covered with
reeds and tamarisk shrubs. Its water is
slightly brackish, but the people drink it.
It contains fish and the right to fish in
it is let out by the government to one
man, who allows the men living on the
banks to ply their trade, and in return
receives one-half the catch.
Some of the best fruits and most beau
tiful flowers of Egypt come from the
Fayoum. A railroad has been built into
it, which connects with the main Egyp
tian system, and one can go from Cairo
to Medinet. its capital, in four hours.
There are two trains each way every day
and there is considerable travel from one
place to the other. At Medinet there are
branch railroads which reach every part
of the oasis, and there Is a systern of
tramways which (includes a number of
villages. " '
The Labyrinth.
The Fayoum Is not often visited by
tourists, although it contains some of
the most wonderful ruins of ancient
Egypt. There is a pyramid about five
miles from Medinet, in whicn a mummy
of an ancient king was recently found,
and there are some traces left of the
Labyrinth described by Strabo and other
travelers. The Labyrinth is said to have
been quite as wonderful as the pyramids
and was a vast palace situated on the
banks of Lake Moeris, which had 8000
rooms, half of which were above ground
and half below. The buildings composing
the palace were connected by long
covered passages which intersected each
other and wound about so that a stranger
.could not go through them without a
guide. Strabo says that the ceilings of
every room consisted of but a single
stone, -and that the passages were cov
ered with slabs of extraordinary size.
Herodotus, who went through the rooms
above ground, says that the structure
was more wonderful than the pyramids,
and that the windings through the courts
presented a thousand occasions of won
der as he passed through. Just who
built this structure no one knows; but
it is supposed to have been made as a
temple and a tomb by one of the Egyp
tian kings, who lived more than a thou
sand years after Cheops' built the great
pyramid.
How Egypt Governs Sinai.
The Peninsula of Sinai, In which the
Children of Israel wandered for 40 years
after they came out of the Nile Valley,
now belongs to the Egyptians and Is
governed by them. The country is
visited by travelers by means of camels
and Bedouin guides, and it Is impossible
to go up the mountains where Moses saw
the Lord in a burning bush, and where
he received the Ten Commandments en
graven on blocks of stone, while the
Israelites were worshiping the golden
calf in the foothills.
The Peninsula of Sinai is one of the
most mountainous deserts of the world.
It has no tillable soil, but it is said to be
well mineralized, and to have deposits' of
copper which were worked as far back as
3700 B. ' C. These deposits are now being
again prospec.ted, and a concession for
mining them has been given to one of the
exploration companies. The Cairo syndi
cate is investigating the northern half
of the peninsula, and their engineers have
reported the discovery of coal in small
quantities. Petroleum is believed to exist
there,, and also turquoises and other val
uable atones.
The government, r-wever, is finding It
difficult to administer the country, and
Just before Lord Cromer left he directed
that the whole peninsula be put under the
Wad Department. A British officer of the
Egyptian army is to be governor and
commandant. His headquarters will be
at Nekhl, the chief town of the peninsula,
which is about its center; and there will
be other Egyptian, officers stationed at
various points. The intention is to make
the country safe for tourists and trav
elers, as well as for prospectors, and It
PERSONAL OPINIONS OF J.
Too Many Molly Coddles Brought Up in American Schools Broken
BT JOHN L. SULLIVAN.
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HEN I was matched to fight Jim
Corbett there were a lot of pre
dictions that my condition was
such owing to the sickness and the opera
tions I had undergone, on top of the wild
living I'd been doing off and on, that I
couldn't get into shape. To satisfy my
self and my friends I submitted, for the
first time in my life, to a thorough physi
cal .examination at the hands of Dr.
Schrady, of New York.
"I'll say this," said Dr. Schrady at the
end of the examination, "that I pity Mr.
Corbett or any other man who fights
you."
He said that my muscles were in fine
condition, that they were the very best
kind of muscles long and flexible and
that my arms were perfect sledge ham
mers, backed by the kind of stuff to make
a clout count when it landed on the other
fellow. He said the arm that had got
broken was as good as ever it was. al
though the break was a bad one.
My legs were the part of me he thought
longest about, but finally pronounced
them good enough. I am putting all this
on record so that Corbett can have all
the glory there is for putting me out of
the game. The doctor didn't find any
weak spot, but I wasn't as fit to go the
pace as he thought. The pitcher went
to the well once too often, and every
other pitcher will have the same experi
ence if it don't retire in time.
Broken Arm No Excuse for Quitting
The time I broke my arm on Patsy
Cardiff I kept right on fighting, as any
real fighter would have done, and never
thought of quitting. As it was, I tried to
put Cardiff outK but couldn't, and stayed
until the agreed number of rounds had
been reeled off. Nobody but myself and
my handlers knew my arm had gone, not
till the fight was over. 1 refer to this In
cident as typical of the way things went
in the old days, as compared with Britt
pretending his arm was broken so to
have the excuse for quitting with Joe
Gans.-
Does anybody believe that Jack Demp
sey. Kid Lavigne, Kilrain, Fits, McAuliffe
or any of the good ones would have quit
in a fight because an arm had snapped?
Not one of them. They'd have come to
the front every round till they had gone
down in honorable defeat, fighting like
bulls till they heard the birds sing. Not
a . man of them would have had a
whimper coming, charging it up to the
fortunes of war.
But Britt tlncans himself to get away
from a smoke's wallops, making one of
the sorriest exhibitions ever put into the
pictures. The thing has killed Britt sure,
but why didn't he go in Wll he got the
sleep "clout and get out of the ring with
his licking put on right? Of course, It
would have given him a headache, but a
headache for half an hour isn't as bad
as a heartache for the rest of his life.
It's Just as well that the yellow streak
has shown good and broad so that he'll
get only Btage money hereafter .-instead
of lumps of $8600 real thing like he got
for the Can's Joke.
While In Washington recently a clerk in
one of the departments looked me Up to
tell me that as a lad, more than 20 years
ago, he was aboard the steamer on the
Site
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will soon be possible to visit all parts of
the peninsula.
In the past it has been difficult to
control the natives of Sinai. The coun
try is so large and so rough and the
population so sparse that it 13 almost
impossible to capture criminals and
bring them to Justice. A camel corps
has been organized ana a telegraph line
and possibly a road for motor cars will
be built to Nekhl. although this -hay
not be until at some time in the future.
At present there are about 30,000 in
habitants in the 'peninsula. They are
all of Arab origin, save one little tribe
who are believed to be the descendants
of some Roman troops sent to the 'pen
insula in the Sixth century.
These Sinai people have their own
systems of justice, and they resent the
laws which the Egyptians are trying
to force upon them. They believe in
the vendetta, and in blood money as
payment for murder. If a man kills
another in time of peace, the relations
Maine Coast when I tried to Jump over-,,
board and was pulled back by my trainers
who yanked my coat-tails off while doing
the job.
I was going to Boston from Searsmont,
Me., where I'd been training to fight
Dominlck McCaffrey. At a place the
steamer stopped an old man and a
young woman got aboard. They'd been at
a campmeetlng, and the religion had gone
to their brains. The woman was acting
bughouse, and several times offered to
hop into the water after the steamer got
started down the Coast.
Finally she went over splash into the
sea. I heard the yells raised and saw her
floating behind. I made a jump for the
rail and was about to go over to swim to
her when some of the fellows grabbed
me, and in pulling me back on deck sep
arated the tails from the rest of my coat.
Then I got into the boat that was low
ered to go after the woman, and the
captain ordered me out quick to make
room-or a regular 'Bailor. They finally
picked up' the crazy woman a mile away.
She'd floated all the time. If she had
been right in the head she'd probably
have gone down long before they could
have got to her.
The Government clerk told ' me the
woman afterward got her wits back, mar
ried and raised a large fa lly.
Too Many Mollycoddles.
I can go into any town in the country
and pick out the brainiest men in the
burg. All I'd have to do would be to pick
the watery-eyed, stoop-shouldered, knock
kneed gents in town, and they'd have all
the brains. They're grown top heavy,
because they were put in wrong as boys,
getting their heads stuffed to the guards
with a lot of has-been ideas Instead of
being made to put in (one of the time
developing their constitutions. vVhat good
Is a man who knows all the Greek there
Is In the books If he can't digest his
food and has to have a nurse show him
around? Punk.
All the parents in the country ought to
get wise to Roosevelt and bring up their
children with an eye to the brawn as
well as to the brain. I've looked 'em over
In several states since school opened, and
THE DANGERS
U
TTEIt the word "ballooning" and
forthwith there rises up . be
fore the affrighted " eyes of all who
have never indulged in the newest so
ciety pastime a vlota of all sorts of
disasters. At the very outset a danger
threatens, for, in the popular belief,
the aeronaut may come to grief at the
start. This ' belief is fostered by an
accident which happened Just a quarter
of a century ago, when, in June, 1882,
the car in which Sir Claude Champion
de Crespigny sat was dashed against a
wall, and the aeronaut's left leg was
broken in two places.
Such an accident could not happen
today, for it must be remembered that
a great advance in ballooning has been
made in the last 25 years. The strik
ing of an obstacle when rising is due
merely to bad Judgment in not having
sufficient lifting power at the start.
Fields Near the Re
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of the dead have the r.ght to revenge
or to pardon if the blood money be
paid. Tire blood money for. an ordinary
murder is fixed at 41 camels, and it
may be paid on installments, the pay
ments running a month or a year or
more. If a man kills another secretly
and denies the crime, but is found
guilty, he is fined four blood moneys,
and the murdered man's .relations may
take revenge by killing one of the fam
ily of the murderer and still have the
right to three blood moneys.
Shortly before he left .Egypt Lord
Cromer made some investigations of
Justice in the Sinai peninsula, aad In
one of hiB reports aescrlbed how a
Justice detected whether criminals were
guilty or not. He had three methods
by water, by fire and by dream. The
test by dream was maue by his honor
going to sleep and dreaming -whether
the accused was guilty or not. If the
dream showed the man guilty, It was
looked upon as a Judgment of God and
L. SULLIVAN
Arm No Excuse for Quitting.
you can take It from me that the kids are
pushed too hard In school.
Why don't they give the youngsters
more of a chance? They ought to have
regular Instructors in baseball, boxing,
fencing, swimming, running. Jumping and
all the rest, so that they can take care
of themselves later on. Whit they are
packing away In the kids' think tanks is
too much for 'em. These military schools
are putting it all over the other schools
because they're cutting out some of the
flubdub and turning out boys who' can
give and take a clout later on without
calling for the ambulance.
A mollycoddle youngster, growing Into
a mollycoddle man, is somethnig that gets
me swearing mad, and there's too many
of them to be seen thes days.
The confessions of Jack O'Brien with
the accent on the con Is one of the mean
est beefs ever made by any faker, and
the Lord knows there have been some
raw ones. O'Brien, or rather Hagen, for
he has no riglrt to disgrace the fine old
name of O'Brien, has been giving out a
lot of punk, explaining JuBt how he took
part in frame-ups to get money out of a
public that gave up generously and made
him well off. I don't object -to Mm skin
ning his private skunks, for the graft
getters ought' to be shown up, but it's
the object he has In view that makes
the thing mean.
Hagen Is doing his darndest to kill the
boxing game. Some of the things he has
told are enough to keep even One-Eyed
Connolly, if he was alive, away from the
ringside. He has painted himself with the
tar brush, and slapped it around so that
nearly all the frauds in the fighting game
have got some of the stuff he is throwing.
I hope they all get theirs, and that every
eon man in the bunch Is driven to the
woods.
But that don't help Hagen. He comes
out about the smallest specimen of a pin
head you'll' find In a long hike. He 11 be
remembered as one of the most contempt
ible men that ever framed up a fight to
get his friends in bad and to take It away
from the public in chunks. Them my
sentiments, and also of my sparring part
ner, Jake Kilrain. ' '
JOHN L. SULLIVAN.
OF BALLOONING
Nowadays a bag of sand is placed on
the edge of the car, so that if he bal
loon has not sufficient lifting power
It can be thrown over, and the balloon
lightened immediately. .
Up in the air the next danger which
affrights the Ignorant is that the bal
loon may burst. This is quite impos
sible, for the great ball is open at the
neck, and as the balloon rises and the
gas expands, the excess escapes with
out difficulty, so that no pressure is
placed on the envelope of varnished
cotton, the material of which most bal
loons are made.
Again, people imagine that if the
balloon were damaged by a tear, or by
a bullet hole, it would be hurled to the
ground, and would dash' its occupants
to pieces. Such holes, however, would
only cause a leak or the gas. and the
balloon would descend slowly. Then
comes the possibility of the danger of
the ropes breaking, and the car, loosed
dSea
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he was punished. The water test was
made with a copper jug filled with that
fluid. The Judge, the accused and the
spectators sat in a circle; and the jug.
in some way or other, was made to
move around througn trie group, und
If it stopped opposite the accused he
was guilty. v
The fire test was severe. It was often
used to convict men of stealing. In
thin case the Judge heated an Iron pan
over the coals until it was red liot, and
then made the accused touch it three
times with his tongue. If the tongue
showed marks of burning he was guilty
ttuu, 11 1 1 1 i. , who imiuvciii, i wj . a
perts always sat with the judge to wljfl
ness whether ie tongues of the ac
cused were burnt or not.
All such methods are now to be done
away with, and the British and Egyp
tian officials are to see that Justice is
administered according to the laws of
the land.
Port Twfick, Sept. 21.
from the balloon, falling with even
greater rapidity than if the balloon
Itself came down. Trtie, too, is a dan
ger which does not exist, for the stvatn
each rope is made to resist is greatly
in excess of the geratest pull that
could be put on it, while if one, or even
two ropes were to break, the other
lines would support the weight.
Another danger which people imag
ine exiets is that once up the balloonist
has to wait until the balloon chooses
to descend. Such a belief is only com
parable with the idea that once in a
motor car,' the motorist must go on
until the car chooses to stop. True,
the balloonist cannot stop within the
eame limit of space as a motor car, but
he has practically as much control over
the machine, unwieldy as It seems. If
a balloon begins to descend of its own
accord, the aeronaut can always rise
by throwing out some of the ballast
he carried with him, and in this way
can avoid any obstacles that may
threaten his course; while, by letting
out the gas, which he does by pulling a
line which opens a valve at the top of
the balloon he can descend when he
likes. This possibility proves that there
is no reason for any balloonist to be
carried out to tea. Balloon ascents are
invariably made from some point In
land, so that a certain distance has to
be traveled before the seaboard is
reached. All that the balloonist hn.
to do, therefore, is to open the valv
" " - " . - in Bcio ii i ii h sea,
and when he seee a convenient place.
Just as there used to be some danger
In ascending, so there undoubtedly
used to be some danger in descending,
for on coming to the ground the bal
loon used to bump a great deal, and in
bumping the balloonist was often buf
feted about and received uncomfortable
blows or bruises. Now,, however, the
modern Instruments which have been
Invented tell the balloonist exactly how
rapidly he is falling. He Is .then able
to arrange his descent to such a nicety
that the weight of the ground or trail
rope on the car will prevent her bump
ing. Nowadays, too, there is a panel
in the envelope to which a cord called
the ripping cord is attached. By pull
ing the cord the panel Is torn out, and
the balloon Is deflated In the course of
a few seconds, so .that there is not the
least risk of the car being dragged
alorfg the ground and causing injury
to its occupants. There would un
doubtedly be some danger were naked
lights used, though the mouth of the
balloon Is so far away from the car
that there Is never any smell of the
escaping gas. Still, as a safeguard, no
one is ever allowed to smoke, and only
electric lights are carried to read the
Instruments, while such drinks as are
needed hot are heated by chemical
means.
Contrary to what many people be
lieve, there Is no danger to a balloon
ist in thunderstorms. In the first place,
a balloon rarely or never rises into a
thunderstorm. As the storm travels at
the same ratio as -the wind, and the
balloon also travels at exactly that
rate, the one can never overtake the
other, and they must arwaye remain at
the same distance apart as that at
which they started; while the prudent
aeronaut, who sees a storm brewing,
alwavs descends.
There have been over 50.000 church bells
cut in Troy, N. T., sine the first foundry
was built there In 1S25.
P tt?R Iv;