6 THE SUNDAY OREGOXIAX, PORTLAND, NOVEMBER 10, 1907. w ii UiHJ'iniiHinnp. r ni l! IIP'" t .it i imi ; .ii ii "I ii!f,cr- . a. f"u"J ft"""1! I xxx-x x. k . , h . fx x h-' x. ' -x xx A ,yx?f- b i x 7?tE AT -TeAVcQr DABOI5 had caugiit the world fascinated It, hypnotized It. The whir of the little two-headed top, the twangc of tho string. the Khrieks of delight at success and the unprintable exclamations at .failure, have made the people of the earth brethren all. "One touch of nature makes the whole world kin,", and one try at dlabolo Initiates another candidate Into the Or der of the Dinbolese, which l'as Its chapters North, South, B5nst and West, on mountain, plain and sea. What is dlabolo? Possibly It might be less amiss to ask, "Why is dlabolo?" To answer the first query the su per official observer might say casual ly, "That's the new game everybody's playing." But he who views all inova tlons with tiie measuring eye, who sees In each merely a development of some thing which has pone before, looks back Into the misty past and knows that a new cycle Is complete and that another amusement has found another reincarnation, so to speak Away back at the dawn or the last century, to be exact, about 18.K', when America and Great B. italn were war ing on the seas, all Prance got the dlab olo craze. Some benefactor of the eter nally bored hail dug up out of the flies of the past a game which he called "L,e L'lable." It is ;,ald by some to have been played In Europe two hundred years before that, and others who go back still further find that it was kuo i In Ch:na eve- centuries before. At any rate its absolute origin was not considered Important enough to call for a monument to the Inventor, co history merely brands it as an ancient pastime and lets it go at that. The frenchman who started the JS12 rraze for le dinble used two sticks, a. bit of string connecting the tips of each and a bobbin-like affair which he spun and tossed on the bridge of twine made taut by extending the (ticks, which he held one In each hand. Krance became so infatuated with the Fame that the craze inspired articles In the papers and cartoons which are to be found In museums in Paris to this day. Accordin.-r to C. B. Frye, the great Kngllsh cricketer, a French engineer, M. Guetav Philappart, came across the anrient Implements for "le dlable" a lew months ago. He t ok the old fashioned bobbin and -rom it made a sort of two-headed top, cut with geo metrical care to make the game one of - -2 ! -h.SO'B - - 111 . B rj.'.jl ( II it II I Tx.1 U ,f II I L 1 111 111 I ...... " :f 3i ii iim? vnf&ffmwmn&nmr' jiwLB53ra 'A J I : ' Ill -fj Li.- Skx, f x 5 1 i 3 - v-x-- j -1V s If' precision. Then he gave his discovery to tne country ana to the world, calling it "Dlabolo," and the world today Is dlabolo mad. From Paris the revival of the game spread to London, and the British pub lic, conservative In all things, looked at It with interest. Then King Edward saw some children playlnr it tne d;.y, and. so the story goes, he was Initiated into its mysteries. He fell under Its subtle spell, and the news went forth that the King had Indorsed the game with his own royal hands. This explains In part the query as to the reason for the craze, somewhat flippantly made above, so far as Eng land is concerned, for with His Majesty playing diabolo, all his empire Joined In forthwith. Across the North sea it went next and ail over the continent. Bridging the broad Atlantic at a bound it landed on the shores of America, while the great ships that brought the crowds home from the summer rush abroad xx -v- sx.s: 1 w x-'-V xv ' carried thousands who played the game all the way over. Into every state it has gone, and now It rivals the records made by ping pong and tiddlediwinks of blessed memory. In England they have rigged up nets and courts and are playing dlabolo along the line of tennis. Two, four, six or eight play It when sociability is desired, but countless thousands make It a game for sol Hair. Parlor, back yard, pavement or open field re sound with the cries of the players, and youth and age know no distinction where the craze is concerned. It is almost as superfluous to de scribe the method of playing as It was to describe the Implements used, but for the benefit of those who are still loyal to ping pong, it may not be amiss to s..ed a ray of light upon the opera tion. A lonely player merely delights him self by tossing the spinning bobbin In the air and catching it on the string again. He takes the sticks, one in either , hand, holding them a foot or two apart, and placing the bobbin or diabolo with Its cleft on the string, makes it revolve by moving the arms up and down alternately. Having worked the diabolo up to -a good swift spin, he tosses it in the air and catches it on the string again. The player's vigor or the degree of fascination, are factors In determining how often he repeats the performance. When more than one play the spin ning bobbin Is tossed from one side to the Other, over .a net. like tennis, or across any given1 space. The object of i this sort of game is to catch the diab olo tossed by an opponent and to re turn it. There is also a simpler way of "serving" tbe diabolo over the not. and making it fall in a square diag onally across, following the tennis rule. In this case the opponent picks up the bobbin and begins to spin It all over. The bobbins are made of wood, rub ber or tin. Some have whistles Insert ed to give the top a musical sound when it spins. Kngland's madnesa for the pastime has developed to such a degree that writers and speakers are making the craze the subject of articles and speeches. It Is contended by those who favor th game that that it develops the muscles, the lungs and the figure. Athletlo women who possess natural strength, but lack something of grace, have seized upon it as being as conducive to suppleness as dancing. Athletes contend that It trains the eye and Is particularly beneficial in helping to Judge distances. From among the adverse criticism comes a minor chord from Emll Reich, who, in a very pessimistic article, traces the craze in France to the desire of the people to forget that their nation is. metaphorically speaking, on the "tobos gan slide." He says they have lost power and prestige among the countries of the world.-and therefore they seek to drown the thought in various diversions and ex citements. "It is the craze of the decadent, of the weakling," he says in a savage summing up of the indictment. But he is particularly concerned about the Britons who are Dlabolo-mad. H traces the disorder which drives them to the game to "modern boredom, hysteria, and a vague apprehenslveness," which he thinks has gripped the nation. "Pills of forgetfulness" ho calls the distractions akin to Diabolo. and he adds: "In times when the nation is full of its high vocation, full of energy, full of great deeds done and doing, all such pills would be despised." Meanwhile the craze grows like the ever-widening circle in the water raised by the falling stone. They are writing poems about It. singing songs about it. and holding functions In its honor. It is left for Bernard Shaw to dramatize tt. and then the acme of the frenzy will have been reached. How Cheap Waterways Are Helping Germany RECOGNIZING the importance of cheap transportations and of an al ternative transportation system which would bring with it wholesome competi tion, Germany has steadily extended, en larged and Improved her natural and ar tificial waterways and keeps on extend ing and improving them year by year. f some one were t make the necessary aalculations the figures would show that Germany's Industrial success is due ahlefly to cheap transportation, and es pecially to the wise development of her waterways. Between 1 1871 and 1906 Germany has built ilOO kilometers (6S3 miles) of Inland canals, she has immensely improved all her navigable rivers, and the German Austrian canals, lately begun, have a length of 3657 kilometers (2194 miles), whilst their cost will be in the neighbor hood of J200.000.000. Among these canals there are some vast schemes, such as the, Rhine-Elbe Canal, the Danube-Oder Canal and- the Danube-Elbe Canal enterprises which, on an average require an outlay of about nO,000,0(X). Some of these may perhaps rot be constructed in the lifetime of the present generation, Dut work is being pushed as rapidly as possible, and the authorities vote the money as fast as tt Ja needed. It may be pointed out In passing that here we have the unusual spectacle of the state monopolist deliber ately creating a most powerful competi tor with Itself, since the state owns and controls the railways. . In order to make it possible to use large and swift craft on her rivers, Germany set to work two decades' ago to convert her natural rivers into artificial water courses. Solid masonry walls took the place of . natural earth banks, river beds were deepened, while rocks were blasted away. Numerous well-equipped harbors and quays were built by all towns within reach of inland navigation. It Is not sur prising, then, to hear of Cologne, 150 miles from the sea, being rated as a sea port, 40 steamers plying between that city smd .foreign countries attesting to the fact. High up the Rhine, and 800 miles inland, lies Strasburg, which formerly could be reached only by the smallest river craft, but Is now the stopping place of boats carrying as much as 600 tons. This city has spent an enormous sum of money in creating the . most modern facilities for loading and unloading and storing. The tourist in Germany sees constantly on rivers and canals boats and trains of barges of 800, Sou or 1000 tons being hauled by steamers at every hour. A merchant who can forego railway speed is fortu nate, for the cost of propulsion by water power Is only a fraction of the cost by rail. In addition, he Is certain that there will he no congestion of traffic, a is tbe rule la our own country, where the people have acquiesced In the side-tracking of our' canals as a commercial factor. According to a German authority, cer tain valuable products and by-products of the German mines and iron works, and the more bulky products of the chemical industries, can be "sold in Germany and abroad owing to the" cheapness of trans port by water, and in many, cases the profit is cut so fine that an increase of the freight charges by one-fiftieth of a cent per ton per mile would kill Important industries. A few figures will illustrate the part canal transportation plays in German af fairs. From 1889 to 1906 upstream traffic passing the German-Dutch frontier in creased from 2,799.000 tons to 10,170.000 tons; while downstream the increase was from 2.593,000 tons to 7,944.300. The tonnage of the German inland fleet increased in the same time from 18,715 ships of 1,658.255 tons to 30.817 ships of 6.873,512 tons. The rates today are incredibly equal to any where from one-fourteenth to one-forty-elghth of a cent per ton mile, a charge which would be hailed by the American shipper as heralding the mlllenlum. Owing to this wonderful cheapness of water transportation huge and increasing quantities of freight are naturally being diverted from the German railways, a fact which Is not a cause of anxiety to the authorities, who are wholly absorbed in creating a maximum- condition of oppor tunity for the German people. The ratio of cost for shipping by railway and water way is as eight to three, which gives an Idea of the low freight rates which exist on the German railways. It is Interesting to note that while the increase of freight on German railways for 30 years has Deen per cent, on the waterways It has been 400 per cent. Fur ther figures would repeat the story. The effect of the extension and improvement of the German waterways, both natural and artificial, may be grasped from the significant fact that the most prosperous industrial centers in Germany, though they He far inland, are situated close to the waterways of which they make a m6st extensive use. The most prosperous part of industrial Germany is the Rhenish Westphalian dis trict, or the German Midlands. Though far removed from the sea, it has, because of the cheap carriage of goods afforded by the Rhine, overcome its less favored locations, and most of Germany's wealth comes from the iron and steel output. THE BEAUTY QUEST. Indianapolis News. If your beauty's on the blink All you have to do's to think In some transcendental curves, . Then If you pqulnt. Well-some Peachy pulchritude will come. As auch thinking well deserves. If you're rectilinear. Or If you are skinnier Than you should be. tret a hump On your cogitations till Presently you'll find you till Out all curvily and plump. Very pleasant Is this dope. Angular ones full of hope Now are filled with new designs; But to stop to think of it. How can this be made to fit? Fashion this Fall's all straight lines. Incidents That Nearly Changed World's History HAD Josephine borne Napoleon an heir, the history of ranee, and, In deed, all Europe, must have been very different. In the' hours of triumph after Wagram Napoleon realized ; that, had the - young German fanatic who had come to attempt his life been suc cessful in his mission, one thrust from that vulgar kitchen knife which the lad concealed would have shattered all the glories whose fashioning had caused such rivers of blood to flow. He resolved upon the divorce of Josephine. He would take as his wife a Princess and found a dynasty. Whom should he marry? Should it be a Princess of the Russian royal house or a Princess of another. He slept in the palace of the man whom he had but newly recon quered, the Emperor of Austria, and slept, as fate would have It, in the. very room in which the heir for whom he prayed was destined to die. Under the roof of the son of the Caesars he resolved to marry that man's daugh ter. A little while earlier she had heard that the tide of battle had turned against the French, and had written to her father: "We have heard with great Joy that Napoleon was present a", the battle which was lost. If he would only lose his head as well!" The writer of the words became, ten months after the French troops entered Vienna as conquerors, the bride of the man for whose head she now wished. She was the granddaughter of Marie Antoinette, and by his marriage to her Napoleon believed it would be the sal vation of France. A man wiser in me matter than himself had pointed to a Russian marriage, foreseeing renewed hostilities with either Austria or Rus sia. Napoleon, he said, knew his way to Vienna, he , doubted whether he knew the road to St. Petersburg. Napoleon chose, to find, as he af terward said, that the marriage was but an abyss strewn with flowers. The marriage led Inevitably to the calam itous Russian campaign, and to the break-up of his empire. His ruin be gan with his marriage to the Princess who was. to be the mother of his child. All France acclaimed the union with joy. which was eclipsed only by the birth of the heir. The night before the child was born the great bell of Notre Dame and all the bells of all the other churches sum moned the faithful to prayer. They prayed throughout the night for the mother and her child. Napoleon suf fered more in those long hours of anx iety than he suffered when he saw his empire crumbling about him. But ha was firm with those in attendance upon the Empress. "Come, come," he said to Dr. Dubois, who was greatly agitated, "do not lose your head. Save the mother; think only of her. Imagine that you are attending the wife of a shopkeeper In the Rue St. Denis." At last the danger passed. The child, sup posed to be dead, breathed, and 101 guns thundered forth to Paris the news that the Emperor had a son. A daring aeronaut scattered bulletins from her balloon; couriers carried the news far and wide across j Europe, and soon France and Austria were one crash of bells and thunder of guns. It was the proudest, happiest day in the life of Napoleon, and the most censorius of historians does not begrudge him that short hour of felicity, and is glad that he could not then pierce the vale to see the grim beyond. St. James Gazette. I.eper Talk That Is Idle. Indianapolis News. "I am tired." said President Pinkham. of the Board of Health at Honolulu, to a newspaper man recently, "of all this talk about the martyrdom of those who go to Molokai to work for the lepers there. The superintendent of the settlement, the doctors, nurses, sisters and brothers who live and work there do not look upon It as martyrdom, and there is no . reason why any one else should. There has been enough talk of this kind, and It is time it stopped. The magazines don't want to print anything about the settlement un less it is sensational."