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About Lincoln County leader. (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 18, 1914)
HOUGH South Africa Is Btead- Illy becoming covered with a network of railroads, there are still great stretches of country that are not yet linked up. In these parts the ox wtigon Is the only means of transportation. West of Mafeklng, right to the sea board, there lg one unbroken stretch of veldt; and to reach the Atlantic coast there is only ono way to travel namely, trek It by ox wagon. Fate once sent mo on a trading trek up to Lake Xgnmi, says a writer hi Ionnon Answers. Well, Lake Xgaml Is about a thou sand miles from nowhere. To be a little more accurate, however, the lnke llos In tho northwestern part of the Dcchuanaland protectorate, and to reach the little trading center up there, one has to cross the northern part of the dreaded Kalahari a water less desert. My wagon had 18 oxen to pull It, and the load on It was 5,000 pounds. I!ut It took nie over two months to cover the five or so hundred miles that lay between tho small native capital of Serowe and Tsau, tho cap ital of N'Kamlland. Half of the distance was over sandy, waterless deserts, and the rest through fever and Hon infested veldt. After a Twelve-Day Trek. "We'll outspan here, Natal," I cried to my native driver. It was Just an hour before dawn, and the African sky was lit with a myriad of stnrs. The oxen were quickly unyoked, but were not al lowed to grnze. as we would bo on the move again In an hour. We were hnlf wny In the desert. We had been on trek 12 days. The oxen were used to "thirst," but the cease less strain of the sandy desert was making Itself felt. The beasts were already looking worn and shrunken. I snt down by the small fire we hud kindled and smoked. Everything was very quiet. The sleeping veldt was huched. Around us were miles of flat, sparsely vegetated country, every mile tho same. Not a drop of water had we seen for two days since we had left the last well; and there lay JO miles of waterless veldt before the next well would be renched. The saffron hue of breaking day Is now tinting the eastern sky. It Is time to Inspnn ngnln. Soon the oxen aro all In their yokes, and the signal to start Is given. Tho sun has now risen. It Is grow ing hotter. The oxen are becoming distressed. The merciless whip de scends and again. It Is no time for pity. Water must be reached! On and on the wretched animals pull their load. The sun Is now high In the heavens. We outspan. The weary oxen lie under the scan ty shado of stunted bushes. We He mmmmmmm A JSULLOCK. VAQON under the wagon, and doze In the heat ! of the day. Everything U parched and dry. Everywhere around us la the sandy desert. It Is nearly sundown. Inspan again. Once again on trek over the samo un ending spoor. It's now dark, and night brings mnio relief. Tho stars coma out In all their brilliancy, and the moon throws ghostly shadows over the sleeping veldt. "WhimpI Whoop!" sounds In the rleir night air. A short outspan. A little fire glows, and we drink a hasty cup of coffee. The olen Ho exhausted. No necessity to tie them to their yokes; they are now too tired to move I Another dan Is breaking. It grows lighter. We Inspnn again. A startled stemburk darts through the bush at the sound of the approach ing wagon. The oxen plod wearily over the heavy sand. The axles of the wagon sink; the wagon sticks fast The merciless whip descends. An oi falls at the yoke, but Is flogged Into obedience again. No time for pity I Water must be reached. Whoop! Whoop I On and on. One tntle an hour that Is all we can travel Ths sand Is so bear y I We are outspanned at a well. Large, shady trees encircle our camp. The sun Is sinking behind the trees nnd night la approaching. The oxen have drunk their All, and are now wrapped In slumber poor, patient beasts of burden, that have dono their work so faithfully and well! , . . In the Lion Country, We are now out of the desert and by the river. Large, leafy trees over shadow the wagon where we are out spanned. Monkeys In little bands clamber over the branches and utter shrill cries, llehlnd us (lows tho deep Iiotletle, Its banks thick with reeds, amid which Ho sneaking crocodiles. The rond Is still heavy, but we have water In plenty; so the oxen pull well In the yokes. Tomorrow we shall outspan by a trader's store, and I am glad at the thought, for It Is now a good many days since I have spoken to a white man. Tho hospitable trader Is now left behind, and half the journey Is done, jr - - '.s"-ki.'?A t ' m ?Ji,',;,i r iTTYh rnif m fi imi it . A Native Porter, Hut we are now In lion veldt! And fever la with us. I take quinine that night, as I feel the first approach of that dread ene my malaria. Dig fires also are lit beside the line of sleeping oxen. Faintly, in tho distance, comes the roar of the marauder, out on bis nightly prowl. The oxen stir uneasily. An extra log Is thrown on the Ores and the flames throw queer shadows on our leafy bower. My sleepy eyes open at dawn. I no tice the fire Is almost out There Is a chill In the air, and a ghostly stllluess about everything. I stir the dying em bers with my foot and throw on a few slicks. The kettle Is soon boiling, and a refreshing cup of coffee Is drunk. As I go to give orders to Inspan, I suddenly stop! For I see the spoor of two Hons not ten feet away from the front oxen. Hut ono gets used to that! Two more treks and we shall be In Tsau. We are all cheerful at the pros pect I, for I shall be able to frater nise with some of my kith and kin again, and tho natives, because their wages aro due. The oxen, too, seem to know there Is a well earned rest ahead, and pull almost eagerly In the yokes. Not Msant to Be Beat. Mil I see a shark's egg Is one of the oddest looking things Imaginable. It Is unprovided with shell, but the contents are protected by a thick leathery covering, almost as elastlo as India rubber. Jill That Is odd. I don't see bow you're going to beat that Modern. "He who hesitates Is lost" "You mean he who doesn't hesitate la out of ths runulnj." It J ! HARD WORK SELDOM FATAL Nervous Prostration and Its Attendant Ills Generally Derived From t . Other Sources. We hear a great deal today about excessive bralnwork, and we read In the newspapers of frequent break downs from that cause. Every week or oftener we are told of some clergy, man, leading merchant or other busi ness man who collapses and has to quit work perhaps take a trip to Eu rope and reside for months or a year for that reason. College Btudenta are reported from time to time as dam aging or killing themselves by hard study. We doubt the truth of most of these statements. A knowledge of the facts would styow, we believe, that in nine-tenths of these cases the cause of the breakdown was not an excess of bralnwork, but the lack of something else, such as nutritious food, sleep, bodily exercise, and a cheerful temper. The truth is, no organ of the body is tougher than the brain. ,I(hrd work alone, pure and simple apart from anxieties and fear, from forced or vol untary stinting of the body's needed supply of food or sleep and the mlnd'a need of social Intercourse does far more to invigorate the bruin than to leseen Its Btrength; does more to pro long life than to cut or fray Its thread. It is the rarest thing In the world for a man to think himself to death, unless bis thoughts run for many years In a monotonous rut which is as det rimental to vigor as a monotonous diet to the digestive functions or un less his thoughts relate to something very painful, irritating, or distressing. It has been Justly said that thought Is to the brain what exercise is to the physical organism. It keeps the chan nels of life clear, the blood vessels un obstructed, eo that the "Vltaji 'fluid courses along them distributing new ness of life and vigor of action to the lutest hour of existence. On the other hand, the want of thought starves the circulation, and causes men to drivel and sleep In old age dead to every thing but eating and drowsing In the chimney corner. Bo untrue Is it that college Btudonts break down from the stress of study on the brain that, other things being equal, the hardest students enjoy the best health. Where one young man. If any, ruins his health by wrestling. with mathematical and psychological prob lems or with the enigmas of Greek and Latin syntax, bad habits, the Btraln, and excitement of athletic con tests, cigars, wine-drinking and other forme of dissipation, and heavy eating at lute hours, undermine the health of hundreds. The two little Angers of dissipation are often heavier than the lines of Euclid. Long and Distinguished Life. Charles A. Peabody, distinguished as a lawyer and Jurist, was born in Sandwich, N. II., 100 years ago. He studied law at Baltimore and at the Harvard law school and after being admitted to the bar, began tho prac tise of his profeBBlon In New York In 1S39. He was a member of the con vention that organized the Republican party in New York In 1855 and was a Justice of the supreme court of New York from 1855 to 1857. During the period of tho Civil war he was a Judge of the United States provisional court of Louisiana, and also served as chief JiiFtlce of tho supreme court of thut state. After the war ho returned to the practise of law in New York city. In 1885 Mr. Peabody represented the government of tho United States at tho International congress of com mercial law. Ho died In Now York city July 3, 1901. Longevity In County Antrim. During the course of a locnl govern ment board Inquiry held at liullyclare, Ireland, before the local government board Inspector, relative to making a closing order for Rashee graveyard, a great many claims for tho right of Interment were made on behalf of a large number of people aged over ninety years, and oho person aged one hundred and four years, all residents In the locality, .Hn ono case a man made a claim for himself and two sis ters, all aged over .ninety years, and for a third sister, whom ho described as tho "young ono," whoso ago ho gavo as seventy-four. In many cases evi dence was given of four generations alive In tho samo family, and evldcnco of Interment In the graveyard about sixteen years ago of a person who had reached the great ago of ono hundred and eleven years. Insect Menagerie. What Professor ilubltte cnlls his In sect menagerie Is Installed at one of the laboratories of tho Jardln des Mantes establishment, and ho now has upwnrd of 60 well arranged boxes or cages, where ho observes Insect life. He thinks that this should bo en Inrged Into an "Insectarlan," or ex tensive monugcrlo, to which tho pub lic should bo admitted. This Is al ready dono In some countries, and their usefulness Is recognized. No great expense Is needed, all that Is re quired being a hall with large tables, on which tho Insect cnges aro placed In good view, with glnss or wlro gauze covers. Tho Insect world Is of greater Interest than may perhaps bo Imagined, and no doubt such an enter prise would bo much appreciated by the public. A Hard Knock. "I understand Mamie told Jim she wouldn't marry him If he were the last man on earth." "Bhe made It even stronger than that Bhe said she wouldn't marry him If be were worth a million dol lars," . . . w . LASSEN PEAK in eruption is the most unique natural feature in the United States today. Its present outburst constitutes the only volcanic activity ever seen by the eyes of white folks within the borders of the United States outside of Alaska. It gives this country the last physical phenomenon needed to make It possible to Bay that every thing that can be seen anywhere in the world can be seen here, writes Frederick Faulkner in the San Fran cisco Chronicle. Lassen was the one place In the United States where such an outburst might reasonably have been expected. Geologically it Is the youngest and latest of all the great series of vol canoes which in days gone by poured out their lavas over the plains and valleys of the WeBt. Shasta was long dead and cold when Lassen was born, and the enormous lava fields of east ern Oregon and Washington had long since been cut down by the streams. More than that, the Lassen region has poured out glowing lavas within tho century. There was no one to soo It at the time, but from the Cinder Cone, ten miles northeast of Lassen peak, there flowed a field of lava two miles long and four miles wide so re cently that the burned trees BtlU stick out of the edges of the flow. . The lava lies there as new as though It was poured out of the bowels of the earth yesterday. Neither tree nor shrub has yet had tlmo to find a footing on it. Fires Still Smolder. Then all over the south side of Las sen are numerous evidences of the Ungerlug fires. Pungent sulphur 1 V i J j -r.j- v tlx LA58EN smoke strikes the nostrils everywhere. Steam vents and boiling springs keep the ground bare In the midst of 15-foot snowbanks. Solid sulphur bolls out of the springs. One ancient crater Is full of solfutaras and fit mu roles of the type common on Vesuvius and Aetna. So with all these evidences that the old flro mountain was not entirely dead, It is not at all remarkablo that Lassen peak or some one of the many craters around It should burst Into eruption. I find In my notos of a trip to the Lassen region 14 years ago, written at the tlmo, the following sen tence: "Few of those who shudder at the convulsions in the West Indian world have ever dreamed that Cali fornia holds a mountnln which has within the lifetime of man, and may again, parallel the titanic forces of the Caribbean volcanoes." Up to a very luto day In geological history, the sea occupied what Is now the Lassen region and extended far Into Oregon. About the close of what la known as the lone epoch that terri tory was uplifted, snd there began a long period of volcanlo activity extend ing down to the present day. From a multitude of vents lava was pound out upon ths earth. Ths more liquid lavas flowed far and wide to form plains. The thicker lava accumulated around the tents and built up the great vol canlo mountains, Lassen peak, flur ney butte, Prospect peak, Mount Hark ness, Magee peak, Crntor peak snd hundreds of others. I -as sen stands 10,487 feet above the sea, Its snow capped peak conspicuous from ths i ' v', Vr; -t h jl - " - c'-V faff itXl:i;? V. . 'V.'Sl' Id X- 'WS14 , c, i hfr li y t a f ?viy 1 . railroad 60 miles away. Three peaks in a rough circle on the summit mark the broken-down walls of the ancient crater. Between them is a hollow 600 feet deep, the fllled-up mouth of the subterranean passage to the fires be low. Until "this summer this hollow has always been filled with Bnow, but the reopening of the crater near the lowest point of the depression and the violent eruptions of steam have melted away this healing covering over the ancient Bear. .Geysers Fill Old Crater. LaBsen peak may be approached from any one of three sides, from Manzanita lake on the northwest, from the head of King's creek on the east, and from Battle creek meadows on the south. The best of all the routes is from the south because that way leads through' the remarkablo collec tion of active volcanic phenomena spread over the entire south slope of tho mountain. Beside the geysers of Iceland and the Yellowstone it would be idle to place the steam vents and boiling lakes of BumpnBs' bell, but as an example of present-day volcanic activ ity in California, and a spectacle not only of wonder, but of beauty, the place Is one of the most Interesting on the Pacific coast. High on the southwest flank of the old fire mountain It lies, a steaming bowl of geysers, smoking sulphur vents, and bizarre lakes of many col ored boiling waters, the whole sunk 500 feet deep In the mountain Bide and a third of a mile across. From the evidences which surround the place, the masses of distorted lava and the 1 . t v ,& in Eruption courses of the former volcanic streams, the bell was once a crater of the old volcano and Its smoke of today Is from the smoldering embers of Its bygone fires. When I first visited the place I had Just dragged my pack horses around tho old truppers' trail on the face of tho cliff at the head of Mill Creek can yon, where tho molting snow water tumbles over from Lake Holon above, and had camped In a clump of- snow banked hemlocks a few hundred feet below the top of tho eastern ridge. I was unaware of the close proximity of Uumpass' hell until, bent on exploring the way, I climbed tho rcinulnlng snowbauka to tho pass, nnd suddenly, so suddenly that I stepped back In stinctively to avoid plunging Into the boiling pit bolow, the hell appeared below me. A dull roar rose from the crater, a sulphurous steam stung my nostrils! I looked out from the snowbank on which I stood and saw a deep bowl lu the mountain, a third of a mile across ringed with twisted and broken lava rock. Hemlock clung to the crags and In their shade lay mocking snow banks. The bottom and walls of the great bowl wore stained a dirty yel low with sulphur. Steam rose every where. The growling of the crater rose, It grumbled hoarsely, hlssod and screamed. When I saw the new crater on Las sen on June 4 snd B the vent, by an engineer's tape, measured 276 feet long. Since then It has grown In site until It Is 450 feet long and 160 feet wide. by 11 Parents Recognized Face Wandering Son In Film. of Actual Recorded Fact, and Not a Mat ter of Invention or Imagination Proves Photoplay Field a Field of Romance. All of us have read Action stories that recorded the recognition of the features of some long-lost son or other missing and highly interesting person In chance-found photograph or moving-picture film. Most of us also have regarded these stories as highly creditable from the viewpoint of Invention and Imagination, but here Is a story from the realm of fact: "Pana, 111. A naval picture of men loading rifles on the battleship Flor ida at Vera Cruz, Mexico, which was published In a newspaper, has re sulted In the location of. a son of wealthy parents, for many years resi dents of Raymond, west of Pana, aft er he had been missing Ave years. "The parents recognized In the pic ture a striking resemblance of their son, who disappeared from his home when he was seventeen years old, and they sent for the picture as originally made and then took up correspon dence with the navy department, learning from the officials that a young man of tho description given by them of their son had enlisted Ave years ago. "The navy department Is now In correspondence with officers of the Florida In Vera Cruz harbor In an ef fort to bring parents and son together once more. When he enlisted In the navy tho young man gave an assumed name." With great effort we force back the comment that "fact Is stranger than fiction," but It la, nevertheless, when you come to think of It. Tho moving picture Aeld Is a field of romance, where anything Is possible and where everything that Is possible sometimes Is true. Pittsburgh Dispatch. ILLUSIONS CONTINUE TO GO Leading Theatrical Paper Now Calmly Announces That Ben Wilson Is a Married Man. This week we shatter a whole clus ter of Illusions and also take from l nele Sam much valuablo coin of the realm In post age. No more shall the fair Vareena write In and ask. timidly but hope fully. "Is Ben Wll son married?" The secret Is out The only Ben Wilson who Is not mar ried Is only seven months old, so give him a chance. "Cleck," who Is also coming Into prominence as a director of pic tures. Is rather Ben Wilson. proud of Benja min F. Jr., and we dare say the feeling Is reciprocated. New York Dramatic Mirror. Less Crime, Please. Tho underworld Is usurping too strong a place on the picture screen. There Is no excuse In the conditions of actual life for bestowing so promi nent a position In the photoplay world on the sordid struggles of social out casts. There Is too much of sorrow In the lives of many of us to magnify a pessimistic view of the world by an overabundance of wrong and misery on tho screen. "Less crime, plcaso," should be the request of many manufacturers to their authors. An occasional feature picture treated by a careful hand, like an occasional reading of Poe, may well serve Its purpose, but the regular run of pictures should seek a closer relation to tho ordinary stations of lire. Btep up a notch In the scale and shake the acquaintance of social topers. Honest, we could manage to squeeze through this existence with out an Introduction to Gyp, the Plug, Second Story Rteve, or even Dress Suit Baffles. We'd much rather Ira-' prove our acquaintance with John Jones, Sally Smith and Bill Brown. Dramatic Mirror. To Feature Baggot Broughton Brandenburg has con tracted for the photoplay rights to his well-known series of detective sto ries, telling of the adventures of Law rence Rand, and King Baggot, player and director, will be featured as the detective. "The House of Doors," the first of the scries to be published, appeared ton years ago In the Metropolitan MnRazlne. That story has been re printed eight times In America, and Us sequel, "The Mystery of the Steel Disc," was chosen by Collier's as the best detective story ever written In America. In book form over eight hundred thousand copies are out. There are 40 stories In the series. Has His Own Company. Harry Carey la among the most ex perienced and better known of motion picture actors, having appeared for years with prominent companies. Ha Is well remembered by his good work In many pictures and Is now heading his own company and producing "The. Master Cracksman." FOUND IIS