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About The Athena press. (Athena, Umatilla County, Or.) 18??-1942 | View Entire Issue (Dec. 29, 1911)
Buy Your Groceries from-Yotir-Home Grocer, VOLUME XXIII. ATITENA, UMATILLA COUNTY. OREGON, FRIDAY. DECEMBER 291911. NUMBER 52 t3T , S3 C .; - OFFICERS S. F. WILSON, President, H. KOEPKE Vice-President. F. S. Le GROW, Casbier.v E. A. ZERBA. Aas't Cashier. '"1 DIRECTORS S. F. WILSON, H. KOEPKE, A. B. M'EWEN, M. L. WATTS, F. S. Le GROW. . FIRST NATIONAL BA1 OF ATHENA CA PITAL AND SURPLUS. $90,000.00 We extend to our Depositors every cAccommdation L. consistent with sound Banking. . BAKSAVHER DUSTPAN OLD WAY - toEW WAY With your next purchase amounting to $2.50 or over, we will give you one of - these Dust Pans Mm Something entirely, new. It will savet your temper and last a" lifetime. BUNDY St CHRISTIAN THE TUM-A-LUM LUMBER CO. . . ii Lumber, Mill Work and all Kinds of BUILDING MATERIAL PAINTS, OILS AND VARNI5IIES . v,- h Posts and Blacksmith coal . - - - c , -V A. M; Johnson, Manager ' . Athena, Oregon HUIDGES We Can Boast of at Least Nine of Them In This Country. OUR FIRST WOODEN BRIDGES. THE ATHENA. MEAT MARKET 17 . We carry the best liviJLA.II That Money Buys Our Market is Clt?an and Cool Insuring Wholesome Meats. TAYLOR & LE GROW Main Street, Athena, Oregon "DIGNIFYING THE INDUSTRIES" i r This li the title of a beautiful 64-page book, which win snow any Doy or girl now to SUCCEED. Drop a postal In the mall TODAY and it will be sent FftEE. The aim of the College li to dignify and popularize the industries, and to serve ALL the people. It offers courses In Agriculture, Civil Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Mining En gin. eerlng, Forestry, Domestic. Science and Art, Com merce, Pharmacy and Music The College opens September aad. Catalog free. Address: REGISTRAR, OREGON AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE, CorvaUis, Oregon.. 1 They Were Quilt About 1800 In the Eastern and Central States, and Then Cam the Covered Structure Few Iron Bridges Prior to 1850. : . Nature has provided this country with at least nine natural bridges, one In Virginia with a span of about ninety-three feet and about 200 feet high; one in Alabama with a span of about seventy feet and about 130 feet high; Ave In California, the largest of which has a span of about eighty feet and is 'about twenty feet high; one in Kei; tucky with a span of about seventy feet and about 130' feet high, and one in southern 'Florida of somewhat smaller dimensions. ; ' .Bridge building in the United States Is of comparatively recent accomplish ment. The early settlers were com pelled to ford : the streams or cross them on rafts or in dugouts. When Washington crossed the Delaware with his army there were no bridges over that river, and history records many Instances of streams being forded with untold hardship and the consequent disasters and delays. Such incidents become serious matters when, for ex ample, physicians are unable to reach the sick or injured because of impass able fords or are compelled to expose themselves to unnecessary danger. Traffic conditions in general ore de moralized by unsafe bridges or cul verts. ' :. , Fontoon bridges have served tempo rary need in many instances, but espe cially in, warfare, i Mention is made of their use Very "early in history, and one of the most notable occasions was when the rerslan army under Xerxes crossed the Hellespont on two pontoon bridges consisting, one of 3G0 vessels and the other of 814. These were an chored head and stem alongside of each other, with their keels la the di rection of the current. The Romans had wickerwork vessels covered with hides destined to support the timber platform of a bridge. These formed a part of the train of their ar mies throughout the history of the em pire until 470 A. P. The construction of highway bridges in this country began to assume prac tical proportions about the year 1800, when many wooden bridges were built in the eastern and central states by Theodore Burr and Timothy Palmer. The wooden lattice truss wasr Intro duced about 1820 by Ithiel Towne. Many of these bridges, consisting of planks pinned together in lattice work, were built from this time on, and they became well known as "Towne" or "covered" bridges. It is doubtful if much attention was given to econom ical design. An effort was made to protect the trusses from the weather by wooden roofs and sides in some in stances, but very few were ever paint ed to preserve the timber. 1 This early type of bridge did "service for many years, and some are still in existenco in Indiana and elsewhere. The first covered bridge to be built in Tippecanoe county and oue of the first in central Indiana was the Brown street bridge over the Wabash l river at Lafayette, according To the records on tile m the otuco or puoiio roads, department of agriculture. Thla old structure, that had been condemn ed for a good many years, has long since disappeared. However, a num ber of covered wooden bridges that were built more than a half century ago are still being used within a ra dius of fifty miles of Indianapolis. ' Few iron bridges were built in this country prior to 1850, and it was only in 1847 that the first publication in the United States, discussing the rational design of bridge members, was issued by Squire Whipple of Utica, N." Y. Wrought iron began to replace cast Iron about 1803, but steel was not used until about fen years later. The ad vantage of steel over cast or wrought iron lies in its greater tensile strength. "Foremost among structures repre senting some of the attractive as well as substantial features in good bridgo designing of the present arse may be mentioned the Washington "bridge over the Harlem river in New York," said the superintendent of construction of bridge engineering, office of . public i-jads., Washington.; ' . V 1 .CSS R FSB i a nil 1 M"'vm MTV m uMsui: Milk c? gSkbr WHERE PRICES ARE RIGHT 'i ! r-1 . j The Freshest and most Choice the Market affords irt "r Best that Money can Buy Always Found Here v 4 i T in - r- - -- ... . fr DELL BROTHERS, MTS,S0B Athena, Oregon H I ,ini Ji si h n i 'J. Jt, -J 'i-j-Jt si; )jriru m ALMANAC OF l YE OLDEN TIME FORTUNATELY for our fore fathers, the almanacs had some claims to literary - merits in their day.: Reading matter was scarce outside of the larger towns of the colonies. Magazines were prac tically unknown.1 : Filled with prog nostications as to the weather, with snatches of wisdom and humor, verse and essay, the annual almanac became a compendium " of useful knowledge that was' most, eagerly awaited and was hailed as an important event in many a home. One might say that it was treated as a household god, for, hung upon a hook in some corner, it always was ready for instant refer ence. The wise saws and quaint say ings which ran through its pages were read over time and again by every member of the family. V : There were numerous almanacs pub lished during colonial ' days : in this country. The popularity of Toor Rich ard's Almanac. . edited by Benjamin Franklin, went hand In hand with that of its illustrious maker. , ' The first Ames Almanac, issued in 1726, was conventional in form and closely ' followed other almanacs of the period. Its maker was a physi cian. I( contained a table . of the movements of the planets and sundry prophecies concerning the weather. That the doctor was afraid of severe criticism of this first effort is lndicat-1 ed by the following stanza, which also illustrates "the style of his poetry: Read, then, and learn, but don't all faults object. .,.; ' it.--. Since they can only judge that can cor-" -' rect. . ,' - - . ' To whom my -works appeal, an'd If I And " The sons of art to favor them tnclln'd, With their propitious smiles It shall suf- ' flee - . - To counterpoise the frowns of enemies. ; An examination of the files of the iAmes Almanac shows that nearly every conceivable subject was discuss ed by the' doctoi, in its nearly forty years of publication. Sometimes he indulged in. flights of imagery, as in November, 1730: Old winter's coming, void of all delight, With trembling steps. His head la bald - and white. His hair with robes of Icicles Is hung. His chatt'rlng teeth confound his useless tongue. . -i ' "i ' . He makes the rich to spend, and poor to ""buy . a For want of that which would their wttnts ' supply, - .: . . ' In the opening lines of the almanac for 1738 DrAmes takes a fling at law yers, priests and doctors and blames old, overburdened Adam for their ex istence. Thus: ' Had Adam stood In lnnocence-tlll now -' And his blest sons had delgn'd to hold the , plow , :. V , ,.- r. , ' : No labor had faUgu'd "nor time had spoiled - His youth, but spring had ever blooming smll'd, - ' - .. .- ' " No lust for pelf nor heart distressing pain Had seized the miser nor the rural swain, Nor vice, as now,; with virtue ne'er had vied, , ' ' .. .-. And heaven's omnipotence Itself defy'd, Nor lawyers, priests nor doctors ne'er had been'- If man had stood against th' assaults of . ' sin.-. . . ; ... ' But, oh, he fell ! And so accurs'd we be. ' . The world Is now obliged to usn all three, Frobabiy the most interesting por tions of these almanacs are the bits of wisdom and humor which ' went ALWAYS ltKADT rOB INSTANT BBFKUSNOiCy with each calendar month. A few Il lustrations will suffice to show the sort' of thing that amused our ancestors : " ' ' - ; FEBRUARY, IBS. : ! ' ' .' ';' Pretty cold, freezing nights, . followed, with a short storm. Let travelers be upon their guard to defend their pose. , . ';' FEBRUARY, 1747. " The farmer mow's resolvd ' be . will not freeze ' ...,." While he has pipes, tobacco, Are, with ' good bread and Cheese. OCTOBER, 17SJ. Those that are husbands good Should now get in their cider, grain and wood. ' An honest friend Is good, company, but a good conscience is the best guest. SEPTEMBER, 1763. ' . Virtue Is praised more than followed. To some men their country is their shame, and some are the shame of tbelr country. . . . - - Love and Tima. ' - "Charm, New Tear, of your good grace, . These sad wrinkles from Love's face. ' "Wen and weary now lie aeema. Bring him back the dreams, the dreams! "Arch above him April sides. : ' Kiss tl. light into bjs eye. "Lead him back to moments fled Lure Love's roses from the dead!" "Nay." the New Tear aaith; "hta day Hath o'erpast the daisied way. , "Tfcough he weareth now the thorn, 'Neath the rose leaves It Was born. ' "Now the stem, of roee bweft. Love must keep the thorn that's lclX "Merry la the wintry morn. i Love 13 dead, and IjOvh la iwrn!" ' -ifalUaae lierald. TOYS OF A STORM An Experience on a Mountain top , Alive With Electricity. ; ; MEN 'GLOWED WITH SPARKS. The Discharge From the Lightning Laden Cloud Enveloped the Party and Turned It Into a Sort of Human Pyrotechnic Display. '. '- . We had spent a week In pathless and dense .woods, working toward a high-mountain in northwestern Mon tana. At last we left the pack horses in care of the guide, and three of us set out on foot for the peak, i We carried r a plate camera, provisions, gun, ice pick, aneroid barometer for de termining elevation and other neces sary articles. For several hours we climbed over ridges and tip ra vines'.' - Tho final asceut was a slope of rot ten shale. For four and a half hours we climbed the loose rock, with not a solid bit of footing.'; Halfway up the slope we observed that a storm cloud had gathered southwest ef us, not far above a ridge which we had crossed early in the morning. Suddenly a bolt of lightning flashed" fromu!' cloud to the earth. ; A little, later n wreath of, smoke ascended from the ridge, and we knew a fire had, started fro'm the lightning.'' , v : A : 'y'" : : ',';; About half past T we reached the summit, a narrow top but a, few feet in width, on which was a pile of rocks shoulder high, a'governE;nt' triangu lation monument. Before was a preci pice, at the foot of which was an un named and unexplored glacier. Be hind was the rottcu shale up which we had scrambled. , To, th right , a narrow ridge, with bowlders;, as large as a small house, connededi our sum mit with the one beyond. , Against the eastern face of this sum mit great masses of snow and ico formed the head of the glacier, ' To the left, was a steep, open ridge. : The glacier .was furrowed by hun dreds of chasms. The yellow rocks of the neighboring summits were flanked by great masses of ico on the one side and by tremendous precipices on the other. Far away the mountains blend ed with tho blue sky. On the crags were a few mountain goats. "What is that noise?'' shoutedone of the boys suddenly. "What noise? I do not hear it," I replied. " ' ' i "Over at the monument." - 'I will go and see." The monument- was "'hot "a dozen steps away. As I approached it I smelled the pungent odor of ozone, and instantly I know. We had for gotten tho storm cloud gathering near us to the south. The summit on which we stood presented to the electric cloud above a sharper point in com parison with tho earth than can be made on any electric machine. The exchange of electricity between the charged cloud and the earth began at the rock monumeut, which was a lit- tlo higher than the place where we stood. I may have hoard the noise; I do not remember. I sineilod tho-ozouo and turned toward my companions with the cry: "We are ia an electric storm! We must run for our lives!" In a few seconds the electric dis charge had increased with wonderful rapidity; My rifle was sbootin sparks from the end of the barrel, which were visible in broad daylight. I did not drop tho gun; I. threw it My scalp felt as if each hair was a bristle on end pushing against my hat. I could feel the discharge from fingers, chtks, noso and chin, and I was wearing heavy : rubber soled shoes, which should have assisted in making me a nonconductor. . s , Oue of my companions threw away his Ice pick, as I had thrown my gun. : The other, seeing my white face as he afterward told me was completely unnerved and knew not what he was doing or what to do. Before was the cliff. Behind was the rock shale, with no protection. To the ;Urht was the impassable ridge, connecting the sum-, mlts aud blocked with masses of rock. There was only one way to the left. "Shall we go this way," said one, extending bin hand in that direction. The extended hand, and fingers were) aglow with sparks shooting outward from the body, and Instantly the arm was jerked back to the body . with a startled exclamation. Stronger and stronger grew the charge. It seemed to fill our bodies and crackled from every projecting rock. ' Half dazed, I hooked my arm in the carrying case of my camera and with it dashed down the ridge, followed closely by my two companions We crawled under a big rock and, with our feet ngaln.-tt the ice and our backs against the solid mountain, felt safe. Thus we remained ' for perhaps an hour. Then we began to feel hungry and in this trying position ate, our luncheon. "'., , ' We returned to the summit Fortu i alely tho cloud had passed to the outh of us, and we had experienced only the edge of the manifestation of electricity. Had the cloud been direct ly overhead this story would perhaps never have , been written. Morton J. Elrod in Youth's Companion. : A THRILLING RIDE. Reasoning It Out" I have calculated that I can't lose much if i nit my money in electrical Ulurjinatlon.- , - ! , 4 ' "Wbytiot?; . ; "Because there couldn't possibly be a heavy loss on a light Investment" Baltimore American. . ' Flight of a Fast Mail Train to Make Up -,!- .;' Lost Time. .', . When the first really fast mail be tween Omaha and San Francisco reach ed Evanston, Wyo., at the foot of the Wasatch mountains, it was fifty min utes late. -There it was met by a pow erful engine in charge of a reckless en gineer, BUI Downing by name. Cap tain James E. White, ex-superlntendt ent of the railway mail service, tells in bis reminiscences how Bill made up the fifty minutes. ',.'; " The distance to Ogden , is seventy-six miles. ; "I shall not be happy,' said Downing to one of the newspaper re-'1 porters who were to make the run on this first fast mall, "until I have done that seventy-six miles in seventy-two minutes." -: - ""- '' -"'. ' When he threw the lever arid opened the throttle the train made a start that settled everybody's dinner. And once the train' was. fairly under way it seemed as if the curves on the line were all straightened out by the tre mendous speed. ' ;'"" -"'- -; Goin down Weber canyon the pace was awful. ' "Three miles In two min utes!" gasped Captain White. But Downing did not reduce the speed. Down the winding lino of Tap ioca "gulch the rear coach was swing ing from side to side. You could hear the wheels grind on the curves and feel the. continuous striking as they bore first against one rail and then against the other. ' v - - v ; " vV" s '. Faster and faster the train swept along, roaring over bridges tearing through tunnels, rocking round prom ontories. ' Some of the newspaper men fainted through nervous ; exhaustion and many of the other passengers had already succumbed. ; i ; s ; ;' ; Suddenly, in t rounding the" .reverse loop in Antelope gap the rear coach careened tilt it hung by one wheel xa tho rail.. As soon as the moment of suspense was over General . Manager Dickinson sprang to his feet and called:.- . ... :V- -'. "Pull the bell rope, quick, Brown, and run forward and tell Downing to' stop this if he wauts us, to reach. Ogden alive!" """.:',' ;.'.' '.'" . Then, not to risk, another such sec ond, the general manager sprang to the rear platform and twisted up the brake with all his might The seventy-Blx "miles of intricately curved track were covered in sixty- five minutes. It ; was4 a hair raising record, and several -passengers who went through the1 experience dld not recover from the shock ? for '. a long time. : .'- . ; "i", ''"'..v.- '' PERFECT GAUGES. The Process of Their Making.ls ; . " . a Profound Secret. X ' -- They Look Like Specks of Dust and Art Used In Watches. Tho smallest screws in the world are made in a watch factory. They are cut trom a steel wire by a machine, but as the chips fall from the knife it seems , as though the operator .were simply cutting up the wire for his own amusement . No screws can bo seen, aud yet a screw is made at every third operation. .; , ," ' . ' . ' . Tho fourth Jewel screw is next to in visible, and to the naked eye it looks like a grain of dust With a magnify ing glass, .however, it is seen to be a screw with 00, threads to the inch, and with a very fine glass the threads may be seen quite clearly,, These little screws are four one-thousandths of an inch in diameter. It is estimated that an ordinary .thimble would hold 100,000 of them. About a million are made in a month,, but no attempt is ever made to count them, t In determining the number ,100 of them are placed on a very delicate bal ance, and tne'number. of tho whole, amount is calculated from the weight All the small parts of the watch are . counted in this Way, probably t0 out of the 120. . , - , After being cut. the screws are hard ened and put in frames, about 100 to the frame, heads up. This is done very rapidly,, but entirely by the sense of touch instead of, by; sight, so that a .blind man could do it as well, as tho knvher of the sharpest eye. The heads are then polfahed in an automatic ma chine, 10,000 ;at a time. , The plate on which they "are polished is covered with oil and n grinding compound, and on tbla the machine moves tbeni very rapidly by a; reversing motion until tbt lish is perfect Exchange. " , Japanese. Have Fresh Alrv ' Different from other nations, we, Jap anese are accustomed to keep -the rooms freely opened ia order to facili tate the cool breeze to invade. Tbtis the blind is generally hanged down' from the porch capable to protect, those who occasionally peep in. The blind or shade is made of split bum boo or reeds. It is bo fixed that one who is in the behind the. blind only could look at one who ia in front place, or, in other words, those who Bit in darker side could only recognize one in lighter side, but never vise versa. Tokyo Life, the International Rerlew. -Which ts Which - Above a certain cafe there are two looms, the one being occupied 1)y a f. omen's "sewing circle," tho other be ing the dining room of the cafe. Out side tho cafo hangs the sign, 'Grill Room Upstairs." " '' The German proprietor of the cafe is still wondering why the president of the sewing circle denounces the sign as libelous and demands Its removal-Judge's Library. LOCKED IN ONE MAN'S. BRAIN " i J . V; .', :' ,v i. . ,.- '. ' ' " -V.' Co Accurate Are These Wonderful Standards That Twenty or More of . Them ' Rubbed Together Adhere as ' Though Made of One Piece of Metal. In a closely guarded room pf a small shop in nu obscure Swedish village a man tolls in secret says a writer in Cassler's Magazine. Just how he ac complishes what he does no one knows. not even his sous who work with hint. r Johaunson has made the world beat a path to bis door, for ho has dlscov ered the secret of making a more ac curate limit gauge than any previously in use. . ' A single set of his gauges , gives a practically uulimlted, series of sizes, rising by steps of; u ten-thousandth of an inch much less than the traditional hair's breadth to twenty six Inches. It is said that 80,000 com- . blnatious of these gauges are possi ble. ; ''-. :'-';' ', "' ;..:;--v: ;'':. 'A . No dimension within their limits has been cited that tliej failed, to repro duce. Extreme accuracy In building machinery, particularly that of motor cars, Is of the greatest Importance, and . the first step toward that: end 'i th, perfection of a standard. Making such nf n lini'i'la Id si ( rvn et tin A AvnnnaltrA process. . But Joiiannson , has not found it so, , or else he values his se- cret lightly from the pecuniary point of view, for he Is. .able to pay, Uncle, Sam, a. duty of 45 per cent and still offer his gauges in the American mar- ket for a few hundred dollars, although they could not be made here for many Hmoa rliolr nrirn. ; i " Wben two of these Swedish cauces' are "wiped" together so as to exclude the air from between them they ad here with a pressure which expert- ment has shown to exceed thirty : L poupds to the-; square , Inch. Twenty 1 or more pieces may be thus wipea to: gethcr and supported horizontally by merely holding the last one, which 1 means that the accuracy of their vari ous urfaces Is almost absolute. Flulshlng one surface or twe sur faces to n very close limit by lapping rubbing togct heir with a fine abrasive between is a.- comparatively , simple matter. But achieving such, perfect parallelism as Is shown by these re-. markable gauges- is quite another thing, a secret qnite well worth know-. ing. .' ;'. . . : ' ;.-;'. .',.. The peculiarity about this mvterl- ously poworful adhesion of the s arate pieces is that the feel of the . built up gouge thus formed Is exactly . the same as that of a single piece of metal, and this holds for any combi nation, the number of pieces forming it not; affecting the sensation in the. slightest Any skilled mechanic will understand instinctively ; the meaning of this and its-testimony to the ac curacy of the gauges. . . . For instance, a. ono Inch gauge may be built up of pieces representing ' 0.50.20.05-.1500.1 inch, and the resulting piece will be one inch abso lute, or any one of several other com binations may bo mado to represent an inch, and blindfolded the most -expert mechanic could not detect auy differ- ence between the manner in which this . composite inch gauge and the one piece Inch gauge fitted In a snap gauge of the same size. It would be an easy matter to confuse the two in handling. Mr. Johannson, the backwoods In-' yen tor who discovered what thousand of the most expert mechanics in ma- chine building centers have vainly i sought for half a century, limits1 his f output to a few hundred sets ot gauges a year whether purely rrpm tncuaa lion or because of mechanical diftlcul'', ties In production Is as much a; secret,' as the process Itself and ono that he will doubtless take with him when,"he ' dies.' A. I-'.' vX ... ' " ':i v:.. Burden Bearers In Mexico. Strong backed laboring men take the place of moving vans In Mexico. Th're are huge fiat trucks with four handles' into Which things are piled and lugged -along tho city streets. On moving day the household furniture may be seen paraded In . full gaze of the curious from street to street to the new desti nation: These men r.re called rargi--dores and combine th; usefulness of -messenger boy antl the j porter of the old world. The great burdens -borne., thus by the strength of a single carrier are amazing. A piano will be carried , along by two men on one of tho strong t trucks. . , . A Generous Empress. It Is said that one morning nt break-' fast a cenural related to the emperor the mlsfortuuca of a brother officer." who, "because he had not 15,000 francs,' must be dishonored." While the em-' peror questioned further particulars Eugenie flew to her room and, return ing with a package of banknotes, said. Take tbem, general, and never tell me' his name." And bis name the gener ous empress never knew. When a friend asks, Shore is no. to. morrow-Goorge Ui-rberL : , , The Only Way.5 It's tough tipon a bard to find tnere'a no demand for verse. Ills life becomes a sordid grind. He goes from bad to worae. The thing for him to do, I wis, when thus the market com Is to dls- "fulae .his verse like this and work ft ' iff as iroc. -Washington Herald. Thirteen at Dinner. Thirteen at dinner is an old Norse myth. . It was deemed unlucky ' be cause Lokl,: god of malice; once In truded, making thirteen . guests, and Baldur, the brilliant god, was slain nt the instigation ot Loki, who prevailed upon Hodur, a strong but blind god, to throw MisteL the mistletoe, at Bal dur, perforating the tatter and letting out bis divine soul. Men of culture are the true apoetlos f ndtialltv. Matthew Arnold. ' : -