QUEEN OF COTTON BALL.
Mountain Light
Is Like Aurora
Fine Site of Woman’s Foundation Buildings
Curious Electrical Display in ican continent as the Andes lightning.
It appears as a silent but very lumi
North Carolina Excites In
nous discharge of electricity along the
crest of the Cordillera Beal In Chile. I
terest of Scientists.
ONCE THOUGHT TO BE PHANTOM
Suddenly and W ithout Warning Light
Sometimes Blazes Out on Crest of
Mountain, Moves Down Side
and Fades O u t
Washington, D. C.—“Tired profes-
tors and business men who sought
surcease from their sorrows In the
mountainous regions of western North
Carolina have during the past few
summers given up some of tlielr much-
needed hours of sleep to chase what
most of them believed to be nothing
more than a phantom, or the witch
tires of some maker of mountain dew,
but the Brown mountain light Is now
coming Into Its own as an accredited
electrical phenomenon,” says a bulle
tin of the National Geographic so
ciety, Issued from Its Washington, D.
C„ headquarters.
"Brown mountain lies 17 miles from
Blowing Bock In the Blue mountains
In the western part of the stute, and,
though plainly visible from the resort,
Is In nn uninhabited and sparsely
wooded section. Suddenly and with
out warning a light sometimes blazes
out on the crest of the mountain, slow
ly moves down Its side and then fades
out; sometimes it seems to rise from
the top of the mountain and hang sus
pended In the air where It fudes.
A W raith of Infinite Variety.
In a region where thunderstorms are
practically unknown.
"Its visibility Is sometimes very
marked, having been noted by the for- {
mer director of the Meteorological
and Geophysical institute of Chile, |
while he was out ut sea, more than
800 miles from the head cordillera. |
The actual discharge, In which the
mountain acts as a lightning rod be
tween the clouds and the earth, re
sembles a glimmer, but sometimes the
flashes which take place at the point
of origin are strong und powerful,
then gradually diminish In Intensity
and finally disappear Into the night.
The light flashes over the mountain
from late spring to fall, and the dis
plays grow less brilliant as one goes
farther south.
“The same phenomenon has also
been noted In the Swiss alps. One
observer, after a long period of hot
and dry weather, reported that he had |
seen a succession of semi-circular
flashes which shot up from a moun
Miss Eleanor Cameron of Waco,
tain In the Bernese Oberlund, occa
sionally lighting the Jungfrau group. Texas, In her "coronation robe,” as
Such dlspluys are notable for their queen of the Texas cotton palace ex
likeness In appearance to the aurora, position ball, an Internationally Im
except that they do not reach such portant event In Waco. The robe
wag modeled after a Seventeenth cen
heights.”
tury Spanish gown, and is vulued at
$5,000.
Third Boy Found Hanged In Barn.
Chicago. — Anthony Szkolny, the
Family Leaps From Fire.
third boy to have been found hanged
Danville, Ky.—Leaping from their
here, was discovered suspended from
a rope tied to a rafter In the barn front porch to the limbs of a tree In
In the rear of Ills home. The body the yard, Mr. and Mrs. C. II. Hudson
was found by a playmate. No reason and family escaped after flames had
Is assigned for any of the suicides, as cut off the stairway. Mr. Hudson
they have been pronounced by the leaped from the porch to the tree and
police.
bade the others follow him.
“It has as many whims and moods
ns a temperamental artist, sometimes
appearing
several
times during
one night, now stationary, now slow,
again swift In Its flight, and
sometimes It cannot be seen for a
comparatively long period of time, but
It usually Is most active when the
sky Is clearing after a ruin. Those
who have studied It In all Its guises
say that It often is not unlike the
stnr from a bursting sky-rocket,
though much brighter, und that It Is
sometimes red and sometimes yellow,
due probably to the condition of the Omaha Sheriff Who Accommo
atmosphere.
dated One Applicant Is Del
“Scientists were nt first prone to
cavil at the stories which came out of
uged With Letters.
the mountains with the tourists, think
ing perhaps that locomotive head
lights or wily mountaineers were play
ing tricks on active Imaginations, but
toduy Dr. W. J. Humphreys, physicist
of the United States weather bureau,
and other meteorologists of note, be Lonely Ones of Both Sexes Eager for
lieve that there occurs around the
Spouses From the Plains— Letters
mountain's crest a brush discharge of
Come From Almost Every
lightning, similar to the fnmous Andes
State.
lightning, or the St. Elmo's fire, which
gave rise umong the ancient Greeks
Omaha.—All the widows In New
to the myth of Custor and Bollux. York and a lot in other states as
That glow which accompanies the well seem to he hunting for Nebraska
slow discharge of electricity to the husbands. And half the widowers in
earth from the ntmosphere. In south New York and n lot In other states as
ern climates, during thunderstorms, well seem to be on the lookout for
seen on the tops of innsts, spires, or Nebraska wives.
other pointed objects was named St.
Sheriff Mike Clark of Omaha has
Elmo's fire by sailors after one of about a bushel of letters on his desk.
their patron saints, because they felt And the letters are rolling In on Sheriff
thnt when the sign appeared they Clark nt the rate of about fifty every
had nothing further to fenr from the day. Two mouths ago Sheriff Clark
storm.
found a husband for Widow IRinhnm
Compared to Andes Display.
of Newark, N. J., who had evolved the
"Perhaps the most remarkable fea theory that all she had to do to get a
ture of the electrical discharge which husband was to write to some Western
takes place either from the earth to sheriff. She picked out Omaha. And
the clouds or from the clouds to the sure enough. In shout three weeks she
earth around Brown mountain Is thnt was married to Albert Henry Thomas,
It Is silent. The same thing is true a railroad mnn of Omaha.
of the electrical displays In the Andes,
Her story got Into the newspapers—
which have long been known to scien and Sheriff Clark thereby got his foot
tists and travelers In the South Amer In I t For every widow around the
Nebraska Mates
in Big Demand
SHOW TERSENESS AND SPEED
I
Deroulede Statue Unveiled in Metz
M. Barthou, French minister of war. recently unveiled a statue of Paul
Deroulede, the great French patriot at Meta. The big bell of the cathedral,
which Is seldom used, as Its vibrations are believed to endanger the safety of
the tower, was rung on this occasion. The statue stands on a pedestal built
by the Germans for a monument to the Emperor Frederick III.
country who read that story Immedi
ately wrote Sheriff Clark for a hus
band. And every widower and every
old bachelor under whose notice the
article came wrote the sheriff to find
them wives among the hundreds of
women who had written him for hus
bands.
Show Terseness and Speed.
Mrs. S. Brlckley, 7 East Broadway,
New York, wrote one of the shortest,
rlght-to-the-point letters of them. “I
am looking for a husband; can you do
anything for me?" she asks the sheriff.
James George, box 349, Mount Ver
non, N. Y„ is also very laconic In his
demands: “I want a w ife; put me In
touch with on«, quick 1” he writes
Sheriff Clark.
Charles Olsen. 74 Woodhull street,
Brooklyn, Is not quite so terse. His
letter to the sheriff says: “I am a
machinist, a former chief engineer on
a Danish ship. I want a home again,
but don't know n woman whom I can
ask? Please send the names of several
who want husbands.” Sheriff Clark
sent him the names of half a dozen or
so.
Avery O. Wooden, 1228 I.nge avenue,
Bochester, N. Y., writes the sheriff he
Is twenty-seven years old and that he
wants a young widow.
Charles Ryan, Clifton Springs, N.
Y., told the sheriff he Is a farmer, but
that he has taken two years In a medi
cal college and expects to complete his
course. He wonts a wife.
Peter Grub, box 270, Erie Railroad
Y. M. C. A., Hoboken, N. J., says In
his letter: “I see where you have lots
of wives to give away. Give me one.”
Thaddeus Stargeskl, 299 Waverly ave
nue, Newark, N. J., Is delighted with
the prospects. “Just rend the joyful
news of an unlimited supply of let
ters from females wanting husbands,”
he writes Sheriff Clark. “I am a gradu
ate electrician. Send me some letters.”
Wants a Sensible Widow.
"Your name sounds good to me,”
Frank Ryan, 695 Lenox avenue. New
York, wrote to Sheriff Clark. “I want
a sensible widow."
Charles F. McDonald, 283 West 147th
street, New York, Is searching for an
uncle who disappeared thirty-five
years ago. The uncle's name was M. O.
Connor. An estate In Ireland cannot
be settled until he Is found. "Help me
find my uncle and I’ll marry any wom
an you want me to marry,” he tells
Sheriff Clark.
Miss S. Mornnd, 382 St. Mark’s
place, Tompkinsville, Staten Island,
New York, is Just 19 years old, and
"has hopes,” she writes the sheriff. "I
have the very highest ideals of West
erners,” she says In her letter.
Miss Rita C. Waieker, 205 West
lOIst street, Manhattan, New York,
says: "I hear you have a supply of
married men on hand. I want to settle
down to home life. 1 aifi n trained
i nurse. 40 years old, brown hair, gray
eye«."
George Muir, 351 West Thirty-ninth
street. New York, has a real reason
for wanting to get m arried: "I have
nose bleed and the doctor says If I can
get married It will cure the trouble,"
he wrote Sheriff Clark.
New Jersey "bids” number more
than 100. Letters from practically
every state In the Union are Included
In that bushel of letters which stands
on the sheriff's desk.
Declared to be more than 900 years old, this giant oak stands on the property of the Woman's National Foundation
In Washington, where a group of buildings will be erected for various women’s activities. The Institute, which Is
backed by some of the leading women of the country, will cost $5,000,000.
»
Troubles Beset
Tourist Abroad
Lack of Hotel Accommodations
in European Cities Stumbling
Block to Traveler.
MANY SLEEP IN BATHROOMS
Fortune Awaits Ambitious American
Who W ill Go Into Hotel Business
in Europe— Hotel Portier
Powerful Potentate.
Vienna.—A fortune Is awaiting any
ambitious American who will come to
Europe and go into the hotel business.
There ure, of course, complications
In the way. Building materials are high,
though when the exchange rate Is con
sidered not so high as at home. Labor
demands high wages, according to the
German and Austrian standard—hut
that standard leaves the skilled work
man earning, according to American
values, considerably less than $1 a
day.
Again, there are inevitable stumbling
blocks in the way of government tax
when a piece of loud changes hands.
Also the International money condi
tions which huve caused Germnny and
Austria to become beloved of English,
American, Dutch, French, Rallan and
Scandinavian tourists may change be
fore new hotels can be built, though It
doesn't look as though they would.
At any rate, eliminating unexpected
complications, the hotel business to
the eye of the layman now looks as If
It must pay better than nny other in
the world.
Sleeping In the Bathroom.
I t Is more or less difficult to get a
hath In any German or Austrian or
Hungarian hotel nowadays, because all
of the bathrooms are being used for
bedrooms. Not that the guests sleep in
the tubs, no, they merely sleep In beds
or cots that have been added to the
usual bathroom furniture, and they
count themselves rather fortunate than
otherwise because, while they are en
joying the use of the bathroom os a
Bleeping apartment they likewise pre
empt the use of the tub. I slept in the
bathroom myself In Munich, and It was
very comfortable.
Building additions, redecorating and
renovating In general, Is now too ex
pensive for the average German or
Austrian. Private dwellings and public
Institutions alike show rather distress
ing wear and tear. Hospitals in partic
ular are shabby to a point where their
executives bemoan that they are un
sanitary.
Private apartment houses are spotty
as to paint and dangerously raveled
as to stair coverings. Hotels are uni
versally, however. In a state of newly
painted smartness and are being brave
ly remodeled and redecorated.
all of this he Is mighty, and he Is a
power to be envied by many an up-to-
date potentate.
The portler at the Adlon in Berlin
Is said to own one of the smartest
villas In Wahnsee, one of the smartest
suburbs of that city.
But the Importance of the portler
has Increased many fold since after-
the-war conditions have made a room
In a hotel a thing to be desired beyond
great riches. His nod and his frown are
Jovian in their might. His nod comes
only when the would-be guest can show
proof that he wired the hotel for
rooms and that the wire wns answered
favorably. Otherwise, there Is the
frown. It Is a frown which may, on
occasions, be deflected by the proper
means, delicately Introduced, or, rath
er, tendered. It Is a frown which may,
on the other hand remain consistently
and honestly discouraging.
Wanted— A Room.
One Lone Trout
Stops Coal Mine
London.—Close to 600 men lost
a day’s work this week at a col
liery In Lanarkshire through a
trout choking the water supply
for the boilers. The cage could
not be lifted to the pithead,
as the boilers were not working.
After a great deal of trouble the
cause of the breakdown was dis
covered. The trout weighed one
pound and six ounces. Work
was resumed next day.
<♦. • • • •
<-e'.e's--e-e'-e--e"e"e--e-- a--a--^
through the lobby, emulated by other
racing and wild-eyed travelers, only
to be told that there, too, people are
sleeping In the bathrooms.
Ah, a Boarding House.
At last one Jovian gentleman In the
haughty regalia of a portler took pity
on a lady traveling alone—this was the
fifth hotel—and telephoned to the
keeper of a pension or boarding house
that he knew. Yes, she had a vacant
room, the portler was pleased to In
form me and accepted a slight gratuity
for his condescension.
We dashed again and this time the
driver carried the luggage up three
flights of dark, draughty and oniony
stairs. The pension keeper met us at
the door, sweet but sorry. No, the
room was taken. A gentleman had
come Just after she had answered the
telephone.
“But you promised,” I walled.
“Promised, miidame?" she repeated.
I do not promise. I merely said that
at that, moment there was a room va
cant. There Is none vacant now.”
The luggage was carried down the
dark and oniony stairs again, and an
other hotel was tried. Here there was
another portier who knew a pension,
and In this pension, at last, there was
haven—of a sort. It was of the sort
that Is frequently disturbed during the
night by things with six legs.
The experience, however, Is not
unique. And because many hotels were
appropriated for other uses during the
war and have never been restored to
their original utilitarian field, nnd be
cause no building has been done for
seven yenrs nnd tourists from all over
the world find It pleasant and profit
able to sojourn In these lands where
money Is cheap—the hotel business
would seem to be a plensant and profit
able one.—Miriam Telchner In Chicago
News.
There was. for Instance, thnt experi
ence In Budapest. I had wired for
rooms In the Hotel Ritz, from Vienna.
No answer had come, but the portler in
the hotel at Vienna had been an op
timistic soul and had advised risking
It. I risked It and arrived at Budapest
shortly after 9 p. m.
It turned out that the advice of the
portler was not good advice. There
was no room to be had at the Ritz.
People, the portier was pleased to In
form me, were sleeping In all of the
bathrooms. He recommended another
hotel; the hotel was courteous, but It
also was full; it recommended another.
The affair resembled the chariot race
from "Ben Hur,” though slightly more
thrilling. Every one else In the city
seemed to be trying to find rooms in a
hotel, too. If there are traffic laws In
Budnpest they are made like New
Year’s resolutions, only to be broken.
The droschko drivers are ancient and
ragged daredevils, who delight in zig
zagging across the paths of automo
biles and trains and other droschkes.
They whiz past one another on the
bias, they clatter out from side streets,
they risk, a thousand times, a wheel
caught In a trolley track and utter dis
aster.
Other horses dashingly drawing oth
er droschkes prance up behind one nnd
one feels tlielr hot breath on the neck
and they seem about to make their
suppers off of one's back hair. Then
Peru Is planning to spend several
they pass, the wheels of their drosch million dollars to give Lima and sev
kes alarmingly near. And another hotel eral other towns fresh water, sewers
Is reached and one races madly and other sanitary Improvements.
Centrifugal Gun Is a Wonder
Hotel Portier le All Powerful.
The hotel portler always In Europe
has been a dignitary of considerable
prominence. In his admiral's coat, his
linguistic ability, his Infallible knowl
edge of train schedules and theaters
and that omnipotence of his In playing
chess—with vacant rooms ns his
squares and guests as his pawns—In •
^ * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * WWWWWMW+
Home. Just Erected.
Burned to the Ground
Stephen A. Long, a carpenter
of Margate City, N. X, camped
in a tent all summer with his
family that they might save
enough to build a small bunga
low. I-ong built the home before
and after his day’s work, recent
ly completing the bungalow,
The “moving” was quite an
event and the family went to the
theater at night as a little cele
bration. When they returned
they found blackened ruins. The
fireplace at the end of the cosy
living room had thrown off a
s|Hirk that fired the building,
which waa not Insured.
I.leutennnt Colonel Olmstead demonstrating to a party of government of
ficials a new centrifugal gun at Seagirt, N. J. Firing 1.200 shots a minute, the
gun riddled a steel target. The barrel of the gun is six Inches In length, suit
ably machined for minimum air resistance, with a bore of 50-100 of an Inch
from the nuixxle to the center. In actual firing thia barrel may be revolved
and firing take place at from 4.000 to 16.000 revolutions per minute. Thia wide
range of speed results In an equally wide range of penetrating power nt any
given distance.