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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 30, 1921)
THE BEE: OMAHA, SUNDAY, OCTOBER SO, 1921. SCIEN us I r ,LLO Cowrif hi. itn, kr ru Uteer CM Peopc Flocking to Isle of Pines Don't Slouch, Girls; Sit Up If You Would Avoid Spine Curvature and Possess Perfect Back ' Here's New Life Preserver to Keep the Head Up These Days For Brief Dips Into "Radium Wells" 4 M A MIGHTY profitable piect of property in thei days it ra dium well the term referring to water that contain! the precioui "emanations" of that wonderful min eral. l'eople are flocking to the Isle of Pinet, (south of Cuba) for "dins," On that island, at Santa Fe, are four radium wells that are alleged to be very remarkable. Not far away, at Santa Harbor a, ire eight more. The welli are not much to look at mere hotel dug in the ground and surrounded by ring fencei. There are hotel, which charge only $5 a day -for room and board, with dipi thrown in. Outsiders may I Where Are You Safest? Pullman Car Is Good Place, THE average person suffers a dis abling accident once in seven years. It may be only a smashed thumb or a sprained ankle, but it puts the sufferer temporarily out of business. If one would avoid disabling acci dents, the safest place is indoors, in bed, in the cellar. Next to that the safest place is a Pullman car on a railroad train. So say the accident insurance companies. A passenger in an ordinary railroad car is much safer than at home, be cause he is sitting still and few things can happen to him. If he is in a Pullman, and there is a collision, other cars may be smashed, but his own vehicle, being of steel and enor mously heavy, will likely escape se rious injury. For all that is said about the perils . of the sea, you are just about 10 times as safe on a ship as on land. One man in every 2,200 is fatally hurt by an accident on land; on the ocean only one person in 22,000 suf fers accidental death. If there be a safer place than a Pullman car, it is the Boardwalk at Atlantic City. Nothing ever happens on the Boardwalk; the municipality sees to that It is a via sacra a sacred road of planks. The town Substitute for Tea THE active principle of tea is "theine." That "of coffee is caf . feine. But -caffeine and theine are exactly the same thing. This agreeably stimulating alkaloid is found in other plants, one of which grows wild and plentifully in the South Atlantic States, where it is called "yaupon," or sometimes "Christmas-berry tree." The Indiana brewed a beverage from the leaves of the yaupon long ' before the first white man landed on thii continent; and during the v civil war it was used as a substitute for tea by people in the south. The government plant bureau is experimenting with it, in the belief that the leaves, when properly cured after the manner of tea, will furnish a palatable cup at a much less cost. Has Science Found Way to Make Real Diamonds? French Chemist, Jailed For "Making Gems," Now. Free Will He Reveal Secret? By STERLING HEILIO. Paris "You are master of a splendid but terrible secret," said Sir Julius Wernher to the chemist Lemoine. "That secret must die. Only you and I will have known it, and we shall both forget it the same day. How much do you want , for your silence?" These words, published in the Paris and London papers of Janu ary, 1908, were generally credited to the life governor of the De Beers company of London. The entire Paris jewel trade was in excitement, equally with that of London. Men were already making synthetic rubies and sapphires. "If they manufacture diamonds," said Andre Falize, "great values will fade away." " .... "Will the syndicates suppress the secret, if there be one?" he was asked. "If Lemoine has found the secret, others will find it," answered the great Paris jeweler. "What, then, is your conclusion! "Pearls 1 will go up. The oyster keeps its secret 1" ' Chemist Accused of Swindle. The oyster has not kept its secret. And now diamonds It was only a few years ago that Lemoine, the French chemist, was railroaded to jail on a charge of swindling, in Paris, for having "made diamonds" in the presence of experts like Sir Julius Wernher, Lord Armstrong, Oates, head chem ist of the De Beers company in.Lon-' don, and Andre Normandin, eminent chemist Diamonds wobbled, but seemed safe. Pearls went up when diamonds wobbled; but in the great war these stories were forgotten. All jewels went upeven the influx of blood stained "bolshevist jewels" from Rus sia could not saturate the free mar ket. Then the story of Japanese pearl culture broke. Oyster Give Up Secret The oyster gave up its secret Pearls went tumbling" and dia Snonds promised to go still higher. - - Lemoine,. did his time in jail and have the treatment at $5 per dip. The method ia limple jnd rather primitive. A piece of canvaa U apread on the around: the patient sits in the middle of it and two muscular men lift the end. Lowered into the water hole one (i immeried for a moment or two only. More would be too much. The heart might be dangerously affected. tven alter so brief dip the body of a person thus immersed is almost as red as a boiled lobster. It gives one a notion of the strength of the emanations. Women who take the dipa are warned to avoid wetting their heads. The radium water turns the hair green. Figures Show authorities keep a watchful eye upon it day and night. There. is never any disorder there; nobody is held up and robbed. In winter, if so much as an inch of snow falls on it, the snow plows appear and remove it. If anybody were to slip up and tumble on the Boardwalk the Jersey resort would deem itself disgraced. 7,000,000 Gallons Water for Pools WMSnenaMBnaB mHE city of Washington, being I chronically threatened with a -"- inortage ot water, is somewnai perturbed by the prospect of being obliged to keep filled the great re flecting pool which is to adorn Poto mac park, extending from the new built Lincoln memorial temple to ward the Washington monument. Today, in viewing the excation being made for the purpose, one is Impressed by the vastness of the thing. It is shallow, but of enorm ous area, having a length or Z.uOU feet and a width of 160 feet. This does not take into account a supple mentary pool which is 293- by 160 feet ' It was originally intended that the pool should have the form of a gi gantic cross, but when we went into the big fight the War and Navy de partments erected the two largest buildings in the world in Potomac park, regardless of the fact that they occupied part of the land required for the crosspiece of the cross. Thus it has been necessary to alter' the plan, and the reflecting pool will be simply a very much elongated rectangle, supplemented by a smaller one of an irregular oval-shape be tween the west end of the main pool and the foot of the hill on which the Lincoln memorial stands. The big pool and the smaller pool will together hold 1,440,000 cubic feet of water, or about 7,000,000 gal lons. The water will be only three feet deep, and it will have to be re newed every two weeks, lest it as sume the unpleasant appearance of a stagnant pond.' I Influx of Stones on Market passed out, during the war, into tne great world where he disap peared. .- . '.. It is said that Lemoine and his new associates are. quietly flooding tne world with diamonds, lhis in trusion of fine stones on the official market has been explained by bol shevist loot from the aristocracy of Kussia. But Russia never had that many diamonds. , Trickery Almost Impossible. . Even while Lemoine was await ing trial many doubted how he could have "salted" his crucibles or raw material in presence of experts. Lemoine was naked, to prove his good faith. Oates and Wernher handled the empty crucibles, into which they themselves put the "black powder." , . They closed the crucibles; emptied them when fired; treated the burnt stuff with Lemoine's ' acids and brought, out diamonds! What was the "black powder?". There are refractory clays, rare earths, etc., which, dissolved, might cover small-sized diamonds in a crust, and when submitted to 3,000 degrees centigrade', , the crust might liquify or vitrify and liberate the diamonds without burning them. But would an expert diamond chemist, like Mr. Gates, examining the black powder in his own hands . before putting it into the crucibles, permit lumps to pass which covered dia monds? , . "Doctored" Crucibles. Lord Armstrong insisted that it was "a fine black powder." This drove them to the idea , of tricked crucibles with false linings, of some such rare earths. Between false lin ing and true crucible, "salted" dia monds might be concealed and when the false lining burned away the jewels would be revealed. To vit rify such earths it would be neces sary to "astonish" it, as porcelain makers say, by plunging the cruci ble into water. This Lemoine did, or played big hoses on the cruci ble. But so did Moissen, to obtain pressure to make his true but tiny diamonds which nobody disputes. Furthermore, at Lemoine s trial, experts testified that both these ex planations were impossible. ' "Carbon for electrodes!" exclaimed Francis Laur in 1908. "Chemically, it is very helpful to have in contact with the diamond raw material a carbon lining that does not melt, but They Wear It Around Neck As Rubber 'Necklace GIRLS, here is the latest a rub ber necklace 1 It is not built for beauty, nor even yet for speed and comfort, but it is built for "safety first," and if worn at the proper time and under the proper circumstances may save a human life. . ' It looks like an overstuffed bologna and is worn around the neck like a celluloid collar. But if you are thrown overboard at sea or knocked down by a comber while enjoying burns, little by little, furnishing the mixture with a crystallizable carbon vapor to help make the diamonds who knowsi Most Enigmatical Figure. The Comte de Pescher is the most enigmatical figure in Europe at this moment - Is he Austrian, Rumanian, Ger man, Russian or French? He has been about Paris a -long while I have seen his photograph, taken on the steps of a first-class Paris club, but was it taken while the building was a notable Russian restaurant, before the club moved into it? He has friends among the best and en joys an unblemished reputation. This "is the man, they- say, who "financed a French chemist to make diamonds." It is a perfectly legiti mate enterprise, they say, when the diamonds are real and little. Mois sen made little ones some 30 years ago and his name goes down the roll as a prince of science. Does making big ones change the morality of itr If there be any doubt, says Count Pescher, we will make middle-sized ones I So runs the story, but no one knows to whom he said it. . ' Influx of Large Stones. As a fact, the influx of fine stones into the current diamond stock of western Europe and America sup posed to have come from bolshevist Russia consists notably ' of stones of between 10 and 20 carats, after cutting. Speculative tourists, women out for bargains, local jewelers, war profiteers evading taxes and a long line of 'varied categories have been picking up such diamonds on the quiet. In Switzerland alone, it is said, more fine stones have been ab sorbed at bargain prices than all Russia contained in 19141 The. great war made a wonderful period for sales of this character. I remember a little greasy contractor making up men's suits for a Paris tailor. He employed four or five journeymen and "copped out 5,000 francs a week." "Are you investing it in war bonds?" he was asked. The man grinned confidentially.. "I buy my wife some diamonds I", he said; "diamonds, .always dia monds! You can hide them in a revolution 1 You can sell them at a profit! And they pay no taxes!" What Was "Black Dust" So great has been the capacity of this new public for absorbing dia-j the surf it would ' keep you from drowning. At least that is the claim of the inventor, George H. Palladyi of Redondo Beach. Cal, The young' ladies shown in the picture gave a demonstration of its "safety-first" properties. They stopped swimming and instead of sinking floated on the surface of the water, "heads up." Pallady arrived at this invention by resorting to the theory that you don't drown with your feet, but with your head. Keep your head above water at all times and be safe, a good motto monds, it is said, that the official market did not feel it, prices rose and the trust released more stones a month. And yet it is realized to day that this "other" gale has ex isted and this "other" "supply con tinues. . , . . Russia no longer can explain it! What was the "black dust" which Lemoine supplied to Cates? ' "Diamonds are cut by polishing them with- other diamond surfaces," said Professor Le Chatelier, who took, Moisson's place at the Sor bonne. "What falls from the iron wheel? An oily mud, composed of diamond powder placed upon the wheel, diamond powder from the stone which it is polishing, and a lot of iron powder from the wheel itself, mixed with the oils which hold it there, and wnlch also pre vent the diamond powders from be ing breathed by the cutter. Powder Not Valuable. "This diamond powder is not very valuable,." continued the professor. "Was. Lemoine's secret here? Real ly, it may be childishly easy, once you have the turn handl Moisson Sun Sets on the Bootleggers' Day in "Moonshine" Paradise (Continued from Pare One.) taste of -the stuff presaged pale ness and near death, they say. "Run it down!" was Chief Dempsey's order to the morals squads. Day after day, the stuff . was be ing sold. Police surgeons were kept on the run with first aid re suscitations of the victims. . Ser geant Murphy's squad scented the. poison in tlje vicinity of Sixth and - Pierce streets. A keen lookout was maintained in the neighborhood. An officer on watch one morning chanced to see a man step furi tively from behind a sheet hanging on a washline. The instant that he pushed aside the sheet, he saw that the man had stepped from a cave. The officer hot-footed it to central station, typed a search war rant that took in practically every semblance of a house or cave near Sixth and Pierce and led the squad to the scene of action. Sergeant Murphy and his co horts stepped behind the washing that had been on the line apparent ly since bootlegging first started. When they opened the huge door of the cave, they came upon a series of stills that were turning out enough moonshine liquor to in more things than just swimming. Pallady observed some girls floating in tlife surf in the inflated inner tube of an automobile tire. So he made small inner tubes to fit milady's neck and gave his invention to the world, The new. life preserver takes up but one-quarter the space of the regulation style life preserver and it will hold up 400 pounds. Which means all the women of the world are herein, hereby and hereafter im mune against drowning, for who weighs more than 400 pounds? made his tiny diamonds from the same stuff pure carbon and iron. Into his electric furna-e he put iron containing, naturally, a little pure carbon; and . by aid of a sudden cooling of the outside of the mass he , imprisoned the - carbon. Under the influence of terrific pressure at the center of the little sphere cold outside, but still white-hot inside the pure carbon crystallized into tiny diamonds. "Now, who knows but what Le moine, employing diamond dust in quantity much carbon with a little iron may not have obtained far greater diamonds than did Moisson, who used very, little carbon, with much iron? . Talk Heard Again Today. Such was the talk in 1908. It is heard again today. " It would be necessary to find a way of consuming the oxygen in or der not to burn the diamonds pro duced. Lemoine's raw material, the "black powder," would be compara tively cheap diamond-and-irOn dust from the polishing wheels, or dia mond dust pulverized from cheap supply Bacchanalian feasts for hundreds. A test of the stuff proved it was everything but liquor. There have been few calls for a police surgeon in that neighborhood since. That was one of the largest bootleg raids ever made by police. . What happened to the distillers is on record at central police station. - In two years, George Summitt. city detective, has confiscated 276 stills and made more arrests for bootlegging than any other single officer on the department, police records show. Summitt's arrests have been responsible for more than $100,000 in fines. That was when the game was an, enormous ly thriving "industry." ' If bootlegging is really decreas ing in Omaha, truly Summitt has aided materially in driving out the evil. - And pity the poor bootlegger. Neither has he spun nor has he worked but he will from now on. He isn't getting the price he used to for his goods. Money it tight. The prevalent business de pression hit him harder than it did stock salesmen. Hence, one of the main reasons for the decrease in bootlegging. . Seriously enough the new invent " t 1 a I - 1 1 uon uugnt 10 prove a Doon 10 mi those mortals who hesitate about learning to swim through fear of "cutting loose." The injunction of the swimming instructor is "relax and let yourself go easily." The student relaxes and down goes the head under the water. With the new device swimming is made easier. You can't sink; you learn to swim and away goes the rubber collar which has performed its duty as a teacher. New Weather Tests IN THE great laboratory at Madison, Wis., maintained by the United States forest service for wood-working experiments a special study has recently been made of the' effects of various climatic con ditions upon airplane propellers. . In one room, by regulation ot warmth and moisture, the climatic conditions of Southern Texas or arid Eevot were reproduced. It was found-that propellers subjected to these conditions had a tendency to dry out, flatten and become un balanced. In another room the climate of the Amazon valley was imitated. This caused propellers to warp badly. It was found that a coat of aluminum leaf did best service as a waterproof covering for propellers, which, when thus protected, may be exposed to a high humidity for a long time without warping. stones, with iron dust added, and some carburets to save the new-made diamonds from combustion. It is curious how rumors hark back to the French chemist, Lemoine, accused by the fcreat men of the Dc Beers company of cheating them by "hocus-pocus" in the matter of their very specialty of diamonds! Must Stand Mute. His situation was atrocious. Ac cused by Sir Julius, he must stand mute. Should he justify himself by making diamonds before the trial ex perts the bottom would fall out cf the trade and he, .Lemoine, would lose all the glorious profits of his dis covery. What comfort or profit would it be to him that his accusers woulcl lose equally with him? Yet should he refuse or be unable to make diamonds he must go to prison as a trickster but he would preserve his secret I As a fact, he went to prison. , As a fact, he is out of prison. And as for the remaining facts, it is too soon to know them as any thing more than the -queer rumors which I have been trying to set forth. The moonshine artist isn't as popular as he was a year ago. The general public has gotten on to his , stuff. They're off of him. However, the wealthy bootleg-, ger is still hauling in good whisky, they say. Since four young Omaha men were extradited to Can ada not long ago to face charges growing out of liquor-stealing, -Canada is not sending much of her four-fifth's of a gallon stuff down here through the Dakotas. High powered cars are trailing bonded liquor from Pittsburgh and other points to Omaha. - But it's coming in I I'Yeah, the stuff is sellin', all right," said one bootlegger dis consolately, t'other day, "but not like it used to.- Ya can't git th' price fer it. Th' game's a little on the hummer, but it's 'cause the people haven't got th money. It'll pick up again." And after all 1 said and done, the art of bootlegging is still in a transitory stage. Though some say it has decreased and others that the traffickers are having a hard time of it. one doesn't have to run down Ramcat alley or to the river to get a drink. THE human skeleton in childhood is relatively soft and plastic. Hence, if a boy or girl habitual ly assumes undeiirable attitudes, the bones are liable to become more or less deformed. In schools, nowadays much attention is given to making the pupils sit up straiKht and hold an erect posture when standing. A slouching habit in childhood is likely to cause an ungainly stoop in adult life. Leaning sidewise over a school dck may make one shoulder higher than the other and produce a permanent deformation of the spine, giving to the latter a lateral curvature. It is due to such causes that so many people one sees on the street have one shoulder perceptibly higher than the other. Now comes the National League for Prevention of Spinal Curvature with a published statement to the effect that 75 per cent of the school children in this country have "faulty . -MM MM M Mil M M M M EMM M MM KM M. ML M. M Fats Important to Health UNTIL the war came we did not realize how precious and in jlicnonoMo in human health were oils and tats. It is interesting in this connection to consider the fact that barring Uri' seed, which is not edible all of our fats and oils are derived from by product materials. Take cottonseed, for example, which formerly was thrown away. It Even Rotten Eggs Worth Money rOUE eggs are better than others, but from the view point of large U handlers ,of the product, there is no such thine as a bad egg. Even rotten eggs are worth money, being in demand by tanners tor tne hnistv in? of leather. The American hen lays 22,000,- 000.000 eggs in a year. Relatively few of them reach the consumer in a really fresh condition, as every housewife knows. Commercially speaking, the big orob em is to find a market for esrsrs of various degrees of staleness. This is accomplished largely through , the cold storage houses, which-buy up eggs in the summertime and put them away until, having acquired a nice musty flavor, they fetch an ex tortionate winter price. Before putting them into cold storage eggs are candled, and those found unfit (to use a polite word) are broken and emptied of their con tents, the latter being strained through colanders to break up the yolks.' The "liquid egg" thus pre pared is -frozen hard as a rock in large cans and thousands of tons pf it are kept in storage, at all sea sons for sale mostly to bakers and confectioners. When custards, cakes and pastry are made with this ma terial the cooking dissipates the odor. (Continued JTrom Pace Three.) of penitence. "Hush, Dirckl You mustn't, talk so. It isn't true. Not a word of it is true. Now, listen to me." His hands had involuntarily found hers. This time she did not draw away, but held them in her cool, gentle, firm clasp. Dirck, through all his self-contempt, realized with a queer little shock that he loved this dear handclasp of hers, even as he loved her. As the shock passed he seemed to have known it always. He clung to the tenderly s.trong hands and gave heed to the soft voice that was soothing him so marvel ously. : "You shan t call yourself old, Dir.ckl" Maida was saying. "For you're not. You were never more of a boy than you are at this min ute. I I don't know if I can ex press what I mean. But, isn't isn't it a bit like this: If you should take a gay, high-spirited boy of ten and load him down with a hundred pound suit of armor, he'd still be a boy, wouldn't he? He'd still be just as young as ever and just as fond of play. But he wouldn't be able to play like pther boys because the weight of the armor would hold him back. And the sight of the armor would make the other children afraid to play with him.' It it might even make the crueler children laugh, just a little, to watch- his efforts at play ing. But he'd still be as young and fun loving as ever." "But " "Dirck," she, went on, "you're young. The youngest man I know. You'll always be young. But years of work and of living have girded a heavy armor on you; That armor saves you from being crushed by the hammerblows of the world. But it makes you feel unwieldy and strange when you try to play with children who haven't yet put on their armor. To the rest of us the other armor wearers you are the dearest and most delightful play mate imaginable. We're still young, Dirck, you and I. And by and by these eminently proper children up stairs will be young, too. But not yet Not till they've really lived. Let me tell you the true secret of youth, Dirck. "Any one with a boyish soul like yours can be young and can have all the fun of youth. But he must be young with people of his own age. x he youngest people 1 ever knew were my father and mother. They bad gloriously youthful times. Indian Summer ipines." A defect of this kind Is not ordinarily noticed tmlcs it amounts to a deformity, The league offers $1,000 for the woman who has the most perfect back and $50i) for the child whose back is most correct anatomically. This business of barks is highly important. It has come to be recog nised that, in a general way, people may be divided into two clasn, the broad backs and the narrow backs The broad backs posse is more en. durance and are less nervous. Tin narrow backs are mentally quicker, more alert and more imaginative. In recognition of this idea, slender girls at Wellcsley college are en couraged to take the course in five yean, instead of four, to lessen the strain. They cannot stand without undue fatigue work that would not tire the broad-backed young woman. Thus it is seen that broad backs are calculated to best bear both physical and mental burdens. mi vn M M V MMMm K-M JL . ltd M M now yields more than 1,000.000,000 pounds of oil annually, which is used in enormous quantities in the manu facture of artificial lard. Corn oil is a by-product of starch and hominy plants. We produce 160,000,000 pounds of it in a twelve month. Tallow, lard and other animal fats are by-products of the packing houses. Eighty-seven million pounds of peanut oil were produced in this country in 1919 for use in lard sub stitutes, as a salad oil (equal to a fair quality of olive oil) and in the making of "nut margarine." The high price of butter during the war mails nut margarine so popular that the consumption of peanut oil for this purpose rose to 28,000,000 pounds in 191$. In 1920 the production of peanut oil in the United States fell, with slackening demand and lower prices, to 13,000,000 pounds or nearly one seventh that of 1919. Farmers in the south have been accustomed to plant peanuts lor ineir nogs, allowing mc animals to gather the crop. They have found, however, that it pay much better to harvest the peanuts, sell them at the oil mill for crushing and - take back the residuum ol "cake' ,A ton of cake, ground into ' meal, is worth more as hog feed than the original peanuts, and it makes much better pork. Crocodile Tears WHY do we speak of "shedding crocodile tears" the expres sion referring to hypocritical grief? Only within recent years have modern naturalists noted the fact (evidently observed bv the ancients) that the crocodile really docs sbed tears. The huge saurian, lyinz half asleep on a mud bank, may be think ing sad thoughts, but the chances are that its eyes are merely watering. But they had them together. I used td look down on the divinely youth ful old couple when I was in my teens. I even scolded them once for being 19 'infantile,' as I called it. I remember how they fairly shrieked with laughter when I said that to them. I was quite certain for the moment that Providence had sad dled me with a pair of imbecile parents. But they were miles young er than I. For they were young to gether. Perhaps I don't make it very plain, but " She paused as his eyes met hers. "You make it so vividly plain, dear girl," he said slowly, after a minute of celestial silence, "so viv idly plain that that you've shown me my only chance of staying j vung. 1 au so want 10 stay young, H!JI 1, , iviaiaai cicrnauy younir. Ana and I can't do it alone. Won't you keep me young, my sweetheart? Without you I must stay old, for ever and ever. Won't " "Excuse me, Mr. Moylan," came a primly stifled- voice from the hall way. "May I speak to you a mo ment? Are you -in the library? I " Dirck got up with a jump that made his strained muscles cry out in protest. He stamped into the hall. There he confronted a meek and tearful Thetis. "I I came down to say how very sorry I am that I lost my temper a few minutes ago," she began her stilted little set speech, "and that I spoke to you as I did. I " "There, there, child!" be inter rupted in high good humor, patting her reassuringly on the shoulder. mats all right, t-orget it. And now trot along to bed. You ought to have been asleep half an hour ago. Y our mother won't let you come, here again if you go traipsinrf around the house like this when it s) after your bedtime. Run along!"! Feeling immortally young and ecstatic, he strode back to the library to his waiting fellow juvenile. (Copyright, 1921, by Albert funi , Terhune.) Judge Urges Rod for Boys Who Took Cripple's Crutch Beaumont, Tex., Oct 29. Two . small boys took a crutch away from little Marguerite Walter, who has only one leg, because they "wanted to see her hop." Tbeudge who tried the case, because of the vouth of the offenders, recommended a warm application of the paternal hand where it would do the most good,