United States Ahead of
Europe in Flying Boats
- <?-j
Foreign Manufacturers Using
Subsidies to Catch Up.
Washington.—Backed by large gov
ernment subsidies aircraft factories In
Great Britain, France, Germany and
Italy arc busily at work on huge flying
boats aimed at catching up In the race
for over-ocean trade routes of the nlr
which the American system, Pan Amer
ican Airways, now dominates. There
Is rivalry ns between the European
countries themselves, but all are bent
upon a race with American avintion
lu the field of overseas flying In
which the big Clipper ships construct
ed In this country nre far in the van.
Pew details of specifications on for
eign bonis have been allowed to leak
through the cordon of military secrecy.
Those craft that have reached the fly
ing singe, however, have fallen far be
lc v the performance of the American
ships. Great Britain, for example,
started the testing of the first of tier
four engined flying boats of new con
struction on a flight by easy srages
from Plymouth to Singapore. Pre
liminary test flights of the Short Broth
ers craft showed that In efliclency
It did not compare with the Sikorsky
and Martin Clippers built here.
New Boats for England.
Construction has therefore been be
£ii(i by the nir ministry for Imperial
Airways of two six-engined. 35-ton
flying boats for the domination of the
transatlantic route to America. One
of those ships is being built by Short
Brothers and ttie other by Blackburn
Ltd.
The French have had preliminary
hard luck with the first of their ocean
going giants to be flown, the 37-ton
Lieutenant de Vaisseau Paris. Pow
ered with six 9S0 horsepower engines,
tills boat was constructed inland and.
then hauled to the sea in order to bet
ter preserve the secrets of its construc
tion details and spring a surprise when
it went Into service for Air France.
The Pan American Clipper lias twice
crossed the Pacific, 2,410 miles be
tween California and Hawaii at au
average speed of 136 miles an hour and
had sufficient gasoline in the tanks at
either end for au additional 800 miles.
While the first of the three big Mar
tin bouts being built at Baltimore for
the American airline weighs 2(5 tons
as against the 37 of the Vaissc.iu
Paris, it can carry as great a passen
ger, mail and express load over ranges
of 2,000 miles and transport them near
ly 50 miles nn hour faster and at one
third of the estimated cost per mile.
The Martin, which will have speed
trials in the next week or so, has al
ready made ISO miles nn hour In tests
over Chesapeake bay.
Italy Holds Speed Records.
Details of Germany's Dornier Wol
boats for the South Atlantic service,
except those comparatively small types
which have been using the steamer
Westfalen as a mid-ocean base, are
unavailable here. Little mure about
Italy's big boats Is available. It is
known, however, that within the past
year Premier Mussolini welded Inti
one operating unit, government owned,
all operating airlines under the Itnl
Ian flag for the acknowledged purpose
of a unified drive for a dominant place
Blue Devils Honor Unknown Soldier
A group of representatives of the famous Blue Devils, a French World war
veterans’ oiganlzatlon, as they placed a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknown
Soldier In Arlington Nationnl cemetery.
Chinese Remember
College Rah-Rahs
Nanking.—The great impression
which American university life has
made on the Chinese national gov
ernment was well Illustrated at the
annual meeting of the American
University Gluh at Nanking. Six hun
dred graduates of colleges and uni
versities In the United States at
tended the function, the vast ma
jority being Chinese. Practically
the entire 600 members are ollicials
of the government. American col
lege yells and songs showed that
the Chinese had not forgotten their
Undent life.
in the 300,000 miles of organized air
ways which now link the outposts of
tlie world.
Under the Impetus of this move Italy
has already achieved world's records
for aircraft speed and distance. The
lessons learned from the smaller air
craft making these records are said to
he Incorporated in long-range flying
boats now tinder construction. Two of
them nre four-engined of il.tiUO horse
power each.
Dental Drug Makes Patients See Double
Puts End to Choking Sensation
of Gas.
London.—A Jab In the arm Instead
of the choking sensation of gas Is a
new method of “putting you to sleep”
In the dentist’s chair.
The new drug Is called evlpnn-sodl
uro, and It has been In use for some
months, not only for dental work but
for more serious operations.
You sit In the chair. The anesthet
ist puts a strnp around your upper
arm just as In taking a blood pressure.
A vein expands a little under the
pressure. You feel a short Jab of the
needle.
In a second things become hazy. You
feel delightfully tired. Then you sleep.
There Is none of that swelling, burst
ing. choking feeling that gas gives
some people.
You do not suspect the surgeon and
the doctor of trying to suffocate you.
In fact, you do not suspect auythlng.
You do not even dream ns you do un
der gas.
HEADS LABOR BOARD
Joseph Warren Madden, attorney, of
Pittsburgh, Pa., who wag appointed
chairman of the new national labor
relations board
Meanwhile your teeth are being ex
tracted.
Then you come round—slightly In
toxicated. You see things double. You
are not safe on your feet.
And -this Is the dlsadvannge of
evlpan. Unlike gas, you cannot go
back to work after It. You must rest;
and sleep.
But the evlpan method Is excellent
for people who have had gas once and
fear It.
Almost everybody can have It, If
the dentist la given warning that It
is wanted. The exceptions are people
who have liver trouble or whose veins
are too thin to take an Injection.
Evlpan, however, Is more expensive
than gas. It Is a German discovery.
Some dental experts are against us
ing It, on the grounds that not suffi
cient Is known about the drug.
But It Is expected that when suffi
cient data are available its use In den
tal nnd other operations will be more
common.
Chinese Officials Order
Machine Strangulation
Peiping.—Provincial police authori
ties are Instructed to execute criminals
with strangulation machines In nn or
der Issued by the Chinese Ministry of
Justice.
The penal code provides strangu
lation as the means of carrying out
death sentences, but tip to the pres
ent it has been done by two men twist
ing a cord about the neck of the con
vict.
Such a method Is declared less hu
mane than the prescribed machine,
which, however, will work on the same
principle of strangulation.
In order to lessen the shock to the
victim, the ministry further pre
scribes that the culprit be chloroformed
prior to carrying out of the death
sentence.
Authorities In most places continue,
however, to execute some prisoners
by the simple expedient of a revolver
placed ngainst the base of the skull
of the Irneellng victim.
Old Lifeguard of Seine
Rescues More Than 100
Paris.—Paris nearly lost one of Its
remaining picturesque characters re
cently when Father Chartier, as every
one calls him, caught a cramp and
nearly drowned In the Seine.
Father Chartier Is Paris’ unofficial
lifeguard. All passers who have oc
casion to cross the Pont St. Michel
regularly know his little boat, moored
to Its quays. It carries a blue pen
nant on the one small mast, with the
white lettering, "Volunteer Lifeguard.”
Life saving Is Father Chnrtler's
hobby. lie has actually rescued from
the treacherous and swiftly flowing
waters of the Seine more than 100
persons. He hns 40 life saving med
als. He made his first rescue when
he was thirteen. That makes 49 years
he has been a life saver. He Is sixty
two now.
FANS LIKE THE UMP
Dolly Stnrb, National league um
pire, Is so popular among New York
baseball fans that they recently pre
sented him with an automobile. Dolly
is here seen, at left, as he accepted
the gift from Ford Frick, president of
the National league, who acted on be
half of Stark's admirers.
When Is a Rotten Egg
Rotten?—Law Defines
Boston—Just what constitutes a bad
egg in Massachusetts has been estab
lished by an act passed by the legisla
ture.
The definition, somewhat technical,
specifies the depth of the shadow of
an egg’s Interior under a testing lamp,
and stipulates that the yolk must con
form to uniform health standards now
In effect.
I Poked Around In the Sand at the Bottom of the Bowl
and at Last Brought a Snail to Light.
Minding Guppies
By James J. Montague
IF MY wife had asked me to look
after the cat over a week end. I
might have demurred. Cats are
nocturnal animals, and are prone to
distant peregrinations from which tf
they return at all. It Is with peevish
dispositions and scars of battle. More
over, |' you forget to feed them they
are likely to visit around among the
neighbors’ garnge cans, and make them
selves III. Still I have lived among
cats more or less from boyhood, and.
as far as any man can, I understand
them. Yet I should hesitate to under
take the responsibility of a cat.
1 would not. without reluctance, have
accepted a mandate for a bird If It
had been thrust upon me. You can
keep a bird In his cage, so there will
be no occasion to sit up nights wait
ing for him to return. But he is dainty
in his diet and subject to moult with
out notice. The wronu food or shed
ding feathers lay him liable to serious
ailments, nnd there never seems to be
a bird physician around when you want
him. However, as I have said, had a
bird been committed to my charge, I
probably would have said “All right,
but If the dratted thing pines away
and dies because it cnnnot bear up un
der your absence, don't blame me. I
did all that was humanly possible to
save It.”
But when I was asked to look after
the guppies over a week end 1 said
Immediately: “Certainly. Just tell
what the eat and how often to change
the water on them, nnd I'll be glad to
look after them."
That was before 1 knew about gup
pies. Wbat astonishes me now is why
the lady didn’t put me through a cross
examination on pisciculture before she
left the guppies with me. But she was
In a hurry to get away, and I fancy
that perhaps, she Imagined that at least
I might be competent to feed a parcel
of fish.
ihe morning after her departure I
came downstairs to find that three of
the little creatures were swimming on
their backs. At first I took this pos
ture to be an evidence of their desire
to “stunt" a little, as man; animals
will do when there are humans look
ing at them. Then I noticed that one
of them seemed out of action altogeth
er, and was cold and rigid when I
scooped him out of the aquarium with
the palm of m.v hand.
Forthwith I turned to a hand book
on guppies which lay on the table.
From its pages 1 discovered that a
person who can successfully cater to
these insignificant denizens of the sea,
ought to serve an apprenticeship of at
least a year, and over and beyond that
to be a trained naturalist and aquari
um curator, i telephoned to the office
that I should be late, and seating my
self beside the aquarium, begnD to
study my new occupation.
My first discovery was that ns soon
us I rose In the morning 1 should have
taken the temperature of the water
Indistinctly 1 recalled that something
had been said about that when the
brutes were turned over to uiy custody
1 seized the thermometer, and thrust
it In among them with such violence
that they all fled Into a corner and
went Into a panic stricken huddle
Taking it out again I found that no
guppy could live in such a temperature
Well, the hook was wrong there. At
least two-thirds of them were living
and among them were a few which were
apparently as lively as grigs—whatever
grigs are.
iteading on 1 learned that the re
ceptacle for the guppies should con
tain a number of snails, whose ottlce
was to destroy bits of food uneaten by
the guppies so thnt It might not put
rlfy and upset their stomachs. The
writer of the book apparently took It
for granted that these flsb, which man
age to support themselves In the vasty
deep become Idiots about diet as soon
as they are taken elsewhere.
Tor ten minutes 1 poked around In
the sand at the bottom of the bowl ami
at last brought a snail to light But
he was a sad dispirited snail, and so
low in his mind apparently that he did
not care for uneaten food. I took him
out, nnd hurrying to the garden found
a heartier looking snail which I con
veyed to the bowl. But he must have
been the wrong kind of snail, for after
a few gasps he sank to the bottom,
turned up his heels nnd “the subse
quent proceedings Interested him no
more.”
I looked at my watch. 1 was already
over due at the office. So I telephoned
that I was 111, and confined to the
house, but I would probably be down
enrly in the afternoon. Then I re
turned to my studies.
Going deeper Into the volume before
me I found that no guppy Is really
healthy and happy In his "home from
home” unless he can enjoy the umbrage
of waving ferns and mosses. The ferns
and mosses that the remaining guppies
were playing about were a little de
jected. Instead of waving about, as
they were supposed to do, they dragged
supine on the bottom of the aquarium,
from which I deduced that there was
probably something the matter with
them. There seemed to be no time
to lose.
Once more I rushed Into the garden,
and finding no spade handy dug with
my fingers into the soil which surround
ed three tall sword ferns. These I
swiftly excavated. On the tiny water
garden nearby was a carpet of moss,
a part of which I removed, and then,
there being no time to be lost, I hur
ried with my salving herbs back to the
house.
tor a time It was Impossible to see
how their supposedly tonic properties
were reacting. Then the murk In the
water gradually subsided, and to my
horror I discovered that four more gup
pies had quietly breathed their last.
The others were panting acutely, but
when all the silt was settled they
seemed to feel more lively, and began
their slow circle of their prison house.
Then 1 went to the office. On my
return, to my Intense relief and delight,
nil the fish I had enumerated before toy
departure were present, and they
seemed to be having a fairly good time.
This mood did not remain with me
long. As I came down the stairs a
black figure darted past me, and when
1 entered the dining room I heard a
tiny sound of gasping. At my feet lay
most of the remaining guppies. It
took no esoteric power of deduction to
understand that the eat, from the min
ute the cook had let her Into the house
had been busy Hipping those guppies
out of the aquarium. The remains of
several of them told me what had been
tier purpose. I needed no microscope
or dark lantern to Hnd that out.
Humbled and ashamed. I promptly
went to work really to learn something
about guppies. I consulted a young
l-idy in a guppy store. 1 talked with
the curator of the aquarium. 1 rend
all the literature that had ever been
written about them since first the uup
py mania began to worry the milkers
of Jig-saw puzzles. Then I went back
to the guppy store and bought live mort
than the exact number of guppies
which had been placed in my care, al
lowing for a few casualties, with u
stroke of foresight.
All the plants that were required
were put Into the bowl, the tempera
ture of the water was exactly right
and the guppies were obviously hav
ing the time of their lives when my
wife arrived.
She gasped a little as she looked al
them.
“I didn’t suppose you could ever do
it," she cried. “I thought they would
be all dead, poor things: Uow in the
world . . .
"OJi, 1 have a way with flsh and
things like that,” 1 said.
©. Bell Syndicate—WNU Service.