San Antonio Express. (San Antonio, Tex.), Vol. 50, No. 220, Ed. 1 Sunday, August 8, 1915 Page: 18 of 66
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18
SAN ANTONIO EXPRESS: SUNDAY MORNING, AUGUSTS, 1915.
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| By GEORGE R. MINER
For two years Sunday Editor of the Phlladellipiu Press, for four years
Editor New York Herald. for six rear* special London correspondent of the
« New York Herald, for three years Sunday Kdltor of the New Xork Sun and
formerly Kdltor of the Cosmopolitan Magazine.
General Assmranee on
Still Hunt for the Southern
Cross Near the Land Where
JBamamas Are Always Greemio
Bombarding Canal Prom
the Sky0
II —TRUTH ABOUT TIIE ZONE
(By George R. Miner.)
WOULD be very humiliating,
* of course, but in case of w?r
an enemy could easily tie a can to
our pet canal."
So spoke a retired naval officer who
is one of my shipmates on this trip
from New York to San Francisco by
way of the isthmus.
"It would be a very simple matter,"
he continued, "for the enemy to launch
an airship from a vessel away out
at sea or from somewhere in Colom-
bia or Costa Rica, fly it over the canal
and drop a bomb or two in one of
the locks. That can of dynamite is
the can I mean. It would tie the
canal up for a year. Break up one
of those locks and your $400,000,000
canal has to go into drydock."
In looking the ground over I see
that my naval friend is about right.
From either ocean the canal is prac-
tically impregnable. The land de-
fenses, when completed, will be as
adequate as modern military science
can make them. There is no heavier
or more effective ordnance in any for-
tification in the world than the Gov-
ernment has begun to place there. The
biggest guns we can make go there.
Then, with an effective fleet at either
end, we should be able to keep out
anything that floats.
But the canal is undefended from
the sky.
Nobody to Blame
Our fine fleet, our modern forts, our
great guns would cut no ice when an
insignificant little monoplane carry-
ing two men and half a dozen bombs
came. rapidly darting through the
black tropical night, and scooting
low over the Chagres River and Gatun
Lake, there would be no difficulty in
seeing just when to drop the bombs.
The landmarks are too obvious even
at night. There is the wide expanse
of the artificial Gatun Lake, that
nothing can hide, and at its end the
long dam and the wide, white, con-
crete locks that are as plain as the
powdered nose of a soubrette. The
darker the night the better you can
see them. Extinguishing the lights
would not make the slightest differ-
ence.
Moreover, it would not matter much
where the bomb was dropped, either.
In any of the locks at either end or
along the dam would do the trick.
Rip a hole in the dam and the canal
is all over with, for a while, at least.
Nobody is to blame for this. It's
simply the condition that exists. When
the canal was planned and built the
engineers and military experts could
not possibly foresee the development
of airships and their possibilities in
warfare. I am not scolding. I am
telling of things as I find them.
My naval friend, however, is a little
querulous. He claims that a sea level
canal would have solved every prob-
lem. That then it couldn't be blown
up any more than you can blow up a
river, and that all the trouble of oper-
ating locks and dams and the labor
of building them would have been
avoided; that the canal then would
have been an ideal waterway, while
now it is only an expensive toy and
will never pay for the investment or
be of any great service; that it was
really built as a military measure of
defense, and is now only a military
menace.
Star Gazers on the Job
Well, it's too hot on the isthmus to
argue about that.
No sooner had we got to the West
Indies than everybody on board be-
gan to look for the Southern Cross.
People who never saw stars except
when they bumped their heads, and
others who couldn't tell the Big Dip-
per from the lights in front of a
"movie" house, suddenly became ab-
sorbed in astronomy. A Southern
Cross fever ran through the ship like
the measles.
Old General Assurance, who knows
everything that isn't so and is all
swelled up like a wet sponge with in-
formation, began to point out the
Southern Cross when we were off the
Florida coast. His first effo't was
a distinct failure. Some lights on the
horizon way to the south he assured
us were the much-watched-for con-
stellation just coming into view. They
turned out to be the lights of a United
Fruit steamer plov, ing up the Gulf
Stream from Haiti.
Finally, when well in the Caribbean,
we did raise the Southern Cross.
Notice, please, I said "raise." You
never see stars when at sea. You al-
ways "raise" them, as though they
were chickens or children.
I would like to remark right here
that the Southern Cross is a delusion.
It doesn't look any more like a cross
than it looks like the end of a barn.
It's lucky we did raise it when we
did or General Assurance would have
been driven to do something desperate.
He had labeled about every constella-
tion visible Southern Cross and had
run all out of stars. I wouldn't have
been surprised if he had rung in the
moon next.
As cotton was .once king in the
South, so the banana is now king in
the lands all about the Spanish Main.
Scores of ships are loading with them
all the time and hundreds of thou-
sands of bunches are monthly being
shipped up to the United States.
What Bananas Taste Like
It is also the land of the alligator
pear, and it is always just out of sea-
son. I don't believe anybody ever
really liked alligator pears until they
discovered that they cost anywhere
from fifteen cents to seventy-five
cents each in American cities. Then
they became passionately fond of
them. Previous to this discovery an
alligator pear and a ripe cucumber
would run about neck and neck in
general popularity. Oil, vinegar and
salt will taste just the same on either
one, and that's about all you do taste.
The cucumber has the advantage of
keeping longer.
I have noticed a peculiar thing about
bananas. You never see a ripe
banana in banana land. You see hun-
dreds of bunches of green ones every-
where, not only In the plantations,
where they are cultivated, but also
growing wild all over the place. 1
don't believe they ever do ripen ■ on
the trees down here. They just
change from unedible green 'o un-
edible rotten.
A green banana tastes lil j a green
pumpkin and a rotten ** tana tastes
like something a Turk would probably
•like.
If you want to get a banana fit to
eat you must pic'; It in its infancy,
ship It north p/.d let it attain a bright
yellow skin '.nd a rich juicy pulp In
V
9
"I'm Studying the Different Kinds of Sweaters," She Remarked.
the dubious cellar of a Crosby Street
wop. It gets its flavor in the cellar,
like Roquefort cheese. It certainly
has none in its native land. This close
relationship between bananas and
cheese is my own discovery, but not
copyrighted.
I have often wondered why they
don't have more red bananas in the
market, as they always seemed to me
much better than the yellow ones. 1
never could understand why the ba-
nana planters did not make an effort
to raise more of them.
Full of Canned Thoughts.
I know now. It's because they
can't.
A red banana is a freak. They
won't be raised. They just happen.
It's the same as in a ten-acre field of
corn there will perhaps be one red ear,
and if you use that red ear for seed
you will get yellow corn from it. Any-
way, the shippers are not enthusiastic
over red bananas and sidestep them if
possible. They are more delicate than
the yellow and decay much easier.
We did not touch at any of the ports
in the Bahamas or the West Indies;
just went right by and left them there.
San Salvador, or Watling Island, was
the first land to be seen after the
Neverslnk Highlands blended down
into the horizon. From where we were
San Salvador did not look interesting.
J* did not look like much of anything
except a dark-brown streak about an
inch high and eight feet long. A Pe-
oria merchant, who had filled himself
full of canned thoughts from guide
books and, was all fed up with facts,
told me It was some twenty miles
long and fairly high. That proves
again how wrong it is ever to trust to
appearances. There is nothing so de-
ceitful as scenery.
Anyway it looked very flat and
monotonous. Whatever possessed Co-
lumbus to pick out that island to land
on and discover America with, stumps
me. There are lots of better islands
than that to land on- Why didn't he
select Staten Island, which is at least
picturesque, or Coney Island, where
there are much better hotel accommo-
dations and quick train service to New
York? Then, again, it must have been
an immense amount of trouble to find
it. Labor wasted, it seems to me, to go
searching from such an unpretentious
little patch of land. It was not fair to
future generations. When you are mak-
ing history it is only right and meet to
pick out spots that are to be historical
that will attract tourists, and that they
will enjoy visiting. Tourists have
rights that discoverers are bound to
respect, and that's why I maintain that
Columbus showed very poor judgment
in selecting San Salvador. No tourist
crowd could be lured there, no matter
how cheap the round-trip tickets were.
Wrecks of All Sorts.
Also, It offers such meager opportu-
nities for making picture postal cards.
No good views at all. Nothing but very
commonplace shore. The whole thing
is what Alfred calls "dreadfully middle
class."
Columbus certainly was thoughtless.
As I said, we passed it right by, but
there is a sailing ship lying up on the
shore that didn't. She has been there
for several years, her gaunt masts
sticking up against the indigo-blue
sky and the blistering sun eating away
at her planks.
General Assurance informed all and
sundry that her masts were the poles
of a wireless station.
Among the most conspicuous things
along the shores of these islands are
the number of wrecks one sees. There
is one on pretty nearly every point
like lamp posts on street corners. A
singular thing, too, is that they are all
near lighthouses. See a lighthouse and
look for a wreck. Why is it? Do
lighthouses cause wrecks, or wrecks
cause lighthouses? You would think
that naturally they wouldn't be on
speaking terms instead of being so
chummy.
There are other wrecks around these
islands, too, in large quantities and
that's the two-legged kind, but it is at
Colon that they are to be found in
shoals- The scum of the riffraff of
American humanity, the beachcombers
of the Spanish Main, have all settled in
the backwater there. The vast sums
spent on the canal operations, the
crowds of laborers of all nationalities
brought there by the Government, the
semi-lawless life in vogue, the lax laws
of the Panama Republic, attracted all
the ne'er-do-wells of the Atlantic sea-
board. ,
The Cops in Panama.
The streets of Colon swarm with
deadbeats and broken men. Now that
the great operations on *he canal are
finished and the enormous weekly pay-
roll has stopped, gambling and promis-
cuous charity have practically stopped,
too. The stream of gold is not flow-
ing from the paymaster's office to in-
undate the whole Isthmus, and these
deadbeats are In a bad way. Many of
them have degenerated into simple
beggars, others, doubtless, turn their
hands to any little shady trick or small
crime that comes handy. At least they
look It. Heaven help them when they
run afoul of the little brown ''spig-
gotty" police of the Panama Republic.
These "spiggotty" shrimps seem to
have it in for every white man, and as
they are eaten up with vanity and
their own importance they actually go
out of their way to make trouble for
any white man who seems to be in
hard luck.
Once in a while, especially when
they tackle one of our khakl-clad sol-
dier boys who has had a drop too
much, they pick up the wrong pig, and
then the spiggotty shrimp gets a thor-
oughly good licking- Usually several
of them get it, for if any one of our
"dough boys" couldn't lick at least six
of those little police toys I'd be
ashamed ever to look the Stars and
Stripes in the face again.
Our captain—who has been down
here so much that he has worn a path-
way between the Windward Islands
and knows every wave by its first
name—whirled the ship around the
eastern end' of Cuba as though she was
on roller skates. A good many people
think that the best thing about Cuba
is that it has water all around it,
otherwise it would be growing on to
the North American Continent and be
part of the United States. But we
didn't stop at Cuba and so put that
question in the discard.
Weather Is a Cinch.
Bessie was stretched out in a steam-
er chair indolently watching the deck
promenaders, mostly girls and women,
clad in all sorts of gay-colored frocks
and coats. Knitted jackets were much
in evidence.
"I'm studying the different kinds of
sweaters," she remarked.
"What for?" demanded Buck. "Why
don't you wait until we get farther
south and it's real hot? They ain't
none of 'em sweating much now, ex-
cept that big fat Dutchman from Wee-
hawken."
There is one good thing about the
weather down here—you always know
what it's going to be. It's going to
be hot.
The majority of the native children
on the Isthmus now wear clothes.
That's something that the American
occupation has brought about, as for-
merly raiment there was considered a
useless and expensive annoyance- Now
and then, however, you still see a
Like Tal i's Bath Tub.
So I took my bathing suit and when
we struck the hot weather went search-
ing for the pool. I was looking for
something in the middle of the ship,
with marble sides and bottom set be-
low the deck, with rows of iron pillars,
maybe, and benches along the walls
and a battery of electric fans and little
rooms in which to slip off your wet
bathing suit and slip into your dry
bathrobe. That's what I was looking
for, something like the pool in a
Turkish bath.
I did not find it.
What I did find was a big open
canvas box arrangement about eight
feet wide and twelve long and six
deep swung between two derrick spars
on the forward deck. A hose looped
over the side poured water into it,
sucked up from the ocean, and a hole
near the top let the overflow slosh onto
the deck, whence it flowed to the
scuppers and overboard-
It looked like a collapsible bathtub
for an elephant (or Judge Taft) and
also it looked sloppy, temporary and
unpicturesque, but, oh, what a blessing!
Never have I enjoyed baths more.
The ceiling was the southern sky.
The water the purest of the ocean's
Pf
1
General Assurance Began to Point Out the Southern Cross.
WHAT THE FUTURE WILL BRING
Other stories to follow in this unique series, are:
"Filibustering for Fun."
"In the Land of the Native Son."
"Is the Fair a Fake?"
"Canada's Double Western Door."
" 'Coppers' Who Don't Graft "
"North America's Backbone."
"Back Yards of the United States."
"Winnipeg the Center Peg."
"Behind the Great Lakes."
"GkJ to Halifax."
small boy or girl who is as naked as
a hard-boiled egg with the shell off.
Nobody seems to pay any attention
to this or be in the slightest way em-
barrassed'.
As the ship is crowded to the burst-
ing point, bathrooms in the morning
are in great demand. As mine was
occupied, I asked a steward where
there was another. He pointed down
the passageway and said:
"Down at the end of that block."
Evidently Secretary Daniels' rules
have penetrated the merchant marine
as well as the navy. Doubtless they
will be calling the passageways
streets next.
When I bought my ticket in the
New York office of the line the man-
ager said as I was leaving;
"Don't forget to take your bathing
suit. There is a swimming pool
aboard, you# know, and ex-President
Taft says it's a man's sized pool. He
ought to know."
pure from the rushing Gulf Stream,
where it is miles deep. A bath then
at night is an event in one's life. A
thing to be remembered and talked
about and dreamed of. The water is
not quite as warm as the air; the
breeze that rushes along is soothing
and restful. You lie on your back as
the ship gently rises and falls on the
swell in this delightful comfort and
look up at the black sky where the
stars seem unnaturally bright and al-
most as big as moons, and are at
peace with all the world. Life has few
more solacing things. You could even
be friendly with your janitor.
When night falls in the tropics it
comes down all in a bunch. There is
no preliminary scattering about it, and
when it gets dark it gets as dark as
the inside of a black dog It's a rich,
soft, velvety blackness that envelops
you as completely as a suit of com-
bination underwear-
(Copyright, 1915.)
Archibald, Autocrat of
Army, Routs Spying Eye
Aviators Know Qnly r 00 Well This v agabond of the
Artillery Lines, Whose Home Is Where Night
Finds Him—Keeps Regular Hours.
BRITISH HEADQUARTERS, France,
.Tnly 18 (Correspondence of t tic Associated
XJrese.)—A crack mid a wlilah through the
air! No sound ts more fanitllHr at the
front, where the artillery It. never silent—
the sound of a sheli breaking from n sun
muzzle and Its shrill flight toward the en*
my's line to pay the Hermans hack for
some shell they have sent.
Only this whlsh did not pass out over the
landscape In a long paranoia toward the
German lines. )t went right up Into the
heavens at about the angle of a sky
rocket—for It was "Archibald" who whs on
the job.
8lx or seven thousand feet over the Rrlt-
lsh trenches there was comethlng as big as
your hand against the light blue of the
summer sky. This was the target — German
aeroplane. By the cut of its wings you
knew It was a Taube, Just as you know a
meadow lark from 4 Swallow.
So high was It that it seemed almost
stationary. But it was going somewhere
between fifty and ninety miles an hour.
It teemed to have ail the heavens to Itself,
and to the British it w.is a sinister, mvlng
eye. 11 wanted to s«e if they were building
any new trenches, it they were moving
bodies of troops or of transports in some
Dew direction, and where their batteries
l»«re la biding. That aviator three miles
Ibove the earth bad many nailing guns
■t his command. A few signals from his
• irelees and they would l»t loose on the
arget he Indicated. .
Other features of life at the front mav
rrow commonplace, but never the work of
the pUnea—tlie.se wings of the army's in-
telligence. In tb« bide and w<tk digging
and dodging and countering of feege war-
fare the sight of a plane under! shell fire
•ever loses its thrill.
M the planes might fly as w as they
pleued they might know all tij.lt was go
log on over the lines. They must keep up
ao high that through 'he aviatoi's glasses
• man o» the road is the size of a pin-
bead. To descend low is as t-rtaia death
aa to pat your lead over a larapet of a
trench when the enemy's treudk la only a
' ' ' are. dead
hmdred yards away. The.
Haas Hi tit air bo less than
i t>a earth.
ARCHIBALD RAMBLES ALONG.
Archibald, the anti-aircraft gun, sets the
dead line. He watches over it as a cat
watches a mouse. The trick of 'sneaking
up under Hie cover of a noonday cloud and
all the othei tnaublrd trlcks.be knows.
A couple of seconds after that crack a
tiny puff of smoke breiks about a hundred
yards behind the Taube. A soft thistle-
blow against the blue it seems at that al-
titude, hut It wouldn't if it were about
your cars. Then it would sound like a bit
of dynamite on an anUI struck by a ham-
mer and you would hear the whin of
scores of bullets and fragments about your
ears.
The smoking brass shell Is out of Archi-
bald's steel throat and another shell case
with its cbarga slipped in its place ami
Btarted on Its way before the first puff
breaks. The aviator knows what Is com
Ing. He knovfrs that one means many once
he is in range.
Archibald rushes the fighting , it is the
business of the Taube to sidestep. The
aviator cau not lilt back except through
his allies, the German batteries, on the
eartb. They would take are if Archibald
if they knew where he was. But all that
the aviator can see Is mottled landacape.
Kr. m his aide Archibald flies no goal
flags. He Is ono of teu thousand tiny ob-
jects under the aviator's eye.
Archibald'* propensities are ent'rely peri-
patetic. He is one of the vagabonds of the
army lilies. Locate him —and be Is gone.
Ills home is where night finds him and
the day's duties take him. He is the only
gnn which keeps regular houis like a
Christian gentleman. All the others—grcn*
and small, raticoua voiced and shrill voiced
fire at any hour night or day. Aero-
plane* do not go up at night; and when no
aeroplanes are op Archibald has no Interest
In the war. But he is on the alert at the
first flush of Jiwn. on the lookout for
game with the avidity of a pointer dog;
for the aviators are also up early
Why be was named Archibald nobody
knows, but if there were trft thousand anti-
aircraft guns In 'be British'army every one
would he known a. an Archibald. When
British expeditionary fort, went to
Franca It had none. All the British could
do was to bang away at Taubes with
thousands of rojhds of rifle bullets, which
might fall in their owu lines, and with the
field guns.
It was pie In those days for the Taubes.
It was easy to keep out of the range of
both rifles and guns and observe well If
the Germans did not know the progress of
the British retreat from on high it wits
their own fault. Now the business of fir-
ing at Taubes is left entirely to Archibald
When you see how hard It is for Archibald
after all his pnctlce to get a Taube you
understand how foolish It was for the field
guns to try to get one.
Archibald, w-lio is quite the swellest
thing in the army, has his own private cat
built especially for him. While the cavalry
horses back of the lines grow aleek fronj
inaction the aeroplanes have taken their
place All the romance and risk of scout-
ing are theirs. They get most of the fun
there is In this kind of warfare. If a
British aviator gets a day's leave he does
not take a train and steamer. He rises
from the aviation grounds about half past
four and is at hi^ie In England for dinner
and returns after lunch the next day. All
the actiou the cavalry sees Is when they
go Into the trenches as Infantry
Such of the civalry's fottner part as tho
planes do not play Archibald plays. He
keeps off the enemy's scouts. Do you seek
teamwork, spirit if corps and smartness
iu this theater of France where all the old
glamour of war Is lacking? You will find
it In tb« attendants Archibald. Thev
have pride, elan, alertness, pepper and all
the appetizers aud condiments. They ar-3
as neat as a private yacht's crew and as
lively as an Infield of major league team.
The Archibalds are nattirally bound to
think rather well of themselves.
Watch them there, every man knowing
his part, as th«y send their shells after
the Taube 1 There Isn't enough lest motlou
among th " lot to tip over the range finder
or the tele^ope or the score board or any
of the other paraphernalia assisting the
man *ho is looking through the sight in
knowing where to aim next as a rcr?w an-
swers softly to nis touch.
Is the rport of war dead? Not for Arch-
ibald. Here you see your target, which Is
so rare tlese days when British 'Tfantry-
mcr. have stormed and taken trendies
without ever seeing a German—and the
target I* a bird, a manhird. ruff* of
smoke with bursting hearts of death are
clustered around the Taube. Thev hang
where they broke In the still air. One fol-
lows another In quick succession—for n:oar
than one Archibald Is firing—before your
entranced eye.
Yon are Muring like the rrowd of a
country fair at a parachute act For the
next pnff mav get him. Who knows this
better than 'lie aviator? He Is likely an
old hand at the game; or. If ha Isn't, he
ha* nil the experience of ether vfternn* to
go by. HI* sence tiy the same a* that of
the esffti-ed prlsonei^vhe rtina from the
fire of a guard lit a iig-M| cava* aod
more than that If a puff comes noar on
the right be turns to the left; If one comes
nerr on the l«ft he turns to Ihe right; If
one comes under he rises; over, he dips.
This means that the next shell fired at the
same point will be wide of the target.
Looking through the sight It may seem
easy to hit a piaue. But here's the difficul-
ty. It takes two seconfis, ray, for the shell
to travel to the range of the plane. The
gunner must wait for -It to burst before
he can spot kls shot. Ninety miles an hour
Is a mile and a half a minute. Divide that
by forty, and you have about a hundred
yards the plane has traveled from tho time
the shell left the gun muzzle till It burst.
It becomes a matter of discounting the jvl
ator's speed and guessing from experience
which way he will turn next.
That ought to hnve got hira—the burst
was right under him. No. Ho rises. Sure-
ly that one got him anyway. The puff Is
right in front of the Taube, partly hiding
it from view. You see the plane tremble
as if struck by a violent gust of wind.
"Closel" Within thirty or forty yards
the telescope says. But at that range the
naked e y a Is easily deceived about distance.
Probably some of the bullets have cut his
plane. But you must hit the man or
machine In a vital spot in order to bring
down your bird. A British aviator the
other ifci.v had a piece of shrapnel Jacket
hit his coat, lis force spent, and rolled
into his lap. The explosions must be very
close to count. It is amazing how much
shell fire an aeroplane can stand. Aviators
are accustomed to the whlr.z of shell frag
ments and bnllets and to have their planes
punctured and ripped. Though their
engines are put out of commission and
frequently thoujh wounded they are able
to volplane back to tho cover of their own
lines.
To make a proper story we ought to
bare brought down this particular bird.
But It had the luck whicti most planes,
British or Gorman, have In escaping antl-
air craft gunfire. It hud begun edging
away aftei the first shot and soon waa out
of range.
Archibald bad served the purpose of bli
existence. He had sent the prying aerial
eye home.
A fight between planes In the air very
rarely happens except in- the imagination,
l'lanes do not go up to fight other planes,
but for observation Their business is to
see snd learn and bring home their news.
The other day In the communicating
trench between the frontal and support
trerches British shells were screaming over
head 'nti the German trencae* and Ger
man shells were screaming over head Into
the British trenches. It was a pretty lively
half an hour. Fcnr or five thousand feet
np were two British planes with a swarm
of puffs from German shells around them
Two or three thousand feet higher was a
German plane. They maintained their rela-
tive altitudes and kept on with their work,
each spotting the burst* of the shells fired
by its aide and correcting I be gunners
aim kr wlrelcs*
Fampus Tennis Player
Enlists With English Army
MELBOURNE, Australia., Aug. 7.—K.
W. Heath, an Austalaslan Davis cup lawn
tennis pliyer, who beat W. A. Learned,
the American champion, several yenrs ago,
has Just sailed for England to follow in
tho steps of tho late Anthony F. Wilding
of New Zealand aud offer his services to
the War Office. He proposes to go Into
training Immediately on his arrival to
qualify as a lieutenant In a flying corps,
but If the preparation involves a long
course of instruction he will endeavor to
be accepted by the Royal Artillery.
Heath, better known as "Red" Heath, is
8 Victorian, and one of the best tennis
players the Commonwealth has produced
His enlistment in .he British forces wiii
be the third from among the Australasian
Davis cup players. Captain Wilding and
Manley N. Dons', having volunteered earlv
•n the war.
-O-
EXPERIMENTS WITH SOJA
BERLIN, July 15 (Correspondence of the
Associated Press).—Protracted experi-
ments with the Japanese "soy" or "soju"
been, out of which, among other things,
w orcestershire sauce is *«nade, are being
conducted with a view to determiniug
whether this vegetable, which can be, and
Is, raised in Germany, cannot be used in
the many prison camps.
A propaganda for aud against tnis vari-
ety of bean has been conducted for years
by hygiene food experts and bo>aaists. It
Is the contention of Its sponsors that it
can easily be used as a complement to
tiermauy's other foods, and that from it
«Jn made food that will appeal to
the European taste.
In the Far East the soja bean already
« demand, both for human and
animal food products, and also lor the oil
# Next to rice It forms one
or the principal articles of the food sup-
ply In some Eastern countries, especially
when combined with cereals and salt. It
also plays an important part in sauces
and spices. Th#» milk from this bean
approximates ordinary milk It* nutritive
value, and cheese can be made Irom it.
J; combined with So to 40 per cent
white flour, the meal of the soja bean
lends itself to a tasty and nourishing
... which hat beeu found to be esfre-
cialljr good for diabetics because of the
high percentage of albumen and fat con-
tained. The roasted soja beans also make
a pood substitute for coffee The s<.Ja
riant forms a good fodder for cattle
Exhaustive experiments with the soja
bean have already been made at the agri-
cultural station of the rniversitj of Wis
con sin, all tending to besr out, it isjsaid,
the contention of German dieticians in
(am of the
E
T OF
CHAIN ARMOR AND STEEL HEL-
METS PROPOSED FOR BRITISH
FIGHTING MEN.
LONDON, July 25 (Correspondence of
the Associated Press.)—The London news-
papers are urging upon the British gov-
ernment the advisability of adopting the
steel helmet, as well as some simple form
of protective breast armor for the troop*
in France and Flanders. France, RussU
and Germany have been experimenting
along this line for some time, and France
ha« recently definitely adopted a light
steel helmet, suggesting in design the head-
piece worn by men-at-arms s!x centuries
ago.
"One of the most remarkable features
of this war." remarks the Times, 'has
been the return to older, if not to ancient,
methods. The steel fort hat> been discred-
ited and the earthwork Justified; the
strength and direction of the wind has
become a leading factor once again, aa
it waa in the days of bows and arroWs,
since aeroplanes are affected by the wind
and gas attaoks determined by it, hand
grenades, bombs, and catapults have as-
sumed real important*. Finnify, the ques-
tion of armor for the fightiui; maa oim-
self has come np for consideration.'*
The value of a light prot»*ctlve armoi
Is attested in several reoent articles *n
the Britisb medlral journals. Dr. Dev-
•rrnj surgeon, discusses
r*igne,a JTwmck
In the Lancet tho result of his tests of
the new French helmet and gives It his
unqualified endorsement. "The soldier who
wears a helmet," he says, "escaped lififht
wounds of the head and even wounds that
would in ordinary circumstances have been
severe are greatly mitigated. The aelmet
frequently turns off the bullet, in other
cases dents or stops it, while iu other
cases it is perforated but acts a* a heavy
drag upon the force of the projectile so
that hair and dirt are not driven into the
tissues of the head."
Dr. A. J. Hewitt, chief surgeon of *the
warship Pegasus, in her figat with th.
Koetiigsberg. writes the Journal of the
Royal Medical ^rvW, urging the adoption
of some kind of protective armors by the
navy. On« of the remarkable features
of the wounds which came under Ms ob-
servation, he says, was the smaller pene*
tratlng power of the fragments of pro-
jectiles in open spaces like the uppee
deck. The jianger zone so far as life was
concerned seemed to bf confined to a small
area around the bursting space, and though
the initial velocity of the fragments
seemed to be very great it diminished rap-
idly, perhaps owing to their irregular
shape.
"One seaman," writes Dr. Hewitt, "had
his right arm so shattered that complete
amputation was necessary, but a fragment
of the same shell hit the bra-s buckle of
his belt, breaking it but not even bruis-
ing the abdomen. Small fragments were
also the cause of the loss of four eye*
but I am of the opinion that a pair of
motor goggles would have saved all these.
A case of injiiry to the jugular vein caused
by a minute particle or shell probably
could have been stopped by a linen col-
lar.
"In my opinion a coat of light chain ar-
mor. or even hat her. with a pair of gog-
gles made from toughened notor screen
glass would be invaluable to laptu.ta* of
destroyers, navigators and otners la rv
posed portions who are likely to encoun-
ter ships armed with similar gus*."
Dr. Delorme, medical Insist tor general
of the French army, believes that pro-
tective armor would cause a marked de-
crease In the large number of minor
wounds whirh have serious results owing
to the development of infection. "It i« in-
fection through hair, shreds of headgear,
soiled bullets, irregular dressings, etcM
he says. " that makes minor head esions
so dangerous and causes a mortality vary-
ing from 15 to 5T per cent.**
Eggs, Sur.nyside Up.
LOS ANGELES, Cal.. Aug. Tired
travelers who scale M<Mint Wilson's rug-
ged heights may soon be able to enjoy
an egg boiled or a leg of lamb roasted
Iu the sunsMue there. I>or*ors C. O. Ab-
bott. F. K. r'owle and L. It A Id rich are
working 0* an apparatus desigred to con
centrate the sun's rays by m^ans of a
huge concave mirror. When collected th*
rays are said to be hot enough
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San Antonio Express. (San Antonio, Tex.), Vol. 50, No. 220, Ed. 1 Sunday, August 8, 1915, newspaper, August 8, 1915; San Antonio, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth433122/m1/18/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Abilene Library Consortium.