CONFIDANTS OF PARENTS.

Cromwell Argus, Volume XXXX, Issue 2130, 8 February 1909, Page 3

CONFIDANTS OF PARENTS.

Physician Acts as a Sort of Medio*] Father Confessor —Hears Many; . Family Secret*. '^ That physicians should be accorded the confidence of their in a larger measure even than clergymen —has always been pretty generally recognized, says American Medicine. This confidence is, indeed, freely bestowed in a good many directions, sometimes in fact, to an entirely unnecessary extent. The physician is frequently made acquaint ,-ith internal family matters which h-.e absolutely no bearing upon the case for the treatment of which he had been called in, and which are, therefore, not of a nature to exercise the slightest influence upon such treatment. In this way the physician is sometime* drawn into the position of general family father corf'?:: r. He will be mad* the confident of the husband in regard to things which should he kept a secret from the wife; the wife reveals to him things of which the husband is to know or suspect nothing; the daughter pours the little secrets of her heart into his more or less unwilling ear on the understanding that he must not under any cirsumstances divulge them toher parents; and the young man appeals in the strictest confidence to the doctor with regard to his experience, or. rather, lack of experience. The picture is complete enough without the special mention of the cook and the butler. And as the medical father confessor no more than the clerical one can betray the confidence reposed in him, he is in the unenviable position of having something to conceal practically from every member of the household with regard, to every other member EDISON'S BIRTHDAY DINNER From the Banquet Table in New York Wisard Sent Message*, I , to Europe. ~ t ' w A dinner was given at the WaldorfAstoria recently in honor of the twentyfifth anniversary of the introduction of the incandescent electric light and the fifty-seventh anniversary of the birth of Thomas A. Edison. Mr. Edison was the guest of honor. •One end of the Commercial Cable company's cable was taken into the grand ballroom of the hotel, and connected to the table at which the inventor was seated. By means of the old quadruple instrument which Mr. Edison used many years ago when he was a lelegraph operator, and which had been in the museum of the Western Union Telegraph company for a long time, he sent a message across the ocean to Marconi. Messages to all of the great scientists in both America and Europe were sent from the room where the dinner was held. Tlk Jeed of trust of the Edison Medal association was presented at the dinner. The association has raised a fund, the income of which will be applied annually to the striking of a medal to be presented to the student in electrical engineering in the United States or Canada whose thesis or recordid research shall be deemed most worthy. The Institute of Electrical Engineers will act as trustee. * THROW PRAYERS AT IDOL. If They Stick the Petitions of the Worshiper Will Br. Answered. One of the roost curious phases of Idolatry exists in Japan, where on the sacred road to Nikkc is loraied an idol about which renters ore of the most peculiar worships in the world. Upon the surface of the statue are seen little pieces of what appears to be dried paper. If you stand by the. idol for awhile and wait for a worshiper to come along, you will see what these bits of paper are. The devotee halts in front of the image, then scribbles a prayer on a bit of pape The wad he then chews up into a bal: and hurls at the port. If it hits tb» face and sticks the prayer is sure to L. answered, and the pious pilgrim goes away happy. If the bail sticks to som* portion of the body the omen is rot quite so propitious and if it falls to the ground there is absolutely no hope. Such a mode of prayer is even more curious than the praying wheels of the Buddhists, who set the wheel revolving and reel off prayers by machinery. As John L. Stoddard, the lecturer, sayr: "One sees, of course, numberless strange rites connected with religion in traveling about the world, but Japan is the only land I have ever visited where deities serve as targets for masticated prayers." Bussian Naval Actions. Russia can point to only two occasions in modern history when her ships were in action. One was the destruction of the Turkish squadron at Sinope, when the number of vessei3 was equal, though the latter were greatly inferior in size and armament. The other occasion was in the Crimean war, when the Black sea fieet did Russia excellent service, but hardly of the kind usually demanded of the ships of an imperial navy, when she sank her finest ships like coal barges to block the entrance to Sebastopol. <r JS I" The Monroe Doctrine. At a recent examination of young men in England, three of the answers to the question. "What is the Monroe doctrine?" were: "The religion of America taught by Dr. Monroe on the transmigration of souls." "The doctrine that people may be married several times." "One that has to do with vaccination and smallpox; it wa< brought out by Prof. Monroe." Ancient Artificial Eyes. Artificial eyes were first used by the Egyptians long before the Christian era. Mummies have been found with artificial eyes. They were fashioned of gold, silver, copper or ivory.