Miscellaneous

Lake County Press, Issue 2791, 26 June 1919, Page 7

Miscellaneous

Nurse's Novel Experience , A lady friend of mine who has beer ' nursing wounded in France since Sep tcmbcr 1914, tells of an incident whicl is at once humorous and pathetic. She . had been only a few weeks in France when she was lent to the French Ked Cross, and was sent to a French base hospital, where she found herself and another English nurse the only Englishspeaking persons in the place. After about a month at this station a batch of French "native" wounded were brought to hospital. For three days signs were the only means of communication between nurse and "native" patients. On this third day, the English nurse was rather surprised to hear one of her dusky troops make quite a good attempt at English. "Me English speaker too, yah," he said with a broad grin. Glad to hear her native tongue again, for the other English nurse and she, because of their different duties. had little opportunity of conversation, my friend entered into conversation with the man, whose English, although it would not pass muster at school or university, was quite good enough to be understood. "So you speak English?" she remarked. "Yes, me, please," said he. "Ever been in England?" "No, not never. Me meet English trader mans in Africa. Me trading man too, yah. He tell nie his speak; i me tell him my speak, one mans • him I r.od, great good, big." In the course of the pidgeon English • conversation the nurse gathered that the wounded soldier, who had lost a leg, belonged to some north of African j tribe, probably Arabic, for, although I dusky, he was not black, and had the striking, handsome features of the Arab. lie was a particularly intelligent fellow, and some English trader who had taken an interest in him in Africa had taught him something of English. Never a day passed but he and the nurse exchanged a few words. At the end of a week the Arab became silent, and barely spoke even when addressed, and the nurse noticed, first with amusement, then with something of embarrassment, that his great big faithful, dog-like eyes followed her wherever she went. Adopting his own style of speech she addressed him. "You silent. You no speak. You look so, Why?" No answer. "Come, tell me. You had. No good." "Ah," he said at bust. "Me no can't speak." "Why?" "Me love, love great, big." '"■" ill me," she coaxed. "No." "Very well. You no good. You bad mans." "No, no, no. Not no good. You jj not think that. Me brave. Me kill German mans, but me kind, good." "Well, tell me." "Ate love, you. Me marry you. Me rich ; loads rich." The nurse laughed, and was instantly sorry when she saw the look of pain : in the expressive eyes. Then she said quietly:— "That cannot be. Perhaps yo'i have already a wife." "Yah, yah. But me no go back. Me come with you. Me married long ag when very young. Wife get other mans, yah."

... CHOOSINC BABY'S NAME. ... In some (foreign lands the baby's name is chosen in strange ways. The poof little Chinese girls are thought of so little importance that they rarely get a name at all as infants, but are called No. 1, 2, 3 or whatever thenplace in the list of daughters may be. Chinese boys are given a name by which thev are called- till they attain the age oi' twenty; then their father gives them a new name, Japanese girls have pretty names, usually those of some flower, "Mimosa," ''Chrysanthemum," -'Cherry Blossom," and in some parts of the country the little Japs do not receive a name till they are five years old, when their father chooses one for them. Hindoo babies are named when they arc about twelve days old, and it is usually the mother who chooses the name. They, too, are fond of pretty flower names for their little girls. The Egyptians have an odd way of choosing a baby's name. They light three candles, giving a name to each, but they always call one after some defied Dr exalted person. The babv is called by tlie name borne by the candle which burns the longest. Mohammedans sometimes write suitaide names on slips of paper, which they insert between the pages of the Koran. The first slip drawn out gives the name to the baby. HORSES WITH A HISTORY. - Wars for which they are Responsible. The four bronze horses which have lately been removed from the facade of St. Mark's Cathedral at Venice, to ; protect them from bomb attacks of the ! Austria ns, have had a very eventful ! I history, and may be .said to have in- j iluenced indirectly this war. \ They are excellent Roman work of ! the Imperial age, and probably crowned j some triumphal arch in the Italian ■ capital. Constantino the Great, when • in the year A.D. 330 he chose the city which now bears his name—Constantl- > nople—for his capital, moved the four horses thither, where they ornamented the hippodrome.

There they stayed until 1204, when the Crusaders turned aside from the fight for the Holy Sepulchre and liesieged and took Constantinople. The chief adornments of the city, the treasures of the churches, and even the bodies of the great dead were not respected by these vandal "crusaders," among whom were the Venetians, who took the horses to Venice and placed them on the external gallery of the front of St. Mark's as trophies of victory.

According to historians, this victory, of which the bronze horses were the trophy, was the greatest disaster Kit rope has ever known. It was the beginning of the downfall of the Eastern Christian Empire, and its final conquest by the "unspeakable Turk," in 1-13, a conquest which today is re sponsible for the fact that our brave lads are laying down their lives at the Dardanelles.

In 1797 the bronze horses were taken to Paris by Napoleon, but in 1815 the

Austrian rmiperor r rancis roston them to their long-familiar place Venice. FUTURE OF AIR TRAFFIC. ! The Aeroplane Safer Than The Mot( Car. It' the world dare think of anythin beyond the daily record of the war, ,' would bo hard at work speculating o • the future of the submarine and tl i aeroplane, the twin engines whose po Nihilities are so great that the imag nation can scarcely grasp them eloarb The submarine may yet drive tli navies of the world, and perhaps tli merchant fleets also, to become sul moi'sible vessels like themselves; tli aeroplane may revolutionise not onl travel hut even war itself when, grow in si/.e and armament, multiplied i thousands, far safer and more easil manoeuvred than it is now, it make difficult the very existence of armic moving along the surface of the eartl These things are not yet, but sue practical people as Messrs. Graham*White and Harper, whose hook o '•Air Power" lias just been publishei believe that within a very few year after the war there will he such ai advance in aviation as few yet con ceive. THE POLITEST PEOPLE ON EARTH. The Rumanians are one of the hand somest races in Europe, but that (say: a correspondent of the "Daily Tele graph) again is only a part of theji fascination. Some enthusiast has sak that the ladies of Bukharest "combine the beauty of the Hungarian, the grace of the Austrian, and the wit and style of the Parisian." But still we have not all the tyuth. It is the distinction and kinelliness of the manners of Bukharest which mark it out among the cities of the world. No ono over found there anything but courtesy. Many have pronounced the people the politest on earth, and the politeness is not a matter of civility or readiness to oblige, but a high-bred distinction of manner. EVERY 100 SOLDIERS CARRY ' BALE OF COTTON. The National Board of Fire Underwriters, in a pamphlet entitled "Safeguarding Cotton/' states that the safety of the world is dependent upon American cotton, for the war is being fought with the product of the Southern cotton fields, chemically transformed into explosives. It has been computed that America produces threequarters of the world's cotton tupply, and that every hundred soldiers carry a bale of cotton in the shape of cartridges, while a battleship in action might use ten /to twelve bales a minute.—"Safety Engineering."