RATER’S CHATS WITH THE HOYS.

Otago Witness, Issue 3609, 15 May 1923, Page 60

RATER’S CHATS WITH THE HOYS.

QUESTIONS FOR A ROYAL MUMMY. “Kings and dynasties rose and fell, Tutankhamen, Conquerors passed like a passing bell, Drums and trampling overhead — Did they sliake thy royal bed? Alexander came and went, Roman Caesar pitched his tent, Sultans and Caliphs in tiieir pride. Mameluke and Abbasside, Conquered, boasted, prayed, and died. Didst thou when Napoleon came Slumber, Pharaoh, just the same ! Did no rumour come thee nigh Of British armies marching by ? Did their kettle-drums beat in vain, Tutankhamen ? “Has the world made progress since, Tutankhamen, Thy subjects laid thee, silent Prince Under Horus’s sheltering wings In the Valley of the Kings? Are men better now than then ? Is there less of fraud and guile, Less of war and less of hate, Than when courtiers called thee great? Answer, is the race of men, Silent Pharaoh, much as when ’Neath thy canopy of state, With thy Princess by thy side. Courtiers in chorus deified. Tutankhamen ?’ I. C., in the Morning Post. * * * • * NIAGARA THRILLS. A thrilling story of a Canadian youth s flirtation with death in his attempt to enter the United States without paying the head tax of eight dollars comes from the Falls. With bated breath a group of people watched this youth traversing nonchalantly, like a tight rope walker, the narrow girder beneath the cantilever bridge, which rises 150 it above the from the Canadian to the American side. The path selected was lOin wide, and a mis-step would have meant a plunge to death into the raging torrent of the whirlpool rapids beneath. Several times the boy almost ran in his eagerness to gain his objective, and the crowd sighed with relief when his foot touched the abutment on the American side. The youth, whose name is Leo Castle, is 18 years of age. He had previously been barred entrance to the United States because he was unable to pay the eight dollars head tax. In consequence he chose the more hazardous route. Sod to relate, when he achieved his goal, immigration officials seized him and marched him back to Canada. Blondin, the famous tight rope walker, it may be recalled, crossed the Falls three times —twice in 1850, and again in 1860; and a man named Dixon crossed the river on a wire rope below' the I alls in 1890. ****** WHY IS AN AUTUMN LEA I ? Tne colour of autumn foliage is attributed by Charles H. Butcher, writing in Conquest (London), to the decomposition of the green colouring matter that gives them their spring and summer verdure. Some of Mr Butcher’s examples are peculiar to England, but his explanation holds good all over the world, wherever there are deciduous trees, or those that shed their leaves at the approach of winter. Says Mr Butcher: “During the autumn the trees are very busy with preparations for their winter rest, and from the leaves, which during the summer months were building up the plant tissues, every particle of value s being withdrawn and stored in the permanence of trunks and branches. The green colouring matter (chlorophyll) that made the leaves so vivid in the spring and so refreshing in the summer, begins to break up into substances of chameleon properties. When the sap has an acidic character these substances are red, and when it has an alkaline reaction they are blue, or intermediately violet. Some yellow granules, hitherto overshadowed by the green, come to light, and the rich tints of the autumn leaves—reds and orange, yellow's and purple—are produced. “Never in their brightest season and never in their full luxuriance of maturity are the trees so brilliant and so finely coloured as in autumn, when they exchange their verdant summer tints .or the richest crimson and orange and purple. Some are anything and everything—golden yellow, glorious crimson, rich brown, rusty red, glowing scarlet, deep purple—all blotched and blended together into a thing of beauty, which one wishes would remain a joy for ever. “The colouring matter, chlorophyll, is a remarkable substance, and its presence gives the distinctive green colour to the plant. Under the exciting influence of sunlight it absorbs carbon dioxide from the air, and then, together with water vapour alisorbed from the soil, forms the constituents from which Nature builds up the solid portion of the plant. The sub stance may be extracted by mascera.ting green leaves with spirits of wine, W'hen that present in the ruptured cells dissolves, yielding a green solution, and leaving the plant tissues yellowish white. It appears to consist of two compounds, one of them vellow and the other blue, and it, is generally supposed that the autumn change from green to yellow and yellowish-brown is largely due to the gradual disappearance of the blue compound. “Every tree and shrub has its own characteristic autumn colouring, which is often so distinctive as to render identification perfectly easy for some distance. The hedgerow containing maple, elder, and buckthorn will in summer appear very possibly all equally green. But when the influence of autumn makes itself felt the various shrubs stand out with vivid distinctness. The maple changes to a deep tawny yellow, the elder

remains green almost until its foliage falls, while the buckthorn turns to a mass of rich purple-brown. “The wayfaring tree becomes a deep chocolate eclour and makes a strong contrast with the evergreen ivy and the crimson and bronze-purple creepers. The horsechestnut foliage passes irom green Uirougn yellow to ruddy Drown, and all three colours may often be found on one leaf, more or less blended and mottled. The nut varies from dull yellow to reddishbrown, the elm becomes a golden yellow, and the ash turns a dull yellowish-green; the barberry becomes scarlet, while the dogwood is crimson, and the oak s golden yellow. “The horse-chestnut, one of the earliest, is usually the one in which the change in colour of foliage is first perceptible. Then corne the limes, the elms, the beeches and the oaks, the fading leaves of each trying to rival the others in then colour. The year grows complete —a sheen of purple spreads ever the lower slopes of the hills, the bracken turns golden, and the woods become amber, carrying with tlieir splendour a wonder ful charm. In the sunshine the beech presents a glowing mass and a weaitn of colour that little else in this direction can surpass, and it is, in the language of Southey—■ these fading leaves, That with their rich variety of hues Make yonder forest in the slanting sun So beautiful.”