UNCLE SAM'S PLAYTHINGS

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7541, 25 October 1902, Page 1

UNCLE SAM'S PLAYTHINGS

(JSeic Yorh Sun.) One thing that very few persons know ia that United States Government officials play what would be to boys entertaining games every day as a part of their serious, work oi nations. There is one man — an old and grave and wisa and famous professor — who may be seen often in Ins office in Washington standing on chairs and desks, launohing iitt.e paper biro's and funny contrivances through the air and watching them soar and settle with just the same interest and delight with which boys and girls . would watch them. If folks who did not know who he is were to behold him they might well be excused for< imagining that the old gentleman was growing childish. But probably there are few persons in the country to-day who know better what they are about tha>n he does. For he is one of the foremost scientists of the Smithsonian Institution, end some day it is expected that he will teach the world how to build a. flying machine that really •will fly. Often, after he has played good and hard with the little paper toys, he disappears. Then the other scientists \know that he is down in a lonely part of the Potomac River, experiment ing with big flying machines that' have been built according to ideas gained by him from his toys. And while this professor is flying his things the chances are that not far away other wise men are playing with little toy gardens. There are patches just big enough for children to weed and hoe. These patches are watered with small graduated watering pots, and with scales little pinches of fertiliser and other- plant foods are measured out for each. Big men sit over them, and watch them and peer into them, and fondle the little leaves, one by one, just as children would do. But every few weeks one of the players sits down at his desk and writes, and soon afterward the Government issues a pamphlet that tells farmers all over the world just how they can handle their farms TO MAKE TKKM YTKLD MOKE AND UETTEII CEOrS. All over the country are other men employed by the Government, ' who go out every day with butterfly nets to catch butterflies and grasshoppers and countless other insects. Some go out at ni.-xlit with lanterns and honey pots and sit down in the shelter of shrubbery, waiting till the great, blundering night ninth? shall be attracted by the keen scent of the honey

which they love. Often the moths drink honey until they are drank, when they can be picked up by the bare hand withI but needing a net. That is not bad play either. Yet that | kind of play has saved the people of the United States millions of dollars, for the insect hunters find' out so much about tha insects that destroy vegetation and fruit and shade trees that we know now just when to look out for their arrival and jvsfc how to destroy them before they become big enough to eat growing things. Last year men in the Agricultural Department in "Washington played at ai most) absorbing game that surely would have pleased every boy and girl in' the land. They planted seeds of many kinds in tiny pots, one seed in each pot, and then day after day they photographed the pots. Thus they made many hundreds of pictures that, when they; were all put together showed just how the plants grew. And these pictures were -put into one of those great kinetoscope machines that throw Targe moving pictures on screens, so now everybody cam see a plant grow from* seed to a mighty shrub. ' Only, instead of having to watch it for months and years, we oan see it all -within a few minutes, for <tiie machine throws the , pictures on the screen just as fast as one may wish. This already has taught farmers and florists many things . about plants that never had been' suspected before, although so many sharp-eyed persons . HAVE WATCHED FX.ANTS GBOW 708 SO MANY CENTTJBEBS. A few years ago the United States Goteminent imported the beautiful and valuable date palm, hoping to make it grow | in the sandy and dry parts of Arizona and j New Mexico and other spots of the United States where other domestic plants do not thrive. ' The date palms did fairly well, but not well enough to please the Department of Agriculture, so it sent one of its men away out to Africa and across the Desert of 'Sahara to find the oases and sea hW palms grew there. He found a gorgeous evergreen morning glory twining all over the houses of the Arabs. And then he found the beautiful oases, and when he returned it was with many camels, ail laden, with; fine date palms.- ■'.'.' ~. And these are growing finely now in our country. That was a real Arabian Nights play trip that has been worth lots of money to the country. / „ : Some charming toys are those that every•body m&y see in the many weather observing stations of the Government. There are busy little windmills, turning like anything, and funny little round discs on arms that dance aM the time, and: queer spiral glass tubes, that move lead 1 pencils over clharts. ' ; ; . A weather observatory would be tihe very place of all that any cMld would! select, if it could have its way, for <■ a playroom. There are so many funiny instruments, and scores on scores of queer-coloured flags, and little gaudy-coloured lanterns, Hhat ONE'S HEART QUITE -BTLLS WITH A DESIBB TO PLAY WITH THEM. , Yet even while one is looking at them turn and dance, those temptnng. tojya may be telling of a storm that is kSlmg fqjki and blowing houses down,: far away. The little flags and lanterns, -when (hoisted, may seem any^Mng. but toys to the Bailoar. For some of them, spell hurricane, and others talk of, hail and! rain, and others warn aU humankind to stay snug in shelter. There was a learned' man in Wood's Hole in Massachusetts the other day, wiho had great fun with, starfish in little saucers and bright, flashing glass tanks. Wood's Hole is the place where tha Government studies fish. This man went out and caught a lot of the beautiful things called: starfish!,, 'because they look so much like stars. Children wiho have seen' them and played with tfhem and admired them will find iti hard to believe that they are really first cousins to the devilfish and octopus, aa they are. ■ •• . The man played lots of games witih tihe stars. He put some .of them into shallow vessels, and found that they had queer habits. For instance, a starfish, would try to crawl over the side of the dish) but aa soon as he found he would have to lift his arms out of the water to do it (he would slide right bank. But if he could get just enough water to keep his arms covered, he would' crawl away rapidly, quite regardless of the fact tihait all the rest' of his body was sticking out high and dry. The mam also got many egg« of the star and put them into tiny trays full of saltwater and hatched them out. Gloriously beautiful little things they- were, purple and crimson and scarlet and yellow, each) one' as tiny as a phthead, yet each one a perfect five-armed star. And as soon aa each was hatched it would hustle .right to) the bottom and fasten on a bit of green weed, where it shone like a flashing gem. ' Now this was truly pleasant play. But it was profitable too. For the starfish is a terrible enemy of the oyster and the dam. The starfislh used to eat so many oysters and clams tihat tihe fishermen of Connecticut alone lost more than 100,000dol. The play of the man in Wood's Hole has taught the Government new ways of fighting the stars and it is, now sending the information to all the fishermen and sihellnsh planters. So all the playing means vast sums of money saved or earned in various ways.