The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1897-08-12
MEMORY IN AGED PEOPLE.

MEMORY IN AGED PEOPLE.
Remarkable Instance of Renewed
Recollection After Many Years.
About IS years ago, upon rainy
day, small boy who had reached the
mature age of six was. sitting with his
mamma and bemoaning the state of
the weather and accompanying absence
of novel entertainment. Mamma wore
on her finger beautiful ring that was
family heirloom, and as she sewed
patiently the jewel glittered on her
white little hand. The small boy re-
garded the bright bauble for some time
in silence and then sweetly requested
mamma to take it off and let him play
with it. It was a weak thing to do, per-
haps, but she complied. I dare say
there are mothers at the present day
who can sympathize with her, for hui
man nature is the same, though fash
ions change, and when the "dear child"
looked up in her face pleadingly he
looked with papa's eyes, and papa was
dead. So he got the ring and lost it.,
as might have been expected. He al
ways insisted that he had "put it away
to keep" but he could never remember
where.
The years went on. The gentle
young mother went out into the great
unknown to find the light of her life
that shone in ''papa's eyes," and the
century and the boy, having been young
together, grew old in company, too.
Finally age began to tell on them; the
century got troubled with complaint
designated '<fn de siecle'' and the boy
lost his memory for the things of to-
day, but became abnormally> reminis-
cent in regard to the past. His thoughts
often turned back to the young moth
err, long dead, and in the decline of
life he had as clear mental picture
of her as his boyish eyes had ever seen.
One evening, having pushed his spec
tacles on top of his head and hunted
everywhere for them vainly, he sat
musing before the fire, when suddenly
a flood of light illuminated that dark
corner of his memory where hung the
picture of that small edition of himself
losing, or putting away" the ring. He
sprang to his feet with an excited cry:
"The ring! The ring! I slipped it
down that crack in the window casing.
The one that looks out on the orchard!"
Upon investigation the ring was
brought from it's long hiding place,
which was the exact spot the old man
had described.-Buffalo Express.
Large Telescopes.
Fifty years ago an 11-inch refracting
telescope was the largest in the world.
The lens of the Yerkes telescope has a
diameter of 40 inches. It required
great care to grind such lens. It con-
sists of two disks of optical glass, one
of crown glass and the other of flint
glass, the former double convex, the
latter concave on one side and nearly
fiat on the other. The nicely of curva-
ture is what is startling. When the late
Alvan Clarke received the rough slabs
of glass for the Yerkes lens from Paris
before him lay the task of grinding
until every ray of light passing through
the great circle of glass should be bent
and brought to focus at point 81
feet distant and no larger than a small
dot. It took him five years to accom-
plish his task. A fault of one-one-hun-
dredAthousandth of an inch would be
serious. The crude casting of glass is
first treated with sand, to remove
toughest projections. Rouge is needed
in polishing. The last stages of treat
ment often take an optician two years.
Sometimes the amount to be removed is
so infnitesimal that a little rubbing
with the finger on the hard glass will
do what is ecessary.-Chicago Inter
Ocean.