The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1904-10-09
THIS and THAT.

tive power direct from the accumulators
and thus doing away with chains, PIN
IONS gearing and most of the other
things that the automobiist now spends
so much of his time in adjusting. A car
rage with these live axles, according
to those who are Immediately connected
with the experiments, will travel faster
than the ordinary wagon because OF its
lighter weight and obvious economy of
energy. Moreover 1t will run silently and
the invention can be applied to any kind
of vehicle, although the experiments
have been SO far connected mainly with
the private carriage.
Among our other titles to eminence,
according to the Scientific American, Is
the fact that we have in America the
largest, strongest and most long-lived OF
all the spiders This remarkable In
sect, the so-called trap door spider" Is
a natural feature of California, where
he grows to bodily length of over an
inch-exclusive of legs-and lives sol
itary and sedentary life in tunnel OF
his own digging. This tunnel he widens
and deepens to accommodate his own In
creasing avoirdupois and just how long
he actually lives in 1t Is still an unsettled
problem, although 1t is known that 1t
takes him full fifteen years to attain
maturity.
whom most of us are familiar. the trap
door spider is an inveterate homebody;
once he has dug his tunnel he will suffer
every inconvenience and danger from a.
spiders point of view rather than de-
part and establish himself elsewhere
|. whether from domestic affection or sheer
laziness the scientists do not attempt to
tell us He is able to live for months
at time without food and three of his
kind, under scientific investigator, actu-
ally existed for sixteen months without
breakfast dinner or supper or even
bite between meals and seemed none the
worse for the experience. Even In Call
ifornia however. the number of these
spiders is much small than 1t used to be
for wherever land Is under cultivation
the plough rapidly destroys them; In an
acre of untitled land 1t has been esti-
mated that there was large sized nest
for every square yard In the acre, while
the smaller tunnels, much more difficult
to detect, were also much more numer-
| Gus.
American playgoers are more or less
| familiar with japanese courtships-on the
stage But the real Japanese courtship
| is a very different matter. 1t Is an unu-
sual thing, say some travellers in the
| Flowery Kingdom, for bride and bride
groom to hardly more than see each other
rtages are there arranged by the young
peoples parents, although the japanese
parents do not ordinarily force their
daughters into life partnership TO wnicn
they have strong personal objections
Sometimes, however, the young man
does actually fall in love at 11rst sight
and conducts his own wooing by leaving
a little pot of flowers at the maidens
window. If she tends the flowers his
hopes blossom in proportion; but II sne
lets them wither he knows that his suit
is practically hopeless. After the maiden
has tacitly admitted the state of her own
affection the swain makes no further et-
fort to approach her, but persuades rel
atiyes or older friend to enter into nego-
tiations with the maiden's parents.
Once married the newly welded pair
live at the home Of the mans family
and the young bride becomes almost
| servant to her mother-in-law-a condi-
| ton not altogether in harmony with the
romance of the little flower pot and quite
contrary to the American numorists idea
| of mothers in-law.