The Birmingham age-herald., 1904-10-16

thor of Sir Mungo Malagrowther, who
 served in Ike capacity during the child
 hood of James VI of Scotland. And as
 late as 1876 whipping boy Is said to
 have been provided for the Chinese em- peror.
 Whipping boys, moreover, if one may credit the reference in some of the older writers, were fashionable appendage to many of the wealthier families some cen- turies ago. More than that they some- times gave up the job and ran away in
 disgust, which goes to show that the position was not always sinecure, and
 that those who held 1t were usually sup
 piled by their families rather than by
 their own Volition.
 Although beauty is admittedly only skin deep, the obvious fact that it is all on the outside has made 1t responsible for more absurdities in the way of meth
 ods for acquiring 1t than perhaps any other human quality except the possess sion of riches. The milk bath as sup posed beautiher dates back as far and possibly further than the Roman Empire.
 and every age since has seen a goodly
 company of the gentler sex seeking beau- ty in some equally unlikely fashion. In the last few years there have been sev- eral new prescriptions. including vio- lets, roses and cream, blue glass and crushed strawberries. The strawberry | was a continental fad only last summer, the theory being that whoever, with suf- | ficient regularity, transformed her coun- tenance 1rto a sort of living strawberry | shortcake would thereby attain a com pleXion O; entrancing natural freshness. For this san purpose the strawberry
 had been immediately preceded by the modest violet, taNen internally in the | form of violet tea and externally as a complexion lotion; at about the same
 tine occurred the vogue of an actual
 mixture Of roses and cream which was supposed to enoow the user with a real roses and cream complexion, together with the eIJtA'snce of the blue glass treatEept" which was much more c.rn- fortable and c'it2inly much less expan- sve All you ceeded in this case was a simple pan, Of blue glass which you suspended over Jour summer ham-n 'ok
 in such a fasbion that the sun coi!d only reach your ;soe through this beau titying medium. aken the world over
 each of these fa6s has had large army
 of followers. and the most beneficial or
 them has pro5atly been the dew hath.
 which at least e mpelled an early mo-n-
 ing walk in crder to find the necessary
 bunch of dewlaoCn grass in which ty
 give an anxious s01ntenance it's beau .'tr ing abluticn.
 In a period sometimes described as the age of invention. there are naturally
 many inventions that never come off and
 seem made only to afford amusement for the patent office; such, for example, as that of the man who soberly proposes to run an endless cable from New York
 to Ireland and dilates upon all It's prob able advantages without considering that
 he would first have to invent stout
 enough cable and then find way of
 supporting 1t. Such an absurdity is typi-
 cal of many other schemes from which
 the inventtr IS hope to make good-sized
 fortunes.
 One of the most amusing recent inven-
 tons of this kind was a pair of boots
 which the inventor proudly declared
 would undoubtedly put all other footwear
 immediately out of the market. The
 boots were to be made of iron, with
 box in each sole; into these boxes the
 happy owner was intended to put hot
 charcoal in winter and cracked ice in
 summer thus making him impervious to
 all unlSndly conditions of temperature.
 The boots. howver, would have weighed
 five pounds apiece, to say nothing of the
 ice or charcoal. Another inventor is on
 record as having fruitlessly expended his
 time on the evolution of summer hat
 that contained space for a miniature ice
 
 a combination hat and mackintosh. The
 hat in this case was made of thin iron
 and around the brim was roll of mack
 lntosh which worked on the same prin-
 ciple as roller curtain. When it be-
 gan to rain the wearer touched spring | end his mackintosh descended about Linn. What the inventor had neglected.
 aside from the ridiculous appearance of his proposed iron headgear, was a place for the wearer to look out through after his waterproof had descended.
 The highest distinction that can be won by the Japanese soldier on the field of
 battle is d small gilt-edged oval decora- ton of green enamel upon which is a small golden kite surmounting crossed swords. The medal, known as the Dis tinguished Service Order of the Green
 Kite corresponds to the Victoria Cross in the British army and is naturally a highly coveted honor. There are sev- eral different classes of the order. each representing some braver act on the part of the soldier who receives 1t. The re- cipient mor ,over, is usually raised to the peerage if he is not already there before winning the decoration, and it sometimes | includes also a substantial pension. ---s>---------