The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1907-10-09


we watched a neighbours chickens;
Took dog into our flat.
With dog and cat and parrot,
Canary. chickens, too,
We couldn't go away from home
We had to mind the zoo.
I have a most obliging wife,
My neighbors often say;
wonder who will mind their pets
If We should go away?
Detroit Free Press
Hero of the Life Saving Service.
Perhaps as remarkable as any is the
work done by Surfman Rasmus 5.
Midget of the Gull Shoal station near
storm OF August, 1900. The barken-
tine Priscilla of Baltimore, Nd, was
blown ashore in this terrific gale and
torn to pieces. Midget, nearly three
miles from the station on patrol, dis
covered people on part or the wreck
ed vessel, hundred yards from shore.
To return to the station and bring
help was useless, the wreck would be
gone by then. To try to effect a rescue
single handed seemed sheer suicide,
with the added terror of losing the only
chance to notify any one that nefp was
needed. But Midget, with no fear OF
consequences to himself. or no care Of
any II he had the fear, made up his
mind that If any rescuing was to be
done he would have to do IL. And he
did it. He rescued ten lives from GER
tain death! He would go INTO the
water. following receding wave, grab
a man and stagger to the shore. Sever,
trips he thus made, using every ounce
of strength he had fighting the water,
the wind, his own failing strength and
the thought of defeat, and emerging
victorious every time. But then came
the real test, three more men remain
ed upon the wreck, and these three
were helpless, wounded, bruised and
exhausted, unable to jump to his arms
nj To h TN rr-1
Straight down into the Jaws OF tina.
watery hell Midget went, pulled the
helpless logs of human beings from
their unsta BILE resting place and drag
ged them to dry land, alone, unaided.
What can any one say to such hero
ism as this? He was given a gold
medal by the secretary of the treas
ury, the country rang with his praises
MS comrades acclaimed, him as man.
Sfxty-hve dollars a month does not pay
for services like that; it hires a man
to become a life-saver, but the man
mood in the man Is what makes him
do his work as Midget did his.-C. H.
Claudy, in the World Today.
The Oldest City in the World.
In sand-swept belt OF Central Ba-
bylonta that country of ancient ruins
In region dangerous and deserted be-
cause far from water, and on the border
Of the territory of several hostile Arab
tribes, lies the low ruin of Bismya. Few
explorers have ever visited it, and those
few did so at the peril of their lives
DR.. Peters, of New York, while excavat-
ing at Nippur, discovered at Bismya
clay tablet Of an ancient date. German
are reported to have said that
the ruins originated with the civiliza-
ton of the Arabs. However, not only
the age of the ruins, but the name and
history of the ancient city Of which they
are composed, continued a mystery I'M
til recently. "a e7.--ft-- tp... .--
Christmas day. 1908. we began exca-
waiting at Bismya and the result was
the discovery Of the Oldest temple in the
world. The walls of the tower soon ap-
oeared; the summit was cleared, and the
first inscription discovered upon the
surface was a brick stamped with the
name OF Dungi of 2750 B. c. Just be-
heath it were other bricks bearing the |
lame of UrGur of $500 B. G.; little
over appeared a crumpled piece of gold
With the name of Naram Sin of 1850 B. |
=, and just below that level were the |
arge square bricks peculiar to Saragon !
II $500 B. c., probably the first of the !
semitic kings Of Babylonia. Although !
We had dug only meter and a half |
below the bricks of -Dungi, we had re- !
'ealed several strata extending over the |
period from 2750 B. c., or more than |
thousand years, and still eleven me- !
ers of earlier ruins lay beneath us. We |
lug lower; unknown types Of bricks ap-
feared. and two and a half meters from |
orm constructed of the peculiar plano
onvex bricks which were the building |
material of 1900 B. Cdr. Edgar J.
Banks. in Putnam's.
A Resourceful Legislator.