The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-02-04

And was chockful of knowledge
as on TO an that happened since the uni
She could hand you metaphysics,
Greek and Latin and quizzics
Until across your countenance the perspi-
ration ran.
And of matter. knew the whyance
she couldn't hold a can
DIE, for with all her yearning
As well as all her learning,
Ihere was nothing in her culture which
would help her catch man.
Novel Burglar Alarm.
a great many persons have planned
dlHerent sorts of receptions for burg
lars, but no one had ever given con-
slderatlon to the musical sense of that
fraternity until c. r. I1erch, of Winth-
rop street, Brooklyn, arranged a Tyre
SNAPPED harp upon his door to serve the
double purpose of welcoming friends
with harmonious sounds and provid-
ing an agreeable surprise to burglars
When burglar opens the door the
same musical tones which greet him
acquaint his intended victims with his
presence before he has had even time
70 think of spoons. The harp will
v1brate loudly enough to awaken any
sleeper of the average sort. OF course,
there are sleepers who never blink an
eyelid at the most resounding nocturnal
noises. Such sleepers would need the
report OF a cannon to awaken them to
the tact thar burglars were appraising
their jewelry and biting their silver to
learn whether or not it was plated. The
ordinary person, however, whose nerves
respond more or less to unusual
sounds in the night, will Immediately
awaken at the vibration Of the harp
burglar alarm and secure the neces-
sary weapons to welcome the uninvi-
ted guest should he fail to take the
musical hint given upon the threshold
of tho house and leave for more silent
domains.
The cadences of the harp are much
more resouudtng whsr it is strung
with piano wires. These keep in tune
and require less tightening up than do
mandolin wires, which are also used
for this instrument.
Mr.. Lerch's musical burglar alarm
has a sounding board made of white
mahogany, and curved sides of cypress,
to the upper ends Of which are attach
ed small ornaments carved in the
shape of harps. It is strung with
mandolin or piano wires and has a key
which will tune it up to an octave To
the cross-bar at the top Of this Tyre
shaped instrument are attached silken
strings of different lengths, weighted
with metal balls a little larger than
marbles. The sti lngs are SO arranged
that the slightest movement of the door
will set the balls to vibrating against
the wires in a pleasant concord Of
sweet sounds The vibration will con-
tinue for 80 seconds, when the musical
chords will softly die away into ST.
lence.
Visitors are inspired with a pleasur-
able feeling when greeted at the door
by weirdly sweet sounds, the source
Of which they do not always see. The
burglar, on the contrary. nonplused.
He does not know what the sounds
mean-whether they Will increase or
diminish in volume. nor whether they
serve as a gentle hint that trap has
been sprung or something more violent
placed near at hand for his entertain
ment He seldom feels encouraged to
investigate, especially as he knows
that only an unusually sound sleeper,
or a deaf person, could continue to
slumber after the harp had begun to
play.-New York Tribune.
Warning to Trolley Car Drivers.
Every time we went into Damascus,
whether from our tents on the ter
race above an ancient and dilapidat-
tiled rooms in the good Hotel d.
Orient, to which we had been driven
by a plague of sand flies in the camp,
we stepped at once into chapter OF
the Arabian Nights Entertainments.
It is true there were electric lights
around the city, but they no more
made it western and modern than a
bead necklace would change the
character of the Venus of Milo. The
driver of the trolley car looked like
one of 1.-THE Three Calendars" and a
blew loudly on an instrument of dis
cord as the machine TRANQUILITY ad-
vanced through the crowd. A man
was run over a few months ago; his
friends waited for the car to come
around the next day, pulled the driv-
er from his perch and stuck a num-
Der of long knives through him in
truly oriental manner.-Henry Van
Dyke, in Harper's Magazine.
Every Mirror Poisons Somebody.
Every mirror is made at the cost of
human suffering and poisoning. The
silvering of the glass by applying a
involves so much risk Of poisoning the
work people constantly breathing the
mercury vapor that numerous attempts
have been made to use another metal
big that a fine adherent deposit Of
metallic silver could be applied to glass
by reducing a. solution of a silver salt
with milk sugar, SO this method has
been employed as commercial pro-
cess. There have been partly success
full attempts to get a like deposit OF
copper. The mirror often lacks bril-
lance, and is usually disfgured with
stains But it has been found. by 3.
D. Chattaway, Of England, that solu-
tions of copper salts can produce bril-
liant reddish films of metallic copper
which are as perfect reflectors as silver
mirrors. His method of coating glass
with a layer of copper, 1t Is thought,
viii probably be used extensively in
making mirrors and other glassware
articIes-Chicago Tribune.
Dough.
Dough is made out of wheat, real
estate, oil, literature and magazine ar
ticles But dough made of wheat Is no
stickier than any other.
na,rl, ic tho prior fact to bread. mo-