The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1908-08-18

ana airshins ruled the roost,
ms eranoson, Foxy in his day,
Just gave the shop boost
He floated it far DER the town
Wnere granddad went to church.
And now the income he drags down
/ Leaves granddad's in the lurch
| So high above the chestnut tree.
| The busy forge now flares:
Inc smith-ah! who so gay as he,
or who with fewer cares?
These airship cogs and shafts and such
Cost muckle. muckle gold,
for each fad finds the fixer's touch
More shameless than of old
Denver Republican.
| Deserters From the Navy.
| The navy has an excellent enlisted
personnel But 12s of the $4,000
5ackies on the Atlantic battleship feet
Were reported as absentees when it
1 leIt san Francisco bay. The navy Of
nclals believe that of this number.
constituting but / per cent of the
| Wnole. hardly more than one-fourth
were deserters. The record is crafty
ing, at time when assertions from
the army are numerous enough to
cripple whole companies and regi-
ments The annual applications for
naval enlistment have risen from 37,-
O43 in 1902 to 1851 in 1907, and the
number OF men annually enlisted from
1924 to 1899.
! Why should assertions from the
navy be 50 few? Sections 1896 and
1898 OF the federal revised statutes
provide that persons who have desert
ed, or shall hereafter desert. ''are
deemed to have voluntarily relinquish-
ed and forfeited their rights of citizen
ship as well as their rights to become
| citizens" and such deserters shall be
forever incapable Of holding any office
or trust or profit under the United
States or exercising any rights Of citi-
zenship thereof
This booming Of deserters to become
men without country applies equally
to the land and sea forces, and, while
1t Is thought by Secretary Metcalf to
be too harsh a punishment in time of
peace, IT can act as a deterrent to
sailors no more than to soldiers. More
| over, the law which provides for the
| arrest OF deserters and their delivery
into the custody Of the military auth
GRITTY" does not apply to the navy at
| all; sailors on shore leave at San
+, Francisco might have deserted in a
body, and no legal power could have
! to their ships. -.
l The greater popularity of naval ser
] vice, then, must be in the lure of the
sea-" in the anticipation OF visiting
many lands, peoples, and chimes, and
i, in the rivalry Of the ships and the SUI
i
the sailor is beset with no invidious
| comparisons of volunteer navy.
whereas the regular soldier is at a So
ciaI disadvantage with the popular
national volunteer troops.-New York
Times.
| Sitting Too Many Inches.
Nothing is more inclined to cause
| drowsiness or laziness than leaning
in comfort against the back of a
| chair. Very few people ''sit.'' The
vast majority recline. Their bodies
touch the chair all the way from the
shoulder blades down to the back OF
the knee, stretch Of about one yard.
Many muscles and nerves are de-
numbed by compression and some $50
square inches Of skin is rendered in
active. The spine becomes weakened
| by artificial support An excellent
preventive of this habit Of repose was
designed by a writer, one who had
suffered from inertia a number OF
years. His backbone was almost de-
void Of energy from the fourth cervi-
cal down to the tip of the coccyx, just
| from half reclining In the chair in
| which he worked.
One writer, resolved to rid himself
of the habit of leaning on his spine
nearly all of his working day, hung
on the back of his chair a strip OF
thick leather a foot wide, through
1
or less, and the points of these kept
him very much awake and most of the
time erect. His health has improved.
New York Press.
| For the Fat.
Fat hens, being wretched layers, are
| always sold OF by farmers.
The early Romans banished all USE
less persons, including the fat in this
category.
Ovid, in his "Art of Love-" says,
Keep ever slender and supple, for the
fat have no success with women"
| The Gentoo tribe enter their houses
by a hole in the roof Of a certain pre-
scribed size, and they who grow too
bulky to enter by this hole are slain as
useless and lazy.
| In England it was once the law to
put the fat to death: "Alle dronkittis,
fatt gluttonis, and consumers of Wit
sustentation Of men, were tame, and
! first commando to swelly their fouth
| Of guhat drink they pleasit, and in
continent thairafter was drounit in
ane fresche rever." -Minneapolis
Journal.
A Literary Prize of $500. 900.
A literary prize of unexampled mag
nitude, a prize Of $1.500.000. will be
open for competition in 1925 in Russia
| NJ Aranjayen deposited In 1883 the
sum of $4,000 rubles in the Imperial
bank at St. Petersburg. This money
by the terms Of his will. is to accum-
uiate until 1925, and then to be paid
out as n prize for the best history OF
the reign of Alexander Of Russia.
At its present rate of increase, the
deposit Of $4,000 rubles Will have In
creased to 81. 100000 by 1s25-Philadel-
phfa Bulletin.
QUAKER NEGOTIATIONS.