The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1909-05-21

On the parlor floor.
Oldest son a-bumming-
Hasn't any job
Oldest daughter summing
Studying the mob. ~
Other kids just roaming
Like a flock of sheep;
Pa comes home at cleaning,
Blues some six feet deep.
And when the polls are opened g
Oh, how the ballots sing!
But ma drops in at midnight
New York Times.
Gun to Destroy Airship.
A gun with a shell that viii de-
stroy war airships has been invented
BY Lewis Nixon. financier, shipbuild-
err and international authority on war
engines. He has worked on the shell
for a year, and has it sufficiently
near perfection to promise a public
demonstration at his Staten Island
shipyards within six weeks.
While he claims nothing new for
MS gun and carriage, Mr.. Nixon as
serfS the composition of the shell is
absolutely new and will positively de-
stroy any gas balloon, as well as aer-
oplanes. The shell is made in such a
way 1t can be used with any kind of
gun known in modern warfare. This
is a feature that the German inven-
tors Krupp and Erhardt have not yet
comprised.
necessary to use guns especially con-
structed for the purpose. In firing
at alrsh1ps and aeroplanes 1t is OBJ
vlouSly necessary to tilt the weapon
upward until it is nearly vertical. To
accomplish that the German gunmak-
ers have invented system of swivel
bearings which permit the operators
to turn their guns around rapidly
while in an upright position.
Nixon will have carriage almost
Gfv 4l4x L. ~.
is superior because the shell, which is
the most important part, can be fired
with good effect from any kind of
gun now in use. He declines to re-
veal the composition of his shell, be-
cause he is getting foreign patents
governments as well as with the Unit
ed States. But he admits the shell is
composed of wel1-known factors; he
has combined them in new way, that
Is all.
MY invention does not depend so
much on the carriage or the gun as
upon the shell ITSELF" said Mr.. Nixon
yesterday: cit will destroy any air.
ship. I have devised it particularly
for the destruction of dirigfble ball
looms. The difficulty with ordinary
guns in using them against this type
of aerial vessel lies in the fact that
even If you perforate the bag and
make an opening sufficient to let the
gas escape the ship can still sail on.
and come safely to the ground in its
own territory.
with the shell I have devised the
gas is exploded in. the envelope
through ignition, which is caused by
the solution in. the shell. This. OF
course, destroys the bag almost IN
stantly. But besides being useful In this
way against balloons the shell will be
effective in warfare against the aero
plane, which is not supported by gas
bag. It will cause quick ignition and
rapid destruetion.''-Ne York World
Curious Natural Deceptions.
Our senses deceive US curiously at
times A flash of lightning lights up
the ground for one-riillionth of a Sec
ond, yet it seems to last ever so much
longer.
remains IN the eye or the retina for
about ore-eighth of second, or 124.-
600 times as long as the flash lasts. If
on dark night a train speeding along
at so miles an hour is lit up by a
lightning flash, it appears stationary,
yet in the eighth of a second during
which we seem to see it the train
travels IL feet.
But we really only see 1t during one
millionth of a second, and in that time
it travels only one-hundredth of an
inch.
when a mans leg is cut off, if the
stump be irritated. he feels the pain in
his toes. This curious deception is the
same as any one can practice on him.
self by striking his elbow on the table,
when he feels the pain in his fingers.
OF course in both cases, the pain is
felt in the brain.
We do not actually perceive different
distances with the eye, but Judge them
from. various indications. When our
Judgment is at fault we are deceived.
70 fnv~ in
stance, he seems to be much bigger
than usual. The same thing happens
when you see men or cattle on the top
of a hill against the horizon In the
twilight. In both cases you judge
them to be farther away than they
really are, and consequently they ap-
pear uncommonly large--Tit-Bits.
~ Famous Golf Match.
The projected golf match between
two well known amateurs and lead
ing member of the London Stock Ex-
change for a stake OF $500 recalls the
famous foursome in which the Duke. of
York, afterward James II, took q
prominent part on the Leith links In
the year 1882. It was really an inter-
with Patersone, a golf1ng shoemaker Of
great repute, championed Scotland
against two noblemen of England, a
heavy wager depending on the issue.
The duke and the cobbler had an easy
victory, thanks largely to the man of
the last, and John Patersone's share of
the stakes was SO substantial that he
was able to build a goodly house in the
Canongate, in a wall of which the duke
caused a stone to be placed bearing the
Patersone arms and motto Far and
sure" tribute to the cobb1er's driving
powers. Patersone's house, we under
stand. survives today.-Westminster
Gazette.
Wine and Literature.
Eliminate wine from literature, and
what a gap is made! It figures in the
Scriptures; 1t is drunk at Homeric ban
DUETS; 1t bushes amorously in Anac-
reon; 1t makes philosophic appeal in
Horace; it compensates old Omar for
the sadness Of many an hour when the
wrangIing Of the sages was more con-
spicuous than the truth they unveiled.