The Dickinson press., 1912-10-19
WRITES AGAIN 49,.
Ct new YORK SIGHTS
New York. Sept. 70. 1912.

short stay in New York that may be of
slight interest to my North Dakota
reeders. Monday afternoon l visited
the American Museum of Natural His
tLry. Museums used to be u%ninterest-
ing or if interesting, only negatively
{. This museum is becoming modern
lied and portions of it have. definite
human interest 10 normal uman be-
inGs. There are various reasons for this
change. a discussion of which would not
increase the interest of this letter. 1
will endeavor to tell about interesting
things. as they struck me.
A feature was a calendar and alma
nae in graphic form. A large globe.
with the proper inclination of the orbit
was slowly (every "a hours) revolving
upon its axis and more slowly (every
365 days. travelling in an orbit. From
the cente. of the orbit a light was
directed upon the earth showing the
progress of day and night.
Down stairs was the seismograph,
the earthquake machine. waited a
while for n to take place but finally
gave it up in despair. It was very I'M
accommodating. indeed the museum
authorities should see to it that earth
quakes are provided for their patrons.
The American Museum has taken an
active interest in the p airy explora-
tions and largely in consequence of
this, no doubt. the Eskimo exhibits
are large and comprehensive. Very
many of the exhibits showed wax fig
ures of the inhabitants life like in
character and size, carrying on their
daily occupations. 1t seems quite real
| to see before one some of natives dress
ed in their furs, apparently mending
their actual sleds to which are attach
ed the real (stuffed) Eskimo dogs. The
ground and back ground looked quite
genuine snow but | would not guarantee
the actuality of that.
In the daily papers of that day one
saw that Prof. S~tefansson (have I spell.
ed it rightly had just returned from
the Parry Sound Land. where he had
been sent by this museum. with wonder
full tales of a new race of men. He
had discovered blond Eskimo with red
hair. The ordinary ones, as we know.
are dark and swarthy.. 1t is CO jectur-
ed, | believe. that the common Eskimo
are the remains of a very primitive race
that once occupied Europe ages ago.
far beyond history, before man had
emerged from the Stone Age.
There is one room devoted to inverte-
brate animals. The exhibits are only
partially prepared. but they are of in
terest, even as they are. Formerly this
section of the museum would exhibit a
few corals, some sponges, a few sea ur-
chins and that would be all. Nova
days things are different. An increas-
ed amount of money is one cause of the
change. In a small case devoted to
some of the p%rotazoans. 8 specimens
were mounted in good microscopes. The
market value of the micros, opes. in
this case was about $4OO. At least 3
of the microscopes were exhibiting the
slipper animalcule." a beautiful lit
tie animal, very abundant everywhere
in stagnant water. There were models
of some of the marine p%rotozoans first
animals.) showing a high degree of
cOmp1ovitu for &;DdIo col1o
The exhibit of Anopbeles (the mala-
ria mosquito) was of prime interest.
The good people Of North Dakota are not
troubled with malaria but they doubt
less have friends and relatives who are.
A malaria mosquito was shown life size
at least. 1t was about Is inches from
tip to tip" truly horrible in appear
'anee and like the bug in the City of
o." highly magni6ed. 1t must have
been from Jersey. The life history of
the malaria germ was shown graphical
ly by a series of wax models. The par
asite as it comes from the saliva of
the mosquito is long and slender. 1t
generates the human blood c~orpuscle
and so on from one stage to another,
through various chills and fevers until
finally it gets back into the moQuito.
One naturally hopes that the mosquito
suffers as much as the human. There
have been many reasons assigned for
the downfall of Rome. There were
many contributing factors. no doubt,
but at the present day authorities state
that the prevalence of malaria In
Italy was n of the most potent.
Thanks to modern science that need not
be a cause of the downfall of this coun.
try.
One exhibit showed evolution in act
ion. Some poor meadow mice were
seeking to get their honest living. but
they were hard beset. A snake was
crawling over the ground with one of
the mice in his mouth. Three owls
fall sfuffed1 Of variNna ~anecina wero