Evening star., 1914-06-07

pose your teacher would say to you:
How old are youa' Do you suppose you
would answer: If | We're ten times as
old as I am diminished by forty-two l
would be thirty years older than my uau, az,
and il dad were ten times as old as ms
father. divided by one-third of my moen-
er's age which Is constant and has never
changed in twenty years. the result Wouio
be three times as old as / am!
This had its effect upon John He de.
cided to find out what those practical
problems were that his father studied
when a boy He went to the library and
dug out relic Of dads day IN school IN
the shape of richards Natural Arithme-
tic. lie turned to the page marked
Practical Exercises and read thereon
this marvel of practical questioning:
"A man puts his whole flock of sheep
into three pastures: half 20 into one
pacture; one-third into another and thir-
ty-two into third. How many IN the
flock?
cal exercises too. Here Is a man who
wants TO know how many sheep he has.
He counts them all first SO he will be
able to get half of them. This half he
out Il third and pens them up. Next he
counts what's left and finds he has thir-
ty-two. After little figuring he finds
out how many he has altogether. How
study in that book.
The next book John looked over was
Milne's 1nductive Arithmetic. 1t was in
use in 1879. John looked over the prac-
teal examples. and found this one:
Two ladders viii together reach the
top OF building seventy-five feA high
II the shorter ladder is two-thirds the
length Of the other. what is the length
of each"
John wondered why old man Milne
didn't measure each ladder separately
He said he guessed his father must have
studied some book even older than Milne
50 the librarian handed him volume
printed in 1865. 1t was influenced by the
civil war. for in it John found this gem:
pounders, can batter down a wall in
three hours. how long will it take for
nineteen twenty-four-pounders to batter
down the same fortress?''
"A nne problem for a general. remark
ed John, gimme more practical one
He round another problem. same date.
II was the famous fish problem which
has worried a lot of schooIboys:
The head of fish is ten inches long
It's tail is as long as its head and one
hals the body. The body is as long
as the head and tail both. How long
IS the fish,
Something for Jonah 10 WORRY ahout
maybe.
John picked up the Common School
Arithmetic OF 1883. and found this one:
"A hare starts up IL rods before
hound but It is not perceived by him
until she has been up one and one-fourth
minutes She runs at the rate of SO rods
minute and the hound runs at the
rate OF 20 rods minute. How long will
the race last. and what will be the dis
tance the hound runs"
Il never did care for hare and hounds"
said John. as he picked up THE Scholars
Arithmetic" OF 1857. The first problem
he saw would be entirely out OF the ques-
ton at present-day cost-of-Hvfng prices:
.If I give 81 bushels of potatoes at 81
cents bushei and 240 pounds of fax at
u cents q pound for 81 bushels Of salt
what is the salt worth per bushel?'
And the final one nearly caused John
to faint:
"A good man driving his geese to mar
ket was met by another who said: Good
MORROW. master. with your 100 geese
Says he in reply: I have not 100 geese.
but II had half many as l now
have and c12 geese besides the number I
now have already l should have 100
geese. How many geese had the man.
How long would You permit man to
live who talked to yoa like that:
SO don't let any one prate to You about
ti:s practical problems of the old-time
school days.
And now we must turn our attention TO
Repr presentative --Gussie' Gardner OF Mas
sachusetts. Han him. oh ye rhetoricians,
for he has saved the democratic party
from disgrace in New England. and has
placed the split infinitive under his feet
and trampled ii down forever
II had been a stern day in the House
of Representa- tves. Republicans had
storned the citadel held by Representa-
tive Edwin Yates Webb of North Caro-
ciary committee. and had failed to make