The Bemidji daily pioneer. [volume] (Bemidji, Minn.) 1904-1971, 1914-01-12
Is Continually Sending Out It's
Agents To Find Out More About
The Wonders Of The World
MAKE ANCIENT DISCOVERIES
Rev. James Baikie Says That Women
Of Cretan Wore Gowns Much Like
Those of Today, Writes Story
By Robert F. Wilson.

washington, January l2-Wh0
says the spirit of romance and adven-
ture is dead? Consider the growth
Of the National Geographic Society,
one of the Institutions of which the
city of Washington is most proud,
for it's headquarters are here. But its
membership is scattered throughout
the United States and it includes mil
lionaries and bookkeepers, savants
and baseball fans, explorers and shoe
clerks nearly a half million Of Thea
and apparently going up to the mil
lion mark.
1t is the most democratic of Amer
lean scientific societies because it
deals with the most popular Of sci
ences-geography, the knowledge Of
the earth we live on, and especially
the knowledge of it's most inaccess-
BILE and curious corners. That is one
reason for the society's popularity.
The other is that it invites the entire
nation to join with it.
We are glad to give this publicity
and advertising to the National Geo.
grahic Society, because it is an Or
ganization to make it's members
think, and the more thinking people
there are in the United States the
better it is for the nation. There
is no more profitable subject of
thought than the physical character
istics of the land the customs of the
peoples of the world.
The society is continually sending
out its agents to find out more about
our world. 1t is equipping polar ex-
petitions, and outfitting adventures
who will discover new tribes in the
interior of the Thibet or name new
glaciers in Alaska. And every man,
no matter how humdrum his expert
ence, can share at least second hand
ed in these adventures by becoming
a member of the society in whose
name the explorers risk their lives
Not only the present-day earth but
the ancient world engages the atteu-
ton Of the society's explorers. Rev.
James Baikie has been puttering
around the ancient dump heaps Of
the island Of Crete, and he has come
to the conclusion that there existed
in this island a thousand years be-
fore the Phoenicans swept the seas
with their galleys (and to the Phoen-
leans is attributed the discovery Of
written language) "a civilization
which outranked in some particulars
anything which has followed except
the civilization of our own day. DR..
Balkie has found the ancient temple
of the tabled Minotaur, and from the
frescoes of this archaic ruin he has
made some remarkable discoveries.
One of these is that the Cretan wo-
men wore gowns which closely re-
sembled the 10th Century creations
turned out from the most fashionable
establishments of Paris and New
York. He tells about it in the cur
rent issue Of the Society's Magazine.
"In their very low-necked dresses,
with puffed sleeves, excessively slen-
der waists, and flounced skirts, and
. their hair deliberately dressed and
curled, they might have stepped out
Of a modern fashion plate" he
wrote. The dresses, he says, were
"wasp-waisted as to suggest univer-
sal tight-lacing. From the broad
belt hung down bell-shaped skirts.
In some cases the skirt, below a
small panier, is composed Of different
colored materials resembling tartan. :"
Verify, as Solomon said, there is
no new thing under the sun.