Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1917-11-10

fishes, insects, mollusks. radiate.
and animalculae, they all have theiI
little ruses to assist them in their ap-
pointed tasks, and most of them are
wonderfully effective.
AS for the plants, they were de-
ceivers ever. Their "camouflage" is
brilliant color and enticing perfume
and they cajole the bees and the
birds and the butterflies into serving
them: while the devices they employ
for self protection and for supplying
themselves with food are legion.
The most edible mushrooms so
strongly resemble the deadliest of
the toadstools that it takes an expert
10 tell them apart. The traps that
certain varieties of the pitcher plant
lay to catch insects are as cunning as
anything that the most diabolical
imagination could invent.
The Ostrich Has Human Prototypes.
The fox is an adept at trickery.
The opossum will sham death per-
fectly until he. gets a chance to bite
YOU. Nature is an artist; her cam
outage" is always effective with one
exception, the ostrich. Its idea of
creating the illusion of invisibility is
to bury its silly head in the sand, and
leave its great, feathered body stand
ing out against the horizon. 1t has
many human prototypes.
Camouflage. Camouflage. This
word, which is on everybody's
tongue, supplies a long-felt want 1t
does not signify crude deception. nor
brazen bluff, but the creation of a
delicate and artistic illusion to mask
certain stark and disagreeable facts.
/ met pretty actress on the street
but yeserday. She looked like the
NJ
lions, so simple and vet so exquisite
~ gowned. Hat, frock, shoes, gloves.
furs, all perfect.
My word!" I exclaimed. Uncle
in Australia must have died and
left YOU a hundred thousand pounds"
It's my camouiage," she said.
I'm at liberty my dear. and MAX
ing the round of the managers. I've
got to show that know good clothes
and how to wear them
l admired a very beautiful and un-
usual screen which adorns a corner
in the workshop of a friend.
"Camoufiage." she laughed, and.
moving it aside, showed me an inn
provised kitchenette and shelves of
dishes.
Camoufiage Needed in Love and War
In both love and war camouflage
Is indispensable. 1t is as necessary
to the one as to the other. Its inn
portance in the present war is shown
by the fact that the government is
enllsting a company of clever artists
and stage directors, whose sole duty
will be to deceive the enemy by
painting cannon to represent fallen
logs, and by masking n hidden bat
terry or the passage of troops with
canvas scenery cunningly devised to
present the continuation of a street
or road.
All pose is in a way a camoufiage.
And each profession or calling has
its settled, accepted pose. 1t is an
amusing game to sit in an assembly
of people and guess at the occupa-
tons of those around you from their
appearance and manner. The man
ner of the doctor is either suave and
sympathetic or brusque and rather
severe. The banker is frigid and
somewhat repellant. And the clergy
man is either unctuous and benign
or austere and ascetic.
The amenities of life are just 'as
necessary as its stark sincerities.
And life would be a graceless thing
indeed if it were not for it's camou-
! flage. Its charming illusions cannot
be sufficiently eXtolled: but they
should never be confused with crude
and stupid deception.
We Cannot Improve on Nature
The people who use camoutfage
recklessly are the ones who imagine
they can fool all of the people all
the time. The pigmy who manages
/ to gain possession of the giants robe
and fancies he can deceive the world
| into taking him for the giant, the
donkey masquerading in the lions
skin and dreaming that his bray will
! not betray him, are excellent exam
| Piles.
They belong with the small boy
who, having been forbidden to 60
| swimming, comes home with a tell
! tale wet head and a story of having
| been thrust under the pump by GER
tain evil companions.
! In the matter of camouhage we
| cannot improve upon nature. She
| is past mistress of ii. Having in
vented our necessary but unlovely
| skeletons, she Immediately distract
ed attention from them with the
J camouflage of flesh. Is there a blanl
wall, an unsigbtly ruin-she wreathe!
them with vines. Is there a wilder.
ness-she makes it to blossom like
| the rose. Even the desert she in
vests with the glamour of atmosphere
and wonderful color.
Camoufiage is the caper sauce OF
| the custard pie, the sugar coating OF
the pill, the handwich boards of illu-
sion on the ugly facts of life.