The Washington herald., 1920-04-04


istence during the war. are now
after Mr. Indians trade.
Instead OF the neat typewriter
daily reports. suppose your secre-
tary left her tatting on your desk
some morning. The Incas ran their
empire with string records. You
can see the famous "Quipu" in Lii
mas historical museum. along with
the bathtub of one of the presidents
or in the Museum of Natural His
tory, in New York. without the
bathtub. "Quipu" means knot"
end in the absence of a system of
writing the Incas kept decimal rec
ords of their births, deaths, crops,
tribute and other vital statistics by
means Of strings of different colors
and lengths. Statistics played an
important part in the Inca empire,
because there was no money, and
everything went into imperial ware
houses, to be distributed to the peo-
pie according to their needs-food.
fibers, clothing, weapons and so
forth. In addition to the people,
there were the aristocrats, the
priesthood and the army to be
taken care of, each with it's separ-
ate accounts. Instead of having
detailed. smooth working cost sys-
tenn, the 1ncas had just the reverse
"a distribution system for food,
clothing and other necessities
which, taking little account of the
cost, parceled out the stuff where it
was needed.
Thought King BSilnghter.
A 7-year-old, born in Peru, but
of British parentage. was taken in
to the English Club, at Callao. His
eye caught a large portrait of King
George. Evidently he had never
seen the monarch before. The royal
uniform, medals and sword made a
great impression. Then, with q
child's knack of applying what he
knows to what is new. he cried:
''Oh, see the bullfghter!"
In less than a month of demon
stration flying, an American aviator
aroused a tremendous interest in
Lima, using a Curtiss biplane. 1t
was a buying interest, for various
organizations such as the associa-
ton of electrical employees in Lima
subscribed money to purchase Cur
tiss machines to be given to the
government. The presentation GER
emonies in such cases are very i'm
pressive, the machines being blessed
before use by the archbishop of Pc
ru. Then, in January, a French
aviation mission to Peru arrived on
the ground, and still greater in
terest doomed up. But, unfortunate
ly, the first French flight resulted
in a disaster. The machine was pi-
loted by Col. Du Beaudiez, who had
been a prisoner in Germany most
of the war and who was believed to
be insufficiently at home in the con-
troll of later machines. 1t tumbled
at height of less than 100 feet and
both occupants were killed. This
tragedy threw the city into the
deepest gloom. Interest in aviation
turned into fear. BY way of dem
onstrating that the French accident
had been due to lack of skill, the
American aviator, Walter Peck,
kept right on flying. and extended
his program. On the day the French
aviators were buried he few over
the city, following the custom de-
veloped during the war. and sew
eral days after started a series of
air raids to interior places, which
not only demonstrated 'the safety
of sane flying, but gave new audi
ences their first chance to see air.
craft and air stunts. This sensible
policy Is rapidly restoring Peru
vian public confidence in aviation.
There are probably far fewer Eng
lish-speaking visitors in Lima than
Spanish-speaking visitors to the ho-
tel and theater district of New York.
1t Is exceptional to find anybody in
New York's business center who can,
off-hand, answer% q question In