The Washington times., 1920-04-04

Her mother had fed her on
camels milk, stuffed her with it.
Hottentot mothers stuff their
young daughters as Strasburg
farmers stuff geese, then the moth
ers marry them off at their fat
test. The proudest bridegroom
has the fattest bride. Our girls
starve themselves, and freeze
themselves.
A Persian ruler would give a
big slice of his territory with
thousands of inhabitants, if Eng
land would let him, in return for
big yellow diamond to stick in
his headgear. A first-class Cir
cassian beauty would bring her
weight in solid silver at Con-
stantinople, when the Turks had
money, and might now, il England
would let them buy and sell ladies
openly.
The Chinese amateur will pay
an extravagant price for vase OF
a peculiar pink shade, like peach
blossom; then sit and look at it
for hours. You might not give 30
cents for it, unless somebody hap
pened to tell you what it was.
At one time, in Holland, black
poppy bulb was worth a fortune,
although that flower is much more
beautiful and interesting with the
many marvellous colors that the
sun lends to it.
Here you pay dollar or more
in winter for twelve eggs and con-
sole yourself with the thought that
they are, perhaps, absolutely fresh.
The Chinese mandarin will pay
ten times the price for eggs fifty
or more years 1pld, and consider
them : great delicacy.
In the intestinss of the sperma-
cetd whale, that carries the big
reservoir Of valuable fat in its
head, are found occasionally humps
of an1bergris, "a substance dis
agreeably connected with the BIZ
3afve1OiHrat6e. He who finds
great lump of this absolutely
worthless material in the inside OF
q whale or washed up on the shore
has FOUND fortune. s.
The ignorant in the East attacn
great importance to it for use in
medicine. Westerners use 1t in
preparing perfumery. Some have
used It In flayoring food. Macau.
Law tells you in his History. OF
England" that the favorite dish OF
Charles the Second was eggs and
ambergris..
Many in this country support
themselves by digging ginseng
root. It is sent to the Chinese,
who pay extravagant prices for 1t,
considering it the most valuable
medicinal remedy in the world. To
us it is absolutely useless. Per-
haps it's aromatic, stimulating
properties help defend the Chinese
against germs with which their in
sides are afflicted, thanks to lack
of plumbing and decent sewerage.
We laugh at the Chinese who sets
such value on ginseng or on eggs
older than himself.
What about the American who,
having five or ten millions more
than he can spend sanely, works
himself to death trying to get
five or ten millions more?
When you have enough, gold is
worth even less than ginseng. On
a desert island, you might keep
alive chewing a ginseng root. 1t
would do you no good to chew
gold.
When Macbeth made his second
visit to the witches, they put into
their hell broth, among other
things, the following:
Baboons' blood, fillet of a fenny
snake, eye of newt and toe of
frog, wool of bat and tongue Of
dog, adder's fork and blind worms
sting, lizards leg and howlet's
wing.
AS late as Shakespeare's day
many would have paid huge sums
for such ingredients, in witch
broth to make power for them
selves or trouble for others. They
would have paid even more il they
could have added, as Shakespeare
does, a witches mummy, nav and
gulf of the ravin'd salt sea shark,
and especially the nose Of Turk
and Tartar's lips" and Finger of
birth-strangled babe"
We of today know that there is
not any special power in all that
mixture. We would not pay 10
cents for it.
But many Of us are paying
many times 10 cents to well-mean-
ing doctors for mixtures not more
valuable, some Of them much more
harmful.
We know more than we used to.
Thousands of years ago in Rome,
on a high hill, they erected a tenn
ple to fever, with complimentary
words on the front Of it, and spent
money trying 70 placate the evil
power, FEVER, that killed so
many through the centuries.
The other day, a few scientific