Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1921-10-21
Rv WILLIAM ATHERTON Du PUY


HAD always thought that chemistry was
i frightfully dry subject, but here
was this chief of the Chemical Warfare
Service. this Brigadier General Amos, A.
Fries, showing us through the great plant
at Edgewood Arsenal and making it almost
romantic. -, -
make technical mistakes in the reporting
they are mine and not his--is the Cupid or
chemistry. It is the matchmaker. 1t brings
about unions that would not otherwise
occur. vet does not enter into those UNIONS.
is unaffected by them. 1t is just IKE CUPID.
Take chlorine. for instance, and carbon
monoxide, two gases. Put them together
and they will not unite. Put them in the
sun and they will. The sun is the catalyst.
Charcoal will get the same result. 1t does
not enter into the combination, but 1t gets
action.
The substance resulting is called phosgene:
and if you take that word apart you will
find that it means born in the sun 1t
was one of the strafers during the war. And
yet didn't know there was romance in
chemistry
And this terrible mustard gas! Do you
know what it is made Of?
Table salt and alcohol with a little sui
phur stirred in.
You break table salt up into its two
parts, chlorine. gas; and sodium; when
is I've, and throw the lye away. Then you
change alcohol into gas. And you put the
two gases together and run them through
hot sulphur. There you have it-mustard
gas. the great man killer.
But they put lot of detail in just to
make it hard
The atmosphere Of secrecy which sur
rounded the deliberations of President
Wilson's Cabinet during the war was so
thick that it might have been chopped up and
stored for diplomatic use.
of m 81 a.
BY It, but likewise inclined to see the humor
Of the situation and to philosophize about it.
"A secret is n bit Of vexatious thing TO
have about" he remarked to his official
family one day. "If you keep it, you lose
your interest, and if you tell it, you lose
your principle
DR. Alexander Graham Bell, inventor Of
the telephone. carries on many interesting
| experiments in his home. People have 4
way Of gathering there and discussing sub
| jeCts and comparing novel ideas.
One night DR.. Bell filled glass Of water
| as full as 1t could be filled without running
over. Then he and his guests began Drop
ping pins into il. They dropped dozens of
them and still 1t didn't run over. They sent
for more pins and put them in and still 1t
didn't spill. All the pins in the house were
| dropped in one at a time until over 700
of them had entered the water.
They had to quit because the pins ran out
Maybe it would have held all the pins In
the world. ] don't know. You can try It
il you want to.
DR.. Lewis +. van Norman, trade com.
missioner from this country in Rumania
and Bulgaria, went to Paris years ago to
report the Dreyfus trial and wrote a piece
about it in which he set down the facts as
they were revealed years later when they
resulted in the pardon of that officer.
Calvin b. Brown. Of the Chamber OF
Commerce of the United States is a man
with a unique profession. He is styled a
doctor of sick towns He goes about
from place TO place inquiring into the con
ditons of towns and prescribing for then
when they are ailing.
"Uncle Joe" Cannon, inextricably asSo
ciatcd in the public mind with Il long, black
rakishly tilted cigar, has sworn off from th
weed at the age Of eighty six thus demon
strating the possibility Of reform even though
the span of years Is long.
Former Senator Albert Jeremiah Bever
idge. of Indiana, who IL training for come
back to that post. used, in his youth, t
work by the day rs mule skinner.
Thomas Mcllard, an American one tim
war correspondent, who was unofficial ad
wiser to the Chinese at Paris and will oc
cupy similar position ut the forthcomn
conference on Pacific problems, is reputed t
have been the first man in the United State
to wear canvas shoes. He was Bea
Rrummel out st. Louis way, and this ar
ticc Of apparel was his speciality.
.
Howard Chandler Christy the artist, wen
down TO Atlantic City not long ago to nc
as Judge in II beauty contest staged at tina
resort
1T has been my fate" he said, "to liv
constantly in an atmosphere of beautifr
women, Mrs. Christy, Of course. occuple
an admitted place In that classification, s
have the atmosphere at home. In my stu
| do I have constantly before me the mos