Gunnison news-champion., 1921-04-29
CHAPTER rL
IN, s-7.rrrrg o. me End.


9 r~n a..-n as'a '.ar -ITFuns-"
1tat a. aW.orso~ Edwin inter
r.-.rl
G-ars.- g. s-i AZ hlm Kindly
: IN. s.I cannot count beyond
t.l 90 a.. 'ru sou. Hold up your
o.. sa.!a Da both Of them YOU have
O -.''ar ton fingers and thumbs.
Nr-g a.' ! nov take this grain Of
sand go1 hold Il. Hoo-Hoo" He
dropped the Fraiu or sand into tho
] ts palm and vent on "Sow tha,
T-al- ~ aanf stands for the ten
f-.n,s q Edwin. add another
60 p That's ten more fingers And
att another. another, and another.
lI'. have added as many grains
a. F-nin has fingers and thumbs
THAI rtfos what ! call one hundred
I'w"whar that word-one hundred.
No7 Tut this pebble I'm HareLips
hand. Il stands for ten grains Of
sand OF ten tens OF fingers. or one
hundred fingers put this pebble in
Iar"laps hand II stands for ten
grains Take a mussel shell. and II
dred grains Of sand, or one thousand
fingers.
And 80 on labo1ousIy. and with
much roit"ra,lon. hs Etroye TO build
up in their minds crude conception
OF numbers As the quantities in
creased hr bad the boys holding dIf.
f"rrHt mHEuI'ud"s in each OF their
hands For atIIl higher sums. he laid
n" symbols on the log Of drlftwood:
nni Tor gym bols he was hard put. be-
ing compelled TO use tho teeth from
tho skull FOR millions. and the crab
shells 'or billions It was here that
he stopped. for the boys we're show
inE signs ~ becoming tired.
There were four million people In
San FranclEco-'uur teeth"
Tho boys eyes ranged along from
the teeth and from hand TO hand,
down through tho pebbles and sand
grains to Edwin's fingers. And back
Ralln they ranged along the ascend.
ing series in the effort to grasp such
inconcelyablc numbers
That was lot OF folks, Granser,"
Edwin AT 'as' hazardcd
Like Sand on the beach here. Ike
saHd on th" beach. each grain Of sand
n man. or woman. or child Yes, my
boy. all those people lived right here
or another all those people came out
on this very bcach-more people than
there are grains OF sand More
more-more. And San Francisco was
n noble city. And across the bay
where VIC camped last year. even
more people lived. clear from Point
Richmond. on the level ground and
on the hills. all the way around TO
San Leandro-one great city OF seven
million people Seven teeth
there. that's II. seven millions"
Again the boys eyes ranged up and
down from Edwin's fingers to the teeth
on the log.
"The world was full OF people. Tno
census OF 2o1O gave eight billion for
the whole world-elght crab shells
yes, eight billions. It was not like to-
day. Mankind knew a great deal more
about getting food. And the moro
food there was. the more people there
were In tho year 1900. there were
OF sand. HooHoo-one hundred and
seventy millions In Europe alone. Ono
hundred years later--a grain OF sand.
Hoo-Hoo-one hundred years later, In
1900. there were five hundred millions
in Europe-nye grains OF sand, Hoo
Hoo. and this one tooth. This shows
how easy was the getting OF food,
year 1000. there were fifteen hundred
millions in Europe, And II was the
same all over the rest OF the world
Eight crab shells there, yes. eight bill
lion people were alive on the earth
when the Scarlet Death began.
Il was young man when the
Plague came-twenty.se years old:
and lived on the other side of San
Francisco bay. in Berkeley. You re-
member those stone houses, Edwin,
when we came down the hills from
Contra Costa? That was where
lived. in those stone houses. was q
professor OF English literature"
Much OF this was over the heads
OF the boys, but they strove to COM
prehend dinly this tale Of the past.
What was them stone houses for?"
Hare-Lip queried
"You remember when your dad
taught you to swim7" The boy nod.
ded. We'll. in the University Of Cali
fornia-that is the name we had for
the houses-we taught young men
and women how to think. just as I
have taught you now. by sand and peb-
bles and shells, to know how many
people lived in those days. There
was very much to teach. The young
men and women we taught were called
students. We had large rooms In
which we taught talked to them.
forty or nifty at q time. Just as am
talking to you now. I told them about
the books other men had written b.
fore their dino. and even. sometimes.
In their time"