davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Evening star., 1922-12-17
zee Believes Her Fate Depends on Increase Of Population

twenty are taken up by advertise
nlents sent in by the subscribers
/ Those who subscribe have the righ
to advertise for wives or husband
to the extent of fifteen words in eaci
issue while their subscription lasts
If they wish to use more space thel
pay cents for each additional word
The advertisements are numbered
and all correspondence goes or
through numbers. and not by names
the magazine being the mail box
The advertisements of the currem
issue run from 1000 TO 81. 900. from
which | judge some business is done
To show what the advertisements are
like, / shall translate several choser
at random:
."Colonels widow. without children
fifty, young in spirit, earning 23.0Ot
francs year, will have 100000
Would marry an honorable man ol
position and fortune
"Professor, twenty-eight. has three
adopted children. Would like To cor.
respond. with marriage in view. witt
person interested in pedagogy"
Young. nice girl, tall. brunette
serious. likes houscwork. Would
marry a serious. affectionate. hard
working man from twentynine &c
thirty five"
The articles in the magazine
many of which are by eminent writ
ers, relate to marriage in one form
or another, and to the necessity oi
increasing the French population.
(Carpenter's World Travels. Copyright. lS2.,
10y Frank q. Carpenter
Evening star., 1922-12-17

who had died for their country, and
all from one marriage. This man
and his wife have given this year
another 100000 to make 100 awards
of $1,000 each, the requirement be-
ing that each family receiving them
should have at least five children,
and that the parents should be under
thirty years of age.
There is 4 landlord here in Paris
who accepts only married couples
with children as tenants and s.yes
every mother who has a baby born
in his house the sum of 50, a chicken
and supply of coal for the winter.
There is another patriot in the de-
partment of Haute-Saone who re-
Gently called the married men of his
town together, promising each 20
francs for each child he had over
four. The mother had to bring out
the children and show that all were
her own. 1 am told that more than
100 mothers came forward to claim
the reward and that they had SIG
children.
There are several industrial asso-
Citations which are contributing to
increase the birth rate. One has a
fund that gives every married man
among its employees an average of
q francs a day in addition to his
wages and 2 francs a day for each
child. An association of linen manu-
facturers Is paying supplementary
wage of 240' francs per annum. or
about 81 a month. to families having
one child under thirteen years of
age, and IS a month to families hav-
ing two children. The extra wage
goes on increasing until it reaches
a maximum Of 1920 a year, where
there are seven children or more.
Since I came to France 1 have oc-
casionally bought some of the news
papers devoted to the increase of the
baby crop. One of these. entitled
Marriage" lies before me. 1t is is
sued twice q month. OF the shape
of the ordinary American magazine
it has forty pages, of which more than
Evening star., 1922-12-17

TO the editor: The season has
now came when us boys that
lives in northern climbs can't
enjoy ourself no more with COM
mon outdoor sports like golf. tennis.
uuoits. duck shooting and etc, on acct.
of the cold and of course they's great
many boys ard girls too that claims to be
crazy about ski jumping and ice skate
ing and the like but persoIly | think
this is just a pose and n specially in re-
CARDS to girls as I never seen one yet
that was not complaining about the
cold the minute old mercury drops be-
low the 20 mark particularly gals that
is 25 yrs. of age and up.
II you would leave it to the fare sex
the coal shortage would be even worse
than it is if any. because they would
keep the furnace running till the of
July and light it up again the l Of Aug.
and dureing those p days of no fur
mace fire they would not even set down
10 play the piano unlest they was hot
brick on all peddles.
But that is either here or there and
what I wanted to say was that great
many of my admires has wrote to me
for suggestions as to how to enjoy
themself in some kind of athaletic
sports between now and spring as their
doctors has told them that it amt
Evening star., 1922-12-17

NHE ghost that friShtens all
France is baby. Its first
name is Hans, and it is
marked Made in Germany"
There are more badies born over the
Rhine every year than in this land
of the Seine. and five times more
births than deaths.
Moreover, the French birth rate is
dropping. In the days of Napoleon
the number was four to the family.
1t is now two or less, and the million
and a half young men killed in the
war will make the babies still fewer.
AS it is now, there are nearly two
million families which have no chill
dren at all, three million which have
only one child. and two and half
million each of which has but two
children. The population of Germany
is increasing five times as fast. In
1872 France had about "|.1"e."iv ps"-
Pile, and in the fifty years since then
she has gained only 100000, while
Germany. starting with the popu a.
ton France has at present, has made
a gain of 5000. 900 souls, and that in
spite of her great emigration to
America and other parts of the world.
In the first half of last year the
births in France numbered only a
little over 400. 900. as against 1000. 900
for the year 1865. For a long time
the natural increase of the Germans
has been more than 100000 per an
mum. You may remember that Gen.
Won Moltke once said that the Ger
mans gained Il battle every year over
the French by the annual addition
to their population of loco. 000 souls.
y member of the French Institute
said not long ago that France is los
ing four army corps every fifteen
years.
These facts have stirred up the
French government. the captains OF
industry. the ihtellcctualS and even
The peasants Every on" over here is
bow planning new ways for saving
the babies ana increasing the crop.
Evening star., 1922-12-17

the many methods that have been
proposed or have been adopted to in
crease the population OF France. In
the first place. 1 would say that l do
not believe that the lack of babies
comes from natural causes or Latin
disease. The Latins. as a rule. have
fewer children than Anglo-Sa1ons,
but when the French came to Canada
they brought forth as many children
as the famous
Old woman that lived in q shoe.
Who had so many children she didn't know
what to do.
AS an illustration of the birth rate
of the French Canadians, the govern
ment of Quebec some years ago Of
fered 100 acres of land to every
father of a family having twelve or
more living children. On the day ap-
pointed more than 700 claimants came
forward to get the farms. AS to
celibacy among the Latins, the old
Romans had fines for bachelors and
other measures to increase marriage
Louis XIV and Napoleon both granted
special advantages to parents having
more than two children.
X X X
0NE of the great causes for the
" lack of babies in France today is
Evening star., 1922-12-17
Synthetic Sapphires.

CRYSTALLIZED alumina, or alumni
mum oxide. is a gem, more pre-
cious as the crystals are larger and
more perfect. Il goes under various
names according to the coloring mat
ter that is associated witn it: if Il
is red. il is ruby; IL blue. sap
phire: if purple. an oriental amethyst:
and so on. -Alumina is artificialll
crystallized. and artificial rubies have
been on the market for many years.
Their discoverer. A. Verneu'l, has
also devised a method for giving
the CRYSTALS a blue color and thus
making sapphires. 1t must be borne in
mind that these gems are not imita-
tions: they are real. and related IL
the natural gems as artificial ice is
to real ice. In other words, the dif-
ference between them is not one or
substance. but of methods. or rather
of circumstances of production. Deal
ers are of course anxious to discover
methods Of discriminating between
! the natural and artificial gems. as tn"
former are supposed to be more al
liable. They have been able TO do TINS
! with rubies, but the saphhires appear to
defy their art
The made sapphire surpa the
synthetic ruby in excellence. All or
dinary tests have been tried on the
synthetic stones without finding the
least difference between them and
natural sapphires. With a microscope
an expert can detect readily whether
a ruby is real or artificial by the diff
ference in the minute bubbles and
situations. In the synthetic sapphire
no such difference is found. The crys-
tallization seems to be just the same
in one as in the other. The artificial
ruby has sometimes what seems to be
layers Of dust, detracting from the
general silk-like effect, and these are
not to be noted in the synthetic sap
phire.
Evening star., 1922-12-17
LARDNER SUGGESTS WINTER SPORTS


when you do get it out nothing happens.
According to Ny. Morrison this mug
get was suspended down in the well
yrs. ago SO as 1t would cool of and
good beer was so common in them days
the proprietor went of and forgot 1t.
Any way Mr.. Morrison is trying to
organize the American Well Cleaners
Corporation to go. around winters
when they amt no threshing to do
and clean wells and not only will they
get plenty outdoor exercise but they
are libel any time to find pre-Volstead
beer basking in the wells to keep cool
which would be like locateing tre-
mendous gusher. But even If they
wasn't no beer the corporation might
pull up Vulnerable sticks Of gum put
down there to keep them preserved
because in the old days girls was
much more careless than they are
now. RING w. LARDNER.
Great Neck, Long Island. Dec. Is.
Evening star., 1922-12-17

! hand as long as she kept you dummy.
Well friends 1 been trying to think
up sports that would keep a man in
shape dureing what l often call the
! frigid spell and amongst other games
| have thought up the game of moveing
the furniture.
They amt no day dureing the yr. hot
or cold when your wife can't enjoy her
self and at the same time get exercise
moveing this chair over there and that
piano over here and she would enjoy
herself just the same il you was to join
in the game with her and just as often
as she moved them. why you step in
and move them back.
This game also entrails the element
of competition and argument without
which they amt no game complete.
X X
| A MOTHER game which 1 thought up
. n might well be dubbed jumping in
and out of the bath tub. The idear
of this game is to first fill the tub with
water so hot you can't hardly stand it
and them jump into it and jump out
| and you will find the air SO cool outside
that you will jump in again to get
warm and this keeps up till you have
| had plenty exercise and at the same
! time feel tepid to say nothing about
| haveing had a bath which amt nothing
! to be sneezed at even in the winter
| time.
| Only be sure and keep the stopper in
| so as to not carry the joke too far.
| But of course the real game for the
winter season is fishing through the ice.
The usual method of playing this game
| is to go out on some lake or ocean or
! river and set there in a boat freezing
to death and knock holes in the ice and
then push down a spear in the hopes Of
catching something.
| What you are mostly libel to catch is
| eels and the chief trouble with catching
| eels is that when you have got them
what of it.
| Or if you amt lucky enough to catch
eel you might probably spear a ice
skater that fell through several yrs. ago
and to find him now just means trouble.
The kind of fishing through the ice
which I am calling to your tension Is
| the refrigerator. have got friends
! who has did most Of their winter ex-
erciseing in the last or yrs. fishing
through the ice in the ice box and
amongst the different catches has been
| a can Of sardines, box Of caviar and
a jar Of picked herring.
| 4 + 4
VYYulE these friends was catching
w same they run no risk Of getting
frost bitten because the minute they
felt their. fingers getting numb they
could throw down the ice pick and
dash into the nearest rm. where they's
la radiator which . good many people
Evening star., 1922-12-17
Making Paste Diamonds.

IT is said that no imitation diamonds
with facets are made in this coun.
try. For the most part they are man
ufactured in Europe. where labor
cheaper. and probably imitation
stones, which have ground facet'
never will he made in America. b.
cause of the labor cost.
There are, however. some pressct
stones made in the United States, but
these are confined to stones without
facets They cost anywhere from less
than a cent up to five cents apiece.
When quantities of the nicer quail
ties of imitation stones are set in an
artistic manner in gold settings, the
finished article may bring few dol
lars apiece, but the stones themselves
possess very little value.
No stones are made out of quartz, as
many people think. with the eNcep-
ton of very few. which are cut in
Colorado and other tourist localities,
and these are of value simply as SOU
venirs. The imitation stones made oil
strass, which is only higher quality
of glass. are much superior to any
thing which could be cut from quartz.
In this relation 1t may be well TO
correct Il great misapprehension IN
the minds of millions of persons in
this country. A white stone is either
n diamond or it isn't. If II is dia-
mond, ii is worth hundred dollars a
carat, or more. If il isn't diamond,
ii isn't worth anything. There is no
middle course. The idea that there -
something which is better than imita-
tion paste stone made out of strass,
and not as good as a diamond. has
been fostered by fake diamond pal
aces SO literally sprinkled over the
various cities. but it can be stated
positively that the Arizona dia-
monds," "Barrios diamonds" etc, are
nothing more than imitation stones
made out of strass, and are not made
in this country.
There are a very few "doublets"
made and sold. These are constructed
with a garnet front and glass back.
BY means of using a different colored
glass. different colored effects are OBJ
taincd. and the front is a little harder
and has a little more durability and
retains its luSter a little longer than
the ordinary imitation white stone.
But the garnet front is of no particu
lar value, and the extra cost of these
doublets is really due to the labor
that enters into them. These. how
ever. are not used to any great eN-
tent, and il may be repeated that the
yaSt ma inrity of imitation stones sold
in this country are made out of glass
and are turned out in Europe and
mounted by jewellers in this country.
Evening star., 1922-12-17
% c % REA % RABT RRs THE RAF OF

blows, with little to eat. I ran away
am, driving a taxi. It's not much of
a life. 1t is so uncertain. I earn
about 900 francs a month, but that is
hardly enough for myself and my
wife. Anyway. 1 am not going to
run the risk of making a little child
suffer as I did when I was a kid. and
there are a lot of us who feel the
same way. Look at those men work
ing in that ditch over there. They
earn 20 francs ts2) day. How can
they support a family on that? 1t is
up to the rich to have the large fam
lilies now. We poor cannot afford it.
and, anyway, we know what the life
Of a poor child is like"
Speaking Of the rich and the poor
reminds me of French beggar-
there are but very few of them now
who applied for aid to pompous
Paris philanthropist on the grounds
that he had large family of young
children. The sanctimonious rich
man replied:
"The Lord never sends mouths but
that he sends bread to fill them"
THAT is true" answered the beg
gar, "but He has sent the mouths to
my house and the bread to yours"
Another factor in the baby crop is
the custom of giving a dot or dowry
to ones daughter when she is mar
ried. This is SO much expected that
q girl who has no dowry has diff
Guilty in getting a husband. The
French draw fine distinction be-
tween love and marriage. Most of
them regard love more or less as a
personal matter, whereas marriage is
q social necessity. One should love
his wife or her husband, but the hap
piness of the children and parents
will be more certain if it is based
upon certain rules of business and
conduct. Love Is a passion which
may 60 as 1t came. but marriage must
endure, and It should have enough to
support it. For this reason French
marriage Aspends largely upon the
consent Of the family. If man is an
Evening star., 1922-12-17

TRANCE has some of the largest
L founding asylums in the world.
There is one here in Paris which, un-
til now, has been surpassed only by
the great orphan asylum of Moscow.
1t has many thousand times more
babies than were slaughtered by
Herod at Bethlehem, and it costs
several million dollars a year to keep
the little nobodies alive. The insti-
tuition has been in existence for more
than two centuries. 1t was once
managed by the nuns. but is now un-
der the government. There is a little
Moses basket. sort of revolving
tray. set in one of the windows, on
which a mother can lay her baby.
and by whirl put it inside without
herself being detected. The child is
then taken as member of the insti-
tuition. 1t is given a name. and II in
any way the place of birth or the
name of its father and mother can be
obtained these are put on a tag.
strip of parchment. which is tied
around the child's arm.
The babies are kept in the refuge
no longer than is absolutely neces-
&lry. and then given away to those
who viii take -hem. or sent ou: 10
board. Wet nurses are in great de-
nand. and their railroad fares paid
into Paris. There are always more
babies than nurses. and at one time
every nurse was given a choice of six
babies Some of the babies are kept
on "one cows milk" and goats and
Evening star., 1922-12-17

, of the French insane asylums ana
hospitals are drunkards, and the
scientists claim that alcoholism is
contributing to the weakening of the
race in more ways than one. Some
say 1t is lessening the number OF
births, but this is questionable, for
many of the nations who drink much
have a far higher birth rate. The
British, for instance, who are great
drinkers, have one-third more babies
per thousand than the French, and
the Russians, who are addicted to
vodka. have birth rate of forty-four
to the thousand, while France has
only twelve.
Other contributory causes are said
to be the decline of religion, the en-
ployment of women in factories and
the absolute necessity of every boy
baby being raised for a place in the
army. The state watches the advent
of every new infant, and soon as
it comes government doctor in
spects it. If it is a boy, his name
goes down at once as a future sol
dier of France. Indeed, there is no
way of escaping the army, no matter
if ones parents be American or of
any other nationality if a boy is born
on French soil. For this reason for
eign mothers often cross the chan
mel to England to have their babies
born there.
For years the government has been
enacting laws with a view to incr as
ing the French population. 1t passed
one in 1913 which gave an annual al
lowance for every poor family which
had more than three children. The
amount of the allowance was fixed
by the communes, and it ranged from
$11 to SIT per head In 1920 bills
were introduced into the French sen-
ate making physical education COM
pulsory for girls as well as for boys.
and this included plans to acquire
lands and buildings to be used for
physical training. Another law sought
10 modify the marriage code 50 tnat
one could marry without the consent
Of his parents and grandparents and
another proposed that the word
obey be taken out of the womans
part of the marriage contract. To
the latter the women's journals We're
especially hostile, declaring that it
would lead to anarchy in the homo.
There are other laws that have
been suggested. One is the taxation
of bachelors, and another the taxa
tion of married men who have not
become fathers. There is a move
ment to curtail the taxes on the large
families, and in some places gold
medals are given for more babies.
Since 1915 the department of the
Seine has been assisting poor moth
ers until their children reach the age
of three years, and since April 1918.
it has granted a premium of 200
francs per annum to such women as
nurse their own babies. In order to
get this a doctor must certify that
the mother breast-feeds the infant.
x X
nRIVATE parties and industrial
1 companies are doing much to in
crease the baby supply. A notable
instance is that of NJ. and Nine. Cog
nae. who some time ago gave an
amount which, at the present rate of
exchange. would equal more than
s225.0o0 to establish ninety awards
OF $4,000 each for every large family
among the poor which has had at
{ least nine children either alive or
Evening star., 1922-12-17
The Light Of London.

THE location of every great city
may be recognized afar of at
night by the reflection of the sky. but
the distance in the case of London is
somewhat surprising. An instance is
recorded when, in the spring, there
was seen the reflection of the light of
the British metropolis at distance
of fifty miles. The glow was rather
more than two degrees in elevation
and stretched at least ten degrees
along the horizon. 1t is assumed that
it was due to reflection from clouds
comething more than two miles high.
Evening star., 1922-12-17

pronounces wrong whether it is hot or
cold
If however a person insists on doing
their winter sports outdoors why l
don't know nothing better to recon-
mend than a suggestion which come to
me last wk. from one G. E. Morrison at
the Beaver Lake Club in Rio. Orange
County, N. Y.
This bird claims that a little vile ago
they was a farmer up his way that had
a hired man and nothing for him to do
so he told same to clean out the well.
Well the man cleaned out the well
and all as he found in 1t outside of well
water was 2 dozen qt bottles Of beer
nat was brewed when Volstead was a
Messenger boy and the way you could
tell was on acct. Of the bottles haveing
corks way down in their throats like
they use to put them where as now
they just put little stopper on top of
them which is easy to get out because
Evening star., 1922-12-17

the thrift of the people. Many feel
too poor to marry, and some who
are married do not want children on
account of the high cost of living.
Yesterday l talked with my taxi
driver about existing conditions. He
was bitter as to his earnings and the
unequal division of wealth Said he:
When I got married 1 told my wife
we would never have any children.
l was one of a family Of eight in
north France. My father was poor
and my youth was all kicks and
Evening star., 1922-12-17

get married until he has completed
his term in the army.
The French laws of inheritance
form another obstruction to the flight
of the stork in bringing new babies
in France. According to them. all
children, boys and girls alike, must
have equal shares of their parents
estate. The daughters often get their
portions when they are married in
the shape of a dot. and the rest of
the children theirs at the death of
the parents. The greater part of the
land of France is in very small hold
ings, and such equal division makes
the patches and scraps which ! have
described in former letters. Often
each boy will want some of his land
facing the road, and what is large
field of the father becomes mere rib
bons when parceled out to the sons.
In order to prevent such division, par
ents keep down the number of chill
dren. and thus leave siZeable por-
ton to each. The peasant loves his
land and his ideal is a single heir
married to a single heiress. There
fore, he leaves only one or two chill
dren.
Attempts have been made to change
this inheritance law, and give the
father the right to will away his es-
tate as he pleases. If this can be ac-
complished it will increase the birth
rate. Some authorities suggest an
inheritance tax of 80 per cent on all
estates where there are only two
children, and of 60 per cent when
there is only one. This means that
the man with one child would leave
to the government all but 40 per cent
of his savings.
* X X X
A MOTHER load on the wings of the
"A bird that carries the babies is the
great amount of alcohol consumed by
the French. The average per capita
is about fourteen quarts every year.
and In certain cities Of Normandy 1t
Is twice - much. Statistics show
that q large per dent of the inmates
p =