davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Daily Alaska empire., 1928-12-24
PETERSBURG MAN DRAWS
 R-M0NTH JAIL TERM

John Bogotas, Petersburg, was s a UT y to four months imprisonment in the Fed eral jail there for violation of the Alaska Bone Dry Law, ac- cording to adyices received today by U. s. Marshal Albret White.
The Daily Alaska empire., 1928-12-24
nnTTcE

My office will be closed unti January End. adv. DIR. GEO. l.. BARTON.
The Daily Alaska empire., 1928-12-24
STEAMER DODGES
 SUBMARINE, HITS
 GOVERNMENT DYKE

'syALLEJO, Cal, Dec. 24-Run- nlhg in a blinding fog in San Pab- To Bay, the steamer Calista sighted the submarine I-29 c,35e to the bow. To avoid striking the craft, the Calista rammed the govern rnent dyke off Mare Island Yard, ripping away 200 feet of the dyke. The damage is placed at s6,000.
The Daily Alaska empire., 1928-12-24
THE EMPIRE
Is the Medium

Through which the general public can always have It's wants supplied.
 Closing time for classified advertisements 2 P N.
 Closing time for display ad- vertisements: Il A. M.
 Ten cents per line first in sertion.
 Five cents for continuous subsequent insertion.
 Count five average words to the line.
 Minimum charge, 50 ceats.
The Daily Alaska empire., 1928-12-24
LOCAL SAlLlNGS

Margnita scheduled to leave for Sitka and way port a- s 8 o'clock Thursday night. } Virginia W sails for Cbicha- ' gof and way ports at o. 2 clock every Wednesday } night.
 r America First leaves every Wednesday at 1 pm. for ' Petersburg and Rake and wayports.
 ! ( t < < < < < ]. < :. + +
The Daily Alaska empire., 1928-12-24
Steamer Movements
NoRTHRouND
No steamer nOrthbound.
 SCHEDULED SAlLlNGS

< No steamer nOrthbound. f SCHEDULED SAlLlNGS 4 Princess Mary scheduled to + sail from Vancouver Decem- < Der 27, at 9 pm. t Alameda scheduled to ail < from Seattle December %
 | at am.
 | SOUTHBOUkD SAlLiNGS
 * Northwestern due southbound @ about Dec. 26.
 < Queen due southbonnd about
 4 9 pm Wednesday. f Admiral Rogers Southbound f about December S1.
The Daily Alaska empire., 1928-12-24

Michael Strange (abovc), the former Mrs. Leonard Thomas and second wife of John Barry more, actor, revealed at Chateau Gourdon, at Dar-sur-Loup, near Cannes, that she obtained decree from him in August. She ex- pressed a wish for happiness of her ex-husGand and his latest bride, the former Dolores Cos tello.
 (International Newsreel)
The Daily Alaska empire., 1928-12-24
SHIPPERS ATTENTION

The Motorsnip "Norco" of the Northland Transportation Com pany sailing from Seattle Decem- Der 26th. Place orders early for shipments. D. B. TRIMMER, Tele- phone IA. adv
Evening star., 1928-12-09

money changes hands at all. Indeed
the whole commerce, up to the time the
rubber is delivered in Para, Is often
| purely matter of bartering raw mate
rials for new grub stake. Many OF
the men through whose hands 1t passes
are in debt for supplies to the next
man to whom they deliver it.
x \ X
ONCE a year comes the debt settle
~ ment-and then the rubber gather
ers have an annual spree. They or
ganize dances in the main rubber
Shack-stag affairs. The men line up
along opposite walls, and to the time
of clapping hands and singing-assisted
occasionally by an accordion--they
sally back and forth, advance, swing
their partners, return to the wall and
repeat. Pinga flows freely. and before
the festivities are over the gathererS
are too befuddled to know or care just
how badly they have been swindled in
the debt settlement.
Never before Henry Ford dawned on
the scene has the King of the Xingu
been confronted with the efforts of a
foreign capitalist to compete with his
primitive methods Two other ambi-
tious efforts, it is true, have been made
to develop the county,, but both failed
One was organized by Dom Pedro II
last Emperor of Brazil, who endeavored
to open transportation on the Araguaya
with a fleet of tiny steamboats,. The
| hullS of two of these craft may still be
seen rotting on the river bank at Leo
poldina. And at AlcobocaS rusty noun
tainS of abandoned machinery and
ironwork are memorial to the attempt
of Belgian and French capitalists to
build a railroad into the region. Graft.
lassitude and general ineficiency caused
the downfall of both schemes. Henry
Ford's plan is the first application of
capitalistic enterprise from the United
States to this enormously wealthy Sec
ton of Brazil.
Few mel have sought out the King
of the Xingu in his jungle haunts. He
Is suspicious of all strangers, and queer
mishaps overtake those who venture
into his realm in the unmapped wilder
ness. I first heard of him from my
friend, DR.. Jose Morbeck, ruler of the
diamond fields, while was on my ex-
pedition from .Matto Crosse to the
Amazon. He persuaded me to turn
aside from my planned course and seek
to meet the King of the Xingu in per-
son.
Learn something of his methods" "
DR.. Morbeck advised me, land study
Evening star., 1928-12-09
THE LATEx BALLS RUBBER SENT DOWN TO PAR

ing the heavy shellS-as big as cocoa
nuts-each of which held from 10 to
Is nuts
The capunga led me toward "the
finest and tallest tree in the grove"
Then occurred one of those casual lit
tie incidents which in this laWleSS land
are fraught with sinister meaning. /
had often been told by nut gatherers
of the danger of standing under the
trees. One of the falling nuts is heavy
enough to stun or kill a man if it strikes
him on the head. A heavy object
swished by my ear as I stood there,
struck me paralyzing blow on the
shoulder and landed with thud on
the ground. leaped aside and glanced
up swiftly, and was sure that caught
sight of human figure concealed in
the branches high overhead
Tt may have been an accident But
1t would have been a most convenient
accident for the King of the xingu and
his overSeer, who want no intruderS to
escape from their premises with reports
of the slavery practiced there Though
passed 1t off with laugh, was
glad to make my way back to the camp
There, incidentally. behind the main
shack, saw a specimen of the stocks,
OF whose punitive purpose I had heard
so much. Beside the crude apparatus
Of imprisonment were several thick,
sinuouS whips.
Evening star., 1928-12-09
Man of Steel and Electricity Holds Down Real

the street lights. A third signal indi-
Gates Thanks, old dear. good-by," and
the mechanical man hangs up.
OF course, the automatom neither
thinks nor expresses himself in just
that way. His various parts are al
ready connected to the mechanism he
controls. At certain signal one part
OF him Is set in motion; at another
combination of sounds a different part
reacts. After each task is performed,
a signal at the telephone transmitter is
sounded for the information of the en-
gineer at the other end.
One such automaton measures the
head of water in a reservoir at Wash
ington and reports its findings when
ever called up. 1t can be used for any
number OF purposes, even to perform
ing various duties about the home.
THE story of the automaton runs
back to early historic times. All
through history men have tried to Simu-
late nature in machinery. Achytos, a
Greek inventor, made flying dove
back in 400 B. C. Roger Bacon and
Albertus Magnus were supposed to
have made metal heads which could
speak, and Louis XIV amused himself
as a child with a coach and horses
with passengers, all moving naturally
constructed by Camus. In the nine
teenth century numerous writing and
talking automata were invented, and
In 1875 an automatic card player was
exhibited in London. The chess auto
maton attracted widespread interest,
but 1t always proved to contain, or be
controlled by. concealed operator.
In fiction the mechanical or artificial
man has played prominent part. No
one who has read Mrs. Shelley's
"Frankenstein" can forget the young
medical students horrible creation. Fa-
shioned from bits of human tissue TAX
en- from the graveyard and the operat-
ing room, the monster suffered from
human cravings which it could not sat-
isfy, and inflicted the most horrible
punishment upon its creator.
n X X
Hr'HE play Of a few years back, "R.
U. R.p-from which our word robot
comes-told how the mechanical men
discovered the secret of love and be-
came powerful enough to exterminate
the human race. Edgar Allan Poe
wrote story about chess automaton,
and Ambrose Bierce told Of robot
poker player who killed his master for
cheating.
Fortunately for us mere humans.
however, machine which can perform
all the functions of mankind Is still
wild dream. The nearest approach
to it is probably Eric the Robot, who
delivered the opening address at re-
cent London exhibition. Created be-
cause a certain public man refused to
make the speech, Eric is fantastic
looking man of steel.
Seated on a stool, hesis manipulated
by means Of electromagnetic connec-
Evening star., 1928-12-09

an approaching airplane from the
sound Of its propeller Entirely uncon-
trolled, it turned and fired with un-
can accuracy.
tn, torpedo is a kind of automaton.
- today naval experts have gone so
~ as to handle entire battleshipS with
out single man for crew. The Brit.
ish warShip Centurion and the German
zaehringen were experimentally fitted
up with radio control, and the possibili-
ties of the crewleSS dreadnaught were
successfully demonstrated. They man
oeuvred, fired, forged ahead. slowed
down-did everything a good man o.
war should do-as If every man were
in his place.
But as far as can be predicted, the
robot has very definite limitations. In
the first place he cannot think. And
then each of his functions entails a
separate piece of machinery. If some
thing goes out of order he cannot sub
stitute another part to do the same
work. The human hand can do a thou
sand things; the robot hand can do
only one. A good robot then would
need a thousand hands, and to do
everything a human can do would have
to be a thousand times as large.
Nevertheless, machinery has now been
endowed with the sense of hearing, of
sight, of sensibility to changes in tenn
perature, even Of touch. If the robot
progresses much further, some Of US
may soon have to learn new trades.
Evening star., 1928-12-09

peon, returning with an ear for evil
dence of duty fulfilled. But the King
of the Xingu has a labor shortage prob
lem to take into account. His poems
who seek to break away without paying
off their crushing debts are pinned in
stocks, numerically beaten, and then
left to lie for hours upon the ground,
Vampire bats feast upon their blood
and hordes of ants gnaw at their bare
skins. After such treatment the King
of the Xingu is assured that one more
victim of his tyranny will remain an
abject toiler in his service.
LIS reign has not been without futile
revolts among the 1000 or more tor
mented poems under him. But the only
plot that ever seriously endangered him
was organized by Manoel Luiz, a rough
fugitive from the diamond fields. The
tempeStuouS Manoel, run out of Casa
nunga, came down the river and worked
as a rubber gatherer to earn a new
supply of food. With his willy tongue
he began to foment a revolt among the
usually listless and abject poems Of the
King of the xingu.
Manoel saw himself as the new
strong man OF the country. But peIore
his plot was hatched--before he had
even been able to encounter the elusive
king face to face-the latter sent out
from his jungle lair a selec- ed trio
from his personal bodyguard. They
fell upon Manoel as he was cooking
supper one night and lashed him to an
ant-infested tree known to the natives
as the Tree of Saints" because early
missionaries had been tied to it by the
Indians for treatment similar to that
meted out to Manoel.
AS the first step in the punishment
they poured into his mouth a few
drops of an Indian poison that par
alyzes the tongue. Meanwhile, hordes
of the ants overwhelmed the helpless
rebel.
Most of the poems, racked by fever
and naturally indolent from hook
worms, endure their fate without a
murmur. Ordinarily they work in
groups from a central rubber camp.
Living in filnsy shelters made of sap
ling posts and thatched with leaves and
grass, they lead a solitary existence.
working day and night. They spend
their days collecting latex and at night,
after an unpalatable supper cooked ove9
a fire built on stones in front Of their
shack, they smoke the latex to prepare
it for shipment.
Evening star., 1928-12-09
BY WILLIAM M. LAAS.

r TE does not look human. He
does not smile or whistle. His
flesh is OF steel, his blood an
i i electric current But appar-
emily he sees and hears, and he
performs his allotted task with cold in
fallibility. He is theoretically the per-
feet servant-the mechanical man.
No ambitions disturb his cog-wheel
brain. He has no love affairs, he never
argues, he never strikes, he asks no
vacation, and he knows only what he
has been given to know. Best of all
for the man who hires him. he works
for nothing but his keep and does the
work of dozen mere mortals without
fatigue, without mistake.
The mechanical man. dream of in
ventors and fantasy Of fiction since an
cient times, is now an actual fact.
Members of the new slave caste are
even more silently, unobstruSively and
efficiently performing various routine
tasks. What the men they replace are
now doing for a living is a mystery;
but at any rate, science has progressed
to the point of eliminating the human
equation.
A huge power house of the Edison
Co. in New York City is guarded,
regulated and reported upon entirely
by recently installed mechanical men.
They answer the telephone in response
to its ring, receive orders from their
master by series of buZzlng signals,
perform the operations commanded,
and report their fulhllnent by signals.
Then they signal good-by and hang up.
And they never ask for raise!
Teleyox. as the latest automaton is
named, was invented by Roy j. Wens-
lev eupineer of the WESTINGHOUSE
Electric Co. It has the mechanical
equivalent of one human senSe-that
Of hearing. When certain s0und-or
group of soundS-reacfes its electric
ear, it responds by switching on a cur
rent which performs a pre-arranged
action. When addressed by another
sound, different reaction occurs in its
complicated system, and it completes
another task.
After all, the mechanical man is not
80 far cry from the numerous auto
matte devices already in everyday use.
We have clockwork arrangements which
turn on the furnace or the dynamo at
the correct moment, thermostats which
turn the heat on or of according to
changes In the temperature, or turn on
the water when a fire starts; automatic
train control systems which stop a
train when the road is blocked. There
are mechanical limitations OF various
human senses. The photoelectrlc cell
responds to changes in light, like the
human eye The telephone, Ike the
ear, is affected by sound. The boIo-
meter reacts to heat even so faint as
that radiated from mans face a
mile away. The human hand is iml-
tated in the construction of knotter
OF . Teaping machine. and the foloer
Evening star., 1928-12-09

of only one physical function. Which
is the reason why he does not look like
a man, but instead like a roomful of
machinery.
The televox responds to certain sig
nails, given by blowing a pitch-pipe or
vibrating an electric tuning fork. He
could, indeed, be made to hear the hu-
man voice, but the pitch of the voice
is so uncertain that it does not suit
the engineers purpose, Not only that
but the automaton should be able to
understand every language and every
dialect. Code signals in definite
musical tone form a universal language
"a sort of mechanical Volapuk.
To operate the automatops at the
power plant an engineer calls its num-
Evening star., 1928-12-09

ber on the telephone. A sound-sensi-
tive device at the receiving end lifts
the receiver on an ordinary telephone
at the first ring. 1t also sets In opera
ton buzzer which by certain COM
bination of sounds informs the engi-
neer that he has the right number and
that his servant is waiting. His tuning
fork or pitch pipe emits another signal
which prevents the automaton from
hanging up, and is necessary to pre-
vent possible tampering by some mis-
chief maker.
Turn on Dynamo 12," peeps the en-
gineer's signal 20. K" presently
buzzes the automaton. What else?"
Peep, peep-peep," commands the mas
ter, and the ausonaton switches on
Evening star., 1928-12-09

into lagoon and padded up stream
which became increasingly narrower.
Then they told me we would have to
portage the canoe to another river.
When we were afoat again upon the
silent stretches of this new, uncharted
stream my guides turned northeastward.
1t was the wrong direction, felt sure,
and I demonstrated with them. It's
all right; this is the way" the man in
the stern insisted.
For the time being gave him the
benefit of the doubt. suspected that
he was taking me back toward the
Araguaya, but could not be certain as
yet, and was confident that with my
revolver could COW both men in an
emergency. I reckoned without the
simple deviltry of their plot. Toward
dusk we rounded sharp bend and a
sudden vista of tossing, rock-shattered
water opened up ahead between sheer
walls of foliage. Accustomed to the
Brazilian canoeist's skill in shooting
rapids, thought little of the situation
at first. But just before we we're swept
into the Swirling torrent the paddlers
swung the canoe about so that it was
broadside in the stream. In the next
instant both men had dived overheard
and were swimming through the DASH
ing current for shore. / realized what
was up when the canoe was in the
worst Of the rapids. 1t was hurled up
Evening star., 1928-12-09

Meanwhile I discovered that my IN
dian canoeman and his squaw had
vanished. Whether they were spirited
away or what their fate may have been
I have not learned. But saw more
clearly than ever that despite the ca
punga's oily pretense of friendliness my
presence was extremely irksome to him
and dangerous to myself. Without
my Indian guide I might fail to find
my way back to civilization through the
tortuous channels by which we had
come.
determined to demand a show
down. I insisted that I be taken at once
to the Kings dwelling told the ca
punga that I knew the King person.
ally, that had met him year before
at Para when he was there purchasing
supplies. The shade of a smile flick
cred over the overseer's lips. He started
to speak, then checked himself I
warned him that the King would pun
ish him. just as the poems we're pun
ished, II we're not taken safely to the
clearing where the famous jungle pal
ace stands
"All right" said the capunga at last.
II will give you two guides"
\ X X X
TWO leering halfbreeds took their
places in my dug-out and started to
paddle me up stream. Soon we turned
Evening star., 1928-12-09

ubber monopoly, the liberation of his
oeons and the dawn of a new day foI
Brazilian prosperity.
Henry Ford has never met his jungle
rival, and there is not much likelihood
that he ever will Nor it is probable
that the lord of the rubber gathererS
will be presented to Herbert Hoover
during his present goodwill mission
to Latin America.
But these two-Henry Ford and Her
bert Hoover-are his worst enemies
Thanks to them, the whole system OF
cruel enslavement and crude methods
for which this jungle Croesus stands is
doomed.
The President-elect will not have
time during his hurried journey to visit
such out-of-the-way primitive districts
as the territory over which the King of
the Xingu holds sway. But much of
Brazil's future growth will be based
not on commercial progress in the
cities, but on the exploitation of the
rubber, nuts, lumber, minerals, cocoa
and other raw materials Of the roman
tic interior.
1t Is in the very midst of this ro-
mantle interior of Brazil that the King
of the xingu has set up his jungle do
main, In the unnnapped wilderness be-
tween the Rio Araguaya and the Xingu.
* *
THE zingu River enters the Amazon
i from the south, flowing through the
least known region of Brazil. West OF
it is the Tapajos River, near the mouth
of which is Fords plantation. To the
east of the Xingu is the Tocantins, of
which the Araguaya 'iS an upper
branch. The rubber realm ruled by
the King Of the Xingu spreads on both
sides of the river whose name he bears,
and within indefinite, unmapped bound
aries comprises an area fully as large
as Portugal, parent-land of Brazils S
early days.
within this great area over which
the King of the Xingu exercises the
very power of life and death there are
a few thousand white subjects and un..
counted thousands of savageS.
Into this region the present King
came a quarter of a century ago as a
penniless immigrant from Italy. The
story goes that he served first as an
ordinary laborer among the poems OF
the then dictator of the region.
A characteristic exploit Of this earlier
ruler was his construction of canal to
shorten the water route to Para. The
cansa vas dug by host of negro and
Indian serfs. Those who were most
rebellious in their servitude were or
dered into the ditch on the last day of
construction to clean up a rocky por-
ton. While they were working there
the water was let in with rush from
the upper end and they were drowned
in the deluge.
Whether or not the present King of
the Xingu had hand in that outrage,
Evening star., 1928-12-09
Cabbage Butterfly.
ONE of the conmonest butterflies o,

ONE Of the commonest butterflies of
Europe and America Is the large
white cabbage butterfly, which In the
caterpillar stage does much damage to
cabbage plants. When the caterpillars
have eaten their fill and are ready to
pass into the pupa stage. they leave
the cabbage stalks and wander in search
of a suitable spot for the change.
They have a curious way of climb
ing walls by means Of a rope ladder
of silk. The thread is drawn from
the mouth and by right-to-left move
ment an irregular foothold about q
quarter of an inch wide Is made for the
legs and claspers. One larva 112 inches
long made 25 rlngs or footholds In
proceeding its own length. The highest
chrySalis was "a u feet from the ground,
and it must have taken a ladder of
nearly 1900 rungS to reach that height
and about ITO yards Of silk to make
1t. Upon a windowpane 100 to 145
cross-strands were required to gain u
inches. The time was ,21s to 6 minutes,
as against from to u minutes on the
wall OF a house. The higher the cater
pillars climb the slower they go and
the more tired they appear In the
chrysalis stage the pupae spend the
Winter unaffected by snow or frost,
Evening star., 1928-12-09

of printing press; the human arm, In
the electric crane.
X X y
TT is difficult to initiate man too
l. closely. He is complicated ma
chine, fitted for an innumerable varie-
ty of tasks-none of which he can do
perfectly. The earlier inventors of
self-propelling machines attempted to
use legs as nature does, but the modern
automobile uses wheels. The leg is
necessary to the human being or the
horse for other purposes besides mov-
ing ahead, but the automobile never
has to sit down-therefore the wheels.
The automaton is made to do only one
task; he is the mechanical embodiment
Evening star., 1928-12-09

Once a month they come in from the
jungle for their meager supplies, mostly
beans with little pork fat doled out to
them on credit. They leave the rubber
they have gathered and return to their
patch of jungle, often 80 or $40 miles
from the central camp.
BY the end of the year the rubber
gatherer has turned over to the Kings
capunga perhaps 5000 pounds of rub
Der. Each capunga keeps a compli-
Gated set of books, which the illiterate
peon cannot decipher. The books in
variably show, however, that the rub
Der delivered does not compensate for
the supplies advanced through the prev
ious year. The unhappy peop gets
new supplies on credit and returns to
his labcrs still further in debt. No
Evening star., 1928-12-09

he at least proved such an apt pupil
when it came to discipline by cruelty
and determination that he soon was
established as general manager for his
boss. and later succeeded him as czar
of the region. Since then he has ex-
tended his sway beyond the widest
dreams of his predecessor.
He has been able to do this by reign
of terror such as the Middle Ages sell
dom knew and by keeping his poems
continually in debt to him. No matter
how much rubber the gatherers may
collect. it is never sufficient to pay for
the extremely simple food for which it
is bartered.
Elsewhere plantation czars of the in
terror order their capungaS, or over
seers, to trail and dispatch an escaping