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Show ..t FRIDAY, DECEMBER 30, 1932 Says Maya Civilization Choked Itself to Death A new explanation of why the great Maya civilization of Central America, undoubtedly the highest of prehistoric America, suddenly fueled and vanished without any obvious reason was suj.'KetPd to the Wash ington Academy of Sciences by Ir. 0. Wythe Cooke of the Tnlted State geological survey, the Literary Digest Di-gest reports. Rays" Dr. K. K Free, In his Week's Science (New York): "The Maya civilization choked" It-pelf It-pelf to death. Doctor Cooke believes, with mud washed from Its own hillside hill-side corn patches. The former Maya country Is marked today, Doctor Doc-tor Cooke reports, by many small, flat plains of sticky clay soil, almost impassable In wet weather. Each of these plains, he believes, once was a . small-laker -these-laker beK Ing connected by streams or by short portages forming a system of water highways as the lakes of North America once did for the canoes ca-noes of the Indians. The Maya cities, cit-ies, he believes, were built near these lake highways, and main talned by this easy form of transportation. trans-portation. oir nearby hillsides, the theory continues, the Maya farmers grew the corn, which was their chief I food. In so doing they cut or burned the natural hillside vegetation. The result was that every violent rainstorm rain-storm washed a part of the hillside soil down Into the lakes. Slowly, the lakes filled up and the hillsides grew bare. The filling of the lakes blocked the waterways, while erosion ero-sion of the hillside soils ruined the farms and lowered the nation's supply sup-ply of food. Finally, Doctor Cooke believes, the entire Maya nation was forced by poverty and famine to migrate mi-grate to new homes In Yucatan, which is what the historical, and other records show that they did." Witch-Hazel Not Alone Useful as Divining Rod The witch-hazel derives Its name from the magic powers attributed to the slender branches of this, small tree or shrub. Many believe that a small branch of the witch-hazel If field lightly while being carried along over the ground will turn toward to-ward the earth at a spot where water wa-ter or golo may be found by digging. dig-ging. It Is this divining rod characteristic char-acteristic which has brought It fame, i The witch-hazel, however, has some real value to mankind, for from Its bark comes a medlcant used In liniments for. external application. appli-cation. The bark and leaves, which are similar to the leaves of the ordinary hazel, are a source of tan-nen, tan-nen, which is used In preparation of leather. r'r -- The tree Is usually found In damp forests where Its scrubby growth la stimulated. It Is a two-year tree so far as bringing Its flowers Into bearing, bear-ing, for the clusters of yellow flowers flow-ers which appear In the fall do not develop Into seed until the following follow-ing spring. Crows ! Not Old At every opening of the British parliament" the king's crown la brought from the tower of London to the throne room In St. Jamee palace pal-ace for the occasion, says the Montreal Mont-real Family Herald. For this Journey Jour-ney it has an escort of yeomen of the gaard, and when It is next conveyed con-veyed to the robing room at Westminster, West-minster, It la escorted by the household, house-hold, cavalry. It Is generally supposed sup-posed that the imperial state crown of England la on which has been handed down a long line of kings. In fact it was made In 1833, princl- i pally of Jewels taken from old crowns. It contains a large ruby and a large sapphire, 16 smaller sapphires sap-phires and four smaller rubles, 11 emeralds, more than 1,000 brilliant knd rose: diamonds 147-, table diamonds, dia-monds, four drop-shaped pearls and 273 pea Ha, Raaourccful Propht The Identity of the present "Old Moore" of almanac-fame is care-fully care-fully hidden, but "1 am Informed," writes Peter Simple, .in the Morning Morn-ing post, "that the tombstone of the yrlglnal "Old Moore' Is to be seen un the aide of the south porch of St Mary's parish church.-' Bexley, Kent" The story goes that "Old re-aaoentMtf haU In r a anhA mola m nraitt'M a! f.tMit aIL. 1 lage who made a practice of foretell ing some Important event for each month of the following year., On one occasion he was In difficulty to prophesy " anything for the following July, so he wrote that snow wonld fall tSat month which It did after that, hla reputation as a seer waa made. War e Wd. Weeds are the railwayman's enemy ene-my as well as the gardener's? If left alone tney would choke the permanent per-manent way as effectively as tn like clrcum-tancea they-would do onr flower beds and gravel paths. The British Southern railway made an effective weed kill Ing train by coupling cou-pling two old tenders together and fitting them with spray pipes and tanks. A special form of Uqnld weed killer la need, and the spray pipes have an effective rang ef about ten feet That which we call wisdom Is m heritage from oar forbears, aor eaa It be learned In a classroom. t la to be found la Jhe living of Ufa. Maturity of Judgment cornea when thfjprnt baa bees deepened by knowledge and Uta tampered by experience. ex-perience. Grit in Mistletoe Customs Going buck I mo history It la Interesting In-teresting to note that the Druids of England apparently starlPd the current cur-rent vogue of using mistletoe, but their celebration was the arrival of the winter stolstlce. Moreover, only mistletoe-(bat grew In oak trees re ceived the homage of the Druids. This mystic jparusite was consid-eredto consid-eredto have healing powers, and thus was given additional veneration venera-tion by the Druids. In Scandinavian mythology It Is Ing to do with the fair sex when thIs rlm nal,it- for when Noah hung around a home. On the con- I Pe"ed the window of the ark after trary, the plant was placed above the fl,,wJ a,l(l let out a raven (Gen-the (Gen-the entrance to a dwelling place, as 8:7) wn,ch did not return, al-lt al-lt was believed that such a pro- I tll0,1" thT wus neither dry land wnnM Wpon nnf th evil spirits. ; Thus the mistletoe custom has had a great change over a period of centuries. Originally a plunt taken from the outdoor world to ward off, evil spirits and now a plant with an Invitation attached to It 'Bigness" Not a Matter of Silly Stage Setting A great many men have so much fear for their pride and dignity that they never take a chance on vl- elating what they call good form, i uc, put o ucn we.Kui ou ... -.. ters of precedence and social dosI- tlon that they never quite care to be natural. For example, some men of fairly high position will never go to the office or shop of another man who, they think, occupies a little lower position In the social or financial finan-cial life of the community. "It Is his business to come to my office," they th)nk, even If they do not say It. Poor fussers and poor worriers! worri-ers! The fnct Is that a man who Is really big does not care whether a man comes to his office or whether wheth-er he goes to the other man's of Bee. The big. man will always-he at the head of the'thble no matter mat-ter where he sits. If he has to have a stage setting he Is Just an Imitation and he Is putting on a show. Toledo Blade. ' Tarantula The tarantula is a large spider with a body about an inch in length; Its bite was formerly supposed sup-posed to produce a kind of frenzy In human subjects called tarant-Ism. tarant-Ism. The nervous actions of those victims are supposed to be Imitated In the" wild musical dance known among the Italians as "taranteJ'a." Doubtless In some cases Its bite produces disagreeable symptoms. The species named Is a native of Italy, but varieties, or closely allied species, are found throughout the south of Europe. The so-called tarantulas of Texas and adjacent countries are a large species of My-gale My-gale belonging to the Tarantula family. fam-ily. There Is a very large burrowing burrow-ing wasp of Texas and the South west, which stings tarantulas, depos- ltlng Its eggs in their bodies and the thunder and the howling winds carrying the paralyzed spider off to whlch already had begun to iccom-Its iccom-Its own nest. These are known as he.rv rain. At last'h. wam't "tarantula-killers." Speachlett With Surprise There's the case of the woman who had never won anything in a prize contest ln her life, but bought a ticket for a certain radio raffle aa 1 matter of habit At the drawing her number was fished out of the bos first and called by the announcer, but in the excitement of the moment the worn-1 an couldn't make her vocal cords work. She opened her mouth, but no ( foot of her husband-to-be while he Sound came forth. The master of; is standing at the altar during the ceremonies called the number again wedding ceremony, he will obey her and she made a further heroic ef- j throughout their wedded life, and fort to speak. Again .the number vice versa. Both parties had been was called, but'she could summon ( warned by their mothers of the cus-forth cus-forth no sound. torn and at the church a stamping I So another number was drawn and the radio was awarded to soma one else. Chicago Evening Post I Anciaat Gardaai Because of the favorable character charac-ter of the soil and climate the Nile vallev In Esr'Dt and the valleys of Ettphrates-and-Tlgfbi rlvera to ..... Mesopotamia were the original aitea , a Grecian workman, named Sara of gardens. As early as 6000 B. O. ! nopoulos, visited the Athens municl-frult municl-frult trees and vegetables were!pai hospital there and asked if an grown In large quantities Jfor the I operation could be performed to re-food re-food they produced. Many trees ! move a horn which was growing out were neia sacrev.ana were pianiea. for religions purposes only, while many groves of fruit trees were planted near temples, vineyaras fact a horn resembling that of a seemed to be valned next In tapor-1 three Inches In length, project-tance project-tance to trees. Grare vines were 1 ine from the'mlddle of his forehead supported on arbors and wine waa made from the fruit Arbors at that time formed the chief ornament orna-ment of the yard and they are still considered verjf Important in landscape land-scape design. Movah'iht at tka Palee . The Naval observatory says that theaooa ehlneaahearctle andnaJOBThF proper development of Antarctic regions for part of the t normal Individual. Compulsion time during the long nights. At oearosls u a sense of guilt and fear the poles Itself the mooa Is above the boriion continnoualy daring one-half one-half of each lunar month and below the hortion continuously during the other halt la the winter thne full moon occurs when the moon Is above the horizon and new moon whea It is below, while In summer time sew moon occurs when It la above tne j horizon and full moon woes tt Is . batorr. ( ' Scriptural Mention of the Raven as Scavengei The raven, largest of the crow family, nearly thirty Inches In length, carnivorous, a scavenger fond of offal, gluttinous In habit, l often mentioned by name in the sa: cred Scriptures. In other placet also where In the early days of savage sav-age battling, reference Is made to dead bodies.bcing given to "the fowls of the air," ravins, the common attendants at-tendants upon hiittlclields, are no doubt referred to. The very first mention of a raven has connection In the mind with -Vor tree on which to rest, we can not bunhink of the awful food It would ravin upon In the dead bodies of beasts and human beings drowned In the frightful, overflowing of the waters everywhere. Solomon, whose knowledge of natural history was deep and keen, had a faithful Imitation of Agur, the son of Jakeb, who knew of that frightful habitof the raven, the plck- j Ing out of the eyes of young or sickly lambs, so killing them, and with Judicial wisdom applies , that habit parabolically as follows : "The eye that mocketh at his father, and , degp)seth t0 . yl w ravens of the 'valley shall pick it (proverbs 307, ' Adapt Supply of Food ; - to I '?eds of the Body "Sane eating without overindulgence overindul-gence will be a pretty safe basis for a healthy life." Flaying foolish adherence to temporary tem-porary food fads, Dr. Solomon Strouse used the foregoing states roent as the theme of his article, "Building a Diet," in Hygela, the Health Magazine. Food furnishes energy and builds up broken-down tissue. Granting this, It is easy to see why the lumberman lum-berman of Maine uses 8,000 calories 1 dally, whereas a tailor will use only 2,700. The building of a diet depends also on locality. In the United ! States we eat a large amount .of car-1 car-1 bohydrate. -That Is because carbohydrate carbo-hydrate foods are cheap and easily available. In Alaska, fuel is supplied sup-plied mainly by fat. i "Milk, fresh fruits, fresh vegetables, vege-tables, bread and butter, some meat and an egg or two will pretty well cover most of the fundamental nutritional nu-tritional requirements of salts and vitamins." Thought of Papa Bad weather prevailed when Mrs. Sable visited her neighbor one night With her was her little boy of seven, who found It very hard to behave during his mother's long and tiresome tire-some visits. This night the lad stayed close to bis mother's side, not because he was tired (as usually a child does), but .hecanse hft fMrnrt -ku tn , Mmi i and not wishing to appear rode In the eyes of the hostess, he said timidly to his mother. "Ma . . . don't yon think . we better go home . . . "cause pa may be scared to stay home alone , , . without usT" New York Sun." Idea Broke Up Wedding Anelmif nimprettHnn ' tanttAA a a tragic ending to a wedding In ,,, m0 rrt,. Macedonian village. The theory is that if the woman can tread on the contest began, resulting in triampo for the bride. The groom lost his temper, and before long the guests came to the defense of the family honor and a general fight took place. The bridegroom later repented repent-ed but the bride would not see him. Man Wttk"arflorar 0f his forehead. The doctors scarce- ly believing their ears examined the man, and discovered that he had In The victim explained that several times he had cut It oh, but It always al-ways grew again. An operation was performed, and the horn la now preserved among the curios of the hospital. Mratal Health Mental hygelne tasUlJnjpofc cuIredJin childhood connected with some feeling of having to do something In expiation of the fancied fan-cied source of the sense of guilt Reassurance and Interest In other things la a cure If the compulsion la not severe. In severe cases aa anderstandlng of the cause of the condition la necessary, the question tad answer department of Hygela iCagaslne Informs a reader. PEASANT GROVE REVIEW Importance cf Liltle ThinTj When S-in.Tiad Up j Ail great I1""" "ri ,,ul rl lllll"i lri.n ,.f i;:;'. thi.-s. . . - Uiys of li"ht make mi I1"' warmth of the sun; drops of ht become rivers; grains Of aliivt push shoots.; and till Hi'--'' n tr-in't ininr" ' .' ' V. ti I Mi tlieir i silently ! a Imiiiu toons THine'i is r. ;!' I- I .el torsi lire iirau.'iMl into .words; words are form:-'! into thoughts; thoughts ore spre.el on th pages of books; in lihr;iii-s and in uni-vm-uiiioa intr.nwi develops; and, hy the niliM of "Intellect;-and "Intellect;-and the sky are spannei nents are linked ami man is. master . i,lg garments, being or very ncn of the elejnenis. 'silk, to make their sacrifices in the A sneer of se..rn. a smile of en- J poops of them, where the place of cotiragernent a kindness or a wrong prayer Is, and they offered painted -from such' little things is charac-1 figures, and they cut and burned ter" molded. l;i'in the' characters . them before their" i' !- with eer-of eer-of Individuals are huilt the ethics I tain ceremonies that t': -v make, and of communities, industries and peoples, peo-ples, and empires rise and fall. There Is no art so slight, no task so trlfllne. but fills an important niche In the boundless scheme of little thine And In their aecum- ulated accomplishment each man and group and commonwealth and nation and planet moves in the fastness that is the universe. Daniel Rand, quoted In the Missouri Mis-souri Farmer. Monster Basket Made by California Indians It la said that the Ponca Indians, scattered remnants of a tribe that still live In Mendocino county, California. Cali-fornia. ; some time ago made a monster basket, which is declared to be the largest in the world. The lower or main part or tnis oasKei Is composed of ozier twigs very skillfully; Intertwined. - Between l-thel warp and woof the Interstices are very smail-so that' the huge basket will hold any kind of fine Kraln- Many similar, though much small- er receptacles-willow baskets are made by these Indians and are used as granaries to hold provisions for the wirjter store. Mendocino county abounds In oak forests, which produce a great harvest of acorns, of which the red man, his squaw m.u pnpooses me ver luiui nuieii euM oi uusaeis 01 uie acorns are annually gathered and stored away In haskets for the long, rainy days. Other kinds of stores-grains stores-grains are also placed In these baskets. These willow granaries are generally mounted on a rude platform. The Immense basket mentioned Is six feet from bottom to rim and 25 feet In circumference. Motor Car Versus Bicycle A great countryman of my acquaintance, ac-quaintance, now .approaching three score years of age, makes this curious claim. He has just concluded con-cluded a three weeks' cycling tour In Wales, with the following result: re-sult: "I discovered a fact which I had suspected and have now tested. I can ride one hundred miles on my bicycle with less fatigue than I can drive a car one hundred miles. It Is curious, but confirms a remark which one of the greatest of racing trlcycllsts made to me. He said that on his tricycle over twenty-four hours he would beat any motorist not on the trained racing class. He can do nearly four hundred miles In twenty-fctor hours on the tricycle. There are very few ordinary men who could drive a car four hundred miles at a stretch." London Spectator. BaU Curiously Sensitive A peculiar faculty for avoiding objects In their way Is possessed by bats. Blinded and placed In a room with threads and branches strung about, they will flit In and out without touching a single barrier. bar-rier. .Scientists, endeavoring to learn the reason for this skill, be-lleVe be-lleVe that hats possess feeling. .In tensely, the membranes of the nose and wings being filled with. numerous numer-ous nerves tn addition to blood vessels. Many have curiously shaped appendages called nose-leaves nose-leaves aronnd the nose and mouth that are peculiarly sensitive. Exchange, Ex-change, Not Work for. Weak Arm When the housewife says that her arm Is tired from kneading the dough for the family bread she Is perfectly Justified, for dough' is so resistant that tt bends cast steel paddles which are a foot long and an Inch thick at the neck and which do the kneading Job for the mixing machines. In order to make these paddles stand up under this severe service, niekel alloy steel has been specified for them. Incidentally. It requires no less than eight-horsepower to push one of these paddies through the dough at the rate of 12 times a minuTfe. Queea Be Sepreme SomeliirerTireriierirtess be MvT several queens are produced. The first eut of her rett goes lmme1i ately to other queen rella and at 1emptsto TTlj the-sealeJ ri va ia7 The que?n honey bee stings tnt rival qut-ens. nothing else. Tin-queen Tin-queen bee may Ilve for three num-ntrs, num-ntrs, and as new quet-na. which she falls to annihilate. apiear In the eld home, they may lead ofr new swarms, thus preventing over population and leaving the queen bee In peace. Grit Chinese Junks Launcnea With Great Ceremony . rnless history be at fault, the Chinese were pioneers -IIT breasting t.'it!"'st inms seas to carry tneir coiniiiereini enterprises to rar lacils. The Chinese have held with astoi!'-4h'tC- faithailiit'HS to many of t!icir a.1. dent religious practices?' In' a Portuguese work, translated . Into Knglish in l'i7!t, is found this fairly full account of , wj,.t the Chinese then iliil wnen they launched their ocean going Junks. '"When they launched their M;ians:.sm-j,s into the sea at the first iimli-contl- i,, the priests no appareled, with sing songs with an i.i-e : -rly tone, sounding certain lir' !s. They worship the devil, ' ve they have him painted in the forepart of the j ship, because, as t' say, 1 should do no hurt to the ships. he In j all this discourse they are eating and drinking at discretion." From the Grace Log. Masterpieces Not Free From Humorous Errors Among famous errors of noted men, the Golden Book Magazine notes that In Vandyke's celebrated ; picture of Charles I In armor, both gauntlets are for the right hand. Then there is that passage from Robinson Crusoe": "I resolved. If possible, to get to the ship, so I : pllled ofr my c()thes and took to the wr an() by tne help of I a rope got !nto, the forecastle of ,he shln . , found that all the ; ghlD.. nrovisions were drv: and be- Ing WPn disposed to eat. I went to j the bread roon) an(i fied my pock. ets with biscuit." The various j mid,st coonies wo.,, n0 doubt be .....,, for nefoe's exnlanatlon of how this feat was accomplished. Count Hermann Keyserling, who was not the author of "How to Tell the. Birds From the Wild Flowers," Is responsible for the following: 'The Jungle Is a thicket;, and Its rilrp nFratriSrlclr and lUX- ,lr!nt riHior thm Important as regards Its Individual plants." - Solitary Islander! Unfortunately located for any ship lanes, the Island of Tristan da Cunha.the largest and only in-hahited in-hahited of a group of three Islands In the middle of tl. South Atlantic ocean. Is regarded as the loneliest place in the. British erupire. It was named for a ; Portuguese admiral who discovered the Island In 1506. Months, and sometimes a year, pass without a Rhip calling there. People the Island has only a population pop-ulation of 100 go without mail and newspapers for a ,long time as a result. Their food supply grows woefully short and they ilve on the I barest means the soil and sea can furnish. Agate Easily Polished The agate, once highly prized by the ancients because of the beauty of the coloring, can be brought to brilliant color and polish by boiling boil-ing In a sirup and then In an acid. The resultant colors are beautiful The agate is fairly widely distributed distrib-uted in the world, being found In Egypt Scotland, Oermany, South America, the United States and in other parts of the world. The moss type Is found In Wyoming and Nevada, Ne-vada, while the banded type Is found In quantity along Lake Superior. Su-perior. Large specimens of the banded type are also plentifully distributed In Texas. Sheepshead Valuable The sheepshead, a fish with an unattractive name, Is nevertheless wefthe-mtn-valTrablfr'ToodTlsIj along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It varies tn size from Wo pounds to 15 pounds. The drum Is sometimes some-times called the sheepshead, although al-though this designation is not correct. cor-rect. The name of the fish comes not from the shape of Its head, hut rather because of the nature of Its teeth, with Mncisors In "front and molars behind. It feeds upon shell fish, for which Its grinding teeth are well adapted. Wasted Time If a person were so foolish as to throw away a valuable piece of money Into a pit or into the sea, be would not HteraHy throw away anything any-thing but the metal; but virtually he would throw away whatever best thing It would have purchased, as bread, clothing, medicine, refreshment, refresh-ment, etc. Even so a person wasting wast-ing time throwa away, not the time Itself only, but the opportunities and the privileges which that time represents. John Foster. Not Up te Par . Half sick with; a cold, Reid had been fussy and naughty all day, receiving re-ceiving hla rull share of scoldings. That night as usual he Insisted that hla mother say hla prayers. "Dear Jleavenly ratherJ she prayed, -please make Reid a good boy- A throaty Utile ehsckls cam from the bed: 'He didn't do a very good jo t sy, did be. BBanxnar That's the Kind Printing possessing quality and perfection of , PROMPT AND EFFICIENT S Ell Vic SPEECH STUDY GROUP . LEAVES FOR MEETING A group of Utahns interested in speech and dramatic arts, headed by Prof. T. Earl Pardee, director of the department of speech, Brigham Young University, left Monday for Los Angeles, California, to attend the annual convention of the Nak ional Association of Teachers of speech, which is held there December Decem-ber 27 tora. L - Other members of the group are Profesior Alonzo Morley, B. Y. U.; WffliamMeCord, Richfield; Glenn Webb and Virgil Smith both of Lent o : Black and Light Hair A woman with black hair has about 600 hairs per square inch on the top of her head, while a blond has 760 per square inch,' and a brown-haired person about 650 hairs per square Inch. . . , ' Original Locomotive Due to the persuasion of George Stephenson, the Stockton & Darlington Darling-ton in England decided to use steam Instead of animal traction. At the opening of this railway on September Sep-tember 27, 1825, the first passengar train In the world was drawn by 8tephecson's locomotive AefJrs, Sensational Value! a ' - . nil n Jll 1 ' in i " f TTI 'HW! WCTLl t ' I 1 F A Wonder!-Hand rubbed Cabinet in Amg Black Walnut with nilaster oanels in dugo 1 ental Wood and instrument panel in figj J Walnut capped with a genuine Rosewood xoraauc volume control, lone plated pl-ated Station Recording Dial. Seven KVVJ Hiph-Efficienrv Tiihc includine FoUT 60 1 Twin Speakers. A leader at this price. J Vastest Terms! Frcc FREE fcataSatJca to rsr - FRIDAY, DECEMBER 30. AY, You Get at This Shoi that carries a favorable impression to the recipient No i P? too large or too small to receive bur careful sttemTi Unless yov specify otherwise, we will print your i AMERICAN FORK BOT INJURED- Cf George Storrs v ou. anil W. F. Storrs, of American ftd icrcu u oroKen leu Hint t! i hip, when the schooner on he was riding back of an automj xui, a- iciepnone pole as ft vat I ing the comer by Gllchrist'j rf ware, rnaay evening, - ' . I Six boys were rfrttno J . -. - - -.B uu met schooner and as the car" turned! corner the schooner whirled, M me uuepnone pole. One boy knocked unconscious and Mr.Btj received me Droken leg. .. He was rushed tn th v.i - mMt I Dital and is then nf n, J . w. yi time receiving treatment Mr. St! is a Dromer oi Mrs. Clyde Do: or this city. b- Matter of Placing Juxtaposition means "a pud close together, either tide bj i or In apposition." Contrapoilff means "a placing oppoDlta." Concerning Learning Learning, wrote Pope, b like i cury, one of the most powerful excellent things in the world skillful hands: In unskilled most mischievous. New 1933 1:11 rU Ma I rouEi ipuls lout I I hefoi I'm. 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