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Show BEFORE ADAM By JACK LONDON Copyright. 1907. by tho MacMlllan Company SYNOPSIS A modern city boy tolls of tils Strang dreams when, ns Big Tooth, he lived til prehistoric times. When ho Is n mere bnbr ho Is saved from a wild boar by tlio agility of Ills mother and his father nttaclcs the savage piss. Driven from homo by the Clintteror. he goes to Join the folk, who live la caves In a blutr. Ited Eye, a powerful savage, attacks htm, and lis and Lop Uar become friends. Saber Tooth, a titer, appears. Tho folk drive the tUt-r away, and Dro- ! ken Tooth la killed by a nre man, who ues a strange weapon, a bow and arrow. A flro man shoots Hit Tooth In the let, and, Lop Ear saves Ills life. They capture two wild dog' pups. i 1 Big Tooth and Lop Ear are chased Into , their cave by Ited Eye, but they attack him with stones and drive him away. Lop Ear and Die Tooth make a crude raft and sail down a river. Thsy im the ! Swift One. a girl, -but cannot overtake her. They have a narrow escape when Ited I Eyo attacks them and make a long Jour-) Jour-) ncy to tho Flro People's country. They play with the flro of the Fire Ieo-ple Ieo-ple and start a great conflagration. The Flru People drive thorn away. Dig Tooth haJ another narrow escape from Ited E) e, and his sister Is killed by tho fire men, who wound Lop Ear. The Flro People contlnuo their deadly attack, at-tack, Bis Tooth and the Bwlft One are married, Itsd Eye pursues the Swift One. He' captures her. Bis Tooth attacks him, and tho fight Is stopped by the rush of Saber Tooth. The Fire People massacre tho folk. Big Tooth, the Bwlft One nnd a handful of the folk flee far to the south and Beelt a new home. Rod Eyo Joints tho Tree Teople. beyond Hnlr Face n hundred yards and gained u much larger hummock. Uy tho time Lop L'nr nnd I had caught up with her tho lire mm appeared among tho ttees. Hnlr Fucc'h wife, driven by them Into panic terror, dashed after us. But bIiu ran blindly, without call tlon, and broke through tho crust. We turned and watched and saw thorn shoot her with arrows as sho sank down In tho mud. The arrows bvgnti falling about us. Hnlr Face had now jotued uu, and the four of us plunge 1 on, we Knew not whither, deeper and deeper Into the swamp. Of our wanderings in tho great swamp 1 haw no clear knowledge. When I strive to remember I havo a riot of uurelnted Impressions nud a loss of time value. 1 have uo Idea of how long we were In that vast everglade, but It must liavu been for weeks. My memories of what occurred invariably tako the form of nightmare. For untold un-told ages, oppressed by proteau fear. 1 nm aware of wandering, endlessly wandering, wan-dering, through dank and soggy wilder-iicss, wilder-iicss, where poisonous snakes struck at us aud animals roared around us, and tho mud quaked under us and sucked at our heels. 1 know that we were turned from our course countless times by Mroains nnd lakes and slimy seas. Then there 'were storms nnd risings ot tho water over great areas of tho low lying lnndu, nnd there wero periods of hunger and misery when wo wero kept prisoners in the trees for days and days by these transient Hoods, Very strong upon mo Is ouo picture Largo trees arc about us, and from Large Trees Are About Us. their branches hang gray Ulamcnts of j inohs. while great creepers, like monstrous mon-strous serpents, curl around the trunks nnd writhe In tangles through tho air. And nil about H the mud. soft mud, that bubbles forth gases nnd that heaves nnd slgh3 with Internal agitations. agita-tions. And In the midst of nil tills nre a dozen of us. Wo nre lean nnd wretched, wretch-ed, and our bones show through our tight stretched skins. Wo do not sing and chatter and laugh. Wo play no pranks. For ouco our volatile und exuberant ex-uberant spirits arc hopelessly subdued. Wo make plaintive, querulous noises, look nt ouo another nud cluster close together. It Is HUo tho meeting of the handful of survivors after tho day of the end of tho world. This event is without connection with tho other events In the swnmp. How- wo ever mnnnged to cross It I do not know, but at Inst wo citmo out where n low range of hills rnn down to I ho hank nf tho river. It wns our river emerging llko ourselves from the great mrnmp. On tho south bank, where, tho river had broken Its way through the hills, we found many Bnmlstono enves. Beyond, toward thu west, the ocenn boomed on the bar that lay n cross the river's mouth. And here In the caves we settled down In our abiding place by the sea. There wero not many of us. From timo to time ns the doyH went by more of tho folk appeared. They dragged drag-ged themselves from tho swnmp singly sin-gly and In twos nnd threes, moro dend than alive, mere pcrninbuhiilng skeletons, skele-tons, unut at last there wero thirty of us. Wen no more enme fro-st the swnmp. and Ited Eyo wns not nutong us. It was noticeable that no children had survived the frightful Journey. I shnil not tell In detail of tho years wo lived by the sen. It was not n happy abiding place. The air was raw ond chill, and we suffered continually con-tinually from coughing nn'd colds. We could not xurvlvo In such an environment environ-ment True, wo had children, but they had llttlo hold on life und died early, whllo wo died faster than new ones w.ero born. Our number Hteudlly diminished. di-minished. Then, the radical chnugo In our diet was not good for us. Wo got few vegetables veg-etables nud fruits and beenmo fish eaters. eat-ers. Thcro were mussels nnd nbaloucs and clams and rock oysters mid grcnt ocean crabs thnt wero thrown upon the beaches lit stormy weather; also we found several kinds of seaweed that wero good to eat But tho change in diet caused us stomach troubles, nud nono of us ever waxed fat. We wero all lean and dyspeptic looking. It wns In getting the big nbalone.s that Lop Car was lost. Ono of them closed upon his fingers. at low tide, and """ "r ' CTM1 J"Wu:.- . ' then tho floodtldo camo in ond drown- I ed him. Wo found his body tho next day, and it wns n lesson to us. Not .mother ono of us wns ever caught in i tho closing shell of an nbalonc. j Tho Swift Ono nnd I mnnaged to bring up one child, n boy at lenst wo managed to bring him nlong for sever-' al years. But I nm quite confident ho could never hnvo survived that terrible j climate. And then one day the Tire People appeared again. They had como down tho river, not on a entunni ran. but In n rtido dugout. There were three of them that paddled In It, mid one of them was the little, wizened old hunter. They landed on our bench, and he limped across tho sand nnd ex-nmlned ex-nmlned our caves. They went away In n few minutes, but the Swift One wns badly Reared, We were nil frightened, but none of us to the extent thnt she was. Sho whim, pored nnd cried nnd was restless all that nlghL In the morning Bhe took tho child In her 'arms and by sharp cries, gestures nnd example started mo on our second long lllght There were eight of the folk (all that was left of the horde) that remained behind In the enves. There was no hope for them. Without doubt, even If the Flro People did not return, they must soon havo ! perished. It wns a bad climate down I there by tho sea. The folk were not constituted for the const dwelling life. Wo trnvcled south, for days skirting tho great swamp, but never venturing Into it. Once wo broko back to the westward, crossing n range of mountains moun-tains nnd coming down to the const But it wns no place for us. There were no trees, only bleak headlands, a thundering surf nnd strong winds that seemed never to censo from blowing. , Wo turned back across tho mountains, traveling east and south, until we enmo In touch with tho grcnt swamp I again. Soon we gained tho southern extremity ex-tremity of tho swnmp. ond wo continued contin-ued our course south nnd cast It wns a pleasant land. The nlr was warm, nnd we were again in tho forest. Later on we crossed a low lying range of hills nnd found ourselves In nn even, better ' forest country. Tho farther wo penetrated pene-trated from the const tho warmer we found it. nnd wo went on nnd on until wo came to n lnrge river that Becmed familiar to tho Swift One. It was where sho must have como during the four years' absence from the horde. This river we crossed on logs, binding on tho other sldo nt the bnso of a largo lil tiff, nieh un on tho bluff wo found our new home, n envo most difficult of ncccss and quite hidden from any eye bencntli. There Is little moro of my talo to i tell. Here tho Swift One nnd I lived nnd reared our family. And hero my memories end. We never madu nn-other nn-other migration. I never dream beyond be-yond our high, lnncccsslblo cave. And hero must have been born tho child thnt Inherited the stuff of my drenms. that hud molded Into Its being nil the Impressions of my life, or of tho llfo of Big Tooth, rather, who Is my other self nud not my real self, but who Is so real to me that often I am unnblo to tell what ago I am living In. I often wonder about this line of do scent. I, the modern, nm Incontestnbly I a man. yet I, Big Tooth, tho primitive, nm not u man. Somewhere and by ' straight lino of descent theso two par-' par-' ties to tny dual personality wero connected. con-nected. Wero the folk before their destruction In the process of becoming men? And did I nnd mlno carry through this process? On tho other High Up on the Bluff We Found Our New Home. hand, may not soiho descendant of mlno have gone Into the Flro People ud become one of them? I do not know. There Is no way of learning. One thing only is certain, nnd that la thnt Big Tooth did stnmp Into tho cerebrnl constitution of oiio of his progeny all the Impressions, of his llfo and stumped them In bo Indelibly tlmt tho hosts of intervening generations havo failed to obliterate them. Thcru is one other thing ot which I must speak before I close. It is a dream that I dream often, nnd In point of tlmo tho real event must havo occurred oc-curred during tho period of my living In tho high, lnncccsslblo cave. I ro-membor ro-membor that I wandered far in tho forest toward tho cast. Thcro I camo upon a tribo of Tree People. I crouched crouch-ed in a thicket and watched them at I I play. They wero holding n laughing Jl council, jumping up nnd down und gH screeching rudu choruses. ileefl Suddenly they hushed their noise nnd ' '-'Jl censed their cnperlng. They shrank Tl down In fenr nud quested anxiously esl about with their eyes for n way of re- I.ssH rent Then lied l'ye wnlked In nmong ffdl iliMii. They cowered nway from him. '.'.'jH 'OsBefl Red Eye Walked In Among Them. H All were frightened. Hut ho uuulo no , M attempt to hurt them. Ho wns ouo of M them. At his heels, on stringy bended -4 M legs, mipimrtlng herself with knuckle H to the ground on cither side, walked an H old female of thu Tree People, his lat- I M est wire. He sat down In tho midst of M the circle. 1 can see him now ns I ( H write this, scowling, his ejes lnllnmcd M as he peers about him nt tho clrclo ot M tho Tree People. And ns he peers ho , I H crooks ono monstrous leg nud with his k M gnarly toes scratches himself on tho V H stomach. Ho Is Bed ICye, the atavism. i H THE end. i M ANTIQUITY OF WHEAT. P I This Cereal Was Common In China L H 5,000 Years Ago. I Probably man would survive If tlnl I - earth never produced another grain of L l wheat. But ho would not find It easy I . 1H to get along without this useful grain. , Jt H for tlo cntlng of bread nud other thlng lil made from wheat Hour is n habit to- 1 which ho has been nddlcted for nearly fl H n,000 years. " '1;H Whcnt. It Is thought, was first grown ! In the valleys of thu Tigris and thu n'H Kuphrntes. Gradually It ipread to tho fl'-H east, nud it Is known that In Clilnn It lliifl was cultivated extonslvely ns early as iff ItOOO U. C. Wheat formed tjie chief lf B food of tho people of Biblical times. I- - The term "wheat" is derived from nn 1 , old Kugllsh word, "hlvacte," meaning. white. ' '. H Tho whent of trdny differs somewhat" ' 'i - from thnt of early history. Through 2. U intensive cultivation und cross fcrtltl- mI zatlon It has reached a high state of " nfl perfection. W'B Wheat Is the most widely known of-" the cereal grains. It Is found wlicr- tlhtfl ever the whlto mnu has pcnetriKeiU- Jmlfl It Is grown on tho Himalayan slopes 'IrvH 10,000 feet above Hen level, on the grcnt 1 fl central plain nf North America, In tho kI tropical countries of Africa and India. . 'l Wu even find that us far north as thu fE sixtieth parallel of latitude In Alaska. ' AH Russia, (icrmnnjvFrnnco and I-uglutid, Fll thousands of acres of wheat are bar- fjll vested every year. H The fact that wh?at can bo readily jH adapted tc various conditions of soil nud climate makes It the most valuable of nil ceieal grains. H There nre many different varieties of H wheat due to the dlffereuces of soil and climate, hut In general we dlvldo H It Into two clnse winter or soft whent. sown In tho full mid hartcstcd during the hot summer mouths, nud spring or hard wheat, sown early In H the spring und hnrvested late In the 'H summer. A grain ot wheat Is composed of four H parts the husk, which consists of five H distinct layers of bran; the ccreul lay- H cr, a thin membrane Inclosing tho j starch cells, and thu genu. During tho H milling process tho bran coats and the H germs nre removed. H Graham (lour Is made by grinding H tho entire grain to n moderate grade H of fineness Kntlre wheat flour Is made jH by grinding the grain nud removing JlejB the three outer coats. If the germ H were not removed from the flour the B color und tho keeping qualities would B ho affected HJ Thcro nre twenty-four steps In the j HBl milling process from the tlmo the wheat M Is weighed until It Is sold oh Hum-. Tho ; M byproducts, bran and middlings. are nold eH to tho farmer for the feeding of c.itllo. ' H There nre over fifty varieties of liour '-y made, but we must classify It chlelly v ' -H according to tho kind of wheat. Flour I'l made from spring wheat Is commonly v H known us hi end Hour. Dread flour Is A H rich In gluten. Gluten litis the power . H of expansion nfter tho addition of H moisture nud heat, and n Hour rich In H glutcu, ns bread Hour Is, will produce ,il a light loaf of bread. SH Flour mndo from winter wheat Is -y L commonly known us pastry Hour. Pus. jiH try Hour contains less glutei! nnd moro s H ktarch thnu broad (lour. Kxchuugo. fjl " eefl His jH Lady And you say you are an edu- , H cated man? Weary Will Yes, mum; H I'm a roads scholar. University of H Michigan Gargoyle. JH To Be Continued ! jH |