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Show VANISHING ROMANCE. Gray haired men. during springtime, spring-time, are haunted by the fascinating memories of their departed youth. They recall how, about this time of year, long ago, they dreamed of run nlng away to sea Of all forms of romantic adventure, the sailor's life has been the top-notcher top-notcher since Marco Polo some six centuries ago brought the magnetic needle ompass from Asia, thereb putting ocean exploration firmly on Us feet. It was a great step forward from charting a ship's course by the stars In a few generations the world has i seen romance steadily driven from the j sailor's life. The beautiful full rigged schooner 'rotted at anchor, crowded out b the Steamship The slave trader passed 'Pirates were driven from the high I seas. Seamen's unions regulate ocean life j where once the cutlass, belayin' pin i and "walking "he plank" reigned su prnic I One of the tinal nails has Jusi been J driven In the coffin of ocean romance , in the Westinghou.e electrical plant. Philadelphia The occasion was the first success ful demonstration of a giant gyroscope ! which will prevent big ocean liners from roiling except during heavv storms. Similar "g ro-stabillzers" are I alread in use on some smaller ships, especlajl yachts. The t pica I 1922 comment about this will be: 'Thank goodness, sea sickness finally is preventable." There will be very little thanks among men who, as boys, wanted to be "Treasure rsland" pirates when they grew up Romanr disappearing from the land, as well as the ocean It is one 'of the penalties of what man calls progress, or the conquest ot the earth and the elements Scientists ;ind inventors are makin,: life dull, cut and dried, and romance exits with uncertainties The modern boy senses this. The brin deep has no such lure for him as i' had for his father And the 192 J oungster is losing a lot. even if Me Imagines that he Is finding as much romance In wireless and airplanes as his pa found in the domain of shang haied sailors. The day is not far off when romance will exist only In science. Boyhood probably has in store a flood of books of the scientific romance sort, such as Jules Verne created. |