TOPICS OF THE DAY

Press, Volume L, Issue 14884, 26 January 1914, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY

The "Strand," inviting Child anecdotes or sayings of Sayings, real children, found parents nobly ready to contribute to this section of the magazino. A first instalment of results may be considered in the January number. Gabrielle, at four years old, wont to a wedding, and afterwards played at weddings with childish zest. "I'm -a bride, Tollie," she explained on one of these occasions to her brother. "And who am I's" asked that mere male. "You?" said Gabrieilb : "Oh! you're tho man tho bride married, that's all." But the boy was master in tho case when a littlo Nancy came crying to her mother, and said, pathetically, "Mummy, Eddy's tweading on all the worms in the garden." Her mother condoled, and declared Eddy to be a horribly cruel boy. "Yes," sobbed the angelic Nancy, "and ho won't let mo twead on one!" Kathleen had a gift for definition. A friend returning after some months' absenco, mado the somewhat evident remark. "And you still have your dimple?" "Oh, yes," answered Kathleen with a nod of assurance that made him smilingly say. "Why, you don't know what a dimple is!" "I do," said she; "a dimple sticks in and a pimple sticks out." Another clear-minded child was tho littlo girl who had cut her knee rather badly, and sobbed while it was being ■washed and dressed, "Shall I dio?" "Dio, of course not," answered hor mother cheerfully, "only tho good dio young." And Maisie announced, with hope dawning through her tears, "Well. I'll bo as bad as I can." Zoo, at four, loved looking after babies. "When you set married," sho instructed a small girl playmate, "you aro to have twenty children—l'll look after them for you." A question arose whether sho could possibly do all tho requisite bathing. "Oh yes, I could." said this resourceful person. "I should put nineteen in soak while I washed the other." A six-year-old boy wlio objected to soap and water, was always much injured because his mother insisted ho should wash before returning to tho afternoon kindergarten. But ono day ho had reached the front door, when he began to howl aloud most dismally. "I have washed myself," ho responded to alarmed inquiries, "and I needn't havo done it!" Tho poor child had only remembered too late that it was the Wednesday halfholiday I Another, small boy of three faced a tragic situation with ' moro grace. Once, at the family table, while all others were helped, somehow his needs were overlooked; and, in the buzz of conversation, a plaintive "I should like eomething to eat." was not attended to. "Suddenly," relates his father, "wo wero startled to hear a very high treblo voice singing a' child's hymn. Tho words ho sang were:— 'Oh. supply my every want! Feed the young and tender plant!' So we fed the young and tender plant without more ado." The enormous savins Labour-saving in labour that is efMachiacs. fected by the uso of certain special machines is indicated by a writer in 'U/un'e Review." The steam shovel is a notable instance. The mere pulling of a lever by ono man suffices to scoop up a wag-gon-load of earth or rocks in sixty seconds. Most of the steam shovels used in digging the Panama Canal can deal with four to iive thousand cubic yards of material a day. So powerful are the mightiest of them that nothing but grapito has to be first loosened by explosives. Their "dippers" bite into solid sandstone or "tran rock." aiid scoop it up as easily as one would scoop soft cheese up with a spoon. When the earth and stone has been taJcen out by this machinery, it is taken away in trucks, and dumped by ingenious contrivances, r-lso designed to do away with labour. Formerly it took two men. to empty every car-load of spoil, and as tho cars grew larger, more men were required. Now all the cars in a train half a mile long can be emptied simultaneously by the turn of a lever. Another labour-savinji device is the

track-laying machine, which can lay li>oo feet of track in an hour, or three miles in the ordinary working day. The track-hying train consists of about 30 cars, 29 of which are equipped with apparatus for moving rails and sleepers to the front. Of these 29 cars, 13 at the rear are loaded with rails, SO railfl to the car, piled in pyramids. Preceding these are 16 cars loaded with sleepers, SCO to the car. The thirtieth car carries fuel and water for the engine. At the forward end of the train is a eteel trestle 68ft long, with one end suspended in the air. The sleepers are conveyed along this and deposited on the road-bed. At each end of the rail cars are two rollers set the width of tho track apart, and over these the rails are drawn and deposited on the track. All that then has to be done is to straighten tho sleepers thus laid and spike the rails to them. Similar to this is tho track-shifting machine, which will pick up a long section of track, bieeperj> and a>\. and move it 30 or 40 feet as easily as a man would pick up a sack of potatoes. A track-laying machine is being used to construct the trans-continental line in Australia.