RANDOM READINGS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 7, Issue 376, 17 May 1918, Page 3

RANDOM READINGS.

Til HORSE A STUPID ANIMAL. The horse caiv be- taught any habit, *nd having no mind to be taken up with his own affairs, can be relied on to do exactly as he i.; told. All the arithmetical fakes, which one sees performed at exhibitions by this animal, whatever their details, are worked in essentially the same way. The horse is taught by endless repetition some mechanical habit. A given signal, and he l>egins to pav.- the floor. Another signal, and lie stop \ Prc.s the proper button, and he takes a .sponge and rubs it over a certain spot on a blackboard, or picks up a card lying in a certain position. This is all he does. The meaning of the act exists for the spectator only. The pawings count the answer to a problem in additioi, the card bears the reply to a question. But the horse does not know it. He merely follows a blind habit, just as he will stop when you say "Whoa!"' though you interpolate the word into conversation with your companion on the road.

WHERE DO<s*6 ARE DRUDGES. The lot of some dogs in Holland is not at all a happy one, for many of them are looked upon as beasts of burden, and have to work very hard indeed for the little food that is necessary to keep them alive. In a great many cases, the food they eat is not the same as the English dog has. Some Dutch dogs will eat carrots aid turnips—i i fact, almost anything that is put before the'n. They have to draw the vegetable, milk, and other tradesmen's carts in order that mynheer may walk alongside at his ease. These dogs are trained to do this kind of work from their puppyhood, and are very patient and long-suffering; but sometimes they are imposed upon terribly. It is a common sight outside the towns to see a great hulking Dutchman lolling lazily over the little shafts of a dog-cart, smoking his Dutch pipe, while the poor little dog has to draw master, vegetables, and cart altogether. It is a pitiable picture to see the poor little animal struggle under its heavy load. This is rarely seen inside the towns, because, according to Dutch law, it is illegal for the people to make the dogs carry them. TRICKS IN MOVING PICTURES

Th«re is the railroad accident obtained by means of children's toys; the warship and the aeroplane, which are also photographs of playthings, the burglar in his unheard of performance of climbing the front of a house; and—last, but not least—the man clinging to the ceiling of a room. The pictures explain themselves. But when we see a man jumping out of a fourthstorey window, see him fall fifty feet to the ground, and then get up and run away, unhurt, we ask: How is this possible? The origin of the picture is very simple. The fugitive jumps out of a low window in the studio, which is fitted up in the style of the desired room. Then the photographing process is interrupted. The next picture is taken in the street, in front of a real house. A life-size puppet is dropped from one of the windows; when it has reached the ground the machine stops, the actor puts himself to the place of the figure; the reel is started again, tha man gets up and runs away. In like manner auto accidents and similar episodes are arranged. Another impossibility—a maa swims through a river, and on the other aide he climbs a 10ft. wall without difficulty. Origin of the picture: Tto nan is photographed sliding from the wall into the water, but in taking tfce picture the reel is turned the wreng way, so the motion is reversed when the picture is reeUd off in the right direction. The last obstacle in representing the seemingly impossible was cleared away when some clever mind coaeehred the idea of stopping the photographing process, not after a series of pictures, but after each single picture, or after each two or three of them. The work involved was enormous, aa eighteen pictures are taken every second; that is to say, about 59,0 M pictures are required for a reel, which ia to amuse the public only ten minatw! But human perseverance has accomplished the task, and the results attained are extraordinary. The following examples will prove it. A pile of small stones are put on a black table, and the apparatus is fattened vertically above the stones. Then a short turn of the crank, and a few identical pictures of the stone piie are taken. One of the stones is then removed from the pile; another short turn, which gives two or three picture* showing the first stone separate from the pile. The process is repeated, until the stones laid aside by hand show the writing, "Gojd Night!" The finished film does not show the hand that removed one stone after another, but creates the impression that the stones arrange themselves in the form of magic writing. Instead of the stones, a lump of clay may be placed on the table, and some kind of figure is gradually modelled from it by hand; hut, the hand being invisible, it seems as if the figure formed itself. In the same vwfcy a herring can gradually be sent back into the tin can from which it tvas taken.

The essence of true nsoiltty Is neglect of self.