<3&AZO)
By JOHINi DICKINSON SHERMAN
HAT is It? \V!ii? made
it? What does It say ;
"It" is a curved chunk
of granite just dug up
on the western edge of
Rocky Mountain Na
tional park In Colo
rado ? a sort of rock
image.
I haven't the slight
est idea uiyself. That's
not surprising. Hut
neither does anyone
else, apparently. And that is surpris
ing, considering the expert knowledge
of the men who frankly admit thai
they don't know, and can't even guess.
Hut it is evident that this stfange
chunk of granite cannot he dismissed
with a shrug and a smile. For here
is what J. Allard Jeancon, curator of
the Colorado.. Historical and Natural
History society, and former special
archeologist for the bureau of Ameri
can anthology of the Smithsonian in
stitution. says about it :
"!f this ston? can be proven genu
ine, it is the biggest tind in all an
thropological research and antedates
anything on the American continent ,
going to establish the remote anti- j
qulty of man. I have never seen ;
such remarkable outlines of dino
saurs and mastodon."
Is it genuine? Aye, there's the rub. !
That's the first question I ask. and ;
you ask, and everyone asks.
(Heuuine it is, in a sense, beyond a I
doubt. That is to say:
W. I,. Chalmers, who lives on Wll- i
low creek, in the Grand lake dis- j
trirt of Colorado, was enlarging the i
irrigation reservoir on his homestead. I
A man with a pick was breaking ;
ground about six feet below the sur- j
face. His pick struck this chunk of
granite. The chunk was unearthed.
Naturally Mr. Chalmers was inter
ested. He spread the news.
I The tourist and publicity hurejiu of |
the Denver Civic and Commercial as- j
sociatiort got the derails, photographed !
Mr. Chalmers and his carved chunk !
of granite and sent out the story with I
pictures. Good chance for publicity!)
? But the fact that the Denver Tour
ist bureau sponsors (he story is pretty
much proof positive) that the finding
of the stone is exactly as told here.
You see, this tourist business is an
important matter iti Demer, which
proudly claims to be t he irateway to
the national parks and national monu
ments and national forests of the !
Scenic West. The bureau's publicity j
work is high class. The scenery of j
the Scenic West is easy to look at, |
and attracts millions of visitors each j
year. Moreover.- Colorado is well ?
fixed in the matter of antiquities, with ?
its world-famous relics of the prehis
toric Cliff Dwellers In Mesa Verde Na
tional park. So the bureau doesn't
have to do any faking. In fact, Harry ;
N. Burlmns, the live-wire executive |
secretary of the bureau, would prob- j
ably lose his Job if he did any.
Sft, it's safe to say that Mr. Chal- ?
mers did dig up by accident this iden- j
tlcal chunk of granite on his homey
stead near Grand lake.
Now. as to the stone. The photo
graphs reproduced herewith give a
very fair idea of It. Here are some
details :
The stone Is fourteen Inches high,
' nine inches across the tablet and about
twelve Inches through to the back. It
weighs fiCi pounds. It is granite of a
bluish tint, and is about as hard as
steel.
The Thimble in History
One of the most interesting histori
cal facts about the thimble Is that In
old Roman times, according to Seneca,
the- prestidigitator performed the
"tind the little pea" trick with the
brass or bronze ancestors of the mod
ern thimble. That was before the day
of the modem "shell game" About
2fi0 years ago the quaint custom
sprang up of inscribing posies and *for
get-uie i? ?ts" inside the thlnbie, and it
In effect the stone is the Image of
a sitting man who holds in front of
him with hands that have but three
fingers a tablet inscribed with un
known characters.
One picture shows the representa
tion, above the arm and leg of the
man holding the tablet, of a huge land
reptile. Some of the experts sav it
is a sauropod, a vejetable-eatlng di- I
nosaur.
Another picture shows a different
kind of dinosaur. This, the experts
say, is a carnivorous dinosaur. Be
neath it is a carving of a mastodon, j
as anyone can see.
As to the symbols or hieroglyphics j
carved on the tablet, they are unde
cipherable to date. The experts say ;
they are not anything known to arche
ologists.
What are the relative periods In the
earth's making of man, mastodon and
dinosaur? Well, here are the princi
pal divisions of geologic time:
Cenozolc (recent life) era Its du
ration is from 1. <>00,000 to f>,0(XJ,? HH)
years, according to various estimates..
This era is divided into two periods,
as follows:
Quaternary period, divided into re
cent and pleistocene (great Ice age)
epochs. This is the "age of man,"
and of animals and plants of modern
types.
Tertiary period. This Is the "age
of mammals," of the possible first ap
pearance of man and of the rise and
development of the highest order of
plants.
The next era Is the mesozolc (In
termediate life), with a duration va
riously estimated at from 4,000.000 j
to 10.000,000 years. It is divided Into
three periods: Cretaceous. Jurassic
and trlassic. This era Is the "age of
reptiles," of the rise and culmination
of huge land reptiles (dinosaurs), of
greut flving reptiles./ of birds and
mammals, of palms and hardwood
trees and of coal.
According to these divisions of geo
logic time, which are according to
the standard table accepted by geolo
gists. It looks as If the dinosaurs
were pretty much extinct before man
put in an appearance, and that the
earliest man and the mastodon may
have been contemporaneous. That be
ing the case, the prehistoric man who
caned this chunk of granite may have
drawn the mastodon from life. But
where did he get models for his two
very lifelike dinosaurs?
This, question, however, doesn't
amount to a gr?*at deal. For every
day in every way man is apparently
getting older and older from a geo
logical viewpoint. Tinie "was when
the Cro-Magnon man of the French
cave was considered the oldest human
exhibit, but he dates back only al?out
100,000 years. The Neanderthal man,
found in Prussia, was perlmps 'JOO.OOO
years old. .Then the scientists found
I in Java the skull of an erect man-ape
Is said that In those days the thimble
served the same tender purpose of the
engagement ring of today. Leather
thimbles were used for a time, but
were too vulnerable to the sharp prick
of the needle. i
Accidental Discovery.
The accidental spilling of a bronze
liquid on the kitchen table by a liandy
man about the hpuse, paintlnu the
home radiators, has led to the discov
ery of a new "way to protect wood
from moisture, according to Curdle I*.
(pithecanthropus erectus), reckoned
to be about 500,000 years old. t
And now Dr. J. Q. Wolf, a Canadian
anthropologist, has just found in Pat
agonal a fossilized skull, of which the t
fosslllzation Is of sandstone of the
tertiary period of the cenozoic era.
I)r. Franz Boas. anthropologist at Co
lumbia university, sa>s that this skull,
If authentic, will be much older, pos
sibly by 500, 0<X) years, than tifat of
the "missing link" of Java. He de
clares that If it definitely establishes \
that man existed in the tertiary period
It will upset all accepted scientific ;
views concerning the American conti
nents and the antiquity of man. This
discovery, he says, may prove that
man originated in the western hem
isphere.
As between Colorado and Patagonia,
every good American will rally to the
support of Colorado. . |
Moreover, the Colorodo stone was
dug up in a spot that once was Just
the pet stamping ground for. dino
saurs and such like. You see, be
fore the Colorado Rockies rose up at
about the end of the cretaceous pe- J
riod and the beginning of the terti
ary period Colorado, the country to
the north and south, was covered by
a great inland sea and swampy
plains. Here lived myriads of the
grotesque monsters of the age of
reptiles. The largest of these mon*
sters were plant-eaters and some of
them were 85 feet long and weighed
20 tons. Some of their carnivorous
enemies were nearly as large. Many
of these monsters got mired and we
now find their petrified bones all the
way from New Mexico to Canada.
So, if the carver of the Colorado
stone dates back far enough he cer j
tainly hud every opportunity to make
his studies from life. And it is sur?
that the carvings agree perfectly with
the restorations of these monsters
made from a study of their fossilized
skeletons by the museum experts.
A glance at the map given herewith
! shows Grand lake in its relation to
Rocky Mountain National park. The
j village of Grand Lake is the western
1 entrance to Rocky Mountain National !
I park. Grand lake lies at an eleva- {
i tion of 8,376 feet and was dug out '
by glacial action. *rhe Continental Dl- j
i vide runs diagonally through the na- ;
j tional park. The Grand lake region 1
I is full of moraines deposited by gla
; ciers working on the west side of the
Divide.
^Altogether, It must be conceded that
j the sculptor, whoever he was and
? whenever he did his work, is an artist.
I His dinosaurs and . mastodon are
lifelike. His three-fingered man
| stirs the Imagination. His hlero
j glyphics are apparently unique. But ?
i We end where we began: What Is
It? Who made It? What does It say?
WInslow, director of the forest prod
ucts laboratory, Madison, Wis. The
mishap thi\t led to Invention occurred
on the "unfinished" top of a kitchen
table. Before the Investigator could
get a cloth the bronzing liquid had
dried. Connecting this incident in his
mind with his work at the laboratory,
he started a series o/ experiments, and
a bronze coating, composed of a cheap
gloss oil and aluminum powder supe
rior to many other moisture-proof
coatings for use Indoors was devel
oped.
GRAHAM BONNER.
? C0MH6MT or VtiTUH MtWAftA UNION ?
SAUGY SYNURA
evening,'
"Not
Very Plea*
ant.M
"I am going to tell you a story thl?
said Daddy, "about the
Saucy Synura col
ony."
"Oh, Daddy !H
i exclaimed Nancy.
"Now, . really !
Why, I havefi't
' the "slightest Idea
what you are
talking about. I
won't understand
the story at all/*
"I know what
saucy means,"
said Nick, "and a
colony Is a kind
of group."
"Well, knowlijg
? two out of three
words Is a fairly
good percentage,"
said Daddy.
"But, of course,
I will explain to you' what Synura
means. For I didn't know myself un
til only recently when I heard about
them and their city visit."
"So they're city people, are they?"
asked Nancy.
"Well, I'd hardly call them city peo
ple." said Daddy. "But we'll hear
what they are right away.
"Synura are little creatures half
way between animals and plants. They
are spindle-shaped and attach them
selves in a colony, for they always live
in nifmbers. They are light green In
color.
"They give off a kind of an oil In the
springtime, whlcli makes the water
taste fishy ; but they do not make It
unhealthful ? only not very pleasant!
"Scientists, or men who understand
science, say they have been on the
earth for thousands and thousands of
yeaFs, so It must be said for them
that they belong to an old family.
"When a colony has reached the
number of forty or fifty Individuals it
splits up and forms other colonies.
"It takes a thousand colonies to
make any fishy oil taste.
"Now, usually every spring, as I've
said, the Synura become active and do
a little sporting about ? so that the
fishy taste has been noticed Jbefore.
"Whether the Synura are active in
other places I've not found out, but In
this particular city I have In mind the
Synura become busy every spring
time.
x "Yet the water is perfectly pure
and fresh and good.
"Well, this year, *vhat do you sup
pose the Synura did?
"I'm sure one could never guess
what a Synura or a lot of them might
do !
'They decided they'd be fashionable
and "that 'they needed a change,' so
they began to he active right in the
middle of ti e winter, and the city wa
ter began then to taste fishy.
"People would boil the water so it
would taste/ better, and I heard of a
family of goldfish whose mistress
boiled their water, too, for. they didn't
like the fishy taste, even though they
were fish themselves.
"Oh, yes, when the fishy taste was
so noticeable at first these goldfish
lost all their energy and interest In
life, and when their water was boiled
for them they began to enjoy them
selves once more.
"But the Synura were very bother
some. People wo\ild say to each other:
"'How is the water today; very bad,
or a little better?'
"And here were the Synura having
*Such *a good time' in their saucy synura
style and saying, as they stretched"
themselves about :
"'We needed a change earlier this
year.'
"And after I had heard about the
Synura I made up a few verses about
them for you chil
dren.
?'Here are the
verses :
The Synura Is very
gay,
The Synura Is out
to play,
What cares the Sy
nura If It i
tastes fishy?
What cftres the Sy
nura. I say?
The Synura came
ahead of time,
The Synura tho't
it was sublime
To tease the city
. people so.
That> truth, as
well as rhyme!.
The Synura want * *
ed to yet ac- "Began to Enjo>
Ever>q if ' thtd'wat?r Themselves."
they tainted.
Though that's a slight exaggeration?
They're not as bad as they're painted ?
They're really harmless; that Is wh/
The little Synura did sigh,
"We'll have to give the people a sur
prise."
And they did!
riddLes
What made the moon laugh?
To see the star fish (starfish).
? , i ? ? e
. i
What cracker can you never set
light to?
A nut-cracker.
? ? ?
Why Is E the most unfortunate 6t
. letters? . . k
Because It Is nevef tn cash and al-^j
ways In debt, and never out of dan*** 1
"NOBLE RED MAN"
' .h ? jL
Indian of the Frontier as He
Really Was.
Found Highest Enjoyment in the In
fliction of Suffering, and N- -
Brave in Battle.
During the period cf the Spanish
risk in our West ? it became, actually,
an Indian risk ? Indians killed nearly
three hundred white men, women and
children, and wasted, burned and de- i
stroyed a million dollars in properties, |
They were, more than anything else,
destructive; tliey loved excitement;
and what they preferred above all was
| running off the live stock of a cara
j van ; then they could get some fresh i
meat and horses and till the remaining I
horses and cattle \\4th arrows, shoot i
them at point-blank range with old i
firelock fuses.
The Jlcarillas were dmnken pottery
turners; the Utes were the best armed ?
j of all the local tribes, they were su- j
' perior in war and hunting. But their j
war making was peculiar, and highly |
reasonable, in that they Insisted on j
event circumstance favorable to them- ]
selves. Failing tills they wouldn't J
tight ! For attack they preferred the j
passage of the late moon ; and it was 1
their pleasure to happen on some de
tached woodchoppers, a lonely mes
senger or a small party of wagons in j
j a narrow canyon.
j Occasions like those', gave their
! sense of humor and ingenuity full j
"play; If they were in a hurry the mur- ;
dering would be swift, the scalps se- ?,
cured without ceremony ; but when the J
j situation was safe they lingered over
I preliminaries and refinements. It was
j their ambition to lay bate terror and j
uncover pain, and their inventive fac- j
ulties were endless; there would be
more premonitory touches of steel and i
flame, little whisperings of torment,
the feathery edge of agony, an eter
nity of hours before the blackened
end.
The Indian regarded this as nor- j
mal, an end to be avoided, of course,
hut faced with the inevitable, they ac
cepted it in the image of men of stone.
The objections, the tenderness of the
white race, seemed to them wholly un
reasonable; the cries and expostula
tions they must have regarded as no j
less comic than conte;uptible.
Vanity both in conduct and appear
ance was the mark of a proper mascu- !
line carriage; the men rather than the j
women painted ; they eradicated every
hair from their beard i and eyelashes
I and eyebrows, and, slitting their ears
to hold pendants, lun g beads to the
weight of half a pound from ea<-h. For '
the rest, they wore broech clouts, moe- |
casins and leggins of strouding, and a j
rug; they wove their hair with gum !
and paint, trinkets and feathers; and, I
! at war, coated their ."aces with char- j
coal. '
The bows they car -led were three;
and four feet long, nade of elastic I
wood, elks' horns, ;>r, more infre- |
quently. of buffalo rl,l i\ but bone was
Inferior to the bols d'urc wrapped and j
lined with sinew. They carried, as I
well, lances. the inevitable scalping :
knives ? in the South" vest there were
no tomahawks ? and shields of elk
hide painted with the *igns of the enf
infes they had killed.
At peace in the'r villages the
shields, and sheafs of pipestems j
wrapped in red ar.d 1 Hie cloths, were
hung on tripods before the^ lodges of
buffalo hide nibbed soft with the
brains of that indisputable animal ?
a buffalo liver dipped !n gall they con
sidered the greatest of delicacies ?
and there, to a Utile drum and a ?
squeaking pipe, the*/ indulged in
dances of a most humorous obscenity; j
there they were domestic.
Solemnly they slnp^d their naked
and solemn sons, and varied the srriok- ;
ing of their forma! an?'l informal pipes ;
by the food with winch they literally '
stuffed themselves. In their philosophy
and existence, in their fate, there was
no tomorrow. ? JosepN Hergesheimer
in the Saturday Evening Post.
Fooling the Dugs.
A motorist in the South once'stopped i
for water at a dilapidat ed house where i
a barefooted man, leaning against a!
rickety fence, was gaz! <ig meditatively
across a field that ha 1 grown up to
weeds. "How is your cotton this
year?" the motorist asl ed.
"Well, sir," replied tf ie man, "I ain't
got no cotton. - I dldtn't plant none -
cause I was afraid (he boll weevil
might be bad."
"How is your corn?"
"Well," came the reply, "I didn't
plant no com nelthe; , for I didn't
know if we'd git rain."
The motorist hesitated. "How are
your sweet potatoes?" he asked at last.
"Well, now, strangnr," the man re
plied, "yoik see, it's j?.Ht this way : I
?didn't plant no sweet pertaters cause
I was afraid the bugs might take them.
No, sir, I didn't plant nothln'. I Just
played safe." ? Youth'u Companion.
Poor Hubby I
? The bride's mother wanted to know
how the groom was bring treated, and
asked what vhey had for dinner Mon
day. .
"Oyster* on the half shell;" replied
the bride.
"And Tuesday?" again the mothu
asked. ' j. ... . : 4
'Oysters on the half shell."
"What did ypu hays Wednesday?"
"Oysters on the half shell."
- "See here," demanded mother,
"doesn't your husband care for any
thing except oysters oil the half shell?"
^ "I suppose he does," ansvered ths
^ride, "but It sstss such a lc vof.?ish
washing."
Horticultural
Points
G000 CARE OF RASPBERRib
Canes Should Be Cut Back jn s
to Desired Fruiting Hei^t^
Look for Disease.
The New I^rk expert awr,: st
has sent out a circular on ran t,f J *
berri^ ; .
With the close of the fn;it:n,
son horticulturists at the ?*\,^ri!;
station at Geneva are rer-oiium.,^
the removal and destruction ^
fruiting canes In all rasj,b.- v J(lj
ings. These old canes a re r.., i,)r
needed by the bush and th?-v ;ijiV J
bor disease organisms or
which might infest the u#??v -r,)A,
The removal of the old cam*s win &,
.give more room for new jn-i.wu, tj
next season.
In the spring the canes of m
berries should be cut back to u l|o>jr,
fruiting height, usually thr ,r fo
feet from the ground, d?'p?Mi.|it,jr ,
the vigor of the bush. Blarfc
ries require more severe pruning th]
the red varieties as tW <.m
A . .
A Bundle of Ranere Raspberry Plant*.
canes should be removed and the
growth checked In the summer by
pinching off the succulent tip* of rht
new canes at about two feet from th?
ground. Since the new rones d<> not
all grow at" the same time it is neces
sary to go over the Hushes several
times during "the stfmmer. In th*
spring the side branches \vhi<n have
developed as a result of this summer
pruning should be cut back from one
third to one-half their length.
Raspberry growers are urged to m
on the lookout for plants affected w!th
mosaic or yellows and to remove an?l
destroy all such plants, including tlw
roots and suckers, as that is the only
way in which the disease can I*
stomped out. The mosaic is character
ized by the mottled appearance of th?
leaves and the dwarfing of the <-am"?.
In setting out new plants care shotiM
be exercised that only disease-free
stock is used as any part of a dis
eased plant will bring the disease into
the patch where it will gradually
spread to healthy plants.
AVOID SUNSCALD IN WINTER
If Alternate Freezing and Thawing
Continues Bark on Exposed Side
of Tree Dies.
Just from the sound of the name on*
would think sunscaJd a suinnier
trouble ift the orchard. It is true tti*
hot sun in summer, especially in some
regions, may canse the trouble. h?!t
sunscald may occur in its worst form
In winter, as well.
During many winter days, the ?un'?
heat may warm up the southern or
southwestern sides of trunks ami
branches to the thawing point.
night the wood freezes again. If thi?
alternate freezing ond thawing con
tinues for any considerable length
time, the bark on the exposed side <?
the tree will die and split off. H"1
broken bark offers a point of entrant
for fungus tree diseases of many kinds
which may ultimately kill the tree.
Where conditions are especially i '1'
It will pay to shade the soiithwM
portions of the trunk and branch**
(Cornstalks, straw or similar material
bound about the branches will giv*
cellent protection. -
SPRAY. TO CONTROL INSECTS
Uae of Lead Arsenate When About 90
Per Cent of Blossoms Have
Fatflen, Is Urged.
*1
It wiU still be worth while for "vtl
ers of peach trees to spray for tl?**
control of curculio and other
The best spray for this purpose
lead arsenate, using one and :? 'llt'
pounds in 50 gallons of water nn?l *1'*
plying when about 90 per cent of
blossoms have fallen.
GET RID OF WATER SPROUTS
Rubbing Off In Spring After Heavy
Pruning /Will Save Much Needed
Nourishment.
After heavy pruning is done in f',e
spring, especially in the case of apr'^
trees^ there is an unusual growth
water sprouts. These may be rea?lil.v
rubbed off with the hand, thus savin
nourishment which otherwise woukI
go into water sprouts. Getting rl i
of water sprouts now also will s*v*
time in pruning later.
/