Adventure Magazine, April 10, 1924 — page 178: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

176 chaotically governed countries of Russia and China can not help but give pause to those whose respect for principles slowly forged out upon the anvil of time is less than their confidence in a boundless egotism. "T HERE is another angle to the situation, also, which is of particular concern to the develop- ment of ordnance and to industrial preparedness. The blow that the enactment of the proposed law would deal to the art of ordnance is obvious. The art must be kept alive if our status as a nation is to be maintained. It is already finding difficulty in surviving both from the military and from the civilian points of view. The total appropriation this year for the entire Ordnance Department is slightly more than five and one-half million dollars; in 1910 —certainly a normal pre-war year—the Department received over ten million dollars to carry on its work. Whether the importance of the question is not understood, or whether there is a misconception of facts we do not know; but one thing is certain: the art of arms must not be allowed to die nor be legis- lated out of existence. The principle involved, the right at stake, and the freedom of the individual and the nation demand a proper realization of the principles concerned and of the necessary steps to safeguard them. The Great War didn’t teach this nation much of anything. The above example of a national defense factor made half as strong after the war as it was before is a case in point. Ask the politicians why— the politicians and the other worshipers of the party system developed until party has become more important to them than country. T’S been so long since I’ve met our old friends the glass-snake, the hoop-snake and the rest of them that when the first named comes crawling out of our Camp- Fire cache I greet him warmly: The Star, St. Louis, Missouri. Here is something about the glass snake that may interest Camp-Fire: : MAN I have long known as honest and reliable in conversation recently mentioned that he saw a glass snake in the cemetery at Piedmont, Mo., last spring. He and a friend were out for a walk. The friend threw a stone at the snake and hit it, and it broke in three pieces, each of which made off in different directions. My informant, who pre- fers to remain nameless, said that only the head end of the snake seemed to know where it was bound and that the other two segments moved aimlessly although they traveled more than could be accounted for as mere serpentine writhing. The segments, he averred, fitted each into another much the same as a jointed fishing rod. __ My friend said that D. R. Thomas, a Piedmont merchant, frequently has seen these snakes which are from one to two feet long, slim and without any obvious markings. Adventure Interested, I consulted the dictionary, Webster’s unabridged. Eminent disputants to the contrary, here is what I found— : “Glass snake—a limbless lizard (Ophisaurus Ven- tralis), of the southern United States, superficially resembling a snake;—so called from its fragility, the tail easily breaking into small pieces; also applied to similar species found in the Old World. ‘They are perfectly harmless.”—H. T. M. ‘HERE were many more stories told of Swain and your strong liking for those told us thus far by Arthur D. Howden Smith seem full warrant for his going back into the past for more of them. ‘Swain’s Justice”’ in this issue brings to us again this sturdy old adventurer. HEF are two interesting bits from an American newspaper of 1833 and something about the exploring by one of our comrades of the crater of Mt. Popa in Upper Burma: Pittsburgh. I have just returned to America after an absence of five and one half years, having been in Upper Burma, India. etc., [ have found an old newspaper printed March 21, 1833, at Clearfield Town, Clearfield Co., Penn., and named the Clearfield Banner. It contains an item which I think should be taken note of, as it is a link in the historical events of before, during and after the Revolutionary War and the same article might not be found easily again. I think the data contained in the article may prove of interest to that excellent student of American Colonial history, Hugh Pendexter. I will thank you if you will pass the enclosed copy of the article on to him and let him use his own judgment as to its value. I have written to the Curator of the State Mu- seum of Pennsylvania at Harrisburg asking him to accept the old paper as well as some other articles of historical value which are in possession of myself and all handed down to me from ancestors and if the Museum accepts the articles the newspapers will be available there for reference. An exact copy of the article follows: “LONGEVITY ,—Died, at Columbia co. Va. “Captain Thomas Cobb, aged 120 years! He “was a Captain under Washington, and marched “against the forts on the Kanawha, then in the “possession of the French and Indians, several “‘vears before the defeat of Braddock. When 100 “‘vears of age, he frequently rode from 4o to 45 “‘miles in a day; only 4 years ago, he rode to Augusta, ‘40 miles in one day. The above being copied from the 15th issue of the Clearfield Banner, Thursday, March 21, 1833, printed in Clearfield Town, Clearfield Co., Penn., by M. Brown and W. L. More, Editors and Publishers. ANOTHER article which is of some interest to Americans who are wide awake appears in this same paper. It reflects the true American spirit and the desire to maintain the States as they were intended to be by the men of the days of Patrick Henry. I will give you an exact copy of the article as it appears, but unfortunately a few COnmiclboookkS.G© In going through some old papers.