Adventure Magazine Cover — page 202: what you’re looking at

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

200 course, or—witchcraft. There’s a delightful story about a king who was too fond of sport; pony- racing and cock-fighting and buffalo-fighting and so on; and his ministers pleaded with him that he was devoting too much time to sport and not enough to the government of his people; but he still sported. So they went to a wizard who lived on the top of Mount Kora-rata-una, and the wizard made a great seven-weeks magic and turned all the king’s sons— he had some four hundred of them—into ponies and cocks and buffaloes. But the unregenerate king went right on sporting and traveled extensively throughout his dominions fighting all the cocks and buffaloes and racing all the ponies he could find; and by their characteristics he recognized one by one bis sons and took them to another wizard who made a great magic and turned them back into usable young men again. And, behold the miracle, the king, in traveling so exten- sively amongst his people had learned to know exactly what were their manifold needs, and his government thereafter was wise and just in the extreme. P’raps you can use this story for your theme. As it is rendered in the local open-air theaters a considerable element of humor and shrewd observa- tion of human nature is injected into the play by the delineation of the grosser characteristics of some of the sons—the coward, for instance, being the fighting cock that runs away; the glutton, th> boor, the grouch, and so on accordingly. As to religion: the Encyclopedia Britannica out- line is very concise and tells you quite as much as I know. I might elaborate a little on the meager refer- ence to the simple spirit worship of the mass of the common people by saying that they fill the woods and streams with a host of spirits of the conven- tional spook or goblin type who are benevolent or spiteful as the local case may be. These elves may bé propitiated by offerings or antagonized by any one of a million things that they don’t like one to do, such as crossing a certain tree shadow without muttering an invocation to that particular spook who lives in the tree, or washing one’s skirt in a pool more than three times without making an offering of pink-dyed rice. You may safely imagine almost any quaint super- stition of a simple-minded people and introduce it ad lib into your playlet. The rule for your hero would be, if he is rich, to surround him with a crowd of wives and guards and ministers; if poor, he must be a woodcutter or a tiller of the soil, in which case he must be honest and hard-working and hopelessly in love with the local land-owner’s daughter. I’m sorry I can’t quote you more books on the subject; but I just don’t know of any in English. If I can add anything to what I have told you, don’t hesitate to cal upon me. And I wish you luck with the fearful and wonderful thing that your Siamese ballet will be. But don’t let the difficulty of getting data discourage you. A little inaccuracy won’t prevent it from being, possibly, a very artistic and interesting offering. I wish I could see it. Be sure to accompany your letter of inquiry with a stamped, addressed envelop. Our Question and Answer Service 1s free, but ex- perts are not required to reply to letters in which no return postage has been inclosed. Adventure Rifles Hew to convert an Army rifle into a sporting model. Mr. Wiggins de- scribes two methods of doing this difficult job, one of which has the recommendation of having been used successfully by himself. Request:—“T am figuring on converting an U. S. Army rifle into a sporting model and would like some pointers. I have never seen one so converted, but know that it is done. Whatever information you can give me will be appreciated, as I don’t want to bungle the job.”—R. L. Assury, Detroit, Mich. Reply, by Mr. Wiggins:—In converting a Spring- field service arm to a sporter, I’d first join the National Rifle Association as an annual member, a blank for which purpose I enclose. Ask for a list of the supplies for sale to members at the same time. In this list you will find stock, sporting type with short forearm and pistol grip, the buttplate and screws adapted to same. Having received this stock, remove the rear sight of the rifle, by dismounting the gun, and driving out the traverse pin which holds the rear sight sleeve to the barrel, located on the underside of the barrel, driving it forward with a brass or copper punch. Then have the barrel reblued and polished, and place in the sporting stock, adjust a Lyman or B & M or Howe-Whelan rear sight, and you have a perfectly serviceable rifle. I, myself, did not remove the rear sight sleeve from my rifle; merely removed the sight itself, by screwing it out to the side, and cut off and polished the sleeve to a nice finish, removed and blued it ina gasoline torch flame, and put it back in place, thus doing away with the abrupt shoulder at barrel and cylinder. I feel proud of the job, too. A most excellent method, if you wish to do ALL the work yourself, is to order, from the N. R. A. “The Amateur Gunsmith,” Col. Whelan’s book, and in that you will find complete directions for stock making, etc. Or, you can get Hoffman Arms Co., Ardmore, Oklahoma, to do the job. Prospecting Ae ee Oa S the days when one started out to look for gold with no other equipment than a pick or a pan are now dead. The course of preparation outlined below seems fairly complete. Request:—“T would like to get a little imformation about mining laws, mining methods and practise, where and how to prospect, how .o outfit and general geology necessary for a prospector. T might try Cal. this winter if I get the chance, if I don’t I will try Alaska iz the Spring. __Satva- TORE DominiceE, New Britain, Conn. P.S.—What will an outfit cost, and where is the best place to prospect? Reply, by Mr. Victor Shaw:—Prospecting needs— besides experience—a knowledge of rocks and of minerals. It is too big a subject for instruction by COMICLOO© S CO