AT

T Zion City, Illinois, an electrically operated horn has been used to resist prayers and preaching of the "Zion Crusaders" of the religious sect founded by John Alexander Dowie. Every morning the loud-sounding horn is set to work, and the screeching can easily be heard a mile away. The "Crusaders" meet regularly at 7:45 A. M. for prayer. The owner of the horn objects to having these religious exercises carried

on across the street from his place of business. But apparently the uproar makes lit

tle difference to the undaunted "crusaders".

THE Park Department of Fort Worth,

Texas, has created a force of boy rangers to protect the parks. The innovation has proved a great success, for, where formerly the park commissioners found the small boy responsible for most of the damage done, now, since they have clothed him with authority and

They still keep up their prayers and singing, hoping that the tobacco-users and other "profane" men will be converted or else leave the city.

The meetings are really a protest against these invaders of a community that was established with certain restrictions, most of which the factory men have sought to destroy. You might as well try to smoke in a powder magazine as to smoke in Zion City; so strong is the resentment against tobacco in this town that a tobacco-user puffing a cigar on the streets is liable to arrest and fine.

made him feel responsible for the welfare of trees, flowers, swings, pools, etc., the trouble has practically disappeared. The police officers found that they could not cope with the mischievous youngsters. They always managed to escape. But the boys can't get way from their own leaders and companions. Fifteen to twenty boys have been appointed park rangers and regularly "sworn in" with ceremony. Badges are given them. The boys have their own way of administering justice if a culprit refuses to stand for trial.

It may be taken for granted that the method employed by the youngsters to bring the recalcitrant to time is far more unpleasant than the ordinary procedure would be. Hence, very few essay to escape justice.

A NAVIGABLE CHANNEL

TRAVELING ON LAND

BY BOAT

NTIL the railroad reached Klamath Falls, Oregon, the popular route into this interesting region included a most unique voyage by boat. Leaving the train. at Grass Lake Valley in California the traveler journeyed by stage for twenty miles and then embarked upon a good sized steamer which seemed to be resting upon the grassy prairie. Apparently there was not enough water in sight to float a saw log. When "all aboard" was given and passengers moved forward on the boat, they caught a glimpse of a narrow passageway cut through the waving grass and tules and then it was made evident that all this wide expanse of green was an island of grass and cattails under which there was a lake.

For a half dozen miles or more the steamer held its way in the narrow chan

nel and then struck out into open water. Here another curious thing was observed. The lake in some places was so shallow that the steamer actually plowed its way through the mud. The churning screw stirred up great masses of almost liquid mud of stygian blackness, and the weight of the vessel squeezed it upward on the sides. As the mud rose to the surface, thousands of small fishes were to be seen struggling to the top of the mass to escape suffocation. Whenever the steamer reached one of these shallows, an incredible number of gulls appeared, and screaming shrilly, began to devour the fish as they emerged from the mud.

OLDEST OF MEN?

WAH-HA-GUN-TA, the Chief Fire

maker, whose picture is shown herewith, is supposed to be the oldest human being in the world, at least the oldest in the United States, there being wellauthenticated evidence that he was born in 1781. He is a Blackfoot Indian, and his home is on the Glacier Reservation. He was the first red man in that territory to visit the "Great White Father," and his journey to Washington to meet President Jefferson was a great event in his life.

He is regarded by his tribe as an oracle, and at his birth the father of all spirits is said to have shot an arrow near his tepee as a prophecy that he would live forever.

His deep and numerous facial lines are prima facie proof of great age. Seldom, indeed, does one see so remarkable a face.

BIGGEST STONE

EVER QUARRIED? ONE of the most

interesting proofs of the wonderful civilization of the ancients is afforded by the great slab of stone at Baalbec, in Syria. This huge mono

urements show to be 63

feet long and 13 feet high. More remarkable still, they are placed in position 19 feet above the ground level. Moreover, although no sign of any cementing mixture is to be found in these ancient buildings, the stones have been squared and polished so evenly that only after the most minute search can the joints be found, and when traced it is impossible to thrust the blade of a pocket-knife between them! How these things were done is a standing mystery to the scientist.

lith is 69 feet long, 14 feet broad, and 17 feet in depth. It is said to be the largest piece of stone ever quarried, and its estimated weight is 1,500 tons. It is thought by archæologists that this huge stone was intended by the ancient builders to adorn the Temple of the Sun-now in ruins nearby. Here, in one of the walls which still stands, are to be seen huge slabs of stone, which careful meas

If necessity is the mother of invention, the needs of the ancients must have been very pronounced, indeed, when they devised

ways and means to so perfectly fit together these huge stones. Religion, a tremendously compelling force in the lives of the men of antiquity, perhaps is the best solution of the source of the inspiration that inspired them.

As an illustration of this we have but to point to the Egyptian pyramids-those gigantic pyramids of the dead.

A

N educational experiment is being conducted in the Washington home of Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone and the graphophone. The experiment is to ascertain if the Montessori child-training methods are as effective among the alert, eager-minded children of America as they were among the insane and defective children of Italy. It is now fifteen years since Empress Elizabeth of Austria, wife of Emperor Francis Joseph, met her untimely end at the hands of the Italian anarchist, Luigi Luccheni. When the news of the dastardly deed was flashed to Turin, it found a young Italian woman, a doctor, sitting among the noted educators of Europe

in an international educational conference. Uninvited to the meetings, she had sat quietly during the sessions, looked upon as an interloper by the school men, who thought there was nothing practical to learn from a medical representative. The news of the assassination of the Austrian empress brought a venerable and dignified educator to his feet to urge upon all teachers the great desirability of giving their classes moral instruction, inculcating upon them the horror of violence. When the applause which greeted these bromidic remarks had subsided, the young woman doctor, Maria Montessori, rose to her feet and delivered a speech which made her famous. She pointed out that in vain would