This pitiable state of affairs will, however, soon disappear, as the Chinese coal miners and merchants have united with a view to increasing their production and sales at Pekin by the aid of improved means of transport, and the cableway recently constructed will do away with all previous drawbacks. As the narrow valley with its many sinuosities did not allow of the installation of any ordinary railway, a cableway freely suspended above valleys and heights obviously was the only solution of the problem.

About six hours' ride up the mountains commences the coal district, where many villages are spread over the more or less precipitous valleys. The coal mining is carried out on a system quite novel to western travelers. Whereas in Western countries large mining companies are formed which, in order to get at the veins, have to sink expensive shafts hundreds of feet deep, keeping an army of miners at work below ground, the anthracite in the rocky valley of the Liou-li-Ho comes to the surface, so that

each peasant is able to carry on his mining separately with the assistance of his sons, by furrowing tiny mole-like galleries into the mountains. The coal is mined in a most primitive manner without any working funds or machinery, being taken to the surface on sledges with wooden runners. As a rule, four to eight men are found working alternately in the same gallery, the coal being accumulated in large heaps, whence formerly were loaded the camels and mules transporting it to the railway station. Here now begins the cableway which extends down to the valley city.

While the means of transport have now become thoroughly modernized it will be long before any up-to-date methods may be introduced into the exploitation of these coal mines as foreigners are not so far allowed any share in the mining business of the interior of China. The fact that European engineers have at last, for the first time, been admitted into these secluded districts is significant of the new spirit in China.

JAI 'AI ALAI, the great gambling game of Cuba, is unique among all other gambling contests in, that it calls for as high a degree of bodily skill as mental. One who has seen the game describes it as "a superb display of human agility and high training." The successful Jai Alai contestant must accustom himself to sustain a strain of continuous violent exercise. "The Jai Alai player," says the same authority quoted above, "dies young."

In Havana, the contests are scheduled for every Tuesday and Thursday nights and Sunday afternoons. Thousands of spectators, the most of whom are there to gamble, often witness the game at one time. The prices of admittance range from $2.50, each person, down to $1.00, according to the fame of the contestants. High walls of stone enclose the Jai Alai court on three sides; the floor also being paved with stone. Metal markers against the wall designate the limits within which the ball must strike. The ball used is one of India rubber covered with leather, and weighs

Some

about one-quarter of a pound. The ball is thrown to the wall from a small curved basket attached to the wrist of the player, and is caught again in the rebound by means of the basket. A failure to catch the ball on the rebound, or the throwing of it outside the proscribed limits is counted a miss, and scores one for the opposing side. The scores, as fast as made, are registered in sight of the spectators. The score runs to thirty. When it is nearing completion, the spectators go into a frenzy of excitement. have gone insane on the spot from losses; others have committed suicide. It is now played under police restrictions, but still many scenes of horror occur. The more morally inclined Cubans have made frequent attempts to have the game suppressed by law. In a speech in the Cuban Senate some time ago, Senator Sanguilly scathingly pronounced Jai Alai "a social cancer, whose results are the ruin of many persons, the cause of commercial failures, and of the suicides of fathers of families and of youths of brilliant promise."

at the moment when the direction is suddenly changed. What is the nature and the cause of the force which tends so strongly to resist this change of direction that, often, the whole fabric is upset or even torn to pieces in the conflict?

Studying this problem, Thomas Preston Brooke, the well-known musician and band-master, has been led to certain radical conclusions. In defense of these conclusions Mr. Brooke has prepared certain experimental apparatus which which seems to demonstrate the truth of his contentions. He has also invented and built an eighty horse-power motor, for use in automobiles and aeroplanes, in which the danger of such accidents isin the opinion of the inventor, at least— entirely eliminated.

In brief, then, Mr. Brooke claims that a majority of automobile and aeroplane accidents of the destructive type are due to the gyroscopic force exerted by the revolving fly-wheels and clutches of their motors. When, in obedience to the steering wheel, the direction of a fast-moving car or flying machine is suddenly altered, the gyroscopic force of the fly-wheels and clutches continues to be exerted in the old direction. Hence the whole machine skids or even turns a somersault.

For the purpose of demonstration, Mr. Brooke has mounted a couple of gyroscopic tops on a small-wheeled framework, which may represent the chassis of an automobile. The two tops are set to spinning on their axles in a plane at right angles to the direction of the little car. The slightest attempt to change the direction of the car invariably results in its rearing up on its hind wheels like a bucking broncho. So strong is the force exerted by this upward leap that it takes a pressure of twelve or fifteen pounds to put the front wheels back on the ground.

How, Mr. Brooke asked himself, would it be possible to neutralize this destructive force of the necessary fly-wheel and clutches?

In the course of his experiments he one day set the two tops mounted on their small framework spinning in opposite directions—one from right to left, the other in the opposite direction. To his surprise the problem-from an experimental standpoint, at least-seemed

to be thus simply solved. With the tops spinning in opposition it became at once possible to alter the direction of the machine as suddenly as one wished without developing the slightest inclination to skid or somersault. The gyroscopic force exerted by each of the spinning tops was exactly balanced by that of the other.

In his effort to prove the practical force of this discovery Mr. Brooke made many experiments and built a large number of models. He has finally constructed a large motor on this principle, which develops about eighty horse-power and which, in actual operation, seems to give the final proof of the correctness of his theory.

In the Brooke "non-gyro" motor there are ten cylinders. They are mounted in sets of five on two circular bases, which revolve in opposite directions when the motor is in operation. The essential point in this motor, wherein it differs from all other revolving cylinder motors, is the fact that the bases carrying the cylinders revolve in opposite directions, the gyroscopic force developed by each being thus exactly neutralized by that of the other. In this way, while the fly-wheel of the ordinary motor is entirely eliminated and all the advantages of the revolving cylinder type retained, there is absolutely no danger from what Brooke calls the destructive action of gyroscopic force.

The Brooke motor, which is now apparently perfected, develops about eighty horse-power when all the ten cylinders are in operation. But, at the will of the operator, either half-containing five cylinders-may be disconnected, the remaining section developing forty horsepower, which is quite sufficient for the ordinary aeroplane or motor car. It is to be noted that when the gasoline is cut off from one section it still continues to revolve, thus still serving to neutralize the gyroscopic force of the other. At the same time the disused section is being thoroughly cooled, thus eliminating the danger of overheating and furnishing a motor which should be almost ideal for long-distance flights or runs.

As an engine for airships, especially, Mr. Brooke makes many other important claims for his new motor. It is said to be the lightest motor ever constructed in