What Sukey Caught

1916

Marian Churchill Graves

Although Janet and Sukey had fished together many times and never caught a thing, they were not discouraged. Almost every Saturday they sat on the sixth step of the high back porch and fished in the rainwater barrel below.

"It's your turn now, Sukey," said Janet one day, as she pushed the branch of a tree that served for a pole into Sukey's limp hand. But Sukey, being a rag doll, did not grasp the pole as she should, and the pole — twine fish line, bent-pin hook, and all — slid off into the barrel. Besides, the sudden push upset Sukey's balance and she followed the pole into the water. Janet almost fell down the steps in her hurry to rescue her dear playmate, but the barrel was so deep that she could not reach the pole or Sukey. Billy Austin, who lived next door, came when he heard Janet's cry for help, and with his father's hoe soon pulled Sukey out.

"Oh, look, what's this funny thing?" called Janet as Billy dropped the doll on the grass. "Has Sukey caught a fish?"

"Why, it's a pollywog!" cried Billy. "Sam Martin had some around here in a pail last night and he must have put one in there. It's a little frog, you know."

Janet looked carefully at the shiny brown body on Sukey's skirt. It seemed to be all round head and long tail, with no legs. Two bright eyes near the front of the head looked almost too big for such a little pollywog.

"Oh, Billy, let's feed him and keep him here, will you?" begged Janet.

Billy put the pollywog in a glass jar full of cool water, and every day after that he and Janet added fresh water and fed the little fellow leaves and seaweed. They could see quite plainly through the glass walls, and one day they discovered that the pollywog was growing two pairs of tiny legs. Every day the legs grew larger, and soon he looked like a frog with a long tail. Then the tail grew shorter and shorter until it was almost gone.

Billy said that now they must carry the frog to a frog-pond, where he could get enough to eat. Both children would have liked to keep the little fellow, but they knew that he would be happier with his friends.

Janet and Sukey still fish in the rain-barrel, but they never caught another thing. Perhaps Sukey would rather keep dry than catch even a pollywog. — Rome, N. Y.

Using the Forests

1916

Not more than 30 per cent of the timber in the forests of the United States is ever utilized as lumber, according to figures recently compiled by the Office of Industrial Investigations of the Forest Service. Seventy per cent, chiefly in tops, limbs, stumps, bark, sawdust, slabs and small and defective trees, is for the most part wasted. Of the wood in the individual tree 33.5 per cent is made into lumber and of the logs which reach the mill 40.3 per cent is worked up into lumber.

New uses for waste products are constantly being discovered. It is reported that dolls' heads are now being made from a composition of wood flour and rye flour. A planing mill company in California has discovered a profitable use for odds and ends, such as are generally sold for fuel under the name of mill blocks. It has established a shop for the manufacture of children's toys, which it is turning out by the carload. Another California plant is working up blocks into dowels; another into beekeepers' supplies.

Thru the medium of the Wood Waste Exchange organized and maintained by the Forest Service much waste material is finding use.

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Sept. 16, 1916, p. 6.

Seeking to Help Wounded Veterans Regain Lives

1915

No one has yet computed the sums which have been contributed by this country to the relief of war victims in Europe. The list of the official relief societies grows daily and the contributions run into seven figures, while placards announcing teas, dances, bazaars, fashion reviews and theatrical performances meet us on every hand. And still the insistent appeal goes on, in changing form to catch the attention of the generous. The greatest artists turn orators to beg for their pitiful, starving compatriots, and every ship brings an emissary with another earnest plea which cannot be resisted.

The latest of these emissaries is Mme. Charles Le Verrier, wife of the head of the College Chaptal, the great Lycee, or boy's school, of Paris, which is now, like all the others, a military hospital. She comes to the United States as the accredited representative of the Federation des Jouets, which has been formed for the benefit of the mutilated soldiers of the republic.

"Something had to be done to bring together individual effort and save the waste of funds and energy which comes from the lack of cooperation," Mme. Le Verrier says. "Wonders have been accomplished, but there is still so much to be done that we cannot afford to lose the smallest amount of time, strength or money. We found that we must organize, affiliate with the relief work of the provinces, and all pull together toward a definite end. The Federation des Jouets is one of the results of this attempt at organization.

"One of our greatest problems is the maintenance of disabled men after the war is over and during its course. We cannot consign them wholesale to institutions. There are too many, in the first place; France would become one vast institution if she attempted to care for all the wounded, the widows and orphans, and the destitute in that way. Besides, family life, the very foundation of the nation's life, would be in large measure destroyed. How to leave the wounded soldier in his home, how to provide him with a means of livelihood so that he may remain there with his family, is our great problem. Obviously he must first be taught to make something, and then a steady market must be secured for his work.

"We naturally thought of toys. Years ago the dolls of France had a great reputation, but we allowed Germany to learn from us how to make them, and then apply her genius for organization to take our market away from us. But we are going to win it back. The education of the men has already progressed wonderfully. While they are still helpless on their backs in the hospitals they are given wood and tools and models, and they dab at the bit of wood, happy in their hopes for the future. I have brought some of these tentative efforts with me, not that their crudity is interesting or attractive, but to compare with their later work as examples Of the rapidity of their progress. They learn very quickly indeed, and their delight in their own achievements is touching.

"More difficult than the teaching of the men is the finding of a market for their work. Europe doesn't want toys."

The Girl Who Is Always Good (poetry)

1878

THE GIRL WHO IS ALWAYS GOOD.

She never sighs;
She never grumbles;
She never cries
When down she tumbles.

She never soils
Her pretty dresses;
She never spoils
Her silken tresses.

With cap on head,
And wee hands folded,
She's put to bed,
And never scolded.

Oh, she's a pearl!
No mischief scheming;
There's such a girl—
Don't think I'm dreaming.

But not to tell,
Her name were folly:
You know her well,
For she's your Dolly!

—George Cooper, in Nursery.

The First Dolls, Beautifully Carved in Babylon

1920

First Dolls

The first dolls of which there is any knowledge were found among the treasures unearthed from the ruins of Babylon. They were small figures in terra cotta and ivory, beautifully carved and must have been fascinating playthings for little Assyrian children. The little girls of Syria had mechanical dolls. The dolls the classic children played with were made of wax and clay, decorated with bright colors. As these children married very young, they played with their dolls until just before their wedding day.


Artesian Wells

The Chinese have obtained water through means of artesian wells for over 1,000 years. One of the most famous wells in existence is that at Grenelle, in the outskirts of Paris, where the water is brought from a depth of 1,508 feet. It yields 516½ gallons of water a minute. Many years ago a well in Petsh was sunk to the depth of 3,100 feet.


Eliminated

Marie and Helen were playing house one day, when Ruth joined them. They were not particularly anxious to see her that day, and finally said, "Well, you can be the maid and this is your day out."—Nebraska Awgwan.

—Bedford Gazette, Bedford, Pennsylvania, January 9, 1920, page 10.