Golden Age, February 14, 1923

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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 14, 1923

CONTENTS of the GOLDEN AGE

LABOR AND

Reports from Foreign Oor-rapondents

Reports from England

ECONOMICS

Reports from Germany

Reports from Switzerland 308

Hometeee Americana —313

SOCIAL AND EDUCATIONAL

Ku Kina Klan in Boston aw

Dm Degenerate Press anT

MANUFACTURING AND MINING

Disowns Packing House Article ___________

FINANCE—COMMERCE—TRANSPORTATION

Impressions of Britain Bleeping-Csn ———23T (Part III) . . . .. 288 DinlnfpCars

Railroad Buttons--296 Speedy British Trains —2M

Arrangement of Platforms 295 Britisher Abhors Noise

Billboards in Stations __298 Freight Cara va. Goods

Railway Passenger Can 298 Wagons ________■ ... 301

POLITICAL—DOMESTIC AND FOREIGN Amerieau Cruelty —

SCIENCE AND INVENTION Banting and Humidity ________________811 Humidity Retards Drafts

Overcoming Difficulties ___________________312 Bow to Teat for Humidity —. . - , ■

TRAVEL AND MISCELLANT The WorM*a Big Rlvm 2*1 Streams

“Tbt Egyptian Hope” 291 Timbuctoo and the Niger 283 Two Great Asiatic Rivera 292 Maekensle and St. Law-In the Southern Herai- renew

sphere _______ . .......,,.,883 The Volga and Obi

Three More Aalatle The Yukon and Indan —288

RELIGION AND PHILOSOPHY

Replies to Questionnaire 813 Dark Night of Papal Su-

Hard Nut for Evolution- premacy

tuts ____________________A14 Light infiltrates the Gloom SIT

God's Seven Messengers 315 Ahab’s Seventy Sons

When Error Began to Studies in the "Harp of___

Thrive _________81* God" —————813

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Golden Age

Talma IV

Brooklyn, N. Y., Wednesday, Feb. 14, 1923

The World’s Big Rivers

WE PLACE the Mississippi river at the head of the list The Amazon drains a larger area, carries several times as much water, and is longer than the Mississippi proper; but the Mississippi and its tributary the Missouri, when combined, have a total length of 4,650 miles, which is 650 miles longer than the combined Amazon and Ucayale. In point of length the North American river properly comes first. The actual length of the Mississippi proper is 2,553 miles. The drainage area is 1,259,000 square miles.

The valley of the Mississippi is the granary of the world. It produces in itself more wheat, oats, and corn than any other one entire country on the whole planet; and it is second in its production of barley and fourth in rye. It has sixty percent of the population of the United States and produces eighty percent of the wealth of the Union. In point of importance to the world at this time it is of far greater value than the Amazon.

When the Kaiser said during the war that “America is now a blown egg-shell,” his observation showed that he had never been in the Mississippi valley. If he had ever seen what that valley contains, he would have thought a long time before speaking in such a trifling way of an area singularly fertile and blessed with a climate unsurpassed.

The Amazon, which is really the world’s largest river, is so much larger than the Mississippi in the amount of water carried that it staggers one’s imagination to think of its volume. In flood time the Mississippi at New Orleans is big enough. It is always 60 feet deep and 3,100 feet wide at that point. It always carries one-third of all the river water of the United States. Always, every minute, it passes into the sea a bulk of water equivalent to twenty acres forty-two feet in depth.

But the Amazon! It h- s a drainage area of 8,000,000 square miles, is 180 feet in depth at a distance of 750 miles from its mouth, and in its entire system there are 50,000 miles of navigable waterways, as against 15,700 miles of such waterways on the Mississippi and its branches. River navigation in the U. S. A. as actually practised is such a sad subject that we dislike to think about it. A few old broken-down, wheezy, flat-bottomed, side-wheel steamers, and we are through.

When it comes to water, the Amazon every minute pours out into the ocean a body of water such as might be piled upon a twenty-acre lot if the pile were 200 feet high, or nearly five times as much as leaves the mouth of the Mississippi.

Great as are the undeveloped possibilities of the Mississippi, they are as nothing compared to the future which awaits the Amazon. Here is a region of such fertility that only swarming billions of people could ever subdue it. But they will be here shortly, and it will be subdued. Just now these billions are in their graves, awaiting the summons of the Prince of Peace to call them forth. (John 5:28) The valley of the Amazon is so choked with plant and animal life that it is fairly falling over itself. From its headwaters there is river communication to the Orinoco River on the north and to the Rio de la Plata on the south.

••The Egyptian Hope**

THE Nile, the Egyptian Hope, as it was anciently called, with a drainage area of 1,082,000 square miles, is 100 miles longer than the Amazon, but no one would think of it as a greater river. The lake in which it rises, Victoria Nyanza, is next in size to Lake Superior, the largest fresh-water lake on the globe, and is 4,000 feet above sea level In the neighborhood of this lake there are abundant and regular rainfalls, and the Nile issues from the lake a full-grown river. On its way north it passes through arid regions for such a long distance that it actually grows smaller instead of larger.

There is one place where it grows much larger, however, and that is where the Blue Nile joins the parent stream. Once a year, beginning in the month of June, the Blue Nile is in flood, due to the melting of the snows on the Blue Mountains. The rise in the waters continues for three months; and by September 1st the river, which had been twenty-five feet above its low level at Cairo, begins to recede. It is this annual flood which constitutes the source of Egypt's wealth. The silt brought down from Abyssinia is fertile food for plants, though it often fills the canals made to carry it.

A series of three great dams have been built across the Nile, to husband and regulate the flow of water. One of these is near Cairo; another is at Assiout, 250 miles upstream; and the third, at Assouan, 400 miles still further upstream, at the foot of the first cataract, is one of the great engineering works of the world. It is 130 feet in height and will pay for itself, principal and interest, in a short time, in the rent obtainable from land growing two crops per year which cannot now be used at all

The upper part of the Nile is choked with vegetable growths so thick and luxuriant that in places for miles at a stretch the surface of the river is completely hidden from view and elephants can and do cross its surface with no danger whatever of falling in. Here is another vast section of the world a thousand miles in length and in many places of great width that really needs a throng of humans to keep it in order. In due time it will have them. The Missouri-Mississippi, Amazon, and Nile are the only rivers in the world 4,000 or more miles in length. The Nile is 4,100 miles long.

Two Great Asiatic Rivera

WE DO, not hear much about the Yenisei, 3,400 miles in length, drainage area 1,100,000 square miles, the great river of Middle Siberia. We do not hear much of Siberia itself; but a returned American soldier, who was stationed there when Unde Sam was helping to repatriate the Czechoslovaks, and who traveled for thousands of miles along the line of the Trans-Siberian railway, reports that the soil is a black loam several feet thick, capable of raising tremendous crops under proper cultivation, and only waiting a decent government to be a paradise. The Yenisei though not a deep river in its upper readies is navigable for 600 miles from its mouth by ocean-going vessels. The mouth of the Yenisei, in the Arctic Ocean, is open for trade with Norway for six weeks in the middle of the summer, each season. The polar ioe-cap is rapidly melting, and in a few yean the valley of the Yenisei will swarm with people now asleep in death.

The Yang-tse-kiang, the next largest river in Asia, 3,302 miles long, drainage ana 950,000 square miles, rises in the mountains of Tibet, and after mon than a thousand miles of the wildest and most beautiful of mountain scenery passes peacefully through one of the most fertile and most densely populated areas on earth, the heart of China. In 1861 a Chureh-of-England battleship and opium squadron, engaged in spreading "practical” European Christianity among the heathen Chinese, ascended the river for mon than 800 miles. In the month of February the tides rise in the river as far as Lake Po-Yang, 436 miles from the sea.

In the Southern Hemisphere

THE Congo, 3,000 miles in length, drainage area 1,600,000 square miles, is next in size; it is an African river in the general form of a great arc, finding its outlet on the West Coast below the equator. It seems unfortunate that the Congo, though ten miles in width at its mouth, is navigable for only 110 miles by oceangoing steamers; but above the rapids there ars 7,000 miles of navigable streams, where a population of 30,000,000 natives has managed to live in spite of their unpleasant habit of eating one another and in spite of all the depredations that have been made upon them by the "Christian” slave-dealers and rumsellers that have gone there to civilize them. The volume of w«-ter issuing from the mouth of the Congo is only exceeded by the Amazon. Its basin is largely filled with impenetrable forests, due to the rich soil and the hot, moist climate. There are two rainy seasons annually in this territory and the time will come when it will produce an almost limitless amount of food.

The Parana-Rio de la Plata, 2,910 miles long, drainage area 1,240,000 square miles, is the great river which does for the southern part of South America what the Amazon does for the central part It carries off a body of water comparable to the Congo, and in its basin are found five of the most progressive countries of the continent which lies to the south of us. The estuary is 143 miles in width at its mouth; its shores are low; the currents are swift and the winds are strong. This makes the La Plata a dangerous river for navigation, though an immense business is done through the ports of Buenos Ayres and Montevideo, and ships of 4,000 tons can easily make their way 400 miles upstream. Smaller vessels ascend 1,000 miles and, at high water, still further.

Three More Asiatic Streams

THE Lena, length 2,770 miles, drainage area 960,000 square miles, parallels the Yenisei on the east as the Obi parallels it on the west, and is navigable throughout the greater part of its course in the summer season. It is believed that when the time cpmes for opening up this vast basin by railroads from the south and by Arctic steamship lines from the north it will be found to be a wheat-growing district like Northwestern Canada, capable of sustaining an immense number of people. At present, like all Siberia, it is largely uninhabited.

The Amur, 2,739 miles in length, drainage area 786,000 square miles, rises in about the same place as the Yenisei, in Asia, and fiows eastward, separating Manchuria from Siberia for a thousand miles of its length. It is handicapped by a bar at its mouth; but there are numerous steamers above the bar which bring their goods to Khabarovsk for transport the remainder of the distance by rail. The winters are severe; but the country is richly timbered, has an abundance of fish and fur-bearing animals and is admirably adapted to pasturage and agriculture. It lies in the same general latitude as Winnipeg, Calgary and the populous and growing Canadian Northwest When the climate moderates, as it will under the reign of the Prince of Life, there are millions who wifl prefer the snappy winter seasons to milder climates.

The Hoangho, 2,600 miles in length, drainage area 200,000 square miles, is but 39 miles shorter than the Amur and is its nearest great neighbor op. the south, the rivers virtually paralleling one another. This great river is called China’s Sorrow, because in its time it has caused the death of millions of people. On one occasion when it was in flood, it carved a new course to the sea at a great distance from its original mouth. The river is broad and shallow, and unsuited to navigation. Its course is through an alluvial soil of unsurpassed fertility. The great plain, 700 miles long and about 300 miles wide, which constitutes its lower basin maintains a denser population than any other equivalent area of the earth’s surface. The river is crossed twice by the famous Chinese Wall

Timbuctoo and the Niger

HE Niger, length 2,500 miles, drainage area 584,000 square miles, is the great river of northwestern Africa, rises within 175 miles of the Atlantic Ocean and sweeps around a great semicircle back into the Atlantic. At the top of the immense circle, or rather we should say at the central point of the great arc described by the river’s course, in the center of a fertile prairie, lies Timbuctoo, destined, in the future, to be a rival of Chicago. Immense and fertile plains and forests stretch away to the east and west and south; and from this territory now come enormous supplies of oils, gums, ivory, and ostrich feathers.

Timbuctoo is at the head of navigation o£ the Niger, and a natural collecting and distributing depot for the products of the region. For generation the Arabs have carried the products northward to Tripoli, across the Sahara, making two round trips per year. Now the French are connecting Timbuctoo and Tripoli by rail, and the trip will be made in a few hours. Meantime a third of the goods are proceeding down the fifteen hundred miles of more or less dangerous navigation to the seaboard, where they constitute part of Britain’s valuable imports.

The Mackenzie and St. Lawrence

THE Mackenzie, 2,300 miles long, drainage area 600,000 square miles, is the great river of Northwest Canada which, like the Obi, Yenisei, and Lena rivers of Siberia, flows northward into the Arctic Ocean and which can never become a great avenue of transportation from the seaward end until the Arctic Ocean warms up. At present it is navigable in its southern reaches and tributaries for about 2,000 miles. It is the most productive fur district in the world, and is believed to have vast petroleum deposits awaiting development. The central and southern portions will produce great crops when the growing season becomes a little longer, as it will under the new conditions about to come in earth’s affairs.

The St. Lawrence river, drainage area 410,-000 square miles, of which the Canadians are so justly proud, comes next in length, with 2,200 miles, from its rise in Minnesota and its passage through the greatest fresh-water lakes on the globe to the gulf of St Lawrence at its end. This river is so well known to most of our readers thab-it needs little mention. Immediately below Lake Ontario are the Thousand Islands, a famous summer resort, resting upon its bosom. At present, the millions of people on both sides of the St Lawrence, and 500 miles back from its shores and from the shores of the Great Lakes through which it passes, are planning to have it made into a waterway that will take ocean-going ships direct from Chicago and Duluth to any ocean port in the world. The St Lawrence is famous for the clearness of its water and for the uniformity of its flow at all seasons. It has an extreme width of fifty miles at its mouth. Below Quebec for 250 miles the river proper has been drowned, as a distinct river channel 800 feet wide has been traced to the gulf and 100 miles into the gulf itself.

The Volga and Obi

THE Volga, 2,200 miles, the same length as the combined St. Lawrence and Great Lakes, and with a drainage area of 563,300 square miles, is the only European river which enters into our list of streams 2,000 or more miles in length. It is located in eastern Russia, and is navigable almost from its source to its mouth. The river abounds in fish of unusual size, and the banks are fertile and often well wooded. With its tributaries it affords about 7,000 miles of navigable waterways. An odd thing about this river, the greatest in Europe, is that it flows into ah inland sea which has no outlet — the Caspian Sea.

The river next in size, the Obi, 2,120 miles long, drainage area 1,250,000 square miles, is an Asiatic stream and may be described as paralleling 4he course of the Yenisei. It is the great stream of Western Siberia as the Yenisei is the stream of Central Siberia. The place where it empties into the Arctic Ocean is near where the Yenisei empties; and when the Arctic becomes the general highway ol commerce about the northern portion of the earth, which it is bound some day to be, the valley of the Obi will be of great commercial importance. Geographers already predict that it will become one of the important food-producing regions of the world. It is navigable by large boats for a thousand miles, and with its branches has several thousand miles of navigable waterways for river craft. Those who imagine that the world is full of people had better look up some of these valleys and find out what a great place this world is.

The Yukon and Indue

THE Yukon, 2,044 miles in length, drainage area 200,000 square miles, is the great stream which rises in Western Canada and flows the entire length of Alaska westward into Bering Sea. In the three or four months in summer in which it is open, there is navigation for a distance of 1,866 miles. Indeed, it is the fifth river in the world in the length of navigable waters, being exceeded only by the Amazon, Mississippi, Missouri and St. Lawrence. There is already some gardening done in the valley of the Yukon, with an immense development sure to come within a century or so.

The Indus, 2,000 miles long, drainage area 328,400 square miles, is the last one in our list We might go on and describe hundreds of other magnificent streams; but we must stop somewhere, and decide to make 2,000 miles the limit The Indus, the most westerly of the great rivers of India, sustains great losses through evaporation, irrigation and sinking into the sand, and on the whole its valley is not so fertile as the basin of most great riven in India and elsewhere. Nevertheless, millions of people find a livelihood upon its banks.

In view of this brief and elementary glance at the great river systems of the earth, and of the certain knowledge that there are hundreds of great systems which could not even be mentioned, how evident it is that the earth contains all the room Jehovah will need to make it the paradise for earth’s restored millions, which He has declared that it shall be in the “times of restitution.” With a little time, a fit-tie changing of the climate, the means are at hand to feed and to care for them as fast as they come back from the great prison-house oi. death which Christ is about to open.

- Impressions of Britain—

LANDING in Liverpool in the early evening, the American’s first objective is London, 192 miles away; and he is whirled away to the Lime Street Station to get the midnight train. A glimpse from the taxicab window reveals the great difference between American street-cars, of double length and only one story in height, and the British tram-cars, as they are called, with a compartment downstairs for the ladies and accommodations upstairs for smokers. There are practically no one-story street-cars in Britain, and there are no two-story streetcars in America.

When the taxicab driver lands his passenger at the Lime Street Station, he seems to try to take advantage of the American’s unfamiliarity with British money; for he fails to give him the right change. A friendly Briton standing by reproves him and sees to it that the error is corrected. The driver protests that he thought that two of the two-shilling pieces which he had tendered as part of the change were half-crowns (2j shilling pieces), but rectifies the error as the Briton insists that the matter be made right. .

Railroad Stations

BRITISH railway stations are of many different designs, and all are quite different from those with which Americans are most familiar. The usual style of American railway station is one large central waiting-room, brilliantly lighted and steam-heated; and within this one enclosure there are ticket offices, news stands, telephone booths, telegraph offices, toilet rooms, barber shops, information bureaus, restaurants, shoe-shining parlors, parcel rooms, and baggage departments, as well as the seats upon which one may wait for trains.

The usual style of British railway stations is the great iron and glass arched roof similar to the South Station in Boston, the Reading Terminal in Philadelphia, and the old Broad Street Station in the same city, now in process of demolition. About twenty years ago these great arches went out of style in America, because they collect and retain the smoke from the locomotives, $nd in a few years become dark and dingy. With the advent of electric terminals, of which thele is none in England as yet, there is no need of such expensive and unsatisfactory structures; and in stations not yet fitted with electric approaches the train-sheds in America

-In Ten Parts {Part ni)

are of the sawtooth pattern,. with apertures over the stacks of the engines just sufficient in width to allow the smoke to escape without coming into the station at all The drainage of these sawtooth roofs is down the center of the columns supporting the same, and the net result is a clean and satisfactory train-shed.

Within the great arched enclosure of the British railway station there is perhaps a score of detached buildings, serving the same purposes as in America, but all detached from one another, or frequently so detached. There axe a guards room, a first-class ladies room, a firstrdass gentleman’s room, first-class refreshment room, first-class booking hall, third-class booking hall, cloak room, parcels office, luggage room, toilet rooms, etc. Some of the toilet rooms are very fine, finished in white tile, as in America, and with features such as salesrooms for personal necessities.

Arrangement of Platforms

SOME of the British stations are “open” stations, where any one who desires may go anywhere he pleases; and some are “closed” stations, where ingress and egress are by ticket. For a penny (2c) dropped into a slot machine any person may obtain a “platform ticket” and accompany his friend to the door of whatsoever train he wishes. In America friends are barred at the gates, and cannot get beyond them except by permission of the gatekeeper.

In the Lime Street Station, Liverpool, the train platforms are unusually wide and are so arranged that an automobile or other vehicle can drive right down the roadway in the middle of the platform and passengers may step from the cab almost directly into the door of the train. Quite a number of the stations in Great Britain are of this convenient type. There is no such arrangement anywhere in America.

In Britain certain trains always come in on certain platforms. This is not always the case in America. In America, if a friend misses the incoming visitor, the usual custom is for them to meet at the news-stand in the general waiting-room. In Britain, if the American does not see his friend waiting for him on the platform, he had better stay right on that platform and not go looking around for the news-stand unless he wishes to get lost and stay lost. That is what happened to your American in Sheffield. He tried using American brains in a Brit-IM

ish railway station, and it took him three hours to get found. Meantime his friend was in the same station, anxiously patrolling the right platform and wondering what had become of his peculiar charge.

In a "closed” station there is no way out of the station except at a gate, where the railway ticket or platform ticket is surrendered. There is no such arrangement anywhere in America, where all tickets are taken up on the train by the conductor or by a ticket collector. Most tickets in Britain are collected at the barrier, on arrival at the station.

All stations in the British Isles are like the Grand Central Station in New York, or the Pennsylvania Station in the same city, and in North Philadelphia, West Philadelphia, etc., in that the platforms are on a level with the railway-car floor and that the ears may therefore be entered .without ascending the four steps which are one of the abominations of American railway travel. As a result one cannot go from one part of a British station to another part without ascending and descending a flight of stairs, to carry him over or under the intervening tracks. But this is a good thing, however, for it prevents accidents. This form of platform is coming into more general use in America, and is without doubt the ultimate style. It would probably be adopted now all over America but for the enormous expense of equipping the cars and stations.

Billboards in Stations

RITISH scenery is not disfigured by billboards (hoardings, as they are called) as in the United States; but they make up for it in their railway stations, which are disfigured from one end to the other with posters on every conceivable subject. The Britisher traveling in America would be as surprised to see all our landscape disfigured by billboards and to see the beauty and fte tidiness of our railway stations, as the American traveling in Britain is to see the stations such a blotch of Dosters and signs of all sorts and descriptions, and the beautiful landscapes as yet largely spared. On t^e whole the Briton has the better ' of it in this respect. If the traveler is to be tortured by having thrust before him everywhere he goes the ubiquitous Bovril, Dunlap’s "Tyres,” Beecham’s Pills, Stafford’s Ink, Cartels Little Liver Pills, Ingersoll’s Radiolite,

Heinz 57, etc., it is far better to have the torture all in one place than to have it interjected everywhere between him and the landscape which he wishes to see. Most Americans think that Bovril is a great city, until they learn that it is a beef-tea extract

Railway Passenger Can

ALL railway-cars in American are entered from platforms at the ends. There are no outside doors anywhere except at the ends of the car, and the access to all parts of the car is by means of a -broad aisle extending usually down the center of the car. But in some special cars, such as dining-cars and certain types of sleeping-cars, a portion of the aisle may be at one side, to make more room for the dining-car kitchen or for the stateroom or staterooms of the sleeping-car. In Britain there are no platforms on the ends of the cars, and the cars are never entered except through the doors in the side. For the use of trainmen in the^ railway yards only, there are small running boards below the station platform levels, by means of which access to the car doors can be had in case of emergency.

On trains which have only a run of fifty miles or so — and there are many such in Britain — there are no corridors running lengthwise of the train, and there is no way at all of going from one end of the train to the other. The aisles are crosswise of the train, with doors on each end and with a long seat on each side. There are windows in the doors, and two additional windows at each end of the compartment, making six windows in each compartment. The cars are 8| feet wide, feet narrower than American railway cars. On the long seats there is room for five passengers, or ten for a compartment The seats face each other, so that half of the passengers are riding with faces forward and half with faces to the rear. In five weeks’ experience there were seldom more than four in a compartment, and in numerous instances the compartment was occupied alone. There are no toilet occommoda* tions in this class of railway cars.

These compartments are unsafe for women. Suppose two women are riding alone in a compartment The train stops and a man gets in; it stops again and one of the women gets out What is the other woman to do! IJTiat will be the outcome if it turns out that the man is * moron, a degenerate? Six bodies of English girls have been found alongside British railway tracks in the past six months, where they have been thrown by other occupants of their compartments; and there is no clue and no possible way of identifying the miscreant or telling from what compartment the victim was thrown. There is the bell-cord in the top of the compartment which may be pulled and the train stopped, if one could reach the bell-cord. But there is a penalty of five pounds for improperly pulling the cord.

British railway-cars are of various lengths, equipped with five, seven, eight or nine compartments. The shortest ones are but little more than half the length of the longest, which have nine compartments and are of the same length as the American cars. The shortest ears have three wheels on each side, one in the middle of the car, and look very odd to an American. The compartments are marked on the outside, to indicate whether they are first- or third-class, whether smoking, or non-smoking, or whether exclusively for ladies.

The upholstery is luxurious high-back upholstery, of better quality in the British third-class cars than it is in the standard American day coach. The only difference between British first-class accommodations and third-class is that the upholstery of the first-class is still better and that the fare is about six cents per mile instead of about three cents for third-class. There are first- and third-class compartments in the same car. The seating capacity of a nine-compartment car is ninety passengers; the seating capacity of the standard American day coach is eighty passengers. American cars are two feet higher in the ceiling and are better heated and ventilated.

In the matter of heating, Americans overdo it and Britons underdo it. They are about 15° or 20° apart in their estimates of what makes for hum&n comfort. The British sit in comfort in temperatures of 55°; and if it gets any hotter they open the windows. It is more often 75° in American railway-coaches than it is 70°; and if it were reduced to 68° the people would be better off. '

In Britain^ there is nothing that compares with the elaborate, ornate, and luxurious Pullman chair-cars and sleeping-cars that traverse the American continent day and night in every direction. In these solid Pullman trains, some of which have continuous runs of over two thousand miles, one may live in the greatest luxury — have everything obtainable in a first-class hotel. Some of these trains not only have parlor-cars with swivel seats and observation-cars and reading-rooms with luxurious movable chairs, but barber shop, bath, ladies maid, valet, stenographer and typewriter, wireless concerts, telegraph operator, refrigerated air, and electric fans. Most Americans who make long trips use these trains.

Sleeping-Can

the and can the

rPHE American sleeping-cars are transformed by day into handsome coaches in which every other seat faces the rear of the train. During the day the upper berths are locked up against the ceiling, with their load of mattresses, pillows, blankets, curtains, and partitions; but the curves are so graceful that one who knew nothing of the arrangement would go through the car admiring its graceful lines and without any idea of the great amount of sleeping equipment conveyed. At night, on each side of aisle, there are two sets of berths, upper lower, in each of which two passengers sleep with comfort. There are springs to upper berth; while the lower berth is comfortable, but not quite as resilient. In each end of American sleeping-cars there are elaborate toilet rooms; but the disappearing wash basins of British “lavatories” (as their toilet rooms are always called) are an improvement on the fixed basins of American cars.

In one end of most American sleeping-cars there is a “drawing-room,” a comfortable bedroom with accommodations for five persons, with its own private toilet room, everything of the very best that ingenuity can provide. The charges for a drawing-room are eight times the charge for a lower berth and the charge for an upper berth is eighty percent of the charge for a lower. The berths are fitted with hammocks for clothing, curtains to insure privacy, electric lights, call bells wherewith to summon the porter, mirrors, double windows for protection against the cold in winter, and copper screens for protection from cinders in summer. These items are given for the benefit of the foreign readers of The Golden Age, of whom there are many.

British sleeping-cars are made and used exclusively for night travel They are not con-' vertible into day coaches. The compartment system is followed in this, as in all other British trains, two berths to a compartment There are no upper berths. The beds are not so large as in the American cars, and the toilet accommodations are primitive.

Dining-Can

RITISH trains are still lighted with gas; and some trains have felt hoods, which can be slipped over the globes to hide their glare; while electricity is now used exclusively on the better American roads. Some British dining-cars have an appearance almost similar to that of American standard sleeping-cars when in use as coaches during the day; but in general the American dining-cars are more elaborate than the British dining-cars, or have that appearance on account of the higher ceilings, larger windows, handsome movable diningchairs, and dainty electric lights on the tables. British dining-cars serve all meals table d’hote; Americans serve all meals & la carte, so as to squeeze more out of the patron and give him less for his money. One can get a first-class meal on a British dining-car for one-half what it would cost him on an American dining-car.

Up and down the platforms in the British stations go boys and girls with rolling buffets, from which there are served direct to the passengers who have already entered their compartments cakes, sandwiches, candies, and —what do you suppose!—TEA! In America, if they had such an arrangement, they would be Selling “hot dogs”—roasted frankfurters. The food is good, and the prices would make an American restaureteur turn over in his grave. A ham sandwich containing lots of real ham, and a good cup of tea with milk and sugar. How much! Sixpence — 11J cents American money. How much bread, ham, tea and milk and sugar do you suppose you would get in America for 11$ cents! ¥ou might go out and try it, and let The Golden Age know.

The stations are so large that a stranger should allow himself plenty of time to wander around and find out where he belongs. The American had-an hour to wait at Newport He stepped up to a police officer and asked: “Could you please tell me where is the post office!” Back came the surprising but altogether logical answer, "Outside.” And, sure enough! the whole town was not found under the station roof, and the post office was found to be just outside of it On the longer runs in Britain there are corridor trains, in which there are compartments the same as in all other trains, except that at one end these compartments open out into a corridor running the length of the car. On such cars there are toilet rooms or lavatories with a pleasing device on the doors which shows instantly whether the room is “Vacant” or “Engaged.” The locking or unlocking of the door throws into position a little sign just above the handle of the door, making it unnecessary to resort to the embarrassing expedient of trying the door. In each compartment of a British car there are five beautiful pictures of scenic points along the line of |he railway, and there is a mirror.

There are no conductors on British traina, and this sometimes leaves a stranger stranded. The American was bound from Leeds to Birmingham. He was in a rear car. The train got as far as Derby (pronounced Darby) where the front part of the train ran off to Birmingham (pronounced Brummagum); and it was not for three-quarters of an hour that the American discovered that he had been left

British trains do not wait for connections. The American, was bound from Bradford to Warrington. He changed cars at Huddersfield; his train was a minute or so late getting into the station, and the Manchester train had gone out on time. He waited half an hour, and got what looked like a through train for Warrington; but as the British do not number their trains (as is the universal custom in America) there is no means of determining from the time table whether the train which you board will do what you think it will do. Anyway, the train was a through train all right; but it went through Warrington at the rate of sixty miles an hour, without stopping. A British friend, who knew the ropes (and it is a delight to think of him), rescued the American at Manchester, and dragged him over to the local train, which followed the express only a minute or so afterwards.

Speedg British Trains

MAY be you think that is an exaggeration, about the trains running as fast as sixty miles an hour. We give herewith a list of fourteen of the fastest British trains compiled by a British traveling man, confessedly done in a hurry. The American list was compiled by the American who was rescued at Manchester from the fast train, and is believed to be a nearly accurate selection of the fourteen very fastest all-the-year regular runs in the United States. People who think there many express trains in either country that have a scheduled run of over sixty miles per hour are due for a shock.

KAILWAY SYSTEM STATIONS DISTANCES MILES PEE HOCH

American British American British

Philadelphia and Beading Camden to Atlantic City--55}---- ---6L67--

Great Northern_______________________Doncaster to York.-- 44'

Great Western_________________London to Bristol______118}

New York Central_________________Elkart to Toledo--------143____ ___57.20.-----

London and Northwestern_______London to Birmingham__113

Midland Westcliffe to London__ 47j

Great Central_______________Leicester to Landon____103}

Great Western___________London to Birmingham___________ ____110

Great Western._________London io Plymouth________ ___226

Central of New Jersey Elkins Park to Jersey City--81 ____54.61--

New York Central Syracuse to Rochester________________ 80}________ _______54.22_______

Pennsylvania____________________Manhattan Tr. to N. Phila-------77}............ ......53.58____

Pennsylvania.Pittsburgh to Fort Wayne________320}_________ _______53.24________

London and Northwestern__________London to Crewe------------ ----------.158 _________ ____52.37

New York Central________Rochester to Elkart_______.507}__________ __________50.89----

Michigan Central Detroit to Niagara Falls____227 ______ _____50.63____

New York Central______________Cleveland to Albany.....................^80____ _____48.56 .______

Pittsburgh and Lake Erie.___Pittsburgh to Youngstown___64}.......... .......48.15

Pennsylvania_________New York to Pittsburgh_________440}._ .....47.70

North Eastern______Newcastle to London 268}

New Haven_____________________Providence to New Haven______113 ....................47.41..______

Great Northern________Londonderry to Dublin.................175}

Blinois Central—__________________Kankakee to Carbondale_________196}________________46.42_________

Lehigh Valley_________________Buffalo to Sayre._...............176}.................

Great Western________________________London to Fishguard*....................261 ________ .46.06

Midland_____London to Glasgow........ ............424

North Eastern_____________________________Edinburgh to London_____ _____383 .—.45.06

Midland____________________Manchester to London________190 45.00

Composite Averages_____211j.___187}51.45

**The present world’s record was made by a mail train over this route, but we cannot give the figures.

British railway tickets show their cost upon their face — a very good plan, preventive of misunderstanding, and a great convenience to passengers who keep accounts of their expenditures. American roads should adopt the same practice. British time-tables have an excellent method of showing, numerically, the branch line connections. This feature should also be adopted by American railroads, and the British railways should resort to the American custom of numbering the trains, so that they can be identified by the passenger.

Country rambles or walking-tours are very popular with the British people. On any day in the year cheap tickets are sold, good to one s’ntion, ai’d returning from a different station pciaaps eight to ten miles distant. Out of Birmingham the Great Western advertises twentyeight such round trips, at an average cost of three shillings (67jc) for the round trip. If a dozen people wish to go to the city to see a prize fight or a ballet show, they can club together and get a special rate; but in some localities discrimination is made against parties that wish to go to town merely to attend a Bible lecture, and the special rates are withheld. This special rate is only for some kind of entertainment.

In America a passenger can take his baggage to the baggage-room, and by showing his ticket have it checked to any place in the United State*. He is given a claim check, which enables him on arrival at destination to have the baggage transferred to his home without the necessity of his looking after it- For all intents and purposes the baggage is checked direct from his hotel in Portland, Maine, or in Key West, Florida, to his home 4,000 miles away in San Diego, California, or in Bellingham, Washington. There is no snch arrangement in Britain. When the baggage-car comes to a stop, the baggage is piled ont on the platform, and the passenger goes forward and picks out what belongs to him. If somebody else gets there ahead of him and picks out the wrong baggage, somebody is the loser; but it does not happen. England is a Protestant country, and the people are honest. Nobody would think of taking ' .t did not belong to him; and this is one of the most charming traits of British character.

There are practically no "grade crossings” in Britain, and the trains can run at top speed without fear of running over anybody. In America the abolition of the grade crossings goes on slowly because of the great expense. And because there is no way by which cows could get upon the track the British locomotives have no “cow-catchers,” as the pilots on American engines are commonly called.

Britisher Abhors Noise

INSTEAD of a pilot in front of the engine there are bumpers, apparently arranged so that in case of an accident there would be a pneumatic cushion; for the Britisher has a penchant for doing things quietly that never seems to have occurred to the American. When the Britisher who has never been out of England is told that there are bells on American engines, he smiles incredulously and wonders what they could possibly be used for. He would be aghast if he could know that on some roads the bells are geared to the engine mechanism and ring monotonously all night long; and that besides, there are two long and two short toots of the whistle at every crossing in America, and the Crossings are a mile apart, so that the engine is tooting all night. There being no crossings in England, it is not necessary for the engine to toot; and it toots not

Still another item of quietude is that the English engine attaches to the train so softly and starts so softly that the passenger is unconscious of it. This is sometimes the case in America, with the accent on the “some.” And sometimes the passenger gets a jerk or a bump that nearly throws him out of his seat The good old New Haven takes the palm for bumps and jerks, and the good old Lackawanna is (perhaps maliciously) said to take the palm for general all-around noise. One thing is sure and that is that when a trainload of fifty “battleships,” each holding fifty tons of coal, starts for the top of Mount Pocono with one “hog” engine on in front and four hog engines pushing, the dweller in Scranton can hear every snort of those engines three miles away; and the wheels screech on the rails so that they can be heard a like distance. The British engines are all encased, and present a much neater appearance than the American engines. They seem to be about two-thirds the size of the ordinary American engine or half the size of the Lackawanna “hog.” The latter engine is truly a colossal machine, with a boiler so long that the cab is located half-way up its length. Its coal capacity is ten tons and its water capacity 8,000 gallons; and even the Lackawanna “hog” is small beside some of the special “Mountain Climbers" and oil burners built for other roads.

British engine have no cabs; the engineer has to stand at his work. British engines have no headlights in the American sense of the term. They merely use what look like ordinary handlanterns. There are places in America where the headlight of an oncoming engine can be seen sixty miles away. One of these places is on the New York Central Railroad between Toledo and Kendallville, Indiana, where there is the longest piece of perfectly straight trade in the world — 77 miles. .

Freight Can vs. Goods Wagons

ONE of the most interesting things to an American in Britain is the method of transporting freight The American standard freight car is 12 feet 5| inches high, 10 feet 2 inches wide, 8 feet high inside and 35 feet inches long inside or about 40 feet over all. It has a rated carrying capacity of 100,000 pounds, or 50 tons. Furniture and automobile cars are 60 feet long. There is nothing of this kind in Britain, where the term freight car is not known. To take its place there are goods wagons, which are really wagons, with spokes in the wheels. In America all car-wheels are solid. The British goods wagon is apparently about twelve feet long over all, and between nine and ten feet in height. It has four wheels, one on each corner, and a rated capacity of ten tons. To an American these cars look like playthings; and it is probably the amusement of Americans at the smallness of these cars that has caused many Americans to be disliked in Britain. These goods wagons have old-style hand brakes, bumpers and chains — no airbrakes or automatic couplers as in America.

It does not follow, however, that because a thing is small it is undesirable. There are advantages in having small freight cars, even if there are larger advantages in having larger ones. Every manufacturing concern in Britain, and every mining concern apparently, has its own cars; for there is the greatest possible variety in name, and this enables the concern to do business direct with its customers, a great advantage. Moreover, this distribution of small cars tends to keep business distributed instead of centralized in the hands of a few great magnates. Again, a customer can afford to buy in carload lots; whereas in America only those who are financially great can undertake the responsibilities. The little British flat-cars look as if they would have difficulty in handling one scoopful from a steam-shovel, but apparently the steam-shovel is a stranger to Britain. None were seen in a five weeks tour, whereas in America one could not take a five-day tour without seeing several.

One interesting and practical method of freight delivery was witnessed, caring for the daily interchange of products between Belfast, Ireland, and London. A truckload of goods came to the pier at the last moment. Its contents were in four great boxes mounted on wheels. The boxes were slid out of the truck, and run up the gangplank on their own wheels. The next morning, at Fleetwood, on the eastern side of the Irish Sea, they were again run on their own wheels into the train which transported them to London — a quick, efficient, economical method. America is now giving attention to this very problem — efficient handling of less-than-carload freight. On August 1,1922, British railroads announced a reduction of twenty-five percent of the war increase, affecting every class of goods.

In American railway stations, on account of the platform being three or four feet below the level of the floor of the car, mail, express and baggage are loaded to and from the car by means of trucks, the platforms of which are just level with the floor of the car. From these hand trucks the articles are loaded to and from the street trucks, which are the same height. This prevents unnecessary lifting of the packages. This cannot be done in a British railway station. Everything is piled out on the platform of the station and must be lifted to the waiting vehicle.

The United Kingdom, as the British Isles are officially called, has eighteen railway companies, with mileages ranging front 795 to 8,077. There are 24,000 miles of railway open for traffic; but on account of the fact that almost every mile is double-tracked or quadruple-tracked, the total mileage is 55,000 miles. The four greatest systems are the London and Northwestern, with its 8,077 miles, covering the territory from London and Birmingham north and west to Glasgow; the Great Western, covering the territory from London and Birmingham west and south to the English Channel; the North Eastern, covering the territory from Edinburgh south along the eastern shore; and the Midland which, as its name implies, traverses the heart of Britain from London northward to the termini in Scotland.

There is a general arrangement in England for the transportation of baggage to the amount of 28 pounds from the station to any point in the city of destination for a cartage charge of sixpence, HJe. If the trunk weighs not more than 112 pounds, the charge is one shilling, 22} c. In Scranton the baggage burglars will not take a trunk anywhere for less than a dollar.

The British roadbeds or rights of way are far better than in America. The rails are carried on chairs securely bolted to the crossties and held in place by wooden wedges, which are driven up every morning by the trackwalker. These chairs in a modified form are coming into use in America. The sides of all the cuts are covered with grass and the climate has made it impossible that they should be otherwise. In the cuts, about ten feet apart, are strips of crushed rock about four feet wide, the object of which is to furnish natural carriage for the storm water, so that the sod will remain intact. There is almost no concrete; the bridges are of brick and very graceful in appearance. A few concrete section houses are seen. "Wires of all sorts are underground. In America they are carried on unsightly pole* and crossarms beside the right of way.

Reports from Foreign Correspondents

Reporta from England

CHRISTMAS with its excitement is now upon us. The Christmas shopping trade, which at the time of last writing was reported dull, has now livened up; and apparently a great deal of money is being spent. However, it is still reported that the shops in the poorer district are finding their trade in groceries and fruits not so good. Perhaps this means that the volume of trade is not as much as the shopkeepers want; but there is no question that the poor are poorer than they were.

Published statistics show that the miners are really badly off. The standard wage is considerably better (on paper) than it was; but owning to slackness of trade, and the higher cost of living, the miner with all his arduous and dangerous work is, if anything, worse off than he was in the hard days before the war.

The Labor Party has been making itself heard in the House of Commons. Some of its members have been making noisy and "rude” interjections — exhibitions of bad manners, according to the opinions of those who would like to be thought their betters. But one of their number, who has had many years Parliamentary experience, retorts that these interruptions are not nearly so rude, or noisy, or violent as those of the young bloods of the Tory Party, the gentlemanly party, when Mr. Asquith introduced his Home Rule Bill. Without doubt the Labor members, particularly those from Scotland, intend to assert themselves in Parliament. The leader, Mr. Ramsay MacDonald, will have some difficulty in restraining some of the members of his party.’ Mr. MacDonald is a man of considerable experience and much restraint; and a man of considerable personality and force of character; one who will have to be reckoned with in any council of state.

The hunger marchers are still in London; their numbers have been lessened from various causes, but are being augmented by others who are on the road to London. There is a suspicion abroad that the police are taking measure^ against them more worthy of the old Russian methods than those usually associated with British government In other words that they are to seme extent acting as provocative agents. The leaders of the Labor Party do not associate themselves with this movement and probably it will fail to produce anything really helpful to themselves. It will do this, however,, it will make the country realize that there is a depth of poverty, and misery, and suffering existent which the middle-class and well-to-do would gladly have kept from their notice.

On December 11th the registered number of unemployed was 1,388,600, or 435,133 less than the beginning of last January. One of the relieving officers in the city of Birmingham says there is much suffering amongst the unemployed, and he knows many of that city who have not tasted meat for twelve months. The Board of Trade figures for November show increases in trade. Two large battleships are being built, and there is a slight upward movement in the steel trade. These things give a little hope of improvement in the general situation, but it is too slow and insufficient to be of real help. In the meantime neither the government, nor the Labor Party, nor the churches have anything to say that promises to relieve the situation.

The farmers are making complaint of getting poor payment for their labor and produce. A cutting from a recent daily paper is enclosed showing where a farmer states that for two tons of turnips grown and sent to market he has had a loss of eight shilling and three pence. The railway company benefits, the commission agent gets his cost, and the farmer pays up for the privilege of growing his produce. However, it ought to be said that a little while back when prices were up, and the farmers were getting value beyond what was right, they did not then write to the papers making complaint

Reports from Germany

THE entire population of Germany is being gradually weakened, since it is nearly impossible to buy the most necessary things on account of the enormous rise of prices. The little children with pale faces, and the condition of the adult people of the country, the terrifying statements by the sick-fund organizations, and the endless obituary notices in the newspapers are plain proof of a systematically organized policy of strangulation of an entire people by the claws of a great monster, Selfishness.

The associated body of German physicians has issued a short statement, an appeal to the entire world, crying for help. This call is taken up by the entire German press, and throws an interesting sidelight on the situation. The statement, printed in a Berlin paper, reads as follows:

MS

WZHS DISTRESS or TTTTt GERMAN TS0PL2 — A QALL VOX HELP BY THE PHYSICIANS

“Berlin, December 15: The associated body of German physicians made a demonstration at the university of Berlin against the increasing distress of the German people. The following resolution was unanimously adopted:

““The associated body of German physicians deems it its duty, emphatically to call attention to the great dangers that are threatening the German people on account of the continually increasing distress. Bad nutrition, the housing calamity, shortage of coal, the impossibility of taking proper care of the body, sorrows and privation of every kind not only diminish the productive powers of the people, but also their power of resistance against disease in a most alarming manner. The consequences are now apparent and soon will become more evident, especially in the case of children and younger people. Tuberculosis is on the increase, rachitis and anemia are widespreading, scorbutics and deaths from hunger are no exceptions any longer. We appeal to our colleagues in foreign countries, we appeal to the entire world civilization, to look at the situation with clear eyes, not to be blinded by the conduct of life of a small crowd of pleasure seekers. The distress is already widespread. Charity on a small male cannot accomplish essential changes any more. The entire desperate economical condition requires a fundamental change. We call upon the world to make this possible for us.*”

The angel of death hovers over this country; and how long will it be that the people living in it will experience the same sad state that Russia is in? Yet in Germany everyone is certain of this, that if on account of the inflexible attitude of France, the unbearable burdens of the army of occupation and of the reparation payments are not made lighter, Germany will open its doors to the pressure of a multitude standing in the north. It does not appear to us very doubtful, that the remarkable words of Jeremiah in the 6th chapter, verses 22 to 24, would be fulfilled by such an act.

“Also I set watchmen over you, saying, . Hearken to ^he sound of the trumpet But they said, We will not hearken. . . . Hear, O earth: behold, I will bring evil upon this people, even the fruit of their thoughts, because they have not hearkened unto my words, nor to my law, but rejected it.”—Jeremiah 6:17, 19.

No one knows a way out of all these troubles. Only the Messianic kingdom can bring the desired help for the hard-pressed world, and also for this hard-pressed country.

Reports from Switzerland

THERE are, in every station and profession, thinking men who watch with deep anxiety the conditions developing in Europe. Leading papers in neutral states have often addressed their readers with important words.

The principal newspaper of Switzerland, the Bund, which is practically read all over the world, published in a leading article for Easter 1921 the following statement of the European conditions:

“We are not only very far from peace, which we need k> much, but we are also in the midst of a chaos of hatred, violence, discord, revolution, strife and other dismal things. The clouds which chase on the political horizon are far from springtime clouds, but sultry, threatening, heavy, harmful clouds. The news which comes to us over land and sea has alas! no likeness of the dove that brought the olive-branch; on the contrary, it is more like a raven, the blackcoated messenger of evil.”

How very appropriate were these words nearly two years ago! But what do we see today? Have these dark clouds cleared the political and economical horizon? Have the sinister clouds cleared away? Every reader of The Golden Age knows well that this is not the case. What happened in Europe since then?

When the words above mentioned were written, Lloyd George was still the leading genius of Europe. He was anxiously striving to gain his French colleague Briand for his own plans. He almost succeeded, but the wet blanket Poincare came between them and caused the conference at Cannes to fail. Briand became dangerous; he was too yielding and therefore had to be dismissed.

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