Awake!, November 22, 1956
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CAN RELIGIOUS MEDALS PROTECT YOU?
Examine their history
Radioactive Clocks in the Rocks
How can they tell the age of fossils?
When Youth Gangs Go Wild
A shocking problem and its solution
How to Enjoy Reading
It really can be fun!
NOVEMBER 22, 1956 semimonthly
THE MISSION OF THIS JOURNAL
News sources that are able to keep you awake to the vital issues of our times must be unfettered by censorship and selfish interests. “Awake 1” has no fetters. It recognizes facts, faces facts, is free to publish facts. It is not bound by political ambitions or obligations; it is unhampered by advertisers whose toes must not be trodden on; it is unprejudiced by traditional creeds. This journal keeps itself free that it may speak freely to you. But it does not abuse its freedom. It maintains integrity to truth.
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CONTENTS
Facing the Future with Confidence
An Obstetrical Curiosity
Can Religious Medals Protect You?
Let's Visit Tokyo!
Adopted by Apostate Christians
How to Enjoy Reading
Radioactive Clocks In the Rocks
“America’s Pastes t-gr owing Disease”
On the Lighter Side
“Your Word Is Truth”
Cuba’s Muleteer and Mule Train
Who Will Fight at Armageddon?
Confidence in a Medal?
Jehovah’s Witnesses Preach in All
When Youth Gangs Go Wild
the Earth—Cyprus
Never a Water Shortage!
Do you Know?
The History of Knitting
Watching the World
ELIABLE predictions of the future greatly in-
FACING THE FUTURE WITH CONFIDENCE
trigue man. In fact, they so intrigue him and are so difficult to come by that he very often accepts totally unreliable ones. And most of the predictions made by men turn out to be grossly unreliable.
Yet men continue to be greatly concerned with the future. Scientists, technologists and industrial planners also are concerned with it, since foreseeing future developments would enable them to direct their work intelligently. Recent reports from the California Institute of Technology told of studies, participated in by faculty members and also by individual industries, endeavoring to foresee and prepare for the developments of the next hundred years. What do they envision?
They envision the spread of the industrial-technological revolution to the most remote parts of the earth and a resulting vast increase in the population. They think that earth’s population will treble in the next hundred years, which, of course, would require a corresponding increase in the world's food supply, already limited in many areas. However, they predict that new crops and the distillation of sea water for irrigation will add a billion new acres to the world’s agricultural area. They are optimistic about keeping production up and keeping the population fed.
But what worries them is man himself.
In discussing these reports columnist Dorothy Thompson said: "The one element that can throw the whole machine Utopia out of kilter is the human being—his loves and hates, passions and dreams, emotions and distractions, his unwillingness to apply himself to the ‘right’ things, his unpredictability.”
She also called attention to the fact that, about the time the C.I.T. report was made, Professor Robert Oppenheimer, the nuclear physicist, warned in a Chicago speech that “human ignorance and the power to do evil” could plunge the world into chaos and upset the various promises of the future.
The problem, then, is how to control man, how to fit him to the requirements of this technological or machine age. Novelists have discussed this. British novelist Aldous Huxley in Brave New World _imagined a society completely controlled by the scientists who would produce the types of humans that were needed in a world where the whole object was to keep a vast system of production and consumption going.
Philosophers have discussed it German philosopher Nietzsche said: “Man is something that must be overcome.”
Biologists and geneticists have considered the problem, some even proposing artificial insemination or “test tube” babies to produce the types of people that they feel are needed.
Thus, viewing these possibilities, Dorothy Thompson said: "May not the human instinct, vaguely sensing a future described €y Huxley, blow up the world, or permit it to blow up, in a final urge toward suicide? To let it start from scratch again, as after the flood that saved only Noah, his family and the two of each kind of beast?”
The California Institute of Technology report may speak of the effort to "understand the scientific principles governing the origin and development of human behavior” and to “increase our psychological and emotional efficiency,” but man is a stubborn creature who resists control. Can the scientists exert enough control to guarantee even the existence of our civilization in 2056? Can they assure us of world peace for the century during which these great accomplishments are to be made possible?
Is there nothing that will get to the heart of man? that will change his mind and overcome "human ignorance and the power to do evil”? and that will direct man in the right way? Yes, most certainly there is such a thing! There is a source of truth that does direct man in the right way. What is it? A book that hundreds of millions have, but that few read—the Bible!
The truth of this book really does penetrate straight to the heart of man, changing his view, his outlook, his attitude and his very way of living. It provides the truth that makes man free; it protects him from the philosophy and empty deception of human traditions; it provides words that are tried, proved and true, that are a shield and protection and a source of refuge leading to the real life! From it man can gain faith and overturn false but strongly entrenched things. It is alive, it exerts power and it leads its believers to life.
But how does it affect the scientists’ prediction of the future? It shows where man’s predictions fail and what the future really does hold. It shows that instead of an industrial and technological revolution, a 'spiritual and moral one will come. It shows that wars will cease, peace will come and the desert will blossom, but through God’s rule, not man’s!
It shows that the very source of evil will be destroyed and that earth’s present difficulties are because that destruction is near. "Woe for the earth and for the sea, because the Devil has come down to you, having great anger, knowing he has a short period of time.” Satan the Devil knows his time is short, whether the world in general does or not He knows his destruction is at hand, whether the world will admit his existence or not.—Revelation 12:12, New World Trans.
Human instinct rebels against the present conditions. But man will not have to destroy them; God will. He will clean off corruption and let things start over again, as occurred after the flood that saved only Noah and his family—the only humans who would believe God’s warnings and act upon them.
This is not a myth, but a fact. It is not a false prediction, but a true one. It is promised by the Supreme Sovereign, the Almighty God, whose name alone is Jehovah. That promise is contained in His Word, the Bible. The hundreds of thousands of persons who have studied it, accepted its truth and heeded its warnings face the future with firm confidence. Will you go to that one right source to understand the future and to know what you must do about it? This and related publications will help you to do so.
Christians need protection from the Devil and his demons. What is the source of this protection? Is it the use of religious medals? Secular history and the Ho-
ly Bible combine t< give the conclusive
EVERAL years ago two men were driving in an automobile near Seattle, Washington. Their automobile sud denly went out of control and skidded into the nearby Lake Washington Ship Canal. Nearly four years later, on October 26, 1948, according to Newsweek magazine, their bodies were discovered. On the neck of one was found a religious medal, called a St. Christopher medal, commonly used as protection against accidents.
Three weeks after the discovery his widow and her five-year-old son were driving on an icy highway when their auto skidded into the Wenatchee River near Seattle. Both were drowned. When the bodies were recovered, around the neck of the boy was the very St. Christopher medal that had been recovered from the body of his father.
On the other hand, there are people who have survived accidents and who credited their survival to a religious medal. When such incidents come into the news the question inevitably rises: Can religious medals protect you? A sure way to find out is to learn the answers to two other questions: What does history reveal about religious charms as protectors? What does God’s Word, the Bible, disclose about the subject?
Actually man has been wearing some kind of religious charm, usuauy suspenueu from the neck, from time immemorial. In almost every nation there is a history of the use of religious amulets—objects worn as a charm against evil or harm, with the power of protection usually attributed, not to the objects themsfelves, but to a favorite god or goddess, patron or patroness. The ancients used amulets to protect themselves against any number of things, such
answer.
as diseases, evil spirits and accidents. Some charms used by the ancient pagans were placed around the necks of cattle, horses and camels, that their animals might also be protected by their favorite god.
Amulets and Sex Worship
One cannot learn the history of religious charms without being impressed by this fact: their use throughout history is generally, almost invariably, associated with phallic worship. The ancient Egyptian life amulet, called ankh or crux ansata, was in the form of a cross with an oval handle for a head; it represented the male and female organs of reproduction combined.
The ancient Nile dwellers distinguished at least twenty different kinds of amulets. One of the most popular was the scarab. Scarab amulets were made of wood, stone, ivory, glazed faience, amethyst and other semiprecious stones. Shaped in the form of a beetle, these religious charms were engraved on one side with many devices, usually mottoes. The mottoes were endlessly varied. Often they involved the name of a popular god or goddess. Two typical mottoes on scarabs that have been found by archeologists read: “Mut give thee long life” and “Ammon protecteth.” Mut signifies "mother,” and in hieroglyphic inscriptions this goddess is called “the lady of heaven.” She was the wife of Ammon. Ammon, later identified with the sun god, was originally a local Theban deity of the reproductive forces.
In ancient Babylon, Persia and Greece the use of amulets was widespread. The Greeks had a popular protective charm called phylacterion. In ancient Rome children carried around their necks what was called a bulla. It was a heart-shaped box containing an amulet; its purpose was to vard off the dangers incidental to children.
In describing the most popular feature of the ancient Roman religious charms the Dictionary of Classical Antiquities says under “Fascinum”: “Amulets of various kinds were employed as counter-charms. They were supposed either to procure the protection of a particular deity, or to send the enchanter mad by means of terrible, ridiculous or obscene objects. The name fascinum was thus specially applied to the phallus, which was the favorite countercharm of the Romans. An image of this fascinum was contained in the bulla worn as an amulet by children, and was also put under the chariot of a general at his triumph, as a protection against envy."
But the Romans used religious charms, not only with symbols of their own deities, but with those of foreign deities as well. During excavations at Pompeii workmen found the skeleton of a woman who died while in the act of flight. She had with her a small box containing her valuable knickknacks. Among the most curious of these was a necklace composed of amulets or religious charms. Most of them were attributes of Isis, the Egyptian goddess of fertility.
Adopted by Apostate Christians
History, as well as the Bible, shows that the early Christians in the days of Christ and his apostles kept themselves free from every form of paganism. These Christians did not use statues, images, idols or religious charms. However, after the death of the apostles of Christ the true faith of the early Christians became corrupted. These apostate Christians adopted many pagan practices, including the use of religious charms.
The New Funk <£ WagnaUs Encyclopedia says in this regard: “The use of amulets passed into the Christian Church. . . . Amulets became so common among Christians that, in the 4th century, the clergy were interdicted from making and selling them on pain of deprivation of holy orders; and in 721 the wearing of amulets was solemnly condemned by the church.”
However, the clergy had for so long made a lucrative business out of making and selling religious charms that no church edict stopped the practice. So many religious charms came into use by the apostate Christians and for so many protective purposes that the ancient Egyptians were now, by comparison, mere triflers in the art of amulet manufacture.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume I, page 443, in unexaggerated language, tells us of that time: “Especially from the fourth century, when imperial favour brought large numbers into the church, superstitious abuses in the use of devotional emblems became so common that the ecclesiastical authorities were obliged frequently to inveigh against the use of amulets. . . . From one of the sermons of St. Caesarius it appears that the dispensing of amulets was a regular profession; each disease had its appropriate amulet. These and similar superstitious practices survived to some extent, in one form or another, through the Middle Ages.”
around his neck, but if he is not careful and alert a fatal accident can befall him.
So many religious medals are on the market today that no attempt is made to describe them. However, one of them, the St. Francis medal, will give us some Idea as to the extent religious charms are still being used. The following advertisement appeared in a November, 1955, issue of a Cleveland, Ohio, Sunday newspaper:
“Only at Bonwit’s in the whole U.S.A. Give your pets the same protection your St Christopher medal gives you. A touching Christmas gift, signifying human concern for the animal dear to us. The medallion with the tender figure of St. Francis on one side is blank on the other, so you can engrave your pet’s name and address . on it.. . . Let St. Francis guard your birdcage, your aquarium, any bird or beast you love. . . . Gold-plated or solid sterling silver, 53.00.”
Would a St. Francis medal on one's pet rabbit prevent a hungry fox, out shopping for dinner, from having rabbitburger? Would a St. Francis medal protect a dog from injury if the dog were foolish enough to chase after automobiles? Would a religious medal in the cage of a pet canary bird divert the aims of a determined pussycat? Does a religious medal guarantee a pet chicken's not being stolen and reaching the stewpot? When a dog attacks a medalwearing pussycat, what protects the cat— her claws and tree-climbing ability or her religious medal? Despite the failure of medals to protect animals or humans, the sale of religious charms is still a very profitable business.
But it is not a true Christian practice. Religious charms have no origin in Christianity. They are pagan. They still are, despite their use by professed Christians. The use of protective religious medals is in no respect different in theory or principle from the use of religious charms by the
Religious Charms Today
Throughout the world religious charms are still popular today. Among countries of the Middle East and Central Asia, especially, countless persons consider it necessary to wear a preservative charm. In some lands religious charms using phallic figures or symbols of them are still used. In Christendom the name amulet has been replaced by the terms medal and medallion. But whether it is called amulet, religious charm fir medallion, the principle is the same. The person wearing the object hopes or expects that the saint or patron represented by it or whose name appears on it will perform some protective miracle.
Most of the popular religious charms today are called Holy Virgin medallions or are named after numerous saints of the . Roman Catholic Church. Some charms today are in the shape of a heart as was that of the ancient Roman bulla, wom by women and children. Many persons rely on religious medals to aid them because they are coupled with the power of a religious organization.
One of the most popular religious medals today is the St. Christopher medal. It is said that it provides protection for travelers, St. Christopher supposedly interceding with God oh behalf of the living to protect travelers. Does this medal protect travelers? Statistics prove that there are just as many persons in autos with them that have accidents as those without. Some persons wearing the medal survive an accident, others wearing it do not. Is God partial? Does safety depend on a saint? No; in the last analysis the cause of accidents is carelessness. Safety depends ultimately on the skill, judgment, co-ordination and carefulness of the driver. An automobile driver can have a dozen St. Christopher medals in his car, together with several rosaries in his pockets and two scapulars
demon-worshiping pagans. And we have learned how religious charms, throughout history, have often been associated with the lowest, most debased form of false religion—sex worship. Is there any wonder that religious medals today cannot protect anyone?
The Bible tells Christians how to obtain protection from the Devil and his demons. Commands the apostle: "Put on the complete suit of armor from God that you may be able to sfend firm against the machinations of the Devil.” To put on the “suit of armor from God” we must gain a knowledge of God’s Word, the holy Bible. Then we must confidently rely on that Word. What should Christians pick up then? The Bible answers: “Take up the large shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the wicked one’s burning missiles. Also accept the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit, that is, God’s word, while with every form of prayer and supplication you carry on prayer on every occasion in spirit.”—Ephesians 6:11, 1618, New World Trans.
Faith, hope, prayer and a knowledge of and reliance upon God’s Word—these are the true Christian’s protection, not religious medals.
RADIOACTIVE CLOCKS ROCKS
THE earth is not infinitely old. It had a starting point at a measurable time back. At the beginning, spoken of at Genesis 1:1, God created the heavens and the earth.
Astronomers find many evidences that the starry heavens had a beginning in time. The best known of these is the expansion of the universe. From its present size and rate of growth, they estimate that the universe was created some three or four billion years ago.
The strongest proof that the earth began not many billions of years ago is that radioactive elements exist today. These show a
How can they tell the age of foceils?
striking difference from other elements: they destroy themselves, gradually, steadily, inexorably. They decay according to an exact mathematical law. If they had always been here their radioactivity would long since have burned itself out. But their radioactivity still persists, and from the amount left the nuclear scientist can tell that they are not over five billion years old.
But when we say uranium destroys itself we need to qualify our statement. True, it destroys itself as uranium and part of its actual substance disappears to produce energy, but the residue remains as a different element, lead. Likewise, when potassium suffers radioactive disintegration it leaves the gas argon. Rubidium decays into strontium.
This is the quality that makes it possible to .date rocks containing radioactive minerals. These pairs of elements, found together in minerals, are the radioactive clocks the geologist relies on to measure the age of rocks.
Every radioactive element is part of a system that is something like an hourglass. The active element is in the upper bulb and falls at a steady rate through the neck into the bulb below. The stable element produced by the radioactive process accumulates in the lower bulb.
This article is written and contributed for publication by a scientist employed in atomic research.
Now, by watching an hourglass and comparing the amount of sand in the upper and lower bulbs, you can tell about how long it has been running. To be really accurate you should weigh the amount of sand'that had run through. And you would have to measure how fast the sand is running through. If the hourglass runs very slowly, as radioactive geological clocks all do, you might count the individual grains of sand. A magnifying glass would be needed for this, and slow motion pictures would help too.
In a radioactive mineral, of course, the uranium and the lead are all mixed together. But the chemist finds this no great obstacle. He dissolves the rock in acid and treats it with a series of chemical solutions that separate the different elements, and he ends up with the uranium and the lead in separate test tubes, just like the sand in the upper bulb and that in the lower.
To measure the rate of the radioactive clock, the nuclear scientist cannot use a magnifying glass to see the atoms, but he can use a Geiger counter to count the number of uranium atoms exploding. Thus he knows how fast the uranium is running through the neck into the lead bulb. Each radioactive dock runs at a different speed, which is expressed as the half-life, as follows;1
Ofi£ Half o/ UranIuin-238 Potas&l um-40
Rubldlum-87
Decays into Letd-206 90% Calclurn-40 20% Argcn-4D Strontium-*#?
In Ab<mt
4.5 billion yean
1,26 billion yean
7-23 blUJcn SO billion years
The geologist can use these figures to date his rock. Suppose, for example, that a crystal of feldspar from an ancient granite contains- rubidium. A chemical analysis of the crystal shows 2 percent as much strontium as rubidium. From the rate of decay he calculates that it took 1.4 billion years for this much rubidium to decay to strontium. So he concludes that the feldspar crystal was formed out of molten rock 1.4 billion years ago.
\But there may be weak links in the argument. There are conditions that must be met if the conclusions are to be well founded. Possibly the feldspar crystal formed originally with a small impurity of strontium from the molten rock. Then the rock will look older than it really is. It would be like turning the hourglass over before all the sand had run into one end. There would already be sand in the lower bulb when it started, and it would always indicate more time than had actually elapsed, because it was not set to zero at the beginning.
Sometimes the physicist can help strengthen this link. He can take the strontium the chemist has extracted from the rock and test it in a mass spectrometer. This is an instrument that sorts different isotopes of an element according to the weights of the individual atoms. The physicist knows that the ordinary strontium that would come from the average rock would have a mixture of atoms with weights 84, 86, 87 and 88. But only stron-tium-87 is formed by the radioactive decay of rubidium, and the mass spectrometer
will tell whether it is contaminated with ordinary strontium. If it is he can make a correction on the chemist’s measurements and still get the age of the mineral.
Another pitfall may trap the unwary explorer of the past when he tries to date rocks containing fossils. Hocks in which fossils are found are always sedimentary, deposited from streams of water. But this type of rock does not contain nice crystals of minerals that can be used for dating. They are found only in igneous rocks, where they formed as molten rock cooled.
How can the geologist overcome this difficulty? By looking for intrusions, where molten rock, called magma, has welled up into cracks in a sedimentary rock. Suppose granite melts and oozes, under pressure, into the overlying sediment. Then it cools and solidifies in the fissure, forming a rock called pegmatite. Now, the geologist argues, if we can find radioactive minerals in the intrusive pegmatite we can tell when it flowed into the fissure. And if the sedimentary rock contains fossils they must have been there before the intrusion occurred. So the fossils must be at least as old as the radioactive mineral.
That sounds reasonable. Wherein is the pitfail? For one thing, it is assumed that the radioactive mineral crystallized at the time of the igneous flow. But in many cases the crystal selected for dating melts at a much higher temperature than the rock it is imbedded in. For example, the quartz in granite melts at about 2700 degrees Fahrenheit, but the feldspar does not melt until the temperature reaches 3200 degrees. This means that granite would begin to flow at 2700 degrees. So no one can say for sure that such a magma did not already contain the radioactive crystal before it melted. If it did, and if the granite were gradually heated to where it began to soften and flow, it could carry the feldspar along without ever melting it. In such case the radioactive clock would not be reset at the time of the intrusion, but it would continue to show the date when it was originally set, possibly millions or billions of years earlier.
Another difficulty in dating fossils by this method is that the geologically ideal situation is rarely, if ever, met. The hoped-for case where a sedimentary rock with dinosaur bones lies directly against an intrusive granite with a neat little crystal of feldspar—this has not yet been found. In cases where the argument has been used, the nearest fossils are usually miles away from the pegmatite intrusion, and no one can prove that the sediment at the point of intrusion formed at the same time as the one where the fossils are found. The doubts in identifying strata are too great.
This weakness in the argument is admitted by experts in this field of science. In their textbook geologists Schuchert and Dunbar of Yale University illustrate the usual occurrence of datable minerals by a pegmatite in Connecticut that contains uraninite crystals with “an age of 350,000,000 years, but it lies in a bed of deformed schists far from any fossiliferous rocks that could determine the geologic period of its intrusion.”2
Nuclear physicists Goodman and Evans of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology speak of the “complication that it is apparently quite difficult to assign geologic ages to radioactive minerals, that introduces so much uncertainty in the present status of radioactive age methods.”3
Dr. Henbest of the U.S. Geological Survey told a symposium of paleontologists and geologists: “The inaccuracies connected with dating the source mineral of a radiogenic lead specimen in terms of a well-known and a well-dated stratigraphic sequence is a geologic problem.”*
And Dr. Marble of the National Research Council, ah expert chemist in this
field, at the same symposium added this succinct comment: '‘As you all know, it is often many miles from a pegmatite to the nearest diagnostic fossil and, even if they are near each other, the field relations are usually obscure.’'3
Other methods of dating sedimentary rocks and fossils in them have been found entirely unreliable.1 2 3 4 5 The geologist’s claim to the great age of fossils, to the hundreds of millions of years for the dinosaurs, to the billions of years for algae, must depend entirely on the radioactive clock. And here, it is all too clear, they are still leaning on a broken reed.
The Bible shows that simple forms of life, as well as great reptiles, existed on the earth long before man. How long? It does not definitely say, but it is reasonable to believe that the same 7,000-year period that spans God’s rest day also marked each of the six creative days before. This would put the age of the first living things on earth no farther back than 34,000 years. Note that it leaves open the question as to how long before that the earth was formless and waste, Without being dogmatic as to this conclusion, we can say that it is certainly harmonious with the Scriptures. And it is also harmonious with the proved facts of science. No scientific evidence has yet been produced to contradict it.
Worldly scientists who have no regard for God’s Word may theorize and speculate without restraint, and the public press may blatantly publicize their hypothetical million-year-bld men and billion-year-old algae. But the reverent seeker for truth will not be misled by the “oppositions of science falsely so called.” He will always hold foremost the Word of God. Doing this he will find in the things God has created no conflict with his Word. Indeed, a study of God’s creation will only enhance one’s understanding of his eternal power and Godship.—1 Timothy 6:20; Romans 1:20.
HBFEHBNCBS
1L. T, Sctertce, Vp], 123, Page 371 (May 18,
1956).
> C- Schuchert and C. O. Dunbar, Outline* of Historical Geology, page 22 (1941).
s C. Ooodman and R. D. Evans, Bulletin of the Oeolog* tool Society of. America, Vol. $2, page 49i (April 1, 1041).
* D. G. Henbest, Journo? of Paleontology, Vol. 26, page 299 (May, 1952),
’J. P. Marble, ibid., Vol. 26. page 31.9 (May, 1952), 0 Awtke! February 8. 1952.
fee
to the zoo in Columbus, Ohio, Complained that an elephant swallowed hjs wallet. A man-hole cover was stolen in Detroit. In London, someone made off With a ffea circus. A contractor in Jersey city com-J plained that thieves stole an eight-ton s tractor shovel.”
H ♦In Detroit, Michigan, a woman’s car 1 collided with a submarine.
♦A truck driver In Wethersfield, Connee* § ticut, was arrested for driving an over* g loaded truck. It carried thirty-one thou-S sand pounds of feathers.
H ♦ A man in Knoxville, Tennessee, reached J into his pocket for a cigarette, Instead he g pulled out and lit a two-inch firecracker, g Gave up smoking then and there.—United § Press dispatch, December 1, 1955.
By ‘'AwqIc9!" correspondent in Cuba
ESPITE Cuba's marked progress In transportation facilities, and in vivid con-
guide mule's bell has a deep bass tone. The next has a bell with a higher pitch, and so on
trast with the most modem cars and trucks that are used in the cities, the picturesque arriaf or mule train, is still the only means of transporting cargo in many of the mountain regions, C The experienced arriero, or muleteer* is young, strong, simple and suntanned. He is greatly trusted by the plantation owner, makes about $70 a month plus his room and board* and knows his mules like the ten fingers on his hands. He talks to them, praises them, scolds them* pets them and* at times* threatens them.
C The arrangement of his mule train and the respected relationship of one beast to the other are of real interest. Each mule has its place.
The ffuia, or guide mule, takes the lead. It carries only about three-quarters of a normal load of 200 pounds, but must be agile, dominant and alert It will not permit another animal in the train to get ahead of it. It picks the path that all the rest take. It must avoid dangerous places and not get lost or become confused at crossroads.' A well-trained guide mule costs about $300, and the muleteer quickly flatters his guide mule with such names as “beautiful pearl” “marksman " “banner,” etc.
C. After the guide mule comes the second guide, then the third. The other animals in the train do not have such explicit training or graduation, except that they must know how to keep their position. The last mule is the pie, qt foot. He knows he is last and must march close to the muleteer's horse. A train of experienced mules costs from $1*500 to $3,000 and carries about 2,000 pounds.
<L A delightful melody accompanies the mule train, for each mule wears a bell that is especially toned for his position in the train. The
until the last mule has the one with the highest pitch of all. Each note distinguishes the mule and his position, and on the darkest of nights any irregularity can be detected through the bells. The muleteer immediately knows where the trouble is. His experienced and agile fingers quickly loosen or tighten the ropes* tie or untie the knots* adjust the load* and the march is on its way again with only the slightest interruption. Then the bells* like the delightful melody of a tropical orchestra, continue their musical message that all Is well.
<L The muleteer does not permit the mules to eat during the march. But the trained animals, knowing that food awaits them at the end of the journey, step lively tn anticipation of their feast. On the march they have a special bridle that permits them to drink but not to chew.
<L Also, to increase the speed of the mule train, the driver, in addition to threats and sometimes unsavory expressions, has a special kind of whip, or fuete* that is made from cotton cord and is about eight feet long. The primary use of this whip Is not to strike the animals, but to produce a sound like a pistol shot when the whip is suddenly cracked in the air. Thus it helps to keep the train moving swiftly along.
The colorful mule train and muleteer, however* are disappearing from Cuba as more and more the specially built vehicles for rough roads and mountainous territory (including jeeps and trucks) are taking over,. But in the eastern part of the island, as well as in the western province of Pinar del Rio, where rough, hilly territory is found, it is still the mule train that is relied upon to get the area's products down from the mountains and to return with the needed supplies.
CONFIDENCE IN A MEDAL ?
V According to the Jewish Encyclopedia Martin Luther once told how a Jew presented Duke Albert of Saxony with a button, curiously inscribed, which would protect against cold steel, stabbing or shooting. The duke made the experiment on the Jew* hanging the button around his neck and then slashing him with a sword. The button failed.
ALARMING gangland murders, intimidation of enemies and special territories that must be recognized by the members of other gangs—these things may be common TV and movie fare and may have marked the prohibition eTa in certain American cities, but the shocking fact now is that they mark the present state of juvenile gangs in many large United States cities.
whfiallotrtrc GANGS'.GO
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In New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Denver and other cities the problem has been appalling. One of the most shocking of the juvenile gangland incidents was the killing of 17-year-old Carlos Luis Feliciano in June, last year. In a fight over a 14-year-old girl this New York boy had stabbed a rival gang member. Another gang of teen-agers, serving as a kangaroo court, promptly drew lots to pick a trigger man to kill Feliciano, and the world was shocked by a brutal murder.
But this widely publicized incident was not New York’s only juvenile gang violence. The following examples are limited to one six-month period this year. On February 2 Antonio Robles, just 15 years old, and Miguel Rosario, age 19, members of the Comanches gang, were shot in East Harlem by rival Viceroys. On March 1 two boys were stabbed by a gang of eight armed youths who had fired five shots into a crowded recreation-night school gymnasium meeting.
On April 23 five girl-gang members, from ages 14 to 17, were seized by the police for attacking other girls. On April 24 twenty-eight members of two armed boy gangs were arrested. On May 12 Hector Garcia, 14, was shot dead by an 18-year-old lad who said he had only intended to scare Scorpions gang members who had beaten him. On the sixteenth, twenty-eight youths were held by the police, who seized knives, belt buckles, bayonets and ash-can handles that they had in preparation for a gang war. On May 22 gang rivalry prompted two youths to assault and shoot Stewart Gross, 17. On June 11 Victor Serrano, 17, was shot in the back and seriously wounded by gang members.
On July 16 youths drew homemade guns, forced community workers under tables and threw chairs about at a peace meeting that had been called “to persuade members of the Chaplains and Stampers that; if they must fight, they fight only with fists."
On the seventh of July Evelyn Orr, 15, was stabbed to death in a subway station in a fight between two girl gangs, the Chaplains and the Diplomat Queens. A twelve-year-old girl was accused of stab-
WOVEJtfBBB 19S6
bing her with a seven-inch butcher’s knife. Sixteen other girl-gang members were held by the police.
What Prompts Such Juvenile Crime?
What is behind such flagrant juvenile crime? What causes the very small percent tage of today’s youth who are represented in these acts to go berserk?
In reporting on the study of 9,000 cases of juvenile delinquency in Baltimore Dr. Bernard Lander of Yeshiva University said that the lack of community feeling and complete moral chaos rather than poverty are the major factors. In support of this he cited the high incidence of delinquency in so-called privileged areas, as well as in the slums.
Onef Brooklyn gang that might be taken as an example comes from a middle-class environment. Its members’ parents were born mostly in the same neighborhood of one- and two-family houses along clean, tree-lined streets, in which they now live. The family income ranges from $3,000 to $6,000 a year. The gang, whose members’ ages range from 13 to 18, averaging about fifteen and a half, is supreme over a territory of nearly a square mile. Most of its members have left school, though few have regular jobs.
A great deal of their time is spent idly hanging around. They wake up about noon and arrive at their park-bench meeting place about one or two o’clock. Sometimes they go to a movie, sometimes swimming, but not to the crowded beaches. “Anytime we go to a place like Coney Island we get into trouble,” one member told a New York Times reporter. “A guy gives you a funny look. You say: ‘What the----you
lookin’ at?’ You can’t let guys get away with that stuff. Next thing you know there’s trouble.”
Tension hangs over the gang. Any car that rolls by the bench around which it clusters could contain invaders or detectives. Its leaders carry a list of telephone numbers for emergency mobilization. Sixteen members or former members of the gang are in jail on charges that include extortion, grand larceny and possession of deadly weapons.
According to the New York Times report: “Thursday nights they meet at the playground to learn if any enemies have besmirched their rep [reputation] or violated their turf [area]. ... On this night they also plan their campaign for the dance the following night in Prospect Park. There they go in strength because it is alien territory and because they think it might be fruitful for girl-hunting, Saturday nights they may go to parties, to a Coney Island rock-and-roll session or just drape themselves around the bench and sip a few cans of beer while they argue loudly. They rise much earlier than usual on Sundays, for the 10 a.m. mass.”
There is no such thing as the typical gang, though certain principles apply to most of them. There may be from a dozen members to 50, 100 or even 250. Yet even the most violent of the gangs are based on friendship—they are friendship clubs of teen-agers. A thousand or more such street clubs in New York city draw little police attention. Less than a tenth of them provide a real danger to the orderly life of the city. Even these gangs devote only a small fraction of their time to fighting or to crime, but there is always the danger of a battle between them, and their individual members are responsible for much of the city’s crime.
The relatively few problem gangs that have been called a “murky nursery and training ground for American crime’’ have provided a major problem, however. They have fought with fists, blackjacks, clubs, switchblade knives, and sometimes with regular daggers. Their girl-gang affiliates
have carried the weapons for them because of the police reluctance to frisk a girl, A fight between the gangs can be an Individual beating, or a large-scale battle like the one held near Prospect Park on May 30, 1950, when some forty shots, by newspaper estimates, were fired from homemade guns.
Copying the nations, the gangs consider it an invasion and an act of war for the members of one gang to walk through the territory of another. Or insulting a gang membef, calling him “chicken” or "punk” or some other trivial insult, will bind him or his gang to see that the insult is avenged, proving that he is not “chicken,” Gang wars can also start when an outsider tries to "crash” a dance, wins a gang member’s girl, or dances with her at a party. "Rep” is the great concern of these gangs, and blood can flow before even a trivial insult will be taken.
What Produces the Gang?
Broken hofhes, chronic truants, children who cannot seem to get along in school are all involved- in producing the gang. But many gang members are bright. The one common ground the gang members seem to have is a need to "belong,” They seem convinced that they have no future, and that society will not give them what they deserve. They may retaliate against the school, the police, or even the home that produced them. But in the gang they have status. They are associating with other boys who are suffering the same set of circumstances, and among whom they can gain recognition.
An older boy put it this way: “Guys who don’t feel like they are counting, who feel like they are worthless to everybody—well, they are the guys who go and try to make names for themselves by being stickup guys. It is on account they feel like they are nobody,” Their gang names show this desire for self-esteem: “Imperial Counts," “Dukes,” “Ambassadors,” Viceroys,” "Bladesmen,” “Noble Englishmen” and "Enchanters” are a few samples.
Another major factor is having too much time on their hands. A' boy who shot five other boys in a San Francisco gang fight, killing two, said: “You go to school, but if you’re not in sports, you’ve got a lot of time.” His father said: "Most industry won’t take him until he’s 18. So he has two years on his hands—and nothing to do. That's the dangerous age, in my opinion. That’s when they get in with bad company.”
“You get caught without your gang," the boys say, “and another gang works you over good.” So, they stick with the gang. And just one severely warped boy can steer the whole gang wrong. His very viciousness may set an example that the others follow. The existence of such viciousness is not too amazing today. Newsweek quoted “a thoughtful juvenile expert” as saying: “Perhaps the viciousness of mankind in the past few decades Kas taken its ghastly toll on our youth.”
Seekintf a Solution
The world that has scoffed at what God’s Word says about child raising now has a man-sized problem of delinquency. And it has conflicting views on what to do about it. Detroit applied a get-tough policy. The police broke up the gangs, established a curfew and enforced it. New York, on the other hand, sends workers out to win the gangs' confidence and to deter them from their delinquent activity. In 1955 it could boast that for four years there had not been a gang war in the areas where the program was conducted.
Youths can be aided by a little of the missing friendship and consideration at the right time. But as Life said after the Feliciano killing, the New York city Youth Board’s social workers “know they can
make only stopgap eSorts in a world that has not worked out ways to prevent such pitiful scenes” as these gang murders produce.
The police feel that the social workers must too often make more concessions to the gang than the gang makes to them. They think the gangs must be made to respect the law. New York Police Commissioner Stephen P. Kennedy recently warned his officers: “You shall not enter into treaties, concordats, compacts or agreements of appeasement—because of such are storm troopers made.”
But these problems would not nave arisen if the parents had really applied the Bible’s principles. These require that family love must abound, that the youth must be trained in the right way, and that they be given a sense of belonging and accomplishment in the Christian congregation.
The parent cannot put the responsibility of teaching God’s requirements off onto the church, or synagogue, or anyone else, but must know those requirements himself, teach them to his own sons, and set the right example of following them in his own life. He is commanded: Have God's words “on your heart, and you must inculcate them in your son and speak of them when you sit in your house and when you walk on the road and when you lie down and when you get up.”—Deuteronomy 6:6, 7, New World Trans,
The child who is trained this way will know that he “belongs,” will understand what is right, and will have a good feeling of real satisfaction in doing it. He will not have an overabundance of time on his hands, to waste in the idleness that leads to mischief, but will follow his parents' right example of serving his God, thus having a worthwhile work to do, and occupying his time with good things, not with the bad ones.
This is not just a theory, but it is put into practice by young witnesses of Jehovah, who, like ancient Jeremiah and like Jesus himself, happily spend their lives m their Creator’s service. Doing this they have the right kind of companions, and set other youths in the neighborhood the right example, rather than being led astray by their wrong one. It is because they have really applied these Bible principles that Jehovah’s witnesses' children, who go to the local Kingdom Halls, are not members of the juvenile gangs that get up early just one morning a week to go to “the 10 a.m. mass.”
For those who refuse to apply these principles, perhaps the best solution to the gang problem is strong policing, with enough officers to provide impartial and inevitable enforcement of the law, plus the activity of social workers to help the gang members rehabilitate themselves into jobs and positions of respectability.
But it should be remembered that by the time a youth comes to the attention of the police the damage already has been done, while if the parents had really followed true Bible principles, they could have pre* vented it!
NEVER A WATER SHORTAGE ! JF
£ For some sea birds supplies of fresh water are not always available. What do they do? They drink salt water. With an ocean full, they never have a water shortage. Penguins, shearingwaters and terns have often been seen drinking sea water. Some sea birds must drink salt water or they will die, Some species of penguins drink either salt or fresh water. It Is not known how they are able to drink salt water and still remain healthy.
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By “AwakeJ'‘ carrttpondent in Naw Ze
HE craft of knitting is indeed an ancient one. Just who began the art or when it began is not exactly known. Relics of very early knitting have been found in countries as far apart as Egypt and Peru.
knitted garment. And it is from the Anglo- J 7 .
Saxon word “enyttan” that our English/ * tficoter, ’ meaning to knit. Today the word “knit” is derived. The hos was the word "tricot” is used to describe any kind most important part of a man’s clothing of underwear or clothing knitted by hand, and from it came the men’s trousers if or any imitation of such material. In today. Of course, the development frotn America the term is used to describe a fine hos to trousers was extremely gradual, nylon fabric, machine knitted.
taking many hundreds of years. I
England, who led the world in makinft Origin of Machine Knitting stockings, was the first to establish knit\ In 15S5 a machine was invented for the
ting as a craft. The knitters had their \ knitting of woolen stockings. For long
The most common of all knitted garments is the stocking. It was known in England as early *as the time of King Alfred. The Anglo-Saxons called it “hos.” It consisted of a leg covering that reached from the foot to just below the knee, where it joined the breeches. It was a guilds in continental Europe as well as in England. These guilds looked after their interests as might a trade union today. They were responsible for establishing and holding a high standard in the knitting of stockings.
After the introduction of silk into Europe, knitted silk stockings became very popular among the richer classes. Knitting in patterns of different colors, even with threads of different textures, was the fashion. At times the hose were very extravagant, as those worn by the Landsknechte, the name for the German mercenary soldiers of the sixteenth century. They had different stockings for each leg, that is, dif-t in color, shape and trimmings, might think that, rather than instiling fear, they would be a source of nt to their enemies. However, in e stockings they wore, during the en Henry VIII and Elizabeth I gland the Landsknechte was a ghting body in Europe.
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Late/, stockings were made to harmo-th the color of the breeches. Differ-shions ruled in different countries, ain, black was-the color worn by st everyone. In Germany only the gy wore black stockings. "Tricot” was e word used for men’s hose in Europe at at time, coming from the French word
hours William Lee, a poor clergyman of Nottinghamshire, watched carefully the movements of his wife’s fingers as she knitted. From his observations he was able to invent and
build a machine that would do the work of the hands. The machine built, Lee went to Elizabeth I, who refused him the right to build the machine, on the grounds that those making their living by hand knitting must be protected. However, she did grant him the right to knit silk stockings, fully believing that his machine would not be capable of doing so. Lee renewed his efforts and soon he had a machine that c<juld knit silk stockings. Again he applied to the queen and after being refused a second time he went to France, hoping that there the king would treat him differently. Henry IV, being a farsighted man, welcomed Lee with open arms. Unfortunately, the king was assassinated and his successor, not liking Huguenots, of whom Lee was one, had him imprisoned. Freed from prison, he later died heartbroken and unknown.
Fortunately, Lee’s knitting machines survived him. They grew in number and their speed increased. As time went on materials other than wool and silk became popular in the knitting industry. Indian fabrics of cotton and linen became popular in England. Linen and cotton stockings were soon seen on the market. In more recent times artificial fibers made from wood pulp have been utilized in the manufacture of stockings. As a rule these are machine knitted, shaped and fitted with a seam in the back.
Other articles that were knitted in early times were caps, gloves and woolen shirts. In France peasants of Normandy went to market with the most beautiful and highly prized bags made of beads. The knitted beads were as delicate as miniature paintings and full of color. Knitted caps and berets have been worn by people of all ages for many centuries. During the fourteenth through the sixteenth century berets and caps were made to look like felt. The knitted beret when finished was soaked for five days, after which time the wool had thickened so that the stitches could no longer be seen. But the cap was now shapeless. So it was put on the milliner's block and pressed into the desired shape. To give body to the felt a teasel brush was used. Finally, it was decorated in the fashion of the day by “slashing” it, that is, by cutting slits in the felted material and inserting a cloth of a different color.
Knitted carpets were first made in Europe and were greatly in demand. These early carpets were rich in color, designed usually with a flower pattern. In eastern Germany, human and animal figures and landscape scenes were bordered with a flower pattern around the edge of the carpet. The work required great skill. A knitting apprentice had to train for six years, and then, to pass his final test, he had to knit a carpet six feet long by five feet wide, as well as a beret, a shirt and a pair of hose. They had to be in the fashion of the time and the designs were very elaborate. The knitter was given thirteen weeks to complete his test. The tests were strict. The entrant had to swear that the work was entirely his own.
Behind the Knitting Material
Few knitters stop to think of all that lies behind the material that they hold in their hands. Wool must be grown. The oldest type of wool-bearing animal is the moufflon, which lives in Central Asia. The most common wool bearer is the sheep. And the oldest known breed of sheep is found in the Isle of Soay, west of the Hebrides. These animals have fine fleeces, and from them beautiful, fine knitted fabrics were made long before the time of Christ.
The tools used in knitting have undergone great changes. At first they were rather crude in comparison with modern
equipment Today instruments are made in various thicknesses to suit the yarn. Earliest needles were very thick and were made of bones, tusks and wood. Spindles have been discovered in the tombs of the British Pit Dwellers, testifying to the knowledge of spinning around 2000 B.C.
Of all the hand knitters left on the earth today, perhaps as a group the Shetland Islanders are the most famous. These islands. which have a special breed of sheep, are one of the great centers of hand knitting remaining in Britain. Living on very small farms, the inhabitants have to take □n other work to make a living. So, while the men go fishing, the women stay home, look after the sheep and knit. There is no spinning mill here, so all the knitting is done with homespun wool. Also, it is home-dyed. Because the wool produced here is unmatched in its fineness and beauty these islands are often called “the land of the golden fleece.”
The Shetland sheep is "bred and tended with particular care. It is a small animal with a fleece that is fine, long and delicate, more like human hair than wool. The fleece cannot be clipped or shorn in the usual way, but must be pulled carefully by hand. This is done by running the hand, with the fingers spread wide apart, along the sheep’s back. The wool comes oft easily. It is then cleaned and dressed with a preparation of seal oil and thoroughly soaked. The finest wool is a two-ply yarn made-of single hairs.
The Shetland sheep are not the usual white color, but are of various colors— reddish-brown, reddish-orange, black, brown-black, gray, blue-gray, flecked-white and brown. In most cases the wool is knitted in its natural color. However, the Shetlanders make their own dyes, fadeless and in a range of most delicate shades, from the lichens that grow on their own islands.
The Shetland knitters are extraordinarily quick, being able to do two hundred stitches a minute. This is because of the method they use, a very old one, that comes from Norseland. The needles are held in a pouch so that the hands are left free to secure the stitches. Though the knitters are agile with their needles, the garments are large and it takes a week to knit a woolen jumper, so fine is the wool and so intricate the pattern. .
Considering the history of knitting makes us appreciate the ingenuity God has placed in man and the bountiful provisions with which he has surrounded us so that we can develop our skills to the glory of God and reap joy from the work of our hands.
Jin Obstetrical Curiosity
C One of the snakes common in the American tropics is the fer-de-lance, a six-foot snake and one of the most poisonous reptiles on earth. It is somewhat of an obstetrical curiosity. The NW Fork telling about a Snuthsooiau Institution'^ report from its biological station in the Canal Zone; said: ,rA scientist picked up a gravid female and carried it to the Smithsonian’s island laboratory. The fer-de-lance did not bite the man, although females about to bear young are supposed to be especially nervous and vicious. She began to produce her new family on arrival. One by one, sixty young came into the world, each one-sixth as long as its mother but much thinner. Each had. fully functioning poison fangs and sacs of venom. From the instant of birth each could have killed a small mammal and would have been dangerous to a man. The young came into the world as closely packed halls, which started to unwind at once.”
(^et\ viait 'TOKVO1
By "Awaktl" forrtipondynt in Joplin
HY visit Tokyo? For many reasons. The unusual customs, food and the Oriental way of living make this Japanese city a very interesting one to visit So come with us on an imaginary trip. In 1457 a castle was built here, and a city quickly grew. But it was not until 1868 that real recognition came when, ^or political reasons, the central government was moved from Kyoto and the city got its present name Tokyo, meaning "eastern capital.”
Viewing the City
During a visit to Tokyo you will note that it is no city of skyscrapers. The tallest of Its business buildings are eight stories, and by far the greater part of the dwellings are only one story high. The reason for this lies in the frequent earthquakes, and in particular the historical 1923 earthquake that claimed 100,000 lives. Fewer homes than before the war now house twice as many people. Yet the city has made remarkable recovery, and its products are again being shipped in large quantities to world markets. Tokyo shows a bright smile and has every convenience to cater to visitors’ needs.
A Japanese Meal
■j? ‘One of the visitor’s needs is food, and just consider the Japanese specialties! There are rice dishes, as well as soba or udon (buckwheat and wheat noodles), tempra (shrimp) and fish or eel, raw or cooked. But for this meal let us try sukiyaki Tokyo-style. Entering a restaurant we are escorted to a small private dining room. We seat ourselves around a low table on a tatami, or straw mat floor. A gas burner and an iron skillet are placed on the table. Into the skillet are put thinly sliced strips of beef, onions and other ingredients, with a special sauce made of soy beans and rice wine. As the meat browns, we are given an egg and a small bowl. We break the egg into the bowl and beat it with our chopsticks. Then we dip the cooked food from the skillet into the beaten egg and into our mouths. Ah, delicious!
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