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ED v Ne XX a i» takes off his hat to a lady. At least the act is thought to be gentlemanly, polite. The origin of this custom, like '50 many other customs common among so-called civilized peoples, goes back to primitive times, eays the Salt Lake Tribune. When a person was made captive his € stripped him of bis weapons and clothing and left him without any- thing he could call his own. The cap- tive was thos made a slave, his lack of clothing being evidence of his sub- jugation. We need enly to look at the sculptures of. the Assyrians to see the truth of the fack And in Isaiah 20:24, { we find the following statement: "And {the Lord sald, like as my servant Isaiah hath walked naked and bare foot three years for a sign, so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians prisoners and the Ethio- plans captives, young and old, naked . jand barefoot." : The first step, then, In tracing the me uy of Ihe at. 1s the surrender of the clothing among primi- tive and ancient peoples as a mark of submission. The next step is the un- eovering of the body as a mark of rev- erence. There are all degrees of un- covering, though often only the most valuable parts of the clothing are taken off in the presence of superiors. It must be remembered that this act of uncovering the body was cere- ronial in nature and used to show reverence to a superior. Then came ihe use of the ceremonial to propitiate the dend. We can sce a remnant of this most any time. At funerals and In our graveyards men take off their hate. They still take off their hats on enter- ing churches and before the images of Christ and the Madonna. In times of chivalry men raised thelr ts to ladles to show reverence. But was only superficial in meaning. night would ride down a poor peas- he git woman carrying a large burden and never think of helping her---least of all would he think of taking off his hat to bh However, if he heard of stripping of an captive by which process was expressed the fact that he yielded up all he had. Taking off the hat to a wealthy girl means, occasionally, not only the yielding up of all you have, but the getting of all she bas. Cere- mony is often nothing but & hard cal- culation regard to personal results, especia where self-aggrandizement is the nltimate alm of the polished in- ~ divideel, lari ER { i] Smoked Dry Pipe. The lost pipe of a Hun raider was found in the gerden of a house in an Essex town over which a German alr- ship passed. A portion of the stem has been cut and flattened and upon it 1s written in indelible Ink, "Karl Werner, 13188--A. G." The under side of the bowl and the stem have been notched eleven times and on the side of the mouthpiece are more notches. The finder of the pipe said: "There was no smell of tobacco about the pipe and it bad not apparently been recent Iy smoked. It is possible that it was used by the owner as a dry pipe as the mouthpiece shows sigus of hard bit- ing. The notches cut in the stem may record fhe nnwber of times the air man had flown with it in his mouth." E "Smoking" a dry pipe is pot unususl, especially would it be the case in a Zeppelin in which a spark from a light- ed pipe might cause the ship's destrue- tion. pen it A Cameo Kingdom. Prince Liechtenstein, whose frank utterances formed the most striking incident of a peace demonstration held recently in Vienns, Is heir to a prio- 3 ty which enjoys the unique dis tinetlon among continental nations of having no army and mo compulsory iilitary service. Prior to the Austro- Prunssizn war the tiny state of Liech- tenstein constituted part of the Gere manic confederation, and was bound to waintain a quota of wen for Service in the federal army, but after Sadowa its force of ei y soldiers was dis- banded znd have sever been revived. pet el Ecy Drowns, Cat Saved. | The nine lives a cat possesses stood {one creature in good stead In northeast ! London not long ago. A boy was tak- ling a eat in & basket to the Cats' home o be destroyed. On the way he slip- and fell into 5 canal, the cat being hese, wiih ol in, he to save itself, and has returned to its owner's house. i 3 tiis Memory. ! . Provrietor--Won't you try our ple? t's just like mother used to make. Diner--Well--es--1 knew your moth- er and you'd belter bring me ice greany, ii bai ¥ ee. } | os maa some beautiful damsel of hig own class in the slightest danger, imaginary or réal, he would go to her and, hat in hand, kneel snd dedicate himself to her | service, Today much the same things occur. Ordinarily a gay youth forgets to take off his hat to his mother, yet he shows this deference to his "best girl" After all it is only form, and polite ness should go deeper than this. How- ever, the form persists, and it is of some historical Interest to remember thet it is 8 remnant of the primitive XIX XX 19¢ XXX IX RX Rg ¢ SHACRISISICICICIOR INN LE 3 NCINZIN INES NIENIONENIAN Ok Fy! M IAAL rTP SRA N \ / ~ HOB NAN 7 . Ontario. LACK OF PRAISE FGR POETS | { Complaint ls Registered That Insuffi- | client Honor ls Bestowed Upen i Living English Writers. In an article in the Bookman of twentleth century English poetry, Prof. William Lyen Phelps quotes William watson as complaining of the insuffi- clent praise bestowed upon living po- | ets and as saying that with one ex- ception, meaning Kipling, there is not a single English poet the sales of whose poems would not have been thought contemptible by Bcott and By- ron. "With that one brilliant excep- | tion," says Watson, "England's living singers succeed im reaching only a | pitifully small audience." In com- menting on this passage, Professor Phelps says: X 3 "We ought to remember that Beett and Byron were colossal figures, so big that no eye could miss them, and that the reason why Kipling has enjoyed substantial rewards is not because of his political views, nor because of his glorification of the British empire, but simply because of his literary genius. He is a brilliant and salient exception to the common run of poets, not mere- ly in royalties, but in creative power. Furthermore, shortly after this lec- ture was delivered Alfred Noyes and then John Mansfield passed from city to city in America in a veritable march of triumph. Mr. Gibson and Mr. Del.aMare received homage every- where; 'Riley day' 1s now a legal holi- day In Indiana; Rupert Brooke has been canonized." : i ALL ENEMIES ME oof they breat the air They read isolated items about food shortage, but sucha : thing as this affecting their own dinner table never enters their mind, and it is the responsibility of The Observer to bring home to its readers a realization of the facts, as un- less something is done, in another year, they will not be reading about the hunger in Belgium but the hunger in ence of all interested in food production was held iu To- ronto on Monday, May 7, 92 oF The following should be memorized by every reader of Tue OBSERVER. Under the Presidency of Mr. J. W. Woods, a Coufer- RRR HRNHRINN salir RR : RPRRENN Foie | mn Lox" is the British soldier's nama for n small, round, concrete block: honse which contains German machine gunners. The "pill box" appears to be the smallest of German concrete defenses, some of which are nothing short of fortresses in every sense of the word. The "pill box" strategy, which has been offset by heavier allled gunfire, comprises the use of shell holes, trees, rocks and every .other available shel- ter for machine guns, Instead of the old style rows of trenches. In other words, there is & "zone of defense." The organization of this zone of de: fense is such that the acrlal observ: ers of the allies cannot detect the in: dividual machine gun posts; hence di- rect hits by artillery becdine almost impossible except by mere chance. Benzol to the Rescue. Experiments recently conducted by a large oll company, notes a writer in Power, proved that "not only is ben- zol more valuable than gasoline as a motor fuel when used straight, but its effective value Is increased by being mixed with gasoline. These experi- ments indicate that a mixture of equal parts of gasoline and benzol gives a value over 18 per cent greater than that of straight gasoline, which shows 82 per cent increased value for the benzol half. In many quarters aleo- hol is looked upon as the ultimate fuel, but it cannot be employed except with lo great difficulties, owing to its high hy< | drogen content." i SCOT BEATS LAW BY A NOSE Thirsty Sandy, In Wild Race Against Thine, Arrives on Quarter Minute and Gets His Drink. Writing In Everybody's, Maude Itads ford Warren enumerates some amusing incidents showing the effects of ited war prohibition in England. On evening the author witnessed the fol lowing race against time that was staged near Victoria station, Lomdoti, at an hour when traffic is thickest: "Presently a shouting and cursing arose at the center of the intersectd streets. People turned, peering gaping. Streaking straight through the traffic, regardless of thundering trucks and sliding cabs and obstruet- ing pedestrians, came a Scotchman, His eyes were glassy and staring; his kilts were flylng; his knees were - Kling. On he came, straight for public house, If he could get a ha on a glass of 'his national vodka 0:20%, he was saved. Would he make it? A group of ribald Americans cheered him on, yelling at him in rage track fashion. His fellow Scotchmen silently made way for him, and x 'of them even pushed people out of | path. But they did not cheer; it a matter too deep for came Sandy; panting, glaring, leaped x