Explains how to finish old furniture to conform with the vogue for enameled and stained effects-how to make your home artistic, cheery and inviting. Tells how to finish inexpensive soft wood so it is as beautiful and artistic as hard wood. Tells just what materials to use-how to apply them-includes color cardgives covering capacities, etc.

We will gladly send this book free and postpaid for the name of your best dealer in paints. And for 100 we will also send you a can of Johnson's Prepared Wax. S. C. JOHNSON & SON, Dept. O.T. 4, Racine, Wis. "The Wood Finishing Authorities"

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WESTERN railway's statistics as to the reasons why its laborers leave their jobs contain little stories of human interest. During nine months it hired 1,513 laborers. Of these, 744 did not report for work after being hired (perhaps on account of getting better jobs); 306 quit and gave no reported reason; 182 "wanted to move on;" 23 "didn't like their quarters;" 17 "could not mix in the gang;" 11 were dissatisfied with their food, 7 "had no blankets," 5 "had no rain-clothes," 1 claimed he was disabled by poison oak, and 1 frankly said "he did not like railroad work."

Torpedoes which appeal to three senses-hearing, seeing, and smellingare now in use on all the lines of the Canadian Pacific Railroad. The new torpedo, according to an announcement by the company, has spring steel or brass clips by which it is fastened to the head of the rail. Each detonation is accompanied by a brilliant flash and a pungent smell. Warning ought to be assured by this triple safeguard.

"One of life's most poignant moments," says the Roanoke "Times," "occurs when the man who is reading aloud to the family comes across 'Dail Eireann.''

Homeless cats in New York City and in many foreign lands will benefit from the proceeds of an auction sale of Bronx real estate. The lots belong to the estate of Miss Caroline G. Ewen, who left approximately $300,000 to various humane societies to help care for the cats she loved. The will was contested but was held by the courts to be valid.

In an article in an English newspaper on "The Passing of the Country Aristocracy" the Earl of Denbigh publishes a statement of the income and expenses of his landed estate. He received in rent for 1920, £6,442 (about $30,000). He paid out, in taxes and wages, £6,292, leaving himself a balance of £150 (about $750). He continues: "Almost every [English] rural estate is in a state of insolvency. Hardly any landlord can afford to live at his home unless he is in receipt of some other income than that derived from land." This situation probably accounts for the unprecedented number of real estate "bargains" and auction sales that fill the advertising columns of English papers.

A young elephant is as playful as a kitten, according to an article in "Collier's." "It is a far nicer pet than a kitten," the writer goes on, "for it is more careful of injury to its playfellows. Anna May, a ten-year-old elephant much used in the moving pictures, will lie down over a baby, taking the tenderest care not to hurt it." Some of the animal actors in the movies are jealous as to their baby associates, it seems. Mary, a chimpanzee who works in a Los Angeles studio, "delights in dressing and undressing babies, and handles them with tender care. A scene was enacted where

Mary was supposed to purloin a baby and then return it to the mother, who was lying in bed. Mary took the baby and returned it, but the mother thought the baby ought to be covered better and raised one arm to do it. What Mary thought no one knows, but she promptly bit that extended arm." Possibly Mary thought the arm meant to do some injury to her pet.

In the order of their intelligence, the article above quoted says, animal actors in the movies are listed thus: The chimpanzee, the horse, the dog, the elephant, the lion, tiger, bear, wolfthese four about alike. The ostrich, goose, rabbit, and snake are the stupid ones. A chimpanzee has a strange an tipathy to the dark races. "A chimp likes a white man; but a Jap, or a Negro, or even a dark Mexican cannot pass a chimp's cage without his growl. ing. On a set he might tear them up."

The "Scientific American" character izes the following museum label as "one of the best short stories ever written:"

"Far back in the past, during that period in the world's history known as the Triassic, the State of Connecticut was largely covered by the sea, and a bay, or estuary, extended as far north as Turner's Falls, Massachusetts. One day, when the tide was out, one of the great reptiles known as Dinosaurs walked along the beach, leaving his footprints in the sand. The tide came in, the tracks filled with sand and mud; in the ages that followed this became stone, and a few million years later, in quarrying stone for New York houses, this track was uncovered."

An example of Spanish wit (from the "Revista Medica Veracruzana").-"Doctor, as soon as I get through with my meals I feel awfully sleepy. What should I do so as not to go to sleep at the table?" Doctor-"Go to bed immediately!"

"Punch's" contribution to a wellknown subject of contemporary humor: "Mr. Gompers, President of the American Federation of Labor, claims that every workingman should have his own Ford car, and also ice-cream for lunch. Maybe he is right about the car, but surely ice-cream for lunch is an extravagance."

A man who is wedded to a hobby must beware of divorcing his fad and taking a real partner. So a Chicago man said who was devoted to the concertina. "For thirty-five years," he told the judge of the domestic relations court, "I was happy with my concertina, and then a friend said he would get me a wife if ï would give him the music box. I took him up. Judge, for two weeks I've had that wife, by name Sophie. I can't stand it any longer. My concertina was worth a dozen women. I could shut it up when I wanted to." "I am sorry for you," said the judge, "but a trade's a trade. You'll have to do the best you can with your Sophie."

OCTOBER 26, 1921

UPPER SILESIA: THE

LEAGUE'S PLAN

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HE loud and dismal clamor from Germany that has greeted the League of Nations' plan as to the division of Upper Silesia is not proof that the proposal is unjust or that Germany will not accept it. Germany is simply going through the usual stage of protest and refusal that has preceded all her previous surrenders. So far as the peace of the world is concerned, the less Silesian coal and undeveloped coal land Germany has, the better-always admitting, however, that the unwise concessions of the Versailles Treaty must now be honorably carried out so far as their lack of precision admits, and that fair weight is to be given the recent plebiscite in Upper Silesia, properly interpreted.

In order to find some satisfactory line of delimitation the Allies concerned, having failed to agree upon a plan, referred the question through their Supreme Council to the Council of the League of Nations. We do not understand that the Allies are positively bound to accept the League's proposal, but there is no doubt expressed that they will do so. And, as always, the League must depend on united action by the Allies to enforce its wishes, thus making the League's utterance that of an arbitral recommendation rather than a judgment.

The League's Council, in turn, referred the question to the representatives of the four countries which are not permanently member nations of the Council, namely, Belgium, Spain, Brazil, and China. These nations have no direct material interests involved in the Upper Silesian matter. This sub-committee, as it may be called, heard the evidence of both Germans and Poles, employers and employed, from Upper Silesia, and also despatched a neutral impartial commission thither to investigate on the spot.

While the text of the League report is not yet available, the full summaries published indicate its main features: The frontier line drawn is practically straight. To make it so the plan draws the line through the center of the triangle known as Le Chapeau because it resembles in shape a cocked hat. A crooked line would obviously involve serious difficulties, as there would be bits of German and Polish territory projecting into the other country's ands. Yet, in the main, districts which voted for Polish or German rule will

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get what they desire, the coal mines will be divided, and the towns which Germany loses and about which it is making such an outcry will be offset by towns and rural districts having a predominating Polish population. The plan has provisions protecting the rights of Polish and German minorities and establishing religious liberty and schools of both nationalities. A mediation committee is proposed, made up of two Germans, two Poles, and one neutral, to decide questions relating to labor contracts and other matters.

One English newspaper, opposed to Lloyd George, declares that this is."a timid and time-serving decision," and that it may be "the author of a future war." This criticism is exceptional; the indications are that the plan will go through.

An arbitration is likely to be in the nature of a compromise; rarely are all parties pleased. But the benefit to Europe of disposing in a reasonably satisfactory way of this complicated and troublesome question hardly be overestimated.

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HELPING RUSSIAN CHILDREN EVERAL weeks ago The Outlook had the pleasure of publishing an article by Sir Paul Dukes. In this article he contrasted the treatment of Russian children by the Bolshevists, their own fellow-countrymen, and by the relief workers who are bringing help from abroad. Under the misrule of the Soviets, Russian children have been placed indiscriminately in wretched

schools, so called, there to be taught disregard of authority, decency, and religion, while their parents were helpless either to feed them or to save them from this pervert instruction. On the other hand, the Russian Relief and Reconstruction Fund has as its aim the purpose to save Russian children and train them for future citizenship.

Information which has just reached The Outlook gives interesting facts concerning the extent and success of the work of the association named above. Last November the children under the care of the society were taken from Balaklava (a name famous in the Crimean War) to Constantinople, and later. to Anatolia, where they spent the summer in camp. The effort to provide them with a place to live in comfort in Constantinople was strenuous because all available accommodation was taken up by the wounded from General Wrangel's unhappy military effort. Nevertheless during three different moves the children went on steadily with study and work and play, and are now in splendid condition. The refugee problem at Constantinople has been taken care of adequately by the American Red Cross and other associations, and the Russian Relief and Reconstruction Fund is now able to devote its efforts chiefly to the children. Its officers report that "the moral breakdown of the Russian people is as complete as it is appalling, and it is not untrue to say that the parents are scarcely fit to have control of their own children." It

is said to be the only organization doing just this kind of work. Lord Robert Cecil, Mrs. Winston Churchill, Mr. Aylmer Maude, and Commander Oliver Lampson are among the best known of the British supporters of the undertaking.

We are glad that readers of The Outlook have already contributed to this work. Others who wish to do so may send their .checks to J. P. Morgan & Co., of New York, for the Russian Relief and Reconstruction Fund.

AMERICA HONORS ENGLAND'S AND FRANCE'S HEROES

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RIBUTE has been paid by General Pershing in behalf of the Government and people of the United States to the two unknown dead soldiers whose graves in France and England are representative of the many thousands of heroic soldiers of the two nations who died unknown but honored.

The ceremonies were dignified and truly expressed sentiment as distinguished from sentimentalism. In each case General Pershing placed upon the tomb of the unknown soldier the Congressional Medal of Honor in commemoration, as he said in Westminster Abbey, "of the sacrifices of our comrade and his fellow-countrymen, and slight token of our gratitude and affection toward this people."

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That this tribute was an evidence of the lasting friendship of America with its allies in the Great War was in both cases recognized. This was well expressed by Mr. Lloyd George when he said in accepting the token of recognition and friendship: "This homage will be interpreted as a solemn pledge given the valiant dead that these two mighty peoples who were comrades in the Great War have resolved to remain comrades to guarantee a great peace."

King George also recognized this international friendship in his special message to President Harding sent on the day of the ceremonies in Westminster Abbey, for he took occasion to express his heartfelt wishes for the coming international conference in Washington and to hope that the English representatives, in common with ours, may do "all that practical statesmanship can achieve to perpetuate the comradeship of war in the maintenance of peace."

In return for the tribute just paid by America to England's dead, the King announces his desire to confer on the American unknown warrior a unique honor. The Victoria Cross has never before been bestowed on the subject of another nation. But it is now to be laid on the grave of our unknown soldier in order, as the King says, "that the British Empire may thus most fitly pay its tribute to tomb which symbolizes every deed of conspicuous valor performed by the men of your great fighting forces, whether by sea or land, upon the western front."

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THE INTERNATIONAL

FISHERMEN'S TROPHY

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AST fall saw the initiation of one of the most promising sporting events of recent years. After the disappointing races between the Shamrock IV and Resolute, the Halifax "Herald" offered a trophy for an international race between the fishermen of Canada and the United States. This trophy the Gloucester schooner Esperanto captured in two straight races. Esperanto was subsequently lost at sea after colliding with a derelict.

This year both Canadians and Americans built new schooners for the contest. Bluenose, built this past year, has been selected as the Canadian challenger, the

veteran schooner Elsie, of Gloucester, as the American defender.

The American schooner Mayflower, designed by W. Starling Burgess as a defender of the trophy, was ruled out as a contestant. by the trustees of the cup, and the action of the trustees was acquiesced in by the American members of the Race Committee. The American members of the Committee all hail from Gloucester, and Mayflower is owned and sailed from Boston, a fact which has given rise to some bitterness of feeling. In voting to bar Mayflower it was said:

It was the opinion of the trustees that if a vessel of the extreme type of the Mayflower was allowed to compete the intentions of the donors of the cup would be nullified and all competition killed for present and future races.

The rule of the trustees requires that a fishing vessel must have spent at least one season actively engaged in commercial fishing. It was the intention of the donors of the cup, not only to insist upon seaworthy construction, but to confine the race to vessels which could carry enough fish to make them of commercial value.

It is sincerely to be hoped that the trustees of the trophy will succeed in maintaining their standards absolutely. Their rules will not bar out improved design, wherever the improvement is not made at too great a cost to capacity and seaworthiness.

It seems to us that their rules could be profitably amended in at least one particular. Instead of requiring but one season on the Banks, the limit should be raised to at least two. Such a change would prevent the building of impractical vessels whose chief purpose was to challenge for or defend the cup. Such a change in the rules would minimize the difficulties confronting the trustees in