the coolidge examiner. (coolidge, ariz. ) 1931-08-21 [p ]€¦ · extend along the himalaya chain...

. MighiyMountef’1 ~im

•m-.x, .....

Darjeeling, With Peaks of the Himalayas in the Background.

about 7,000 feet from the Belgianplains. On tiie side toward themountains tiie ridge drops awayfor approximately 6,000 feet form-ing what might, in American ter-minology, l>e called “the GrandCanyon of the Han jit,” but whoseheavily forested slopes and trop-ically luxuriant floor earns inIndia the more poetic name of “Valeof Itanjit.”

It is across this titanic valleyand beyond over ranges of foothills,lower than that on which Darjeel-ing sits, that one looks to mightyKinehinjunga. The eye thereforesees a rise of approximately 7,000feet, a range of altitude to be seenin few if any other places in theworld, since most of tiie highestmountains rise from lofty plateaus.

Darjeeling lias characteristics un-like those of most towns. It cud

hardly be said to have streets. Mostof the buildings face on paths orwalks which run along the mainridge and out onto its minor spurs,or work their way by serpentineroutes to other paths that cling totiie steei* sides of the slopes. Steps,too, serve in place of roads, con-necting terraces that rise one abovethe other.

The villas, bungalows, shops,government buildings, hospitals,churches, schools, barracks and na-tive huts that make up Darjeelingand its suburb form pendant com-munities, like giant saddle-hagsthrown over tiie ridge. Dwellingsare scattered down the slopes fora thousand feet, the ground floor ofone tier on a level with the roofsof the next tier below. If one mustcover much space in Darjeeling herides on pony back or is carried in alitter by four servants.

The center of Darjeeling is Ob-servatory hill, a knoll on the crestof the ridge. Topping the knollis a Buddhist monument and sur-rounding it is a small forest ofstaff from which prayer flags flut-ter their supplications. From thebenches near the monument onemay sit, when mist and clouds donot interfere, and take advantageof Darjeeling's best view of mightyKinehinjunga and its fellows. Butoften the vigil is fruitless. It isonly for relatively brief periodsduring spring and early winter thatone may he sure of long, uninter-rupted views of the towering gran-ite and ice walls aud snowy slopesto the north.

Looking Across the Peaks.Standing on the Darjeeling ridge

when the air is free of mists, the

i observer first looks down, deep1 down feet into a river gorgechoked with tropical jungle. Thenhis eyes rise to the rice fields re-flecting the blue sky and the teaplantations. Up and up to the Tem-perate zone trees, then to the pineforests crowning lower mountains.The observer peeps over half adozen intervening ridges into thedark mysterious depths of valleys.Then he sees the bare uplandsabove tiie tree line and finally thebeginning of tiie snows. Long whiteglaciers drape the mountain masswhose two-pronged peaks half fillsthe sky.

The world seems to be walledon the north. There is no suchthing as a horizon; Kinehinjungacloses the view like an exquisitescreen.

The vertical height is to thelength, at this point of vantage asone is to eight; that is, as a treeGO feet high appears when viewedat the distance of one average cityblock.

In terms of familiar Americanviews, Kinehinjunga, seen fromDarjeeling, is like the Washingtonmonument as it appears from thewest veranda of the Capitol or theWoolworth building as seen fromthe Jersey shore.

Darjeeling well earns its popu-larity as a summer resort. Whileon the steamy plains of Bengal, afew miles away, the mercury climbsin summer above 100 degrees Fah-renheit, it seldom tops 75 degreesat Darjeeling; and in winter 35

! degrees marks the low point of thei temperature range. The unpleas-! ant feature of the weather is fur-; nished by the heavy rains. Tenj feet of water fall each year, andj some of the storms are violent. Dar-I jeeling’s name means “Place of the1 Thunderbolt.” Four-fifths of the! year's precipitation falls between

the first of June and the last ofSeptember.

Natives of the region of Kin-ehinjunga believe the snow peaksto be the abode of the evil spirits.High up the sides of the mountainsthey build monasteries in whichthey pray for deliverance from theevil spirits. They think that to

I climb the peaks is to tempt death.

(Prepaied by the National GeographicSociety. Washington. D. C )

MOUNTS Kamet and Kinchin-junga iti the Himalayasi!:i\c taken tin* place of

Mount Everest this summer in theinterest of the world’s mountainclimbers. Mount Kamet, 25,445feet high, was suecesfsully scaledby a British party on June 21.Kincbinjunga. 27,815 feet, high, isnow being attacked by a party ofGermans.

Heretofore, Mount Kamet has sel-dom been heard of when the earth'shighest pinnacles are being dis-cussed, bur nevertheless it is oneof the select little group of AsiaticBeaks that push up farther abovesea level than mountains in anyother part of the earth. Althoughit ranks thirtieth among the amaz-ing group of mountain giants thatextend along the Himalaya chainand into China, it is not greatlysurpassed in height hy any of itsfellows except Everest. 29,002 feethigh; Goodwin Austen, 28,250;Kincbinjunga, 27,815; Dhaulagiri,2C.828. and Gasai Than. 20.205. Allof these super-giants among moun-tains are in Nepal except GoodwinAusten, which is in northern Kash-mir.

The peak om Mount Kamit issituated just a stone’s throw southof the Tibetan border, in the UnitedProvinces of India. Nearby isNanda Devi, which tops it by lessthan 200 feet. These comparisonsboil down to the fact that Kametis the third highest mountain inthe Britisli empire; and by virtueof this fact it was considered wellworth a serious attack hy mountainclimbers.

While Mounts Everest and Kin-chinjnnga are near Darjeeling, hillcapital of Bengal, Mount Kamet is600 miles to the northwest nearSimla, hill capital of India. Itlies in the Garhwal district of theUnited Provinces, 130 miles dueeast of Simla near the eightieth me-ridian of longitude. This area cameInto British possessions in ISI4 asa result of tiie Gurka war (withNepal). This region consists of amaze of high peaks with extremelydeep valleys winding among them.Tiie valleys and lower slopes areheavily wooded.

How Mount Kamet Is Reached.The railhead used in expeditions

to Mount Kamet is at Knthgodam.in the United Provinces, at thesouthern edire of the Himalayanfoothills. From there travel is over-land through valleys and up steepslopes to Uanikhet. a hill villagecomparable in location to Simla, jFrom Uanikhet the way leads overrough country and across a num-ber of deep river gorges, to the vil-lage of Niri at 12.000 feet altitude.From this point both yaks andcoolie bearers are used.

Although numerous attehipts toscale Mount Kamet have been madesince 1855, no one succeeded inreaching the summit until this sum-mer. The latest expedition priorto the one that has just scaled thepeak was led by Dr. A. M. Kellas.He reached an altitude of 23,000feet, hut had to turn back becausehis native assistants were suffer-ing from mountain sickness.

On the slopes of Mount KametIs one of the chief head-water gla-ciers of the Ganges river.

Kinehinjunga is bigger game forthe mountain climber than Kamet,both because of its extreme heightand the steepness of its slopes. It isthe third highest mountain in theworld, reaching upward five andone-third miles above sea level.

Os the three highest peaks—Ever-est, Goodwin Austen and Kinehin-junga—the latter is the most inac-cessible. It lies 45 miles northof Darjeeling in an air line, hutthe road that one must travelacross canyons, over ridges andnround Intervening peaks, is muchlonger.

Darjeeling has been headquartersfor the several expeditions thathave tried unsuccessfully to scaleKincbinjunga in past years. LikeSimla. 700 miles farther west, andSrinatrar in Kashmir, Darjeeling is 1a godsend to perspiring Europeans ;who must spend the hot period in 'India. Rut it is more than a cool !retreat: it is a matchless observa- I

1 tion post, when the clouds permit, jfor tiie mightiest mountain scenerythat the world affords. And the 1outstanding sight to the north-ward. across deep chasms and be-yond tier after tier of foothills, isthe mighty Kinehinjunga. buttressedViy half a dozen peaks from 20,000to 24.000 feet in altitude.

Darjeeling on the Foothills.Darjeeling stands on a sort of

stage before and above whichsweep the amphitheater slopes ofHimalayan foothills that rises'

—

( jiSTAGE COACH j;']| TALES j!

11 y E. C. TAYLOR j:j A President Takes a Tumble

| DO not travel any more;* ’ we merely arrive.”

Macauley wrote this in comment-i ing on the passing of the old days,

j when a trip was an adventure,j when one lived every moment of his

; journey, whether it was a few hours’| trip of a few miles, or a trek across| the continent.

One of the most romantic periodsi of the history of the United StatesI was that between 1800 and the com-

ing of the railroads prior to 1850That was the day of the stagecoach.

The notes of tiie coachman’s horn,the stamping of four or six horses,and the rattling of the old Concord

I stages that filled tiie highways of! America in those years are nearly| forgotten. Few records have been

j kept of their era, although for dec-I ades the life of the young nation

flowed through these great arteriesof travel.

The lords of that distant day werethe drivers of the stage coaches.They were the hoys’ heroes likeaviators are today. Their word waslaw, and they were looked up to

r-md respected by tiie great and thelesser individuals who comprisedthe genera! public.

Os the tales that are left of theseromantic figures the most amusingperhaps is the one of how they ven-tured to express their emphaticdisapproval of a President of theUnited States.

When Martin Van Buren was oc-cupying the White House, lie ve-toed a bill appropriating funds tortiie improvement of the Nationalroad in Indiana. That great high-way was the backbone of the nation

! between 1830 and 1848, when tiie! railroads pushed westward over the! Allegheny mountains.

Everywhere along the road therewas great indignation over VanBuren’s action. The stage drivers,being overlords of their community,and no doubt somewhat tired of thesevere jostlings they received when ’they drove their coaches at fullspeed over a rocky, rough andswampy highway, nursed their re- ;

I venge.Their opportunity came when j

Van Buren was returning to Wash- jington, D. C-, from a trip up the jMississippi valley. The President j

I rode in as much peace and state jas the highway then provided, until j

| he reached Plainfield, Ind.When his coach left Plainfield, j

it had an “accident,” and tiie Presi- j| dent of the United States was un- ;ceremoniously spilled out in the

| road where the mud was deepest.The identity of the driver of his !

! coach is cloaked in mystery. Ev- jeryone denied responsibility for!what had happened although it is Jprobable they all laughed up their jsleeves.

Investigation showed that an !axle had been sawed nearly in two,and it was brought out that the |driver, when he reached a partieu-|larly muddy stretch of road, had jnot avoided any of the numerousbumps. The coach hit a big rock,and the axle broke. As it was go-ing at a good speed, the vehicle

j turned over, of course, and Mr. Vanj Buren was sent sprawling into the

1 mud puddle.The President returned to the

tavern at Plainfield, and after!cleaning up. started off again andreached the Nation’s Capital withoutfurther mishap. But he had been jtaught an object lesson on the im-portance of keeping the country’s jgreatest highway in repair. When jthe hill came to him again soon ;after his adventure, lie promptly |signed it.

The position held by the driverslof the old stage coaches was likethat of the captain of a steamboat.Some of the drivers stood on aslofty a plane as the commanders ofgreat ocean liners of the presentday. Their word was law while onthe road.

They came Into constant touchi with all the prominent political, so-

cial and commercial figures of thecountry, and their attention andfavor was eagerly sought.

Although they were paid only astandard wage of sl2 a month andtheir hoard and lodging, they tookprecedence over even their mostdistinguished passengers.

In the eyes of small boys theywere even above the President ofthe United States. They alsothought well of themselves; as onedriver remarked;

“While I drive this coach I amthe whole United States of Amer-ica.”

(©. 1931. Western Newspaper Union. >

Mighty MitesTermites cause $1,000,000 worth

of damage in Illinois every year,according to a bulletin of the Amer-ican Institute of Architects. .

..

They are second cousins of the antfamily, and formerly lived almostentirely in the woods . . . de-struction of the forests is drivingthem to the cities, where they getinto fireproof steel and masonryvaults and destroy valuable papers.. . . The wood sills of buildingsare their favorite dish, and afterthey have held a few banquets in asill nothina is left but a shell. . . .

It may collapse, carrying the housewith it.

Jewish Surnames

The American Hebrew says thatJewish surnames date only fromISI2. when Hardenburg, the Austri-an, devised a specious and ingeni-ous form of tyranny by which toafflict tiie Jews. Since they hadnever had surnames and had pre- ¦ferred to remain without them in.the thousands of years of their ex-istence, Hardenburg saw a newmeans whereby to inflict discomfortupon the Jews. In this wholesalenaming the two most commonsources of names were the Bibleand the occupation of the person.

Turks Shaken in TheirVeneration for Koran

Arabic, being a sacred language, |the ecclesiastics have cried out :against their holy book, the Koran, iappearing in any other tongue. But \the Turkish government lias in spiteof this allowed the publication of !three separate translations. Four-teen thousand copies have been sold. ;Turks, who formerly heard the jsounding Arabic of the Koran with- jout understanding anything of itsmeaning, imagined it charged withtremendous and mystic meanings.

That impression melts away when jtiie Koran is read in the vernacular. !It is sometimes enough to place a jKoran and a Testament in the handsof a Turkish reader and leave himto draw his own conclusions. It issaid that Kemal Pasha in disgustthrew the book across ’the room intoa corner. Yet in the Sudan the pri-mary textbook in all the governmentschools is the Koran, and Islam isgaining ground constantly in theAnglo-Egyptian Sudan. SundaySchool Times.

How It HappenedJosephine had a pet lamb, Billie.

\Ye noticed that it showed signs ofbutting, but felt it would break herheart to separate them. One day shecame in crying and rubbing her backand said:

“Billieran up behind me and for-got to stop.”—Liberty Magazine.

Some HowlO’Fuddle —That boy of mine is

just the kind of a boy to make anoise in the world.

O’Muddle—Ob, be is that kind ofa boy all right! Just wait until youput it up to him to look for a job.—New Bedford Standard.

Up in the Air“Klymer has a high position, I

hear.”“Yes, he builds smokestacks.”

After a boy has been going on er-rands for five or six hours, does it jever occur to you that he might like Ito sit down? 1

BEFORE THE COMINGOF THE WHITE MAN

Abundant Proof That In-dians Had Villages on

Site of the Capital.

There are many evidences that be-fore the coming of the white man In-

| dians spoke tiie language of thegreat Algonquian family which cov-ered the East coast, and for this rea-son the Algonquians were met byJohn Smith at Jamestown and bythe Pilgrims at Plymouth, Dr. Wal-ter Hough writes, in the WashingtonPost. Accustomed as we are to the 1

! buckskin of the western Indians, |we will be surprised to know that jPowhatan’s braves had nary a shirtto their backs, robes taking their ¦

! place. The women wore short skirts [and the children dispensed with jclothes. Os course, in the cold jmonths of winter the Indians with- |drew into their houses and enjoyed jthe stores of corn, smoked fish, hick- jory nuts and such things as they jhad lai<l up. The houses were ofbent poles covered with mats andwere in shape like a hayrick seenon farms.

It may seem unfortunate that the |District of Columbia Indians left so !few traces of their life here. Arche- jologists trained to the work are Jable to see much in small things and ;to tell the story without strainingthe imagination. One picks up onarrowhead, say, at Anacostia. It isof a certain stone and worked froma bowlder most likely at tiie Piney

Branch quarry. He knows that thearrow was fixed with sinew at theend of a wooden shaft, straight andsmooth, which was notched at theend to receive the string; also thatit was feathered to guide its flight.

The arrowhead was found at An-acostia and belonged there becauseit is tiie right kind of stone. An-

\ other variety of stone would indi-

i cate that it was a point made by the

I hostile Indians living on the Sus-

quehanna or where the certain !stone was found.

The District of Columbia Indianswere in the Stone age and imperish-able stone tools left in the soil aresilent though eloquent of the oldtimes.

The river life of the Potomac in

100 S must have been very interest-ing. John Smith tells of divers sav-ages in canoes, well laden with theflesh of bears, deer and other beasts.Some of these dug-out canoes arein the Potomac mud no doubt now.There were many places to paddlenot open today. Boats could moveabout freely where the new govern-ment buildings are going up, and theeastern branch was a great river300 years ago. At night, reflectedin the undulating Potomac, were the

1 lights of the torches of fishermen,j and over tiie smouldering fires of

the primitive gridirons the catchwas smoked for the winter.

Land trails also centered in the| District, leading to the Susquehannaand on to the West. Braddock usedan old trail to Cumberland worndeeply in old times by Indian

j moccasins.In its natural conditions or only

; slightly aware of the presence ofman, the District must have been

j an ideal place for savage life. Everyfamily could have a deer a day andnot decrease the herd; a bear once

! in a while, wild trukey, what birds,fish, roasting ears and ripe corn

j would vary the fare.The coming of the white man to

Jamestown in 1007 was a small en-j tering wedge into a vast territory,and perhaps we would think it oflittle effect on the District. On thecontrary, in 75 years there was not

I an Indian left in the valley of thePotomac, the same story that be-came old as the white man pushedthe remainders west. The Districtwas settled by hardy pioneers and

! a new line of history began.

And He Doesn’t“How do you keep such a fine pol-

ish on the floor?”“Well, my method is to place little

Willie on it and ask him to keepstill.”

Counts Time Spent on

Study of “Math” WastedI believe that an appalling amount

of time is spent in childhood Inlearning things which don't matter,remembering things which will neverbe needed, and doing silly trickswhich an intelligent man need neverwaste liis time upon.

Let us contemplate, for example,j the absurdities and abominations ofarithmetic. At a conservative esti-mate, I have myself wrestled witharithmetic and its related studiesthrough ten years of my irreplace-

| able youth.I was, moreover, pretty good at it;

I could throw a mean logarithm andchase a cotangent into a corner andhang my hat on it. I have done alithe geometry, plain and fancy, anddabbled delicately in calculus. 1could once make an advanced alge-braic equation say “Uncle.”

I assure you that not a trace of itis left, and that furthermore I don’tmiss it. Therp must be a large blankarea in my brain which was oncefull of arithmetic, but it isn’t theleast painful. Except for a reason-able facility with the multiplicationtable there isn’t a particle of arith-

| metic left in my system.I can make change, but so can a

| street car conductor. But I can’t re-member more than five telephone

numbers, and so long as they con-tinue to print telephone books Iwon’t need to. —Donald, Rose in theForum and Century.

Salt StatisticsThe man who “isn't worth his

weight in salt” and the one, who“feels like 30 cents” seem to be ona par, judging from the salt sta-tistics of last year. During thatperiod, 8,000,000 tons of salt wereproduced and the total value wasabout $25,000,000, which on the basisof a 200-pound man works out atabout the rate of 30 cents.

Michigan led in production, andwith New York, Kansas and Louisi-ana accounted for OS per cent of thenational production.

Most of the disappointments are* due to depending on some one else.

Car Owners bought more

Firestone Tiresduring May, June and July

than in any like period in HistoryThere arc reasons for this —Firestone is build-ing the Greatest Tire Values in history, with the J

Let the Firestone Service Dealer show you theseFirestone Extra Values and have your ear equipped Wl'wf&TW* jHH l&Sßrajfor Safe, Trouble-Free Motoring. Drive in today.

COMPARE COMPARE PRICESCONSTRUCTION and QUALITY - , 11" . “

.. 1 -

“““““*"**"*^~

;;~"**"?l Firestone we...:.1 Firestone Firestone.. , .Firestone Firestone

MAKtOF „„ ‘-T S,*“ ™

SC" HAKE OF ™

Cine You•* ier“J F “"- c ‘" S,!E “£ «« p

cS &Si SK s: SSfelVeS SOU Oild Mai , S«nt'nel Mail Each Tlr# PerPalr Each Tire PerPalr Each Tire Per PairTyp* Order Tire Ty”Order Tire .

More Weight, mdsmobilej 3.25-18 $7-90 57.90 SIS-30

More Thickness. Ch.rrol.t-I .* Jordan j 3.50-18 8.75 8.75 17-00,nche * 658 ,60S *598 Chevrolet 4.50-20 5-60 5.60 10.90 4-78 4.78 9.26

*eo ~ 1More Non-Skid Gardner—V

Dep.h, inches • . .281 .880 .B*o .834More Peerless (

Plies Coder Tread. 6 5 0 5 Ford *) Studebaker JSt~.Widlh '

4.„ 4.„wSSSSy 4-™9 5 1,0 5 6.00-18 11.10 11.20 «.7«

r ,TO P, ‘“• • **•*» **•** *4 ,t «4 M I gs-crj 4.75-20 *-75 6.75 .5... 5-75 5.75 ».« »£¦£=} 6-00-19 11.4. 11.40 as...

LaSalle, 1 6.00-20 11.50 11.50 88.30~~

Chandler—l Pkrce-Arrow 6.00-21 11.05 11.65 88.00?A Special Brand tire is made by a manufacturer DeSoto

«tutz 6.50-20 13.10 13.10 35.40for distributors such as Mail Order houses, oil companies Dodge

Cadillac 7 'and others, under a name that does not identify the tire

Durant——5 00*19 6.98 6.93 13.60 5*99 5.99 11.06 Lincoln 7.00-20 15-35 1j.35 89-80

manufacturer to the public, usually because he builds his Pontfa'c" *"~

'¦best quality” tires under his own name. Firestone puts Roosevelt- TRUCK and BUS TIRES -

his name on EVERY tire he makes. Willys-K._ litUVIVdnu *lnBJ

Firestone . Firestone

Efczl 5.00-20 7.10 7.10 13.80 0.10 6.10 X1.90 SIZE “a-aren ~

„Each Order Tire per Pair

‘Double guarantee -Every tire manufactured by Essex _

Firestone bears the name “FIRESTONE” and carries Nash— 7*35 7.35 14-30 0.35 6.35 12.40 30x3 H.D sl7-95 517.90 "4-90Firestone’s unlimited guarantee and that of our 23,000 Serv- Oldsmobile.J 32x6 H.D. 39*75 29.75 57-90ice Dealers and Service Stores. You are doubly protected 36x6 HD 33-95 32.9 daoubiy protected.

Bu ick 5.25-21 8.57 8.57 16.70 7.37 7.37 14.52 6.00-20 H.D.- 15 35 15.35 29-80

Firestone Service Stores and Service Dealers Save You Money and Serve You Better

l£k> fibrr 8., r m I jm mL M BR

Copyright, 1931, The Firestone Tire & Rubber Co.

THE COOLIDGE EXAMINER