conclude their beautiful wild notes with the ascending notes which terminate the old air." (Text.)
(3280)
TRANSMUTATION
A black character is not changed in a day to white saintliness, any more than a black berry to a white one.
In turning out the white blackberry Mr.
Burbank is said to have applied the Darwinian
theory inversely. He kept on selecting
berries which, in ripening, did not become
pure black, and finally got a bush in
which the fruit changed from the green of
immaturity to pure white. This involved
the examination of some 25,000 bushes
several times in several succeeding years.
The painstaking energy necessary in such a
search is merely suggested by such figures.—The Strand Magazine.
(3281)
TRANSMUTATION BY GENIUS
Many of Burns' songs were already in existence
in the lips and minds of the people,
rough and coarse, and obscene. Our benefactor
takes them, and with a touch of inspired
alchemy transmutes them and leaves
them pure gold. He loved the old catches
and the old tunes, and into these gracious
molds he poured his exquisite gifts of
thought and expression. But for him these
ancient airs, often wedded to words which
no decent man could recite, would have perished
from that corruption if not from
neglect. He rescued them for us by his
songs, and in doing so he hallowed life and
sweetened the breath of Scotland.—Lord
Rosebery.
(3282)
Trap, A Natural—See Devices, Fatal.
Traps—See Barriers; Enemies.
TRAPS FOR GIRLS
Among the many methods used by these
fiends in human form to trap girls into
houses of sin, is courtship and false marriage.
These men go into the country districts, and,
under the guise of commercial men, board
at the best hotels, dress handsomely, cultivate
the most captivating manners, and then
look for their prey. Upon the streets they
see a pretty girl and immediately lay plans
to become acquainted. Then the courtship
begins. In the present condition of society
it is a very easy thing for well-reared girls
to begin a promiscuous acquaintance, with
ample opportunity for courtship. There was
never a time when the bars were so low.
With the public dance, or even the more exclusive
german, the skating-rink and the
moving-picture arcades, all of which lend
themselves to the making of intimate and
promiscuous acquaintances under questionable
surroundings, it is easy for a man to
come into a community and in a few days
meet even the best class of girls, to say
nothing of the girls who are earning a living
and who have no home influence. These
girls are flattered by the handsome, well-*drest
stranger paying them marked attention,
and are quick to accept invitations to
the theater or to walk or drive with him.
If the girl is religious, he is not above using
the cloak of religion, expressing fondness for
church- and prayer-meetings, and is frequently
to be found at such places. When
a girl's confidence and affection have been
won, it is a comparatively easy thing to accomplish
her ruin, by proposing an elopement.
Her scruples and arguments are easily
overcome by the skilled deceiver, and trusting
him implicitly as her accepted lover, she
unwittingly goes to her doom. (Text.)—Ernest
A. Bell, "War on the White Slave
Trade."
(3283)
Traveling in the Heights—See Confidence.
TRAVELING, PROGRESS IN
For the first time in the history of trans-*atlantic
travel, people were able to leave
London on Saturday and Queenstown on
Sunday, and eat dinner in New York on
Thursday night (September 2, 1909). The
six-day boat set the early records more than
twenty-five years ago. The five-day boat
came along ten years later. Friday landings
in New York have been common ever
since the christening days of Lucania and
Campania, fifteen years ago. Now the four-day
boat is a fact.
The remarkable speed made by the Lusitania was attributed to the effect of the new propellers, which were fitted to the four turbine shafts in July.
(3284)
TREACHERY PUNISHED
At Kerman, Persia, is a fortress called
Galah i Doukhta, or the Fort of the Maiden,
named after the beautiful traitoress of Kerman.
When the Moslems laid siege to the
city a daughter of the king, a beautiful woman
and the idol of her father, fell madly in
