The Butler County Press, 1913-11-14

And the Attic Room In Which He Wrote His Masterpiece. A graphic description of a visit to Victor Hugo in Guernsey and of bU quaint home there is given by the late Sir William Butler In his autobiogra autobiography: - phy: autobiography: "Of the many curious things to be seen in Hauteville house the master''* sleeping room was the strangest. He had built it on the roof between two great blocks of chimneys. You as ascended - cended ascended to his workshop bedroom by stairs which somewhat resembled a ladder. Quite half of the room was glass, and the view from it was mag magnificent. - nificent. magnificent. The isles of .lethou and Sark were in the middle distance, and be beyond - yond beyond lay many a mile of the Norman coast. A Id era ey lay to the north, and beyond it one saw the glistening win windows - dows windows of the triple lighthouses of the Casquet rocks and still more to the right the high ridges overlooking Cher Cherbourg. - bourg. Cherbourg. The bed was a small camp bedstead, with a table on one side of it and a small desk chest of drawers on the other, with pens, ink and paper always within reach. "Near the bed stood a small stove, which lie lighted himself every morn morning - ing morning and on which he prepared his cafe au lait: then work began at the large table which stood in the glass alcove a few feet from the foot of the bed. This work w*it on till it was time to dress and descend to dejeuner in the room on the ground floor already de scribed. As the sheets of writing pa palter - lter palter were finished they were number numbered - ed numbered and dropped on the floor, to be picked up. arranged and put .away in the drawer desk at the end of the morning's labor. He called the writ writing - ing writing table his 'carpenter's I tench' and the leaves which fell from it his 'shav 'shavings.' - ings.' 'shavings.' "It was at this table and in this airy attic that most of the great work of his later life was done. Here wert written 'Les Miserables.' 'Les Travail leurs de la Mer' and many volumes of poetry."

It seems to have received Its name, not like the northern constellations from the ancients, but. like* most of the southern configurations from the Por Portuguese - tuguese Portuguese navigators, during their ex explorations - plorations explorations Into the southern waters. It Is said that when Dante came out from "Inferno" he declared that he had seen a mighty cross set in the southern firmament, and the ravlga ravlgators - tors ravlgators set about to find such a figure and settled upon this one as best ful fulfilling - filling fulfilling the conditions. That It Is diffi difficult, - cult, difficult, at first glance, to picture this as a true cross. Is not suprlsing, for had It been named the "kite," a much closer representation could have been imagined. The so called "false cross," midway between the cross and the bright star Canopus. although coin coinposed - posed coinposed of fainter stars. Is much more regular and symmetrical in shape.

What Pepys Saw In Church. Once Pepys goes to Hackney church, "chiefly," he says, "to see the young ladies of the school, whereof there is great store and very pretty." And on another Sunday, "After dinner I did by water alone to Westminster to the parish church, and there did entertain myself with the perspective glass up and down the church, by which I had great pleasure of.seeing and gazing at a great many very fine women and what with that and sleeping, I passed away the time till the sermon was done." And again on a Sunday after afternoon - noon afternoon to the same church, "thinking-to see Betty Michel! and stay an hour in the crowd, thinking by the end of a nose that I saw that It had been her, but at last the head was turned to toward - ward toward me and It was her mother, which vexed me."—George Hodges in the Atlantic.

As each man came in in the morning he gave his opinion of the temperature outside, and each guess was entered in a book. At 'the end of the month I went over the figures, and the man who had guessed correctly the great greatest - est greatest number of times won the prize—a few cigars. Besides giving practice in estimating degrees of cold, it was a very good diversion with which to be begin - gin begin the day. When one day Is almost exactly like another the first hour of the morning is likely to be a little sour. The competition engaged every one's attention pleasantly. Each man's en entrance - trance entrance was awaited with excitement, and one man was not permitted to make his guess in the hearing of the man who followed him. Therefore they had to speak as they came in, one by one. "Now, Stubberud," 1 would say, "what's the temperature today?"

After over sixty years of earnest attempts in Great Britain to establish co-operative productive societies there are now seventy-nine societies in ex existence - istence existence whose combined capital is $3, $3,017,(MX), - 017,(MX), $3,017,(MX), with an annual trade valued at $0.23".(!(i0. Assuredly this is not a formidable showing. This is largely due to the lack of capital to finance. On the other hand, it is easy to start a co-oper.-itiVe store and keep it going, because the amount of capital required is not large, the number of employees |s small, the amount- of managerial *klll needed is limited, and the market Is always at hand among those who back the enterprise. As a consequence the wholesale and retail societies have grown enormously and with rapidly Increasing wealth.

It often happens on sledge journeys among the arctic ice that the thermom thermometers - eters thermometers are broken. In that case the party finds itself without any means of determining the temperature. But Roald Amundsen, tlie discoverer of the south pole, says that if the explorer accustoms himself to guess the tem temperature - perature temperature it is possible to estimate the mean temperature for a month with a fair degree of accuracy. This fact he proved by means of a guessing compe competition - tition competition during the winter that his party spent In camp on the great ice barrier.

The ceremony of the presentation of the flag Is today much shorn of fts ancient glory, for formerly the ruling duke used to bring the trophy himself on horseback and personally offered it to the monarch. Nowadays it is sent by deputy, however, and is then placed by some appointed equerry in the po position - sition position assigned to it—namely, over the marble bust of the old *f)uke of Wei llngton that stands on Its pedestal In the guardroom at Windsor castle. The flag which has rested there during tlie preceding year is then taken down and returned to the duke's messenger.

One of the oldest is the Co-operative Printing society, established in 1S7G in a little shop. It has flourished found all the external evidences of thrift and enthusiasm. These were al always - ways always ju evidence in every co-operative shop I visited. I asked the various foremen if they had any difficulty in getting labor. One of theiu answered "We have a long waiting list, almost all of them shareholders in this con concern. - cern. concern. We get the pick of tlfe men. Mind you. we consider printing an art. and a very intelligent class of men up ply."