Part 3

Some combinations of color are pleasing to the eye, and some are discordant. The reasons for this are based on natural laws and are explained in a very simple manner in a learned article by Dr. W. K. Carr which originally appeared in Shop Notes Quarterly. Impressions continue upon the retina of the eye, says Dr. Carr, about one-sixth of a second after the object has been moved. For this reason a point of light or flame whirled swiftly around appears as a continuous ring. Or take a piece or red ribbon, place it on white paper, look intently at it for thirty seconds and suddenly remove the ribbon. The portion of the paper which was covered by the ribbon will then appear green. The explanation is that the color sensation in the eye is caused by the almost unthinkably rapid whirling of electrons around their atoms, and that the retina, becoming fatigued by the vibration of the red, is therefore less sensitive to them. When the ribbon is suddenly removed, the eye sees, not the blue, yellow and red which produce the white surface of the paper, but, because of the fatigue of the eye to the red, it sees only the blue and yellow constituents of the white light. But blue and yellow produce green; hence the tendency at the eye to see the complementary of a color. This may be referred to as the "successive contrast of colors."

Colors for Blondes and for Brunettes.

Now, for a practical application of this knowledge.

The hair of the blond is a mixture of red, yellow and brown. As a rule the skin is lighter, that is, it contains not so much orange, and the tinges of red are lighter. Nature, therefore, very properly made the blond's eyes blue, since the blue is complementary to the orange of her hair.

The brunette's skin, on the other hand, has more orange in it, and hence a color favorable to one would not be becoming to the other.

What would be the effect of green upon a complexion deficient in red? It would certainly heighten the rose tints in the cheeks, but the greatest care should be exercised in the selection of the proper shade of green, because the brunette's complexion contains a great deal of orange, and the green, acting upon the red of the orange, could readily produce a brick-dust appearance. Green, therefore, is a risky color for a brunette, and so is violet, which would neutralize the yellow of the orange and heighten the red. But if the orange complexion had more yellow than red, then the association of violet would produce pallor. Yellow, of course, is her color, since its complementary violet neutralizes the yellow of the orange complexion and leaves the red.

But with the yellow-haired blond the conditions are very different. The complementary of blue is orange, which improves the hair and freshens the light flesh tints. A blond, therefore can wear blue, just as a brunette can wear yellow.

In arranging flowers the same law holds. Complementary colors should be placed side by side; blue with orange, yellow with violet, red and rose with green leaves. And anyone who successfully selects his wall paper and house furnishings is drawing unconsciously, perhaps, on an intuitive knowledge of these fundamental facts. Dark papers are bad, especially in rooms with a northern exposure, because they absorb too much light. The complementaries of red and violet are exceedingly trying to most complexions, and orange and orange-yellow are fatiguing to the eye. The most pleasing effects are to be had with yellow, light blue and light green, for the latter freshens the red in pale skins, and the blue heightens blond complexions, and goes well with gilding and with mahogany and cherry furniture.

COLOR CONTRAST AND HARMONY.

The following tables will be found useful in selecting colors for dress, decoration, or any other purpose in which the proper application of the true laws of contrast and harmony in color is desirable:

Contrasts in Color.

Yellow contrasts with-- Purple, russet, and auburn. Red contrasts with-- Green, olive, and drab. Blue contrasts with-- Orange, citrine, and buff.

Harmonies in Color.

Yellow harmonizes with-- Orange, green, citrine, russet, buff, and drab. Red harmonizes with-- Orange, purple, russet, citrine, auburn, and buff. Blue harmonizes with-- Purple, green, olive, citrine, drab, and auburn.

THE CARE OF THE TEETH.

Decay of the teeth, or caries, commences externally, appearing upon the enamel or bony structure of the teeth. Usually it is the result of chemical action produced by decomposition of food. Acids found in some fruits will cause decay if allowed to remain in contact with the teeth. Then there are the natural mouth acids, which, although not strong, are none the less effective if allowed to remain long enough around the teeth. Microscopical examinations have shown that the secretions of almost every person's month contain more or less vegetable and animal life that will withstand the application of acids and astringents and will only succumb to alkalies. A dentifrice or mouth wash should be alkaline.

Toothache.

Toothache is not always due to an exposed nerve, for in the majority of teeth extracted because they are painful the nerve is dead. Inflammation is often the cause of the trouble.

A toothache due to inflammation is a steady, aggravating pain, overspreading the affected side of the face, sometimes even the neck and shoulder. As there is no nerve to kill in a case of this kind, the tooth should be treated until cured, or removed upon the first symptom of trouble. Its extraction would be unattended by any danger and would afford welcome relief.

Tartar, a creamy, calcareous deposit, supposed to be from the saliva, will sometimes cause toothache. It accumulates around the necks of the teeth and eventually becomes hard and dark-colored. It also causes foul breath and loosens the gums from the teeth, causing them to present an unsightly appearance.

The Teeth of Children.

Children have twenty temporary teeth, which begin making their appearance about the sixth or seventh month. The time varies in different children. This is the most dangerous and troublesome period of the child's existence, and every parent will do well to consult a reputable dentist. About the second or third year the temporary teeth are fully developed. They require the same care to preserve them as is exercised toward the permanent set.

About the sixth year, or soon after, four permanent molars, or double teeth, make their appearance. Some parents mistakenly suppose these belong to the first set. It is a serious error. They are permanent teeth, and if lost will be lost forever. No teeth that come after the sixth year are ever shed. Let every parent remember this.

At twelve years the second set is usually complete, with the exception of the wisdom teeth, which appear anywhere from the eighteenth to the twenty-fourth year. When the second set is coming in the beauty and character of the child's countenance is completed or forever spoiled. Everything depends upon proper care at this time to see that the teeth come with regularity and are not crowded together. The teeth cannot have too much room. When a little separated they are less liable to decay.

Dentifrices--Useful and Injurious.

The habit of caring for the teeth daily, and if possible after each meal, should be established early in life.

Those who have neglected to do so should lose no time in consulting a reputable dentist, and then persistently caring for their teeth day by day. Children especially should be taught to use the tooth-brush and some reliable dentifrice. The more pleasant the preparation the easier it will be to teach them its daily use. A fragrant, refreshing liquid is recommended, as it is a mouth wash as well as a tooth cleanser. The habit thus formed, neglected for even a single day, will make the mouth feel decidedly uncomfortable.

Cleansing the Teeth.

Preparations for cleansing the teeth and purifying the mouth should be free from all acids, and should be saponaceous or soapy, containing as one of the principal ingredients an alkali to neutralize the acids and destroy the animal and vegetable parasites which, as the microscope would show us, are in the secretions of almost every person's mouth.

A finely triturated powder having slight abrasive properties, but free from dangerous grit, should be used as the complement of a liquid. One way to use both is to pour on the wet brush or into the palm of the hand a sufficient quantity of powder and moisten it with the liquid. Occasionally the powder or the liquid alone could be employed. Be careful to use a liquid and powder of established reputation.

Beware of thy teeth. Take good care of thy teeth, And they will take good care of thee.

THE PERFECT FEMALE FIGURE.

According to the Chicago Tribune, Miss Helen Loewe, a student at the Chicago Art Institute, is credited by art critics with closely approaching the standard of physical perfection set by statues of the goddess Venus. Miss Loewe was posed as a model for a series of photographs issued for the benefit of the playground fund of Oak Park.

Aside from the artistic nature of Miss Loewe, a comparison of measurements with those of the typically perfect figure explains part of the success of these photographic studies.

Miss Loewe. Perfect figure. 5 ft. 7 in Height. 5 ft. 8 in. 138 Weight 140 13-1/2 Neck 13 32 Chest 33 36 Bust 37 22 Waist 23 36 Hips 39 22 Thigh 24 10 Upper arm 11 8-1/2 Forearm 9 14 Calf 15

MEN AND COMPLEXIONS.

Dr. Katherine Blackford, of Boston, speaking of men's complexions, arrives at the following conclusions. There are, of course, exceptions to all rules: "As a general rule, the blonds are inconstant. They change their minds too often. They get angry one moment and forgive the next. They are impulsive, and when they do commit crimes they are done on the impulse of the moment. A blond radiates his personality about him. The brunette, on the other hand as a rule, likes to concentrate on one subject. He is a specialist. He prefers his home and family, and his pleasures are more often lectures and kindred entertainments than those of a lighter order. He learns slowly, but he retains what he knows far better than does the blond."

HOW THE BABY'S MIND DEVELOPS.

In his book on "The Development of the Intellect," Mr. H. W. Brown presents a conspectus of the observations of Prof. Preyer on the mind of the child which shows chronologically the gradual development of the senses, intellect and will of the growing child and presents in a condensed form the result of a great number of careful observations.

It is recorded that sensibility to light, touch, temperature, smell and taste are present on the first day of infant life. Hearing, therefore, is the only special sense which is not active at this time. The child hears by the third or fourth day. Taste and smell are senses at the first most active, but they are differentiated. General organic sensations of well being or discomfiture are felt from the first, but pain and pleasure as mental states are not noted till at or near the second month.

The first sign of speech in the shape of utterance of consonant sounds is heard about the end of the second month, these consonants being generally "m," "r," "g," or "t." All the movements of the eyes become co-ordinate by the fourth month, and by this time the child begins to have the "feeling of self," that is, he looks at his own hands and looks at himself in the mirror. The study of the child's mind during the first year shows conclusively that ideas develop and reasoning processes occur before there is any knowledge of words or of language; though it may be assumed that the child thinks in symbols, visual or auditory, which are clumsy equivalents for words. By the end of the year the child begins to express itself by sounds--that is, speech begins. The development of this speech capacity is, according to Preyer, in accordance with the development of the intellectual powers. By the end of the second year the child's power of speech is practically acquired.

THE WONDERFUL HUMAN BRAIN.

According to the novel computations of a renowned histologist, who has been calculating the aggregate cell forces of the human brain, the cerebral mass is composed of at least 300,000,000 of nerve cells, each an independent body, organism, and microscopic brain so far as concerns its vital functions, but subordinate to a higher purpose in relation to the functions of the organ; each living a separate life individually, though socially subject to a higher law of function.

The lifetime of a nerve cell he estimates to be about sixty days, so that 5,000,000 die every day, about 200,000 every hour, and nearly 3,500 every minute, to be succeeded by an equal number of their progeny; while once in every sixty days a man has a new brain.

MOURNING COLORS THE WORLD OVER.

Black is by no means the only color used by man to express grief or mourning for the dead. In the South Sea Islands the natives express sorrow and hope by stripes of black and white. Grayish brown, the color of the earth to which the dead return, is used in Ethiopia. Pale brown, the color of withered leaves, is the mourning of Persia. Sky-blue, to express the assured hope that the deceased has gone to heaven, is the mourning of Syria, Cappadocia, and Armenia. Deep blue in Bokhara. Purple and violet, to express "kings and queens to God," was the color of mourning for cardinals and kings of France. The color of mourning in Turkey is violet. White (emblem of hope) is the color of mourning in China. Henry VIII. wore white for Anne Boleyn. The ladies of ancient Rome and Sparta wore white. It was the color of mourning in Spain till 1498. Yellow is the color of mourning in Egypt and in Burmah. Anne Boleyn wore yellow mourning for Catharine of Aragon.

CURIOUS FACTS ABOUT HAIR.

The hair of men is finer than that of women.

The average weight of a head of hair is from 5 to 12 ounces.

On an average head there are about 1,000 hairs to the square inch.

Hair will stretch about one-fourth of its length and retract nearly to its original length.

Four hairs of good strength will hold suspended a one-pound weight. A single head of hair, of average growth, would therefore hold suspended an entire audience of 200 people.

THINGS THAT ARE MISNAMED

Catgut is gut of sheep.

Baffin's Bay is no bay at all.

Arabic figures were invented by the Indians.

Turkish baths are not of Turkish origin.

Blacklead is a compound of carbon and iron.

Slave by derivation should mean noble, illustrious.

Turkeys do not come from Turkey, but North America.

Titmouse is not a mouse, but a little hedge sparrow.

Dutch clocks are of German (Deutsch), not Dutch manufacture.

Salt (that is table salt) is not a salt at all, but "chloride of sodium."

Galvanized iron is not galvanized--simply iron coated with zinc.

Ventriloquism is not voice from the stomach, but from the mouth.

Kid gloves are not kid at all, but are made of lambskin or sheepskin.

Pompey's Pillar, in Alexandria, was erected neither by nor to Pompey.

Tonquin beans come from Tonka, in Guinea, not Tonquin, in Asia.

Fire, air, earth, and water, called the four elements, are not elements at all.

Rice paper is not made from rice, but from the pith of Tungtsau, or hollowplant.

Japan lacquer contains no lac at all, but is made from the resin of a kind of nut tree.

Pen means a feather. (Latin. "penna," a wing.) A steel pen is therefore an anomaly.

Jerusalem artichoke has no connection with Jerusalem, but with the sunflower, "girasole."

Humble pie, for "umbil pie." The umbils of venison were served to inferiors and servants.

Lunar caustic is simply nitrate of silver, and silver is the astrological symbol of the moon.

Bridegroom has nothing to do with groom. It is the old English "guma," a man, "bryd-guma."

Mother of pearl is the inner layer of several sorts of shell, and in some cases the matrix of the pearl.

Sealing wax is not wax at all nor does it contain wax. It is made of shellac, Venice turpentine and cinnabar.

Cleopatra's Needles were not erected by Cleopatra, nor in honor of that queen, but by Thothmes III.

German silver is not silver at all, but a metallic mixture which has been in use in China time out of mind.

Cuttle-bone is not bone, but a structure of pure chalk imbedded loosely in the substance of a species of cuttlefish.

America was named after Amerigo Vespucci, a naval astronomer of Florence, but he did not discover the New World.

Prussian blue does not come from Prussia. It is the precipitate of the salt of protoxide of iron with red prussiate of potass.

Wormwood has nothing to do with worms or wood; it is the Anglo-Saxon "wer mod," man-inspiriting, being a strong tonic.

Honeydew is neither honey nor dew, but an animal substance given off by certain insects, especially when hunted by ants.

Gothic architecture is not that of the Goths, but the ecclesiastical style employed in England and France before the Renaissance.

Sperm oil properly means "seed oil," from the notion that it was spawn or milt of a whale. It is chiefly taken, however, from the head, not the spawn of the "spermaceti" whale.

Whalebone is not bone, nor does it possess any properties of bone. It is a substance attached to the upper jaw of the whale, and serves to strain the water which the creature takes up.

THE LANGUAGE OF THE FLAG.

To "strike a flag" is to lower the national colors in token of submission.

Flags are used as the symbol of rank and command, the officers using them being called flag officers. Such flags are square, to distinguish them from other banners.

A "flag of truce" is a white flag displayed to an enemy to indicate a desire to parley or for consultation.

The white flag is a sign of peace. After a battle parties from both sides often go out to the field to rescue the wounded or bury dead under the protection of a white flag.

The red flag is a sign of defiance, and is often used by revolutionists. In the naval service it is a mark of danger, and shows a vessel to be receiving or discharging her powder.

The black flag is a sign of piracy.

The yellow flag shows a vessel to be at quarantine or is the sign of a contagious disease.

A flag at half-mast means mourning. Fishing and other vessels return with a flag at half-mast to announce the loss or death of some of the men.

Dipping the flag is lowering it slightly and then hoisting it again to salute a vessel or fort.

If the President of the United States goes afloat the American flag is carried in the bows of his barge or hoisted at the main of the vessel on board of which he is.

DEATH SENTENCE OF THE SAVIOR.

The following is said to be the sentence of death, word for word, pronounced against Jesus Christ:

Sentence pronounced by Pontius Pilate, intendent of the lower province of Galilee, that Jesus of Nazareth shall suffer death by the cross. In the seventeenth year of the reign of Emperor Tiberius, and on the 24th day of the month, in the most holy city of Jerusalem, during the pontificate of Annas and Caiaphas.

Pontius Pilate, intendent of the Province of Lower Galilee, sitting to judgment in the presidential seat of the Praetors, sentences Jesus of Nazareth to death on a cross between robbers, as the numerous and notorious testimonies of the people prove:

1. Jesus is a misleader.

2. He has excited the people to sedition.

3. He is an enemy to the laws.

4. He calls himself the son of God.

5. He calls himself, falsely, the King of Israel.

6. He went to the temple followed by a multitude carrying palms in their hands. Orders from the first centurion Quirrillis Cornelius to bring him to the place of execution. Forbids all persons, rich or poor, to prevent the execution of Jesus.

The witnesses who have signed the execution of Jesus are:

1. Daniel Robani, Pharisee.

2. John Zorobabic.

3. Raphael Robani.

4. Capet.

Jesus is to be taken out of Jerusalem through the gate of Tournes.

THE HORSE'S PRAYER.

To thee, my master, I offer my prayer: Feed, water and care for me; and when the day's work is done, provide me with shelter and a clean, dry bed. Always be kind to me. Pet me sometimes, that I may serve you the more gladly and learn to love you. Do not jerk the reins, and do not whip me when going up hill. Never strike, beat or kick me when I do not understand what you want, but give me a chance to understand you. Watch me, and if I fail to do your bidding, see if something is not wrong with my harness or feet.

Do not overload me or hitch me where water will drip on me. Keep me well shod. Examine my teeth when I do not eat; I may have an ulcerated tooth, and that, you know, is painful. Do not tie or check my head in an unnatural position or take away my best defence against flies and mosquitoes by cutting off my mane or tail.

I cannot tell you when I am thirsty, so give me clean, cool water often. I cannot tell you in words when I am sick, so watch me and by signs you may know my condition. Give me all possible shelter from the hot sun, and put a blanket on me not when I am working, but when I am standing in the cold. Never put a frosty bit in my mouth; first warm it by holding it in your hands.

I try to carry you and your burdens without a murmur, and wait patiently for you long hours of the day or night. Without the power to choose my shoes or path, I sometimes fall on the hard pavements, and I must be ready at any moment to lose my life in your service.

And finally, O, my master, when my useful strength is gone, do not turn me out to starve or freeze, nor sell me to some human brute to be slowly tortured and starved to death, but do thou, my master, take my life in the kindest way, and your God will reward you here and hereafter. Amen.

A LADY'S CHANCE OF MARRYING.

Every woman has some chance to marry. It may be one to fifty, or it may be ten to one that she will. Representing her entire chance at one hundred at certain points of her progress in time, it is found to be in the following ratio:

Between the ages of 15 and 20 years 14-1/2 percent

Between the ages of 20 and 25 years 52 per cent

Between the ages of 25 and 30 years 18 per cent

Between the ages of 30 and 35 years 15-1/2 per cent

Between the ages of 35 and 40 years 3-3/4 per cent

Between the ages of 40 and 45 years 2-1/2 per cent

Between the ages of 45 and 50 years 3/4 of 1 percent

Between the ages of 50 and 56 years 1/8 of 1 per cent

After sixty it is one-tenth of one per cent, or one chance in a thousand.