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An Ib ommon Mineral and its Varied Uses Advantages and Drawbacks of the Species of Clay Called Bentonite in Roadwork and in Industrial Operations. A non-metallic mineral which >ro- nilscs to be of considerable Import-' ance when It has been further investl-i gated is the clay known as bentonlte. ! During the past season the Mines ' Branch of the Department of Mines has had Mr. H. S. Spence, Mining En- gineer, in the field making Intensive Investigations as to possible economic occurrences, uses and markets. Mr. Sppnce will also review present con- ditions and developments in several ' Industries on which special reports have already been issued. The occurrence of bentonite in Can-| Ida was first noted in 1911 by the late j Joseph Keele, ceramic engineer of the Department of Mines at Camrose, Al- 1 bert.i. and later, along the Red Deer River in Alberta and in the Nikola Valley In British Columbia. As des- cribed by Mr. Keele, bentonlte, when freshly exposed, varies In color from a light yellow to a light olive green with a waxy lustre. It is exceedingly fine grained and has a soapy feeling when wet. In water it forms a Jelly- like mass. When sufficiently wetted It swells to as much as twelve time* Its original volume. Tin- research laboratories of Alberta University are reported to have es- tablished the fact that the presence! of btmtonite is responsible for the gumbo soil of western Canada. The i laboratories have also reported thatj H the bentonlte content of the gumbo j soil cor.-titutf>s the hardening element, [ If a waterproofing material can be economically provided a high grade) road bed < an be established. Under present conditions the absorptive pro- perties of bentonite forms the country roadways Into a wet, sticky mass. Re- search work Is being carried on at pre- sent with the bitumen sands of the McMurray district as to the possibility of using this material as a waterproof coating for western roads. While Its presence In the soil Is un- doubtedly a serious drawback in re- gard to transportation, beutouite has already a few commercial uses. One Is as a filler in the manufacture of paper, for which purpose It is claimed to be superior to kaolin, at present largely used. There Is a patented pro- cess for its use in the de-inking of old news print. It Is also used as an in- gredient in pastes for attaching paper labels to metal or leather surfaces, thus preventing the labels from curl- Ing up and becoming detached. It is finding some use as a filler In the lead pencil and crayon Industry. It has been used as a 'hoof-packing' in veter- inary practice. Other suggested uses for bentonito are: as a filler in rubber, leather, phonograph records, cordage, pressed and moulded Insulating materials, and in cheap soaps; as an ingredient in gypsum and lime plasters, and t'or glazes in ceramics, as a water sotteii- er, a carrier of printer's ink. and a- ;i substitute for fuller's earth, and a-- an adulterant in cheap candy. It is largely with a view to estifc- lishlng the fitness for the above pur- poses that the investigations are being carried on by Mr. Spence, and as a re- sult of his enquiries no doubt many additional industries will find a new raw material available for their manu- facturing processes. AND THE WORST IS YET TO COME Stories About W ell-Known People Princes* on the Stage. , The youngest child of the lute Czar Alexander II. of Russia, Princess Catherine Yourievsky, recently made . her first appearance on the music-hall stage at the London Coliseum. She and her husband were made prisoners as soon as the revolution I broke out in Petrograd. "Hidden by friends," she said, "I lived through a dreadful period of ter- j ror. At one time I served as a maid at an inn. ami at another I passed as the niece of a gardener and his wife, ' doing all the cleaning und cooking, and sleeping on bare boards. "At last I managed to become at- tached to a unit of the Red Cross, and so finally crossed the frontier." As Hall Caine Looks To-day. In a beautiful suite at this hotel, af- fording a wonderful view of the ' Thames and a vast area of London, I ' found "the Manxman." Time, which j transforms us all, has not neglected Sir Hall Calne. His famous shock of red hair has now the yellowish white that Is frequently reminiscent of for- mer redness. The well-known con- tour of his distinctive and luxuriant coiffure is completely preserved, though the upper part of it is very transparent, revealing the shape of his entire cranium. His features seemed to have settled like a sediment Intc the comparatively small area of hti triangular face, the forehead, empha- s. zed in its size by the long hair, dwarfing them. The color of hig skla is uniformly pink, and he is not so thla as portraits of him had led me to e* pect. His picturesque aspect waa . heightened by a distinctive manner ol dress. His double-breasted waistcoat was i-iif low, revealing a hugs Ascot cravat of black satin. From "Por* traits of Pen and Pencil." By Walter Tittle. From Clerk to Playwright. "Robert E. Lee" and "Oliver Crom- well" are two of tho finest plays in London; the former is drawing crowd^ to the Regent Theatre, aud the latter is at His Majesty's, says an English writer. The young man who wrote both ol them, Mr. John Drinkwater, poet, dra- matist, and critic, began work as an Insurance clerk. He stuck to his desfe for twelve years, and then the call ol literature and the theatre became too strong, and he launched out as writer and actor. He wrote "Abraham Lin- coln" an inspiring play and "Mary Stuart"; he is, too, one of the leading modern poets and the joint editor," with Sir William Orpen, of "The Out line of Literature and Art." Keeping Well. Man was made to live outdoors. Na- ture did not invent base burners, team-ueated apartment houses and factory buildings. Men designed these things, and man must make the best of them. I5ut let us not overlook the necessity of getting as much good. Clean, wholesome fresh air in our sys- tems as we can. The diseases most common from un- wholesome air are influenza, pneu- mouia, bronchitis, dlptheria, tubercul- osis and colds. Colds are the most prevalent ailment and tho moat easily voided. It isn't the cold wintry air that gives you a cold; it's your clumsy tffort to dodge It. the doctors say. It la because we allow the germs to be Introduced Into our noses, mouths, throats and lungs, aud then don't get enough good air to enable our bodies to kill them. A medical man declares that em- ployees of a large institution lost 18,- 736 working dars a y*ar tlirou?h ill ness. V ventilating system was put in tht- building, and the day.< lost were cut down to 10,114 a year, lu another factory 500 employees did the work it had taken 600 to perform after fresh ok wa* introduced as a factor In ef- ficiency. Maybe these figures do not mean much to you. What does moan a great deal, however. Is your health ami that of your family. Guard it. It is easy it merely means that you shuuld sleep with a window open every night even the coldest nights. You should have ome air circulating lu the room wherever you are. auu as ocn as you to out of doors you should not hunch down Into your coat of fur?, but throw up your head, take a deep breath of the crisp, fresh air, and put disease to flight Not in the Dictionary. She wrote him a note which read: "Dear John Meet me at the trysting place at 6.30 this evening, without fale." And John answered: "In that lexicon of youth which fate has re- served for a bright manhood there in no uuch word aa 'fale.' " Strong, We'll Say. Wide -"Mercy, John, but some of I those Irghwaymen ; strong!" must be mighty WlfK "The paper tells of one that held up an automobile with four men ' In It." Foods That Make Men Strong. The hardest work In the world Is lumbering, for it means working a* top speed from dawn till dark, and usually in intense frost. Lumberers live principally on beans baked with pork and flapjacks (a kind of pan- cake) eaten with maple syrup. They also eat quantities of steamed brown bread. It is a mistake to think that a lot of meat is necessary to make muscle. The coolie, especially the Chinese, who lives on rice, is more active and enduring than the Negro fed on meat; and the Arab, who lives largely on dates, is extraordinarily wiry and can travel all day in burning heat that would kill a meat-fed man. Among the strongest men In the world are the Turkish porters. Two of these have been known to carry a grand piano up a night of stairs, and one will carry a load of lOOlb. twenty miles in a day on his back. These men live almost entirely on dried fruit and olives. The Spanish peasant works all day and dances half the night on black bread, onions, und occasionally a little cheese; while the Italian, who Is the best navvy in the world, does his work on an equally simple diet, of which the principal part is chestnut meal, onions and fruit. Dr. Stefanssou. the Canadian ex- I plorer, who has lived longer In the 1 I Arctic than any other white man, ex- ; '.sted for months on nothing but fish. All day he was out in temperatures ! below zero, yet he has put it on re- cord that during that time he actually gained weight. The staple diet of the Roman sol- dier was coarse brown bread and sour wine, yet on this he built roads and I carried Incredible weights of armor and baggage over extraordinary dis- tances. Can It Be True? A French physician hus been curry- ing on some interesting experiments to determine the amount of force ex pended in piano playing. He ttnda that to sound one of the j i white keys requires in Its doing an ( application of energy equal to that in handling a weight of something more { than two and a half pounds. For a black key the weight increases to a ; bit over three pounds. To play Chop- in's Nocturne In C Minor requires an I expenditure of force equivalent to ! nearly 40,000 Ibs. Ought pianists to be classified as artists or athletes? A Mighty Four-in-Hand. Kingdom Ward, who has returned from Burma after eleven months spent in the Tibetan- Yunnan marshes, mad* a complete traverse, east to west, of that extraordinary belt of th earth's crust through which the waters of the Tibetan plateau escape. Here four of the greatest rivers of Asia flow In a strip of mountainous ' country not more than seventy-five miles wide. There Is nothing elsewhere on the earth's surface to compare with these mighty rivers the Yangtse, Mekong, i Salween and Iriawad- --running paral- j lei to each other for a hundred miles : ami separated only by rock partitions which in places attain altitudes of 25.- 000 feet. London Times. -#- Fact vs. Theory. Little Janle "Mother, if baby was to swallow the goldfish would be be able to swim like one?" Mother "Oh. my heavens, no child. They'd kill him." "But they didn't." Ignoring Failings. Mrs. A "How do you write refer- ences tot your cooka?" .Mrs. B. "As I would write their ! epitaphs." Just the Place. Mosquito "Ha. I guess I'll park here awhile!" Spartan Discipline in Royal House Tinley Woods. There'.- magic out In Tinley Woods, where Caesar's feet once trod. And folk have seen on Halow'en a shaggy woodland god; The goblins linve made mischief there since first the world began, And now it is a Fairyland for Timothy and Ann. They've hung the cloudy twillt skies with woof of Make-Believe. Ant! no one but the night-wind hears the foolish dretuns they weave. An Kuight la he of high degree, aud she the queen of all, Th trees become their men-at-arms, the stars their tapers tall. Aud he forgets the knives and boots, and she her pots and pans. . . . The music of the world is made by Timothys and Anns. Westminster Gazette. Ready for the Worst. Au Irishman whi; was signing ar- ticles on board a :-!iip began to write bin name with hi* fight baiiil: theu, changiug the pen to his left Uand, he finished it. "So you can write with either band, P*t?" asked the officer. "Yis, sor," replied Hat. "Whin I wan a boy me father always said to me: "Pat. learn la cut your linger alii wid yer left hand, for some day ye might lose your right!" Hot Weather Stuff. Mr. Ciabb "My dear, I've a bit of * .-K'l- that's too good to keep!" Mr- Sr^hb irold ; r) "l*ut It ou Ice *> ~ .1 *im'i syoll.' It has been evident to every intelli- gent observer that the chief Interest of King George during the past twenty years has been his children. As a much younger man than he is to-day, he sensed the direction affaire were taking, the breaking down of the oiu. ("ubstantial aristocratic, the rise of d democratic spirit the like of which no royalty had ever faced be- fore, and the need of a royalty equal | to the conditions which have arisen. To his children, the King has been a Spartan father. There is nothing of the modern, easy-going daddy about King George. He does uot enjoy the jolly, free and jqual companionship of his children | as most present-day fathers do. After | twenty years of a domestic discipline which never hag wavered or weaken- 1 ed, King George has rather the re- 1 spectful love of his children, after thai manner of fathers and children half a century ago. The formalities of royalty bave not been responibl9 for this altogether. But he haa always Insisted on the for- malities. That Is to gay, that when the Prince of Wales, when ne was liv- ing with : royal family In Bucking- ham i':< '<, came to say good-night to the King h entered the King's pre- sence, even though It were the- draw- ing room or the King's study, with for- mality. 3 ml addressed him as "Sire." j After 'he formal good-ulght was said, ' thpy would unbend fur a moment, and behave as father and son. But the ir- reverent atmosphere of the ordinary i intercourse between father and grown \ son has never existed between the j King and the Prince who will follow I htm. There is little or nothing oC King Edward's jovial and beaming spirit In King George. He takes most of bis character from his Danish mother, and a little of Queen Victoria's active sense of responsibility. He is an aloof man. Kather a sby man. He determined, after the manner of a shy and serious man, that his child- ren should grow up not mere4y with a sense of responsibility to the state but with characters adaptable to serv- ing !-ha state. He was determined that none of his children should grow Into bored aud blase royalty. When at Windsor Castle, twenty roars ago, it was v>utomary for the royl children to go walking each af- ternoon. And their walk took them past Liia cottage of a lady who had a rery beautiful and inviting croquet lawn. The children insisted on playing, and the nurses and attendants asked permission of the lady. Day after day. the children came aud played with the greatest zest. They held a long series of matches be- tween themselves. The lady one day said to the attendants of the children that they should be got ;i croquet set of their own they seemed to enjoy It so. "The King has refused to let them have a set." she was told. "But why? It Is a harmless game." "Oh," said the attendant, "croquet is one of the things the children have to do without." That was the King's system. There were certain things which the royal princes must arbitrarily do without, just for the sake of doing without. It was possible for them, naturally, to have- everything. But the King arbi- trarily refused them certain things. It has been the same throughout their lives in all tilings. They could not do what they liked or have what they pleased. Thousands of wealthy families have been ruined by it. The ..ealthy classes of England to-day are spoiled by their boredom. But the princes of Britain are not spoiled nor bored. lu every relation with life, In their relations with people of every sort, they are fresh and Interested, and un- affected. It is a triumph for King George, at some expense tu himself. For it is known that the princes fear him not a little, and that the royal family is go- ing through that uncoinforable stage when a family of boys who have been brought up under control reach tho age of raaiihooit and control must cease. The removal of the Prince of Wales from the family circle to quarters of his own outside the palace was only agreed to after lung delay on the part of King Gorge, who has always been fl&VAR '"WflflS^r-- somewhat, at a lass to deal with the lively spirit of the Prince. The Duke of York, who is more like his father than Is the Prince, Is af- J Hided with a very revere stammer. ' He sometimes has to stop dead In his speech and struggle painfully for words. I spite of this, he goes out to functions and makes public addresses, and generally takes his share of the burden of royal appearances. This Is another evidence of the King's hand, for the Duke of York was most shy of public appearances. Consider these royal folk as human beings. And who ever heard of a man with a stammer who gladly spoke In public? But the King, who conquered an instinctive distaste for public appearances, hand- led the matter to the King's taste, and the Duke of York enjoys a popularity not much less than that of the Prince, i Simple tastes, In keeping with royal appearances, have been used by the ' King to keep his children uuspoiled in a spoiled world. The King himself is a toller. He ha his office iu the palace and has his office hours. Every document cf gov- ernment that he Is supposed to see, he sees. There is nothing of tha perfunc- tory figurehead about him. There are thousands of heud.s nf great businesses who know less about their business than the King. He studies every bill brought to him for signature. Fie has ministers and secretaries closeted with him to explain points cf law or administration. Hlstorans and essay sts may say he Is a formal head of tho state, but he doesn't admit, it. He investigated, studies, argues. checks everything brought before him. His reason is this: governments come and governments go. but. the King re- mains. lie is the continuity of gov- ornrnsnt. These things he has impressed i>n j his sons, particularly the Prince of j Wales, in the frequer.' forma! discus- sions he has with his sons. He cate- chises them on their ttudies (or used to), lectures them on their duties, de- portment. A shy, reserved man. thrust into kingship unexpectedly, whu ha.i rld-j den the waves of a turbulent democ- ' racy in his reign, who has seen mil- lions of his subjects ground and torn in the mightest war of the age? serv- lug him. And who has made a success of till King George's Highland Home. The Canadian tourist when in Scot, land should endeavor to spend a da/ or two In royal Deeside. Many tour- ists visit the Trossachs mainly owing to the spell of Walter Scott, but though the Trossachs have undoubted- ly a chaVm Deeside is In many re- spects superior. The crowning glory of Deeside is Balmoral Castle. tU highland home of King George. Tha castle Is beautifully situated in a ro- mantic and delightful country. For a few months In the fall King Georg* is In residence and visitors flock from afar. The great event of the season is the Braemar gathering, when sporti are engaged In and the kilt, the on time national dress, ie much In evi- dence. Englishmen come for the oc- casion who have probably never worn a kilt before and strut about In all the> glory of Scotia's umtUl'garb as to the nutuiT h::rn. Th.i kilt Is seldom worn escept at this time, when it la the fashion. Ladies drea particularly for the event and their frocks are duly chronicled in the press. The ladles, as in other countries, are well ad- vanced, but so far they have not do- ned the kilt. To the south of the casile stand* "dark Lochnagar" a mountain som 4,000 feet high which is celebrated by the poet Byron, who spent his ear- ly years not very' far from It. Queen Victoria had a great regard for Bal- moral and kept it as secluded as pos- sible. She would not allow the rail- way to be extended, so that there li a motor coach journey of eight mile from the railroad terminus at Bal- later. The surrounding scenery must be seen to be appreciated. In an ob- scure part of the castle grounds there Is a statue of a faithful retainer, John Browu. He was a great personality and a prime favorite of Queen Vlo- toria. A few miles from Balmoral Is Grathle Church, where the royal family worship when In residence at Balmor- al. Motor conches come from all part* and the church Is Invariably crowded. At other times It has been knowu to have very few worshipers. Klnf Georg is a model landlord ami he ha* no more loyal subjects than his Dee- side people. From Balmoral it Is a shor* run to Braemar. which Is in the heart of the) mountains. It was here that Robert Louis Stevenson conceived and partly executed his famous romance "Trea- sure Island." Here also ho made a beginning of the nursery verses whlcit afterward grew into the volume "The) Child's Harden of Verse." Siam's White Elephants. With regard to the phrase, "whit* elephant," Mr. Hermann Norden, in "From Golden Gate to Golden Sun," gives some Interesting information. The white elephants are kept by the. King of Slam In the Royal Btabies at Bangkok, and are not really white, but m-ireiy lighter in color than the nor- mal beast. They are supposed to be animated by the spirit of some great king or hero. According to S amese faith the sou: of Buddha existed iu the body of a white elephant before it was Incar- nated again In Prince Gautama. In ancient HUU worship alao the wiiltt elephaal was a sun emblem. The King keeps these sacred ani- mals in great itixur.-'. "But the owuer- ship of une by a prince was by no means a piece of good luck, for the king made war ou hlui to obtain pos- session. This is thf lource of our' commiseration' of anyone who ha. 'white elephant' on his hands." Cod blee the King! A Live Wire. "That fellow f.iiriy suoi-ks you with l< energy." "Yes 'ie' a liva wiiu. '