| Summary: | Newsletter of the North Dakota School for the Deaf. THE NORTH DAKOTA BANNER bliss. At the gate he was met with the challenge of the porter,"’Who are yon that seek enhance among the saints ?” And the answer came with assurance “1 am so-awhso” a name that was open-sesame to all tile doors of earth. But the answer came "We know you not here/’ “What!" cried the astonished soul swollen with indignation. "Not know me! Why, I built such and such libraries and founded such and such churches and hospitals, and supported such aud such philanthropic religious missions/’ Still came the calm, sad answer, “We know you not here.” And the soul stepped aside in sulky silonce. . And theu there came limping toward the gate a little lame lad, clad in rags. And to him the porter opened with a smile of welcome. But tbc lad turned wistfully toward the excluded soul and said pleadingly, “Won’tyou let him too come in with me'/’ And the answer came “Why should I?” And even the soul asked, “Why do.you ask for me? When did you ever know me?” And the little soul answered, “Odcc 1 was looking into a toy shop window. And you cane by anil asked, ‘What do you want, my little lad?’ “And I said ‘The Red Top in the window?’ “And you took me by the baud and led me in and bought it for me. And then you sat down on the curbstone and taught me how to% spin it.” And then the gates of heaven flew wide open, and the porter said to the soul that was uo longer proud, “Come in; not because of your hospitals and libraries and churches, but because of the little red top.”—Charles I). Williams, Bishop of Michigan. V V V The Coldest City on Earth. The coldest inhabited place in the world is undoubtedly Verkhoyansk, in northeastern Siberia, with a mean annual temperature of less than three degrees above zero, Fahrenheit, and a winter minimum of eighty-five below. Verkhoyansk is in north latitude sixty-seven degrees, on the great Arctic plain, scarcely more than one hundred and fifty feet above the level of the sea. Probably there would be no town there if it were not necessary to Russian governmental purpose to have an administrative centre for a region where many thrifty Yakuts, the furtrading “Jews of Siberia,” carry on their operations. , All its inhabitants, save a few officials and other Russians, are Yakuts. This does not prevent its being a place of some importance, for the Yakuts are most progressive people in northern Siberia, excel ling the Russians themselves in enterprise and adaptability to to Siberian conditions of existence. The average temperature of the winter in Verkhoyansk is fifty-three degrees below zero, Fahrenheit. The rivers freeze to *he bottom, and the small trees have been known to snap and spilt from the force of the frost ’ Yet, with all this, Verkhoyansk is. it is elaimevl, not a disagreeable place of' residence, and is preferred by the Russian officials to many more southern and warmer posts. Its atmosphere in winter is always clear, and for the little time that the sun is above the horizon its beams are unobstructed. The air, is still, too; no blizzards or drifting snowstorms make life a burden to the inhabitants. The Siberian dress completes the comfort of the citizens of this Arctic city. It consists of two suits of fur, an outer and an inner suit. The inner suit is worn fur side inward, the outer fur side outward. With his hood down, and just enough space left to see out of and to breathe through, the Vcrkhoy-ausker is vastly more comfortable in a temperature of eighty below than many an American, in his cloth overcoat, in a temperature of five degrees above zero. The winter, indeed, is more enjoyable than the summer, which is hotter than might be expected. The average temperature of J uly in Verkhoyansk is fifty-nine above zero, and very hot days are not uncommon. The earth becomes green and vegetation thrives, though only the surface of the ground is thawed. At Yakutusk, which is farther .‘outh than Verkhoyansk, but not much warmer in winter, the mercury rises in July to one hundred degrees. — Harper's Weekly. V V* V Education by Moving Pictures. A movement is afoot to introduce “realism” into education by means of the cinematograph. Members and officials of the Board of Education, of the L. C. C. Education Committee, and the heads of colleges and schools in London have been invited to attend a series of forthcoming demonstrations organized by the Bioscope, during which it will be shown how geography and natural history can he taught and made interesting by “moving pictures.” The future school teacher, it seems, will have to be a cinematograph operator as well, and instead of using his blackboards or studying text books to guide his pupils in their studies he will turn on the bioscope and lead them through a sort of educational fairy land. “What the child misses in his hook.” we are told, “ ‘Is the realism; descriptions alone are hut dry bones. There is not, a portion of the globe, from the polar regions to the plains of Afaica. that has not been visited by the cinematographer. He has explored the Amazon and the Nile, has toiled up the peaks of the great mountain chains, and tracked wild animals to their liars. There is uo city of importance where he has not been with his camera, nor public event of recent years at which he has not been present.” It looks, then as though the school in the future will hold no terrors for the child. He will be up with the lark in the morning to rush off for the first “moving picture”- lesson, and, instead of being tired and unsympathetic, will doubtless ask for more. — Selected V V V Moving-Picture facts. .■ Here are the facts about moving-picture shows in the United States: There are 13,000 of the til and they entertain, on the average, 4,000,000 people every day.* In other words the public is spending £102,000,000 a year for this form of diversion from all dull care. Moving pictures have driven other shows from 1400 theaters and claim three times as many patrons as other theaters now in existence. The making of motion-films employs an army of actors and work men and £18,000,000 was spent for films last year. Edison gets royalty ranging from £8,000 to £15,000 a week from the invention, and is sitting up nights to produce a startling improvement—to make the pictures talk just like actors, so that the "canned drama” will no longer be a silent performance. What is the net result of this development? More fun at less cost to the masses. I he day is near when the humblest purse and the smallest hamlet will have art, music and drama that lay only within the reach of the richest a few generations ago. And that is progress in the right direction— Columbus Citizen.
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