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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



door had a pane of wire-glass, eighteen by 

 twenty-four inches, set into a wood, metal- 

 covered frame. The entire roof of the test 

 house was replaced by a skylight. One side 

 of this skylight was provided with three 

 hghts of a quarter-inch ordinary rough 

 glass ; the other side with three lights of 

 a quarter-inch wire-glass. In order to make 

 the test as severe as possible, iron grate bars 

 were placed in the bottom of the test house, 

 and openings were left in the wall near the 

 ground for the purpose of free draught. 

 The house was filled two thirds full of wood, 

 liberally treated with coal oil and resin. 

 In a few moments after the fire was started 

 the ordinary rough glass began to crack and 

 fall into the fire. The wire-glass in the fire 

 door soon became red hot, so that a piece of 

 paper held against it on the outside was 

 easily ignited. The three plates of wire- 

 glass in the skylight, subjected to the entire 

 heat of the fire, also became red hot, but 

 retained their position throughout the test. 

 At the end of thirty minutes water was 

 thrown on the fire and glass. After the fire 

 was extinguished the three plates of glass in 

 the skylight were found to be cracked into 

 countless pieces, but still adhered together, 

 forming one sheet. The window-light 

 which, as the result showed, was not prop- 

 erly secured to its frame was found to be 

 in the same condition as the skylight, ex- 

 cepting that a large crack had developed. 

 Tbe plate of glass in the fire door was 

 cracked the same as the skylight, but, being 

 well secured, it did not give way. 



Constitniionality of Time Labor Laws. 



The general trend of the decisions of 

 courts, cited by Mr. S. D. N. North, in his 

 paper on Factory Legislation in New Eng- 

 land, concerning laws limiting the hours of 

 labor, is against their validity. They are 

 regarded as attempts to limit the constitu- 

 tional right of freedom of contract. But 

 some of the decisions are conflicting. The 

 Illinois Supreme Court has decided that the 

 effect of a law of this kind would be to de- 

 prive men of liberty and property. The 

 Supreme Court of California declared an 

 eigbt-hour ordinance of the city of Los 

 Angeles simply an attempt to prevent cer- 

 tain parties from employing others in a law- 

 ful business and paying them for their serv- 



ices, and a direct infringement of the right 

 of such persons to make and enforce their 

 contracts. In Nebraska, an eight-hour law 

 was held to be unconstitutional, as being 

 special legislation, and as attempting to pre- 

 vent persons legally competent from making 

 their own contracts. In Illinois, an eight- 

 hour law for women in clothing factories 

 was declared to be unconstitutional because 

 it interfered arbitrarily with the right to 

 buy and sell labor. The mere fact of sex, 

 the court held, would not justify the enact- 

 ment of limiting legislation, unless there 

 may appear "some fair, just, and reasonable 

 connection between such limitation and the 

 public health, safety, or welfare proposed to 

 be secured by it." These facts are used by 

 Mr. North as an argument against further 

 attempts to limit the conditions of labor by 

 legislation, lest the test of constitutionality 

 should be pushed to the extent of over- 

 throwing the restrictions we already have 

 and accept as just. 



Indians of the Paragnay Hirer. An 



interesting account is given by an Italian 

 artist, Cavaliere Guido Bozziani, of two In- 

 dian tribes dwelling on the Paraguay River, 

 among whom he spent some time, whose 

 civilizations are very different. The Chama- 

 cocos are a people of noble stature and fine 

 appearance, wearing no clothing "except 

 rough sandals of peccary skin when on the 

 tramp and a profusion of feather ornaments 

 and necklets of reeds, etc., on festive occa- 

 sions," and excel in feather work, forming 

 combinations of great beauty with the vari- 

 ously bright-colored plumage with which 

 the region supplies them abundantly. They 

 have, too, the singular taste of making much 

 use of rattlesnakes' rattles for ornamental 

 purposes, wearing them with feathers in 

 diadems, armlets, and leglets, bunching 

 them into pendants for earrings, and tying 

 them on axes and clubs. During their 

 dances they use as rattles small gourds con- 

 taining stones and belts made of loosely 

 strung carapaces of tortoises or the hoofs 

 of stags. Their pottery is all hand-made 

 and rude. Their weapons and implements 

 are long-handled stone axes quite singular 

 plain clubs, wooden spears, large bows 

 for shooting arrows pointed with hard 

 wood, and small bows with a double string, 



