Popular Science Monthly 



101 



This Actually Happens Oftener 

 Than You Would Think 



IT may be a mere 

 matter of supersti- 

 tion which causes so 

 many hundreds of sol- 

 diers to wear small 

 Bibles and Testaments 

 over their hearts. But 

 the Pocket Testament 

 League of England re- 

 ports that it is very 

 generally done, and oc- 

 casionally we hear of 

 incidents which confirm 

 the report of the League. 

 Superstition says that 

 the heart so protected 

 will never be pierced by 

 a bullet. Certainly the 

 soldier who wore the 

 little volume shown in 

 the accompanying pho- 

 tograph must be a firm 

 believer in its efficacy. 

 He was struck by two 

 machine bullets. One of 

 them remained in the 

 Testament, though prac- 

 tically destroying it. The 

 other passed through it 

 and penetrated his ribs, 

 but without causing seri- 

 ous injury. 



Superstition also says 

 that if the Testament be 

 the gift of a mother or 

 sweetheart it is doubly 

 valuable as a talisman. 



The Siberian native enters 

 his home by a ladder leading 

 from a door in the roof 



The Door to This Siberian Home Is 

 Located on the Roof 



MUCH of Siberia is 

 a vast wilderness 

 which still remains to 

 be explored. In the 

 winter season, when 

 the streams cease to 

 flow, disappearing be- 

 neath the ice and snow, 

 the animals hibernate 

 in their dens and the 

 natives repair to their 

 huts to sleep away, so 

 far as possible, the in- 

 finite silence that broods 

 over the land. 



The illustration shows 

 the interior of a Siberian 

 home. The odd-looking 

 ladder in the foreground 

 leads to the door of the 

 hut, which is situated in 

 the roof. The ladder is 

 hewn from a big log and 

 the hole rungs in it have 

 all been cut by hand. It 

 is necessary to enter a 

 Siberian home through 

 the roof during the sever- 

 est winter months, be- 

 cause the snow, driven 

 by the gales of the 

 North, forms great drifts 

 which not only effectu- 

 ally cover up all side 

 entrances but often con- 

 ceal the whereabouts of 

 the hut itself. 



Notice the face on the right-hand page. 



Two bullets pierced the little pocket Testament 

 without doing the wearer any serious harm 



Have You Put the Cat Out for the 

 Night? Then Don't 



Says Lee S. Crandall, in Pets (Henry 

 Holt & Co., New York) : "The practice 

 of turning the cat out of doors at night is 

 as cruel as it is unnecessary. No animal 

 is fonder of warmth and comfort, and the 

 pet's happiness certainly is not increased 

 by a night spent outside in cold and 

 dampness. 



"If as much energy were exhausted in keep- 

 ing the cat indoors as too often is expended 

 in putting her out, how great would be the 

 boon to human nerves and unfortunate 

 wild things! All felines are normally 

 nocturnal, and it is at night, if ever, that 

 a curb on their activities is needed." 



