378 



The Broomstick Periscope — How De- 

 tectives in Kansas City Used It 



THE combination of a pole, two 

 hand mirrors, a monkey 

 wrench, a torn curtain and a 

 bureau looking glass solved 

 a mystery case in Kansas 

 City, Missouri, which 

 baffled the detectives 

 for a long time. The 

 detectives wanted to 

 discover what was go- 

 ing on in a certain 

 room. 



By tying a hand mir- 

 ror to each end of a 

 short broomstick and by 

 holding the device out- 

 side the 



window 

 with a 

 monkey 

 wrench, the 

 detectives 

 were able 

 to see inside 

 the room. 

 Fortunately 

 they found 

 opportu- 

 nity first to 

 tear a hole 

 in the cur- 

 tain. 



Popular Science Monthly 



figures it was decided to cut the skirts 



off at seven, eight and nine inches from the 



ground, making up the deficiency in the 



width. The little matter of the cost 



of the high shoes did not disturb 



the manufacturers. 



Wrencfi) 



_ -Mirrors 

 Broomstick. 

 The periscope device which rivals any of 

 the tools used by Sherlock Holmes. The 

 detectives arranged first to tear a hole 

 in the curtain and adjust the mirrors 



Why Are Skirts So Short? To Help 

 the Poor Shoe Dealers 



EARLY in the season manufacturers of 

 women's dresses decided that the 

 short, narrow skirt must be 

 discarded. Not for puritan- 

 ical reasons, but because the 

 manufacturers of materials 

 were losing money. "Make 

 them long and full," was the 

 verdict. "No!" retorted the 

 shoe manufacturers. "Do 

 you want to put us out of 

 business? Make them as 

 full as you like, but short — 

 and shorter!" The argument 

 waxed hot and revealed the 

 fact that every inch added to 

 the length of women's dresses 

 means a loss of $10,000,000 

 a year to the shoe business. 

 In the face of such appalling 



Music Hath Charms 

 Even in the Desert 



THE British Tom- 

 my must have his 

 fun; otherwise he 

 wouldn't make a good 

 fighter. When the Tom- 

 mies on the western front 

 are given a few days' visit 

 to "Blighty" (the soldier's 

 name for England) , they are 

 welcomed with open arms by 

 committees who do nothing 

 else but make the visit at 

 home a continuous round of 

 pleasure and diversion. They 

 are taken to theaters, ath- 

 letic events and pink teas 

 until, as one Tommy said, 

 recently: "Trench life is a 

 dull affair compared to what 

 they put you through in 

 Blighty." 



Even the Tommies sta- 

 tioned on the blistering sands 

 of Sahara must have their 

 entertainment. In the 

 photograph below is shown 

 a company of soldiers transporting a piano 

 across the Sahara sand for use at an out- 

 post. The piano is being moved on a sand 

 sledge, which is the same as a snow sled 

 except that the runners are wider. 



Transporting a piano across the Sahara to a British outpost. 

 A sand sledge with wide runners takes the place of a van 



