Popular Science Monthly 



The house rests on the brink of a 



city improvement, and also on the 



brink of destruction 



An Excavation for a Road Leaves 

 House on Brink 



IN San Pedro, Calif., a "good road" 

 boulevard is being cut through a hill. 

 The accompanying photograph shows a 

 house that has been left on the very 

 brink of the excavation, and in a pre- 

 carious position. The steam shovel can 

 be seen in the background scooping 

 deeper. The ground is an old sea-beach 

 made up of loose sand. The owner has 

 threatened to sue the city should the 

 house come to harm. 



Women in Europe's Machine Shops 



THE tremendous demand upon the 

 ranks of skilled workmen since the 

 war has resulted in the surprising knowl- 

 edge that women can supplant men in 

 machine shops. 



That the woman mechanic has ade- 

 quately risen to her opportunity is a fact 

 heartily attested to by scores of Euro- 

 pean manufacturers. Several of them 

 who have made a systematized study of 

 the woman workman's progress claim 

 that the untried women mechanics have 



T 



17 



mastered the details of their tasks in a 

 much shorter time than workmen re- 

 quire. 



Another interesting point is that the 

 traditional belief of woman's inability to 

 invent is quite unfounded. As an ex- 

 ample, in one machine shop where men 

 had been employed on a certain opera- 

 tion for years women took up the work, 

 and in less than a week had devised a 

 plan whereby the time required for the 

 operation was halved. 



Shipping Pigs in Baskets. 



HE lot of domestic animals in the 

 X east is not enviable, particularly 

 when enduring transport from one 

 place to another. Fowls are always 

 sent to market with their legs tied, so 

 that it is impossible for them to move. 

 The photograph shows how live pigs 

 are transported in the Straits Settle- 

 ment by steamer or barge. They are 

 shipped singly in wicker work baskets. 

 The receptacle is just large enough to 

 take a single pig. In this cramped and 

 uncomfortable position, for the animal's 

 legs are tied, making it nothing more 

 than a living log, it is often shipped long 

 distances. Water is thrown over the ani- 

 mals and occasionally they are allowed 

 to drink, but nothing is given them to eat. 



They know nothing of "pigs in 



blankets" in the Orient, but pigs 



in baskets are a common sight 



