Popular Science Monthly 



739 



When Should Children Be Held 

 Upside Down? 



GREATER love for children hath no 

 man than the one who discovered 

 that the lives of many, little children 

 can be saved in certain emergencies, 

 if they are held upside down. 



Held upside down, the child's face is 

 safe from the flames 



When the clothing of children catches 

 fire if a third of the child's flesh is 

 burned, inclusive of its chest or head, it 

 is very likely to die. Yet if the little 

 one is held upside down immediately 

 after its garments have caught fire, the 

 child's life may be saved. 



The three-year-old tomboy daughter 

 of a United States Senator was playing 

 a war game with some boys. They 

 were gathered around a camp-fire when 

 the wind carried an ember in her direc- 

 tion and set her clothes on fire. Corporal 

 Hopkins, who had served in an emer- 



gency hospital, happened to be at hand. 



He seized the little girl by her ankles 

 and held her head down, not an instant 

 too soon. The flames were just about 

 to burn her bosom and curls. Flames 

 have a tendency to rise and a child's 

 face, hair, lungs, heart, and chest are the 

 vital parts first endangered. 



Another emergency which demands 

 that the child be held upside down by 

 its legs or feet, is when it swallows a 

 fish-bone, a coin, or a piece of candy. 



The coin tumbles out promptly 



On the face of one hammer is a Maltese 



cross which is forced through the check 



when struck with the second hammer 



Canceling Checks with a Hammer 

 and Anvil 



I.\ Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, 

 one of the largest and wealthiest 

 counties in the Keystone State, the 

 Board of County Auditors still uses an 

 ancient method of canceling all checks 

 given in payment of bills by the county 

 treasurer and by the treasurer of the 

 Board of Poor Directors. The appa- 

 ratus, sho'wn in the accompanying photo- 

 graph, generations old, is composed of a 

 block of oak, fourteen inches high and 

 ten in diameter, and two ordinary- 

 looking hammers. On the face of one 

 is a Maltese cross which is forced 

 through the check when struck with the 

 second hammer. 



