THE CROWN OF EVOLUTION 



157 



He had seen lightning in the skies, perhaps had even 

 watched molten lava as it boiled and bubbled, perhaps had 

 struck sparks from flint stones as he knocked them together ; 

 but never yet on the earth had there been a blazing fire 

 lighted by human 

 hands, guided by 

 the human brain. 



At last, however, 

 the discovery came. 

 Some person some- 

 where may have used 

 his brains and his 

 hands, may have 

 rubbed two sticks 

 together hard and 

 fast, as some primi- 

 tive peoples now do, 

 and may thus have 

 started the first fire 

 ever kindled by man. 



No one knows the 

 date of that first 

 lighting nor the pre- 

 cise method em- 

 ployed. All we know 

 is that such fire- 

 making was as truly 



the result of mental action as was the invention of the steam 

 engine by James Watt in 1736. He who made the fire dis- 

 covery has blessed all generations from that day to this, for 

 each generation has inherited the advantage of the discovery, 

 and has passed the advantage on to the next generation. 



Courtesy o! Mrs. L. H. Gulick 



Making Fire in the Primitive Way 



This Guardian of the Camp Fire Girls has secured 



a spark from rubbing sticks together. She is now 



blowing that spark into a flame 



