12 THE ACORN MISCELLANEOUS If you are not an habitual reader, begin now to form the reading habit. Good reading is a great life-improver; it will enlarge your mental capacity wonderfully. It will make you a full man, an interesting man; it will elevate your life standards. Your ideals will be higher; your views of life grander. Good reading will enrich your life immeasurably. You will grow fuller and nobler; you will think more of yourself, and others will think more of you. Success. KING LEOPOLD. The most curious character study in history, perhaps, was offered by the late King Leopold of Belgium. "A good king, a bad husband and father; two tender-hearted to sign the death warrant of a criminal, yet the heartless exploiter of the Kongo natives; perhaps the shrewdest business man living, although the most profligate prince in Europe; up-to-date statesman, enlightened promoter of industry and commerce, art connoisseur, benefactor of his people, domestic tyrant spendthrift, gambler, embezzler, hero of a hundred scandals," he was "a man of contradictions." Literary Digest. HARVESTING BERRIES WITH A THRASHING MACHINE. In arid Idaho, raspberries dry on the vines and when fully dry the vines are cut and the berries knocked off and cleaned by running them through a sort of thrashing machine. All this seems incredible to people who live in damper regions, where the crop is picked by hand and dried in an evaporator. In every section there is some crop that will pay better than others. Successful farming means finding that crop and working it it hard. Literary Digest. THE ACORN 13 POSTAL REGISTRY BY SLOT/MACHINE. A mechanical device is used in one of the city postoffices in Paris for automatic registration of letters and the issuance of a receipt to the sender. Literary Digest. The Battleship "Utah," which was successfully launched at Camden, N. J., December 23, is the most powerful warship yet built in the United States. It is the fifth of all big-gun battleships, and a displacement 2,000 tons greater than the Delaware and North Dakota, is expected to develop a speed a speed of 20 3/4 knots or more an hour, and. will carry ten 12-inch breech-loading guns in the main armament. Youth's Companion. THE WIRELESS TELEPHONE. Within a stone's throw of the historic old Independence Hall in Philadelphia, where the Declaration of Independence was signed, and very near the spot where Benjamin Franklin flew his famous kite, A. Fredrick Collins began a series of experiments in a laboratory on North Sixth street during 1900, which finally resulted in the invention of the wireless telephone. Mr. Collins has worked out the attachment by which it is possible for subscribers or owners of wireless telephones to talk with just as much privacy as over the present wire 'phones. The Collins Wireless Telephone Company is now manufacturing wireless telephones and is prepared to accept contracts for the installation of its telephones for either long or short distances. A. W., TO. An editorial which does not lead to action, does not stimulate progress, does not make the part of the world which it touches better or happier, is not an editorial it's a mere space-filler, and had better never have been written. The editors of a school paper have just as much a duty to perform in their editorial column toward the student body as a great newspaper has toward the nation. They must keep in touch with all student activities and interests, they must know the questions that are agitating the students, and understand their grievances and needs; in short, they must keep their finger on the pulse of the school. They should discuss and seek solutions for the problems, truthfully set forth needs and grievances, and fearlessly champion reforms and new movements that are needed. Lens.