Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 91.djvu/394

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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

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