Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 92.djvu/915

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��Popular Science Mnntlihj

Trench-Dwellers Cherish the Barber's Ministrations

��TRY to imagine yourself in the place of a soldier who has spent two or three weeks or months in the trenches, cut off from every comfort and at all times exposed to the risk of being killed or maimed by bullet, shell or shrapnel. The excitement of the first few days gradually wears off; but the discomforts of trench-life remain and become more irksome from day to day. Little rest, little food, no chance to bathe or even wash, no opportunity to get a shave or a haircut. Such is trench-life.

Can you realize what it means to a soldier who has gone through that life for many days and weeks, when at last he is relieved and sent to the rear of the fighting line? A soldier's first thouhgt is a bath, then a shave and a haircut, clean clothes and a hot and plentiful meal. Fortunate the man who has among his treasured possessions one of those comfort kits which, in a small compass and in practical arrangement, contain all the things necessary for a man's toilet: brush, comb, scissors, razor, soap, talcum pow- der, etc. The picture shows one of these kits which is particularly practical because it can be carried by a strap over the shoulder. It is thus possible to get an open-air haircut or shave with all the ^ necessary adjuncts, though some of the comforts of the city barber shop may be lacking. But the soldier will scarcely mind this.

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���Check-raisers take notice. The amount to be paid is cut out of a double row of figures

��Making Things Harder for the Forger of Checks

���Trench barbering is frequently an outdoor operation. Our pictures show procedure and comfort-kit con- taining all the implements of the barber's trade

��N unusually clever device for pro- tecting checks from being raised by forgery has been invented by C. W. Elrod, of Lincoln, Neb. The accompany- ing illustration clearly demonstrates the idea and its application. At the top of the check is a double row of figures indexing dollars, another double row indexing cents. The figures representing the amount of the check are cut out of that double row of index figures in such a manner that they appear on the little triangular tabs which in cutting were left attached to th^ check. The control-strip, detached from the check and forming part of the stub of the check, shows, cut out of the first row of figures, the figures repre- senting the amount ^ of the check, which may be identified by the corresponding figures in the second row. The inventor proposes to have the paper of the checks watermarked with the words: "Only good for amount shown on margin," as an additional pro- tection against such forgery.

Those who have been victimized by .bank swindlers will be glad of this in- genious means of protecting them- selves hereafter.

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