TRUE TO HIS COLORS.
Owen Sheridan’s first impulse was to burst into the room. The mere voice
of Jake Hines was like a challenge to him, filling him with suspicion
and indignation. But in his work as a post-office inspector, discretion
and caution were rapidly becoming habitual with him, and he waited
quietly to learn what new rôle was being enacted by the young politician
beyond the door.
“I tell you, Dallas,” Hines was saying, “it’s the only chance of savin’
your brother from goin’ to jail. If you’re the right kind of a sister,
you won’t hesitate for a minute. What’s a little thing like marryin’ me
compared to seein’ your brother in stripes?”
“Yes, Dallas,” said another masculine voice imploringly; “what Jake says
is so. It depends entirely upon you whether I go to jail or not. The
shortage hasn’t been discovered yet; but the auditor is due at the
office next week, and as soon as he gets at the books I’m done
for--unless I can replace the five thousand dollars before then.”
“And I’ve got the money right here,” said Hines. “Five thousand dollars
in bills, girlie. All you’ve got to do is to promise to marry me, and as
soon as the license is made out I’ll hand the roll to your brother, and
he’ll be safe.”
“And it’ll be the last time I’ll enter a gambling house; I’ll promise
you that, Dallas!” declared young Worthington. “You see me out of this
scrape, and I’ll go straight from now on. You’ll do me this favor, won’t
you, sis? You’re not going to be stubborn, and see your brother sent to
prison. You’re the only one that can save me, Dallas. It’s entirely up
to you?”
“But, Chester,” came the tremulous voice of Dallas, “what you ask is
quite impossible. I couldn’t marry this man, even to save you from
disgrace and imprisonment. I really couldn’t do it, Chester. I’d do
anything else in my power to help you, dear; but that’s out of the
question.”
“And why is it out of the question, I should like to know?” exclaimed
Hines in an injured tone. “I ain’t such a bad feller, Dallas. There’s
lots worse than me, I guess. To hear her talk, Chester, you’d think I
was the worst demon that ever grew in the garden of love, wouldn’t you?”
“Jake has been a mighty good friend to me, sis,” declared young
Worthington warmly. “It’s true I’ve only known him a few months, but
that’s long enough for me to find out that he’s one of the best fellows
in the whole world. He’s loaned me a lot of money already, and now that
I’m in this big trouble he comes forward generously and offers to let me
have the five thousand dollars to make good the shortage----”
“Under the conditions mentioned,” interpolated Mr. Hines hastily.
“Under the conditions mentioned, of course,” said young Worthington.
“But, nevertheless, it’s a mighty generous offer. The conditions are
ridiculously easy, Dallas. I’m sure Jake will make a mighty good
husband, and you’d never regret marrying him. He’s very much in love
with you. He’s done nothing but talk about you ever since I’ve known
him. He’s just crazy about you.”
“And I suppose,” said Dallas scornfully, “it was he who suggested that
you send me that mysterious and startling letter which brought me to
Chicago without letting a single person in New York--not even my
employer--know about it? Yes, I am quite sure that is some of Mr. Hines’
work. If I had suspected for a minute that I should find him here,
Chester, I wouldn’t have changed my mind after writing you that I
couldn’t come to you.”
“Ah,” said Owen to himself, “so she wrote to her brother telling him
that she couldn’t come to him, and then she changed her mind. That, of
course, must have been the letter which she tried to get out of the
mail, and, by an unfortunate mistake, got the Reverend Doctor Moore’s
pink envelope, with its hundred-dollar inclosure, instead.”
Owen disliked to play the rôle of eavesdropper, but he couldn’t help
waiting a little longer outside that door before making his presence
known to the occupants of the room. He wanted his entry to come as a
startling climax to one of Mr. Hines’ little speeches.
He did not have long to wait. “Well, Dallas,” he heard Hines exclaim,
suddenly assuming a bullying tone, “it’s no use havin’ any more argument
about this matter. I hold all the cards in this game. I know very well
that you ain’t the kind of girl to let your brother go to jail when it
lies in your power to save him; so you’ve got to accept my proposition
whether you like it or not. As I told you once before, when Jake Hines
wants a thing bad he generally manages to get it. You know---- Hello!”
His little, beady eyes opened wide with astonishment and alarm as the
door suddenly flew open, and Post-office Inspector Owen Sheridan stepped
into the room.
“Well, for the love of Mike!” gasped Jake, and as he spoke he fell back
a step, and his right hand moved toward his hip pocket.
Owen did not fail to grasp the significance of this gesture. “Keep your
hands in front of you, Hines,” he said quietly. “It’s no use. I’ve got
you covered.”
Owen’s right hand was thrust within the side pocket of his coat. The
pocket bulged as though it might contain something else besides the
hand. Hines noted that bulge, and obediently kept his hands in front of
him.
“Got me covered, have you?” he grunted. “Well, I’m from Missouri. You
gotter show me. I’ve heard of that bluff bein’ pulled off before now
with a pipe or a nail file.”
Owen laughed. “All right; I’ll show you. Does this look like a pipe or a
nail file, Jake?”
Hines’ small eyes blinked at sight of the revolver which came quickly
from Owen’s coat pocket. “No, that’s the goods,” he said gloomily. “I
guess I’m up against it. Was you sent to Chicago specially to get me,
Sheridan?”
“Not exactly,” replied Owen, with a glance toward Dallas; “I came here
mainly to look into another case; but I guess that can wait until I’ve
got you safely locked up.”
“Well, as long as you wasn’t sent to get me,” said Hines eagerly,
“perhaps you’ll be interested in a little proposition I’m goin’ to
make.”
He, too, glanced toward Dallas. “I’ve got five thousand dollars in bills
in my pocket, Sheridan. That money’d come in mighty useful to Miss
Worthington just now. It would save her brother from a long term in
jail. I’ll hand it over to her if you’ll let me walk out of that door
alone. Is it a bargain?”
“It is not,” said Dallas, before the post-office inspector could answer.
“You’ve got to do your duty, Owen. Don’t listen to any proposal.”
Owen gave her a grateful and admiring glance. “That’s fine of you,
Dallas. Of course, there’s no danger of my accepting this bribe. I
scarcely think, though, that your brother will have to go to jail for
the lack of that money. I don’t believe that he’s short five thousand
dollars at the office at all. I’ve got a shrewd suspicion that these
rascals invented that yarn, and have been trying to work a cunning game
on you.”
It was only a guess, of course, but Owen could see from the discomfited
and sheepish look that came to young Worthington’s face that he had
guessed right.
TO BE CONTINUED.
* * * * *
WHO IS IT?
A laughable illustration of how anger causes a man to make himself
ridiculous is given in the following incident, related in a German
newspaper:
Banker Rosenthal directed his bookkeeper to address a sharp letter to
Baron Y----, who had promised several times to pay what he owed, and had
as often neglected to do so.
When the letter was written, it did not please Banker Rosenthal, who is
very excitable, and he angrily penned the following:
“DEAR BARON Y---- : Who was it that promised to pay up on the 1st
of January? You, my dear baron, you are the man. Who was it that
promised, then, to settle on the 1st of March? You, my dear baron.
Who was it that didn’t settle on the 1st of March? You, my dear
baron. Who is it, then, who has broken his word twice, and is an
unmitigated scoundrel? Your obedient servant,
MOSES ROSENTHAL.”
* * * * *
BEING CHEERFUL AT MEALS.
A man read in the paper that the family table should always be the scene
of laughter and merriment, and that no meal should be passed in the
moody silence that so often characterizes such occasions. The idea
struck him so favorably that when his family had gathered round the
table that evening, he said:
“Now, this sort of thing of keeping so silent at meals has got to stop.
You hear me, you girls? You begin to tell stories, and keep up an
agreeable sort of talk; and you, boys, laugh and be jolly, or I’ll take
and dust your jackets till you can’t stand. Now, begin!”
The glare that he sent around the table made the family resemble a
funeral party.
* * * * *
THE NEWS OF ALL NATIONS.
Washer with Heater.
A new device that lessens the drudgery of wash day is the combination
washer and stove. It is made entirely of metal. The advantage of having
the fire under the wash water is that it enables the cleansing to be
done better and more quickly; it is not necessary to carry water from
the stove to the place where the washing is done. A few minutes’ pumping
on the handle is said to drive the dirt from the clothes, linens, or
other fabrics in the washer.
$686,700,000 Paid in Life Insurance.
Distribution of life-insurance companies and organizations in the United
States and Canada during 1914 amounted to $686,700,000. This is the
largest annual amount on record, exceeding by $40,150,000 the amount
paid in 1913.
Claims paid in the United States and Canada, $433,050,000.
Payments for premium savings and surrender values, and to annuitants,
and in foreign countries, $253,650,000. Grand total, $686,700,000.
While the amount paid by the companies was more, the amount of ordinary
and industrial policies written and revived in the United States during
1914 fell off slightly last year. Until the outbreak of war in Europe,
the writing of life insurance exceeded the normal rate of increase.
The largest claim paid last year was on the policy of George W.
Vanderbilt, whose residence was in Washington. The company that issued
it reinsured $750,000 of the face amount. Mr. Vanderbilt carried the
policy on the twenty-payment life plan for seventeen years. During that
period he paid premiums to the amount of $595,000.
A Fearful Aspect, at Least.
“George,” she screamed; “my neck!”
“What’s the matter?”
“There’s a pillacatter----”
“A what?”
“A tap-e-killer----”
“What in the world do you mean?”
“Oh, dear!” she moaned, as she clutched him frantically; “a
kitterpaller! You know, George! A patterkiller on my neck!”
“Oh!” said George, with evident relief, and he proceeded to brush the
future butterfly away.
Who Was First Under Wire?
In the northern part of Lansing, Mich., a resident had trouble keeping
thoughtless pedestrians and bike riders from cutting across a corner of
her lawn. A path was worn smooth across this particular corner. Signs
did no good, and personal requests were unheeded. So the resident, not
having any males in the family to talk sternly to trespassers, stretched
several strands of wire between trees and directly across the path.
The wire was not put up until late in the afternoon. The next day the
owner of the path-worn lawn went out to take a look. The new wires were
badly bent, as though they had seen hard usage. Evidently they had, for
near one tree was found a well-smashed dinner pail, with broken dishes
about and near it a set of “store teeth.” Part of a bicycle lamp lay on
another side of the path, with the rim of a derby. Evidently bikes, as
well as ships, sometimes have a hard time passing in the night.
End All Debts in One Week.
It is a custom of the Chinese to pay all their debts on New Year’s Day
and start the year with a clean slate. The people of Hume, Mo., believe
that to be a good plan and conducive to a more neighborly feeling, so
the present week has been set aside here as “pay-up” week. During this
time everybody is expected to pay all debts, return everything they have
borrowed, and, in general, square up every account that is outstanding
against them.
At the same time it is hoped that the “paying up” will extend somewhat
beyond the commercial side and result in the settlement of all personal
differences and general reconciliation of those who have been at outs.
Ohio on the Pension Roll.
Ohio ranks first in the number of her sons on the pension roll, with
74,250, with Pennsylvania a close second and New York third.
She Missed the Seat.
Mrs. J. V. Percal, of Cleveland, Ohio, found the film play featuring her
favorite movie hero had just started when she entered a downtown theater
Sunday.
And the theater was a bit darker than usual.
She made her way to a seat, removed her hat, and started to pin it to
the back of the seat in front of her, all this with her eyes fixed on
the opening scene of “The Avenging Hand.”
A man sitting in front of her jumped like a scared cat and yelled,
“Wow!”
“When I jabbed the hatpin through my hat, I must have missed the back of
the seat,” explained Mrs. Percal.
“What did the man say?”
“Oh, mercy! Please excuse me.”
Expert Rider Postmistress.
Miss Marion Carterett, of Elko, Nev., champion woman “bronchobuster” of
Nevada, who won her spurs in open competition with cowgirls from all
over the West in the kicking contests at Elko last year, has been
appointed postmistress at Deeth. Miss Carterett’s appointment was
confirmed last month, and she has assumed charge of the office.
Death Rate in Large Cities.
The death rate after the age of forty is increasing annually in Chicago
and other large cities in spite of sanitary modes of living and greater
protection against communicable diseases. The expectation of life after
forty years is less than it was thirty years ago.
In a warning sounded by the public-health service, it is explained this
alarming condition is due largely to the increased prevalence of the
diseases of degeneration. The muscles, arteries, and other organs of
those who, as a result of sedentary occupation or indolence, take too
little exercise degenerate. The advice of the public-health experts is
to take exercise.
Baby Chokes on Prune Seed.
A prune seed, which lodged in his throat, caused the death of Frederick
Pellegrini, three-year-old son of John Pellegrini, of Denver, Col. The
lad choked to death while a physician was en route to the house from the
County Hospital.
She Had Right, Says Court.
The proper way to end an engagement to wed was much discussed in the
court of Judge Frederickson, in Los Angeles, Cal. Mrs. Grace Gore
contended that she was within her rights when she swallowed the diamond
ring presented by Luther Buntin, but that the pugilistic retort of
Buntin was too much. The court agreed, and fined Buntin thirty dollars.
The story of the courtship was a “thriller.” The two met at a dance.
Each thought the other single. Buntin, a street-car conductor, took the
pretty young woman for frequent street-car rides. One night he gave her
the ring.
A few nights later Isadore Gore, in the rôle of irate husband, pounced
on him and sent him to the hospital for two weeks.
When Buntin emerged from bandages and plaster, he sought Mrs. Gore and
demanded the ring. She refused, swallowed it, and he admits his reply to
a merry laugh was a series of stinging slaps.
Double Chicken is Hatched.
A chicken hatched in Big Piney, Mo., at the home of Mrs. Maud Vaughn,
had four legs, four wings, and two tails. It had but one head, but the
body was like that of what might be called a double chicken. It could
not walk. Its head was between its two bodies.
Students of Baby Culture.
Not only may Los Angeles, Cal., girls learn to cook and sew in the
public schools, but they may become students of baby culture with real
live, gurgling, wriggling babies to practice on.
A course in the care and nursing of infants has been added as a
permanent feature of the curriculum of the Polytechnic night school, and
the first class, numbering thirty-five pupils, includes a dozen young
mothers and prospective brides as well as younger girls.
Bird is Killed by Golf Ball.
While “teeing off” at golf, S. C. Pettit, of Topeka, Kan., brought down
a sparrow with the flying ball. The bird was dead when it reached the
ground. It is said by golfers that such an incident has occurred only
once before. A professional golfer on a large course in New England once
killed a bird with a golf ball.
Bird Rings Burglar Alarm.
A mischievous bird known as a flicker, belonging to the woodpecker
family, has taken a fancy to sounding a burglar alarm over the First
National Bank at Wrightsville, Pa. The first time or two the bird
indulged in this prank it caused a stir in the neighborhood. It is
thought that in the first place an insect on the surface of the gong was
pecked by the bird, and in this way the bird became acquainted with the
musical qualities of the bell. The beating of the bird’s bill on the
bell produces a sound exactly like that produced by the electric tapper
of the gong.
Mouse Scares Girl to Death.
Miss Edna Engel, of Kenosha, Wis., the seventeen-year-old daughter of
Caspar Engel, was scared to death by a mouse. The mouse ran out from
under a piece of furniture as she entered her room. The girl fell
unconscious and died without regaining consciousness.
An Expectant Fruit Grower.
Enos Martin is showing visitors to his farm near Benzonia, Mich., what
he thinks will be the greatest horticultural curiosity in the country.
Last June, when the big wind cut through Benzie County, it hit Enos’
peach orchard. After the storm, Enos discovered a stem of a weed driven
entirely through the body of one of his best peach trees.
This spring Enos found the weed stem was putting out leaves. He has
discovered that it is a milkweed, and he thinks it will unite with the
peach, and that next August he can serve peaches and cream from the same
tree.
Keen-eared Night Captain.
But for the acute hearing of Night Captain Bert Weare, of Minneapolis,
Minn., John Kent might not be occupying a cell in the city jail. He is
charged with petty larceny.
Kent was arrested in company with A. W. Hinkley on complaint of E. G.
White. White said he met the men in the morning, and that while he dozed
in a chair in a saloon, his watch was stolen. He accused Kent.
Kent was searched at police headquarters but the watch was not found.
The police were about to turn the men loose, when Captain Weare said he
heard a watch ticking. The ticking was traced to Kent’s left sock. White
and Hinkley were held as witnesses.
Farmers Strong with Autos.
An interesting fact connected with the figures compiled by the assessors
in Atchison County, Kan., is that two-thirds of the automobiles in the
county are owned by farmers. The aggregate value of the machines in the
county is $174,111, or $311 apiece.
Four-legged, Four-winged Chicken.
A chicken with four perfect legs and an extra pair of wings, one of the
most remarkable ever hatched in the State, is drawing scores of people
to the poultry farm of A. J. and P. J. Fayette, near Stoneham, Mass. The
chick has been named “Daisy.”
Wonderful in His Work with Penknife.
E. G. van Zandt, of North Euclid Avenue, St. Louis, Mo., exponent of the
penknife in art, has just completed his latest work, a complete model of
a fourteen-room residence, which is a remarkable demonstration of what
can be accomplished with an ordinary penknife.
In October, Van Zandt, who is sixty-two years old and a retired
mechanical engineer, was confined to his home with bronchitis. Work with
his pocketknife has been his hobby since boyhood, and when he found
that he was to be shut in for the winter, he made a workshop of his sick
room.
His workshop requires little space. It is composed of a biscuit board,
which he uses as his bench; a sharp pocketknife, and a pot of glue.
Cigar boxes are his material.
The model of the home is four inches tall, four inches wide, and six and
one-half inches long, and weighs, exclusive of the base, exactly three
ounces. It required one hundred and fifteen days’ labor, and seven cigar
boxes were used in its construction.
The model also includes a garage and shelter shed used in the rear and a
private playground. The “estate” is surrounded by a fence, made to
represent cobblestones embedded in cement.
The model is complete in every detail, even to doorknobs and hinges.
There are eight thousand separate pieces of wood used in its
construction. There are thirty-two windows and nine doors in the house.
In the windows each sash is separate and each is fitted with glass. The
upper sashes have shades. The doors are paneled.
There is an outside breakfast room with a tile floor. Tile also is shown
in the vestibule at the front entrance, and the front door is fitted
with decorative hinges and a fancy lock. In the rear are doors leading
to the cellar, and there is a coal chute to the furnace room. The
garage, which adjoins the playground in the rear, also is complete, and
there is a shelter shed adjoining it. A brick ash pit is near the
garage.
A gravel road leads from the garage outside the grounds, and the garage
may only be entered through an ornamental iron gate. The fence
surrounding the grounds is a work of art. There is a base of white wood,
representing a cut-stone base, with cement and cobblestones above. It is
surmounted with a cut-stone coping, and at short intervals there are
decorative cut-stone posts with fancy caps.
One of the most intricate pieces of work on the entire model are the
ornamental iron gates. There are seven of these, and each required more
than a day’s labor. Each picket is a separate piece of wood, and there
are ornamental hinges and locks.
Van Zandt says the most difficult work on the whole model was the
fitting of the small gratings in the basement windows. The pieces
composing the gratings are so small that it was almost impossible to get
them glued into position. The glue set before the pieces could be put in
place.
Van Zandt solved this problem by specially prepared glue to be used in
this work so that it would not set so quickly. It required more than a
day’s time for each of the four gratings.
The first part of the house completed, he says, was one of the small
windows which project from the roof above the second story, and the last
thing completed was the knob on one of the gates.
Van Zandt is emphatic in his statement that the only tool used in the
entire work was his penknife. Even the rounded pillars in the porches,
he says, were made with the knife and were smoothed with a piece of
sandpaper.
In 1913 he completed a model of the Centenary Church, Sixteenth and Pine
Streets, on which he worked at odd times for twenty-one years. He says
this model was made from observation, without the aid of a picture or
drawing of any kind. He says he visited the church so many times while
the work was in progress that people in the neighborhood commented on
his presence.
Van Zandt also has a model of a beer wagon, which is similar to those he
made for a brewery exhibit at the World’s Fair in Chicago. A complete
model of the brewery was shown at the fair, and Van Zandt says he
undertook the work of making the wagon after numerous other men had
attempted their manufacture and failed.
His work on the brewery exhibit required an entire winter. He made
eighteen brewery wagons, thirty-four freight cars, and six trolley cars
and trailers.
Funeral Held After Thirty-two Years.
Satisfied that the skeleton found on a sand bar in Red River, near
Fulton, was that of their father, drowned thirty-two years ago, Ben and
James Wilson brought it to their home in Texarkana, Ark., and had it
interred in the family lot, after funeral ceremonies.
The body was found about three hundred yards below the point where
Wilson perished in 1883. It had remained in the sand bar until shifting
sands, during the recent overflow, left it partly exposed.
Collar Buttoning Made Easy.
A clever little thing in the way of a collar button is the invention of
Charles Formage, of New Rochelle, N. Y. The button is an ordinary stud
of solid metal, but has a tiny screw hole in its center. Into this a
tapering peg is screwed. This goes through the buttonhole of a collar
without any difficulty or breaking of nails or swearing on the part of
the owner. When the collar is on, the peg is unscrewed and the button
remains.
Gets Big Award for Injuries.
For the loss of two fingers and a thumb, Michael Wizloski, an employee
of the Eastern Steel Company, in Pottsville, Pa., was awarded $10,043.93
by a jury. This is one of the largest verdicts ever given for an injury
not attended by fatal results.
The jury, in its verdict, censured the company for negligence in not
properly protecting the machinery which caused Wizloski’s injury.
The Cossack a True Son of Mars.
Apprenticed to Mars at birth, as were the Spartans before them, the
Cossacks, survivals from a young, non-industrial world, are the most
picturesque fighters on Europe’s battlefields. A frontier’s folk like
the people of our early West, a mixture of many adventurous elements,
and constituting within their own country a class more distinctive than
that of the American cowboy, they have finally been subdued to the needs
of the great imperial government of Petrograd, taken over just as they
were into its machinery, and preserved as a soldier caste. A wild,
conquering, freebooting folk, the Cossacks have been brought within the
fold of Russian civilization as soldiers, descendants of warriors and
progenitors of generations of soldiers to meet the future needs of the
Slav empire.
These Cossacks, in the leisure of national peace, conquered the vast
empire of Siberia for Russia, and in each Russian war for the last
hundred years have formed the czar’s irresistible first-line strength.
The Cossacks are a people of the limitless steppes, a people of close
corporation, situated in Russia as a race apart, a soldier caste, their
state a military organization, their connection with the great empire
maintained through the imperial war department, the administration of
their internal affairs practically in their own hands, and their
privileges as a caste almost as pronounced as were those of the Spartan
soldier-citizen, or more comparable to the solider caste of the older
Indian organization. The Cossacks came of the original Slav stock, but
they were those Slavs who never bowed their heads beneath a yoke,
foreign or domestic; who lived a free life on the borders of their
race’s civilization, wandering, fighting, buccaneer Slav tribes, who
penetrated deeply into Tartar and Georgian lands, who lived by the hunt
and by plunder, and who maintained themselves on the borders of Asia and
Europe free of all serfdom.
These sturdy Russian wanderers assimilated many adventurous elements,
took up among them many Tartars and Slavs, and so to-day the Cossack
type is a more or less distinct one. The total Cossack population of
Russia is more than 3,000,000. Some years ago they owned nearly
146,500,000 acres of land, of which 105,000,000 acres was arable and
9,400,000 forest land. This land is held by the Cossacks in community
partition as a state reward for their military service. It will be seen
that the Cossack holdings amount to about fifty acres for each man,
woman, and child of the people. There is an admiring, half-envious
Russian catchword about being as “free and as rich as a Cossack.”
The Cossacks are the roughriders of Europe. As the cowboys of the
American plains and gauchos of the pampas, the Cossacks are as intensely
interesting, wild, free, plain folk who live in the saddle in the open
places, and whose rough democracy is the expression of the same naïve,
rudimentary culture as that of their new-world brothers in spirit. None
of their members are allowed to starve, and none of them has succeeded
in winning overmastering position through the laying up of great wealth.
The Cossack is favored by the state, and is a main prop of the state’s
authority. To be born a Cossack is to be born a soldier. Every Cossack
bears the obligation of twenty years’ military service. He enters into
this service at the age of eighteen, spends three years in a preliminary
Cossack division, next passes twelve years in active service, and spends
his last five military years in the Cossack reserve. It is the picked
men from his ranks who constitute the imperial guard, a body of the
finest type of fighters, whom the czar can trust when he can trust no
one else around him. These Cossack soldiers have been the greatest
terror with which Russia has been able to threaten Europe. They have
been the empire’s most efficient internal police, and they have marched
eastward to the Pacific and southward to the zones of British influence,
conquering for the czar a vast domain.
Colt with Six Feet.
A colt with six feet was born on the farm of George E. Gano, near
Frankfort, Kan. One extra foot grew from the knee and the other from the
ankle of the other front foot. In other respects the animal is normal.
Town of Active Old “Boys.”
Lewistown, Pa., has many aged citizens that are still in active life.
Among their number are John Gantz, still laboring at ninety years of
age; Obdiah Umberger, hearty at ninety; Reverend Andrew Spanogle,
driving an auto at ninety-two years; Thomas Kennedy, laying brick at
four-score years; William N. Hoffman, getting around like a boy at
seventy-nine years and just as jolly.
Shah is a Gem Plutocrat.
Should the Shah of Persia be deprived of his income, he would still be
one of the richest persons in the world. He would only have to sell his
ornaments, gems, and precious stones to become possessed of about
$35,000,000.
Safe Use of Alcohol.
To promote the industrial and technical utilization of alcohol, the
Russian ministry of finance has offered prizes totaling about $136,000
for the best inventions in this respect.
“Song of the Winds” Reveals His Past.
Music wafted back to the empty halls of the lost memory of Charles
Fitzhugh McReigh, a Boston composer, the love of a devoted wife, a
deserted home, and anxious friends the other night. Memoryless McReigh
has been wandering about the country for months.
McReigh mysteriously disappeared from his home over six months ago. He
returned the night of his disappearance from a musical gathering with
his wife and a party of friends, shortly after midnight. The following
morning he failed to come down to breakfast.
For several weeks the family had no word of his whereabouts. After a
while Mrs. McReigh heard that a man answering to her husband’s
description had come under the observation of the police of several New
England cities.
Detectives were appealed to, and, in the course of a month, traced the
missing man to Norwalk, Conn., and discovered that while he appeared to
be in perfect health, his mind was blank as to his whole previous
existence. Nothing could be done to arouse him to his past personality.
The wife and family physician were summoned, but McReigh could not be
made to recollect himself. Specialists were consulted at the time, and
it was their judgment that he would never recover his mental balance.
They suggested only one chance. If an idea, something that had been an
absorbing part of his life, could be brought suddenly to his mind, the
reaction might accomplish that for which they hoped.
McReigh went to Worcester, Mass., some weeks ago and registered at the
largest hotel. Each night he would sit in the mezzanine balcony,
intently watching the piano player, who was a fair young woman with
beautiful blond hair. He sat there continuously and silently, always
with a set look of wonderment as the music was unfolded under the deft
touch of the little player.
The night McReigh recovered his reason was witnessed by several others
who were sitting by him, listening to the music. The little pianist was
playing, as usual, mostly soft, low music, that was soothing and
restful, until she came to the last selection, “The Song of the Winds.”
As she came to the final measure, with the crash of falling trees and
overturned homes, McReigh arose from his chair and staggered toward the
piano, and in an instant the little player and McReigh were locked in
arms’ tight embrace.
There were just two words spoken--“Tom” and “Frances.” Then the woman
collapsed and McReigh had to be carried away, his face an ashy color.
Both were cared for by the house doctor.
It afterward developed that the little pianist was Mrs. McReigh. Acting
on the advice of specialists, she had followed her memoryless husband
from city to city. Being people of wealth, she was able to go at any
length to accomplish her purpose.
McReigh was supplied with funds through the management of the different
hotels at which he registered, without his knowledge, and the wife
consented to pose as a musician in need of employment in order that she
could be able to play in the presence of her husband. “The Song of the
Winds” was McReigh’s best-known and favorite composition. McReigh was
under the watchful eye of his wife from the time of his discovery in
Norwalk.
McReigh’s memory was perfectly normal the following day, and man and
wife returned to their home in Boston with plans for a second honeymoon
through the West to celebrate the glad occasion.
Habit Saved His Life.
Habit saved George Lee, of Los Angeles, Cal., forty-five years old,
recently, when he plotted against his life. He placed the muzzle of a
revolver in his mouth, put his mind in order for the end, and was
pulling the trigger, when he heard some one call, “Right!”
It was a word used more frequently than any other in his work in a
downtown grocery. There Lee was accustomed to carry packages across a
long room. Several persons were similarly occupied, and when they would
meet, going in opposite directions, the one with a load on his shoulder
would always cry, “Right!” The right hand of the other would go up in
signal that he would observe the rules of the meeting, for the contents
of the boxes were fragile, and any interference might cause a loss that
would be deducted from their wages.
While his finger was drawing at the trigger, from outside came the clear
call, “Right!” voiced by the conversation of passers-by.
From habit, Lee’s right hand started to lift in signal, the finger
released the trigger, and the shell exploded, but the minor twitch that
had come when he heard the word of warning switched the aim, so the
bullet left a harmless wound in his cheek. Other persons heard the shot,
hastened to the room, and rushed Lee off to the receiving hospital,
where his wound was dressed, and his spirits revived by the promise that
a job would be given him.
Has Relic of One Bald-headed Indian.
Bart J. Marrs, of Hailey, Idaho, has in his possession a valued keepsake
in the shape of the scalp lock from the head of a forgotten Sioux
chieftain.
Most relics of the long ago are valued from their intimate relationship
to the forbears of their present-day owner. Particularly is this true
when the relic symbolizes some event of momentous importance to the
original possessor.
The trouble with many souvenirs of the misty past is that they may have
been made but a few days ago in Chicago or in Connecticut and placed on
the market, judiciously, of course, at so much per. With Judge Marrs’
memento, however, is a family tradition which not only proves its
authenticity but lends it an added interest.
Redskins who have seen the scalp of Oogley Moogley in the judge’s home
are perfectly satisfied that it is extremely bad medicine to attempt the
rough stuff with members of the Marrs clan.
Old Oogley Moogley was at one time taken back East to hold converse with
the Great White Father in behalf of his fellow tribesmen. At least, so
runs the tradition.
While honoring the honorific city of Boston with his august
copper-colored presence, he was made much of by the supercultured,
hyphenated ladies of the hub of the universe. One lady, whose talents
and inclinations lay in the direction of poesy and letters, was greatly
impressed with the æsthetic suggestion conveyed by the name of “Oogley
Moogley.”
That gentleman’s dignified bearing and his majestic manner of declaiming
“Ugh!” on the slightest provocation were equally impressive and
awe-inspiring.
The lady resolved to come to the Golden West, look up the antecedents of
the famous chieftain, and trace his personal handle back to its
philological root. This for the sweet sake of poesy.
It was only after an hour’s converse with the oldest inhabitant, several
futile calls on the Indian agent and the Catholic father of the post,
that she learned from an educated Indian that “Oogley Moogley” was
simply the warrior’s distorted pronunciation of the epithet “Ugly Mug,”
bestowed upon him by the whites. Her dudgeon was up, likewise her
dander, and she lost no time in leaving the post and traversing the
waste places that lay on the road to Boston.
But Oogley came to an ignominious end. Several Sioux uprisings had taken
place in his neighborhood within short periods. On one of his nocturnal
prowls, peaceful or not it was never learnt, Oogley ran up against the
member of the Marrs family who put the Indian sign on him.
Advancing stealthily to the Marrs cabin, he put his head through a white
man’s window for the last time. It may have been that he was desirous
only of obtaining a slice of New England pie, a strip of bacon, or
begging the loan of a bit of chewing tobacco. The owner of the cabin
didn’t ask. He simply put his own construction on the act, drew his
trusty bowie knife out of his boot, and grabbed Oogley’s scalp lock in
one hand; and one fell blow spelled “finis” for the affair. At the same
time, future generations of the Marrs family were enriched by the
acquisition of a relic that is a relic.
And Judge Marrs, in answer to the query made famous a few years ago by
extensive advertising of a remedy for hairless-headed gentlemen, “Did
you ever see a bald-headed Indian?” truthfully replies:
“No, but my granddaddy did.”
Ingenious Anglers Work Great Scheme.
Because of an unpardonable oversight, Carl Selzer and Louis Gunther,
anglers, of Grand Rapids, Mich., are lamenting the loss of a half dozen
trained minnows which not only proved their contention that fish are
susceptible to learning, but brought about an unparalleled catch of
pickerel.
Selzer, who is an active secretary of the Y. M. C. A., and Gunther, a
German professor, have fished the waters of the Michigan northlands for
years. On a trip last fall, while strikes were lagging, they entered on
a discussion as to the intellectual capabilities of a fish, and both
agreed that it would be as possible to educate them along certain lines
as it would be to teach a dumb animal tricks. Each one had lost many a
good fish because of its ability to eject a hook from its mouth after
“falling for” the lure of a brilliant bait, and this point alone
suggested the learning of the trick from some other fish of wider
experience.
During the winter the discussion was revived, and Gunther and Selzer
decided to work out their theory, if possible. They visited the State
fish hatchery and procured a dozen minnows and placed them in a tank
kept in the barn at the rear of Gunther’s home. Into the tank they
lowered a square cage made of small-meshed wire. From the start the
minnows discovered that the meshes would admit the passage of their
bodies, and they flitted through the cage freely in securing the bits of
food which the two experimentalists artfully placed within.
After a few days a plan for frightening the minnows was introduced.
Gunther dropped a large stone in one end of the tank. With the splash
the minnows darted into the cage. When all was quiet again, they would
venture forth, and, with another splash, caused by the dropping of the
stone, they would flit back through the meshes. Soon they grew to
realize that the wire cage was a haven of protection, and no matter what
the method used by the two men to frighten them, they would always
respond with a dash through the wires.
Several weeks ago Gunther and Selzer planned a weekend trip. They placed
their trained minnows in a water container, packed up their appliances,
and boxed the cage. Arriving at a northern lake in good season, they
immediately rowed to a favorite pickerel “ground.” Gunther held the cage
just under the water, and Selzer placed the minnows within. Then it was
lowered easily about ten feet and suspended. Both men then baited their
hooks with other live minnows and dropped them to the depth of the cage
and about five feet away. Inside of a half hour they had made a record
catch. Their idea had worked as they planned that it should.
The minnows swam from the cage, investigating after their curious
fashion, and attracted a number of voracious pickerel, but as soon as
they caught sight of the big fish, for which they held a congenital
fear, they darted back into the cage, realizing, by reason of past
experiences, that it was their stronghold.
The pickerel, flashing up, struck their pointed snouts against the
wires, and, like Tantalus, were repulsed. Then, their greed thoroughly
aroused, they swam about for a few moments, gloating on the
possibilities, until satisfied that a feast was impossible. As they
turned to fin away, their eyes caught the minnows adorning the hooks
lowered by the two fishermen. In an instant, acting on the belief that
the minnows were a part of the school which had eluded them, they struck
and were caught.
For nearly an hour Selzer and Gunther continued to pull in the big
pikes, and when they decided the afternoon’s sport was over, they had
gathered a larger mess than they had ever caught before. That night they
placed their trained minnows in a perforated can and hung it over the
side of the wharf. Gunther, who attended to this duty, accidentally
failed to lock the can. During the night, in some manner, the lid was
raised, and the next morning it was discovered that the minnows had
disappeared.
Both men firmly believe that some pickerel, piqued because of a failure
in the afternoon to secure one of the minnows, followed the boat and
negotiated the raising of the lid, and had successfully satisfied an
aching appetite.
The incident cut the trip short, but the theory was proved, and Selzer
and Gunther are now busy training another dozen minnows for future
excursions.
Cow Puzzles Kentucky.
What is the State of Kentucky going to do with Alex Steve and his cow
Fanny?
Steve is up against it. He was planning to make Fanny help him earn a
living. He intended to start an ice-cream business, with her aid, up in
Cannonsburg, Pa., where his daughter and four grandchildren live. And
now the law says he must either sell Fanny or stay right where he is
with the cow--that is, in a box car.
Steve was a miner in Dobra, W. Va., and one day, not long ago, he had
one of his feet crushed in an accident and had to give up mining. So
Steve decided to go to Cannonsburg to his daughter. He loaded his
household goods into a box car, built Fanny a stall in one end, and set
up his bed in the other end of the car. Besides Fanny, he had seven
chickens in a box as traveling companions. He paid seventy-five dollars
and sixty cents for transportation. That was nearly two weeks ago.
The C. & O. Railroad landed Steve and his outfit in Covington, Ky., and
tried to turn over the car to the Pennsylvania line for the rest of the
journey. The Pennsylvania Railroad officials refused to accept it,
because Fanny was barred from entering the State of Pennsylvania by the
foot-and-mouth-disease quarantine. No cow, no matter how healthy, can be
taken in until the quarantine is lifted.
Steve and his outfit can’t go on and can’t go back to Dobra. They can’t
stay in Covington, because Steve has only thirteen cents to his name.
The car contains a little feed for Fanny and a little cracked corn for
the chickens. Steve has been living chiefly on the milk Fanny gave him
and the schmierkäse he made from it, and occasionally some eggs from the
chickens. Outside of that, he hasn’t had much else to eat for several
days.
Steve doesn’t want to sell Fanny, for, if he does, the ice-cream
business will be impossible, but if he must, he wants one hundred
dollars for her. He says he paid seventy-five dollars for her six months
ago and she now represents his only means of livelihood. He claims the
railroad only wants to give him thirty dollars for Fanny. In the
meantime he is still stranded with his cow and chickens in his
freight-car home in the railroad yards in Covington, Ky.
Two Thousand Air Pilots Engaged in Western War Zone.
It is estimated that the total number of aëroplane pilots engaged in
active service with the Germans and the Allies in France and Belgium is
nearly two thousand. Fully five thousand pilots in uniform and new
aviators are still far from the front. These include Italian aviators.
Comparatively few German aëroplanes are seen on the French front,
probably for the reason that German pilots seldom accept battle with the
French aëroplane, which they are sent in chase, but they promptly speed
back to the German lines when pursued in their turn. Over the German
lines they are protected by many types of efficient antiaircraft guns.
These include an automatic gun, which shoots shells vertically more than
ten thousand feet at the rate of thirty per minute.
The Nick Carter Stories
ISSUED EVERY SATURDAY BEAUTIFUL COLORED COVERS
When it comes to detective stories worth while, the =Nick Carter Stories=
contain the only ones that should be considered. They are not overdrawn
tales of bloodshed. They rather show the working of one of the finest
minds ever conceived by a writer. The name of Nick Carter is familiar
all over the world, for the stories of his adventures may be read in
twenty languages. No other stories have withstood the severe test of
time so well as those contained in the =Nick Carter Stories=. It proves
conclusively that they are the best. We give herewith a list of some of
the back numbers in print. You can have your news dealer order them, or
they will be sent direct by the publishers to any address upon receipt
of the price in money or postage stamps.
714--The Taxicab Riddle.
717--The Master Rogue’s Alibi.
719--The Dead Letter.
720--The Allerton Millions.
728--The Mummy’s Head.
729--The Statue Clue.
730--The Torn Card.
731--Under Desperation’s Spur.
732--The Connecting Link.
733--The Abduction Syndicate.
736--The Toils of a Siren.
738--A Plot Within a Plot.
739--The Dead Accomplice.
741--The Green Scarab.
746--The Secret Entrance.
747--The Cavern Mystery.
748--The Disappearing Fortune.
749--A Voice from the Past.
752--The Spider’s Web.
753--The Man With a Crutch.
754--The Rajah’s Regalia.
755--Saved from Death.
756--The Man Inside.
757--Out for Vengeance.
758--The Poisons of Exili.
759--The Antique Vial.
760--The House of Slumber.
761--A Double Identity.
762--“The Mocker’s” Stratagem.
763--The Man that Came Back.
764--The Tracks in the Snow.
765--The Babbington Case.
766--The Masters of Millions.
767--The Blue Stain.
768--The Lost Clew.
770--The Turn of a Card.
771--A Message in the Dust.
772--A Royal Flush.
774--The Great Buddha Beryl.
775--The Vanishing Heiress.
776--The Unfinished Letter.
777--A Difficult Trail.
782--A Woman’s Stratagem.
783--The Cliff Castle Affair.
784--A Prisoner of the Tomb.
785--A Resourceful Foe.
789--The Great Hotel Tragedies.
795--Zanoni, the Transfigured.
796--The Lure of Gold.
797--The Man With a Chest.
798--A Shadowed Life.
799--The Secret Agent.
800--A Plot for a Crown.
801--The Red Button.
802--Up Against It.
803--The Gold Certificate.
804--Jack Wise’s Hurry Call.
805--Nick Carter’s Ocean Chase.
807--Nick Carter’s Advertisement.
808--The Kregoff Necklace.
811--Nick Carter and the Nihilists.
812--Nick Carter and the Convict Gang.
813--Nick Carter and the Guilty Governor.
814--The Triangled Coin.
815--Ninety-nine--and One.
816--Coin Number 77.
NEW SERIES
NICK CARTER STORIES
1--The Man from Nowhere.
2--The Face at the Window.
3--A Fight for a Million.
4--Nick Carter’s Land Office.
5--Nick Carter and the Professor.
6--Nick Carter as a Mill Hand.
7--A Single Clew.
8--The Emerald Snake.
9--The Currie Outfit.
10--Nick Carter and the Kidnapped Heiress.
11--Nick Carter Strikes Oil.
12--Nick Carter’s Hunt for a Treasure.
13--A Mystery of the Highway.
14--The Silent Passenger.
15--Jack Dreen’s Secret.
16--Nick Carter’s Pipe Line Case.
17--Nick Carter and the Gold Thieves.
18--Nick Carter’s Auto Chase.
19--The Corrigan Inheritance.
20--The Keen Eye of Denton.
21--The Spider’s Parlor.
22--Nick Carter’s Quick Guess.
23--Nick Carter and the Murderess.
24--Nick Carter and the Pay Car.
25--The Stolen Antique.
26--The Crook League.
27--An English Cracksman.
28--Nick Carter’s Still Hunt.
29--Nick Carter’s Electric Shock.
30--Nick Carter and the Stolen Duchess.
31--The Purple Spot.
32--The Stolen Groom.
33--The Inverted Cross.
34--Nick Carter and Keno McCall.
35--Nick Carter’s Death Trap.
36--Nick Carter’s Siamese Puzzle.
37--The Man Outside.
38--The Death Chamber.
39--The Wind and the Wire.
40--Nick Carter’s Three Cornered Chase.
41--Dazaar, the Arch-Fiend.
42--The Queen of the Seven.
43--Crossed Wires.
44--A Crimson Clew.
45--The Third Man.
46--The Sign of the Dagger.
47--The Devil Worshipers.
48--The Cross of Daggers.
49--At Risk of Life.
50--The Deeper Game.
51--The Code Message.
52--The Last of the Seven.
53--Ten-Ichi, the Wonderful.
54--The Secret Order of Associated Crooks.
55--The Golden Hair Clew.
56--Back From the Dead.
57--Through Dark Ways.
58--When Aces Were Trumps.
59--The Gambler’s Last Hand.
60--The Murder at Linden Fells.
61--A Game for Millions.
62--Under Cover.
63--The Last Call.
64--Mercedes Danton’s Double.
65--The Millionaire’s Nemesis.
66--A Princess of the Underworld.
67--The Crook’s Blind.
68--The Fatal Hour.
69--Blood Money.
70--A Queen of Her Kind.
71--Isabel Benton’s Trump Card.
72--A Princess of Hades.
73--A Prince of Plotters.
74--The Crook’s Double.
75--For Life and Honor.
76--A Compact With Dazaar.
77--In the Shadow of Dazaar.
78--The Crime of a Money King.
79--Birds of Prey.
80--The Unknown Dead.
81--The Severed Hand.
82--The Terrible Game of Millions.
83--A Dead Man’s Power.
84--The Secrets of an Old House.
85--The Wolf Within.
86--The Yellow Coupon.
87--In the Toils.
88--The Stolen Radium.
89--A Crime in Paradise.
90--Behind Prison Bars.
91--The Blind Man’s Daughter.
92--On the Brink of Ruin.
93--Letter of Fire.
94--The $100,000 Kiss.
95--Outlaws of the Militia.
96--The Opium-Runners.
97--In Record Time.
98--The Wag-Nuk Clew.
99--The Middle Link.
100--The Crystal Maze.
101--A New Serpent in Eden.
102--The Auburn Sensation.
103--A Dying Chance.
104--The Gargoni Girdle.
105--Twice in Jeopardy.
106--The Ghost Launch.
107--Up in the Air.
108--The Girl Prisoner.
109--The Red Plague.
110--The Arson Trust.
111--The King of the Firebugs.
112--“Lifter’s” of the Lofts.
113--French Jimmie and His Forty Thieves.
114--The Death Plot.
115--The Evil Formula.
116--The Blue Button.
117--The Deadly Parallel.
118--The Vivisectionists.
119--The Stolen Brain.
120--An Uncanny Revenge.
121--The Call of Death.
122--The Suicide.
123--Half a Million Ransom.
124--The Girl Kidnapper.
125--The Pirate Yacht.
126--The Crime of the White Hand.
127--Found in the Jungle.
128--Six Men in a Loop.
129--The Jewels of Wat Chang.
130--The Crime in the Tower.
131--The Fatal Message.
132--Broken Bars.
133--Won by Magic.
134--The Secret of Shangore.
135--Straight to the Goal.
136--The Man They Held Back.
137--The Seal of Gijon.
138--The Traitors of the Tropics.
139--The Pressing Peril.
140--The Melting-Pot.
141--The Duplicate Night.
142--The Edge of a Crime.
143--The Sultan’s Pearls.
144--The Clew of the White Collar.
Dated June 19th, 1915.
145--An Unsolved Mystery.
Dated June 26th, 1915.
146--Paying the Price.
Dated July 3d, 1915.
147--On Death’s Trail.
Dated July 10th, 1915.
148--The Mark of Cain.
=PRICE, FIVE CENTS PER COPY.= If you want any back numbers of our
weeklies and cannot procure them from your news dealer, they can be
obtained direct from this office. Postage stamps taken the same as
money.
STREET & SMITH, Publishers, 79-89 Seventh Ave., NEW YORK CITY