A BOOMERANG.
At nine o’clock that evening Coggswell proceeded to hand his opponent
the big jolt, as planned. Standing on the platform at Colfax Hall, which
was filled with some two thousand voters of the district, he began
earnestly:
“My friends, as you all know, since the start of this contest I have
deplored personal attacks. I have raised my voice in protest against the
outrageous mud slinging indulged in by my opponent and his misguided
friends. But inasmuch as they have persisted in their shameful abuse of
a man who for seventeen years has worked night and day to serve the
people of this district, I feel justified in showing you that we can do
a little mud slinging, too. I am going to handle this Mr. Justice
Lawrence without gloves. I am going to show him to you in his true
colors.”
Boss Coggswell raised his clenched fist above his head. “A rascal who
deceives his fellow men is bad enough,” he yelled, “but I cannot find
words, my friends, to express my contempt for a scoundrel who would dupe
a woman--an innocent, trusting young girl. And that’s the kind of a man
the Honorable Sugden Lawrence is.”
He was interrupted at this point by a storm of groans and hisses, and
one man with a brazen voice shouted: “That’s a lie!”
“It’s the truth!” roared Boss Coggswell, shaking his fist frenziedly in
the direction of this disturber. “It’s the truth, my friends, and I can
prove it. This rascal Lawrence has just paid the sum of thirty thousand
dollars to a young woman whom he promised to marry and then shamelessly
jilted. He paid her the money, not out of a sense of shame, my friends,
or a sense of justice, but because she had started a suit for breach of
promise against him, and he was afraid of the scandal. He was afraid of
being shown up to his fellow men in his true colors, so he paid her
thirty thousand dollars hush money to call off the suit. The name of
this young woman is Miss Marjorie Dorman. I challenge the _Honorable_
Sugden Lawrence to deny these facts.” The speaker placed withering
emphasis upon the word honorable. “I challenge him to deny that he paid
that money to prevent the breach-of-promise suit from going to court.”
Amid the excitement which followed this sensational charge, a young man
strode down the center aisle toward the platform. Boss Coggswell saw him
coming, and stared at him in astonishment. He scarcely could believe
that his eyes were not playing him a trick.
The young man, a grim smile on his face, mounted the three stairs
leading to the platform, and stood in the background, waiting patiently
until Boss Coggswell was through with his speech. He did not have long
to wait. Although the speaker had intended to say much more, his
thoughts were so upset by the arrival of this visitor that he cut short
his remarks.
As he stepped to the rear of the platform, he was confronted by the
newcomer.
“Well, if it isn’t my young friend, Inspector Sheridan!” he exclaimed,
with affected heartiness. “What are you doing here, my boy? I thought
you were in San Francisco. I heard that you had been transferred there.”
“Evidently your informant hasn’t kept you well posted,” Owen replied
dryly. “I was ordered there, but I was called back. You see, Mr.
Coggswell, you are not the only man who has a pull at Washington. My
friend Judge Lawrence has a friend there who is quite influential in
post-office affairs. He lives at the White House. When he heard that the
judge needed me here, he was kind enough to countermand that transfer
order.”
“So the judge needed you here, did he?” remarked the boss uneasily.
“Might I ask what for?”
“Certainly. I have no objection to telling you that--now. Judge Lawrence
had a suspicion that his mail was being tampered with. He thought that I
might be able to find out who was responsible for the outrage.”
“And have you found out?” inquired Coggswell, his ears beginning to
wiggle.
“I have,” Inspector Sheridan answered. “That is why I am here now. I
have come to place you under arrest, Mr. Coggswell. I wish I could say
that it is an unpleasant duty, but I must be truthful. As a good
citizen, I have been looking forward to this moment for some time.”
Their voices were sufficiently loud to carry to all parts of the hall,
and a hush had fallen upon the audience. Every man was listening
intently.
Boss Coggswell frowned. “Young man, you had better be careful. I warn
you that if you go ahead with this foolishness the consequences will be
most disastrous to you. I presume this is a piece of spite work on the
part of my opponent. No doubt he has heard that I’ve got the goods on
him regarding that breach-of-promise case, and he thinks he’ll be able
to square himself with the voters of this district by making this
outrageous move.”
“Are you quite sure that you have the goods on Judge Lawrence regarding
that breach-of-promise case?” asked Sheridan, with a quizzical smile.
“Perhaps you are mistaken, Coggswell. Perhaps the judge is not quite the
rascal you have painted him. It is true that he is acquainted with a
young person named Marjorie Dorman. It is also true that he is very fond
of her. But it is not true that he has ever asked her to marry him. As a
matter of fact, she is not quite old enough to consider a proposal of
that sort. She is only six years old. She is the judge’s little niece.”
Boss Coggswell looked very uneasy. His face had turned pale. His ears
were wiggling furiously.
“Then what was the idea?” he inquired hoarsely.
“The idea was to set a little trap for you,” Owen explained. “As I said
before, the judge has had cause to suspect for some time that his mail
was being tampered with--that somebody was steaming open the envelopes
and reading their contents before they were delivered to him. He put the
matter in my hands, and we decided to make a little test to ascertain
whether his suspicions were correct. We fixed up a decoy letter. It told
of an imaginary check for thirty thousand dollars which the judge paid
to settle an imaginary breach-of-promise suit. It was sent to the judge
through the mails, and was intercepted in the usual way by you,
Coggswell----”
“That’s a lie!” Coggswell interrupted furiously. “I never saw your
confounded letter. I----”
“It is the truth,” Inspector Sheridan returned quietly. “The speech you
have just made on this platform is enough to convict you. But, in
addition to that, I have arrested the carrier who handed the letter to
your man, Bill Hillman, and I have a complete confession from him. We
have such a good case, Boss Coggswell, that we are fully confident of
the result. Not only are you going to lose the leadership of this
district, but you are going away for a few years to keep your friend and
accomplice, Jake Hines, company in prison.”
And, although he was not the seventh son of a seventh son, Post-office
Inspector Owen Sheridan proved to be a true prophet.
THE END.
“SOLD.”
As the man went across the street, several persons saw it, and turned to
laugh at him. The second boy, who was waiting across the street, ran up
to the man and said:
“Mister, there’s a card hooked to your coat behind. Let me take it off.”
“Goodness me!” said the man. “How did that get there?”
“One o’ them ragamuffins put it on, I s’pose.”
“Confound them! Well, here’s a dime for you.”
Two minutes later the good little boy hung it on a fat man, and his
partner on the other side collected another dime. He had to ask for it,
but he got it. A man would be a brute to refuse a dime to a poor boy who
had done him such a service.
A SMART TOAD.
Professor Botkins tells of a remarkable instance of intelligence
exhibited by a garden toad. He was watching the efforts of his pet toad
to capture a very large worm. The toad had been sitting still, and
giving no sign that it saw anything. The worm gave a little wriggle as
it began to come out of the ground, when, quick as a flash the toad made
a leap, and seized the end of the worm in its mouth.
Then began a tug of war. Every time that the toad gave a pull, the worm
drew back. But the toad was not to be discouraged. It jerked and jerked
until it fairly stood on its hind legs. Still it could not dislodge the
worm.
He glanced down again, and saw the toad twisting its legs about until
the worm was wrapped twice around it, then the toad gave a hop, and out
came the worm.
IT WAS FOUND.
An Irish clergyman, riding from his home to chapel one morning had the
misfortune to lose a new cloak, which he carried attached to his saddle.
Before commencing his discourse, he thought well to advertise the loss
of the garment and to enlist the services of the congregation in its
recovery.
“Dearly beloved,” he began, “I have met with a great loss this morning.
I have lost my fine new cloak. If any of you find it, I hope you will be
so good as to bring it home to me.”
“It’s found, yer riverence,” cried a voice from the bottom of the
chapel.
“God bless you, my child!” exclaimed the pastor, with unction.
“It’s found, sir,” continued the voice; “for I kem that road this
mornin’, an’ it wasn’t on it.”
TOO SHARP BY A THIRD.
Harry had just begun to go to school, and was very proud of what he had
learned.
One day he thought he would show his father how much he knew, and asked
him at dinner:
“Papa, how many chickens are there on that dish?”
“Two, my boy,” said papa. “I thought you knew how to count.”
“You’re wrong,” said Harry; “there are three. That’s one, that’s two,
and two and one make three.”
“Very well,” said his father; “your mother may have one for her dinner,
I’ll take the other, and you can have the third.”
THE NEWS OF ALL NATIONS.
Gets Another Prison Term.
Charles F. Kline, who, at the age of fifty-five, has spent thirty-three
years of his life in prison, and who pleaded guilty in Federal court in
Columbus, Ohio, to charges that he had counterfeited silver dollars, was
sentenced by Judge Sater to four and one-half years in the Moundsville,
W. Va., Penitentiary. Kline was arrested several months ago in a log
cabin near West Jefferson, Ohio.
Woman, Seventy-four, Cutting New Teeth.
Mrs. H. Vincent, of Medford, Ore., seventy-four years old, and a pioneer
of the Rogue River Valley, is cutting a new set of teeth, nine uppers
and eight lowers. The unusual condition has necessitated the casting
aside of false teeth.
Last summer Mrs. Vincent suffered from a paralytic stroke in the left
arm, and the nervous shock is supposed to be responsible for the sudden
reversal in Nature’s routine. Mrs. Vincent is suffering but slight
inconvenience from her second “teething.”
Saved by Strip of Canvas.
Falling forty feet and not being injured was the unique experience of
Worley Hassler, an employee of the Spring Grove Stone and Lime Co., of
Spring Grove, Pa. A thin strip of canvas put up to protect the firemen
from the sun saved his life.
Hassler was working on the top of a kiln when he was overcome by gaseous
fumes, falling over the edge. Workmen who saw him hurtling through the
air were surprised when he alighted on the canvas covering, bounded into
the air again, and landed safely on the ground, unhurt.
Snake’s Queer Predicament.
When James Moriarity, of Lead Hill, Ark., heard a rustling of the bushes
in a fence corner near his barn, he pushed aside the shrubbery and saw a
large blacksnake apparently making a furious effort to crawl through a
narrow crack between two rails of the fence. When the snake saw
Moriarity, the reptile made an effort to withdraw but could not do so.
Moriarity investigated the predicament of the snake and saw that it had
found a nest of eggs, part of which were on one side of the fence and
part on the other side. The snake had swallowed an egg on the “near”
side of the fence and then had poked its head through the crack and
swallowed another egg. With two eggs in its throat, one on each side of
the crack, the snake was a prisoner. Moriarity killed the snake but did
not rescue the eggs.
Terrapin Back After Twenty-five Years.
This is the story of how a Georgia terrapin came back after twenty-five
years. It is vouched for by a number of well-known citizens.
One day back in the year 1890, Harry Lee Jarvis and W. H. Prater were
strolling over the latter’s plantation near Varnell Station, above
Atlanta, when they encountered a highland tortoise or what is commonly
known as a terrapin, and pronounced “tarrypin” by the portions of the
population who know and love him best.
Prater did what quite a number of now celebrated men have done
before--he carved his initials and the year on the unresisting
terrapin’s lid, and let him go. And last week the terrapin did what
quite a number of now celebrated tortoises have done before--it came
back.
Prater was directing the clearing of a ditch, when one of the workmen
picked up a terrapin. On its shell were plainly carved the initials W.
H. P. and date 1890, partly grown over by a new growth of shell, but
still perfectly distinct. Mr. Prater says the terrapin didn’t seem to
have grown much, but looked hale and hearty as when they first met.
Makes Tumblers Out of Ice.
Instead of icing drinks, why not put them in tumblers made of ice? It
looks as if this would soon be possible in every home, for the United
States patent office has issued a patent to Hendrik Douwe Pieter Huizer,
of The Hague, Netherlands, for an apparatus for making tumblers of ice.
Besides cooling the contents, such tumblers will have the hygienic
advantage of never being used more than once. The inventor suggests
insulating his ice tumblers in paper or celluloid cases in order to make
them last at least as long as the drink.
Interesting New Inventions.
A new piano for traveling musicians weighs but one hundred and twenty
pounds and can be packed and shipped like a trunk.
A rat trap has been patented that first catches a rodent, then
electrocutes it, and finally drops the body into a receptacle out of
sight of others.
A German speedometer for automobiles has an illuminated dial which makes
several color changes as the speed of the car to which it is attached
increases.
For the blind there has been invented a watch with the hours marked by
raised dots and dashes that can be read by the sense of touch.
A new traveling bag locks automatically when it is lifted by the handle.
A California inventor has patented a chair for amusement places that can
be opened for use only when a coin is dropped into a slot.
A saddle has been patented by a New Jersey inventor which includes
leather flaps to cover the buckles, which frequently wear out riders’
clothing.
Champion Quiltmaker--A Man--Defies Rivals.
W. W. Yale, of Ouaquaga, N. Y., champion patchwork-quilt piecer of the
State, defended his title by completing his twentieth quilt for the
year.
Encouraged by his tremendous accomplishment for the fiscal year, Mr.
Yale, who fears no thimbled demon in America, has issued a challenge to
every hemstitching, quiltmaking, embroidery lover in the nation for the
coming year. He says openly that he will complete twenty-five quilts or
know the reason why, and those who know Mr. Yale declare that this is
strong language for him.
Already the champion has made arrangements for the construction of a
quilt, the central decoration of which is to be the Ouaquaga town hall.
Facetious persons who are familiar with the Ouaquaga town hall, figure
that the reproduction in needlework may be life size, which would make
the quilt ample to cover a cot or for use as a doily.
A great number of punsters make remarks about Mr. Yale and his life
work, but he never gives them a thought, as is evidenced by the fact
that he has heard their tirades frequently without so much as dropping a
stitch. Frequently he has caused gasps of delight by his colorings,
which he takes from the flower beds in the front yard of his home. The
colorings are those of the cannas, bleeding hearts, hollyhocks,
sunflowers, salvias, dahlias, and marigolds.
Mr. Yale dreads to have women advise him regarding his work, for they
frequently annoy him by their overbearing attitude in matters which he,
as champion, should be consulted about as the last authority. He gets
terribly angry sometimes, but as yet has never struck any one.
Smallest Electric Motor.
The smallest electric motor in the world, just high enough to reach up
under the chin of the head of Lincoln on a one-cent piece, has been
built by H. F. Keeler, a student in the Highland Park College of
Engineering at Des Moines, Iowa.
The armature is less than one-fourth of an inch in diameter, and the
wire is of the size of number one-hundred thread. A jeweler’s microscope
must be used to see the different parts, and the whole thing weighs only
twenty grains, or as much as a third of a teaspoonful of water. When
coupled with small dry batteries, it runs at very high velocity and
makes a noise like a fly on a windowpane.
Says Eyes Tell Tales to Most Shrewd Observers.
Are your eyes predominantly blue or gray, or brown or black?
According to some elaborate statistical researches, if they are blue or
gray you are of an intellectual rather than emotional nature. If brown
or black, the emotional nature. If brown or black, the emotional in you
exceeds the intellectual, and you need to be specially on your guard to
keep your passions in check.
If, again, your eye is not strongly colorful; if it is prominent, with
the pupil small and seldom dilating to any extent, and with the glance
fixed, the modern physiognomist warns you to cultivate generosity of
heart and breadth and tolerance of mind. For these are the qualities
which this eye formation indicates that you lack.
So, too, there is a danger signal for you if you find a puffiness below
your eyes, with the rim of the lower lid falling away from the eye,
showing the red, while the upper lid droops. These signs usually point
to one of two things, we are told.
Either you are wasting your energies in some form of dissipation or your
internal organs, particularly your kidneys, are not functioning as they
should. You yourself know best to which of these evils--dissipation or
ill health--the puffiness is due.
Does your glance meet that of other people squarely and fearlessly? Or
do you have a tendency to shift your eyes and look away when talking
with others?
In the latter event, says the physiognomist, you may be sure something
is wrong with you. You are perhaps suffering from some slight nervous
weakness. Or, what is more likely, you have thoughts in your mind which
are not altogether to your credit. The shifting or drooping of your gaze
is then based on a subconscious fear that your eyes will betray what is
passing through your mind.
Finally, note the position of your eyes. Mistrust yourself especially if
you find your eyes “slanting upward from the nose under brows also
slanting upward with fullness in the upper lid which overhangs the eye
and hides the rim of the lid, the eyeball thrown upward.”
“This,” says the physiognomist Foshbroke, and the writer has verified
his observation, “is the eye of craft and treachery, indicating the
nature of the tiger and the fox, whose eye it resembles.”
A person with such an eye cannot too soon begin a course of moral
self-education to straighten out the kinks in his nature.
This can always be done. Eye indications do not mean that your nature is
fixed and unalterable in accordance with the signs shown by the eyes. On
the contrary, the value of such signs is that they specify precisely in
what respects reforms are most desirable.
Fierce Man-eating Lion Dines on Dog.
Julia, the ferocious “snarling lioness,” billed as one of the most
terrifying features of the Firemen’s Carnival in Mount Vernon, N. Y.,
escaped from her cage the other night when she sneezed and blew out two
of the many half-inch bars forming the front of her den.
Fortunately it was three o’clock in the morning, at which times nothing
is out in Mount Vernon but the street lamps and the downtown dogs. Of
these latter Julia partook sparingly, as will be seen.
When Julia was brought here in connection with the effort to raise funds
for Hose Truck No. 2, her fierce, untamed conduct, coupled with the fact
that she was said to have two teeth, made the firemen fearful for the
safety of their friends, who, after paying their admission, foolishly
insisted upon feeding peanuts and stick caramels to the evil-eyed
man-eater. The situation became so desperate that Julia growled every
time she woke up--about twice a day.
One night, when her trainers left her, she was over in one corner of the
cage, yawning. As she had yawned every couple of minutes since she was a
cub, nothing was thought of it. They took their dinner pails and went
home, confident that they had trained her enough for one day.
Soon after two o’clock, one of the trainers, unable to sleep because of
a presentiment that something was wrong with the Firemen’s Carnival,
walked down to the wild-animal cage and looked in. Julia was gone! The
keeper, fully convinced of this alarming fact, took his life in his
hands and immediately jumped into the cage. Then he called for a bit of
help at the top of his lungs.
The police force, who had been sleeping fitfully, responded as soon as
he could get his helmet and shield on. When he reached the Firemen’s
Carnival, the awful situation was finally made clear to him, and the two
of them, working in shifts, soon aroused the greater part of the town.
Julia was found cowering in the doorway of an apartment house. It was
high time for her to cower, for it was found that in her jaunt she had
eaten one of Alphonse Camera’s dogs, fell over an Airedale, which died
of fright, and chased a black cat to its death in a heavy door at the
apartment house which was swinging at an unfortunate moment.
While one of the trainers threatened Julia with a revolver, another got
a box, and they shooed her into it.
The Firemen’s Carnival management say that the whole thing is a good
advertisement for every one concerned--except possibly Julia’s trainer
and the firm that made the cage.
Lawyer Seems to Have Amazing Dual Nature.
The strange case of Charles Williams, of Whitewater, Wis., is likely to
become a cause for celebration among medical men, for it is one of the
clearest cases of dual identity on record. The two personalities are
Charles Williams, lawyer, justice, man of culture and personality, and
the same man as a farm laborer.
The doctors, bringing Williams back from Merriville, Ind., where he was
found after he had been missing for three days, are working to transform
him once again to his true identity, that of the Whitewater court
commissioner.
Mr. Williams was, while in college, a famous baseball pitcher, but in
1895, just after his graduation from the State University, disappeared
while en route to Chicago to begin his life work as a lawyer. It was
seven years before he was found, and he was then a farm laborer near
Merriville, Ind.
He came back to Whitewater, and all went well for a dozen years. Last
week Mr. Williams began to complain of headaches, and on Tuesday started
for Janesville on some legal business. He disappeared exactly as he had
twenty years ago. And the strange display of his dual personality was
that he immediately went to Merriville, Ind., and tried to get work at
the same farm where he was found after his first disappearance.
It took him three days to reach there, and as soon as he arrived, word
was sent back to his home here, and relatives went after him. The
doctors hope to restore his mind to the regular legal channels so
strangely abandoned for the “call of the farm.”
War Hits Circus Men; Few Tent Shows on Road.
The circus has received two hard blows this year, and daddy, uncle, and
auntie may not have many opportunities to take Johnny under the canvas
to see acrobats, tigers, and such.
War was the first setback circus people experienced. Then came the
foot-and-mouth disease among live stock. Each at first had an indirect
result, but now the loss of foreign acrobats, animal trainers, and wild
animals, together with the United States Bureau of Animal Industry
prescribing narrow zones in which a circus can move for fear of carrying
or contracting the foot-and-mouth disease, have caused lots of trouble
for the three-ring showmen.
As evidence of this condition, A. L. Wilson, manager of a big tent and
awning company of Kansas City, Mo., says that the demand for circus and
concession tents has practically been suspended, and he does not expect
it to resume until the European War is ended and the United States
government officials pronounce the country free of the foot-and-mouth
disease.
Persistent Wooer Mauled.
That the course of John Jestor’s true love for Miss May Sutton, of New
York, has been an intolerable rocky path was indicated when his cries
for assistance called several policemen into the vestibule of Miss
Sutton’s home. They barely dodged a butcher knife, of which the young
woman had disarmed her persistent suitor and had hurled it into the
street.
The policemen found Miss Sutton kicking Jestor about the vestibule,
cuffing his ears soundly and occasionally landing a doubled little fist
on his eyes, while he bellowed for aid.
Miss Sutton said that Jestor had declared that as she would not be his
wife, he would end both their lives.
Jestor, who is forty-five years old, cut both his wrists with a razor
three months ago, according to the police, because Miss Sutton had told
him to stay away from her. He was locked up on a charge of attempted
felonious assault.
Boy Bandit Comes to Grief.
After he had held up and robbed Miss Martha Zelf, eighteen years old,
assistant cashier of the People’s State Bank at Dodson, a suburb of
Kansas City, Mo., and forced her to give him three hundred and four
dollars of the bank’s money, a man giving his name as Luther Afton,
nineteen years old, of Merrick, Okla., was captured, and an hour later
pleaded guilty in the criminal court and was sentenced to twenty years
in the penitentiary.
The girl was alone in the bank when the young man entered. He pointed a
revolver at her and ordered her to hand him the money in the teller’s
cage. At first Miss Zelf laughed at him, and then handed him a double
handful of silver dollars. These he refused. The girl parleyed with him
a moment and finally complied with his demand for currency.
As the robber reached the door, the girl screamed for help. Immediately
a number of citizens gathered and pursued the robber, catching him in a
chicken yard.
Renders Objects Invisible.
Michael Comerford, of St. Johns, Newfoundland, claims to have discovered
a process of developing a film which, when placed in front of any
object, no matter of what character or size, absorbs the color and exact
form of the said object and presents a surrounding which hides from view
any object behind without the object being visible. In other words, the
invention is all that is claimed for it, and it makes it possible for a
man or a body of men to disappear in a twinkling. Mr. Comerford has
given several demonstrations of the invention to his friends, who say
that it will revolutionize modern warfare.
Discovers Funniest Joke.
The “funniest joke” has been rediscovered. Samuel Ramsey, a carpenter of
New Orleans, La., knows it, though a waiting world is yet to hear it.
Just as soon as Sam gets entirely free from the ether of the Charity
Hospital, he says he’s going to tell it.
Sam laughed so heartily at the joke that there came a click to his jaw,
and, to his dismay, he was unable to close his mouth. In his
predicament he was removed from his home to the hospital, where surgeons
endeavored to set the jawbones. A reporter interviewed Sam on his little
cot, and Sam wrote this on a slip of paper:
“I can’t tell it to you now--it’s too funny, but if you wait until I get
out of here, I’ll try to tell it.”
Patient is a Wireless “Nut.”
A patient in the State asylum, in Pueblo, Col., is suffering from an
unusual form of insanity. He believes that the wireless stations
throughout the world are preying on him and sapping his strength.
He wants to form a union for the purpose of elaborately attempting to
abolish aërial communication throughout the world.
So far as known this is the first time this peculiar hallucination has
come to notice.
Favors Pardon for Youtsey.
The Reverend Andrew Johnson, nominated for governor of Kentucky on the
Prohibition platform, announced that his first official act, if elected,
would be to pardon Henry E. Youtsey, who is serving a life sentence for
the assassination of William Goebel in 1899, while Goebel was contesting
W. S. Taylor’s gubernatorial seat.
This announcement will carry more weight than is apparent on the
surface, since the Democratic party has been divided two or three times
over efforts to pardon Youtsey, and petitions have been put in
circulation, principally by women, in aid of such effort.
Youtsey is only one out of more than forty men arrested for complicity
in the Goebel murder. Caleb Powers and James Howard, who were alleged to
be most concerned, were pardoned by Governor Wilson, Republican, several
years ago. As Youtsey confessed to his part in the crime, Democrats
contend he should be pardoned.
Mr. Johnson offers to withdraw from the race if the Republican or
Democratic party puts a State-wide prohibition plank in its platform.
Horse Falls in Hidden Well.
Chester Tupper, of Paternos, Wash., was riding through the orchard of C.
J. Stiner in pursuit of some cattle, when his horse broke through a
hidden well, which had been dug to a depth of sixty feet and then
covered with loose boards. Tupper threw himself clear of the saddle and
saved himself. The horse went down, but somehow managed to keep his head
above the water. A tripod was rigged with pulley and snatch block. A
team was hitched to this and the horse was brought safely to the
surface.
How White Woman Came Near Being an Indian.
If Mrs. Josephine Carroll, of South Omaha, Neb., had become a little
Indian papoose as she was slated to have been, one of Omaha’s most
enthusiastic charity workers and night-school instructors would be
missing to-day.
Mrs. Carroll was once slated to be a papoose. A squaw so wished her when
her parents were not looking. The squaw kidnaped the child a little more
than half a century ago, when Omaha was a buffalo pasture.
There was a rescue. But it never got into the papers. There were no
papers to print thrilling adventures that occurred around the Missouri
River bluffs in those days. The mother, Mrs. John Godola, walked right
out of the house, stopped the squaw, and took the child away from her.
If it were to-day, the movies would have a thriller on the screen about
it. But that was before Edison or any one else had thought of making
pictures walk and talk; also, those were the days when experience with
the Indians were many and grotesque. A mere kidnaping did not attract
much attention.
Mrs. Carroll’s mother lived at what is now Thirteenth and Farnam
Streets. At that time it was neither Thirteenth nor Farnam. It was just
a place in the hills, prairie and timber. The present Mrs. Carroll was
about three years of age. Her mother employed a young Indian squaw as a
domestic. All was fine, but the domestic didn’t like to work. She liked
to play with the baby, however. The baby took a great liking to the
brown maid.
One day the brown maid and the baby’s mother fell out. Straightway the
servant was dismissed. Being fired was a somewhat novel experience to
this brown maiden. She knew principally that she was expected to leave
the premises, and that her pay, whatever that may have been, was to
stop.
When the childish prattle was no longer heard, the mother rushed out
just in time to see the squaw disappearing over the hill with the child.
There was a hotly contested half-mile race. It was a race of the white
and the red. White won, and the precious child was brought back.
Millionaire is Generous.
Henry Pfeiffer, of Philadelphia, son of one of Cedar Falls’ earliest
pioneers, now head of the big chemical company of Philadelphia, St.
Louis, and Chicago, and a multi-millionaire, concluded a two weeks’
visit with his brothers and sisters here by presenting each of them with
a check for ten thousand dollars and an automobile. His benefactions in
this way totaled nearly one hundred thousand dollars.
The beneficiaries are H. J. Pfeiffer, L. Pfeiffer, Mrs. D. C. Merner,
Mrs. W. F. Noble, brothers and sisters, and ex-Mayor W. H. Merner, D. C.
Merner, and S. S. Merner, brothers-in-law. Besides this, the children of
all these people were likewise remembered handsomely.
Twin Children Made Taller.
Phaon and Uriah Schaeffer, four-year-old twins from Pinegrove, will be
returned to their home from the Miners’ Hospital, in Pottsville, Pa.,
fully an inch and a half taller than when they were admitted three weeks
ago.
The twins were so bowlegged as to be deformed, and Doctor J. C. Biddle,
to straighten out their limbs, put them in a plaster cast. The result
has not only been to straighten out the legs but to make the boys much
taller, while their walk is so different that they could hardly be
recognized by relatives.
Little Ship Sails to Find Arctic Explorer.
Within a month the little schooner _George B. Cluett_ will be bucking
ice in the arctic waters, on her way to Etah, Greenland. The _Cluett_
sailed from New York recently for Nova Scotia and Labrador, where she
will put off part of her cargo for the coast hospitals of the Grenfell
Association. Then she will sail on to search for Donald B. MacMillan and
his party.
MacMillan set out from New York just two years ago to explore Crocker
Land, the existence of which Rear Admiral Peary believed he had
discovered. According to a message which MacMillan managed to get back
some time ago, there is no such land. The American Museum of Natural
History, one of the chief backers of the expedition, is sending the
schooner _Cluett_ to find MacMillan.
At one of the hospital stations where the schooner will stop, Doctor E.
O. Hovey, of the museum, will be taken aboard. Captain H. C. Pickels, of
the _Cluett_, hopes to find MacMillan and his comrades waiting at Etah,
the expedition’s base, and to get out before the winter ice closes in on
the schooner. In that case he will be back in November. But the schooner
carries provisions to last two years.
If MacMillan has to be awaited for or search made for him, the long
winter will make neither task easy. The ship will then find herself
encompassed with leagues of ice. Eskimo huts will spring up around her
like mushrooms, and in the long arctic night it would be difficult to
identify the little _Cluett_ with the picture of her taken at New York
the other day.
But a closer acquaintance with Captain Pickels and the _Cluett_ helps
one’s imagination to bridge the gap. Ever since she was built, four
years ago, for the Grenfell mission service on the Labrador coast,
Pickels has commanded her. She was designed for work in Northern waters.
As the bronze plate in the captain’s cabin sets forth, she was presented
to Doctor Wilfred Grenfell in July, 1911, by George B. Cluett. That she
went to sea with purposes other than those of the ordinary trading
schooner, the plate makes plain in these few words: “The Sea is His and
He Made It.” The inscription in the brass band which binds the wheel,
“Jesus saith I will make you fishers of men,” serves to distinguish her
from the run of fishing craft which infest the Labrador waters. But for
these symbols of a higher vocation she is just like them, save that she
is much more stanch.
Although the proved nimbleness of the _Cluett_ leads her charterers to
hope that she may slip in and out with the rescued MacMillan party in
time to get back to New York in November, the way food supplies have
been poured into her show that no chances are to be taken in a locality
where, as the captain remarked, “ye can’t fetch stuff from a grocery
’round the corner.’” He shed light upon what for a dozen men might be
considered a two years’ food supply. Some two thousand pounds of beef,
nearly half of it canned and the rest pickled in brine, and an almost
equal quantity of mutton and pork, formed the backbone of the stores.
Beans and potatoes and barrel on barrel of pilot bread set off this
impressive meat supply, which winter hunting is to vary with fresh
steaks and roasts.
Several hundred pounds of coffee and a hundred of tea, onions, and many
gallons of lime juice to ward off scurvy, were important items;
strangely enough, not a particle of chocolate or coco. A comment upon
the rather small supply of milk--condensed, of course--as compared with,
for one thing, three hundred pounds of rolled oats, drew from the hardy
captain the explanation that crews in the North preferred molasses with
their oatmeal, and of molasses he had nearly a hundred gallons.
When the schooner starts on the last leg of the journey north, with
decks piled high with barrels of kerosene--the _Cluett_ is to be stocked
with nearly five thousand gallons of kerosene and nine hundred gallons
of gasoline for her engines--the only persons aboard beside the crew of
eight hardy Nova Scotians, will be the representative of the Natural
History Museum. Captain Pickels’ Newfoundland dog, “Chum,” completes the
list.
“Belled” Buzzard Appears.
When working on the Charles Dufour farm, two miles north of Vevay, Ind.,
Charles Hollcraft and son were surprised to hear a bell ringing in the
top of a high tree. On investigation they discovered a buzzard with a
sheep’s bell strapped around one of its wings in such a manner that at
each flap of the wings the bell tinkled. Seven years ago a “belled
buzzard” was seen in various parts of Switzerland County at frequent
intervals, but finally disappeared.
Woman Operates Zinc Mine.
One of the most active prospectors and mine operators in the extensive
zinc-mining district of southwest Missouri is a woman, Mrs. Sarah
Matlock. There is much activity in the Wentworth district, where her
interests are located, and she is carrying on operations on a big scale.
One of her many mining properties comprises one hundred and sixty acres.
The biggest mine in that district is owned by her. Much of her land is
subleased.
Indian Given State Office.
Oliver la Mere, of the town of Winnebago, Neb., is the first Indian to
hold an appointment under the Nebraska State government. He has been
appointed dairy inspector by Food Commissioner C. E. Harman, a
department of which Governor Morehead is the chief.
Mr. la Mere is not an expert dairyman, but is a farmer, and has had
considerable experience with dairy cattle and dairy products.
He is thirty-six years of age and has a wife and seven children. He
attended the Indian school at Genoa, Neb., three years and attended
school at Carlisle, Pa., in the year 1902. While he was a student there
during that year he played center on the famous Indian football team. He
then weighed two hundred and five pounds. He has written some newspaper
articles on Indian clan organizations and Indian burial customs, and has
coöperated with the government in anthropological research.
Lightning-rod Dispute is Officially Settled.
A few days ago a lightning-rod salesman near Bloomington, Ill., was
struck by lightning and seriously injured. Notwithstanding the fact that
the unfortunate salesman could not be expected to have his person and
rig fitted out with a system of his alleged lightning catchers,
extending far above his head and continually plowing into the roadway,
as he made his tours of the country, still, the incident again revived
the oft-discussed question as to the efficacy of the wares that
constituted his stock in trade--the great American lightning rod--the
mysterious economic discovery that has caused thousands of American
farmers the loss of so much sleep and so many dollars in coin of the
realm.
Ever since Ben Franklin designed the lightning rod as a means of
protecting structures from lightning stroke, there has been periodically
raised the question of the efficiency of these rods as a means of
warding off the bolts from the heavens. Men of eminence in the
electrical world have been found arrayed on both sides of the question,
and in order to arrive at some well-founded conclusion, the subject was
taken up by the weather department.
The investigation was conducted by Professor J. Warren Smith, who
addressed an open letter to the mutual fire-insurance companies
throughout the country, especially those in the rural districts, asking
for any information which these organizations might have which might
throw some light on the subject. The value of the rods was undoubtedly
attested to in the answers, and Benjamin Franklin has received full
vindication.
In two recent years two hundred mutual companies doing a business of
fully $300,000,000 had 1,845 buildings struck by lightning. Of this
number only sixty-seven were equipped with lightning rods. So far as
could be learned, about thirty-one per cent of the buildings insured by
these companies were rodded; hence, if the rods had furnished no
protection, the number of rodded buildings struck should have been five
hundred and seventy-two instead of sixty-seven.
Thus the efficiency of the rods in actually preventing lightning strokes
appears to have been about ninety per cent. It may be fairly assumed
that a large part of the damage done to the rodded buildings occurred in
cases where the rods were improperly installed or in poor condition.
Five companies, with over 18,000 buildings insured, of which more than
fifty per cent were rodded, reported that they had never had a building
burned or even materially damaged by lightning that was equipped with a
lightning rod; their records covering periods ranging from thirteen to
twenty-five years.
Another important fact brought out by Professor Smith’s figures is that
when a rodded building is struck by lightning and damaged but not burned
down, the average damage is much less than in an unrodded building,
viz., ten dollars in the former and twenty-two hundred dollars in the
latter.
Boy Attempts to Fly; Falls.
John Mitchell, aged fourteen, living in the Mount Vernon Road below
Evansville, Ind., attempted to rival the birds, and came to grief, with
a broken arm. Mitchell made a girder and wings after a pattern in a
boy’s book which he bought at a local store.
He attempted to glide from the loft of the stable to the ground. The
girders were not strong and the wings collapsed. Mitchell fell to the
ground and his left arm was broken near the elbow and he suffered slight
internal injuries.
Sharpening Stones; Their Various Uses.
Not many people realize that there is a special sort of whetstone for
nearly every purpose. The proper sharpening stones for each different
use are exhibited in the National Museum at Washington, D. C., and there
are hundreds of them.
The hard, white, compact sandstone found near Hot Springs, Ark., are
among the best whetstones known, equaling, if not surpassing, the Turkey
stone, which for years has been considered one of the best.
The hard, flintlike stone should be used only to sharpen instruments
made of the very best steel, requiring very keen edges and points such
as those used by surgeons, dentists, and jewelers. Other grades,
although composed of the same ingredients, are more porous, the sand
grains are not as close together, and a rougher edge is given to the
sharpened tool. Because of their more porous nature, these stones cut
faster, proving suitable for the finer-edged tools and for honing
razors.
Indiana and Ohio supply a whetstone made from a sandstone of a coarser
grain than the novaculite of Arkansas, but nevertheless quite uniform.
It may be used with either oil or water, and is useful for sharpening
household cutlery or ordinary carpenters’ tools. But since it is easily
cut and grooved by hard steel, it is not suitable for the fine
instruments of dentists and surgeons.
Scythe stones and mowing-machine stones are practically all made from
mica schist rocks found in New Hampshire and Vermont. These rocks are
composed of very thin sheets of mica and quartz crystals. The grit of
the schist is not as sharp as that of the sandstone, because it contains
foreign material other than silica, which prevents the quartz grains
from abrading freely.
Mica-schist stones wear down quickly from constant use--an advantage
rather than a disadvantage, for, as they wear down, more of the hard
silica grains are exposed to do the sharpening. Neither oil nor water is
needed to keep the pores of the stone open, as with other whetstone
rocks. Scythes require stones with these qualities.
Stove Trouble is Solved.
For some time it has been impossible for the family of James Rich, of
Fidelity, to use the stove in the summer kitchen, because the flue had
become choked in some manner. The other day Mrs. Rich noticed a cat
sitting on the stove and looking steadfastly at the stovepipe. At the
same time Mrs. Rich’s attention was attracted by a tap-tap-tapping
sound. Although the woman is not a spiritualist, she answered the three
taps by rapping on the stove with a fork handle. The taps responded from
the stovepipe.
She called her husband and he too listened to the mysterious rappings.
Finally they decided to take down the pipe and investigate. They did so,
and what should suddenly emerge from the pipe but a red-headed
woodpecker much soiled from his adventure in the pipe’s sooty retreat.
The bird immediately took wing and flew away, pursued by other birds
that seemed to mistake him for some new species. Mr. Rich then lighted a
fire in the stove, and the flue has been drawing excellently ever since.
Girls Hang to Ties for Life.
Hanging from their hands from a high trestle of the Baltimore & Ohio
Railroad, near Yarklyn, Del., residents of Mount Cuba escaped death when
an express train overtook them.
Mrs. Mary Flusher attempted to run to the end of the trestle, but was
overtaken by the train and hurled down an embankment after her leg had
been cut off. She was taken to the Delaware Hospital in a critical
condition.
Miss Ryan and Miss Sastburn, together with Mrs. Fisher, were utilizing a
short cut homeward. Both girls dropped between the ties and clung with
their fingers as the train thundered over them. Members of the train
crew dragged them to safety after it was brought to a stop.
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 Kidnaped 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 Kidnaper.
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