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THE NATIONAL BANK OF AUGUSTS L. C. HAYNE, Prea't F. G. FORD, Cashier. Capital, $250,000. Undivided Profits } $110,000. Facilities of oar magnificent New Vanlt ?containing 410 ^afoty-Lock; Boxes. Differ ent Sizes aro offered to our patrons and th? public at $3.00 to 910.00 per annnnL THE PLANTERS LOAN AND SAVINGS BANK. AUGUSTA, GA. Fays Interest on Deposits. Accounts Solicited. L. C. Hayne, Fresldent. Chas, C. Howard. Cashier. THOS. J ADAMS PROPRIETOR. EDGEFIELD, S. C., VpDNESDAY, MAY 8. 1901. VOL. LXVI. NO. 19 Our fall stock is now ready Diamonds. Fine Jewelry, < Stirer Ware, Flated Ware, ] 3 ? Gire ns a cali when in the city. ? WM. SCHWEIGER! K9 ^ C ^ Jackson Street, Near ] Fine S LACES, EMBROIDERIES, H05IE1 AGENCY FOR JOUVIN'S ( CORSETS AND BUT! MAIL ORDER EVE*Rg MAM Hi: By J. Hamilto A 600-page Illustrated Book, contain.A faining to diseases of the human sysl cure with simplest of medicines. ' conrtship and marriage; reaiiDg sides valuable prescriptions, re< facts in materia medica that e This most indispensable adjuuct to e mailed, postpaid, to any address, Address, ATLANTA PUBLISHING t A STRANGE TURN-ABOUT. HOW LINCOLN MiCHT WOT HAVE BECOME PRESIDENT. Reminiscences Called Out by theSisrht of i an Unmarked Cravo-What Might Have Happened if a Boy Had Been Paid by a Lawyer. Hard by a seldom-traveled road iu ^-??'tne state ^ir?ch gav? to this country j j - its most ^remarkable President is an! unmarked grartr- "Not rong-tfgo~aj traveler passed over thi> road in a family carryall of other days and the driver pointed out the neglected spot According to the driver, several stones have marked this grave. Each has been knocked down and broken to pieces, but no one ever tried to dis cover by whom. "A tree stood near by once," said*' the man who jerked the weather-beaten reins which guid ed the animal hitched to the rig, "and it was hit three times by lightning. ..The last time the tree fell, and, as it was deader than a mackerel, it caught fire and burned to ashes right-on the grave. Then a big wind scattered the ashes." Nearly a mile had been made before the driver again spoke. The interlude was broken as if there had been no stop. "Maybe he mightn't have been Pres ident, but the man who came after him was. Get up! Funny, what a . little thing in a man's life settles his hash." Then followed the remainder of the story, as it follows here: "He stood mighty well in thc minds of the people when he started out. Everything seemed fixed for him to go right ahead. There was a lot of boy babies named for him before he ever run for office. When he used to ride over this road everybody he met knowed him and knowed everybody so well that he called them by their first name. "One day he was in town and met a young farmer lad. and he says to him, calling him by his nickname: 'If you want to make four bits as easy as falling off a Jog yon go to my barn, clean it out, and curry and saddle my horse and fetch him in.' "There was a circus coming to town the next day and the lad jumped at the job. It was a purty hot day. The lad worked on his job until he looked, when he got through, as if he had been doused in the creek. When he rode the horse to town the owner didn't know the animal, he looked so sleek and that fine. The owner made a mount, and turning to the lad, he says 'Much obliged,' and rode off, leaving) the lad by the stile-block, for every body to laugh at. "Tie lad got to be a man and had become a storekeeper in the town where he had got the mit from the lawyer. Every farmer in this part of the country had bought goods from the merchant, mostly on credit. He had helped thpm sell their corn and oats, and when the women folks went to town to trade the merchant always gave their children a stick of candy or a lump of sugar. '"Bout this time there was an elec tion. The lawyer had got it into his head that he would begin his political career by being elected judge. One of his backers was a man who became President of the Un5*ed States. "The young merchant had kept his mouth shut all these years, but when the lawyer began to run for judge the young merchant hired an extra clerk in his place and went out into the country. There wasn't a farmhouse where he didn't stay all night, and when he left in the morning the law yer lad lost as many votes as the house had. Purty soon it got noised abroad what the merchant was doing, and then the man got to be President of the United States went to the young man and asked him what he meant by legging against his candidate. ' "The young merchant told him how the lawyer ?ad beat him out of four is, >1 for inspection, Watches, Dat Glass, Clocks, Sterling Fancy Goods, Etc. Write for our new Catalogue. P & CO,, Jewelers. Stores, broadway, Augusta, fia. ?tock of *Y, WHITE GOODS, LINENS, ETC. JLOVES, AMERICAN LADY ERICK'S PATTERNS. !S SOLICITED. 5 OW/N TDOeTOK. n Ayers, M. D. ig valuable information per :cm, showing how to trea't and The book contains analysis of and management of children, be cipes, etc., with a full complement of reryone should know, very well-regnlated household will bi on receipt of price, SIXTY CENTS. -I TCP 11C LOYD 8TI?EET, 1 JtOC, Al 1. AN TA. GA. bits and thereby caused h'm to lose a chance of seeing the circus. "The man saw that the young mer chant was terribly in earnest and ! went and told thc candidate. A half a dozen of the candidate's friends call ed on the young merchant and tried to patch things up, but h^ wouldn't have it. To maK it no longer, when the election was over the lawyer didn't know he had been running. "Twict after this the lawyer came j up again for office, and the four-bit '(story went the round again, just as if it had boen new,_an? lawyer got laid out. "Then the leaders says, 'It's- no use. He'll never do,' and then they took up the man who bad done so i2'-ch for the lawyer, and he was elected to Con gress, and finally he got to be Presi dent of the United States. "The lawyer quit practice 'cause the four-bit story clung to him like a tick on a country hog, and then he took to drinking, and that was his grave that I we passed back yonder. There's a heap of difference 'tween his grave and Abe Lincoln's down at Spring field." At the mention of Lincoln's name I looked at my driver, but he seemed to be wholly unconscious of having told a singular story. On inquiry in the little town which was the end of the journey two old men corroborated the driver's tale. One added, "That lawyer had the start of Abc Lincoln, but he lost his gait."-Chicago Tri bune. The Survival of Toads in Rocks Some experiments were recently made in England to test the belief that toads can live for long periods In rocks without air or food. The Kev. W.. Buckland took a large Hock of coarse oolitic limestone and prepared twelve circular cells in it, each about one foot deep and five inches in diameter. A groove or shoulder was cut at its up I per margin so as to receive a circular ! plate of glass and a circular piece of slate was in turn to protect the glass. He then prepared twelve smaller cells each six inches deep and five inches in diameter in a large block of sillci ous sandstone, these cells also being covered with glass and slate and luted around with soft clay. The object of the glass cover was, of course, to per mit of the toads beir.g seen without having to remove the lids. One live toad was placed in each cell and the covers cemented on. The weight of the toads was ascertained before seal ing up the cells. Both stones were buried under three feet of earth for thirteen months. .. the toads in the sandstone cells were found to be dead and their bodies were decom posed, showing that they had been dead for a long period. The majority of the large toads in the block of lime stone were alive, sa j's the Engineering and Mining Journal, and in every in stance the glass covers were cracked. The toads were weighed, and it was found that they had decreased iii weight. The conclusions drawn by the naturalists were that the toads can not live a year totally excluded from air, and cannot live two years if totally deprived of food. Luck of a Brakeman. Oil strikes in California are making poor men millionaires as in the old days in Pennsylvania. One of the strangest of these freaks of fortune came to John A. Bunting, a former freight brakeman on the Southern PzMfic, who has just ordered a $30, 0t$ private car of the Pullman Com pany. Bunting began ten years ago ns keep er of a railroad water tank on the desert near Tucson, Ariz. He Anally reached the position of freight brake man. He loaued a friend $170 and took as collateral a watch and a mortgage on 40 acres of land in Kern County. His friend did not pay, and Bunt ing sold the watch and foreclosed on the land. He tried to sell the land, but could not get anything for it. Re cently oil was struck near his place. He resigne' and began to develop his property. He struck oil and now ls rated as a millionaire. ? IMG THE M? _ 7 EAYMONI su. for a nu. begin with, ic feet than any evei this stream. It was ? time, too, for the snow w?.. a rush after the ice had gone oui. sequently the creek was brimming, anu on this flood tide came the logs by the tens of thousands. To roll stranded logs from the banks and to break the jams, there was ' a gang of more than 60 strong, daring men. They rode the torrent and fell in a dozen times a week, but at last they learned caution. Bill Kennedy rode a log into Has kell's rifts before he knew It one day. A mlle of white water full of rocks was before him. Kennedy lost his courage, the more completely because his courage had never before failed him. He uttered a wild cry. Dan Cunningham saw his peril, and jumping to a passing log. pushed out to the rescue. It was a wild race, but the approach of help steadied Kennedy and enabled him to keep his balance. Cunningham, guiding his log into the swiftest current overtook the helpless raftsman, and with his pike pole steered both logs for shore. There was an eddy just, a little way below, and Cunningham, with all his might, shoved Kennedy into it. But that thrust pushed his own far out, rolling and rocking. Kennedy was ashore in a moment, but before Cun ningham could recover his balance the log he rode hit a rock; one end flew up, and the rescuer was thrown 20 feet into the air. He came down head first on a froth covered rock and dlsa. peared. It was dark before tho body was recovered. After that the men took the long way round, even at dinner time. No man is a raftsman "Unless he can ride a log. So in a lumbering country every riverside boy of ambition learns the knack on creek still waters. It is a good thing to know how to do. It means a good job when one grows up, and may be the saving of a life be sides. Among the rest of the boys at Wil murt, Will Conway, 16 years old that spring, was renowned. He knew the creek, the places where the deer crossed it. the brooks that the mink followed and the pools the trout lurked in. But he wasn't satisfied with the money he earned selling trout and trapping mink. He wanted to mat? daily wages l?;e a maa So he wen to George Koch, the. boss-driver, ami ask'Fu' tb'-'^"!^ told the lad he wasn't big enough ye* to handle a cant-hook. , It was a heavy ' disappointment to 1 Will. It hurt his pride; besides, the family needed the money. But as ar gument was of no avail, Will was a mere spectator on the bank just above Mad Tom's gorge when the driving crew arrived there on a Saturday morning. That was the best place on the creek to see the drive. A big boulder had come out of the deep water above the gorge and lodged there in midstream at the brink of the tumult, its broad, ugly head two feet above the surface level. Against it logs were hanging every minute, making the worst jam of the season. It was already 200 yards long. The mere fact that it was a big jam was something, but that was not all. Whoever broke this jam must surely go through the gorge-a third of a mile of the wildest plunging water, where the flood piles up first against one rock ledge, then against the other, and finally glides into the foaming tumble at the head of Mad Tom's pool, in which men have disappeared. Haskell's rift, broad, open and com paratively shallow, had cost Cunning ham his life. Here was water tenfold worse. At sight of the jam above it the men hesitated and shook their L.-iads. They ate their lunch of cheese, bread, canned beef and coffee. Some hoped the water would rise and lift the jam over the boulder; they pointed out that the stream was just then rising a bit, for it was higher in the centre than at the sides. At any rate, a little delay would do no harm. At the head of the jam the water sucked and boiled, with little whirl pools diving into one another. On both sides lt raced, wide, black and smooth, gurgling along the edges as it drew bits of ice and sticks under the ends of logs. Where the water was divid ed and its bed narrowed, the current ran swifter and swifter till, at the en trance of the gorge, the water was lined and the foam stretched out, and even the bubbles were oblong, slanted back by the wind, or whisked off the surface into shining, evanescent threads. Under such conditions-with the water sucking and boiling-no man in the crew volunteered to go to the jam. ?sa matter of business, the boss offered $25 to the one who would try. There never was a log jam that river drivers wouldn't break sooner or later, no matter how high or rough the wa ter, but in this case the mee wanted time to think. An that was a boys opportunity. Will Conway's father had been a noted jam breaker, and men of the crew who knew the boy relieved their uneasy feelings by joking with him a bit "Why, Billy," they said, "your dad would have been out there hours ago if he were here. He wa'n't afraid of the gorge. Huh, I should say not! I seen him the time he went through it^the only one as ever did it alive, I reckon, though some say they have. Them days they used to break jams with a cant-hook and ax, 'stead of dynamite. There was a jam just like tills one. You'd ought to have seen it, the way he rode the first log, stiddy as a wagon, and he saved his ax, too. Pity ther' ain't no such men alive now adays." To this bantering narrative Wi M lis tened without undue gravity, bu <"ter a while, unobserved by any oi he opened the cheese box in which e the dynamite and fuse used by floaters to blast'jams and dangei rocka. He put four sticks of the st ? MD TOM'S GORGE. ) a SPEXE3. '2:; 'Mo his hip pockets, and a length of; < 'nto his blouse. - went up the creek round? ^ouse and took a small) . . .Irv matches. TheJ : *?d. used was tha" s ;. ,. ( ... his way u. dodging or fenu. . i-.-g ' watched the current . to an unexpected drift did mi out of his course; he stood . knees slightly bent and his head in ward, and the quarter-inch spikes in . the sole of his shoes gripped the log' j till it splintered. Ahead of him was the jam with logs hitting lt every minute'. Some of then dived out of sight instantly. Othen slued round sidewise and climbed the back of the jam. The whole head of | the jam was rolling, twisting and heav ing; there could hardly be a more dan gerous place for a man's legs. To misa these rolling logs and yet find a laodlng was Will's hope. To go too fpr down would be to risk the pltcli into the gorge and the probability of being carried past the jam. But as h? plunged into a drift of logs and was unable to steer out of it in time, he | had to take his chances as they came. ?' There wasn't really any great choice' in the matter. It would be a leap for life, anyhow, wherever the log struck, and it might as well be a big leap as a little one. Will was within 100 feet of the jam before any one saw him. Then a small boy shouted, "There's Will Conway on a Jogi" A hundred men, and as many women, and childron, looked in time to see Will poise himself for the leap as his log approached the jam. Instead of hold ing the pole for a mere balance as ha harl been doing, he turned it parallel to his log and stooped for a vaulting jump. Log after log struck, each with a heavy, musical thump-a half dozen of them. Suddenly Will crouched, dropped his left shoulder, struck the iron pole point home in a log, and then sprang forward and up-up, while the log he had just left plunged down into the vortex. . .-and r?? vex/ some of tho logs iaiuj _, others were piled crosswise and length wise. A big one, its back splintered almost broken-was evidently the key. As it lay broadside to the current, the water poured over it six inches deep at one end. The other logs were thrust over and under it, and were lodged against the boulder. Just below the key log, in the water beside tne boulder, was the place for the dynamite, so Will decid ed after the examination. Then he went to work. While the crowd on shore looked on, wondering what he wouid do next, not knowing that he had dynamite, Will moved his pike along the jam, and found a straight spruce sapling, eight feet long and bare of bark, which some lumberman up at the log dump had used as a handspike. He carried this to the key log, and kneeling down, tied the. dynamite sticks, one by one to his sapling, lash ing them fast with a stout striug, as he had seen th? ~ rr>,a" v>?> fastened the fuso ai steadying it a few mlnu onlookers, logs again, put the chai Boss Koch z "The coolesl At la?t thc i ._CVwu nome, the dynamite was three feet under wa ter and the end of the fuse was nearly ' a foot above the surface. Then Will stood up and looked into the gorge be low. He knew how the water ran there, for he had lived within a mile of It all his life. The story of his father's ride was not a new one; indeed, his father had pointed out to him the black streak or navigable water he had fol lowed on that memorable drive Of years ago. Will could see the streak for a short distance along the right bank of tho gorge. To th? left the logs that missed the jam were lifting their noses against the ledge and tumbling over backward. " ? Will pulled his belt a hole tighter, and drew his trouser legs out of his stocking tops; if he had to swim there wouldn't be bags of water on each leg drawing him under. He glanced back and saw where the pike pole was. Then he took a match from the bottle and struck it on a blt of dry log. The flame sputtered into the fuse, and Will, grasping his pike, ran for the head of the jam, where the logs were thump ing and rolling. In the days when jams were broken with cant-hooks and axes, the floaters always tried to keep ahead of the rush of logs lest they be crushed among them; but in these days of high ex plosives one must take one's chances at the other end; and this is not the safest place, when all the logs are moving and grinding together. The fifse was long and burned slow ly. Will was at the head of the jam long before the explosion came. He waited with the pike-poie balancing. The onlookers stood on tiptoe. The roar in the gorge was not quieting to any one's nerves, but at last a dozen logs were lifted into the air, splin tered and broken, and the boulder dis appeared in smoko and spray. There was not so much noise as one might think; just a sound that travT eled low down, but a long distance. A 50-foot dome of gray spray, speck led with large black sticks and yellow splinters 10 feet long, flashed up, and then Will Conway poised for a life and death struggle. ''"The jam quivered from end to end. itt-broke to pieces in great masses. jS?me logs came jutting up out of the -black water; hundreds plunged in with ^mighty splashing. All were tossed and pitched. In a moment Will was stepping and "jumping from log to log, running to ifward the gorge. Once he fell, and the *crqwd gasped; but agile of body and cool of mind, he sprang to his feet feet again with only a shoe wet. As he whisked into the gorge, one ,yoice alone was raised. Boss Koch shouted, "Good boy! Keep your ?. :?:-,.^- ? . '" . v ? hand in reply, and was "** sig tit. -ny one hZ'l .- v, i;:>? .."'?*",.. T. M and ??}'? ?;..*'].i. TT??vy rijf .?..?..;...?...??.'.? . '?^r-rr.' ? -: -.vi i-u'?.? dbl&it &K??- . . . i ?ir* .*"- -.y.r it fin were dresbv^ ors, blue, rea, blouse waists, and "D-*^ of all shade and hues. Oi?^. - sun shone with extraordinary eftt*.^ they strung out along the road, the best runners leading and the womeu bringing up the rear, all headed for Mad Tom's pool, whero the gorge end ed. Down the gorge, below the first tusn, the right bank is worn out and hangs far over the quick water. The turn is a gradual one, and the log:, once clear of the lifting wave above, swing round to the left again, end on, and along the side of a huge molasses like roll. On the opposite side is a fierce eddy, in which logs dance on end and are split in two by the crush. The rocks on either side are hung with moss wet by a cold, thick spray, dashed up by the wind. Here Will found himself drawing toward the grinding mass in the eddy. He was too far to the left. Quick as thought he jumped to a swifter log higher up the Toll, then to one beyond, and on to a third, clear of the eddy by a yard. No time to think of it, though, for ahead was business quite as dangerous -perhaps the worst of all. The gorge narrows below the second turn, and the water, crowded Into it, foams so high on both sides as almost to curl over. Down the centre runs the black streak. Will got into that, and the white water was higher than his head on each side. He shot forward with increasing speed. He saw one log iixi--. . . .- - - ...--s" iay aown the cen tre. Once more Will saw that he Was off his course, headed too much for the waves. Among them he could do noth ing; he would be tossed as from a cat apult He jumped again. The log dived, and he had to go to one beyond. For a moment he hung, almost toppling, but he got his balance again, none too soon. Ten seconds of awful roar followed. His pike-pole, which he held as a rope walker holde his balancing pole, was in the foam at both ends. Up and down on short, solid three-foot waves went his log, and through some soft, foamy ones. A water-soaked log came lurching at him, but fell short Another plunged across, just ahead of him. It seemed as if 'the whole jam was there, waiting for him. The next instant the tumble of wa ter was left behind. The current be came broad and leveL-y^r-g'gg/cing was '..ver for a while. 7\,?v/?-roliafter a ? ~-!ng, ceaseo t*?w??^r inging, a with rigid dignity. Will ed himself to shore and . e road with his pike over beating the spray drops i cap. ; by u whooping crowd o? ;, crying women and screaming boys, who all talked at once. A few minutes later the drivers hur ried away down siream, and Will ac companied them. He was to have a man's wages for handling the dyna mite at jams too big for cant-hook work. Of course, somebody went back to tell Will's mother what had become of him; in fact, they've been telling her ever since, greatly to her satisfaction, -Youth's Companion. _ ?Vf! New Zealnnd Now Copie* California. Very remunerative is ostrich farm ing, which for a considerable time fol lowed in California, has now been in troduced into New Zealand. Five hun dred of the birds are now on the farm of the Messrs. Nathan at Whitford Park, a short distance from Auckland. All the steps in the industry, from the nesting of the birds to the dressing, dyeing and mounting of the plumes, are carried on at this establishment Th'e manager states that an adult .bird requires about the same amount of attention as a sheep, and that the ostrich consumes about twice the quan tity of grass needed by a sheep. The birds become dividend paying invest ments when about 10 months old, after -which they are clipped every eight months. The feathers clipped are worth from $3.75 to $6.20 per pound, the after dressing increasing the value enormously. .The male and female birds manage the incubation of the eggs between them, taking four hour watches each. To his share of this duty the male os trich adds the labor of turning the eggs. The chicks are hand fed, as with those of the ordinary farra yard fowl, and are reared without serious loss. I _ Cn nae for VTar. A citizen walking past a butcher shop in a Kansas town saw the butcher and "a customer rolling over the saw dust floor in a lively rough and tumble fashion. He pried them apart and then learned that the customer had come to buy some dog meat. The butcher non chalantly asked: "Do you wish to eat it here or shall I wrap lt up?" tMOVEbPR?dEET TO S I TEAEH IMPROVED METHOS | S OF ROAD THE Illinois Central Rar0ad Company and the Nabnal Good Roads Association ave completed arrangements for running n "Good Roads Train"ue tween Chicago arid New Orleans'or thc purpose of constructing samle roads, as object lessons, at convenint commercial centres. The office of pb Hc road inquiries, under the Sees tary of Agriculture, is co-operatig with the National Good Roads Ass 'elation by furnishing two road e perts, to instruct the farmers, road o, flcJnls.~"aih3 people of States in th? ~?r. improved" >."thods of road con 'Hie great mamfycturers of1 'n the country^-ail^ aud com-1 potent men to operate the same, which will show the necessity and economy of utilizing road machinery in constructing dirt, gravel and maca dam roads. This Is the first attempt of any great railway corporation to spend time and money In assisting and stimulating farming communities to improve the GOOD ROADS TBAIN'S FBACTICAL WOBK. common roads. The officials of rail road companies occupy the same posi tion as managers of any private or corporate interest, for they must give an account of all expenses and results to the stockholders. There should be a commonality of interest existing be tween all railroads and agricultural, mining, manufacturing and commer cial pursuits. The Illinois Central Railway passes through the great agricultural and mining States of the Mississippi Valley. These States, ow ing to the great rainfall and rich allu vial soil, have to contend with almost Impassable mud roads nearly five months of the year. It ls, therefore, a question of policy and commercial balance to encourage a betterment of the common roads. The train will begin road building at or near New Orleans, working north as the weather will permit. It will have a Pullman car, with commissary to accommodate two Government en gineers, or road experts, the President* of the National Good Roads Associa tion, six competent men for operating the machinery, and six laborers. At each place selected to build a piece of the road the officials, commercial or ganizations and farmers will furnish all necessary material. Special at tention will be given to educating the people In making the best dirt roads, as many of the Southern States are not blessed with stone or gravel for these purposes. These roads in most cases will begin at the railroad stations and lead out into the country. Fifteen places have been selected at which roads will be built. W. H. Moore, President of the National Good Roads Association, will arrange places and dates of conventions. Lead ing railroad officials, Governors, Sena tors and Congressmen will be invited to speak on convention days. The project promises to be an industrial movement of far-reaching importance. There are 8 submarine cables of over 2,000 miles in length. FISHING FOR SHRI Everybody has heard of beggars o seen them down in Mexico and Central but there Is only one place in the wori ployed in fishing. This illustration sh near the town ol' Newport. The lishe ready for their excursion iuto the sea er-bcateu fishermen starts from shore j trained and docile horse dragging tl: .scoops In the shrimp as it passes over back frequently make hauls of several are considered the aristocracy of the latlon to their fellow toilers that cava hi?ese Windmills Surprise Our Soldier? T^hen our soldiers arrived at Taku hey wondered at the immense number f strange windmills all along the sea hore. From time immemorial such rindmills have been employed by the Chinese to pump sea water up into higher basins, where wind and sun evaporate the fluid, leaving the salt Such salt contains a great deal of hitter salt, which gives it a very dis agreeable taste; but il appears to sat isfy thc Chinese. From Taku it is carried, in blocks resembling ioa!*es--oi^ bread, to Tlen-Tsin, whence it is scattered all over the country. Tallow vave. Near North Dorset, Vt, Is a cave which presents a remarkable mineral ogical phenomenon, from which it de ? ber, however, the walls, roof and floor are found to be much softer, having almost a putty-like consistency that can easily be cut out in pieces with a penknife. As described in an article In the Journal of the Franklin Insti tute, this material on analysis proves to be carbonate of lime. The only ex planation that has been offered to ac count for the peculiar formation is that it is a carbonate of lime so thoroughly saturated with water that it cannot harden into stalactites. Neither these nor stalagmites are found in the cave. ? " --- ! / VIEW OF THE LARGEST PK There are records of three similar caves in Switzerland, and the Swiss peasants have given the peculiar sub stance the curiou' name of "moon milk." Mushrooms and Ants. There is a species of ants that live on mushrooms, grown and cultivated by themselves. They cut leaves into pieces and carry them down to their cells under ground. There they re duce the Jcaf bits to a pulp and pile it in a heap, in which the seeds, of a cer tain kind of fungus find lodgment. In the course of time little musbrnoniy swellings break out of the mass, and on these the ants live as food. MP ON HORSEBACK. --zr , s fe. . ? in horseback, and a few travelers have I America, where horseflesh is cheap, 1 d' lt ls believed, where the horse is em I ows a scene on the coast of Belgium. ! mien's horses are attached to the nets after shrimps. A proresslon of weath , each man mounted '.pou the back of ie triangular, purse-shaped net, which the sands. These fishermen on horse I hundredweight at a single trip, and Belgian littoral, holding about the re l ry bears to infantry in the army. v IOUUVWU? } kargest rP?geon iq tt?B W?iM- I booooooocoooooooooooooco? TEN thousand flying pigeons and 5000 little enes In the nests present the unique spec tacle shown in the accom lanying illustration of the only real pigeon ranch in the world. It ls lo fted at Los Angeles, Cal., and from i small beginning has developed into i pretentious institution, from which squabs and grown birds are furnished tor cafes and family tables all over California. The ranch contains about eight acres and is conducted by J. Y. Johnson, who lives Among his winged pets. After running a gauntlet o? fierce. bJiUr dogs his visitor finds himself inside a bewildering mass o? life and color in kaleidoscopic chan??. Add to this a constant roar of cooing and of myri . . V *: t3 ad flapping wings and it becomes ^indescribably confusing. There are |p?geons everywhere; the shed roofs are crowded - with them; the ground is covered vith them. They rise in swarms like^bee*. like a summer cloud. If you have ever disturbed a great flock of nesting ?pa birds on some Island rock yon may ter I.r>peinauv:e nu. .uUu more .eady sale. The flock is ?ncreat?~? by hunJreds every day in the year. At the age of twelve days the squab is fully grown and feathered, and if it escapes the market it is soon on the wing. Each afternoon Johnson and Iiis son go through the buildings and take from the nests enough of the fat squabs to fill orders for the next day. Early in the morning they are killed by disjointing their necks, dressed and delivered. Just now the season is dull because of the abundant ?EON RANCH IN THE WORLD. supply of ducks and quail on the mar ket. The pigeons are well housed In three large buildings. In each of the sheds, running lengthwise and ex tending from ground to roof, are tiers of shelves, with narrow passage ways between. On these shelves, loosely placed, ar? little square boxes, turned upside down, with small aper tures for doors. These are the nest ing places, and the largest of the buildings has 2000 inside and 1000 outside. The others have nearly as many. But the pigeons form nests and lay eggs everywhere, in the pas sageways, on the floor and even on the roofs, or iu any stray nook where a few straws can be gathered togeth er. In one of the nests the other day was found a squab having four legs, and being in other respects a more or less perfectly developed and lively quadruped. Johnson says these freaks are not rare on his ranch. In one of the long sheds 1000 oil cans are utilized as boxes, the sides and ends being made entirely of them, laid like bricks in a wall, each with the open end inward. Through the centre of the shed runs a double tier of the same material, facing opposite ways and extending to the roof. In these .ns a colony of 3?00 pigeons are comfortably stowed away. A remarkable fact in connection with this place is that the pigeons rarely leave the ranch, and that lt is seldom that one of them gets beyond the high wire fence which sirrounda three sides of the place. They are fed assorted grain and screenings, and the cost of feeding the 15,000 is about $7 a day.-Chicago-Times Eerald. . While tue population of Maine In creased during the pas^/decade only from GG1.0S6 to 694,460V'or but about five per cent, the cojit of the State Government has nearly doubled dur ing the last eight ?-'ears. Nearly one-half' of the persons in thia country die whgn they are children, j