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?^?1^^??????^^???^???^? I _ ^ ^ ISSPED^Bgtl-WEEHL^ t. h. geist's sons, Pnbiiiher.. J S Jamilg JJetcspger: Jar the promotion a| the political, Jintiat, ^gricallnral, and Cawnrnnial gnttrtata o|[ tin gto|)lt- pHiowSok5?ancb' ESTABLISHED 1855. YORKVILLE, 8. P., TUESDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1903. N"Q. 103. I WHEN* KNI S WAS IN I Or, The Lore Story of Charles Brandon 9 Happening In the Reign of His Au{ Y Howritton and Aendered Into b 'flf CtikodcA* $ By EDWIN CASKODE Copyright, 1898 and 1901, by I CHAPTER VII?Continued. After a short silence Jane heard a sob from the other bed, then another and another. "Mary, are you weeping?" she asked. "Yes." "What Is the matter, dear?" "Nothing," with a sigh. "Do you wish me to come to year bed?" "Yes, I do." So Jane went over and lay beside Mary, who gently put her arms about her neck. "When will he leave?" whispered Mary, shyly confessing all by her question. "I do not know," responded Jane, "but he will see you before he goes." "Do you believe he will?" "I know It" And with this consolation Mary softly wept herself to sleep. After this, for a few days, Mary was quiet enough. Her irritable mood had vanished, but Jane could see that she was on the lookout for some one all the time, although she made the most pathetic little effortB to conceal her watchfulness. At last a meeting came about In this way: Next to the king's bedchamber was a luxuriously furnished little apartment with a well selected library. Here Brandon and I often went afternoons to read, as we were sure to be undisturbed. Late one day Brandon had gone over to this quiet retreat and, having selected a volume, took his place in a secluded little alcove half hidden in arras draperies. There was a cushioned seat along the wall and a small diamond shaped window to furnish light He had not been there long when in came Mary. I cannot say whether she knew Brandon was there or not but she was there and he was there, which Is the only thing to the point and, finding him, she stepped Into the alcove before he was aware of her presence. Brandon was on his feel: in an Instant and with a low bow was backing himself out most deferentially to leave her in sole possession. If she wished to rest lid aster Brandon, you need not go. 'I will not hurt you. Besides, If this place is cot large enough for us both, I will go. I would not disturb you." She spoke with a tremulous voice and a quick, uneasy glance, and started to move backward out of the alcove. "Lady Mary, how can you speak so? You know?you must know?oh, I beg you"? But she interrupted him by taking his arm and drawing him to a seat beside her on the cushion. She could have drawn down the Colossus of Rhodes with the look she gave Brandon, so full was it of command, entreaty and promise. "That's it. I don't know, but I want to know, and I want you to sit here beside me and tell me. I am going to be reconciled with you despite the way you treated me when last we met. I am going to be friends with you whether you will or not Now what do you say to that sir?" She spoke with a fluttering little laugh of uneasy nonassurance. which showed that her heart was not nearly so confident nor so bold as her words would make believe. Poor Brandon, usually so ready, had nothing "to say to that" but sat in helpless silence. Was this the sum total of all bis wise determinations made at the cost nt so much nain and effort? Was this the answer to all his prayer, "Lead me not Into temptation?" He had done his part for he had done all he could. Heaven had not helped him, since here was temptation thrust upon him when toast expected and when the way was so narrow he could not escape, hot most meet it face to face. Mary soon recovered her self possession?women are better skilled In this art than men?and continued: "I am not intending to say one word about your treutment of me that day over in the forest, although it was veiy bad and you have acted abominably ever since. Now is not that kind in me?" And she softly laughed as she peeped up at the poor fellow from beneath those sweeping lashes, with the premeditated purpose of tantalizing him, I suppose. She was beginning to know her power over him, and it was never greater than at this moment Her beauty had its sweetest quality, for the princess was sunk and the woman was dominant with dashed face nnd flashing eyes that caught a double luster from the glowing love that made her heart beat so fast. With the mood that was upon her I wonder Brandon maintained his self restraint even for a moment He felt that his only hope lay in silence, so he sat beside her and said nothing. He told me long afterward that while sitting there In the iutcrvuls between her speech, the oddest wildest thoughts ran through his brain. He wondered how he could escape. He thought of the window and that possibly he might break away through It, and then He thought of feigning illness, and a hundred other absurd schemes, but they all came to nothing, and he sat there to let events take their own course, as the.v seemed determined to do lu spite of him. After a short silence Mary continued half banteriugly: "Answer me, sir! 1 will linve no more of this. You shall treat me at least with the courtesy you would show a bourgeoise girl." "Oh, that you were only a burgher's daughter!" "Yes, 1 know all that; but I am not IGHTHOOD | FLOWER I ad Nary Tudor, the King's Sister, and just Majesty King Henry the Eighth 7? lodem Ekfliih From Sir Edwin a Memoir N [CHARLES MAJOR] ? fie Bowcn-Merrai Comjxmy ?f It can't be Deipea, ana you shall answer me." "There is no answer, dear lady. I beg yo??oh, do you not see"? "Yes, yes; but answer my question. Am I not kind, more than' you deserve?" "Indeed, yes; a thousand times. You have always been so kind, so gracious and so condescending to me that I can only thank you, thank you, thank you," answered Brandon almost shyly, not daring to lift his eyes to hers. Ms ry saw the manner quickly enough ?what woman ever missed it, much less so keen eyed a girl as she?and it gave her confidence and brought back the easy banter of her old time manner. "How modest we have become! Where is the boldness of which we used to have so much? Kind? Have I always been so? How about the first time I met you? Was I kind then? And as to condescension, don't?don't use that word between us." "No," returned Brandon, who In his turn was recovering himself; "no, I can't say that you were very kind at first. How you did fly out at me and surprise me! It was so unexpected it almost took me off my feet."- And they both laughed In remembering the scene of their first meeting. "No, I can't say your kindness Bhowed Itself very strongly In that first Interview, but It was there nevertheless, and when Lady Jane led me back your real nature asserted itself, as it always does, and you were kind to me?kind as only you can be." That was getting very near to the sentimental? dangerously near, he thought and he said to himself, "If this does not end quickiy, I shall have to escape." "You are easily satisfied if you call that good," laughingly returned Mary. "I can be ever so much better than that if I try." "Let me see you try," said Brandon. "Why. I'm trying now," answered Mary, with a distracting little pout. "Don't you know genuine out and out goodness when you see it? I'm doing my very best now. Can't you tell?" "Yes, I think I recognize it, but?but -be bad again." "No, I won't! I will not be bad even to please you. I have determined not to be bad. uud I will not?not even to be good. This." placing her hand over her heart, "is just full of 'good' today." And her lips parted as she laughed at her own pleusantry. "I am afraid you hud better be bad. I give you fair warning," said Brandon huskily. He felt her eyes upon bim all the time, and his strength and good resolves were oozing out like wine from an ill coopered cask. After a short silence Mary continued, tegurdless of the waraiug"But the position is reversed with us. At first I was unkind to you. and you were kiud to me, but now I am kind to you, and you are unkind to me." "I can come back at you with your own words." responded Brandon. "You don't know when I atn kind to you. I should be kinder, to myself at least were I to leave you and take myself to the other side of the world." "Oh, that is one thing I wanted to ask you about. June tells me you are going to New Spain." She was anxious to know, but asked the question partly to turn the conversation, which was fast becoming perilous. Aa a girl she loved Brandon and knew It only too well, but she knew also that she was a princess, standing next to the throne of the greatest kingdom on earth?in fact, at that time the heir apparent, Henry having no children, for the people would not have the Scotch king's imp, and the possibility of such a thing as a union with Brandon had never entered her head, bowever passlonute her feelings toward him. It was not to be thought of be tween people so far apart as they. Brandon answered her question: M1 do not know about going. I think 1 shall. I have volunteered with a ship that sails In two or three weeks froxr Bristol, and I suppose I shall go." "Oh. no! Do you really mean it?" It gave her a pang to hear that he was actually going, and her love pulsed higher, but she also felt a sense of relief. somewhat as a conscientious housebreaker might fee! upon finding the door securely locked against him. It would take away a temptation which she could not resist and yet dared not yield to much longer. "1 think there is no doubt that I mean it," replied Brandon. "I should like to remain in England until I can save money enough out of the king's allowance to pay the debt against my father's estate, so that I may be able to go away and feel that my brothe* and sisters arc secure in their home? my brother is not strong?but I know It is bettor for ine to go uow, and I hope to find the money out there. I couid have paid it with what I lost to Judson before I discovered him cheating." This was the first time he had ever alluded to the duel, and the thought of it, in Mark's mind, added a faint touch of fear to her feeling toward him. She looked up with a light in her eyes and asked: "What is the debt? How much? Let me give you the money. I have so much more than I need. Let me pay it. Please tell me how much it is, ana I will hand it to you. Tou can come to my rooms and get it, or I "Heaven hclv m el" he cried. wm send it to you. Now fell me that I may. Quickly!" And she was alive with enthusiastic interest "There, now, you are kind again, as kind as even you can be. Be sure, I thank you, though I sny It only once," and he looked into her eyes with a gaze she could not stand even for an Instant This was growing dangerous again; so, catching himself, he turned the conversation back into the banter ing vein. "Ah, you want to pay the debt that I may have no excuse to remain? Is that it? Perhaps you are not so kind after all." "No, no; you know better. But let me pay the debt How much Is It. and to whom is it owing? Tell me at once, I command you." "No, no. Lady Mary; 1 cannot." "Please do. I beg, If I cannot command. Now I know you will. You would not make me beg twice for anything?" She drew closer to him as she spoke and put her hand coaxingly upon bis arm. With an Irresistible impulse be took the hand in his and lifted it to bis lips in a lingering caress that could not be mistaken. It was all so qulCk and so full of fire and meaning that Mary took fright, and the princess for the moment came uppermost "Master Brandon!" she exclaimed sharply and drew away her hand. Brandon dropped the hand and moved over on the seat. He did not speak, but turned his face from her and looked out of the window toward the river. Thus they sat in silence, Brandon's band resting listlessly upon the cushion between tbem. Mary saw the eloquent movement away from her and his speaking attitude with averted face; then the princess went into eclipse, and the Imperial woman was ascendant once more. She looked at him for a brief space with softening eyes and, lifting her hand, put it back in his, saying: "There it is again?if you want it" Want it? Ah, this was too much! The hand would not satisfy now. It must be all, all! And he caught her to his arms with a violence that fright ened her. "Please don't; please! Not this time! Ah, have mercy, Charl? Well! There! There! Mary mother, forgive me!" Then her woman spirit fell before the whirlwind of his passion, and she was on bis breast, with her white arms around his neck, paying the same tribute to the little blind god that he would have exacted from the lowliest maiden of the land. Brandon held the girl for a moment or two, then fell upon his knees and buried his face in her lap. "Heaven help me!" he cried. She pushed the hair back from bis forehead with her hand and as she fondled the curls leaned over him and softly whispered: "Heaven help us both, for I love you!" He sprang to his feet. "Don't! Don't, I pray you," he said wildly, and almost ran from her. Mary followed him nearly to the door of the room, but when he turned he saw that she had stopped and was stuuding with her hands over her face, as if in tears. He went back to her and said, "I tried to avoid this, and if you had helped me it would never"? But he remembered how he had always despised Adain for throwing the blame upon Eve. no matter how much she may have Jeserved it, and continued: "No, I do not mean that. It is all my fault. I should have gone away long ago. I could not help it. I tried, oh, I tried!" Mary's eyes were bent upon the floor, and tears were falling over her flushed cheeks unheeded and unchecked. 'There is no fault in any one. Neither could I help it," she murmured. "No, no; it is not that there is any fault in the ordinary sense. It is like suicide or any other great self inflicted injury with me. I am different from other men. I shall never recover." "I know only too well that you are ? ? * - f different ironi oiucr ueu, uuu?*, too, am different from otlier women. Am I not?" "Ah, different! There is no other woman in all this wide, long world." And they were in each other's arms gain. She turned her shoulder to him and rested with the support of his arms about her. Her eyes were cast down in silence, and she was evidently thinking as she toyed with the lace of his doublet. Brandon knew her varying expressions so well that he saw there was something wanting, so he asked: "Is there something you wish to say?" "Not I," she responded with emphasis on the pronoun. "Then it is something you wish me to say?" She nodded her head slowly, "Yes." "What is it? Tell me, and I will say It" She shook her head slowly, "No." "What is it? I cannot guess." "Did you not like to hear me say that ?that I?loved you?" year ~rou know It But?oh!? lo you wish to hear me say It?' The head nodded rapidly two or three times, "Yes." And the black curving lashes were lifted for a fleeting, luminous Instant "It is surely not necessary. You have known It so long already, but I am only too glad to say It I love you." She nestled closer to him and hid her face on his breast "Now that I have said It what la my reward?" he asked, and the fair face came up, red and rosy, with "rewards," an,, Ann nt nrhlph VOI Vnfth Hnff1! Biy VUU VI it ?m? ii va ? ...p . ransom. "But this la worse than Insanity," cried Brandon as he almost pushed her from him. "We can never belong to each other. Never!" "No," said Mary, with a despairing shake of the head, as the tears began to flow again. "No, never!" And falling upon his knees he caught both bet hands In his, sprang to his feet and ran from the room. Her words showed him the chasm anew. She saw the distance between them even better than he. Evidently It seemed farther looking down than looking up. There was nothing left now but flight He sought refuge In his own apartments and wildly walked the floor, exclaiming: "Fool, fool that I am to lay op this store of agony to last me all my days! Why did I ever come to this court? God pity me?pity me!" And be fell upon bis knees at tbe bed, burying bis face In bis arms, bis mighty man's frame shaking as with a palsy. That same night Brandon told me how be bad committed suicide, as he put It, and of bis Intention to go to Bristol and there await the sailing of tbe ship and perhaps find a partial resurrection In New Spain. Unfortunately, he could not start for Bristol at once, as be had given some challenges for a tournament at Richmond and could furnish no good excuse to withdraw them, but he would not leave his room or again see "that girl who was driving him mad." It was better, he thought, and wisely, too, that there be no leave taking, but that he should go without meeting her. "If I see her again," be said, "I shall have to kill some one, even if it is only myself." I heard him tossing In bis bed all night and when morning came he arose looking haggard enough, but with his determination to run away and see Mary no more stronger than ever upon him. But Providence or fate or some one ordered it differently, and there was plenty of trouble ahead. TO BE CONTINUED. For the Cnekoo. The aggressive man finished his story and regarded us with such a superior air that we trotted out the little anecdote about the cuckoo clock. oo V?/> "les, Sir, " we CUIJCIUUeu, juai ao uc shouted upstairs that it was 12 o'clock the cuckoo clock cuckooed three times, and the man didn't have-to do a thing but stand there on the stairs and cuckoo nine more to make twelve." We laughed uproariously and congratulated ourselves that the traveler was effectually squelched. "Well, go on," said be. with some Impatience. "On where?" we asked. "On with the story," he replied. "Why, man," we expostulated, "that is the story. Don't you see? Just as he shouted upstairs"? "Oh, rats!" said the man. "Next morning when the man was going to work his wife said, Tom. don't forget to bring home a seidlltz powder.' 'What for?' asked Thomas. 'Why, for our cuckoo.' said his wife. 'I noticed that be had the hiccoughs last night when he struck 12.'" Constituents Are Grateful. Convincing proof was furnished In Washington recently of the faet that constituents are grateful at least sometimes. A congressman bad been aBked to use his Influence In securing a Job for a voter In his district. He did so and failed to laud his man. The latter on being notified of what had occurred wrote a letter in which be said: "I cannot close without again acknowledging my thanks. No language Is rich enough to express my gratitude. No sentiment, however sublime, Is lofty enough to reveal the obligation I feel. Though I go down In defeat, its gloom never can get so dark that to me your friendship will not be a source of Joy and pride and an inspiration to ever higher thought and action. God grant and 1 cannot help but believe he will spare me that again some day 1 may help to crown you." A friend of the congressman read this gushing epistle and inquired. "What did he want?" "A $90C clerkship." "Great Scott! 1 wonder what he would have written bad you been successful."?Detroit Free Press. An Ancient Monument. In the churchyard at Bewcastle, Cumberland, England, an Isolated Bpo1 about twelve miles from any railway station, is a monument bearing the inscription, "The First Year of Ecgfrlth, King of This Realm"?1. e., A. D. 070, Another Inscription (Runic) on the west side says that it was set up as a "Standard of Victory In Memory ol Alehfrith. Lately King" (of Northum brla), who played so Important a pari In the history of the time. An Interesting account of the cross Is given In Bishop Browne's work, "The Conversion of the Heptarchy." He says that the Inscriptions are "the earliesl examples known to be in existence ol English literature," and, "looking to the Importance In the history of the world of the conversion of England, there is no historical monument In these lands to compare with the Bewcastle cross." The shaft as It stands Is a square pillar composed of a single block ol gray freestone fourteen and a half feel high. The cross bead Is gone, but wher entire the monument must have beer about twenty-one feet high. ?ftisctllanrous Reading. CAPTIVITY OF THE LION. It Dates Back From Very Ancient Time*. Few people, perhaps, realize how immensely old Is the custom of keeping lions In captivity. We first read of them in history as being kept by Assyrian kings for purposes of sport, as when, more than 3,000 years ago, Tlglath Pileser boasts of having slain "in the fullness of his manly might" 920 of these animals; or when, a few centuries later, Assurbanlpal, his successor on the Assyrian throne?the effamlnata Sorrinnnnnlita of tho Oreek legend?makes similar vaunt. Assyriologlsts tell us that, though some of those victims may have been slain in open field or organi2ed battle, yet others were brought onto the royal hunting fields in cages?captive beasts whose teeth had been carefully drawn out or filed down, so as to render them incapable of hurting the royal sportsman?and then let loose, poor, toothless, or almost toothless, wretches, to fall beneath the kingly spear. Oriental sculptures still show us graphic representations of the unhappy beasts being reluctantly driven out from their barred cages to satisfy the Eastern monarch's tbfrst for blood. At Rome and Constantinople lions were kept for a very different purpose?a purpose sure, sooner or later, to result in their being kept as objects of curiosity. In the Middle Ages the keeping of captive lions received a decided Impulse from the crusading movement. Every crusader passing through Constantinople on his way to the Holy Land must have heard of the Emperor Alexlus's lions; and a contemporary chronicler, who has unrivaled opportunities of getting Information, mentions that in 1 1101 the Lombard or Aqultanlan pilgrims enraged the emperor by slaying three of his pet lions, and sending 1 his small drove of leopards scurrying off over the walls of the Imperial city. The most pathetic story in all crusad- j ing literature tells how an Aqultanlan noble during the First Crusade rescued a lion that was in peril of his life, ' and how the lion, In gratitude, followed him about whereever he went, refusing to quit his side until the moment came for the pilgrim to embark upon his ship for home. Stealing away from his brute companion, Goffler de las Tors?for so was the lion's master named?managed to get on board without his companion; but as ' the' ship was sailing off the lion caught sight of his friend, an<^ plunging li^a * the water, swam straight out to 'sea ' till he was drowned. From crusading J days it would seem that almost every great monarch had his own lion, or If not a lion other strange beast Tame Hons were used as royal gifts when popes or monarchs wished to show an especial honor to each other. Baldwin I., king of Jerusalem, sent Alexius two tame lions from the Holy Land?per- . haps to take the place of those whom the Lombard Crusaders of 1101 had slain. Boniface VIII., when he wish- . ed to conciliate the Florentines in a very special manner, sent them a "fine ^ young Hon"?which turned out to be so ( timid a beast that it could not hold its own against a common donkey, j which attacked the king of beasts in the courtyard and kicked him to death with his heels. An English writer, ^ living in the early part of the thir- , teenth century, relates that the king ( of France in his time?presumably Philip Augustus?had tame lions among his collection of wild beasts ( near or in the wood of Vincennes; and , the account rolls of the French sover- ( elgns a few years later (1239 A. D. and , 1304 A. D.) show us that Louis IX. and , Philip the Fair had a regular officer? J Leonerius?to look after the royal , lions, with an allowance of four solidi , a day for his charge's food and a some- , what uncertain pension for himself. So far as England is concerned, it is ' extremely probable that Henry I. kept J lions in his menagerie at Woodstock; , and it is certain that less than 200 J years later the fashion of keeping these , pets had become so widely diffused . among royal personages that the English close rolls show us that Edward ( II., when prince of Wales, actually carted a pet lion about with him from place to place in his Scotch campaign of 1302-3; and the entries of payment i | to Adam of Dlchfield, keeper of the ' , "Prince's lion," form no small item in j , the royal expenses. The royal lions ( were generally confined in the Tower ! of London, and their charges, together ! , with those of their keeper, Peter of Montpelier, were paid by the sheriffs ] of London?out of the money they ; I owed to the king for the "ferm" of the , city, whenever this source of supply , had not been drained dry by other ; I /'nils in these davs the lion's food seemed to have cost 6d a day, while the keeper got only lid for his trou, ble. Doubtless, however, the latter , made a profit out of 'the meat. As the | years went on the number of lions In the tower seems to have Increased un- : til the year 1437, when a rare contem- ' porary chronicle has the following slg- ' , nlficant query: "In this year dyde t (died) alle the lions that weren In the i i Tower of London?the whlche was , nought (not) seen In no mannys [ (man's) tyme before out of mynde." j Nor were the Scotch kings of the flfI teenth century behind their English , brethren In their care for "royal ; - TT th(> ! i oeasis. jamcs xx. v/a. --? > Stuart "of the Fiery Face"?had a ' pet lioness, and his great-grandson, , . James V., the disguised hero of Sir | Walter Scott's "Lady of the Lake," i had another. I The captive lions of mediaeval days i seem often to have been very gentleI hearted beasts. Villami tells the tale 1 [ how some six years before Dante's I birth the tame lion which the Floren- ' i tines kept hard by the Plazzl of San i Giovanni got loose into the streets and i actually seized hold of a child, but was so scared by the bustle round him that he let the child's mother take It from his grrasp without doing any harm to B ilther. Further East the lion was actually used for hunting purposes. Osima, the Syrian Emir, who, born In the year before the First Crusade 3 started, did not die till the year after w Saladln had reconquered Jerusalem, 11 saw at Damascus a lion which had a aeen trained by Its owner to play the ? part of a public highwayman. Its master would take It out Into the high a roads that lay outside the "Garden of y the East" and set It on to attack the h passersby. The Vizier of Damascus, Tearing this strange story, had the lion b wrought before him and confronted him T with an ordinary ram, when, strange o: :o say, the "king of beasts" lost heart, y Irew back and Anally Aed precipitate- ** y. Osama, who was standing by, 0 jurat out into laughing, while the viz- T ier gave orders for the lion to be cap- h :ured and slain offhand as an ignoble & specimen of his tribe. A similar scene si was enacted some 500 years later, ci when our English King James L, along nr with his two sons, Prince Henry and h Prince Charles (afterward Charles I.), n :hen a. boy of eight, went to the tower tl :n see the lions there matched against f< 'a great Aerce bear that had lately I tilled a child." Not a single lion of w :he whole menagerie could be got to 'ace the shaggy stranger squarely, and F when the bear, of its own accord, came w nastily out of a corner to meet the last g pair of lions turned out upon him they P pegan to "skip up and down and fear- w fully 'fled from the bear," and at last, 1<: 'not willing to endure any fight," fl- n nally "scurried off In terror to their 13 iwn den for safety."?London Stand- h ird. , . , b DYNAMITING 8HEEP. a a Cowboys Throw Explosives Among the ~ Huddled Animals They Hate. 1 The great secret of the fortunes made ei in the stock Industry In the last few fears lias been free range. Over & vast g territory, extending from the open n plains of Texas up through Oklahoma, P Kansas, Eastern Colorado, Nebraska md Wyoming to the states along the lorthem border, reached unending *1 leagues of grass. Most of It even went to waste because there was none to h take It On this the herds and flocks a fed, and there was plenty for all. But h the settlers pushed further Into the n (vest; Oklahoma added other areas of fndian land; Irrigation took from the 111 ands at the base of the foothills?the itockman found that he was being lim- n ted In his free pasture. He tried to tl Irlve out the settler, but In vain, per- b jecutiona and the destruction of crops * were met by laws like the "two-mile c' Imit" statute, keeping the agrlcultur- e' st safe. The sheepmen went on with e; lis flock and took the range as he came :o It?the cattleman could not follow, u for the cattle would not eat after the n sheep. So the cowboys declared war o: m the shepherds and sought to limit & their range. To some extent this has li ieen done; but the conflict Is bitter g resulting In bloodshed and deeds of in- c< tolerable cruelty?nor is It yet ended, tl [t Is tempting for the sheepman to nove to new pastures at the risk of at- tl tack, even though he knows that a cat- lc tleman has long been In possession and ft svill fight to maintain his place, for it t] is well understood that the range is t< ipen to ail. tl A western authority says that in the d last ten years 600,000 sheep have been wantonly killed by cowboys, at a loss fl to the owners of $2,000,000. It Is also jstlmated?no one can tell surely, for C all the tragedies of the range ao not g :ome to light?that five hundred man killings have annually accompanied tl the sheep killings. Sometimes the set- II tiers whose homes are threatened, b make common cause with the cattle- a men and Join in the slaughter. Only n last July a band of masked men d mounted, killed the herders of several d Ihousand sheep in central Wyoming and killed thousands of the sheep. In addition, 65,000 sheep, which were near II by were left without herders and were g scattered on the hills, resulting in further loss. Riflemen surround flocks k and kill every sheep, driving off the v herders. A flock of 5,000 Angora goats li was killed in western Colorado in Au- a gust. The papers of Oregon describe ^ the terrible devastation produced by dynamite thrown among the huddled " bands of sheep, the explosion ending d the existence of whole flocks, and sometimes killing the shepherds as . well. The cattlemen throw tJiese deadly explosives from some height, or 1 charge on horseback into the fright- p ened flocks for their scheme of wrath, f. Flocks have been driven into narrow . canyons and clubbed to death; they have been hurled over precipices and tl r'e3ti-oyed. One man fought the battle h for years, finally, after losing 11,000 sheep, giving up the range for which he contended. w The settler who "homesteads" a g claim in the edge of the free range has _ one great terror?what if the flocks or herds should come! He knows that the crops so carefully tended would J go; the garden would be made desolate, y He has recourse through the law, to ? be sure, but in the wilder portion of ? the west it Is sometimes a slow pro- b cess. o Recently the government has issued b an order that the sheep must be kept off the forest reserves, the last refuge of the wandering flocks and their wor- >' rled owners, inese were me vu?j e lands on which the cattle were not y generally grazed, so the sheep were turned In. But they destroyed tin shrubbery In their efforts to gain sus- 1< tenance, and so the order went out to <j stop such practice. There seemed to ? be no choice but to try conclusions with the cattlemen again, and hostlli- '> ties opened with renewed vigor. The Ii miners and campers and hunters try to n keep stock out of the mountain parks, and the boundaries constantly grow less for the wanderings of the flocks h and herds. The range Is becoming thin, too. The grass Is overpastured, s and. In the opinion of expert stockmen, c does not today give more than half the sustenance that It did a decade ' ago. Various plans are proposed to renew It, but they are as yet in embryo, ^ and do not help the man with huge flocks of sheep that must be fed. In the end there must be a more extensive leasing or ownership of the grazing ,3 lands, and the rights of possession must be obeyed. Until that time comes the conflict for the free feeding grounds will rage.?Outlook. h BLUNDERS REACT ON MAKER8. le?t Intentions'Often Prove to Be In Bad Taste. "I read somewhere, not long ago, a Cory of an Impetuous young fellow 'ho permitted his bad temper and his naglnation to lead him into striking blind man," said a treasury special gent who Is on the road a good deal. The story went that he was standing t a street-car transfer station with a oung woman, waiting for a car, when e noticed that a man standing a short lstance away stared, or appeared to e staring, pretty hard at the glrL 'lofa nraa ViorMoa a anrf a# Via If Omf 1A n the starer's face. The impetuous oung fellow took the starer for a lasher, and he walked over and, withut a word smashed him In the face, hen he found out that the man he ad hit was totally blind?his attendnt had left him for a moment to get }methlng In the corner drugstore. I in imagine how that young chap lust, if his instincts were right, have ated himself for that blow?how he lust, indeed, have felt like thrusting le list that struck the blow into the irnace, as & young college fellow that once knew did after striking a rongful blow. "But on a Pennsylvania train, out of hiladelphla for the west, I saw, a few reeks ago, an Incident of the same eneral sort that Impressed me as alnfully as it did everyone else who ritnessed it As for the man whose koseness of speech caused him to iake the sad mistake, there was realr nothing to do but to feel sorry for 1m. "He was a clean, snappy, clipperullt man verging on middle age, and n hour or so after the train left Phildelphia?It was during the afternoon -he started through the smoking comartments of the chair cars and sleeprs to get up a whist quartet. "There were not man}' male pasaeners on the train, and of these few not lany appeared , to know how to lay whist. Most of them met hta ivitation with a courteous nod, negaivlngr the proposition on the ground lat they didn't understand the game. "But when a whist fiend makes up 1b mind to assemble a party on board train be never gives up trying until e has succeeded or rendered a good iany travelers nervous, and that ^wj^g ie case with the solid-looking ' but nappy Philadelphia!!. "After herculean exertions, Involving >any excited and beseeching tours irough several cars, be finally got old of two men who announced their 'lllingneas to take a hu^ Then, of nurse, he became ipore mrenuous than ver In. his effort to Play- ? r. "He appeared for the fourth consectlve time In the smoking com part lent, in which I sat, and begged each f us once again to 'fllLup the four.' lost of the men In the compartment, lcluding myself, did not know the ame of whist, and we succeeded In snvlnclng the snappy-looking man lat we were telling the truth about it. "The last man that he tackled for le fourth consecutive time was a flne>oking fellow of thirty or so, whose ice had a look of trouble in It, alnough he replied courteously enough > the whist fiend's Invitations. Each Ime he said, In a low tone, that he id not feel like taking a hand. "On this last time around the whist end said to him: '"You'll make the fourth, I'm sure, 'ome ahead. Table's all ready and the ame's waiting.' " 'No,' was the reply of the man with lie troubled expression. 'I don't feel ke joining In. I should like to oblige, ut ', and his voice broke a trifle t that, and some of us In the compart lent could see that the man was uner a strain But the whist flend idn't see It. " 'You play, don't you?* he persisted. " 'Yes, I play,' was the reply, still a ttle hoarse?and,then he turned and azed out of the window. " 'Huh?I can't understand a man nowing how to play whist and not - anting to play It?blamed If I can,' mpatlently mumbled the whist flend s he started to go out of the car, and e muttered something, too, as he eached the door, that sounded a good eai iiKe loosier. "The man with the troubled look urned his head about quickly from he window, and he had gone a bit ale, as we could see. He didn't rise rom his seat, but he stretched forth a )ng arm, grasped the whist flend by he sleeve of his coat, and pulled him ito a seat. " 'My friend,' he said to the startled 'hist flend?and there was a wan and ray look about his mouth as he spoke -'you should restrain your impatience nd your tongue. I am not a lobster. . 'here Is no law compelling me to tell ou why I do not elect to Join your a me of whist, but I shall tell you, not ecause you have any right to question r impugn the motives of a stranger, ut because your deficiency of tact . ill stand correction. I am not joining our whist party because the casket ontainlng the body of my wife Is on he baggage car attached to this train.' "Then the man with the troubled >?k gazed once more out of the winow, nor did he turn his head again. 11? ??I An tha ne eApiesoiuu Uiai oy^cu cu vm vuv Eice of the whist fiend was so absojtely pitiful, in its eloquence of the lan's mental self-denunciation, that re couldn't help but sympathize with im. " 'A thousand pardons, old man,' he aid, in a choked tone. Tve been a arl,' and he went out with the alertess gone from his carriage and his houlders hunched forward. There ,-as no whist played on the train."? Vashlngton Star. X3T Habit is an incubator; everything epends on what you put into it tzr Compared to the atheist the devil t a monument of credulity.