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YORKVILLE ENQUIRER. ISSUED SEMI-WEEKLY. t. m. grists sons, Pobu?her.. } . % Udtispaptr: 4or 'M promotion of <h< |oIitiuaI, Social, ^gricultuiml and (Eommttirial Jnltrests of the fjtoplj. {TEs?ole'SpV/ive ce^!ANC ESTABLISHED 1855. YORKVILLErsTC.7 FRIDAY/JTJ^E 14, 1907." NO. 48. ' ? I T,,r" PFMTftOQ lona ?A anKirilt a irpnppfl.1 nlfljl for thfl . MVCHTGR 4 By ETTA A CHAPTER III. Hoxie's Story. * "What!" cried Fleetwood, dumfounded. "Yes, sir," repeated Hoxle, "I were one of 'em! Bad luck often forces a man Into strange company. I needn't p go Into particulars; but I'm a sort of Jack of all trades. I've fought Injuns, I've drove cattle through the sage brush, I've worked In the mines. Once I kept a billiard saloon at Pueblo, and at another time I had a gambling place at Leadvllle?'twas at Leadvllle that I first met Dave. "I needn't tell you how, sir, but owing to a little unpleasantness that happened in my saloon, and the killing of .a few men. I was forced to leave Leadvllle sudden like, and directly after that I found myself casting my rortin' with Dave and his gang." "So," interrupted Fleetwood, "you've seen that man with his mask off, eh?" "That I have, sir, and he's no halfbreed. as some folks say. His face is as white as yours?a good deal whiter than mine; but, by the infernal pit, I'd rather deal with the reddest Apache that ever run than with him." "Go on," .urged Fleetwood, "tell me something of the true Inwardness of the road-agents." Plainly It was no agreeable subject. Hoxie shook like a man with the palsy. "Well, sir, I kept the right side of Dave for a while?all his gang are ' deadly afeared of him. He thinks no more of blowing out ,a man's brains than of pulling off his boots. Tiger Chief, they call him, down New Mexico way, and the name suits him well. He war the boldest fellow in a tussel that I ever saw, and though his men feared him more'n anything on the earth, or under it, yet every one of 'em sir, stood ready to die for him. He had such power over 'em as I never seed equaled. Luck, too, seemed always on his side. He robbed here, there, and everywhere; he came and he went at his own will, and the law ( never could lay hold of him, owing, maybe, to the friends and the different hiding places he had scattered about the country. You see, Dave is mighty generous with his money?spends it free wherever he goes, and so makes ^ himself aa welfomf , to some folks as he is unwelcome to others. All things put together, he carried matters with a high hand." Fleetwood, supporting himself on his elbow, with his eyes fixed on this ex road-agent, said: "Who is that man, Hoxie? What is his real name?" "I've never found out, sir. You feel the same curiosity that possessed me when I cast my fortin with him. I hadn't been in the band many days afore I war Just mad to larn something of his history. He war no common border ruffian, that war plain enough. His looks nor his ways warn't of the everyday kind. I asked myself over and over what war his right name, and where did he come from, and what had made him a road-agent. Nobody in the gang knew. The ones that had been with him longest could tell the least. He confided in no one, and he had mighty mysterious ways. He would leave his men and go off for days together, and nobody the wiser. He wrote letters, and he got letters, which was strange doings for a roadagent, as you'll allow, sir. This much was told me by Texas Jim, his lieutenant, who had taken to watching his chief, too." " 'They're a woman's letters,' sez Jim, 'and they come from the east. I've allers susptcioned that Dave was a Yankee. When he goes on Journeys that nobody knows about, it's for them air letters. He holds reg'lar correspondence with somebody. Now who? I'm a-gwine to find out?I'm a-gwlne to follow him. Slch things are clean agin his character as a road-agent. He's a playing some danged double game that ought to be stopped, pardner.' * * 1 - ? ? V. hi UK t Ko oro r? tr "I a Det-n ioiib triK'ugu nun ulv BU..e to answer: " 'It ye meddle with Dave, 'twill cost ye yer life.' "'Pooh!' sez Jim; but I war right. Black Dave wasn't the inaa.to allow prying, and he war great on discipline at all times. "Well, It war down New Mexico way, sir, Black Dave had" been doing some bold work, wrecking trains, and robbing passengers, besides walking through the full purses of some rich Mexican rancheros, and he war lying low a spell, till the hue and cry should pass. "It war the lonliest place under heaven?an old, deserted, tumbledown ranch, in a dreary gulch?Red Gulch 'twas called. The people that had lived there years afore, had all been killed by Apaches, and nobody ever came a-nigh it now. Dave had sort of fortified the old ruin as a hiding place. We kept a cache of provisions there, and a store of ammunition, and sich like. "We hadn't fairly settled at the gulch when Texas Jim began to make signs that he wanted a word with me In private. Now it war mighty curious, Dave seldom swore at his men?I've allers had it on my mind that he war well brought up?but not a soul In the gang that didn't feel the chief's eye constantly watching him, following about everywhere. So it war some little time afore I could slip away with Texas Jim. We halted under a red clay bank?I can see the cursed spot still. A few sycamore trees were growing about, and over our heads circled a nasty carrion bird, as, if on the look out for some dead man. "'Well, pard. began Texas Jim, 'I've got Dave now!' " 'Is that so?' says I. " 'Yes,' sez he, sure! He's a man of mystery, and I call it an offense agin good morals,' sez he, 'to be mysterious in a band of road-agents, where everything is expected to be common. Now, S OF CiHN TV. PIERCE I while we all know I>ave ain't his name, nnt nno nf na pan tell whether he has a right to any other, better or worse, and that's what aggravates me. I'm a-gwine to know what he goes off on journeys for, all by himself, and who he sends his money to in the east? for he does send it there?and who he's writing to?blast his eddication! and what far-away petticoat is at the bottom of sich underhand doings, for, mind ye, Black Dave never looks twice at any woman round about hyar. Now, see these!' and Texas Jim showed me two letters?one that had been through the United States mail, and one that hadn't. " 'I stole these from the pocket of his deerskin shirt last night while he war sleeping,' sez Jim, but I could see that he war shaking at his own boldness. 'Here's one that war written to him, and another that he's been and writ to somebody?I suspicloned him at it, in the ranch last night, and I knew he'd be ariding off somewhere today to post it. So, sez I to myself, "I'll hev a look at that!" Dave's like other men when he sleeps, whatever he may be when he's awake. He'll think he lost these things from his pocket. "I felt a queer chill go over me, and I ain't a coward either, but I didn't like what Jim had done. However, I answered up, quick enough, 'Have you read 'em, Jim?' 'No,' sez he; 'It's for you to do that, pardner. I ain't got an eddication like Black Dave.' "Jim didn't know a single letter of the alphabet, so I, being a trifle better off, took the two envelopes, my heart going like a trip-hammer all the while, and what do ypu think, sir? The one that had come through the mail was scratched as bare as my hand?Black Dave meant to be prepared for accidents. He had just wiped out the name by which he war known to his eastern correspondent. "'Blast his cunning!' sez Texas Jim, 'but there's a letter inside, and it looks like a woman's scratching?read it!' "'So I will,' sez I; but first I had to glance at the other letter?the one Black Dave had writ the night before at Red Gulch. His hand was as good as a schoolmaster's, and he had put on the envelope a woman's name?a mighty queer one, too?and a town? where? Why, thousands of miles away, In Maine?Maine, that's next door to your own Canada, you know, sir. Well, nat'rally I couldn't make much out of that, so I passed it to Texas Jim, and sez I, 'Break the seal, while I read this t'other one.' That Is, meaning the letter that had come to L * L. -? Ko/1 thn L/ave mruuKii me man, anu nau m,v name scratched out. '"Loud?read It 'loud,' sez Jim: 'fair play, pardner.' "I put in my thumb and finger, and whipped out a sheet of paper, scented [like a nosegay, and covered with womanish writing?pretty marks laid close on the creamy page. This is what I read right into Texas Jim's ear, and I tell you, sir, the words are fixed in my memory, and warranted not to wash out: " 'Dear Papa: I write to thank you for your birthday gift. I am glad you remember my birthday, though I am so far away from you. The academy girls are as jealous as cats. They don't know which to envy most, my good looks or my good clothes.' "I didn't get beyond that, sir; for just at that minute somebody slipped down the red clay bank, and stood 'twixt Jim and me?Black Dave himself, his mask off, his face white as chalk, and a dozen devils glaring in his eyes. "Jim jumped back at sight of the chief, dropped the letter I had given him to open, and gave a sort of cry? it war the last sound he ever made, poor fellow! for before you could say Jack Robinson, a Derringer cracked, and Jim fell at my feet, with a bullet in his brain. "Then Dave tore the other letter? ,ie girl's letter?from me, and, holding the muzzle of the still smoking pistol to my ear, he said, in a voice I'll never forget this side of the grave: " 'Who robbed me while I slept?you or Texas Jim?' "I knew my doom was sealed, and that I hadn't a chance for my life, so I said, doggedly: " 'I reckon I war as much to blame as he.' " 'There ought to be honor, even among thieves,' he answered, with an evil smile. 'You were curious to find out something of Black Dave's private affairs, eh? A little knowledge, my lad, on some subjects, is a dangerous thing.' "He gave Jim's carcass a kick. " 'Leave the rascal here to the gray wolves and coyotes,' he said, 'and do you come with me.' "I would have made a stand for my life, even against him, sir; but the whole gang war round us by this time, my pistols were snatched from my belt, and my arms pinioned to my side. "They all mounted their horses. Dave led the way, and the others followed him out of the gulch, and into a sort of desert place, stony and barren, and only sprinkled here and there with patches of mesquite grass. Dave had a lariat over his arm?I knew what that meant, even afore we came to a blasted tree?the only one in the stony waste. All the men clapped their masks on. and made ready for the business in hand. I didn't waste breath in asking for mercy?a short shrift and a long rope war Dave's motto. While they were, adjusting the noose, he stalks up to me, and sez he: " 'How much of that letter dirt you read?' " 'The first few lines,' sez I. "'What did you learn from them?' sez he. " 'That you're the father of a daughter, way off in Maine?a girl that thinks herself respectable, maybe,' sez I. "These words made him b'iling mad, as I could see by the flash of his wicked eyes. " 'Luckily,' he hissed, 'in the place tc which I am going' to send you, mj friend, you will be obliged to keer your discovery to yourself.' "And then he gave the signal, anc the next Instant. I war swinging in the air, and every man leaped iito his saddle, and like the wind the whole gang w nt clattering back toward the gulch, e.nd left me to the crows and buzzards "Well, sir, you must know that 1 wasn't hung, from the fact that I'm a-sltting here by your bunk this blessed minute, alive and hearty?all ol which happens because mr. nooen Crawford went down to New Mexico one day. to buy sheep, and on the way home, some of the drove went astray, and in searching for 'em with hie herder Mexican Juan, lo and behold! the two came upon what they thought war a dead man, a swinging from the branch of a tree. Of course, they whipped out a knife and cut me down, and they poured brandy into my mouth, and worked over me, master and man, till they brought me back to life; and when my wits came again, sir, and I thought over all that had happened, and felt the marks of the lariat around my swollen and blackened throat, I war a reformed man, and I went down on my knees to Robert Crawford in gamma grass, and made a clean breast of everything, and begged him to hide me for a while, and give me honest work. I had got my fill of Black Dave, and of evil courses generally. And Robert Crawford being a merciful gentleman, took pity- on me, and disguised me in some of Juan's clothes, and he made good speed away from the vicinity of the gulch; for if the robbers had caught us there we would all have shared one fate, and Mr. Crawford brought me along to this ranch with him as a herder, and here T have lived like an honest man ever since." Hnvio stnnnpd to take breath. It was evident that the narrative had affected him deeply?great drops of sweat stood on his leathery forehead ?he put his hand unconsciously to his throat, as if he still felt tightening of Black Dave's lariat there. "Ther's one thing more, sir," he said, at last, with slow, solemn emphasis: "I've got a conviction that Black Dave knows I escaped him that day?knows I wasn't hung?knows some body saved me, and he'll kill me anywhere, and any time at sight. If I'd have opened the door to him the night he dropped you at this threshold, that would have been the last of Hoxie. I've never got over my terror of the man, I never shall get over it?perhaps it's because he was born to kill me!" Fleetwood, deeply impressed by the herder's story, answered, with assumed carelessness: "Pooh! the chances are very small, Hoxie, that either you or I will ever encounter the scoundrel again. The career of such a man is never long. A rope in the hands of the vigilants will sooner or later put an end to his exploits. But the thing which interests me deepest in your narrative is that letter from the girl in Maine. What a pity that you didn't have the time to read it all! By Jove! a queer sort ol person the daughter of such a man must be! It makes one shudder to think of it! Of course Dave must be eastern born himself." "That's what I allers said, sir." "Look here, Hoxie, do you remember **- - - J J ?o v?,, com Riant lite gins auuiraa; x uu , ocwu Dave had written It on his letter, you know ?" "I re" >n! Dave came within an ace of strangling me; but that didn't destroy my memory, sir, and then, to make sure that I'd never forget It, I went and wrote it down In black and white, and a thousand times I've sworn to myself that if ever I should go east I would hunt out that air town and that air woman, and see for myself what both were like." "By Jove! Hoxie, I wonder you haven't done it before this time." Hoxie shook his head gloomily. "I shall never go east, sir?I shall live and die on this ranch; but," smiling a little as a sudden thought struck him, "what's to hinder you, sir, from looking up the person? Mr. Crawford sez you won't be content here in Colorado?sez you'll be going back to Canada as soon as you git strong again; and Canada, as every scholar knows, is nigh to Maine." Fleetwood's blonde face grew blank, then he laughed. "Hoxie, that is a brilliant idea! 1 have a passion for mysteries, even when they come in the form of disreputable people. I wonder what 'dear papa' had given the girl on her birthday, and with whose money the gift was bought? Hoxie, where is that address ?" Hoxie thrust a hand into the pocket of his deerskin shirt, fumbled there for a space, and finally from a wrappet of sheepskin, drew forth and unfolded a bit of dirty paper. Fleetwood snatched it with strange eagerness, and read these words: "Miss Concordia Tempest, Cinderville Maine." "Isn't that a rum sort of name, sir?' said Hoxie. ? A vr\n h'JVp If- ri^ht?' said Fleetwood. "After the choking you got. Hoxie, your mind might have gom astray." "No," protested Hoxie, "that's it, sir letter for letter. I can read as well as the best of folks, and I swear to yoi that's the address as Dave had it wrll on the envelope, ready to post when h< should get the chance, sir," "Oh, this is too much!" cried Fleetwood, gayly. "Concordia Tempest! a , rose by any other name would smel as sweet! Let me copy the mellifluous ; syllables at once! My mind is madt up. I will have nothing to do with , Colorado and sheep raising?I will fine Cinderville and Concordia Tempest 01 die." He little knew, as he spoke th? i words so lightly, what that quest was : to cost him; he little knew, as he laj there on his sheepskins in Bob Craw, ford's cabin, the dark tragedy which was to grow out of that bit of dirtj i paper! "Do you mean it, sir!" said Hoxie. "Yes, by Jove! I do!" "Well, sir, a man better give BlacI Dave's daughter a wide berth. If she's got her father's blood in her she is tc ; say the least, dangerous. When yoi ' find her, sir?do the next best thingtake the first conveyance out of th< , town called Cinderville." i Fleetwood laughed, the gay mocking laugh of youth and courage. > "Tut! Hoxie, don't let your horror ol ' Black Dave extend to his female rela> tlves. It's rather queer to discover that he has a daughter, anyway. He's I scarcely one's Ideal of a family man, s eh? How does she come to be at the i other end of the continent, I wonder; ! and has Miss Concordia a sister? has ? she a mother? Oh, this grows beI wlldering! Black Dave, during the little Intercourse which I had with him, [ did not impress me as being above i mlH/llo mrp." "He hasn't seen a day beyond flvef and-forty, sir." "And, of course his daughter Is > young?a mere schoolgirl, In fact, as ' was shown by her letter. Bless me! , the tiger-father sends his offspring to school like reputable parents! Well, > seeing that Black Dave treated me ' with such leniency on the watch and i purse question, and let me off with only the loss of Maud's letters, and the gain of a half-dozen bullets In my Inner man, I certainly must find that ' damsel and pay my respects to her!" ? "Well, sir, I hope no evil may come of it," said Hoxle. He tied the dirty paper up again In ' the bit of sheepskin, and returned it to his pocket. At the same moment they heard Crawford coming up with the corrals, whistling to his sheepdogs. Hoxle, having ended his story, went out to meet his master, and Fleetwood was left alone In the cabin. He looked around the place and out through the meagre window at the head of the bunk. Did he really care to cast his fortunes in this desolate country? Had he what Hoxie called "sand" for the enterprise? His was an easy going, self-indulgent nature, 1 and he had not even the spur of poverty to goad him, for Fleetwood was not poor. He possessed both gentle blood and a very comfortable fortune. Then and there he decided that If Maud Loftus expressed the smallest disinclination to such a future, he would abandon all thought of sheepraising and return at once to Canada. It was with Maud that he left the decision. and that very night he wrote her a minute account of all that had transpired since his arrival In Colorado, and of what life on a ranch really was. The only thing which he omitted to mention was Hoxle's story. Two weeks later, when Fleetwood had so far recovered as to wander out to the corrals to watch?though not with anything like Crawford's Interest?the stupid sheep, and drink In the glorious air of the mountains, something very unpleasant happened on the ' ranch. Hoxie went forth with the flocks one morning and did not return, a.s was his wont, at set of sun. Mexi1 can Juan was dispatched in quest of him, and then both Crawford and his Canadian friend mounted good horses and set forth also, on the trail. In the loneliest spot of the whole range the sheep were found nibbling peacefully, guarded by the faithful dogs; and not far away, in the shadow of a beetling rock, lay the body of Hoxie in his old canvas coat, with his canteen by his side, and his ghastly face turned upward to the starry twl light sky. 1 "Great Heaven!" cried Fleetwood, "look at the print of horse-hoofs In the grass, round about, Crawford! 1 Black Dave has been this way?the poor fellow's presentiments are all fulfilled!" The two men bent over the herder's body. It was plain that he had been dead for some hours. They tore away the clothing from his breast and found there the track of the bullet which had ended his life. Alas! this leaden messenger had accomplished that which the lariat had failed to do. From the deerskin shirt, Fleetwood drew out a slip of dirty paper, drenched now in Hoxle's blood. "Great God! How strange!" he muttered with a thrill of superstitious horror, for lo! the deadly bullet had cut its way straight through the name of Concordia Tempest, of Clnderville, Maine. (To be Continued). THE ITALIAN CHARACTER. One Phase of It Depicted In An Organ-Grinder's Act. For the past five years an Italian organ grinder of the old school has made almost dally visits to certain houses In the upper part of this city, says the New York Times, until now the people In front of whose homes he plays know him as they do the butcher and the baker. His bandbox like organ is supported by a wide strap over his shoulders and a stick underneath, and Is loaded with such pieces as "Where is My Wandering Boy Tonight?" "Watch on the Rhine," "The Marseillaise," and other soul-stlrring melodies. One day last week the man and his music box I stopped In front of one of the houses on his route and he was about to turn the organ crank handle when suddenly his hand dropped to his side and he stared In open-eyed wonder at the . doorknob on which hung a black crepe. He stood there for a few minutes, his > eyes wandering from window to window, apparently searching for the fa miliar faces as though he would ac, count for the one the crepe told him , was no more, but finally, with slow, hesitating steps and lowered head, he approached the door and rang the bell, , A lady in mourning opened the door, , and the Italian, nervously clutching t his soft hat in one hand, pointed to , the crepe with the other. "Canna you tell who dead?" he ask. ed in a voice that suggested mingled L reverence and fear that he was tread1 ing on forbidden ground. , "My mother is dead," replied the ? lady. , "Ah, ze leetle lady! She sit by ze I winder and leesten to ze music, so^ r Ze lady with ze white hair?" nodded the organ grinder as though affirming ; his own words. , "Yes, that was the lady," responded , the young woman. "It ees so sad, so sad!" muttered the j Italian, bowing his head and placing T his hand over his heart as he re treated down the steps. An nnur unci he was again at the door. The colorec maid answered his summons and he c handed her a big parcel wrapped ir 5 tissue paper. , "Gif to ze leetle lady," was all thai j he said and went away. The package . contained a handsome floral design } that must have cost at least $10. , tS" Som people cry loudly for jus' tice when mercy Is really what thej want. r PiwUanrottf grading. p * ? ti ' YEAR WITHOUT A SUMMER. 11 o Snow and Ice Prevailed In June, July ? and August In 1816. The year 1816 was known throughout the United States and Europe as the coldest ever experienced by any ' person then living. There are persons i . ._ .. .. , . ti in nonnern iNew rorK wno nave ucen In the habit of keeping diaries for 8 years, and It is from the pages of an old diary begun in 1810 and kept un- 8 ' broken until 1840 that the following ? Information regarding this year with- p out a summer has been taken: January was so mild that most per- f sons allowed their fires to go out and did not burn wood except for cooking. There were a few cold days, but they a were very few. Most of the time the air was warm and spring-like. February was not cold. Some days were ei colder than In January, but the weath- a ei was about the same. March, from n the 1st to the 6th was Inclined to be windy. It came In like a small lion " and went out like a very Innocent sheep. April came in warm, but as the ' days grew longer, the air became colder, and by the first of May there was a temperature like that of winter, with u plenty of snow and ice. In May the p young buds were frozen dead, ice form- p ed half an inch thick on the ponds and e< rivers, corn was killed, and the corn- n fields were planted again and again, a until it became too late to raise a crop. By the last of May in this cli- * mate the trees are usually in leaf and n birds and flowers are plentiful. When 81 the last of May arrived in 1816 every- " thing had been killed by the cold. June was the coldest month of roses n ever experienced in this latitude. Frost and ice were as common as but- p tercups usually are. Almost every c green thing was killed; all fruit was a destroyed. Snow fell ten Inches deep u In Vermont. There was a 7-lnch fall p' in the interior of New York state, and the same in Massachusetts. There were only a few moderately warm ^ days. Everybody looked, longed, and waited for warm weather, but warm weather did not come. n It was also very dry; very little rain js fell. All summer long the wind blew g( steadily from the north in blasts, la- ^ den with snow and ice. Mothers knit g socks of double thickness for their chil- t dren, and made thick mittens. Plant- S( ing and shivering were done together, f, and the farmers who worked out their ^ taxes on the country roads wore over- e; coats and mittens. On June 17 there was a heavy fall h of snow. A Vermont farmer sent a 0i flock of sheep to pasture on June 16. ^ The morning: of the 17th dawned with s, the thermometer below the freezing: h point. About 9 o'clock In the morning: b the owner of the sheep started to look ej for his flock. Before leaving: home he turned to his wife and said, Jokingly: e( "Better start the neighbors soon; s, It's the middle of June and I may get 8, lost In the snow." H An hour after he had left home a w terrible snow storm came up. The p, snow fell thick and fast, and, as there was so much wind, the fleecy masses o: piled In great drifts along the wind- 8I ward side of the fences and outbuild- t* Ings. Night came and the farmer had ^ not been heard of. r< His wife became frightened and f< alarmed the neighborhood. All the y neighbors joined the searching party. n On the third day they found him. He was lying In a hollow on the side of t a hill with both feet frozen; he was u half covered with snow, but alive, p Most of the sheep were lost. u A farmer near Tewksbury, Vt., own- e, ed a large field of corn. He built fires. p Nearly every night he and his men h took turns in keeping up the fire and watching that the corn did not freeze. t] The farmer was rewarded for his tireloss labors by having the only crop of n corn In the region. w July came In with snow and ice. On the 4th of July ice was as thick as window glass formed throughout New England, New York, and In some ^ parts A the state of Pennsylvania. r< Indian corn, which in some parts of the east had struggled through May e and June, gave up, froze and died. it To the surprise of everybody, Au- ci gust proved the worst month of all. h Almost every green thing in this coun- \ try and Europe was blasted with frost, h ' Snow fell at Barnet, thirty miles from o London, England, on August 30. News- |j papers received from England stated that 1816 would be remembered by the rr 1 existing generation as the year in d which there was no summer. Very lit- \\ tie corn ripened in New England, fi ' There was great privation, and thou- ti I sands of persons would have perished h In this country had it not been for \\ : the abundance of fish and wild game.? 1 Danbury, Conn., News. t. ii INDUSTRIAL INJURIES. s ' fi ! Railroad Accidents Head the List of h Casualties. ? 1 We have before us the casualty lists h of that greatest of all fields of carnage 8 ?the railroads of the United States, ti Lest the gentle reader should object to h ' our phraseology, calling it sensational, ' we ask his attention to the interstate L ' commerce commission statistics of d deaths and injuries for the last three r | months of 1906, which opens with the n following statement: "The number of 1 persons killed in train accidents during the months of October, November n | and December. 1906, as shown In re- p 4 ? -1 - 1? nnmnnnip.9 r? pons inane uy IIIC laiuuau _ to the interstate commerce commis- t slon, under the "accident law" of ! March 3, 1901, was 474, and of injured s 4.940. Accidents of other kinds, including those sustained by employees while at work and by passengers in getting on or off the cars, etc., bring p ' the total number of casualties up to $ 20,944 (1,430 killed and 19,514 injured)" ' At the above rate, the total number of people killed on the railroads in it ? twelve months would be 5,720, and the i; ' total number injured 78,056, or a total d of 83,776 casualties in a single year. If we remember rightly, this Is more s ' than twice as many as were killed on t the British side during all the years of 1 tho Rriai- ivnr- while the total number 1 of injured exceeds the total number d " that were wounded by bullet and shell, d i But such wars as the South African t 1 trouble come intermittently and with decreasing frequency, whereas the cas- a ualties of peace are with us always v " and Increase with the passing of the t years. ii The deaths and injuries on our raiioads, appalling In number though hey be, represent after all but a fraclon of the total number of casualties ecurrlng every year In the prosecution f the so-called arts of peace. The line, the quarry, the smelting furnace, he mill, the machine shop, all present n annual death and casualty roll hich, according to the most eminent uthorlty on the subject in this counry, Dr. Josiah Strong, is placed at the tupendous figure of 525,000. The raii ay accidents and their appalling reults are more in the public eye than ther disasters, for the reason that ractically every citizen travels on the ailroads, and that the government col>cts and publishes the statistics of eaths and Injuries. But the grim lets regarding the frequency of deaths nd injuries in pursuits other than lose identified with railroading are jst as. real, Just as shocking, and evry whit as disgraceful to our nation1 good name as those relating to the lilroads. Now, on the basis of over half a illllon industrial accidents in the 'nited States In a single year, it may e stated that one .person out of every 50 is sacrificed in a greater or less I egree, ranging from a slight injury to eath itself, in the task of carrying on ur great industrial works. And the Ity and shame of it all Is that a large roportlon of this pain and death is 1 asily preventable. Two things are ecessary: First, the public must be I wakened to the realization of the ( isgrace which such a condition of -1 tiiUnn and tn II lings puio upva II1V ituviv**, ?* ? -- ? ?alization of the vast amount of per:>nal loss and suffering which these 1 gures represent; and secondly, they 1 lust be taught that by the enactlent of proper ordinances governing le safety of life and limb, and the rovlsion of proper devices of a mehanlcal kind, it would be possible, in very few years, to reduce the cas- 1 alty list by probably not less than 50 er cent.?Scientific American. WAR ON MARIHUANA. lexican Government Wants to Exter- , minate a Weed That Crazes. , The effects of smoking the marihua- , a weed are so harmful that an effort i to be made under direction of the overnment to exterminate the plant , iroughout Mexico, writes a New York un correspondent from Mexico City. , he war department Issued orders , >me time ago prohibiting soldiers , om smoking the herb. The law gainst gathering or selling It has been , xtended to apply to all classes. The consequences of smoking marluana were- shown at Monterey the ( ther day. A friend gave Malquiades l tlreles, a Mexican laborer, a small jpply of the weed as a joke, and told Im to smoke It. Mireles rolled the ( roken leaf into the form of a clgarLte and began smoking it , Pleasurable sensations at first pass1 over him. He had hardly finished moklng the cigarette when he was uddenly seized with a fit of Insanity, te made a murderous assault upon his Ife with a knife and then stabbed a , ollceman. Mireles then ran, pursued by a force f police and other men. He ran for i ui/vrtbo nv\A than tiirnwl arid PLt Sveictl uiutnn aiiu uiv>< LCked his pursuers. He was knocked snseless, bound and shut up In a jom, where he remained until the ef;cts of the marihuana had worn off. /hen he came to he could remember othing about his actions. A report has been received here from uxtla Gutierrez, State of Chiapas, rnt Jose Solas, a deserter from the ifteenth battalion of the army, while nder the influence of marihuana klllil Maxima Salazar, a citizen of that lace. Solas was violently insane when e committed the murder. He learned to use marihuana while In ie army, and his uncontrollable deslr? >r the weed led to his desertion. The lurder was done with a knife, Solas alking up to his victim and without word burying the blade in his body. It is a rare thing for an American i become addicted to the use of mariuana. One instance of this kind is sported from the city of Oaxaca. A young American located there sevral years ago and went Into the minlg business. He prospered and benme wealthy. One day while on a unting trip he was induced by an old lexican to smoke a cigarette of mariuana. He found that the sensations f the poison were indescribably deghtful. He had smoked perhaps a dozen or lore of the cigarettes, In as many ays, when he was suddenly seized ith a fit of insanity. He broke away rom his home and ran into the mounlins, where he remained for several ours. The insanity fit had worn off hen he returned to town. By that time he had become addicted 3 the use of the poison and found it iipossible to give It up. The insane pells came upon him more and more requently, and in order to prevent Imself from doing violence to some ne he always had his servant lock him i a strong room when he felt the first ymptoms of the attack. His downall was rapid. Marihuana brought im to his end In a few months. It is stated by local physicians that he use of marihuana invariably prouces a homicidal mania. Many horible crimes have been committed by len under its Influence. Didn't Uxdbrstajjd Checks.?A woaan stepped up to the window of the laying teller in a Denver bank reently and pushed a check through he grating. It was for $4. "Put your name on the back, please," aid the teller. She did so. "Is that your name?" he asked. Th? wnman slehed. "Yes," she re died, "that's my name. It calls for 4, doesn't it." "It does," said the teller. While the man In the cage was lookup the check over the woman fumbled n her handbag and then placed a fivelollar bill before him. "Take it out of that, please," she aid. "It seems to me I'll never get hrough paying bills." For a moment the teller was puzzled, "hen he realized that the woman lidn't understand the check. "You lon't have to pay me," he said, "I have o pay you $4." He pushed back her five-dollar bill nd gave her J4 in silver. The woman i-as very much surprised. "You have o pay me?" she said. "Why, I thought t was a bill and that I had to pay 1L" HUU3CVCL I I U int LUI I una. Conserve Our . Natural Resources? Adopt Inheritance Tax. In addressing the members of the National Editorial association last Monday. President Roosevelt devoted himself almost wholly to the discussion of two questions?the reshaping of our system of taxation so as to make It bear most heavily on those capable of supporting the strain, and the utilization of the natural resources of the nation In the way that will be of most benefit to the nation as a whole. He gave more attention to the latter question than to the former. Referring In his opening remarks to the power wielded by writers for newspapers and periodicals, the president said: Be Open-Eyed and Impartial. "It is essential that the man In public life and the man. who writes In the public press shall both of them, if they are really good servants of the people, be prompt to assail wrong-doing and wickedness. But in .thus assailing wrong-doing and wickedness there are two conditions to be fulfilled, because if unfulfilled, harm and not good will result. In the first place, be sure of your facts and avoid everything like hysteria or exaggeration; for to assail a decent man for something of which he is Innocent Is to give aid and comfort to every scoundrel while Indulgence in hysterical exaggeration serves to weaken, not strengthen, the statement of truth. "In the second place, be sure that you base your judgment on conduct and not on the social or economic position of the Individual with whom you are dealing. There are good and bad men In every walk of life, and their being good or bad does not depend upon whether they have or do not have large bank accounts. Yet this elemental fact, this fact which we all accept as self-evident, when we think each of the people whom he himself knows In his business and social relations, Is often completely ignored by certain public men and certain public writers. The men who thus Ignore it and who attack wickedness only when found In a particular class are always unsafe, and are sometimes very dangerous, leaders. "Distrust equally the man who is never able to discover any vices of rich men to attack and the man who confines himself to attacking the sins and shortcomings of rich men. It is a sure sign of moral and mental dishonesty in any man if in his public assaults upon Iniquity he Is never able to see any iniquity save that of a particular class; and this whether he la able only to see the crimes of arrogance and oppression in the rich or the crimes of envy and violence In the poor. He is no true American if he Is a respecter of persons where right and wrong are concerned and if he falls to denounce the demagogue no less than the corruptlonlst, to denounce alike crimes of organized greed and crimes of brutal violence. There Is equal need to denounce the wealthy man who swindles investors or buys legislators or oppresses wage-workers, and the needy man who Inflames class hatred or Incites mob violence. We need to hold the scales of justice even, and to weigh them down on one side Is as bad as to weigh them down on the other." Conserving Our Natural Resources. Taking up then the two great movements In public life which he had selected for discussion, President Roosevelt declared that the conservation of our natural resources and their proper use constitute the fundamental problem which underlies almost every other problem of our national life. For this work the one characteristic which Is more essential than any other is foresight. But unfortunately foresight is not usually a characteristic of a young and vigorous people and hitherto as a nation we have tended to live with an eye single to the present and have permitted the reckless waste and destruction of much of our natural wealth. The president then reviewed the work of the reclamation service, begun In 1902, In rendering fertile and habitable many parts of the west by means of irrigation. This work Is only well begun, but there will be no halt. The public lands of the United States should be utilized in similar fashion. Our present public land laws were passed when there was a vast surplus of vacant public land and when the chief desire was to secure settlers thereon. Little attention was paid to the detail alTecting the disposal of the lands and lax execution of the laws became the rule. Land frauds were common and little noted. These frauds are now being: stamped out and vigorous efforts are being: made to enforce the law. Public Lands Belong to Public. The danger of allowing the public lands to pass Into the hands of a few men was pointed out, and the necessity for the conservation of the forests stressed. The mineral fuels of the eastern states are already in the hands of large private owners. Steps should be taken to see that the same thing does not follow in the west. The mineral fuels should be conserved, not wasted, as is the case under private ownership very often, and enough of them should remain in the hands of the government to protect the people against unjust or extortionate prices so far as that can still be done. There are at present some 300 mlP'on acres of public domain, open to the free grazing of cattle, sheep, horses and goats without restriction or regulation. This land is now being ikinned by men whose only concertr Is to get what they * " ** ? * wAmnnt no T*o1oQQ can oui oi ii ui me iiiviiiim, ??? a? to whether or not it is ruined in the process. The only remedy is to give control of this range to the government. Waterways Needed. The inability of the railroads of the United States to meet the demands upon them has drawn public attention forcibly to the use of our waterways for transportation. But it Is obvious that this is only one of their many, uses, and that a planned and orderly development is impossible except by taking into account all the services they are capable of rendering. It was upon this ground that the inland waterways commission was recently appointed. Their duty is to propose a comprehensive plan for the improvement and utilization of those great waterways which are the great potential highways of the country. Their duty is also to bring together the points of view of all users of streams, development and conservation of the vast natural resources of the waterways of the United States. Clearly It Is Impossible for the waterways commission to accomplish Its gTeat task without considering: the relation of streams to the conservation and use of all other natural resources. As illustrative of the importance ho ottonhoo tn thla ailhteet the president declared that even such questions as the regulation of railway rates and the control of corporations are In reality subsidiary to the primal problem of the preservation In the Interests of the whole people of the resources that nature has given us. If we fail to solve this problem no skill In solving the others will In the end avail us very greatly. An Inheritance Tax. Taking up the matter of taxation, Mr. Roosevelt stated that most great, civilized countries have an Income tax and an Inheritance tax, and declared that, in his Judgment, both should be part of our system of Federal taxation. As to the first he spoke briefly and diffidently, In view of the decision of the supreme court declaring unconstitutional one such scheme of taxation, and because of its difficulties In the way of administration. As to the latter he declared that It would serve the purpose of having the swollen fortunes of the country bear In proportion to their size a constantly Increas Ing burden of taxation. "These fortunes," he continued, "exist solely because of the protection given the owners of the public. They are a constant source of care and anxiety to the public, and it is eminently just that they should be forced to pay heavily for the protection given them. It is, of course, elementary that the nation has the absolute right to decide as to the terms upon which any man shall receive a bequest or devise from another. We have repeatedly placed such laws on our own statute books, and they have repeatedly been declared constitutional by the courts. I believe that the tax should contain the progressive principle. Whatever any individual receives, whether by gift, bequest, or devise, in life or in death, should, after a certain amount is reached, be increasingly burdened; and the rate of taxation should be increased in proportion to the remoteness of blood of the man receiving from the man giving or devising. The principle of this progressive taxation of inheritances has not only been authoritatively recognized by the legislation of-congress, but it is now unequivocally adopted in the leading civilized nations of the world?in, for Instance, Great Britain, France and Germany. Switzerland led off with the imposition of high progressive rates. Great Britain was the first of the great nations to follow suit, and within the last few years both France and Germany have adopted the principle. In Great Britain all estates worth Ave thoipand dollars or less are practically exempt from death duties, while the increase Is such that when an estate exceeds Ave millions of dollars in value and passes to a distant kinsman or stranger In blood the government receives nearly 13 per cent As It Is In France. "In France, under the progressive system, so much of an inheritance as exceeds ten millions of dollars pays over 20 per cent to the state if it passes to a distant relative, and 5 per cent if it passes to a direct heir. In Germany very small inheritances are exempt but the tax is so sharply progressive that an inheritance not In agricultural or forest lands, which exceeds two hundred and Afiy thousand dollars, if it goes to distant relatives, is taxed at the rate of about 25 per cent. "The German law is of special lnteri est, because it manes the inheritance tax an imperial measure, while allotting to the individual states of the empire a portion of the proceeds and permitting them to Impose taxes in addition to those imposed by the imperial government. In the United States the national government has more than once imposed Inheritance taxes in addition to those imposed by the states, and in the last instance about one-half of the states levied sucn taxes concurrently with the national government, making a combined maximum rate, In some cases as high as 25 per cent; and, as a matter of fact, several states adopted inheritance tax laws for the first time while the nai tional law was still in force and unrepealed. A Commendable Feature. i "The French law has one feature which Is to be heartily commended. The progressive principle is so applied that each higher rate Is imposed only on the excess above the amount subject to the next lower rate. This plan is peculiarly adapted to the working out of the theory of using the inheritance tax for the purpose of limiting the size of inheritable fortunes, since the progressive Increase in the rates, according to this mode, may be carried to Its logical conclusion in a maximum rate of nearly 100 per cent for the amount In excess of a specified sum, without being confiscatory as to the rest of the Inheritance; for each Increase In rate would apply only to the amount above a certain maximum. I do not believe that any advantage . comes either to the country as a whole or to the Individuals Inheriting the money by permitting the transmission In their entirety of such enormous fortunes as have been accumulated In America. The tax could be made to bear more heavily upon persons residing out of the country than upon those residing within It. Such a heavy proi gresslve tax Is, of course, in no shape or way a tax on thrift or industry, for thrift and Industry have ceased to possess any measurable importance in > the acquisition of the swollen fortunes i of which I speak long before the tax i would In any way seriously affect i them. Such a tax would be one of the i methods by which we would try to , preserve a measurable equality of op' portunity for the people of the gener ' atlon growing: to manhood. As LJni coin pointed out, there are some resi pects In which men are obviously not equal; but there is no reason why there should not be an equality of self-resk pect and of mutual respect, an equality of rights before the law, and at : least an approximate equality in the conditions under which each man ob tains the chance to show the stuff that i Is In him when compared with his fel, lows."