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l. m. grist's sons. Pubii.hers. j % Jamil; jfewspaper: Jor the promotion of the political. Social. Igricultural and Commercial Interests of the people. j tkr,?nol,e coeVVn" !L VAK,! established 1855. york v ille,s. "~c.~' t uk wday, november 34, 1908. isto. 94. IWWHIWIIIHWIW111 IIPHU IWWIII1 By OPII Copyrighted 1896, by Wm. f By Permission of Lai frill HI ill ill 1> 111 Ml in i?t>i ?i >11 \ *> CHAPTER V?Continued. Alf dropped back and the girl laughi ed with such genuine heartiness that I k thought much better of her, but still I ^ did not think that she was at all to be ^ compared with Guinea. The general yelled for Henry to bring him another coal, and when his pipe had been relighted he turned to me and said: "You don't find the old North State as she once was, sir. Ah, Lord, the ruin that has gone on in this world since I can remember. And yet they say we p are becoming more civilized. Zounds. sir. do you call it civilization to see hundreds of fields turned out to persimmon bushes and broom sedge? Look over there," he added, waving his hand. "I have seen the time when that was almost a garden. What do you want?" The last remark was addressed to the negro boy who had suddenly appeared. "Dinner? Yes, yes. Come, Mr. Hawes, and you. A If. This way. Get out!" A dog had come between him and the door. "Devilish a dogs are about to take the place, but V they are no account, not one of them. Lie around here and let the rabbits eat up the pea vines. Even the dogs have I degenerated along with everything I else." k I walked with the general, and looking back. 1 was pleased to see that Alf had summoned courage enough to follow along beside the girl. We were shown into a long dining room, with a great height of ceiling. The house had been built In a proud old day. and all about me I noted a dim and faded elegance. The general bade us sit down, and I noticed that his tone was soften+ ed. He mumbled a blessing over a great hunk of mutton and. broadly smiling upon me. told me that he was glad to welcome me to his board. "The school teacher." "said he. "modifies and refines our native crudeness. Yes. sir. you have a great work, a work that you may be proud of. Had education more broadly prevailed, had the people north and south better understood one another, there would have been no bloody disruption. Now. gentlemen. I must request you to help yourselves. l remembering that such as I have is fci fieely yours. When age comes on apace there is nothing more inspiring than to see the young and the vigorous I gathered about us. And it is thus that ft the evening of live is brightened. HenK ry. pass the bread to Mr. Jucklin. and ^ the peas, the very first of this backward season. I assure you. Mr. Hawes. can you recall the face of your noble grandfather?" "No, general; he died many years before I can remember." "A pity, I assure you, for what is more spurring to our ambition than to recall the features of a noted relative. \ Some of this lettuce. Mr. Hawes? A sleepy, but withal a soothing, dish. My daughter, I must request you to help yourself. Charming weather we have. Mr. Hawes, with the essence of youth ? and hope in the air." How completely had his manner changed. His eyes, which had seemed hard and cold when he had waved his hand and looked out over the yellow sedge grass, were beaming now wun kindly light, and his voice, which 1 had thought was coarse and gruff, was vibrant with notes of stirring sympathy. Alf, heartened by the old gentleMp man's streaming courtesy, spoke a low ft word to the girl who sat beside him. W and she nodded, smiling, but with one L ?-ar politely lent to the familiar talfc of ft her father. After dinner we were shown into tlv library, wherein were many law books. and the general, catching the longing glance that 1 shot at them, turned with bewitching patronage, bowed and said: "You have expressed your determination to become acquainted with the law and to practice the wiles of its logic; and so. if you can make no better arrangements. I pray. sir. that you make this room your office." Alf's eyes bulged out at this, doubtless looking upon me as the most fortunate man alive, and in my country bluntness I blurted: "You aie the kindest man I ever saw." In this room we talked for two hours * ? ! more, and the afternoon?or the evening, as we say in the south?was well pronounced when I declared that ii was time for us to go. Alf looked up surprised, and in a voice sad with appeal. he asked if it were very late. I could nave gi\en iiiiii in?- r.Mi. i hut was afraid to take out my grandfather's watch?afraid that the general and his daughter might think that I was seeking to make a display, so I p simply said: "Yes. time that we were I going." "Don't be in a hurry, gentlemen." the general protested: "don't let a trivial matter rob us of your society." V ' Alf pulled hack, but I -insisted, and so we took our leave. The old gentleman came out upon the porch with us. "Henry!" he yelled, turning about, "who the devil left that g;^o open? Do and shut it. you lazy scoundrel. Those infamous new-comers over on the creek take my place for a public highway. And I hope to be hung up by the heels if I don't fill the last one of them full of shot." ^ "I'll never forget you." Alf remarked as we walked along, down through the meadow. "You have stood by me. and vmi bet your life I don't forget such nt fnnrse I have known the ? * old man ever since I can remember. but he never treated me s<> well before. And when the time comes, if I <*an get in that dining room I don't believe he'll refuse tne. It's a blamed big pity that I can't talk as you can. but you just stick to me and I will talk all right after a while." Oh. I'll stick to you." I replied, "but I didn't notice that I talked in a wnv | to amount to anything. I felt as stupid as an ass looks. What did the girl sav? Vou were talking to her very earnestly over bv the window." "To save inv life. I can't recall anv-J ^ thing she said. P.ill. but I know that every word she spoke was dripped honey. I'd almost give mv life to take) HI 11 H11WUI HI HI I?111 HI HI HI II i EKIISS' i C READ. ; i J L Lee?All Rights Reserved. I rd & Lee, Publishers. j i mini mi mi 11 mail >11 mi mi mi in Mi i her in my arms and hug her Just once. Ever feel that way about a girl?" 1 was beginning to feel just exactly that way. but I told him no, whereupon he said: "But you may one oi these days, and whenever you do, you call on me to help you, and I'll do it, I don't care who the girl is or how high up she may stand. Many a night I have lain in bed and wished that Millie might be going along the road by herself and that about three men would come up and say something out of the way to her, just so I could spring out and wipe the face of the earth with them. I'm not as big as you are. but for her I'll bet I can whip any three men you ever saw. By the way. don't even speak Millie's name at home. The folks don't know that I'm in love with her. There's one thins that stands in my favor." "What is it?" I asked. He looked up at me. but was silent, and becoming' interested by his manner I was about to repeat the question, when he said: "I'm not at liberty to speak of it yet. [ You've noticed that Guinea has more education than I have. Well, her education has something to do with the point that's in my favor, but I've said too much already and we'd better drop the subject." I was burning to know more, for I I recalled the change of manner that had come over Mr. Jucklin at the time he spoke of having sent his daughter away to school, and I was turning this over and over in my mind, when Alf said: "A young fellow named Dan Stuart often goes to see Millie, and I don't know how much she thinks of him. but some of his people are high flyers, and that may have an influence in his favor. Doc Etheredge, out here, is his cousin, and old man Etheredge owned nearly a hundred and fifty negroes at one time. But when that girl stands up at the altar to marry some one else, they will find me there putting in my protest." When we reached home I found Guinea sitting under a tree, leading, and J had joined her when the old man called me. Looking about I saw him standing at the end of the house, beckoning to me. "I want to see you a minute," he said, as I approached him. I wondered whether he was again going to show me his chickens, and it was a relief when he conducted me in an opposite direction. He looked back to see if we were far enough away, and then, coming closer to me, he said: "This is the way I came to do it." "Do what?" I asked, not over pleased that he should have called upon me to leave the girl. "Wallow him, the old general. He claimed that my hogs had been gettin' into his field, and I told him that I didn't feel disposed to keep my hogs up when everybody else's were runnin' at large, and then he called me a scoundrel and we clinched. I took him so quick that he wasn't prepared for me, and I give a sort of a hem stitch and down he went, right in the middle of the road. And there I was right on top of him. He didn't say a word, while I was wallowin* him. but when l let him un. he looked all round and then said: Lum Jucklin, if I thought anybody was lookin' I'd kill you right here. You are the first man that ever wallowed a Lundsford and lived, and the novelty of the thing sorter appeals to me. You know that I'm not afraid of the devil, and keep your mouth shut about this affair, and we'll let it drap.' And he meant just what he said, and I did keep my mouth shut, not because I was afraid of his hurtin' me. but because I was sorry to humiliate him. Ever hear of John Mortimer Lacey? Well, shortly after that him and Lundsford tit a duel and Lacey went to New Orleans and died there. So. don't say anything about it." "About what? Lacey's going to New Orleans and dying there?" "No, cadfound it all, about my wallerin' the general." "I won't." I answered, and then I thought to touch upon a question that had taken a fast hold upon me. "By the way. you spoke of having sent your daughter to school at Raleigh?" "The devil I did! Well, what's that got to do with you or with anyone else, for that matter? I'll be?you must excuse me. sit." he quickly added, bowing. "I'm not right bright in my mind at times. Pecked t ight at my eye, and o* i it,h/iirfkfi I'd ho one-eved this minute?yes. I would, as sure as you are born. Hut here, let us drop that wallowin' business and that other affair with it. and not mention it again. Don't know why I done it in the first p'aee. but I reckon it was because I'm not right bright in my mind at times. You'll excuse my snap and snarl, won't you? Co on back there now. and talk about your books." "I am the one to ask pardotv, Mr. Jucklin. I ought to have had better sense than to touch upon something that didn't concern me. 1 guess there must be a good deal of the brute in me. and it seems to me that I spend nearly half my time regretting what I did the other half." "Why. Lord love your soul, man, you haven't done nothin*. Hut you draw me close to you when you talk of regrettin' things. I have spent nearly all inv life in putty much that fix. After you've lived in this neighborhood a while you'll hear that old Lim has been ii< many a fight, but you'll never hear that anybody has ever whupped him. You may hear, though, that he has rid twenty mile of a cold night to beg the pardon of a man that he had thrashed. We'll shake hands right here, and if you say the word we'll go light now and make them chickens fight. No. it's Sunday. Kiver to kiver. you understand Co on back there, now." With Ouinea I sat and saw the sun go down behind a yellow gullied hill. I'rom afar up and down the valley came the lonesome "pig-oo-ee!" of the farmers, calling their hogs for the evening's feed. We heard the flutter of the chickens, living to roost, and the night hawk heard them, too, for his eager, hungry scream pierced the still air. On a smooth old rock at the verge of the ravine the girl's brother stood, arms folded, looking out over the darkening low land, and from within the house, where Mrs. Jucklin sat alone, there came a sad melody: "Come, thou fount of every blessing." The girl's eyes were upward turned. "Every evening comes with a new mystery." she said. "We think we know what to expect.' but when the evening comes it is different from what it was yesterday." "And it is thus that we are enabled to live without growing tired of the world and of ourselves," I replied. "And I wish that I had come like the evening?with a mystery." I added. I heard her musical cluck and even in the dusk I could see the light of her smile. "But why should you want to come with a mystery?" she asked. "To inspire those about me with an interest regarding me. Even the stray dog is more interesting than the dog that is vouched for by the appearance of his master. I never saw a pack-peddler that I did not long to know something of his life, his emotions. the causes that sent him adrift. but I can't find tiiis interest in a man whom I understand." She laughed again. "But haven't you some little mystery connected with your life?" she asked. "None. I have read myself into a position a few degrees above the clodhopper, but that's all. If there were a war. I would be a soldier, but as there is no war, I am going to be a lawyer." "It would be nice, I should think, to stand up and make speeches," she said. "But wouldn't you rather be a doctor?" I don't know why I said it. but I replied that I hated doctors, and she did not laugh at this, but was silent. I waited for her to say something, but she uttered not a word. It was now dark, and I could just discern Alf's figure, standing on the rock. The song in the house was hushed. "I don't really mean that I hate doctors." I- said, seeking to right myself, if. indeed. I had made a mistake; and she simply replied: "Oh." "I mean that I should not like to practice medicine," I added, and again she said: "Oh." A lamp had been lighted in the sitting room, and thither we went, to join Old Lim and his wife, who were warm in the discussion of a religious question. The Book said that whatever a man's hands found to do he must do. and. therefore, he held that it was right to do almost anything on Sunday. "Even unto the fighting of chickens?" his wife asked. "Oh. I knowed what you was a-gittin' at. Knowed it while you was abeatin the bush all round. When a woman begins to beat the bush, it's time to look out, Mr. Hawcs. I came in here just now, and I knowed in a minute that wife, there, was goin' to accuse me of havin' a round with Sam and Bob. but I pledge you my word that I didn't. Just went in and exchanged a few words with 'em. Man's got a right to talk to his friends. I . K..t if nin't \v'v_ it's tilllP ICVIVV/ii, uui 11 iiv w... %. .. , tr. shut up shop." Alf came in and. with Guinea, sang an old song, and their father sat there with the tears shining in his eyes. He leaned over, and I heard him whisper to his wife: "Did have just a mild bit of a round, Susan, and I hope that you and the Lord will forgive me for it. If you do I know the Lord will. I'm an old liar, Susan." "No, you are not, Lemuel," she answered, in a low voice. "You are the best man in the world, and everybody loves you." I saw him squeeze her wrinkled hand. I could not sleep, but in a strange disturbance tossed about. Alf was talking in a dream. I got up and sat for a time at the window, looking out toward the gullied hill that had turned out the light of the sun. On the mor row my work was to begin. Ana wnai was to be the result? Was it intended that I should reach the bar and win renown, or hud 1 been listed for the life of a pedagogue? Was my love for the girl so new that it dazzled me? No, it was now a passion, wounded and sore. But why? By that little word, "Oh." I put on my clothes, tip-toed down stairs and walked about the yard. The moon was full, low above the scrub oaks. A streak of shimmering light ran down toward rtie spring, and over it I slowly strode. I heard the water gurgling from under the moss-covered spring house, and I saw the leaf-shadow patch-work moving to and fro over the smooth slabs of stone. Long I stood there. looking at the pictures, listening to the music; and turning back toward the house, I had gone some distance when I chanced to look up, and then, thrilled. I slowly sank upon my knees. At one of the large windows, in the northeast end of the house, stood Guinea, in a loose, white robe, the light of the full moon falling upon her. Behind her head her hands were clasped, and she stood there like a marble cross. Her face was upward turned, and the low yellow moon was bronzing her brown hair?a glorified marble cross, with a crown of gold. 1 thought, as I bowed in my worship. My forehead touched the path, and when I lifted my head?the cross was gone. CHAPTER VI. We ate breakfast early the next morning, while the game cocks were yet crowing in their coop. When I went down I heard the jingling of trace chains, and I knew that the old man was making ready to plow the young corn. I had insisted upon walking to the school house, telling Alf that all I wanted was to know the direction, hut he declared that it was no more than just that I should be driven over the first morning or tin* session. c?>, ? >get her we went on the buck-board, fiuinen had laughingly told me not to lu afraid of the creek, that the large boys wore at home, plowing, and as we were skirting the gullied hill I glanced back and saw her standing in the yard, looking after us. The mad lay mostly through the woods, with many a turn and dip down among thick bushes to cross a crooked stream. Sometimes we came upon small clearings. where tired-looking men were grubbing new-land for tobacco, and 1 remembered that a half-grown boy. with a sullen look, threw a chunk at us and viciously shouted that if we would stop a minute he would whip both of us. I imagined that he was kept from school by the imperious demand of the tobacco patch, and I sym pathized with him in liis wrath against mankind. A little further along we came within sight of an old log house, and then the laughter of children reached our ears. We had arrived at the place where my work was to begin. A if put me down, and, saying that he must get back home, drove away; and a hush fell upon the children as I turned toward the house. Inside I found a cow bell, and when I had rung the youngsters to their duties, I made them a short speech, telling them that I was sure we should become close friends. 1 had some difficulty in arranging them into classes, for it appeared that each child had brought an individual book. But I was glad to see that old McGuffv's readers nrevailed. for in many parts of the south they had been supplanted by books of flimsy text, and now to see them cropping up gave me great pleasure. There they were, with the same old lessons that had fired me with ambition, the words of Shakespeare and the speeches of great Americans. By evening my work was well laid out. and as I took my way homeward, with Guinea in my mind, there was a strong surge within my breast, the leaping of a determination to win her. As I neared home, coming round by the spring. I saw the girl running down the path, the picture of a young deer and how that picture did remain with me. and how on an occasion held by the future, it was to be vivified. "Oh, you have got back safe and dry." she cried, halting upon seeing me. "Why, I thought you would come back dripping. Xo, I didn't." she quickly added. "Don't you know I told you that all the large boys were at work? Wait until I get the jar of butter and I'll go to the house with you." "Let me get it for you." I replied, turning back with her. "You can't get it," she said, laughing; "you'll fall into the spring. But, then, you might hold it as a remembrance to temper the severity of the ducking yet to come." "Miss Guinea." I made bold to say, standing at the door of the springhouse. "do you know that you talk with exceeding readiness?' "Oh. do you mean that I am always ready to talk? 1 didn't think that of you." I reached out and took the jar from from her. "You know I didn't mean that," I said: and, looking up, with her eyes full of mischief, she asked: "What did you mean, then?" "I mean that you talk easily and brightly?like a book." "You'd better let me have the jar," she said, holding out her hands. "I'm afraid that you'll fall and break it, after that. You know that a man is never so likely to slip as he is when he's trying to compliment a woman." "No. I don't know that, but I do know that a southern woman ought to know tlie difference between flattery and a real compliment." "Why a southern woman?" she asked. She looked to me as if she were really in earnest and I strove to answer her earnestly. "Because southern women are not given to flirting; because they place more reliance in what a mah says, and?" "I think you've got yourself tangled up." she said, laughing at me, and 1 could but acknowledge that I had; and then it was, in the sweetest of tones, that she said: "But if I had thought you really were tangled I would not have spoken of it. Now tell me what you were going to say, and I promise to listen like a mouse in a corner." "No, I'm afraid to attempt it again." I was in advance of her, for the path was narrow and the dew was now gathering on the grass, but she shot past me. and. looking back, said beseechingly; "Won't you, please?" The sun was long since down and the twilight was darkening, but I could see the eagerness on her face. "Do, please, for I like to hear such things. I'm nothing but the simplest sort of a girl, as easy to amuse as a child, and you must remember that you are a great big man. from out in the world." "Come on with that butter!" the old man shouted, and with a laugh the girl ran away from me. I wondered whether she were playing with me, but I could not beljeve that she was. In those eyes there might be mischief, but there could not be deceit. Bed time came immediately after supper. The old man did not go out to look after his chickens, so tired was he, and there was no song in the sitting room. I sat in the passage, where the moonlight, fell, and hoped that the girl might join me. but she did not. and I went to my room, where I found Alf. half undressed, sitting on the edge of the bed. I had sat down and had filled my pipe before he took notice of me. but when 1 began to search about for a light he looked up and remarked: "Matches on the corner of your library." "Here's one," I replied, and had lighted the pipe when he said: "Saw her today. Bill?saw her riding along the road with Dan Stuart. She didn't even look over in the Held toward me. but he waved his hand, and I saw more hatred than friendship in it. Blame it all. Bill. I'm not going to follow a plow through the dirt all the time. I can do something better, and after this crop's laid by I'm going to do it. I .don't think that she wants to marry a farmer." "What does Stuart do?" I asked. "How can he afford to be riding about when other men are at work?" "Oh. I guess he's pretty well fixed. He's got a lot of negroes working for him and he raises a good deal of tobacco. Xo, sir. she didn't even look toward me." "But haven't you passed her house when you were almost afraid to look toward the porch when you knew that she was standing there?" "< ?f course I have!" he cried. "Yes, sir. I've done that many a time?just pretended that l had misiness everywhere else but on that porch. Ain't it strange how love does take hold of a fellow? It Rets into his heart and his heart shoots it to the very ends of his fingers; it gets into his eyes, and he can't see anything hut love, love everywhere. It may catch you one of these days. Hill, and when it does, you'll know just how 1 feel." I looked at this strong and honest man. this man idolizing an Image that he had enshrined in h'.s soul, and I thought to tell him that, with my forehead touching the ground. I had wor shi| ed his sister, but no, it was too delicate a confidence?I would keep it to myself. We were astir in the dawn the next day. ate breakfast by the light of a lamp, but Guinea was not at the table, and I loitered there after the others were Rone out, hoping to see her, but she did not come, and then I remembered that Mrs. Jucklin was also absent, and that the services of the meal had been performed by a negro woman. When I returned at evening, with the droning of the children's voices echoing in my ears, it seemed to me that I had been gone an age. I came again by the spring, but Guinea was not there, but I heard her singing as 1 drew near to the house. She was in the passage, gleefully dancing, with a broom for a partner. When she saw me she threw down the broom and ran away, laughing; but she came -back when she found that I had really discovered her. "You must think that I am the silliest creature in the world," she said, "and I don't know that I can dispute you. Millie Lundsford has just gone home. She and I have been going through with our old-time play, when, with window curtains wound about us to represent long dresses, and with brooms to personate the brave knights who had rescued us from tiie merciless Turks, we danced in the castle. And I was just taking a turn with a duke when you came. What a knight you would have been." "And what an inspiration I should have had to drive me onward and to set my soul aflame with ambition." I replied, looking into her eyes. It must have been my look rather than my words that threw a change over her; my manner must have told her that I was becoming too serious for one who had known her so short a time, but be that as it may, a change had coine upon her. She was no longer a girl, gay and airy, with a romping (Spirit, but a woman, dignified. "Has your work been hard today?" she asked. "It has been more or less stupid, as it always is," 1 answered, slowly walking with her toward the dining-room. When we had sat down to the table Alf came in with his new clothes on, and whispering to me when his sister had turned to say something to her mother, ho said: "Got something to tell you when we go up stairs." Mrs. Jucklin was afraid that 1 did not eat enough; she had heard that biain workers required much food: her uncle, who had been a justice of the 1.-.1 ,.l.l 1 it morla Hilt pfacf, I1HU imu IK* I niai II lunu^ small difference what he ate while enpaged in getting out saw logs, but that when lie began to meditate over a case in court, he required the most stimulating provender. "And now," she she said, "If there's anything that I can fix for you, do, please, let me know what it is. Now, Guinea, what are you titterln' at? And that negro woman doesn't half do her work, either. I dulare to goodness I'd rather do everything on the place than to see her foolin' round as if she's afraid to take hold of anything; and her lingers full of brass rings, too. I jest told her that she'd have to take 'em off, that I didn't want to eat any brass. Laws a massy, niggers are jest as different from what they was as day is from night. Talk to me about freedom helpin' 'em. Hut the Lord knows best," she added, with a sigh of resignation. "If He wants 'em to be free, why, no one ought to complain, and goodness knows I don't. Yes, they ought to be free," she went on after a moment of reflection. "Oh. it was a sin and a shame to sell 'em away from their children, but it's all over now, thank God. Now, I wonder where your father is, Alf. Never saw sicli a man in my life. Looks jest like he begrudges time enough to eat. There he comes now." The old man came in, covered with dirt. "Alf, is the shot gun loaded?" he asked, brushing himself. 'Yes, sit. Why?" We looked at the old fellow, wondering what he meant. * -- 1 Alf ,.p_ but be inaue no t-A|uti.... pea ted his question. "Why?" And the old man exclaimed: "Oh, nothin'. Jest goin' to blow that red steer's head off. that's all. Confound his hide. [ wish I may die this minute if I ever had sieli a jolt in my life. Went along by him', not sayin' a word to him. and if he didn't up and let me have both heels I'm the biggest liar that ever walked a log. Hadn't done a thing to him. mind you; walkin' along 'tendin' to my own business, when both of his heels tlew at me. And I'll eat a bite and then go and blow his head off." "Oh. Limuel," his wife protested: "a body to hear you talk would think that you don't do anything at all but thirst for blood. If the Lord puts u in nomind of a steer to kick you. why. It ain't the poor creeter's fault." The old man snorted. "And if the Lord puts It in my mind to kill the steer it ain't my fault, muther. Conscience alive, what are we all dressed up so about?" he added, looking at Alf. "So much stile goin' on that a body don't know whuther he's a shuckin' corn or is at a picnic. Blow his head off as soon as I eat a bite." To be Continued ... MONTE CARLO SUICIDES. Only Seven In a Week, Which Indicates an Improvement. Under' the headline "Seven More" a French newspaper recently published the following from a Monte Carlo correspondent: "There Is a slight reduction in the number of suicides for the current week. Of the seven unhappy ones whom the bandits of Monte Carlo have hurried to their death after first robbing them, four have hanged themselves in the garden and one has hanged himself in his room at the Hotel de Paris. This last one was cut down, nearly dead, and taken to the hospital at Monaco, where lie is being cared for in the greatest secrecy. A woman also has poisoned herself at Monaco, only a few steps from the museum that was raised to his own glory by Albert I. Still another, a young man, 30 years < i -i- . ?..?ir ,\n MnndflV even 111(1, Siloi Illlii^ni iivuu ? ing at 9 o'clock on one of the benches fronting the great staircase of the Casino. And yet among the statesmen who meet regularly at The Hague to combat the scourge of war, not a single delegate lias yet dreamed of suggesting the suppression of the slaughter house at Monaco." X"""An elephant's burden Is from 1.S00 to 2.500 pounds, and that of a horse from 200 to 250 iHisccllanfouo iUiulittt). AN OTTER HUNT. British Sport of a Kind We Do Not Knov/. A bright, sunny morning, and a meet of otter hound*. What a crowd it is! Young men, old men, women daintily dressed, short-skirted maidens, and the members of the hunt In neat blue serge, smart vests and bright colored caps. Every one carries a stout pole, some six feet long, with niches cut upon it Indicating "kills," and all wear a silver-mounted otter pad as a badge. There are the shaggy-coated hounds rolling in the meadow grass, the huntsman in their midst, and the whips a little distance off, flicking lightly at any that wander too far away, .^ee, now, the master approaches and hounds are about to be laid on. Away/ runs the huntsman toward the river, blowing his horn as he goes, and the whole pack scamper after him. Half of the hounds are whipped in and, swimming: the stream, take up the further bank; half remain on the near side, and then all are nosing it diligently as we proceed up stream. Bouncing Girl is very keen. She leaps over the little bushes, pokes into ever? cranny, snuffles at the willow trees, and every now and then takes the water. Listen, hounds are voicing from the the other bank! The hound that has spoken is old Booser, the surest dog hound in all the pack. Wliite, shaggy, and so stiff that he can make no pace, he has yet a nose which never deceives him. "Get to him." cries the huntsman, and, plunging and leaping, hounds crowd round with muzzles down and waving sterns. They take up stream again at a great pace, for a "drag" once established must be hotly pursued, since scent may cool with the advance of day. We come to more shallow water and banks bordered with reeds. Hounds check, they have "put down" their otter. Here, or hereabouts, Lutra is hiding. Old Booser has marked a hollow tree. "Try in there: try in there!" cries the huntsman. They have marked a holt; they will not leave the snot. Poles are used to tap the withered trunk, but Lutra is not there. He must be below, in some hollow in the tree's roots, approached only by diving beneath the water's surface. We can trace his stamp in the mud. The master collects a dozen men Who jump simultaneously on the bank, and presently the otter is bolted from below. A cry of "Tallyho!" comes from thirty yards up stream. A little whiskered black head has popped into view and instantly disappeared again. Hounds romp to the spot, and old Booser, plunging in, shows' us one of the most interesting sights, in otter hunting, for he swims along, nosing his quarry through the water. Once more there is a view, and then for several minutes we do not see him. If he comes up it is behind some tiny covert which screens him. We do, however, see his chain, a little double row of bubbles, rising at regular intervals. He is making for deep water ahead and if he reaches it he will escape us. The master takes a number of volunteers up stream. They all go into the river, stretch from bank to bank, and line their poles along wedged by their legs. They are not a moment too soon for, like a flash, a black object, darting beneath the surface, thuds against the barrier and is driven back. Down the stream we hear a man cry "Tally-ho!" and then we see him jump frantically into the reeds. He has attempted to tail the otter. We are secretly glad of his misfortune, for tailing is not a very sportsman like practice, ana is aosoiuteiy ioroiuden by many masters. It is the business of hounds to kill their otter, and the less they are interfered with the better. Sometimes a tailed otter will get a rich revenge, for unless he is grasped by the rudder close to the body he can twist up and bite his opponent. His rudder, too, is very slippery. and this adds to the danger. As our too ardent sportsman struggles to the bank and stands pressing the water from his clothes he explains that he had seen the otter draw itself silently into the reeds and lie with its head just out of the water. Always a most intelligent animal, the otter will positively think when in extremes. Note how he remembers. He does not seek again, the holt from which he has been bolted; the recollection of the thud overhead, caused by the jumping, has led him to doubt the security of his ceiling. Xext he tries down stream. In this direction would probably be safety did he only* contihue far enough, but. being a bit done, he must come up for breath, and. rising he winds the hounds so plainly that he turns back. Now he will essay a desperate part. A tributary stream lies half across a tiny wooded space. It is only a few yards, or he would never venture. With great ' courage he climbs out, i hobbles across, and plunges in on the 1 other side. Fatal error! He had been [ seen, as is in now much more confined space. Master and huntsman know the end is near and hounds flying to the horn plunge into the stream voicing vigorously as they own to tlie drag and feel their quarry is at hand. Hut master and huntsman have , reckoned without their host. They realize very shortly than an otter does not leave a broau ror a narrow sueam for nothing. His sagacity is far too great for that, and there is a reason for this manoeuvre. Hounds, scrambling out of the river. follow their huntsman, and several pick up the line the otter has just laid, but when they reach the smaller waterway their enthusiasm slackens. Old Booser never leaves the line, but pants backward and forward along it. Hounds did not view the otter, and had they done so old Booser's failing sight would scarcely have served him. His nose does not deceive him now, but on a line so hot and short he cannot tell which way his quarry traveled. As to the rest of the pack, they hunt on a dozen different lines, without voicing or being able to decide which is the freshest. Kach time they touch Booser's ground they wish to fly back to the river, but are whipped to the stream again. What has happened is this: The wily Lutra has carried them to his last night's hunting ground and hidden himself in a submerged drain directly at the end of his little run across country. He knows his 12-hour-old scent will be still holding and that it will confuse hounds, and he waits silently in his resting place. Rut the huntsman, waist deep. Is ramming his pole beneath the bank, and at last he finds an inlet. It is the mouth of the drain a little below the surface. A farm hand standing by tells us of a dam up stream. The very thing! A foot of water is run off, the terrier is introduced into the aperture, and the next moment the otter is bolted. Followers wade the river in their anxiety to see the kill, and every inch of stream is soon watched by careful eyes. There is a view here, a tally-ho there, and shortly it is obviously his frequent reappearances that Lutra is nearly done. Then comes the end. and fortunately, as every good sportsman would desire, it is all but instantaneous. A view is made right under hounds, there is a terrific splash as they leap In, and then all is over. It has been a gallant otter and a great hunt.?London Daily News. THE NAVAJOES. The Famous Indians of the Far Southwest. The present-day Indian if not considered a menace to society, is looked upon as a charge on the body politic, and we frequently hear that the only good Indian is the dead one, yet there are exceptions. The tribe of Navajoes, whose reservation in New Mexico and Arizona borders on southeastern Utah and southwestern Colorado, numbers nearly 4,000 souls. They are a pastoral people, herding sheep, goats and horses over their great arid ranges, and in a small way cultivating corn and other grains. Except when excited by fire water, they are peaceable and to a degree Industrious. The women are notable blanket weavers and the men are silversmiths of no mean ability. Of late years the Navajoes have been employed with considerable deervck/* r\f qo Ho/aqu aontlnrt nn the Denver and Rio Grande and other railroads running in close proximity to their reservation. They have also been engaged by orchardists to gather fruit, and last season hundreds of young bucks ranging in age from 12 to 20 years were employed in thinning the sugar beet fields of the Arkansas, Grand and Uncompaghre valleys in Colorado. They were away from the reservation two months at a time, and their employers report that their work was quite as satisfactory as that of the Russian peasants generally employed to do this work and supposed to be unusually skilled in this particular kind of labor. Like all Indians, their besetting sin is "monte." Give an Indian the price of his hire and he will quit work until it is gambled away. They are a polygamous people, having no religion. and like all aborigines, are superstitious, Relieving in all kinds of signs and workings of supernatural powers. Although the Navajo reservation adjoins the Mesa Verde National Park, where so many Cliff Dweller ruins are found, it is with difficulty that a Navajo can be induced to act as a guide to the ruins. When one is found willing to show the way he cannot be induced to remain in the immediate vicinity, and when night comes on he moves miles away. A curious tradjtion. and one accounting perhaps for their abhorrence of the Cliff Dweller region, is tnat ages ago, when the Cliff Dwellers and their enemies were engaged in an exterminating warfare, the former were finally driven into a mighty river, and, drowning, the souls of the Cliff Dwellers were transmitted into the bodies of fishes. And from that time to this a Xavajo cannot be induced to eat fish. Another legend, no less curious, relates to the Ship Rock. About thirtyfive miles due west from Farmington, X. M., and within the borders of their reservation, situated in the midst of the desert, stands a famous rock called Ship Rock, which looms to the height of 2.000 feet above the surrounding plain. It rises from the centre of an immense and gradually sloping mound, which gives it a towering appearance and its outlines can be seen for many miles in various directions. The rock derives its name from its appearance when seen from a certain d{MnA<i/vtt ikUam/IA If kaoamhlao o fill I _ UIICLUUII, IICIIWC II ICOClllUICO Up LXMttrigged ship stranded and petrified. The Indian legend is that in the dim and misty past they had their habitation in a distant land beyond the great ocean and that the rock was situated in their ancient country. Once upon a time, the tribe being closely pressed by its enemies and in danger of total annihilation, the survivors climbed into the cracks and crevices of the great rock and implored it for protection. The supplications were heard and shortly the rock began to move. It crossed innumerable wastes, gradually reached the ocean, which it crossed, traversed more wastes and deserts and finally arrived at its present resting place, when the refugees sprang from its bosom. Thus the tribe remained upon the face of the earth. The ranks of the tribe are being de- 1 pleted, and before a great many years ( the good Ship Hock will be obliged to gather up the people and go on another long voyage in order that the tribe 1 of the Navajo may be perpetuated i among the tribes of the earth.?San , Francisco Chronicle. Rkasox Foil Dkawino.?The deviousness of the operations of the mind has ben freshly illustrated for an instructor in drawing in one of the technical schools of New York, says the Tribune. Desiring to get the point of view regarding the subject of drawing ' from a new class, she asked each member to write out what she considered to be the object of drawing. Among the papers submitted was one. written in excellent hand, by a 14-year-old girl i)f foreign birth and parentage. It ' read as follows: "The object in drawing is to exercise the arm muscles and to give free access to the muscles in the arm, so that the arm will have free movement back and forth and in and out of the sleeve. It is also useful in designing a picture, and can also be used in embroidering a piece of goods which has to be stamped. It may be used in making a picture frame; by i using a little paint the drawing will show out very nicely." PREDICTS WAR IN SKIES. Fleet of Aircrafts Armed With Guns to Act as Scouts. Hudson Muxlm, the famous Inventor. has just worked out the plans for a new submarine motor boat, says the Xew York American, which will act. Itself, as a monstrous torpedo and, after blowing up the warship It has chased, safely escape on the wave caused by the explosion. It will be driven by only a couple of men, travel at terrific speed, have a "steaming radius" of several hours, be practically Invulnerable and carry in Its deadly nose a ton of high explosives, which it can place with surety wherever the other fellow least wants to have it. Pressed for details of this remarkable new engine of destruction, which, ii is Deiieveu, win create a new era in naval warfare. Air. Alaxlm refused to talk. "I am saving them for my lecture tomorrow evening before the American Chemical society and am sorry that anything about it has leaked out beforehand. I had hoped to have kept it secret altogether." The representative of the American asked if he did not think these deadly instruments would put an end to war by making it impossible. "Quite the reverse," Mr. Maxim replied. "So far from war in the world being anywhere near its end, it Is, as war. only just commencing its scientific period. "The idea about the "zone of death,' r that two armies would reach a point where neither could attempt to cross the Interval without facing certain annihilation, is a fallacy. It is all right in theory. But in practice it only discloses a need which science at once sets about providing for. I have now many ways for enabling an army to cross that 'zone of death.' The simplest buries the enemy in a cloud of dense smoke. Another, still better, is used at night, and so lights them up that, while they can be plainly seen, they are too dazzled to see anything themselves. in me wariare 01 me iuiure, armies will line up on opposing skylines and fire at each other over the enormous arena in between them. They will hdve their scouts and riflemen armed with silent guns, and the sky will be clouded with fleets of scout- > ing aircraft. There will be many a tilt between aerial pickets, and shrapnel and canister will be directed toward the sky as well as towards the enemy's flring l^e. "But is it a mistake to suppose that flying machines will play havoc by dropping high explosives. Explosives so used would do very little damage in ?he horizontal plane, and kill very few men in an army. "By that time army generals will be expert scientific engineers, and explosives will be used In machines that will annihilate thousands of men in a few minutes. "But as a political factor, war maybe kept out of account if one keeps prepared. In war dollars fly more quickly than bullets. The only way to keep war off is to let the promoters of war see that the plunder won't repay them for the money outlay. "What Russia may do in the present war cloud in Europe, at the back of which she no doubt is, cannot be forecast from her defeat by Japan. I should not be surprised if this time she obtained her long-sought goal?Constantinople, and a water outlet by way of the Dardanelles. England will hardly face another war. If France joined her, Germany would rush in? ? ... and in the end all Europe would be at the mercy of her yellow peril." MANY EMPTY HOUSE8. Fifty Thousand of Them In the City of London. Fifty thousand empty houses In London acclaims Tit-Bits. John Burns made this startling announcement in the house of commons recently. Large as this number is there are those who believe it is under rather than over the mark. A remarkable change has taken place during the past five or six years. Whereas formerly landlords were masters of the situation, tenants have now the whip hand in nearly every district, and are offered all manner of inducements to take houses. It is not long since that a premium?or what amounts to the same thing, "key money"?was demanded by property owners in some parts of London. Today numbers of such men will actually allow tenants a discount, which consists in the case of small property, of the expenses of removal up to ?1, or else of so many weeks' occupation free. Usually no rent is required for the first fortnight; but in certain localities the competition between property owners is so keen that the period in some cases is one month, making the discounts about ?2 2s., or ?2 5s. A more curious bait is free insurance. One company gratuitously insures each of its tenants against fire; while another, besides safeguarding the householder against this contingency, relieves him of apprehension respecting any damage to his furniture by "lightning or Hood. Certain separate charges have also been swept away, particularly in the case of flats, which, it is said, are now u drug in the market. Some landlords, for instance, made one for the cleaning of the common staircase this, with the "extra" for gas, amounting to about Is. 6d. per week. The 18d. was really rent, and the reason it was not called such was partly to evade payment of rates. When? this is an actual case?a man owned about fifty flats and returned their rent as 15d. per week, each less than it really was. his assessment was considerably lower than it ought to have been, and consequently he did not pay his due proportion of rates. But of late "extras" have frequently been cut off without any addition, being made to the amount formerly set down as "rent." .t ' Out of every million letters that pass through the postofflce it is calculated that only one goes estray. tf*"'The British railways in 1907 are reported to have had a total length of 23,101 miles. There were 1,260,177,000 passengers and 515,971,000 tons of freight carried during the year. The gross receipts were $591,465,000, and the total expenditures were $373,085,noo. I