w 2 ^ * * HOMING FOH CIIKISTMAS. + * W. G. Kowlette, in The Columbia State. The mid-December night in the Virginia hills had closed?closed fast and hard and was wearing on towards its turn. All the lights in the little junction town were out, save the lonely oil-burning sentinel that guarded the main street cross* ng over the great iron highway stretching north and south, and the gleaming white targets of tlie switehstamls and the red bulls eyes of the three semaphore signals that guided the iron horses of the great hustling trunk line and the fussy little branch with its 40-vear-old. hav-burning Mason. Tlie prophecy of the low hanging slaty clouds of the late afternoon was fulfilled when?ping! the first great white flakes struck and sizzled against the window panes of the tower where the young telegrapher kept vigil over and guided the movements of trains, took occasional messages and numerous train orders and at midnight lunch. The little branch train had come in at met the northbound lo cal, deposited her passengers and "been tucked away in the little onecell round house and the operator had lit his pipe cocked his feet up against the quad-table and was enjoying the heat of the red-hot coal burner in the corner, awaiting the nightly rush of the great "limited" going south, when his busy time would come. Then the door open*w1 nn.l In toll,,.,! tlin nnnl t/tn " vu anw in ?? (imcvi i nc icpuva vm ?? broken clown general manager. His hair was 60 but his fare was 4 0. His clothes didn't quite lit the replica role, hut they were good and well cared for if they did date a fewyears back; his firm, clean-shaven chin and clear gray eyes didn't show the marks of dissipation and there was the air about hint that marks the order-giver, not tlie order-taker, in the railroad world. Nothing of the "bo" about him?though the time, the hour and the place bespoke it. He stretched out a clean, white? hand and the operator grasped it with confidence. "Some night east there and going to be more, and that's some (ire-. Am ] welcome?" was his introduction. "You are- its against the rul -s; but "Oh, the- rules are si 11 right. 1 guess my credentials would get me? by. I'seel to nice t and pass 'em clown on the M. A. before she was gobbled up by the V. M. A: U. !>." He had scarcely taken his seat when the "bonk! honk! bonk!" of a high-stepping Baldwin caused the operamr 10 jump to in?* levers. Selecting one, lie threw it back ami then peered through the misty glass to see the little red gleam from the dise of the distant semaphore change to a bursting ray of white. Then another and still another lever was set and then the short jerky "bonk! bonk!" from the big Baldwin told him he was understood and with a rattle and roar she shot by and 011 to the south, her tail lights blinking and winking as the snow flakes whirled and scurried after. "That, fellow is sure gutting that jack, my boy," said the replica. "Yes that's 39. Sort of sliortdog limited. Picks up the Pullmans as she goes, but a pretty good car. The real thing is 011 the block. Just watch how differently she hollers for it. "Thirty-nine by Mia' at 11:21," repeated the replica in an undertone, as the operator marked it down 011 the block sheet; then turned and set the semaphores back to danger. "There's another fellow 011 the block," said the operator, "37, New York to New Orleans solid and slur's some stepper, believe me." A shaft of powerfully light shot across the hills to the right of the tower, nestled there a moment, an I then as the big locomotive dashed around a curve a mile away and swung on the straight track leading to the little towen, flickered and played against the windows of the tower and on the face of the inen standing at the levers. Four times the big Baldwin?bigger than the one on 39?screamed for her right to proceed. Again the operator grasped the levers and set the glistening discs from danger red to the white light of safety?and clear track. Again the answering "toot too" of understanding; a funnel of thick black smoke was shooting high up through the falling snow, as the fire-box door flew open to take In more coal for the hungry flames. and with a groan and a grind, rattle and roar as she struck the crosscover the big Bahvin shot by on her restless race from snowballs ta orange blossoms. The hand of both the replica and the operator, with one lone finger pointing np, was stll. raised in silent answer to the like greeting of Tom Gorhan, veteran uriver of 37, us the tail lights flickered in the distance. The replica held his hand on the lever a moment, his clear gray eyes 3till fixed on the fast disappearing tail lights. His firm jaw was twitching and his lips were tightly compressed?and his face showed tense, deep feeling as he turned to the operator and, drawing a long deep breath, remarked: "It never gets out of the blood, my boy; it never gets out of the blood!" And then he added "When is there something north? something a fellow might get to Washington on?you think you could fix it? "Sixteen is due at 4:32, She is a milk wagon, but the fixing won't be so hard." "Thanks. You see it's th's way 1'vt; got a friend?much younge: tlmu I, but a friend just the same ?ami I always try and get around tc> him about this time every year, lie's ' a first tri on the W. M.. and when the world gets glad I always like to be about hiim 1 haven t fa?let" in seven years. 1 don't want to fail now. His name is 'Skin,' Skin Wil-j Hams?know him?" "No I think not. lint where'd1 lie get that name? Why does he sign?" "Signs 'SK.' His rea! name is' Richard, but 'Skin' was tacked to him when he was a messenger boj down in the Louisville W. I'. and it's stuck. You see, it was this way?" And he settled back and; the operator knew a yarn was coining. "Skin made his debut in'I' olf:ce when he was about 15. I was receiving on the second New York morn-J ings and sending on the lirst St. Louis 'dux' afternoons. Skin wasn't exactly a typical type for a messenger. He was ugly enough.l all right, and freckled enough, but! he was tio good natved, yet iie| made d. Two dv? after he wasj d'-signa ed as 'No. 2'. and donned | his uniform, he was invited by1 Messenger No. 1 into ih~ hack ullej ; and initiated. He came back with > ;'.n? k ye and shy trout tooth! buf | "iin'iig. After Hint his bonk i was nearly always on top of the pile with Hf'iing iner i 1 earnings, a nil his .-.mile grew here, at; 1 his g "d ..ati.re more cat.u-m Jo *st." t w. :i\ every mornis? s; >iess. but usually left at night very much ot -.erwise That Indicated a motlter at home stud as later developments proved. ;. widow. Messenger boys' mothers ar > usual , ly widows, for story purposes anyway. After a while Skin got to hanging around my table with a sort of itching hesitancy. Finally lie braced up and said he wanted to) learn to telegraph. He had hough. a learner's set through an advertisement seen in a telegraph journal and wanted to start right now. He had done me a lot of minor favors, such as running out for coffee or a sandwich and I like the chap, and so agreed to help him. He and one or two of the others who could make a letter or two rigged up their sets in the battery room and startm1. As usual, progress was slow and the others dropped out. but Skin kept digging. Finally he made friends with tlie delivery clerk and! the two worked together a great deal.! ! helped along from time to time.' correcting bad Morse and occasion-! ally sending to Skin for an hour o:-| two on Sundays. After a couple of I years Skin could g< t ten words a{ week, but he stuck to It. "About this time I began to no..or that Hetty Handley, one of the' assistant delivery clerks, a young miss of about 1(?, had fresh flowers on her desk every morning. Natural enough, you know, for a young | girl to put flowers on her desk, es| pecially a pretty girl -and Betty was that and then some, with an air of womanly graciousness thrown In. I hadn't learned a word as to the source of the flowers, but one day 'Skin' got in a mix-up with Jack Craig, the biggest messenger in tlie bunch, just outside of Hetty's grated window. 'Skin' got the worst of it, but he would not have if Hetty had been a boy, it was plain to see. and it was her litilo handkerchief that1 stopped the blood from Skin's nose. Tlu- mystery of the flowers was solved. "Time passed on and 'Skin' finally got so he could get ten words without a break and he was the proudest youngster in Christendom. About this time I loft the W. U. and started working in a dispatcher's office for W. M., and about throe years later was promoted to a trick dispatchership. I heard from 'Skin' now and then and when he heard I was promoted he wrote and said he was fit for business and asked me to get hint a job. He came on to my town, I tried him out and he was 'there.' So I got the chief to place him in u little town out on the*line. He sent for his mother and they made it their home. A Uttle later, like all good dispatchers, I got mine. It's THE LANCASTER NEWS. I only a question of time, you know. 1 tb don't care how good you are, how ^ careful you are. If you run trains pa long enough, you are going to do it, ca and one day I set one up. A head- bl< ender between a work extra and an ?a i excursion train. Killed three and no hurt several." The replica stopped g0 a minute, clinched his fingers and cu : nroceeded: 11U | "I was fired, of course, and about br j crazy. 'Skin* sent me word to come otl I out to see him and rest up. I did, : and went into brain fever. His ni| j mother nursed me?at least he and ^ ' his mother did, and I pulled through. Inj That was nine years ago. Since then vl< | the nerve is gone, so I've been moving rei iround here and there, visiting my ch 1 friends on nights like this, and at t,M | Christmas going back for a few, days an 1 with 'Skin.' "Oh, yes?you needn't ask. I know jv what you are going to say?Hetty's en: there too and there's a boy about mi five and a girl about three. What tal time did you say '16' got here?" 8ta The operator walked over to the wire, spoke to the dispatcher in "Z" and wrote out a telegraph pass to Washington for James Randall and . Ojqi handed it to the replica. "Sixteen" blew l' such thoughts any ( y in the year. Then do not select ^ the merriest of the three hundred t. ltd sixty-five for your doleful recol- ^ 1 "ciions. but draw your chair nearer the blazing lire?fill the glass and ft tend round the song?and if your ? room be smaller than it was a dozen ^ years ago, or if your glass be filled Jj with reeking punch instead of spark- * ling wine, put a good face on the ft matter. Look on the merry faces of your children (if you have any) as they nit round the fire. One little seat may be empty; one slight form that gladdened the father's heart, and roused the mother's pride to look upon, may not be there. Dwell not upon the past; think not that one . hort year ago the fair child now re: olving into dust sat before you, with the bloom of health upon its cheek, i ;.nd the gayety of infancy in its joyous eye. Helled upOn your present blessings?of which every man has many not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some. Fill your glass again, with a merry face and contented heart. Our life on it, but your Christmas shall he merry, and your New Year a happy one. Burro wers="Beware! Gophers ^nd prairie dogs are the hnne of western furmers, while In the east woodchuoks are the type of burrowing animals that cause the tillers of the soil to forgot some of the things the dominie tells them on Sundays. Don Leonardo Ruiz, a California rancher, says "dynamite Is the proper medicine to give ground squirrels, gophers. prairie dogs, etc." Take-an Inch and a half or two Inches of dynamite. Put It in a bit of cloth or several thicknesses of paper to form a small round cartridge. Tie the cloth or [taper flrmly about one end of n piece of fuse twelve or fourleen Inches long, but do not use n cap. Insert one of these charges well Into the mouth of every hole and pack i looso dirt around the fuse, leaving enough of the end outside to light easily. Light the fuse and go on to the next hole. There will be no explosion There being no cap or other detonator. the dyiuumite will simply burn. < filling the holt with dense, poisonous fumes that win almost instantly stifle and then kill every living thing Inside. RUB-MIY-TISM Will cure Rheumatism, Neuralgia, Headaches, Cramps, Colic Sprains, Bruises, Cut*, Burns, Old Sores, Tetter, Ring-Worm, Eczema, etc. Antineptio Anodyne, I used internally or externally. 25c , )ECKMBER 21, 1915. eir flow. Numerous irregularities use them to meander about la aprently wasteful ways, aud man's 1 relessness has added to these trou- wli ss by allowing driftwood and loose Th rth to form dams and sandbars. the Ml of these things help to hold the am od of waters back and cause either ma odlng or swamps, which not only oc py land that could be more profitably ed for farming, but also form fine eedlng places for mosquitoes and 1 ler obnoxious pests. Incidentally Pie sy cause an annunl loss ninntmr in>n nt? llions of dollars per year. "W [n this (lay of enlightenment such pla Ings arc both wasteful and, one Yo glit add. criminal, especially so In ?w of the fuct that almost Instant lef may be hud by a few web placed urges of dynamite. Not only will jse blasts straighten out the kinks d bends and remove ledges and J1 ad bars, but they will deepen and im- ? ave the channels as nature has real- |'ul intended. Incidentally by straightIng tbCZ KjsisuJnid .s 0 'opanvt "OD ? .\aX3U3 f d :*s.>jppv A sjninojp joj pii.is oj spa; 4| .>??j .(ihi i vj?l|op pojpanq ouo J.ijgo .( qj, iuojka'h .>m , ( >ij a tin mioomil puB po?|q oq) uo Xil.wjtt. I ii 'injiiouutiv.t) u oi silujp oi moj; ?.>*op u| | u,U.u .'Joj.u.iqi pin "OB sip tnnoijiijjisiioo R .iq ?.>jrt pint osn.itqp |n.io( r )| p.iotinntiujil >op iqg.it .tinrin jn.oS n jo..| '.qqiunoui >1 p.ivoiMns ? ? vjimv av.i; 1kk| oqj | lilt 'J.tqiaXo) jnit n.wtMiqp J.iqjn nn tinqi .tJiur.oo V jo uo|)oos tqqi u| qjjvinj o.tooi m| oaoq.x, Jh T H does not trully . 1 1 1 to those who hi this past year, wish you all ? prosperous Ne1 sa sb m w? nih The I A Touch of a \ H Touch a match. Ir utes ine i^eriecnon Oil Heater is spreadi and warmth. The Perfection keep Sold in many styles and si Highest Award at Panama-P Look for the Triangle Tree Uae Aladdin Security Oil or Oil Stoves, Lamps and Keat< STANDARD C (New Jeraeyl BALTIMOR1 Waihinftnn, D. C. Norfolk, Va. Richmond. Va. jH PR- PtJR - PER pbrpbction nJBk^ 1^. /pf *> ?i ?i >Mi Trie Man Who Dreama. ^ noted man once said: "The man t th imagination rules the earth." t e man who dreams and imagines J > highest Ideals and then strives t 1 does attain them?that is the s a who is master of his life. The Latest Composition. | dr Flatte?"That was the best ce of ragtime I have heard on our noplayer, dear." Mrs. Flatte? 'ell, that was one of those porous sters I got in there by mistake."? nkers Statesman. Ejected. Mamma, did you say the baby came j >111 hoavon?" "Voc n.k,,4? * T .1 I >v?, " 11J . I UUll I j j nk he ear'e: I think ho was flrerl. j j w could angels sing with him ! I ttln* up that holler all the time?"? I uston Post. lead Stopped Up? Try the Vick VapVI plied In Salve Form Over Throat ti and Chest Relieves by Inhalation and Absorption. vi 01 apor treatments aro best for inflamma- pi is of the air passages. The vapors F< y the medication direct to the inflannnl to iaccs without disturbing tho stomach. nV uteraul medicines will do. A very con-1 tii 7ICK'S"Wte <%> ^ <$> ?4? $ +? The Word 1 A IN K convey our ave patronized Wp fliprpfnt w w vy VJI a merry Chris w Year. JSC Store thut Continues to Grow latch Brings aTou i five min- chill-free and co Smokeless and take it whe ing comfprt extra heat. L carried. Smokel Ten hours glov s any room a gallon of kero izes at all hardware and general sto: acific Exposition. temark. Diamond White Oil to secure beet result ire. >IL GO/ MMlMaMiriMMMMaaMMAMWiM Lemon juice for Headache. Lemon Juice and water will very of:en give gteat relief in the case of a tick headache. A wineglass of lemon luice in a little water taken three imes a day is also recommended for rheumatism. - " ' ??? CHICHESTER SPILLS RDAMn uiMNiuriu LADIH9 I Hull jour Uroirirtut for cni-CTin?-TKR S A DIA.?.-->ND 1'HaN 1i PILLS iu Rkd *ad/A Sold metallic boxes, scaled with BluevO# Ribbon. Tae.j NO OTnttt. Bnjr ? 7??e \S t>rar?'ot and a?k f >r CIII.CHKS.T4k 8 V DIAMOND BIUND PILLS, for twolltT-BJB jenrs regarded m Best,Safest, Always Reliable. SOLD BY ALL DRUGGISTS as* EVERYWHERE TESTKL Can't Breathe? rmm O-Rub Treatment * anient vapor treatment is a good applies* on of Vick's "Vap-O-Rub" Salve over the iroat and chest, covered with a warm inuel cloth. Tho body heat releases tjiora that are inhaled with every breath, zoning tho air passages, loosening tho ilegm, and healing tho raw surfaces. r>r deep chest colds, first apply hot wet wels to open the pores. Vick's is then ooroeu lurou^u tuo akin, taking out that ,'htnuss and aoroness. *2.r>c, 50c, or ftl.OO. m^S&LKE. VVVV V. V V V V :s I appreciation T< [ us through % e, in return * tmas and a % * t :hs1 x X ??n?????? ch of Spring |j sy. Pick if up? jjSj irever you wain ight and easily ^ ess and odorless. $1$ zing warmth on sene oil. a ^_ .. ?*?*? Mfc| | , W*-^, * ^gg **