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THOS. J. ADAMS PROPRIETOR. EDGEFIELD, S. C., WEDNESDAY, MARCH 16, 1898. VOL. LXIII. NO. ll. THE WOMAN There's one thing that can lift tba And since there's much of both, of If every friend has left yonr side a While slander takes yonr record u If every rose along your path has The world ls not a desert If some -\ A curtain pulled aside for eyes to \ This cheers yon as no million stan ' The white hand waving you a kiss Can make yon overlook men's hat? And God has not forgot the world Smj;o*He has given you the boon, 1 I THE FOR] ESSIE and I were friends. We had al ways been friends since -well, since we wore dresses to gether. That was when I was five and she was four. "We were, from that time, always together. Like brother and sister, you say? More than this. For brothers and sisters are not always close friends. "We j were chums. She went everywhere I went and did everything I did, and, as we grew np to boyhood and girl hood,* we .were inseparable. Even when I had attained the dignity of long pants I preferred her society to that of ,my male friends, for there was nothing'' soft abont Tessie, except, per haps, her eyes, and they were a beautiful, soft hazel. She was stroug and athletic, but of a slender build; could drive, row and swim as well as I conld; and had a complexion well browned by a long and intimate acquaintance with God's sunlight. A brave girl, too. I re member weil how once she swam across a quarter of a mile of choppy river to get the doctor for that grumpy old Sarah Tore, the lighthouse keep er's wife. She loved the cross old woman, she said, although no one else saw anything in her to love. Then Tess went to boarding school and came back at the end of three years with a little of that "horrible tao"-that's what her proper sister Laura called it-gone out of her cheeks, and just the faintest trace of city manners abont her; but at heart the same dear old Tess as ever. Now, although my girl friend and I had known each other so long and so intimately, yet we had never fallen in love .with each other. I am positive of this, became when I got soft on Jennie Bingham and lavished all my money on flowers for her, Tess only laughed. Then there was the time I fell head: over heels in love with dashing Cora Sands. "Why, then I had it bad. I got to the stage where you moon around street corners and carve her name on old stumps and gate posts; I even wrote my name and hers together ou the marriage page of tho old family Bible, just to soe how it would look, and then rubbed it out in guilty hasto. Even then didn't Tessie get np the lawn party and ma neuvre so that Cora and I were part ners for the whole evening? And then, there was the Jack Mauuers episode. Jaok quite lost his head over Tess, and asked her father if he could marry her. I think he even proposed elopement to Tessie. But she didn't love Jack, she said, and so wouldn't hear of his wast ingfany time or money on her. And I didn't feel a bit jealous. I am sure I didn't. So yon see it's quito plain that we had not given the mischievous little god Cupid any work to do for us. But now I was twenfy and Tes sie nineteen, and somehow, as I took the shapely little hand she offered me to welcome her back, after those three years at school, somehow it came to me suddenly that Tess was a beautiful girl, and that her eyes were bewitching. And there came into my heart a strange, uncomfortable feel ing- dissatisf ad ion, jealousy-what was it? It certaiulywas not pleasant. Suppose some ona. should take it into his head to fall in love with Tessie and marry her? Confoundhim! But then, what was that to me? I was not in love with her. Of course not. We were simply friends. And yet I instinctively disliked this fellow who might make love to my girl chum. The summer I wish particularly to tell you of, the one following Tessie's return from school, our folks aud her folks decided to spend the hot season at a little mountain hamlet with an un pronounceable name-a mixture of French and Indian-thirty miles or so to the north of Lake Superior. We had already spent one season there and knew of a good boarding house where they gave you enough to eat, and were too unsophisticated to charge a ruinous price. It was a one-horse sort of a place, containing about a dozen families, mostly French Cana dian habitants, primitive as Noah. The population numbered about one hundred persons. The town was perched right on the side of athirteen huudred-foot-high hill. Dover Moun tain, they called it. Directly back of this hill-in fact, almost a continua tion of it-rose a tall, pointed "moun tain about three thousand feet high, which the French habitants called Ducre's Spine. This eminence, as well as the hill on which the little vil lage lay, as though it had been dropped there, was very thickly wooded. Just a little space close about the houses had been cleared of trees, while for miles around extended the dense vir gin forest, most of whose heavy growth of pine, cedar, chestnut, oak and hickory, besides a rank undergrowth of sumac and scrub oak, had never been desecrated by the woodman's ax. The folk6 were to go up to this wild retreat early in the summer, and I was to join them iu August, when I got my vacation. The railroad by wh.ch one reached this out-of-the-way place followed the shore of the mighty Lake Superior for about one hundred miles Lom Duluth, and then struck into the forest for a short distance to avoid a great mass of basalt rock, too hard to tunnel through, the tracks comiug close to the water's edge again about five or six miles from where they left it. Just where the road was farthest from the lake, at the most northeasterly point pf the detour, the train slowed up a LOVING YOU. soul abovo both caro and woe course 'tis well that lt ls so. nd foes have filled their place, p its slimy charge to trace disappeared from view voman's loving you. vatch while you're in sight .( can light obscuring night; from lips that love your namo, 3 and all their haste" to blame, -you feel that this ls truo ;he woman loving you. -Will T. Hale, in Chicago Times-Herald, mmmmmm? moment to let off any passenger for the place with the long name. The hamlet boasted no station, only a plat form of rough, unhewn logs. From this point there wound up through the thick forest a narrow, tortuous road, rough and stony, and dark even in the daytime, from the overarching trees up to tho houses ou the hillside. Only one train a day stopped there, at half past five, and they always drove down from the boarding house to meet it in au*- antiquated, nondescript vehicle that might have come out of the ark. This was a two-wheeled rig, the wheels thick, rough slices cut from a hickory log. The horse usually at tached to it-he was the only being attached in any way to the unlovely thing-was a dignified, conservative animal, full of years, and which no amount of persuasion, either oral cr flagellative, had ever been known to induce to acc?lerate his progress to anything faster than a stately walk. It had been au unusually hot sum mer. As tho train swejit along the lake shore I noticed the vegetation appeared very dry and parched, and that the little pools, which always flashed like gems from the rocky soil along the edge of the lake, had dis appeared. The yellow-red swamp lilies that fringed the marshy ground to the north margin of the track seemed to literally burn in the scorching rays of the afternoon sun, and the sparks from the eugine stack fell unpleasantly near some dry hem lock brush that edged the lake. Un comfortable thoughts of forest fires came up in my mind. Away off to the west leonid see a wreath of thin, black smoke curling itself lazily up ward. I watched it a moment and it seemed to get thicker and blacker. ?VA trapper cooking supper," I thought, but the notion of a forest conflagration still lingered unpleas antly in my mind. As the train slowed up I grabbed my valise and. sprang off onto the platform. The conductor in the ca boose behind-it was a long train of "twee passTrnger-TOSCTI?* -?ut? Wrottty oT - so freight cars-waved his arms and the heavy train once more increased its speed. Soon it had vanished around the curve. I walked up and down thc rough platform, waitiug for my stage, aud my thoughts again re turned to the possibility of a fire on the mountain. What a terrible thing it would be! But just then I spied tho antedelu vian rig winding in and out among the tree?, about- half a mile up, and I quickly dismissed from my miud all thoughts of fire. Tess Avas driving the conveyance.aud she was alone. I was delighted with the prospect of a two-hours' tete-a-tete with her, but thought it strange that old Joe, the farm hand, had not come for me, as usual. Tess explained that the mau was off at Tour Croix, a neighboring town, helping fight a forest fire. "Great Heavens!" I exclaimed. "Suppose the fire should come this way and overtake us before we get home!" Tess laughed. "No danger of that, I guess," she said, as she "turned the horse's head back in the direction he had come. It was a delightful afternoon. The air waa now cooling down and, under the shade of the trees that overhung our homeward way, it was very pleas ant. We chatted and laughed until we quite forgot the existence of any such thing as fire or dauger. It was a good eight miles from the railroad to the farm house, and we had covered about a quarter of that dis tance, when, on looking to the south, I suddenly noticed a dense black smoke rising in large, thick masses three or four miles off. It seemed to be rapidly approaching. Again that terrible thought of fire suggested itself. "We had better get home as quickly as possible! That is thc forest on fire!" said'Tess. "Wouldn't it be a terrible thing if it should reach the road before we do! It is certainly coming toward us!" And coming toward us it was, at a most alarming rate. Our octogenarian steed would not move any faster and the road seemed to cross the track of the fire some distance ahead of us. Our situation was becoming serious. The road was not wide enough to afford us an oasis in this approaching simoon, aud if the flames got within half a mile of us we could not escape, except by a miracle. The fire came nearer. There was no mistaking it now. The evergreens and withered underbrush had become veritable tinder in the loug-continued hot and dry spell, and before the destroying flames they disappeared as snow be fore the sun. It was only about half an hour since I first noticed the smoke, and now we could hear dis tinctly the distant crack and roar of the flames, aud every now and then the heavy, resonant swish and boom as some great king of the forest fell, crashing through the smaller growth beneath it. The twilight was coining swiftly on. We began to get thor oughly frightened as the fire came nearer and nearer. A great cloud of cinders and smoke, the advance guard of the all-devour ing enemy, began to blow in our faces and fire the dry underbrush at our feet. A breeze had sprung up. We might have died for it two hours be fore and not received it, but now, when its presence was most deadly, it appeared to give greater velocity to tho already furiouj pace of our de stroying enemy. I applied the whip vigorously to the j old horse, and he seemed to put forth j his best energies, but the crazy wag aN NORMAN. ?ST FIRE. on was so heavy that we did not ?long any faster than a good trot. The girl beside me was pale, her lips were firmly set and her e burned with a lustrous, deteruii: light. She would not flinch, I s She came of stern stuff, this ten young girl, and the fierce, stubb spirit of her Dutch ancestry was sta ing her now in good stead. I kr Tess would not faint or scream or anything foolish or wild, but wo be a comrade to nie in our dang With a courago equal, if not superi to my own. On came the fire. It was now wi in half a mile of us and roaring lik wild beast in sight of his prey, great cloud of smoke and cinders p ceded the flames and blew right in i faces, making our eyes smart so t we could scarcely see, and grim: and peppering our flesh till it felt ri A flock of teal-great big, beauti fellows-swept over us, flying tow^ the lake, uttering loud, discord cries. Now and then one of the nu ber would fall to the ground, wings, perhaps, singed by the flan over which it had passed. F< beautiful deer, a massive stag w magnificent antlers and three soft-ej does, came at full bound from 1 covert to the left of the road, thebt leading in a frightened run and t females following with that starth almost human, look in their lar eyes that one notices in animals bay. A long, glossy black sna writhed its swift way through the v derbrusb, across the road and -n lost to view in an instant. I scarc? knew how I managed to see all thc minor features in the play which afti wards came so near being a traged but every little thing is indelibly ii pressed upon my mind, even to tl hour. Our old horse was now fully ali to tho danger we were in. HetrembI and shook in every limb and drew tl rickety old vehicle along at a rate had never gone before. I held tl reins and spoke encouraging words him, and tried to comfort the bra girl at my side. Tess was trying keep the cinders off us with a litt silk parasol-one of my gifts to her bnt soon there were so many hoh burned in that dainty relic of civiliz tion that it became a veritable colo: der, through which poured a red-hi blinding flood of sparks and sniok0. great hissing, cracking cinder lighte on her Tam-o'-Shauter and that soo was so near a blaze that I pitched : off and threw it away. Tess looke like au angry goddess. Her long brow hair had escaped from its fastening and swept out behind in the wiud on passage created. As she held th reins while I warded off a groat blaz ing fir bough that came hurtling dow] upon ns, with her eyes sparkling wit! excitement, her face pale as ashes and her lips set, she looked like an other' Queen Boadicea driving he chjaj?o? of wrath over-#ta-rw?sV.",^* *? ? prona llbm?h~Tttsult~ers. " Even ii those moment's of agony I wondere< how she kept up so marvelously. "We were now about half way horn* and almost in the belt of flame. Thing might now get better, and if wo couh hold out for another half hour then was a chance of our getting off witl our lives. I tried to speak, but rn] throat was so parched that I could no utter a sound. The heat was frightful. Clouds ol dense white smoke settled about ns in suffocating closeness, Avhile thc thunder of the falling giants of tb( forest, together with ..the sharp fusil lade produced by their snapping branches and the ever-increasing roai of the flames, made up a grand anc awful diapason. And the fire came closer and closer-and finally-il reached us. "Tess!" I shouted, as I put my arm about her waist and drew her down below the sides of the crazy old ve hicle, "Dear girl, our time has come! Good-bye!" "Dear Ben, good-bye!" I read, rather than heard from her lips. It was impossible to hear her words. And after4that, as the novelists say, all was like a dream. I have a con fused recollection of a heat so terrible as to almost force my eyes from their sockets and shrivel my skin up to parchment-of the old horse dropping to the ground-of standing over my brave Tess fighting off the blazing branches-of agonizing burns on my head, face and hands! And then there came a terrible crash! I seemed to see ten thousand stars and all was darkness! I never knew just how long I was unconscious, but it must have been for many hours, for wheu conscious ness again mounted her throno in my potfl it was broad day. At first I could not open my eyes at all. Then I managed to just separate the lids, but it was the acutest tormeut to do so. I afterwards found that they had been horribly burned. Full sensibility came back very slowly. For awhile I was dazed. I could not think-only gaze upward stupidly at the clear sky and wonder what hfiil happened. Soon, however, it all came back-all the horror and pain-and'I attempted to stnrt np. "My God! Tess!" I groaned, as x realized fully where I was and what had transpired. But I found I was too weak to do auything except barely move my head. When I could see about m what a desolate scene it was that met my blurred ami crippled vision. As far as my poor sight could reach there was nothing but blackness, except [ overhead-a landscape in jet silhout ted sharply against the soft azure of the clear sky. A few feet from me lay the figure of a human being! My God! It was Tess! And was she dead? Merciful Heaven! About half of her clothes were gone and she lay motionless, as though dead. How I Buffered at that sight no one but myself can ever know. It was worse than my own misery. But I could not move, and the ho*" tears, of which I was not ashamed, distilled from my eyes like drops of liquid fire and ploughed red-hot furrows down my scorched cheeks. And then I again lapsed inte unconsciousness. Whole ages might have passed be fore I knew anything more. Then suddenly I opened my eyes and saw. I was in bed at home. By the beside sat my small sister Jennie. "You have been sick just three weeks, , Ben," sahl she, "and Tessie' "-every j one of us said "Tessie" and not Miss i Mills-"is just able to walk around," i||It came out ai ter iv ard 3 that Tess had received her worst burn while try ing to -ward off a great blazing branch from my head, after I had become un conscious. Of course, she was lionized for her bravery-"when I didn't do auything brave at all," she afterwards said to me, with a bright blush.- I didn't say anything and what I did is scarcely worth recording. The doctor says I will bear no per manent evil effects of my adventure save several deep, ugly scars on my head and arms. But when I take my youngest boy on my knee and pour into his never tiring eav, again and again, the story of my escape from a fiery death, and then look over across the table where sits my sweet-faced wife, I shudder at the recollection of that night of horror and marvel at the strength of a true woman's love.-New York Ledger. SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL. An English agriculturist has ano ceeded in the cross fertilization ;of grasses, clover, cereals and other food plants. During theliot months in Venezuela exposure of the bare head to the sjin for half an hour means a certain fevu* and almost certain death. C. A. Parsons, the English engin?er who makes turbine engines for ships, says that the new rotary engines will cause vessels to travel sixty miles , an hour or even more. The proposal has been made by M. ! Gabriel Viand, a French chemist, to obtain easily assimilable iron tonics from vegetables by feeding the plants judiciously with iron fertilizers. "f. With most men the growth of the beard is stronger on one side of the face than on the other. It is usuaHy the case that the hair grows moire rapidly on that side on which we a|e stronger. The Semaine Medical publishes de tails of the successful experiments made in Naples by Cantani, in making guinea pigs immune against the in fluenza poison by vaccinating thdm with sterilized cultures of the influenza bacillus. A new typewriter has been perfect ed for the benefit of blindmpeople. The letters are raised, and they a/te palpable as well as visible. Communi cations made by this maohine can Re read alike by the blind and those who are blessed with sight. A new method of testing steel bul lets has been devised in Germant-* The balls are dropped from a fixai height on to a glass plate set at aji angle.. If properly tempered they re? bound into one receptacle; if they are too soft they drop into another. To test the power of the telephone in transmitting tnneful sounds, Mrs> Helen Buckley sang two songs into }a funnel at the office of the Chicana} Telephone Company, and the notes were distinctly heard in New_YjorJr-i??' w~mrmoer ot ?duSi??aTTmi?iagers who had assembled for that purpose. . Mr. Wragge, the meteorologist, who established and worked the first ob servatory on Ben Nevis, and who is now meteorological observer of Queensland, recently visited the sum mit of Mount Kosciusko, the highest mountain in Australia, for the purpose of establishing an observatory there. Apropos of New York's proposed rapid transit tunnel, it is declared in Ii.pD.don that the health of employes on the Underground Railway is better than on any line in England. The at mosphere ?3 said to have positively, cured cases- of quinsy and bronchitis and to have benefited people with lung troubles. WISE WORDS. The head is more a skeptic than the heart. Salvation is more than a moral refor mation. The pruned limb is seldom the one that dies. He insults his nobler self, who mocks at prayer. Only the boor thinks it unmanly" to say "thank you." If our eyes were brighter, the stars would be brighter. Utilize even the thorns in your path, but not for a pillow. A wise man's mistakes are the capi tal of his experience. Disposition is the miut that coins our comforts or their counterfeits. Monopoly throws gold dust in the eyes of politicians, to blind them. "To err is human." That is sound doctrine; nor is it hard to live up to. Some people are baptized simply to hear the world say, "0, how pious!" Any demagogue can talk patriotism, but it takes a man to live it and vote it. The greatest deeds are done by those who ore thc least conscious- that they are gi eat. The man who will do good as ufteu as he has opportunity will be busy every day. The man who knows nothing except what he has learned from books, is poorly educated.-Ram's Horn. American Method tho Best. Germans are adopting American ma chinery for their manufactories and American ideas as well. The English manufacturer proclaims boldly-prob ably for the effect it may have upon his workmen-that if he caunot adopt American machiuery and methods in Great Britain he will have to shut up shop. The German and English may be able to compete with each other with the aid of American machinery, and they may be able to excel all the world save this great country from which they are drawing new inspira tions. But they cannot go thf> Amer ican pace. Having caught up with them we will pass them-distance them, perhaps-for iu all the world there is no such combination of ex cellence as in these United States of America.-Pittsburg Dispatch. Thc Cost lieut Kean on Earth. It is not generally known that the vanilla benn is the costliest bean on earth. It grows wild, and is gathered by the natives in Papantla a: Mis antla, Mexico. When brought from thc forests these beans ave sold at the rate of $11.25 per 1000, but when dried and cured they cost about $11.25 per pound. They are mainly used by druggists, and last year over 90,000, 000 beans were imported iuto this country, s I /ft W Field Telegraphy and Mili INCLE'SAM has some little tricks up his sleeve, which in time ot war could be brought into service at a moment's notice and which, says W. J. Bouse in the New York Times, would prove very annoying to an ene my. Comparatively little is known about the Signal Corps of the army and its important work, and it is the purpose of this article to describe iu a general way some of the interesting things this little body of men accom plish in these days of military progress. Aerial military manoeuvres, photo graphing from great heights and dis tances, Jaying, equipping, and opera ting telegraph and telephone lines in time of battle at a rate as fast as a horse can travel, are interesting mat ters, and all of them are achieved by this branch of the service. The Signal Corps on a peace footing consists of ten officers and a score or more sergeants, together with small detachments of enlisted men detailed for this special service on the frontier where instruction in the work of the corps is being given. Brigadier Gen eral A. W. Greely of arctic fame, is in command of the corps and has his headquarters at "Washington, D. C. The largest school of instruction at present is at Fort Logan, Colorado. Captain W. A. Glassford, Chief Signal Officer, of the Department of the Colo rado, is in charge and has in his de tachment three Sergeants and eighteen detailed enlisted men. In the present day, owing to the rapid advanoe made in modern fire arms, the necessity has arisen for a means of instant communication from one part of a battlefield tojanother. For the transmission of orders, instruction, reports, &c, nothing is so swift as eleotricity. The manner of its adap tion for this-work is interesting in the extreme, and the means by which telephone and telegraph lines are put up and operated are unique and origi nal^ Tho aerial exploits of somo of these men outrival the wildest dreams of "old-time aeronauts-for a balloon train is now a part of the field equipment of the modern United States Army. The country surrounding Fort Lo gan is particularly adaptedto the uses of ?the Signal Corps for fi?Wr work. ^^-aittflvaifirt/i aknvftntrkv wonders the correct and practicafuse oftE???r^J__:. instruments employed easily taught. The high peaks immediately in the back ground afford lofty stations in temperate weather for long distance signaling and heliographing. Supposing that a state of actual warfare exists, wo will go with the signal men into the field and see how the field telegraph and telephone lines are put up and operated. The tele graph train consists of three wagons of the usual army typo, built more for rongh, hard service than for beautj'. The electrical batteries are securely packed in wooden bins or cells iu ono of these wagons, to prevent their top pling over in transit. Auother com partment in this same wagon provides safe storage for the telegraph instru ments and necessary supplies. The wagon is drawn by two or four mules as the nature of the country demands. The second wagon is kuown as the wire wagon. It carries a supply of ordinary galvanized telegraph wire sufficient to erect a line ten or a doz en miles in length. This wire is car ried upon reels which pay it out auto matically, once the line has been started. The third wagon carries the slender poles or lances, together with the nect ssary insulators to support the wire, and tools for settiug the lances in tho ground. In boxes along the sides of this wagon aro carried the additional small supplies which may be needed in cases of emergency. BALLOON HOUSE A.1 The wagon train jogs along at a fair rate of speed after leaving the post, and no one knows, except the officer in command, just where or when the line is to be put up. The order for "dou ble time" was given, and after the men had trotted a short distance, the ordor to halt was sounded. Tho offi cer in command had selected his'im aginary line and directed the battery wagon to be placed in u certain posi tion when halted. The men ran to the wire wagon and swarmed over it; others of them attacked the pole, or lance truck, and in nu instant a stream of poles was issuing from that wagon that could only be approached by an army of circus employes dismantling a big teut. The general direction of the line was indicated by the officer and the men set to work. Two of them, armed with hufre o-?vWf'Xt V'Pi^i'i off U> ?V SIGNAL GORPS. I tary Ballooning Described. W direction the line was to take. One of them halted at about fifty or sixty yards from the battery -wagon and thrust the sharpened end of the steel bar into the ground. The other passed him and went twice as far, when he, too, thrust the sharp instrument into the yielding soil. The first man had now run around him, and his place, where he had dug the first hole, was taken by a group of men armed with one of tho lances, an insulator, and the end of the wire, which was now spinning out of the rear end of the wire wagon. In less time than it takes to tell it, the lance or pole was set, the insulator was in position and the wire was attached. The men were already ? T J ERECTING MILITARY at the second station, where a pole was going up, before I had time to make a photograph. The men with the crowbars wero now far away and going further all the time. That row of bristling poles seemed to grow like magic and one could almost see tnem ruu. In au incredibly short space of time-but little longer than it would have taken me to walk to the edge of the timber-the line had disappeared among the trees. While I was won dering what would be done next, the instrument in the battery wagon began to tick and a message came iu over the newly constructed line asking for .further instructions. Orders were flashed back and the line was. con tinued all the way to the foothills. At times, in actual warfare, it is not only desirable but necessary for a com manding General to get instant news from the very front. Of course afield telegraph line like the one just do scribed could not be maintained there long. To overcome this, however, the field telephone can be used, andt in case its instruments are ont of order THE BALLOON WAGON. from any cause, telegraphic messages may be sent back from the front over it to the rear, whence they may be in stantly transmitted over the military telegraph Hue as described. Tho telephone wiro may be ad vanced just as far to the front, oven in actual battle, as brave men are able to carry it. Its wire drags on the ground aud is, of course, thoroughly insulated. It is of sufficient strength not to be injured by the passage of troops over it. The wire is carried on a little steel cart, drawn by hand. It is wound upon a reel that works al most without friction, and wire can bo laid as rapidly as a man can run. Tho operator in charge of the field telephone carries a set of diminutive yet perfect field instruments in a leather case at his side. These field instruments are attached to tue wire by a flexible wire and comrauication is possiblo at all times, even while the wire is being laid. Messages may be sent and received with as much facil ity as if the instruments wero at tached to a solid wall in a comfortable office. Eminences, hills, bluffs, or other [ FORT LOGAN, COL. elevated portions of land, when so lo cated as to be in view of headquarters in tho field, serve nB admirable sites'for heliograph'stations. Of course, unless au uninterrupted view of the country is to be had, uo heliographic signal ing can be accomplished. The system in vogue now in the Signal Corps is tho latest and most improved, in the matter of instruments procurable, but the method which provides for the transmission of messages by light flashes, ?3 old. It ia astounding, how ever, to note the fact that telegraphic messages have been flashed with this little instrument a distanoe of almost 200 miles. The Bysteni of dots and dashes of the telegraph code is repro duced by means of long and short flashes of reflected sunlight. While it is true that any operator may read tho words spelled out in this manner, y?t the information thus gained would be totally unintelligible to bim, as everything is sent in cipher. 'An exhaustive system of signaling, try means of flags and heliograph l?y day, and at night with rockets, bombs, flash-lanterns and electric searchlights, Hs in vogue. Messages can be sent, under any and all sorts of conditions, and in the face of seemingly insur mountable obstacles, so that a com mander may at all times be kept fully advised of what is transpiring in any or all of his commands. Military ballooning has also ad vanced to such a state of perfection during the past few year that it will be perfectly within the range of possibil ity, in case of war, to accurately photo graph an enemy's position, obtain ac curate maps of his fortification, etc., without sending any one within hia lines. There is at Fort Logan, a fully equipped balloon field train, ready for service at any moment. The balloon train consists of threo wagons, similiar in construction to those described above, and which transport the field telegraph parapher nalia. The balloon itself, a huge affair, : TELEGKAPH LINE. has place in tho forward end of the wagon. At the rear end there is a large reel, upon which are carried sev eral thousand feet of stout cable. In a middle compartment to the balloon wagon, room is reserved for the basket and netting. In the second wagon are storod the hydrogen gas tabes needed for inflating the airship. These tubes are constructed of steel and are as light and as strong as it is possible to make them. There is a generating plant for gas at Fort Logau, and ii is there that the tubes are filled. They are shipped, in such quantities as may be needed, to various points throughout the country. A supply sufficient for several infla tions can bo carried with tho field train, and if larger supplies are needed, additional wagons are pressed into service. The balloon itself is con structed of the finest and most costly material, gold beaters' skin being used for this purpose. The heavy wagon is of suflicient weight to hold the balloon captivo, and if a change of base is necessary during an ascension, the wagon has Bimply to be moved in the desired direction, Telephonic com munication is maintained through the cable which holds the balloong the As the r???mners oFt?e ?Signal Cofpir are also topographical engineers it is a simple matter for them to prepare accurate maps of the country beneath them, while suspended out of harm's way above an enemy's camp. The adoption of teleophotographic lenses also gives them means by which as accurate photographs can be made as if the artist were actually in the fortifications. Statistics show that it is almost im possible to hit a cai>tivo balloon with musketry lire when nt an el ovation of I 2000 feet. Tho balloon is kept, mov- | iug almost incessantly, ' ami in that lies a great measure of its safety. Nearly all the standing armies of the world are now equipped with balloon corps, and the value of this sort of aerial surveyiug in timo of war is in calculable, at least it is so admitted by the military experts, and they ought to know. Whether or not experiments have been made in the use of explosives dropped from balloons, I have not been able to learn, but, from what ono can seo of the use of these aerial monsters at Fort Logan, it would not be strange if the wildest dreams of moderns may soon be realized and the terrible death-dealing airship may soon evolve, as did the Holland submarine boat, from Jules Verne's "Twenty Thousand League Under the Sea." Pulpit Harbor is wondering how a gull brought down by B. K. Carver came to his death. The bird was shot at with a forty-four-calibre rifle and picked up dead fifteen minutes later with not a drop of blood on it and not a feather rulPed. The local wise men of the place scorn that he came down like Davy Crockett's coon, "bocause he knew 'twaut no use," to do any thing else, although Mr. Carver is esteemed a mighty hunter, but are divided in opinion as to whether the bird had his mouth open and the bul-; let went straight down his throat, or whether it went so near that it-stunned him and he fell and was drowned. Lewiston (Me.) Journal. An Old House With n History. Ono of tho places in which tourists in England revel is Bull's Tavera. It looks to-day just as it did when it was erected in 1612. "When repairs were necessary they were made with the dea of carefully preserving the ap pearance of the old place. It was here that Oliver Cromwell made his headquarters for nearly a CROMWELL Iir.TED ITERE. year. Ten births and six weddings are dated here, and there is a story of a murder to lend a charm for thas* who love the morbid. A Likely Talc, This. "7 PRECEPT AND PRACTICE. Hy grandmother used to say to mo, My grandmother used ' o say, "Now, don't run after the boys, my girl, But stick to your sewing, pray! For men who want wives will hunt thev dear, ? Care not to be mel half way; For the longest chase Is the fairest sport," My grandmother used to say. My grandmother used to say.to. me, ? My grandmother used Jo say;' "Now, stop your dreaming and baste you hem, Dreams never were meant for day. Don't hurry, my girl, to And a lad, Maids never have will nor way lill sorrow and twenty are cume and gone," My grandmother used to say. But I'd heard some tales and said one day: "Now, Granny, you dear old thing, ?LOU met, I've been told, your lover at The gate nt tho meadow spring, ind, though scarce eighteen, you rod bo hind To the village si - miles ?way, ind were married and all by Parson Phipps Now, what have you got to say?" , And grandmother smiled demurely, then. Above the hurrying thread; " 'Twas not for the lack of precept, dear, Things happened as you have said; Por, 'Stop'your dreaming and baste yop hem, Por the men won't run away;' ind 'Wooing will keep for a good two year,' My grandmother used to say." -Richard Stillman Powell, in Puck, HUMOR OF THE DAY. Nobody seems to care muon whether, he kisses the bride at a silver wed ding or not.-West Union Gazette. He-"Did she say why she left her last place?" She-"Why, the woman she lived with sneered at the wheel she rides."-Puck. "Lend me a dollar, ol ct man." "Can't; only have a half." "That's all right; you can owe me the othes half."-Princeton Tiger. Duzby- "Do you" regard thirteen ad an unlucky number?" Dooby-"Cer tainly I do; aren't they always abus ing it?"-Boxbury Gazette. Spendley-"Well, if my money should go, dearest, you'd still have me!" Mrs. Spendley-"Don't you be too sure about that!"-Puck. "Now, when you ask papa for me, be sure to face him like a man." "That I will. He doesn't get any chance at my back if I can help it."-? Standard. Mrs. Goodenough-"Now, Johnnie, won't you'sit down and tell me why your papa whipped you?" Johnnie "No, mam; I'd rather stand and say rothin'. "-Judge. Guest (in cheap restaurant)-"Here, waiter, this meal is simply vile. I won't pay for it. Where's the pro prietor?" Waiter-"He's out at lunch, sir."-Philadelphia Becord. "I am very sorry, Captain Brown, but circumstances over which I have no control compel me to say no." "May I ask what the circumstances : are?" "Yours,'.'-Pjck-Me-Up, search of burl'?'a^e^s^^rer', ~ ~T~gtfes s it is. He said something to me about diving into his wife's pocket for cash." -Philadelphia North American, j ^ "I thoroughly enjoy looking at the advertising pages after the holidays are over." "Any special reason?" "Yes; here and there I see something my wife didn't buy."-Chicago Bec ord. ? Beporter-"How much do you want written about that dime museum freak with a rubber neck?" Editor "We're short of matter to-day; stretch it out to a column."-Norristown Herald. He-"I've a ripping new naughty story to tell you. I don't think Tve told it you before." She-"Is it a real good one?" He-"It is indeed." She-"Then you haven't told it me be fore. "-Standard. "Waiter, do you remember me? I came in here yesterday and ordered a steak." Waiter-"Yes, sir." Will you liave the same to-day?" Customer "Yes, if no one else is using it." London Answers. Old Foggs-"In this natural history, Thomas, rt states that a thrush feeds its young no fewer than two hundred and six times a day. What have you to say to that?" Thomas-"Wish I : was a young thrush."-Standard. Jack Bachelor-"So your late uncle left yon all his money when he died, did he?" Bob Bluffer (disgustedly) -"No, not all. The mean old duffer had to go and leave two hundred and fifty dollars of it for a tombstone." Judger Mrs. Fogg-"One can never tell what to believe. Mrs. Jones says the Wimpers fight like cats and dogs, and Mrs. Brown says they are the happiest couple in town." Fogg-"I don't see as there need be any inconsistency in the two stories. Some people are never happy unless they are quarreling." Boston Transcript. "What pretty. illuminated cards!" exclaimed one woman. "That one with the motto, 'Honesty is the best policy,' is especially nice." "Yes," replied the other. "I brought them from Europe, and the best of it is, I got them through with a lot of other things without paying a cent of duty." -Washington Star. "Shall we shoot or hang him?" asked the vigilantes. The methodical man of business paused to think. "Let us not be hasty," he said, "for hurry begets criminal waste and ex travagance. The first thing to do is to learn the price of rope, ?[and com pare it with the price of ammunition'" -Philadelphia North American. Dying Millionaire-"I have been much in litigation, always successful, too, and I feel that I owe everything to the lawyers. I want them to have all my property." Attorney-"Ah! ?bu wish me to make a will, tuen, be queathing-" Dying Millionaire "Cutting off all my relations and be queathing the money to charitable institutions."-New York Weekly. How the Brain Act8. Although the brain is perpetually active, the whole of it is never active at one time. The two hemispheres or halves do not operate simultaneously, but alternate in action-now it is the one-half, then the other. Kations That Own Telegraphs. Austria, Hungary, Belgium, France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Sweden, Norway and Swit? zerland own all the telegraph lines ia their respective territory,