Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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I Ont rood thing about a atrong will, 1 to the Dallas News, ls when you ' ' aren't married to it. Two heads, however, are not better than one when you are up against the necessity of buying her a new hat, admits Puck. . People can have a very enjoyable time when they are oft on a pleasure r trip planning all the nice things they i will be able to do when they get \ home, declares the Louisville Herald. Says the Chicago Record-Herald: Earnest and systematic work will -, conquer the white plague, and the Washington congress If. a landmark to the future student of the move ment The people are growing tired of slevor dissimulation, insists the To ronto Courier. They will forgive the public mau anything if he will deal openly with them and not try to be too diplomatic and evasive. 'A. London publication criticised the way Americans enter fashionable ho tels. Interviews they have with the hotel cashiers on leaving are, of course, all right, remarks the Wash ington Star. The-Boston Transcript notes that George Bernard Shaw bas laid out one dead man. Shakespeare by name, and now he Is after William Make peace Thackeray. As a literary un dertaker he is a great success. Better understandings, peace, busi ness-all will be fostered by the world movement, observes the Phila delphia Inquirer. It is proposed that the twenty-one nations Interested shall get to know each other batter ->> and thus derive mutual benefit. i ======== Wbile New York and London are talking about the displacement of horses in the city street and the possi bility of their final . disappearance from the cities through the growing use of electricity^and o? automobiles, the number of horses used in Paris grows at a great rate. "Our society," says Dr. Allan Mc Lane Hamilton, "ls imitative without originality, with absurd exhibitions of loud taste and ill-proportioned artistry. We have all the license ol foreign decadence, with a unique de generacy of our own that i o foreign city would endure, because of its cruelty, its savagery." Contends the San Francisco Chron icle: Discussion of the "good roads" question will proceed most usefully it the public will drop sentiment and generalization and consider each good roads proposition on its economic merits, and the economic merits of a public county road differ in no es sential way from the economic merits of a railroad project. Gifford PInchot's work for the preservation of our forests is mere than welcome, as work parallel to that of river improvement, declares the St. Louis Republic. But the two are separate and distinct, for parallel lines never cross one another. What all thiB part of the country is striving for right now is to dig a deep channel from the lakes and to dig it quick. Rev. Dr. Parkhurst, of New York City, in tile course of his sermon in that citjfcdeclared that the so-called American bustle is a blight on our civilization. .Re compared the nerv ous, active Americans with the phleg matic Germans, by no means to the advantage of the former. We pride ourselves, he said, upon our intense activity, wtich we seem to regard as the maximum of our requirements and as tending toward the ideal civil ization. : Considering the steady increase in the number of automobiles, au in crease lu the grosB number of acci dents ls inevitable, argues the Louis 'ville Courier-Journal. But in view of the reduction in th? ratio of acci dents to the aggregate cars in use, the tendency to safety is unmistak able. From year to year lt is to be supposed that the percentage of ac cidents will be cut dowa until at last ?the lowest possible minimum will be reached. - ggg j It is now known that but for in sects half the diseases of the world would ba unknown. In our young days, recalls the Kimberley Diamond Fields Advertiser, we usad to read in the goody goody books bow the hard ened criminal who ended hi3 life on the gallows began bis career of in famy by killing flies. To-day our children ought, perhaps, to be taught .th? duty of killing flies on any and avery occasion. The aim of tha Georgia law, notes the Boston Transcript, hi to place responsibility on the Governor at the tame time that it seeks to prevent speculation iu convict labor tad cruelty to convicts. It would be bet ter if it altogether abolished employ ment by private contractors, but its enactment certainly is creditable to Georgians, as showing the promptness wtth which their humanity interposed once the horrors of the old regime became known to them. I TSiE TAIV?8P SOP "RED El Sk feet four in his stockings when he wore them-with a chest like a citadel of bone and brawn, biceps as hard as steel wire cable and a fist like a cobblestone, "Red Ed" Elan of the Saginaw valley was such a man as might, in another century, have carried a spear with Menelaus before Troy, or wielded a mace with the lion-hearted Richard in Palestine. If fate had placed Red Ed's leaf of life on her calendar some hundreds of years earlier, his deeds might have furnished worthy themes for the pens of Homer or Virgil or Walter Scott, instead of merely providing copy for the weekly papers of Gratiot County, Michigan. As it was, Red Ed wielded nothing more warlike than a pike-pole and a peavey with other lumbermen among the Michigan pines, and his fame, al though spread from Saginaw Bay to the head waters of the Tittabawassee | and the Piue, never went beyond the confines of those river valleys. What Elan had been or where he : came from, were queries which his ! companions in the woods and on the j river never put. When the big man, I with his heavy shock of dull red hair, I first appeared on the spring drive down the Pine, they recognized in j him an expert in his craft, accepted that fact as sufficient introduction, I and dubbed him "Red Ed" by com-1 mon consent. Later they learned j some other facts concerning him, very j hard, uncompromising facts, taught ' mainly by weight of hand. Red Ed was not a talker. He was ' far more ready with a blow than a ! word, and by that his reputation was j built. There were dark hints and . rumors, too, and these, added to the more substantial reasons, helped to make the man universally feared. In ; the spring of lSS5,"when Margaret Spaulding first became teacher in the little country school on the river road west of Alma, Red Ed had been log ging on the Pine for five years, and had become known as a veritable scourge of the whole section. Margaret had heard of tbs rough ness of the laggers along the river. She had sssn many of the men them- ; selves on the streets in Saginaw. She I had even known something of the j wild recklessness of their doings j when oh* duty at the towns along the I course of 'the drive, and she had; heard of Red Ec*. i That she should ever come into di rect contact with this bad man of i the lumber country she never imag ined possible. . i Now, Margaret's attitude toward. the sc-??.i!ed danger was quite just!-, Sect by ordinary circumstances, for it . was net an ordinary circumstance ' that brought Red Eel into her viciai- ' ty; it was a snow-storm in May. I it snowed hard and grew very cold one afternoon when Red Ed was on j the liver, opposite the schoolhouse. , The change in the weather came as a surprise, and the man WEF out of matches with which to light bia river side campfire. Unfortunately, he was not out of i whisky, which he bad obtained in the last town he bad passed. So he drank, and then starred through the woods in search of a farmhouse where he might obtain matches. As ] it chanced, he arrived at the road di rectly opposite the schoolhouse just j as Margaret was dismissing from the ??oor a.half-dozen boys whom she had > .ept after school for coming to blows j over the last possible snowball fight j of the season. At another time he : would have found the schoolhouse empty. "Teacher, look there! That's Red j rd!" exclaimed ene of the older boys the moment the man entered the j road. The little fellow had seen the | river-man in town, and recognized him instautly. The remark was a danger-signal to . the ochers, and they scurried back . into the schoolroom with a prompt- i ness which showed how well every ' one knew the evil reputation of the J owner of that name. Margaret herself needed no expla nation of their terror. Her heart gave a great bound of sudden appre- ? hensicr, and the momentary glance she gave the big man in the road did j not serve to reassure her. She did not dare to look a second time, but closed the door as quietly as she' could, and silently pushed hom9 a heavy bolt. Then she waited, striv- j lng to quiet a fear which she told her- j self was foolish. The man might not ! be Red Sd. Even If ha were, he ! could have no motive for coming to j ? the schoolhouse. But Red Ed did not go away. He came up the path to the schoolhouse steps and up the steps.. The girl in side with the children heard him com-1 ing. All the stories of terrible deeds reputed to have been committed by j him rushed into her mind, and a wild ' terror seized her. She did not scream, but, acted quickly. She ran to a window at the back of the schoolhouse, softly raised it, and beckoning the boys to her, began to help them up and out. One boy had crossed tho sill and a second was'hoing aided to mount, when the man outside tried and then rattled the door. Margaret was reatly to faint with terror now, but she set her teeth. The children must be got out of the way. The man outside was quiet a mo ment. Then suddenly a crushing weight was thrown against the door, and the socket of the bolt gave way with a snap -as if the heavy iron ware a brittle stick. With a crash the door opened ard swung back, and th3 big, red-hairec", blank3t:coated ruf fian stumbled into the room. Margaret's heart seamed to stop beating. She sank back against tho wall, with her hands pressed fiat upon the wainscoting, as if she hoped for hiding as well as for support. Then her resolution returned, and with lt the instinct of strategy. "Watch for a chance to get out, and run and tel! your fathers," she Baid to the huddled leys about her. Then she walked slowly across the room toward the river-man. Her knees seemed rf ."'ly to sink n';ler her, but she held herself v. Uh des By Henry Gardner Hunting 3 I perate determination to do what she j could to pacify or outwit this ugly ! giant. Red Ed stood in tho middle of the floor, looking about him. His brows were drawn down till they shadowed J his eyes heavily, and he looked out from under tberu gloomily. "What do you want?" asked Mar garet, with an effort to overcome the huskiness in her throat. Red Ed moved a slow step toward her. He seemed In a miscbievous mood. A flicker of a grin passed over his lips. Then he shambled heavily forward with the uncertainty of drunkenness. As the man came forward, the girl slowly retired, earnestly hoping and praying that the little boys would make good their escape; but sudden ly, as her retreat became apparent, apprehension Eeized one of the little fellows, and he screamed in an agony of terror. The cry was too much for the girl. At the moment she was standing be fore the stove, in which she had kept a fire burning all through the cold day. On the top lid of the heater a little kettle was still simmering, with faint wisps of steam ascending from its spout. What seemed to Margaret the crisis of her danger had come, and the scream of the child behind her gave her the one spur to action which she needed to make her reck less in desperation. She saw the steam rising from the kettle, and in stantly recognizing the weapon ready to band, she seized it and faced the river-man with wild eyes. "Don't you dare come another step!" she cried. "Go away from here! If you don't 1*11 scald you!" The logger'6 eyes widened at the threat and his lips lost their grin. He stepped toward her, as if to snatch the kettle from her hand, but Mar garet was too quick for aim. Her threat bad been no jest, and in a mo ment she m?.de good her word. She seized the kettle by its steam ing spout, swept the cover clattering to the floor, and then with furious energy dashed the boiling water straight in the face of her assailant. Red Ed roared a' ^ud, but stopped in his tracks, blinded, choking, cruel ly burned. Then the biting pain and tie fear of another fiery baptism quenched ev?n his wild spirit of mis chief, and he turned with . a mad plunge for the dcor. Little Jimmy Crawford brought his father, with a double-barreled shotgun, to the schoolhouse within five minutes after Red Ed bad gone. Tfcsy found Margaret trying to com fori tbs frightened little boys, al though she herself seemed more in j need of such a care than they, for ? now that the danger was gone, they quieted quickly, while to Margaret the nervous shoek had been severe. Moreover, one of the girl's hands had been very badly burned by the splash of the scalding water with j which she had beaten off her enemy. She was taken home to Mr3. Craw ford, howeve", and after an hour's res;, a cup of tea and sundry band agings of her hand in wet soda and soft linen, she felt a little better. She lay on Mrs. Crawford's parlor scfa as the dark of night s'.cwly set tled down over the country. She was striving to control her nervousness, to regain ber usual poise of good spirits, and to bear the aching pain in her hand without childish com plaint. Mrs. Crawford, a motherly little woman, sat quietly at her side, knitting and talking. "Does your hand pain you much now, deary?" she asked gently, at last., "Yes, a little," said the girl, wear ily. ' Mrs. Crawford's tone changed wich startling suddenness. "Well, I hope that villain's face has a dozen scalds to every one on your hand!" sie snapped. Margaret opened her eyes to smile j at her companions vehemence, and at the seeming barbarity of such a ? wish coming from such a gentle lit-J t'.e creature. Then suddenly she. grew sober and started up. "Why," sae cried, "why, of course he wa? s:a!ded! Hs must nave been awfully, awfully burned. He must i have been-why, I never thought of it! This little bit I got hurts me so -how frightfully he must be suffer- j lng away out in tba cold woods in the j night! Oh, what shall I do? What I must we do?" Tho outbreak was so unexpected ? and surprising that little Mrs. Craw ford quite l03t her breath. When she regained it the girl was on he-r feat. "What in the world, child!" cried! the older woman, rising in haste, j "Eave you gone crazy?" "On, no!" Margaret's eyes were' filling with tears as she came quickly I to her friend. "Mrs. Crawford, I just ! thought all at once how that man j muse be suffering now from the terri ble scalding I gave him. He hasn't any one to help him-to put soda on his burns, or to take care of him. They say he went back into the woods, and so now he's out there by 1 the river, where they always camp, aud ob, co you think-do you think it could have blinded him?" The girl's cry was piteous, but when the other attempted to take hor | hand she shrank back. "Oh, no, I j must do something!" she repeated.! "I muse go. I must find out. Where ! is Mr. Crawford?" Margaret was sobbing when Mr. Crawford came iu, looking wonder-. ingly from ona to the othar of the j two women. Ha was a lean, wiry, powerful man, whoso physique typi- ? ?ed bis character. He %:ns slow only with tba deliberation of good judg ment, and he had plenty of force to back his wit. Margaret had known him long onough to be familiar with his good qualities. She went up to him at once. ' Mr. Crawford, some ona must so and sec bow badly burned that poor man Elan is. i want you or some oue to go with ino. I want to ge now, Tor li? must .ie lying out in the W?-oJs, suffering. We'll find him on the river b*.uk somewhere. It's only a mlle, and. lt:f. early yet." She stood upright, her eyes full ot determination. - Mr. Crawford was watching her attentively, and he smiled. "Get your duds, little girl," he said, quietly. "I'll go with you. I think I know where Red Ed'll camp. He isn't a pleasant customer, but if he is much burned we'd better know about it." "John Crawford!" cried his wife. "She must not." "I guess she must, by her looks, mother," said Mr. Crawford, with his slow smile. "I'll go with her." Margaret put on her hat and win ter coat with feverish haste. The mental vision she beheld of the in jured man in the lonely woods, suf fering as the result of her act, which now seemed to her to have been un speakably cruel, made her eager to carry aid where she had afflicted in jury. The dark woods held no ter rors for her. Her horror of the man himself, so strong upon her an hour ago, seamed lost in her sense of his need of help. Mr. Crawford's knowledge of the habits and haunts of the lumbermen was thorough. In the moonlight he' found the point where they usually camped on their way down the river.' He found a lonely, isolated bivouac, with a little fire on the river shore. He found Red Ed. All through the long tramp through the dark wood road to the river and along the bank down-stream, Marga ret followed her guide, silent, ans ious, but persistent. Indefatigable in her purpose, she would let no ob stacle binder her, no fear deter her. It is probable that Red Ed found a companion, and so obtained matches for his fire, or he would have made his way to town, four miles below. But lt was by a com fortable camp-fire that the searchers found him. "Is that you, Elan?" called the farmer. The man turned toward them, planted one large hand on the ground and drew his feet under him quickly as if to rise. Then he sat still, star ing. There was no question as to'his identity. "This little woman's the teacher you scared half to deatlj^at the school this afternoon, Ed Elan," said the farmer. "She came clear out here to find you and fis up your face, that sLe scalded for you when you were drunk. I wouldn't have let her come, but she would have it so. I hope you're sober enough now to under stand what that means." The river-man did not move. The firelight played upon bis face. It was red and white in patches with the burns it had received. Margaret looked at him a moment, her whole figure tense with anxiety. Then she ran forward without a thought of fear. ' She laid her hand on the big fellow's shoulde;-. "Did it burn your eyes?' 'she asked. Elan shook his head and looked up at her wonderingly. He seemed too amazed at her presence there in the lonely, moonlit woods to speak. "Ob- I'm so glad!" said the girl. Then she drew out'her little bundle of remedies. "I'm so sorry I did lt," she went on. "I didn't realize how lt would hurt you till afterward. I was so frightened. I've brought you something to put on you" face. It will cure the burns." Without more ado she began her preparations for relieving his suffer ing, and the big man submitted to her gentle ministrations in silence. He seemed lost in the strangeness of the thing, far outside any experience he had ever known before, and he behaved like a quiet child. When Margaret finished and viewed her work, the man in the bandages was more like a scarecrow than a human being, but he looked up at her in gratitude. Then the memory of the afternoon seemed to strike him. "I was drunk," he said, shortly, In his big, deep voice. Margaret recog nized the intended apology. "I know," she said, quietly. "Now you had better go down-town in the morning and see a doctor." She waited a moment, but Red Ed remained silent, his big, glowing eyes quietly fixed on her. She turned away, a quick feeling o? awk ward embarrassment seizing her. The man seemed to note it. "Wait," he said, and then lowered bis eyes to the fire as she turned. "I ain't drunk now," ho continued. "I never dorie such a trick before scare a woman. You served me right first-not now. I-" He stopped helplessly ashamed. "Don't think about that," said the girl, quickly. Then with a catch o? the breath she hazarded, "Don't drink any more." He looked at her furtively, and then away again. "Good night!" he said, briefly. They left bim. When Margaret last saw the big man he Bat by his dying Ara, his eyes fixed upon the coals, bis huge red hands locked over his knee. During the summer following she heard nothing of his doings; but the next winter, one after another, little bits of gossip about him found their way to her. He had "braced up," one report said. Another related a heroic rescue of a companion from death in a big log jam up-river. A third told of promotion from the ranks of his craft to a place as fore man of fl camp. Then at last, one day, more than a year after her adventure, came a plai? stamped envelope, addrassed to her in a clumsy round hand. In lt was a bit of birch bark, on which were written, in similar characters, just four small words: "I ain't forgot. Elan." It was a crude little blt o' senti ment-the birch bark and the mes sage-but Margaret did not show it to any of her friends. She was aivaid they would make a Joke of it. Youth's Companion. Winnipeg is trying to lessan the city's supply of sewer gas by ler.ding pi s from the sewers through the sirast lamps, which, when lighted, destroy vase quantities of the noxious gus each nigh:. .Any man can learn to love if th* rivi mr.lces the lessons easy e::;j2h THE NEXT MORNING. Bobbie says he is growing to be a man; But I think he is dreadfully slow. Father marked it up on the wall last night, Just how tall he was. Do you know That he hasn't grown, not the tiniest bit? For, as soon as we got out of bed, We tried, and just where it was.last night Was the mark, right on top of his head. -Margaret Erskine. WHEN TODDLES WAS A FAIRY. "Come, Tottie, le's go into the yard an' play fairy!" cried Toddles to his little sister. The morning was warm and bright, just like summer, though it was the first of October. Every where the leaves were turning red and yellow and brown, palrtlng the landscape to look Just like a great autumn picture in the parlor of Tod dles' and Tottie's home. "Who'll be fairy this time?" asked Tottie, gay in the happy anticipation of playing a game dear to her and her brother. "Who'll be fairy, bruver?" "I'll bs fairy, Tottie, for the las' time we played 3*0u was fairy, an' you got upon the carriage Bhed for the clouds. I'll climb up the elm tree what has all the limbs a-growiug out of its sides. It's so easy to climb." "All right," agreed Tottie. And away the two ran 'into the big fenced back yard, where there were a great many splendid trees of spreading limbs, just the sort of place for the game of "fairy." "Now, I'll lie down on this bed of leaves," said Tottie, dropping on the ground, which was strewn with leavea of brilliant colors that had fallen from .the trees. "An' I'll play I'm a poor lady what is very, very sick, an' lying in a hove!. An' I'll play my lit tle boy and girl have goned to their grandmother's for some bread to keep me from starving, an' that a great wolf meets them on the road an' is about to eat 'em up when you-wbo'3 the fairy-comes flying from the clouds an* tells me of my little chil dern's danger. You touch me with a wand and it makes me wei!, an' I jump up an' get into a chariot what you've brought wit you, an' away we fly like the win' and save my chil dern." "Ob, yes, that'll be lots of fun!" declared Toddles. Then he climbed into the tree that Tottie had lain down under, the elm tres with the many low-growing branches. Once perched on a spreading limb-about six. feet from the ground-Toddles said: "I'm all ready now, Tottie. Le's begin." "Well, I'll play I'm calling to my little boy an' girl. Come, athel Gr?ca an' Harry James, mamma wants a drink of water! Oh, what?-dre my dear chil-dern goned? Ob, what will I do?-I'm so very, very ill!" And Tottie stretched herself and moaned as if lying on a bed of sickness. "Ob, my chil-dern! What will become of them? S'pose a wolf should catch them and eat them ui-? Ob, what can I do to-save them! " Again Tottie groaned aloud and turned on her bed of leavee. "Now play I heard you and am coming," called Toddles from above. "All right," said Tottie, in a very healthy voice. "Ab, good wornas, here am I," called Toddles in a high falsetto voice. "I can save thou and you little chil-dern. They are now being fol lowed by a great wolf what means io de-vour them, clothes and all, even to their hair." .'Ob, ob, ob, good fairy, save my little chil-dern!" wailed Tottie in a very weak voice. "Oh, you ougbn't to have called me a fairy yet, for you aren'c s'posed to know who I am till I tel! you," cried Toddles impatiently. "Now, play 'at you don't know who I am. .Tust play 'at you call out and ask me." "Ob, all right, braver," said Tottie. Then she assumed ber weak voice again: "Ob, kind person, who are you?" "I'm a fairy from the clouds." ex plained Toddies in the high falsstto voice. "And if thou will go with me we can overtake your little chil-dern before the wolf gets them." "3ut I am so ill that I can't rise from my bed of regs," fald Tottie, writhing as if in pain. "Ah, I'll make you well," said Toddles, pulling a little sprig from the tree bough to use as a wand. "I'll wave my wand over you and make you strong again. Here! One, two, three! " And Teddies waved the little branch above Tottie's head. But in his eagnerness to wave it wei!-as be thought a real fairy would do were she waving a wand-the little fellow leant too far out ?rora tue bough sup porting him and lost bis balance. Down ha fell with a bump on the ground below that made him give rorth a shriek like a Comanche in dia!?. Tottie, hearing the noise of his fall ing, leaped up >n time to eave her self from being in the way of his fal!, and stood laughiug at tue poor fairy whose wings bad failed in their duty. "On, you looked so Tunny, braver! " said Toctie, becwe2n laughs. " vV'ell, you nesdu't giggle over it," said Toddles, sitting up and rubbing his bruisod head, "ic didn't feel good .0 fall lika thar. If tho limbs hadn't ^.-caught me as ? rame down I might 'ave broke my arm or maybe my leg or something. But if you're going to giggle I won't play any more. I'll let the wolf eat up your little chil-dern, so I will." And Yocidles got up iu a very indignant frame of mind and f:'.icok the dry leaves and dust from bis bead and clothes. "Ob, VI! noe giggle any more,'' promised Tcttie, coming io her brother's side and beiping to ?uU him ol?. '.Com?, le's keep on pinyin-' till ve've got my l?telo chi'-?ern away "rom ti'e big wei'. An' if we don"t nirry un abo.it it we il bs too late." JEP?lTMNXi "All right," said Toddles, again In a good humor. "Play 'at I'm down from the clouds already, an' that you're well and that we've got into my chariot-what is pulled through tbs clouds by elk-and aro off for the woods where your little chll-dern are being followed by tho wolf." Then, with Tottle beside him, hold ing to his arm, Toddles called to his elk to bs off, and away they ran, pre tending the charlot was canying them like the wind through the air. And just as they had rescued the little play children from the big play wolf they heard their mother's voice call ing to them: "Come, dearies, Freddie and Mary are here to play with you for an hour. Come, you may serve luncheon to them on the hwn." Then the chariot, the elk, the fairy and even the two little children were forgotten, and Toddles and TottlB ran in the houee as fast as they could go to greet their little playfellows, Freddy and Mary, who had come from across the street to pay them a visit.-Washington Star. SELF-SACRIFICE OF CHINESE CHILDREN. One of tha teachers, Mrs. Chang, had promised to take ber little girl to Pekin in vacation to visit her older I sister; one can imagine the child's excitement at the prospect of her first railroad journey and first sight o? wonderful Pekin. A few days before I vacation she came to her mother and ! said: "If you will send the money, j ti would take for my railroad faro to ? Pekin and back to the famine suffer j ers I'll stay in the school and you go jalone." And the child cheerfully stayed two weeks with the school cook and two or three other children. Surely that was an "offering of a sweet smelling savor." That reminds me of a little sacri fice on the part of the school as a j wl-cle. Sunday afternoon I had ' spoken of the famine, but did not in I any way suggest that the girls con I tribute. Tba'; evening a deputation j came to my study, savins that all the ? girla would- like to give up white flour j and meat until vacation and send tho i monoy saved to the famine sufferers. ! The cime was about three weeks, the j saving amounted to 812 (Mexican), I and I sent that sum, increased by SI6 j from the teachers.-Grace Newton, in ! Woman's Werk. j A German scientist thinks he has ? discovered in an Alpins cave evi ! deuces thai men were living 109, ' OOO years agc Electric power for domestic and mechanical purposes has become al i mest a necessity in Calcutta, and a 1 reduction in the cc3t would have the effect of largely increasing the con : sumption of the electric current. The bedbug has been found by two j late investigators to be the most dan ' gerous of all blood sucking insects in {spreading disease-or, at any rate, jin fte*-.-bloating plague. In its body thf geijos live raid multiply, retain I in^? virulence for many days, while ?the bedbug itself seems to suffer no inconvenience. The two concrete drydecks at Kiel rest cn a deep stratum of fine sand, : Ic ls found that-though measur ing outside about 600 by 125 by 60 i fept, with 18 foot bottom and walls -ikey are forced down and up with I filling and emptying. The move ments are small, though the bottoms ? bend 0.79 incb, the entire structure , settling 0.2 Inch on loading. j The brightness of the corona or ' rins of light encircling the sun was ? measured by M. Charles Fabry dur I ing the recc-ut total eclipse. He found j the light cf a point a twentieth of a . degree from the sun's edge to be ! equivalent to about 720 candle pow ? er, or a little more than a fourth of the brightness of the full moon. The sky near the unecllpssd 3iiu is 2000 titr.s3 as bright. The gas turbine has made such recent progress that it promises to take its place as one of th'} success ful motors. Such an apparatus re quires a combustion chamber, in which the temperature rises above 3200 degrees P., and from this cham ber the produces of the combustion of liquid hydro-carbon fuel are de livered at ccustaut pressure through carborundum nozzles to tue blades of. the turbine. Ecsides a refactory lining of carborundum, the chamber has a water jacket coil to keep the gases ecol enough for safety to the turbine blades. The problem of making tho machine itself supply the compressed air needed to feed the combustion chamber has b'?en tenta tively solved, and a larg* turbine that has been bail drives a rotary compressor wita an expenditure of about three hundred horse power when running at four thousand revo lutions por minute. Some turbines of 120 horse power have been actual ly put to work, special application having n;;cn found iu operating sub marius torpedoes. Tlie turbine alone weighs about 2.S G pounds per horse power. Au Klastic Compliment. Could anything exceed the polite ness of the Irish^abby? Aa old lady called for a cab and said to the "river: ".-lein me tj get In, my qood man, for I'm a very old lady, you seo." "Begorrau, ma'am;" was his reply, "no matter what :v.;e ye are, ;o dou'c iOu!c it."-Tit-Bits. MISTAKEN. She did not think his love would waken He stole some kisses! Then she confessed she was miss taken, For now she's Mrs. -Philadelphia Press. HIS PURCHASES. "I hear Lushiey has bought bli boy a pony." ' When I saw him he was buying schooners for himself."-Puck. MEANT STARVATION. "Here is a doctor who says you mustn't eat when you're worried." "But suppose you're always vor ried for fear you ain't goin' to get anything to eat?"-Cleveland Plain Dealer. STILL WORKING. Bill-"Is that watch your father gave you ten years ago still doing good service?" Jill-"Yes. I pawned It again to day for the twentieth time."-Lom don Opinion. COOKERY. Bach-"Is your wife a good cook?" Newed-"Well, just between our selves, I must confess that what she calls 'floating island' I always feel like calling 'dismal swamp.' "-Kan? eas City Times. HEADING HIM OFF. "That was a pretty tall story the last speaker at the meeting was tell ing." "Perhaps that was why the chair man cut him short." - Baltimore American. ' " ABOVE. Lady - "You look robust. Aro you equal to the task of sawing wood?" Tramp - "Equal isn't the word, mum. I'm superior to lt. Good, mornin'!"-Wasp. DEAR COLLEGE DAYS. "Hanging weights from the jaw, eh? Queer training for football, I must say." "Oh, he's too light for football. So he's trying to make the debating team."-Pittsburg Post. OFTENER THE CASE. "Did you ever find a quarter that you didn't know you had?" "Once or twice. But hundreds of times I have failed to find a quarter that I thought I might have." Louisville Courier-Journal. MODERN METHODS. "Why do you wrnt to be Gov?raor? The salary is not large." "No; but I can hire a man to run the office for $10 a week, and a Gov ernor can earn big money on the Chautauqua circuit."-Kansas Cit> Journal. THE WAY OF IT. "My daughter tells me the fash ionable* dentist she patronizes has very successful dealings in real es tate." "Yes, of course. He makes most of his money dealing in ache-rs."-? Baltimore American. POOR BUSINESS. "The milliner, as usual, is six weeks behind with my fall hat." "Serves you right," growled lier husband, the magnate. "You women will deliberately place a big construc tion order without a sign of a penal? ty clause."-Houston Chronicle. HIS LAST ACT. Powder Manufacturer - "Fancy old Bill, of all people, going into the gunpowder shed with a lighted can dle. ? should have thought thai would be the last thing he'd do." Workman - "Which, properly Epeakiu", it were, sir."-Sketch. AN EVERYDAY SUIT. "That Gus is certainly a nifty dresser. He has a suit of clothes for every day in the week." "Why, he has the same suit on every time I sae him!" "Yep-that's the one."-Cleveland Leader. AND GET IT OVER. Mrs. Henpeck-"There's no use in your trying to dispute what I say. I'm determined to hava the last word." Mr. Henpeck-"I am quite willing ' you should, my dear, only do have it Boon."-Judge. " THE RICH CULPRIT. "I am sorry to inconvenience you,* said the policeman, "but your ma chine was going forty miles an hour." "Don't apologize," replied Mr. Goulderbilt. "Always do your duty. John, go right along with the officer and be fiucd."-Philadelphia Ledger, THOSE KIND PREDICTIONS. The wedding was over. "Guests," announced an usher, "will kindly register their predictions In this book." "What predictions?" "As to how long you'll give 'em to stay married."-Louisville Courier? Journal. The Better Fart. An amusing story comes from Vienua. A certain Herr Boysen, a well-known young mau about town, was engaged to a society belle whose costumes were thc envy and admira tion of Vienna's smartest sot. Gratified as Herr Boysen no doubt was by his fiancee's ever charming appearance, he grew curicus as to tin cost of ii. So ho made inquiries, and Cound that she was spending IS00 a year on dress alene. A few days later iie broke off the engagement arid rried her dress maker.-ilomc Ciii''t? . -j