LPii l gEj||j,WE ^ K I^Y7^ ' "
l. it. grist ft sons, PubUshers. } % Jfamitn Jtercspper: Jfor the promotion of the {political, Social, ^gricuttuitat and {fommenciat .Interests of the {South. { ":rmSwci2e corY,ErivENcENTsA!'CE'
ESTABLISHED 1855. YOEKVILLE, S. C., SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1898. NUMBER 83.
: - - ? - ? - ?
FIVE HUNDI1ED CARATS.
By GEORGE GRIFFITH.
[Copyright. 1S9S. by the Auth >r.]
It was several mouths after the brilliant
if somewhat mysterious reoovery
of the ?15,000 parcel from the notorious
but now vanished Seth Salter that I
had the pleasure, and I think I may
fairly add the privilege, of making the
acquaintance of Inspector Lipinzki.
I can say without hesitation that in
the course of wanderings which have
'--3 ?- nnrftnn rvf
ltfu uio u>ci a tuiioiuci uuivj wthe
lands and seas of the world I have
never met a more interesting man than
he was. I 6ay "was," poor fellow, for
he is now no longer anything bu a
memory of bitterness to the I. D. B.,
but that most be told in another place.
There is no need of further explanation
of the all too brief intimacy which
followed our introduction than the
statement of the fact that the greatest
South African detective of his day was
after all a man as well as a detective,
and hence not only justifiably proud of
the many brilliant achievements which
illustrated his career, but also by no
means loath that some day the story of
them should, with all due and proper
precautions and reservations, be told to
a wider and possibly less prejudiced
audience than the motley and migratory
population of the camp as it was in bis
day.
I had not been five minutes in the
cozy tastily furnished sanctum of his
low, broad roofed bungalow in New De
Beers road before I saw it was a ma
"I took a lojig draw at my weed."
eeum as well as a study. Specimens of
all sorts of queer apparatus employed
by the I. D. B.'s for smuggling diamonds
were scattered over the tables
and mantelpiece.
There were massive, handsomely
carved brier and meerschaum pipes,
which seemed to hold wonderfully little
tobacco for their size; rough sticks of
firewood ingeniously hollowed out,
wnicn musi nave Deeii wunu a guuu i
round sue; in their time; hollow han-1
dies of traveling trunks; ladies' boot
heels of the fashion affected on a memorable
occasion by Mrs. Michael Muratti,
and novels, hymnbooks, church
services and Bibles, with cavities cut
out of the center of their leaves which
had once held thousands of pounds'
worth of illicit stones on their unsuspected
paswage through the book post.
But none of these interested or indeedpuzzled
me so much as did a couple of
curiously assorted articles which lay
under a little glass case on a corner
bracket. One was an ordinary piece of
heavy lead tubing about three inches
long and an inch in diameter, sealed by
fusing at both ends, and having a little
brass tap fused into one end. The other
was a little ragged piece of dirty red
6heet india rubber, very thin?in fact,
almost transparent?and,roughly speaking,
four or five inches square.
I was looking at these things, wondering
what on earth could be the connection
between them and what manner
of strange story might be connected
with them, when the inspector came in.
"Good evening. Glad to see you," he
said in his quiet and almost gentle
voice and without a trace of foreign
accent as we shook hands. "Well, what
do you think of my museum? I dare say
you've guessed already that If some of
these things could speak they could
keep your readers entertained for some
little time, eh?"
"Well, there is no reason why their
owner shouldn't speak for them," 1
6aid, making the obvious reply, "pro-1
vided always, of course, that it wouldn t
be giving away too many secrets of
6tate."
"My dear sir," he said, with a smile
which curled up the ends of his little
black carefully trimmed mustache ever
so slightly. "I should not have made
you the promise I did at the club the
other night if I had not been prepared
to rely absolutely on your discretion?
and my own. Now, there's whisky and
soda or brandy. Which do you prefer?
You smoke, of course, and I think
you'll find these pretty good, and that
>i chair I can recommend. I have unraveled
many a knotty problem in it, I can
tell you.
"And now, "he went on when we
were at last comfortably settled, "may
I ask which of my relics has most
k aroused your professional curiosity?"
It was already on the tip of my
tongue to ask for the story of the gas
pipe and piece of india rubber, but the
inspector forestalled me by saying:
"But perhaps that is hardly a fair
question, as they will all probably seem
pretty strange to you. Now, for ..ink
stance, I saw you looting at two of my
curios when I came in. You would
hardly expect them to be associated, and
very intimately, too, with about the
most daring and skillfully planned diamond
robbery that ever took place on
the fields, or off them, for the matter of
that, would you?"
"Hardly." I said, "and yet I think I
have learned enough of the devioua
ways of the L D. B to be prepared for
a perfectly logical explanation of the
fact."
"As logical as I think I may fairly
say romantic," replied the inspector as
he set his glass down. "In one sense it
was the most ticklish problem that I've
ever had to tackle. Of course you've
heard some version or other of the dia
appearance of the great De Beers diamond?"
"I should rather think I bad. "I said,
with a decided thrill of pleasurable anticipation,
for I felt snre that now, if
ever, I was going to get to the bottom
of the great mystery. "Everybody in
camp seems to have a different version
of it, and of course every one seems to
think that if he had only had the management
of the case the mysteiy would
have been solved long ago."
"It is invariably the case," 6aid the
inspector, with another of his quiet,
pleasant smiles, "that every one can do
work better than those whose reputation
depends upon the doing of it. We are
not altogether fools at the department,
and yet I have to confess that I myself
was in ignorance as to just how that
diamond disappeared or where it got to
until within 12 hours ago.
"Now, I am going to tell you the
facts exactly as they are, but under the
condition thut you will alter all the
names except, if you choose, my own
and that you will not publish the story
for at least 12 mouths to come. There
are personal and private reasons for tnis
which you will probably understand
without my stating them. Of course it
will in time leak ont into the papers,
although there has been and will be no
prosecution, but anything in the newspapers
will of necessity be garbled and
incorrect, and?well, I may as well
confess that I am sufficiently vain to
wish that my share in the transaction
shall not be left altogether to the tender
mercies of the imaginative penny-aliner.
"
I acknowledged the compliment with
a bow as grnceful as the easiness of the
inspector's chair would allow me to
make, but 1 said nothing, as I wanted
to get to the story.
"I had better begin at the beginning,"
the inspector went on as he
meditatively snipped the end of a fresh
cigar. "As I suppose you already know,
the largest and most valuable diamond
ever found on these fields was a really |
magnificent stone, a perfecc octahedron,
pure white, without a flaw and weighing
close on 500 carats. There's a photograph
of it there on the mantelpiece.
I've.got another one by me. I'll give it
you before you leave Kimberley.
"Well, this stone was found about
six months ago in one of the drives on
the 800 foot level of the Kimberley
mine. It was taken by the overseer
straight to the De Beers' offices and
placed on the secretary's desk?you
? I - - ? .4.1 ; _Li. 1 3
Know wnero ne sns, on me ngm. iiuuu i
sido as you go into the boardroom j
through the green baize doors. There
were several of the directors present at
the time, und, as you may imagine,
they were pretty well pleased at the
find, for the stone, without any exaggeration,
was worth a prince's ransom.
"Of course I needn't tell you that the
value per carat of a diamond which is
perfect and of a good color increases in
a sort of geometrical progression with
the size. I daro say that stone was
worth anywhere between ?1,000,000
and ?2,000,000, according to the depth
of the purchaser's purse. It was worthy
to adorn the proudest crown in the
world instead of?but there, you'll
think me a very poor 6tory teller if I
anticipate.
"Well, the diamond, after being duly
admired, was taken up stairs to the diamond
room by the secretary himself,
accompanied by two of the directors.
Of course you have been through the
new offices of De Beers, but still perhaps
I bad better just run over the
ground, as the locality is rather important.
"You know that when you get up
stairs and turn to the right on the landing
from the top of the staircase there
is a door with a little grille in it. You
knock, a trapdoor is raised, and if you
are recognized and your business warrants
it yo*are admitted. Then you go
along a little passage, out of which a
room opens on the loft, and in front of
you is another door, leading into the
diamond rooms themselves.
"You know, too, that in the main
room fronting Stockdale street and
Jones street the diamond tables run
round the two sides under the windows
and are railed off from the rest of the
room by a single light wooden rail.
There is a table in the middle of the
room, and on your right hand as yon
go in there is a big safe standing
against the wall. 5fou will remember,
too, that in the corner exactly facing
the door stands the glass case containing
the diamond scales. I want you
particularly to recall the fact that these
scales stand diagonally across the corner
by the window. The secondary
room, as you know, opens out on to the
left, but that is not of much ccnsequeneo."
1 signified my remembrance of these
details, and tho inspector went on:
"The diamond was first put in tho
6cale and weighed in tho presence of
the secretary and the two directors by
one of the higher officials, a licensed
diamond broker and a most trusted employee
of De Beers, whom you may call
Philip Marsden when you come to write
the sfory. The weight, as I told you, In
round figures was 500 carats. The stone
was then photographed, partly for purposes
of identification and partly as a
reminder of the biggest 6tone ever found
in Kiniberley in its rough state.
' "The gem was then handed over to
Mr. Marsden's care pending the departure
of the diamond post to Vryebuig on
the following Monday?this was a
Tuesday. The secretary saw it locked
up in the big safe by Mr. Marsden,
who, as usual, was accompanied by another
official, a younger man than himself,
whom you can call Henry Lomas,
a connection of his, and also one of the
most trusted members of the staff.
"Every day, and sometimes two or
three times a day, either the secretary
or one or other of the directors came up
and had a look at the big stone, either
for their own satisfaction or to show it
to some of their more intimate frienda
"I ought perhaps to have told you before
that the whole diamond room staff were
practically sworn to secrecy on the subject.
because, as you will readily understand,
it was not considered desirable
for such an exceedingly valuable
find to be made pnblio property in a
place like thia When Saturday came,
it was decided not to send it down to
Cape Town, for some reasons connected
with the state of the market When the
safe was opened on Monday morning,
the stone was gone.
"I needn't attempt to describe the
absolute panic which followed. It had
been seen two or three times in the safe
on the Saturday, and the secretary himself
was positive that it was there at
closing time, because he saw it just as
the 6afe was being locked for the night.
In fact, he actually saw it put in, for it
had been taken out to show to a friend
of his a few minutes before.
"The safe had not been tampered
with, nor could it have been unlocked,
because when it is closed for the night
it cannot be opened again unless either
the secretary cr the managing director
is present, as they have each a master
key, without which the key used during
the day is of no use.
' "Of course I was sent for immediately,
and I admit that I was fairly staggered.
If the secretary had not been so
positive that the stone was locked up
when he saw the safe closed on the Saturday,
I should have worked upon the
theory?the only . possible one, as it
seemed?that the stone bad been abstracted
from the safe during the da$,
concealed in the room and somehow or
other smuggled oat, although even that
would have been almost impossible in
consequence of the strictness of the
searching system and the almost certain
discovery which must have followed an
attempt to get it out of town.
"Both the rooms were searched in every
nook and cranny. The whole staff,
naturally feeling that every one of them
must be suspected, immediately volunteered
to submit to any process of search
that I might think satisfactory, and I
can assure you the search was a very
thorough one.
TO BE CONTINUED.
Well Done.?How the Hodkins
geese were kept oft the Podkitis premises
is an interesting story related by
the Philadelphia Record, and condensed
below :
The geese strayed for forage, as
geese will, and sometimes invaded the
Pod kins front lawn.
Mrs. Podkins, kindly soul, said she
"didn't want ter git th' men folks
a-scrappin' aud a-mixin' things up
over a passel o' geese." So she organized
a board of strategy, consisting of
herself, her daughter "Sis" and her
boy "Joe."
The result of their deliberations and
certain preparations, wherein figured
needle and thread, some grains of corn
and some bits of cardboard, became
evideut the next morning. The Hodkins
geese appeared as usual, but returned
home quickly, squawking so
noisly as to bring the Hodkiuses in a
body to the front door. What they
saw astonished them.
Depending from each fowl's bill was
a bit of thread, the inner end anchored
to a grain of corn in the bird's interior
department, while to the other '
end of the string was attached a
card bearing this inscription : "Plese
Kepe Yur Gooses Home." The Hodkins
water-fowl are now reconcentrade
upon the Hodkins home ranch.
Liability For Pensions.?"There
is another important consideration," <
says the Norfolk Landmark, "when i
an enlisted mau is mustered out of the
army with the germs of disease, ob- 1
tained during military service, in his <
system, the future fate of the soldier
is Dot regarded by the able statisticians
who are trying to establish the
efficiency of our war depatmeut.
Nevertheless, anyone will admit that
the death of such a man is as certainly
attributable to his military career
as it would be had he died before being
discharged. As bearing upon this
important point, I)r. Roberts, the sanitary
superintendent of Greater New
York, reports that in the month of
September there were 335) cases of typhoid
fever in that city 'emanating
directly and indirectly from the service
of the United States army.' Every
day, and in nearly every section of the
country, deaths are reported from fever
directly traceable to service afield and
in cauip, and a great many of the men
who thus pass away have been mustered
out of the service. Their cases
are not considered in the adjutant general's
office." Probably the dead brigade
would number four regiments
instead of three if all the returns were
in.?News and Courier.
Jttiscfllitncous ^catling.
INFORMATION WE DON'T (JIVE AWAY.
Foreign Governments Want to Find Out
How We Train Our Naval Gunners.
New York Sun.
Washington, October 10.?Ever
siDce the battle of Manila bay foreign
governments have made efforts to
obtain from the United States the
secret of the wonderful proficiency
in firing which the gunners of the
American navy have attained. Naval
attaches in Washington have been
particularly active in seeking information
about the method of training
the men behind the guns, the cost
" ^ mAQOiii*nH Ktr
Ul OUUU tl a l Ll lug uigaouibu ?/j vuv
amount of money expended for target
practice, the character of the gunners,
how long it took to attain efficiency
and all other data bearing on the subject.
After the naval battle of Santiago
the inquiries of the attaches
became more numerous, and since
active hostilities ended the .navy
department has been importuned with
greater diplomatic persistency.
Heretofore it has been customary
for the United States government to
furnish freely such information to
foreign naval and military attaches
in Washington, but there has never
been a reciprocal exchange of data.
The department has recently decided
to keep to itself much of the information
that it so courteously furnished
heretofore, while a system of give and
take has been inaugurated with reference
to other material wanted by
foreign governments that need not
necessarily be kept secret. When
foreign uaval attaches now apply to
the navy department for information
that could properly be furnished they
are told that the request will be complied
with if the governments to which
the attaches bold allegiance will give
to the United States certain information
in exchange. A case in point is
that of an attache of a great European
country, who asked a few days ago for
some naval gunnery drill books. The
naval attache of the United States at
the capital of the foreign government
had been eudeavoriug vaiuly to secure
some data which the navy department
believed to be valuable. The foreign
attache was informed that he could
have the drill books if the request of
A ntf o/ika 1 n V>io /lAlinl PV
luo AUiciiuau attavuc iu mg wuuuj
was complied with.
OLD GERONIMO'S WISDOM.
Interesting Talk With thfa Once Famous
Enemy of the Whites.
Geronimo, the notorious Apache
chief, on last Monday, when asked
by Captain Merar, the military man,
in charge of the Indian congress,
what be thought of the Minnesota
Indian war, said :
"The Minnesota Indians will see
that they huye made a great mistake
in going on the warpath."
Old Geronimo is one of the Indians
now in the camp at the Indian congress.
Geronimo was for years the
most troublesome Indian in the country.
He is now probably 70 years
old. He was born in New Mexico,
and for years was a herder working
for Spaniards who owned ranches in
the territory. When about 21 years
old he conceived the idea that be bad
been wronged by the whites, and from
that time until his fiual surrender to ;
General Miles iu 1886, was aimust
continually on the warpath. Today, after
being informed that the Minnesota ;
Indians were fighting the United
States troops, Geronimo said through
his interpreter :
"When I say that the Minnesota In- i
dians huve made a mistake I know
whereof I speak. From long experience
in both war and peace, I know i
that it is better to submit to great
wrongs than to fight the United States, i
Years ago the Indians made up great i
Dations, but now they have gone never ]
to return. We huve got to give up
our old ways and take ou those of the i
.? V? S?rP L oro rinlir q fail' nf iu 1
? uiicSi i uci c ate win j m >v fi vi uv i
left and we are herded in like a lot of
sheep, so that it is foolish to go to war.
The young men of the tribes will never
know anything of war, except as the
tales are told by the old men.
"I have never been in Minnesota,
but I hear that up there and for hundreds
of miles beyond, the white men
are as many as the blades of grass.
If this is so, what can a few poor Indians
do iu a fight ? They are making
a great mistake and are very foolish.
For years I fought the white men,
thinking that with my few braves I
30uld kill them all off and that we
would again have the land that our
Great Father gave us and which he
covered with game. I thought that
.he Great Spirit would be with us and
that after we had killed the white men
the buffalo, the deer and antelope
would come back. After I had fought
ind lost, and after I had traveled over
he country in which the white man
lived, and saw his cities and the work
hat he had done, my old heart was
ready to burst. I knew that the race
>f the Indian was run and that there
was nothing left but to submit to the
aw.
"When I discovered that we were
lopelessly defeated I told my people
hat we would give up the fight and
iccept such terms of peace as we could
;et from the whites. While I am a
ijrisoner of war and have been for
rears, I feel that I am better ofT than
inict nf I 111. Tiwliiina rtf tlifi <*OUntrV.
rhe government lias confidence in me f
ind has appointed me a scout, which (
s the same as au Indian police in the I
northern agencies. I expect to end s
my days in peace and leave my family
something of which the members will
be proud?a good name."
When asked what he thought would
become of the North American Indian,
Geronimo hesitated a moment and
then, pointing to the west, replied :
"The sun rises and shines for a time,
and then it goes down, sinking out of
sight, and is lost. So it will be with
the Indian. When I was a boy my
old father told me the Indians were as
many as the leaves on the trees, and
that 'way off in the north they had
many horses and furs. I never saw
them, but I know that if they were
there they have gone now and the
white man has taken all they had.
It will be only a few years more when
the Indians will be heard of no more
except in the books that the white
man writes. They are not the people
that the Great Father loves, for if they
were he would protect and care for
them. They have tried to please him
but they do not know how. Schools
are good things for the Indian, but it
takes many years to change his nature.
If an Indian boy goes to school and
learns to be like a white boy, he comes
back to the agency and there ig nothing
for him to do but put on a blanket
and be like an Indian again. This is
where the government is to blame.
When it takes our children away and
educates them, it should give them
something to do, not turn them loose
to run wild at the agency. Until that
time comes, educating the Indian is
throwing money away. What can an
educated Indian do out in the sage
brush and cactus ? /
"I am an old man, and can't live
many years, so this don't trouble me
much ; but before I die I should like
to see the Iudian have the same chance
as the colored people or the poor
whites. There will be no more big
Indian wars. The Indians' fighting
days are over, and there is nothing
left for them to do but to be beggars
and live on charity around the
agencies."
MANGOES IN CUBA.
Cubans Called the Fruit General Mango,
For It Stayed the Spaniards.
In the long list of suggestions from
the medical department, all of which
J! ]..J ?L.
were uisregurueu, cue ripe uiuugu who
recommended as a desirable article of
diet. But somebody at headquarters
issued an edict agaiust it, and the soldiers
were called up by the company
commanders and told that if tbey ate
the fruit they would be punished. This
is the way the compauy commanders
addressed the men :
"Now, I see that some of you have
been eating those mangoes in spite of
our advice to the coutrary. Do you
know what the Cubans call this fruit?
They call it General Mango, because
they say that the mango has killed
more Spanish soldiers than all their
generals put together. If you eat it
General Mango will kill you just as it
has killed the Spaniards. I am told on
good authority that if you eat a mango
every day and then get yellow fever
you will swell up frightfully aud surely
die. Now, I give you this positive'order
that not one of you shall eat any
of this fruit, and I shall punish severely
any mau that disobeys the
order."
After such an order the obedient
regulars generally let the mangoes
alone, although they were abundant,
tempting and delicious. The volunteers
ate them more freely, without
uny had results, so far as heard from.
When the Cuban officers and aides
were asked their opinion as to the
wholesomeness of the fruit they generally
said : "It is perfectly wholesome
if eaten ripe ; all these bad things apply
to the unripe mango, which is
sometimes eaten by the Spaniards."
Most of the army doctors seemed to
think that the only way to prevent the
pniintr of the unriDe manizo was to
prohibit the fruit altogether. There
were maDy cases in which even the
most obedient regulars were impelled
by thirst and by hunger for a bit of
fruit to disobey the order ; and, as the
idear yellow mango is always ripe,
while the unripe fruit is green or
greenish, it did not take a very high
arder of intelligence to discriminate
between the fruit which was fit to eat
and that which was unfit.
It was certainly bard to believe any
ill of a mango when one looks at it.
The tree itself is a most beautiful and
attractive thing. Imagine a tree as
arge as a big Massachusetts oak, covered
with rich and glossy foliage finer
?an that of the orange tree, and covered
also with golden fruit, nestling
arilliantly among the green leaves.
Dn such a tree there must be a hundred
aarrels of mangoes, fully matured,
ivery one of which is as large as a
jood sized pear. In shape the mango
s not unlike a short and thick cucumler,
and it has a thin, tough skin,
vhich, when matured, reveals a mass
>f the most delicious juicy pulp. The
)nly trouble about eating the mango is
hat one needs au ablution afterward,
some say that the ideal way is to get
nto a hath tub, take the mango, eat it
ind then go on with the hath. But one
s perfectly williug to take the trouble
o seek the ablution for the sake of the
'ruit. And imagine the trees which
>ear the fruit growing wild everyvhere,
and also spring up in every
jarden and dooryard ; the largest and i
iuest ones were away up on a wild i
nouutaiu side, where apparently no I
me had ever gathered the abounding ]
ruit. Nor are they a uutive fruit in i
Alba ; they have been introduced from i
ndia and simply gone wild in the rich I
oil of the islands. i
Back to trance.?An American
lately returned from several years of
travel in Europe, tells of an instance
of New England thrift which came
under his notice.
"In Italy," he said, telling the story
to a friend, "the authorities seem to
have a wonderful faculty for scenting
out dutiable articles, and the traveler
over the borders ^om France often
finds himself relieved of an unexpectedly
large sum on this account.
"I was one of a party of Americans
who crossed the border in a comfortable
carriage one day last year. Our
host was a wideawake Connecticut
man, generous with his money, but
determined not to part with it foolishi
i I. . i J J J _
ly, wnen ne couia avoia aoing so.
"There were five in the party, and
among other supplies for our delectation
on the road, was a basket of
grapes. We started shortly after
breakfast, and in an hour were over
the border in Italy. We were promptly
assailed by a levyer of duties, who
pounced upon the grapes, and demanded
a good sum for them as imported
articles.
" 'No, sir,' said the Connecticut man,
firmly, caring little whether what he
said was understood by the official, as
he intended to make his meaning clear
by action ; 'no, sir, we'll eat our luncheon
in France, sooner than pay for
those grapes!'
"And before any one realized what
he was doing, back we were in France
again, where we sat, eating our grapes
in the very faces of the Italians, though
without quite as much relish as we
might have had an hour or two later."
Don't Worry.?Don't worry about
something that you think may bappen
tomorrow, because you may die
tonight, and tomorrow will find you
beyond the reach of worry. Don't
worry over a thing that happened yesterday,
because yesterday is a hundred
years away. If you don't believe
it, just try to reach after it and bring
it back. Don't worry anything about
that is happening today, because today
will last only 15 or 20 minutes. Don't
worry about things you can't help, because
worry only makes them worse.
Don't worry about things you can
ht?ln hpfnnsp then there's no need to
worry. Don't worry at all. If you
want to be penitent now and then it
won't hurt you a bit, it will do you
good. But worry, worry, worry, fret,
fret, fret?why, there's neither sorrow,
peuitence, strength, penance, reformation,
hope nor resolution. ixuiL. It's
merely worry. * '
"I Have Orders Not to Go."?
"I have orders?positive orders not to
go there ; orders that I dare not disobey,"
said a youth who was being
tempted to a smoking and gambling
saloon.
"Come, don't be so womanish," said
the youths.
"No, I can't break orders," said
John.
"What special orders have you got ?
Come, show them to us, if you can."
John took a neat walet from his
pocket, carefully folded. The lads
read aloud :
"Enter not into the path of the
wicked, and go not .in the way of evil
men. Avoid it, pass not by it, turn
from it and pass away."
"Now," said John, "you see my orders
forbid my going with you. They
are God's orders, and by His help I
will not break them."
A Weed Destroyer.?One more
beneficial use has been found for electricity.
It is the destruction of weeds.
The Illinois Central railroad is the first
to employ it tor mac purpose, in oruer
to keep down tbe weeds along its
lines of railroad. Not only has electricity
been found servicable for weed
destruction, but tbe cost is much less
(ban wben done by baud labor. It
cost the company in the past about
$40 per mile to destroy weeds. With
electricity, five miles of weeds can be
killed in an hour at a small expense,
A brush, heavily charged with electricity,
runs along about eight inches
above the ground, and every weed
with which it comes in contact, however
big and strong, is immediately
killed, and turns black as if frozen.
Trouble With Weevils.?I was
troubled for several years by weevils
in the barn and tried everything represented
to be good for their extermination,
but failure was always tbe result.
I resolved to try my own remedy, or
rather one which an old colored woman
on the place had recommended as
being efficent in the time of her <(ol'
mastah." Just before bay-making
time I cleaned the barn, grain, bins,
etc., thoroughly, and then sprinkled
slacked lime about there in every niche
and corner. I have not been molested
by weevils since that time. If I ever
am, this remedy will do the work.?
Correspondent of Practical Farmer.
Feeding the Land.?Poor laud can
never be improved unless something is
added to it. It is cheaper to allow
time in the effort to grow crops to be
plowed under them than to attempt to
i"l"> ? Bonnf.v nrnn frnm the land.
When the land is poor the manure
should be concentrated on smaller
areas and allow a portion of the land
to go uucropped until manure can bef
given it. Time will be saved, however,
by using green manurial crops
and fertilizers. The farmer who pays
taxes on poor land taxes himself uuaecessarily.