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^ ^ " ISSUED SEMI'WEEKL^ L. k. grist's SONS, Publisher., j % Ifamilg Jtasgager: J[or the promotion of the political, j&ociat. ^jricuttupl and Commercial Interests of (he feogle. {T "noL^pVf^I I:Bra*A,ICK' ESTABLISHED 1855. YORKVILLE, S. C., TUESDAY, J A NU AEY 14, 19Q8. 1STO. 4. : By ETTA 1 L CHAPTER XXIV. Jetta Still Speaks. 1 WtttI I1U UIS^UISC lino I.IIIIV, wv see!" These were mademoiselle's first words, as we stood together in Peg's darkening room. I felt a curious shock. "Where is the person who summonec me to this house " I demanded, indignantly. "She stands before you! That was a little ruse of mine. Your brother is at present under a 'prodigious ban ol excommunication.' It would be scarcely prudent for him to venture again tc the Tempest. He wrote the letter you received at my dictation?I knew it would bring you, and J was anxious for an interview." She was dressed in some rich fabric that swept Peg's bare floor in shimmering folds. Her yellow, babyish hair clustered about her face in little rings and tendrils?it was the same blonde, angelic face that had brought sbame L and grief to Tempest Island six years W before. "Our late meeting in the Hall garden ' was not altogether satisfactory," she continued, with an airy toss of her 1 ^ v.A "On (hof i\s*r>a alnn vrtll put the poor gypsy basket-seller to total rout, and proved yourself to be a rival whom it Is not safe to despise. Well, I drove you from the Island six years ago?see how time and fate have avenged you, Jetta Ravenel! I am now the outcast, and you the power behind the throne?the shrine at which Prince Lucifer kneels. One can always And revenge for most things in this world. I notice, if one has patience to wait." I tried to keep an unmoved front. "Gabriel has been guilty of an unworthy trick," I said: "but I will not blame him. for he is in your tolls. You have changed his whole nature? you have ruined his future prospects? what more would you do? Where is he now hiding? Since you have forced this meeting upon me, I demand my unhappy brother at your hands!" 0 She burst into a mocking laugh. f "I am not Gabriel's keeper. Have I t ruined his prospects? Ah, it is plain that Hawkstone, who can be delightful when he is in love, conceals the truth from you, and unwittingly leaves to me the pleasure of revealing it! Perhaps you may understand some things better when I tell you that your brother is a?thief! that he robbed George Sutton in his Newport house a few weeks ago, and then attacked him savagely and left him for dead. Where is he hiding? In dens and caves, I presume, as all criminals hide from justice. The chief business of his life now is to evade the officers of the law." I did not faint or cry out?I did not lose my head. I looked her full In hei fair, malicious face, and said, calmly: "It is a falsehood!" "If you really believed that." she answered, "you would not grow so pale! Of course, Gabriel's insane passion foi me is at the bottom of his crime. He loves me so much?absurd boy!?that he would cheerfully murder any one who stood between us?rob any one. tc supply me with diamonds and other trifles. Miss Ravenel, you have struck at me through Basil Hawkstone?I car wound you with your own weapon? I through your brother Gabriel. I always hated you furiously, you know." "I fail to see how that fact justifies you in destroying Gabriel." I gasped "Are you a woman or a fiend, that you would make him sin and suffer simply kanonca ka io mt* hmthor'),, The wicked laugh bubbled ovei Vera's lips again, as she went on. "In the battle betwixt you and me ] shall neither give nor expect quarter I mean to destroy you and yours without mercy. You have taken from mt my husband?the father of my child Don't say that the law had alread> separated us?but for you I should have won him back, sooner or later Great Heaven!" passionately clasping a pair of lily hands heavy with jewels?"I always meant to win him back! I am Bee's mother?I am Basil Hawkstone's wife! I love him still?lov< him madly, passionately, and whal right have you to step betwixt those whom God hath joined?" I stood and looked at her, stunned overwhelmed, and at that moment the airy structure of happiness which had built in the last few days collapsee and went down in utter ruin. "You dare to love my husband!" hissed Vera. "It is a criminal, unhol: love! I cry out against it! In a montl you will marry him and go abroad? to Kgypt?to some Helen that he wil find for his new Five? You cannot g< so far that my vengeance will not pur sue you?the vengeance of a wronged outraged, heart-broken woman!" I fell back a step, and passed m; hand across my eyes?I seemed scathei by lightning. "Have you nothing to say?" sneere< my enemy. "Can you make no defense Had you known the secret history o the Hawkstones. you might have hes itated before you set yourself to be witch my husband!" She swept up to the mantel, nm lighted a candle. Then she called out suddenly and sharply: "Peg?Peg Pat ton!" The brown woman appeared in th door. "Take the light. Peg." commands mademoiselle, "and we will follow yoi You have something to show Mis Ravenel?a little story to tell her." Peg took the candle in one hand, an made a motion to me with the othei Mechanically I obeyed the beckoninj fingers, and stepped out into a Ion passage. There, a door that I ha not perceived, opened to Peg's toucl She drew me forward into an apart ment. the luxurious appointments c which might have surprised me at an other time, and Mademoiselle Zephy followed us. From the ceiling a lam was suspended, and below it. on a pil of soft rugs, sat a woman playing wit a heap of seashells. I looked, and rec AT. PIERCE. ognized the island ghost?the myster ous woman that I had first seen, yeai t before, in the Hawkstone tomb. St t did not lift her eyes as we entered4 did not seem to see us. But her fac and the hair that streamed loose o her shoulders, were as white as hoat I frost. She wore a trailing white gowi which added to her spectral appearand With fingers like streaks of foam, sh ( went on sorting the shells, and croon ( ing. brokenly: > " *Oh, the moment was sad when m love and I parted, Savourneen deellsh, shighan oh! ' As I kissed off her tears I was nig I broken-hearted, Savourneen deelish, shighan oh!' The pathetic voice went through m like a knife. I started back a ste , and looked at Pep Patton, who wa gazing steadfastly at me. "Did you ever see this woman be ( fore. Miss Ravenel?" she said. 'Yes." "Do you know who she is?" , '"No." Something tragic came into Peg' ( heavy brown face. , "Look at her!" she cried. "She i . the mother of Basil H&wkstone, an the murderess of his father!" I stood dumb. Mademoiselle Zephy sank gracefully down on a sofa, with mocking smile on her lips. "The night that Philip Hawkston , brought home his second bride," sai Peg Patton, "this, his divorced wif< , followed him, in a common fishin boat, from Whlthaven, entered hi chamber, and stabbed him to the hear as he lay sleeping beside his new love. "Who shall say that she did not d well?" interrupted mademoiselle fror the sofa. "I was sitting in the church-pore that night, thinking of my false lover, went on Peg?"for Philip Hawkston was that, as perhaps you know, mis ?when a strange apparition came fly , ing toward me from the direction o Tempest Hall. There was a tlash c lightning, and I recognized Hawk stone's former wife; her dress and he hands were stained with blood, an she was like one distraught. 'Hide me she exclaimed, 'for I've killed him!' "I hurried her to this very houst where I lived with my old blind gran , ny"? "Our friend was kindly disposed to ward the murderess, because she ha done the very deed which Peg hersel longed to do!" said mademoiselle, fror the sofa. "Never mind about that!" answere Peg. sullenly. "We had both sufferer and for the same man. I'll own tha 1 felt akin to her that night. As soo as we got to the Inlet she began t rave in delirium. What do you thin I did then? Locked her up from th . blind granny, flew back to Tempes Hall, and told the new wife the whol truth! I, the sweetheart that Phili , Hawkstone had jilted, stood that nigh 'twixt the two women he had wedder . 'Will you give her up to just ?e?' i sal . to Jetta Hawkstone. 'She'll be hun sure if you do! Her heart is brok . and her wits are gone. Your comin , to the island has fairly driven her mat Will you give her up?' And she an ; sweifd, 'No, never! Besides, there' [ the child.' 'Yes,* said I, 'there's th [ child. Is he going to be told, in afte . years, that his mother murdered hi 1 father? We must conceal her, an i keep the secret always.' 'We will said Jetta Hawkstone. 'Go home. Peg i gy, and take care of her at the Ink > House till I come.' "The poor creature was shrieking i brain fever by the time I reached hom< With the help Mi's. Hawkstone ser [ me I nursed her night and day. I bar red every door and window of th . house, and nobody on the island, or o > it, dreamed of what I was doing hen We know from her ravings that sh had adored her husband, and that h [ cast her off simply because he was tir . ed of her. > "Well, miss, the keeping of the seen . was the punishment that Jetta Hawk stone imposed upon herself for the pai . she had innocently played in the trag > edv. She declared that she was t t blame for the awful deed the first wil ? had done?that, by marrying Phili Hawkstone, she had brought destruc , tion upon him. and to the end of lit > days she was full of regrets and rc I morse. As for Master Basil, she love 1 him beyond belief, and vowed to hid his mother's crime from him while ht " life lasted?to hide it from the worli ir too, for the boy's sake. And she ws i a woman of her word?was Jett - Hawkstone. She suffered herself?st 1 let others suffer, but year after yet i she kept her lips sealed, and shelter - the murderess here, and provide I, abundantly for her wants. Apart froi our two selves, the only person on tl r Tempest who knew the whole trul i was Harris, the overseer. Master Ba sil never dreamed of it till his stej 1 mother died. ? "Well, she got well of the fever"f jerking a brown hand toward the mat - woman?"but her brain was left wea - and queer?her wits never came bac Mrs. Hawkstone built this room f< 1 her, and put in the secret door. guard against surprises, and made h< - comfortable in all ways, even to ii dulging her whim for white gowns, ar e sea-shells, and the singing of song She's harmless enough, but som< rl times she gets out, in spite of me. ar i. frightens the island folks, who thir s she is a spook. "Basil Hawkstone still keeps hi d here, not from fear of the law, for she r. only fit for a madhouse, hut becau: g she seems fond of the place and of m g We both think that at this late da d when the world has forgotten the mu l. der, her miserable story had best 1 - left untold?unknown. Now, Mi >f Ravenel"?turning sharply on me? y s'pose you wonder why I've broug r you to see her tonight?why I've nil p ed up the old tragedy? It's becau e you've promised to marry Phil h Hawkstone's son! Am I not your frier > when I try to show you the rout path which that other Jetta trod before you?when I try to turn your feet out of it?" The white woman started up from the pile of rugs on the floor, and held out to me a shell. "Listen!" she said, in a sad, gentle voice. "There's a message inside it for you. Do you hear? Go away from this island?go at once, or you are lost!" "Even lunatics have moments of wisdom!" laughed mademoiselle, as she arose from the sofa and shook out her silken train. . Peg Patton retreated into the passage. I followed with the circus-rider. rs The secret door closed noiselessly on te Hnwkstone's mad mother. "Do not forget the story you have heard. Miss Ravenel," sneered Mademoiselle Zephyr. "And wait! I've a message to send Basil Hawkstone. Three times I have failed to get pos8. session of my child, but as the Lord ip liveth, and as my soul liveth. he shall not keep her from me one day longer! Now, farewell." * How I escaped from the house I cannot tell. The first that I remember I h was flying down the forest path to the ? beach. The owls hooted in the twilight. the nighthawks flew over my e head. I leaned, ut last, against the p rock of the "Old Woman," and looked Q ... .... out with blank, sightless eyes on tne gray sea. My dream of love and hap- | piness was done?the gate of my Eden had already closed behind me. And then I heard a step, and I knew he was coming to seek me?he was even then at my side. s "What a fright you have given me, Jetta!" he cried. "I returned from s ^ Whithaven to lind the house empty and desolate. Miss Rokewood and Bee r have not yet appeared, and you"? He stopped and turned my face toward the afterglow of sunset. "Jetta! how white and strange you d look! Why do you shrink from me?? what has happened?" "Take your arms away!" I answered g wildly. "Do not touch me, Basil?nevs er again! We are parted?we can nev- j ? er. never marry!" And I told him all. ( o His face grew turbulent for a mo- i ment, then hardened into ominous < n lines. < ^ "My poor darling," he said, gently, < ? "you have fallen too readily into j mademoiselle's net! I do not regret i e that you have seen my mother, or ( is heard her story, for I would have no j secrets from the woman I love. But l . what can I say of that second-rate ac- < tress?that vindictive, mischief-loving t cheat, Mademoiselle Zephyr? Believe 1 ^ me, she has but two idols?herself and 1 , the circus-ring. Bee. she never loved i ?her desertion of the child, and the s cruel physical injury which she inflict- I ed on her six years ago, prove that. Me she hates with her whole heart. The 1 farce that she is playing would be < d amusing, if it did not threaten my fu- s ture happiness?I would laugh at her t plots, if they were not directed against < your peace as well as my own. Do i j you say inai we are purieu nuin caui * j other, Jetta? Not on this side of the I ^ grave, and not by any living mortal!" i n I looked straight into the eyes of the s man I loved, and answered: o ^ "After what has passed tonight, i could I ever be happy as your wife? < it The broken heart of that woman at the '< Inlet House, the protests of Bee's < mother, the shame, the disgrace which i it my brother Gabriel has brought upon 1 j me, all hold us wide apart! There's '< ^ a great gulf fixed between us. Your < wife I can never be! My heart may ' break, but not this my resolution!" < His volcanic eyes, the hard lines of < j his mouth, told me that I had met my 1 master. Yet he drew my hand very q gently through his arm. 1 * "My darling, let me take you back 5 , to the house. I will not try to reason i V with you now, he said, with unuttera- 1 \ ble tenderness. "I will not even re- I d , proach you, for you are already over whelmed. As for Gabriel, it is quite 1 >t true that he owes his ruin to Made- ' tnoiselle Zephyr. Leave him entirely 1 to me?leave all your troubles to me, I s Jetta. for the fact that they are yours ~ makes them mine also." I In silence I went on with him over 1 the dunes. My ears were still ringing I pj. with Vera's threats and reproaches, my 1 eyes could see nothing but the mad- 1 woman playing with her heap of shells. ] Never could I marry Basil Hawk- ' stone till these things were forever ' blotted from my memory. ^ Mrs. Otway met us at the door of ' Tempest Hail. ^ "Oh," she cried, in great distress, "a 1 dreadful thing has happened. Miss ' ' Bee is lost!" i "Lost!" we echoed, in the same _ breath." ( P . "The ponies ran away," explained 1 the housekeeper, "when Miss Rokewood and the child were returning ' j from the lighthouse. Both were thrown ie out. Miss Rokewood's head struck a stone and she fainted. When she came to herslef, she says, she could ' ^ find nothing of Bee. The child had disappeared, leaving not a trace be- ] .cl e hind. She searched everywhere, and ( was finally obliged to come home, and l(j call Harris and the servants to help. ((j Not ten minutes ago they all started , m off on the road to the lighthouse?they le thought it wasn't best to wait for you, :h 8,r " " 'One woe doth tread upon another's i heels. So fast they follow,' " muttered Hawkstone. "At what hour, ? and at what spot in the road, did this mysterious disappearance take place?" ik "I'm not sure," answered the housekeeper, wildly. "Miss Rokewood will ir tell you. I wish you would order to I somebody to ring the alarm-bell, sir!" er He tunned to me with bent brows. 1_ "Mademoiselle Zephyr has fulfilled l(l her threat," he said. "In some uns known way she has got possession of e" the child at last!" To be Continued, lk i*' London consumes over ft.000,000 tons of coal every year. >*s se Public examinations in Japan show a preference for the study of * English by all those who intend to ^ tak? up mercantile pursuits, while ss German is especially popular with ?j students intended for the learned professions. Chinese and Corenn are much studied by the Japanese, who also devote much time to Russian, French se and Spanish; altogether, the modern ip Japanese student shows signs of be1(j coming a first-class polyglot, many, . Indeed, adding Esperanto to the sum total of their linguistis achievements. ^ 'w '. FULLER. THE Si ATUS OF TRAINED NURSES Important Bill Before the General Assembly. Measures affecting the public health, writes the Columbia correspondent of the News ami Courlei, are interesting the people at large very generally at this time, when there is more enlightenment than ever before in regard to matters of this sort. The practice of medicine is no longer a mysterious matter and every intelligent man expects his physician to deal frankly with him when he is sick. Statutes ooking towards the prevention of iisease are backed by an enlightened public sentiment, as well as by professional endorsement. TVm tfdnarl nnr?P Is nr?\V W Indis jensable factor in the fight against Jisease, sickness and death. The ntelligence, devotion to duty and skill >f the trained nurse are being esteem?d at their right value and there is a lecided sentiment to make the profession a profession Indeed. For this purpose it is proposed in this, as in Jther states, to protect the skilled and intelligent members of the profession 'rom the damage done by the unskilled and unintelligent, and to safeguard he public from imposition. Abuses of :he confidential position of the trained turse have come to light in this state, tnd in adjoining states, which it is sought to make impossible in the future. The graduate nurses of the state held a meeting here fair week and decided, after perfecting an organisation, to seek to have the general issembly provide for an examination" )f nurses similar to the examination vhich the physicians, pharmacists and ientists are required to stand. This Jill has been prepared carefully and ,vill be introduced at the coming session. Its provisions are as follows: Section 1. That the state board of medical examiners of this state at :heir regular annual meetings hereifter shall, in addition to their present J a i r* 11 n nnllnontu fnr PAP ililies, tAaiiUlIC exit a|'i'iiv?..vw 4W. . wo strntion under this act, for the purpose of determining the fitness and ibility of such applicants to give efficient care to the sick. Upon filing apication for examination each applicant shall deposit with the treasurer if said hoard a fee of five dollars ($5) Section 2. Such applicant shall furilsh satisfactory evidence that he or *he is 21 years of age, is of good morll charncter, has received the equivalent of high school education, and has graduated from a training school conlected with a general hospital of at least twenty-five beds; where 2 years if continous residence training, with i systematic course of instruction is ?iven. Section 3. That all nurses heretofore graduated or hereafter graduating before January 1, 1910, from such a hospital, and possessing the above qualifications. shall be permitted to register without examination upon payment of the above prescribed registration fee. And all nurses having been continously and successfully engaged in nursing for 5 years, and who main tain a proper standard, snau, upon passing an examination, be entitled to registration provided each application be made before January 1, 1910. Graduates of training schools in connection with special hospitals, (jiving a two years' course, who shall obtain six months aditional training in an approved general hospital, shall be eligible for registration without examination before January 1, 1910, upon payment of said fee; or said graduates from special hospitals shall be eligible for registration prior to said date, upor passing special examinations before the board of examiners, in subjects not adequately taught in the training school from which they had been graduated. And it shall be unlawful after the expiration of that time for any person to practice professional nursing as a registered nurse in this state without a certificate from said board. A nurse who has received his or her certificate according to the provisions of this act shall be styled and known as a "Registered Nurse." No other person shall assume such a title or use the abbreviation "R. N.." or any other letters or figures to indicate that he or she is a registered nurse. Violin" "1 fin 1,1 shilll kopn !1 register in which shall be entered the names of all persons to whom certificates are issued under this act, and said register shall be at times open to public inspection. Section 5. That this act shall not be construed to affect or apply to the gratuitous nursing of the sick by friends or members of the family; and also it shall not apply to any person nursing the sick for hire, but who does not in any way assume to be a registered nurse. Section 6. That any person violating any of the provisions of this act. or who shall wilfully make any false representations to the board of examiners in applying for a certificate, shall be guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction, be punished by a line of not more than one hundred ($100) or imprisonment for one month. Section 7. That said board of examiners may revoke any certificate issued under this act for sufficient cause; but before this is done the holder of said certificate shall have 30 days' notice, and only after a full and fair hearing of the charge, by a majority vote of the whole board, can the certificate be revoked. Section 8. All acts or parts of acts inconsistent with this act are hereby repealed. Illiscellaneotis ileadim). STRAITS NO TERROR. Fleet Can Go Through With Ease, Says Old Sea Captain. New York, Jan. 9.?A great part of | the black reputation of the Magellan Straits is due to the tales of the mariners of deep-sea sailing vessels. Most of the yarns, all of them thrilling and most of them true, date back to the days of the gold fever in California in 1849, when all sorts of craft, from pilot boats and coastwise schooners to great clippers, were utilized in the transportation of stout-hearted men. who had given up everything in the rlnulor* fn?? f ho nroPinilU TTIPtfll tllZlt ltlV In the. hills of the "west coast." It was In those days that the pilot boats and smaller schooners braved the Straits of Magellan (many charts now set the passage down as Magellan Strait), often to their utter discomfiture. Anchorages are few, and the captain of the sailing vessel leaving Punta Arenas and bucking through Famine Reach to Forward Reach must be certain that neither wind nor fog nor spook shall hold him up before good bottom for a mudhook is found. And this may be fifty or one hundred and twenty miles. The current and lack of anchorages and disagreeable weather conditions have always interposed obstacles which the master of a square rigger would never think of attempting.- and the great gaunt cliff, seen through the whirling snow, which tells him that Cape Horn is but two or three miles away, presents problems vastly more simple than does the passage of the east entrunce to the straits. i Steamships Do It Easily. Steamships, of course, are not vitally affected in currents, adverse winds and the like, and so Cape Horn is ig- . nored by them, and the passage of the U? ifUlnVt om-ta *?o Torro H Pi FlIP ailttlin Wlllljii pcpaiait J.v?iw X--. go from the rest of the South American continent Is not regarded as an espe- i dally harrowing experience. Captains i of South American vessels coming into this port every other week or so have made the passage thirty or forty times, and are not inclined to regard their record with any special pride. One captain of a steamship, having gone through the straits fully fifty times, says there is no more reason, so far as he can see, why the battleships should not go through the passage without difficulty than that they should fall to steam safely down the East j river, around Governor's Island, and through the Narrows. "Upon approaching Cape Virgins from sea, the land appears like the coast of England?white clay cliffs, perhaps a hundred or so feet high, and covered with a short grass. There are | no trees. It is good grazing land, and on the hills you will see thousands of sheep. The water is good and wide and^hot difficult to navigate. This grazing land extends as far west as Punta Arenas. The course from the east entrance runs westward thirty-five miles to Cape Possession, where you enter , the First Narrows. These narrows are two miles wide, and the current runs through at a rate of from six to eight knots, which, let me tell you, is mighty swift. Nearing Punta Arenas. "After clearing the First Narrows, which are ten miles long, you have a clear run of twenty-five miles to the Sooond Narrows. These are three miles wide and fifteen miles long. The current Is not so strong as in the First Narrows, but it is strong enough. "Passing out of the Second Narrows, the boat enters Famine Reach, where, after steaming thirty miles, Punta Arenas Is made. This is the southernmost town in the world. It has about 10,000 inhabitants, and is a depot for the sheep stations nearby. It is lighted with electricity. There are stores and a theatre. Altogether I do not think the jackies will be bored while the fleet is coaling there. "Putting out from Punta Arenas, one sees the aspect of the country change from comparatively low grazing lands to a severe mountainous region. The mountains rise 3,000 feet, almost sheer from the water's edge. They are covered with scrub to the snow line, which in summer is 115 feet up and in winter comes down to the water line. "After leaving Punta Arenas the vessels will have fifty miles of steaming through Famine Reach before they get to Forward Reach. This reach is thirty miles long, and then comes Crooked Reach, fifteen miles long. There is then a straight run of 100 miles through Long Reach and Sea Reach to Cape Pillar. Upon passing this y?u are out of the straits. Change In Weather. "Beyond Cape Forward, west of Punta Armas, the climatic conditions change with the topography. Fast of Funta Arenas tne weauier is cirtw ?uu dry, but immediately upon passing' Forward one finds the change?rain and generally disagreeable weather from there until the Pacific is reached. "As to trouble for the fleet in making the passage. I look for none at all. While the lights are not any too frequent. such as are there are sufficient to keep you aright. There are lights?to name them all?at Cape Virgin, at Cape Possession, at DelGada Point, at the Magdalene Islands, at Punta Arenas, at San Isidro, at Felix Point and at Evangelist rocks, which are twenty miles west of Cape Pillar. "All in all, the straits may be said to be well surveyed, but I can say this emphatically: The distance from Cape Virgin to Punta Arenas requires daylight. and any master who attempts the trip in the dark is a born fool. You could anchor at the Virgins in the darkness, or in Possession bay, but no farther must you go when the skies are shrouded. - M [NO uarxness nuw. "One good tiling is that at the present time of year there is no darkness over the straits, except between the hours of 10 p. m. and 2 a. in., and even then, if tlie weather be fair, there is daylight in the skies all night. This will benefit tlie Meet, and so will the fact that January and February are the summer months in the straits, corresponding to July and August here. So you see the vessels will have mild weather for their trip. The average j temperature in winter is 28 degrees, land one is apt to Mnd the weather thick. I In summer the average is 62 degrees. From the straits the Meet will proceed to Callao. Peru, and the worst of the voyage will be over. "Personally, I see no reason why f there should be any apprehension In regard to the passage of the straits. -] Our boats go through all the time, and there Is no more trouble than you could expect anywhere along the coast. Of ( course, there are accidents there, but ^ there are accidents everywhere on the o deep sea or the coast. Navigate care- g fully, keep your eyes open, avoid reck- ^ lessness?these are the rudiments for absolute safety." WHERE THE MONEY GOES. s b Some Trifling Article* That Have Cost j. Very Large Sum*. ( The queen of Siam possesses a thimble which was a wedding gift, and is f| in the shape of a lotus tiower, says t London Tit-Bits. It Is valued at ?13,- n OUU. feiacn petal Dears ine euiuueu m- ( itials of his Majesty King Chulalong- |, korn I. and Queen Pongsi, set in ru- v bies and emeralds, while Inscribed 0 round the rim is the date of the mar- j riagc, the letters and numbering being c decorated with diamonds and pearls. The quill pen which one of the colonial premiers took home with him as j, a souvenir of the conference will prob- s ably some day be a valued and coveted t possession, though it may not rival in a Interest one In the possession of Mr. I. . II. Reed of New York. This pen, for t which its owner has refused an offer t of ?50, was made from a carved box in which George Washington, when a n young man. kept the lenses of his sur- t veying instruments, the wood of which s once formed the lid of the captain's r desk on the Mayflower. The value of this pen is enhanced by the fact that it (| has been used both by Lincoln and by Grant. - p The Empress Eugenie treasures a j pen made from the quill of a golden r eagle's wing and richly mounted with s diamonds and gold, which was used at t her request by the fourteen plenipoten- e tiaries who signed the Treaty of Paris s in 1856. When the Hon. Mr. Ward, eldest son of Lord Bangor, was married |} some time ago, the register was signed with a quill pen which was used by ^ the high contracting powers in signing ^ the treaty of Vienna, and which has several times been utilized at wed- j dings in the Ward family. The most valuable fiddlestick in the world is the one used by Paganini at a hi* farpivoii rerltftl afterwards pos ,W"% " * u sessed by Verdi, the great composer. It was given by Puganini to his favor- ^ Ite pupil, the late Count di Cessole. and f and by him bequeathed to Verdi. Many large sums, ranging from ?1,000 have been offered in vain for this ^ unique possession, and its estimated value is at least ?16,000. ^ Seventeen pounds Is a long price to pay for a key, but this sum has been given by a member of the Rothschild ^ family for what may be said to be the most valuable key In the world. It is marked with the arms of the Strozzi & family, and is believed to be the work c of the great Italian artist, Benvenuto Cellini, who flourished in the 16th cen- ^ tury. The key is chiseled out of a block . of steel, presenting two grotesque flg- . ures and ornamented with various v masks and scrolls. ^ Five hundred and fifty pounds was paid by a nobleman at the beginning v of the 18th century for a dog collar of gold. A collar of silver, with four a small diamonds, costing 200 guineas, was sold to a society lady for her pet ^ pug dog. It is fashionable In France ; to put gold bracelets studded with ^ jewels on the forelegs of poodles. The plain gold collars, with jeweled setting. cost no less than ?20, while the Jeweled collars mount quickly up to ?100. The bracelets cost from ?2 to ?70 each. ' A thermometer can be bought for a v shilling, but there is one used at the Johns Hopkins university in the United States, known as Professor Bowland's thermometer, which is valued at ?2,000. The gradations on the class are so fine that it is necessary to use a miscrosope to read them. Women's hats are both common and ^ costly as a rule, but a woman in Brunswick, who made no great pretensions to Q fashion, holds the record for the high- ^ est price paid for an article of millfnerv. She bought a hat with a lottery _ f ticket, which the merchant accepted in ^ ? - r * U ~ A foil' U'Otllfu IfltftT piutT m uic iiiuiicj. iv?? >. vv..0 ....? the ticket drew the "great prize" of ? IS.000, and though the woman's husband tried to induce the merchant to ^ share the results, he only received ?25. That hat cost ?14,975. f _ Ii KIT CARSON. . \\ Feat of Which the Hardy Frontiersman Had No Recollection. ]( One of the most noted of the hardy ? r western frontiersmen was Kit Carson, o to whom, with Daniel Boone, belongs ^ the credit of having always dealt fairly with the various Indiun tribes, as they themselves acknowledged. The ^ withdrawal of Carson by the government was the cause of a great war. ^ Captain Henry Inman in his book, "The Old Santa Fe Trail," relates an p amusing incident of the gallant pioneer. T My own conception of Kit Carson as a child was that he was ten feet j high, that it would have required the strength of two men to lift his rifle, that he usually drank a river dry and . picked the carcass of a whole buffalo clean as easily as a lady does the wing of a quail. Years after, when I made the acquaintance of the foremost frontiersman. 1 found him a delicate, reticent, undersized, wiry man, the very opposite type of what my childish brain had created. One day while Kit was at the fort I ? came across a periodical that had a full page illustration .of a scene in a " forest. In the foreground stood a gigantic figure dressed in the traditional buckskin. On one arm rested an immense rifle. r His other arm was around the waist of tlie conventional female of such f sensational journals, while in front j half a dozen Indians lay prone, evi- * (iently slain by the hero in the impossible attire in defense of the preposterous female. The legend stated r' how all this had been effected by Kit t Carson. I handed it to Kit. He wiped his 1 . , n spectacles, studied tne picture lruenily for a few seconds and then said: "Gentlemen that thar may be true, J but I hain't Rot no recollection of it." v 1< tv" Backgammon was invented in v Greece in the year 1224. >ASSING OF FIRST BATTLESHIP. Texas Dropped From the Navy After Stormy Career. The second-class battleship Texas, ecently retired from active service in he navy, formed part of the beginning: f Uncle Sam's new navy. Although he covered herself with honor at the >attle of Santiago she was so unfortulate in time of peace as to earn the Itle of "hoodoo ship of the navy." The end of the Texas does not come uddenly. For a year or more she has ieen little more than a floating boardng house for enlisted naval men, staloned most of the time at Charleston. Ever since the Spanish war she has one nothing but cruise up and down he Atlantic cmst, taking the mldshipnen on their annual practice jaunts to he New England regions, and steamng around Hatteras in all kinds of leather for the fall and winter maneuvres in the tropics. During the amestown exposition she was at anhor in Hampton Roads. Now that she is no longer considerd even good enough for a station ship, ler future is In doubt. In all likelihood he will be assigned to some state for he use of the naval militia, several tates having made application for her. it all events she will be saved from he fate that threatened her last Winer when a congressman prepared a bill uthorizing her use as a target for a lew kind of dynamite shell which was o prove that the greatest effect of a hell is obtained by outside explosion ather than by penetration. The necessity ror more powerrui snips n the United States navy was demontrated by the battle between the Tench and Chinese fleets In August, 884. at the Pagoda Anchorage, Mln Iver, when the Chinese ships were unk in half an hour. It was decided hat this country should have a modrn naval defence force as soon as posible. On August 3. 1886, President Cleveind approved a naval appropriation ct which directed the building of the 'exas, a second-class battleship; the laine, an armored cruiser: the Vesulus, a dynamite cruiser, and the Cushfig. a torpedo boat. With the exceplon of the protected cruisers Charlescm and Baltimore, built later, the Texs was the only vessel constructed acordlng to designs purchased abroad. A prize was offered by Secretary of he Navy Whitney for the best designs or a battleship to cost 32,600,000. Many aval architects competed, and the rize was awarded to an Englishman, Ir. John. The Texas was constructed at the forfolk navy yard, being the first and nly battleship ever built there. Work n her was so slow that although the eel was laid down in January, 1889, he was not launched until June, 1892, nd by that time the plans had been Itered so much that she was practially of American design. The Texas showed up badly almost rom the start. On her dock trial at lorfolk one of her propeller blades cut ito and sank a schooner. When she ras brought to the navy yard and put n dry dock It was found that she was ot strong enough to bear her own weight. She proved herself a poor steamer nd burned great quantities of coal. >n November 9, 1896, while she was ring at the cob dock in the Brooklyn ard one of her sea cocks became unastened and she sank. So much criticism was directed gainst the Texas after this prank that lecretary of the Navy Herbert made n official statement to demonstrate hat the Texas instead of being in any ray a failure ranked with the finest rarships in the world and certainly -as not surpassed by any American essel. Among other things Secretary lerbert said: "The Texas has been cruising as part f the North Atlantic squadron for he past four months, since her bottom ras stiffened at the Norfolk navy yard. ?apt. Glass, one of the most efficient nd reliable officers of the navy, de lares that she is the stiffest, most easly managed and entirely seaworthy hip in the service. Capt. Robley D. Ivans, commanding the Indiana, says lie same thing. "He says that when the fleet on Ocober 12 was on its way to New York, i the worst sea he ever encountered, he Texas showed she was the most eaworthy ship in the service. The ndlana was just ahead of the Texas, nd the Maine, her rival ship, just beind. The Texas rolled only 5 degrees, *hile the Indiana rolled 39 degrees." In that storm the Indiana's turret >ck bolts broke and her 13-inch guns oiled from side to side. The Texas, n the other hand, was a perfect gun latform and could have fought her uns easily. The Texas went ashore in the Torugas in February, 1897, and in the inter of the same year grounded in Vallabout channel. In Boston harbor n engine in one of her launches exloded and hurt six men. T *- ?~ v?.. ? thot f Via ii waa uiii.v uy a iiiuavic mai v??w 'exas was saved from being rammed nd sent to the bottom by the Brooklyn 1 the battle with Admiral Cervera's eet off Santiago July 3, 1898. Admiral Sampson had issued standlg orders that if the enemy tried to scape the ships were to close and enage as soon as possible and to sink tie Spanish vessels or send them shore. On the day of the battle the .merlean vessels moved toward the louth of the harbor. When the Marie Teresa started to un for it the Iowa gave the order Enemy's ships escaping," then sigalled "Clear for action," and gave a hird order. "Close up," all in execulon of Rear Admiral Sampson's standig order. As the Brooklyn steamed l toward the mouth of the harbor tommodore Schley, who was aboard er, explained to her commander, Capt. took, that the order "Close up" meant hat he was "to keep somewhere withi 1,000 yards from the enemy, so as to e outside of her broadside torpedo ange." Capt. Cook then gave orders to port he helm, and the Brooklyn began to urn away from the battle line and resented her stern to the hostile ruisers. The Brooklyn ran about 2,000 ards south and all but collided with he Texas, which saved herself by reersing her engines. A hole was thus ?ft in the blockading line, through .'hirh the enemy promptly steamed. The late Capt. Philip of the Texas In describing this incident once wrote to Secretary Long: "Suddenly a whiff of breexe and a lull in the firing lifted the pall, and there bearing toward us and across our bows, turning on her port helm, with big waves curling over her bows and great clouds of black smoke, pouring from her funnels, was the Brooklyn. She looked as big as half a doxen Great Easterns. 'Back both engines hard!" went down the tube to the astonished engineers, and in a twinkling the old ship was racing against herself. Had the Brooklyn struck us then it would probably have been the end of the Texas and her half thousand men." Aside from this incident thf share of the Texas in the fighting off .Santiago was conspicuous. On June 22 a shell from Santiago's Morro pierced a six inch hole in her bow under the anchor and killed Frank Blakely, a first-class apprentice. In the fighting of July 3, a shell from the Almlr&nte Oquendo pierced the starboard bulkhead under the bridge. Then it entered the smokepipe and exploded. The last accident on the Texas came on November 30, 1902, when at target practice along the New England coast. The discharge of the big guns broke the recoils, with the result that the gun foundations were shattered, water and steampipes were crushed and damage was done that was thought at first impossible to repair.?New York Sun. IMPORTANCE OF CORN. Wonder* of the Great Food Crop? Field* Are Inspiring. At the corn exposition held recently in Chicago, Harlow N. Higinbotham, acting as chairman at the dedication, paid the following remarkable tribute to corn: When Moses was a child is Egypt, and the tribes of Israel were cultivating on the banks of the Nile their barley and wheat, pulse and millet?for these constituted the corn of the ancients?the American Indian had already become a gentleman farmer on th? plains of Annahuac, In Mexico, and in the valley of the Apurimac, in Peru, Even for countless generations before that time the slowly developing Indian on this great continent had been patiently planting and cultivating his little crop of wild grass, from which he was to give in time to trie world that which we are here tonight to honor and glorify?Indian corn?ot all the many blessings given to mankind by this continent the greatest. Its history Is an epitome of the history of the human race. Existing for countless thousands of years In Its wild state, lowly and valueless, cultivated through hundreds of years to become an Important factor In the destiny of the habitants of over half this continent, it spread In 100 years over all the world. Corn played a conspicuous part in the life of Pre-Columbian America. It was the staple 6f .the native from Massachusetts to California, and from the Great Lakes to the Argentine. Throughout this vast area the Indians were farmers; and beside their village was their corn field. Corn today forms nine-tenths of the food of the village Indians of our own southwest, and trie Hopis of Arlaona possess thirty six different methods of preparing it for fnnH. The chief divinity In the pantheon of the goddess of germination, often symbolized In pictorial art by a young corn plant, and when In their great mid-summer ceremonies they prepared a maiden to impersonate the goddess they covered her face with the golden yellow corn pollen. Thus she typified the fertilizing force of all nature. What does corn mean to this nation as measured by the coin of the realm? Our corn crop Is worth, roughly, one billion dollars each year?five times the value of all the corn grown elsewhere In the world combined.. It Is equal in value to two-thirds of all our exports; Its value is twice that of the world's yearly output of gold and sliver; the corn crop for ten years would nearly buy the world's production of gold for the last 400 years, and 80 per cent of the world's corn crop Is produced within an area of about one day's ride of his city. What a wonderful and inspiring sight are the vast fields of corn ripening for the use of man. Stored within each grain is not only wealth for the myriad sons of toll, but the germ of future fields that are to come as surely as the seasons are to return In their own good time. Placed within the bosom of mother earth, each grain Is the cradle of the infant germ, containing as well food for Its nourishment during its young life, until it shall sufficiently develop to send its tender feet down Into the soil and its arms up Into the sunlight to gather and absorb food for its life and thus insure again the harvest. I would have the farmer and the farmer's boy know and appreciate me beauty, the strength and the glory of the com, as well as ltn commercial value, so that they would be In love with their work, and thus transform the drudgery into an everlasting Joy. I would have the plowman go whistling down the long rows of growing corn, glad and happy, and blessing God for the privilege, and in his heart sorry for the man shut up in the factory or behind the counter in the country store or in the larger mercantile establishments of our great cities.?Philadelphia North American. ?* OQ1 onnAnHs f our mniuies auu ow?..?.. is man's record for staying under water. ] 0 11 :tar Twelve cats embarked recently on board the Klncraig, at Victoria Docks, London, bound for India, on a strange mission. They are going to make a fight against the plague, and to try to succeed where medical science has met with not very great success. The cats were sent under the care of the Salvation Army authorities, and came from a cat's home at Hammersmith. They are being sent to the army colony at Muktlpa, under the special care of a Russian member of the army. Each cat has a separate cage. Their menu on the voyage Is likely to meet with their entire approval. Large cans of sardines were taken for their exclusive use, as well as tins of herrings, fifteen large tins of condensed milk, some New Zealand mutton, forty pounds of rice, and among a variety of other delicacies several boxes of puppy biscuits.