Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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m TIGER'S REMARK v \J Rural Postman Ou) r Strange Friendship I wish that you had not to go out today," said the runner's wife, as she prepared him some cakes for the Journey; "I had such evil dreams last night that my heart misgives me for your safety. Can you not get a substitute, for today at least?" "Not at such short notice," said Tulsi Ram. busily sorting out the letters which had been given him for Thakore. "But what is it that you fear? It is some months now since Govind Naik encountered that wandering leopard?and his hurt was but small. All this time I have passed daily between Kerail and Thakore, and have seen naught more dangerous than sambur?though, indeed," added the runner, reflectively, "the spoor of larger beasts has been visible on the path at times. Now, were there dacolts on the road?" The road to which Tulsi Ram referred was a foot-worn track connecting the villages of Kerail and Thakore. For about one half its length it wound through some of the wildest country in Rajputana. "Yes," continued Tulsi Ram, "it is too late to secure a substitute today; and these mails must be carried to ThAkore without fail, if I am to retain my employment. But, lest your dreams portend evil, wife, I shall sharpen my spear and keep a very good watch going and coming. The rest is with the jrods!" "To whom I shall make proper offerings?111 though we can afTord the cost," said his wife, impressively, "if they preserve you from danger." She then handed him a small packet of cakes, which he placed in a pocket of his tunic. Tulsi Ram next proceeded to whet the blade of the short spear with which postcarrlers in the country districts are armed. Before he left his wife, with the notion of averting misfortune from him, she passed her hands down his face, cracking her knuckles and uttering an intercessory prayer to Vishnu. At an easy jogtrot the runner passed through the fields outside of Kerall and was soon out of sight in the scrub land beyond. With only an occasional halt to remove a thorn from his foot, or, perchance, to alter the position of the bag slung over his left shoulder, he trotted, slackening to a fast walk where a hill Intervened; and today he was careful to nurse his strength, lest he should be suddenly called upon to exert all his powers in flight or in skirmish. In about an hour's time he had climbed to the edge of the forest land, wherein danger to life might be more reasonably expected to occur. Here, in the shade, he halted for a few minutes in order to refresh himself for the smart run he proposed to take through the forest. "I fear the stream," he muttered; "It is so cool and inviting that it is thereabouts a wild beast is most likely to lurk. And it is there that one must needs go slowly and carefully with an eye to muggers (alligators), and the staff to feel for unusual depth of water owing to a distant freshet. However, " * - - " ??**- ? -s- ?? ~ 11 IB all Willi llie sous, n?r 51u111.ru, and, having girded afresh his loins, sought the path once more. With every mile the inclosing jungle grew denser and quieter, the vista at every turn greener, coloring the very sunlight that filtered through the foliage overhead. The soft "pat-pat" of the runner's hastening feet awoke little sound, and he was careful to tread between or stride over such dried litter as had fallen along the path. Bravely did he jingle his bells, especially as he approached those bits of adjoining shrubbery which had always appeared to him likely lurking places for felines on the watch for the smaller game that frequently used the open path in preference to the forest ways, with their deadly possibilities. After he had gone about three miles Tulsi Ram arrived at the ravine which intersected the path and formed a kind of boundary between the areas of the fcrest it divided olT. A gloomy place is that ravine. It is some 50 feet deep and about 100 yards wide, and in its hollow runs the drainage of the adjoining hillsides?a stream perhaps 30 paces wide in the hot months, but a raging, impassable torrent when the rains fill it from bank to bank with sudden freshets. Its shores are strewn with loose pebbles, which slide away under foot with uncanny loudness; the water's edge is lined with clumps of overgrown reeds, and the stream itself is dark with reflections, with many a deep hole where the mugger lies ever watchful. Here it was that Govind Naik's predecessor vanished, mail bag and all, a victim to a patroung alligator; it was here that Vovind Naik himself startled a leopard into attack as the brute was returning from the water's edge dragging a foolish barking deer. It was here that Tulsi Ram's wonderful experience began with a short, grating tiger roar that held him spellbound even as he was about to enter the stream. So sudden and so unexpected was the sound that he could not for the life of him say whence it came. He stood motionless as the stream murmured noisily past, his faculties completely numbed. Then there was a crashing noise in a reed clump not two paces from him, followed by a loud splash, and he saw an alligator dive hurriedly for the higher reaches of the stream. The reptile must have been lying in wait for some unwary deer or pig, and had been driven by the tiger's growl into abandoning its situation in order to betake itself into an element where it would have all the advantage in defense or attack. The occurrence served to arouse the runner, and he now realized that he had by a hair's breadth only escaped destruction from the mugger. But this was poor consolation anyhow, for he believed he had merely exchanged one form of death for another equally cruel. It has been said that the unfortunate man did not know where the tiger was. For this very reason retreat was as open to danger as an advance, and the remaining course of action left him?to seek the nearest tree and climb it?had in it as much peril as another. He accordingly determined upon an advance, feigning unconcern, and trusting to it to discourage an attack. So, reversing his spear, which he ABLE DEVOTION m ed His Life to the jp of a Wild Beast. Tr used to sound the ford at every step and scanning the clear water for further signs of the mugger, he crossed With many a furtive glance he climbet the pebbly shore, and, loudly jangling his bells, entered the forest. The runner, at a smart jogtrot, hai trnno a limit 900 varils from tht> strenrr when a slowly forming suspicion thai he was being followed crystallized intc a conviction. He threw a glance ovei his shoulder and came almost to a stop. Not thirty paces behind him a large tiger followed, easily keeping pace witli him Automatically the terrified Tuls Ram continued to run, and for a space his brain refused to plan coherently By the time the man recovered from the shock occasioned by his discovery he had traveled some distance. He straightway threw another fleeting glance backward to see whether the tiger still followed, and, if so, whethei it had diminished the distance which had originally separated them. To his immense relief, he perceived that, as well as he could gauge, the space had not materially altered. But then there came an assailing fear that the brute was merely "marking time" until he was near enough to its lair to suit its convenience. The bare notion set him sprinting, but he soon fell back to his usual pace, being painfully conscious that if he were compelled to slacker to a walk he might encourage his pursuer to immediate attack. So, praying fervently that he might encounter another warfarer or a traveler by cart whose presence might serve to turr back the tiger, he continued to jog along, jingle-jangling his bells. And all the time the tiger followed keeping pace with him. As mile after mile went slowly by without producing any alteration for the worse ir his situation, Tulsi Ram began tc lose his fear of attack, though his nerves were sorely tried. Presently the forest began to thin to be gradually replaced by a belt ol undulating scrub, wherein were scattered huge bowlders. By this time tht mental strain was beginning to materially affect the runner's endurance Judge, then, of his elation, when, fagged, he resolved to risk breaking into e walk, and halted upon a rise in the path to take breath, a backward loofc showed him the tiger about to leavs the path in the direction of some deer shade on the right. His relief very nearly caused a collapse. He grounc his teeth, however, and walked on til he dropped utterly exhausted in hit tracks. He lay there by the roadside in the shadow of a bush to which ht had dragged himself, completely indifferent as to his position, until with returning energy came a dread of delay, when he resumed the Journey tc Thakore. A local marwarri acted as postmaster for the people of Thakore. Befort his store gathered those who expectec communications from the outer world together with the idlers and gossips This would be about noon, when th< runner was due to arrive. But it lacked nearly half an hour to the usua time when at last a far-off jingling o post-bells betokened his approach. "He is early today!" was the bana remark of many. "It must be som? special communication," hazarded one And the marwarri's curiosity brough him waddling into the street, to gather the sooner some notion of the reasoi for such earliness on the runner's part "I was followed by a tiger!" pantet out Tulsi Ram in reply, and by degree! gave his story to the excited crowd Some believed him, and were aston ished; others pooh-poohed it. aud th< marwarri laughed ponderously. "Do you think I am a child?" h< said, derisively. "To think that a tigei was content to follow without attacl for such a distance!" "It is true, maharaj," protested Tuls Ram. "Tut-tut, man! The sun has cause< you to see a phantom. Take som< medicine before you fall ill." The news spread quickly through th< village, and many were the witticism! Tulsi Ram had to suffer when he pre pared, later, to set out for Kerail. Mind that his lordship is not waiting In uannrt vnn Imck " ahmitprl unmp nni after him. This last suggestion haunt ed Tulsi Ram. "Suppose that the brute is then when I return," he said to himself "Can I hope to escape with my 1 if* again?" There was, also, his younj wife to consider. He had resolved to return and tel the postmaster that he would not rui alone to Kerail that day, and was ac tually retracing his steps, when re flection showed him how such an ac tion would cause him to fall in th< general esteem of all; even his wif< might privily believe what other: would assuredly say?that he had con jured up a phantom, and, childlike, hac then grown afraid of it. Besides, th< memory of the jeers he had alread; suffered rankled within him. More over, if he found no one willing to ac company him, and the post was no carried that day, would not his credi with the government be prejudiced His dismissal might very easily ensue and times were hard. So he turnei again up the trail to Kerail. It will be remembered that the tige had. upon the edge of the forest, turn pd off the nath and soueht a shadei knoll on the right, which was in ful view from the path. As he arrived ii the vicinity Tulsi Ram scanned th knoll for signs of the brute, recklessl; jogging on, with a jingling of his bells And his sensations may be easier im agined than described when he saw th tiger reclining in the shad- watchini the path to Kerail. As the man came into line the brut rose lazily to its feet, stretched itsel with a hideous yawn, and slunk dowi toward the path. Poor Tulsi Ram pre pared for death. But he would die fighting, he swore and gripped his spear. Yet he con tinned to run, for an inarticulate hop was his that the tiger might be con tent merely to follow him, as before. At every step he expected to run int the tiger?every bush, to his excitei fancy, held the brute. With each sue cessive disappointment the inentu strain grew inure acute, and more thai once he almost stopped, determined ti challenge the issue. It was fortunate that Tulsi Ran I did nothing of the sort; for presently, to his utter amazement, he realized that the tiger was content to merely follow him. And follow him it did to ' the stream, where it laid itself down upon the bank and watched him cross! Warned by his recollection of the manner in which his story had been received in Thakore, Tulsi Ram was careful not to repeat it heedlessly to the people of Kerail. His wife was filled with awe and gratitude to the gods for their intervention, and made haste to fulfill her vows. The danger was past, she assured him, nor would it threaten again. So it was with an easy heart that Tulsi Ram set out the next morning. I Rut as he arrived at the stream the runner became aware of a foreboding ' of danger. Strong, however, in the j conviction that the gods would pre( serve him, he continued, yet not witht out uneasy and furtive glances backward. Scarcely fifty paces had he gone from the ford when once more the tiger appeared upon the path behind , him, and with a groan of despair the ( runner prepared to endure the horror and uncertainty of the previous day? I if not death. Marvelous to relate, the procedure of the previous morning was adhered | to in practically every detail. , The wits of Thakore had been , sharpening their jeers, and Tulsi , Ram's arrival was the signal for a [ roar of rough chaff that goaded him . into swearing "upon his string" that [ the tiger had again followed him that ( morning. The sacredness of the oath silenced I I outward expressions of disbelief, yet , many were there who hailed eagerly any suggestion that they should try to gain a sight of such a miracle, and in ( the end they determined to go into the ( forest and to take up before dawn i such positions as wuld command the , path?all this out of hearing by Tulsi ! Ram, lest it might seem that they still doubted his wonderful story. , And the gods were good to Tulsi ' Ram. In the perverseness of things these spectators might well have been [ denied proof of the runner's story till , they tired of the early rising and trouble which seemed essential to success. Perched upon trees, with bated breath ' the men of Thakore beheld for themselves the marvel repeated. In the course of time Tulsi Ram ( grew so used to being accompanied by I the tiger that he became convinced that the animal embodied his tutelary spirit, and he felt uneasy when the ' exigencies of its existence caused its absence on hunting excursions, and left , him to run alone through the forest. On one such occasion he had barely forded the stream than a vicious grunt above him, on the bank, apprised him i of a danger he had barely time to , avoid by learing aside. ' A boar, unable to arrest its trucu| lent charge, splashed into the stream. ' Before it was out Tulsi Ram, holding , his bells that they might not jingle, I was fleeing up the path, trusting to I make some easy tree in time. The ( boar was after him, though, giving him no opportunity. [ The runner, in a fleeting glance, beheld it almost upon him. He swerved ( sharply and it rattled past, grunting. In a flash it had turned, and the man ) again avoided its deadly rush. But how long could he maintain the game, especially after a seven-mile run? At 4 IIIC IICAl t'llttlgc, IUCICIUIC, lie OIUUU I firm till the boar almost had him, then stabbed and just escaped the fatal collision. j Quicker still?the pain inflaming its rage?the boar wheeled to charge ! again. As he turned the lithe, striped f form of the tiger?Tulsi Ram's tigerflashed out from behind a bush. The I n?xt instant the combatants were los' in the dust, while the air throbbed with squeals and snarls. Petrified the runt tier stood, watching. Hither and thither dashed the boar, i grazing against trees to rub off his assailant. But the tiger's hold was j perfect, and his talons sank cruelly into the bristly body he held. Presently a paw shot out and sank in a grip around the pig's snout. Some moments a they paused thus, straining, the one to prevent and the other to achieve the a dislocation he had worked for. But ' the boar was tough, and bravely sustained the strain of the powerful leverage exerted. Suddenly "Stripes" let head swung to the right, but the tiger j was quicker and darted at the exposed a throat. The boar ceased to grunt. In a few seconds it was tottering. It fell, and 9 the tiger drank its blood pantingly. Thus long Tulsi Ram waited. Then, lest the fierceness of the battle had changed his guardian's disposition to' wards Iiim, he stole away, made a detour and ran towards Thakore. One more extraordinary incident of these months awaits narration to com, plete this true account of an unfortu? nate man's experience. r Whenever it was in the neighborhood the tiger accompanied Tulsi Ram. j So secure did the runner become in 1 his belief that it haunted the track only to protect him that he had no scruples in asking a friend to act as substitute on a certain happy occasion p in his family. Nor did Hari Chan fear to meet his friend's "guardian angel." s Alas, for their confidence! That day the mails did not reach Thakore, nor ^ did Hari Chan return alive to Kerail. They found him dead in the path, a , few yards from the stream?struck V down from behind. But no attempt had been made to eat him. He had t paid the forfeit of strangeness only. t Thereafter?needless to say? Tulsi , Ram got no other substitute. If he [ was ill the post accumulated, or if the j mail was important, then half a dozen men armed with axes and scythes escorted the bag to Thakore and back. But the next hot season was pro3 longed beyond recollection?even the j forest stream dried?and the game fled ;1 to high lands. With them went Tulsi Ram's tiger, never to return.?Wide v nunu luaea^iuc. I. Walking Sticks.?Of all people pere haps none are more fond of canes or more skilled in their use than our fellow citizens of Porto Rico. The walking stick in that island would seem to e mark social distinctions among men as fans do umong women. Every Spaniard has a cane, the well to do own several, and the gilded youth often have a small arsenal of walking sticks. The term "arsenal" is used advisedly, as the Porto Rica lis, like the Spaniards, have quite a fondness for sword canes and dagger canes and they make these with remarkable 0 j skill. The blades of the liner specimens come from famous smiths in To. ledo and other Spanish cities and are forged from the finest steel. Some 1 are damascened and others are inlaid a with silver and gold, some have worked upon them the name of the owner and others the name of a patron saint 1 ?Philadelphia Record. Without Codrt Martial Tt was half-past six on a winter's evening, and four or five fellows were sitting In the mess gathered around the ante-room fire. They were discussing life in general and young officers in particular, and as they could all speak with from eight to fifteen years' experience the general tone about second lieutenants was that of kindly contempt. "They don't get the shaping they used to," said the senior subaltern meditatively, pressing the bell. "No, that they don't, one of the others agreed; "not in these days of unbridled license for the half-penny press and consequent searching war office inquiries. Why, it is more than a regiment's life is worth to fall back on the old methods for shaping young blood." "Gad! I remember when I Joined," \ the senior subaltern continued?"Gin ; and bitters, waiter. Have another, Major? As you were? Bring two, ' waiter"?When I joined the regiment , was at Plndi, and old Billy Murphy was senior subaltern. I didn't do a lot of bucking my first twelve months, 1 I can tell you!" , "Ah! that was abroad," said Major Murphy, sipping his drink, "where ! we could just have a quiet subalterns' , court-martial and settle things In a gentlemanly manner. It didn't take i three years of successive bad confl- j dential reports to get rid of a fellow , then. No, by"?he stopped short, for < at that moment a youth of about 20 came into the mess. The newcomer's appearance might ( be mildly described as "Jaunty." Hi? ' cap was pulled over one eye; he wore 1 a long coat slit well up the back and partitioned off by small checks into many colors; he had thrust both his hands into the capacious side pockets of his coat; from the one pocket there protruded an evening paper, from the other dangled a dog whip. He edged his way through the group by the fire and sat down on the high leather fender facing them. "Can you reach the bell, Flint?" he ' asked. The senior subaltern obligingly stretched himself and did what was required. The youth pulled the evening paper from his pocket. "That cursed horse Zephlr ran second today, and I only backed it for a win," he said, addressing himself to the room in general. No one answered him, the original conversation had stopped, and one or two had taken up papers and were rtading them. The senior subaltern fidgeted. "You rang, didn't you?" he said to the youth, who had bent over his paper quite regardless of the waiter standing near him. "Oh, yes. Any one have a drink?" No one answered. "Hello, every one taking the cure? Bring me a cocktail, waiter." A silence had fallen upon the room; not just a lull in the conversation, but a real awkward, embarrassing silence, such as would have made any one not endowed with the thickness of skin possessed by the Bog Rat (for this was the name by which our young friend was known among his brother officers) strongly suspicious of its cause. But not he, or if he was suspicious he was equally indifferent, for he gayly broke the silence by reading out the day's winners, starting prices and jockeys followed by his own detailed forecast for events the next day. He then finished his drink and left the room, taking enroute Major Murphy's outstretched legs, over which he stumbled. "How long has that been with us?" asked a man in the corner, who had only joined the regiment from service abroad that evening. "Three months," said Flint, wearily. , "Bit of a nut, isn't he? What has he done? Won the National?" "No; as far as we have discovered his only connection with sport, barring his clothes and conversation, consists in a mongrel Dachshund," growled Major Murphy from behind hlu nonor i "You have been neglecting his edu! cation a bit, haven't you?" said the Man from Abroad, whose name was Warren, to Flint. "You are forgetting where you are i ?ld chap," said the senior subaltern. "You are not in a hill station in India, 1 you're within an hour's train journey 1 of a war office whose nerves are already in an overwrought condition from three ragging cases, ventilated throughout the kingdom by the halfpenny press"? "And who will assuredly break the olonel and the adjutant of the regiment. to say nothing of ail the subal1 terns that are concerned in the next one," the major chimed in. "Hut can't you talk to him?" said the Man from Abroad. "Talk to him!" the senior subaltern echoed. "I've crooned over him and I have shrieked at him till I am hoarse. Xo, there is more hair on his heels than will ever come off with a pair of clippers." "Why not get rid of him?" Warren asked, still puzzled. "Try," said the senior subaltern laconically. "Why, only last week I held my face an inch off his ugly nozr zle in this very room and told him to take himself and his tyke and all that was his from out of the regiment's sight, and never come back again for anything except his own funeral. The man opposite shrugged his shoulders. "Oh. our Bog Rat is a bit of a sea lawyer." Major Murphy explained. "He knows he's got three years on , probation before the war office can clear him out, and that we had rather 1 whitewash the smudges he makes on the regiment's reputation than cause a public scandal by kicking him out. He knows well enough how he is nlaced. You can only do that sort of thing when both parties to the eon tract are agreeable to remain quiet." It had grown late, and the group broke up to go to their quarters and change for dinner. The Man from Abroad thought deeply as he dressed, and finally pulled on his red mess jacket with a vicious jerk that made the three miniature war medals and the small bronze cross "for valor" i iangle together as though echoing his . opinion of the breed of Bog Rats. Three months passed, and still the : Pog Rat stayed on. a thorn in the happy family of brother officers. Outsiders often wondered that his presence was tolerated?even recognized?in so fine a regiment of the line; those of them, that is, who did not understand that the very fact of his holding I a commission in it silenced comment while he should continue to do so? for it is not the custom of officers to 1 speak unkindly of one another, even o their own women folk, much less fd Ktrnneers However, it did happen that one af-| ternoon when Warren was drinking tea with the Colonel's daughter, whom by the way. though no one knew it. he was some day going to marry that, exasperated more than 1 usual by a fresh freak of fancy of the Pog Rat's, he blurted out something about "that infernal young cub." The Colonel's daughter had longre1 trarded the Pog Rat with "a wondering h ite " and took advantage of War. ren's mood to find out all about him. "Put why do you all stand it?" she asked after listening to a long catalogue of his iniouities. Warren explained to her as best he could. "I see." she said slowly "He doesn't eare what you think or say. and he knows very well what you can't do." "Rvactly." he sighed. "Of course, if you?if you did anything?" "Tlie Pog Rat would run squealing." he replied shortly. "And the squeals would attract at- : tention." she added. i "Of course. If we could only stifle ' the squealing." said the Man from Abroad longingly, "it would be the only kind ot resistance the Bog Rat would make. "He wouldn't stay for anything if , he knew It was really coming?" she asked. "No, the devil of it is he knows it I really can't," he answered. It was the night of the regimental ball. A kaleidoscope of gayly oloreU people seethed about the doors of < tne gymnasium engrossed in the absorbing topic of who should dance ( with whom. The Colonel's daughter was looking radiant; beside her stood ' the Man from Abroad, scowling. I "Puppy," he muttered to himself; | then to her: "I can't understand how , you could do It?" "Well, he asked for them," she an- ' swered. "Deuced cheek," the man growled. , "You see, when he camo up to know if I had any dances left 1 told 1 him 1 had and which they were?6, 14, 15?and he asked for the lot," she explained sweetly. This account was quite true but a little misleading. The Bog Rat had come up and asked her if she had a dance left, and she had replied, "No. 6." While he was putting this down she added, "I also have No. 14 and No. 15," a hint which even a Bog Rat could not be rude enough to ignore, though, coming as It did from the Colonel's daughter, It was in the nature of a compliment which he readily attributed to the effect of his own irresistible charms. The band struck up the sixth tune of the evening, the Bog Rat rose languidly from his chair In the smoking room, and saying, "Well, I suppose I must go and do my duty," strolled out. The Man from Abroad, who was poking the Are, broke the particular piece of coal he was engaged upon Into several small fragments with one well-aimed prod; he then sat down. As a matter of fact, the Bog Rat's duties for the evening were quite light. Nobody had seemed to have any dances left when he asked them, so that he was really looking forward to dancing with the Colonel's daughter. At any rate, he thought, she knew how to pick her partners; she had Viim rlonooo llo to himself as he remembered the way in which she had told him the numbers?obviously she had meant him to ask for them. The Bog Rat came back to the smokingroom after the sixth dance like a Roman emperor entering the capital after a conquest. The Colonel's daughter was undoubtedly in love with him; she had been quite unable to conceal it. What guardian angel prevented him from announcing the fact, heaven knows (Warren was sitting>smoklng in a corner;) it must have been some unwonted sense of chivalry, for his normal course under the circumstances would have been to give to the room in general an intimate account of the different symptoms from which he had deduced his good fortune. The fifteenth dance came slowly and luxuriously to a close, and the Bog Rat led his blushing captive from the room (the Colonel's daughter's color had been gradually rising since the beginning of the fourteenth dance.) "We'll go to a nice quiet spot, eh?" the Bog Rat whispered to her as they left the room. She just perceptibly inclined her head. He took her to a sofa that had been put in a small dressing room, a delightfully secluded sitting out place for two. They sat down. "Not much wrong with this, eh?" he said, drawing close to her. , TVia + A ( A MA. ' i lie V/Uiwnci a uauguici uiu nui i cply; it was some while since she had j last spoken. The Bog Rat turned | toward her and looked at her with a , melting eye. Enough light came ( through the half open door for him , to see her clearly. She was gazing at < the ground, her hands folded in her lap; she had grown a little pale. , He was enchanted by her discompo- ( sure. As he put it to himself, he rather liked them when they took It this way; then he thought he would ( help her out a bit. "Just one," he said, suddenly put- , ting his arm around her waist and leaning forward till his Hps nearly brushed her cheek. I "Oh!" cried the Colonel's daughter, | springing to her feet, turning round ( on him, her eyes blazing with fury. , "Oh, how dare you?" His past experience of the feminine ] nature was not of much use to him , on this occasion, but it was all he had ] to go by, so he acted on It. He deft- , ly kicked the door to with his foot, at the same time catching her by the | wrists. I "Please!" he entreated. "Come, ] come, you must! I won't let you go," , he continued with an air of would-be , playful banter. I She kept perfectly calm, merely | stiffening the imprisoned arms. "It may interest you to know," she . said, "that I am engaged to marry ( Capt. Warren." I Her captor let go her wrists and , stepped back, or, to be quite accurate, leaped back to the door, from which | point he regarded her, utterly at a loss for words with which to express ; his feelings. Then, because he was a | Bog Rat, he stammered out what . came to him most naturally: "You?you won't tell him?" he , Dleaded. , The Colonel's daughter gazed at . him frigidly. 1 "I keep nothing from him," she said. The Bog Rat squirmed. j "Especially in this case," she con- \ tinued; "how could I, with you in the , same regiment; it would haunt me all i my life." She scrutinized him calmly. He had j opened the door, letting the light fall ; upon his face. He was not a pretty < sight. j "Possibly." she said, half relent- < ing?"possibly, if I was never going | to see you again." "Perhaps you won't," whimpered , the Bog Rat. ] "Well, in that case it might be dif- j 'erent," she concluded, as she left i him. i That night he locked himself into i his room and pondered. There were < all sorts of stories about the Man < from Abroad when he was roused: i they said something or other had up- i set him when he got the V. C. By the morning the Bog Rat had ( evidently come to a definite conelu- i sion, tor he went down to the Ordeily i Room with two applications: one ,va* ( for leave to resign his commission. ( the other was for a month's leave < pending acceptance of his resignation, i The Colonel was surprised out ] granted both requests without q'tes- t tion. The Man from Abroad very rarely ] speaks to the Colonel's daughter of * the Bog Rat. When he does sh? i smiles quietly to herself: she keeps t her promise and does not tell him; i for though they have been married ? some while now. he is still too fond of her to be able to understand the joke.?Truth. Stopping the King's Mail. The great steamship wavered; the screw revolved more slowly, and gradually ceased to turn. There is something uncannily disquieting about an unmoving ship in the middle of the ocean; and, for a few moments. there were fearsome rumors among the second and third cabin passengers. The steerage, being nearer to the heart of things, understood what was going on. The deck stewards went about explaining: and us they explained, the passengers moved to points of vantage. Then all was very quiet?quiet even for the sea. A man whom the first cabin passengers knew to be a famous bishop stepped down from among them. A heavy, clumsy, grewsome bundle was brought up. Over it the bishop, with bared and reverent head, intoned the service for those who are buried at sea. As the bishop spoke the words of committal, "We therefore commit his body to the deep, to be turned into corruption, looking for the resurrection of the body, when the sea shall give up its dead." a door in the bulwarks was lifted for the bundle. and let down again; the ship began to move, sluggishly at lirst, then smoothly as was its wont: the passengers went back to their games, their books, and their love-making. The greatest event in the dead stoker's career was over. He had stopped his majesty's mail.?Chicago Tribune. JUiscfUancous Sfatlini). MOUNTAIN GIRLS SHOT TO KILL. Daughters of Kentucky Moonshiner Gave Battle to and Defeated a Revenue Posse. When the circuit court convenes In June to hear the pleadings of such offenders against the law of the sovereign state of Kentucky as Pike county lias produced 'tween sessions, two girls rrom the mountains will be put on trial for murder. They are Fannie Tackitt, aged 15, and Bettie Tackitt, aged 18?sisters. A new-made mound In the burying ground back of town marks the place ivhere lies the body of Charlie Smith ?Charlie, the deputy marshal?with a bullet still embedded in the muscles jf his heart. The sisters are charged ivith killing him. One or both may idmlt it, which is different from confessing, and one or both will tell the story of a tragedy such as even Pike lounty, schooled alike to civic and official quick trigger, has not seen since he last feudist slid from his horse in :he shadows and died like a snake in the first warmth of the dawn. There is no harm in being strictly fair to the Tackltts. Revenue nostrils which catch the scent of stewing mash, even as a cow finds a salt-lick, Jiscovered a still on the side hill in which corn was being converted into whisky in violation of at least seven pages of government statutes, and of course it had to be raided. The Job was assigned to Deputy Marshal J. Mart Potter, who picked Levi Smallwood and Charlie Smith for such moral support and physical participation as the occasion might require?a rio of men with nerve. They crept up he gulch while the scrub oak and wa!luts were still dripping with dew, and tame to a mountainside clearing at midday. "Uncle George" Tackitt, head of the family, was away ? unimportant where. Charlie Tackitt, who learned flow to coil a worm for a still and vaporize spirits before he could bound Kentucky, was earrvine watpr from the spring, and in the direction of the mashtub. Mother Tackitt was in the kitchen, Fannie sat in a swing screechng a song about some one who loves me ever true, and Bettie was busy ivorking a yellow cupid on a red tidy jn the porch. In an instant this domestic scene shifted. Charlie Tackitt, down In the ?ulch, cried, "They're coming!" and the three revenue men emerged from the roadside brush. Two of them grappled with young Tackitt, who at 20 was as strong as a bull, and as unmoved by fear as the mountain pines. Three to one is a losing game and the nippers were snapped on Tackitt's wrists. Smallwood and Smith ran around to the rear of the house, expecting to capture Uncle George. They came face to face with Mother Tackitt, who was carrying an armful of stove-size wood in from the shed. They laid a hand on her and she defended herself well and ably with a bullet. Much occurs in an incredibly short time on occasions of this kind?action is swift, Intermission brief. There was a pistol shot and Mother Tackitt's hair became crimson. A bullet had coursed ilong her temple, Just breaking the ikin. Then another bored Its way into her shoulder, and she sank'on the threshold. Kentucky history wouldn't be what It is if more than two shots were to be fired by one side In a controversy without a formal reply in kind. Pike county folk know the rules?men and women alike?and, all things considered, it's well that they do. The next puff of smoke came from a rifle, the muzzle of which showed unJer the kitchen window sash. Fannie Tackitt's finger pressed the trigger. The bullet opened an airhole in the crown of Deputy Smallwood's hat, one inch above his thinking machinery, which he ducked naturally, knowing the revenue method. Charlie Tackitt had been thrown on the grass by the deputies after he had been handcuffed. They expected him to lie there, but he didn't. As the conflict became warmer the deputies, recognizing in him a noncombatant, massed for the larger struggle. Then Charlie crawled to a protected place behind a rock where he could make iigns to his fighting party. Two shots cut finger-size holes in the window pane, and Smallwood backing away toward a tree, was reloading when a bullet from another li'inilnur onto hia loft o**m u/hlnh supported his rifle. He knotted his handkerchief above the wound and returned the flre. Mother Tackitt was at this moment at the back door yelling for help. Charlie pointed with double Angers In the direction wher a good aim would ;ount. Deputy Smuh was the target. Bettie Tackett now took her place at the porthole in the fortress, armed with a late model shotgun. She fired at Deputy Smith, but the window falling threw the gun out of line and the shot simply riddled his loose blouse. Mother Tackitt had by this time crawled Into the house. Her hand was gashed in a half dozen places. Marshal Smith had beaten her with the butt of his revolver, she moaned. There was no time to dress her wounds, no time to carry her to bed. *he lay upon the floor, feebly trying lo stop the flow of blood with the crumpled folds of her apron. And the fight went on. All three of the deputies now had positions affording some protection. Marshal Potter was at the edge of the winter cut of cordwood. Smith with i tree between him and danger, and Smallwood, from a point to the left, blazed away over a stump. There's no earthly use of being a mountaineer if you haven't guns aplenty and no use having guns without immunition. Pike county knows the rule, too. The Tackitt home was an arsenal. Three shots to the minute was the average of fire from both tides. Smallwood was not in good thape, the deep wound in his arm trickling blood at his finger tips each time he raised his gun. Growing bitter as the fight advanced, Bettie Tackitt threw open the door to the end that her aim might be direct. A bullet from without passed iver her shoulder and plunked into the rupboard. Bettie's gun was at her shoulder in an instant. Before Smallwood could lower his weapon she pressed the trigger. The shot went rue. It tore the finger from the hand that held the gun. A man twice shot Pas the status of a dead man, so far is warfare effectiveness is concerned, to Small wood's rifle became silent and he ficht was now two to two men igainst women?and one wounded on ?ach side, a man and a woman. And so. for a full half hour, shots 'rom the open were answered by shot Vom the house. Marshal Smith was ncllned to belittle the bravery of the mountainside garrison. He wanted to :ake It by storm. Creeping out from lis sheltered spot he advanced with fun muzzle moving like a side-playng pendulum to cover both windows, ffe saw a girl at one window and momentarily forgot the other. A spit of ire was the answer. Smith dropped tnd never moved. Marshal Mart Potter didn't wait for hat. He hurried down the gulch and he fight was over. Later in the day, vhen the shadows had settled on the mountain, he came back for Charlie tmlth, who was lying open-eyed and jnconscious where he had fallen. Poter dragged him on a pine bough along he bank of the laughing brook and nto valley civilization. The country loctor did what he could for Smith, vhich was nothing at all. The rifle tullet had cut into the muscles of his leart and there was no hope and no leed of drugs or advice. The riddled leart pumped on slower and slower or four days, and stopped happily on tunday. Mountain folk have an abiding hared for "revenues" and. strange to lay, a sort of respect for peace-officers >f a county's choosing. Deputy Sheriff Xsborne and a posse went later on to he Tackitt home. Charlie Tackltt was tot there. A sharp tile had cut the it eel hands that held his wrists torether and he had become a fugitive. >ut the girls were there and ready to five themselves up. They were taken o Pikevllle and arraigned before 'ounty Judge Fud. The town and ountryside turned out to see them; some to applaud, none to condemn; for Pike county admires bravery and has rude respect for women. The girls were bound in bonds of 12,000 each for appearance at court. Freeholders stood ready to become surety for them. The girls rode out of town through thin lines of interested folk and back to their home hanging on the clifTside. There, in the very setting of the tragedy, your correspondent saw and talked with them. Fannte, whose 16th birthday will come on June 12, while she is on trial for her life, is a mere child, buoyant and happy. She doesn't quite understand how the law views what she is accused of doing. Possibly she doesn't care. "1 don't suppose any one could much blame us for what we did," she said, sitting in the swing and with little toe kicks swaying back and forth. "We fought for our poor old mother, who is lying In the house now, and we fought bravely, as girls or their mother should under the circumstances. The revenues treated her brutally. They beat her. Think of It! Men beating a poor old woman. Why don't the revenues deal with men? We want to live under the law, like other people, but if the law puts us In prison I don't know what we might do next." And these things she said as a girl might say them?Innocently and without boldness or bravado. "Because I could shoot and shoot to the spot," she continued as she lead the way to the house, "I lost ho time. Some one had to come to mother's rescue. I was" nearest. We killed the officer; that we don't deny. We will outlive and outgrow the charge that the Tackltt girls are murderers." The elder girl was spreading the table for dinner, and your correspondent was asked to sit by. He did, with a girl at each elbow. The meal was plain, well cooked, well served. After dinner the girls went Into the open and the photographer posed them just as they were. In simple frocks. Marshal Potter says he was lucky to escape with his life at the mountain fight. "I escaped without a scratch," he said, "but shots flew thick and fast around my head, and more than once It seemed that I would have to retreat. nuwcvci, aiici uiy ucat iiiu.ii, v^ua.i uc Smith, was shot down I thought li best to get out. I did so, and after everything calmed down I went back and carried the wounded man to the home of a physician and had hia wounds dressed. Smallwood was hurt but little. Charlie Tackitt escaped, and I have not heard from him since. The Tackitt girls are certainly brave." J. Mart Potter is considered one ol the bravest officers In the south. For seven years he has been in the service of Uncle Sam, and more than twice he has shot off moonshiners who fired upon him. Today he is baffled at the thought of Kentucky's brave girlhood; of having to fight them in battle aa he did the Tackitt girls?and yet he says, as almost every one else, he admires the bravery of the Tackitt sisters. "I will never stand and fight them again," said Potter to your correspondent. He meant it. too. It is said thai Uncle Sam will offer a liberal reward for the arrest of Charlie Tackitt, brother of the Tackitt sisters, who if yet at large. Potter says he will not want the reward.?Sergent (Ky) Cor New York World. CUTTING MAHOGANY. Hard Work to Find, Fell and Transport the Tree Trunks. In Mexico, Honduras and Central America the contractor gives )5 for a mahogany tree. This seems cheap, but it Is the expense of getting it out, saya a writer in the New Orleans TimesDemocrat, that makes mahogany ar expensive lumber, he tree stands deep in the forest in the midst of an almost impenetrable Jungle. There are no groves. The trees are scattered, perhaps not more than two to an acre, and it may be that there is no water course at hand on which the logs can be floated to port. The tree has to be found by the "hunter," whose business it is to roam through the forest In search of mahogany trees and to blaze a way to them, so that they may be found again. Then the workmen must cut their laborious way to the tree, using for the purpose the machete, which is both the ax and the weapon of the American tropics, and in time the men reach the tree. It is a beautiful growth, tall and shapely, with the lowest branches at least sixty feet from the ground. At the bottom is a huge swelling, after the manner of the cypress. The tree has to be cut above it. six or eight feet from the roots. The first work to be done is the building of a platform around the trunk, so that the cutters can stand upon it and wield their axes, but the work is slow and laborious. Nevertheless in due course the monarch comes crashing down through the thick growth around it. The workmen trim oft the limbs, cut the trunk into suitable lengths and manage to get them hauled and rolled to the nearest creek. There they must await the floods of the rainy season, which will lift thorn and carry ihe-r. down stream and on to the ocean port, Inora a ro nilpH nn thp hPflPh to wait for a vessel. When it comes they are rolled back into the water and rafted and pulled out to the vessel's side, always a dangerous undertaking, for the water is usually rough. When the logs are once beside the vessel the derricks are put to work and the logs lifted over the side, one by one, and lowered with much difficulty into the hold. Ten million feet a year come into New Orleans and are partly manufactured there. The saws in the mahogany mills of Louisiana rub day and night In winter. During the twentyfour hours 60,000 feet of lumber are cut by some of the mills. There is no such thing as bringing the logs in ballast. They compose the ship's entire cargo, and the average is about twenty cargoes a year. A great many ships are engaged in the enterprise. ? The coronation of King George V. of England, took place on June 22. .t.na MFontlntr t r\ molfP thp Qnl emn and impressive ceremony one long to be remembered, not only throughout the country, but in every corner of the great empire. The coronation passed off without untoward Incident, in marked contrast with the coronation of King Edward, nine years ago, when the king was weak and suffering from a recent operation and the archbishop of Canterbury was so weak from old age that he placed the crown on the king's head backward and afterward fainted. Never before In history has the imperial note been struck in such a magnificent manner. Its imperial aspect undoubtedly has been the most remarkable feature of the coronation. George V. more than any sovereign of the past, represents the embodiment of the imperial idea. He only of all his predecessors on the throne traveled through his vast dominions, and thus acquainted himself at first hand with the needs and aspirations of all the various peoples of the empire. By happy coincidence the imperial conference sitting at the time of the coronation, enabled all the representatives of the king's over-seas dominions to participate in the significant ceremony at the opening of the new reign, which, if the hopes of those attending the conference bear fruit, will bring all parts of the empire into closer and more intimate relations. The elaborate ceremonies, which are the aftermath of the coronation, will continue until some time in August. WAYS OF THE SHOW ANIMALS. Each Has Its Own Peculiar Tempsramsnt. Ellen Velvln, who by virtue of her vocation as wild animal trainer knows a lot about beasts of various kinds, says that no two, even of the same species, are alike. "Study four lions, tigers, bears or elephants." she says in McClure's, "and you will find that each has its own ways, Its own moods, its own temperament. Lions are peculiarly unlike one another in disposition. "It Is generally acknowledged that a very quiet tiger, one that does not growl or snarl, is far more dangerous than one that Is perpetually showIno alfftiu s\f (II lomnAs A st ..11 *? >116 n?6"? in iciiijici. n, .niaj inifi uger gives warning; a quiet one will steal up behind Its keeper or trainer, flat on Its stomach, and shou'd the trainer turn round, It will stop dead and appear to be looking off into the distance! "There Is, for Instance, or was a few years ago, a celebrated tiger purchased from the King of Oudh for the Zoological Gardens at Belle Vue, Manchester, England, who toward his keepers maintained a very quiet and docile demeanor. And yet, this was the great "fighting tiger" who was never happy unless he was fighting, and who always appeared relieved and refreshed after he had had an opportunity of almost killing another of his species. "Jaguars are more noted for their deceit, craftiness and treachery than all the other treacherous members of the cat tribe. Slyness, stealth and cunning are written In the quick, keen glances from their wicked eyes; In their soft, llghtnlng-IIke movements, ' and above all in their moments of deadly quiet. "The most deceitful of all his de celtful kind Is Lopez, the well known Jaguar In the New York Zoological | Park, who has been living there now i for eight years. A well grown, finely : developed animal, he is noted for his beauty of form and coloring, his grace or movement ana nis villainous per' sonallty. ! "Elephants too have their lndivtd1 ual peculiarities. In the Barnum & i Bailey show there was a short time i ago, an extremely clever performing I elephant named Sultan. His chief > act was sitting on a stool with uplifted forepaws, on each of which sat a i little dog while a third dog sat on > his head. When performing Sultan was the most gentle and docile of ele' phants, but downstairs in his stables he had his whims and moods, i "He greatly disliked to have any stranger come to his stables. One day when in order to propitiate him > he had got a pail of some good warm i mash, and I stood watching him; he > stopped eating for a moment, looked t at me with his tiny eyes and then deliberately threw it all over me. "In one of the large animal shows It became evident one evening that the chief performing elephant was too sick to do his act This meant that no elephant performance could be given, since he led the others. The trainers gave him a dose of hot whlsI ky and onions, a favorite medicine with elephants. k "He sucked up a large pailful of : this mixture, and evidently wanted i more. He was so much better In an hour that he was able to perform as usual. But after this he would never i give a performance without his dose > of hot whisky and onions. No threats or persuasions could induce him to go on without It. ' "Supplying the elephant with a pailful of whisky twice a day proved , to be so expensive that the proprietor . finally had to cut his act out altogether. In his quarters, when he was 1 not called upon to go into the arena, the elephant never appeared to think qf the whisky. caouona tut; U51 j iciupvicu, ? 1 clous and treacherous animals, and very few show much affection even , for those who have cared for them for years. Very little has ever been done In the way of training them; trainers generally fight shy of them. > "Bears are particularly interesting 1 animals to study. Most bears are very conceited, and this Is the reason, 1 I believe, that they respond so well to 1 training and make such excellent performers when trained. One little bear I knew was taught to climb a ladder, pull a string which let loose an American flag, and then Jump to the floor and turn a somersault. But the public did not know that in loosening the flag he also let loose a lump of sugar. "In time the proprietor of the show was obliged to cut out that act because the little bear would never wait ( for his signal. The minute he entered the arena he would go straight up 1 the ladder, pull the string and get the I sugar, and since this was arranged as ( the climax of the entire bear act he spoiled the whole thing. Punishments had no effect on him, he did not even 1 resent them; he went straight after 1 the sugar. Even after his act was taken away from him he would always willingly do any tricks that necessitated the climbing of a ladder. I "One of the most interesting bears I T have ever seen is Silver King, the huge polar bear that was captured by Paul J. Rainey and presented by him 1 to the New York Zoological Park in September, 1910. His capture took place at Kane Basin In July, 1910, and he Is. I believe, the first bear that 1 has ever been caught by ropes or lasi sos and the largest polar bear ever I kept In captivity. He weighs more ' than 880 pounds. "For strength, endurance and savageness Silver King Is not to be equalled. From the moment of his , capture to the present time he has always been furious, either In wildest rage and despair or sunk In sullen, morose resentment against everything and everybody. No coaxing with dainties, no kindness has any effect on him."?New York Sun. Postal Business Methods.?The press bureau of the postofflce department has been working overtime lately, in throwing bouquets at Postmaster General Hitchcock and his assistants in conducting the affairs of the department. It gravely announces that the postal deficit, which heretofore has existed in the department, has been wiped out, owing to the improved business methods inaugurated by Mr. Hitchcock. These methods consist of appropriating 3,800 mail apartment cars, furnished by the short line railroads at their own expense, without the government paying a penny for their use or maintenance; in compelling these same roads to deliver the mail from the cars to the postoffices free, a service that would cost the postofflce department, according to their own statement, over four and one quarter million dollars annually, If the government employed contractors to do the work, also in computing the weight of the mail to determine the compensation for four years, by dividing the weight carried six days in a week by seven, thus arbitrarily reducing, by one-seventh, the amount the railroads are entitled to receive. In verification of these statements. It is only necessary to consult the annual report of Mr. Hitchcock for tne year 1910. This report shows that while the revenue of the postofflce department increased $20,566,274 for the year ioin nimr Ola vpnr 1909. the railroads of the country, which performed the hulk of the service essential to enable the government to earn the increased revenue, received $352,759.74 less In 1910 than in 1909. A further perusal of the report shows that Mr. Hitchcock increased the payroll of his employees over seven million dollars for the year 1910. In these circumstances, with the revenue of the postofflce department increasing by leaps and bounds, at the rate of $20,000,000 per year, with the Just pay due railroads hithheld, little wonder is there that Mr. Hitchcock is enable to wipe out a five million dollar deficit, increase the pay for figurehead postmasters, and equip his offices with extravagant and high-priced furnishings.