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8. m ' - THE FORT MILL TIMES Published Every Thursday. FORT MILL, SOUTH CAROLINA. Spoil the rod and spare the child la the modern way. After all, how appropriate that epitapha are usually graven. A steel famine Is predicted. This will call for Iron endurance. Perhaps the millennium awaits the discovery of a serum ugalnst old age. The great trouble with the European statUB quo is that it won't stay put dnn'! oam n ^v,.. ? VVUIIV J UUI tlliUAt'UD uuill you're sure the incubator lamp doesn't leak. Clprlano Castro says ho is going to remain permanently in Teneriffe. Thanks. In New York an ordinary taxi drivel was arrested on supposition thut he was a robber. Another blow at the American workingman with a tax contemplated on all incomes over $3,000. St. Ixmls policemen demand an eight-hour day. He who runs may read the time by the stars. According to the census, there are 125,000 idiots in the country. But only ono kind wero counted. Two German oillcers flew 372 miles in six hours. This may be called both literally and figuratively going some. Peoplo live longer in cities than in villages, say German savants. Maybe city poople are more afraid to die. Women's smoking gowns are on exhibition in New York stores. And very likely they hook up in the back, too. Automobiles would never be driven fifty miles an hour If none wero mndc cnpable of going more than twentyfive. In Constantinople, a deposed high official dies of apoplexy. In Mexico City he is taken on an automobile ride. Farmers In Pennsylvania flocked to n bargain sale of coffins. A bargain snle will excite u live interest in anything. With onions selling at 15 cents a bushel there's no perceptible increase in the practice of smothering things in them. Now that St. Louis police are to have an eight hour day, the night force will bo provided with more time to sleep. | A clergyman finds that many plays tench their morals hurriedly In the last act?or during chair-slamming In the first. General Sung of China was killed by assassins who were really looking for General Sing. Chinese tenses are terribly fatal. The use of cosmetics Is said to he very old Apparently that Is also what some of those using them think of themselves. An eastern physician says that wornanhocd will supply the drunkards of 1 the next century. Hather, lack of womanhood. Ten months Is said to be the life of the average $10 bill. Hut the experience of most of us is that it lingers only a few days. Hundreds of New York teachers are said to hold their Jobs by keeping their mnrrlages secrot. Hut hnve they no fool friends? A dentist Is asked to pay $1,000 for pulling the wrong tooth. Some dentists have to wait a year for filling the right ones. Men. her? Is a harbor of refuge. A lending Chicngo milliner snys the niftiest kind of spring hat can be "built" for 59 cents. A domestic, theorist advises mistresses to allow their servants to use the family piano. But why add to the horrors of civilization? In all candor It must bo admitted that it must be exceedingly annoying to a thirsty man to get hold of the syrup bottle by mistake. Fifty thousand dollars is a neat sum, useful In old age. Hut it's long odds that an aviator so reckless as to be willing to fly across the Atlantic to get the money would never live to a ripe old age anyway. Did you ever observe that the people who are always clamoring to "muzzlo the press" are the ones who need tho most watching? People who were annoyed by the beautified nickel will suffer paroxysms at the attempt of tho reformers to take the out of money. This season's hobble skirts are to be even tighter than ever before. Although requiring less cloth, the price. It Is assured, will not shrink in proportion. Mfc ' BADWATERHOLOUP It Was Only for Moving Pictures but Passengers Thought It Real Thing. By FRANK FILSON. The journey across the desert Is not a distracting one, and any diversion is gladly welcomed, bo that, when the flashily dressed man stood up at the end of the Pullman and began to address the passengers, everybody went forward and gathered around him, laughing and clapping. They thought he was going to offer something for sale. However, he had nothing to sell. He had a favor to ask, he said, and so everybody became silent and listened attentively. "Ladies and gentlemen," began the flashily dreBsed man, "I am going to repeat to you what I have Just said to the passengers in the next coach. When we reach Had Water, In ten minutes or so, a moving picture man will be upon the platform to take some pictures representing a hold-up. Some of the performers, dressed as bandits, will attack the mail car, while others will go through the coaches, demanding your money and valuables. But please do not be alarmed. The whole proceeding will be In pantomime. and If you will make a show of | compliance, and bo aid us, nobody will be annoyed. I ask of you, fellow-passengers, to feign alarm, and if one or two of the ladles will pretend to faint j It will help things along." Everybody began laughing and I eagerly awaited- the stop at Bad Water. This was the fourth day of the trans-continental journey, and the passengers were on very good terms with one another. They began to discuss train robberies. "I'd never give up a cent," exclaimed a stout, perspiring drummer, wiping the alkali dust from his features. "Not for all the train robbers In California. No, slrree, and don't mistake me. I'd duck their pistols and hit out once or twice and then?well, thero wouldn't be any train robbers." "Well, as for me, I know I should ! Just faint," answered a demure young lady. "And before I fainted I'd just ! hand over everything I had." "Not with me around, you wouldn't need to," answered the drummer gal: lantly. The other travelers did not commit themselves, for at that moment the I ^ 1 I, J?i "Hands Up, You Silly Sheep!" | train began to slow down and there appeared the irrigation ditch from which the station took Its nnme Thmi tho littlo tin-roofed Bhanty came into view, and a moment inter a half dozen men, wearing sombreros and maski ed. with pistols stuck all around their waist lines, leaped forward across the tracks. One Jumped into the engine cab and held his pistol to the forehead of tho engineer. Tho mail van was next attacked, while two men made their way into the foremost of the coaches. Upon the platform a moving picture operator had set up his instrument and was busily reeling off the film, the passengers, interested in the scene, gathered around him. "Now, Indies, now. gentlemen," Interposed the flashily dressed man in 1 tones of remonstrance, "won't you | please go back into tho coaches and be robbed? You're interfering with the operator. It spoils the roality of the pictures, yotir standing round here as thongh nothing had liuppened. People will think the picture's a fake, and it's going to be exhibited in all I the leading cities of America. Won't you go back?" j Two or three did turn back toward tho conches in a half-hearted way, but the rest remained obdurate, and the flashily dressed man ran here and , there among there, remonstrating and Dleadlncr. His rnnniiolu ?~ii tiv/ n\Jf v;i , It'll on deaf oars. It was much pleasanter outstrip In the fresh air than within, and, besides, all wanted to see tho i whole proceedings. At last, in des- i pair, the flashily dressed man threw i up his hands and disappeared inside i one of the coaches. Almost simultaneously a pistol shot rang out, followed by a woman's cream for help. The heads of the spectators turned round with a simultaneous movement and their features betrayed an expression of sudden i fear. ] "You told me It was fun." shrieked a woman's voice. "I won't give you i my rings. I won't, I tell you. There, 1 take them, then. And that's every penny I have In the world." "It's Big Ike and his gang," somebody screamed. 'It's real enough! My God, It's all real!" Then the flashily dressed man came dashing out of his coach, a smoking pistol in his hand. He was followed by two of the gang. "Hands up, you Billy sheep!" he yelled. "Hands up or I fire. Now, then, back into the cars. One at a time, please. You'll keep them above your heads while Ike goes through you." oneep. no naa caucd ttiem, and like sheep they obeyed. The first to do so was the commercial traveler. There was a look of terror on his red face, and he held his arms erect as ramrods. Only one traveler remained upon the platform. It was tho demure young lady who had been discussing her courso of action In the event of a real hold-up. Instead of fainting she stamped her'foot violently and actually shook her fist in the flashily dressed man's face. "I won't put my hands up and I won't give you a cent. And I've got ninety dollars Inside my waist and I defy you to take it, you coward. There!" Upon the platform the operator was still grinding ofT his films. The flashily dressed man approached the young lady, took off his hat, and made her a bow. "Madam*, you are the only man among the lot," he said. "Pray keep your money as a tribute to your courage!" Tho passengers had all filed in when the wheels of the train began to move. The flashily dressed man caught the young lady by the arm and swung her nboard. Inside the travelers stood huddled together, but there fcas no bandit to receive their cash. Tho flashily dressed man stood on fhe step and leered at them. "Sorry to frighten you all. ladies and gents," he said. "If you'd obliged mo as I asked of you to do, 1 wouldn't have had to scare you. We ain't banditB; we're just moving picture people; but we had to get the picture and as you wouldn't help us?why. we just had to help ourselves. Good-bye." And as the train was now in motion he leaped to the ground and stood smiling at them. "When they had resumed their pieces there was quite a long silence. Then the drummer spoke. "I knew it wasn't real," ho Bald. "II I'd thought it was I'd have acted different." Ho 6railed at the demure young lady. Hut she was reading a textbook on tho Montessori method of teaching the young, and she never looked up at him between Bad Water and San Francisco. (Copyright. 1913. by W. G. Chapman.) RURAL TEACHERS' PAY SMALL Average Pay Is Less Than That Received by Street Laborers in Cities. The statisticians tell us that the average salary of the teachers of the nation in the common schools is less than $400 a year, and in the rural school districts less than $300, the Hon. David Franklin Houston, secretary of agriculture, writes in Leslie's. Illinois reports rural salaries ranging from $250 to $400; Kansas, a salary of less than $250; Missouri, Mississippi and Tennessee, one of less than $250; Vermont, Maine and North Carolina, one of less than $200. In urban communities it ranges from $500 to $000 1 to $ 1,S00 or $2,000 or more. The annual pompensation of rural teachers is less than that of street laborers in cities. less than that of hrtcklnvei-H niau. terers, carpenters, plainters and brakemen, and the superintendent of Alabama reports that in that state it is less than the average earnings of convicts. Everywhere theso teachers are stranded in one room buildings, for the most part unsightly, devoid of the ordinary comforts, lacking in facilities, in unattractive and insanitary surroundings, they teach all grades und hold 30 to 35 or 40 recitations a day for four, five, six or seven months i a year, arid do this without advice or usblstunce from competent supervisors or inspectors. Illinois reports 10,600 ono teucher schools, 1,160 of them having less than 15 pupils; Kansus, 7,800, 426 with less than 16 pupils, 300 , with less than 10; North Carolina, more than 4,000 out of a total of 5,400; i Indiana reports 1,085 schools with less thun 15 pupils, and 2,000 with less than 20; Missouri, 705 with less than 12, and 2,500 with less than 20. When the people know the facts and <ir?? Intullloontlo l-.'l ~.I11 t -1 ?. w ...vvatigwuvi/ icu vurj \> III 1UUU L11U situation, provide the means and will regard the expenditure for developmental purposes not as a burden, but as an investment. They must put more money into this business of rural education to save what they have already put in?to make good what they have undertaken. As people of ordinary business sense, they , must recognize the necessity of efficiency of production. A nation which is spending $700.01)0.000 a year on war, pnst and future, $800,000,000 for tobacco, and $1,500,000,000 for whisky cannot make the plea of poverty and ! cannot afford to say that it will stop | at an expenditure of $330,000,0000 for Bchools. An Extra. Newsboy?Great mystery! Fifty victims! Paper, mister? Passer-by?Here, boy. I'll take one. (After reading a moment.) Say. boy, there's nothing of the kind In this paper. Where is It? Newsboy?That's the mystery, guvnor. You're the fifty-first victim.? Missouri Oveu. - - - ' BAN IS PLACED ON THIS CLEVER HOUND Daschund Taught to Watch the Players During the Progress of Card Games. Winsted, Conn.?Friends of Eugene McCaskey have placed the "no admittance" bar on his daschund whenever he goes to their homes for an evening at cards, because the canine has been taught to watch the floor and seats about a table while a game Is In progress. Not only will he pick up a coin or card which finds Its way to the floor and carry it to his master, but ( the daschund watches players who are , In the hnbit of concealing a card be1 tween their legs or on a seat beneath | their legs for future playing. One of Mr. McCaskey's friends was | bitten In the leg after concealing a curd, hence the edict. The <Jog has I 1 other Bporting proclivities. When hl? jj i ! Was Bitten in the Leg. master goes Ashing along the shore of a lake, he will grab up the pole when the bob disappears In the water and run along with It until the flsli is } on land. SQUALOR IN BABY FARMS California County Health Officer Finds Twenty "Homes" Dealing in Nameless Chiidren. I.os Angeles. Cal.?Twenty "baby farms," where profits are coined out of nameless little lives, have been | j found operating just outside the city limits of I.os Angeles, by Dr. E. O | Sawyer, county health officer, who has | demanded immediate action on the part of the board of supervisors. These institutions, said Dr. Sawyer, are conducted for profit by persons who have no Interest in the children, and were removed from the citv to escape municipal regulation. They harbor mostly foundlings and the babies of persons who would rather hide their parenthood. "I found babies kept in the most repulsive squalor," said T>r. Sawyer "To make profits out of the small sums paid as 'board' some of the proprietors of baby homes kept the children in a half starved and half clothed condition. Insanitary conditions exist in every case." Each of the "farms" harbors from three to sixty babies. Dr. Sawyer j said that n county ordinance providing strict regulations was necessary to j protect not only the children in the \ homes, but also to protect the health of the community. "00H, LA, LA, LA," SMACK!! Judge Gives Prisoner $1 and Freedom and Receives Resounding Ki68 From Happy Peddler. Aurora. III.?Another blow at the dignity of tho bench was dealt the other day. It was struck when an Aurora justice of the peace, tempering justice I with mercy, was kissed in open court by a man he had dismissed. The resounding smack upon the justice's i cheek was delivered before anyone could interfere and after that every- , one was too startled to do so. Frank de Cook, arrested for ped- j dllng without a license, was the man who introduced the European method ef expressing gratitude Into an Amer- 1 lean court, lie had told Police Magistrate Thomas Harlow such an affecting hard luck story that the justice > not only dismissed the charges against him. but called him to the bench and gave him one dollar. Then came the kiss. The justice refused to say whether he considered it in the light of a bribe. Must Have Certificates. Passaic, NT. J,?Rev. Hugh I). Wilson, pastor of St. George's Episcopal church, announced that he will refuse i to marry couples who cannot present ; certificates of physical and mental j health. Recovered His Reason. Mlnrola, 111.?In a lit of insanity Edwnrd Gorham Jumped from a window of the William H. Ross sanitarium and was seriously hurt. Then he recovered his reason and won a verdict for $6,600. Doorkeeper at the Capit< WASHINGTON.?Just as the day shift of the Capitol police force was about to knock off dutv at dusk the other evening an automobile rolled into the driveway, under the house Hteps. and a middle-aged man and a young woman got out and walked briskly through the doorway. One of the officers 011 the door stopped them and politely gave the information that the time for receiving visitors for the day was over. For a moment the man hesitated. Then, from behind him there stepped out hurriedly a much younger man. who said something in a low voice to the officer. The latter's manner changed immediately. He grabbed his cap from his head, and, bowing low, said: "Come right in, Mr. President." "I just thought I would like to look over the new seats in the house," said President Wilson with a smile. Riskiest Deed in the Wt SHE was a pallid woman who looked as if her dyspepsia tabletB had run out. And she stood behind the counter of a small homemade shop, submitting a mended umbrella to a customer with two chins and another coming. Thw Pllulonu^ ...LI. . ..v VMUVW4..WI , UUklOIICW ? nil nil* JUU, rummaged in her bag for the even change, handed it over and then, in a sudden gust of energy, emptied the bag's insides on the counter. "Well, if I haven't lost that thing at last?and I wouldn't a-done it for a dollar!" The sympathy in the umbrella woman's face flushed it to an almost lifelike hue. "Was it your mascot?" The chin woman wasn't up to psychological snuff. She had to ask what a mascot was. "Why, a charm?to keep off bad luck." The customer chuckled till the third chin took courage and asserted itself. "My soul and body, woman, you talk as if I hadn't cut my eye teeth. No, indeedy, it wasn't no charm. It was Just a little chunk of quartz. 1 been earryin' around because my son Jimmie sent it to me to show what they dig up in the mine where he works, out west yonder. If the good Lord chooses to send me troubles there Connecting. Link Betwee TWO women board in the same house tip Georgetown way. Each has her personal treasures set on walls, shelves and tables In the "furnished room" that stands for her home. In one the decorations run to Remington sketches and Kipling There is a winged victory on a bookcase, a couple of hatided-down brass candlesticks nnd a squatty Chinese god that once had its day In a museum. The walls of the other room are broken out in the rash of "popular" art that includes a chroino Iteatrice Cenci in a walnut frame, a near engraving of "The Ironworker" and another of that especially rigid George Washington with fish bladder legs. Stranger Wanted Whack AKAMOKKK was digging up the wire grass which was already asserting Itself in the new volwot /.f ? park \ip Capitol Hill way. A welldressed middle-aged man, who was passing, paused to say: "l,et me htve a turn at that spade, won't you?" The laborer?a white man?straightened up, grinned politely, but kept his spade. "Say, hand over that shovel for a minute, son. I haven't had a whack at this sort of fun for 15 years. Ileen liv. ing on the desert, where there isn't a blade of civilized grass in a day's ride?" No good-natured laborer could possibly withstand an appeal liko that, especially with no park guards around, bo the spade was handed over. The well dressed man rammed it in the sod with an expertness that showed he had lived in God's country j ^ J y^ ^ I ' 0i ??J-_x u/;, ji oiups rresiueru mm suii Tho officer led the way to the elevator, and they were lifted up to the next floor The officer hurled back downstairs to the seigeant-at-arms' office to get the key. While tbis was going on Neal, the negro messenger, who sits continually outside of| Speaker Clark's door, left his post and rushed into Mr. Clark's private ofBce. "The president is outside, Bir," said Neal, excitedely. "The who?" said the speaker. 1 "The president, sir," repeated Neal. \ "He's right out in the corridor." 1 Mr. Clark went out. Sure enough thero was the president, and the speaker greeted him warmly. "Welcome to the house," said the speaker. President Wilson explained thnt he wanted to see the house chamber and that he am^his daughter, Jessie, were especially interested in reading in the newspapers about the new bench seats which have been installed in place the time-honored desks. By that tllme the officer had returned with the key and Mr. Clark did the honors He ushered the president and his daughter into the chamber, told them about tho new seating scheme, and invited them to try the seats. iole List of Bad Omens I ain't any luck < harm going to stave it off. 1 don't b< lleve in no such foolj ishness ns th it." "You ougbtene* talk like that. I wouldn't do It for the world. 1 know too much abut it. See this horseshoe I'm wearing? I wouldn't dast leave off wearing this hors? shoe for any money you could nan.o.' "What good does it do you any morej than any other preastpin?" "What good? \ Just listen at you! Why, It keeps tine well and gets me | customers and-'-everything. That's the reason so miiny people have troubles, because they keep on doing un| lucky things without knowing it." And a third wpman, who was waitj ing to have her Umbrella operated on I for a floating rib. wondered how the mascot devotee l uld reconcile herself j to risking that awfulest deed in the I whole list of bad omens?raising um1 hrellas in a rooin. in Opposite Mentalities The women themselves are as opposite mentally, as the atmosphere of the room they livi in. One studies. Thft /\t ? ^ - ..w uura itilicy WOTK. UIIO wishes with ull her soul that she was capable of jloing great deeds. The other is serekely satisfied to let things go as they1 are. And they are such good friends that they take tea with each other, evenings, and have friendly powwows i that both honestly enjoy. None of the other boarders in the j house could understand the friendliness between two su.-h apparently ' uncongenial women un.il a third woman ferreted out what she believed to be the cause. Working on the principle of that early wise man, that all humanity is. bound in a common chain, with its connecting link visible to any eye sharp enough to find it, she looked the two rooms over. And she found them alike in one small detail. On the wall above each bed hung a small crucifix. It was the link between. at the Wire Grass Turf j-' before he took to the desert. When lit had turned over a turn of wire grass I and loam he handed the spade back. ! offered the luborer a fat, black cigar I and wulked oft with his face a solid pink shine of satisfaction. The laborer watched the man until he wound around a path. Then he | tucked his cigar Into the pocket of hi? ; coat that was hanging on a tree j branch and went back to the wire grass. And the only word he had U? say was: "Gee!"