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“1 » r I m * . T ORTH . GEORGIA TIMES.
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Look Up.
By night the heavens cradle me, the while I
dream my dreams,
And whan I wiken, ah) how small my lit¬
tle chamber seems.
ft oq your soul the changeful world casts
daily doubt andterroe, ; •: ;
Look up to the eternal skies where never
etarmakes error.
ON THE TRACK.
The night was dark, and a drizzling
rain was falling when I arrived at the
little railroad station at Rimrn’s Prai¬
rie, and the first man 1 met there was
Abe Wilder, the drawbridge tender. I
dismounted and fastened my horse and
the one I had Leon leading to a tree' on
the sheltered side of the station building.
I had come to tbe station full of
eagerness to meet my wife, who had
been away bn a visit of a couple of
flaya to her sister in H-, We had
been married only a few months, so that
her short absence from our pretty home
on tho prairie had been greatly felt by
me, and"laver-Uke, I was full of long¬
ing and anxiety for her safe return. So
my disappointment was all the greater
when Abe told me the train on which
she was earning back to me was two
hours late. But, to while away the
time, Abe proposed that I should go
with him to the bridge, only a short
distance down the track from the sta¬
tion. To this I consented, the more
readily because Abo had been my rival
for Jennie’s , love before we were mar¬
ried, and my winning her heart and
hand seemed to make him very unhap¬
py and down-hearted for a t.ms; but
for all that he had shown me no ill
will. On the contrary, his had ap¬
parently been the most sincere and
heart-felt congratulations and well
wishes for our future happiness and
welfare. So when he asked me to go with
him to tho bridge, 1 did not hesitate to
accept the invitation.
We walked down the track side by
side. I did most of the talking, for he
teemed uneasy aud'‘1iorv'ous, and I
thought that in this way I could best
calm him, aud make him feel less em
barassed.
The distance from the station to the
bridge was only about ten minutes’
walk, and wo arrived there without any
interruption. I noticed, however, that
Abe became more and more excited
every moment, and was about to ask
what troubled him, when he turned
upon me suddenly, his eyes ablaze with
the light of madness.
“Curse yout” he hissed, grinding his
teeth And bending his face close to
mine. “You have robbed mo of all that
makes life worth living. Tonight you
shall prove to me if you are worthy of
that love.”
We wero standing in front of the lit¬
tle house at the end of the bridge, and
the light from the open door fell straight
upon his face.
“What do you mean?” I cried in hor¬
ror, for I could see that a madman,
bent upon some fiendish purpose, was
standing before me. His faco was
flushed and swollen; the veins upon his
neck and forehead stood out like
cords and pulsed feverishly; his glit¬
tering eyes were red and bloodshot,
while his lips were drawn and pale, and
bloodless.
“What do I mean?” he mocked.
“Just this: I would give my life for a
smile—for only a smile from the womnn
I love. Now I want to see what you
will give for her life.”
“Abe, you are crazy,’’ I cried with
as steady a voice as I could command.
“Right you are. Crazy, mad, in¬
sane, and you have helped to make me
so. Only for yon I might have been
the happiest man on earth today. If
you prove tonight, however, that you
are worthy of the love of which you
cheated me, Til forgive you, and die
with you.”
“Well,” I said, “If I had thought
that, it waa to listen to this nonsense
that you invited mo to come with you, I
Would certainly have refused. So I will
bid you good-night.”
I turned to walk away; but in a mo¬
ment he sprang upon me and with a
blow from a coupling- pin he was hold¬
ing is his hand, he felled me to the
ground, insensible.
When I returned to consciousness I
found myself gagged, and bound with
chains to the iron rails, and so securely
(hat I could not move my feet or body,
but my hands were free. j0.
Hooked up end saw Abe standing
above me, watching me closely with a
demon’s leer upon his face.
Wh« ha saw that I recognized him.
SPRING PLACE. GA.. THURSDAY. APRIL 24, 1890.
he sat down oa the ground beside me,
sad rubbed his hands in glee.
“1 had it all planned so nicely,” he
said in exultant tones. “It could not
fail to catch you. I have been planning
and planning, and waiting and waiting,
ever since thd night you and Annie
were married. From that night, some¬
how, I could not believe that you loved
her as dearly and deeply as I did, and 1
could find no rest night or .day for that
thought. Tonight, however, I shall
satisfy myself, and if I find my sus¬
picions were false, and you love her
better than ybur life, I will die with
you; if, on the other hand, they are
true, I shall not hesitate to kill you as
one usurping a place that belongs to
another.”
I could not answer him, and when 1
attempted to remove the gag from my
mouth he beat me with a stout stick
over the arms and hands until I de¬
sisted.
“Ha, ha, ha!” he laughed. “You
see I had it figured out Very closely,
even to the providing of this Stic.: for
keeping you in order. You must un -
derstand that I intend to do all the
talking, and want you to pay strict
attention to all that I say. We have
an hour or more to wait before the train
comes along, so that we need not be in
any hurry. Still, I suppose you are
somewhat curious to find out what I
intend doing with you; but wait with
patience and you shall know all about
it in good time. I have to go and set
out the lights on the bridge now, so
that when the train comes the engineer
can see them and come right along
without any fear of danger. But be¬
fore I leave you I must fasten your
hands, so that you can do yourself no
harm.”
He then fastened stout cords around
my wrists and bound my arms to the
rails also, and in such a way that I
could not move an inch in any direc¬
tion. Then he left me.
I could see him lighting and placing
the lanterns on t^a bridge, which he
did in an easy, leisurely way, which
was a torture alone for me to behold.
My hands and arms were becoming
tired and began to ache, so I bent my
finger tips downward to find something
to rest them upon when they touched
something smooth and cold. I man¬
aged to turn my head far enough
around to see what it was. It was a
pistol lying on a crosstie just under
my hand. I could not reach it, how¬
ever, to grasp it, and I knew that even
if 1 could it would he of no service to
me, bound as I was, hand and foot. 1
strained my eyes to see if I could pos¬
sibly move it somewhere where it
would he out of sight of Abe, and
where I could reach it again if my
hands were freed once more. Yes, if
it could be made to fall off the tie on
the side nearest to me it would be in
darkness, and within easy reach of my
hand. But could I get it there? I
strained every muscle to make my bonds
os loose as possible, then I bent my
hand downward and with n snap of my
fingers I sent the pistol spinning round
and round and the next moment it fell
over the edge of the tie and was hid¬
den in the darkness.
I had barely succeeded in hiding the
weapon the best way I could, when
Abe returned.
“Now everything is ready," he said.
“All wc have to do now is to wait, and
while we are waiting I will tell you
What I have planned to do, with your
assistance. As I said before, I don’t
think that you love Annie as well as I
do, but I am going to give you a chance
to prove that you do, and this will be
the test: The train with your wife on
board will be along here in less than
half an hour. You are lying with your
neck on the rail, and the wheels will
pass over you, and, of course, you are
dead in the twinkling of an eye, and
the train will pass on in safety. But
you can save yourself if you like.
This rope” (and he held the end of one
up before my face) “is attached to the
end of a bar of iron swinging on a
pivot at the other end of the bridge.
If you pull the rope the iron will
awing across the track, and upon strik¬
ing against a post right opposite wilt
tumble off the pivot and rest squarely
across the rails. The engineer, seeing
the signals ali clear ahead, and being
two hours late, will come right on with
more than usual speed, and there will
be a terrible jar and a crash and the
train is wrecked; but yon have saved
your neck. Very nicely planned, isn’t
it?”
Whan ha paused to see what effeat
this speech had upon me, I jerked my
arms as if trying to get them free.
“Ah, yes! I'll unfasten your arms
now,” he said, and In a moment he cut
the ropes that bound them with a knife.
Then he continued: “Yes, I expect
you will want to use your arms before
long, and having them stretched out in
that way is apt to make them stiff and
useless.”
When my arms were free I attempted
once more to remove the gag from my
mouth; but as before he beat me with
a stick until I desisted.
I was helpless. Minute after minute
passed, and 1 knew that the train would
come along presently. Every moment
I imagined that 1 felt the vibrations of
the wheels alpng the rail under my
head. Abo was sitting beside me,
listening intently for the first rumbling
sound to rench bis cars. AVhen he heard
it I knew that he would place the rope
in my hands and give me the choice of
wrecking the train or losing my lit*.
I shall not attempt to describe the
thoughts and feeling that weut through
my hraiu and body, for that wero im¬
possible.
Presently I threw out my hand and If
fell upon the pistol, which I had for¬
gotten all about since Abe's return.
Now, however, my fingers grasped it
firmly and I began to think how I could
use it to save myself aud at the same
time avert the danger to the coming
train.
1 never knew how it happened, but
in a moment my hand lifted thu weapon
into the air. Abe saw it, and sprang
to his feet, and made an attompt to
take it away from me, when it explod¬
ed; then ho staggered backward a few
steps and fell to the ground.
When the noise of the pistol shot
stopped ringing in my ears, another
sound reached them. The rumbling of'
the train came to me along the rails
from the distance. A few minutes at
the most, and it would bo upon map 1
tore the gag out of my mouth and
shouted. Jfc
I yet hold the pistol' in my httoi
What use could I make of it? I could
put an end to my life. But the rush,
ing, rumbling wheels of the tram would
do that for me, and only too soon. My
eyes fell upon the signal lights on the
bridge and anew idea struck me. 1
turned my head and saw the headlight
of the locomotive not far away.- The
next moment I raised the pistol, took
good aim and fired at the signal lantern
on the bridge, but missed it. I fired
again and again until the pistol was
empty, but with the same result, for
the lantern was still, gleaming brightly,
swinging to and fro in the . wind, as if
beckoning the train to come and de¬
stroy me.
The glare from the headlight of the
locomotive seemed to be right above
me, the roar of the train drowned my
voice, and the jar of the rail under my
head felt like an electric current run¬
ning through my body. I closed my
eyes and waited for the end.
Suddenly the jar and noise stopped,
and shortly I heard voices close beside
me. I looked up and saw some people
beading over me; but I was too weak
to speak. They released me from the
rails and carried me on board the train,.
and I knew nothing more for many
days.
When I returned to consciousness 1
was told that the engineer had seen
the flashes from the pistol wlien I fired,
and had succeeded in stopping the
train when within a few feet of where
I lay; but not before it had run over
the body of Abe Wilder.
It was several months before I recov¬
ered sufficiently from the snock of that
our of terror to move about. It made
me an old man in appearance; for my
steps are feeble, my checks are sunken
and shrivelled, and my hair is white as
sn ow.— Times- Democrat.
Nothing Like a Change!
Dr. Knowall—My good sir, who
you want is thorough alteration of cli¬
mate. The only thing to cure you is a
long sea voyage!
Patient—That’s rather inconvenient.
You see I'm only just home from a sea
voyage round the world. — Iandon
Punch.
A Sore Sign.
Merritt—You are getting quite a
man. Little Johnnie—Yes. Ma has
stopped cutting down pa’s clothes for
me.— Epoch.
Among those who set themselves up as
great guns the ones of the smallest cali¬
ber are tba biggest bores.
CRANKS AND CROOKS
Hew the President is Guarded
Against Their Visits.
Six Officers Scrutinize Every
White House Caller.
“Why should not any person who
happened to be so disposed attempt to
assassinate the President at one of lus
receptions?” queried a representative of
the Washington Star.
“Simply for the icason that it would
very difficult for any individual so
inclined to reach tho presence of Mr.
Harrison,” replied the White House
usher addressed. “You don’t see why,
but that is because you never looked
about you wheu you have attended
a reception at the executive mansion.
How many officers do you suppose
surveyed you critically while you
were passing into the cloak room? Six
in all. Not one of these men but has
had years of experience in the police
service. They are so trained—every
man of them—that they can tell at a
glance just what sort of person each
guest who enters is. Two classes of peo¬
ple are chiefly to b6 looked out for—
cranks and crooks. The crooks are
readily discernible by the educated eye
—their aspect always betrays them. As
for the cranks they are distinguishable
with equal readiaess. The task of
making them out is rendored easier, to
begin with, by consideration of the fact
that three-fourths of all mild lunatics
arc crazy on religious topics. Of course
once in a while a visitor gets in here
who is not entirely sane—that is una¬
voidable necessarily. But it is a very
exceptionable case. As an almost m
< variable rule I can tell a crank at tho
first glance, and if I do not another of
the guards will." The typical crauk
is almost unmistakable. He, supposing
him male—or female, for that matter—
has little chance to pass the sentrios at
The door and beyond, Each of thoso
sentries, a^iart from his acuteness of
perception, is a man of great muscular
strength. Come here, Jim?”
Tho guard called up one of his fol¬
lows and bade him double his arm. It
was as hard as a rock and as big as an
ordinary man’s thigh.
“This is the sontiy who stands at the
beginning of the deception line in the
doorway,” he continued. “Suppose
that you are a crank, how far do you
think you would get In on assault upon
the President before you are grabbed
and disarmed and thrown out into tho
street to be carried off to the nearest
police station? Not very far, I guess.
I tell you the President is as closely
fortified in the White House as if it
were tho strongest castle that ever ex¬
isted.
“The minute wo see a person whoso
appearance does not satisfy us entirely
we ask him whathis business is. Unless
his reply is satisfactory wo pursuo the
inquiry. A man called here the other
day to see the President with a tin box
under his arm. I pressed him closely
about his errand and he finally said he
had a new kind of religion in the box
to show to President Harrison. That
settled him. Once in a while, una¬
voidably, a drunken man gets into the
White House at a reception or some
such entertainment. It would astonish
you to see tho way in which a person so
affected by liquor is thrown out, being
passed along from one guard to another
until he reaches the driveway. It is
done so quickly, practice making per¬
fect, as to excite no attention. Per¬
haps the funniest of all tho queer peo¬
ple who come to the White House are
those who demand permission to visit
the most private rooms of the President
on the ground that they, as representa¬
tives of the public, own the establish¬
ment.”
Mummified Cats.
A cat 4000 years old is not alto¬
gether a familiar object to Englishmen,
and can scarcely be regarded as an
every-day visitor to these shores, says
the London Telegraph. The arrival,
therefore, of 19-J tons of such cats iu
Liverpool is an incident that cannot but
lay a heavy strain upon the British ca¬
pacity for experiencing amazement
Not the least astonishing feature of this
unique ovent is that the consignment in
question, described with commercial
crispness as “a parcel of embalmed
eats,” consists exclusively of feline
mummies, aptly, but accidentally,
culled from a catacomb in central
Egypt There are no fewer than 180,-
Vol. X, New Series. NO. 12.
000 of these swathed and spiced re
mamS in the “paroel” that reached this
country a few days ago, and they have
already been sold for fertilizing pur.
poses to a Liverpool manure merchant,
the auctioneer who disposed of them
using one of the deceased cat’s heads
as a hammer wherewith to knock, down
the “lots.”
According'to a correspondent, it has
loug been believed in Egyptological
circles that a huge cat cemetery was in
exislence “somewhere about" on the
left bank of the Nile. One day last
autumn a fellah husbandman, while en¬
gaged in the agricultural pursuit of
digging at a place called Beni Hassan,
discovered this ancient burial ground
by a very simple process. The soil
which he was turning up suddenly gavo
way under him, and he fell into a pit
which, on further examination, proved
to be a spacious subterranean cave, tea
anted by uncounted legions of dead
cats. Every one of these corpses had
been sedulously embalmed and swad¬
dled, so to speak, in cloth cerements,
in the very best style of the under¬
taker's craft, as practiced in the land
of tho Pharaohs some 20 centuries be¬
fore the commencement of the Chris¬
tian era.
The news of this strange discovery
spread swiftly through Heni Hassan
and the adjoining districts, whcnco
laborers soon flocked to the newiy
opened cave and set to work with might
and main to disinter its venerable occu¬
pants. Why these cats had been mum¬
mified, and when they had como to bo
arranged so systematically in their sub¬
terranean quarters, were secondary con¬
siderations, naturally enough, to the
bucolic Egyptian mind—in fact, “tlia
sort of things no fellah could under¬
stand;” but tbe peasants of the Nile
arc keenly alive to the commercial value
of embalmod “cats and dogs and each
obscener beast, to which Egyptian do¬
tards once did bow,” cither as high
class manure or as a peculiar¬
ly quick aud fragrant com¬
bustible., With exemplary prompti¬
tude and dispatch, therefore, they
dug up some hundreds of thousands of
mummies, several “lots” of which
were purchased on the spot by local
farmers, while others found their way
down river to tho storehouses of an
Alexandria merchant. This worthy,
being of a speculative) turn of mind,
shipped them off to Liverpool “ou sale
or return,’’ whero they fetched a trifle
loss than £4 a ton. Thus, for a matter
of throe “ponies” or so, a British
“bone-buyer” has bacome tho solo
possessor of nearly 200,000 fine old
crusted Egyptian cats, each one of
which, at the time of its decease, had
been deemed worthy of speciat embalm
ent and honorable sepulture, accord¬
ing to the rites of Memphis, Bubastis
and Thebes, “in that case made and
provided.”
Mrs. Tracy’s Charity.
Tho sad death of Mrs. Secretary
Tracy and tho unselfishness of her last
hour, calls to mind au incident which
came to my knowledge two years ago
through a woman whom sho aided.
Mrs. Tracy was known to be most con¬
scientiously charitable, but few under¬
stood how thoroughly sho concealed
from her left hand that which her right
hand did, and it pained her to hear
some one commenting on the lack of
real charity displayed by the rieh—
their deeds of charity costing them
nothing inasmuch as no personal sacri¬
fice was involved. The words clung to
Mrs. Tracy’s mind and she decided that
her next act of charity wouid cost her
some trouble. Tho woman to wham 1
have above referred was ono of Mrs.
Tracy’s-humblest pensioners and at this
time she was greatly in need of careful
nursing, for her disease was cancer and
of a most painful character. -Day after
day, Mrs. Tracy wont on feet to the
poor creature’s homo, cared for her in
every way, swept^and cleaned her room
and saw that she was comfortable, re¬
turning to her home with some trifling
excuse to account for her absence. Her
protege would never have known the
cause of so much unselfish kindness,
had she not one day remonstrated with
her for what seemed needless waste of
time and labor. To relieve her mind,
Mrs. Tracy told her that it was her only
way of really paying her debt to God.
Mrs. Tracy’s last act of sclf-iacriflciilg
kindness to her husband, when in the
midst of smoke and flames, attests the
sincerity of those words.— Epoch.
Cold as it may be no man care* for a
coat on his tongue.
SCIENTIFIC SCRAPS.
In Paris there is a skating rink
formed of real ice on n circular basin ol
water artificially cooled by pipes con
taining ammonia gas.
Irrigation iu Australia has so far ad
vancei that the necessary works for the
efficient irrigation of 25,000 acres of
laud are completed, and special ma¬
chinery for plowing and grubbing has
already been cons'ructei.
It is reported that the electric loco¬
motives now being built for the Lon¬
don and Southwark Subway have, on
trial, proved to be capable of moving
the ioa.lcd trains at a speed of twenty
five miles an hour with ease.
On the Vienna and Bala Pesth tele¬
phone line of siliciuin bronze ice has
been observed to collect to twico the
thickness that it forms ou neighboring
telograpli wires of iron. D.fference of
vibration is a suggested cause.
A case of transmission of inflection
to an uuborn child has occurred in
Paris. A child born during the conva¬
lescence of the mother from pneumo¬
nia was affected with the same malady,
and diud at the end of five days.
The aim, as far as smokeless powders
are concerned, where high explosives
are used, is by chemical and mechanical
means to render detonation impossible,
aud to convert a violent explosive into
n trustworthy and controllable propel¬
lant.
After twenty months of trial, Dr. E.
Houze, of tho Hospital St Jean, Brus¬
sels, reports tannia the most beneficial
substance in consumption he has known.
After the first few days expectoration,
sweats and cough diminish, and the
appetite improves.
The fact of finding “gulf weed”
within a few miles of the Nantucket
light vessel is not held so much to
provo that the gulf stream is nearer our
shores as it does that winds have pre¬
vailed in the direction from whioh tho
weed has come.
A British acientist recommends ento¬
mology as not only a very useful but
a refining and civilizing recreation.
The vast scope of this field of study
is indicated by the estimate that
2,000,000 species of insects exist, and
200,000 have been described.
The international displays of scientific
progress to be made this year include
the Electrical and Industrial Exhibition
at Edinburgh and tho Exhibition of
Botany aud Microscopy at Antwerp. At
the latter will be celebrated the tercen¬
tenary of the compound microscope.
Riveting by electricity has been suc¬
cessfully accomplished. The cold rivet
is placed in the hole and when heated
to the proper temperature it can be
closed by any of the apparatus now in
use. The heating of a half inch rivet
of two or three'inches in length takes
about half a minute.
A famous Vienneso oculist says, for
the benefit of the people who have to
earn a livelihood with the pen: “Never
write on white paper if you can get
yellow paper. A sheet or card of the
same shade placed oa the wall over the
desk will assist in giving the eyes Test,
and this will facilitate the work.” He
has made this suggestion to many, and
in each case has received the thanks of
those who have been benefited by it.
It is simple, and does not require any
philosophy to provo it.
They Are Good Swimmers.
In many parts of Now Zealand horses
are kept by the government for the ex¬
press purpose of taking travelers across
rivers in which fords will often change
every week, and it is beautiful to see
how bold, and yet how sagaciously
cautious such horses often become.
“If you have got the sense to let the
old li^rse alone, ho will take you over
all right,” is the inarching orders
usually given to the traveler mounted
ou cne of these horses, to cross a river
in which no man and no boat could
live, and in a country where more
colonists have been drowned in freah
water than in any other part of the
world. Too rapid and too full of
timber and rocks for any boat, too
benumbingly cold for the best swimmer
sad the best human lungs in the world
to live in them a quarter of an hour;
theso rivers, flooded with snow water,
can often only ha crossed by a very
powerful, surefooted, courageous hone,
that kuows where to swim and where
to walk, or by one that has a rider on
his back that can show '
him by turns.
