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W l Louisiana’s »n Leper Colony, For the Pitiful “Living-Dead” Sfce King' of the Trout Stream Eighth of the Outdoor Series CONTINUED FROM FIRST PAGE. lands of Madagascar and Trinidad. There is one in New' Brunswick, and one near Whitecastle, in Louisiana, the only hos pital for lepers in the United States. THE LOUISIANA HOME. The Louisiana State Leper home is on the lovely “golden coast’’ of the Mis sissippi river, about 75 miles by rail from New Orleans. Steamers stop there twice a week to leave supplies for the lepers. The main building, which Is occupied by the sisters of charity, who have charge of the nursing and domestic departments of the home, was originally a planta tion house. The building in shape is cruciform. Its front arm has a. wide gallery support ed by six slender columns that show Corinthian capitals of exquisite workman ship. These columns reach tin to the root. On each side of the beautiful entrance are two French windows. Wings reacn out from the sides of the main portion. Inside is equally as attractive. The man tels, those that are left, are beautifully • chiseled marble, and the part of the celling around the crystal chandeliers are also of exquisite workmanship. Every thing about the mansion shows perfect refinement of taste; and seeing it makes one realize the horrible degeneracy in architectural taste of the new south. The view from the upper gallery of the mansion, looking out upon the river, is charming. Behind a clump of trees to the right of the house, some quarter of a mile away, is the old Indian camp bury - ing ground for the slaves. The leper cem etery Is in the rear of the settlement. Among the things most needed at the home is a crematory. There are eleven hundred acres^ In the property of the Louisiana State Leper home, which was originally a sugar and rice plantation. It was in 1894 that the * place was selected for a leper home, the people of Louisiana having become thor oughly alarmed at the spread of the disease in the state. A number of lepers previous to that time had found a wretched shelter in the pest house. They were allowed full liberty to beg on the streets, handle, money, and eat In the restaurants, etc., hence the spread of the disease. It was learned, also, that there were numbers of lepers at large in the state. Medical authorities gave the warn ing and after considerable hammering, a v. aliened the people to a realization that the situation was alarming. No one wanted the lqy prs among them, so it was a hard matter to find for them a resting place. It was even difficult 'to get a craft that would transport them to the home when one was found. At last a coal barge was secured upon which mattresses were placed, and a tarpaulin cover to be used fn case of bad weather. Pome of 'the lepers were afraid to go, , knowing that it meant that they would never return; but most of them were glad to get away from the horrible pest house. A good Samaritan who owned a package wagon offered it to transport 'them to the barge. Even though their new home. Indian Camp plantation, was in a dilapidated state, it must have been a beautiful haven to these poor creatures: and when two years later the good Sisters of Charity, of the Order of St. Vincent de Paul. came, what a glorious change took place in their lives! Never nobler souls lived than the goad Sisters of Charity. On the evening that the “Paul Tulane” was to break from her moorings, and carry them away with her to Leper Land, there were many people down on the wharf 'to pee them off. Some one asked the leader of the little band, at the moment of departure, if she felt any hesitancy. “yvhy should a Sister of Charity hesitate?" she answered. "Are we not pledged to a life of self-sacrifice and devotion to humanity? And asso ciations? Dearer ties were broken long ago to follow the voice that called from within to higher tilings.” The main budding where the sisters re side stands back about half a block from the levee of the river. The struc ture, as has been said, is not in good condition, for the board of control of the Jiome is limited as to means. They hope soon to have all the buildings in good order. Three new cottages, spotlessly white, in which reside the female pa tients, have recently been erected. They are complete in every respect with sani tary plumbing, steam heat, lavatories, bath rooms, etc. They have attics to store away trunks and clothing. The rooms have rounded corners to prevent the col lection of dust, ar.d the ceilings and walls are of acme cement, which can be easily disinfected. The bed rooms are particu larly attractive, having steel beds, steel tables with glass tops, easy rocking chairs, and everything in hospital style. These rooms were furnished as memo rials by charitable friends, who came to the aid of Sister Benedicta, when she was troubled as to how the new cottages were to he furnished, the board having \ery little money. The men are housed in the old slave cabins which have been renovated. New homes for them aie r.ow under consideration. The houses of the patients are within a pressed steel ineloeure which covers 15 acres of ground. The dining hall is separate. There is an operating room, and. a laboratory for microscopic study. GOOD CHEER PRESENT, is the pretty cottage of Father La foil, where, also, the visiting physician stops when he makes his weekly visits. Grand old live oaks, with hanging moss, charm the visitor to this lovely spot, which looks anything but a place of sadness. I spent a lovely May day at the home. The first Thing that attracted my attc-n- CUT THIS AD. OUT and send to us. enclose 98 cento t and 10 cents extra to pay postage ' (•1.08 in all), state size wanted ( (sizes run from 32 to 40inches bust ' measure), and we will send you this newest, stylish White Lawn Waist by mall, prepaid. After re ceived, if you don’t say it is the handsomest summer waist ? rou have everseen, aregu* ar $3.00 French Lawn Waist, simply re turn It to no ana r*e will return your fLOft. Made sf finest White French Lawn, the entire front Is made of all over embroidery, re ry latest stylish effect, tu<-ks on both sides in front, tucks in bark of waist, newest full si re ves. most styl ish tucked collar and soft finished tucked cuffs of same ma terial. Positively the choice of our entire im mense waist stock, the coolest, lie.-it value and most stunning effect in summer waists, offered at ONLY 98c. manufacturing cost to introduce this department. JUST S.OOO WAISTS WILL BE SOLD AT 98«. Order today, get this most wonderful bargain vnltieand wear the most stylish waist In your town, ct less than wholesale CCSt. WHITE foe catalogue of everything in LAO!*?S* SUMMER SUITS. WAISTS and SKIRTS. Address, SEARS, ROEBUCK ft CO., CH, .8£. co ’ °ere Lafan in Front of Chapel. tiou al':,T I passed into the inner inclos- vre with the sisters was an old tabby lying stretched out on one of the porches, ss it it owned the leper settlement. Oi another porch a canary bird was singing in its gilded cage. About the cottages were rose bushes and other plants. One of the chief employments of those who are able to go about "is gardening. IJoors and windows were open, and I could sec into these neatly kept homes. A plane graced one of the halls. It was a gift from some warm heal t. Several patients with comely faces were to be seen. The first cottage contained those afflicted with the anesthetic, or mildest form of tile disease. In the second were the tu bercular and those in the last stages, to whom death proves a blessing. The third cottage was inhabited by three negro women. the habit of coming out into the room, 1 lie doctors in charge of the home be lieve in the possible cure of leprosy if taken in time. One young boy who came to the home in 1902. with his body cov ered with ulcers; a coffee-colored face, eyebrows and eyelashes gone, and tiiat leonine expression peculiar to the leper, is now entirely cured. For ten other pa tients the door of hope is open. Occasionally a patient will abscond. One young man who "departed one night sent a letter from San Francisco, say ing he was bound for the Sandwich islands. Leprosy has hitherto been considered an incurable disease. The best of care, treatment persevered in; good food, pure country air, everything conducive to the betterment of the patient's condition, is working wonders for them. A dozen cures have been reported within the last ten years at the Louisiana home, and all have more or less improved except those ip the last stages. The Louisiana home is under splendid management. Letters from Cuba. Mexico and other states have recently been received from lepers asking for admission. Lepers once in hiding now voluntarily come to the home, knowing that there only they can hope for amelioration of their condition. In time there is no doubt the disease will be crushed out front the state. Leprosy came to the United States dur ing the revolution. It was brought to Louisiana from the West Indies, though at one lime it was thought the Acadians introduced it. There was a leper home in New Orleans during the colony days of that city which was founded by Don Andres Almonester, whose tomb may be found in the old St. Louis cathedral. By degrees the disease was stamped cut. Regarding the contagiousness • of leprosy, the authorities here believe that it is only by inhaling the breath of tha leprous patient, or by coming in con tact with him through some abrasion of the skin, that the disease can be con tracted. When the sisters dress the sores of the lepers they wear long white medicated gloves. The anesthetic type of leprosy is said to differ from the tubercular, in that tha bones are. absorbed. Some of the symp toms of leprosy are brownish spots on the skin; an insensibility to feeling, especially of the feet and hands; eve- brows and eyelashes falling; hoarseness of voice. As the. disease advances, ulcers appear, and the hands and feet are often crippled, and sometimes “slough off," as some one. has expressed it. As a rule, lepers have good appetites. The bacillus leproe was discovered by Dr. Hansen, of Norway, in 1873. CAUSE A MYSTERY. Th? cause of leprosy js yet enshrouded in mystery. The eating of putrid fish is a theory held by many. New Zealanders are, of the opinion that improved agri culture, and diet of fresh vegetables, did as much as anything else to wipe the scourge out of their country Life at the home goes on peacefully. The plantation bell rings at 6 a. m. At 7 is the breakfast hour for those who are able to go about. The sisters are angels of mercy and the good chaplain helps them to brighten the lives of these outcasts. The lepers I saw had cheerful counte nances and showed that they were well cared for. They lived, not in a pest house, but in a comfortable hospital. The wom en. of course 1 mean those who are able, employ their time in caring for their rooms and flowers. They play croquet, have a piano and read. The sisters give daily readings to ail the patients who wish it. There are three young boys at the home. aged, respectively, 14. 15 and 16. who have school hours every day. The men have a chicken yard. One of the New Orleans clubs sent them a com bination billiard and pool table. They have organized an orchestra, kind friends having donated musical instruments. They have a little pavilion which they built themselves, standing high, so that boats can be seen passing up and down the river, which otherwise would be bid den by the levee. Here they often meet for practice. A bicycle track is a piece ot their work, a donation of seven bicycles being among their gifts. When a young lad who had been longing for one heard that they had arrived, he was so happy he said he felt as if he were out in the world again. A talking machine is a source of great amusement. The lepers have many kind friends who wish them well, and remem ber them generously on Christmas and Easter. No warmer friend have they than Father r.iever. of the Jesuit college, who sometimes gives them a magic lan tern evening or entertains them in other ways. .He is one of the most interested workers for the home. At Christmas the sisters give the lepers a Christmas tree, and fill their stockings with gifts flowing over. The institution is non-sectarian and noble friends of different denominations remember them at Yui e tide. CHRISTMAS GIFTS. Sot- of tlie gifts are along'these lines: AH kinds of jellies, preserves, pickles, fruits, hams, evaporated apricots, prunes' assorted groceries, fans, fancy baskets! pictures, fancy table cloths. rocking chairs and easy chairs, books, candies'! handsome lamps, pretty cups and sauc ers, cologne, stationery, soap and sponges, violinceello, finite, tambuorine, autohurp! zither, banjo, mandolin, accordion, har monica. sheet music, lounge, firecrackers fireworks, etc. So grateful are the lepers to those who help to brighten their lives. Why not send a box from Georgia occa sionally—celebrate the birthday of one of Georgia’s great men. General Gordon’s, for example, by remembering the lepers. Some one has written a little poem entitled “The Singing Lf'per," which is worth repeating: “Deep in the heart of a solitude, * A huntsman, straying, found A dying leper in a wood. Stretched singing on the ground. “Yea. singing on a bed of ferns. In strains so sweet and strong. That never had the huntsman heard So ravishing a song. “ ’I see a glory in the air. And in the midst thereof. A radiant face. O grave and fair! How full of pitying love!’ “So ran 'the words. The strong man stooped Above the leprous thing; ’God save thee, brother of the worms. How canst. forsaken, sing?' “Of% of the pallid lips, the sweet Unearthy whisper stole: ‘There’s nothing save this wall of fles'n ’Twixt heaven and my soul. “ ’This foul, corrupted wall of flesh Behold! it drops away. Should not 'the ransomed captive sing? I shall be free today!’ “And even as the huntsman gazed, * Loosed was the singer's sbul; A shower of lilies hid the corse— The leper was made whole.” more graceful, but in him there wa. something besides beauty—something that told of power and speed and dogger- ness He was like a man-o’-war dressed out in all her bunting for some great gala occasion, but still showing 'her grim, heavy outlines beneath her decorations. His broad mouth opened clear back under his eyes and was armed with rows or backward-pointing teeth, so sharp ar.d strong that when they once fastened themselves upon a smaller fish they nev er let him go again. The only way out from between those jaws was down his throat. His eyes were large and bright and were set well apart; and the bulge of his forehead between them hinted at more brains than are allotted to some of the people of the stream. Altogether, he was a most gallant and knightly little fisih and it would certainly have been a pity If he hadn’t found a mate. And now he started the third time for the gravelly shallow, and traveled as he had never traveled before in all his life. Streams are made to swim against—every brook trout knows that—and the faster they run, the greater is the joy of breast ing them. As before, .he and the other males ar rived at the nesting grounds some days in advance of their mates, and spent the in tervening time in scooping hollows in the gravel and quarreling among themselves. Two or three times he was driven from a choice location by some one who was big ger than he, but he always managed in some way to regain it. or else stole an other from a' smaller fish; and when the women finally appeared he had a fine large nest in a pleasant situation a little apart from those of hi3 rivals. But for some reason the first candidates who came to look at it declined to stay. Per haps they were not quite ready to settle down, or perhaps they were merely dis posed to insist on the feminine privilege of changing their minds. But finally there came one who seemed to be quite satis fied, and with whom the trout himself had every reason to be pleased. As she and our friend swam side by side, her nose and the end of her tail were ex actly even with his. Her colors were the same that he had worn before he put on his wedding garments, and if you had seen them together in the early summer I don’t believe you could ever have told them apart. They were a well-matched pair, more evenly mated, probably, than Is usual in fish marriages. But they were not to be allowed to set up housekeeping together without fight ing for the privilege. Hardly had she finished inspecting the nest, and made up her mind that it would answer, and that he was, on the whole, quite eligible as a husband, when a third trout ap peared and attempted to do as the big bully had done the year before. This time, however, our young friend's blood was up, and, though the enemy was considerably larger than he, he was ready to strike for his altars and his fires. He made a quick rush, like a torpedo boat attacking a man-of-war, and hit the intruder amidships, ram ming him with all his might. Then the enemy made as sudden a turn, and gave our trout a poke in the ribs, and for a few minutes they dodged back and forth, and round and round, and over and un der each other, each getting ir. a punch whenever he had a chance. So far it seemed only a trial of strength and speed and dexterity, and if our trout was not quite as large and powerful as the other, yet he proved himself the quicker and the more agile and lively. But before it was over he did more than that, for, suddenly ranging up on the enemy's starboard quarter, he opened his mouth, and the sharp teech of his lower jaw tore a row of bright scales from his ad versary's side, and left a long, deep gash behind. That settled it. The big fel low lit out as fast as he could so. and our trout was left in undisputed posses sion. One of the trout's most remarkable adventures, and the one which probably taught him »sore than any other, came during the hot weather of the following summer. The stream had grown rather too warm for comfort, and lately he had got into the habit of frequenting certain . deep, quiet pools where icy springs bub bled put of the banks and imparted a very grateful coolness to the slow cur rent. It was delightful to spend a long July afternoon in the wash below one of these fountains, having a lazy, pleas ant time, and enjoying the touch of the cold water as it went sliding along his body from nose to tail. One sunshiny day, as he lay in his favorite spring hole, thinking about nothing in particular, and just, working his fins enough to keep from drifting down stream, a fly lit on the surface just over his head—a bright,, gayly colored fly of a species which was entirely new to him. hut which looked as if it must be very finely flavored. He made a dash at the fly and seized it, but he had not sooner got it betiveon his lips than he spat it out again. There was something wrong with it. Instead of being soft and juicy and luscious, as nil flies ought to be. it was stiff and dry and hard, and it had a long, crooked stinger that was different from anything belonging to any other fly that he had ever tasted. It disappeared as suddenly as it had come, and the trout sank back to the bottom of the pool. But presently three more flies came down together, and lighted in a row. on: Lehind another. They were different lio.n the first, and he decided to try again. He chose the foremost of the three, and found it quite as ill tasting as the other had been; but this time he didn't spit it out, for the stinger was a little too quicg for him, and before he could let go it was fast !n his lip. For the next few minutes he tore around the pool as if he was crazy, frightening some of the small er fishes almost out of their wits and sending them rushing upstream in a pan ic. He himself had more than once been hadlv scared by seeing otliei trout Jo just what he was doing, but he had novel realized what it all meant. Now he un derstood. The first thing he did was to go shoot ing along the surface for several feet, throwing his head from side to side as he went, and doing his best to shake that horrible fly out of his mouth. But it wouldn’t shake; so he tried jumping out of the water and striking at the line with his tail. That wasn't any better, and next he rushed off up the stream as hard ns he could go. But the line kept pulling him round to the left with gentle but Irresistible force, and before he knew it he was back in the pool again. Wher ever he went, and whatever he did, it was alwa.v« pulling, pulling, pulling—not hard enough to tear the hook away, bat Just enough to keep him from getting an inch of slack. If there had been ayy chance to jerk he would probably have got loose in short order. He rusht J CONTINUED FROM FIRST PAGE. around the pool so hard that he soon grew weary, and presently ne sank to the bottom, hoping to lie still for a lew minutes end rest, and perhaps think of seme new way of escape. But even there that steady tugging never ceased. ft seemed as If it would pull his jaw out of his head if he didn’t yield, and be- AjteAordEAJP mjrtxe&siAD jpawDivAi/rrzzzDDr fore long he let himself be drawn up again to the surface. Once he was so close to the shore that the angler made n thrust at him with the landing-net, and lust grazed his side. It frightened him worse than ever, and he raced away again so t'a-t thai the reel sang and the 1:l:■ ■ swished through the water like a knife. Th< other two flics were trailing be hind, and the short line that held them was constantly catching on his fins and twisting itself around hts tail in a way that annoyed him greatly. He almost thought he coiilld get away if they wcie not there to hinder him. And yet, as if firolly turned out. it was one of those flies that saved his life. Ho was coming slowly back from that last unsuccessful rush for liberty, fighting for every inch, end only yielding to n strength a thou sand times greater than his own, when the traifer caught on a sunken log ami Jeifl fast. Instantly the strain on his mouth relaxed. The angler was r.o long er pulling on him. but on the log. He could jerk now. and he immediately be gan to twitch his head this way and that, backward and forward, right and left, tearing the hole in his lip a little laigtr at every yank, until the hook came away and lie free. It was a painful experience, and he carried the scar as long as he lived, but ihe lesson he learned was worth all it eost. T won’t say that he never touched bait again, but Jje was much more cau tious, and no other artificial fly ever stung him as badly as that one. The years went by. and the trout in creased in size and strength and wisdom, as a trout should. One after another his rivals went away to the happy hunt ing grounds, most of them losing' their lives because they could not resist the temptation to taste a made-up fly, or to swallow a luscious angleworm fes tooned on a dainty little steel hook; and the number of fish who dared dispute his right to do whatever he pleased grew beautifully less. And at last there was only one trout left In all the stream who was larger and stronger than he. That was tlie same big fellow who had come so near swallowing him on the occasion of his first visit to the nesting grounds; and the way the fierce, solemn old brute finally departed this life deserves a par agraph all to itself. It happened one morning in early spring, just after the ice had gone out. Our friend was still a trifle sleepy and lazy after the long, dull winter, though he had an eye open, as always, for any thing particularly good to eat. I doubt if he would have jumped at any kind of a fly*, for it was not the right tijne of year for flies, and he did not believe in eating them out of season; but almost anything else was welcome. He was faring very well that morning, as it chanced, for the stream was running high, and many a delicious gTub and earthworm had been swept into it by the netting snow. And presently, what should come drifting down with the cur rent hut a poor little field mouse, strug gling desperately in a vain effort to swim back to the shore. Once before our friend had swallowed a mouse whole, just as you would take an oyster from the half shell, and he know that they wore very nice, indeed. He made a rush for the unlucky little animal, and in another second he would have had him; but just then the big bully came swag gering up with an air which seemed to say: "That’s my meat. You get out of this!" Otir friend obeyed, the big fellow gave a leap and seized the mouse, and then— his time had come. He fought bravely, but he was fairly hooked, and in a few minutes he lay out on the bank, gasp ing for breath, flopping wildly about, and fouling his beautiful sides with sand and drit. If he had understood English he might have overheard an argument which immediately took place between the angler and a girl, and which began some thing like this: "Tnere!" In a triumphant tone; “who says mice aren’t good bait? This is the biggest trout that's been caught in this stream for years.’’ "Oh. George, don't kill him! He's so pretty!. Put him back in the water.” "Put him back in the water? Well. 1 should say not! What do you take me for?” Evidently the girl took him for one who could be easily influenced by the right person, for she kept up the argu ment, and in the end she won her case. The trout was tossed back into the stream, where he gave himself a shako or two, to get rid of the sand, and then swam away, apparently as well as ever. Bim girls don’t always know what is good for trout. It would really have- been kinder if the angler had hit him over the head with the butt of his fish ing rod. and then carried him orrte and put him in the frying pan. In Ills strug gles a part of the mucus had been rubbed from his body, and that always means trouble for a fish. A few days later our friend met him again, and noticed that a curious growth had appeared on his back and sides—a growth which bore a i'a'nt resemblance to the bloom on a peach, and which had taken the exact shape of the prints of the angler's fin gers. The fungus had got him. He was dying, slowly but surely, and with in a week he turned over on his back and drifted away down the stream. A black bear found bim wnirllng round and round in a little eddy under the bank, and that was the end of him. And so our friend became the king of the trout stream. You are not to suppose, however, that he paid very much attention to his sub jects. or that he was particularly fond of having them about him and giving them orders. On the contrary, he nan become very hermit-like in his habits. In his youth he had been fond of society, and he and his companions had often roamed the stream in little schools and bands, bu*t of late years his tastes seeme.t to have undergone a change, and he kept to himself and lurkea m me shady, sunless places till his skin grew dancer and darker, and he more and more re sembled the shadows in which he lived. His great delight was to watch from the depths of some cave-like hollow un der an overhanging bank until a star gazer, or a herring, or a minnow, or- some other baby-eater came in sight, and then to rush out and swanow mm head first. He took ample revenge on all those pesky little fishes for all that they had done and tried to do to him and his brethren in the early days. Trie truth is that every brook '!rnut is an Ishmaelite. The hand of every creature is against him. from that of the dragon fly iarva to that of the man with tne latest invention in the way of piAtent fishing tackle. Yet, in spite of our friend's moroseness and solitary habits, there were certain times and seasons when he did come more or less in contact with his inferiors. In late spring and early summer he liked to sport for a while in the swift rapids— perhaps to stretch his muscles after the dull, quiet life of the winter time, or possibly to free himself from certain lit- tio insects which sometimes fastened themselves to his body, and which, for lack of hands, it was rather difficu!t«to get rid of. Here he often met some of his subjects, and later, when the hot weather came on. they all went to the spring holes which formed their sum mer resorts. And at such times he never hesitated to take advantage of his su perior size and strength. He always picked out the coolest and most com fortable places in the pools and helped, himself to the choicest morsels of food, and the others took,.what was left with out question. And when the summer was gone and the water grew cold and invig orating. and once more he put on his wedding garment and hurried away to the gravelly shallows, how different was his eonuuct from what it had been when he was a yearling! Then he was only a hanger-on; now he selected his nest and his mate to suit himself, and nobody ever dared to interfere. The trout had altered in many ways beside his relations to his fellows. Tne curving lines of his body were not quilt, as graceful as they had once been, and sometimes he wore a rather lean and di lapidated look, especially in the six months from November to May He tail was not as handsomely forked a.- when he was young, but was neainy square across the end and was begin ning to be a little frayed at the cornets His lower jaw had grown out beyond the upper, and its extremity was turned up in a wicked-looking hook which he often found very useful in hustling vounger trout out of the way. his complexion had grown darker as Wc. have already seen. Altogether lu "'1 lesc prepossessing than ot old, h t a much more formidable appearance, and the verv look of him was enough scare a minnow out of a year s growtn. But notwithstanding all changes, the two great Interests of his every-day h-e continued to be just what they had ..1- ways been—namely, to get ^ and to keep out of the wav of ! > 1S P mies. for enemies he still had and would have as long as he lived. 'he fly-fishei men. with their feather-weight rods and their scentific tackle came every sprint and summer, and only the wisdom born of Evf a experience kept him from falling inir tfiei- hands. Several times he met with an niter and had to run for his lue. Once a black bear, fishing for suckers, came near catching a brook trout. And perhaps the very closest of all his close calls came one day when some river driv ers exploded a stick of dynamite in the water to break up a log jam. Tne trout was some distance up the stream at the time but the concussion stunned lam so that he floated at the surface, wrong side up for several minutes before his senses gradually came back. That is a fish’s way of fainting. His luck stayed with him. .however, and none, of these things ever did him any serious harm. His reign proved a long one, find as the years went by he came to exercise a more and more autocratic way- over the small fry. For, in spite of his age, he was still growing. A trout lias an advantage over a land animal in this, that he is not obliged to use any of his food as fuel for keeping himself warm. He can’t keep warm anyhow—not as long as he ivies In the water—and so he doesn’t try, but devotes everything he eats to enlarging his body and repairing wear and tear. The last act of the drama was so in glorious, that I am almost ashamed to tell it .lie was the King of the Trout Stream; over and over he had run fate’s gantlet, and escaped with his body- un harmed and his wits sharper than ever; he knew the wiles of the fly fishermen hot ter than any other trout in the river; and yet, alas! ho fell a victim to a little Indian boy with a piece t>f edging for a rod. coarse string for a line and salt pork for bait. I’m sure it wouldn’t have happened if he had stayed at home: hut one spring he took it into his head to go on an ex ploring expedition. In the course of his wanderings lie came to whore a school of Perch were loafing in the shadow of a wharf; and just as he pushed his way- in among them, that little white piece of fat pork sank slowly down through the green water. it was something new in the trout; he didnlt quite know" wtyit to make of it. But the perch seemed to think It was good, and they would be sure to eat It If he didn’t: and s u H '- Uiougb the string was in plain sight" and ought to have been a sufficient warnin'- he exercised his royal prerogative, shoid- dered those yellow barred plebeians out of the way and took the tid-bit for iiim- »olf. It is-too humiliating; let us draw a veil over that closing scene The King of the Trout Stream had gone the way ot his fatferg, and another rei-n ed in his stead. el " n U iU •*! —-sad