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LET ME NO MORI A MENDICANT.
Let me no more a mendicant
Without the gate
Os this world h kingly palace wait.
Morning is spent;
The sentinels change and challenge in the
tower,
Now slant the shadows eastward hour by
hour.
Open the door, O Sentinel! Within
I see them sit,
The feasters, daring destiny and wit,
(lasting to win
Or lose their utmost, and men hurry by
At offices of confluent energy.
T^et me not here a mendicant
Without the gate
Linger from dayspring till the night is late,
And there are sent
All homeless stars to wander in the sky,
And beggared midnight winds alone go by.
—Arthur Colton, in the Atlantic.
-J x ÜBINESS was very dull with
I Schwartzberger, the bird fan-
J cier. He walked up and down
q the dirty floor of his store and
paused at the door, which looked out
on the little sunlit back yard, where
some disreputable sparrows cluttered
in the soot-laden branches of a bur
geoning tree. It was April, and the
wine of spring was in the tingling
breeze. He walked betweGß''tiers of
little cells, in which yelping poodles
and snarling terriers clawed and cursed
at their prison bars. The stuffy air of
the bird store was vocal with tin- mat
ins of a thousand tiny feathered pris
oners, who knew that winter was gone,
ami with swelling throats piped the
shrill music of their hopes.
Schwartzberger stood behind his win
dow, and through the dirty glass
watched the faces of the people who
Stopped to view his living wares. Men,
women and children paused to watch
the grave antics of a monkey lording it
over a litter of bull pups in the big
cage. Boys pressed their noses against
the pane, laughed and went away.
Girls with kind eyes pointed at canar
ies,linnets, finches and bluebirds swing
ing in small prison cells, but one by one
the gazers went away. A hungry-look
ing man, smooth of face and pinched,
lingered longest. Ills clothes were now
and cheap and tiffed badly, so that
Schwartzberger saw little chance of a
sale. He doled water and food to all
his prisoners, grumbled as he shortened
Hieir allowance, and went back to the
window.
The blue-eyed, huugry-looking man
was still there. The dealer stepped out
and said:
“It iss somcding you vish? Yes?”
“How much for that canary there?”
asked the stranger. “That one with
the voice? Hear him?” And the fellow
listened with a vague smile as if the
bird's brave song pleased him.
"Oh. dat vcllow. Yust came in ant
see him.”
They went Inside, and the eager
Schwartzbcrgcr lifted down the little
HE WALKED between tiers or CELLS.
wooden cage in which the songster
sat.
'•Seared, isn’t ho?" murmured th?
stranger wistfully. "Guess he thinks
you're the jailer and I’m the sheriff."
The dealer explained that the bird
was a Hart". Mountain songster of rare
voice and noble lineage. "How much?”
"Foor toilers." grimaced the mer
chant. holding up the cage. "Here Iss
a few only of him left."
"Too much, too much," sighed the
customer, wandering sadly along the
, tier of prisoners, but lingering some
coins in his pocket. so that Schwartz
berger's cupidity kept alert.
"Veil, how ranch you vould spent?"
"Two dollars is my limit." explained
the customer, i aus ng before a linnet
which semeed determined to hurst
bis small neck with a furious rounde
lay.
“Now. dot i-s a fine siugster. vich 1
viil kt you has for two tollar. His
tail Isa came cut ant he isa yett moult
ing, aber ” •
“All right, I’ll take him. I guess
he can fly till right?”
The stranger pulled out his money
and counted out $2 in small coins. The
merchant resumed his solicitude.
“I has a nice Icitlc cage, vlch you
must see it,” he gurgled,bustling about,
“for sefenty-flve cents, it iss; ail brass
ant dos? two lettle glass feeders. So!”
“Cage,” scorned the purchaser. “No
cage for my bird.”
“But dose Icetie vooden tings iss too
small, it iss yust for carry bairds in.”
"Oh, that’s all right, Heiny,” laughed
the stranger, growing merry as he
peered lovingly at his linnet; “Tve got
a better scheme than teat.” .
And he walked to the back door
which looked out into the dingy little
yard where the chattering sparrows
frolicked in the budding tree, and
patches of sun-warmed grass glorified
the coming spring. Schwartzberger
followed him wondering, but the queer
fellow did not pause till lie stood be
neath the tree. Then he slipped out a
few of the wooden bars cf the cage
and, holding it aloof, said:
“Now cut for the woods, Mr. Linnet!
Hike for tall timber!”
The song bird hopped into the tree
whence the frightened sparrows had fled
and skipping from branch to branch
“sow niKB FOB THE WOODS.”
till he sat in the crest of young, green
leaves, stood up, bobtailed but trans
figured. and spouted forth a fountain
of triumphant melody. The scrawney
man who had released the little bird
stood beneath in the cool shadows with
eyes aglow, lips laughing and ears
flattered with the music of the freed
singer.
Schwartzbergcr stood in the doorway
with his old brass cage dangling by
his side.
“Vy did you did it?” he whined, com
ing out and staring at his odd patron;
"now. dot baird vill vent avay. He iss
to fly avay—see!”
And sure enough, the linnet rose
lightly into the* blue air and sailed
away toward the sun.
"Vy did I did it. eli Heiny?” sneered
tile fellow, tossing the empty cage into
the ash heap ami laughing again, "it
was my 'baird.' wasn't it?”
And lie walked out through the store,
whistling gaily. Sehwartzberger
looked after him, examined each coin
of the $2. found them good and mut
tered in his beard: "Dot vellow is vat
you call buggley-house. I must told
Rachel," and when the woman came
in with his lunch they marveled much
at the ipteer actions of the linnet buyer.
The following Saturday he came again.
He was better dressed and his lip was
darkened by a growing mustache. The
pinched look was gone from his face
and the hunted stare from his eyes.
He laughed in the merchant's face as
he came in and there was music in his
voice as he said:
"Well, old Heiny, got any Hartz
warblers left?"
The dealer smiled a puzzled grimace,
ran his glance over the improved con
dition of his customer, and answered:
“Vy sure, and also some zingers from
dot riack Vorest."
Sehwartzberger eyed him askance as
he wandered along the counter peeking
at the birds and listening like a mother
quail to the plaint of her scared brood.
"Here's a tine fellow, he said at
iasu "How much for him. Heiny?”
"Tree tollars vifty a Svise cock mit.
O-o-o such a voice!"
Th buyer counted out $3.50, lounged
away to the back door and released the
bird. The merchant's bright eyes
bulged with surprise, as he watched
tiie pleased face of his customer, half
afraid that the man was a maniac and
might do him harm. But the odd fel
low only stood smiling aloft at the jel
low chorister in the tree till it spread
its golden wings ami darted to the roof,
and tlunce away into the free sum
mer.
And nt intervals ail through the sum
mer the stranger came and bought
birds, sometimes one. sometimes two;
laughin, always to himself and radiant
always as he watched the apotheosi-
of the liberated creatures as they rose
from the yard and vanished.
“Meester, vat-you-call-it,” said
Schwartzberger cne day after he and
Rachel had watched and wondered at
the delighted prodigality, "vat iss your
name, bloase?”
"Goddard,” ho smiled. "Tom God
dard, Hotny, that’s me!”
"Ach, Meester Gottard, dis iss my
voman, Rachel,” and th? merchant
nodded at his wife. "Now, Meester
Gottart, vy it iss? Ve are crazy mit dis
pizness mit you? Vy it iss you trow
dem bairds avay? Please told us vy.
No? Yes?”
Goddard’s face got longer and gray.
He looked out into the dim street
where already the first brown leaves
of autumn were rustling. He stared
absently for a moment at Rachel’s fat
face and then at Schwartzberger’s.
“Summer is over,” he began, quietly.
"I shall buy no more birds this year.
They would freeze or famish in win
ter.” He looked around at the brave,
piping chorus in the cells. "Next year,
if I’m here. I’ll come again. Oh, yes
(he smiled), ‘vy did I did it?’ Well.
Heiny. and you, Rachel. I don’t mind tell
ing you that I’ve done time myself. When
I happened along here last April I
was just out of the pen; came up from
Joliet, wandered along Milwaukee ave
nue and—saw these little convicts of
yours. I had just about? 3 and I felt,
as big as the Governor of Illinois, so I
just thought I’d ‘pardon out’ a few of
these little devils. And I’ve had more
fun doing it ”
The rare, wistful smile came over
his face again as be buttoned up his
coat and walked to the street.
“Good-by. Heiny!” he called, saluting
Rachel as he left.
“Dot’s buggley-housc, ain’t it?” quer
ied Schwartzberger, blinking at Rachel.
“Veil, it may be iss—aber it’s goot
pizness for us, Ikey.”—John H. Raft
ery, in the Chicago Record-Herald.
POSSIBILITIES IN A BOY.
Be Patient With Him, For You Arc Deal
ing With Soul-Stuff.
I have a profound respect for boys.
Crimy, ragged, tousled boys in the
street often attract me strangely. A
boy is a man in the cocoon—you do not
know what he is going to become —his
life is big with possibilities. He may
make or unmake kings, change bound
ary lines between States, write books
that will mold characters, or invent
machines that will revolutionize the
commerce of the world. Every man
was a boy —it seems strange, but it is
really so. Wouldn’t you like to turn
time backward and see Abraham Lin
coln at twelve, \when be had never
worn a pair of boots?—the lank, lean,
yellow, hungry boy, hungry for love,
hungry for learning, tramping off
through the woods for twenty miles to
borrow a book, and spelling it out
crouching before the glare of the burn
ing logs.
Then there was that Corsican boy.
one of a goodly brood, who weighed
only fifty pounds when t<jn years old,
who was thin and pale and perverse
and had tantrums and had to bo sent
supperless to bed or locked in a dark
closet because he wouldn't “mind!”
Who would have thought that he
would have mastered every phase of
warfare at twenty-six, and when the
exchequer of France was in dire con
fusion would say, “The finances? I
will arrange them.”
Distinctly and vividly I remember a
squat, freckled boy who was born in
the “Patch,” and used to pick up coal
along railroad tracks in Buffalo. A
few months ago I had a motion to
make before the Court of Appeals at.
Rochester. That boy from the “Patch”
was the Judge who wrote the opinion
granting my petition.
Be patient with the boys. You are
dealing with soul-stuff. Destiny waits
just around the corner.
Be patient with the boys!—The Phil
istine.
Slioes of Different Nations*.
In.the Detroit Museum of Art there
is one of the most complete collections
of the shoes of all nations to be found
in the United States. Interesting ex
amples are those worn by the Chinese,
together with a plaster cast of a Chi
nese woman's foot, and on up to the
boots worn as shown in the pictures
by Li Hung Chang. Japanese follow
with their intricate weaving of shoes
and sandals of straw. Elegant Per
sian and Turkish sandals are Inlaid
with pearl and decorated with silk in
the ^egeous colors so dear to the
OrienWl eyes. There are also Itoman
sandals and those of the far-away Es
kimo—all designs and curious shapes
of footwear that one might think of or
wonder at.
These compared with the shoes made
In our own city make one of the most
interesting exhibits of things that are
useful one could imagine. Nor are
these of value to the shoemaker alonK
but the artist wishing to represent the
people of other lands may find here I
the very article which he would have ■
to travel many miles to see. It is In
this way that the museum fulfills Its
mission bringing to the doors of the
people the things made in other lands '
by other people.—Detroit News Tribune. '
The Mohawk Indians will not allow
so much as a blade of grass tc grow
upon the graves of their companions
HOW COAL WAS FORMED
MADE IN THE EARTH'S LABORATORY
FROM VEGETABLE MATTER.
The Character of the Coal Depends Upon
a Multitude ol Conditions—Bituminous
is the Precursor of Anthracite—The
First State is I.ignite.
Coal was manufactured in the earth's
laboratory from accumulations of veg
etable matter: of that there is no doubt.
As to the precise manner in which the
manufacture took place there are dif
ferent theories. The trees, ferns and
mosses of that far off geological period
called the carboniferous (coal-bearing)
era, provided the material of which
the coal was made. But by what proc
ess did nature produce the vast accu
mulations of vegetable matter which
wore necessary to form, after extreme
compression, the deep beds of coal
which are now being mined?
In the forests with which we are
familiar there is no such accumula
tion of vegetable matter. The roots of
the trees do not have to go down far
before they reach the earth. If the
trees in these forests were to fall on
top of the mould now, and both to
gether were to come under the pres
sure of overlying earth, and be grad
ually converted into coal, in many
cases there would be but a very thin
layer of coal; too thin to be worth
working. And yet forests may have
been growing on that same land for
thousands of years.
Why is there not a larger accumu
lation of vegetable matter? Because
the trees, or ferns, or mosses have
decayed as fast as they died. A fallen
tree rots away in a few months or
years according to the circumstances.
That is as much as to say that it is
slowly burned. And this burning, or
oxygenation, or rotting takes place at
a great enough rate to prevent the
formation of any great depth of veg
etable mould.
The conditions most favorable to this
process of decay are found in places
where rains and a drying sun alter
nate. The wood of a boat goes fastest
at the waterline. The conditions fa
vorable to the preservation of wood
and therefore to the Accumulation of
matter for coal beds are found where
wood is kept wet all the time after it
has fallen to earth. If a forest grew
in a bog, then there might be many
generations of trees fall one on top
of another without decaying. The wa
ter into which the trees would sink
would preserve them. And there, too.
there would often be found a luxuriant
growth of vegetation among the trees
to fill up the interstices between. And
it is found that it is just the kind of
plants that resist decay best under
water that have gone to make up
coal.
Though on dry ground, and in cli
mates where wood decays fast, there is
no deposit such as might be the fore
runner of a coal bed, we may see in
many parts of the country in swamps
and bogs vast accumulations of the
necessary material.
In some peat bogs, for instance, the
peat is yards deep, and a very large
percentage of this peat after the water
is taken out is carbon. If there is no
infiltration from higher ground such
as would carry lime and other salts
into the peat, there is in such a bed
the possibility of good coal at some
future age of the world.
We will suppose that, after a goodly
thickness of peat has accumulated,
the ground sinks under water and that
beds of stone and of drift form on top
of the peat. After ages the thickness
of these superposed layers of mineral
matter will be great and the pressure
which they will exert on the peat be
low them will be enormous. The pres
sure. varying at different times through
earth movements, will generate heat,
and the heat will alter the character
of the coal somewhat, distilling off
different gases and hydrocarbons.
There is abundant evidence that at
different stages in the formation of the
earth's crust large maps of land sub
sided and were tiered by the ocean,
sometimes for a lotig period, and that
in some cases before the land rose
again what had been the surface was
covered with drift gravel or with a
layer or perhaps more than one layer
of sediment which afterward turned
into rock.
The character of coal, whether hard
or soft, whether plentiful in ash or
comparatively free from ash, depends
partly upon the nature of the vegetable
matter of which ft was made—chiefly
perhaps on the nature of the sap of
the plants; but partly also.it depends
on the circumstances under which the
beds have been formed, and whether
much mineral matter had become
mixed with the vegetable mould, or
not. And partly it depends on the
processes through which it has gone
since the bed was made. Coal which
contains a large proportion of ashes
is very unprofitable.
In general it may be said that be
fore vegetable matter becomes coal it
passes through the form of lignite or
brown coal, and that bituminous coal
is the precursor of anthracite.
In many coal regions there may be
found several thin layers or stringers
of coal with interposed layers of rock,
showing that there were so many land
tericus followed by so many periods
of submergence under water. In one
of the English coal fields there is a
ten-yard seam which subdivides into
nine seams, each having its own bed
of under clay.
It is chiefly in connection with the
chemical processes that coal has un
dergone during its formation that, di
vergence of opiniomexists.
PRAIRIE DOC PEST.
Kansas Offers a Barge Beward For a Tian
of Extinction.
Although the State of Kansas offered
a reward of SSOOO to anyone who will
suggest a successful plan for the ex
termination of the prairie dog pest,
and employed agents in every county
to carry out the plan of extinction, this
little animal continues to thrive and
increase.
A report has just been submitted to
the State officials showing that 1,224.-
854 acres of soil in Kansas are given
over to prairie dogs. This land cannot
be cultivated with safety because of
the fact that these animals may at any
time make a raid on the fields and de
stroy them.
Professor D. E. Lantz, of the Kansas
Agricultural College, has just complet
ed his report to the State officers in
regard to the prairie dogs in that
State. He says;
“We sent out 1400 blanks and have
tabulated CBO replies. They show that
sixty-eight of the 102 counties in the
State have the prairie dog pest. I
have made personal investigations in
several counties from which the heav
iest acreage is reported, and, while
many township trustees have made
mere guesses in their reports, they
have not exaggerated.
“The general estimate of damage is
about fifty per cent., though many far
mers think it is greater. One cattle
man in Wallace County says his cat
tle will not eat grass on that part
of the range occupied by the prairie
dog towns.
“A ranchman in Logan County says
he is able to pasture only 500 head of
cattle on a certain field, whereas last
year he pastured 1000 head. Prairie
dogs have ruined the grasses. Logan
County is the greatest sufferer from the
prairie dog pest, 236,460 acres being
occupied by them. Finney County
is next with 212,150 acres, while Gove
County has 211,980 acres occupied by
prairie dogs.”
WISE WORDS.
Generosity is the flower of justice —
Hawthorne.
Every one can master a grief but he
that has it.—Shakespeare.
Happiness is easy when we have
learned to renounce.—Mme. de Stael.
If you know how to spend less than
you get you have the philosopher’s
stone.—Franklin.
Never be afraid of what is good; the
good is always the road to what is
true.—Hamelcton.
He only confers favors generously
who appears, when they are once con
ferred, to remember them no more.—
Johnson.
No true work since the world began
was ever wasted; no true life since the
world began has ever failed.—Samuel
Smith Harris.
Skill to do comes by doing, knowl
edge comes by eyes always often and
working hands, and there is no knowl
edge that is not power.—Emerson.
If we could read the secret history
of our enemies, we should find in each
man's life sorrow and suffering enough
to disarm all hostility.—Longfellow.
A man who lives right, and is right,
has more power in his silence than an
other has by his words. Character is
like bells which ring out sweet music,
and which, when touched, accidentally
even, resound with sweet music.—Phil
lips Brooks.
Dogg Eat Too Much.
"As a rule dogs are fed too much."
said a man who had some experience.
"This is especially the case with those
that spend their lives in the city. They
are not allowed to ruji at large, and,
therefore, most of the time are either
in the house or within the cramped
limits of a city back yard. For dogs
such a life is inactive. They should
be put on a low diet, otherwise they'
will have distemper and other diseases.
"Once, or at most twice, a day is
quite often enough to feed a city dog.
Then the quantity should be limited,
and the quality carefully determined.
Meat should be given very sparingly.
A reasonable portion of dog biscuit
once or twice a day is ample for the
average dog. The practice that is so
genera' of having these pets about the
dining table and occasionally feeding
them choice bits is an actual cruelty
to the dog. As to candy, some people
are as reckless about giving it to dogs
as to children, and that is putting
it rather strongly. In the main the
quality that should predominate in th?
treatment of dogs is common sens”,
and as every one knows that is by no
means abundant in this world, which
makes the care of the pet dog a par
ticularly hard one."—Washington Star.
Italy owns the three largest
churches in the world—St. Peter’s.
Rome, the Duomo, Milan, and St.
Paul's, at Rome
