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WORTH WHILE.
’Tls easy enough to be pleasant
When life flows along like a song;
But the man worth while is the one
who will smile
When everything goes dead wrong.
For the test of the heart is trouble,
And It always comes with the years,
And the smile that la worth the praise
of earth
Is the smile that comes through
tears.
It is easy enough to fie prudent
When nothing tempts you to stray;
When without or within no voice of
Bln
Is luring your soul away.
But It’s only a negative virtue
Until It is tried by fire,
And the life that Is worth the honor of
earth
Is the one that resists desire.
By the cynic, the sad, the fallen,
,, uo had no strength for the strife,
The world’s pathway is cumbered to¬
day;
They make up Lie Item of ufe.
But lue virtue tout conquers piission,
And the sorrow that hides In a
fimile—
It is these that are worth the homage
of earth.
For we find them but once In a while.
—Ella Wheeler Wilcox.
A RACE FOR THE BORDER.
JiY GBOBGK F. LYON.
It was in the fall of 1893 that the
western wheat crop was, so unusually
abundant, especially so In eastern Kan
mu; and western Missouri, and along
the fertile river valleys of this region,
where perhaps the drouth of that sum
mer was the least felt of anywhere in
that section, while still further east, as
far an Indiana, the wheat crop was al
most a failure In comparison.
Tho incident which I ara about to
relate happened early in October of
that fall, just after my twenty-first
birthday. Clayton Fisk, a young man
about my own ago, and myself had re¬
solved to start west, with the Intention
of investing our little Ravings In the
wheat business in some way that would
pay us a good interest on our invest¬
ment. We were full of pluck and en¬
thusiasm, determined to venture our
last dollar In our enterprise. Kansas
was Just about this time developing
some Immense wheat sections along its
border, and It was in this direction
we took our course. We had a little
over $800 between us, and after more
or less careful consideration of the
matter and the outlook ahead, we con
eluded to purchase a traction engino
and threshing machine, aud with this
outfit strike off directly westward
tnrough the wheat regions. Wc went
by rail to Jefferson City, where we
•topped over and went to look at the
threshing equipments manufactured
there. Fisk had no knowledge what
ever of engineering—In fact, 1 do not
believe he knew the steam chest from
the eccentric—but I had had a little ex
perlonce and understood the points
fairly well, and felt quite confident that
wo would have no trouble as far as
operating the outfit wus concerned. 1
remember the peculiar thrill of pleas
ure I felt as 1 looked over the big black
silent masses of iron at Jefferson City,
nnd thought that before long one of
thoee Iron monsters would be pulsing
and throbbing under my hand. After
eome little uncertainty and a great deal
of advice, we finally selected a thirty
horse-power engine ius one In every
way the best adapted for our purpose,
but upon asking the price of the ma
chine in view wo were informed that
wo might have it at a bargain-only
$1,200 for the whole outfit, consisting
of the engine, thresher and equipments.
The price whs considerably more than
we had calculated upon iwying, and for
« moment we were feeling rather dis
eouraged. for, with only a capital of
about $S00 between us, the price was
beyond ua. and. as we stood there talk
Ing it over, and considering whether
to buy a cheaper outfit or give the en
terprise up, a young man, well dressed
and appearing, stepped up to us and
said:
“1 accidentally overheard some of
your conversation, from which I under¬
stand you lack $4u0 of the price of the
oulf you w t Now, l have just
about tin amount hy me. and 1 sun out
of work, and r you will take me as n
third parted v.e will buy the outfit
and tart out I am willing to risk
what tittle i’ve got, for l think we m
make a go. ,1 thing out of it. Of course.
he w en on. I am a stranger to you
and you are the same to me, but I'll
risk it if you will.
He did not s< em like a bad sort of a
follow at all, and we wanted that par
ticular thresh pretty badly, so after
Clayton and 1 h;ni ta'ked the matter
over between ns we decided to accept
the stran r’s offer a once. Vter
breakfast the next morning we went
back down to the works and closed
the*i>a-;vtu . ami wc because owner*? of
the "Gonic vs we i!
her. After care inspecting aud
oiling the — began firing the
engine, w an immense cou
corn, the 1 x-fooi drive wh< be
Ing two U in c
them - r.
Clayton and Gleason (our new part
neri were busy about the thresher,
leaving me to my special charge of the
engine. At last, about 9 o’clock, we
were all ready to start; the tender was
full of coal and the thresher was
! coupled on behind, and the “Gonic”
j was making steam, rapidly. Already
the indicator began to creep up—40, 50,
60 pounds. I waited until the needle
began to tremble at 80 pounds, then,
seizing the lever, I pulled the throttle
slowly vpen. The monster shivered
as the steam rushed into the cylinders;
then, as the great drive wheels began
to slowly revolve, I blew the whistle,
and with Fisk and Gleason feeding the
fire and looking after the thresher, we
were off out along the country roads
and across the prairie.
Probably no mechanic feels the pecu
liar love for his machine that the en
gineer does. As he works over it,
watcuing and tending it as carefully as
a mother does her child, noting the
willingness and quickness, and, one
mig— say, the intelligence with which
It responds to every desire of its mas
ter, a feeling grows In his heart akin
to the love one person beau-s for
another.
I began to experience this feeling as
we were rumbling along over the roll
ing prairie as fast as a man could run,
our great iron steed answering its
levers as steadily and as easily as a
well-broken horse would his reins, and
hauling the heavy tnresher behind,
W'e took a southwesterly course, and
after crossing the Osage river, struck
some extensive wheat fields just be
yond. Here the wheat is bound and
piled In great stacks and the thresher
is run alongside them, and as fast as
nii stack is threshed the machine
moves to the next. We had good luck,
and ia ;,hout a month’s time we came
to the Kansas line, which we struck
near ]y parallel with Fort Seott, and
about j50 miles southwest from Jeffer-
8lon C ity, we could have worked much
j (>nf , er j n Missouri, but we were anxious
to Like only such jobs as lay in our di
rec t course across ’to Kansas. After
crossing the Kansas line we settled
df>wn to business, and as the wheat
crop was unsually heavy this year,
business was plentiful, and the high
power of our machine enabled us to
run the wheat through with surprising
rapidity, and we began to notice with
pleasure that our hitherto deplorably
flat pocket books were beginning to
swell to quite a respectable size. Fort
Scott is situated about twelve miles
from the border line between Kansas
&nd Missouri, and while we were
threshing In the vicinity of that place
Clayton and I began to notice that our
third partner, Gleason, apeared rather
strange, and that he was over at Fort
Scott almost every night, returning in
the Rmall hours of the morning,
“Where does he go?” asked Fisk, one
evening after Gleason had as usual
started off, leaving ms to look afteT
everything alone. “He sneaks off
every night just this way, and I don’t
like it.”
“Oh, well,” I answered, "as long as
he usee us square it’s none of our busi
ness where he goes.”
“That’s Just it,” Fisk exclaimed,
“How do we know he is not up to some
game or other? Then, sinking his
voire a little lower, he continued: ’We
don’t know anything about this chap,
although he seems a good feilow
enough. He never says much about
himself to us, ard I think we had bet
ter keep our eyes open a little any
way.”
"How can he do us any harm?” I
asked. “Ho has an interest in the
thing."
“That is more than I can tell,” he re
piled thoughtfully, “yet I taink he will
boar watching all right.”
“All right,” I repeated, starting up.
go alld the fire for the night,
and we’ll pull out of this the first thing
in the mcrn ing. We had finished a
large stack thiU (iay and ; ui hands had
gone () ff except Fisk and myself, and
one of ua generally stayed with the
machine night and day. Just as 1 had
finished banking ^e fire in the fire box
for t!l0 night. 1 thought I heard a slight
rlla tle In the straw like a step, at the
other end of the engine, but it was too
dark for me to see anything, and as 1
d j d u <it hear it again I concluded that
it was only a field mouse among the
s raw. Gleason did not show up that
night. In the morning by sunrise I
had a roaring fire in the furnace, and
the steam had begun to make a little,
when I noticed it escaping in small
white clouds from the cylinder heads,
This surprised me a little, for I knew
that they were all tight when w ■ h '
d o\vn the night before. iui I step d
around to investigate, and upon a ' I i~y *50
examination I found that the cylinder
head had been unbolted and the pack
ing removed. The throttle had also
been tampered with, and it would not
close tightly, thus letting the steam
escape into the cylinder, and showing
us the loss before we otherwise would
have noticed it I hastened to the ten
dor. where the spare packing was kept,
but it was gone. 1 was by this time
somewhat excited, and calling Fisk, we
made amore careful examination of the
entire machine, but found nothing
else disturbed. It was only too evident
that some person or persons had re
moved the rubber packing from the
cylinder heads for the purpose of dis
Who could it have been,
fit wUu.u
was no rival machine in the vicinity,
While we were talking the matter over
and wishing that Gleason would come,
' a man in a ligu, buggy drove rapidly
up and asked: “Is this the Gleason and
Fisk outfit?”
Fisk quietly informed him that it
was.
"Your other partner, Gleason, ’ the
j been in
man in the buggy began, “has
j vesting something rather of that heavily kind, on in security stocks or of
■
I property owned by the company, and
> as tne investment has turned out badly,
j and Gieason can t pay, I’ve been in¬
j strutted by settle the the proper matter authorities at once.” to
ask you to
[ “What have we got to do with his
investments?” asked Fisk, with a
j ’ scowl. “One member of a firm binds the rest
in Kansas,” suavely remarked the
stranger,
j ytnd if we refuse to settle?" I asked
inquiringly,
j “Then, I’ll have to serve an attach
meat on the outfit, that’s all,” said the
j ! ma|i.
’ I>et me see your papers,” said Fisk,
stepping up to the side of the buggy.
The man unbuttoned bis coat and be
gan to fumble in his pockets. As I did
j so I noticed a sheriff's shield pinned on
j j his ‘Confound vest front. the luck,” he exclaimed
j angrily. “I’ve left them back straight at Fort
Scott, hut never mind; it’s all
j enough anyway. I don’t think you will
j doubt my authority,” and he exposed
his shield to us.
j “Well,” cried Fisk, wrathfully. “I
don’t think you will attach anything
here without the papers—perhaps not
; then."
“Forewarned—forearmed,” laughed
the sheriff, as he glanced at the steam
hissing from the crack around the cyl¬
inder head “I dont’ think that you v. 1
be apt to run away with the property
before I can serve the papers,” and
then he drove quickly away in the di¬
rection of Fort Scott.
“Say, sheriff! ” I called after him. He
stopped his horse and looked back. “Is
this hill of Gleason’s all straight, or is
it a game of his to fleece us?”
The sheriff laughed a little at this,
and then he said: “Well, to tell the
truth, his ways are a little dark. I
know him; he likes to catch a tender¬
foot occasionally, but he’s got the ad¬
vantage of you fellows all right, be¬
cause he's got the law on his side.”
Flak was about to make some warm
reply,\ but I shook my head warningly
at him and the sheriff went on.
“It won’t do to make him mad," I
said, f He are in a had fix, and it will
only pake matters still worse to get the
ofllci^ s down on us.
“Bf,” groaned Fisk, “to think what
a precious pair of fools we are.”
“Ye$, it’s pretty tough, old man,” I
remarked, sadly. “All our money and
all our prospects gone at one sweep,
and ali owing to the rascality of that
Gleason and our greenness.
“Clayton,” I exclaimed a moment
later, springing up electrified with an
idea, "bring me your rubber boots, and
step quick, too.”
He brought them wonderingly, and I
quickly slit open the legs and then
drew several circles upon the rubber
and began cutting them out with my
knife.
“I guess this will work all right for
a little while. If It does,” I cried, we
may give them the slip yet. Break up
that old tar barrel and stick it into the
fire box. If I can get the cylinder to
hold its steam, I’ll bet five to four that
we can out-travel that apology of a
norse the sheriff had.”
Not a breath of air was stirring, and
the dense black smoke from the burn¬
ing tar barrel rose from our funnel per¬
pendicularly in the clear morning sun¬
shine, giving our pursuers an inkling
of our intentions before they could
have otherwise imagined it possible for
lla to escape The smoke could be plain
! , geen at Fort Scott which was about
lbrpe mUea away _ j soon bad the pack
j ing rings cut out and tbe cylinder
h< . a ds bolted back into place again, and
I ;jU cou , d (lo now wag to wait for
th<? 8team tQ rjge before wo could start ,
: and it seemed if the indicator never
j as
moved so slowly before, If we could
j only get back over the line into Mis¬
j souri, the laws there would protect us
j and we would save the Gonic. Only
\ twelve miles lay between us and the
border line—could we reach it before
they overtook us?
The gauge showed 100 pounds pres
bu re. 1 ran the governor belt off so that
we could travel to the full capacity of
our ----- power without being automatically
checked; then I pulled open the throt
tie, and the next moment we were roll
ing out acroa the open prairie toward
Missouri, in a race with the stake
4(L2<K1. With
The Gonic did nobly. a roar
1 ke small thunder she beiehed up huge
clouds of baelk smoke and steam, and
airly quivered with the full pressure
pon her. as she rolled along. Now and
lien we ran afoul a line of barked
vtre fence, but we tore through it like
1 network of twine.
I looked back just after we had got
well started.fi and saw on a knoll about
x mile Kick the pursuing party—three
nf them—the sheriff and two men with
j j him in his buggy, and their horses at
j a run. and then 1 opened the throttle a
e '. t was now all a quest 0
t ucc iva,* ua OO.VIO
, reached the State line they might take
us and the machine, too; if, however,
we crossed first, we would be beyond
their jurisdiction, and they could not
serv'd the attacnment. One, two, four
miles we passed over, our engine at full
speed, with an average of 90 pounds of
steam on, and we could plainly see that
we were holding our own against them.
Eight miles we had traveled now, and
I was beginning to feel pretty highly
elated over the success of our scheme,
when I heard Fisk utter a cry of dis
may.
“The coal’s all gone!” he exclaimed.
It was true, for, in the excitement, I
had not noticed its rapid depletion,
until now, and not more than four or
five shovelfuls remained. This new ca¬
lamity almost stunned us both for a
moment—perhaps we might be able to
make it hold out—but I doubted it
greatly. Ten miles—the coal was all
gone now', and I emptied one of the oil
cans into the fire box to keep up the
steam, and then we began to break up
the woodwork about the tender.
Eleven miles—only one mile more
now and we would save the Gonic, but
the last stick of fuel was gone even to
the last splinter, and I could see that
the speed was already beginning to
slacken down.
The sheriff seemed to notice that we
were beginning to slacken up a little,
for he now laughed and rose to his feet
and stood upright in the buggy and be¬
gan to urge his almost exhausted horse
on with shouts and free use of the
whip. The light vehicle swayed and
plunged about from side to side as the
horse broke into a headlong gallop,
white •wo men hung desperately on
as the horse plunged frantically for¬
ward, still urged by the whip and the
furious shouts of the sheriff vere
rapidly overtaking us now the
Gonic was lost unless we/io’da manage
in some way to keep up the ' a few
moments longer. I locked and
saw that the sheriff was still coming
and was now within 100 yards of us
and still gaining on us at the rate we
w*?re moving. He saw me as I glanced
hack, and he began to shout something
at me, but the engine made so much
noise that I was unable to understand
what it was that he said, but I could
guess almost, for I could see the look
of exultant satisfaction in his face and
hear him laugh as we began to sfinck
down and almost stand still—the fire
in the furnace having died down to a
few smouldering embers. They were
now almost within speaking distance
and still coming nearer every moment.
I could plainly hear the labored breath¬
ing of the sheriff’s exhausted horse,
and I knew that he oould not ge-muefe
further at that speed, and then I heard
the sheriff shout tauntingly: “Hold on
—you can’t get away now. We’ve got
you all right.”
This was almost too much—especial¬
ly with neutral ground not a mile
ahead, and then with a grim determin¬
ation that I would make another effort
to save the Gonic in spite of them all,
I pulled off my heavy woolen coat, and,
pouring what oil there was left in the
can on it and saturating it thoroughly,
I opened the fire box and shoved it
quietly into the furnace among the
smoldering coals.
In another moment it blazed furious¬
ly up and we began to increase our fast
diminishing speed a trifle. The sheriff
was now near enough to see plainly
what I was doing, and as we began to
gain headway a little he began to curse
and swing the whip more furiously
than ever upon his plunging horse. It
a moment the coat was consumed, but
w r e had held our owm while it lasted,
and feeling somewhat encouraged by
our momentary success I threw in my
cap, while Fisk went me one better by
following suit with his coat and over¬
alls. This we did not a moment too
soon, however, for as the fire died down
the sheriff had begun to gain again,
but as soon as the fire blazed up w r e be¬
gan to make steam rapidly once more
and the sheriff barely held his own
with us now.
The coat and overalls did not last
long and I saw that something more
must go to keep up the fire, for we were
beginning to lose ground—with Mis
souri half a mile away straight ahead.
I took another quick look back at our
pursuers; they were still coming at a
headlong gallop. I opened the fire box
anti looked in—the fire was almost
gone now—not a handful of embers re
j mained. Then, without a moment’s
j hesitation, I slipped off my own over
; alls, shoved them into the furnace aud
j shut the door. By these heroic means
j we managed to keep just enough steam
j to keep in motion a little just oa. 01
j the sheriff’s reach itil we at last
I crawled slowly over the line into Mis
souri, the sheriff and his party within
j 150 yards of us as we did so. our eoe.T-3
j barely moving as we slipped out of
j Kansas into Missouri and came to a
; dead stop just beyond the border line
; We never saw anything more of or
third partner- xn—and all that
| j autumn we contaaoJ to thresh .Loded in with Mis
souri, and being s
our investment c up the idea of
going furthex r ard, and ran the
Gonic su- for several seasons
before we L«»,liy sold out.—Washington
Star.
A Spaniard named Julio issaid to have
invented a new machine, which makes
lace e^uai La Lea—ty •»vci quatugy l>
| hand-made article, and at the price tt
! the machine-made.
ECCS OF COMMERCE.
The Big Business Dene in the Internation¬
al Trading in Them.
Notwithstanding the reduction in the
price of eggs, and the almost unlimited
supply of them in all countries that
have developed their agricultural re¬
sources, it is a fact that the trade in
eggs, their exportation from one coun¬
try to another, has become a large
item of international commerce, as
most recent figures show. The case of
Denmark is in point. Denmark’s trade
in eggs with foreign countries, chiefly
with England and Scotland, has grown
enormously, Twenty years ago the
annual Danish export of eggs was 600,
000; now it is reckoned at 110,000,000.
In the same period the importation of
eggs into England has increased ten¬
fold, hut only a part of the whole num
hercomesfromDenmark.the two other
exporting countries from which Eng¬
land draws its supplies being Holland
and France. France exi>orts to othei
countries 600,000,000 eggs in a year
and Italy exports 500,000,000 eggs in a
year, chiefly to Austria and Germany.
The dairymen of the United States
depend chiefly on the enormous home
market, and they have rivals in the
export of American eggs in the Cana¬
dians, Canada ranking next to France
and Italy and ahead of Denmark and
Holland as an egg-exporting country.
Canada exports to other countries 300,
000,000 eggs in a year. For the fiscal
year of 1895 the Treasury figures give
as the total exports of American eggs
to foreign countries 151,000 dozen,
which is equivalent to 1,812,000 eggs.
In the fiscal year 1896, however, the
total exportations of American eggs
increased to 328,000 dozen, or 3,936,000
eggs, a little more than twice as much.
The export figures for this year indi¬
cate a still further increase, and a
market for American eggs is likely,
therefore, to he secured in what the
political campaign orators are accus¬
tomed to call, somewhat vaguely, the
near future.
It is a somewhat curious fact, that
the weight of eggs is materially larger
In Northern than in Southern climates,
Canadian eggs, for instance, are heav¬
ier than those shipped from the United
States, and eggs in the Northern States
of this country are heavier than those
from the South.
The Cocoanut.
The cocoanut is one of the most
valuable fruits known. In its native
land it furnishes food, shelter, cloth¬
ing and a pleasant livelihood, says an
The majority of the oocoanuts used
in this country come from Central
America, as far down as Columbia and
the Spanish Main. The different isl¬
ands of the West Indies, especially the
Islands ofCaynon and St. Andrew, con¬
tribute large numbers. The little Isl¬
and of San Bias furnishes the nut of
the heaviest meat, the handsomest nut
and easiest to work. The number of
them, however, is extremely small.
The only cocoanut tress in this
country are in Southern Florida, but
they are insignificant in number. The
trunk of the tree is a hard, firm wood,
and is used largely for building pur¬
poses, W'harves, dams and bridges.
The cocoanut is singularly worm
proof. There is, however, one worm,
a kind of borer, which attacks the tree
itself. It starts from the ground and
works its way up through the middle
of the tree (where the sap runs) and
eventually kills the tree. The leaves
of the cocoanut tree are like palm
leaves, fifteen feet long.
The blossoms and buds are treated
by the natives to produce a liquid call¬
ed arrack, which is very intoxicating.
The tree grows from fifty to 150
years, and yields every year about 100
nuts. There are on one tree at the
same time buds, blossoms and fruit
ripe and green and in all stages of
ripening. The fruit drops off at night.
A pulled nut is worthless. The milk
inside of it turns sour shortly after¬
ward and becomes green. Brushes
are made of the llber of the trees. The
CO coanut wood takes a very fine polish,
and is i arge ly used for floors, being
polished with the husk of the nut and
a little beeswax. The nut in its na¬
tive state is soft, tender and spongy.
To ^e off the shell when the nut is
perfectly fresh is very easy.—Phila
d e!phia Press.
__
Trinidad’s P tch Lake.
A remarkable phenomenon in the Is*
land of Trinidad is the “Pitch Lake,"
situated at La Brea, about sixteen
miles from the Port of Spain, the capi
tal of the island. It is about one and
a half miles in circumference and ele¬
vated eighty feet above the level ol
the sea. The water is covered almosl
entirely with a stratum of asphaltum ;
traversed by fissures and crevices filled
with water. The pitch at the sides is
perfectly hard and cold, but as one
va lks toward the middle the heat grad
ually increases and the pitch becomes
so fter and softer. At last it is seen
bo j]} n g up in a liquid state and the all
is strongly impregnated wth bitumen
and sulphur. During the rainy sea¬
son it is possible to walk over nearly
the whole lake, but in the hot weather
a great part cannot be approached,
The pitch is much used in the island
w n__Is, pavements end roofs, and If
ported to the United States and Can*
I