Newspaper Page Text
4
■Kgs-'
THE REDBREAST.
In country lane:; the robins sing.
Clear-throated, joyous, swift of wing,
From misty dawn to dewy eve
(Though cares of nesting vex and grieve),
Their little heart-bells ring and ring.
And when the roses say to spring:
‘Your reign is o'er;’’ when breero; bring
The scents of sprays that lovers weave
In country lanes; *
The redbreast still is heard to Cing
His music forth; and he will cling
To autumn till the winds bereave
Her yellowing tr&os. Nor will he leave
Till winter finds him shivering
In country lanes.
A GOOD INVESTMENT.
A nondescript red brick, with dingy
windows and a brown wooden porch—
that was the sort of house the Darrells
lived in. and meant to die in, Berta used,
to say, sometimes rcbellioudy, but always
hopelessly, until that startling evening
wljen Miss Matilda came home in a state
of emotional chaos and threw herself on
the lounge.
Berta was knitting an amazing stitch
before a dyspeptic little grate, with her
feet on the fender.
“Lost your office ?” ejaculated that
young person, when she had pieced'to
gether the bits of broken sobs that fell
from her sister's lips like the toads in
•the fftiry tale. “Do give me that paper
and let. me sag what it means.’
“It means—-starvation —for two!”
wni!c<4.hut the disconsolate Matilda from
the sofa.
H eer aiply did, as far as the sis lines
of oyxn. 1 literature went: bu: youth is
ao. imo: nt in its 1 opefuhus-', that whin
the yi.ungest Mis., Darrel! hid buri id
the letter under the coals wi.h a vicious
little dig her spirits mounted with the
DM y.uzj, _ f ‘
“Hh. Te4dy, dear, don't go on like
p;.-t think, there’s enough money
in the tin bank to put a silver streak in
our c loud, and a whole month’s salary,
with our bills paid in advance—”
“Seventy - five dollars!” sniff.id Miss
parrel!
“It is that m'ftch better then nothing,”
observed Be:tn, with ti philosophical nod
at the cruqipled-iip figure, and another
nod -a confidential one—at the fire. “I
believe I could smuggle us out of our
troubles if you would only trust the
money to me,”
“Likely!” retorted Miss Darrell, with
a teapchoked sob of contempt. “I
would in >om trust a baby with
twitches.”
“That’s what I call a burning shame ;
but even allowing I wasted the money,
we would at least indulge in a new pet of
woes; There’s nothing like variety in
one s miseries, Matilda; and if you only
would trust me, I would buy two tickets
right away.”
Miss Darrell permitted the feeble fire
light to flicker for a moment across her
small, wet face, as she lifted it from the
arm of the sofa.
“Tickets for what? Tickets for
where?”
“Anywhere,” answered Berta, with a
generous circle of her brown hands in the
air. “For the West, I guess, if the
money would take us that far.”
# “Did 1 ever—”
’“No. Matilda, you nevefl If you had
ettet done anything else but plod right
CMB in that old rut of an office, you
wpuldu t be crying because you are out of
your rut to-day. Serves you just right
for not marrying Jack. Oh, you needn’t
W ui-ur wriggle like that, Teddy dear;
It strut, every word, and you know it!”
9Miss Darrell raided'her head again, and
this time her face was flushed a dark,
tempestuous red. and it wasn’t fire-light
“Tjpitj or not, you are not the one to
rephaieh! If 1 have kept on plodding in
my ’rut.' it was onlv becauseyou hud to
be raised and cured for; an 1 now that I
um weak and unnerve I from mv—mv
trouble, you can sit there and taunt me
with your own superior intelligence. Wait
until you have done something to prove
it before you begin to brag. Oh, my
head 'my head!” and down it went again
aim ng the cushions.
“1 oil don't consider my head, nor my
heart, either. to go on in that unfeeling
fashio::. 4 os, it is unfeeling in you, Ma
tddm v • co you know how it hurts me to
set' y du suffer so for nothing,"
“Nothing? flood Lord!”
“I suppose,'' jtnd with statistical
<’hw«‘J'i.<hu’.H< the girl set her*e)f b (It up
r;:> i.!. and proceed t > cheek off undeniable
fa< ti o» hot fingers—“l sup|a>w.‘ th
ha’t th world would change placet) with
yt uiul me to night. Just think of the
Miect- lioed with la-gg-lrs; the hospitals
< r:.n..[t4i o! ring people; the Insane
and prisons, mid ’’
. “ viid iheii took «.«. Two women
not ever strong, with only one month’s
wage-' bnwecu th-m and the street; the
contno: D redly dnzrlhjg!"
Ski wilifuHv ignore I the small bank
laffiinu the Su is-, clock; but Berta. wise
from exp: ric'teo, suttered the omission in
wiefiuc. It was so like her small, nerv
«u*-tempered sister to -druggie on and
on I k a Spar tin. and iteiypumble at last
in the slough of diopotidtmcy with a
he ph '-s splash, that she crept over to
the sofa, and proceed© I to administer on
thehuli-t cheek a series of those
camming little dabs that go such a long
way tv ward soothing woman’s deepest
w«
Wh-'gthe storm of tears had lulled into
irregular nnd rather childish
»ob>, Berta, with her cheeks flushed nnd
her v< ;ce quivering with eagerness, be-
“OL Matilda, do let ns go! If we
were among stranger* we could be no
wotm off than we an- here. If we were
wtat»mg to monrow, d»» yon know a soul
we coahi go to for a penny? I don't.
• And I am «o dead tired of this one room,
nml vhl Mrs Be d's weak tea, and that
Totnun ‘l’olao n mooning at us from
his rid* of the table.”
But where could we go? and what
cs-uld dn when we got there?”
“Anything anything! Tewh. sew—”
Miss Matilda wriggled couvulseively
fi 'iti Lead to foot.
“Ar.d, if ntM-eMiry vral».”
Mis-. Mttliidtt arrewmed.
BrriA Uugluxl out in a fashion slightly
Isnyiri.. hut wholly delightful, because
ah«- eajiHrd it to the last echo, and
tprang to lw«* feet with a suddenaes’ <wl
euiaod at the verv least to drive Miss
wil l
“Iff arrange everything—everyth.- ng,"
she cried, breathlessly, “will you let me
have my way this time, Teddy? Say,
will you?—will you?”
And because Miss Matilda was totally
demoralized and weak from her emotion,
she helplessly answt red yes.
It could be proved—if oiily some one
would take the trouble to do it—that
there exist? no one quite so hopelessly ir
resp nsible as a woman newly dismissed
from governmental office—uuless it be a
man!
When Mias Darrell had cried herself
sick enough for a prescription, she sank
into a stateof apathetic despair—and staid
there—until Berm came home one even
ing after a w ek’s busy planning, with
two yellow tickets in her hands.
“They cost exactly sixty dollars,” she
cried, joyously. “And I decided on
Goldville for t>vo splendid reasons—you
see, we shall have thirty dollars and fifty
two-cents to astonish the natives with,
and there is such a spice of comfort in
the first syllable, don't you think?”
“Whit’s in a name!” quoted Miss Ma
tilda, dismally.
But Bertha only laughel.
Miss Matilda almost wanted to laugh
herself, two days afterward, when she
found herself flashing through State after
State, for all her life had only meant so
many red and blue splashes on the map.
There was no longer need to reprove
Berta for the reckless handling of their
future. The money was spent now—and.
after all, there was a flavor of dangerous
pleasure in daring fate to do her rvorst.
All her life she had w r alked without
stumbling in the beaten path that lay
before her as prim as a Dutch flower gar
den, and now that there had come a sad
den and appalling end to her road, all
the comfort she I.w» got from Berta was
a reference to “rut;,” that wasn't sisterly,
and another to “Jack,” that was scarcely
genteel.
Very well! th n fe was no longer the
despised rut to plod in. They had a deso
late amount of frcedom now to starve where
(hey pleased, and oi course, if it suited
Berta best to have their bones bleach on
the boundless prairies of the West,
why ”
And then she did laugh at her own
amazing stock of self-pity,and it brought
such n sparkle in Berta's warm gray eyes
that it was worth being hopeful just to
see them.
And, indeed, the girl was so cheerily
familiar with things she never saw before
and knew nothing about, so worldly
wise in the matter of checks and so
equal to the baggagemen, that Miss Dar
ril, in spite of her thirty and something
over years, was beginning by the second
night to feel childishly, irresponsibly
happy, when—their journey came to an
end.
I Came to such a sudden and disastrous
I end, that she had been tying in an ugly
; heap under the stars quits twenty min
i utes before she realized that there had
i been an accident, and that like a ; not
she was dead.
i Wounded she certainly was, for her
• arm lay under her as stiff and cold as a
I wooden thing, and there was something
' trickling down her face, in thick, slow
I drops, that she knew even in the awful
darkness was nothing less than blood—
; and then she fainted again.
The accident had happened in an out
of-the-way part of the country, with no
one to blame but a sleepy flagman. There
was an inch or so of paragraph in the
nearest paper, and a two-line telegram
notice in the press all over t|v>. State —but
it takes more than a handful of bruised
. and battered passengers to make head
* lines in these progressive days, so that
when Miss Darrell opened her eyes on the
world again it had quite forgotten all
| about her.
It was rather a strong • world for a pair
of civilized eyes to open upon—fmirwalls
of round logs chinked with mud of deli
cate yellow, with a small, square open
ing for a window, and a long panel slit
for a door.
Outside the window there were frost
coated mountains shooting up, up above
the sky line, and on the other side of
the door there came swift, irregular
sounds of—what was it? What was that
; sound? And where in the name of sense
j was Reberta?
Why. there she stood right beside her,
1 ami as her watchful eyes caught sight
of Miss Matilda's wide, wondering ones,
! I here came a pink wave of gladness int »
her face, as with a womanly sob she leaned
I over and c night Ker in her arms.
I ‘'Berta," began Miss Matilda, in such
a small, faint voice that it very nearly
frightened her into silence, "I’ve been ill,
haven't I ?”
‘•Yes, dear; but tire doctor says—”
“I've needed a doctor, then?’ And
when she hid asked her question, she
miantl ami closed her eyes.
Be: It could have told her she
came near needing a coroner,
but she only patted the thin white
hand, and purred out a scricsof soothing
endearments instead.
"And what did he say was the matt r
with me? 1 feel as if every bone in mv
body was splinters—my arm is broken, I
know!”
i “Indeed it isn't!" cried the girl, eager
ly. “You were just shook up. don’t you
know, and bruised and scratched all
over, poor darling; but there was nothing
downright dangerous the matter, because
the jury, or whatever you call it, sat on
you, and, of course, they ought to.
know?*
Then Miss Matilda Darrell’* eyes flared
open, and her moan was something
; dreadful to hear.
“It only serves me right tor trusting a
child like you with the responsibilities,
that belonged to me I don’t blame you
heaven knows; but to come back to con
sionsness in a hovel like this, penniless,-
and maimed perhaps for Life—-it makes
■ me wish 1 was dead—oh, I wish I was
dead——” And then the faint, quiver
ing voice trailed oft into a pitiful and
most childish sob.
"If von knew what you were talking
abou, Teddy, you wouldn’t go on in that
unfeeling way* It isn't a hovel; it's a
very nice shanty, with big biasing fires
in both n oms and its the loveliest spot
you ever saw outside. with high moun
tain* and mile* and miles of pines—the
cars will be coming bv presently -don’t
shiver like that, poor darling—and when
• you see the doctor— well I” and Berts ac
cented her last word with uplifted eyes
j and hands,
■ "And how am Ito pay him. that's
I what I want to know! Oh. Berta, child,
that was* b»dinvestment you made of
, our bat bit of money— ”
“I call it a very good investment.” in
terrupted the youngest Miss Darrell,
stoutly. “I only had a hundred dollars
to work with, and I’m sure I’ve realized
on it to the extent of five thousand dol
lars and- a beau!”
‘‘Five thousand—dollars —and—a—”
“Bea ’. —your beau, not mine. 51y-ope
rations have been purely disintcre.eted. I 1
don’t even exa-t the usual percent. Good j
gracious, Matilda, don’t stare at a body f
like that! Jack said 1 must break it bj/T
degrees, but he hadn’t seen your eyes j
when he gave me the order. You'see, l
when we determined to ‘Westward Ho,’
I wrote to Jack, and the dear old bey—
yon just ought to see what a drab-col
ored head he has, with a round bald spot
in the middle—well, he said in his reply
that I was to buy tickets for Goldville,
and that he would meet us at the station.
The accident happened six miles this
side, and as you were not able ttrbe !
moved, he turned out the lumberman I
who own this cabin and fixed us up as
snug, as snug. You can hear the men
chopping in the pines now—isn't it the
cheeriest, crispest music in tie world !
I'm going to marry a lu nberman js»mc
day on account of his axe—and dear old
Jack owns a comfortable home in Gold
ville and gets all the practice in the town.
A bad investment, indeed!”
Over Miss Darrell's face came a tinge
of faintest pink, and her lips trembled
like a baby's.
; “Oh. yes, you are so taken up with
' Jack that you don't consider the cash
, profits of my litt'e speculation! The
I five thousand dollars is the result*of a
j compromise the railroad made with me,
, and I’ve put it in Goldville bonds M, six
i percent., which I consider a downright
i good investment!”— SaMtis Laiicunl.:<r.
\ How the New Mexicans Capture Ants.
: An automatic combination self-adjust
| ing ant trap and intoxicating machine
1 has been in use for years in New Mexico
I and Arizona, which is worthy of careful
1 civilized attention. The chief blessing
I of that arid section is held to be mescal,
■ a fiery liijuor distilled from a specras of
| cactus, and the principal curse is an ini-
mense black ant that considers himself
: proprietor of any premises to which his
| nest may belong. It is said that the na
fives could not live without either the
! muscal or the ants, for while it is only
mescal that can make a Mexicans life
endurable with the ants, it is only the
■ ants that wake a Mexican from the pro
i found coma into which the mescal
I plunges him.
The ancient Mexican method of trying
■ to get rid of an ant's nest was torflll up
1 the main hitch with fine g’nipowder and
i touch it off. keep a lire bailing over it
: night and day for a week, or drown it
! out with boiling lye. The only result
, was th :t the anta would stay down cellar
: until the trouble was over, and then
■ cheerfully repair the damage done to their
| dwelling, and “lay for” the Mexican in
I the silent watches of the night with a
! vigor and alacrity that were truly awful.
One day a desperate Mexican pourea
a quart of wesad down his throat and
buried the bottle in the centre of the
i principal ant's nest in his yard, with the
i intention of filling it with gunpowder
and blowing both himself and his ene
| niies out of the territory. . J iaviug buriM
: the bottle to the neck, he wew to tf>e
I trader's to get the powder. VI hen he
j returned, he found th: t the bottte Mis
■ filled with ants, whon^euriosUv had
prompted to droit in,
{climb out, were indulgmg m
and tumb'e free fight that did the 'Mexi
can’s heart no end of good. AnotljCr
bottle was quickly procured and filJcjl,
and by sunset the found “him
self proprietor of s3ven quarts of arils in
i various stages of mutiliid c; a»d wrath,
i To shako those into a bonfire was easy,
. and thus in a day the colony was broken
, up forever.
The writ er ha? seen two pounds of rifle
powder renvned into an nut’s nest and
prove ineffective in its destraction, while
by the bottle sy*t mi the work was thor
oughly accompiished in les* than a week
by the capture of the I ist ant in the ctuu
’ munity.— Seienfijic Am
His Private Mark.
A mild-maunered German e»k. who
! does business in a small way ia Grand
street, chanced to fall overboard from an
East river ferryboat. He was rescue I after
much trouble by three y ung men—a
deck hand hand and two longshoremen.
While the German's recovery seemed a
matter of extreme uncertainty the three
young men quarreled over the credit of
; having rescued him. Each man wished
the glory of shining on the station-house
blotter as a re ;oi:er. with perhaps the
c'innee of subsequent material reward.
Before they had succeed d in settling the
matter to their mutunl satisfaction they
were forcibly drawn apart by the police.
‘•See hero,' said an officer, "you can't
settle this thing by fighting.”
“That's so,” assent el the »inillest of
the three. “1 can prove without fight
ing that I saved that man.”
“Let’s see you do*it, then, and be
lively.”
‘Tve got my private mark on him.”
“Show your mark and give us of
your jaw.”
The young m .n 'tepp s’i blith-Jy to the
side of the hMf-cvms iou.« man? pulled
aside the blauke; that covered him. and
pointed trumphantly to a two-itv-h gash
l in the fleshy part of his back.- "There!’’
said he; "there’s my private mark!
There’s where I stuck the boat-hook into
j him!”
His name went down on the police
blotter without further question. _¥<«•
Yitrk Timtt.
Her Royal Spouse's Beard.
The lovely Queen Margherita, of Italv. I
i- at present in painful trouble on act ouiit
of her so.al spouse's l>eard. About a
year ago it began to turn gray. This
w»v tk> bail, as hi< majesty is nnlr forty |
year' old, and. in the eyes of her
majesty, the handsomest man iu Italv. I
She purchased a bottle of patent hair re
storer, ami ordered his majesty to use it. !
King Humbert demurre 1. but as the
Queen insisted, he first took the precau
tion to apply it to the ears of one of his
hound'. When the qiren ask d next i
morning if hi« majesty had uSe 1 her
remedy. King Humbert begge<i her to
apply it! to her pet {»rrot, and let him '
know the resuh next day. Her majesty I
took the bottle and left the room, but I
has not mentioned the subject since. '
The king’* bernd i« n- < almort white. j
[ WOMEN IN OFFICE.
JTHE KIND OF WORK THEY DO
for the Government.
(Responsible Posts in the Treasury
t Department, the Patent and the
Dead Letter Offices, and Else-
Lr where—Their Pay.
I There are about 4,000 women em
ployed by the government, and a tough
the work is chiefly clerical they ate also
valuable assistants in a variety of other
occupations, many of which arc compara
tively new to women. The greatest
number are employed in the treasury,
which was the first department to make
use of their services. The occasion arose
' during the late civil war, and was en
i tirely a question of expediency and
: even necessity, in order to fill the large
number of vacancies made by the en
listment of the employes.
Women were first employed as conn
tors of currency and soon afterward as
clerks, copyists, etc. As counters of
money—work requiring chiefly quick
ness of sight and deftness of ‘hanfl
—women have always excelled and
have been uniformly . preferred
to men. There are 1,369 women
employes in the treasury depart-
ment, including the 450 in the bureau of
i engraving and printinff. They are
I employed as corresponding clerks, ac
i countants, stenographers, copyists, coun
i ters, librarians,and in some few instance's
■ as chiefs in charge of sections, the'r dtr-
I ties being supervisory. Some of the
bookskept by women arc models of beauty
and accuracy. The annual report of the
controller of the currency, with its bewil
dering columns of statistics, is almost ex
clusively the work of women clerks. In
i some of the and tors’ offices the women
are obliged to have a knowledge of bank
ing as well a? of mathematics.
The difficult and responsible work of
the redemption agency is done entirely
by women. This division is devoted ex
clusively to identifying burned and mu
tilated money, which is brought here
' under all sorts o ’ strange and remarkable
! circumstances, from every part of the
■ country, to be redeemel. Sometimes it is
! so badly defaced as to seem almost to dey
identification. The most successful ex
pert in this work has been here for twen
ty years,and has in that time saved many
millions of dollar .. A quick, bright, in
i telligent woman is she, who, upon being
i asked what applicance? were used in the
' difficult processes of her work, replied:
“Duly a thin knife and patience.” The
! difficulty of identifying national bank
i notes is much greater than those of legal
i tender, as not only the denomination but
| the title of the batik m.ist be deciphered,
i A few years ago a package of
| §IIO,OOO was brought here by
j Adams Express Company, which, by
' the burning of a railway train, had been
I reduced to a charred, coal-black mass,
j Three days after $75,000 was identified
i and redeemed by the women experts of
this division. In another case, after a
man had been buried many months, a
i will was found which stated that in an
{ inner pocket of a coat—the same he had
i been buried in, would be found a large
! sum of money in bank notes. The body
• was exhumed, and the slimy, discolored
i money, with the odor of the grave about
| it. was sent here for identification. An
f>t her illustrating how cupidity
! sometimes overreaches itself, was that of
{ a miser who had buried his savings, to
the amount of nearly $39,000, in an
earthen jar. After an interval of S3V
, oral months he went oqe day to add a
; few hundred dollars to his treasure, and
j found the ’whole an undistinguishable
heap of moldcring paper. Although
I living in the far West, he had heard of
the skill of the women of the redemp
{ tion agency, and lost no time in assign-
ing his precious jar to their care. The
money, with the exception of abottt SSOO,
; was identiflsd and returned to him in
; fresh new bank n ites, to bis infinite sat-
■ isfa?tion.
Another conspicuous example of abil-
■ ity, and also in quit? a new line, is that
of a woman employed in the law divi
sion of this bureau, and who prepares the
briefs for the solicitor of internal rev
enue in the various cases arising out of
violation of internal revenu * laws. She
is considered one of the best law clerks
■ in the bureau, and is engaged upon the
most difficult and complicated compro-
| mise cases.
The interior department employs (rtß
women as examiners of applications for
| patents, clerks, stenographers, type
writers, account nts, tracers of drawings,
copyists, pasters, etc.
The postoffice department employs 124
women, principally in clerical work, but
i some branches of this work are of a diffi
cult nature and require a peculiar fitness
and class of qu diticalions. A knowledge
of the modern languages and a complete
and minute familiarity with localities are
, requisite in many of the departments. A
lady in the dead letter division is the
must skilled expert in deciphering mis
directed and illegible letters in this coun
try, and us illustrating her peculiar
powers in this field she is called in the
departments “the blind reader." Four
women in the foreign department of the
dead letter office return all foreign letters
to the countries from which they have
■ been sent.
The state, w ar, and navy departments
have fewer women in their employ than
any of the others. A few women are em
ployed as translators, but in this work,
; which, according to popular ideas, would
be especially suited to the acquirements
and taste of w omen, few women succeed.
There are fifty-five women employed in
the quartermasters offiie in the war de
partment. and about the same number
assisting in the preparation of the 'Official
Records of the W ar of the Rebellion.'' In
the navy department a few women are en
; giged in the work of the hydrographic
ofli■-■, in map drafting and tracing, and
as telegraph operators, typewriters, and
clerks. These are in most cases the
widows or daughters of deceased army
or nary officers, and many of them bear
names honored in the historic annals of
* the jwmntry
The agricultural department employs
112 women, including those engaged in
the seed room.
The government printing office, which
i is the largest establishment of this kind
j in the world, employs 1,200 women as
j ditchers and folders of pamphlets, gold
. leaf ornamenters, operators of ruling,
» folding and sowing machines. pre«s feed-
ers and compositors. All of the work is
manual and the employes are not subject
to the civil service regulations; but, as
an offiset to this, the salaries are much
lower and the number of hours longer.
Much of the work is done by the piece,
the average amount earned per day being
$1.33 1-3. The compositors are paid
thirty-five cents an hour, and usually
average S7O a month, which is the high
est salary paid to women in this depart
ment.
Two women in the treasury department
receive SI,BOO per annum each. One is
chief of a section and the other a h w
clerk in the internal revenue bureau. Os
the remaining women employes in the
treasury five get §1,600 each, thirty one
$1,400 each, 128 $1,200 each, ninety-one
SI,OOO each, 266 S9OO each, and the re
maining 178 obtain all the way from
SIBO, this being the pay of the char
woman, to SB4O each. This list is also
exclusive of the women employed in the
engraving and printing bureau, where
the. highest salary is $1,600.
In the interior* department seven get
$1,600 each, thirty $1,300 each, 135
$1,200 each, 194 SI,OOO each, 154 S9OO
each, and the salaries of the remaining
ninety-four range from $360 to SBOO.
In the postoffice department two women
are employed at $1,600 each, eight at
$1,400, twenty-nine at $1,200, eleven at
SI,OOO, sixty-two at S9OO, five at SB4O,
and seven at $720.— -New York Times.
A Terrible Struggle with a Maniac.
I had a little adventure on Goat Island
one afternoon last summer, which will
keep me away from Niagara Falls as long
as I live. It was during the last of Au
gust. I was there to meet a New Yorker
on business, and I had to waste a whole
day for him. During the afternoon of
the first day I went over to Goat Island.
When I had walked clear down to the
brink of the American Falls, just where
the bridge; start to run out, I sat down
in the shade to rest. There were two or
thiea people round there at the time, but
they soon went away, and for half an
hour I was all alone. Then a single per
son approached. He was a tall, black
eyed man powerfully built, and having a
troubled look on his face. He halted
near me, looked at me as if trying to es
tablish my identity, and' I heard him
growling and muttering. At length he
shouted at me: ’
“Well, are you ready?”
“For what ?” I asked.
“Togo over the falls!”
I was on my feat like a flash, for it had
struck me that he was insane. I was no
sooner up than he sprang at me with a
curse, and the next moment we were
struggling there on the bank, not six feet
from the water and not o /er forty from
the brink of the falls. The fellow did
rot try to pu-h me over, but rather to
drag me with him. In a rough-and
tumble with him 1 would have had no
show, but in seeking to grasp my throat
he got his thumb in ray mouth, and I
uhut down on it with ail ray might. I
am famous in the gymnasium for my
left-handers. Ipl rated my fist in his
face whenever the chance offered. He
was a human balldog. I bit his thumb
to the bone, but he never winced. Twice
he had me so near the brink that I gave
myself up for lost, but I rallied on him,
and finally planted a blow on his neck
which made him wilt.
When I got away from him I rushed
up the bank and down the path a few
rods, and then, laugh as yo i may, I
tumbled in a heap :lnd came so near
fainting away that everything turned
dark for a moment. It was five minutes
before the weakness left my knees so that
I could walk, and I at once made tracks
for the mainland. Before I reached the
island bridge I nrat a party of gentlemen,
and went back with them to secure the
lunatic. He was not to be found. The
toll takers of the bridge remembered of
his passing over in the morning, but he
never returned. The island was thor
oughly searched, but nothing could lie
found of him.— Detroit Free Frew.
The Stomach.
The walls of the stomach arc thin and
elastic, and may be temporarily dilated
l.y overmuch food, or by gas generated
by the decomposition of food. Adilat.d
stomach, crowding against a heart enfee-
I bled by fatty degeneration, or by any
other cause, may so far hinder the action
of the latter as to result in suddeh
■ death. •
But the stomach may become perma
nently dilated, and enormously so. In
! the latter case, the two openings—the
‘ entrance and the exit —may be so affected
! as to make it difficult for it to eject food
into the intestines.
The muscular v alls of a dilated stom
ach are weakened. This causes the
i food to remain too long in it—sometimes
several days. Th* food thus retained
d compo'es into a number of irritating
adds and annoying gases. The worst
forms of dyspepsia result.
Such dilatation may be due to a dis
eased narrowing of the pylorus—the
opening by which the food passes from
the stomach—or to its obstruction by
tumors of various kinds, thus hindering
the pa«age of the food through it. Or
the coats of the stomach may have be :
come weakened by disease; or the nerves
of the stomach, on which its peristaltic
action depends, may have lost their nor
mal irritability.
Habitual overeating also causes this
dilatation. All persons are liable to it
who overload their stomachs with either
food or liquids, especially with beer,
clearest evidence of dilatation is the ha ;
hitual retention of food tn the stomach
over night.
Tis dilataion is fnequent in children,
especially among those fed artificially. !
But it is not confined to them. Many
mothers nurse their children at night ,
almyst continuously. Such infants have :
good appetites—for their food does not
duly nourish them—but they are badly
troubled with indigestion, colic, and
diarrhoea. Their abdomens are distended. >
The only relief is in more proper feed ’
ing. .
It is the same with adults, though the
muscular tone of the stomach may be
I strengthened by tonics. The worst cases
require the doctor. Yatttit'* Companion.
The average salaries of school teachers
‘ in Nevada are, for males $l4O a month
and for females S9O * month.
There are 111 young men s Christian
associations in New York, with 21,500
members.
peculiar
4 BIG HAIL.
A TRAMP FINDS $4,000 WORTH
OF DIAMONDS.
Picking Up a Lady’s Lost Reticule
Filled with Flashing Jewels
—The Heav> Reward Vsllich
lie Obtained.
One day after I had been hanging
around for several weeks as a gentleman
of leisure, says a tramp in the Detroit
Free Press, a policeman ran me in as a va
grant. Next morning the judge heard
my story and asked:
‘‘Are you a good traveler?”
“Splendid.”
“Do you want to travel
“I do.”
“Thenyou an opportunity.”
I hal heard a good deal about Detroit
and its kindness to tramps, and when I *
left Chicago Ihe rded for the East. Be
fore getting clear of the city I stole a
copy of the morning paper off a door-step
and after a walk of three hours I sat
down to post up. Some tramps don’t
care for the news of the day, but I have
always felt it to be my duty to look over
the dailies whenever 1 had a chance, and
to read every line of them, from congres
sional proceedings to advertisements. It
so happened that one of the first things
in this paper to attract my attention was
the following:
“Three thousand dollars reward—Lost, on
the 13th in .tant, from a window of a coach
on the Michigan Centra), west of Pullman, a
reticule containing diamonds. The finder
will receive the above reward. Communi
cate with A. 8., Room 112, Palmer House,
Chicago.”
This was the 18th. Five days had
elapsed since the loss, and it was prob
able that, a dozen people had been sent to
search over every rod of the track. I had
no more idea of finding that treasure
than you have of flying, but as I con
tinued my way up the track I kept my
eyes peeled.
I put in five miles of walking and then
sat down to rest again. It was midsum
mer, and my old boots distressed my feet. W
1 came to a spot where a small creek wsv.' v 1
crossed by the tracks, and 1 followed it v
dow# to the fence to find a place to wash
my feet. Just-at the fence was a deep
hole and a shady spot, and I tell you it
did my old feet good to sit there
and ya Idle the soft and cooling
waters. I had been there twenty
minutes when a bird few down on the
fence and hopped from that to »
stick of driftwood to secure a drink.
was sitting stiff as a
to alarm him, when all of a sfflMen my v|
eye fell upon that lost lady’s reticule. It
was jammed among a lot of light drift
wood held against the fence. I wasn’t
half a minute getting possession of it.
The bag was provided with a lock, and I
out with my knife and cut a hole in it.
Out fell the diamonds—rings,pins,brace
lets, studs and a gold watch set with
flashing stones. I could hold all in one
hand, and Jerusha! but didn’t the stones
sparkle and flash and shimmer ax I bring
my heart uy> into my throat! I sat there
for ten minutes without daring to n ~ve, ’
for fear those spafklcrs would .addenly
disappear, but by and by my ra’rve came
backhand I made up my mind what to -A.
I had never thoifgh of appropriating _ the
jewels to my own use. but was in a hurry
to return to ChicaME
I wrapped the r<#ticu: • up in the paper, _
put tbr. diamonds in my pocket, and
o’clock that night I was in front of the
Fanner house. T was about to enter when B
a hand was laid on my shoulder a
gruff voice called out:
“Now, then, what are you trying to
get away with?”
It was a policeman, and he hud spotted
me for a thief. ?
“I’m carrying a parcel to a gentleman
in here,” I replied.
“Oh! you are! Who might it be?”
“His name is Brown.”
“Oh! it is. Come along, my fine fel
low.”
“His name is Brown, and his room is
112. Come in with me. If I have lied
to you you can take me in.”
He hesitated for a moment
entered the hotel with me. As we reached
the desk he asked of the clerk :
‘‘Dees a Mr. Brown occupy 112.”
“No, sir," was the reply.
“Now, you rascal, come along.”
growled th? officer, as he seized my
arm.
“It's the A. B. of room 112 who lost
the diamonds!” I shouted to the clerk as
I was being dragged away.
“Here—wait! What do you know ot
the diamonds?”
“Here’s the reticule, sir, and I have the
jewels in my pocket. I found them
along the railroad track.”
Well, you ought to see how mad that
policeman was. and how glad A. B. was.
and how tickled I was when $3,000 was
countci into my hands. I went out of the
tramping business and started a shop, but
nt the end of two years r us cleaned out
by the hard times and had to go back to
Foot & Walker's line again. I’m there
yet, and, if this bit of adventure,scribbled
off in a tramp's lodging on a rainy after
noon. h worthy of publication, give it a
place.— Detroit Free
Rivers as a Source of Cholera.
The London Lancet has made up its
mind that rivers have much to do with
the spread of cholera. Paper-maker*
will be interested to know that the sc- t
verity of the last cholera epidemic al
Grenada has been traced to water con
tamination. due to a paper mill. The
rags used at this mill were washeel in the
stream from which Grenada City draws
its water supply. The rag sthus washed
came from Vatencia and other cholera
centres. No cholera cases had occurred
in Grenada up to the time wheq these
rags were imported. Afterward the
cholera spreael over the province, follow
ing in every case the course of the in
fected stream. Only one town thus siL
uated escaped infection, and this becauzT "
its 12,000 people drank no river water.
A Business Rnle.
If you would win success in trade,
This simple rule obey; *
First, note the men who wealth have ma le, S
And never, never be afraid j||
To follow in their way.
Win -h way is simply this, tCsteffij,
To go am advertise, \
That in tbk sheet all folks may nendL. wS
A list of things perhaps they oee«l \
Among your large supplies. \