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AFTER HARVEST. The days of harvest are past again; We have cut the corn and bound the sheaves, And gathered the apples green and gold, ’Mid the brown and crimson autumn leaves. With a flowery promise the springtime came, With the building birds and blossoms sweet; But oh, the honey, and fruit and wine! And oh, the joys of the corn and wheat! What was the bloom to the apple’s gold, w And what the flowers to the honeycomb? ; Wfiat was the song that sped the plow To the joyful song of Harvest Home? When the apples are red on the topmost bough, We do not think of their blossoming hour; When the vine hangs low with its purple fruit, We do not long for its pale green flower. So then, when hopes of our spring at last Are found in fruit of the busy brain, In the heart’s sweet love, in the hand’s brave toil, We shall not wish for our youth again. An, no! We shall say with a glad content: “After years of our hard unrest, Thank God for our ripened hopes and toil! Thank God, the Harvest of Life is best!” BALKED OF HIS PREY. If you were certain in vour own mind that a man sought your life, and that he would not desist until one or the other of you were dead, the feeling would be a strange one. No matter how brave you were, you could not hide your anxietv and alarm. No matter how strong 6 your nerve, you would feel broken up Let me send you word to-day that I seek your life and will not rest until l have seen you dead at my feet, and an hour after you receive the message you wiil be a changed man. You can’t help but worry, and the more you worry the sooner your nerve will so. If I was to hesitate. fight you fair and openly, you would not It is the knowledge that I am to strike you at an unexpected moment, that I may stab you in the street car, shoot you down in the park, cut your throat while you sleep, that unsettles you and makes your flesh creep. While a member of Pinkerton’s de tective force I made thearrest of a high way robber at Madison, Wis. He was arrested for a robbery committed in Illi nois five months before, and I had been on the case two months when I finally ran turn down. He was a machinist by trade, and was then working in a shop, I proved h.m to be an old crook and a dangerous one, and was satisfied that he went into the shop to ba'fie pursuit- but it seemed to strike others differently, The reporters wrote him up as one anx ious to reform, and they wrote me down as a bloodhound hanging to his trail,and so considerable public sympathy was aroused for him. I then had proofs of four other crimes committed by him, any one of which would send him to prison, but I had to keep silent and take public criticism. My man got a sentence of live years, and he had scarcely departed for prison when I received through the mail a note “You reading: have by money and perjury sent an honest man to prison. You knew he was honest and hardworking. Yen wanted to glorify yourself. The poor fellow is a friend of mine, and I have sworn to revenge him. Take notice that I will have your life on the first opportunity!”. There was signature _ to the letter, no but I knew at a glance that the writer meant business. It was a plain, bold hand, and after half an hour’s study I made these deductions: 1. It was wri: ten by a crook. 2. It was written in prison. 3. The writer was in dead earnest. 4 . He was a large, muscular man. with light hair, blue eyes and fair complexion, 5. He would wear a silk hat and dark ish clothes. 6. He would aim to either throttle me or strike me down with a club. How did I reach these conclusions? Well, the average detective catches on to a crook’s chiography by instinct. It was written on a half sheet, and the pen and ink were poor. The paper was crossed and soiled, and I felt cetain that the writer had passed it t<*& pris oner ter had about mailed to be it discharged. to The lat addressed by himself. me The in an chiography envelope Qf the letter was bold and earnest. Large men are bold and more sympathetic than small ones. Large men who betray this sentiment They are of sanguine and temperament, are also vain dress well and in taste. Large men seldom ambush a victim. They depend on their strength, This is about the way I figured it out, and 1 was so firmly satisfied that I was right that I founded my programme ac cordingly, and permitted believed no change the to creep in. I further that writer would not be out of prison for a month, and I had ample time to get ready for him. Had he been out he would not have written. If he had sev eral months to serve he would not have written. I was a bachelor then, having a room on State street and taking my meals at a restaurant. My room was reached by private stairs, and I alone had the key to the street door. From a side window in my room to a side window in a real estate office was a distance of only five feet. As there were bars on the oth er window I had left mine unguarded, I now had them put on, and there was no way to reach me in my room ex cept to open the street door and come up stairs. I had the inside of the door cov ered with sheet iron, and arranged a spring gun for the stairs. Was I afraid? No, I had plenty of confidence in myself, and I wanted to get the drop on the stranger first. He had pitted his wit, nerve and courage against mine, and my professional pride was aroused. He had a big advantage in knowing me and my habits, and it was only fair to offset this by taking * some extra I precautions. gave the writer of the anonymous 1 letter thirty days to come out of prison, | and begin ten the more campaign. to get himself I in shape not far to was receiving wrong. On the the warning, thirty-eighth boarded day after as I a State street car to come down town, my ma n was a passenger. He was a man who exactly corresponded to the picture I ^.d drawn, and it never occurred to me that I could be wrong. the" While I was him up from corner of my e .ve, I saw that he was taking my meas " l(i - I purposely turned my head to let him see a scar on my neck, and when glanced at him again I was sure that he chase was satisfied had of my identity. Now, the ! begun. He had sworn to have my life, and 1 knew by the set of his jaw i and the compression of his lips that he had still further resolved. Where had j be been in prison, and what for? Ills 1 face was strange tome. Had I desired to take an unfair advantage, I could have run him in as a suspect, or trumped U P so his '. ie record, ‘barge to but hold I wouldn’t him and do invest! gate that, ! was to be a fair fight. He would ask or I l 0 outs i d e help, and pride would for , b' d to me When I left the car he followed me to the office, I stopped at the door to speak to a messenger, and he asked the mes senger who I was. Then he had me “dead," as the saying is, and 1here was room for no further doubt. It so hap pened that at the that time I was detailed on a case in city. But for this I should have been going and coming, and he would have had hard work to keep me in view. I was very regular in my routine. I had my meals at the same hour each day, and at the same place. At a certain hour in the eveninglwent to a certain hotel, played three games of pool, drank one glass of beer, sat and smoked a cigar, and then took the car to my door and went to bed. The dullest kind of a ploughboy could have picked up my trail. On the evening of the second day my would—be murderer appeared at the bill iard room of the hotel as I was playing my first game of pool. I was expecting him, and I so arranged it as to ask him to play the next two games. He was puzzled and nervous. If he was ner vous over the idea of handling a cue alongside of a man whose life he was plotting feeling bit to take, I to was find excusable would-be for a queer my assassin skill. offering I entertained me a cigar and praising my him better than he did me, because I kuew his game and he supposed me ignorant of it. When I was ready to leave for home I invited him to meet me at the hotel the next evening. He compressed smilingly his assented, lips. hut next instant This meant: “This detective is not the fel low I supposed he was. He is pleasant and chatty, and wants to be friendly, and I rather like him. But he sent my friend to prison, ‘ and I have sworn to take his life He shall not escape me." key That the night, lock some of one broke door. a skeleton in my street How foolish to suppose I wouWtrustto locks! It was no doubt my friend, making his first attempt on my life. It is a curious trait in criminal nature that two out of five men will abandon an undertaking if meeting with disappointment on the first attempt. dangei Those than who before. persevere become more ous It was a question now of how my enemy would act, but I was satisfied as soon as I set eyes on him the next evening. At sight of me he compressed his lips. The fail ure had fired his zeal, and I realized that from this on I must certainly be on my guard every hour in the twenty four. We played three games together, sat side by side and smoked cigars, and an outsider would have supposed us the best of friends. The man perhaps feared that I would wonder and specti late about him, and he handed me his card and explained that he had come on from the Hast exporting dime to engage in the lumber business. His was printed as “S. R. McKnight.” Could I be mis taken in him, you ask? I had no doubt that he was the writer of the threatening letter. If I had doubted, something occurred as we sat smoking that would have reassured me. A man who was known to me to be crooked entered the btlliard room for a drink. He started in surprise approach at seeing McKnight, with and was about to him extended hand when a signal stopped him. Unless McKnight knowledge was a “fly” the man he could have no vacancy, of other. I pretended to see and parted with my enemy in the greatest good nature. That night an attempt was made to bore a panel out of my door, but the bit was stopped Idid by the sheet iron. ing not the see McKnight but the next even nor next, be showed up on the third evening and explained that he had been to Milwaukee. I knew better. He had been trying to work out some new plan to get at me,- and had spent a portion of the time at a crook’s resort, He had hit upon a plan. I knew this from the cordiality ot his greeting, and all through our games I was wondering what scheme he had hit upon. It was revealed to me at midnight my° that very night that I had a bell on door, and at hour it was vigorously pulled. In case of my being wanted at the office the messenger was instructed to ring in a certain manner. As this was not his ring I waited for a few minutes, when the bell jangled more vigorously than before. I slipped on my pants and went down and opened the slide in the door. McKnight what stood there, and when I asked was wanted he replied: have Really, old fellow, I am sorry to troubled you, but I come to as k your advice. I was handed a very queer letter after I left you, and I want you to read it and tell me how to act. I’ll go up stairs with you.” I told him that one of our men was oc copying the room with me that night, ana advised him to see me at the office next morning. He had planned to get to my room and pounce upon me, but I snuffed the game. He did not .■-how up again. pected him, He may and have believed that I sus was determined to keep out of my way until he appeared to strike the fatal blow. Next door to me, on the down-town side, was a vacant lot. One day, a week after last seeing McKnight, several this lot dry-goods and piled boxes were brought to up in such a way as to door. form a 1 good scented hiding place next to my an idea as I in¬ vestigated, of and the that night when^ within a square place, I met a couple of young fellows and offered them a quarter to go and d splacethe boxes, explaining that a vagrant had taken up his quarters there. They went with a whoop, and a man rushed out of hiding and ran off. H was McKnight. The next day I was sent out of the city and was gone two weeks. I had not been back two hours when I discovered that a boy doubt was in dogging the me about. He was no pay of McKnight, who would now be ready for some other move. I had no sooner reached my room than I made the discovery that the windows had been tampered with, two having been that wrenched out and all loosened so a little work would remove them. That night I asked a friend to stay with me. While I sent him to the room before dark I made my usual rounds and did not turn in until eleven. If McKnight was look ing for me he saw me. We turned out and the gas, placed our the revolvers at hand, sat down near window to wait, At one o’clock McKnight climbed a shed from the alley, entered the insurance office by a back window, passed through two rooms, and appeared he at the window opposite mine. When had raised the sash he pushed a plank across the five feet of space, and rested the end on my window ledge. sash It was a but summer evening, etly did and the my was up, so qu man work that the lightest sleeper would have heard no sound. He waited and listened, and then came across. We moved to the right and left, and he could not see us as he put his face to the bars, He must have been certain that I was asleep, opening for he began which work, and soon had an by he could enter, did McKnight had come to kill me, but I not thirst for his life. As he bent to enter the window I fired over his head and uttered a shout. He straightened up, lost his balance on the plank, swung half way round, and tumbled to the ground. It was only from the second story, and had he alighted on his feet he might not have been hurt. But he turned over and struck head first, aad never knew what hurt him, his neck being broken by the collision. When he was dead he was identified as a New Or leans crook named Red Pete, and when he wrote me the letter he was in Joliet prison. His only weapon was a knife, but one thrust of that would have set¬ tled me forever .—New York San. Cutting a Five-Pointed Star. , lTV . „„„ , klow . h °w homake . . the stars , °star-ispan,gfied , banner? inquired d f k wUh a f ° * P t and a scissors n his hand * ?„ ut .___ tka .. . _ ™ uld . :lo °. k . companion ' ’ __...__ . , } T ^ k «" r f/"'. “ a f. ld * ° m ™ tlC * jA „ . , / t0 "tno tke a P p Dointed p °\ to reT)0rt | a des^e-r^for | thFna t a engi " aU d ? M R ’ d jHiiiadelnhia” , : l; . d 6 n - • for waf suggestions ™ their . This ladv S, *£ Dossessed L of ex ' „ t , - rla .- i t n n „ h paH^t b , ls i DPS TL , and was witbd an ardent- Sk P V storv goe hatwnile e 2' a^ _ U .Se^ “t Mded a sheet of P br . , f . i she cut out 2 g f f sc S8 ors “ “ a that^he ; t , Tt h committee was disnlavedLs as <weatlv uleased w ; lh th ; t P la y ed as with with .. ® . . ado “. J P ed it ° Th - was in^Anreven .. the five J nointed P ® . , £trv’s „ d j fi ehl f cou e Neither Preble nor anv 7 other authority teds how Mrs ab^ce R ol( j ed information’ the naner and in the of one lee will find it a I rath( . r difficult feat to omnlish 0nc known the Drocess is verv simnle Take ^ a sheet * of ff paper make! of any si e and fold j t acr this" n fold at purpose riffht angles to merely for the of determining the center of the paper, Throw the sheet back upon the "single point f 0 j d and i et the center point be the completed*? 0 f a triau<rie when all understood'that tbe folding is It must be t0 j iave a fl ve -poiuted star there must be 0D e single and two double folds the folds beio« made outward from the center point. 'j This about^four-fifths single fold should be made t0 a nt of the dis tance to the middle line made when the center of the paper was determined. The first double fold is made by folding the further side of the sheet as it is left after the single fold, back upon the outer edge is of then the latter. made by The folding second what double¬ fold is now double upon what is triple. To obtain the star, now make a cut with scissors on a straight line diagonally distance across from a point some little removed from the apex, to the extreme outer lower point of the fold. The cut may be made from either regular side of the triangle. The eye must be guide as to the acute¬ ness or obtuseness of the angles of the star. A very little practice will soon enable you to cut one of these stars with entire accuracy. Comparison of a star so made with a geometric star will show it to be far more symmetrical and grace¬ ful than the stiff, mathematical product. — Chicago Herald. A Homerie Fragment. The explorer of the. Fayum, Mr. Petrie, has discovered 1 ‘a splendid frag¬ ment of the Second Book of the Iliad, written on papyrus in the finest Greek hand, before the rounded uncial or cur sive . scripts ... came into . use. I ms precious document was found rolled up under e ld °f a mummy which was buried simply . , the sand, without the protec in tion of a tomb. It measures apparently om t “ ree ^ n a to ‘ our e j; I n , ‘ength. ., The date j of , the manuscript . is . aboutthe second or third century. It WId be edited by i rotessor Bayce. Kerosene oil is responsible for nine* tenths of the fires that take place in* China.