Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 November 1894 — Page 3

Silence

By Miss Mulock

CHAPTER Vl—Continued. Another two days, and he would pet an answer. Be st so, perhaps. In the few words that he was determined at all hazards to say to his darling before he left—to herself only, regardless of ceremony or custom—the sanction of his mother’s approbation would te a help and a consolation. He should be able to tell the orphan that it was not his arms alone that were open to receive her, but those of a new mother, ready to replace, if any could replace, in some small degree, her who was gone. Very unlike they were, and he had a secret fear that it was a different sort of a daughter-in-law that Mrs. Jardine would have preferred—one much grander, richer, handsomer. Silence had the loveliness of lovableness; but even in his wildest passion, her lover knew she was not handsome. Still, in spite of all, there were two things he never doubted to find in his mother-her strong sense and her warm heart. To these he trusted, and felt that he might safely tru t the girl he loved—the girl who would make him all he lacked, all that his mother wished him to be. He pleaded this in a letter, touchingly earnest and tender, which, on second thoughts, he dete mined on writing home. His heart was full — full to overflowing: and, almost for the first time in his life, he poured it out, where, under such circumstances, every good son is right to pour his heart out —into his mother’s bosom. Going to the post, letter in hand—for he had learned Silence’s habit of doing things at once, and doing them herself, if possible—he met Sophie Reynier, in mourning dress, hastening to com.ortand sustain her friend during the funeral day. "Do you think you qould take me into the house with you?” he pleaded. “Nobody would know or bo harmed thereby. In my own country we even think it a tribute of respect to the dead to be allowed to look at them once more. And Mademoiselle Jardine ” Sophie Reynier suddenly turned to him with a flash of womanly emotion in her kind blue eyes—penetrating as kind. “Monsieur, ycu are an honest man—what in England you call a ‘gentleman. ’ You could never act otherwise than kindlv to such a defenseless creature as Mademoiselle Jardine?” “God for. id, no!” “Then I will take you.” But she d.d not admit him at once, and finding that Mme. Reynier had gone out she told him to come back in an hour, at eleven o'clock. “By then I shall have persuaded Silence to repose herself for a little. She has not slept all night, and is very restless. She may hear you. Go away now. ’’ He obeyed at once, and went to search through the little town for a few more winter flowers, to “shut them inside the sweet, cold hand,” like Erowning’s “Evelyn Hope, ” saying to himself the lines— So that 13 our secret Go to sleep: You will wake and remember and understand.

As he stood in the salon of his hotel arranging the little bon iuet and tying it up with a bit of white ribbon which he had gone into a shop and b ught his look was tender, rather than sad, and with a 1 his reverence for the dead, he could not forbear thinking whether she—his living love—would notice the flowers or ask who put them there. “Monsieur, atelegramfor monsieur!” It startled him for a moment. Not being a man of business, Roderick was unaccustomed to telegrams; besides, his mother had a strong old-fashioned aversion to them. Yet this one came from her. At least, the address and name were her* though the wording was in the third person. “Your mother is not well. Come home immediately." This was all; but it came with such a blow to Roderick, who inherited his father’s nervous tern erament, that he felt himse f turning dizzy and obeyed the frien ly garcon’s suggestion that monsieur had better sit down. His mother ill? She, the healthiest person imaginable and she had written to him only a few days before, saying nothing of herse f except of her endless duties and engagements. It must be s methlng sudden, something serious. He was wanted “immediately.” She could not have got his letter, there was barely time, or surely she would have answered it. Perhaps she was too ill even to read it? His poor mother—his dear, good mother! All the son in him woke up: perhaps all the more tor thinking of that other mother, wh se dead face he was just going to see. He might go there—there was time; no Paris train started till afternoon, and rereading the telegram it seemed a little ’ess serious. Though “not well” might be only a tender way of breaking to him a far sadder truth. ‘Oh, mother, mother!” he almost sob ed out, as he walked hastily along the lake-side, “if anything should happen to you If I should lose you, too, before I have learned to love you half enough. ” And all the y assionate remorse of a sensitive nature, a do ibly sensitive conscience, rose up in the poor fellow’s heart. He accused himself of a hundred imaginary short-comings, and suffered as those are prone to suffer who judge others by the standard of themselves. It was only by a great effort that he controlled himself so as to present the quiet outside necessary on reaching Mme. Jardine’s door, from which she would soon go forever; nay, from which she had already gone. He knew n t whom to ask for. He stood silent and bewildered: but the little bonne seemed to understand, and admitted him without a word. Beyond the salon was a small bed chamber which mother and daughter used to share. In the center of it stood, raised a little, and covered with something white, that last sleepingplace where we m ist all one day rest. How lotfg he stood there, gazing on the still face so exceedingly beautiful —he had never thought belore what a beautiful woman she must have been— Roderick could not tell. At last the door, which had been left ajar behind him slightly stirred. He thought it was the Donne, and would not turn: he did not wish her to see his dimmed eyes. It was more than a minute before he looked up and saw, standing quietly on the other side of the coffin, •he orphaned girl, the girl whom he

adored like a lover, and yet seemed to cherish already with the piotecting tenderness of a husband who has been married many years. Perfectly pallid, dead-white almost, from the contrast between her black dress and fair hair, Silence stood and looked at him; merely looking, not holding out her hand—both her hands were resting on the coffin. She spoke in a wnisper. “You are come to see her once again? That is kind. She always liked you. Is she not beautiful? But she is gone, you see! She has gone away and left me all alone. ” One sob. just one, no more. Nothing in his life had ever touched Roderick like the strong self-command by which this frail girl in her utmost agony controlled its expression, and, recollecting herself, summoned all her courage, dignity—the sacred dignity of sorrow, which asks no help, no consolation. “You must forgive me; my grief is new. Are these your flowers? Thank you; they are very sweet ” And taking them from him. she began arranging them in the folds of the shroud, gently and carefully, as if she were dressing a baby, then drew the kerchief once more over the dead face. “Mow you must go away.” “I will,” he answered—the first words he had uttered. “Only, just once " Tenderly removing the face-cloth Roderick stooped and pressed his lips upon the marble brow of this dead mother, only making a solemn vow —would that all men made the same, and kept it, to other dead and living mothers! Something of its purport must have been betrayed in his look, for when his eyes met those of the girl opposite she slightly started, and a faint smi’e suffuse! her cheek, lading, it left her deadly pa’e; she staggered rather than walked, though alone, refusing all help, into the next room.

There she sat down, Roderick standing beside her. The door was open between, he could see the foot of thecoffin and its white draq ery. Though now, for the first time, he was alone with his chosen love, knowing well, and having an instinct that she must know, too, that she’ was his love, and ever would be, there was so great an awe upon him that he could not speak one word, not even of the commonest consolation or sympathy. And, though he could have fallen on his knees before her and kissed her very feet, he dared not touch even the tips of her poor little pallid fingers, so strangely idle, their occupation gone. “What am I to do without my mother?” Silence said at last, with a piteous appeal not to him or to anybody, except perhaps that One to whom alone the orphan can always ago. Roderick could bear it no longer his manhood wholly deserted him. He turned away his head and wept. The two sat there, ever so long, sobbing like children; and like children—hr,w it came about he hardly Knew —holding one another s hands. That was all! No mo.-e, indeed, was possible, but it seemed, to comfort her. Very soon she rose from her chair, quite herself—her quiet, giave self, robed in all the dignity of sorrow.” “Thank you; you have been very kind incoming to-day and in wishing to come this afternoon, as I hope you will. ” Roderick had forgotten all about the telegram and his mother-every-thing in the world except Silence Jardine, He drew the paper out of his pocket and laid it before her. “Read this! 1 got it half an hour ago. Say, what must I do?” Silence read, slowly, and putting her hand once or twice over her forehead, as if trying hard to understand things, then looked up at him with compassionate eyes. “Your mother ill? lam so sorry for you.” Then, after a minute’s pause: “ You will go—and at once?” “Yes, at once.” Both spoke in whispers still, as if conscious of some sacred presence close be-ide them. He was, at least, feeling this; as if a soft dead hand were laid on his wildly beating heart, and sealing his pa sionate lips, else he could not possibly have controlled himself as he “I feel I ought to go. But my mother may be better soon. She is very seldom ailing. As son as eve ■ I can, I shall come back again to Neuchatel—to you. You believe that ” “Yes.” One little word, uttered softly, with bent head, and, after an instant. repeated, “Yes.” Roderick felt his brain almost whirling with the strong constraint he put upon himself. “One thing more you shall decide,” he said. “The train starts this afternoon at the very hour I ought to be — you know where. Shall 1 delay my jou ney—just for one day?” “Not for an hour.” Silence answered, almost passionately. '“Remember, you never can have but one mother. Go to her at once!” And so he went, without another word, scarcely another look, he dared not trust himself to either. The two or three minutes he stayed were occupi d in explaining to Sop’aie Reynier about the telegram, his mother’s illness, his compelled journey, and his certain return as ; oon as possible. “You, will say all this to Monsieur Reynier? And I shall find her with you when I come back.-” “Certainly. Yes.” “You will take care of her?” “I wilt ”

He looked at kind Sophie. There was the tender light of ber love for her own good young pasteur shining in her eyes. “Thank you ” _ Roderick took her hand and kissed it, and was gone. He got to Richerden about 4 in the morning—a thorough Richerden morning, or rather night—of sleet and snow and blinding rain. Entirely worn out with fatigue, he came at last to his mother’s door. For the moment he hardly believed it was his mother’s, but that he must have made some egregious mistake. For the house was all lighted up, carriages were going and coming, daintily muffed figures filled the en-trance-hall—it was evidently the breaking-up of some festive entertainment. He had pictured to himseif the silent house —the night of anxious vigil over sickness —death; for even that last terror had. as he neared home, forced itself upon his'weakened nerves. Instead, he came in at the end of a ball! “My mother —how is my mother?” were the first words that passed his lips—they had been knelling themselves into his tired brain for the last hundred miles. There she was, standing half way up the staircase, in her ruby velvet, point lace, and al ablaze with dia-monds-a little tired and old-looking, as was natural at! 4 in the morning, but beaming with health, good-nature, and the exuberant en oyment of life. What a contrast to the cead mother whom he had left in her coffin so many hundred miles away! • Waiting for a pause in the stream of

guests, Roderick hid htmseif In the shadow of the door till Mrs. .Jardine’s voice, leud and hearty, had repeated a series of hospitable adieus. Tnence he emerged, a somewhat forlorn figure, into the brilliant glare of light. “Goodness me Body, is that you, my dearest boy? Girls, your brother is here.” S ie wrapped him in a voluminous embrace, and kissed him many times with true maternal warmth. “Mother, you have not heen ill? There is nothing wrong with you?” “No, my darling, what should there be? Oh. I remember—the tslegram." A sudden cloud came over her face, which was repeated with added shadow on her son’s. . “Yes, the telegram. I thought you were ill, and I came home as you bade me, immediately. Never mind. Goodnight.” “Stop, my dear. Just stop.” But he would not; and went straight up stairs to his own room. |TO BS COSTIFtIBD. :

CRUSOE’S ISLAND.

It Is Now Inhabited and Fosseses a Little Town. It is not generally known that Juan Fernandez—the island on which Alexander Selkirk, the Robinson Crusoe of romance, lived so many years—is at the present time inhabited. Two valleys, winding down from different directions, join a short distance back from the shore, and there now stands little village of small huts scattered round a long one-storied building with a veranda running its whole length. In this house lives the man who rents the island from the Chilian Government. and the village is made up of a few German and Chilian families The tiny town is called San .Juan Bautista, and the crater-liKe a m of the sea on which it is situated, and where Alexander Selkirk first landed, is now called Cun b irland Bay. The island is rented for about £2uo a year. The rent is paid partly in dried fish. Cat hingand drying the many varieties of fish an i raising cattle and vegtables wholly occupy the contented settlors, an i much of their little income Is obtained from the cattle and vegetables s dd to passing vessels. At the back of the little town, in the first high cliff, is a row of caves of remarkable appearance hewn into the sandstone. An unused path leads to them, and a short climb brings one to their dark mouths. About forty years ago the Chilian Government thought that a good wav to get rid of its worst criminals would be to transport them to the island of Juan Fernandez. Here, under the direction of Chilian .-oldiers, these poor wretches were made to dig caves to live in. In 1654 t.,ey were taken back again, however, anu.theca.es have since been slowly crumb ing away. The narrow i idge where Selkirk watched is now cal ed “The Saddle,” because at either end of it a rocky hummock rites like a pommel. On one of these is now a large tablet with inscriptions commemorating Alexander Selkirk s long and lonely stay on the island. Itwasplacod there in 18fi8 by the officers of the British ship Topaz. A small excursion steamer now runs from Valparaiso to Juan Fernandez i- land. The round trip, ijfmade in six days, and three of these may be spent on the island in fl hing and visi.ing those lonely, but beautiful, spots which near y 2,0 years ago were the haunts of Robinson Crusoe.

A Grist Mau Avenged. “Do you love life. ” as .ed the big man as he kicked up the sawdust and fell heav.ly into a chair at one of the pincch e tables. “1 suppo e I do,” said the quiet German who kept the place. “Well, then, bring me a schooner of beer, and if there s a collar on it you don t get a cent, see?” 'The big man d-rank the beer at one dripping gulp and than glared unsteadily around the room at the Bock beer sign, Ihe announcement of the Schwaben picnic, the steel engraving of Germania and the picture of Bismarck. “VV ho’s that gazaboy?” “He is te ghreat Bismarck.” ‘ Great nothin’. Heaint init. That’s what he ain’t. ” The proprietor looked at the icepick, and then he changed his mind. “Has a peer, ” said he. “i’ll go you,” sa d the big man. He accepted a third and fourth. On the eighth be fell asleep over the table.. The quiet German went to the door and called in a heavy policeman. “Heie's a goot cigar,” said he. “Take him in. He s peen disorderly. I appear myse f at te station.” Five minutes later two policemen hauled out the big man, whose dragging toes left long, snaky lines along the sawdust. The quiet German dusting the picture, said: “Bismarck is affenged, I pet you.”—Chicago Record. It "Was a Dangerous Toy. _ The fascination which a snake exercised over Nellie, the ;>-year-oid daughter, of Mrs. Fogarty, of Camden, N. J., was almost paid for by her life the other day. The child was playing happily in the yard in the afternoon, while ihe mother wai busied with her household duties. For a while the little one enjoyed her innocent adventures with laries, with e.f men and brownies, conjured up by her child-mind, but in the midst of these fancies there came wriggling ac o s the yard a serpent, a sand viper. Nellie ran after the snake for a time, and then, des ring closer acquaintance, picked it up in her little hands and began to petit. The serpent squirmed an t wriggled, and the child tried by soothing words andcares-es to soothe it into quiet de So well did she succged that in a burst of admiration docility, she put the ugly monster to her 'mouth, intending to kiss it. Then the viper’s cunning unmasked itself. Two little fangs shot out, they pierced the child's li s and the serpent held fast. Attracted by the child's screams the mother came and killed the snake and by hard work the physicians saved the little one’s life.

H * Snored While the Storm Raged. During a voyage across the Atlantic several years ago, says a traveler, a terrific storm arose and it seemed as if our boat would be surely Jost. The passengers crouched in their cabins in mot tai terror, expecting every moment to go down to the bottom. The captain assured them that there was no danger, but all expected that their time had come—all save one. This fellow, who was an inveterate snorer, lay peacefully in his cabin soun 1 asleep in the midst of the uproar. His wife rushed in the cabin crying: “Lucien, O Lucien, the vessel is sinking!" Lucien t rned over, partially awoke, and murmured: “Sinking, are we? (Snore.) Well, let her (snore) sink. What are you (snore) going to do (snore) about; it?” His remarkable coplness partially served to allay our fears and the storm shortly after went down. Wcst?rn Phenomena. In the Western deserts a spot of ground becomes excessively heated, causing the air above to descend. This produces an influx of the atmosphere from all sides, but unequally, the result being a gyratory motion and a sandstorm. Many folks flatter themselves they are fairly good because they are not entirely bad.

HOME AND THE FARM.

TOPICS OF INTEREST TO FARMER AND HOUSEWIFE. How to Interest the Boys tn the WorkCombined Poultry and Pigeon Hoose— Device tor Splitting Wood—General Agricultural NewsHow to Make Money on the Farm. Do not look beyond your reach for wealth when it lies all about you. In this wonderful age of improvement you must move in the line of march, or let your next door neighbor dig the jewels from the soil. Many of our young men are not content with the beautiful old homestead, the green fields, and much that makes one so independent on the farm, but in their anxiety for gain, push out to large cities or some distant land, when, in nine cases out of ten, they would have been happier and wealthier men had they put that same life and energy on the farm. The world demands men who will work. The curse of our country to-day is the multitude of idle ones, who demand not only a living, but even luxuries thrown in. Nothing in this life can be gained without hard work. Be careful in choosing an occupation, start right, the outcome will be fruitfulness. If you are interested in your vocation and are industrious, your work, even though hard, will be a pleasure. Try to interest your boys in your work. To do this, you must encourage them in their small beginnings. Stake out one acre of land for your boy for his own use. By this I do not mean the poorest land on your farm, but the very best, and see, also, to commence with, that it is well enriched. Start the boys right, as the first y ear’s trial will be apt to decide their future. Put In something that is in demand, and thatalways commands good prices. How many farmers have first-class seed corn that will test 95 per cent, when planting time arrives? A fine grade of seed corn that your neighbors know is all right in every respect will prove a very profitable investment for you. When you have an article to sell, give your customers something that is value received, and your trade is established. The same hints may be applied to all varieties of grain. There is a good Income awaiting you at your very doors; seize your grand opportunity. Poultry and Pigeon Honan. A poultry house with a loft especially fitted up for the accommodation of pigeons is shown in the accompanying Illustrations from the American Agriculturist. The poultry quarters have an addition fitted with wire netting in

FIG. I.—PERSPECTIVE VIEW.

front in summer, as seen in Fig. 1, and windows in winter which serves as a scratching and dusting room, communication being had with it from the main poultry room. The diagram Fig. 2, shows the inside arrangement when the building is used for two breeds. Such an arrangement secures exceedingly warm roosting quarters for both flocks, as the recesses occupied by the roosts can be shut off from the main

FIG. 2.—GROUND PLAN.

room to some extent by placing partitions in front of the roosts, extending from the ceiling, but not reaching to the floor. The warm air from the bodies of the fowls is thus kept around and above the birds while on their roosts. Cutting Corn Stalks. The season for cutting corn stalks is at hand for the large class of farmers who do not put them in silos. Almost every farmer who feeds com stalks to cows has them cut It is not always safe to feed horses the cut stalks, as their digestive apparatus is different. The hard, woody stalks, cut in small pieces, may injure a horse’s intestines before the gastric juices have time to soften them. The feed when eaten by the cow goes more in a mass and is brought up and rechewed in her cud. For this reason cut corn stalks ought not to be fed to horses unless first wet with warm water to soften them, then the hard portion of them will be left uneaten. A horse will not eat much more of the corn stalk after it is cut than it will before. If cheap, bulky food is to be used to mix with the grain for horses it had better be cut straw or hay than cut corn stalk. But the coru stalks for cows ought always to be cut before feeding. If they are wet with hot water or steamed and mixed with grain meal scarcely anything will be rejected. A little clover hay per day with this will make a complete ration cows.—American Cultivator. Rotation of Crop* Tested. To determine the exact effect of rotation, a series of experiments have been conducted by the Indiana station. Of the plots upon which grain crops are grown continuously a portion are devoted exclusively to wheat, while upon others wheat is grown in alternation with corn and oats. In the plots devoted exclusively to grain growing the average yield of wheat for seven years, closing with 1893, was 15.80 bushels per acre, and in 1894 the yield was 12.74 bushels per acre. On the plots upon which grain and grasses are grown in rotation the average yield for the seven years was 21.61 bushels per acre, and in 1894 it was 22.67 bushels. The difference in favor of rotation for the period of seven years averaged 5.72 bushels per acre, and in 1894 it amounted to 9.93 bushels per acre. Thus it is shown that wheat produced

over a third more when grown in rotru tion than when grown continuously in the land year after year. For Splitting Wood. A holder for splitting wood is a nice convenience, and one like that here illustrated is often at hand or can i»e secured. When a device of this kind is used it saves trouble and even some danger from splitting wood. It is not always understood that much advantage may be taken of hard labor when splitting wood by slabbing off the sides of the block instead of splitting through the center. When a log is sawed into

DEVICK FOR SPLITTING WOOD.

short cuts, for example, to be split into firewood, two iron wedges and a beetle may be necessary to open a cut through the heart But by taking off thin slabs all of the splitting may be done with only an ax. After a log is split into slabs the labor of splitting the slabc the other way will be comparatively light. Spreading Manure In the Fall. It is a good plan to spread manure upon the fields in the fall. Experience shows that manure applied in the fall to the surface, either of plowed or grass land, will become so thoroughly pulverized and distributed through the soil by the action of frost and rain as to act more quickly and be in better condition for plants to assimilate than the same fertilizer would be applied tn the spring. The loss from drainage, unless upon very steep surfaces, will probably be less than from the washing if left in open yards. The loss from evaporation is likely to be much less than that from fermentation, if the manure is allowed to accumulate in cellars or sheds. The Horne's Foot. The Rev. W. 11. 11. Murray, who understood horses as well as Adirondacks, once laid down a rule in regard to trimming a horse's foot that every horseman in the world should cut out and paste in his hat. “Never,” he says, “allow the knife to touch the sole of your horse’s foot, nor the least bit of it to bo pared away, because nature needs the full bulk of it and has amply provided for its removal at the proper time. Secondly, never allow a knife to be put to the frog, because nature never provides too much of it to answer the purpose for which the Creator designed it, and the larger it is the more swiftly, easily and safely will your horse go.” Railing Vegetable, in Winter. Lettuce, radishes and like small vegetables are cultivated all winter long in Southern Georgia by a simple device that would be effective in mild winters much farther north. A frame of wood Inclosing rich earth is placed in the garden, and seeds arc sown from time to time. When a cool night comes, a frame bearing a sheet of coarse muslin is placed over the growing plants, and thus they are protected from frost. Now and then ice the thickness of a cent forms in the night, but the vegetables so covered escape injury. . Irrigation Improve. Fruit Irrigation is claimed to Increase the sugar in fruit aud improve its quality. In California it has been found that Irrigated fruit has less shrinkage when dried, and was also worth more in its green state. This is due to the greater proportion of mineral matter being taken up by being- dissolved with a plentiful supply of water. The greater foliage permits the plants to derive more carbonic acid from the air, and thus contribute a greater proportion of sugar to the fruit

Keeping the Stable Snug:. Ventilation in the stable does not mean a draught of air coming iu on the animals. It is useless to make a stable warm with tight roof and walls, and then haye cold "air holes,” misnamed ventilators, to allow the warmth to escape. The night Is the time when cold currents are felt. The stable should be ventilated during the day by leaving the doors and tho windows open, which should be closed at night. Attention must be given to the direction of the wind, and bedding should be plentiful. Tobacco Plant.. A lady in Lancaster, Pa., as an experiment, planted carefully in her garden last summer six Havana plants presented to her by a friend in the country. Under her care the plants grew to be 6 or 7 feet high, and quo of them showed 36 inches in length and was 22 Inches wide. What can be done in a garden can be done in a field, if the field is enriched and cultivated like a garden.

False Support, for Beam, anti Sills. Frequently in erecting farm buildings, the posts are of such slender dimensions that the owner and carpea-

roa buppobtino beams such cases these important parts of the structure are left with only such support ns is afforded by the strength of the tender, i which is usually cut away to less than | one-third the breaking strength of the j stick of timber. By fittfiig in a piece of ; plank or scantling between the lower ■ side of the beam or sill and the upper 1 side of the lower portion ot the brace, | as shown at a, a, in the illustration, aiul i nailing them to the part c, the building 1 will be quite as strong aud firm as if I tho post had been two inches greater in ; diameter. This improvement may be i added at any time at very Uttje labor ' aud expense. i i The Cow that Pay.. If a cow gives milk 300 days in the 1 year, and her capacity exceeds another j cow only two quarts daily, which sells i at 10c per gallon, she will produce I milk exceeding the Cess-productive cow as much as sls per year. With only two quarts difference, and at only 2%c a quart, the comparison is largely in

favor of choice cows. Yet a well-bred cow may give twice as much milk as one that has no breeding. It is cheaper to raise good cows thau to buy fresh ones that are unknown. Start v of Horticulture. Every farmer should understand horticulture. It enables him to grow a larger variety and to rotate his crops to the best advantage. There is no reason for confining the farm to three or four crops. The soil will be improved when the same crop is not grown oftener than one year in five. Smail fruits should be grown, »s well as grain aud vegetables. Ugtng Up Honrs. If bones cannot be reduced to a very fine condition pound them, or break them to pieces in some manner and place them around the grapevines, about six inches deep in the soil. They may also be used around trees. But little benefit will be derived from coarse pieces of bone for a year or two, but it is better to utilize them than to allow them to accumulate into unsightly heaps. Note*. Grub up the sassafras growing In the fields and keep the young bushes down until the fields are cleared of them. At the recent fruit show at the Crystal Palace the Queen took first prize for 100 varieties each of pears and apples. Carrots, turnips and beets, if fed raw to cattle, should always be sliced and not cut up into Irregular pieces. Cattle are much more liable to be choked than any other class of stock. When a horse Is doing no work It should receive less grain and given more hay. There is no time of the year, however, when the horse should not be given exercise In some manner, A ranchman in Uie Big Horn oasln, Wyoming, raised 11,000 onions on a patch of ground 35x1)0 feet during the past season. Eight of the onions, selected for size, weighed twenty-two pounds. When blackberrying, many a large fruited sort is met with, which, If transplanted to the garden, would be as good as any of the cultivated sorts. Some of the best known varieties were introduced In this way. Winter oats are extensively grown tn Virginia. They nre" sown about a month before the usual time of sowing wheat, or from Sept. Ito Sept. 15. The claim is made that winter oats will grow wherever crimson clover succeeds. The New York Milk Exchange fixed the net price of milk from the first to i he middle of October at 3>4c per quart; after Oct. 17, 3c a quart. The price of cream was reduced from sti to |5.75 a can. This Is said to be the first instance on record of lowering prices of milk and cream In October. The Earl of Aberdeen has urged the people of Nova Scotia to develop their fruit culture. At present there nre 33,000 acres of orchards In Nova Scotia, and the apples can be delivered in England in good condition. The Nova Scotians claim that their apples are tli« best In the world.

There is something to make a man thoughtul in su h an escape as the surveyor had who was climbing up the face of a pieciplce, and suddenly found himself confronted by an enraged rattlesnake. A similar fearful choice between two deaths, a sudden deliverance from the jaws of both, is related boli w: While working at his mine, near Tres Alamos, a short time ago, John Lyons, of Tombstone, Arlz ns, suddenly found himself In a nr st unexpected and unpleasant dtiiation. He hud put in a blast, lighted the fuse, and just reached the top of the shaft, when he beheld four m unte'd Apaches rapidly appr<aching him with plain Intent to slaughter him. To run was to be overtaken, aid to stay was to be blown to pieces, and neither alternative presented any attracib.n . Mr, Lyons liQMVaiQd qy instunt, and then drop] ed behind a heap of rocks at the mouth of the shaft. At that moment the blast exploded, and a volley > f stones and debris Hew into the air with a thundering report, I |Tho Indians, who had made sure of their victim, were so amazed and terrified at the miraculous interference that they wheeled and galloped away, screaming like fiends, and Mr. Lyons, who had not been struck by a single one of the rocks, which fell all around him, made quick time to Tree Alamos.

An Auburn, N. Y., man riding in the country taw crossing the road a mamma skunk with five youngsters trailing behind her in single file. Ra des me. c closed and tails dragged. The Hi tie company moved toward an unoccupied building, and the old skunk ditappea.cd through a hole in the foundation wall, but just as the young ones w ere about to follow he nung a stena, whic.i banged loudly against tho corner of the building. Iho narrator says that he has witnessed many military evolutions by crack com; aides, but neve in his experience did he see a drill com any “’bout face, ’tention, present aims,” with the rapidily with which that platoon of skunks moved. They whirled lit e one, stood in line, their tails whiiking straight over their backs. Il was a m oment full of critical suspense, but the command “Fire” wasn t issued. As no enemy presented itself they trailed arms once more and made a dignified retreat, one alter another, into the hole in the wall.

ters do not care to cut a shoulder lu them for tho support of die ends of beams, sills or girts. In

A good story < f the cat that camo back is told ut the expo.se of Mrs. Albert Havemeyer. Mr-. Havemeyer had a tabby which became a nuisance about the house and as she did not want to.klll it she resolved to lose the animal. To tips ond she bribed two pi her maid-servants, for $1 apiece and their expenses, to take the offensive beast over to Brooklyn and turn it loose upon the pious town. Tho girls loaded the victim of this conspiracy into a basket and luggod it off. They were gone tho whole afternoon. When they returned they found Mrs. Havemeyer in a fury. An hour before the girls got back the cat had waked into the bouse and brought three strange tomcats w.tb her. Asteroid hunters now use a camera of special construction, aid mounted so that it can follow tho diurnal motion of the stars. In this way several hund:ed times as much area of the sky can bo watched. Fixed stars pho t graph as round dots and planets ae sti eaks or lines. For our own self-culture we can never afford to evade responsibility. It ws c o wo lessen our influence and weaken our character. In one sense wo never ca t evade it, for in refusing one we take another.

A Choice of Evils.

Military Movements of Skunks.

An [?] the Cat Came Back.

NEWS OF OUR STATE.

A WEEK AMONG THE HUSTLING HOOSIERS. (That Onr Neighbors Are Doing- Matters of General and Local Interest—Marriage* and Death* Accidents and Crimes—. Pointers About Our Own People. Minor State Items. Wild ducks are very numerovs on the rirer near Jefferson. The number of inmates at the north eru penitentiary i- rapidly increasing Barney Hoar, track watchman, was struck by a train at Centerville and killed. Michigan City papers are urging that ladies remove their hats in the theater. Paoli is congratulating herself on the successful completion of a svstem of water works. ARTHUR Junes was thrown from a passenger train near Morristown, and seriously in ured. Thomas Christian’s (1 year old •hild, while playing a out a bonfire near Marion, was fatally bur .ted. Simeon Bvser. old armor near Boonvi 10. was accidentally shot and killed by his son-in-law while hunting. William Foutz, a Montgomery County farmer received fatal fn urieg in a runaway and died twelve hours later. Three shots were fired at Editor L. S. Boots, of tho Greenfield Herald, while he was in his office. The bullets Hew wide. Woodfield Moody, aged 10, while wording in on elevator at Fisher's Station, was caught in the machinery and fatally in.ured. A PASSENGER train was fired on near Columbus. The bullets crashed through a window and came near striking "Andy’’ Beck. Peter Hesh. aged 30, living three miles east of Goshen, died ot rubies resulting from the bite of a mad dog inflicted eighteen years ago. At t.'lymers, the 3-vear old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Isaiah Heed, was fatally burned, her clothing taking fire from a match with which she was playing. Melvin Morgen of Hebron, aged » years, had his right arm taken off by a <ornhusking machine which he was operating. Two years ago ho lost his loft arm in tho same manner.

Thomas Samsel, an old-time switchman employed by tho Vandalia, was run over and Instantly killed at Torre Haute, fie loaves a wife. His parents live at Logansport. Ho was a member of the Brothei hood of Trainmen. Last April a Wabash man wrote on an egg requesting the consumer to notify him when and whore tho egg was cracked. Ho has just received a note from u Hartford, Conn., woman, dated Nov. 5, nn<i stating tho hud that day purchased tho egg at a grocery. The New York Bowery Insurance Company, of Now York, has been forbidden to do business by tho Auditor of State, it Is announced that this company had withdrawn from the State and afterward solicited Insurance. Tho policies were to bo writton in New York and thus avoid tuxes in Indians. Philu* Markey, a young man who enrao to Brazil u few days ago from St. Louis, was instantly killed in the yards of the Chicago and Indiana Coal road. He was walking in front of a switch engine which he did not observe. A. friend warned him of his danger, and In attempting to escape he fell and was out in two. He is u single man. Patents have been granted to the following Indiana cltl ens: Lewis F. Ambrose, Center Point, carpet fastener; Albert T. Bemis, Indianapolis, brick dryer car; John Brown, Walcott, frame for hay-stacks; Pinkney Davis, | Frankfort, butchering apparatus: John ' McCullough, Crawfordsville, strawstacker; Clement Neldim, Bourbon, folding umbrella; L, T. Beeves, Columbus, windlass; Jarnos Wood, Fort Wayne, armature core. “Jack tho Splttor" Is being watched for by the Muncie police. For ten davs I past women have complained that some vagrant along the streets delights in I STiilrt ng tobacco juice on their dresses. He has been seen standing in dark alleys, but disappears and cannot be caught. Tho other evening the Knights of Pythias ball and reception kept him busy. As a result of his actonssoieof the women were compelled to retire from the ball-room and changed their elegant silk gowns. The special convocation of the Accepted Scottish Kite Masons of the Valley of Fort Wayne was made memorable by the presentation to Thrice Potent Grand Master William Geake of a gold watch, a chain and a churrn and thirty.third-degree coat jewel. H. C. Hanna. s caking lor the members of Fort Wayne Lodge of Perfection, placed to his ere .it the organization and building u:> of the Scottish Rite in Northern Indiana, which has proved such a success, and complimented him on his zeal for Masonic worK in all degrees. A telegram from R. T. McDonald at New York, states that ho has just secured absolute control of the fort Wayne Electric Light Works, has severed his connection with the Central Electric Company, and w.ll devote his energies hereafter to the building up in Fort Wayne of a great institution for menu acture of machinery and appliances whose j atterns and patents are owned by the local concern. This is good news to hundreds of employes of the establishment ut Fort Wayne as well as to the people generally, for it means the end of litigation and the beginning of a new era of nrospericy in :an institution that has been hampered in its progress by manipulation of the managers of the Ea-tern Company, whose interests have never been in the line of advancing the local com, any. Frederick II >usr. in i utting down a tree on the farm of. ames Thompson, near Cruwlordsville, was struck on the head by a limb and instantly killed. He was married, and leaves teveral children. TijEslK are now ten cases of scarlet fever at the Indiana Home for Feebleminded Children north of Fort Wayne. There are over five hundred inmates ut tho institution and nearly all ol ; them have been directly or indirectly I exposed. A temporary hospital lot ■ contagious diseases has been secured for tie during the prevalence of the : epidemic. W. Hemphill, while hunting, ran x rabbit into a drift pile on the river. ,'outh ot tdinb rg, and discovered the body of a child covered up in the dritt. The child had evidently been murderei and pl :cea there to conceal somebody’s th ime. There is no clew as to where the body came from. Miss Maky Baner, aged 20, resid- : ing with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. .1. F. Baney, south of Muncie, became deI spondent over love affairs, and at? tempted to take her life with are vol ver. The weapon was placed against the leit side of her breast and fired. A corset stay changed the course of th» bullet and the bullet penetrated onl» 1 her shouli