Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 116, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 May 1910 — QUEER STORIES [ARTICLE]

QUEER STORIES

people who walked in simple ways Perhaps a coming generation will welcome back the shawl to its shoulders. There has been intense excitement In Springfield, Mass., over the murder of Martha B. Blackstone and the confession oP'Bertram G. Spencer, who admits that he committed the crime and that he has been leading a sort of Jekyll and Hyde existence for many years. According to his own story he has worked at some legitimate occupation during the day and turned burglar at n'ght. His operation* have extended to various parts of the country, but Springfield has engaged his attention for the last two years, and he has delighted in the stories of his exploits there as the masked burglar. Apparently his case is destined to attain some celebrity because of a point that is raised concerning his responsibility for his actions. His criminal instincts began to appear when he was ■'Still a boy, and their origin is ascribed to the effects -of a blow on the head which was dealt him by his father. What value there is in this defense it is impossible to say now, but it is clear that Spencer can be closely associated with certain criminal types. He has inordinate vanity and a love of the sensational. The absence of- a moral sense is indicated by the fact that his crimes have never caused him the slightest remorse. But though a murder might not trouble him he was greatly worried over the loss of a locket which bore his initials. There are in this world many persons who have about the same idea as Spencer of the relative Importance of things, though they may never have been hit on the head. They are absorbed with themselves, dead to the feelings of others, guiltjF of innumerable acts of meanness and cruelty, some of which are merely irritating experiments in malicious mischief, while others lead on to the most serious consequences. Society would be Immensely relieved and improved if the whole tribe could be removed from the face of the earth, and where reformation is out of the question, as it often is, society should be protected by the segregation of the offenders for life. Judged by his own confession, Spencer ought never to be set at liberty whether the blow on the head is an excuse for him- or not.

Eighty-seven In every hundred Canadian farmers own their own farms. An English agricultural society Is raising a fund wlt.h--which to exterminate the sparrow. The sticks of dynamite used in a year in building the Panama canal, if placed end to end, would reach in a straight line from Boston to Spokane. Aluminum, combined with other materials, is appearing as a textile, neckties, shawls, hats, and lacings for shoes being among the newest productions. . . For some unknown reason humming birds are disappearing from the Island of Trinidad. Half a century ago there were eighteen species; now there are but five. In Japan day laborers receive 20 cents a day, women servants 84 emts a month, men servants $1.36 a month, women farm laborers $8.50, men farm hands $15.96. From now on all British veterinarians must give immediate notification of all cases of cattle plague and other contagious diseases to which domestic animals are liable. The lubricating mechanism of a gyroscope car is fitted with an alarm to warn the engineer, for if the axles of the rapidly moving gyroscopes should get hot they would cut through the bearings in an instant. v Dr. Oliver, after many experiments in freezing eggs of hookworm, concludes that hookworm can survive winters In Europe and become epidemic. Recently forty eggs were reported from the brick fields in Holland. - >■ Heretofore regarded as valueless, a certain kind of soil, of which there are large, deposits in Denmark, has been found to make excellent bricks of light weight and so tough that nails may be driven into them without cracking. Among the many extraordinary theories introduces by recent microscopic studies is that of sex in bread molds. After years of patient research it is announced that a distinguished scientist has found that these minute fungi, the lowest order of plant life, possess the characteristics of plants of the highest type, and have the power of reproducing their kind from two distinct and differing races, in addition to giving new life from one. It was a hard thing to account for. The lady didn’t have the dog on her leash, yet he didn't run away. Indeed, he seemed so be very familiar with his mistress’ skirts, and once in a while, as he wagged his tall, there would come a flash of her ankles. The reason was plain when you came up even with her. The nickeled plate on his collar had a clasp on it, and the clasp was fastened tightly to the hem of her skirt. It was simply a new way of leading a pet dog. This was in Fifth avenue on last Sunday.—New York Sun. <, Nearly every man has the fool habit of sitting in the shade, and wishing things, and believing that he is earnestly striving for themCredit, and not women, ruins most men.