Evening Republican, Volume 15, Number 212, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 September 1911 — Page 3

Bloodstained Aigrette

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1 \ Jii EAR the top of A mancM grove tree three baby egrets lay in a nest made carefully of twigs. They \Knßkl were not beautiful to look upon. Their scrawny bodies had scarcely a sign of feathers. Their heads were too big for Mj£w’ them and their ■ legs r were too long and so ’ wobbly and weak that the poor little babies

could only lie still and wait for their parents to feed them. But, oh, how hungry they were! When their mother came to the nest with a fish or a frog, three yawning throats awaited her, and she had to decide to which she would give the morsel. It seemed impossible that from such poor beginnings anything beautiful could grow. But Mother Nature had given them wonderful appetites, and in such a few weeks the frogs and the fish and the snails would be changed to feathers and bone and flesh. The weak little babies would get strong and able to walk and fly and to catch fish for themselves. For those few weeks the mother and father bird must work early and late to bring food for their babies. Away up in the air the mother egret came flying to her nest. Her legs were held close to her body, her long neck was folded over itself and lay flat on her back, her snowy plumes floated in the air. She was as beautiful as a white-robed angel. Straight she came to the nest where (hree yellow throats were opened wide and three little birds called a welcome. Perhaps she was already trying to decide to which baby she would give the green frog in her beak. Up tipped hfer wings, out went her neck and her feet were thrust down to take bold of the edge of the nest. Her lovely plumes waved in the air. She was just reaching out to drop the green frog down the throat of , when bang! went a gun. A terrible pain in her breast, a dizzy feeling and she fell, fell, fell to the ground.

Two canoes slowly pushed their way through the mass of lily pads that marked the slough leading from the Glades to the head of the river. A man stood in the stern of each and with a long pole forced the heavy craft ahead. The one in the forward canoe was not an especially heroic figure. Face, neck and hands were tanned to the copper color-of the Seminole. His feet were bare, the brim of his old straw hat was ragged and one sjde hung down until it hid the side of his face. Across the heap of camping supplies, Indian specimens and tins of food, sprawled a man burned even darker than his conn panion. He was stripped to a sleeveless undershirt and a pair of khaki trousers. A small canvas hat that once had been white rested upon his head and completed the picture of disreputableness. His face was redeemed by a pair of gold-rimmed spectacles. Not handsome, tjy any standard, but alert, receptive and thoughtful. In a word, a German studentscientist. To supply a vacancy in the collection of representative aboriginal tribes, this curator had' Invaded the Big Cypress swamp and explored the Everglades of Florida to their innermost recesses. He had followed the Seminoles to their camps and beguiled from them costumes, implements and ornaments. He had risked his life that the vacant niche In his museum might be filled. "Which way now, Frank?” he asked the man with the pole. "Through the crookedest creek you ever saw. Over logs and under trees until you’all’d wish we hadn’t come.” The canoe turned toward the north, crossed a little circular bay and entered a patch of wods. There was no sign of creek or passageway from the bay. Trees were as thick and .hung as low as elsewhere on the green-encompassed shore. The men lay on the bottom of the canoe and pulled themselves forward by the branches overhead. Bump! went the maoe on a hidden io*. Both man

got out and, balancing on the log, worked the canoe across it. A swarm of mosquitoes settled down on them. Not a breath of wind could reach them and the perspiration poured from their bodies. Pushing, pulling, poling and paddling, they advanced their craft. Lifting it over sunken logs and forcing it under low-hanging branches, they gained ground by inches. And all this time they were fighting a cloud of vicious, bloodhungry insects. The handle of the professor’s paddle hit a limb just over his head and, from a hornet’s nest at its further end poured forth a war party of these merciless fighters. “Overboard, quick!” yelled Frank, and both men tumbled into the water and sank out of sight, rising again just enough to keep nose and mouth above the surface, while the angry hornets buzzed around the canoe and crawled over its contents.

The war party dissipated its energy by flying hither and thicker and making the air vibrate with muttered threats of vengeance. At last they quieted down and returned to the nest. Slowly Frank lifted himself from the water, reached for his shotgun in the canoe, fired both barrels point blank beneath the water. But there was no need of the second submersion, for the shots had destroyed nest and inhabitants. <i Donnerwetter! Let’s go back, Frank!” exclaimed the dripping man at the bow of the canoe as he climbed aboard. "Isn’t there some other way to the rookery?” “Nope. The plume hunters keep the creek blocked up, so’s to shut out other fellers. We’re over the worst now, we’ll soon be in the bay.” Even obstructed creeks of corkscrew tendencies have a beginning and an end. We finally emerged in a bay about a mile in diameter. In the middle were two small mangrove keys, over which a multitude of birds were soaring. The shores of the bay were an unbroken line of green; neither entrance nor exit was visible, for the mangrove trees extended to the water’s edge. Even as we looked a puff of smoke came from the little island, followed a second later by the report of a gun. We saw a stricken bird fall to the water ahd a cloud of white, blue and pink ones rise suddenly from the trees of the key. "Gosh! The plume hunters ’re here now!" exclaimed Frank, excitedly; "look’s like we mought have trouble. You-all better get in t’other canoe and lemme go alone and talk to ’em.’’, Frank paddled toward the island. A charge of shot spattered the water ahead of him. "Heigh, Jackson! Don’t you know me? I’m Frank Brown. Put up yo’ gun, we’re not after you!” shouted Frank, standing up in his canoe with arms outstretched. A gruff voice mumbled something that didn’t reach us and we heard Frank say: “Put up yo’ gun! I’m coming to talk to you. You know me." A skiff, swiftly coming from behind the island, just showed as it rounded a point. "They’re two to one, now," remarked the professor. "I wish I were in that canoe.” "You’re a good sight better off right here, and so is Frank," commented the man at the stern of my canoe. "Frank knows those fellers and can talk to ’em, but they would load you with shot first and talk afterward.” At last Frank appeared paddling bls craft over our way. t "Fellers, it’s all right. They say we can come and camp with ’em one night, but I’ll be a sight easier in my mind when we’re clear of ’em. I didn’t expect to find ’em here or I wouldn’t ’a’ come.; That’s the livin’ truth. That feller Jdckson is wanted by the sheriff somethin* fierce, and he’s a bad ’un all right However, we’re four and they ain’t likely to do nothin’ foolish. We took as few things as possible out of the canoe and even forebore, to exhibit our rubber mattresses. “Well nee your fire, if you-all don’t

By JULIAN A DIMOCK

mind, Jackson, and then invite you to grub,” said Frank. , “ ’Taln’t no use rustlin’’ any more wood that I knows of. Go ahead and use it. If you fellers has got airy milk and sugar ’n’ will pass out some coffee with ’em I’ll be mighty glad yer come. Hog and hominy’s all right fer a spell, but it gets sickenin’. Got er plug o’ terbaccy?” / Not only did Frank get out the canned cow and sugar, but he made biscuits in the Dutch oven and the eyes of the hunters fairly glistened at visions of the feast. "Come ahead, grub’s ready," said he; “bring your cups, we haven’t enough to go ’round.” Never before in any warm country have I seen such appetites. “I/ve got ter go over ter th’ island now,” said Jackson, after eating until there was nothing more to eat. "I’d ask you fellers ter grub with us es we had 1 anythin' fer yer." As his boat approached the island a cloud of birds filled the air. Two shots were fired and two birds fell to the water. At intervals through the afternoon the sound of shots floated over us, and after each one there was a sudden-burst of flying birds from tree tops. That evening we sat in the lee of the camp fire, for the mosquitoes were legion and the' smoke less of an evil. The professor repeated his question of the morning, this time to Jackson.

"Are the mosquitoes always as bad as this?” “Nope, not al’ers, but som’tlmes they is a heap worse’n this 'ere. Redbugs worries Us sometimes, too, and b’tween ’em things is tough.” "I don’t like the killing of birds, but I sure think you earn the money if you live through this sort of thing,” replied the professor. "Yep, we do, every cent." “Can’t you get an easier job?” "They ain’t no other way fer me ter make er livin’ an’ I do it thlsaway. I ain’t erlowed ter do it out’r this beastly place, so I does it here. No, sir, I want ter live jes’s much as iyou do!” "If. you can’t leave the place, how can you carry on the trade?” asked the curator. There was genuine sympathy in his tone, and softened by this and the spell of the camp fire, the man went on:

"Why, I'm staked fer this work. A man comes down here and puts this gun inter my hand, gives me hog ’n’ hominy, a little coffee *n* a. lot er shells. Then he pays me fer the plumes I brings him. ’Tln’t healthy fer me ter go none outside, so he arranges things, so’s I don’t have ter.” "Rotten business —who’s at the bottom of it anyhow?” "Yer wlmmen folk. What does they keer fer us fellers livin’ In this hell down here, er fer the little birds thet starve ter death because I’ve shot their pappys and mammys? I swear I’d like nothin’ buetter’n to show them wlmmen how us fellers got them plumes. But Lor* ’tln’t no manner er use, they gotter look purty, and they’s goln’ ter do it. Let th’ young*uns starve ter death.” "I’m dead set against the whole business, Jackson, but When I get back home I’m going to tell some people where I think the trouble lies —and it’s not with you hunters, either!” That night the mosquitoes held a concert around my bar. I could hardly sleep because of the noise and—because I remembered two hunters with' bars filled with boles. When we left the camp in the morning all the sullen, suspicious look had cotne back to the faces of the hunters. They were glad to have us go, but I wondered If they didn’t think if might be safer to "plant” us right there. I felt sure they regretted the thawing out of the night before under the Influence of the camp fire. "What a life! Can anything be worse?" said the curator, thinking out loud. "Have you-all ever heard tell o’ ths chain jams?” asked Frank.

HE SAVED THE TRAIN

STATION AGENTS PRESENCE OF MINO ANO BRAVERY. Hls.Action Meant Imminent Risk of - Life and- Limb, but He Did Not Hesitate—Robbers Frustrated, but Escape.

“More often than not common sense and bravery are combined in

prevented fatalities

gang of train robbers by his presence of mind and daring. "His name was Wilson. He was working nights. It was a little after midnight, one morning in October, when Wilson, sitting at his instrument, glanced around at a masked man pointing a revolver at his head. “Wilson took it rather calmly. ‘What the’ h ,’ he said. ‘O, nothing,’ said the robber, ‘only you’d better disconnect all those instruments. I know the code and I know how to deaden every wire on the line. So,,don’t try anything funny. Just pull out all those plugs.’ "Wilson obeyed. After he had finished the job of putting the wires out of business at his station, he was. bound by the robber and a companion. "He heard them discussing their plans outside the station and learned they had piled ties on the track a mile down the right of way and that they intended to rob and wreck the express train, which was due in a few minutes. “Wilson struggled to loosen his bonds when he heard the robbers walking away toward the scene of the expected wreck. He succeeded in freeing himself just as he heard the whistle of the limited coming down the grade. He ran to the door, saw it would be too late to flag the train, as he could not reach a semaphore in time. “Fortunately the engineer had slackened his speed down to twenty-five

“Discount Those Instruments.”

miles an hour or so, as he always did when going through the town where Wilson worked. He ran to the edge of the platform and just as the observation car passed, made a lunge for the brass railing—and held on. "He afterwards told me that it nearly tore him to pieces, but he stuck, gained breath and pushed open the door. He didn’t wait to call the conductor, but grasped the bell cord and jerked the signal for the engineer to stop. “The express slackened its speed and finally came to a complete standstill. The conductor came running back through the cars to learn who had dared to pull the bell cord. "Then the dispatcher explained. The conductor told the engineer, and, between them, they arranged a plan. The train would back into the station and Wilson would connect the wires and inform the superintendent, who would send a train from the other direction to trap the robbers. “The plan worked—just so far. The other train was sent, but the robbers must have been ‘wise’ that something was wrong. They skipped. The relief crew found the pile of ties, but no train wreckers. "Wilson’s presence of mind got him a new job, twenty dollars a month more, I believe. He’s chief dispatcher now.”

Awful Slaughter on Rail.

The appalling toll of human life exacted by American railroads is reflected in the fact that the Interstate commerce commission receives dally from responsible officers of interstate carriers an average of 30 telegraphic reports of accidents Involving the loss of one life or more. The reports are made in response to an order for the commission which became effective July 1. Generally the railroads are complying with it

Few Wills Broken.

Between four thousand and five thousand wills are filed, for probate each year. While many are contested, but few are rejected. It is very difficult to break a will. The records In this (New York) county show that during the last few years but a very small percentage of the will contests have succeeded.—New York Sun.

railroad employes, writes H»L. Rennlck in the Chicago Tribune. I once knew a station agent and telegrapher at a little town in Missouri, a number of years ago, who j and thwarted a

FIRST VISIT TO EUROPE

EVERY summer thousands Of Americans make their initial trips across the Atlantic to tour , Europe. All bad sailors know the moment when it is best to seek a chair and keep still, if the situation is to be saved. The man in the picture has reached this stage. All would probably be well had not the woman with the baby dropped the feeding-bottle. Her maid, in the background, Is past hope. The man’s duty is clear. But, then if he moves? One of the most interesting features of an American’s first European tour is the comparison of transatlantic customs in hotel and railway with those of the land of the brave and the home of the free. Many things that to the seasoned traveler have become com- 1 monplace long ago strike the tourist on his Initial trip as highly amusing. CoL Brotherton of Kentucky, for instance, had been recommended to a quiet Italian hotel. Returning late from San Carlo, where almost every tourist goes on his first night in Naples, he was amazed in passing along the corridor to see outside nearly every door in addition to the boots on the floor sundry dress skirts and trousers hung upon large branching brass hooks. A garcon who was sitting in the corridor tried in broken English to explain it was the custom for travelers to leave the clothing they had worn during the day outside their doors to be brushed. But the colonel was incredulous. “Never saw anything like it in America,” he said. “Likely as not it’s some sort of skin game, and all those fools will wake up in the morning and And their clothes stolen. Not I! I’ll brush my own.”

Wouldn’t Leave Her Key. Miss Clarissa Blythe of Vermont was perfectly astounded at having her chambermaid rush after her as she carefully deposited the key of her room in her beaded reticule, and exclaimed: "But, madam! Please leave your key beside the door. I must have itto go in and do your room.” “But where is yodr passkey?” ahe demanded. “I have none,” the maid replied. “See,” she said, pointing to the hook at the side of the door, the same hook dedicated to skirts and trousers, "you must hang your key here when you go out" An Englishman who was sailing from Boston not long ago was reduced to one pair of really comfortable boots. These he placed outside his door to be polished on the eve of his departure, and be woke in the cold gray dawn to find his boots gone and not a porter in the hotel who could trace them. He was forced to descend in his slippers and buy a new pair of stiff, uncomfortable boots to wear to the steamer, and to this day be has not ceased to curse American hotels. In Germany one of the up to date hotels has a little locker in every guest room between the bedroom and the corridor, with a door on either side. He opens the door in his room, puts In his trousers and boots or whatever clothing needs attention. The valet passes along the corridor, opens each door with his own pass key, and removes the clothing to brush it, returning it and locking the door carefully upon it, and when the owner awakes he has only to open his little door, and there are his clothes all ready for him. The European bed always strikes the uninitiated American traveler as a huge joke. In France they commence to impress him with their height and narrowness and he looks dubiously at the enormous Turkey-red cotton "couvre-pled” of' eiderdown which looks something like a mountain; and he wonders how be is ever going to bear all that extra weight on his person. But when he has slipped between the sheets and the grateful

warmth communicates Itself to his <pld bones —If it is winter they are sure to be like icicles —he discovers that it is deceptively light and deliciously comfortable. In Switzerland thp beds attain a little more height, but it is in Germany that they become |>f such an altitude as to necessitate a pair of steps to mount them. Tricks Played on the Traveler. Sometimes in European hotels the tourist is taken solemnly to one side and told that by paying a few francs or lire more he can have the royal bedchamber. A certain hotel in Sorrento, where a dozen or more royal heads have lain in one season, is even more generous, for if the rooms are empty they make no extra charge. And the traveler lives to recount when he is back on his native heath how his cheek pressed the same pillow that had been used hy the little queen of Holland or the king of Saxony. But that is not a purely European custom, for to this day in a certain Boston hotel the sacred chamber occupied by Prince Henry of Prussia is listed at about $lO a day more than any other room in the house. Most American travelers on their first trips abroad are astounded when upon the day of their departure from a hotel they are presented with their bill by the head waiter instead of by the landlord or by his chief clerk. - But it is the custom and this important individual is thus assured of his tip. The traveler thinks it a little strange that coffee is always extra at luncheon and dinner, but when he orders coffee, at an average of S or t cents extra, the cup, it is freshly made expressly for him and is not the coffee that has stood for hours in the pot.' Another thing -that strikes him as funny is the fact that there are elevators to go up, but that he cannot use them to go down. One European sign in a small hotel reads: “No one is allowed to descend in the elevator but invalids and the aged.” In the larger hotels the lifts are used as they are in America, but so leisurely are they that one usually prefers to run downstairs on shank’s mare. r Economy in lights is another trait, and where, as usual, there are two electric lights In the. room. one., oyer the bed to read by and another in the ceiling, one cannot be turned on without turning the other off- But a young American engineer solved the difficulty by unscrewing the porcelain cap of the switch and sticking In a hairpin to make the connection. He had two lights, and no one was ever the wiser. And his conscience? It never troubled him at all; it .was. one of those elastic ones you read about It does not take long to remember, after you once know, that if you want to buy salt in Italy you must go to a tobacco shop to get it; for both salt and tobacco are government monopolies. And it > a pleasure to learn that In France you can buy stamps and postcards at tobacco shops, which are under government jurisdiction there as well. Also that in both countries you can send telegrams at as low a rate as 14 cents for ten words, and that special delivery letters will go for 6 cents in Paris if you remember to write across your envelope "Pneumatique,” which means that .the letter will be shunted through a pneumatic tube in no time at all, and delivered almost as soon as a telegram.

Hard Luck.

"I hear the play you wrote Was a failure.” “Yea. I always was unlucky." , “Do you think It was merely a case of luckr “Certainly it was. It happened that the leading critic of the town in which the play was produced wore a pair of new shoes to the opening perfort** ance. How was it possible In the circumstances. for us to got a fair write, up?”