Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 293, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 December 1913 — Page 2

JOHN RAWN PROMINENT CITIZEN

by EMERSON HOUGH

THE MISSISSIPPI BUBBLE; 51-10 OR FIGHT. ILLUSTRATIONS

SYNOPSIS. John Rawn is born In Texas. Early In life he shows signs of masterfulness ano inordinate selfishness. He marries Laura Johnson He Is a clerk in a St. Louis railway office when his daughter Grace is born. Years later he hears Grace s lover, a young engineer named Charles Halsey, speak of a scheme to utilize the lost current of electricity. He appropriates the idea as his own and induces Halsey to perfect an experimental machine. He forms a company, with himself as presldent, at a salary of SIOO,OOO a year and Halsey as superintendent of the works at a salary of $5,000. Rawn takes charge of the office in Chicago. Virginia Delaware is assigned as his stenographer; She assists in picking the furniture and decoration for the princely, mansion Rawn has erected. Mrs. Rawn feels out of place in the new surroundings. Halsey goes , to New York with Rawn and Miss Delaware to explain delays in perfecting the new motor to the impatient directors. He gets a message that a deformed daughter has been born to his wife. Grace Rawn. Rawn bargains with Miss Delaware to wear his jewelry and appear in public with him, as a means to help him in a business way. Rawn Is fortunate In market speculations, piles up wealth and attains prominence. He frets because his Wife does not rise with him In a social way. He gives her a million dollars to leave him. He asks his daughter, Mrs. Halsey, to ’take charge of hfs household. Grace moves to Graystone hall, and Halsey continues to live alone In the cottage near the works.

CHAPTER X.—Continued.

Rawn asked nothing better than this idea. It was beautiful, and he valued it over all his many and various other ventures. He could let his silent partner put other men out of work; and so these could be rehired at such price as he himself cared to set. He saw the time approach when he would be able to retail at a price, remote from his silent, tireless partner’s labors, merchantable packages of power, to feed a cart, a plow, a wheel of any sort; power to lift and labor, to toil ceaselessly without remonstrance. It was and is a splendid dream. Its bearing is as you be Rawn or Halsey. That power shall labor for or against mankind as ourselves shall say. Shall we blame ourselves, or John Rawn. in this republic, that he saw on ahead only limitless personal pow j er, limitless gold, jewels, wine, women, personal indulgence of any sort that appealed to him? Shall we blame Halsey for dreading the issue of these plans, delaying them all he could; clinging to the belief that the earth was the Lord’s and the fullness thereof; and that the Lord gave it to all mankind? And shall we blame the stockholders for being impatient at renewed delays? The wire transmission was installed, making every man in the International rich. Yet every man in the secret of the real ambition of this company burned inwardly at this enforced secrecy and this unseemly delay. The mysterious factory at the edge of the great inland city still was silent. The directors raged. They wanted to drain to the last drop the strength even of this tireless giant. They wanted to begin to bottle, measure and sell, sell for ever, the very force which holds the spheres in their places In time we shall perhaps see completed what these men planned. There is no logical reason why, if one planet can be owned by a John Rawn or so, yet others should not For a long time Jim Sullivan, foreman at the factory of the International, wondered and pondered as to the real intent of these strange machines which he saw little by little growing up under the uncommunicative direction of the superintendent, Halsey. He had never seen anything like them, with their vast colls of insulation, their intricate cogs and wheels, their centrally-hidden huge glass jars, and the long, toothed ridge, like a delicate metal comb, which surmounted the top of each. There was something mysterious about it all. He was sure that Halsey did something with these machines when the men were not about. The very air seemed throbbing with some tense quality of mystery. The men themselves were suspicious, irritable. Never was the air in any factory more surcharged alike with ignorance and with anxiety. Man after man, good mechanic though he was, quit the place simply because he did not know what he was doing. The feeling of mystery was tense, oppres sive. On one certain Sunday morning Jim Sullivan strolled over to the vacant factory He knew that the superintendent had spent almost the entire night there working alone on one of these mysterious machines. It stood there now. And —yes! it was different from what it had been when Sullivan last saw it! It was now apparently complete, so far as he could tell. There was no one near it. Halsey had gone home, to bed. Of late he bad been very tired, pale, haggard; and he always was at work in the factory, when good men slept, and knew lightwinged dreams. Jim Sullivan stood now looking at the grim, uncanny machine, hands in his pockets, wondering. He looked about him. auperstitiously. There seemed to be something in the air. he could not explain what. He turned looking behind him. and tiptoed to the front door, where Tim, Carney, the blue-coated guardian, stood leaning against the wall "Tim!*’ be whispered, although there was none to bear. ’’Come on in here'” j •What is it Jim?*’ asked the watch

“I dunno; that’s why I’m callin’ you.” “Has anny wan broke into th’ place?” "Not as I know, but somethin’s happened here. I’m figurin’ ’twas the boss done it. Come in and have a luk, now. He’s gone home.” They stepped gingerly on across the floor, along the row of unfinished machines, and paused at the one farthest from the door, which had excited Jim’s curiosity.

"Here’s where the boss worked all last night!” whispered the foreman hoarsely. "’Twas daybreak when he come home, an’ he was all in. He’s been workin’ on her before ‘ now, I know that. I’m thinkip’ she’s about done, belike!” . ■

"Whatever kind of a spook Joint is this, anyhow, Jim?” demanded the watchman. “What’s she for, do ye think now?” They two, bullet-headed, hairy, heavy and powerful, stood looking at this contrivance, whose growth through many months they had been watching. The value of it either could measure in comprehensible terms. It was worth ten thousand dollars to either of them who would —and could —tell a certain man how it was made. "I dunno what she’s for,” answered Jim slowly, “but I’m thinkin’ it’s no good at all. It’s the devil, maylike. Not that she’s so big neither. I could almost turn her over with a pinch bar.” He pointed to an arm, or lever, which stood at the side of the machine. "She looks somethin’ like one o’ them drills I used to run- in th' tunnel, time Hogan was mayor, do ye mind ? Whin we wanted to- throw her in we pushed down an arm, somethin’ like this.”

“Sure, Jim, ’tis you have the head fer machines. I dunno about thirn at

"Do You Mind That Now?"

all,” rejoined Tim, scratching his head. “But ’tis a shame we can’t throw her in, now. Manny a time I’ve wondered what ’twas all about in here. Why shud strangers be so anxious as

“She luks like a patent gate In a flnce, as much as annytblng else,” commented Jim. "But as fer throwin’ her in, how cud we? She’s attached to nothin’ at all, so there’s nothin’ to throw her into. She’s got no wire or cord runnin’ to her unless belike it comes up through the flure. She looks like she was some sort of motor, but how she’s to run I dunno. Now if she was geared to annything, you cud throw her in, mostlike, by this thing here. It luks like she was done, and if she is, I don’t know why the boss wud go away and leave the roof open over her.” He pointed to a sliding window In the roof directly above thp machine. He then reached out and swung some of his weight upon the end of the engaged arm or lever. Then, to the joint surprise of the two observers, a very singular thing forthwith occurred.

“What happened, as nearly as either of them later could describe it. might have been called a duplication in large of the phenomena of Halsey’s original motor, with which he burst the fan <n the railway office at St. Louis. There was a low crackling in the air. a dancing series of blue flame points along the toothed ridge. Then began a low purr, as of a motor in full operation. They could see sparks emitted, somewhere at the interior of the intricate machinery A living, splitting, crackling roar filled the air about them—the roar of the shackled river, far away, raging at the violence done it! A projecting shaft, fitted with a pulley head, began to revolve, taster and faster, until its, speed left it apparently motionless Something had happened, they knew not what The machine was alive! Some force seemed to come down out of the air. to locate itself somewhere within this Intricate mechanism. They stood, two bullet-headed, hairy, poverful men, looking at wbat they,, had done.

"Do ye mind that now?" gapped Jim ; Sullivan, and wrenched at the lever, restoring it to Its original position , The purring of the motor ceased, the blue sparks disappeared, the roar sub- | s*ed growlingly. \

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER, IND.

“What was It?" demanded Tim Car ney. “Throw her in again, Jim!” "Not on yer life!” gasped Jim Sullivan. “I dunno what ’tis, but I’ll take no chances with the divil an his works, on a Sunday .leastways. There’s somethin’ wrong in here',’ I’m tellin’ you, Tim. What made her go, I dunno. She's under power, same like a compressed air drill—but where’d she git her power?—the divil’s in It that’s all, Tim. I’m tbinkin’ the best we can do is to git away from here. Come, shut the dure —an’ watch it Me, I’m goin’ to the praste ag’in this very day! I see now what that felly wanted!” Jim Sullivan locked the door and left his friend guarding it; then hurried acrossthe street to the superintendent’s cottage. Mrs. Sullivan, busy there about her morning duties, would have stopped him, but Jim would have no denial, and hastening up the stairs to Halsey’s bedroom, impetuously demanded entrance. Halsey, drawn, haggard, unshorn, greeted.him, half sitting up in bed. “What’s wrong, Jim?” he demanded. “Has anybody got into the works?”

“Hush, boy!” said Jim, his finger on his lips. “You need tell me nothin’. But I know what it’s all about.” Halsey sat looking at him dumbly. “Fire me if you like, my son,” went on Jim Sullivan. “ ’Tis true I’ve done what 1 had no right to do. Mr. Halsey, sir, I thro wed her in!” “You did what?” “I throwed her in. An' she worked —she worked like a bird! Then I throwed her out ag’in an’ come away an’ locked the door. Tim was there, too. Tis none of my But I’ve come to tell you the truth, an’ you can fire me if you like! But it’s hell, it’s harnessed hell ye’ve got in there. An’ others want to stale it.”

By this time Halsey was getting into his clothing and only half listening to what his foreman said.

“What kills me is, I can’t see how she works! She runs by herself all the time, chuggin’ like a fire ingin. But where does she git it?” Halsey made no answer. He was pale as a dead man. A few moments later they were hurrying down' the stair, across the street, and through the long, deserted room with Its rows of gaunt enginery. They stood before the completed receiver, whose motor so perfectly had caught the power of the free second current from the air —Jdin Rawn’s costless, stolen power.

"What makes her go?” s demanded Jim Sullivan. "Fer what is the hole in the roof yon?”

Halsey turned to him. "it’s the Mississippi river makes it go, Jim. If we didn’t leave a hole in the roof how could the river go through? Now do you understand?’’ “My boy,” said Jim kindly, laying a large hand on his shoulder, “you’re off your nut, of course. I don’t blame ye, workin’ so long as ye have, an’ worryin’. ’Tis a rest ye must be takin’ now, or they’ll be puttin’ ye in the bughouse fer fair!” “You’re right!” said Halsey. “I think I’ll just take a little ride this afternoon. Jim, come here and help me. I wrnnt to see if we can charge up this electric car. If I can do that, Jim, my boy. I’ll be richer by six o’clock than either of us ever dreamed of being!” Shaking his head dubiously, the big foreman lent a hand, and between them they managed to roll the car into place. “Want to throw her down again. Jim?” demanded Halsey, motioning to the lever and grinning. That worthy shook his head.

“I’m scared of her, Mr. Halsey, that I am!”

"And well you may be!” was Halsey’s Comment. He himself threw down an arm on the opposite side of the receiver. This time the motor did not resume its purring, the shaft did not revolve.

“She’s bruk!” said Jim. Halsey only pointed to the blue tips of toothed ridge. "No,” said he, “she’s only doing another part of her work. The power is going into the auto’s motor instead of this. Two forms, you see, Jim.”

A faint spark showed at the transmitter connection. “Come!” said Halsey. “Let her work! We don’t need to now.”

That afternoon, Charles Halsey took his seat at the steering wheel of an electric car which had been charged with power taken from the air without wire transmission. His task was done. He had accomplished what he had started out to do. Throbbing beneath him was power, the power of yonder distant silent partner, power taken from the earth, and the air, and the water: power of the elements; and

MADE IT MATTER OF RECORD

Mark Twain Bound to Satisfy Hl» Better Half That He Had Obeyed Her Injunction.

Samuel L. Clemens Immensely admired Grover Cleveland, also his young wife, and his visits to Washington were not Infrequent. Mrs Clemens wee not always able to accompany him. and he has told us how once (it was his first visit after the president s marriage) she put a little note in the pocket of his evening waistqoa,t. which he would be sure to find when dressing, warning him about hlo deportment. Being presented to Mrs Cleveland, he handed her a card on which he had written. "He didn’t," and asked her to sign her | name below those words. Mrs. Cleve-

power now ’definite, segregant. merchantable!?

Halsey kicked in the gear and rolled out into the street. Pale, preoccupied, he hardly noted where he was going; but found a maze of ill-paved, crowded thoroughfares; until at length he reached the West side boulevard system. Thence he crossed the river to the east, and hea’ded north. Strbng and true, under a limit charge, the motor purred beneath him. The mechanism of the car operated without defect. Nothing in the least seemed wrong at any particular. nni did the ear in any particular differ in appearance from others of its humble and inconspicuous class. None the less, midway of one of the large parks along the lake shore, young Halsey suddenly disengaged the gear, cut off his power, and applied the brakes. He was perhaps half way from his home on the journey to Graystone hall. . . . For a little time

he sat in the car. pale, almost motionless, deep in thought; jcareless of the passing throng-Of other vehicles, t|ie occupants of which regarded him curiously. Then, suddenly, he threw in the gear again, turned on the current; and, quickly turning about, retraced his course. He had been gone less than an hour when he stood once more at the curb of his cottage near the factory in the western suburb of the city.-

“So you’re back again, sir!” commented Jim Sullivan. “An’ did ye get all that sudden wealth ye was tellin’ me about, at all?”

Halsey sat staring at him for a time. “No,” said he, “I’ve changed my mind. I’m going to wait a while.” The foreman turned and tiptoed off to find fils wife. “Annie,” said he. his voice low and anxious, “try if ye can get the boss to bed, an’ make him sleep as long as ever he can. He’s goin’ off his head, an’ talkin’ like a fool. Somethin’s wrong here, that’s sure! Hell’s goin’ to break loose, in yon facthr’y some day. But whativer comes, the boss is crazy!”

CHAPTER XI. 0 The Baker’s Daughter. A large part of our ambitious American population is prone boastfully to ascribe its origin to one or other of those highly respectable, if really little known monarchs to whom is commonly accorded the foundation of old world nobilities. We have built up a pretty fiction regarding so-called blue blood, on the flattering, but wholly unsupported supposition that royal Qualities are transmissible to the thirtieth and fortieth generation; so that ’tis a poor American family Indeed cannot boast its coat of arms, harking back to royal days of Charlemagne or William the Conqueror. It may be. Their majesties were active, morganatically at least no doubt, much-mar-ried men!

But continually there arise disturbing instances to upset us in our beliefs regarding aristocracy. There are so very many worthless aristocrats, in whom the theory of descent did not work out according to accepted schedule; and there are so very many worthy but wholly disconcerting men who are not aristocrats —so continually do Lincolns arise who, claiming nothing of birth or breeding, show themselves to be possessed of manhood, show themselves, moreover, masters of those instincts and practices which go with the much-abused title of gentleman: a matter in which not all descendants of Charles or William join them. It is well known among theatrical managers that no real lady can imitate a real lady. The highest salaries in ladies’ theatrical roles are paid to ladles who are not ladies, but who play the parts of ladies as they think ladies really would act in actual life. If you seek a woman to carry off a gown, one to assume such really regal air as shall bring the name of William or Charlemagne impulsive to your lips, find one still owning not more than one of the requisite three generations which are set as the lowest limit for the production of a gentleman or a lady. (TO BE CONTINUED.)

Ancient Definitions of Beauty.

He used to say that personal beauty was a better Introduction than any letter; but others say that It was Diogenes who gave this description of It, while Aristotle called beauty "the gift of God;” that Socrates called It “a short-lived tyranny;" Theophrastus, “a silent deceit;” Theocritus “an Ivory mischief!” Carneades, “a sovereignty which stood in need of no guards.”— Diogenes Laertius, A. D 200

land protested that she couldn’t' sign It unless she knew whaf It was he hadn’t done; but he Insisted, and she promised to sign It if he would tell her Immediately afterward all about it She signed, and he handed her Mrs. Clemens’ note, which was very brief. It said: “Don’t wear your arctics in the White House:” Mrs Cleveland summoned a messenger and had the card she had signed mailed at once to Mrs. Clemens at Hartford.—Albert Bigelow Paine. In Harper’s Magazine.

Try the Left.

"I often wish, - ’ mourned Senator Bpouter, “that I were ambidextrous th»-ri I cpuld go on writing my speeches without being interrupted by these pestiferous handshakers "

FARMER SHOULD LOOK AHEAD IN HOG RAISING

By J. W. Schawb,

' . Experiment Station. Purdue University Agricultural Extension.

The man who wishes to succeed in hog raising must think at least a year ahead and generally it pays to think three or four years ahead. About the first thing to do is to determine about how many hogs can be profitably raised on the farm in a year. This is generally limited by the amount of suitable hog feed that the farm can produce annually, under average conditions, such as corn, pasture, milk, etc.

To determine the number of sows to keep for breeding depends largely on the number of pigs that can be raised from each sow or gilt. The number of sows also depends a great deal on the wisdom of selection, feeding and the care that is given them.

There are times when it is best to keep old sows over. It is a common saying among successful hog raisers that a pig from an old brood sow is a month old the day it is born as compared with pigs from gilts. The writer has found in carefully conducted experiments that the average birth weight of pigs from 56 gilts was 2.0 pounds, while the average birth weight of pigs from 40 two-year-old pows was 2.5 pounds. Selecting the Brood Sow. In selecting old sows to breed again, carefully weed out those sows that have proven themselves unprofitable. The kind to weed out are those that produce small litters, the nerv-

PUFFBALLS AS FOOD

By C. A. Ludwig, Botanical

V. ment, Purdue University Experiment Station, Purdue University Agricultural Extension.

The epicure has long been wont to tickle his palate with mushrooms, for which he must pay a good stiff price or pick up a mess occasionally as they may be found in the fifelds or woodlands. At the same time he has been passing by some of the best dainties to be found, under the mistaken idea that they are unfit to eat. These are the common puffballs, which occur in this section of the country in great profusion, both of species and of .individuals. They range in size from the little fellows about the size of a pea to the monsters as big as a peck measure or even larger; arid all of them are not only edible, but, with the exception of some of the small forms which grow on decaying wood and absorb its flavor, they are also delicately flavored and eminently satisfying from the epicure’s standpoint.

For the farmer or other rural dweller who has an opportunity to gather them, puffballs offer a great many advantages over the much more highly esteemed mushroom. In the first place, they are in many cases much larger and much more abundant, so that it is much easier to collect a good mess. In fact, with some kinds, a single

Giant Puffball. (Edible)

specimen will furnish enough to last several persons for some days, The one figured In the cut in Its present dried condition in the herbarium of the Botanical department of the Purdue experiment station meaatfFes eight Inches across. A second advantage of puffballs over mushrooms Is found In the fact that they do not spoil so readily. Whereas mushrooms can, with difficulty, be kept several hours or a day In the ice brix, puffballs under the same conditions will keep two or three days or even more. The most Important advantage, however, from the housewife’s point of view Is probably in the greater variety of ways in which puffballs can be served. The flesh has more body than that of niushrooms and It does not shrink or darken so much in cooking. These rung! make a nufet appetizing dish

Department of Animal Husbandry, Purdue University

Depart-

ous, restless kind, the careless mother, the pig eater, poor milkers, which are often shy breeders, and the careless, sluggish movers that lie on their pigs. The sow to keep is the motherly sow that has proven herself to be an excellent breeder and not one that has the least masculinity in her appearance. It is a mother you are looking for. First-class brood sows do not have a tendency to lay on flesh rapidly. They are loosely built, roomy and have a strong tendency to growthiness. Of course, in weeding out some of the old sows, gilts must be selected to take their places. To select the best gilts is not a very difficult task if the owner has marked those which have been farrowed by the best sows. They should, by all means, be growthy, good rustlers, feminine in appearance and have at least six good teats on a side. It is generally a good practice to select gilts from large litters, because “like -begets like” In hogs as well as' in other classes of livestock. It is a fact that the size of litters of the average corn belt sow is none too large anyway.

Wheif it comes to mating select a rather closely built, stropg, active male that has a decidedly masculine appearance. By carefully selecting the brood sows from year to year it will require only a few years until the farmer has a very profitable herd.

prepared in any of the ways in which mushrooms are. prepared, * and they can be cooked in a number of other ways, or served as a salad with of the ordinary dressings. Puffballs are ready to use as soon as they are large enough to gather, and remain good until the Interior begins to turn yellow. A slight change in color is not accompanied by an appreciable deterioration in flavor, but the flesh is apt to be somewhat.tough. They may be gathered aytd kept for some days in an ice box until they can be used. In collecting, but one caution is necessary, and that is in connection, with mushrooms. In the early stage they resemble somewhat the early stage of some of the mushrooms, and some of the latter could easily be collected as puffballs. Once In a long while, a poisonous mushroom might thus be picked up. A safe way is not to take the smallest ones. If they be taken, however, they can easily be told from mushrooms by cutting them in two lengthwise through the center. Mushrooms are more or less hollow around the stem and show their structure clearly when split in this manner, while puffballs are uniformly white and solid. When we consider the fact that In-

diana is in the heart of the puffball region and that there is scarcely a farm In the state that does not at some time during the growing season produce an abundance of these excellent fungi, it seems that they should no longer be among the despised and neglected plants on our farms but should be appreciated at their true worth and utilized accordingly.

INDIANA STILL PROGRESSING

Supt. G. I. Christie Proud of Advancement Made Along Rural Educational Lines by Hoosiers.

In an address before the state conservation commission at Indianapolis, October 25, Prof. G. I. Christie, superintendent of the Purdue university agricultural extension uepartment, expressed his satisfaction yrifh the present status of agricultural education in Indiana, declaring that it prophesied only further progress for the rural community of the state. "The county agent work, the club work among the boys and girls and the teaching of agriculture in the rural and town schools clearly shows the trend of the times—insistence upon die spreading of the gospel of better agriculture to old and young alike, so that Its benefits may be lasting and personal," he said. “Farmers appreciate the value of the principles being taught by Pun due’s extension workers, and realize that the experiments at the Purdue experiment station will show methods by which their own crops can be increased. In a recent contest in Randolph county, in which 38 farmers participated, each growing five acres of corn, a yield of 110 bushels per acre was reached. The six farmers who received premiums each grew more than 100 bushels per acre—and this in a state where the average yield is less than 40 bushels per acre."