Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 153, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 June 1915 — Page 3

A VISION SPLENDID

By MARY CARTER BLAKE.

(Copyright, 1916. by W. G. Chapman.) Once Abel Day had a dream that he never forgot. From that hour he was a changed man. He did not tell of Ms dream to wife, son or neighbors, but he cherished its details until there was a secret chamber in his mind to which he could repair when fancy so inclined, and revel in its idealism as might a poet, or a painter, or a pure, innocent girl in her first rapt love visions. Abel was a carpenter, earning only a fair living, getting old and only a part of the building contracts going. His son, Alton, he had managed to educate and Alton was cut out for an engineering career. Abel sighed and looked longingly whenever he viewed the spot they called home. Never was there such a site. By rare good fortune he had been able years ago to secure a twenty-acre plat of ground just at the edge of the town. It included a little lake, some timber, a rocky glen, and its highest point overlooked the landscape for ten miles. A more picturesque and commanding spot the whole countryside did not contain. It became the dream .of his life to soine day erect a. house worthy of those magnificent surroundings, a house big enough to take in the poor widowed sister of his wife with her seven little ones, to spend his later years amid the rarest beauties of nature, and this ideal was his .promised land. But the years passed by and the >Old ramshackle cottage remained as it was. Abel got poorer and poorer. His plans for old age began to fade. To keep going he had to raise a few extra vegetables for sale. He book

The Shout Aroused Him.

charge of the tow® opera house to secure an added stipend. Thence, in fact, came his “splendid vision.” Perhaps conditions exactly united to arouse his Imagination upon that special evening. As the manager of the country opera house, he bad to see that it was opened and closed. An opera was being given. It was a brilliant picturesque composition, well delivered and the star, a Miss Amie Winthrop, was the principal Binger. It had been restful and delightful to the old man to listen to her beautiful singing. The company had brought with them some attractive scenery. There was the glamour of vernal beauty combined With palatial magnificence. When the entertainment waß over, old Abel sat down on the stage to rest a bit before turning out the last light. The glare and glitter had made Abel dreamy. He slept There came a vivid vision. It was of the old homestead, replaced by a roomy mansion. There were broad porches, an observation tower. There was a lovely hedge, swings, a tennis court He dreamed that he sat in a „ comfortable hammock, while his little nephews and nieces disported on the lawn. Supreme contentment was his lot Then, suddenly, shrilly, there rang out the appalling scream of—- “ Fire!" The shout aroused him. He ran outside to see the hotel with which the theater connected going up in smoke. Someone spoke of victims Imprisoned on the upper floor. The brave old man breasted the dense smoke to reach the second floor. There he waa driven back by belching flame. He staggered, choked, blinded, to stumble over a senseless-form lying across the landing. It was that of a woman. He had just sufficient strength to lift her and bear her to the street. “The singer—Miss Winthrop!” breathed a bystander and she aroused to wince with pain. Her ankle had ■ been broken in a fall down the thirdstory stairs. She could not walk. The hotel was doomed. “Get a conveyance of some kind,” ordered Abel, still supporting her. “She must have shelter and she is welcome to my poor home, if it’s good enough for her.” "...l-V--:-.■ So, Highlands had a guest Mrs. Day tended the stricken singer as would a mother. Alton, home twice a week, saw her and loved, but silently. The delight of old Mr. Day was to sit evenings and hear the par , tient-singer. She had to cancel her engagement for the season and remained at Highlands for six weeks. , Her bright sympathetic nature won

.to'Sa.'um wit oSS The day she left. Mrs. Day cried over her os though an own daughter were going away. Alton was there. She looked once into his eyes. She read their secret and lowered her own. Then she flung her arms about the old man’s neck. - <vv i “Dear, dear friend!” she said fervently, “I shall never forget you.” And then, between kisses, she whispered in his ear:

“The vision splendid—wait, hope! It shall come true!” and was gone, and with her sunshine seemed to depart from the lonely house. One year went—two years. Alton had secured work with a construction firm, but liberal compensation and a permanent establishment were a long way ahead. He never forgot the beautiful songstress. Mrs. Day mourned for her. The old man recalled her bonny face with love and longing. One stormy day a great cyclone swept through the district The Day family chanced to be in town. When they returned home they found the old house a heap of ruins. Then the old man and his wife sought a temporary home with the widowed sister of Mrs. Day. They were made dearly, welcome, though the flour barrel, was not always fulL It was four months later when an automobile halted outside the lowly home where the old couple fretted and pined to get once more upon an independent domestic footing. A flashing form leaped from the machine. “Father Day!” she cried, “dear, dear mother of mine, the only one I can remember, I am back to you! You are to come —come —come! Oh! the joy of this moment!” Amie Winthrop was so excited she was incoherent. She had won wealth and fame. She bad arranged for a new home for her dear old friends, she said, back in their native village. They must come and see it. As they neared old familiar scenes the eyes of Mr. Day became misty. Then, as they turned past a dense grove, there was Highlands. “Look, oh, my cherished dear!’* cried the exultant Amie.

“The splendid vision!” gasped the old man, spellbound. Yes, there, upon the old site, was the mansion he had dreamed of — porches, hedges,' swings, tennis court —all ready for the children! Money had done wonders in the way of speedy construction. “It is your home —yours!” spoke Amie, “and enough behind it to make your last years the best years of your life.” He could scarcely comprehend it all. He could not realize the deep love and devotion of this peerless friend, who had devoted her life to reward him for all he had done for her. The days went by, the children came, then Alton. Amie lingered. She was waiting—waiting for the man she had worshiped for over two years, to tell her that she was to him the one star in his firmament of love!

PROBLEMS OF COMMON LAW

Times Have Changed Bince the Great Authoritlee Wrote Learnedly on the Subject. In the early history of the common law, when recorded precedents were far le'ss numerous than they are today and when learned glosses and commentaries were few, it was mqra nearly possible for an industrious lawyer to know them all. Just as Dr. Samuel Johnson ventured to write a dictionary of the English language out of his own head, so did William Blackstone and James Kent attempt to state the entire common law. He would be a bold and an 111-advised man who would attempt to do either today. In their day it was possible to regard the opinion of a judge in a litigated case as the last word upon the subject of his decision. So, also, the opinions of the few learned commentators, like Coke and Blackstone and Kent, were regarded with much greater veneration than are the opinions of tl\eir modern successors. The modern judges and writers are often compared much to their disadvantage with these-venerable masters of the past. But this is far from being wholly due to the superior learning and ability of the ancients; it is due in part to the greater simplicity of their problem, and in part to their lack of competitors on the top rounds of the ladder.

Cruel Treatment.

Thomas A. Edison smiled when reference was made at a dinner to cruel and barbarous treatment, and said he was reminded of an incident along that line. Some time since a pretty young wife brought suit against her husband for divorce on the grounds of cruelty, and when the case was called the fair petitioner was put on the witness stand. “You say in your petition, madam," interrupted the judge at one interval, “that your husband treated you with great cruelty.” "Yes, sir,” was the soft and meek rejoinder of the witness, “he waa cruel to me very often.” “In what particular way?” asked the judge. “I want to hear some specific cases.” “In many ways,” answered the petitioner. “One of the worst things he used to do was to say things to me on the telephone, and then hang up the receiver before I could answer: hack.”—Philadelphia Telegraph,

EVENING REPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER, iND.

“CHIGGERS” MAKE LIFE MISERABLE

Enter the Large Sweat Fores of the Skin, and Then the Trouble Begins. HOW TO FIGHT THE PEST Flowers of Bulphur an Efficient Prevention—Spraying to Clear Land Area of the Mites—Whore the Pest Is Found —Its Life History.

(Prepared by the United States Department of Agriculture.)

Washington.—The very troublesome, yet exceedingly small red mite, commonly known as “chigger,” or “red bug,” makes life miserable in many portions of the South and portions of the Central states for those who thoughtlessly walk through grass or or other vegetation Infested with these eight-legged pests. Children with tender skins are particularly subject to attacks and the barefoot boy has long been familiar with the itching caused by the chiggers. The mites are not particular as to their place of attack, but choose first the exposed parts of the body. However, when walking through grass in which the mites live, the person is most liable to become infested from the knees down. The chiggers, which are red, and microscopic in size, enter the large sweat tubes or pores of the skin, and as their progress is necessarily slow, from a few minutes’ time to about twelve hours elapse before the chig* ger-infested area becomes painful or causes intense itching. As in the case of any itching irritations, there is danger that the sufferer in scratching with finger nails may open the skin and cause an infection from germs in Ms nails, but no such cases have been recorded so far as known. Where the Pest Is Found.

Chiggers are most abundant and troublesome in the tropics. They are, however, also generally distributed in tixe Gulf states up the Mississippi river to Missouri and Illinois, and through the Atlantic coast states to northern New Jersey. They are most bothersome between the months of June and October, according to the Farmers’ Bulletin by the United States department of agriculture, No. 671, “Harvest Mites, or Chiggers.” Some residents of the infested regions and particularly farm laborers seem to be proof against the toxic effects of harvest mites, and often go with impunity in places overrun with them. This is due primarily to two causes:

Mite Greatly Magnified.

The skin has become toughened through exposure to the sun and weather, or is no longer irritated, due to becoming accustomed to the toxin secreted by the harvest mites. Inflamed spots, due to the presence of the mites under the first layer of skin, are often diagnosed as hives, nettle rash, urticaria or “weals,” and resemble closely the “bites” of fleas and of some mosquitoes. A characteristic of the harvest mite attack is that on the second or third day a minute water blister devel ps in the middle of the mite-infested area. After the subsiding of the inflammation and itching, which takes place after a few days, a small scale or scab frequently forms, leaving on some persons a scar which does not entirely disappear in extreme cases for weeks. Avoid Mite-Infested Areas. The mites attack the most exposed portions of the body first, bat do not seem to be particular in choosing a place of attack. They crawl into the stockings and penetrate the skin about the ankles, frequently below the knee. A period of 18 to 36 hours elapses, after the mites have crawled into the pores of the skin, before they become painful. Sometimes the person affiictted becomes almost frantic from the irritation, and lacerates the skin by too vigorous and frequent scratching. Only in rare instances, however, 1b the result of an attack of chiggers serious. In some localities where the harvest mite is found in great numbers, to walk among blackberry or other shrubbery, or come in contact with grasses or similar herbage along streams or pools on edges of marshes, or under trees near such places, is to invite an attack. It is obvious, therefore, that the best preventive is to avoid exposure. However, if a bath is taken in hot water or water containing salt or strong soap within a few hours after exposure, no ill effects will be experienced. After a longer exposure * bath is practically of no effect. Sulphur Is the best remedy for mites and is also the best preventive of attack. Since the mites usually become

FIRST THROUGH CAPE COD CANAL

The James S. Whitney, first ocean liner to traverse the new Cape Cod canal, through which It passed in one hoar.

attached to the person in walking through vegetation, it has been found, according to the bulletin, that sifting flowers of sulphur into the underclothes from- a little above the knee, downward and into the shoes and stockings, is effective. Napthalene has been successfully used in the same manner, and is considered a safeguard against several forms of man-infesting tropical insect pests.

If a person has been exposed to an attack of harvest mites, an applies tion to the affected parts of a moderately strong solution of ammonia is possibly the best counter-irritant. Bicarbonate of soda or common cooking soda, or saleratus may be substituted in a saturated solution. Similar alkaline solutions would probably also serve in counteracting the insect poison, which is acid. In case the suffering is severe, dilute tincture of iodine or collodion should be lightly applied. Eliminating the Mites. Where a large tract is to be freed of the pest, such as lawns, country grounds, pathways, roadsides, the method recommended by the bulletin is to keep the grass closely cut, the weeds eliminated and useless herbage mowed so as to expose the mites to the sun. In some cases It may be practical to spray the grass and other, plants after cutting with flowers of sulphur or a dilute spray of kerosene emulsion, in which sulphur has been mixed.

Grasses bordering on ponds frequented by cattle, wild blackberry bushes and similar plants, should becut down and destroyed in the vicinity of houses where people are liable to be infested by the mites by passing through them. Cattle, sheep and goats have often been used successfully in keeping down the grass and other vegetable growth which harbors chiggers.

On large estates chiggers may be effectively eliminated by the use of sulphur in dust blowers such as are i used for dusting crops with insecticide powder, or by one of the large sulphur dusters used in spraying orange trees or hops for red spider. These sprayers are capable of throwing a fan-shaped discharge about eight feet wide and effect an even and thorough distribution. The cost of application, allowing 60 pounds of sulphur to the acre, would be $1 to $1.60 per, acre. One man and a team will cover in a day 30 to 40 acres so that the cost of application is not great. The dußter costs from $66 to SBO.

Not a True Insect. Harvest mites are not true insects, but belong to the class of spiders, ticks and the like. The mature mite wanders about feeding on aphides, small caterpillars, and in the case of one species, on the eggs of grasshoppers or locusts. This species hibernates in the soil, or other sheltered locations, and in the spring deposits its eggs, there being only one generation produced in a year. The eggs are laid in the ground, sometimes as many as 400 in one place. They are usually brown and spherical. When the larva, which is microscopic, blood red, and shaped somewhat- like a common tick, hatches, it is circular or ovoid in outline, and each of its three pairs .of legs is tipped with two or three prominent claws. , After the larva become attached to its insect host it grows rapidly, and when full fed, seeks a convenient shelter to change its shape without molting. Within a few weeks it emerges a fullgrown chigger or mite of different shades of red, and with eight legs, instead of six, as found on the larva.

WHEEL BABY AND BE WELL

United States -Public Health Service Adviaea This and Also Other Exercises. Washington.—The United States public health service has issued a warning to people who fail to exercise, and then tells them how to keep from degenerating. “The expectation of life after forty is less than it was 30 years ago,” the health service says. "The muscles, arteries and other, organs of those who as a result of sedentary occupation or Indolence take too little exercise degenerate. Heart disease, kidney disease and other ills follow. % “Take exercise. Take daily exercise. Have a hobby that gets you out of doors. Walk to your business, to your dressmaker's; walk for the sake of walking. Join a walking clpb and keep your weekly score of miles. Keep chickens, make a garden, wheel the baby or p**y golf or any other game, but take two hours' outdoor exercise every day.' -

TALKS UNDER THE WATER

American Inventor Gives Demonstration of Now Telephone in London Theater. London. —Capt. Louis Sorcho, an American Inventor, gave a demonstration at the Empire theater recently of the practicability of a submarine telephone which, after years of experiment, he claims to have so far perfected that by its means a diver in deep water may talk with anyone on the surface. The performance was carried out, under Captain Sorcho’s direction, by a member of the staff of the Evening News, who, putting on the diving dress with helmet, belt and the rest of the ponderous equipment, weighing 266 pounds, had the telephone receivers attached to his ears and descended Into a glass-fronted tank with a depth of about ten feet of water. From this he sent and received messages to the newspaper office and also spoke to spectators apparently without difficulty by means of ordinary Instruments with special attachments. While the demonstrator was in the tank George Graves, the comedian, conversed with him on the telephone, causing amusement by some personal banter.

After two immersions of afloat ten minutes each, the experimenter was released from his helmet and diving accouterments nothing the worse for his experience except that his hands, which were uncovered under water, were very cold. The temperature of the tfater was 46 degrees centigrade.

MISS HALE PEARSON

Miss Pearson Is the daughter of Samuel Hale Pearson, one of the delegates from Argentina to the recent Pan-American financial conference in Washington. Mr. Pearson is a director in commercial enterprises In Argentina which control a capital of $600,000,000. Miss Pearson Is a very pretty girl and attracted much attention during her stay in Washington.

IS THE OLDEST TURKEY OAK

Historic Tree in Georgia Is 22*£ Feet in Circumference and Has Btood for 6Q Years. Atlanta, Ga.—ls the. old turkey oak tree that stands in front of the home of Mr. and Mr». M. L. Mobley, in Social Circle, Ga., could tell its age and history it would be Interesting, especially to the older persons living here, who have known the old tree so long. This tree is a species of oak known by some people as Spanish oak. In Virginia the tree abounds on the high lands and is called turkey oak or chestnut oak. George Garrett says when he was a boy, attending school here, he played marbles under its shade and sat under its limbs, that shaded the yard in front of the schoolhouse that stood about where Mr. Mobley's house now stands. It is 22% feet in circumference, and has stood for 60 years.

River Front a Pearl Bed.

Cottonwood Palls, Kan.—Walter and Charles Whitlock of this city have recently found some very valuable pearls while hunting mussels along the Cottonwood river. One pearl, which the boys have had mounted in a ring, weighs 23 grains and is said to be worth more than SIOO. A fine pearl found by the boys some time ago was traded for a motor car, which they afterwards sold for s4fo.

PROGRESS GOES ON

'#r »ndi ■■• -■ -s#K got, .imtfr.* .jin a.‘a #4*;. . .... - jifi., m^V~ * • t4spNgf' Church Has Prospered Through the Ages, When All Men Spoke of “Failure." la the church disintegrating? la a theme that la pro’d and con'd a great deal in theae times. Failure is the word that is written big in these Jeremiads or aspersions, according to the spirit and motives of the writers. Failure is the best word in the entire history of Christendom. Chriatlanity in the days of St. Paul was to the Greeks foolishness. It was failure. The modern rationalist has the same estimate of .religion. Time and again in the progress of Christianity has it had its obituary read. History ha# proven that at every such time it was only; getting its girth for greater things, through fresh adaptations to the times in which it was working. By ; the dead things of its seeming defeats the church haa progressed in the direction of the widening truth and the expanding horizon of power and influence. They Who see failure for the church today confuse their ideas of the church invisible with the church in concrete form. It was a little girl who the other day remarked that the magnolias were throwing off their winter overcoats. And what a hurst of beauty and bloom came almost immediately! So the church discards its vestments of service, when outworn; its garments of dignity when these have become frayed. But the seamless vesture of the living Christ has never been discarded. This is the mystical element in religion, that which abides apart from time and change, that which is the hidden beauty and form and power and inspiration of faith, that which is quickening and vital, that which is divine and permanent This is the element in religion that has its quality of the eternal, it is Cod in human life and affairs. This never changes. i Light of Life and Truth. John Robinson, in dismissing his little flock upon its perilous voyage to the new world, which, after it had been made gave the voyagers title ever aftei to the designation of Pilgrim Fathers, exhorted them t to believe that God had ever more light to break forth from his Holy Word. This light is the light of life and the light of truth It is the mystical slfekinah ever growing at the altar of humanity in the temple of time. It is the revealing light of progressive civilization that when it discards dead forms, lives on in ever new and engaging aspects. So that, despite all the church shall go through of change and adaptation and all the world shall experience of revolution, the Son of Man will ever find faith Upon the earth.

✓ The failures of the church are at times painful and sometimes cataclysmic. But they are never indicar, tlve of the lessened power of religion In the lives of men, of the withdrawal of the ministry of mercy of Almighty God from mankind. As long as Jesus Christ symbolises the divine in human experience will his life and works add to the testimony of the common consciousness of mankind: “I know that my redeemer liveth.” Failures Need Not Worry. So, the church need not be worried by failures. If any branch or agency of it shall cease to employ its talents to good advantage they will be taken away and given to those who will so employ them. The workers die, toe organizations pass through changes ..radical or subtle, but the work and word of toe Almighty In the uplift of the race goes on forever. The church is not disintegrating, religion is not becoming decadent. In fact they whd have eyes to see, behold toe living ideals of faith as more potent than ever before, even though taking much more practical fashion —as the times demand. The practical ministry of the loaves and the fishes, when transformed by the touch of the divine quality of love, is magnified to meet the needs of all who hunger. The only failure that men are warned against is suggested in toe words, “Hold fast that thou hast, that no man take thy crown.”

Look Aloft.

When a landlubber is climbing rigging for the first time he Is told to “look aloft”—not down. If he keeps his eye fixed on what is above him his nerves are steadied —otherwise the view of a cluttered deck, or of a billowing sea, may confuse or terrify him. It is so in toe moral life. When we “look aloft” with toe clear eye of faith, toward the immovable heavens, we are steadied in purpose, calmed in spirit, and nerved to strenuous ascent; but when, like Peter on Galilee of old, we look down at the surging billows, our courage fails, and we begin to sink in despondency. If we would mount in this world from stage to stage in safety, we must keep “looking unto Jesus, the author and. finisher of our faith.” —Zion’s Herald.

Making Friends.

Blessed §re they who have the gift of making friends, for It is one of God’s best gifts. It involves many things, but above all, the power ofi going out of one’s self, and approelating whatever is noble and loving in another.-—Thomas Hughes. ! I knew a wise man who had for a by-word when he saw men hasten to a concluMon: Sttay a Httlejbatvto, may come to toe end sooner.-* oavou* .-v!"V ■ %-!• .>•