Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 228, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 September 1915 — Page 3

SIGNS AND HENS

By ISADORE BENSHINGHAM.

“Now you’ve done it, Abner!” exclaimed Mrs. Post. “Done what?” demanded her husband crossly, giving the hammer in his hand a last vicious bang across a nail head. “Killed a purple moth —see, witji the head of the hammer, and it’s a bad sign.”

“Sign, nothing!” growled Abner, but wrathfully. "The only sign I’m interested in at the present time is the sign I'm nailing up right here and now, and it says ‘No Trespassing,’ and the first one who questions it gets a dose of salt and pepper.” “You think you’re quite right, Abner?” insinuated Mrs. Post gently. “I know I’m right!” stormed back her better half. “See here, Maria, no milk-and-water sentiment! This creek was on my- land when I bought it, wasn’t it?”

“Yes, Abner, but it’s crooked and cut in on the other side so that neighbor Dodd has near a third of it.” “Let him keep it-; let him keep it! that’s all right!” shouted Abner. “I’ve no objection, but when he sets his visitors to fishing all over it, and his cows wading in to muddy it, and intrudes on my land, let him look out. I’m going to stake it off and set up a barb-wire fence. Then let him and his crowd enjoy the two or three feet of shallow water to their hearts’ content!”

“I* think you’re wrong, Abner,” protested Mrs. Post seriously. “It didn’t used to be this way, but all neighborly and pleasant. I do hope because Mr. Dodd crowed over you a bit when you insisted about there being no .likelihood of a war, and it came, that you won’t harbor up a wicked grievance.”

“Never mind about that,” snapped her husband. “Dodd can’t lord it over me. The sign goes up, and the fence later.”

“And what about the young people?” voiced Mrs. Post, gravely. “Bob

Grabbed Up His Gun and Made Back for the Brook.

Dodd and our Nell are all but engaged. Going to disturb their happiness?” “Yes, I am!” fairly roared Post “If I so much as hear of my daughter encouraging the son of an enemy. I’ll lock her up in a nunnery!” Mrs. Post sighed and turned away. When she got home she had a good crying spell. She knew her husband was in the wrong, and lamented the fact and feared for the outcome. A neighborly row, she realized, was a thing to be dreaded where a man of the set ideas of her arbitrary husband was concerned. Mrs. Post was superstitious. She had imbibed all current old-country lore regarding signs and tokens from her father and mother, and always had a trite and hackneyed saying of a past generation to fit the case of the moment. To kill a purple moth was worse in her estimation than walking under a ladder, or seeing a white horse driven by a girl with auburn hair on a Friday. Her husband was too wrathy to pay more than passing attention to the killing of an insect. “Accidental, anyhow,” he quieted a certain respect for the predictions of his wife by muttering. “There’s no use! Dodd has been setting down on me hard since he got comfortably fixed in a money way, and I’m not going to stand his high and mighty pride! There’s the 1 warning. I pity those who don’t steed it!” But Post’s work was worse than his bite. His spell of jealousy and resentment might have passed by, only the very next day in the choice of selectmen for the township his neighbor, Dodd, was chosen and he was retired. It was clearly explained to him that this was done to give the north district of the township a fair representation, but Post would not have it that way. “Underhand work —mean, sneaking tactics somewhere!” he insisted on believing. Therewith he no longer spoke to Dodd when he met him, and forbade Nell to keep company with “that young sprig of smartness, Bob Dodd.” Once started f career bolstered

up by unworthy prejudice and hatred, the evil elements in the character of the old man began to hold high sway. Dodd always bowed to him when they met, although all he received in return was a cold stare of indifference and contempt. One day Post ran to the house in a great fuss and worry, grabbed up his gun and made back for the brook. He had discovered a small boat and someone in it, fishing well over on his side of the But when he returned he was ashamed of himself. The intruder turned out to be a girl visitor at the Dodd home.

He was uneasy and unhappy, although he tried to appear outwardly firm and satisfied, the day a big load of barbed 'wire and posts arrived. The brook lined the two farms for about a hundred rods. That entire distance Post drove the posts and" strung the barbed wire. “Hope Dodd enjoys his three feet of water front!” he chuckled, coming in to supper. “Where’s Nell?” he asked of his wife, tracing some deep worry in her patient, worn face.

“I’ve got bad news for you, Abner,” replied Mrs. Post gravely. “So? Well, out with it, and be done with it What is it?” “Nell is going to leave home.” “H’m!” muttered Post, glaring uncomfortably, but trying to keep up a. grim, fierce bearing. “Yes; she is visiting my brother at Acton for a day or two, and he is going to get her a position there. Nell loves us, Abner,” added Mrs. Post, trying hard to keep back the tears, "and she won’t disobey you, but she says it will simply break her heart to remain so near the man she loves, and meet him daily, and pass him by as if he were a stranger.” A week went by. In two more days Nell was to leave the home roof. Post did not unbend. He came in one evening looking worn and troubled. The family was absent at the brother of his wife. A heavy rain had set in. They would not be home that night. Post, lonely and full of darker thoughts than -ever, recklessly extended the small glass of cordial he sometimes-iook to half a dozen. Soggy 'and dozing, he went to sleep on the sofa, forgetting even to drive in the cattle from a lowland pit where they browsed all night when the weather was fair.

It was well on towards morning when a thundering knock at the door aroused Post. He went there, blinking and grumbling, to face his neighbor, Dodd.

“Out with you, quick, Post, and help us!” shouted the excited Dodd. “There has been a perfect deluge, and if ws hadn’t got in time to your cattle they’d have been all drowned. We have got to look to things, for the stream is twenty feet over the banks.” Post forgot his enmity in the arduous exertions of the next few hours. His neighbor certainly saved his cattle. All hands sought,rest as the water suddenly subsided, and then, about noon, to the amazement of all the brook ran dry. It was some hours before this mystery was explained. The force of a terrific deluge had broken out a rocky ledge and diverted the water." There would never be a dividing brook on the two farms again. < And with “the water that had passed away” went all the enmity of Abner Post for the neighbor he had misjudged; and Nell did not go away to work, and the barbed-wire fence was rooted up and cast to the void. (Copyright, 1916, by W. Q. Chapman.)

HEART OF ANCIENT EMPIRE

Fertile Highland Valleys That Lie Between Two Towering Mountain , Jr Ranges.

To the east tower the White Cordillera, beyond which molder the miasmatic jungles of the Montana; to the west rise the snowy altitudes we have just traversed, writes Ernest Peixotto, in describing “The Land of the Incas,” in Scribner’s. Between these two ranges lie a succession of highland valleys some 10,000 to 13,000 feet above the sea, each separated from the other by nudos, or knots, of lesser traverse chains of mountains. These valleys in our latitudes would be covered with eternal snow. Here under the tropics they blossom with all the products of the temperate zone, enjoying a cool, invigorating climate and supporting a large population of Indians.

They constituted the heart of the ancient empire of the Incas, that amazing despotism that stunned 1 the Spanish conquerors with the wisdom of its institutions, the splendor and the size of its buildings, the rich produce of its fields, and, above all, with the wealth of its mines of gold and silver and its amassed riches of centuries. When the Spaniard came, Huayna Capac had already extended his dominions as, far north as Quito and as far south as the land of the Araucanian Indians of Chile. Even most of the savage tribes of the Montana owed him allegiance, and only the Pacific bounded his territories to the westward. The center of his empire lay in these high plateaus of the Andes —the fair and fertile valleys of Huaylas and Vilcanota, the bare and bleak plains of Cerro do Pasco and Titicaca’s basin. We were now entering the last named, the most southern of the four, and were then to turn northward to visit the Inca capital, Cusco, the navel of the kingdom, as its name signifies.

Poor Business.

“Did George talk business, last night, dear?” asked mamma. “Yes,” replied daughter. “What did he say?” “That business was rotten!*’ j

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN. RENSSELAER, IND.

TOP NOTCHERS IN MAJOR BASEBALL LEAGUES

Who is the greatest ball player Jn the game today? This question has been asked thousands of times and has caused innumerable arguments and yet remains unsettled. It is almost certain to remain undecided, as experts, newspaper writers and baseball men are unable to agree, writes Oscar C. Reichow in Chicago News. National league men think that certain players in their organization surpass those in the American league, while men in the latter body believe they possess the best in. the game.

Hans Wagner, Johnny Evers, Mordecai Brown, Frank Chance, Ty Cobb, Joe Jackson, Tris Speaker, Ed Walsh, Eddie Collins and Hal Chase have been referred to at some time or other as being the star of all ball players. Fans, and men connected with the game, who admire one of these men still are of the opinion that he is the leader of the lot. Wagner, Cobb, Speaker, Collins and Jackson have probably the strongest right to the reputation owing to their ability to hit, field and run bases. Roger Bresnahan of the Chicago Cubs, who is regarded as one of the smartest ball players in the National

BROOKLYN PICKS UP A STAR

Hailed as Best Hot Corner Artist in international League Last Year T —Hit at .316 Clip.

Joe Schultz is a Brooklyn player who is figured to have a great career in baseball. Joe looks after the third bag for the Superbas and up to date has done the job well. Schultz played with the Rochester team in the International league last year and was hailed as the best hot corner artist in

Joe Schultz.

that classy minor league organization. He hit the ball for .316 and made such a good impression that several of the scouts got on his trail. Brooklyn was fortunate in landing him and Manager Wilbert Robinson thinks he will rank among the stars of the game by another year.

Refuses to Go Back.

Harry Coveleskie, southpaw of the Detroit Tigers, refuses to be a hasbeen. He has come back, and that means the Tigers will be hard to defeat in the American league. They will have four good hurlers to finish the season —Coveleskie, Dubuc, Dauss and James.

Bill Brennan Travels Much.

Umpire-in-Chief Bill Brennan is doing more traveling this year than in any of the many seasons he spent on the diamond. He keeps moving about continually in order to see that his co-workers handle their games in the right manner.

league, paid Hans Wagner a big compliment when he declared that the Pittsburgh shortstop is the greatest ball player the game has ever had and ever will have. Bresnahan does not think baseball ever had a man of Wagner’s ability, and does not think there will ever be a player who will play the game as he has played it for 17 years. The Cub manager Is so strong in his belief that he declared he would not give Wagner for five Cobs, Jacksons Or Speakers. “I have watched Wagner for 17 years and in that time have never seen him make a mistake and no one else has. He started to play the same year I did and because of his natural ability I took an interest in him and watched his work closely. I must say in all truthfulness that I have never seen him do the wrong thing. That may be putting it rather strong, but it is the truth. I have talked with men who have been with him for years and they have told me the same. Tommy Leach was on the Louisville club with Wagner and also at Pittsburgh, and he will confirm what I say. Fred Clarke and Gibson will say the same. They have yet to see him blunder in a play.”*

BASEBALL STORIES

Wallie Schang o£ the Athletics Is to be married soon. * * • Baseball teams at the bottoms of the various percentage columns are in danger of wet feet. * * * The National league race cannot get much closer without causing some sort of a combustion. * * * A 1 Mamaux, the star youngster of the Pirates’ staff, has made good as a singer of Irish songs. • * * Reports have been circulated around the circuit this summer that Ty Cobb’s throwing arm is getting weak. • • * Manager Bresnahan declares it is outrageous that the Cardinals let Arnold Hauser get out of the league. • * * Manager Robinson is not as boisterous as some commanders, but he has his athletes hustling all the time. * * * John Collins has recovered his batting eye, and expects to demonstrate that fact for the balance of the season. • * * Pittsburgh has secured Garry Fortune, pitcher, from Asheville, N. C. Several other clubs would like to get a fortune. J- • * * President Ebbets of the Dodgers is pleased with his boys and thinks that his team has as much chance to win the pennant as kny'clqb. ■mV • * v' The Cleveland team will be composed of youngsters next year, for Terry Turner is the only veteran Lee Fohl now has on his pay roll. * • * How can you dope out anything like this: The Cincinnati Reds, last in the National league standing, are leading the league in batting and fielding. t* * * Johnny Evers denies that he is quarrelsome. Umpires of the National league are now entitled to be heard on the subject, but not aU at once.

GREATEST SLOW BALL

Wise Men of Baseball Never Agreed on Old Question. Hard Hitters Watched for Clark Griffith's Teaser, but Never Seemed Ready for It—Peculiarities of Other Men.

A baseball fan has asked, to decfffie an argument, for the name of the pitcher who, In all baseball history, had the greatest slow ball. That question has been put to the wise men of baseball many times, and they have never agreed. Old Hoss Radbourne, Clark Griffith, Hank O’Day, Virgil Garvin, Christy Mathewson, Otis Crandall, Russ Ford, Fred Falkenberg and Eddie Summers have been named.

Summers, with Detroit in 1907, and part of 1908, had a wonderful slow ball. It was his “knuckler.” After a time gripping the ball tore his finger nails to the roots, and he lost the grip that made him a winner.

There are four good present-day slow-ball hurlers —Russ Ford, with his “soap-bubble” ball; Falkenberg, with his "reverse emery;” Mathewson, with his “fadeaway,” and Crandall, with his “snake curve.” Crandall went to the majors at an age when most pitchers are nearly all in and his arm was none 100

strong. He was a wonder for a few innings, and McGraw used him to finish games for faltering fast-ball pitchers. Batters say Crandall’s slow ball floats up as big as a balloon, but when hit won’t go anywhere. The trouble is, watchful batters can tell when the ball is coming, for Crandall has to

Clark Griffith.

expose his peculiar grip of the ball when preparing for delivery. Ford mixes his slow ball with speed and the “spitter.” Falkenberg says he copied his slow one from Virgil Garvin when both were with Pittsburgh. Falky grips the ball far back in the palm of his hand, holding it between the butt of his thumb and the palm and releasing the pill without friction, so it hardly revolves as it sails to the plate. Matty’s fadeaway breaks in on top of the bats of right-hand batters so even if they bit it they cannot send it far. Batters always watched for Clark Griffith’s slow one, but they never seemed ready for lb Griff had an uncanny knack of pitching just what the batter did not want.

Feds Sure of Compton.

The officials of the St. Louis Federal league are quoted as saying that despite Pete Compton’s sale to the Boston'Braves be will be with the Sloufeds next year. \ They apparently are quite confident {that the reserve clause in the contract he signed with Kansas City and which is transferred to Boston can be broken, but that has yet to be proved.

QUERY OF AN IDAHO MAN

~K sports writer took a friend from Idaho out to the game at the Polo Grounds. “That, ’ said the sports writer pointing to the Detroit outfield “is the greatest outfield in baseball.” Veach muffed a fly. Cobb made a weak throw trying to cut off a run. Crawford misjudged a single, making it a triple. “You'll see some great baserunning today,” the sports writer said later. “Cobb and Maisel in the same game. Great stuff. Both clubs are good on the sacks.” A little later the Yank base runners threw the game away by boneheaded base-running. The game over, the man from Idaho turned to the baseball writer and said* “Do you thipk you’ll like writing baseball, when you get aocustomed to it?’’

IN CANNING SEASON

SECRET OF BUCCESS IN “PUTTING UP” SUPPLIES. Absolute Sterilization Must Be Obtained —Best and Easiest Methods of Getting the Best Results From Fruit That Is Used. If anybody appreciates the kindness of Mother Nature It is the practical housekeeper. This is especially true In summertime when by her bountiful store of. fruits and vegetables she increases the housekeeper’s store at little cost and contributes much to reduce her labor. There are several methods of canning, and the secret of success in each is absolute sterilization. The best and easiest methods of canning are cooking the fruits in jars in an oven; cooking the fruits in jars in a steamer or in boiling water, and stewing the fruit before it is put into the Jars. Glass is the most satisfactory jar to use in canning. Glass jars are becoming so universally in favor that they are taking the place of tin cans for everything; even for tomatoes. They are more economical than tin, for although the glass costs more in the beginning, it lasts and can be used over and over again. While there are many kinds of jars, the preference should usually be given to those with wide -hfbuths. In canning fruits or jelly it is important that the fruits or berries should not be over-ripe. Fruit for canning should be fresh, solid and not over-ripe. If over-ripe some of the spores may survive the boiling and fermentation takes place in a short time. In preparing the fruit remove all stems, then peel with a silver knife, core or remove the seeds or pits as the case may be. Peaches, pears or apples may be kept from discoloring if they are dropped as they are pared into cold water to which a little vinegar or lemon Juice may be added. Canned Pears.— -Twenty-four Bartlett pears, eight cupfuls water, two cupfuls sugar. Bartlett pears are the best for canning. Put the water and sugar into a preserving kettle. Let the sirup come to boiling point and skim off the froth If any rises. While the sirup is heating carefully halve, peel and core the pears, being careful not to use those that are over-ripe or imperfectly shaped. Drop pieces Into a basin of cold water until all are pared. Put the halved pears into the boiling sirup, but do not stir. Take a large roasting pan with handles and place in it as many sterilized canning jars as it will hold. Pour some tepid water in the pan to a depth of about two inches, and place the pan on the side of the stove. The water will get hot and keep the Jars warm. Sterilize the rubber rings and covers. By this time the fruit will be boiling. When the pears commence to lose their hard whiteness they are ready to take off. Lift out pieces separately with a spoon and put them into the hot jars. Fill Jars and cover with the sirup; fill even with the top, put the rings and covers on and screw tight.

For Cream Dressings.

All white or cream dressings are made by blending the butter with the flour, then stirring it rapidly into the boiling milk. Use white pepper when making the dressing and boil it in a double boiler. Keep it warm, and thin with cream if too stiff when done, or fold in the white of egg, whipped to a stiff froth. ' ' A teaspoonful of vinegar to a quart of flour if added with the ice water, gives the much-desired flaky appearance to fruit pies.

Tomato Pickle.

Six pounds of green tomatoes, If very large, cut in pieces. Put them into strong brine for 24 hours, drain them very dry. Put them in a stewing pan, cover with vinegar to which has been added one pound of sugar, one-quarter pound long pepper, one-quarter pound allspice, one-quarter pound cloves and one-quarter pound cinnamon. Simmer till tender, but do not let them boil.

German Potato Kloesse.

One pifit mashed potatoes, mixed in two beaten eggs, one pint of flour, one even tablespoonful of salt. Form into small fiat cakes (same as flshballs), cook in boiling water about ten minutes. When first put in kettle, stir around until they rise to the top of water. Very nice with roast of veal or any nice brown gravy. Good waimed over in butter, cut up.

Stale Bread Fritters.

Cut the bread in slices, about a third of an inch thick, fry in fat, from which a faint bluish smoke is rising, and when each piece is fried on one side turn It over and spread the browped side with marmalade or jam. When cooked, lift out and sprinkle with caster sugar mixed with a little cinnamon.

Fruit Fluff.

To every pint of chopped peach, banana or pineapple allow one pint of water, six eggs and one pound of bugar; beat eggs until light, then add other ingredients and cook until thick as custard. Strain, set dish in pan of cold water and beat until cold. Freese and serve with a sirup like a sundae.

Chocolate Rice.

One cupful of rice boiled until tender. Make a sirup of one cupful sugar, one square chocolate; pour over rice and stir. Put in a mold to cool ag*! serve with whipped cream.