Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 252, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 October 1915 — Page 3

THE POPULAR GIRL

By GERTRUDE MARY SHERIDAN.

There was plenty to Interest Vera Dane, when she arrived at Wardville to rest up trom city social duties at the home of her bright pretty cousin, Olga Wolcott. For one thing, a local department store was offering a flve-hundred-dollar piano to the successful winner in a voting contest as to the most popular girl in Wardville. “It’s settled beforehand," spoke Olga Indignantly. “You have heard me speak of Blanche Ridgeley. She prides herself as the exclusive queen of the so-called exclusive upper crust set of the district. She has cut me as too humble, or rather with too much openness in my opinions to accord with the artificial and superficial views of her group. I fear the taboo, as a relative of my poor discredited self, will extend to you also.” Vera shrugged her shoulders very indifferently.

“My dear,” she said, “that will not give me any anxiety. I have come here to rest. I long for a good full two weeks of bird song, sunshine and rest. So much do I crave it, that not one of my friends outside of the direct family know where I am.” Olga gazed thoughtfully at her cousin. She admired Vera and was proud of her. Olga’s lips curled scornfully as she contrasted this acknowledged leader of a chosen metropolitan social circle with the petty aspirations of Miss Blanche Ridgeley. A hope had come into* her mind that Vera might be incited to reveal her real aristocratic position and rally around her a select group, “just to

“I Have Come Here to Rest.”

show that hateful upstart what real social distinction meant.” Vera’s announcement, however, effectually set aside her plans. It was destined that Vera should be aroused from her indifference within the next few days. She accompanied Olga to have a skirt fitted by a Miss Rose Tyler. The dressmaker’s little workrooms were in a poor part of the town, and as the pony phaeton drew up at its front Olga elevated her eyebrows at the sight of a showy automobile drawn up to the curb. “We are favored,” she observed satirically, “that is the grand Ridgeley turnout.” They entered the front room of the little shop to be met by one of Miss Tyler’s assistants, who requested them to be seated, as her employer was engaged in the fitting room. Thence in a few moments there emanated the echo of a sharp and angry voice, feminine but rasping. It suggested the malignant onslaught of some tyro-virago rating an inferior under the spell of meekness or fear. “Some more of the admirable Lady Ridgeley!” observed Olga in a whisper to, her companion, and Just then the delectable lady leader of high society in Wardville flaunted out, her features distorted with a rage that showed evil depths in that perverse nature. Miss Ridgeley nodded crisply to Olga, stared insolently at Vera, and Vera’s eyes flashed as the ill-natured aristocrat swept out to her waiting automobile. Then Vera arose to follow Olga, who-had started for the inner room. At its threshold Vera paused. It was to view a pathetic and moving scene. Miss Tyler, the little dressmaker, a fair sweet faced girl of nineteen, was seated beside a torn and disordered fabric of lace and satin, sobbing out her sorrow. After all her hafd work, from a vicious caprice Miss Ridgeley had gone into a transport of wrath because she herself had provided a wrong shade of trimming, had flung the garment from her and refused to pay for the work done upon it. Olga was on her knees by her side, her arms about her neck, trying to comfort her. Vera was deeply affected. She drew back, feeling that she was intruding. “It’s a shame!” exclaimed Olga, as they left the place. "I shall see that Viss Tyler does not lose the money she so sorely needs. What a viper Chat Ridgeley girl is! The most popular girl!’ She? Why, outside of the money spent on her by her servile

admirers Miss Tyler here would outvote her two to one! Let me. tell you. Vera—this Rose Tyler is the idol of the poor people around here. Her father, a doctor, gave his }lfe to them during forty years’ practice. They are flocking to the store to get coupons to vote for her, but of course their little money will not count against the Ridgeley dollars."

“She struck me as a ladylike beautiful girl." “She is Just that.” affirmed Olga. “To her, too, a piano would be of some use. Rose is a proficient musician and could add to her income, teaching.”

Vera was thoughtful all the way home. That afternoon she wrote a number of letters. She did not tell Olga, but Vera had decided on a plan to defeat the relentless autocracy of Miss Ridgeley and help the modest little dressmaker. All Vera had to do to have her numerous knight errants flock to her standard, was to advise them of her place of retreat. The first to arrive was Gerald Wynne. Of all her male acquaintances he was the oldest. They had known each other for years. A great many fancied it would eventually be a match, but no word of love had passed between them. Within three days there was quite a coterie at Wardville. Three of Vera’s girl chums arrived and were domiciled in the Wolcott home. The four young men put up at the hotel. Strangely Vera seemed to forget her meditated “resting up.” A series of enjoyable lawn parties and picnics filled a pleasant program, mere Informal affairs, and all the more charming for that. Miss Ridgeley and her friends proceeded to “sit up and take notice,” but no overtures were made, and milady of Wardville was piqued to realize that her petty exclusiveness had shut her out from association with “the real quality.”

“Oh, you clever, clever plotter!” burst forth Olga one day. “And so self-sacrificing!” “Why, what do you mean, my dear?” questioned Vera, but flushing consciously. “All you brought your friendß down here for, was to boom our sweet little dressmaker friend, Rose Tyler, and she is going to win, too!” Thanks to Gerald Wynne and his liberal cohorts, when the piano contest ended Miss Rose Tyler had three hundred votes over Miss Blanche Ridgeley, and the coveted instrument was her own. “I have a great favor to ask of you, Vera,” said Gerald, the day he and his friends were to leave Wardville. He looked very earnest. They were seated in the garden with no one near them. Vera regarded him flutteringly. He was a fine young fellow. He had been a loyal friend. Must she give him pain—for a deep emotion showed in his expressive eyes. Vera concealed her real anxiety. “A favor —regarding?” she intimated smilingly. “I wish your advice.” “In a matter of —” “Love!”

He spoke the word thrillingly, reverently. She felt sorry for him. In the intensity of his emotions he had caught her hand. “Gerald,” she said seriously, “I should have told you—you, my be3t, truest friend —that I have been engaged to Mr. Robert Layton, now abroad, for over six months.” “Good! grand!” Gerald amazed her by saying. “He is a fine fellow. Then, with a searching glance: “Oh —did you think I was going to propose to you? I, who long ago learned that you were a dazzling star and I an earthly glow worm! Mr. Layton! engaged!' Then all the more will you use your influence to win for me the woman I love —Rose Tyler.” “Oh, Gerald!” exclaimed Vera, relieved and radiant —“is this true?” “True as the esteem, the brotherly love I feel for you, will always cherish. And bless you, good, true sister and comrade, for making known to me the sweetest, loveliest creature I ever met!” And so—they were married. (Copyright, 1916, by W. G. Chapman.)

Retort Courteous.

E. Pluribus Jones reached the station platform Just as the 5:15 was pulling out. A little burst of speed before the admiring onlookers netted him 50 feet in overcoming the train’s handicap, but the best that his ample carcass could do thereafter was to run a losing race. He quit at the end of the freight yards and returned. “Miss your train, sir?” inquired the porter cheerfully: Jones flecked a speck of dust from his coat sleeve. “No, my friend,” he said earnestly. “Oh, no. I was Just chasing it out of the yard. You oughtn’t to allow it around here. Don’t you see the tracks it left?”—New York Evening Post.

Drifting.

The more common secret of want of success in life is a tendency to let things drift. It is not so much the missing one opportunity, or the committing one blunder, as the lavish waste of all the forces —opportunities which in various shapes come within the grasp. It is the slovenliness of men and women which for the most part makes their lives so unsatisfactory. They do not sit at the loom with keen eye and deft fingers; but they work listlessly and without a sedulous care~to piece together as the best may the broken threads. We are apt to give’ up work too soon, to suppose that a single breakage has ruined the cloth. The men who get on in the world are not daunted by ope nor » thousand breakages.—John Moreley. ~

TIIE EVENING REPUBLICAN. RENSSELAER. INP.

KILLED BY AN AUSTRIAN SHELL

These two Italians made a heroic attempt to cut the wire entanglements in front of an Austrian trench, but were hit and killed by a shell.

KING OF ALL OAKS

Largest Tree of This Species Is in California. It Pears a Ton of Acorns Ever Year, and. ls*Neariy Twice the Size of Hooker Oak —Sycamore Biggest Non-Nutter. Washington.—The American Genetic association has announced the award of two prizes of SIOO each for the location of the largest nut-bear-ing and non-nutbearing treps in the country. The largest nut-bearing tree is a valley oak on the ranch of B. F. Gruver, San Benito county, California, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains. This lordly tree measures 37 feet 6 inches in circuml- - It is near the city of Stockton, and the natives, who declare that it produces a ton of acorns every year, take great pride in it. It is expected that the “discovery” of this tree will be at once a surprise and a disappointment to the friends of the famous Hooker oak of Chico, Cal., named for the English botanist. Sir Joseph Hooker, who, in 1872, declared that, so far as encyclopedic knowledge went, it was the largest oak in the world. Several persons sent in photographs of the Hooker oak, which, however, is only 21 feet 8 Inches in circumference, although it rises to a height of 105 feet. , The largest tree in the non-nut-bear-ing class of hardwoods disclosed by the contest is a sycamore - near Worthington, Ind. This tree is 150 feet high, after having had its height considerably reduced by lightning and wind. It has a spread of 100 feet and Its trunk one foot above the ground is 45 feet 3 inches in circumference, while its east branch measures 27 feet 8 inches around and its west branch 23 feet 2 inches. This Indiana tree is the largest known tree in all the eastern country. It does not Compare, of course, with the giant redwoods of California and some other big conifers, none of which were entered in the contest for that reason. Some of the giants of California measure more in diameter than the Hoosier sycamore in circumference.

The Genetic association received 337 tree photographs in this contest, which started in October last year and closed July 1 this year. These pictures covered trees in ali sections of the country, from a two hundred and fifty-year-old Connecticut elm, which is the pride of all the country, side, to a persimmon tree, which rises to a height of 130 feet and has a base seven feet thick, establishing a new record for its species. The persimmon tree is near Luxorar-Ark. The second largestynut-biaring tree disclosed by the contest is a chestnut three miles from Crestmont, N. C., on the main range of the Big Smoky mountains which divide North Carolina and Tennessee. This tree is 75 feet high and has a circumference of 33 feet 4 inches.

An article giving the details of the contest, in the Journal of Heredity, official organ of the Genetic association, says: “It is impossible even to mention all of the valuable records sent to the American Genetic association. Many persons, entering into the spirit of the contest, said they knew the trees of which they sent in photographs were not prize winners, but they wanted them recorded in the interest of science. Others sent large specimens of species that ordinarily reach only a small size, realizing that the prize would go to some larger species, but desiring to aid the association in getting a record of all species. Thus excellent specimens of sassafras, chinquapin, catalpa and white birch were submitted, and make highly valued additions to available information on large trees in the United States.” It is announced that the contest confirms the fact that the sycamore is the largest hardwood tree in North America. Yellow poplar ranks next to sycamore in point of size among ‘ / *

the non-nut-bearing hardwoods. One of the photographs submitted in the contest was of a yellow poplar near Reems Creek, N. C., which is estimated to be 198 feet in height and 34 feet 6 inches in circumference. The purpose of the contest was to find out in what regions the native trees attain their largest growth and under what conditions they thrive best. The Genetic association hopes that it may be possible to secure seeds, cuttings or grafting wood from the remarkably thrifty trees in order to see whether finer specimens can be propagated in other parts of the country. In this way it is hoped that some particularly choice strains of native trees may be established in legions where good specimens are not now found.

BURGLAR WAS ONLY MONKEY

Scene Was Case Cellar, and Mohawk Was Much in Need of a Doctor. Lawrenceburg, Ind. —When burglar alarms were turned in from the home of Floyd W. Mifler, the Jewelry store of Mrs. Roxana Kuperschmidt and the case of Isa&ore L. Harry, the night policeman made a hurried run for the buildings. After a search it was found that Mohawk, a large monkey belonging to a show, had escaped from its cage and caused the alarms. The monkey was discovered in the case cellar, where it had broken several bottles of beer, and so drunk it had to be attended by a doctor.

DISARMAMENT NOT URGED

Arthur Deerin Call, executive in charge of the Washington branch of the American Peace society, says the American Peace society has never recommended disarmament of this country. Mr. Call is in active charge of a gigantic peace campaign. The plan is to call on men and women of this country to contribute to a movement for the establishment of an international legislature and an international Judiciary, which the society proclaims is the only substitute for war.

CALLS NEW FRUIT EGGATOM

Truck Farmer in Indiana Grows New Vegetable From Tomato and Egg Plant. La Marque, Tex.—P. Dan George, a truck farmer of this place, has succeeded in producing a new vegetable by grafting the tomato upon the eggplant Ho calls it the “eggatom.” The yield of the new plant Is enormous. The fruit is of deep purple color on the outside, but on the Inside is red. It is almost free of seed and is much larger than the tomato.

String Bean Is Yard Long.

Lodi, Cal. —Fred Gilbeau has a string bean in his back yard that by actual measurement is just 36 inches in length. The other beans on the stalk are of the usual length. Gilbeau is now wondering whether beans planted from this particular pod will produce other bean pods 36 inches long.

HUNT BLACK WALNUT

Demands of War Cause Shortage in Supply. Is the Best Wood for Gun Btocks and Experts Are Trying to Find a Suitable Substitute—Two Dying Trees Sell at Top Price. Washington.—The European war baa caused a marked shortage in black walnut for the manufacture of gun stocks, and agents of gun manufacturers are scouring the forests. Recently two partly decayed black walnut trees in the Arkansas National forest, Arkansas, were sold at S2O per 1,000 feet on the stump. This is the highest price ever paid for any unfinished hardwood so far as is known, and certainly for any sold from a national foreßt.

The two Arkansas trees were in splendid condition for manufacture in the near future, being well cured. Black walnut has long been recognized as the best material for gun stocks. The American pioneer's made rifle stocks of maple, but in war times the musket stocks were of black walnut. At a convention of gunsmiths held in Atlanta, Ga„ in August, 1861, the consensus of opinion was that black walnut was easily the superior of all hard woods for gun manufacture, with maple second and persimmon third. It was held that gun stock material should be air-dried for 20 years before being ÜBed in construction. During the Civil war walnut for gun stocks was obtained both in the North and South by purchasing miles of fence rails, and by taking floors and beams out of old barns and mills where the wood had been seasoned for a quarter to a half century. The toughness and durability of black walnut is well known.

The forest service has a record of a roof of black walnut shingles in the Shenandoah valley of Virginia that has shed thp rain successfully for 75 years. A black walnut beam used in the construction of the famous Alamo at San Antonio, Tex., was found to be perfectly sound when the building was restored in 1912 after a period of 125 years. Apparently buyers have been about as eager to find black walnut suitable for immediate use in the manufacture of gun stocks as they have been to purchase horses arfd mules suitable for military use in Europe. Owing to the increasing scarcity of black walnut gunmakers have for some time been experimenting with possible substitutes. It is understood that the forest products laboratory at Madison, Wis., is making tests of gun lumber, which heretofore has been considered of a rather low grade, as a substitute for walnut for gun stocks. The laboratory also is conducting experiments designed to develop a substitute for teakwood as a backing for armor plate on the sides of our great dreadnaughts and armored cruisers.

The general public is riot aware that a three-inch backing of teakwood lies behind every belt of armor, acting as a sort of cushion between the armor and the steel hull proper. The reason for this is that the back of the armor and the steel hull are both rough and do not meet exactly. The backing of teakwood serves to bring the two more firmly together, the protruding rough places on the steel sinking into the wood. Up to date no suitable substitute for teakwood has been found. The most promising is Port Orford cedar, a product of the Northern Pacific coast. Teakwood is popularly regarded as imperishable. The scientists are not very hopeful of finding a suitable substitute for it. There is some talk of making tests with different varieties of hardwood from the Philippine islands. So far only woods found in continental United States have been used. In addition to the laboratory tests conducted in Madison, tests of the resistant qualities of different woods when exposed to the action of salt water between plates of armor and steel are being carried on in the Gulf of Mexico and off the Pacific coast.

IS BLUSHING BRIDE AT 79

And Her Fond Bridegroom Is Few Months Her Senior in Oregon Romance. Grants Pass, Ore. —The oldest couple ever married in Josephine county have Just started on their honeymoon. John M. Jones, the bridegroom, lacked only two months of eighty years, and the blushing bride was seventy-nine years. The bride, Millie Lorimer, was attired in white and carried an immense bouquet of white asters. Both have lived in Oregon for many years.

MRS. ANGEL, 72, STOWAWAY

Woman Says Son, Who Was in Beoond Cabin, Smuggled Her Aboard. Ban Francisco.—Mrs. Destina Angel is said to be the oldest and the only woman stowaway that ever came to San Francisco. She is seventy-two years of age and arrived from Honolulu on the liner Korea. . Her son, George Angel, traveled second class, but smuggled his mother on board, the old woman declared. Mrs. Angel was sent to the immigration station.

USED BRAINS TO WIN

HOW ATHLETE ACHIEVED TRIUMPH IN RACEB. Ted Meredith of University of Pennsylvania Had Carefully Thought Out Methods That Brought Him Victory In Contests. There is a belated story of how Ted Meredith of the University of Pennsylvania defeated Bill Bingham of Harvard in the half-mile race in the Intercollegiate championships, which carries with it a lesson valuable to participants in practically all lines of sport, the New York Times remarks. Meredith, it will be remembered, won both the quarter and half-mile races.

The quarter was won in his usual style. Meredith allowed one of his competitors to go out and make the pace, and then came like a streak in the last furlong and won about as he pleased. __ When it came to the half Meredith completely reversed the order of things. He raced at top speed in the first quarter and had all the rest of the field on their toes and practically beaten, doing the quarter in :54. He then slowed down and even allowed a couple of his competitors to pass him, content with the fact that Bingham, whom alone he feared, was plugging along in the rear, hopelessly out of it. With him disposed of, Meredith again sped up in the last furlong, caught and passed the two who had headed him for a short distance, and; won very cleverly without being exhausted.

Meredith’s overwhelming triumph was due to the use of brains coupled with his powers as a racer. Before the race he had taken the trouble to find out the way in which Bingham, the Harvard man, ran his races. He discovered it was his habit to take it easy in the first quarter, running the distance in about a minute flat, and reserving himpelf for the final quarter, which he would do in the neighborhood of fifty seconds. Meredith’s heartbreaking pace in the first quarter completely upset Bingham’s plan for the race, and so bewildered the fleet Harvard runner that the latter had no time to think out and put into operation a new plan. Possibly there is no better example of the superiority of brain over brawn than in the career of George Bothner, the wrestler. His lack of bulk was more than compensated for in the ability to think quickly and almost uncannily to anticipate and thwart she particular “hold” his opponent intended making.

John McGraw’s success as a baseball manager has been entirely due to exceptionally • acute brain power. From the beginning of his career on the diamond he analyzed every play made in *a game in which he participated or witnessed. It was the study that developed the baseball strategy he made his own, and which made him so much of a clairvoyant in foreseeing the “breaks” of a game for or against his team. If Jim Jeffries had been possessed of enough gray matter he might never have loßt the heavyweight championship to Jack Johnson. But the punch in the eye in the second round, which was the turning point in the contest, angered him. After that it was brute force against brute force. Football is so entirely a matter of brains that everybody familiar with sports admits that the best eleven of the physical boxers or wrestlers, for Instance, would have no chance whatever against an eleven such as represents any one of the great universities on the gridiron each fall. The thinking athlete gets more sport out of the game he happens to indulge in, also, than he would if merely an exceptionally good natured athlete or one who is able to absorb the ideas of a trainer and carry them out in purely mechanical fashion. To the young athlete the lesson modern sports teaches us: Attend as well to the cultivation of the mind as to the training; of the body and its muscles if you would enjoy competitive athletics to the full. The first is as necessary as the last to become superexcellent at any sport, to get the greatest enjoyment from sport and to cope with its emergencies.

Victorian Hobby.

The announcement offering for sale the wedding shoes of Queen Victoria recalls the fact that her majesty was a keen collector of historical relics. At a sale held in November, 1898, she commissioned a well-known dealer to secure for her a walking-stick carved to represent “Wisdom and Folly,” once the property of Prihce Charles Edward. The royal agent had carte blanche, and the stick was knocked down to him for £ 160. This was a monstrous price when we consider that shortly before the young pretender’s dirk, with flint-lock. pistol attached, realized only £3 15s; while the great Rob Roy’s claymore, made by Andrea Ferrara, with its shark’s ■kin grip and all, went for £37 16s. At the Stuart exhibition organized in London some twenty years ago a number of most interesting exhibits came from Queen Victoria’s collection. — Dundee Advertiser.

Too Suggestive.

Manager —If you want to make any money from the audiences at your new play, change its name. Playwright—Why so? Manager—What can you expect from a play you call “A Passing Crowd?" : .Mil