Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 10 February 1916 — Page 3

BENNIE'S REVENGE

By VICTOR REDCLIFFE.

Bennie they called him, Bennie Grove, bright, keen-eyed, good-natured. He had come from a city not a hundred miles from Detroit with Slews and Wykoff. They had started a five and ten-cent store in an unheard of, out-of the-way district and Bennie was placed in charge. People wondered why Slews and Wykoff came only occasionally to the store, which had rfw customers. But Bennie kept his own counsel when curious people tried to fathom the mystery. Only to one person was he confidential. This was ' old Doctor Grimm. The latter had retired from active practice. He had time to loaf and Bennie encouraged him, for Bennie was lonesome. The good doctor got so finally that he would tend the store while Bennie went three blocks away for lunch. “I say, Bennie,” he observed one day, “isn’t this a queer crowd you’re with?” “You mean Slews and Wykoff?” queried Bennie. "Say, doctor, I like you and I know you’re true blue. I need a friend —advice. Yes, sir, to tell you the truth Slews and Wykoff are a *rum lot. They are—skeesickses.” “You mean?” insinuated Doctor Grimm. “The kind of fellows who, when they havp a fire, lay it to friction, see—the sort where a fellow rubs a six thou-sand-doilar policy on a three thousanddollar house. On the dead quiet, doctor,they burned out in business twice before they came here and busted half a dozen times.” "Why, then,” gasped the astounded doctor, “they’re fire bugs! ” “And bankruptcy sharks —you’ve hit it exactly, doctor.” “And you work for them!” “That’s the nugget of what I want to explain to you,” said Bennie. “You see, they gave me a job in their store before we came here. I thought they were all right and let them wheedle my brother into Investing four hundred dollars in their business. It was all the poor fellow had, put by to

“I’m Bound to Pay Them Off for Robbing My Brother.”

marry a sweet little girl this fall. Well, they busted and his money went along with the rest. The rascals!’’ “Why do you stay working for rascals?’’ inquired the doctor. “For two reasons," replied Bennie grimly. “What are they?” “First, revenge. I’m bound to pay them off for robbing my brother.” "H’m!" “Next, I’m going to get back that four hundred dollars. See if I don’t! They don’t come here very often, as you know, and this store was started to put up some new swindling scheme. I don’t know what it is, but I’m going to find out and nip it in, the bud,’’ At that very hour, in a retired corner of a cheap restaurant, Slews and Wykoff were engaged in confidential converse. Said the former: “Well, Wykoff, I’ve put the deal through.” “You mean you have secured the goods?” “Exactly that,” gloated Slews. “I’ve Induced two big wholesale firms to start us in the Jewelry .lousiness with a five thousand-dollar stock.” “But the pay—how did you manage it?” “On thirty, sixty and ninety days’ time,” grinned Slews. “We won’t even open the store. You and I will go there this evening, get rid of Bennie and put all the Jewelry In a big burial box, ship it to Canada and —our creditors will hold the bag.” That afternoon Bennie was considerably surprised as some valuable deliveries were made at the store. He peered Into some of the parcels—Jewelry, and valuable at.that! Later a great long burial box was delivered, just at dusk Slews and Wykoff aj>peared. “Bennie,” spoke the former, pulling down the street shades, “you have been very diligent. “We’ll give you an evening off. Here la a dollar, go to the movies and enjoy yourself.” “Thank you, sir," bowed Bennie and sped away as If on wings of delight, but it was only to go around the block, and, returning by way of a cross lot, he stationed himself near a rear window through which he could look in directly upon the operations of the schemara.

They proceeded to remove the cover from the big board box. Into it they dumped clocks, watches, vases, rings. They laughed and chatted in high glee, then Slews tacked a tag to the cover of the box. Then they went away, after putting out all of the lights and securely locking up the place. “Now it’s my turn!” soliloquized Bennie and he was soon inside the store. He read the address on the box. “I see,” he observed, “bound for Canada and may be back any moment with an expressman. Well, I’ll let' them go, but I’ve got to work quickly.” It was two hour's later when Slews and Wykoff returned and, as Bennie had guessed, had an expressman with them. The great box was loaded on the wagon. It was taken to the railroad station. The schemers saw it placed in the express car and took the same train. As it approached the Canadian border a customs officer came through the train. “Your box ahead there?” he inquired of Slews. “Yes,” was answered promptly. “Any mourners?” “Oh, they will be along later," explained Wykoff. “Yes,” chuckled Slews, in an aside "•—in thirty, sixty and ninety days!” There were some anxious visitors at the store next day, representatives of the concerns that had furnished the stock. Bluntly Bennie told them that Slews and Wykoff had transferred the same to Canada. "I’ve something to tell you,” Bennie said to Doctor Grimm the next day. “That jewelry didn’t go in that big box.” “It didn’t?” queried his aged friend. “No, I took it out. It’s full of coal, rocks and old junk—that will be my revenge when those skeesickses come to open it in Canada.” “But where is the jewelry?” asked the astounded doctor. “It’s hidden in the corner of the basement down stairs,” explained Bennie. "I’ve got my revenge—now for my brother’s four hundred dollars.” "I don’t understand?” voiced the simple-minded old man. "Well, I’m going to see the two houses Slews and Wykoff swindled. I’m going to ask them how much they will give to get back their jewelry. I want you to come with me.” The creditors looked eager, suspicious, hopeful all at once as Bennie did, in fact, what the query Indicated. -They declared that they would gladly 'give a thousand dollars to recover their goods—then Bennie told his story. “I only want four hundred,” he said. “It’s on account of my poor brother, gentlemen!” he pleaded. “I’m not holding you up. You shall have the goods anyway, only that four hundred dollars is the price of my brother’s happiness.” “And you shall have it willingly, young man!” assented the principal creditor. “Produce the property and get your check.” When Bennie left the town with the money he felt rewarded for the patient underpaid weeks he had put in to get even with his rascally employers. Meantime, across the border, Slews and Wykoff had opened their treasure chest, to find rubbish. “Wykoff,” observed Slews dolorously, “Bennie did this!” “I’m afraid he did,” assented the mournful partner. “We can’t go back.” “Ah, no—not in thirty, nor sixty, nor ninety days can we return to our old stamping ground! No, not ever, unless we want free jail fafe.” (Copyright, 1916, by W. G. Chapman.)

GO THROUGH QUEER ANTICS

Group of Penguins, Seen at a Distance, Appear to Ape Assemblage of Human Beings. The strangest inhabitants of the antarctic continent are the birds called penguins. A company of them, seen at a distance on the polar snows, bear so striking a resemblance to an assemblage of human beings that explorers unaccustomed to their appearance have often been startled by the momentary belief that they had come upon a tribe of short, stout men, dressed in black, or blue and white, and greeting their visitors with the most extraordinary gesticulations. There is one species of these res markable birds, known as the Emperor penguin, because it seems to mimic the well-known figure of Napoleon, in his white vest and trousers and gray coat, which sometimes attains a height of between three and four feet and a weight of eighty or ninety pounds. Walking erect on his short legs, the emperor makes a salute by lowering his long beak on his round breast, and’then begins a long discourse in his strange, raucous language, and if there is no response he repeats the performance again and again, expecting each time an answer.

Result of Genius and Training.

It is said that, one day, Michael An gelo, the great Italian artist, went to call upon a friend, and finding him away frpm. hoine, took a piece of chalk and drew a circle on the door. When the owner of the house returned and saw what had been done, he said: “Michael Angelo has been here; no other man in Florence could have drawn such a perfect circle as that.” Genius and long-life training were proclaimed by thathijnple cjtalk. mark on the door. It required but a moment to draw the circle, yet there was such character, such perfection, such reflected personality in the sign, that the artist’s friend could not for moment question whose hand had drawn it-

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER, IND.

The first batch of wounded soldiers from the Macedonian campaign to reach Cairo. They are being carried to the British hospital by native Egyptian stretcher bearers

IN TRENCHES AT 76

French Veteran of 1870 Is Doing His Share. Corporal Surrugue, Twelve Years Mayor of Auxerre, is Still Hale and Hearty and Does His Bit Like the Others. Paris.—The Paris Journal Offlclel recently published the following honorable mention in army orders: “Corporal Surrugue, Charles, entered under No. 9,131, in company 9-2 T of the Sixth regiment of Engineers, second company of the corps, veteran soldier of 1870, chevalier of the Legion of Honor, enlisted as volunteer for the duration of the war at the age of seventy-six years, asked to go to the front as second sapper and miner, takes part without any physical weakness in all the work carried on day and night under fire of the enemy, animated with the highest conscientiousness and the most noble conception of his duty toward his country, and offers to his younger comrades a model discipline of dash and energy.” Seeing this description of the old young man a correspondent of the Illustration of Paris set out for the front to find him. After wandering about the trenches in zigzag fashion the correspondent saw a rather small man with white beard and the insignia of an engineer on his cap. Rejnembering Stanley’s description of how he met Livingstone in the heart of Africa and walked up to him, saying “Mr. Livingstone, I presume?" the correspondent accosted the engineer: “Corporal Surrugue, are you not?” The engineer was completely taken aback at the idea that anyone would want to Interview him, but finally led the newspaper man into a subterranean shelter, which was very humid and from the roof of which large drops of water fell on the correspondent’s notebook. Asked how he kept so well, Corporal Surrugue replied that he did it by walking. Having been occupied with work on country roads, a thirtymlle walk was nothing to him. ——- For twelve years before the war he had been mayor of Auxerre, in the department of the Yonne. Before that, as a civil engineer, he had been engaged in railroad construction and especially on the railway from Arras to Etaples, for which he offered the plans in 1872. That year he drove the first spade at the station of St. Pol-en-Ter-moise, in the same place where fortyfour years later he has come to handle the spade and pick as an ordinary sapper. In 1871 he belonged to the army of Faldherbe and was captain of engineers engaged in constructing defense works in the valley of Scarpe. He was twice honorably mentioned then, once for having remained at his post when the other workers fled, fearing a German advance on Athles, near Arras, and again for having saved a wounded officer by carrying him to the rear. In 1875 Mr. Surrugue entered the service of public roads in the Dordogne, where he remained six years, and then took up the same kind of work in the Yonne for twenty years. Elected member of the municipal council of Auxerre, he soon became the leading man and was mayor of the town from 1900 to 1912. His administration of public roads and works caused him to be attached to the inspection department of the ministry of the interior. Such was the civil career of this modest and brave man. When asked about his present service and whether his companions knew who he was, he said: ‘'They don’t know much about me and I am not going to tell them. I am Surrugue, who does his bit of trench work like the rest, and that is all. These days what one has dfine in civil lifq doesn’t count. Everybody is equal in the common effort. When a man has physical vigor which can be used there should be np hesitation. “I passed the medical examination and they wacaJtorced-toJake me. Then I bad three months of instruction in novelties which we knew nothing about in 1870 and in July left for the front I took part in all the works of preparation for the drive in September and on October 1 I was named a

WOUNDED IN MACEDONIA TAKEN TO CAIRO

“The war cross which they have given to me surprised me, for I did nothing for that. I have done less than others who have been here since the beginning. I know they are decorating my years, but as my age does not count with me I am a little ashamed before my comrades. “The only advantage of age is to have a little Influence over the younger onfes. When they grow impatient I tell them of 1870 and contrast it with what we have done today. We, who were not ready, have-stopped at the Marne and the Yser an enemy superior in numbers and formidably organized. We have imposed on him our will. He has submitted to our law and when the time has come we will crush him!”

FEARED FRED MIGHT BE COLD

Marine Serving in Haiti Gets Comfortable Made by His Solicitous Grandmother. Rochester, N. Y. —Fearing the government did not provide sufficiently warm clothing for her favorite grandson serving in the United States marine corps, an elderly lady brought a fleecy, handworked comfortable to the local recruiting station of the sea soldiers and requested Sergt. George 8. Fynmore to forward it to him. “Poor Fred may be shaking and shivering with cold just like the soldiers in Europe,” she told Fynmore, “and this comfortable will be just the thing. You’ll send it to Kim, won’t you?” Sergeant Fynmore assured the old grandmother that it would be a privilege and a pleasure to do so. But when he forwarded the package to Port Au Prince, Haiti, where the grandson is now serving, he inclosed a note explaining that the old lady had worked hard in an endeavor to have the comfortable finished in time to come as a Christmas present and that he didn’t have the heart to disillusion her about the need for such things in Haiti. "But,” he added in the note, just by way of encouragement, “sometime when you’re serving in Alaska I’ll get her to send you a cake of Ice.”

WOULD BE VICE PRESIDENT

For thefirst time in history a woman is a candidate for the nomination of a vice president of the United States. She is Mrs. Kate Richards O’Hare. Candidates ’for Socialistic nominations are determined by referendum. Mrs. O’Hare is the editor of the National Rip Saw, a Socialist OF-

Crazy Deer Attacks Two.

Roseburg, Ore. While working about hie ranch at Rice HHL Isadora Rice, an aged resident of that vicinity, Mr. Rice was knocked to the ground, and only escaped when the animal was beaten Into submission by his son. A few days previously the deer attacked Mr. Rice’s daughter, but she escaped without serious injury- Mr. Rice was bruised.

LONG BUTTER LINES

Picturesque Scenes Witnessed In Berlin Today. People Resort to All Manner of Tricks to Get Extra Supply of Butter— Working Classes Get It, Well-to-Do Go Without. The Hague.—Picturesque and somewhat pitiful scenes where long lines wait at the doors of German butter shops are described in a dispatch to the New Rotterdam Courant from its Berlin correspondent As this newspaper is sympathetic with Germany, it cannot be accused of presenting an excitable and exaggerated account such as the Germans complain of In allied journals. The correspondent begins by quoting from a story told him by a friend’ “I got in with a little persuasion. A line was waiting. They would not let me go in front, of course, but I pretended I only wanted vegetables. So I got through the line and after securing vegetables, I asked with a very Innocent face for a quarter of a pound of butter. 1 hid it in my coat, went out and joined at the end of the line. Without much more trouble I got a second quarter of a pound—” The correspondent comments: "That is how we get along In Berlin today; that is what -we must do to capture a little fat or a little butter. Only with cunning or patience can we butter our bread.- In long straight lines the people stand for hours before the butter shops. Some get nothing, some welter in butter. He who has no need of butter goes out on the hunt for It, as for sport. Housewives tell with pleasure and pride how much butter they have captured. I, myself, with my family had to go without butrter for days till I tumbled on a cunning ruse whereby I secured a pound. And how I bragged about it! “Many butter and cheese shops are closed practically the whole day. A paper in the window announces when the sale will begin and long before the specified time a crowd collects — mostly mothers and children. Some little ones are there to capture a quarter of a pound on their own hook. Did the salesman know there were several from one house they would get nothing, so they cheerfully Ignore each other during the long wait. “A policemen keeps order In the waiting lines. In the good, old days* such lines collected to buy tickets for a Caruso concert; now butter or some other necessity Is all we think of. "The cause of this singular situation is not far to seek. In peace time, to say nothing of war time, Germany does not produce enough butter for home consumption. Lack of fodder and speculation combined to drive up prices. A scarcity of fat accompanied the scarcity of butter. To do without these two would be a disaster for the German working people, so the government took the matter up, and, as butter, like fat, is free from plutocratic influences, the government decided the butter should be fairly divided, and fixed low maximum prices accordingly. v “The result is that the working classes get butter and the well-to-do go without. The working man’s wife goes herself or sends her children to stand for hours in line. She has the whip-hand, now that patience and not money is the determining factor. “The social side of this regulation has thus reached it's goal, but not so the financial. The prices are so low that imports from Denmark and Holland are almost out of the question and the government is now faced with the dilemma; plenty of butter at panic prices or little butter at low prices. “In official circles it is hoped that the situation will soon be easierThey hope soon to get the benefit of a big potato harvest, the increase in the farm stocks, and the'lmported food from the Balkans. But how to deal with the disagreeable fact that the fixing of maximum prices automatically diminishes the supply

Hog With Five Feet.

Stamford, Ky— Andy Adams has a funny freak of nature in the way of a five-footed hog. The porker weighs about 125 pounds/md has five wellformed and developed feet

HOME TOWN HELPS

WORTH KEEPING IN MIND Some “Don’t" for the Consideration of Those Who Are Planning Building of House, If you are planning to build a house, whether it be for your own occupancy or for rent or sale,remember there are many things which should be omitted in the planning. Some of these are enumerated in the following don’ts:" Don’t, in the plumbing of the bathroom closet, permit the use of other than a gas-proof metal to metal connections with the soil pipe. Don’t, in planning your home grounds, forget that there is one form only of imitation that is safe — the imitation of nature. Don’t, if you are building in the country, think that you cannot have an electric equipment. Private electric light and power plants are quite within reach of even the moderate-sized purse, and furnish abundant light and current for the modern household appliances. Don’t forget that wall board is a very good substitute for lath and plaster, and that fractures which often occur in walls of plaster are not possible where this material is used. Don’t forget that you can make the back entrance to the new house quite as attractive as the front entrance. Don’t, when planning the fireplace, fall to remember that good taste is expressed in a simple mantel designed according to the architecture of the house. Don’t forget that mirrors, in addition to fulfilling their utilitarian purposes of reflecting objects, help architecture. Don't fail to allow for plenty of windows in the kitchen. This makes for cheer as well as for ventilation. Don’t waste space inside the wardrobe closets; utilize every inch. Poles for hangers may be placed very high for one-piece frocks, lower ones for boats and skirts, and underneath these drawers or shelves to take care of the boots, slippers and hats. Don’t, in planning for the windows in the sleeping room, ignore the possibilities of a casement window placed very high above the head of the bed. This solves quite satisfactorily the problem of an additional window, and in appearance is most pleasing. Don’t plan for single doors between the living rooms and the hall. Wide openings give an air of spaciousness and a hospitable effect not possible to obtain with a single door. Don’t forget that a beamed ceiling not only looks more durable than a ceiling, of plaster, but that it is so. The more exposed timbers there are in the interior the longer will be the life of the house. Plaster retards the action of the air upon wood, and this causes decay.

MAKING THE CHILDREN HELP

Small Citizens Being Interested in Developing and Beautifying City in Which They Live. Among the many cities that are taking thought for the future in their planning, one seems more forward looking than the rest. That city is Newark, N. J. Not only are plans being drawn for the development of the city, but school children are being taught about the plans, are being acquainted with the general trend of thought in city planning, and are being shown pictures of the objects of beauty, bridges, monuments, arches, water fronts, and boulevards, of the notable cities of the world. Such has been the success of the work in Newark, judging by the interest aroused among the school children, that the committee on public information of the American Institute of Architects has decided to try to make cities all over the country take up a movement to appeal to children in schools. No city plan is safe from being neglected and forgotten if the coming generation is not trained in a sense of beauty and fitness that will recognize the needfulness of proper development. One of the causes of the neglect of cities at this time and of the ugly and hideous things that have been permitted to be built in them is the lack of early education in a sense of the beautiful. There is a direct economic benefit to be derived from making a city beautiful. Any city that has developed along the rijht lines will exemplify this statement. Generally the physical appearance of a city is a sure index to the character and Ideals of its citizens. The whole city planning movement speaks well for a spread in common sense, in the ability to think; and in a sense of enduring values, among the citizens of American cities. has as much need to teach its school children the essential things about a “city beautiful” as any other city has. Time and time again the city planning of Washington has been threatened’ with, being warped and violated by persons who decline to look into the future,