Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 104, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 May 1916 — Page 3

THE HIDDEN GARDEN

By VICTOR REDCLIFFE.

“Bah!" uttered Gilbert Warner, retired business man and village magnate. “Rubbish, eh?" intimated his companion, fat, indolent and good-natured judge Walton. “Franked from Washington, a box of government seeds, and from Congressman Martin Lacey. An insult!” roared the captious Warner. “Why! does he dare to fancy he could buy me with a box of vegetable seeds? The scoundrel! I voted against him, and next time I’ll marshal every friend I have to snow him under. Bah!" . „ “Hold on —” began his friend, but be spoke too late. With a vim, as though he were casting deadly poison from his clasp, Warner gave the box a fling. They had Just come from the post office, and the team side of the street was guarded by an iron fence from the river below. Over the fence went the disdained cardboard box. “You Just do that again!” yelled irate Juvenile tones, but too far removed to reach the ears of Warner or his companion. The package had landed on the head of Nat Borden. He had been lining the narrow bank of the river seeking a quiet place to fish. As the box grazed him, tilted and went over into the water, however, he unshipped his pole and ran after it. The box looked substantial. It didn’t appear to be empty. Nat cast for it half a dozen timesL Finally he hooked it and brought it ashore. Nat climbed up to and over the iron fence, but no one seemed to be looking after a missing box. He shook it and poked Inside. He read the words

“We Shall Have the Earliest Vege-, tables In Town.”

“SEEDS” in big black type on the outside. “I know what’s in it now,” he soliloquized—"some of them free seeds from the government. Everybody in town got a package, I guess, only this is a big box of them. I don’t want ’em. I’ll give ’em to Miss Winnie.” Miss Winnie was a rare friend of Nat Borden—“a pal,” he boasted proudly to his intimate boy friends. She lived with her notional, tyrantlike, rheumatic old aunt Just next door to the Bordens. Winnie was seventeen and would have been a tomboy if her strict aunt had allowed her. The conventlike solemnity of the old house had made Winnie desperate at times. Miss Dorothy, her aunt, ruled her with a rod of iron. Never was Winnie allowed any freedom save that of the rambling back yard. But she had discovered an adjoining paradise. Over th© fence was a discarded overgrown plot of ground belonging to the extensive grounds of the Warner place. There Winnie had swung a hammock between two trees. She had arranged a beard in the fence so it opened and closed like a gate. In that bush-guarded spot she read, slept, had her day dreams. Nat knew well where to find her. He dashed into her presence and flung down the box. “There! that’s for you,” he announced. “Mebbe there’s some fine garden seeds in it, and you love flowers, I’ve heard you say.” “Oh, yes, indeed!” fluttered Winnie delightedly, and then her face fell as she revealed the goodly store in the box. “Oh, dear!” she sighed dolorously—"lettuce, onions, parsley, tomatoes, carrots. But it gives me an idea, ‘"“and I’ll take you in oh partnership, Nat Where did you ever get them?” Nat told. Then Winnie’s eyes brightened as she unfolded her scheme. She was tired of doing nothing, she was shut up like some nun, and her saving aunt never gave her a penny. They would earn some money. Would Nat help her ? Would he! and he vowed to keep the secret of their great enterprtse, Nat smuggled rake, spade and hoe front the family toolhouse. Before school and after school, and nearly all day Saturday the accommodating little fellow assisted the industrious Winnie in preparing a good-sized plot of ground for culture. They -laughed with Joy aa“ the seeds began to sprout. .“We shall have the earliest vegetables in town, this 801 l Is so rich and so sheltered with plenty of sunshine!” exulted Winnie. “Then you shall sell

the Btuff, Nat, and you shall have an even half of all we get.” “Crackety! flfty-flfty!” crowed Nat “Why, I can get enough to get a new club uniform!” “And I shall have ribbons and ehooolates, all I can eat!” cried Winnie. That very thing came to pass. Aunt Dorothy never suspected what waß going on. As to the Warners, none of the family ever penetrated beyond the thick hedge that shut out of view that neglected spot of the great rambling grounds. As the crops came up Winnie did up the fresh, crisp packages in tissue paper, and Nat became prime vendor of the delicate and delicious green stuff. At the end of the week both felt wealthy. “The stuff takes like hot cakes!** reported Nat one afternoon, displaying about one-half a pint of dimes, nickels and pennies. “Oh, Miss Winnie! I’ve got over nine dollars saved up. Why, there’s my best customer, young Mr. Warner! How do you do, sir?” In vast confusion and embarrassment Winnie arose to confront a stranger and the first intruder upon their solitude. She had heard that Mr. Warner’s son, Clyde, had recently come home from college. She flushed guiltily as she realized that they were discovered as trespassers. But the* handsome man lifted his hat so courteously, he smiled so indulgently, he proceeded so quickly to take in the situation as a clever bit of business, that Winnie was soon at her ease. “I declare?” he observed. “I really believe your wonderfully fresh ‘garden sass’ has been a sure tonic to my father. He says he never tasted such superb green stuff. And the enterprising young huckster here who supplies our household daily never intimated that it was grown right on our own place.” There were three gardeners after that, for daily Clyde would visit the hidden*- garden. And when' the last early spring vegetables had run out there was a fourth member to the coterie —the little god, Cupid! Yes, Winnie had met her hero and Clyde Warner his fate. Aunt Dorothy had to be told, and the bright earnest ways of Clyde won her over. Papa Warner was Just as tractable, and Winnie was engaged—oh, the delightful finale to the innocent scheme that had begun through political enmity! And one evening when both families were together, the story of little Nat came out. Mr. Warner sprang to his feet at the recital of the rescue of the hated box of seeds he had cast to the windfs. “That grafting scoundrel’s bribe to me!” he stormed. “And I luxuriated on the proceeds! Why didn’t I choke on the stuff?" And then he laughed uproariously, and caught his prospective daughter-in-law in his arms. “No, no!” he declared heartsomely —“party enemy or not, he has sent to our lonely home its brightest blessing!" (Copyright, 1316, by W. O. Chapman.)

HE WENT HIM ONE BETTER

Crop Story Which is Quite as Good as the Old One of the Fisherman. Crop stories quite frequently rival “fish stories” in their tendency to exceed the speed limit, in crossing the boundary line of veracity, the bigness of pumpkins and the immensity of cabbages, apples or potatoes equaling any big flslrever described. Now the capacity of soils for raising things and “starting something” to grow, claims attention. Here is a story of fertile land told by Dr. Nathan C. Schaeffer, as a joke on himself, remarks the Springfield (Mass.) Union. The richness of soil was being discussed with a woman farmer from the Dakotas. Doctor Schaeffer glorified the crop possibilities of his Lancaster county by saying: ‘Why, in our county the soil is so rich that if you stick a nail into the ground, the next morning it has grown Into a crowbar.” Whereupon the other replied: "Yes, I know, but in our county we use a tack for that purpose.”

Early United States History.

The first American government in the territory of Missouri was established at Vincennes, Ind., in 1804, but French and Spanish government had prevailed there for a lqng time. Missouri was part of the Louisiana purchase, and when the United States acquired Louisiana in 1803, all south of 33 degrees of latitude was created, the territory of Orleans, and all north of that parallel was created the district of Louisiana and attached for administrative purposes to the territory of Indiana. October 1, 1804, Gov. William Henry Harrison and the three judges of Indiana territory met at Vin cennes and made the first set of American laws for the district of Louisiana, now the state of Missouri. The state government was formed in 1818 and the state was admitted to. the Union in Is2l after a long fight in congress on tike slavery question ending in what was called the Missouri compromise.

They Saw the Cow.

- A woman with a family of children recently moved from the heart of Indianapolis to one of the subnrbs, where they found various liew educational opportunities. One day a neighbor met .them all walking hack from the edge of town and asked whether they had been out in the country. \ “Yes,'’ said the woman; “the who brings our butter said he had a cow out there, and I took the children out to see it —Indianapolis News

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER, INP,

BUREAU'S TASK IS TO FIX STANDARD FOR ALL SORTS OF THINGS

Not Only Weights and Measures, but About Every Detail of Every Public Utility Passed Upon by Federal Bureau of Standards— Idea Is to Present Well-Tested Methods Which Will Commend Themselves to All States.

Washington.—Ever since the advent of the new year the bureau of standards of the department of commerce has been deluged with inquiries from all corners of the country concerning standards of everything from electric and gaslight brilliance to the strength of a water pipe. And most of these requests are pouring in from public service corporations and their old enemies, the public utilities commissions. Primarily the bureau of standards was charged with the duty of testing and determining standards exact measurements of every kind and nature. A steel yardstick which may be a yard long in June will be something less than a yard in cold December, and it is the bureau’s task to find out what constitutes a real yard under all conditions. Naturally, in pursuing this chase for elusive constants, the bureau branched off, more or less, into ipeasuring things other than yardsticks, and among other details it became interested in learning what amount* of electricity should go into an electric light. As this was only a step from learning what constitutes a real gaslight candle power, the bureau learned that also. Several years ago, it appears, those who planned for the future of the bureau anticipated that eventually they would be called upon to referee the constant clashes between public service corporations arid those state and municipal commissions appointed to regulate the corporations. They felt that the day would come when the word of the bureau of standards must settle such controversies, and they set to work to rig up their administrative plant to provide for it. And Just as they planned the need arose, and they were prepared. For a while the public utility experiments and decisions of the bureau were carried along as a rather unclassified portion of its administrative burden, bbt as the demand for information increased along public utility lines it was finally decided to set aside a certain part of the bureau’s force into separate quarters and put them to the task of working out the destiny of those corporations which serve the public. Some Knotty Problems. Electric light and gas companies and street railways furnish most of the knotty problems the bureau is called upon to solve in .th.e__publlc utilities field, and perhaps no problem has given the bureau more study and trouble than the process of electrolysis of underground pipes in cities where the streets are honeycombed by pipes of all sorts.

Most of the street railways are operated on the single, overhead trolley plan, with the electric current passing through the car into the track, via the wheels, after it has passed through the Car motors. Most of the current is properly conducted back to the generating stations, but some of it escapes and menaces gas and water pipes in the vicinity. These stray currents produce what is known as electrolysis, which eats away the pipes. This leads to constant wrangling between the street railway companies and the corporations whose pipes have been injured. While it has so far been almost impossible to completely prevent the corroding of pipes thus exposed, the bureau has been able to advise public utilities commissions howj to compel the various corporations involved to mitigate this current wastage and the consequent evil effects. As a result of tests made during the past year at St. Louis, Springfield, Mass., and Springfield, 0., the bureau has been enabled to-lay down some definite rules which will prevent a great deal of damage from this agency. Bonding of the joints of-rails to give greater conductivity to the rails, was one plan. Another was embodied in radical roadbed changes, to lessen the connections between the earth and the rails. At present the bureau is conducting tests to show the extent of electrolytic action on pipes of all kinds and this is expected to throw additionSl light on the question, 1. The bureau gets every assistance from the gas and electric companies and from . municipalities, while the street railway companies usually give but scant attention to the matter. The reason is obvious, as the results of the work tend to increase the coßt to the railway companies through the necessary installation of safeguards, whereas railways themselves are not concerned in the matter of damaged pipes owned by other parties, unless a lawsuit results, and the courts have been able to get very little action here. Gas Service Standards. determining service standards of gas, both for heating and illuminating, Is another factor in the work of the bureau. Most city and state utility commissions rule rather uniformly on the matter of meters, meter testing, heating value and candle power of the gas product, degree of chemical purity and amount of pressure required, but the bureau -experts have been able to formulate a set of uniform regulations. It is the aim of -the bureau to make the gas requirements of San Francisco as near\those of New York as possible. A fairly/ uniform meter regulation, for instance, would remove a great ob-

stacle to meter manufacturers. At present a meter acceptable in San Francisco might not do at all in New York. The bureau, thanks to the experts, could furnish at this moment a set of rules for the government of public utilities anywhere, which, with possibly a few minor alterations, could be put into effect with marked benefit to the community and without serious hardship to the corporations affected. For instance, three sets of model electric ordinances have been prepared—one for large cities, one for mediumsized cities, and one for smaller cities and towns. Big-city requirements are inclined to be more stringent than those applicable to smaller communities, and to enforce these requirements upon electric power companies in small towns would be more or less of a hardship. Then there is a different set of model regulations, suitable for adoption by state utilities commissidns, which strike a happy medium between the stricter regulations of the large cities and the laxer rules applicable to the smaller communities. In formulating these tables of measurements the bureau has received support not only from utilities commissions throughout the country but from electric companies as well. It frequently happens that representatives of the bureau are asked by public utilities commissions to attend hearings on matters of more than usual importance. In such case an expert is sent, and usually he supplies data of vast benefit in enabling those interested to reach a definite conclusion. Safety Codes. One important phase of the bureau’s work is its plan to formulate and have adopted a national gas and electric safety code for the protection of both workers and consumers. The idea is to have the code uniform throughout all states. This work, however, is not completed. Sometime this year a conference will be held in Washington to consider the bureau’s national electric code, and if adopted by the convention its adoption by the state legislatures will be urged. The same method has been followed In the preparation of a gas safety code for all the states. To investigate the telephone as a public utility it has been necessary to make some survey of telephone transmitting and receiving apparatus; as well as switchboard equipment. So far this work has been slight, but from now on the bureau will devote itself more energetically to this task. In the opinion of the bureau telephone standards are in sore nefed of fixing. Public service commissions throughout the country are noting increasing frequency of petitions for permission for connections between telephone systems under different ownerships and the question is constantly arising as to whether an Impairment of service would result.

ANCIENT HEAD CAGE

Thomas Mott Osborne, former warden of Sing Sing prison, posed for the Survey in the old iron head cage which he found in the cellar of Auburn prison. The head cage weighs eight pounds, and was used as recently as 18 years ago on refractory prisoners.

$1,000 for Nine Lives.

Des Moines, la.—W. CL Allen, a West Des Moines high school teacher, has received a Carnegie hero medal and |I,OOO in cash for bravery in saving nine persons from drowning at Athens, 0., in 1907. Allen was a student at Ohio university at Athens, when the Hocking river overflowed and carried everything before it. Allen and a companion, using a small skiff, rescued nine persons.

Ready for Big Flood.

Drayton, Mo.—Foreseeing a flood to cover the whole earth, John Rule, a farmer, living on Bed river, has Jpfit an ark in which he expects to save himself and his family.

SINGS HIS WAY TO FREEDOM

Boy Wins Release of Parents Who Were Prisoners of Villa’s Band of Cutthroats. Philadelphia. Little four-year-old Harry Jollne of this city sang to Villa’s ferocious guerrillas and brought about the release of his imprisoned parents. This youthful traveler Is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Harry Joline. With his father, who is a mining engineer, and his mother he has traveled during the last 45 days a distance of 14,000 miles, passing through the United States. Canada and Mexico. At the time of the Columbus raid he and his parents were in Juarez, Mexico, and were subjected to considerable affront

Harry Joline.

and finally were incarcerated in a bull pen. Young Harry was allowed to roam about, and soon succeeded in capturing and holding the affections and imaginations of Villa’s fierce soldiers, who showered him with Villa currency and released his father and mother and saw them safely to the border. - Harry is also a young hero in the eyes of traveling men and doctors who consider his feat of traveling 14,000 miles in ever-changing altitudes without becoming sick, a truly remarkable achievement. He has imbibed all kinds of spring, soda and mineral waters, and has changed his clothing on some days, twice, and occasionally three times, to suit the climate through which he was passing. Changes varying from freezing to summer heat, traveling on 23 railroads and sleeping on railroad trains and in different hotels each night have left no ill effects upon this youngster.

INDIAN STUDENT IS GRATEFUL

Nez Perce Urges All.Redmen Who Can to Go to the Carlisle Indian School. Carlisle, Pa—Superintendent Oscar H. Lipps of the Carlisle Indian school, is in receipt of a letter from Stephen Reuben, a Nez Perce Indian, who left the school 33 years ago. Mr. Reuben says he has not escaped the tion of the reservation, but he is thankful that he has been given strength and courage to rise when he fell and “stand like a man.” He urges the pupils to make use of their opportunities hpre, for they will be thankful some day, as he is today, for what Carlisle is doing for the Indians. He says among other things: “I allowed not my hair to grow below my ears. I wear still the stiff head collar on my neck and I wear a good suit like I had on while at Carlisle. I am living on a farm, raise grain, vegetables and fruit, and drive six horses with train wagons Just like I did in Buck county, Pennsylvania. I built a house- for myself from what I learned of the carpenter’s trade at Carlisle. I have 1,524 fruit trees, onehalf bearing fruit now.”

AUTO AID IN COAST DEFENSE

Seven-inch Howitzer Carried ThirtyEight Miles in Three Hours Over Hilly Road. San Francisco. —Officers of the coast artillery here expressed satisfaction over a test made to determine the value of the auton§@bsJe as a factor in coast defense. The Thirteenth company was rushed from Fort Miley to Half Moon bay. The artillerymen took with them a seven-inch howitzer, weighing four tons. * jhe distance is 38 miles, over a hilly TO&fl. gnft the trip with horses would take, army officers estimated, about a day and a half. The artillerymen covered the distance in 90 minutes in motor cars. The gun was' only three hours on the way.

GOD STILL RULES

And to Those That Love Him Al Things Work Everlastingly for Good. Much in our lives Is a puzzle, sometimes a desperate paradox. None of us can draw up his life chart for a year to come and follow it as a mechanic does his blueprint. We lay wise plans and they end In folly. We commit gross blunders and they are overruled for good. We hasten toward a bright light and it goes out In darkness. We stagger into darkness and lo! it becomes light! We pray for pleasures and they mildew into griefs. We sink down in our griefs and they blossom Into Joys. Today our apples turn into ashes and tomorrow our stones become bread. We celebrate some prosperity and then leanness comes with it. We shudder at some adversity and later find it big with blessings. We run toward open doors and dash our heads against a granite wall. We prepare to batter down the wall and lo! it opens to let us through! In 1899 the first peace conference meets at The Hague. In 1907 the permanent court of arbitration is founded. Soon a number of peace treaties are being negotiated. War seems almost unthinkable, well-nigh doomed"when suddenly the worst war in history bursts upon the world. Is it true that the Son of Man has all authority in heaven and on earth? Does he ride upon the storm? Faith trusts, hope is sanguine, but love has a secret. “We know that to them that love God all things work together for good.” We are not the victims of a mild illusion nor a faint hope. We attain to impregnable assurance. "We know.” Not that we know all of God’s plans, but we know God. We are not taken into all his secrets, but we are lifted up Into the light and warmth of his lOve. Are we facing losses, caught in a tangled thicket, defeated in some of the holiest ambitions of our life? There is one pathway to assurance and peace —“love God and thou shalt know.” Thou shalt acquire the cognition of faith. All Things Work to an End. Diplomats may defeat the right for a time, treaties may be scraps of paper, but what statesman can checkmate the hand of God? “I am Jehovah that maketh all things, that frustrated the signs of the liars and maketh diviners mad, and that turneth wise men backward and maketh their knowledge foolishness." In the furrows of shot and shell God is sowing the seed of a new civilization. Not one soldier staggers to his death for nothing. Not one sailor sinks beneath the wave, not one widow weeps in vain. In the wake of guns and by the smoking ruins of huts and desolated fields God says today just what he did in Cyrus’ day, “Distill ye heavens from above and let the skies pour down righteousness; let the earth open that it may bring forth salvation and let it cause righteousness to spring up; for I Jehovah have created it.” O men and women, let us trust his unlimited skill! What to us is marred and ruined he can turn into an enduring triumph. Point the telescope of your faith into the blackness of the •bight and you will find your star. Trust him with your failures, and you wilt find that you aro4n the hands not of "Fate” but of love. Perhaps this very year has left you richer than all others in the solidities of eternity. Let our doubts give way to thanksgiving, our fears pass into battling courage. The shadows come and go. The battle smoke does not mean that we have lost. In the fierce flame that devastates Europe, there walks the form of the Son of Man. Never fear! What shall separate these bleeding peoples from the love of Christ? Shall diplomacy, or intrigue, or monarchies, or war lords, or treaty-breaking, or devastating armies? Nay, in all these things humanity, the one family of the one Father, shall be more than conquerors through him who loved us. Dost thou doubt this, O man? Love God and thou shalt know; obey him and thou Bhalt be sure. Yield yourself to ,be an Instrument ofr righteousness Sind a co-worker with the Son of Man, and thou shalt see his salvation. “As the Father hath sent me into the world, even so send I you."—Rev. Thomas W. Smith, D. D.

Christian Can Lack Nothing.

Why should I be anticipating evils, instead of blessings, when such a God is mine? Is life to be filled with mournful sunsets only? Are there to be no beautiful sunrises too? The coming days stand before me, like empty vessels waiting to be filled. If I myself fill them up with my forebodings and alarms, what they hold will be bitter enough. But if I suffer God to fill them, they will overflow with the good wine of his Joy. And when, at last, the Journeyings are over, the wilderness is passed, and the fights are done, and my loving Master,' in the good land beyond, asks me to look back and say whether on earth, while serving him, I ever lacked anything I did really need, my thankful Ups will have only this to answer, “Nothlng.’VRev. G. H. Knight.

Real Success.

does not mean their min. but their right use.‘•'He has gained no victory who has killed a man; it is only when he has converted him that he can talk of success—Floyd.W. Tompkins, D.