Evening Republican, Volume 20, Number 171, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 July 1916 — Page 2

TURNED DOWN

Bu H. M. EGBERT

(Copyright. ISI6. by W. G. Chapman.) I. Turned down. That was Rolfe’s position after he had worked five days for the Eastern railroad. He had been taken on after submitting his references, because the line needed men in a hurry. It had just come out of liquidation, and everything was topsy-turvy. Freight and passenger trains were mixed; e certain number had to be- sent along the metals to anywhere within a certain time, for the retention of a franchise; altogether the Eastern railway was in confusion. But Wilbraham, the new president, was going to make It efficient. Nobody doubted that-. Rolfe’s references were satisfactory, hut there was a gap in them. He did not offer any explanation of the gap, but resolved to make good.

On the fifth morning the president sent for him. "Rolfe, you are said to have served a term in the penitentiary for theft," he said. "It’s true, sir, but —" “You are the son of William Rolfe of Leeds?" “Yes, sir. I —■’* "You can lay off until I send for you,” said Mr. Wilbraham. Rolfe left the office in a blind fury. The theft had been nothing but the thoughtless act of a boy. He had stolen some money from his stepfather in order to go West, and had been arrested five miles from home. Despite his mother’s tears the old man had -pressed the charge to the limit. Rolfe’s mother, terrified, had not made a favorable impression on

Saunders Pitched Forward Insensible.

the court and Rolfe had got two years. When he came out, crushed jn spirit, he resolved to fight his . way nevertheless. He obtained several positions, but every time old Stevens had him discharged. His stepfather’s hatred of him seemed the passion of his life. The malice of the old man was beyond understanding. Why did he hate him so?

Anyway, Rolfe was resolved to justify the world’s opinion of him. He went back to gather up his things, with a deliberate plan in his mind. The superintendent called him. “Rolfe, you’ll take Joe’s place as conductor on the 5:12,” he said. The line was desperately short of men. The 5:12 consisted of an engine and a single empty passenger coach, required to comply with the terms of the franchise. No! Rolfe's heart leaped up as he remembered something more, and the blood began to hammer in his ears. A cash shipment of $50,000 was to go in a special express car. And the superintendent had evidently not heard that he was discharged. "All right, sir,7 Rolfe responded.

11. Just as the train swung out Rolfe saw old Wilbraham step aboard hastily, a telegram in his hand. He was to be the sole passenger on the train and was evidently on some important and last-minute mission. Rolfe watched him clamber aboard. He showed himself deliberately; but the president appeared not to remember him. Rolfe smiled bitterly. So little was a man's job or reputation worth to old Wilbraham! He stood sulkily upon the platform. From there he could see old Saunders, the guard in the express car, seated reading a newspaper, his carbine beside him. Saunders was a Civil war veteran, the safe an old-fashioned affair that a man could just lift and ■end crashing through the window. Probably, thought Rolfe, the fall would of itself burst the flimsy old thing open. He was glad Wilbraham was aboard. He would show the president what it infant to be unjust. He would make his coup when the train passed Cutts tunnel. The 5:12 was running to Leeds, arriving about 8 o’clock, and It would be dark about 7, after the tunnel was passed. The country was

very wild about there; ft would not be hard to carry, out his plan. He peered into the car at Wilbraham. The president, still holding the telegram, was bending forward, chewing an unlit cigar, evidently in a brown study. A blind anger surged through the boy’s heart as he thought of the injustice and persecution that made his life a hell. Then he remembered that the train was actually speeding toward his old home, which he had not seen for six years. His mother and old Stevens lived near Leeds. His mother wrote occasionally, and once a year he sent her a few lines. She never complained, but he knew that Stevens made his mother’s life unbearable. Then a new thought came to the boy. Why should he be content with rifling the safe? Why not kill—Stevens —Wilbraham — all who had persecuted him. He had tried hard on bls mother's account to atone for the boyish error. The world was against him; he would be against the world. As he stood there, with a roar the train plunged into the tunnel. When it emerged it was nearly dark. The boy, fingering his cheap revolver in indecision, looked through the glass front of the door of the express car. Old Saunders was still reading his newspaper. With a resolute gesture Rolfe took the revolver from the pocket into which he had thrust it and moved forward.

Suddenly he heard shouts from the engine, and then the train began to slow down. He heard a revolver shot, another shout; the train stopped suddenly, the wheels biting into the metals, as if the brakes had been jammed down hard. The engine snorted and puffed to a standstill. The next moment two men clambered aboard the platform of the express car, so hastily that they did not see Rolfe on the platform of the car behind them. They carried revolvers, and pushed open the door. Rolfe saw old Saunders start up. He grabbed his carbine. The next instant, before he could aim it, one of the men brought down the butt of his revolver with a sickening thud upon the old veteran’s head. Saunders pitched forward insensible upon the floor of the car.

One of the men raised the limp body in his arms and cast it into,the ditch at the bottom of the embankment beside the line. Old Saunders groaned feebly in the darkness. The other man snatched at the safe and, raising it on high, staggered tbward the platform with it. Then it was that Rolfe realized he had been forestalled. And the evil thoughts died out of his heart.

He held the revolver in his right hand and aimed steadily. He fired. The man who was carrying the safe dropped it with a crash and toppled forward. He sat up, looking with ludicrous surprise at a stain of blood upon his trousers. The other man spun round and fired wildly in Rolfe’s direction. Rolfe heard the bullet whiz past his head into the air. Then he had leaped upon the express car platform and engaged in a furious fight with the second bandit. The man thrust his revolver into his face; Rolfe dodged just in time to avoid the bullet, and closed with his opponent. He knocked the revolver from hfb hand, and it went spinning across the floor of the car.

The bandit released himself and snatched up Saunders’ carbine. He aimed a stunning blow at the boy’s head. Rolfe ducked; it caught him on the shoulder, and his arm dropped as the collarbone fractured. With his left hand Rolfe seized the carbine. The bandit wrested it from him and sent him staggering back upon the platform. He saw the man coming for him again, was conscious of a shower of sparks before his eyes, and —fainted. IV. He was in the little room that he had occupied years before in his mother’s home. He saw her face bent over his, and looked at her without understanding. It all seemed like a dream. "Mother!” he cried. "What has happened?” She laid her cool hand on his forehead. "Hush, dear!” she said, as if he were a little boy again. “I can’t stay in this house, with — him.” “He died three weeks ago, Renny,” she answered. And the thought of that long martyrdom, and of her new happiness filled her eyes with tears. They wept together.

It was not until a week later that he learned the truth. The president, receiving the letter from Stevens, had been impressed by its injustice. Being the. sort of man who deemed that no sacrifice was too great for an employee, he had taken the train that night for Leeds, in order to interview Stevens. He had arrived on the express car platform in time to see Rolfe stricken down and to aid in capturing the outlaw, assisted by the engineer, who had surprised the third man that had overcome him, and knockedihim senseless. Rolfe was the hero of the day. No lives had been lost but the three outlaws were now in the county jail. Then Wilbraham, going on to the house as if nothing had happened, together with the doctor and the unconscious Rolfe, had ordered that no expense should be spared in caring for him. And in Rolfe’s mother he recognized what he had suspected—the existence of an old sweetheart. So —but with that part the story does not concern itself. Only that, two weeks later, Rolfe sat down in the president’s office as his private secretary, knowing that the pagt was buried and the future golden. . '

THE EVENING REPUBLICAN, RENSSELAER, IND.

IN “HICKORY BANK”

PIONEER HAD SAFE PLACE FOR HJB STORE OF GOLD. What Might Be Considered Accident Was the Means of Revealing What Meant Fortune to Jim Applegate and His Mother.

One day in March, 1858, Jim Applegate, aged twelve, accompanied his father to the bank of a little Indiana town, where Mr. Applegate drew out the $5,000 for which he had sold his farm, in 250 20-dollar gold pieces. “It will pay you to keep an eye on that pile of gold,” cautioned the banker. “Tomorrow I’ll put it in a hickory bank,” said Mr. Applegate. The banker smiled as if he caught the point, but Jim was puzzled. “What is a hickory bank, pa?” he asked.

“It’s a pretty safe sort of bank, son, when you’re traveling,” was all his father would say. At the hardware store Mr. Applegate bought an inch-and-three-quarters auger with an extra long shaft, and then they went home. After that night Jim saw the money no more. Mr, Applegate kept his business affairs to himself, anfl'neither Jim nor his mother knew where it was. The Applegate family was one of ten families that traveled in prairie wagons that year from Indiana to Ore--gon over the famous Oregon trail. The 2,000-mlle journey was less dangerous than it had been 15 years before, but there were still perils, the most serious of which was that from attacks by hostile Indians.

For that reason there was something of a military arrangement to the'march eyen of these ten wagons, and each night the wagons were drawn up in a circle and the yoke and chains of each wagon were used to connect it with that in front. Within this circular fortification the camp fires were built. On the eightieth day out they were attacked by a party of young Indians, who thought to take advantage of the smallness of the party. The skirmish was brief, but bloody and tragic enough for that small band of emigrants. They drove off the redskins, but lost two of their own number. One of the men who were killed was Mr. Applegate.

Mrs. Applegate left her husband, and Jim, his father, under the fresh-heaped mound upon the plain, and there also they left the secret of the “hickory bank.” They ransacked the wagon from top to bottom; they looked through all of Mr. Applegate’s private papers and notebooks; but they could not find the money, nor did the papers contain any note or memorandum of its hiding place. All that Jim and his mother had was a little over a hundred dollars in money, five cows, the ox team they were driving, the wagon and the household effects that it contained. Westward from Fort Hall the road was rough and mountainous. One day, as they were descending the rockiest and roughest portion, the Applegate wagon was in the rear. - It was three ’o’clock in the afternoon. Jim’s mother was driving, and he was walking behind, occasionally throwing a stone at one of the loose cows or calves that persisted in loitering. There were abrupt breaks in the surface two and three feet high. The rear wheels would slide over these miniature precipices and hit the lower level with a suddenness and violence that shook the whole wagon and rattled the pans and kettles oft their hooks, After one of these “jump-offs,” somewhat higher than usual, Jim saw that the hind wheels of the wagon were turning drunkenly. They were leaning in at the top and out at the bottom. His mother drove on, unaware that anything was wrong, and he ran to catch up with her. A shining gold piece in the middle of the road caught his eye. Atalanta-like, he stopped to pick it up. Fifteen feet farther on he found another. They began to appear thickly, and he gathered them up as he went. Before he reached the wagon his mother had driven over another of the “jump-offs,” and the tops of the wheels leaned in so far that they began to rub against the sides of the wagon bed. Mrs. Applegate stopped the oxen and leaned out to see what was the matter; Jim came up and stooped down beside the rear axle. A yellow pile of S2O gold pieces lay there, and . other pieces were rolling out of an auger hole that ran like the bore <of a rifle through the center of the splintered hickory column of the broken axle. That was the hickory bank. —Youth’s Companion.

Army Grows Its Potatoes.

The British army has started to grow its own potatoes. Instructions have been sent, or are being sent, from the war office to every command, indicating the lines which should be followed. ; Military requirements are very large, and little more than half the usual supplies of potatoes are coming into the markets, with the result that prewar prices to the public are nearly doubled. At one camp in Surrey digging operations began recently, and the seed potatoes are to be planted in a-few days In.rows between the huts. A number of men are being told oft each day for diggings and others are being asked to help in spare time. At a camp in Yorkshire potato growing began some weeks ago. It is understood that instructions will soon be issued for the growing of vegetables.

CONTROLLED BY SOUND WAVE

Engineer Has New Idea for Controlling the Death-Dealing Devices Employed in Modern Warfare. Lovers of opera, or otherwise, who have had the pleasure, or otherwise, of hearing some of the most modern music, have come to realize that it has other attributes than that of soothing the savage breast. But to blow up a battleship by means of a Strauss dissonance or a Wagner Overture, to nip off prowling submarines with a Verdi cadenza, or to make a mine-strewn harbor safe for your own ships with the tender notes of a Schubert lullaby seems another matter.

Expressed somewhat after the fashion of vers libre, that is more or less the results that are expected from an Invention demonstrated to the writer. Lieut. Stiles M. Decker of the Pacific coast artillery is the inventor of a device that he believes will go a long way toward revolutionizing our coast defense. Patents have been applied for and preliminary tests have shown conclusively, it is said, that control of underwater mines may be successfully maintained through sound waves for firing, testing or rendering the mines neutral. It is believed to be the first time that the energy of sound has been used as a means of controlling; the action of a source of energy. The fact that mines have to be either controlled from the shore or by means of wires or else planted loose so that they will explode on contact has long been a source both of expense and trouble, according to Lieutenant Decker. The cable to the mines, when this is used, is very expensive and becomes useless in the course of a few years. Also it is not a very difficult matter under certain conditions for it to be destroyed by .an enemy, thus rendering the mines useless. The mines that are simply planted with no further means of control may become as dangerous to the ships of this country as they are to those of an enemy. If there could be some means of controlling them from the land without the necessity of any actual physical connection the advantages are so apparent that they need no enumeration. After considering a number of possible solutions Lieutenant Decker conceived the idea of using sound waves, which, as is well known, can be carried under water. With this as a working basis he has built up his theory of making a mine that will be controlled by a series of musical notes.

Selecting the Camp Site.

Unless you know .your country well, do not rush to make camp on arrival, but take enough time to hunt up a good comfortable location. If there are any guides to be had, ask"'their advice, and the small charge they will make to show you some of the best places will be more than repaid in extra satisfaction. The most important requirements are sufficient firewood and good drinking water. It is not a great task to go some distance for water, but the wood must be close at hand. If possible, select a location where the morning sun will sjiine directly on the tent. This is for two purposes; to keep the camp dry, and to get everyone up while the coffee and pancakes are hot. It is well to have the camp partially shaded after ten o’clock in warm weather and enough trees about to break the force of the wind, not that there is any danger of a tent blowing down when pitched in either manner described below, but continuous strong winds become very tiresome and make the keeping of food warm almost ah impossibility. Moderate breezes are most desirable for keeping away files and cooling the tent.—Field and Stream.

Education by the “Movies.”

Though motion pictures may never supplant the schoolmaster, they are already supplementing his work, and make it possible to facilitate teaching by illustrating of a varied and effective kind> Not least Important is the aid that may give the practicing doctor and surgeon, especially in rare and difficult emergencies. The perfection reached in this new art was demonstrated in motion pictures of intricate operations lately shown the New York County Medical society. It was noted that every movement of the surgeons could be seen more clearly than when viewed directly in the ordinary clinic amphitheater, for the pictures were taken from the best viewpoint With films from the great surgical centers of the world collected as a part of the medical library, the local operator suddenly confronted with a strange case may promptly find needed details of new pf special operations by referring to the stored pictures.

Dogs Among the Fliers.

When Lieutenant and Mrs. Theodore Marburg, Jr., arrived in this country recently they brought with them a little Scottish terrier, Jockomeo, which is one of several of the breed called “aviation hounds” by the British forces along the war front in France, where they figure largely# in the aviation camps. The little canine flier has a short, low-lying body, a long nose, with rough, wiry, black hair, streaked with white, and a pair of brilliant eyes that express a wealth of intelligence. Marburg said Jockomeo and the others of his breed in the camp are trained to guard the hangars and give warning when a hostile aeroplane makes its, appearance. ~ . These dogs make flights with the aviators and hold the waste, spanners and other tools in their mouths when the aviators have occasion to make repairs or adjustments. ,

India's City of Discontent

PROCESSION OF STATE ELEPHANTS

T HE query on tne lips of tnose who know India is whether , the new viceroy. Lord Chelmsford, will be able to soothe the “City of Discord.” This is Lahore, writes Charles M. Pepper in-the Washington Star. There are plenty of other discontented and dissatisfied sections of India, but it is the unspoken belief that whoever can keep Lahore quiet can tranquillize the rest of India. Lahore is well to the north. It is the capital and commercial center of the fertile Punjab. This is known as the five-river region, because of the Important streams which water it. Lahore itself is on the River Ravi. The Punjab, by means of its rivers, has been enabled to develop a very complete system of irrigation canals. Its wheat crop helps to feed England and to stabilize prices of food in the United Kingdom. It also has abundant crops of corn, oil seeds, cotton, cane and rice. It is the most varied and productive agricultural region of India.

Lahore Is the gateway of northern India. The railway runs to Rawalpindi and beyond to Peshawar, at the mouth of the Kabul pass into Afghanistan. ’ Lahore also is considered the gateway to and from Kashmir. A splendid highway runs from Rawalpindi to Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir. The mall coaches and the tongas, or native buggies, and the bullock carts once monopolized this road, but the automobiles now have crowded them out, although there is still some traffic by means of the bullocks.

There is also another road from Lahore to Srinagar, more direct but less convenient and consequently less traveled. The commerce of northern India which reaches Lahore flows out through the port of Karachi, on the Arabian sea. There is through railway communication. The railways also keep Lahore In direct communication with Bombay and Calcutta, so that ns the city of discontent it is in touch with the dissatisfied elements in all parts of India. The City Itself is an Industrial center. There are cotton and flour mills, potteries, metal-working and numerous minor industrial activities. There are also the hand looms, since the mills have not yet entirely displaced this ancient form of Hindu weaving.

Punjab Museum Is Interesting. The Punjab museum, for those who wish to know something of the industrial life, is the most Interesting place in Punjab. The Buddhist sculptures from Peshawar axe very striking. There are carpets and rugs and glazed tiles, mosaics, pottery and examples of exquisite metal-working, along with screens and doors which illustrate the delicacy of the lacquer wood carving. There are also the old doors of the sixteenth century, in themselves an interesting exhibit. Then there are numerous drawings and reproductions by art students. The most interesting exhibits, however, are the throngs of native visitors, whose comments are very characteristic. A local munchi, or teacher, who showed me through the museum, Interpreted some remarks of one of the Punajabese visitors as expressive of his satisfaction |hat there was “nothing English” in the museum. There is, however, a great deal that is English in Lahore. Out Shalimar gardens way are numerous English bungalows, and also the English college in the Lawrence gardens, which is at once a tribute to British educational policy and a monument to the progressive Englishmen who have not been afraid to teach the natives fest that should increase their discontent. The group of college buildings are not out of harmony with their environment.

The government buildings, while comfortable, are not imposing. They are in the midst of shaded grounds and their graceful towers and arcade balconies are in keeping with the surroundings. The Shalimar gardens usually are described in the tourist guide books as hanging gardens. They lie- beyond a half-rained Moslem village. There are three terraces, or grassy platforms, almost distressing in their mathemat-

leal regularity, with squires and rectangles and with shallow lakes and fountains. Their shady walks have not been spoiled by overmuch landscape gardening, as is the tendency in India, where usually the ruling race seeks to add a few layers of ornamentation to the architectural traditions of the ruled race.

Tomb of Jehangir. * Jehanglr’s tomb is one of the chief historic attractions of Lahore. The mausoleum is on the bank of the Ravi river, which is now crossed by a flnei bridge Instead of the bridge of boats of old. There are four towers at the corners of the tomb. The mosaics and the marble lacquer work are the most beautiful features of the mausoleum. There is an inscription in the Urdu vernacular, reciting that it is the burial place of "Jehangir, the conqueror of the world.”

Jehanglr’s conquests were many and thorough, and fill a great space in the history of the Mohammedan invasion of India. But the world was larger than Jehangir and his contemporaries knew, and there was even more to India itself than they realized. The world of India, which he conquered, did not remain vanquished, and much of It fell away from his successors. Nevertheless, the Mohammedan preponderance continued and the domes and minarets of the mosques still dwarf the temples of the Jains and other Hindu sects.

Anarkali’s tomb is also one of the sights of Lahore. He was known as “the Lion of Lahore.” The dome building in which is held the yellow marble coffin that contains Anarkali’s remains is now occupied as a govern-* ment office without detracting any from the greatness of “the Lion of Lahore.”

The English section of Lahore Is a fine and spacious Anglo-Indian town, with an abundance of shade trees, wooded arcades and palms. The real Lahore, the actual city of discontent, is something very different. Many of the streets are as narrow as alleys, with the balconies and roofs elbowing one another. In these alleyways are some unusually fine examples of clay and wood earring, and of lattice andlacquer work. It is here that the native life purls atf<Lseethes, and resents Interference. Yet there are some concessions from the native customs. A Hindu “barker” in European clothes and with the helmet hat of the Englishman, crying the attractions of a sideshow, was one of these which I noted. Another was a group of Mohammedans playing cards with English cards. Nor was it w hist that they were playing, either. Yet next to them was seated a naked fakir, or priest, discoursing to a group of devout disciples—a real picture of native life. The Moslem preponderance, historically, in Lahore, and possibly numerically, raises a question why it should be the city of discontent, since the Mohammedans are mostly loyal and are the mainstay. of z British rule in India. But there is such a mixture of native races and religions in Lahore that no sect has any real preponderance. Apparently, discontent gravitates there because of the medley.

Proper Care of the Feet

A frequent footbath is not only soothing and refreshing but Is beneficial to the health of the feet and that of the entire system. The foot is an excretory center and by keeping the pores clear and free the waste matter of the system Is removed. A good footbath for nightly use is composed of water as hot as it can be borne In which a little powdered boric acid has been dissolved. Let the feet soak for five minutes, wash them off in cooler water and finish with a good brisk rubbing of cold cream.

All Through.

“How did you manage while I was away, dearie?” asked wlfie as her husband met her at the station. “I kept house for about ten days and then I went to a hotel.” ' “A hotel? Why didn’t you go on keeping house t’ “I couldn’t. AU the’ dishes warn dirty."