Jasper County Democrat, Volume 3, Number 24, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 September 1900 — Page 6

'Twixt Life and Death

BY PRANK BARRETT

CHAPTER Xlll.— (Continued.) “Everything was for me, and every farthing shall be paid when the man who insured my life pays me what he promised to pay.” ' “He will never do that. He is plotting to get Mrs. Redmond sent to prison, and put you into the hands of the man who will destroy you.” “Then he has done the wrong, not my friend. Oh, you must see that she is not in fault.” “I may have done her an injustice." “You have done her an injustice," Nes•a said, fiercely, “and you have wronged me, too. Oh, how; ill you must think of me—what an ungrateful coward I must seem—to believe that I would run away to be out of danger, and leave her to face alone the trouble she had brought upon herself for my sake! But I am not a coward; let them do their worst.” Her nostrils dilated. She set her teeth and knitted her brows as she quickly gathered up the rein that had slipped from her hand. “What are you going to do?” Eric cried, in entreaty, agulu putting his hand upon the rein. “I am going to my friend,” she answered, resolutely. “Please take your hand from the rein.” “I can try, I can tell the truth, and no one can convict my friend when the truth la known. I must call for help if you detain me.” “One moment, F implore you. You are throwing your life away. It is not my opinion, but the assurance of the police themselves. You cannot save your friend; but I can. And I will, though you do not know how much it costs me.” She hud reason to remember those words later on, with aching regret; at the moment they only inspired hope. Again ■he bent down to listen to his scarcely audible voice. He was speaking rather to himself than to her, as he hurriedly murmured: “Surely it can be done. We shall find means. It is your life that has to be saved. That is what I have to think of.” “You say you will save her?” said NesM. “Yes, if you willsave yourself.” “What am I to do?” “Go to some place of safety, and stay there until 1 bring your friend to you.” “I will go to your father.” “No,” said Eric, shaking his head in sadness; “you must not go to him.” Nessa’s mind was too much occupied with the thought of her friend's escape to ■ee the significance of this prohibition. “I could go to the riding school in Finsbury,” she suggested, quickly. “Yes, that is well. That gentleman will take care of you. Wait patiently. 1 will ■ave your friend.” “Oh, if you do, I will never forget you.” “That is something,” said Eric to himself as he turned away. “She will never forget me.”

CHAPTER XIV. Nessa and the riding master passed him rapidly as Eric reached the hansom. He followed her with his eyes, his heart aching with regret as he remembered the I eager joy of watching for her coming day after day, and realizing that henceforth he was never more to look for that dear face. By an effort of resolution he turned away, that he might concentrate all his thought on the thing be had undertaken to do for her. After a minute’s reflection he said to the cabman, putting a sovereign into his hand: “First, drive back to the house where you set me down.’ "The Pines, sir?" "Yes; but go back by a different way, ao that your horse’s head is toward Charing Cross. ” “I understand, sir." “I shall go into the house. But someone else will come out and get into the cab. You will be ready to start at any moment; you will not wait for anything; but the instant that person is in the cab you win go.” "Like a shot." “That is so. Two men are in front of the bouse.” “I see ’em, sir. One passed the time o’ day to me; but I never enter into no conversation with anyone when I’ve got a gentleman fare.” “Good! Thase men may try to stop you: but you must not let them." “I’ll give ’em a doing if they try.” “When they are quite out of sight, you will open the trap, and take your directions from the person inside. When you have tet down that person, you will take thia card to the Charing Cross Hotel. If T am not there, my father will give you payment." • He gave the card on which he had written a few words to his father while concluding his instructions, and sprang into the hansom. The driver started off at a speed that showed his determination to earn his pay. The laborers were still waiting at the corner of the street. There were two gates to the drive that<formed a semicircle before the house; the first stood open. Eric entered by the next, which he flung back in passing. The cab drew up before that one, as Ixdng the furthest removed from the corner of the street. Eric sent his card to Mrs. Merrivale, with the words, "on a matter of importance," written under his name. He was shown into a sitting room. Mrs. Merrivale came down in a couple of minutes, with a look of surprise on her face, which was not lessened when she recognized her visitor. • In a few words Eric laid the whole case before her, dwelling only on Nessa’s generous refusal to save herself while her friend was in danger. That seemed to Interest Mrs. Merrivale far less than the question of her own escape. “You say those wretches are waiting outside to take me; how am I to get sway?" she asked, shaking with fear. "Will you follow my directions?** “OertMnly." “You have 5 carriage T'

“Yes.” “Can you depend on the driver?” --“If it is to his iutere*L” “I it to his interest. Have you any female servant you can trust to help us?” “You can trust anyone if you make it worth her while to help you. They’ll do anything for money.” “Let her dress at once in your clothes—the beat you have—the things you would wear if yon were going to get things at shops. Let her wear a thick veil that cannot be seen through, and fasten it so that it cannot be raised easily.” “I*ll sew it.” “Bo not forget to let her wear gloves.” “She shall keep her hands In my muff if she can't get my gloves on.” “At the same time you will dress yourself for going out as simply as possible, not to attract attention. Conceal your hair if you can.” “Yes, yes—l can do that." "Let another servant pack a valise with a complete change of clothes for Miss Grahame. Hat, gloves—do not forget anything. Iler safety ” “All right; all right,” interrupted Mrs. Merrivale, impatiently. “And when we’re dressed as you suggest, what then?” “Then tell your man to be at the door with the carriage—the horse’s head to the west, so that the carriage will go out by the gate nearest the corner of the street.” “Yes—what then?" “I shall get into the carriage with your servant. If they are detectives at the corner of the street, they will stop the carriage before it has gone a dozen yards. The moment you see them occupied in arresting your servant, you will slip out by the other gate and jump into the cab I have left there. The driver has orders to start off at once in the other direction, and, as soon as he finds he is out of danger, he will ask you where he is to drive to. You will tell him to take you to Radford’s, in Finsbury, where your friend is waiting in dreadful suspense for you.” “Not I,” said Mrs. Merrivale, emphatically. “I’m not going to Radford’s. F shall make for Victoria, and take the first Crain that leaves there. I’ll wire Nessa where she can find me.” Eric concealed his disgust under a stiff inclination of the head. Perhaps he did not wholly dislike a decision which gave him an opportunity of befriending Nessa a little further. The carriage drove up to the door as Mrs. Merrivale and the bouseifiaid were coming downstairs—the latter thickly veiled and wearing a sealskin mantle and muff, which her mistress had taken the precaution to pud to her own proportions. She was skilled in this sort of work, and had even added to the disguise a knot of false hair, which shone out below the black veil on the back of the girl's head. She stood back as Eric opened the door. A round hat and a pair of eyes were visible over the wall between the two gates. Eric gave his arm to the housemaid and led her down, to the carriage. Raising his hat he opened the door, and when the girl was seated, he put the portmanteau at the coachman’s feet, saying, in a low voice:

“Radford’s riding school, in Finsbury. You shall have a pound if you get there in half an hour.” He took his seat beside the housemaid. “My girl,” said he, “I will give you five pounds if you prevent anyone seeing your face for five minutes. A man will try to see your face directly; do not let him succeed.” Anxious to secure his sovereign, the coachman swept down the drive and out into the road in fine style. The laborers made a dart at the horse’s head, but the carriage had gone twenty yards before it was brought to a stand. One of the men stepped up and seated himself beside the driver; the other came to the side of the carriage. "We don’t want to make it unpleasant, sir,” said he, “but this lady's got to go to the police station with us. You can get out if you like, and 1 will take your place." "You will do nothing of the kind. I refuse to let you take this lady anywhere until you show me your authority.” “I can pretty soon do that. I’ve got the warrant in my pocket, and I know Mrs. Merrivale there better than she knows me.” He glanced at the cab, and then plucked at the housemaid’s veil; but she was prepared for this, and met the attack so well that two valuable minutes were lost before her veil was removed, and then only with her bonnet and the knot of false hair. "I thought as much,” snid his mate, jumping down from the box. “The right un’s in that cab, and we're done if we can't catch it up." With that they bolted off after the rapidly vanishing hansom; while the driver of the victoria, still thinking of the pound to be won, rattled off in the opposite direction. In Moorgste street Eric stopped the carriage, paid the servants, and taking the portmanteau, told the driver to return to St. John’s Wood. In the waiting room of the riding school he found Nessa. “Where is my friend?” she asked, anxiously, seeing him alone. “She has escaped; but she thought it better not to come here,” Eric replied, with a delicate consideration for the girl’s feelings toward Mrs. Redmond which led him to conceal the woman’s selfish motive. “She will telegraph to you here when she has found a secure place where you may join her." “She feared they might follow her here and find me. w For if anyone is guilty it must be I, who incurred all those dreadful debts, you know.” She spoke in a tone of earnest persuasion, wishing to disabuse this new friend’s mind of the prejudice which he and his family obviously entertained against Mrs. Redmond. “I hope that no one is more guilty than you,” Eric replied fervently. “Yes; I wish that with all mjr heart, for your

sake. There is a dress In this valise fog you; you may have to make a journey, and It would be impossible in that riding habit.” “Oh, how thoughtful of her!” exclaimed Nessa; “anyone but a true friend would have been concerned only about her own safety at such a time.” “A true friend cannot ever forget,” he said, with a touch of sadness, not attempting to disabuse her mind and show that it was he, and not Mrs. Redmond, who had thought of the details. Nessa called an attendant to take the portmanteau into the ladies' dressing room, and then, turning to Eric, she said: “I want to thank you for all you have done, but I can find no words that are half nice enough now. Perhaps I may while I am dressing,” she added, archly; "will you wait here till I come back?” “I shall not go away until I must go.” When she was gone from the roott Eric sat with his face buried in his hands, seeing her face as one sees with closed eyes something of light that has fixed itself upon the retina. A clerk came into the room and -apologized. “I beg your pardon, sir—l thought Miss Grahame was here,” he said. He had an open paper in his hand. Eric rose. “You have a telegram for Miss Grahame?” he said. “No; the wire is addressed to us, but—he hesitated a moment—"perhaps you can tell us something about it.” He gave the telegram -to Eric to read. “A gentleman will come to you with the victoria and cob. Do not on any account let the carriage go. F will wire further instructions.” The office from which the telegram came was Victoria; there was not a word about Nessa. Eric’s heart bounded with a secret hope. “The hostler says he saw you get out of the victoria at the corner of the street,” said the clerk. “Yes; it has gone back to St. John’s Wood.” The clerk took back the telegram with a shrug and thanked Eric. “There is no telegram for Miss Grahame?” Eric asked. “None, sir. If any should come I will bring it in at once.” • Nessa came down, charming in her furs. The admiration in Eric’s face told her that, if her glass had failed to do so. “No message has come for me yet?” she said, interrogatively. “None.” “It is stupid to expect one until she has an address to send me. I may have to wait three or four hours.” She paused, and then added, her pretty eyes twinkling, “I am afraid I cannot thank you as I should yet a while.” “Whtn you find words to thank me I may find worts to bid you farewell—not before." That is just what she wanted him to say, and he said it as nicely as she could wish. “We will leave both till the last moment possible. I shall be glad to put it off for quite a long while, for there are many questions that I wish to ask you, and —and F usually have lunch about this time.” Eric carried her off to a hotel and they ate together—Nessa showing a very pretty taste in her selection of dishes, and they laughed and were happy, though each had black care close at hand. Nessa wished to make herself agreeable, as the only way in which she could express her gratitude, while Eric abandoned himself to the delight of the moment, and put away all gloomy thoughts for the gloomy hour that must come with a practical philosophy only possible to the young. Radford’s clerk, in recommending the hotel at which they dined, had promised that if any telegram for Nessa came in during their absence, he would send it on by a messenger at once. Nearly two hours had passed since they left the riding school, and no messenger had come. Every minute added to the probability that Nessa would be compelled to accept his father’s offer. (To be continued.)

FAT MEN OF OLD.

What They Did Jo Reduce Their Weight About 200 A. D. We know from ancient history that some of the greatest men of the bld world were fat, but it is news to hear that they were troubled In their minds on that account. Banting is generally supposed to be an Invention of the pres* ent century, but that this Is not the case is shown by the treatise by Galen on the foods best adapted for preventing, or reducing, obesity, which has now been edited for the first time in the original Greek by a German scholar. From an interesting account supplied by a writer In the Lancet, we learn that the treatise in question, which was written somewhere in the second century, A. D., was discovered in 1840 and purchased by the Bibliotheque Natlonale. The MS. was frequently referred to by ancient authors, and there seems no reason to doubt that it is really the work of the famous physician. Be that as It may, it Is noteworthy that the treatise Is a scientific anticipation of the banting system, which became popular about the middle of this century. Galen deprecates the use of drugs, and says that the proper way to reduce fat Is by dieting. He recommends eating leeks, onions, mustard and nasturtiums, among green herbs, and fishes which haunt rocks and birds frequenting mountains, saying that aquatic birds are fat-produc-ers. One of his most curious hints Is that vegetables which have been preserved in vinegar or brine are food for the fat, and herein he anticipates the “mixed pickles,” which are considered on the continent to be a purely English invention. Some of his recommendations read very comically nowadays, but all of them are full of common sense, and It seems extraordinary that so much knowledge should be lost to the world for so many years. There is nothing new under the sun, not even the present craze for a slim figure, and Galen’s treatise shows us that after all people of 1700 years ago were men of like passions with ourselves.—London Globe. To speak and to offend, with some people, are butoae and the same thing. —La Bruyere,

GERMAN COMMANDER IN CHINA.

Maj. Gen. Von Hopfner, who commands the Gorman forces in China, entered the army thirty-four years ago and is a veteran of the Austrian campaign of 1866 and the French war of 1870-71, in both of which he served with the First Footguard regiment. He rose .to be colonel in 1894, and in 1896 was made inspector of the marine infantry. He was appointed major general last May. Maj. Gen. Von Hopfner is a favorite of the Emperor and has aceoriipanied him on many of his travels.

REPLY BY BRYAN.

His Letter Accepting Democratic Nomination Given Out. William J. Bryan in his letter accepting the nomination for President by the Democratic party, while declaring that imperialism is the most important question before the American people, opens with a discussion of trusts. In the letter he declares that no defense of trusts can be offered, and that if elected he will favor the dissolution of every private monopoly which does business outside of the State of its origin. He declares the Dingley tariff law is a trust-breeding measure. He favors enlarged powers for the interstate commer.ee commission. He reiterates the position of the Democratic party on the money question and says its position has not changed since four years ago. He favors the election of Senators by direct vote of the people. He deals at some length with labor questions, denouncing government by injunction and the blacklist and favoring arbitration and a department of labor in the cabinet. The exclusion of Chinese and similar Asiatic peoples is favored. He favors generous pension laws, a Nicaragua canal, statehood for Arizona, Oklahoma and New Mexico, home rule nnd representation in Congress for Porto Rico and Alaska, and a system for the reclamation of arid lands, and an income tax. He questions the ability of the Republican party to work out the welfare of the Cubans. Foreign alliances are opposed.

CHINESE KILL THEMSELVES.

At Approach of Allies Members of Imperial Household End Life. Dspatches confirm the report that, in addition to Hsu Tung, guardian of the heir Yu Li, Viceroy of Chi Li, and Wang Yi Yu. president of the Imperial Academy, with 200 members of the official families, committed suicide when the allies entered Pekin. Other dispatches say that before his departure Li-Hung-Chang, having been convinced by his interviews with Mr. Rockhill and Dr. Mumm Von Schwartzenstein that it would be useless to discuss any settlement excluding the punishment of the Empress Dowager and her chief adviseiß, sent a telegraphic memorial to the throne impeaching Prince Tuan, Prince Ching and Tsailau,Prince Tuan’s brother, ns well as Kang Yi, president of the Wu Board, and Chao Su Ciao, commissioner of the railway and mining bureau and president of the board of punishment.

The Comic Side OF The News

By next season the Kansas farmers probably will be plowing corn in shirt waists. One of the questions settled by the election is whose Maryland “My Maryland” really is. Unlike many of the people who come from there, lots of these Chinese stories won’t wash. The yellow peril has gone up against the white peril, and has discovered that there are others. The Chinese Empress will see to it that the number of her long-distance telephone is kept out of the directory. In regard to that little bill he owes us, the Turk seems to be perfectly willing that we should be the one to walk the floor. There is an misstatement in the assertion that the campaign liar is taking more rope than usual. He does not use rope, but yarn. Gen. Yung-Lu has sworn to kill every foreigner in China. He is liable to be a pretty old Lu by the time he gets the job finished. The Empress of China probably will be claiming the world’s long-distance championship presently, but see how much longer a track she has than Aggy or Oom. : If the Empress of China wants to follow in the footsteps of the illustrious Aguinaldo she will have to be killed or captured oftener. Ingenuity is still a steady habit in Connecticut. The latest evidence to that effect is the story of the nutmeg farmer who set a big cannon, duly loaded, at the edge of his watermelon field, with a string on the primer hitched to the biggest melon in the patch. The whole community was awakened by a big boom at midnight, and the following morning footprints seven feet six inches apart were found leading from the field.

STATE CROP REPORTS.

Rain of Material Benefit to Atlantia Coast States. Reports have been received by the weather bureau et Washington from its correspondents in all parts of the country showing weather and crop conditions. The droughty conditions in the Atlantic coast districts have been relieved by abundant rains, which, however, came too late to be of material benefit to many crops. Drought continues in the Ohio and central Mississippi valleys, and portions of the lower lake region, while excessive rains have retarded work and damaged crops in Nebraska,, Minnesota and the Ihakotas. Very general complaint of damage, especially to fruit, by high winds along the path of the tropical storm, from the Missouri valley over the northern districts to the eastward is reported. The continued prevalence of high temperatures has been favorable for maturing crops. While light to heavy frosts occurred in the upper Mississippi and upper Missouri valleys on the morning of the 17th the corn crop in those districts was so far matured as to be practically safe from injury, and although some damage from high winds is reported from Illinois and Indiana, the general conditions of the week have been favorable to corn. A large part of the crop has been cut in the States of the central valleys, and some husking has been done. Heavy rains have caused damage to cotton in South Carolina, Georgia, Florida and Alabama. No improvement in the condition of cotton is reported from the central portion of the cotton belt, except in southern Louisiana, where as a whole the prospects are somewhat better, while in Texas the tropical storm of the Bth and 9th completely destroyed the crop in the southern portion of its path, and damaged it in the central and northern portions. The soil is generally in excellent condition for plowing and seeding, which work has been vigorously pushed, except in the States of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys, where it is too dry. Some of the early sown grain in Nebraska and Oklahoma js already up.

TO BRING HOME OUR DEAD.

Remains of Those Who Fell Abroad to Be Transported. Col. William S. Patten, on duty at the War Department, has completed arrangements for the free transportation to the United States of the remains of soldiers, sailors and civilians who lost their lives and were buried in the island possessions of the United States and in China. According to the present plans of the department a burial corps will take passage on the transport Hancock, which is to leave Sab Francisco for the Philippines. At the request of the Secretary of the Navy the same burial corps will undertake to perform similar service with respect to officers and enlisted men of the navy and marine corps buried in China and the islands of the Pacific. When the transport stops at Honolulu to coal, the bodies buried there will be taken up and made part of her cargo. Similar action will be taken at the island of Guam and in the Philippines. Col. Patten says that the prevailing conditions in China will scarcely render practicable any disinterments in that country earlier than next spring. All the remains recovered are to be given honorable burial in the United States, at places selected by the next of kin. In all cases where not otherwise ordered the interment will be made in the national cemeteries, with preference for the cemetery at the Presidio at San Francisco and the Arlington cemetery, near Washington. The approximate number of remains to be exhumed is 1,331.

NEWS FROM OUR COLONIES.

Honolulu health reports for the months of June and July show an alarming increase in the death rate, especially among native Hawaiians and Japanese on the island of Oahu, which has the only complete records. In June the number of deaths per thousand was forty-five; in July 49.68. The increase for the past few years, as shown by tables just compiled, has aroused a good deal of discussion. In 1896 the July deaths numbered forty-eight. Since then the figures have ijumped to 59.75, and this year 114. Consumption heads the list of diseases causing death in almost every month, and there is agitation for strict measures to (quarantine patients. The Board of Health is discussing a quarantine against consumption, as many people come from other places to enjoy the mild climate, a-»d it is believed they are a source of danger to the population. The Cuban teachers who have been taking a special summer course of instruction at Harvard University were conveyed to Boston free of charge on government transports. Harvard University provided free instruction and also raised by subscription the $70,000 required to pay for board and other exuenses. The 1,400 teachers come from 120 of the 129 cities and towns of Cuba and there has rarely been such a representative bod/ of educated Cubans got together. Havana sent nearly 200 teachers end other large delegations represent Matanzas, Santiago, Cienfuegos, Cardenas, Coion, I’inar del Rio, Porto Principe, Sanctl Spiritns, Holguin, Santa Clara, Remedies and Sagua la Grande, while many a little hamlet sent but a single teacher. When Maj. Hale went to the Island of Bohol he took along some telephones. In less than an hour after the troops were landed the signal men had some 'phones In operation to the amazement and delight of the inhabitants, one of whom wrote a long piece to El Comercia, telling all about how it was done. Several of the more prominent Filipino women of Manila are arranging to found a maternity hospital and nn orphan asylum, where children will be received and cared for and educated until they are able to look out for themselves. There has been a severe plague, of locusts in some parts of- Negros, and the farmers have formed an organization to fight the pest. Two dollars a quart for strawberries ta Manila, and bottled at thatl

CURRENT COMMENT

The arrival of President Kruger al Lourenzo Marquez apparently indicates the end of organized resistance on the part of the Boers. This conclusion seems to be confirmed by the dispatch from Captain Reichmann, the American military attache who accompanied the- Boera In their campaign. It does not-necessar-ily follow, however, that the invaders are going to find their success a wholly satisfactory one. The Boer armies have been overpowered and dispersed, the Transvaal republic has been obliterated from the map, the British government has taken over" the territory of Its late enemies. But eventually the inhabitants will have to be governed, and so far no one in authority in England has given an idea of the form of government that the British cabinet intends to set up In the two conquered states. As crown, colonies it may be possible to hold them in subjection for an indefinite length of time; but, aside from taxing the gold mines on the Rand, there will not be many practical methods or raising revenue to pay the colonial expenses, and 111 la not likely that the taxpayer at home will take very kindly to the suggestion that he must foot the bills for running two colonies 7,000 miles away. If the gold mines are heavily taxed their owners will be no better off thrfn they were under Oom Paul. If the Boer inhabitants are overtaxed they will be unable to pay and will either emigrate or rebel at the first opportunity, when Great Britain is in difficulties in Europe, India or China. These and many other questions that will demand a settlement now that Mr. Chamberlain’s ends have been gained will make the task of governing the Transvaal and the Orange Free State extremely embarrassing to the victors. The great value of the weather bureau and the remarkable correctness of its observations, ail things considered, have been demonstrated by recent events. It gave warning of the recent hurricane days before it manifested itself on the Texas coast. It anticipated its course from the vicinity of San Dom’ngo until it reached Cuban waters, where it made a deflection no human skill could have foreseen. The bureau was not caught napping, however. It sent out its hurricane signals both for the Atlantic coast and the gulf coast, and when the storm turned from the north of Cuba westward the bureau turned its attention to Texas, and nearly thirty-six hours before the disaster, warned the people of G iveston of its coming, mid during that day extended its signals all along the Texas coast. Perhaps si ill greater accuracy in forecasting was displayed by the bureau in the warnings given out to mariners on the great lakes. Though nearly all lines of communication in Texas were cut off, the bureau kept track of the storm ns it swept through Oklahoma into Kansas, and gave timely warning that it would turn northeast, moving across northern Illinois and southern Wisconsin, and thence across latke Michigan and the northern end of the southern peninsula of Michigan to Canada. In times gone by it has been the habit to jeer at Old Probabilities, and whenever a prediction failed of verification to condemn the weather bureau as unreliable and not worth the expense of Its maintenance. During the last few years, however, it* operators have gained in skill, and its record now is of a character of which Its officials have every reason to be proud and which seems to amply justify whatever expense it may entail by its great saving of life and property. Tn the latest government crop report wheat, corn and cotton are all recorded as showing a condition considerably below the average of the preceding ten years, and the effect upon the values of these commodities in the markets of thia country has been an appreciable advance. The condition of wheat at harvest, Including both winter and spring, is given as 69.6. This is more than eleven points below the average since 1890, which has been 80.9. Nevertheless, there is still a sufficient supply of wheat represented by these figures to insure ample flour for the nation’s daily bread, and there will even be a moderate surplus for foreigners who may be willing to pay a reasonable price for It. On the basis of four and onehalf bushels of wheat to each inhabitant, estimating the total population at 75,000,000 Rfrsons, the requirements of the United States would be 337,500,000 bushels. Allowing 50,000,000 bushels for next year’s seed, the amount needed to carry us through to another crop would be 387,500,000 bushels. Experts calculate that the government's figures and the known acreage harvested will result in a crop of about 485,000,000 bushels, so that we ahall have nearly 100,000,000 bushels of the crop of 1000 to sell to our foreign friends or to keep in our bins for another year. A few days ago one of the most destructive atorms of the century carried devastation along our southern coast. A great wave of desolation swept over Galveston and all the neighboring district, A wider district was ravaged than in the great storm on the English coast in 1703, and property immeasurably greater in value was destroyed. In twenty-four hours the machinery of relief had been organized and was effectively at work. The government, the railroads, the great Industrial establishments, citizens rich and poor joined in the common effort for rescue and relief. This is civilization. The English starling has come under ths same ban as that which rests on the English sparrow. The Department of Agriculture has issued an order prohibiting the importation of the starling and forbidding its transference from State to State within the Union.

The novel question whether counsel, in an argument to the jury, has a right to shed tears, has been decided by the Supreme Court of Tennessee in the case of Ferguson vs. Moon, the court holding that If the tears are available it is not proper but the duty of the counsel to shed them on the appropriate occasion. The weeping was done in a breach of promise case by the counsel for the plaintiff. Mrs. E. J. Miller, Sunbury, Pa., found a pearl worth more than SIOO In an oyster aftU at Attantlc City.