Pike County Democrat, Volume 31, Number 27, Petersburg, Pike County, 9 November 1900 — Page 3

Itu fik* <Sottntggrnw(rat If. MeC. RTOOP8. editor ud Proprietor. PETERSBURG. : INDIANA. THE STORY OF A S T A N D P I P E By Charles Korean Barger. e®®®SXsXs«®®<^^ SIX MEN in this country make a business—a “profession,” they call it—of cleaning and painting standpipes, the tall, columnlike reservoirs that hold the water supplies of many towns and small cities and furnish the pressure for the mains of the streets, lawns and residences. The vocation is not crowded, partly because the standpipes are not numerous or often cleaned, but especially because of the peril attending the task. Of the half dozen, Jam*»s Wert has probably come nearest death and survived. I crawled through a watermain hole at the base of a standpipe on which this work was being done the other day. Once inside, it seemed like the bottom of a hundred-foot iron-walled well. Far above gleamed

a circle of blue sky. with now and then a bit of cloud crossing it. Swinging at the end of a rope 90 feet above the iron floor of the standpipe was the painter. He wielded fris brush carelessly, filling it from a bucket of waterproof black paint that dangled beside him. He whistled as he worked, and the sound came roaring down the huge tunnel like the scream of a locomotive. lie drew himself higher and higher until he reached the dizzy rim and looked out over the tallest buildings and spires of the town. Then he loosened the rope, and it whirred through the pulleys as he came swiftly down. “Scare you?” he remarked, as he alighted safely and refilled his bucket. “No danger in this. l*ve been doing it for four years and never got hurt. Jim did. though—he’s my partner.”; Then he told me about it. “Jim always liked children; he had none of his own, and was forever taking \ip with them in towns where he worked. For my part I don’t think this is the place for ’em. You see, we stay a week or two in a place, according to how long the standpipes have gone without cleaning—and some towns are mighty careless about fixing such things. We usually go together, but one day the company we' were working for got orders to repair two pipes the same week, and we separated. “Jim went out to a prairie town In eastern Kansas. The starfdpipe was the highest in the state and had not been cleaned and painted inside for six years, so the job was a long one. “Jim settled down at a good boarding house and put his money and package of gold leaf in the village bank. We always carry along some gold lea1? to gild a church cross if we get a chance. There is from $50 to $200 in a job of that kind, for there ain’t man}' that wants it. Then he went to work on the standpipe. The water was drained out. and he began to scrape the rusty iron work inside, putting it in shape for the two coats of paint he was to give it later on. Every day there were a lot of boys gathered around to see him work. They stopped as they came home from school and crawled throusrh the main at the bottom inside the pipe—just as you have this morning, Jim always let ’em do it. I don’t like it, but maybe he was right in it that time. “Of course there were a lot of men

mat came, too, out tney only came from curiosity, and one trip was enough. They didn’t come back. But the boys were there every day, especially one of them—Frank Smith hie name was. He used to sit for an hour at a time watching the sky at the top and hollering questions up at Jim as he was painting. “The first coat was put on easily, and then the second was begun. This Is a kind of rubber paint that the water will not hurt, and it is slow work, as we have to paint it rather thick. Jim wanted to quit Saturday night and join me on a church-steeple job that we had found down in St. Louis, and he was putting in every minute of his time to finish the second coat. “It is one of our rules not to work when there is a storm, but out on the plains so many clouds are floating around that it is hard to tell when there is danger. One afternoon in April the sky was filled with scattering phower clouds, and there was a brisk breeze blowing that might mean anything from a drought to a tornado. Jim paid little attention to it, and painted away, with no sight of the sky except what was visible through the round top of the standpipe. You see for yourself that it is only a speck out of the big blue of the prairie sky. “The manager of the waterworks plant was busy that afternoon and did not go out to look at the work; the town loafers, who had had their curiosity satisfied, cared nothing for K, and Jim was all alone. It must have been about three o’clock that the storm gathered in the northwest. It earns up with a clean edge, as the western people say—that is, there were no clouds ahead of it, only clear sky and sunshine. But the storm itealf was an ugly one. It had hail and thunder in it, and the people were anxious lest there might be too much wind as well. But cyclones don't some out of the northwest in the prairie states, and there wasn’t any danger on that score. f

"The first Jim knew of the storm was when the tossing, foam-like edge that races ahead of these western showers went over the top of the pipe. But he was painting half-way up the 100-foot wall, and not knowing the country, didn’t think it meant anything. More clouds went over and then came a change of the wind that made the tall tower tremble and scared Jim at last. He tried to loosen his rope from the pulleys and go down, but before he did it there was a crash as if a hundred cannon had been let off at once, lne folks of the town were all in their houses, and when they heard it every one expected to see his roof come tumbling in. But it didn't. The lightning struck the standfipe. Now' if it had been full of wafer nothing would have been hurt, but it was empty—and Jim was hanging inside it. “It is hard to tell just what happened just then. For my part I think the smoke of the burning paint and the blaze of the lightning must have tnaue it a mighty gorgeous spectacle, but there wasn’t anybody there to see it but Jim—and he couldn’t. “He had a way of winding the ropes around his legs as he sat on his little swing board at the end of the long hanger and must have been swinging free from the iron watts when the stroke cauie. Then there was the thickness of rubber paint vbetwoe.n ! him and the electricity, and altogetli- , er it didn’t kill ..im. I>ut it dia some- j thing else—it shockeu uim so badly !

max ne ieu iorwaru arid nun" vn ms-j guy, ropes, limp as a rag. “I wis telling you about the boys— ■ well, they didn’t show up that after- j noon either, none of them but the \ Smith boy. lie was going home from school when tne storm broke and was i right under a cottonwood tree ac'oss from the standpipe when the lightning struck. He was afraid to go on * and thought that it would he safer in ; the pipe—he didn’t know he teas tempting fate that way. So h«? crawled down through the little hole at the bottom of the pipe and got inside. Looking tip he saw J inn. swinging back and forth, limp antt helpless. • “It was raining cats and dogs out- , side by this time, just sheets of water and lots of it coming into the standpipe. The boy was afraid to go after help, for Jim might drop any minute, and to-drop 50 or 60 feet on a sheet- j iron floor with stone and concrete under it can’t Ibe done but once in this world. Frank had watched the work so much that he knew how the ropes were fastened in the pulleys, and as one long rope always touches the bot- , tom he could take it in his hand. He shook it and yelled, but Jim was clear gone and didn’t answer. The rain ; was coming faster and faster, and the lightning was roaring every half minute. The boy couldn’t see but one I way out of it, and he took the very ’ way that would have been considered ; too dangerous by a grown man. I’d have been scary of it myself. “He climbed the rope. Just think of it! He was right under the bucket j 01 paint,and Jim. Either might tumble on him any minute. Then the lightning was liable to strike the

FELL FORWARD AND HUNG IN THB ! ROPES. tower again, and th t would mean i trouble. But then he didn’t know all I this, and digging his toes into the j laps of the sheet iron he pulled him- j self up hand-over-hand. He was wet to the skin and the rope was slippery, but he didn't give up. At last he was right under Jim’s seat, and called to him, but it was no use—Jim was un- i conscious. “The good angels protected him, I j guess, or he couldn't have done what j he did nest. He pulled himself up to ! the seat and stood on either side of the man. Then he took the slack rope and tied it around Jim until there was less chance of a fall to the floor. Loosening the rope where it was wound around the paint hook to keep it from slipping, littl* by little he let himself and Jim down. It took a long time because he could use but little rope at once, and there was danger of the burden sending them downward too fast. “They did fall at the last, but it so : happened that they were only five feet i up, and it did not hurt much. Three j inches of water from the storm was ; on the bottom of the standpipe when j they landed, and into it they splashed, j The rain was still coming In, and be- ! tween the storm and the water on the i floor they got well soaked. It kept the boy from fainting, but it didn't do Jim any good. “Jim came to after awhile—the rubber paint was all that saved him, the paint and the boy. He couldn't do it again in a thousand times. “Yes, he recovered, but I am alone in the'business for a time. Jim's taking three months off to steady his nerves. “The boy? Funny thing about that. I got a letter from him yesterday asking if I wouldn't take him as an apprentice in standpipe and steeple gilding. You'd have thought he'd seen all of this business he wanted to—now, wouldn't you?**—Chicago Daily Record.

1 TIMELY DISCOURSE Dr. Talmage Preaches a Sermon on . Religion and Politics. Mam Faithful to G*4 la the Moat Fmtthfml to Hta Country—A* Example from the Lite of Daniel. [Copyright, 1300, by Louis Klopsch.] Washington, Nov. 4. This discourse of Dr. Talmage is appropriate {or all seasons, but especially in these times of great political agitation. The text is, Daniel vi., 16: “Then the king commanded, and they brought Daniel ana cast h.m into the den of lions.” Darius was king of Babylon, and the young man Daniel was so much a favorite with him that he made him prime minister, or secretary of state. But no man could gain such a high position without exciting the envy and jealousy of the people. Ther.e j were demagogues in Babylon who j were so appreciative of their own abilities that they were affronted at ! the elevation of this young man. Old Babylon was afraid of young Babylon. The taller the cedar the more apt it is to be riven of the lighting. These demagogues asked the king to make a decree that anybody that made a petition to anyone exeept ,the king during a period of 33 days Should be put to death. King Darius, not suspecting any foul play, makes that decree. The demagogues have accomplished all they want, because they know that no one can keep Daniel from sending pet it ion j betore God for 30 davs.

So far from being afraid. Daniel goes on with his supplications three times a day and is found on his housetop making prayer lie is caught in the act. He is condenjvned to be devoured by the lions. Hough executioners of the law seize him and hasten him to the cavern. 1 hear the growl of the wild beasts and I see them pawing- the dirt, and as they put their mouths to the ground the solid earth j quakes with their bellowings. I see their eyes roll, and I almost hear the j fiery eyeballs snap in me darkness. ! These monsters approach Daniel, j They have an appetite keen with hun-1 ger. With one stroke of their paw | or one snatch of their teeth they ma^ leave him dead at the bottom of the cavern. But what a strange welcome Dauiel receives from these hungry monsters! They fawn around him; j they lick his hand; they bury his feet in their long manes. That night j he has calm sleep with his head pil- j lowed on the warm necks of the tamed , lions. But not so well does Darius, the! king, sleep. He has an attack of ter- ■ rific insomnia. He- loves Daniel and hates this stratagem by which he has been condemned. All night long the ; king walks the floor. He cannot sleep. At the least sound he starts, and the flesh creeps with horror. He is impatient for the dawning of the morning. At the first streak of the day-! light Darius hastens forth to see the fate of Daniel. The heavy palace doors open and clang shut long before the people of the city waken, t Darius goe-» to the den of the lions. Fe looks in. All is silent. His heart j stops. He feels that the very worst has happened; but, gathering all his strength, he shouts through the rifts of the rock; “O Daniel, is thy God whom thou servest continually able • to deliver thee?" There comes rolling up from the deep darkness a voice which says: “O king, live forever. My God has sent His angel to shut the

aons mourns tnaT tney nave not nurt me.** Then Daniel is brought out from the den. The demagogues are hurled , into it, and no,, sooner have they struck the bottom of the den than their flesh was rent, ana their bones j cracked, and their biood spurted j through the rifts of the rock, and as j the Hons make the rocks tremble with j their roar they announce to all ages | that while God will defend his people the way of the ungodly shall perish. Learn first from this subject that the greatest crime that you commit In the eyes of many is the crime of success. What had Daniel done that he should be fliMig to the lions? He had become prime minister. They could not forgive him for that, and behold in that a touch of unsanetified human nature as seen in all ages of the world. So long as you are pinched in pdv^ty, so long as you are running j the giDitlet between landloru and taxgather, so long as you find it hard I worK to educate your children, there ! are people who will say: “Poor man. j I am sorry for him. He ought to sue- j ceed. poor man.** But after awhile the tide turns in his favor. That was a profitable investment you made, j You thought just at the right time. Fortune becomes good humored and | smiles upon you. Jvow you are in some department successful, and your success chills some one. Those men who used to sympathize with you stand along the street, and they scowl at you from under the rim of their hats. You hate more money or more influence than they have, and you ought to be scowled at from under the rim of their hats. You catch a word or two as you pass them by. “Stuck up.** says one. “Got it dishonestly,*’ saysj another. “Will burst soon,” says a ' third. Every stone in your new house is laid on their hearts. Your horses* hoofs went over their nerves. Every item of your success has been to them an item of discomfiture anl despair. Just as soon as in any respect you rise .above your fellows, if you are more virtuous, if you are more wise, if you are more influential, you cast a shadow on the prospects of others. The road to honor and success is * within reach of the enemy’s guns.; Jealousy says: “ftav down or 1*11 i <

knock you down." *1 do not like you,” says the snowflake to the snowbird. “Why don’t yon like me?” said the snowbird. “Oh,” said the snowflake, “you are going up and I am coming, down.” Young merchants, young lawyers, young doctors, young mechanics, young artists, young farmers, at certain times there are those to sympathize with you, but now that you are becoming a master of your particular occupation or profession, how is it now, young lawyers, young doctors, young artists, young farmers—how is it now? The greatest crime that you can commit is the crime of success. Again, my subject impresses me with the value of decision of character in any department. Daniel knew that if he continued his adherence to the religion of the Lord he would be hurled to the lions; but. having set his compass well, he sailed right on. ror the lack of that element of decision of character so eminent in Daniel many men are ruined for thi^ world and ruined for the world to come. A great many at 40 years of age are not settled in any respect, because they have not been able to make up their minds. Perhaps they will go west; perhaps they will go east; perhaps they will not; perhaps they will go north; perhaps they may go south; perhaps they will not; perhaps they may make that investment in real estate or in railroads; perhaps they will not. They are like a steamer that should go out of New York harbor, starting for Glasgow, and the next day should ; change for Havre de Grace, and the next for Charleston, and the next for Boston, and the next for Liverpool.

inese men on xne sea oi me everlastingly tacking ship and making no headway! Or they are like a man who starts to build a house in the Corinthian style and changes it to Doric and then completes it in the Ionic, the curse of all styles of architecture. Young man, start right and keep on. Have decision of character. Character is like the goldfinch of Tonquin. It is magnificent while standing firm, but loses all its beau-ty in flight. How much decision of character in order that these young men may be Christians! Their old associates make sarcastic flings at them. They go on excursions, and they do not invite them. They prophesy that he will give out. They wonder if he is not f getting wings. As he passes they grimace and wink and chuckle and say: ‘There goes a saint.” O young man, have decision of character! You can afford in this matter of religion to be laughed ht. What do you care for the scoffs of these men. who are affronted because you will not go to ruin with them? When the grave cracks open under their feet, and grim messengers push them into it, and eternity comes down hard upon their spirit, and conscience stings, and hopeless ruin lifts them up to hurl them down, will they laugh then? I learn also from my subject that men may take religion into their worldly business. This is a most appropriate thought at this season of the year, when so many men are starting out in new enterprises. Daniel had enough work to do to occupy six men. All the affairs of state were in his hands; questions of finance, questions of war. of peace; all international questions were for his settlement or adjustment. He must have had a correspondence vast bemud all computation. There was not a man in all the ^prth who had more to do than Daniel, the secretary of state, and yet we find him three times a day bowing before God in prayer. There are men in our day who have not a hundredth part of Daniel’s engagements who say they are too busy to be religious. They have an idea somehow that religion will spoil their worldly occupation, that it will trip the accountant’s pen or dull the

carpenter’s saw or confuse the lawyer’s brief or disarrange the merchant’s store shelf. They think religion is impertinent. They would like to hare it very well seated beside them in church on y>e Sabbath, to find the place in the psalmbook or to nudge them awake when they get sleepy under the didactic discourse, or they would like to leave it in the pew on Sabbath evening as they go out. closing the door, saying: “Good night, religion; I’ll be back next Sunday!’’ But to have religion go right along by them all through life, to have religion looking over their shoulder when they are making a bargain. to have religion take up a bag of dishonest gold and shake it and say: “Where did you get that?” They think that is an impertinent religion. They would' like to have a religion to help them when they are sick, and when the shadow of death comes over them they would like to have religion as a sort of nightkey with which to open the door of Heaven, but religion under other circumstances they take to be impertinence. Now, my friends, religion never robbed a man of a dollar. Other things being equal, a mason will build a better wall, a cabinet maker will make a better chair, a plumber will make a better pipe, a lawyer will make a better plea, a merchant will sell a better bill of goods. I say, other things being equal. Of course when religion gives a man a new heart. if does not propose to give him a new head or to intellectualize him or to change a man’s condition when his ordinary state is an overthrow of the philosophical theory that a total vacuum is impossible, but the more letters you have to write, the more burdens you have to carry, the more miles you have to travel, the more burdens you have to lift, the more engagements you have to meet, the more disputes you have to settle, the more opportunity you have of oeing a Christian. If you have a thousand irons in the fire, you have a thousand more opportunities of serving Sod than if you only had one iron in

the fire. Who u busy as Ch ist? And yet who a millionth part as 1 loxy ? The busiest men the best men. i dl the per* sons converted in Scriptuie busy at the time of their being conv< rted. Mat* thew attending to his cus;om house duties; the prodigal son feec ing swine; Lydia selling purple; Sinion Peter hauling in the net from tin sea; Saul spurring his horse toward Damascus, going down on his law business: Busy, busy! Daniel with all the affairs of state weighing down upon h s soul, and yet three times a day worshiping the God of Heaven. Again I learn from this subject j that a man may take religion into his ! politics. Daniel had all the affairs of state, on hand, yet a servant of God. | He could not have kept his elevated | position unless he had been h thorough politician, anj} yet all the thrusts, of officials and all the danger of disgrace did not make him yield one iota of his high tonet religious principle. He stood before that; age, he stands before all ages, a specimen of a godly politician. So there have been in our day and in the days of our fathers men as eminent in. the service of God as they have been eminent in the service of the state. Such was Benjamin F. Butler, attorney general of New York in th« • time of your fathers. Such was . ohn McLean, of the supreme courc of the United States. Such wa» George Briggs, of Massachusetts. Such was Theodore Frelinghuysen. of New Jersey—men faithful to the sti te, at the same time faithful to God. It is absurd to expect that men who have been immersed in political wickedness *for 30 or 40 years shall come to reformation. and our hope is in he young men who are coming up, taat they have patriotic principle and Christian principle side by side when hev come to the ballot box and cast .heir first vote and that they swear allegiance to the government of Heaven us well as to ftie government of the Unff%d States. We would have Bunker Hill mean less to them than Ca airy, and Lexington mean less than Bethlehem, but because there are aad men around the ballot box is no reason why Christian men shoulc retreat from the arena. The last time you ought to give up your child or forsake your child is when it is surrounded by a company of Choctaws, and the last time to surrender the ballot box is when it is surrounded by impurity and dishonesty and all sorts of wickedness.

Daniel stood on a most unpopular platform. He stood firmly though the demagogues of the day hissed at him and tried to overthrow him. We must carry our religion into our polities. But there are asgreit many men who are in favor of taking religion into national politics who do not see the importance of taking it into city politics, as though a man were intelligent about the welfare of his neighborhood and had n> concern about his own home. My subject also impresses me with the fact that lions cannot hurt a good man. No man ever .jot into worse company than Daniel rot when he was thrown into the de i. What a rare morsel that fair young man would have been for the hun jry monsters! If thej had. plunged, at him he could not have climbed int ■> a niche beyond the reach of their pa nr or the snatch of their tooth. The r came, pleased, all around him. as hunters* hounds at the well-known whistle come bounding to his feet. You, need not go to Numidia to get many lions. You all have them after you- the lion of financial distress, the lion of sickness. the lion of persecution. You saw that lion of financial panic putting his mouth down to the efrth, and he roared until all the banks and all the insurance companies quaked'.

»itn ms nostril ne scattered tne ashes on the domestic hearth. You have had trial after trial, misfortune after misfortune, lion after lion, and yet they have never hurt you, if you put your trust in God. and th?y never will hurt you. They did not hurt Daniel, and they cannot hurt you. The Persians used to think that spring rain falling' into seashells would turn into pearls, and I have to tell you that the tears of sorrow turn into precious gems when they drop into God’s bottle. You need tie afraid of nothing, putting your trust in God. Even death, that monster lion whose Hen is the world’s sepulcher, t nd who puts his paw down amid thousands of millions of the dead, cannot affright you. 'When in olden times a man was to get the honors of knighthood, he was compelled to go fully armed the night before among the tombs of the dead, carrying a sort of spear, and then when the day broke he would come forth, and. amid the sound of cornet and great parade, he would get the honors of knighthood. And so it will be with the Christian in the night before Heaven, as. fully armed with spear and helmet of salvation, he will wait and watch through the darkness until the morning dawns, and :hen he will take the honors of Heaven amid the great throng with snowy robes, streaming over seas of sapphire. A Phrase in a Xante. Once, after exposing the ridiculous blunders of the editor of certain old plays, James Kussell Lowell concluded with the remark: “In point of fact, < we must apply to this gentleman the name of the first k.ng of Sparta.’’ No ! one remembered, of course, what this ’ was. but when they looked it tip they ' found it was'Eudamidas. j Biggest Sturgreon Ever Caught. The largest sturgeon on record was caught in the North sea. it weighed j 525 pounds, but the deligM of the fish- j ermen was tempered by the fact that j it did worth of damage to the j nets before it was given the coup de j (race.

wmrnm Charles F. Jones, SecrUary and Valet to the Late Millionaire Rice, Attempts Suicide. HE SLASHED HIS THROAT IN THE TOMBS. When Discovered He wu So Kxhmdated From Lose of Blood thot He Could Not Hove hooted Much Longer—Now a Prisoner nt Bellevue Hospital. New York,Nov. 2.—Charles F. Jones, secretary and valet to the late millionaire Wm. Marsh Rice, made a desperate effort to commit suicide in his cell in the Tombs. He hacked the right side of his throat with a small penknife, making a deep woSnd and slightly opening the jugular. Discovered By n K-erp^rri He wa& discovered bv one of the keepers about four o'clock. He had bee a bleeding then for half an hour or more and was extremely weak, and would probably have died had he i gone fifteen minutes longer without J| medical care. As it was, the ambulance surgeon had to administer stimulants repeatedly before they dared to put the man in the ambulance for removal to the hospital. g Placed in Bellevue Hospital. At the hospital Jones was placed in the prison ward of Bellevue and a policeman and t\vo keepers were assigned to guard him. Along towards eight o'clock he had regained his strength somewhat, but nobody was allowed to see him. Warden Hagen of the Tombs decjpned to give out any of the. details;of the attempt u| suicide. . j.. • y ■ \

Jones was committed 11> tl ;• i’ombst with Albert T. Patrick, oa Septembe^ 2:i, on the charge of forging Mr. Rice’S name to several cheeks. chaki.es f. joxes coxeesses. llnd XI at tie a Written Statement Before Attempting Suicide. „ New York, Nov. 2.—Assistant dstrict Attorney Osborne said later in the day that niter a coufecWfce ne had decided to make' public ail the facts in the case. f~ “Tuesday afternoon,” he said, “I received h message that Charles F. > Jones, in the city prison, desired see me. -1 went to see Jones, and he was brought down to the warden's office, and 1 asked him if he wanted to see me. He said in' did. It old him that the law did apt require him to make a statement, ahd explained mat anything he might state might be ust*d against him. and that l was not his lawyer. I told him that he had a lawyer, and that he would better consult with him if he thought necesj sary. He sn?d he voluntarily desired 1 to make a state meat. I “I thereupon sent for Capt. MeClusky, James Byrne, of Horn blower, Byrne, Milter *S: Potter: Mr. Miller, of the same firm, and in their presence Jones made his statement to me. Without going into full details he stated in substance that what Mr. Wetherbee had testified to was true. He said that for some days prior to Rice's death Patrick had given Mr. Rice tablets of a grayish color- that . Mr. Rice took those tablets trom Patrick, and That Patrick told him to take them* * * * » * * - * Described Rice** Death. I Mr. Osborne says Jon Is described Rice's death as follows: - | “ ‘Mr. Rice v.as very sick. Patrick ; sai<l to me: ‘Go get a doctor.' I went ! for one ar.d Ihe catne back with me . and pronounced Rice dead. Patrick ; assets Tlovv long has he been dead'?’ The doctor answered 'Twenty min-, utes.' This was about nine o'clock. Patrick asked the doctor what was ! the next thing to do. The doctor said

| to get an undertaker. The doctor recommended an undertaker named Senior, on Madison avenue and Fiftyninth street. 1 went there but could j not get Senior and Patrick said ‘Never mind. I'll get another.' When I got back 1 found an undertaker named Plowright there. Then Patrick took me aside'and said: “Now, Jones, we've got to get all of the old man's papers. Understand we must get all of them.’ We took all the paj pers we could find and, Patrick bundled them all up, and tookJhem away | with him. Monday morning Patrick | came to Mr. Rice's house. He had a | check book in his hand. He said: I “ 'This is Mr. Rice's check book.* i Then he showed me two checks sighed i W. M. Rice. 'Now,' he said, ‘I want you to fill out the amounts of these checks' and at his request I filled out one for $25,000 and another for $65,000. Wrlttei oil Prison Paper. The most of Mr. Osborne’s information troinJones was in the form of a written letbey on prison pape*vboth sides^or which were written on. Jones does not state what became of the bottle supposed to have contained poison, but a detective attached to the district attorney's office went to Rice’s apartments, and there procured several bottles. They were all taken to the office at police headquarters. SMALLPOXlN THE YlikON. Fears That There Jfay be a Serioat Outbreak oC the Disease at Dawson. Washington, Nov, 2.—United States Consul McCook, at Dawson, Yukon territory, in a report just received, dated a month ago. reports several new cases of smallpox in the pest house below Dawson, and says It looks as if there might be a serious outbreak of this disease at Dawson this winter. Navigation is now about closed theie. s