People's Pilot, Volume 5, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 October 1895 — Page 6
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BETRAYED BY LOVE.
£ AFFSKY was a J born genius, des--5 tined in time to > soar to the dizzy 7 'flk heights of a proJ b fessional chair. | So, at least, said f Jiis professors at fr*" - * 'the University of S t. Petersburg. We students like-
etaoinshrdluemfw wise held him in awe, and hedged him around with reverential ostracism. That same Kaffsky used to squander his days and nights over mathematics and chemistry and half a dozen kindred sciences, as if life were to last for eternity. We did not believe in a man having so many irons in the fire, and we limited dur own efforts to the accomplishment of one single task —the regeneration of mankind —as a inaiT * te ? t 0 the rem «deling of Russian society. . We had e ; g ' hed Kaffsky in the political balance—the only one in vogue at Russian universities ten years ago—and had found him sadly wanting. He was a member of none of the three churches—outside of which there is no salvation —that of the sworn conspirators, who edited a forbidden journal, Land and Liberty, hatched plots against the state and sometimes helped to carry them out; that of unsworn conspirators, from whom the former were usually recruited; and the bulk of students who sympathized with everything and everybody who embarrassed the government. And to crown all, we had just heard of his impending marriage. “A nice time to be thinking of marrying and feathering his nest!” we remarked to each other, “just when the pillars of the social edifice are giving way, and we are doing our best to pull them down in order to build something better.” When the name of the future bride was mentioned those among us who knew her were staggered a bit. Anna Pavlona Smirnova was not a Venus. But if she had much less beauty than her photograph—which is a common failing of women —she had a good deal more wit, which is not by any means bo common. Although apparently young enough to be his daughter, Anna Pavlona was Kaffsky’s senior by five or six years, and, to make matters still more mixed, she was a red radical at heart.
ON THE ROAD TO SIBERIA.
Formerly her democratic views had got her into hot water with the authort ities, and it was not without considerable difficulty that she had obtained her present position as teacher in a girls’ gymnasy, which enabled her to live in modest competency with her widowed mother. The police, we knew, had twice or thrice made elaborate inquiries about him, had noted his comings in and goings out, and had set a watch upon nis actions. Platoff, when arrested a week ago, chanced to have Kaffsky’s card in his pocket, and was subjected to a long secret cross-examination about his dealings with him. “As well suspect the stone sphinxes at the Nikolai bridge as that piece of stuck-up selfishness called Kaffsky,” exclaimed Lavroff.
“There must be some reason for the suspicion,” cried Brodsky; “there’s always fire where there’s smoke, and as we know there’s no fire here, then there eannot possibly he any smoke. It’s a matter of smoked glass spectacles.” This remark struck us all aB the acme of cleverness. It was warmly applauded. “Well, who could have smoked the government’s spectacles?” somebody asked. “Boorman, Boorman; he alone has a grudge against Kaffsky,” cried half a dozen voices.
Now, none of us had a doubt that he was the Judas Iscariot. His hangdog expression, his slouching gait, his furtive glance and stammering deviltry proclaimed the nature of the spirit that lived and worked within him. The present case strengthened our suspicion, for Boorman and Kaffsky had quarreled years before. Summer vacations were at hand. The last of the examinations would take place in ten days, and then we ■would disperse over the length and breadth of the empire, many of us never to return again. Suddenly we were stunned and stupefied by a bolt from the blue in the shape of a rumor that Kaffsky had been arrested. He and Alexieff had gone to the theater the night before. They had walked home together and made an appointment for the morrow at the university; but at about 2 a. m. Kaffsky had been spirited away, and was now In the secret wing of the Lithuanian fortress. ▲ written request was presented by mm e t the professors, who were bejMe them eel v®j with indignation, that
Kaffsky should be released on ball, fust to finish his examination and take his degree, for they knew very well it was all a misunderstanding. But to our utmost astonishment their request was refused, and Kaffsky was removed from the Lithuanian fortr ress only to be immured in the more terrible fortress of Peter and Paul, The excitement caused by the arrest was assuming dangerous proportions. Nobody had cared a rap for Kaffsky a week before, and he was already a most popular hero now. Perhaps it was hatred for the heartless informer —who had already been arrested, no doubt, to save him from being lynched—and sympathy for Anna Pavlona, whose womanly feelings hdd got the better of her philosophy, Bhe had completely broken down. She had been taken to her bed, had refused all food, had forwarded petition after petition to the minister of the interior, and when it became clear that she might just as well be sowing salt on the seashore, her mind gave way. The doctors sent her mother and herself in post haste to the Crimea, In October a few of us met in 8L Petersburg once more—but only h few. The police had made a tremendous haul among the students the day the university closed session, and many were now in their distant native villages expelled from the university; others in prison, others again on the road to Siberia.
Kaffsky, we learned, was among the latter —condemned to the mines as a dangerous conspirator, in spite of the intercession of the professors; Anna Pavlona was dead, according to others; but it came to pretty much the same thing in the end. I had heard of many evil things done by diabolical reformers, but this was the most crying injustice I had ever actually witnessed; and when talking with a friend who was a relative of one of the ministers I told him so.
He was astounded at what I told him, and asked me to draw up an account of Kaffsky’s case in writing. He would see, he said, that justice should be done. I had no difficulty in obtaining precise particulars. I discovered even the name of the forwarding prison, over 1,000 miles away, in which Kaffsky was then interred, and having made out a very strong case, I gave my friend the paper, and he presented it to his relative, the minister. A week passed, then a fortnight, and still there was no answer. One day my philanthropic friend shook his head, said my data were all wrong, said that Kaffsky was the most dangerous conspirator that had ever been tripped up in the very nick of time, and that he would advise me to keep aloof from political reformers in future, as it was evident they could make black appear white without an effort. Six years later I heard that Kaffsky was no more. He died of disease, or was shot in a tumult, or disposed of in some such way. The particulars were not very precise, but he was really dead, that was certain. “Nothing else but d . is certain in Russia,” I remarked to an ex-minister to-whom I had been telling the whole story after dinner. “So you are going to write about it, you say,” he asked me, "to ease your feelings?” “I am,” I replied. “Very well, then, if you will come here in two or three days I will supply you with a most interesting postscript.” And he did. His statement was based on official documents and this is the gist of it.
“When the terrorist movement was at its height the leaders were invisible and übiquitous. We suspected that they were in the university, but that was only a guess. Once or twice Kaffsky appeared to be in the movement, but we had no proof, and could get none. It then occurred to General O. of the secret department to employ a spy who had never played the part, of a detective before.”
“1 know. You mean the scoundrelly informer. Boorman,” I broke in. “Boorman! Boorman! Was he? O, of course he was. Yes. No. Boorman was not the detective. Boorman, I see, was nearly as dangerous as Kaffsky; he was Kaffsky’s right-hand man, and he got the same punishment.” This announcement took my breath away, but it only deepened the mystery. “Two thousand three hundred rubles was what it all cost, and dirt cheap, too,” he went on. “You mean the detective’s reward?” I asked. “Yes, that, of course, was over and above her regular salary, which was fifty rubles a month. It was the only clever stroke of business she ever did.” “She!” I repeated. “Was it a woman, then?” “O, yes; didn’t I tell you?—and a woman with the making of a saint in her, too. Ha, ha, ha! She is now a godfearing sectarian —a pietist of some kind.” “Well, I remarked, "she would need a good long course of penance, were it only to atone for the fate of poor Anna Pavlona, whose life she snuffed out.” “Ha, ha, ha!” he laughed, till the big tears rolled down his furrowed cheeks. “Why, hang it, man, Anna Pavlona was herself the detective. But that was the only clever thing she ever did. She soon after left the service, found salvation, as they term it, in some obscure sect, and is a pious bigot now.”
Pitiful Outlook.
“Mamma.” “Well?” "You licked me last week for whaling Jimmie Watts and papa licked me yesterday ’cause Johnny Phelps walloped me.” “Weil?” “I’m wondering what’ll happen sometime when It's a draw.”
THE PEOPLE’S PILOT, RENSSELAER. IW»., THURBDAY, OCT. 17, 1895.
HORTICULTURE.
The Beanty of the Trees. The landscape of northwestern lowa and of Nebraska and of South Dakota has been wonderfully changed, as the early settlers will bear us out, by the planting of trees. It used to be that as far as the eye could see was one monotonous roll of prairie, and now as far as the eye can see, the landscape is dotted by groves, in the midst of which are villages and the homes of farmers. The trees are great contributors to the comfort of man and beast. They shelter from the heat of summer and from the storm of winter —and the old settlers recognize the change as the later comers cannot. The influence of trees is important. They P r e beautiful, especially so in such h year as this, and they stimulate lOve of the beautiful; and so to match the trees we have the well kept lawns, the fringes of flowers, the climbing vines—the beautiful homes. Nature Is kind to ns all —kind to the pooi. What the rich do in conjunction with nature they cannot hide away for their exclusive enjoyment. It is something in which we all have a sort of copartnership. The lightest taxes we know of are thobe assessed by nature. It makes itself beautiful if left alone, out on the sweeps of prairie, which it sprinkles with wild flowers, and along the tangled banks of the water courses, where trees and vines and wild fruits are grown without the intervention of man’s help. In such a place as Sioux City, where the homes of the people are not crowded, the family having little but the patch of ground with a roof can make the place lovely with a creeping vine, flowers here and there, and a tree' or two which will rise as grandly and/ spread its sheltering arms as far on ground belonging to the humble or the poor as on ground belonging to the proud and the rich. The smaller towns and the country have compensations that crowded cities cannot know. It is a wonderfully good thing to own your own home, and, owning it, to have pride in it, and to make manifest your love of it by making it beautiful. There are many ways of rendering public service, which in the main, is closely identified with service of ourselves, but there is no way that is better, so universally within the reach of people of whom we are speaking, as this way of trees, and grass and vines and flowers at home. —Sioux City Journal.
A Fruit Hoime. In some localities it is rather difficult to secure a good cellar without considerable work. Often draining by digging a trench is necessary; and when this is the case it will often pay to build a fruit house above the ground, rather than to run the risk of water flooding in and damaging the fruit and vegetables. A fruit house, if well built, so as to be frost-proof, is much more convenient than a cellar in many ways, but good care must be taken in doing the work if good results are to be secured. Two hy six inch studding will be the best; that is, not less than this should be used. They can be placed two feet apart, and it is usually best to brace the corners. Eight feet is plenty high, and in most cases six will be sufficient. It should be built close to the ground, so that it can be banked up readily on all sides. On the outside rough boards can be nailed on first, and over that a layer of tarred paper or heavy straw carefully weather-boarded. When it can be done, it will be best to fill the space between the studding with sawdust, taking care to fill in tightly. Rough boards can bo nailed on the inside, and over this tarred paper should again be tacked. Overhead a tight layer of boards should be put and on them a good layer of sawdust. A chimney, or piece for ventilation, should be provided. Care should be taken to make tight; the door and ventilation should be all the openings. Good, close-fitting doors, one to open outside and one inside, will help. Boxes or bins should be built inside and about four Inches away from the wall. This will give air space between the wall and the fruit. To make doubly sure, an old stove set in the room in which a little fire may be made In the severest weather, will be found a benefit, as a very little fire will lessen very materially the danger of damage. A house of this kind, in a winter like tha last one, will keep fruit and vegetables without freezing, but in winters such as we sometimes have a IRtle fire will be necessary.—Fruit Growers’ Journal.
More than 400 Plant Perfumes. —It is an interesting thing to know that 4,200 species of plants are gathered and used for commercial purposes in Europe. Of these 420 have a perfume that is pleasing and enters largely into the manufacture of scents, soaps and sachets. There are more species of white flowers gathered than of any other color — 1,124. Of these 187 have an agreeable scent, an extraordinary large proportion. Next in order come yellow blossoms, with 951, 77 of them being perfumed. Red flowers number 823, of which 84 are scented. —Ex. According to the eleventh census, the estimated value of all the farm products raised in this country in 1889 was *2,460,107,454. The Delaware legislature has appointed a commission to visit all peach orchards in the state and destroy all trees affected by the yellows.
MAN WITH A SHADOW.
E had driven the \V\ I Apaches into the ■\jV\wild fastnesses of yji Devil’s Mountains, fW \ 1 * but there they suc- \ cessfully eluded us, jlfcak T l and Colonel Bradwick was about dis- ■ , a couraged, when, one pjl J night shortly after dark, a sentinel brought in a stran-
ger. He was at least six feet and three inches in height, and he could not have weighed more than one hundred and forty pounds, but still he did not seem to 1 e a man who was suffering from a disease, as his step was steady, though catlike. his voice natural if restrained at times. This stranger had & wild, haunted stare in his eyes, which combined with a manner of glancing nervously over his shoulders at intervals, made it seem that he was in constant dread of something. When he was presented to the colonel he dropped the butt of his long rifle on the ground and made an awkward salute. “Well, my man,” said Colonel Bradwick, curiously,” what are you doing in this Apache-infected section of the country?” “Wa-al, kunnel,” was the drawled reply, “thar be some things as is wuss’n ’Paches, though you may hot believe it. My name’s Saul Tropp.” “What is your business, Saul Tropfi?”
“It’s mostly keepin’ under kiver when the sun shines an’ layin’ low moonlight nights.” “Well, you seem to be in a bad section of the country for such a business. The sun shines every day, and there is not much cover for a man. There is more moon here than in any other part of the world. What do you want in this camp?” “Reckoned I’d like ter be socibul, es you hev no objections. Out hyar a man don’t find much of anything to be socibul with, an’ when white folks come along he feels as tickled as a dorg with two tails.” “Are you acquainted with these mountains?” “Are I? Wa-al, I should say I are! 1 know ’em durned nigh from from one eend to t’other.” “Then you may prove of service to us. We are hot after Red Hand’s butchers. but they know the section so well they have twice given us the slip when they were cornered.”
FALL HEAVILY TO THE GROUND
“Red Hand. I saw that critter once an’ I’ve alius regretted that I didn’t make his close acquaintance. His ha’r would hev been an ornyment wuth havin’.” “Can you and will you assist us id tracking down the red d—ls?” “Wa-al, I’ll try it, but I warn ye, kunnel, I’m not a very ’greeable galoot hev around. I hev spells, an’ w’en I hev spells, I'm wuss’n thunder. Arter l hev about one o’ them yar spells, you’ll reckon you kin git along without my aid, an’ not hafe try.” For all of thi3 warning, the colonel engaged the man, and then he directed me to have a good watch set over the fellow, as he might piove crooked. JefT Shaw, however, Informed me tha* he knew Tropp by reputation, and the man was straight enough, though there was not a doubt but he was crazy. “He ’lows he’s alius follered by a shadder,” explained Shaw, who was a guide and scout. “Notice how he keeps lookin’ over his shoulder uvry now an’ ag’in? Wa’al he’s lookin’ for the shadder.”
“I observed a wild look in his eyes.” “Thet kem thar sence four year ago when he killed a man over in Prescott They do say ther man he killed wuz Saul Tropp’s perfect double—looked so much alike one couldn’t ’a’ bin told from t’other. Some folks even went so fur as to say it wuz Saul Tropp as wuz killed, and this man what has bin dodgin’ his shadder ever sence is t’other critter.”
Tropp started out well. He had no horse, but we found him tireless and fleet of foot. Still, he was ever glancing over his shoulder with those wild, haunted eyes, and dodging when he found his own shadow hanging close upon him. He loved the darkness of ravines and gorges, and I fancied I understood why he had buried himself in the mountains. I observed he had a peculiar way ot toeing in with his left foot, and the impression maae Dy mar loot was one mu easily forgotten. Along in the middle of the afternoon Saul had one of his “spells.” Of a sudden he gave a wild yell, whirled about and struck out right and left. It was really as desperate a battle as I had ever witnessed, and I watched it fascinated, until, utterly exhausted, Tropp fell gasping and foaming at the mouth to the ground, where be lay in a seml-unconscioue condition. However. In tees than thirty minutet
he seemed all right once more, and we went onward. “I reckon I’d best go now, kunnel, fer I’m shore you’re good an’ sick o’ me an’ my spells by this yar time. I hain’t even so much as found one ’Pache sign fer ye, so I reckon I’ll skip.” But Colonel Bradwick was interested in the fellow, and he would not hear it. “When I don’t want you any more I’ll tell you so,” was all he said. Near midnight we were aroused by a terrible racket, and I looked from my tent to find Saul Tropp fighting with'his shadow in the moonlight. I watched him a moment, battling like a fiend with this imaginary something, and then he reeled into the deep eliadbw of the mountains that rose to our right. I knew when the "spell” was over, for I heard Saul fall heavily to the ground, uttering a dismal groan, and then all was still. lii the niOiHlag we found him just where he had fell, and his own knife was buried to the hilt in his heart. It is supposed he had stabbed himself in the mad contortions of his struggle, but Jeff Shaw pointed out tracks on the ground—a trail that led to the spot and led away again, It was that of a man who toed In With his left foot, exactly as Tropp had done, and it passed within ten feet of the spot where a sentinel had been posted. That sentinel swore no living thing had passed him in the night. Some said Saul Tropp had sneaked out of the camp and returned in the night; some shook their heads and said nothing. Deep in the darkness of a lonely ravine, amid those desolate mountains, we buried him where no shadow could ever haunt him more, for neither sunshine nor moonlight ever reached the spot to cast a shadow there.
HER FIRST OCEAN BATH.
Country Mold, Married Sister and Wicked Brother-In-Law. At first she would and then she wouldn’t; but really, after all, it would be a shame after coming 600 miles to the sea not to go into the surf. This and the married sister from Brooklyn, and the mild ridicule of her wicked brother-in-law, settled it. But she shivered as she noted the effects of the hired bathing suits upon the human form divine. Some of them were just too dreadful, says New York World. You could mark her shrinking little figure coming down the sands, piloted by the married sister, to the spot where waited the wicked brother-in-law. Her freckled face was red, but not from the sun. She kept her eyes on the near foreground, certain that the 5,000 persons on the beach and pier were looking directly at her bare ankles. “Oh, dear! let us go in quick; I want to cover up!” she said pleadingly. “Take her other hand, George,” said the married sister. “Now, don’t be a fool, Mary. Y’ou’re not the only one here, remember,” added the old-timer, rather obscurely.
“Come on!” cried the wicked brother-in-law with a grin. And they ran down, pit-a-pat, spit-a-splat-ter, just in time to meet a stiff roller curling in. “Jump now!” yelled the married sister, but the wicked brother-! n-law dragged her down with him, smothering a piercing shriek of terror. When the gentle, freckled face cam* up again it was white instead of red, and she choked with salt water, and the smart in her eyes made the tears flow. She looked reproachfully at the wicked brother-in-law and shook him off, but before she recovered speech another wave knocked her over and buried her, screech and all. “Keep hold of George!” cried the married sister.
“Go ’way, you brute!” gasped the little one. “Don’t you see I’m drowning? Oh! Oh! Yeouw!” Down she went again before a wave not more than knee high. The wicked brother-in-law laughed. “I’ll never speak to you again!” she sobbed, shivering all over, and cowering between the fear of the sea and the mocking crowd on the sands. “Come In here by the rope, Mary!” yelled the married sister. “Bring her in, George. What are you standing around there for?” “Never!” cried the freckled girl, getting her voice cnee more. “You never told me it was ice water! And that it is nasty—ugh! I’ve swallowed a bucketful of it—yes; and you think it’s funny—don’t you touch me! I’m going out! Now, you dare!” But the wicked George grabbed her round the slender waist and bore her, kicking, struggling, shrieking, her eyes flashing fire, out to the rope to his wife. And there she remained in wild frolic, terrors soon all forgotten, until both the wicked brother-in-law and his wife had to join In coaxing her to come out.
Acute Kleptomania.
"When I was in India,” said the man who had traveled, “ the native thieves stole the sheets from under me while I slept, and I never knew it!” “Yes, and when I was in the Northwest during the boom,” said the man who will never admit that America can be outdone, “I had to sleep in a room where there were four real estate agents and one of them stole a porous plaster from my back without awakening me.”
Mysterious Affair.
First Doctor—l had a very interesting case the other day. The diagnosis was all right, but the course of the disease was decidedly abnormal. Second Doctor—What course did it take? First Doctor —The patient recovered. ms greatly wise to talk with our past hours, And ask them what report they bora to heaven. —Toting.
AGRICULTURE.
Farms In Michigan. The secretary of state of Michigan has just issued a report on the ownership of farms in that state. It shows a continuation of the same unhealthy conditions brought to light by the general government census—a relative decrease of owners, and an increase of renters. The process is slow, and. xi'ifiFPfPre insidious, bub it is no less alarming, The summary ot the report follows: Tables show the humbe'j' or farms; classified according to tenure, daily statistics of the state as returneu in the state census of June 1, 1894. Na farm of less than three acres was returned unless S2OO worth of produce was sold off from it during the year. » The total number of farms m. thestate is 177,952, of which 149',09 | 3 are cultivated by owners, 9,127 are rented' for fixed money rental, and 19,732 are rented for shares of products. I* In 1884 the total number of farms* returned la the census was 157J339; of which 138,523 were cultivated by own--ers, 5,657 were rented for fixed money rental, and 13,209 were rented for shares; of products. Comparing the returns in 1894 with those for 1884, there is an increase of 20,563, or 13.07 per cent, in the total number of farms; of 10,570, or 7.63 percent in the number cultivated by owners; of 3,470, or 61.34 per cent, in the number rented for fixed money rental, and of 6,523, or 49.38 per cent, in the number rented for shares of products.
Of the total number of farms in the state, 88.01. per cent in 1884, and 83.7 E per cent in 1894 were cultivated by owners; 3.60 per cent in 1884, and 5.13 per cent in 1894 were rented for money; and 8.39 per cent in 1884, and 11.09 per cent in 1894 were rented for shares of products. The number of farms in the state June 1, 1890. as shown by the national, census, was 172,344, of which 148,208, or 86.00 per cent were, cultivated by owners; 8,212, or 4.76 per cent were rented for money, and 15,924, or 9.24 per cent were rented on shares. The proportion of farms cultivated by owners was 2.01 per cent less in 1890' than in 1884, and 2.22 per cent less in 1894 than in 1890. Beginning with 1880, in each one thousand farms in the state the number cultivated by owners at each census was as follows: 1880 900 1884 880' 1890 860 1894 838 Considering the state by sections, and comparing with the returns of ten years ago, there is an increase of 3,678 farms in the southern four tiers of counties,, of 9.601 in the central counties, of 5,150 in the northern counties of the lower peninsula, and 2,134 in the upper peninsula. Tlie number of farms cultivated by owners lias decreased 2,858 in the southern four tiers of counties, while the number rented for money has increased 2,009, and the number rented for shares of products has increased 4,527. In the central counties there iS' an increase of 7,111, and in the northern counties of 4,385, in the number of farms cultivated by owners. The southern counties, or oldest settled portions of the state, and where about S 5 per cent, of the farm crops are raised, is the only section in which there is a decrease in tlie number of farms cultivated by owners. Here, with an increase of 3,678 in tlie total number of farms, there is a. decrease of 2,858 in the number cultivated ay owners. It should be further noted that while every county in the central section, and all counties in the northern section, except four -Crawford, Emmet, Manitou and Osceola—show an increase in the number of farms cultivated by owners, twenty-three of the twenty-eight counties in the southern section show a decrease; in one, Shiawassee, there is neither gain nor loss, and only four, Berrien, Kent, Monroe and Ottawa, show a gain. In three of these four counties fruit and market garden crops are extensively cultivated, and one, Kent, extends into the territory of the central counties.
The state totals of the dairy statistics are as follows: Total milk produced on farms, 212,070,373 gallons; value of all milk and cream sold from farms, butter made on farms, 48,951,378 pounds; cheese made on farms, 206,660 pounds. These totala are for the year ending June 1, 1894. The national census of dairy products taken June 1, 1890, and including the products of the year ending Dec, 31, 18S9, shows as follows: Milk produced. 224,537,488 gallons; butter made on farms, 50,197,481 pounds; cheese made on farms, 328,682 pounds. The products as shown by the present census are less than the national census totals by 12,467,115 gallons of milk, 1,246,103 pounds of butter, and 122,022 pounds of cheese.
Too Conservative.—The English agriculturist is slow to take advantage of modern scientific discoveries and inventions. Even the cream separator, the principal and utility of which are universally understood, has not yet come into general use in that country. As for the milk tester, it’s very name Is unknown to thousands of English* farmers. Yet the value of this sample and inexpensive appliance to every one who owns milch cattle is incalculable, and its employment is doing more to advance the dairying industry in America and elsewhere than perhaps even the separator itself.— JSx. A Washington paper baa for a motto: “Grab all In sight and hustla for nroro.”