Rensselaer Republican, Volume 21, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 April 1889 — Page 6

KING SOLOMON’S MINES.

BY H. RIDER HAGGARD.

TUB BATT LX. At rais moment the Buffaloes began to march past our position on the road to Loo, and as they did so a message was brought to us from Ignosi requesting Infadoos, Sir Henry, and myself io join him. Accordingly, orders having been issued to the remaining ninety men of the Grays to employ themselves in collecting the wounded, we joined Ignosi, who informed us that he was pressing on to Loo to complete the victory by capturing Twain, if that should be possible. Before we had gone far we suddenly discovered the figure of Good sitting on an ant-heap * about one hundred paces from us. Close beside him was the body of a Kukuana. “He must be wounded," said Sir Henry, anxiously. As he made the remark an untoward thing happened. The dead body of the Kukuana soldier, or rather what had appeared to be his dead body, suddenly sprung up, knocaed Good head over heels off the ant-heap, and began to spear him. We rushed forward in terror, and as we drew near we saw the brawny warrior making dig after dig at the prostrate Good, who at each prod jerked all his limbs into the ' air. Seeing ns coming the Kukuana gave one final most vicious dig, and with a shout of ‘{Take

that, wizard," bolted off. Gooa did not move, and we concluded that our poor comrade was done for. Sadly we came toward him, and were indeed astonished to find him pale and faint indeed, but with a serene smile upon hiss ace, and his eyeglass still fixed in his eye" * “Capital armor this.” he murmured, ... on catching sight of our faces bending over him. “How sold he must have been!" and then he fainted. On examination we discovered that he had been seriously wounded in the leg by a tolls in the course of the pursuit, but that the chain armor had prevented his last assailant’s spear from doing anything more than bruise him badly. It was a merciful escape. As nothing could be done for him at the moment he was Jilaced on one of the wicker shields used or the wounded, and carried along with us. On arriving before one of the gates of Loe we found one of our regiments watching it inobedience to orders received from Ignosi. The remaining regiments were in the same way watching the other exits to the town. The officer in command of this regiment coming up saluted Ignosi as king, and informed him that Twala’s army had taken refuge in the town, whither Twala himself had also escaped, but that he thought that they were thoroughly demonized, and would surrender. Thereupon Ignosi, after taking Counsel with us, sent forward heralds to each gate ordering the defenders to open, and promising on his royal word life and forgiveness to every soldier who laid downhis arms. The message was not without its effect Presently, amid the shouts and cheers of the Buffaloes, the bridge was dropped across the fosse, and the gates upon the further side dung open. Taking due precautions against treachery, we marched on into the town. All along the road-ways stood dejected warriors, their heads drooping, and their shields and spears at their feet, who, as Ignosi passed, saluted him as king. On we marched, straight to Twala’s kraal. When we reached the great space where a day or two previously we had seen the review and the witch hunt we found it deserted. No,

not quite deserted for there, on the further side, in front of his hut; sat Twala, with but one attendant—Gagool. It was a melancholy sight to see him seated there, his battle-ax and shield by his side, his chin upon ..his mailed breast, with but one old crone for companion. and notwithstanding his cruelties ana misdeeds, a pang of compassion shot through me as I saw him thus “fallen from his high estate.” Not a soldier oL all his armies, not a courtier “but of the hundreds who had cringed round him, not even wife, remained to share his fate or halve the bitterness of his fall. Poor savage! he was learning the lesson that Fafte teaches to most who live long enough, that the eyes es mankind are blind to the discredited, and that he who is defenseless and fallen finds few friends and little mercy. Nor, indeed, in this case did he deserve any. Filing through the kraal gate we marched straight across the open space to where* sat When within about fifty yards the regiment was halted, and' accompanied only by a small guard we advanced toward liim, Gagool reviling us bitterly as we came. As we drew near, Twala, for the first time, lifted up his plumed head, and fixed his one eye, whicn seemed to flash with suppressed fury almost as brightly as the great diadem bound round his forehead, upon his successful rival— Ignosi.

“Hail, 0 king!” he said, with bitter mockery; “thou who hast eaten of my bread; and now by the aid of the white “ man's magic has reduced my regiments and defeated mine army, hail! what fate hast thou for me, 0 king?” “The fate thou gavest to my father, whose throne thou hast sat on these many years!” was the stern answer. “It is welt I will show thee how to die, that thou mayest remember it against thine own time. See, the sun sinks in blood,” and he pointed with his red battleax toward the fiery orb now going down; “it is well that my sun should sink withit. And now, Oh king, lam ready to die, but I crave the boon of the Kukuana royal house* to die fighting. Thou canst not refuse it, or even those cowards who fled to-day will hold thee shamed.” * “It is granted. Choose with whom thou wilt fight Myself I can not fight with thee, for the king fights not except in war,” Twala’s somber eye run up and down our ranks, and I felt as for a moment it rested on myself, that the position had developed a new horror. What if he chose to begin by fighting me? What chance should I have against a desperate savage six feet five high, and broad in proportion? I might as well commit suicide at once. Hastily I made up my mind to decline the combat, even if I were hooted out of Kukuanalana as a consequence. It is, I think, better to be hooted thsn to be quartered with a S'ttleax. * ♦ Presently he spoke. “Incubu’ what sayest thou, shall we

end what ire began to-day, or shall I nail thee coward, white—even to the liver?” , . “Nayjtt interposed Ignosi, hastily; “thoushalt not fight with Incubu.’’ “Not if he is afraid,” said Twala. Unfortunately Sir Henry understood this remark, and the blood flamed up into hie cheeks. “I will fight him," he said; “he shall see if I am afraid.’* “For God’s sake,” I entreated, “don t risk your life against that of a desperate man. Anvbody who saw you to-day will know that you are not a coward." “I will fight him," was the sullen answer. “No living man shall call rne a coward. I am ready now!” andj he stepped forward and lifted hfoxau/ I wrung my hands over/this absurd piece of quioxtism; but iffie was determined on fighting, of course I could not stop him. “Fight not, my white brother." said Ignosi, laying his hand affectionately on Sir Henry’s arm; “thou hast fought enough, and it aught befell thee at his hands it would cut my heart in twain." “I will fight, Ignosi,” was Sir Henry’s answer. .It is a law amongst the Kukuanas that no man of the royal blood can be put to death unless by his own consent, which is, however, never refuted. He is allowed to choose a succession df antagonists, to be approved by the king, with whom he fights, till one of them kills him. “It is well. Incubu; thou art a brave man. It will be a good fight. Behold, Twala, the elephant is ready for thee.” The ex-king laughed savagely, and stepped forward and faced Curtis. For a moment they stood thus, and the setting sun caught their stalwart frames and clothed them both in fire. They

were a well matched pair. Then they began circle round each other, their battleaxes raised. Suddenly Sir Henry sprung forward and struck a fearful blow at Twala, who stepped to one side. So heavy was the stroke that the striker half overbalanced himself, a circumstance of which his antagonist took a prompt advantage. Circling his heavy battleax round his head, he brought it down with tremendous force. My heart jumped into my mouth; I thought the affair was already finished. But no; with a quick upward movement of the left arm Sir Henry interposed his shield between himself and the ax, with the result that its outer edge was shorn clean off,the ax falling on his left shoulder,but not heavily enough to do any serious damage. In another second Sir Henry got in another blow, which was also received by Twala upon his shield. Then followed blow upon blow which were, in turn, either received upon the shield or avoided. The excitement grew intense; the regiment which was watching the encounter forgot its discipline, and, drawing near, shouted and groaned at everv stroke. Just at this time, too, Good, who had been laid npon the ground by me, recovered from his faint, and, sitting up, perceived what was going on. In an instant he was up, and catching hold of my arm, hopped about from place to place on one leg, dragging me after him, yelling out encouragements to Sir Henry—“Go it, old fellow!” he hallood. “That was a good one! Give it him amidships,” and so on.

Presently Sir Henry, having caught a fresh stroke upon his shield, hit out with all his force. The strode cut through Twala’s shield and through th,e tough chain armor behind it, gashing lim Id the shoulder. With a yell of pain and fury Twala returned the stoke with interest,and, such was his strength, shore right through the rhinoceros’ horn handle of his antagonist’s battle-ax, strengthened as it was with bands of steel, wounding Cuitis in the face. A cry of dismay rose from the Buffaoes as our hero’s broad axhead fell to the ground; and Twala, again raising his weapon, flew at him with a shout. I shut my eyes. When I opened them again, it was to see Sir ’ Henry’s shield lying on the ground, and Sir Henry himself with his great arms twined round Twala’s middle. To and fro they swung, hugging each other like bears, straining with all their mighty muscles for dear life, and dearer honor. With a supreme effort Twala swung the Englishman clean off his feet, and down they came together over and over on the lime paving Twala striking out at Curtis’s head with the battle-ax, and Sir Henry trying to drive the tella he had drawn from his belt through Twala’s armor.

It was a mighty struggle, and an awfully thing to see. “Get his ax!” yelled Good; and perhaps our champion heard him. At any rate, dropping the tolla, he made a grab at the ax, which was fastened to Twala’s wrist by a strip of buffalo hide, and still rolling over and over, they fought for it like wild cate, drawing their breath in heavy gasps. Suddenly the hide string burst, and then, with a great effort, Sir Henry freed himself, the weapon remaining in his grasp. Another second and he was up upon his feet, the red blood streaming from the wound in his face, and so was Twala. Drawing the heavy tolla from his belt, he staggered straight at Curtis and struck him upon the breast The blow came home true and strong, but whoever it was made that chain armor understood his art, for it withstood the steel. Again Twala struck out with a savage yell, and again the heavy knife rebounded, and Sir Henry went staggering back. Once more Twala came on, and as he came our great Englishman gathered himself together, and, swinging the heavy ax round his head, hit at him with all his force. There was a shriek of excitement from a thousand throaty and, behold! Twala’s head seemed to spring from his shoulders and then fell and came rolling and bounding along the ground toward Ignosi, stopping just at his feet For a second the corp stood upright, the blood spouting in fountains from the several artiries; then with a dull cptsh it fell to the earth, and the gold torque fronkfhe neck went rolling away across -the pavement. As it did so Sir Henry, overpowered by faintness and loss of blood, fell heavily across it. ' In a second he was lifted up, and eager hands were pouring water on his face. Another minute, and the great gray eyes opened wide. He was not dead. Then I, just as the sun sunk, stepping to where Twala’s head lay sin the dust, unloosened the diamond from the dead brows, and handed it to Ignosi. “Take it,” I said, “lawful King of the Kukuanas.” ® Ignosi bound the diadem upon his brows, and then advancing placed his foot upon the broad chest of his headless foe and broke out into a chant, or rather a paan of victory, so beautiful, (and yet so utterly savage, that I despair 1 of being able to give an adequate idea of

it I once h«ard a scholar with a fine voice read aloud from a Greek poet called Homer, and I remember that the sound of the rolling lines seemed to make my blood stand still. Ignoei’s chant, uttered as it was in a language as beautiful and sonorous as the old Greek, produced exactly the same effect on me, although I was exhausted with toil and various emotions, “Now,” he began, “now is our re bellion swallowed up in victory, and our evil-doing justified by strength. “In the morning the oppressors rose up and shook themselves; they bound on their plumes and made them read for war. “They robe up and grasped - their spears; the soldiers called to the captains, ‘Dome, lead us’—and the captains cried to the king, ‘Direct thou the battle.’ “They rose up in their pride, twenty thousand men, and yet a twenty thousand. “Their plumes covered the earth as the plumes of a bird cover her nest; they shook their spears and shouted, yea, they hurled their spears into the sunlight; they lusted for the battle and were glad. “They came up against me; their strong ones came running swiftly to crush me; they cried, ‘Ha! ha! he is One already dead. “Then breathed lon them, and my breath was as the breath of a storm, and lo! they were not. “Mv lightnings pierced them; I licked up their strength with the lightning of my spears; I shook them to the earth with the thunder of my shouting. J “They broke—they scattered—they were gone as the mists of the morning'. “They are food for the crows and tne foxes, and the place of battle is fat with their blood.

“Where are the mighty ones who rose up in the morning? where are the proud ones who tossed their plumes and cried, ‘He is as one already dead?’ “They bow their heads, but not in sleep; they are stretched out, but not in sleep* “They are forgotten; they have gone into the blackness and shall not return: yea, others shall lead away their wives, and their children shall remember them no more. ~ “And I—I! the king—like an eagle have 1 found my eyrfoz “Behold! far have I wandered in the night-time, yet have I returned to my little ones at the day-break. Y “Creep ye under the shadow of my flings, oh people, and I will comfort ye, and ye shall not be dismayed. “Now is the good time, the time of spoil. - „ v “Mine are the cattle in the valleys the virgins in the kraals are mine also. “The winter is overpast, the summer is at hand. “Now shall Evil cover up her face, and prosperity shall bloom in the land like a lily. “Rsjoice, rejoice, my people! let all the land rejoice in that the tyranny is trodden down, in that I am the king.” Hp paused, and out of the gathering gloom there came back the deep reply—- “ Thou art theJring.” Thus it was that my prophecy to the herald came true, and within the fortyeight hours Twala’s headless corpse was stiffening at Twala’s gate.

CHAPTER XV. GOOD FALLS SICK. After the fight was ended, Sir Henry and Good were carried into Twala’s hut, where I joined them. They were both utterly exhausted by exertion and loss of blood, and indeed, my own condition was little better. lain very wiry, and can stand more fatigue than most men, brobably on account of my light weight and long training; but that night I was fairly done up, and, as is always the case with me when exhausted, that old wound the lion gave me began so pain me. Also my head was aching violently from the blow I had received in the morning, when I was knocked senseless. Altogether, a more deplorable trib than we were that evening it would have been difficult to discover; and our only comfort lay in the reflection that we were exceedingly fortunate to be there to feel miserable, instead of being stretched dead upon the plain, as so many thousands of brave men were that night, who had risen well and strong in the morning. Somehow, with the assistance of the beautiful Foulata, who, since we had been the means of saving her life, had constituted herself our handmaiden, ana especially Good’s, we managed to get off the chain shirts, which had certainly saved the lives of two of us that day, when we found that the flesh underneath was terribly bruised, for though the steel linKs had prevented the weapons from entering, they had not prevented them from bruising. Both Sir Henry and Good were a mass oi bruises, and I was by no means free. As a remedy, Floulata brought us some pounded green leaves, with an aromatic odor, which when applied as a plaster, gave us considerable relief. But though the bruises were painful, they did not give us such anxietv asSir Henry’s and Good’s wounds. Good had a hole’ right through the fleshy part of his “beautiful white leg,” from which he had lost a great deal of blood; and Sir Henry had a deep cut over the jaw, inflicted by Twala’s battle-ax. Luckily Good was a very decent surgeon, and as soon as his small box of medicines was forthcoming, he, having thoroughly cleansed the wounds, managed to stitch up, first Sir Henry’s and thenhis own pretty satisfactorily, consideringthe imperfect light given by the primitive Kukuana lamp in the hut Afterward he plentifully smeared the wounds with some antiseptic ointment of which there was a pot' in the little box, and we covered them with the remains of a pocket-handkerchief which we possessed.

Meanwhile Fou lata had prepared us some strong broth,for we were too weary to eat. This we swallowed, and then threw ourselves down on the piles of magnificent karosses, or fur-rugsj which were cattered about the dead king’s great hut. By a very strange instance of the irony of fate, it was on Twala’s own couch’ and wrapped in Twala’s own particular kaross, that Sir Henry, the man who had slain him, slept that night - . ■ 1 say slept but after that day’s work sleep was indeed difficult. To begin with, in very truth the air was full . “Of farewells to the dying And rnoumingStforme dead.'* From every direction came the sound oft the wailing of women whose husbands, sons, and brothers had perished in the fight No wonder that they wailed, for over twenty thousand men, or nearly a

! third of the Kqkuana army, had been I destroyed in that awful straggle. It was heart-rendering to lie and listen to their cries for those who would never return; it made one]realize the full horror of the work done that day to further man’s ambition. Toward midnight, however, the ceasless crying of the Women grew less frequent, till at length the silence was only broken at intervals of a few minutes by a long, piercing howl that came from a hut in our immediate rear, and which I afterward discovered proceeded from Gagbol wailing for the dead King Twala. After that I got a little fitful sleep, only to wake from time to time with a start, thinking that I was once more an actor in the terrible events of the last hours. Now I seemed to s®e that warrior, whom my hand had sent to his last account, charging at me on the mountain top; now I was once more in that glorious ring of Grays, which made its immortal stand against ail Twala’s regiments, upon the little mound; and now again I saw Twala’s plumed and gorv head roll past my feet with gnashing teeth and glaring eye. At last, somehow or other", the night passed away; but when dawn broke I found that my companions had slept no better than mysfelf. Good, indeed, was an a high fever, and very soon afterward began to grow light- headed, and also, to my alarm, to spit blood, the result no doubt of some internal injury inflicted by the desperate efforts of the Kukuana warrior on the previous day to get his big spear through the chain arffior. Sir Henry, however, seemed pretty fresh, notwithstanding his wound on the face, which made eating difficult and laughter an impossibility, though he was so sore ana stiff that he could scarcely stir. About eight o’clock we had a visit from Infadoos, who seemed but little the worse—tough old warrior that he was—for his exertions on the previous day, though he informed us that he had been up all night. He was delighted to see us, though much grieved at Good’s condition, and shook hands cordially; but I noticed that he addressed Sir Henry with a kind of reverence, as though he were something more than man; and indeed, as we afterward found out, the great Englishman was looked on throughout Kukuanaland as a supernatural being. No man, the-, soldiers said, could have fought as he fought, qr could, at the end of a day of such toil and bloodshed, have slain Twala, who, in addition to being the king, was supposed to hp the strongest warrior in Kukuanaland, in single combat, sheering through his b ill nick at a stroke. Indeed, that stroke became proverbial in Kukuanaland, and any extraordinary blow or feat of strength was thenceforth known as “Incubu’s blow.” Infadoos told us, also, that all Twala’s regiments had submitted to Ignosi, and that like submissions were beginning to arrive from chiefs in the country. Twala’s death at the hands of Sir Henry had put an end to all further chance of disturbance; for Scragga had been his only son, and there was no .rival claimant left alive.

I remarked that Ignosi had swum to the throne through blood. The old chief shrugged his shoulders. “Yes,” he answered; “but the Kukuana people can only be kept cool by letting the blood now sometimes. Many.. were killed indeed, but the women were left, and others would soon grow up to take the places of the fallen. After this the landwouldbe quiet for awhile.” Afterward, in the course of the morning, we had a„short visit from Ignosi, on whose brows the royal diadem was now bound. As I contemplated him ad-“ vancing with kingly dignity,an obsequious guard following his steps, I could not help recalling to my mind the tall Zulu who had presented himself to us at Durban some few months back, asking to be taken into our service, and reflecting on the strange revolutions of the wheel of fortune. ‘Tiail, 0 king!” I taid, rising. -<WYes, Macumazahn. King at last, by Hie grace of your three right hands,” was the ready answer. All was, he said, going on well: and he hoped to arrange a great feast in two weeks’ time in order to show himself to the people. | I asked him what he had settled to do with Gagool. “She is the evil genius of the 5 fond,” he answered, “and I shall kill jier, and all the witch-doctors with her! She has lived so long that none can remember when she was not old, and always she it is who has trained the witch Bunters, and made the land evil in the bight of the heavens above.” “Yet she knows much,” I replied; “it is easier to destroy knowledge, Ignosi, than to gather it.” “It is so,” he said, thoughtfully. “She, and she only, knows the secret of the ‘Three Witches’ yonder, whither the great road runs, where the kings are buried, and the silent ones sit.” "Yes, and the diamonds are. Don’t forget your promise, Ignosi; you must lead us to the mines, even if you have to spare Gagool’s life to show the way.” “I will not forget, Macumazahn, and I will think on what thou sayest.” Continued next week.

A Boy’s Long Trip.

Lynn (Mass.) Special.

Frank Fullerton, a shool boy who disappeared mysteriously on June 11. 1387, and who has since been mourned as dead by his family, returned home last evening, after having made a circuit of the world. His recital of his travels is most interesting. He walked to Boston over two years a ago, over the railroad track, and on arriving sought the wharves. He shipped from Boston to Philadelphia, thence to Baltimore, and then crossed the ocebn to Havre, from there Visiting Rouen and Paris, sailing up the Mediterranean, and making a round of continental and British seaports. The boy’s explanation was that he was possessed of an uncontrollable desire to see the world. Young Fullerton’s taste for the sea is entirely cured.

How He Came to Know About It.

Texas Siftings. Witness, were you present when the fight took place? I was. - Will you please explain how it happened? I was sitting quietly at a table drinking beers when without my seeing him, a fellow came up behind me and smashed a beer mug all to flinders on the top of my head. That’s what called mv attention to the affair.

THE FARM AND HOME.

Iforrehas an old orchard, the trunks and larger branches covered with loose bark, on whichmosses and lichens find afoot hold, and which afford a hiding place for numerous injurious insects in various states of development, the first thing to be done is to scrape off all the loose scales of bark. Use a moderately dull hoe—a shap one might injure the bark; one with a short handle will allow the lower brane hes to be reached. Use home-made soft soap, dilute it with hot water, stir it well until it is thin enough apply with a small whitewash brush or a large paint brush. Put plenty of it on the trunks and the larger branches. One should endeavor to apply the soap very early in spring, so that it may not dry up at once, but be gradually washed off by the rains that usually occur at this season. When the trees have had a thorough washing, the bark will present a beautifully smooth \appearance that will amply repay one for the 'troqble. For removing the growth oft the.

outside of flower pots, this soap is excellent; it has also teen recommended as a vehicle to apply petroleum for aphides or plant lice add other insects. One pint of soft-soap is mixed with half a pint of petroleum. Mix thoroughly, add to seven or eight gallons of water, and apply with a syringe. This has been found destructive to the chinch bug. It must be kept in mind that in gardening it is the long, steady pull that tqjls the story of the year’s,, work. It is not the good crop of this or the poor crop of the other, that determines the question of profit or loss; but in the steady run of one hundred and fifty days of sales, a few dollars more or less each day settles the question, and these few dollars more can only be had by a steady succession of all salable crops, from the earliest to the latest, while they may easily be made less by thinking that you are through with cabbage after your “extra early” are off. or by thinking that no one wants peas after the Fourth of July, or celery before Thanksgiving. It may be that some of the products, during part of the season, will net repay the expense of cultivating, gathering and selling. Yet if they are individually unprofitable, it pays to have them on hand, so that your customers may learn to rely upon you for a full assortment all the time. Customers are easily had, and easily held, when they can depend upon being regularly supplied with a good quality and good assortment of vegetables. But when the route is not gone over regularly, or the supply is not kept up so that each may obtain just what he may happen to want each day, they are easily persuaded to buy elsewhere. Of the various ways in Which the sales of market garden produce may be made, none is so well calculated to bring in the Ultimate profit as a well established route gone over daily with the wagon. It is important that the route may be as compact as possible, as time saved is money saved in two ways—it allows your driver and horse to return the sooner to other work, and it enables you to visit more customers before your competitors. Other things being equal, until your trade is well established, the one who comes first makes the sales. A very valuable article on the subject of hiring help is to be found in the American Agriculturist for March, by Edmund P. Kendrick, of the Massachusetts bar. He says among other things: A verbal agreement between the employer and the employe is, however, in most cases just as good i: i law as a written one, providing it dan be proved. The principal exception sin the case of a contract which is not 1 o be performed within a year from the t me it is made. The Jaws of most States! say that a contract which is not to be performed within a year cannot be enforced unless the contract, or a memorandum of it, is in writing signed by the party to be ch*u-ged. If a farmer hires a man to work for him for one year, the time to commence the day the contract is made, or possibly the next day, the agreement need not necessarily be in writing. But if the time is to commence say a week or a month hence, it is not binding on either party if it is only a verbal bargain. If such a contract is verbal only, the farmer can discharge his help at any. time, and the help can quit at any time without being liable for damages, and generallf'Without loss of pay up to the time of leaving. It should be remembered that a minor is not bound by any contract of this nature, whether verbal or in writing; and while the employer, if of age, will be obliged to carry out the provisions of his agreement, the employe, if a minor, may break it at any time, leave his master’s employment, and collect what he can prove his services were worth up to the time of leaving. This is so although he lookea as it he were of age, or eveq if he falsely represented himself to be such. 4 Oats require a long season for growth, and cool weather, says the American Agriculturist for March; therefore sow them early, but do not sow on frozen ground with the expectation that they will sink down in the mud and sow themselves. This slipshod method will do for the poor ignorant and wretched (no men more so) “fellahs” who scatter their seed wheat on the rich mud left by the floods of the river Nile, but not for an American farmer sowing oats in the spring. For the crop the land must be thoroughly well plowed

and harrowed—it should be plowed in the fall, in fact—and the seed must be well covered. And this is to be done as early as possible. Three years ago we sowed oats in a warm spell in February but did not cover the seed deep enough; a hard frost in March killed nine-tenths of the plants. Since then we have sown as early, but cover the seed four or five inches, and then if a hard frost comes only the tops are killed and a new spire will soon emerge from the living root. Two and a half bushels of seed per acre is the right quantity to sow. • Apropos of evergreen hedges, when planted early in May, the young plants are rooted and started before the hot, dry weather of July and August strikes them. Early autumn plantings, farther south, have been attended with success. Trees or plants that have been once or twice transplanted in the nursery row should be selected for hedge planting; twelve to fifteen inches is a good height to select, and the plants should be as Stocky andjull of branches as can be had at that sizea,nd age. Set them a trifle deeper than they originally grew in the soil, and water well when planted. Water occasionally during the not dry weather of the first summer. It is a good practice to plant two rows a foot or so apart, and have the trees bf the tWo rows alternate or “break joints.” This gives a thicker ground work without crowding the roots. If seedings are used instead of the transplanted stock they must be shaded the first summer or considerable loss will be experienced. Better pay a little more and get the transplanted stock in all cases. But little cutting can be done the first year or two, as the hedge must first become well established, root and top. Straggling shoots far out from the body,of the plant may be nipped off, and any extreme upward growth checked. The growth of a hedge is slow. It takes years of waiting to get a good one; a thoroughly gooa hedge can not be had in less than eight or ten years. The form of a hedge is a matter of Individual taste. There is, however, a natural form in which the hedge best thrives; that is, broad at the base, narrowing to the top. This form gives the lower limbs a chance to obtain light, air and moisture, which they do not have in the square-trimmed hedge. The beauty of a hedge depends upon its solidity and even distribution es limb and foliage. If the lower limbs are forced to reachfar out for light and air, the lateral twig growth will be light, and the lower part of the hedge will be open, and if kept cut back in square form, these lower limbs will frequently die out from

overcrowding and lack of light and air. Facts About Oklahoma. New York Press. Oklahoma is a country lying in the heart -of the Indian Territory, but its title is not clear. It is claimed by the boomers that this disputed tract of land reverted to the United States by purchase, and this is admitted. It needs a further act of Congress to open the gate's. The action has been withheld because the land is closed to the boomers, but open to men of wealth who are cattle kings. The cattle kings are in possession of the land, and they are for the most part active politicians. Had, therefore, these cattle kings been driven from the land the political cause which they professed to have at iheart would have suffered. If the cattlemen had a right to go there, then, too, the boomers had the same or a similar right to enter Oklahoma. The cattlemen have entered Oklahoma, and it looks as if they had gone there to stay, for they have erected around the land miles upon miles of barbed wire fencing. The cattlemen are all powerful at Washington, while the boomers are considered by the authorities to be a species of rag-tag and bobtail, whose aspirations and claims, whose prayers and demands are to be studiously ignored. Oklahoma is a magnificent agricultural country, and there is an abundance of copper "there cropping out of the ground. The inhabitants are tough, ’being horse thieves, half breeds, Indians, Mexicans and negroes. There are a few women, and they are as tough as the men. It is no place just at present for men accustomed to live in law abiding places. Of the government takes this territory and makesit safe for law abiding citizens it will be a great place te go and take up land. , DePew Joking on Serious Subjects. From his speech at the St. Patrick’s dub (firmer. Last St. Patrick’s day we adopted a rule on the llew York Central road of putting two green flags at the front of a train —an unconscious tribute to St Patrick; but Ireland in the yard stopped work at our expense [laughter] and gazed at the trains as they shot out of the depot, and- the foreman said to a companion, “Moike, what coes itmane?” “Well,” said he, “I’ll tell you what it manes. The boss has taken the flag which Mayor Hewitt would not permit to stand on the City [Hall, and he has put it on the end of every train, and he’s going to run for President, sure.” [Laughter]. But alas for the aspirations of the yardl The granger didn’t like him as well as the yard. [Renewed laughter]. I speak with this freedom, gentlemen, because my commission as minister to England has not yet reached me, but is on the way. [Uproarious laughter.] /'