The Syracuse Journal, Volume 3, Number 34, Syracuse, Kosciusko County, 22 December 1910 — Page 3

1/2 STORY £\J Archibald’s p= Agatha qi By EDITH HUNTINGTON MASON Author of “The Real Agatha” Copvriprht 1910. by W. G. Chapman* Uopyrightrin'Great Britain. SYNOPSIS. Archibald Terhune, a popular and indolent young bachelor ot London, receives news that he has been made heir •to the estate of his Aunt Georgiana, with an income of $20,000 a year, on condition that he becomes engaged to be married within ten days. Failing to do so the legacy will go to a third cousin In America. The story opens at Castle Wyckoff. Where Lord Vincent and his wife, friends of Terhune, are discussing plans to find him a wife within the prescribed time. It seems that Lady Vincent is one of seven persons named Agatha, all close girlhood chums. She decides to invite two of-them to the castle and have Archie there as one of the guests. Agatha Sixth strikes Archie as a handpainted beauty. Agatha First Is a breezy American girl. Lady Vincent telis her husband that Agatha Sixth already cares for Archie. He gains from Agatha Sixth the admission that she cares for him, but will require a month’s time fully to make up her mind. Agatha First, neglected by Terhune, receives attentions from Leslie Freer. Four days of the precious' time have passed when Terhune is called to London on business. Agatha First, on the plea of sickness, excuses herself from a motor trip planned by the Vincents. Later they see Agatha First picking flowers with a strange,, man. The Vincents discuss Agatha’s seeing duplicity. The following day the party visits the ruins of an old convent. Terhune continues his attentions to Agatha Sixth. Then suddenly he transfers his attentions to Agatha First. Vincent scores him for his apparent fickleness. CHAPTER Vlll.—Continued, He glanced at me in a half embarrassed, half triumphant way, much as he used to do in the first Castle Wyckhoff house party days, when he was about to tell me of Mis latest clue In regard to the identity of the real Agatha. “Well, to be quite; frank with you,” he said, “the truth'of the matter is that Agatha First won’t let me alone!” “Meaning,” I said, “that she's in love with you?” ’ “Well, Os course,” he replied, removing his eye-glass and polishirjg it desperately as is his custom when he pretends to be embarrassed,! “1 wouldn’t like to say that exactly. I couldn’t say positively, that is, but to a man of my experience in such matters and knowledge of the fair sex, the indications are—” “O rot!” I interrupted, rudely, I fear, but really the old boy is quite too insufferably conceited to encourage. It’s an old failing of his. “What makes you think so?” I asked after a moment’s consideration. Although I couldn’t quite believe that Agatha First was actually in love with him, still I wanted to hear his reasons for the conclusion. I didn’t want to believe it, that was certain. , I thought we had trouble enough on our hands as it was, without having to reckon with a broken heart on the part of MiSs Endicott. And aS this contingency assumed an air of probability to my mind, I inwardly vowed again never to undertake another' match-making project. Gad, no! Let people marry themselves hereafter without any interference from me. I had had all I wanted of the thing this time. “What makes you think so?" I repeated. I, Arch shrugged his shoulders. “Can’t help it. She’s after me the whole time! I suppose she can’t help fancying a man of my—er—if I may so—my attractions. I daresay I’m a revelation to her in comparison with the American college youths she’ has probably been used to. Experience and intellect does count, you know, Wilfred. Besides, the results show—” But I cut him short again. “The results show,” I said sternly, “that you’re just enough of a chump to heed her) mania for amusing herself with you—for I can’t think she Is in earnest.”) I had to tell him that for his own good, though I could have wished I felt surer this was the fact. “Her fondness for flirting with you flatters you so much that you’d run the risk of losing the girl you care for, just for the sake of having that egregious vanity of yours pleasantly tickled, as her apparent fancy, for your society undoubtedly tickles it! Your old failing again! ’Pon my word, old chap, I thought better of you! Better of your prudence and foresight! Why, I couldn’t have had less of an eye out for my own interests myself in the days when you and I were contending suitors for the hand of one of the Agathas, and you insisted that it should be the heiress and no other, and bullied me so because I didn’t take the same view! And the Lord knows you made enough fuss about that!” But when I reported the result of ihy remonstrance to Dearest, she said ■ I hadn’t been half severe enough with him. and i> was with difficulty that I

persuaded ner that speaking to him herself would only make matters worse and Terhune more obstinate. CHAPTER IX. It was the very last evening of the time that had been alloted Terhunfe in which to select a wife. The following day was to see Solicitor Barnes at luncheon with us at one o’clock precisely, Dearest having invited jhim in accordance with Mrs. James’ . request that he should be the referee present at the* house when the last minute of Terhune’s ten days of grace should expire, and his expected presence at the meal brought it home to us what a decisive one it must of necessity be. Decisive was indeed the right word to use in connection with that meal! For if old Arch was still free and unaffianced when he sat down to it, he might as w r ell never tave been nephew of his aunt as far as inheriting that aunt’s property was (concerned. Dearest was Inclined, being optimistic enough to hope for a consummation of his engagement to Agatha Sixth'before that time—to make ot the luncheon a sort of marriage-feast in honor of that event, and was already planning famous ices and cakes pf a hymeneal nature. But Arch seemed not to view the approach of the crucial day with" such a light heart, tils thoughts at dinner that night were so absent, in fact, as to force one to -conclude) that the spectre of his .aunt’s third cousin seated upon the veranda of the house in Australia with possessive feet on the railing had; become his familiar spirit. j It was this apparent anxiety of his and his feverish devotion to Agatha Sixth) that utterly unprepared m for the unfortunate denouement later. Tbq evening had ended at last and Dearest and I had succeeded in starting a general move toward retiring for the night. We had been placing bridge—that is, the two Agathas lhad —with Terhune and the 7 inevitable Freer; while my wife and I stood by - i th'! dMMI I ji - We Turned to the Folding Doors Again. and cut in now and then. We had “observed with pleasure that the party of four had divided itself exactly as we would have arranged it ourselves; Terhuhe and Agatha Sixth were partners. as were Agatha First and Freer. Better still, Agatha Sixth seemed quite to have forgotten the unhappy Episode pf the waterfall, when Arch had so obviously missed his cue, and was opqply basking in the return of her adthirer’s devotion. And Agatha First, too, seemed quite contented, not a whit disturbed by this attitude on my friend's part and mildly amused by the attempted gallantries of the rector’s son from Wye. It was, in fact, a thoroughly happy little foursome, and as a spectator of its content I felt particularly pleased when I thought of what Arch had confided to me just before dinner. That he Intended to obtain a definite, and what he seemed to consider, a favorable answer, frbm Agatha Sixth on the morrow. We )had all gone to bed, and the night was well advanced, when I was awakened from the rippingest a sleei> by the loudest kind of a bang you eVer heard in your life. It came from the big drawing-room, which we did not often use, directly below my room, and woke me at once. It sounded for all the world as if seme one or something had knocked over *one of the endless number of statuettes, heavy vases or little tables that make a regular auction shop of the place, ■and I struggled into my bath robe in a minute to go and see what it was. Dearest’s room adjoined mine and 1 listened at the door to find out.if she had been awakened, and hearing nothing from her, went on my way downstairs. 1 j I didn’t much believe it could be a burglar; I had a hazy notion that it might be one of the dogs who had gotten in there somehow. There are no end of the big brutes about the place and sometimes one gets into the house for the night in spite of Dearest. So I wasn’t in the least alarmed or apprehensive, and was just about •to lay my hand on the drawing-room folding doors, which were at the foot of the stairs, when I heard the lightest possible tread on thef stairs behind me and a soft hand clutched my arm. It was Dearest, of course. “O Freddy!” she gasped, “what is it?” “One of the dogs, I expect,” I told her. “What made you come?” "Why,” she said in an indignant little whisper, “I came after you, of course!j Do you think I’d let you go all alone?” “Why not?” I whispered. 'Tin a man. Besides, there’s nothing to be afraid of!” , 1 “O, but there is!” she assured me, “It’s burglars—l know it is! They’ve come to steal the Wyckhoff emeralds, ]I know they have!”

"Burglars nothing?” I answered “It’s one of the dogs, I say. Besides, if it were a burglar that’s all ths more reason why you should go back!” “And leave you to be killed all alone? Never!” Sometimes, I admit it with a sort ol fond regret, my wife is unreasonable “It wouldn’t help any if you were killed, too!” I told her. “Besides, you’ll catch cold. It’s chilly down here, and I want you to go back.” She caught the tone of authoi-Ry in my voice, a tone I seldom use toward her. and fell to pleading with me. “O' Freddy, can’t I stay?” she begged. “It’s so exciting! See! I’ve brought you a pistol and here’s an umbrella for me!” She came close up to me as she spoke and the gleam ol starlight from ’he hall windows fell upon her supplicating face and the old blunderbuss she had taken down ! from some wall and carried in hei right hand, and the other weapon ol defense she had mentioned. in the other. I laughed, if one may be said tc laugh in a whisper, and hugged hei i for her spirit, armament and all. Thei > we turned to the folding doors again i Beneath them and through the cracb between a faint light showed. i “Making himself pretty much at i home for a burglar to light the lamp,” • I remember thinking. And I slowlj > and cautiously widened the aforesaid > crack until a space of some two <n three inches wide was obtained, th« > doors rolling back softly on each side . without any noise at all. Then we looked in, my wife making it possible for us to do this at one and the same time by kneeling on the floor at my i side, and thus obtaining a chink te ; look through all to herself. ■ It was lucky she was so near the floor, I thought afterward, or she [ would certainly have fallen upon il with surprise when she beheld the , thing our eyes asked of us to believe ) For there at the far end of the draw i ing room dimly distinguishable by the , light of a lamp on the table, turned ■ low, was Agatha First. We recog nized her even in that light withoul fail, dressed as she had been that eve ning for dinner, and standing with his back toward us and his arm around her was a man in an attitude unmistakably lover-like and possessive. And through the hush of that late houi the low murmur of their absorbed voices penetrated the inmost recess oi our staggered consciousness. Agatha First and a man meeting in secret ai that hour! What could it mean? Who could II be? The surprise of my discovery ir the woods the day of our trip to North bury was as nothing to this! Bui alas! We knew only too well this time who the man was, and withoul requiring any further proof such as we had had on the other occasion when we had waited until the diseov ery of the checked coat before we felt sure. In this instance we neither ol us doubted for a moment the identity of Miss Endicott's companion in hei equivocal position. Freer had said good night and gone on down to the village at ten o’clock when the party had broken up. It could not be he. Then it must o) necessity be Terhune. Indeed, whai other man would have the opportu nity for such a meeting? Who else was staying at the castle? (TO BE CONTINUED.) Art Leads Language and Science. The fact is that art is working far ahead of language as well as of science, realizing for us, by all manner ol suggestions and exaggerations, effects for which as yet we have no name; nay, for which we may never perhaps have a direct name, for the reason that these effects do not enter very largely into the necessities of life. Hence alone Is that suspicion of vagueness that often hangs about the purpose ot a romance; it is clear enough to us In thought; but we are not used to consider anything clear until we are able to formulate it in words, and analytical language has not been sufficiently shaped to that end. ... It is not that there is anything blurred or indefinite in the impression left with us, it ia just because the impression is so very definite after its own kind, that we find it hp.rd to fit it exactly with the expressions of our philosophical speech.—Robert Louis Stevenson. A Sparkling Novelist. A New York editor, at the Century club, told a story about Robert W Chambers, the well-known young novelist “Chambers went one summer,” he said, “to Sunapee with his brother. At the Ben Mere Inn the aristicratic old ladies in rocking chairs, seated on the cool piazza that overlooks the lake, were very much stirred up by Mr. Chambers’ arrival. Whenever he appeared they gathered about him and talked books. “Chambers was always ready foi them. He had always on his lips some witty saying to double them up. “ ’Oh, Mr. Chambers,’ cried an old lady one day, ‘I admire “Lorraine” so much! I’ve read it eight times!’ “ ‘Madam,’ answered Chambers, with a bow, ‘I would rather hear you say you’d bought eight copies.’ ” His Literal Answer. In all policies of insurance these, among a host of other questions, occur: “Age of father, if living?” “Age of mother, living?" A man tn the country who filled up an application made his father’s age, “if living," one hundred and twelve years, and his mother’s one hundred and two. The agent was amazed at this, and fancied he had secured an excellent customer; but, feeling somewhat dubious, he remarked that the applicant came of a very long-lived, family. “Oh, you see, sir," replied he, “my parents diied many years ago, but, ‘if livina’ would be aged as there put down.” “Exactly I understand.” said the agent.

CAP and BELLS MAN DISSIPATED TOO MUCH Indulges in Soda, “Penny Dip” at Church Social and Stayed Out Until Nine O’clock. “Yes, I’m dissipating too much,” laid the red-faced rustic, as he rubbed his head despondently. “Dissipating?” gasped his friend. “That’s the word I used. You’ve heard that expression about ‘burning the candle at both ends?’ Well, that’s my case exactly. To tell the truth, I have been having too gay a time. Last night I went down to the Blue Moon and drank a soda. Then some traveling man offered ma a cigar. Os course I had to take it.” “You don’t mean it?” “I mean just what I say. Then I bought a ham sandwich. I ate it and actually forgot myself and took another. On my way home I dropped into the church social for a few minutes. Some of the young ladies made me try the ‘penny-er.p,’ and I drew a blank.” “Such extravagance!’’ “That’s exactly it. Extravagance I and dissipation will kill me. It was nine o'clock before I reactwi home.” “Nine o’clock!” “Yes. I must be sow*vg my wild oats. Well, I’ve finished now. Night before last I called on my girl. She wouldn’t let me leave until I had taken her out and bought chocolate creams. Talk about pleasure hunting! I’m simply worn out after these nights of wasteful debauchery.” Why He Didn’t Dare. The pretty sales girl in the department store was standing before a mirror. “There,” she said as she wiped a tiny smudge of soot from her cheek, “my face is all right again.” The solemn looking floorwalker overheard her. “I see it is, Miss Pearl,” he s>id, In a low tone, “and'it's very tempting, blit some of the other girls are looki ig this way.” “You wretch!” An Uncharitable Division. “Teacher said charity begins at home. Do you know what that means, mamma?” “Yes.” * ‘Did you know it means that Aunt Jane is a wicked lady?” “Why, Georgie!” “Yes, it does. Aunt Jane has got a bucketful of hair an’ three switches —an’ Uncle Jim is most as bald as an egg.” SURE THING. w Bi fl First Scissors Grinder —How’s business? » Second Scissors Grinder —Dull. Wrong Diagnosis. “There goes a girl,” remarked the candy drummer, “who looks like she might lead a man heavenward.” “You’re entitled to another guess,” replied the grocery clerk. “Her specialty is steering a man up against an oyster dispensary. See T’ Get an Order. “Did you call on Mrs. Styles T’ asked the manager of the girl solicitor. “Yes,” replied the girl. “And did you get an order?” “Yes, she ordered me out of the house!” —Yonkers Statesman. All the Style. “That dressmaker you recommended me to go to is really soaring in her prices.” “I know she is. I believe she must be trying for the altitude prise.” About Due. “Something on your mind, I see.” "Yee; isn’t it about time to be getting up a benefit for King Manuel F*

AMUSING ROW OVER WINDOW Jones Was Perfectly Wlilifig id Accomodate Fellow Passenger, Cut Couldn’t Do It. Brown to Jones (sitting by open window in a railway carriage)—Excuse me, sir, but that open window Is very annoying. Jones pleasantly)—l’m sorry, but I’m afraid you will have to grfn and bear it. Brown —I wish you “would close it. sir. Jones —Would like to accomodate you, but I can’t Brown —Do you refuse to close that window, sir? Jones- —I certainly do. Brown —If you don’t close it, I will. Jones—l’ll bet you won’t. Brown—ls Igo over there I will. Jones —I’ll give you odds you won’t. Brown —I ask you once more, sir, will you close that window? Jones —No, sir, I will not. Brown (getting to his feet) —Then 1 will, sir. , Jones —1 should like to see you do it Brown (placing his hands on the objectionable window) —I’ll show you whether I will or not, sir. Jones (as Brown tugs at the vrtn-dow)—-Why don’t you close it? Brown (getting red in the face) —I can’t; it —it appears to be stuck. Jones —Os course It !s. I tried to close .it before you came in. COULD BEAT IT. Passenger—Say, is this the fastest you go? Conductor—Yes; if you don’t like il you can get, out and walk. Passenger—l ain’t in such a bij; hurry as ’ ’ v . Ba -Careful of Baby. Bacon—A Philadelphia doctor has advanced the theory that left-handed-ness is caused by persons being carried in infancy in such positions that they are unable to move their right arms freely. Egbert—Well, a father should never hold his baby boy in such away that the kid can’t bang pop with tris right hand in the left ear if he wanta to. —Yonkers Statesman. No Cause for Gloating. ’ “I suppose you’ve heard that I’m to marry Mr. Green,” she said to one ol her old friends. “No,” he replied, coldly. “You don’t seem to be very enthu siastic about it.” “Why should I be? Not knowing Mr, Green, I haven’t any grudge against him.’—Catholic Standard and Times. Appreciative. “It has been said,” remarked th« Englishman, “that the American peo pie like to be humbugged.” “There is no truth in the assertion,’ replied the American. “We dislike the idea of being handed the short end ol it, but when we find anyone smart enough to do it we just can’t help taking off our hats to him.” A Knock. Goodley—They’re in reduced circumstances, of course; but their family is a very old one and proud, even if they have lots of debts. They date back to the earliest colonial times— Cutting—The debts, you mean? 1 don’t doubt that.—Catholic Standard and Times. The Reason. "I met Flossie McCracken on Main street today.” “What did she have on?” “A hobble gown, and she neither noticed nor spoke to me.” “She was probably afraid that if she did she would fall down.” One of His Worst. The professor did not like the looks of any of the fish, and the prices were absurdly high. “I can’t even get a squared eel here,” he said, passing on to the next place. Hooted, but Not Landed. “Bellatrix, are you ever goim? to give me a chance to tell you—” “To tell me what, Regulus?” “Good night; you know we’ve been trying to say it for the last 15 minutes.” The Supreme Test “Has Will made a success of his college course?” “I should say so. He has gone through every football game without being in the hospital once.”

fORIMPre Plan for Retirement Now Being Worked Out by Board. Retiring Fund Suggested Which Is in Effect a Compulsory Saving Scheme—Mail Cost to Roads Being Investigated. Washington.—lt looks as if the government would make a desperate, if not a final effort at this session of congress to have passed some kind of bill tor the retirement of aged civil service employes. Economy and improvement I boards have been holding almost daily i meetings. The presence in every department of scores of men and women sixty, seventy and eighty years old, has been a great obstacle to the adoption of the progressive plans which the investigators are working on.. Not all these aged clerks are inefficient, to be sure, but as a rule a person’s abilities do not expand much after the age of sixty, and it Is a fact that hundreds of venerable men and women are carried on the pay rolls who not only are worth nothing, but are a positive detriment to the service. How to get rid of them without causing hardship is a very serious problem and one to which the best brains in the departments and in congress are giving attention. Merritt C. Chance, auditor for the I post office department, has touched on ) this important problem in his annual i report and has helped to put the subject into concrete shape for discussion by recommending with a trifling amendment, the passage of the bill Introduced last April in the house by Frederick C. Gillett of Massachusetts, and in the senate by Mr. Perkins of California. This bill makes provision ) for retiring civil employes on annuities purchased by themselves by means jof monthly deductions in salaries. It Is in effect a compulsory saving scheme, the government merely to stand back of it by guaranteeing a rate of interest at per cent,, ta- ) king care of the small expense of administration and providing the annuities for services rendered up to the passage of the bill. The annuity would be payable quarterly throughout life and would be equal to 1% per cent, of the annual salary for every full year of service or major fraction thereof between the date of the passage of the act and the arrival of the employe at the age of retirement. The bill divides the employes, for retirement purposes, into three groups, two of sixtyfive years and one of seventy years each. It empowers the president to designate the branches of the service to be included in each group. The bill permits employment after reaching the age of retirement, but provides for a deduction of ten per cent, of the pay, the same to be treated as a savings account and interest paid thereon and returned to the employe when he leaves the service. Three option* are allowed on retirement: The first an annuity payable quarterly throughout life, thp second the same, with the provision that in case of the death of the annuitant before he has received in annuities the amount of his,, savings with interest, the balance shall be paid to hie legal heirs, and the third that he may draw his money in a lump sum. If, after retirement, the employe does not avail hemself of one of the foregoing options, but leaves the amount due him on deposit, interest at the rate of two per cent, on the original sum left on deposit shall be credited for 20 years. If the money is not- then withdrawn, it goes to the treasury. Mr. Chance suggests as an amendment ‘ that the retirement pay of honorably discharged veterans pf the Mexican and Civil wars shall be not less than 50 per cent, of the average annual compensation during the entire period of employment in the civil service. The auditor says this plan, compared with a straight civil pension paid out of the federal treasury, presents many advantages both for the government and for the employes. Simple and Businesslike. Mr. Chance, himself, in a report to the secretary of the treasury, made last February, showed how relatively simple and businesslike th* civil service retirement idea is if the govern- ) ment would get down to brass tacks ) and put it into operation. He showed ) that in his own office, where more i than 700 persons are employed, there were 42 persons, seventy years of age and over, receiving salaries aggregating $54,580. Three of these persons were more than eighty years and ten were over seventy-five. The average age, in fact, was seventy-three and two-thirds years and the average salary $1,300. Under the Gillett bill these 42 employes would receive annuities aggre- i gating $27,096. Mr. Chance recommended that without changing his appropriation at all a proviso be addedauthorizing the secretary of the treasury to retire all clerks who are seventy years or over and who served under the civil service on an annuity equal to 1% per cent, of the annual pay multiplied by the number of years of service. This would give a total annuift of $27,096. He then proposed I that the difference, $27,484 be used for j the employment of clerks selected ; from the civil service registers to fill I their places. He suggested also that I inasmuch as the annuities would range in amount from under S2OO to over $1,200, modification might be made fixing the minimum at $240 and the maximum at S6OO, as the periods of service

— < , - range from five yeSrsl to years. The aggregate sum to be paid i these limitations would leave $33,54$ available for employment of persons who would take the places of ths clerks retired. This sum would ba enough to erjploy almost as njany clerks as would be retired, if the salaries were fixed at the lower grades, that is SI,OOO and $1,200. However, to prevent any reduction in the higher clerical grades and consequent overpopulation of the lower clerical grades, Mr. Chance suggested a provision in the law directing that the relative ratio of the several clerical grades should be maintained. Here was a proposition which involved no increase of appropriation, no undue hardship to the government clerk and would have more than doubled the efficiency in the office. Senator Hale of Maine vetoed the idea, as he has every other looking to the benefit of the government clerk, and » the plan was abandoned. The. same system could be pursued no doubt in every other department of the government. In fact, investigation disclosed another division in the same building where conditions were worse and better results could have been gained than in the auditor’s division. In The past the civil service retirement idea Jias suffered in the halls and committee rooms of congress because evidence has been adduced to show that the annuity plan would really be a money maker for the government instead of a loser. Many congressmen have declared their opposition to any scheme of retirement that would cost the government money, but they never have been shown that, while spending money at first to aid the scheme the government really would be saying as much if not more than it put out) Data covering this point are now being compijed by de- , partment committees and the account- ' ants who have been called In to sug- . gest administrative reforms, and when • the matter comes up again the statasi men will be shown that civil service ; retirement, conceived and executed on ; the right lines, means economy ami ! not extravagance. ,-■— o • » Studying Mail-Carrying. Postmaster General o Hitchcock is engaged in an effort to find out to the ‘ last cent how much it actually costs the railroads of the United States to ) carry the mails. -Mr. Hitchcock wants to cut further his-department deficit. When the postmaster general gets his information it may be that means will be found to save the people of the ■ country a large sum of money, and that they will get the benefit of it through reduced postage rates, an extension of the rural route service or -1 through something more profitable to ' the purse and the convenience of the American citizen. The department employes, under the direction of the chief, are engaged in the giant task of finding out definitely how much it costs the railroads to carry the mails and whether or not they are making the enormous profits that have been more than hinted at in congress and elsewhere. The magnitude of the work in hand may be known when it is said that a large part of the« clerical force of the service is engaged in it. The returns which the railroads make to the interstate commerce commission are under study, and to these haVe been added reports direct from the railroads to the department. More than this, the entire inspector force of the service is lending its aid to enable the officials to get figures which they can be sure are right. The country has been divided ipto zones, and each one is considered separately. It is more costly to carry the mail in some places than it is in other places, and all this has to be taken into consideration. Before the department gets through with its work it will show what part of the expense of operating the railroads falls to the passenger service, what part to freight service, what part to express service and what part to the mail service. Admittedly, the problem to be solved is as hard a thing as ever came out of analytical geometry. It has been-charged in congress and in the press frequently that the railroads were making too much money out of their contracts for carrying the mails. There have been frequent attempts in the past to find just how much it did cost, but there was lack of proper Information. Today the post office department Is iat the work in earnest. It may ba ) that it will find that the railroads have . not been overpaid for the carrying I service, and it may be also that it will be found that the profit is so great that the carriers must be forced tq share all but ‘‘a reasonable part of it” with the people. The passage of laws in the last four or five years which give easier access to the records pf corporations has made it somewhat easier than it was in the past for the department to get at facts which are of service in this work. If the present investigation shows that the government can save mone? on its mail-carrying contracts, the money is going to be saved, if the r& ports of the present department ofi ficials have any weight. It is not at ail unlikely, however, that one-cent postage will come as a result of the saving, if saving there be, but it will be something If the de- ! partment deficit cap be decreased a j few more millions, and it will be i something more if it can be decreased | to the vanishing point. The Main Lera. “Did the specialists remove anything when they operated on Millyuns?" “Oh, yes. About half of his Income.