es = Bellefonte, Pa., August 16, 1912. NATURE STUDY. Bad an’ wicked as he can be! W'en he finds Little Girls he'll eather Don't matter where "bouts she is, you see, Nice little girls like you an’ me! Ole Pa Skeeter's got so many childrens He can’t buy "um enough to eat. All he looks out for's th’ meat an’ "taters, They must hunt ‘round for w'at is sweet. (Wonder w'y they turned down our street!) Wen Little Girls is plump an’ rosy Ole Skeeter, he'll take a great big bite! 1 told my Grampa all about it, Grampa, he doesn't think it's right! (But he can't blame him a single mite.) That's w'y I took mv stick of candy, Red an’ white striped, to bed wif me, 'Cause if th’ Skeeter’s got such a sweet toof He'll like my candy better, you see. (There's where my Grampa an’ 1 don't 'gree,) Soon as th’ Flies start for th’ sea-shore, Old Pa Skeeter packs up to go, He mus’ live up to his reputation, Folks will be 'specting him too, you know. (Pa “might have known it would be jus’ so!") That's w'y they buyed th’ skeeter-netting, “So's we will have some peace,” they said, Won't have to call out no rude things at him, After the Evening Prayers gets read, Won't have to “wish they could smash his head!" My Grampa “wish't he'd get down to bus’ness *Thout a-singing his little songs,” Soon as you clap your hand down on him, W'y won't he be where he belongs? He thinks we're 'plauding him an’ nen— He sings th’ chorus all over again! Marie Louise Tompkins. OLD FERGY’S FINE PULL. “Old Fergy” was a gigantic Texas steer that belonged on Ferguson's ranch, but spent most of his time in roaming about other ranches. As he was energetic, vicious and tough, he was the nuisance of the neighborhood. Yet his splendid figure and the sovereign dignity of his 1 ce secured to him a kind of king. and forgiveness for most of his In bulk his equal was not to be found among the ranches; his great breadth of neck and,massive head made him look majestic; and his mighty horns, measur- ing seven feet from tip to tip, ran out and up in beautiful curves. These unusual attractions saved his life during the two years of his sojourn in that neighborhood. Colonel Ferguson wished to hold so fine a specimen of his other cattle. And the same qualities which fascinated the colonal saved Fergy from the ill usage to which any common steer of so impudent a nature would have been subjected. As no one would shoot Fergy his evil habits grew on him so that he became a confirmed pest. He would visit any place that pleased him, since the different kinds of fencing were no obstacle to him. A rail fence nine feet in height he would simply brush aside with his enormous His prodigious strength enabled him to put down any interfering barbed wire, When the obstruction was of this kind he would calmly place his forehead against a supporter, push two or three spans of fence to the ground, and then carefully over the other side. Clear- ly he had some brains, certainly enough to be thorough in his mischief. As F n's ranch adjoined the “Cross S,” orgy jound our corrals quite convenient to visit, and put us to annoy- ance more than he put any other people. Notwithstanding this, Buck Jennings, our foreman, who easily became exasperated over smaller things, was very tolerant to the mischievous steer. Pete Burrows, too, reticent, unsociable cowboy, of wonder- ful expertness with the lasso, was strange- ly indulgent toward Fergy; and the rea- son for this softness of Buck and Pete I shall shortly lain. One murky afternoon, late in the au- tumn of Fergy's first year on the Fergu- son range, Buck received a notice from a friend at Fort Reno that a drove of fifty steers, bearing the "Cross S” brand, was running loose in the valley of Deer Creek, and causing a great deal of trouble to the ranchmen of that Seis, “If you will call to see me I will tell you + how to recover the stock,” wrote Buck's Buck was delighted. One month ear- lier just fifty head had in some way avoid: ed fall round-up, and he had believed them stolen. He was, therefore, glad to learn that not only were they still roam- ing that range, but that their brands re- mained unaltered. Buck was quick in action at all times, he saw no reason against starting at once to Fort Renc. Al the message reached him just before nightfall and a blackness ve was over- he ordered Pete to his e, and out of the stable-yards at an gallop. The sky had become much ; there was a scent of moisture in the air, and it was obvious that a rain. storm would soon come. The prospect caused them little uneasiness, as th were sure of securing shelter at T Creek a narrow prairie stream which they would cross at a spot five miles to the west. This creek runs through the middle of a canyon, on the banks of which there is _ a scant growth of bushes and an occas- ional cottonwood. At the junction with | seconds the a large knoll. . On the top of this knoll stood a little cabin of logs and sods which had shelter- ed the foreman and Pete on several oc- casions. It was placed so much above the creek as to seem safe from any pos- . Yet it was so much of the main bank that cabin well from strong = +H f : : : : a warm mist of i i E E : i 51 g g 2% ii #18 : if +H i i : i g i ; | 3 | : | § | i 0 k 1 5 ® § E i - along Trail Creek remem the remarkable local flood which fell dur- Hg the fall of 1890, people besides Pet have special cause for retaining it in their memory. “What wakened me,” Jennings after- ward said, “was a dream of stampeding i f and all of them and the earth shaking as they came. 1 sat up wonder- ing, listened a few seconds, and got wide- awake, and what had happened. Pete was still asleep. As I jomped up] waked him, and together we went to door of the hut. “It was daylight, but the sun wasn't up, or if it was we couldn't see it for the thickness of the air. It wasn’t what 'd call a fog, but the air was thick- from rain of the night. And such a rain! I don't see how we managed to sleep thro! it—it must have poured in sheets for hours. It had drowned the creek. There wasn't any creek left— what we saw in place of it was a roaring river with two and one of them about twenty yards wide was between us and our horses. “The water had jumped up more than fifty feet in the night. It had made our knoll an island. A wide rapid that must have been sixty feet was on this side of us where the had been,away down below the hut. And on the other side rushed a narrow rapid that must have been ten or fifteen feet deep al- “The water was climbing fast, though the rain had stopped. It was plain that a little more rise would sweep away the cabin. The flood was within a foot of the door-sill already; and it was plain as | Proved day that the hut must soon go whirling away as rapidly as the brush and small stuf! that went tearing past us. “The worst noise was not close to us. From down the canyon we could hear a most frightful roaring, and well we knew what it meant. There, where the deep ravine turned sharp to the north, its bot- tom jumped down about ninety feet ina hundred yards or so, and at that place there wae, in any sort of high water, a most tremendous fall. We knew that, with the creek higher than it had ever been before, there must be aplinge down there that would scare any living thing, for the fall would be tearing in our place through a regular forest of big cotton- woods on the side of the canyon. “There was no escape that we could see. Swimming across the twenty yards to the bluff was out of the question, though we agreed we could do it if it proba wasn’t for the way the bank was made. te us it sloped up pretty easy, and so it did for maybe thirty yards down to- ward the falls. But at about thirty yards down-stream the slope stopped and a cliff began. There would be no clutch- ing any hold there, and it was certain that the current would sweep swimmers far down stream before they could reach shore. In fact, to try to swim would to go over the big falls sure, “There wasn't a thing to do but just to wait. Now I tell you it is the hardest Hung ever a man did—that wait for death. But it was the only sensible thing to do. There was a bare chance that the water might not rise enough to sweep away the cabin; and it was business to wait and see. But as the stream kept coming 3p and up, until there wasn't three yards of ground in breadth, or six inches of ground in di between us and the ood, Pete and I began to wish for the end of the waiting and the beginning of the swimming—for then we should at least be fighting for our lives. “Over the top of the sloping bank op- posite us we could see the wet heads of our picketed broncos. I remember Pete grinning as he said, ‘1 never wished I the big head of Old Fergy; nobody could mistake those trem us curving horns. Rergy a cay) w inspect Pi one e rain, [I guess. y other time he'd have tried to start a row with the broncos. Instead of that he came slowly on staring t at this cabin, down the slope solemn asa : g : $ : £ i 8 a es our cabin then. “Well, sir, Fergy hadn't fairly consider the situation when f fhe il : strong, or else it would have broken with F s first ugly rush. “But he to slacken his strength could not pull that current at faster than a And we could not haye our if he had not slowed up. course he was an angry steer, but he had to move as slowly as if he had been hitched to a plow. “Of course, even at that pace, slow for F , we seemed going at a fearful i 8 ber | but they rim—. of the big drift-stuff was going down the main stream. “I was just Winking that my strength was gone and that the lariat must be pulled through mf fingers, when my chest struck Aguinet something. With a last desperate impulse I clung to the lariat, and the next instant had to let But that was because I had been uled almost completely out of water. Our shoulders were on the slope. All that Pete and I had to do was get up and walk to our broncos. “As for Fergy, he started for his own ranch as fast as his legs would carry him, and we had to follow him a good distance before Pete could stop him and get his lariat. “While we were taking the noose from the steer’'s horns we told him he would be a ‘boss’ performer in a tug of war, and assured him that we were grate- ful for his help and would always be his friends. He didn't seem to be pleased one bit at the time, but I've often thought since that he understood us perfectly, as he has constantly been imposing on our friendship from that day to this."— Youth's Companion. Palm Trees Today. Centuries have rolled by since our Saviour rode into Jerusalem with the * . : rep Tiutudes S89 oing op Setore We, Sing nia or of any other American State, for down from REawig thei in the way. “And the multi that went before, and that followed, cried, saying: Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that com- eth in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.” He rode thitherward over the western end of the now greatly im- road which travelers traverse in riding or driving up from Jericho to Jeru- salem, a long way after the Good Samar- itan Inn has been and, later, Bethany, where lived Mary and Martha, and where the tomb of Lazarus is visited to this day. While some have held that Bethphage was within the walls of Jerusalem, it seems more sensible to conclude that a house, a quarter or street which led out to Bethphage was thus named, and that the real Bethphage was at the foot of the Mount of Olives, which is a mile east of Jerusem, across the Valley of Jehosa- phat. And it even is not known for certain that Bethphage was a village. It means House of Figs, meaning either a house where this fruit was sold or the garden in which the figs were cultivated. If there was no real village, there were bly shelters for the gardeners who cultivated the fruit; and date palm trees were as plentiful as figs. Palm branches, ever emblematic of victory, were no doubt chosen for such purposes because of their great beauty and from their re- markable uprightness and their mag- nificent h t, many of them towering 100 feet upward. Smooth as the stalks look, they are usually full of rugged knots, which mark the places whence leaves, long since de- cayed, once sprang. The trunk of the palm, by the way, 1s not solid, like other trees. Its centre is filled with pith, and around this is a tough bark, which is full of strong fibres when young, but which harden as the tree grows old and be- come ligenous. By the time this palm reaches the fruit-bearing the leaves are very broad and six to eight feet in length. Gibbon says the natives have celebrated in verse and prose the 360 uses to which the trunk, branches, leaves and fruit have been put. Judea is pitied on several coins of the time of Vespasian by a disconsolate woman sitting under a palm tree. Other countries, at proud periods, have used the palm tree as a symbol. As a matter of fact, Jerusalem and the land thereabouts does not abound in | iSh—they i i 1 : : : i i : : i 7 § »g ; £ : i : gig 2 I aE, Rie 5 8 | lik iif ik i ? § g i g § i i ; i : £ : : 7 J : : 558 Bt cist 8 : HE is i i 8 . i 8 5 g | g Sg i = g 2 : 4: igs ih Hi ih i 8 3 ie g g g 1 g Sr Sg 7 Ey : FE ; % i fa ] fH 8 il 238s i : : : g Capitol is ‘Comic,’ Saye Mr. Pennell. Many felt that much of the discussion that attended the completion of the State Capitol at Harrisburg was atoned for wits the t structure was com clared the work a gem of decorative art. They will read the criticism of Joseph Pennell, who is himself a great artist and | a noted authority on matters of architec- ture, with surprise. Mr. Pennell is an American, has done much to further the aims of American ' art and was the friend of Abbey and the | her daughter of 25 or 30 ) close associate and literary executor of ; yet few women over sixty look well in Whistler. In his frankly opinion the expressed State Capitol when viewed asa great | only sta representative building is merely Soule; t —~Lime- L EI0UDS that | regan] to the harsh ines whieh they | to rome sulphur cannot be safely. used and the sweeping Barnard have such a conspicuous a main iacade are things Hat might ae coed aye ’ “| dress in this unbecoming and undignified ! style when there are so many fashions t Mr. Pennell when in the city was ac- companied by his wife, who was Miss Robins, sister of Edward Robins, secre- tary of the Board of Trustees of the Uni- | Pennsylvania. His criticism | a owed an inspecti made after his return from pleted | over to the State. They de- FOR AND ABOUT WOMEN DAILY THOUGHT. So be my passing! | My wages taken, and in my heart Some late lark singing. Let me be gathered to the quiet West, ‘The sundown splendid and serene, | Death. ically the same this youthful costume. In reality the | which t are trying so hard to hi | consequence. Colors, too, seem to be chosen with a | accentuate, and after all it seems strange | that the elderly woman should want to ‘ and colors, too, which will bring out all | the beauties of these years of bzttle with | the world, its joys and sorrows which can- not but change the countenance of a jon of the Capitol | woman whether she would have it or Panama | not. In summing up his impressions of the A woman of sixty or over should find building Mr. Pennell said Wilkes-Barre, where the mural decora- tions seem to have been done ng ice cream saloons. n the opinion of this celebrated Ameri- can authori nard and A advantage of a splendid opportunity to evolve something that might be fittingly resentative of the State of Pennsylva- that matter. The Barnard groups which occasioned so much discussion he con- siders meaningless and the arrangements for the mural decoration were so bu he says, that whatever of splendor A may projecting pediments and almost invisible. And the building as a whole is marred by architectural tricks and fads and the impressiveness that should be a part of it ed, is wholly lacking. Particularly did this impression assail Mr. Pennell at the main entrance where, he said, the vast space is cut up and divided in an incredible man- ner and marred by arrangements that look like “the hiding places of shower ths.” GROUPS "ICE CREAMISH."” Mr. Pennell attributed what he consid- ers a sorry failure throughout largely to the present weak imitation of the classics that is the aim of American art and the failure of artists and architects alike to evolve native standards as the best of the European artists are doing. “] studied Mr. Barnard's groups care- fully,” said Mr Pennell, “because I know something of the stir they created, and I am well aware that he is an able man. If these have any hidden symbolism—if they may mean anything to the people who view them studiously—I failed to see it. To me they were convention- al ladies and gentlemen without clothes, leaning against an ice cream mountain and escorted in one instance by peacocks. I cannot feel that things of this sort may fitingly represent, help or teach a State like Pennsylvania. “In this connection and for the sake of illustration let me mention the work of certain Europeans—Constantin Meunier, for instance. You see there are some artists who have seen that industry is the great and potent influence of the time and that it has, in many of its va- rious aspects, great nobility. Meunier’s freizes Pl be seen in several great Eo ropean ngs represent a phase of art as noble and as far reaching as anything ever done anywhere. id o Rembrandt that he was great because, when painting the people of his time, he was not constantly regretting that they were not Greeks. The keynote of the thing is there. In this Sonny we al- ways are painting Greeks. 's groups are impressive because of their size al they are ice cream- mean nothing. “Abby painted his mural decorations down | ithout having ever visited the building and he never saw the places where they by a man who received his training in “beautify. | the word. the architects, with Bar- , all failed utterly to take ve put into his work is hidden by he had seen | all black, soft gray and lavender the most | ti only one example of worse decoration. | becoming colors, and these shades should | yiel That, he said, was the court house at K be worn both summer and winter, with | the exception of white, which is very be- | coming to some old ladies, dare we say There is touches of lace, real lace if possible, at the throat and at the wrist. Gray over lavender is another combination which looks well on most elderly women, be their hair silver white or merely thread- ed with white. The style of dress worn by a woman past middle age ought to be in accord- ance with her years, and so short walk- ing skirts should be avoided, and those | chosen for street wear which come to . within an inch of the und, while for the house all dresses should be cut with a train. The boarding-school girl finds herself among the busiest of mortals as she sees about gathering her wardrobe during the few weeks before the opening of L If she has been away to school before, the planning of her clothes resolves itself into the restocking of her wardrobe. Fashionable schools of good standing do not countenance a pupil arriving with the trousseau of a bride or the wardrobe of a debutante. The girl who has been away to school before knows that closet space is limited and that an extensive wardrobe is distracting. She remembers the four trunks her roommate shipped westward after a conference with the preceptress. Therefore, knowing just what she needs, she sets about the choos- ing of her models, and makes her selec- fioa of materials as individual as possi- e. The Amateur Packer.—For the girl who is going away for the first time the problem is more perplexing. Undoubt- edly she must have a tailored suit. This will serve for traveling, and if the school is located in the country, as so many are nowadays, its principal use will be for visits to town. A separate, all-covering coat is a neces- sity at boarding-school. This roomy, comfortable garment is used to slip on over school frocks for the prescribed con- stitutional and for traveling in cold and stormy weather. The Suggested Wardrobe.—The loung- ing robe is a matter of importance. f | Something more formal than the bath- robe is required. Of blouses there are two distinct types —the mannish tailored model so much affected by the school girl, and the for- mal separate blouse for the tailor suit. As for frocks, the school girl needs three distinct The simple, one- e schoolroom, the after. “Some fool who ordered the inscription Now removed. It is an eyesore. It is too Anis Se Wise ib solchteL mile too large. Now a word to the *Whys?" ; HIE ig i ih g | g hd i g : | : w £ 2 i 5 £f £ § it : g g g ; i § g | ; 2 2 : : i 8 l Further question defies, When that word is a woman's “Because.” ~Judge. : fre i §s3 Th £8 g : i i i i f : § | | My task accomplished and the long day done, | The elderly woman of today dresses in le of clothes as years ago, and | FARM NOTES. —Never punish a horse for somethi he cannot help. - —If possible get rid of all hibernati and hibernated weevils. = _ —Badly-constructed stable fioors have injured more horses than hard work. _ —Cocoons and the like of pestiferous insects found on fruit and shade trees should be destroyed. —In the matter of plant food it stands ' to reason that each species would have its own characteristic way of attacking | soil ingredients even though the supply out the more prominently in | required to produce a crop may be al- most the same with a number of species. replace Bordeaux mixture in spraying | potatoes. In tests made at the State Ex- | periment station, Geneva, N. Y. the plants sprayed with lime sulphur were dwarfed by the spraying, died as soon or sooner than the check plants, and yield- | ed 40 bushels less to the acre. Bordeaux mixture in the same test increased the yield 100 bushels to the acre. {| —A test repeated for four years at the New York Agricultural Experiment sta- tion, Geneva, shows a decided gain in d by growing tomato plants from uced by crossing two varieties. | The first generation of crossed plants out- yielded the parents in every case, the av- | erage gain being about three and a half : no color so effective for the | tons of tomatoes to the acre. The ad- | silver-haired woman as lavender, with | van was greatly less in plants of the n generation and disappeared en- | tirely in subsequent tions. The station horticulturalists believe that the ! growing of this first generation crossed seed is a commercially profitable under- | taking. | —There is a great improvement in the | general character of the type of agricul- | ture practiced almost universally as the | years go by. This, without question, is the result of enlightened forethought. | The subject of diversifying crops is an ! important one that is ng considered, | and there are three principal reasons for iit. Every has its enemies, and these are apt to multiply if the land is continu- ally planted to the same crop. As a rule the enemies of one crop are not the enemies of another; but they are sometimes. The special enemies of each crop can be held in check by changing : the crop each year, even if they are not starved out altogether. Professor Carver says, according to one theory in addition to the known enemies of the different crops, such as insect Joss and the like, there is a tendency of plants as well as of animals to throw off excreta which are poisonous to themselves. Therefore, after dense crops of the same plant have been grown continuously for several years the soil becomes unhealthy for that plant, just as the conditions become unwhole- some for animals which live in crowded quarters for a long time. —According to Bulletin 97, of the Unit- ed States rtment of Agriculture, all soils are made up of varying amounts of materials having the three fundamental soil colors—white, black and red. Gray- ish colors are considered to be composed of mixtures of black and white; yellow- ish, mixtures of white and red; brown- ish, mixtures of red and black. Whitish or gray soils are not generally of much agricultural value. They usually lack organic matter and iron, and have a high content of silica and alumina. But light- colored clayey soils are generally fairly rich in potash. Yellow soils owe their color to small amounts of ferric oxide, more or less hydrated. Black soils are rich in organic matter, and frequently in lime. The color is thought to be due to black humus bodies being formed from decaying organic matter and lime. Black soils are universally esteemed highly. Of course, mechanical condition must al- so be considered. Red soils owe their color to terric oxide. The color indicates good drainage, as stagnant water would dissolve away the coloring ferric oxide. Red soils are generally older, in a geolog- ical sense, n yellow ones, and the drainage is better. —The use of commercial fertilizers has prevented the falling off in the averages of staple crops in the East, the ds of hich decreasi Jie w were ng every year. Itis almost impossible to produce sufficient manure on a farm to retain its fer- tility, and more fertilizers should be used. cannot be done too early, as it will soon be time toget the land ready for wheat. A good wheat crop largel upon The Sonn a sa oi damage t ess lial to ty to from t this process may be profit- Sou hf oui ts rope or months be- fore planting the crop. is t : i : g | 3 £ ; Hi : 3 { g 5 : i 2 a 5. 2 g 2 : | iz i g Eg : is i REF 53 EF is + | i i § § i 2 5% g a £ 5 : t ; i i i si ' 5 g g i g 1] i ; : : g : i | | i : | EES S g 2 : i i
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers