Bellefonte, Pa., January 1, 1915. IF NOBODY SHIRKED. I know not whence I came, I know not whither I go, But the fact stands clear that I am here In this world of pleasure and woe. And out of the mist and murk Another truth shines plain— It is my power each day and hour To add to its joy or its pain. I know that the earth exists, It is none of my business why; I cannot find out what it’s all about, I would but waste time to try. My life is a brief, brief thing, I ain here for a little space, And while I stay I would like, if I may, To brighten and better this place. The trouble, I think, with us all Is the lack of a high conceit. If each man thought he was sent to this spot To make it a bit more sweet, How soon we could gladden the world, How easily right all wrong, If nobody shirked, and each one worked To help his fellows along? Cease wondering why you came— Stop looking for faults and flaws; Rise up today in your pride and say. ‘I am part of the First Great Cause! However full the world, There is room for an honest man. It had need of me, for I would not be— I am here to strengthen the plan.” —Ella Wheeler Wilcox. FROM INDIA. By One on Medical Duty 1m that Far Eastern Country. Strange Sights in and Around Srine- gar. Animals, Humans and Feed all in Same Building. The Museum a Curiosity, Etc. SRINEGAR, OCTOBER 15th, 1913. Dear Home Folk: Oh! To tell you a good one about those letters. Yes, one must have got- ten into the Johnstown papers and a former patient read it, about “my hair fooling me into thinking it was a snake.” Well, she wrote and told me she had read it and was so worried, for I must be very nervous, and hadn’t I better take a tonic? I truly had a fine laugh over her interpretation of my story, and I thought it was a rather good one too. Oh me! Oh my? Have you quite re- covered from my, last two letters; they were fearfully and frightfully made and here I am starting another. I took a long walk the other night through the city and I first came to the conclusion that if one wanted to keep their ideals, it was well either to stay at home and see with other’s eyes, or else de like the “Clark” tourists; go through so fast you only see the outside of things. I walked along past all the “same old things” and came to the heart of the res- idential portion. All the places had four to five foot walls of mud, a foot thick, about them and we walked on a four foot road between these mud walls, a two foot alley-way with six foot walls would here and there lead into a door- way or be another roadway to another street. On we trudged through the three-inch dust and glancing up I was re- minded of Spanish Panama for on a bal- cony, up three stories, was a veiled wom- an peeping at us from a beautifully carv- ed screen. But the dirt of the street and of her surroundings, took away the picturesqueness. On we went for we had been told that this wandering pathway led to one of the most beautiful spots on earth, and we would fain see it. We saw the potter moulding his clay; we smelled the hor- rid odor of burning fresh clay. We saw the truck woman picking some sort of leaves from an herb already many times denuded so that now the whole garden was filled with the plants two or three feet high, with only a few leaves at the top, the stalk all bare; we saw the water- pumper irrigating these gardens by a very primitive contrivance; we saw the dress-makers sitting by the side ot the road in all the dust doing exquisite em- broidery. We saw the Punditani wom- en, (the fair skinned beauties) of this country, clad in orange yellow “kurta,” taking water in their earthen vessels from a most up-to-date hydrant, and we saw other things, all wonderfully inter- esting, but The Spot we saw not and must needs be content with the wonder- fully beautiful snow-clad and otherwise mountain peaks, all about us, and home we came. But not satisfied with this, we hired a tonga and out we drove to (Gunderbal, about twelve miles, to see what we could of the Sind Valley. It is considered one of the other beautiful valleys up here— and I wanted to see it all. True, the mountains are more rugged and wild and the valley is narrow, and there is but little cultivation so that it all seemed more unconventional. And then the cu- rious specimen of human nature that we met, for it is the highway to the further- most parts of Thibet. Men curiously dressed, looking half Chinese and half Indian. Bullocks that at first I thought must be great black bears; they had long black coats, short heavy legs and looked awkward and clumsy, while their drivers resembled nothing I have ever seen before called men. And last, but most beautiful, great hordes of Kashmir goats with’their soft, silky coats and their curled horns. Oh! I wanted to steal one but Iknew it would die in the Jhansi heat, so of course left it alone. And then we had tea under a great chenar tree and started back. On our way there we had roamed in and out and down and back, and any other word you can think of, through the city, and I SRN had wondered whether it never would ! end, but you can imagine my amaze- { ment when upon our return we came ! another way; down a narrow passage to ! a corner that looked closed, then a short, : i sharp turn and up another dark place, the houses meeting over our heads, the | passers crushing themselves against the house wall to avoid our wheels, and on and on, through bazaars, where a slow | walk or a full stop was made to allow | the fruit venders with their wares to get off the narrow streets and for two hours we drove thus, and each turn was more worth while than the last one, and I was glad, glad, that the driver was a novice and did not know any short cut home. The houses were, for the most part, well and solidly built, the lower story be- ing well coated with mud, while the up- | per two are of brick, plain. The top : floor in these city affairs have usually the i little balcony and have beautifully carv- | ed wood furnishings. These three-storied | houses in the country, perhaps I have , told you, have the animals on the first floor, the humans on the second and the | winter provision for both on the third. | And could you see the drying now going | on—red peppers by the millions, tied | everywhere, apples, quinces, tomatoes, egg-plants, spinach, pumpkins, grapes, and everything you can think of drying in the sun for this winter's use, and sol! know this upper story will be well filled. : And then we got home, cold and tired and ready to fight with the stable- | man for sending such a know-nothing | with us, but a good dinner restored our spirits and so we laughed instead. I! have gotten two “fire baskets” to bring | along home; they are not patterns for the “basket-shop” but are indeed curios- ities. And yet, let me just tell you here, I saw a basket the other day in the mu- seum here that I wished I might steal; I never saw a more beautifully shaped thing or more delicate work, not color- ed, just natural grass, but it belonged to | the Maharaja, so I kept hands off. The museum here is big and interest- ing for such a small country and I was | introduced to it thus: “Wouldn't I like ! to see the place they kept the animals— ! all kinds,” and I said, “Oh! the zoolog- | ical garden, why ves, sure,” and so the boatman started off with us and we came ! to a very well built. small, one-storied, brick building and pointing to it said, “there,” and out we got. I felt sure the | building was but the gateway to the gar- | den behind, but walking up the flower- | bordered pathway, a sign pointed into the buiding and wonderingly I went in | to find—a lot of dead adimals. I always ' did dislike dead animals—unless on the | | dining table, and I made haste to do the | record-breaking sight-seeing and then | on to the next place where I saw shawls worth $2,000, wood-carving like frost work, old weapons, so odd I did not even | try to imagine their use; Hindu Gods— so horrible and fantastic the producer must have been in the throes of a most | hideous “nightmare” when he made | them; coins, paper-mache work so ex- | quisite you thought it must be inlaid work; metals, nearly all you can find in: America—and all from thislittle country. But a strange custom I have just heard ! of, and it is this: The Maharaja is a | Hindu and of course allows no cow or! beef to be killed and yet we see many, many loads of hides going out so we in- quired where they got them and were told the Mohammedan farmer keeps his cows and bullocks and then he poisons them with some stuff that don’t hurt the meat, and the poor animals die. Of ccurse, it was either “an accident” or simply, “a sick cow died;” the people eat the meat and the hide we see going out on a coolie’s back. (Continued next week.) How Insects Breathe. While mammals have lungs and fishes gills, insects have neither one nor the other. Instead they present a complex system of tubes running throughout the length of their bodies, whereby the air is conveyed to every part of the system. To guard insects against collapse from pressure of air, Nature has furnished the little creatures with a fine thread run- ning spirally within the walls of the tube, just as a garden hose is protected with wire. Many flies live first in water is larvae. Arranged along each side of their bodies is a series of exceedingly thin plates, into each of which runs a series of blood-ves- sels. These plates are placed to absorb the oxygen contained in the water. The tail ends in three teath- er-like projects, and by means of these the larvae cause currents of water to flow over the gills and thus their effi- ciency is increased. Gnats also exist in the water as larva. But they have no gills. Their breathing is accomplished by means of a tube sit- uated at the tip of the tail. The larvae floats along head downward in the water with this tube just above the surface so that the creature may breathe. In a dark night a traveler gropes his way along a familiar path, slowly and doubtfully. Suddenly a blaze of lightning shows him that he is on the brink of a precipice, having wandered in the dark- ness from the familiar road. What that blaze of lightning is to the eye, Dr. Pierce’s Common Sense Medical Adviser is to the mind; a revelation of unknown dangers and unappreciated perils. This great work on biology, physiology and hygiene is sent free on receipt of stamps to pay expense of mailing only. Send 21 one-cent stamps for the paper covered book or 31 stamps for cloth binding. Address Dr. V. M. Pierce, Buffalo, N. Y. Virtue In Self-Denial. Begin by denying yourseif, and by and by you forget yourself. The kind- ness which was at first just a duty be- comes a pleasure and a joy. Self-de- nial becomes glorified into self-forget- fulness.—Brooke Herford. BUILD JAW OF SILVER WIRE Philadelphia Surgeon Suggests Opera- tion That Will Replace Loss ¢7 Bone. Surgeons and medical students at- tending Jefferson Medical College and Hospital discussed with great interest a remarkable operation suggested hy a leading surgeon at =a clinic on Wednesday in which an artificial jaw. made of silver wire, shall take the place of one whose entire removal is made necessary because of infection or death to the bone. ‘Removal of the jaw sometimes is necessary if the life of a patient is to - be saved. It always results in great disfigurement, as well as serious inter- ference with swallowing and speech. A surgeon attached to the hospital said the suggestion of using silver wire for building up an artificial jaw was an idea worth the most serious attention. He added: “Under certain cirumstances we can remove the jaw, but leave the peri- osteum and muscle attachments. This new idea is then to take silver wire, twist it into the proper shape, and cover it with the periosteum. Under | good conditions I have no doubt that there soon will begin a process of bone growth from the periosteum, which will form over the silver wire model, which will act as a scaffoid for the new bone growth. After a time we can begin to remove small sec- tions of the silver wire as the new jaw grows stronger. The regenera- tion taking place from the periosteum should, according to all surgeons can surmise, form quite a good new jaw.” —Philadelphia Public Ledger. NEW INDUSTRY FOR AMERICA Plant That Will Manufacture Gum Camphor Is to Be Installed in Philadelphia. The American Camphor corporation, ' Incorporated for the manufacture of gum camphor, has taken the building on the southeast corner of Lehigh avenue and Edgemont street, which is being fittea as the pioneer plant in the manufacture of this product in the United States, remarks the Phila- i delphia Ledger. While its product will be available for pharmaceutical purposes, the cor- poration purposes catering to manu- facturers of celluloid, who take about cighty per cent of the gum camphor imported into this country. Equipment for giving the factory an output of 25,000 pounds a day will be installed in a few weeks, and by mid- winter the plant is to be in complete operation, consuming daily 3,200 pounds of turpentine, the base of synthetic camphor. As a by-product, the company will have a daily produc- tion of about five tons of glauber salts, which enters into the manufac- ture of dyes. This country’s consumption of cam- phor is estimated at 12,500 pounds a | | day, of which the Philadelphia factory, ! when running full, can, it is said, sup- ply about twenty per cent. A Patriotic Ship Owner. We can now ship hosts of troops with the greatest ease from all parts of the empire to the scene of warfare, ! yet in December, 1854, when Napoleon | [II offered to send re-enforcements cf 20,000 men to the Crimea, if we would | convey them, the government was on the point of declining, on the ground that no transports were available for such work. It was eventually decided to ask some of the great steamship companies for assistance, and at the next. cabinet Sir James Graham an- nounced that this had been done. “Mr. Cunard,” he added, “can provide im- mediate transports for 8,000 men, leaving the question of payment to be settled subsequently by arbitration.” “What is Mr. Cunard’s Christian name?” asked Palmerston. “Samuel,” replied Graham. “Sir Samuel,” said Palmerston, with emphasis on the “Sir.” And at the close of the war the shipowner was created a baronet. —London Chronicle: Cupid Versus Cash. While making his midnight collec- tion a Wayne avenue letter carrier was greatly mystified recently when he discovered a new ten-dollar bill (fing loose among the mail matter in the box. As even Santa Claus would hardly remember him in such an in- formal fashion, the carrier turned in the money at the Chelten avenue pest office the same night. Early next morning a greatly agi- tated young lady appeared at the of- fice and explained that she had sta:t- ed out to mail a letter and pay the druggist’s monthly account the eve- ning previous. On the corner she hzd met an acquaintance (here she blushed) and while engaged in ccn- versation had absent-mindedly mailad the banknote instead of her letter.—- Philadelphia Record. Done by the Types. Newspaper compositors and men who edit copy, no matter how eagle- eyed they may be, sometimes allow errors to get by that are either laugh- able or humiliating. The Chicago Tribune, in reporting a political meet- ing, said that the vast audience rent the aid with their snouts. Another Chicago paper reported that the pro- peller Alaska was leaving port with a cargo of 40,000 bushels of cats. A Buffalo paper, in describing the scene when Roosevelt took the oath of of- fice as president, said it was a spee- tacle never to be forgotten when Roosevelt, before the chief justice of Supreme court and a few witnesses, took his simple bath.—Philadelphia Public Ledger. (Copyright, by W. G. Chapman.) Sinner & Thary lrimg Greene OHN HARDING was not a mild man, neither was he inclined to be super- stitious. As a rule he had small belief in signs, presentiments or hunches, but just now all this was different. For he had seen certain signs that one of his; shoats had been stolen; had a pre- sentiment that a certain unworthy known as ‘“‘Shiftless Joe” had done the foul deed, and possessed a hunch that he was about to horsewhip Joe until he outsquealed any pig critter that was ever lifted over a fence on a; moonless night. So, being a man of] deeds as well as thoughts, he took down his trusty bull whip and started, swampward towards the abode of his victim to be. Now Shiftless Joe was not reckoned among the 400 of john Harding's com- ! munity, and when one is told that’ there were but 400 people in that dis- | trict he will understand that the state- | ment has a well-defined meaning. He lived alone at the edge of the big ! swamp, fishing in summer when it was not too hot; trapping in winter | when it was not too cold; sleeping and loafing the year around, he was avoid- ' ed by the entire hard-working, hard- praying settlement. It was a long tramp from the home of Harding to the miserable cabin of the trapper, and by the time the for- mer had arrived there his righteous wrath against the slothful sinful be- ing whom he sought was grim and un- relenting. prayer; but ye have made it a den of thieves,” he quoted sternly. Then he raised his fist and smote upon the wretched door such a blow as Moses of old might have struck when he split, the rock and bade the waters gush forth. From within a squeaky, rat- like voice bade him enter, and through the narrow doorway he crowded. He glanced around the cluttered: place. From one corner a thin, weasel-| like figure arose and stood cringing before the mighty one, fear thickly: spreading his face as he noted thei formidable whip tightly clutched in, the equally formidable hand. “Good, morning, Mr. Harding. Happy New! Year,” he said, fawningly. “It is a bad morning for you, and it is going to be an unhappy beginning of the New Year,” he retorted. ‘‘Steal my shoat, will you!” The smaller man threw up his hands with a protesting gesture as quick denial leaped to his lips. But Harding silenced him with a roar. “Don’t add lying to your thievery, you sheep-killing cur. One false word. from your lips and your punishment ~ “My house is the house of | shall be doubled. You thought you were cunning, but in several places I found the mark of that club foot of yours while you were making off with my good pork. Now what have you to say?” “Nothing, except that I did not steal —"” As a bear strikes, so did the heavy arm of the invader shoot out, the hand gripping the thin shoulder like a trap. “I warned you if you lied your pun- ishment.should be doubled. Has not the good Lord commanded ‘Thou shalt not steal?” Thank your stars that you did not live in those days, for you would have been stoned to death. Rather, bless your luck that you have fallen into the hands of a compassion- ate man.” With a hiss the lash fell and a shuddering scream burst from the lips of the cringing one. at last released from the iron grip, Joe fell limply upon the frozen ground. Sternly gazinz down upon his victim for a moment, Harding turned away. “It was the just punishment of a rogue by a just man,” he muttered to his conscience. From a shapeless, writhing heap the fallen one arose, his small eyes glint- ing with the deadly glare of a prodded serpent. “Whip me, you black devil— you usurer—you forecloser of widow’s mortgages—you dodger of taxes—you —you—" The voice rose to an inar- ticulate scream of rage. “By the Eter- nal, I'll kill you for that—yes, murder you in cold blood.” Then the first = => = 4 TS 1 “ll Kill You for That, Yes.” wild outburst of passion passed and into the red eyes a look of cunning crept, the cunning that outwitted wary wild beasts and took them in his snares. He passed rapidly through the brush until he came to a hollow log, from which he drew an ancient gun which he had stolen and hidden there years before. None knew that he possessed it, and he chuckled at his own cun- ning as he plottee his details. He knew that Harding's family was away and that John would attend church that night and return home alone after services. Nothing would be easier But from then on no sound escaped them until, than to raise a window of his foe's ;house during his absence, and upon hi return kill him at his own threshol ,and, leaving the weapon behind him, flee. Joe was known to never carry a weapon, and the leaving of this fires arm behind, together with the forcible entry of the place, would throw the crime upon mysterious tramps or bur< glars. As darkness fell he prowled forth, assured himself that Harding had gone, then, prying open the win- dow, entered and sat waiting by the low burning lamp until the sound of! distant wheels reached his ears. He had uot loaded his weapon yet, having reasoned that should he be caught be- fore the act with an unloaded gun he would be deemed guilty of a far less offense than should it be loaded. But | now the time had come. From his pocket he drew some pow- der and poured it into the yawning muzzle, laying the bullet upon the ta- ble. Next, he must have some paper wadding for both powder and ball, and a book lay close at hand. Without looking at its cover he tore forth a handful of leaves and, selecting one, laid the others aside as he raised the first piece preparatory to crumpling it up and ramming it home upon the powder. As he did so the words upon the leaf caught his eye, and slowly he read: “Thou shalt not kill.” His hand trembled and his face grew gray. Then in the night without he heard the beat of hoofs before the barn, coupled with the loud command to “whoa,” and with a gasp he clutched another sheet. Before his eyes swam the words: “Likewise I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.” Slowly the gun slipped from his ‘hand, his form relaxed and he sank ‘into a chair, his head falling upon the table. . Five minutes later John Harding, {fresh from unharnessing his team, [throwing open the door, started back iin fear and amazement. Then softly ‘he approached the man who was now ‘shuddering as he had beneath the whip, laid the gun aside and gazed at the mutilated Bible. Upon the floor he saw the dropped pages, gathered them up, read them, then slowly un- derstood. For the second time that day Hard- ing’s hand fell upon the shoulder of the other, but this time it was with a . parent’s gentleness. “Brother sinner,” he whispered husk- ily. The New Year Presents. The French ‘“etrennes,” both in name and in date, preserve historical | continuity with a clearness that our Christmas box has lost. According to the ancient Roman legend the cnstom went back to the rape of the Saunes, or, rather, to the reconciliation of the two peoples afterward, when Romulus cut green branches from a grove of the goddess Strenua and presented them to Tatius. Thereafter Romans gave each other branches for luck Jan- pary 1, together with figs, dates, oney and a small coin—such luck gifts being termed “strenae.” Even emperors were powerless to put down a custom that in time became burden- some and the church similarly failed, and was driven to Christianizing the practice.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers