pi iiu mi mi I Poliy and the I HoniS Trim Cy CHAS. SLONA REID. I xi- mi' una ihi Tolly Blake was sirting on a pun--heon fool, milking a one-horned 'ow. A nan stood a few feet be- Jn'l her with hU bark against the fence. He was quite different from Polly's kind, as any stranger might have guessed. He was a town man Polly was a mountain girl. Polly kept b'isy with her milking and tje man talked volubly, as he usually did It was sunset and the shadow of night already had fallen upon the valley b'low. giving a dus ky hue to the foliage of the distant tre. It was the hour when Folly usually milked the one-horned cow In the evening; and It was not by af ident that th lr.an was there, talk ing to her. Polly wore no bonnet jnd the maps of furling brown hair which hung about her neck and shoulders was ravishing In the rlch dms of Us effect. Obviously she was lad of the man's presence, for a certain happiness and a certain amount of enibarassment, when he m near. Invariably set her heart .0 thumping In a way that caused the -Jie color In her cheeks to come and go like the gleam of a red ripe cher. ry In a fitful, sunlight. "Polly," said the man, as he rat :led on froni one sub' jet to another, ithout taking the trouble to rouni a Is periods, "that (ow worries me. t think, since she cannot have a uni form pair of horns, it would be much tter If she had none at all. What io you think about it?" "Yea, I tbii.k she'd lock better without any, 'I?bs'n the had two. But I reckon she couldn't help losln' the jther one." "How did she lose it, anyway?" "She fell Into a blind ditch and roke it off tryin' to get out." "What is a blind ditch, Polly? "Its a gulley that has been klver k4 over with bre.sh an' sich like." "That's a pretty dangerous sort it thing to have about the place sn't It?" "Yes, reckon It Is. Never know rhere ye're goln' to land, some times. If ye break through the jresh." "I guess It would be well for a .hap to be careful in climbing about .he hills, then?" "Aa I've hinted to ye once or twice .lready, it's a good idea to be keer .al In several ways, Mr. Gordon." "Oh. don't call ma Mr. Gordon, oily, aay Maxey. It would sound .lore like you cared a little, you jut. And you do, don't ou, Pol it There's no one listen'.. .g, won't oa tell me yes?" Bat Polly was silent tni her very .Hence assured the muu that she did Her task wps soon finished, and iolly arose f:om the milking stool, iordon advanced to take the pail. .Ilia little gallantry he had paid jgularly every evening for a fort igbt; and Polly had come to accept .. as a matter of course. So they diked along together, she in her jiple nature unable to conceal her -.art' growing fondness for this ranger; and he apparently pleased lib her manifested liking. Later, when the evening meal was ilshed; and Gordon, with the Blake mUy, sat near the fireplace, he en . rtainlng the rest with stories of avel and incidental anecdotes, the .paritlon of a head and shoulders . an open window near where Polly t caused the narrator to pause in io of his stories. The head and moulders were those, ot a stout mng mountaineer, and the face ould have been one marvelouEly .ndsome with the added expression ; a cultivated mind. At. the pause in Gordon's story, .jlly turned her head; and when her ze alighted upon the man at the .adow she lowered her eyebrows. Ben Martin had been her acknowl- ged lover for a long time; and ,w as she thought of how her heart .d gone away from him, a little .erg of something like remorse jubled her bosom. Ben stood silently gazing in the .adow for several minutes, then be oke In a tone of voice more that . command than of entreaty. "Polly, I want ye to come out -.ok a minute," he said; "there's methlng I got to say to you." The girl glanced at Gordon, then ose. Gordon chuckled to himself. i knew how matters had stood be- een the two and be suspected thai is was to be one more appeal on irtln'a part. When Polly can:e up to wnere a stood at the edge of the road, i man took her baud. 'Polly," he began and his voice s fully of emotion, "I can see I'm iosln' ye, an' it's a breaklu' my irt. girl." "What do ye mean, Ben?" 1 guess ye know, what I mean, lly. But I want to tell ye, that ip's a skunk, Jest a plain skunk. pertends to be proupecUu' round :n for gold but we all have cal xUsA he's prospectln' for somethln' e. He keeps a nosin round the 'a; and today he bumped right up la our still on Boco. Jim Turpin ' Lee Hooper was a watchln' him; ' the way be sneaked away from are an' took his hearln's as he nt was a site too plain. So we. ve J a trap for, him. Polly trap it will get blm If he's what w Ink she Is, bat won't get him If he's . right, little girl. Ho, if we're w.oog, Polly, why I I Jest wanted to tell ye, girl, that arter ail's over I'll still be comln' back to ye an' maybe yer love will come back to tee." Ben squeezed ber hand once and released It. There was silence a mo. ment, then the girl tald: "I think ye're wrong, Ben." "Maybe so, Polly, maybe so. We'll soon find out. Good-bye." Ben strode away and left the girl to return slowly toward the house, wondering what manner of trap the boys had set. though stoutly resist ing the fear It might capture Gor don. The evening waned, Gordon's stories grew uninteresting, Blake nodded by the hearth corner and Polly waited for the opportunity to give the prospector one more warn ing. So when Gordon arose to go to hli toom, a low shed room at one end of the veranda. Polly stole to the doorway and slipped Into the dark ness outside. "I wante to tell ye agin to be keer ful," she whispered, as Gordon paused near her. "Ye've raised sus picions, an' but I can't tell ye any mere. Only be powerful keerful." Gordon laughed softly. "Oh. I'll be careful, little Polly," he said; "never fear about that." He attempted to take her hand, but the girl dodged back Into the main room and was gone. The next morning Gordon failed to respond when called to an early breakfast. " 'Pears to me the prospector's sleepln' mighty sound this mornln'," said Blake, as he returned to the waiting family in the main room. Polly's heart took fright at once. A hundred things might have hap pened to Gordon during the night the methods of the moonshiners were inscrutable. "Pap, 1 reckon ye'd better go in an' wake him," she suggested, "for the meat on the table's a gettln' cold." With candle in hand Blake went hack to Gordon's door, opened It and peered inside. "Why, by the llvln'!" he exclaim ed, "this bed ain't been teched." At this moment. Polly's knees quaked, and her fingers clinched to gether Impulsively. And at this moment, too. she hated all her race, all her kind among the mountains, her brothers and their co-partners, Ben Martin and all the rest. ' She turned her eyes toward the rafters and allowed a thought of revenge to take shape In her brain. "Well, he's not here." said Blake, returning; "so thar's no use to wait for blm. Let's eat." Polly minced her breakfast, hur riedly milked the one-horned cow, cleaned the kitchen things, then stole out over the mountain toward the Horse-Shoe Cove on Soco. She knew well the spot where the still stood and she knew the narrow defile through which alone the cove was accessible. The trail wound like a snake round over the mountain, down into the valley, then along up the creek between the cliffs. Where the trail ascended, Polly climbed feverishly; where It descended, she ran. In this manner the three miles to the neck of the cove were covered and she was speeding along the path to where it crossed the Devil's Sink Hole. This was a nar row fissure whose mouth was not over six feet wide, and whose great est length was not over twenty feet, yet It opened away into the earth to a depth of forty feet. A narrow bridge. Just the width of the trail had spanned the opening and when Polly reached the spot this morning she saw that the bridge was no long, er there. She ran to the edge of the hole and dropped to her knees. It required some moments for her gaze to pierce the gloom down there, but presently she saw the prospector, with disheveled hair and torn cloth ing, seated at the botom of the fis sure. Silence reigned throughput the wood and the low sound of Polly's voice w hen she spoke seemed to echo a mile away. But Gordon bad caught the call and he looked up. "Ah, is It you, Polly?" he ex claimed. "Yes; an' ye didn't listen when 1 warned ye last night, though I didn't think about this place when 1 told ye." ' "I am a conceited sort of fellow, Polly, and thought I could take care of myself. But I've learned a lesson thlJ time sure." "Do ye know what was meant for ye when ye fell into this hole?" "Why It was meant for ye to per ish to death down there, for nobody ever comes this trail but them that laid the trap for ye." "But you have come to help me out, sweetheart?" Polly's heart thrilled at this title of endearment and once more an Impulse of hatred for her race welled up In her bosom. "There's a grape vine back here I think long enough." Sho sprang away from the hole and soon returned, bringing with her a long stout vine, one end of which she lowered into the hole. When Gordon could reach the lower end,, the girl made the other end fast to the roots of a stout shrub near by, and the prospector found It an easy matter to climb out of tho hole by means of the vine and Its branches. And when he stood by the side of Polly on the trail above be took her hand and looking Into her eyes, said; "Little girl, you have saved my life and when I tell ber all about it, my wife will love and praise you to the skies." A flash of sudden fire leaped from Polly's eyes. She Jerked her band from Gordon's clasp and the next THE COLUMBIAN. Instant had given him a shove that sent him reeling backward toward the Devil's Sink Hole. The prospector was unable to re cover his balance, and was poised for a single Instant at the edge of the opening, ready to shoot downward again, when a strong hand suddenly reached out, caught him by the clothing and pulled him back to safe ty once more. "If ye've got a wife, ye skunk, go to her! An don't ye be nosin' round these hills again, d'ye hear that?" The speaker was Ben Martin. Gor don looked from Ben to the girl, then turned and hurried along the trail that led out of the cove. And long after be was gone from view, silence reigned between Ben and the girl. But at last Polly took a step toward Ben. and the mountaineer, with a tull heart, sprang to meet her. "Ben," declared Polly, "yer little finger's worth a world of "em like him; an' I've Jest found out how much I love ye." Ben caught her In his arms and kissed her. "Then let's have the weddin", Pol ly; an' I'll finish the cabin down on Lufty." New Orleans Picayune. Humorously Worded Ilebuke. Theodore P. Roberts had a fluent command of language, both In speak ing and writing, and was well liked by everybody. He could secure the attention of a negligent publisher if need be. To one such, who was re miss about sending vouchers, he once closed up a long letter with the sentence: "And, finally, my dear sir. permit me to say that It would be easier for a camel to ride Into the kingdom of heaven on a veloci pede than for anyone to find a late copy of your paper In the city of New York." London's Hcgunrs. It is calculated that four thousand persons make a living In London by begging, and that their average In come amounts to about 30s. a week, or more than 300,000 pounds a year. Last year 1.925 persons were arrest ed for begging in the streets, of whom more than fifteen hundred were sentenced to terms of imprison ment varying from one week to three months. Many of these objects of charity were found in possession of sums of money, and even of bank books showing very handsome de posits. Tlt-Blts.' Ixmt Land In England. Great Britain, between 1867 and 1S80. lost 148,906 acres by en croachment of the sea. Even this loss is small compared with others in times past. Thus, according to a survey in the time of Edward I, the duchy of Cornwall had 1,500.000 acres, but a survey in recent years gives It only 829,500 acres. Whole villages In some cases have been slowly undermined and swept away, as In the case of Dunwich, whereof only a ruined church on the edge of a cliff remains. Livingstone's Teacher Alive. One of the boyhood teachers of David Livingstone, the African mis sionary, is still alive and on active service. He is the Rev. F. B. Cold well, a member of the Lancashire and Chelsea presbytery In England. 88 years of age. When a young man he was a teacher at a school in the neighborhood of Blantyre, Lanark shire, and among his pupils was young David Livingstone who used to walk a distance of 11 miles daily to and from school. Estimate of Chemistry. Berzellus, the Swedish chemist, made most of his experiments In the kitchen with his cook as bis only as sistant. "What Is your master?" asked one of his neighbors. "Oh, he Is a chemist." "What's that? What does he do?" "Well, I will tell you. He has something in a big bottle, then he pours it into a smaller one. and then again into quite a tiny bot tle." "Well, and what then happens to It?" "Oh, then I throw it away." Much Kissed liook. For swearing a Jury at an Inquest at High Wycombe, Mr. Charsley, the coroner for South Buck's (England) recently used a New Testament print ed in the year 1798. The book, which has been constantly used by himself, his father and grandfather. Is still In good condition, and original ly cost the modest sum of 18 cents. At the lowest computation it must have been the recipient of a hundred thousand formal kisses. English Common Tjuv. The Common Law of England is an ancient collection of unwritten maxims and customs of British, Sax on and Danish origin, which, by long use and approval, have become fund amental In English Jurisprudence. Many of the principles of the Eng lish Common Law hold In this coun try, and throughout the English speaking world as well. Xovel Zoological Park. Kansas City Is creating a novel zoological park. Sixty acres have been set aside In Swope Park, and dens are to be excavated in rocky cliffs for den living aulmals, with la closures In front. A creek will be divided into basins, and in each basin will be planted aquatic plants, animals and fish. Chinu's Camphor Triu!. Parse merchants have a monopoly of the manufacture of camphor oil at Foothow, China, controlling seven teen distilleries,, and export most of the product to India. BLOOMSBUtek SFcKd AS A CURE m ANY GRIME Dr. William M. Richards of New Yor': Reform You By Making You See Straight THE NEWEST FAD IN REFORMS He Has Put Glasses on Hundreds of Offenders with Good Results Ex- amines Eyes of Women in Night Court and rinds an Odd Case. New York City. Cain did not wear glasses. If he had he might not have killed Abel. A number of other catas trophes might have been averted by the timely application of a pair of spectacles. If you want to reform a criminal clap a pair of glasses on him, for the chances are that defective physical vision has impaired his moral views. Such Is the theory of Dr. Wil liam M. Richards, and he hopes In side of a year to io able to back bis theory with statistics. In compiling his stat stirs and In the search for subjects Dr. Richards has visited the District Attorney's ofilce. several police courts, the Elmira Re formatory, the Magda'.en Home and various other Institutions. At the El mira Reformatory he found that most of the boys were suffering from ab normal vision, that in the majority of cases poor eyesight bad led to truan cy, truancy to bad companionship and that to crime. , At the Magadalen Home he fitted glasses to twenty inmates, and every one of these, he said, found work on getting out and kept it. One girl in particular had 'ever been able to keep a Job more than a few days. She was considered stupid and lazy. Since leaving the home two months ago wearing a pair of glasses she has been steadily employed by a firm of wholesalers and is still working there. At the time he examined her she was unable to make out the largest type on the test card at a distance of four feet Dr. Richards is now trying his scheme on some 200 second offenders, burglars, holdup men and grafters of various degrees, and he hopes that if they do not lose their glasses they will be desirable citizens by the time they emerge from seclusion. Most of the glasses are provided by the Shaarath Israel, which is much Interested In the work. Dr. Richards visited Magistrate Bar low in the night court and examined the eyes of some of the women prison ers. The result showed, he said, that many of the women brought in had something the matter with their eye sight, and it was entirely possible that If their vision were restored to the normal they themselves would be able to" lead a normal life. As the prison ers were arraigned he scanned each closely. When Googoo Nellie, a wom an from the East Side, with rather prominent eyes, came up the doctor could not restrain his enthusiasm. "Look at her! Look at her!" he ex claimed delightedly. "She's as blind as a bat! Sho can't see a thing!" Dr. Richards led the bewildered and somewhat fearful Nellie into the ex amination room. "Do you like to read?" he asked her abruptly. . Googoo was nonplussed. Never be fore In all ber long police experience had anything like this happened to her. Not knowing what fatal conse quences might follow a reckless an swer she muttered something Inaudi ble while her foot traced nervous cir cles on the floor. "What kind of books do you read?" persisted the doctor; "history, bio graphy, fiction what?" Nellie was In a quandary. Should she give the preference to biography or history? Fiction was out of the question. There was a disparaging curl to the doctor's lips as he said "fiction" that warned her to steer clear of it. But if she said historical or bio bio whatever it was, why, he might ask her what books she had read. She resolved to take a safe middle course and avoid the snare. "I don't care much about readin'," she admitted finally, "an' I don't get time to read much outside of the newspapers," Rnd then in a brilllaut attempt to escape from the cross-examination she added: "Jennie out there reads more'n I do. She's a great reader, Jennie is. Why, you don't hardly ever see Jennie but what she's got a book under her arm." The doctor refused the bait so craft ily offered, however, and proceeded to a few simple tests which convinced him that Googoo's eyes were a prima factor In her waywardness. "Now come around and see me," be said as he finished, "and you'll soon be able to read as well as Jennie and be able to get steady employment and keep off the street as well." "Sure," said Nelle, slowly and with out eagerness. Several more were examined and promised to come and be saved from their eyes. Aa for Googoo Nell, the policeman failed to make out a case against her Bed she was discharged. Dog Runs Itself to Death. Wllliea-Barre. Pa. On Nescopeck Mountain the body of Henry Savldge's valuable foxhound, which had chased a fox for three days and then died of extiiuiKtlon, after killing the fox, has been found. Its buying wob heard for three rtnvtt nnrl M-.r.n .... . . . u , vuc iaw rct'.ed upon t&e body o: the fox. TOSACCO SENBWOW.il W Mrs. Alice Mullens Used the Wtid from Childhood, Chewing Two Pounds a Week. Alton. 111. Driven insane by the excessive use of tobacco, Mrs. Alice Mullens of this city baa taken to Ed wardsvllle after bclr.g pronounced In sauce by the Madison County Court. Mrs. Mullens, who is 35 years old, used tobacco from childhood, chewing It in great quantities. At times. It is said, her supply has reached two pounds a week. She began using the weed when a girl of 16, and at 30 she was a physical wreck. Since that time she has lived in Alton township and given the county authorities all sorts of trouble. Mrs. Mullens Is an attractive wom an and her case Is one of the strang est the officials have yet had to deal with. Persons who visited her In her home say that she often went to bed with tobacco In her cheek. She also smoked occasionally, a pipe preferred, Although cigars did not come amiss when proffered to her. Scrap tobac co Is her favorite, and six big pack ages were an average week's supply for her. A police matron who investi gated her case reported she had not a bite of food In her house, but had a big market basket full of tobacco scraps on hand. Mrs. Mullens is somewhat of a mys tery to the police, who have been un able to ascertain If she has any rela tives or where her home was before she came to Alton. She rented a house In East End place, a respectable neighborhood, and lived there alone. OL8'S YOUNGEST COLLEGE PRESIDENT. REV. MARION LE ROY BURTON. Brooklyn, N. Y. Dr. Marion Le Roy Burton Is President-elect of Smith College, and when he takes office In September, 1909, will be the youngest college president in America. During the past year he has occupied the pas torate at the Church of the Pilgrims, In Brooklyn. He holds a Ph. D. from Yale, where he was for some time pro fessor of theology. He has written a book called "The Problem of Evil." INDIAN'S FEAT ON TRAIL. Bloodhounds Baffled, He Follows and Captures Bandits. Muskegee, Okla. Willie Bryant, a full blooded Cherokee boy, nineteen years old, taking a trail that blood hounds refused to follow, led the way for fifty miles through rough timber ed country and with a posse surround ed and captured the two remaining robbers who made a futile attempt to hold up a train at Braggs. resulting I., a fight in which one officer was killed and one of the robbers badly wounded. The feat of Bryant Is considered re markable. He has inherited all of the Instincts of his forefathers in the craft of the trail. Sheriff Ramsay took bloodhounds in an auto to the scene of the hold-up before the trail was six hours old. but the dogs refused to follow it. Then Deputy Sheriff Clark put young Bryant at the head of the posse. The Indian was given his head. The course is in the foothills of the Ozark Mountains and very diffi cult for travel. This distance was cov ered unerringly and swiftly by the Cherokee. Though the task of keep ing the trail was difficult, the mem bers of the posse found the greatest trouble in keeping in sight of Bryant When Proctor was reached the posse men were utterly exhausted. SHAVES IN LION'S CAGE. Local Barber Shows Hie Great Nerve at a Tent Show. Chillicothe, Mo. Rather than take a dare Charles Goodner, twenty-four years of age, a nervy barber of Chilli cothe. accepted a challenge Issued by Capt. Cardova. a lion trainer with the Parker shows, giving a carnival here; and entering the steel arena, gave the captain a shava with a big Hon perch ed on either side. The tent where the feat was per formed was Jammed with those who were curious to see whether the cap tain's deti would be taken up. Good ner entered the cage, calmly lathered and shaved the captain and then shouted "next" Pig Barks Like a Dog. Saco. Me. Fred M. Thim. of this city, a well-known electrician and railroad man, has at bis home in low er Beach street a pig that barks like ii dog. Mr. Thlra has had many visi tors to see the animal and hear it bark. A 8PARKPROOF SMOKESTACK. Sl.Tfls Device Which May 6avi Mlfc lions In Timber. A spnrkproof smokestack han hPC4 Invented which promises relief to the forest fire fighters If It should b adopted by railroads traversing fortii regions. After being tested for some time oa a Kentucky railroad, says the Tethnt cal World. It was demonstrated thai not a npark escaped from the suck, So well does the Forestry Department at Washington think of this Ingenious Invention that It has asked the No York State Public Service Commlssioa, to compel nil railroads In the Stat to equip their locomotives with thj Dew stnek. The principle which led to tho Ij. tentlon of the rparkproof stack is that all solids emerging from a loco motive smokestack. Influenced by thi pressure of the exhaust, hug close to tho edge of the plpo and only t'.is smoke comes up through the centrii. In this new stack a simple trap catches tho sparks and cinders at the edge of the circle and sends thnta falling down shutes arranged on either side of the stack to the roadway bf low. , How to Shoot with a Revolver. To begin sighting along the b.Trrl of a six-shooter, as in target gallerj practice. Is a handicap to tho mao who wants to learn the art at Its best. The hand and eye, of course, wori together with all weapons and In all combats; but. there is a difference bo tweon the eye-general and the eyv particular. The beol form of boxln or fencing that is what the use of thi elx-sliootcr moans. You point your Est or your foil Instinct. You cannol help pointing your finger directly and straight at any object, no matter how hard you try. Yet surely you do nol sight down your finger. In tho besi work with tho six-shooter, you poin! with the barrel Just as yoa point wlt'i your finger, or really, you point wit't your wriat and forearm, and the six chooter is tho finger of your wrist, tho lengthening of your arm. That Is thi theory and creed of the six-shooter Outics. Speak Kindly. A man was once saved by a very poor boy from drowning. After hit restoration he said to him: "What can I do for you, my boy?" "Speak a kind word to me some time," replied the boy, the tears gush ing from his eyes. "I ain't got i mother like some of them." A kind word! Think of it Thie man had It In his power to give the boy money, clothes, playthings, but the little fellow craved nothing sa much as a kind word now and then. It the man had ever so little heart the boy must certainly have had the wish granted. A kind word! You have many such spoken to you dally, and you do not think much of their value; but that poor boy In the vil lage, at whom everybody laughs would think that he had found a trear ury If some one spoke a kind word to blm. A Llghtless Lighthouse. On a sunken reef 350 feet distant from Stornoway lighthouse is a re markable beacon which warns mari ners with the help of a light which Is only apparent. The beacon Is a cono of cast-iron plates, surmounted with a lantern containing a glass prism. The prism derives its light from refracting rays emitted from the lighthouse, and the optical delusion It marvelous. Mariners naturally sup. pose that there is a lighted lamp oa the beacon Itself and many of theia will not believe otherwise. But the object of tho beacon is attained when the navigator sees the reflected light, which Indicates the perilous rock be low. This beacon has been in usn more thnn half a century, and since it was fixed in position others have been placed In other neighborhoods t make clear points of danger. Techni cal World. Vhy Foam Is White. "How white the foam Is," said the pretty girl, in a voice muffled by tho oablo stole drawn across her red mouth. "Yet the sea Is green. Why, then, isn't the foam green?" But the young sophomore laugheJ. ia derision of such ignorance. "Gee. you nre Ignorant!" be said. "Bee:- Is b:-o-vn, but its foam Is white, loo. Shake up black ink and you get white foam. Shake up red ink and the result is the same. "A body that reflects all the light it receives without absorbing any 13 always white. All bodies powdered Into tiny diamond form, so that they throw back the light from man face.ts, absorb none of It and are whltj by eonsoquenco. Pondered blac'-t marble, for instance, is white. And foam Is water powdered into tbes email diamond, and hence its white ness." Philadelphia Bulletin. How He Found Them Out. A shopkeeper, the head of a larg firm, one evening, after buslnest hours, caused his saleswomen to bi assembled before him. "There are among you," be said ta them, "several Individuals whom t Vaow to be guilty of theft from our establishment. I have the names ot every one of the culprits but I neltli er wish to mention them here nor. la t hand them over to the police. Mean while my firm cannot continue to em ploy thieves, and I ask those among you whom it may concern not to' ea ter my premises any more after to night. U you dare, after this, to pat In an appearance, I shall hand you at once over to a detective, who will "e In the house." Upon this 4be girls were allowed to go home. Next morning eighteen of them did cot come. i
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers