6
REASON AND THE LAW.
Cy Perkins was a cranky man. Joe Bunker
was the same;
To make each other trouble was each oth
er's only aim,
And, as they had adjoining farms, It hap
pened very soon;
To put the matter plainly, "there was blood
upon the moon."
A cut there was through Bunker's wood
that made a shorter way,
And Cyrus chose that road to town, despite
all Joe could say.
Though Bunker daily stormed and raved
as no good Christian should,
Yet Perkins calmly held his way through
that convenient wood.
"Your wood!" he cried, derisively; "there's
nothing here to show
That all men with Impunity may not thus
ever go.
There is no fence, there Is no sign; there's
naught that I espy
That does a passage through this wood to
any nun deny."
So, breathing threats of what he'd do. Joe
Bunker bought a sign
Of "Trespassing Forbidden Here!" that
measured six by nine.
In Joyful triumph and a cart he brought It
out from town.
But never noticed at the time he had nailed
It upside down.
"The law," he said to Perkins then, "will
now take care of me;
The law demands that you shall heed the
sign that there you see.
There's no excuse that will be good if you
keep passing through.
And 1 serve notice on > ou now that I will
surely sue."
"The law," said Perkins, thoughtfully, "Is
strange in many ways,
And I will heed all barriers that It may
fairly raise.
Your sign, no doubt, is excellent, and If I
only knew
Just what it says I'm satisfied I'd bow to
it and you."
"Turn back!" cried Bunker, angrily, "for
there you see the sign!"
But Perkins, starting up his horse, replied:
"I must decline.
The law I honor and obey, but nowhere Is
It said
To read a sdgr. the passer-by must stand
upon his head."
—Elliott Fowler, in Brooklyn Eagle.
A Knave of
Conscience
By FRANCIS LYNDE.
(Copyright I'JUO, by ir'rancu* Lyudu.)
CH AFTER IV.—CONTINUED.
Griswold smiled when he remem
bered how, in fiction of the felon
catching sort—and in real life, for
that matter —the lawbreaker always
'did leave a trace behind him, and
'determined for once in a way to
demonstrate practically that it was
quite as easy to create an inerrant
fugitive as an infallible detective.
Joining the throng on the sidewalk,
he made his way leisurely to Canal
street, and thence diagonally
through the French quarter to the
French market. In a narrow alley
he found what he was looking for—
a dingy, sailors' barber shop. The
barber was a negro, fat, unctuous
and sleepy looking; and he was
alone.
"Yes, sali; shave, boss?" he asked
as Griswold entered.
"No; a hair-cut." Griswold pro
duced a silver half-dollar. "Go
around the corner and get me a ci
gar to smoke while you're doing it.
Get a good one, if you have togo to
Canal street," he added, climbing
into the rickety chair.
The negro shuffled out, scenting
rtips. The moment he was out of
sight Griswold snatched the scissors
aud began to hack recklessly at his
■beard; recklessly and swiftly, but
-with thoughtful purpose. The re
sult was a complete metamorphosis
speedily wrought. In place of the
trim beard and curling mustache
there was a rough stubble, stiff and
uneven, like that on the face of a
man who had neglected to shave for
<& week or two.
■"J think that will answer," he said,
standing before the cracked looking
glass to get the general effect. "And
It's decently original. I fancy your
professional blunderer would have
■shaved, and the first amateur detec
tive he met would reconstruct the
beard on the sunburned lines. Now
for an 'uncle,' the more avaricious
the better."
He went to the door and looked up
and down the alley. The negro was
not yet in sight, and he walked
swiftly in the direction opposite to
that taken by the man. A pawn
broker's shop of the kind lie required
was not far to seek in that locality,
and when it was found Griswold
drove n hard bargain with the Portu
guese Jew behind the counter. The
pledge he offered was the clothes
he wore; and the bargain was con
tluded for a pair of jeans trousers,
k calico shirt, a sailor's cap and a
red bandanna handkerchief. These,
m.nd a trifling sum of ready money,
the inconsequence of which Griswold
deplored piteously before he would
consent to accept it.
The Portuguese, most suspicious
of men, suspected everything but the
truth, as Griswold had intended, ac
cusing his customer llatly of having
stolen the clothes. And when Gris
wold departed without denying the
accusation, suspicion became con
viction, and the clothing, which
might otherwise have given the po
lice «v most important clew, was
carefully hidden away until time
should have quieted the Jew's ap
, prehensions.
Having thus disguised himself,
Griswold made the transformation
artistically complete by walking for
a quarter of an hour in the dust of
a loaded cotton float on the levee.
Then ne made a tramp's bundle of
the manuscript of the dead book,
tbe. pistol and the money, in the
r«d handkerchief, and having sur
veyed himself in the bar mirror of a
Bailors' pothouse, was minded to test
■ilia disgui*-) by going back to the
restaurant where lie liad break
fasted.
The experiment was made forth
with, and was an unqualified sneeess.
The proprietor not only failed to
recognize him, but drove him forth
with revilings in idiomatic French
and broken English.
"Ilete! Cio back to da levee w'ere
you belong to go. I'll kip da cafe
for zlientlemen. Scelerat! Go!"
Griswold went, smiling between his
teeth.
"That settles the question of pres
ent safety," he said to himself. "I
believe 1 could walk into the bank
and not be recognized."
The idea was so temptingly ad
venturous that lie gave place to it
on the spur of the moment. Taking
a five-dollar bill from his store, he
fouled it in the mud of the gutter
and then went into ask the paying
teller to give him silver for it. The
teller sniffed at the money, scowled
at the man and then turned back
to his cashbook. Griswolil's smile
broke into a laugh when he reached
the street.
"The dragon may have teeth and
claws, but it can neither see nor
smell," he said, contemptuously,
bending his steps riverwaid again.
"Now I have only to choose my
route and go in peace. How and
where are the only remaining ques
tions to be answered."
CHAPTER V.
For an hour after his ventursome
return to the bank Griswold tramped
up and down the levee, and the end
of it found him still undecided as
to the manner and direction of his
flight.
The hour had not been altogether
triumphant. The partition which is
the dividing line between a life of
semi-vagrancy and a life of crime is
tenuous enough; and any hot-heart
ed one may break through it at will.
Hut to be a vagrant indeed, one must
first be a vagrant at heart; and Gris
wold was far enough from this, now
or at any time; so far from it that
the ch tins of his transformed identi
ty were already beginning to gall
him. It was to little purpose that
he girded at his compunctions, tell
ing himself that one needs must
when the devil drives. Custom,
habit, or whatsoever it may be which
distinguishes the law-abiding from
the lawless, would have its say; and
from railing bitterly at the social
conditions which made his act at
once a necessity and a crime, he
came presently to loathing the sub
terfuges to which the crime had
driven him.
Moreover, mingled with the loath
ing was a growing fear that he
might not always be able to play
consistently the double role whose
lines were already becoming intri
cate and confusing. To be true to
his mission, he must continue to be,
in utter sincerity, Griswold the
brother-loving. To escape the con
sequences of his act, he must hold
himself in instant readiness to be in
ruthless earnest what a common
thief would be in similar straits—
a thing of duplicity and double
meanings, alert at any moment to
HE TURNED AS ONE SMITTEN.
turn and slay in the battle of self
preservation.
He had thought that the crisis was
past when he had pawned the last
of his keepsakes earlier in the day
for the money to buy the revolver.
Hut he had yet to learn that there
is no crisis in the human span save
that which ends it; and all the in
termediate duels with fate are mere
sub-climaxes once they have been
fought—conflicts critical enough at
the moment, but likely to be re
newed indefinitely if one lives be
yond them. And it was another of
those sub-climaxes that caine in the
hour of aimless wandering on the
levee. More than once he was tempt
ed to buy back his lost identity at
any price; at every price, if need be.
Not in any other moment of a well
filled life had he been made to re
alize what a precious possession is
the fearlessness of innocency;
weighed against it, the thick packet
of bank notes in the red bandanna,
and all that it might stand for, was
as air-blown bubbles to gold. And
yet lie would not go back; he could
not go back, since to restore the
money would be more than a confes
sion of guilt; it would be an abject
recantation, a flat denial of every
article of his social creed, and a re
turn to primordial chaos in the mat
ter of theories «ut of which he could
emerge only as a orkninal in fact.
When the indetermlflation became
blankly insupportable, he put it
aside with the resolution which was
the strong thread in the loose
twisted warp of his character, and
addressed himself afresh to the un
solved problem of flight. The pos
session of the red bandanna nnd its
holdings made all things possible—in
any field save the theoretical—and
the choice of dwelling, or liiding
peemcd iu'Lnite. Hia first
CAMERON COUNTY PRESS, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 4, 1902.
thought bad been togo back to New
York; but there the risk of detec
tion —if risk there were—would be
greater than elsewhere; and upon
second thought, he decided that
there was no good reason why he
should incur it.
On the other band, his inclination
began to draw him toward a field
in which bo might pursue his so
ciological studies under conditions
more favorable than those to be
found in a great city. In his mind's
eye lie saw himself safely seques
tered in some small interior town,
working and studying among peo
ple who were not unindividualized by
an artificial environment—a self-cen
tered community in which the money
at bis command would be more of a
controlling influence than it could
possibly be in the smallest of cir
cles in New York. The picture
pleased him, and he fell in with the
suggestion, leaving the geographical
detail to arrange itself as chance or
subsequent events might determine.
That part of the problem disposed
of, there yet remained the choice of
a line of retreat; and it was a small
thing that finally decided the man
ner of his going.
He bad been loitering opposite the
berth of the Belle Julie —an up-river
steamer, whose bell gave sonorous
warning of the approaching hour of
departure —absently watching the
ant-like procession of toiling rousta
bouts hurrying the last of the cargo
on board. They were negroes, most
of them, but with here and there
among the blacks and yellows a
paler face so begrimed with sweat
and dust as to be scarcely distin
guishable from the majority. The
sight moved him, as thankless hu
man toil was wont to do, and lie fell
to contrasting the hard lot of the
laborers with that of the group of
passengers looking on idly from the
comfort and shade of the saloon
deck awning. The thought slipped
into compassionate speech:
"Poor devils! They've been told
they are free, and perhaps they be
lieve it; but surely no slave of the
galleys was ever in bitterer bond
age. What condemned felon was
ever in worse case than these poor
drudges who are free only to bear
burdens and to be driven like cattle
under the yoke? Oh, good Lord—
look at that!"
The ant-procession had attacked
the final tier of boxes in the landing,
and one of the burden-bearers, a
white man, had gone down like a
crushed pack animal under a load
too heavy for him. Griswold was be
side him before he could recover, and
was lifting him tenderly out of the
way of the others.
"Why didn't you get out from un
der it and let it drop?" he began,
gruffly, as an offset to the woman
ish tenderness; but when the man
gasped for breath and groaned, the
mask of gruffness fell away from
him. "Where are you hurt?"
The crushed one sat up and spat
blood.
"I don't know; inside, sornewlieres,
I guess. I been dyin' on my feet any
time for a year back."
"Consumption?" queried Griswold.
"I reckon so."
"Then you've no business in a deck
crew."
The man's smile was ghastly.
"Iteckon I hain't got any business
anywheres out'n a hospital or a hole
in the ground. Hut I kind o' thought
I'd like to be planted "longside o'
the woman and ehilder, if I could
make out to get there."
"Where?"
The consumptive named a small
river town in lowa.
"And you were going to work your
passage?"
"I was allowin' to try it. But I'm
done up, now."
Griswold's impulsiveness was easi
ly dominant in any appeal to his
sympathy; and bjjs compassion went
straight to the mark, as it always
did when his pockets were not
empty.
"What is the fare by rail to your
town?" he inquired.
"I don't know; I never asked. But
it's between S2O and S3O, I reckon;
and that's more money than I've
seen sence the woman died."
Griswold hastily counted out SIOO
from his contingent fund, and thrust
the isoney into the man's hand.
"Take that and change places with
me," he said, slipping on the mask
of gruffness again. "Fay your fare
on the train and I'll take your job
on the boat. Don't be a fool," he
added, when the man put his face
in his hands and began to choke.
"It's a fair enough exchange, and
I'll get as much out of it one way
as you will the other. What is your
name? I may have to borrow it."
"John Gavitt."
"All right; off with you," said the
liberator; and with that he shoul
dered the sick man's load and fell
into line in the ant-procession.
Once on board the steamer he fol
lowed his file-leader aft and made it
his first care to find a safe hiding
place for the knotted bandanna.
That done, he dropped into line
again, and when he went ashore the
sick man was gone.
Inured to hard living as he was,
Griswold had made no more than a
half-dozen rounds between the levee
and the after-deck of the Belle
Julie in the ant-procession before he
was glad to remember that the
steamer's lading was all but com
pleted. It was toil of the sharpest,
and he drew breath of blessed re
lief when the last man staggered
up the plank with his burden, while
the bell clanged its final summons,
and the slowly-revolving paddle
wheels took the strain from the
mooring lines. Being nearest the
bow line, Griswold was one of the
two who sprang ashore at the mate's
bidding to cast yff; and they were
in the net when a carriage drove
rapidly down to the stage and two
tardy passengers hurried aboard.
The mate bawled from his station
on the hurricane deck:
"Now, then! Take a turn on that
spring line out there and get them
trunks aboard! Lively!"
The larger of the two trunks fell
to the late recruit; and when he had
set it down at the door of the desig
nated stateroom he so far forgot
himself as to read the card tacked
upon it: "Charlotte Farnham, Wa
haska, Minnesota."
"Thank you," said a musical voice
at his elbow. "May I trouble you to
put it inside?"
Griswold turned as one smitten,
and was not without embarrassment
at having been caught reading the
tag. But when he saw the owner of
the voice, consternation slew shame,
and be was prompted to make a wild
dash for liberty. For Miss Farnham
was no other than the young wom
an to whom be had given place at
j the teller's window in the Bayou
bank.
She saw his confusion, divined the
first cause of it and smiled. Then
he met her gaze fairly and became
j sane again when he made sure that
| she did not recognize him—became
| sane, and snatched off his cap and
dragged the trunk into the state
room; after which he went to his
place with a great thankfulness
throbbing in his heart and an in
choate resolve shaping itself in his
brain.
Late that night, when the Belle
Julie was well on her way to the
northward, he flung himself down
upon the freight on the engine-room
guard to snatch a little rest between
landings, and the resolve became
! sufficiently cosmic to formulate itself
in words.
"I'll call it an oracle,"he said.
"One place is as good as another, so
it be small enough; and I am sure
I have ly-ver heard of Waliaska."
Now Griswold the proletary was,
before all things else, Griswold the
imaginative craftsman; and no soon
er was the question of his destina
tion seUled than he began to pre
figure the place and its probable
lacks and havings. This process
brought him by easy gradations to
pleasant ideali/ings of Miss Farn
ham, who was, thus far, the only
thing tangible connected with the
destination dream. Whereupon her
personality laid hold upon him and
the idealizings became purely lit
erary.
[To Be Continued.]
THE SCOTCH REGALIA RING.
Trnßlo lllatory of » Clrolft Tlmf Waa
Treamreil Anionic the Royal
Jewels of Scotland.
The traditional history of the
Scotch regalia ring is of the most
tragic, not to say melancholy, char
acter. It is believed that it was the
favorite ring of Mary Stuart, and
that, after her judicial murder in
Fotlieringay Castle, it was transmit
ted to her son, says Good Words.
From James it descended to Charles
1., at whose coronation at Scone in
1G33 it played a distinct part. Once
more did this ill-fated ring figure at
an untimely and ill-merited death;
for, with almost his last breath upon
the scaffold at Whitehall, Charles be
queathed it to Bishop Juxon in trust
for his son. Indue course of time
the ring came into the possession of
James 11., and was carried away with
him fin his flight to the continent.
When, however, he was detained by
the fishermen at Sheerness, the ring,
which had been secreted in the
king's underclothing, only escaped
robbery by the luckiest of mistakes
on the part of the sailor who
searched him. Thus the ring was
passed on uninjured to Jaines' de
scendants, till, by the bequest of
Cardinal York, it became the prop
erty of the reigning dynasty once
more, and was by them replaced
among the royal jewels of Scotland,
from which it had been separated for
many a long year.
An Kntflinh Trntlitlon.
On his way from Clifton Down to
Avonmouth the prince of Wales
passed in the avon gorge a curious
structure, to which a singular tradi
tion is attached. The story is that
a person named Cook about a cen
tury ago was told by a gypsy in the
Leigh wjiods that his only son would
be killed by a serpent before he
reached the age of 21. To avert this,
he built a high tower, and shut his
son in the topmost room, with the
intention of secluding him there un
til the fatal age was past. How
ever, by accident, a viper was taken
up in a faggot and bit the boy so
that he died. Therefore, the tower
wal called Cook's Folly, and that is
its name to this day, whatever is the
true explanation.—London Tatler.
Gentle Hint to Ula Flock.
The following announcement ap
peared the other day in a Bucking
hamshire (England) paper: "The vi
car regrets to have to inform
his parishioners that, in consequence
of his advanced age, it will not be
possible for him to visit the resi
dents on the hilltops. He will still
be able to perform all the Sunday
church duty. If at any time it should
please God to send him a pony and
carriage, it will give him pleasure to
resume his former course of visit
ing!"— Chicago Chronicle.
He Needed It.
Mamma (explaining spiritual truths
to her little boy)— Tommy, when you
die you leav* your body behind; only
your soul goes to heaven.
Tommy—Well, mamma, what will
I button my pants to?—Brooklju
Eagle.
PUZZLE PICTURE.
"WIIEKE DID THAT MAN GOP
AMERICAN HORSES ABROAD.
Growth of ll»v 10 \ port Trmle lla*
Created 11 Demand for Yankee
Traincri of HuciiiK Stock.
In Europe to-day not a single coun
try raises enough horses to meet its
own actual demand in times of peace,
and the facilities for breeding and
raising horses are growing poorer
every year. There are few good graz
ing lands and stock-breeding farms in
Europe, where horses can be raised
on a large scale, and, consequently,
this country becomes more and more
the land for keeping the European
armies supplied with their proper
complement of horses and mules, re
ports the Scientific American.
In recent years the American trot
ters and fine carriage horses have be
come important factors in the export
trade, and, whereas a few decades ago
such a thing as an American horse w as
hardly to be found abroad, to-day we
have a steady stream of them going
to all the European centers.
Not even Kussia has hesitated to
avail herself of our best-blooded stock,
although for years the Orloff strain
of trotting stock held complete su
premacy in the minds of the czar's pa
triotic citizens. But loyalty to a rul
ing house cannot forever last, arid the
best thing the Kussian horse lovers
could do was to import American stal
lions for crossing with their Orloff
breed, and then a few American breed
ers and trainers togo over and show
them how the Americans did it. So
we have to-day not only American
horses and trotters in abundance in
Russia, but American trainers and
breeders practically in control of the
royal stables and stock farms. Each
year a good-sized consignment of the
best American trotters go abr'iad to
add new blood and speed to the czar's
stock.
Germany, next to England, is prob
ably one of our best European cus
tomers for horses, and there is a
steady, healthy demand from that
country that promise to continue and
develop indefinitely as the years goby.
The American trotting horses at the
Vienna race tracks arc not only fea
tures of the exhibitions, but they cap
ture a large percentage of the prizes.
There is no better way to advertise
American horses and methods of
training than to take a few of them
abroad and enter the races ih com
petition with the European horses.
France became so jealous of our suc
cess in this line on her native soil
that she practically prohibited foreign
horses from entering the races. In
Hard Work the Secret of Success
By RUSSELL SAGE,
New York Capitalist and Broker.
ftSlSlflpl to the younger generation many roads to
"Jill success, hut when they do not place hard
above else they are but starting
9 / r/s hard practically every day of my life since
11 * : -My / to mold, my own fortune as a clerk in a store
EftjgS> "./ifS&ffigplMPß During all the intervening years I have
hirr ">■■>■*■■■■ kept my health by working hard. I seldom
take a holiday. The majority of people take too many of them; the
government provide too many of them. TOO MUCH VALUABLE
TIME IS SPENT IX PLAY; people take too many vacations. Two
thirds of them are unnecessary.
To the voimg man I would say use all your powers and all your
faculties to make the most of your opportunities. That is the real
object of life.
And again pay attention to your own business first, but don't
neglect to keep an eye out for what the other fellows are doing in
their business.
There is just as good a chance to-day for a young man to get
rich as there was when 1 started in business for myself, 68 years ago.
Hard work and close attention to business will win the battle.
fact, to-day very few French races
are open to liorses from other coun
tries, and the French sportsmen hare
this show practically all to them
selves; but fortunately for them, the
small glory attached to a restricted
competition of this character makes
it almost an empty honor. However,
a good many French horsemen are
purchasing' American trotters, and in
a roundabout way getting the Amer
ican horses to the front in the home
races. In time it will be necessary for
the sake of the sport to open the races
to more general competition.
A good many American horses are
sent to Helgium. and then they are
taken across to France, and within a
very short time appear on the French
turf as home-bred horses.
Italy, Denmark and Holland nre
good buyers of our trotting horses,
and the annual shipments to these
countries are considerable, while far
otY Xew Zealand and Australia make
small drafts upon our resources. To
see that these American trotters ex
ported are as represented, the Na
tional Trotting association has export
officers in a number of our seaports to
issue certificates of pedigrees and iden
tity to the high-grade horses shipped.
This is to prevent fraud, and thus in
jury to the American horse trade in
foreign countries, and it was first sug
gested by the European trotting asso
ciations. Several thousand certifi
cates have been issued for high-class
racing stock, but these do not include
the trotting-bred roadsters or fine car
riage horses.
Ilollcr-H«ofe<l Cars.
A Leeds (England) commercial trav
eler seems to have solved the hitherto
insoluble problem of providing a dry
seat in wet weather. lie has adopted
the principle of the roller-topped desk.
When the cover is on the ordinary
electric car suggests a double-decked
railway saloon; when it is off the
vehicle resumes its usual aspect, with
the addition of the light circular gird
ers which sustain the roller covering
in position. To remove the roller cov
ering all that is necessary to be done
is to release it.and allow it to de
scend into casements provided for it
at the sides of the car. This it does
in three sections on each side—first
the windows —for windows are pro
vided—and then successively the other
two sections, the casement accommo
dating them side by side. The roller
covering is sandwiched with india-rub
ber, and thus made not only water
proof but also electric proof.—Albany
Argus.