Captain Bolton's Dilemma
By George T. Partly
(Copyright, 1907, by Daily Story Pub. Co.)
"No," said the cook, thoughtfully. In
reply to a query I hazarded regarding
the strange beliefs of those who "go
down to sea In ships," "I don't know
as saiiormon 011 the lakes is given to
superstitions very much. Co's why?
They has hard work to do and wants
to enjoy themselves when they gets
ashore. I only knowed one case where
a skipper bothered about such things,
and that was old Ezra Bolton —as T
sailed with on the steam freighter
Monteagle.
"Some one got hold of the old man
and loaded him to the hatches with
queer ideas about stuff called theos
ophy, reincarnations and such junk,
and he became a regular convert to
the game, attending niet»tin's 1 'gular
whenever we lay in port. Well, one
trip to Buffalo we had a passenger
aboard, young fellow named Edgerton,
and the cap began on him with his
theories right away. Thisyer chap
seemed to like the dope, and 'peared
to make the skipper nuttier than ever
bv encouragin' him. We was all fair
knocked out when the word was
passed that the old man ordered par
ticular respect paid to an old dog he
owned, account of the brute bein' an
incarnation of Andrew Jackson.
"Everybody thought it a big joke but
the mate, and he kicked when the cur
jumped on the cabin table at dinner
and grabbed a chunk of meat off his
plate. The mate made a bolt at him
and the captain roared like a bull, said
he ought to be ashamed of himself for
insulting a animal that contained the
spirit of a great man. The mate al
lowed that he hadn't signed articles
to eat with dogs or pal with the spirit
Jackson, but the old man wouldn't
listen to him, and he left the cabin,
mad as blazes.
"Young "Edgerton was chucklin* to
himself all the time. Then the skip
per calls all hands together and gives
'em a lecture on spirits and theosophy.
He tells how the world has been in
darkness all this while and is only
wakin' to the true light and that for
all he knows, some of the crew lias
lived in the past ages and used to be
pretty swell guys. Most of us thought
it. a slushy spiel, but there was others
said there might be somethin' in it,
and what with the arguments as came
on, there was cne scrap come up right
after another all the way to Buffalo.
"When we tied up, we heard how
Edgerton was goin' to take a trip back
on the Monteagle, and had promised
the skipper to bring along a lady who
was one of the shining lights of the
theosophy bunch. Sure enough, lie
showed up with a might) pretty girl
in tow.
" 'Capt. Bolton,' ses he, 'allow me to
introduce Miss Maitland, a high priest
ess of the great belief!'
"The old man bowed very polite,
but she stands lookin' at him kind of
wild; then all of a sudden throws both
arms around his neck and screams:
" 'At last I have found my affinity!'
"'What does this mean?' roars the
old man, taken all aback.
"'I see it all,' ses young Edgerton.
'She has known and loved you in a
past life.'
" 'Sure thing,' ses the priestess;
'this here is my third time 011 earth,
and twice we have loved each other
through the cycles of the ages.'
" 'But, blast it,' roars Bolton, 'l've
a wife and six kids in Chicago, miss!'
" 'Cruel man,' ses she, 'to greet me
thus. What has the sordid present to
do with the ideal, mystic past? I've
found you and now we'll never part.'
" 'But the boat leaves to-night,' ses
Bolton.
" 'Me, too,' ses the priestess. 'May
be you'll learn to appreciate my de
motion durin' the voyage.'
"The end of it was that we had two
passengers le'avin' Buffalo. That girl
■ spent part of her time witli Edgerton,
but she never missed a chance of
hanging onto the old man's arm,
whenever anyone was around to see,
and smilin' up in his face as if he was
the darlin' of her heart. It made him
feel more than uncomfortable to have
the crew pipin' him off and grinnin',
but there was no help for it.
"The first, day out the mate reports
that Jim Adams, one of the deckhands,
had it revealed to him in a dream that
he was the reincarnation of Admiral
Paul Jones. I see thisyer Edgerton
talkin' 011 the quiet to Adams just be
fore we left, port, but that wasn't any
of my business, so I kep' my mouth
shut.
" "Send Adams aft,' ses the old man,
'fix him up a berth and we'll have him
'eat. in the cabin. It'll never be said
that the spirit of Paul Jones had to
swab decks on any hooker commanded
by Ezra Bolton.'
"That night Mick Flaherty was re
ported as bein' possessed of the spirit
.of William Shakespeare.
" 'Poets are a bum lot,' says Bolton,
'but for the principle of the thing, J
suppose he must be let double up with
Adams.' And back goes that shanty
Irish dock-walloper to eat good grub
: aft with the cabin bunch.
"That last deal was a bit too strong,
„nd .there: t or the crew held an indig
nati< 1 meet in*.
SBfißoysV ses old Loorais, 'l've .sailed
the lakes L' • years, and allers managed
to get my piece of anything good as
was goin.' These here reincarnations
-Is fashionable, and I allow that we'd
all better get in the swim.'
"We see his drift at once, and Billy
Layton, who'd been a college guy in
his day before he started drinkin' and
took to sailin", drew up a list of rein
carnations that we judged would sur
prise the old man. We gave the list
to the mate and he took it to Bolton
as he was paciu' the bridge.
"'Mere's the last bunch of spirits
reported aboard,' ses the mate, and
the old man took a look at the paper.
There was Horace Greeley, Gen.
Grant, James tl. Blaine, Ben Harrison,
Long John Wentworth, Aaron Burr,
Alexander Hamilton, Abe Lincoln,
Jesse James, Admiral Farragut and
Xathaniel Hawthorne.
" 'And that aint' all,' ses the mate,
'for I feel it comin' over me that I
used to drill around as George Wash
ington, the father of our country; so
it' it's ,tll the same to you, I'll eat alone
after this, seeiu' that I'm the top
notcher of the crowd.'
"The old man turned red in the face.
'That's so,' ses he. 'Well, let me
tell you somethin'. I'm through with
this theosophy gag for good, and the
first son of a skuuk I find on this
boat with a sign of reincarnation
about him, I'll make him wish he was
never born. Go tell those fakirs what
I said. Throw that dog overboard and
kick Adams and Flaherty hack where
they belong.'
"The mate hacked away and the old
man hustled to the cabin and started
to lay down the law to Edgerton and
the girl. She only laughed.
" 'That's all very well,' she ses, 'but
maybe your wife won't be wild when
she hears how you've been makin' love
to nie. And I've got witnesses, too.'
"Bolton was staggered, for his wife
was fierce jealous, and that girl had
nerve enough for anything.
" 'What'll you take to keep quiet?'
ses he.
" 'Let Mr. Edgerton decide,' ses the
girl.
"'I guess SI,OOO 'ud be about right,'
ses Edgerton. 'You know you told
me on the trip over how well iixed you
were. Anyway, seein' that you've
gone back on your old love, I've de
cided to take a chance with her my
self and we need something to start
housekeeping with.'
"Bolton made an awful kick, but he
was sure up against it, and the end
of it was that he gave them his check
for the money. When he found out
afterwards that the girl had eloped
with Edgerton from her home in Buf
falo and that they framed the game
up for his benefit, he nearly went
crazy with rage. And there never
was no more theosophy foolishness
on board the Monteagle, long as Ezra
Bolton was her skipper."
DIG AND BE HAPPY.
Spadework Advocated as a Cure for
Ills.
Mr. Stephen Gwynn, an English
member of parliament, claims to have
discovered an infallible recipe for
health.
Taking as his text an alleged dic
tum of President Roosevelt: "Sweat
and be saved," he declared that if per
spiration is the acme of physical cul
ture, an analysis of the means by
which it may be obtained is not to be
sneezed at.
The Frenchman perspires with ef
fort. Germans are "even more ad
mirably porous,' and your professor,
sitting tranquilly beside his beer, can
drip like a laborer in a hayfield."
Among English and Americans of
the higher class this result "can
only be attained through elaborate
machinery, generally disguised as a
game."
The objection to salvation by games
is that they cost too much in time
and money. Fencing and golf are iai
stances. A gymnasium is "a des
perate expedient." Mr. Gwynn had
rather break stones than beat the
air with heavy dumbbells or light
ones.
We must rule out running, because
a man who made a habit of running
half a mile a day would be counted a
lunatic —"for he could not always pre
tend to be catching a train."
But if you have only a plot of
ground in a suburb you can dig. Mr.
Gwynn wonders that the doctors "have
never discovered digging." An enter
prising specialist should find that
newly turned-up soil has a medicinal
quality in its exhalations.
Those who reject fosso-therapeutics
might try wood chopping. Mr. Gwynn
has visions of lean, athletic men in a
warm glow of health, bringing home
neat, bundles of logs.
But Mr. Gwynn's pet idea is digging,
which, he observes, has also an educa
tional value. No one after two hours'
spadework will be quite so pat with
denunciations of the "idle working
man," who thinks two dollars little
enough for eight hours' digging.
He stigmatizes as blasphemous the
idea that devotion to athletic rites
generate a kind of "morbid craving to
perspire." Man, he avers, has a con
stitution arranged on the assumption
' that he will perspire daily. If he does
in : the constitution will go wrong in
ways familiar to all brain workers.—
Cornhill Magazine.
Australia's Iron and Steel.
Australia is rapidly increasing her
imports of iron and steei manufac
j ttires, steam and other engines, loco-
I tives, electrical machinery and agri-
I cultural implements, but most of the
I orders are going to Great Britain.
"-i
LINCOLN AND A SOLDIER.
Great-Hearted President Gave Latter
Chance to See His Wife and Child.
Instances of President Lincoln's
kindly thoughtfulness for the soldiers
are almost numberless; yet from time
to time a new one is brought forth
from (he recollection of those who
knew him in war days.
On liis way to the telegraph office
early one morning, says Mr. David 11.
Hates in the Century Magazine, Lin
coln observed in the hall a young
woman who seemed to be in great dis
tress. Klie carried a baby in her arms,
and was pacing to and fro, and
crying.
The president asked Maj. Eckert.
Togo out and see the woman, and
learn the cause of her trouble. This
was done, the major reporting that
the woman had come to Washington
thinking she could get a pass to the
front to enable her to visit her hus
band, and let him see the child,
which had been born since the father
@T?\
TTfp
Asked Her Where She Was Staying.
enlisted; hut she had learned that
she would not be allowed togo to
the army.
"Major, let's send her down," said
Lincoln. Eckert replied that strict
orders had been issued not to let
women goto the front. Secretary
Stanton entered the office at the time,
and seeing the evident sympathy of
Lincoln for the woman in her trou
ble, said: "Why not give her husband
a leave of absence to allow him to
see his wife in Washington?"
"Well, come, let's do that," replied
the president. "Major, you write the
message."
Hut Eckert said the order must be
given officially. "All right, major, let
Col. Hardie write the message and
send it by telegraph so the man can
come right up."
Col. Hardie wrote the message,
which was promptly telegraphed to
the Army of the Potomac, and when
1 he sorrowing woman was informed of
what had been done, she came into
ths office to express her gratitude to
the jiresident. Lincoln then asked
her where she was staying. She said
she had not yet found a place, having
come direct from the railroad station
to the Whit© House, and from there
to the war department. Lincoln then
directed Maj. Eckert to obtain an or
der from Col. Hardie to allow the
young mother and her baby to be
taken care of in Carver hospital until
her husband arrived.
This was done, and the soldier was
allowed to remain with his wife and
child for over a week before return
ing to his regiment.
A LIVING MONUMENT.
Lumberman's Handspike Grew to Be
a Tree After He Enlisted.
"There is a river birch tree on the
banks of the Pond Fork branch of the
Little Coal river in Boone county,
West Virginia," said M. C. Eldred of
Madison, W. Va., to a New York Sun
reporter, "and it would go hard with
any man who put an ax to it. That
tree has a story.
"When the Mexican war began, in
1846, a recruiting officer visited a
lumber camp in the vicinity of Madi
son seeking enlistments from the
sturdy woodsmen who were at work
there. Among them was a giant lum
berman named Jim Martin.
"He was using a handspike made
from a river birch sapling recently
cut and still green. Eager togo to the
front, he thrust his handspike deep into
the soft soil of tin; river bank and
went away with the recruiting officer.
"The handspike Jim Martin used
was too big and heavy for any of his
fellows to handle, and it was left
sticking where he had jabbed it into
the ground. The next spring it was
noticed thai it was putting forth green
shoots, showing that it had rooted in
tho ground.
"It was left undisturbed, and it
grow to be a great tree, and it stands
to-day on the spot where the patriotic
Jim Martin thrust it into the earth its
a battered handspike 61 years ago.
Jim Mait'u was killed in battle, and
his bon"-s lie somewhere ou Mexican
ground, but he has his monument in
this still sound and vigorous tree,
which is a revered landmark in all
that country."
THE OLD BUGLE.
I can hear the olden bugle
As II sounded 'mom? the pines,
*W here bem iiii the skies of Bumm#f
Stretched the endless battle lines;
J l Is .ailing, calling, calling,
In a region far away,
Whip- He dews of IIIKIII are falling
On the Blue and on the Gray.
I ean hear Its ghostly echoes
In the long-ih Her tcd camps,
Willi" above the fields of glory
Nightly flit the flre-lly lamps;
It is blowing, blowing, blowing,
Win re the crimson rivers ran,
Ami Us notes are svvr- My mlnglinft
With the rushing Hapldan.
nil, the mti -le of the bugle!
It will n. vor pass away,
The the bugler slumbers sweetly
Where th.- sunbeams love to play;
It is trilling. Irllllntr, trilling,
Mush-ally as of v
V •• " •'•• = !-• . .|,0,. s
Of Potomac's guarded shore.
I can see the bugler standing
On the pine-enelrcled hill.
And his never silent bugle-
How be blew It with a will!
It is sounding, sounding, soundinft
O'er the gleaming bayonet.
And its thrilling call to battle
in my oiu iic.ui i.ngii's y<u
KIIKI'I' sprang we to its summons.
We were 50,000 strong.
And we often cheered its echoes
As we proudly marched along;
It is calling, calling, calling,
<>b. my comrades, don't you hear?
And its notes are falling, falling
On the even soft and clear.
From the vinelands and the pinelands
Where we fearless met the foe
Comes tile trilling of the bugle
That we heard so long ago;
It is blowing, blowing, blowing,
By the haunted river's shore;
May its echoes stir the woodlands
When the old ranks are no more.
—T. C. ilarbaugii.
THE MATTER OF PENSIONS.
Progress Made in Effort to Provide
for Old Soldiers.
The United States pension office has
had ati especially busy year, by reason
of the age and service act of congress,
passed February 6, 1907. There were
not many entirely new applications
for pension under this act, but there
was a tremendous rush of claims for
increase of pension, the applicants de
siring to be transferred from the lists
tinder former laws so as to receive the
benefits of the new law.
This law, which provides for the
payment of a pension of sl2 a month to
honorably discharged soldiers of the
civil war who served 90 days and who
havb reached the age of 02 years, sls
a month to ihose of above service who
are 70 years of age, and S2O a month
to those of the same service who have
reached the age of 75 years, has added
to the annual disbursements by the
pension bureau, although the number
of pensioners decreased by 18,000 dur
ing the last fiscal year.
According to the annual report of
the commissioner of pensions, 350,000
applications were received under the
above-named law up to June 30, 1907,
and 120,0U0 certificates had been is
sued upon these applications up to
that time; without doubt a large num
ber of certificates have been issued
since the close of the fiscal year.
As few of these claims are entirely
new, the military service of the claim
ants has already been fully assured,
an, no medical examination being re
quired, and in many cases the age of
the claimant having been already
shown to the pension bureau under
former claims, the government is en
abled to pass expeditiously upon
these cases, and give to the old sol
diers immediate benefits under the
new law.
Considering that the claimants un
der this law are all aged men, and
many of them in need, it is matter of
congratulation to the country, writes
Ada C. Sweet in Chicago Journal, that
the pension bureau has been prompt
in settling claims of this class.
The indications are that by the
close of the present fiscal year all
pending claims under this act will be
adjusted, and the bureau will then
have only to issue the certificates for
increase, which will have to be made
when the claimants reach the age to
entitle them to increased pensions.
The annual value of the pension roll
now, that is, the amount that would
be required to pay the pensioners on
the roll at the close of the fiscal year
for one entire year, provided there
were no changes by death or otherwise,
is $140,850,550.60. There are under
all laws antl special acts of congress
now on the rolls 967,371 pensioners, to
whom the above amount will be paid,
or would be paid if they all were to
live and remain upon the pension list.
The bureau is still active in the
prosecution of offenders against the
pension laws. One hundred and eight
convictions were secured last year
upon cases presented to the depart
ment. of justice.
"it is gratifying to state,"says the
pension commissioner, "that of the
10S convictions only 16 represented
cases against persons who rendered
either military or naval service, again
demonstrating the fact that the de
fenders of the government are not in
clined to become offenders against the
pension laws."
The convictions were secured large
ly for such offenses as the making of
false affidavits, impersonating a pen
sioner, conspiracy to defraud, perjury,
etc.
In the special examination division
of the pension office, where cases are
taken up for searching examination
by the agents of the bureau—each
case at the home of the applicant and
involving the personal cross-examina
tion by an agent of the government of
the claimant and ills witnesses—
-9,77."» were taken up and disposed oJ
during the year.
The church with a head for gold
usually has a heart of wood.
Is ■ fC
CEMENT BLOCK MOLD.
How You Can Make It and Use It
Yourself.
The lumber necessary to make this
mold should be of selected white pine
or hardwood free from knots and sap.
The base board. A, Fig. 1, should I>p
14 inches wide by 24 inches long, well
battened together. The sides are
made as shown with a cleat on each
end. which overlaps the end pieces and
holds them in place. Both the ends
MOLD FOR CEMENT BLOCKS.
and sides are fastened to tho base
with hinges, which permit them to be
turned down to take out the completed
block. On each end, explains Popular
Mechanics, is placed a flat iron bar
with a bend or notch in it to bold
the sides together. These bars are
the same as hooks with the ends ex
tended to form a handle for con
venience. The end pieces have a thin
piece of board fastened in an upright
position on their inner surface to
form a key between the completed
blocks.
Tho bottom board, Fig. 2, is to be
fitted in the bottom of the mold loose
ly and can be blocked up from the bot
tom to make the right size block.
The plugs, Fig. 3, are made with a
A HUGE WATER WHEEL.
Marsh of 2,000 Acres Is Reclaimed in
a Novel Manner,
Two thousand acres of Michigan
marsh land have been reclaimed by a
system which is declared to be new.
The new drainage consists of two
principal factors, namely, a monster
water wheel and a series of high and
wide dikes, with broad and deep
ditches within, writes James C. Mills,
in Popular Mechanics. The dikes are
20 feet high above the normal stage
of water in the river and the ditches
EXPLANATION.—The diagram shows
the wheel in the flume immersed to depth
of six feet. Wheel is 28 feet diameter;
ltJ paddles; space between each paddle
at the outer rim, five feet five inches.
The paddles are set at an angle to the
spokes and are thus seven feet long.
The inner rim, to which the inner end
of the paddles are attached, is IS feet
in diameter, or slightly more than 50 feet
in circumference. The spece between the
inner ends of the paddles is three feet
one inch. The width of each paddle is
four feet. At five revolutions per minute
9.520 cubic feet of water is raised, or 571,-
200 cubic feet per hour, or 1i),27!S tons of
water per hour.
are 10 feet deep and 34 feet wide at
the bottom. The building up of the
dike and the digging of the ditch was
done by a dredge which, starting at
the river, dug its own channel around
the tract, the earth taken out in the
operation beng dumped on the outside
to form the dike. Running straight
across the tract are five smaller
ditches, joining both ends with the
main ditch. At the corfi'T of the tract
where the north and east sections ef
fect a junction, at the lowest point,
the power house was erected and the
water wheel and the machinery to op
erate it installed. Under the power
house and cutting straight through
the dike there is a sluiceway four feet
wide and 30 feet long by lti feet deep,
constructed of concrete. In this flume
the water wheel is set, its shaft ad
justed so tiiat its wood paddles are
within a quarter of an inch of the
smooth Hat walls and bottom of the
flume. On the outlet end, where the
wall is rounded to conform to the cir
cumference of the wheel for a dis
tance of six feet from the bottom
the end of the paddles slip along the
surface and discharge the water into
the outer sluiceway.
The wheel is 2S feet in diameter and
four feet wide and constructed en
tirely of steel. The wood paddles tire
bolted on at. a deoided angle to the
wheel spokes, in order to permit the
water to flow off more freely as the
wheel revolves and the paddles pass
the mouth of the sluiceway. This is
necessary because the water is not
raised as high as the wheel axis, at
which point tho spokes would be
parallel to the of the stream.
There are 10 of the paddles and when
the wheel is in operation they are tho
important factor in lifting the water
from the ditch to the river beyond.
The great wheel is arousing much
Interest becaure of its novelty and
large capacity, ?cd as yet is tho only
taper on both sides so That. In remov
ing th' in they will dear all the way
out. The pins in the bottom of the
plugs an- to fit in holes in ihe bottom
board, which will hold them In place
When tlio plugs are to be removed
take the board with the two square
holes, Fig. 4, and place over the top
of the mold and with the handle of
(he tamper bar, which is run through
the rings in the top of the plugs, lift
them upward, using the board as a
guard to prevent the block from living
broken. This board should not bo
used until the block is finished and
ready to take out of the mold.
The tamper. Fig. 5, is made of a
piece of iron rod about IS inches
long with a large nut threaded on one
end.
To make Ihe blocks use one part of
Portland cement and three parts of
good, sharp sand. Mix well and put
enough water onto simply dampen the
whole mixture. Close up the mold and
putin the plugs, and then fill
the mold one-quarter full of the
mixture and tamp down hard. Repeat
this until the mold is filled and then
scrape off the surplus material, re
move the plugs, turn down the sides
and lift out the finished block. The
block should remain on the bottom
board until it is hard enough to re
move. It will be necessary to have
a number of bottom boards. The fin
ished blocks must be sprinkled with
water from day today for a duration
of 15 to 30 days to properly cure them
before using. A barrel of cement will
make about 50 blocks.
one so used in this country. The
small expense of operation is its chief
recommendation, and when one con
siders that it has drained seven miles
of 34-foot ditch, six to seven feet
deep, in less than ten hours, he has
some idea of what it could do in drain
ing swamps and marshes now covered
with water at all seasons of the year.
To operate the wheel there is pro
vided heavy continuous gearing with
five-inch face, which is bolted securely
to the rim and which engages a pair
of 12-inch spur-gears, mounted on a
counter-shaft, which in turn is con
nected by belting to the engine shaft.
The engine is 125 horse-power of the
ordinary slide valve type, supplied
with steam from a fire-tube boiler.
When operated at its full capacity the
wheel revolves five times a minute and
will take a foot of water off an aero
of land in six minutes.
Belgium's New Coal Field.
The Belgian government has under
consideration the exploitation of the
new coal basin discovered in the
northern part of Belgium. The first
discovery of a deposit of coal in this
region was made in 1901 by means of
borings extending to a depth of 1,700
feet. Since then borings, some of
which are about 5,000 feet deep, have
demonstated the existence of a rich
zone of coal under the provinces of
Limbourg and Antwerp, having a
length of about 56 miles, and a maxi
mum breadth of ten miles. The
great average depth of the deposit
naturally presents the chief difficulty
in the way of its exploitation.
MANUFACTURING ICICLES
"Stick" Ice a Commodity Much in D
mand in Austria.
"Stick" ice is a commodity much in
demand in upper Austria. Water is
Making "Stick" Ice.
allowed (o fall slowly over a series of
poles, where, by the natural process,
it freezes in the form of gigantic
icicles. These icicles are broken off
as fast as they are frozen and carted
away to storage quarters.
Government Builds Good Boat.
The government-built ship "Con
necticut." in her test trials proved her
self better than her sister ship
"Louisiana," built by the Newport
News company. The "Connecticut's"
average speed was 18.73 knots for her
five best runs, and the "Louisiana's"
18.59 knots.
Wind Stops Trains.
Trains on the Scottish highlands
have been occasionally stopped by
the force of the wind.
Quite a Difference.
The number of persons to tha
square mile in this country is 17,
while in England it Is 480.