6 r==n The | Princess Elopes By HAROLD McGRATH Author o_f "Th© Man on the Box," I "Hearts and Masks," Etc. tCopyritfbt. lUOS. Bobbb-Mcrriil t'u.) SYNOPSIS. Arthur Warrington. American consul to Barscheit, tells how reigning Grand Duke attempts to force his mice. Prin ce.«£s Hlldcgarde, to marry Prince Dopple fcinn, an old widower. While riding horseback in the country night overtakes him and he seeks accommodations in a dilapidated castle. Here he tinds Prin cess Hildegarde and a friend, Hon. Betty Moore, of Kngland. They detain him to witness a mock marriage between the princess and a dis.traced army officer, Steinbock, done for the purpose of foiling the grand duke. Steinbock attempts to kiss the princess and she is rescued by "Warrington. Steinbock disappears for good. Max Scharfenstein. an old Ameri can friend of Warrington's reaches Bar scheit. Warrington tells him of the prin cess. Scharfenstein shows Warrington a. locket with a picture of a woman in side. It was on his neck when lie, as a boy. was picked up and adopted by his foster father, whose name he was given. He believes it to he a picture of his mother. The grand duke announces to the princess that she is to marry Dopple kinn the following week. During a morn ing's ride she plans to escape. She meets Scharfenstein. He finds a purse she has dropped but does not discover her iden- Ity.' Warrington entertains at a public restaurant for a number of American medical students. Max arrives late and relates an interesting bit of gossip to the «(Tect that the princess has run away from Barscheit. lie unwittingly offends a native officer and subjects himself to certain arrest. Max is persuaded to take one of the American student's passports And escape. The grand duke discovers "be escape of the princess. She leaves a otn saying she has eloped. Efforts are vta.de to stop the princess at the frontier, tetty Moore nsks for her passport. She •ks Warrington for assistance in leav itg Barscheit, and invites him to call on erin London. Max ilnds the princess in lie railway carriage. She accuses him _f following her. He returns to her the ■purse lie had found. It contained a thou sand pounds in bank notes. CHAPTER IX.—Continued. "Trust me to keep silent, then." He ■continued: "I have lived a part of my life on the great plains; have ridden horses for days and days at a time. As a deputy sheriff I have arrested desperados, have shot and been shot at. Then I went east and entered a Srent college; went in for athletics, d wore my first dress suit. Then • y foster parent died, leaving me his iVtune. And as I am frugal, possibly because of my German origin, I have ♦ore money than I know what to do with." He ceased. "Goon," she urged. "When the Spanish war broke out I •entered a cavalry regiment as a troop er. I won rank, but surrendered it after the battle of Santiago. And now there are but two things in the world I desire to complete my happiness. I want to know who I am." "And the other thing?" "The other thing? I can't tell you that.!"—hurriedly. "Ah, Ijbelieve I know. You have left some sweetheart back in America." AH her interest in his narrative took a strange and unaccountable slump. "No; 1 have often admired women; but 1 have left no sweetheart back in America. If I had I should now feel very uncomfortable." Somehow she couldn't meet his eyes. She recognized, with vague anger, that she was glad that he had no sweet heart. Ah, well, nobody could rob her of her right to dream, and this was a very pleasant dream. "The train is slowing down," he said suddenly. "We are approaching the frontier." She shaded her eyes and searched the speeding blackness outside. "How far is it to the capital?" he asked. "It lies two miles beyond the fron tier." Silence fell upon them, and at length the train stopped with a jerk. In what seemed to them an incredibly short time a guard unlocked the door. He peered in. "Here they are, sure enough, your .excellency!" addressing some one in „tae dark beyond. An officer from the military house hold of the Prince of Doppelkinn was instantly framed in the doorway. The girl tried to lower her veil; too late. "I am sorry to annoy your highness," he began, "but the grand duke's orders are that you shall follow me to the o.astle. Lieutenant., bring two men to tie this' fellow's hands," —nodding to ward Scharfenstein. Max stared dumbly at the girl. All the world seemed to have slipped from under his feet. "Forgive me!" she said, low but im pulsively. "What, does it mean?" His heart was very heavy. "I am the Princess Ilildegarde of Barscheit, and your entering this car riage lias proved the greatest possible imsfortune to you." He stared helplessly— And every thing had been going along so nicely— the dinner he had planned in Dresden, and all that! "And they believe," the girl went on, "that I have eloped with you to avoid marrying the prince." She turned to the officer in the doorway. "Colonel, pa the word of a princess, this gentle- man is in no wise concerned. Iran away alone." Max breathed easier. "I should be most happy to believo your highness, but you will honor my strict observance of orders." lie passed a tek gram to her. "Search train for Doppelkinn. Prin cess has eloped. Arrest and hold pa:r lill I arrive on special engine. "BARSCHEIT." The telegraph is the true arm of the police. The princess sighed pathetical ly. It was all over. "Your passports," said the colonel to Max. Max surrendered his papers. "You need not tie my hands," he said calm ly. "I will come peaceably." The colonel looked inquiringly at the princess. "He will do as he says." "Very good. I should regret to shoot him upon so short an acquaintance." The colonel beckoned for them to step forth. "Everything is prepared. There is a carriage for the convenience of your highness; Ilerr Ellis shall ride horseback with (ho troop." Max often wondered why he did not make a dash for it, or a running fight. What he had gone through that night was worth a good fight. "Good-by," said the princess, hold ing out her hand. Scharfenstein gravely bent his head and kissed it. "Good-by, Prince Charming!" she whispered, so softly that Max scarcely heard her. Then she entered the closed carriage and was driven up the dark, tree-en shrouded road that led to the Castle of Doppelkinn. "What are you going to do with me?" Max asked, as he gathered up the reins of his mount. "That we shall discuss later. Like as not something very unpleasant. For one thing, you are passing under a forged passport. You are not an Amer ican, no matter how well you may "Good-by, Prince Charming!" speak that language. You are a Ger man." "There are Germans in the United States, born and bred there, who speak German tolerably well," replied Max easily. He was wondering if it would not be a good scheme to tell a straight forward story and ask to be returned to Harsclieit. Hut that would probably appeal to the officer that he was a cow ard and was trying to lay thb blame on the princess. "I do not say that I can prove It," went on the colonel; "I simply affirm that you are a German, even to the marrow." "You have the advantage of the dis cussion." No; he would confess noth ing. If he did he might never see the princess again. . . . The princess! As far away as yonder stars! It was truly a very disappointing world to live in. "Now, then, forward!" cried the colonel to his men, and they set off at a sharp trot. From time to time, as a sudden twist in the road broke the straight line, Max could see the careening lights of the princess' carriage. A princess! And he was a man without a country or a name! CHAPTER X. The castle of the Prince of Doppel kinn rested in the very heart of the celebrated vineyards. Like all Ger man castles I ever saw or heard of, it was a relic of the Middle Ages, with many a crumbling, useless tower and battlement. It stood on the south side of a rugged hill which was gashed by a narrow but turbulent stream, in which lurked the rainbow trout that lured the lazy man from his labors afield. (And who among us shall cast a stone at the lazy man? Not I!) If you are fortunate enough to run about Europe next year, as like as not you will bo mailing home the "Doppelklnn" post-card. More than once I have wandered about the castle's interior, cavernous and musty, strolled through its gal leries of ancient armor, searched its dungeon-keep, or loitered to solil oquize in the gloomy judgment cham CAMERON COUNTY PRESS, THURSDAY, JANUARY 9, 1908. ber. How time wars upon custom! In olden times they created pain; now they strive to subdue it. I might go into a detailed histo-» of the Doppelkinns, only it would be ab surd and unnecessary, since it would l>e inappreciable under the name of Doppelkinn, which happens to be, as doubtless you have already surmised, a name of mine own invention. I could likewise tell you how the ancient dukes of Barscheit fought off the in sidious flattery of Napoleon, only it is j far interest, and Barscheit is sim ply a characteristic, not a name. Some day 1 may again seek a diplomatic mis sion. and what government would have for its representative a teller of tales cut of school? !t was, then, to continue the fortunes and misfortunes of Max Scharfenstelu, close to midnight when the cavalcade crossed the old moat-bridge, which hadn't moved on its hinges within a hundred years. They were not enter ing by the formal way, which was a flower-bedded, terraced road. It was the rear entrance. The iron doors swung outward with a plaintive moan ing, like that of a man roused out of his sleep, and Max found himself In an ancient guard-room, now used as a kind of secondary stable. The men dismounted. "This way, Herr Ellis," said the colonel, with a mocking bow. He pointed toward a broad stone staircase. "All I ask," said Max, "is a fair chance to explain my presence here." "All indue time. Forward! The prince is waiting and his temper may not be as smooth as usual." With two troopers in front of him and two behind. Max climbed the steps readily enough. They wouldn't dare kill him, whatever they did. He tried to imagine himself the hero of some Scott or Dumas tale, with a grim car dinal somewhere above, and oubliettes and torture chambers besetting his path. But the absurdity of his imag ination, so thoroughly Americanized, evoked a ringing laughter. The troop ers eyed him curiously. He might laugh later, but it was scarcely prob able. A tramp through a dark corridor and they came to the west wing of the castle. It was here that the old prince lived, comfortably and luxuriously enough, you may take my word for it. A door opened, flooding the corridor with light. Max felt himself gently pushed over the threshold. He stood in the great living-room of the modern Doppelkinns. The first person he saw was the princess. She sat on an orien tal divan. Her hands were folded; she sat very erect; her chin was tilted ominously; there was so little expres sion on her pale face that she might have been an incompleted statue. Hut Max was almost certain that there was just the faintest flicker of a sftiile in her eyas as she saw him enter. Glorious eyes! (It is a bad sign wfien a man begins to use the superlative adjectives!) The other occupant of the room was an old man, fat and bald, with a nose like a russet pear. He was stalking— if it is possible for a short man to stalk—up and down the length of the room, and, judging from Uie sonorous, rumbling sound, was communing lialf aloud. Between whiles he was rubbing his tender nose, carefully and lovingly. When a man's nose resembles a russet pear it generally is tender. Whoever lie was. Max saw that he was vastly agitated about something. This old gentleman was (or sup posed he was) the last of his line, the Prince of Doppelkinn, famous for his wines and his love of them. There was, so his subjects said, but one ten der spot in the heart of this old man, and that was tlio memory of the wife of his youth. (How the years, the good and bad, crowd behind us, pressing us on and on!) However, there was al ways surcease in the cellars—that is, the Doppelkinn cellars. "Ha!" ho roared as he saw the blinking Max. "So this is the fellow!" He made an eloquent gesture. "Yeur highness must be complimented upon your good taste. The fellow isn't bad looking." (TO BE CONTINUED.) OLD METHODS PASS SYSTEMS OF LONG AGO WILL NOT WORK NOW. CONDITIONS MUST EE MET One Reason for Growth of Mail Order System Is That the Average Busi ness Man Has Not Been Progressive, Business methods are changing week after week and year after year. The systems that our forefathers swore by, and which are often preached to us as examples that should be followed to-day, could never be made to work now any more than the people would be satisfied with the old ox team and heavy cart as a means of transportation. The old style con veyances were the best known in their time, and great discoveries have been made by means of the old sailing ves sels. In fact, the pioneers were the ones who used these slow methods, but who will say that we can well dis pense with the fast-flying steam cars and electric lines or the ocean flyers of the present? Business methods are different and growing more different day by day. and we must adjust ourselves to condi tions as they change. The spread of the catalogue house system has been tremendous, if that word can aptly be used to express it. There are ele ments In the system that are good, and some elements that are bad. It Is according to the way they are ap plied. There is reason why the cata logue house exists. They will keep in evidence until there are better meth ods and more equitable systems ar ranged to supply the wants of the peo ple, and until the people realize that while the system as a distribution agency may be all right, there is much more to the question that needs more careful consideration. Soon as the masses realize that trade in each local section is important to it, that any system that takes fram a community the employment that Its people should have, and that the profits in trade are essential to the best welfare of the people of a community, the sooner will the mail order houses find their proper sphere and the sooner will the mer chants of the smaller cities and towns come to a realization that they must adapt their business methods to the requirements of the times. The catalogue house system should he looked upon as an educational one. The large catalogues that are sent throughout the land are great books from which lessons can be learned and will be learned. The masses have not had knowledge of values placed well in their hands. Their economic education has been neglected. The farmer knows a good cow, a good horse, a good hog, and it is hard to fool him. His education has been such that he is "up to snuff." He is quite willing to pay the owner of a horse just what that horse is worth, and willing that the seller should have the profit In the transaction. Were he as well posted in the values of the things that he must buy for daily use he would be the same with the local mer chant as he Is with the man from whom he may purchase a horse or a blooded cow or other animal. The big four-pound books are catechisms of commercial values. The farmers and the children of the family study them, and learn more about things in the commercial world. A few orders sent to the far-off dealers, and a few disap pointments, are sufficient to convince the intelligent man that he can do better at home. Communities that a few years ago were the greatest buyers of goods by mail are to-day the best home traders. The people have become educated. They soon discovered that goods of a certain quality always had a certain value, the same as a good horse or a cow or some farm animal. They also realized that the policy of taking em ployment away from the home people was wrong. Perhaps the merchants of the place "brushed" up a little. They, too, began to understand that If they had all the stocks and kinds of goods that the people wanted, and made the prices right, and in addition kept the peoplo rightly informed of these facts, that they could have the trade of the people of the community. Both forces working together—the farmer that he was doing wrong in Bending away his money and that he could get just as good goods at home and the merchant that he had to adopt up-to-date methods —did that which was desirable: viz., kept in the town the business that, should be kept there, solved the problem. Cooperative Systems Weak. Advocates of cooperative enter prises point to the great success of a few English societies. Glowing re ports of how great are the savings to the peoplo oy these cooperative or ganizations are given. But here the law of compensation plays a part. While the cooperative methods are ex tolled, few who are active in coopera tive work show the other side of the question. If some cooperative enthusi ast would dissect the report of the London board of trade, recently made, it would be found that since these co operative societies have gained such a foothold more than half a million workers in various lines have been af fected adversely; that those thrown out of employment by cooperative ef forts are objects of charity and are a burden to the different trade guilds. The substitution of one store for a hundred may mean economy, but 'when thousands are thrown out of employ ment by tlio system what other field affords) them a living? CAN NOT BE ELIMINATED. Position of the Middlemen Secure In the World's Commerce. Much is printed in the trade papers about the cutting out of the middle men, the jobbers and retailers. Busi ness revolutionists have taken 11 p the theme, and have aired themselves. Socialistic economists have advocated the annihilation of the middlemen aa a class of non-producers. The farm ers of the country are trying to devise means of doing away with "sharks that produce nothing, and make a liv ing off the labor of others." But the ones who are so desirous to see tha middlemen done away with will have to wait for a few thousand years. The jobber and the little storekeeper are necessary in the distribution of products. They are most important parts of the machinery of commerce. To illustrate: A large manufacturing company is located in an eastern city. Its products are sold by more than 200,000 stores. These stores are lo cated in all parts of the United States. Perhaps it costs the concern ten per cent, to have its products distributed by the jobbers. If the concern at tempted to sell its products direct to the retailers it would be neecssary to carry 200,000 accounts. There would be required a shipping force of several hundred men. The freight on the small amounts of good 3 that would be called for would be enor mous over the cost jf shipping in trainload or carload lots. The delay in the transportation of goods a long distance would be costly. Should the company not send goods direct from the factory, distributing stations would have to be established. These would have to be maintained at a cost greater than the ten per cent, paid to the jobber for the warehouse charges and the carrying of the accounts, and the employment of travelers. Be sides, the manufacturer would be com pelled to employ an army of traveling men, or institute a system of trade getting that would be more expensive. The jobber sends out a traveler and he sells a few hundred kinds of goods, the makes of a few hundred different factories. Here we have cooperation that is sane and profitable, and it is doubtful whether the time will ever come when the jobber and the traveler will be out of business. The present system is the development of eighteen hundred years or more of experience. It is doubtful whether the inventive brain of man can devise any other system of distribution that will be an improvement. Don't worry about the middleman being driven out of the field just yet. ARE KILLERS OF TRADE. Surething Grain and Live Stock Buy ers Injure Business of Town 3. Mr. Enterprising Citizen, did you ever consider what an inliuence there is in having your town recognized as a good grain market, a place where the farmers can dispose of their hogs and all their products at as high prices as paid elsewhere? Were you ever unfortunate enough to live in a town where the grain buyer or the hog buyer was a skinflint, and not liked by the farmers? There is a county seat in a western state, well located in a rich district, and well supplied with railroads. A few years ago there were good stores in the town, and it was a prosperous place. Farmers came from many miles about to sell their stock and do their trading. There was a change in the elevator and in the hog-buying business. The newcomers were built on the wrong plan. They were out after the money, and didn't care much how they got it. The elevator man re fused to pay what grain was worth. He could find more fault with a load of wheat or of corn than any man ought to. He skimped on quality, every kind, no matter how good, wa9 a low grade, and the farmers soon found that he was not the kind of man that they wanted to deal with. The new stack buyer was of the same stripe. He would beat the farmer down to the last cent, and it was said that the way he would weigh was a caution, and the fellows who had stock to sell would steer clear of the town. Farmers would drive a few miles fur ther to another town, where they would purchase the supplies that they needed. It got so that whenever a farmer was seen in the town it was for the purpose of paying taxes or looking after some business at the courthouse. To-day the town is a dead one. Both the grain buyer and the liig buyer are out of the town, but the farmers got in the habit of trad ing elsewhere, and have not forgotten that the business men of the place, judged of course by the grain buyer and the hog buyer, were skinners. If you are unfortunate in having such men in your town, devise some means of getting them to move to some other place. They can do more harm than a dozen merchants can offset by square dealing. An Organization Era. This is an age of "organization." The farmers combine to regulate the markets for their products, the grain dealers and the stock buyers combine to keep prices clown, the flour manu facturers and the moat packers com bine to keep prices up, and the job bers combine to hold the combined manufacturers in check, and the re tailers combine to carry on their busi ness in a way to gain a living and make light the exactions demanded by the manufacturers and the Jobbers. Tlio working man combines to protect himself in his work and against the cutting of wages, and so it goes. The struggles of life are many, but can not they be lessened by having fewer combinations? Will not the practice of home trade principles act in a pre. ventative way against combinations? §yrup#figs Senna acts jointly yot prompt ly OH tl 10 bowels, cleanses {he system effectually, assists one in overcoming halntual constipation permanently. To got its oenejieial ejects (jny tKe genuine. planufacturedl by tne CALIFORNIA Fio Syrup Co. SOLD BY LEADING D3UCGISTS-50* p. - BOTTLE. THE DIPLOMAT. Governess—Who was the wisest man? Tommy—Solomon. Governess —And who was the wisest woman? Tommy—Well—er—it's either you or ma, I can't make up my mind which. SUFFERED TWENTY-FIVE YEARS. With Eczema—Her Limb Peeled and Foot Was Raw—Thought Amputa tion Was Necessary—Believes Life Saved by Cuticura. "I have been treated by doctors for twenty-five years for a bad case of eczema on my leg. They did their best, but failed to cure it. My doctor had advised me to have my leg cut off. At this time my leg was peeled from the knee, my foot was like a piece of raw flesh, and I had to walk on crutches. I bought a set of Cuticura Remedies. After the first two treatments the swelling went down, and in two months my leg was cured and the new skin came on. The doctor was sur prised and said that he would use Cuticura for his own patients. I have now been cured over seven years, and but for the Cuticura Remedies I might have lost my life. Mrs. J. B. Renaud, 277 Mentana St., Montreal, Que., Feb. 20, 1907." NOT QUITE THE SAME THING. "Simpleton seems to have a fortune in his mine." "Er —no! The fortune's only in his mind." The Quality of Mercy. A notorious mountain moonshiner, familiarly known as "Wild Bill," was recently tried before a federal court in Georgia and was adjudged guilty. Before pronouncing sentence the judge lectured the prisoner on his long crim inal record, and at last informing him that the court entertained no feeling of anger toward him, but felt only un mixed pity, sentenced him to spend six years in the federal prison at At lanta. Bill stolidly shifted the quid of to bacco in his mouth and turned to leave the courtroom with the marshal. Once outside, the only thing he said was this: "Well, I suah am glad he wa'n't mad at me!"— Youth's Companion. A Railroad Man's Knock. "That famous railroad man, the late Samuel Sloan," said a New York bank er, "loved fast trains and hated slow ones. They tell a story about a trick he once played ou a railroad whose service was notoriously slow. "Having, several times, to use this railroad's afternoon accommodation, he caused a sign to be painted, which he took from his pocket and hung in the front of one of the cars when no body was looking. The sign said: 'Passengers are requested not to pluck ilowers while the train is in mo tion.' " None so little enjoy life, and are such burdens to themselves, as those who have nothing to do. —Jordan. PILES CIIHED IN « TO 11 I»AYS. PA'/A) OISTMBNT I* (runmnlwU to cure any enso o! lirlibin. Ullnrt, Hk'oilliitf