TO AVOID DANCER.
————— HE.
Would you love me, my darling, my
> sweetheart,
Would you love me as dearly as now,
It the fortune I have were to dwindle,
Or slip through my fingers somehow
If the millions my grandfather left we |
Were ruthlessly taken away
Mould you love me, my sweetheart, my
darling,
With the love
day?
- -
that you
give me to-
SHE. -
0, I'd love you as deariy as
If you hadn't a dollar to claim;
But why not get rid of all danger
By putting your wealth in my name?
I'd love you, I know, just as foudly,
If I had to be put to the test
But, dearest, suppose that 1 carry
The pocketbook-—that'll
ever
3 '
Dest,
be
The Trouble at Van Dora's 9
BY C. T, JACKSON,
The “troubleman” on ihe
beach on the sunny side of the opera
sai wash
tor's shack at Van Dora's listening to
the drip of water from at drifts of |
snow that the cabin and gaz
ing over the valley and all the country, |
which, buried by the four days’ April |
blizzard, glared In white splendor that |
pained the troubleman’s eyes, Van!
Dorn’s camp was the temporary term- |
inns of the railroad
close of tracklaying in tl
November, the amd Ji
Wardwell, lineman and ge:
charge of the newly
had hibernated
zards,
The
aronnd
the cut
the the
and the rocky wall on the other
distance to
miles,
high ridge that the track skirted
Today the told
the two men that thelr hibernation was
ended. Then an engine
had pushed throvgh the cu
the siding at Van Dora's, where
pectant men
cheer and a of cull ee A
consiruction traln, with men and ma
terial. was due in a few hours, and the
train-despatcher bad wired
to hold the snow-plow
gre
crested
new Since the |
ie previous
operator nmy
rear
il man in
constructed line,
together in is
last mile of the |
the base of a
made a
river
he Was
urving terr
tool below an
last
went
the station
f
iL one strajght over
ticker had joyously
dd snowplow
ped to
the ex.
greeted the
rew with a
boller hot
ns irae
at Yaa
until the construction train sh
arrived. table
was still clicking merrily some further
message, but the ticker suddenly stop
ions
Dora's
ull have
The instrument on
the
ped. and no assuring resnoopse fashed
back. The operator watched the sound
er, tested the instrument carefully
then Jim and
plow crew, who sat around
Jim,
what do you sup
i's
and
whistled to the snow
Lae love
“Trouble on the line Somewhere
fine is dead.
pose is up? Ciren
bere and Elwood n
about the work train he wante y SAY
Jimmy. lad, here's vour first fob th
season-—-trouble, trouble, and the trou
bleman must hunt it up.”
Now Jimmy was a young lineman
oa his first season, and at the announce
ment of “trouble.” he was in a fervor
to be up and doing, as lineman must
“Troubleman”™ the term Spplied
the men on each division who hasten
to repair the wires wherever trouble oc
curs. Although Jimmy was
uperintendent as well as lineman. trou
ble at Van Dorn's was scarce, and there
had not been enough to take the boy
ote hundred yards from camp all win
ter. By way of pastime, he had im
proved himself in the art of clicking
keys, although he bad been a fair oper
ator before.
“You can’t do much
Now
broesen between
Nomething nore
i ¥
“
is to
with it, lad,
just locate the trouble, and when the
the wires through those drifts,
need to worry, for the train will have a
clear run from Elwood.”
Bo Jimmy tramped gally down the
cot with his lineman's kit and a pocket
relay, which llnemen seldom carry, as
few of them understand telegraphy or
have need to tap the wires. Halfway
around the curve, where the rock wall
rose almost to the top of the pole, the
Young man found his trouble, A braoch
of a goarled oak on the hillside Lad
split from the trunk and bad borne
the wire down into the cut and buried
it in the spow,
“Il can’t do much with that,” said
Jimmy, “but I'll climb the pole sod
look over the country.”
While he was strapping the steel
#purs around his ankles, he noticed that
the hillside snow frequently overhung
the rock wall, and was dropping in
sodden masses iuto the cut. When he
had climbed to the crous arms of the
pole and glanced up at the shining
fields of the hilltop, four hundred feet
above him, a small cottonwood tree
halfway up the slope cracked sharply
in the silence, and crows flew caw.ng
from the leafless branches,
“It looks queer!” said the lineman,
“I do believe the whole Lill is coming
down!”
Far up the dazzling blaff beat a white
surf of heavy snow. It grew swiftly to
a crumpled, rolling wall, with the ‘tan
gled brush and timber disappearing
beneath it. Along the wall about Jim-
ty great drifts were falling suilenly
fate the cut; but it was not until the
rushing snow was sweeping about his
pole tuat the lineman dropped from his
perch, to be buried besesth the dirty
avalanche whieh ended its wild career
on the lcebound river below, All traces
of the rallroad track were obliterated
The young lineman was senseless for
a little while. When he recovered con.
sciousness, he perceived nothing but
vague darkness about him, His body
was pumbed by the pressure of
trunk of
to sit ap,
branches
His head struck the
when he struggled and
about him the tangled held
back the snow until he could drag his
bruised body along the side of the wall,
where he saw dimly that the brush and
timber had fallen to form the narrow
crevice which had saved his life.
A stealthy creaking and settling of
the mass. with occasional slight falls
of snow and fragments of rock and
bark. mads Jimmy think it would be
dangerous to attempt to get out. But
the April sun would swing around the
western slope that afternoon, and
soften the snow that the masses above
him would inevitably fall. Now
He crept along,
a tree
0
tant wire runaning diagonally from the
oak branches up along the wall
The
wire! It recalled the
train! Had it left
Around the great
Consiruc.
Elwood?
ing, with the ninety men of the outfit,
hurled over the bank into the
river or dashed against the rocky wall
had just
sharp curve hid the track ahead, and
there could be no warning
be
come where the
before the
snow and boulders.
The lineman lay face down, th
of the jovial,
had
erately
inking
red-shirted who
him kindly and ©
when Re came, a
into Van Doran's rough camp
try
Crew
nsid
“tenderfoot.”
He
welcomed
must
to save (Rose men.
o crawl back, thin
hat might find
and fag them if not too late
fell
Jimmy tried
dizzily 1 he
an
of snow heavily into his
resting piace, and he dug his
until he struck
and attempted to
away from his path, He took the clip
kit and snapped off,
and then a new idea flashed through his
mind. Wak the wire still
the avalanche?
Which did it
tomb? was
way
aver it the telegraph
Wire Jagan, £
fear
pers from his
ntact beyond
lead from his dim
unbroken aud
everything except
the dry snow, he might use it
evil, Jimmy took the little relay from
its and pressing w
him, quickly wound
end of the wire around the connecting
post of the instrument. Then he con
pected the section of had cut
and buried
the ground voderneath
that to ground th
ae
his relay would com
way
if it
contact
fre
from with
10 avert
Case, the
out sn
about the loose
wire he
off to the other brass post,
in
Kpowing
the tree end
the snow,
qurrent beyond
plete the circult
line
Then the
the
awifthess
with any station on the
’
metalli 0
with
sharp king
startling
a
keys came stich
that Jimmy shrank back
the darkness with an awed ory
“Train Elwood 1:45 Thr
to Van Dora's without
What's
ag from
doe waugh
there as
shtop,
tl bw fire
Dore Noth
snow-plow vel?
It
$ ¢ han
instr the
matiet
Van yu? here s
noe
art
was the man at the last station
who was talking
The operator at Elwond began to ree
Jimmy Wardwell,
if the instrument
impotent protest, se ze4] the relay with
with a cry
as cottld voice his
in:
“Flag that train!
Slide on the track This is Van
Wardwell, Flag that train on
too late!”
clicking sounder brought
message: “What's that?
Traln com-
He evidently
Hold
0 ont
that train:
Then the
did not understand.
Jimmy flashed back one more des
perate appeal:
“Slide in cnt,
train, quick, get out!”
“No answer came, and in the dark
ness the lineman hammered uaintell!
gibiy on the kays. “He'll do it, he'll
save em!” he muttered, deliriously;
ask what it was all about, as he had not
interpreted all of Jimmy's messages.
Then Elwood clicked back the glad
pews that he had beld the train, and aa
excited demand for an explanation was
coupled thereto,
Ten minutes later the operator rushed
out. to the engine, where the gang fore
man and the engineer were arguing
whether the high bit of work ahead was
through brown sandstone or just ordin-
ary limestone,
“Great KBeott!” he cried. “There's
been a slide somewhere in the cut, and
that pink cheeked boy at Van Dorn's
swears that he's telegraphing to me
from under the top of the whole blamed
bill. 1 don't understand what he's
driving at, but you'd better run in
The ninety men of the construction
gang spent the rest of the afternoon in
finding what was “up,” or rather dewn,
When they had traced Jimmy's hiding
place, by means of the wire, and had
carried him back to the station, it was
commonly agreed that the troubleman
at Van Doran's had undergone an ex.
perience interesting and unusual in a
lineman's first year. Youth's Compan.
fon,
A —————
Bombay, India, receives its ‘water
from three large lakes, which receive
tensely malarious,
THE FILIPINO IN SPORT,
Plenty of (lame to be Found /n the Faraway
islands.
In Outing appears an article by Ed
| win Wildman on the Pilipino in sport,
{ Regarding the Filipino as a hunter the
writer says:
“Although the Filipino is something
of a vegetarian, the abundance of trop
feal fruits and the blood-heating prop
of ment recommending a
{ diet, he keeps his family supplied with
deer, pheasant, snipe and duck on fast
{davs. But when he goes ont
he hunts the bear,
as the wild water
erties such
for seri
wildeat
buffalo
| ous sport,
carabao,
{ Is called.
| “It is not child's play to drop a cara
with an auwclent carbine of the
| lintlock type; neither is it easy to lay
him low
{ bao
with a bamboo arrow, a speat
The carabao dies hard, and
| has A way of returning the compliment,
when attacked, putting up a fight that
would credit the African
In fact, he is liable to see you
| first, in which case he opens the ball
He has no
| speed and he knows it, so he employ¥
Lor a volo,
do to spe
{ cles,
without further ceremony.
| his talents that nature provided him
with, and holds his ground,
“If he does net discover you first, all
you have to do is to let him know that
you are in the neighborhood, and he
will do the rest. Rushing threugh the
tramping underfoot the nepa
ETrass, like a Philip
pine typhoon, snorting and shaking his
When within a few
still
horus for
bamboo,
he comes at you
great head in tary.
feet of vou—if you are there—he
lowers
his colossal the toss
Then your last chance,
don't
is your chance
if
him by a well placed ball between tl
or
is extreme.”
Mr. Wildman then says of the othet
of game: “There are
varieties of deer, two of them distinet-
I might say--for, you stop
ie
eyes, in that vicinity, your danger
varieties three
ly peculiar to the islands, small and flat
¥ i
foots .
found
ittle fellow
India. The
or mouse
a house
something like the
on plains of
smallest cherrotalin
not larger than
the
is the
deer, much
i eat”
“Knipe, quail and wild duck Inhabit
the marshes and the rice fields, but are
so plentiful that it is rather tame busi.
ness shooting them.”
The that fishing
| suited to the temperament of the Fili-
pino, the heat of the sun having little
effect on bis exposed cranium. Also
that the hunting of beetles he finds lu-
| orative, as they bring a good price in
the markets, being regarded as a great
delicacy. .
Mr. Wildman says that the national
sport is cock-fighting, and amounts to
a passion with the native; that he may
neglect his family, he attends to
diet and housing of his fighting
cocks with scrupulous care, and that
i government might as well try to
argue the Tagalog woman out of chew
ug betel nut as to abolish cock
fighting
He says that racing and fencing,
which General Luna introduced, are the
sports of the higher class and the rich
writer says is well
but
the
the
the o
hall caste,
Regarding
Writer says
“Little fear of
tortained, despite the stories that have
the pests of the islands,
fly
the snakes pewd he en
i= but one poi
aod the
it until the speci
heen circulated There
known natives
Ar upon
ext are,
pest
0
0
t Mosqu tows
be dreaded, but
Philippines,
a pligrimage,
when
the
goes ont or a huni or
netting before his
In the north
packs hix mosquito
suckles on his revolver
of
Luzon. where the altitude is higher,
the mosquito is ess vicious™
in closing Mr. Widmann remarks: “I
do pot think that shooting will be pop
plar nor game abundant in Luzon fot
the next The man behind
‘the gun i= no longer entirely safe in
the interior and the man without one
would speedily forfeit realize his
| insurance policy.”
few years
or
Ne Private laterview.
| “Could 1 bave a few minutes private
| conversation with you?" he asked as
hie stood at the open door of a lawyer's
office in the Loan and Trost Building
the other afternoon.
“Can't you speak right from
where yon are?’ asked the lawyer in
reply after looking the man over.
“1'd rather make a private matter of
i"
“What
ness?’
“Confidential-strictly private
confidential, sir.”
“Well, | have no time to grant you
a private interview. If you have any.
thing to say, yea can leter go right
here. Now, what is it?”
“1.-1 wanter the loan of a quarier,
stammered the man,
“Oh, you did! And you wanted a
private interview to ask me that?”
“Yes, sir. 1 knew that it would hart
both our feelings if 1 were refused in
public—yours because you couldn't af
ford to loan me the money and mine
because | couldn't get it. Can you
grant my request, sir?”
“No, sir.”
“And does it hurt your feelings?”
“Not a bit. You are mistaken on that
point.”
“And my feelings are the only or
burt?’
“Yours alone.”
“Just so.” sald the man as he bowed
and backed out. “I beg your pardon.
I was mistaken, You have the money
and uo feelings, and I have the feel
ings and no money. Impossible chasm;
no use in trying to bridge. Good day.”
«Washington Post.
ont
is the mature of your busi
and
OUR YOUNG FOLKS.
.
When All the World is New. <
If you were a little girl again,
Mother Mahone, Mahone,
What would you do the long, long day,
Playing alone, alone?
It I were a little girl again,
Nora, my
With just one long, long sunny day
To play alone, alone,
If 1 were a little girl again,
And fairy folk were true,
If paper dolls had human hearts,’
And all world were
Ab, listen, little one,
I'll whisper what [I'd
To the violets lips I'd put my ear
And hush my heart that 1
The of
I'd search beneath the fungus shelves
OWnH, my own, “
the new,
listen,
do:
might
its sweetness:
secret
For glimpse of goblins, guowmes, or
elves;
I'd run a race with the langhing brook,
Or chase it to some witch-kept nook,
Whose spell wonld stay its fleetness;
I'd hide in the haunt of tne mocking
bird
learned Ht
word;
Till 1 « melody word
Full length upon the moss I'd le,
Content beneath the changing sky
In that one day's completeness,
If I were a little girl again,
Even as You, as you,
If falry folk were truly folk,
And all the world were new,
I'd just be happy, lit
Till
Mabel Leta Eaton
tie one ——
the long. long day was through
u 81. Nicholas,
Joe and His Little Dog.
her of a district school In
Maine “a
of Mary and
of Joe and his little dog
story that reminds one
her little lamb, only it is
Joe was a boy about eight years old,
and was a lank
puppy. Out of school hours boy and
dog were inseparable, and Joe appar
ently could not reconcile himself tot
devoted to small,
he
necessity of leaving the dog at home.
For several mornings the
lowed puppy to main
feet under the desk.
teacher al.
the at
Then there a day when the
small dog could not be kept quiet, but
frisked about the delight of the
school and the dismay of the teacher
“Joe " said, firmly,
take the dog out”
Joe looked at her mournfully,
picked up the pup, and with its head
sgainst his cheek started for the door
The boy's feelings were evidently hurt,
but be sald nothing until he reached
the door, then giving the teacher a re
proachful look, with a pitying glance
toward the dog, be said slowly, “And
be's named for you!"
Came
to
she
“you must
but
The Mugkrat's “ Banana”
Science” in the 8t. Nicholas, we find
this account, by William J. Long, of
the doings of a muskrat
If you know where there is a colony
of muskrats—and if you don't know
you can easily find out; any farmer or
hunter will show you their village of
grass houses by the river—you can
have no end of enjoyment by going
there at twilight and calling them out.
Squeak like a mouse, only louder, and
if there is a pointed nose in sight, mak-
n iotter V in water, It
toward And if
still, you have only to
great the
nstantly you
is all
hide and squeak a few times, when two
or three muskrats will come out to
see what the matter is, or what young
muskrat has got into trouble,
If you go often and watch, you may
a many things
“Musquash” (that's bis Indian pame)
Bove gowwl Curious wie
or cutting wood, or catching a trout,
ing a duck’'s egg along on the water's
ones in the den far below,
like bananas, you may sometimes
smack your lips at seeing him eat his
banana in his own way. This is how
he does it,
First, be goes to the rushes, and, div.
ing down, bites off the biggest one close
to the bottom. 30 as {o save the soft,
white part that grows under water,
Then he tows it to his favorite eating.
place. This Is sometimes the top of a
bog. sometimes a flat rock on the
shore, sometimes a stranded Jog; but
wherever it is, he likes to est in that
one place, and always goes there when
be is not too far away, or too hungry
to wait,
Crawling out to his table, he cuts off
a piece of the stump of his rush, and
sits up straight, holding it in his fore
paws. Then he peels it carefully, pull-
ing off strip after strip of the outer
husk with his teeth, till only the soft,
white, luscious pith remains. This be
devours greedily, holding it in his paws
and biting the end off and biting it off
again, until there isn’t any end left
exactly as a school-boy often eats a
banana. Then he cuts off a second
piece, If the rush Is a big ous, or swims
and gets another, which he treats in
the same way.
And if you are a boy watching him,
your mouth begins to “water,” and you
go and cut a rush for yourself, and eat
it as Musquash did. If you are hungry
it Is not very bad. .
Wr——
Snake Charming in India.
With a musical jostrument made of
reeds or bamboo the Hindu, or native
of India, manages to soothe the evil
spirit of the deadly Indian serpents,
playing a peculiarly droning melody
that, according to its quichpess or slow.
mess, causes the snake to pdise its body
and sgvay its head aboyd fn time with
the music, or to lie quietly, with aull |
eyes watching the Immovable musi- |
clan. Gradually the player may draw |
the poisonous cobra de capello to his |
without danger so long
music lasts; but meny snake charmers, |
either through carelessness or fatigue,
have lagged with the music and have
been struck and fatally poisoned by the
fierce snake,
Many are the
side ax the
stories told of the pow-
these snake charmers, however,
A General Campbell of the British In.
dian service tells how a big cobra was
found at the
beadguarters,
ers of
bottom of a well near hi
The hurried
and a
%
soldier to
his gun crowd of natives
retained to pelt the hated snake with
in this way they drove it
the of
Two snake charmers were
get
glones, into
tan the
| well, went
| for. They were let down into the well
by means of ropes, and one of them be-
| gan to play a shrill and
{ tune on a sort of bagpipe,
panion
opening in brick -work
monotonous
His com
other side of
hole where the snake was hidden, and
stood on the the
{ held a long pole with a slip noose at-
| tached end ready to
snuke
| pear,
10 iis
the
ap
BOOse
as soon as its head should
For a time the snake appeared uncon.
of
half
{ playing had been constant,
| BCious the seductive music, but in
{ about an bour, during which the
the cobra
was heard to move, and soon out slow
iy came its ugly head. In an instant
| the slip noose had done ix work
| the snake was a dangiing prisoner
i ter
| snake
and
Af.
being hoisted the well the
from
chaurmers carried their prize
{ an open place and released it
:
{ snake made a rush at the bystan
and sent them scattering. The
t
charmer now tapped the ake
to
% 11 on
tail, causing it
the
turn angrily,
hearing
(TREE he
coiled up and bead
striking posit
The head swaye
side, and not
the creature
who barely «
quick leap to
Maay of our ov
affected
n
rabbit
singlarly
peated
caused a
by whistling in a |
The
hig treetop
© SOme simppe
{rom
Bat
will
will
tape squirrel chatter
if
if you keep ap the litle
| gradually down
trunk of the t
| and listen 3t
| ling a simple warble pear a cathird.
| The impudent little fellow will ruffle
{ Up his feathers, cock bis head on one
| side. listen attentively for awhile and
| then will try to imitate the sound.
| Chicago Record
you whistle to him
ellow
work « Way 0 the
ree and will crouch there
¢
as if spellbound
Queer Homes of Birds.
In a sleep old + in
there
illage
is a quaint little
which bas stood for more tha
| tury. It is a great place for feathered
gongsters, and many birds attend sery
England
stone church
n one cen
8:
joe every Sunday during the summer.
One Sabbath the vicar om going ap to
the reading desk was astonished to see
that under one cover of the
was a newly constructed nest, in wh
open Bible
Ch
| reposed a robin red-breast.
Early in the week she and her
must on
congenial and
following had worked might and
male
have settled this piace as a
home during the days
to get things in shape for bhousekeep-
‘ing. The vicar could not bear to dis
| turb the robins, and so he procured
another Bible, allowing the pious birds
in for the
the pair
between
chosen home
Another
| robins started building
{ the antlers of a stuffed stag’'s head,
which was placed in the main ball of
a country home. Unfortunately for
these birds they littered up the hall so |
| with straw and dried leaves that the
fastidious hounsekeeped banished them |
and they had to seek 5 Lome elsewhere,
Still another robin tried housekeep- |
ing in a disused tea kettle, which had |
been flung out in a cerner of the gar
den. {
Birds who shirk their natural duties |
are quite as apt to suffer as their bu |
man brethren, |
their
season,
to reside
i
| rest of of
nest
The cuckoo makes no nest of ber
own, but watching ber chance, lays her |
relatively small eggs in the nest of a |
more industrious member of the bird |
family, Once a mother cuckoo man- |
aged to Insert'an egg In the nest of a’
redstart which was in a small hole in |
a wall. The aperture was large enough |
for the redstarts to go in and out of, |
i
but when the baby cuckoo burst from |
its shell and was strong enough to try |
and shift for himself, he found he was |
too big to get out and so was a prisoner
for life. His foster parents fed him |
till they thought he was old enough to
earn his own living and then they left |
him. so the poor cuckoo, through the |
laziness of Lis mamma, perished mis.
erably.
Perhaps the most absurd place for
A nest ever discovered was in a canbon
box, located at an army post. A spar
row was the bird to make this choice,
and though the cannon was fired twice
a day, it did not deter her from bring-
ing up a healthy family of young spar-
rows, none of whom seemed to mind a
home which was even nolser than a
New York fiat!
{ am indebted to an English corre
spondent for the following anecdote:
“In the year 1888 a pair of great
tilts built in a wooden letter box which |
stood In the road In the village of Row.
fant, Sussex, into which letters, ete,
were posted. and which was cleared
dally. Unfortunately one of the birds
was killed by a boy, and the nest was
not finished. In 1880 & pair completed
— wn
it and laid seven eggs, and were sitting,
but one day an unsual number of post-
cards were dropped in, nearly filling
the box, and causing the birds to desert
it, when the pest with the eggs were
removed. In 1860 a pair built a new
ceeded in rearing five young, although
the letters continued to be posted daily,
lying on the back of the sitting bird,
Jef The birds
went in and out by the slit for the let
ters,” — Atlanta Constitution,
never the nest.
THE COWBOY AND HIS PISTOL.
Vance Ulves Conclusive Proof That He Did
Not Try to Shoot a Brakeman.
Jack Vance, a cowboy from the ranch
of the Butte Creek Cattle Company,
was on trial at Alliance, Neb, recently
on a charge of shooting at a brakeman
on the Burlington railroad with intent
to kill him. He had recelved his pay
a few days before and was engaged
at the time of the shooting in the pi
turesque pastime of painting the county
red,
Vance vehemently denied any intent
He told
the court that while it was true that he
to perforate the brakeman.
did take out his revolver and shoot af.
r the brakeman had pushed him off
the train, he was merely giviog a pre
arranged signal. He and a friend had
down the road miles and
wanted nearest
te in
a few
to
Realizing that if
train
had
brimis1y
to ride back the
to the ranch,
found
would
that if
should
revolver
of the
off,
put
by any
they
off
Fait 1° TR 4ST
Paria
be put
nged one Was the
he notify his by
er his
ig bh
The sions of hat
trainman,
beliey BATrOwW es
fir:
head and
1" r Py
Vance s
Vance sald
The
outside,
WAN and wen!
ir ux,
sheriff
Vance pulled out his re
and holding postage stamp
tween the fingers of his left hand
ped off each corner in succession Nest
Walking
suspend a
Walkng
oourt
Bo did the lawyers and
Tn
Fan
clip
BIW I ATOTS
a
ver.
put from a thread.
he asked spectator to
put from a thread
off thrty leet, wheeled and at the
shot, thread. Taking six
tacks be placed them closely in a plece
This be placed against a
yards away. Borrowing =
hiwkory
a
ie
first cut ihe
of wood
a
post —-)
for a shot
mark and drove
wood without a
and using the case mirror,
with bis back to
each tack inte
miss,
The brakeman had been looking on
in open-monthed wonder. As Vance
concluded the brakeman stepped up 10
and tapping him on the arm,
the
the
the judge
said
“Yer
taken.
me.’
yer honor, 1 guess | was mis
That man wasn't shooting at
\ Python Loose ou 8 Gusbost.
ng and amusing affair which
on board H. M.
lasted gave
ively quarter
An excitl
occurred Ss.
recently
Rattler the
an
the Singa-
and while it
al of
hour. is thus described by
pore Free Press
“There are two pets on board, a big
torneo orangoutang, and the other a
a python about nineteen
twenty feet in length. This crea
ture. which bad dined heartily on a
deer about three weeks before, had bee
gun to feel its appetite come back
again, and in searching apout its box
for an exit found a place in the side
in bad repair. His suakeship was
through that in a twiokling udob-
served, and, seeing the orangoutang,
who was chained up a few yards off,
invited himself on the spur of the mo-
ment to potluck upon that unfortunate
quadruman. The python at once coil
ed for his spring—-his mode of saying
grace before meat—when suddenly the
quartermaster, Dickson, taking all this
in in a glance, promptly cut poor ex-
cited Jack loose, who was up at the
masthead in a brace of shakes. Lieut,
larking, the proprietor of the orang-
outang. the quartermaster and another
of the crew, who were all on the scene,
flung themselves instantly on the hua
gry python, one at the head, another at
the tall and one ia the middle. Then
the band began to play, for the python
wanted to get one of the aggressors in
his coils, cofidied up against something
hard, and the others meant to Keep him
straight and free from such uncomfort-
able kinks. But reinforcements arrived
in hot haste, and abut twenty sturdy
bluejackets, each embracing a foot of
python, reduced the reptile to compara.
tive quiescence. The procession march.
od back to the python's box, coiled him
down inside, and shut him up. But
Jack sat like a little cherub aloft at
the masthead for a long time before he
came to the conclusion that he was
‘off’ the menu of the day.”
fine sample of
or
Automobile Fuseral
An unexpected field for the antome
bile is in the funeral cortege, but, ow.
ing to a strike of cabmen in Buffalo,
N. Y.. the other day, a funeral in that
city was dependent upon automobiles,
In the absence of a hearse the corpse
was carried in a self-propelled under.
taker's wagon, There were fifteen au
tomobiles in the procession.
The lawyer who attends to his own
business is a sort of legal tender.