VOL XXXI THE CLEVELAND BICYCLE. Constructed of the best known ma terial,by the best skilled labor, fitted with the best bearings in the world, that are positively dust proof. The most resilient tire yet invented—that can be repaired quicker and easier than any other tire in the market. Every wheel guaranteed. ROADSTER. CLEVELAND NO. 8. Another great point That Punctures Competition Is the all around excellence of the CLEVELAND WHEELS. That explains their popularity. CLEVELAND NO. io. For Information, Prices, Etc. Address I. A. LOZIER &GO Cleveland, Ohio, OR J. E. FORSYTIIE, Agent. BUTLER. PA. AGENTS WANTED. HUMBUGGED! 1 DON TBE HUMBUGGED. 1 Don't buy a vehicle'or harness of any kind from a deafer who don't care what he tells you. Don't buy from a dealer who don't know the quality of the article he is selling you. "Never misrepresent nor try to get rich off one customer" has been our motto for 12 years and in that time you have never heard of us having any trouble with any person who has dealt with us. Our experience in the business enables us to assist you in making selec tions of whai will suit your purpose and we tell you just the kind ol material it is made of. We guarantee what we tell you to be true and stand right over it. We buy everything for cash. We pay no rent. We have more stock than any house in the State in the same line and SELL CHEAPER. There is no doubt about this. Come and see. No difference what you want about a team, buggy or horse come to us and get a d >llar's worth for a dollar. Top Buggies $44.50; Buckwagons $33-; Horse Collars, either buggy or team, $1.00; Buggy Whips 10c; Rawhide Buggy Whips 50c; Whalebone Whips, one-half length, 50c. Two seat Spring Wagons S3B; Buggy Tops, good rubber, $9.50; Single trees, Shafts, Wheels, Sweat Pads, Check Lines and everything be longing to harness. M Oar Own Make Team Harness s22♦+* complete, with breeching and collars. All kinds of harness and parts of harness made to order. We employ the best workmen and use the best leather. Come and see us. We never advertised a lie in our life and arc not doing it now. S. B. Martincourt & Co. 128 East Jefferson Street, BUTLER, - PA. P. S. Price reduced on Kramer Wagons, the best wagon on earth and everybody knows it. THE HARDfIAN ART COiIPANY. We are located now at no South Main Street, adjoining the Butler Savings Bank. Our rooms are large, fine and commodious. Photographic enlargements and Life Size, Hand Made Finished Portraits by the finest French artists obtainable. In photographs we give you results and effects that cannot be produced outside of our Studio. We use only Standard Brand Collodion Paper and not Gelatine, a cheep and inferior paper used by many. Picture and Por trait frames; special prices to jobbers. Compare our work with any Standard Work made or sold in the state. Our victorious motto, "We harmonize the finest work with the promptest service and the lowest j rices for the quality of work." Beware of tramp artists and irresponsible parties and strangers. Have your work done by reliable and re sponsible parties that guarantee all work satisfactory. Call and examine our work and samples and read our many tes timonials. THE HARDMAN ART COMPANY. J. S. YOUNG. VVM. COOPER YOUNG & COOPER, t MERCHANT TAILORS I Have opened at S. E. corner of Main and Diamond Streets, Butler, with all the latest styles in Spring Suitings. Fit and Workmanship Guaranted. Prices as low as the lowest. TRY US. THE BUTLER CITIZEN. Hood's is Good r It Makes Pure Blood 'Scrofula Thoroughly Eradicated. «C. I. Hood & Co., Lowell, Mass.: "It U with pleasure that I give you the details ©1 our little May s sickness and her return to health by the use of Hood's Sarsaparilla. She Was taken down with Fever and a Bad Cough. Following this a sore came on her right side be tween the two lower rlbi. In a short time an other broke on the left side. She would take (Dells of sore mouth and when we had succeed ed In overcoming this she would suffer with at tacks of high. fSver and expel bloody looking corruption. Her head was affected and matter oozed from her ears. After each attack she be- Hood's Cures came worse and all treatment failed to give her relief until we began to use flood's Barsaparilla. After she hail taken one-half bottle we could see that she was better. We continued until she had taken three bottle*. Now she looks like The Bloom of Health and is fat as a pig. We feel grateful, and cannot ■ay too much In favor of Hood' s Sarsaparilla." Mrß A. M. ADAMS, Inman, Tennessee, c Hood's Pills act easily, yet promptly and efficiently, oa tbe liver and bowel*. 25c. A Siienlist Ja>nis i lie Root oi D ; «ej;ts io lie in iiie Cloi les we Wear. The bost Spring remedv for the*blues, etc, is to discard your uncomfortable old duds wliicli irri tate ihe body:-leave your measure at ALAND'S for a new suit which will tit well, improve the appearance bv re lieving you instant ly of that tired fcel ino- and making vou o 7 %> cheerful and active. The cost of this sure cure is very moderate TRY IT. C. X D. A b MO - s tli.tt l:c( pa grow ing through a ason oi th j>■ ■ c -ion, si'cii ;< the t.oun y h?i i - i we more for the money ihaii last y ar. Our slock is larger,*to *'e« t from than la-t year/ CALLjAND SEE LS. Colbert & Dale. OUR * ~~ SOLE OBJECT * Is to please our customers and judging from our im mense sales we have been do ing it. Our Spring Goods are arriving daily and many new lines have been added, making our stock of footwear the most com plete in Butler. Special attention is called to our line of Ladies' Walking Shoes, prices from 75 cts. up. We are still having quite a trade on our Ladies' Button Shoes at 95 cts. The Men's, a Calf Cong, and Bals at 95 cts, are great favorites with the trade. Farmers and workingmcn all say our hand-pegged Crederrfors are the best they ever saw for $ 1 .00. Full line Boys' and Girls School Shoes at 95 cts. C. E. MILLER, Hlitlov- I'JI 'COPYRIGHT. 18&-4-1 | STRUCK TDE CORINTHIAN JUST IMAWT CHAPTER VI. The next morning there arrived at the hou I .* very early a dark-visaged, heavily-whiskered and somewhat rough-looking personage, whom Hen dricks called "the captain." They ate their breakfast together and then set out on horseback in a southwesterly direction. They were armed with re volvers and carried on their saddles a luncheon which the servant had pre pared for them. The moment they were alone Hen dricks said: "Well, you are on time. Have you succeeded?" "Yes, sir," said the captain, wlic spoke in a deep, husky voice and stopped at intervals to expectorate, rub his hand across his mouth and pull down his jet-black whiskers, which had an inclination to turn up ruff-like in front "Yes, sir; the boat is in the bayou, or will be by the time we get there. She is loaded with green lumber. I left New Orleans on the 10th, and the party Is made up. It is understood thai we are going tarpon fishing off the coast ...» Florida." "What men have you got?" "There's your own list. I followed It. There's thirty of 'em; with the men we pick up at the coast there'll be fifty in all. It isn't enough." "Perhaps not," said Hendricks, "but ,it isn't men we need if we get those guns off all right." "Well, let me tell yoa 'bout the guns. It took thirty men and a lighter two days to lift 'em afloat. The men understood that I was acting for the Venezuelan government. 1 took the trouble to get them at Pana ma." "But you had a tug." "Of course I had a tug, but I sent her back before I got through. She'd like to have seen what 1 -vas up to. The d d tub with the guns Is hauled up in a cove on the little coral island of St. John. The other stuff is on tho coast." "I understood the vessel to be a sea going schooner. She will have tho trade wind and she has got to bo in the exact spot on the 25th by dead reckon ing," said Hendricks. "Barrin' accidents and elements," replied the captain, "she'll be there." Oil the morning of tho 25th, the handsome steamer San Pedro which had been lying at the leveo in New Orleans, took aboard a party of gentle men and went down the river and out to sea for a week's tarpon fishing. The moment she was in the gulf, she headed south by west and on the after noon of tho 25th encountered a Bchooficr from which she received the guns that had been picked up on the Bahiala bank. On tho 26tli, she was off a point on the Georgia coast known as the I'iney Stretch and sent a boat ashore in the night. An hour later blio pulled into a bay in the most deserted spot of that coast and was loaded with a moderate amount of munitions of war. On the morning of the SOth she touched at St. Augustine guardedly and there Hen dricks received a message from New York in cipher. It read thus: "The Corinthian sails at six a. m. on the 3d; three millions in gold; men all taken passage." What occurred after this can be best told with the subsequent narrations and confessions in view. The English steamer Corinthian, when three days out, sighted at nine o'clock of a clear, calm morning a small steamer laying to with steam up, two miles off her port bow. Capt. Jamison, an Englishman ex perienced sailor, who was on the bridge at the time, thought the vessel was u large yacht and imagined from her i position that she was disabled and wished to speak him. A moment later a puff of smoke came from her side and a shot whistled across his bow. "What in h is the d d fool try ing to do?" exclaimed the captain in amazement. "Does ho know that we carry her lirittanic majesty'# mails?" "I'm afraid, sir," said the second of ficer, who put his glass down and WHOM HE.VIiIIICKH CALLED "THE CAP TAEf." looked a little paler than usual, "that she knows what our cargo is." "A pirate!" ejaculated the captain. "I'll cut her in two," and ho impul»ive ly pulled one of the engineer's bolls. In another moment the Corinthian i aitohyw# to co \tb9 i wM vr.frrfl TiTTTLER. PA..FRIDAY. MAY 11, 1594. and was heading for the San Pedro. Uoth the men were intently regard ing her through their glasses and the passengers were crowding upon the deck. To their surprise they saw that the San Pedro was moving in the same di rection as themselves and throwing a heavy cloud of smoke. "Run, you bloody little scoundrel:" said the captain. Scarcely had he got the words out ol his mouth before there was another puff of smoke—this time from her stern, and almost immediately there came a crash and a hundred voices eried out in alarm and indignation. The shot had struck the Corinthian just abaft the bridge; torn away about ten feet of her upper works and gone through the stern taffrail. Three men were knocked down by the splinters. Capt. Jamison was livid with honest rage and he stamped his foot and swore terribly. "By the God of nations," he said, "are we living in the days of Capt. Kidd, or in the nineteenth century?" "I'd come to, if I were you," said his mate. "That fellow will hull us pres ently. W« never can catch him." "Como to?" exclaimed the sturdy British captain. "I'll break his baek. Do you think an English steamer goes down on her marrow bones to every tramp she meets?" The vessel was now racing through the water at an Increased speed and the action of the engines made an audible throb. There was intense excitement among th' -assongers, many of whom were calling up to the captain to stop the vessel. Ila looked over the brass rail of the bridge at them with indignant con tempt. As bo did so, one man pulled a pistol and shouted: "Look here, wo don't want to be sent to the bottom on account of your d d gold. Stop liore where she is. We can defend our selves at close quarters, but we don't wast to be 6unk." To the captain's utter amazement twenty other passengers shouted: "Aye, aye, shut off your steam." Even then some horrible suspicion of the truth must have flashed upon the wretched officer's mind as ho looked down upon this group. He caught the rail a moment with both hands, then Wheeled round and, folding his arms, said to his companion on the bridge: "Stop her!" As if in anticipation of this, the San Pedro had slackened speed and was now blowing a white cloud of steam. For ten minutes everybody on tho Corinthian watched the vessels ap proach each other and, when they were less than a thousand feet apart, every one could see the line of heads along the smaller vessel's taffrail. Tho sea was unusually calm and glassy, and presently a boat manned by six men put off from tho San Pedro. When the young man who repre sented the pirate had reached the deck of the Corinthian he found himself facing a crowd of men and women in every condition of alarm and anxiety, lie was dressed in a blue shirt and common duck trousers and glazed cap; in his belt he carried a regulation navy revolver. He saluted tho captain po litely and said, in a pleasant voice: "I am instructed, sir, to ask you to order your people below. We will come alongside and remove your spe cie. No harm will be done and no in dignity offered to your crew or passen gers." "Damn your impudence, sir!" re torted Capt. Jamison. "I've a great mind to chuck you into the sea myself. Go baek and tell your buccaneer that a British captain sinks with his ship and cargo, lie doesn't hand them over to the first cowardly rascal he meets." "As you please, sir," the young man replied. "Itwould be a cruel necessity to send this vessel and its people to the bottom." lie turned to go to his boat after making' another salute and one of the passengers again interfered. "We object to the arrangement," he said, "and are not going to be mur dered on the high seas to save your gold.'" Whereupon twenty other passengers armed with revolvers stepped out and repeated: "Aye, aye. Take the gold, but we want to reach our destination." The upshot was that the captain and his officers were locked in the cabin, the passengers ordered below and tho San Pedro lashed alongside. It took seventy-live men two hours and a half to transfer the gold from one vessel to anothur, and a sharp lookout was kept for approaching steamships. When the task was accomplished, the en gineers were ordered on deck and three of the Pedro's crew went below and effectually disabled the ma chinery of the Corinthian. This took another hour. The last thing the pirates saw was the white hair of Capt. Jamison blow ing in the wind that had sprung up from the northeast, as lie shook his fist at them. And the last words they heard were: "I'll hang every dog of you before I die." CIIAPTEB VII. No one knew so well as Hendricks, who sat in the cabin of the San Pedro, that all this was child's play to what was to come. He had sixteen hundred miles to run. He was loaded heavily with coal and the gold had weighted his vessel too seriously to think of getting anything like the speed out of her that he desired. Sh» was sehooner-riKffed and there was a stiff wind blowing from the northeast. That was in his favor. But he calcu lated that If one of the westward-bound ocean greyhounds spoke the Corinthian and got her story, tho news would reach New York and set the telegraph in operation much too soon for his safety. He had informed himself of the position of all the government ves sels and he knew that there was at last accounts a fast cruiser In Mobile bay. He, therefore, calculated as close ly as he could the chances of the Cor inthian being intercepted: for, dis abled as she was, it would be her cap tain's plan to put her in the route of a westward-bound steamship. He betrayed his anxiety to the cap tain, but that personage filled himself with Medford rum and insisted that the worst part of the job was done. The first thing that nendricks did was to throw his guns overboard to- | gether with all his superfluous shot and ammunition. He then got up steam and stood off in a southeasterly direc tion until the Corinthian was hull down, when he shifted his course and , went directly west. There was another source of anxiety In his crew, but here Ms matchless cunning and self-reliance stood him 'jell in hand. He knew what he could do with them if he got within American waters, and they were equally- anxious with himself to get oft the high seas It blew a stiff gale all the first night and his vessel labored badly. Finally j he took his captain's advice, which was to save his coal till he wanted to show his heels to something and take it easy under sail. The consequence was that ! it was nearly six days before he struck the Gulf stream and he had not seen a puff of black smoke on the horizon, lie had provided himself with four i boats, and managed to land thirty o. j his men with a thousand dollars of American gold eagles In each man's j pocket, at San Augustine in the night- J They were as anxious as he to part oompany, and with a thousand dollars i every man of them felt as rich as his ; leader. The moment he had reduced j his crew, he clapped on steam, went i down the coast and rounded Cape Fear well to the south. Ho is known to have ; landed a few more men somewhere on i the coast of southern Georgia, similarly , paid off in gold. He then sailed south j and laid off and on for six hours, and ' finally met two stoutly built fishing pirogues into which with his crew he transferred his plunder and then sank j the San Pedro, taking pains to arrange j it that much of her recognizable ma terial would float. The specie being carefully concealed In the holds of these fishing vessels and covered with sea grass, they set out north in pleasant weather, and arrived off the coast of Alabama on or about the 15th, and proceeded leisurely in the ordinary manner of fishing vessels at that season, the crew catch ing a large quantity of flsh which they packed in over the cargo. At Bayou Lafouche Hendricks got rid of twenty more men who had directions to sep arate and rendezvous a month later at a point on the Georgia coast where he had taken on his ammunition, it being understood that he was going to make for Panama with his pirogues and cargo. Instead of doing this, he went straight to New Orleans and hauled both vessels up at Algiers where his remaining crew were kept aboard, and for two days disposed of their fish. These men were evidently picked and retained for their reliability and were thoroughly cognizant of the whole scheme. Hendricks managed to arrive in New Orleans as if by rail, and registered at the St. Charles as Archibald Hendricks, of Tennessee. As he was already known by that name at the hotel and was known to be interested in some land improvement scheme, his subse quent operations attracted no suspi cion. His captain and all but four of the men had been sent north in differ ent directions to meet at the Laran portal and the two badly smelling pirogues that had slipped into Al giers lay among a lot of old craft in an out of the way place, securely guarded by the four men. The moment Hendricks got to the ho tel, he was able to learn all the facts of the search. The Corinthian had been two days and a half at sea under sail before she spoke a westward bound steamship, the Anglo-Saxon, and com municated the news. It was three days and a half before the Anglo- Saxon reached New York and the news of the robbery preceded her from Eng land by cable Just six hours. Twelve hours elapsed after the reception of the news before the navies of England and America were looking for the San Pedro. Hendricks smiled as he saw how narrow a margin he had sailed on. Before the search was well under way, he had been in the gulf and the wreckage of the Sau Pedro, which bo was sure would come to light was, ho thought, a fairly good chance of per plexity and delay on the one hand to the pursuers and a safe location of the plunder up to the moment of transfer on the other. The betrayal of that transfer depended on the twenty-five men whom he had still in his service and upon whom he believed he could depend. Hendricks was too shrewd a mau not to see that his scheme however cun ning would only hold for a time. He knew perfectly well that the sailors whom lie had got rid of, would proceed immediately to get drunk and in their recklessness expose the plot up to a certain point. But he believed their stories under whatever promise of pardon or compulsion of punishment could get no farther than the state ment that tho San Pedro had sailed for Panama or Venezuela. The knowledge of the transfer to the pirogues was locked up in his own immediate con federates. This fact he reasoned would not prevent the ultimate discov ery of the real truth, but it would de lay it sufficiently for him to get safely to his subterranean retreat with Ills plunder. Common piracy was not an idea that anybody would entertain. No steam vessel could keep afloat and coaled up over a week without run ning across a cruiser. The special conspiracy and the abandonment of the San Pedro were therefore inevit able deductions. The purchase of the use of the San Pedro, the shipment of the men at New Orleans, the landing of the men on the southern coast must all sooner or later focus the search at New Orleans. But by that time he would be out of sight. Two facts were of special import: The officer and boat's crew that had boarded the Corinthian had been pho tographed by one of the passengers ov the steamship, but while this fact had been communicated to New York, the photographs had been carried to Eng land. The other fact was that the passengers all had the impression that the vessel and crew were Spanish and had gone eastward. Two flays had not elapsed before the : two pirogues with their masts cut o£f | were taken In tow by a small side j wheeler and pulled up the river. They ! were loaded with derricks aud heavy i timber. Hendricks had inserted an j advertisement in the papers and it was known lie was purchasing material for his improvements somewhere on the Mississippi. On the morning that the little side wheeler went slowly up the river In plain view of New Orleans, the f'nitod I States cruiser Dakota picked up and j identified some of the upper works of ! the San l'edro in the gulf, and a sensa tional story appeared in a New York paper which stated that the conspiracy to rob the English steamship had been hatched in the United States treasury department, and that the San Pedro had transferred her cargo in the bay <»f Camp-acliy und the treasure was now hi'iinpat or near the iiuncas di . Sisal, nir \ ucatan. I Everything now depeded on the pirogue-, reaching the Wish bayou be fore the true clew led to Xew Orleans. It was a seven-hundred-mile journey, and the vessels crawled along at a pace of only eight iniles an hour. Hen dricks himself went direct to Memphis by rail, and after several days of intol erab'e anxiety and constant expecta tion of meeting with the news that tho plunder hail been tracked to the river, he had the satisfaction of see ing his cargo from the hotel win dow slowly and laboriously crawling up the stream undisturbed. He got aboard the steamboat about ten miles above Memphis, and, rinding C'apt. Blinn aboard, he having been similarly picked up, they congratu lated each other. The vessels were run safely Into the Wash bayou at night unobserved, and the whole energy of Hendricks anil his confederates was then directed to the transportation of the specie to the western end of the Laran cavo. In spite of the urgent need of haste, this was done deliberately and method ically, and the wild, deserted coun try favored the task. Mule teams were provided; the two journeys were made at night under guard, and in three days after the landing there were two million nine hundred thousand dollars in the Laran cave. nendricks" plans for the immediate | use of some of the money are in part i known. Three mouths before the rob bery of the steamship, he had, by some j scheme, managed to borrow six thou- j sand dollars, which he converted into j gold and deposited in the First na tional bank of Memphis to be drnwn i against. He now went to the Second national bank of Louisville, Ky.. with the certificate of deposit and expressed a desire to change the specie from one ; bank to the other as a matter of con venience. It was an ordinary business transaction and created no suspicion. He then instead of drawing the six thousand from Memphis, made a fresh deposit of six thousand in Louisville. This gave him a bank capital sufficient for ordinary and immediate use in cur rency, and the fac* that he had not withdrawn the money from one bank to put it in tho other either escaped notice at tho time or was not regarded as of any significance. His next move was the formation of a supposititious syndicate to purchase the land in Tennessee for a national sanitarium. This j*roject was exploit ed in the Kentucky papers with great cunning. A corporation of medical men had surveyed the land and were about to purchase it aud erect a mag nificent hotel, and they had made Mr. Hendricks a handsome offer for it. WMlc all this was maturing the wtaan whom Laport had met as Miss Frank lin was making purchases in New York, Boston and Philadelphia, and snipping goods to Memphis and Frankfort. Her plan was to make small purchases at widely separated stores, giving gold in payment and getting currency in change. She must have sent to Hen dricks during a month of operations several thousand dollars in bills. CHAPTER VIIL During that month he remained at Laran, as he called the place, superin tending tho improvements that he had projected. He had purchased the land and fenced it with an impregnable steel fence for several acres around each entrance to the cave. During his absence, Laport had gone over the entire plaoo with a subordi nate who appeared to be familiar with every part of it. They hail set out with lanterns, ladders and other appliances which were loaded upon a couple of Rocky mountain burros that Laport found in the place. Through the alley or corridor that led from the rugged spaee at the en trance, Laport noticed that tho coal measures showed themselves on both sides. The passage opened into a vast room almost circular and with a vault ed roof. Its superficial urea was at least three acres and Laport could not resist the impression that it had been at one time an incandescent bubble that had cooled without breaking. He stood in the center and threw the light into the space above. A few stalactites gleamed faintly like stars. Noth ing else in the cave so impressed him as this magnificent natural rotunda. Indeed the rest of the subterranean passages and openings were such as are seen in all the underground tracts of Kentucky and Tennessee. Vast ac cumulations of limostone debris; choked and narrow alleyways; bottom less holes; enormous stalactites and mounds of their fragments where they had fallen. Here and the.e streams of water flowed sluggishly across their path and once they encountered a pond or lake about a mile in extent and at one point half a mile in width. The exploration mainly impressed Laport with the prodigious expense and the comparative futility of con structing a narrow-guage road on the varying aud stony levels. But he saw that it could bo built on iron benches against one of the walls with only two breaks that needed bridging. When Hendricks returned and had closeted himself with Laport in what he called tho laboratory, he did not find Ills engineer very enthusiastic. "It will cost an enormous sum to put a track down," he said, "and it is for you to say that the end will warrant the extraordinary expense." "I told you before," said Hendricks, somewhat testily, "that the purpose and expense were not part of your con sideration. What will it cost?" "Well, sir, I suppose a rude but solid bracket road can be built on one wall for about six thousand dollars a mile." "That's very nearly a hundred thou sand dollars for sixteen miles. Let us say a hundred and fifty thousand. Can we put up an electric engine if it is got in here by piecemeal and make "I AM INSTRUCTED, Silt, TO ASK VOU TO ORDER YOUR PEOPLE BELOW." the trucks and cars if the iron work is supplied?" "Unquestionably," replied Laport. "Then the railroad question is set tled," said Hendricks. "Now the light ing system. My idea is to run the fur nace chimney through the roof where tho crust Is not over ten feet thick and carry it up at the end of the house wc are to build over the entrance. But you will see what our difficulty is. \\ e want light to build tho road, aud until the road is built we cannot get our dynamo and engine into the cave, for they must come in at the other end." "I would suggest a temporary light ing arrangement," said Laport. "The difficulty of delivering most of the ma terial at this end can bo overcome." "Yes, but the difllculty of transpor- tation at this end cannot be overcome. We have to haul our stull from the J nearest railroad and that Is only a poorly equipped branch. It is next to tin possible to pull the material over the ran until road* are made and we hare the water almost at our door in the southwest." "Nevertheless it is im;>ossible to pet any heavy material through those pas sages at present and it is not impossi ble to wheel here from the nearest point until your road is completed." "How long will it take to build the road?" Laport laughed. "It is a question of supply of iron and number of work men." "Very well, we have all winter. I will furnish you with a tf-ang of fifty wen. If the road is done by next May I shall be satisfied." (TO BB OOXTIXVID.) A USEFUL BUREAU. IThit Hu B«n Done by the Offle* of Road Inquiry. The establishment of an office of road inquiry by the United States de partment of agriculture was a move in the right direction. The work of in quiring into and Investigating the sys tem of road management and the j methods of road making is steadily go ing on under the supervision of Roy Stone, the special agent and engineer in charge of that office A valuable bulletin comprising the state laws re lating to the management of roads was recently compiled and issued by him. The demand for this pamphlet was 60 great that the supply was ex hausted and a reprint has been ordered. Material for further publications along this line is being collected. Concern ing the results sireatty mcM Ej». , gineer Stone says: "It appears that, while many short sections of good highway are being built in various parts of the country with a gratifying cheapness in coat and freedom from burdensome taxation, in some of the states a serious setback to the move ment has occurred through the failure of legislation intended to advance It The optional country road laws passed in 1593 have nowhere proved accept able to the county boards with the ex ception of two counties in Michigan. Yet these boards are in touch with the people and doubtless voice the popular verdict on this legislation. It is dear, therefore, that these laws are either in advance of public education or at vari ance with the public judgment in the states concerned, and that a new de parture must be taken to insure any prompt and general advance in highway construction in those states. Under these circumstances the depart ment has asked for Information and suggestions regarding other lines of legislation. Fortunately it has been able to point to the remarkable suc cess of the state and local option law of New Jersey, and to commend It with certain modifications to the considera tion of other statea That law pro ceeds upon the theory that while the country as a whole may be unwilllng'to embark in road building, those small er communities which are themselvee willing to contribute fairly toward the improvement of their highways may justly demand county and state aid in carrying on such improvement. The law provides for a survey and estimate of the cost of building a road when a petition, signed by owners of not less than one-half of the lands abutting on the road. Is presented to the county board of supervisors. It will be the duty of the board to construot or im prove the road whenever the petition ers file with the board a map or de scription of the lands which they be lieve will be benefited, together with the written consent of three-fifths of the owners that these lands, and the | personal property in the district, be as | sessed for the cost." HAND CULTIVATOR. Doe* the Work H Wall u H*it of the ni(h-FrlM4 Machine*. Take a piece of oak, aab, or some wood of similar firmness, 2>f feet long, Inches thick and 4 inches wide; cut a slot in the front end 2 inohes wide and 10 Inohes long, and In the back end a similar slot 8 Inches long. These slots are for the carrying wheels, which are In this case made of 1 Inch pine HAND CULTIVATOR boards The front one is to be 1 foot in diameter, and the other 8 inohes in diameter. The teeth of this cultivator, as the cut shows, ara made of two old forks, one a three tlned and the other a four tined. These forits had each m tlno broken two inches shorter than the rest After the tines are shortened so as to be all of the same length, they are heated and sharpened, and shank bent, if necessary, to give it the proper angle, about 45 degrees; when inserted in the beam this can be determined by experiment. Bore two or three holes in the back of beam, by which the wheel can be raised or lowered to regulate the depth of cultivation. For the handles, 4 inch pine strips cut down to 2 inches to give hand holds, can be used, or old plow or cultivator handles that may be on hand will do instead, if not too heavy.— fi A. Ilills, in American Gardening. Rural Mall Delivery. An interesting movement has been projected in the attachment to the post oftlce appropriation bill of an amendment setting aside 120,000 for the purpose of experimenting with rnral : free delivery. With thlß amendment ; there is another directing the post ! master-general to report to the next conjfress such measures as may be deemed practicable for mall delivery in the rural districts and their probable cost. The experiments thus forecasted will be watched with interest, and no where with greater attention than in the country districts where rural free delivery involves such important inter ests. The marked growth in city popu lation at the expense of the population : of the country is in large measure due to the present isolation of American farm life and the difficulty of keeping in touch with the outer world. Rural mail delivery would no doubt go far to counteract this tendency. Cost of Malting Good ltoada. One of the six hundred delegates to the lost Indiana Road congress said that there are in his state about forty thousand miles of roads. He estimated that the roads could all be put In good condition at a cost of SBOO a mile. This would entail an expense of 1a,800,000 or S2. fto an acre for the land in the state. This cost could be distributed over ten years, and would oost the owners of the land 25 cents an acre each year. He thought the expense would not be burdensome. A Fa »b lon* Me Parting. Jim -So your wife Ims left you? Tim—She has. Jlm--What were her last worts? Tim—"Does my dress touch the ground nt the back?" —Hallo. A (iood Substitute. Miss Belle —Have you partake® o# the ices, Mr. Noodles? Mr. Noodles—No; but I've been dawnrlng with a Boston girl, don't ye know.—Hallo. Huew IXutv It Felt Hlmnflf. llojack—Hold on there a minute, Tomdilc; I have a short story to tell you. L Tomdik—LKm't to liear it. I'm •hort myftjlf.—Tgwa Tuples. 2Mo. 20 THE BtST BERRIC& Experiment* to Deter mice the Most Pre, durllre and Hardy Varieties. The results of the recent testa o! blackberries, dewberries and raspber ries are given in bulletin No. 68 of tha Geneva (N Y,) station. The soil wi| rather a stiff clay loam, well tile* drained and fertilized with stable manure. The fruits tested were given no winter protection. The rao.jt productive blackberry El the station in 1593 was found to be the Dorchester, an old variety much e«< teemed in some localities for the pro* ductivcuesa and quality of the fruit. Ancieut Britton, which ranked second, g-.j excellent, medium-sized fruit Early Harvest made a good record, though apt to be injured by winter. Agawam proved fourth in productive ness, and is considered one of the most valuable varieties tested at the station. Among dewberries the Lucretia yield ed the best and largest crop The fruit is, however, inferior in flavor and quali ty to that of the blackberry. The most productive blackcap at tha station was the Mills Na 7. It would appear to be as hardy as the Shaffer, and on account of its very large size, fine appearance, good quality and pro ductiveness should prove to be a de sirable acquisition to the black raap> berry list Mills No. 15, nilborn and Sprays Early came next in the order named in productiveness. The Columbian, Shaffer aud Cardinal were found to be the moat productive of the purple raspberries, while among the red the Cuthbert proved the most prolific. The latter holds first rank u a mTTtrrr wiry nyniimt nit uvwwuien The Royal Church took second place. This is a late variety and Is reoom mended as worthy of trial for the lata home garden, as is the Pomona tot ear If fruit The Turner, while not equal to the Cuthbert. is more hardy, and consequently valuable for many localities where the latter does not suo ceed. Among the white raspberries the Vermont and Caroline proved the tnosi productive, while the Chaniplain ranks high for flavor and quality. THE CODLING MOTH. It* Depredations Can Be Averted by Careful Spraylun Only. The illustration represents the worm of the codling moth as it is found lq the matured apple. The injury and loss occasioned by this Insect has been very keenly felt In almost all fruit growing regions. The female begins to lay eggs in the calyx of the blossom about two weeks after the blossoms first appear. From the egg hatches ft THE WORK or TH* CODUWO MOTH. caterpillar which pierces the skin of the fruit and eats its way toward the center. It feeds upon the pulp around the core until It finishes its caterpillar growth, at which time it is about three-fourths of an inch in length. Then it usually leaves the apple to find a crevice In the bark where it spins a i silken cocoon and enters the pupa stage. ' Two weeks later it emerges as a moth like the one which laid the original egg. The experience of horticulturists has been that the injury caused by this insect can only be averted by careful spraying. A PROFITABLE CROP. When Properly Cultivated Thar* 1* Con siderable Money In Onions. One of the most profitable of the small special farm crops is onions. They have always been so. Doubtless the reason is that skill is needed to grow a good crop, and it is as easy as falling off a log to make a mess of the )ob and find the crop to be smothered n weeds before the little onions are to be seen. Then the time taken to save the crop la lost as effectively as if try ing to bring a dead man to life again. The crop Is not worth the cost of saving. The land must be cleaned by previous cultivation and well manured with old manure free from seeds of weeds, or by fertilizers, which is the better way. The seed must be good. It is no use trying home-grown seed. This kind of seed produces more scalllons than any thing else, for seed growing of any kind Is a special business that must have experience and scientific knowl edge to make it successful. But some farmers do succeed, and others may. What one can do another can if he will. The onion grower must determine to succeed, and back up his determination with an invincible will, and then ho may get 000 to 800 bushel# of bulbs to the acre. One acre is bet ter to begin with until one learns how to keep the weeds down.—Col man's Rural World. Tobacco a* an Insactldda. The old-time remedy of tobacco 1* rapidly coining Into favor again. For cheapness it can hardly be equaled, as only the refuse stems of the poorest quality need be used. In fact, these are better than the stems of fine Ha vana because poor tobacce contains ft greater quantity of nlootlne, which is the active poison that kills the insects. The decoction Is made by steeping a pound of stems in a gallon of hot water. After It has cooled the liquid is strained off nnd applied with an ordinary spray ing apparatua Spraying with tobaoco tea is recommended for the flea beetles on tomatoes, potatoes, cabbage and radishes, also as a specific for lice, ticks and other external parasites of ani mals. This remedy has the recommen dation that it is not a dangerous poison to have around where children and in nocent animals may get at it—Ameri can Agriculturist A Joke on Pop. Small Boy—l've got a good Joke on pop. Young Richfelio—What about? Small Boy—Pop saw Mr. Poorfchapp in the parlor last night, with his arm around sister, and pop is so nearsight* ed he thought it was you, and he.dldn'l say a word.—Good News. And Sh* Believed Him. Angelina—That was a lovely enganei ment ring you gave me last nlgnt, dear; but what do those initials, E. (*, mean on the inside? Edwin—Why—er—that is—don't yov know that's the now way of stamping eighteen carats? —Judge. The Dear Hambaf*. •Oh, woman. In our hours of east," Tou m»ko u» think you try to pleas*: You j«(t, and whllo wo iimlle upon it, Tau kiss, and coax us Tor a bonnet —N V. World- They Agreed. Panne —I proposed at the meeting that a penny collection be taken up. Dunne —How was the proposition re ceived? Punne —A murmur of a cent rose from all parts of the house.—Detroit Free Press. A Xatural Inference. He—l have been troubled so much with neuralgia lately. Nhe —In your head, I presume, He—Why, how did you frucsa? Bha—lt always goes to one'* weakest spot —N. Y v Wstl4.